Free The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer

Long-Nose a quare lad to shtrive to get into it, seeing how it was definded? But what else could he do, afther all? Didn’t he recave ordhers to do it; and didn’t he say to us all, “Boys,” says he, “ids myself that’s sorry to throuble yees upon this dirty arrand; but we must do it, for all that; and if yees can get into it, by nook or by crook, be the powers, id’ll be the making of yees all—and of me too!” and didn’t he spake the thruth? “Sure,” says he, “did I ever tell yees a lie, or spake a word to yees that wasn’t as thrue as the Gospil? and if yees folly my directions, there’s nothing can bate yees?” And sure,’ added Paddy, refreshing himself from the contents of his kettle, ‘afther we got in, was he like the rest, sthriving to put us out before we divarted ourselves? Not he, faith! It was he that spoke to the boys dacently. “Well, boys, “says he, when he met myself and a few more aising a house of a thrifle, “Well, boys,” says he (for he knew the button), “God bless the work! Id’s myself that’s proud to think how complately yees tuk the concate out of the Frinch 88th, in the Castel last night!” Not very like his lordship’s laconic style, perhaps; yet certainly his lordship was turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the atrocities being committed within the walls of the town. The only thing that had made his lordship angry was being nearly shot down by feu-de-joie, fired enthusiastically in his honour by a mob of drunken privates, when he rode through Badajos. Paddy Aisy’s sentiments were very much his lordship’s own, however crudely expressed. After the sack had lasted for eighteen hours, his lordship had issued a cool General Order. ‘It is now full time that the plunder of Badajos should cease,’ he wrote, accepting war as it was, no affair of ancient chivalry, but a bloody, desperate business. ‘An officer, and six steady non-commissioned officers will be sent from each regiment, British and Portuguese, of the 3rd, 4th, 7th, and Light Divisions into the town at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning, to bring away any men still straggling there.’
    But on the 8th April, when his lordship stood at the drumhead with Juana on his gallant arm, his orders had not been obeyed, for no officer, and no six non-commissioned officers, however steady, could hope to control the activities of any regiment at present rioting in the streets, or wenching in the white-washed houses of Badajos.
    Yet his lordship seemed quite unperturbed, whispering his nonsense into Juana’s ear. His lordship did not love his men, but without effort he understood them. Presently he would send a strong force into Badajos, and erect a gallows there, but not until his wild, heroic troops had glutted themselves with conquest. Had his lordship cared, after the bloody combat at Ciudad Rodrigo, when he had met the men of the 95th Rifles clad in every imaginable costume, excepting only the dress of a Rifleman? Not a bit! They had had their swords stuck full of hams, tongues, and loaves of bread; they were weighed down by their plunder; but when they had set up a cheer for his lordship, he had acknowledged it in his usual stiff way, and had asked the officer of the leading company, quite casually, what regiment it was? And when he was told that he beheld some of his crack troops, he had given a neigh of laughter, and had ridden on.
    No, his lordship was not worrying over the conduct of troops who had cracked the hardest nut of all his Peninsular campaigns. Truth to tell, his lordship had very little sympathy to spare for his Spanish allies. He had suffered too much at their hands.
    His lordship was all attention to Juana and her sister, all joviality towards Harry Smith, whom he knew to be one of his promising young officers. He had found time, in the midst of his worries, to arrange for the elder lady to be set on her way through the British lines. You would not have thought, seeing his lordship clapping Harry upon