so long."

Before the words were fairly uttered the trumpets rang out; and with a
gayer laugh on his lip than it had worn for many a day, the Cool Captain
led his squadron gallantly into Aceldama.

We will not describe the charge. Enthusiasts are not wanting who would
rather have ridden in it than have won the highest distinction to which
civilians can aspire. Who dares to object that it was not ultimately
successful? Such a taunt has never been weighed in the balance against
the glories of Thermopylae. I frequently meet in society one of the
Paladins of that fatal Roncesvalles. In private life he has few
peculiarities, except a tendency to engage in each and every game of
chance, and a perfect monomania for waltzing. Yet I regard him with an
immense respect and reverence, that the object of the feeling would be
the last to understand. I think of the awful peril out of which the
delicate, feminine face has come without a scar; and I protest I would
no more dream of speaking to him angrily or slightingly, than I would
venture to discourse about the Derby to the Bishop of O----, or to offer
to that dignified prelate the current odds against the favorite. Rely
upon it, in many homes of England (if the Manchestrians leave them
standing) there will be one family portrait that our children will most
delight to honor. Pointing out to strangers the crowning glory of their
house, they will pass by grave effigies of lawyers, ecclesiastics, and
statesmen, and pause opposite to a martial figure, dressed in the
uniform of a light dragoon. All his ancestors shall give precedence to
the simple soldier, who rode that day in the van of the Six Hundred.

Yes, we will leave that charge alone. The most hackneyed of professional
_litterateurs_ might shrink from sitting down to his writing-desk, to
make merchandise of such a "deed of _derring-do_." Nevertheless, Royston
Keene bore his part in it manfully; and the troopers talk yet of the
feats of skill and strength wrought by his sabre.

The immunity from dangers of shot and steel for which he had been always
remarkable, did not seem to have deserted him; for he had come out of
the batteries without a scratch, and had fought his way through more
than one knot and peloton of the enemy, with no scathe beyond a slight
flesh-wound. In one of these encounters he had got separated from such
remnants of his squadron as still held together (you know even regiments
lost their unity in that terrib