“I am sure I am much bound to both of you,” Gervase answered, laughing, “but you can see that I look little like a dying man yet; just as much as you look like an honest tradesman.” The little man surveyed himself ruefully, and with such solemnity of visage that Gervase could not suppress a smile of amusement. His coat of claret-coloured cloth had given place to a buff jacket which had already seen considerable service on a man larger than himself, and he was encased to the thighs in a pair of jack-boots that gave his nether extremities a very striking appearance. On a stool hard by was a steel head-piece of an antiquated pattern, and leaning against the counter was a musket, the lock of which he had apparently recently been oiling. The bulging forehead with its overhanging tuft of red hair, the nose that providence had carefully tilted up, and the blue eyes that always met you with a look of mild wonder in them, harmonized but ill with his military equipment. He shook his head sadly. “These are but ill times that we have fallen upon. ´Tis very well, sir, for a young man like yourself whose trade is fighting, to go swaggering up and down with a long sword by your side and a murderous weapon like that in your hand, but for a married man like myself with eight children to his own share, ´tis altogether another matter. But I´m a loyal man and a good Protestant, and I´ll even try to do my duty, hard as it seems, with the best of you.” “Why, Simon, three weeks ago you were the boldest man in the city, and I remember you made a great speech that was mightily applauded!” “Ay, but the enemy had not crossed the Bann then, and it is a different thing, let me tell you, when the bullets begin to whistle about your head. I was out yesterday, Mr. Orme, and do you know”--here he looked round to see that there was no one within hearing--"I discovered that I was no better than a coward." “But you stood your ground like a man?” “Indeed I did no such thing. I dare not tell Elizabeth, but no sooner did I see those devils of Berwick come galloping up, than I even ran like a coward for the walls, and never thought of my duty till I was out of reach of their sword-blades. It was too late to turn back then, had I been so minded. God hath made us all after our own fashion, and he never made me for a soldier.” “All young soldiers feel like that in their first battle,” said Gervase, with the air of a veteran. “A fortnight hence you will be as bold as a lion. Mistress Sproule will see that you do not flinch, for I think she could carry arms herself.” “You know my wife, Mr. Orme,” said the little man sadly, “and that is one of my main troubles, for I dare not tell her what I have told you. She must needs know the whole story when I came back last night, and my invention would not serve me better than my yard stick yonder. Do you think, sir, that there will be a great deal of work of the same kind?”