Royal guard

“ These stand watch day and night to guard the palace, and to change guards is accompanied with so much ceremony that it often takes an hour's time. If it takes a royal guard of nearly a thousand men to protect a palace, it requires a good-sized standing army and navy to protect any of these royal countries. The newest of these countries can boast that her army is not an integral part of her government. Even France, which is a republic in name, is a military [Pg 109] form of government; it is the army and the army man that has the last word to say. ”

“ You will get an idea of the luxury of royalty by a short account of the gardes du corps. These troops are all officers, the privates having the rank and receiving the pay of lieutenants. Their duty, as the name implies, is to have the royal person in their especial care, and there is always a guard of them in an ante-chamber of the royal apartments. They are heavy cavalry, and when they mount guard in the palaces, their arm is a carabine. A party of them always appear near the carriage of the king, or indeed near that of any of the reigning branch of the family. ”

“ I here allude to the royal signature, 'Nasr-ed-Din, Shah, Kajar.' These superior guardsmen have all the rank of gentleman, and may be called the mounted 'gentlemen at arms' of the guard. They have the customary right of appointment to Court and palace posts, such as door-keeper, usher, messenger, etc. Their service is for life, and is hereditary, a son succeeding his father, and taking his place in the guard when promotion, age, illness, or death creates a vacancy. ”

“ The standard of cavalry, or the King’s colour of battalions of infantry, is not to be carried by any guard or trooped, except in the case of a guard mounted over the King, the Queen, and Queen Mother, or any member of the Royal Family, or over a Viceroy, and is only to be used at guard mounting, or other ceremonials, when a member of the Royal Family or a Viceroy is present, and on occasions when the National Anthem is appointed 4to be played; at all other times it is to remain with the regiment. ”

“ Cruel country, cruel fate, that compel Lieutenant Algernon Percy Plantagenet, of the Royal Life Guards, the handsomest man in his regiment, and heir to £9,000 a year, to be mounting guard at eight o’clock in the morning! He is mounting guard at present by smoking a cigar (one of Milo’s best) on the Mall. By and by he will go into his barrack-room and draw caricatures in charcoal on the whitewashed wall. He will smoke a good deal, yawn a good deal, and whistle a good deal during the day, and will give a few words of command. ”

“ In the British service constitute in time of peace the garrison of London, and the guard of the sovereign at Windsor. The Guards compose what is called the Household Brigade, and include in cavalry the 1st and 2d Life Guards, and the Royal Horse Guards; and in infantry the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, and the Scots Fusilier Guards. The officers of the regiments of Foot Guards hold higher army rank than that they bear regimentally,—that is, ensigns rank with lieutenants of other regiments, lieutenants with captains, and so on. ”

“ Where the soldiery are the guards of social order, it makes all the difference whether they are royal troops,—a destructive machinery organized against the people,—or a National Guard, springing up when needed from among the people, for the people's sake,—or a militia, like the American, mentioned above,—virtually stewards of the meeting, and nothing more. ”

“ When the king goes to war, I understand that every man capable of bearing arms must [150] follow his chief; for which purpose they are all trained from their youth to the use of arms. I saw nothing like a regular armed force, except a guard of about fifty men, who constantly did duty at the king’s residence. There were about twenty of them on guard daily, but the only sentry which they posted was at the powder magazine. ”

“ My own Conservative notion of the function of the Guards is that they should guard the Queen's throne and life, when threatened either by domestic or foreign enemy: but not that they should become a substitute for her inefficient police force, in the execution of her domiciliary laws. ”

“ The king can choose the men of his guard only from among those who are actually in active service in the troops of the line, or from among the citizens who for a year past have done service as national guards, provided they be residents of the kingdom and have previously taken the civic oath. ”

“ To be raised at once from a position so subordinate and anomalous, so unrecognised and so fraught with useless peril as that of a gentleman volunteer, from the ranks as it were of that army whose dreadful sufferings he shared and whose many dangers he risked—to be raised to the rank of an officer in a regiment so distinguished as the Royal Fusiliers, and to be at once, temporarily though it were, placed on the general's staff, and beyond the reach of Cosmo's coldness, pique, and hauteur, was indeed to be independent, and to taste of happiness supreme! ”

“ The king shall have, apart from the guard of honor which shall be furnished him by the citizen national guards of the place of his residence, a guard paid out of the funds of the civil list; it shall not exceed the number of twelve hundred infantrymen and six hundred cavalrymen. ”

“ The king must have guards, infantry, cavalry, body-guards, French guardsmen, Swiss guardsmen, Cent Suisses, light-horse guards, gendarmes of the guard, gate-guardsmen, in all, 9,050 men,2111 costing annually 7,681,000 livres. Four companies of the French guard, and two of the Swiss guard, parade every day in the court of the ministers between the two railings, and when the king issues in his carriage to go to Paris or Fontainebleau the spectacle is magnificent. ”

“ I remember the times when I have been exercising my regiment, the devotion that was displayed by both officers and men; but this I am well aware was owing to their admiration of my father’s virtues. Of them I am secure. My fondness for military exercises made me labour to perfect in discipline the troops I commanded, and they are now as effective a body of men as ever entered a field of battle. They will perform good service wherever they go. The national guard is another powerful engine to be employed on such an occasion. In the metropolis alone they amount in number to about twenty thousand ”

“ When Napoleon's Old Guard was advancing up the hill, the only sight they could see was the duke and a few mounted officers, till a voice was heard, "Up, guards, and at them!" And the best men in the whole French army, the pick of the bravest of the brave, fell back before the onset of the British guards.
At about eight o'clock the duke gave the joyful signal for an advance all along the line. For nearly nine hours the British had been stormed at with shot and shell, had been charged again and again, and had stood firm though impatient. ”

