d that he was appointed to the
command, he clapped his hand on the hilt of his sword. So I enlisted
into the regiment of the Faith, which was made up of Spaniards, many of
them priests who had run out of Spain, and broken Germans, and
foot-foundered Irish, like myself. It was said to be a blackguard
regiment, that same regiment of the Faith; but, 'faith, I saw nothing
blackguardly going on in it, for ye would hardly reckon card-playing and
dominoes, and pitch and toss blackguardly, and I saw nothing else going
on in it. There was one thing in it which I disliked--the priests
drawing their Spanish knives occasionally, when they lost their money.
After we had been some time at Pau, the Army of the Faith was sent across
the mountains into Spain, as the vanguard of the French; and no sooner
did the Spaniards see the Faith than they made a dash at it, and the
Faith ran away, myself along with it, and got behind the French army,
which told it to keep there, and the Faith did so, and followed the
French army, which soon scattered the Spaniards, and in the end placed
the king on his throne again. When the war was over the Faith was
disbanded; some of the foreigners, however, amongst whom I was one, were
put into a Guard regiment, and there I continued for more than a year.

'One day, being at a place called the Escurial, I took stock, as the
tradesmen say, and found I possessed the sum of eighty dollars won by
playing at cards; for though I could not play so well with the foreign
cards as with the pack ye gave me, Shorsha, I had yet contrived to win
money from the priests and soldiers of the Faith. Finding myself
possessed of such a capital, I determined to leave the service and to
make the best of my way to Ireland; so I deserted, but coming in an evil
hour to a place they calls Torre Lodones, I found the priest playing at
cards with his parishioners. The sight of the cards made me stop, and
then, fool like, notwithstanding the treasure I had about me, I must wish
to play, so not being able to speak their language I made signs to them
to let me play, and the priest and his thaives consented willingly; so I
sat down to cards with the priest and two of his parishioners, and in a
little time had won plenty of their money, but I had better never have
done any such a thing, for suddenly the priest and all his parishioners
set upon me and bate me, and took from me all I had, and cast me out of
the village more dead than alive.