terac had begun his retreat. For more
than an hour we awaited fresh orders, the colonel on horseback fuming
impatiently, until at last the word came to march.

"An hour thrown away," muttered the colonel angrily. "Canterac will
laugh in our faces."

To our disgust, we found that the column was attached to the main army,
and that we had to move step by step to the will of the chief. I knew
very little about military tactics, but it was a strange kind of
pursuit, and made me think of a tortoise chasing a hare.

"I wonder what Captain Plaza would think of this performance?" said the
colonel, rather bitterly, as we jogged along. "This isn't the way he
took you after Santalla, eh?"

"Indeed no, colonel!" I replied, laughing. "The captain would have had
us on the other side of Lima by now."

"It's like a funeral procession," he muttered impatiently; "and if they
don't mind, 'twill be a funeral procession in reality. We shall be
burying the independence of Peru."

The ridiculous part of it was that our column had been formed of all
the light companies on purpose to swoop down on the foe. As far as I
could judge, the swoop was much like that of a hawk whose wings had
been carefully tied to its body.

However, we tramped along throughout the night, halting at daybreak
without getting a glimpse of the exulting Canterac.

"Never mind," exclaimed the colonel, who hated to look on the dark side
of things; "we may catch them during the day."

In this he was disappointed, as we proceeded in the same leisurely
manner, just as if we were out for a quiet stroll on a summer's day.
Several times Miller rode off to the staff, but on each occasion he
returned looking more dissatisfied than before.

The men wondered, and at each halt the officers talked pretty freely
among themselves, giving their opinions with refreshing vigour.

"Canterac has the start of us now," said one, "and we shall never
overtake him. We had the game in our hands, and have simply thrown it
away."

The grizzled major remained optimistic, saying, "You may depend that
San Martin has some scheme in his head." But the rest of us were
doubtful.

"If I had an enemy in a trap, my scheme would be to keep him there and
not to let him walk out through an open door," laughed a young captain.
"The war might have been finished to-day; now it's likely to go on for
another twelvemonth."

"Well," remarked one of his comrades, "it's a comfort to think we
sha