ee of his people came to take
notice of me, they put me down for a poor idiot that had been turned
adrift."

"Did they hold any discourse with you?"

"A good deal; and, just to try me, they flogged me with the flats of
their swords; but I laughed and made merry when they hurt me worst, and
told them I thanked them for their politeness. There were some of our
people amongst the prisoners, that I knew, and I was mortally afeard
they would let on, but they didn't. Especially, there was Seth Cuthbert,
from Tryon, who had both of his hands chopped off in the fray at the
Waxhaws; he was riding double behind a trooper, and he held up the
stumps just to let me see how barbarously he was mangled. I was dubious
they would see that he knowed me, but he took care of that. Bless your
soul, major! he saw my drift in the first shot of his eye. Thinking that
they mought take it into their noddles to carry me along with them back,
I played the quarest trick that I suppose ever a man thought of; it
makes me laugh now to tell it. I made a spring that fetched me right
upon the crupper of Colonel Tarleton's horse, which sot him to kicking
and flirting at a merry rate; and, whilst the creature was floundering
as if a hornet had stung him, I took the colonel's cap and put it upon
my own head, and gave him mine. And after I had vagaried in this sort of
way for a little while, I let the horse fling me on the ground. You
would have thought the devils would have died a laughing. And the
colonel himself, although at first he was very angry, couldn't help
laughing likewise. He said that I was as strange a fool as he ever saw,
and that it would be a pity to hurt me. So he threw me a shilling, and,
whilst they were all in good humor, I trudged away."

"It was a bold experiment, and might be practised a thousand times
without success. If I did not know you, Robinson, to be a man of truth,
as well as courage, I should scarce believe this tale. If any one,
hereafter, should tell your story, he will be accounted a
fiction-monger."

"I do not boast, Major Butler; and, as to my story, I care very little
who tells it. Every trick is good in war. I can change my face and voice
both, so that my best friends shouldn't know me: and, in these times, I
am willing to change every thing but my coat, and even that, if I have a
witness to my heart, and it will serve a turn to help the country. Am I
not right?"

"No man ever blames another for that, sergeant, an