will be light
then. It looks to me as if it were a thick fog."

"You are right about my early hours, and I admit I have been
restless. It is not a pleasant idea that, but a mile away, there is
an army big enough to eat us up; and nothing whatever to prevent
their pouncing upon us, at any moment, except two or three
batteries. The marshal was saying, last night, he should regard it
as the most fortunate escape he ever had, if we drew off safely
tonight without being attacked.

"That firing is heavier than usual. There go a couple of guns!"

"Those two advanced pieces are sending a round or two of case shot
into the bushes, I suppose," Lindsay said drowsily.

Fergus completed his dressing, and went downstairs and out into the
night. Here he could hear much better than in the room above; which
had but one loophole for air and light, and that was almost stopped
up, with a wisp of straw. He could now plainly hear volley firing,
and a continued crackle of musketry. He ran upstairs again.

"You had better get your things on at once, Lindsay. It is a more
serious affair than usual. I shall take it upon myself to wake the
marshal."

He went to Keith's door, knocked, and opened it.

"Who is there? What is it?" the marshal asked.

"It is I, Drummond, sir. There is heavy firing going on to the
right, much heavier than it has been any other night."

"What o'clock is it?"

"About ten minutes past five, sir. There is a thick mist, and it is
pitch dark. Shall I go over and inquire what is going on?"

"Yes, do. I expect that those rascally Croats have been reinforced,
and are trying to find out whether we are still in our positions."

"I will be back as soon as I can, sir."

Fergus ran round to the low range of sheds in which their horses
were stabled.

"Karl, are you there?" he shouted.

"Yes, major," a voice said, close at hand. "I am listening to all
that firing."

"Saddle up at once. You may as well ride with me. I am going to see
what it is all about."

A lantern was burning in the shed, and by its light Fergus and the
orderly rapidly saddled the horses.

"You had better light two more lanterns, Karl. Leave the one on the
wall burning. We will take the others. We shall want them, for one
cannot see a horse's length away; and if we had not the sound of
firing to guide us, we should soon lose our way altogether."

The light enabled them to go at a fairly fast trot, but they
trusted rather to their horses' th