On arriving, I say, at our barracks at Dum Dum, I for the first
time put on the beautiful uniform of the Invincibles: a light blue
swallow-tailed jacket with silver lace and wings, ornamented with
about 3,000 sugar-loaf buttons, rhubarb-coloured leather
inexpressibles (tights), and red morocco boots with silver spurs
and tassels, set off to admiration the handsome persons of the
officers of our corps. We wore powder in those days; and a
regulation pigtail of seventeen inches, a brass helmet surrounded
by leopard skin, with a bearskin top and a horsetail feather, gave
the head a fierce and chivalrous appearance, which is far more
easily imagined than described.

Attired in this magnificent costume, I first presented myself
before Colonel Jowler. He was habited in a manner precisely
similar, but not being more than five feet in height, and weighing
at least fifteen stone, the dress he wore did not become him quite
so much as slimmer and taller men. Flanked by his tall Majors,
Thrupp and Gutch, he looked like a stumpy skittle-ball between two
attenuated skittles. The plump little Colonel received me with
vast cordiality, and I speedily became a prime favourite with
himself and the other officers of the corps. Jowler was the most
hospitable of men; and gratifying my appetite and my love together,
I continually partook of his dinners, and feasted on the sweet
presence of Julia.

I can see now, what I would not and could not perceive in those
early days, that this Miss Jowler--on whom I had lavished my first
and warmest love, whom I had endowed with all perfection and
purity--was no better than a little impudent flirt, who played with