God bless her!" and all that company arose and drank to the toast.

The prayer, thus simply pronounced amongst the men who had pledged their lives in service to the Queen, had always been to Linforth a very moving thing.

Some of those who drank to it had already run their risks and borne their sufferings in proof of their sincerity; the others all burned to do the like.

It had always seemed to him, too, to link him up closely and inseparably with the soldiers of the regiment who had fallen years ago or had died quietly in their beds, their service ended.

It gave continuity to the regiment of Sappers, so that what each man did increased or tarnished its fair fame.