Page 37 (1/1)

"Do you know Walter Butler well?" I asked carelessly

"No, only a little Why, Carus?"

"Is he married?"

"I never heard it He is scarcely known to h Sir John Johnson, and that his zeal led him to what some call a private reprisal"

"Yes, he burned our house, or his Indians did,pretense that they did not knoho lived there, but thought the whole Bush a rebel hotbed It is true the house was new, built while Sir John lay brooding there in Canada over his broken parole Perhaps Walter Butler did not know the house was ours"

"You are very generous, Carus," said Sir Peter gravely

"No, not very You see, my father and my mother were in France, and I here, and Butler's raiders only murdered one old man--a servant, all alone there, a man too old and deaf to understand their questions I knoho slew that ancient body-servant to my father, who often held enerous, as you say But there are reat events ere their turn corind so slow, so sure, and so exceeding fine"

Sir Peter looked at me in silence, and in silence we rode on until we came to the tavern called the Coq d'Or

They were there, the early risers of the Fifty-fourth--a jolly, noisy crowd, all scarlet and gold; and they set up a cheer, which was half welcome, half defiance, e rode into the tavern yard and disht and left; and the landlord cane-cup, iced; and there was old Horrock, too, hat in hand, to attend Sir Peter, with a shake of his wise old head and a smile on his furrowed face--Horrock, the prince of handlers, with his chicken- defiance to the duck-wings, spangles, pyles, and Lord knohat, that his Majesty's Fifty-fourth Regi they could scrape to lay against us

I heard old Horrock whisper to Sir Peter, as reading over the match-list, "They're the best we can do, sir; cos rounded, hackle and saddle trihed: "What more can I do, sir? They had aniseed in their bread on the third day, and on the weighing-day sheep-heart, and not two teacups of water in the seven They came from the walks in prime condition, and tartar and jalap did the rest They sparred free in the boots and took to the warm ale and sort, and the roo What more can I do, sir, except heel them to a hair's-breadth?"