Under Wellington's Command: A Tale of the Peninsular War

  Chapter 9: Rejoining.

  The adjutant general returned in two or three minutes.

  "Will you please come this way, Colonel O'Connor," he said, as here-entered the room; "the commander-in-chief wishes to speak toyou."

  "I am glad to see you back, Colonel O'Connor," Lord Wellington saidcordially, but in his usual quick, short manner; "the last time Isaw you was at Salamende. You did well at Talavera; and betterstill afterwards, when the information I received from you was theonly trustworthy news obtained during the campaign, and was simplyinvaluable. Sir John Craddock did me no better service than byrecognizing your merits, and speaking so strongly to me in yourfavour that I retained you in command of the corps that you hadraised. I shall be glad to know that you are again at their head,when the campaign reopens; for I know that I can rely implicitlyupon you for information. Of course, your name has been removedfrom the list of my staff, since you were taken prisoner; but itshall appear in orders tomorrow again. I shall be glad if you willdine with me, this evening."

  "I wish I had a few more young officers like that," he said to theadjutant general, when Terence had bowed and retired. "He is fullof energy, and ready to undertake any wild adventure, and yet he isas prudent and thoughtful as most men double his age. I like hisface. He has a right to be proud of the position he has won, butthere is not the least nonsense about him, and he evidently has noidea that he has done anything out of the ordinary course. At firstsight he looks a mere good-tempered lad, but the lower part of hisface is marked by such resolution and firmness that it goes far toexplain why he has succeeded."

  There were but four other officers dining with thecommander-in-chief that evening. Lord Wellington asked Terenceseveral questions as to the route the convoy of prisoners hadfollowed, the treatment they had received, and the nature of theroads, and whether the Spanish guerillas were in force. Terencegave a brief account of the attack that had been made on the Frenchconvoy, and the share that he and his fellow prisoners had taken inthe affair; at which Lord Wellington's usually impassive facelighted up with a smile.

  "That was a somewhat irregular proceeding, Colonel O'Connor."

  "I am afraid so, sir; but after their treatment by the Spaniardswhen in the hospital at Talavera, our men were so furious againstthem that I believe they would have fought them, even had Iendeavoured to hold them back; which, indeed, being a prisoner, Ido not know that I should have had any authority to do."

  "And how did you escape from Bayonne?" the general asked.

  "Through the good offices of some of the soldiers who had been ourescort, sir. They were on duty as a prison guard and, beinggrateful for the help that we had given them in the affair with theguerillas, they aided me to escape."

  "And how did you manage afterwards?"

  Terence related very briefly the adventures that he and hiscompanion had had, before at last reaching Jersey.

  On leaving, the adjutant general requested him to call in themorning before starting to rejoin his regiment, as he expressed hisintention of doing. The talk was a long and friendly one, theadjutant general asking many questions as to the constitution ofhis corps.

  "There is one thing I should like very much, sir," Terence said,after he had finished, "it would be a great assistance to me if Ihad an English officer, as adjutant."

  "Do you mean one for each battalion, or one for the two?"

  "I think that one for both battalions would answer the purpose,sir. It would certainly be of great assistance to me, and take agreat many details off my hands."

  "I certainly think that you do need assistance. Is there any oneyou would specially wish to be appointed?"

  "I should be very glad to have Lieutenant Ryan, who has been withme on my late journey. We are old friends, as I was in the Mayoregiment with him. He speaks Portuguese very fairly. Of course, itwould be useless for me to have an officer who did not do so. Ishould certainly prefer him to anyone else."

  "That is easily managed," the officer replied. "I will put him inorders, today, as appointed adjutant to the Minho Portugueseregiment, with the acting rank of captain. I will send a note toLord Beresford, stating the reason for the appointment for, as youand your officers owe your local rank to him, he may feel that heought to have been specially informed of Ryan's appointment;although your corps is in no way under his orders, but acting withthe British army."

  "I am very much obliged to you, indeed, sir. It will be a greatcomfort to me to have an adjutant, and it will naturally be muchmore pleasant to have one upon whom I know I can depend absolutely.Indeed, I have been rather in an isolated position, so far. Themajors of the two battalions naturally associate with their ownofficers, consequently Colonel Herrara has been my only intimatefriend and, although he is a very good fellow, one longs sometimesfor the companionship of a brother Englishman."

  Terence had not told Dick Ryan of his intention to ask for him ashis adjutant. When he joined him at the hotel, he saluted him with:

  "Well, Captain Ryan, have you everything ready for the start?"

