The author is attacked by illness—Miseries of military travelling
in that condition—Quarters at Celorico—The author's difficult
recovery—Grievous sufferings endured by the soldiers affected
with fever in the sickly season—Death of the Paymaster—The
author rejoins his Division—Movements of the French—A clerical
case of disaster—The contested mattress—A dance—Expensive
celebration of Christmas—Story of the German suttler—Village and
neighbourhood of Fuente de Guinaldo—Theatrical representations by
the English officers.
Three days after our long reconnoissance I became blind with
ophthalmia, was seized with violent rheumatic pains in the soles of
my feet, and took to my bed. My legs and knees swelled to an enormous
size, first turning red, then blue, and I was no longer able to move.
Many other officers became sick, and were ordered to the rear. I for
one, mattress and all, was shoved into a Spanish car. Our feelings
during the passage of the Agueda were indescribable.—Ye invalids,
stretched on your beds of down! comfort yourselves; submit to your
pains with Christian philosophy, and bless your lucky stars that you
did not belong to the army of Portugal. Rejoice that your very lives
are not shaken out of you by such ups and downs; first over one rock,
then over another, and dragged along by bullocks sometimes forced
into a run, owing to the steepness of the adamantine roads. I could
no longer bear the terrible pain. In my shirt, with my legs enveloped
in bandages of the car, I begged and entreated to be lifted out,
being quite helpless and blind. To get on a mule's back was quite out
of the question, my legs and knees were so inflamed. At length some
sick soldiers offered to try and carry or rather drag me from rock to
rock. First I got a jolt on one side, then an unintentional bump on
the other; the men were exhausted; and I entreated them to hold up my
feet, (while my head lay in the road), for I could not bear them on the
ground. At the end of the second day's tormenting journey, we entered
Castel Nero. The cars were drawn round a stone fountain, and while
waiting for our billets from the _Juez de Fora_, the howling of wolves
was distinctly heard in all directions, amid the surrounding woods and
rocks.
For five burning days we travelled from morning until nightfall at
the rate of a mile an hour. Each night I was dragged out of the car,
mattress and all, shoved into some horrible recess that was almost
alive with vermin, and replaced in my uneasy vehicle in the morning
for the continuation of the journey. On the fifth day, when within two
leagues of Celorico (the place of our destination), we drew up, as
Major Ellers of our regiment requested that he might rest for a short
time, since he could no longer bear the jolting of his vehicle; in a
few minutes however he expired, and his body was carried forward and
interred.
The heat of the weather was almost past endurance. On our arrival
at Celorico, with an empty room for my quarter and the floor for
my resting place, I remained sixty days nearly immoveable, my only
covering a filthy blanket, which had been stained all over from my
mule's sore back. On the journey it had been placed under the animal's
pack saddle to save its back, by day, while in turn I had the benefit
of it as a covering by night. In this miserable plight, what with
bleeding and blistering, and long confinement, I had become a perfect
skeleton, and reduced to the most wretched condition. Five medical
officers came to hold a consultation at the foot of my mattress, and,
having examined my now lank legs, and big feet, they assured me,
that they could not hold out any hope of a speedy recovery, and even
doubted whether I should ever again be enabled to straighten my right
leg, the knee of which had become contracted during the pains of my
rough journey. The staff doctors held out every inducement to persuade
me to go to England, by first offering a spring waggon to convey me
to Lisbon. My suffering had been great, my arms hung nearly useless
by my side, my legs refused their office: yet I still cherished the
hope, that they would again, carry me forward. Doctor Mac Lean most
kindly pressed me to acquiesce in their advice, but without effect:
(poor gentleman—I understood he died a few days subsequently of a
fever!)—how could I leave the army, whom I found amongst mountains
feeding on hard biscuit and drinking rum impregnated with the
mosquitoes? A pretty warlike story to recount at home! The very thought
was frightful! More bleeding and blistering were therefore resorted
to, by which means, added to a good constitution, at the expiration of
another month I was enabled with the assistance of crutches to reach
my window, the trellis work of which being thrown open offered me
ineffable delight at once more enjoy the sight of a few living objects
in the street.
The rain now fell in torrents for days together, and thousands of
British and Portuguese soldiers (now crowding the churches which
had been converted into hospitals) were dying by hundreds, of fever
produced by the sickly season. The excruciating torments, suffering
and privations of the common soldiers were such, that an adequate
description is impossible,—many of them lingering in raging fevers,
stretched out on the pavement, the straw that had been placed for their
comfort, having worked from under them during their agonies, while
hundreds of flies settled on and blackened their dying faces: and so
stationary did these tormentors become, that those who still maintained
sufficient power were obliged to tear them from off their faces, and
squeeze them to death in their hands. Cars piled up, and loaded with
the remains of these unfortunate victims to disease, daily passed
through the streets for the purpose of pitching their bodies into some
hole by way of interment. The medical officers were overpowered by the
numbers of sick, and also fell ill themselves, so that it was a total
impossibility, notwithstanding their strenuous efforts, to surmount
all difficulties, and to pay that attention to all that could have
been wished. The very hospital orderlies were exhausted by attending,
burying, and clearing away the dead. These scenes of misery cannot
be fancied: the sick pouring into the town, lining the streets, and
filling every house, set at nought all theoretical conception.
