Leckie became composed: “Well!” exclaimed he, “that young fellow is at rest for the night, and so I hope shall I be,” and he was beginning to settle himself in a more easy posture when the same sounds reassailed him. This was too bad! He sprang out of bed, the perspiration rolling in large drops down his forehead; he rushed to the door of the Ensign’s apartment, which he forced at one push, and in a second was standing before the astonished musician in his shirt. The fatal words, “Tell her I love her,” had just been uttered, and he was preparing to add, “while the clouds drop rain,” when Leckie exclaimed, “By God, sir, I’ll tell her anything you wish, if you’ll only allow me to sleep for half an hour.” It would be impossible to convey an idea of the confusion of the young man upon finding his commanding officer before him at such a time and upon such an occasion; he made a thousand apologies, and poor Leckie, who was one of the pleasantest fellows in the world, in spite of his pain, could not avoid laughing at the occurrence, which amused him to the hour of his death. Matters being in the state I have described in the month of October 1811, and as there was no likelihood of any active operations taking place, we began to make ourselves as comfortable as the wretched village of Aldea-de-Ponte would admit of. Any person acquainted with a Portuguese cottage will readily acknowledge that a good chimney is not its forte; we therefore turned all the skill our masons possessed to the construction of fire-places that would not smoke, and it required all their knowledge in the arcana of their profession to succeed even in part. However, they did succeed, partially, I must admit; but it was easy to satisfy us, and we made up for the badness of our fire-places by stocking them abundantly with wood, of which article there was no lack,—but we had barely sufficient straw to keep our horses and mules alive, much less afford ourselves a bed. In the entire village, I believe, there were not a dozen mattresses. Provisions were but ill supplied us, and we were reduced to subsist upon half allowance of bad biscuit. As to money, we had scarcely a sou; for although there was plenty of specie in Lisbon for our use, the want of animals to convey it to the army left us as ill off as if there had not been a dollar in the chest of the Paymaster-General. So that between smoky houses, no beds, little to eat, and less money, we were in anything but what might be termed “good winter-quarters.”