  "I have, General," Dick replied with a grin, "or perhaps I ought tosay Field Marshal."

  "Not yet, Dicky, not yet; and indeed, possibly I am prematuremyself, in addressing you as Captain."

  "Rather; I should say I have a good many steps to make, before Iget my company."

  "Well, Dick, I can tell you that, when the orders come out today,you will see your name among them as appointed adjutant to theMinho Portuguese regiment, with acting rank as captain."

  "Hurrah!" Ryan shouted. "You don't say that you have managed it,old fellow? I am delighted. This is glorious. I am awfully obligedto you."

  "I think, Dick, we will make up our minds not to start until thisevening. You know we had arranged to hire a vehicle, and that Ishould get a horse when I joined; but I think now we may as wellbuy the horses at once, for of course you will be mounted, too. Wemight pay a little more for them, but we should save the expense ofthe carriage."

  "That would be much better," Dick said. "Let us go and get them, atonce. There must be plenty of horses for sale in a place like thisand, as we are both flush of money, I should think that a couple ofhours would do it."

  "I hope it will. As I told them at headquarters that I was going tostart today, I should not like any of them to run across me herethis evening. No doubt the landlord of the hotel can tell us ofsome man who keeps the sort of animals we want. The saddlery weshall have no difficulty about."

  Two hours later a couple of serviceable horses had been bought;with saddles, bridles, holsters, and valises. In the last namedwere packed necessaries for the journey, and each provided himselfwith a brace of double-barrelled pistols. The rest of their effectswere packed in the trunks they had bought at Jersey, and werehanded over to a Portuguese firm of carriers, to be sent up to theregiment.

  At two o'clock they mounted and rode to Sobral. The next day theyrode to Santarem, and on the following evening to Abrantes. Theyhere learned that their corps was in camp, with two otherPortuguese regiments, four miles higher up the river. As it wasdark when they arrived at Abrantes, they agreed to sleep there andgo on the next morning; as Terence wished to report himself toGeneral Hill, to whose division the regiment was attached, untiloperations should commence in the spring.

  They put up at an inn and, having eaten a meal, walked out into thetown, which was full of British soldiers. They were not long beforethey found the cafe that was set apart for the use of officers and,on entering, Terence at once joined a party of three, belonging toa regiment with all of whose officers he was acquainted, as theyhad been encamped next to the Mayo Fusiliers during the long monthspreceding the advance up the valley of the Tagus. Ryan was, ofcourse, equally known to them; and the three officers rose, with anexclamation of surprise, as the newcomers walked up to the table.

  "Why, O'Connor! How in the world did you get here? How are you,Ryan? I thought that you were both prisoners."

  "So we were," Terence said, "but as you see, we gave them the slip,an
d here we are."

  They drew up chairs to the little table.

  "You may consider yourself lucky in your regiment being on theriver, O'Connor. You will be much better off than Ryan will be, atPortalegre."

  "I am seconded," Ryan said, "and have been appointed O'Connor'sadjutant, with the temporary rank of captain."

  "I congratulate you. The chances are you will have a much bettertime of it than if you were with your own regiment. I don't meannow, but when the campaign begins in the spring. O'Connor alwaysseems to be in the thick of it, while our division may remain here,while the fighting is going on somewhere else. Besides, he alwaysmanages to dine a good deal better than we do. His fellows, beingPortuguese, are able to get supplies, when the peasants are allready to take their oath that they have not so much as a loaf ofbread or a fowl in their village.

  "How will you manage to get on with them, Ryan, without speakingtheir language? Oh! I remember, you were grinding up Portuguese allthe spring, so I suppose you can get on pretty well, now."

  "Yes; O'Connor promised that he would ask for me, as soon as Icould speak the language, so I stuck at it hard; and now, you see,I have got my reward."

  "I can tell you that the troops, here, are a good deal better offthan they are elsewhere. There is a fearful want of land carriage,but we get our supplies up by boats. That is why the Portugueseregiments are encamped on the river.

  "Well, how did you get away from the French? It is curious thatwhen I saw O'Grady last--which was a fortnight ago, when he came into get a conveyance to take over sundry cases of whisky that hadcome up the river, for the use of his mess--he said:

  "'I expect that O'Connor and Dick Ryan will turn up here, beforethe spring. I am sure they will, if they have got together.'"

  "It is too long a story to tell, here," Ryan said. "It is full ofhairbreadth escapes, dangers by sea and land, and ends up with anaval battle."

