CHAPTER VI.
Thecommanding officer conceiving that five of us who had accompanied the detachment from Ireland, properly belonged to the 2nd battalion, applied to Lord Wellington on our return to Portalegre, for permission to send us home. Leave being granted, we, after mutual expressions of regret, parted with our friends at Portalegre, on the 22nd day of November, and proceeded to Gaffeta. Next day we moved to Gavao, but finding an officer there taking quarters for Colonel O'Callagan, and the first battalion, 39th regiment, we departed instantly for Villa Franca, a small village two leagues from Abrantes. On approaching the residence of the chief magistrate, in order to procure billets, that worthy personage testified his joy at our arrival, by throwing the door in our faces. Enraged at the insult offered us, it is possible we might have adopted a summary mode of obtaining an interview with this trulyamiable personage, had not a most interesting and lady-like woman introduced herself,and kindly offered us all the shelter of her rural abode for the night. Having previously invoked a blessing upon ourpatronaand her interesting family, for her genuine hospitality, we bade adieu on the following morning to the residence of this most excellent woman, and proceeded to Abrantes.
After stowing away our baggage, and putting every thing in a fair train for dinner, we strolled about the streets and ramparts of Abrantes for a couple of hours, and then returned to head-quarters, where we fancied a nice dish of soup and a beef-steak would greet our return. Our disappointment therefore may be more easily conceived than described, when I state, that instead of such excellent fare greeting our entrance, we were welcomed by two servants with rueful countenances, and each relating, in a plaintive strain, tales of woe, sufficient to melt a heart of adamant. Moving as these were, however, they proved but a poor substitute for dinner. To work, therefore, we went; and partly by threats, and partly by entreaty, procured from the inmates a few culinary articles, which they verykindlyhad refused our servants. Our disappointments, however, were not yet at an end, for when every thing was ready, the amiable couple refused us even a single piece of earthen-ware to put it on. HadCruickshankwitnessed the infernal pair standing sentry over their stone-ware, the wife at one cupboard, and the husbandat the other, he must have acknowledged that a finer subject for his pencil was never afforded, for truly they had more resemblance to the inhabitants of Pandæmonium, than of this world.
After disposing of our baggage animals, we embarked at Abrantes in a small commissariat boat on the 26th, and with a gentle breeze, glided down the surface of the majestic Tagus, till the shades of night made it dangerous to proceed farther. On arriving at a point opposite to the neat, clean village of Chamusca, we hauled our boat ashore, and proceeded to the town, where we were treated with true hospitality. On the following day we dropped down to Valada, where, on the 28th, we embarked in a large boat, and after spending a rather uncomfortable night, landed at day-break next morning, at the Black Horse Square in Lisbon.
On the 2nd of December, thousands of hand-bills were circulated in Lisbon, intimating that at one o'clock on the following day, a British officer, accoutred in cork-boots, would walk across the Tagus, from Fort Belem, to the nearest point of land on the opposite shore. Conceiving this to be the project of some hair-brained or unfortunate individual, who, tired of life, was about to solicit the assistance of old Neptune to carry him into another world, I walked down to Belem to view the sports of the day. By eleven o'clock, the various streets leading from the city to Belem, were literallycrammed with people of all nations and conditions, from the peer to the peasant, hurrying along to the starting-post, some on foot, and the rest on every kind of conveyance, from the humble donkey, to the carriage-and-four. Being admitted into Belem Fort, I had a fine view of almost every person, place, and thing in the vicinity. The Fort was filled to an overflow with officers and ladies. Belem Castle was crowded with Portuguese nobility and gentry, and the whole space around, and between these two places, was completely covered with carriages, equestrians, and pedestrians. Of the former, I at one time counted four hundred and fifty. The river, for a considerable distance around the spot whence the hero was to start, was covered with hundreds of boats, carrying immense numbers of ladies and gentlemen, a great proportion of the latter wearing the naval and military uniforms of Old England. Six, eight, and even ten dollars were given for the hire of a boat from Lisbon, on this occasion—the ordinary fare of which was only about two shillings.
As the hour of one was announced by the bell of an adjoining clock, the dense masses on shore pushed and jolted each other so much, in order to get a peep at the cork accoutred hero before he set out on his perilous excursion, that the company of Portuguese militia stationed to preserve an opening for the officer to get to the river, kept their ground with great difficulty. Soon after one, avoice announced the hero's approach, but the intimation was premature. Two o'clock was chimed, still he was absent. Three o'clock was at length tolled, but he was not forthcoming. Not long after this, the people, whose appetites were getting a little keen, whetted, no doubt, by the fresh breeze from the Tagus, began to steal slily away, and by four o'clock the greater proportion of the immense multitude, between forty and fifty thousand, had retired to their respective domiciles, fully satisfied that they had been completely hoaxed, and vowing vengeance on the British officer and his cork-boots.
Having received a letter of recal from my commanding-officer, I parted with my friends of the second battalion on the evening of the 4th, and early next morning embarked at Belem, with a detachment which had just landed from England, and after spending an uncomfortable night, we landed at Valada next day at noon. On the 7th we marched to Santarem—on the 8th to Gallegao—9th to Punhete—the 10th to Abrantes, where we halted the 11th and 12th. On the 13th we proceeded to Gavao—the 14th to Gaffeta—and on the following morning bade our companions in Portalegre all hail.