blanket and one change of clothes would have sufficed; but with the wet
season at hand, to be followed by winter cold, the grievance was a very
serious one. Terence had already learned that the brigade was to march in
two days, and that the great bulk of the baggage was to be stored at
Torres Vedras, which was to be occupied on their leaving by some of the
troops that would remain in Portugal.

"Faith, it is an evil look-out, Terence," O'Grady, who was sitting next to
him, said, pathetically. "Sorra a drop of whisky is there in the camp, and
now we sha'n't be able to have even a drink of their bastely spirits,
onless we can buy it at the towns; and as Anstruther's division has gone
on ahead of us, it is likely that every drop has been drunk up."

"It will be all the better for you, O'Grady. Daly tells me that your arm
is not fully healed yet. I know that you would not like to be left behind
when we have once started."

"That is true enough, but a drop of the cratur hurts no one."

"I beg your pardon, O'Grady, it is very bad for anything like a wound. The
doctor told me, when I was chatting with him before dinner, that he really
did not think that you could go, for you would not obey his orders to give
up spirits altogether."

"Well, I own that it has been smarting a good deal the last few days,"
O'Grady admitted, reluctantly, "though I have not said as much to the
doctor. I don't know that you are not about right, Terence; but faith,
after being kept upon bastely slops by O'Flaherty, it was not in human
nature to drink nothing but water when one gets a chance. At any rate, I
am not likely to find any great temptation after we have started."