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PROGRAMMING INTERVIEWS EXPOSED

PREFACE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix

CHAPTER 1 Before the Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CHAPTER 2 The Job Application Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CHAPTER 3 The Phone Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
CHAPTER 4 Approaches to Programming Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
CHAPTER 5 Linked Lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
CHAPTER 6 Trees and Graphs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
CHAPTER 7 Arrays and Strings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
CHAPTER 8 Recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
CHAPTER 9 Sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
CHAPTER 10 Concurrency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
CHAPTER 11 Object-Oriented Programming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
CHAPTER 12 Design Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
CHAPTER 13 Databases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
CHAPTER 14 Graphics and Bit Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
CHAPTER 15 Data Science, Random Numbers, and Statistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
CHAPTER 16 Counting, Measuring, and Ordering Puzzles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
CHAPTER 17 Graphical and Spatial Puzzles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
CHAPTER 18 Knowledge-Based Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
CHAPTER 19 Nontechnical Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
APPENDIX Résumés. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Programming Interviews Exposed
Fourth Edition
Programming Interviews Exposed
CODING YOUR WAY THROUGH THE INTERVIEW
Fourth Edition

John Mongan
Noah Kindler
Eric Giguère
Programming Interviews Exposed: Coding Your Way Through the Interview, Fourth Edition
Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
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Copyright © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

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To Thuy, the love of my life, who understands me, and
Calvin, who lights up my days.

—John Mongan

To Mikey, Alex, Teddy, and Andy.

—Noah Kindler

To my parents, Jean-Claude and Marie-Joëlle, who

encouraged and supported my love of programming.

—Eric Giguère
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

JOHN MONGAN is a self-taught programmer with professional experience as a consultant for

several software and pharmaceutical companies. He has three patents on software testing tech-
nologies. He holds an MD and a PhD in bioinformatics from UC San Diego, where he worked on
supercomputer simulations of protein dynamics. He is currently Assistant Professor and Vice Chair,
Informatics of the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UC San Francisco. His
research focuses on applications of machine learning to radiological data and computerized clinical
decision support.

NOAH KINDLER is VP Technology at the security technology company Avira. He leads software
design and development teams across several products with a user base of over 100 million.

ERIC GIGUÈRE started programming in BASIC on a Commodore VIC-20 (a long time ago) and was
hooked. He holds BMath and MMath degrees in computer science from the University of Waterloo,
has extensive professional programming experience, and is the author of several programming
books. He currently works as a staff software engineer at Google.
ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITORS

WAYNE HEYM, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering
for The Ohio State University’s College of Engineering. He also collaborates with their Reusable
Software Research Group (RSRG). He maintains a strong interest in RSRG’s development discipline
and language, Reusable Software Language with Verifiability and Efficiency (RESOLVE). He enjoys
introducing beginning programmers to the wonders in the art and science of computer program-
ming. He also likes leading programmers into the rich and satisfying realm of the theoretical foun-
dations of computer science.

DAN HILL is a software engineer and software development manager with over 15 years of experi-
ence, working on projects that include web development, user interface design, back-end system
architecture, databases, security and cryptography, and mobile app development. He has worked
for Silicon Valley startups as well as larger technology companies, and has conducted countless pro-
gramming interviews. He holds BS and MS degrees in computer science from Stanford University.
CREDITS

PROJECT EDITOR BUSINESS MANAGER

Adaobi Obi Tulton Amy Knies

TECHNICAL EDITORS EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Wayne Heym and Dan Hill Jim Minatel

PRODUCTION EDITOR PROJECT COORDINATOR, COVER

Barath Kumar Rajasekaran Brent Savage

COPY EDITOR PROOFREADER

Kimberly A. Cofer Nancy Bell

PRODUCTION MANAGER INDEXER

Katie Wisor Estalita M. Slivoskey

MANAGER OF CONTENT ENABLEMENT COVER DESIGNER

AND OPERATIONS Wiley
Pete Gaughan
COVER IMAGE
MARKETING MANAGER © Paul Bradbury/Getty Images
Christie Hilbrich
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

WE DEEPLY APPRECIATE the efforts of our colleagues at Wiley and Serendipity23 Editorial Services
in bringing this revised fourth edition to fruition. The contributions of our project editor, Adaobi
Obi Tulton, whose deft edits, organization, and persistence kept us on track, and the personal atten-
tion of our executive editor, Jim Minatel, were especially key, and we thank them for their time,
work, and assistance.
The quality of this edition has been greatly improved by the work of our technical editors, Wayne
Heym and Dan Hill, both of whom have already made important contributions to prior editions.
Their thoughtful comments and meticulous review have eliminated numerous errors and oversights
and immeasurably improved the clarity of the book. We thank them for their extensive work.
We are also grateful to Andrew Taylor for additional review of the new data science material, and
Tom Mongan for assistance with proofreading.
No fourth edition would have been possible without the three that preceded it, and the many people
who contributed to them. John is particularly grateful for Michael J. Mongan’s help in facilitat-
ing his participation with the third edition. We thank our third edition editor Maureen Spears,
who swiftly and surely overcame the unique challenges that arose in preparation of that edition.
Additionally, we thank our original editors, Margaret Hendrey and Marjorie Spencer, for their
patience and helpfulness. We are also grateful to our original reviewers and advisors, Dan Hill, Elise
Lipkowitz, Charity Lu, Rob Maguire, and Tom Mongan. Dan’s contributions in particular were tre-
mendous—the quality of the first edition was vastly improved by his careful and detailed reviews.
CONTENTS

PREFACE xxv

INTRODUCTION xxix

Chapter 1: BEFORE THE SEARCH 1

Know Yourself 1
Know the Market 3
Basic Market Information 3
What About Outsourcing? 4
Develop Marketable Skills 5
Get Things Done 6
Manage Your Online Profile 7
Summary 8
Chapter 2: THE JOB APPLICATION PROCESS 9

Finding and Contacting Companies 9

Finding Companies 9
Getting Referrals 10
Working with Headhunters 10
Contacting the Company Directly 11
Job Fairs 12
Technology-Driven Sites 12
The Interview Process 12
Screening Interviews 12
On-Site Interviews 13
Dress 14
A Recruiter’s Role 14
Offers and Negotiation 15
Dealing with Recruiter Pressures 15
Negotiating Your Salary 15
Accepting and Rejecting Offers 17
Summary 17

Chapter 3: THE PHONE SCREEN 19

Understanding Phone Screens 19

Phone Screens by Software Engineers 19
Phone Screens by Nontechnical People 20
CONTENTS

How to Take a Phone Screen 21

Phone Screen Problems 22
Memory Allocation in C 22
Recursion Trade-Offs 22
Mobile Programming 23
FizzBuzz 23
Reversing a String 24
Removing Duplicates 25
Nested Parentheses 26
Summary 27

Chapter 4: APPROACHES TO PROGRAMMING PROBLEMS 29

The Process 29
The Scenario 29
The Problems 30
Which Languages to Use 30
Interactivity Is Key 31
Solving the Problems 32
The Basic Steps 32
When You Get Stuck 34
Analyzing Your Solution 34
Big-O Analysis 35
How Big-O Analysis Works 36
Best, Average, and Worst Cases 37
Optimizations and Big-O Analysis 37
How to Do Big-O Analysis 38
Which Algorithm Is Better? 38
Memory Footprint Analysis 39
Summary 40

Chapter 5: LINKED LISTS 41

Why Linked Lists? 41

Kinds of Linked Lists 42
Singly Linked Lists 42
Doubly Linked Lists 44
Circular Linked Lists 44
Basic Linked List Operations 44
Tracking the Head Element 44
Traversing a List 46
Inserting and Deleting Elements 46

xviii
 CONTENTS

Linked List Problems 48

Stack Implementation 48
Maintain Linked List Tail Pointer 54
Bugs in removeHead 60
Mth-to-Last Element of a Linked List 62
List Flattening 65
List Unflattening 68
Null or Cycle 70
Summary 73

Chapter 6: TREES AND GRAPHS 75

Trees 75
Binary Trees 77
Binary Search Trees 78
Heaps 80
Common Searches 80
Breadth-First Search 80
Depth-First Search 81
Traversals 81
Graphs 82
Tree and Graph Problems 83
Height of a Tree 83
Preorder Traversal 84
Preorder Traversal, No Recursion 85
Lowest Common Ancestor 87
Binary Tree to Heap 88
Unbalanced Binary Search Tree 91
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon 93
Summary 97

