osing yourself, for I wouldn't have those
blue facings destroyed for a week's pay."

"Ah, then, it's yourself is the darling, Doctor, dear!" said a voice behind
me. I turned round; it was Mickey Free, who was standing with a most
profound admiration of Maurice beaming in every feature of his face. "It's
yourself has a joke for every hour o' the day."

"Get to the rear, Mike, get to the rear with the cattle; this is no place
for you or them."

"Good-night, Mickey," said Maurice.

"Good-night, your honor," muttered Mike to himself; "may I never die till
you set a leg for me."

"Are you dressed for the ball?" said Maurice, fastening the white tape upon
my arm. "There now, my boy, move on, for I think I hear Picton's voice; not
that it signifies now, for he's always in a heavenly temper when any one's
going to be killed. I'm sure he'd behave like an angel, if he only knew the
ground was mined under his feet."

"Charley, Charley!" called out O'Shaughnessy, in a suppressed voice, "come
up quickly!"

"No. 24, John Forbes--here! Edward Gillespie--here!"

"Who leads this party, Major O'Shaughnessy?"

"Mr. Beauclerc, sir," replied O'Shaughnessy, pushing me forward by the arm
while he spoke.

"Keep your people together, sir; spare the powder, and trust to your cold
iron." He grasped my hand within his iron grip, and rode on.

"Who was it, Dennis?" said I.

"Don't you know him, Charley? That was Picton."

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE STORMING OF CIUDAD RODRIGO.

Whatever the levity of the previous moment, the scene before us now
repressed it effectually. The deep-toned bell of the cathedral tolled
seven, and scarcely were its notes dying away in the distance, when the
march of the columns was heard stealing along the ground. A low murmuring
whisper ran along the advanced files of the forlorn hope; stocks were
loosened; packs and knapsacks thrown to the ground; each man pressed his
cap more firmly down upon his brow, and with lip compressed and steadfast
eye, waited for the word to move.

It came at last: the word "March!" passed in whispers from rank to rank,
and the dark mass moved on. What a moment was that as we advanced to the
foot of the breach! The consciousness that at the same instant, from
different points of that vast plain, similar parties were moving on; the
feeling that at a word the flame of the artillery and the flash of steel
would spring from that dense cloud, and death and carnage, in every shape