Spry’s Portugueze brigade, Major-General Robinson’s, and the 4th
_Caçadores_ of Brigadier-General Wilson’s, were in reserve in the
trenches, the whole under the direction of Major-General Oswald. The
attack was made an hour before, instead of after daylight, because
the tide was returning, and was already two feet deep under the wall
where the ground is dry at low water. But some confusion was probably
occasioned by the darkness; and the chance of success would have been
greater if the arrangements had been made known to more of those
officers who were to take part in executing them. The distance of the
uncovered approach from the trenches to the breach was about 300 yards,
over rocks covered with sea-weed, and intermediate pools of water, and
in the face of an extensive front of works; the breach was flanked by
two towers: the fire of the place was yet entire, and when the troops
rushed from the trenches, it was presently seen that the French were
not unapprized of the intended attempt, and that they had lost no
time in making their preparations for defence; every gun which looked
that way from the castle, and from the hill, was brought to bear upon
the assailants, and from all around the breach they were flanked and
enfiladed with a most destructive fire of grape and musketry. Blazing
planks and beams were thrown transversely across the walls and on the
breach; and stones, shot, shells, and hand grenades, were showered upon
the allies with dreadful effect.
At this time the mine was sprung, and with as much effect as had been
intended. It brought down a considerable length of the counterscarp and
glacis, and astonished the enemy so greatly, that they abandoned for
awhile that part of the works. When the Portugueze who were to take
advantage of this hastened to the spot, there were no scaling-ladders,
... an officer ran to the foot of the breach, in hope the engineers
there might be provided with them; ... if he had but one ladder, he
said, he could post his whole party in the town: ... but ladders had
not been needed here, and not thought of for the point where they might
be required. The enemy had thus time to recover from their surprise;
and the Portugueze, standing their ground with soldier-like fidelity,
were miserably sacrificed, nearly the whole of this party being killed
before the order for recalling them arrived.
Meantime Lieutenant Jones of the engineers with an officer and nine
men of the first royals, gained the top of the great breach; and men
were rushing up to follow them, when the enemy sprung a mine in one
place, and in another drew the supports from under a false bridge,
thus blowing up some of the assailants, and precipitating others upon
the spikes which had been fixed below. The men who were at the foot
of the breach were then panic-stricken; they, as well as the French,
remembered that in such situations the victory is not to the brave or
the strong, if superior skill is opposed to courage and strength: they
ran back, ... it was impossible to rally them, and they suffered much.
The intention was, that another column should pass in the rear of the
first, between it and the sea to the second breach, and storm it; but
the discomfiture of the first party prevented this, and none of these
reached their destination. The whole was over before morning had fairly
opened, and in the course of an hour, 45 officers and above 800 men
were killed, wounded, or missing.
The river prevented any immediate communication, so that at the
batteries it was thought that hardly anything more than a false alarm
had taken place, till, as day dawned, they discovered through their
glasses the bodies of officers and men in the breach, and under the
demi-bastion and retaining wall. Presently one or two of the enemy
appeared on the breach, and a serjeant came down among the wounded,
raising some, and speaking to others. The firing which had been
continued occasionally on the breach was then stopped; more of the
French appeared; a kind of parley took place between them and the men
at the head of the trenches; and half an hour’s truce was agreed on for
the purpose of removing the wounded and the dead; but so jealous were
the French that they would not allow the dead who were nearest them
to be approached; some of the wounded they carried into the town, and
others were borne by their soldiers into the British lines. While the
troops were yet under arms, not knowing whether another attack might
be ordered, a British officer saw one of his Portugueze soldiers start
off, and reproved him for so doing, when after awhile the man returned;
but the Portugueze replied, scarcely able to command his voice or
restrain his tears as he spake, that he had only been burying his
comrade, ... and in fact it appeared that with no other implement than
his bayonet and his hand, he had given his poor friend and countryman a
soldier’s burial in the sand. The officers who fell in this attack were
buried together, each in a shell, in one grave, in a garden near the
encampment.
♦THE SIEGE SUSPENDED.♦
Lord Wellington came over from Lesaca on the same day about noon,
and determined upon renewing the attack; the second breach was to be
completed, the demi-bastion thrown down, and fresh troops appointed for
another assault. But the ammunition was now running low; and upon his
return that night he received intelligence of movements on the enemy’s
part in the Pyrenees, which made him forthwith dispatch orders for
withdrawing the guns from the batteries and converting the siege into a
blockade.
