unfortunate sortie from Bayonne, was the Hon. H. Townshend, commonly
called Bull Townshend. He was celebrated as a bon vivant, and in consequence
of his too great indulgence in the pleasures of the table, had become
very unwieldy and could not move quick enough to please his nimble captors,
so he received many prods in the back from a sharp bayonet. After repeated
threats, however, he was dismissed with what our American friends would
be pleased to designate "a severe booting." The late Sir Willoughby
Cotton was also a prisoner. It really seemed as if the enemy had made
choice of our fattest officers. Sir Willoughby escaped by giving up
his watch and all the money which he had in his pockets; but this consisting
of a Spanish dollar only, the smallness of the sum subjected him to
the same ignominious treatment as had been experienced by Townshend.

Among the numerous bad characters in our ranks, several were coiners,
or utterers of bad money. In the second brigade of Guards, just before
we arrived at St. Jean de Luz, a soldier was convicted of this offence,
and was sentenced to receive 800 lashes. This man made sham Spanish
dollars out of the pewter spoons of the regiment. As he had before
been convicted and flogged, he received this terrible sentence, and
died under the lash. Would it not have been better to have condemned
him to be shot? - It would have been more humane, certainly more military,
and far less brutal.


DISCIPLINE


When the headquarters of the army were at St Jean de Luz, Soult made
a movement in front of our right centre, which the English general took
for a reconnaissance. As the French general perceived that we had ordered