The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Drummer's Coat, by J. W. Fortescue

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Title: The Drummer's Coat

Author: J. W. Fortescue

Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19801]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRUMMER'S COAT ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: "Hold mun fast, brave lads!"]

The Drummer's Coat

by the

Hon. J. W. Fortescue

Author of "The Story of a Red Deer"

With illustrations by

H. M. Brock

London

MacMillan and Co., Limited

New York: The MacMillan Company

1899

_All rights reserved_

RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED

LONDON AND BUNGAY.

First Edition, November 1899.

Reprinted, December 1899.

TO

D. W.

PREFATORY NOTE

Lest a principal incident in this little tale should seem incredible,
it may be mentioned that an instance of a child being deprived of
speech for several days, at the bidding of a reputed witch, came under
the author's immediate notice less than three years ago, in a village
but three miles distant from his own home.

It may be added that the military details in Chapter XIII. are all
drawn from authentic sources, mainly from the _Recollections of
Rifleman Harris_ and the _History of the Fifty-Second Regiment_.

CASTLE HILL,

28th August, 1899.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"HOLD MUN FAST, BRAVE LADS!" . . . _Frontispiece_

BENT DOWN TO KISS ELSIE'S AS HE HAD KISSED HER MOTHER'S

"THE BIRD BEGAN TO PIPE A LITTLE TUNE"

"STILL THE WOMAN LED THEM ON"

THE DRUMMER'S COAT

CHAPTER I

In a deep wooded valley in the north of Devon stands the village of
Ashacombe. It is but a little village, of some twenty or thirty
cottages with white cob walls and low thatched roofs, running along the
sunny side of the valley for a little way, and then curving downward
across it to a little bridge of two tiny pointed arches, on the other
side of which stands a mill with a water-wheel. For a little stream
runs down this valley as down all Devonshire valleys; and as you look
up the water from the bridge you can see it winding and sparkling
through its margin of m