Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, in the Peninsula, France, and the Netherlands
by J. Kincaid · English · Gutenberg #28981 · 372,364 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, in the Peninsula, France, and the Netherlands
Author: J. Kincaid
Release date: May 29, 2009 [eBook #28981]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28981
Credits: Produced by StevenGibbs, Christine P. Travers and the
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVENTURES IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE, IN THE PENINSULA, FRANCE, AND THE NETHERLANDS ***
Produced by StevenGibbs, Christine P. Travers and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
Hyphenation and accentuation have been standardised, all
other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
has been maintained.
There is no Chapter IV in this book.
The errata changes have been included in the file.]
ADVENTURES
IN THE
RIFLE BRIGADE,
IN THE
PENINSULA,
FRANCE, AND THE NETHERLANDS,
FROM 1809 TO 1815.
BY CAPTAIN J. KINCAID.
LONDON:
T. AND W. BOONE, STRAND.
MDCCCXXX.
TO
MAJOR-GEN. SIR ANDREW BARNARD,
K. C. B.
COLONEL OF THE FIRST BATTALION RIFLE BRIGADE,
AND ITS LEADER
DURING A LONG AND BRILLIANT PERIOD
OF ITS HISTORY,
THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED
BY HIS VERY OBEDIENT
AND VERY OBLIGED HUMBLE SERVANT,
J. KINCAID.
ADVERTISEMENT.
In tracing the following scenes, I have chiefly drawn on the
reminiscences of my military life, and endeavoured faithfully to
convey to the mind of the reader the impression which they made on my
own at the time of their occurrence. Should any errors, as to dates or
trifling circumstances, have inadvertently crept into my narrative, I
hope they will be ascribed to want of memory, rather than to any
wilful intention to mislead. I am aware, that some objections may be
taken to my style; for
"Rude am I in my speech,
And little bless'd with the set phrase of peace:
For, since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now, some nine moons wasted, they have us'd
Their dearest action in the tented field:
And little of this world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle;
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself; yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnished tale deliver,"
CONTENTS.
Page
CHAPTER I. 1
Joined the Rifles. Walcheren Expedition. A young Soldier. A Marine
View. Campaign in South Beeveland. Retreat to Scotland.
CHAP. II. 4
Rejoin the Regiment. Embark for the Peninsula. Arrival in the Tagus.
The City of Lisbon, with its Contents. Sail for Figuera. Landing
extraordinary. Billet ditto. The City of Coimbra. A hard Case. A cold
Case, in which a favourite Scotch Dance is introduced. Climate. The
Duke of Wellington.
CHAP. III. 15
Other People, Myself, and my Regiment. Retreat to the Lines of Torres
Vedras. Leave Coimbra, followed by a select group of Natives. Ford the
Streets of Condacia in good spirits. A Provost-Marshal and his
favourites. A fall. Convent of Batalha. Turned out of Allenquer.
Passed through Sobral. Turned into Arruda. Quartering of the Light
Division, and their Quarters at Arruda. Burial of an only Child. Lines
of Torres Vedras. Difference of opinion between Massena and Myself.
Military Customs.
CHAP. V. 38
Campaign of 1811 opens. Massena's Retreat. Wretched Condition of the
Inhabitants on the Line of March. Affairs with the Enemy, near Pombal.
Description of a Bivouac. Action near Redinha. Destruction of Condacia
and Action near it. Burning of the Village of Illama, and Misery of
its Inhabitants. Action at Foz D'Aronce. Confidential Servants with
Donkey-Assistants.
CHAP. VI. 61
Passage of the Mondego. Swearing to a large Amount. Two Prisoners,
with their Two Views. Two Nuns, Two Pieces of Dough, and Two Kisses. A
Halt. Affair near Frexedas. Arrival near Guarda. Murder. A stray
Sentry. Battle of Sabugal. Spanish and Portuguese Frontiers. Blockade
of Almeida. Battle-like. Current Value of Lord Wellington's Nose.
Battle of Fuentes D'Onor. The Day after the Battle. A grave Remark.
The _Padre's_ House. Retreat of the Enemy.
CHAP. VII. 83
March to Estremadura. At Soito, growing Accommodations for Man and
Beast. British Taste displayed by Portuguese Wolves. False Alarm.
Luxuries of Roquingo Camp. A Chaplain of the Forces. Return towards
the North. Quarters near Castello de Vide. Blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo.
Village of Atalya; Fleas abundant; Food scarce. Advance of the French
Army. Affairs near Guinaldo. Our Minister administered to. An
unexpected Visit from our General and his Followers. End of the
Campaign of 1811. Winter Quarters.
CHAP. VIII. 100
Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. The Garrison of an Outwork relieved. Spending
an Evening abroad. A Musical Study. An Addition to Soup. A short Cut.
Storming of the Town. A sweeping Clause. Advantages of leading a
Storming Party. Looking for a Customer. Disadvantages of being a
stormed Party. Confusion of all Parties. A waking Dream. Death of
General Crawford. Accident. Deaths.
CHAP. IX. 121
March to Estremadura. A Deserter shot. Riding for an Appetite. Effect
the Cure of a Sick Lady. Siege of Badajos. Trench-Work. Varieties
during the Siege. Taste of the Times. Storming of the Town. Its Fall.
Officers of a French Battalion. Not shot by Accident. Military
Shopkeepers. Lost Legs and cold Hearts. Affecting Anecdote. My
Servant. A Consignment to Satan. March again for the North. Sir Sidney
Beckwith.
CHAP. X. 143
A Farewell Address to Portalegré. History of a Night in Castello
Branco. Regimental Colours lost, with Directions where to find them.
Cases in which a Victory is sometimes won by those who lost it.
Advance to Salamanca. The City. The British Position on St.
Christoval. Affair in Position. Marmont's Change of Position and
Retreat. A Case of Bad Luck. Advance to Rueda, and Customs there.
Retire to Castrejon. Affairs on the 18th and 19th of July. Battle of
Salamanca, and Defeat of the Enemy.
CHAP. XI. 165
Distinguished Characters. A Charge of Dragoons. A Charge against the
Nature of Things. Olmeda and the French General, Ferez. Advance
towards Madrid. Adventures of my Dinner. The Town of Segovia. El
Palacio del Rio Frio. The Escurial. Enter Madrid. Rejoicings. Nearly
happy. Change of a Horse. Change of Quarters. A Change confounded.
Retire towards Salamanca. Boar-Hunt, Dinner-Hunt, and Bull-Hunt. A
Portuguese Funeral conducted by Rifle Undertakers.
CHAP. XII. 183
Reach Salamanca. Retreat from it. Pig Hunting, an Enemy to
Sleep-Hunting. Putting one's Foot in it. Affair on the 17th of
November. Bad Legs sometimes last longer than good ones. A Wet Birth.
Prospectus of a Day's Work. A lost _déjûné_ better than a found one.
Advantages not taken. A disagreeable Amusement, End of the Campaign of
1812. Winter Quarters. Orders and Disorders treated. Farewell Opinion
of Ancient Allies. My House.
CHAP. XIII. 200
A Review. Assembly of the Army. March to Salamanca. To Aldea Nueva. To
Toro. An Affair of the Hussar Brigade. To Palencia. To the
Neighbourhood of Burgos. To the Banks of the Ebro. Fruitful sleeping
place. To Medina. A Dance before it was due. Smell the Foe. Affair at
St. Milan. A Physical River.
CHAP. XIV. 213
Battle of Vittoria. Defeat of the Enemy. Confusion among their
Followers. Plunder. Colonel Cameron. Pursuit, and the Capture of their
Last Gun. Arrive near Pampeluna. At Villalba. An Irish method of
making a useless Bed useful.
CHAP. XV. 231
March to intercept Clausel. Tafalla. Olite. The dark End of a Night
March to Casada. Clausel's Escape. Sanguessa. My Tent struck. Return
to Villalba. Weighty Considerations on Females. St. Esteban. A Severe
Dance. Position at Bera. Soult's Advance, and Battle of the Pyrenees.
His Defeat and subsequent Actions. A Morning's Ride.
CHAP. XVI. 246
An Anniversary Dinner. Affair with the Enemy, and Fall of St.
Sebastian. A Building Speculation. A Fighting one, storming the
Heights of Bera. A Picture of France from the Pyrenees. Returns after
an Action. Sold by my Pay-Serjeant. A Recruit born at his Post.
Between Two Fires, a Sea and a Land one. Position of La Rhune. My
Picture taken in a Storm. Refreshing Invention for wintry Weather.
CHAP. XVII. 263
Battle of the Nivelle, and Defeat of the Enemy. A Bird of Evil Omen.
Chateau D'Arcangues. Prudence. An Enemy's Gratitude. Passage of the
Nive, and Battles near Bayonne, from 9th to 13th December.
CHAP. XVIII. 280
Change of Quarters. Change of Diet. Suttlers. Our new Quarter. A
long-going Horse gone. New Clothing. Adam's lineal Descendants. St.
Palais. Action at Tarbes. Faubourg of Toulouse. The green Man. Passage
of the Garonne. Battle of Toulouse. Peace. Castle Sarrazin. A Tender
Point.
CHAP. XIX. 301
Commencement of the War of 1815. Embark for Rotterdam. Ship's Stock.
Ship struck. A Pilot, a Smuggler, and a Lawyer. A Boat without Stock.
Join the Regiment at Brussels.
CHAP. XX. 307
Relative Situation of the Troops. March from Brussels. The Prince and
the Beggar. Battle of Quatre-Bras.
CHAP. XXI. 327
Battle of Waterloo, 18th June, 1815. "A Horse! a Horse!" Breakfast.
Position. Disposition. Meeting of _particular_ Friends. Dish of Powder
and Ball. Fricassee of Swords. End of First Course. Pounding. Brewing.
Peppering. Cutting and Maiming. Fury. Tantalizing. Charging. Cheering.
Chasing. Opinionizing. Anecdotes. The End.
ADVENTURES IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE.
CHAPTER I.
Joined the Rifles. Walcheren Expedition. A young Soldier. A
Marine View. Campaign in South Beeveland. Retreat to Scotland.
I joined the second battalion rifle brigade, (then the ninety-fifth,)
at Hythe-Barracks, in the spring of 1809, and, in a month after, we
proceeded to form a part of the expedition to Holland, under the Earl
of Chatham.
With the usual Quixotic feelings of a youngster, I remember how very
desirous I was, on the march to Deal, to impress the minds of the
natives with a suitable notion of the magnitude of my importance, by
carrying a donkey-load of pistols in my belt, and screwing my
naturally placid countenance up to a pitch of ferocity beyond what it
was calculated to bear.
We embarked in the Downs, on board the Hussar frigate, and afterwards
removed to the Namur, a seventy-four, in which we were conveyed to our
destination.
I had never before been in a ship of war, and it appeared to me, the
first night, as if the sailors and marines did not pull well together,
excepting by the ears; for my hammock was slung over the descent into
the cockpit, and I had scarcely turned-in when an officer of marines
came and abused his sentry for not seeing the lights out below,
according to orders. The sentry proceeded to explain, that the
_middies_ would not put them out for him, when the naked shoulders and
the head of one of them, illuminated with a red nightcap, made its
appearance above the hatchway, and began to take a lively share in
the argument. The marine officer, looking down, with some
astonishment, demanded, "d--n you, sir, who are you?" to which the
head and shoulders immediately rejoined, "and d--n and b--t you, sir,
who are you?"
We landed on the island of South Beeveland, where we remained about
three weeks, playing at soldiers, smoking _mynheer's_ long clay pipes,
and drinking his _vrow's_ butter-milk, for which I paid liberally with
my precious blood to their infernal musquitos; not to mention that I
had all the extra valour shaken out of me by a horrible ague, which
commenced a campaign on my carcass, and compelled me to retire upon
Scotland, for the aid of my native air, by virtue of which it was
ultimately routed.
I shall not carry my first chapter beyond my first campaign, as I am
anxious that my reader should not expend more than his first breath
upon an event which cost too many their last.
CHAP. II.
Rejoin the Regiment. Embark for the Peninsula. Arrival in the
Tagus. The City of Lisbon, with its Contents. Sail for Figuera.
Landing extraordinary. Billet ditto. The City of Coimbra. A hard
Case. A cold Case, in which a favourite Scotch Dance is
introduced. Climate. The Duke of Wellington.
I rejoined the battalion, at Hythe, in the spring of 1810, and,
finding that the company to which I belonged had embarked, to join the
first battalion in the Peninsula, and that they were waiting at
Spithead for a fair wind, I immediately applied, and obtained
permission, to join them.
We were about the usual time at sea, and indulged in the usual
amusements, beginning with keeping journals, in which I succeeded in
inserting two remarks on the state of the weather, when I found my
inclination for book-making superseded by the more disagreeable study
of appearing eminently happy under an irresistible inclination towards
sea-sickness. We anchored in the Tagus in September;--no thanks to the
ship, for she was a leaky one, and wishing foul winds to the skipper,
for he was a bad one.
To look at Lisbon from the Tagus, there are few cities in the universe
that can promise so much, and none, I hope, that can keep it so badly.
I only got on shore one day, for a few hours, and, as I never again
had an opportunity of correcting the impression, I have no objection
to its being considered an uncharitable one; but I wandered for a time
amid the abominations of its streets and squares, in the vain hope
that I had got involved among a congregation of stables and outhouses;
but when I was, at length, compelled to admit it as the miserable
apology for the fair city that I had seen from the harbour, I began to
contemplate, with astonishment, and no little amusement, the very
appropriate appearance of its inhabitants.
The church, I concluded, had, on that occasion, indulged her numerous
offspring with a holiday, for they occupied a much larger portion of
the streets than all the world besides. Some of them were languidly
strolling about, and looking the sworn foes of time, while others
crowded the doors of the different coffee-houses; the fat
jolly-looking friars cooling themselves with lemonade, and the lean
mustard-pot-faced ones sipping coffee out of thimble-sized cups, with
as much caution as if it had been physic.
The next class that attracted my attention was the numerous collection
of well-starved dogs, who were indulging in all the luxury of extreme
poverty on the endless dung-heaps.
There, too, sat the industrious citizen, basking in the sunshine of
his shop-door, and gathering in the flock which is so bountifully
reared on his withered tribe of children. There strutted the spruce
cavalier, with his upper-man furnished at the expense of his lower,
and looking ridiculously imposing: and there--but sacred be their
daughters, for the sake of _one_, who shed a lustre over her squalid
sisterhood, sufficiently brilliant to redeem their whole nation from
the odious sin of ugliness. I was looking for an official person,
living somewhere near the Convent D'Estrella, and was endeavouring to
express my wishes to a boy, when I heard a female voice, in broken
English, from a balcony above, giving the information I desired. I
looked up, and saw a young girl, dressed in white, who was loveliness
itself! In the few words which passed between us, of lively
unconstrained civility on her part, and pure confounded gratitude on
mine, she seemed so perfectly after my own heart, that she lit a torch
in it which burnt for two years and a half.
It must not detract from her merits that she was almost the only one
that I saw during that period in which it was my fate to tread war's
roughest, rudest path,--daily staring his grim majesty out of
countenance, and nightly slumbering on the cold earth, or in the
tenantless mansion, for I felt as if she would have been the chosen
companion of my waking dreams in _rosier_ walks, as I never recalled
the fair vision to my aid, even in the worst of times, that it did not
act upon my drooping spirits like a glass of brandy.
It pleased the great disposer of naval events to remove us to another
and a better ship, and to send us off for Figuera, next day, with a
foul wind.
Sailing at the rate of one mile in two hours, we reached Figuera's Bay
at the end of eight days, and were welcomed by about a hundred hideous
looking Portuguese women, whose joy was so excessive that they waded
up to their arm-pits through a heavy surf, and insisted on carrying us
on shore on their backs! I never clearly ascertained whether they had
been actuated by the purity of love or gold.
Our men were lodged for the night in a large barn, and the officers
billetted in town. Mine chanced to be on the house of a mad-woman,
whose extraordinary appearance I never shall forget. Her petticoats
scarcely reached to the knee, and all above the lower part of the
bosom was bare; and though she looked not more than middle aged, her
skin seemed as if it had been regularly prepared to receive the
impression of her last will and testament; her head was defended by a
chevaux-de-frise of black wiry hair, which pointed fiercely in every
direction, while her eyes looked like two burnt holes in a blanket. I
had no sooner opened the door than she stuck her arms a-kimbo, and,
opening a mouth, which stretched from ear to ear, she began
vociferating "_bravo, bravissimo_!"
Being a stranger alike to the appearance and the manners of the
natives, I thought it possible that the former might have been nothing
out of the common run, and concluding that she was overjoyed at seeing
her country reinforced, at that perilous moment, by a fellow upwards
of six feet high, and thinking it necessary to sympathize in some
degree in her patriotic feelings, I began to "_bravo_" too; but as her
second shout ascended ten degrees, and kept increasing in that ratio,
until it amounted to absolute frenzy, I faced to the right-about, and,
before our _tête-à-tête_ had lasted the brief space of three-quarters
of a minute, I disappeared with all possible haste, her terrific yells
vibrating in my astonished ears long after I had turned the corner of
the street; nor did I feel perfectly at ease until I found myself
stretched on a bundle of straw in a corner of the barn occupied by the
men.
We proceeded, next morning, to join the army; and, as our route lay
through the city of Coimbra, we came to the magnanimous resolution of
providing ourselves with all manner of comforts and equipments for the
campaign on our arrival there; but, when we entered it, at the end of
the second day, our disappointment was quite eclipsed by astonishment
at finding ourselves the only living things in a city, which ought to
have been furnished with twenty thousand souls.
Lord Wellington was then in the course of his retreat from the
frontiers of Spain to the lines of Torres Vedras, and had compelled
the inhabitants on the line of march to abandon their homes, and to
destroy or carry away every thing that could be of service to the
enemy. It was a measure that ultimately saved their country, though
ruinous and distressing to those concerned, and on no class of
individuals did it bear harder, for the moment, than our own little
detachment, a company of rosy-cheeked, chubbed youths, who, after
three months feeding on ship's dumplings, were thus thrust, at a
moment of extreme activity, in the face of an advancing foe, supported
by a pound of raw beef, drawn every day fresh from the bullock, and a
mouldy biscuit.
The difficulties we encountered were nothing out of the usual course
of old campaigners; but, untrained and unprovided as I was, I still
looked back upon the twelve or fourteen days following the battle of
Busaco as the most trying I have ever experienced, for we were on our
legs from daylight until dark, in daily contact with the enemy; and,
to satisfy the stomach of an ostrich, I had, as already stated, only a
pound of beef, a pound of biscuit, and one glass of rum. A
brother-officer was kind enough to strap my boat-cloak and portmanteau
on the mule carrying his heavy baggage, which, on account of the
proximity of the foe, was never permitted to be within a day's march
of us, so that, in addition to my simple uniform, my only covering
every night was the canopy of heaven, from whence the dews descended
so refreshingly, that I generally awoke, at the end of an hour,
chilled, and wet to the skin; and I could only purchase an equal
length of additional repose by jumping up and running about, until I
acquired a sleeping quantity of warmth. Nothing in life can be more
ridiculous than seeing a lean, lank fellow start from a profound
sleep, at midnight, and begin lashing away at the highland fling, as
if St. Andrew himself had been playing the bagpipes; but it was a
measure that I very often had recourse to, as the cleverest method of
producing heat. In short, though the prudent general may preach the
propriety of light baggage in the enemy's presence, I will ever
maintain that there is marvellous small personal comfort in travelling
so fast and so lightly as I did.
The Portuguese farmers will tell you that the beauty of their climate
consists in their crops receiving from the nightly dews the refreshing
influence of a summer's shower, and that they ripen in the daily sun.
But _they_ are a sordid set of rascals! Whereas _I_ speak with the
enlightened views of a man of war, and say, that it is poor
consolation to me, after having been deprived of my needful repose,
and kept all night in a fever, dancing wet and cold, to be told that I
shall be warm enough in the morning? it is like frying a person after
he has been boiled; and I insisted upon it, that if their sun had been
milder and their dews lighter that I should have found it much more
pleasant.