♦SOULT APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.♦
Marshal Soult had been sent back from Germany as Lieutenant of the
Emperor, and Commander-in-chief of the French armies in Spain. Of all
the French Generals employed in the Peninsula, he had obtained the
highest reputation; and undoubtedly no one could be better entitled to
the praise of those authors who write history, with a mere military
feeling, reckless of all higher considerations. That _impassibility_
which he considered as one of the first essentials for a general in
such a war, and of which proof had been given in his proclamations
and his acts, recommended him to Buonaparte not less than his great
ability. The remains of the armies of Portugal, of the centre and of
the north, were united; their ranks, which had so often been thinned,
were filled by a new conscription; and the whole being re-formed into
nine divisions of infantry, was called the army of Spain; the right,
centre, and left, were under Generals Reille, Drouet, Compte d’Erlon,
and Clausel; the reserve, under General Villatte: there were two
divisions of dragoons under Generals Treillard and Tilly, and a light
division under General Pierre Soult. In the expectation of success
every exertion had been used to increase the strength of their cavalry,
though of little use in the Pyrenees, that the war might be once more
carried beyond the Ebro; and with the same view a large proportion
of artillery was provided. The decree which appointed Marshal Soult
bore date on the first of July; he took the command on the 13th,
and his preparations were forwarded with the ability, activity, and
hopefulness by which the French are characterized in such ♦HIS ADDRESS
TO THE TROOPS.♦ things. He issued an address to his troops, containing
more truth than was usually admitted into a French state paper,
because the truth in that place could not possibly be concealed; but
it was sufficiently coloured with artful misrepresentations and with
falsehood. “The armies of France,” it said, “guided by the powerful
and commanding genius of the Emperor Napoleon, had achieved in Germany
a succession of victories as brilliant as any that adorned their
annals. The presumptuous hopes of the enemy had thus been confounded;
and the Emperor, who was always inclined to consult the welfare of
his subjects, by following moderate counsels, had listened to the
pacific overtures which the enemy made to him after their defeat. But
in the interim, the English, who, under the pretence of succouring
the inhabitants of the Peninsula, were in reality devoting them to
ruin, had taken advantage of the opportunity afforded them. A skilful
leader,” said Marshal Soult, “might have discomfited their motley
levies; and who could doubt what would have been the result of the
day at Vittoria if the general had been worthy of his troops? Let us
not however,” he continued, “defraud the enemy of the praise which is
their due. The dispositions and arrangements of their general have
been prompt, skilful, and consecutive; and the valour and steadiness
of his troops have been praiseworthy. Yet do not forget that it is to
the benefit of your example they owe their present military character;
and that whenever the relative duties of a French general and his
troops have been ably fulfilled, their enemies have commonly had no
other resource than in flight.” In one part of this address Marshal
Soult rendered justice to Lord Wellington; but this latter assertion
strikingly exemplifies the character of the vain-glorious people whom
he was addressing. He himself had been repulsed by a far inferior
British force at Coruña; had been driven from Porto, and defeated in
the bloody field of Albuhera. He was addressing men who had been beaten
at Vimeiro, beaten at Talavera, beaten at Busaco, beaten at Fuentes
d’Onoro, routed at Salamanca, and scattered like sheep at Vittoria.
They had been driven from Lisbon into France; and yet the general who
had so often been baffled addressed this language to the very troops
who had been so often and so signally defeated! “The present situation
of the army,” he pursued, “is imputable to others: let the merit of
repairing it be yours. I have borne testimony to the Emperor of your
bravery and your zeal. His instructions are to drive the enemy from
those heights which enable them arrogantly to survey our fertile
valleys, and to chase them across the Ebro. It is on the Spanish soil
that your tents must next be pitched, and your resources drawn. Let the
account of our successes be dated from Vittoria, and the birth-day of
the Emperor be celebrated in that city.”
♦CRITICAL SITUATION OF THE ALLIED ARMY.♦
Lord Wellington’s situation had not during the whole war been so
critical as at this time. He had two blockades to maintain, and two
points to cover, sixty miles distant from each other, in a mountainous
country, where the heights were so impassable that there could be no
lateral communication between his divisions. His force was necessarily
divided in order that none of the passes might be left undefended, but
the enemy could choose their point of attack, and bring their main
force to bear upon it; thus they would have the advantage of numbers;
and they had the farther advantage, that a considerable proportion of
their troops, all who had belonged to the army of the north, had been
accustomed to mountain warfare, in which the British and Portugueze had
had no experience.
♦SOULT’S MOVEMENTS FOR THE RELIEF OF PAMPLONA.♦
Soult’s first object was to relieve Pamplona, which could only
be relieved by some such great effort as he intended; whereas S.
Sebastian’s, as long as the garrison could maintain themselves there,
had always the possibility of receiving supplies along the coast. With
this view he collected a convoy of provisions and stores at St. Jean
de Pied-de-Port. Meantime the hostile forces, though each within their
own frontier, were encamped in some places upon opposite heights,
within half cannon-shot; and their sentries within 150 yards of each
other. Hitherto with the Spaniards and Portugueze it had been, in the
ever-memorable phrase of Palafox, war at the knife’s edge; but that
national contest, in which the aggressors had treated courtesy and
humanity with as much contempt as justice, was at an end; it was a
military contest now, and the two armies offered no molestation to
each other in the intervals of the game of war. The French, gay and
alert as usual, were drumming and trumpeting all day long; the more
thoughtful English enjoying the season and the country, looking down
with delight upon the sea and the enemy’s territory, and Bayonne in
the distance, and sketching in the leisure which their duties might
allow the beautiful scenery of the Pyrenees. The right of the allied
army was at Roncesvalles, the sacred ground of romance, where in the
seventeenth century a spot was shown as still reddened with the blood
of the Paladins; and where Our Lady, under some one of her thousand and
one appellations, may perhaps still continue to work miracles in the
chapel wherein they were interred. From that pass, and from the pass of
Maya, the roads converge on Pamplona; and Soult made his arrangements
for attacking both on the same day in force, ... for doing which he had
the great advantage that Lord Wellington was at the opposite extremity
of the line, near S. Sebastian’s.
