For the first two or three days after the Battle of Salamanca during the Napoleonic Wars, the British soldiers suffered greatly from want of food, and the inferior officers' sufferings were still more heavy and protracted. They had no money, and many sold their horses and other property to sustain life. Some actually died of want.
At the sale of some effects of a deceased officer after Salamanca, the man who officiated as auctioneer on that occasion, on producing a prayer book as the next lot for competition, remarked that "he must indeed be a brave man who purchased it, as that was the fourth time during a month he had submitted it for sale."
拿破崙戰爭的薩拉曼卡戰役之後，最初兩三天，英軍士兵乏糧，困苦不堪，低級軍官的困苦更甚，煎熬時間也更長。他們沒有錢，不少得把馬匹及其他財物變賣，以免餓死。有些更在匱乏之中死亡。
那場戰役之後，一個軍官去世，遺物給拍賣，擔任拍賣者的那個人，拿出一本祈禱書，準備供下一輪競投。他說「買這本書的人，一定十分勇敢，因為這是他一個月之內第四次拿出來拍賣」。
*Lot是拍賣場中每次供競投的一件或一批物品，例如：The antique clock is listed in the catalogue as lot number 3（拍賣目錄上，那古董鐘的拍賣編號是三）。