"
Returning to Coimbra with the colonel, Terence rode to the house where
Herrara's friends had taken rooms, and told them that he was going to
leave them. Don Jose at once wrote several letters of introduction to
influential friends at Lisbon, telling them that he and his daughters had
escaped from the sack of Oporto, and asking them to show every kindness to
the officer, to whom they chiefly owed their safety.
Terence meanwhile returned to camp, arranged with Herrara and the two
majors that everything was to go on as usual during his absence, urging
them to work hard at their drill, and to impress upon the men the
necessity, now that they were in uniform, of carrying themselves as
soldiers, and doing credit to their corps.
Five days later he arrived at Lisbon, taking with him a report from the
commandant of his inspection of the corps.
"I had begun to be afraid that you had been killed or taken prisoner, Mr.
O'Connor," Sir John Cradock said, as Terence presented himself, "or that
you must have fallen back with Romana into Spain. He seems to have behaved
very badly, for, as I hear, although he had 10,000 men with him, half of
them regular troops, he retired without a shot being fired--except by two
regiments who were mauled by the French cavalry--and left Silveira in the
lurch."
"I was on other business, General, and I fear that you will think that I
exceeded my orders; but I hope that you will consider that the result has
justified my doing so.
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