thing like a drawn battle. We claimed
the victory, because they fell back the next morning, and they claimed
it because they had repulsed all our attacks. However, we reaped the
benefit; they really fell back, because those rascally Spaniards they
were fighting for, starved them; and, besides that, we had two other
divisions marching to interpose between them and Portugal, and that old
fox Wellington saw that unless he went off as fast as he could, he would
be caught in a trap.

"They got a good start of us, but we followed, and three nights after
Talavera two companies of us were quartered for the night in the village
right out on the flank of the line we were following. Well, I got hold
of a skin of as good wine as ever I drank. Two or three of us stole out
to enjoy it quietly and comfortably, and so thoroughly did we do it,
that I suppose I somehow mistook my way back to my quarters, wandered
aside, and then lay down to sleep. I must have slept soundly, for I
heard neither bugle nor drum. When I awoke the sun was high, and there
was a group of ugly-looking Spaniards standing near me. I tried to jump
up on to my feet, but found that my arms and legs were both tied.
However, I managed to sit up and looked round. Not a sign of our uniform
was there to be seen; but a cloud of dust rising from the plain, maybe
ten miles away, showed where the army had gone.

"Well, I gave it up at once. A single French soldier had never found
mercy at the hands of the Spaniards, and I only wondered that they had
not cut my throat at once, instead of taking the trouble to fasten me
up. I knew enough of their language to get along with, and, putting as
bold a face as I could on it, I asked them what they had tied me up for.
They laughed in an unpleasant sort of way, and then went away. 'Let me
have a drink of water,' I said, for my throat was nearly as dry as a
furnace. They paid no attention, and till sunset left me there in the
full heat of the sun. By the time they came back again I was half mad
with thirst. I supposed then, as I have supposed ever since, that they
did not cut my throat at once, because they were afraid that some other
detachment might come along, and that if they found my body or a pool of
blood, they would, as like as not, burn the village over their heads.
Anyhow at sunset four men came, cut the ropes from my feet, and told me
to follow them. I said that I would follow willingly enough if they
would give me a drink o