♦BATTLES OF THE PYRENEES.♦
Accordingly, on the 24th, he assembled the right and left wings of his
army, with one division of his centre, and two divisions of cavalry,
at St. Jean de Pied-de-Port; and on the 25th (the same day that the
unsuccessful assault upon S. Sebastian’s was made) he began his
operations, and in person, with about 35,000 men, attacked General
Byng’s post at Roncesvalles. Sir Lowry Cole moved up to his support
with the 4th division; and they maintained their ground obstinately,
against very superior numbers, though with considerable loss. But in
the afternoon the enemy turned their position; and Sir Lowry deemed it
necessary to withdraw in the night, and marched accordingly to Lizoain,
in the neighbourhood of Zubiri. General Drouet, with 13,000 men, was to
force the position of Maya: early in the morning he manœuvred against
each of the four passes, and against the Conde de Amarante’s division,
which was posted on the right. Under cover of these demonstrations,
he collected his main strength behind a hill immediately in front of
the pass of Aretesque, and from thence about noon made a sudden and
rapid advance, favoured by a most unexpected chance. Two advanced
videttes, who had been posted on some high ground to give timely notice
of an enemy’s approach, had fallen asleep during the heat of the day;
the French were thus enabled to advance unseen, and the piquet had
scarcely time to give the alarm before the enemy were upon them. The
light infantry companies of the second brigade sustained the attack
with great steadiness; when they were overpowered, the 34th and 50th
regiments came up, and afterward the right wing of the 92d; for as
the other passes were not to be left unguarded, troops could only be
brought from them by successive battalions, as the need became more
urgent. Opposed as they thus were to very superior forces, the 32d lost
more than a third of its numbers, and the 92d battalion was almost
destroyed. The allies retired slowly, defending every point as succours
enabled them to make a stand, but still over-matched; till, about six
in the evening, Major-General Barnes’s brigade of the 7th division came
to their support; then they recovered that part of their post which
was the key of the position, and might have reassumed their ground;
but Sir Rowland, having been apprized that Sir Lowry Cole must retire,
deemed it necessary to withdraw them during the night to Irurita. They
had been engaged seven hours, and lost four guns and more than sixteen
hundred men.
During the whole of the following day, the enemy remained inactive
beyond the Puerto de Maya. On that day Sir Thomas Picton, who, as soon
as he was informed of Soult’s movements, had crossed to Zubiri with his
division, moved forward to support the troops at Lizoain, and assumed
the command there as senior officer. The enemy’s whole force advanced
against them early in the afternoon, and they retired skirmishing to
some strong ground, which they maintained, in order of battle, till
night closed. Generals Picton and Cole concurred then in opinion that
the post of Zubiri would not be tenable for so long a time, as it would
be necessary for them to wait there. Early on the 27th, therefore, they
began to retreat still farther, and took up a position to cover the
blockade of Pamplona. The garrison of that fortress had been informed
by some deserters from the Walloon guards that Soult, with a powerful
army, was advancing victoriously to their relief, and that relief was
certain. Their hopes were raised to the highest pitch; the firing was
only five miles distant. The state of things appeared so critical to
Abisbal, that he prepared to raise the blockade, and spiked some of
his guns; and the enemy sallied, got possession of several batteries,
and took fourteen pieces of cannon, before Don Carlos d’España could
repulse them. The position which the retreating troops took to cover
the blockade had its right in front of the village of Huarte, extending
to the hills beyond Olaz, and its left on the heights in front of the
village of Villalba, the right of this wing resting on a height which
covered the road from Zubiri and Roncesvalles, and the left at a chapel
behind Sorauren, on the road from Ostiz. Morillo’s division of Spanish
infantry was in reserve, with that part of Abisbal’s corps which was
not engaged in the blockade; and from the latter two regiments were
detached to occupy part of the hill by which the road from Zubiri was
defended. The British cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton were placed
on the right, near Huarte, being the only ground on which cavalry
could act. The river Lanz runs in the valley which was on the left
of the allies, and on the right of the French, in the road to Ostiz.
Beyond this river is a range of mountains connected with Ligasso and
Marcalain, by which places it was now necessary to communicate with the
rest of the army.
Lord Wellington arrived as these divisions were taking up their ground;
and shortly afterwards Soult formed his army on a mountain between the
Ostiz and the Zubiri roads, the front of the mountain extending from
one road to the other. One division he placed on a bold height to the
left of the Zubiri road, and in some villages in front of the third
division, where he had also a large body of cavalry. The same evening
he pushed forward a corps to take possession of a steep hill on the
right of General Cole’s division: it was occupied by a Portugueze
battalion and a Spanish regiment; these troops defended their post
with the bayonet, and drove the enemy back. Seeing the importance
of this point, Lord Wellington reinforced it with the 40th and with
another Spanish regiment, so that the further efforts of the French
there were as unsuccessful as the first; but they took possession of
Sorauren, on the Ostiz road, whereby they acquired the communication by
that road; and they kept up a fire of musketry along the line till it
was dark.
In the morning General Pack’s division arrived. Lord Wellington then
directed that the heights on the left of the valley of the Lanz should
be occupied, and that this division should form across the valley in
rear of the left of General Cole’s, resting its right on Oricain, and
its left upon the heights. They had scarcely taken the position in the
valley when they were attacked in great force from Sorauren: the enemy
advanced steadily to the attack; but the front was defended from the
heights on their left by their own light troops, and from the height
on the right, and on the rear, by the 4th division and a Portugueze
brigade; and the French were soon driven back, with great loss, by the
fire in their front, both flanks, and rear. This was a false move from
which Soult never recovered: with a view of extricating his troops from
the situation in which they were now placed, he attacked the height on
which the left of the 4th division stood, and where the 7th _Caçadores_
were posted, at an _ermida_, or chapel, behind Sorauren. Momentary
possession was obtained of it; but the _Caçadores_ returned to their
ground, supported by Major-General Ross at the head of his brigade,
and the enemy were driven down. The battle now became general along
the whole of these heights, but only in one point to the advantage of
the French, which was where a battalion of Major-General Campbell’s
Portugueze regiment was posted; that battalion was overpowered, it
gave way immediately on the right of Ross’s brigade: the French then
established themselves on the line of the allies, and Ross was obliged
to withdraw from his post. Upon this, Lord Wellington ordered the 27th
and 48th to charge, first that body of the enemy which had established
itself there, and then those on the left. Both charges succeeded; the
enemy were driven back: the 6th division at the same time moved forward
nearer to the left of the 4th; the attack upon this front then ceased
entirely, and was but faintly continued on other points of the line.
