little miss austin

Chapter 93 The Battle of Busaco

Because of the Napoleonic Wars, the French were quite unpopular in Europe.That is to say, a country like Greece that has not been affected by the war is better.But if the British and the French meet abroad, they still don't see each other well.

The Trafalgar naval battle was a sea battle that was triggered by France's desire to use its navy to attack the British mainland. After Napoleon I became emperor, his self-confidence increased greatly, and he was too inflated. He tried to conquer the whole of Europe and also wanted to conquer the British Isles.The victory of the Trafalgar naval battle shattered Napoleon I's ambition to rule the whole of Europe, and also greatly improved the national self-esteem and pride of the British people.

It was normal for the English to dislike the French, and Alice shouldn't have found a French lover.

Gabriel is a mature man full of personal charm. He is knowledgeable, familiar with ancient Greek history and Greek classical literature, and has a lot of practical experience. When talking about the archaeological work in Egypt, he is very fascinating and he is a good storyteller; He talked about looking for the remains of the lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt. The Alexandria Lighthouse took 40 years to build and was the tallest building in the world before BC.

As a "good" archaeologist, he must be good at telling stories, so as to impress potential investors, find enough funds to carry out excavation work, and communicate with local government departments. People will play many tricks.So from this perspective, Gabriel is not a simple archaeologist at all.

Even Hobhouse, the oldest of them all, admitted that the man was attractive.

He is very good at controlling the scene, as long as he wants to, he will never stand in the cold, and he can take up any topic. As long as young men abandon hostility, they will find that he can be a good communication partner.

He stayed in Athens for 4 days at the end of April, and then again at the end of May, this time for two weeks.

Alice would go out after her nap almost every afternoon, and would not come back until near midnight.Julian tried to go out with her and was rejected every time.

Ivo secretly followed her carriage to outside Gabriel's hotel.

In the car Alice changed into a black dress, a French-style beanie, and a black veil over her face.She disguised herself as a widow and secretly went to meet her lover.

The first time Gabriel saw her in black, he thought it was funny.There are quite a few Englishmen in Athens, and there may be someone who knows her and knows who she is. Of course, she doesn't want the news of her tryst with her lover in a foreign country to be reported back to China.

"You look good in this, like an amorous widow."

Alice took off her veil and hat, "Have you ever had a widow lover?"

"That can't be told to you. The less you know about me, the better."

"Why? Shouldn't you be bragging about your achievements to me?"

He laughed, "Do you really want to hear it?"

"Probably don't want to know."

"Then I want to tell you again now. Which lover should I start with?"

"Talk about the woman—or man—who ended your virginity."

He hugged her and laughed, "You're so weird."

"I've heard that boys want to end their virginity with an experienced mature woman."

"It's probably true that mature women are more experienced because men are stupid as boys and we don't understand anything."

"You know a lot!" He gently stroked her hair and kissed her forehead lightly.

"I only know a little bit. My mother said that if I don't get married, I don't need to know this."

"Didn't Byron tell you? Or, Gordon."

"I'm not going to sleep with them."

"You and Gordon—" he asked tentatively.

"He has nothing to do with you and me, you don't need to know."

"Byron seems to have taken a liking to the three Macri sisters."

"That has nothing to do with me. I asked you a question just now."

"Well, what are you asking?"

"Don't pretend to forget."

He laughed again.

Both of them were reclining on the bed, the bed was very big, and there was a small table between them, on which there were some fruits, such as figs, peaches, olives, grapes, cherries, and strawberries.

He sighed, "You ask me this kind of question on the bed, but you are neither willing to do it yourself nor let me do it. It really annoys me."

At the end of June, Gabriel returned to Athens with his archaeological team.As soon as he returned to Athens, he went to see Alice.

"Why are you all back? Don't you dig?" Alice asked.

"The money is running out," Gabriel replied curtly.

"And then? Are you going back to France?"

"I will stay in Athens for a few weeks, find some interested investors, and then return to Paris."

"Okay then, we're going away for a few months, I'm going to Damascus and Cairo, George is going to Jerusalem."

"Going back to Greece?"

"Maybe I won't come back. Only George and Hobhouse will come back. I'm going to Italy."

He hesitated, "Does it mean that I will never see you again?"

"Maybe."

