I reckon they won't go so far as to grudge us free seats for the show." Sure enough, at eight o'clock, we formed up by companies and were marched over the dark crest of the hill and a short way down it in face of the lights of Ciudad Rodrigo.

Right below us, on our left, shone a detached light.

We ourselves showed none.

The word for silence in the ranks had been given at starting, and the captains spoke in the lowest of voices as they drew their companies together in battalion.

The light company having been withdrawn, we found ourselves on the extreme left flank, parted by a few yards only from another dark mass of men--the 43rd, as a tallish young bugler whispered close beside me.
"But how the hell do _you_ come here ?" he went on, mistaking me in the darkness, I suppose, for one of the youngsters in the band.
"Shut your head, bugler," commanded a corporal close on my right.
The men grounded arms and waited, their breath rising like a fog on the frozen air.