THE AFFAIR OF NINETY-EIGHT. 139 



' token true of foughten field* disfigured him with scar or 

 blemish ; but there was a quiet tradesman sort of simper 

 eternally mantling over his features, which would have been 

 worth a hundred a- year to any city dealer in ladies' mercery. 

 Surely, thought I, he has at all events the true military 

 enlargement on the occiput, and I'll warrant it a splendid 

 development. In short, I was astonished, and marvelled 

 how well such apparent benignity concealed a heart, that 

 only throbbed with rapture amid the roar and blaze of 

 battle. 



" How long this train of thought might have continued is 

 uncertain ; it was broken by a twitch upon the elbow from my 

 neighbour. ' Curse him/ he said in a whisper that paralyzed 

 me, ' his story is nothing to-night, he forgot to kick down 

 Humbert's aide-de-camp.' 



"'Kick down an aide-de-camp f that would indeed be an 

 unusual feat/ 



" ' Well, Sir, that very feat is worth the remainder of the 

 battle. It happened that our fat friend opposite had a horse 

 that never could endure a crupper ; the rider was disabled in a 

 charge, broke his sabre, and was, or rather any other man 

 would be, completely hors de combat. What did he do in 

 this dilemma ?' 



" ' Call out lustily for quarter, I presume/ 



" ' The farthest thing from his intentions. No, he slipped 

 his hand slily over the croup, and with the first fling 

 knocked out the brains of Humbert's principal aide-de- 

 camp. There was a simple and ingenious method of 

 making a vacancy in an enemy's staff! Oh, the story is 

 nothing, wanting it ! Had I not better make him tell it over 

 in the new ?' 



"Just then we were summoned to the drawing-room, and 

 whether the narrative was again given to the company, with 

 the interesting addendum of the kick, I cannot take on me to 

 say." 



"Was the man even present at the battle ?" I inquired. 



"As much, my friend, as you were at Camperdown ; and I 

 have reason to believe, that that affair was transacted before 

 you were born. He absconded the moment it was known the 

 French had landed at Killala, and never appeared in the 

 county afterwards until the rebellion was suppressed, and the 

 country as quiet as it is at present." 



