ch had been burned down and
was now only a landmark, then through a forest of young cork oaks, and
so to the monastery of San Antonio, which marked the left of the English
position. Here I turned south and rode quietly over the downs, for it
was at this point that Massena thought that it would be most easy for me
to find my way unobserved through the position. I went very slowly, for
it was so dark that I could not see my hand in front of me. In such
cases I leave my bridle loose and let my horse pick its own way.
Voltigeur went confidently forward, and I was very content to sit upon
his back and to peer about me, avoiding every light. For three hours we
advanced in this cautious way, until it seemed to me that I must have
left all danger behind me. I then pushed on more briskly, for I wished
to be in the rear of the whole army by daybreak. There are many
vineyards in these parts which in winter become open plains, and a
horseman finds few difficulties in his way.

But Massena had underrated the cunning of these English, for it appears
that there was not one line of defence, but three, and it was the third,
which was the most formidable, through which I was at that instant
passing. As I rode, elated at my own success, a lantern flashed
suddenly before me, and I saw the glint of polished gun-barrels and the
gleam of a red coat.

"Who goes there?" cried a voice--such a voice! I swerved to the right
and rode like a madman, but a dozen squirts of fire came out of the
darkness, and the bullets whizzed all round my ears. That was no new
sound to me, my friends, though I will not talk like a foolish conscript
and say that I have ever liked it. But at least it had never kept me
from thinking clearly, and so I knew that there was nothing for it but
to gallop hard and try my luck elsewhere. I rode round the English
picket, and then, as I heard nothing more of them, I concluded rightly
that I had at last come through their defences. For five miles I rode
south, striking a tinder from time to time to look at my pocket compass.
And then in an instant--I feel the pang once more as my memory brings
back the moment--my horse, without a sob or stagger, fell stone dead
beneath me!

I had not known it, but one of the bullets from that infernal picket had
passed through his body. The gallant creature had never winced nor
weakened, but had gone while life was in him. One instant I was secure
on the swiftest, most graceful h