Chapter 7: ARRAYS AND STRINGS 99

Arrays 99
C and C++ 100
Java 101
C# 102
JavaScript 102
Strings 102
C 103
C++ 104
Java 104

xix
CONTENTS

C# 105
JavaScript 105
Array and String Problems 105
Find the First Nonrepeated Character 106
Remove Specified Characters 109
Reverse Words 112
Integer/String Conversions 116
From String to Integer 116
From Integer to String 118
UTF-8 String Validation 121
Summary 124

Chapter 8: RECURSION 125

Understanding Recursion 125

Recursion Problems 129
Binary Search 129
Permutations of a String 131
Combinations of a String 134
Telephone Words 137
Summary 142

Chapter 9: SORTING 143

Sorting Algorithms 143

Selection Sort 144
Insertion Sort 145
Quicksort 146
Merge Sort 148
Sorting Problems 149
The Best Sorting Algorithm 150
Stable Selection Sort 153
Multi-Key Sort 155
Make a Sort Stable 156
Optimized Quicksort 158
Pancake Sorting 161
Summary 163

Chapter 10: CONCURRENCY 165

Basic Thread Concepts 165

Threads 165
System Threads versus User Threads 166

xx
 CONTENTS

Monitors and Semaphores 166

Deadlocks 167
A Threading Example 168
Concurrency Problems 170
Busy Waiting 170
Producer/Consumer 172
The Dining Philosophers 175
Summary 179

Chapter 11: OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING 181

Fundamentals 181
Classes and Objects 181
Construction and Destruction 182
Inheritance and Polymorphism 183
Object-Oriented Programming Problems 184
Interfaces and Abstract Classes 184
Virtual Methods 186
Multiple Inheritance 188
Resource Management 189
Summary 191

Chapter 12: DESIGN PATTERNS 193

What Are Design Patterns? 193

Why Use Design Patterns? 193
Design Patterns in Interviews 194
Common Design Patterns 194
Singleton 195
Builder 195
Iterator 197
Observer 197
Decorator 197
Design Pattern Problems 198
Singleton Implementation 198
Decorator versus Inheritance 201
Efficient Observer Updates 202
Summary 202

Chapter 13: DATABASES 203

Database Fundamentals 203

Relational Databases 203

xxi
CONTENTS

SQL 204
NoSQL 208
Object Databases 209
Hybrid Key-Value/Column Databases 209
Database Transactions 210
Distributed Databases 211
Database Problems 212
Simple SQL 212
Company and Employee Database 212
Max, No Aggregates 215
Three-Valued Logic 216
School Schemata 218
Summary 222

Chapter 14: GRAPHICS AND BIT MANIPULATION 223

Graphics 223
Bit Manipulation 224
Binary Two’s Complement Notation 224
Bitwise Operators 225
Optimizing with Shifts 226
Graphics Problems 226
Eighth of a Circle 227
Rectangle Overlap 229
Bit Manipulation Problems 232
Big-Endian or Little-Endian 233
Number of Ones 235
Summary 237

Chapter 15: DATA SCIENCE, RANDOM NUMBERS,

AND STATISTICS 239

Probability and Statistics 240

Descriptive and Inferential Statistics 241
Confidence Intervals 242
Statistical Tests 242
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 244
Random Number Generators 245
Data Science, Random Number and Statistical Problems 246
Irreproducible Results 247
Study More; Know Less 249
Roll the Dice 251
Calculate Pi 254
Summary 258
xxii
 CONTENTS

Chapter 16: COUNTING, MEASURING, AND ORDERING PUZZLES 259

Tackling Brainteasers 259

Beware of Assumptions 260
Don’t Be Intimidated 261
Beware of Simple Problems 262
Estimation Problems 262
Brainteaser Problems 263
Count Open Lockers 263
Three Switches 265
Bridge Crossing 266
Heavy Marble 269
Number of American Gas Stations 273
Summary 274

Chapter 17: GRAPHICAL AND SPATIAL PUZZLES 275

Draw It First 275

Graphical and Spatial Problems 276
Boat and Pier 276
Counting Cubes 278
The Fox and the Duck 282
Burning Fuses 283
Escaping the Train 286
Summary 287

Chapter 18: KNOWLEDGE-BASED QUESTIONS 289

Preparation 289
Problems 290
C++ versus Java 291
Friend Classes 292
Argument Passing 292
Macros and Inline Functions 294
Inheritance 295
Garbage Collection 296
32-Bit versus 64-Bit Applications 297
Network Performance 298
Web Application Security 298
Cryptography 301
Hash Tables versus Binary Search Trees 301
MapReduce 302
Summary 302

xxiii
CONTENTS

Chapter 19: NONTECHNICAL QUESTIONS 303

Why Nontechnical Questions? 303

Questions 304
“What Do You Want to Do?” 304
“What Is Your Favorite Programming Language?” 305
“What Is Your Work Style?” 306
“What Can You Tell Me About Your Experience?” 306
“What Are Your Career Goals?” 306
“Why Are You Looking to Change Jobs?” 306
“What Salary Are You Expecting?” 307
“What Is Your Salary History?” 310
“Why Should We Hire You?” 310
“Why Do You Want to Work for This Company?” 311
“Do You Have Any Questions for Me?” 311
Summary 311

Appendix: RÉSUMÉS 313

The Technical Résumé 313

A Poor Example 313
Sell Yourself 317
Keep It Short 317
List the Right Information 318
Be Clear and Concise 319
Relevant Information Only 320
Use Reverse Chronological Ordering 321
Always Proofread 321
An Improved Example 321
Managers and Senior Developers 323
Tailor the Résumé to the Position 329
Sample Résumé 329

INDEX 333

xxiv
PREFACE

Solving problems that are presented in programming interviews requires a separate skillset from
what you need to be a good programmer. Just like anything else, you probably won’t be very good
at this when you first start, but you can develop and improve your skills just as we did. This book is
the first step in that process; through this book we leverage your programming expertise to rapidly
turn you into an expert at programming interviews.
Since the first edition, Programming Interviews Exposed has effectively established a new topic area
of programming books, and now a multitude of websites, blogs, and forums provide advice and
sample questions. With all that available, why should you invest your time and money in this book?
Our focus continues to be on teaching you the techniques and approaches you need to be success-
ful in programming interviews. We reinforce these by illustrating the thought process that leads to
the solution of each of the problems we present, and show you how to move forward when you’re
stuck. These skills overlap with general coding skills, but they’re not the same; we’ve seen great cod-
ers crash and burn in programming interviews because they haven’t developed their interview skills.
Early in our careers we crashed and burned a couple times ourselves, but you can avoid that by
beginning your preparation with this book. Once you’ve learned the skills taught in this book you’ll
continue to learn by applying them to the problems you find in other books and on the web, but this
is the book you want to start with.
One thing that never changes is that to become good at solving programming interview questions,
you have to do more than passively read about them: you need to practice them. You’ll get a lot
more out of this book if you work out as much of each solution as you can on your own before you
read about it.
Although the content of the book has expanded significantly since the first edition and the languages
employed have shifted, we’ve stayed true to the goals and approach we set out then, described in the
original preface, which follows.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

If you’re like us, you don’t usually read prefaces. This one has some useful information in it, though,
so we hope you’ll make an exception. If you’re still tempted to skip the preface, here’s what you
really need to know: You’ll get as much out of this book as you put into it. If you read this book
cover to cover, you’ll learn something, but not nearly as much as you would if you take some time
trying to work through the problems on your own before you read the answers.
This book will help prepare you for the interviews you will face when seeking a job in program-
ming, development, technical consulting, or any other field that warrants a programming interview.
Programming interviews bear little resemblance to those described in traditional job-hunting and
interview books. They consist almost entirely of programming problems, puzzles, and technical
PREFACE

questions about computers. This book discusses each of the kinds of problems you are likely to
encounter and illustrates how they are best approached using questions from real interviews as
examples.
At this point you may be wondering who we are and what gives us the authority to write this book.
We’re both recent graduates who’ve been through a lot of interviews in the past few years. We’ve
interviewed for jobs ranging from technical consulting with large established companies to writing
device drivers for startups. This book is based on the experiences and observations we’ve taken from
those interviews—what yielded offers and what didn’t. We believe that this is the best possible basis
for a book like this. Rather than give you some HR exec’s idea of how interviewing should be done
or a head hunter’s impression of how it might be done, we will tell you what interviews are really
like at America’s top software and computer companies and what you need to do to get the job
you want.

