Under Wellington\'s Command

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Every word was as it happened. O'Connor and I turned gunners, and
very decent shots we made, too; and a proof of it was that, if we
would have taken it, I believe the captain of the schooner would
have given us half the booty found in the lugger's hold; but we
were modest and self denying, and contented ourselves with a third,
each, of the cash found in the captain's cabin; which we could not
have refused if we wanted to, the captain made such a point of it.
It came to nearly three hundred pounds apiece; and mighty useful it
was, for we had, of course, to get new uniforms and rigs out, and
horses and saddlery at Lisbon. I don't know what I should have done
without it, for my family's finances would not have stood my
drawing upon them; and another mortgage would have ruined them,
entirely."

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

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

There was a general laugh.

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

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

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

"That is the extraordinary thing about these Spaniards. Sometimes
they show themselves cowardly beyond expression, at others they
fight like heroes. Just at present, even the Juntas do not pretend
that they have an army capable of driving the French out of the
Pyrenees; which is a comfort, for we shall have to rely upon
ourselves and not be humbugged by the Spaniards, the worthlessness
of whose promises, Lord Wellington has ascertained, by bitter
experience. The Portuguese government is as troublesome and as
truthless as that of Spain, but Wellington is able to hold his own
with them; and there is little doubt that the regular regiments
will fight, and be really of valuable assistance to us; but these
have been raised in spite of the constant opposition of the Junta
at Lisbon.

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

"The absurdity of the thing is, that we have an army in Sicily
which might as well be at Jericho, for any use it is. If it joined
us here, it would make all the difference in the world; though
certainly till the campaign opens it would have to be quartered at
Lisbon, for it is as much as the wretched transport can do to feed
us. Now the truth is, Portugal is a miserably poor country at the
best of times, and does not produce enough for the wants of the
people. Of course, it has been terribly impoverished by the war.
The fields in most places have been untilled and, in fact, the
greater portion of the population, as well as our army, has to be
fed from England.

"Altogether, Wellington must have enough worry to drive an ordinary
man out of his mind. I never heard of such difficulties as those he
has to meet. We come to help a people who won't help themselves, to
fight for people who not only won't fight for themselves, but want
to dictate how we shall fight. Instead of being fed by the country,
we have to feed it; and the whole object of the Juntas, both in
Spain and Portugal, seems to be to throw every difficulty in our
way, and to thwart us at every turn. The first step towards success
would be to hang every member, of every Junta, in every place we
occupy."

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

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

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

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

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

"Your regiment has been behaving very well, since they have been
here. They, like the other Portuguese regiments, have often been on
short rations, and their pay is very much in arrear, but there has
been no grumbling. I know Herrara will be extremely glad to have
you back again in command. He has said as much, several times, when
he has been in here. He is a good man, but not strong enough for
his position; and I can see that he feels that, himself, and is
conscious that he is not equal to the responsibility. I intended to
recommend that a British officer should be placed in command of the
regiment, before the campaign opens in the spring. Your two majors
do their best, but they have scarcely sufficient weight; for their
men know that they were but troopers when the regiment was first
raised."

"I shall be glad to be back again, sir; and I am pleased to say
that I have been given an adjutant--Lieutenant Ryan, of the Mayo
Fusiliers. He has the acting rank of captain. He is an old friend
of mine, and is a good officer. He has just effected an escape from
Bayonne with me."

"Yes, that will be of great assistance to you," the general said.
"With two battalions to command, you must want a right-hand man
very much. I shall be glad if your regiment remains in my division,
when the campaign reopens; but I suppose that, as before, you will
be sent ahead. At present, it is only attached to my command for
convenience of rationing and pay. I have inspected it twice, and it
is by far the finest of the Portuguese regiments here. But I can
see a certain deterioration, and I am sure that they want you back
badly. Still, it is not your loss only that is telling on them. No
soldiers like to go without their pay. Lord Wellington himself is
always kept short of funds. The Portuguese Ministry declare that
they have none. Of course that is all a lie but, true or false, it
is certain that all the Portuguese regiments are greatly in arrears
of pay, ill-provided with clothes, and indeed would be starved,
were it not that they are fed by our commissariat."

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

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

He held up his hands for silence.

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

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

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

"I have been fortunate enough to make my escape from a French
prison, in company with my friend here, Captain Ryan; who has, at
my request, been appointed by the commander-in-chief to be your
adjutant. I am sorry to hear that there have been difficulties in
the way of rations, and that your pay is in arrears. However, I
know well that you are not serving for the sake of pay, but to
defend your country from invasion by the French; and that whether
you get your pay day by day, or receive it in a lump sum later on,
will make no difference to you; and indeed, in some respects, you
will be better off for the delay for, getting it daily, it is spent
as soon as obtained; whereas, if it comes in a lump sum, it will be
useful to you when you return to your homes, after your work is
done. I am confident that, in this regiment at least, which has
borne itself so well from the day that it was raised, there will be
neither grumbling nor discontent; but that you will suffer any
hardship or privation that may come in your way as trifling
incidents in the great work that you have undertaken: to defend, at
the cost of your lives if need be, your country from the invader.
The regiment is dismissed drill for the day."

