otest ya' do me too much honour,
'tis curst polite in ya' and I take it kindly, rot me, kindly!"

"Od's body, sir," cried Sir Benjamin, "the honour is completely ours, I
vow, your exploits in Flanders and Brabant sir, your notable
achievements on the stricken fields of Mars, the very name of Colonel
Lord George Cleeve coruscates with hem! with glory, shines
like--like--a----"

"Star," suggested the Captain. Hereupon Lord Cleeve bowed, the company
bowed, shot their ruffles, fluttered their handkerchiefs and snuffed
with one another.

"Hem!" exclaimed Sir Benjamin with an air of ponderous waggery, "as I
was saying when my Lord Cleeve dropped upon us so happily, 'tis then
agreed that Alton and I shall see the Major home at peep o' day!" Here
Sir Benjamin grew so waggish that he very nearly laid plump finger to
nose but checked himself in time and coughed instead. "I vow 'twill be
an honour, for, foxed or no and despite his hem! his rusticity, Major
d'Arcy is a gentleman, a----"

"Ha!" exclaimed the Colonel suddenly. "Do ya' mean Jack d'Arcy o' the
Third, sir--d'Arcy of Churchill's regiment?" Sir Benjamin bowed and
smiled:

"You know him, my lord? A simple, quiet, kindly soul----"

His lordship stared, laughed a short, hoarse bellow and, becoming
immediately solemn, nodded:

"That's Jack to a hair, simple, quiet and dev'lish deadly! 'Twas so he
looked, I mind, when he killed the greatest rogue and duellist in the
three armies. Simple and quiet! Aye, 'twas so he seemed when he led
us to the storming of the counterscarp at Namur in '95, as he was when
he rallied our broken ranks at Blenheim and, after, when we turned the
French right at Oudenarde. He was my senior in those days and where he
went I followed and they called him 'Fighting d'Arcy' though a simple
soul, sir, as ya' say. I was behind him when he led us against the
French left at Ramillies and broke it too. I saw him dragged, all
blood and dust, out o' the press at Malplaquet. 'Done for at last,'
thought I--but Gad, sirs, they couldn't kill Fighting d'Arcy for all
his quiet looks and simple ways! Aye, I know Jack, we were brothers,
and like brothers we drank together, slept, quarrelled, and fought
together--he seconded me in my first affair of honour!"

"Od's my life!" ejaculated Sir Benjamin. "Our rustic philosopher turns
out a very Mars, a thundering Jove, a paladin----"

"True blue, damme!" added the Marquis.

"And yonder he comes," sa