The brigade quartered near Cambray -- Outrage on a native farmer
-- The perpetrators convicted and hanged -- Lawrence sent to
Valenciennes to learn the sword exercise -- March to Calais and
embarkation for Scotland -- Tedious voyage -- Kind reception by
the inhabitants of Bridlington -- Lawrence finds a silk dress
rather a superfluity on a campaign -- Shields -- Excursion over
the glass-works -- Final landing at Leith and march to Glasgow.
From St. Germain we proceeded to Cambray. We were billeted at a
village near Cambray called Aresne, where we had very good quarters
and found the people particularly kind, and after remaining there a
short time we were moved to a neighbouring village, where we got
equally good quarters.
But here another of those unpleasant things happened which often have
to occur that proper discipline and justice may be kept up. A part of
the Twenty-Seventh Regiment was billeted at a village near where we
were situated, most of whom were I believe Irish; and two of the more
ruffianly, knowing that a farmer who lived close by had gone to
market, and would probably return laden with the value of the goods he
had sold, laid wait for him with the intention of robbing him; and
having met him, they fell upon him and left him in a corn-field
evidently for dead, first stripping him of everything valuable about
his person. There the man lay till his friends becoming uneasy at his
long absence a search was made and he was tracked to his mournful bed.
He was not dead when found, and so was conveyed to his house and
properly attended to by a doctor, and at the end of a week he was able
to give an account of the ill-treatment he said he had received at the
hands of two soldiers who were quartered in the village occupied by
the Twenty-Seventh Regiment.
One of the officers was consequently informed of the occurrence, and
immediately went to the farmer to learn the rights of the story. The
man could not tell the amount of money that had been taken from him,
but he said he could recognize the men again. As soon, therefore, as
he was able to walk, the officer took him down the ranks of his
regiment, and certainly he proved to be correct about recognizing
them, for he immediately picked out two men who were found to have
been out at the time described. They were conveyed as prisoners to the
guard-room, and reported to the general, who immediately ordered a
court-martial, and, accepting the evidence of their sergeant, who
pronounced them to be as often tipsy as not, found them guilty, and
they were sentenced to be hanged. The sentence was, however, first
sent to be approved of by Lord Wellington, who sanctioned it and
returned it; and the execution was accordingly ordered to be carried
out.
The men were allowed a week to prepare themselves for their awful
doom, and at the end of that time the brigade was called together to
take warning from their unhappy fate. It was on a Monday morning that
we formed square round the gallows which had been erected for the
occasion; and all being ready, the men were brought under the gallows
in a spring-wagon guarded by a sergeant and twelve men of their own
regiment, one of which latter having adjusted the ropes, the chaplain
read the service. Then the question usual in these cases was put, but
all they had to say was that they were both guilty and hoped this
would be a warning to their comrades. The chaplain then left them, and
on the wagon being moved along they were left dancing on nothing. The
poor fellows were not long in expiring, but they were left one hour
before they were cut down, during which time we had to retain our
post, and at the end of it each regiment retired solemnly to its own
quarters, leaving a company of the men's own regiment to bury them.
During the brigade's stay near Cambray an order was received that a
captain and five sergeants from each regiment should be sent to
Valenciennes to learn the sword exercise; so Captain Barnard of my own
company was chosen, and amongst the five of our sergeants myself. We
started accordingly to Valenciennes, which was about twenty-five or
thirty miles from Cambray, and remained there six weeks till we got
sick enough of the sword exercise, having six hours a day of it for
the whole six weeks except on Sundays. At the end of that time we
again joined our regiment, which had been ordered to return
immediately to Scotland.
The day after our arrival the regiment was put on the march for
Calais. We were quartered in cantonments every night, and at one of
our sleeping-places I met a Jew, and having a silver watch to dispose
of, I asked him what he would give me for it. He replied fifteen
francs and a silk dress, which I took, and when we arrived at Calais
we changed the French money into English; but since I had left my own
country the coinage had been altered, which bothered me a little at
first sight, and certainly did not bring me any gain. We lay in
Calais two nights, where I and my wife got very comfortable quarters.
I may as well say here that she had borne the marches quite as well as
I did, if not in some cases better.
Three colliers had been contracted with to convey our regiment to
Scotland, and from the appearance of the vessels themselves, I very
much doubted, if bad weather should set in, that we should ever reach
Leith, the port we set sail for, they being the rickettiest old
watertubs I ever saw. Leith was supposed to be three days' sail from
Calais with a fair wind, but we had a foul one nearly the whole time,
and we were seven weeks on the voyage, having to put in at Bridlington
in Yorkshire to wait for this fair wind. My wife, who had never before
seen salt water, was at first ill and found the whole voyage terribly
long and tedious; but to me, who had long since learnt not to be
troubled with trifles, it mattered not weather or no, and I was by
this time thoroughly used too to long voyages by water after my
American trips.
Our stay at Bridlington lasted three weeks. The first night we were
there, the mayor invited the officers to dine with him, and sent a
quart of beer on board for each man, and half that quantity for each
woman. During our stay here too, we were allowed to go on shore in the
day but obliged to be on board by nine o'clock at night. The
inhabitants were particularly kind to us, amongst other things
offering our women their houses to wash their clothes in, which offer
many accepted. And here I at last got a chance to get rid of my silk
dress, which was a thing that my wife hardly required while travelling
about, and I had been trying to dispose of it ever since I obtained
it. I used to visit a public-house in the neighbourhood where I
noticed the daughter of the place, a fine-looking girl, used to sport
her silk dress, so I sold her mine for fifty shillings and a gallon of
beer, which latter I gave to her customers.
At last the favouring breeze sprang up, and we again attempted to
proceed on our voyage. We were a whole day getting opposite Shields,
and a pilot was signalled for, but before he arrived we were again
obliged to fall back to Bridlington, which took us but nine hours to
do, during the whole of which time the vessel rolled fearfully, and
the women especially began to despair. Our stay lasted for ten days
this time, and then we proceeded again to Shields, where we lay for a
week, being likewise allowed to go on shore there. Our walks on shore
sometimes extended to the coal-mines, and we also went over the
glass-manufactories, which last amused my wife more than anything.
The workmen made her a smelling-bottle and me several pipes and a
walking-stick of glass, for us to see the process.
From Shields we proceeded to Leith, and landed, and all our baggage
being examined at the customs-house, I thought what a capital thing it
was that I had sold my dress. That night we remained in Leith, and on
the following morning were ordered to march to Glasgow, which we
reached on the third day.