[Micah Clarke by Arthur Conan Doyle]@TWC D-Link book
Micah Clarke

CHAPTER XVIII
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But here are young men who will find the fire if their elders bring the brains.

This is Captain Micah Clarke, and Captain Lockarby, and Captain the Honourable Sir Gervas Jerome, who have all come far to draw their swords for the downtrodden faith.' 'Taunton welcomes ye, young sirs,' said the Mayor, looking a trifle askance, as I thought, at the baronet, who had drawn out his pocket-mirror, and was engaged in the brushing of his eyebrows.

'I trust that during your stay in this town ye will all four take up your abode with me.

'Tis a homely roof and simple fare, but a soldier's wants are few.

And now, Colonel, I would fain have your advice as to these three drakes, whether if rehooped they may be deemed fit for service; and also as to these demi-cannons, which were used in the old Parliamentary days, and may yet have a word to say in the people's cause.' The old soldier and the Puritan instantly plunged into a deep and learned disquisition upon the merits of wall-pieces, drakes, demi-culverins, sakers, minions, mortar-pieces, falcons, and pattereroes, concerning all which pieces of ordnance Saxon had strong opinions to offer, fortified by many personal hazards and experiences.
He then dwelt upon the merits of fire-arrows and fire-pikes in the attack or defence of places of strength, and had finally begun to descant upon sconces, 'directis lateribus,' and upon works, semilunar, rectilineal, horizontal, or orbicular, with so many references to his Imperial Majesty's lines at Gran, that it seemed that his discourse would never find an end.


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