shes to keep you
with him. It is certainly an honourable post; but I fancy you are
likely to get many hard knocks," he concluded, with a laugh.

"He has had a strong taste of the service, general," observed Miller,
with a merry smile.--"Are you willing to stay with me, Crawford?"

"Yes, certainly, sir, with the general's permission."

"Very well," said San Martin. "And, by the way, colonel, let him have
on hour's sleep now and again,"--a little joke at which the group of
officers, knowing the Englishman's habits, laughed heartily.

The general presently rode off to his quarters, the officers went to
their several duties, and I accompanied Colonel Miller to that part of
the field in which his men were stationed. He had been appointed to
the command of a column seven hundred strong, which was held in
readiness to move at any moment. The officers were unknown to me, but
they seemed pleasant, genial fellows, and in a short time I felt quite
at home with them. The younger ones were grumbling because San Martin
did not at once attack the enemy, saying that Canterac would slip away
to the mountains in the night.

"Then his army will break up of its own accord," remarked a grizzled
major. "He can't take his guns, and his troops are starving. Hundreds
will throw down their weapons on finding us close at their heels."

"Better have a straight fight and have done with it," grumbled a
youngster. "There's no fun playing at hide-and-seek in the hills."

"Should you live to be a man," said the major reprovingly, "you won't
talk in such a light-hearted way of a battle." And the boy's face
flushed at the laugh which greeted the remark.

"Don't be too sarcastic, Gamarra," cried another. "The youngster's
right in the main. If Canterac escapes, the war may drag on for
months, and will cost thousands of lives. The mountains will kill more
than a pitched battle would."

"Canterac can't escape if we follow him up properly," said the major,
"and Colonel Miller seems the man to do that."

"That is so; but he can't move without orders; and there's more than
one man in high places who will prefer Lima to a pursuit."

Thus they talked during the afternoon, and early in the evening Colonel
Miller ordered that every one not on duty should turn in at once; which
we took to be a sign that something was going to happen shortly.

At ten o'clock the column was roused. The men assembled silently, and
a whisper went round that Can