NOTE For the record, we don’t think that the way interviewing is done today
is necessarily the way it should be done. The current paradigm puts too much
emphasis on the ability to solve puzzles and familiarity with a relatively limited
body of knowledge, and it generally fails to measure a lot of the skills that are
critical to success in industry.

To that end, we haven’t made up any of the questions in this book. Every last one of them has been
lifted from a recent interview. The distributions of problem type and difficulty are similar to what
you should expect to encounter in your interviews. We must emphasize that the problems presented
in this book are a representative sample of the questions asked in interviews, not a comprehensive
compilation. Reading this book straight through and memorizing the answers would completely
miss the point. You may be asked some of the questions that appear in this book, but you should
not expect that. A large and constantly changing body of questions is asked, and any intelligent
interviewer who has seen this book will never again use any of the questions that appear here. On
the other hand, interview questions encompass relatively few topic areas and types of questions,
and these rarely change. If you work on learning to solve not just the specific problems we pres-
ent, but the types of problems we present, you’ll be able to handle anything they throw at you in an
interview.
We’ve taken a couple of steps to facilitate the objective of improving your problem-solving skills.
First, where appropriate, we provide reviews of important topics before we present questions on
those topics. Second, instead of merely giving answers to the problems, we illustrate the problem-
solving process from beginning to solution. We’ve found that most textbooks and nearly all puzzle
books take a different approach to examples: they begin with a problem, go immediately to the
answer, and then explain why the answer is correct. In our experience, the result is that the reader
may understand the particular answer and why it’s right, but is left with no clue as to how the
author came up with that solution or how a similar problem might be solved. We hope that our step-
by-step approach to solutions will address this issue, helping you to understand not only the answers
but also how you arrive at the answers.

xxvi
 PREFACE

Learning by watching is never as effective as learning by doing. If you want to get the most out of
this book, you will have to work out the problems yourself. We suggest the following method:
1. After you read a problem, put the book down and try to work out the solution.
2. If you get stuck, start reading the solution. We never blurt out the answer at the beginning,
so you don’t have to worry that we’re going to give away the entire solution.
3. Read just far enough to get the hint you need, and then put down the book and keep
working.
4. Repeat this as necessary.

The more of the solution you work out yourself, the better your understanding will be. In addition,
this method closely resembles the actual interview experience, where you will have to solve the prob-
lems yourself, but the interviewer will give you hints when you get stuck.
Programming is a difficult and technical art. It would be impossible to teach everything you need to
know about computers and programming in one book. Therefore, we’ve had to make some assump-
tions about who you are. We assume that you have a background in computers equivalent to at least
the first year or two of a computer science degree. Specifically, we expect that you are comfortable
with programming in C, that you’ve had some experience with object-oriented programming in C++
or perhaps Java, and that you know the fundamentals of computer architecture and computer sci-
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It’s also possible that you have a great deal more computer knowledge and experience than what
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We have made every effort to ensure that all of the information in this book is correct. All of the
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We’re confident that you’ll find this book useful in getting the job you want. We hope that you may
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Go find a killer job!

xxvii
Other documents randomly have
different content
they swept over the causewayed streets, driven at a hard trot
towards the bridge of Merida.
"Caramba! Rouse, senors," cried Alvaro, who was the first to
awake.
"Carajo! Ay, there go the field-pieces: old Rowland's in his
saddle already," muttered the major, scrambling up from the floor on
which he had rolled in the night time, and placing his large bonnet
on the wrong way, permitting the long feathers to stream down his
back. "Rouse, gentlemen! Up and be doing, sirs, or we shall be
missed from our posts. Old Mahoud take the rule for marching
before day-break! Sir Ralph never made us do so in Egypt, and we
gained laurels there, gentlemen—I say we did. This infernal bonnet!
'tis always falling off."
"I wish to Heaven I could sleep an hour longer!" said Ronald. "I
have scarcely had three hours' sleep this week past."
"Our brigade never sleep, gentlemen," cried Campbell, who was
still a little inebriated, "never! We march all night, and fight all day:
we used to reverse the matter in Egypt. But what have we here?
Peter Forbes—or what is your name, what's the matter? Are
Dombrouski's dragoons among ye?"
"Ave Maria! O Dios mio! O Senor Don Alvaro!" cried Sargento
Pedro Gomez, appearing at the entrance of the room with a lamp in
his hand; "we have had the devil among us last night!"
"How so, fellow? What has happened?"
"The bravo has escaped—"
"How! Diavolo, escaped?"
"Ay, noble senor, and carried off the carbine of poor Diego de la
Zarza, whom we found lying within the chamber with his throat cut
from ear to ear."
The cavalier ground his teeth with absolute fury, while his olive
cheek grew black with rising passion.
"Santos! Santissimus!" cried he; "would to San Juan, and all the
calendar, I had hanged him last night! My brave Diego—but he must
have slept; if so, he deserves his fate. Well, there is no help for this
matter; we will give Narvaez Cifuentes a short prayer and a long
stab the next time we meet, and that without delay. But we must be
off; the cavalry advance-guard, and part of the artillery, have already
passed. Let the trompetero sound 'to horse;' and hasten, Pedro, and
get the troop into their saddles. Though we belong to the division of
Murillo, we will cross the bridge with you to-day, senors, and strike a
blow for honour. Viva Eapaña y buena Esperanza! 'Tis a better war-
shout than the Vive l'Empereur of the followers of the perfidious
Buonaparte."
"There are the drums of our brigade," said Ronald Stuart; "and
should we be missed by Fassifern, the excellency of Don Alvaro's
purple Malaga and sherry, or even the smiles of Donna Catalina
herself, would form but a poor excuse for lingering. Hark! the
generale."
"You improve in the art of gallantry," observed Macdonald; "you
could not have turned such fine speeches the morning we halted in
the Black Horse-square, at Lisbon. But I regret that we must march
without bidding adieu to our fair patrona."
"Forward, cavaliers; Catalina will excuse our departing without
bidding her farewell. Down the stair-case to the left, senors," cried
Alvaro. "Pedro Gomez, knave,—light the way!" and they pressed
forward into the street, feeling the chill air of the morning blow
strangely on their faces, while their heads swam with the fumes of
the wine taken so lately.
"It will be long ere I forget the night we spent in Merida," said
Macdonald.
"And long ere I do so, truly," replied Stuart, casting his eyes
vacantly over the dark windows of the mansion of Villa Franca.
"Ah!—Donna Catalina; are you looking for her?"
"Such strange scenes of fray and other matters! Had such a row
occurred at home, all Britain would have rung with it, from Dover to
Cape Wrath; but here it is as nothing."
"Hark! what is that, Stuart?"
"A cry,—by Heaven, a most appalling one!" A loud shriek arose
from amid the darkness in which the Plaza was involved. They
hastened to that part of the square from whence it appeared to
issue, and found that the conflict in which they had borne so
conspicuous a part was not the only outrage committed that night in
Merida. They discovered a young Portuguese lad, the private servant
of Lieutenant-colonel Macdonald of the Gordon Highlanders, lying
dead under the piazzas, stabbed to the heart with a long stiletto or
knife, and the assassin was never discovered.
For some hours the dark streets of the city rang to the
measured tramp of marching soldiers, the clatter of accoutrements,
the clang of hoofs, and the rumble of heavy wheels, as artillery,
cavalry, and infantry moved rapidly forward; but by sunrise the
whole division had crossed the bridge, and on the opposite side of
the river pursued their route towards Almendralejo.
"Colonel Cameron!" cried old W——, the brigade-major,
cantering up to the head of the column; "Major-general Howard
requests that you will increase your front. It is Sir Rowland's order."
"Form sub-divisions!" cried Fassifern, in the loud and manly tone
of authority which so well became him. "Rear sections, left oblique—
double quick!" The order was obeyed along the whole column by
each regiment in succession. Their fine brass bands filled the air with
martial music, causing every heart to vibrate to the sharp sound of
the soul-stirring trumpet, the cymbals, and trombone. The horses
shook their manes,—their riders sat more erect; the waving colours
were flung forward on the breeze above the steel ridges of glittering
bayonets, and the brave hearts of those who marched beneath them
grew light and animated at the prospect of a brush with the enemy.
Their starving condition, their faded uniform, the discomfort of the
last night's bivouac, were forgotten,—all was military, gay and
exciting to the utmost, filling every bosom with the pride of the
profession and the fervent "glow of chivalry." Sir Rowland Hill, with
his staff, viewed from a little eminence the whole length of the
column of that division of the army under his command, as they
passed, and a pleasing smile animated the benevolent features of
the bluff old general, when he beheld the willingness with which the
foot-sore and almost shoe-less soldiers pressed forward, although
they had endured all that could render troops, less persevering and
disciplined, less hardy and less brave, mutinous.
Toilsome forced marches—shelterless bivouacs, starvation,
receiving no provisions sometimes for three consecutive days,—no
clothing, and almost ever in arrears of pay—on one occasion for six
months,—nothing but the hope of a change, and the redoubtable
spirit which animated them, could have supported the British soldiers
under the accumulation of miseries suffered by them in the
Peninsula,—miseries which were lessened to the French troops, by
their living at free quarters wherever they went.
These things, however, were forgotten for the present time, and
with others Ronald Stuart felt all the ardour which the display before
him and the fineness of the morning were calculated to inspire. The
bright sun shone from an unclouded sky, filling the clear blue vault
with warmth; the birds were chirping and hopping merrily among
the dewy branches of the olive thickets and dark laurel bushes
overhanging the broad path, the deep dingles on each side of which
echoed to the notes of the sounding music.
Ronald looked back to the flat-roofed mansions and Roman
ruins of Merida, on the grey walls of which, casting bold shadows,
streamed the full splendour of the morning sun. The cavalry
rearguard were slowly crossing the ancient bridge, and with the red
coats came the brown uniform of Spain: it was the troop of Don
Alvaro advancing, with their polished helmets and tall lances flashing
in the sun, and finding a sparkling reflection in the deep blue current
of the Guadiana below.
Ronald carried for the first time the regimental colour, which
bore evident marks of service, being pierced in many places by
musket-shot. It was a laborious affair to sustain, especially during a
breeze, being large, and of rich yellow silk, fringed round with
bullion. The sphinx,—the badge of Egypt, (the pride of the major's
heart,) surrounded by a wreath of the brave old thistle, and the
honourable mottoes 'Egmont-op-Zee,' 'Mandora,' and 'Bergen-op-
Zoom,'[*] all sewn, as usual, by fair hands, and done in massive
gold embroidery, appeared in the centre of the standard, which the
Duchess of Gordon had presented to the clan-regiment of her son.
[*] Such, with many additions, are still the badges of the Gordon Highlanders. For
the information of unmilitary readers I may state, that every corps has two
colours,—a king's and regimental; the first carried by the senior, and the latter by
the junior ensign.

