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Defoe, Daniel, 1661-1731

"Memoirs of a Cavalier A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars in England. From the Year 1632 to the Year 1648."

He gallops
bravely up to his adversary, and exchanging their pistols, the
lieutenant's horse happened to be killed. The Scotchman very
generously dismounts, and engages him with his sword, and fairly
masters him, and carries him away prisoner; and I think this horse was
all the blood was shed in that war.
The lieutenant's name thus conquered was English, and as he was a very
stout old soldier, the disgrace of it broke his heart. The Scotchman,
indeed, used him very generously; for he treated him in the camp very
courteously, gave him another horse, and set him at liberty, gratis.
But the man laid it so to heart, that he never would appear in the
army, but went home to his own country and died.
I had enough of party-making, and was quite sick with indignation at
the cowardice of the men; and my lord was in as great a fret as I, but
there was no remedy. We durst not go about to retreat, for we should
have been in such confusion that the enemy must have discovered it; so
my lord resolved to keep the post, if possible, and send to the king
for some foot. Then were our men ready to fight with one another who
should be the messenger; and at last when a lieutenant with twenty
dragoons was despatched, he told us afterwards he found himself an
hundred strong before he was gotten a mile from the place.


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