Still there was sufficient
of curiosity with all to render them attentive spectators
of the passing troop. Hitherto, it had been imagined,
the object of the English was an attack on the encampments
of their enemies; but when the gaze of each adult inhabitant
fell on the unaccoutred form of the lone soldier, who,
calm though pale, now moved among his comrades in the
ignominious garb of death, they could no longer doubt
its true destination.
The aged made the sign of the cross, and mumbled over a
short prayer for the repose of his soul, while the more
youthful indulged in half-breathed ejaculations of pity
and concern that so fine and interesting a man should be
doomed to so dreadful a fate.
At the farther extremity of the town, and at a bend in
the road, which branched off more immediately towards
the river, stood a small public house, whose creaking
sign bore three ill executed fleurs-de-lis, apologetic
emblems of the arms of France. The building itself was
little more than a rude log hut, along the front of which
ran a plank, supported by two stumps of trees, and serving
as a temporary accommodation both for the traveller and
the inmate.
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