On the 22nd of July we proceeded out on the Cashmere Road, to Velonga. About three days after marching to the left of the Velonga Road (from four in the morning till about twelve), the great heat had completely knocked us up. But I, not quite so bad as the rest, had to draw the companies’ rations of bread and beef; after placing them under a hedge, I told the men to fall to. They said, “Too tired, corporal; could not eat a bit.” “As you please about that; but if you don’t, I’ll make free with your share.” I then cut off a thumping beef steak, thinking I might have some hard work in the course of the day; I cooked it nicely, with the gravy in it, to make me strong and long-winded. But I might have saved myself the trouble; we soon had orders to retire back to Oporto. One of our sergeants, not having a shot at the enemy, fired at a donkey near the road; the men were quizzing him, and I asked him what was his object for firing at the donkey; he told me to mind my own business. As we were under the retreat to Oporto, one of our men had unfortunately got drunk when near the enemy. The sergeant, who had been firing at the donkey, said he would report the circumstance to the colonel, and the man told the sergeant to mind his own business,--as he had told Corporal Knight before. We were still on our way to Oporto. The sergeant, being on the face of the hill when we halted, fired a shot down among the men. The colonel came galloping down off the hill on his mule, and asked whose piece went off. The men informed the colonel that it was Sergeant Evans’, who had been squabbling with the men, and had got very angry: he had fired a shot among the privates, luckily without doing any harm. The colonel ordered him to strip off his belts and to consider himself as a prisoner; the corporal and four men were ordered to take him on the advance; I was appointed to take him on. The colonel also ordered his arms to be pinioned back by his canteen straps, and that he was to be marched off. I took him on for about three miles: he begged hard that I would loosen the straps round his arms: I said, “I should not much mind, but you might try to bolt; and, if you were not to come back, I should send a messenger after you and order my four men to do the same. If I killed you, or winged you, they would ask me what business I had to let you loose. So, safe bind, safe find: as I have got you I will keep you.” He wanted me to let him walk free with us, but I told him to take it just as easy as he could. I lodged him in the guard-house at Oporto. He was never tried, but shipped off to England soon after, as a bad character.