h followed on my replies to his questions, and,
more than all, the keen, oblique glances of his shrewd gray eyes, told
me that I had utterly failed in all my attempts at mystification, and
that he read me through and through.

"And so," said he, at last, after a somewhat lengthy narrative of my
shipwreck, "and so the Flemish sailors wear spurs?"

"Spurs! of course not; why should they?" asked I, in some astonishment.

"Well, but don't they?" asked he again.

"No such thing; it would be absurd to suppose it."

"So I thought," rejoined he; "and when I looked at yer 'honor's' boots
(it was the first time he had addressed me by this title of deference),
and saw the marks on the heel for spurs, I soon knew how much of a
sailor you were."

"And if not a sailor, what am I, then?" asked I; for, in the loneliness
of the mountain region where we walked, I could afford to throw off my
disguise without risk.

"Ye'r a French officer of dragoons, and God bless ye; but ye'r young to
be at the trade. Arn't I right now?"

"Not very far from it certainly, for I am a lieutenant of hussars," said
I, with a little of that pride which we of the loose pelisse always feel
on the mention of our corps.

"I knew it well all along," said he, coolly; "the way you stood in the
room, your step as you walked, and, above all, how ye believed me when I
spoke of the spring tides, and the moon only in her second quarter, I
saw you never was a sailor anyhow. And so I set a-thinking what you
were. You were too silent for a peddler, and your hands were too white
to be in the smuggling trade; but when I saw your boots, I had the
secret at once, and knew ye were one of the French army that landed the
other day at Killala."

"It was stupid enough of me not to have remembered the boots!" said I,
laughing.

"Arrah, what use would it be?" replied he; "sure ye'r too straight in
the back, and your walk is too reg'lar, and your toes turns in too much,
for a sailor; the very way you hould a switch in your hand would betray
you!"

"So it seems; then I must try some other disguise," said I, "if I'm to
keep company with people as shrewd as you are."

"You needn't," said he, shaking his head, doubtfully; "any that wants to
betray ye, wouldn't find it hard."

I was not much flattered by the depreciating tone in which he dismissed
my efforts at personation, and walked on for some time without
speaking.

"Yez came too late, four months too late," said he,