Indeed, but that his tail was docked
rather short, as was once the rule in the Light Dragoons, and that he
had a large scar on his neck, you could not have wished to see a
handsomer horse. So on they went, through the lychgate to the church;
and while the Corporal waited outside with the horse. Lady Eleanor and
the children went in. There at the back of a square family pew, among
strange old monuments, all showing heraldic shields coloured white and
blue, was a tablet: "To the memory of Captain Richard Bracefort of the
116th Light Dragoons, who fell in the glorious action of Salamanca, on
the 22nd of July, 1812, and was buried with his dead comrades on the
field of battle." Just below it was a second but smaller and simpler
tablet: "To the memory of Private John Dart, of the 128th Foot, and
late of this parish, who fell in the retreat to Corunna under Sir John
Moore, January 1809;" and in very small letters were added the words
"Erected by Eleanor Bracefort." Around both were the words, "Death is
swallowed up in Victory," and midway between the two, Dick placed the
wreath of laurel. Then they went back to the Corporal and Billy Pitt,
and returned, as they had come, to the Hall.
CHAPTER III
Though there was more than one snug little room at Bracefort which
other people might have turned into a schoolroom, yet Lady Eleanor
always preferred, in the summer at any rate, to take the children with
her to the hall for their lessons.
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