al. It is very certain that I discovered none. About a quarter
of a mile ahead of me and about the same distance back from the river
there stood a ruinous house which had been fired, but whether recently
or by the French I could not tell; once no doubt the country villa
of some well-to-do townsman, but now roofless, and showing smears of
black where the flames had licked its white outer walls. Towards this
I steered my way cautiously, that behind the shelter of an outbuilding
I might study the receding brigades at my leisure.

The form of the building was roughly a hollow square enclosing a
fair-sized patio, the entrance of which I had to cross to gain the
rearward premises and slip out of sight of the patrols. The gate of
this entrance had been torn off its hinges and now lay jammed aslant
across the passage; beyond it the patio lay heaped with bricks and
rubble, tiles, and charred beams. I paused for a moment and craned in
for a better look at the _debris_.

And then the sound of voices arrested me--a moment too late. I was
face to face with two French officers, one with a horse beside him.
They saw me, and on the instant ceased talking and stared; but without
changing their attitudes, which were clearly those of two disputants.
They stood perhaps four paces apart. Both were young men, and the
one whose attitude most suggested menace I recognised as a young
lieutenant of a line regiment (the 102nd) whom I had shaved that
morning. The other wore the uniform of a staff officer, and at the
first glance I read a touch of superciliousness in his indignant face.
His left hand held his horse's bridle, his other he still kept tightly
clenched while he stared at me.

"What the devil do _you_ want here?" demanded the lieutenant roughly
in bad Portuguese. "But, hallo!" he added, recognising me, and turned
a curious glance on the other.

"Who is it?" the staff officer asked.

"It's a barber; and I believe something of a surgeon. That's so, eh?"
He appealed to me.

"In a small way," I answered apologetically.

The lieutenant turned again to his companion. "He might do for us; the
sooner the better, unless--"

"Unless," interrupted the staff officer with cold politeness, "you
prefer the apology you owe me."

The lieutenant swung round again with a brusque laugh. "Look here,
have you your instruments about you?"

For answer I held up my bottle with the one absurd leech dormant at
the bottom. He laughed again just as har