_By a veteran._
In the late ---- Regiment of Light Dragoons, were two worthy persons,
who were denominated the regimental liars: a distinction to which,
giving every man his due, they were eminently entitled. The great and
fundamental requisites for accomplished lying, I conceive to be a good
memory, a fertile fancy, a ready wit, fluency of speech, and a brazen
countenance, so that you shall tell a man a most bare-faced falsehood,
and afterwards adduce such connected proofs as especially characterize
actual facts. The following dialogue is a specimen of the talents of
the aforementioned mendacious personages.
C.--"See a man walk after he was shot dead! so have I, a whole day's
march."
B.--"Come, come, that's stealing a march on our senses. No, no, it
won't do: that's a naked one; do pray turn them out with some kind of
probability covering over them."