The innkeeper's daughter -- her name was Nell, or Nelly, or “Bold Nelly of the Hedge” –- explained to Firth why she abandoned kith and kin and joined her fortunes to the Horse of Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

“Oh, it's to be among gentlemen,” she said. “I do love a soldier, a gentleman soldier, so lovely in armour, and with their swords. And mounted, as they are, on their fine horses, what’s more lovely? You must admit, Mr William, it's a fair improvement chasing fleas from the sheets at Three Fauns.”