Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/303

 purpose the particulars of his part in the storm of Ciudad Rodrigo in a pamphlet, of which he printed only fifty copies for private circulation. The preface is dated 14th June, 1845. I have not seen the pamphlet, but the writer of the article, Gurwood, John, in the second supplement to The Penny Cyclopœdia, says that the particulars in his article are taken from one of the fifty copies. The writer of the article appears to be in error in saying that the officer who commanded one of the storming parties was of the rank of major. That officer, whom I have met at the house of a common friend, was at the time I saw him a major, Major Mackie, but at the storm of Ciudad Rodrigo he was Lieutenant Mackie of the Connaught Rangers. His statement—and I believe that he and Colonel Gurwood were both men incapable of wilful inveracity or misstatement—was that he accepted the surrender of the governor; that a sword, afterwards found to be that of an aide-de-camp, had been presented to him in token of surrender; and that while he was engaged in saving the lives of two officers who laid hold of him for protection, one on each arm, Lieutenant Gurwood came up and obtained the sword of the governor. Major Mackie died in 1839, and this statement was made public in the