anding, it had been proclaimed that his
conduct of the campaign was so incompetent as to deserve, not reward,
but punishment; and he was aware of the growing unpopularity of the
war in England, knew that the Government--ignorant of what he was so
laboriously preparing--was chafing at his inactivity of the past few
months, so that a member of the Cabinet wrote to him exasperatedly,
incredibly and fatuously--"for God's sake do something--anything so that
blood be spilt."

A heart less stout might have been broken, a genius less mighty stifled
in this evil tangle of stupidity, incompetence and malignity that sprang
up and flourished about him can every hand. A man less single-minded
must have succumbed to exasperation, thrown up his command and taken
ship for home, inviting some of his innumerable critics to take his
place at the head of the troops, and give free rein to the military
genius that inspired their critical dissertations. Wellington, however,
has been rightly termed of iron, and never did he show himself more of
iron than in those trying days of 1810. Stern, but with a passionless
sternness, he pursued his way towards the goal he had set himself,
allowing no criticism, no censure, no invective so much as to give him
pause in his majestic progress.

Unfortunately the lofty calm of the Commander-in-Chief was not shared
by his lieutenants. The Light Division was quartered along the River
Agueda, watching the Spanish frontier, beyond which Marshal Ney
was demonstrating against Ciudad Rodrigo, and for lack of funds its
fiery-tempered commander, Sir Robert Craufurd, found himself at last
unable to feed his troops. Exasperated by these circumstances, Sir
Robert was betrayed into an act of rashness. He seized some church plate
at Pinhel that he might convert it into rations. It was an act which,
considering the general state of public feeling in the country at
the time, might have had the gravest consequences, and Sir Robert was
subsequently forced to do penance and afford redress. That, however,
is another story. I but mention the incident here because the affair of
Tavora with which I am concerned may be taken to have arisen directly
out of it, and Sir Robert's behaviour may be construed as setting an
example and thus as affording yet another extenuation of Lieutenant
Butler's offence.

Our lieutenant was sent upon a foraging expedition into the valley of
the Upper Douro, at the head of a half-troop of the 8th Dra