ed myself with my fork, but 'twould not do. At last, in short, I
was forced to pistol him and get on horseback again, and with all the
speed I could make, get away to the wood to our men.

If my two fellow-spies had not been behind, I had never known what was
the meaning of this quarrel of the three countrymen, but my cripple
had all the particulars. For he being behind us, as I have already
observed, when he came up to the first fellow who began the fray, he
found him beginning to come to himself. So he gets off, and pretends
to help him, and sets him up upon his breech, and being a very merry
fellow, talked to him: "Well, and what's the matter now?" says he to
him. "Ah, wae's me," says the fellow, "I is killed." "Not quite, mon,"
says the cripple. "Oh, that's a fau thief," says he, and thus they
parleyed. My cripple got him on's feet, and gave him a dram of his
aqua-vitae bottle, and made much of him, in order to know what was the
occasion of the quarrel. Our disguised woman pitied the fellow too,
and together they set him up again upon his horse, and then he told
him that that fellow was got upon one of his brother's horses who
lived at Wetherby. They said the Cavaliers stole him, but 'twas like
such rogues. No mischief could be done in the country, but 'twas the
poor Cavaliers must bear the blame, and the like, and thus they jogged
on till they came to the place where the other two lay. The first
fellow they assisted as they had done t'other, and gave him a dram
out of the leather bottle, but the last fellow was past their care,
so they came away. For when they understood that 'twas my horse they
claimed, they began to be afraid that their own horses might be known
too, and then they had been betrayed in a worse pickle than I, and
must have been forced to have done some mischief or other to have got
away.

I had sent out two troopers to fetch them off, if there was any
occasion; but their stay was not long and the two troopers saw them at
a distance coming towards us, so they returned.

I had enough of going for a spy, and my companions had enough of
staying in the wood for other intelligences agreed with ours, and all
concurred in this, that it was time to be going; however, this use we
made of it, that while the country thought us so strong we were in the
less danger of being attacked, though in the more of being observed;
but all this while we heard nothing of our friends till the next day.
We heard Prince Rup