The enemy then retreated to their old position, and we were quartered in a Portuguese village, on the frontiers, within a few leagues of Roderigo, where we remained until January, 1812. This was a miserable, dirty place, with a few poor wretched inhabitants in it. It was designated by the soldiers, the ‘Hungry Village;’ as, to answer some purpose which we were then unacquainted with, we had only half rations during the greater part of the time we were in it; to add to the rest, the officer in temporary command of the regiment at that time, was ignorant of his duty, which, in conjunction with a naturally cruel and vindictive disposition, bade fair to ruin the regiment in the few months he had the command of it. I shall not trace his pedigree to the low origin from whence he sprung, because, had he been a good man, it would only have enhanced his merit; nor shall I particularize the deformity of his person, which he could not help; but there will be no harm in giving a specimen of his mode of discipline while in command of the regiment, particularly as it forms a strong contrast to that of an officer whom I shall have occasion to mention in the course of this narrative. Having neither the education nor the breeding of a gentleman, he felt jealous in the company of the officers, and lived in a retired and sullen manner. He generally passed his time in gossiping with his barber or his cook, or indeed any of the men, with an affectation of entering into all their concerns. By this and eavesdropping he became acquainted with little circumstances which another commanding officer would have disdained to listen to, and which he always made a bad use of. The full extent of his malevolent disposition was not known, however, until he got command of the regiment, when he introduced flogging for every trivial offence—in fact, the triangles were generally the accompaniment of every evening parade. In addition to this, he invented more disgraceful and torturing modes of inflicting the punishment; but all this was not enough,—he ordered that defaulters should have a patch of yellow and black cloth sewed on the sleeve of the regimental jacket, and a hole cut in it for every time they were flogged. The effects of this soon became visible: as good men were liable to be punished for the slightest fault, the barrier between them and hardened ill-doers was broken down, and as they had lost respect in their own eyes, they either became broken-hearted and inefficient soldiers, or grew reckless of every thing, and launched into crime; those who were hardened and unprincipled before, being brought by the prevalence of punishment nearer a level with better men, seemed to glory in misconduct. In fact, all ideas of honour and character were lost, and listless apathy and bad conduct were the prevailing features of the corps at this time.