Part 7 (2/2)
”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.”
”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.”
d.i.c.k Ryan a.s.sisted 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, as 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 was eaten with 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 p.r.o.nounced 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'Grady said, as he swallowed a stiff gla.s.s of it; ”still, I will not be denying that it is warming and comforting, and if we can get enough of it we 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 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 servants, 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 provisions 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 sc.r.a.p 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 quant.i.ties 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 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 hanging 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.”
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.
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