runk corporal of dragoons, about six feet high, with
very broad shoulders, and very thin legs, not to mention a great scar
across his nose, could well be. Mrs. Nosebag addressed him with something
which, if not an oath, sounded very like one, and commanded him to attend
to his duty. 'You be d--d for a----,' commenced the gallant cavalier;
but, looking up in order to suit the action to the words, and also to
enforce the epithet which he meditated with an adjective applicable to
the party, he recognised the speaker, made his military salaam, and
altered his tone. 'Lord love your handsome face, Madam Nosebag, is it
you? Why, if a poor fellow does happen to fire a slug of a morning, I am
sure you were never the lady to bring him to harm.'

'Well, you rascallion, go, mind your duty; this gentleman and I belong to
the service; but be sure you look after that shy cock in the slouched hat
that sits in the corner of the coach. I believe he's one of the rebels in
disguise.'

'D--n her gooseberry wig,' said the corporal, when she was out of
hearing, 'that gimlet-eyed jade--mother adjutant, as we call her--is a
greater plague to the regiment than provost-marshal, sergeant-major, and
old Hubble-de-Shuff, the colonel, into the bargain. Come, Master
Constable, let's see if this shy cock, as she calls him (who, by the way,
was a Quaker from Leeds, with whom Mrs. Nosebag had had some tart
argument on the legality of bearing arms), will stand godfather to a sup
of brandy, for your Yorkshire ale is cold on my stomach.'

The vivacity of this good lady, as it helped Edward out of this scrape,
was like to have drawn him into one or two others. In every town where
they stopped she wished to examine the corps de garde, if there was one,
and once very narrowly missed introducing Waverley to a
recruiting-sergeant of his own regiment. Then she Captain'd and Butler'd
him till he was almost mad with vexation and anxiety; and never was he
more rejoiced in his life at the termination of a journey than when the
arrival of the coach in London freed him from the attentions of Madam
Nosebag.

CHAPTER XXXIII

WHAT'S TO BE DONE NEXT?

Itwas twilight when they arrived in town; and having shaken off his
companions, and walked through a good many streets to avoid the
possibility of being traced by them, Edward took a hackney-coach and
drove to Colonel Talbot's house, in one of the principal squares at the
west end of the town. That gentleman, b