Sketches of Young Gentlemen and Young Couples by Dickens Charles; Schlicke Paul;

Author:Dickens, Charles; Schlicke, Paul;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

The Military Young Gentleman

But the really military young gentleman is waiting all this time, and at the very moment that an apology rises to our lips, he emerges from the barrack gate (he is quartered in a garrison town), and takes the way towards the high street. He wears his undress uniform, which somewhat mars the glory of his outward man; but still, how great, how grand, he is! What a happy mixture of ease and ferocity in his gait and carriage! and how lightly he carries that dreadful sword under his arm, making no more ado about it than if it were a silk umbrella! The lion is sleeping: only think, if an enemy were in sight, how soon he’d whip it out of the scabbard, and what a terrible fellow he would be!

But he walks on, thinking of nothing less than blood and slaughter; and now he comes in sight of three other military young gentlemen, arm-in-arm, who are bearing down towards him, clanking their iron heels on the pavement, and clashing their swords with a noise, which should cause all peaceful men to quail at heart. They stop to talk. See how the flaxen-haired young gentleman with the weak legs—he who has his pocket-handkerchief thrust into the breast of his coat—glares upon the faint-hearted civilians who linger to look upon his glory; how the next young gentleman elevates his head in the air, and majestically places his arms a-kimbo; while the third stands with his legs very wide apart, and clasps his hands behind him. Well may we inquire—not in familiar jest, but in respectful earnest—if you call that nothing? Oh, if some encroaching foreign power—the emperor of Russia, for instance, or any of those deep fellows—could only see those military young gentlemen, as they move on together towards the billiard-room over the way, wouldn’t he tremble a little!

And then, at the theatre, at night, when the performances are by command of Colonel Fitz-Sordust and the officers of the garrison, what a splendid sight it is! How sternly the defenders of their country look round the house, as if in mute assurance to the audience, that they may make themselves comfortable regarding any foreign invasion, for they (the military young gentlemen) are keeping a sharp look-out, and are ready for anything. And what a contrast between them, and that stage-box full of grey-headed officers, with tokens of many battles about them, who have nothing at all in common with the military young gentlemen, and who—but for an old-fashioned kind of manly dignity in their looks and bearing—might be common hard-working soldiers, for anything they take the pains to announce to the contrary!

Ah! here is a family just come in, who recognise the flaxen-headed young gentleman; and the flaxen-headed young gentleman recognises them too, only he doesn’t care to show it just now. Very well done indeed! He talks louder to the little group of military young gentlemen who are standing by him, and coughs to induce some

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