'Then has not an old soldier as much need of a cool head as a young one?' I asked.
'Yes, perhaps,' he answered; 'but a cool head is little use if your heart is cool too.'
'Why, Sergeant,' said I, very surprised, 'your heart at least will not be faint when a fight is ahead.'
'No, sir,' said he gravely, 'no man shall say that; and yet I like to go about with it that it shall not faint, and therefore I discipline it with a sufficiency of aqua vitæ.'
'Well, Sergeant,' said I, still very puzzled at the signs of timidity on the part of the grim old soldier, 'you are the last I should have suspected of needing so base a crutch for his courage.'
'Maybe my courage halts,' he answered sadly, 'maybe it does not. Once I never gave a thought to danger, but when a man has served much he knows. I do not think I have less courage than any man here, but I know what war is better than they. As you shall see more of war, sir, you shall see less of its glory and more of its horror. That is why I wished to come to England; and to be plain with you, I should never have run my head into this wild venture of Captain Drake's had it not been that my poor master—— but I crave your honour's pardon, I prattle impertinently.'
'No matter, Sergeant,' said I; 'it is I who should crave your pardon. But tell me, do you think our danger so very great?'
'Not perhaps if we succeed,' answered the Sergeant; 'but if we fail, where shall we retreat?'
'But we must not think of that,' said I.
'A young soldier need not,' said he sadly; 'but alas! an old soldier cannot choose but think of it, unless——'