March To Leiria -- Liberation of Nuns -- Retreat before the
French to within the lines of Torres Vedras -- General flitting
on the part of the population -- Pitiful scenes on the road --
Lawrence and his comrades cantoned in a cellar at Patamara --
They find a treasure -- The owner doesn't, and makes a
disturbance -- Lawrence as an interpreter -- A game of cunning
between officers and men, ending in a victory for the latter --
Massena compelled to retreat to Santarem for want of supplies --
The regiment receives its South American prize money, and is
promptly put in the way to spend it.
On Lord Wellington finding that the French intended to alter their
route, and so escape this formidable height, he retreated towards
Lisbon himself, passing Coimbra, at which place the Portuguese took
some thousands of the French sick and wounded, together with some few
effective troops, who had been left to protect the hospital. From
Coimbra we proceeded farther south, having again to cross the Mondego,
which we did in the latter end of September, reaching Leiria on the
2nd of October.
On the march we passed a nunnery, where we halted for about a quarter
of an hour. A great many of the nuns were crowding the balconies to
watch us, and as the French were following us up pretty close, the
colonel ordered the doors to be broken open by a body of grenadiers,
which was soon done, myself being among the number told off for the
purpose. This was not carried out, however, without an accident, for
one of the women meanwhile fell from a balcony, owing to the crowded
state in which they were packed on it. The poor women seemed very glad
to get their liberty, for they came out as thick as a flock of sheep,
and a great many of them soon passed us bound for Lisbon, being
fearful of consequences if they took any other direction: as the
French were after us so near as to skirmish with our rear-guard,
which chiefly consisted of cavalry.
Lord Wellington had indeed issued a proclamation ordering all the
inhabitants to fall back on the approach of the enemy, and destroy any
articles that they might possess and were not able to carry with them,
that were at all likely to be of any use to the enemy; and so
thousands of the population of the country that seemed about to fall
within the bounds of the enemy's marches were to be seen flying from
their dwellings, and our army during its retreat was accompanied by
crowds of miserable men, women, and children, all eager to reach the
capital, as they knew that if they fell in with the French, they would
be treated as some had been before, with all the barbarities of an
atrocious enemy. I have often heard talk of "moving" in England, and
have seen a cart or wagon with a man driving a load of furniture, at
the rate of three miles an hour, with a woman and perhaps several
children sitting on the top, or at the back; but I never before or
since saw such a wholesale move as this was, for every one seemed
anxious to carry as many of his effects as he could find room for. The
farther we proceeded the more confused our retreat appeared, for
multitudes were obliged to rest weary and exhausted by the roadside,
and often, though made eager in their endeavours as they heard of the
enemy's approach to again renew their tedious journey, were found
dying or even dead from their hard exertions, and the road was
everywhere strewn with pieces of all kinds of furniture, which the
poor fugitives had vainly attempted to get forward.
From Leiria we went on further to Torres Vedras, which we gained after
a long, tedious, and impressive march; and there we took up our
position at some fine breastworks which Lord Wellington had for some
time previous ordered to be thrown up by the Portuguese peasantry in
case of the retreat of our army. Now we found how much we needed them,
for on the 10th of October the French came in sight of our strong
position, where we had drawn up, determined that they should not
proceed one step farther towards Lisbon.
Massena was rather surprised at our strength, which was quite
unexpected by him. He had thought of driving the English into the sea,
but he now found his mistake, so encamped about a mile and a half from
our position.
On the 14th, however, he attacked our lines near Sobral, but was
repulsed; and on another occasion a slight skirmish took place on the
right of the line, in which the French general, St. Croix, was killed
by the fire from our gunboats; but on account of our strong position,
the French did not come to a general engagement.
The cold and rainy weather having now set in, Lord Wellington had
provided as well as possible for the best reception of his troops, who
were mostly now in cantonments, whilst those of Massena's army were
subject to hardships of the worst description, owing to the cold,
wet, and above all insufficient food and raiment, for they were far
away from all supplies from their own country, and there were
guerillas or mountain rebels always on the watch to intercept such as
were sent, while our army was so near Lisbon that it could always get
abundance. Our regiment was situated in a village called Patamara, in
the front of our works, where we lay as comfortably as if we had been
living in peaceful times; though we were so near the enemy that we
very often wandered into the same vineyards, and exchanged compliments
by shaking hands.
We were cantoned in a large cellar, but it was unfortunately empty, or
at least there was no wine in it, and though there was a quantity of
wheat in a vat, we had no need of that, as we had plenty of our own
supplies. The owner of our cellar generally visited us every day, and
we could not help thinking after a time that he seemed to take
particular notice of a large box or bin that two of our men were using
to sleep in, so we moved it one morning, and found that the ground
underneath had been disturbed. Of course we thought that there must be
some treasure concealed there, so we went to work with our bayonets,
having no other tools at hand, and soon we came across a large jar,
which we found contained bags of dollars, about two hundred and fifty
in each bag; which treasure we distributed privately among the cellar
company, carefully breaking the jar and returning the earth to its
proper place, with the chest on the top of it, so that a minute eye
could not have told that it had been disturbed.
Next morning as usual the owner came, bringing with him two labourers,
who set to work filling the chest with wheat from the vat, evidently
with the intention of making it weighty, he little suspecting that his
treasure, which he supposed was underneath, had been divided amongst
his tenants. After that we thought we were pretty right from
detection, but we were mistaken, for in the morning our restless owner
again made his appearance with the two labourers. I should think that
that night he must have dreamt of our manoeuvre, for he now shifted
the wheat back again into its place, moved the chest, and raised the
earth and the broken jar, but found the bird had flown. I shall never
forget the rage the man was in. I thought he would have torn the hair
off his head; in fact, he did tear some up by the roots, but he must
have found that a poor way of showing his spite. He cried, "_Ladrone!
