All the Frenchmen lamented their fortune in having to act with such allies, instead of being with the purely French army that was gradually pressing the Duke of Cumberland to the seaboard.
Fergus waited until the party had left the inn, when the landlord himself came across to hand him his reckoning.
"Bad times, master," he said.

"Bad times," shaking his head ruefully.
"Yes, they are bad enough, landlord; but I should say that you must be doing a good trade, with all these soldiers in the town." "A good trade!" the landlord repeated.

"I am being ruined.

Do you not know that, in addition to levying a heavy contribution on the town, they issued a regulation settling the prices at which the troops were to be served, at beer shops and inns: breakfast--and you saw what those fellows ate--4 pence; a tumbler of wine, 1 pence; dinner, 5 pence.

Why, each item costs me more than double that; and as nobody brings in cattle, for these might be seized on the way, and no compensation given, so meat gets dearer.