CoRunnfi UNIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES 4- ME. HENTY'S HISTOEICAL TALES. Crown 8vo, Cloth elegant, Olivine edges. Illustrated. THE CAT OF BUBASTES : A Story of Ancient Egypt. 5s. THE YOUNG CARTHAGINIAN : A Story of the Times of Hannibal. 6s. FOR THE TEMPLE : A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem. 6s. BERIO THE BRITON : A Story of the Roman Invasion. 6s. THE DRAGON AND THE RAVEN : Or, The Days of King Alfred. 5s. WULF THE SAXON: A Story of the Norman Conquest. 6s. A KNIGHT OF THE WHITE CROSS : The Siege of Rhodes. 6s. THE LION OF ST. MARK: A Story of Venice in the 14th Century. 6s. AT AGINCOURT : A Tale of the White Hoods of Paris. 6. THE LION OF THE NORTH : A Tale of Gustavus Adolphus. 6s. ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S EVE : A Tale of the Huguenot Wars. 6s. IN FREEDOM'S CAUSE : A Story of Wallace and Bruce. 6s. ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND : A Tale of Cressy and Poitiers. 5s. BY RIGHT OF CONQUEST : Or, With Cortez in Mexico. 6s. BY PIKE AND DYKE: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic. 6s. BY ENGLAND'S AID : Or, The Freeing of the Netherlands. 6s. UNDER DRAKE'S FLAG : A Tale of the Spanish Main. 6s. ORANGE AND GREEN : A Tale of the Boyne and Limerick. 5s. A JACOBITE EXILE: In the Service of Charles XII. 5s. BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE : A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden. 6s. WHEN LONDON BURNED : A Story of the Great Fire. 6. THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE: Or, With Peterborough in Spain. 5s. WITH WOLFE IN CANADA : Or, The Winning of a Continent. 6s. WITH CLIVE IN INDIA : Or, The Beginnings of an Empire. 6s. THROUGH THE SIKH WAR : A Tale of the Punjaub. 6s. TRUE TO THE OLD FLAG. The American War of Independence. 6s. IN THE REIGN OF TERROR. The French Revolution. 6s. HELD FAST FOR ENGLAND : A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar. 5s. WITH COCHRANE THE DAUNTLESS. 6. THROUGH RUSSIAN SNOWS : The Retreat from Moscow. 5s. ONE OF THE 28TH : A Story of Waterloo. 5s. IN GREEK WATERS : A Story of the Grecian War (1821). 6s. ON THE IRRAWADDY : A Story of the First Burmese War. 5s. THE TIGER OF MYSORE : The War with Tippoo Saib. 6s. THROUGH THE FRAY : A Story of the Luddite Riots. 6s. MAORI AND SETTLER : A Story of the New Zealand War. 5s. BY SHEER PLUCK : A Tale of the Ashanti War. 5s. FOR NAME AND FAME : Or, Through Afghan Passes. 5s. WITH LEE IN VIRGINIA : A Story of the American Civil War. 6s. THE DASH FOR KHARTOUM : A Tale of the Nile Expedition. 6s. CONDEMNED AS A NIHILIST : A Story of Escape from Siberia. 5s. LONDON: BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED; GLASGOW AND DUBLIN. TERENCE FINDS THAT THE SEA-HORSE HAS BEEN BADLY MAULED HETWEEN-DECKS. WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA BY G. A. HENTY Author of " With Cochrane the Dauntless", "A Knight of the White Cross" " In Freedom's Cause", " St. Bartholomew's Eve", "Wulf the Saxon", &c. WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS JBF WAL FAGET LONDON BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED, 50 OLD BAILEY, E.G. GLASGOW AND DUBLIN 1898 UNIV. OF CALIF. LIBKARY, LOS ANGELES StacK Annex PR PREFACE. From the termination of the campaigns of Maryborough, at which time the British army won for itself a reputation rivalled by that of no other in Europe, to the year when the despatch of a small army under Sir Arthur Wellesley marked the beginning of another series of British victories as brilliant and as unbroken as those of that great commander, the opinion had gained ground in Europe that the British had lost their military virtues, and that although undoubtedly powerful at sea, they could have henceforth but little influence in European affairs. It is singular that the revival of Britain's activity began under a Government which was one of the most inca pable that ever controlled the affairs of the country. Had their deliberate purpose been to render nugatory the expedition which, after innumerable vacillations and changes of purpose, they despatched to Portugal, they could hardly have acted otherwise than they did. Their agents in the Peninsula were men singularly unfitted for the position. Then the Government divided the commands among their generals and admirals, sending to each absolutely contradictory orders, and when at last they brought themselves to appoint one to the supreme command, they changed that commander six times in the course of a year. While lavishing enormous sums of money, arms, clothing, and materials of war upon the Spaniards, who wasted or pocketed them, they kept their own army unsupplied with money, transport, or clothes. VI PREFACE. Unsupported by the home authorities, the British commanders had yet to struggle with the faithlessness, mendacity, and inertness of the Portuguese and Spanish authorities, and were hampered with obstacles such as never beset a British com mander before. Still, in spite of this, British genius and valour triumphed over all difficulties, and Wellesley delivered Lisbon and compelled the French army to surrender. Then again, Moore by his marvellous march checked the course of victory of Napoleon and saved Spain for a time. Cradock organized an army, and Wellesley hurled back Soult's invasion of the north, and drove his army, a dispirited and worn-out mass of fugitives, across the frontier, and in less than a year from the commencement of the campaign carried the war into Spain. So far I have endeavoured to sketch the course of these events in the present volume. But the whole course of the Peninsular war was far too long to be condensed in a single book, except in the form of history pure and simple; therefore, I have been obliged to divide it into two volumes: and I propose next year to follow up the adventures of my present hero, who had the good fortune, with Trant, Wilson, and other British officers, to attain the command of a body of native irregulars, acting in connection with the move ments of the British army. G. A. HENTY. CONTENTS. CHAP. Page I. THE MAYO FUSILIERS, 11 II. Two DANGERS, 28 III. DISEMBARKED, 45 IV. UNDER CANVAS, 62 V. ROLICA AND VlMIERA, 79 VI. A PAUSE, 96 VII. THE ADVANCE, 113 VIII. A FALSE ALARM, 130 IX. THE RETREAT 148 X. CORUNNA, 164 XI. AN ESCAPE, 181 XII. A DANGEROUS MISSION, 198 XIII. AN AWKWARD POSITION, 213 XIV. AN INDEPENDENT COMMAND, 233 XV. THE FIRST SKIRMISH, 250 XVI. IN THE PASSES, 265 XVII. AN ESCAPE, 282 XVIII. MART O'CONNOR, 299 XIX. CONFIRMED IN COMMAND, 316 XX. WITH THE MATOS, 334 XXI. PORTUGAL FREED, 352 XXII. NEWS FROM HOME, 369 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page TERENCE FINDS THAT THE SEA-HORSE HAS BEEN BADLY MAULED BETWEEN-DECKS, Frontispiece. 37 Two FRENCH PRIVATEERS BEAR DOWN UPON THE SEA-HORSE, . 33 "I SHOULD NOT HAVE MINDED BEING HIT, FATHER, IF YOU HAD ESCAPED," 98 "I AM TOLD THAT YOU WISH TO SPEAK TO ME, GENERAL," . . 118 "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, TERENCE? . . . WE COULD HAVE THRASHED THEM OUT OF THEIR BOOTS IN NO TlME," 155 "PooR OLD JACK! HE HAS CARRIED ME WELL EVER SINCE I GOT HIM AT TORRES VEDRAS," 183 TERENCE RECEIVES A PRESENT OF A HORSE FROM SIR JOHN CRADOCK, 213 " IN THE NAME OF THE JUNTA I DEMAND THAT AMMUNITION," SAID CORTINGOS, 225 "THE FRENCH CAVALRY RODE UP TOWARDS THE SQUARES, BUT WERE MET WITH HEAVY VOLLEYS," 260 ' ' MACWITTY WAS STANDING COVERING THE TWO BOATMEN WITH HIS PISTOLS," 297 TERENCE BIDS GOOD-BYE TO HIS COUSIN, MARY O'CONNOR, . . 335 "WHO ARE YOU, SIR, AND WHAT TROOPS ARE THESE?" SlR ARTHUR ASKED SHARPLY, 352 WITH MOORE AT CORUMA. CHAPTER I. THE MAYO FUSILIERS. |HAT am I to do with you, Terence 1 It bothers me entirely ; there is not a soul who will take you, and if anyone would do so, you would wear out his patience before a week's end ; there is not a dog in the regiment that does not put his tail between his legs and run for his bare life if he sees you; and as for the colonel, he told me only the other day that he had so many complaints against you, that he was fairly worn out with them." "That was only his way, father; the colonel likes a joke as well as any of them." "Yes, when it is not played on himself; but you haven't even the sense to respect persons, and it is well for you that he could not prove that it was you who fastened the sparrow to the plume of feathers on his shako the other day, and no one noticed it till the little baste began to flutter just as he came on to parade, and nigh choked us all with trying to hold in our laughter, while the colonel was nearly suffocated with passion. It was lucky you were able to prove that you had gone off at daylight fishing, and that no one had seen you anywhere near his quarters. By my faith, if he could have proved it was you he would have had you turned out of the 12 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. barrack gate, and word given to the sentries that you were not to be allowed to pass in again." "I could have got over the wall, father," the boy said calmly; "but mind, I never said that it was I who fastened the sparrow in his shako." "Because I never asked you, Terence; but it does not need the asking. What I am to do with you I don't know. Your uncle Tim would not take you if I were to go down upon my knees to him. You were always in his bad books, and you finished it when you fired off that blunderbuss in his garden as he was passing along in the twilight, and yelled out ' Death to the Protestants!'" The boy burst into a fit of laughter. "How could I tell that he was going to fall flat upon the ground and shout a million murders, when I fired straight into the air?" " Well, you did for yourself there, Terence. Not that the old man would ever have taken to you, for he never forgave my marriage with his niece; still, he might have left you some money some day, seeing that there is no one nearer to him, and it would have come in mighty useful, for you are not likely to get much from me. But we are no nearer the point yet: What am I to do with you at all ? Here is the regiment ordered on foreign service and likely to have sharp work, and not a place where I can stow you. It beats me altogether ! " "Why not take me with you, father?" "I have thought of that, but you are too young entirely." " I am nearly sixteen, father. I am sure I am as tall as many boys of seventeen, and as strong too. Why should I not go ? I am certain I could stand roughing it as well as Dick Ryan, who is a good bit over sixteen. Could I not go as a volunteer? Or I might enlist; the doctor would pass me quick enough." " OTlaherty would pass you if you were a baby in arms; he is as full of mischief as you are, and has not much more discretion; but you could not carry a musket, full cartridge- box, and kit for a long day's march." THE MAYO FUSILIERS. 13 "I can carry a gun through a long day's shooting, dad; but you might make me your soldier servant." "Bedad, I should fare mighty badly, Terence; still, as I don't see anything else for you, I must try and take you some how, even if you have to go as a drummer. I will talk it over with the colonel, though I doubt whether he has forgotten that sparrow yet." " He would not bear malice, dad, even if he were sure that it was me, which he cannot be." The speakers were Captain O'Connor of His Majesty's regi ment of Mayo Fusiliers, now under orders to proceed to Portugal to form part of the force that was being despatched under Sir Arthur Wellesley to assist the Portuguese in resisting the advance of the French. He was a widower, and Terence was his only child. The boy had been brought up in the regiment. His mother had died when he was nine years old, and Terence had been allowed by his father to run pretty nearly wild. He picked up a certain amount of education, for he was as sharp at lessons as at most other things. His mother had taught him to read and write, and the officers and their wives were always ready to lend him books; and as, during the hours when drill and exercise were going on, he had plenty of time to himself, he had got through a very large amount of desultory reading, and, having a retentive memory, knew quite as much as most lads of his age, although the knowledge was of a much more irregular kind. He was a general favourite among the officers and men of the regiment, though his tricks got him into frequent scrapes, and more than one prophesied that his eventual fate was likely to be hanging. He was great at making acquaintances among the country people, and knew the exact spot where the best fishing could be had for miles round ; he had also been given leave to shoot on many of the estates in the neighbourhood. His father had, from the first, absolutely forbidden him to associate with the drummer boys. 14 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " I don't mind your going into the men's quarters," he said, "you will come to no harm there, but among the boys you might get into bad habits; some of them are thorough young scamps. With the men you would always be one of their officers' sons, while with the boys you would soon become a mere playmate." As he grew older Terence, being a son of one of the senior officers, became a companion of the ensigns, and one or other of them generally accompanied him on his fishing excursions and were not unfrequently participators in his escapades, several of which were directed against the tranquillity of the inhabitants of Athlone. One night the bells of the three churches had been rung simultaneously and violently, and the idea that either the town was in flames or that the French had landed or that the whole country was up in arms brought all the inhabitants to their doors in a state of violent excitement and scanty attire. No clue was ever obtained as to the author of this outrage, nor was anyone able to discover the origin of the rumour that circulated through the town, that a large amount of gunpowder had been stored in some house or other in the market-place, and that on a certain night half the town would be blown into the air. So circumstantial were the details that a deputation waited on Colonel Corcoran, and a strong search-party was sent down to examine the cellars of all the houses in the market place and for some distance round. These and some similar occurrences had much alarmed the good people of Athlone, and it was certain that more than one person must have been concerned in them." "I have come, Colonel," Captain O'Connor said, when he called upon his commanding officer, "to speak to you about Terence." The colonel smiled grimly. "It is a comfort to think that we are going to get rid of him, O'Connor; he is enough to demoralize a whole brigade, to say nothing of a battalion, and the worst of it is he respects no one. I am as convinced as THE MAYO FUSILIERS. 15 can be that it was he who fastened that baste of a bird in my shako the other day, and made me the laughing-stock of the whole regiment on parade. Faith, I could not for the life of me make out what was the matter, there was a tugging and a jumping and a fluttering overhead, and I thought the shako was going to fly away. It fairly gave me a scare, for I thought the shako had gone mad, and that the divil was in it. I have often overlooked his tricks for your sake, but when it comes to his commanding officer, it is too serious altogether." " Well, you see, Colonel, the lad proved clearly enough that he was out of the way at the time; and, besides, you know he has given you many a hearty laugh." " He has that," the colonel admitted. "And, moreover," Captain O'Connor went on, "even if he did do this, which I don't know, for I never asked him" ("Trust you for that," the colonel muttered), "you are not his commanding officer though you are mine, and that is the matter that I came to speak to you about. You see there is no one in whose charge I can leave him, and the lad wants to go with us ; he would enlist as a drummer, if he could go no other way, and when he got out there, I should get the adju tant to tell him off as my soldier servant." " It would not do, O'Connor," the colonel laughed. "Then I thought, Colonel, that possibly he might go as a volunteer most regiments take out one or two young fellows, who have not interest enough to obtain a commission." "He is too young, O'Connor; besides, the boy is enough to corrupt a whole regiment; he has made half the lads as wild as he is himself. Sure you can never be after asking me to saddle the regiment with him, now that there is a good chance of getting quit of him altogether." "I think that he would not be so bad when we are out there, Colonel; it is just because he has nothing to do that he gets into mischief. With plenty of hard work and other things to think of I don't believe that he would be any trouble." 16 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " Do you think that you can answer for him, O'Connor ?" "Indeed and I can not," the captain laughed; "but I will answer for it that he will not joke with you, Colonel. The lad is really steady enough, and I am sure that if he were in the regiment he would not dream of playing tricks with his com manding officer, whatever else he might do." "That goes a long way towards removing my objection," the colonel said, with a twinkle in his eye; "but he is too young for a volunteer a volunteer is the eort of man to be the first to climb a breach, or to risk his life in some desperate enterprise, so as to win a commission. But there is another way. I had a letter yesterday from the Horse-guards, saying that as I am two ensigns short, they had appointed one who will join us at Cork, and that they gave me the right of nominating another. I own that Terence occurred to me, but sixteen is the youngest limit of age, and he must be certified and all that by the doctor. Now Daly is away on leave, and is to join us at Cork; but O'Flaherty would do; still, I don't know how he would get over the difficulty about the age." " Trust him for that. I am indeed obliged to you, Colonel." "Don't say anything about it, O'Connor; if we had been going to stay at home I don't think that I could have brought myself to take him into the regiment, but as we are going on service he won't have much opportunity for mischief, and even if he does let out a little not at my expense, you know a laugh does the men good when they are wet through and their stomachs are empty." He rang a bell. " Orderly, tell the adjutant and Doctor O'Flaherty that I wish to see them. Mr. Cleary," he went on as soon as the former entered, " I have been requested by the Horse-guards to nominate an ensign, so as to fill up our ranks before starting, and I have determined to give the appointment to Terence O'Connor." "Very well, sir, I am glad to hear it; he is a favourite with us all, but I am afraid that he is under age." (M359) THE MAYO FUSILIERS. 17 "Is there any regular form to be filled up?" "None that I know of in the case of officers, sir. I fancy they pass some sort of medical examination at the Horse- guards, but, of course, in this case it would be impossible. Still, I should say that, in writing to state that you have nominated him, it would be better to send a medical certificate, and certainly it ought to be mentioned that he is of the right age." At this moment the assistant-surgeon entered. " Dr. O'Flaherty," the colonel said, " I wish you to write a certificate to the effect that Terence O'Connor is physically fit to take part in a campaign as an officer." "I can do that, Colonel, without difficulty; he is as fit as a fiddle, and can march half the regiment off their legs." " Yes, I know that, but there is one difficulty, Doctor, he is under the regulation age." O'Flaherty thought for a moment and then sat down at the table, and taking a sheet of paper he began : / certify that Terence O'Connor is going on for seventeen years of age, he is five feet eight in height, thirty-four inches round the chest, is active, and fully capable of the performance of his duties as an officer either at home or abroad. Then he added another line and signed his name. "As a member of a learned profession, Colonel," he said gravely, " I would scorn to tell a lie even for the son of Cap tain O'Connor;" and he passed the paper across to him. The colonel looked grave, and Captain O'Connor disappointed. He was reassured, however, when his commanding officer broke into a laugh. "That will do well, O'Flaherty," he said; "I thought that you would find some way of getting us out of the difficulty." "I have told the strict truth, Colonel," the doctor said gravely. " I have certified that Terence O'Connor is going on for seventeen ; I defy any man to say that he is not. He will (M359) B 18 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. get there one of these days, if a French bullet does not stop him on the way, a contingency that it is needless for me to mention." " I suppose that it is not strictly regular to omit the date of his birth," the colonel said; "but just at present I expect they are not very particular. I suppose that that will do, Mr. Cleary?" " I think that you can countersign that, Colonel," the adju tant said, with a laugh. "The Horse-guards does not move very rapidly, and by the time that letter gets to London we may be on board ship, and they would hardly bother to send a letter for further particulars to us in Spain, but will no doubt gazette him at once. The fact, too, which of course you will mention, that he is the son of the senior captain of your regi ment, will in itself render them less likely to bother about the matter." " "Well, just write out the letter of nomination, Cleary ; I am a mighty bad hand at doing things neatly." The adjutant drew a sheet of foolscap to him and wrote : To the Adjutant-general, Horse-guards, Sir, I have the honour to inform you that, in accordance with the privilege granted to me in your communication of and he looked at the colonel. "The 14th inst.," the latter said, after consulting the letter. / beg to nominate as an ensign in this regiment, Terence O'Connor, the son of Captain Lawrence O'Connor, its senior captain. I inclose cer tificate of Assistant-surgeon 0' Flaherty, the surgeon being at present absent on leave, certifying to his physical fitness for a commission in His Majesty's service. Mr. O'Connor having been brought up from childhood in the regiment is already perfectly acquainted with the work, and will therefore be able to take up his duties without diffi culty. This fact has had some influence in my cJioice, as a young THE MAYO FUSILIERS. 19 officer who had to be taught all his duties would have been of no use for service in the field for a considerable time after landing in Portugal, Relying on the nomination being approved by the Commander-in- chief, I shall at once put him on the staff of the regiment for foreign service^ as there will be no time to wait your reply. I have the honour to be Your humble obedient servant, Then he left a space, and added : Colonel, Mayo Fusiliers. " Now if you will sign it, Colonel, the matter will be com plete, and I will send it off with O'Flaherty's certificate to day." " That is a good stroke, Cleary," the colonel said, as he read it aloud. "They will see that it is too late to raise any questions, and the "going on for seventeen" will be accepted as sufficient." He touched a bell. " Orderly, tell Mr. Terence O'Connor that I wish to see him." Terence was sitting in a state of suppressed excitement at his father's quarters. He had a strong belief that the matter would be managed somehow, for he knew that the colonel had no malice in his disposition, and would not let the episode of the bird for which he was now heartily sorry stand in the way. On receiving the message he at once went across to the colonel's quarters. The latter rose and held out his hand to him as he entered. " Terence O'Connor," he said, " I am pleased to be able to inform you that from the present moment you are to consider yourself an officer in His Majesty's Mayo Fusiliers. The Horse- guards have given me the privilege of nominating a gentleman to the vacant ensigncy, and I have had great pleasure in nom inating your father's son. Now, lad," he said in a different 20 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. tone of voice, " I feel sure that you will do credit to my nom ination, and that you will keep your love of fun and mischief within reasonable bounds." " I will try to do so, Colonel," the lad said in a low voice, "and I am grateful indeed for the kindness that you have shown me. I have always hoped that some day I might obtain a commission in your regiment, but never even hoped that it would be until after I had done something to deserve it. In deed I did not think that it was even possible that I could ob tain a commission until "Tut, tut, lad, don't say a word about age ! Doctor O'Flaherty had certified that you are going on for seventeen, which is quite sufficient for me, and at any rate you will see that boyish tricks are out of place in the case of an officer going on for seventeen. Now, your father had best take you down into the town and get you measured for your uniforms at once. You must make them hurry on with his undress clothes, O'Connor. I should not bother about full-dress till we get back again; it is not likely to be wanted, and the lad will soon grow out of them. If there should happen to be full- dress parade in Portugal, Cleary will put him on as officer of the day, or give him some duties that will keep him from parade. We may get the route any day, and the sooner he gets his uniform the better." Two days later Terence took his place on parade as an officer of the regiment. He had witnessed such numberless drills that he had picked up every word of command, knew his proper place in every formation, and fell into the work as readily as if he had been at it for years. He had been heartily congratu lated by the officers of the regiment. "I am awfully glad that you are one of us, Terence," Dick Ryan said. " I don't know what we should have done without you. I expect we shall have tremendous fun in Portugal." "I expect we shall, Dick; but we shall have to be careful. We shall be on active service, you see, and from what they say THE MAYO FUSILIERS. 21 of him I don't think Sir Arthur Wellesley is the sort of man to appreciate jokes." " No, I should say not. Of course, we shall have to draw in a bit. It would not do to set the bells of Lisbon ringing." " I should think not, Dick. Still, I dare say we shall have plenty of fun, and at any rate we are likely, from what they say, to have plenty of fighting. I don't expect the Portuguese will be much good, and as there are forty or fifty thousand Frenchmen in Portugal, we shall have all our work to do, un less they send out a much bigger force than is collecting at Cork. It is a pity that the 10,000 men who have been sent out to Sweden on what my father says is a fool's errand are not going with us instead. We might make a good stand-up fight of it then, whereas I don't see that with only 6000 or 7000 we can do much good against Junot's 40,000." " Oh, I dare say we shall get on somehow ! " Dick said care lessly. "Sir Arthur knows what he is about, and it is our turn to do something now. The navy has had it all its own way so far, and it is quite fair that we should do our share. I have a brother in the navy, and the fellows are getting too cheeky altogether. They seem to think that no one can fight but themselves. Except in Egypt we have never had a chance at all of showing we can lick the French just as easily on land as we can at sea." " I hope we shall, Dick. They have certainly had a great deal more practice at it than we have." " Now I think we ought to do something here that they will remember us for before we start, Terence." " Well, if you do, I am not with you this time, Dick. I am not going to begin by getting in the colonel's bad books after he has been kind enough to nominate me for a commission. I promised him that I would try and not get into any scrapes, and I am not going to break my word. When we once get out there I shall be game to join in anything that is not likely to make a great row, but I have done with it for the present." 22 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " I should like to have one more good bit of fun," Ryan said; "but I expect you are right, Terence, in what you say about yourself, and it is no use our thinking to humbug Athlone again if you are not in it with us; besides, they are getting too sharp. They did not half turn out last time, and, indeed, we had a narrow escape of being caught. Well, I shall be very glad when we are off; it is stupid work waiting for the route, with all leave stopped, and we not even allowed to go out for a day's fishing." Three days later the expected order arrived. As the bag gage had all been packed up, that which was to be left behind being handed over to the care of the barrack-master, and a considerable portion of the heavy baggage sent on by cart, there was no delay. Officers and men were alike delighted that the period of waiting had come to an end, and there was loud cheering in the barrack-yard as soon as the news came. At daybreak next morning the rest of the bag gage started under a guard, and three hours later the Mayo Fusiliers marched through the town with their band playing at their head, and amid the cheers of the populace. As yet the martial spirit that was roused by the struggle in the Peninsula had scarcely begun to show itself, but there was a strong animosity to France throughout England, and a desire to aid the people of Spain and Portugal in their efforts for free dom. In Ireland, for the most part, there was no such feeling. Since the battle of the Boyne and the siege of Limerick, France had been regarded by the greater portion of the peasantry, and a section of the population of the towns, as the natural ally of Ireland, and there was a hope that when Napoleon had all Europe prostrate under his feet he would come as the deliverer of Ireland from the English yoke. Consequently, although the townspeople of Athlone cheered the regiment as it marched away, the country people held aloof from it as it passed along the road. Scowling looks from the women greeted it in the villages, while the men ostentatiously continued THE MAYO FUSILIERS. 23 their work in the fields without turning to cast a glance at them. Terence was not posted to his father's company, but was in that of Captain O'Driscol, although the lad himself would have preferred to be with Captain O'Grady, with whom he was a great favourite. The latter was one of the captains whose com panies were unprovided with an ensign, and he had asked the adjutant to let him have the lad instead of the ensign who was to join at Cork. "The matter has been settled the other way, O'Grady; in the colonel's opinion he will be much better with O'Driscol, who is more likely to keep him in order than you are." O'Grady was one of the most original characters in the regiment. He was rather under middle height, and had a smooth face, a guileless and innocent expression, and a habit of opening his light-blue eyes as in wonder. His hair was short, and stuck up aggressively; his brogue was the strongest in the regiment; his blunders were innumerable, and his look of amazement at the laughter they called forth was admirably feigned, save that the twinkle of his eye induced a suspicion that he himself enjoyed the joke as well as anyone. His good -humour was imperturbable, and he was immensely popular both among men and officers. "O'Driscol!" he repeated in mild astonishment. "Do you mean to say that O'Driscol will keep him in better order than meself 1 If there is one man in this regiment more than another who would get on well with the lad it is meself, bar ring none." " You would get on well enough with him, O'Grady, I have no doubt, but it would be by letting him have his own way, and in encouraging him in mischief of all kinds." O'Grady's eyebrows were elevated, and his eyes expressed hopeless bewilderment. "You are wrong entirely, Cleary; nature intended me for a schoolmaster, and it is just an accident that I have taken 24 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. to soldiering. I flatter meself that no one looks after his subalterns more sharply than I do. My only fear is that I am too severe with them. I may be mild in my manners, but they know me well enough to tremble if I speak sternly to them." "The trembling would be with amusement," the adjutant grumbled. " Well, the colonel has settled the matter, and Terence will be in Orders to-morrow as appointed to O'Driscol's company, and the other to yours." " Thank you for nothing, Cleary," O'Grady said with dignity. " You would have seen that under my tuition the lad would have turned out one of the smartest officers in the regiment." "You have heard of the Spartan way of teaching their sons to avoid drunkenness, Captain O'Grady?" " Divil a word, Cleary, but I reckon that the best way with the haythens was to keep them from touching whisky. It is what I always recommend to the men of my company when I come across one of them the worse for liquor." The adjutant laughed. "That was not the Spartan way, O'Grady; but the advice, if taken, would doubtless have the same effect." "And who were the Spartans at all?" "I have not time to tell you now, O'Grady; I have no end of business on my hands." " Thin what do you keep me talking here for ? haven't I a lot of work on me hands too. I came in to ask a simple question, and instead of giving me a civil answer you kape me wasting my time wid your O'Driscols and your Spartans and all kinds of rigmarole. That is the worst of being in an Irish regiment, nothing can be done widout ever so much blather;" and Captain O'Grady stalked out of the orderly-room. On the march Terence had no difficulty in obtaining leave from his captain to drop behind and march with his friend Dick Ryan. The marches were long ones, and they halted only at Parsonstown, Templemore, Tipperary, and Fermoy, THE MAYO FUSILIERS. 25 as the colonel had received orders to use all speed. At each place a portion of the regiment was accommodated in the barracks, while the rest were quartered in the town. Late in the evening of the fifth day's march they arrived at Cork, and the next day went on board the two transports provided for them, and joined the fleet assembled in the Cove. Some of the ships had been lying there for nearly a month waiting orders, and the troops on board were heartily weary of their confinement. The news, however, that Sir Arthur Wellesley had been at last appointed to command them, and that they were to sail for Portugal, had caused great delight, for it had been feared that they might, like other bodies of troops, be shipped off to some distant spot, only to remain there for months and then to be brought home again. Nothing, indeed, could exceed the vacillation and confusion that reigned in the English cabinet at that time. The forces of England were frittered away in small and objectless expedi tions, the plans of action were changed with every report sent either by the interested leaders of insurrectionary movements in Spain, or by the signally incompetent men who had been sent out to represent England, and who distributed broadcast British money and British arms to the most unworthy appli cants. By their lavishness and subservience to the Spaniards our representatives increased the natural arrogance of these people, and caused them to regard England as a power which was honoured by being permitted to share in the Spanish efforts against the French generals. General Spencer with 5000 men was kept for months sailing up and down the coast of Spain and Portugal, receiving contradictory orders from home, and endeavouring in vain to co-operate with the Spanish generals, each of whom had his own private purposes, and was bent on gratifying personal ambitions and of thwarting the schemes of his rivals, rather than on opposing the common enemy. Not only were the English ministry incapable of devising any plan of action, but they were constantly changing the 26 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. naval and military officers of the forces. At one moment one general or admiral seemed to possess their confidence, while soon afterwards, without the slightest reason, two or three others with greater political influence were placed over his head; and when at last Sir Arthur Wellesley, whose services in India marked him as our greatest soldier, was sent out with supreme military power, they gave him no definite plan of action. General Spencer was nominally placed under his orders by one set of instructions, while another authorized him to com mence operations in the south, without reference to Sir Arthur Wellesley. Admiral Purvis, who was junior to Admiral Col- lingwood, was authorized to control the operations of Sir Arthur, while Wellesley himself had scarcely sailed when Sir Hew Dalrymple was appointed to the chief command of the forces, Sir Harry Burrard was appointed second in command, and Sir Arthur Wellesley was reduced to the fourth rank in the army that he had been sent out to command, two of the men placed above him being almost unknown, they never having commanded any military force in the field. The 9000 men assembled in the Cove of Cork knew nothing of these things; they were going out under the command of the victor of Assaye to measure their strength against that of the French, and they had no fear of the result. " I hope," Captain O'Grady said, as the officers of the wing of the regiment to which he belonged sat down to dinner for the first time on board the transport, " that we shall not have to keep together in going out." "Why so, O'Grady?" another captain asked. " Because there is no doubt at all that our ship is the fastest in the fleet, and that we shall get there in time to have a little brush with the French all to ourselves before the others arrive." " What makes you think that she is the fastest ship here, O'Grady?" "Anyone can see it with half an eye, O'Driscol. Look at her lines ; she is a flyer, and if we are not obliged to keep with THE MAYO FUSILIERS. 27 the others we shall be out of sight of the rest of them before we have sailed six hours." " I don't pretend to know anything about her lines, O'Grady, but she looks to me a regular old tub." "She is old," O'Grady admitted reluctantly, "but give her plenty of wind and you will see how she can walk along." There was a laugh all round the table ; O'Grady's absolute confidence in anything in which he was interested was known to them all. His horse had been notoriously the most worthless animal in the regiment, but although continually last in the hunting field O'Grady's opinion of her speed was never shaken. There was always an excuse ready; the horse had been badly shod, or it was out of sorts and had not had its feed before starting, or the going was heavy and it did not like heavy ground, or the country was too hilly or too flat for it. It was the same with his company, with his non-commissioned officers, with his soldier servant, a notoriously drunken rascal, and with his quarters. O'Grady looked round in mild expostulation at the laugh. "You will see," he said confidently, "there can be no mis take about it." Two days later a ship of war entered the harbour, the usual salutes were exchanged, then a signal was run up to one of her mast-heads, and again the guns of the forts pealed out a salute, and word ran through the transports that Sir Arthur Wellesley was on board. On the following day the fleet got under way, the transports being escorted by a line-of -battle ship and four frigates, which were to join Lord Collingwood's squadron as soon as they had seen their charge safe into the Tagus. Before evening the Sea-horse was a mile astern of the rear most ship of the convoy, and one of the frigates sailing back fired a gun as a signal to her to close up. " Well, O'Grady, we have left the fleet, you see, though not in the way you predicted." "Whist, man! don't you see that the captain is out of 28 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. temper because they have all got to keep together, instead of letting him go ahead." Every rag of sail was now piled on to the ship, and as many of the others were showing nothing above their topgallant sails she rejoined the rest just as darkness fell. "There, you see!" O'G-rady said triumphantly, "look what she can do when she likes." " We do see, O'Grady. With twice as much sail up as any thing else she has in three hours picked up the mile she had lost." "Wait until we get some wind." "I hope we sha'n't get anything of the sort at least, no strong winds; the old tub would open every seam if we did, and we might think ourselves lucky if we got through it at all." O'Grady smiled pleasantly, and said it was useless to argue with so obstinate a man. " I am afraid O'Grady is wrong as usual," Dick Ryan said to Terence, who was sitting next to him. "When once he has taken an idea into his head nothing will persuade him that he is wrong; there is no doubt the Sea-horse is as slow as she can be. I suppose her owners have some interest with the government, or they would surely never have taken up such an old tub as a troop-ship." CHAPTER II. TWO DANGERS. THE next day, in spite of the sail she carried, the Sea-horse lagged behind, and one of the frigates sailed back to her, and the captain shouted angry orders to the master to keep his place in the convoy. "If we get any wind," O'Grady said, as the frigate bore up TWO DANGERS. 29 on her course again, " it will take all your time to keep up with her, my fine fellow. You see," he explained to Terence, " no vessel is perfect in all points; some like a good deal of wind, some are best in a calm. Now this ship wants wind." "I think she does, Captain O'Grady," Terence replied gravely. "At any rate her strong point is not sailing in a light wind." "No," O'Grady admitted regretfully; "but it is not the ship's fault. I have no doubt at all that her bottom is foul, and that she has a lot of barnacles and weeds twice as long as your body. That is the reason why she is a little sluggish." "That may be it," Terence agreed; "but I should have thought that they would have seen to that before they sent her to Cork." "It is like enough that her owners are well-wishers of Na poleon, Terence, and that it is out of spite that they have done it. There is no doubt that she is a wonderful craft." " I am quite inclined to agree with you, Captain O'Grady, for as I have never seen a ship except when the regiment came back from India ten years ago, I am no judge of one." " It is the eye, Terence. I can't say that I have been much at sea myself, except on that voyage out and home ; but I have an eye for ships, and can see their good points at a glance. You can take it from me that she is a wonderful vessel." " She would look all the better if her sails were a bit cleaner, and not so patched," Terence said, looking up. " She might look better to the eye, lad, but no doubt the owners know what they are doing, and consider that she goes better with sails that fit her than she would with new ones." Terence burst into a roar of laughter. O'Grady as usual looked at him in mild surprise. "What are you laughing at, you young spalpeen?" " I am thinking, Captain O'Grady," the lad said, recovering himself, " that it is a great pity you could not have obtained the situation of Devil's Advocate. I have read that years ago some one was appointed to defend Old Nick when the others 30 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. were pitching into him, and to show that he was not as black as he was painted, but was a respectable gentleman who had been maligned by the world." " No doubt there is a good deal to be said for him," O'Grady said seriously. " Give a dog a bad name, you know, and you may hang him; and I have no doubt the Old One has been held responsible for lots of things he never had as much as the tip of his finger in at all, at all." Seeing that his captain was about to pursue the matter much further, Terence, making the excuse that it was time he went down to see if the men's breakfast was all right, slipped off, and he and Dick Ryan had a hearty laugh over O'Grady's peculiarities. " I think, O'Grady," Captain O'Driscol said two days later, " we are going to have our opportunity, for unless I am mis taken there is going to be a change of weather. Those clouds banking up ahead look like a gale from the south-west." Before night the wind was blowing furiously, and the Sea horse taking green sea over her bows and wallowing gunwale under in the waves. At daylight, when they went on deck, gray masses of cloud were hurrying overhead and an angry sea alone met the eye. Not a sail was in sight, and the whole convoy had vanished. " We are out of sight of the fleet, O'Grady," Captain O'Dris col said grimly. "I felt sure we should be," O'Grady said triumphantly. " Sorra one of them could keep foot with us." "They are ahead of us, man," O'Driscol said angrily, "miles and miles ahead." "Ahead, is it? You must know better, O'Driscol; though it is little enough you know of ships. You see we are close- hauled, and there is no doubt that that is the vessel's strong point. Why, we have dropped the rest of them like hot potatoes, and if this little breeze keeps on, maybe we shall be in the Tagus days and days before them." TWO DANGERS. 31 O'Driscol was too exasperated to argue. "O'Driscol is a good fellow," O'Grady said, turning to Terence, "but it is a misfortune that he is so prejudiced. Now, what is your own opinion 1 ?" "I have no opinion about it, Captain O'Grady. I have a very strong opinion that I am not going to enjoy my break fast, and that this motion does not agree with me at all. I have been ill half the night. Dick Ryan is awfully bad, and by the sounds I heard I should say a good many of the others are the same way. On the main deck it is awful; they have got the hatches battened down. I just took a peep in and bolted, for it seemed to me that every one was ill." " The best plan, lad, is to make up your mind that you are quite well. If you once do that you will be all right directly." Terence could not for the moment reply, having made a sudden rush to the side. "I don't see. how I can persuade myself that I am quite well," he said when he returned, " when I feel terribly ill." "Yes, it wants resolution, Terence, and I am afraid that you are deficient in that. It must not be half-and-half. You have got to say to yourself, 'This is glorious; I never enjoyed myself so well in my life ', and when you have said that, and feel that it is quite true, the whole thing will be over." "I don't doubt it in the least," Terence said; "but I can't say it without telling a prodigious lie, and worse still, I could not believe the lie when I had told it." " Then I am afraid that you must submit to be ill, Terence. I know once that I had a drame, and the drame was that I was at sea and horribly sea-sick, and I woke up and said to myself, ' This is all nonsense, I am as well as ever I was ' ; and, faith, so I was." Ill as Terence was, he burst into a fit of laughter. " That was just a dream, Captain O'Grady ; but mine is a reality, you know. I don't think that you are looking quite well yourself." 32 TTITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " I am perfectly well as far as the sea goes, Terence, never was better in my life; but that pork we had for dinner yester day was worse than usual, and I think perhaps I ought to have taken another glass or two to correct it." " It must have been the pork," Terence said as seriously as O'Grady himself; "and it is unfortunate that you are such an abstemious man, or, as you say, its effects might have been corrected." "It's me opinion, Terence, my boy, that you are a humbug." " Then, Captain O'Grady, it is clear that evil communications must have corrupted my good manners." " It must have been in your infancy then, Terence, for divil a bit of manners good or bad have I ever seen in you; you have not even the good manners to take a glass of the cratur when you are asked." "That is true enough," Terence laughed. "Having been brought up in the regiment I have learned, at least, that the best thing to do with whisky is to leave it alone." " I am afraid you will never be a credit to us, Terence." " Not in the way of being able to make a heavy night of it and then turn out as fresh as paint in the morning," Terence retorted ; " but you see, Captain O'Grady, even my abstinence has its advantages, for at least there will always be one officer in the corps able to go the round of the sentries at night." At this moment the vessel gave such a heavy lurch that they were both thrown off their feet and rolled into the lee scup pers, while, at the same moment, a rush of water swept over them. Amidst shouts of laughter from the other officers the two scrambled to their feet. " Holy Moses ! " O'Grady exclaimed, " I am drowned entirely, and I sha'n't get the taste of the salt water out of me mouth for a week." "There is one comfort," Terence said; "it might have been worse." " How could it have been worse?" O'Grady asked angrily. M359 TWO FRENCH PRIVATEERS BEAR DOWN UPON THE SEA-HORSE. TWO DANGERS. 