Ladrone!_" which was his way of expressing "Thief! Thief!" but finding
that we did not take much notice of him, he reported his loss to the
colonel, or rather went off to him with that intention; but as the
colonel did not understand his language, I was sent for, as by that
time I was pretty well acquainted with it; and on my replying to the
question as to what the Portuguese wanted, that he required a corporal
and three privates to guard a stack of wood, the colonel told me to
let him know that he had nothing to do with it. I told the Portuguese
that it was no use his making a noise about the money, as it must have
been only a little change that he could not conveniently recover,
unless he could bring proper witnesses to prove he had put the money
there.
That only appeased him for the night, however, for he came bothering
the colonel again next morning. The colonel again sent for me and
asked me what on earth this man wanted now, so I was then obliged to
admit the truth. I asked him if he would forgive me for telling him an
untruth overnight, and on his consenting, I told him the Portuguese
had lost a quantity of money, which he put down at seven thousand
dollars. The Portuguese's answer to the question who had placed the
money there was that he had himself, but he could bring no witnesses
to show that he had really done it, so the colonel said he could have
nothing to do with the affair. However, the following morning the
plague again appeared, so the colonel to quiet him told him that the
grenadiers had some prize money which was expected in a few days, and
which he should receive in lieu of what he had lost, which sent the
old man off seemingly as satisfied as if he had already got the money
in his possession, shaking hands with us all round, and bowing and
scraping as if we had been so many kings.
The matter did not altogether rest here, however, for the colonel
suspecting that we were implicated, next day we were ordered as if
for marching, just as if we were going to leave the place that very
day, but the men being quite up to that trick, knowing that the French
were still in front, concealed their shares of the money in and around
the cellar. I remember well the manner in which my own and one of my
fellow-comrades' shares were hidden: there was a heap of pumpkins in
the cellar, and in one of these we enclosed our money, cutting a piece
out of it of sufficient size to admit the dollars, and after closing
it up with the top of the original piece, mixing it again with the
remainder of the heap. The company was then marched out into a field,
and all our knapsacks and pockets were searched, but even the little
money that some must have had before was missing.
The colonel did not mind being baffled so much as the major did, who
told the colonel that if he left it in his hands he would endeavour to
find the money, to which the colonel replied that he was just the man
the Portuguese wanted. The manner in which this cunning major went to
work might have succeeded with men less artful than he found us to be,
but every one in the cellar had part in it, so it was to the interest
of all to keep the affair secret, and not only that, but every man's
share in the prize happened to amount to more than the sum which the
major offered to any one who would reveal it. He came to one of the
sergeants of the grenadiers and told him to pick out ten of the men
who would be most likely to inform, but instead of doing so, I think
the sergeant must have chosen the ten worst rogues in the company.
These were then all marched off to the major's quarters, and had in
one by one to see him, as he sat with five guineas lying on his table,
which he offered to the first who should reveal the mystery: but
finding, after he had interviewed about three of them, that he was
being duped, for they all told the same tale, that was that they knew
nothing about the money, he was so enraged that he told them all to go
about their business, saying that they were all a set of thieves, and
next time he saw the colonel he had to own, much to the amusement both
of the latter and of the whole regiment, that he had been beaten in
his knowing undertaking.
Massena remained a little more than a month in his position in front
of Torres Vedras, when, owing to want of food and ammunition, he was
compelled to retrace his steps, not being able to get supplies through
Spain, as the guerillas--who were the most warlike and independent
race of the Spaniards, being chiefly offenders who had escaped to the
mountains and there formed themselves into one strong body amounting
to some thousands--were always on the watch for any supplies that they
might catch hold of, more especially from the enemy, and appropriate
to their own use. Much credit is due to Lord Wellington for thus
drawing the enemy to a place such as Torres Vedras, where they could
get no supplies, and further, could gain no advantage, but on the
other hand must have lost some thousands through want, cold and wet.
From Torres Vedras Massena's army proceeded to Santarem, about ten
leagues from Torres Vedras, and there took up his position on the
Tagus, whence foraging parties were sent out to scour the country for
provisions, who committed horrible excesses on the inhabitants,
carrying away their cattle, or any provisions they could lay their
hands on. It was this that chiefly infuriated the inhabitants against
the French, and caused them to retaliate on any of their stragglers or
wounded whom they came across butchering and using them in a most
awful manner; and even then, after all this work, this method of
gathering provisions for so large an army as Massena's was soon
exhausted.
When the French had retreated from Torres Vedras, Lord Wellington left
some troops in charge of his lines there, and followed to Santarem,
but no general battle took place, only small engagements. The enemy
seemed pretty firm to their ground, so Lord Wellington moved his army
into cantonments again. Our detachment was lying some distance from
Santarem on the Tagus; the actual name of the place is blotted from my
memory by lapse of years.
It was rather curious that while there we received our South American
prize money; money taken from the very people we were now allied with,
so that a great part of it was spent amongst them again. Each private
received eight dollars, and I believe the serjeants sixteen.
The Lisbon traders must have got scent of this, for a quantity of
boats laden with little requisites and luxuries ascended the river
from Lisbon to trade amongst the soldiers, and so we were soon enabled
to rid ourselves of our little spare cash. Our colonel was very
considerate to these people, and being determined as far as possible
to prevent all plunder, had their boats or stalls guarded by sentries.
This, however, did not altogether hinder some of the more daring from
getting things on the cheap now and then, but they were so trifling
that they are hardly worthy of mention.