“These are but ill times that we have fallen upon. ´Tis very well, sir, for a young man like yourself whose trade is fighting, to go swaggering up and down with a long sword by your side and a murderous weapon like that in your hand, but for a married man like myself with eight children to his own share, ´tis altogether another matter. But I´m a loyal man and a good Protestant, and I´ll even try to do my duty, hard as it seems, with the best of you.”
“Why, Simon, three weeks ago you were the boldest man in the city, and I remember you made a great speech that was mightily applauded!”
“Ay, but the enemy had not crossed the Bann then, and it is a different thing, let me tell you, when the bullets begin to whistle about your head. I was out yesterday, Mr. Orme, and do you know”--here he looked round to see that there was no one within hearing--"I discovered that I was no better than a coward."
“Indeed I did no such thing. I dare not tell Elizabeth, but no sooner did I see those devils of Berwick come galloping up, than I even ran like a coward for the walls, and never thought of my duty till I was out of reach of their sword-blades. It was too late to turn back then, had I been so minded. God hath made us all after our own fashion, and he never made me for a soldier.”
“All young soldiers feel like that in their first battle,” said Gervase, with the air of a veteran. “A fortnight hence you will be as bold as a lion. Mistress Sproule will see that you do not flinch, for I think she could carry arms herself.”
“You know my wife, Mr. Orme,” said the little man sadly, “and that is one of my main troubles, for I dare not tell her what I have told you. She must needs know the whole story when I came back last night, and my invention would not serve me better than my yard stick yonder. Do you think, sir, that there will be a great deal of work of the same kind?”
“In faith, Simon, I can give you but little comfort,” said Gervase, half in amusement, half pitying his evident distress; “these are troublous times we are living in, and hard knocks are in fashion. You must even pluck up courage and show a stout heart in that buff coat of yours. You´ll come to like the smell of powder by and by, and instead of running you´ll go out to meet them as blithely as the boldest.”