33 " Why, if we hadn't been in the steadiest ship in the whole fleet we might have been washed overboard." There was another shout of laughter. O'Grady made a dash at Terence, but the latter easily avoided him and went down below to change his clothes. The gale increased in strength, and the whole vessel strained so heavily that her seams began to open, and by one o'clock the captain requested Major Harrison, who was in command, to put some of the soldiers at the pumps. For three days and nights relays of men kept the pumps going. Had it not been for the 400 troops on board, the Sea-horse would long before have gone to the bottom; but with such powerful aid the water was kept under, and on the morning of the fourth day the storm began to abate, and by evening more canvas was got on her. The next morning two vessels were seen astern at a distance of four or five miles. After examining them through his glass, the captain sent down a message to Major Harrison asking him to come up. In three or four minutes that officer appeared. "These are two strange craft over there, Major; from their appearance I have not the least doubt that they are French privateers. I thought I should like your advice as to what had best be done." " I don't know. You see, your guns might just as well be thrown overboard for any good they would be," the major said. "The things would not be safe to fire a salute with blank cartridge." "No, they can hardly be called serviceable," the master agreed. "I spoke to the owner about it, but he said that as we were going to sail with a convoy it did n6"t matter, and that we should have some others for the next voyage." " I should like to see your owner dangling from the yard- arm," the major said wrathfully. " However, just at present the question is what had best be done. Of course they could not take the ship from us, but they would have very little difficulty in sinking her." (M359) C 34 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. "The first thing is to put on every stitch of sail." " That would avail us nothing, they can sail two feet to our one." " Quite so, Major; I should not hope to get away, but they would think that I was trying to do so. My idea is that we should press on as fast as we can till they open fire at us ; we could hold on for a bit, and then haul up into the wind and lower our top-sails, which they will take for a proof of sur render." "You won't strike the flag, Captain; we cannot do anything treacherous." "No, no, I am not thinking of doing that. You see the flag is not hoisted yet, and we won't hoist it at all till they get close alongside, then we can haul it up, and sweep their decks with musketry. Of course your men will keep below until the last moment." "That plan will do very well," the major agreed, "that is if they venture to come boldly alongside." " One is pretty sure to do so, though the other may lay herself ahead or astern of us, with her guns pointed to rake us in case we make any resistance ; but seeing what we are, and that we carry only four small guns each side, they are hardly likely to suspect anything wrong. I am not at all afraid of beating them off; my only fear is that after they have sheared away they will open upon us from a distance." "Yes, that would be awkward. However, if they do, we must keep the men below, and in the meantime you had better get your carpenter to cut up some spars and make a lot of plugs in readiness to stop up any holes they may make near the water-line. I don't think they are likely to make very ragged holes, the wood is so rotten the shot would go through the side as if it were brown paper; still, you might get a lot of squares of canvas ready, with hammers and nails." The strange craft were already heading towards the Sea-horse. No time was lost in setting every stitch of canvas that she TWO DANGERS. 35 could carry; the wind was light now, but the vessel was rolling heavily in a long swell. The major examined the guns closely and found that they were even worse than he had anticipated, the rust holes eaten in the iron having been filled up with putty, and the whole painted. He Avas turning away with an exclamation of disgust when Terence, who was standing near, said to him : " I beg your pardon, Major, but don't you think that if we were to wind some thin rope very tightly round them three or four inches thick, they might stand a charge or two of grape to give them at close quarters; we needn't put in a very heavy charge of powder. Even if they did burst, I should think that the rope would prevent the splinters from flying about." " The idea is not a bad one at all, Terence. I will see if the captain has got a coil or two of thin rope on board." Fortunately the ship was fairly well supplied in this respect, and a few of the sailors who were accustomed to serving rope, with a dozen soldiers to help them, were told off to the work. The rope was wound round as tightly as the strength of a dozen men could pull it, the process being repeated five or six times until each gun was surrounded by as many layers of rope. A thin rod had been inserted in the touch-hole. The cannon was then loaded with half the usual charge of powder, and filled to the muzzle with bullets. The rod was then drawn out, and powder poured in until it reached the sur face. While this was being done all the soldiers not engaged in the work went below, and the officers sat down under shelter of the bulwarks. The two privateers, a large lugger and a brig, had been coming up rapidly, and by the time the guns were ready for action they were but a mile away. Presently a puff of smoke burst out from the bows of the lugger, and a round shot struck the water a short distance ahead of the Sea horse. She held on her course without taking any notice of it, and for a few minutes the privateer was silent, then when they 36 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. were but half a mile away the brig opened fire, and two or three shots hulled the vessel. " That will do, Captain," the major said. " You may as well lay -to now." The Sea-horse rapidly flew up into the wind, the sheets were thrown off, and the upper sails were lowered one after the other, the job being executed slowly, as if by a weak crew. The two privateers, which had been sailing within a short distance of each other, now exchanged signals, and the lugger ran on straight towards the Sea-horse, while the brig took a course which would lay her across the stern of the barque, and enable them to rake her with her broadside. Word was passed below, and the soldiers poured up on deck, stooping as they reached it and taking their places under the bulwarks. The major had already asked for volunteers among the officers, to fire the guns. All had at once offered to do so. "As it was your proposal, Terence," the major said, "you shall have the honour of firing one; Ryan, you take another; Lieutenant Marks and Mr. Haines, you take the other two, and then England and Ireland will be equally represented." The deck of the lugger was crowded with the men, and the course she was steering brought her within a length of the Sea-horse. Some of the men were preparing to lower her boats, when suddenly a thick line of red coats appeared above the bulwarks, two hundred muskets poured in their fire, while the contents of the four guns swept her deck. The effect of the fire was tremendous. The deck was in a moment covered with dead and dying men ; half a minute later another volley, fired by the remaining companies, completed the work of destruction. The halliards of one of the lugger's sails had been cut by the grape, and the sail now came down with a run to the deck. " Down below, all of you," the major shouted, " the fellow behind will rake us in a minute." The soldiers ran down to the hold again. A minute later TWO DANGERS. 37 the brig, sailing across the stern, poured in the fire of her guns one by one. Standing much lower in the water than her op ponent, none of her shot traversed the deck of the Sea-horse, but they carried destruction among the cabins and fittings of the deck below. As this, however, was entirely deserted, no one was injured by the shot or flying fragments. The brig then took up her position three or four hundred yards away on the quarter of the Sea-horse, and opened a steady fire against her. To this the barque could make no reply, the fire of the muskets being wholly ineffective at that distance. The lugger lay helpless alongside the Sea-horse; the survivors of her crew had run below, and dared not return on deck to work their guns, as they would have been swept by the musketry of the Sea-horse. Half an hour later Terence was ordered to go below to see how they were getting on in the hold. Terence did so. Some lanterns had been lighted there, and he found that four men had been killed and a dozen or so wounded by the enemy's shot, the greater portion of which, however, had gone over their heads. The carpenter, assisted by some of the non-commissioned officers, was busy plugging holes that had been made in her between wind and water, and had fairly succeeded, as but four or five shots had struck so low, the enemy's object being not to sink but to capture the vessel. As he passed up through the main deck to report, Terence saw that the destruction here was great indeed. The woodwork of the cabins had been knocked into fragments, there was a great gaping hole in the stern, and it seemed to him that before long the vessel would be knocked to pieces. He returned to the deck, and reported the state of things. " It looks bad," the major said to O'Driscol. " This is but half an hour's work, and when the fellows come to the con clusion that they cannot make us strike, they will aim lower, and there will be nothing to do but to choose between sinking and hauling down our flag." 38 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. After delivering his report Terence went to the side of the ship and looked down on the lugger. The attraction of the ship had drawn her closer to it, and she was but a few feet away. A thought struck him, and he went to O'Grady. "Look here, O'Grady," he said, "that fellow will smash us up altogether if we don't do something." "You must be a bright boy to see that, Terence; faith, I have been thinking so for the last ten minutes. But what are we to do 1 The muskets won't carry so far, at least not to do any good. The cannon are next to useless. Two of that lot you fired burst, though the ropes prevented any damage being done." " Quite so, but there are plenty of guns alongside. Now, if you go to the major and volunteer to take your company and gain possession of the lugger, with one of the mates and half a dozen sailors to work her, we can get up the main-sail and engage the brig." "By the powers, Terence, you are a broth of a boy;" and he hurried away to the major. "Major," he said, "if you will give me leave, I will have up my company and take possession of the lugger; we shall want one of the ship's officers and half a dozen men to work the sails, and then we will go out and give that brig pepper." " It is a splendid idea, O'Grady." " It is not my idea at all, at all, it is Terence O'Connor who suggested it to me. I suppose I can take the lad with me 1 ?" " By all means, get your company up at once." O'Grady hurried away, and in a minute the men of his com pany poured up on to the deck. " You can come with me, Terence, I have the major's leave," he said to the lad. At this moment there was a slight shock, as the lugger came in contact with the ship. "Come on, lads," O'Grady said, as he set the example of clambering down on to the deck of the lugger. He was fol- TWO DANGERS. 39 I lowed by his men, the first mate and six sailors also springing on board. The hatches were first put on to keep the remnant of the crew below. The sailors knotted the halliards of the mainsail, the soldiers tailed on to the rope, and the sail was rapidly run up. The mate put two of his men at the tiller, and the soldiers ran to the guns, which were already loaded. " Haul that sheet to windward," the mate shouted, and the four sailors, aided by some of the soldiers, did so. Her head soon payed off, and amid a cheer from the officers on deck the lugger swept round. She mounted twelve guns. O'Grady divided the officers and non-commissioned officers among them, himself taking charge of a long pivot-gun in the bow. " Take stiddy aim, boys, and fire as your guns bear on her; you ought not to throw away a shot at this distance." As the lugger came out from behind the Sea-horse, gun after gun was fired, and the white splinters on the side of the brig showed that most, if not all of the shots had taken effect. O'Grady's gun was the last to speak out, and the shot struck the brig just above the water-line. " Take her round," he shouted to the mate; "give the boys on the other side a chance." The lugger put about and her star board guns poured in their contents. "That is the way," he shouted, as he laboured away with the men with him to load the pivot-gun again; "we will give him two or three more rounds, and then we will get alongside and ask for his health." , The brig, however, showed no inclination to await the attack. Some shots had been hastily fired when the lugger's first gun told them that she was now an enemy, and she at once put down her helm and made off before the wind, which was now very light. " Load your guns and then out with the oars," Captain O'Grady shouted. "Be jabers, we will have that fellow. Let no man attend to the Sea-horse, it's from me that you are to take your orders. Besides," he said to Terence, "there is no signal- 40 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. book on board, and they may hoist as many flags as they like." The twelve sweeps on board the lugger were at once got out, and each manned by three soldiers. O'Grady himself con tinued to direct the fire of the pivot-gun, and sent shot after shot into the brig's stern. The latter had but some four hundred yards' start, and although she also hurriedly got out some sweeps, the lugger gained upon her. Her crew clustered on their taffrail, and kept up a musketry fire upon the party working the pivot-gun. Two of these had been killed and four wounded, when O'Grady said to the others : " Lave the gun alone, boys, we shall be alongside of her in a few minutes, it is no use throwing away lives by working it. Run all the guns over to the other side, we will give them a warming and then go at her." The Sea-horse had hoisted signals directly those on board perceived that the lugger was starting in pursuit of the brig. Terence had informed his commanding officer of this, but O'Grady replied : "I know nothing about them, Terence; most likely they mane ' Good-luck to you ! Chase the blackguard, and capture him.' Don't let Woods come near me whatever you do, I don't want to hear his idea of what the signals may mane." Terence had just time to stop the mate as he was coming forward. " The ship is signalling," he said. " I have told Captain O'Grady, sir," Terence replied. " He does not know what the signal means, but has no doubt that it is instructions to capture the brig, and he means to do so." The officer laughed. "I think myself that it would be a pity not to," he said; "we shall be alongside in ten minutes. But I think it my duty to tell you what the signal is." "You can tell me what it is," Terence said, "and it is TWO DANGERS. 41 possible that in the heat of action I may forget to report it to Captain O'Grady." "That is right enough, sir. I think it is the recall." "Well, I will attend to it presently," Terence laughed. When within a hundred yards of the brig the troops opened a heavy musketry fire, many of the men making their way up the ratlines and so commanding the brig's deck. They were an swered with a brisk fire, but the French shooting was wild, and by the shouting of orders and the confusion that prevailed on board it was evident that the privateersmen were disorganized by the sight of the troops and the capture of their consort. The brig's guns were hastily fired, as they could be brought to bear on the lugger, as she forged alongside. The sweeps had already been got in, and the lugger's eight guns poured their contents simultaneously into the brig, then a withering volley was fired, and, headed by O'Grady, the soldiers sprang on board the brig. As they did so, however, the French flag fluttered down from the peak, and the privateersmen threw down their arms. The English broadside and volley fired at close quarters had taken terrible effect. Of the crew of eighty men thirty were killed and a large proportion of the rest wounded. The sol diers gave three hearty cheers as the flag came down. The privateersmen were at once ordered below. "Lieutenant Hunter," O'Grady said, "do you go on board the lugger with the left wing of the company. Mr. Woods, I think you had better stay here, there are a good many more sails to manage than there are in the lugger. One man here will be enough to steer her; we will pull at the ropes for you. Put the others on board the lugger." " By the by, Mr. Woods," he said, " I see that the ship has hoisted a signal ; what does it mean 1 " "I believe that to be the recall, sir- I told Mr. O'Connor." "You ought to have reported that same to me," O'Grady said severely; "however, we will obey it at once." 42 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. The Sea-horse was lying head to wind a mile and a half away, and the two prizes ran rapidly up to her. They were received with a tremendous cheer from the men closely packed along her bulwarks. O'Grady at once lowered a boat and was rowed to the Sea-horse, taking Terence with him. " You have done extremely well, Captain O'Grady," Major Harrison said, as he reached the deck, "and I congratulate you heartily. You should, however, have obeyed the order of recall; the brig might have proved too strong for you, and, bound on service as we are, we have no right to risk valuable lives except in self-defence." " Sure I knew nothing about the signal," O'Grady said, with an air of innocence; "I thought it just meant 'More power to ye ! give it 'em hot!' or something of that kind. It was not until after I had taken the brig that I was told that it was an order of recall. As soon as I learned that, we came along as fast as we could to you." " But Mr. Woods must surely have known." "Mr. Woods did tell me, Major," Terence put in, "but somehow I forgot to mention it to Captain O'Grady." There was a laugh among the officers standing round. " You ought to have informed him at once, Mr. O'Connor," the major said, with an attempt at gravity. "However," he went on, with a change of voice, " we all owe so much to you that I must overlook it, as there can be very little doubt that had it not been for your happy idea of taking possession of the lugger we should have been obliged to surrender, for I should not have been justified in holding out until the ship sank under us. I shall not fail, in reporting the matter, to do you full credit for your share in it. Now, what is your loss, Captain O'Grady V " Three men killed and eleven wounded, sir." "And what is that of the enemy 1 ?" "Thirty -two killed and about the same number of wounded, more or less. We had not time to count them before we sent TWO DANGERS. 43 them down, and I had not time afterwards, for I was occupied in obeying the order of recall. I am sorry that we have killed so many of the poor beggars, but if they had hauled down their flag when we got up with them there would have been no occasion for it. I should have told their captain that I looked upon him as an obstinate pig, but as he and his first officer were both killed there was no use in my spaking to him." "Well, it has been a very satisfactory operation," the major said, "and we are very well out of a very nasty fix. Now, you will go back to the brig, Captain O'Grady, and prepare to send the prisoners on board. We will send our boats for them. Doctor Daly and Doctor O'Flaherty will go on board with you and see to the wounded French and English. Dr. Daly will bring the worst cases on board here, and will leave O'Flaherty on the brig to look after the others. They will be better there than in this crowded ship. The first officer will remain there with you with five men, and you will retain fifty men of your own company. The second officer, with five men, will take charge of the lugger. He will have with him fifty men of Captain O'Driscol's company, under that officer. That will give us a little more room on board here. How many prisoners are there?" "Counting the wounded, Major, there are about fifty of them: her crew was eighty strong to begin with. There are only some thirty, including the slightly wounded, to look after." " If the brig's hold is clear, I think that you had better take charge of them. At present you will both lie-to beside us here till we have completed our repairs, and when we make sail you are both to follow us, and keep as close as possible ; and on no account, Captain O'Grady, are you to undertake any cruises on your own account." "I will bear it in mind, Major; and we will do all we can to keep up with you." A laugh ran round the circle of officers at O'Grady's obstinacy in considering the Sea-horse to be a fast vessel, in spite of the 44 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. evidence that they had had to the contrary. The Major said gravely : " You will have to go under the easiest sail possible. The brig can go two feet to this craft's one, and you will only want your lower sails. If you put on more you will be running ahead and losing us at night. We shall show a light over our stern, and on no account are you to allow yourselves to lose sight of it." A party of men were already at work nailing battens over-the shattered stern of the Seq-horse. When this was done, sail-cloth was nailed over them, and a coat of pitch given to it. The operation took four hours, by which time all the other arrange ments had been completed. The holds of the two privateers were found to be empty, and they learned from the French crews that the two craft had sailed from Bordeaux in company but four days previously, and that the Sea-horse was the first English ship that they had come across. " You will remember, Captain O'Grady," the Major said, as that officer prepared to go on board, " that Mr. Woods is in command of the vessel, and that he is not to be interfered with in any way with regard to making or taking-in sail. He has received precise instructions as to keeping near us, and your duties will be confined to keeping guard over the prisoners, and rendering such assistance to the sailors as they may re quire." "I understand, Major; but I suppose that in case you are attacked we may take a share in any divarsion that is going on?" " I don't think that there is much chance of our being at tacked, O'Grady; but if we are, instructions will be signalled to you. French privateers are not likely to interfere with us, seeing that we are together, and if by any ill-luck a French frigate should fall in with us, you will have instructions to sheer off at once, and for each of you to make your way to Lisbon as quickly as you can. You see, we have transferred DISEMBARKED. 45 four guns from each of your craft to take the place of the rotten cannon on board here, but our united forces would be of no avail at all against a frigate, which would send us to the bottom with a single broadside. We can neither run nor fight in this wretched eld tub. If we do see a French frigate coming, I shall transfer the rest of the troops to the prizes and send them off at once, and leave the Sea-horse to her fate. Of course we should be very crowded on board the privateers, but that would not matter for a few days. So you see the importance of keeping quite close to us, in readiness to come alongside at once if signalled to. We shall separate as soon as we leave the ship, so as to ensure at least half our force reaching its desti nation." Captain O'Driscol took Terence with him on board the lugger, leaving his lieutenant in charge of the wing that re mained on board the ship. " You have done credit to the company, and to my choice of you, Terence," he said warmly, as they stood together on the deck of the lugger. "I did not see anything for it but a French prison, and it would have broken my heart to be tied up there while the rest of our lads were fighting the French in Portugal. I thought that you would make a good officer some day in spite of your love of devilment, but I did not think that before you had been three weeks in the service you would have saved half the regiment from a French prison." CHAPTER III. DISEMBARKED. AS soon as the vessels were under way again it was found that the lugger was obliged to lower her mainsail to keep in her position astern of the Sea-horse, while the brig was forced 46 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. to take in sail after sail until the whole of the upper sails had been furled. "It is tedious work going along like this," O'Driscol said; "but it does not so much matter, because as yet we do not know where we are going to land. Sir Arthur has gone on in a fast ship to Corunna to see the Spanish Junta there, and find out what assistance we are likely to get from Northern Spain. That will be little enough. I expect they will take our money and arms and give us plenty of fine promises in return, and do nothing; that is the game they have been playing in the south, and if there were a grain of sense among our ministers they would see that it is not of the slightest use to reckon on Spain. As to Portugal, we know very little at present, but I expect there is not a pin to choose between them and the Spaniards." " Then we are not going to Lisbon 1 ?" Terence said in surprise. " I expect not. Sir Arthur won't determine anything until he joins us after his visit to Corunna, but I don't think that it will be at Lisbon anyhow. There are strong forts guarding the mouth of the river, and ten or twelve thousand troops in the city, and a Russian fleet anchored in the port. I don't know where it will be, but I don't think that it will be Lisbon. I expect that we shall slip into some little port, land, and wait for Junot to attack us ; we shall be joined, I expect, by Stewart's force, that have been fooling about for two or three months waiting for the Spaniards to make up their minds whether they will admit them into Cadiz or not. You see, at present there are only 9000 of us, and they say that Junot has at least 50,000 in Portugal; but of course they are scattered about, and it is hardly likely that he would venture to with draw all his garrisons from the large towns, so that the odds may not be as heavy as they look, when we meet him in the field. And I suppose that at any rate some of the Portuguese will join us. From what I hear, the peasantry are brave enough, only they have never had a chance yet of making a fight for DISEMBARKED. 47 it owing to their miserable government, which never can make up its mind to do anything. I hope* that Sir Arthur has orders, as soon as he takes Lisbon, to assume the entire control of the country and ignore the native government altogether. Even if they are worth anything, which they are sure not to be, it is better to have one head than two, and as we shall have to do all the fighting, it's just as well that we should have the whole control of things too." For four days they sailed along quietly. On the morning of the fifth the signal was run up from the Sea-horse for the prizes to close up to her. Mr. Woods, the mate on board the brig, at once sent a sailor up to the mast-head. "There is a large ship away to the south-west, sir," he shouted down. " What does she look like T "I can only see her royals and topsails yet, but by their square cut I think that she is a ship of war." "Do you think she is French or English 1 ?" " I cannot say for certain yet, sir, but it looks to me as if she is French. I don't think that the sails are English cut anyhow." Such was evidently the opinion on board the Sea-horse, for as the prizes came up within a hundred yards of her they were hailed by the major through a speaking-trumpet, and ordered to keep at a distance for the present, but to be in readiness to come up alongside directly orders were given to that effect. In another half-hour the look-out reported that he could now see the lower sails of the stranger, and had very little doubt but that it was a large French frigate. Scarcely had he done so before the two prizes were ordered to close up to the Sea-horse. The sea was very calm and they were able to lie alongside, and as soon as they did so the troops began to be transferred to them. In a quarter of an hour the operation was completed. Major Harrison taking his place on board the lugger; half the men were ordered below and the prize sheered off from the Sea-horse, 48 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " The Frenchman is bearing down straight for us," he said to O'Driscol; "she is bringing a breeze down with her, and in an hour she will be alongside. I shall wait another half-hour, and then we must leave the Sea-horse to her fate; except for our stores she is worthless. "Well, Terence, have you any sug gestion to offer? You got us out of the last scrape, and though this is not quite so bad as that, it is unpleasant enough. The frigate when she comes near will see that the Sea-horse is a slow sailer, and will probably leave her to be picked up at her leisure, and will go off in chase either of the brig or us. The brig is to make for the north-west and we shall steer south-c t so that she will have to make a choice between us. When we get the breeze we shall either of us give her a good dance before she catches us that is, if the breeze is not too strong; if it is, her weight would soon bring her up to us." " Yes, Major, but perhaps she may not trouble about us at all. She would see at once that the lugger and brig are French, and if they were both to hoist French colours, and the Sea-horse were to fly French colours over English, she would naturally suppose that she had been captured by us, and would go straight on her course without troubling herself further about it." " So she might, Terence. At any rate the scheme is worth trying. If they have anything like good glasses on board they could make out our colours miles away. If she held on towards us after that, there would be plenty of time for us to run, but if we saw her. change her course we should know that we were safe. Your head is good for other things besides mischief, lad." The lugger sailed up near the ship again, and the major gave the captain instructions to hoist a French ensign over an English one, and then, sailing near the brig, told them to hoist French colours. "Keep all your men down below the line of the bulwarks, O'Grady. Mr. Woods, you had better get your boat down and DISEMBARKED. 49 row alongside of the ship, and ask the captain to get the slings at work and hoist some of our stores into her; we will do the same on the other side. Tell the captain to lower a couple of his boats, also take twenty soldiers on board with you without their jackets; we will do the same, so that it may be seen that we have a strong party on board getting out the cargo." In a few minutes the orders were carried out, and forty soldiers were at work on the deck of the Sea-horse, slinging up tents from below, and lowering them into the boats alongside. The approach of the frigate was anxiously watched from the decks of the prizes. The upper sails of the Sects-horse had been furled, and the privateers, under the smallest possible canvas, kept abreast of her at a distance of a couple of lengths. The hull of the French frigate was now visible. " She is very fast," the mate said to the major, " and she is safe to catch one of us if the breeze she has got holds." As she came nearer the feeling of anxiety heightened. " They ought to make out our colours now, sir." Almost immediately afterwards the frigate was seen to change her course. Her head was turned more to the east. A suppressed cheer broke from the troops. "It is all right now, sir," the mate said; " she is making for Brest. We have fooled her nicely." The boats passed and repassed between the Sea-horse and the prizes, and the frigate crossed a little more than a mile ahead. " Five-and-twenty guns a-side," the major said. "By Jove! she would have made short work of us." As it was not advisable to make any change in the position until the frigate was far on her way, the boats continued to pass to and fro, carrying back to the Sea-horse the stores that had just been removed, until the Frenchman was five or six miles away. "Don't you think that we might make sail again, Captain V the major then hailed. "I think that we had better give him another hour, sir. ( H 359 ) D 50 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. Were she to see us making sail with the prize to the south it would excite suspicion at once, and the captain might take it into his head to come back again to inquire into it." "Half an hour will surely be sufficient," the major said. " She is travelling at eight or nine knots an hour, and she is evidently bound for port. It would be unlikely in the extreme that her commander would beat back ten miles on what, after all, might be a fool's errand." " That is true enough, sir. Then in half an hour we shall be ready to sail again." The major was rowed to the Sea-horse. "We may as well transfer the men at once," he said. We have had a very narrow escape of it, Captain, and there is no doubt that we owe our safety entirely to the sharpness of that young ensign. We should have been sunk or taken if he had not suggested our manning the lugger in the first place, and of pretending that the ship had been captured by French privateers in the second." "You are right, Major. Another half-hour and the craft would have foundered under us; and the frigate would cer tainly have captured the Sea-horse and one of the prizes if the Frenchman had not, as he thought, seen two privateers at work emptying our hold. He is a sharp young fellow that." " That he is," the major agreed. " He has been brought up with the regiment, and has always been up to pranks of all kinds ; but he has used his wits to good purpose this time, and I have no doubt will turn out an excellent officer." Before sail was made the major summoned the officers on board the Sea-horse. The troops from the lugger and brig were drawn up on deck, and the major, standing on the poop, said in a voice that could be heard from end to end of the ship: "Officers and men, we have had a narrow escape from a French prison, and as it is possible that before we arrive at our destination we may fall in with an enemy again and not be so lucky, I think it right to take this occasion at once of thank- DISEMBARKED. 51 ing, Mr. O'Connor, before you all, in my own name, and in yours, for to his intelligence and quickness of wit it is entirely due that we escaped being captured when the brig was pounding us with its shot without our being able to make any return, and it was certain that in a short time we should have had to Jtiaul down our flag or be sunk. It was he who suggested that we should take possession of the lugger, and with her guns drive off the brig. As the result of that suggestion this craft was saved from being sunk, arid the brig was also captured. " In the second place, when that French frigate was bearing down upon us and our capture seemed certain, it was he who suggested to me, that by hoisting the French flag and appear ing to be engaged in transferring the cargo of the ship to the privateers, we might throw dust into the eyes of the Frenchmen. As you saw, the ruse succeeded perfectly. I therefore, Mr. O'Connor, thank you most heartily in my own name, and in that of your fellow officers, also in the name of the four hun dred men of the regiment, and of the ship's company, for the manner in which you have, by your quickness and good sense, saved us all from a French prison, and saved His Majesty from the loss of the wing of a fine regiment." As he concluded the men broke into loud cheering, and the officers gathered round Terence and thanked and congratulated him most heartily on the service that he had rendered them. "You are a broth of a boy, Terence," Captain O'Grady said. " I knew that it was in you all along. I would not give a brass farthing for a lad who had not a spice of divilment in him. It shows that he has got his wits about him, and that when he steddys down he will be hard to bate." Terence was so much overpowered at the praise he had re ceived that, beyond protesting that it was quite undeserved, he had no reply to make to the congratulations that he received from the captain. O'Driscol, seeing that he was on the verge of breaking down, at once called upon him to take his place in the boat, and rowed with him to the lugger. 52 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. A few minutes later all sail was set on the Sea-horse, and with her yards braced tautly aft she laid her course south, close- hauled; a fresh breeze was now blowing, and she ploughed her way through the water at a rate that almost justified O'Grady's panegyrics upon her. In another three days she entered the port of Vigo, where the convoy was to rendezvous, and all were glad to find that the whole fleet were still there. On anchoring, the major went on board the Dauphin, which had brought the head-quarters, and the other wing of the regiment. He was heartily greeted by the colonel. "We were getting very uneasy about you, Harrison," he said. " The last ship of the convoy came in three days ago, and we began to fear that you must have been either dis masted or sunk in the gale. I saw the senior naval officer this morning, and he said that if you did not come in during the day he would send a frigate out in search of you; but I could see by his manner that he thought it most likely that you had gone down. So you may imagine how pleased we were when we made out your number, though Ave could not for the life of us make out what those two craft flying the English colours over the French, that came in after you, were. But of course they had nothing to do with you. I suppose they were two privateers that had been captured by one of our frigates, and sent in here with prize crews to refit before going home. They have both of them been knocked about a bit." "I will tell you about them directly, Colonel, it is rather a long story. We have had a narrow squeak of it. We got through the storm pretty well, but we had a bad time of it afterwards, and we owe it entirely to young O'Connor that we are not, all of us, in a prison at Brest at present." "You don't say so! Wait a moment, I will call his father here ; he will be glad to hear that the young scamp has behaved well. I may as well call them all up, they will like to hear the story." Turning to the group of officers who were standing on the DISEMBARKED. 53 quarter-deck a short distance away, waiting to hear the news when the major had given his report, he said: "You may as well come now and hear Major Harrison's story, it will save his telling it twice. You will be glad to hear, O'Connor, that Terence has been distinguishing himself in some way, though I know not yet in what; the major says that if it had not been for him the whole wing of the regiment would have now been in a French prison." " Terence was always good at getting out of scrapes, Colonel, though I don't say he was not equally good in getting into them; but I am glad to hear that this time he has done some thing useful." The major then gave a full account of their adventure with the two privateers, and of the subsequent escape from the French frigate. "Faith, O'Connor," the colonel said warmly, holding out his hand to him, "I congratulate you most heartily, Avhich is more than I ever thought to do on Terence's account. I had some misgivings when I recommended him for a commission, but I may congratulate myself as well as you that I did so. I was sure the lad had plenty in him, but I was afraid that it was more likely to come out the wrong way than the right; and now it turns out that he has saved half the regiment, for there is no doubt from what Harrison says that he has done so." "Thank you, Colonel; I am glad indeed that the boy has done credit to your kindness. It was a mighty bad scrape this time, and he got out of it well." " Of course, Major, you will give a full report in writing of this, and will send it in to Sir Arthur; he arrived this morning. I will go on board the flag-ship at once and report as to the prizes. Who they belong to I have not the least idea. I never heard of a transport capturing a couple of privateers before; but, I suppose, as she is taken up for the king's service and the prizes were captured by His Majesty's troops, they will rank as if taken by the navy, that is, a certain amount of their value will go to 54 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. the admiral. Anyhow, the bulk of it will go, I should think, to the troops, the crew and officers of the ship, of course, sharing." " It won't come to much a head, Colonel, anyhow. You see, they were both empty, and there is simply the value of the ships themselves, which I don't suppose would fetch above five or six hundred apiece." " Still, the thing must be done in a regular way, and I must leave it in the admiral's hands. I will take your boat, Major, and go to him at once. You will find pen and ink in my cabin, and I should be glad if you would write your report by the time that I return, then I will go off at once to Sir Arthur." " I have it already written, Colonel," the major said, pro ducing the document. " That looks to me rather long, Harrison, and, busy as Sir Arthur must be, he might not take the trouble to read it. I wish you would write out another, as concise as you can make it, of the actual affair, saying at the end that you beg to report especially the conduct of Ensign O'Connor, to whose sugges tions the escape of the ship both from the privateers and French frigate were due. I will hand that in as the official report, and with it the other, saying that it gives further details of the affair. Of course, with them I must give in an official letter from myself inclosing your two reports. But first I will go and see the admiral." In a little over half an hour he returned. "The admiral knows no more than I do whether the navy have anything to do with the prizes or not. Being so small in value he does not want to trouble himself about it. He says that the matter would entail no end of correspondence and bother, and that the crafts might rot at their anchors before the matter was decided. He thinks the best thing that I can do will be to sell the two vessels for what they will fetch, and divide the money according to prize rules, and say nothing about it. In that way there is not likely ever to be any question about it, while if the Admiralty and Horse-guards once get into a DISEMBARKED. 55 correspondence over the matter, there is no saying what bother I might have ; and that he should advise me, if I do not adopt that plan, to simply scuttle them both, and report that they have sunk. Now I will just write my official letter and take it to head-quarters." In two hours he was back again. " I have not seen the chief," he said, " but I gave the reports to his adjutant-general. General Fane was with him, he is an old friend of mine, and I told him the story of your voyage, and the adjutant-general joined in the conversation. Fane was wait ing to go in to Sir Arthur, who was dictating some despatches to England, and he said that if he had a chance he would mention the affair to Sir Arthur; and, at any rate, the other officer said that he would lay the reports before him, with such mention that Sir Arthur would doubtless look through them both. I find that there is a bit of insurrection going on in Portugal, but that no one thinks much will come of it, as bands of unarmed peasants can have no chance with the French. Nothing is determined as yet about our landing. Lisbon and the Tagus are completely in the hands of the French. " Sir Arthur is going down to Oporto to-morrow, where it is likely that he will learn more about the situation than he did at Corunna. Fane says that he hopes we shall soon be ashore, as the general is not the man to let the grass grow under his feet." After holding counsel with his officers the colonel determined to adopt the advice he had received, and to sell the two craft for what they would fetch, the officers all agreeing to refund their shares if any questions were ever asked on the subject. The captain of the Sea-horse agreed to accept the share of a captain in the line, and his mates those of first and second lieutenant. The colonel put himself in communication with some merchants on shore, and the two craft were sold for twelve hundred pounds. "This gave something over a pound a head to the 400 soldiers and the crew, twice that amount to the non-com- 56 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. missioned officers, and sums varying from ten pounds apiece to the ensigns to fifty pounds to the major. The admiral was asked to approve of the transaction, and said, 'I have no right formally to sanction it, since, so far as I know, it is not a strictly naval matter; but I will give you a letter, colonel, saying that you have informed me of the course that you have adopted, and that I consider that under the peculiar circum stances of the capture, and the fact that there are no men available for sending the prizes to England, the course was the best and most convenient that could possibly be adopted, though, had the craft been of any great value, it would, of course, have been necessary to refer the matter home.' " A week passed without movement. The expedition had left England on the 12th of July, 1808, and Sir Arthur rejoined it towards the end of the month. He had learned at Oporto from Colonel Brown, our agent there, that, contrary to what he had been told at Corunna, there were no Spanish troops in the north of Portugal, but that a body of some 8000 Por tuguese irregulars and militia, half-armed and but slightly disciplined, were assembled on the river Mondego. After a consultation with Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, Sir Arthur had concluded that an attack at the mouth of the Tagus was impracticable, owing to the strength of the French there, the position of the forts that commanded the entrance of the river, and the heavy surf that broke in all the undefended creeks and bays near. There was then the choice of landing far enough north of Lisbon to ensure a disembarkation un disputed by the French, or else to sail south, join Spencer, and act against the French army under Dupont. Sir Arthur finally determined that the Mondego Eiver was the most practicable for the enterprise. The fort of Figueira at its mouth was already occupied by British marines, and the Portuguese force was at least sufficient to deter any small body of troops approaching the neighbourhood. Therefore, to the great joy of the troops, the order was given that the DISEMBARKED. 