Six weeks in hospital at Estremoz -- A new way to keep up the
spirits -- Lawrence allowed to go on to Salamanca at his own risk
-- He catches the fever there, and has to go into hospital again
at Ciudad Rodrigo -- At last rejoins his regiment -- Cessation of
hostilities on both sides, and the British Army goes into
cantonments -- Lawrence made a corporal -- The cat's paw comes in
for its share of the booty, and gets the chestnuts into the
bargain -- A romantic episode to relieve the monotony of war.
A day or two after these events, the wounded were all conveyed to
hospital, some to Elvas and some to Estremoz. I was amongst the
latter, as was likewise my comrade whom I mentioned as meeting me in
the streets of Badajoz, as we were considered better able to stand the
longer journey, the distance on from Elvas to Estremoz being about six
leagues the other side from Badajoz.
On our arrival at hospital, we were allowed to take in no spirits or
wine, which, as we had lately had so much of them, seemed to be more
of a hardship to us than our wounds: but we were not long in working a
system by which we were enabled to procure something to drink. The
window of our ward looked out into one of the streets, on the opposite
side of which was a wine shop, which for some time tormented us
horribly: it was something like the fable of the fox and the grapes,
sour because it was out of reach. The man of the house was often at
his door on the look out, the natives there seeming to suffer from
that general complaint as much as in our own country villages, where
if there is anything fresh in the streets, perhaps only a strange man,
or even one of the inhabitants in a new coat or hat, the whole place
works itself into an uproar.
We soon devised a plan to gain our desired end. There was in the ward
a tin kettle, holding nearly two gallons, and having procured a long
string we put our money into this, and lowered it to the Portuguese,
who soon getting used to our plan would put the money's value in the
shape of wine into the kettle and again tie it to the string, so that
we could hoist it up to the window again. After that we arranged for
our ward to be pretty well supplied with grog too in the same way.
Some suspicions being entertained by the doctor on the inflamed
appearance of our wounds, he told us two or three times that he knew
we had been drinking something we ought not, and blew the sergeant of
the guard up for not being more strict in his search at the door,
little dreaming how we had contrived another way to get this
aggravator of our wounds in. But the appearance of our wounds did not
stop us from lowering the kettle, which soon went down twice and
sometimes three times a day, for the neighbouring wards got scent of
the affair, and sent money to be lowered as well.
Thus I passed about six weeks before I recovered sufficiently to get
out of the hospital; but many were in a much worse state than myself,
some losing their arms, some their legs, and some even dying of their
wounds. One of the slug shots, however, could never be extricated from
my knee, having settled into the bone. I felt it for some time, but in
the end it ceased to trouble me, the bone having probably grown over
it.
I was let out of the hospital as a convalescent, and billeted in the
place at a house occupied by a widow and her daughter, who were very
kind to me during my stay there, which was for about a fortnight.
Then I received intelligence that a hundred and fifty others were well
enough to rejoin the army, so I asked the doctor if I might accompany
them. He told me that my wounds were not yet sufficiently set for me
to undertake the journey; but I was by this time sick of hospitals,
physics, Estremoz, and the lot of it, and was mad to get back to my
regiment, so I went to the captain, who was still lying wounded in the
hospital, and asked him to speak to the doctor to let me go. The
result was that next morning I again saw the doctor, who said I could
go, but I must abide by the consequences myself, as he would not be
answerable for my safety; so about three days after that our little
group started on the way to the army, which had meanwhile moved
northward from Badajoz to Salamanca, about two hundred miles distant,
which we found rather a tedious march in our then condition.
I had not been many days at Salamanca before a fever broke out, which
I caught very badly, and so was ordered back into hospital at Ciudad
Rodrigo, along with a number of fellow troops who were troubled with a
like malady with myself. On my arrival at the hospital, my hair was
cut off by order of the doctor, and my head blistered; and I had not
been there many hours before I became quite insensible, in which state
I remained more or less for three months, which brought on great
weakness. I received kind treatment, however, from the doctor and our
attendants, and was allowed to eat anything my fancy craved, and
amongst other things, without having to resort to any contrivance as
at Estremoz, I could get wine.
After being in hospital nearly two months longer, my strength had come
back enough to allow me to be removed out of the town to a convent,
the very one before mentioned which I had helped to storm when we were
throwing up batteries for the assault of the town. There I found a
number like myself who had lately recovered, and amongst them some of
my own comrades of my own regiment, which made the time pass more
lively than if we had been all strangers. By the time my strength was
sufficiently recruited to again permit me to go on active service,
November had again come round, so that from the time of receiving my
wound at Badajoz, at least seven months had passed away before I was
free from sickness and in a proper condition to again join my
regiment.
The army, including my regiment, had been all this time actively
employed at Salamanca, Madrid, and Burgos, and after going through
many long marches and retreats, had again formed at Salamanca, up to
which place the enemy had closely followed them. But owing to the
season being too bad now to carry on the war, both sides felt more
disposed to remain inactive for the remainder of 1812, so Lord
Wellington determined on putting his army in cantonments; and in
proceeding to carry out that design, for the enemy had now abandoned
following up his retreat, he touched at Ciudad Rodrigo, which afforded
a fine opportunity, which I willingly took, of rejoining my regiment.
I found that our regiment had taken at the famous battle of Salamanca
a splendid drum-major's staff from the enemy, which was stated to be
worth at least L50, and it must have come in very useful, for ours was
terribly worn and knocked about, being very old, having been itself
taken from the French in Holland, during the commandership of the Duke
of York.
