The shout
Of battle now began, and rushing sound
Of onset ...
'Twixt host and host but narrow space was left.
_Milton_.
From the deservedly high character borne by the captain of the frigate
which I was ordered to join, he was employed by Lord Collingwood
on the most confidential services; and we were sent to assist the
Spaniards in their defence of the important fortress of Rosas, in
Catalonia. It has already been observed that the French general, St
Cyr, had entered that country, and, having taken Figueras and Gerona,
was looking with a wistful eye on the castle of Trinity, on the
south-east side, the capture of which would be a certain prelude to
the fall of Rosas.
My captain determined to defend it, although it had just been
abandoned by another British naval officer, as untenable. I
volunteered, though a supernumerary, to be one of the party, and was
sent: nor can I but acknowledge that the officer who had abandoned the
place had shown more than a sound discretion. Every part of the
castle was in ruins. Heaps of crumbling stones and rubbish,
broken gun-carriages, and split guns, presented to my mind a very
unfavourable field of battle. The only advantage we appeared to have
over the assailants was that the breach which they had effected in the
walls was steep in its ascent, and the loose stones either fell down
upon them, or gave way under their feet, while we plied them with
every kind of missile: this was our only defence, and all we had to
prevent the enemy marching into the works, if works they could be
called.
There was another and very serious disadvantage attending our
locality. The castle was situated very near the summit of a steep
hill, the upper part of which was in possession of the enemy, who
were, by this means, nearly on a level with the top of the castle,
and, on that eminence, three hundred Swiss sharpshooters had effected
a lodgment, and thrown up works within fifty yards of us, keeping up
a constant fire at the castle. If a head was seen above the walls,
twenty rifle-bullets whizzed at it in a moment, and the same
unremitted attention was paid to our boats as they landed.
On another hill, much to the northward, and consequently, further
inland, the French had erected a battery of six 24-pounders. This
agreeable neighbour was only three hundred yards from us; and,
allowing short intervals for the guns to cool, this battery kept up
a constant fire upon us from daylight till dark. I never could have
supposed, in my boyish days, that the time would arrive when I should
envy a cock upon Shrove Tuesday; yet such was my case when in this
infernal castle. It was certainly not giving us fair play; we had no
chance against such a force; but my captain was a knight-errant,
and as I had volunteered, I had no right to complain. Such was the
precision of the enemy's fire, that we could tell the stone that would
be hit by the next shot, merely from seeing where the last had struck,
and our men were frequently wounded by the splinters of granite with
which the walls were built, and others picked off like partridges, by
the Swiss corps on the hill close to us.
Our force in the castle consisted of a hundred and thirty English
seamen and marines, one company of Spanish, and another of Swiss
troops in Spanish pay. Never were troops worse paid and fed, or better
fired at. We all pigged in together; dirty straw and fleas for our
beds; our food on the same scale of luxury; from the captain downwards
there was no distinction. Fighting is sometimes a very agreeable
pastime, but excess "palls on the sense:" and here we had enough of
it, without what I always thought an indispensable accompaniment,
namely, a good bellyful; nor did I conceive how a man could perform
his duty without it; but here I was forced, with many others, to make
the experiment, and when the boats could not land, which was often the
case, we piped to dinner _pro formâ_, as our captain liked regularity,
and drank cold water to fill our stomachs.
I have often heard my poor old uncle say that no man knows what he can
do till he tries; and the enemy gave us plenty of opportunities of
displaying our ingenuity, industry, watchfulness, and abstinence. When
poor Penelope wove her web, the poet says--
"The night unravelled what the day began."
With us it was precisely the reverse: the day destroyed all the
labours of the night. The hours of darkness were employed by us in
filling sand-bags, and laying them in the breach, clearing away
rubbish, and preparing to receive the enemy's fire, which was sure to
recommence at daylight. These avocations, together with a constant and
most vigilant watch against surprise, took up so much of our time that
little was left for repose, and our meals required still less.
