some thicket which they had surrounded, and were searching in hopes to find me. And as I managed with my parties on foot, so did I also when we were on horseback: for to me 'twas simple enough to dismount at cross-roads and forked ways and there have the horses' shoes set on hind part before. But the common tricks that soldiers use, being weak in numbers, to appear from the tracks to be strong, or being strong to appear weak, these were for me so common and I held them so cheap that I care not to tell of them. Moreover, I devised an instrument wherewith if 'twas calm weather I could by night hear a trumpet blow three hours' march away, could hear a horse neigh or a dog bark at two hours' distance, and hear men's talk at three miles; which art I kept secret, and gained thereby great respect, for it seemed to all incredible. Yet by day was this instrument, which I commonly kept with a perspective-glass in my breeches pouch, not so useful, even though 'twas in a quiet and lonely place: for with it one could not choose but hear every sound made by horses and cattle, yea, the smallest bird in the air and the frog in the water in all the country round, and all this could be as plainly heard as if one were in the midst of a market among men and beasts where all do make such noise that for the crying of one a man cannot understand another. 'Tis true I know well there are folk who to this day will not believe this: but believe it or not, 'tis but the truth. With this instrument I can by night know any man that talks but so loud as his custom is, by his voice, though he be as far from me as where with a good perspective-glass one could by day know him by his clothes. Yet can I blame no one if he believe not what I here write, for none of those would believe me which saw with their own eyes how I used the said instrument, and would say to them, "I hear cavalry, for the horses are shod," or "I hear peasants coming, for the horses are unshod," or "I hear waggoners, but 'tis only peasants; for I know them by their talk." "Here come musqueteers, and so many, for I hear the rattling of their bandoliers." "There is a village near by, for I hear the cocks crow and the dogs bark." "There goes a herd of cattle; for I hear sheep bleat and cows low and pigs grunt"; and so forth. Mine own comrades at first would hold this but for vain boasting, and when they found that all I said proved true in fact, then all must be witchcraft, and what I said must have been told to me by the devil and his dam. And so I believe will the gentle reader also think. Nevertheless by such means did I often escape the adversary when he had news of me and came to capture me: and I deem that if I had published this discovery 'twould since have become common, for it would be of great service in war and notably in sieges. But I return to my history.