Note 99 — THE BATTLE.
Reading edition
There has been a discussion respecting the word pueros, some supposing that the parties thus addressed were young soldiers, inexperienced recruits. It is probable, however, that the word is equivalent to the phrase, “lads” among us, or the word “boys” in the lines which carried so much terror to the heart of James the Second, after he had seen a specimen of the stalwart youth which Cornwall produces—
“And must Trelawney die, and must Trelawney die? Then twenty thousand Cornish boys will ask the reason why.”