There was some originality in one of our modes of defence, and which,
not being _secundum artem_, might have provoked the smile of an
engineer. The captain contrived to make a shoot of smooth deal boards,
which he received from the ship: these he placed in a slanting
direction in the breach, and caused them to be well greased with
cook's slush; so that the enemies who wished to come into our
hold, must have jumped down upon them, and would in an instant be
precipitated into the ditch below, a very considerable depth, where
they might either have remained till the doctor came to them, or, if
they were able, begin their labours _de novo_. This was a very good
bug-trap; for, at that time, I thought just as little of killing a
Frenchman as I did of destroying the filthy little nightly depredator
just mentioned.
Besides this slippery trick, which we played them with great success,
we served them another. We happened to have on board the frigate a
large quantity of fishhooks; these we planted, not only on the greasy
boards, but in every part where the intruders were likely to place
their hands or feet. The breach itself was mined, and loaded with
shells and hand-grenades; masked guns, charged up to the muzzle with
musket-balls, enfiladed the spot in every direction. Such were our
defences; and, considering that we had been three weeks in the castle,
opposed to such mighty odds, it is surprising that we only lost twenty
men. The crisis was now approaching.
One morning, very early, I happened to have the look-out. The streak
of fog which during the night hangs between the hills in that country,
and presses down into the valleys, had just begun to rise, and the
stars to grow more dim above our heads, when I was looking over the
castle-wall towards the breach. The captain came out and asked me
what I was looking at. I told him I hardly knew; but there did appear
something unusual in the valley, immediately below the breach. He
listened a moment, looked attentively with his night-glass, and
exclaimed, in his firm voice, but in an undertoned manner "To
arms!--they are coming!"
In three minutes every man was at his post; and though all were quick,
there was no time to spare, for by this time the black column of the
enemy was distinctly visible curling along the valley like a great
centipede; and, with the daring enterprise so common among the troops
of Napoleon, had begun in silence to mount the breach. It was an awful
and eventful moment; but the coolness and determination of the little
garrison was equal to the occasion.
The word was given to take good aim, and a volley from the masked guns
and musketry was poured into the thick of them. They paused--deep
groans ascended! They retreated a few paces in confusion, then
rallied, and again advanced to the attack; and now the fire on both
sides was kept up without intermission. The great guns from the hill
fort, and the Swiss sharpshooters, still nearer, poured copious
volleys upon us, and with loud shouts cheered on their comrades to the
assault. As they approached and covered our mine, the train was fired,
and up they went in the air, and down they fell buried in the ruins.
Groans, screams, confusion, French yells, British hurras rent the
sky! The hills resounded with the shouts of victory! We sent them
hand-grenades in abundance, and broke their shins in glorious style. I
must say that the French behaved nobly, though many a tall grenadier
and pioneer fell by the symbol in front of his warlike cap. I cried
with rage and excitement; and we all fought like bull-dogs, for we
knew there was no quarter to be given.
Ten minutes had elapsed since the firing began, and in that time many
a brave fellow had bit the dust. The head of their attacking column
had been destroyed by the explosion of our mine. Still they had
re-formed, and were again half-way up the breach when the day began to
dawn; and we saw a chosen body of one thousand men, led on by their
colonel, and advancing over the dead which had just fallen.
The gallant leader appeared to be as cool and composed as if he were
at breakfast; with his drawn sword he pointed to the breach, and
we heard him exclaim, "_Suivez moi!_" I felt jealous of this brave
fellow--jealous of his being a Frenchman; and I threw a lighted
hand-grenade between his feet--he picked it up, and threw it from him
to a considerable distance.
"Cool chap enough that," said the captain, who stood close to me;
"I'll give him another;" which he did, but this the officer kicked
away with equal _sang froid_ and dignity. "Nothing will cure that
fellow," resumed the captain, "but an ounce of lead on an empty
stomach--it's a pity, too, to kill so fine a fellow--but there is no
help for it."
So saying, he took a musket out of my hand, which I had just
loaded--aimed, fired--the colonel staggered, clapped his hand to his
breast, and fell back into the arms of some of his men, who threw down
their muskets, and took him on their shoulders, either unconscious or
perfectly regardless of the death-work which was going on around them.
The firing redoubled from our musketry on this little group, every
man of whom was either killed or wounded. The colonel, again left to
himself, tottered a few paces further, till he reached a small bush,
not ten yards from the spot where he received his mortal wound. Here
he fell; his sword, which he still grasped in his right hand, rested
on the boughs, and pointed upwards to the sky, as if directing the
road to the spirit of its gallant master.
