ss of their pillars. The streets
were narrow and winding and dirty, and indeed after the French had
left the whole city was in a most desolate state; but the general view
of the city and its environs from the harbour at a distance was very
beautiful, the sides of the hills being clothed with plantations and
numberless vineyards, and the buildings extending for a mile and a
half or two miles along the coast.

Sir Hugh Dalrymple, Sir Arthur Wellesley, and some other of the chief
leaders of our army were then recalled to England to communicate the
circumstances of the terms that had been arrived at in Portugal
between the two armies: as the rulers, and indeed all classes in
England received the first reports of them with indignation. This was
the reason that the inquiry was made, of which the fruits were that
Sir Arthur Wellesley was decided on as the proper person to take the
head command of our troops in the Peninsula.

During our stay in Lisbon our regiment fell ill and was obliged to be
returned unfit for service, which state of things lasted about two
months. But as soon as Sir Arthur Wellesley returned as
commander-in-chief, we were ordered into Spain, in company with five
thousand Spaniards, to join Sir John Moore's army. We had a long and
tedious march until we reached a place called Seville, where we
encamped for several weeks, on account of Sir John Moore having been
obliged to retreat; and the French cutting off our communication, we
had to proceed to Cadiz and there embark again for Lisbon.

I must here relate a circumstance which took place before I proceeded
from Seville, which, although not very creditable to myself, is of too
great importance as an event in my life to be omitted. I absented
myself without leave from guard for twenty-four hours, and when I
returned I found I had jumped into a fine scrape, for I was
immediately put into the guard-room, and a drum-head court-martial was
ordered on me. It was the first offence to cause one to be held on me,
but that did not screen me much, and I was sentenced to four hundred
lashes. I felt ten times worse on hearing this sentence than I ever
did on entering any battlefield; in fact, if I had been sentenced to
be shot, I could not have been more in despair, for my life at that
time seemed of very little consequence to me. My home and my
apprenticeship days again ran in my head, but even these thoughts soon
lost themselves as I neared the spot where my sentenc