* Botheration,' says I, * is there no pace for the wicked ?*
Back I comes again, and takes off me belt and piles me
firelock, and before I had got three draws at me pipe,
and was just beginning to enjoy the creetur, when,
crack ! and there goes the assimbly again. Sure, and the
major, honest man, has lost his head intirely; and
it's a pity, for he is an illigant man, and a good officer,
says I."

" Come along, Tim," Ralph said, laughing, " else you'll
be late for parade. You will hear all about it in time,
I have no doubt."

In five minutes the men were all assembled in a hollow
square, two deep, facing the officers in the centre. The
men saw at once by the faces of Major Temp^ and



Digitized by VjOOQ IC



no Tlie Young FranC'Tireurs,

the officers that something very serious had happened;
and they had no sooner taken their places than there
was a deep hush of expectancy, for it was evident that
the Commandant was about to address them.