"That's terrible! I've only known you for a few months, and you're leaving me before you've discovered many of the good things about me."

"I'm just a stranger passing through your life, and you'll forget me in a few days."

"How come? My memory is not that bad. I will always remember you." He kissed the back of her hand, fingers, "Don't you really want to try it? You can use whatever you want. I promise I will be very happy Be gentle and try not to hurt you."

"Let me continue to be a little curious — and apprehensive" about things like sex."

"What are you afraid of?"

"What are you afraid of?" Byron asked her too.

"That's all. Maybe after exposing each other's bodies, I will find out that men's bodies are so ugly."

Byron glared at her angrily, "What are you talking about!"

"I think my body is pretty and beautiful, but I am a woman, you—you are men." She slowly rolled a hand-rolled cigarette, lit it, took a puff, and handed it to him.

"My body is beautiful, okay?" He muttered dissatisfiedly, "Aren't those ancient statues you saw in Greece beautiful? Yes, I should go to Italy with you, go to Rome, you go and see In the great statues of ancient Rome and the Vatican, the male body is full of strength and beauty."

He concluded, "There is a problem with the education you have received. You should understand that the human body is not an ugly thing, but beautiful. It doesn't matter whether the body of a man or a woman is the same."

"George."

"Ok?"

She sighed, "Actually, my sister, Jane, shouldn't have married. I mean, she probably couldn't find a suitable husband because she didn't have a dowry. Lefroy's uncle had already found him for him." Another lovely lady with enough dowry, then she wouldn't have married Tom. But that doesn't stop her from writing her own novels, she would have written Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice , there is no difference in terms of creation."

"What do you want to say?"

"I mean, maybe I don't really need to know what it's like to be in love, and I don't need to know what it's like to have sex."

"What are you afraid of?"

"Afraid to die."

Byron froze for a moment, "You mean—"

"Yes, that's it. I'm afraid of having children. By the way, how is Lucy?"

"She gave birth to a boy." He said coldly.

Alice said nothing more.

Byron is a typical noble young master. It is impossible for him to think about problems from Lucy's point of view. From a woman's point of view, he is a scumbag, but from the background of the times, what he does is no better than others too much.It can only be said that the status of women is too low, and most women can only struggle to survive.

Byron will be the kind of man who will be called a "playboy" in later generations. When he loves you, he must love you passionately, but his love is too much and too fast, and you don't even know that you are in his heart Where is it ranked.

She turned her head and looked out of the ship's side. The passenger ship to Cyprus was sailing smoothly on the Mediterranean Sea, and occasionally a few seabirds flew by in the distance.

After landing in Syrian territory, Alice did as the Romans did, and bought a long burqa that covered her from head to toe, and wrapped her head in a turban.Syria is now also the territory of the Ottoman Empire and has been Islamized.Because the capital Damascus has always been inhabited, the buildings of the ancient Roman era are relatively well preserved and suitable for tourism.

The religious atmosphere in Damascus is extremely strong, and mosques can be seen everywhere, which makes Christians very uncomfortable. They stayed in Damascus for less than 2 weeks before leaving in a hurry and heading for Jerusalem.

The holy city of Jerusalem is also under the rule of the huge Ottoman Empire, but because it is the holy land of the three major religions, many foreigners come to pilgrimage every year, and the atmosphere is much better. They stayed in Jerusalem for two months. The Acropolis, Mount Zion (Mount Zion), Golgotha, the ruins of the temple, etc., visited almost all the famous places in the Bible, and on a Friday morning—Jesus died on Friday—the sun just When I came out, according to the route map provided by Gabriel, I took the road of Jesus again——ViaDolorosa, also known as the "Road of Sorrow" or "Road of Suffering", it is recorded in the Gospels of the Bible that Jesus carried the cross and walked. This section of the road, from the Lions Gate to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the tomb of Jesus in legend. Three days after Jesus died, Mary Magdalene and other women went to the tomb and anointed Jesus' body with spices and oils, but found that the tomb was empty, so Jesus was resurrected.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been built, rebuilt and destroyed many times, most recently by the Franciscan friars who, in order to prevent the pilgrims from taking small stones from the rock on which the body of Jesus rested, the Franciscan friars A marble slab was placed on the rock of the coffin.

