He then held up the old goat by the beard, and shook it at Captain Tyler, the General’s aide-de-camp, and taking it for granted that he had made a peace-offering to the General, or, probably, not caring one straw whether he had or not, went away with his burden, and was soon lost sight of amongst a grove of chestnut-trees.
“Well,” said Picton, turning to Tyler, who was nearly convulsed with laughter, “that fellow has some merit. What tact and what humour! He would make a good outpost soldier, for he knows, not only how to forage, but to take up a position that is unassailable.”
“Why yes, sir,” said Tyler, “when he held up the goat’s head, he seemed to beard us to our faces; and his promise of sending you a leg was a capital ruse!”
“It was, faith,” replied Picton, “and if the fellow is found out, he will, I suppose, endeavour to make me the 'scape-goat'!”
The General used often to tell this story as one of the best things of the sort he had ever met with.
It is a remarkable circumstance that a few days before the battle of Waterloo, Picton met Wallace in London, when he spoke highly of the regiment, and said if it returned from America in time to join the army under the Duke of Wellington (being then on their passage home), and if he joined the army, the 88th would be one of the first regiments he would ask for his division.
CHAPTER III
Masséna’s invasion of Portugal—Fall of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida—Craufurd’s fight on the Coa—Anecdote of Colonel Charles Napier—The British retire to the position of Busaco.
In the month of January, 1810, Lord Wellington established his headquarters at Viseu, in Upper Beira, and the different brigades of cavalry and infantry were quartered in the neighbouring villages. General Hill was left with five thousand British, and about as many Portuguese, at Abrantes; and with his army posted as has been described, the British General awaited the development of Masséna’s plan of invasion. The amount of the French force at this period in the Peninsula counted over three hundred and sixty thousand troops of all arms; but the army commanded by Masséna, and called “the army of Portugal,” did not amount to ninety thousand. The amount of the British and Portuguese forces has been already stated to be about fifty-five thousand men; and it will be recollected that of the Portuguese army scarcely one man in one hundred had ever discharged a musket against an enemy. As to the British, when Lord Wellington moved his army from the Guadiana its numbers counted about thirty thousand, but those under arms scarcely reckoned twenty thousand; the remainder were in hospital, and many of those in the ranks were but ill able to carry their knapsacks and firelocks, having not yet recovered from the effects of past illness.
The French preparations were so formidable, our own force so small, that in the British ranks it was generally believed that the entire army would retreat on Lisbon when the French advanced, and embark there. The same was asserted in England; the Portuguese dreaded it; the French army universally believed it, and the British ministers seem to have entertained the same opinion; for at this time an officer of engineers arrived at Lisbon, whose instructions, received personally from Lord Liverpool, though unknown to Lord Wellington, commenced thus: “As it is probable that the army will embark in September.”