  The officers laughed.

  "Well, will you come to our quarters?" one of them said. "We havegot some decent wine, and some really good cigars which came upfrom Lisbon last week, and there are lots of our fellows who willbe glad to see you."

  They accordingly adjourned to a large building where the officersof the regiment were quartered and, in the apartment that had beenturned into a mess room, they found a dozen officers, all of whomwere known both to Terence and Ryan. After many questions wereasked and answered on both sides, Ryan was requested to tell thestory of their adventures after being taken prisoners. He told itin an exaggerated style that elicited roars of laughter, making themost of what he called The Battle of the Shirt Sleeves with theguerillas; exaggerating the dangers of his escape, and the horrorsof their imprisonment, for a week, among the sails and nets.

  "O'Connor," he said, "has hardly got back his sense of smell yet.The stink of tar, mixed with fishy odours, will be vivid in myremembrance for the rest of my life."

  When he had at last finished, one of them said:

  "And now, how much of all this is true, Ryan?"

  "Every fact is just as I have told it," he replied gravely. "Youmay think that I have exaggerated, for did an Irishman ever tell astory, without exaggeration? But I give you my honour that neverdid one keep nearer to the truth than I have done. I don't say thatthe fisherman's wife took quite such a strong fancy to me as I havestated, although she can hardly have been insensible to my personaladvantages; but really, otherwise, I don't know that I havediverged far from the narrow path of truth. I tell you, those twodays that we were running before that gale was a thing I never wishto go through again."

  "And you really tied up the Maire of Granville, Ryan?"

  "We did so," Dicky said, "and a miserable object the poor littlefat man looked, as he sat in his chair trussed up like a fowl."

  "And now, about the sea fight, Ryan?"

  "Every word was as it happened. O'Connor and I turned gunners, andvery decent shots we made, too; and a proof of it was that, if wewould have taken it, I believe the captain of the schooner wouldhave given us half the booty found in the lugger's hold; but wewere modest and self denying, and contented ourselves with a third,each, of the cash found in the captain's cabin; which we could nothave refused if we wanted to, the captain made such a point of it.It came to nearly three hundred pounds apiece; and mighty useful itwas, for we had, of course, to get new uniforms and rigs out, andhorses and saddlery at Lisbon. I don't know what I should have donewithout it, for my family's finances would not have stood mydrawing upon them; and another mortgage would have ruined them,entirely."

  "Well, certainly, that is a substantial proof of the truth of thatincident in your story; but I think that, rather than have passedforty-eight hours in that storm, I would have stopped at Bayonneand taken my chance of exchange."

  "Then I am afraid, Forester, that you are deficient in martialardour," Terence said gravely. "Our desire to be back fighting theFrench was so great that no dangers would have appalled us."

  There was a general laugh.

  "Well, at any rate, you managed uncommonly well, Ryan, whether itwas martial ardour that animated you or not; and O'Grady was notfar wrong when he said that you and O'Connor would creep outthrough a mouse's hole, if there was no other way of doing it."

  "Now, what has been doing since we have been away?" Terence asked.

  "Well, to begin with, all Andalusia has been captured by Soult.Suchet has occupied Valencia. Lerida was captured by him, after ascandalously weak resistance; for there were over nine thousandtroops there, and the place surrendered after only 1000 had fallen.Gerona, on the other hand, was only captured by Augereau after aresistance as gallant as that of Saragossa.

  "That is the extraordinary thing about these Spaniards. Sometimesthey show themselves cowardly beyond expression, at others theyfight like heroes. Just at present, even the Juntas do not pretendthat they have an army capable of driving the French out of thePyrenees; which is a comfort, for we shall have to rely uponourselves and not be humbugged by the Spaniards, the worthlessnessof whose promises, Lord Wellington has ascertained, by bitterexperience. The Portuguese government is as troublesome and astruthless as that of Spain, but Wellington is able to hold his ownwith them; and there is little doubt that the regular regimentswill fight, and be really of valuable assistance to us; but thesehave been raised in spite of the constant opposition of the Juntaat Lisbon.

  "There is no doubt that the next campaign will be a hot one for,now that Spain has been as completely subdued as such vainglorious,excitable people can be subdued, the French marshals are free tojoin against us; and it is hard to see how, with but 30,000 men, weare going to defend Portugal against ten times that number ofFrench. Still, I suppose we shall do it, somehow. The French have alarge army on the other side of the Aqueda, and there is no doubtthey will besiege Ciudad Rodrigo, as soon as winter is over. Idoubt whether we shall be strong enough to march to its relief, andI fancy that in that direction the Coa will be about our limit. Atany rate, it is likely to be a stirring campaign.

