FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO
FIELD MARSHAL
[Illustration: Evelyn Wood _F.M._
_1906._]
FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO
FIELD MARSHAL
BY
EVELYN WOOD, F.M., D.C.L.
V.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G.
WITH TWENTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
FIFTH AND CHEAPER EDITION
METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
_First Published_ (_in Two Volumes_) _October 1906_
_Second, Third, and Fourth Editions_ _October 1906_
_Fifth Edition_ (_in One Volume_) _November 1907_
TO
MY COMRADES
PAST AND PRESENT
OF ALL RANKS IN BOTH SERVICES
I DEDICATE
THIS STORY OF MY LIFE
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
RECORD OF APPOINTMENTS, STAFF APPOINTMENTS, AND WAR
SERVICES, EXTRACTED FROM THE OFFICIAL LIST xi
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. 1852--H.M.S. _QUEEN_, 116 GUNS 8
III. 1853–4--LIFE ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR 16
IV. 1854--INVASION OF THE CRIMEA 28
V. 1854--THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL 45
VI. 1854–5--A NAKED AND STARVING ARMY 57
VII. 1855--SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL 69
VIII. 1855--ASSAULT OF THE REDAN 82
IX. 1855--ASSAULT OF THE REDAN--_continued_ 92
X. 1856–7--13TH LIGHT DRAGOONS 106
XI. 1858--CENTRAL INDIA 118
XII. 1858--SINDWAHA 131
XIII. 1858–9--A PURSUIT 144
XIV. 1859--THE END OF THE MUTINY 154
XV. 1859--BEATSON’S HORSE 164
XVI. 1859–60--THE SIRONJ JUNGLES 176
XVII. 1860--CENTRAL INDIA HORSE 189
XVIII. 1861–2–3--THE STAFF COLLEGE 202
XIX. 1865–7--“ON THE STAFF” 218
XX. 1867–71--ALDERSHOT 230
XXI. 1871–2–3--90TH LIGHT INFANTRY 247
XXII. 1873--ASHANTI 257
XXIII. 1873–4--AT THE HEAD OF THE ROAD IN ASHANTI 269
XXIV. 1874–8--ALDERSHOT: SOUTH AFRICA 287
XXV. 1878--THE GAIKAS AND PERIE BUSH 304
XXVI. 1878--FROM KING WILLIAM’S TOWN TO UTRECHT 322
XXVII. 1878--PREPARATIONS FOR WAR 334
XXVIII. CHRISTMAS 1878--THE INVASION OF ZULULAND 344
XXIX. 1879--IN ZULULAND 357
XXX. 1879--THE INHLOBANE, 28TH MARCH 368
XXXI. 1879--KAMBULA, 29TH MARCH 377
XXXII. 1879--THE PRINCE IMPERIAL 390
XXXIII. 1879--ULUNDI 399
XXXIV. 1879--COMPLIMENTARY HONOURS 408
XXXV. 1880--H.I.M. THE EMPRESS EUGÉNIE 417
XXXVI. 1881--THE LAND OF MISUNDERSTANDINGS 425
XXXVII. 1881--AFTER MAJUBA 434
XXXVIII. 1881--A ROYAL COMMISSION 446
XXXIX. 1881--MARITZBURG 458
XL. 1882--CHATHAM AND ALEXANDRIA 466
XLI. 1883--SIRDAR 475
XLII. 1884–5--THE SUDAN 489
XLIII. 1885–6–7–8--COLCHESTER DISTRICT 502
XLIV. 1889--ALDERSHOT 513
XLV. 1889–90--REFORMS AT ALDERSHOT 525
XLVI. 1891–2–3--TRAINING OF TROOPS ON PRIVATE LANDS 537
XLVII. 1893–6--QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL 547
XLVIII. 1897–90--ADJUTANT-GENERAL 559
XLIX. ADJUTANT-GENERAL--_continued_ 571
L. 1901–2–3--SECOND ARMY CORPS DISTRICT 582
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
PAGE
EVELYN WOOD, F.M. _Frontispiece_
Painted for the Fishmongers’ Company by W. OULESS, R.A., 1906
H.M.S. _QUEEN_, IN PLYMOUTH SOUND, 1852 8
