e gray Night Owl--once, twice,
And three times "Whoo!" for the little shy mice,
The mice and the rats and the rabbits,
"Who-oo!"'

At the close of every verse he mimicked an owl's call to the life--
having in his young days been a verderer of the New Forest, on the
edge of Bradley Plain; and at the end of his third verse, in the
middle of a hoot, was answered by a trumpet not far away upon the
road to Alton.

At the sound of it we sprang up, all of us, and two or three ran out
into the street: for the beating up of quarters had become a bad
habit with the two armies, useless as the most of us thought it.
The night outside was freezing villainously: it struck chill into me
after the hot room and the ale-drinking. The moon, as I remember,
was high, shedding a soft foggy light down the roadway: and there, by
the inn doorway, I stood for a minute or two, with my hand on my
sword, peering and listening. To right and left, and from behind me,
came sounds of men moving in their billets to the alarm and waiting,
as I was waiting. But no noise of attack followed the first summons;
and by-and-by I drew back as a brisk footfall broke the hush and came
hurrying down to the doorway of the Bear, where it halted.

'Is that you, Fleming?' said the voice of old Price, our Welsh
quartermaster. 'Then turn out quick to the West Gate! The enemy has
sent in a trumpet in form, and you are to convey him up to the
Castle.'

Without delay I fetched my roan mare from the stable, mounted, and
rode out beyond the West Gate to a point where the little River Wey
runs close alongside the high-road. There I found the trumpet in
converse with our picket, and took stock of him by aid of the
sergeant's lantern. He was a blackavised, burly fellow, with heavy
side-locks, a pimpled face, and about the nose a touch of blue that,
methought, did not come of the frosty air. He sat very high in
saddle, upon a large-jointed bay, and wore a stained coat that
covered his regimentals and reached almost to his rowels. A dirty
red feather wagged over his hat-brim. As I rode up he greeted me
with a jovial brotherly curse, and hoped--showing me his letter--that
we kept good drink at the Castle. 'And if so,' he added, 'your
little William the Conqueror may keep me so long as he has a mind
to.'

I told him, as we rode back and into Farnham, that Sir William, as a
rule, made quick despatch of business.