of his proclaimed part in them. 'The hare,' he sent word, 'is the
property of young Michell of the Rodney, and he is the humanest and the
gallantest fellow in the service. I have written to my Lord. Pray help
to rid me of burdens that make me feel like a robber and impostor.'

Everard replied:

'I have a letter from your captain, informing me that I am unlikely to
see you home unless you learn to hold yourself in. I wish you were in
another battery than Robert Hall's. He forgets the force of example,
however much of a dab he may be at precept. But there you are, and
please clap a hundredweight on your appetite for figuring, will you.
Do you think there is any good in helping to Frenchify our army?
I loathe a fellow who shoots at a medal. I wager he is easy enough
to be caught by circumvention--put me in the open with him. Tom Biggot,
the boxer, went over to Paris, and stood in the ring with one of their
dancing pugilists, and the first round he got a crack on the chin from
the rogue's foot; the second round he caught him by the lifted leg, and
punished him till pec was all he could say of peccavi. Fight the
straightforward fight. Hang flan! Battle is a game of give and take,
and if our men get elanned, we shall see them refusing to come up to
time. This new crossing and medalling is the devil's own notion for
upsetting a solid British line, and tempting fellows to get invalided
that they may blaze it before the shopkeepers and their wives in the
city. Give us an army!--none of your caperers. Here are lots of circusy
heroes coming home to rest after their fatigues. One was spouting at a
public dinner yesterday night. He went into it upright, and he ran out
of it upright--at the head of his men!--and here he is feasted by the
citizens and making a speech upright, and my boy fronting the enemy!'