attern: and so we smoked
admirable tobacco--for they would not have any of mine, though very
courteous concerning it--and I was beginning to understand a little of
what they told me; when up came those confounded lambs, who had shown
more tail than head to me, in the linhay, as I mentioned.

Now these men upset everything. Having been among wrestlers so much as
my duty compelled me to be, and having learned the necessity of the rest
which follows the conflict, and the right of discussion which all people
have to pay their sixpence to enter; and how they obtrude this right,
and their wisdom, upon the man who has laboured, until he forgets all
the work he did, and begins to think that they did it; having some
knowledge of this sort of thing, and the flux of minds swimming in
liquor, I foresaw a brawl, as plainly as if it were Bear Street in
Barnstaple.

And a brawl there was, without any error, except of the men who hit
their friends, and those who defended their enemies. My partners in
breakfast and beer-can swore that I was no prisoner, but the best and
most loyal subject, and the finest-hearted fellow they had ever the luck
to meet with. Whereas the men from the linhay swore that I was a rebel
miscreant; and have me they would, with a rope's-end ready, in spite
of every [violent language] who had got drunk at my expense, and been
misled by my [strong word] lies.

While this fight was going on (and its mere occurrence shows, perhaps,
that my conversation in those days was not entirely despicable--else
why should my new friends fight for me, when I had paid for the ale, and
therefore won the wrong tense of gratitude?) it was in my power at any
moment to take horse and go. And this would have been my wisest plan,
and a very great saving of money; but somehow I felt as if it would be a
mean thing to slip off so. Even while I was hesitating, and the men were
breaking each other's heads, a superior officer rode up, with his sword
drawn, and his face on fire.

"What, my lambs, my lambs!" he cried, smiting with the flat of his
sword; "is this how you waste my time and my purse, when you ought to be
catching a hundred prisoners, worth ten pounds apiece to me? Who is this
young fellow we have here? Speak up, sirrah; what art thou, and how much
will thy good mother pay for thee?"

"My mother will pay naught for me," I answered; while the lambs fell
back, and glowered at one another: "so please your worship, I am no
rebel; b