"You will join me in a cigar then, mon camarade?" said he, politely proffering his open cigar case. Then saluting Monkton again, he said, "Excuse me, monsieur l'officier, if, before returning, I speak a word or two in your presence with the friend to whom I owe my life--whom my good mother remembers every night in her prayers, for I told her of our adventures near Valencia." "Your mother, monsieur? Is it possible that she is with the army at this season?" "She is with the emperor's court at Madrid, and hopes to see you all set sail from Lisbon. By the way," added Ribeaupierre, with a smile of waggery, "your lively Spanish friend, Donna Isidora, will be quite consoled when I tell her that I have seen you--alive and well too! She thinks of you with remorse and tears, as one whom she had poisoned in mistake, she says. How came all that to pass? We sent a patrol to search the Villa de Maciera for you, but no trace of you could be found." "Is she still in your hands?" asked Quentin, with an expression of interest. "Yes, monsieur," replied the other, caressing his moustache. "A prisoner?" "_Peste_! What an idea!" "I trust you--you have treated her well and kindly?" "She shall answer for herself, some time hence." "A prisoner! Poor Isidora! She will be quite inconsolable." "Inconsolable? Mom ami, you forget in whose charming society she is! We fellows of the 24th Chasseurs are unrivalled in conversational powers and the general art of pleasing. She spoke of you very often--thought you a very nice fellow--but so quiet--so _triste_!" Quentin was glad that Monkton, whom he did not wish to hear all this, had gradually gone beyond earshot. "And she--she----" he was beginning with emotions of annoyance and mortification. "Be assured that she became quite consoled among the 24th, and now, as Madame Jules de Marbœuf, (for my comrade Jules took her off my hands), she has learned to think that we Frenchmen are not such bad fellows, after all." "This is indeed news!" exclaimed Quentin; "Isidora married--married, and to a Frenchman!" "Ah--la belle tigresse is quite tamed now; but _I_ must begone. _Ouf--peste--tonnerre de Dieu!_ what a night we have had, monsieur," he added to Monkton, who again approached. "I have been so soaked that I felt as if the rain was filtering through the marrow of my bones. If you effect your junction with M. le Général Moore, I suppose we shall have the little variety of a general action." "It is extremely probable," replied Monkton, smiling at the French officer's free and easy manner. "That will indeed be gay--we are so anxious to measure swords with your cavalry. Do you know that General Foy, in one of his despatches, attributes your accidental victories----" "_Accidental?_" "That is the word, my friends----" "For Roleia and Vimiera--eh?" "Yes, for anything you like--Trafalgar and the Nile, if you please." "Well, and Foy attributes them----" "To two great elements you Anglais possess."