"Poor old Flaps, too, was very ill. A good many days elapsed before he
could get about, and for years he walked lame on his injured leg.
"One morning as the fowls were listlessly wandering about, wondering
what was to happen next, Mark, the watchman, was heard crowing away in a
very excited manner,
"'What do I see?
Twenty and three!'
"'What do you see?' cried they all in a great fright. 'Twenty and three
what?'
"'An army of soldiers dressed in smock frocks. They are armed with
pitchforks, and the black gipsy is their general.'
"The fowls flew up like a cloud to the roof, and sure enough they saw
the rat-catcher coming across the heath with a crowd of villagers
towards the castle.
"When they broke the doleful news to Flaps, he said, 'That scoundrel of
a man has betrayed our hiding-place, and we must wander forth again. Get
ready, and keep up your spirits, and remember that in any case we should
not have been able to stay here much longer, on account of the mice.'
"So the hens filled their crops as full as possible, and escaped with
Flaps out at the back door.
"When the country-folk got to the house, they found nothing in it but a
small heap of corn; so they fell upon the gipsy and half killed him for
having brought them on a fool's errand.
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