ll respects
as a gentleman of courage and honour: and, conceiving that you owe
me some reparation, I shall rely on you that his prospects as a
soldier are not in any way compromised by the miscarriage of your
benevolent plans concerning me."

I laughed aloud, and even the Doctor relaxed his features.

"Bravo, kinsman!" said I. "If Marmont hates one thing more than another
it's to see his majestic image diminished in the looking-glass. But--
faith! I'd have kept that letter in my pocket until I was many miles
south of Bayonne."

"South? You don't suppose I had any intention of escaping towards the
Pyrenees? Why, my dear fellow, that's the very direction in which they
were bound to search."

"Oh, very well," said I--a trifle nettled, I will confess--"perhaps you
preferred Paris!"

"Precisely," was the cool answer. "I preferred Paris: and having but an
hour or two to spare before the hotels closed, I at once inquired at the
chief hotels if any French officer were starting that night for the
capital. The first-named, if I remember, the _Hotel du Sud_--I drew
blank. At the second, the _Trois Couronnes_, I was informed that a
chaise and four had been ordered by no less a man than General Souham,
who would start that night as soon as he returned from supping with the
Governor. I waited: the General arrived a few minutes before ten
o'clock: I introduced myself--"

"General Souham," I groaned. "Reverend father, I have not yet tasted
the wine of Rueda: it appears to me that the fumes are strong enough.
He tells me he introduced himself to General Souham!"

"--and, I assure you, found him excellent company. We travelled three
in the chaise--the General, his aide-de-camp, and your fortunate
kinsman. A second chaise followed with the General's baggage.
He and the aide-de-camp at times beguiled the road with a game of
picquet: for myself, I disapprove of cards."

"Doubtless you told them so at an early stage?" I suggested, with a last
effort at irony.

"I was obliged to, seeing that the General challenged me to a _partie_;
but I did not, I hope, adopt a tone inconsistent with good fellowship.
We travelled through to Paris, with a few hours' break at Orleans--an
opportunity which I seized to purchase a suit of clothes more congruous
than my uniform with the part I had to play in Paris. I had ventured to
ask General Souham's advice, and he assured me that a British officer,
though a prisoner on