n as I
could speak the language, so I stuck at it hard; and now, you see,
I have got my reward."

"I can tell you that the troops, here, are a good deal better off
than they are elsewhere. There is a fearful want of land carriage,
but we get our supplies up by boats. That is why the Portuguese
regiments are encamped on the river.

"Well, how did you get away from the French? It is curious that
when I saw O'Grady last--which was a fortnight ago, when he came in
to get a conveyance to take over sundry cases of whisky that had
come up the river, for the use of his mess--he said:

"'I expect that O'Connor and Dick Ryan will turn up here, before
the spring. I am sure they will, if they have got together.'"

"It is too long a story to tell, here," Ryan said. "It is full of
hairbreadth escapes, dangers by sea and land, and ends up with a
naval battle."

The officers laughed.

"Well, will you come to our quarters?" one of them said. "We have
got some decent wine, and some really good cigars which came up
from Lisbon last week, and there are lots of our fellows who will
be glad to see you."

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, oth