MR. E. WOOD, R.N., 1852 14
From a Painting by LADY WOOD
THE BLACK SEA 26
THE CRIMEA, SOUTH-WESTERN PART 34
THE UPLAND 44
MARCHING ORDER, JULY 1854 60
ON THE MARCH, SEPTEMBER 1854 60
THE TRENCHES, JANUARY 1855 60
APRIL 1855 60
PLAN OF THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL 90
CORNET WOOD 100
RISALDAR MAJOR DHOKUL SINGH BAHADUR 138
AN EPISODE AT SINDWAHA 140
SINDWAHA 142
SINDHARA 188
CENTRAL INDIA 200
VAGABOND 220
MAJOR WOOD’S QUARTERS, ALDERSHOT, 1869–71 246
THE DEATH OF ARTHUR EYRE 280
THE ASHANTI CAMPAIGN 286
COLONEL WOOD’S QUARTERS, 1876–77 292
THE GAIKA REBELLION 302
THE PERIE BUSH 322
BURIAL OF RONALD CAMPBELL AND LLEWELYN LLOYD UNDER FIRE 371
INHLOBANE MOUNTAIN 376
KAMBULA HILL 388
NATAL AND PART OF ZULULAND 464
This illustrates Campaigns in 1879, 1880, 1881
THE SUDAN 500
NOTE.--The Maps are in most cases placed at the end of the chapter,
or chapters, which they are intended to illustrate.
FIELD MARSHAL SIR EVELYN WOOD V.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., D.C.L., P.S.C.,
BARRISTER-AT-LAW
RECORD OF APPOINTMENTS, STAFF APPOINTMENTS, AND WAR SERVICES EXTRACTED
FROM THE OFFICIAL LIST
APPOINTMENTS
ROYAL NAVY, from 15th April 1852 to 6th September 1855.
CORNET, 13TH LIGHT DRAGOONS, 7th September 1855.
LIEUTENANT, 13TH LIGHT DRAGOONS, 1st February 1856.
LIEUTENANT, 17TH LANCERS, 9th October 1857.
CAPTAIN, 17TH LANCERS, 16th April 1861.
BREVET-MAJOR, 17TH LANCERS, 19th August 1862.
BREVET-MAJOR, 73RD FOOT, 21st October 1862.
BREVET-MAJOR, 17TH FOOT, 10th November 1865.
MAJOR, unattached, 22nd June 1870.
MAJOR, 90TH LIGHT INFANTRY, 28th October 1871.
BREVET-LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, 19th January 1873.
BREVET-COLONEL, 1st April 1874.
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, 90TH LIGHT INFANTRY, 13th November 1878.
Half-Pay, 15th December 1879.
MAJOR-GENERAL, 12th August 1881.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, 1st April 1890.
GENERAL, 26th March 1895.
FIELD MARSHAL, 8th April 1903.
STAFF APPOINTMENTS
NAVAL BRIGADE, ACTING AIDE-DE-CAMP, 1st January to 29th June 1855.
BRIGADE-MAJOR TO FLYING COLUMN, CENTRAL INDIA, 1st November 1858 to
15th April 1859.
AIDE-DE-CAMP IN DUBLIN, 22nd January 1865 to 31st March 1865.
BRIGADE-MAJOR, ALDERSHOT, 31st July 1866 to 13th November 1868.
DEPUTY-ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, ALDERSHOT, 14th November 1868 to
25th November 1871.
SPECIAL SERVICE, GOLD COAST, 12th September 1873 to 25th March 1874.
SUPERINTENDING OFFICER OF GARRISON INSTRUCTION, 10th September 1874
to 27th March 1876.
ASSISTANT QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL AT ALDERSHOT, 28th March 1876 to
1st February 1878.
SPECIAL SERVICE, SOUTH AFRICA, 25th February 1878 to 2nd April 1879.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL, SOUTH AFRICA, 3rd April 1879 to 5th August 1879.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL AT BELFAST AND CHATHAM, 15th December 1879 to
14th January 1881.
