16 COURTESY 



he immediately gave me his sword. You will no longer 

 doubt me, I hope." 



I bowed, and attemjDted an apology. 

 " Say not a word about it," he exclaimed ; " you were 

 not aware of the nice points of etiquette or chivalrous 

 honour displayed on such occasions ; but l^ray, may I ask 

 where were you acquainted with Sergeant Buun?" 



" At Portsmouth," I said, " when the army disembarked 

 from Corunna; and recently at St. Albans, where the 

 resiment was disbanded." 

 He then proceeded : — 



" On the following morning I presented the French 

 General at headquarters, and he was sent to England 

 from Yigo or Corunna, prior to our evacuating the latter 

 place." 



"And subsequently," I added, again interposing, 

 " broke his parole, and regained France in an open boat ; 

 which was considered a most extraordinary feat." 



" Well," he said, " the short time we were together we 

 grew in each other's estimation, and at parting he 

 thanked me for the kind treatment and courtesy he had 

 received, saying, ' We may never meet again, but should 

 it be your fortune to become a prisoner in the hands of 

 the French army, endeavour to convey to the Emperor 

 your knowledge of me and the cause of it, and you 

 shall receive similar treatment at our hands.' It so 

 chanced that two or three years afterwards, in the 

 retreat from Burgos, after the battle of Salamanca, I was 

 taken prisoner about the same time as Sir Edward Paget, 

 who commanded a division. I was sent to the rear, and 

 soon after Avith an escort to Paris, where I heard General 



