These were for the most part ordenancas or levies,
called out when a larger force than the regular troops and militia was
required. They were on their way to join the forces assembling under the
edicts, and beyond pausing to stare at the British officer with the two
dragoons behind him and an escort of their own troops, they paid no
attention to the party.
They crossed the Douro at St. Joa de Pesquiera, and on stopping at a large
village some ten miles beyond, found it occupied by a rabble of some two
thousand men, absolutely useless for service in the field, but capable of
offering an obstinate defence to the passage of a river, or of impeding an
enemy's advance through a mountain defile. As they stopped before the
principal inn a man, dressed in some attempt at a uniform, came out from a
door.
"You are a British officer, sir?" he asked Terence, raising his broad hat
courteously.
"I am an officer on the English general's staff, and am proceeding on a
mission from him to the northern frontier to ascertain the best means of
defence, and the route that the enemy are most likely to move by if they
attempt to invade Portugal from that direction."
"The French general would hardly venture to do that," the officer said,
disdainfully, "when there will be 50,000 Portuguese to bar his way."
"He may be in ignorance of the force that will gather to meet him,"
Terence said, gravely, and with difficulty restraining a smile at the
confident tone of this leader of an armed mob.
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