s ago, and that
it would be an easy matter to overtake it, if not the next day, at
farthest, the day after the next. This piece of news gave us some
satisfaction; and, after having made a hearty supper on hashed mutton,
we were shown to our room, which contained two beds, the one allotted
for us, and the other for a very honest gentleman, who, we were told,
was then drinking below. Though we could have very well dispensed with
his company, we were glad to submit to this disposition, as there was
not another bed empty in the house; and accordingly went to rest, after
having secured our baggage under the bolster. About two or three o'clock
in the morning I was awaked out of a very profound sleep by a dreadful
noise in the chamber, which did not fail to throw me into an agony
of consternation, when I heard these words pronounced with a terrible
voice: "Blood and wounds! run the halbert into the guts of him that's
next you, and I'll blow the other's brains out presently."

This dreadful salutation had no sooner reached the ears of Strap than,
starting out of bed, he ran against somebody in the dark, and overturned
him in an instant; at the same time bawling out, "Fire! murder! fire!"
a cry which in a moment alarmed the whole house, and filled our chamber
with a crowd of naked people. When lights were brought, the occasion
of all this disturbance soon appeared; which was no other than a fellow
lodger, whom we found lying on the floor, scratching his head, with a
look testifying the utmost astonishment at the concourse of apparitions
that surrounded him.

This honest gentleman was, it seems, a recruiting sergeant, who, having
listed two country fellows over night, dreaded they had mutinied, and
threatened to murder him and the drummer who was along with him. This
made such an impression on his imagination, that he got up in his
sleep and expressed himself as above. When our apprehension of danger
vanished, the company beheld one another with great surprise and mirth;
but what attracted the notice of everyone was our landlady, with nothing
on her but her shift and a large pair of buckskin breeches, with the
backside before, which she had slipped on in the hurry, and her husband
with her petticoat about his shoulders; one had wrapped himself in a
blanket, another was covered with a sheet, and the drummer, who had
given his only shirt to be washed, appeared in cuerpo with a bolster
rolled about his middle.

When this affair w