LOCAL MAJOR-GENERAL IN SOUTH AFRICA, 15th January 1881 to 27th
February 1881.
MAJOR-GENERAL IN SOUTH AFRICA, 28th February 1881 to 16th February
1882.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL AT CHATHAM, 14th February to 3rd August 1882.
MAJOR-GENERAL IN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, 4th August 1882 to 31st
October 1882.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL, CHATHAM, 1st November to 20th December 1882.
SIRDAR, EGYPTIAN ARMY, 21st December 1882 to 31st March 1885.
COMMANDED ON THE LINES OF COMMUNICATION ON THE NILE, 15th September
1884 to 14th June 1885.
MAJOR-GENERAL, EASTERN DISTRICT, 1st April 1886 to 31st December
1888.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, COMMANDING AT ALDERSHOT, 1st January 1889 to
8th October 1893.
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL TO THE FORCES, 9th October 1893 to 30th
September 1897.
ADJUTANT-GENERAL TO THE FORCES, 1st October 1897 to 30th September
1901.
GENERAL, COMMANDING 2ND ARMY CORPS, LATER SOUTHERN COMMAND, 1st
October 1901 to 31st December 1904.
WAR SERVICES
WOOD, SIR (H.) E., V.C., G.C.B. (FIELD MARSHAL).--
CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN, 1854–5. Served in the Naval Brigade in the battle
of Inkerman, and at the bombardments of Sevastopol, in October 1854,
April and June 1855, including the assault on the Redan of 18th June
(severely wounded). Despatches, _London Gazette_, 2nd and 4th July
1855. Medal, with two Clasps; Knight Legion of Honour; 5th Class,
Medjidie; Turkish Medal.
INDIAN MUTINY, 1858–60. Served as Brigade-Major, Beatson’s Horse;
commanded 1st Regiment of Beatson’s Horse; raised and commanded 2nd
Regiment of Central India Horse; was present at the action of Rajghur,
Sindwaha, Kurai, Barode, and Sindhara. Despatches, _London Gazette_,
24th March and 5th May 1859. Medal and Victoria Cross.
ASHANTI WAR, 1873–4. Raised and commanded Wood’s Regiment throughout
the campaign; commanded the troops at the engagement of Essaman,
Reconnaissance of 27th November 1873; commanded the Right column at the
battle of Amoaful (slightly wounded), and was present at the action
before Coomassie. Despatches, _London Gazette_, 18th and 25th November
1873; 6th, 7th, and 31st March 1874. Medal with Clasp. Brevet of
Colonel; Companion of the Bath.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR, 1878–9–81. Kafir Campaign, commanded a force in
clearing the Buffalo Poort and Perie Bush, and at the attack on the
Tutu Bush; at attack on Intaba Ka Udoda Bush, and in the operations on
the Buffalo Range. Zulu Campaign, commanded a column at the actions
at Zunguin Mountains, and Inhlobane (horse killed), Kambula, and at
the battle of Ulundi. Despatches, _London Gazette_, 17th May, 11th
and 18th June, 1878; and 21st February, 5th, 15th, 21st, 28th March,
4th, 14th, 21st April, 7th and 16th May, and 21st August, 1879.
Medal with Clasp; Knight Commander of the Bath. Transvaal Campaign,
conducted negotiations and concluded peace with the Boers. Promoted
Major-General; Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St.
Michael and St. George.
EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION, 1882. Commanded 4th Brigade, 2nd Division.
Operations near Alexandria, and surrender of Kafr Dowar and Damietta.
Despatches, _London Gazette_, November 1882. Thanked by both Houses of
Parliament. Medal; Bronze Star; 2nd Class, Medjidie.
SUDAN EXPEDITION, 1884–5. Nile As Major-General on Lines of
Communication. Despatches, _London Gazette_, 25th August 1885 Clasp.
GRAND CORDON OF THE MEDJIDIE, 1st Class, 1885.
KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE MOST HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH, 1901.
OTHER DISTINCTIONS
PASSED STAFF COLLEGE, 1864.
BARRISTER-AT-LAW, 1874.
