ome of our men had stocked themselves with a portion
that could reasonably be moved. Then having placed the ammunition
together and extended a long train so that at any time it might be
easily blown up, we retired some distance and waited for the
reappearance of the enemy, who, most likely thinking we had abandoned
some of the carts, were not long before they came back in strong
force; and on their nearing the fatal machine the train was fired and
a great number of them were soon launched into the air. We retreated
after that as quickly as possible to Pampeluna out of reach of the
enemy, falling back that day at least twenty miles; a hard day's work
indeed, but not thought much of in those times, when equally hard days
were so often passed through, especially in a hasty retreat or on a
well-fought battlefield.

We again encamped for nearly a week, during which time we amused
ourselves in throwing up huts for officers' quarters, cooking-houses,
and the like; and we had settled down so nicely that we had almost
begun to think we were to be stationed there for at least six months.
But on the very next Sunday we found that we were mistaken and that
our hopes were to be disappointed. A square had been formed into which
a parson entered to read prayers and preach, and a drum being placed
for his books and a knapsack for him to kneel on, he had proceeded
with the service for some little time, when all of a sudden up he
jumped with his traps and made a bolt, before any one had hardly time
to see the cause, amid the applause and laughter of the whole of the
troops at his running, which was as fast as his legs could carry him,
and looked then as if the poor man might be going on even till now.
They used to say that the three scarcest things to be seen in an army
were a dead parson, drum-major, or a woman: the explanation of this
was to be found in the fact that they were none of them often to be
seen on a battlefield; and I think in this case our parson must have
told and frightened all the others in the kingdom, for never after
that did we have any service in the field.

But the cause of the sudden flight on the part of the parson proved
not to be one entirely of enjoyment, for a large body of the enemy
appearing, we likewise found ourselves running about pretty smartly
and preparing for immediate action. The affair lasted hotly till dusk,
our division losing some four or five hundred men. When night fell we
were obliged to re