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
From the moment that I joined the army, so intense was my desire to
get a look at this illustrious chief, that I never should have
forgiven the Frenchman that had killed me before I effected it. My
curiosity did not remain long ungratified; for, as our post was next
the enemy, I found, when anything was to be done, that it was his
also. He was just such a man as I had figured in my mind's eye, and I
thought that the stranger would betray a grievous want of penetration
who could not select the Duke of Wellington from amid five hundred in
the same uniform.
CHAP. III.
Other People, Myself, and my Regiment. Retreat to the Lines of
Torres Vedras. Leave Coimbra, followed by a select group of
Natives. Ford the Streets of Condacia in good spirit. A
Provost-Marshal and his favourites. A fall. Convent of Batalha.
Turned out of Allenquer. Passed through Sobral. Turned into
Arruda. Quartering of the Light Division, and their Quarters at
Arruda. Burial of an only Child. Lines of Torres Vedras.
Difference of opinion between Massena and Myself. Military
Customs.
Having now brought myself regularly into the field, under the renowned
Wellington, should this narrative, by any accident, fall into the
hands of others who served there, and who may be unreasonable enough
to expect their names to be mentioned in it, let me tell them that
they are most confoundedly mistaken! Every man may write a book for
himself, if he likes, but _this_ is mine; and, as I borrow no man's
story, neither will I give any man a particle of credit for his deeds,
as I have got so little for my own that I have none to spare. Neither
will I mention any regiment but my own, if I can possibly avoid it,
for there is none other that I like so much, and none else so much
deserves it; for we were the light regiment of the Light Division, and
fired the first and last shot in almost every battle, siege, and
skirmish, in which the army was engaged during the war.
In stating the foregoing resolution, however, with regard to
regiments, I beg to be understood as identifying our old and gallant
associates, the forty-third and fifty-second, as a part of ourselves,
for they bore their share in every thing, and I love them as I hope to
do my better half, (when I come to be divided,) wherever _we_ were,
_they_ were; and although the nature of our arm generally gave us more
employment in the way of skirmishing, yet, whenever it came to a
pinch, independent of a suitable mixture of them among us, we had
only to look behind to see a line, in which we might place a degree of
confidence, almost equal to our hopes in heaven; nor were we ever
disappointed. There never was a corps of riflemen in the hands of such
supporters!
October 1st, 1810.--We stood to our arms at day light this morning, on
a hill in front of Coimbra; and, as the enemy soon after came on in
force, we retired before them through the city. The civil authorities,
in making their own hurried escape, had totally forgotten that they
had left a gaol full of rogues unprovided for, and who, as we were
passing near them, made the most hideous screaming for relief. Our
quarter-master-general very humanely took some men, who broke open the
doors, and the whole of them were soon seen howling along the bridge
into the wide world, in the most delightful delirium, with the French
dragoons at their heels.
We retired, the same night, through Condacia, where the commissariat
were destroying quantities of stores that they were unable to carry
off. They handed out shoes and shirts to any one that would take them,
and the streets were literally running ankle deep with rum, in which
the soldiers were dipping their cups and helping themselves as they
marched along. The commissariat, some years afterwards, called for a
return of the men who had received shirts and shoes on this occasion,
with a view of making us pay for them, but we very briefly replied
that the one half were dead, and the other half would be d----d before
they would pay any thing.
We retired this day to Leria, and, at the entrance of the city, saw an
English and a Portuguese soldier dangling by the bough of a tree--the
first summary example I had ever seen of martial law.
A provost-marshal, on actual service, is a character of considerable
pretensions, as he can flog at pleasure, always moves about with a
guard of honour, and though he cannot altogether stop a man's breath
without an order, yet, when he is ordered to hang a given number out
of a crowd of plunderers, his _friends_ are not particularly
designated, so that he can invite any one that he takes a fancy to, to
follow him to the nearest tree, where he, without further ceremony,
relieves him from the cares and troubles of this wicked world.
There was only one _furnished_ shop remaining in the town at this
time, and I went in to see what they had got to sell; but I had
scarcely past the threshold when I heard a tremendous clatter at my
heels, as if the opposite house had been pitched in at the door after
me; and, on wheeling round to ascertain the cause, I found, when the
dust cleared away, that a huge stone balcony, with iron railings,
which had been over the door, overcharged with a collection of old
wives looking at the troops, had tumbled down; and in spite of their
vociferations for the aid of their patron saints, some them were
considerably damaged.
We halted one night near the Convent of Batalha, one of the finest
buildings in Portugal. It has, I believe, been clearly established,
that a living man in ever so bad health is better than two dead ones;
but it appears that the latter will vary in value according to
circumstances, for we found here, in very high preservation, the body
of King John of Portugal, who founded the edifice in commemoration of
some victory, God knows how long ago; and though he would have been
reckoned a highly valuable antique, within a glass case, in an
apothecary's hall in England, yet he was held so cheap in his own
house, that the very finger which most probably pointed the way to the
victory alluded to, is now in the baggage of the Rifle Brigade!
Reader, point not _thy_ finger at me, for I am not the man.
Retired on the morning of a very wet, stormy day to Allenquer, a small
town on the top of a mountain, surrounded by still higher ones; and,
as the enemy had not shewn themselves the evening before, we took
possession of the houses, with a tolerable prospect of being permitted
the unusual treat of eating a dinner under cover. But by the time
that the pound of beef was parboiled, and while an officer of dragoons
was in the act of reporting that he had just patrolled six leagues to
the front, without seeing any signs of an enemy, we saw the
indefatigable rascals, on the mountain opposite our windows, just
beginning to wind round us, with a mixture of cavalry and infantry;
the wind blowing so strong, that the long tail of each particular
horse stuck as stiffly out in the face of the one behind, as if the
whole had been strung upon a cable and dragged by the leaders. We
turned out a few companies, and kept them in check while the division
was getting under arms, spilt the soup as usual, and transferring the
smoking solids to the haversack, for future mastication, we continued
our retreat.
We past through the town of Sobral, soon after dark, the same night;
and, by the aid of some rushlights in a window, saw two apothecaries,
the very counterparts of Romeo's, who were the only remnants of the
place, and had braved the horrors of war for the sake of the
gallipots, and in the hopes that their profession would be held
sacred. They were both on the same side of the counter, looking each
other point blank in the face, their sharp noses not three inches
apart, and neither daring to utter a syllable, but both listening
intensely to the noise outside. Whatever their courage might have been
screwed up to before, it was evident that we were indebted for their
presence now to their fears; and their appearance altogether was so
ludicrous, that they excited universal shouts of laughter as they came
within view of the successive divisions.
Our long retreat ended at midnight, on our arrival at the handsome
little town of Arruda, which was destined to be the piquet post of our
division, in front of the fortified lines. The quartering of our
division, whether by night or by day, was an affair of about five
minutes. The quarter-master-general preceded the troops, accompanied
by the brigade-majors and the quarter-masters of regiments; and after
marking off certain houses for his general and staff, he split the
remainder of the town between the majors of brigades: they in their
turn provided for their generals and staff, and then made a wholesale
division of streets among the quarter-masters of regiments, who, after
providing for their commanding officers and staff, retailed the
remaining houses, in equal proportions, among the companies; so that,
by the time that the regiment arrived, there was nothing to be done
beyond the quarter-master's simply telling each captain, "here's a
certain number of houses for you."
Like all other places on the line of march, we found Arruda totally
deserted, and its inhabitants had fled in such a hurry, that the keys
of their house doors were the only things they carried away; so that
when we got admission, through our usual key,[1] we were not a little
gratified to find that the houses were not only regularly furnished,
but most of them had some food in the larder, and a plentiful supply
of good wines in the cellar; and, in short, that they only required a
few lodgers capable of appreciating the good things which the gods had
provided; and the deuce is in it if we were not the very folks who
could!
[Footnote 1: Transmitting a rifle-ball through the key-hole:
it opens every lock.]
Unfortunately for ourselves, and still more so for the proprietors, we
never dreamt of the possibility of our being able to keep possession
of the town, as we thought it a matter of course that the enemy would
attack our lines; and, as this was only an outpost, that it must fall
into their hands; so that, in conformity with the system upon which we
had all along been retreating, we destroyed every thing that we could
not use ourselves, to prevent their benefiting by it. But, when we
continued to hold the post beyond the expected period, our
indiscretion was visited on our own heads, as we had destroyed in a
day what would have made us luxurious for months. We were in hopes
that, afterwards, the enemy would have forced the post, if only for an
hour, that we might have saddled them with the mischief; but, as they
never even made the attempt, it left it in the power of ill-natured
people to say, that we had plundered one of our own towns. This was
the only instance during the war in which the light division had
reason to blush for their conduct, and even in that we had the law
martial on our side, whatever gospel law might have said against it.
The day after our arrival, Mr. Simmons and myself had the curiosity to
look into the church, which was in nowise injured, and was fitted up
in a style of magnificence becoming such a town. The body of a poor
old woman was there, lying dead before the altar. It seemed as if she
had been too infirm to join in the general flight, and had just
dragged herself to that spot by a last effort of nature, and expired.
We immediately determined, that as her's was the only body that we had
found in the town, either alive or dead, that she should have more
glory in the grave than she appeared to have enjoyed on this side of
it; and, with our united exertions, we succeeded in raising a marble
slab, which surmounted a monumental vault, and was beautifully
embellished with armorial blazonry, and, depositing the body inside,
we replaced it again carefully. If the personage to whom it belonged
happened to have a tenant of his own for it soon afterwards, he must
have been rather astonished at the manner in which the apartment was
occupied.
Those who wish a description of the lines of Torres Vedras, must read
_Napier_, or some one else who knows all about them; for my part, I
know nothing, excepting that I was told that one end of them rested on
the Tagus, and the other somewhere on the sea; and I saw, with my own
eyes, a variety of redoubts and field-works on the various hills which
stand between. This, however, I do know, that we have since kicked the
French out of more formidable looking and stronger places; and, with
all due deference be it spoken, I think that the Prince of Essling
ought to have tried his luck against them, as he could only have been
beaten by fighting, as he afterwards was without it! And if he thinks
that he would have lost as many men by trying, as he did by not
trying, he must allow me to differ in opinion with him!!!
In very warm or very wet weather it was customary to put us under
cover in the town during the day, but we were always moved back to our
bivouac, on the heights, during the night; and it was rather amusing
to observe the different notions of individual comfort, in the
selection of furniture, which officers transferred from their _town
house_ to their _no house_ on the heights. A sofa, or a mattress, one
would have thought most likely to be put in requisition; but it was
not unusual to see a full-length looking-glass preferred to either.
The post of the company to which I belonged, on the heights, was near
a redoubt, immediately behind Arruda; there was a cattle-shed near it,
which we cleaned out, and used as a sort of quarter. On turning out
from breakfast one morning, we found that the butcher had been about
to offer up the usual sacrifice of a bullock to the wants of the day;
but it had broken loose, and, in trying to regain his victim, had
caught it by the tail, which he twisted round his hand; and, when we
made our appearance, they were performing a variety of evolutions at a
gallop, to the great amusement of the soldiers; until an unlucky turn
brought them down upon our house, which had been excavated out of the
face of the hill, on which the upper part of the roof rested, and _in_
they went, heels over head, butcher, bullock, tail and all, bearing
down the whole fabric with a tremendous crash.
N.B. It was very fortunate that we happened to be outside; and very
unfortunate, as we were now obliged to remain out.
We certainly lived in _clover_ while we remained here; every thing we
saw was our own, seeing no one there who had a more legitimate claim;
and every field was a vineyard. Ultimately it was considered too much
trouble to pluck the grapes, as there were a number of poor native
thieves in the habit of coming from the rear, every day, to steal
some, so that a soldier had nothing to do but to watch one until he
was marching off with his basket full, when he would very deliberately
place his back against that of the Portuguese, and relieve him of his
load, without wasting any words about the bargain. The poor wretch
would follow the soldier to the camp, in the hope of having his basket
returned, as it generally was, when emptied.
Massena conceiving any attack upon our lines to be hopeless, as his
troops were rapidly mouldering away with sickness and want, at length
began to withdraw them nearer to the source of his supplies.
He abandoned his position, opposite to us, on the night of the 9th of
November, leaving some stuffed-straw gentlemen occupying their usual
posts. Some of them were cavalry, some infantry, and they seemed such
respectable representatives of their spectral predecessors, that, in
the haze of the following morning, we thought that they had been
joined by some well-fed ones from the rear; and it was late in the day
before we discovered the mistake and advanced in pursuit. In passing
by the edge of a mill-pond, after dark, our adjutant and his horse
tumbled in, and, as the latter had no tail to hold on by, they were
both very nearly drowned.
It was late ere we halted for the night, on the side of the road, near
to Allenquer, and I got under cover in a small house, which looked as
if it had been honoured as the head-quarters of the tailor-general of
the French army, for the floor was strewed with variegated threads,
various complexioned buttons, with particles and remnants of
_cabbage_; and, if it could not boast of the flesh and fowl of Noah's
ark, there was an abundance of the creeping things which it were to be
wished that that commander had not left behind. We marched before
daylight next morning, leaving a _rousing_ fire in the chimney, which
shortly became too small to hold it; for we had not proceeded far
before we perceived that the well-dried thatched roof had joined in
the general blaze, a circumstance which caused us no little
uneasiness, for our general, the late Major-general Robert Crawford,
had brought us up in the fear of our master; and, as he was a sort of
person who would not see a fire, of that kind, in the same _light_
that we did, I was by no means satisfied that my commission lay snug
in my pocket, until we had fairly marched it out of sight, and in
which we were aided not a little by a slight fire of another kind,
which he was required to watch with the advanced guard.
On our arrival at Vallé, on the 12th of Nov. we found the enemy behind
the Rio Maior, occupying the heights of Santarem, and exchanged some
shots with their advanced posts. In the course of the night we
experienced one of those tremendous thunderstorms which used to
precede the Wellington victories, and which induced us to expect a
general action on the following day. I had disposed myself to sleep in
a beautiful green hollow way, and, before I had time even to dream of
the effects of their heavy rains, I found myself floating most
majestically towards the river, in a fair way of becoming food for
the fishes. I ever after gave those inviting-looking spots a wide
birth, as I found that they were regular watercourses.
Next morning our division crossed the river, and commenced a false
attack on the enemy's left, with a view of making them show their
force; and it was to have been turned into a real attack, if their
position was found to be occupied by a rear guard only; but, after
keeping up a smart skirmishing-fire the greater part of the day, Lord
Wellington was satisfied that their whole army was present, we were
consequently withdrawn.
This affair terminated the campaign of 1810. Our division took
possession of the village of Vallé and its adjacents, and the rest of
the army was placed in cantonments, under whatever cover the
neighbouring country afforded.
Our battalion was stationed in some empty farm-houses, near the end of
the bridge of Santarem, which was nearly half a mile long; and our
sentries and those of the enemy were within pistol-shot of each other
on the bridge.
I do not mean to insinuate that a country is never so much at peace as
when at open war; but I do say that a soldier can no where sleep so
soundly, nor is he any where so secure from surprise, as when within
musket-shot of his enemy.
We lay four months in this situation, divided only by a rivulet,
without once exchanging shots. Every evening, at the hour
"When bucks to dinner go,
And cits to sup,"
it was our practice to dress for sleep: we saddled our horses, buckled
on our armour, and lay down, with the bare floor for a bed and a stone
for a pillow, ready for any thing, and reckless of every thing but the
honour of our corps and country; for I will say (to save the expense
of a trumpeter) that a more devoted set of fellows were never
associated.
We stood to our arms every morning at an hour before daybreak, and
remained there until a _grey horse_ could be seen a mile off, (which
is the military criterion by which daylight is acknowledged, and the
hour of surprise past,) when we proceeded to unharness, and to indulge
in such _luxuries_ as our toilet and our table afforded.
The Maior, as far as the bridge of Vallé, was navigable for the small
craft from Lisbon, so that our table, while we remained there, cut as
respectable a figure, as regular supplies of rice, salt fish, and
potatoes could make it; not to mention that our pig-skin was, at all
times, at least three parts full of a common red wine, which used to
be dignified by the name of _black-strap_. We had the utmost
difficulty, however, in keeping up appearances in the way of dress.
The jacket, in spite of shreds and patches, always maintained
something of the original about it; but woe befel the regimental
small-clothes, and they could only be replaced by very extraordinary
apologies, of which I remember that I had two pair at this period,
_one_ of a common brown Portuguese cloth, and the _other_, or
Sunday's pair, of black velvet. We had no women with the regiment; and
the ceremony of washing a shirt amounted to my servant's taking it by
the collar, and giving it a couple of shakes in the water, and then
hanging it up to dry. Smoothing-irons were not the fashion of the
times, and, if a fresh well-dressed aide-de-camp did occasionally come
from England, we used to stare at him with about as much respect as
Hotspur did at his "waiting gentlewoman."
The winter here was uncommonly mild. I am not the sort of person to
put myself much in the way of ice, except on a warm summer's day; but
the only inconvenience that I felt in bathing, in the middle of
December, was the quantity of leeches that used to attach themselves
to my personal supporters, obliging me to cut a few capers to shake
them off, after leaving the water.
Our piquet-post, at the bridge, became a regular lounge, for the
winter, to all manner of folks.
I used to be much amused at seeing our naval officers come up from
Lisbon riding on mules, with huge ships' spy-glasses, like
six-pounders, strapped across the backs of their saddles. Their first
question invariably was, "Who is that fellow there," (pointing to the
enemy's sentry, close to us,) and, on being told that he was a
Frenchman, "Then why the devil don't you shoot him!"
Repeated acts of civility passed between the French and us during this
tacit suspension of hostilities. The greyhounds of an officer followed
a hare, on one occasion, into their lines, and they very politely
returned them.
I was one night on piquet, at the end of the bridge, when a ball came
from the French sentry and struck the burning billet of wood round
which we were sitting, and they sent in a flag of truce, next morning,
to apologize for the accident, and to say that it had been done by a
stupid fellow of a sentry, who imagined that people were advancing
upon him. We admitted the apology, though we knew well enough that it
had been done by a malicious rather than a stupid fellow, from the
situation we occupied.
General Junot, one day reconnoitring, was severely wounded by a
sentry, and Lord Wellington, knowing that they were at that time
destitute of every thing in the shape of comfort, sent to request his
acceptance of any thing that Lisbon afforded that could be of any
service to him; but the French general was too much of a politician to
admit the want of any thing.
CHAP. V.
Campaign of 1811 opens. Massena's Retreat. Wretched Condition of
the Inhabitants on the Line of March. Affairs with the Enemy,
near Pombal. Description of a Bivouac. Action near Redinha.
Destruction of Condacia and Action near it. Burning of the
Village of Illama, and Misery of its Inhabitants. Action at Foz
D'Aronce. Confidential Servants with Donkey-Assistants.
The campaign of 1811 commenced on the 6th of March, by the retreat of
the enemy from Santarem.
Lord Wellington seemed to be perfectly acquainted with their
intentions, for he sent to apprize our piquets, the evening before,
that they were going off, and to desire that they should feel for them
occasionally during the night, and give the earliest information of
their having started. It was not, however, until daylight that we
were quite certain of their having gone, and our division was
instantly put in motion after them, passing through the town of
Santarem, around which their camp fires were still burning.
Santarem is finely situated, and probably had been a handsome town. I
had never seen it in prosperity, and it now looked like a city of the
plague, represented by empty dogs and empty houses; and, but for the
tolling of a convent-bell by some unseen hand, its appearance was
altogether inhuman.
We halted for the night near Pyrnes. This little town, and the few
wretched inhabitants who had been induced to remain in it under the
faithless promises of the French generals, shewed fearful signs of a
late visit from a barbarous and merciless foe. Young women were lying
in their houses brutally violated,--the streets were strewed with
broken furniture, intermixed with the putrid carcasses of murdered
peasants, mules, and donkeys, and every description of filth, that
filled the air with pestilential nausea. The few starved male
inhabitants who were stalking amid the wreck of their friends and
property, looked like so many skeletons who had been permitted to
leave their graves for the purpose of taking vengeance on their
oppressors, and the mangled body of every Frenchman who was
unfortunate or imprudent enough to stray from his column, shewed how
religiously they performed their mission.
