diate service, were seated in front of the General's tent. One of them was our friend Oliver: at his right there sat a gaunt, hard-featured, trooper, gazing earnestly in the direction of Milan, the spires of which were seen in the distance; and beside him there was a dapper little man, with a good-humoured but somewhat vacant countenance, whose eyes were fixed listlessly on the stream that flowed in front.

Everything around indicated that a speedy movement of the troops was about to take place. Numbers of horsemen were passing to and fro at full speed, between the different quarters of the camp; most of the tents were already struck, and a page, in a rich fancy dress, was in attendence with the General's horse, which was ready saddled and caparisoned, at a short distance from where the trio sat.

"Well, Turnbull," said Oliver, at length breaking silence, and addressing his tall companion; "see you aught of the General's messenger?"

"'Deed, Captain Oliver," replied the other,

in a strong northern accent, "I div not-I only be richt."

wuss a' may

"What! do you think he has fallen in with the enemy?"

"Na, na," replied the Scot; "he is na to be sae easy trappit. But I'll tell ye, Captain, atween oursells, I hae na ower muckle faith in thae French chiels, that ye expeck siccan great things frae."

"How so?-Armagnaac is as fine a fellow as ever set foot in stirrup, and own cousin to Charles VI."

"He's nane the better o' that, atweel; for 'gin he be na wiser nor his coosin, he's no muckle to lippen on."

"Very good troops is the French," said the other listener, with a somewhat consequential air. "Hoot! maister Jenkins, they're no that ill. I hae seen them fecht, an I hae seen them stan', and I hae seen them rin awa' just like ither folk. I ken them weel, maister Jenkins, for I was at hame in the achty-five, when the Admiral o' France cam ower to help us agen king Richard,

wi' fyfteen hundred horse; and a wheen rash stourin deevils they war."

"Ah! capital troops is the French."

"I'll tell you what it is, maister Jenkins," continued the Scot, somewhat irritated; "they're well eneugh to manoover and charge, and the like o' that, on level grun'.'

"Of which your country can boast but little," interrupted Oliver.

"And therefore, Captain, they were but little use to uz, except, as I have said, for a regular stand-up fecht, or for gallivanting wi' the leddies, and sic like. But set them to lift cattle, or scour a country-side, they warna worth their feeding."

"I have heard say you gave them none," replied Oliver.

"Ye forget," said the Scotchman, drily, "there war some thretty thousand Englishers at the time, atween the Cheviots and the Tay, and maybe they didna leave us ower muckle to oursells."

Oliver laughed. "But did they not return to France before their time was out?"

"I'll no deny, Captain, that they did gae hame i'the dumps, nor that mony a complaint was made anent the diet and the drink; whilk, as I opine, were clean without foondation. Hoosomever, when folk are accustomed in their ain country to denner on a brace o' rostit larks, and a drap shilpit wine, they canna be expeckit to ken what's gude for them.”

"Excellent troops is the French," reiterated Master Jenkins, with a knowing shake of his head.

"Sae ye hae tauld us already. But yonder comes the General's messenger at last, sure as my name's Sandy Turnbull."

As he spoke, a horseman was seen fording the river, a few hundred yards below where they sat. "Nay," replied Oliver, "you are wrong; it is only black Dick of Lincoln, with his foragers. I know him by the cock's feather stuck in his morion. Yonder he comes, with a score of fat bullocks before him, and a string of geese dangling from his saddle bows. By the mass, there's no purveyor like Dick atwixt this and the fens; he will find, and thrive too, where a Scot would starve."

As he spoke, the person alluded to approached, accompanied by half-a-dozen others, with the produce of their day's labour. It consisted of twenty or thirty of those splendid dun-coloured oxen, for the breed of which Lombardy has been ever famed, and a string of mules, laden with forage, besides numerous other less bulky articles, which were slung round the shoulders of the horsemen. The leader of the party seemed well adapted for the species of service in which he had been engaged; his features were thin and sharp, with heavy black eyebrows, a thick bushy moustache, and a long acquiline nose, while a squint of the right eye gave him a vast superiority over his comrades, by enabling him to survey both sides of the horizon at a glance. "Well, Dick," exclaimed Oliver, "have you been gathering your tithes ?"

"Marry! I have, Captain. Saw you ever such a prime lot of beeves?-sleek as mice, and plump as porpoises."

the

"Faith," said the Scot, eyeing the cattle with eye of an amateur, "I ha'na seen bonnier I left the Loudons."

nowte syne

"Aye, Dick," replied Oliver, "I know thee