Peninsular Sketches; by Actors on the Scene. Vol. II. by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908902498
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Wagram Press
Published: 2012-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PENINSULA{40}

The evening before leaving Lisbon, we buried one of our officers, who died in the morning, having been only ill of cholera ten hours. It was a weary tribute to his memory performing the Dead March from the Rocio Square to Buenos Ayres, particularly as we had to get ready for our long pedestrian jaunt that was to commence the next day. I should not have introduced such an occurrence, had it not been to shew that, before Asiatic cholera came into fashion, its European prototype could perform its business occasionally in an off-hand sort of way; in this instance, it left the word promotion at immeasurable distance, for this poor fellow had been a subaltern at the siege of Gibraltar, and was no more when we buried him.

From some supposed difficulty in the routes in the north of Portugal, the division of Sir John Hope, with our small handful of cavalry, was to march by Abrantes and the banks of the Tagus, having in charge the whole upholstery of the army,—the remainder of the troops moved by different routes and by single regiments. Nothing could be more pleasant than the march from Lisbon to Coimbra. The month of October, as to-weather, was very similar to what we had in England last September—beautiful and clear. We halted on the march occasionally near runnings streams of clear water, which abound in Portugal; the distances were moderate, and good quarters awaited us at night. Our route was by the Tagus as far as Villa Franca, from thence to Olla; and from that place we took a cross-road that brought us back to our former line of march at Las Caldas. The epigram on the Highland roads of Marshal Wade—

“Had you seen these roads before they were made”—

would scarcely involve a bull applied to a Portuguese cross-road; for, in point of fact, there can be little difference between a road “that was never made” and one that was never repaired; the tracks of cart-wheels alone gave evidence that people had travelled that way. In many places the softer materials had been washed away, leaving only the bare rock, and these leaps were often above two feet in height; the few carriages we had were obliged to be hoisted up or lowered down by ropes. I can imagine that when the Portuguese cars travel by such roads, that they must do the same thing as at the portages of the rapids in North America,—unload at the bottom and carry up the cargo piecemeal. At Caldas, we had no longer ambition to indulge in the sulphur bath; but some very good port wine, with the factory seal, afforded full compensation.

The next stage brought us in front of the princely convent of Alcobaça. This has been already described by various travellers, but a few words may not here appear intrusive, particularly as speaking of things that have been; for the conventual property was confiscated to the benefit of the state in the days

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.