n 'taken in'
by the Major."

"I 'll not go that far, perhaps," remarked Tony, "as regards your Major;
but I repeat that there are certain fellows of his kind who actually
_have_ imposed on gentlemen,--yes, on gentlemen who were no fools,
either. But how was it he tricked you?"

Now were the floodgates of Rory's eloquence thrown open, and for above
an hour did he revel, as only an Irishman or an Italian can, in a
narrative of cruel wrongs and unmerited hardships; sufferings on land
and sufferings at sea; short rations, bad language, and no pay. Rory was
to have been an officer,--a captain, at least; and when they landed at
Ancona, he was marched away hundreds of miles, with a heavy musket, and
a heavier pack, as a common soldier, and given nothing but beans and oil
for his food, and told he 'd be shot if he grumbled. But what he felt
most of all was, that he never knew whose service he was in, and what he
was going to fight for. Now it was the Holy Father,--Rory was ready to
die for him and the Blessed Virgin; now it was the King of Naples and
Saint Somebody, whose name he couldn't remember, and that Rory felt no
enthusiasm for. At one moment he was told the Pope was going to bless
the whole battalion, and sprinkle them with his own hand; and then it
was the Queen--and purty she was, no doubt--was to lead them on, God
knows where! "And that's the way we were living in the mountains for six
weeks, and every time they paraded us--about once a week--there would be
thirty or forty less of us; some gone off to be sailors, some taking to
the highway as robbers, and a few selling whatever they had and making
for home. At last the Major himself came down to inspect us,--he was
Colonel then, and covered with gold, and all over stars and crosses. We
were drawn up in a square of a little town they call Loretto, that has
houses on three sides of it, and a low sea-wall with a drop of about
twenty feet to the sea. I 'll not forget the place to my dying day.

"There was four hundred and twenty-seven of us out of two thousand and
sixty,--the rest ran away; and when the Major heard the roll called, I
thought he 'd go out of his mind; and he walked up and down in front
of us, gnashing his teeth and blaspheming as never I heard before. 'Ye
scoundrels,' he said at last, 'you 've disgraced me eternally, and I 'll
go back to the Holy Father and tell him it's curses and not blessings he
'd have to give you.'

"This was too much to bear, an