beautiful.

"Nay, you have seen nothing of it as yet," said Lord Woodville,
"and I trust you do not mean to leave us till you are better
acquainted with it. It is true, I confess, that my present party
is pretty large, and the old house, like other places of the
kind, does not possess so much accommodation as the extent of the
outward walls appears to promise. But we can give you a
comfortable old-fashioned room, and I venture to suppose that
your campaigns have taught you to be glad of worse quarters."

The General shrugged his shoulders, and laughed. "I presume," he
said, "the worst apartment in your chateau is considerably
superior to the old tobacco-cask in which I was fain to take up
my night's lodging when I was in the Bush, as the Virginians call
it, with the light corps. There I lay, like Diogenes himself, so
delighted with my covering from the elements, that I made a vain
attempt to have it rolled on to my next quarters; but my
commander for the time would give way to no such luxurious
provision, and I took farewell of my beloved cask with tears in
my eyes."

"Well, then, since you do not fear your quarters," said Lord
Woodville, "you will stay with me a week at least. Of guns,
dogs, fishing-rods, flies, and means of sport by sea and land, we
have enough and to spare--you cannot pitch on an amusement but we
will find the means of pursuing it. But if you prefer the gun
and pointers, I will go with you myself, and see whether you have
mended your shooting since you have been amongst the Indians of
the back settlements."