DURING our stay in and about Vittoria, a practice prevailed of dismissing officers without granting them the right of either a court-martial or a court of inquiry, and in some instances on the mere assertion of the commanding officer, and not unfrequently through the silent medium of the Brigadiers. In the Rifles alone, during the above period, there were not less than one captain (Lomax), two lieutenants (O’Brien and Villars), and one assistant surgeon (Greenwood), dismissed the service under these circumstances. This, whoever it originated from, was excessively cruel, and was particularly aggravated by the General Orders of the time, notifying that all officers who had resigned their commissions, or who had been dismissed from their regiments, or departments, were not entitled to receive rations after their resignations or removals had been notified in General Orders. Passages to England in vessels employed for the service of the British Auxiliary Legion were not to be allowed to such officers, unless directions had been received from head-quarters to that effect. To crown the whole, Colonel Arbuthnot (brother-in-law to General Evans), affixed a paper at the portals of his own door, to the effect that officers anxious to return to England might have a free passage, provided they signed a document, prior to going on board, relinquishing all future claims on the Spanish Government. These tyrannical proceedings, as might be expected, had a most lamentable effect on the officers of the Legion; placed as it were between two extremes, the loss of pay and rations, as well as the most cruel despotism of their superior officers, the most daring schemes were consequently projected, and officers as well as men went over to the Carlists. This may not be unaptly illustrated by the following relation, which I received within a few days of our quitting Vittoria for San Sebastian.