e often too
light and their havresacks too heavy. "A watchcoat, a piece of
pipe-clay, and a button-brush," compose rather a scanty kit: yet those
three articles formed--with the exception of the clothes he stood
in--the entire wardrobe and means of personal adornment of the Rooney
above-named; and many of his comrades were scarce better provided. But
if the back was neglected and left bare, the belly, on the contrary,
was cared for with vigilant affection. On occasion, the Eighty-eighth
could do their work on meagre diet as well, or better than any other
corps. They would march two days on a pipe of tobacco; or for a week,
with the addition of a biscuit and a dram. But when they did such
things, it was no sign of any abstract love of temperance, or wish to
mortify the flesh; it was simply a token of the extreme poverty of the
district in which they found themselves. For the article provend they
always kept a bright look-out. A greasy havresack, especially on the
line of march, is the soldier's first desideratum; and it was rare that
a very respectable workhouse soup could not have been produced by
infusing that of a Connaughter in a proper quantity of water. When
rations were scanty, or commissaries lagged in the rear, none understood
better than the Eighty-eighth how to forage for themselves. "Every man
his own quartermaster" was then their motto. Nothing came amiss to them;
sweet or savoury, from a pig to a bee-hive, they sacked every thing; and
their "taking ways" were often cast in their teeth. The natives were
compelled to mount guard over their sheepfolds; but the utmost force
they could muster was of small avail against the resolute onslaught of
the half-famished Irishmen. Even the exertions of the Provost-marshal,
and the liberal application of the cat, proved ineffectual to check
these depredations; whilst the whimsical arguments used by the fellows
in their defence sometimes disarmed the severity of Picton himself.

It would have been quite out of character for an Irish regiment to march
without ladies in their train, and accordingly the female following of
the Rangers was organised on the most liberal scale. Motley as it was
numerous, it included, besides English and Irish women, a fair
sprinkling of tender-hearted Spaniards and Portuguese, who had been
unable to resist the fascinations of the insinuating Connaughters. The
sufferings of these poor creatures, on long marches, over bad roads and
in wet and cold