necessary for these operations. At the very shortest calculation a year
would have been wasted, very heavy loss of life incurred, and an immense
expenditure of money before the result, now obtained so suddenly and
unexpectedly, had been arrived at.

Nevertheless, the news of the convention was received with a burst of
popular indignation in England, where the public, wholly ignorant of the
difficulty of the situation, had formed the most extravagant hopes,
founded on the two successes obtained by their troops. The result was that
a commission was appointed to investigate the whole matter. The three
English generals were summoned to England to attend before it, and so
gross were the misrepresentations and lies by which the public had been
deceived by the agents of the unscrupulous and ambitious Bishop of Oporto
and his confederates, that it was even proposed to bring the generals to
trial who had in so short a time and with such insufficient means freed
Portugal from the French. Sir John Moore remained in command of the troops
in Portugal.


CHAPTER VI

A PAUSE

The Mayo Fusiliers had suffered their full proportion of losses at the
battle of Vimiera. Major Harrison had been killed, Captain O'Connor had
been severely wounded, as his company had been thrown forward as
skirmishers on the face of the hill, and a third of their number had
fallen when Laborde's great column had driven them in as it charged up the
ascent. Terence's father had been brought to the ground by a ball that
struck him near the hip; had been trampled on by the French as they passed