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entered. Parties of French horsemen, the Captain said, were about
the country, and one could not take too many precautions against
such villains.
We went into supper, after the two sergeants had taken charge of our
horses; the Captain, also, ordering one of them to take my valise to
my bedroom. I promised the worthy fellow a glass of schnapps for his
pains.
A dish of fried eggs-and-bacon was ordered from a hideous old wench
that came to serve us, in place of the lovely creature I had
expected to see; and the Captain, laughing, said, 'Well, our meal is
a frugal one, but a soldier has many a time a worse:' and, taking
off his hat, sword-belt, and gloves, with great ceremony, he sat
down to eat. I would not be behindhand with him in politeness, and
put my weapon securely on the old chest of drawers where his was
laid.
The hideous old woman before mentioned brought us in a pot of very
sour wine, at which and at her ugliness I felt a considerable ill-
humour.
'Where's the beauty you promised me?' said I, as soon as the old hag
had left the room.
'Bah!' said he, laughing, and looking hard at me: 'it was my joke. I
was tired, and did not care to go farther. There's no prettier woman
here than that. If she won't suit your fancy, my friend, you must
wait a while.'
This increased my ill-humour.
'Upon my word, sir,' said I sternly, 'I think you have acted very
coolly!'
'I have acted as I think fit!' replied the captain.
'Sir,' said I, 'I'm a British officer!'
'It's a lie!' roared the other, 'you're a DESERTER! You're an
impostor, sir; I have known you for such these three hours. I
suspected you yesterday. My men heard of a man escaping from
Warburg, and I thought you were the man. Your lies and folly have
confirmed me. You pretend to carry despatches to a general who has
been dead these ten months: you have an uncle who is an ambassador,
and whose name forsooth you don't know. Will you join and take the
bounty, sir; or will you be given up?'
'Neither!' said I, springing at him like a tiger. But, agile as I
was, he was equally on his guard. He took two pistols out of his
pocket, fired one off, and said, from the other end of the table
where he stood dodging me, as it were,--
'Advance a step, and I send this bullet into your brains!' In
another minute the door was flung open, and the two sergeants
entered, armed with musket and bayonet to aid their comrade.
The game was up. I flung down a knife with which I had armed myself;
for the old hag on bringing in the wine had removed my sword.
'I volunteer,' said I.
'That's my good fellow. What name shall I put on my list?'
'Write Redmond Barry of Bally Barry,' said I haughtily; 'a
descendant of the Irish kings!'
'I was once with the Irish brigade, Roche's,' said the recruiter,
sneering, 'trying if I could get any likely fellows among the few
countrymen of yours that are in the brigade, and there was scarcely
one of them that was not descended from the kings of Ireland.
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