very lash.

This may seem to some a hard case, three hundred lashes for absenting
himself, but it must be remembered that had there been many like this
man, for I cannot call him a soldier, that day would most decidedly
have ended in favour of the French. When taken down he was sent to
hospital for three weeks and then came back to us, but even then he
was not quite free, for I had orders from the captain to examine his
kit to see if everything was complete, and I found his knapsack
completely empty. I then searched his pouch and found all his
ammunition gone. I was not much surprised at this, knowing that he did
not like the smell of powder; but I reported these circumstances to
the captain, who ordered him back to the rear-guard as a prisoner
again; and the next day another court-martial was held on him for
making away with his kit, and he was sentenced to three hundred more
lashes, of which strange to say he received every one without crying
out. He seemed to be a man without any feeling, for it may be pretty
well taken for granted that the drummers did not fail in their duty
towards such a man as this, for there is no one they feel more
strongly against than a coward.

He was then sent for three weeks more to the hospital, and at the end
of the time again joined; but the poor fellow must after that have
been very miserable, for all his comrades shunned his society and
would scarcely speak to him at all; and not only that, but having had
a new kit and sixty rounds of ball-cartridge supplied to him, he had
sixpence a day stopped out of his money till they were paid for, his
pay being only thirteenpence a day, so that after another sixpence had
been stopped for his food he had only one penny per day to take. I
need hardly say that he was consequently always without money, and at
last we missed him for two or three days, after which he returned,
having again lost his kit. We found he had been into Paris and sold it
for those two or three days' maintenance, so he was again sent to the
rear-guard and reported, again court-martialled and sentenced to three
hundred lashes, and again received the whole to the very letter and
sent to hospital for the same time. When he again rejoined he went on
better for a while, but on our regiment afterwards getting to Scotland
he transgressed and was flogged for a fourth time, and when he came
out of hospital the colonel ordered his coat to be turned, and a large
sheet of paper to be pi