advancing column, but stayed us not as we galloped madly on.

I remember no more. The din, the smoke, the crash--the cry for quarter,
mingled with the shout of victory, the flying enemy--are all commingled
in my mind, but leave no trace of clearness or connection between them;
and it was only when the column wheeled to re-form that I awoke from my
trance of maddening excitement, and perceived that we had carried the
position and cut off the guns of the enemy.

The scene was now beyond anything, maddening in its interest. From the
walls of Oporto the English infantry poured forth in pursuit; while the
whole river was covered with boats, as they still continued to cross
over. The artillery thundered from the Sierra, to protect the landing,
for it was even still contested in places; and the cavalry, charging in
flank, swept the broken ranks and bore down their squares. Then a final
impetuous charge carried the day.

From that fight I got my lieutenancy, and then was sent off by Sir
Arthur Wellesley on special duty to the Lusitanian Legion in
Alcantara--a flattering position opened to my enterprise. Before I set
out, I was able to deliver Miss Dashwood's packet to Captain Hammersly,
barely recovered from a sabre wound. His agitation and his manner in
receiving it puzzled me greatly, though my own agitation was scarcely
less.

When I returned after a month with the Legion, during which my services
were of no very distinguished character, I found a letter from Galway
which saddened my thoughts greatly. A lawsuit had gone against my uncle,
and what I had long foreseen was gradually accomplishing--the wreck of
an old and honoured house. And I could only look on and watch the