[Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray]@TWC D-Link bookBarry Lyndon CHAPTER VI 10/29
The French officer, who lay opposite you (he who screamed when you trod on his foot, for he was wounded), was brought in shortly before your arrival.
He had been taken with his epaulets and regimentals, and declared his quality and rank; but he was alone (I believe it was some affair of love with a Hessian lady which caused him to be unattended); and as the persons into whose hands he fell will make more profit of him as a recruit than as a prisoner, he is made to share our fate.
He is not the first by many scores so captured. One of M.de Soubise's cooks, and three actors out of a troop in the French camp, several deserters from your English troops (the men are led away by being told that there is no flogging in the Prussian service), and three Dutchmen were taken besides.' 'And you,' said I--'you who were just on the point of getting a valuable living,--you who have so much learning, are you not indignant at the outrage ?' 'I am a Saxon,' said the candidate, 'and there is no use in indignation. Our government is crushed under Frederick's heel these five years, and I might as well hope for mercy from the Grand Mogul.
Nor am I, in truth, discontented with my lot; I have lived on a penny bread for so many years, that a soldier's rations will be a luxury to me.
I do not care about more or less blows of a cane; all such evils are passing, and therefore endurable.
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