  "The absurdity of the thing is, that we have an army in Sicilywhich might as well be at Jericho, for any use it is. If it joinedus here, it would make all the difference in the world; thoughcertainly till the campaign opens it would have to be quartered atLisbon, for it is as much as the wretched transport can do to feedus. Now the truth is, Portugal is a miserably poor country at thebest of times, and does not produce enough for the wants of thepeople. Of course, it has been terribly impoverished by the war.The fields in most places have been untilled and, in fact, thegreater portion of the population, as well as our army, has to befed from England.

  "Altogether, Wellington must have enough worry to drive an ordinaryman out of his mind. I never heard of such difficulties as those hehas to meet. We come to help a people who won't help themselves, tofight for people who not only won't fight for themselves, but wantto dictate how we shall fight. Instead of being fed by the country,we have to feed it; and the whole object of the Juntas, both inSpain and Portugal, seems to be to throw e
very difficulty in ourway, and to thwart us at every turn. The first step towards successwould be to hang every member, of every Junta, in every place weoccupy."

  A general chorus of "Hear, hear!" showed how deeply was the feelingexcited by the conduct of the Portuguese and Spanish authorities.

  After chatting until a late hour, Terence and his companionreturned to their inn. The next morning, Terence reported himselfto General Hill.

  "I am glad to see you again, Colonel O'Connor," the general said."The last time we met was when the surgeons were dressing mywounds, on the heights near Talavera. That was a hot business, fora time."

  "Yes, sir; and I have to thank you, very much, for the very kindreport you sent in as to the conduct of my regiment."

  "They deserved it," the general said. "If they had not come up atthe time they did, we should have had hard work to retake thathill.

  "Your regiment has been behaving very well, since they have beenhere. They, like the other Portuguese regiments, have often been onshort rations, and their pay is very much in arrear, but there hasbeen no grumbling. I know Herrara will be extremely glad to haveyou back again in command. He has said as much, several times, whenhe has been in here. He is a good man, but not strong enough forhis position; and I can see that he feels that, himself, and isconscious that he is not equal to the responsibility. I intended torecommend that a British officer should be placed in command of theregiment, before the campaign opens in the spring. Your two majorsdo their best, but they have scarcely sufficient weight; for theirmen know that they were but troopers when the regiment was firstraised."

  "I shall be glad to be back again, sir; and I am pleased to saythat I have been given an adjutant--Lieutenant Ryan, of the MayoFusiliers. He has the acting rank of captain. He is an old friendof mine, and is a good officer. He has just effected an escape fromBayonne with me."

  "Yes, that will be of great assistance to you," the general said."With two battalions to command, you must want a right-hand manvery much. I shall be glad if your regiment remains in my division,when the campaign reopens; but I suppose that, as before, you willbe sent ahead. At present, it is only attached to my command forconvenience of rationing and pay. I have inspected it twice, and itis by far the finest of the Portuguese regiments here. But I cansee a certain deterioration, and I am sure that they want you backbadly. Still, it is not your loss only that is telling on them. Nosoldiers like to go without their pay. Lord Wellington himself isalways kept short of funds. The Portuguese Ministry declare thatthey have none. Of course that is all a lie but, true or false, itis certain that all the Portuguese regiments are greatly in arrearsof pay, ill-provided with clothes, and indeed would be starved,were it not that they are fed by our commissariat."

  After his interview with the general, Terence went back to the innand, five minutes later, started with Ryan to join the regiment.The two battalions were engaged in drill when they rode up, but asthe men recognized Terence there was a sudden movement, then atremendous cheer and, breaking their ranks, they ran towards him,waving their shakos and shouting loudly; while Herrara, Bull, andMacwitty galloped up to shake him by the hand.

  "This is not a very military proceeding," Terence laughed, "but Icannot help being gratified."

  He held up his hands for silence.

  "Form the men into a hollow square," he said to the majors.

  In a very short time the order was carried out, and then Terenceaddressed them.