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

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

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

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

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

"Nothing much to grumble about, sir; but I must say that it has
been more slack than it was. We have all done our best, but we have
missed you terribly; and the men don't seem to take quite as much
pains with their drill as they used to do, when you were in
command. However, that will be all right now that you have come
back again. I have always found that when the battalion was not
working well, the men have pulled themselves together at once when
I said:

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

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

In a few minutes, a couple of tents were erected by the side of
that of Herrara and, while these were being got ready for
occupation, Terence and Ryan, with the two majors, entered that of
Herrara; and the latter produced two or three bottles of wine from
his private store, and a box of cigars. So for some time they sat
chatting, Terence giving an outline of the events that had happened
since he had been away from the regiment. He and Ryan had ordered
half a dozen small casks of wine, and two cases of whisky, to be
sent up with their trunks by water; and now asked regarding the
rations of the men.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next week was spent in steady drill and, by the end of that
time, the exercises were all done as smartly as before. Terence had
already tried the experiment of sandals. The commissariat at
Abrantes were glad enough to supply hides, at a nominal price. He
began by taking a dozen. These were first handed to a number of men
relieved from other duties who, after scraping the under side,
rubbed them with fat, and kneaded them until they were perfectly
soft and pliable. The shoemakers then took them in hand and, after
a few samples of various shapes were tried, one was fixed upon, in
which the sandal was bound to the foot by straps of the same
material, with a double thickness of sole. Terence tried these
himself, and found them extremely comfortable for walking; and gave
orders that one company should be entirely provided with them. As
to appearance, they were vastly superior to the cracked and bulged
boots the men were wearing.

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

"Sure, Terence, I knew well enough that you and Dicky Ryan would be
back here, before long. And so you have taken him from us! Well, it
is a relief to the regiment; and I only hope that now he is an
adjutant he will learn manners, and behave with a little more
discretion than he has ever shown before. How you could have
saddled yourself with such a hare-brained lad is more than I can
imagine."

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

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

"Is it lazy you say that I am, Terence? There is no more active
officer in the regiment, and you know it. As for the heathen
language, it is not fit for an honest tongue. They ought to have
sent over a supply of grammars and dictionaries, and taught the
whole nation to speak English.

"When did you get back?"

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

"How are you getting on here, Colonel?"

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

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

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

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

Chapter 10: Almeida.

The winter was long and tedious but, whenever the weather
permitted, Terence set his men at work; taking them twice a week
for long marches, so as to keep their powers in that direction
unabated. The sandals turned out a great success. The men had no
greatcoats, but they supplied the want by cutting a slit in the
centre of their black blankets and passing the head through it.
This answered all the purposes, and hid the shabby condition of
their uniforms.

General Hill occasionally rode over to inspect this and the other
Portuguese regiments encamped near them.

"That is a very good plan of yours, Colonel O'Connor," he said, the
first time the whole regiment turned out in their sandals. "It is a
much more sensible footgear than the boots."

"I should not have adopted them, General, if the men had had any
boots to put on; but those they had became absolutely unwearable.
Some of the soles were completely off, the upper leathers were so
cut and worn that they were literally of no use and, in many cases.
they were falling to pieces. The men like the sandals much better,
and certainly march with greater ease. Yesterday they did thirty
miles, and came in comparatively fresh."

"I wish the whole army were shod so," the general said. "It would
improve their marching powers, and we should not have so many men
laid up, footsore. I should say that the boots supplied to the army
are the very worst that soldiers were ever cursed with. They are
heavy, they are nearly as hard as iron when the weather is dry, and
are as rotten as blotting paper when it is wet. It is quite an
accident if a man gets a pair to fit him properly. I believe it
would be better if they were trained to march barefooted. Their
feet would soon get hardened and, at any rate, it would be an
improvement on the boots now served out to them.

"I wish the other Portuguese regiments were as well drilled and as
well set up as your fellows. Of course, your men don't look smart,
at present, and would not make a good show on a parade ground; but
I hear that there are a large quantity of uniforms coming out,
shortly; and I hope, long before the campaign opens, they will all
be served out. The British regiments are almost as badly off as the
native ones. However, I suppose matters will right themselves
before the spring; but they are almost as badly off, now, as they
were when they marched into Corunna. The absurdity of the whole
thing is that all the newly-raised Portuguese levies, who will
certainly not be called upon to cross the frontier until next year,
have got uniforms; while the men who have to do the work are almost
in rags."

Two or three of the officers of the Fusiliers rode over frequently,
to stop for a night or so with Terence; and the latter found time
pass much more pleasantly than he had done before Ryan had joined
him. During the day both their hands were full; but the evenings
were very pleasant, now that he had Dick as well as Herrara to talk
to. The feeling of the responsibility on his shoulders steadied
Ryan a good deal, and he was turning out a far more useful
assistant than Terence had expected; but when work was over, his
spirits were as high as ever, and the conversation in Terence's
tent seldom languished.

Spring came, but there was no movement on the part of the troops.
Ney, with 50,000 men, began the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in earnest.
The Agueda had now become fordable; and Crawford, with his light
brigade, 2500 strong, was exposed to a sudden attack at any time.
On the 1st of June Terence received orders to march with his
regiment to Guarda, where Wellington was concentrating the greater
portion of his army; leaving Hill, with 12,000 men, to guard the
southern portion of the frontier.

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