Then whining forth, ‘What a sap-engro, lor!’ he gave me a parting leer, and hastened away.

I remained standing in the lane gazing after the retreating company.  ’A strange set of people,’ said I at last; ‘wonder who they can be?’

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CHAPTER VI

Three years—­Lilly’s grammar—­Proficiency—­Ignorant of figures—­The school bell—­Order of succession—­Persecution—­What are we to do?—­Northward—­A goodly scene—­Haunted ground—­Feats of chivalry—­Rivers—­Over the brig.

Years passed on, even three years; during this period I had increased considerably in stature and in strength, and, let us hope, improved in mind; for I had entered on the study of the Latin language.  The very first person to whose care I was intrusted for the acquisition of Latin was an old friend of my fathers, a clergyman who kept a seminary at a town the very next we visited after our departure from ‘the Cross.’  Under his instruction, however, I continued only a few weeks, as we speedily left the place.  ‘Captain,’ said this divine, when my father came to take leave of him on the eve of our departure, ’I have a friendship for you, and therefore wish to give you a piece of advice concerning this son of yours.  You are now removing him from my care; you do wrong, but we will let that pass.  Listen to me:  there is but one good school-book in the world—­the one I use in my seminary—­Lilly’s Latin grammar, in which your son has already made some progress.  If you are anxious for the success of your son in life, for the correctness of his conduct and the soundness of his principles, keep him to Lilly’s grammar.  If you can by any means, either fair or foul, induce him to get by heart Lilly’s Latin grammar, you may set your heart at rest with respect to him; I, myself, will be his warrant.  I never yet knew a boy that was induced, either by fair means or foul, to learn Lilly’s Latin grammar by heart, who did not turn out a man, provided he lived long enough.’

My father, who did not understand the classical languages, received with respect the advice of his old friend, and from that moment conceived the highest opinion of Lilly’s Latin grammar.  During three years I studied Lilly’s Latin grammar under the tuition of various schoolmasters, for I travelled with the regiment, and in every town in which we were stationary I was invariably (God bless my father!) sent to the classical academy of the place.  It chanced, by good fortune, that in the generality of these schools the grammar of Lilly was in use; when, however, that was not the case, it made no difference in my educational course, my father always stipulating with the masters that I should be daily examined in Lilly.  At the end of the three years I had the whole by heart; you had only to repeat the first two