“I know what you mean, Lechmere.  He told me all about it.”

“Well, Squire, you may be sure, when we knew that we had wronged him, how the wife and I fretted that we did not know where to write to, nor how to set about finding out where he was, and so you can guess how pleased we were when we heard from you that he was with your regiment, and that he had saved your life at the risk of his own.

“We did not know then, Squire, that if he had had twenty lives he would have done right to have risked them all for you.  He told us the whole story yesterday—­just to mother, me and Bob.  I can’t tell you yet, Squire, what we thought of it.  I do not know that I shall ever be able to tell you, and we shall never cease to thank the good Lord for saving George from being a murderer in his madness—­a murderer of our own Squire—­and to bless you, Major, that you should not only have forgiven him and kept his crime from everyone, but should have taken him in hand, as he says, as if it had never happened.”

“There was no occasion for him to have said anything about it, Lechmere.  He was undoubtedly more or less mad at the time.  Upon the whole, I think that the affair has made him a better man.  Up to the time when he saved my life, he did his duty as a soldier well, and was a most devoted servant to me, but the weight of this business pressed heavily upon him, and in spite of all I could say he held himself aloof as much as possible from his comrades; but after that he changed altogether.  He felt, as he told me, that God would not have given him this opportunity of saving the life that he had so nearly taken had He not forgiven him, and his spirits rose, and while before he certainly was not popular among his comrades—­a reserved man never is—­he became a general favourite.

“The officers, of course, showed a good deal of interest in him after what he had done.  He could have been a sergeant in the course of a month, but he refused corporal’s stripes when they were offered to him on the day after the battle, saying that he preferred remaining with me, though the Colonel told him that, after what he had done, he would stand a good chance of promotion, after two or three years’ service, as a sergeant.  He told me that he knew his jealous disposition had been a sort of trouble to you; but I am sure that he will never worry you in that way again.  I believe that he is now thoroughly master of himself, and that even the man who wrought that foul wrong need not fear him.”

“You heard, sir, that the poor girl came home and died?”

“Yes.  He told me when he heard the news from you.”

“She never said who did it, sir, but from other things that came out there is no doubt who it was.”

“He told me, Lechmere, but I stopped him short.  I did not wish to know.  I had my suspicions, but I did not want to have them confirmed.  The fellow I suspect is no friend of mine, and I don’t want to know anything about him.  If I were certain of it, I could not meet him without telling him my opinion of him.”