ed them any special indulgence.
It was really terrible how he contrived to fill up their time all day
long: instruction, regimental practice, writing, calculation, technical
studies filled up every hour of the day. The smoking-rooms of the cafes
and the civic promenades very rarely saw Vertessy's officers gathered
together there. The officers had to know everything which the General
asked them about, and were often obliged to work out for themselves,
with the aid of their mother wit, the details of their extremely laconic
instructions. Everyone knew, too, that he could not endure the slightest
suspicion of cowardice; if an officer were insulted, he was obliged to
fight in defence of his honour, or the regiment was made too hot to hold
him. If, on the other hand, the townsmen got to know anything of the
details of these duels, he would punish severely all the officers
concerned in the affair, for he placed boastfulness on the same level as
cowardice. Such severity had this good effect however, that the soldiers
tried to live amicably with the townsmen as they knew very well that it
would be impossible to keep dark a duel with any of the black-coated
gentry, such an event was certain to be an object of common gossip in
all four quarters of the town within twenty-four hours.

It was also a recognised fact throughout the length and breadth of the
kingdom that the officers of Vertessy's regiment were all well
instructed, orderly, serious men, and that this result was due entirely
to the initiative of "the iron man," for this was the name most usually
and very naturally applied to him.

And his face, figure, and expression, corresponded with the name. He
was of a tall, straight, well-knit-together habit of body, with broad
shoulders and a well-rounded chest. His head seemed almost too small for
his extraordinary developed body, especially as the chestnut-brown hair
was clipped quite short. His face was of a deep red, and shaved to the
chin, but a pair of small well kept semicircular whiskers helped to give
it character. His nose was straight, his mouth small; his eyes were grey
and piercing. And everything on this face: nose, mouth, eyes, down to
the smallest feature, seemed one and all to be under the most rigorous
military discipline, not one of them was suffered to move without the
General's command. When once his features are under orders to be coldly
severe, the lips may not give expression to joy, the eyes may not be
c