In the Peninsula the conduct of the 92nd was as exemplary as in Ireland. Unmoved by hunger and the example of others, they respected the lives and property of those who could offer no resistance. Napier has rendered his readers familiar with the horrors which followed the capture of St. Sebastian in Spain. A more pleasing picture is presented by the conduct of the Gordon Highlanders and the old “fighting 50th” when they drove the French from the town of Aire on the 2nd of March, 1814. Places thus captured were almost invariably given up to pillage and destruction, and the miserable inhabitants deemed themselves fortunate if they escaped with their lives. On this occasion there was not a single act of plunder or violence; the Highlanders took quiet possession of the town, and paid for every article they required. Their generous forbearance produced such an impression on the inhabitants of Aire, that they presented an address to Colonel Cameron expressive of their gratitude for exemption from plunder and rapine, the usual fate of the defenceless in times of war. The Highlanders have always been popular in Ireland; they are sprung from the same Celtic stock, and speak a dialect of the same language. Though they had no sympathy with the Irish during the rebellion of 1798, and took an active part in quelling it, they were guilty of no unnecessary cruelty, and discharged their duty in such a way as to conciliate the esteem of those who were opposed to them. It was said of them that “their conduct and manners softened the horrors of war, and they were not a week in a fresh quarter or cantonment that they did not conciliate and become intimate with the people.”