chase.  I told her how they rode their horses into the mists of death, (saying to myself, but not saying to her,) and laid down their young lives for thee, O mother England! as willingly—­poured out their noble blood as cheerfully—­as ever, after a long day’s sport, when infants, they had rested their wearied heads upon their mother’s knees, or had sunk to sleep in her arms.  It is singular that she seemed to have no fears, even after this knowledge that the 23d Dragoons had been conspicuously engaged, for her son’s safety:  but so much was she enraptured by the knowledge that his regiment, and therefore he, had rendered eminent service in the trying conflict—­a service which had actually made them the foremost topic of conversation in London—­that in the mere simplicity of her fervent nature, she threw her arms round my neck, and, poor woman, kissed me.

NOTES.

[NOTE 1.

Lady Madeline Gordon.]

[NOTE 2.

“Vast distances.”—­One case was familiar to mail-coach travellers, where two mails in opposite directions, north and south, starting at the same minute from points six hundred miles apart, met almost constantly at a particular bridge which exactly bisected the total distance.]

[NOTE 3.

“Resident.”—­The number on the books was far greater, many of whom kept up an intermitting communication with Oxford.  But I speak of those only who were steadily pursuing their academic studies, and of those who resided constantly as fellows.]

[NOTE 4.

“Snobs,” and its antithesis, “nobs,” arose among the internal fractions of shoemakers perhaps ten years later.  Possibly enough, the terms may have existed much earlier; but they were then first made known, picturesquely and effectively, by a trial at some assizes which happened to fix the public attention.]

[NOTE 5.

“False echoes”—­yes, false! for the words ascribed to Napoleon, as breathed to the memory of Desaix, never were uttered at all.—­They stand in the same category of theatrical inventions as the cry of the foundering Vengeur, as the vaunt of General Cambronne at Waterloo, “La Garde meurt, mais ne se rend pas,” as the repartees of Talleyrand.]

[NOTE 6.

“Privileged few.”  The general impression was, that this splendid costume belonged of right to the mail-coachmen as their professional dress.  But that was an error.  To the guard it did belong, as a matter of course, and was essential as an official warrant, and a means of instant identification for his person, in the discharge of his important public duties.  But the coachman, and especially if his place in the series did not connect him immediately with London and the General Post-Office, obtained the scarlet coat only as an honorary distinction after long or special service.]