"'Twas a musket-ball wounded me, in the middle o' the battle. The French and English was fightin', deary, 'cause there was a man as we called Boney-party, who wanted for to rule all over Europe like, an' nobody wasn't to do nothin' without his leave. A reg'lar tyrant he was, an' the English couldn't let that be at all, so the Duke goes to meet him, an' 'twas a long battle. But we got the day, for sure the Duke never knowed what it was to turn his back, nor his men didn't neither. That's the sort o' soldier I'd have you be, Ailie, under the great Captain; never to know what 'tis to be beaten, nor runnin' away, but always a' lookin' at your Captain, an' obeyin' His orders."
"Did you used to be lookin' at the Duke, gran'father?" asked Ailie.
"Sure an' I did, deary, an' if anybody was a bit down, or afraid, only let the Duke come ridin' up, with his face as brave an' quiet as if he was sittin' in his chair in his home, an' we was all up in a moment, an' ready for anythin'. Afraid when the Duke was by! Never such a thing for a moment."
"An' when he wasn't by?" asked Ailie.
"Why, then we all knowed he wasn't far, an' we was obeyin' his orders, an' we knowed he was seein' or hearin' all as went on. He was certain sure to come just when he was most wanted."
Job smiled to himself as he made mental application of these ideas to another warfare and another Captain.
"An' 'twas enough to see his face. We didn't want nothin' else, to make us feel like as if no power on earth 'd be able to conquer us. All we needed, deary, was just to know we was obeyin' his orders, an' doin' what'd please him, an' then 'twas sure to be right. I wasn't but only a young soldier then, an' hadn't but just listed six months afore; but there was some old soldiers as had gone through all the war with him, and if you'd seen what they thought o' him! It wasn't no wonder I caught it from them, an' felt the same. As for bein' beaten under the Duke, wouldn't they have called 'un a coward, only to speak o' such a thing?"
"Was he like that picture?" asked Lettie, and old Job made his involuntary salute, with raised hand, in memory of his chief.
"Sure enough, deary, so he was, when he was old, ye know. I see him once ridin' through the streets, an' everybody a-lookin' after him. He didn't know me, poor old Job Kippis livin' up in a garret, but I knowed him, an' it did my heart good to look on him too, it just did."
"I do wonder mother don't come," said Ailie.