With the life of the colonel ended the hopes of the French for that
day. The officers, we could perceive, did their duty--cheered,
encouraged, and drove on their men, but all in vain! We saw them pass
their swords through the bodies of the fugitives; but the men did not
even mind that--they would only be killed in their own way--they had
had fighting enough for one breakfast. The first impulse, the fiery
onset, had been checked by the fall of their brave leader, and _sauve
qui peut_, whether coming from the officers or drummers, no matter
which, terminated the affair, and we were left a little time to
breathe, and to count the number of our dead.
The moment the French perceived from their batteries that the attempt
had failed, and that the leader of the enterprise was dead, they
poured in an angry fire upon us. I stuck my hat on the bayonet of
my musket, and just showed it above the wall. A dozen bullets were
through it in a minute: very fortunately my head was not in it.
The fire of the batteries having ceased, which it generally did at
stated periods, we had an opportunity of examining the point of
attack. Scaling-ladders, and dead bodies lay in profusion. All the
wounded had been removed, but what magnificent "food for powder" were
the bodies which lay before us!--all, it would seem, picked men; not
one less than six feet, and some more: they were clad in their
grey _capots_, to render their appearance more _sombre_, and less
discernible in the twilight of the morning: and as the weather was
cold during the nights, I secretly determined to have one of those
great coats as a _chère amie_ to keep me warm in night-watches. I also
resolved to have the colonel's sword to present to my captain; and as
soon as it was dark I walked down the breach, brought up one of the
scaling-ladders, which I deposited in the castle; and having done so
much for the king, I set out to do something for myself.
It was pitch dark. I stumbled on: the wind blew a hurricane, and the
dust and mortar almost blinded me; but I knew my way pretty well. Yet
there was something very jackall-like, in wandering about among dead
bodies in the night-time, and I really felt a horror at my situation.
There was a dreadful stillness between the blasts, which the pitch
darkness made peculiarly awful to an unfortified mind. It is for this
reason that I would ever discourage night-attacks, unless you can rely
on your men. They generally fail: because the man of common bravery,
who would acquit himself fairly in broad daylight, will hang back
during the night. Fear and Darkness have always been firm allies; and
are inseparably playing into each other's hands. Darkness conceals
Fear, and therefore Fear loves Darkness, because it saves the coward
from shame; and when the fear of shame is the only stimulus to fight,
daylight is essentially necessary.
I crept cautiously along, feeling for the dead bodies. The first I
laid my hand on, made my blood curdle. It was the lacerated thigh of a
grenadier, whose flesh had been torn off by a hand-grenade. "Friend,"
said I, "if I may judge from the nature of your wound, your great coat
is not worth having." The next subject I handled, had been better
killed. A musket-ball through his head had settled all his tradesmen's
bills; and I hesitated not in becoming residuary legatee, as I was
sure the assets would more than discharge the undertaker's bill; but
the body was cold and stiff, and did not readily yield its garment.
I, however, succeeded in obtaining my object; in which I arrayed
myself, and went on in search of the colonel's sword; but here I had
been anticipated by a Frenchman. The colonel, indeed, lay there, stiff
enough, but his sword was gone. I was preparing to return, when I
encountered, not a dead, but a living enemy.
"_Qui vive_?" said a low voice.
"_Anglois, bête_!" answered I, in a low tone: and added, "_mais les
corsairs ne se battent pas_"
"_Cest vrai_" said he; and growling, "_bon soir_" he was soon out of
sight. I scrambled back to the castle, gave the countersign to the
sentinel, and showed my new great coat with a vast deal of glee and
satisfaction; some of my comrades went on the same sort of expedition,
and were rewarded with more or less success.
In a few days the dead bodies on the breach were nearly denuded by
nightly visitors; but that of the colonel lay respected and untouched.
The heat of the day had blackened it, and it was now deprived of all
its manly beauty, and nothing remained but a loathsome corpse.
The rules of war, as well as of humanity, demanded the honourable
interment of the remains of this hero; and our captain, who was the
very flower of chivalry, desired me to stick a white handkerchief on
a pike, as a flag of truce, and bury the bodies, if the enemy would
permit us I went out accordingly, with a spade and a pick-axe; but the
_tirailleurs_ on the hill began with their rifles, and wounded one of
my men. I looked at the captain, as much as to say, "Am I to proceed?"
