"They will not
fall out, they will not straggle, but if they come to a place where wine's
in plenty, they will make bastes of themselves; and after all," he added,
"after the work they have gone through, who is to blame them?"
At the halt the next evening at Bembibre the colonel's forebodings that
the men could not be trusted where liquor was plentiful were happily not
verified. There were immense wine-vaults in the town. These were broken
open, and were speedily crowded by disbanded Spaniards, soldiers,
camp-followers, muleteers, women and children--the latter taking refuge
there from the terrible cold. The rear-guard, to which the Mayo regiment
had been attached the evening before, found that Baird's division had gone
on, but that vast numbers of drunken soldiers had been left behind.
General Moore was himself with the rear-guard, and the utmost efforts were
made to induce the drunkards to rejoin their regiments. He himself
appealed to the troops, instructing the commanders of the different
regiments to say that he relied implicitly upon the soldiers to do their
duty. The French might at any moment be up, and every man must be in his
ranks. No men were to fall out or to enter any wine-house or cellar, but
each should have at once a pint of wine served out to him, and as much
more before they marched in the morning.
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