silence, we returned to the army, from which we were distant about
two leagues.

We heard firing as we marched, and the foragers on all sides were
skirmishing with the enemy. A lieutenant and forty horse joined me;
yet, with this reinforcement, I durst not return to the camp,
because I learned we were in danger from more than eight hundred
pandours and hussars, who were in the plain. I therefore determined
to take a long, winding, but secret route, and had the good fortune
to come safe to quarters with my prisoners and five-and-twenty
loaded carts. The King was at dinner when I entered his tent.
Having been absent all night, it was imagined I had been taken, that
accident having happened the same day to many others.

The instant I entered, the King demanded if I returned singly. "No,
please your Majesty," answered I; "I have brought five-and-twenty
loads of forage, and two-and-twenty prisoners, with their officer
and horses."

The King then commanded me to sit down, and turning himself towards
the English ambassador, who was near him, said, laying his hand on
my shoulder, "C'est un Matador de ma jeunesse."

A reconnoitring party was, at the same moment, in waiting before his
tent: he consequently asked me few questions, and to those he did
ask, I replied trembling. In a few minutes he rose from the table,
gave a glance at the prisoners, hung the Order of Merit round my
neck, commanded me to go and take repose, and set off with his
party.