"Some were weeping, others sadly silent and others, ashamed to he seen weeping tried to pass it off by laughing. Most of them were poor country fellows, some of them the only sons and breadwinners. On market day a humpbacked lad was taken by fellows appointed for that business and brought to the officer and he was told that he was to come and cull to be a soldier. He said he could not possibly drill (being humpbacked) and for that he was put in detention. The next la called out to drill and because he could not do it was beaten most unmercifully and left half dead. His father, poor fellow, begged and begged for his son and at last, too much in suffering to walk, the lad was let go.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.