Note 4 — Chapter XVI · THE ILLNESS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.
Reading edition
It might be said that promotion could still be kept going on in the regiment itself. Officers need not have then been transferred for promotion. But in that case rich officers might have bribed their seniors to retire. Or, the subalterns might have made up a purse by subscription to induce one of their seniors to retire and let them each get a step upwards.