to be,--in the advanced
guard of the army. I have nothing to say on the subject of your conduct
in the field. I know _you_; but if in pursuit of the enemy, I hear of any
misconduct towards the people of the country, or any transgression of the
general orders regarding pillage, by G----, I'll punish you as severely as
the worst corps in the service, and you know _me!_"

"Oh, tear an ages, listen to that; and there's to be no plunder after all!"
said Mickey Free; and for an instant the most I could do was not to burst
into a fit of laughter. The word, "Forward!" was given at the moment, and
we moved past in close column, while that penetrating eye, which seemed to
read our very thoughts, scanned us from one end of the line to the other.

"I say, Charley," said the captain of my troop, in a whisper,--"I say, that
confounded cheer we gave got us that lesson; he can't stand that kind of
thing."

"By Jove! I never felt more disposed than to repeat it," said I.

"No, no, my boy, we'll give him the honors, nine times nine; but wait till
evening. Look at old Merivale there. I'll swear he's saying something
devilish civil to him. Do you see the old fellow's happy look?"

And so it was; the bronzed, hard-cast features of the veteran soldier
were softened into an expression of almost boyish delight, as he sat,
bare-headed, bowing to his very saddle, while Lord Wellington was speaking.

As I looked, my heart throbbed painfully against my side, my breath came
quick, and I muttered to myself, "What would I not give to be in his place
now!"

CHAPTER XX.

THE RETREAT OF THE FRENCH.

It is not my intention, were I even adequate to the task, to trace with
anything like accuracy the events of the war at this period. In fact, to
those who, like myself, were performing a mere subaltern character, the
daily movements of our own troops, not to speak of the continual changes
of the enemy, were perfectly unknown, and an English newspaper was more
ardently longed for in the Peninsula than by the most eager crowd of a
London coffee-room; nay, the results of the very engagements we were
ourselves concerned in, more than once, first reached us through the press
of our own country. It is easy enough to understand this. The officer in
command of the regiment, and how much more, the captain of a troop, or the
subaltern under him, knows nothing beyond the sphere of his own immediate
duty; by the success or failure of his own party his k