method laid before him the despatch from his other correspondent, Sir
Rowland Hill.

He read it hastily, and angrily threw it on the floor. He thought
himself an ill-used man! "Be in Alcantara by ten to-morrow! I will do
no such thing! I have been in the saddle for weeks. My horses are worn
out," (he chose to forget a fresh horse in the stable.) "Up late last
night and worried all day about affairs over which I have no control,
and fellows who will fail us at need. Sir Rowland must wait till
dinner time to-morrow for news of these dilatory Spaniards. If he has
to deal much more with them, it will be a useful lesson to learn to
wait."

He now went to his chamber to dress in order to attend Lady
Mabel. When he returned to his parlor, seeing Sir Rowland's insulted
despatch still lying on the floor, he condescended to pick it up and
stow it away in his pocket with his notes on the state of the
Andalusian reserve and the garrison of Badajoz, and then rode off in
the happiest mood to head-quarters. But when he dismounted there, his
conscience pricked him. An ambitious soldier, zealous in the cause for
which he fought, he, not long since, would have felt one moment's
forgetfulness, or the slightest neglect of the service, to be treason
against his own nature. He now turned back from the door to bid the
groom leave his own horse in Elvas, and take the fresh horse on to the
little town of Albuquerque, and expect him at the posada there before
the dawn of day. Having, by this provision for riding post, quieted
the compunctious visitings of conscience, he entered the house.

Lady Mabel kept him waiting some time, purposely, for delay was now
her policy. Soon, however, he heard her talking in the next room, and