Endued with fresh strength by the sight of the regiment, Quentin burst through the crowd, and, reaching the grenadiers, grasped the hand of Rowland Askerne, on whose breast he saw a Portuguese order glittering. "Quentin Kennedy, by all that's wonderful!" exclaimed the tall captain, grasping his hand warmly in return. "Quentin, my boy, how goes it?" "Hallo! talk of the----" began Monkton, clapping him on the back; "we were just talking about you--thought you lost, gone, and all that sort of thing, a martyr to duty; but welcome back, my dear lad!" "Where is old Major Middleton?" "With Buckle in rear of the column." "And little Boyle?" "Oh, Pimple is with Colyear carrying the colours; but where have you been, and what the deuce have you been about, eh?" "You look pale and weary to begin a march this morning, sir," said some of the soldiers, kindly, for Quentin was a favourite with them all. "You must have a horse," said Askerne: "you look absolutely ill, Quentin; how is this?" "It is a long story, Askerne," replied Kennedy, with a haggard smile. "Egad, I thought, and we _all_ thought, the duty one beyond your years and experience." "Make way here in front, please; mark time, the grenadiers," said an authoritative voice as the column issued from the city gate, and an officer who nearly rode our hero down, pushed his horse between the band and the first section of the grenadier company. Quentin looked indignantly up, and found the cold, stern, and uncompromising eye of Cosmo, the Master of Rohallion, steadily bent upon him. "You have returned, sir, _at last_?" was his stiff response to Quentin's hasty salute. "It is little short of a miracle that I ever returned at all, Colonel Crawford; I have undergone no small danger I beg to assure you, and have but this instant entered Portalegre. I have acquitted myself of the duty with which the general did me the honour to entrust me. The junction will be formed with our division on the march, and I have a despatch from the Guerilla Chief." "For whom?" "Sir John Hope, sir; shall I give it to him in person?" "No--I shall myself deliver it," replied Cosmo, who feared naturally the favourable impression which Quentin might make on the good general, to whom he had been represented as unworthy; "get your musket and fall in with your company as soon as possible. We shall have some _other_ work cut out for you ere long," added Cosmo, with a dark and scornful smile, as he took, or rather snatched the despatch from Quentin, who seemed more fit for a sick bed than for marching among the sturdy grenadiers of the Borderers; but for that day he was attached to the baggage guard, which was under Lieutenant Colville, and this arrangement for his comfort was made by the kindness of the old halberdier Norman Calder, who was now sergeant-major. He rode the spare horse of Major Middleton, a boon but for which he could never have kept up with the troops.