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 Dragoons,
two squadrons of which were attached at the time to the Light
Division. To be more precise, he was to purchase and bring into
Pinhel a hundred head of cattle, intended some for slaughter and
some for draught. His instructions were to proceed as far as Regoa
and there report himself to one Bartholomew Bearsley, a prosperous
and influential English wine-grower, whose father had acquired
considerable vineyards in the Douro. He was reminded of the almost
hostile disposition of the peasantry in certain districts; warned
to handle them with tact and to suffer no straggling on the part