windows upstairs will make it hot for them as they approach. But I should
hardly think that the men he calls soldiers will venture to attack a party
of regular troops."

The lieutenant shrugged his shoulders.

"He will tell them some lies, probably assert that we are French agents in
disguise taking money to the French army. Indeed, there is neither order
nor discipline among these bands, and, roused to a pitch of fury, they
would murder their own leaders as readily as anyone else. The Junta acts
as if the province were altogether independent, and numbers of men of
position have been butchered on the pretence of their being adherents of
the French, when their sole crime was that they disapproved of the doings
of the bishop and his tools. You will see that the night will not pass off
without something happening. Of course, I shall be sorry to have to order
the men to fire. In the first place it would render it very difficult for
us to resume our journey; and in the second, if we succeed in getting out
alive, they will send a lying account of the affair to Lisbon, and there
will be all sorts of trouble. Still, of course, if they attack the house
we shall defend ourselves."

The two officers then made a tour of the house and carefully examined the
means of defence. The broken shutters were replaced in their position in
the window, and were backed with a pile of the fragments of furniture. The
horses were all brought in from the shed outside, the soldiers were warned
that the mob in the place were likely to attack them, and four of them
were placed as sentries at the upper windows; and, by the looks of the men
when the lieutenant made the communication to them, Terence saw that they
could be relied upon.