CHAPTER XXI

----I would be picquetted to death, cried the corporal, as he concluded _Susannah’s_ story, before I would suffer the woman to come to any harm, --’twas my fault, an’ please your honour, --not hers.

Corporal _Trim_, replied my uncle _Toby_, putting on his hat which lay upon the table, ----if anything can be said to be a fault, when the service absolutely requires it should be done, --’tis I certainly who deserve the blame, ----you obeyed your orders.

Had count _Solmes_, _Trim_, done the same at the battle of _Steenkirk_, said _Yorick_, drolling a little upon the corporal, who had been run over by a dragoon in the retreat, ----he had saved thee; ----Saved! cried _Trim_, interrupting _Yorick_, and finishing the sentence for him after his own fashion, ----he had saved five battalions, an’ please your reverence, every soul of them: ----there was _Cutts’s_--continued the corporal, clapping the forefinger of his right hand upon the thumb of his left, and counting round his hand, ----there was _Cutts’s_, ----_Mackay’s_, ----_Angus’s_, ----_Graham’s_, ----and _Leven’s_, all cut to pieces; ----and so had the _English_ life-guards too, had it not been for some regiments upon the right, who marched up boldly to their relief, and received the enemy’s fire in their faces, before any one of their own platoons discharged a musket, ----they’ll go to heaven for it, --added _Trim_. --_Trim_ is right, said my uncle _Toby_, nodding to _Yorick_, ----he’s perfectly right. What signified his marching the horse, continued the corporal, where the ground was so straight, that the _French_ had such a nation of hedges, and copses, and ditches, and fell’d trees laid this way and that to cover them; (as they always have). ----Count _Solmes_ should have sent us, ----we would have fired muzzle to muzzle with them for their lives. ----There was nothing to be done for the horse: ----he had his foot shot off however for his pains, continued the corporal, the very next campaign at _Landen_. --Poor _Trim_ got his wound there, quoth my uncle _Toby_. ----’Twas owing, an’ please your honour, entirely to count _Solmes_, ----had he drubb’d them soundly at _Steenkirk_, they would not have fought us at _Landen_. ----Possibly not, ----_Trim_, said my uncle _Toby_; ----though if they have the advantage of a wood, or you give them a moment’s time to intrench themselves, they are a nation which will pop and pop for ever at you. ----There is no way but to march coolly up to them, ----receive their fire, and fall in upon them, pell-mell ----Ding dong, added _Trim_. ----Horse and foot, said my uncle _Toby_. ----Helter skelter, said _Trim_. ----Right and left, cried my uncle _Toby_. ----Blood an’ ounds, shouted the corporal; ----the battle raged, ----_Yorick_ drew his chair a little to one side for safety, and after a moment’s pause, my uncle _Toby_ sinking his voice a note, --resumed the discourse as follows.

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