57 fleet should sail on the following morning; two days later they anchored off the mouth of the Mondego. Just before starting a vessel arrived with despatches from Spencer, saying that he was at St. Mary's and was free to act with Sir Arthur, and a fast vessel was despatched with orders to him to sail to the Mondego. On arriving there Sir Arthur received the mortifying in telligence that Sir Hew Dalrymple had been appointed over his head, nevertheless he continued to push on his own plans with vigour, pending the arrival of that general. With this bad news came the information that the French general, Dupont, had been defeated. This set free a small force under General Anstruther, and some fast-sailing craft were at once despatched to find his command, and order it to sail at once to the Mondego. Without further delay, however, the landing of the troops began on the 1st of August, and the 9000 men, their guns and stores, were ashore by the 5th. On that day Spencer fortunately arrived with 3300 men. He had not received Sir Arthur's orders, but the moment that Dupont surrendered he had sailed for the Tagus, and had learned from Sir C. Cotton, who commanded the fleet at the entrance to the river, where Sir Arthur was, and at once sailed to join him. While the troops were disembarking Sir Arthur had gone over to the Portuguese head-quarters, two miles distant, to confer with Bernardin Friere, the Portuguese commander-in-chief. The visit was a disappointing one. He found that the Portuguese troops were almost unarmed, and that their commander was full of inflated ideas. He proposed that the forces should unite, that they should relinquish the coast, and march into the interior and commence an offen sive campaign, and was lavish in his promises to provide ample stores of provisions. The English general saw, however, that no effectual assistance could be hoped for from the Portuguese troops, and as little from the promises of their commander. He gave Friere 5000 muskets for his troops, but absolutely 58 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. declined to adopt the proposed plan, his own intention being to keep near the coast, where he could receive his supplies from the ships and be joined by reinforcements. As soon as they had landed the Mayo regiment was marched to a village two miles inland, and, with two others of the same brigade, encamped near it. All idea of keeping up a regimental officers' mess had been abandoned, and as soon as the tents were pitched and the troops had settled down in them, O'Grady said to Terence: "We will go into the village and see if we can find a suit able place for taking our meals. It may be that in time our fellows will learn how to cook for us, but, by jabers ! we will live dacent as long as we can. My servant, Tim Hoolan, has gone on ahead to look for such a place, and he is the boy to find one if there is one anyhow to be got. As our companies are number 1 and 2 it is reasonable that we should stick together, and though O'Driscol's a quare stick, with all sorts of ridiculous notions, he is a good fellow at heart, and I will put up with him for the sake of having you with me." As they entered the village the servant came up. " 1 have managed it, Captain; we have got hold of the best quarters in the village; it is a room over the only shebeen here. The ould scoundrel of a landlord wanted to keep it as a general room, but I brought the Church to bear on him, and I man aged it finally." " How did you work it, Tim?" " Sure, your honour, I went to the praste, and by good luck his house is in front of the church. I went into the church, and I crossed myself before the altar and said a prayer or two. As I did so who should come out of the vestry but the father himself. He waited until I had done and then came up to me, and to my surprise said in good Irish : "'So it's a Catholic you are, my man V " ' That am I, your riverence,' said I, ' and most all of the rigiment are; sure, we were raised in the ould country, and DISEMBARKED. 59 belong, most of us, to County Mayo, and glad we were to come out here to fight for those of the true religion against these Frenchmen, who they say have no religion at all, at all. And how is it you spake the language,, your riverence, if I may be so bold as to ask ? ' " "Then he told me that he had been at college at Lisbon, where the sons of many Catholic Irish gentlemen were sent to be educated, and that he had learned it from them. " ' And how is it that you are not with your regiment, my man? 1 " ' I am here to hire rooms for the officers, your riverence, just a place where they can ate a dacent meal in peace and quietness. I have been to the inn, but I cannot for the life of me make the landlord understand. He has got a room that would be just suitable, so I thought I would come to your riverence to explain to you that the rigiment are not heretics, but true sous of the church. I thought that, being a learned man, I might make shift to make you understand, and that you would maybe go wid me and explain the matter to him.' '"That will I,' says he; and he wint and jabbered away with the innkeeper, and at last turned to me and said : ' He will let you have a room, seeing that it is for the service of good Catholics and not heretics.' " "But, you rascal, you know that we are not Catholics." " Sure, your honour, didn't I say that most all the rigiment were Catholics; I did not say all of them." " I must go and explain the matter to him, Hoolan. If he calls upon us, as like he may do, he would find out at once that you have desaved him." "Sure, your honour, if you think that it is necessary of course it must be done; but would it not be as well to go to the shebeen first and to take possession of the room, and to get comfortably settled down in it before ye gives me away." "I think it might be worth while, Tim," O'Grady said gravely. "What do you say, Terence?" 60 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " I think the matter will keep for a few hours," Terence said, laughing, "and when *we are onco settled there it will be very hard to turn us out." The room was found to be larger than they had expected, and O'Grady proposed that they should admit the whole officers of their Aving to share it with them, to which Terence at once agreed heartily. " I think that with a little squeezing the place would hold the officers of the five companies, and the major and O'Flaherty. The more of us there are the merrier, and the less fear of our being turned out." " That is so. We had better put the names up on the door. You go down and try and make that black-browed landlord understand that you want some paper and pen and ink." With some difficulty and much gesticulation Terence suc ceeded. The names of the officers were written down on a paper and it was then fastened on the door. "Now, Terence, I will go and fetch the boys; you and Hoolan make the landlord understand that we want food and wine for fifteen or sixteen officers. Of course they won't all be able to get away at once. We must contint ourselves with anything we can get now; afterwards we will send up our rations, and with plenty of good wine and a ham (there are lots of them hanging from the ceiling down below), we shall do pretty well, with what you can forage outside." Terence left this part of the work to Hoolan, who, by bring ing up a number of plates and ranging them on the table, getting down a ham and cutting it into slices, and by pointing to the wine-skins, managed to acquaint the landlord with what was required. In this he was a good deal aided by the man's two nieces, who acted as his assistants, and who were much quicker in catching his meaning than was the landlord himself. Very soon the room below was crowded with officers from other regiments, and Hoolan went up to Terence : " I think, Mr. O'Connor, that it would be a good job if you were to go down and buy a dozen of them hams. A lot of DISEMBARKED. 61 them have been sold already, and it won't be long before the last has gone, though I reckon that there are three or four dozen of them still there." " That is a very good idea, Tim. You come down with me and bring them straight up here, and we will drive some nails into those rafters. I expect before nightfall the place will be cleared out of everything that is eatable." The bargain was speedily concluded. The landlord was now in a better temper. At first he had been very doubtful of the intentions of the new-comers. Now that he saw that they were ready to pay for everything, and that at prices much higher than he could before have obtained, his face shone with good -humour. He and the two girls were already busy draw ing wine and selling it to the customers. " I will get some wood, yer honour, and light a fire here, or it is mighty little dinner that you will be getting. The soldiers will soon be dropping in, that is, if they don't keep this place for officers only, for there are two other places where they sell wine in the village. When I came up two officers had a slice of ham each on the points of their swords over the fire." "That will be a very good plan, Tim; you had better set to work about it at once, and at the same time I will try and get some bread." By the time that O'Grady returned with seven or eight other officers the fire was blazing. Terence had managed to get a sufficient number of knives and forks; there was, however, no table-cloth in the house. He and Terence were cooking slices of ham on a gridiron over the fire. "This is first-rate, O'Grady," Major Harrison said; "the place is crowded down below, and we should have fared very badly if you had not managed to get hold of this room." " If some of the boys Avill see to the cooking, Major, I will go down Avith Hoolan and get a barrel of wine and bring it up here; then we shall do first-rate." "How about the rations, Major?" Terence asked. 62 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " They have just been served out. I sent my man down to draw the rations for the whole wing at once, and told him to bring them up here." "And I have told mine," Captain O'Driscol said, "to go round the village and buy up two or three dozen chickens, if he can find them, and as many eggs as he can collect. I think that we had better tell off two of the men as cooks. I don't think it is likely that they will be able to get much done that way below. Hoolan and another will do." "I should think it best to keep Hoolan as forager; he is rather a genius in that capacity. I think he has got round those two girls, whether by his red hair or his insinuating manners I cannot say, but they seem ready to do anything for him, and we shall want lots of things in the way of pots and pans and so on." " Very well, Terence, then we will leave him free and put two others on." CHAPTER IV. UNDER CANVAS. IN a short time O'Grady returned, followed by Hoolan carry ing a small barrel of wine. " It is good, I hope," the major said, as the barrel was set down in one corner of the room. " I think that it is the best they have ; one of the girls went down with Tim into the cellar and pointed it out to him. I told him to ask her for bueno vino. I don't know whether it was right or not, but I think she understood." "How much does it hold, O'Grady T "I cannot say; five or six gallons, I should think; anyhow, I paid three dollars for it" " You must put down all the outgoings, O'Grady, and we will square up when we leave here." UNDER CANVAS. 63 "I will put them down, Major. How long do you think we shall stop here?" "That is more than anyone can say; we have to wait for Anstruther and Spencer. It may be three or four days; it may be a fortnight." Dick Ryan assisted Terence in the cooking, while Tim went down to get something to drink out of. He returned with three mugs and two horns. "Divil a thing else is there that can be found, yer honour," he said, afe he placed them on the table; "every mortial thing is in use." "That will do to begin with," the major said; "we will get our own things up this afternoon. We must manage as best we can for this meal; it is better than I expected by a long way." Tim now relieved the two young officers at the gridiron, and sitting down at the benches along the table the meal Avas eaten Avith much laughter and fun. "After all, there is nothing like getting things straight from the gridiron," the major said. O'Grady had got the bung out of the barrel and filled the five drinking vessels, and the wine was pronounced to be very fair. One by one the other officers dropped in, and Hoolan was for an hour kept busy. The major, who spoke a little Spanish, went down and returned with a dozen bottles of spirits, two or three of which were opened and the contents consumed. " It is poor stuff by the side of whisky," O'G-rady said, as he SAvallowed a stiff glass of it; "still, I will not be denying that it is warming and comforting, and if we can get enough of it \ve can hold on till we get home again. Here is success to the campaign. I will trouble you for that bottle, O'Driscol." "Here it is. I shall stick to wine; I don't care for that fiery stuff. Here is success to the campaign, and may we meet the French before long! " We are pretty sure to do that," he went on, as he set his horn down on the table. "If Junot knows his business he 64 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. won't lose a day before marching against us, directly he hears of our landing. He will know well enough that unless he crushes us at once he will have all Portugal up in arms. Here, Terence, you can have this horn." The difficulty of drinking had to some extent been solved by Hoolan, who had gone downstairs, and returned with a tin pot capable of holding about a couple of quarts. This he had cleaned by rubbing it with sand and water, and it went round as a loving-cup among those unprovided with mugs or horns. When all had finished, the two soldier ser vants, who had now arrived with the rations, were left in charge. O'Driscol's servant had brought in a dozen fowls and a large basket full of eggs, and, ordering supper to be ready at eight, the officers returned to their camp. They found that their comrades had done fairly well. Several rooms had been obtained in the village, and hams, black sausages, and other pro visions purchased, and cooked in a rough way on a gridiron. "I am afraid that it is too good to last," the colonel said, as the officers gathered around him as the bugle sounded for parade; "a week of this and the last scrap of provisions here will have been eaten, and we shall have nothing but our rations to fall back upon. There is one thing, however, that is not likely to give out, that is wine. They grow it about here, and I hear that the commissariat have bought up large quantities without difficulty to serve out to the troops." The regiment had a long afternoon's drill to get them out of the slackness occasioned by their enforced idleness on the voyage. When it was over they were formed up, and the colonel addressed a few words to the men. "Men of the Mayo regiment," he said, "I trust that now we are fairly embarked upon the campaign, you will so behave as to do credit to yourselves and to Ireland. Perhaps some of you think that, now that you are on a campaign, you can do just as you like. Those who think so are wrong; it is just the other way. When you were at home I did not think UNDER CANVAS. 65 it necessary that I should be severe with you; and as long as a man was able, when he came into barracks, to walk to his quarters, I did not trouble about him. But it is different here; any breach of duty will be most severely punished, and any man who is found drunk will be flogged. Any man plundering or ill-treating the people of the country will be handed over to the provost-marshal, and unless I am mistaken he is likely to be shot. "Sir Arthur Wellesley is not the man to stand nonsense. There must be no straggling; you must keep within the bounds of the camps, and no one must go into the village without a permit from the captain of his company. As to your fighting well, I have no fear of that; we will say nothing about it. Before the enemy I know that you will all do your duty, and it is just as necessary that you should do your duty and be a credit to your regiment at other times. There are blackguards in the regiment, as there are in every other, but I tell them that a sharp eye will be kept upon them, and that no mercy will be shown them if they misbehave while they are in Portugal. That is all I have to say to you." "That was the sort of thing, I think, Major," he said, as, after the men were dismissed, he walked back to his tent with Major Harrison. "Just the sort of thing, Colonel," the other said, smiling; " and said in the sort of way that they will understand. I am afraid that we shall have trouble with some of them. Wine and spirits are cheap, and it will be very difficult to keep them from it altogether. Still, if we make an example of the first fellow who is caught drunk it will be a useful lesson to the whole. A few floggings at the start may save some hang ing afterwards. I know you are averse to flogging there have only been four men flogged in the last six months but this is a case where punishment must be dealt out sharply if discipline is to be maintained, and the credit of the regiment be kept up." ( H 359 ) E 66 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. O'Grady and one of the other officers called upon the priest to thank him for his good offices in obtaining the room for them. " I am afraid from what my man tells me that he did not state the case quite fairly to you. Our regiment was, as he said, raised in Ireland, and the greater portion of the men are naturally of your faith, Father, but we really have no claim to your services whatever." The priest smiled. "I am, nevertheless, glad to have been of service to you, gentlemen," he said courteously; "at least you are Irishmen, and I have many good friends countrymen of yours. And you have still another claim upon us all, for are you not here to aid us to shake off this French domination ? I hope that you are comfortable, but judging from what I see and hear when passing I fear that your lodging is a somewhat noisy one." " You may well say that, Father; and we do our full share towards making it so; but having the room makes all the differ ence to us. They have no time to cook downstairs, and it is done by our own servants; but it is handy to have the wine and other things within call, and if we always do as well, we shall have good cause to feel mighty contented; for, barring that we are rather crowded, we are just as well off here as we were at home, saving only in the quality of the spirits. Now, Father, we cannot ask you up there, seeing that it is your own village, but if you would like to take a walk through the camps we should be glad to show you what there is to be seen, and can give you a little of the real cratur. It is not much of it that we have been able to bring ashore, for the general is mighty stiff in the matter of baggage, but I doubt whether there is one of us who did not manage to smuggle a bottle or two of the real stuff hidden in his kit." The priest accepted the invitation, and was taken through the brigade camp, staying some time in that of the Mayos, and astonishing some of the soldiers by chatting to them in English, and with a brogue almost as strong as their own. He UNDER CANVAS. 67 then spent half an hour in O'Grady's tent, and sampled the whisky, which he pronounced excellent, and of which his entertainer insisted upon his taking a bottle away with him. Three days later it was known in camp that two French divisions had been set in motion against them, the one from Abrantes to the east under Loison, the other from the south under Laborde. Junot himself remained at Lisbon. The rising in the south and the news of the British landing caused an intense feeling among the population, and the French general feared that at any moment an insurrection might break out. The natural point of junction of these two columns would be at Leirya. That night orders were issued for the tents of the division to which the Mayo regiment belonged to be struck before daylight, and the troops were to be under arms and ready to march at six o'clock. "Good news!" O'Grady said, as he entered the mess-room at four o'clock in the afternoon, after having learned from the colonel the orders for the next morning, "our brigade is to form the advanced guard, and we are to march at six to-morrow." A general exclamation of pleasure broke from the five or six officers present. "We shall have the first of the fun, boys; hand me that horn, Terence. Here is to Sir Arthur; good luck to him, and bad cess to the French!" The toast was drunk with some laughter. "Now we are going to campaign in earnest," he went on, "no more wine swilling, no more devilled ham "No more spirits, O'Grady," one of the group cut in; "and as for the wine, you have drunk your share, besides twice your share of the spirits." "Whin there is nothing to do, Debenham, I can take me liquor in moderation." " I have never remarked that, O'Grady," one of the others put in. "In great moderation," O'Grady said gravely, but he was again interrupted by a shout of laughter. 68 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. "Ye had to be helped home last night, O'Grady, and it took Hoolan a quarter of an hour to wake you this morning. I heard him say, ' Now, master dear, the bugle will sound in a minute or two; it's wake you must, or there will be a divil of botheration over it.' I looked in, and there you were. Hoolan was standing by the side of you shaking his head gravely, as if it was a hopeless job that he had in hand, and if I had not emptied a water-bottle over you you would never have been on parade in time." " Oh ! it was you, was it ?" O'Grady said wrathfully. " Hoolan swore by all the saints that he had not seen who it was. Never mind, me boy, I will be even wid ye yet; the O'Grady is not to be waked in that fashion; mind, I owe you one, though I am not saying that I should have been on parade in time if you had not done it; I only just saved my bacon." "And hardly that," Terence laughed, "for the adjutant was down upon you pretty sharply; your coatee was all buttoned up wrong; your hair had not been brushed, and stuck up all ways below your shako ; your sword-belt was all awry, and you looked worse than you did when I brought you home." " Well, it is a poor heart that never rejoices, Terence. We must make a night of it, boys; if the tents are to be struck before daylight it will be mighty little use your turning in." "You won't catch me sitting up all night," Terence said, " with perhaps a twenty -mile march in the morning, and may be a fight at the end of it. If it is to Leirya we are going it will be nearer thirty miles than twenty, and even you, seasoned vessel as you are, will find it a long walk after being up all night, and having had pretty hard work to-day." " I cannot hold wid the general there," O'Grady said gravely; " he has been kapeing us all at it from daybreak till night, ivery day since we landed, and marching the men's feet off. It is all very well to march when we have got to march, but to keep us tramping fifteen or twenty miles a day when there is no occasion for it is out of all reason." UNDER CANVAS. 69 " We shall inarch all the better for it to-morrow, O'Grady, It has been hard work certainly, but not harder than it was marching down to Cork; and we should have a good many stragglers to-morrow if it had not been for the last week's work. We have got half a dozen footsore men in my company alone, and you would have fifty to-morrow night if the men had not had all this marching to get them fit." " It is all very well for you, Terence, who have been tramping all over the hills round Athlone since you were a gossoon ; but I am sure that if I had not had that day off duty when I showed the priest round the camp I should have been kilt." " Here is the general order of the day," the adjutant said, as he came in with Captain O'Connor. "The general* says that now the army is about to take the field he shall expect the strictest discipline to be maintained, and that all strag glers from the ranks will at once be handed over to the provost-marshal, and all offences against the peasantry or their property will be severely punished. Then there are two or three orders that do not concern us particularly, and then there is one that concerns you, Terence. The general has received a report from Colonel Corcoran of the Mayo Fusiliers stating that ' the transport carrying the left wing of that regiment was attacked by two French privateers, and would have been compelled to surrender, she being practically un armed, had it not been for the coolness and quick wit of Ensign Terence O'Connor. Having read the report the general com manding fully concurs, and expresses his high satisfaction at the conduct of Ensign O'Connor, which undoubtedly saved from capture the wing of the regiment.' " There, Terence, that is a feather in your cap. Sir Arthur is not given to praise unduly, and it is seldom that an ensign gets into general orders. It will do you good some day, per haps when you least expect it." " I am heartily pleased, my lad," Captain O'Connor said, as he laid his hand upon Terence's shoulder. "I am proud of 70 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. you. I have never seen my own name in general orders, but I am heartily glad to see yours. Bedad, when I think that a couple of months ago you were running wild and getting into all sorts of mischief, it seems hard to believe that you should not only be one of us, but have got your name into general orders." "And all for nothing, father," Terence said. "I call it a beastly shame that just because I thought of using that lugger I should be cracked-up more than the others." "It was not only that though, Terence; those guns that crippled the lugger could not have been fired if you had not thought of putting rope round them, and that French frigate would never have left you alone had not you suggested to the major how to throw dust into their eyes. No, my lad, you thoroughly deserve the credit that you have got, and I am sure that there is not a man in the regiment Avho would not say the same." " Gintlemen," Captain O'Grady said solemnly, "we will drink to the health of Ensign Terence O'Connor; more power to his elbow!" And the toast was duly honoured. "It is mighty good of me to propose it," O'Grady went on, after Terence had said a few words of thanks, " because I have a strong idea that in another two or three minutes I should have made just the same suggestion that you did, me lad. I knew at the time that there was a plan I wanted to propose, but sorra a word came to me lips. I was just brimful with it when you came up and took the words out of me mouth. If I had spoken first it is a brevet majority I had got, sure enough." " You must be quicker next time, O'Grady," the adjutant said, when the laughter had subsided; "as you say, you have missed a good thing by your slowness. I am afraid your brain was still a little muddled by your indulgence the night before." "Just the contrary, me boy; I feel that if I had taken just one glass more of the cratur me brain would have been clearer and I should have been to the fore. But I bear you no malice, UNDER CANVAS. 71 Terence. Maybe the ideas would not have managed to straighten themselves out until after we had had to haul down the flag, and then it would have been too late to have been any good. It has happened to me more than once before that I have just thought of a good thing when it was too late." "It has occurred to most of us, O'Grady," Captain O'Connor said, laughing. "Terence, you see, doesn't care for whisky, and perhaps that has something to do with his ideas- coming faster than ours. Well, so we are off to-morrow; though, of course, no one knows which way we are going to march, it must be either to Leirya or along the coast road. It is a good thing Spencer has come up in time, for there is no saying how strong the French may be; though I fancy they are all so scat tered about that, after leaving a garrison to keep Lisbon in order, and holding other points, Junot will hardly be able at such short notice to gather a force much superior to ours. But from what I hear there are some mighty strong positions between this and Lisbon, and if he sticks himself up on the top of a hill we shall have all our work to turn him off again." "I fancy it will be to Leirya," the adjutant said; "the Portuguese report that one French division is at Candieros and another coming from Abrantes, and Sir Arthur is likely to endeavour to prevent them from uniting." That evening there was a grand feast at the mess-room. The colonel had been specially invited, and every effort was made to do honour to the occasion. Tim Hoolan had been very successful in a foraging expedition, and had brought in a goose and four ducks, and had persuaded the landlord's nieces to let him and the cook have sole possession of the kitchen. The banquet was a great success, but the majority of those present did not sit very long afterwards. The colonel set the example of rising early. " I should advise you, gentlemen, to turn in soon," he said. " I do not say where we are to march to-morrow, but I can tell you at least that the march is a very long one, and that it 72 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. were best to get as much sleep as possible, for I can assure you that it will be no child's play; and I think that it is quite probable we shall smell powder before the day is over." Accordingly all the young officers and several of the seniors left with him, but O'Grady and several of the hard drinkers kept it up until midnight, observing, however, more moderation than usual in their potations. There was none of the grumbling common when men are turned out of their beds before dawn; all were in high spirits that the time for action had arrived, the men were as eager to meet the enemy as were their officers; and the tents were all down and placed in the waggons before daylight. The regimental cooks had already been at work, and the officers went round and saw that all had had breakfast before they fell in. At six o'clock the whole were under arms and in their place as the central regiment in the brigade. They tramped on without a halt until eleven; then the bugle sounded, and they fell out for half an hour. The men made a meal from bread and the meat that had been cooked the night before, each man carrying three days' rations in his haversack. There was another halt, and a longer one, at two o'clock, when the brigade rested for an hour in the shade of a grove. "It is mighty pleasant to rest," O'Grady said as the officers threw themselves down on the grass, " but it is the starting that bates one. I feel that my feet have swollen so that every step I take I expect my boots to burst with an explosion. Faith, if it comes to fighting I shall take them off altogether, and swing them at my belt. How can I run after the French when I am a cripple 1 ?" " You had better take your boots off now, O'Grady," one of the others suggested. " It is not aisy to get them off, and how should I get them on again? No; they have got there, and there they have got to stop, bad cess to them ! I told Hoolan to rub grease into them for an hour last night, but the rascal was as drunk as an owl." UNDER CANVAS. ^ 73 There was no more talking, for every man felt that an hour's sleep would do wonders for him; soon absolute quiet reigned in the grove, and continued until the bugle again called them to their feet. All knew now that it was Leirya they were making for, and that another ten miles still re mained to be accomplished. A small body of cavalry which accompanied them now pushed on ahead, and when half the distance had been traversed a trooper brought back the news that the enemy had not yet reached the town. It was just six o'clock when the brigade marched in amid the cheers and wild excitement of the inhabitants. The waggons were not yet up, and the troops were quartered in the town, tired, and many of them foot-sore, but proud of the march they had accomplished, and that it had enabled them to forestall the French. Laborde, indeed, arrived the same night at Batalha, eight miles distant, but on receiving the news in the morning that the British had already occupied Leirya, he advanced no farther. His position was an exceedingly difficult one; his orders were to cover the march of Loison from Abrantes, and to form a junction with that general; but to do so now would be to leave open the road through Alcobaca and Obidos to the commanding position at Torres Vedras. Batalha offered no position that he could hope to defend until the arrival of Loison ; therefore, sending word to that general to move from Torras Novas, as soon as he reached that town, to Santarem, and then to march to join him at Rolica, he fell back to Alcobaca and then to Obidos, a town with a Moorish castle, built on a gentle eminence in the middle of a valley. Leaving a detachment here he retired to Rolica, six miles to the south of it. At this point several roads met, and he at once covered all the approaches to Torres Vedras, and the important port of Peniche, and could be joined by Loison marching down from Santarem. The advanced brigade of the British force remained in quiet 74 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. possession of Leirya during the next day, and on the follow ing, the llth of August, the main body of the army arrived, having taken two days on the march. The Portuguese force also came in under Friere. That general at once took posses sion of the magazines there, and although he had promised the English general that their contents should be entirely devoted to the maintenance of the English army, he divided them among his own force. Disgusted as the British commander was at this barefaced dishonesty he was not in a position to quarrel Avith the Portu guese. It was essential to him that they should accompany him, not for the sake of the assistance that they would give, for he knew that none was to be expected from them, but from a political point of view. It was most important that the people at large should feel that their own troops were acting with the British, and that no feelings of jealousy or suspicion of the latter should arise. Friere was acting under the orders of the Bishop and Junta of Oporto, whose great object was to keep the Portuguese army together and not to risk a defeat, as they desired to keep this body intact in order that, if the British were defeated, they should be able to make favourable terms for themselves. Consequently, even after appropriating the whole of the stores and provisions found at Leirya, Friere continued to make exorbitant demands, and to offer a vigorous opposition to any further advance. So far did he carry this that the British general, finding that in no other way could he get the Portuguese to advance with him, proposed that they should follow behind him and wait the result of the battle, to which Friere at last consented. The Portuguese, in fact, had no belief whatever that the British troops would be able to withstand the onslaught of the French, whom they regarded as invincible. Colonel Trant, however, one of our military agents, succeeded in inducing Friere to place 1400 infantry and 250 cavalry under the command of Sir Arthur. UNDER CANVAS. 75 The addition of the cavalry was a very useful one, for the English had with them only 180 mounted men; the country was entirely new to them, scarcely an officer could speak the language, and there was no means, therefore, of obtaining information as to the movements of the enemy. Moving forward through Batalha, and regaining the coast road at Alcobaca, the British forces arrived at Caldas on the 15th; and on the same day Junot quitted Lisbon with a force of 2000 infantry, 2000 cavalry, and ten pieces of artillery, leaving 7000 to garrison the forts and keep down the population of the city. His force was conveyed to Villa Franca by water, and the general then pushed forward to Santarem, where he found Loison and took the command of his division. The British ad vanced guard, after arriving at Caldas, pushed forward, drove the French pickets out of Brilos, and then from Obidos. Here, however, a slight reverse took place. Some companies of the 95th and 60th Rifles pressed forward three miles farther in pursuit, when they were suddenly attacked in flank by a greatly superior force, and had it not been that General Spencer, whose division was but a short distance behind, pressed forward to their assistance they would have suffered heavily; as it was they escaped with the loss of two officers and twenty-seven men killed and wounded. Their rashness, however, led to the discovery that Laborde's force had taken up a strong position in front of the village of Rolica, and that he apparently intended to give battle there. The next day was spent in reconnoitring the French posi tion. It was a very strong one. Rolica stood on a table-land rising in a valley, affording a view of the road as far as Obidos. The various points of defence there, and on the flank, were held by strong parties of the enemy. A mile in the rear was a steep and lofty ridge that afforded a strong second line of defence. By the side of this ridge the road passed through a deep defile, and then mounted over a pass through the range of hills extending from the sea to the Tagus, and occupying 76 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. the intermediate ground until close to Lisbon. Laborde's position was an embarrassing one. If he retired upon Torres Vedras his line of communication with Loison Avould be lost, if he moved to meet Loison he would leave open the direct road to Lisbon, while if he remained at Rolica he had to encounter a force almost three times his own strength. Trusting in the advantages of his position and confident in the valour of his troops, he chose the last alternative. Very anxiously during the day the British officers watched the French line of defence, fearful lest the enemy would again retreat. By sunset they came to the conclusion that Laborde intended to stay where he was, and to meet them. The French, indeed, had been so accustomed to beat the Spanish and Por tuguese, that they had not woke up to the fact that they had troops of a very different material facing them. "We ought to have easy work," Major Harrison said, as the officers gathered round the fire that had been built in front of the colonel's tent; "the people here all declare that Laborde has not above 5000 troops with him, while, counting Trant's Portuguese, we have nearly 14,000." "There will be no credit in thrashing them with such odds as that," Dick Ryan grumbled. " I suppose, Ryan," Major Harrison said, " if you had been in Sir Arthur's place you would have preferred remaining at Leirya until Junot could have gathered all his forces, and obtained a reinforcement of some fifty thousand or so from Spain, then you would have issued a general order saying, that as the enemy had now a hundred thousand troops ready, the army would advance and smite them." " Not so bad as that, Major," the young ensign said, colour ing, as there was a general laugh from the rest; "but there does not seem much satisfaction in thrashing an enemy when we are three to one against him." "But that is just the art of war, Ryan. Of course, it is glorious to defeat a greatly superior army and to lose half your UNDER CANVAS. 77 own in doing so; that may be heroic, but it is not modern war. The object of a general is, if possible, to defeat an enemy in detail, and to so manoeuvre that he is always superior in strength to the force that is immediately in front of him, and so to ensure victory after victory until the enemy are destroyed. That is what the general is doing by his skilful manoeuvring, he has prevented Junot from massing the whole of the army of Portugal against us. " To-morrow we shall defeat Laborde, and doubtless a day or two later we shall fight Loison; then I suppose we shall advance against Lisbon, Junot will collect his beaten troops and his garrison, there will be another battle, and then we shall capture Lisbon, and the French will have to evacuate Portugal. Whereas, if all the French were at Eolica they would probably smash us into a cocked hat in spite of any valour we might show; and as we have no cavalry to cover a retreat, as the miserable horses can scarcely drag the few guns that we have got, and the carriages are so rickety that the artillery officers are afraid that as soon as they fire them they will shake to pieces, it is not probable that a single man would regain our ships." " Please say no more, Major, I see I was a fool." "Still," Captain O'Connor said, "you must own, Major, that one does like to win against odds." "Quite so, O'Connor; individuals who may survive such a battle no doubt would be glad that it was a superior force that they had beaten, but then you see battles are not fought for the satisfaction of individuals. Moreover, you must remember that the proportion of loss is much heavier when the numbers are pretty equally matched, for in that case they must meet to a certain extent face to face. Skill on the part of the general may do a great deal, but in the end it must come to sheer hard fighting. Now I expect that to-morrow, although there may be hard fighting, it is not upon that that Sir Arthur will principally rely for turning the French out of those strong positions. 78 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " He will no doubt advance directly against them with per haps half his force, but the rest will move along on the top of the heights, and so threaten to cut the French line of retreat altogether. Laborde is, they say, a good general, and there fore won't wait until he is caught in a trap, but will fall back as soon as he sees that the line of retreat is seriously menaced. I fancy, too, that he must expect Loison up some time to morrow or he would hardly make a stand, and if Loison does come up Ryan's wish will be gratified and we shall be having the odds against us. " Then you must remember that our army is a very raw one. A large proportion of it is newly raised, and though there may be a few men here who fought in Egypt, the great bulk have never seen a shot fired in earnest; while, on the other hand, the French have been fighting all over Europe. They are accustomed to victory, and are confident in their own valour and discipline. Our officers are as raw as our men, and we must expect that all sorts of blunders will be made at first. I can tell you that I am very well satisfied that our first battle is going to be fought with the odds greatly on our side. In six months I should feel pretty confident even if the French had the same odds on their side." "The major gave it you rather hotly, Dick," Terence said to his friend as they sauntered off together from the group. "I am glad that you spoke first, for I had it on the tip of my tongue to say just what you did, and I expect that a good many of the others felt just the same." " Yes, I put my foot in it badly, Terence. I have no doubt the major was right, anyhow I have nothing to say against it. But for all that I wish that either we were not so strong or that they were stronger. What credit is there, I should like to know, in thrashing them when we are three to one. Any how, I hope that we shall have some share in the scrimmage. We shall get an idea when the orders are published to-night, and shall see where Fane's brigade is to be put." ROLICA AND VIMIERA. 79 CHAPTEK V. ROLICA AND VIMIERA. AT nine o'clock in the evening it became known that the general plan of attack predicted by Major Harrison was to be carried out. Some five thousand men under General Ferguson were to ascend the hills on the left of the valley, while Trant with a thousand Portuguese infantry and some Portuguese horse were to move on the hills on the right; the centre, nine thousand strong, and commanded by Sir Arthur himself, were to march straight up the valley. Early in the morning the British troops marched out from Obidos. Ferguson's command at once turned to the left and ascended the hills, while Trant's moved to the Avest. After proceeding a short distance, Fane's brigade moved off from the road and marched along the valley, equidistant from the main body and from Ferguson, forming a connecting link between them; and on reaching the village of St. Mamed, three-quarters of a mile from the French position, Hill's brigade turned off to the right. From their elevated position the French opened fire with their artillery, and this was answered by the twelve guns in the valley and from Ferguson's six guns on the heights. Fane's brigade, extended to its left, was the first in action, and drove back the French skirmishers and connected Ferguson with the centre. They then turned to attack the right of the French position; while Ferguson, seeing no signs of Loison's force, descended from the high ground to the rear of Fane, while the Portuguese pressed forward at the foot of the hills on the other side of the valley and threatened the enemy's left flank. Seeing that his position was absolutely untenable, Laborde did not wait the assault but fell back, covered by his cavalry, to the far stronger position in his rear. A momentary pause 80 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. ensued before the British continued their advance. The new position of the French was of great natural strength, and could be approached only by narrow paths winding up through deep ravines on its face. Ferguson and Fane received orders to keep to the left, and so turn the enemy's right. Trant simi- BATTLE OF ROLI^A English Miles Obidos.fc larly was to push forward and threaten his left flank, while Hill and Nightingale advanced against the front. The battle commenced by a storm of skirmishers from these brigades running forward. These soon reached the foot of the precipitous hill and plunged into the passes. Neither the fire of the enemy nor the difficulties of the ascent checked them. Spreading right and left from the paths they made their way up, and taking advantage of the shelter afforded by great boulders, broken masses of rock, and the stumps of trees, climbed up ROLICA AND VIMIERA. 81 wherever they could find a foothold. The supporting columns experienced much greater difficulty ; the paths were too narrow, and the ground too broken for them to retain their formation, and they made their way forward as best they could in neces sary disorder. The din of battle was prodigious, for the rattle of musketry was echoed and re-echoed from the rocks. The progress of the skirmishers could only be noted by the light smoke rising through the foliage and by the shouts of the soldiers, which were echoed by the still louder ones of the French, gathered strongly on the hill above them. As the British made their way up, Laborde, who was still anxiously looking for the expected coming of Loison, withdrew a portion of his troops from the left and strengthened his right, in order to hold on as long as possible on the side from which aid was expected. The ardour of the British to get to close quarters favoured this movement. It had been intended that the 9th and 29th Regiments should take the right-hand path where the track they were following up the pass forked, and so join Trant's Portuguese at the top of the hill and fall upon the French left. The left-hand path, however, was the one that would take them direct to the enemy, and the 29th, which was leading, took this, and the 9th followed them. So rapidly did they press up the hill that they arrived at the crest before Ferguson and Fane on the left and Trant on the right had got far enough to menace the line of retreat, and so shake the enemy's position. The consequence was, that as the right wing of the 29th arrived at the top of the path it was met by a very heavy fire before it could form, and some companies of a French regiment, who had been cut off from the main body by its sudden appearance, charged through the disordered troops and carried with them a major and fifty or sixty other prisoners. The rest of the wing, thus exposed to the full fire of the French, fell back over the crest, and there rallied on the left ( M 359 ) F 82 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. wing; and being joined by the 9th, pushed forward again and obtained a footing on the plateau. Laborde in vain endeavoured to hurl them back again. They maintained their footing, but suffered heavily, both the colonels being killed, with many officers and men. But the 5th Regiment were now up, and at other points the British were gathering thickly at the edge of the plateau. Ferguson and Trant were pushing on fast past the French flanks, and Laborde, seeing that f urther resistance Avould lead to great disaster, gave the order to retire to a third posi tion still farther in the rear. The movement was conducted in splendid order. The French steadily fell back by alternate masses, their guns thundering on their flanks, while their cavalry covered the rear by repeated charges. Gaining the third position, Laborde held it for a time, and so enabled isolated bodies of his force to join him. Then, finding himself unable to resist the impetuosity of the British attack, he retired, still disputing every foot of ground, and took to the narrow pass of Runa. He then marched all night to the strong position of Montechique, thereby securing his junction with Loison, but leaving the road to Torres Vedras open to the British. The loss of the French in this fight was 600 killed and wounded, and three guns. Laborde himself was among the wounded. The British lost nearly 500 killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. The number of the combatants actually engaged on either side was about 4000, and the loss sustained showed the obstinacy of the fighting. Sir Arthur believed that the French had, as they retreated, been joined by Loison, and therefore prepared to march at once by the coast-line to seize the heights of Torres Vedras before the French could throw themselves in his way. Great was the disappointment among officers and men of the Mayo Fusiliers that they had taken no part whatever in the actual fighting beyond driving in the French skirmishers at the beginning of the operations. "Divil a man killed or wounded !" Captain O'Grady remarked ROLICA AND VIMIERA. 