Every regiment in the 4th division charged with the bayonet that day,
and the 40th, 7th, 20th, and 23rd, four different times. Their officers
set them the example, and Major-General Ross had two horses shot under
him. The events of that day abated Marshal Soult’s confidence, and made
him feel how little he could expect to succeed against such troops
and such a commander. He no longer thought of dating his report of
the operations from Vittoria, and celebrating the Emperor Napoleon’s
birth-day in that city; and he sent back his guns, his wounded, and
great part of his baggage, to S. Jean de Pied-de-Port, while they could
be sent in safety.
On the 29th both armies remained quiet in their positions, each
expecting the result of its combinations. Sir Rowland had been ordered
to march upon Lizasso by Lanz, and the Earl of Dalhousie from San
Esteban upon the same place; both arrived there on the 28th, and Lord
Dalhousie’s division came to Marcalain, thus assuring Sir Rowland’s
communication with the main body. Marshal Soult’s manœuvres were now
baffled, for the allies were become one army; but he saw one chance for
victory still remaining, and he was not a man to let any opportunity
escape him. Drouet’s corps, before which Sir Rowland had retired,
followed his march, and arrived at Ostiz on the 29th. Thus the French
force also became one army. The Marshal thought his position between
the Arga and Lanz was by nature so exceedingly strong, and so little
liable to attack, that he might without apprehension withdraw from it
the bulk of his troops. Occupying, therefore, still the same points,
but drawing on to his left the troops which were on the heights
opposite the third division, he reinforced Drouet with one division,
and during the night of the 29th occupied in strength the crest of the
mountain opposite to the 6th and 7th divisions, thus connecting his
right in its position with the force which had been detached to attack
Sir Rowland, his object being thus to open the Tolosa road, turn the
left of the allies, and relieve St. Sebastian’s, now that he had failed
in the attempt for the relief of Pamplona.
On the morning of the 30th his troops were observed to move in great
numbers toward the mountains on the right of the Lanz, with what intent
Lord Wellington at once perceived, and determined to attack the French
position in front. He ordered Lord Dalhousie to possess himself of the
top of the mountain opposite him, and turn their right, and Sir Thomas
Picton to cross the heights from which the French division had been
withdrawn, and from the Roncesvalles road turn their left, and he made
his arrangements for attacking them in front, as soon as the effect
of these movements on both flanks should appear. In every point these
intentions were effected. Lord Dalhousie with General Inglis’s brigade
drove them from the mountains: Major-General Pakenham who had the
command of the 6th division, Major-General Pack having been wounded,
then turned the village of Sorauren, and Major-General Byng’s brigade
attacked and carried the village of Ostiz. Sir Lowry Cole attacked
their front, when their confidence in themselves as well as in their
ground had thus been shaken, the French were then compelled to abandon
a position which Lord Wellington declared to be one of the strongest
and most difficult of access that he had ever seen occupied by troops.
While these operations were going on, and in proportion as they
succeeded, troops were detached to support Sir Rowland. Late in the
morning the enemy appeared in his front, and made many vigorous
attacks, while Drouet manœuvred upon his left: every attack was
repulsed, and the allies maintained their ground, till Drouet, by a
more distant movement, ascended the ridge, and came absolutely round
their left flank; Sir Rowland then leisurely retired about a mile to a
range of heights near Eguarras, and repelled every attempt to dislodge
him from that strong ground. Lord Wellington meantime pursued the
enemy after he had driven them from their position on the mountain,
and at sunset he was at Olaque, immediately in the rear of their
attack upon Sir Rowland. Their last hope had failed, and, withdrawing
from Sir Rowland’s front during the night, they retreated with great
ability through the pass of Doña Maria, and left two divisions there
in a strong position to cover their rear in the pass. Sir Rowland
and Lord Dalhousie were ordered to attack the pass; they moved by
parallel roads; and the enemy, closely pressed by the 7th division,
were ascending the hill in great haste, when Sir Rowland arrived at
the foot of the pass, not in time to cut off any part of their rear.