"Stuart, I see you are casting longing looks back to Merida," said
Alister in his usual jesting manner, as he marched by Ronald's side
with the gaudy king's colour sloped on his shoulder. "There is some
attraction in our rear, I perceive; you are ever looking that way."
"Ay, yonder comes Don Alvaro and his troop of lances; how
gallant they appear! But they are almost hidden in the dust raised by
the rear of the column."
"Look above the colours of the 71st, and you will see the roof
which contains the fair Catalina; it was for that you were searching
so narrowly. I can read your thoughts, you see, without being a
conjuror. Stuart, my boy, you are very green in these matters,
otherwise you would not blush as scarlet as your coat, which, by the
by, is rapidly becoming purple."
"What stuff you talk, Macdonald! What is Catalina to me?"
"Pshaw! now you need not bristle up so fiercely. Were you not
making downright love to her last night? And the don himself would
have seen it, but had drunk too much Malaga."
"Impossible, Alister! You must dream, or this is some of your
usual nonsense. I have no recollection of speaking to Donna Catalina
otherwise than I would have done to any lady,—and Campbell heard
me."
 "The major had over much sherry under his belt, and made too
much noise about Egypt,—the pyramids,—Pompey's pillar,—the
battle of Alexandria, and Heaven knows all what, to hear any one
speaking but himself. We spent the night in glorious style, however;
but the taste of that horrible garlic——Heavens above! what is this?"
Alister's sudden exclamation was not given without sufficient
reason.
A carbine flashed from among the dark evergreens which
overhung the road, and Ronald Stuart, staggering backwards, fell
prostrate and bleeding at the feet of his comrades, from whom burst
a wild shout of rage and surprise; but the strictness of British
discipline prevented any man from moving in search of the assassin.
"Hell's fury!" cried Colonel Cameron, spurring his horse to the
spot, while his eyes shot fire. "Search the bushes; forward, men! Do
not fire, in case of alarming the rear of the column; but fix bayonets,
—slay, hew, and cut to pieces whoever you find."
With mingled curses and shouts a hundred Highlanders dashed
through the thicket; but their heavy knapsacks and the tall plumes
of their bonnets impeded their movements in piercing the twisted
and tangled branches of the thickly-leaved laurels. They searched
the grove through and through, beating the bushes in every
direction; but no trace of the assassin was found, save a broad-
brimmed sombrero bearing the figure of the Virgin stamped in
pewter, fastened to the band encircling it, which Alister Macdonald
found near a gigantic laurel bush, in the midst of the umbrageous
branches of which its owner lurked unseen.
"It is the hat of Cifuentes,—the vagabond of our last night's
adventure," said Alister, hewing a passage through the bushes with
his sword, and regaining the regiment.
"I would you had brought his head rather. O that it was within
the reach of my trusty stick! I would scorn to wet Andrea with his
base blood." A frown of rage contracted the broad brow of Campbell
while he spoke, holding in one hand a steel Highland pistol, which
he had drawn from his holsters for the purpose of executing dire
vengeance had opportunity offered.
"By all the powers above!" cried Alister, with fierce and stern
energy, "if ever this accursed Spaniard crosses my path, I will make
his head fly from his shoulders as I would a thistle from its stalk! nor
shall all the corregidors and alcaldes in Spain prevent me. But how is
Stuart? Poor fellow! he looks very pale. Has he lost much blood?"
Ronald, supported on the arm of Evan Iverach, stood erect
within a circle formed by the officers who crowded round, while one
of the regimental surgeons examined his left arm, which had been
wounded by the shot.
"O gude sake! be gentle wi' him, doctor!" said honest Evan in
great anguish, as he observed Ronald to wince under the hands of
the medical officer; "be as gentle wi' him as possible. You doctor folk
are unco rough ever and aye: dinna forget that he is your namesake,
and kinsman forbye, though ye canna find out the exact degree."
"I hope, Doctor Stuart, the wound is not a very bad one?" said
Cameron, dismounting from his horse and approaching the circle. "I
augur ill from the expression of concern which your countenance
wears."
"The shot has passed completely through, colonel, breaking the
bone in its passage; but as the fracture is not compound, it will soon
join after setting. I hope that none of the red coat, or any other
foreign body, is lodged in the wound."
"Oh, if it should be a poisoned ball!" groaned poor Evan in great
misery at the idea, while Doctor Stuart removed the sleeve of the
coat, and Ronald endeavoured to conceal the miniature of Alice Lisle,
which was nearly revealed by the disarrangement of his uniform.
"Oh, if it should be a poisoned ball!" he repeated.
"Some of our very best chields have been slain wi' them before
now,—especially at the battle of Arroya-del-Molino," observed his
comrade Angus Mackie, with a solemn shake of his head.
"Oh, that I had only been at his side! It micht have hit me in his
stead!"
"Silence, men! You chatter nonsense," said Cameron sternly.
"And what think you now, doctor?"
"That as Mr. Stuart is young, and of a full habit, I must bleed
him immediately."
"Stuff! My good fellow, he has lost blood enough already."
"I am the best judge of that, Colonel Cameron," replied
Esculapius haughtily; "delay is fraught with danger. Holloa, there!
where's the hospital attendant? Serjeant Maconush, undo the
service-case and bring me the pasteboard splints, the twelve-tailed
bandage, and other et cæteras: I will set the bone."
"It is impossible, Doctor Stuart," interposed Cameron. "Your
intentions are all very good; but your clansman must return to
Merida, where I sincerely hope he will be properly attended to. We
have no time to await your operations just now, for which I am truly
sorry, as Ensign Stuart will be well aware."
 "Do not mind me, colonel," replied Ronald, whose teeth were
clenched with the agony he endured. "I will return, as you say, and
shall doubtless find a medical attendant. I hear the rear regiments
are clamorous at this stoppage in their front, and yonder is Sir
Rowland himself, advancing to discover the cause." He spoke with
difficulty, and at intervals; the new and painful sensation of a broken
limb, together with rage swelling his heart at the manner in which
he had received it, made his utterance low and indistinct. Among the
group around him he recognised Don Alvaro, who had galloped from
the rear to discover the meaning of the confusion.
"Senor coronel," said he to Cameron, raising his hand to the
peak of his helmet, "let him be taken to my house in Merida, where
he will be properly attended to. Pedro Gomez,"—turning to his
orderly serjeant,—"dismount. Give this cavalier your horse, and
attend him yourself to my residence in the Calle de Guadiana, and
desire Donna Catalina to have his wound looked after. You will
remain with him until it is healed."
Pedro sprung lightly from his saddle, into which Ronald was with
some difficulty installed.
"I thank you, senor," said Cameron, touching his bonnet, "and
am glad this disagreeable matter is so satisfactorily arranged; the
alcalde might have ordered him but an indifferent billet. Good bye,
my dear fellow, Stuart; I trust we shall see you soon again, and with
a whole skin. Mr. Grant, take the colours. Gentlemen, fall in; get into
your places, men—into your ranks. Forward!" He delivered his orders
with firm rapidity, and being a strict martinet who was not to be
trifled with, they were instantly obeyed, and the commotion was
hushed. The troops were too much accustomed to wounds and
slaughter to care about the hurt received by Ronald, but it was the
sudden and concealed shot which had raised their surprise and
indignation.
Evan Iverach alone delayed executing the orders of Cameron,
and entreated that he might be permitted to attend his wounded
master to the rear.
"My good fellow, it cannot be," replied the colonel, pleased with
the genuine concern manifested by Ronald's honest follower; "the
enemy are before us, and I cannot spare a man. Nay, now, you need
not entreat; fall into your place at once, sir."
"Oh! if you please, sir, dinna speak sae sternly. Did ye but ken
—"
"Into your place this instant, sir! or I will have you stripped of
your accoutrements, and sent prisoner to the quarter-guard,"
exclaimed Cameron sternly, his eyes beginning to sparkle. To say
more was useless, and shouldering his musquet with a heavy heart,
Evan took his place in the ranks, and moved forward with the rest;
but he cast many an anxious look to the rear, watching the retiring
figure of Ronald as he sat on the troop-horse, which was led by
Pedro Gomez towards the bridge of Merida.