March 8th.--We overtook their rear guard this evening, snugly put up
for the night in a little village, the name of which I do not
recollect, but a couple of six pounders, supported by a few of our
rifles, induced them to extend their walk.
March 9th.--While moving along the road this morning, we found a man,
who had deserted from us a short time before, in the uniform of a
French dragoon, with his head laid open by one of our bullets. He was
still alive, exciting any thing but sympathy among his former
associates. Towards the afternoon we found the enemy in force, on the
plain in front of Pombal, where we exchanged some shots.
March 11th.--They retired yesterday to the heights behind Pombal, with
their advanced posts occupying the town and moorish castle, which our
battalion, assisted by some Cácadores, attacked this morning, and
drove them from with considerable loss. Dispositions were then made
for a general attack on their position, but the other divisions of our
army did not arrive until too late in the evening. We bivouacked for
the night in a ploughed field, under the castle, with our sentries
within pistol shot, while it rained in torrents.
As it is possible that some of my readers might never have had the
misfortune to experience the comforts of a bivouac, and as the one
which I am now in, contains but a small quantity of sleep, I shall
devote a waking hour for their edification.
When a regiment arrives at its ground for the night, it is formed in
columns of companies, at full, half, or quarter distance, according
to the space which circumstances will permit it to occupy. The officer
commanding each company then receives his orders; and, after
communicating whatever may be necessary to the men, he desires them to
"pile arms, and make themselves comfortable for the night." Now, I
pray thee, most sanguine reader, suffer not thy fervid imagination to
transport thee into elysian fields at the pleasing exhortation
conveyed in the concluding part of the captain's address, but rest
thee contentedly in the one where it is made, which in all probability
is a ploughed one, and that, too, in a state of preparation to take a
model of thy very beautiful person, under the melting influence of a
shower of rain. The soldiers of each company have a hereditary claim
to the ground next to their arms, as have their officers to a wider
range on the same line, limited to the end of a bugle sound, if not by
a neighbouring corps, or one that is not neighbourly, for the nearer a
man is to his enemy, the nearer he likes to be to his friends. Suffice
it, that each individual knows his place as well as if he had been
born on the estate, and takes immediate possession accordingly. In a
ploughed or a stubble field there is scarcely a choice of quarters;
but, whenever there is a sprinkling of trees, it is always an object
to secure a good one, as it affords shelter from the sun by day and
the dews by night, besides being a sort of home or sign post for a
group of officers, as denoting the best place of entertainment; for
they hang their spare clothing and accoutrements among the branches,
barricade themselves on each side with their saddles, canteens, and
portmanteaus, and, with a blazing fire in their front, they indulge,
according to their various humours, in a complete state of
gipsyfication.
There are several degrees of comfort to be reckoned in a bivouac, two
of which will suffice.
The first, and worst, is to arrive at the end of a cold wet day, too
dark to see your ground, and too near the enemy to be permitted to
unpack the knapsacks or to take off accoutrements; where,
unincumbered with baggage or eatables of any kind, you have the
consolation of knowing that things are now at their worst, and that
any change must be for the better. You keep yourself alive for a
while, in collecting material to feed your fire with. You take a smell
at your empty calibash, which recalls to your remembrance the
delicious flavour of its last drop of wine. You curse your servant for
not having contrived to send you something or other from the baggage,
(though you know that it was impossible). You then damn the enemy for
being so near you, though probably, as in the present instance, it was
you that came so near them. And, finally, you take a whiff at the end
of a cigar, if you have one, and keep grumbling through the smoke,
like distant thunder through a cloud, until you tumble into a most
warlike sleep.
The next, and most common one, is, when you are not required to look
quite so sharp, and when the light baggage and provisions come in at
the heel of the regiment. If it is early in the day, the first thing
to be done is to make some tea, the most sovereign restorative for
jaded spirits. We then proceed to our various duties. The officers of
each company form a mess of themselves. One remains in camp to attend
to the duties of the regiment; a second attends to the mess: he goes
to the regimental butcher, and bespeaks a portion of the only
purchaseable commodities, hearts, livers, and kidneys; and also to see
whether he cannot _do_ the commissary out of a few extra biscuit, or a
canteen of brandy; and the remainder are gentlemen at large for the
day. But while they go hunting among the neighbouring regiments for
news, and the neighbouring houses for curiosity, they have always an
eye to their mess, and omit no opportunity of adding to the general
stock.
Dinner hour, for fear of accidents, is always the hour when dinner can
be got ready; and the 14th section of the articles of war is always
most rigidly attended to, by every good officer parading himself round
the camp-kettle at the time fixed, with his haversack in his hand. A
haversack on service is a sort of dumb waiter. The mess have a good
many things in common, but the contents of the haversack are
exclusively the property of its owner; and a well regulated one ought
never to be without the following furniture, unless when the
perishable part is consumed, in consequence of every other means of
supply having failed, viz. a couple of biscuit, a sausage, a little
tea and sugar, a knife, fork, and spoon, a tin cup, (which answers to
the names of _tea-cup_, _soup-plate_, _wine-glass_, and _tumbler_,) a
pair of socks, a piece of soap, a tooth-brush, towel, and comb, and
half a dozen cigars.
After doing justice to the dinner, if we feel in a humour for
additional society, we transfer ourselves to some neighbouring mess,
taking our cups, and whatever we mean to drink, along with us, for in
those times there is nothing to be expected from our friends beyond
the pleasure of their conversation: and, finally, we retire to rest.
To avoid inconvenience by the tossing off of the bed-clothes, each
officer has a blanket sewed up at the sides, like a sack, into which
he scrambles, and, with a green sod or a smooth stone for a pillow,
composes himself to sleep; and, under such a glorious reflecting
canopy as the heavens, it would be a subject of mortification to an
astronomer to see the celerity with which he tumbles into it. Habit
gives endurance, and fatigue is the best nightcap; no matter that the
veteran's countenance is alternately stormed with torrents of rain,
heavy dews, and hoar-frosts; no matter that his ears are assailed by a
million mouths of chattering locusts, and by some villanous donkey,
who every half hour pitches a _bray_ note, which, as a congregation of
presbyterians follow their clerk, is instantly taken up by every mule
and donkey in the army, and sent echoing from regiment to regiment,
over hill and valley, until it dies away in the distance; no matter
that the scorpion is lurking beneath his pillow, the snake winding his
slimy way by his side, and the lizard galloping over his face, wiping
his eyes with its long cold tail.
All are unheeded, until the warning voice of the brazen instrument
sounds to arms. Strange it is, that the ear which is impervious to
what would disturb the rest of the world besides, should alone be
alive to one, and that, too, a sound which is likely to sooth the
sleep of the citizens, or at most, to set them dreaming of their
loves. But so it is: the first note of the melodious bugle places the
soldier on his legs, like lightning; when, muttering a few curses at
the unseasonableness of the hour, he plants himself on his alarm post,
without knowing or caring about the cause.
Such is a bivouac; and our sleep-breaker having just sounded, the
reader will find what occurred, by reading on.
March 12th.--We stood to our arms before daylight. Finding that the
enemy had quitted the position in our front, we proceeded to follow
them; and had not gone far before we heard the usual morning's
salutation, of a couple of shots, between their rear and our advanced
guard. On driving in their outposts, we found their whole army drawn
out on the plain, near Redinha, and instantly quarrelled with them on
a large scale.
As every body has read Waverley and the Scottish Chiefs, and knows
that one battle is just like another, inasmuch as they always conclude
by one or both sides running away; and as it is nothing to me what
this or t'other regiment did, nor do I care three buttons what this or
t'other person thinks he did, I shall limit all my descriptions to
such events as immediately concerned the important personage most
interested in this history.
Be it known then, that I was one of a crowd of skirmishers who were
enabling the French ones to carry the news of their own defeat through
a thick wood, at an infantry canter, when I found myself all at once
within a few yards of one of their regiments in line, which opened
such a fire, that had I not, rifleman like, taken instant advantage of
the cover of a good fir tree, my name would have unquestionably been
transmitted to posterity by that night's gazette. And, however
opposed it may be to the usual system of drill, I will maintain, from
that day's experience, that the cleverest method of teaching a recruit
to stand at attention, is to place him behind a tree and fire balls at
him; as, had our late worthy disciplinarian, Sir David Dundas,
himself, been looking on, I think that even _he_ must have admitted
that he never saw any one stand so fiercely upright as I did behind
mine, while the balls were rapping into it as fast as if a fellow had
been hammering a nail on the opposite side, not to mention the numbers
that were whistling past, within the eighth of an inch of every part
of my body, both before and behind, particularly in the vicinity of my
nose, for which the upper part of the tree could barely afford
protection.
This was a last and a desperate stand made by their rear-guard, for
their own safety, immediately above the town, as their sole chance of
escape depended upon their being able to hold the post until the only
bridge across the river was clear of the other fugitives. But they
could not hold it long enough; for, while we were undergoing a
temporary sort of purgatory in their front, our comrades went working
round their flanks, which quickly sent them flying, with us
intermixed, at full cry, down the streets.
Whether in love or war, I have always considered that the pursuer has
a decided advantage over the pursued. In the first, he may gain and
cannot lose; but, in the latter, when one sees his enemy at full speed
before him, one has such a peculiar conscious sort of feeling that he
is on the right side, that I would not exchange places for any
consideration.
When we reached the bridge, the scene became exceedingly interesting,
for it was choked up by the fugitives who were, as usual, impeding
each other's progress, and we did not find that the application of our
swords to those nearest to us tended at all towards lessening their
disorder, for it induced about a hundred of them to rush into an
adjoining house for shelter, but that was netting regularly out of the
frying-pan into the fire, for the house happened to be really in
flames, and too hot to hold them, so that the same hundred were
quickly seen unkennelling again, half-cooked, into the very jaws of
their consumers.
John Bull, however, is not a blood-thirsty person, so that those who
could not better themselves, had only to submit to a simple transfer
of personal property to ensure his protection. We, consequently, made
many prisoners at the bridge, and followed their army about a league
beyond it, keeping up a flying fight until dark.
Just as Mr. Simmons and myself had crossed the river, and were talking
over the events of the day, not a yard asunder, there was a Portuguese
soldier in the act of passing between us, when a cannon-ball plunged
into his belly--his head doubled down to his feet, and he stood for a
moment in that posture before he rolled over a lifeless lump.
March 13th.--Arrived on the hill above Condacia in time to see that
handsome little town in flames. Every species of barbarity continued
to mark the enemy's retreating steps. They burnt every town or
village through which they passed, and if we entered a church, which,
by accident, had been spared, it was to see the murdered bodies of the
peasantry on the altar.
While Lord Wellington, with his staff, was on a hill a little in front
of us, waiting the result of a flank-movement which he had directed,
some of the enemy's sharpshooters stole, unperceived, very near to him
and began firing, but, fortunately, without effect. We immediately
detached a few of ours to meet them, but the others ran off on their
approach.
We lay by our arms until towards evening, when the enemy withdrew a
short distance behind Condacia, and we closed up to them. There was a
continued popping between the advanced posts all night.
March 14th.--Finding, at daylight, that the enemy still continued to
hold the strong ground before us, some divisions of the army were sent
to turn their flanks, while ours attacked them in front.
We drove them from one strong hold to another, over a large track of
very difficult country, mountainous and rocky, and thickly intersected
with stone walls, and were involved in one continued hard skirmish
from daylight until dark. This was the most harassing day's fighting
that I ever experienced.
Daylight left the two armies looking at each other, near the village
of Illama. The smoking roofs of the houses showed that the French had
just quitted and, as usual, set fire to it, when the company to which
I belonged was ordered on piquet there for the night. After posting
our sentries, my brother-officer and myself had the curiosity to look
into a house, and were shocked to find in it a mother and her child
dead, and the father, with three more, living, but so much reduced by
famine as to be unable to remove themselves from the flames. We
carried them into the open air, and offered the old man our few
remaining crumbs of biscuit, but he told us that he was too far gone
to benefit by them, and begged that we would give them to his
children. We lost no time in examining such of the other houses as
were yet safe to enter, and rescued many more individuals from one
horrible death, probably to reserve them for another equally so, and
more lingering, as we had nothing to give them, and marched at
daylight the following morning.
Our post that night was one of terrific grandeur. The hills behind
were in a blaze of light with the British camp-fires, as were those in
our front with the French ones. Both hills were abrupt and lofty, not
above eight hundred yards asunder, and we were in the burning village
in the valley between. The roofs of houses every instant falling in,
and the sparks and flames ascending to the clouds. The streets were
strewed with the dying and the dead,--some had been murdered and some
killed in action, which, together with the half-famished wretches whom
we had saved from burning, contributed in making it a scene which was
well-calculated to shake a stout heart, as was proved in the instance
of one of our sentries, a well known "devil-may-care" sort of fellow.
I know not what appearances the burning rafters might have reflected
on the neighbouring trees at the time, but he had not been long on his
post before he came running into the piquet, and swore, by all the
saints in the calendar, that he saw six dead Frenchmen advancing upon
him with hatchets over their shoulders!
We found by the buttons on the coats of some of the fallen foe, that
we had this day been opposed to the French ninety-fifth regiment, (the
same number as we were then,) and I cut off several of them, which I
preserved as trophies.
March 15th.--We overtook the enemy a little before dark this
afternoon. They were drawn up behind the Ceira, at Fez D'Aronce, with
their rear-guard, under Marshal Ney, imprudently posted on our side of
the river, a circumstance which Lord Wellington took immediate
advantage of; and, by a furious attack, dislodged them, in such
confusion, that they blew up the bridge before half of their own
people had time to get over. Those who were thereby left behind, not
choosing to put themselves to the pain of being shot, took to the
river, which received them so hospitably that few of them ever quitted
it. Their loss, on this occasion, must have been very great, and, we
understood, at the time, that Ney had been sent to France, in
disgrace, in consequence of it.
About the middle of the action, I observed some inexperienced light
troops rushing up a deep road-way to certain destruction, and ran to
warn them out of it, but I only arrived in time to partake the reward
of their indiscretion, for I was instantly struck with a musket-ball
above the left ear, which deposited me, at full length, in the mud.
I know not how long I lay insensible, but, on recovering, my first
_feeling_ was for my head, to ascertain if any part of it was still
standing, for it appeared to me as if nothing remained above the
mouth; but, after repeated applications of all my fingers and thumbs
to the doubtful parts, I, at length, proved to myself, satisfactorily,
that it had rather increased than diminished by the concussion; and,
jumping on my legs, and hearing, by the whistling of the balls from
both sides, that the rascals who had got me into the scrape had been
driven back and left me there, I snatched my cap, which had saved my
life, and which had been spun off my head to the distance of ten or
twelve yards, and joined them, a short distance in the rear, when one
of them, a soldier of the sixtieth, came and told me that an officer
of ours had been killed, a short time before, pointing to the spot
where I myself had fallen, and that he had tried to take his jacket
off, but that the advance of the enemy had prevented him. I told him
that I was the one that had been killed, and that I was deucedly
obliged to him for his _kind_ intentions, while I felt still more so
to the enemy for their timely advance, otherwise, I have no doubt, but
my _friend_ would have taken a fancy to my trousers also, for I found
that he had absolutely unbuttoned my jacket.
There is nothing so gratifying to frail mortality as a good dinner
when most wanted and least expected. It was perfectly dark before the
action finished, but, on going to take advantage of the fires which
the enemy had evacuated, we found their soup-kettles in full
operation, and every man's mess of biscuit lying beside them, in
stockings, as was the French mode of carrying them; and it is needless
to say how unceremoniously we proceeded to do the honours of the
feast. It ever after became a saying among the soldiers, whenever they
were on short allowance, "well, d--n my eyes, we must either fall in
with the French or the commissary to-day, I don't care which."
As our baggage was always in the rear on occasions of this kind, the
officers of each company had a Portuguese boy, in charge of a donkey,
on whom their little comforts depended. He carried our boat-cloaks and
blankets, was provided with a small pig-skin for wine, a canteen for
spirits, a small quantity of tea and sugar, a goat tied to the donkey,
and two or three dollars in his pocket, for the purchase of bread,
butter, or any other luxury which good fortune might throw in his way
in the course of the day's march. We were never very scrupulous in
exacting information regarding the source of his supplies; so that he
had nothing to dread from our wrath, unless he had the misfortune to
make his appearance empty-handed. They were singularly faithful and
intelligent in making their way to us every evening, under the most
difficult circumstances. This was the only night during Massena's
retreat in which ours failed to find us; and, wandering the greater
part of the night in the intricate maze of camp-fires, it appeared
that he slept, after all, among some dragoons, within twenty yards of
us.
CHAP. VI.
Passage of the Mondego. Swearing to a large Amount. Two
Prisoners, with their Two Views. Two Nuns, Two Pieces of Dough,
and Two Kisses. A Halt. Affair near Frexedas. Arrival near
Guarda. Murder. A stray Sentry. Battle of Sabugal. Spanish and
Portuguese Frontiers. Blockade of Almeida. Battle-like. Current
Value of Lord Wellington's Nose. Battle of Fuentes D'Onor. The
Day after the Battle. A grave Remark. The _Padre's_ House.
Retreat of the Enemy.
March 17th.--Found the enemy's rear-guard behind the Mondego, at Ponte
de Marcella, cannonaded them out of it, and then threw a temporary
bridge across the river, and followed them until dark.
The late Sir Alexander Campbell, who commanded the division next to
ours, by a wanton excess of zeal in expecting an order to follow,
would not permit any thing belonging to us to pass the bridge, for
fear of impeding the march of his troops; and, as he received no order
to march, we were thereby prevented from getting any thing whatever to
eat for the next thirty-six hours. I know not whether the curses of
individuals are recorded under such circumstances, but, if they are,
the gallant general will have found the united hearty ones of four
thousand men registered against him for that particular act.
March 19th.--We, this day, captured the aide-de-camp of General
Loison, together with his wife, who was dressed in a splendid hussar
uniform. _He_ was a Portuguese, and a traitor, and looked very like a
man who would be hanged. _She_ was a Spaniard, and very handsome, and
looked very like a woman who would get married again.
March 20th.--We had now been three days without any thing in the shape
of bread, and meat without it, after a time, becomes almost
loathsome. Hearing that we were not likely to march quite so early as
usual this morning, I started, before daylight, to a village about two
miles off, in the face of the Sierra D'Estrella, in the hopes of being
able to purchase something, as it lay out of the hostile line of
movements. On my arrival there, I found some nuns who had fled from a
neighbouring convent, waiting outside the building of the village-oven
for some Indian-corn-leaven, which they had carried there to be baked,
and, when I explained my pressing wants, two of them, very kindly,
transferred me their shares, for which I gave each a kiss and a dollar
between. They took the former as an unusual favour; but looked at the
latter, as much as to say, "our poverty, and not our will, consents."
I ran off with my half-baked dough, and joined my comrades, just as
they were getting under arms.
March 21st.--We, this day, reached the town of Mello, and had so far
outmarched our commissary that we found it necessary to wait for him;
and, in stopping to get a sight of our friends, we lost sight of our
foes, a circumstance which I was by no means sorry for, as it enabled
my shoulders, once more, to rejoice under the load of a couple of
biscuits, and made me no longer ashamed to look a cow or a sheep in
the face, now that they were not required to furnish more than their
regulated proportions of my daily food.
March 30th.--We had no difficulty in tracing the enemy, by the wrecks
of houses and the butchered peasantry; and overtook their rear-guard,
this day, busy grinding corn, in some windmills, near the village of
Frexedas. As their situation offered a fair opportunity for us to reap
the fruits of their labours, we immediately attacked and drove them
from it, and, after securing what we wanted, we withdrew again, across
the valley, to the village of Alverca, where we were not without some
reasonable expectations that they would have returned the compliment,
as we had only a few squadrons of dragoons in addition to our
battalion, and we had seen them withdraw a much stronger force from
the opposite village; but, by keeping a number of our men all night
employed in making extensive fires on the hill above, it induced them
to think that our force was much greater than it really was; and we
remained unmolested.
The only person we had hit in this affair was our adjutant, Mr.
Stewart, who was shot through the head from a window. He was a gallant
soldier, and deeply lamented. We placed his body in a chest, and
buried it in front of Colonel Beckwith's quarters.