83 mournfully as the regiment halted at the conclusion of the fight. "Faith, it is too bad entirely; there we are left out in the cold, and scarce a shot has heen fired!" "There are plenty of others in the same case," Captain O'Driscol said. " None of our three brigades on the left have had anything to do with the matter, as far as fighting went. I don't think more than four thousand of our troops were in action; but you see if it had not been for our advance, Hill and Nightingale might not have succeeded in driving Laborde off the hill. There is no doubt that the French fought well, but it's our advance that forced him to retire, not the troops in front of him; so that, even if we have not had any killed or wounded, O'Grady, we have at least the satisfaction of having contributed to the victory." "Oh, bother your tactics! We have come here to fight, and no fighting have we had at all, at all. When we marched out this morning, it looked as if we were going to have our share in the divarshon, and we have been fairly chated out of it." " Well, O'Grady, you should not grumble," Terence said, " for we had some fighting on the way out, which is more than any of the other troops had." " That was a mere skirmish, Terence. First of all we were shot at, and could not shoot back again; and thin we shot at the enemy, and they could not shoot back at us. And as for the boarding affair, faith, it did not last a minute. The others have had two hours of steady fighting, clambering up the hill, and banging away at the enemy, and shouting and cheering, and all sorts of fun ; and there were we, tramping along among those bastely stones and rocks, and no one as much as took the trouble to fire a shot at us ! " " Well, if we had been there, O'Grady, we should have lost about a hundred and twenty men and officers, if we had suffered in the same proportion as the others, and we should now be mourning their loss perhaps you among them. We might have been saying, 'There is O'Grady gone; he was a 84 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. beggar to talk, but he meant well. Faith, the drink bill of the regiment will fall off.' " "Well, it might have been so," O'Grady said in a more contented voice; "and if I had been killed going up the hill, without even as much as catching a glimpse of the Frenchies, I would niver have forgiven them niver ! " There was a roar of laughter at the bull. "Phwat is it have I said 1 ?" he asked in surprise. " Nothing, O'Grady; but it would be an awful thing for the French to know that after your death you would have gone on hating them for ever." "Did I say that? But you know my maneing, and as long as you know that, what does it matter which Avay I put it? Well, now, I suppose Sir Arthur is going to take us tramping along again. Ah, it is a weary thing being a soldier!" " Why, you were saying yesterday, O'Grady, that your feet were getting all right," Terence said. "All right in a manner, Terence. And it is a bad habit that you have got of picking up your supayrior officer's words and throwing them into his teeth. You will come to a bad end if you don't break yourself of it; and the worst of it is, you are corrupting the other lads, and the young officers are losing all respect for their seniors. I am surprised, Major, that you and the colonel don't take the matter in hand before the discipline of the regiment is destroyed entirely." " You draw it upon yourself, O'Grady, and it is good for us all to have a laugh sometimes. We should all have missed you sorely had you gone down on that hill over there, as many a good fellow has done. I hear that both the 9th and 29th have lost their colonels." "The Lord presarve us from such a misfortune, Major! It would give us a step all through the regiment; but then, you see And he stopped. "You mean, I should be colonel, O'Grady," the major said with a laugh; "and you know I should not take things as ROLICA AND VIMIERA. 85 quietly as he does. Well, you see, there are consolations all round." The firing had ceased at four o'clock, and until late that night a large portion of the force were occupied in searching the ground that had been traversed, burying the dead, and carrying the wounded of both nationalities down into the hospital that had been established at Eolica. Sir Arthur determined to march at daybreak, so as to secure the passes through Torres Vedras; but in the evening a messenger arrived with the news that Anstruther and A eland's division, with a large fleet of store-ships, were off the coast. The dangerous nature of the coast, and the certainty that, should a gale spring up, a large proportion of the ships would be wrecked, rendered it absolutely necessary to secure the disembarkation of the troops at once. The next morning, therefore, he only marched ten miles to Lourinha, and thence advanced to Vimiera, eight miles farther, where he covered the disembarkation of the troops. The next day Anstruther's brigade were with difficulty, and some loss, landed on an open sandy beach, and on the night of the 20th Acland's brigade were disembarked at Maciera Bay. The reinforcements were most opportune, for already the British had proof that Junot was preparing a heavy blow. That general had, indeed, lost no time in taking steps to bring on a decisive battle. While the British were marching to Lourinha, he had, with Loison's division, crossed the line of Laborde's retreat, and on the same evening reached Torres Vedras, where the next day he was joined by Laborde, and on the 20th by his reserve. In the meantime he sent forward his cavalry, which scoured the country round the rear of the British camp, and prevented the general from obtaining any information whatever as to his position or intentions. The arrival of Acland's brigade on the night of the 20th increased the fighting strength of the army to 16,000 men with eighteen guns, exclusive of Trant's Portuguese, while Sir Arthur judged that Junot could not put more than 14,000 in 86 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. the field. Previous to leaving Mondego he had sent to Sir Harry Burrard notice of his plan of campaign, advising him to let Sir John Moore, on his arrival with 5000 men, disembark there and march on Santarem, where he would protect the left of the army in its advance, block the line of the Tagus, and menace the French line of communication between Lisbon and the important fortress of Elvas. The ground at Santarem was suited for defence, and Moore could be joined with Friere, who was still, with his 5000 men, at Leirya. The general intended to make a forced march, keeping by the sea-road. A strong advance-guard would press forward and occupy the formidable position of Mathia in the rear of the hills. With the main body he intended to seize some heights a few miles behind Torres Vedras, and to cut the road between that place and Montechique, on the direct road to Lisbon, and so interpose between Junot and the capital. At twelve o'clock that night Sir Arthur was roused by a messenger, who re ported that Junot, with 20,000 men, was advancing to attack him, and was but an hour's march distant. He disbelieved the account of the force of the enemy, and had no doubt but that the messenger's fears had exaggerated the closeness of his approach. He therefore contented himself with sending orders to the pickets to use redoubled vigilance, and at daylight the whole British force was, as usual, under arms. Nothing could have suited the British commander better than that Junot should attack him, for the position of Vimiera was strong. The town was situated in a valley, through which the little river Maciera flows. In this were placed the commissariat stores, while the cavalry and Portuguese were on a small plain behind the village. In front of Vimiera was a steep hill with a flat top, commanding the ground to the south and east for a considerable distance. Fane's and Anstruther's infantry, with six guns, were posted here. Fane's left rested on a churchyard, blocking a road which led round the declivity of the hill to the town. Behind this position, ROLICA AND VIMIERA. 87 and separated by the river and road, was a hill extending in a half-moon to the sea. Five brigades of infantry, forming the British right, occupied this mountain. On the other side of the ravine formed by the river, just beyond Vimiera, was another strong and narrow range of heights. There was no water to be found on this ridge, and only the 40th Regiment and some pickets were stationed here. It was vastly better to be attacked in such a position than to be compelled to storm the heights of Torres Vedras, held by a strong French army. The advance of the French was fortunate in another respect. On the 20th, Sir Harry Burrard arrived in the bay on board a frigate, and Sir Arthur, thus superseded, went on board to report the position 88 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. of affairs, renewing his recommendation that Sir John Moore should land at Mondego and march to Santarem. Sir Harry Burrard, however, had already determined that his force should land at Maciera, and he refused to permit Sir Arthur's plan of advance to be carried out, and ordered that no offensive step should be undertaken until Sir John Moore had landed. The advance of Junot, happily, left Wellesley at liberty to act; and disposing his force in order of battle he awaited the appearance of the enemy. It was not until seven o'clock that a cloud of dust was seen rising above the opposite ridge, and an hour later a body of cavalry crowned the height and sent out a swarm of scouts in every direction. Almost immediately afterwards a body of cavalry and infantry were seen marching along the road from Torres Vedras to Lourinha, threatening to turn the left of the British position. As the British right was not menaced, four of the brigades on the hill on that flank were ordered to cross the valley and to take post with the 40th Regiment for the defence of the ridge. This movement, being covered by the Vimiera heights, was unseen by the enemy ; the 5th brigade and the Portuguese were on a second ridge behind the other, and thus assisted to cover the English left and protect its rear. The ground between the crest on which the French were first seen and our position was so thickly covered with wood, that after the enemy had descended into it no correct view of their movements could be obtained. Junot had intended to fall upon the English army at day break, but the defiles through which the fores had to pass had delayed the march, as had the fatigue of the troops, who had been marching all night. From the height from which he obtained a view of the British position it seemed to him that the British centre and right were held in great strength, and that the left was almost unguarded. He therefore determined to attack upon that flank, which, indeed, was in any case the most favourable, as, were he successful there, he would cut the line of the British retreat and pen them up on the sea-shore. ROLICA AND VIMIERA. 89 The march of the four brigades through Vimiera to take post on the British left was hidden from him, and he divided his force into two heavy columns, one of which was to attack the British left, and having mounted the height to sweep all before it into the town; the other was to attack Vimiera Hill, held by Anstruther and Fane. Brennier commanded the attack against the left, Laborde against the centre, Loison followed at a short distance. Keller- mann commanded the reserve of Grenadiers. Unfortunately for the success of Junot's plan he was unaware of the fact that along the foot of the ridge on the British left ran a deep ravine, that rendered it very difficult to attack except at the extreme end of the position. " We are going to have our share of the fun to-day," O'Grady said, as he stood with a group of officers, watching the wooded plain and the head of Laborde's column debouching from among the trees, and moving towards the hill. There was a general murmur of satisfaction from the officers, for although they had all laughed at O'Grady's exaggerated regrets at their not being engaged at Eolica, all were somewhat sore at the regiment having had no opportunity of distinguish ing itself on that occasion. No sooner had the column cleared the wood than the six guns posted with Fane's and An- struther's brigade at once opened fire upon it. It had been intended that Brennier's attack should begin at the same time as Laborde's, but that advance had been stopped by the defile, which was so steep and so encumbered with rocks, brushwood, and trees, that his troops had the most extreme difficulty in making their way across. This enabled Acland, whose brigade was in the act of mounting the heights from the town, to turn his battery against Laborde's column, which was thus smitten with a shower of grape both in front and flank, and to this was added a heavy musketry fire from the three brigades. "Take it easy, lads, take it easy," the colonel said as he walked up and down the ranks. " They are hardly in range 90 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. yet, and you had better keep your ammunition until they get to the foot of the hill, then you can blaze away as hard as you like." Junot, receiving news of the arrest of Brennier's column and the obstacles that he had encountered, and seeing that the whole British fire was now directed against Laborde, ordered Loison to support that general with one brigade, and directed Solignac to turn the ravine in which Brennier was entangled and to fall upon the left extremity of the enemy's line. Fane had been given discretionary power to call up the reserve artillery posted in the village behind him, and seeing so strong an attack against his position about to be made called it up to the top of the hill. Loison and Laborde now formed their troops into three columns of attack. One advanced against that part of the hill held by Anstruther's brigade, another endeavoured to penetrate by the road past the church on Fane's extreme left, \vhile the main column, represented by a large number of the best troops, advanced against the centre of the position. The reserve artillery, and the battery originally there, opened a terrible fire, which was aided by the musketry of the infantry. But with loud shouts the French pressed forward, and although already shaken by the terrible fire of the artillery, and breathless from their exertions, they gained the crest of the hill. Before they could re-form a tremendous volley was poured into them, and with a wild yell the Mayo Fusiliers and the 50th charged them in front and flank and hurled them down the hill. In the meantime Anstruther, having repulsed the less serious attack made on him, detached the 43rd to check the enemy's column moving through the churchyard, and prevented their advance until Kellermann brought up a force of Grenadiers, who, running forward with loud shouts, drove back the advanced companies of the 43rd. The guns on the heights were turned upon them with great effect, and those of Acland's and Bowe's brigades on the left of the ridge took them in flank and brought them almost to a stand-still; then the 43rd, in one ROLICA AND VIMIERA. 91 mass, charged furiously down on the column, and after a fierce struggle drove them back in confusion. The French attacks on this side had now completely failed, and Colonel Taylor, riding out with his little body of cavalry, dashed out into the confused mass, slaying and scattering it. Margaron, who commanded a superior force of French cavalry, led them down through their infantry, and falling upon the British force killed Taylor and cut half his squadron to pieces. Kellermann took post with his reserve of Grenadiers in a pine- wood in advance of the wooded country through which they had advanced, while Margaron's horsemen maintained a position covering the retreat of the fugitives into the wood. At this moment Solignac reached his assigned position and encountered Ferguson's brigade, which was on the extreme left of the division, and was taken by surprise on finding a force equal to his own where he had expected to find the hill untenanted. Ferguson was drawn up in three lines on a steep declivity. A heavy artillery fire opened upon the French as soon as they were seen, while the 5th brigade and the Portuguese marched along the next ridge and threatened the enemy's rear. Ferguson did not wait to be attacked, but marched his brigade against the French, who, falling fast under the musketry and artillery fire which had swept their lines, fell back fighting to the farthest edge of the ridge. Solignac was carried off severely wounded, and his brigade was cut off from its line of retreat and driven into a low valley, in which stood the village of Peranza, leaving six guns behind them. Ferguson left two regiments to guard these guns, and with the rest of his force pressed hard upon the French ; but at this moment Brennier, who had at last surmounted the difficulties that had detained him, fell upon the two regiments suddenly, and retook the guns. The 82nd and 71st, speedily recovered from their surprise, rallied on some higher ground and then, after pouring in a tremendous volley of musketry, charged with a mighty shout and overthrew the French brigade and recovered the guns. 92 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. Brennier himself was wounded and taken prisoner, and Fergu son having completely broken up the brigade opposed to him would have forced the greater part of Solignac's troops to surrender, if he had not been required to halt by an unexpected order. The French veterans speedily rallied, and in admirable order, protected by their cavalry, marched off to join their comrades who had been defeated in their attack upon the British centre. It was now twelve o'clock, the victory was complete ; thirteen guns had been captured. Neither the 1st, 5th, nor Portu guese brigades had fired a shot, and the 4th and 8th had suf fered very little, therefore Sir Arthur resolved with these five brigades to push Junot closely, while Hill, Anstruther, and Fane were to march forward as far as Torres Vedras, and, push ing on to Montechique, cut him off from Lisbon. Had this operation been executed Junot would probably have lost all his artillery, and seven thousand stragglers would have been driven to seek shelter under the guns of Elvas, from which fortress, however, he would have been cut off had Moore landed as Sir Arthur wished at Mondego. Unhappily, however, the latter was no longer commander-in-chief. Sir Harry Burrard, who had been present at the action, had not interfered with the arrangements, but as soon as victory was won he assumed command, sent an order arresting Ferguson's career of victory, and forbade all further offensive operations until the arrival of Sir John Moore. The adjutant-general and quarter-master supported his views, and Sir Arthur's earnest representations were disregarded. Sir Arthur's plan would probably have been crowned with success, but it was not without peril. The French had rallied with extraordinary rapidity under the protection of their cavalry. The British artillery-carriages were so shaken as to be almost unfit for service, the horses insufficient in number and wretched in quality, the commissariat waggons in the greatest con fusion, and the hired Portuguese vehicles had made off in ROLICA AND VIMIERA. 93 every direction. The British cavalry were totally destroyed; and two French regiments had just made their appearance on the ridge behind the wood where Junot's troops were re-forming. Sir Harry Burrard, with a caution characteristic of age, refused to adopt Wellesley's bold plan. A great success had been gained, and that would have been imperilled by Junot's falling with all his force upon one or other of the British columns. Sir Arthur himself at a later period, when a com mission was appointed by Parliament to inquire into the circumstances, admitted that, though he still believed that success would have attended his own plan, he considered that Sir Harry Burrard's decision was fully justified on military grounds. Junot took full advantage of the unexpected cessation of hostilities. He re-formed his broken army on the arrival of the two regiments, which brought it up to its original strength ; and then, covered by his cavalry, marched in good order until darkness fell. He had regained the command of the passes of Torres Vedras, and the two armies occupied precisely the same positions that they had done on the previous evening. One general, thirteen guns, and several hundred prisoners fell into the hands of the British, and Junot's total loss far ex ceeded that of the British, which was comparatively small. At the commencement of the fight the British force was more than two thousand larger than that of the French, but of these only a half had taken an active part in the battle, while every man in Junot's army had been sent forward to the attack. Sir Harry Burrard's command was a short one, for on the following morning Sir Hew Dalrymple superseded him. Thus in twenty-four hours a battle had been fought and the com mand of the army had been three times changed, a striking proof of the abject folly and incapacity of the British ministry of the day. Two of these three commanders arrived fresh on the scene 94 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. without any previous knowledge of the situation, and all three differed from each other in their views regarding the general plan of the campaign ; the last two were men without any previous experience in the handling of large bodies of troops, and with out any high military reputation; while the man displaced had already shown the most brilliant capacity in India, and was universally regarded as the best general in the British service. Dalrymple adopted neither the energetic action advised by Sir Arthur nor the inactivity supported by Burrard, but taking a middle course decided to advance on the following morning, but not to go far until Sir John Moore landed at Maciera. Sir Arthur was strongly opposed to this policy. He pointed out that there were at present on shore but seven or eight days' provisions for the force at Vimiera. No further supplies could be obtained in the country, and at any moment a gale might arise and scatter or destroy the fleet, from which alone they could draw supplies during their advance. The debate on the subject was continuing when the French General Kellermann, bearing a flag of truce and escorted by a strong body of cavalry, arrived at the outposts and desired a conference. The news was surprising indeed. Junot's force was practically unshaken. He possessed all the strong places in Portugal, and could have received support in a short time from the French forces in Spain. Upon the other hand the position of the British, even after winning a victory, was by no means a satisfactory one; they had already learnt that it was useless to rely in the slightest degree upon Portuguese promises or Portuguese assistance, and that, even in the matter of provisions and carriage, their commander-in-chief expected to be maintained by those who had come to aid in freeing the country of the French, instead of these receiving any help from him. In carriage the British army was wholly deficient, of cavalry they had none. When Sir John Moore landed there would be but four days' pro visions on shore for the army, and were the fleet driven off by a gale, starvation would at once threaten them. ROLICA AND VIMIERA. 95 The gallantry with which the French had fought in both engagements, the skill with which they had been handled, and above all the quickness and steadiness with which, after defeat, they had closed up their ranks and drawn off in excellent order, showed that the task of expelling such troops from the country would, even if all went well in other respects, be a very for midable one, and the offer of a conference was therefore at once embraced by Sir Hew Dalrymple. Kellermann was admitted to the camp. His mission was to demand a cessation of arms in order that Junot might, under certain conditions, evacuate Portugal. The advantages of freeing the country from the French without further fighting was so evident that Sir Hew at once agreed to discuss the terms, and took Sir Arthur Wellesley into his counsels. The latter quite agreed with the policy by which a strong French army would be quietly got out of the country, in which it held all the military posts and strong positions. A great moral effect would be produced, and the whole resources of Portugal would then be available for operations in Spain. By the afternoon the main points of the Convention had been generally agreed upon. The French were to evacuate Portugal, and were to be conveyed in the English vessels to France with their property, public or private. There was to be no persecution of persons who had been the adherents of France during the occupation; the only serious difference that arose was as to the Eussian fleet in the Tagus. Kellermann proposed to have it guaranteed from capture, with leave to return to the Baltic. This, however, was refused, and the question was referred to Admiral Cotton, who, as chief repre sentative of England, would have to approve of the treaty before it could be signed. Kellermann returned to Lisbon with Colonel Murray the quarter-master-general, and after three days' negotiations the treaty was finally concluded, the Russian difficulty being settled by their vessels being handed over to the British, and 96 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. the crew transported in English ships to the Baltic. The Convention was, under the circumstances, unquestionably a most advantageous one. It would have cost long and severe fighting and the siege of several very strong fortresses before the French could have been turned out of Portugal. Heavy siege-guns would have been necessary for these operations. At the very shortest calculation a year would have been wasted, very heavy loss of life incurred, and an immense expenditure of money before the result, now obtained so suddenly and unexpectedly, had been arrived at. Nevertheless, the news of the Convention was received with a burst of popular indignation in England, where the public, wholly ignorant of the difficulty of the situation, had formed the most extravagant hopes, founded on the two successes obtained by their troops. The result was that a Commission was appointed to investigate the whole matter. The three English generals were summoned to England to attend before it, and so gross were the misrepresentations and lies by which the public had been deceived by the agents of the unscrupulous and ambitious Bishop of Oporto and his confederates, that it was even proposed to bring the generals to trial, who had in so short a time and with such insufficient means freed Portugal from the French. Sir John Moore remained in command of the troops in Portugal. CHAPTER VI. A PAUSE. THE Mayo Fusiliers had suffered their full proportion of losses at the battle of Vimiera. Major Harrison had been killed, Captain O'Connor had been severely wounded as his company had been thrown forward as skirmishers on the A PAUSE. 97 face of the hill, and a third of their number had fallen when Laborde's great column had driven them in as it charged up the ascent. Terence's father had been brought to the ground by a ball that struck him near the hip ; had been trampled on by the French as they passed up over him, and again on their retreat; and he was insensible when, as soon as the enemy retired, a party was sent down to bring up the wounded. By the death of the major, O'Connor, as senior captain, now attained that rank, but the doctor pronounced that it would be a long time before he would be able to take up his duties. Another captain and three subalterns had been killed, and several other officers had been wounded. Among these was O'Grady, whose left arrn had been carried away below the elbow by a round shot. As Terence was in the other wing of the regiment he did not hear of his father's wounds until after the battle was over, and on the order being given that there was to be no pursuit the regiment fell out of its ranks. As soon as the news reached him he obtained permission to go down to Vimiera, where the church and other buildings had been turned into temporary hospitals, to which the seriously wounded had been carried as soon as the French retired. Hurrying down he soon learned where the wounded of General Fane's brigade had been taken. He found the two regimental doctors hard at work. O'Flaherty came up to Terence as soon as he saw him enter the barn that had been hastily converted into a hospital by covering the floor deeply with straw. "I think your father will do, Terence, my boy," he said cheeringly; "we have just got the bullet out of his leg, and we hope that it has not touched the bone, though we cannot be altogether sure. We shall know more about that when we have got through the rough of our work. Still, we have every hope that he will do well. He is next the door at the further end; we put him there to let him get as much fresh air as possible, for, by the powers, this place is like a furnace." Captain O'Connor was lying on his back, the straw having ( M 359 ) G 98 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. . been arranged so as to raise his shoulders and head. He smiled when Terence came up to him. " Thank God you have got safely through it, lad ! " "I should not have minded being hit, father, if you had escaped," Terence said, with difficulty suppressing a sob, while in spite of his efforts the tears rolled down his cheeks. "The doctors say I shall pull through all right. I hear poor Harrison is killed; he was a good fellow. Though it has given me my step, I am heartily sorry. So we have thrashed them, lads, that is a comfort. I was afraid when they went up the hill that they might be too much for us, and I was delighted when I heard them coming tearing down again, though I had not much time to think about it. They had stepped over me pretty much as they went up, but they had no time to pick their way as they came back again, and after one or two had jumped on me, I remembered no more about it until I found myself here with O'Flaherty probing the wound and hurting me horribly. I am bruised all over, and I wonder some of my ribs are not broken; at present they hurt me a good deal more than this wound in the hip. Still, that is only an affair of a day or two. Who have been killed besides the major 1 ?" " Dorman, Phillips, and Henderson are killed. O'Grady is wounded, I hear, and so are Saunders, Byrne, and Sullivan; there have been some others hit but not seriously, they did not have to fall out." " O'Grady is over on the other side somewhere, Terence ; I heard his voice just now. Go and see where he is hurt." O'Grady was sitting up with his back to the wall ; the sleeves of his jacket and shirt had been cut off, and a tourniquet was on his arm just above the elbow. "Well, Terence," he said cheerfully, " I am in luck, you see." " I can't see any luck about it, O'Grady " "Why, man, it might have been my right arm, and where should I have been then? As to the left arm, one can do " I SHOULD NOT HAVE MINDED BEING HIT, FATHER, IF YOU HAD ESCAPED." A PAUSE. 99 without it very well. Then again it is lucky that the ball hit me below the elbow and not above it. O'Flaherty says they will be able to make a dacent job of it, and that after a bit they will be able to fit a wooden arm on, so that I can screw a fork into it. The worst of it at present is, that I have a terrible thirst on me, and nothing but water have they given me, a thing that I have not drunk for years. They have tied up the arteries, and they are going presently to touch up the loose ends with hot pitch to stop the bleeding altogether. It is not a pleasant job; they have done it to three or four of the men already. One of them stood it well, but the others cried a thousand murders. O'Flaherty has promised me a drink of whisky and water before they do it, and just at present I feel as if I would let them burn all my limbs at the same price. It is sorry I am, Terence, to hear that your father is hit so hard, but O'Flaherty says he will get through it all right. Well, he will get his majority, though I am mightily sorry that Harrison is killed; he was a good boy, though he was an Englishman. Ah, Terence, my heart's sore when I think what I said that evening after the fight at Eolica! I did not mean it altogether, but the words come home to me now. It is not for meself but for the poor boys that have gone. It was just thoughtlessness, but I would give me other arm not to have said those words." " I know that you did not mean it, O'Grady, and we were all feeling sorry that the regiment had not had a chance to be in the thick of it." " Here they are, coming this way with the pitch kettle. You had better get away, lad, before they begin." Terence was glad to follow the advice, and hurried out of the barn and walked three or four hundred yards away. He was very fond of O'Grady, who had always been very kind to him, and who was thoroughly warm-hearted and a good fellow in spite of his eccentricities. In a quarter of an hour he returned. Just as he was entering O'Flaherty came out of the door. 100 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " I must have a breath of fresh air, Terence," he said. " The heat is stifling in there, and though we are working in our shirt sleeves we are just as damp as if we had been thrown into a pond." "Has O'Grady's arm been seared?" "Yes, and he stood it well; not a word did he say until it was over. Then he said, ' Give me another drink, O'Flahert}' ; it's wake-like I feel.' Before I could get the cup to his lips he went off in a faint. He has come round now and has had a drink of weak whisky and water, and is lying quiet and com posed. It is better that you should not go near him at present. I hope that he will drop off to sleep presently. I have just given a glance at your father, and he is nearly, if not quite, asleep too, so you had better leave them now and look in again this evening. Now that the affair is over, and there is time to go round, they will clear out some houses and get things more comfortable. The principal medical officer was round here half an hour ago. He said they would fit up rooms for the officers at once, and I will have your father, O'Grady, and Saunders carried up on stretchers and put into a room together. If they can bear the moving it will be all in their favour, for it will be cooler there than in this oven of a place. I hear the church has been requisitioned, and that the worst cases among our men will be taken there." In comparison with the loss of the French that of the British had been very small. From their position on commanding heights they had suffered but little from the fire of the French artillery, and the casualties were almost confined to Fane's brigade, the 43rd Regiment, Anstruther's, and the two regi ments of Ferguson's brigade that had been attacked by Bren- nier, and before nightfall the whole of the wounded had been brought in and attended to, the hospitals arranged, and the men far more comfortably bestowed than in the temporary quarters taken up during the heat of the conflict. As there was no prospect of an immediate movement, the soldier servants A PAUSE. 101 of the wounded officers had been excused from military duty and told off to attend to them, and when Terence went down in the evening he found his father, O'Grady, and Saunders the latter a young lieutenant comfortably lodged in a large room in which three hospital beds had been placed. O'Grady had quite recovered his usual good spirits. " Don't draw such a long face, Terence," he said as the lad entered; "we are all going on well. Your father has been bandaged all over the chest and body, and is able to breathe more comfortably; as for me, except that I feel as if somebody were twisting a red-hot needle about in my arm, I am as right as possible, and Saunders is doing first-rate. The doctors thought at first that he had got a ball through his body; after they got him here they had time to examine him carefully, and they find that it has just run along the ribs and gone out behind, and that he will soon be about again. If it wasn't that the doctors say I must drink nothing but water with lemon- juice squeezed into it, I would have nothing to com plain of. We have got our servants. Hoolan came in blubber ing like a calf, the omadhoun, and I had to threaten to send him back to the regiment before he would be sensible. He has sworn off spirits until I am well enough to take to them, which is a comfort, for I am sorry to say he is one of those men who never know when they have had enough." " Like master like man, O'Grady." " Terence, when I get well you will repint of your impudence to your supayrior officer, Avhen he is not able to defend himself." Terence went across to his father's bed. "Do you really feel easier, Father?" "A great deal, lad. I was so bruised that every breath I took hurt me; since I have been tightly bandaged I am better, ever so much. Daly says that in a few days I shall be all right again as to that, but that the other business will keep me on my back for a long time. He has examined my wound again, and says he won't touch it for a few days ; but 102 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. I can see that he is rather afraid that the bone has been grazed if not splintered. You have not heard what is going to be done, have you?" "No, Father; the talk is that no move will be made any how until Sir John Moore lands with his troops, after that I suppose we shall go forward." " It is a pity we did not push forward to-day, lad, if, as I hear, half the force were never engaged at all. Junot would not have carried off a gun if our fellows had been launched against them while they were in disorder. As it is, I hear they have marched away over that ridge in as good order as they came, and so we shall have all the work of thrashing them to do over again." " They say that is what Sir Arthur wanted to do, Father, but Burrard overruled him." " Did any man ever hear of such nonsense as a general who knows nothing at all about the matter coming and taking over the command from a general who has just won a battle, and who has all the ins and outs of the matter at his finger ends!" "Now, my dear O'Connor," O'Grady broke in, "you know what Daly said, the quieter you lie and the less you talk the better. He did not say so to meself, in the first place because he knew it would be of no use, and in the second, because there is no raison on earth why, because a man has lost a bit of his arm, his tongue should not wag. And what does the colonel say, Terence; is he not delighted with the regiment?" " He is that, and he has a right to be," Terence said. " The way they went at the French, and tumbled them over the crest and down the hill was splendid. The tears rolled down his cheeks when he heard that the major and the others were killed, but he said that a man could not die more gloriously. He shook hands with all the officers after it was over, and sent a party down to the town to buy and bring up some barrels of wine, and served out a good allowance to each man. As A PAUSE. 103 soon as the firing ceased I heard him tell O'DriscoI that he was proud to have commanded the regiment." " That is good, Terence ; and now, do you think that you could bring me up just a taste of the crature 1 ?" "The divil a drop, O'Grady; if Daly and O'Flaherty both say that you are not to have it, it is certain that it is bad for you. But I'll tell you what I will do, I have one bottle of whisky left, and I will promise you that it sha'n't be touched till you are well enough to drink it, and if we are marched away, as I suppose we shall be, I will hand it over to O'Flaherty to give you when you are fit to take it. He tells me that he will be left to look after the wounded when we move." "I could not trust him, Terence; I would hand over a bag of gold uncounted to him, but as for whisky the temptation would be too great for an Irishman to resist. Look here, you put it into a wooden box and nail it up securely, and write on it, 'O'Grady's arm', and hand it over to him solemnly, and tell him that I have a fancy for burying the contents myself, which will be true enough, though it is me throat I mean to bury it in." Knowing that it was best they should be left in quiet, Terence soon left them and returned to the regiment. "Well, Dick, what did you think of a battle?" he asked his chum. " I don't quite know what I did think. It does not seem to me that I thought much about it at all, what with the noise of the firing and the shouting of the men, and the whistle over head of the French round shot, and the men cheering, the French shouting, and the excitement, there was no time for thinking at all. From the time the skirmishers came running up the hill to the time when we rolled the French down it, I seem to have been in a dream. It's lucky that I had no words of command to give, for I am sure I should not have given them. I don't think I was frightened at all; somehow I did not seem to think of the danger. It was just a horrible confusion." 104 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " I felt very much like that too. It was not a bit like what it was when we took that brig; I felt cool enough when we jumped on to her deck. But then there was no noise to speak of, while the row this morning was tremendous. I tried to cheer when the men did, but I could not hear my own voice, and I don't know wh ether I made any sound or not." A delay of some weeks took place after the battle of Yimiera. The Mayo Fusiliers were not among the troops who entered Lisbon in order to overawe the populace and prevent attacks both upon French soldiers and officers, and Portuguese sus pected of leaning towards the French cause. Throughout the country everything was in confusion. A strong party, at whose head were the Bishop of Oporto and Friere, denounced the convention with the French, against whom they themselves had done nothing, as gross treachery on the part of the English to Portugal. They endeavoured in every way to excite the feelings of the population, both in the country and the capital, against the British; but in this they failed altogether, for the people were too thankful to get rid of the oppression and exactions of the invaders to feel aught but satisfaction at their being compelled to leave the country. The Junta at Oporto, at whose head was the bishop, desired to grasp the entire power throughout the country, and were furious at being thwarted in their endeavours to prevent a central Junta being established at Lisbon. Throughout Spain also chaos reigned. Each provincial Junta refused co-operation with others, and instead of concerting measures for resistance against the great force that Napoleon was assembling on the frontier, thought only of satisfying the ambitions and greed of its members. The generals disregarded alike the orders from the central Junta at Madrid and those of the provincial Juntas, quarrelled among themselves to a point that sometimes ap proached open hostility, and each acted only for his private ends. Arms had been sent in vast numbers from England; yet while the money so lavishly bestowed by British agents A PAUSE. 105 went into the pockets of individuals, the arms were retained by the Juntas of Seville, Cadiz, and the maritime ports, and the armies of Spain were left almost unarmed. The term army is indeed absurd, as applied to the gather ings of peasants without an idea of discipline, with scarcely any instruction in drill, and in the majority of cases, as the result proved, altogether deficient in courage; and yet, while neglecting all military precautions and ready to crumble to pieces at the first approach of the French, the arrogance and insolence of the authorities, civil and military alike, were absolutely unbounded. They disregarded wholly the advice of the British officers and agents, and treated the men, who alone could save them from the consequences of their folly, with open contempt. After a fortnight's halt at Vimiera the Mayo Fusiliers were marched, with four other regiments, to Torres Vedras, where they took up their quarters. In the middle of October O'Grady and Saunders re- joined, and Terence obtained a few days' leave to visit his father. The latter's progress had been slow; the wound was unhealed, pieces of bone working their way out, and the doctors had decided that he must be invalided home, as it was desirable to clear out the hospitals altogether before the army marched into Spain. "They think the change of air will do me good," Major O'Connor said to Terence, as they were chatting together after the latter arrived, " and I think so myself. It is evident that I cannot take part in the next campaign, but I hope to rejoin again in the spring. Of course it is hard, but I must not grumble ; if the bullet had been half an inch more to the right it would have smashed the bone altogether, then I should have had small chance indeed, for taking off the leg at the hip is an operation that not one man in twenty survives. O'Flaherty says he thinks that all the bits of bone have worked out now, and that I may not be permanently lame; but if it is to be so, 106 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. lad, it is of no use kicking against fate. I have got my majority, and if permanently disabled by my wounds, can retire on a pension on which I can live comfortably. "So I hear that Sir John Moore is going to march into Spain. By the way you have got some cousins in Oporto or the neighbourhood, though I don't suppose you are likely to run against them." "I never heard you say anything about them before, Father." "No; I don't think that I ever did mention it. A first cousin of mine went over, just about the time that I was married, to Oporto, and established himself there as a wine merchant. He had been out there before for a firm in Dublin, and when Clancy's father died and he came into some money he went out, as I said, and started for himself. He was a sharp fellow and did well, and married the daughter of a big land-owner. We used to hear from him occasionally. He died about a year ago, and left a girl behind him ; she had been brought up in her mother's religion. He never said much about his wife, but I fancy she was a very strong Roman Catholic, and that they did not quite agree about the girl, who, as I gathered, had a hankering after her father's religion. However, after Clancy died we never heard any more of them. " There was a letter from their man of business announcing the death, and stating that Clancy had left his own property, that is to say the money he had made in business, to the girl. What has become of her since I do not know. It was no business of mine, though I believe that I was his nearest relation at least my uncle had no other children, and there were neither brothers nor sisters except him and my father. Still, as he left a widow who had a good big property on her own account, and was connected with a lot of grandee families, there was no occasion for me to mix myself up in the affair; and, indeed, it never entered my head to do so. Yet, Clancy and I were great friends, and I should be glad A PAUSE. 