CHAPTER X.
FLIRTATION.

"Oh! the sunny peaches glow,

 And the grapes in clusters blush;
And the cooling silver streams
From their sylvan fountains rush.
There is music in the grove,
And there's fragrance on the gale;
But there's nought so dear to me,
As my own Highland vale."
Vedder's Poems.

Ronald experienced most intense pain, together with a cold,

benumbed feeling in the fractured limb; but it was as nothing in
comparison to the mental torture which he endured, or the indignant
and fierce thoughts that animated his heart. He entertained a deep
and concentrated hatred of the wretch who, aiming thus maliciously
and savagely at his life, had in so daring a manner inflicted a wound
by which he might ultimately lose his arm, and which, for the
present, disabled him from accompanying his comrades, who were
rapidly following up the retreating foe, and eager to engage.
As his regiment belonged to the first brigade of the division, it
consequently marched in front, or near the head of the column, and
in his return to Merida he had to pass nearly 16,000 men; and the
bitterness of his feelings was increased at the idea that every man
there would probably share the honour of an engagement, of which
his mutilated state forbade him to be a participator. Solemn and
deep were the inward vows he took, to seek dire vengeance for this
morning's work on Narvaez Cifuentes, if ever he again confronted
him; and his only fear was, that he might never meet with him
more.
From the bridge of Merida he cast a farewell look after his
comrades, but nought could he see, save a long and dense cloud of
dust, through which the glitter of polished steel and the waving fold
of a standard appeared at times, as the extended length of the
marching column wound its way up the gentle eminence, above
which appeared the top of the spire of Almendralejo, several leagues
distant.
By Pedro Gomez he was conducted to the stately mansion of
Don Alvaro, and delivered over to the tender care of Donna Catalina,
whose softest sympathies were awakened when the young officer
was brought back to her scarcely able to speak, and his gay uniform
covered with blood, for he had lost a great quantity, owing to the
hasty manner in which his namesake the surgeon had bound up the
wound. Add to this, that he was a handsome youth,—a soldier who
had come to fight for Spain, and had but yesternight rescued her
brother from death: the young lady's interest, gratitude, and pity
were all enlisted in his favour. Her large dark eyes sparkled with
mingled sorrow and pleasure when she beheld him,—sorrow at the
pain he suffered, and pleasure at the happiness of being his nurse
and enjoying his society in a mansion of which she was absolute
mistress, and where there was no old maiden aunt or duenna to be
a spy upon her, or overruler of her movements; and as for the
scandal of Merida, or quizzing of her female companions, she was
resolved not to care a straw,—she was above the reach of either. Her
uncle, the Prior of San Juan, resided in the mansion, but the worthy
old padre was so enlarged in circumference by ease and good living,
and so crippled by the gout, that he never moved further than from
his bed to the well-bolstered chair in which he sat all day, and from
the chair back to bed again, and no one ever entered his room save
old Dame Agnes, (already mentioned,) who alone seemed to possess
the power of pleasing him; consequently he was never seen by the
other inhabitants of the house, any more than if he did not exist.
We will pass over the account of the bone-setting by the Padre
Mendizabal, the famous medical practitioner in Merida, who nearly
drove Ronald mad by an oration on different sorts of fractures,
simple and compound, and the different treatment requisite for the
cure of various gun-shot wounds, before his arm was splinted and
bandaged up. Weak and exhausted from the loss of blood, and his
head buzzing with Mendizabal's discourse, right glad was Ronald
when he found himself in a comfortable and splendid couch,—
Catalina's own, which she had resigned for his use as the best in the
house,—with its curtains drawn round for the night; and he forgot,
in a dreamy and uneasy slumber, the exciting passages of the last
few days, the danger of his wound, and the sunny eyes of the
donna.
The tolling bells of a neighbouring steeple awakened him early
next morning, and brought his mind back to the world, and a long
chain of disagreeable thoughts.
There is scarcely any thing which makes one feel so much from
home, as the sound of a strange church bell; and the deep and
hollow ding-dong which rung from the gothic steeple of San Juan,
was very different from the merry rattle of the well-known kirk bell
at Lochisla. Ronald thought of that village bell, and the noble
peasantry whom it was wont to call to prayer, and the association
brought a gush of fond, and sad recollections into his mind. He felt
himself, as it were, deserted in a strange country,—among a people
of whose language he knew almost nothing; he looked round him,
and his apartment appeared strange and foreign,—every object it
presented was new and peculiar to his eye. He thought of Scotland
—of HOME,—home with all its ten thousand dear and deeply
impressed associations, until he wept like a child, and his mind
became a prey to most profound and intense dejection,—suffering
from the home-sickness, an acuteness and agony of feeling, which
only those can know who have been so unhappy as to experience
this amiable feeling; one which exists all-powerfully in the hearts of
the Scots, who, although great travellers and wanderers from home,
ever turn their thoughts, fondly and sadly, to the lofty mountains,
the green forests, and the rushing rivers which they first beheld
when young, and to the grassy sod that covers the dust of their
warrior ancestors, and which they wish to cover their own, when
they follow them "to the land of the leal."
The feverish state of his body had communicated itself to his
mind, and for several days and nights, in the solitude of his chamber,
he brooded over the memory of his native place, enduring the
acuteness of the nostalgia in no small degree; and even the fair
Catalina, with her songs, her guitar, and her castanets, failed to
enliven him, at least for a time; his whole pleasure—and a gloomy
pleasure it was—being to brood over the memory of his far-off
home. The dreams that haunted the broken slumbers which the pain
of his wound permitted him to snatch, served but to increase the
disorder; and often, from a pleasing vision of his paternal tower with
its mountain loch and pathless pine forests, of his white-haired sire
as he last beheld him, or of Alice Lisle smiling and beautiful, with her
bright eyes and curling tresses, twining her arms endearingly round
him, and laying her soft cheek to his, he was awakened by some
confounded circumstance, which again brought on him the painful
and soul-absorbing lethargy which weighed down every faculty,
rendering him careless of every present object save the miniature of
Alice. The paleness of his complexion, and the intense sadness of his
eye, puzzled his medical attendant, Doctor Mendizabal, but neither
to him nor to Donna Catalina, who used the most bewitching
entreaties, would the forlorn young soldier confess the cause of his
dejection,—concealment of the mental feelings from others beins; a
concomitant of the disease. So each formed their own opinions.
Mendizabal concluded it to be loss of blood; and the lady, after
consulting her cousin and companion, Inesella de Truxillo, supposed
that he must unquestionably be in love,—what else could render so
handsome an officiale so very sad?
This conclusion gave him additional interest with her; and
certes, Alice Lisle would little have admired the attendance upon
Ronald's sick couch of a rival, and one so dangerously beautiful; but
her fears might have decreased, had she seen how incessantly,
during the days he was confined to his bed, he gazed upon the little
miniature which Louis Lisle had given as a parting gift. Concealing it
from the view of others, he watched it with untiring eyes, until, in
the fervency of his fancy, the features seemed to become animated
and expanded,—the sparkling eyes to fill with light and tenderness,
—the pale cheek to flush, and the dark curls which fell around it to
wave,—the coral lips to smile; while he almost imagined that he
heard the soft murmurs of her voice mingling with the gurgle of the
Isla and the rustle of the foliage on the banks, where they were
wont to play and gambol in infancy.
In a few days, however, his mental and bodily languor
disappeared, and when, by the surgeon's advice, he left his sick
chamber, his usual lightness of heart returned rapidly, and he was
soon able to promenade under the piazzas of the Plaza with Catalina
during the fine sunny evenings; and although the miniature was not
less admired than formerly, the fair original would have trembled
could she have witnessed all the nursing which Ronald received from
his beautiful patrona, and heard all the soft things which were
uttered.
As his strength increased their strolls were extended, and the
young ladies of Merida smiled at each other, and shook their heads
significantly, as the graceful donna, attired in her veil and mantilla,
swept through the great stradi, flirting her little fan, with the foreign
officiale in the plumed bonnet and rich scarlet uniform. His fair
patrona showed him all the remains of Roman magnificence in
Merida, and Ronald, who, like most of his countrymen, was an
enthusiastic admirer of the gloomy and antique, explored every
cranny and nook of the immense ruins of the once-important castle;
surveying with a sad feeling the pillared halls which once had rung
to the sound of the trumpet and the clashing harness of Spanish
chivalry, but where now the ivy hung down from the roofless wall,
and the long grass grew between the squares of the tessellated
pavement. Time had reduced it to little more than a heap of
shattered stones, but it was as ancient, probably, as the days of the
Goths, during whose dominion a strong garrison lay at Merida.
 The large amphitheatre, of which the citizens are so proud,
formed another attraction, and its circular galleries were the scene
of many an evening; walk with Catalina and her cousin Inesella of
Truxillo, a very gay and very beautiful girl, with whom a great deal of
laughing and flirting ensued in clambering up the steep stone seats,
and rambling through its maze of arcades, arched passages,
projecting galleries, and the long dark dens opening on the arena.
The Roman baths of Diana, a subterranean edifice of an oval
form, containing ranges of dressing chambers, and a large stone
bathing-basin filled with pure water, formed another object of
interest; and many were the pleasant strolls they enjoyed along the
grassy banks of the Guadiana and by the summit of a high hill, (the
name of which I have forgotten,) in the shade of the broad trellis
where the vines were bursting into leaf, and in every green lane and
embowered walk about Merida, even to the hermitage of San
Bartolomi,[*] where a white-bearded anchorite showed them the
boiling-hot spring of Alange.

