“Shot, or drowned; I know not which.  Thank God it was only a trooper.  But they shall pay for it, as dearly as if it had been a captain.”

“And how was it you were struck by a bullet, and only shaken in your saddle?  Had you a coat of mail on, or of Milanese chain-armour?  Now, Master Stickles, had you?”

“No, Mistress Lizzie; we do not wear things of that kind nowadays.  You are apt, I perceive, at romances.  But I happened to have a little flat bottle of the best stoneware slung beneath my saddle-cloak, and filled with the very best eau de vie, from the George Hotel, at Southmolton.  The brand of it now is upon my back.  Oh, the murderous scoundrels, what a brave spirit they have spilled!”

“You had better set to and thank God,” said I, “that they have not spilled a braver one.”

[Illustration:  421.jpg Tailpiece]

CHAPTER XLVIII

EVERY MAN MUST DEFEND HIMSELF

[Illustration:  422.jpg The Bagworthy Water]

It was only right in Jeremy Stickles, and of the simplest common sense, that he would not tell, before our girls, what the result of his journey was.  But he led me aside in the course of the evening, and told me all about it; saying that I knew, as well as he did, that it was not woman’s business.  This I took, as it was meant, for a gentle caution that Lorna (whom he had not seen as yet) must not be informed of any of his doings.  Herein I quite agreed with him; not only for his furtherance, but because I always think that women, of whatever mind, are best when least they meddle with the things that appertain to men.

Master Stickles complained that the weather had been against him bitterly, closing all the roads around him; even as it had done with us.  It had taken him eight days, he said, to get from Exeter to Plymouth; whither he found that most of the troops had been drafted off from Exeter.  When all were told, there was but a battalion of one of the King’s horse regiments, and two companies of foot soldiers; and their commanders had orders, later than the date of Jeremy’s commission, on no account to quit the southern coast, and march inland.  Therefore, although they would gladly have come for a brush with the celebrated Doones, it was more than they durst attempt, in the face of their instructions.  However, they spared him a single trooper, as a companion of the road, and to prove to the justices of the county, and the lord lieutenant, that he had their approval.

To these authorities Master Stickles now was forced to address himself, although he would rather have had one trooper than a score from the very best trained bands.  For these trained bands had afforded very good soldiers, in the time of the civil wars, and for some years afterwards; but now their discipline was gone; and the younger generation had seen no real fighting.  Each would have his own opinion, and would want to argue it; and if he were not allowed, he went about his duty in such a temper as to prove that his own way was the best.