Piking to death was what the insurgents practised upon those of the king's troops that fell into their hands, particularly if they remained firm in their allegiance. The common method was for "two to stand behind, and two before the victim, and thrust their pikes into his body at once, and raise it from the ground, holding it suspended, writhing with pain, while any signs of life appeared. At other times, two men, with pikes, would come before the victim, and begin to stab him in the feet, and then the legs, and thighs, and belly, until they reached the heart. At other times they literally perforated the body all over, with pike wounds." Such barbarities could not fail to produce desire of revenge. But, as our regiment had not been in the country during the out-breaking of the insurrection, we had received no injury to provoke our resentment. And as we had not been employed in the execution of any of the rigorous measures resorted to by the government to prevent the insurrection, no one had any ill will against us. We were called into the service of suppressing this unhappy and calamitous insurrection, after it had begun to decline, and we were rather witnesses of its ruinous and distressing effects, than active hands in suppressing it by force. For it so happened, that although we several times pursued considerable bodies of the insurgents through the mountains, and were at times pretty close upon them, yet no one of us fired a musket, with the exception of one or two, who did it without orders, on the morning of the 5th July, on the White Heaps: neither was a musket fired at us; and the only loss the regiment sustained during this service, occurred one morning when we were pursuing a body of insurgents among the mountains. One of our men having fallen behind through weakness, was met by two or three insurgents in women's clothes, carrying pails of milk on their heads, as if returning from milking. They offered him drink; and, while he was drinking, one of them seized his musket, and after threatening to kill him, they allowed him to proceed to the regiment, with the loss of his musket and ammunition.