carried in triumph to the English camp.     

       Edmund was presented to the Regent as the man to whom the victory was chiefly owing. Not a tongue presumed to move itself against him; even malice and envy were silenced.     

 “Approach, young man,” said the Regent, “that I may confer upon you the honour of knighthood, which you have well deserved.”    Mr. Wenlock could no longer forbear speaking—“Knighthood,” said he, “is an order belonging to gentlemen, it cannot be conferred on a peasant.”  

       “What say you, sir!” returned the Regent; “is this youth a peasant?”      

       “He is,” said Wenlock; “let him deny it if he can.”      

       Edmund, with a modest bow, replied, “It is true indeed I am a peasant, and this honour is too great for me; I have only done my duty.”      

       The Duke of York, whose pride of birth equalled that of any man living or dead, sheathed his sword immediately. “Though,” said he, “I cannot reward you as I intended, I will take care that you shall have a large share in the spoils of this night; and, I declare publicly, that you stand first in the list of gallant men in this engagement.”      

       Thomas Hewson and his associates made a poor figure in their return; they were publicly reproved for their backwardness. Hewson was wounded in body and more in mind, for the bad success of his ill-laid design. He could not hold up his head before Edmund; who, unconscious of their malice, administered every kind of comfort to them. He spoke in their behalf to the commanding officer, imputing their conduct to unavoidable accidents. He visited them privately; he gave them a part of the spoils allotted to       himself; by every act of valour and courtesy he strove to engage those hearts that hated, envied, and maligned him: But where hatred arises from envy of superior qualities, every display of those qualities increases the cause from whence it arises.     

       [Another pause ensues here.]     

       The young nobles and gentlemen who distinguished Edmund were prevented from raising him to preferment by the insinuations of Wenlock and his associates, who never failed to set before them his low descent, and his pride and arrogance in presuming to rank with 

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