le
stir in the camp, and I believed a general movement to be impending. I
supposed Marmont himself to be either with the main army or behind
in his headquarters at Sabugal, and within easy distance. It never
occurred to me--nor could it have occurred to any reasonable
man--to guess, upon no evidence, that a marshal of France had gone
gallivanting with six thousand horse and two brigades of infantry in
chase of a handful of undrilled militia.

"My impression was that his move, if he made one, would be a resolute
descent through Penamacor and upon Castello Branco. As a matter of
fact, although Victor Alten had abandoned that place to be held
by Lecor and his two thousand five hundred militiamen, the French
(constant to their policy of frittering away opportunities) merely
sent down two detachments of cavalry to menace it, and I believe that
my capture was the only success which befel them.

"Early on the 14th, and about an hour before these troops (dragoons
for the most part) began to descend the pass, I had posted myself with
Jose on one of the lower ridges and (as I imagined) well under cover
of the dwarf oaks which grew thickly there. They did indeed screen
us admirably from the squadrons I was watching, and they passed
unsuspecting within fifty yards of us. Believing them to be but an
advance guard, and that we should soon hear the tramp of the main
army, I kept my shelter for another ten minutes, and was prepared to
keep it for another hour, when Jose--whose eyes missed nothing--caught
me by the arm and pointed high up the hillside behind us.

"'Scouts!' he whispered. 'They have seen us, sir!'

"I glanced up and saw a pair of horsemen about two gunshots away
galloping down the uneven ridge towards us, with about a dozen in a
cluster close behind. We leapt into saddle at once, made off through
the oaks for perhaps a couple of hundred yards, and then wheeling
sharply struck back across the hillside towards Sabugal. We were still
in good cover, but the enemy had posted his men more thickly than
we had guessed, and by-and-by I crossed a small clearing and rode
straight into the arms of a dragoon. Providentially I came on him with
a suddenness which flurried his aim, and though he fired his pistol at
me point-blank he wounded neither me nor my horse. But hearing shouts
behind him in answer to the shot, we wheeled almost right-about and
set off straight down the hill.

"This new direction did not help us, however; fo