lieutenants that hunger was a chimera, and that, besides,
people were never hungry when they had anything to chew.

This joke satisfied some of those who had resisted Monk's
first deduction drawn from the neighborhood of Lambert's
army; the number of the dissentients diminished greatly; the
guard took their posts, the patrols began, and the general
continued his frugal repast beneath his open tent.

Between his camp and that of the enemy stood an old abbey,
of which, at the present day, there only remain some ruins,
but which then was in existence, and was called Newcastle
Abbey. It was built upon a vast site, independent at once of
the plain and of the river, because it was almost a marsh
fed by springs and kept up by rains. Nevertheless, in the
midst of these pools of water, covered with long grass,
rushes, and reeds, were seen solid spots of ground, formerly
used as the kitchen-garden, the park, the pleasure-gardens,
and other dependencies of the abbey, looking like one of
those great sea-spiders, whose body is round, whilst the
claws go diverging round from this circumference.

The kitchen-garden, one of the longest claws of the abbey,
extended to Monk's camp. Unfortunately it was, as we have
said, early in June, and the kitchen-garden, being
abandoned, offered no resources.

Monk had ordered this spot to be guarded, as most subject to
surprises. The fires of the enemy's general were plainly to
be perceived on the other side of the abbey. But between