big. I'll take my
fun. I'll enjoy for the next three years every possible pleasure. I'll
sow my wild oats then, and marry some quiet, steady, modest, sensible
viscountess; hunt my harriers; and settle down at Castlewood. Perhaps
I'll represent the county--no, damme, YOU shall represent the county.
You have the brains of the family. By the Lord, my dear old Harry, you
have the best head and the kindest heart in all the army; and every man
says so--and when the Queen dies, and the King comes back, why shouldn't
you go to the House of Commons, and be a Minister, and be made a Peer,
and that sort of thing? YOU be shot in the next action! I wager a dozen
of Burgundy you are not touched. Mohun is well of his wound. He is
always with Corporal John now. As soon as ever I see his ugly face I'll
spit in it. I took lessons of Father--of Captain Holt at Bruxelles. What
a man that is! He knows everything." Esmond bade Frank have a care; that
Father Holt's knowledge was rather dangerous; not, indeed, knowing as
yet how far the Father had pushed his instructions with his young pupil.

The gazetteers and writers, both of the French and English side,
have given accounts sufficient of that bloody battle of Blarignies or
Malplaquet, which was the last and the hardest earned of the victories
of the great Duke of Marlborough. In that tremendous combat near upon
two hundred and fifty thousand men were engaged, more than thirty
thousand of whom were slain or wounded (the Allies lost twice as
many men as they killed of the French, whom they conquered): and this
dreadful slaughter very likely took place because a great general's
credit was shaken at home, and he thought to restore it by a victory. If
such were the motives which induced the Duke of Marlborough to venture
that prodigious stake, and desperately sacrifice thirty thousand brave
lives, so that he might figure once more in a Gazette, and hold his
places and pensions a little longer, the event defeated the dreadful and
selfish design, for the victory was purchased at a cost which no nation,
greedy of glory as it may be, would willingly pay for any triumph. The
gallantry of the French was as remarkable as the furious bravery of
their assailants. We took a few score of their flags, and a few pieces
of their artillery; but we left twenty thousand of the bravest soldiers
of the world round about the intrenched lines, from which the enemy was
driven. He retreated in perfect good order; the