"
"We shall march all the better for it to-morrow, O'Grady. It has been hard
work, certainly, but not harder than it was marching down to Cork; and we
should have a good many stragglers to-morrow if it had not been for the
last week's work. We have got half a dozen footsore men in my company
alone, and you would have fifty to-morrow night if the men had not had all
this marching to get them fit."
"It is all very well for you, Terence, who have been tramping all over the
hills round Athlone since you were a gossoon; but I am sure that if I had
not had that day off duty when I showed the priest round the camp I should
have been kilt."
"Here is the general order of the day," the adjutant said, as he came in
with Captain O'Connor. "The general says that now the army is about to
take the field he shall expect the strictest discipline to be maintained,
and that all stragglers from the ranks will at once be handed over to the
provost-marshal, and all offences against the peasantry or their property
will be severely punished. Then there are two or three orders that do not
concern us particularly, and then there is one that concerns you, Terence.
The general has received a report from Colonel Corcoran of the Mayo
Fusiliers stating that 'the transport carrying the left wing of that
regiment was attacked by two French privateers, and would have been
compelled to surrender, she being practically unarmed, had it not been for
the coolness and quick wit of Ensign Terence O'Connor.
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