"
"Then, sir, the obligation is only mutual," returned the host, with a
polite inclination of his head: "but gentlemen who, like ourselves, have
been made free of the camp, need not bandy idle compliments about such
trifles. If it were my kinsman Dillon, now, whose thoughts ran more on
Coke upon Littleton than on the gayeties of a mess-table and a soldier's
life, he might think such formalities as necessary as his hard words are
to a deed. Come, Borroughcliffe, my dear fellow, I believe we have given
an honest glass to each of the royal family (God bless them all!), let
us swallow a bumper to the memory of the immortal Wolfe."
"An honest proposal, my gallant host, and such a one as a soldier will
never decline," returned the captain, who roused himself with the
occasion. "God bless them all! say I, in echo; and if this gracious
queen of ours ends as famously as she has begun, 'twill be such a family
of princes as no other army of Europe can brag of around a mess-table."
"Ay, ay, there is some consolation in that thought, in the midst of this
dire rebellion of my countrymen. But I'll vex myself no more with the
unpleasant recollections; the arms of my sovereign will soon purge that
wicked land of the foul stain."
"Of that there can be no doubt," said Borroughcliffe, whose thoughts
still continued a little obscured by the sparkling Madeira that had long
lain ripening under a Carolinian sun; "these Yankees fly before his
majesty's regulars, like so many dirty clowns in a London mob before a
charge of the horse-guards.
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