  "My men," he said, "I am deeply gratified by your hearty reception,and I can assure you that I am quite as glad to be back in theregiment as the regiment can be to have me with it again. While Iwas a prisoner, one of the things that troubled me most was that,when I returned, I might find that someone else had been appointedyour commander; and I was glad indeed when, upon landing at Lisbon,I heard that this had not been the case, and that I could resume mycommand of a body of men of whom I am proud; and at no time moreproud than when you beat off the attacks of a whole brigade ofFrench cavalry, and made good your escape to the mountains. Iregret that some of your comrades failed to do this, but the mannerin which they did their duty, and sacrificed themselves to coveryour retreat, was worthy of all praise, and reflects the highestcredit upon the regiment.

  "I have been fortunate enough to make my escape from a Frenchprison, in company with my friend here, Captain Ryan; who has, atmy request, been appointed by the commander-in-chief to be youradjutant. I am sorry to hear that there have been difficulties inthe way of rations, and that your pay is in arrears. However, Iknow well that you are not serving for the sake of pay, but todefend your country from invasion by the French; and that whetheryou get your pay day by day, or receive it in a lump sum later on,will make no difference to you; and indeed, in some respects, youwill be better off for the delay for, getting it daily, it is spentas soon as obtained; whereas, if it comes in a lump sum, it will beuseful to you when you return to your homes, after your work isdone. I am confident that, in this regiment at least, which hasborne itself so well from the day that it was raised, there will beneither grumbling nor discontent; but that you will suffer anyhardship or privation that may come in your way as triflingincidents in the great work that you have undertaken: to defend, atthe cost of your lives if need be, your country from the invader.The regiment is dismissed drill for the day."

  Loud cheers at once broke from the men and, falling out, theyproceeded to their tents.

  "Well, Terence, there is no doubt about the enthusiasm of yourfellows," Ryan remarked. "As you said, it was hardly military, butit was better. It was real affection, and I am sure the men wouldfollow you anywhere."

  Ryan shook hands with Herrara, Bull, and Macwitty; all of whom heknew well, from his frequent visits to Terence in the spring.

  "I am very glad that you have come to us, Captain Ryan," Bull said."A regiment don't seem like a regiment without an adjutant, and itwill take a lot of work off the colonel's hands. I wish there couldhave been one for each battalion."

  "How has the regiment been going on, Bull?"

  "Nothing much to grumble about, sir; but I must say that it hasbeen more slack than it was. We have all done our best, but we havemissed you terribly; and the men don't seem to take quite as muchpains with their drill as they used to do, when you were incommand. However, that will be all right now that you have comeback again. I have always found that when the battalion was notworking well, the men have pulled themselves together at once whenI said:

  "'This won't do, lads. The colonel will be grievously disappointed,when he comes back again, if he finds that you have lost yoursmartness.'

  "It was as much as we could do to hold them in hand, when they sawyou surrounded by the French. They would have rushed back again, toa man, if we would have let them. I own I felt it hard, myself, tobe marching away and leaving you behind."

  In a few minutes, a couple of tents were erected by the side ofthat of Herrara and, while these were being got ready foroccupation, Terence and Ryan, with the two majors, entered that ofHerrara; and the latter produced two or three bottles of wine fromhis private store, and a box of cigars. So for some time they satchatting, Terence giving an outline of the events that had happenedsince he had been away from the regiment. He and Ryan had orderedhalf a dozen small casks of wine, and two cases of whisky, to besent up with their trunks by water; and now asked regarding therations of the men.

  "They get their bread regularly," Herrara said. "They have put upsome large bakeries at Abrantes and, as the flour is brought up inboats, there is no difficulty that way. They get their meat prettyregularly, and their wine always. There is no ground of complaint,whatever, as to rations here; though, from what I hear, it is verydifferent at the stations where everything has to be taken up bywaggons or mules.

  "The difficulty is with the uniforms. Not one has been served out,and it is really difficult to get the men to look smart, when manyof them are dressed almost in rags. It is still worse in the matterof boots. A great many of them were badly cut, when we were in
themountains; and especially in the rough march we had over the hills,after you left us. The men themselves would greatly prefer sandalsto boots, being more accustomed to them; and could certainly marchfarther in them than in stiff English boots. But of course, itwould be of no use sending in any requisition for them."

  "I don't see why they should not wear sandals," Terence said; "atany rate, until there is an issue of boots. I suppose the men canmake them, themselves."

  "In most cases, no doubt, they could. At any rate, those who could,would make them for the others. Of course they will all have towear them of one colour; but as most of the cattle are black, therewould be no difficulty about that. I have no doubt that we couldget any number of hides, at a nominal price, from the commissariat.At any rate, I will see about it. I suppose they are made a gooddeal like Indian moccasins. I noticed that many of the Spanishtroops wore them, but I did not examine them particularly."

