less disgraceful and severe than the abominable system of flogging, proved more frequently fatal; it consisted in striking the soldier on the back, across the shoulders, with the broad side of a sword. The number of strokes, or _pancadas_, never exceeded fifty; but men have not unfrequently been known to drop down dead after receiving thirty, from a rupture of the aorta. Marshal Beresford ordered a small cane to be used instead of the sword; and thus, without altering the national manner of punishment, rendered it no longer dangerous. There were other evils which were beyond his power. When the troops of the line were recruited, it was neither done by ballot nor by bounty: a certain number were demanded from each district; the captain of that district picked whom he chose, sent them to prison till he had collected the whole number, then marched them to join their regiment. The Marshal introduced the easy improvement of sending them to a recruiting depôt, to be drilled before they joined; but he fixed upon the peninsula of Peniche, a swampy and unwholesome spot, which proved fatal to many, acting with double effect upon the depressed, half-starved, and ill-treated peasants, who were sent thither. The sick, the lame, and the lazy, were crowded into the same dungeon when recruited by the Capitam Mor; contagion was thus generated, and very often those, and those especially, who were fit for the service, were carried off by disease. The depôt was afterwards removed to Mafra, which is a healthy situation.