"What's the meaning of this?" said the serjeant staring for a moment.
"The deserter for a guinea! After him boys, quick! There's a reward
out for him." And away went the drummer and fifer in pursuit, while
the serjeant followed as fast as he could; and the children, after
gazing for a time in bewildered alarm, ran back to the house. The
idiot ran like the wind, but in his first terror he had taken the wrong
direction and was flying down towards the village. Reaching the drive
before his pursuers he gained on them somewhat, but he fumbled at the
gate by the lodge and let them get close to him. He broke away,
however, and was running gallantly through the village with the lads
hard after him, when down the road came the ample figure of Mrs.
Mugford, who put down the pitcher that she was carrying and stood right
in his way with her arms spread out wide. She did not dare actually to
stop him, but she so confused him that in another few yards the drummer
and fifer had caught him each by an arm. The idiot cowered abject and
trembling between them, and the three stood panting and breathless,
while Mrs. Mugford exhorted at the top of her voice,
"Hold mun fast, brave lads!" she cried, in a very different tone from
that which she had lately used to the soldiers. "Hold mun fast!
That's the man you was a looking vor. Hold mun fast! Ah, you roog; so
we've a got 'ee at last, and now 'twill be the jail and the gallows for
'ee sure enough.
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