[52] There he gained information of our movements, which forced him to follow the right bank of the Ebro, until he reached Saragossa, where, crossing the river, and leaving a small garrison behind, he moved towards the pass of Jaca, and entering France on the 1st of July, he at last succeeded, after a round-about march, with the loss of the greater part of his matériel, in forming a junction with the French army.
[53] There was a great scarcity of wood in the neighbourhood of this place, and as the third division followed ours, Sir Thomas Picton cast his eye on a pile ready cut, and, as soon as he had dismissed his division, sent a regular party, with a val, to secure it, when, lo! it had all vanished!
[54] Many of the officers of our corps wore red and grey pelisses, similar to those of the Hussars. The bullet which I have described was afterwards shown as a curiosity, and I examined it myself; the silk braiding had been carried into the compressed leaves of the book, and remained twisted tight round the ball.
[55] These produce an abundance of small tart apples.
[56] This was a usual pastime among them, throughout the mountains, which abounded with vast quantities of apple trees. One day another officer and myself were enjoying a rural walk, when we met two of our friends, whom for amusement we pelted with apples, and drove them at full speed out of the orchard. All of a sudden, we were assailed by a number of the Basque boys, led on by a girl, who had witnessed our sport at a distance, and, although we piqued ourselves on being pretty good throwers, we found it a difficult matter to contend with them, from their dexterity in dealing out such irritating blows on our faces and legs; until, being ashamed to ask for quarter of such diminutive and laughing antagonists, we made a last effort, and succeeded in hitting one of their leaders on the bare heel, when they all ran away, to our exceeding satisfaction. My companion had been a Cadet at the Royal Military College at Marlow, and declared that he had never experienced a warmer rencontre in his more juvenile affrays at that place.
[57] The batmen of the army were hard-working and privileged characters, who, after unloading at the end of harassing marches were obliged to go a great distance in search of forage, and armed with a sickle ready to cut down even rushes, or any thing they could lay their hands upon, for their famished animals. If all happened to be right, after a long day's journey when questioned by the anxious officers (no matter of what rank), they would negligently turn away, and scarcely give any answer; but if one of their horses or mules happened to be lame or suffering from a sore back, or had cast a shoe, they would fret, fume, curse, swear, throw the ropes about, and give such a catalogue of evils, as to terrify the master with the idea that all was going to rack and ruin.
[58] These hardy women are in the habit, thus heavily loaded, of walking thirty or forty miles a day.