ey was a rough sketch map showing the
crossroads, rivers, bridges, and other particulars. The general
took the bulky report, sat down and read a page here and there, and
glanced at the maps. He looked up approvingly.

"Very good, indeed, Colonel O'Connor. If all officers would take
advantage of their opportunities, as you have done, the drudgery my
staff have to do would be very much lightened, and they would not
be constantly working in the dark."

He handed the report to the adjutant general.

"This may be of great utility when an advance begins," he said.
"You had better have two or three copies of it made. It will be
useful to the quartermaster's department, as well as to yourself;
and of great assistance to the officers in command of any detached
parties that may be despatched to gather in supplies, or to keep in
check an enemy advancing on our flank. Some day, when I can find
time, I will read the whole report myself.

"It will be well to have a dozen copies made of the first five or
six pages, and the maps, for the perusal of any officer sent out
with a detachment on scouting duty, as a model of the sort of
report that an officer should send in of his work, when on such
duty."

The party at dinner was a small one, consisting only of some five
or six officers of the headquarter staff, and two generals of
divisions. After dinner, Lord Wellington asked Terence how he
escaped from Salamanca, and the latter briefly related the
particulars of his evasion.

"This is the second time you have escaped from a French prison,"
Lord Wellington said, when he had finished. "The last time, if I
remember rightly, you escaped from Bayonne in a boat."

"But you did not get to England in that boat, surely, Colonel
O'Connor?" one of the generals laughed.

"No, sir; we were driven off shore by a gale, and picked up by a
French privateer. We escaped from her as she was lying in port at
Brest, made our way to the mouth of the river Sienne, about nine
miles north of Granville; and then, stealing another boat, started
for Jersey. We were chased by a French privateer but, before she
came up to us, a Jersey privateer arrived and engaged her. While
the fight was going on we got on board the Jersey boat, which
finally captured the Frenchman, and took her into port."

"And from there, I suppose, you found your way to England, and
enjoyed a short rest from your labours?"

"No, sir. The captain of the privateer, who thought that we