stand this rank, I must explain it to you. The pay and rank are the same as those of aide-de-camp; the officer has the rank of major during the time he holds the employment, and he is not considered as generally belonging to the general's family so much as the aide-de-camp. The situation is more independent. Henry is attached to General Acland, whom neither he nor I knew before his appointment, but he is very highly spoken of.

I have not seen H. since his appointment; it is now, I think, ten days; we have been with opposite parts of the army. To-morrow I go into Lisbon, where I have every hope of seeing him. This appointment has lighted upon him in the nick of time, for the day after it, I think, his regiment received orders to march to Almeida, a garrison town on the frontier, nearly 200 miles from hence, and they are now on their march.

'I have only passed through Lisbon once since we have had possession of it. I regret very much not having been able to be more in the way of seeing the French during their embarkation; but I have lost no time, whenever I have had an opportunity, of making whatever remarks I could upon them. You will, I dare say, think me a curious being for making such a confession; but I really cannot help telling you that the lower orders of them (I mean the soldiers) appear to me very amiable; they are civil, obliging, and gallant to a degree, and I don't believe half the stories that are told of them. The Portuguese are by no means favourites with us, I assure you; nothing can exceed the joy they express at our being among them, and their delivery from the French; but the homage they pay us is of so abject a cast that we cannot help losing all respect for them; and although it is only proper that they should show every mark of respect to the English, since it is to their exertions they owe everything, they do it in so shameless a manner, at the same time that they have shown so little activity in the cause which should rouse all their energies, that they give by this means the strongest proof of their being a weak and degenerate people. They certainly are so in a

very great degree, and they have many unamiable features in their character into the bargain. You will say I am determined not to be the panegyrist of this people; but be this as it may, I must give you an account of an acquaintance I have made here within these few days, which I think will serve to convince you that my abuse is not altogether prejudice, or at least that it has bounds. At Lumiar, the last quarters we were in, about four miles from hence, myself et un de mes camarades, nous sommes entrés en soldats, dans la maison du Comte de Penicho. We did not certainly lay siege to the sweetmeats all at once, as I have already confessed to you was the case in a more inhospitable climate; but nous nous sommes très bien établis before we learnt who our noble host was. However, we have had no reason to regret this piece of decision on our part, as it has been the means of securing us a most valuable acquaintance; for although the household deities of the ancients were not more honoured than we have been in every house we have passed through, we have never fallen into such good hands before. The Count is rather of an advanced age; he is thoroughly a gentleman. I cannot describe him to you by comparing him to any one you know, because I have seen nothing in England like him. If you recollect having read the "Cid," he put me more in mind of the father of Rodrigue than anything I have seen or read of. He has a large family of six daughters and two sons, all young. It is singular that neither the Countess nor any of the family, except himself, speak French; so that we had very little conversation with them, except when we wanted to make them laugh, and we seldom failed when we attempted to address them in Portuguese. must tell you I have grown bolder with my French since I saw you last, so that I found myself quite at home with the Count. It was something very striking when he took us over his house, and showed us those parts of it which had been plundered by the French. It has contained some furniture exceedingly rich, and some excellent paintings, of which they have deprived him. All this we cannot help regretting when we witness it, but the tameness with which they submitted to all

I

these indignities as a nation is almost a bar against every feeling of regret even in these instances. We lived three days

with the Count, and when I was ordered to join the camp forming here, he first of all told me he remembered when very young having rode out on a little pony, under the care of a servant, to see the English camp, formed upon the ground we now occupy at Quetus, under the Count de Lippe, in the year sixty-two; which, he said, delighted him very much. And then, he desired that whenever I went to Lisbon I should find him

out; as he was willing to show me a great deal of attention; for his public business keeps him in town during the week, and Sunday is the only day he is allowed to spend with his family. So much for our romance, and I hope I shall shortly be able to give you the sequel to it.

'I believe we are to have a large camp formed here of fiveand-twenty thousand men; how long we are to stay here, or anywhere, I know not; but something tells me, we have more to see before we return home; and as we have not burnt our fingers yet, I dare say you will all think it very excusable in us that we should wish this to be the case. I am writing now in the Palace of Quetus; the royal family used frequently to reside here, and since their departure Junot has had it fitted up in very superb style, for the reception of the Emperor, who had been expected here. He has collected the plunder of other of the palaces and principal houses, and assembled it here. We have several of us been laughing together this evening at the strange sort of life we have been leading lately; sleeping almost indifferently, under the roof of a palace, a shed, or a bush, but I believe we never were happier. Sir Arthur Wellesley has left us, to our infinite regret; I was with his division of the army the whole campaign; his departure was very sudden and unexpected.

21st, Lisbon.-I am writing at this moment in H.'s room; he has been obliged to go out very early this morning upon duty. 'I shall write to you again soon; and I dare say we shall be at rest, now the army is halted, but we have of late been such perturbed spirits that the old maxim of there being a time

to sleep and a time to fight, a time to eat and a time to write, has met with very little respect among us. Henry, by the-bye, is going to be detached with his brigade a short distance from the rest of the army. I should not think it would be for any length of time. We are going to-day to find out James, and make him give us a dinner, as he has a mess, we understand, in town, and we shall in the evening go together to the opera.

CHAPTER VI.

1808-1809.

UNDER SIR JOHN MOORE-SENT ON TO EXAMINE ROADS INTO SPAINADVANCE-NO LETTERS--RETREAT TO CORUNNA-DEATH OF SIR JOHN MOORE-DANGEROUS VOYAGE HOME-CANTERBURY-COACH ACCIDENT.

SHORTLY after the Convention of Cintra, Sir Arthur Wellesley sailed for England; and immediately after the news of that convention reached England such a claniour arose that Sir Hew Dalrymple was recalled, and the command of the army was left in the hands of Sir Harry Burrard. At the same time Sir John Moore was appointed to the chief command of an army to be employed in Spain. Lord Castlereagh signified to Sir John that the force placed under his command, amounting to 20,000, was to co-operate with the Spanish armies in the expulsion of the French from that kingdom.' A further force of 10,000 was sent under Sir D. Baird to Corunna. Napoleon was at the same time massing an immense army to descend upon Spain to wipe out the disgraceful defeat of Dupont's army by the Spaniards at Baylen, and that of Junot by the English at Vimiera. He was then pouring 200,000 French troops past the Pyrenees, and the disorganised Spanish Junta had nothing but raw levies to oppose him. The task assigned to Sir John Moore seemed hopeless in the extreme, but he laboured hard to overcome the great difficulties of his position. He decided to effect a junction with Baird's army by land in preference to taking his troops by sea to Corunna, chiefly because it was known that in Galicia it would be impossible to procure supplies and transport for so large a force. But the Portuguese were ignorant even of their own country, and no correct