With Moore at Corunna | Page 8

can be done widout ever so much blather;"
and Captain O'Grady stalked out of the orderly-room.
On the march Terence had no difficulty in obtaining leave from his
captain to drop behind and march with his friend Dick Ryan. The
marches were long ones, and they halted only at Parsonstown,
Templemore, Tipperary, and Fermoy, as the colonel had received
orders to use all speed. At each place a portion of the regiment was
accommodated in the barracks, while the rest were quartered in the
town. Late in the evening of the fifth day's march they arrived at Cork,
and the next day went on board the two transports provided for them,
and joined the fleet assembled in the Cove. Some of the ships had been
lying there for nearly a month waiting orders, and the troops on board
were heartily weary of their confinement. The news, however, that Sir
Arthur Wellesley had been at last appointed to command them, and that
they were to sail for Portugal, had caused great delight, for it had been
feared that they might, like other bodies of troops, be shipped off to
some distant spot, only to remain there for months and then to be
brought home again.
Nothing, indeed, could exceed the vacillation and confusion that

reigned in the English cabinet at that time. The forces of England were
frittered away in small and objectless expeditions, the plans of action
were changed with every report sent either by the interested leaders of
insurrectionary movements in Spain, or by the signally incompetent
men who had been sent out to represent England, and who distributed
broadcast British money and British arms to the most unworthy
applicants. By their lavishness and subservience to the Spaniards our
representatives increased the natural arrogance of these people, and
caused them to regard England as a power which was honoured by
being permitted to share in the Spanish efforts against the French
generals. General Spencer with 5,000 men was kept for months sailing
up and down the coast of Spain and Portugal, receiving contradictory
orders from home, and endeavouring in vain to co-operate with the
Spanish generals, each of whom had his own private purposes, and was
bent on gratifying personal ambitions and of thwarting the schemes of
his rivals, rather than on opposing the common enemy.
Not only were the English ministry incapable of devising any plan of
action, but they were constantly changing the naval and military
officers of the forces. At one moment one general or admiral seemed to
possess their confidence, while soon afterwards, without the slightest
reason, two or three others with greater political influence were placed
over his head; and when at last Sir Arthur Wellesley, whose services in
India marked him as our greatest soldier, was sent out with supreme
military power, they gave him no definite plan of action. General
Spencer was nominally placed under his orders by one set of
instructions, while another authorized him to commence operations in
the south, without reference to Sir Arthur Wellesley. Admiral Purvis,
who was junior to Admiral Collingwood, was authorized to control the
operations of Sir Arthur, while Wellesley himself had scarcely sailed
when Sir Hew Dalrymple was appointed to the chief command of the
forces, Sir Harry Burrard was appointed second in command, and Sir
Arthur Wellesley was reduced to the fourth rank in the army that he had
been sent out to command, two of the men placed above him being
almost unknown, they never having commanded any military force in
the field.

The 9,000 men assembled in the Cove of Cork knew nothing of these
things; they were going out under the command of the victor of Assaye
to measure their strength against that of the French, and they had no
fear of the result.
"I hope," Captain O'Grady said, as the officers of the wing of the
regiment to which he belonged sat down to dinner for the first time on
board the transport, "that we shall not have to keep together in going
out."
"Why so, O'Grady?" another captain asked.
"Because there is no doubt at all that our ship is the fastest in the fleet,
and that we shall get there in time to have a little brush with the French
all to ourselves before the others arrive."
"What makes you think that she is the fastest ship here, O'Grady?"
"Anyone can see it with half an eye, O'Driscol. Look at her lines; she is
a flyer, and if we are not obliged to keep with the others we shall be out
of sight of the rest of them before we have sailed six hours."
"I don't pretend to know anything about her lines, O'Grady, but she
looks to me a regular old tub."
"She is old," O'Grady admitted, reluctantly,