The Gentleman Cadet Part 13

"You must mind and work hard for your probationary," said Hostler.

"You'll find you've plenty to do; and it's no child's play, I can tell you."

I thanked, him for his advice, and remarked that, having pa.s.sed my first examination, I hoped I should not break down at the next.

I only once again entered Mr Hostler's establishment from that day, but the remembrance of the misery I endured there, of the false system of teaching (or rather cramming, for he did not teach) he adopted in his school, of the whalebone and cane arguments he used to convince boys of the advantages of learning their Euclid, is still fresh in my memory; and even now the worst nightmare I can suffer from, is that I am again a boy at Hostler's, and have failed in my Euclid.

One of the greatest defects at the Academy in former times was the impossibility of ever being alone. We were usually four in each barrack-room; we were marched about by squads, divisions, or cla.s.ses; we dined, breakfasted, and had tea at squads; we were in cla.s.ses from thirty to forty for study. At night we could never be alone; the snoring or turning of another cadet in the room disturbed one. Now there are some natures so affected by external influences that they are never thoroughly themselves unless they are entirely alone. Such individuals are never known in their real characters, for before others they are unconsciously actors. Men who appear idlers before the world, mere loungers on society, are not unusually when alone the deepest thinkers or the hardest workers; and to such, solitude is an essential.

To many, therefore, especially to those who wished to work hard, it was a great drawback being penned up night and day with companions whose tastes not unfrequently were anything but congenial.

In spite of the hard life I led at the Academy, and the amount of f.a.gging and bullying I had to go through, the time pa.s.sed quickly; there was a novelty in everything, which was very attractive. As I advanced in my drill, and joined the squad of other "last-joined," there was a secret pleasure in feeling I was a soldier, that a splendid career was open before me if I could only manage to pa.s.s my examinations, and that when I became an officer my career might be most favourable. I made but little progress, however, in my studies; the hard work I had gone through in order to pa.s.s, and the varied scenes and events I was daily pa.s.sing through, gave me a kind of mental indigestion, and I found it very hard work to learn. Although I had pa.s.sed into the Academy, I could not get over the idea that it was to a certain extent a bit of good luck that I had done so, and I believed I was somehow less gifted with a capacity for learning mathematics than were other boys, and I began to have doubts and fears whether I should pa.s.s my probationary examination, especially considering the impossibility there was in working out of academy hours.

I had, after the first two months, got accustomed, to a great extent, to the f.a.gging and bullying. Snipson still continued my greatest tormentor, and had it not have been for him I should not have led so hard a life as I did, for Holms was often very kind, and gave me hints as to what I ought to do under various circ.u.mstances. He used also to stop Snipson from bullying me whenever he found him doing so. I consequently looked on Holms as a great friend, and should probably have pa.s.sed my half-year tolerably had not a circ.u.mstance happened which considerably affected my comfort and deprived me of the society and protection of Holms.

It happened that Snipson had great difficulty in getting out of the second academy, as he was very bad in mathematics. In order, therefore, that he might work of a night, he asked Holms if he would allow him to keep up lights. I was not aware at the time I heard this request made by Snipson, and agreed to by Holms, of the risk the latter ran of severe punishment in case of detection; but as it was agreed to, that lights were to be kept up, I was called upon to a.s.sist at the preparatory arrangements.

Between the outside window and the room in which I lived there were iron bars arranged in diamond-shape; between these and the window there was a s.p.a.ce of a few inches; between these bars a regimental cloak was carefully drawn and so spread out that from the inside of the room no ray of light could be seen coming through any little c.h.i.n.k left by the cloak not being properly arranged. To fill up this s.p.a.ce in a satisfactory manner four cloaks were required, which, having been placed between the window and the bars, a careful inspection was made, and matters being considered satisfactory, candles were lighted, the door locked, and Snipson commenced his studies.

Holms had gone to bed soon after the cloaks were arranged, but Snipson made me sit up, as he said he should require me to help take down the cloaks when he was tired of working; so I sat up and tried to read, but my eyes gradually closed, and more than once I fell asleep. Snipson, however, took care to wake me by tapping me on the head with a book, and thus we pa.s.sed the time till about twelve o'clock.

It happened that, on the particular night in question, the officer on duty had been dining at mess, and, on returning to his quarters in the Academy, saw a slight speck of light coming from the window of our room, where a flaw had occurred by one of the cloaks slightly slipping. On coming close to the window he found that lights were being kept up, and that he had discovered the delinquents. From the officers' quarters to those of the cadets there was a pa.s.sage which might be pa.s.sed through of a night. By this pa.s.sage the officer entered the division, and came to our door, which he tried, and found fastened.

The instant we heard a step approaching our room, Snipson put out the lights, and commenced dragging down the cloaks. The officer, rapping loudly at the door, and requesting to be admitted, Snipson was wonderfully quick in getting down the cloaks, and then, dressed as he was, jumped into bed, telling me to open the door.

