n, in a wood of young oak trees, and by the light of King's
lantern, we buried the old soldier of the Empire with both prayers and
tears.

We had needs invent Heaven if it had not been revealed to us; there are
some things that fall so bitterly ill on this side Time! As for the
Major, I have long since forgiven him. He broke the news to the poor
Colonel's daughter: I am told he did it kindly; and sure, nobody could
have done it without tears! His share of purgatory will be brief; and in
this world, as I could not very well praise him, I have suppressed his
name. The Colonel's also, for the sake of his parole. _Requiescat._

CHAPTER XV

THE ADVENTURE OF THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK

I have mentioned our usual course, which was to eat in inconsiderable
wayside hostelries, known to King. It was a dangerous business: we went
daily under fire to satisfy our appetite, and put our head in the lion's
mouth for a piece of bread. Sometimes, to minimise the risk, we would
all dismount before we came in view of the house, straggle in severally,
and give what orders we pleased, like disconnected strangers. In like
manner we departed, to find the cart at an appointed place, some half a
mile beyond. The Colonel and the Major had each a word or two of
English--God help their pronunciation! But they did well enough to order
a rasher and a pot or call a reckoning; and, to say truth, these
country-folks did not give themselves the pains, and had scarce the
knowledge, to be critical.

About nine or ten at night the pains of hunger and cold drove us to an
alehouse in the flats of Bedfordshire not far from Bedford itself. In
the inn kitchen was a long, lean, characteristic-looking fellow of
perhaps forty, dressed in black. He sat on a settle by the fireside,
smoking a long pipe, such as they call a yard of clay. His hat and wig
were hanged upon the knob behind him, his head as bald as a bladder of
lard, and his expression very shrewd, cantankerous and inquisitive. He
seemed to value himself above his company, to give himself the airs of a
man of the world among that rustic herd; which was often no more than
his due; being, as I afterwards discovered, an attorney's clerk. I took
upon myself the more ungrateful part of arriving last; and by the time I
entered on the scene the Major was already served at a side-table. Some
general conversation must have passed, and I smelled danger in the air.
The Major looked flustered, the attorney's cle