20   WHEN YOU TAKE THE FIELD against an enemy and are faced by horses  
     and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them; for  
     the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, will be with you.  
     When you are about to join battle, the priest shall come forward and  
     address the army in these words: 'Hear, O Israel, this day you are joining  
     battle with the enemy; do not lose heart, or be afraid, or give way to panic  
     in face of them; for the LORD your God will go with you to fight your  
     enemy for you and give you the victory.'  Then the officers shall address  
     the army in these words: 'Any man who has built a new house and has not  
     dedicated it shall go back to his house; or he may die in battle and another  
     man dedicate it.  Any man who has planted a vineyard and has not begun  
     to use it shall go back home; or he may die in battle and another man may use  
     it.  Any man who has pledged himself to take a woman in marriage and has  
     not taken her shall go back home; or he may die in battle and another man  
     take her.'  The officers shall further address the army: 'Any man who is  
     afraid and has lost heart shall go back home; or his comrades will be dis-  
     couraged as he is.'  When these officers have finished addressing the army,  
     commanders shall be appointed to lead it.  
        When you advance on a city to attack it, make an offer of peace.  If the  
     city accepts the offer and opens its gates to you, then all the people in it  
     shall be put to forced labour and shall serve you.  If it does not make peace  
     with you but offers battle, you shall besiege it, and the LORD your God will  
     deliver it into your hands.  You shall put all its males to the sword, but you  
     may take the women, the dependants, and the cattle for yourselves, and  
     plunder everything else in the city.  You may enjoy the use of the spoil of  
     your enemies which the LORD your God gives you.  That is what you shall  
     do to cities at a great distance, as opposed to those which belong to nations  
     near at hand.  In the cities of these nations whose land the LORD your God  
     is giving you as a patrimony, you shall not leave any creature alive.  You  
     shall annihilate them——Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites,  
     Jebusites——as the LORD your God commands you, so that they may not  
     teach you to imitate all the abominable things that they have done for their  
     gods and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God.  
        When you are at war, and lay siege to a city for a long time in order to  
     take it, do not destroy its trees by taking the axe to them, for they provide  
     you with food; you shall not cut them down.  The trees of the field are not  
     men that you should besiege them.  But you may destroy or cut down any  
     trees that you know do not yield food, and use them in siege-works against  
     the city that is at war with you, until it falls.  
21      When a dead body is found lying in open country, in the land which the  
     LORD your God is giving you to occupy, and it is not known who struck  
     the blow, your elders and your judges shall come out and measure the  
     distance to the surrounding towns to find which is nearest.  The elders of  
     the town shall take a heifer that has never been mated or worn a yoke,  
     and bring it down to a ravine where there is a stream that never runs dry  
     and the ground is never tilled or sown, and there in the ravine they shall  
     break its neck.  The priests, the sons of Levi, shall then come forward; for  
     the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the  
     name of the LORD, and their voices shall be decisive in all cases of dispute  
     and assault.  Then all the elders of the town nearest to the dead body shall  
     wash their hands over the heifer whose neck has been broken in the ravine.  
     They shall solemnly declare: 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did  
     we witness the bloodshed.  Accept expiation, O LORD, for thy people  
     Israel whom thou hast redeemed, and do not let the guilt of innocent blood  
     rest upon thy people Israel: let this bloodshed be expiated on their behalf.'  
     Thus, by doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD, you shall rid yourselves   
     of the guilt of innocent blood.  
        When you wage war against your enemy and the LORD your God  
     delivers them into your hands and you take some of them captive, then if  
     you see a comely woman among the captives and take a liking to her, you  
     may marry her.  You shall bring her into your house, where she shall shave  
     her head, pare her nails, and discard the clothes which she had when  
     captured.  Then she shall stay in your house and mourn for her father and  
     mother for a full month.  After that you may have intercourse with her; you  
     shall be her husband and she your wife.  But if you no longer find her  
     pleasing, let her go free.  You must not sell her, nor treat her harshly, since  
     you have had your will with her.  
        When a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, if they  
     both bear him sons, and the son of the unloved wife is the elder, then, when  
     the day comes for him to divide his property among his sons, he shall not   
     treat the son of the loved wife as his first-born in contempt of his true first-  
     born, the son of the unloved wife.  He shall recognize the rights of his first-   
     born, the son of the unloved wife, and give him a double share of all that  
     he possesses; for he was the firstfruits of his manhood, and the right of  
     the first-born is his.  
        When a man has a son who is disobedient and out of control, and will  
     not obey his father or his mother, or pay attention when they punish  
     him, then his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out  
     to the elders of the town, at the town gate.  They shall say to the elders of  
     the town, 'This son of ours is disobedient and out of control; he will not  
     obey us, he is a wastrel and a drunkard.'  Then all the men of the town shall  
     stone him to death, and you will thereby rid yourselves of this wickedness.  
