As to the fortress isle. (_Let me warn you to keep it well garrisoned
against surprise_.) I believe there is an obscure little corner of it
called Scotland, which both you and the poet have forgotten."
"I merely used _England_ in a figure of speech," said L'Isle, "putting
a part for the whole."
"I will not tolerate your figure of speech, as disparaging to old
Scotland," she said. "But for us Scots--"
"Us Scots!" L'Isle exclaimed. "Why, it was but yesterday you told me
how much you had angered Moodie by calling yourself an English woman."
"What of that? I would have you know that I have two sides to my
natural character. I claim the right to present my Scotch or English
side at will, and then you cannot see the other."
Fort San Christoval, on this side of the Guadiana, rose higher and
higher before them. Gazing on Badajoz and its castle on the other side
of the river, L'Isle thought of the failures before it, and of the
price in blood at which it had been bought at last. "We are not always
successful in our sieges--at times undertaking them rashly, without
the means of carrying them on. The sabre, and bayonet, unaided, take
few walled towns.
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