hope?" he asked, anxiously, "for we should all break our hearts if we were
obliged to go without a fight."

"I don't think there is any chance of that, O'Grady, though I should be
very glad if there were. I am not afraid of the fighting, but we certainly
sha'n't win without heavy loss, and every life will be thrown away, seeing
that we shall, after all, have to embark when the battle is over. Ney,
with 50,000 men, is only two or three marches away.

"Well, Dicky, how do you do?" he asked, as Ryan came up.

"I am well enough, Mr. Staff Officer. I needn't ask after yourself, for
you have been riding comfortably about, while we have been marched right
off our legs. Forty miles a day, Terence, and over such roads as they have
in this country; it is just cruelty to animals."

"I would rather have been with you, Dicky, than see to the horrible
confusion that has been going on. Why, as soon as the day's march was over
we had to set to work to go about trying to keep order. A dozen times I
have been nearly shot by drunken rascals whom I was trying to get to
return to their corps. Worse still, it was heartrending to see the misery
of the starving women and camp-followers. I would rather have been on
outpost duty, with Soult's cavalry hovering round, ready to charge at any
moment."

"It is all very well to say that, Terence!" O'Grady exclaimed. "But wait
until you try it a bit, my boy. I had five nights of it, and that widout a
drop of whisky to cheer me. It was enough to have made Samson weep, let
alone a man with only one hand, and a sword to hold in it, and a bad could
in his head. It was enough to take the heart out of any man entoirely, and