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42 RECOLLECTIONS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. of any kind, and as they advanced with their unwieldy burthens many were killed or wounded under the eyes of their comrades. Every minute we heard from the works going forward the cries of “I'm wounded,” while the men who still remained unhurt toiled on with a furious assiduity, in order to get under cover. The shot continued to fly over us with a fearful noise, and owing either to the distance they had come, different degress of velocity, or causes to us unknown, they seemed to emit a variety of sounds, some of which at another time might have been accounted musical.

“In this state of awful inactivity we lay listening till near day light, and, though the firing of the artillery of the garrison continued without intermission, yet some of us dropped into a kind of sleep, from which many were destined never to awaken in this world. At day break a large shell alighted on the brow of the hillock, above where we lay, and giving a few rapid rolls towards us, burst between the legs of a sergeant, tearing off his thigh, and killing or wounding seventeen others. On the noise of this explosion I started up, and the first object that met my halfopened eyes was a German soldier, whose knapsack was on fire, shouting lustily to get it off his back. It appeared that the fusee of the shell having caught his cartridge box, it blew up, setting his knapsack in a blaze, and in his terror and confusion he was unable himself to get rid of his fiery burthen.

“During this day the enemy slackened their fire, and as the workers were by this time nearly sheltered little loss was for a time sustained; the chief annoyance was their shells; wherever a group of us sought shelter, shells were almost certain of falling immediately after, and, although their near approach was announced by the smoke of their fusee, and a kind of whistling noise, we were kept in a state of perpetual agitation to elude them. In several instances I observed the shells, after their fall, roll about, sometimes like enormous foot balls, and passing over the bodies of several who had fallen flat, exploded without doing the least injury.

“At twilight the party we had been anxiously expecting from the camp for our relief appeared; on which the enemy opened a most tremendous fire of grape and musketry, and though they came into the trenches at double quick, several were killed and wounded. We retired in a like hasty manner, and also suffered some loss.

“From our camp we could perceive that of the two other brigades of our division which, under General Stewart, were stationed on the opposite® side of the city, where the firing of cannon and musketry was constantly heard; our only communication was by a ford, several miles up the river. At this period, cannon and military stores were arriving daily from Elvas; they were forwarded on large cars, drawn by bullocks, and called by us “shea cars,” from the term used by the drivers when goading the animals forward.Our provisions were forwarded on mules, which travelled in troops, and besides the muleteers each troop was under the direction of a leader, called the capitras.

“On the evening of the 9th May I was one of a picket of eighty men at Major Ward's battery, then erecting on the right of the great road leading to St. Christoval. The night passed over without any event that could be deemed remarkable in our situation. We had, as it were, the same annoyance by shot and shells as on a former night; the same painful scenes to witness of killed and wounded, and similar hair breadth escapes, watchings, and alarms. At day break the sentinel at the outer end of the bastion reported that the French were coming out of St. Christoval, in considerable numbers, and the next minute that they were outside the palisadoes; and in his third report that they had set out at double quick towards our grand battery, where the next moment resounded the firing of musketry. We immediately set forward in that direction, but no sooner were clear of the trenches than the fort opened its fire, and in crossing the road leading to the bridge we suffered severely, the grape shot literally pouring upon us. Before our arrival the enemy had been repulsed, and were now assailed in their turn. We were ordered to advance, and sprang over the rampart with alacrity. The French had by this time got under cover of their guns, which now commenced a most destructive fire, and our gallant leader, Captain Smyth, having fallen, and the enemy moving into the fort, the bugles sounded a recall, and we retired into the trenches, now half filled with the dying and the dead. Those of the French smelled strongly of brandy, of which they were reported to have had a double allowance that morning. Before the firing had entirely ceased, the light companies of our brigade from the camp appeared on the road near the bridge; and at the same time their esteemed commander, Major Birmingham, was observed to fall from his horse, being struck on the thigh by a grape shot. These troops perceiving that the enemy were not only repulsed, but also moving along the bridge into the city, from which many of them had come that morning, retired to the camp. Major Birmingham died on the following day, regretted by every man in our regiment, by whom he was regarded as a brave officer and common friend. On returning to our former station, we had to cross the road near the bridge where so many had fallen on our advance, on which the fort again opened its guns, but not with such destructive effect as before. Amongst the dead was recognised our fugleman, with his head and shoulder besmeared with blood and brains, and some, observing that he was alive, gave him a push with their feet, on which he moved his eyes, and we hurried him into the trenches. It was soon discovered that he was not even wounded, and that the blood and brains must have been those of the person who covered him in the ranks, and whose head had been struck off by a cannon shot, and dashed against his with a force by which he had been knocked down and stupified. For some time he was unconscious of his situation, and at length