we should in any other way."

Several of the officers left the room, and soon returned with their
maps.

"I feel almost like a schoolmaster," Terence laughed. "But indeed,
as our work consisted almost entirely of rapid marching, which you
would scarcely be able to follow without maps, it may really be
useful, if we campaign across there, to know something of the
roads, and the position of the towns and villages."

Then he proceeded to relate all that had taken place, first
describing the incidents of the battle, and their work among the
mountains.

"You understand," he said, "that my orders were not so much to do
injury to the enemy, as to deceive him as to the amount of our
force, and to lead them to believe it to be very much stronger than
it really was. This could only be done by rapid marches and, as you
will see, the main object was to cut all his lines of communication,
and at the same time to show ourselves, in force, at points a
considerable distance apart. To effect this we, on several occasions,
marched upwards of sixty miles in a day; and upwards of forty,
several days in succession; a feat that could hardly be accomplished
except by men at once robust, and well accustomed to mountain work,
and trained to long marches; as those of my regiment have been, since
they were first raised."

Then taking out a copy of his report, he gave in much fuller detail
than in the report, itself, an account of the movements of the
various columns and flying parties, during the first ten days; and
then, more briefly, their operations between Burgos and Valladolid,
ending up by saying:

"You see, colonel, there was really nothing out of the way in all
this. We had the advantage of having a great number of men who knew
the country intimately; and the cutting of all their communications,
the exaggerated reports brought to them by the peasants, and the
maintenance of our posts round Salamanca and Zamora while we were
operating near Burgos and Valladolid, impressed the commanders of
these towns with such an idea of our strength, and such uneasiness
as to their communications that, after the reverse to their column,
none of them ever ventured to attack us in earnest."

"That is no doubt true," the colonel said, "but to have done all
this when--with the reinforcements sent up, and the very strong
garrison at four of the towns, to say nothing of the division of
Burgos--they had forty thousand men disposable, is a task that