r did I feel perfectly at ease until I found myself
stretched on a bundle of straw in a corner of the barn occupied by the
men.

We proceeded, next morning, to join the army; and, as our route lay
through the city of Coimbra, we came to the magnanimous resolution of
providing ourselves with all manner of comforts and equipments for the
campaign on our arrival there; but, when we entered it, at the end of
the second day, our disappointment was quite eclipsed by astonishment
at finding ourselves the only living things in a city, which ought to
have been furnished with twenty thousand souls.

Lord Wellington was then in the course of his retreat from the
frontiers of Spain to the lines of Torres Vedras, and had compelled
the inhabitants on the line of march to abandon their homes, and to
destroy or carry away every thing that could be of service to the
enemy. It was a measure that ultimately saved their country, though
ruinous and distressing to those concerned, and on no class of
individuals did it bear harder, for the moment, than our own little
detachment, a company of rosy-cheeked, chubbed youths, who, after
three months feeding on ship's dumplings, were thus thrust, at a
moment of extreme activity, in the face of an advancing foe, supported
by a pound of raw beef, drawn every day fresh from the bullock, and a
mouldy biscuit.

The difficulties we encountered were nothing out of the usual course
of old campaigners; but, untrained and unprovided as I was, I still
looked back upon the twelve or fourteen days following the battle of
Busaco as the most trying I have ever experienced, for we were on our
legs from daylight until dark, in daily contact with the enemy; and,
to satisfy the stomach of an ostrich, I had, as already stated, only a
pound of beef, a pound of biscuit, and one glass of rum. A
brother-officer was kind enough to strap my boat-cloak and portmanteau
on the mule carrying his heavy baggage, which, on account of the
proximity of the foe, was never permitted to be within a day's march
of us, so that, in addition to my simple uniform, my only covering
every night was the canopy of heaven, from whence the dews descended
so refreshingly, that I generally awoke, at the end of an hour,
chilled, and wet to the skin; and I could only purchase an equal
length of additional repose by jumping up and running about, until I
acquired a sleeping quantity of warmth. Nothing in life can be more
ridiculous than seeing a le