He motioned with his hand to go on, and I then began digging a hole by
the side of a dead body, and the enemy, seeing my intention, desisted
from firing. I had buried several, when the captain came out and
joined me, with a view of reconnoitring the position of the enemy.
He was seen from the fort, and recognized; and his intention pretty
accurately guessed at.
We were near the body of the colonel, which we were going to inter;
when the captain, observing a diamond ring on the finger of the
corpse, said to one of the sailors, "You may just as well take that
off: it can be of no use to him now." The man tried to get it off, but
the rigidity of the muscle after death prevented his moving it. "He
won't feel your knife, poor fellow," said the captain; "and a finger
more or less is no great matter to him now: off with it."
The sailor began to saw the finger-joint with his knife, when down
came a twenty-four pound shot, and with such a good direction that it
took the shoe off the man's foot, and the shovel out of the hand of
another man. "In with him, and cover him up!" said the captain.
We did so; when another shot not quite so well directed as the first,
threw the dirt in our faces, and ploughed the ground at our feet.
The captain then ordered his men to run into the castle, which they
instantly obeyed; while he himself walked leisurely along through
a shower of musket-balls from those cursed Swiss dogs, whom I most
fervently wished at the devil, because, as an aide-de-camp, I felt
bound in honour as well as duty to walk by the side of my captain,
fully expecting every moment that a rifle-ball would have hit me where
I should have been ashamed to show the scar. I thought this funeral
pace, after the funeral was over, confounded nonsense; but my
fire-eating captain never had run away from a Frenchman, and did not
intend to begin then.
I was behind him, making these reflections, and as the shot began
to fly very thick, I stepped up alongside of him, and, by degrees,
brought him between me and the fire. "Sir," said I, "as I am only
a midshipman, I don't care so much about honour as you do; and,
therefore, if it makes no difference to you, I'll take the liberty of
getting under your lee." He laughed, and said, "I did not know you
were here, for I meant you should have gone with the others: but,
since you are out of your station, Mr Mildmay, I will make that use of
you which you so ingeniously proposed to make of me. My life may be of
some importance here; but yours very little, and another midshipman
can be had from the ship only for asking: so just drop astern, if you
please, and do duty as a breastwork for me!"
"Certainly, sir," said I, "by all means;" and I took my station
accordingly.
"Now," said the captain, "if you are '_doubled up_,' I will take you
on my shoulders!"
I expressed myself exceedingly obliged, not only for the honour he
had conferred on me, but also for that which he intended; but hoped I
should have no occasion to trouble him.
Whether the enemy took pity on my youth and _innocence_, or whether
they purposely missed us, I cannot say: I only know I was very happy
when I found myself inside the castle with a whole skin, and should
very readily have reconciled myself to any measure which would have
restored me even to the comforts and conveniences of a man-of-war's
cockpit. All human enjoyment is comparative, and nothing ever
convinced me of it so much and so forcibly as what took place at this
memorable siege.
Fortune, and the well known cowardice of the Spaniards, released me
from this jeopardy; they surrendered the citadel, after which the
castle was of no use, and we ran down to our boats as fast as we
could; and notwithstanding the very assiduous fire of the watchful
_tirailleurs_ on the hill, we all got on board without accident.
There was one very singular feature in this affair. The Swiss
mercenaries in the French and Spanish services, opposed to each other,
behaved with the greatest bravery, and did their duty with unexceeded
fidelity; but being posted so near, and coming so often in contact
with each other, they would cry truce for a quarter of an hour, while
they made inquiries after their mutual friends; often recognizing each
other as fathers and sons, brothers and near relatives, fighting on
opposite sides. They would laugh and joke with each other, declare the
truce at an end, then load their muskets, and take aim, with the same
indifference, as regarded the object, as if they had been perfect
strangers; but, as I before observed, fighting is a trade.
