Page:Eugene Aram vol 2 - Lytton (1832).djvu/115

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EUGENE ARAM.
107

CHAPTER XII.

MILITARY PREPARATIONS.—THE COMMANDER AND HIS MAX.—ARAM IS PERSUADED TO PASS THE NIGHT AT THE MANOR-HOUSE.

Falstaff.—"Bid my Lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end. * * * * * I pressed me none but such toasts and butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads."—

They had scarcely reached the Manor-house, before the rain, which the clouds had portended throughout the whole day, began to descend in torrents, and to use the strong expression of the Roman poet—the night rushed down, black and sudden, over the face of the earth.

The new watch were not by any means the hardy and experienced soldiery, by whom rain and darkness are unheeded. They looked with great dismay upon the character of the night in which