Both divisions ascended the hill, each by its own road; and the
French took up a strong position at the top of the pass, with a cloud
of skirmishers in front. On the left, which was Sir Rowland’s side,
the attack was led by Lieutenant-General Stewart with Major-General
Walker’s brigade; they forced the skirmishers back to the summit of the
hill, but coming there upon the main body, found it so numerous and
so strongly posted, that they deemed it necessary to withdraw till the
7th division should come into closer co-operation. They had not long to
wait for this: General Stewart was wounded, and the command devolved
upon Major-General Pringle; he renewed the attack on that side, while
Lord Dalhousie pressed the enemy on the other; both divisions gained
the height about the same time, and the enemy, after sustaining a very
considerable loss, retired; they were pursued for some way down, but
a thick fog favoured them, and prevented the allies from profiting
further by the advantage they had gained. Lord Wellington meantime
moved with Major-General Byng’s brigade and Sir Lowry Cole’s division
through the pass of Velate upon Irurita, thus turning their position
on Doña Maria. A large convoy of provisions and stores was taken by
Major-General Byng ♦AUGUST 1.♦ at Elizondo. The pursuit was continued
during the following day in the vale of Bidassoa. Byng possessed
himself of the valley of Bastan and the position on the Puerto de Maya;
and at the close of the day the different divisions were re-established
nearly on the same ground which they had occupied when their operations
commenced, eight days before. The enemy had now two divisions posted on
the Puerto de Echalar, and nearly their whole army behind that pass;
and Lord Wellington resolved to dislodge them by a combined attack
and movement of the 4th, 7th, and light divisions, which had advanced
by the vale of the Bidassoa towards the frontier. The 7th, taking a
shorter line across the mountains from Sumbilla, arrived before the
4th. Major-General Barnes’s brigade was formed for the attack, advanced
before the others could co-operate, and with a regularity and gallantry
which, Lord Wellington says, he has seldom seen equalled, drove the
two French divisions from the formidable heights which they vainly
endeavoured to maintain. Major-General Kempt’s brigade of the light
division likewise drove a very considerable force from the rock which
forms the left of the pass; and thus no enemy was left in the field,
within this part of the Spanish frontier. During these operations the
loss of the allies amounted to 6000 in killed, wounded, and missing;
that of the French exceeded 8000. On both sides great ability had been
manifested; seldom indeed has the art of war been displayed with such
skill, and upon such difficult ground. To guard against the repetition
of so formidable an effort on the enemy’s part, the positions which the
allies occupied were strengthened by redoubts and intrenchments. While
the main scene of action lay in the neighbourhood of Pamplona, that
portion of the enemy’s force which had been left to observe the allies
on the great road from Irun, attacked Longa, who occupied that part
of the Bidassoa and the town of Vera with his division. He repulsed
them with great loss; and it was not the least of the discouraging
reflections, which could not but occur to the enemy after the failure
of all these well-planned and well-attempted endeavours, that the
Spanish troops had now become as efficient as the Portugueze.
♦SIEGE OF ST. SEBASTIAN’S RESUMED.♦
During these eventful days the guns had been withdrawn from the
batteries before St. Sebastian’s, and, with all the stores, embarked
at Passages, and the transports had been sent to sea; but a blockade
was kept up, and the guard continued to hold the trenches. The vigilant
enemy made a sortie on the morning of the 27th, and carried off between
200 and 300 Portugueze and English from the trenches prisoners into
the town. Want of foresight on the part of the besiegers allowed them
this opportunity, for some of the guns of the left embrasures had, in
apprehension of such an attempt, been arranged so as to take the enemy
in flank; and those guns were withdrawn with the others. On the 3rd
the French surprised a patrol in the parallel and made them prisoners:
but Soult’s defeat was known ♦AUGUST 6.♦ now; the stores were re-landed
at Passages, and Sir Thomas Graham waited only for the arrival of more
artillery and ammunition from England to recommence the siege. The
infantry meantime rested on its arms; and the cavalry, who longed to
eat the green maize (which was prohibited), kept their horses in good
exercise in looking for straw. The 17th was Buonaparte’s birth-day;
three salutes were fired from the Castle of St. Sebastian’s on the eve
preceding, as many at four in the morning, and again at noon; and at
night the words “_Vive Napoleon le Grand_” were displayed in letters of
light upon the castle: ... it was the last of his birth-days that was
commemorated by any public celebration. The expected artillery arrived
at Passages on the 18th. That little town had never in the days of its
prosperity, when it was the port of the Caraccas Company, presented
a scene so busy, nor while it lasted so gainful to the inhabitants
and peasantry of the surrounding country. The market for the army was
held here, which they supplied with necessaries, the produce of the
land; and which at this time wanted nothing wherewith England could
supply it, so frequent now and so easy was the intercourse. Here the
reinforcements were landed, which, now that the British government had
caught the spirit of its victorious general, were no longer limited
by parsimonious impolicy. When the horses were to be landed they were
lowered from the transports into the sea, and guided by a rope as they
swam to shore; but this sudden transition from the extreme heat of the
hold to the cold water proved fatal to several of them.
The garrison of St. Sebastian’s employed the time which the blockade
afforded them so well, in strengthening their defences and adding new
ones, that when the allies had to recommence the siege, the place was
stronger than before. The plan now determined on was to lay open the
two round towers on each end of the first breach, and connect it with
the second breach, which was to the right, add to it another on the
left, and demolish a demi-bastion to the left of the whole, by which
the approach was flanked. A mortar battery was also erected for the
purpose of annoying the castle across the bay. Sailors were employed
in this, and never did men more thoroughly enjoy their occupation.
They had double allowance of grog, as their work required; and at
their own cost they had a fiddler; they who had worked their spell in
the battery went to relieve their comrades in the dance, and at every
shot which fell upon the castle they gave three cheers. Little effect
was produced by this battery, because of its distance. Between it and
the town is the island of St. Clara, high and rocky, about half a mile
in circumference, which the French occupied; it was deemed expedient
to dislodge them and take possession of it, because the season was
approaching when ships might be obliged to leave the coast, and this
spot facilitated the enemy’s communication with their own country.
The only landing-place was under a flight of steps, commanded by a
small intrenchment on the west point of the island, and exposed to the
whole range of works on the west side of the rock and of the walls;
the garrison, consisting of an officer and twenty-four men, were thus
enabled to make such a resistance, that nineteen of the assailants were
killed and wounded. The island however was taken, and the garrison made
prisoners.
