were highly pleased to see the confusion produced amongst the French when the English were named. The troops were assembled and ordered to march to attack the invaders. The captain informed the lady, "I am going to fight against the English, and I will give you, my dear madam, a good account of them when I return." She very good-humouredly said, "Take care you do not burn your fingers." The captain's regiment marched and joined the French army previous to the battle of Vimeiro, where his company was annihilated and himself badly wounded. The lady was one day seated at her window and perceived a crowd of persons coming towards her; curiosity made her anxious to know the cause. They soon approached near enough to show her that they were the wounded men upon bullock cars in great numbers. They passed along to the hospital, with the exception of one car, which stopped at her door. On it she perceived the poor French captain; he was directly put into the chamber that he had occupied before, and every possible attention shown him. "My dear lady," he observed as soon as he saw her, "your countrymen have made me pay handsomely for my boasting. The fine fellows that daily paraded before your windows for so many weeks are now lifeless and inanimate clay, and will trouble you no more. Would to God it had been my fate also!" He was now frightfully distressed with past recollections; she left him to give him time to moderate his anguish. When he became calmer she returned, and he followed up his story. "I met the English. Oh, that morning was one of the most happy of my life! My men to a man had the same feeling. I was sent out to skirmish against some of those in green—grasshoppers I call them; you call them Rifle Men. They were behind every bush and stone, and soon made sad havoc amongst my men, killing all the officers of my company, and wounding myself without being able to do them any injury. This drove me nearly to distraction. In a little time the British line advanced. I was knocked down, bayoneted, and should have been put to death upon the spot if an English officer had not saved me. I find by my own feelings that I am not long for this world. Our army has been defeated by your countrymen in a succession of battles, and you will have them with you soon in Lisbon." This officer sank in a few days, although every possible care and attention were paid him by the English family, who owed their preservation on a former occasion to the good offices of this officer and the French colonel. Letter No. VIII Pedroso, near Lisbon, _30th September 1810_.