ly survivor of a goodly family. Pay
mine host for the wine, little one, and keep the change for thyself, to
buy ribbons for the next holiday. Now, curse me if I can get this cravat
to fit unwrinkled!'

'There is nought amiss with it,' I answered. 'How can such trifles
occupy you at such a time?'

'Trifles!' he cried angrily. 'Trifles! Well, there, it boots not to
argue with you. Your bucolic mind would never rise to the subtle import
which may lie in such matters--the rest of mind which it is to have
them right, and the plaguey uneasiness when aught is wrong. It comes,
doubtless, from training, and it may be that I have it more than others
of my class. I feel as a cat who would lick all day to take the least
speck from her fur. Is not the patch over the eyebrow happily chosen?
Nay, you cannot even offer an opinion; I would as soon ask friend Marot,
the knight of the pistol. Fill up your glass!'

'Your company awaits you by the church,' I remarked; 'I saw them as I
passed.'

'How looked they?' he asked. 'Were they powdered and clean?'

'Nay, I had little leisure to observe. I saw that they were cutting
their matches and arranging their priming.'

'I would that they had all snaphances,' he answered, sprinkling himself
with scented water; 'the matchlocks are slow and cumbersome. Have you
had wine enough?'

'I will take no more,' I answered.

'Then mayhap the Major may care to finish it. It is not often I ask help
with a bottle, but I would keep my head cool this night. Let us go down
and see to our men.'

It was ten o'clock when we descended into the street. The hubbub of
the preachers and the shouting of the people had died away, for the
regiments had fallen into their places, and stood silent and stern,
with the faint light from the lamps and windows playing over their dark
serried ranks. A cool, clear moon shone down upon us from amidst fleecy
clouds, which drifted ever and anon across her face. Away in the north
tremulous rays of light flickered up into the heavens, coming and going
like long, quivering fingers. They were the northern lights, a sight
rarely seen in the southland counties. It is little wonder that, coming
at such a time, the fanatics should have pointed to them as signals
from another world, and should have compared them to that pillar of fire
which guided Israel through the dangers of the desert. The footpaths and
the windows were crowded with women and children, who broke into shrill
cries