"
"Quite right, Dicky," O'Grady said. "Faith, I would do it meself, if it
wasn't in the first place that I am too old to learn, and in the second
place that I niver could learn anything when I was a boy. I used to get
thrashed every day regularly, but divil a bit of difference did it make. I
got to read and write, and there I stuck. As for the ancients, I was
always mixing them up together; and whether it was Alexander or Caesar who
marched over the Alps and burnt Jerusalem, divil a bit do I know, and I
don't see that if I did know it would do me a hap'orth of good."
"I don't think that particular piece of knowledge would, O'Grady," Terence
agreed, with a hearty laugh; "still, even if you did learn Portuguese, I
couldn't ask for you. I don't mind Dicky, because he is only a year senior
to me; but if they made me commander-in-chief of the Portuguese army, I
could never have the cheek to give you an order."
Three weeks later came the startling news that Sir Arthur Wellesley had
arrived at Lisbon, and was to assume the command of the army. Sir John
Cradock was to command at Gibraltar. There was general satisfaction at the
news, for the events of the last campaign had given all who served under
him an implicit confidence in Sir Arthur; but it was felt that Sir John
Cradock had been very hardly treated.
Pages:
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481