  "They are very easily made," Herrara said. "You put your foot on apiece of hide of the right size. It is drawn right up over thefoot, and laced. Another thickness of hide is sewn at the bottom,to form the sole, and there it is. Of course, for work in the hillsit might be well to use a double thickness of hide for the sole.The upper part is made of the thinnest portion of the hide and, ifgrease is rubbed well inside, so as to soften the leather as muchas possible, it makes the most comfortable footgear possible."

  "Well, we will try it, anyhow," Terence said. "It mayn't look sosoldierly but, at any rate, it would look as well as boots with thetoes out; and if any general inspects us, and objects to them, wecan say that we shall be perfectly ready to give them up, as soonas boots are issued to us. But by using all black hides, I reallydo not think that it will look bad; and there would certainly bethe advantage that, for a night attack, the tread would be muchmore noiseless than that of a heavy boot.

  "I really like the idea, very much. The best plan will be to pickout two or three score of men who are shoemakers by trade, and paythem a trifle for the making of each pair. In that way we could getmuch greater uniformity than were each man to make his own.

  "As to the clothes, I don't see that anything can be done about it,beyond getting a supply of needles and thread, and seeing thatevery hole is mended as well as possible. I daresay new uniformswill be served out, before the spring. It does not matter much incamp, and I suppose we are no worse than the other Portugueseregiments."

  The next week was spent in steady drill and, by the end of thattime, the exercises were all done as smartly as before. Terence hadalready tried the experiment of sandals. The commissariat atAbrantes were glad enough to supply hides, at a nominal price. Hebegan by taking a dozen. These were first handed to a number of menrelieved from other duties who, after scraping the under side,rubbed them with fat, and kneaded them until they were perfectlysoft and pliable. The shoemakers then took them in hand and, aftera few samples of various shapes were tried, one was fixed upon, inwhich the sandal was bound to the foot by straps of the samematerial, with a double thickness of sole. Terence tried thesehimself, and found them extremely comfortable for walking; and gaveorders that one company should be entirely provided with them. Asto appearance, they were vastly superior to the cracked and bulgedboots the men were wearing.

  After a week of sharp drill Terence was satisfied, and proposed toRyan that they should now ride over to Portalegre, and pay a visitto their friends of the Fusiliers and, accordingly, the next daythey went over. They were most heartily received.

  "Sure, Terence, I knew well enough that you and Dicky Ryan would beback here, before long. And so you have taken him from us! Well, itis a relief to the regiment; and I only hope that now he is anadjutant he will learn manners, and behave with a little morediscretion than he has ever shown before. How you could havesaddled yourself with such a hare-brained lad is more than I canimagine."

  "That is all very well, O'Grady," Ryan laughed, "but it is aquestion of the pot calling the kettle black; only in this case thepot is a good deal blacker than the kettle. There may be someexcuse for a subaltern like me, but none for a war-scarred veteranlike yourself."

  "Dick will do very well, O'Grady," Terence said. "I can tell you hesits in his tent, and does his office work, as steadily as if hehad been at it all his life; and if you had seen him drilling abattalion, you would be delighted. It is just jealousy that makesyou run him down, O'Grady--you were too lazy to learn Portuguese,yourself."

  "Is it lazy you say that I am, Terence? There is no more activeofficer in the regiment, and you know it. As for the heathenlanguage, it is not fit for an honest tongue. They ought to havesent over a supply of grammars and dictionaries, and taught thewhole nation to speak English.

  "When did you get back?"

  "A week ago; but we have been too busy drilling the regiment tocome over, before.

  "How are you getting on here, Colonel?"

  "We are not getting on at all, O'Connor. It is worse thanstationary we are. They ought to put on double the number of cartsthey allow us. Half the time we are on short rations; except winewhich, thank Heaven, the commissariat can buy in the country. It isevil times that we have fallen upon, and how we shall do, when thesnow begins to fall heavily, is more than I can tell you."

  "At any rate, Colonel, from what I hear you are a good deal betteroff than the division at Guarda, for you are but a day's march fromthe river."

  "The carts take two days over it," the colonel said, "and thenbring next to nothing; for the poor bastes that draw them are halfstarved, and it is as much as they can do to crawl along. Theymight just as well keep the whole division at Abrantes, instead ofsticking half of them out here, just as if the French were going toattack us now.

  "There is the luncheon bugle. After we have done, you may tell ushow you and Ryan got out of the hands of the French, for I supposeyou were not exchanged."