that enabled them to enrich themselves at the expense of the people. Not
only that, but they were engaged in a struggle for supremacy with the
Junta of Oporto, which was striving by every means to render itself the
supreme authority of the whole of Portugal.

Terence had hoped that when he arrived at Lisbon he should meet the army
he had left at Corunna, for Sir John Moore's instructions had been precise
that the fleet was to go thither. These instructions, however, had been
disobeyed, and the fleet had sailed direct for England. It had on the way
encountered a great storm, which had scattered it in all directions.
Several of the ships were wrecked on the coast of England, and the army
which would have been of inestimable service at Lisbon, now served only,
by the tattered garments and emaciated frames of the soldiers, to excite a
burst of misplaced indignation against the memory of the general whose
genius had saved it from destruction.

On arriving at head-quarters and stating his errand, Terence was at once
admitted to the room where Sir John Cradock was at work.

"I am told, sir, that you are the bearer of a despatch from the Spanish
general, Romana. Before I open it, will you explain how it was that you
came to be with him?"

Terence gave a brief account of the manner in which, after being left
behind on the field of Corunna, he had succeeded in joining Romana.

The general's face, which had at first been severe, softened as he
proceeded.

"That is altogether satisfactory, Mr. O'Connor," he said. "I feared that