As soon as I had resumed my seat at the fire, a number of Portuguese soldiers entered, one of whom, taking me for a Frenchman, for I had the French soldier’s jacket on, my own being wet, snapped his piece at me, which luckily hung fire. Forgetful of my wounds, I instantly rushed at him, and a regular scuffle ensued between our men and the Portuguese, until one of the latter being stabbed by a bayonet, the rest retired, dragging the wounded man with them. After thus ejecting the Portuguese, the victors, who had by this time got tolerably drunk, proceeded to ransack the house. Unhappily they discovered the two daughters of the old patrone, who had concealed themselves up stairs. They both were young and very pretty. The mother, too, was shortly afterwards dragged from her hiding-place. Without dwelling on the frightful scene that followed, it may be sufficient to add, that our men, more infuriated by drink than before, again seized upon the old man, and insisted upon a fresh supply of liquor. And his protestations that he possessed no more were as vain as were all attempts to restrain them from ill-using him. It is to be lamented that the memory of an old soldier should be disturbed by such painful reflections as the foregoing scenes must give rise to: but it is to be considered that the men who besiege a town in the face of such dangers, generally become desperate from their own privations and sufferings; and when once they get a footing within its walls—flushed by victory, hurried on by the desire of liquor, and maddened by drink, they stop at nothing: they are literally mad, and hardly conscious of what they do in such a state of excitement. I do not state this in justification; I only remark what I have observed human nature to be on these occasions. Sick of the scene of horrors that had been enacted, and attended by my French prisoner, I left the house for one on the other side of the street. This was found occupied by men of the third division, who were drinking chocolate, not made with water, but wine. They seemed rather more sober and peaceable than those we had just left; but here, also, as in most of the houses in Badajoz, the greatest outrages were being committed.