Our sufferings during these rapid transitions were almost intolerable. During the passage several herds of swine were met with, feeding in the woods, when the soldiers ran in among the animals, shooting, stabbing, and, like men possessed, cutting off the flesh while the beasts were yet alive. Well has it been said that hunger will break through stone walls. I had carried a sheaf of wheat for many miles on my knapsack, rubbing the ears when opportunity offered between my hands, and eating the extracted grain with rapture. At night, by way of a feast, I used to thrash a little more, by bruising the grain, having first laid my greatcoat on the ground for the purpose. On one occasion a comrade, by great exertion, procured a small quantity of bullock’s blood. We agreed to boil it for dinner, and halve it between us. We did so; and, though unaided even by a bit of salt, I thought it delicious. These privations occurred in our passage through an elevated and open tract of country, where shelter from the sultry heat could hardly be procured. One of these spots we called Mount Misery. Many a time we have breakfasted upon the acorns or oak-nuts beaten down by the Spanish swineherds for the use of the hogs. A goat’s offal sold at this time for four dollars, or about double the usual price of the whole animal; and men and officers strove to outbid each other in the purchase of this wretched pittance. In one word, famine raged through the camp; and it was notorious that the Spanish cavalry intercepted 83the provisions and forage destined for the English army, and fired upon the foragers, as if they had been enemies.