107 to know what has become of his girl. I fancy that she is about your age, and if Moore should take you up north you might make some inquiries there. The mother's family name was Montarlies, and I fancy, from what Clancy said, her father's property was somewhere to the north of Oporto, so I expect that at that town you would be likely to hear some thing of them." "All right, Father! if we go there I will be sure to make some inquiries." On the fourth day after Terence's arrival the hospital was broken up, the convalescents marched for Torres Vedras, and Major O'Connor, with four other officers and forty men, were put on board a ship to be taken to England. "Your visit has done your father good, Terence," O'Flaherty said, as, after seeing the party safely on board ship, he re turned to the town whence they were to march with the con valescents, sixty in number, among whom were five officers. "He has brightened up a deal the last four days, and his wound looks distinctly more healthy. I have a strong hope that all those splinters have worked out now, and your being here has given him a fillip, so that he is altogether better and more cheerful. I hope by the spring he will be able to rejoin us. I can tell you I am mighty glad to be off again myself. It has been pretty hard work here, for I have had, for the last fortnight, a hundred and twenty men on my hands. At first there were three of us here, but two went off with the last batch of convalescents, and I have been alone since. Luckily Major Peters has been well enough to look after things in general, and help the commissariat man; still, with forty bad cases I have not had much time on my hands. Of course I knew him and all the other officers, but they all belonged to other regiments, and it was not like being among the Mayos. And when do you think we will be starting again?" " I have no idea. I have heard that Moore is doing every thing he can to hurry on things, but that he is awfully 108 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. hampered for want of money. It is scandalous. Here are our agents supplied with immense sums for the use of these black guard Spaniards, yet they keep their own army Avithout funds." " If the general has no funds, Terence, he had better be stopping where he is. There is no getting anything in Portugal without paying ten times the proper price for it, and from what I hear of the Spaniards they will charge twenty times, put the money in their pockets, and then not even give you what you paid for. As to their being any good to us as allies it is not to be hoped for; they will take our arms and our money, expect us to feed their troops, and will then run away at the sight of a French soldier; you Avill see if they don't." " I hear that the Junta of Corunna says that all the North will rise as soon as we enter their country." "They may rise and flock round us until they have got arms and money, and then they will go off to their homes again. That is the sort of assistance that is to be had from them. We should do a deal better if there was not a Spaniard in the country, and it was left to us to fight it out with the French." " In that case, O'Flaherty, we should never cross the frontier at all. They say that Napoleon is gathering a great army, and against such a force, with the French troops already in Spain, our twenty or twenty -five thousand men Avould fare very badly, especially as they say that the emperor is coming himself." "That is worse news than the other, Terence. It is only because the French generals have always been quarrelling among themselves that the Avhole Peninsula has not been con quered; but with Napoleon at the head of affairs it Avould be a different matter altogether, and my humble opinion is that AVC had better stay Avhere we are until he has Aviped out the Spaniards altogether." Terence laughed. "You don't take a sanguine view of things." " You have been Avith the regiment, Terence, and have had A PAUSE. 109 very little to do with the natives. I have not seen very much of them either, thank goodness; but I have seen quite enough to know that though perhaps the peasants would make good soldiers, if officered by Englishmen, there is mighty little feel ing of patriotism among the classes above them. Reading and writing may be good for some countries, but as far as I see here, reading and writing spoil them here, for every man one comes across who can sign his name is intent either on filling his pocket, or on working some scheme or other for his own advantage. If I were Sir John Moore I would send up a division to Oporto, hang the bishop and every member of the Junta, shoot Friere and a dozen of his principal officers, and if the people of Oporto gave them the chance clear the streets with grape-shot. Why, if it hadn't been for a small guard of our fellows with the French garrisons that were marched down there to embark, the Portuguese would have murdered every man-jack of them. "They did murder a good many, and robbed them all of their baggage ; and if it had not been that our men loaded and would have fired on them if they had gone further, not a Frenchman would have got off alive. If this had been done in Lisbon, where the French had been masters, there might have been some sort of excuse for it; but they had never been near Oporto at all, and therefore the people there had no scores to settle with them." "I am afraid, O'Flaherty, that an army worked on your principles would never get far from the coast, for we should have the whole country against us." "So much the better if we never get far from the coast. How much help have we had from them ? There is not a single horse or wagon for transport except those we have hired at exorbitant prices; not a single ounce of food. They would not even divide with us the magazines at Leirya, which they had no share in capturing. The rabble they call an army has never fired a shot or marched a yard with us, except Trant's 110 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. small command, and they were kept so far out of it in both fights, that I doubt whether they fired a shot; and yet they take upon themselves to throw every obstacle in our way, to dictate to our generals, and to upset every plan as soon as it is formed. " Well, I shall be glad to be back with the regiment again, Terence. There is some fun going on there anyhow, and I have not had a hearty laugh since O'Grady went off ten days ago." " We were all heartily glad to see him back again," Terence said. "He does not seem a bit the worse for having lost his hand." " No, he has got through it a deal better than I had expected, considering that he is not what might be called a very temper ate man." "Not by any means. It is not very often that he takes more liquor than he can carry, but he generally goes very close to the mark." " I kept him very short here," O'Flaherty laughed, "and told him that if he did not obey orders I would have him invalided home: I have got him to promise that he will draAv in a bit in future, and have good hopes of his keeping it, seeing that when the army starts again you won't get much chance of indulging." "It will be a good thing for others as well as O'Grady," Terence said quietly. " I suppose in Ireland the whisky does not do much harm, seeing that it is a wet country ; but here I notice that they cannot drink half as much as they were accustomed to without feeling it." " That is true for you, Terence. Half a bottle here goes as far as a bottle in the old country ; and I find with the wounded, spirits have a very bad effect even in very small quantities. There is one thing, when the troops are on the march they not only get small chance of getting drink, but mighty little time to think of it. When you have been doing your twenty miles a A PAUSE. Ill day, with halts and stoppages on these beastly roads and defiles, and are on your feet from daylight until late in the evening, and then, perhaps, a turn at the outposts, a man hasn't got much time for divarshun; and even if there is liquor to be had, he is glad enough when he has had a glass or so to wrap himself in his cloak and lie down to sleep. I have nearly sworn off myself, for I found that my head troubled me in the morning after a glass or two, more than it did after an all- night's sitting at Athlone. Ah, Terence, it is lucky for you that you have no fancy for it ! " "I hope I never shall have, O'Flaherty. If one has got thoroughly wet through in a long day's fishing, it may be that a glass of punch may keep away a cold, though even that I doubt. But I am sure that I am better without it at any other time; and I hope some day the fashion will change, and instead of it being considered almost as a matter of course after a dinner that half the men should be under the table, it will then be looked upon as disgraceful for a man to get drunk, as it is now for a woman to do so." O'Flaherty looked at his companion with amused surprise. "Faith, Terence, that would be a change indeed, and you might as well say that you hope the time will come when you can whip off a fellow's leg without his feeling pain." "Perhaps that may come too," Terence laughed; "there is no saying." The next morning the detachment started at daybreak and marched to Torres Vedras, where they heard that a general movement was expected to begin. The regiment had now a comfortable mess, and the situation was freely discussed as scraps of news arrived from Lisbon. Could the English ministry have heard the comments on their imbecility passed by the officers of the British army, even they might have doubted the perfect wisdom of their plan. On the 6th of October, Moore had received a despatch stating that 30,000 infantry and 5000 cavalry were to be employed in the north 112 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. of Spain. Ten thousand of these were to be sent out direct from England, the remainder were to be composed of regi ments from the army in Portugal. Moore had the choice of taking the troops round in ships or of marching them direct. He decided upon the latter course, for arrangements had been made by Sir Hew Dalrymple to enter Spain by Almeida, and moreover, he thought that the resources of the sea-coast of Galicia would not be more than sufficient to supply transport and food for the 10,000 men who were to land there under the command of Sir David Baird. The English general's difficulties were indeed overwhelming. He had soldiers who, although but recently raised, had shown themselves good fighters; but he was altogether without even transport sufficient for the officers. With an ample supply of money, an experienced staff, and a well-organized com missariat, the difficulties might have been overcome, but Sir John Moore was practically without money. His staff had no experience whatever, and the commissariat and transport officers were alike ignorant of the work they were called upon to perform. He was unacquainted with the views of the Spanish government, and uninformed as to the numbers, com position, and situation of the Spanish armies with whom he was to act, or with those of the enemy. He had a winter march of 300 miles before he could join Sir David Baird, who would have 200 miles to march from Corunna to join him, and there was then a distance of another 300 miles to be traversed before he reached the Ebro, which was designated as the centre of his operations. And all this had to be done while a great French army was already pouring in through the passes of the Pyrenees. No more tremendous, or, it may be said, impossible task was ever assigned to an English commander; and to add to the absurdity of their scheme, the British government sent off Sir David Baird without instructions, and even without money. The Duke of York had vainly protested against the plan of the THE ADVANCE. 113 ministry, and had pointed out that nothing short of an army of 60,000 men, fully equipped with all necessaries for war money, transport, and artillery could achieve success of any kind. Upon the day Terence rejoined, news came from the engineers in advance that the assurances Sir John Moore had received that the road by which the army was to travel was perfectly practicable for artillery and baggage -wagons, were wholly false, and it was probable that the artillery and cavalry would have to make a long circuit to the south. It was too late now to change the route for the rest of the army. Nearly half the force had already started on the road to Almeida, and the supplies for their subsistence had been collected at that town. Therefore it was necessary that the main body of the infantry should travel by that road, while three thousand were to act as a guard for the artillery and cavalry on the other route. CHAPTER VII. THE ADVANCE. IT is enough to drive Sir John out of his senses," the Colonel said as the news was discussed after mess. " These people must be the champion liars of the world. Not content with doing nothing themselves, they seem to delight in invent ing lies to prevent our doing anything for them. Who ever heard of an army marching, without artillery and cavalry, one way, while these arms travelled by a different road entirely, and that not for a march of twenty miles, but for a march of three hundred 1 One battery is to go with us. But what will be the use of six guns against an enemy with sixty 1 Every day the baggage is being cut down owing to these blackguard Portuguese breaking their engagements to furnish (M359) H 114 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. waggons, and we shall have to march pretty nearly as we stand, and to take with us nothing beyond one change of clothes." Loud exclamations of discontent ran round the table. It was bad enough that in the midst of a campaign waggons should break down and baggage be left behind, but that troops should start upon a campaign with scarcely the necessaries of life had caused general anger in the army; and no order would have been more willingly obeyed than one to march upon Lisbon, shoot every public official, establish a state of siege, and rule by martial law, seizing for the use of the army every draught animal, waggon, and carriage that could be found in the city, or swept in from the country round. The colonel had not exaggerated matters. The number of tents to be taken were altogether insufficient for the regiment, even with the utmost crowding possible. The officers' baggage had been cut down to twenty pounds a head an amount scarcely suffi cient for a single change of clothes and boots. Even the amount of ammunition to be taken would be insufficient to refill the soldiers' pouches after the supply they carried was exhausted. The paucity of baggage would not have mattered so much had the march begun at the commencement of summer, instead of just as winter was setting in. In the former case, men could have slept in the open air, and a solitary blanket and one change of clothes would have sufficed; but with the wet season at hand, to be followed by winter cold, the grievance was a very serious one. Terence had already learned that the brigade was to march in two days, and that the great bulk of the baggage was to be stored at Torres Vedras, which was to be occupied on their leaving by some of the troops that would remain in Portugal. "Faith, it is an evil look-out, Terence," O'Grady, who was sitting nert to him, said pathetically. "Sorra a drop of whisky is there in the camp, and now we sha'n't be able to have even a drink of their bastely spirits, onless we can buy it THE ADVANCE. 115 at the towns; and as Anstruther's division lias gone on ahead of us, it is likely that every drop has been drunk up." " It will be all the better for you, O'Grady. Daly tells me that your arm is not fully healed yet. I know that you would not like to be left behind when we have once started." " That is true enough, but a drop of the cratur hurts no one." "I beg your pardon, O'Grady, it is very bad for anything like a wound. The doctor told me, when I was chatting with him before dinner, that he really did not think that you could go, for you would not obey his orders to give up spirits altogether." " Well, I own that it has been smarting a good deal the last few days," O'Grady admitted reluctantly, " though I have not said as much to the doctor. I don't know that you are not about right, Terence ; but faith, after being kept upon bastely slops by O'Flaherty, it was not in human nature to drink nothing but water when one gets a chance. At any rate, I am not likely to find any great temptation after we have started." "Well, you had better begin to-night, O'Grady. I am going to get away as soon as I can, and if you will take my advice you will come too." "What! and us to march in two days? It is not to be thought of. You mane well, Terence, but a lad like you must not take to lecturing your supayrior officer. Shure, and don't I know what to do for meself better than any other?" Terence saw that it was useless to endeavour to persuade him to move, and presently went round to Dr. Daly and said quietly : " Doctor," he said, " O'Grady tells me that his arm has been hurting him a good deal more during the last two days. I expect they will make a night of it this evening and again to morrow, and if he once begins nothing will stop him until they break up. Could not you do anything 1 ?" " I will talk to him like a father, Terence. You are a good boy to have told me; I might have gone away without thinking of it." 116 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. " Don't mention my name, Doctor." The doctor nodded, and Terence went away and took a vacant seat at some distance from him. Presently the doctor got up and went round to O'Grady. The supply of claret had just been finished, and bottles of spirits had been placed upon the table. O'Grady stretched out his hand to one near him, but the doctor quietly removed it. " Not for you, O'Grady," he said; you have had more than sufficient wine already. I have been doubting whether you are fit to go on with the regiment; and, by the powers, if you touch spirits to-night or to-morrow, I will put your name down in the list of those who are to be left behind as unfit for service!" "Sure you are joking, Doctor?" " Never was more earnest in my life, O'Grady. You don't want to be left behind, I suppose, in some filthy Portuguese town, while we march on, and that is what it will come to if your wound inflames. I told you this morning that it was not doing as well as it ought to, and that you must cut off liquor altogether. I have had my eye upon you, and you have taken down more than a bottle of wine already. I don't think I ought to let you go with us even as it is ; but, by the piper that played before Moses, if you don't go off to your quarters without touching a drop more I will have you left behind!" "You are mighty hard on a poor fellow, arid must have a heart of stone to treat a man, who has lost his arm and wants a bit of comfort, in such fashion. Faith, I would not do it to a dog." "There would be no occasion, O'Grady; a dog has got sense." "And I haven't? Thank ye for the compliment. I will appeal to the colonel. Colonel, the doctor says if I drink a drop of spirits to-night or to-morrow he will put me down in the black list. Now, I ask you, do the regulations justify his using such a threat as that?" "I think they do," the colonel said with a laugh. "I THE ADVANCE. 117 think that his order is good and sensible, and I endorse it. You know yourself that spirits are bad for you, with an arm only just healed up. Now, behave like a raisonable fellow, and go off to your quarters. You know well enough that if you stop here you won't be able to keep from it." "Faith! if the two of you are against me I have nothing more to say. It is mighty hard that after having lost an arm in the service of my country I should be treated like a child and sent off to bed." " I am going too, O'Grady," Terence, who had gone back to his original place, now said. " There is no occasion to go to bed. I have a box of good cigars in my tent, and we can sit there and chat as long as you like." But O'Grady's dignity was ruffled. "Thank you, Mister O'Connor," he said stiffly; "but with your lave I will do as I said." "That is the best thing," the doctor said. "You have not had a long night's rest since you rejoined. I am going myself, and I see that some of the others are getting up too, and it would be a good thing if all would do so, for with such work as we have got before us the more sleep we get, while we can, the better." As nearly half the officers now rose from their seats O'Grady was mollified, and as we went out he said: "I think, after all, Terence, I will try one of those cigars of yours." On the 14th of October Fane's brigade left Torres Vedras. A number of the troops had been stationed along the line of route to be followed, and these had started simultaneously with the departure of Fane's brigade from Torres Vedras. The discontent as to the reduction of baggage ceased as soon as the troops were in motion. They were going to invade Spain, and ignorant as the soldiers were of the real state of affairs, none doubted but that success would attend them there. Among the officers better acquainted with the state of things there was 118 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. no such feeling of confidence, but they hoped that they should at least give as good an account of themselves as before, against any French force of anything like equal strength they might encounter. O'Grady, influenced by the doctor's threats, Avhich he knew the latter would be firm enough to carry out, had obeyed his orders, and had confided to Terence when the regi ment formed up at daybreak for the march that his arm felt much better. "I don't say that the doctor may not have been right, Terence, but he need not have threatened me in that way at all, at all." "I don't know," Terence replied. "I feel pretty sure that if he hadn't you would not have knocked off spirits. Well, it is a glorious morning for starting, but I am afraid the fine weather won't last long. Everyone says that the rains gener ally begin about this time." As Terence fell in with his company the adjutant rode up. " Mr. O'Connor, you are to report yourself to the brigadier." Wondering much at the message, Terence hurried to the house occupied by General Fane. He and several officers were standing in front of it. " I am told that you wish to speak to me, General," he said, saluting. "Oh, you are Mr. O'Connor! Can you ridef "Yes, sir," Terence replied; for he had often had a scamper across the hills round Athlone on half-broken ponies, and occasionally on the horses of some of his friends in the regiment. " I have a vacancy on my staff. Lieutenant Andrews was thrown when riding out from Lisbon -with a despatch last night, and broke a leg. I was on board the flag-ship when your colonel brought his report about the fight between the transport and the two privateers. I read it, and was so much struck with the quickness and intelligence you displayed, that I made a note at the time that if I should have a vacancy on my staff I would appoint you." "I AM TOLD THAT YOU WISH TO SPEAK TO ME, GENERAL." THE ADVANCE. 119 "I am very much obliged, General," Terence said, "but I have no horse." "I have arranged that. Lieutenant Andrews will not be fit for service for a long time. It is a compound fracture, and he will, the doctor says, probably be sent back to England by the first ship that arrives after he reaches Lisbon. His horse is therefore useless to him, and as it is only a native animal and would not fetch a ten-pound note, he agreed at once to hand it over to his successor, and in fact was rather glad to get it off his hands. He has an English saddle, bridle, and holsters, he will take five pounds for them. If you happen to be short of cash the paymaster will settle it for you." "Thank you, sir; I have the money about me, and I am very much obliged to you for making the arrangement." Terence was indeed in funds, for in addition to the five pounds that had fallen to him as his share of the prize-money, his pay had been almost untouched from the day he left England, and his father had, on embarking, added ten pounds to his store. "I won't want it, Terence," he said; "I have got another twenty pounds by me, and by the time I get to England I shall have another month's pay to draw, and shall no. doubt be put in a military hospital, where I shall have no occasion for money till I am out again." "But I sha'n't want it either, Father." " There is never any saying, lad ; it is always useful to have money on a campaign. You may be in places where the com missariat breaks down altogether, and you have to depend on what you buy; you may be left behind wounded, or maybe taken prisoner, one never can tell. I shall feel more comfortable about you if I know that you are well provided with cash, what ever may happen. My advice is, Terence, get fifteen or twenty pounds in gold sewn up in your boot; have an extra sole put on, and the money sewn inside. If it is your bad luck to be taken prisoner, you will find the money mighty useful in a great many ways." 120 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. Terence had followed this advice and had fifteen pounds hidden away, besides ten that he carried in his pockets; he therefore hurried to the hut where Lieutenant Andrews was lying. He was slightly acquainted with him, as he had been Fane's aide-de-camp from the time of landing. The young lieutenant's servant was standing at the door with a horse ready saddled and bridled. "I am very sorry to hear of your injury," he said to the young officer. "Yes, it is a horrible nuisance," the other replied; "and just as we were starting, too. There is an end of my campaigning for the present. I should not have minded if it had been a French ball, but to be merely thrown from a horse is disgusting." " I am extremely obliged to you for the horse, Andrews, but I would rather pay you for it; it is not fair that I should get it for nothing." " Oh, that is all right! It would be a bother taking it down, and I should not know what to do with it when I got to Lisbon; it would be a nuisance altogether, and I am glad to get rid of it. The money is of no consequence to me one way or the other. I wish you better luck with it than I have had." "At any rate here are five pounds for the saddle and bridle," and he put the money down on the table by the bed. "That is all right," the other said withoiit looking at it; "they are well off my hands, too. I hope the authorities will send me straight on board ship when I get to Lisbon; my ser vant will go down Avith me. If I am kept there, he will of course stay with me until I sail; if not, he will rejoin as soon as he has seen me on board. He is a good servant, and I can recommend him to you; he is rather fond of the bottle, but that is his only fault as far as I know. He is a countryman of yours, and you will be able to make allowances for his failing," he added with a laugh. There was no time to be lost the bugles were sounding THE ADVANCE. 121 so with a brief adieu Terence went out, mounted the horse and rode after the general, who had just left with his staff, and taken his place at the head of the column. As he passed his regiment, he stopped for a moment to speak to the colonel. "I heard what you were wanted by the General, Terence," the latter said, "and I congratulate you on your appointment. I am sorry that you are leaving us, but as you will be with the brigade we shall often see you. O'Driscol is as savage as a bull at the loss of one of his subalterns. Well, it is your own luck that you have and another's; drop in this evening, if you can, and tell us how it was that Fane came to pick you out." " It was thanks to you, Colonel. If you remember, you told us at Vigo that Fane was on board when you went to make your report, and that he and Sir Arthur's adjutant-general read it over together, and asked you a good many questions. It was owing to that affair that he thought of me." " That is good, lad. I thought at the time that more might come of it than just being mentioned in orders, and I am very glad that it was for that you got it. At any rate, come in this evening, I want to hear where you have stolen that horse from, and all about it." Terence rode off and took his place with his fellow aides- de-camp behind the two other officers of the staff. He scarcely knew whether to be glad or sorry, at present, at the change that had so suddenly taken place. It was gratifying to have been selected as he had been. It was certainly more pleasant to ride through a campaign than to march; and there would be a good many more chances of distinguishing himself than there could be as a regimental officer; while, on the other hand, he would be away from the circle of his friends and com rades, and should greatly miss the fim and jollity of the life with them. " An unfortunate affair this of Andrews," Lieutenant Trevor, his fellow aide-de-camp, said. 122 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. "Most unfortunate. I little thought when you and he lunched with us two days since that to-day he would be down with a broken leg and I riding in his place. Just at present I certainly do not feel very delighted at the change. You see, from my father being a captain in the regiment, I have been brought up with it, and to be taken so suddenly away from them seems a tremendous wrench." " Yes, I can understand that," the other said. " In my case it is different. My regiment was not coming out, and of course I was greatly pleased when the general gave me a chance of going with him. Still, you see, as your regiment is in the brigade you will still be able to be with it when off duty, and when the end of the campaign comes you will return to it. Besides, there are compensations you will at least get a roof to sleep under, at any rate nine times out of ten. I don't know how you feel it, but to me it is no small comfort being on hoi'seback instead of tramping along these heavy roads on foot. The brigadier is a capital fellow; and though he does keep us hard at work, at any rate he works hard himself, and does not send us galloping about with all sorts of trivial mes sages that might as well be unsent. Besides, he is always thoughtful and considerate. Is he related to you in any way?" "Not at all." "Then I suppose you had good interest in some way, or else how did he come to pick you out?" " It was just a piece of luck," Terence said; "it was because he had heard my name in connection with a fight the transport I came over in had with two French privateers." "Oh, yes, I remember now," the other said; "I had for gotten that the name was O'Connor. I remember all about it now. He told us the story at Vigo, and you were put in general orders by Sir Arthur. I know the chief spoke very highly about your conduct in that affair. It is just like him to remember it, and to pick you out to take Andrews' place. Well, you fairly won it, which is more than one can say for THE ADVANCE. 123 most staff appointments, which are in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the result of pure favouritism or interest. " Well, O'Connor, I am very glad to have you on the staff. You see, it makes a lot of difference, when there are only two of us, that we should like each other. I own I have not done anything as yet to get any credit, for -at Vimiera it was just stand up and beat them back, and I had not a single message to carry, and, of course, at Rolica our brigade was not in it; but I hope I shall get a turn some day. Then it was your father who was badly wounded ? " "Yes; I saw him off to England four days ago. I hope that he will be able to rejoin before long, but it is not certain yet that the wound won't bring on permanent lameness. I am very anxious about it, especially as he has now got his step, and it would be awfully hard on him to leave the service just as he has got field-officer's rank." "Yes, it would be hard. However, I hope that the sea voyage and English air will set him up again." Presently one of the officers who were in front turned and said: "The general wishes you to ride back along the line, Mr. Trevor, and report whether the intervals between the regiments are properly kept, and also as to how the baggage- waggons are going on." As Trevor turned to ride back the general cantered on, followed by the three officers and the four troopers who served as orderlies. Two miles ahead they came to a bridge across a torrent. The road, always a bad one, had been completely cut up by the passage of the provision and ammunition carts going to the front, and was now almost impassable. " Will you please to ride back, Mr. O'Connor, and request the colonel of the leading regiment to send on the pioneers and a company of men at the double to clear the road and make it passable for the waggons." The work was quickly done. While some men filled up the deep ruts, others cut down shrubs and bushes growing 124 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. by the river bank, tied them into bundles, and put them across the narrow road, and threw earth and stones upon them, and in half an hour from the order being given the bugle sounded the advance. The head of the column had been halted just before it reached the bridge, and the men fell out, many of them running down to the stream to refill their water-bottles. As the bugle sounded they at once fell in again, and the column got into motion. General Fane and his stafl' remained at the bridge until the waggons had all crossed it. " It is not much of a job," Fane said. " Of course the four regiments passing over it flattened the earth well down, but the waggons have cut it all up again. The first heavy shower will wash all the earth away, and in a couple of days it will be as bad as before. There are plenty of stones down in the river, but we have no means of breaking up the large ones, or of carrying any quantity of small ones. A few hundred sappers and engineers, with proper tools, would soon go a long way towards making the road fairly fit for traffic, but nothing can be done without tools and wheel-barrows, or at least hand- barrows for carrying stones. You see, the men wanted to use their blankets, but the poor fellows will want them badly enough before long, and those contractors' goods would go all to pieces by the time they had carried half a dozen loads of stones. At any rate, we will content ourselves with making the road passable for our own waggons, and the troops who come after us must do the same. By the way, Mr. O'Connor, you have not got your kit yet." "No, sir; but I have no doubt that it is with the regimental baggage, and I will get it when we halt to-night." "Do so," the general said. "Of course it can be carried with ours, but I should advise you always to take a change of clothes in your valise, and a blanket strapped on with your greatcoat." "I have Mr. Andrews' blanket, sir. It was strapped on when I mounted, and I did not notice it." THE ADVANCE. 125 " That is all right. The store blankets are very little use for keeping off rain, but we all provided ourselves with good thick horse-cloths before leaving England. They are a great deal warmer than blankets, and are practically waterproof. I have no doubt that Mr. Andrews told his servant to strap it on as usual." Many and many a time during the campaign had Terence good reason for thinking with gratitude of Andrews' kindly thought. His greatcoat, which like those of all the officers of the regiment, had been made at Athlone, of good Irish frieze lined with flannel, would stand almost any amount of rain, but it was not long enough to protect his legs while lying down. But by rolling himself in the horse-cloth he was able to sleep warm and dry, when without it he would have been half-frozen, or soaked through with rain from above and moisture from the ground below. He found that the brigadier and his staff carried the same amount of baggage as other officers, the only difference being that the general had a tent for himself, his assistant adjutant and quarter -master one between them, while a third was used as an office-tent in the day, and was occupied by the two aides-de-camp at night. The baggage-waggon allotted to them carried the three tents, their scanty kits, and a box of stationery and official forms, but was mainly laden with musketry ammunition for the use of the brigade. After marching eighteen miles the column halted at a small village. The tents were speedily pitched, rations served out, and fires lighted. The general took pos session of the principal house in the village for the use of himself and his staff, and the quartermaster-general apportioned the rest of the houses between the officers of the four battalions. The two aides-de-camp accompanied the general in his tour of inspection through the camp. " It will be an hour before dinner is ready," Trevor said as they returned to the house, " and you won't be wanted before that. I shall be about if the chief has any orders to send out. I don't think it is likely that he will have; he is not given, as 126 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. some brigadiers are, to worrying; and, besides, there are the orderlies here to take any routine orders out, so you can be off if you like." Terence at once went down to the camp of the Mayo Fusi liers. The officers were all there, their quarter-master having gone into the village to fix their respective quarters. "Hooray, Terence, me boy!" O'Grady shouted as he came up, " we all congratulate you. Faith, it is a comfort to see that for once merit has been recognized. I am sure that there is not a man in the regiment but would have liked to have given you a cheer as you rode along this morning just before we started. We shall miss you, but as you will be up and down all day and can look in of an evening, it won't be as if you had been put on the staff of another brigade. As to Dicky Ryan he is altogether down in the mouth, whether it is regret for your loss or whether it is from jealousy at seeing you capering about on horseback, while he is tramping along on foot, is more than I know." "If you were not my superior officer, Captain O'Grady, I should make a personal onslaught on you," Ryan laughed. " You will have to mind how you behave now, Terence, the brigadier is an awfully good fellow, but he is pretty strict in matters of discipline." " I will take care of meself, Dicky, and now that you will have nobody to help you out of your scrapes, you will have to mind yourself too." "I am glad that you have got a lift, Terence," Captain O'Driscol said; "but it is rather hard on me losing a subaltern just as the campaign is beginning in earnest." "Menzies likes doing all the work," Terence said, "so it won't make so much difference to you." "It would not matter if I was always with my company, Terence, but now, you see, that I am acting as field-officer to the left wing till your father rejoins, it makes it awkward. " I intend to attach Parsons to your company, O'Driscol," THE ADVANCE. 127 the colonel said. " Terence went off so suddenly this morn ing, that I had no time to think of it before we marched, but he shall march with your company to-morrow. You will not mind, I hope, Captain Holland." " I shall mind, of course, Colonel; but as O'Driscol's company has now really only one officer, of course it cannot be helped, and as Menzies is the senior lieutenant, I have no doubt that he can manage very well with Parsons, who is very well up in his work." "Thank you, Captain Holland, it is the first compliment that you ever paid me, it is abuse that I am most accustomed to." " It is thanks to that that you are a decent officer, Parsons," Captain Holland laughed. " You were the awkwardest young beggar I ever saw when you first joined, and you have given me no end of trouble in licking you into shape. How do you think you will like your work, Terence?" " I think I shall like it very much," the lad replied. " The other aide-de-camp, Trevor, is a very nice fellow, and every one likes Fane; as to Major Dowdeswell and Major Errington, I haven't exchanged a word with either of them, and you know as much about them as I do." " Errington is a very good fellow, but the other man is very unpopular. He is always talking about the regulations, as if anyone cared a hang about the regulations when one is on service." " I expect that if Fane were not such a good fellow Dowdes well would make himself a baste of a nuisance, and be bother ing us about pipe-clay and buttons, and all sorts of rigmarole," O'Grady said, "as if a man would fight any the better for having his belt white as snow." "He would not fight any the better, O'Grady, but the regiment would do so," the colonel put in. " All these little matters are nothing in themselves, but still they have a good deal to do with the discipline of the regiment; there is no 128 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. doubt that we are not as smart in appearance as we ought to be, and that the other regiments in the brigade show up better than we do. It is a matter that must be seen to. I shall inspect the regiment very carefully before we march to morrow." There was a little silence among the group, but a smile stole over several of the faces. As a rule the colonel was very lax in small matters of this kind, but occasionally he thought it necessary to put on an air of severity, and to insist upon the most rigid accuracy in this respect; but the fit seldom lasted beyond twenty-four hours, after which things went on pleasantly again. Some of the officers presently sauntered off to warn the colour-sergeants that the colonel himself intended to inspect the regiment closely before marching the next morning, and that the men must be warned to have their uniforms, belts, and firearms in perfect order. Terence remained for some little time longer chatting, and then got possession of his kit, which was carried by Tim Hoolan across to his quarters. " We are all sorry you've left us, yer honour," that worthy said, as he walked a short distance behind Terence; "the rigi- ment won't be like itself widout you. Not that it has been quite the same since you joined us reg'lar, and have taken to behaving yourself." "What do you mean, you impudent rascal 1 ?" Terence said with a pretence at indignation. " No offence, yer honour, but faith the games that you and Mr. Ryan and some of the others used to play, kept the boys alive, and gave mighty contintment to the regiment." " I was only a lad then, Hoolan." " That was so, yer honour, and now you are a man and an officer, it is natural it should be different." " Tim Hoolan, you are a humbug," Terence said laughing. " Sorra a bit of one, yer honour. I am not saying that you won't grow a bit more; everyone says what a fine man you THE ADVANCE. 129 will make. But sure ye saved our wing from being captured, and you would not have us admit that, if it had not been for a boy, a wing of the Mayo Fusiliers would have been captured by the French. No, your honour, when we tell that story we spake of one of our officers who had the idea that saved the Sea-horse, and brought thim two privateer vessels into Vigo." " Well, Tim, it is only three months since I joined, and I don't suppose I have changed much in that time ; but of course I cannot play tricks now as I used to do, before I got my commission." "That is so, your honour; the rigiment misses your tricks, though they did bother us a bit. Three times were we turned out at night, under arms, when we were at Athlone, once on a wet night too, and stood there for two hours till the colonel found out it was a false alarm, and there was me and Mr. Kyan and two or three others as was in the secret, nigh chok ing ourselves with laughter, to hear the men cursing and swearing at being called out of bed. That was a foine time, yer honour." " Attention, Tim ! " Terence said sharply. They had now entered the village, and the burst of laughter in which Hoolan indulged at the thought of the regiment being turned out on a false alarm was unseemly, as he was accom panying an officer. So Tim straightened himself up, and then followed in Terence's footsteps with military precision and stiffness. " There is a time for all things, Tim," the latter said as he took the little portmanteau from him. "It won't do to be laughing like that in sight of head-quarters. I can't ask you to have a drink now, there is no drink to be had; but the first time we get a chance I will make it up to you." " All right, yer honour ! I was wrong entirely, but I could not have helped it if the commander-in-chief had been standing there." Terence went up to the attic that he and Trevor shared. (M359) I 130 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. There was no changing for dinner, but after a wash he went below again. "You are just in time," Trevor said, "and we are in luck. The head man of the village sent the general a couple of ducks, and they will help out our rations. I have been foraging, and have got hold of half a dozen bottles of good wine from the priest. " We always try to get the best of things in the village, if they will but part with them. That is an essential part of our duties. To-morrow it will be your turn." " But our servants always did that sort of thing," Terence said, in some surprise. " I dare say, O'Connor, but it would not do for the general's servant to be going about picking up things. No matter what he paid, we should have tales going about in no time of the shameful extortion practised by our servants, who under threats compelled the peasantry to sell provisions for the use of their masters at nominal prices." "I did not think of that," Terence laughed. "Yes, as the Portuguese have circulated scores of calumnious lies on less foundation, one cannot be too particular. I will see what I can do to-morrow." CHAPTER VIII. A FALSE ALARM. THE march was continued until the brigade arrived at Almeida, which they reached on the 7th of November, and Sir John Moore and the head-quarters staff came up on the following day. All the troops were now assembled at that place; for Anstruther, by some misconception of orders, had halted the leading division instead of, as intended by the general, continuing his march to Salamanca. The condition of the troops was excellent. Discipline, which had been somewhat A FALSE ALARM. 