Our paymaster entered the town with a raging fever. His hopes were not
realized: he never again beheld his wife or his comfortable fire side.
At the end of a few days' anguish he expired, and was buried with the
rest.
Captain Poppleton was the commandant at this station. Officers of other
corps held similar commands (with certain privileges) at _Belem_,
_Santarem_, _Niza_, and other towns for the purpose of regulating
quarters for the sick and stragglers of the army.
At the expiration of four unhappy months I became so far convalescent,
as to be enabled to proceed to join my corps. I counted every step
forward which carried me further from the hated and detestable _dépôt_,
where every surrounding object depicted misery, and where, when the
_lively_ army happened to be in motion, such gloomy reports were
spread, as to intimidate the sick and frighten the convalescents out
of the country. Having passed through Guarda, Sabugal, and several
miserable Portuguese villages, at the expiration of five days I
reached Fuente de Guinaldo, the head quarters of the division. It
is unnecessary to say that a hearty welcome hailed my arrival, and
various interesting incidents, which had occurred since I left, were
related by my companions, but none were more agreeable to my sanguine
mind, than to hear that the division had not fired a shot during the
time of my absence; so far dame Fortune had befriended me.
The enemy, under the Duke of Ragusa, had advanced on the 25th of
September to throw provisions into Rodrigo, and had attacked the fourth
division at Adea de Ponte, and part of the third division, who had
distinguished themselves against the French cavalry on the heights near
El Bodon, they having made several vain efforts to break their little
squares for two leagues over firm charging ground; little, I repeat,
because the regiments composing the brigade were very weak in point of
numbers.
The light division was stationed on the right bank of the Agueda,
hovering on the enemy's left flank; but, owing to the central attack,
it was obliged to march _à détour_, so as to accomplish a concentration
with the third division at Fuente de Guinaldo. This was done with the
loss of one man, and that was the _parson_ attached to the division,
who had entered a house and turned snugly into bed, while the soldiers
were shivering on the ploughed ground with keen appetites. During the
night, the troops retrograded a short distance, suffering all the while
from cold. The march was much impeded owing to a trifling stream in
the road, and other obstacles, which the soldiers could not at first
surmount, for the extreme darkness. By some accident the parson was
not aware of this movement. Towards morning, while wrapped in the arms
of Morpheus, he felt a gentle tap, and on opening his leaden eyelids,
he saw four French heavy dragoons wrapped in white cloaks, with
weather-beaten visages and huge mustachios, (crowned by brazen helmets,
surmounted with tyger skins,) hanging over him in deep consultation on
the best way of disposing of his person. The debate closed by their
allowing him to put on his sable garments, to be conveyed a prisoner
to the governor of Ciudad Rodrigo, who, on being informed of his
harmless pursuits, gave directions for his liberation, so that he might
go in search of the English army. On his being conducted to the gate
of the town, the French soldiers rudely divested him of his coat and
waistcoat, using their feet besides, in a most unceremonious manner,
and left him to pursue his journey in his shirt sleeves.
Although the house occupied by the officers of the company was small,
they declared that I should not seek a bed elsewhere; and one of my
friends assured me that he would soon supply me with that article.
Without further ado he hastily retired, and in a few minutes we heard
a great uproar in the street, and, making for the door, we found my
friend running towards the house loaded with a mattress on his back,
and pursued by a woman out of whose house he had taken it. Rushing into
the room breathless and convulsed with laughter, he threw it on the
floor, which he had no sooner done than the furious owner burst in,
and, laying violent hands on it, began to tug away, showering forth a
string of Spanish imprecations, too numerous to mention, but easily to
be guessed at by those who have heard such refined salutations from an
enraged Spanish _muger_. It was not until her strength had entirely
failed her that she would admit of an explanation; but, on money being
offered her, she turned away indignantly; and as she had not shown any
relaxation of the muscles of her brown visage, and her large black eyes
continued to express unutterable things, the officer thought it better
to reload himself and return that which, in a frolicsome moment, he had
carried off with so much dexterity; but the woman pulled it from off
his shoulder, and, with all the natural generosity of the sex, gave him
the use of it, (as it was for a convalescent comrade,) as long as it
might be required.
