I should like the officers to come up."
"Call the officers."
There was an officers' call, and this now sounded, and the twelve captains
with their two majors rode to the front and saluted. "Mr. Herrara," the
colonel said, "I have seen with surprise and the greatest satisfaction the
movements of the men under you; they do you the greatest credit, and I
shall have pleasure in sending in a most favourable report to the general,
the result of my inspection of the regiments. I hear from Mr. O'Connor
that your men have shown themselves capable of holding their own against
the French, and I can say that I should feel perfectly confident in going
into action with my regiment supported by such brave and capable troops.
Would that instead of 2,000 we had 100,000 Portuguese troops equally to be
trusted, we should very speedily turn the French out of Portugal and drive
them from the Peninsula."
The officers bowed and rode off. The troops had not learned the salute,
and when the horn sounded they were at once dismissed drill.
"Well, Mr. O'Connor, I must congratulate you most heartily on what you
have done. If nothing else, you have added to our army a couple of strong
regiments of capable soldiers. If I had not seen it myself I should have
thought it impossible that over 2,000 men could be converted into soldiers
in so short a time, and that without experienced non-commissioned officers
to work them up.
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