ned up at least a score
of times before I detected the tramp of the brigades in the darkness
below me. Of the cavalry, though I rode on listening for at least
another two miles, I could hear no sound. Yet, as I argued, they could
not be far distant; and I pushed forward with heart elate at the
prospect of trumping Marmont's card, for I remembered the staff
officer's words, "on the marshal's return." I knew that Marmont had
been in Sabugal no longer ago than mid-day; and irregular and almost
derogatory as it might be thought for a marshal of France to be
conducting a night surprise against a half-disciplined horde of
militia, I would have wagered my month's pay that this was the fact.

And then, with a slip of my horse on the stony track, my good fortune
suddenly ended, and smash went my basket of eggs while I counted the
chickens. The poor brute with one false step came down heavily on his
near side. Quick as I was in flinging my foot from the stirrup, I was
just a moment too late; I fell without injury to bone, but his weight
pinned me to earth by the boot, and when I extricated myself it was
with a wrenched ankle. I managed to get him to his feet, but he had
either dislocated or so severely wrung his near shoulder that he could
scarcely walk a step. It went to my heart to leave him there on the
mountain side, but it had to be done, for possibly the fate of the
garrison at Guarda depended on it.

I left him, therefore, and limped forward along the track until it
took an abrupt turn around a shoulder of the mountain. Immediately
below me, unless I erred in my bearings, a desolate sheep farm stood
but a short distance above the high road. Towards this I descended,
and finding it with no great difficulty, knocked gently at the back
door. To my surprise the shepherd opened it almost at once. He was
fully dressed in spite of the lateness of the hour, and seemed greatly
perturbed; nor, I can promise you, was he reassured when, after giving
him the signal arranged between Trant and the peasantry, I followed
him into his kitchen and his eyes fell on my French uniform.

But it was my turn to be perturbed when, satisfied with my
explanation, he informed me that a body of cavalry had passed along
the road towards Guarda a good twenty minutes before. It was this had
awakened him. "No infantry?" I asked.

He shook his head positively. He had been on the watch ever since. And
this, while it jumped with my own conviction that the