mighty well, brother, you speak as an Englishman, and have cast in
your lot with your country, as I have with mine." To this argument I own
there is no answer, and all that remains for the disputants is to fight
the matter out, when the strongest is in the right. Which had the right
in the wars of the last century? The king or the parliament? The side
that was uppermost was the right, and on the whole much more humane
in their victory than the Cavaliers would have been had they won. Nay,
suppose we Tories had won the day in America; how frightful and bloody
that triumph would have been! What ropes and scaffolds one imagines,
what noble heads laid low! A strange feeling this, I own; I was on the
Loyalist side, and yet wanted the Whigs to win. My brother Hal, on the
other hand, who distinguished himself greatly with his regiment, never
allowed a word of disrespect against the enemy whom he opposed. "The
officers of the British army," he used to say, "are gentlemen: at least,
I have not heard that they are very much changed since my time. There
may be scoundrels and ruffians amongst the enemy's troops; I dare say
we could find some such amongst our own. Our business is to beat his
Majesty's forces, not call them names;--any rascal can do that."
And from a name which Mr. Lee gave my brother, and many of his rough
horsemen did not understand, Harry was often called "Chevaleer Baird" in
the Continental army. He was a knight, indeed, without fear and without
reproach.

As for the argument, "What could such people as those you were drilling
do against the British army?" Hal had as confident answer.

"They can beat them," says he, "Mr. George, that's what they can do."

"Great heavens!" I cry, "do you mean with your company of Wolfe's you
would hesitate to attack five hundred such?"

"With my company of the 67th, I would go anywhere. And, agreed with you,
that at this present moment I know more of soldiering than they;--but
place me on that open ground where you found us, armed as you please,
and half a dozen of my friends, with rifles, in the woods round
about me; which would get the better? You know best, Mr. Braddock's
aide-de-camp!"

There was no arguing with such a determination as this. "Thou knowest my
way of thinking, Hal," I said; "and having surprised you at your work, I
must tell my lord what I have seen."

"Tell him, of course. You have seen our county militia exercising. You
will see as much in every colony f