He threatened us with all the plagues of Egypt and that of his own
tongue to boot,--the worst that ere visited the garrison. One morning,
an earthquake would devour us; another, we were to be visited with the
destruction of Sodom. Some of our men once looked out for the coming
tempest, and buffeted him well for their disappointment. He seems either
malignant or insane; but in charity, of which Christian exercise he
seems utterly ignorant, we suppose the latter. We have therefore made
his feet fast in the stocks, from whence, I hear, he pronounces his
anathemas as confidently as though he were armed with the power and
thunders of the Vatican!"
"May I crave the name of this doughty personage?--We have but too many
of them amongst us."
"Verily, 'tis your drum, by whose hands I have had a message heretofore.
The chances of war have again brought him hither,--but now a prisoner!"
"Gideon Greatbatch?"
"The same. We have heard him, with many blasphemous allusions, liken
himself unto that great one among the judges of Israel,--and truly he
seems more fitted to wield the sword than the drum-stick!"
"Your ladyship would perhaps indulge me with an interview.
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