Only one tune is played, and
that tune never varies. I don't know its real name, but the White Hussars call
it:--"Take me to London again." It sounds very pretty. The Regiment would
sooner be struck off the roster than forego their distinction.
After the "dismiss" was sounded, the officers rode off home to prepare for
stables; and the men filed into the lines, riding easy.
That is to say, they opened their tight buttons, shifted their helmets, and
began to joke or to swear as the humor took them; the more careful slipping off
and easing girths and curbs. A good trooper values his mount exactly as much as
he values himself, and believes, or should believe, that the two together are
irresistible where women or men, girls or guns, are concerned.
Then the Orderly-Officer gave the order:--"Water horses," and the Regiment
loafed off to the squadron-troughs, which were in rear of the stables and
between these and the barracks. There were four huge troughs, one for each
squadron, arranged en echelon, so that the whole Regiment could water in ten
minutes if it liked. But it lingered for seventeen, as a rule, while the Band
played.
The band struck up as the squadrons filed off the troughs and the men slipped
their feet out of the stirrups and chaffed each other.
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