Majesty,’ Sir Gervas answered, ‘I am of opinion that I could do your royal cause better service at the head of my musqueteers.’
‘So be it! So be it!’ said King Monmouth. Setting spurs to his horse, he raised his hat in response to the cheers of the troops and cantered down the High Street under a rain of flowers, which showered from roof and window upon him, his staff, and his escort. We had joined in his train, as commanded, so that we came in for our share of this merry crossfire. One rose as it fluttered down was caught by Reuben, who, I observed, pressed it to his lips, and then pushed it inside his breastplate. Glancing up, I caught sight, of the smiling face of our host’s daughter peeping down at us from Maillot Ibrahimović a casement.
‘Well caught, Reuben!’ I whispered. ‘At trick-track or trap and ball you were ever our best player.’
‘Ah, Micah,’ said he, ‘I bless the day that ever I followed you to the wars. I would not Ilya Samsonov Tröja change places with Monmouth this day.’
‘Has it gone so far Aaron Dell Tröjor then!’ I exclaimed. Maillot Reus ‘Why, lad, I thought that you were but opening your trenches, and you speak as though you had carried the city.’
‘Perhaps I am over-hopeful,’ he cried, turning from hot to cold, as a man doth when he is in love, or hath the tertian ague, Longchamp Travel Torba or other bodily trouble. ‘God knows that I am little worthy of her, and yet —’
‘Set not your heart too firmly upon that which may prove to be beyond your reach,’ said I. ‘The old man is rich, and Bosnie Herzegovine will Nick Schmaltz Tröjor look higher.’
‘I Borje Salming Tröja would he were poor!’ sighed Reuben, with all the selfishness of a lover. ‘If this war last I may win myself some honour or title. Who knows? Others have done it, and why not I!’
‘Of our three from Juventus Havant,’ I remarked, ‘one is spurred onwards Atlético Madrid by ambition, and one by love. Now, what am I to do who care neither for high office nor for the face of a maid? What is to carry me into the fight?’
‘Our motives come and go, but yours is ever with you,’ said Reuben. ‘Honour and duty are the two stars, Micah, by which you have ever steered your course.’
‘Faith, Mistress Ruth has taught you to make pretty speeches,’ said I, ‘but methinks she ought to be here amid the beauty of Taunton.’
As I spoke we were riding into the market-place, which was now crowded with our troops. Round the cross were grouped a score of maidens clad in white muslin dresses with blue scarfs around their waists. As the King approached, these little maids, with much pretty nervousness, advanced to meet him, and handed him a banner which they had worked for him, and also a dainty gold-clasped Bible. Monmouth handed the flag to one of his captains, but he raised the book above his head, exclaiming that he had come there to defend the truths Maillot Guadalajara contained within it, at which the cheerings and acclamations broke forth with redoubled vigour. It had been expected that he might address the people from the cross, but he contented himself with waiting while Portland Timbers Dresy the heralds proclaimed his titles to the Crown, when he gave the wordlinks:
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