scythes and reaping hooks into swords and pikes, and before they were
ready to take the field, the whole troop were provided with swords.

Walter had eagerly begged his father to appoint him cornet of the troop,
and Mr. Davenant might have yielded, had it not been for his wife's
entreaties. Even old Mrs. Davenant, intensely loyal as she was to the
cause of James, sided with her daughter in law.

"Of course, Fergus, you will do your duty to the king. It would indeed be
a shame for a Davenant to hold back; but, at Walter's age there can be no
occasion for him, as yet, to take a commission. I am ready to give my
son, as I gave my husband, to the king; and when Walter becomes a man, he
too must go, if duty demands it; but for the present, assuredly there is
no reason why such a boy should mix himself up in this unhappy struggle.
Besides, if aught befalls you, it is to him that his mother will have to
look in the future. There are hundreds and thousands of strong and active
men in Ireland, and the necessity has not yet come for boys to take the
field."

So Walter, to his intense disappointment, was refused the cornetcy of the
troop, but his father, who fully entered into his feelings, finally told
him that, when the troop took the field, he should accompany him.

"You are not to carry arms, Walter, or to mix yourself up in any way with
it. You will be a sort of camp follower, you know; but you will see all
that goes on, and will be able to prepare yourself to take your place in
the ranks, if the war should, unhappily, go on for any time."

With this Walter had to be satisfied; and, indeed, although somewhat
disappointed at not being, at once, allowed to join the troop, he felt