"Sure as that I now address you; and if your name be Quentin Kennedy, serving with the King's Own Borderers--full lieutenant in the corps, which has _no other_ subalterns. Now you cannot continue to serve thus--carrying a musket with the 25th; other work must be found for you. When will you be relieved from this post?" "In a few minutes, sir--my hour is nearly up." "Then you will take a note from me to Crawford, your colonel," said Moore; and drawing forth a note book, he rapidly pencilled a note, tore it out, folded it and addressed it. "The bearer hereof," it ran, "Mr. Q. Kennedy, having been appointed by his Majesty to a lieutenancy in the 7th Fusiliers, will serve on my personal staff, as an extra aide-de-camp, until he can join his regiment, now in Britain. "JOHN MOORE, Lieut.-Gen." "You will show this to Colonel Crawford and to the adjutant-general, with my compliments. It will be in orders to-morrow. Wyndham has gone to London with poor General Lefebre and the despatches of our cavalry affairs at Sahagun and Benevente, so I must have your assistance in his place during this _expedition_," he added, smilingly, with an emphasis. "Captain Hardinge will lend you a horse--I know he has some spare cattle--meet me at my quarters opposite the cathedral to-morrow morning early; till then good-bye, Lieutenant Kennedy, and I wish you success!" Moore drew off his glove, shook Quentin's hand with friendly cordiality, and rode away at a canter, leaving our sentinel in a very bewildered state of mind indeed. CHAPTER XVI. PIQUE. "These hands are brown with toil; that brow is scarred; Still must you sweat and swelter in the sun, And trudge with feet benumbed the winter snow, Nor intermission have until the end. Thou canst not draw down fame upon thy head, And yet wouldst cling to life!"--ALEXANDER SMITH. "A lieutenant in the 7th, or Royal Fusiliers!--am I actually so?" was the question Quentin asked of himself repeatedly. There could be no doubt about it; the general had said so, and the Gazette confirmed it, that he, Quentin Kennedy, volunteer with the 25th Foot, had been appointed to that regiment, one of the oldest corps of the line--a "crack one," too--commanded by General Sir Alured Clark, G.C.B. Long known as the _South British Fusiliers_, to distinguish them from the Scottish corps and the famous Welsh Fusiliers, armed with the same weapon, the 7th were without officers of the rank of ensign until a year or two ago; thus, at the time we refer to, their two battalions had no less than sixty-four lieutenants.