nd the easy repulse of Pack's brigade,
two thousand strong, by four hundred Frenchmen. "Notwithstanding all
that has been said and written of the Portuguese troops, I still hold
the opinion that they are utterly incompetent to stand unsupported and
_countenanced_ by British troops, with any chance of success, against
even half their own numbers of Frenchmen." Again, after Salamanca, when
Wellington and his victorious army advanced on Madrid, the Portuguese
dragoons fled, without striking a blow, before the French lancers,
exposing the reserve of German cavalry to severe loss, abandoning the
artillery to its fate, and tarnishing the triumphal entry of the British
into the capital--within a march of which this disgraceful affair
occurred. Still, to encourage these wavering heroes, it was necessary to
speak civilly of them in despatches; to pat them on the back, and tell
them they were fine fellows. And this has sometimes been misunderstood
by simple persons, who believe all they see in print, and look upon
despatches and bulletins as essentially veracious documents. "I remember
once," says Mr Grattan, "upon my return home in 1813, getting myself
closely cross-examined by an old lawyer, because I said I thought the
Portuguese troops inferior to the French, still more to the British.
'Inferior to the British, sir! I have read Lord Wellington's last
despatch, and he says the Portuguese fought as well as the British; and
I suppose you won't contradict him?' I saw it was vain to convince this
pugnacious old man of the necessity of saying these civil things, and we
parted mutually dissatisfied with each other; he taking me, no doubt,
for a forward young puppy, and I looking upon him as a monstrous old
bore."

The Eighty-eighth, we gather from Mr Grattan's narrative, whilst
respected by all as a first-rate battle regiment, was, when the stirring
and serious events of that busy time left a moment for trifling, a
fertile source of amusement to the whole third division. This is not
wonderful. Many of the officers, and all the men, with the exception of
three or four, were Irish, not Anglicised Irishmen, tamed by long
residence amongst the Saxon, but raw, roaring Patlanders, who had grown
and thriven on praties and potheen, and had carried with them to Spain
their rich brogue, their bulls, and an exhaustless stock of gaiety. The
amount of fun and blunders furnished by such a corps was naturally
immense. But if in quarters they were