The song was chorused with gusto by most there, and it was plain enough to see that the meeting had more hopes from great Enoch, as the Luds called the hammer used in machine smashing, after Enoch Taylor of Marsden, than they had from either persuasion or threats. That something more than words was in their minds was evident enough later on when we all turned out into a field at the back of the Buck. There was a watery moon in the sky that gave a ghostly sort of light. By this light Soldier Jack drew up the twenty or thirty men who left their cups and followed him into the fold. And there did Jack put us through our drill. One or two had muskets, a few had pikes. They had been fetched out of the mistal, where by day they lay concealed on the hay bowk. It was rare to see Jack at his drilling. We were formed in line fronting him, and Jack did gravely walk down the line, commenting on our appearance, and trying to bring us to some fashion of military time. And this was the style of drill. "Hold thi head up, man; thi breast's noan th' place for thi chin." This to No. 1. "Dal thi, No. 2, will ta' square thi shoulders back or will ta' not? Hast ta' getten th' bellywark 'at tha' draws thissen in like that?" "Turn th' toes 'aat, No. 3. I said heels together not toes, tha' gaumless idiot." "Na' then, tenshun! Eyes front. Shoulder arms, right wheel. Mar------ch!" And away walked Jack with his head up and an old sabre over his shoulder, disguising his limp as best he could, at the head of his little column, as proud, I verily believe, as though he captained a company. It seemed to me poor fooling, then and always, but it gave such huge satisfaction to Soldier Jack, I never had the heart to tell him so, nor to shirk my drill. "A poor shiftless lot," he complained to me as we walked near midnight across Cupwith Common, the three rough miles that lay between the Buck and Lower Holm. "A peer shiftless lot, but what could you expect from a lot of croppers?" "What do you think to make of them, Jack?" I asked. "Why, nowt," he answered. "Just nowt; but then yo' see they mun do something. It's all very well to go to th' Buck an' drink ale an' sing songs. I'll back th' croppers at drinkin' ale an' singing songs against th' best regiment the Duke has in Spain. But if all this meeting an' masking an' speechifyin' is to do any good and lead to owt, there must be action, sooner or later. And in that day it will be well for th' Luds if there is even one voice which they have learned to obey. Do you think it's the great generals that win battles?" "Why, of course, it is?" I answered. "That's just where yo're out," said Jack.