John Lacy’s The Old Troop; or, Monsieur Raggou draws inspiration from the English Civil War (1642-1651). The play was printed for the first time in 1672, but it had been played in 1664. It is believed that Lacy played Raggou.

Although the play deals with a serious topic (the anger of countryside dwellers who were forced to accommodate soldiers during the Civil War), The Old Troop is a comical work.

The play was written for actors, but a short puppet play is performed during scene 4 of act 4. This comedy sketch, in which the character Raggou tricks his pursuers and avoids being hanged at the gallows, mixes politics with religion, and lasciviousness with street performance. It plays unrelated and implausible episodes one after the other. These episodes are performed using a curiosité.

Raggou, a French rogue, has been sentenced to death by hanging and is running away from the police. He meets another Frenchman, a puppeteer on his way to the Bristol Fair with his puppet booth. The runaway buys the booth and swaps his clothes with the puppeteer’s to trick his pursuers. When the two policemen ask if he has seen a French runaway, Raggou, dressed as a puppeteer, is forced to improvise a short performance. He then stages three acts, in which the king of Spain plays the bagpipes for his privy council while king Solomon is passing sentence; the queen of Swiveland and the Whore of Babylon vie to be the most lustful; the king of Norway and Denmark teaches the bishop of Munsera how to juggle.

Flea-fint, a looter sentenced to death by hanging and pursued by the police, offers to buy Raggou’s puppet booth and to swap clothes with him. Raggou agrees and flees. Since he would not know how to stage a puppet play, Flea-fint comes up with a plan in case someone asked him to—the key is in Bristol, therefore he cannot open the booth. The true puppeteer comes back, accompanied by policemen. He asks Flea-Flint to give him back his possessions. Flea-flint is thus sentenced to death by hanging, but the policemen do not know how to hang him: instead, they plunder him and spare his life.