The colonel had not exaggerated matters. The number of tents to be
taken were altogether insufficient for the regiment, even with the utmost
crowding possible. The officers' baggage had been cut down to twenty
pounds a head--an amount scarcely sufficient for a single change of
clothes and boots. Even the amount of ammunition to be taken would be
insufficient to refill the soldiers' pouches after the supply they carried
was exhausted.
The paucity of baggage would not have mattered so much had the march begun
at the commencement of summer, instead of just as winter was setting in.
In the former case, men could have slept in the open air, and a solitary
blanket and one change of clothes would have sufficed; but with the wet
season at hand, to be followed by winter cold, the grievance was a very
serious one. Terence had already learned that the brigade was to march in
two days, and that the great bulk of the baggage was to be stored at
Torres Vedras, which was to be occupied on their leaving by some of the
troops that would remain in Portugal.
"Faith, it is an evil look-out, Terence," O'Grady, who was sitting next to
him, said, pathetically. "Sorra a drop of whisky is there in the camp, and
now we sha'n't be able to have even a drink of their bastely spirits,
onless we can buy it at the towns; and as Anstruther's division has gone
on ahead of us, it is likely that every drop has been drunk up.
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