keep the
matter secret."

"You may trust us for that, Terence, for it is a secret worth
knowing. It is evident that Sir Arthur is going to join Cuesta, and
make a dash on Madrid. Well, he has been long enough in making up
his mind; but it is a satisfaction that we are likely to have hot
work, at last, though I wish we could have done it without those
Spaniards. We have seen enough of them to know that nothing, beyond
kind words, are to be expected of them and, when the time for
fighting comes, I would rather that we depended upon ourselves than
have to act with fellows on whom there is no reliance, whatever, to
be placed."

"I agree with you there, heartily, O'Grady. However, thank goodness
we are going to set out at last; and I am very glad that it falls
to us to act as the vanguard of the army, instead of being attached
to Beresford's command and kept stationary in the passes.

"Now I must be at work. I daresay we shall meet again, before
long."

Terence wrote an acknowledgment of the receipt of the general's
order, and handed it to the orderly who had brought it. A bugler at
once sounded the field-officers' call.

"We are to march at once," he said, when Herrara, Bull, and
Macwitty arrived. "Let the tents be struck, and handed over to the
quartermaster's department. See that the men have four days'
biscuit in their haversacks.

"Each battalion is to take three carts with it. I will go to the
quartermaster's department, to draw them. Tell off six men from
each battalion to accompany me, and take charge of the carts. Each
battalion will carry 25,000 rounds of spare ammunition, and a chest
of 250 pounds. I will requisition from the commissariat as much
biscuit as we can carry, and twenty bullocks for each battalion, to
be driven with the carts.

"As soon as the carts are obtained, the men will drive them to the
ordnance stores for the ammunition, and to the commissariat stores
to load up the food. You had better send an officer in charge of
the men of each battalion.

"I will myself draw the money from the paymaster. I will go there
at once. Send a couple of men with me, for of course it will be
paid in silver. Then I will go to the quartermaster's stores, and
get the carts ready by the time that the men arrive. I want to
march in an hour's time, at latest."

In a few minutes the camp was a scene of bustle and activity. The
tents were struck and packed away in their bags, and piled in order
to be handed