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I'm sure I do all I can to content your honour.

So thou dost, my old friend; but thou canst not make Fortune do the same thing. Thou art an old soldier, Paterson, as well as myself: tell me, now, if thou wert ever at siege, battle, or even skirmish, in thy life, wherein every circumstance fell out as the general or commander had reckoned upon?

No, surely, your honour. But what is the head of a general good for, if it can do nothing but plan, and cannot turn every unforeseen accident that casts up, to the furtherance of his purpose some way or other?

Very true, my friend; and thou art teaching me a lesson without being aware of it.

I were a bold man, indeed, to pretend to do that to your honour knowingly.

I wish I had had some such teaching ten years ago. But no; I suppose it would have done me no good then.