154 ^-^^^ Course, the Camp, the Chase 



" attack." The enemy will not always do what is 

 expected of them, or play the game as has been arranged, 

 and if the system is not capable of sudden changes without 

 confusion, it cannot be a reliable one. 



Our chief had been trained in the very best of schools, 

 that of actual warfare, and few officers have seen more of 

 real work than he has. His first experience was gained 

 in African bush fighting against the Kaffirs and the Boers, 

 than which there could be no better teaching for skirmish- 

 ing. He then served all through the Crimean War ; and 

 this was followed by the Indian Mutiny. From the 

 lessons he had learned, he was thoroughly convinced that 

 no battalion was properly trained unless they were at home 

 when skirmishing in thick covert. Wherever we were 

 quartered he used to practise us in extended order through 

 plantations and woods, and hot enough work it was, 

 struggling along on a summer's day, losing the " pompons " 

 out of our shakoes and the ramrods out of the rifles, and 

 very frequently our tempers also ! A battalion trained 

 under such auspices was invaluable for bush fighting, and 

 though rewards were bestowed elsewhere, I unhesitatingly 

 say that, if that battalion had not happened to have been 

 present, the course of the war must have been much altered, 

 and the result might have been very different. The true 

 history of that war has yet to be published. 



In the course of the voyage out a most remarkable 

 instance of courage and sang froid was displayed by one of 

 our subaltern officers, the Hon. E. Noel. We were drifting 

 in the " Doldrums," without steaming, waiting until the 

 time arrived for us to be landed at Cape Coast Castle, and 

 the Himalaya was rolling heavily. Noel had never 

 ascended the rigging in his life, but he never stopped 



