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authorities would probably content themselves with sending a
message by a trooper, to all the towns and villages on that road,
to arrest any suspicious persons travelling without proper papers.

On the line they were pursuing, the risk of interference was very
small. The marshal's pass would be certainly respected by the
officers of the corps under his command; and it was not until they
fell in with parties of Soult's troops that any unpleasantness was
to be apprehended; though even here the worst that could be looked
for, if they met any large body of troops, would be that the mules
might be taken, for a time, for service in the army.

After a long day's journey they halted, for the night, at a
village. Here they found that the troops marching south had
encamped close at hand for the night, and the resources of the
place had been completely exhausted. This mattered but little, as
they carried a week's store of bread, black sausage, cheese,
onions, garlic, and capsicums. The landlord of the little inn
furnished them with a cooking pot; and a sort of stew, which
Terence found by no means unpalatable, was concocted. The mules
were hobbled and turned out on to the plain to graze; for the whole
of the forage of the village had been requisitioned, for the use of
the cavalry and baggage animals of the French column.

On the following morning they struck off from the road they had
been following and, travelling for sixteen hours, came down on it
again at the foot of the pass of Bejar; and learned from some
peasants that they had got ahead of the French column, which was
encamped two or three miles down the road. Before daybreak they
were on their way again, and reached Banos in the afternoon. There
were but few inhabitants remaining here; for the requisitions for
food and forage, made by the troops that had so frequently passed
through the defiles, were such that the position of the inhabitants
had become intolerable and, when they learned from Garcia that two
divisions of French troops would most probably arrive that evening,
and that Marmont's whole army would follow, most of the inhabitants
who remained hastily packed their most valuable belongings in
carts, and drove away into the hills.

The landlord of the largest inn, however, stood his ground. He was
doing well; and the principal officers of troops passing through
always took up their quarters with him, paid him fairly for their
meals and saw that, whatever exa