I can't read nor write--not one in twenty can--but those as can, of course, has a better chance of promotion if they distinguish themselves.

I should have got it last year in the Low Country, and Marlborough himself said, 'Well done!' when I, with ten rank and file, held a bridge across a canal for half an hour against a company of French.

He sent for me after it was over, but when he found I couldn't read or write he couldn't promote me; but he gave me a purse of twenty guineas, and I don't know but what that suited me better, for I am a deal more comfortable as a sergeant than I should have been as an officer; but you see, if you had been in my place up you would have gone." The wind fell in the afternoon, and the cutter dropped her anchor as the tide was running against her.

At night Jack Stilwell and the others who had accepted their fate slept with the troops on board instead of returning to rejoin their companions in the hold.

Jack was extremely glad of the change, as there was air and ventilation, whereas in the hold the atmosphere had been close and oppressive.