the weapon against which I must guard, and I
accordingly placed a traveling cap and a coat in the hands of a discreet
tailor, who sewed steel bands into the crown of one and into the
shoulders of the other, in such a way as afforded very efficient
protection against a possible downward cut.

Besides attending to these defensive preparations, I at once looked
about for a competent horseman with military experience who could give
me some practical hints as to encounters between infantry and cavalry,
and, singularly enough, was thrown in with that gallant young officer
who rode into immortality in front of the Light Brigade at Balaklava a
few years afterward. I learned that he was a superb horseman, was down
upon the English system of cavalry training, and was using pen and
tongue to bring about a change. A sudden inspiration led me to take him
into my confidence, as the terms of our agreement permitted me to do. He
caught the idea with enthusiasm. What an argument it would be in favor
of his new system if a mere civilian unhorsed a Guardsman trained after
the old fashion! For a week he drilled me more or less every day in
getting him off his horse in various ways, and I speedily became a
proficient in the art, he meanwhile gaining some new ideas on the
subject, which were duly printed in his well-known book.

Well, to make my story short, I gave notice to interested parties on the
tenth day, put on my steel-ribbed cap and my armor-plated coat, and with
stick in hand walked over to a hairdresser's with whom I had previously
communicated, had my complexion darkened to a Spanish olive, put on a
false beard, and was ready for service. I had arranged with this
tonsorial artist, whose shop was in the Strand near Northumberland
House, that he should be prepared to remove these traces of disguise as
speedily as he had put them on, and that I should leave a stylish coat
and hat in his charge, to be donned in haste should occasion require. I
next engaged two boys to stand opposite Northumberland House, and be
ready to hold a horse. These boys I partially paid beforehand, and
promised more liberal largess if they did their duty. Preliminaries
having been thus arranged, I strolled down Whitehall, feeling very much
as I did years afterward when I found myself going into action for the
first time in Dixie.

It was early afternoon on a lovely spring day. The Strand was a roaring
stream of omnibuses and drays, carriages were beginning