stupefaction; while others, exhausted
by the efforts of the day, threw themselves down and slept.

Mike was away half an hour.

"I have got an officer's cloak for you, and a helmet with
feathers. I think he must have been a staff officer, who was
killed while delivering his orders. I have got a soldier's
overcoat and shako for myself."

"Capital, Mike! Now I think that we can venture, and we will go
the shortest way. We might very well lose ourselves among these
hills, if we were to try to make a circuit."

Having put the Dutch uniforms over their own, they set out, taking
the way to the left until they came to the main road by which the
British reserve had advanced. Then they mounted their horses.

"It is no use trying to make our way through the broken ground,
Mike. There is another road that goes through Huerne. We will
strike that, and must so get round on the right of the enemy. Even
if we come upon them, we are not likely to excite suspicion, as we
shall be on a road leading from Oudenarde.

"I was noticing that road from the height. It runs into this
again, near Mullen, and the enemy are not likely to have posted
themselves so near to the river."

They rode on through Huerne. The village was full of wounded. No
one paid them any attention, and they again went on, until
suddenly they were challenged with the usual "Who comes there?"

"A staff officer, with despatches," Desmond replied.

He heard the butt of the soldier's musket drop upon the ground,
and rode forward.

"Can you tell me, my man," he said as he reached the sentinel,
"where the Duke of Marlborough is to be found?"

"I don't know, sir," the man replied. "Only our regiment is here.
I know there are a number of cavalry away there on the left, and I
heard someone say that the duke himself was there. There is a
crossroad, a hundred yards farther on, which will lead you to
them."

Thanking the man, Desmond rode on. A few bivouac fires had been
lighted, and these were already beginning to burn low, the troops
having dropped asleep almost as soon as they halted.

"I hope we shall meet no more of them, Mike," Desmond said, as
they went on at a brisk trot. "I sha'n't feel quite safe till we
get to Mullen."

They met, however, with no further interruption. As they crossed
the bridge, they halted, took off the borrowed uniforms, threw
away the headgear and put on their own hats, which they carried
under their cloaks, and then rode on up the h