131 relaxed during the period of inactivity, was now thoroughly restored. The weather had continued fine, and the steady exercise had well prepared them for the campaign which was beginning. Things, however, were in other respects going on unfavourably. The Junta of Corunna had given the most solemn promises that transport and everything necessary for the advance of Sir David Baird's force should be ready by the time that officer arrived. Yet nothing whatever had been done, and so con scious were the Junta of their shortcomings, that when the fleet with the troops arrived off the port they refused to allow them to enter without an order from the central Junta, and fifteen days were wasted before the troops could disembark. Then it was found that neither provisions nor transport had been pro vided, and that nothing whatever was to be hoped for from the Spanish authorities. Baird was entirely unprovided with money, and was supplied with 8000 from Moore's scanty military chest, while at the very time the British agent, Mr. Frere, was in Corunna with two millions of dollars for the use of the Spaniards, which he was squandering, like the other British agents, right and left among the men who refused to put them selves to the slightest trouble to further the expedition. Spain was at this time boasting of the enthusiasm of its armies, and of the immense force that it had in the field, and succeeded in persuading the English cabinet and the English people that with the help of a little money they could alone and unaided drive the French right across the frontier. The emptiness of this braggadocio, and the utter incapacity of the Spanish authorities and generals was now speedily exposed, for Napoleon's newly-arrived armies scattered the Spaniards before them like sheep, and it was only on one or two occasions that anything like severe fighting took place. Within the space of three weeks there remained of the great armies of Spain but a few thousand fugitives hanging together without arms or discipline. Madrid, the centre of this pretended en- 132 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. thusiasm and patriotism, surrendered after a day's pretence at resistance, and the whole of the eastern provinces fell, prac tically without a blow, into the hands of the invaders. At present, however, Moore still hoped for some assistance from the Spaniards. He, like Baird, was crippled for want of money, but determined not to delay his march, and sent agents to Madrid and other places to make contracts and raise money; thus while the ministers at home squandered huge sums on the Spaniards, they left it to their own military commanders to raise money by means of loans to enable them to march. Never in the course of the military history of England were her oper ations so crippled and foiled by the utter incapacity of her government as in the opening campaigns of the Peninsular war. While Baird was vainly trying to obtain transport at Corunna, a reinforcement of some five thousand Spanish troops under General Romana landed at San Andero, and, being equipped from the British stores, joined the Spanish General Blake in Biscay. These troops had been raised for the French service at the time Napoleon's brother Joseph was undisputed king of Spain. They were stationed in Holland, arid when the insur rection at home broke out, the news of the rising was sent to them, and in pursuance of a plan agreed upon they suddenly rose, marched down to a port and embarked in English ships sent to receive them, and were in these transported to the northern coast of Spain. Sir David Baird was a man of great energy, and having succeeded in borrowing a little more money from Mr. Frere he started on his march to join General Moore. He had with great difficulty hired some country carts at an exorbitant rate, but the number was so small that he was obliged to send up his force in half-battalions, and so was able to proceed but very slowly. Sir John Moore was still in utter ignorance of the situation in Spain. The jealousy among the generals, and the disinclin ation of the central Junta to appoint any one person to a post A FALSE ALARM. 133 that might enable him to interfere with their intrigues, had combined to prevent the appointment of a commander-in-chief, and there was no one therefore with whom Sir John could open negotiations and learn what plans, if any, had been decided upon for general operations against the advancing enemy. On the day that Moore arrived at Almeida Blake was in full flight, pursued by a French army 50,000 strong, and Napoleon was at Vittoria with 170,000 troops. Of these facts he was ignorant, but the letters that he received from Lord William Bentinck and Colonel Graham, exposing the folly of the Spanish generals, reached him. On the llth he crossed the frontier of Spain, marching to Ciudad-Rodrigo. On that day Blake was finally defeated, and one of the other armies completely crushed and dispersed. These events left a large French army free to act against the British. Sir John Moore, however, did not hear of this until a week later. He knew, however, that the situation was serious; and after all the reports of Spanish enthusiasm he was astonished to find that complete apathy prevailed, that no effort was made to enrol the population, or even to distribute the vast quantity of British muskets stored up in the magazines of the cities. The general arrived at Salamanca with 4000 British infantry. The French cavalry were at Valladolid, but three marches dis tant. On the 18th more troops had arrived, and on the 23rd 12,000 infantry and six guns were at Salamanca. But Moore now knew of the defeat of Blake, and that the French army that had crushed him was free to advance against Salamanca. But he did not yet know of the utter dispersal of the Asturian army, or that the two armies of Castanos and Palafox were also defeated and scattered beyond any attempt at rallying, and that their conquerors were also free to march against him. Although ignorant of the force with which Napoleon had entered Spain, and having no idea of its enormous strength, he knew that it could not be less than 80,000 men, and that it could be joined by at least 30,000 more. 134 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. His position was indeed a desperate one. Baird was still twenty marches distant, his cavalry and artillery still far away. It would require another five days to bring the rear of his own army to Salamanca, as only a small portion could come forward each day, owing to want of transport; and yet, while in this position of imminent danger, the Spanish authorities, through Mr. Frere and other agents, were violently urging an advance to Madrid. General Moore was indeed in a position of imminent danger; but the lying reports as to the strength of the Spanish army induced him for a moment to make preparations for such a movement. When, however, he learned the utter overthrow and dispersal of the whole of the Spanish armies, he saw that nothing remained but to fall back, if possible, upon Portugal. It was necessary, however, that he should remain at Sala manca until Hope should arrive with the guns, and the army be in a position to show a front to the enemy. Instructions had been previously sent to Hope to march to the Escurial. Hope had endeavoured to find a road across the mountains of Ciudad- Rodrigo, but the road was so bad that he dared not venture upon it, as the number of horses were barely sufficient to drag the guns and ammunition waggons along a good road. He therefore kept on his way until he reached the Escurial; but after advancing three days farther towards Madrid, he heard of the utter defeat of the Spaniards and the flight of their armies. His cavalry outposts brought in word that more than 4000 cavalry were but twelve miles away, and that other French troops were at Segovia and other places. The prospect of his making his way to join Sir John Moore seemed well-nigh hope less; but with admirable skill and resolution, Hope succeeded in eluding some of his foes, in checking others by destroying or defending bridges, and finally joined the main force without the loss of any of the important convoy of guns and ammu nition that he was escorting. The satisfaction of the troops at the arrival of the force that A FALSE ALARM. 135 had been regarded as lost was unbounded. Hitherto, unpro vided as they were with artillery and cavalry, they could have fought only under such disadvantages as would render defeat almost inevitable, for an enemy could have pounded them with artillery from a distance beyond their musket range, and they could have made no effectual reply whatever. His cavalry could have circled round them, cut their communications, and charged down on their lines in flank and rear while engaged Avith his infantry. Now every man felt that once again he formed part of an army, and that that army could be relied upon to beat any other of equal numbers. Terence had enjoyed the march to Salamanca. The fine weather had broken up, and heavy rains had often fallen, but his thick coat kept him dry except in the steadiest downpours ; while on one or two occasions only, the general and his staff had failed to find quarters available. As they proceeded they gradually closed up with the troops forming a part of the same division, and at Almeida came under the command of General Fraser, whose division was made complete by their arrival. Up to this point the young aide-de-camp's duties had been confined solely to the work of the brigade: to seeing that the regiments kept their proper distances, that none of the waggons loitered behind, and that the roads were repaired, where ab solutely necessary, for the baggage to pass. In the afternoon he generally rode forward with Major Errington, the quartermaster-general of the brigade, to examine the place fixed upon for the halt, to apportion the ground between the regiments, and ascertain the accommodation to be obtained in the village. Two orderlies accompanied them, each carrying a bundle of light rods. With these the ground was marked off, a card with the name of the regiment being inserted in a slit at the end of the rod; the village was then divided in four quarters for the accommodation of the officers. But beyond fixing the name of each regiment to the part assigned to it, no attempt was made to allot any special quarters to indi- 136 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. vidual officers, this being left for the regimental quarter-master to do on the arrival of the troops. When the column came up Terence led each regiment to the spot marked off, and directed the baggage waggons to their respective places. While he was doing this, Trevor with the orderlies saw the head-quarters baggage carried to the house chosen for the general's use, and that the place was made as comfortable as might be, and then endeavoured to add to the rations by purchases in the village. Fane himself always remained with the troops until the tents were erected, and they were under cover, the rations distributed, and the fires lighted. The latter operation was often delayed by the necessity of fetching wood from a distance, the wood in the immediate neighbourhood having been cut down and burned either by the French on their advance, or by the British regiments ahead, He then went to his quarters, where he received the reports of the medical, commissariat, and transport officers, wrote a report of the state of the road and the obstacles that he had encountered, and sent it back by an orderly to the officer com manding the six guns which were following a day's march behind him. These had been brought along with great labour, it being often necessary to take them off their carriages and carry them up or down difficult places, while the men were frequently compelled to harness themselves to ropes and aid the horses to drag the guns and waggons through the deep mud. Between the arrival of the troops and dinner Terence had his time to himself, and generally spent it with his regiment. "Never did I see such a country, Terence," O'Grady com plained to him one day. "Go where you will in ould Oirland, you can always get a jugful of poteen, a potful of 'taties, and a rasher of bacon; and if it is a village, a fowl and eggs. Here there are not even spirits or wine; as for a chicken, I have not seen the feather of one since we started, A FALSE ALARM. 137 and I don't believe the peasants would know an egg if they saw it." " Nonsense, O'Grady ! If we were to go off the main road we should be able to buy all these things, barring the poteen, and may be the potatoes, but you could get plenty of onions instead. You must remember that the French army came along here, and I expect they must have eaten nearly every thing up on their way, and you may be sure that Anstruther's brigade gleaned all they left. As we marched from the Mon- dego we found the villagers well supplied better a good deal than places of the same size would be in Ireland except at our first halting-place." "I own that, although Hoolan sometimes fails to add to our rations, we have not been so badly off, Terence. He goes out with two or three more of the boys directly we halt, laving the other servants to get the tents ready, and he generally brings us half a dozen fish, sometimes a dozen, that he has got out of the stream. "He is an old hand, is Tim, and if he can't get them for dinner he gets them for breakfast. He catches them with night-lines and snares, and all sorts of poaching tricks. I know he bought a bag with four or five pounds of lime at Torres Vedras, and managed to smuggle it away in the regimental baggage. I asked him what it was for, and the rascal tipped me a wink, as much as to say, Don't ask no questions, master; and I believe that he drops a handful into a likely pool when he comes across one. I have never dared to ask him, for my conscience would not let me countenance such an unsportsman like way of getting round the fish. " I don't think that there is much harm in it under the present circumstances," Terence laughed. " It is not sport, but it is food. I am afraid, Tim, that you must have been poaching a good deal at home or you would never have thought of buying lime before starting on this march." "I would scorn to take in an Oirish fish, yer honour!" 138 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. Hoolan said indignantly. "But it seems to me that as the people here are trating us in just as blackguardly a manner as they can, shure it is the least we can do to catch their fish any way we can, just to pay them off." "Well, looking at it in that light, Tim, I will say no more against the practice. I don't think I could bring myself to lime even Portuguese water, but my conscience would not trouble me at eating fish that had been caught by somebody else." " I will bear it in mind, yer honour, and next time we come on a good pool a dish of fine fish shall be left at your quarters, but yer honour must not mintion to the gineral where you got them from. May be his conscience in the matter of ateing limed fish would be more tender than your own, and it might get me into trouble." " I will take care about that, Tim ; at any rate I will try and manufacture two or three hooks, and when we halt for a day will try and do a little fishing on my own account." "I will make you two or three, Mr. O'Connor. I made a couple for Mr. Ryan, and he caught two beauties yesterday evening." " Thank you, Hoolan. Fond as I am of fishing, I wonder it did not strike me before. I can make a line by plaiting some office string, with twisted horse-hair instead of gut." "I expect that that is just what Mr. Ryan did, yer honour. I heard the adjutant using powerful language this morning because he could not find a ball of twine." After this Terence generally managed to get an hour's fishing before the evening twilight had quite faded away; and by the aid of a long rod cut on the river bank, a line manu factured by himself, and Hoolan's hook baited with worms, he generally contrived to catch enough fish to supplement the ordinary fare at the following morning's breakfast. "This is a welcome surprise, Trevor," the brigadier said the first time the fish appeared at table. " I thought I smelt fish A FALSE ALARM. 139 frying, but I felt sure I must be mistaken. Where on earth did you get them from?" "It is not my doing, General, but O'Connor's. I was as much surprised as yourself when I saw Burke squatting over the fire frying three fine fish. I asked him where he had stolen them. He told me that Mr. O'Connor brought them in at eight o'clock yesterday evening." "Where did you get them from, O'Connor?" " I caught them in the stream that we crossed half a mile back, sir. I found a likely pool a few hundred yards down it, and an hour's work there gave me those three fish. They stopped biting as soon as it got dark." "What did you catch them with?" Terence explained the nature of his tackle. "Capital! You have certainly given us a very pleasant change of food, and I hope that you will continue the practice whenever there is a chance." "There ought often to be one, General. We cross half a dozen little mountain streams every day, and the villages are gener ally built close to one. I don't suppose I should have thought of it, if I had not found that some of the men of my regiment have been supplying the mess with them. I hope to do better in future, for going over the ground where some of the troops in front of us have bivouacked I came upon some white feathers blowing about, and I shall try to tie a fly. That ought to be a good deal more killing than a worm when the light begins to fade." " You have been a fisherman, then, at home 1 " "Yes, sir; I did a good deal of fishing round Athlone, and was taught to tie my own flies. I wish I had a packet of hooks the two one of our fellows made for me are well enough for worms, but they are rather clumsy for flies." "I used to be fond of fishing myself," Fane said; "but I have always bought my tackle, and I doubt whether I should make much hand at it, if left to my own devices. We are 140 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. not likely to be able to get any hooks till we get to Almeida, but I should think you would find some there." " I shall be able to get some wire to make them with, no doubt, sir." " I fancy after we have left Almeida you won't find many opportunities of fishing, O'Connor. We shall have other work on hand then, and shall, I hope, be able to buy what we want ; at any rate we shall have as good a chance of doing so as others, while along this road there is nothing to be had for love or money, and the peasants would no doubt be glad to sell us anything they have, but they are living on black bread themselves; and indeed, the greater part have moved away to less-frequented places. No doubt they will come back again as soon as we have all passed, but how long they will be allowed to live in peace and quietness is more than I can say. As long as it is only our troops who come along they have nothing much to complain of, for they can sell everything they have to dispose of at prices they never dreamt of before ; but they complain bitterly of the French, who ate their fruit and drank their wine, killed their pigs and fowls, appropriated their cattle and horses, and they thought themselves lucky to escape with their lives. You see there are very few men about here, they have all gone off to join one or other of the Portu guese bands." "I fancy these Portuguese fellows will turn out useful some day, General," Major Errington said. "They are stout fellows, and though I don't think the townspeople would be of any good, the peasantry ought to make good soldiers if the} r were well drilled and led." " That is a very large if," Fane laughed. " I see no signs of any leader, and unless we could lend them a few hundred non commissioned officers I don't see where their drill instructors are to come from. Still, I have more hope of them than I have of the Spaniards. Those men under Trant were never tried much under fire, but they certainly improved in disci- A FALSE ALARM. 141 pline very much in the short time they were with us. If we could but get rid of all the Portuguese authorities and take the people in hand ourselves, we ought to be able to turn out fifty thousand good fighting troops in the course of a few months, but so long as things go on as they are I see no hope of any efficient aid from them." At Almeida Terence managed to procure some hooks. They were clumsily made, but greatly superior to anything that he could turn out himself. He was also able to procure some strong lines, but the use of flies seemed to be altogether un known. However, during his stay he made half a dozen different patterns, and with these in a small tin box and a coil of line stowed away at the bottom of one of his holsters, he felt that if opportunity should occur he ought to be able to have fair sport. He had suffered a good deal during the heavy rains which came on occasionally, from the fact that his infantry cloak was not ample enough to cover his legs when riding. He was fortunate enough here to be able to buy a pair of long riding boots, and with these and a pair of thick canvas trousers, made by one of the regimental tailors, and coming down just below the knee, he felt that in future he could defy the rain. At Salamanca there were far better opportunities of the officers supplementing their outfits. Landing on the Mondego early in August, they had made provision against the heat, but had brought no outfit at all suited for wear in winter, and all seized the opportunity of providing themselves with warm under-garments, had linings sewn into greatcoats, and other wise prepared for the cold which would shortly set in. The greater part of the troops were here quartered in the convents and other extensive buildings, and as Fane's brigade was one of the first to arrive they enjoyed a short period of well-earned rest. Terence had by this time picked up a good deal of Portuguese, and was able to make himself pretty well under stood by the Spanish shopkeepers. He, as well as the other officers, was astonished and disgusted at the lethargy that 142 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. prevailed when, as all now knew, the great Spanish armies were scattered to the winds, and large bodies of French troops were advancing in all directions to crush out the last spark of resistance. The officers of the Mayo Fusiliers had established a mess, and Terence often dined there. He was always eagerly questioned as to what was going to be done. "I can assure you, O'Grady," he said one day, "that aides- de-camp are not admitted to the confidence of the officer com- manding-in-chief. I know no more as to Sir John's intentions than the youngest drummer-boy. I suppose that everything will depend upon the weather, and whether General Hope, with the artillery and cavalry, manages to join us. If he does, I suppose we shall fight a battle before we fall back. If he does not, I suppose we shall have to fall back without fighting, if the French will let us." " I wish, Terence, you would give these lazy Spaniards a good fright, just as you gave the people at Athlone. Faith, I would give a couple of months' pay to see them regularly scared." " If I were not on the staff I might try it, O'Grady, but it would never do for me to try such a thing now." Dick Ryan, who was standing by, winked significantly, and in a short time he and Terence were talking eagerly together in a corner of the room. "Who is to know you are a staff-officer, Terence?" the latter urged. " Isn't it an infantry uniform that you are wear ing ? and ain't there hundreds of infantry officers here 1 It was good fun at Athlone, but I don't think that many of them believed there was any real danger. It would be altogether different here; they are scared enough as it is, though they walk about with their cloaks wrapped round them and pretend to be mighty confident." "Let us come and talk it over outside, Dick. It did not much matter before if it had been discovered we had a hand A FALSE ALARM. 143 in it. Of course the colonel would have given us a wigging, but at heart he would have been as pleased at the joke as any of us. But it is a different affair here." Going out, they continued their talk and arranged their plans. Late the following night two English officers rushed suddenly into a drinking-shop close to the gate through which the road to Valladolid passed. " The French ! the French ! " one exclaimed. " Eun for your lives and give the alarm ! " The men all leapt to their feet, rushed out tumultuously, and scattered through the streets, shouting at the top of their voices: "The French are coming! the French are coming! Get up, or you will all be murdered in your beds ! " The alarm spread like wildfire, and Terence and Eyan made their way back, by the shortest line, to the room where most of the officers were still sitting smoking and chatting. "Any news, O'Connor?" the colonel asked. "Nothing that I have heard of, Colonel. I thought I would drop in for a cigar before turning in." A few minutes later Tim Hoolan entered. " There is a shindy in the town, your honour," he said to the Colonel. " Meself does not know what it is about; but they are hollooing and bawling fit to kill themselves." One of the officers went to the window and threw it up. "Hoolan is right, Colonel; there is something the matter. There " he broke off as a church bell pealed out with loud and rapid strokes. "That is the alarm, sure enough," the colonel exclaimed. "Be off at once, gentlemen, and get the men up and under arms." " I must be off to the general's quarters," Terence exclaimed, hastily putting on his greatcoat again. " The divil fly away with them," O'Grady grumbled, as he hastily finished the glass before him; "sorrow a bit of peace can I get at all, at all, in this bastely country." 144 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. Terence hurried away to his quarters. A score of church bells were now pealing out the alarm. From every house men and women rushed out panic-stricken, and eagerly questioned each other. All sorts of wild reports were circulated. " The British outposts have been driven in ; the Valladolid gate has been captured ; Napoleon himself with his whole army is pouring into the town." The shrieks of frightened women added to the din, above which the British bugles calling the troops to arms could be heard in various quarters of the city. "Oh, here you are, Mr. O'Connor ! " General Fane exclaimed as he hurried in. " Mr. Trevor has just started for the convent; he may be intercepted, and therefore do you carry the same message: the brigade is to get under arms at once, and to remain in readiness for action until I arrive. From what I can gather from these frightened fools, the French have already entered the town. If the convent is attacked, it is to be de fended until the last. I am going to head-quarters for orders." A good deal alarmed at the consequences of the tumult that he and Dick Ryan had excited, Terence made his way through the streets at a run; his progress, however, was impeded by the crowd, many of whom seized him as he passed and implored him to tell them the news. He observed that not a weapon was to be seen among the crowd; evidently resistance was absolutely unthought of. Trevor had reached the convent before him. The four regiments had already gathered there under arms. "Have you any orders, Mr. O'Connor ?" Colonel Corcoran asked eagerly, for the Mayo Fusiliers happened to be formed up next the gate of the convent. "No, sir; only to repeat those brought by Mr. Trevor, as the general thought that he might be intercepted on the way, The troops are to remain here in readiness until he arrives. If attacked, they are to hold the convent until the last." " Have you seen any signs of the French ?" A FALSE ALARM. 145 "None whatever, Colonel." " Did you hear any firing?" "No, sir; but there was such an uproar what with the church bells, everyone shouting, and the women screaming - that I don't suppose I should have heard it unless it had been quite close." "We thought we heard musketry," the colonel replied, "but it might have been only fancy. There is such a hullabaloo in the city that we might not have heard the fire of small-arms, but I think that we must have heard artillery." In ten minutes Fane with his staff galloped in. "The brigade will march down towards the Valladolid gate," he said. " If you encounter any enemies, Colonel Corcoran, you will at once occupy the houses on both sides of the street and open fire upon them from the windows and roofs; the other regiments will charge them. At present," he went on as the colonel gave the order for the regiment to march, " we can obtain no information as to the cause of this uproar. An officer rode in, just as I was starting, from Anstruther's force, encamped outside the walls, asking for orders, and reporting that his outposts have seen no signs of the enemy. I believe it is a false alarm after all, and we are marching rather to reassure the populace than with any idea of meeting the enemy." The troops marched rapidly through the streets, making their way without ceremony through the terrified crowd. They had gone but a short distance when the bells of the churches one by one ceased their clamour, and a hush suc ceeded the din that had before prevailed. When the head of the column reached the gate, they saw Sir John Moore and his staff sitting there on horseback. Fane rode up to him for orders. ' It is, as I fancied, wholly a false alarm," the general said. "How it could have started I have no idea. I have had another report from Anstruther; all is quiet at the outposts, and there is no sign whatever of the enemy. There is nothing (H359) K 146 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. to do but to march the troops back to barracks. However, I am not sorry, for possibly the scare may wake the authorities up to the necessity of taking some steps for the protection of the town." Terence rode back with General Fane to his quarters. "I cannot make out," Trevor said as they went, "how the scare can have begun; everything was quiet enough. I was just thinking of turning in when we heard a shouting in the streets. In three minutes the whole town seemed to have gone mad, and I made sure that the French must be upon us; but I could not make out how they could have done so without our outposts giving the alarm. Where were you when it began?" "I was in the mess-room of the Mayos, when one of the servants ran in to say that there was a row. Directly after wards the alarm-bells began to ring, the colonel at once gave orders for the regiment to be got under arms, and I ran back to the general for orders; and I must have passed you some where on the road. Did you ever see such cowards as these Spaniards? Though there are arms enough in the town for every man to bear a musket and certainly the greater portion of them have weapons of some sort or other I did not see a man with arms of any kind in his hand." " I noticed the same thing," Trevor said. " It is disgusting. It was evident that the sole thought that possessed them was as to their own wretched lives. I have no doubt that, if they could have had their will, they would have disarmed all our troops, in order that no resistance whatever should be offered. And yet only yesterday the fellows were all bragging about their patriotism, and the bravery that would be shown should the French make their appearance. It makes one sick to be fighting for such people." The following afternoon Terence went up to the convent. "Well, O'Connor, have you heard how it all began?" the colonel asked as he went into the mess-room. '' No one seems to know at all, Colonel. The authorities are A FALSE ALARM. 147 making inquiries, but as far as I have heard, nothing has taken place to account for it." " It reminds me," the colonel said, shutting one eye and looking fixedly at Terence, " of a certain affair that took place at Athlone." "I was thinking the same myself," Terence replied quietly, " only the scare was a good deal greater here than it was there; besides, a good many of the townspeople in Athlone did turn out with guns in their hands, whereas here, I believe every man in the town hid his gun in his bed before running out." " I always suspected you of having a hand in that matter, Terence." " Did you, Colonel ?" Terence said in a tone of surprise. " Well, as, fortunately, I was sitting here when this row began, you cannot suspect me this time." " I don't know; you and Ryan came in together, which was suspicious in itself, and it was not two minutes after you had come in that the rumpus began. Just give me a wink, lad, if you had a finger in the matter. You know you are safe with me; besides, ain't you a staff officer now, and outside my juris diction altogether 1" "Well, Colonel, a wink does not cost anything," Terence said, "so here is to ye." He exchanged a wink with the colonel, who burst into a fit of laughter so loud that he startled all the other officers, who at once came up to hear the joke. "It is just a little story that Terence has been telling me," the colonel said when he had recovered his breath, " about the scare last night, and how a young woman, with next to nothing on her, threw her arms round his neck and begged him to save her. The poor young fellow blushed up to his eyelids with the shame of it in the public streets ! " 148 WITH MOORE AT GORUNNA. CHAPTER IX. THE RETREAT. O'GRADY asked no questions, but presently whispered to Terence: "Faith, ye did it well, me boy." " Did what well, O'Grady 1" " You need not tell me about it, Terence. I was expecting it. Didn't I spake to ye the day before about it, and didn't I feel sure that something Avould come of it? When that row began last night, I looked at you hard and saw you wink at that young spalpeen, Dicky Ryan; and sure all the time that we were standing there, formed up, I well-nigh burst the buttons off me coatee in holding in me laughter, when every one else Avas full of excitement. "'Are you ill, O'Grady?' the colonel said, for I had to sit meself down on some steps and rock meself to and fro to aise myself. 'Is it sick ye are?' 'A sudden pain has saised me, Colonel,' says I, 'but I will be all right in a minute.' ' Take a dram out of me flask,' says he; 'something must have gone wrong wid ye.' I took a drink " That I may be sure you did," Terence interrupted. " And thin told him that I felt better; but as we marched down through the crowd and saw the fright of the men, and the women screaming in their night-gowns at the windows, faith, I well-nigh choked." " Have you spoken to Ryan about this absurd suspicion, O'Grady V " I spoke to him, but I might as well have spoke to a brick wall. Divil a thing could I get out of him. How did you manage it at all, lad?" " How could I manage it ?" Terence said indignantly. " No, no, O'Grady; I know you did make some remark about that scare at Athlone, and said it would be fun to have one here. THE RETREAT. 149 I was a little shocked at hearing such a thing from, as you often say, a superior officer, and it certainly appears to me that it was you who first broached the idea. So I have much more right to feel a suspicion that you had a hand in the carrying of it out than for you to suspect me." " Well, Terence," O'Grady said in an insinuating way, " I won't ask you any questions now, and maybe some day when you have marched away from this place, you will tell me the ins and outs of the business." " Maybe, O'Grady, and perhaps you will also confess to me how you managed to bring the scare about." "Go along wid you, Terence, it is yourself knows better than anyone else that I had nothing to do with it, and I will never forgive you until you make a clean breast of it to me." " We shall see about it," Terence laughed. " Anyhow, if you allude to the subject again, I shall feel it my duty to inform the colonel of my reasons for suspecting that you were concerned in spreading those false reports last night." "It was first-rate, wasn't it?" Dick Eyan said as he joined Terence, when the latter left the mess-room." " It was good fun, Dicky; but I tell you, for a time I was quite as much scared as anyone else. I never thought that it would have gone quite so far. When it came to all the troops turning out, and Sir John and everyone, I felt that there would be an awful row if we were ever found out." "It was splendid, Terence. I knew that we could not be found out when we had not told a soul. Did you ever see such a funk as the Spaniards were all in, and after all their bragging and the airs that they had given themselves. Our men were so savage at their cowardice, that I believe they would have liked nothing better than an order to pitch into them. And didn't the women yell and howl 1 It is the best lark we have ever had." " It is good fun to look back at, Dicky, but I shall be glad when we are out of this. The Spanish authorities are making 150 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. all sorts of inquiries, and I have no doubt that they will get hold of some of the men in that wine-shop, and it will come out that two British officers started the alarm." "What if it did?" Ryan said. "There were only two wretched candles burning in the place, and they could not have got a fair sight at us, and indeed they all jumped up and bolted the moment we spoke. I will bet that there is not one among them who would be able to swear to us though we were standing before him; and I have no doubt if they were ques tioned every man would give a different account of what we were like. I have no fear that they will ever find us out. Still, I shall be glad when we are out of this old place. Not because I am afraid about our share in that business being discovered, but we have been here nearly a fortnight now, and as we know there is a strong French force within ten miles of us, I think that it is about time that the fun began. You don't think that we are going to retreat, do you 1 ?" " I don't know any more about it than you do, Dicky; but I feel absolutely sure that we shall retreat, I don't see any thing else for us to do. Every day fresh news comes in about the strength of the French, and as the Spanish resistance is now pretty well over, and Madrid has fallen, they will all be free to march against us; and even when Hope has joined us, we shall only be about 20,000 strong, and they have at the least ten times that force. I think we shall be mighty lucky if we get back across the frontier into Portugal before they are all on us." Sir John Moore, however, was not disposed to retire without doing something for the cause of Spain. The French armies had not yet penetrated into the southern provinces, and he nobly resolved to make a movement that would draw the whole strength of the French towards him, and give time for the Spaniards in the south to gather the remains of their armies together and organize a resistance to the French advance. In view of the number and strength of the enemy no more THE RETREAT. 151 heroic resolution was ever taken by a military commander, and it was all the more to be admired, inasmuch as he could hope to win no victory that would cover himself and his army with glory, no success that would satisfy the public at home, and at best he could but hope, after long, fatiguing, and dan gerous marches, to effect his retreat from the overwhelming forces that would be hurled against him. While remaining at Salamanca, Sir John, foreseeing that a retreat into Portugal must be finally carried out, took steps to have magazines established on two of the principal routes to the coast, that a choice might be left open to him by which to retire when he had accomplished his main object of diverting the great French wave of invasion from the south. On the llth of December the march began, and for the next ten days the army advanced farther and farther into the country. So far Moore had only Soult's army opposing his advance towards Burgos, and it might be possible to strike a heavy blow at that general before Napoleon, who was con vinced that the British must fall back into Portugal if they had not already begun to do so, should come up. He had been solemnly assured that he should be joined by Romana with 14,000 picked men, but that general had with him but 5000 peasants, who were in such a miserable condition that when the British reached the spot where the junction was to be effected, he was ashamed to show them, and marched away into Leon. The British, in order to obtain forage, were obliged to move along several lines of route. Sir David Baird's division joined them as they advanced, and when they reached the Carrion their effective force amounted to 23,583 men with sixty pieces of artillery. On the French side, Soult had, on hearing of the British advance to the north-east, by which, if successful, they would cut the French lines of communication between Madrid and the frontier, called up all his detached troops, and wrote to the governor of Burgos to divert to his 152 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. assistance all troops coming along the road from France, what ever their destination might be. On the 21st Lord Paget, with the 10th and 15th Hussars, surprised a French cavalry force at Sahagun, and ordered the 15th to turn their position and endeavour to cut them off. When with the 10th Hussars Lord Paget arrived in the rear of the village, he found six hundred French dragoons drawn up and ready to attack him. He at once charged and broke them and pursued them for some distance. Twenty were killed, thirteen officers and 154 men taken prisoners. On the 23rd, Soult had concentrated his forces at the town of Carrion, and that night the British troops were got in motion to attack them, the two forces being about even in numbers; but scarcely had he moved forward when reports, both from Romana and his own spies, reached Sir John Moore to the effect that his march had achieved the object with which it was undertaken. Orders had been sent by Napoleon for the whole of the French armies to move at once against the British, while he himself with the troops at Madrid, 70,000 strong, had started by forced marches to fall upon him. The instant Moore received this information he arrested the forward movement of his troops. His object had been attained. The French invasion of the south was arrested, and time given to the Spaniards. There was nothing now but to fall back with all speed. It was well indeed that he did not carry out his intention of attacking Soult. The latter had that day received orders from the emperor not to give battle, but to fall back, and so tempt Moore to pursue, in which case his line of retreat would have been intercepted and his army irretrievably lost. The order to retreat was an unwelcome one indeed to the troops. For twelve days they had marched through deep snow and suffered fatigues, privations, and hardships. That evening they had expected to be repaid for their exertions by a battle and a victory on the following morning, and the order THE RETREAT. 153 to retreat, coming at such a moment, was a bitter disappoint ment indeed. They were, of course, ignorant of the reasons for this sudden change, and the officers shared the discontent of the troops, a feeling that largely accounted for the disorders and losses that took place during the retreat. Napoleon led his troops north with his usual impetuosity. The deep snow choked the passes through the mountains. The generals, after twelve hours of labour, reported the roads impracticable, but Napoleon placed himself at the head of the column, and, amidst a storm of snow and driving hail, led them over the mountain. With tremendous efforts he reached Desillas on the 26th; while Houssaye entered Valladolid on the same day, and Ney, with the 6th corps, arrived at Rio Seco. Full of hope that he had caught the British, the emperor pushed on towards Barras, only to find that he was twelve hours too late. Moore had, the instant he received the news, sent back the heavy baggage with the main body of infantry, him self following more slowly with the light brigade and cavalry, the latter at times pushing parties up to the enemy's line and skirmishing with his outposts to prevent Soult from suspecting that the army had retreated. On the 26th the whole army, moving by different routes, approached the river Esla, which they crossed in a thick fog which greatly hindered the opera tion. A brigade remained on the left bank to protect the passage, for the enemy's cavalry were already close at hand, and Soult was hotly pressing in pursuit. A strong body of horse belonging to the emperor's army intercepted Lord Paget near Mayorga, but two squadrons of the 10th Hussars charged up the rising ground on which they had posted themselves, and notwithstanding their disadvantage in numbers and position, killed twenty and took a hundred prisoners. Moore made but a short pause on the Esla, for that position could be turned by the forces advancing from the south. He waited, therefore, only until he could clear out 154 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. his magazines, collect his stragglers, and send forward his bag gage. He ordered the bridge by which the army had crossed to be broken down, and left Crawford to perform this duty. Short as the retreat had been, it had already sufficed to damage most seriously the morale of the army. The splendid discipline and order that had been shown during the advance was now gone; many of the regimental officers altogether neglected their duties, and the troops were insubordinate. Great numbers straggled, plundered the villages, and com mitted excesses of all sorts, and already the general had been forced to issue an order reproaching the army for its conduct, and appealing to the honour of the soldiers to second his efforts. Valiant in battle, capable of the greatest efforts on the march, hardy in enduring fatigue and the inclemency of weather, the British soldier always deteriorates rapidly when his back is turned to the enemy. Confident in his bravery, regarding victory as assured, he is unable to understand the necessity for retreat, and considers himself degraded by being ordered to retire, and regards prudence on the part of his general as equivalent to cowardice. The armies of Wellington deteriorated with the same rapidity as this force, when upon two occasions it was necessary to retreat when threatened by overwhelming forces; and yet, however disorganized, the British soldier recovers his discipline the instant he is attacked, and fiercely turns upon his pursuers. At the bridge across the Esla two privates of the 3rd gave an example of splendid courage and determination. It was night. Some of the baggage was still on the farther bank, and the two men were posted as sentries beyond the bridge, their orders being that if an enemy appeared, one should fire and then run back to the bridge and shout to warn the guard whether the enemy were in force or not. The other was to maintain his post as long as possible. During the night the light cavalry of the imperial guard rode down. Jackson, one of the sentries, fired and ran back to "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, TERENCE? . . . WE COULD HAVE THRASHED THEM OUT OF THEIR BOOTS IN NO TIME." THE RETREAT. 155 give the alarm. He was overtaken, and received over a dozen sabre cuts; nevertheless he staggered on until he reached the bridge, and gave the signal. Walton, the other sentry, with equal resolution stood his ground and wounded several of his assailants, who, as they drew off, left him unhurt, although his cap, knapsack, belt, and musket were cut in over twenty places, and his bayonet bent double. Terence O'Connor's duties had been light enough during the advance, but during the three days of the retreat to the Esla he had been incessantly occupied. He and Trevor had both been directed to ride backwards and forwards along the line of the brigade to see that there was no straggling in the ranks, and that the baggage carts in the rear kept close up. The task was no easy one, and was unpleasant as well as hard. Many of the officers plodded sulkily along, paying no atten tion whatever to their men, allowing them to straggle as they chose; and they were obliged to report several of the worst cases to the brigadier. With the Mayo Fusiliers they had less trouble than with others. Terence had, when he joined them at their first halt after the retreat began, found them as angry and discontented as the rest at the unexpected order, and was at once assailed with questions and complaints. He listened to them quietly, and then said: " Of course, if you all prefer a French prison to a few days' hard marching, you have good reason to grumble at being baulked in your wishes; that is all I have to say about it." "What do you mean, Terence?" O'Grady asked angrily. " Soult's force was not stronger than ours, at least so we heard; and if it had been it would make no difference, we would have thrashed them out of their boots in no time." "I dare say we should, O'Grady, and what then?" "Well, I don't know what then," O'Grady said, after a moment's silence; "that would have been the general's business." "Quite so; and so is this. There you would have been with 156 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. perhaps a couple of thousand wounded and as many French prisoners, and Napoleon with 60,000 men or so, and Ney with as many more, and Houssaye with his cavalry division all in your rear cutting you off from the sea. What would have been your course then?" A general silence fell upon the officers. "Is that so?" the colonel asked at last. " That is so," Terence said gravely. " All these and other troops are marching night and day to intercept us. It is no question of fighting now. Victory over Soult, so far from being of any use, would only have burdened us with wounded and prisoners, and even a day's delay would be absolutely fatal. As it is, it is a question whether we shall have time to get back to the coast before they are all posted in our front. Every hour is of the greatest importance. You all know that we have talked over lots of times how dangerous our posi tion is. General Fane told us when the orders to retreat were issued, that he believed the peril to be even more imminent than we thought. We all know when we marched north from Salamanca, that, without a single Spaniard to back us, all that could be hoped for was to aid Saragossa and Seville and Cadiz to gather the levies in the south and prepare for defence, and that ere long we should have any number of enemies upon us. That is what has precisely happened, and now there is grum bling because the object has been attained, and that you are not allowed to fight a battle that, whether won or lost, would equally ruin us." "Sure ye are right," O'Grady said warmly, "and we are a set of omadhouns. You have sense in your head, Terence, and there is no gainsaying you. I was grumbling more than the rest of them, but I won't grumble any more. Still, I suppose that there is no harm in hoping we shall have just a bit of fighting before we get back to Portugal." " We shall be lucky if we don't have a good deal of fighting, O'Grady, and against odds that will satisfy even you. As to THE RETREAT. 