Holms had slept soundly during the greater part of this disturbance, and only woke as the knocking became more furious. Upon my opening the door, the officer on duty entered with a dark lantern in his hand, and, looking round the room, said, "Mr Holms, you have been keeping up lights!"

"I am only just awake, sir," said Holms.

"Don't prevaricate, sir!" said the officer. "Look here; here's some tallow on the cloth still warm! You'll be in arrest till further orders, Mr Holms!"

As the officer was leaving, I felt inclined to say it was not Holms but Snipson who had kept up the lights, but luckily I said nothing, for no matter who had kept them up, Holms, as head of the room, was responsible, and must bear the blame.

As soon as the officer left the room, Snipson said, "I'm awfully sorry, Holms, but it's all the fault of that confounded young donkey, Shepard, who could not have put the cloaks up properly.

"You'll get a licking for this to-morrow, Shepard, depend on it," said Snipson.

"I'm safe to be smashed," said Holms, "for I was suspected last half of keeping up lights, though they couldn't prove it; and it's a nuisance, as this is my last half-year."

After a few minutes' conversation, both Holms and Snipson agreed it couldn't be helped, and we all went to sleep.

At the mid-day parade on the following day an order was read out to the effect that Mr Holms, having been found keeping up lights contrary to orders, was reduced from the rank of corporal, and was removed to another room, whilst gentleman cadet Brag was promoted to corporal and was placed in charge of my room.

Brag was quite a different character from Holms. He was a very small cadet, not so big as I was, though nearly two years my senior; he was not clever, at least at examinations, and was very low down in his batch, below even Snipson. He had a white, leathery face, with a most disagreeable expression, nearly white hair, a bad figure, and awkward legs and feet. Brag was generally unpopular, and was dreaded by the last-joined cadets, as he delighted in bullying for bullying sake; and as when he was a last-joined he had led a very hard life as a f.a.g, he seemed to think he had a long account to pay back upon those who were now his juniors.

Brag came the same afternoon to take charge of my room, and I soon saw that he and Snipson, being birds of a feather, got on well together; they had one point on which they mutually agreed, viz, that I was the slackest neux they had ever seen, and wanted keeping up to the mark.

In order that this, condition of keeping me up to the mark might be obtained, Brag ordered me to start at seven o'clock the following morning, and run down to Charlton's and see what o'clock it was by his clock.

Now Charlton's happened to be at Green's-end, about one mile from the Academy. As I had to go this mile and return, then to rewash and get brushed and be on parade at a quarter to eight, it did not give me much time for the performance. I started about seven on a drizzling morning, and got as far as the barracks, when I saw a clock there which showed ten minutes after seven. It suddenly occurred to me that I need not go down to Charlton's to find out what o'clock it was, as I could find out by the barrack clock, so, turning back, I came slowly to my room, allowing about as much time as would have elapsed if I had gone all the way to Charlton's.

"What! back again?" said Brag. "Well, what's the time?"

"Nearly a quarter past seven," I said.

"Was that the time by Charlton's clock?"

"About that," I replied.

"You're telling me a lie," said Brag. "You didn't go to Charlton's."

"I didn't go quite down," I answered, as I now felt what a mistake I had made in not obeying the order literally.

"You've disobeyed orders, and you've told a lie," said Brag. "Now you come here?"

I was now placed by Brag against the cupboards, and put into the position of an "angle of forty-five," when he kicked my feet from under me, and I fell heavily on my back, striking my head against the cupboards as I came down.

"Up again!" shouted Brag, who seemed to warm to his work. "I'll teach you what you get for telling me a cram, and disobeying orders."

Six times I was brought heavily to the ground, and on the last was half-stunned by the blow my head received in the fall.

During this performance Snipson stood opposite, shouting with laughter, and exclaiming, "Bravo, Brag! That's the way to serve him! Give it him again!"

At length Brag seemed tired, and having informed me that I was to go down every morning for a week to see what the time was, left me to recover myself as best I could.

I was so shaken and hurt by my falls, that for some time I could not stand, and sat on my bed trying to recover myself. As I sat there an idea came into my head that such treatment as this, if carried out on all the cadets who were last-joined, would drive them to desperation, and that it might be possible to organise a mutiny against the authority of the old cadets, used as it was in this brutal way.

Thinking over this idea of a strike, I began to count the numbers and size of the first and second-half cadets, and to estimate the probabilities of success. I soon saw, however, that there would be no chance for the juniors; the power entrusted to the corporals of placing any cadet in arrest on the plea of making a disturbance in academy, or for being dirty on parade, was so great, and might be used so freely, that such power alone would make the seniors all-powerful. After due deliberation I decided it was better to endure the bullying, and endeavour to stand it as quietly as possible.

