But who was it that had excused the mazed man to her
ladyship? The Corporal. Who had contrived to be out of the way,
though in charge of the children, when the mazed man came to them? The
Corporal again.
So the whisper went round that the Corporal was in league with the
witch; and the preacher, who had not forgotten about the bass viol,
though he said only a few mysterious words, seemed rather to agree.
Then Mrs. Fry revealed the fact that she had suspected the Corporal
from the first; for to begin with he was a soldier.
"And what drove he to 'list?" she asked indignantly. "No good, I'll
warrant mun. 'Tisn't good that drives men to 'list. There was Jan
Dart that 'listed twenty year agone, and 'ticed away Lucy Clatworthy to
follow mun, her that was only child of Jeremiah Clatworthy up to
Loudacott; and the old Jeremiah got drinking and died after she left
mun. And there's Jan's old mother, poor soul, that loved mun as the
apple of her eye, waiting here alone, and I reckon her time's short.
No! I knows what it is when men go for sojers."
It was perhaps fortunate that Mrs. Mugford was not at chapel that
evening or there might have been angry words; but the rest of the
women, having no interest in soldiers, with perfect honesty agreed with
Mrs. Fry, and lamented that her ladyship should be so misguided as to
employ a man like the Corporal, for it would surely end in no
good,--sojers never did.
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