HONORARY COLONEL, 2nd BATTALION ESSEX RIFLE VOLUNTEERS 1879; and
14th MIDDLESEX (INNS OF COURT), 1900.
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, 1885.
DEPUTY-LIEUTENANT FOR THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, 1897.
GRAND CROSS IMPERIAL LEOPOLD ORDER, 1904.
D.C.L., 1907.
FROM MIDSHIPMAN TO FIELD MARSHAL
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Ancestry--Parentage--The Grammar School and College at Marlborough--
I become a Naval Cadet.
The Woods, from whom I am descended, were for hundreds of years owners
of Hareston Manor, Brixton, a small village near Plymouth. There is a
record of a John a’ Wood living there in the eighth year of the reign
of King Edward the Third, and in the north aisle of the church a ledger
stone with coat of arms to John Wood, who died A.D. 1724. The Hareston
Woods died out, but a younger branch settled at Tiverton, the head
of which manufactured lace and serge, and to him was born and duly
apprenticed as a lad, Matthew. He soon started in business on his own
account, and eventually became a successful hop merchant, being chosen
Lord Mayor of London in 1815 and 1816. He represented the City in nine
successive Parliaments,[1] and was as fearless in defending the cause
of Queen Caroline, which he warmly espoused, as he was in all matters
aldermanic and magisterial. When Lord Mayor, he faced, practically
alone, a riotous mob, whose leader was exhorting his followers to storm
the Bank of England. Mr. Wood running out into the crowd, pulled the
ringleader off his horse, and dragged him inside the Bank railings, a
prisoner.
In 1819 the Alderman was sitting in his counting-house, when an agent
of the Duke of Kent, calling late on Saturday afternoon, asked Matthew
Wood for the loan of £10,000. The agent explained it was important for
reasons of State that the expected baby[2] of the Duchess of Kent,
who was then at Ostend, should be born in England, and that His Royal
Highness the Duke could not cross over unless he received that sum of
money to satisfy his more pressing creditors. Mr. Wood promised to
reply on the Monday, after consulting his partners; the agent urged,
however, that the state of the Duchess’s health admitted of no delay
and that she ought to cross immediately, so my grandfather gave him the
cheque.
Sir John Page Wood, my father, who was very popular in Essex, was aptly
described in an Obituary notice in _The Times_.[3] My mother, the
bravest woman I ever knew, and to whom I owe any good qualities I may
possess, came of a race of Cornish squires. John Michell represented
Truro in Parliament in the reign of Elizabeth. My uncle, Admiral Sir
Frederick Michell, had a lease of a tin mine from the Crown, granted
to Thomas Michell, gentleman, of Croft West,[4] dated more than three
hundred years ago. The Michells were in comfortable circumstances till
Thomas, my mother’s grandfather, formed, and maintained, the Four
Barrow Hunt. This expense and the investment of £60,000 in tin mines
resulted in the sale of the family estate. Sampson Michell, the son of
Thomas, entering the Royal Navy, fought under Lord Howe. He joined the
Portuguese Navy in 1783, and was in 1807 its Commander-in-Chief. The
Government appointed his eldest son, Frederick, Lieutenant when he was
eight years old!
When the French invaded Portugal, and Marshal Junot entered Lisbon
with a small escort, the two Michell girls were playing in the garden,
and to escape capture were hurried down to the river without a change
of clothes, and put on board H.M.S. _Lively_, a frigate, which only
reached Falmouth after a voyage of twenty-three days!
Sampson Michell, Admiral in the Portuguese Navy, died at the Brazils in
1809, leaving a widow and five children. From savings effected out of
his pay he had bought a house at Truro, but Mrs. Michell had only £90
per annum on which to keep herself, two unmarried daughters, and Molly,
a life-long servant. The income tax, then raised as a war tax, was at
that time 10d. in the pound; bread sold at 14d. the quartern loaf, so
life was difficult for the widow.
