ncamped. However,
as there is a moon, you will be able to avoid one if you come upon it;
and seeing you are armed, any peasants you may meet will scarcely
venture to attack you within musket-shot of your own lines. Here is a
note I have written to the colonel of your regiment telling him of the
plight I found you in, and expressing a hope that what you have gone
through may be considered a sufficient punishment for your indulgence in
too much wine. Good-night.'

"Well, I got down safely enough. Of course, when I got to our line of
pickets, I was challenged, and sent in a prisoner. In the morning I was
taken before the colonel. He rated me soundly. I can tell you. When he
had finished, I saluted and handed him the note. He read it through, and
handed it to the major.

"'A letter from the enemy,' he said. 'It is from Trant, who must be a
good fellow as well as a brave soldier, as we know to our cost. Tell me
more about this, Rignold.'

"I told him.

"'I agree with the Englishman,' he said. 'You have had a lesson that
will last you all your life. I wish I had means of sending an answer
back to this English colonel, thanking him for his generous treatment.
If he ever falls into our hands, I will take care that this action of
his shall be brought to the general's notice. You can go.'

"Well, you see, that lesson has lasted all my life; and I am certainly
not likely to forget it here, where the peasants are every bit as savage
as the Spaniards. But as for the English, though I have fought with them
half a dozen times since, and have been beaten by them too, I have
always had a liking for them. That was one reason why I took to you,
youngster, from the first."

"They fight well, do they?" one of the other sergeants asked. "I never
was in Spain, but I thought from the bulletins that we generally beat
them."

"Bulletins!" growled Rignold, "who can believe bulletins? We have got so
accustomed to writing bulletins of victory that when we do get thrashed
we can't write in any other strain. Why, I tell you that we who have
fought and conquered in Italy and Austria, in Prussia and on the Rhine,
have learned to acknowledge among ourselves, that even our best troops
were none too good when it came to fighting the English. I fought a
dozen battles against them, and in not one of them could I honestly say
that we got the best of it. Talavera was the nearest thing. But we were
fairly thrashed at Busaco and Salamanca. Albuera we c