lonely up there in the wilds. Their wives had followed the army
also. The while population (scanty as it was) had moved off to look for
something more stirring than had hitherto come to them. I wandered
on slowly, taking my time, getting my direction fairly clear from the
glimpses which I sometimes caught of the line of the highway. At a
little after noon I ate the last of my victuals near a spring. I rested
after my dinner, then pushed on again, till I had won to a little
spinney only four miles from Taunton, where my legs began to fail under
me.

I crept into the spinney, wondering if it contained some good shelter in
which I could sleep for the night. I found a sort of dry, high pitched
bank, with the grass all worn off it, which I thought would serve my
turn, if the rain held off. As for supper, I determined to shoot a
rabbit with my pistol. For drink, there was a plenty of small brooks
within half a mile of the little enclosure. After I had chosen my camp,
I was not very satisfied with it. The cover near by was none too thick.
So I moved off to another part where the bushes grew more closely
together. As I was walking leisurely along, I smelt a smell of something
cooking, I heard voices, I heard something clink, as though two tin cups
were being jangled. Before I could draw back, a man thrust through the
undergrowth, challenging me with a pistol. Two other men followed him,
talking in low, angry tones. They came all round me with very murderous
looks. They were the filthiest looking scarecrows ever seen out of a
wheat-field.

"Why," said one of them, lowering his pistol, "it be the Duke's young
man, as we seed at Lyme." They became more friendly at that; but still
they seemed uneasy, not very sure of my intentions.

"Where is the Duke?" I asked after a long awkward pause. "Is he at
Taunton?" They looked from one to the other with strange looks which I
did not understand.

"The Duke be at Bridgewater," said one of them in a curious tone. "What
be you doing away from the Duke?"

"Why," I said, "I was taken prisoner. I escaped this morning."

"Yes?" they said with some show of eagerness. "Be there many soldiers
hereaway, after us?"

"No. Not many," I said. "Are you coming from the Duke?"

"Yes," said one of them, "we left en at Bridgewater. We have been having
enough of fighting for the crown. We been marching in mud up to our
knees. We been fighting behind hedges. We been retreating for the last
week. So no