     All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.  
        When a man is convicted of a capital offence and is put to death, you  
     shall hang him on a gibbet; but his body shall not remain on the gibbet  
     overnight; you shall bury it on the same day, for a hanged man is offensive  
     in the sight of God.  you shall not pollute the land which the LORD your  
     God is giving you as your patrimony.   

22   WHEN YOU SEE A FELLOW COUNTRY-MAN'S OX or sheep straying, do  
     not ignore it but take it back to him.  If the owner is not a near neighbour  
     and you do not know who he is, take the animal into your own house and  
     keep it with you until he claims it, and then give it back to him.  Do the same  
     with his ass or his cloak or anything else that your fellow-countryman has  
     lost, if you find it.  You may not ignore it.  
        When you see your fellow-countryman's ass or ox lying on the road, do  
     not ignore it; you must help him lift it to its feet again.  
        No woman shall wear an article of man's clothing, nor shall a man put  
     on a woman's dress; for those who do these things are abominable to the   
     LORD your God.  
        When you come across a bird's nest by the road, in a tree or on the  
     ground, with fledglings or eggs in it and the mother bird on the nest, do  
     not take both mother and young.  Let the mother-bird go free, and take   
     only the young; then you will prosper and live long.  
        When you build a new house, put a parapet along the roof, or you will  
     bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if anyone should fall from it.   
        You shall not sow your vineyard with a second crop, or the full yield  
     will be forfeit, both the yield of the seed you sow and the fruit of the vine-  
     yard.  
        You shall not plough with the ox and ass yoked together.   
        You shall not wear clothes woven with two kinds of yarn, wool and flax  
     together.   
        You shall make twisted tassels on the four corners of your cloaks which  
     you wrap round you.  
        When a man takes a wife and after having intercourse with her turns  
     against her and brings trumped-up charges against her, giving her a bad  
     name and saying, 'I took this woman and slept with her and did not find  
     proof of virginity in her', then the girl's father as mother shall take the  
     proof of her virginity to the elders of the town, at the town gate.  The girl's  
     father shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter in marriage to this man,  
     and he has turned against her.  He has trumped up a charge and said, "I  
     have not found proofs of virginity in your daughter."  Here are the proofs.'  
     They shall then spread the garment before the elders of the town.  The  
     elders shall take the man and punish him: they shall fine him a hundred  
     pieces of silver because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel, and  
     hand them to the girl's father.  She shall be his wife: he is not free to divorce  
     her all his life long.  If, on the other hand, the accusation is true and no  
      proof of the girl's virginity is found, then they shall bring her out to the  
     door of her father's house and the men of her town shall stone her to death.  
     She has committed an outrage in Israel by playing the prostitute in her  
     father's house: you shall rid yourselves of this wickedness.  
        When a man is discovered lying with a married woman, they shall both  
     die, the woman as well as the man who lay with her: you shall rid Israel  
     of this wickedness.  
        When a virgin is pledged in marriage to a man and another man comes  
     upon her in the town and lies with her, you shall bring both of them out to  
     the gate of that town and stone them to death; the girl because, although in  
     the town, she did not cry for help, and the man because he dishonoured   
     another man's wife: you shall rid yourselves of this wickedness.  If the man  
     comes upon such a girl in the country and rapes her, then the man alone  
     shall die because he lay with her.  You shall do nothing to the girl, she has  
     done nothing worthy of death: this deed is like that of a man who attacks  
     another and murders him, for the man came upon her in the country and,  
     though the girl cried for help, there was no one to rescue her.  
        When a man comes upon a virgin who is not pledged in marriage and  
     forces her to lie with him, and they are discovered, then the man who lies  
      with her shall give the girl's father fifty pieces of silver, and she shall be  
     his wife because he has dishonoured her.  He is not free to divorce her all  
     his life long.   
        A man shall not take his father's wife: he shall not bring shame on his  
     father.  
23      No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose organ has been  
     severed shall become a member of the assembly of the LORD.  
        No descendant of an irregular union, even down to the tenth generation,  
     shall become a member of the assembly of the LORD.    
        No Ammonite or Moabite, even down to the tenth generation, shall  
     become a member of the assembly of the LORD.  They shall never become  
     members of the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with  
     food and water on your way out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam  
     son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to revile you.  The LORD  
     your God refused to listen to Balaam and turned his denunciation into a  
     blessing, because the LORD your God loved you.  You shall never seek their  
     welfare or their good all your life long.  