March 31st.--At daylight, this morning, we moved to our right, along
the ridge of mountains, to Guarda: on our arrival there, we saw the
imposing spectacle of the whole of the French army winding through the
valley below, just out of gun-shot.
On taking possession of one of the villages which they had just
evacuated, we found the body of a well-dressed female, whom they had
murdered by a horrible refinement in cruelty. She had been placed upon
her back, alive, in the middle of the street, with the fragment of a
rock upon her breast, which it required four of our men to remove.
April 1st.--We overtook the enemy this afternoon, in position, behind
the Coa, at Sabugal, with their advanced posts on our side of the
river.
I was sent on piquet for the night, and had my sentries within
half-musket shot of theirs: it was wet, dark, and stormy when I went,
about midnight, to visit them, and I was not a little annoyed to find
one missing. Recollecting who he was, a steady old soldier and the
last man in the world to desert his post, I called his name aloud,
when his answering voice, followed by the discharge of a musket,
reached me nearly at the same time, from the direction of one of the
French sentries; and, after some inquiry, I found that in walking his
lonely round, in a brown study, no doubt, he had each turn taken ten
or twelve paces to his front, and only half that number to the rear,
until he had gradually worked himself up to within a few yards of his
adversary; and it would be difficult to say which of the two was most
astonished--the one at hearing a voice, or the other a shot so near,
but all my rhetoric, aided by the testimony of the serjeant and the
other sentries, could not convince the fellow that he was not on the
identical spot on which I had posted him.
April 2d.--We moved this day to the right, nearer to the bridge, and
some shots were exchanged between the piquets.
BATTLE OF SABUGAL,
April 3d, 1811.
Early this morning our division moved still farther to its right, and
our brigade led the way across a ford, which took us up to the middle;
while the balls from the enemy's advanced posts were hissing in the
water around us, we drove in their light troops and commenced a
furious assault upon their main body. Thus far all was right; but a
thick drizzling rain now came on, in consequence of which the third
division, which was to have made a simultaneous attack to our left,
missed their way, and a brigade of dragoons under Sir William Erskine,
who were to have covered our right, went the Lord knows where, but
certainly not into the fight, although they started at the same time
that we did, and had the _music_ of our rifles to guide them; and,
even the second brigade of our own division could not afford us any
support, for nearly an hour, so that we were thus unconsciously left
with about fifteen hundred men, in the very impertinent attempt to
carry a formidable position, on which stood as many thousands.
The weather, which had deprived us of the aid of our friends, favoured
us so far as to prevent the enemy from seeing the amount of our paltry
force; and the conduct of our gallant fellows, led on by Sir Sidney
Beckwith, was so truly heroic, that, incredible as it may seem, we had
the best of the fight throughout. Our first attack was met by such
overwhelming numbers, that we were forced back and followed by three
heavy columns, before which we retired slowly, and keeping up a
destructive fire, to the nearest rising ground, where we re-formed and
instantly charged their advancing masses, sending them flying at the
point of the bayonet, and entering their position along with them,
where we were assailed by fresh forces. Three times did the very same
thing occur. In our third attempt we got possession of one of their
howitzers, for which a desperate struggle was making, when we were at
the same moment charged by infantry in front and cavalry on the right,
and again compelled to fall back; but, fortunately, at this moment we
were reinforced by the arrival of the second brigade, and, with their
aid, we once more stormed their position and secured the well-earned
howitzer, while the third division came at the same time upon their
flank, and they were driven from the field in the greatest disorder.
Lord Wellington's despatch on this occasion did ample justice to Sir
Sidney Beckwith and his brave brigade. Never were troops more
judiciously or more gallantly led. Never was a leader more devotedly
followed.
In the course of the action a man of the name of Knight fell dead at
my feet, and though I heard a musket ball strike him, I could neither
find blood nor wound.
There was a little spaniel belonging to one of our officers running
about the whole time, barking at the balls, and I saw him once
smelling at a live shell, which exploded in his face without hurting
him.
The strife had scarcely ended among mortals, when it was taken up by
the elements with terrific violence. The _Scotch mist_ of the morning
had now increased to torrents, enough to cool the fever of our late
excitement, and accompanied by thunder and lightning. As a compliment
for our exertions in the fight, we were sent into the town, and had
the advantage of whatever cover its dilapidated state afforded. While
those who had not had the chance of getting broken skins, had now the
benefit of sleeping in wet ones.
On the 5th of April we entered the frontiers of Spain, and slept in a
bed for the first time since I left the ship. Passing from the
Portuguese to the Spanish frontier is about equal to taking one step
from the coal-hole into the parlour, for the cottages on the former
are reared with filth, furnished with ditto, and peopled accordingly;
whereas, those of Spain, even within the same mile, are neatly
whitewashed, both without and within, and the poorest of them can
furnish a good bed, with clean linen, and the pillow-cases neatly
adorned with pink and sky-blue ribbons, while their dear little girls
look smiling and neat as their pillow-cases.
After the action at Sabugal, the enemy retired to the neighbourhood of
Ciudad Rodrigo, without our getting another look at them, and we took
up the line of the Agueda and Axava rivers, for the blockade of the
fortress of Almeida, in which they had left a garrison indifferently
provisioned.
The garrison had no means of providing for their cattle, but by
turning them out to graze upon the glacis; and we sent a few of our
rifles to practice against them, which very soon reduced them to salt
provisions.
Towards the end of April the French army began to assemble on the
opposite bank of the Agueda to attempt the relief of the garrison, while
ours began to assemble in position at Fuentes D'Onor to dispute it.
Our division still continued to hold the same line of outposts, and
had several sharp affairs between the piquets at the bridge of
Marialva.
As a general action seemed now to be inevitable, we anxiously longed
for the return of Lord Wellington, who had been suddenly called to the
corps of the army under Marshal Beresford, near Badajos, as we would
rather see his long nose in the fight than a reinforcement of ten
thousand men any day. Indeed, there was a charm not only about himself
but all connected with him, for which no odds could compensate. The
known abilities of Sir George Murray, the gallant bearing of the
lamented Pakenham, of Lord Fitzroy Somerset, of the present Duke of
Richmond, Sir Colin Campbell, with others, the flower of our young
nobility and gentry, who, under the auspices of such a chief, seemed
always a group attendant on victory; and I'll venture to say that
there was not a bosom in that army that did not beat more lightly,
when we heard the joyful news of his arrival, the day before the
enemy's advance.
He had ordered us not to dispute the passage of the river, so that
when the French army advanced, on the morning of the 3d of May, we
retired slowly before them, across the plains of Espeja, and drew into
the position, where the whole army was now assembled. Our division
took post in reserve, in the left centre. Towards evening, the enemy
made a fierce attack on the Village of Fuentes, but were repulsed with
loss.
On the 4th, both armies looked at each other all day without
exchanging shots.
BATTLE OF FUENTES D'ONOR,
May 5th, 1811.
The day began to dawn, this fine May morning, with a rattling fire of
musketry on the extreme right of our position, which the enemy had
attacked, and to which point our division was rapidly moved.
Our battalion was thrown into a wood, a little to the left and front
of the division engaged, and was instantly warmly opposed to the
French skirmishers; in the course of which I was struck with a
musket-ball on the left breast, which made me stagger a yard or two
backward, and, as I felt no pain, I concluded that I was dangerously
wounded; but it turned out to be owing to my not being hurt. While our
operations here were confined to a tame skirmish, and our view to the
oaks with which we were mingled, we found, by the evidence of our
ears, that the division which we had come to support was involved in a
more serious onset, for _there_ was the successive rattle of
artillery, the wild hurrah of charging squadrons, and the repulsing
volley of musketry; until Lord Wellington, finding his right too much
extended, directed _that_ division to fall back behind the small river
Touronne, and ours to join the main body of the army. The execution of
our movement presented a magnificent military spectacle, as the plain,
between us and the right of the army, was by this time in possession
of the French cavalry, and, while we were retiring through it with the
order and precision of a common field-day, they kept dancing around
us, and every instant threatening a charge, without daring to execute
it.
We took up our new position at a right angle with the then right of
the British line, on which our left rested, and with our right on the
Touronne. The enemy followed our movement with a heavy column of
infantry; but, when they came near enough to exchange shots, they did
not seem to like our looks, as we occupied a low ridge of broken
rocks, against which even a rat could scarcely have hoped to advance
alive; and they again fell back, and opening a tremendous fire of
artillery, which was returned by a battery of our guns. In the course
of a short time, seeing no further demonstration against this part of
the position, our division was withdrawn, and placed in reserve in
rear of the centre.
The battle continued to rage with fury in and about the village,
whilst we were lying by our arms under a burning hot sun, some stray
cannon-shot passing over and about us, whose progress we watched for
want of other employment. One of them bounded along in the direction
of an _amateur_, whom we had for some time been observing securely
placed, as he imagined, behind a piece of rock, which stood about five
feet above the ground, and over which nothing but his head was shown,
sheltered from the sun by an umbrella. The shot in question touched
the ground three or four times between us and him; he saw it
coming--lowered his umbrella, and withdrew his head. Its expiring
bound carried it into the very spot where he had that instant
disappeared. I hope he was not hurt; but the thing looked so
ridiculous that it excited a shout of laughter, and we saw no more of
him.
A little before dusk, in the evening, our battalion was ordered
forward to relieve the troops engaged in the village, part of which
still remained in possession of the enemy, and I saw, by the mixed
nature of the dead, in every part of the streets, that it had been
successively in possession of both sides. The firing ceased with the
daylight, and I was sent, with a section of men, in charge of one of
the streets for the night. There was a wounded Serjeant of highlanders
lying on my post. A ball had passed through the back part of his head,
from which the brain was oozing, and his only sign of life was a
convulsive hiccough every two or three seconds. I sent for a medical
friend to look at him, who told me that he could not survive; I then
got a mattress from the nearest house, placed the poor fellow on it,
and made use of one corner as a pillow for myself, on which, after
the fatigues of the day, and though called occasionally to visit my
sentries, I slept most soundly. The highlander died in the course of
the night.
When we stood to our arms, at daybreak next morning, we found the
enemy busy throwing up a six-gun battery, immediately in front of our
company's post, and we immediately set to work, with our whole hearts
and souls, and placed a wall, about twelve feet thick, between us,
which, no doubt, still remains there in the same garden, as a monument
of what can be effected, in a few minutes, by a hundred modern men,
when their personal safety is concerned; not but that the proprietor,
in the midst of his admiration, would rather see a good bed of garlic
on the spot, manured with the bodies of the architects.
When the sun began to shine on the pacific disposition of the enemy,
we proceeded to consign the dead to their last earthly mansions,
giving every Englishman a grave to himself, and putting as many
Frenchmen into one as it could conveniently accommodate. Whilst in
the superintendence of this melancholy duty, and ruminating on the
words of the poet:--
"There's not a form of all that lie
Thus ghastly, wild and bare,
Tost, bleeding, in the stormy sky,
Black in the burning air,
But to his knee some infant clung,
But on his heart some fond heart hung!"
I was grieved to think that the souls of deceased warriors should be
so selfish as to take to flight in their regimentals, for I never saw
the body of one with a rag on after battle.
The day after one of those negative sort of victories is always one of
intense interest. The movements on each side are most jealously
watched, and each side is diligently occupied in strengthening such
points as the fight of the preceding day had proved to be the most
vulnerable.
Lord Wellington was too deficient in his cavalry force to justify his
following up his victory; and the enemy, on their parts, had been too
roughly handled, in their last attempt, to think of repeating the
experiment; so that, during the next two days, though both armies
continued to hold the same ground, there was scarcely a shot
exchanged.
They had made a few prisoners, chiefly guardsmen and highlanders, whom
they marched past the front of our position, in the most ostentatious
way, on the forenoon of the 6th; and, the day following, a number of
their regiments were paraded in the most imposing manner for review.
They looked uncommonly well, and we were proud to think that we had
beaten such fine-looking fellows so lately!
Our regiment had been so long and so often quartered in Fuentes that
it was like fighting for our fire-sides. The _Padre's_ house stood at
the top of the town. He was an old friend of ours, and an old fool,
for he would not leave his house until it was too late to take
anything with him; but, curious enough, although it had been
repeatedly in the possession of both sides, and plundered, no doubt,
by many expert artists, yet none of them thought of looking so high as
the garret, which happened to be the repository of his money and
provisions. He came to us the day after the battle, weeping over his
supposed loss, like a sensitive Christian, and I accompanied him to
the house, to see whether there was not some consolation remaining for
him; but, when he found his treasure safe, he could scarcely bear its
restoration with becoming gravity. I helped him to carry off his bag
of dollars, and he returned the compliment with a leg of mutton.
The French army retired on the night of the 7th, leaving Almeida to
its fate; but, by an extraordinary piece of luck, the garrison made
their escape the night after, in consequence of some mistake or
miscarriage of an order, which prevented a British regiment from
occupying the post intended for it.
May 8th.--We advanced this morning, and occupied our former post at
Espeja, with some hopes of remaining quiet for a few days; but the
alarm sounding at daylight on the following morning, we took post on
the hill, in front of the village. It turned out to be only a patrole
of French cavalry, who retired on receiving a few shots from our
piquets, and we saw no more of them for a considerable time.
CHAP. VII.
March to Estremadura. At Soito, growing Accommodations for Man
and Beast. British Taste displayed by Portuguese Wolves. False
Alarm. Luxuries of Roquingo Camp. A Chaplain of the Forces.
Return towards the North. Quarters near Castello de Vide.
Blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo. Village of Atalya; Fleas abundant;
Food scarce. Advance of the French Army. Affairs near Guinaldo.
Our Minister administered to. An unexpected Visit from our
General and his Followers. End of the Campaign of 1811. Winter
Quarters.
Lord Wellington, soon after the battle of Fuentes, was again called
into Estremadura, to superintend the operations of the corps of the
army under Marshal Beresford, who had, in the mean time, fought the
battle of Albuera, and laid siege to Badajos. In the beginning of
June our division was ordered thither also, to be in readiness to aid
his operations. We halted one night at the village of Soito, where
there are a great many chestnut trees of very extraordinary
dimensions; the outside of the trunk keeps growing as the inside
decays. I was one of a party of four persons who dined inside of one,
and I saw two or three horses put up in several others.
We halted, also, one night on the banks of the Coa, near Sabugal, and
visited our late field of battle. We found that the dead had been
nearly all torn from their graves, and devoured by wolves, who are in
great force in that wild mountainous district, and shew very little
respect either for man or beast. They seldom, indeed, attack a man;
but if one happens to tie his horse to a tree, and leaves him
unattended, for a short time, he must not be surprised if he finds, on
his return, that he has parted with a good _rump steak_; _that_ is the
piece that they always prefer; and it is, therefore, clear to me,
that the first of the wolves must have been reared in England!
We experienced, in the course of this very dark night, one of those
ridiculous false alarms which will sometimes happen in the best
organized body. Some bullocks strayed, by accident, amongst the piles
of arms, the falling clatter of which, frightened them so much that
they went galloping over the sleeping soldiers. The officers'
baggage-horses broke from their _moorings_, and joined in the general
charge; and a cry immediately arose, that it was the French cavalry.
The different regiments stood to their arms, and formed squares,
looking as sharp as thunder for something to fire at; and it was a
considerable time before the cause of the _row_ could be traced. The
different followers of the army, in the mean time, were scampering off
to the rear, spreading the most frightful reports. One woman of the
52d succeeded in getting three leagues off before daylight, and swore,
"that, as God was her judge, she did not leave her regiment until she
saw the last man of them cut to pieces!!!"
On our arrival near Elvas, we found that Marshal Beresford had raised
the siege of Badajos; and we were, therefore, encamped on the river
Caya, near Roquingo. This was a sandy unsheltered district; and the
weather was so excessively hot, that we had no enjoyment, but that of
living three parts of the day up to the neck in a pool of water.
Up to this period it had been a matter of no small difficulty to
ascertain, at any time, the day of the week; that of the month was
altogether out of the question, and could only be reckoned by counting
back to the date of the last battle; but our division was here joined
by a chaplain, whose duty it was to remind us of these things. He
might have been a very good man, but he was not prepossessing, either
in his appearance or manners. I remember, the first Sunday after his
arrival, the troops were paraded for divine service, and had been some
time waiting in square, when he at length rode into the centre of it,
with his tall, lank, ungainly figure, mounted on a starved, untrimmed,
unfurnished horse, and followed by a Portuguese boy, with his
canonicals and prayer-books on the back of a mule, with a hay-bridle,
and having, by way of clothing, about half a pair of straw breeches.
This spiritual comforter was the least calculated of any one that I
ever saw to excite devotion in the minds of men, who had seen nothing
in the shape of a divine for a year or two.
In the beginning of August we began to retrace our steps towards the
north. We halted a few days in Portalegré, and a few more at Castello
de Vide.
The latter place is surrounded by extensive gardens, belonging to the
richer citizens; in each of which there is a small summer-house,
containing one or two apartments, in which the proprietor, as I can
testify, may have the enjoyment of being fed upon by a more healthy
and better appetized flea, than is to be met with in town houses in
general.
These _quintas_ fell to the lot of our battalion; and though their
beds, on that account, had not much sleep in them, yet, as those who
preferred the voice of the nightingale in a bed of cabbages, to the
pinch of a flea in a bed of feathers, had the alternative at their
option; I enjoyed my sojourn there very much. Each garden had a
bathing tank, with a plentiful supply of water, which at that season
was really a luxury; and they abounded in choice fruits. I there
formed an attachment to a mulberry-tree, which is still fondly
cherished in my remembrance.
We reached the scene of our former operations, in the north, towards
the end of August.
The French had advanced and blockaded Almeida, during our absence, but
they retired again on our approach, and we took up a more advanced
position than before, for the blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo.
Our battalion occupied Atalya, a little village at the foot of the
Sierra de Gata, and in front of the River Vadilla. On taking
possession of my quarter, the people showed me an outhouse, which,
they said, I might use as a stable, and I took my horse into it, but,
seeing the floor strewed with what appeared to be a small brown seed,
heaps of which lay in each corner, as if shovelled together in
readiness to take to market, I took up a handful, out of curiosity,
and, truly, they were a curiosity, for I found that they were all
regular fleas, and that they were proceeding to eat both me and my
horse, without the smallest ceremony. I rushed out of the place, and
knocked them down by fistfuls, and never yet could comprehend the
cause of their congregating together in such a place.
This neighbourhood had been so long the theatre of war, and
alternately forced to supply both armies, that the inhabitants, at
length, began to dread starvation themselves, and concealed, for their
private use, all that remained to them; so that, although they were
bountiful in their assurances of good wishes, it was impossible to
extract a loaf of their good bread, of which we were so wildly in want
that we were obliged to conceal patroles on the different roads and
footpaths, for many miles around, to search the peasants passing
between the different villages, giving them an order on the commissary
for whatever we took from them; and we were not too proud to take even
a few potatoes out of an old woman's basket.
On one occasion, when some of us were out shooting, we discovered
about twenty hives of bees, in the face of a glen, concealed among the
gumcestus, and, stopping up the mouth of one them, we carried it home
on our shoulders, bees and all, and continued to levy contributions on
the _depot_ as long as we remained there.
Towards the end of September, the garrison of Ciudad Rodrigo began to
get on such "short commons" that _Marmont_, who had succeeded
_Massena_, in the command of the French army, found it necessary to
assemble the whole of his forces, to enable him to throw provisions
into it.
Lord Wellington was still pursuing his defensive system, and did not
attempt to oppose him; but Marmont, after having effected his object,
thought that he might as well take that opportunity of beating up our
quarters, in return for the trouble we had given him; and,
accordingly, on the morning of the 25th, he attacked a brigade of the
third division, stationed at El Bedon, which, after a brilliant
defence and retreat, conducted him opposite to the British position,
in front of Fuente Guinaldo. He busied himself, the whole of the
following day, in bringing up his troops for the attack. Our division,
in the mean time, remained on the banks of the Vadillo, and had nearly
been cut off, through the obstinacy of General Crawford, who did not
choose to obey an order he received to retire the day before; but we,
nevertheless, succeeded in joining the army, by a circuitous route, on
the afternoon of the 26th; and, the whole of both armies being now
assembled, we considered a battle on the morrow as inevitable.
