St. Ives: Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England

street. Our little market was no sooner closed than we were summoned to the distribution, and rec

ove among subject and trembling populations, could ill brook their change of circumstance. There was one man of the name of Goguelat, a brute of the first water, who had enjoyed no touch of civilisation beyond the military discipline, and had risen by an extreme heroism of bravery to a grade for which he was otherwise unfitted-that of maréchal des logis in the 22nd of the line. In so far as a brute can be a good soldier, he was a good soldier; the Cross w

of some of his insufferable pleasantries. He took a place beside me, spread out his rations, drank to me derisively from his measure of prison beer, and began. What he said it would be impossible to print; but his admirers, who believed their wit to have surpassed himself, actually rolled among the gr

'Because if you are, I am abou

'Turn about! The Marquis o

ion. I am a gentleman, and I cannot bear to soil my fingers with such a lump of dirt. Sit still, Philippe Goguelat! sit still and do not say a word, or I shall know you are a coward; the eyes of our guards are upon us. Here is your health!' said I, and pledged him in the prison beer. 'You have chosen to speak in a certain way of a young child,' I cont

pleasure to think that some of my expressions had pierced through his thick hide; and besides, the brute was truly a hero of valour, and lov

ou shall have the chance!' said he, and pledged

rdingly formed of our shed-mates. They chose for president a sergeant-major in the 4th Dragoons, a greybeard of the army, an excellent military subject, and a good man. He took the most serious view of his functions, visited us both, and reported our replies to the committee. Mine was of a decent firmness. I told him the young lady of whom Goguelat had spoken had on several occasions given me alms. I reminded him that, if we were now reduced to hold out our hands and sell pill-bo

with three fingers on the back. 'C'est bien, mon

e employed in the manufacture of our toys; but they were none of them suited for a single combat between civilised men, and, being nondescript, it was found extremely hard to equalise the chances of the combatants. At length a pair of scissors was unscrewed; and a couple of tough wands being found in a corner of the courtyard, one blade of the scissors was lashed solidly to each with resined twine-the twine coming I know not whence, but the resin from th

ripped to the shoes; and the chill of the night enveloped our bodies like a wet sheet. The man was better at fencing than myself; he was vastly taller than I, being of a stature almost gigantic, and proportionately strong. In the inky blackness of the shed, it was impossible to see his eyes; and from the suppleness of the wands, I did not like to trust to a parade. I made up my mind accordingly to profit, if I might,

id the serg

ed. As it was, he did no more than strike my shoulder, while my scissor plunged below the girdle into a m

could make out in the darkness the outline of perhaps a dozen

were tears in his voice. ''Tis but a scratch, my child; here is papa, who is taking good care of y

remember. 'And Go

has his bellyful; 'tis a bad bus

sabre, a bayonet, or any accepted weapon, and been visited by no such sickness of remorse. And to this feeling every unusual circumstance of our rencounter, the darkne

ve given me the key of the fields,

s he, who had been all his life so great a ruffian, dying in a foreign land of this ignoble injury, and meeting death with something of t

in there till the patrol came by and found you. It happens to be Goguelat-and so must he! Come, child,

Goguelat, and named us in a company

und us, sent up a sound of wheels and feet and lively voices. Yet awhile, and the curtain of the cloud was rent across, and in the space of sky between the eaves of the sh

er and moved into our field of vision: two file of men and a corporal with a lantern, wh

orporal, pausing as

s lantern. All our

he cried, and with a startl

an officer elbowed his way in. In the midst was the big naked body, soiled with blood. Some o

fficer. 'You wild beasts, you

pon a stretcher, he cried to us a