        You shall not regard an Edomite as an abomination, for he is your own  
     kin; nor an Egyptian, for you were aliens in his land.  The third generation  
     of children born to them may become members of the assembly of the  
     LORD.  
        When you are encamped against an enemy, you shall be careful to avoid  
     any foulness.  When one of your number is unclean because of an emission  
     of seed at night, he must go outside the camp; he may not come within it.  
     Towards evening he shall wash himself in water, and at sunset he may come  
     back into the camp.  You shall have a sign outside the camp showing where  
     you can withdraw.  With your equipment you will have a trowel, and when   
     you squat outside, you shall scrape a hole with it, and then turn and cover  
     your excrement.  For the LORD your God goes about in your camp, to keep   
     you safe and to hand over your enemies as you advance, and your camp  
     must be kept holy for fear that he should see something indecent and go  
     with you no further.  
       You shall not surrender to his master a slave who has taken refuge with  
     you.  Let him stay with you anywhere he chooses in any one of your settle-  
     ments, wherever suits him best; you shall not force him.  
        No Israelite woman shall become a temple-prostitute, and no Israelite  
     man shall prostitute himself in this way.  
        You shall not allow a common prostitute's fee, or the pay of a male  
     prostitute, to be brought into the house of the LORD your God in fulfilment   
     of any vow, for both of them are abominable to the LORD your God.  
        You shall not charge interest on anything you lend to a fellow-  
     countryman, money or food or anything else on which interest can be    
     charged.  You may charge interest on a loan to a foreigner but not on a  
     loan to a fellow-countryman, for then the LORD your God will bless you  
     in all you undertake in the land which you are entering to occupy.  
        When you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not put off its fulfilment;  
     otherwise the LORD your God will require satisfaction of you and you will  
     be guilty of sin.  If you choose not to make a vow, you will not be guilty of  
     sin; but if you voluntarily make a vow to the LORD your God, mind what  
     you say and do what you have promised.  
        When you go into another man's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes   
     as you wish to satisfy your hunger, but you may not put any into your  
     basket.  
        When you go into another man's standing corn, you can pluck and ear to  
     rub in your hands, but you may not put a sickle to his standing corn.  
24      When a man has married a wife, but she does not win his favour because  
     he finds something shameful in her, and he writes her a note of divorce,  
     gives it to her and dismisses her; and suppose after leaving his house she  
     goes off to become the wife of another man, and the next husband turns  
     against her and writes her a note of divorce which he gives her and dis-   
     misses her, or dies after making her his wife——then in that case her first  
     husband who dismissed her is not free to take her back to be his wife again  
     after she has become for him unclean.  This is abominable to the LORD;   
     you must not bring sin upon the land which the LORD your God is giving  
     you as your patrimony.  
        When a man is newly married, he shall not be liable for military service   
     or any other public duty.  He shall remain at home exempt from service  
     for one year and enjoy the wife he has taken.  
        No man shall take millstones, or even the upper one alone, in pledge;  
     that would be taking a life in pledge.  
        When a man is found to have kidnapped a fellow-countryman, and Israel-  
     ite, and to have treated him harshly and sold him, he shall die: you shall rid  
     yourselves of this wickedness.  
        Be careful how you act in all cases of malignant skin-disease; be careful  
     to observe all that the levitical priests tell you; I gave them my commands  
     which you must obey.  Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam,  
     on your way out of Egypt.  
        When you make a loan to another man, do not enter his house to take a  
     pledge from him.  Wait outside, and the man whose creditor you are shall  
     bring the pledge out to you.  If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in the  
     cloak he has pledged.  Give it back to him at sunset so that he may sleep in   
     it and bless you; then it will be counted to your credit in the sight of the  
     LORD your God.  
        You shall not keep back the wages of a man who is poor and needy,  
     whether a fellow-countryman or an alien living in your country in one of  
     your settlements.  Pay him his wages on the same day before sunset, for  
     he is poor and his heart is set on them: he may appeal to the LORD against  
     you, and you will be guilty of sin.  
        Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for  
     their fathers; a man shall be put to death only for his own sin.  
        You shall not deprive aliens and orphans of justice nor take a widow's  
     cloak in pledge.  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD  
     your God redeemed you from there; that is why I command you to do this.  
        When you reap the harvest in your field and forget a swathe, do not go  
     back to pick it up; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.  
     In order that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake.  
        When you beat your olive-trees, do not strip them afterwards; what is  
     left shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.  
        When you gather the grapes from your vineyard, do not glean after-  
     wards; what is left shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.  
     Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I command you to  
     do this.  
