who rarely forgave a first, never
a second, offence, and who, deeming the 'Salle de Police' as an
encumbrance to an army on service, which, besides, required a guard of
picked men, that might be better employed elsewhere, usually gave the
preference to the shorter sentence of 'four paces and a fusillade.'
Nor was he particular in the classification of those crimes he thus
expiated: from the most trivial excess to the wildest scheme of
insubordination, all came under the one category. More than once, as we
drew near to Strasbourg, I heard the project of a mutiny discussed, day
after day. Some one or other would denounce the '_scelerat_ Regnier,'
and proclaim his readiness to be the executioner; but the closer we drew
to headquarters, the more hushed and subdued became these mutterings,
till at last they ceased altogether, and a dark and foreboding dread
succeeded to all our late boastings and denunciations.

This at first surprised and then utterly disgusted me with my
companions. Brave as they were before the enemy, had they no courage for
their own countrymen? Was all their valour the offspring of security, or
could they only be rebellious when the penalty had no terrors for them?
Alas! I was very young, and did not then know that men are never strong
against the right, and that a bad cause is always a weak one.

It was about the middle of June when we reached Strasbourg, where now
about forty thousand troops were assembled. I shall not readily forget
the mingled astonishment and disappointment our appearance excited as
the regiment entered the town. The Tapageurs, so celebrated for all
their terrible excesses and insubordination, were seen to be a fine
corps of soldierlike fellows, their horses in high condition, their
equipments and arms in the very best order. Neither did our conduct
at all tally with the reputation that preceded us. All was orderly and
regular in the several billets; the parade was particularly observed;
not a man late at the night muster. What was the cause of this sudden
and remarkable change? Some said that we were marching against the
enemy; but the real explanation lay in the few words of a general order
read to us by our colonel the day before we entered the city:--

'The 9th Hussars have obtained the unworthy reputation of
being an ill-disciplined and ill-conducted regiment, relying
upon their soldierlike qualities in face of the enemy to
cover the disgrace of their mi