left it for a mouthful of fresh air. If caught
abroad, summary vengeance was dealt on his
unlucky head, most probably in the shape
of a knock-down blow from the butt-end of a
revolver. The filth of this camp was disgusting.
Few of the men ever saw water except to drink
it; their flesh was disguised in dirt, and their
underclothes were in very few cases ever taken
off until they fell to pieces.

Being a wild Irish camp, peace was preserved
by allowing any row short of a faction fight.
To keep the steam under, Paddy was suffered to
thrash Paddy to his heart's content; rings were
formed for that purpose under the supervision
of the officers; and it was truly wonderful to see
the number of rings that were required in which
to settle all the little daily differences. More
than once I was awakened in the night by a
desperate fight within the narrow tent, where all
the occupants were pummelling each other in the
dark. A truly rueful face have I brought out
in the morning, while the tent, much stained
with blood, was being visited by admiring crowds
who came to witness the scene of a battle so
much after their own hearts.

It is a boast of the Stars and Stripes that there
is in their army no such thing as corporal punishment.
But of corporal punishment there are more
forms in the world than one. It is true that I
have never seen the lash used, but American
ingenuity has not been slow to invent substitutes.
A favourite mode of punishment, inflicted by
courts-martial, is the old-fashioned torture of
picketing, once used in the British army, but
long since discarded as barbarous and cruel. Its
victim is hung by his thumbs to a beam, so that
his toes only rest on two pieces of wood driven
for that purpose into the ground. Thus he
remains, for from half an hour to an hour, unless,
as is frequently the case, he falls insensible, and
is carried away to the hospital. Another form
of punishment, not unlike the cangue of the
Chinese, is that of the " barrel." A heavy cask
of from one to one and a half hundred-weight,
having an end knocked out, and a square hole
cut in the other for a man's head to go through,
rests with its sharp edges on the shoulder of
the culprit, who is thus for many hours marched
round the camp between a file of soldiers with
fixed bayonets. This is described by those on
whom it has been inflicted, as a terrible punishment,
for though to a strong man the weight
is at first not great, it soon begins to give great
torture, the sharp edges cutting deeply into the
shoulder. Indeed, but few get through a long
punishment of this kind; men fall exhausted,
and frequently senseless, and are carried to the
guard-house or hospital. Not many days passed
in Camp Scott, without the infliction of these
and other punishments upon whole batches of
delinquents. During my short stay, two men
died under the infliction of these cruelties.

It was my good fortune to escape such punishments,
by great care and submissiveness, although
on one occasion the escape was narrow. I was
sent for to the tent of the adjutant-general, and
required to swear allegiance to the United States
government. This I refused to do, asserting
that I was a subject of Great Britain. I
was, however, confronted by men who swore
that I had been regularly enlisted into the
United States service, and had signed a paper to
that effect. The paper was produced. There
was no writing of mine on it, nor was it my name
that was attached; but the name by which I was
known in the regiment, and in which, in spite of
my protestations, I had been entered on the rolls,
was there. These men swore, also, that I had
acknowledged having voted at the last election,
and that I was consequently a citizen. In vain
were all my appeals. A hundred dollars were
produced, which I was told was the portion of
bounty to which I would be entitled upon swearing
allegiance; but that anyhow there I was, and
there I should remain, till Uncle Sam had done
with me. The discussion ended in a night's
lodging in the guard-house, and the promise of
the "barrel" in the morning; the threat, however,
was not executed, neither did I swear
allegiance.

Six dreary weeks passed by— weeks spent in
dreaming of home in that England I never
expected to see again. Gladly would I have given
a leg or an arm to have stood free on the deck
of one of the ships that I saw sailing homeward
by my island prison. I had been continually
planning schemes of escape, but was disheartened
by the fact that the few who did manage to run
the guard never got safely off, but soon were
brought back to suffer severe punishment. I
wandered round the camp day after day in search
of the most likely point for escape, and the
search generally ended in attention to a spot
where the lines of the camp extended to within
about fifty yards of a thick wood. Even here I
should have to run the fifty yards in sight of the
guard; and should they, in their hurry to fire, miss
me, I must then risk meeting the out-pickets,
made alert by the sound of firing. But I trusted
that in the thick wood I might be able to
elude these, and, once free from the camp, take
my chance of getting off the island. It was
indeed a poor chance, as the island, being used
specially for the safe-keeping of recruits, was
jealously guarded by officers picked from each
regiment, in order that the appearance of every
man might be known to some one of them. Even
in private clothes there was but a very poor
chance of escape, but in uniform it seemed to be
almost impossible. No matter, I would do my
best, and I could but risk life to be free.

About this time I was sent for to the tent of the
paymaster, who, much to my surprise, handed me
one hundred dollars, which he told me was part of
my bounty. I knew too well how much I should
need money, to have any scruple about taking it,
though I was informed that, after this, if I did
not take the oath of allegiance within a week, I
should be sent to Fort Lafayette as a disloyal
traitor, and that I should, in addition, be tried