was stationed near
the outer gait, under the immediate orders of serjeant Joyce. The
latter was one of those soldiers who view the details of the profession
as forming its great essentials; and when he saw his commander about to
direct a _sortie_, it formed his pride not to ask questions, and
to seem to know nothing about it. To this, Jamie Allen, who composed
one of the guard, quietly assented; but it was a great privation to the
three or four New England-men to be commanded not to inquire into the
why and wherefore.

"Wait for orders, men, wait for orders," observed the serjeant, by way
of quieting an impatience that was very apparent. "If his honour, the
captain, wished us to be acquainted with his movements, he would direct
a general parade, and lay the matter before us, as you know he always
does, on proper occasions. 'Tis a flag going out, as you can see, and
should a truce follow, we'll lay aside our muskets, and seize the
plough-shares; should it be a capitulation--I know our brave old
commander too well to suppose it possible--but _should_ it be even
_that_, we'll ground arms like men, and make the best of it."

"And should Joel, and the other man, who is a stranger to me, be
scalped?" demanded one of the party.

"Then we'll avenge their scalps. That was the way with us, when my Lord
Howe fell--'avenge his death! cried our colonel; and on we pushed,
until near two thousand of us fell before the Frenchmen's trenches. Oh!
_that_ was a sight worth seeing, and a day to talk of!"

"Yes, but you were threshed soundly, serjeant, as I've heard from many
that were there."

"What of that, sir! we obeyed orders. 'Avenge his death!' was the cry;
and on we pushed, in obedience, until there were not men enough left in
our battalion to carry the wounded to the rear."

"And what did you do with them?" asked a youth, who regarded the
serjeant as another Caesar--Napoleon not having come into notice in
1776.

"We let them lie where they fell. Young man, war teaches us all the
wholesome lesson that impossibilities are impossible to be done. War is
the great schoolmaster of the human race; and a learned man is he who
has made nineteen or twenty campaigns."

"If he live to turn his lessons to account"--remarked the first
speaker, with a sneer.

"If a man is to die in battle, sir, he had better die with his mind
stored with knowledge, than be shot like a dog that has outlived his
usefulness. Every pitched battle carries o