Lord Wellington, however, was not disposed to accommodate them on this
occasion; for, about the middle of the night, we received an order to
stand to our arms, with as little noise as possible, and to commence
retiring, the rest of the army having been already withdrawn, unknown
to us; an instance of the rapidity and uncertainty of our movements
which proved fatal to the liberty of several amateurs and followers of
the army, who, seeing an army of sixty thousand men lying asleep
around their camp-fires, at ten o'clock at night, naturally concluded
that they might safely indulge in a bed in the village behind, until
daylight, without the risk of being caught napping; but, long ere that
time, they found themselves on the high road to Ciudad Rodrigo, in the
rude grasp of an enemy. Amongst others, was the chaplain of our
division, whose outward man, as I have already said, conveyed no very
exalted notion of the respectability of his profession, and who was
treated with greater indignity than usually fell to the lot of
prisoners, for, after keeping him a couple of days, and finding that,
however gifted he might have been in spiritual lore, he was as
ignorant as Dominie Sampson on military matters; and, conceiving good
provisions to be thrown away upon him, they stripped him nearly naked
and dismissed him, like the barber in Gil Blas, with a kick in the
breech, and sent him in to us in a woful state.
September 27th.--General Crawford remained behind us this morning,
with a troop of dragoons, to reconnoitre; and, while we were marching
carelessly along the road, he and his dragoons galloped right into our
column, with a cloud of French ones at his heels. Luckily, the ground
was in our favour; and, dispersing our men among the broken rocks, on
both sides of the road, we sent them back somewhat faster than they
came on. They were, however, soon replaced by their infantry, with
whom we continued in an uninteresting skirmish all day. There was some
sharp firing, the whole of the afternoon, to our left; and we retired,
in the evening, to Soito.
This affair terminated the campaign of 1811, as the enemy retired the
same night, and we advanced next day to resume the blockade of
Rodrigo; and were suffered to remain quietly in cantonments until the
commencement of a new year.
In every interval between our active services, we indulged in all
manner of childish trick and amusement, with an avidity and delight of
which it is impossible to convey an adequate idea. We lived united, as
men always are who are daily staring death in the face on the same
side, and who, caring little about it, look upon each new day added to
their lives as one more to rejoice in.
We invited the villagers, every evening, to a dance at our quarters
alternately. A Spanish peasant girl has an address about her which I
have never met with in the same class of any other country; and she at
once enters into society with the ease and confidence of one who had
been accustomed to it all her life. We used to flourish away at the
bolero, fandango, and waltz, and wound up early in the evening with a
supper of roasted chestnuts.
Our village _belles_, as already stated, made themselves perfectly at
home in our society, and we, too, should have enjoyed theirs for a
season; but, when month after month, and year after year, continued to
roll along, without producing any change, we found that the cherry
cheek and sparkling eye of rustic beauty furnished but a very poor
apology for the illuminated portion of Nature's fairest works, and
ardently longed for an opportunity of once more feasting our eyes on a
_lady_.
In the month of December, we heard that the chief magistrate of
Rodrigo, with whom we were personally acquainted, had, with his
daughter and two other young ladies, taken shelter in Robledillo, a
little town in the Sierra de Gata, which, being within our range,
presented an attraction not to be resisted.
Half-a-dozen of us immediately resolved ourselves into a committee of
ways and means. We had six months' pay due to us; so that the fandango
might have been danced in either of our pockets without the smallest
risk; but we had this consolation for our poverty, that there was
nothing to be bought, even if we had the means. Our only resource,
therefore, was to lighten the cares of such of our brother-officers as
were fortunate enough to have any thing to lose; and, at this moment
of doubt and difficulty, a small flock of turkeys, belonging to our
major, presented themselves, most imprudently, grazing opposite the
windows of our council-chamber, two of which were instantly committed
to the bottom of a sack, as a foundation to go upon. One of our spies,
soon after, apprehended a sheep, the property of another officer,
which was committed to the same place; and, getting the commissary to
advance us a few extra loaves of bread, some ration beef, and a
pig-skin full of wine, we placed a servant on a mule, with the whole
concern tackled to him, and proceeded on our journey.
In passing over the mountain, we saw a wild boar bowling along, in the
midst of a snow-storm, and, voting them fitting companions, we
suffered him to pass, (particularly as he did not come within shot).
On our arrival at Robledillo, we met with the most cordial reception
from the old magistrate; who, entering into the spirit of our visit,
provided us with quarters, and filled our room in the evening with
every body worth seeing in the place. We were malicious enough, by way
of amusement, to introduce a variety of absurd pastimes, under the
pretence of their being English, and which, by virtue thereof, were
implicitly adopted. We, therefore, passed a regular romping evening;
and, at a late hour, having conducted the ladies to their homes, some
friars, who were of the party, very kindly, intended doing us the same
favour, and, with that view, had begun to precede us with their
lanterns, but, in the frolic of the moment, we set upon them with
snow-balls, some of which struck upon their broad shoulders, while
others fizzed against their fiery faces, and, in their astonishment
and alarm, all sanctimony was forgotten; their oaths flew as thick as
our snow-balls, while they ran ducking their heads and dousing their
lights, for better concealment; but we, nevertheless, persevered until
we had pelted each to his own home.
We were, afterwards, afraid that we had carried the joke rather too
far, and entertained some doubts as to the propriety of holding our
quarters for another day; but they set our minds at rest on that
point, by paying us an early visit in the morning, and seemed to enjoy
the joke in a manner that we could not have expected from the gravity
of their looks.
We passed two more days much in the same manner, and, on the third,
returned to our cantonments, and found that our division had moved,
during our absence, into some villages nearer to Ciudad Rodrigo,
preparatory to the siege of that place.
On inquiry, we found that we had never been suspected for the
_abduction_ of the sheep and turkeys, but that the blame, on the
contrary, had been attached to the poor soldiers, whose soup had been
tasted every day to see if it savoured of such dainties. The
proprietor of the turkeys was so particularly indignant that we
thought it prudent not to acknowledge ourselves as the culprits until
some time afterwards, when, as one of our party happened to be killed
in action, we, very uncharitably, put the whole of it on his
shoulders.
CHAP. VIII.
Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. The Garrison of an Outwork relieved.
Spending an Evening abroad. A Musical Study. An Addition to Soup.
A short Cut. Storming of the Town. A sweeping Clause. Advantages
of leading a Storming Party. Looking for a Customer.
Disadvantages of being a stormed Party. Confusion of all Parties.
A waking Dream. Death of General Crawford. Accident. Deaths.
SIEGE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO,
January 8th, 1812.
The campaign of 1812 commenced with the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, which
was invested by our division on the 8th of January.
There was a smartish frost, with some snow on the ground; and, when we
arrived opposite the fortress, about midday, the garrison did not
appear to think that we were in earnest, for a number of their
officers came out, under the shelter of a stone-wall, within half
musket-shot, and amused themselves in saluting and bowing to us in
ridicule; but, ere the day was done, some of them had occasion to wear
the laugh on the opposite side of the countenance.
We lay by our arms until dark, when a party, consisting of a hundred
volunteers from each regiment, under Colonel Colborne, of the
fifty-second, stormed and carried the Fort of St. Francisco, after a
short sharp action, in which the whole of its garrison were taken or
destroyed. The officer who commanded it was a chattering little
fellow, and acknowledged himself to have been one of our saluting
friends of the morning. He kept, incessantly, repeating a few words of
English which he had picked up during the assault, and the only ones,
I fancy, that were spoken, viz. "dem eyes, b--t eyes!" and, in
demanding the meaning of them, he required that we should, also,
explain why we stormed a place without first besieging it; for, he
said, that another officer would have relieved him of his charge at
daylight, had _we_ not _relieved_ him of it sooner.
The enemy had calculated that this outwork would have kept us at bay
for a fortnight or three weeks; whereas, its capture, the first night,
enabled us to break ground at once, within breaching distance of the
walls of the town. They kept up a very heavy fire the whole night on
the working parties; but, as they aimed at random, we did not suffer
much; and made such good use of our time that, when daylight enabled
them to see what we were doing, we had dug ourselves under tolerable
cover.
In addition to ours, the first, third, and fourth divisions were
employed in the siege. Each took the duties for twenty-four hours
alternately, and returned to their cantonments during the interval.
We were relieved by the first division, under Sir Thomas Graham, on
the morning of the 9th, and marched to our quarters.
Jan. 12th.--At ten o'clock this morning we resumed the duties of the
siege. It still continued to be dry frosty weather; and, as we were
obliged to ford the Agueda, up to the middle, every man carried a pair
of iced breeches into the trenches with him.
My turn of duty did not arrive until eight in the evening, when I was
ordered to take thirty men with shovels to dig holes for ourselves, as
near as possible to the walls, for the delectable amusement of firing
at the embrasures for the remainder of the night. The enemy threw
frequent fire-balls among us, to see where we were; but, as we always
lay snug until their blaze was extinguished, they were not much the
wiser, except by finding, from having some one popt off from their
guns every instant, that they had got some neighbours whom they would
have been glad to get rid of.
We were relieved as usual at ten next morning, and returned to our
cantonments.
January 16th.--Entered on our third day's duty, and found the
breaching batteries in full operation, and our approaches close to the
walls on every side. When we arrived on the ground I was sent to take
command of the highland company, which we had at that time in the
regiment, and which was with the left wing, under Colonel Cameron. I
found them on piquet, between the right of the trenches and the river,
half of them posted at a mud-cottage, and the other half in a ruined
convent, close under the walls. It was a very tolerable post when at
it; but it is no joke travelling by daylight up to within a stone's
throw of a wall, on which there is a parcel of fellows who have no
other amusement but to fire at every body they see.
We could not show our noses at any point without being fired at; but,
as we were merely posted there to protect the right flank of the
trenches from any sortie, we did not fire at them, and kept as quiet
as could be, considering the deadly blast that was blowing around us.
There are few situations in life where something cannot be learnt, and
I, myself, stand indebted to my twenty-four hours' residence there,
for a more correct knowledge of martial sounds than in the study of my
whole life time besides. They must be an unmusical pair of ears that
cannot inform the wearer whither a cannon or a musket played last, but
the various _notes_, emanating from their respective mouths, admit of
nice distinctions. My party was too small, and too well sheltered to
repay the enemy for the expense of shells and round shot; but the
quantity of grape and musketry aimed at our particular heads, made a
good concert of first and second whistles, while the more sonorous
voice of the round shot, travelling to our friends on the left, acted
as a thorough bass; and there was not a shell, that passed over us to
the trenches, that did not send back a fragment among us as soon as it
burst, as if to gratify a curiosity that I was far from expressing.
We went into the cottage soon after dark, to partake of something that
had been prepared for dinner; and, when in the middle of it, a round
shot passed through both walls, immediately over our heads, and
garnished the soup with a greater quantity of our parent earth than
was quite palatable.
We were relieved, as usual, by the first division, at ten next
morning; and, to avoid as much as possible the destructive fire from
the walls, they sent forward only three or four men at a time, and we
sent ours away in the same proportions.
Every thing is by comparison in this world, and it is curious to
observe how men's feelings change with circumstances. In cool blood a
man would rather go a little out of his way than expose himself to
unnecessary danger; but we found, this morning, that by crossing the
river where we then were, and running the gauntlet for a mile, exposed
to the fire of two pieces of artillery, that we should be saved the
distance of two or three miles in returning to our quarters. After
coming out of such a _furnace_ as we had been frying in, the other
fire was not considered a fire at all, and passed without a moment's
hesitation.
STORMING OF CIUDAD RODRIGO.
January 19th, 1812.--We moved to the scene of operations, about two
o'clock this afternoon; and, as it was a day before our regular turn,
we concluded that we were called there to lend a hand in finishing the
job we had begun so well; nor were we disappointed, for we found that
two practicable breaches had been effected, and that the place was to
be stormed in the evening by the third and light divisions, the former
by the right breach, and the latter by the left, while some Portuguese
troops were to attempt an escalade on the opposite sides of the town.
About eight o'clock in the evening our division was accordingly formed
for the assault, behind a convent, near the left breach, in the
following order:--viz.
1st. Four companies of our battalion, under Colonel Cameron, to
line the crest of the glacis, and fire upon the ramparts.
2d. Some companies of Portuguese, carrying bags filled with hay
and straw, for throwing into the ditch, to facilitate the passage
of the storming party.
3d. The _forlorn hope_, consisting of an officer and twenty-five
volunteers.
4th. The _storming party_, consisting of three officers and one
hundred volunteers from each regiment, the officers from ours
were Captain Mitchell, Mr. Johnstone, and myself, and the whole
under the command of Major Napier, of the fifty-second.
5th. The main body of the division, under General Crawford, with
one brigade, under Major-General Vandeleur, and the other under
Colonel Barnard.
At a given signal the different columns advanced to the assault; the
night was tolerably clear, and the enemy evidently expected us; for,
as soon as we turned the corner of the convent-wall, the space
between us and the breach became one blaze of light with their
fire-balls, which, while they lighted us on to glory, lightened not a
few of their lives and limbs; for the whole glacis was in consequence
swept by a well directed fire of grape and musketry, and they are the
devil's own brooms; but our gallant fellows walked through it, to the
point of attack, with the most determined steadiness, excepting the
Portuguese sack-bearers, most of whom lay down behind their bags, to
wait the result, while the few that were thrown into the ditch looked
so like dead bodies, that, when I leapt into it, I tried to avoid
them.
The advantage of being on a storming party is considered as giving the
prior claim to be _put out of pain_, for they receive the first fire,
which is generally the best, not to mention that they are also
expected to receive the earliest salutation from the beams of timber,
hand-grenades, and other missiles, which the garrison are generally
prepared to transfer from the top of the wall, to the tops of the
heads of their foremost visitors. But I cannot say that I, myself,
experienced any such preference, for every ball has a considerable
distance to travel, and I have generally found them equally ready to
pick up their man at the end, as at the beginning of their flight;
luckily, too, the other preparations cannot always be accommodated to
the moment, so that, on the whole, the _odds_ are pretty _even_, that,
all concerned come in for an equal share of whatever happens to be
going on.
We had some difficulty at first in finding the breach, as we had
entered the ditch opposite to a ravelin, which we mistook for a
bastion. I tried first one side of it and then the other, and seeing
one corner of it a good deal battered, with a ladder placed against
it, I concluded that it must be the breach, and calling to the
soldiers near me, to follow. I mounted with the most ferocious intent,
carrying a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other; but, when I
got up, I found nobody to fight with, except two of our own men, who
were already laid dead across the top of the ladder. I saw, in a
moment, that I had got into the wrong box, and was about to descend
again, when I heard a shout from the opposite side, that the breach
was there; and, moving in that direction, I dropped myself from the
ravelin, and landed in the ditch, opposite to the foot of the breach,
where I found the head of the storming party just beginning to fight
their way into it. The combat was of short duration, and, in less than
half an hour from the commencement of the attack, the place was in our
possession.
After carrying the breach, we met with no further opposition, and
moved round the ramparts to see that they were perfectly clear of the
enemy, previous to entering the town. I was fortunate enough to take
the left-hand circuit, by accident, and thereby escaped the fate which
befel a great portion of those who went to the right, and who were
blown up, along with some of the third division, by the accidental
explosion of a magazine.
I was highly amused, in moving round the ramparts, to find some of the
Portuguese troops just commencing their escalade, on the opposite
side, near the bridge, in ignorance of the place having already
fallen. Gallantly headed by their officers, they had got some ladders
placed against the wall, while about two thousand voices from the rear
were cheering, with all their might, for mutual encouragement; and,
like most other troops, under similar circumstances, it appeared to me
that their feet and their tongues went at a more equal pace after we
gave them the hint. On going a little further, we came opposite to the
ravelin, which had been my chief annoyance during my last days'
piquet. It was still crowded by the enemy, who had now thrown down
their arms, and endeavoured to excite our pity by virtue of their
being "Pauvres Italianos;" but our men had, somehow, imbibed a
horrible antipathy to the Italians, and every appeal they made in that
name was invariably answered with,--"You're Italians, are you? then,
d--n you, here's a shot for you;" and the action instantly followed
the word.
A town taken by storm presents a frightful scene of outrage. The
soldiers no sooner obtain possession of it, than they think themselves
at liberty to do what they please. It is enough for them that there
_had_ been an enemy on the ramparts; and, without considering that the
poor inhabitants may, nevertheless, be friends and allies, they, in
the first moment of excitement, all share one common fate; and nothing
but the most extraordinary exertions on the part of the officers can
bring them back to a sense of their duty.
We continued our course round the ramparts until we met the head of
the column which had gone by the right, and then descended into the
town. At the entrance of the first street, a French officer came out
of a door and claimed my protection, giving me his sword. He told me
that there was another officer in the same house who was afraid to
venture out, and entreated that I would go in for him. I, accordingly,
followed him up to the landing-place of a dark stair, and, while he
was calling to his friend, by name, to come down, "as there was an
English officer present who would protect him," a violent screaming
broke through a door at my elbow. I pushed it open, and found the
landlady struggling with an English soldier, whom I immediately
transferred to the bottom of the stair head foremost. The French
officer had followed me in at the door, and was so astonished at all
he saw, that he held up his hands, turned up the whites of his eyes,
and resolved himself into a state of the most eloquent silence. When
he did recover the use of his tongue, it was to recommend his landlady
to my notice, as the most amiable woman in existence. She, on her
part, professed the most unbounded gratitude, and entreated that I
would make her house my home forever; but, when I called upon her, a
few days after, she denied having ever seen me before, and stuck to it
most religiously.
As the other officer could not be found, I descended into the street
again with my prisoner; and, finding the current of soldiers setting
towards the centre of the town, I followed the stream, which conducted
me into the great square, on one side of which the late garrison were
drawn up as prisoners, and the rest of it was filled with British and
Portuguese intermixed, without any order or regularity. I had been
there but a very short time, when they all commenced firing, without
any ostensible cause; some fired in at the doors and windows, some at
the roofs of houses, and others at the clouds; and, at last, some
heads began to be blown from their shoulders in the general hurricane,
when the voice of Sir Thomas Picton, with the power of twenty
trumpets, began to proclaim damnation to every body, while Colonel
Barnard, Colonel Cameron, and some other active officers, were
carrying it into effect with a strong hand; for, seizing the broken
barrels of muskets, which were lying about in great abundance, they
belaboured every fellow, most unmercifully, about the head who
attempted either to load or fire, and finally succeeded in reducing
them to order. In the midst of the scuffle, however, three of the
houses in the square were set on fire; and the confusion was such that
nothing could be done to save them; but, by the extraordinary
exertions of Colonel Barnard, during the whole of the night, the
flames were prevented from communicating to the adjoining buildings.
We succeeded in getting a great portion of our battalion together by
one o'clock in the morning, and withdrew with them to the ramparts,
where we lay by our arms until daylight.
There is nothing in this life half so enviable as the feelings of a
soldier after a victory. Previous to a battle, there is a certain sort
of something that pervades the mind which is not easily defined; it is
neither akin to joy or fear, and, probably, _anxiety_ may be nearer to
it than any other word in the dictionary: but, when the battle is
over, and crowned with victory, he finds himself elevated for awhile
into the regions of absolute bliss! It had ever been the summit of my
ambition to attain a post at the head of a storming party:--my wish
had now been accomplished, and gloriously ended; and I do think that,
after all was over, and our men laid asleep on the ramparts, that I
strutted about as important a personage, in my own opinion, as ever
trod the face of the earth; and, had the ghost of the renowned
Jack-the-giant-killer itself passed that way at the time, I'll venture
to say, that I would have given it a kick in the breech without the
smallest ceremony. But, as the sun began to rise, I began to fall from
the heroics; and, when he showed his face, I took a look at my own,
and found that I was too unclean a spirit to worship, for I was
covered with mud and dirt, with the greater part of my dress torn to
rags.
The fifth division, which had not been employed in the siege, marched
in, and took charge of the town, on the morning of the 20th, and we
prepared to return to our cantonments. Lord Wellington happened to be
riding in at the gate at the time that we were marching out, and had
the curiosity to ask the officer of the leading company, what regiment
it was, for there was scarcely a vestige of uniform among the men,
some of whom were dressed in Frenchmen's coats, some in white
breeches, and huge jack-boots, some with cocked hats and queues; most
of their swords were fixed on the rifles, and stuck full of hams,
tongues, and loaves of bread, and not a few were carrying bird-cages!
