The Rifles were quartered in a convent, and enjoyed for a short time more comforts than they had known since their arrival in Spain; as every three men were allowed a straw mattress and one blanket, and I made it a practice, as long as I could, to see each man provided every morning with a pint of warm chocolate, at a charge of three-half-pence per day, and also with soups made with rice, flour, &c. This soon became general throughout the regiment. The weather set in very severely, and the morning sun not unusually brought on a thaw, after a night which had perhaps left the plains ankle-deep in snow. Our drill ground also lay some distance from the city, and it frequently happened that after serving the men with new shoes at the morning parade, preparatory to their going to drill, they as often returned with them torn to pieces by the stiff mud. But the most disgusting annoyance I ever met with, was on going to inspect the company in the colonnades of the convent; as the whole of our brigade consisting of the Rifles, the 3rd Westminster Grenadiers and the 6th Scotch were quartered here; every morning therefore at inspection my ears were saluted with the cries of the unfortunate soldiers, receiving from one to four dozen lashes, for misdemeanors committed the evening previous. Indeed it was a duty imposed upon the Captain of the day, to see these punishments inflicted; but the Colonel agreeing with me that this might be performed by the orderly subalterns, I escaped the unpleasant office. General Evans, however, possibly might not really have been aware of the real state of the men, and I should be sorry to say that he did not care. He was very much of the “recluse” at all times, and therefore insurmountable difficulties lay in the way of a man’s getting a hearing from him; consequently there was no hope for the poor fellows, save what might have been expected from the mercy of the Provost, or the whims of his judges, who may be said to have administered as many sentences as would have whipped every man in the Legion twice over, with the exception of hanging, which, in many instances, would have been preferable; never were punishments carried to such an extent, nor authority so unlimited or arrogated by any men, as that usurped by the chief part of the officers of the British Auxiliaries. Meanwhile, however, the reports circulated in England that the men were starved for want of rations were unfounded, as the resources of the neighbourhood, and the fact of our being under the employ of the Spanish Government, opened even a better medium for supply than what formerly had been allotted to the British army under the Duke of Wellington.