h,
sir, and meantime a glass or so of Oporto perhaps----?"

"Ged sir, your kindness smites me t' the heart I vow."

The bottle having duly been brought and the glasses filled the Captain
rose and proposed:

"Sir, I give you 'Our Admirable Betty!' 'Tis a health much discussed
in these parts o' late I believe, sir," said he, "aye and in London
too. And the dem'dest strangest part on't is the man we hunt is her
own brother--no less, sir! And since he is so here's wings to his
heels say I, curst Jacobite though he be. But when a man is blessed
with such a sister damn his politics, say I. And O Cupid, sir, what a
crayture! Her shape! Her air! Her pretty, little, dem'd demure foot!
I give you her foot, sir. And the pride of her! The grace of her!
The dem'd bewitching enchanting entirety of her. I vow 'tis the
dem'dest, charmingest piece o' feminine loveliness that ever lured
mankind t' demnition. Demme sir, she's the sort o' goddess-crayture
that gets into a f'low's blood--goes t' f'low's head like wine sir,
makes a f'low forget duty, kindred, country, honour and even himself."

"You have searched my lady's house, I take it?" enquired the Major.

"Faith we have so, sir,--and herself to light us up-stairs and down.
So gracious sir! _So tres debonnaire_! So smiling and altogether
dem'd sedoocing--O Lard!"

On this wise the Captain held forth until the wine was all gone, and
his corporal came to announce that the house had been duly and
thoroughly searched from cellar to attic, without success: whereupon
the Captain rose, shook the Major's hand--babbled forth more apologies
in melting, mellifluous accents, roared at his men and finally marched
them out of the house and away.

CHAPTER XXXI

WHICH DESCRIBES SOMETHING OF MY LADY BETTY'S GRATITUDE

The Major, leaning back somnolent in his great elbow-chair, fingers
joined and head bowed, listened lethargically to the Sergeant who,
sitting bolt upright, read aloud from the manuscript he held.

"'Vauban, in his instructions on the siege of Aeth, giveth notice of
sundry salient angles all fortified, the most open by bastions, the
others, and those of at least ninety degrees, by demi-bastions----'"

Here the Major snored but so gently that the Sergeant, whose whole
attention was centred on the written words, was proceeding all unaware
when a small, roundish object hurtled across the room, smote the Major
softly upon the cheek and fell to the floor; hereu