and writing may be good for some countries, but as far as I see here,
reading and writing spoil them here, for every man one comes across who
can sign his name is intent either on filling his pocket, or on working
some scheme or other for his own advantage. If I were Sir John Moore I
would send up a division to Oporto, hang the bishop and every member of
the Junta, shoot Friere and a dozen of his principal officers, and if the
people of Oporto gave them the chance clear the streets with grape-shot.
Why, if it hadn't been for a small guard of our fellows with the French
garrisons that were marched down there to embark, the Portuguese would
have murdered every man-jack of them. They did murder a good many, and
robbed them all of their baggage; and if it had not been that our men
loaded and would have fired on them if they had gone further, not a
Frenchman would have got off alive. If this had been done in Lisbon, where
the French had been masters, there might have been some sort of excuse for
it; but they had never been near Oporto at all, and therefore the people
there had no scores to settle with them."

"I am afraid, O'Flaherty, that an army worked on your principles would
never get far from the coast, for we should have the whole country against
us."

"So much the better if we never got far from the coast. How much help have
we had from them? There is not a single horse or waggon for transport
except those we have hired at exorbitant prices; not a single ounce of
food. They would not even divide with us the magazines at Leirya, which
they had no share in capturing. The rabble they call an army has never
fired a shot or marched a yard with us, except Trant's small command, and
they were kept so far out of it in both fights, that I doubt whether they
fired a shot; and yet they take upon themselves to throw every obstacle in
our way, to dictate to our generals, and to upset every plan as soon as it