g but these desolate spots; Monk looked at nothing but
Athos--at Athos, who, with his eyes sometimes directed towards heaven,
and sometimes towards the earth, sought, thought, and sighed.

Digby, whom the last orders of the general, and particularly the accent
with which he had given them, had at first a little excited, Digby
followed the pair at about twenty paces, but the general having turned
round as if astonished to find his orders had not been obeyed, the
aid-de-camp perceived his indiscretion, and returned to his tent.

He supposed that the general wished to make, incognito, one of those
reviews of vigilance which every experienced captain never fails to
make on the eve of a decisive engagement: he explained to himself the
presence of Athos in this case as an inferior explains all that is
mysterious on the part of his leader. Athos might be, and, indeed, in
the eyes of Digby, must be, a spy, whose information was to enlighten
the general.

At the end of a walk of about ten minutes among the tents and posts,
which were closer together near the headquarters, Monk entered upon a
little causeway which diverged into three branches. That on the left led
to the river, that in the middle to Newcastle Abbey on the marsh, that
on the right crossed the first lines of Monk's camp; that is to say, the
lines nearest to Lambert's army. Beyond the river was an advanced post,
belonging to Monk's army, which watched the enemy; it was composed of
one hundred and fifty Scots. They had swum across the Tweed, and, in
case of attack, were to recross it in the same manner, giving the alarm;
but as there was no post at that spot, and as Lambert's soldiers were
not so prompt at taking to the water as Monk's were, the latter appeared
not to have as much uneasiness on that side. On this side of the river,
at about five hundred paces from the old abbey, the fishermen had taken
up their abode amidst a crowd of small tents raised by soldiers of the
neighboring clans, who had with them their wives and children. All this
confusion, seen by the moon's light, presented a striking _coup d'oeil_;
the half shadow enlarged every detail, and the light, that flatterer
which only attaches itself to the polished side of things, courted upon
each rusty musket the point still left intact, and upon every rag of
canvas the whitest and least sullied part.

Monk arrived then with Athos, crossing this spot, illumined with a
double light, the silver splendor o