A dance was to take place that evening. The officers, therefore, put on
their best uniforms, and decorated themselves with all the precision
and care used when about to attend a ball of a more enlightened circle.
On entering the room we observed the females decorated in their
best attire and trinkets. The band struck up a _bolero_; that being
concluded, the male peasantry retired, leaving their mistresses to hop
down our country dances, and to instruct us in those figures we had
attempted to teach them. Generals, and all ranks, mixed in these rustic
dances, where a variety of little coquetries were practised on the
half-enamoured swains. The smell of garlic was scarce tolerable; but
these were no times for niceties.
Every effort was exerted to do ample justice to Christmas. The
different officers' messes dined alternately with each other, to
partake of lean roast beef and plumb pudding. Poultry was procured; in
fact, no expense was spared. A four pound loaf cost a dollar; moist
sugar three _pecetas_ a pound, and every other commodity equally
expensive; still the festive board was well supplied, and the evenings
most joyfully spent.
One of the suttlers who had taken post with our division, to amass a
fortune, was a German of ordinary appearance with a pretty wife. Here
it so happened that our serjeant-major, a man of portly figure, was
possessed of more small talk than usually falls to the lot of men in
his station of life; and, being remarkably fond of good living, and
other amusements, proved a very losing customer at the above worthy
suttler's shop, who could not help seeing the decline of that stock
which he had brought from Lisbon at so much expense; besides other
annoyances which he _could not see_. He, therefore, in a fit of
extreme irritation, without his hat, made for the commanding officer's
quarters, where he entered unceremoniously, and then laid bare all his
wrongs. "_Sare_," said he, "_your serjeant major is a very bad man. He
drinky my wine. He eaty my sugar. He drinky my tea and my coffee. He
kissy my vife, and he kick * * *. Sare, your serjeant-major is a very
bad man._"
Every morning the officers were engaged rehearsing their different
parts, or superintending the making of theatrical dresses, (as the
tragedy of Henry IV was to be performed by various officers,) and
scene painting. The latter was principally executed by Bell, (the
assistant quarter master general of the division,) in an old chapel,
within one hundred yards of the village, which had been gutted of its
ornaments by the French or the priests.
The compact and small village of Fuente de Guinaldo stands on an
eminence in an open plain, encircled at a certain distance by a number
of stone crosses, said to have been placed there by the peasantry to
frighten away evil spirits. There are no enclosures, no out-barns, or
farm houses, in this part of Spain, which gives the plain during winter
a very lonely aspect, skirted as it is by a distant wood, and a ridge
of wild mountains on the summit of which is a monastery, which is only
to be seen on a clear day; for if the weather is at all hazy, it is
enveloped by clouds. The communication from one village to another, is
a sort of track beaten into the shape of a road by the footsteps and
small traffic of many generations.
The natives of this part of the country form a little colony, unmixed
by a second order of society, as there is no resident beyond the rank
of a peasant, the principal holding the authority of _Alcalde_, and
completely governing the village in all judicial affairs. He exercises
his power with mildness, which is perceptible in the independent
manners of the people.
The girls sing very pretty airs in praise of some renowned chieftain,
or of her who happens to be the acknowledged beauty. Maria Josepha,
of Fuentes de Onor, was the happy _Moza_ whose charms were extolled
at this period: but what most struck my attention was a song about
Marlborough's knowing how to make war, and sung to the same tune
as in England. The mothers lull their children to sleep by it; and
when bodies of troops enter towns, or the girls dance _boleros_,
this is a general tune. I inquired of a _muchacha_ where she learnt
it; she opened her eyes with a ludicrous surprise, and made answer,
in the quick witty manner usual amongst the Mozas, "Why, of my
grandmother,—_Que edad tiene V. M?_"[13]—by way of giving me a hint
not to consider myself the instructor.
The long expected night of performance having arrived, written bills
of the play having been distributed throughout the village (which was
filled like a bee hive with officers who had come from a considerable
distance from other divisions of the army, with flowing camlet cloaks,
and mounted on _boricos_, mules, and ragged-mained stallions;) and
tickets being issued for pit and boxes, we moved in Bacchanalian groups
towards _el Teatro_ (or chapel). It was crammed to excess, as we had
not forgotten to reserve some room for _los soldados_. The curtain no
sooner drew up, than the wonder of the _Muchachas_ knew no bounds, and
they became so loquacious in admiration of the scenery and dresses,
and in disputing among themselves which was _el Principe_, and which
the various characters the officers were to personify, that it was
a considerable time before they could be so far tranquillized as to
permit the performance to proceed, which, however, went off with great
eclat. "Poins, and be hanged." Alas! no. Poor Poins was badly wounded,
and blown up a few days after!
[Footnote 13: How old are you?]