There never was a better masked corps!
General Crawford fell on the glacis, at the head of our division, and
was buried at the foot of the breach which they so gallantly carried.
His funeral was attended by Lord Wellington, and all the officers of
the division, by whom he was, ultimately, much liked. He had
introduced a system of discipline into the light division which made
them unrivalled. A very rigid exaction of the duties pointed out in
his code of regulations made him very unpopular at its commencement,
and it was not until a short time before he was lost to us for ever,
that we were capable of appreciating his merits, and fully sensible of
the incalculable advantages we derived from the perfection of his
system.
Among other things carried from Ciudad Rodrigo, one of our men had the
misfortune to carry his death in his hands, under the mistaken shape
of amusement. He thought that it was a cannon-ball, and took it for
the purpose of playing at the game of nine-holes, but it happened to
be a live shell. In rolling it along it went over a bed of burning
ashes, and ignited without his observing it. Just as he had got it
between his legs, and was in the act of discharging it a second time,
it exploded, and nearly blew him to pieces.
Several men of our division, who had deserted while we were blockading
Ciudad Rodrigo, were taken when it fell, and were sentenced to be
shot. Lord Wellington extended mercy to every one who could procure
any thing like a good character from his officers; but six of them,
who could not, were paraded and shot, in front of the division, near
the village of Ituera. Shooting appears to me to be a cruel kind of
execution, for twenty balls may pierce a man's body without touching a
vital spot. On the occasion alluded to, two of the men remained
standing after the first fire, and the Provost-Marshal was obliged to
put an end to their sufferings, by placing the muzzle of a piece at
each of their heads.
CHAP. IX.
March to Estremadura. A Deserter shot. Riding for an Appetite.
Effect the Cure of a sick Lady. Siege of Badajos. Trench-Work.
Varieties during the Siege. Taste of the Times. Storming of the
Town. Its Fall. Officers of a French Battalion. Not shot by
Accident. Military Shopkeepers. Lost Legs and cold Hearts.
Affecting Anecdote. My Servant. A Consignment to Satan. March
again for the North. Sir Sidney Beckwith.
We remained about six weeks in cantonments, after the fall of Ciudad
Rodrigo; and, about the end of February, were again put in motion
towards Estremadura.
March 7th.--Arrived near Castello de Vide, and quartered in the
neighbouring villages. Another deserter, who had also been taken at
the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo, was here shot, under the sentence of
a court martial. When he was paraded for that purpose, he protested
against their right to shoot him, until he first received the arrears
of pay which was due at the time of his desertion.
March 14th.--Two of us rode out this afternoon to kill time until
dinner hour (six); but, when we returned to our quarters, there was
not a vestige of the regiment remaining, and our appetites were
considerably whetted, by having an additional distance of fourteen
miles to ride, in the dark, over roads on which we could not trust our
horses out of a walk. We joined them, at about eleven at night, in the
town of Portalegré.
March 16th.--Quartered in the town of Elvas.
I received a billet on a neat little house, occupied by an old lady
and her daughter, who were very desirous of evading such an
incumbrance. For, after resisting my entrance, until successive
applications of my foot had reduced the door to a condition which
would no longer second their efforts, the old lady resolved to try me
on another _tack_; and, opening the door, and, making a sign for me
to make no noise, she told me, in a whisper, that her daughter was
lying dangerously ill of a fever, in the only bed in the house, and
that she was, therefore, excessively sorry that she could not
accommodate me. As this information did not at all accord with my
notions of consistency, after their having suffered the preceding half
hour's bombardment, I requested to be shewn to the chamber of the
invalid, saying that I was a _medico_, and might be of service to her.
When she found remonstrance unavailing, she at length shewed me into a
room up-stairs, where there was a very genteel-looking young girl, the
very picture of _Portuguese_ health, lying with her eyes shut, in full
dress, on the top of the bed-clothes, where she had hurriedly thrown
herself.
Seeing, at once, how matters stood, I walked up to the bed-side, and
hit her a slap on the thigh with my hand, asking her, at the same
time, how she felt herself? and never did Prince Hohenloe, himself,
perform a miracle more cleverly; for she bounced almost as high as the
ceiling, and flounced about the room, as well and as actively as
ever she did, with a countenance in which shame, anger, and a great
portion of natural humour were so amusingly blended, that I was
tempted to provoke her still further by a salute. Having thus
satisfied the mother that I had been the means of restoring her
daughter to her usual state of health, she thought it prudent to put
the best face upon it, and, therefore, invited me to partake of their
family dinner; in the course of which I succeeded so well in eating my
way into their affections, that we parted next morning with mutual
regret; they told me that I was the _best_ officer they had ever seen,
and begged that I would always make their house my home; but I was
never fated to see them again. We marched in the morning for Badajos.
SIEGE OF BADAJOS.
On the 17th of March, 1812, the _third_, _fourth_, and _light
divisions_, encamped around Badajos, embracing the whole of the
inland side of the town on the left bank of the Guadiana, and
commenced breaking ground before it immediately after dark the same
night.
The elements, on this occasion, adopted the cause of the besieged; for
we had scarcely taken up our ground, when a heavy rain commenced, and
continued, almost without intermission, for a fortnight; in
consequence thereof, the pontoon-bridge, connecting us with our
supplies from Elvas, was carried away, by the rapid increase of the
river, and the duties of the trenches were otherwise rendered
extremely harassing. We had a smaller force employed than at Rodrigo;
and the scale of operations was so much greater, that it required
every man to be actually in the trenches six hours every day, and the
same length of time every night, which, with the time required to
march to and from them, through fields more than ankle deep in a stiff
mud, left us never more than eight hours out of the twenty-four in
camp, and we never were dry the whole time.
One day's trench-work is as like another as the days themselves; and
like nothing better than serving an apprenticeship to the double
calling of grave-digger and game-keeper, for we found ample employment
both for the spade and the rifle.
The only varieties during the siege were,--First, The storming of
_Picuvina_, a formidable outwork, occupying the centre of our
operations. It was carried one evening, in the most gallant style, by
Major-General Sir James Kempt, at the head of the covering parties.
Secondly, A sortie made by the garrison, which they got the worst of,
although they succeeded in stealing some of our pickaxes and shovels.
Thirdly, A _circumbendibus_ described by a few daring French dragoons,
who succeeded in getting into the rear of our engineers' camp, at that
time unguarded, and lightened some of the officers of their
epaulettes. Lastly, Two field-pieces taken by the enemy to the
opposite side of the river, enfilading one of our parallels, and
materially disturbing the harmony within, as a cannon-shot is no very
welcome guest among gentlemen who happen to be lodged in a straight
ditch, without the power of _cutting_ it.
Our batteries were supplied with ammunition, by the Portuguese
militia, from Elvas, a string of whom used to arrive every day,
reaching nearly from the one place to the other (twelve miles), each
man carrying a twenty-four pound shot, and cursing all the way and
back again.
The Portuguese artillery, under British officers, was uncommonly good.
I used to be much amused in looking at a twelve-gun breaching-battery
of theirs.
They knew the position of all the enemy's guns which could bear upon
them, and had one man posted to watch them, to give notice of what was
coming, whether a shot or a shell, who, accordingly, kept calling out,
"_bomba, balla, balla, bomba_;" and they ducked their heads until the
missile past: but, sometimes he would see a general discharge from all
arms, when he threw himself down, screaming out "_Jesus, todos,
todos!_" meaning "every thing."
An officer of ours was sent one morning, before daylight, with ten
men, to dig holes for themselves, opposite to one of the enemy's guns,
which had been doing a great deal of mischief the day before, and he
had soon the satisfaction of knowing the effect of his practice, by
seeing them stopping up the embrasure with sandbags. After waiting a
little, he saw them beginning to remove the bags, when he made his men
open upon it again, and they were instantly replaced without the guns
being fired; presently he saw the huge cocked hat of a French officer
make its appearance on the rampart, near to the embrasure; but
knowing, by experience, that the _head_ was somewhere in the
neighbourhood, he watched until the flash of a musket, through the
long grass, showed the position of the owner, and, calling one of his
best shots, he desired him to take deliberate aim at the spot, and
lent his shoulder as a rest, to give it more elevation. Bang went the
shot, and it was the finishing flash for the Frenchman, for they saw
no more of _him_, although his cocked hat maintained its post until
dark.
In proportion as the grand crisis approached, the anxiety of the
soldiers increased; not on account of any doubt or dread as to the
result, but for fear that the place should be surrendered without
standing an assault; for, singular as it may appear, although there
was a certainty of about one man out of every three being knocked
down, there were, perhaps, not three men, in the three divisions, who
would not rather have braved all the chances than receive it tamely
from the hands of the enemy. So great was the rage for passports into
eternity, in our battalion, on that occasion, that even the officers'
servants insisted on taking their places in the ranks; and I was
obliged to leave my baggage in charge of a man who had been wounded
some days before.
On the 6th of April, three practicable breaches had been effected,
and arrangements were made for assaulting the town that night. The
third division, by escalade, at the castle; a brigade of the fifth
division, by escalade, at the opposite side of the town; while the
fourth and light divisions were to storm the breaches. The whole were
ordered to be formed for the attack at eight o'clock.
STORMING OF BADAJOS,
April 6th, 1812.
Our division formed for the attack of the left breach in the same
order as at Ciudad Rodrigo; the command of it had now devolved upon
our commandant, Colonel Barnard. I was then the acting adjutant of
four companies, under Colonel Cameron, who were to line the crest of
the glacis, and to fire at the ramparts and the top of the left
breach.
The enemy seemed aware of our intentions. The fire of artillery and
musketry, which, for three weeks before, had been incessant, both
from the town and trenches, had now entirely ceased, as if by mutual
consent, and a deathlike silence, of nearly an hour, preceded the
awful scene of carnage.
The signal to advance was made about nine o'clock, and our four
companies led the way. Colonel Cameron and myself had reconnoitred the
ground so accurately by daylight, that we succeeded in bringing the
head of our column to the very spot agreed on, opposite to the left
breach, and then formed line to the left, without a word being spoken,
each man lying down as he got into line, with the muzzle of his rifle
over the edge of the ditch, between the pallisades, all ready to open.
It was tolerably clear above, and we distinctly saw _their_ heads
lining the ramparts; but there was a sort of haze on the ground which,
with the colour of our dress, prevented them from seeing us, although
only a few yards asunder. One of their sentries, however, challenged
us twice, "_qui vive_," and, receiving no reply, he fired off his
musket, which was followed by their drums beating to arms; but _we_
still remained perfectly quiet, and all was silence again for the
space of five or ten minutes, when the head of the forlorn hope at
length came up, and we took advantage of the first fire, while the
enemy's heads were yet visible.
The scene that ensued furnished as respectable a representation of
hell itself as fire, and sword, and human sacrifices could make it;
for, in one instant, every engine of destruction was in full
operation.
It is in vain to attempt a description of it. We were entirely
excluded from the right breach by an inundation which the heavy rains
had enabled the enemy to form; and the two others were rendered
totally impracticable by their interior defences.
The five succeeding hours were therefore past in the most gallant and
hopeless attempts, on the part of individual officers, forming up
fifty or a hundred men at a time at the foot of the breach, and
endeavouring to carry it by desperate bravery; and, fatal as it proved
to each gallant band, in succession, yet, fast as one dissolved,
another was formed. We were informed, about twelve at night, that the
third division had established themselves in the castle; but, as its
situation and construction did not permit them to extend their
operations beyond it at the moment, it did not in the least affect our
opponents at the breach, whose defence continued as obstinate as ever.
I was near Colonel Barnard after midnight, when he received repeated
messages, from Lord Wellington, to withdraw from the breach, and to
form the division for a renewal of the attack at daylight; but, as
fresh attempts continued to be made, and the troops were still
pressing forward into the ditch, it went against his gallant soul to
order a retreat while yet a chance remained; but, after heading
repeated attempts himself, he saw that it was hopeless, and the order
was reluctantly given about two o'clock in the morning. We fell back
about three hundred yards, and re-formed all that remained to us.
Our regiment, alone, had to lament the loss of twenty-two officers
killed and wounded, ten of whom were killed, or afterwards died of
their wounds. We had scarcely got our men together when we were
informed of the success of the fifth division in their escalade, and
that the enemy were, in consequence, abandoning the breaches, and we
were immediately ordered forward to take possession of them. On our
arrival, we found them entirely evacuated, and had not occasion to
fire another shot; but we found the utmost difficulty, and even
danger, in getting in in the dark, even without opposition. As soon as
we succeeded in establishing our battalion inside, we sent piquets
into the different streets and lanes leading from the breach, and kept
the remainder in hand until day should throw some light on our
situation.
When I was in the act of posting one of the piquets, a man of ours
brought me a prisoner, telling me that he was the governor; but the
other immediately said that he had only called himself so, the better
to ensure his protection; and then added, that he was the colonel of
one of the French regiments, and that all his surviving officers were
assembled at his quarters, in a street close by, and would surrender
themselves to any officer who would go with him for that purpose. I
accordingly took two or three men with me, and, accompanying him
there, found fifteen or sixteen of them assembled, and all seeming
very much surprised at the unexpected termination of the siege. They
could not comprehend under what circumstances the town had been lost,
and repeatedly asked me how I had got in; but I did not choose to
explain further than simply telling them that I had entered at the
breach, coupling the information with a look which was calculated to
convey somewhat more than I knew myself; for, in truth, when I began
to recollect that a few minutes before had seen me retiring from the
breach, under a fanciful overload of degradation, I thought that I had
now as good a right as any man to be astonished at finding myself
_lording_ it over the officers of a French battalion; nor was I much
wiser than they were, as to the manner of its accomplishment. They
were all very much dejected, excepting their major, who was a big
jolly-looking Dutchman, with medals enough, on his left breast, to
have furnished the window of a tolerable toy-shop. His accomplishments
were after the manner of Captain Dougal Dalgetty; and, while he
cracked his joke, he was not inattentive to the cracking of the corks
from the many wine-bottles which his colonel placed on the table
successively, along with some cold meat, for general refreshment,
prior to marching into captivity, and which I, though a free man, was
not too proud to join them in.
When I had allowed their chief a reasonable time to secure what
valuables he wished, about his person, he told me that he had two
horses in the stable, which, as he would no longer be permitted to
keep, he recommended me to take; and, as a horse is the only thing on
such occasions that an officer can permit himself to consider a legal
prize, I caused one of them to be saddled, and his handsome black mare
thereby became my charger during the remainder of the war.
In proceeding with my prisoners towards the breach, I took, by
mistake, a different road to that I came; and, as numbers of Frenchmen
were lurking about for a safe opportunity of surrendering themselves,
about a hundred additional ones added themselves to my column, as we
moved along, _jabbering_ their native dialect so loudly, as nearly to
occasion a dire catastrophe, as it prevented me from hearing some one
challenge in my front; but, fortunately, it was repeated, and I
instantly answered; for Colonel Barnard and Sir Colin Campbell had a
piquet of our men, drawn across the street, on the point of sending a
volley into us, thinking that we were a rallied body of the enemy.
The whole of the garrison were marched off, as prisoners, to Elvas,
about ten o'clock in the morning, and our men were then permitted to
fall out, to enjoy themselves for the remainder of the day, as a
reward for having kept together so long as they were wanted. The whole
of the three divisions were, by this time, loose in the town; and the
usual frightful scene of plunder commenced, which the officers thought
it necessary to avoid for the moment, by retiring to the camp.
We went into the town on the morning of the 8th, to endeavour to
collect our men, but only succeeded in part, as the same extraordinary
scene of plunder and rioting still continued. Wherever there was any
thing to eat or drink, the only saleable commodities, the soldiers had
turned the shopkeepers out of doors, and placed themselves regularly
behind the counter, selling off the contents of the shop. By and bye,
another and a stronger party would kick those out in their turn, and
there was no end to the succession of self-elected shopkeepers, until
Lord Wellington found that, to restore order, severe measures must be
resorted to. On the third day, he caused a Portuguese brigade to be
marched in, and kept standing to their arms, in the great square,
where the provost-martial erected a gallows, and proceeded to suspend
a few of the delinquents, which very quickly cleared the town of the
remainder, and enabled us to give a more satisfactory account of our
battalion than we had hitherto been able to do.
It is wonderful how such scenes as these will deaden men's finer
feelings, and with what apathy it enables them to look upon the
sufferings of their fellow creatures! The third day after the fall of
the town, I rode, with Colonel Cameron, to take a bathe in the
Guadiana, and, in passing the verge of the camp of the 5th division,
we saw two soldiers standing at the door of a small shed, or outhouse,
shouting, waving their caps, and making signs that they wanted to
speak to us. We rode up to see what they wanted, and found that the
poor fellows had each lost a leg. They told us that a surgeon had
dressed their wounds on the night of the assault, but that they had
ever since been without food or assistance of any kind, although they,
each day, had opportunities of soliciting the aid of many of their
comrades, from whom they could obtain nothing but promises. In short,
surrounded by thousands of their countrymen within call, and not more
than three hundred yards from their own regiment, they were unable to
interest any one in their behalf, and were literally starving.
It is unnecessary to say that we instantly galloped back to the camp
and had them removed to the hospital.
On the morning of the 7th, when some of our officers were performing
the last duties to their fallen comrades, one of them had collected
the bodies of four of our young officers, who had been slain. He was
in the act of digging a grave for them, when an officer of the guards,
arrived on the spot, from a distant division of the army, and demanded
tidings of his brother, who was at that moment lying a naked lifeless
corpse, under his very eyes. The officer had the presence of mind to
see that the corpse was not recognized, and, wishing to spare the
other's feelings, told him that his brother was dangerously wounded,
but that he would hear more of him by going out to the camp; and
thither the other immediately bent his steps, with a seeming
_presentiment_ of the sad intelligence that awaited him.
April 9th.--As I had not seen my domestic since the storming of the
town, I concluded that he had been killed; but he turned up this
morning, with a tremendous gash on his head, and mounted on the top of
a horse nearly twenty feet high, carrying under his arm one of those
glass cases which usually stand on the counters of jewellers' shops,
filled with all manner of trinkets. He looked exactly like the ghost
of a horse pedler.
April 10th.--The devil take the man who stole my donkey last night.
April 11th.--Marched again for the neighbourhood of Ciudad Rodrigo,
with the long-accustomed sounds of cannon and musketry ringing in my
fanciful ears as merrily as if the instruments themselves were still
playing.
Sir Sidney Beckwith, one of the fathers of the rifles, was, at this
time, obliged to proceed to England for the recovery of health, and
did not again return to the Peninsula. In his departure, that army
lost one of the ablest of its outpost generals. Few officers knew so
well how to make the most of a small force. His courage, coupled with
his thorough knowledge of the soldier's character, was of that cool
intrepid kind, that would, at any time, convert a routed rabble into
an orderly effective force. A better officer, probably, never led a
brigade into the field!
CHAP X.
A Farewell Address to Portalegré. History of a Night in Castello
Branco. Regimental Colours lost, with Directions where to find
them. Cases in which a Victory is sometimes won by those who lost
it. Advance to Salamanca. The City. The British Position on St.
Christoval. Affair in Position. Marmont's Change of Position and
Retreat. A Case of Bad Luck. Advance to Rueda, and Customs there.
Retire to Castrejon. Affairs on the 18th and 19th of July. Battle
of Salamanca, and Defeat of the Enemy.
April 13th, 1812.--Quartered at Portalegré.
DEAR PORTALEGRÉ!
I cannot quit thee, for the fourth and last time, without a parting
tribute to the remembrance of thy wild romantic scenery, and to the
kindness and hospitality of thy worthy citizens! May thy gates
continue shut to thine enemies as heretofore, and, as heretofore, may
they ever prove those of happiness to thy friends! Dear nuns of Santa
Clara! I thank thee for the enjoyment of many an hour of nothingness;
and thine, Santa Barbara, for many of a more intellectual cast! May
the voice of thy chapel-organ continue unrivalled but by the voices of
thy lovely choristers! and may the piano in thy refectory be replaced
by a better, in which the harmony of strings may supersede the
clattering of ivories! May the sweets which thou hast lavished on us
be showered upon thee ten thousand fold! And may those accursed iron
bars divide thee as effectually from death as they did from us!!!
