The Moors 63 



" How is that," said H.li.H., turning to the colonel, who 

 was looking away, " does he not do his work well." " Oh, 

 he works well enough," he replied ; and seeing a chance I 

 chimed in, " Please, sir, my leave has been refused because 

 I have been made over to another battalion's depot instead 

 of my own." " I don't understand this," said the Duke, 

 " if he is entitled to his leave he should have it. Let me 

 hear about it in the orderly-room." The fact was, that 

 instead of keeping the officers of each depot intact, and 

 letting them take leave in turns amongst themselves, a 

 system had grown up of treating all the depots as one 

 battalion, and shifting subaltern officers from the depot of 

 their own battalion to the depot of another, as the com- 

 manding-otficer pleased. By this arrangement the junior 

 officers came off badly in the way of leave. It was 

 important to the officers of the Second Battalion Kifle 

 Brigade, to which I belonged, to get our leave before the 

 battalion returned from India, when all those who returned 

 with it would naturally want to get home, and we should 

 have to do the duty. Having applied and been refused, 

 I should never have thought of taking any further steps if 

 it had not been for the opening afforded by the lucky cigar- 

 light ; and after the Duke had been to the orderly-room I 

 received a message, to say I was to send in an application 

 at once for what leave I required. It was little incidents 

 like the above that so endeared the Duke to the army ; he 

 was so thoroughly just, and so patient in investigating 

 anything that looked like a grievance whether of an officer 

 or a private. Everyone was willing also to accept his 

 decision, whichever way it might be, for they felt sure that 

 there had been a thorough investigation into their case. It 

 was with universal sorrow that the army heard of H.K.H.'s 



