A Novel. BY JAMES GRANT, AUTHOR OF THE ROMANCE OF WAR," "FAIRER THAN A FAIRY," ETC. ETC. "Half a league, half a league, Half a league, onward, Into the Valley of Death, Rode the Six Hundred !" Tennyson. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. ONE OF THE SIX HUNDRED. CHAPTER I. To be handsome, young, and twenty-two, But all day long to bill and coo, It were a pleasant calling.-THACKERAY. WAS just in the act of humming the above verse, when the following announcement was put my hand into "Regimental Orders.-Head-quarters, Maidstone, December 31st. "As the regiment is to be held in readiness for foreign service in spring, captains of troops will report to Lieutenant and Adjutant Studhome, for the information of the commanding officer, on the state of the saddlery, the holsters and lancebuckets; and the horses must be all re-shod under the immediate inspection of the veterinary surgeon and Farrier-Sergeant Snaffles. "Leave of absence to the 31st proximo is VOL. I. 1 |