April 15th.--Quartered at Castello Branco.
This town had been so often visited by the French and us, alternately,
that the inhabitants, at length, confounded their friends with their
foes; and by treating both sides as enemies, they succeeded in making
them so.
When I went this evening to present my billet on a respectable
looking house, the door was opened by the lady of it, wearing a most
gingerly aspect. She told me, with an equivocal sort of look, that she
had two spare beds in the house, and that either of them were at my
service; and, by way of illustration, shewed me into a sort of
servant's room, off the kitchen, half full of apples, onions,
potatoes, and various kinds of lumber, with a dirty looking bed in one
corner; and, on my requesting to see the other, she conducted me up to
the garret, into the very counterpart of the one below, though the
room was somewhat differently garnished. I told her, that they were
certainly two capital beds; but, as I was a modest person, and
disliked all extremes, that I should be quite satisfied with any one
on the floor which I had not yet seen. This, however, she told me, was
impossible, as every one of them were required by her own family.
While we were descending the stair, disputing the point, I caught the
handle of the first door that I came to, twisted it open, and seeing
it a neat little room, with nothing but a table and two or three
chairs, I told her that it would suit me perfectly; and, desiring her
to have a good mattress with clean linen, laid in one corner of it, by
nine o'clock; adding a few hints, to satisfy her that I was quite in
earnest, I went to dine with my messmates.
When I returned to the house, about ten o'clock, I was told that I
should find a light in the room and my bed ready. I accordingly
ascended, and found every thing as represented; and, in addition
thereto, I found another bed lying alongside of mine, containing a
huge fat friar, with a bald pate, fast asleep, and blowing the most
tremendous nasal trumpet that I ever heard! As my _friend_ had
evidently been placed there for my annoyance, I did not think it
necessary to use much ceremony in getting rid of him; and, catching
him by the two ears, I raised him up on his legs, while he groaned in
a seeming agonized doubt, whether the pain was inflicted by a man or a
night-mare; and before he had time to get himself broad awake, I had
chucked him and his clothing, bed and bedding, out at the door,
which I locked, and enjoyed a sound sleep the remainder of the night.
They offered me no further molestation; but, in taking my departure,
at daylight, next morning, I observed my landlady reconnoitring me
from an up-stairs window, and thought it prudent not to go too near
it.
While we had been employed at Badajos, Marmont had advanced in the
north, and blockaded Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, sending advanced
parties into the frontier towns of Portugal, to the confusion and
consternation of the Portuguese militia, who had been stationed for
their protection; and who, quite satisfied with the _report_ of their
coming, did not think it necessary to wait the report of their cannon.
Marshal Beresford, in his paternal address to "_Los Valerossos_," in
commemoration of their conduct on this occasion, directed that the
colours of each regiment should be lodged in the town-halls of their
respective districts, until they each provided themselves with _a
pair_ out of the ranks of the enemy; but I never heard that any of
them were redeemed in the manner prescribed.
The French retired upon Salamanca on our approach; and we resumed our
former quarters without opposition.
Hitherto we had been fighting the description of battle in which John
Bull glories so much--gaining a brilliant and useless victory against
great odds. But we were now about to contend for fame on equal terms;
and, having tried both, I will say, without partiality, that I would
rather fight one man than two any day; for I have never been quite
satisfied that the additional _quantum_ of glory altogether
compensated for the proportionate loss of substance; a victory of that
kind being a doubtful and most unsatisfactory one to the performers,
with each occupying the same ground _after_, that they did _before_;
and the whole merit resting with the side which did not happen to
begin it.
We remained about two months in cantonments, to recover the effects of
the late sieges; and as by that time all the perforated skins and
repairable cracked limbs had been mended, the army was assembled in
front of Ciudad Rodrigo, to commence what may be termed the second
campaign of 1812.
The enemy retired from Salamanca on our approach, leaving garrisons in
three formidable little forts, which they had erected on the most
commanding points of the city, and which were immediately invested by
a British division.
Salamanca, as a city, appeared to me to be more ancient than
respectable; for, excepting an old cathedral and a new square, I saw
nothing in it worth looking at, always saving and excepting their
pretty little girls, who (the deuce take them) cost me two nights good
sleep. For, by way of _doing a little dandy_ in passing through such a
celebrated city, I disencumbered the under part of my saddle of the
blanket, and the upper part of the boat-cloak with which it was
usually adorned; and the penalty which I paid for my gentility was,
sleeping the next two nights in position two miles in front of the
town, while these useful appendages were lying on the baggage two
miles in rear of it.
The heights of St. Christoval, which we occupied as a position to
cover the siege, were strong, but quite unsheltered, and unfurnished
with either wood or water. We were indebted for our supplies of the
latter to the citizens of Salamanca; while stubbles and dry grass were
our only fuel.
Marmont came down upon us the first night with a thundering cannonade,
and placed his army _en masse_ on the plain before us, almost within
gun shot. I was told that, while Lord Wellington was riding along the
line, under a fire of artillery, and accompanied by a numerous staff,
that a brace of greyhounds, in pursuit of a hare, passed close to him.
He was, at the moment, in earnest conversation with General Castanos;
but the instant he observed them, he gave the view hallo, and went
after them at full speed, to the utter astonishment of his foreign
accompaniments. Nor did he stop until he saw the hare killed; when he
returned, and resumed the commander-in-chief, as if nothing had
occurred.
The enemy, next morning, commenced a sharp attack on our advanced
post, in the village of Moresco; and, as it continued to be fed by
both sides, there was every appearance of its bringing on a general
action; but they desisted towards the afternoon, and the village
remained divided between us.
Marmont, after looking at us for several days, did not think it
prudent to risk an attack on our present post; and, as the
telegraph-rockets from the town told him that his garrison was reduced
to extremity, he crossed the Tormes, on the night of the 26th June, in
the hopes of being able to relieve them from that side of the river.
Our division followed his movement, and took post, for the night, at
Aldea Lingua. They sent forward a strong reconnoitring party at
daylight next morning, but they were opposed by General Bock's brigade
of heavy German dragoons, who would not permit them to see more than
was necessary; and, as the forts fell into our hands the same night,
Marmont had no longer an object in remaining there, and fell back,
behind the Douro, occupying the line of Toro and Torodesillas.
By the accidental discharge of a musket, one day last year, the ramrod
entered the belly, passed through the body, and the end of it stuck in
the back-bone of one of the soldiers of our division, from whence it
was actually hammered out with a stone. The poor fellow recovered, and
joined his regiment, as well as ever he had been, and was, last night,
unfortunately drowned, while bathing in the Tormes.
When the enemy retired, our division advanced and occupied Rueda, a
handsome little town, on the left bank of the Douro.
It abounded in excellent wines, and our usual evening dances began
there to be graced by a superior class of females to what they had
hitherto been accustomed. I remember that, in passing the house of the
sexton, one evening, I saw his daughter baking a loaf of bread; and,
falling desperately in love with both her and the loaf, I carried the
one to the ball and the other to my quarters. A woman was a woman in
those days; and every officer made it a point of duty to marshal as
many as he could to the general assembly, no matter whether they were
countesses or _sextonesses_; and although we, in consequence,
frequently incurred the most indelible disgrace among the better
orders of our indiscriminate collection, some of whom would retire in
disgust; yet, as a sufficient number generally remained for our
evening's amusement, and we were only birds of passage, it was a
matter of the most perfect indifference to us what they thought; we
followed the same course wherever we went.
The French army having, in the mean time, been largely reinforced;
and, as they commanded the passage of the Douro, we were in hourly
expectation of an offensive movement from them. As a precautionary
measure, one-half of our division bivouacked, every night, in front of
the town. On the evening of the 16th of July, it was our turn to be
in quarters, and we were in the full enjoyment of our usual evening's
amusement, when the bugles sounded to arms.
As we had previously experienced two false alarms in the same
quarters, we thought it more than probable that this might prove one
also; and, therefore, prevailed upon the ladies to enjoy themselves,
until our return, upon the good things which we had provided for their
refreshment, and out of which I hope they drew enough of consolation
for our absence, as we have not seen them since.
After forming on our alarm-post, we were moved off, in the dark, we
knew not whither; but every man following the one before him, with the
most implicit confidence, until, after marching all night, we found
ourselves, on the following morning, at daylight, near the village of
Castrejon, where we bivouacked for the day.
I was sent on piquet on the evening of the 17th, to watch a portion of
the plain before us; and, soon after sunrise on the following morning,
a cannonade commenced, behind a hill, to my right; and, though the
combatants were not visible, it was evident that they were not dealing
in blank-cartridge, as mine happened to be the pitching-post of all
the enemy's round shot. While I was attentively watching its progress,
there arose, all at once, behind the rising ground to my left, a yell
of the most terrific import; and, convinced that it would give
instantaneous birth to as hideous a body, it made me look, with an eye
of lightning, at the ground around me; and, seeing a broad deep ditch
within a hundred yards, I lost not a moment in placing it between my
piquet and the extraordinary sound, I had scarcely effected the
movement, when Lord Wellington, with his staff, and a cloud of French
and English dragoons and horse artillery intermixed, came over the
hill at full cry, and all hammering at each others' heads in one
confused mass, over the very ground I had that instant quitted. It
appeared that his Lordship had gone there to reconnoitre, covered by
two guns and two squadrons of cavalry, who, by some accident, were
surprised, and charged by a superior body of the enemy, and sent
tumbling in upon us in the manner described. A piquet of the
forty-third had formed on our right, and we were obliged to remain
passive spectators of such an extraordinary scene going on within a
few yards of us, as we could not fire without an equal chance of
shooting some of our own side. Lord Wellington and his staff, with the
two guns, took shelter, for the moment, behind us, while the cavalry
went sweeping along our front, where, I suppose, they picked up some
reinforcement, for they returned, almost instantly, in the same
confused mass; but the French were now the flyers; and, I must do them
the justice to say, that they got off in a manner highly creditable to
themselves. I saw one, in particular, defending himself against two of
ours; and he would have made his escape from both, but an officer of
our dragoons came down the hill, and took him in flank, at full speed,
sending man and horse rolling, headlong, on the plain.
I was highly interested, all this time, in observing the
distinguished characters which this unlooked-for _turn-up_ had
assembled around us. Marshal Beresford and the greater part of the
staff remained with their swords drawn, and the Duke himself did not
look more than half-pleased, while he silently despatched some of them
with orders. General Alten, and his huge German orderly dragoon, with
their swords drawn, cursed, the whole time, to a very large amount;
but, as it was in German, I had not the full benefit of it. He had an
opposition swearer in Captain Jenkinson, of the artillery, who
commanded the two guns, and whose oaths were chiefly aimed at himself
for his folly, as far as I could understand, in putting so much
confidence in his covering party, that he had not thought it necessary
to unfix the catch which horse-artillerymen, I believe, had to prevent
their swords quitting the scabbards when they are not wanted, and
which, on this occasion, prevented their jumping forth when they were
so unexpectedly called for.
The straggling enemy had scarcely cleared away from our front, when
Lord Combermere came, from the right, with a reinforcement of cavalry;
and our piquet was, at the same moment, ordered to join the battalion.
The movements which followed presented the most beautiful military
spectacle imaginable. The enemy were endeavouring to turn our left;
and, in making a counteracting movement, the two armies were marching
in parallel lines, close to each other, on a perfect plain, each ready
to take advantage of any opening of the other, and exchanging round
shot as they moved along. Our division brought up the rear of the
infantry, marching with the order and precision of a field-day, in
open column of companies, and in perfect readiness to receive the
enemy in any shape; who, on their part, had a huge cavalry force close
at hand, and equally ready to pounce upon us. Our movement was
supported by a formidable body of our own dragoons; and, as we drew
near the bank of the small river Guerrena, our horse-artillery
continued to file in the same line, to attract the attention of the
enemy, while we gradually distanced them a little, and crossed the
river into a position on the high grounds beyond it. The enemy passed
the river, on our left, and endeavoured to force that part of the
position; but the troops who were stationed there drove them back,
with great loss; and at dark the firing ceased.
During the early part of the 19th there appeared to be no movements on
either side; but, in the afternoon, having fallen asleep in my tent, I
was awoke by the whistling of a cannon shot; and was just beginning to
abuse my servant for not having called me sooner, when we were ordered
to stand to our arms; and, as the enemy were making a movement to our
right, we made a corresponding one. The cannonade did not cease until
dark, when we lay down by our arms, the two armies very near to each
other, and fully expecting a general action on the morrow.
July 20th.--We stood to our arms an hour before daylight, and Lord
Wellington held out every inducement for his opponent to attack him;
but Marmont evaded it, and continued his movement on our right, which
obliged us to continue ours, towards Salamanca; and we were a great
part of this day in parallel lines with them, the same as on the 18th.
July 21st.--We crossed the Tormes just before dark this evening, about
two miles above Salamanca, the enemy having passed it higher up.
Before reaching our ground, we experienced one of the most tremendous
thunderstorms that I ever witnessed. A sheet of lightning struck the
head of our column, where I happened to be riding, and deprived me of
the use of my optics for at least ten minutes. A great many of our
dragoon horses broke from their piqueting during the storm, and
galloped past us into the French lines. We lay by our arms on the
banks of the river, and it continued to rain in torrents the whole of
the night.
BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.
July 22d.--A sharp fire of musketry commenced at day light in the
morning; but, as it did not immediately concern us, and was nothing
unusual, we took no notice of it; but busied ourselves in getting our
arms and our bodies disengaged from the rust and the wet, engendered
by the storm of the past night.
About ten o'clock, our division was ordered to stand to their arms,
and then moved into position, with our left resting on the Tormes, and
our right extending along a ridge of rising ground, thinly
interspersed with trees, beyond which the other divisions were formed
in continuation, with the exception of the third, which still remained
on the opposite bank of the river.
The enemy were to be seen in motion on the opposite ridges, and a
straggling fire of musketry, with an occasional gun, acted as a sort
of prelude to the approaching conflict. We heard, about this time,
that Marmont had just sent to his _ci-devant_ landlord, in Salamanca,
to desire that he would have the usual dinner ready for himself and
staff at six o'clock; and so satisfied was "mine host" of the
infallibility of the French Marshal, that he absolutely set about
making the necessary preparations.
There assuredly never was an army so anxious as ours was to be brought
into action on this occasion. They were a magnificent body of
well-tried soldiers, highly equipped, and in the highest health and
spirits, with the most devoted confidence in their leader, and an
invincible confidence in themselves. The retreat of the four preceding
days had annoyed us beyond measure, for we believed that we were
nearly equal to the enemy in point of numbers; and the idea of our
retiring before an equal number of any troops in the world was not to
be endured with common patience.
We were kept the whole of the forenoon in the most torturing state of
suspense through contradictory reports. One passing officer telling
us that he had just heard the order given to attack, and the next
asserting, with equal confidence, that he had just heard the order to
retreat; and it was not until about two o'clock in the afternoon, that
affairs began to wear a more decided aspect; and when our own eyes and
ears at length conveyed the wished-for tidings that a battle was
inevitable; for we saw the enemy beginning to close upon our right,
and the cannonade had become general along the whole line. Lord
Wellington, about the same time, ordered the movement which decided
the fate of the day--that of bringing the third division, from beyond
the river on our left, rapidly to our extreme right, turning the
enemy, in their attempt to turn us, and commencing the offensive with
the whole of his right wing. The effect was instantaneous and
decisive, for although some obstinate and desperate fighting took
place in the centre, with various success, yet the victory was never
for a moment in doubt; and the enemy were soon in full retreat,
leaving seven thousand prisoners, two eagles, and eleven pieces of
artillery in our hands. Had we been favoured with two hours more
daylight, their loss would have been incalculable, for they committed
a blunder at starting, which they never got time to retrieve; and,
their retreat was, therefore, commenced in such disorder, and with a
river in their rear, that nothing but darkness could have saved them.
CHAP. XI.
Distinguished Characters. A Charge of Dragoons. A Charge against
the Nature of Things. Olmeda and the French General, Ferez.
Advance towards Madrid. Adventures of my Dinner. The Town of
Segovia. El Palacio del Rio Frio. The Escurial. Enter Madrid.
Rejoicings. Nearly happy. Change of a Horse. Change of Quarters.
A Change confounded. Retire towards Salamanca. Boar-Hunt,
Dinner-Hunt, and Bull-Hunt. A Portuguese Funeral conducted by
Rifle Undertakers.
The third division, under Sir Edward Pakenham, the artillery, and some
regiments of dragoons, particularly distinguished themselves. But our
division, very much to our annoyance, came in for a very slender
portion of this day's glory. We were exposed to a cannonade the whole
of the afternoon; but, as we were not permitted to advance until very
late, we had only an opportunity of throwing a few straggling shot at
the fugitives, before we lost sight of them in the dark; and then
bivouacked for the night near the village of Huerta, (I think it was
called).
We started after them at daylight next morning; and, crossing at a
ford of the Tormes, we found their rear-guard, consisting of three
regiments of infantry, with some cavalry and artillery, posted on a
formidable height above the village of Serna. General Bock, with his
brigade of heavy German dragoons, immediately went at them; and,
putting their cavalry to flight, he broke through their infantry, and
took or destroyed the whole of them. This was one of the most gallant
charges recorded in history. I saw many of these fine fellows lying
dead along with their horses, on which they were still astride, with
the sword firmly grasped in the hand, as they had fought the instant
before; and several of them still wearing a look of fierce defiance,
which death itself had been unable to quench.
We halted for the night at a village near Penaranda. I took possession
of the church; and finding the floor strewed with the paraphernalia of
priesthood, I selected some silk gowns, and other gorgeous trappings,
with which I made a bed for myself in the porch, and where, "if all
had been gold that glittered," I should have looked a jewel indeed;
but it is lamentable to think, that, among the multifarious blessings
we enjoy in this life, we should never be able to get a dish of glory
and a dish of beef-steak on the same day; in consequence of which, the
heart, which ought properly to be soaring in the clouds, or, at all
events, in a castle half way up, is more generally to be found
grovelling about a hen-roost, in the vain hope, that, if it cannot get
hold of the hen herself, it may at least hit upon an egg; and such, I
remember, was the state of my feelings on this occasion, in
consequence of my having dined the three preceding days on the half of
my inclinations.
We halted the next night in the handsome little town of Olmeda, which
had just been evacuated by the enemy. The French General, Ferez, died
there, in consequence of the wounds which he received at the battle of
Salamanca, and his remains had, the night before, been consigned to
the earth, with the highest honours, and a canopy of laurel placed
over his grave: but the French had no sooner left the town, than the
inhabitants exhumed the body, cut off the head, and spurned it with
the greatest indignity. They were in hopes that this line of conduct
would have proved a passport to our affections, and conducted us to
the spot, as to a trophy that they were proud of; but we expressed the
most unfeigned horror and indignation at their proceeding; and,
getting some soldiers to assist us, we carefully and respectfully
replaced his remains in the grave. His _was_ a noble head; and even in
death, it looked the brave, the gallant soldier. Our conduct had such
an effect on the Spaniards, that they brought back the canopy, of
their own accord, and promised, solemnly, that the grave should,
henceforth, rest undisturbed.
July 26th.--We arrived on the banks of the Douro, within a league of
Valladolid, where we halted two days; and Lord Wellington, detaching a
division of infantry and some cavalry to watch the movements of the
defeated army, proceeded with the remainder of us towards Madrid.
