And the hayricks; properly speakin', _they_ belonged to Detachment E, and I hadn' time to fire more than Farmer Coad's on my way down wi' the cattle.

_And_ the alarm bell, you may argue, wasn' any business of mine; an' I wish with all my heart I'd never touched the dam thing! But with the French at your doors, so to speak--" "The French ?" "Didn' I tell you?
Then I must have overlooked it.

Iss, iss, the French be landed at Talland Cove, and murderin' as they come! And the Troy lads be cut down like a swathe o' grass; and I, only I, escaped to carry the news.

And you call this a Millenyum, I suppose ?" he wound up with sudden inconsequent bitterness.
But the Vicar apparently did not hear.

"The French?
The French ?" he kept repeating.