, last night. What horrors we should have
suffered, had it not been for your interposition!"

"I am delighted to have been of service to you, senora. It was my
duty, and it was a very pleasurable one, I can assure you; and I
pray you to say no more about it."

"How is it that you speak Spanish so well, senor?" the countess
asked, after her daughters had shyly expressed their gratitude to
Terence.

"I owe it chiefly to a muleteer of Salamanca. I was a prisoner
there last year, and he accompanied me for a month, after I had
made my escape from the prison. Also, I owe much to the guerilla
chief Moras, with whom I acted for six weeks, last autumn. I had
learned a little of your language before and, speaking Portuguese
fluently, I naturally picked it up without any great difficulty."

"Your name is not unknown to us, colonel," the count said. "Living
so close to the frontier as we do, we naturally know much of what
passes in Portugal; and heard you spoken of as a famous leader of a
strong Portuguese regiment, that seems to have been in the thick of
all the fighting. But we heard that you had been taken prisoner by
the French, at the battle of Fuentes d'Onoro."

"Yes, I had the misfortune to be captured by them, and was sent to
Salamanca; but I escaped by the aid of a girl who sold fruit in the
prison. A muleteer took me with him on a journey to Cadiz, and
thence I came round to Lisbon by ship."

"You seem very young to have seen so much service, if you will
excuse my saying so, colonel."

Terence smiled.

"I have had great luck, senor; extraordinary luck."

"Ah, colonel! We know how well you have deserved that luck, as you
call it; and you would never have been in command of such a
regiment if you had not done something very much out of the way to
attract the attention of your commanders."

"I was not appointed to the regiment. I raised it myself; that is
to say, I came upon a number of Portuguese who had been called out
for service, but who had neither leader nor arms. Being anxious to
fight for their country, they asked me to be their leader, and I
accepted the offer. I found them docile and obedient and, with the
aid of two British troopers with me, a Spanish officer, and twelve
of his troopers, I established something like order and discipline
and, as we were fortunate in our first affair with the enemy, they
had faith in me, and I was able to raise them to a point of
discipline which is, I think, now quite