John Wickey Stable

“ Now the brands which I had stirred broke into a slight flicker of flame, and as they did so I crouched back behind the body, lest the light should make me a mark for the dreaded bullet. Still no sound was within the house, though I could hear distinctly the pulsation of my heart, and each beat seemed to send the blood in a rush to my brain. ”

“ For about two leagues we followed the main road from Lisbon to Oporto, and then struck off on a track which led us through alternate pine-woods and olive-groves, to the foot of the mountain ridge, on the crest of which, on the glorious 27th of August, 1810, 50,000 British and Portuguese soldiers, commanded by the Duke, then Lord Wellington, met the onslaught of 70,000 French troops under the conduct of the Marshals of France, of whom Massena, the “spoilt child of victory,” was the chief, and drove them broken and discomfited down its rugged slopes with fearful slaughter. ”

“ I was in the greatest perplexity what to do; it was absolutely necessary that I should be in Coimbra at an early hour in the morning, to make up and despatch by that day’s post, which left at ten o’clock for Lisbon, several business letters which it was important should go by the next day’s mail steamer to England. It was now past midnight, and Smith was in a state of stolid insensibility from which there seemed no prospect of his recovering for hours. The old man and woman, who seemed to be the sole inmates of our refuge, were both of them upwards of sixty years of age ”

“ We had some difficulty in getting the horses down the steep pathway, and when we reached the road, which was little more than a bridle-path, we could proceed but slowly, for the night was pitchy dark, and the arriero seemed less certain of his way, as we had diverged from the direct road to Coimbra for the purpose of getting to the venda. We had not gone above two miles, and had just entered a thick pine-wood, when we heard the trampling of a horse approaching in the direction we were going. The lad hailed the rider ”

“ I therefore set myself to interrogate the arriero, who having led his beasts into the other end of the cottage, and shaken them out a scanty meal of maize husks, the only fodder procurable, was now crouched in front of the fire, puffing his cigarro, as to whether he thought it would be safe to leave Smith here, while we pushed on to Coimbra with the two horses. ”

“ He confessed that his fear, lest this man should be at home, had been the cause of the hesitation he had shown in going there in the first instance, which had been set at rest when the old folks informed him that their son had gone to Figuera, the nearest seaport, and was not expected home for some days. He said also that we must now be in the road to Figuera, which he had mistaken for that to Coimbra, and urged me to return at once to the venda to see to the safety of my friend. ”