But they came at the wrong time. In 1808, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was destroyed by a fire again. It is currently being rebuilt by an architect named Nicholas. They only watched outside the Temple Church and did not enter the construction site. .

The local guide took them to see the thorns of the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when he died. Local scholars believe that the material of the thorns comes from the branches of a date tree that can be seen everywhere in the outskirts of Jerusalem. ", the dates produced can be eaten.

So the seven people all ate a small handful of "Jesus dates", and each took a branch of "Jesus dates".

On the third Monday in September, Alice and her party left Jerusalem for Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

Alice originally wanted to walk on land, riding a camel for 2 or 3 weeks, taking it easy.Hobhouse resolutely vetoed it, worried that he would encounter robbers when he went to a place where there was no village or shop behind. After all, they were too conspicuous in this line of British young masters and ladies, so they must have been spotted long ago.

So they hired a team of bodyguards to escort them to the port city of Hadera. From Hadera, they took a boat to Alexandria. They expected to live in this ancient city for 2 or 3 weeks.

As soon as they settled in the hotel, everyone was busy writing letters and updating their addresses.

Because I have been on the road, it is often inconvenient to receive letters. Everyone sends more letters back to China and receives fewer letters.

The Austins often sent letters to Francis's warship St. Alban. Every time Alice went to a place, she also wrote a letter to tell Francis where she was at the first time, and then Francis would forward the home letter to her.

Less than a week after Alice received the stack of letters from home, Francis sent her another letter, saying that at the end of September, General Wesley's troops fought a very difficult battle with the French army on Mount Busaco in Portugal. During the encounter, Oliver was injured. It is not known whether the injury was serious. He wrote to her as soon as he got the news. Then he will send someone to Lisbon to find out. Under normal circumstances, the officers and soldiers are treated on the spot for minor injuries, and the more serious ones are treated on the spot. The wounded were sent home for treatment.St. Alban did not receive orders to transport wounded officers and men home.

She received the letter and read it three times before she was sure she understood it.

Portugal, Lisbon, the seaside town of Sintra.

The Battle of Busaco actually lasted only one day, and the battle was extremely fierce. The British-Portuguese coalition forces occupied the favorable terrain on the Busaco Mountain and repelled the attacks of the French army many times. The French commander had an army of 6 people , ambitious to advance to Lisbon in one go, the Anglo-Portuguese coalition forces with a total of only 5 people must ensure that the French army cannot cross the Busaco Hill.

The fighting continued until evening, and the French army, after another retreat, did not attack again.They dropped more than 500 corpses and a large number of wounded, and hurriedly evacuated Busaco Mountain.The British army had more than 100 killed and more than 400 wounded, and the Portuguese army had about the same number of casualties as the British army.

Oliver Bundfield should have stayed at Wesley's headquarters, but he himself applied to participate in actual combat, so he was incorporated into Wesley's [-]st British Infantry Division, directly reporting to the commander, Major General Brent S. Spencer.

He was injured, but it wasn't a serious injury, it could even be said that it couldn't be more serious: he was just hit by a stray bullet, leaving a small bullet mark on his thigh.

After he was wounded and fell to the ground, his servant—now his orderly—made a bandage for him in time. The field doctor checked the wound for him that night, and praised the orderly for timely bandaging and hemostasis of bleeding. The bullet did not hurt the aorta. The warhead was removed with a pair of tweezers, the wound was rewashed and bandaged, and he was sent to an officer sanatorium in Sintra.

Colleagues came to see him and said that now that he has bullet holes in his body, he is a pure man who has been on the battlefield.

Since he was injured, he had to tell his father in England, so he wrote a letter to tell his father that he went to the battlefield, was injured, but survived.

Besides, he didn't even want to tell his younger brother, who was traveling in the Mediterranean countries.

Of course, he wouldn't even think about telling Alice.

Francis sent someone to find him and asked about his injuries. He wrote a letter to Francis and gave it to someone to take back, saying that he was only slightly injured and asked him not to tell Alice.

Alice probably did not hear from Francis, and she was in Sintra soon.

"You don't seem to be injured as badly as I thought." I haven't seen her for two and a half years, and her appearance has changed a bit. She is not as thin as she was when she recuperated in Madeira Island, and she is fatter. Her little face is round and big. His gray-blue eyes are still lively and lovely.

