hey puffed their cigars, displayed an over-anxiety to seem
unconcerned.

That the English were piqued at their bearing was still more plain to
see; and indeed, in the sullen looks of the one, and the careless gaiety
of the other party, a stranger might readily have mistaken the captor
for the captive.

My two friends of the evening before were in the midst of the group. He
who had questioned me so sharply now wore a general officer's uniform,
and seemed to be the chief in command. As I watched him I heard him
addressed by an officer, and now saw that he was no other than Lord
Cavan himself, while the other was a well-known magistrate and country
gentleman, Sir George Hill.

The sad procession took almost half an hour to defile; and then came a
long string of country cars and carts, with sea-chests and other
stores belonging to our officers, and, last of all, some eight or ten
ammunition-waggons and gun-carriages, over which an English union-jack
now floated in token of conquest.

There was nothing like exultation or triumph exhibited by the peasantry
as this pageant passed. They gazed in silent wonderment at the scene,
and looked like men who scarcely knew whether the result boded more of
good or evil to their own fortunes. While keenly scrutinising the looks
and bearing of the bystanders, I received a summons to meet the general
and his party at breakfast.

Although the occurrence was one of the most pleasurable incidents of my
life, which brought me once more into intercourse with my comrades and
my countrymen, I should perhaps pass it over with slight mention, were
it not that it made me witness to a scene which has since been recorded
in various different ways, but of whose exact details I profess to be an
accurate narrator.

After making a tour of the room, saluting my comrades, answering
questions here, putting others there, I took my place at the long table,
which, running the whole length of the apartment, was indiscriminately
occupied by French and English, and found myself with my back to
the fireplace, and having directly in front of me a man of about
thirty-three or thirty-four years of age, dressed in the uniform of a
_chef de brigade_; light-haired and blue-eyed, he bore no resemblance
whatever to those around him, whose dark faces and black beards
proclaimed them of a foreign origin. There was an air of mildness in his
manner, mingled with a certain impetuosity that betrayed itself in the
rapid gl