1830.] The Captain of Rifles. 439 



After wandering for a few hours among the streets, " in the vain 

 hope that he had got among a congregation of stables and outhouses/' 

 he opened his eyes to the novelties of the population. 



" The church, I concluded, had on that occasion indulged her nume- 

 rous offspring with a holiday, for they occupied a much larger por- 

 tion of the streets than all the World besides. Some of them were 

 languidly strolling about, and looking the sworn foes of time, while 

 others crowded the doors of the different coffee-houses ; the fat, jolly- 

 looking friars cooling themselves with lemonade, and the lean, mustard- 

 pot-faced ones sipping coffee out of thimble-sized cups, with as much 

 caution as if it had been physic. 



" The next class that attracted my attention, was the numerous col- 

 lection of well-starved dogs, who were indulging in all the luxury of 

 extreme poverty on the endless dung-heaps. There, too, sat the 

 industrious citizen basking in the sunshine of his shop-door, and 

 gathering in the flock, which he so bountifully reared on his withered 

 tribe of children. There strutted the spruce cavalier, with his upper 

 man furnished at the expense of his lower." We know nothing in the 

 descriptions of Portuguese society more expressive. 



This was the time of the retreat to the lines of Torres Vedras, and 

 the rifle company being ordered from Figueras to join the retreating 

 force, moved upon Coimbra. To their astonishment they found this 

 city of twenty thousand souls, without a living body. Wellington had 

 ordered the whole population to follow the army. But the disappoint- 

 ment was a sore affliction to the Rifles, who expected good living there ; 

 " a company of rosy-cheeked, chubby youths, who, after three months' 

 feeding on ships' dumplings, were thus thrust, at a moment of extreme 

 activity, in the face of an advancing enemy, supported by a mouldy 

 biscuit, and a pound of raw beef, drawn every day, fresh from the 

 bullock." 



The Rifleman prefaces his tale with a candid declaration that he 

 means to talk of nobody but himself and his own regiment. " Every 

 man may write a book for himself, if he likes, but this is mine. And, 

 as I borrow no man's story, neither will I give any man a particle of 

 credit for his deeds, as I have got so little for my own, that I have 

 none to spare. Neither will I mention any other regiment than my 

 own, for there is none that I like so much, and none that so much 

 deserves it ; for we were the light regiment of the light division, and 

 fired the first and last shot in every battle, siege, and skirmish, in which 

 the army was engaged during the war. In stating the foregoing reso- 

 lution, however, with regard to regiments, I beg to be understood as 

 identifying our old and gallant associates the 43d and 52d, as a part of 

 ourselves, for they bore their share in every thing ; and I love them, 

 as I hope to do my better half (when I shall come to be divided)." 



The first exploit of his detachment was one which Don Quixote 

 would have envied, and Sancho Panza panegyrised. ce October 1, 1810. 

 We stood to our arms at daylight, this morning, on a hill in front of 

 Coimbra ; and as the enemy soon after came on in force, we retired before 

 them through the city. The civil authorities, in making their own 

 hurried escape, had left a jail-full of rogues unprovided for ; who, as 

 we were passing near them, made the most hideous screaming for relief. 

 Our Quarter-master-general humanely took some men, who broke open 

 the doors, and the whole of them were soon seen trowling along the 



