he house, to order
forth the unseasonable carouser; and presently the Corporal stalked
out, and having solemnly remounted, the whole trio set onward in a brisk
trot. As soon as they were without sight of the ale-house, the Corporal
brought the aquiline profile of his gaunt steed on a level with his
master's horse.

"Augh, Sir!" said he, with more than his usual energy of utterance, "I
see'd him!"

"Him! whom?"

"Man with ugly face what drank at Peter Dealtry's, and knew Master
Aram,--knew him in a crack,--sure he's a Tartar!"

"What! does your servant recognize one of those suspicious fellows whom
Jock warned us against?" cried Sir Peter, pricking up his ears.

"So it seems, Sir," said Walter: "he saw him once before, many miles
hence; but I fancy he knows nothing really to his prejudice."

"Augh!" cried the Corporal; "he's d--d ugly any how!"

"That's a tall fellow of yours," said Sir Peter, jerking up his chin
with that peculiar motion common to the brief in stature, when they are
covetous of elongation. "He looks military:--has he been in the army?
Ay, I thought so; one of the King of Prussia's grenadiers, I suppose?
Faith, I hear hoofs behind!"

"Hem!" cried the Corporal, again coming alongside of his master. "Beg
pardon, Sir--served in the 42nd--nothing like regular line--stragglers
always cut off--had rather not straggle just now--enemy behind!"

Walter looked back, and saw two men approaching them at a hand-gallop.
"We are a match at least for them, Sir," said he, to his new
acquaintance.

"I am devilish glad I met you," was Sir Peter's rather selfish reply.

"'Tis he! 'tis the devil!" grunted the Corporal, as the two men now
gained their side and pulled up; and Walter recognised the faces he had
marked in the ale-house.

"Your servant, gentlemen," quoth the uglier of the two; "you ride
fast--"

"And ready;--bother--baugh!" chimed in the Corporal, plucking a gigantic
pistol from his holster, without any farther ceremony.

"Glad to hear it, Sir!" said the hard-featured Stranger, nothing dashed.
"But I can tell you a secret!"

"What's that--augh?" said the Corporal, cocking his pistol.

"Whoever hurts you, friend, cheats the gallows!" replied the stranger,
laughing, and spurring on his horse, to be out of reach of any practical
answer with which the Corporal might favour him. But Bunting was a
prudent man, and not apt to be choleric.

"Bother!" said he, and dropped his pistol, as the other str