d sailed from
Holland. When the tide served, she set sail with him for Corunna in
Spain. With him she carried all our hopes of success, together with a
quantity of stores which would have been of use later in the expedition.
As I left the Cobb, or pier, which makes Lyme harbour, I saw the little
lame puppet-man turning away from the beach with a company of men who
wore our green boughs. For a few steps I hurried towards him, so that I
might overhear what he was saying; I made so sure that he was a spy. Mr.
Blick, to whom I told my fears, bade me not to worry myself. "Why, boy,"
he said, "there are five hundred spies in Lyme; but they can't hurt us.
Before they can get off to tell our enemies all about us there won't
be any enemies left. We shall be marching at once. We shall drive
everything before us." He spoke with such confidence that I believed
him; yet the old man troubled me, for all that. When you see a face
continually, at a time when you are excited, you connect the face with
your excitement; it troubles your nerves.

The day wore by with all the unreality of a day of confusion. I was kept
at work until the light was gone; then served at the Duke's table while
he supped, then snatched a hurried supper while he talked with his
officers. After supper, I had to go from billet to billet, looking for
people whom the officers wished to see. Something very important was in
the air. The discussion in the inn's great room was the first serious
council of the war. About eleven o'clock, Lord Grey came out of the
room, telling me to follow him. We went out into the street, where
presently our men began to fall in, four or five abreast, about a
hundred ranks of them. A few cavalry came, too, but not enough, I heard
Lord Grey say, not enough to do any good with. In spite of all the
efforts of those who loved us (by efforts I mean the robbing of
farm-stables) we were very short of horses. Those which we had were not
good; they were cart, not saddle-horses, unused to the noise of guns.
Still, such as they were, they formed up in the street ahead of the
foot. The force took a long time to form; for the men kept saying that
they had forgotten something, their powder-horn, their cartridges, their
guns, even. Then they had to run back to their billets to fetch whatever
it was, while those who remained behind, puzzled at the movement so late
at night, when they wished to sleep, began to get nervous. They began to
ask where it was t