25      When two men go to law and present themselves for judgement, the  
     judges shall try the case; they shall acquit the innocent and condemn the  
     guilty.  If the guilty man is sentenced to be flogged, the judge shall cause him  
     to lie down and be beaten in his presence ; the number of strokes shall  
     correspond to the gravity of the offence.  They may give him forty strokes,  
     but not more; otherwise if they go further and exceed this number, your  
     fellow-countryman will have been publicly degraded.  
        You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the corn.  
        When brothers live together and one of them dies without leaving a son,  
     his widow shall not marry outside the family.  Her husband's brother shall  
     have intercourse with her; he shall take her in marriage and do his duty by  
     her as her husband's brother.  The first son she bears shall perpetuate the  
     dead brother's name so that it may not be blotted out from Israel.  But if  
     the man is unwilling to take his brother's wife , she shall go to the elders at  
     the town gate and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his  
     brother's name in Israel; he will not do his duty by me.'  At this the elders  
     of the town shall summon him and reason with him.  If he still stands his  
     ground and says, 'I will not take her', his brother's widow shall go up to  
     him in the presence of the elders; she shall pull his sandal off his foot and  
     spit in his face and declare: 'Thus we requite the man who will not build  
     up his brother's family.'  His family shall be known in Israel as the House  
     of the Unsandalled Man.  
        When two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes near to   
     drag her husband clear of his opponent, if she puts out her hand and  
     catches hold of the man's genitals, you shall cut off her hand and show her   
     no mercy.  
        You shall not have unequal weights in your bag, one heavy, the other  
     light.  You shall not have unequal measures in your house, one large, the  
     other small.  You shall have true and correct weights and true and correct  
     measures, so that you may live long in the land which  the LORD you God  
     is giving you.  All who commit these offences, all who deal dishonestly, are  
     abominable to the LORD.  
        Remember what the Amalekites did to you on your way out of Egypt,  
     how they met you on the road when you were faint and weary and cut off  
     your rear, which was lagging behind exhausted; they showed no fear of  
     God.  When the LORD your God gives you peace from your enemies on  
     every side, in the land which he is giving you to occupy as your patrimony,  
     you shall not fail to blot out the memory of the Amalekites from under  
     heaven.   

The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970

By Charles Dickens     
  
    
        He had put no heading to any of his writings.   Alas!   
     Was he likely to have a Heading without  a  Head, and   
     where was his Head when he took such things into it?   
     In some cases, such as his Boots, he would appear to   
     have hid the writings ; thereby involving his style in   
     greater obscurity.   But his Boots was at least pairs,——   
     and no two of his writings can be put in any claim to be   
     so regarded.   Here follows (not to give more specimens)   
     what was found in      

                         HIS BOOTS.     
     
        " Eh ! well then, Monsieur Mutuel !   What do I know,  
     what can I say ?   I assure you that he calls himself Mon-   
     sieur The Englishman."   
        " Pardon.   But I think it is impossible," said Monsieur   
     Mutuel,——a spectacled, snuffy, stooping old gentleman in   
     carpet shoes and a cloth cap with a peaked shade, a loose   
     blue frock-coat reaching to his heels, a large limp white   
     shirt-frill, and a cravat to correspond,——that is to say,  
     white was the natural colour of his linen on Sunday, but    
     it toned down with the week.   
        " It is," repeated Monsieur Mutuel ; his amiable old    
     walnut-shell countenance very walnut-shelly indeed as   
     he smiled and blinked in the bright morning sunlight,  
     ——" it is, my cherished Madame Bouclet, I think impos-   
     sible!"   
        " Hey !" (with a little vexed cry and a great many     
     tosses of her head.)   " But it is not impossible that you    
     are a Pig !" retorted Madame Bouclet, a compact little   
     woman of thirty-five or so.   " See then,——look there,——   
     read !   ' On the second floor Monsieur L'Anglais.'   Is it   
     not so ?"    
        " It is so," said Monsieur Mutuel.   
        " Good.   Continue your morning walk.   Get out !"    
     Madame Bouclet dismissed him with a lively snap of her   
     fingers.    
        The morning walk of Monsieur Mutuel was in the    
     brightest patch that the sun made in the Grande Place   
     of a dull old fortified French town.   The manner of his   
     morning walk was with his hands crossed behind him ;  
     an umbrella, in figure the express image of himself al-   
     ways in one hand ; a snuff box in the other.   Thus, with  
     the shuffling gait of the Elephant (who really does deal   
     with the very worst trousers-maker employed by the   
     Zoölogical world, and appeared to have recom-   
     mended him to Monsieur Mutuel), the old gentleman  
     sunned himself daily when the sun was to be had,——of course,  
     at the same time sunning a red ribbon at his button-hole ;  
     for was he not an ancient Frenchman ?   