Brag was an individual of an inventive turn of mind, and was much pleased with anything original. He was highly amused with the suggestion of Snipson about four neuxes running round the table, whilst he and another cadet flipped them; but he was fond of a little gambling, and so invented another amus.e.m.e.nt, of which I was one victim.

In former times the gymnasium and racket-court were on the east side of the building, and were of small dimensions compared to the magnificent building which now serves as a gymnasium at the Academy. The posts, ropes, etc, for gymnastic exercises were out of doors, and between two high posts was a stout rope, along which it was considered hard work to pa.s.s hand over hand. Brag had thought of making this rope of use as a means of producing excitement. His plan was as follows:--

A cadet (last-joined) was made to hold onto this rope with his hands, and his back turned to Brag and another old cadet. Brag, armed with a racket and some old b.a.l.l.s, used then to strike a ball at the cadet, and if he hit him he counted one. Alternate shots were taken, and sixpence a shot was paid for each hit.

Brag was a capital shot, and I used to be "corked," as he termed it, by him nearly every shot. The distance from the ground to the rope was about twelve feet, so that when we dropped, as we were compelled to at last, we came down rather heavily. As soon as one neux could hold on no longer, another was subst.i.tuted in his place, who had to pa.s.s through the same ordeal. So contagious is bullying of this description, that in two or three days at least twenty old cadets took part in it, and it is difficult to say to what extent it might have been carried had not the officer on duty, suspecting probably that something irregular was going on, paid a visit to the gymnasium, and, seeing what was done, reported the circ.u.mstance, on which a court of inquiry was ordered to a.s.semble, composed of officers connected with the Academy, whose duty it was to find out whether any bullying had occurred.

The a.s.sembly of this court caused quite a sensation in the Academy, as all the last-joined cadets were to be examined. The old cadets who had taken part in this affair now entirely altered their behaviour to their f.a.gs. Brag became quite civil to me, and hoped I wouldn't split on him.

He told me that he, when a neux, had to go through far worse things, and that by-and-by I should be an old cadet and should have the privilege of f.a.gging; that of course he didn't mean to hurt me, and hoped he hadn't done so, and finished by asking me not to say anything that would get him into a sc.r.a.pe.

Snipson was even more anxious to persuade me that it was all a joke, and that it was absurd to make such a fuss about a mere trifle. In his day a neux had, he said, to go through far more, and it did them all good; he himself was a deal better for having the conceit taken out of him.

He advised me to be very careful what I said before the court, for if, through anything I said, an old cadet got rusticated or into a sc.r.a.pe, I should lead such a life, he a.s.sured me, that I should wish myself a galley-slave instead of a cadet.

I had instantly made up my mind that I would say nothing to criminate any one. I hoped that by such a line of conduct I should show both Brag and Snipson that I could be generous. I hated them both, for I soon discovered they were very bad specimens of the old cadet, and that I was unlucky in having two such in my room. Some of the last-joined cadets told me they were not bullied at all, and the head of their room would not allow any other cadet to f.a.g them, and, to prevent them from being f.a.gged, gave them permission to say they were wanted by the head of their room, for "the instant another cadet tries to f.a.g you, then you come to my room."

On Sat.u.r.days and Sundays I usually went on leave, my father having written to several London friends telling them of my being a cadet at Woolwich. This leave was a great boon; it broke the monotony of the week, freed me from Brag and Snipson for about thirty hours, and gave me new ideas. At the Academy I was but a neux, and led a hard life of it; but when I visited my friends I found that a gentleman cadet was thought a great deal of, and I was considered to be remarkably clever in having pa.s.sed into the Academy--my friends knowing many lads who were supposed clever, but who had failed at their examinations for Woolwich. These visits did me much good. I looked forward to them from week to week, and they tended to keep my mental balance straight; for as we when young judge often of ourselves by the estimate others form of us, so I had almost decided that I was most stupid, thoughtless, and careless, in consequence of Snipson always impressing upon me that I was so.

It not unfrequently happened, however, that I was turned out to extra drill twice during the week for some offences or other, usually for not being properly brushed on parade. It was my business to brush Brag and Snipson, and then Snipson ought to have brushed me. Often he avoided this, and said he "hadn't time." My only chance then was to take off my coat and brash it myself. If the time was limited I then could not get my coat on and get on parade quick enough to avoid being considered "slack in turning out;" for if a neux was not on parade by the time the bugle finished sounding, then he was usually turned out to drill to make him smarter.

Two drills stopped one's leave, and I then had the discomfort of remaining at the Academy on Sat.u.r.day and Sunday. The season of the year then did not admit of the Sunday march past on the barrack-field. The scene I had witnessed when at Hostler's, however, was still fresh in my memory, and I looked forward to the time when I should march past as I had seen others do.