s overpowering. The convoy, however, had marched at six in
the morning; and halted at eight, in the shade of a large olive
wood; and did not continue its march until five in the afternoon.
The night was so warm that the English prisoners, and many of their
guards, preferred lying down in the open and throwing the blanket
(with which each had been furnished) over him to keep off the dew,
to going into the stuffy cottages, where the fleas would give them
little chance of rest.

On the third day they arrived at the village of Escurial. The next
morning they began to mount the pass over the Sierra, and slept
that night in an empty barracks, at Segovia. Here they left the
main road leading through Valladolid and took one more to the east,
stopping at small villages until they arrived at Aranda, on the
Douro. Thence they marched due north, to Gamonal.

They were now on the main road to the frontier, passed through
Miranda and Zadorra, and began to ascend the slopes of the
Pyrenees. The marches had, for some days, been considerably longer
than when they first started. The invalids had gained strength and,
having no muskets to carry, were for the most part able to march
eighteen or twenty miles without difficulty. Four had been left
behind in hospital at Segovia, but with these exceptions all had
greatly benefited by steady exercise, and an ample supply of food.

"I could do a good deal of travelling, in this way," one of the
officers said, as they marched out from Miranda. "Just enough
exercise to be pleasant; no trouble about baggage or route, or
where one is to stop for the night; nothing to pay, and everything
managed for you. What could one want for, more?"

"We could do with a little less dust," Dick Ryan said, with a
laugh; "but we cannot expect everything."

"Unfortunately, there will be an end to our marching, and not a
very pleasant one," Terence said. "At present, one scarcely
recognizes that one is a prisoner. The French officers certainly do
all in their power to make us forget it; and their soldiers, and
ours, try their best to hold some sort of conversation together. I
feel that I am making great progress in French, and it is
especially jolly when we halt for the night, and get the bivouac
fires burning, and chat and laugh with the French officers as
though we were the best friends in the world."

The march was, indeed, conducted in a comfortable and easy fashion.
At starting, the prisoners marched four a