The actual siege recommenced on the 24th; and at the following midnight
the enemy made a sortie, entered the advanced part of the trenches
and carried confusion into the parallel; but when they attempted to
sweep along its right, a part of the guard checked them, and they
retired into the town, taking with them about twelve prisoners. The
batteries opened on the morning of the 26th. On the night of the 27th
another sortie was tried; but experience had made the besiegers more
vigilant, and it was repulsed before the slightest mischief could be
done. Nothing that skill and ingenuity could devise was omitted by the
garrison; they repaired by night as far as possible the injury which
had been done in the day; cleared away the rubbish; and at the points
at which the batteries were directed, let down large solid beams to
break the force of the shot. But in this branch of the art of war, the
means of attack are hitherto more efficient than those of defence; and
in the course of the 29th the enemy’s fire was nearly subdued. They
lost many men by our spherical case shot; and they attempted to imitate
what they had found so destructive, by filling common shells with small
balls, and bursting them over the heads of the besiegers; but these
were without effect. On the night of the 29th there was a false attack
made with the hope of inducing the enemy to spring the mines, which it
was not doubted that they had prepared; they fired most of their guns,
but the end was not answered, for no mine was exploded.
♦PREPARATIONS FOR ASSAULTING THE TOWN.♦
Men were now invited to volunteer for the assault, such men, it was
said, “as knew how to show other troops the way to mount a breach.”
When this was communicated to the 4th division, which was to furnish
400 men, the whole division moved forward. The column of attack
was formed of the 2nd brigade of the 5th division, commanded by
Major-General Robinson, with an immediate support of 150 volunteers
from the light division, 400 from the first, and 200 from the 4th; and
with the remainder of the 5th division in reserve, the whole under the
direction of Sir James Leith. Sir James had been severely wounded in
the battle of Salamanca, and his constitution still felt the effects of
the Walcheren fever; but leaving England as soon as he was sufficiently
recovered to discharge his duties, he arrived at S. Sebastian’s on
the 29th, and resumed the command of his division in the trenches,
Major-General Oswald, who had held it during his absence, resigning
it and acting as a volunteer. As the breaches now appeared to be
practicable, the assault was ordered for eleven o’clock on the forenoon
of the 31st, being the time of low water; and to prepare debouches for
the troops, three shafts were sunk at the advanced sap on the right,
for the purpose of breaking through the sea wall, which was of masonry,
four feet thick and ten feet above the high water mark; they were sunk
eight feet below the surface, and each loaded with 540 pounds of powder.
♦SOULT MOVES FOR ITS RELIEF.♦
Marshal Soult, meantime, as soon as he knew that the siege had been
recommenced, leaving one division in front of the British light
division, and another in front of the 7th, moved the rest of his army
to the camp at Urogne, with the obvious intention of making an attempt
to relieve the place. Under that expectation all the troops of horse
artillery were ordered to march, and the artillery not employed in
the siege was sent to the front. The eve of the assault was therefore
a time of more than usual anxiety; for if either the assault should
fail, or Soult should succeed, the situation of the allies would be
rendered critical. In the course of the day the wood and rubbish of
the right breach took fire, and a mine near it exploded; and in the
afternoon five small mines within the town were blown up by ♦ASSAULT OF
S. SEBASTIAN’S.♦ the falling of a shell. The evening closed in with a
storm of thunder and lightning and heavy rain. Two hours after midnight
the three mines were sprung, and completely effected the purpose of
blowing down the sea wall; the etonnoirs were immediately connected;
a good passage out for the troops was thus formed, and the farther
object was attained of securing all the works in their rear from any
galleries which the enemy might have run out in that direction. In the
morning there was such a fog, and the smoke in consequence hung so,
that nothing could be seen; but about nine o’clock a gentle sea-breeze
began to clear the mist, and the sun soon shone forth. Sir Thomas
Graham, having completed the arrangements with Sir James Leith, left
him to command the assault, and crossed the Urumea to the batteries
of the right attack, from whence all might be distinctly seen, and
orders for the fire of the batteries immediately given, according to
circumstances. Sir James held it as an article of his military belief
that British troops could not fail in any thing which they undertook.
He now took the opinion of the chief engineer, Sir Richard Fletcher, as
to the spot from whence he could best overlook and direct the desperate
service of the day; the place they fixed on was upon the beach, about
thirty yards in advance of the debouche from the trenches; and there,
without any cover or protection whatever, they both took their stand;
for it was a maxim with him that however brave the troops, and however
devoted the officers, the example of those in command was, beyond every
thing, essential.
About eleven o’clock the advanced parties moved out of the trenches,
and the enemy almost immediately exploded two mines, for the purpose
of blowing down the wall to the left of the beach, along which the
troops were advancing to the breach; the passage between the wall and
the water was narrow, and they expected, by the fragments of masonry
which would be thrown down, to obstruct the line of march. This intent
failed; but about twenty men were crushed by the ruins of the wall.
The garrison, as on the former assault, were perfectly prepared; and
from the Mirador battery, and the battery del Principe, on the castle
hill, they opened a fire of grape and shells upon the columns. The
forlorn hope, consisting of an officer and thirty men, fell to a man;
the front of the columns which followed were cut off, as by one shot;
and the breach, when the assailants reached it, was presently covered
with their bodies; many of those who were ascending it were thrown
down by the bodies of those above them, the living, the wounded, and
the dead, rolling together down the ruins. From the Mirador and Prince
batteries, from the keep of the castle, from the high curtain to
the left of the breach, and from some ruined houses in front, about
forty yards distant, which were loop-holed and lined with infantry, a
concentrated fire was kept up; a line of intrenchment had been carried
along the nearest parallel walls; this was strongly occupied, and
it entirely swept the summit of the breach; and, in addition to all
this, the horn-work flanked and commanded the ascent. The tower of
Amesquita, on the left of the breach, was the only available point of
defence which had not been manned; overlooked it could not have been
by such engineers as those who conducted the defence: undoubtedly
they considered the means which they had provided to be more than
sufficient, and that no courage, however desperate, could in the face
of them carry a breach which, upon all rules of art, was actually
impracticable. That every art of defence which science and experience
could devise would be practised was expected; it was known, also, that
the garrison were as little deficient in confidence as in numbers,
and that they had stores in abundance; but if there had been even a
suspicion that the ground at the point of attack was what it was now
found to be, it is certain that the assault, under such circumstances,
would never have been ordered.
