That was why I took to
soldiering, your honor. No, there is no accounting for tastes anyhow.
There's the mess-bugle, your honor. Next time we hear it, it will be
at say, and maybe there won't be many ready to attind to it."
Denis' prediction was verified. The vessel sailed at two o'clock in
the afternoon, and by six was rolling heavily, and a brisk wind was
blowing. The Twenty-eighth had not long before made the voyage from
the south of France, but they had been favored by exceptionally fine
weather, and had experienced nothing like the tossing they were now
undergoing. The consequence was that only about half a dozen officers
obeyed the bugle call to mess.
There was a general feeling of satisfaction when the low coast round
Ostend was sighted, for the voyage throughout had been a rough one.
Under certain circumstances a sea voyage is delightful, but
confinement in a crowded transport in rough weather is the reverse of
a pleasant experience. The space below decks was too small to
accommodate the whole of the troops, and a third of their number had
to be constantly on deck; and this for a ten days' voyage in a heavy
sea, with occasional rain-showers, is not, under ordinary
circumstances, calculated to raise the spirits of troops. But men
bound on active and dangerous service are always in the highest
spirits, and make light of disagreeables and hardships of all kinds.
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