[*] A place three leagues eastward of Merida.

During this intercourse, Ronald rapidly improved in his Spanish; and

who would not have done so under the tuition of such fair
instructresses? He found it

"—pleasing to be school'd in a strange tongue

By female lips and eyes—that is, I mean
When both the teacher and the taught are young,
As was the case, at least, where I have been;
 They smile so when one's right, and when one's
wrong
They smile still more; and then there intervene
Pressure of hands, perhaps even a chaste kiss:—
I learn'd the little that I know by this."

More than one week had slipped away, and Ronald had nearly
recovered from his wound, though still obliged to keep his arm slung
in a scarf. In the garden at the back of the mansion, he was seated
by Catalina's side one evening on the steps of a splendid fountain,
where four brazen deities spouted the crystal liquid from their
capacious throats into a broad basin of black marble, from which, by
some subterraneous passage, it was carried to the Guadiana. The
spring was now advanced, and the delightful climate of Spain was
fast arraying nature, and bringing her forth in all her glory. From the
fountain, broad gravelled walks, thickly edged with myrtle, branched
off in every direction, and between them were beds where the
crimson geranium, the gigantic rose bushes, the pale lilac blossom,
and a thousand other garden flowers, which it would be useless to
mention, were budding in the heat of the vernal sun by day, and in
the soft moist dews by night. Around and above them the graceful
willow, the tufted accacia, the stately palm, the orange-tree with its
singularly beautiful leaves, and numerous other shrubs, were
spreading into foliage, which appeared to increase daily in richness
of tint and variety; and beautiful vistas, winding walks, and
umbrageous bowers were formed among them with all the art and
nicety of Spanish landscape gardening.
 The young Highlander and Catalina were seated on the margin
of the fountain, as I have already said. They conversed but little.
The donna busied herself with the strings of her guitar, and Ronald
watched in silence the nimble motions of her white hands as she tied
and untied, screwed and unscrewed the strings and pegs, and struck
the chords to ascertain the true tone. Strange and conflicting
thoughts flitted through his mind while he gazed upon his beautiful
companion. He was aware how dangerous to his peace her presence
was, and he almost longed for, yet dreaded the coming time, when
he should be obliged to return to his regiment. To Alice Lisle he felt
that he was bound by every tie that early intimacy, love, and honour
could twine around him,—honour! how could he think of so cold a
word? and while he did so, he blushed that he could find room in his
heart for the image of another.
"Catalina is very beautiful—decidedly so," thought he, while he
viewed the curve of her white neck, and the outline of her superb
bust. "Her face is one of surpassing loveliness, and her eyes—but
Alice is equally bewitching, although perhaps a less showy beauty.
Alice is very gentle and winning, so lady-like, and we have known
each other so long,—it is impossible I can forget her. Why, then,
have I been trifling with one whose presence is so dangerous to my
peace? Yes! if I would preserve a whole heart and my allegiance to
Alice, I must fly from you, Catalina."
While he reasoned thus with himself, Catalina raised her dark
and laughing eyes to his, while she struck the chords of her
instrument, and sang a few words of a very beautiful Spanish air. So
melodious was her tone, so graceful her manner, so winning the
expression of eye, who can wonder that Ronald's resolution melted
like snow in the sunshine, and that he felt himself vanquished? Poor
Alice! With an air of tenderness and embarrassment he took the little
hand of the donna within his own. She read in his eye the thoughts
which passed through his mind; she cast down her long jetty lashes,
while a rich bloom suffused her soft cheek. Ronald was about to
murmur forth something—in fact he knew not what, when a loud
knocking at the outer gate of the mansion, and the sound of a well-
known voice, aroused him.
"Unbar the yett—this instant! ye auld doited gomeral! I will see
my maister in spite o' ye," cried Evan impatiently, while Agnes
delayed unbarring the door to so boisterous a visitor.
"Caramba, senor! Quien es?" she repeated.
"Gude wife, I speak nae language but my ain; so ye needna
waste your wind by speirin' questions that I canna answer."
At Ronald's desire the old housekeeper undid the door, which
was well secured by many a bar and lock, and he immediately saw
the waving plumes of Evan's bonnet dancing above the shrubbery,
as he came hastily towards the fountain, with his musquet at the
long trail, and his uniform and accoutrements covered with the dust
of a long day's march. His joy was unbounded on seeing his master,
and rapid and quick were the earnest inquiries he made, without
waiting for answers, concerning his wound, and how he had been
treated "by the unco folk he had been left to bide amang,—begging
the bonnie leddy's pardon."
Catalina bowed,—although she knew not a word that he said;
but by the natural politeness and expression of the soldier's look,
she knew that he referred to her.
 "Now then, Evan, that I have answered all your inquiries, be
pleased to stand steady, and moderate yourself so far as to reply to
mine," said Ronald kindly, far from feeling annoyed at his
appearance at a juncture so peculiarly awkward and tender. "How
come you here just now? and how alone?"
"I got leave frae the colonel, after an unco dunning, to come
here and attend you, for I thocht you would feel yersel unco queer,
left alane among the black-avised folk, that canna speak a decent
tongue. But here, sir, is a letter and a newspaper, sent you by
Maister Macdonald." Evan, after fumbling among the ration biscuits,
shoe-brushes, and other matters which crammed his havresack,
produced them. "Just as I cam awa' frae the place whar' the
regiment lay, in dreary strath—a place like Corrie-oich for a' the
world—seventy miles frae this, I heard that the order had come to
retire to the rear—"
"Upon Merida?"
"I canna say, sir, because the very moment that Cameron gied
me leave, and Maister Macdonald gied me his letter, I set off, and
have travelled nicht and day, without stopping, except may be just
for an hour, to sleep by the road side or to get a mouthfu o' meat,—
trash sic as ane wadna gie to puir auld Hector the watch-dog at
hame, at auld Lochisla. O it was a far and a weary gait; but I was
sae anxious to see ye, sir, that I have trod it out in twa days, in
