Micah Clarke

found that the bed upon which my comrade had lain was vacant, and that the door of the apartment was opened. As the uproar still continued, and as I seemed to discern

dishes containing them, were littered over the floor. A couple of packs of cards and a dice-box lay amongst the scattered feast. Close by the door stood Decimus Saxon, with his drawn rapier in his hand and a second one beneath his feet, while facing him there was a young officer in a blue uniform, whose face was reddened with shame and anger, and who looked wildly about the room as though in

ks he should lose his place for not teaching you to make a better show. Out on him! Is

yet might perchance be dispensed with. I am free to say that our friend attacked you somewhat hastily, and

uch the same manner. ‘If this apology will serve,’ said he, ‘I am prepared to join in

t, mark you! when you would lunge, direct your point upwards rather than down, for otherwise you must throw your wr

had dismissed him, that he turned and hurried out of the room. Meanwhile Decimus Saxon and the two officers set to work

his young bantam flew at my throat. He hath likewise been the cause of our losing three flasks of most excellent mus

added to the lesson which you have taught him may bring him profit. As for the muscadine, t

weapons,’ said I, ‘and I scarc

asset, which Mr. Saxon here playeth as skilfully as he wields the small-sword. It chanced that the luck ran against young Horsford, which doubtless made him prone to be quick in taking offence. Your friend in conversation, when discoursing of his experiences in foreign countries, remarked that the French

s been offensive it was for me, who am a senior captain and brevet-major, to take it up, an

rison been made by an officer of Louis’s guard for the purpose of contumely and braggadocio, it would then indeed have become us to venture a pa

become stagnant, and could never hope to keep level with those continental

y, but I found on testing it that this idea, like most others which a man takes upon trust, had very little foundation upon truth. As a matter of fact, had they been dressed in less warlike garb and deprived of their swords and jack-boots, they would have passed as particularly mild-mannered men, for

wide experiences you have ever met with any of those sages and philos

s I turn this tobacco into ashes. Old Pappenheimer shut him up with a ton of metal, and threatened to put the thumbikins upon him unless he changed it into gold pieces. I can vouch for it that there was not a yellow boy there, for I was captain of the

orwich, who is ever ready to plead the cause of the ancients, can find nothing to say in favour of it. From Trismegistus downwards through Albertus

met so wise a man, for he would talk of the planets and constellations as though he kept them all in his own backyard. He made no more of a comet than if it were a mouldy china orange,

ill to the test?’ asked one

ember aright, the stars said that he was over-fond of wine and women — he had a wicked eye and a nose like a carbuncle. ‘They foretold also that he would attain a marshal’s baton and die at a ripe age, which might well have come true

ere,’ said the one addressed as Ogilvy. ‘Besides, we must find this foolish boy of ours, and tell him that it is no disgrace to be disarmed by so expert a swordsman. W

ke of Beaufort’s hou

iment of militia. I trust that the Duke will muster every

ill bring?’ asked my

t my Lord Feversham will follow afte

f not before,’ said I, and we bade our

er like yourself. If we meet them in battle I trust that it may be with chevaux-defrise of pikes and morgenstierns before us,

make their acquai

ht have had more had that young fool not lugged out at me, or had the talk not turned afterwards upon such unseemly subjects as the laws of chemistry and the like. Prythee, what have the Horse Guards Blue to do with the laws of chemistry? Wessenburg of the Pan

cipal sight is of course the noble cathedral, which is built in such exact proportion that one would fail to understand its great size did one not actually enter it and pace round the long dim aisles. So solemn were its sweeping arches a

olling out of their mouths. They were used, a bystander told us, for the hunting down of criminals upon Salisbury Plain, which had been a refuge for rogues and thieves, until this means had been adopted

arting, and drawing it from my pouch I read it by the rushlight in our chamber. It still bo

son Micah, on the twelfth day of June in the ye

Papistry, which hath overshadowed and thrown into disrepute that true and reverent re

be observed by h

You have two pairs in your saddle-bag, and can

spended round the ne

lso read the scriptures, especially Job, the P

all phlegms, humours, vapours, or rheums. The dose is five drops. A small phial of it wil

the hem of your under doublet. Tou

pray you, Micah, be not too forward in b

ray, and yet flinch not from the

oy, come back safe to your moth

ponent will

graces of style, and it was evidently her thought that in order to make her instructions binding it was needful to express them in some sort of legal form. I had little time to think over her advice, however,