Waking up in the morning, I was as hearty as a trout. After breakfast, the colonel’s orderly sergeant came round (the light company), and wanted to know where Corporal Knight was; he was taken to the room where I was lying in charge of twelve men; the sergeant told me the colonel wished to see me. I asked him if he knew what it was for, and he replied that he did not; but I put on my jacket and cap and went with him. When we came to the colonel’s quarters, the sergeant knocked at the door, which being opened the colonel told me to come in: so I sat down for a few minutes, and he entered into conversation with me; he then gave me ten dollars, and told me that would do; upon which I retired and went back to the convent. I have forgotten to make mention that I asked the colonel what the ten dollars were for; and he answered, “for the water I had given on the twenty-third evening of duty at Ponto Ferrado.” He said, “Corporal, you can now go and have a good “spree.” I went into the town and had a good “sheevo” during the night. Some few days after, the inhabitants of the town made a collection among themselves, which amounted to ten dollars a man in the British battalion. They used generally to encourage us, by giving us ten dollars, to keep them out of the town. So the whole battalion had a good flare up for a night or two,--plenty of fiddling and dancing, which strongly reminded us of dear old England. After all our money was spent we went back quietly to the convent. In about a fortnight after that our paymaster fortunately came out from home to pay us some back pay due to us (two months). Each soldier had £2 5s. per month; our pay was augmented to that of a British soldier; they received their two months’ money. My pay was fourpence a-day extra, which, amounting to ten shillings a-month, made it £5 10s. per two months. I had it paid to me in Spanish dollars, and I pushed off to the quay to have a “flare up.” In “flaring up” in the course of the night, I “flared down,” and measured my length on the ground, with a stone under my head for a pillow. When I woke up in the morning, the devil might have danced a hornpipe in my pocket; for my money was all gone, and my orders off my breast had followed my money. I said it was all fair in war, the scamps had cleaned me out. “I will be as keen as any other one to-night to look out to see what I can lay hold of.” So I pushed off to the convent, and I had a good sleep through the day, and I proceeded on the way down to the quay, where I found my comrades reeling about from side to side. I reeled up against one fellow, but he had not quite enough in his noddle box; I reeled up against another one, and down we went together; my hands were soon in his pockets, to make up for what I had lost the night before. I had a good “flare up” that night, and took great care I did not “flare down.”