Besides, our shooting would be very wild in the dark."
"That it would, sir; not one shot in fifty would hit the boats, let alone
the men; and when the Portuguese saw the boats come on without pause in
spite of their fire, they would be likely to lose heart and to get
unsteady."
"We may as well stop here, Bull. It will be light enough to see across the
river in another quarter of an hour, and if there are no boats coming
then, I think it is pretty certain that they will not begin until
to-morrow night. The peasant said that they have only got 10,000 troops
there as yet, and we know that Soult has more than double that, and he may
wait another day for them all to come up."
Ten minutes later one of the sentries close to them shouted out that he
could see boats. Terence ran up to him.
"Where are they, my man?"
"Nearly opposite, sir."
Terence gazed fixedly for a moment, and then said: "I see them; they are
heading straight across." Then he gave the order to the man who always
accompanied him with a horn, to blow the alarm.
At the sound, the troops sprang to their feet, and some hundreds of
peasants, who were lying down a short distance behind, ran up. The horn
was evidently heard on the other side of the river, for immediately the
guns of the battery opposite opened fire, and their shot whizzed overhead.
Pages:
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352