were a good many British officers in the town, no special
attention was given to Terence as he walked along through the
street, which was gay with flags. When he reached the house in the
lane, the old man was standing at the door.

"Nita is in now, senor. She has not told me why you wanted to see
her. She said it was better that she should not do so, but she
thought she knew who it was."

The girl clapped her hands, as he entered the room to which the old
man pointed.

"Then it is you, Senor Colonello. I wondered, when we heard the
English were coming, if you would be with them. Of course, I heard
from Garcia that you had gone safely on board a ship at Cadiz. Then
I wondered whether, if you did come here, you would remember me."

"Then that was very bad of you, Nita. You ought to have been quite
sure that I should remember you. If I had not done so, I should
have been an ungrateful rascal, and should have deserved to die in
the next French prison I got into."

"How well you speak Spanish now, senor!"

"Yes; that was principally due to Garcia, but partly from having
been in Spain for six weeks, last autumn. I was with Moras, and we
gave the French a regular scare."

"Then it was you, senor! We heard that an English officer was in
command of the troops who cut all the roads, and took numbers of
French prisoners, and defeated 5000 of their troops and, as they
said, nearly captured Valladolid and Burgos."

"That was an exaggeration, Nita. Still, we managed to do them a
good deal of damage, and kept the French in this part of the
country pretty busy.

"And now, Nita, I have come to fulfil my promise," and he handed
her the box in which the jeweller had packed up his purchases.

"These are for your wedding, Nita, and if it comes off while we are
in this part of the country, I shall come and dance at it."

The girl uttered cries of delight, as she opened parcel after
parcel.

"Oh, senor, it is too much, too much altogether!" she cried, as she
laid them all out on the table before her.

"Not a bit of it," Terence said. "But for you, I should be in
prison now. If they had been ten times as many, and ten times as
costly, I should still have felt your debtor, all my life.

"And where is Garcia now?"

"He has gone to join Morillo," she said. "He always said that, as
soon as the English came to our help, he should go out; so, six
weeks ago, he sold all his mules and bought a gun, and went off."

"I am sorry no