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Halket's British brigade advanced between the wood of Bossu and the Charleroi road; while the Hanoverian brigade took up ground to the left, and gave their support to the hardly-pressed British. Ney now pushed forward every man at his disposal.
Then, after a while, Peter Halket's thoughts became less clear: they became at last, rather, a chain of disconnected pictures, painting themselves in irrelevant order on his brain, than a line of connected ideas.
Give some shares to men with big names, and sell out: they can sell out too at the right time. Peter Halket stroked his knee thoughtfully. And then the other people, that bought the shares for cash! Well, they could sell out too; they could all sell out! Then Peter Halket's mind got a little hazy.
My heart was thick with wrath as I walked up and down before Sir Peter Halket's quarters and waited for Colonel Washington to reappear. I asked myself again why I should be compelled to take the insults of any man. I clenched my hands together behind me, and swore that Allen should yet pay dearly.
I'd lie down here and go to sleep with my head at your feet; curious, isn't it, when I don't know you from Adam? My name's Peter Halket. What's yours?" But the stranger was arranging the logs on the fire. The flames shot up bright and high, and almost hid him from Peter Halket's view. "By gad! how they burn when you arrange them!" said Peter. They sat quiet in the blaze for a while.
Of Virginians there were nine companies of fifty men, who found no favor in the eyes of Braddock or his officers. To Ensign Allen of Halket's regiment was assigned the duty of "making them as much like soldiers as possible." that is, of drilling them like regulars.
The spot was an oasis in a desert of leaves, if the name oasis can be given to anything so rude and harsh. In this rugged area, or "clearing," all Braddock's force was now assembled, amounting, regulars, provincials, and sailors, to about twenty-two hundred men. The two regiments, Halket's and Dunbar's, had been completed by enlistment in Virginia to seven hundred men each.
The latter at once advanced against the French skirmishers, just as they were issuing afresh from the wood of Bossu. The guards had undergone a tremendous march; but all thought of fatigue was lost in their excitement, and they swept the French before them and pressed forward. As they did so the whole British line advanced, Halket's brigade on the one flank the guards on the other.
"I told you he would not kill that nigger. See here " He took up the knife which had fallen from Peter Halket's grasp, and fitted it into a piece of the cut leather that lay on the earth. "But you don't think " The Colonial stared at him with wide open eyes; then he glanced round at the Captain's tent. "Yes, I think that Go and fetch his great-coat; we'll put him in it.
It would float in London; and people there who didn't know the country would buy the shares; THEY would have to give ready money for them, of course; perhaps fifteen pounds a share when they were up! Peter Halket's eyes blinked as he looked into the fire. And then, when the market was up, he, Peter Halket, would sell out all his shares.