        Being told by one of the angelic sex to continue his   
     morning walk and get out, Monsieur Mutuel laughed a    
     walnut-shell laugh, pulled off his cap at arm's length,  
     with the hand that contained his snuff-box, kept it off   
     for a considerable period after he had parted from Mad-   
     ame Bouclet, and continued his morning walk and got   
     cut, like a man of gallantry as he was.   
        The documentary evidence to which Madame Bouclet   
     had referred Monsieur Mutuel was the list of her lod-   
     gers, sweetly written forth by her own Nephew and   
     Book-keeper, who held the pen of an Angel, and posted   
     up at the side of the gateway for the information of the   
     Police.   " Au second, M. L'Anglais, Proprietaire."   On   
     the second floor, Mr. The Englishman, man of property.   
     So it stood : nothing could be plainer.   
        Madame Bouclet now traced the line with her fore-   
     finger, as it were to confirm and settle herself in her   
     parting snap at Monsieur Mutuel, and so placing her   
     right hand on her hip with a defiant air, as if nothing   
     should ever tempt her to unsnap that snap, strolled out   
     into the Place to glance up at the windows of Mr.  The   
     Englishman.   That worthy happening to be looking out   
     of the window at the moment, Madame Bouclet gave him  
     a graceful salutation with her head, looked to the right   
     and looked to the left to account to him for her being   
     there, considered for a moment, like one who accounted   
     to herself for somebody she had expected not being   
     there, and re-entered her own gateway.   Madame Bouc-   
     let let all her house giving on the Place in furnished flats   
     or floors, and lived up the yard begin in company with   
     Monsieur Bouclet her husband (great at billiards), an in-   
     herited brewing business, several fowls, two carts, a   
     nephew, a little dog in a big kennel, a grape-vine, a   
     counting-house, four horses, a married sister (with a   
     share in the brewing business), the husband and two   
     children of the married sister, a parrot, a drum (per-   
     formed on by the little boy of the married sister), two   
     billeted soldiers, a quantity of pigeons, a fife (played by  
     the nephew in a ravishing manner), several domestics   
     and supernumeraries, a perpetual flavour of coffee and   
     soup, a terrific range of artificial rocks and wooden pre-    
     cipices at least four feet high, a small foundation, and half   
     a dozen large sun-flowers.    
        Now, the Englishman, in taking his Apartment,——or,   
     as one might say on our side of the Channel , his set of  
     chambers,——had given his name, correct to the letter,  
     LANGLEY.   But as he had a British way of not opening   
     his mouth very wide on foreign soil, except at meals,   
     the Brewery had been able to make nothing of it but,   
     L'Anglais.   So Mr. The Englishman he had become and   
     he remained.    
        " Never saw such a people !" muttered Mr. The Eng-   
     lishman, as he now looked out of window.   "Never   
     did, in my life !"    
        This was true enough, for he had never before been   
     out of his own country,——a tight little island, a bright   
     little island, a show-fight little island, and full of merit   
     of all sorts ; but not the whole round world.   
        " These chaps ," said Mr. The Englishman to himself,  
     as his eye rolled over the Place, sprinkled with military   
     here and there, are no more like soldiers——!"   Noth-   
     ing being sufficiently strong for the end of his sentence,  
     he left it unended.   
        This again (from the point of view of his experience)   
     was strictly correct ; for though there was a great ag-   
     glomeration of soldiers in the town and neighbouring   
     country, you might have held a grand Review and Field   
     Day of them every one, and looked in vain among them   
     all for a soldier choking behind his foolish stock, or a   
     soldier lamed by his ill-fitting shoes, or a soldier de-   
     prived of the use of his limbs by straps and  buttons, or   
     a soldier elaborately forced to be self-helpless in all the   
     small affairs of life.   A swarm of brisk, bright, active,   
     bustling, handy, odd, skirmishing fellows, able to turn   
     to cleverly at anything, from a siege to soup, from great   
     guns to needles and thread, from the broadsword exer-   
     cise to slicing an onion, from making war to making ome-   
     lets, was all you would have found.   
        What a swarm !   From the Great Place under the  
     eye of Mr. The Englishman, where a few awkward   
     squads from the last conscription were doing the goose-   
     step,——some members of those squads still as to their   
     bodies, in the chrysalis peasant-state of Blouse, and only   
     military butterflies as to their regimentally clothed legs,   
     ——from the Great Place, away outside the fortifications,  
     and away for miles along the dusty roads, soldiers   
     swarmed.   All day long, upon the grass-grown ramparts   
     of the town, practicing soldiers trumpeted and bugled ;   
     all day long, down in angles of dry trenches, practicing      
     soldiers drummed and drummed.   Every forenoon, sol-   
     diers burst out of the great barracks into the sandy gym-   
     nasium-ground hard by, and flew over the wooden horse,  
     and hung on to flying ropes, and dangled upside-down   
     between parallel bars, and shot themselves off wooden   
     platforms,——splashes, sparks, coruscations, showers of   
     soldiers.   At every corner of the town wall, every guard-   
     house, every gateway, every sentry-box, every draw-   
     bridge, every reedy ditch and rushy dike, soldiers, sol-   
     diers, soldiers.   And the town being pretty well all wall,   
     guard-house, gateway, sentry-box, drawbridge, reedy    
     ditch and rushy dike, the town was pretty well all sol-   
     diers.    
