He told me that the Galician peasants have been so enraged by their cattle
being carried off for the use of the French army that they will rise in
insurrection the instant the French march, and if that is the case, they
and Romana ought to be able to give Soult a lot of trouble before he
reaches Orense."
"I don't think those fellows with Romana are likely to do much, sir. The
French will just sweep them before them."
"I am afraid so, Bull; still, if we can prevent the French from crossing
here and compel them to follow the long road through Monterey, we shall
have done good service. It would give Portugal another seven or eight days
to prepare, and will send the enemy through a country where undisciplined
troops ought to be able to make a stand even against soldiers like the
French."
All through the night Terence and his major patrolled the bank from the
point facing Campo Sancos to a mile below that on which the French were
placing their guns. Everything went on quietly, sentries at intervals kept
watch, and the men, wrapped in their blankets, lay down in parties of
fifty at short intervals.
"The day is beginning to break," Terence said, as he met Bull coming back
from the lower end of the line. "I am not afraid now, for if we can but
see them coming we can gather two or three hundred men at any point they
may be making for.
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