morning the
plague again appeared, so the colonel to quiet him told him that the
grenadiers had some prize money which was expected in a few days, and
which he should receive in lieu of what he had lost, which sent the
old man off seemingly as satisfied as if he had already got the money
in his possession, shaking hands with us all round, and bowing and
scraping as if we had been so many kings.

The matter did not altogether rest here, however, for the colonel
suspecting that we were implicated, next day we were ordered as if
for marching, just as if we were going to leave the place that very
day, but the men being quite up to that trick, knowing that the French
were still in front, concealed their shares of the money in and around
the cellar. I remember well the manner in which my own and one of my
fellow-comrades' shares were hidden: there was a heap of pumpkins in
the cellar, and in one of these we enclosed our money, cutting a piece
out of it of sufficient size to admit the dollars, and after closing
it up with the top of the original piece, mixing it again with the
remainder of the heap. The company was then marched out into a field,
and all our knapsacks and pockets were searched, but even the little
money that some must have had before was missing.

The colonel did not mind being baffled so much as the major did, who
told the colonel that if he left it in his hands he would endeavour to
find the money, to which the colonel replied that he was just the man
the Portuguese wanted. The manner in which this cunning major went to
work might have succeeded with men less artful than he found us to be,
but every one in the cellar had part in it, so it was to the interest
of all to keep the affair secret, and not only that, but every man's
share in the prize happened to amount to more than the sum which the
major offered to any one who would reveal it. He came to one of the
sergeants of the grenadiers and told him to pick out ten of the men
who would be most likely to inform, but instead of doing so, I think
the sergeant must have chosen the ten worst rogues in the company.
These were then all marched off to the major's quarters, and had in
one by one to see him, as he sat with five guineas lying on his table,
which he offered to the first who should reveal the mystery: but
finding, after he had interviewed about three of them, that he was
being duped, for they all told the same tale, that was that they knew
nothing abou