ter a spy, it seems, who has been practising here as a
barber. They say even the famous McNeill."

I rode through the gateway and spurred my horse to a trot again,
heading him down a side street to the right. This took me some
distance out of my way, but anything was preferable to the risk of
meeting the lieutenant, and I believed that I had yet some minutes to
spare before the second gunfire.

In this I was mistaken. The gun boomed out just as I came in sight of
the bridge gate, and the lieutenant of the guard appeared clanking out
on the instant to close the heavy doors. I spurred my horse and dashed
down at a canter, hailing loudly:--

"A spy!--a barber fellow; here, hold a minute!"

"Yes, we have had warning half an hour ago. Nobody has passed out
since."

"At the gate below," I panted, "they sighted him; and he made for the
river--tried to swim it. Run out your men and bring them along to
search the bank!"

He began to shout orders. I galloped through the gate and hailed the
sentry at the _tete du pont_. "A spy!" I shouted--"in the river. Keep
your eyes open if he makes the bank!"

The fellow drew aside, and I clattered past him with a dozen soldiers
at my heels fastening their belts and looking to their muskets as they
ran. Once over the bridge I headed to the right again along the left
bank of the river.

"This way! This way! Keep your eyes open!"

I was safe now. In the rapidly falling dusk, still increasing the
distance between us, I led them down past the town and opposite the
astonished patrols on the meadow bank. Even then, when I wheeled to
the left and galloped for the high road, it did not occur to them to
suspect me, nor shall I ever know when first it dawned on them that
they had been fooled. Certainly not a shot was sent after me, and I
settled down for a steady gallop northward, pleasantly assured of
being at least twenty minutes ahead of any effective pursuit.

I was equally well assured of overtaking the brigades, but my
business, of course, was to avoid and get ahead of them. And with this
object, after an hour's brisk going, I struck a hill-track to the left
which, as I remembered (having used it on my journey from Badajoz), at
first ran parallel with the high road for two miles or more and then
cut two considerable loops which the road followed along the valley
bottom.

Recent rains had unloosed the springs on the mountain side and set
them chattering so loudly that I must have rei