Their comparative freedom from swearing, for instance,--an abstinence which I fear military life did not strengthen,--was partly a matter of principle.

Once I heard one of them say to another, in a transport of indignation, "Ha-a-a, boy, s'pose I no be a Christian, I cuss you sol"-- which was certainly drawing pretty hard upon the bridle.

"Cuss," however, was a generic term for all manner of evil speaking; they would say, "He cuss me fool," or "He cuss me coward," as if the essence of propriety were in harsh and angry speech,--which I take to be good ethics.

But certainly, if Uncle Toby could have recruited his army in Flanders from our ranks, their swearing would have ceased to be historic.
It used to seem to me that never, since Cromwell's time, had there been soldiers in whom the religious element held such a place.

"A religious army," "a gospel army," were their frequent phrases.