heavy marching order as ye see me, and I am like to dee wi' sheer
fatigue."
"You are a faithful fellow, Evan; but I fear, by your love for me,
you may work mischief to yourself. Here comes Dame Agnes,—to
her care I must consign you. She was a kind attendant to me when I
much wanted one."
"God bless ye for that, gude wife!" cried Iverach, catching her in
his arms and kissing her withered cheek; a piece of gallantry which
she owed more to Evan's native drollery and his present state of
excitement, than any admiration of her person.
"I believe there is some gaucy kimmer at home, who would not
like this distribution of favour, Evan," said Ronald; while Catalina
clapped her hands and laughed heartily at the old dame, who,
although very well pleased at the compliment, affected great
indignation, and arranged her velvet hood with a mighty air.
"It's just quiet friendship for the auld body,—naething else, sir.
Even puir wee Jessie Cavers wadna hae been angry, had she been
present and seen me."
"Cavers—Jessie Cavers! I heard that name before, surely?"
"It's very like ye may, sir," replied the young Highlander, a flush
crossing his cheek. "She is Miss Alice Lisle's maid,—a servant lassie
at the Inch-house."
"O—a girl at Inchavon? I thought the name was familiar to me,"
faltered Ronald, reddening in turn. "But you had better retire, and
tell the military news to Pedro Gomez, whom I see waiting you
impatiently yonder."
Reserving the newspaper for another time, Ronald, with the
donna's permission, opened Macdonald's letter.
"This billet is from the army," said she, familiarly placing her
arm through the young officer's and drawing close to his side, while
she caused his heart to thrill at her touch. "Ah! tell me if there is any
news of my brother Alvaro in it?"
 "I will read it aloud, translating those parts you do not
understand. It is dated from Villa Franca:—[*]

[*] The date of poor Macdonald's letter is now obliterated, and I have forgotten
what it was,—about the month of March (1812), I think.

"DEAR STUART,

"Fassifern and the rest of ours are anxious to know how you are,
after that wound you received so villanously, and from which I hope
you are almost recovered by this time. Send us word by the first
messenger from Merida to the front. Remember me particularly to
the fair Catalina, and I assure you that your quarters at present in
her splendid mansion, are very different from mine here,—in a
wretched hut, where the rain comes in at the roof, and the wind at a
thousand crannies. You may congratulate us, my old comrade, on
the easy victories we obtain over Messieurs the French, who have
been driven from Almendralejo, and all the places adjacent, with
little loss on our part. I now write you from a village, out of which
our brigade drove them a few days ago. How much you would have
admired the gallantry of our Spanish friend Don Alvaro, who
accompanied us in this affair. On our approaching the enemy, they
retired without firing a shot at first, and his troop of lancers, who
were halted on the road leading to Los Santos, charged them at full
gallop, shouting Viva Ferdinand! España! España y buena
Esperanza!"
"Noble Alvaro! my brave brother!" interrupted Catalina, her eyes
sparkling with delight. "I will always love this officiale for what he
says. Oh! that Inesella was here! She is betrothed to Alvaro, senor,
and would have been wedded long since, but for a quarrel they had
about Donna Ermina, the wife of old Salvador, the guerilla chief."
"It was a noble sight," continued the letter, "to see the tall
lances levelled to the rest, the steel helmets flashing in the sun, and
to hear the clang of the rapid hoofs, as the Spaniards rushed down
the brae and broke upon the enemy with the force of a whirlwind, a
thunderbolt, or any thing else you may suppose. Campbell protested
it equalled the charge of the Mamelukes, when he 'was in Egypt with
Sir Ralph.' Alvaro has now gone off to join Murillo, where he hopes
to meet Don Salvador de Zagala, whom he vows to impale alive. He
left me but an hour ago, and desires me in my letter to send a kiss
to his sister. This, I dare swear, you will be most happy to deliver."
Ronald faltered, and turned his eye on Catalina, who blushed
deeply. It was impossible to resist the temptation; her face was very
close to his, and he pressed his lips upon her burning cheek.
"Read on, senor mio," she said, disengaging herself with
exquisite grace; "perhaps there may be more about Alvaro?"
Ronald glanced his eye over the next paragraph, and passed it
over in silence and confusion.
"A little flirtation en passant, you know, will not injure your
allegiance to the fair ladye whose miniature—but you may burn my
letter without reading further, should I write much on that subject.
Angus Mackie, a private of your company, was the other night
engaged in a regular brawl with the natives of Almendralejo,—some
love affair with the daughter of an old abogado (lawyer). I refer you
for the particulars to the bearer, who was engaged in it. We had
another row at Almendralejo the day we entered it. Some Spaniard,
by way of insult, ran his dagger into the bag of Ranald Dhu's pipe,
and so great was the wrath of the 'Son of the Mist,' that he dirked
him on the spot; and although the fellow is not dead, he is declared
by Doctor Stuart to be 'in a doubtful state.'
"I have sent you an Edinburgh paper, (a month or two old,)
wherein you will see by the 'Gazette' that a Louis Lisle has been
appointed to us, vice poor Oliphant Cassilis, killed in the battle of
Arroya. There are people of the name in Perthshire; perhaps you
may know something of this Lisle."
The blood rushed into Ronald's face, and a mixed feeling of
pleasure and shame to meet the brother of Alice filled his mind. He
read on—
"I was just about to conclude this long letter, when some
strange news arrived. Ciudad Rodrigo has been invested, and it is
supposed must capitulate soon. Our division has been ordered by
Lord Wellington to retire into Portugal forthwith; the 'gathering' is at
this moment ringing through the streets of Villa Franca, and the
corps is getting under arms.—Adieu, &c.

ALISTER MACDONALD."

"P.S.—L. Lisle is at Lisbon, bringing up a detachment for ours,—a

hundred rank and file. I do not know what route we take for
Portugal; but you had better endeavour to join us on the way."

CHAPTER XI.
ALICE LISLE.—NEWS FROM HOME.
 "As you are beauteous, were you half so true,
Here could I live, and love, and die for only you.
Now I to fighting fields am sent afar,
And strive in winter camps with toils of war;
While you, alas, that I should find it so!—"
Virgil, Pastoral x.

