placed on them, above which were hidden fifteen guineas, the fact of the
money being there had never once occurred to him. He had had sufficient
cash about him to pay for purchases at Salamanca and on the road, and,
indeed, had five guineas still in his pocket, though he had drawn no pay
from the time of leaving Torres Vedras.

This discovery decided him. With twenty guineas he could pay his way for
months, and he determined to make the attempt to escape.

The firing continued for some time and then ceased.

"The fleet must have got out," he said to himself. "It is certain that the
French have not taken Corunna. We were getting the best of it up to the
time I was hurt, and it would be dark in another half-hour, and there
could be no fighting on such ground as this, after that. Besides, Corunna
is a strong fortress, and we could have held out there for weeks, for
Soult can have no battering train with him; besides, everything was ready
for embarkation, and I know that it was intended, whether we won or lost,
that the troops should go on board in the night."

As he lay there he could occasionally hear the sound of drums and trumpets
as the troops marched from their positions of the night before, to take up
others nearer to the town. At times he heard voices, and knew that they
were searching for wounded over the ground that had been so desperately
contested; but the spot where he was lying lay between the village and the
ground where the regiment he had gone to order back had been engaged with
the enemy, and as no fighting had taken place there, it was unlikely that
the search-parties would go over it. This, indeed, proved to be the case,
and after a time he fell off to sleep, and did not wake until night was
closing in. He was hungry now, and again crossing the wall he took half a