n driving his mule along through
the rugged ascent of that breach to win whose top the best blood of
Albion's chivalry was shed; and the peasant child looked timidly from those
dark enclosures in the deep fosse below, where perished hundreds of our
best and bravest. The air was calm, clear, and unclouded; no smoke obscured
the transparent atmosphere; the cannon had ceased; and the voices that rang
so late in accents of triumphant victory were stilled in death. Everything,
indeed, had undergone a mighty change; but nothing brought the altered
fortunes of the scene so vividly to my mind as when I remembered that when
last I had seen those walls, the dark shako of the French grenadiers
peered above their battlements, and now the gay tartan of the Highlanders
fluttered above them, and the red flag of England waved boldly in the
breeze.

Up to that moment my sensations were those of unmixed pleasure. The thought
of my home, my friends, my country, the feeling that I was returning with
the bronze of the battle upon my cheek, and the voice of praise still
ringing in my heart,--these were proud thoughts, and my bosom heaved short
and quickly as I revolved them; but as I turned my gaze for the last time
towards the gallant army I was leaving, a pang of sorrow, of self-reproach,
shot through me, and I could not help feeling how far less worthily was
I acting in yielding to the impulse of my wishes, than had I remained to
share the fortunes of the campaign.

So powerfully did these sensations possess me, that I sat motionless for
some time, uncertain whether to proceed; forgetting that I was the bearer
of important information, I only remembered that by my own desire I was
there; my reason but half convinced me that the part I had adopted was
right and honorable, and more than once my resolution to proceed hung in
the balance. It was just at this critical moment of my doubts that Mike,
who had been hitherto behind, came up.

"Is it the upper road, sir?" said he, pointing to a steep and rugged path
which led by a zigzag ascent towards the crest of the mountain.

I nodded in reply, when he added:--

"Doesn't this remind your honor of Sleibh More, above the Shannon, where we
used to be grouse shooting? And there's the keeper's house in the valley;
and that might be your uncle, the master himself, waving his hat to you."

Had he known the state of my conflicting feelings at the moment, he could
not more readily have decided this