rjeant looked puzzled, and was relieved to see the Corporal come
limping up the road; but Mrs. Mugford no sooner saw him than she
screamed at the top of her voice, "Ah, don't 'ee listen to he, maister.
'Twas he that let mun go weeks agone, and there's been nothing but bad
work for us all since then. He's so bad as any o' mun; 'twas he that
let mun take her Ladyship's childer; and we'm not going to be plagued
with witches no more. Lave the witches to us. We knows what to do
with mun."

"What have you got against the man?" asked the Corporal of the serjeant.

"He's a deserter," said the serjeant shortly, "and it seems that these
women know him well enough, if you don't."

"He ain't no deserter," said the idiot's mother savagely, "he wasn't
never 'listed."

"Then how comes he to drum as he did?" retorted the serjeant. "Our own
drummers couldn't beat better."

The woman clenched her fists in despair, and the Corporal looked very
grave; but he no sooner tried to speak to the serjeant than the women
again raised a yell that he was not to be trusted, and renewed their
cry that they would be troubled with witches no longer, but would drown
them in the river and have done with them. At last they worked
themselves up into such a state of fury that the Corporal saw that they
meant mischief, and said sharply to the serjeant that if he didn't look
out they would take his prisoner from him. Even while he spoke they
made a rush, but the serjeant had his wits about him and brought down
his halberd to the charge, just in time to stop them.

"Now, enough of this," he said sternly. "I know nothing about your
witches and nonsense, but this young man's my prisoner, and if you
don't leave him to me it will be the worse for you. Take him along,
lads."

So the drummer and fifer led the idiot down the road, while the
serjeant, with his halberd still at the charge, kept the women at bay;
and thus slowly they passed clear of the village while the women and
children, after following for a time with yells and execrations, at
last dropped behind.

"Now, mistress," said the serjeant to the idiot's mother, "you'd best
look out for yourself, I expect, and go away."

The woman turned upon him with a scornful laugh. "Do you suppose I be
afraid of they?" she said. "Not I; and if 'ee think that I'm a going
to leave my boy--here, let mun go," she said resolutely, shoving away
the drummer's arm--"you've naught against mun. I tell 'ee he