"I was gazetted lieutenant a month ago, Colonel. I suppose you had sailed from England before the Gazette came out."
"I suppose so, lad. Well, you richly deserved your promotion, if it was only for that affair on board the Sea-horse, and you ought to have had it long ago."
"I am awfully sorry to leave the regiment. It has been my home as long as I can remember, and wherever I may be, I shall always regard it in that light."
"And so you remain on the staff at present, O'Connor?"
"Well, sir, I am on the staff still, but for the present I am on detached duty."
"What sort of duty, Terence?"
"I have the honour to command two Portuguese regiments that marched in an hour ago."
A shout of laughter followed the announcement.
"Bedad, Terence," O'Grady said, "that crack on your head hasn't changed your nature, thanks to your thick skull. I suppose it is poking fun at us that you are. But you won't take us in this time."
"I saw the regiments pass at a distance," the colonel said, "and they marched in good order, too, which is more than I have seen any other Portuguese troops do. Now you mention it, I did see an officer, in what looked like a British uniform, riding with the men, but it was too far off to see what branch of the service he belonged to. That was you, was it?"