Wandering Heath | Page 6

hard work to

keep the drum steady-- the sling being a bit loose for me and the wind
what you remember-- lashed it tight with a piece of rope; and that saved
my life afterwards, a drum being as good as a cork until 'tis stove. I
kept beating away until every man was on deck; and then the Major
formed them up and told them to die like British soldiers, and the
chaplain read a prayer or two--the boys standin' all the while like rocks,
each man's courage keeping up the others'. The chaplain was in the
middle of a prayer when she struck. In ten minutes she was gone. That
was how they died, cavalryman.'
"'And that was very well done, drummer of the Marines. What's your
name?'
"'John Christian.'
"'Mine is William George Tallifer, trumpeter, of the 7th Light
Dragoons--the Queen's Own. I played "God Save the King" while our
men were drowning. Captain Duncanfield told me to sound a call or
two, to put them in heart; but that matter of "God Save the King" was a
notion of my own. I won't say anything to hurt the feelings of a Marine,
even if he's not much over five-foot tall; but the Queen's Own Hussars
is a tearin' fine regiment. As between horse and foot, 'tis a question o'
which gets the chance. All the way from Sahagun to Corunna 'twas we
that took and gave the knocks--at Mayorga and Rueda, and
Bennyventy.' (The reason, sir, I can speak the names so pat is that my
father learnt 'em by heart afterwards from the trumpeter, who was
always talking about Mayorga and Rueda and Bennyventy.) 'We made
the rear-guard, under General Paget, and drove the French every time;
and all the infantry did was to sit about in wine-shops till we whipped
'em out, an' steal an' straggle an' play the tom-fool in general. And
when it came to a stand-up fight at Corunna, 'twas the horse, or the best
part of it, that had to stay sea-sick aboard the transports, an' watch the
infantry in the thick o' the caper. Very well they behaved, too; 'specially
the 4th Regiment, an' the 42nd Highlanders an' the Dirty Half-Hundred.
Oh, ay; they're decent regiments, all three. But the Queen's Own
Hussars is a tearin' fine regiment. So you played on your drum when
the ship was goin' down? Drummer John Christian, I'll have to get you

a new pair o' drum-sticks for that.'
"Well, sir, it appears that the very next day the trumpeter marched into
Helston, and got a carpenter there to turn him a pair of box-wood
drum-sticks for the boy. And this was the beginning of one of the most
curious friendships you ever heard tell of. Nothing delighted the pair
more than to borrow a boat off my father and pull out to the rocks
where the Primrose and the Despatch had struck and sunk; and on still
days 'twas pretty to hear them out there off the Manacles, the drummer
playing his tattoo--for they always took their music with them--and the
trumpeter practising calls, and making his trumpet speak like an angel.
But if the weather turned roughish, they'd be walking together and
talking; leastwise, the youngster listened while the other discoursed
about Sir John's campaign in Spain and Portugal, telling how each little
skirmish befell; and of Sir John himself, and General Baird and General
Paget, and Colonel Vivian, his own commanding officer, and what kind
of men they were; and of the last bloody stand-up at Corunna, and so
forth, as if neither could have enough.
"But all this had to come to an end in the late summer; for the boy,
John Christian, being now well and strong again, must go up to
Plymouth to report himself. 'Twas his own wish (for I believe King
George had forgotten all about him), but his friend wouldn't hold him
back. As for the trumpeter, my father had made an arrangement to take
him on as a lodger as soon as the boy left; and on the morning fixed for
the start, he was up at the door here by five o'clock, with his trumpet
slung by his side, and all the rest of his kit in a small valise. A Monday
morning it was, and after breakfast he had fixed to walk with the boy
some way on the road towards Helston, where the coach started. My
father left them at breakfast together, and went out to meat the pig, and
do a few odd morning jobs of that sort. When he came back, the boy
was still at table, and the trumpeter standing here by the chimney-place
with the drum and trumpet in his hands, hitched together just as they be
at