Frequently he rode into
Abrantes and spent the evening with the Mayo Fusiliers. The first time he
did so he requested the officers always to call him, as before, Terence
O'Connor.
"It is absurd being addressed as colonel when I am only a lieutenant in
the service. Of course when I am with the corps it is a different thing; I
am its colonel, and must be called so; but it is really very annoying to
be called so here."
"You must be feeling quite rusty," Colonel Corcoran said to him, "sitting
here doing nothing, after nine months of incessant moving about."
"I am not rusting, Colonel, I am hard at work sharpening my blade; that
is, improving my corps. Your men drill my sergeants four hours a day, and
for the other eight each of them is repeating the instructions that he has
received to three others. So that by the time we are in movement again I
hope to have a sergeant who knows something of his duty to each fifty men.
I can assure you that in addition to the great need for such men when the
troops are out skirmishing, or otherwise detached in small parties, I felt
that their appearance on parade was greatly marred by the fact that the
non-commissioned officers did not know their proper places or their proper
work, which neither Bull nor Macwitty, nor indeed the company officers,
could instruct them in, all being cavalrymen.
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