French on their advance, or by the British regiments ahead.

He then went to his quarters, where he received the reports of the
medical, commissariat, and transport officers, wrote a report of the state
of the road and the obstacles that he had encountered, and sent it back by
an orderly to the officer commanding the six guns which were following a
day's march behind him. These had been brought along with great labour, it
being often necessary to take them off their carriages and carry them up
or down difficult places, while the men were frequently compelled to
harness themselves to ropes and aid the horses to drag the guns and
waggons through the deep mud. Between the arrival of the troops and dinner
Terence had his time to himself, and generally spent it with his regiment.

"Never did I see such a country, Terence," O'Grady complained to him one
day. "Go where you will in ould Oirland, you can always get a jugful of
poteen, a potful of 'taties, and a rasher of bacon; and if it is a
village, a fowl and eggs. Here there are not even spirits or wine; as for
a chicken, I have not seen the feather of one since we started, and I
don't believe the peasants would know an egg if they saw it."

"Nonsense, O'Grady! If we were to go off the main road we should be able
to buy all these things, barring the poteen, and maybe the potatoes, but
you could get plenty of onions instead. You must remember that the French
army came along here, and I expect they must have eaten nearly everything
up on their way, and you may be sure that Anstruther's brigade gleaned all
they left. As we marched from the Mondego we found the villagers well
supplied--better a good deal than places of the same size would be in
Ireland--except at our first halting-place."

"I own that, although Hoolan sometimes fails to add to our rations, we