ON one occasion, the Duke of Wellington was out hunting, with some friends who were on a visit at one of his country seats. In the course of the chase, they wished to cross a field whose hedges were too high to think of jumping; so they sought the gate. Here they found a boy leaning against it, in a leisurely manner, as though time hung rather heavily on his hands.
“Open the gate, my boy,” said one of the hunters.
“Can’t, sir, without orders,” replied the boy, looking up, with a countenance so full of determination, that the gentlemen scarcely knew whether it was ignorant rudeness, or the thought of gaining money.
“Open the gate directly, boy, or I’ll put the whip about your shoulders,” again cried the rider, who was impatient to proceed in the chase.
“Well, sir, if you do, I can’t open the gate till master tells me.”
“And why not?” they ask.
“Because master sent me here, and told me not to open the gate for the huntsmen, and I don’t mean to do so, unless he comes, and tells me to do it.”
Again and again came the demand for the gate to be opened, but the boy moved not from his position. Neither kindly words nor threats could prevail upon him to stir. At last one of the horsemen said,
“Do you know my boy, that the gentleman who wishes you to open the gate is the great Duke of Wellington?”
The boy put his arms backwards across the top bar of the gate, as though that would strengthen his determination. Looking up quietly into the speaker’s face, he said,
“If that is the great duke who fought Bonaparte, he ought to be the last man in the world to ask me to disobey orders.”
Taken aback by the quiet rebuke, the duke smiled, and said,
“Well done, my boy; we were wrong in asking you to disobey your master.”
The old general and his companions rode away, but not until they had given a proof how much they esteemed the faithfulness of the boy who had been put in a position of trust. He was not told to argue the question whether it was right or wrong, he was simply told not to open the gate without his master’s permission.
You may be sure the incident highly pleased the duke, as it appealed to his own high sense of duty, which is a feature that more than anything else, makes the true soldier—obeying orders!
When king Saul was sent to do the Lord’s will, he disobeyed, and, on meeting Samuel, who rebuked him for it, he made a great fuss of what immense sacrifices he had spared, to which the prophet forcibly replied,
ML 02/26/1933