Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/333

Rh in the spirit of ancient chivalry, were conferred upon him. His majesty gave his royal license and command "that to the armorial ensigns of his family, being a cross crosslet fitchee between three crescents in chief, and as many fusils in base, he may bear the following honourable augmentation, viz., on a chief, a bastion of a fortification intended to represent San Vicente, the British ensign hoisted on the angle, and the two faces near the salient angle, surmounted each by two scaling ladders; and the following crest of honourable augmentation, viz., out of a mural crown inscribed with the word 'Salamanca,' a demi-lion, regardant quitte de sang, in the mouth and sinister paw an eagle, or standard reversed, the staff broken, intended to represent the French standard taken by the said fifth division of his majesty's army in the said ever memorable battle of Salamanca, to be borne arid used with the motto 'Badajos,' by the said Sir James Leith, and by his descendants, as a memorial to them and to his majesty's beloved subjects in general, of the sense which his Royal Highness entertains of his loyalty, ability, and valour; provided the said armorial distinction be first duly exemplified, according to the law of arms." The hero of Badajos and Salamanca, for so he is virtually acknowledged to be by this mark of royal favour, was also permitted to wear the insignia of an honorary knight commander of the Portuguese royal military order of the Tower and Sword, conferred upon him as a mark of distinction for his bravery, by the government of that country.

In April, 1813, the subject of our memoir, from the effects of the Walcheren fever which he still felt, and the severe wound which he had received, was obliged to retire to England. Subsequently to this period, the British army, under its renowned leader, the marquis of Wellington, took the offensive, and defeated the army of the south, the army of Portugal, and the army of the centre, under marshal Jordan in the battle of Vittoria, and compelled Joseph Bonaparte, who had been crowned king of Spain, to retire and quit that country. The marquis was successful in the battles of the Pyrenees, and resumed the siege of San Sabastian, which had been interrupted by the advance of the enemy. San Sabastian is situated in a peninsula, on the extremity of which rises a conical rock, of remarkable appearance, (jailed Monte Orgullo, where the castle stands, distinctly separated from the town, by an outer line of defence. The town, previously to the siege, contained a large population; its northern wall being washed by the river Ururnea, the southern by the sea; and the western defences consist of a double line of works. It was a place of great strength, and possessed a garrison of four thousand troops. The siege had been commenced by the fifth division of the army, and two Portuguese brigades, under lieutenant-general Sir Thomas Graham; but it was not till the 23rd of July, that two breaches, one of them one hundred feet in length, had been effected, when an attempt was made to take the citadel, and the British were driven back, after they had penetrated into the town, with the loss of nine hundred men. Lord Wellington ordered another assault, after reconnoitering the breaches on the 31st of August, and as Sir James Leith had now joined the army, the immediate command of the storm was intrusted to this brave officer. The sea wall having been levelled to the ground, the storm commenced at the two breaches, which were in the same curtain, at eleven in the forenoon, when the fall of the tide had left the wall dry; and in approaching, there was but one point where it was possible to enter, as the inside of the wall to the right of the curtain formed a perpendicular scarp of at least twenty feet to the level of the streets, and every point which bore upon the narrow passage was covered with men protected by intrenchments and traverses, who poured their destructive and successful fire upon the assailants as they ap-