"To Badajoz? That is no distance at all; at least nothing to grumble at," said Lord Strathern. "You are growing lazy, L'Isle. Why Mabel would ride that far after a rare flower. Just think you are chasing a fox, who takes the high road, and never doubles once between this and Badajoz." "That would be a fox of a new breed," suggested L'Isle. "I confess," said his lordship, "I never started one of the kind. But Sir Rowland's staff have their hands full just now. To lighten their labors, I have had to furnish more than one officer for special duties. You surely would not have Sir Rowland send an aid all the way from _Coria_, merely to see if those Spanish fellows in Badajoz are in a state to march without disbanding, or without plundering the country as they move through it!" "Talking of marauding, my lord," said L'Isle; "I wish the taste for that diversion was confined to our Spanish friends. It is becoming every day more necessary to check the excesses of our own people. We cannot send out a party into the country around, but on their return they are dogged at the heels by complaints and accusations. When we march hence, we shall leave a villainous name behind us." "Oh, we will never come back here again," said Lord Strathern, carelessly. "Moreover, two-thirds of these complaints are groundless, and the rest grossly exaggerated." "The sacking of the farmer's house on the border needed no exaggeration," said L'Isle. "I tell you that was done by the Spaniards," exclaimed Lord Strathern. "Yet worse cases than that have occurred, and gone unpunished," urged L'Isle. "Because they never could prove the charge, and point out the culprits," replied his lordship. "The country is full of _rateros_. They commit the crimes and our fellows bear the blame." "That is often true; but I have met with one little case in which the offenders can be pointed out." "Well, let me hear it," said Lord Strathern, leaning back in his chair, as if compelled to listen, but anxious to be rid of the subject. "I stopped for a while on my way back," said L'Isle, "at a little venda on this side of _Juramenha_. The people of the house were shy and sullen. I had to ask many questions before I could induce them to speak freely, but at length out came a charge against some of our people. Three nights ago five of our men had come to the house, and, calling for wine, sat down to drink. They soon became riotous, and their conduct so insulting to the man's wife and daughters, that they ran away to hide themselves. When he required them to pay the reckoning and quit the house, they promised most liberal payment, and seizing, bound him to a post in his own stable, where they gave him fifty lashes with a leathern strap, valuing the stripes at a _vintem_ apiece." "The witty rascals," said Lord Strathern; "I would like to repay them in their own coin."