LONDON:
PRINTED BY MAURICE AND CO., HOWFORD BUILDINGS,
FENCHURCH STREET.

CONTENTS

Chapter

  1. [Hostilities—A Love Letter]
  2. [The Ball.—The Bull-Fight.—An Adventure]
  3. [The Skirmish of Fuente Duenna. The Leaguer of Alba de Tormes]
  4. [Angus Mackie]
  5. [An Adventure. A Highland Legend]
  6. [A Battle]
  7. [An Out-Picquet Adventure]
  8. [Pass of Maya.—Pyrenees]
  9. [The Block-house. Mina]
  10. [The Châtelet]
  11. [Passage of the Nive]

THE ROMANCE OF WAR.

CHAPTER I.

HOSTILITIES—A LOVE LETTER.

"Were not my right hand fetter'd by the thought,

That slaying thee were but a double guilt

In which to steep my soul, no bridegroom ever

Stepp'd forth to trip a measure with his bride

More joyfully than I, young man, would rush

To meet thy challenge."

Macduff's Cross, p. 26.

Boiling with rage at Louis's insulting defiance, Ronald returned to his quarters in the Alcanzar, determined at day-break to summon him forth, to fight or apologize. He often repeated the words, "Her heart has never wandered from you." Ah! if this should indeed be the case, and that Alice loved him after all! But from Louis, his honour demanded a full explanation and ample apology, either of which he feared the proud spirit of the other would never stoop to grant. Yet, to level a deadly weapon against the brother of Alice,—against him to whom he had been a constant friend and companion in childhood and maturer youth, and perhaps by a single shot to destroy him, the hopes and the peace of his amiable father and sister, he felt that should this happen, he never could forgive himself. But there was no alternative: it was death or dishonour.

Two ways lay before him,—to fight or not to fight; and his sense of injured honour made him, without hesitation, choose the first, and he waited in no ordinary anxiety for the dawn, when Alister Macdonald, who was absent on duty, would return to the quarters of the regiment.