282 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



of the soldiers got away from the road to right and 

 left. Marching all that dreadful night my young 

 frame at last gave way, the more so as I was bare- 

 foot, cold, and starved, and already the great body 

 of troops had got ahead of me. In short, I was 

 now one of a huge arrear of stragglers when day 

 broke and the little hamlet was in sight. 



" Seated on a bank on the side of the road, and 

 munching a raw turnip which I had gathered from 

 the adjacent field, and just as I was feeling that 

 I never could regain my regiment and must be 

 taken a prisoner, a black-eyed drummer of the 

 96th came from the village, whither the young 

 fellow had been to cater. Seeing I was exhausted, 

 and almost as young as myself, and not yet a 

 hardened old soldier, he slipped round his canteen, 

 which he had contrived to fill with red wine, and 

 gave me a hearty drink. He thus saved me from 

 being taken prisoner by the French, who were 

 rapidly advancing, and who, if they had had a regi- 

 ment of cavalry in pursuit, might at that moment 

 have taken prisoners, or driven into the mountains, 

 a good third of the British forces. 



"With the draught of wine I trudged on again, 

 and came in, at eleven o'clock of the loth, into the 

 town of Betanzos, and rejoined my regiment, which 

 had marched in about fifty men only, with the 

 colours, though ere night it was made up to its 

 strength of six hundred and odd men. This fact 

 alone shows better than a world of other evidence, 

 what forced night-marches with a starving and 



