The Actress in High Life | Page 4

slowly, reluctantly, and with many a
stubborn halt, the English general retraced his steps toward Portugal.
The prostrated strength of both armies put an end to the campaign. The
French gave up the pursuit, being too hungry to march further, or to
fight any more; and the discipline and appetites of the British soldiers
were indicated, on their march through the forests bordering the Huebra,
by the fusilade opened on the herds of swine, which were fattening on
the acorns there. For a moment their commander thought himself
surprised, and that the country, for miles around, was the scene of one
wide-spread skirmish with the foe. Even hanging a few of his men did
not put a stop to the disorder. Late in November the troops were
permitted to pause for rest, in the neighborhood of Ciudad Rodrigo,
with their energies prostrated and their discipline relaxed through the
sieges and battles, the continual marches, the exposure and the want of
a campaign so long and arduous as this. Strange it seemed to them,
after going so far, and doing and suffering so much, that they should
end the campaign where they had begun it. Yet they had done much:
wrenching the larger and richer half of Spain out of the grasp of the
French, and changing their possession of the country to a mere invasion
of it.
Such toils need long rest. Privations and sufferings like theirs should be
repaid by no scanty measure of plenty and enjoyment. The troops went
into winter quarters chiefly between the Douro and the Tagus; but, as
an army in this country is always in danger of starvation, a brigade was
sent over into Alemtejo, at once, to make themselves comfortable, and
to facilitate getting up supplies from a province which now had
something in it: as, for four years, the French had been kept out of it.
Accordingly, it was absolutely refreshing to see the liberal provision

made for the almost insatiable wants of this brigade--for among them
our story lies. They proved themselves good soldiers, to a man, in their
zeal to refresh and strengthen themselves against the next campaign, by
enjoying, to the full, every good thing within their reach. The officers,
especially, ransacked the country for every commodity that could
promote enjoyment; and what Alemtejo could not furnish, Lisbon and
London must provide. Nothing was too costly for their purses, no place
too distant for their search. Doubtless, the veterans of the greatest of all
great captains were permitted for a time to run a free and joyous career
in Capua; and this brigade, besides having a little corner of Portugal to
themselves, somewhat out of sight of the commander-in-chief and of
Sir Rowland Hill, enjoyed the further advantage of being led by a good
soldier in the field, and a free-liver in garrison and camp, who looked
upon his men in winter quarters, after a hard campaign, somewhat in
the light of school-boys in the holidays, and was willing to see the lads
enjoy themselves freely.
Lord Strathern, a veteran somewhat the worse for wear, had entered the
army a cadet of a Scotch family, more noble than rich. At length, the
obliging death of a cousin brought him a Scotch peerage, and an estate
little adequate to support that dignity. High rank, and a narrow estate,
form an inconvenient union; so he stuck to the profession which he
loved, and, being a widower, entrusted his only child, a daughter, to a
sister in Scotland.
Though he had seen little of domestic life, he was an affectionate man.
The briskness of the last campaign, and the number of his friends who
dropped off in the course of it, strongly warned him that if he would
once again see his daughter, now attaining womanhood, it would be
well to lose no time about it. So, one morning, during the retreat from
Burgos, after issuing the brigade orders for the day, he penned an order
to his sister in Scotland, to send out the young lady, with proper
attendants, under the care of the wife of any officer of rank who might
be sailing for Lisbon. There she would be within reach, and he might
find leisure to visit her.
His sister would have protested against this had she had an opportunity;

but the order of the father, and the affectionate and adventurous spirit
of the daughter, at once decided the matter. On her arrival, however, in
Lisbon, her father was too busy establishing his brigade in comfortable
quarters, to meet her there; and the military horizon giving promise of a
quiet winter, he summoned her to join him at Elvas.
The brigade had been for some weeks living in clover in their modern
Capua, when Lady Mabel Stewart joined her father. A