Nothing, in fact, could have been more fallacious than the external
appearance of the breach. Up to the end of the curtain it was as
accessible, quite to the terre-plein, as it seemed to be; but there the
enemy’s situation was commanding, and the ascent itself was exposed
to the horn-work: but this was the only point where it was passable,
and there only by single files. Except on this point, there was a
perpendicular fall from fifteen to twenty-five feet in depth, along
the back of the whole breach, extensive as it was. Houses had been
built against the interior of the wall; these were now in ruins; and
there was no way of descending, except here and there by an end wall
which remained standing; but the very few who could by this means get
into the streets were exposed to an incessant fire from the opposite
houses. During the suspension of the siege, every possible preparation
had been made by the enemy, with the advantage of knowing the point
which would be attacked; so that they had a great number of men covered
by intrenchments and traverses in the horn-work, on the ramparts of
the curtain, and in the town itself opposite the breach. The most
determined courage was displayed by the troops, who were brought
forward in succession from the trenches to this place of slaughter.
Military duty was never discharged with more entire devotion than it
was at this time both by officers and men. No man outlived the attempt
to gain the ridge. The slope of the breach afforded shelter from
musketry; but the nature of the stone rubbish rendered it impossible
for the working parties to form a lodgement there, notwithstanding
their utmost exertions, and the troops were exposed to the shells and
grape from the batteries of the castle; and on the way to the breach
so severe and continuous a fire was kept up that Sir James Leith was
obliged to send directions for removing the dead and the dying from the
debouches, which were so choked up as to prevent the passage of the
troops.
♦SIR JAMES LEITH WOUNDED.♦
A plunging shot struck the ground near the spot where Sir James was
standing, rebounded, struck him on the chest, and laid him prostrate
and senseless. The officers near thought certainly that he was killed;
but he recovered breath, and then recollection, and resisting all
entreaties to quit the field, continued to issue his orders. Sir
Thomas Graham meantime accepted the offer of a part of Major-General
Bradford’s Portugueze brigade to ford the river and assist in the
assault. The advance of a battalion under Major Snodgrass, and of
a detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel M’Bean, was made rapidly and
firmly, under a very heavy fire of grape, along the beach and over a
creek knee-deep. They got over, but not without great loss, and bore
their part in what Sir Thomas Graham began now to think was an all
but desperate attempt: and desperate it must have proved, if, upon
consulting with Colonel Dickson, who commanded the artillery, he had
not ventured to direct that the guns should be turned against the
curtain. A heavy fire was immediately directed there, passing only a
few feet above the heads of our own troops, and it was kept up with a
precision of practice beyond all example. The troops who were employed
in the assault were astonished at hearing the roar of cannon from
behind them; they saw the enemy swept from the curtain; a few of their
own men were brought down also by the first discharge: the second made
the intent fully intelligible; its effect upon the enemy was visible,
and a great effort was then ordered to gain the high ridge at all
hazards.
At this time a shell burst near Sir James Leith, tore off the flesh
of his left hand, and broke the arm in two places; still he continued
to give directions, till, fainting from loss of blood, he was carried
from the field. Major-General Hay succeeded to the command. Almost ♦SIR
RICHARD FLETCHER SLAIN.♦ immediately afterwards, and nearly on the
same spot, Sir Richard Fletcher talking to General Oswald, was killed
by a musket-ball, which struck him in the spine of the neck. This was
a great loss to his friends and his country: he was of such amiable
qualities, as well as of such sterling worth, that no man was ever more
respected and loved; and that his professional talents were of the
highest order had been shown by the lines of Torres Vedras.
♦THE CITY TAKEN.♦
As Sir James Leith was carried through the trenches to the rear, he
met the remaining part of his division pressing forward to execute his
orders; and the men of the 9th regiment, recognizing their general,
promised him not to desist from their exertions until the place should
be taken. Just as they arrived at the breach, a quantity of cartridges
exploded behind one of the traverses of the curtain; the fire of the
artillery had occasioned this; and it caused some confusion among the
enemy, who already apprehended that the tide of fortune was turning
against them. The narrow pass was now gained and maintained; hats were
waved from the _terre-plein_ of the curtain; the troops rushed forward
and drove the enemy down the steep flight of steps near the great
gate leading from the works into the town. The troops on the right of
the breach about the same time forced the barricadoes on the top of
the narrow line wall, and found their way into the houses that joined
it. In many places it was necessary to apply scaling-ladders before
the men could get down. At the centre of the main breach there was an
excavation below the descent, and a barricado at some feet farther
back; here, therefore, any who should have descended would have been
inclosed as a mark for the enemy, till the way was cleared for them by
a flanking fire from a round tower on the right, which took the French
in reverse. The French themselves were inclosed in a barricado between
that tower and the right breach, and their dead lay there heaped upon
each other. The contest was still maintained from barricadoes in the
streets, and by firing from the houses; till between four and five in
the afternoon, the enemy were driven from their last defence in the
town, except the Convent of S. Teresa, and retired into the castle.
By that time the town was on fire in many places; and, to add to the
horrors of a place taken by assault, the vindictive enemy fired upon it
from their upper defences, and rolled their shells into it.
