Shortly after this, two officers—Captain Shields of the 8th, and Major Clark of the 6th, were sent from head-quarters to persuade, if possible, the men to rejoin their regiments. They requested me to order them to fall in; which I did,—and the whole formed in a field opposite the convent. The two officers, as their eyes first glanced on the gloomy ranks before them, stared in silent astonishment. “Good God!” at length ejaculated Shields, with deep emphasis, “can it be possible that these men once formed my old company, the grenadiers!” It was too true. Clark, stepping forward, appealed to them as their old officer, and pathetically begged of them to listen. Shields did the same. But they would not, they said, say or do anything until Captain Costello had given his opinion, on whom, as an old soldier, they relied for just and practical advice. At this, I of course came forward, and addressed them somewhat to this effect: That the winter was fast approaching, and it was the intention of the General to keep them there during that season: the privations consequently, which they would have to undergo would be even worse than those they had already experienced. Under these circumstances, therefore, and the prospect of better food, and the chances that might, more than probably, offer themselves for their escaping through the Pyrenees into France, which closely bordered on San Sebastian, I would strongly urge them to return to their regiments. I spoke to them as a man who had once borne a musket. Their claims I acknowledged as just.[31] Here they all produced their agreements, duly signed by the officer with whom they first engaged, to serve for one or two years, as might be preferred by the individual so entering the service of her Catholic Majesty the Queen of Spain. Being empowered to grant full rations to those who volunteered, I also promised them immediate relief to their hunger. They requested a quarter of an hour’s consideration, and in that time decided, on condition of further certificates being given them, so that they should be obliged to serve only for the two years from the time they first engaged. These, signed by Colonel Arbuthnot and myself, were afterwards given them; and a number, to the amount of fifty non-commissioned officers and privates, who that night volunteered, sat down, for the first time for many months, to a bellyful; but these only were allowed it, which in this case was a wise though a cruel expedient, for that meal bought their birthright, and, for the sake of a similar supply to the cravings of nature, then almost extinct, eighty more signed their names, making in all one hundred and twenty.[32]