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RECOLLECTIONS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 43 complained greatly of his head, which we bound up, and he remained lying in the trenches till our relief arrived. He did not recover the effect of this shock for several days, though as brave a man as any in the regiment. On counting our files it was found that of the eighty men who set forward to oppose the sortie made by the enemy exactly forty were enabled to resume their stand in the ranks. Our total loss in the affair amounted to 400 men. On the same day an officer of the engineers got on the bastion to view the enemy's fortifications, to which our guns were about to be opposed. He remained standing with a spy glass for about ten minutes, had turned round, stooped a little, ready to jump down, when a cannon shot carried away his head. His glass dropping from his hand, as his body fell into the trenches, we had a hard struggle for his instrument, while the shot were flying over our heads; so callous had we become by custom to every sense of danger that death had lost the greater part of his grim and grisly terrors.

“On the 12th I was again on duty at the grand battery, which was yet incompleted, and without cannon. The great ramparts of earth cast up, prevented our receiving much injury either by round or grape shot, yet our situation was even more perilous and irksome than on any former occasion. By this time the besieged had arrived at such fatal precision, as to the due distance of throwing their shells, that they mostly either fell on the gabions, or dropped into the trenches, thus rendered as unsafe as any other place within range of their guns. We retaliated briskly, by taking aim at those exposed when loading the cannon at the embrasures, and in this deliberate work of death we were pretty successful, as was obvious from the irregular discharge from those parts exposed to the effects of our unceasing shot. On this day a large shell dropped into the trenches near a Sergeant Fullen, who, to evade its effects, caught it up like a large putting stone, and, to the terror and astonishment of many, threw it over the bastion, where it exploded, without doing the smallest mischief! The other occurrences and casualties at this time were so very similar to those already mentioned that I omit their relation.

“Here, as on other occasions, when mingled with the Portuguese soldiers, we had frequent dealings with them for their rations of rum, which they reserved in horns, and, being very abstemious from liquors, were always willing to dispose of. If provisions were scarce they would only exchange their rum for bread, if plenty they would have money; but as we sometimes had neither, stratagem was resorted to in their place. Their common salutation when holding out their horns, was, 'Compra ruma? Will you buy rum?' Our answer, 'Si Senhor, provemos primeiro,' 'Let's try it first.' Taking a hasty mouthful, and passing it to another, we exclaimed, 'Ah noa esta bom ruma,' 'It's not good rum,' and in this manner their horns were often nearly emptied in these trials; on which discovery their owners would exclaim in great agitation, ‘Ah, ladrao! bebe todo,' 'Ah, thief! you have drunk it all.' When higgling, and not likely to agree in those bargains, they would put the horn to their mouths, and giving a great stagger declare they would get drunk and fight like the Inglezes.

“On the morning of the 14th, the grand battery, consisting of brass twenty four pounders, and some howitzers, opened on fort St. Christoval; but, though a spirited fire was kept up, it was soon evident that they must be silenced by that of the enemy, who, being in a great measure disengaged in that quarter, poured a terrible and overwhelming fire upon them. By the following morning our fire was considerably abated, several of the cannon being dismounted, and the muzzles of others so beaten by the large shot struck against them as to be unserviceable, and by noon only one gun was enabled to reply to the furious and unremitting cannonade of St. Christoval. Major Ward's battery was still without cannon, hence unable to take any part in the severe and conflicting events going forward. Fortunately, on this evening, an express arrived from Marshal Beresford to raise the siege, and, hasten to join him in the direction of Albuera, as Marshal Soult was advancing from Seville with a powerful army to the relief of Badajoz. At twilight our outposts were withdrawn, and every article brought off that was serviceable; and pressing forward with cheerful alacrity we entered Elvas by eleven o'clock the same night.Heartily tired of the dangerous and harassing service we had left, we rejoiced at decamping from a place that had been marked by a succession of the most perilous services, and conceived that any change must be for the better compared with our state for the last eight days. Indeed there is no duty so truly harassing to a soldier as a protracted siege, and certainly none to which he feels so marked an aversion. A general action or assault brings matters to a speedier issue, and valour and military gallantry have there a more extended field; and except a disastrous retreat, there is no situation which damps the spirit and ardour of an army so much as a tedious siege.

“We halted only a few hours at Elvas, and continuing our route, crossed the Guadiana at Jurumanha, and during our march heard at intervals the deep rolling sounds of artillery in the direction of Albuera. Late on this evening we entered Olivenza, where we halted till about two o'clock next morning, and on setting out met some of those who had been wounded early in the action we had heard the preceding day. Their accounts were vague and contradictory as to the probable issue of the contest they had left. In our progress we passed numerous troops of wounded, seated on mules or asses, and many straggling slowly forward on foot, or lying by the road, some of whom were already dead. Their numbers increased as we advanced, and fully testified that the battle had been one of the most sanguinary kind. Such scenes as these were really ill calculated to excite a thirst for military fame and the “pride and pomp of glo-