The windows on
this side of the house were unbroken. The two orderlies soon fastened up
the curtains across the windows of the officers' room, and when the fire
was lighted it had a more cheerful aspect. The burdens of the mules were
brought into the room opposite, where there was a key in the door and bars
across the windows. Presently the soldiers returned with some meat, a
couple of fowls, bread, and some wine, together with a bunch of candles.
The fowls were soon plucked, cut in two, and grilled over the fire, and in
a quarter of an hour after the men's return the two officers sat down to
supper. The meal was just finished when there was a knock at the outer
door, and the soldier acting as sentry came in and said that Colonel
Cortingos desired to speak to them.
"I suppose that is the fellow we saw in the town," Terence said; "show him
in."
The supposition was a correct one, for the man entered, accompanied by two
others. Terence had no doubt that this fellow was the author of the attack
upon the house, and the murderer of the proprietor and others. He did not
feel disposed to be exceptionally civil to him, but as he had a couple of
thousand men under his command and had certainly put the only available
place in the village at their disposal, he rose as he entered.
"These two gentlemen," the colonel began, "form, with myself, the
committee appointed by the Junta of Oporto to organize the national
resistance here and in the surrounding neighbourhood, to keep our eye upon
persons suspected of being favourable to the enemy, and to arrest and send
them to Oporto for trial.
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