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Setting a bearing doesn't let you get back to your tent when you don't quite know where you are.
Let's say you walk East for a while, that's a bearing of 90 degrees. In order to get back to your tent, you just have to turn around, in other words, add 180 to the bearing you walked on. So you walk at a bearing of 270 degrees and eventually get back to your tent.
But that's not awfully realistic, you don't usually walk just in a straight line. You need to use your map to figure out where you are.
Take pic related (I hope it's high res enough to be able to read). For example, you have marked your tent location as right on the western shore of Tomtit lake. You have reached a small peak and don't know where you are. You look around and with the help of you compass you can see:
>a tall peak to the North-West and a lake to the right of it
> A peak west, and another just south of it
>A long mountain range that stretches from East to South
Looking at the map, you can figure out that you're standing on the peak just to the North-West of Tomtit lake, just right of centre in the image. So, get your compass and align the side of it with your current location and the location of your tent. Then rotate the compass dial so that the North side of the needle is between what is probably two red lines on the compass dial and start walking.
That is how you would get a bearing back to your tent, you must first figure out where you are, which is actually the hardest part. To help with knowing where you are, you should be using your compass to check the direction you are walking often, and using your map to see roughly where you are and where you are headed to.