157 Portugal, there is no chance of our getting there. Ney will certainly cut that road, and the emperor will, most likely, also do so, as you can see for yourself on the map." " Divil a map have I ever looked at since I was at school," O'Grady said. " Then if we can't get back to Portugal where shall we get to?" " To one of the northern seaports ; of course I don't know which has been decided upon, I don't suppose the general him self has settled that yet. It must depend upon the roads and the movements of the enemy, and whether there is a defensible position near the port that we can hold in case the fleet and transports cannot be got there by the time we arrive." " Faith, Terence, ye're a walking encyclopeydia. You have got the matter at your finger ends." " I don't pretend to know any more than anyone else," Terence said with a laugh. "But of course I hear matters talked over at the brigade mess. I don't think that Fane knows more of the general's absolute plans than you do. I dare say the divisional generals know, but it would not go further. Still, as Fane and Errington and Dowdeswell know something about war besides the absolute fighting, they can form some idea as to the plans that will be adopted." "Well, Terence," the colonel said, "I didn't think the time was coming so soon when I was going to be instructed by your father's son, but I will own that you have made me feel that I have begun campaigning too late in life, and that you have given me a lesson." "I did not mean to do that, Colonel," Terence said, a good deal abashed. "It was O'Grady I was chiefly speaking to." " Your supeyrior officer ! " O'Grady murmured. "My superior officer, certainly," Terence went on with a smile. " But who, having, as he says, never looked at a map since he left school, while I have naturally studied one every evening since we started from Torres Vedras, can therefore know no more about the situation than does Tim Hoolan. 158 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. But I certainly never intended my remarks to apply to you, Colonel." " They hit the mark all the same, lad, and the shame is mine and not yours. I think you have done us all good. One doesn't care when one is retreating for a good reason, but when one marches for twelve days to meet an enemy, and then, when just close to him, one turns one's back and runs away, it is enough to disgust an Englishman let alone an Irish man. Well, boys, now we see it is all right, we will do our duty as well on the retreat as we did on the advance, and divil a grumble shall there be in my hearing." From that moment, therefore, the Mayo Fusiliers were an example to the brigade. Any grumble in the ranks was met with a cheerful " ^Yhist, boys ! do you think that you know the general's business better than he does himself. It is plenty of fighting you are likely to get before you have done, never fear. Now is the time, boys, to get the regiment a good name. The general knows that we can fight. Now let him see that we can wait patiently till we get another chance. Remember, the better temper you are in the less you will feel the cold." So, laughing and joking, and occasionally breaking into a song, the Mayo Fusiliers pushed steadily forward, and the colonel that evening congratulated the men that not one had fallen out. " Keep that up, boys," he said. " It will be a proud day for me when we get to our journey's end, wherever that may be, to be able to say to the brigadier: 'Except those who have been killed by the enemy, here is my regiment just as it was when it started from the Carrion not a man has fallen out, not a man has straggled away, not a man has made a baste of himself and was unfit to fall in the next morning.' I know them," he said to O'Driscol, as the regiment was dismissed from parade. " They will not fall out, they will not straggle, but if they come to a place where wine's in plenty, they will make bastes of themselves; and after all," he added, "after the work they have gone through, who is to blame them?" THE RETREAT. 159 At the halt the next evening at Bembibre the colonel's forebodings that the men could not be trusted where liquor was plentiful were happily not verified. There were immense wine vaults in the town. These were broken open, and were speedily crowded by disbanded Spaniards, soldiers, camp-fol lowers, muleteers, women and children the latter taking refuge there from the terrible cold. The rear-guard, to which the Mayo regiment had been attached the evening before, found that Baird's division had gone on, but that vast numbers of drunken soldiers had been left behind. General Moore was himself with the rear-guard, and the utmost efforts were made to induce the drunkards to rejoin their regiments. He himself appealed to the troops, instructing the commanders of the dif ferent regiments to say that he relied implicitly upon the soldiers to do their duty. The French might at any moment be up, and every man must be in his ranks. No men were to fall out or to enter any wine-house or cellar, but each should have at once a pint of wine served out to him, and as much more before they marched in the morning. After the colonel read out this order, he supplemented it by saying, "Now, boys, the credit of the regiment is at stake. It is a big honour that has been paid you in choosing you to join the rear-guard, and you have got to show that you deserve it. As soon as it can be drawn you will have your pint of wine each, which will be enough to warm your fingers and toes. Wait here in the ranks till you have drunk your wine and eaten some of the bread in your haversacks, and by that time I will see what I can do for you. You will have another pint before starting; but mind, though I hope there isn't a mother's son who would bring discredit on the regiment, I warn you that I shall give the officers instructions to shoot down any man who wanders from the ranks in search of liquor. The French may be here in half an hour after we have started, and it is better to be shot than to be sabred by a French dragoon, which will happen surely enough to 160 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. every baste who has drunk too much to go on with the troops." Only a few murmurs were heard at the conclusion of the speech. "Now, gentlemen," the colonel said, "will half a dozen of you see to the wine. Get hold of some of those fellows loafing about there and make them roll out as many barrels as will supply a pint to every man in the regiment, ourselves as well as the men. O'Grady, take Lieutenant Horton and Mr. Haldane and two sergeants with you. Here is my purse. Go through the town and get some bread and anything else in the way of food that you can lay your hands upon. And, if you can, above all things get some tobacco." O'Grady's search was for a time unsuccessful, as the soldiers and camp-followers had already broken into the shops and stores. In an unfrequented street, however, they came across a large building. He knocked at the door Avith the hilt of his sword. It was opened after a time by an old man. "What house is this?" "It is a tobacco factory," he replied. " Be jabers, we have come to the right place. I want about half a ton of it. We are not robbers, and I will pay for what we take." Then another idea struck him. " Wait a moment, I will be back again in no time. Horton, do you stay here and take charge of the men. I am going back to the colonel." He found on reaching the regiment that the men were already drinking their wine and eating their bread. " I am afraid 1 shall never keep them, O'Grady," the colonel said mournfully. " It is scarcely in human nature to see men straggling about as full as they can hold, and know that there is liquor to be had for taking it and not to go for it." "It is all right, Colonel. I know that we can never keep the men if we turn them into the houses to sleep; but I have found a big building that will hold the whole regiment, and the best of it is that it is a tobacco factory. I expect it is run THE RETREAT. 161 by the authorities of the place, and as we are doing what we can for them, they need not grudge us what we take; and faith, the boys will be quiet and contented enough, so that they do but get enough to keep their pipes going, and know that they will march in the morning with a bit in their knapsacks." " The very thing, O'Grady ! Pass the word for the regiment to fall in the instant they have finished their meal." It was not long before they were ready, and in a few minutes, guided by O'Grady, the head of the regiment reached the building. "Who is the owner of this place 1 ?" the colonel asked the old man, who, with a lantern in his hand, was still standing at the door. "The Central Junta of the Province has of late taken it, your Excellency." " Good ! then we will be the guests of the Central Junta of the Province for the night." Then he raised his voice, "Boys, here is a warm lodging for you for the night, and tobacco galore for your pipes; and, for those who haven't got them, cigars. Just wait until I have got some lights, and then file inside in good order." There was no difficulty about this, for the factory was in winter worked long after dark set in. In a very few minutes the place was lighted up from end to end. The troops were then marched in and divided amongst the various rooms. "Now, boys, tell the men to smoke a couple of pipes, and then to lie down to sleep. In the morning each man can put as much tobacco into his knapsack and pockets as they will hold, and when we halt they can give some of it away to regi ments that have not been as lucky as themselves." The men sat down in the highest state of satisfaction. Boxes of cigars were broken open, and in a couple of minutes almost every man and officer in the regiment had one alight in his mouth. There were few, however, who got beyond one cigar; the warmth of the place after their long march in the (M359) L 162 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. snow speedily had its effect, and in half an hour silence reigned in the factory, save for a murmur of voices in one of the lower rooms where the officers were located. " O'Grady, you are a broth of a boy," the colonel said. "The men have scarce had a smoke for the last week, and it will do them a world of good. We have got them all under one roof, and there is no fear that anyone will want to get out, and they will fall in in the morning as fresh as paint. Half an hour before bugle-call three or four of you had best turn out with a dozen men and roll up enough barrels from the vaults to give them the drink promised to them, before starting. Who will volunteer?" Half a dozen officers at once offered to go, and a captain and three lieutenants were told off for the work. "They know how to make cigars if they don't know any thing else," Captain O'Driscol said; "this is a first-rate weed." "So it ought to be by the brand," another officer said. " I took the two boxes from a cupboard that was locked up. There are a dozen more like them, and I thought it was as well to take them out; they are at present under the table. I have no doubt that they are real Havannas, and have prob ably been got for some grandee or other." "He will have to do without them," O'Grady said calmly as he lighted his second cigar; "they are too good for any Spaniard under the sun. And moreover, if we did not take them you may be sure that the French would have them to-morrow, and I should say that the Central Junta of the Province will be mighty pleased to know that the tobacco was smoked by their allies instead of by the French." "I don't suppose that they will care much about it one way or another," O'Driscol remarked; "their pockets are so full of English gold that the loss of a few tons of tobacco won't affect them much. I enjoy my cigar immensely, and have the satis faction of knowing that for once I have got something out of a Spaniard it is the first thing since I landed." THE RETREAT. 163 " Well, boys, we had better be off to sleep," the colonel said. " I am so sleepy that I can hardly keep my eyes open, and you ought to be worse, for you have tramped well-nigh forty miles to-day. See that the sentry at the door keeps awake, Captain Humphrey; you are officer of the day; upon my word I am sorry for you. Tell him he can light up if he likes, but if he sees an officer coming round he must get rid of it. Mind the sentries are changed regularly, for I expect that we shall sleep so soundly that if all the bugles in the place were sound ing an alarm we should not hear them." "All right, Colonel! I have got Sergeant Jackson in charge of the reliefs in the passage outside, and I think that I can depend upon him, but I will tell him to wake me up whenever he changes the sentries. I don't say I shall turn out myself, but as long as he calls me I shall know that he is awake, and that it is all right. I had better tell him to call you half an hour before bugle-call, Sullivan, so that you can wake the others and get the wine here ; he mustn't be a minute after the half-hour. Thank goodness, we don't have to furnish the outposts to-night." In ten minutes all were asleep on the floor, wrapped in their greatcoats, the officer of the day taking his place next the door so that he could be roused easily. Every hour one or other of the two non-commissioned officers in charge of the guard in the passage opened the door a few inches and said softly, "I am relieving the sentries, sir;" and each time the officer murmured assent. Sullivan was called at the appointed time, got up, and stretched himself grumbling : " I don't believe that I have been asleep ten minutes." On going out into the passage, however, where a light was burning, his watch told him that it was indeed time to be moving. He woke the others, and with the men went down to the cellars. Here the scene of confusion was great; drunken men lay thickly about the floor, others sat cup in hand talking, 164 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. or singing snatches of song, Spanish or English. Hastily picking out enough unbroken casks for the purpose, he set the men to carry them up to the street, and they were then rolled along to the factory. Just as they reached the door the bugle-call sounded; the men were soon on their feet, refreshed by a good night's sleep. The casks were broached, and the wine served out. "It is awful, Colonel," Sullivan said. "There will be hun dreds of men left behind. There must have been over that number in the cellar I went into, and there are a dozen others in the town. I never saw such a disgusting scene." Scarcely had they finished when the assemble sounded, and the regiment at once fell-in outside the factory, every man with knapsack and haversack bulging out with tobacco. They then joined the rest of the troops in the main street. General Moore had made a vain attempt to rouse the besotted men. A few of those least overcome joined the rear-guard, but the greater number were too drunk to listen to orders, or even to the warning that the French would be into the town as soon as the troops marched out. CHAPTER X. CORUNNA. AS the confusion in the streets increased from the pouring out from the houses and cellars of the camp-followers, women and children, together with men less drunk than their comrades, but still unable to walk steadily, who filled the air with shouts and drunken execrations, Colonel Corcoran rode along the line. " Just look at that, boys," he said. " Isn't it better for you to be standing here like dacent men, ready to do your duty, than to be rolling about in a state like those drunken black- CORUNNA. 165 guards, for the sake of half an hour's pleasure. Sure it is enough to make every mother's son of you swear off liquor till ye get home again. When the French get inside the town there is not one of the drunken bastes that won't be either killed or marched away a thousand miles to a French prison, and all for half an hour's drink." The lesson was indeed u striking one, and careless as many of the men were, it brought home to them with greater force than ever before in their lives, not only the folly but the degradation of drunkenness. A few minutes later General Moore, who was riding up and down the line inspecting the condition of the men in each regiment, came along. "Your men look very well, Colonel," he said as he reached the Fusiliers. " How many are you short of your number ? " " Not a man, General ; I am happy to say that there was not a single one that did not answer when his name was called." "That is good, indeed," the general said warmly. "I am happy to say that all the regiments of the rear-guard have turned out well, and shewn themselves worthy of the trust reposed in them; none, however, can give so good a report as you have done. I selected your regiment to strengthen this division from the excellent order that I observed you kept along the line of march, and I am glad indeed that it has shown itself so worthy of the honour. March your regiment across to the side of the street, let the others pass you, and fall in at the rear of the column. I shall give the Mayo Fusiliers the post of honour, as a mark of my warm approbation for the manner in which they have turned out." Scarcely had the troops left the town when the French cavalry poured in. Now that it was too late the sense of danger penetrated the brains of the revellers, and the mob of disbanded Spanish and British soldiers and camp-followers poured out from the cellars. Few of the soldiers had the sense even to bring up their muskets. Most of those who did so were too drunk to use them, and the French troopers rode 166 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. through the mob, sabring them right and left and trampling them under foot, and then, riding forward without a pause, set out in pursuit of the retiring columns. As they came clattering along the road the colonel ordered the last two companies to halt, and when the head of the squadron was within fifty yards of them, and the troopers were beginning to check their horses, a heavy volley was poured in, which sent them to the right-about as fast as they had come, and emptied a score of saddles. Then the two companies formed fours again, and went on at the double until they reached the rear of the column. All day the French cavalry menaced the retreat, until Lord Paget came back with a regiment of hussars and drove them back in confusion, pursuing them a couple of miles with the view of discovering whether they were followed by infantry. Such, however, was not the case, and the column was not further molested until they reached Cacabolos, where they were halted. The rest of the army had moved on, the troops com mitting excesses similar to those that had taken place at Bembibre, and plundering the shops and houses. The division marched over a deep stream crossed by a stone bridge, and took up their ground on a lofty ridge, the ascent being broken by vineyards and stone walls. Four hundred men of the rifles and as many cavalry were posted on a hill two miles beyond the river to watch the roads. They had scarcely taken their post when the enemy were seen approaching, pre ceded by six or eight squadrons of cavalry. The rifles were at once withdrawn, and the cavalry, believing that the Avhole French army was advancing, presently followed them, and, riding fast, came up to the infantry just as they were crossing the bridge. Before all the infantry were over the French cavalry came down at a furious gallop, and for a time all was confusion. Then the rifles, throwing themselves among the vineyards and behind the walls, opened a heavy fire. The French general in com- CORUNNA. 167 mand of the cavalry was killed with a number of his troops, and the rest of the cavalry fell back. A regiment of light infantry had followed them across the bridge, and two companies of the 52nd and as many of the Mayo regiment went down the hill and reinforced the rifles. A sharp fight ensued until the main body of the French infantry approached the bridge. A battery of artillery opened upon them, and seeing the strength of the British division, and believing that the whole army was before him, Soult called back his troops. The voltigeurs retired across the bridge again, and the fight came to an end. Between two and three hundred men had been killed or wounded. As soon as night came on the British force resumed its march, leaving two companies of the rifles as piquets at the bridge. The French crossed again in the night, but after some fighting fell back again without having been able to ascertain whether the main body of the defenders of the position were still there. Later on the rifles fell back, and at daybreak re joined the main body of the rear-guard, which had reached Becerrea, eighteen miles away. Here General Moore received the report from the engineers he had sent to examine the harbours, and they reported iir favour of Corunna, which possessed facilities for defence which were lacking at Vigo. Accordingly he sent off orders to the fleet, which was lying at the latter port, to sail at once for Corunna, and directed the various divisions of the army to move on that town. The rear-guard passed the day without moving, enjoying a welcome rest after the thirty-six miles they had covered the day before. By this march they had gained a long start of the enemy and had in the evening reached the town, the division before them had quitted that morning. The scene as they marched along was a painful one. Every day added to the numbers of the stragglers. The excesses in drink exhausted the strength of the troops far more than did the fatigue of the marches. Their shoes were worn out; many of them limped along with rags tied round their feet. Even more painful than 168 WITH MOOKE AT CORUNNA. the sight of these dejected and worn-out men was that of the camp-followers. These, in addition to their terrible hardships and fatigue, were worn out with hunger, and almost famished. Numbers of them died by the roadside, others still crawled on in silent misery. Nothing could be done to aid these poor creatures. The troops themselves were insufficiently fed, for the evil conduct of the soldiers who first marched through the towns defeated all the efforts of the commissariat; for they had broken into the bakers' shops and so maltreated the inhabitants that the people fled in terror, and no bread could be obtained for the use of the divisions in the rear. Towards evening the next day the reserve approached Constantina. The French were now close upon their rear. A bridge over a river had to be crossed to reach the town, and as there was a hill within a pistol-shot of the river, from which the French artillery could sweep the bridge, Sir John Moore placed the riflemen and artillery on it. The enemy, believing that he intended to give battle, halted, and before their preparations could be made the troops were across the bridge, and were joined by the artillery which had retired at full speed. The French advanced and endeavoured to take the bridge. General Paget, however, held the post with two regiments of cavalry, and then fell back to Lugo, where the whole army was now assembled. The next day Sir John Moore issued an order strongly condemning the conduct of the troops, and stating that he intended to give battle to the enemy. The news effected an instant transformation. The stragglers who had left their regiments and entered the town by twos and threes at once rejoined their corps. Fifteen hundred men had been lost during the retreat, of whom the number killed formed but a small proportion. But the army still amounted to its former strength, as it Avas here joined by two fresh battalions who had been left at Lugo by General Baird on his march from the coast. The force therefore numbered CORUNNA. 169 19,000 men; for it had been weakened by some 4000 of the light troops having, early in the retreat, been directed towards other ports, in order to lessen as far as possible the strain on the commissariat. The position was a strong one, and when Soult at mid-day came up at the head of 12,000 men he saw at once that until his whole force arrived he could not venture to attack it. Like the British, his troops had suffered severely from the long marches, and many had dropped behind altogether. Uncertain whether he had the whole of the British before him, he sent a battery of artillery and some cavalry forward; when the former opened fire, they were immediately silenced by a reply from fifteen pieces. Then he made an attack upon the right, but was sharply repulsed with a loss of from three to four hundred men; and, convinced now that Moore was ready to give battle with his whole force, he drew off. The next day both armies remained in their positions. Soult had been joined by Laborde's division, and had 17,000 in fantry, 4000 cavalry, and 50 guns; the English had 16,000 infantry, 1800 cavalry, and 40 guns. The French made no movement to attack, and the British troops were furious at the delay. Soult, however, was waiting until Ney, who was advancing by another road, should threaten the British flank or cut the line of retreat. Moore, finding that Soult would not fight alone, and knowing that Ney was approaching, gave the order for the army to leave its position after nightfall and march for Corunna. He exhorted them to keep good order, and to make the effort which would be the last demanded from them. It was indeed impossible for him to remain at Lugo, even if Ney had not been close at hand, for there was not another day's supply of bread in the town. He took every precaution for securing that no errors should take place as to the route to be followed in the dark, for the ground behind the position was intersected by stone walls and a number of intricate lanes. To mark the right tracks, 170 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. bundles of straw were placed at intervals along the line, and officers appointed to guide the columns. All these precautions, however, were brought to nought by the ill-fortune that had dogged the general along the whole line of retreat. A tre mendous storm of wind and rain set in, the night was pitch dark, the bundles of straw were whirled away by the wind, and when the army silently left their post at ten o'clock at night, the task before them was a difficult one indeed. All the columns lost their way, and one division alone recovered the main road; the other two wandered about all night, buffeted by the wind, drenched by the rain, disheartened and weary. Some regiments entered what shelters they could find, the men soon scattered to plunder, stragglers fell out in hundreds, and at daybreak the remnants of the two divisions were still in Lugo. The moment the light afforded means of recovering their position, the columns resumed their march, the road be hind them being thickly dotted by stragglers. The rear-guard, commanded by the general himself, covered the rear, but fortunately the enemy did not come up until evening; but so numerous were the stragglers that when the French cavalry charged, they mustered in sufficient force to repel their attack, a proof that it was not so much fatigue as insubordination that caused them to lag behind. The rear-guard halted a few miles short of Friol and passed the night there, which enabled the disorganized army to rest and re-form. The loss during this unfortunate march was greater than that of all the former part of the retreat, added to all the losses in action and during the advance! The next day the army halted, as the French had not come up in sufficient numbers to give battle, and on the following day marched in good order into Corunna; where, to the bitter disappointment of the general, the fleet had not yet arrived. At the time, Sir John Moore was blamed by the ignorant for having worn out his troops by the length of the marches; but the accusation was altogether unfounded, as is proved CORUNNA. 171 by the fact that the rear-guard, upon whom the full brunt of the fighting had fallen, who had frequently been under arms all night in the snow, had always to throw out very strong outposts to prevent surprises, and had marched eighty miles in two days, had suffered far more than the other troops, owing to the fact that the food supply intended for all had been several times wasted and destroyed by the excesses of those who had preceded them, yet who, when they reached Corunna, had a much smaller number missing from their ranks than was the case with the three other divisions. After all the exertions that had been made, and the extra ordinary success with which the general had carried his force through a host of enemies, all his calculations were baffled by the contrary winds that delayed the arrival of the fleet, and it remained but to surrender or fight a battle, which if won might yet enable the army to embark. Sir John did not even for a moment contemplate the former alternative. The troops on arriving were at once quartered in the town. The inhabitants here, who had so sullenly held aloof from Baird's force on its arrival, and had refused to give him the slightest aid, now evinced a spirit of patriotism seldom exhibited by the Spaniards, save in their defence of Saragossa, and on a few other occasions. Although aware that the army intended, if possible, to em bark, and that the French on entering might punish them for any aid given to it, they cheerfully aided the troops in remov ing the cannon from the sea-face and in strengthening the defences on the land side. Provisions in ample quantity were forthcoming, and in twenty-four hours the army, knowing that at last they were to engage the foe who had for the last fort night hunted them so perseveringly, recovered its confidence and discipline. This was aided by the fact that Corunna had large magazines of arms and ammunition, which had been sent out fifteen months before from England, and were still lying there although Spain was clamouring for arms for its newly-raised levies. 172 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. To the soldiers this supply was invaluable. Their muskets were so rusted with the almost constant downfall of rain and snow of the past month as to be almost unserviceable, and these were at once exchanged for new arms. The cartridge-boxes were re-filled with fresh ammunition, an abundant store served out for the guns, and, after all this, two magazines containing four thousand barrels of powder remained. These had been erected on a hill three miles from the town, and were blown up so that they should not fall into the hands of the enemy. The explosion was a terrible one, and Avas felt for many miles round. The water in the harbour was so agitated that the shipping rolled as if in a storm, and many persons who had gone out to witness the explosion were killed by falling fragments. The ground on which the battle was to take place was unfit for the operations of cavalry. The greater portion of the horses were hopelessly foundered, partly from the effects of fatigue, partly from Avant of shoes; for although a supply of these had been issued on starting, no hammers or nails had been sent, and the shoes were therefore useless. It Avould in any case have been impossible to ship all these animals, and accordingly, as a measure of mercy, the greater portion of them were shot. Three days Avere permitted Moore to make his arrangements, for it took that time for Soult to bring up his Aveary troops and place them in a position to give battle. Their position was a lofty ridge which commanded that upon Avhich Sir John Moore now placed his troops, covering the town. On the right of the French ridge there Avas another eminence upon Avhich Soult had placed eleven heavy guns. On the evening of the 14th there was an exchange of artillery fire, but it led to nothing. That afternoon the sails of the long-expected fleet were made out, and just at nightfall it entered the harbour. The dismounted cavalry, the sick, the remaining horses, and fifty guns were embarked, nine guns only being kept on shore for action. On the 15th, Soult occupied himself in completing his preparations. Getting his CORUNNA. 173 great guns on to the rocks on his left, he attacked and drove from an advanced position some companies of the 5th Regiment, and posted his mass of cavalry so as to threaten the British right, and even menace its retreat to the town from the position it held. Had the battle been delayed another day, Sir John Moore had made every preparation for embarking the rest of his troops rather than await a battle in which even victory would be worthless, for Ney's corps would soon be up. The French, however, did not afford him an opportunity of thus retiring. Terence O'Connor speedily paid a visit to his regiment at Corunna, for he had, of course, accompanied Fane's brigade during the retreat. He was delighted to find that there had been only a few trifling casualties among the officers, and that the regiment itself, although it had lost some men in the fight ing that had taken place, had not left a single straggler behind, a circumstance that was mentioned with the warmest com mendation by General Paget in his report of the doings of the rear-guard. "I was awfully afraid that it would have been quite the other way," Terence said. " I know how all the three other divisions suffered, though they were never pressed by the enemy, and had not a shadow of excuse for their conduct." "You did not know us, me boy," O'Grady said. "I tell ye the men were splendid. I expect if we had been with the others we should have behaved just as badly; but being chosen for the rear-guard put our boys all on their mettle, and every man felt that the honour of the regiment depended on his good conduct. Then, too, we were lucky in lighting on a big store of tobacco, and tobacco is as good as food and drink. The men gave a lot away to the other regiments, and yet had enough to last them until we got here." "Then they were not above doing a little plundering," Terence laughed. " Plunder is it ! " O'Grady repeated indignantly. " It was a 174 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. righteous action, for the factory belonged to the Central Junta of the Province, and it was just stripping the French of their booty to carry it away. Faith, it was the most meritorious action of the campaign." "Have you got a good cigar left, O'Grady ?" "Oh, you have taken to smoking, have you?" " I was obliged to, to keep my nose warm. On the march, Fane and the major and Errington all smoked, and they looked so comfortable and contented that I felt it was my duty to keep them company." " I have just two left, Terence, so we will smoke them together, and I have got a bottle of dacent spirits. Think of that, me boy; thirty-two days without spirits! They will never believe me when I go home and tell 'em I went without it for thirty -two mortal days." "Well, you have had wine, O'Grady." " It's poor stuff by the side of the cratur, still I am not say ing that it wasn't a help. But it was cold comfort, Terence, a mighty cold comfort." "You are looking well on it anyhow. And how is the wound?" " Och, I have nigh forgot I ever had one, save when it comes to ateing. Tim has to cut my food up for me, and I never sit down to a male without wishing bad cess to the French. When we get back I will have a patent machine for holding a fork, fixed on somehow. It goes against me grain to have me food cut up as if I was a baby; if it wasn't for that I should not miss my hand one way or the other. In fact, on the march it has been a comfort that I have only had five fingers to freeze instead of ten. There is a compensation in all things. So we are going to fight them at last 1 There is no chance of the fleet coming to take us off before that, I hope?" he asked anxiously, "for we should all break our hearts if we were obliged to go without a fight." " I don't think there is any chance of that, O'Grady, though CORTJNNA. 175 I should be very glad if there were. I am not afraid of the fighting, but we certainly sha'n't win without heavy loss, and every life will be thrown away, seeing that we shall, after all, have to embark when the battle is over. Ney, with 50,000 men, is only two or three marches away. "Well, Dicky, how do you do?" he asked as Kyan came up. " I am well enough, Mr. Staff Officer. I needn't ask after yourself, for you have been riding comfortably about, while we have been marched right off our legs. Forty miles a day, Terence, and over such roads as they have in this country, it is just cruelty to animals." " I would rather have been with you, Dicky, than see to the horrible confusion that has been going on. Why, as soon as the day's march was over we had to set to work to go about trying to keep order. A dozen times I have been nearly shot by drunken rascals whom I was trying to get to return to their corps. Worse still, it was heart-rending to see the misery of the starving women and camp-followers. I would rather have been on outpost duty, with Soult's cavalry hovering round ready to charge at any moment." " It is all very well to say that, Terence," O'Grady exclaimed. " But wait until you try it a bit, my boy. I had five nights of it, and that widout a drop of whisky to cheer me. It was enough to have made Samson weep, let alone a man with only one hand, and a sword to hold in it, and a bad could in his head. It was enough to take the heart out of any man entoirely, and if it hadn't been for the credit of the regiment, I could often have sat down on a stone and blubbered. It is mighty hard for a man to keep up his spirits when he feels the mortal heat in him oozing out all over, and his fingers so cold that it is only by looking that one knows one has got a sword in them, and you don't know whether you are standing on your feet or on your knee-bones, and feel as if your legs don't belong to you, but are the property of some poor chap who has been kilt 176 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. twenty-four hours before. Och, it was a terrible time! and a captain's pay is too small for it, if it was not for the divarsion of a scrimmage now and then ! " "How about an ensign's pay?" Ryan laughed. "1 think that on such work as we have had, O'Grady, the pay of all the officers, from the colonel down, ought to be put together and equally divided." "I cannot say whether I should approve the plan, Ryan, until I have made an intricate calculation, which, now I am com fortable at last, would be a sin and a shame to ask me brain to go through; but as my present idea is that I should be a loser, I may say that your scheme is a bad one, and not to say grossly disrespectful to the colonel, to put his value down as only equal to that of a slip of a lad like yourself. Boys nowadays have no respect for their supeyrior officers. There is Terence, who is not sixteen yet " Sixteen three months back, O'Grady," Terence put in. "Yes, I remember now, but a week or two one way or the other makes no difference. Here is Terence, just sixteen, who ought to be at school trying to get a little learning into his head, laying down the law to his supeyrior officers, just because he has had the luck to get on to the brigadier's staff. I think sometimes that the world is coming to an end." "At any rate, O'Grady," Terence laughed, "I am half a head taller than you are, and could walk you off your legs any day." "There! And he says this to a man who has gone through all the fatigues of the rear-guard, while he has been riding about the country like a gentleman at aise." " Well, I cannot stop any longer," Terence said. " I am on my way up to see how they are getting on with the earthworks, and the general may want me at any moment." " I would not trouble about that," O'Grady said sarcastically ; "perhaps he might make a shift to do widout you, widout detriment to the service." CORUNNA. 177' Terence made no reply, but, mounting, rode off up the hill behind the town. At two o'clock on the 16th a general move ment of the French line was observed, and the British infantry, 14,500 strong, drew up in order of battle along the position marked for them. The British were fighting under a serious disadvantage, for not only had Soult over 20,000 infantry, with very powerful artillery and great strength in cavalry, but owing to their position on the crest running somewhat obliquely to the higher one occupied by the French, the heavy battery on the rocks to their right raked the whole line of battle. Hope's division was on the British left, Baird's on the right. Fraser's division was on another ridge some distance from the others and immediately covering the town of Corunna; and Paget with his division, to which the Mayo regiment was still attached, was posted at the village of Airis, on the height between Hope's division and the harbour, and looking down the valley between the main position and the ridge held by Fraser. From here he could either reinforce Hope and Baird, or advance down the valley to repel any attack of the French cavalry, and cover the retreat of the main body if forced to fall back. The battle commenced by the French opening fire with their field-guns, which were distributed along the front of their position, and by the heavy battery on their left, while their infantry descended the mountain in three heavy columns, covered by clouds of skirmishers. The British piquets were at once driven in, and the village of Elvina, held by a portion of the 50th, carried. The French column on this side then divided into two portions; one endeavoured to turn Baird's right and enter the valley behind the British position, while the other climbed the hill to attack him in front. The second column moved against the British centre, and the third attacked Hope's left, which rested on the village of T>alavia Abaxo. The nine English guns were altogether overmatched by those of Soult's heavy battery. Moore, seeing that the half-column advancing by Baird's flank made no movement to penetrate (M359) M 178 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. beyond his right, directed him to throw back one regiment and take the French in flank. Paget was ordered to advance up the valley, to drive back the French column, and menace the French battery, uniting himself with a battalion previously RANCESCHI 5 YV \\ "W& ' ""^ T.CAYALRY > ^ OSMWSffl ' \,,'". IS J BATTALiemOF- * flftSfc ...,.,;.; ^JHEUESERVE BATTLE OF CORUNNA? posted on a hill to keep the threatening masses of French cavalry in check. He also sent word to Fraser to advance at once and support Paget. Baird launched the 50th and 42nd Regiments to meet the enemy issuing from Elvina. The ground round the village was broken by stone walls and hollow roads, but the French were forced back, and the 50th, CORUNNA. 179 entering the village with the fleeing enemy, drove them, after a struggle, beyond the houses. The 42nd, misunderstanding orders, retired towards the hill, and the French, being reinforced, again attacked Elvina, which the 50th held stubbornly until again joined by the 42nd, which had been sent forward by Moore himself. Paget was now engaged in the valley, the advance of the enemy was arrested, and they suffered very heavily from the fire of the regiments on the height above their flank, while Paget steadily gained ground. The centre and left were now hotly engaged, but held their ground against all the attacks of the enemy, and on the extreme left advanced and drove the French out of the village of Palavia Abaxo, which they had occupied. Elvina was now firmly held, while Paget carried all before him on the right, and, with Fraser's division behind him, menaced the great French battery. Had this been carried, the two divisions could have swept along the French position, crumpling up the forces as they went, and driving them down towards the river Moro, in which case they would have been lost. Owing, however, to the battle having been begun at so late an hour, darkness now fell. The general himself, while watching the contest at Elvina, had been struck by a cannon-ball and mortally wounded. General Baird had also been struck down. This loss of commanders combined with the darkness to arrest the progress of the victorious troops, and permitted the French, who were already falling back in great confusion, to recover themselves and maintain their position. The object for which the battle had been fought was gained. Night, which had saved the French from total defeat, afforded the British the opportunity of extricating themselves from their position, and General Hope, who now assumed the com mand, ordered the troops to abandon their positions and to march down to the port, leaving strong piquets with fires burning to deceive the enemy. All the arrangements for 180 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. embarkation had been carefully arranged by Sir John Moore, and without the least hitch or confusion the troops marched down to the port, and before morning were all on board with the exception of a rear-guard, under General Beresford, which occupied the citadel. At daybreak the piquets were withdrawn and also em barked, and a force under General Hill, that had been stationed on the ramparts to cover the movement, then marched down to the citadel, and there took boats for the ships. By this time, however, the French, having discovered that the British position was abandoned, had planted a battery on the heights of San Lucia and opened fire on the shipping. This caused much confusion among the transports. Several of the masters cut their cables, and four vessels ran ashore. The troops, how ever, were taken on board of other transports by the boats of the men-of-war. The stranded ships were fired, and the fleet got safely out of harbour. The noble commander, by whose energy, resolution, and talent this wonderful march had been achieved, lived only long enough to know that his soldiers were victorious, and was buried the same night on the ramparts. His memory was for a time assailed with floods of abuse by that portion of the press and public that had all along vilified the action of the British general, had swallowed eagerly every lie promulgated by the Junta of Oporto, and by the whole of the Spanish authorities; but in time his extraordinary merits came to be recognized to their full value, and his name will long live as one of the noblest men and best generals Great Britain has ever produced. Beresford held the citadel until the 18th, and then embarked with his troops and all the wounded; the people of Corunna, remaining true to their promises, manned the ramparts of the town until the last British soldier was on board. The British loss in the battle was estimated at 800 men, that of the French was put down at 3000. Their greater loss was AN ESCAPE. 