ats, with muffled oars. This
number included the band. The residue of thirty men, making up the
full strength of the corps, had disappeared from Troy some ten days
before, on an errand which will appear hereafter.

But the fair were inconsolable. Almost, for some forty-eight hours--
that is to say, after the news leaked out--our Major was the most
unpopular man in Troy with them who had ever been his warmest
supporters. War was war, no doubt; and women must mourn at home
while men imbrued themselves in the gallant strife. But May-day,
too, was May-day; and the tides served; and, further, there was this
talk about a Millennium, and whatever the Millennium might be (and
nobody but the Mayor and the Vicar, unless it were Dr. Hansombody,
seemed to know), it was certainly not an occasion on which women
ought to be left without their natural protectors. Even the
Ambulance Corps was bound for Looe, in eight additional boats.
There would be scarce a row-boat left in the harbour, or the ladies
might have pulled up to Lerryn on their own account.

The Major suspected these murmurings, yet he kept an unruffled brow:
yes, even though harassed with vexations which these ladies could not
guess--the possible defection of Hansombody, for instance.

It was not Hansombody's fault: but Sir Felix Felix-Williams, who
owned the estate as well as the village of Lerryn, had reason to
expect an addition to his family. Dr. Hansombody could not guarantee
that he might not be summoned to Pentethy, Sir Felix's mansion, at
any moment.

Now, for excellent reasons--which, again, will appear--the Major
could not afford to make Sir Felix an enemy at this moment.
Besides, these domestic events were the little apothecary's bread and
butter.

On the other hand, the absence of a professional man must seriously
discredit the role assigned to the Ambulance Corps in any engagement,
however bloodless.

"You might," the Major suggested, "nominate half a dozen as deputy or
assistant surgeons. You could easily pick out those who have shown
most intelligence at your lectures."

"True," agreed the Doctor; "but as yet we have not, in my lectures,
advanced so far as flesh-wounds. They would know what to do, I hope,
if confronted with frost-bite, snake-bite, sunstroke or incipient
croup--from all of which our little expedition will be (under
Providence) immune, and I have as yet confined myself to directing
them, in all cases which apparently differ