ried the
fop, sniffing at his bottle. 'Do you see the pleasantry, sergeant. Heh,
heh! Does your sluggish mind rise to the occasion? Strike me purple, but
I am in excellent fettle! There is yonder man with the brown face, you
can mark him down. And the young man beside him, also. Tick him off. Ha,
he waves his hand towards me! Stand firm, sergeant! Where are my salts?
What is it, man, what is it?'

'If it plaize your han'r,' said the young peasant, 'if so be as you
have chose me to be of a pairty, I trust that you will allow my vaither
yander to go with us also.'

'Pshaw, pshaw!' cried the fop, 'you are beyond reason, you are indeed!
Who ever heard of such a thing? Honour forbids it! How could I foist
an old man upon mine honest friend, Captain Pogram. Fie, fie! Split
me asunder if he would not say that I had choused him! There is yonder
lusty fellow with the red head, sergeant! The blacks will think he is
a-fire. Those, and these six stout yokels, will make up my dozen.'

'You have indeed the pick of them,' said the sergeant.

'Aye, sink me, but I have a quick eye for horse, man, or woman! I'll
pick the best of a batch with most. Twelve twelves, close on a hundred
and fifty pieces, sergeant, and all for a few words, my friend, all for
a few words. I did but send my wife, a demmed handsome woman, mark you,
and dresses in the mode, to my good friend the secretary to ask for some
rebels. "How many?" says he. "A dozen will do," says she. It was all
done in a penstroke. What a cursed fool she was not to have asked for a
hundred! But what is this, sergeant, what is this?'

A small, brisk, pippin-faced fellow in a riding-coat and high boots had
come clanking into the wool-house with much assurance and authority,
with a great old-fashioned sword trailing behind him, and a riding-whip
switching in his hand.

'Morning, sergeant!' said he, in a loud, overbearing voice. 'You may
have heard my name? I am Master John Wooton, of Langmere House, near
Dulverton, who bestirred himself so for the King, and hath been termed
by Mr. Godolphin, in the House of Commons, one of the local pillars of
the State. Those were his words. Fine, were they not? Pillars, mark ye,
the conceit being that the State was, as it were, a palace or a temple,
and the loyal men so many pillars, amongst whom I also was one. I am a
local pillar. I have received a Royal permit, sergeant, to choose from
amongst your prisoners ten sturdy rogues whom I may sell as