_Chair._ Were there no other legal formalities in connection with
your enlistment? For instance--Were you not taken before an attesting
Magistrate?

_Wit._ No, my Lord, no! I was carried off protesting, while my
villanous friend disappeared with my sweetheart! It was cruel, my Lord
and Gentlemen! It was very cruel!

_Chair._ Did you desert?

_Wit._ I did, my Lord--after I had obtained a uniform fitting closely
to the figure; but it was only that I might obtain the blessing of my
mother! And when I returned home the soldiers followed me--and might
have killed me!

_Chair._ How was that?

_Wit._ When I had taken refuge in a haystack, they prodded the
haystack with their swords! And this is life in the Army!

_Chair._ Were you arrested on discovery?

_Wit._ No; they spared me that indignity! They saw, my Lord, that my
mother was dying, and respectfully fell back while I assisted the old
Lady to pass away peacefully. But then, after all, they were men. In
spite of their red patrol jackets, brass helmets, and no spurs, they
were men, my Lord,--men! And, as soldiers, after I had broken from
prison, and was accused of murder, they again released me, because
some one promised to buy my discharge!