March to Estremadura. A Deserter shot. Riding for an Appetite.
Effect the Cure of a sick Lady. Siege of Badajos. Trench-Work.
Varieties during the Siege. Taste of the Times. Storming of the
Town. Its Fall. Officers of a French Battalion. Not shot by
Accident. Military Shopkeepers. Lost Legs and cold Hearts.
Affecting Anecdote. My Servant. A Consignment to Satan. March
again for the North. Sir Sidney Beckwith.
We remained about six weeks in cantonments, after the fall of Ciudad
Rodrigo; and, about the end of February, were again put in motion
towards Estremadura.
March 7th.--Arrived near Castello de Vide, and quartered in the
neighbouring villages. Another deserter, who had also been taken at
the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo, was here shot, under the sentence of
a court martial. When he was paraded for that purpose, he protested
against their right to shoot him, until he first received the arrears
of pay which was due at the time of his desertion.
March 14th.--Two of us rode out this afternoon to kill time until
dinner hour (six); but, when we returned to our quarters, there was
not a vestige of the regiment remaining, and our appetites were
considerably whetted, by having an additional distance of fourteen
miles to ride, in the dark, over roads on which we could not trust our
horses out of a walk. We joined them, at about eleven at night, in the
town of Portalegre.
March 16th.--Quartered in the town of Elvas.
I received a billet on a neat little house, occupied by an old lady
and her daughter, who were very desirous of evading such an
incumbrance. For, after resisting my entrance, until successive
applications of my foot had reduced the door to a condition which
would no longer second their efforts, the old lady resolved to try me
on another _tack_; and, opening the door, and, making a sign for me
to make no noise, she told me, in a whisper, that her daughter was
lying dangerously ill of a fever, in the only bed in the house, and
that she was, therefore, excessively sorry that she could not
accommodate me. As this information did not at all accord with my
notions of consistency, after their having suffered the preceding half
hour's bombardment, I requested to be shewn to the chamber of the
invalid, saying that I was a _medico_, and might be of service to her.
When she found remonstrance unavailing, she at length shewed me into a
room up-stairs, where there was a very genteel-looking young girl, the
very picture of _Portuguese_ health, lying with her eyes shut, in full
dress, on the top of the bed-clothes, where she had hurriedly thrown
herself.
Seeing, at once, how matters stood, I walked up to the bed-side, and
hit her a slap on the thigh with my hand, asking her, at the same
time, how she felt herself? and never did Prince Hohenloe, himself,
perform a miracle more cleverly; for she bounced almost as high as the
ceiling, and flounced about the room, as well and as actively as
ever she did, with a countenance in which shame, anger, and a great
portion of natural humour were so amusingly blended, that I was
tempted to provoke her still further by a salute. Having thus
satisfied the mother that I had been the means of restoring her
daughter to her usual state of health, she thought it prudent to put
the best face upon it, and, therefore, invited me to partake of their
family dinner; in the course of which I succeeded so well in eating my
way into their affections, that we parted next morning with mutual
regret; they told me that I was the _best_ officer they had ever seen,
and begged that I would always make their house my home; but I was
never fated to see them again. We marched in the morning for Badajos.