The intense darkness of his cell seemed merely made more visible by the ghastly yellow light emanating from a horn lantern; by degrees, as his eyes became more accustomed to the peculiar glare, he perceived that the lamp was held by the sergeant of the guard (whose clothes were dripping wet), while at one side stood a bronzed and weather-beaten man, wearing the uniform of an officer. It was the captain of the mainguard.

"Now then, my lad," went on the latter in the same voice as before, "stir yourself; you've slept here long and sound enough for a d―d deserter. But you're in luck's way to-night, my gay young Plunger, and we're going to let you out." The officer's tones and words were harsh, but there was a kindly glance in his rugged face, and old Ben Catline, as he was affectionately called by his men, was far better loved than most of the Legion officers. He had been a lieutenant in the navy, went on half-pay at the peace, and accepted a commission in the Legion "just to keep my hand in," as he explained it himself.

"Let me out?" queried the prisoner in considerable astonishment: "May I ask you, sir, why I am to be liberated ?"

"For the best of all reasons, and the best of all old customs-we're going into action at midnight, and

'it's a way we have in the navy' to release all prisoners at that blessed moment."

Blunt jumped up in delight from his rough bench. He had never expected such a termination to his late misfortune, and it surprised as much as it pleased him. The old sailor-officer saw at a glance there was something in the young man very different from the general run of the Legionaries; he led him into his own portion of the guard-house; gave him the plentiful remains of his own supper, washed down with some excellent rum; and then informed him that at half-past eleven the whole force in San Sebastian were to parade for an attack on the Carlist lines above Ayetta.

"It's a sudden freak of the old man's" (he meant the General by that epithet), "and I don't understand it. It's pouring rain, has been so the whole evening, and how the deuce we are to storm the beggars' posts, up all those hills, in all the mud and slush, beats me. In half an hour this guard will be relieved, and then you'd better stick with our regiment during the fight."

Blunt felt sure that his information to Colonel Cator was the real reason of this night attack, in anticipation of the one proposed by the Carlists for the next morning, but he judged it wisest to keep his opinions

on the subject to himself, lest he should get into still deeper trouble over it. He asked for, and was readily supplied with, infantry arms and accoutrements, to replace the cavalry equipment taken from him when he was given into custody by Cator; and shortly after midnight he was marching in the ranks of his newfound regiment out of San Sebastian, his heart beating high with hope and with excitement, while the rain came down in torrents without the slightest effect as regarded damping his ardour or his courage.

CHAPTER III.

'THE BAPTISM OF FIRE!'

HE force that started, under the command of De

THE

Lacy Evans, to the attack on the Ayetta lines, might be computed at 6,000 all told; and of that number about 4,500 were troops of the British Legion. Previous to leaving the town, the General had insisted that all lights should be put out as usual, to divert any suspicion the Carlist outposts might have should they detect a glare in the streets after the ordinary time. Those outposts were very near; it was necessary to exercise the greatest caution if the surprise was really to have effect; and on that account no bugle-sound or beat of drum was allowed. In solemn

silence and in a whirlwind of rain, the English marched forth to fight their first real battle with the Carlist rebels. But if Evans thought he was leaving behind him a completely loyal town, or if he imagined that there were no betrayers in the ranks of his own army, he must have been very much mistaken; for his force had no sooner got clear of San Sebastian than some miserable spy, marching as a Christino, stumbled. heavily, and accidentally discharged his musket to bid the enemy's scouts be on the look-out. Almost immediately afterwards signal-rockets were sent up by traitors in the town, with the effect of alarming the whole line of outposts, the occupants of which, with loud cries of "Englesi! Englesi!" rushed to their defences and opened fire in the direction they knew the English must come.

"Sold again, by Jove!" said Captain Catline to Blunt, who was marching alongside of him, when the shouts and firing of the Carlists became general; "the whole beehive of 'em is up and swarming. A precious 'surprise' this of the old man's!"

"The villain who fired that musket should be hung on the next tree!" exclaimed Blunt, whose blood seemed to boil over with eagerness.

"Ay, that he ought, if he can be found in the dark; or if he did it on purpose

"Of course he did; did you not notice how the rockets went up almost immediately after the shot?"

"Hang him, hang him, my enthusiastic young friend, by all means-if you can catch him!" laughed out old Catline, who knew well the difficulty of such detections: "But I say, what's this for?" he went on to ask, as the column they belonged to was halted. After some delay, while orders were being passed along—staff-officers rolling and tumbling about in the dark slushy hollow ways, and commanders of regiments doing their best to keep their men in hand— the columns advanced again over ground almost equally divided between deep sticky mud and sharp rocks, when they were deployed after a fashion, and the men ordered to lie down as some protection from the bullets and round-shot the Carlists were sending down from the heights at random. Some of the men obeyed the order, but by far the greater number did not, and therein (although a breach of military discipline) they showed their wisdom; for the Carlists very soon left off wasting powder and shot on a silent and unseen enemy, and ceased firing; while the disobedient warriors were at least saved from the extremity of wet, to which the better disciplined were exposed when couched in the mud.

"Dreary work, my lad, desperate dreary work I must