last battle. No, Milord did none of these things. But he sent a
fleet ship to England to bring him a number of fox-dogs; and he
with his officers settled himself down to chase the fox. It is
true what I tell you. Behind the lines of Torres Vedras these
mad Englishmen made the fox chase three days in the week.

We had heard of it in the camp, and now I was myself to see that
it was true.

For, along the road which I have described, there came these very
dogs, thirty or forty of them, white and brown, each with its
tail at the same angle, like the bayonets of the Old Guard. My
faith, but it was a pretty sight! And behind and amidst them
there rode three men with peaked caps and red coats, whom I
understood to be the hunters. After them came many horsemen with
uniforms of various kinds, stringing along the roads in twos and
threes, talking together and laughing.

They did not seem to be going above a trot, and it appeared to me
that it must indeed be a slow fox which they hoped to catch.
However, it was their affair, not mine, and soon they had all
passed my window and were out of sight. I waited and I watched,
ready for any chance which might offer.

Presently an officer, in a blue uniform not unlike that of our
flying artillery, came cantering down the road--an elderly, stout
man he was, with grey side-whiskers. He stopped and began to
talk with an orderly officer of dragoons, who waited outside the
inn, and it was then that I learned the advantage of the English
which had been taught me. I could hear and understand all that