a very creditable light on them.

After we had received our clothes and provisions, we did not lie long
at St. Jean de Luz, but again started on our marches, cruising about
in the Pyrenees. For some time nothing of any particular note occurred
until we again fell in with the enemy, who were stationed in huts
which they had erected in the various valleys. We attacked them, and
some sharp work ensued, for they did not seem to like the idea of
abandoning their houses, which were much more comfortable than the
open winter air, but we at last drove them off and took possession of
their habitations, which a part of our army occupied. As for our
regiment itself, we marched up the side of a mountain and encamped
there.

We again found ourselves very short of provisions there, and besides
that the rain was falling in torrents all night. We had nothing over
our heads at first to cover them, so we set to and gathered a quantity
of grass, sticks, stubble, and like things, and made a kind of wall to
keep off a little of the wind and beating rain; and then we tried to
make up our fires with anything we could get together, but owing to
the wetness of the substances, they were not very lively, and it was a
long time before we could get them to burn at all.

Our captain asked me if I could boil him a piece of beef, so I told
him I would try and see what I could do to make the best of the bad
circumstances, and accordingly I and a corporal of my company at once
set to work, first placing our hanger over the fire and then swinging
the kettle on it with the beef. The beef nearly filled the kettle, and
though it was pouring with rain, it was a very awkward place to get
water, as there were no springs near and no tanks to catch the rain
in; consequently we had only about a quart of water in the pot, which
had all boiled away before the beef was done. However, the captain was
impatient for his supper, so it was taken up to him as it was, the
pot-cover serving as a dish and a wooden canteen as a plate. I put it
before him with salt on the edge of the canteen, and I likewise got
him a piece of bread, which by the time he had it was nicely soaked by
the rain--indeed we had not a dry thread on us by this time. The next
bother was for a fork: I had a knife myself, but had lost the fork, so
I got a stick and sharpened it at one end and gave him that as a
substitute, and was rewarded by his praising me for my good
contrivance.

Colonel Thornton