, while their seconds paced the path beyond the
stile, whistling reflectively, switching the wild roses, with a
watchful eye for the coming party.

But now, concerning that cocking-main at the Coq d'Or, and how it came
about. The day was to be a merry one, Lady Coleville and Elsin Grey
sleeping until afternoon from the dissipation of the dance at the
Assembly, which lasted until the breakfast hour; Sir Peter, Captains
Harkness and O'Neil, and I to see the main in the morning, lunch at the
tavern, and return to rest until time to dress for the great ball and
supper given by the officers of the artillery at Fort George.

The day, the 28th of July, broke cloudless and sweetly cool. Dressing,
I saw the jack flying straight in the sea-wind and a schooner in the
North River heeled over and scudding south, with a white necklace of
foam trailing from her sprit back along half her water-line.

Sir Peter, in riding-boots and coat, came in high spirits to drink a
morning cup with me, saying his birds had arrived and Horrock had gone
forward with them, and that we must bolt breakfast and mount, for the
Fifty-fourth's officers were early risers, and we should not detain
them. And so he chattered on, joyously, pacing my chamber while Dennis
buckled my spurs.

At breakfast we bolted what was set before us, with many a glance
through the windows where, in the garden drive, our horses stood
saddled in the shade of an elm, a black at each bit, and the whole
stable-force out, all a-grinning to wish the master luck of his
Flatbush birds and the main to boot.

"Carus," said Sir Peter, fork poised, glass in hand, "it's a thousand
on the main, a hundred on each battle, and I must win. You know that!"

I knew it only too well and said so, speaking cheerfully yet seriously
of his affairs, which had become so complicated since the closer
blockade of the city. But he was ever gaily impatient of details and of
pounds and pence. Accounts he utterly refused to audit, leaving it to
me to pay his debts, patch up gaps left by depreciated securities, and
find a fortune to maintain him and his wife in the style which, God
knows, befitted him, but which he could no longer properly afford. And
when it came to providing money to fling from race-track to cockpit,
and from coffee-house to card-room, I told him plainly he had none,
which made him laugh and swear and vow I was treating him most
shabbily. And it was no use; he would have his pin-money, and