Three generations

38 BALASS DAYS
which eventually took place between the strangers
and the inhabitants. (These occurred at the end of the
prisoners' stay.)
In the meantime, my grandfather was not to be
outdone in magnanimous hospitality, for Balass was
within the assigned limits.
On one memorable occasion the would-be host
invited a large detachment of the French, so that it
was wellnigh the whole body staying in the town
who were asked to come out to Balass to break-
fast. Next morning they appeared. Unfortunately,
" Harry's " memory was not to be depended upon
when the date of his acts was a market night, so that
it failed to retain the fact of the liberal invitation or
to transmit it to his wife at home. Accordingly, my
grandmother was confronted one fine morning with
the alarming incident of the unexpected arrival of a
host of bland gentlemen in faded blue uniform,
counting, with reason, on being heartily fed and
graciously entertained.
Happily she was a woman endowed with tranquillity
of temper, while the ample resources of an old bounti-
ful farmhouse were speedily brought to bear on the
situation, dispensed as they were by the fair and
capable henchwomen who relieved the mistress of the
house of the more arduous of her duties. There was
no disappointment in store for the patient, ingenious
gentlemen who were wont to edify and divert their
nominal enemy by making small excursions into the
fields to snare larks for their private breakfast-tables.
Another generous invitation of my grandfather's ran
a narrow risk of having a tragic end. Not all his sense
of the obligation of a host nor his compassion for the
misfortunes of a gallant foe could at times restrain