'How now!' he cried. 'Barnaby Rudge! Why, where have you been hiding for
these hundred years?'
Barnaby had been thinking within himself that the smell of the trodden
grass brought back his old days at cricket, when he was a young boy
and played on Chigwell Green. Confused by this sudden and boisterous
address, he stared in a bewildered manner at the man, and could scarcely
say 'What! Hugh!'
'Hugh!' echoed the other; 'ay, Hugh--Maypole Hugh! You remember my dog?
He's alive now, and will know you, I warrant. What, you wear the colour,
do you? Well done! Ha ha ha!'
'You know this young man, I see,' said Lord George.
'Know him, my lord! as well as I know my own right hand. My captain
knows him. We all know him.'
'Will you take him into your division?'
'It hasn't in it a better, nor a nimbler, nor a more active man, than
Barnaby Rudge,' said Hugh. 'Show me the man who says it has! Fall in,
Barnaby. He shall march, my lord, between me and Dennis; and he shall
carry,' he added, taking a flag from the hand of a tired man who
tendered it, 'the gayest silken streamer in this valiant army.'
'In the name of God, no!' shrieked the widow, darting forward.
'Barnaby--my lord--see--he'll come back--Barnaby--Barnaby!'
'Women in the field!' cried Hugh, stepping between them, and holding her
off.
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