110 RACECOURSE AND COVERT SIDE. 



simply slipped over a little sideways and en- 

 deavoured to secrete himself behind the pommel. 

 When the word ' Mount ' was given, the accom- 

 plished young officer was mounted with astound- 

 ing celerity, for obvious reasons, and the Duke 

 was delighted ; — wasn't he. Heath ? He said he 

 had never seen the movement better executed ; 

 and galloping past -the troops, he took up his 

 :"taticn jusi^ by Heath's side, and said, 'Excellent! 

 We'll have it again, men ! ' The word was 

 given, the saddles were emptied — poor Heath's, 

 too, this time, — and then, when they ought to 

 have been filled again on the word to mount, 

 one remained vacant, aud one officer was making 

 hopeless endeavours to get his foot into a stirrup 

 about on a level with his chin. In the end a 

 trooper was told off to give the future Field 

 Marshal a leg up ! " 



A laugh followed, and the walnut-shell which 

 Heath had just emptied whizzed across the table 

 towards the story-teller, who dodged the missile 

 and resumed the work in hand. 



''Napoleon for you, Herries ? " Eaughton 

 asked, speaking to a young fellow at the end of 

 the table, who was sitting wdth an expression 

 of dreamy abstraction on his pleasant face — a 

 face which, if not emphatically handsome, was 

 eminently that of a gentleman. "It isn't a fat 



