"I consider it an honor and a privilege to have shaken hands with
you, Sergeant Brown!" said Colonel Kendrick.
"Thank you, sir!" said Brown, taking one step back, and then saluting.
"May I join my regiment, sir?"
He joined his regiment, when he had helped to sort out the bleeding
remnants of it from among the by-ways and back alleys of Jailpore.
And the chaplain married him and Jane Emmett out of hand. He sent
her off at once with her former mistress to the coast, and marched
off with his regiment to Delphi. And at Delphi his name was once
more mentioned in despatches.
When the Mutiny was over, and the country had settled down again to
peace and reincarnation of a nation had begun, Brown found himself
hoisted to a civil appointment that was greater and more highly paid
than anything his modest soul had ever dreamed of.
He never understood the reason for it, although he did his fighting-best
consistently to fill the job; and he never understood why Queen
Victoria should have taken the trouble to write a letter to him in
which she thanked him personally, nor why they should have singled
out for praise and special notice a fellow who had merely done his duty.
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