CHAPTER XXX.
THE CANTONMENT.
Soon after this the army broke up from Caja, and went into cantonments along the Tagus, the headquarters being at Portalegre.

We were here joined by four regiments of infantry lately arrived from England, and the 12th Light Dragoons.

I shall not readily forget the first impression created among our reinforcements by the habits of our life at this period.
[Illustration: A HUNTING TURN-OUT IN THE PENINSULA.] Brimful of expectation, they had landed at Lisbon, their minds filled with all the glorious expectancy of a brilliant campaign; sieges, storming, and battle-fields floated before their excited imagination.

Scarcely, however, had they reached the camp, when these illusions were dissipated.
Breakfasts, dinners, private theatricals, pigeon matches, formed our daily occupation.

Lord Wellington's hounds threw off regularly twice a week; and here might be seen every imaginable species of equipment, from the artillery officer mounted on his heavy troop horse, to the infantry subaltern on a Spanish jennet.