The Admiral left to his sons only a fine example, and sound advice:
“Never get into debt; do your duty to God and to your country.” The
elder, Frederick, had joined the Royal Navy six years earlier, and died
in 1873, when eighty-four years of age, an Admiral, with eight wounds
and eleven decorations; but he appears again in my story. The younger
son, Charles, having joined the Royal Artillery from Woolwich, was
attached to the Portuguese Army in 1810, and though only a Lieutenant
in our Service, commanded a Battery with marked gallantry and ability
up to the final engagement, in 1814, at Toulouse. While quartered
there he eloped with an attractive but penniless French girl[5] from
a convent school, and was soon after, on the reduction of the Army,
placed on half pay, his income being a mere pittance. Seven years
later, when still in France, with an increasing family, he received
from a friend in England a cutting from the _Times_, in which the
Government advertised for a teacher of “Fortification and Military
Drawing” for Sandhurst College, which had been recently moved to its
present position.
Charles was not only a good draughtsman but an engraver, having studied
the art under Bartolozzi, and as specimens of his work he sent an
engraving of a plan he had made of Passages, a little seaport in
Guipuzcoa, Spain, and a sketch of Nantes, Brittany, where he lived.
Having obtained the appointment in this unconventional manner, he
joined the Instructional Staff, at what is now known as Yorktown,
Camberley, in 1824, and was promoted later to a similar but better paid
post at Woolwich, whence he was sent in 1828 to the Cape of Good Hope
as Surveyor-General, and remained there until he was invalided home in
1848. While holding this appointment he made locomotion possible for
Europeans, constructing also lighthouses and sea-walls.
I was born at the Vicarage, Cressing, a village near Braintree, Essex,
on the 9th of February 1838, the youngest son of John Page Wood, Clerk
in Holy Orders, who was also Rector of St. Peter’s, Cornhill, in the
City of London. My father,[6] educated at Winchester and Cambridge,
visited as a lad the Field of Waterloo a few days after the 18th of
June 1815, and brought back the small book[7] of a French soldier,
killed in the battle. This book, which I still possess, has within
its leaves a carnation, and belonged evidently to a Reservist who had
been recalled to the Colours in “The Hundred Days.” He had served in
the campaigns of 1812, 1813, and 1814, and had been discharged on
Napoleon’s abdication, as is shown by his last pay settlement.
My father took his degree early in 1820, and was immediately appointed
Chaplain and Private Secretary to Queen Caroline. In the following year
he married Emma Carolina Michell, with whom he had been acquainted for
some time; for he frequently accompanied his uncle, Benjamin Wood, to
visit copper mines in Cornwall in which the Woods had an interest.
Benjamin Wood was later for many years Member for Southwark.
In 1846, owing to monetary troubles, our governess was sent away,
and her time having been previously fully occupied with the elder
children, I had but little instruction, and when I went to the Grammar
School, Marlborough, in February 1847, I could only read words of one
syllable. This I was ashamed to admit, and was greatly distressed when
as a first lesson the master gave me two lines of Latin to learn by
heart. My elder brother, understanding my trouble, beckoned me to the
bench at his side, and repeated my task until I was word perfect.
After two years at the Grammar School, where boys were sufficiently
fed, but caned severely for false quantities, I went to the College
at the other end of the town. The food was poor and scanty, yet I
preferred the College to the Grammar School, from the greater liberty
we enjoyed. I gave no trouble while at the College, or at least escaped
adverse notice, till December 1851, when unjust punishment made me
anxious to leave the School for any place, or for any profession.
In October our pocket money (mine was 6d. weekly) was collected for
providing fireworks, as had been the annual custom, for Guy Fawkes’
Day. On the 5th November, after the fireworks had been purchased, and
distributed, the Head Master forbade their being displayed. It did
not affect me, as boys of our Form, the Lower Fourth, were considered
to be too young to let off the crackers and squibs their money had
purchased. When night fell, the younger masters endeavoured to enforce
the prohibition; several personal acts of violence occurred in which
the boys were victorious, for the Upper Fifth and Sixth averaged from
seventeen to eighteen years of age, and many were as big as their
teachers. Fireworks were let off in the dormitories during the night,
and acts of insubordination continued throughout November.
