"
"I will consult the others," the man said. "Many of us, I know, will be
glad to fight under an English officer, and agree to obey him implicitly."
"Very well, I will give you a quarter of an hour to decide."
Before that time had elapsed a dozen men came to the door with the
principal spokesman.
"We have made up our minds, senor. We will follow you, and we will arm
ourselves at Castro. It is a sin that the arms should be lying there idle
with so many hands ready to use them."
"That is good," Terence said. "Now, my first order is that you wait until
I have been gone an hour; then, that you form up in military order, four
abreast; the men with guns in front, the others after them. You must go as
soldiers, and not as a mob. You must march into Castro peacefully and
quietly, not a man must straggle from the ranks. You must go to the
authorities and demand the arms and ammunition; if they refuse to give
them to you, march--always in regular order--to the magazine and burst it
open; then distribute the muskets and a hundred rounds of ammunition to
each man having one, take the rest of the stores in carts, and then march
away along the road north until you come to the place where we are halted.
"Observe the most perfect order in Castro. If any man plunders or meddles
in any way with the inhabitants and is reported to me, I shall know how to
punish him.
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