Oliver sat on the wooden wheelchair and smiled at her, "Alice."

She didn't wear a hat, and only tied her hair with a sea blue ribbon. The hair was very short, shoulder length, very playful.He only remembered how she looked when her hair was long, and now she looks much more mature than two and a half years ago.

Perhaps this is why women attach great importance to hairstyles.

The sea breeze blew from behind her, ruffling her hair.She tilted her head slightly, "I came to see you, why don't you seem very happy?"

He didn't answer her question, just called her name again, "Alice."

She took a few steps towards him, with a smile in her voice, "Does your wound hurt?"

He closed his eyes and opened them again quickly, "This is the happiest day I've had in more than two years."

She knelt down and placed her hands in fingerless lace gloves lightly on his knees. "I'm really worried about you. Francis said you were shot in the leg. Are you seriously injured?"

"What did you think I would be hurt?"

"Probably missing an arm or a leg."

"It's not that scary."

"You—" she took a long breath, "I kept thinking on the boat that I would scold you when I saw you, but now, I feel that you are already a man, and you know that you are Do what. No matter what the reason is, as long as you think about the consequences and don't regret it, it's fine."

"Regret? Why?"

"Maybe you won't live until you're 27." He had a birthday in September and just passed his 9th last month.

"I don't regret it. If I die, I won't have time to regret it." He smiled, "Alice, these two years—do you miss me?"

"Why didn't you write me back?"

"Because... I don't know what to tell you."

"You can talk about what you train every day, where you go, who you meet, and whether you like them or not."

"Alice, why don't you ask me if I miss you."

Her bright eyes looked straight at him.

"If I knew that the injury would make you come back to me, I would have thought of a way to go to the battlefield earlier."

She stood up, "I'm just here to see you, don't think too much about it. Jacob," she waved to Jacob who was not far away, "Push him back to the room, or wherever he wants to go."

Alice did not come alone, both Julian and Evan came to Lisbon with her.

Because Wesley's troops were stationed on the outskirts of Lisbon, the empty villas in Sintra had long since been rented out, and the hotels were overcrowded.Oliver shared a seaside villa with a colleague, but recently he lived in a nursing home instead of the villa.

Julian let her live in Oliver's room, while Oliver's colleagues went to the barracks.

When I came to Sintra again, the overall atmosphere of Lisbon, including Sintra, a seaside town, was different.

The last time they lived here, they could feel the Portuguese enjoyment of drinking and drinking, and the war did not seem to affect their entertainment.But the Torres Vedras defense line built by General Wesley north of Lisbon can be said to have lifted the hearts of the entire Lisbon crowd.

The British army's secrecy measures are very good. The people in Lisbon don't know what is being repaired in the suburbs, because the entire defense line is not a continuous project. Many areas are built on the basis of natural terrain or existing buildings. There is no special It is an obvious sign that even the Portuguese peasants who work do not know what they are repairing.

The Torres Vedras defense line is divided into 4 lines of defense. The second line of defense was built first, and then the third line of defense and the fourth line of defense were temporarily decided to be built in front of the second line of defense less than 3 months ago. The first line of defense farther away, the entire project began in November 1809, and it was built intensively for nearly a year, and it was finally completed in mid-September 11. The four lines of defense formed a staggered full-coverage line of defense, and there were more than 1 small forts on the entire line of defense.

Because a large area of ​​land between Coimbra and Torres Vedra has implemented the strategy of clearing the walls, many farmers had to move south, and there were many temporary settlements near Lisbon.Also because there is no land to cultivate, many people are idle. Both Lisbon and Sintra have many former farmers looking for work.

There are more people, and there are more various things, and the pressure on local security has increased.

The people in Lisbon still don’t know the Torres Vedras defense line, so they are worried that the French army will come back again. Not to mention Lisbon, even the small town of Sintra. This time will not be the last time's tenderness, maybe there will be an outright revolution like Paris, and a large number of nobles and rich people will be beheaded;

It is also rumored that the British army will enter Spain to fight, and the Portuguese territory can only be defended by its own unreliable Portuguese army;

Some people also said that the British government is about to recall General Wesley again. Before the Peninsula War officially broke out, they had already recalled Wesley once, and it is not impossible to recall him again.

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