Berkshire, I met with a recruiting party, beating up for recruits. The
sergeant saw me going through the town, and called out to me to stop; he
asked me what services I had been in; I told him I had been in Portugal
of late, in the Queen’s service; and that I had formerly belonged to the
95th Rifles. He observed the medal on me, and asked me what brigade I
belonged to; I told him the first brigade and second division, commanded
by General Sir Frederick Adams. He then asked me if I knew what
regiments belonged to the brigade; I told him the 52nd Light Infantry,
the 71st Scotch, and the Rifles. He said, “I was in the 71st in the
battle of Waterloo.” I observed the medal on his coat. I stopped with
him two days; it did not cost me a farthing unless I wished. The
sergeant was very partial to me, and wished me to enlist, but I did not
comply with his wishes. During the two days I was with him and his
recruiting party, he got me to go round the town with a drawn sword over
my shoulder. When he pulled up at a tavern, and when the young men of
the town would assemble round, he used to tell the inhabitants, pointing
to me at the time, that I had been in the service and made an
independency. I was the cause of picking up double the number of
recruits that he could have got in any other way. I used to gammon the
young countrymen they were all going to be made officers and gentlemen
of, and they believed me. When I was about making my exit the third
morning, he very kindly shook hands with me, and pressed me very hard to
stay with him. “As you know a great many officers in the Portuguese
service, I can recommend you to gentleman, a squire who lives about
three miles from town.” I should come to a gate leading to a park where
the squire resided; so I walked boldly up through the park and up to the
front door and rang the bell; a servant came out to ask me what I
wanted, and I told him I wished to see the squire. When the squire came
he asked me what I wanted with him; I said I knew the squire’s brother
in Portugal (Colonel Bacon, colonel in the Lancers). He looked at me
very hard, and asked me a great many questions respecting him; also if I
had been in any engagements along with him at any time. I told him I had
been in two general engagements in one brigade with him. He asked me
what engagements they were, and I satisfied him. He then enquired if I
knew the colonel personally; I said I did, having often had conversation
with him about Great Britain. He next asked me if I knew anything that
took place at Velonga, and what it was. I informed him that we had
liberty to plunder the town for two hours after we had taken it; and
that I went into a gentleman’s apartment in the township of Velonga,
where I found the colonel, who said to me, “Soldier, what brings you
here?” I answered, “My legs, Sir. I have come on the same errand as
yourself.” “What is that?” he enquired. I told him it was to fill my
pockets or haversack with whatever I could lay hold of. He said, “I did
not ask you for that; but I wish to know what you have come after.”
“Anything I can lay my hands on,” I replied, “But I am afraid, colonel,
there is very little to be got in this room, for I believe you have got
it all.” I went into another room as quick as I could, and picked up a
very valuable article--a golden crucifix. The colonel coming into the
room, I said, “I do not know, colonel, what you got in the other room,
but look here what I have got!” So I held out my hand to show him my
prize. He was going to take hold of it with his delicate thumb; but I
cried out in Portuguese “_Parer Poed!_” that is in English, “Stop a
bit.” After that we both hunted about the room, and then went into two
or three more. I got pretty well enough to satisfy myself.
The squire was delighted to think I could give such an excellent
account, and made me a present of five pounds. He then rang the bell,
and the servant came up, whom he ordered to take me down and give me
some refreshment. Afterwards I proceeded on my journey to London.
I met with nothing worthy of mention until I reached London. I found the
gentleman out to whom the colonel, in Bristol, had recommended me. I was
very well treated by him, and highly recommended by several gentlemen
who had relations in the service I had been engaged in; and they were
pleased to see me. I got a card of a gentleman’s address (Mr. Thomas
Shaw, 16 Woburn Place, Russell-square.) I went to his house, and found
him at his office; as I was going up the steps he observed me from the
window making an advance towards the office. When I knocked at the door
he desired me to come in, and asked me my business. I told him I had
been in Portugal with a brother of his, who ranked as Captain Charles
Shaw, Captain of the Light Company, of the British battalion under
Colonel Hodges; and that I had been corporal in his company for more
than two years. In answer to his inquiry I told him my name was Thomas
Knight. “Corporal Knight!” said he, looking at me very hard, and asking
me a great many questions, which I answered. I mentioned that I had been
out with his brother in the Portuguese service; the first time I met him
was on board the ship going to Spithead. Mr. Shaw asked me if I would
drink a glass of wine; and he ordered the man to bring up a bottle out
of the cellar; he poured out a glass, and I drank to his health and to
that of the gentlemen in company with him, and also to his absent
brother, Brigadier-General Shaw, whom I had left in Portugal. He
replied, “Bravo, Corporal!”
After some little time elapsed, Mr. Shaw brought me to the map he had in
the office, and asked me if I understood it, I replied that I did. He
then pointed his finger to a certain place on the map, and asked me if I
knew its name. I answered that, it was a street called Rue Tendemoza. He
pointed to another part of the map and asked if I knew what that was. I
told him that was the convent of St. Lazarus. I then informed him I had
brought his brother out of the field, when he was wounded, in three
different engagements; and that the last wound he received to my
knowledge was at Bomfine, on the 18th August 1832, where I saw him
wounded by shot, in both calves of his legs. We held no farther
conversation about him, as it was only on my own affairs. I told him I
had been very severely wounded myself, and the captain wished me (if I
felt inclined) to remain in the country until it was all over. We used
to meet together in Oporto, and often have a chat together--he with
crutches and me with a walking-stick to help me along; and that I was
unfit for service, being very stiff-kneed. He asked me if I was anything
of a scholar, I replied I was. He then said “I have thought of getting
up some work to enable you to live during your old age.” He then handed
me some sheets of foolscap paper and told me to write an account of my
adventures.
He remarked that it would take too long for me to write it, and that he
would instruct his clerk to write the account for me after office hours;
so after a short time I went to the clerk (who was a short-hand writer),
for eight or ten evenings for about three hours each evening, in a
private apartment. After that period Mr. Shaw made me a present of five
pounds, recommending me not to get tipsy, as he said soldiers were very
apt to do so. I thanked him for his kindness, and assured him that I
would profit by his good advice.
When I had completed my history he had 750 copies printed, which I sold
about London; and now, many years after, I have again had recourse to
this method of earning a trifle to support myself, for at the present
time my wants are not many, my means are equally small, and now that I
am so old, being 73 years, I am quite unable to do any kind of work, and
in closing this narrative must ask my kind readers not to criticise too
closely my little book, for my hand is not so steady nor my head so
clear as they were when I stood in the ranks, in the never to be
forgotten battle of Waterloo!
In conclusion, I hope this account of my life and adventures may prove
interesting to my readers, and that they may have the gratification of
feeling that in buying my little book, they have contributed their mite
towards smoothing the rough path of life of the declining days of one of
the few still surviving veterans who fought for their country under
Wellington.
THOMAS KNIGHT.
[Illustration]
R. Bell, Printer, 97 Little Collins Street East, Melbourne.
* * * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
Page 4, “friends I had been living him,” changed to read “friends I had
been living with,” as in the 1867 printing of this book.
Obvious printer errors corrected silently.
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]