Within the chamber which he occupied Ronald sat late that night,
musing on what was to be done, and what course was now to be
steered. He saw that it was absolutely necessary that he should
proceed instantly to rejoin,—a measure which the healed state of his
wound rendered imperative. "The division is retreating," thought he,
"and the Count D'Erlon will without doubt push forward immediately
and regain possession of Merida, and I must inevitably be taken
prisoner. I will join Sir Rowland as he passes through; the troops
must pass here en route for Portugal. How dangerous to my own
quiet is my acquaintance with Catalina, and how foolishly have I
been tampering with her affections and with my own heart! Good
heavens! I have acted very wrong in awakening in her a sentiment
towards me, which my plighted troth to Alice and my own natural
sense of honour forbid me to cherish or return. And Catalina loves
me; her blushes, her downcast eyes, and her sweet confusion have
betrayed it more than once. 'Tis very agreeable to feel one's self
beloved, and by so fair a girl, for Catalina is very beautiful; but I
must fly from her, and break those magic spells which are linking our
hearts together. To-morrow—no, the day after, I will leave Merida,
and join the division as soon as I hear by what route it is retiring."
Louis Lisle, too, the brother of Alice, was now an officer in the
same corps, and his bold spirit would instantly lead him to seek
vengeance for any false or dishonourable part acted towards his
sister. "Poor Louis! he is the first friend I ever had; and how will so
delicate a boy, one so tenderly nurtured, endure the many miseries
of campaigning here? A single night such as that we spent in the
bivouac of La Nava, would unquestionably be his death."
Here his cogitations were interrupted by the voice of Evan, who
was carousing in the room below with Gomez, (having spent the
night together over their cups, although neither understood a word
of the other's language), singing loud and boisterously,—

"Keek into the draw-well,

My Jo Janet;
And there ye'll see yer bonnie sell,
My Jo Janet."

a performance which drew many 'vivas!' from his brother-soldier.

Roused from the reverie into which he had fallen, Ronald's eye fell
on the newspaper sent him by Macdonald, and he now took it up,
thinking to find something in it to direct the current of his thoughts;
and somewhat he found with a vengeance! Better would it have
been if he had never thought of it at all. It was an Edinburgh
Journal, dated several weeks back, and appeared to have passed
through the hands of the whole division, it was so worn and
frittered. After scanning over the 'Gazette,' to which he had turned
first "with true military instinct," his eye next fell upon one of those
pieces of trash styled 'fashionable news,' It was headed—
"MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE.—We understand that the gallant Earl
of Hyndford is about to lead to the hymeneal altar the beautiful and
accomplished daughter of Sir Allan Lisle, Bart., M. P. for ——. The
happy event is to take place in a few weeks at Inchavon-house,
(Perthshire,) the family seat of the venerable and much respected
baronet."
The room swam around him, and the light faded for a moment
from his eye, while the hot blood gushed back tumultuously through
the pulses of his heart; but clinching his teeth firmly, and mustering
all his scattered energies, he read it over once more, while mingled
sorrow and fury contracted and convulsed the muscles of his
handsome features. There was no doubting the purport of the
torturing intelligence, and Catalina was forgotten in the fierce
excitement of the moment. "O Alice! Alice!" he said, bitterly and
aloud, "could I ever have expected this of you? 'Tis but a few
months since we parted, and she is false already. I am, indeed, soon
forgotten!"
He crushed the paper up, and thrusting it into the charcoal pan
on the hearth, it was consumed in an instant. "Hyndford—
Carmichael, Earl of Hyndford! Ay; the glitter of the coronet has more
charms for her eye than a subaltern's epaulet; but I would not be
my father's son, should I think more of her after this. I will learn to
forget her, as she has forgotten me,—and this too shall perish!" He
took the miniature from his neck, and was about to crush it beneath
his heel; but when the well-known features met his eye, his fierce
resolution melted away: he averted his head, and replaced it in his
bosom, while a sad and subdued feeling took possession of his
heart.
"I cannot destroy," thought he, "what has been so long a
solace, and an object almost of worship to me. Even were she the
bride of another, as perhaps she is at this very hour, I would yet
wear and bear it for her sake, in memory of the days that are passed
away and the thoughts I had nourished for years—ay, for years,—
since the days we gathered the wild rose and the heather-bell on the
bonnie braes I now almost wish never to behold again."
For the first hour or two, he felt as if every cord that bound him
to happiness and existence was severed and broken, and an acute
feeling of mental agony swelled his breast almost to bursting. His
Highland pride came, however, to his aid, and roused within him
feelings equally bitter, though perhaps less distressing; and starting
up, he strode hastily about the apartment, and emptied more than
once a large horn of Malaga, from a pig-skin which lay on a side-
table near him, drinking deeply to drown care, and allay the wild
tumult of his thoughts. But the wine was as water, and he quaffed it
without effect.
The baseness of her desertion grew every moment more vivid;
and how openly must she have renounced him, when even the
public journals had become aware of her intended alliance, which
must have been a measure of her own free will, as her father Sir
Allan would never control her affections, and the age of forced
marriages was passed away, or existed only in the pages of
romance. Love and jealousy, sorrow, pride, and a feeling of
helplessness at the great distance which separated him from Britain,
passed rapidly through his mind; and during the mental agony and
tumult of the first few hours, he forgot Catalina and the honourable
struggles he had made with himself to withstand the witchery of her
beauty, until the recollection of it rushed fully upon him, raising him
in his own estimation, and lessening the fickle Alice in an equal
degree.
He hastily threw open his baggage-trunk, and producing writing
materials, commenced a letter, in which he meant to upbraid her
bitterly, and take a haughty and sad farewell of her for ever. But so
great was his agitation, so fast did his ideas crowd upon each other,
and so much were they mingled together and confused, that he
wrote only rhapsodies in incoherent sentences, and sheet after sheet
was filled, torn up, and committed to the flames; until at last it
flashed upon his mind that there were no means at present of
transmitting a letter, and he abandoned the attempt altogether.
Whenever he thought of Catalina, he felt more consoled for the loss
of Alice; but yet the deep-rooted affection, the cherished sentiment
of years which he felt for her, was a very different feeling from the
temporary admiration with which the Spanish lady had impressed
him; but ideas of a prouder, and perhaps more healing kind, came to
his aid.
"I tread the path which leads to the greatest of all earthly
honours,—even the passage to the throne lies through the tented
field; and although I look not for that, the ambitious Alice may yet
repent having slighted the love of Ronald Stuart of Lochisla. We
know not what fate may have in store, or what the great lottery of
life may cast up for me. Alice! oh, how false, how fickle, and how
heartless! Like twin tendrils of the same tree, like little birds in the
same nest, we grew unto each other,—our love increasing with our
size and years; and yet, after all the tender sentiments we have
exchanged and the happiness we have enjoyed, she has thus cruelly
abandoned me, preferring the glitter of a title to the love of a brave
and honest heart! But let her go; she will hear of me yet," he said
almost aloud, while his sparkling eye fell on his claymore, which lay
upon the table, "for this is the land where honour and fame are
within the grasp of a reckless and daring soldier, for reckless of life
and limb will I be from this hour. But I may fall unhonoured and
unknown, as thousands have already done, as thousands more shall
do; yet Alice, though perhaps she may drop a tear for me, will never
be upbraided with the sight of my tomb!"
Long and silently he continued brooding over the cursed
intelligence, which every moment grew, in his fancy, more like some
vision of a disturbed slumber, or some horrible enigma; and the hour
of twelve tolled from the belfry of San Juan, yet he thought not of
rest. He had grown careless of all external objects, and sat with his
brow leaning on his hand, absorbed in his own heart-corroding
fancies. His lamp sunk down in the socket and expired,—the stars
and the pale moon, sailing apparently through clouds of gauze,
glimmered through the tall casement into the gloomy chamber, and
poor Ronald still sat there, revolving and re-revolving the matter in
his mind, which became a prey, by turns, to the very opposite
sentiments of love and sorrow, pride, revenge, indignation, and
ambition.

* * * * *

He awoke suddenly, and found that he had been asleep in his chair.
The bright light of the morning sun was streaming between the dark
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