Note 51 — Chapter XIII
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Lieut.-Colonel Ross of the Horse Artillery, as usual, commanded this troop.
52 There he gained information of our movements, which forced him to follow the right bank of the Ebro, until he reached Saragossa, where, crossing the river, and leaving a small garrison behind, he moved towards the pass of Jaca, and entering France on the 1st of July, he at last succeeded, after a round-about march, with the loss of the greater part of his matériel, in forming a junction with the French army.
53 There was a great scarcity of wood in the neighbourhood of this place, and as the third division followed ours, Sir Thomas Picton cast his eye on a pile ready cut, and, as soon as he had dismissed his division, sent a regular party, with a val, to secure it, when, lo! it had all vanished!
54 Many of the officers of our corps wore red and grey pelisses, similar to those of the Hussars. The bullet which I have described was afterwards shown as a curiosity, and I examined it myself; the silk braiding had been carried into the compressed leaves of the book, and remained twisted tight round the ball.
55 These produce an abundance of small tart apples.
56 This was a usual pastime among them, throughout the mountains, which abounded with vast quantities of apple trees. One day another officer and myself were enjoying a rural walk, when we met two of our friends, whom for amusement we pelted with apples, and drove them at full speed out of the orchard. All of a sudden, we were assailed by a number of the Basque boys, led on by a girl, who had witnessed our sport at a distance, and, although we piqued ourselves on being pretty good throwers, we found it a difficult matter to contend with them, from their dexterity in dealing out such irritating blows on our faces and legs; until, being ashamed to ask for quarter of such diminutive and laughing antagonists, we made a last effort, and succeeded in hitting one of their leaders on the bare heel, when they all ran away, to our exceeding satisfaction. My companion had been a Cadet at the Royal Military College at Marlow, and declared that he had never experienced a warmer rencontre in his more juvenile affrays at that place.
57 The batmen of the army were hard-working and privileged characters, who, after unloading at the end of harassing marches were obliged to go a great distance in search of forage, and armed with a sickle ready to cut down even rushes, or any thing they could lay their hands upon, for their famished animals. If all happened to be right, after a long day's journey when questioned by the anxious officers (no matter of what rank), they would negligently turn away, and scarcely give any answer; but if one of their horses or mules happened to be lame or suffering from a sore back, or had cast a shoe, they would fret, fume, curse, swear, throw the ropes about, and give such a catalogue of evils, as to terrify the master with the idea that all was going to rack and ruin.
58 These hardy women are in the habit, thus heavily loaded, of walking thirty or forty miles a day.