August 1st.--On approaching near to our bivouac this afternoon, I saw
a good large farm-house, about a mile off the road; and, getting
permission from my commandant, I made a cast thereto, in search of
something for dinner. There were two women belonging to the German
Legion, smoking their pipes in the kitchen, when I arrived; and,
having the highest respect for their marauding qualifications, I began
to fear that nothing was to be had, as they were sitting there so
quietly. I succeeded, however, in purchasing two pair of chickens;
and, neglecting the precaution of unscrewing their necks, I grasped a
handful of their legs, and, mounting my horse, proceeded towards the
camp; but I had scarcely gone a couple of hundred yards, when they
began opening their throats and flapping with their wings, which
startled my horse and sent him off at full speed. I lost the rein on
one side, and, in attempting to pull him up with the other, I brought
his foot into a rut, and down he came, sending me head-foremost into a
wet ditch! When I got on my legs, and shook myself a little, I saw
each particular hen galloping across the field, screeching with all
its might, while the horse was off in a different direction; and,
casting a rueful look at the chickens, I naturally followed him, as
the most valuable of the collection. Fortunately, a heavy boat-cloak
caused the saddle to roll under his belly; and finding that he could
not make way in consequence, he quietly waited for me about a quarter
of a mile off. When I had remounted, I looked back to the scene of my
disaster, and saw my two German _friends_ busily employed in catching
the chickens. I rode towards them, and they were, no doubt, in hopes
that I had broken my neck, that they might have the sacking of me,
also; for, as I approached, I observed them concealing the fowls under
their clothes, while the one took up a position behind the other.
After reconnoitring them a short time, I rode up and demanded the
fowls, when the one looked at the other, and, in well-feigned
astonishment, asked, in _Dutch_, what I could possibly mean? then gave
me to understand that they could not comprehend English; but I
immediately said, "Come, come! none of your gammon; you have got my
fowls, here's half a dollar for your trouble in catching them, so hand
them out." "Oh!" said one of them, in English, "it is de fowl you
want," and they then produced them. After paying them the stipulated
sum, I wished them all the compliments of the season, and thought
myself fortunate in getting off so well; for they were each six feet
high, and as strong as a horse, and I felt convinced that they had
often thrashed a better man than myself in the course of their
military career.
August 7th.--Halted near the ancient town of Segovia, which bears a
strong resemblance to the old town of Edinburgh, built on a lofty
ridge, that terminates in an abrupt summit, on which stands the
fortified tower, celebrated in the Adventures of Gil Blas. It is a
fine old town, boasts of a superb Roman aqueduct, and is famous for
ladies' shoes.
Our bivouac, this evening, was on the banks of El Rio Frio, near to a
new hunting-palace of the King of Spain. It was a large quadrangular
building, each side full of empty rooms, with nothing but their youth
to recommend them.
On the 9th, we crossed the Guadarama mountains, and halted, for the
night, in the park of the Escurial.
I had, from childhood upwards, considered this palace as the eighth
wonder of the world, and was, therefore, proportionately disappointed
at finding it a huge, gloomy, unmeaning pile of building, looking
somewhat less interesting than the wild craggy mountain opposite, and
without containing a single room large enough to flog a cat in. The
only apartment that I saw worth looking at was the one in which their
_dead kings live_!
ENTERED MADRID,
August 13th, 1812.
As we approached the capital, imagination was busy in speculating on
the probable nature of our reception. The peasantry, with whom we had
hitherto been chiefly associated, had imbibed a rooted hatred to the
French, caused by the wanton cruelties experienced at their hands,
both in their persons and their property; otherwise they were a
cheerful, hospitable, and orderly people, and, had they been permitted
to live in peace and quietness, it was a matter of the most perfect
indifference to them whether Joseph, Ferdinand, or the ghost of Don
Quixotte was their king. But the citizens of Madrid had been living
four years in comparative peace, under the dominion of a French
government, and in the enjoyment of all the gaieties of that
luxurious court; to which, if I add that we entertained, at that time,
some slight jealousy regarding the pretensions of the French officers
to the favours of the fair, I believe the prevailing opinion was that
_we_ should be considered as the intruders. It was, therefore, a
matter of the most unexpected exultation, when we entered it, on the
afternoon of the 13th of August, to find ourselves hailed as
liberators, with the most joyous acclamations, by surrounding
multitudes, who continued their rejoicings for three successive days.
By day, the riches of each house were employed in decorations to its
exterior; and, by night, they were brilliantly illuminated, during
which time all business was suspended, and the whole population of the
city crowded the streets, emulating each other in heaping honours and
caresses upon us.
King Joseph had retired on our approach, leaving a garrison in the
fortified palace of El Retiro; but they surrendered some days
afterwards, and we remained there for three months, basking in the
sunshine of beauty, harmony, and peace. I shall ever look back to that
period as the most pleasing event of my military life.
The only bar to our perfect felicity was the want of money, as,
independent of long arrears, already due, the military chest continued
so very poor that it could not afford to give us more than a
fortnight's pay during these three months; and, as nobody could,
would, or should give cash for bills, we were obliged to sell silver
spoons, watches, and every thing of value that we stood possessed of,
to purchase the common necessaries of life.
My Irish _criado_, who used to take uncommon liberties with my
property, having been two or three days in the rear, with the baggage,
at the time of the battle of Salamanca, took upon himself to exchange
my baggage-horse for another; and his apology for so doing was, that
the one he had got was twice as big as the one he gave! The additional
size, however, so far from being an advantage, proved quite the
reverse; for I found that he could eat as much as he could carry,
and, as he was obliged to carry all that he had to eat, I was forced
to put him on half allowance, to make room for my baggage; in
consequence of which, every bone in his body soon became so _pointed_
that I could easily have hung my hat on any part of his hind quarters.
I therefore took advantage of our present repose to let him have the
benefit of a full allowance, that enabled me to effect an exchange
between him and a mule, getting five dollars to the bargain, which
made me one of the happiest and, I believe, also, one of the richest
men in the army. I expended the first dollar next day, in getting
admission to a bullfight, in their national amphitheatre, where the
first thing that met my astonished eyes was a mad bull giving the
finishing _prode_ to my unfortunate big horse.
Lord Wellington, with some divisions of the army, proceeded, about the
beginning of September, to undertake the siege of Burgos, leaving
those at Madrid, under the orders of Sir Rowland Hill, so that,
towards the end of October, our delightful sojourn there drew
perceptibly to a close, for it was known that King Joseph, with the
forces under Soult and Jourdan, now united, were moving upon Aranjuez,
and that all, excepting our own division, were already in motion, to
dispute the passage of the Tagus, and to cover the capital. About four
o'clock on the morning of the 23d of October, we received orders to be
on our alarm-posts at six, and, as soon as we had formed, we were
marched to the city of Alcala.
October 27th.--We were all this day marching to Arganda, and all night
marching back again. If any one thing is more particularly damned than
another it is a march of this kind.
October 30th--An order arrived, from Lord Wellington, for our corps of
the army to fall back upon Salamanca; we, therefore, returned to
Madrid, and, after halting outside the gates until we were joined by
Skerret's division, from Cadiz, we bade a last sorrowful adieu to our
friends in the city, and commenced our retreat.
October 31st.--Halted for the night in the park of the Escurial. It is
amusing, on a division's first taking up its ground, to see the
numbers of hares that are, every instant, starting up among the men,
and the scrambling and shouting of the soldiers for the prize. This
day, when the usual shout was given, every man ran, with his cap in
his hand, to endeavour to capture poor _puss_, as he imagined, but
which turned out to be two wild boars, who contrived to make room for
themselves so long as there was nothing but men's caps to contend
with; but they very soon had as many bayonets as bristles in their
backs. We re-crossed the Guadarama mountains next morning.
November 2d.--Halted, this night, in front of a small town, the name
of which I do not recollect. It was beginning to get dark by the time
I had posted our guards and piquets, when I rode into it, to endeavour
to find my messmates, who, I knew, had got a dinner waiting for me
somewhere.
I entered a large square, or market-place, and found it crowded with
soldiers of all nations, most of them three-parts drunk, and in the
midst of whom a mad bull was performing the most extraordinary feats,
quite unnoticed, excepting by those who had the misfortune to attract
his attention. The first intimation that I had of him was his charging
past me, and making a thrust at our quarter-master, carrying off a
portion of his regimental trousers. He next got a fair toss at a
Portuguese soldier, and sent him spinning three or four turns up in
the air. I was highly amused in observing the fellow's astonishment
when he alighted, to see that he had not the remotest idea to what
accident he was indebted for such an evolution, although he seemed
fully prepared to quarrel with any one who chose to acknowledge any
participation in the deed; but the cause of it was, all the time,
finding fresh customers, and, making the grand tour of the square with
such velocity, I began to fear that I should soon be on his list also,
if I did not take shelter in the nearest house, a measure no sooner
thought of than executed. I, therefore, opened a door, and drove my
horse in before me; but there instantly arose such an uproar within,
that I began to wish myself once more on the outside on any terms, for
it happened to be occupied by English, Portuguese, and German
bullock-drivers, who had been seated round a table, scrambling for a
dinner, when my horse upset the table, lights, and every thing on it.
The only thing that I could make out amid their confused curses was,
that they had come to the determination of putting the cause of the
row to death; but, as I begged to differ with them on that point, I
took the liberty of knocking one or two of them down, and finally
succeeded in extricating my horse, with whom I retraced my way to the
camp, weary, angry, and hungry. On my arrival there, I found an
orderly waiting to show me the way to dinner, which once more restored
me to good humour with myself and all the world; while the adventure
afforded my companions a hearty laugh, at my expense.
November 6th.--In the course of this day's march, while our battalion
formed the rear-guard, at a considerable distance in the rear of the
column, we found a Portuguese soldier, who had been left by his
regiment, lying in the middle of the road, apparently dead; but, on
examining him more closely, we had reason to think that he was merely
in a state of stupor, arising from fatigue and the heat of the
weather,--an opinion which caused us no little uneasiness. Although we
did not think it quite fair to bury a living man, yet we had no means
whatever of carrying him off; and to leave him where he was, would, in
all probability, have cost us a number of better lives than his had
ever been, for the French, who were then in sight, had hitherto been
following us at a very respectable distance; and, had they found that
we were retiring in such a hurry as to leave our half-dead people on
the road, they would not have been Frenchmen if they did not give us
an extra push, to help us along. Under all the circumstances of the
case, therefore, although our doctor was of opinion that, with time
and attention, he might recover, and not having either the one or the
other to spare, the remainder of us, who had voted ourselves into a
sort of board of survey, thought it most prudent to find him dead;
and, carrying him a little off the road to the edge of a ravine, we
scraped a hole in the sand with our swords, and placed him in it. We
covered him but very lightly, and left his head and arms at perfect
liberty; so that, although he might be said to have had both feet in
the grave, yet he might still have scrambled out of it, if he could.
CHAP. XII.
Reach Salamanca. Retreat from it. Pig Hunting, an Enemy to
Sleep-Hunting. Putting one's Foot in it. Affair on the 17th of
November. Bad Legs sometimes last longer than good ones. A Wet
Birth. Prospectus of a Day's Work. A lost _déjûné_ better than a
found one. Advantages not taken. A disagreeable Amusement. End of
the Campaign of 1812. Winter Quarters. Orders and Disorders
treated. Farewell Opinion of Ancient Allies. My House.
November 7th.--Halted this night at Alba de Tormes, and next day
marched into quarters in Salamanca, where we rejoined Lord Wellington
with the army from Burgos.
On the 14th, the British army concentrated on the field of their
former glory, in consequence of a part of the French army having
effected the passage of the river, above Alba de Tormes. On the 15th,
the whole of the enemy's force having passed the river, a cannonade
commenced early in the day; and it was the general belief that, ere
night, a second battle of Salamanca would be recorded. But, as all the
French armies in Spain were now united in our front, and out-numbered
us so far, Lord Wellington, seeing no decided advantage to be gained
by risking a battle, at length ordered a retreat, which we commenced
about three in the afternoon. Our division halted for the night at the
entrance of a forest about four miles from Salamanca.
The heavy rains which usually precede the Spanish winter had set in
the day before; and, as the roads in that part of the country cease to
be roads for the remainder of the season, we were now walking nearly
knee deep, in a stiff mud, into which no man could thrust his foot,
with the certainty of having a shoe at the end of it when he pulled it
out again; and, that we might not be miserable by halves, we had, this
evening, to regale our chops with the last morsel of biscuit that
they were destined to grind during the retreat.
We cut some boughs of trees to keep us out of the mud, and lay down to
sleep on them, wet to the skin; but the cannonade of the afternoon had
been succeeded, after dark, by a continued firing of musketry, which
led us to believe that our piquets were attacked, and, in momentary
expectation of an order to stand to our arms, we kept ourselves awake
the whole night, and were not a little provoked when we found, next
morning, that it had been occasioned by numerous stragglers from the
different regiments, shooting at the pigs belonging to the peasantry
which were grazing in the wood.
November 16th.--Retiring from daylight until dark through the same
description of roads. The French dragoons kept close behind, but did
not attempt to molest us. It still continued to rain hard, and we
again passed the night in a wood. I was very industriously employed,
during the early part of it, feeling, in the dark, for acorns, as a
substitute for bread.
November 17th.--At daylight this morning the enemy's cavalry advanced
in force; but they were kept in check by the skirmishers of the 14th
light dragoons, until the road became open, when we continued our
retreat. Our brigade-major was at this time obliged to go to the rear,
sick, and I was appointed to act for him.
We were much surprised, in the course of the forenoon, to hear a sharp
firing commence behind us, on the very road by which we were retiring;
and it was not until we reached the spot that we learnt that the
troops who were retreating, by a road parallel to ours, had left it
too soon, and enabled some French dragoons, under cover of the forest,
to advance unperceived to the flank of our line of march, who, seeing
an interval between two divisions of infantry, which was filled with
light baggage and some passing officers, dashed at it, and made some
prisoners in the scramble of the moment, amongst whom was
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Paget.
Our division formed on the heights above Samunoz to cover the passage
of the rivulet, which was so swollen with the heavy rains, as only to
be passable at particular fords. While we waited there for the passage
of the rest of the army, the enemy, under cover of the forest, was, at
the same time, assembling in force close around us; and the moment
that we began to descend the hill, towards the rivulet, we were
assailed by a heavy fire of cannon and musketry, while their powerful
cavalry were in readiness to take advantage of any confusion which
might have occurred. We effected the passage, however, in excellent
order, and formed on the opposite bank of the stream, where we
continued under a cannonade and engaged in a sharp skirmish until
dark.
Our loss on this occasion was considerable, but it would have been
much greater, had not the enemy's shells buried themselves so deep in
the soft ground, that their explosions did little injury. It appeared
singular to us, who were not medical men, that an officer and several
of our division, who were badly wounded on this occasion, in the leg,
and who were sent to the rear on gun-carriages, should have died of a
mortification in the limb which was _not_ wounded.
When the firing ceased, we received the usual order "to make ourselves
comfortable for the night," and I never remember an instance in which
we had so much difficulty in obeying it; for the ground we occupied
was a perfect flat, which was flooded more than ankle deep with water,
excepting here and there, where the higher ground around the roots of
trees, presented circles of a few feet of visible earth, upon which we
grouped ourselves. Some few fires were kindled, at which we roasted
some bits of raw beef on the points of our swords, and eat them by way
of a dinner. There was plenty of water to apologize for the want of
better fluids, but bread sent no apology at all.
Some divisions of the army had commenced retiring as soon as it was
dark, and the whole had been ordered to move, so that the roads might
be clear for us before daylight. I was sent twice in the course of the
night to see what progress they had made; but such was the state of
the roads, that even within an hour of daylight, two divisions,
besides our own, were still unmoved, which would consequently delay us
so long, that we looked forward to a severe harassing day's fighting;
a kind of fighting, too, that is the least palatable of any, where
much might be lost, and nothing was to be gained. With such prospects
before us, it made my very heart rejoice to see my brigadier's servant
commence boiling some chocolate and frying a beef-steak. I watched its
progress with a keenness which intense hunger alone could inspire, and
was on the very point of having my desires consummated, when the
general, getting uneasy at not having received any communication
relative to the movements of the morning, and, without considering how
feelingly my stomach yearned for a better acquaintance with the
contents of his frying-pan, desired me to ride to General Alten for
orders. I found the general at a neighbouring tree; but he cut off all
hopes of my timely return, by desiring me to remain with him until he
received the report of an officer whom he had sent to ascertain the
progress of the other divisions.
While I was toasting myself at his fire, so sharply set that I could
have eaten one of my boots, I observed his German orderly dragoon, at
an adjoining fire, stirring up the contents of a camp-kettle, that
once more revived my departing hopes, and I presently had the
satisfaction of seeing him dipping in some basins, presenting one to
the general, one to the aide-de-camp, and a third to myself. The mess
which it contained I found, after swallowing the whole at a draught,
was neither more nor less than the produce of a piece of beef boiled
in plain water; and, though it would have been enough to have
physicked a dromedary at any other time, yet, as I could then have
made a good hole in the dromedary himself, it sufficiently satisfied
my cravings to make me equal to any thing for the remainder of the
day.
We were soon after ordered to stand to our arms, and, as day lit up, a
thick haze hung on the opposite hills, which prevented our seeing the
enemy; and, as they did not attempt to feel for us, we, contrary to
our expectations, commenced our retreat unmolested; nor could we quite
believe our good fortune when, towards the afternoon, we had passed
several places where they could have assailed us, in flank, with great
advantage, and caused us a severe loss, almost in spite of fate; but
it afterwards appeared that they were quite knocked up with their
exertions in overtaking us the day before, and were unable to follow
further. We halted on a swampy height, behind St. Espiritu, and
experienced another night of starvation and rain.
I now felt considerably more for my horse than myself, as he had been
three days and nights without a morsel of any kind to eat. Our
baggage-animals, too, we knew were equally ill off, and, as they
always preceded us a day's march, it was highly amusing, whenever we
found a dead horse, or a mule, lying on the road-side, to see the
anxiety with which every officer went up to reconnoitre him, each
fearing that he should have the misfortune to recognize it as his own.
On the 19th of November we arrived at the convent of Caridad, near
Ciudad Rodrigo, and once more experienced the comforts of our baggage
and provisions. My boots had not been off since the 13th, and I found
it necessary to cut them to pieces, to get my swollen feet out of
them.
This retreat terminated the campaign of 1812. After a few days' delay,
and some requisite changes about the neighbourhood, while all the
world were getting shook into their places, our battalion finally took
possession of the village of Alameida for the winter, where, after
forming a regimental mess, we detached an officer to Lamego, and
secured to ourselves a bountiful supply of the best juice of the
grape which the neighbouring banks of the Douro afforded. The quarter
we now occupied was naturally pretty much upon a par with those of the
last two winters, but it had the usual advantages attending the march
of intellect. The officers of the division united in fitting up an
empty chapel, in the village of Galegos, as an amateur theatre, for
which, by the by, we were all regularly cursed, from the altar, by the
bishop of Rodrigo. Lord Wellington kept a pack of foxhounds, and the
Hon. Captain Stewart, of ours, a pack of harriers, so that these, in
addition to our old _Bolero_ meetings, enabled us to pass a very
tolerable winter.
The neighbouring plains abounded with hares; it was one of the most
beautiful coursing countries, perhaps, in the world; and there was,
also, some shooting to be had at the numerous vultures preying on the
dead carcasses which strewed the road-side on the line of our last
retreat.
Up to this period Lord Wellington had been adored by the army, in
consideration of his brilliant achievements, and for his noble and
manly bearing in all things; but, in consequence of some disgraceful
irregularities which took place during the retreat, he immediately
after issued an order, conveying a sweeping censure on the whole army.
His general conduct was too upright for even the finger of malice
itself to point at; but as his censure, on this occasion, was not
strictly confined to the guilty, it afforded a handle to disappointed
persons, and excited a feeling against him, on the part of
individuals, which has probably never since been obliterated.
It began by telling us that we had suffered no privations; and, though
this was hard to be digested on an empty stomach, yet, taking it in
its more liberal meaning, that our privations were not of an extent to
justify any irregularities, which I readily admit; still, as many
regiments were not guilty of any irregularities, it is not to be
wondered if such should have felt, at first, a little sulky to find,
in the general reproof, that no loop-hole whatever had been left for
them to creep through; for, I believe I am justified in saying that
neither our own, nor the two gallant corps associated with us, had a
single man absent that we could not satisfactorily account for. But it
touched us still more tenderly in not excepting us from his general
charge of inexpertness in camp arrangements; for, it was _our belief_,
and in which we were in some measure borne out by circumstances, that,
had he placed us, at the same moment, in the same field, with an equal
number of the best troops in France, that he would not only have seen
our fires as quickly lit, but every Frenchman roasting
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