good-humouredly performed theirs by giving us coffee and cake, and we had a merry evening, laughing and talking bad Portuguese, to the amusement of the young ladies. However, we were requested not to perform the same feat again, to which we assented upon condition that we should be permitted to repeat our visit in a proper manner through the doorway and up the stairs, which being agreed upon we often paid a visit and were introduced to their parents and friends and found other young ladies invited to meet us. Now all this was very agreeable and amusing, as abroad they do not mind these things so much, but such an adventure could never happen in England as our manners and ideas of society would not permit such a thing being even thought of, much less put in practice.

About this time a very great friend of ours, Captain Packenham of the navy, who always used to be of our parties to the young ladies, was appointed to a ship and came to dine with us, and in talking over his going home to join his ship he said, 'Well, I care not where I am sent so that it is not to cruise in Lough-Swilly Bay on the Irish Coast, for if I go there I am sure I shall

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be lost.' We of course laughed at him, but I never shall forget with what a serious and melancholy expression of countenance he held to his opinion. When he arrived in England he found the ship was ordered to the very place he dreaded, and in a few weeks after her arrival in the bay a storm arose and she went down, and not a soul left to tell the melancholy tale! His body was drifted ashore and buried with hundreds of his unfortunate crew. Poor Packenham! a gayer or more kind-hearted fellow never wore a blue coat.

CHAPTER IV.

Advance from the Lines of Torres Vedras-Night Alarm-The Brunswick Oels Regiment-Execution of Deserters-Wellington's kindness of Heart-Pursuit of Massena-French method of obtaining Provisions-Affair of Redinha-Adjutant Winterbottom, 52nd Regiment-Sir William Erskine-Death of Lieutenant Gifford, 52nd Regiment-A Hot Day's Work-Brother William and self wounded-Lord March-Colonel LightPrivate John Dunn-Coimbra-General Beckwith-Adventure with a Thief.

BUT to return to the operations in front of the Lines of Torres Vedras. In consequence of the French not finding provisions or the towns inhabited as they expected, it was with the utmost difficulty that Marshal Massena could support his army in front of the Lines for some weeks, and he was at last forced to retreat to the town and district of Santarem, where he took up a strong position and fortified his camp, being obliged in his turn to act upon the defensive, for Lord Wellington immediately followed him and took up a position opposite the enemy's front, who, being thus baffled in his attempt to carry our lines and drive us into the

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sea, as Napoleon had boasted he would do, was forced to be content to remain at Santarem in hopes of our being obliged to embark for want of means of subsistence, or that the English nation, tired and burdened with the expense of supporting an army in Portugal, would at last force the Ministry to recall Lord Wellington and his army. But here again Napoleon was baffled, both in his estimation of the character of the English nation and the intrepid firmness and military skill of the British general, who had long before calculated his means and determined upon his plans, from which he never deviated, and to which must be attributed the ultimate expulsion of the French from the Peninsula, and the glorious march of the AngloPortuguese army under its great commander from Lisbon to France, and finishing with the hardfought battle and splendid victory of Toulouse.

At this time I went to rejoin my regiment, which was in advance, quartered in some of the villages in front of the enemy's position of Santarem, our right resting on the Tagus with a small stream in our front, rather deep, beyond which was a marshy plain. There were two bridges over this little river, with a long causeway leading from

M

one of them, over which was the road to Santarem. These two bridges were about half a mile or less from each other, and a company was posted at each to watch them, with orders that should the enemy attempt to force the passage to fire the mines and blow up the bridges, as everything was prepared for that purpose by the engineers. My company was posted at the lower one on the right, which was not that over which the great road passed, but there was a private road which led through the marsh to the enemy's position. One night, between twelve and one o'clock, I was visiting my sentinels and post in order to be sure all was quiet before I lay down to sleep, when suddenly I heard a shot, then another, and the noise of men as if coming down on our post. It was so pitch dark I could see nothing, and I was just going to blow up the bridge when I thought I would first venture a little way beyond on the enemy's side and listen if I could hear the noise of men marching, and be quite satisfied before I set fire to the mine. My company was drawn up in three minutes across our end of the bridge and I went over to the other side with two or three men, and placing our ears to the ground we listened attentively for a