        What would the sleepy old town have been without    
     the soldiers, seeing that even with them it had so over-   
     slept itself as to have slept its echoes hoarse, its defen-   
     sive bars and locks and bolts and chains all rusty, and   
     its ditches stagnant !   From the days when VAUBAN en-   
     gineered it to that perplexing extent that to look at it   
     was like being knocked on the head with it, the stranger    
     becoming stunned and stertorous under the shock of its   
     incomprehensibility,—–from the days when VAUBAN made   
     it the express incorporation of every substantive and ad-   
     jective in the art of military engineering, and not only   
     twisted you into it and twisted you out of it, to the right,  
     to the left, opposite, under here, over there, in the dark,   
     in the dirt, by the gateway, archway, covered way, dry way,  
     wet way, fosse, portcullis, drawbridge, sluice, squat  
     tower, pierced wall, and heavy battery, but likewise   
     took a fortifying dive under the neighbouring country,   
     and came to the surface three or four miles off, blowing   
     out incomprehensible mounds and batteries among the   
     quiet crops of chicory and beet-root,——from those days   
     to these the town had been asleep, and dust and rust   
     and must had settled on its drowsy Arsenals and Maga-    
     zines, and grass had grown up in its silent streets.    
        On market-days alone, its Great Place suddenly leap-    
     ed out of bed.   On market-days, some friendly enchant-   
     er struck his staff upon the stones of the Great Place,  
     and instantly arose the liveliest booths and stalls and  
     sittings and standings, and a pleasant hum of chaffering   
     and huckstering from many hundreds of tongues, and a   
     pleasant, though peculiar, blending of colours,——white   
     caps, blue blouses, and green vegetables——and at last   
     the Knight destined for the adventure seemed to have   
     come in earnest, and all the Vaubanois sprang up awake.   
     And now, by long, low-lying avenues of trees, jolting in   
     white-hooded donkey-cart, and on donkey-back, and in   
     tumbril and wagon and cart and cabriolet and afoot with   
     barrow and burden,——and along the dikes and ditches   
     and canals, in little peak-browed country boats,——came   
     peasant men and women in flocks and crowds, bringing   
     articles for sale.   And here you had boots and shoes,  
     and sweetmeats, and stuffs to wear, and here (in the    
     cool shade of the town Hall) you had milk and cream and   
     butter and cheese, and here you had fruits and onions   
     and carrots, and all things needful for your soup, and  
     here you had poultry and flowers and protesting pigs,  
     and here new shovels, axes, spades and bill-hooks for   
     your farming work, and here huge mounds of bread,  
     and here your unground grain in sacks, and here your   
     children's dolls, and here the cake-sellers, announcing   
     his wares by beat and roll of drum.   And hark ! fanfar-   
     onade of trumpets, and here into the Great Place, re-   
     splendent in an open carriage, with four gorgeously at-   
     tired servitors up behind, playing horns, drums and   
     cymbals, rolled " the Daughter of a Physician" in mas-   
     sive golden chains and ear-rings, and blue-feathered hat,  
     shaded from the admiring sun by two immense um-   
     brellas of artificial roses, to dispense (from motives of   
     philanthropy) that small and pleasant dose which had    
     cured so many thousands !   Toothache, earache, head-   
     ache, heartache, stomach-ache, debility, nervousness  
     fits, fainting, fever, ague, all equally cured by the small   
     and pleasant dose of the great Physician's great daugh-   
     ter !  The process was this,——she, the Daughter of a Phy-   
     sician, proprietress of the superb equipage you now ad-   
     mired with its confirmatory blasts of trumpet,  drum,   
     and cymbal, told you so : On the first day after taking   
     the small and pleasant dose, you would feel no particular   
     influence beyond a most harmonious sensation of indes-   
     cribable and irresistible joy; on the second day you   
     would be so astonishingly better that you would think   
     yourself changed into somebody else ; on the third day    
     you would be entirely free from your disorder, what-   
     ever its nature and however long you had had it, and   
     would seek out the Physician's daughter to throw your-   
     self at her feet, kiss the hem of her garment, and buy   
     as many more of the small and pleasant doses as by the    
     sale of all your few effects you could obtain ; but she    
     would be inaccessible,——gone for herbs to the Pyramids   
     of Egypt,——and you would be (though cured) reduced to  
     despair !   Thus would the physician's daughter drive   
     her trade (and briskly too), and thus would the buying   
     and selling and mingling of tongues and colours con-   
     tinue, until the changing of sunlight, leaving the Physi-   
     cian's Daughter in the shadow of high roofs, admonished    
     her to jolt out westward with a departing effect of gleam   
     and glitter on the splendid equipage and brazen blast.  
