When the trooper was gone, Captain Melford went to the door and whistled loudly, whereupon the sergeant of his troop came from a neighbouring cottage, and to him the captain gave certain orders, and then turned back to his interrupted supper. On entering the kitchen again, he found pretty Barbara Dimbell there, and seated in a corner was a rustic youth, who evidently, even in those exciting times, found in Barbara’s smiles an attraction of the most potent kind. Melford greeted him with a friendly smile, for he had found considerable amusement in watching the unsophisticated courtship of these two blushing lovers. Mrs Dimbell said to him: ‘Come, sir, it’s a shame you can’t have a meal in peace; now, do sit down and finish.’ He looked graver than usual as he resumed his place at the table, and after a while said, almost as if he were speaking to himself: ‘This may be my last meal; who knows? I and my men are to set off by cockcrow, and I fear we shan’t all come back. Perhaps it’s my turn this time.’ ‘Well, sir,’ said the farmer’s wife, ‘every bullet has its billet, as the saying is; but don’t be cast down. I hope we shall see you come riding back all right. But, God help us! these are bad times, when a man can’t be sure of his own life, let alone the beasts as he has brought up and the crops he has reaped. There’s our corn-stack has been carried half away this very week as ever was; and if it hadn’t been for your honour speaking up, we should not have had a cow left; and as for Barbara and John coming together, why, it’s my opinion as they’ll have to wait years before we can turn ourselves again.’ The lovers looked up at this new view of things, and stared with undisguised dismay at each other. But Captain Melford burst into a hearty laugh, and cried out: ‘Nay, things are not so bad as that.—Cheer up, my little apple-blossom, and see if you don’t get married before the year is out; and if I can’t come and dance at your wedding, I’ll send you something to remember me by.—But where is your husband, mistress, for I want to see him before I go to bed?’ The farmer, being called by his wife, made his appearance from one of the outhouses, where he had been attending to the wants of his cattle. He saluted the captain respectfully, and waited to hear what he had to say. Beckoning them both into another room, the captain said: ‘Dimbell, I’ve got orders to march early in the morning, as a big fight is expected to-morrow. Now, I want you and your good wife to take care of this money for me. There’s nearly four hundred pounds in this bag, and it’s too much to carry about, especially when a man may get an ugly knock that will settle him entirely. So do you put it in some safe corner; and if I come out of the fight all right, you shall give it me again, and I’ll pay you well for what I’ve had here. But if I should be killed, you may keep the money for yourselves, and buy a bigger farm with it.’