Grig must blush at first to give his orders to old men in every way his
betters. And as it is very difficult for a spoiled child to escape being
selfish and arrogant, so it is a very hard task indeed for this spoiled
child of fortune not to be a Snob.
It must have often been a matter of wonder to the candid reader, that
the army, the most enormous job of all our political institutions,
should yet work so well in the field; and we must cheerfully give
Grig, and his like, the credit for courage which they display whenever
occasion calls for it. The Duke's dandy regiments fought as well as any
(they said better than any, but that is absurd). The great Duke himself
was a dandy once, and jobbed on, as Marlborough did before him. But
this only proves that dandies are brave as well as other Britons--as
all Britons. Let us concede that the high-born Grig rode into
the entrenchments at Sobraon as gallantly as Corporal Wallop, the
ex-ploughboy.
The times of war are more favourable to him than the periods of peace.
Think of Grig's life in the Bombardier Guards, or the Jack-boot Guards;
his marches from Windsor to London, from London to Windsor, from
Knightsbridge to Regent's Park; the idiotic services he has to perform,
which consist in inspecting the pipeclay of his company, or the horses
in the stable, or bellowing out 'Shoulder humps! Carry humps!' all which
duties the very smallest intellect that ever belonged to mortal man
would suffice to comprehend.
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