4 



VOLUNTEER FOR EARS. 



aciously kept pitched on a bare hill- side, far 

 from the scene of action and close to the Dar- 

 danelles country town, that gay and lively Turk- 

 ish Coventry, at the Hellespont-mouth. In an 

 evil hour I proposed, if my General, who wanted 

 nothing better, would allow me, to proceed in 

 person to Constantinople and to volunteer offici- 

 ally for the relief of the doomed city, Kars. 



Ah, Corydon, Corydon, quae te dementia cepit ? 



And I did proceed to Stamb'ul ; and I did 

 volunteer ; and a neat hit, indeed, was that same 

 public- spirited proceeding ! 



It would be a lively imagination that could 

 conceive the scene of storm which resulted from 

 my brazen-faced procedure. The picture has its 

 comic side when looked back upon through the 

 mellowing medium of three long lustres. The 

 hopeful eagerness of the volunteer ; the 6 proper 

 pride ' in one's corps, that had come forward for 

 an honourable action ; the fluent proof that we 

 could convoy rations enough for the gallant and 

 deserted Ottoman garrison, diplomatically left 

 for months to slow death by starvation ; and — 

 the blank and stunned surprise at the hurricane 

 of wrath which burst from the high authority to 

 whose ambassadorial ear the project was en- 

 trusted. 



