Long afterwards as Craufurd was standing talking with the officers of the Battalion, round a camp fire, he turned to him.
‘Smith,’ said he, ‘did I not once put you under arrest?’
‘Yes, sir, you did.’
‘And do you know,’ he continued, ‘what became of the ammunition? I found it steadily going towards the French lines, and had but just time to put spurs to my horse and to turn it back. So that through your default I had nearly lost my ammunition.’[112]
On the 20th the Regiment marched back to its cantonments. Nothing could exceed the extraordinary appearance it presented. The men were dressed in every possible variety of costume which they had found in the houses. Some wore French uniforms, some breeches and jack-boots, some cocked hats; many had pieces of salt beef, hams and any provisions they could lay hands on stuck on their swords fixed to their rifles. In fact so strange was their appearance that Lord Wellington, who saw them on their march, asked ‘What regiment that could be.’
One of the Riflemen, a day or two after, playing the game of ‘nine-holes’ with what he fancied to be a cannon-ball brought from the place, was blown to pieces. It proved to be a live shell, which passing over some hot ashes, exploded just as he had it between his legs.
The Regiment soon after the fall of Rodrigo moved to Ituera. And while here a military execution took place of some deserters of the Light Division who had been found in the place. They had been tried by a Court-Martial, of which General Sir James Kempt was president, and were shot in the presence of the whole Division. Two of them were Riflemen; one was in the highland company, which was then kept up in the 3rd Battalion, of the name of M’Guinniss, a shoemaker by trade. He had once been a man of good character, but had been led away by another, named Hudson, of Uniacke’s company.
To conclude this painful subject I will add here that a month later when the Regiment was at Castello de Vide another man of the 1st Battalion was shot for desertion. His name was Arnal, and he was, or had been, a Corporal. When Ciudad Rodrigo was taken he in some way escaped and endeavoured to join the French troops at Salamanca; but in crossing the country he fell in with some Spanish soldiers, who made him prisoner and marched him back to the Regiment. He had been a man of good character, and it was hoped that this might have weighed in his favour; but discipline had to be vindicated, and so great a crime as desertion to the enemy could not be condoned. This man met his death with amazing firmness; settling his accounts with the Pay-sergeant of his company, and distributing his balance among his comrades the night before his death. When brought out to execution he refused to have his eyes bound, saying to the Provost Sergeant: ‘There is no occasion; I shall not flinch;’ nor did he.
On February 14 the Regiment marched to Portalegre, on the 15th to Arronches, and on the 17th to Elvas.
On March 17 the Regiment marched out of Elvas, the band playing ‘St. Patrick’s Day,’ to take up their position before Badajos, and after dusk began to break ground. A very heavy rain came on, and the weather continued very broken during the whole time of the siege operations. The ground to be occupied being extensive, and the force employed comparatively small, the men were required to be in the trenches six hours by day, and as many in the night; and this amount of time, with the addition of the marches to and from their camp, and the continued inclemency of the weather, made the period of the siege one of unusual hardship to the men and officers of the Regiment.