CHAPTER VI.
THE ADVANCE INTO SPAIN.
"Oh, life has many a varied tint,
Has many a bright and lovely hue,
Though care upon the brow may print
A sadder, darker colour too.
But hope still casts her rainbow wings
O'er many a scene of care and strife,
And gilds the hours round which she flings
The bright and varied tints of life."
CARPENTER.
Sir John Horn's division continued to march by the strong old frontier town of Elvas, which crowns a rocky hill not far from where the Guadiana sweeps south towards the sea.
"To-morrow," said Monkton, as he placed the glaring red cockade of Ferdinand VII. on his shako, "we shall be airing our most dulcet Spanish in Old Castile, learning to dance the bolero, to tilt up our legs in the fandango, and to twangle on the guitar."
"I fear, Dick, that Marshal Soult will cut out more serious work for us," said Major Middleton.
"Do we halt at Elvas?" asked some one, as the regiment approached the town.
"Yes, thank Heaven!" exclaimed Monkton.
"We have marched twenty miles to-day, and to-night I am going to the camp of the 28th."
"On duty?"