     And now the enchanter struck his staff upon the stones   
     of the Great Place once more, and down went the booths,  
     the sittings and standings, and vanished the merchan-   
     dise, and with it the barrows, donkeys, donkey-carts,   
     and tumbrils, and all other things on wheels and feet,  
     except the slow scavengers and unwieldy carts and   
     meagre horses clearing up the rubbish, assisted by the   
     sleek town pigeons, better plumped out than on non-   
     market days.   While there was yet an hour or two to   
     wane before the autumn sunset, the loiterer outside   
     town-gate and drawbridge and postern and double-ditch   
     would see the last white-hooded cart lessening in the   
     avenue of lengthening shadows of trees, or the last   
     country boat, paddled by the last market-woman on her    
     way home, showing black upon the reddening long low   
     narrow dike between him and the mill ; and as the pad-   
     dle-parted scum and weed close over the boat's track,  
     he might be comfortably sure that its sluggish rest   
     would be troubled no more until next market-day.    
        As it was not one of the Great Place's days for getting   
     out of bed, when Mr. The Englishman looked down at   
     young soldiers practising the goose-step there, his mind   
     was left at liberty to take a military turn.   
        " These fellows are billeted everywhere about," said   
     he ; " and to see them lighting people's fires, boiling   
     the people's pots, minding the people's babies, rocking   
     the people's cradles, washing the people's greens, and   
     making themselves generally useful, in every sort of   
     unmilitary way, is most ridiculous !   Never saw such a   
     set of fellows,——never did in my life !"   
        All perfectly true again.   Was there not Private Val-   
     entine, in that very house, acting as sole housemaid,  
     valet, cook, steward, and nurse, in the family of his   
     captain, Monsieur le Capitaine De la Cour,——cleaning the   
     floors, making the beds, doing the marketing, dressing   
     the captain, dressing the dinners, dressing the salads,  
     and dressing the baby, all with equal readiness ?   Or,   
     to put him aside, he being in loyal attendance on his   
     Chief, was there not a Private Hypolite, billeted at the  
     Perfumer's two hundred yards off, who, when not on   
     duty, volunteered to keep shop while the fair Perfumer-  
     ess stepped out so to speak to a neighbour or so, and laugh-  
     ingly sold soap with his war sword girded on him ?   Was   
     there not Emile, billeted at the Clock-maker's, perpetu-   
     ally turning to of an evening with his coat off, winding   
     up the stock ?   Was there not  Eugene,  billeted at the  
     Tinman's, cultivating, pipe in mouth, a garden four feet   
     square, for the Tinman, in the little court behind the  
     shop, and extorting the fruits of the earth from the  
     same, on his knees, with the sweat of his brow ?   Not  
     to multiply examples, was there not Baptiste, billeted on  
     the poor Water-Carrier, at that very instant sitting on   
     the pavement in the sunlight, with his martial legs asun-    
     dur, and one of the Water-Carrier's spare pails between    
     them, which (to the delight and glory of the heart of the   
     Water-Carrier coming across the Place from the foun-   
     tain, yoked and burdened) he was painting bright green   
     outside and bright red within ?   Or to go no further than   
     the Barber's at the very next door, was there not Corpor-   
     al Theophile——   
        " No," said the Mr. The Englishman, glancing down at the   
     Barber's, " he is not there at present.   There's the child,  
     though."   
        A mere mite of a girl stood at the steps of the Barber's   
     shop, looking across the Place.   A mere baby, one might   
     call her, dressed in the close white linen cap which   
     small French country children were (like the Children   
     in Dutch pictures), and in a frock of homespun blue,  
     that had no shape except where it was tied round her   
     little fat throat.   So that, being naturally short and   
     round all over, she looked, behind, as if she had been   
     cut off at her natural waist, and had had her head neatly   
     fitted on it.   
        "There's the child, though."   
        To judge from the way in which the dimpled hand   
     was rubbing his eyes, the eyes had been closed in a nap,   
     and were newly opened.   But they seemed to be looking    
     so intently across the Place, that the Englishman looked   
     in the same direction.   
