Cornhill (Volume 58)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888. Excerpt: ... THE PHANTOM PIQUET. ThE story I am about to relate is an old regimental legend in the--th regiment of foot. It was narrated to me by an officer of that distinguished corps one evening after dining at their hospitable mess. I tell it, much as it was told to me, and leave the explanation of the somewhat singular coincidences to my readers. Of all the British regiments which fought under John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, during the long and bloody wars in France, Germany, and Flanders, none was more dreaded by its foes than the 150th. It was, indeed, scarcely less dreaded by its friends, for it was composed of men regarded as the most reckless and abandoned of the soldiers fighting under the British colours, at a time when all soldiers were considered the most desperate and brutalised of human beings. Utterly fearless in the field in time of war, they cared little for authority in time of peace. Terrible as was the military penal code of those days, with its merciless flogging, strappado, and other barbarous punishments, the powers of the officers of the 150th were severely taxed to keep their men in anything like order during the winter months of military inaction. In fact, though no regiment could be found more trustworthy when it was a question of a bayonet charge, the military authorities could not but feel relieved when, after the campaign in 1712 had closed, they were enabled to draft the 150th to India. They had not long arrived, when they were employed in the field once more. But Indian warfare was child's play to men who had crashed through columns of France's bravest soldiers in a score of fierce struggles, and the swarthy warriors of Hindustan shrank appalled at the reckless courage and devilish ferocity of the 'Jal wallahs' (sash-bearers), a n...