uld.

"Egad, you are right, Lieutenant Stewart," he retorted, his eyes full
on mine. "These two weeks past have I been trying to beat some sense
into the fools, and 'pon my word, 't is enough to drive a man crazy to
see them."

He paused to gulp down a glass of wine, of which I thought he had already
drunk too much.

"I saw them this forenoon," cried Preston, who was sitting at Allen's
right, "and was like to die of laughing. Poor Allen, there, was doing his
best to teach them the manual, and curse me if they didn't hold their
guns as though they burnt their fingers. And when they were ordered to
'bout face, they looked like nothing so much as the crowd I saw six
months since at Newmarket, trying to get their money on Jason."

The others around the table laughed in concert, and I could not but
admit there was a grain of truth in the comparison.

"'Tis granted," I said, after a moment, "that we Virginians have not the
training of you gentlemen of the line; but we can learn, and at least no
one can doubt our courage."

"Think you so?" and Allen laughed an insulting laugh. "There was that
little brush at Fort Necessity last year, from which they brought away
nothing but their skins, and damned glad they were to do that."

"They brought away their arms," I cried hotly, "and would have brought
away all their stores and munitions, had the French kept faith and held
their Indians off. That, too, in face of an enemy three times their
number. The Virginians have no cause to blush for their conduct at Fort
Necessity. The Coldstreams could have done no better."

Allen laughed again. "Ah, pardon me, Stewart," he said contemptuously, "I
forgot that you were present on that glorious day."

I felt my cheeks crimson, and I looked up and down the board, but saw
only sneering faces. Yes, there was one, away down at the farther end,
which did not sneer, but looked at me I thought pityingly, which was
infinitely worse. And then, of course, there was Pennington, who sat next
to me, and who looked immeasurably shamed at the turn the dispute had
taken. He placed a restraining hand upon my sleeve, but I shook it off
impatiently.

"Yes, I was present," I answered, my heart aflame within me, "and our
provincial troops learned a lesson there which even the gentlemen of the
Forty-Fourth may one day be glad to have us teach them."

"Teach us?" cried Allen. "Curse me, sir, but you grow insulting! As for
your learning, permit me to doubt