From Rosas we proceeded to join the admiral off Toulon; and being
informed that a battery of six brass guns, in the port of Silva, would
be in possession of the French in a few hours, we ran in, and anchored
within pistol-shot of it. We lashed blocks to our lower mast-heads,
rove hawsers through them, sent the ends on shore, made them fast
to the guns, and hove off three of them, one after another, by the
capstan; and had the end of the hawser on shore, ready for the others,
when our marine videttes were surprised by the French, driven in, and
retreated to the beach with the loss of one man taken prisoner.
Not having sufficient force on shore to resist them, we re-embarked
our party, and the French, taking up a position behind the rocks,
commenced a heavy fire of musketry upon us. We answered it with
the same; and now and then gave them a great gun; but they had the
advantage of position, and wounded ten or eleven of our men from their
elevated stations behind the rocks. At sunset this ceased, when a boat
came off from the shore, pulled by one Spaniard; he brought a letter
for the captain, from the officer commanding the French detachment.
It presented the French captain's compliments to ours; regretted the
little interruption he had given to our occupation; remarked that the
weather was cold, and as he had been ordered off in a hurry, he had
not had time to provide himself; and as there was always a proper
feeling among _braves gens_, requested a few gallons of rum for
himself and followers.
This request was answered with a _polite note_, and the spirits
required. The British captain hoped the commandant and his party would
make themselves comfortable, and have a _bon repos_. The captain,
however, intended the Frenchman should pay for the spirits, though not
in money, and sent in the bill about one o'clock in the morning.
All at that hour was as still as death; the French guard had refreshed
themselves, and were enjoying the full extent of our captain's
benefaction, when he observed to us that it was a pity to lose the
boat which was left on shore, as well as the other brass guns, and
proposed making the attempt to bring off both. Five or six of us
stripped, and lowering ourselves into the water, very gently swam
ashore, in a breathless kind of silence, that would have done honour
to a Pawnee Loup Indian. The water was very cold, and at first almost
took away my respiration. We landed under the battery, and having
first secured our boat without noise, we crept softly up to where the
end of the hawsers lay by the side of the guns, to which we instantly
made them fast. About a dozen French soldiers were lying near, keeping
watch, fast asleep.
We might easily have killed them all; but as we considered they were
under the influence of our rum, we abhorred such a violation of
hospitality. We helped ourselves, however, to most of the muskets that
were near us, and very quietly getting into the boat, put off and
rowed with two oars to the ship. The noise of the oars woke some of
the soldiers, who, jumping up, fired at us with all the arms they had
left; and I believe soon got a reinforcement, for they fired both
quick and well; and, as it was starlight and we were naked, our bodies
were easily seen, so that the shot came very thick about us.
"Diving," said I, "is not running away;" so over we all went, except
two. I was down like a porpoise never rising till my head touched the
ship's copper. I swam round the stern, and was taken in on the side
opposite the enemy. My captain, I daresay, would have disdained such
a compromise; but though I was as proud as he was, I always thought,
with Falstaff, that "discretion was the better part of valour,"
especially in a midshipman.
The men left in the boat got safe on board with her. The hands were
all ready, and the moment our oars splashed in the water, they hove
round cheerfully, and the guns came galloping down the rocks like
young kangaroos. They were soon under water, and long before the
Frenchmen could get a cut at the hawsers. They then fired at them with
their muskets, in hopes of stranding the rope, but they failed in that
also. We secured the guns on board, and before daylight got under
weigh, and made sail for the fleet, which we joined shortly
afterwards.
I here learned that my own ship had fought a gallant action with an
enemy's frigate, had taken her opponent, but had suffered so much that
she was ordered home for repairs, and had sailed for England from
Gibraltar.
I had letters of introduction to the rear-admiral, who was second in
command; and I thought, under these circumstances the best thing I
could do would be to "clean myself," as the phrase used to be in those
days, and go on board and present them. I went accordingly, and saw
the flag-captain, who took my letters in to the admiral, and brought
out a verbal, and not a very civil message, saying, I might join
the ship, if I pleased, until my own returned to the station. As it
happened to suit my convenience, I _did_ please; and the manner in
which the favour was conferred disburdened my mind of any incumbrance
of gratitude. The reception was not such as I might have expected: had
the letters not been from people of distinction, and friends of the
rear-admiral, I should much have preferred remaining in the frigate,
whose captain also wished it, but that was not allowed.
