The situation was so near to the outposts, and a battle certain, I concluded that she must ere then have been removed to a place of greater security, and, big with the thought of coming events, I scarcely even looked at it as we rolled along, but just as I had passed the door, I found my hand suddenly grasped in her's—she gave it a gentle pressure, and without uttering a word had rushed back into the house again, almost before I could see to whom I was indebted for a kindness so unexpected and so gratifying.
My mind had the moment before been sternly occupied in calculating the difference which it makes in a man's future prospects—his killing or being killed, when "a change at once came o'er the spirit of the dream," and throughout the remainder of that long and trying day, I felt a lightness of heart and buoyancy of spirit which, in such a situation, was no less new than delightful.
I never, until then, felt so forcibly the beautiful description of Fitz James's expression of feeling, after his leave-taking of Helen under somewhat similar circumstances:—
"And after oft the knight would say,
That not when prize of festal day,
Was dealt him by the brightest fair
That e'er wore jewel in her hair,
So highly did his bosom swell,
As at that simple, mute, farewell."
[CHAP. XIII.]
Specimens of target-practice, in which markers may become marked men.—A grave anecdote, shewing how "some men have honours thrust upon them."—A line drawn between man and beast.—Lines drawn between regiments, and shewing how credit may not be gained by losing what they are made of.—Aristocratic.—Dedicatic.—Dissertation on advanced guards, and desertion of knapsacks, shewing that "the greater haste the worse speed."
With discipline restored, Badajos secured, and the French relieving army gone to the right about, we found ourselves once more transferred to the North.
Marmont had, during our absence, thrown away much valuable time in cutting some unmeaning vagaries before the Portuguese militia, which, happily for us, he might have spent more profitably; and now that we approached him, he fell back upon Salamanca, leaving us to take quiet possession of our former cantonments.