New-York tribune., 1903-06-27
CHAPTER XXI.
GO CAMPAIGNING WITH LORD VEL
LINGTON

LINGTON
The vessel to which they rowed me the
Butte transport bound from Portugal with one
hundred and fifty officers and men of the o2d
Regiment, hundred and twenty of the third
battalion 95th Rifles, and a young cornet and
three farriers of the 7th Light Dragons in
charge of fifty remounts from that regiment.
We weighed anchor at daybreak (he date,
1 may mention, was July 2s). and cleared the
sound. At 10 o'clock thereabouts the wind
fell and for two days and nights drifted
amessly about the Channal at the will of the
tides, while the sergeant-a veteran named
Henderson, who had started at twenty-five years
before by blowing a bugle in the 52d, and there
fore served me as index and example of what
by patience 1 might attain to-flled the most
of my time between sleep and meals with
lessons upon that instrument. From hencoop
abaft the mainmast (the Butte was a brig, by the
way) I blew back inarticulate farewells TO the
shores receding from US imperceptibly, if at ALL
and illustrated a profound remark of the
wars great historian that the English a
bellicose rather than a martial race and by
| consequence sometimes find themselves COM
mitted to military enterprises without having
counted the cost made complete preparation.
On the third day the wind freshened and
blew dead foul, decmatfng the horses with
seasickness 1--WE lost five the voyage), pros
trattng three-fourths of the men. and shaking
the two regiments down into a sociability
which outlasted their sufferngs. To be sure my
comrades of the SD (as with a fearful joy L
named them to myself In secret. being veterans
for the most part recovered or recovering from
wounds taken in the land to which they were
returning with common memories of Sir John
Moore, of Benevente, Calcabelbos, and Corunna,
treated the rifemen with that affable con-
descension which was all that could be claimed
by third battalion youngsters with all their
soldering before them. But the sd knew the
95th of old; and. veterans and youths, were
they not bound to be enrolled together in that
| noble Light Division, the glory of which was
already lifting above the horizon, soon to blaze
across heaven?
Sergeant Henderson did not suffer from
| sickness For no reward-unless 1t be the fierce
| delight of tackltng difficulty for its own sake
he had sworn to make bugler of me, given
| moderately bad weather: and when the evening
| of September brought us off the coast of Portu-
gal he allowed me to shake hands over his
| success Early next morning we began to dis
| embark at place called Ffgueira, by the mouth
| of the Mondego River. l stepped ashore with
a swelling heart.
But I carried also a portentousy swollen un-
| der lip with a crack in 1t which showed signs
| of fostering. Now there was base hospital at
Figueira to the surgeon in charge or Whlch
| fell the duty of inspecting the men as they
| landed and OBTAINING those who were SICK or
| physically unfit I need not say that his eye
was arrested at once by my unfortunate up
He examined it.
"Blood poisoning" he announced Nasty IL
| not attended to. Detained for a week
14a cav INV ewes fill with tears at this blow
+ho mora cruel because quite unexpected, ana
added not unkndly:
"Fh? What? In hurry? Never mind my
Iad-vou'u go up with the next draft, dare say
Jericho won't fall between this and then.
T was Young then and never doubted that
even so slight a promise must be remembered
Still that my merit might leave him no ex-
cuse for forgetting. 1 determined that II Shoulu
not escape attention; and finding nyseI coh-
signed to hospital with trfing hurt Whlch IN
no way interfered with my activity ana pelhS
at once pounced upon by an overworked anu
red eyed orderly and pressed into service as
emergency man. nurse and general pottle" aSher
for three overcrowded tents. 1 flung into my
new duties a zeal which ended by undong me-
Drunlrners might be wanted at the 'front.' pue
meanwhile the hospital camp undoubtedly
short handed And my hopes faded as, with the
approach of Christmas. wagon after wagon
laden with sick soldiers crawed back to us from
the low lying country over which Lord Welilng-
ton had spread his forces between the Agueda
and the upper Mondego-men shuddering with
ague or bent double with rheumatism, and all
bringing down the tales of short food
sodden quarters and arrears of pay. For three
days they told me- the army had gone without
bread and the commssariat Crawled over un-
threatened roads at the pace of five miles day.
They cursed the war, the government at home,
above all the Portuguese and everything in
Portugal; and yet their hardships seemed to me
heaven in comparison with the hospital in which
though it's duties were frequently disgusting
I had plenty to eat and nothing to complain of
but oVerwork
It was not until Christmas that won my re-
lease and by a singular accident
It happened that after nightfall on Decem-
Der % an ambulance train arrived of six
wagons, all full of sick demanding instant at
tention: and close upon these. four other wagons
| laden with cavaIrymen. wounded more or less
| severely in a foraging excursion beyond the
! Agueda which had brought them into conflict
| with a casual body OF Marnon's dragons. The
| with were unfit for long a journey. and
/ should have been attended to promptly at their
| own headquarters. To make matters worse. one
| of the wagons had been overturned six miles
| back on the frozen road. and the assistant sur
| geon who, owing t. the seriousness of the Job,
| had been sent down in attendance lost mis- head
| completely Three Of the poor fellows had sue