r to be out of our sight. Pig, however, who was up to many of the
Spanish movements, was not long in finding them; he soon had tried the
bottom with his bayonet, and found a prize worth fishing for; and he
came running into our room carrying the sausages, which owing to their
oily state did not fail to leave a trace of their whereabouts. We soon
repaired this defect so as not to be noticeable on the floor, which
was not kept so clean as it might be, and which our stay there had not
improved much, and then we had a fine meal off our sausages, which, to
use Pig's own words, "Blood and 'ounds, _were_ good, very," and soon
there were very few left.

After all in the house had eaten sufficient, the rest were given to
some of our comrades in another house, our policy being always to get
rid of any plunder as quickly as possible so as to bar detection if it
was found out. There were always plenty to help eat it, and in this
case every one of the sausages were gone before the woman found out
her loss, which was not till next day about dinnertime, when no doubt
she expected to cook the family meal off them. The sausages in that
country were generally made of cooked meat flavoured with garlic and
cayenne pepper, so that they were fit for eating at all times without
cooking. When the poor woman found them missing, she soon thought of
the right parties as the thieves; and with her fingers all dripping
with oil, for she had evidently been feeling for them in the jar, she
rushed in crying, "_Ladrone, Ladrone_ (you thieves, you thieves), the
French are bad enough, but you are worse!" We only laughed at her, so
she reported us to our major, who immediately came to our room and
said, "Then you are up to your prigging tricks again," and asked the
woman how much the sausages were worth. She did not fail to ask
enough, for she said sixteen dollars, which he paid at once, saying he
would deduct it from our pay.

The major never did as he said he would, however, and we heard no more
either of the sausages or of our money; but still we did not know that
at the time, and the threat only had the effect of sending Pig off
again in search of something that would at least give us the worth of
our money. He waited till just before we were going to shift from
these quarters, and then he found out a trap-door, through which he
got himself hoisted up, and found eight sides of bacon there, with one
of which he descended, thinking that would be as much