Of course students are always more comfortable in discussing the conventional and upbeat. As the clergyman had wanted to wear the regimentals of the great general, so the women are stealing what they think are the general's relics, and when found out, they do not act well, but run frightened at the first notion they will be caught. But the Reverend enjoys his meal, and the ladies love their tea and cake too. And their most desirable characteristic is the ease with which they are attained. Any bullet or any button does the work.
Faith alone is necessary.
There is a curious undertone of sorrow and poignancy as the narrator remembers back. Trollope has taken from memory what he could recall about a better-heeled uncle who was with them for a time and had some revenge.