And it was this even more than his talk which made us understand what an
extraordinary life it must have been that he had led. He saw our
astonishment, and laughed at it.

"I have lived! I have lived!" he cried. "I have spent my days and my
nights. I led a company in a battle where five nations were engaged
when I was but fourteen. I made a king turn pale at the words I
whispered in his ear when I was twenty. I had a hand in remaking a
kingdom and putting a fresh king upon a great throne the very year that
I came of age. _Mon Dieu_, I have lived my life!"

That was the most that I ever heard him confess of his past life, and he
only shook his head and laughed when we tried to get something more out
of him. There were times when we thought that he was but a clever
impostor; for what could a man of such influence and talents be
loitering here in Berwickshire for? But one day there came an incident
which showed us that he had indeed a history in the past.

You will remember that there was an old officer of the Peninsula who
lived no great way from us, the same who danced round the bonfire with
his sister and the two maids. He had gone up to London on some business
about his pension and his wound money, and the chance of having some
work given him, so that he did not come back until late in the autumn.
One of the first days after his return he came down to see us, and there
for the first time he clapped eyes upon de Lapp. Never in my life did I
look upon so astonished a face, and he stared at our friend for a long
minute without so much as a word. De Lapp looked back at him equally
hard, but there was no recognition in his eyes.

"I do not know who you are, sir," he said at last; "but you look at me