days. Have you any means of judging whether this statement is well
founded?"

"That I cannot say. General Romana seems to me to be a man of greater
energy than any Spaniard I have hitherto met, and I know that he has
already sent messages to the priests throughout that part of Galicia
urging upon them the necessity of using their influence among the
peasantry. He got a force together in a very short time, after the
complete defeat and capture of his own command by the French, at the time
of Blake's defeat, and I think that he might do so again, though whether
they would be of any use whatever in the field I cannot say; but should
Soult advance into Portugal, I should think that bands of this sort might
very much harass him."

"No doubt they might do so. I will see, at any rate, if I can obtain some
money from the political agents. I have next to nothing in my military
chest, and our forces are at a standstill for the want of it. But that
does not seem to matter. While our troops are ill-fed, ragged, almost
shoeless, and unpaid, every Spanish or Portuguese rascal who holds out his
hand can get it filled with gold. As to arms, they are in the first place
wanted for the purpose of the Portuguese militia, who are likely to be a
good deal more useful than these irregular bands; and in the second place,
there are no means whatever of conveying even a hundred muskets, let alone
the ten thousand that Romana is good enough to ask for. By the way, are
you aware whether Sir John Moore intended the army to sail to England?"

"Certainly not, sir. I know that up to the moment the battle began the
preparation for the embarkation went on unceasingly, and General Fane told
me the night before that we were to be taken here. Whether Sir John may,
at the last moment, have countermanded that order I am unable to say."