To the flag-ship, therefore, I came, and why I was brought here, I
never could discover, unless it was for the purpose of completing a
menagerie, for I found between sixty and seventy midshipmen already
assembled. They were mostly youngsters, followers of the rear-admiral,
and had seen very little, if any, service, and I had seen a great deal
for the time I had been afloat. Listening eagerly to my "yarns,"
the youthful ardour of these striplings kindled, and they longed to
emulate my deeds. The consequence was numerous applications from the
midshipmen to be allowed to join the frigates on the station; not one
was contented in the flag-ship; and the captain having discovered that
I was the tarantula which had bitten them, hated me accordingly, and
not a jot more than I hated him.
The captain was a very large, ill-made, broad-shouldered man, with
a lack-lustre eye, a pair of thick lips, and a very unmeaning
countenance. He wore a large pair of epaulettes; he was irritable in
his temper; and when roused, which was frequent, was always violent
and overbearing. His voice was like thunder, and when he launched out
on the poor midshipmen, they reminded me of the trembling bird which,
when fascinated by the eye of the snake, loses its powers, and falls
at once into the jaws of the monster. When much excited, he had a
custom of shaking his shoulders up and down; and his epaulettes, on
these occasions, flapped like the huge ears of a trotting elephant.
At the most distant view of his person or sound of his voice, every
midshipman, not obliged to remain, fled, like the land-crabs on a West
India beach. He was incessantly taunting me, was sure to find some
fault or other with me, and sneeringly called me "one of your frigate
midshipmen."
Irritated by this unjust treatment, I one day answered that I _was_
a frigate midshipman, and hoped I could do my duty as well as any
line-of-battle midshipman, of my own standing, in the service. For
this injudicious and rather impertinent remark, I was ordered aft on
the quarter-deck, and the captain went in to the admiral, and asked
permission to flog me; but the admiral refused, observing, that he did
not admire the system of flogging young gentlemen: and, moreover, that
in the present instance he saw no reason for it. So I escaped; but I
led a sad life of it, and often did I pray for the return of my own
ship.
Among other exercises of the fleet, we used always to reef topsails at
sunset, and this was usually done by all the ships at the same moment,
waiting the signal from the admiral to begin; in this exercise there
was much foolish rivalry, and very serious accidents, as well as
numerous punishments, took place, in consequence of one ship trying to
excel another. On these occasions our captain would bellow and foam at
the mouth like a mad bull, up and down the quarter-deck.
One fine evening the signal was made, the topsails lowered and the men
laying out on the yards, when a poor fellow from the main-topsail yard
fell, in his trying to lay out; and, striking his shoulder against the
main channels, broke his arm. I saw he was disabled, and could not
swim: and, perceiving him sinking, I darted overboard, and held him
until a boat came and picked us up; as the water was smooth, and there
was little wind, and the ship not going more than two miles an hour, I
incurred little risk.
When I came on deck I found the captain fit for Bedlam, because the
accident had delayed the topsails going to the mast-head quite as
quick as the rest of the fleet. He threatened to flog the man for
falling overboard, and ordered me off the quarter-deck. This was
great injustice to both of us. Of all the characters I ever met
with, holding so high a rank in the service, this man was the most
unpleasant.
Shortly after, we were ordered to Minorca to refit; here, to my great
joy, I found my own ship, and I "shook the dust off my feet," and
quitted the flag with a light heart. During the time I had been on
board, the admiral had never said, "How do ye do?" to me--nor did he
say, "Good-bye," when I quitted. Indeed, I should have left the ship
without ever having been honoured with his notice, if it had not
happened, that a favourite pointer of his was a shipmate of mine. I
recollect hearing of a man who boasted that the king had spoken to
him; and when it was asked what he had said, replied, "He desired me
to get out of his way."
My intercourse with the admiral was about as friendly and flattering.
Pompey and I were on the poop. I presented him with a piece of hide
to gnaw, by way of pastime. The admiral came on the poop, and seeing
Pompey thus employed, asked who gave him that piece of hide? The
yeoman of the signals said it was me. The admiral shook his long
spy-glass at me, and said, "By G----, sir, if ever you give Pompey a
bit of hide again, I will flog you."
This is all I have to say of the admiral, and all the admiral ever
said to me.