181 due to the fact that they assumed the offensive, and were much more exposed than the defenders; that the nine little guns of the latter were enabled to sweep them with grape, while the British were so far away from the French batteries that the latter were obliged to fire round shot; and lastly, that the new muskets and fresh ammunition gave a great advantage to the British over the rusty muskets and often damaged powder of the French. Paget's division had suffered but slightly, the main loss of the English having occurred in and around Elvina, and from the shot of the heavy battery that swept the crest held by them. Two officers killed and four wounded were the only casualties in that division, Awhile but thirty of the rank and file were put out of action. CHAPTER XL AN ESCAPE. WHILE the battle was at its height Terence was despatched by the brigadier to carry an order to one of the regi ments that had pushed too far forward in its ardour. Scram bling over rough ground, and occasionally leaping a wall, he reached the colonel. " The general requests you to fall back a little, sir, you are farther forward than the regiment on your flank. The enemy are pushing a force down the hill in your direction, and as there is no support that can be sent to you at present, he wishes your extreme right to be in touch with the left of the regiment holding Elvina." " Very good. Tell General Fane that I will carry out his instructions. Where is he now 1 ?" "He is in the village, sir." Terence turned his horse to ride back. The din of battle was almost bewildering. A desperate conflict was going on in front of the village, where every wall was obstinately contested, the regiment being hotly engaged 182 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. with a French force that was rapidly increasing in strength. The great French battery was sending its missiles far over head against the British position on the hill, the British guns were playing on the French troops beyond the village, and the French light field-pieces were pouring their fire into Elvina. Terence made his way across the broken ground near the vil lage. Galloping at a low stone wall, the horse was in the act of rising to clear it when it was struck in the head by a round shot. Terence was thrown far ahead over the wall, and fell heavily head-foremost on a pile of stones covered by some low shrubs. The shock was a terrible one, and for many hours he lay in sensible. When he recovered consciousness, he remained for some time wondering vaguely where he was. Above him was a canopy of foliage, through which the rays of the sun were streaming. A dead silence had succeeded the roar of battle. He put his hand to his head, which was aching intolerably, and found that his hair was thick with clotted blood. " Yes, of course," he said to himself at last; " I was carrying a message to Fane. I was just going to jump a wall and there was a sudden crash. I remember I flew out of the saddle that is all I do remember. I have been stunned, I suppose. How is it so quiet? I suppose the battle is over." Then he sat suddenly upright. " The sun is shining," he said. " It was getting dusk when I was riding back to the village. I must have lain here all night." Suddenly he heard a gun fired ; it was quickly followed by others. He rose on his knees and looked cautiously over the bushes. " It is away there," he said, " on those heights above the harbour. The army must have embarked, and the French are firing at the ships." His conjecture was speedily verified, for, looking along the crest which the British had held during the fight, he saw a " POOR OLD JACK ! HE HAS CARRIED ME WELL EVER SINCE I GOT HIM AT TORRES VEDRAS." AN ESCAPE. 183 large body of French troops just reaching the top of the rise. He stood up now and looked round. No one could be seen moving in the orchards and vineyards round. He peered over the wall; his horse lay there in a huddled-up heap. "A round shot in the head!" he exclaimed; "that accounts for it. Poor old Jack! he has carried me well ever since I got him at Torres Vedras." He climbed down and got what he was in search of a large flask full of brandy-and-water, which he carried in one of the holsters. He took a long drink, and felt better at once. " I may as well take the pistols," he said, and, putting them into his belt, climbed over the wall again, and lay down among the bushes. He was now able to think clearly. Should he get up and surrender himself as a prisoner to the first body of French troops that he came across? or should he lie where he was until nightfall, and then try to get away? If he surrendered, there was before him a march of seven or eight hundred miles to a French prison; if he tried to get away, no doubt there were many hardships and dangers, but at least a possibility of rejoining sooner or later. At any rate he would be no worse off than the many hundreds who had straggled during the march, for it was probable that the great majority of these were spread over the country, as the French, pressing forward in pur suit, would not have troubled themselves to hunt down fugi tives, who, if caught, would only be an encumbrance to them. He was better off than they were, for at any rate he could make himself understood, which was more than the majority of the soldiers could do; and at least he would not provoke the animosity of the peasants by the rough measures they would be likely to take to satisfy their wants. The worst of it was that he had no money. Then suddenly he sat up again and looked at his feet "This is luck!" he exclaimed; "I had never given the thing a thought before." 184 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. On his arrival at Corunna he had thrown away the riding- boots he had bought at Salamanca. The constant rains had so shrunk them that he could no longer wear them without pain, and he had taken again to the boots that he carried in his valise. From the time when, at his father's suggestion, he had had extra soles placed on them, above which were hidden fifteen guineas, the fact of the money being there had never once occurred to him. He had had sufficient cash about him to pay for purchases at Salamanca and on the road, and, indeed, had five guineas still in his pocket, though he had drawn no pay from the time of leaving Torres Vedras. This discovery decided him. With twenty guineas he could pay his way for months, and he determined to make the attempt to escape. The firing continued for some time and then ceased. "The fleet must have got out," he said to himself. "It is certain that the French have not taken Corunna. We were getting the best of it up to the time I was hurt, and it would be dark in another half-hour, and there could be no fighting on such ground as this, after that. Besides, Corunna is a strong fortress, and we could have held out there for weeks, for Soult can have no battering train with him; besides, everything was ready for embarkation, and I know that it was intended, whether we won or lost, that the troops should go on board in the night." As he lay there he could occasionally hear the sound of drums and trumpets as the troops marched from their positions of the night before, to take up others nearer to the town. At times he heard voices, and knew that they were searching for wounded over the ground that had been so desperately con tested ; but the spot where he was lying lay between the village and the ground where the regiment he had gone to order back had been engaged with the enemy, and as no fighting had taken place there, it was unlikely that the search-parties would go over it. This indeed proved to be the case, and after a time AN ESCAPE. 185 he fell off to sleep, and did not wake until night was closing in. He was hungry now, and again crossing the wall he took half a chicken and a piece of bread, that his servant had thrust into his wallet just before starting, and made a hearty meal. He unbuckled his sword and left it behind him; he had his pistols, and a sword would be only an encumbrance. As soon as it became quite dark he made his way cautiously down the valley, passed the spot where the French column had suffered so heavily, and then, turning to the left, traversed the narrow plain that divided the position on which the French heavy battery had been placed and the plateau on which their cavalry had been massed. Numerous fires blazed in the wide valley behind, where the reserve had been stationed on the previous morning, and he doubted not that the French cavalry were there, especially as he found no signs of life on the plateau above. Coming presently on a small stream he bathed his head for a considerable time, and then proceeded on his way, feeling much brighter and fresher than he had done before. The ground began to ascend more steeply, and after an hour's walking he stood on the crest of the hill and looked down on the position that the French had held, and beyond it on Corunna and the sea. The cold was extreme. He had brought with him his greatcoat and blanket, and, wrapping himself in these, lay down in a sheltered position and slept again till morning broke. His head was now better, and he was able to think more clearly than he could the day before. The first thing was to decide as to his course. It would be dangerous to make direct for the frontier of Portugal. Now that the British army had embarked, Soult would be free to undertake operations in that country, and would doubtless shortly put his troops in motion in that direction, and his cavalry would be scattering all over the province collecting provisions. Moreover, there would be the terrible range of the Tras-os-montes to pass, and no certainty whatever of being well received by the Portuguese peasants north of Oporto. 186 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. His constant study of the staff maps was now of great assist ance to him. He determined to turn west until he reached the river Minho some distance below Lugo, which he could do by skirting the top of the hills. He would therefore strike it somewhere about the point where the river Sil joined it, and, following this, would find himself at the foot of the Cantabrian Hills, dividing the Asturias from Leon. Then he could be guided by circumstances, and could either cross these mountains and make for a seaport, or could journey down through Leon to Ciudad-Rodrigo, which was still held by a Spanish garrison, and from there make his way through Portugal to Lisbon. He questioned whether it would be wise for him to attempt to get the dress of a Spanish peasant instead of his uniform, but he finally decided that until he was beyond any risk of being captured by parties from either Soult or Ney's armies, it would be better to continue in uniform. If taken in that dress it would be seen that he was a straggler from Moore's army, and he would be simply treated as a prisoner of war; while if taken in the dress of a peasant, he would be liable to be treated as a spy and shot. Having made up his mind he started at once, and in three hours was at the foot of the hills on the other side of which ran the road from Lugo to Corunna, which proved so disastrous to the army. He presently arrived at a small hamlet, and the children in the streets ran shrieking away as they saw him. Women appeared at the doors and looked out anxiously; they had not before seen a British uniform, and at once supposed that he was French. Seeing that he was alone, several men armed with clubs and picks came out. " I am an English officer," he said, " and I desire food and shelter for a few hours. I have money to pay for it." The peasants at once came round him. Confused accounts had reached them of the doings on the other side of the hills. They knew that an English army had marched from Lugo to Corunna, hotly pursued by the French, but they had heard nothing of what had happened afterwards. They eagerly AN ESCAPE. 187 asked for news. Terence told them that there had been a great battle outside Corunna, that the French had been repulsed with much loss, and that the English had embarked on board ships to take them round to Lisbon, there to march east to meet the French again. Nothing could be kinder than the treatment he received. They told him that Ney's army was between the Sil and Lugo, but that no French troops had crossed the Minho as yet. They were eager to know why the English, if they had beaten the French, sailed away. But when he said that Soult would have been joined by Ney in a couple of days, and would then be well-nigh double the strength of the British, who would be so hotly pressed that they would be unable to embark, the peasants saw that what they considered their desertion could not have been avoided. The news of the terrible defeats that had, a month before, been inflicted upon their armies had not reached them, and Terence did not think it necessary to en lighten them. He told them that the march north of the Eng lish had been intended to bring all the French forces in that direction, and so to enable the Spanish armies to operate suc cessfully, and that not only Soult and Ney, but Napoleon him self had been drawn off from the south in pursuit of them. They were filled with satisfaction, and he was at once taken into one of the cottages. A good meal was shortly placed before him, his head was carefully bandaged, and he was then asked how it was that he had not embarked with the rest of the army. He related how he had been left behind, and then asked them their opinion as to his best course, telling them the plan he himself had formed. They agreed at once that this was the wisest one, but that it would be dangerous to try it until Ney's force had moved from its present position. They knew that he had a division at Orense on the Minho, and that parties of his cavalry had scoured the plain as far as the river Ulla, and urged upon him to remain with them until some news was obtained of the movements of the French army. 188 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. He gladly accepted the invitation, and for a couple of days remained at the little hamlet. One of the peasants came in at the end of that time saying that the French in Corunna had crossed the mountains and had arrived at Santiago, twenty miles distant, and that their cavalry were scouring the country. They also brought news that Romana was at Toabado, and that he had but two or three thousand men with him, the rest having been routed and cut up by the French cavalry. Terence at once determined to join him. The fact that he still had some troops with him had no influence in causing him to form this resolution. Romana had been so often defeated that he knew that his men would, after their recent misfortunes, scatter at once before even the weakest French detachment. But Romana himself knew the country well, was a man of great resource and activity, and was likely to evade all efforts to capture him. He thought then that by joining him and sharing his fortunes he was more likely to have some opportunity of making his way to Lisbon than he would have if left to his own resources, especially as he had no doubt that Soult would at once prepare to invade Portugal by occupying all the passes, and thus render it next to impossible to journey thither alone and on foot. One of the peasants offered to guide him across the hills to Toabado. They started at once, and at daybreak next morning reached the village. As Romana had been several times in personal communica tion with Sir John Moore, Terence was acquainted with his appearance, and seeing him standing at the door of the prin cipal house of the village, went up to him and saluted him. The latter looked upon him with great surprise. "How have you managed to pass through the French?" he asked. "I have seen none of them, Marquis. I was wounded in the battle of Corunna, and after lying insensible all that night, found, when I recovered in the morning, that the French had AN ESCAPE. 189 advanced and that I was in their rear. I heard their guns from the heights above the town, and knew that our army had gained their transports. I lay concealed all day and then crossed the mountains, and have been resting for two days at a village on the other side of the hills. The news came that you were here, and I decided to join you at once. I was on the staff of General Fane, and, knowing the duties of an aide- de-camp, thought I might make myself useful to you until there was an opportunity of my rejoining a British force." "You are welcome, sir," Romana said courteously. "It was only this morning that we learned from a prisoner that my men took, that you had driven back Soult before Corunna and had embarked safely. I was in great fear that your army would have been captured. I see that you have been wounded on the head." " It can scarcely be called a wound, Marquis. I was carry ing a message on the battle-field ; when I was taking a wall my horse was struck with a round shot. I was thrown over his head on to a heap of rough stones, and it was a marvel to me that I was not killed." "I am just going to breakfast, senor, and shall be glad if you will join me. I have no doubt that you will do justice to it." Romana, who had commanded the Spanish troops which had escaped from Holland, was the most energetic of the Spanish generals. Defeated often, he was speedily at the head of fresh gatherings, and ready to take the field again. As a partisan chief he was excellent, but possessed no military talent, and was, like the Spaniards generally, full of grand but utterly impracticable schemes, and in spite of his experience to the contrary, confident that the Spaniards would overthrow the French. " I have been unfortunate," he said in reply to the inquiry as to how many troops he had with him. "At your English general's request I took a different course with my army to that which he was pursuing, in order that his magazines should 190 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. be untouched. I crossed his line of retreat, but unfortunately Franceschi's cavalry came down upon us, cut up my artillery and infantry, and scattered my force entirely. However, some three thousand have rejoined, and I expect in a short time to be at the head of 20,000. I ought to have more, but these Galician peasants are stubborn fellows. They know nothing of the affairs of Spain, and although they will fight in defence of their own villages they have no interest in anything beyond, and hang back from joining an army that might operate outside their province. You see, until now it has been untouched by war. They have suffered in no way from French extortions and outrages. As soon as they feel the smart themselves, I doubt not they will be as full of hatred of the invaders as people are elsewhere, and as ready to take up arms against them." Romana's troops were but a motley gathering. The force that he had brought with him from Holland had been landed at Santander, marched to Bilbao, and joined Blake's army, and had shared in the crushing defeat suffered by that general at Espinosa, where most of them were taken prisoners. They were again incorporated in the French army, and afterwards took part in the Russian campaign, and in the retreat no less than four thousand of them were taken prisoners by the Russians and handed over by them to British transports sent to Cronstadt to fetch them. Romana himself had escaped from the battle-field, and afterwards raised a fresh force. This had dwindled away from 15,000 to 5000 when he joined Moore on his advance, and now amounted to barely 2000, of whom the greater portion had thrown away their arms in their flight. On the following day Romana, with a small body of cavalry, left Toabado, crossed the Minho, descended into the valley of the Tamega, and took refuge close to the Portuguese frontier line. Here he was, for a time, safe from the pursuit of the French, the insignificance of his force being his best protection. Soult lost no time. As soon as the English army had left, AN ESCAPE. 191 Corunna opened its gates to him, as did Ferrol, although neither of these towns could have been taken without a siege, and Soult must have been delayed until a battering-train was brought from Madrid. The magazines of British powder and stores that had been lying for months in Ferrol were invaluable to him. The soldiers were set to work to make fresh cartridges, and then, after six days' halt to give rest to his weary and foot-sore men, he began to prepare to carry out Napoleon's orders to invade Spain. Ney, with 20,000 men, was to main tain Galicia, and, reinforced by a fresh division, Soult was to march direct upon Oporto with 25,000 men, leaving 12,000 in hospital, and 8000 to keep up the line of communication with Ney. It took some time to complete all the arrangements and to gather the force at St. Jago Compostella, and it was not until the first of February that he was able to move. On the day of his arrival on the frontier, Eomana despatched Terence to Sir John Cradock, who now commanded the British troops in Portugal, which had been augmented by fresh arrivals from England until their numbers almost equalled that of the force with which Sir John Moore marched into Spain. Romana asked that arms and money should be sent to him, promising to harass the French advance, and cut their com munications from the rear. Terence gladly consented to carry his despatch; he was furnished with one of the best horses in the troop, and at once started on his journey. It was a long and harassing one; many ranges of mountains and hills had to be crossed, by roads difficult in the extreme at the best of times, but almost impassable in winter. Three times he was seized by parties of Portuguese militia and raw levies, but was released on convincing their leaders that he was the bearer of a communication to the English general. The distance to be travelled was, in a direct line, over two hundred and thirty miles. This was greatly increased by the circuitous nature of the route through the mountainous 192 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. country, so that it took nine days, and would have much exceeded this time, had Terence not found a British force at Coimbra, and there exchanged his worn-out animal for a fresh one, placed at his disposal by the officer in command. Cradock was experiencing exactly the same difficulties that Moore had done. The Spanish and Portuguese authorities united in pressing him to advance, the former urging upon him that his presence would be the signal for the Spanish armies in the south to unite and entirely overthrow the French, while the latter were desirous that he should march to Ciudad-Kodrigo, defeat the French at Salamanca, and so protect Portugal from invasion from that side. That Portugal might be attacked from the north and south simultaneously by Soult and Victor did not enter into their calculations, but while urging an advance, the Junta would take no steps whatever to enable the army to move; they would neither afford him facilities for collecting transport, nor order the roads that he would have to traverse to be put in order, and thwarted all his efforts to raise a strong force among the Portuguese. There was, indeed, some improvement in the latter respect. At their own request Lord Beresford had been sent out from England to take the command of the Portuguese armies, and as he had brought many British officers with him, some 20,000 men had been armed and drilled, and could be reckoned upon to do some service, if employed with British troops to give them, backbone. The Portuguese peasantry were strong and robust, and by nature courageous, and needed only the discipline, that they could not receive from their own officers, to turn them into valuable troops. According to the law of the country every man was liable for service, and had the corrupt Junta been dismissed, and full power been given to the British, an army of 250,000 men might have been placed in the field for the de fence of the country, with a proper supply of arms and money. But so far from assisting, the Junta threw every possible AN ESCAPE. 193 impediment in the way. They feared that any real national effort, if successful, would get altogether beyond their control, and that they would lose the power that enabled them to en rich themselves at the expense of the people. Not only that, but they were engaged in a struggle for supremacy with the Junta of Oporto, which was striving by every means to render itself the supreme authority of the whole of Portugal. Terence had hoped that when he arrived at Lisbon he should meet the army he had left at Corunna, for Sir John Moore's instructions had been precise that the fleet was to go thither. These instructions, however, had been disobeyed, and the fleet had sailed direct for England. It had on the way encountered a great storm which had scattered it in all directions. Several of the ships were wrecked on the coast of England, and the army which would have been of inesti mable service at Lisbon, now served only, by the tattered gar ments and emaciated frames of the soldiers, to excite a burst of misplaced indignation against the memory of the general whose genius had saved it from destruction. On arriving at head-quarters and stating his errand Terence was at once admitted to the room where Sir John Cradock was at work. " I am told, sir, that you are the bearer of a despatch from the Spanish General Eomana. Before I open it, will you ex plain how it was that you came to be with him." Terence gave a brief account of the manner in which, after being left behind on the field of Corunna, he had succeeded in joining Romana. The general's face, which had at first been severe, softened as he proceeded. "That is altogether satisfactory, Mr. O'Connor," he said. "I feared that you might have been one of the stragglers, among whom I hear were many officers, as well as thousands of men belonging to Sir John Moore's army. We received news of his glorious fight at Corunna and the embarkation of (M359) N 194 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. his army, by a ship that arrived here but three days since from that port. Have you heard of the death of that noble soldier himself?" "No, sir," Terence replied, much shocked at the news. "That is a terrible loss indeed. He was greatly loved by the army. He saw into every matter himself, was with the rear guard all through the retreat, and laboured night and day to maintain order and discipline, and it was assuredly no fault of his if he failed." "Was your own regiment in the rear-guard 1 ?" " Yes, sir. It had the honour of being specially chosen by Sir John Moore for its steadiness and good conduct. I was not with it, but was one of Brigadier-general Fane's aides-de camp. It was while carrying a message to him that my horse was killed and I myself stunned by being thrown on to a heap of stones." Sir John Cradock nodded, and then opened Romana's despatch. He raised his eyebrows slightly. He had been accustomed to such appeals for arms and money, and knew how valueless were the promises that accompanied them. "What force has General Romana with him?" "Some two hundred cavalry and three or four thousand peasants, about a quarter of whom only are armed." " He says that he expects to be joined by twenty thousand men in a few days. Have you any means of judging whether this statement is well founded?" " That I cannot say. General Romana seems to me to be a man of greater energy than any Spaniard I have hitherto met, and I know that he has already sent messages to the priests throughout that part of Galicia urging upon them the necessity of using their influence among the peasantry. He got a force together in a very short time, after the complete defeat and capture of his own command by the French, at the time of Blake's defeat, and I think that he might do so again, though whether they would be of any use whatever in the field AN ESCAPE. 195 I cannot say ; but should Soult advance into Portugal, I should think that bands of this sort might very much harass him." " No doubt they might do so. I will see at any rate if I can obtain some money from the political agents. I have next to nothing in my military chest, and our forces are at a stand still for the want of it. But that does not seem to matter. While our troops are ill-fed, ragged, almost shoeless, and un paid, every Spanish or Portuguese rascal who holds out his hand can get it filled with gold. As to arms, they are in the first place wanted for the purpose of the Portuguese militia, who are likely to be a good deal more useful than these irregular bands ; and in the second place, there are no means whatever of conveying even a hundred muskets, let alone the ten thousand that Romana is good enough to ask for. By the way, are you aware whether Sir John Moore intended the army to sail to England?" "Certainly not, sir. I know that up to the moment the battle began the preparation for the embarkation went on unceasingly, and General Fane told me the night before that we were to be taken here. Whether Sir John may, at the last moment, have countermanded that order I am unable to say." "Yes, I know that it was his intention, for I received a letter from him, written after his arrival at Corunna, saying that the embarkation could not be effected without a battle, and that if he beat Soult he should at once embark and bring the troops round here, as Ney's approaching force would render Corunna untenable. Just at present the arrival of 20,000 tried troops would be invaluable. General Baird will, of course, have succeeded Sir John Moore?" "General Baird was severely wounded, sir. He had just ridden up to General Fane when he was struck. General Hope would therefore be in command after Sir John Moore was killed." "I have heard no particulars -of the battle," Sir John said, "beyond that it has been fought and Soult has been driven 196 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. back, that Sir John Moore is killed, and that the army has embarked safely. And do I understand you that it was towards the end of the battle that you were hurt?" " It was getting dusk at the time, General, but I cannot say how long fighting went on afterwards." " Will you please to sit down at that table and give me, as nearly as you can, a sketch of the position of our troops and those of the French, and then explain to me, as far as you may have seen or know, the movements of the corps and the course of events." As Terence had, the evening before the battle, seen a sketch- map on which General Fane had written the names and positions of the British force and those of the French, he was able to draw one closely approximating to it. In ten minutes he got up and handed the sketch to Sir John Cradock. " I am afraid it is very rough, sir," he said, " but I think that it may give you an idea of the position of the town and the neighbouring heights, and the position occupied by our troops." "Excellent, Mr. O'Connor!" "I had the advantage of seeing a sketch-map that the brigadier drew out, sir." " Well, benefited from it. Now point out to me the various movements. It seems to me that this large French battery must have galled the whole line terribly; but, on the other hand, it is itself very exposed." "General Fane said, sir, that he thought Soult was likely to be over-confident. Our army was in frightful confusion on the retreat from Lugo, and the number of stragglers was enormous. Although many came in next day, the field-state showed that over 2000 were still absent from the colours. The brigadier was observing that there was one advantage in this, namely, that Soult would suppose that the whole army was disorganized, and might, therefore, take more liberties than he would otherwise have done ; and that, at any rate, he AN ESCAPE. 197 was likely to rely upon his great force of cavalry on this plateau to cover the battery hill from any attack on its left flank. It was for that purpose that General Paget posted one of the regiments on this eminence on the right of the valley, which had the effect of completely checking the French cavalry." He then related the incidents of the battle as far as they had come under his notice. " A very ably fought battle," Sir John Cradock said, as he followed on the map Terence's account of the movements. "Soult evidently miscalculated Sir John's strength and the fighting powers of his troops. He hurled his whole force directly against the position, specially endeavouring to turn our right, but the force he employed there was altogether insufficient for the purpose. From his position I gather that he could not have known of the existence of Paget's reserve up the valley, but he must have seen Fraser's. division on the hill above Coranto. I suppose he reckoned that this turn ing movement would shake the British position, throw them into confusion, and enable his direct attack to be successful before Fraser could come to their support. I am much obliged to you for your description, Mr. O'Connor, it is very clear and lucid. I will write a note which you shall take to Mr. Villiers, and it is possible that you may get help from him for Romana. I shall be glad if you will dine with me here at six o'clock." "I am much obliged to you, General, but I have nothing but the uniform in which I stand, which is, as you see, almost in rags, and stained with mire and blood." " I think it is probable that you will have no difficulty in buying a fresh uniform in the city; so many officers have come out here with exaggerated ideas of the amount of trans port, that they have had to cut down their wardrobes to a very large extent." He touched the bell. "Will you ask Captain Nelson to step in," he said to the clerk who answered. "Captain Nel son," he said, as one of his staff entered, " I want you to take 198 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. Mr. O'Connor under your charge. He has just arrived from the north, and was present at the battle of Corunna. He was on Brigadier Fane's staff. As at present he is unattached I shall put him down in orders to-morrow as an extra aide-de camp on my staff. He will be leaving to-morrow for the northern frontier. I wish you to see if you cannot get him an undress uniform. He belongs to the infantry. I will give you an order on the paymaster, Mr. O'Connor, to honour your draft for any amount that you may need. I dare say you are in arrears of pay." " Yes, Sir John. I have drawn nothing since we marched from Torres Vedras in October." CHAPTER XII. A DANGEROUS MISSION. CAPTAIN NELSON at once took Terence under his charge. \J " You certainly look as if you wanted a new uniform," he said. "You must have had an awfully rough time of it. If only for the sake of policy, we ought to get you into a new one as soon as possible, for the very sight of yours would be likely to demoralize the whole division by affording a painful example of what they might expect on a campaign." Terence laughed. "I know I look a perfect scarecrow. Do you think that you can find me something ? I really don't know what I should have done if I had not had my greatcoat, for I could never have ventured to walk through the street from the little inn where I put up my horse, if I could not have hidden myself in it." " I can, fortunately, put you in the right way without diffi culty. There is a man here who has made a business of buying up uniforms. I believe he sends most of them to A DANGEROUS MISSION. 199 England, where they would certainly fetch a good deal more than he gave for them; but I know that he keeps a stock by him, for there is a constant demand. The work out in the country here does for a uniform in no time, and many men who, before marching for the frontier, parted with all their extra kit for a song, are glad enough to write to him for a fresh outfit at three times the price he gave them two or three months before." " I wonder they don't send their surplus outfit back to Eng. land direct," Terence said. " Well, you see, there is the risk of the things being lost or stolen on the way home, or being ruined by damp before they are wanted again. Besides, a man thinks there is no saying whether 1 he shall ever want them again, or how long the war will last, and is glad to take anything he can get to save himself any further bother about them." Terence was fortunate in being able to buy an undress uniform with facings similar to those of his own regiment, and to lay in a stock of underclothes at a very much lower price than he could have purchased them for even at home. Before leaving the shop he put on his new uniform and left the old one to be thrown away. "Now," Captain Nelson said, when they left the shop, "it is just our lunch time. You must come with me and tell us all about your wonderful march and the fight at the end of it." " I was going doAvn to see about my horse." " Oh, that is all right! I sent down an orderly to bring him up to our stables. There, this is where we mess," he said, stopping before an hotel. " We find it much more comfortable than having it in a room at head-quarters. Besides, one gets away from duty here. Of course, the chief knows where we are, and can send for us if we are wanted; but one gets off being set to do a lot of office work in the evening, and we find ourselves much more free and comfortable when we haven't got two or three of the big- wigs of the staff. So they have a 200 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. little mess of their own there, and we have a room kept for ourselves here." There were more than a dozen officers assembled when the two entered the room, where a meal was laid; for Captain Nel son had looked into the hotel for a moment on their way to the tailor's, to tell his companions who Terence was, and to say that he should bring him in to lunch. They had told some of their acquaintances. Terence was introduced all round, and as soon as the first course was taken off the table he was asked many questions as to the march and battle ; and by the time when, an hour later, the party broke up, they had learned the leading incidents of the campaign. "You may guess how anxious we were here," one of them said, "when Moore's last despatch from Salamanca arrived, saying that he intended to advance, and stating his reasons. Then there was a long silence ; all sorts of rumours reached us. Some said that, aided by a great Spanish army, he had over thrown Napoleon, and had entered Madrid; others, again, stated that his army had been crushed, and he with the sur vivors were prisoners, and were on their way to the frontier in fact, we had no certain news until three days ago, when we heard of the battle, his death, and the embarkation of the army, and its sailing for England. The last was a terrible blunder." "Only a temporary one, I should think," Captain Nelson said. "From Mr. O'Connor's account of the state of the army, I should think that it is just as well that they should have gone home to obtain an entirely new rig-out; there would be no means of fitting them out here. A fortnight ought to be enough to set them up in all respects, and as we certainly shall not be able to march for another month "For another three months, you mean, Nelson." " Well, perhaps for another three months, the delay will not matter material^." " It won't matter at all if the French oblige us by keeping A DANGEROUS MISSION. 201 perfectly quiet, but if Soult menaces Portugal with invasion from the north, Lapisse from the centre, and Victor from the south, we may have to defend ourselves here in Lisbon before six weeks are out." " Personally, I should not be sorry," another said, " if Soult does invade the north and captures Oporto, hangs the bishop, and all the Junta. It would be worth ten thousand men to us, for they are continually at mischief. They do nothing them selves, and thwart all our efforts. They are worse than the Junta here, if that is possible,- and they have excited the peasants so much against us that they desert in thousands as fast as they are collected, while the population here hate us, I believe, quite as much as they hate the French. But why they should do so Heaven knows, when we have spent more money in Portugal than the whole country contained before we came here." After the party had broken up, Captain Nelson took Terence to Mr. Villiers, Avho, on reading the general's letter and hearing from Terence how Romana was situated, at once said that he would hand over to him 20,000 dollars to take to the Spanish general. . " How am I to carry it, sir ? It will be of considerable weight if it is in silver." " I will obtain for you four good mules/' Mr. Villiers said, " and an escort of twelve Portuguese cavalry under an officer." '' May I ask, sir, that the money shall be packed in ammu nition-boxes, and that no one except the officer shall know that these contain anything but ammunition?" " You have no great faith in Portuguese honesty, Mr. O'Connor." " As to their honesty as a general thing, sir, I express no opinion," Terence said bluntly; "as to the honesty of their political partisans, I have not a shadow of belief. Moreover, there is no love lost between them and the Spaniards, and though possibly money for any of the Portuguese leaders 202 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. might be allowed to pass untouched by others and even of this I have great doubt I feel convinced that none of them would allow it to go out of the country for the use of the Spaniards if they could lay hold of it by the way." " Those being your sentiments, sir, I think that it is a pity the duty is not intrusted to some officer of broader views." " I doubt whether you would find one, sir; especially if he has, like myself, been three or four months in the country. I have simply accepted the duty, and not sought it, and should gladly be relieved of it. General Romana sent me here with a despatch, and it is my duty, unless General Cradock chooses another messenger, to carry back the reply, and anything else with which I may be intrusted. I have for the past three months been incessantly engaged on arduous and fatiguing duty. I have ridden for the last nine days by some of the worst roads to be found in any part of the world, I should say, and have before me the same journey. Besides, if I receive the general's orders to that effect, I may have to stay with the Spanish general, and in that case shall, I am sure, be con stantly upon the move, and that among wild mountains. If this treasure is handed over to me I shall certainly do my best to take it safely, and to defend it, if necessary, with my life; but it is assuredly a duty of which I would gladly be relieved. But that, sir, it seems to me, is a question solely for the commander-in-chief." Mr. Villiers gazed in angry surprise at the young ensign; then thinking perhaps that he would put himself in the wrong, and as his interferences in military matters with Sir John Cradock had not met with the success he desired for them, he checked the words that rose to his lips, and said shortly: "The convoy will be ready to start from the treasury at daybreak to-morrow." "I shall be there, if so commanded by General Cradock." As soon as they had left the house Captain Nelson burst into a shout of laughter. A DANGEROUS MISSION. 203 "What is it?" Terence asked in surprise. " I would not have missed that for twenty pounds, O'Connor; it is the first bit of real amusement I have had since I landed. To see Villiers, who regards himself as the greatest man in the country, who not only thinks that he regulates every political intrigue in Spain and Portugal, but assumes to have the direction of every military movement also, and tries to dictate to the general on purely military matters, quietly cheeked by an ensign, is the best thing I ever saw." "But he has nothing to do with military matters, has he?" " No more than that mule-driver there, but he thinks he has; and yet, even in his own political line he is the most ill-in formed and gullible of fools, even among the mass of incom petent agents who have done their utmost to ruin every plan that has been formed. I doubt whether he has ever been cor rect in a single statement that he has made, and am quite sure that every prophecy he has ventured upon has been falsified, every negotiation he has entered into has failed, and every report sent home to government is useful only if it is assumed to be wrong in every particular; and yet the man is so puffed up with pride and arrogance that he is well-nigh insupportable. The Spaniards have fooled him to the top of their bent; it has paid them to do so. Through his representations the ministry at home have distributed millions among them. Arms enough have been sent to furnish nearly every able-bodied man in Spain, and harm rather than good has come of it. Still, he is a very great man, and our generals are obliged to treat him with the greatest civility, and to pretend to give grave con sideration to the plans that, if they emanated from any other man, would be considered as proofs that he was only fit for a mad-house. And to see you looking calmly in his face and announcing your views of the Spanish and Portuguese was delightful." And Captain Nelson again burst into laughter at the recollection. Terence joined in the laugh. " I had no intention of offend- 204 WITH MOORE AT CORUNNA. ing him," "he said. "Of course I have often heard how he was pressing General Moore to march into Spain, and promising that he should be met by immense armies that were eager and ready to drive the French out of that country, and were only waiting for his coming to set about doing so. I know that the brigadier and his staff used to talk about what they called Villiers' phantom armies, but as I only said what everyone says who has been in Spain, it never struck me that I was likely to give him serious offence." " And if you had thought so, I don't suppose it would have made any difference, O'Connor." "I don't suppose it would," Terence admitted; "and per haps it will do him good to hear a straightforward opinion for once." " It will certainly do him no harm. Now, you had better tell the chief that you are to have the money. I should think that he will probably send a trooper with you as your orderly. Certainly he has no reason to have a higher opinion of the Portuguese than you have." "I will go back with you, Captain Nelson; but as you were present will you kindly tell the general. I don't like bother ing him." " Certainly, if you wish it." On arriving at head-quarters Terence sat down in the ante room and took up an English paper, as he had heard no home news for the last three months. Presently Captain Nelson came out from the general's room and beckoned to him. He followed him in. Four or five officers of rank were with the general, and all were looking greatly amused when he entered. " So you have succeeded in obtaining money for Romana," the general said. "Yes, sir, there was no difficulty about it. Mr. Villiers asked me a few questions as to the situation on the frontier, and at once said that I should have 5000 to take him." "Captain Nelson tells us that you were unwise enough to A DANGEROUS MISSION. 205 express an opinion as to the honesty of the Portuguese escort that he proposed to send with you." " I said what I thought, General, and had no idea that Mr. Villiers would take it as an offence, as he seemed to." " Well, he has his own notions on these things, you see," the general said dryly, "and they do not exactly coincide with our experience; but then Mr. Villiers claims to understand these people more thoroughly than we can do." Terence was silent for a moment. "I only went by what I have seen, you know," he said after a pause, "and certainly had no intention of angering Mr. Villiers. But it seemed to me that, as I was responsible for taking this money to Eomana, it was my duty to suggest a precaution that appeared to me necessary." " Quite right ! quite right ! and it is just as well, perhaps, that Mr. Villiers should occasionally hear the opinions of officers of the army frankly expressed. Certainly I think that the pre caution you suggested was a wise one, and if Mr. Villiers does not do so, I will see that it is carried out. " I have asked Captain Nelson to go with you, taking the treasure, to the barracks and see that the money is taken out of the cases and repacked in ammunition-boxes. It would be unwise in the extreme to tempt the cupidity of any wandering parties that you might fall in with, by the sight of treasure- cases. Your suggestion quite justifies the opinion that I had formed of }