, (she had pressed close up beside
him,) "Pray ride back a little way, and take the ladies with you."

"I will, but what is the matter?"

"The road seems to be occupied. But go at once, and take them with
you."

"I wish it were daylight!" said she, trying to laugh off her
trepidation. "Adventures by night are more than I bargained for. Come
ladies, follow me."

"Tom," said L'Isle to his groom, without turning his head, but gazing
steadily at the dark object across the water, "Follow Lady Mabel."

"Better send the Doctor, sir," said Tom, doggedly. "He has not sword
or pistol."

"Whoever they are," said L'Isle to Cranfield, "they have posted
themselves badly for surprise or attack. Let us form here on the slope
of the bank, and if they attempt to cross, fall on them as they come
out of the water."

Officers and servants fell into line--a badly armed troop, with
infantry swords, and some without pistols. Meanwhile, L'Isle sent
Hatton's down to the edge of the river to challenge the opposite
party.

Now, Hatton's knowledge of foreign tongues was pretty much limited to
those vituperative epithets which are first and oftenest heard in
every language. He rode down to the edge of the water, and proceeded
loudly to anathamatize his opponents in Portuguese, Spanish and French
successively. Having exhausted his foreign vocabulary, he hurled at
them some well shotted English phrases--but the heretics did not heed
the damnatory clauses, even in plain English. Not a word could he get
in reply from them. L'Isle literally and figuratively in the dark,
grew impatient, and announced his intention to commence a pistol
practice on them that would draw out some demonstration. He rode down
to the water's edge, and was leveling a long pistol at the middle of
the dark mass, when some epithet of Hatton's more stinging than any he
had yet invented, proved too much for Goring's gravity. He began to
laugh, and the contagion seized every dragoon of the party. The mask
of hostility fell off, and they were instantly recognized as friends,
to the great relief of those on the other bank.

Provoked as they were at this practical joke, their position had been
too ridiculous not to be amusing. After a hearty laugh, they hastened
to bring back the ladies, who were not found close at hand, for Dona
Carlotta and her friends had been posting back to Badajoz, and Lady
Mabel had only succeeded in stopping them by the assurance that the
road was dou