Scarcely had they lit their fires, when an Hussar officer and some troopers rode up.

They halted a hundred yards away, and the officer shouted in English: "What corps is this ?" Terence at once left the fire, and advanced towards them.
"Two Portuguese battalions," he answered, "under myself, Colonel O'Connor." The officer at once rode forward.
"I was not quite sure," he said, as he came close, "that my question would not be answered by a volley.

By the direction from which I saw you coming, I thought that you must be friends.

Still, you might have been an advanced party of a force that had come down through the defiles.

However, as soon as I saw you light your fires, I made sure it was all right; for the Frenchmen would not likely have ventured to do so unless, indeed, they were altogether ignorant of our advance." "At ten o'clock this morning I received orders from headquarters to move to this point at once and, as we have marched from Banos, you see we have lost very little time on the way." "Indeed, you have not.