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“I considered this for a moment. ‘That is not a small thing to require, since Wellington may be reasonably expected to offer a round price for my recapture.’

“The marshal laughed not too pleasantly. ‘Truly,’ said he, ‘I have heard that Scotsmen are hard bargainers. But considering that I could have you shot out of hand for a spy, I believed I was offering you generous terms.’

“Well, that was unfortunately true; so after a few seconds’ pause I answered, ‘Monsieur le Duc, by imposing these terms on me you at any rate pay me a handsome compliment. I accept it and give you my word.’

“Upon this parole, then, on the 19th I began my journey towards France and captivity, escorted only by M. Gerard, a young lieutenant of dragoons, and one trooper. The rest you know.”

(Conclusion of Captain McNeill’s Statement.)

As I have said, the bare news of my kinsman’s capture and of poor Jose’s death reached me at Celorico on the 16th, late in the evening. Knowing that Lord Wellington was by this time well on his way northward, and believing that for more than one reason the captain’s fate would concern him deeply–feeling, moreover, some compunction at the toils I had all innocently helped to wind about an honest man–I at once sought and obtained leave from General Wilson to ride southward to meet the Commander-in-Chief with the tidings, and if necessary solicit his help in a rescue. The captain (on this point the messenger was precise) had been taken to Sabugal to await Marmont’s return. I did not know that Marmont was actually at that moment on his way thither, but I thought him at least likely to be returning very soon. To be sure he might decide to shoot Captain Alan out of hand. My recent performances gave him a colourable excuse, unless the prisoner could disassociate himself from these and prove an alibi, which under the circumstances and without the help of Jose’s evidence he could scarcely hope to do. I built, however, some faith on Marmont’s known humanity, of which in his pursuit of the militia he had just given striking proof. The longer I weighed the chances the more certain I became that Marmont would treat him as an ordinary prisoner of war and send him up to France under escort.

Why, then (the reader may ask), did I lose time in seeking Lord Wellington instead of making my way at once to the north and doing my best to incite the partidas to attempt a rescue somewhere on the road north of Burgos, or even between Valladolid and Burgos? My answer is that such an affair would certainly turn on the question of money. The French held the road right away to the Pyrenees, not so strongly perhaps as to forbid hope, but strongly enough to make an attempt upon it risky in the extreme. The bands of Mendizabal, Mina, and Merino were kept busy by Generals Bonnet and Abbe; for a big convoy they might be counted on to exert themselves, but for a single prisoner they as certainly had no time to spare without the incitement of such a reward as only the Commander-in-Chief could offer.

Accordingly I made my way south to Castello Branco and reached it on the 18th, to find Lord Wellington arrived there and making ready to push on as soon as overtaken by the bulk of his troops. I had always supposed him to cherish a peculiar liking for my kinsman, but was fairly astonished by the emotion he showed.

“Rescued? Of course he must be rescued!” He broke off to use (I must confess) some very strong words upon Trant’s design against Marmont and the tomfoolery, as he called it, which had taken me into Sabugal, and left a cloud of suspicion hanging over “the best scouting officer in my service; the only man of the lot, sir, who knows his business.” Lord Wellington could, when he lost his temper, be singularly unjust. I strove to point out that my “tomfoolery” in Sabugal had as a matter of fact put a stop to the very scheme of General Trant’s which he condemned. He cut me short by asking if I proposed to argue with him.