“ Day and night, a tall guard in uniform marched slowly back and forth in front of the palace. King Christian is probably the best loved king in all Europe, and no one would ever want to harm him. Nevertheless, the guard is always there. ”

“ There are guards in the city by day and by night, and they are placed at the four gates, and outside the walls of the seventh ring, above the breastworks and towers and inside mounds. These places are guarded in the day by women, in the night by men. And lest the guard should become weary of watching, and in case of a surprise, they change them every three hours, as is the custom with our soldiers. At sunset, when the drum and symphonia sound, the armed guards are distributed. Cavalry and infantry make use of hunting as the symbol of war, and practise games and hold festivities in the plains. ”

“ It is the National Guard to whom these great duties are particularly confided; and as no foreign influence can prevail against the French nation, proud as she is of her retrospections, of her strength, and of the great and virtuous example she has just presented to the world, holding in her hands the sacred arms of liberty ”

“ Our constables shall distrain no man who holds by knight-service, to give money for castle-guard, if he has performed it himself in proper person, or by another good man, if he could not perform it himself for some reasonable cause: and if we lead him, or send him into the army, he shall be discharged of castle-guard for so long time as he shall be with us in the army. ”

“ I happened to be Corporal of the Guard the other evening—a delightful position. For the first time I had a little authority. True I sometimes give the man next to me a prod in the wind and whisper, "Form fours, idiot," but it is an unofficial prod, designed to save him from the official fury. Now for the first time I was in power, with the whole strength of military law behind me. So of course I got busy. As soon as the first guard had been set, and the rest of them, with their distinguished corporal and commonplace sergeant, were in the guard tent, I let meself go. ”

“ Guard of Honor, Fatigue Guard, and the General’s Guard. That was called a guard of honor in which the officers and men were most exposed to danger; for the quintessence of military honor is to be often in peril, and either to fall courageously in the discharge of duty, or to return from the field after having exhibited proofs of valor, prudence and perseverance. A fatigue guard belonging to a garrison or to a camp. A general’s guard was mounted before the door or gate of the house in which the commanding officer resided. ”

“ It is composed of the army and the navy, of the troops especially intended for internal service, and subsidiary of the active citizens and their children, in condition to bear arms, registered upon the roll of the national guard.
3. The national guards form neither a military body nor an institution within the state; they are the citizens themselves summoned to service in the public force.
4. The citizens shall never take the form nor act as national guards, except in virtue of a requisition or of a legal authorisation. ”

“ We shall thus have a nation built of stone and mortar, capable of resisting the attacks both of time and men. I will moreover raise the national guard to a level with the regiments of the line: the old retired officers shall be the chiefs and the fathers of the corps. ”

“ But the guard, warned by Ai, was on the watch, and just as the rat was about to spring at the king's throat, the soldier with a sweep of his long, sharp sword cut off its head, and thus the king through the cleverness of one man escaped the last danger and could now live without fear. ”

“ The serjeant or corporal's guard in the best disciplined military garrison of his Majesty's dominions, cannot be more precise, more critically exact to time, than the training lads are to stable hours. ”

“ In such regiments discipline was maintained by perpetual threats of death. But everything is now changed: the soldiery of the monarchy and the two Empires has given place to a166 vast and peaceful national guard. There is no longer any fear of mutiny or violence. Nevertheless, death at every turn still threatens these gentle flocks of peasants and artisans clumsily disguised as soldiers. ”

“ This is a new military rule you adopt, turning out the guard every time the Sergeant comes in.” Others would say as they saw him coming up stairs again, “turn out the guard for the commanding officer!” “Turn out the guard for the officer of the day!” Others would attempt to beat the long roll on the floor, with sticks of stove wood, or try to whistle, “Boots and Saddles,” or the assembly. ”

“ A nightly guard surrounds and protects their place of residence, while the house of the King is cynically left without the pickets. Secure from interference, one utters the voice of the law, the other moves the hands of authority ”

“ Then there were the Guards, in full Uniform on Horseback, with their Helmets on their Heads and their Swords drawn, about one under each Lamp Post, mounting Guard, very warlike to look upon, and I believe this is the heaviest Part of their Duty. ”

“ In truth, since 1814, the continued vigilance of the national guard has powerfully contributed to such results. Never was the watchfulness of a national guard more requisite, and more efficient: but still it must be allowed that, at the period when the compulsory enlistment of our troops, and the desertion of foreign soldiers poured out upon our metropolis, a crowd of bad characters, adventurers, and needy persons of all nations, in spite of the presence of the national guard, much work was still to be performed by the brigade of safety and their chief. ”

“ Methinks that mounting Guard at the Palace is a Service of little Danger or Hardship; but, good Lack! to think what Fire-eaters in Battle are the Dandy Officers of the Guards, and how their Men will follow them through thick and thin, and what Work those Fellows can do when called on, that play Soldiers about St. ”

“ It is indispensibly necessary, that every officer should know how to mount and come off guard.
All guards parade with ordered arms, and unfixed bayonets, without any intervals between them, the ranks open. The officer brings the guard to a shoulder; and the officers with their swords drawn, and non-commissioned officers commanding guards, are formed about forty paces in front of the centre, in two ranks, facing the line, where they are to receive the old parole and such orders as may be given them. ”

“ The guards are drawn up in three ranks, to keep off the populace. The Royal Family, with all the nobility of the court, crowd the windows and balconies of the palace, to enjoy this magnificent sight. When his Majesty waves his handkerchief, the guards open to the right and left; the rabble pour in from all quarters, and the entertainment commences. You may easily conceive what a delightful sight it must be, to see several thousand hungry, half-naked lazzaroni rush in like a torrent, destroy [271] the whole fabric of loaves, fishes, and joints of meat ”