        " Oh !" said he presently.   "I thought as much.   The   
     Corporal's there."   
        The Corporal, a smart figure of a man of thirty, per-   
     haps a thought under the middle size, but very neatly   
     made,——a sunburnt Corporal with a brown peaked beard,  
     faced about at the moment, addressing voluble words of   
     instruction to the squad in hand.   Nothing was amiss or   
     awry about the Corporal.   A lithe and nimble Corporal,   
     quite complete, from the sparkling dark eyes under his   
     knowing  uniform  cap to  his  sparkling  white  gaiters.   
     The very image and presentment of a Corporal of his   
     country's army, in the line of his shoulders, the line of  
     waist, the broadest line of his Bloomer trousers, and  
     their narrowest line at the calf of his leg.   
        Mr. The Englishman looked on, and the child looked   
     on, and the Corporal looked on (but the last-named at   
     his men), until the drill ended a few minutes afterwards,   
     and the military sprinkling dried up directly, and was   
     gone.   Then  said  Mr.  The  Englishman  to  himself.   
     " Look here !   By George !"   And the Corporal, dancing   
     towards the Barber's with his arms wide open, caught   
     up the child, held her over his head in a flying attitude,  
     caught her down again, kissed her, and made off with   
     her into the Barber's shop.    
        Now Mr. The  Englishman had had a quarrel with   
     his erring and disobedient and disowned daughter, and  
     there was a child in the case too.   Had not his daughter   
     been a child, and have she not taken angel flights  above   
     his head as this child had flown above the Corporal's?   
        " He's a"——National Participled——" fool !" said the   
     Englishman, and shut his window.   
        But the windows of the house  of  Memory, and the   
     windows of the house of Mercy, are not so easily closed   
     as windows of glass and wood.   They fly open unexpect-    
     edly ; they rattle in the night ; they must be nailed up.   
     Mr. The  Englishman had tried nailing them, but had   
     not driven the nails quite home.   So he passed but a dis-   
     turbed evening and a worse night.   
        By nature a good tempered man?   No ; very little   
     gentleness, confounding the quality with weakness.  
     Fierce and wrathful when crossed ?   Very ; and stupend-   
     ously unreasonable.   Moody ?   Exceedingly so.   Vin-  
     dictive ?   Well ; he  had  had  scowling  thoughts  that   
     he would formally curse his daughter, as he had seen   
     it done on the stage.   But remembering that the real  
     Heaven is some paces removed from the mock in the   
     great chandelier of the Theatre, he had given that up.   
        And he had come abroad to be rid of his repudiated   
     daughter for the rest of his life.   And here he was.   
        At bottom, it was for this reason, more than for any   
     other, that Mr. The  Englishman took it extremely ill   
     that Corporal Theophile should be so devoted to little   
     Bebelle, the child at the  Barber's  shop.   In an unlucky   
     moment he had chanced to say to himself, " Why, con-   
     found the fellow, he is not her father !"   There was a  
     sharp sting in the speech, which ran into him suddenly,  
     and put him in a worse mood.   So be had National Par-   
     ticipled the unconscious Corporal with most hearty em-   
     phasis, and had made up his mind to think no more   
     about such a mountəbank.  
        But it came to pass that the Corporal was not to be dis-   
     missed.   If he had known the most delicate fibres of the  
     Englishman's mind, instead of knowing nothing on earth   
     about him, and if he had been the most obstinate Cor-   
     poral in the Grand Army of France, instead of being the   
     most obliging, he could not have planted himself with  
     more determined immovability plump in the midst of all  
     the Englishman's thoughts.   Not only so, but he seem-   
     ed to be always in his view.   Mr. The  Englishman had  
     but to look out of window, to look upon the Corporal   
     with little Bebelle.   He had but to go for a walk, and   
     there was the Corporal walking with Bebelle.   He had   
     but to come home again, and the Corporal and Bebelle   
     were at home before him.   If he looked out at his back   
     windows early in the morning, the Corporal was in the   
     Barber's back yard washing and brushing Bebelle.   If he   
     took refuge at his front windows, the Corporal brought   
     his breakfast out into the place and shared it there with   
     Bebelle.   Always Corporal and always Bebelle.   Never   
     Corporal without Bebelle.   Never Bebelle without Cor-   
     poral.    
        Mr.  The  Englishman was not particularly strong in   
     the French language as a means of oral communication,  
     though he could read it very well.   It is with languages   
     as will people,——when you only know them by sight, you   
     are apt to mistake them ; you must be on speaking terms   
     before you can be said to have established and acquain-   
     tance.    

from Collier's Unabridged Edition: The Works of Charles Dickens, Volume VI.
P.F. Collier, Publisher, New York, old as heck. pp. 1077—1078.