"It is; here's my hand on it."

"Come, come, boys, I'll have none of this; we've been prettily cut up this
morning already. You shall not go upon this foolish excursion."

"Confound it, old fellow! it's all very well for you to talk, with the
majority before you, next step; but here we are, if peace came to-morrow,
scarcely better than we left England. No, no; if O'Malley's ready--and I
see he is so before me--What have you got there? Oh, I see; that's our tape
line; capital fun, by George! The worst of it is, they'll make us colonels
of engineers. Now then, what's your plan--on foot or mounted?"

"Mounted, and for this reason, the country is all open; if we are to have a
run for it, our thoroughbreds ought to distance them; and as we must expect
to pass some of their sentries, our only chance is on horseback."

"My mind is relieved of a great load," said Hampden; "I was trembling in my
skin lest you should make it a walking party. I'll do anything you like in
the saddle, from robbing the mail to cutting out a frigate; but I never was
much of a foot-pad."

"Well, Mike," said I, as I returned to the room with my trusty follower,
"are the cattle to be depended on?"

"If we had a snaffle in Malachi Daly's mouth [my brown horse], I'd be
afeared of nothing, sir; but if it comes to fencing, with that cruel
bit,--but sure, you've a light hand, and let him have his head, if it's
wall."

"By Jove, he thinks it a fox-chase!" said Hampden.