This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI. LIFE IN BARRACKS. Our narrative must now return to Armstrong, who, the reader will recollect, was expelled from Lyngford School on the day of Charles Bampton's flight. His reception by his father was, as might be expected under the circumstances, the reverse of cordial. It was indeed very difficult to know what to do with him. He was too old to be admitted to any public school, even if his expulsion had not excluded him from those establishments. To private schools he expressed an utter aversion, and it was tolerably clear that if sent to any he would only be again returned upon his father's hands. He himself was eager to go into the army, and, on the whole, it seemed the wisest course to yield to his wishes; for, though his abilities had inspired his father with the hope of academic laurels, yet his uncontrolled temper and impetuous will were likely considerably to diminish his chance of success in an English university. Accordingly, Mr. Armstrong senior, through the interest of a military member of his congregation, got his son's name put down at thi Horse Guards for a commission in a dragoon regiment; and, till a vacancy should occur, he was sent to a military tutor, who undertook to prepare him for the necessary examination, and otherwise to instruct him in such studies as were most needful for his new profession. No further difficulties intervened, and, by the time he was seventeen, Armstrong found bnnself gazetted to a cornetcy in her Majesty's 19 th Dragoons, which were at that time quartered at Chester. It was a clear autumnal evening when he entered that ancient capital of the Marches, on the top of the Birmingham coach. He stopped to dine at the hotel where he alighted; for he preferred not to make his first appearance in his regimen...