of straw being allowed for every two men. Very close to this
chapel there was situated a farmyard, inhabited by a quantity of pigs:
and pork being a thing which the company had not tasted for some time,
we made up our minds to have a treat. So one of our number was chosen
to steal a pig, being, I suppose, one whose fingers were thought well
adapted to the purpose. He pitched on a very novel plan of proceeding,
for, taking a sergeant's pike, he stuck the pig with it, and then
escaped till the poor animal had died; on which, not being long
afterwards, we conveyed it to the chapel.

We thought that we had done this all unobserved, but the farmer had
either watched our movements, or must have seen the blood and gone to
count, and so missed the pig, and we soon saw that all was not to pass
off so nicely as we expected, for presently he put in an appearance at
the chapel too. Finding, however, that we were too strong for him,
and seeing nothing of the missing pig, he went off and reported the
circumstance to our colonel.

Meanwhile we lost no time in making our plans for a place of security
for our prize. At first we thought of our straw beds, that is, of
wrapping the pig in the blanket, but our afterthoughts told us that
that would not be safe. At one end of the chapel, however, there was a
large statue of the Virgin Mary, having on a robe with a long train,
and it was under this train that we concealed our prize in the best
possible manner, so as to baffle any chance of detection by the
appearance of the train being altered. And sure enough, it proved to
be the safest place we could have hit upon for our desired end, for
very soon in came the farmer with a priest, and the first thing they
did was to make their obedience to the monument, whilst we were all
the time laughing in our sleeves to think how they were likewise
honouring the pig.

Something more serious was soon to happen, however, for a very few
minutes afterwards the captain and colonel both came in and ordered
every berth to be examined; but they searched in vain, and pronounced
it to be some mistake on the farmer's part, as in that short time we
could not have cooked, eaten, or otherwise got rid of the pig. The
farmer, however, still felt certain that we had it, but it could not
be found anywhere in the chapel, so he was obliged to retire without
any compensation for his unfortunate pig. Then we breathed a little
more freely at last, for if we had been found