enemies a very cordial adieu.

'A skilful equivoque that last of yours, Master Micah,' quoth Decimus
Saxon, 'though smacking of double dealing in a truth-lover like
yourself. If we meet them in battle I trust that it may be with
chevaux-de-frise of pikes and morgenstierns before us, and a litter of
caltrops in front of them, for Monmouth has no cavalry that could stand
for a moment against the Royal Guards.'

'How came you to make their acquaintance?' I asked.

'I slept a few hours, but I have learned in camps to do with little
rest. Finding you in sound slumber, and hearing the rattle of the
dice-box below, I came softly down and found means to join their
party--whereby I am a richer man by fifteen guineas, and might have
had more had that young fool not lugged out at me, or had the talk not
turned afterwards upon such unseemly subjects as the laws of chemistry
and the like. Prythee, what have the Horse Guards Blue to do with the
laws of chemistry? Wessenburg of the Pandours would, even at his own
mess table, suffer much free talk--more perhaps than fits in with the
dignity of a leader. Had his officers ventured upon such matter as
this, however, there would have been a drum-head court-martial, or a
cashiering at the least.'

Without stopping to dispute either Master Saxon's judgment or that of
Wessenburg of the Pandours, I proposed that we should order an evening
meal, and should employ the remaining hour or two of daylight in looking
over the city. The principal sight is of course the noble cathedral,
which is built in such exact proportion that one would fail to
understand its great size did one not actually enter it and pace round
the long dim aisles. So solemn were its sweeping arches and the long
shafts of coloured light which shone through the stained-glass windows,
throwing strange shadows amongst the pillars, that even my companion,
albeit not readily impressed, was silent and subdued. It was a great
prayer in stone.

On our way back to the inn we passed the town lock-up, with a railed
space in front of it, in which three great black-muzzled bloodhounds
were stalking about, with fierce crimsoned eyes and red tongues lolling
out of their mouths. They were used, a bystander told us, for the
hunting down of criminals upon Salisbury Plain, which had been a refuge
for rogues and thieves, until this means had been adopted for following
them to their hiding-places. It was well-nigh dark before we returned to
t