The Head was a learned scholar and kind-hearted man, but not strong
enough to master 500 boys, of whom 100 were verging on manhood. I saw
him when approaching his desk in the Upper School struck by a swan-shot
thrown by a crossbow. The pellet stuck in his forehead, and he allowed
it to remain there till school was up. If, as I believe, the feeling of
the Lower Fourth was representative of the School, a tactful man might
have utilised the shame and remorse we felt, to quell the rebellion;
but neither he nor his assistants understood us, and later the masters’
desks were burnt, an attempt made to fire some of the out-buildings,
and a Translation of the Greek Plays was burnt with the Head’s desk.
In December the Master expelled three or four boys, and gave the
Upper Sixth the choice of being gradually expelled, or of handing up
ringleaders for punishment. The low tone of the School was shown by the
fact that several selected by the older lads were like myself, under
fourteen years of age.
About the middle of December I was reported on a Monday morning for
being “Out of bounds, when ‘confined to gates,’ on the previous
Saturday.” I pleaded guilty to being out of bounds, but added, “I was
not ‘confined to gates’; it ended on Friday at sunset.” The Head said,
“You are so reported, and I mean to flog you.” “The punishment for
being out of bounds is 2s. 6d. fine; may I not ask the Master (he was
sitting at the next desk) if he has not erred?” “No; you are a bad boy,
and I’ll flog you.” “But, sir, for five years of school-life I have
never been flogged.” “Now you will be:” and I was. The Reverend ---- at
once expressed regret on paper for his error, and the Head Master said
he was sorry for his mistake.
On the Friday of the same week the decisions on the senior boys’
investigations were announced, and I heard read out: “Wood, Quartus,
to be flogged, to be kept back two days, and until he repeats by heart
three hundred lines of any Latin author, and to be fined £2.” It would
be difficult to imagine greater travesty of justice than to so punish
a boy of thirteen, and moreover by fining his parents. I urged my
flogging on the Monday should cancel that now ordered, but the Head
dissented, adding, “I apologised for that; and you are such a bad
boy, I’ll flog you before your Form.” My twenty-two classmates were
marched in to the Sixth Form classroom, and I was ordered to get up.
The culprit knelt on a bench, his elbows on a desk. Two prefects held
his wrists (nominally) with one hand, and the tail of his shirt with
the other. When the Master was about to strike, a noise made him look
round: he saw all my classmates looking at the wall. He raged, vowed he
would flog them all, but in vain; for when the top boys of the class
were forcibly turned about by the prefects they faced round again, and
my punishment was inflicted without the additional indignity intended.
My class gave me £5. I chose the Fourth Book of the _Æneid_, and next
morning repeated the three hundred lines.[8]
I begged my parents to let me leave, offering to go into a London
office, Green’s Merchant Service, or anywhere, to avoid remaining under
the Head Master. My father was negotiating with Green & Co., when
shortly after I returned to Marlborough College, in February 1852, I
unexpectedly received a nomination for the Royal Navy, being ordered
to report for examination at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth
Dockyard, in April. I was placed in charge of Mr. Eastman, a crammer at
Portsea, for three weeks, that I might acquire the necessary amount of
arithmetic to satisfy the Examiner; for at Marlborough nearly all my
school-time was given to Latin and Greek.
Thirty-eight boys faced Captain (later Admiral) Chads on the 15th
April. He read out to us half a page from the _Spectator_ deliberately,
with clear enunciation, and many repetitions, so that no boy could
fail to catch the words. While the Examiner was reading, “And this was
a very barren spot, barren, barren,” he passed up and down the room,
and as he turned his back a boy held up a sheet of paper on which he
had written “baron” with a big mark of interrogation. I had time only
to shake my head when Captain Chads turned, and that boy did not get
into the Navy. We were given a short paper on English history, but this
presented no difficulties to me, because I had been taught it by my
mother at home before I could read.
The examination for soldiers was often at that time even less
formidable, certainly in the case of a distinguished officer who has
since risen to command the Army, for on joining at Sandhurst a kindly
Colonel asked him his name, and continued, “What! a son of my friend
Major ----?” and on receiving an affirmative reply, said, “Go on, boy;
you have passed.”