Soon after I rejoined, we crossed the Agueda into Portugal again, to
take up our winter quarters in that country. Although it was not many
leagues from Ciudad Rodrigo to where our cantonments were to be, yet
that small march seemed to be almost going to knock me up, for my leg
did not seem altogether strong enough to bear much marching, both of
the slug shots having entered the sinew under the knee, and while we
were engaged in this march it was kept constantly on the move.
However, after we had settled down for about three weeks, I began to
feel more like myself, and was therefore enabled to take my regular
amount of duty.
But after we had been in cantonments some four or five weeks, I was on
sentry one day, when to my great surprise, a comrade came to relieve
me some time before my usual time had expired, which made me think
something must be wrong: so, of course, wishing to know something of
the matter before I felt disposed to leave guard, I asked the man what
it was all about, and he told me that I had been made a corporal in
the seventh company. I would at the time have much rather remained a
private in my own company than be made a corporal and be transferred
to the seventh; it was certainly better as far as pay went, for I
received seventeen pence, whilst before I had received only thirteen
pence per day; but I was far from feeling at home in this company, as
I lost all my old companions; and not only that, but I then stood six
feet one inch high, whilst not one man in that company stood more than
five feet seven inches. I made my complaint to the captain, who
promised that as soon as there was a vacancy, I should go back to my
old company, and that cheered me up a little, but made me look with
intense anxiety for the change back again.
Until it occurred, however, I had to change my abode, and live with
four privates of the same seventh company in a private house, the
landlady of which kept as nice a pig in her sty as I had ever seen in
the Peninsula. Close by our quarters was the officers' mess-room, the
sergeant of which had offered our landlady sixteen dollars for her
pig; but the old woman would not take less than eighteen; so instead
of giving that he offered the four men billeted with me the sixteen
dollars to steal it for him, in return for the old lady's craftiness,
as he had offered quite the fair value. The deed was done that very
night, the pig being conveyed out of sight to the mess room; and in
the morning, when the old lady had as usual warmed the pig's
breakfast, she found to her surprise the sty empty.
She soon made a terrible noise over the affair, and immediately
suspected the man who had offered to buy it; which soon got to his
ears, and obliged him to make away with it for a time, for fear of
being searched; so he got some of the men to heave it over a wall at
the back of the mess-room. The four men who had stolen it soon got
scent of this, and wishing to serve the sergeant out for his meanness,
and likewise have some of the pig, they went, unbeknown of course to
him, and cut off about a quarter of it, which they appropriated to our
own use, and brought back to be cooked in the old woman's house; so
that the sergeant had better have given the two more dollars, and come
by the whole pig honestly after all.
Some difficulty was experienced by my fellow-lodgers in cooking their
portion, as the landlady had generally before got their food ready;
but this was at length accomplished in our own private room, with a
kettle that we had borrowed from the old lady herself. I likewise had
a taste of the poor woman's missing pig, which we found to be very
good and acceptable. Fortunately, she never suspected us at all, but
often talked to us during our stay there, of her sad loss; and indeed
she was in general very kind to us, often going so far as to give us
some dried chestnuts, of which she had an abundance, for a treat.
After about three months' stay in this place, during which time my
captain to my great satisfaction found an opportunity of putting me
back to my own company, we marched to other quarters about three
leagues off, in a village which had been for the most part deserted,
and there we were cantoned, chiefly in empty houses. Whilst we were
here, a very interesting piece of excitement took place, in which one
of the officers of our company, a lieutenant, was the chief actor. He
was an Irishman, and being likewise a Catholic, had been in the habit
whilst staying at our late quarters of visiting a Catholic chapel; and
there he had seen and fallen in love with a Portuguese general's
daughter. Correspondence and meetings had followed, unbeknown to the
girl's parents, but owing to our shifting our cantonments, some
difficulty had arisen in the way of their engagements, and so I
suppose they thought it best to arrange one final one, or at any rate
one of which the memory was to last some time. One night, therefore,
he proceeded with two of our company to the lady's house, where all
arrangements had been previously made for conveying her from her
private window into her lover's arms, ready to elope with him.
These arrangements consisted of a ladder to be placed at a window,
and the goods that she intended taking to be ready on the back of a
horse, and were all carried out by two of the domestic men-servants
who had been bribed, and who also undertook to keep a good look-out
until the eloping party had got quite clear. But, as it proved, a
worse set of people could not have been entrusted with the matter, for
no sooner had they received their money, and the little company had
set out from the house on their way to the officer's quarters, than
the two foolish Portuguese servants immediately raised an alarm, and a
party of six, including these very servants, was sent in pursuit.
They soon overtook the travelling party, which was obliged to walk
slowly owing to the horse laden with the goods; and the pursuers being
armed with sticks, an altercation consequently took place, in which
the Portuguese succeeded in capturing the horse and baggage; but the
officer fought bravely for his spouse and was well backed up by his
men, so that he succeeded in carrying her off at any rate. One of the
Portuguese, however, lost two fingers in the affray, which was an
unfortunate circumstance, and after things had come to this crisis,
they left off their pursuit and went home contented in having captured
the horse and baggage. The lieutenant then succeeded in getting the
lady to the cantonments without any further molesting, and on the
following morning he took her to a neighbouring chapel and married
her.
But the matter was not to rest here; for next morning the old general
wrote to our colonel on the subject, and said he intended to take
proceedings against the lieutenant for stealing his daughter, as he
called it. Our colonel informed the lieutenant that he was to consider
himself a prisoner, as in such times as these he ought to be thinking
of something else but marriage; but after a fortnight's consideration
the general gave in, and made it all up with his new son-in-law, who
was released and likewise had his wife's horse and baggage given back
to him. In return for his good luck he treated the whole of his
company to a pint of wine, which was drunk in toasts to the happy
couple.