e was to be
carried out. I found the regiment assembled all ready to witness my
punishment: the place chosen for it was the square of a convent. As
soon as I had been brought in by the guard, the court-martial was read
over me by the colonel, and then I was ordered to strip, which I did
firmly and without using any of the help that was offered me, as I had
by that time got hardened to my lot. I was then lashed to the
halberds, and the colonel gave the order for the drummers to commence,
each one having to give me twenty-five lashes in turn. I bore it very
well until I had received a hundred and seventy-five, when I became so
enraged with the pain that I pushed the halberds, which did not stand
at all firm, on account of their being planted on stones, right across
the square, amid the laughter of the regiment. The colonel, I suppose,
thinking then that I had had sufficient, ordered, in the very words,
"the sulky rascal down," and perhaps a more true word could not have
been spoken, as indeed I was sulky, for I did not give vent to a
single sound the whole time, though the blood ran down my trousers
from top to bottom. I was unbound and the corporal hove my shirt and
jacket over my shoulders and conveyed me to the hospital, presenting
about as miserable a picture as I possibly could.

Perhaps it was as good a thing for me as could then have occurred, as
it prevented me from committing any greater crimes which might have
gained me other severer punishments and at last brought me to my
ruin; but for all that it was a great trial for me, and I think that a
good deal of that kind of punishment might have been abandoned with
great credit to those who ruled our army; for it is amazing to think
of four hundred lashes being ordered on a man young as I was, and
undergoing all the privations of a most sanguinary war, just for an
offence, and that the first, which might have been overlooked, or at
any rate treated with less punishment and a severe reprimand.

CHAPTER VII.

Lawrence transferred into the Grenadier company -- The regiment
embarks at Cadiz for Lisbon again in consequence of Sir John
Moore's defeat at Corunna -- Hospitality of an English merchant
-- March to join Sir Arthur Wellesley at Castello Branco -- The
Spanish troops reviewed -- Lawrence's opinion of them -- Battle
of Talavera -- Lawrence's opinion of the Spaniards justified --
Severe fighting on the second day of the ba