Taking him aside I explained to him in a whisper what had passed between the stranger and ourselves, with the circumstances which had led me to suggest that he should join our party.

The old soldier frowned at the news.
'What have we to do with such a coxcomb ?' he said.

'We have hard fare and harder blows before us.

He is not fit for the work.' 'You said yourself that Monmouth will be weak in horse,' I answered.
'Here is a well-appointed cavalier, who is to all appearance a desperate man and ready for anything.

Why should we not enrol him ?' 'I fear,' said Saxon, 'that his body may prove to be like the bran of a fine cushion, of value only for what it has around it.