About three in the afternoon, the day, which had been sultry, became
unusually cold; the sky was overcast, and between the blackness of the
sky, the rain, and the smoke, it was as dark as a dusky evening; but
when darkness would in its natural course have closed the town was
in flames. A dreadful night of thunder and rain, and wind succeeded;
and it was made far more dreadful by man than by the elements. It is
no easy task for officers, after the heat of an assault, to restrain
successful troops who are under no moral restraint; and on this day so
many officers had perished that the men fancied themselves exempt from
all control. They sacked the place, and gave way to such excesses that
if the French could have suspected the state of drunkenness to which
men so excellently brave in action had reduced themselves, they might
very probably have retaken part of the town, if not the whole. The loss
of the assailants amounted to nearly 1600 British and 800 Portugueze
killed and wounded; 700 of the garrison were made prisoners.
♦THE FRENCH DEFEATED IN THEIR ATTEMPT TO RELIEVE IT.♦
On the morning of the assault the French made a second effort for
the relief of S. Sebastian’s. Three divisions of Spaniards, under
General Freyre, occupied the heights of S. Marcial on the left of the
Bidassoa, and the town of Irun, thus covering the road to the besieged
fortress. The position was exceedingly strong, the front and the left
being covered by the river, and their right resting on the Sierra de
Haya. They were supported by the first division of British infantry,
under Major-General Howard, and by Lord Aylmer’s brigade on the left,
and in the rear of Irun; and by Longa’s division near the Sierra in
rear of their right. Still farther to secure them, Lord Wellington,
knowing that during the 29th and 30th the enemy were assembling a
large force at Vera, moved two brigades of the 4th division to the
left of the Sierra, and occupied the heights on the right of that
mountain, between the convent of S. Antonio and Vera; and Lezaca with a
Portugueze brigade, to prevent it from being turned in that direction.
On the 30th also he moved Major-General Inglis’s brigade to the bridge
of Lezaca, and gave orders for the troops in the Puertos of Etchalar,
Zugarramundi, and Maya, to attack the enemy’s weakened post in front of
their positions.
Before daylight on the 31st the enemy crossed the Bidassoa with a
very large force, two divisions by a ford in front of the left of the
Spaniards, while a third, under protection of batteries which they had
thrown up during the night, were constructing a bridge over the river,
about three quarters of a mile above the high road. The two divisions
immediately attacked the Spaniards along the whole front of their
position on the heights of S. Marcial. The attack was made with that
confidence which the French had always felt when the Spaniards were
opposed to them in regular action; but the boldness with which they
commenced it was ill maintained; for the Spaniards waited firmly till
the assailants had nearly reached the summit of the steep ascent, then
charged them with the bayonet whilst in column, and instantly broke
them. As often as the French repeated the attack so often were they
driven back, some of them even across the river, where many in their
haste lost the direction of the ford and perished. The division which
had been pushed across the Bidassoa to protect the construction of the
bridge, made a subsequent attempt on the right of the Spaniards, with
no better success. But as the course of the river was immediately under
the heights on the French side, and a considerable bend in that part
of the stream was flanked by their batteries, the Spaniards could not
prevent the pontooners from completing their work; and in the afternoon
the enemy marched over a considerable body, which, with the divisions
who had crossed at the fords, made another desperate attack upon the
Spanish position. Lord Wellington, who pronounced the conduct of the
Spaniards on this day to have been equal to that of any troops whom he
had ever seen engaged, appeared in front of their line at the moment
when the French advanced to this last attack. He was received with loud
and repeated shouts, and the men, proud of supporting in his sight
the character which they felt that they had this day deserved, again
beat back the assailants. They showed themselves indeed so capable of
defending their post without assistance, that the two British divisions
were not brought into action, the nature of the ground being such that
they could not be employed on the flanks of the enemy’s corps. When the
French were at length convinced that all their efforts were in vain,
they took advantage of a violent storm and the darkness which came on
with it, to retire hastily from this front. Many took to the river
in their fear, to sink or swim if they should miss the fords; and in
this attempt so many were seen to perish, the river being swoln by the
storm, that latterly the fugitives crowded to the bridge, and at last
pressed upon it in such numbers, that it sunk beneath their weight, and
most of those who were passing at the moment were lost.
About the same time that the enemy commenced their operations on this
side, a very strong body of their infantry crossed the Bidassoa, in two
columns, by the fords below Salon, in front of the position occupied by
the 9th Portugueze brigade. Major-General Inglis moved with his brigade
to their support, and finding he could not maintain the heights between
Lezaca and the river, withdrew to those in front of the convent,
protecting there the right of the Spanish army, and at the same time
the approach by Oyarzun to S. Sebastian’s. Major-General Kempt meantime
moved a brigade of the light division to Lezaca, by which he kept
the enemy in check; and the Earl of Dalhousie was directed likewise
to support Major-General Inglis; but being engaged at the Puerto de
Zugarramundi, he could not begin his march till late in the afternoon,
nor arrive before the ensuing morning, when the operations were at an
end. For the enemy, when they found that Major-General Inglis was in
a position from which they could not dislodge him, and knew that they
had completely failed at the heights of San Marcial, felt that their
situation on the Spanish side of the Bidassoa was becoming every moment
more critical, and retired during the night. But the river had then
so risen, and was still rising so fast, that the rear of their column
was obliged to cross by the bridge at Vera: and to effect this, they
attacked the posts of the light division about three in the morning.
If a sufficient force could have been spared for guarding this point,
a very considerable part of Soult’s army might have been taken.
The bridge was not wide enough for more than three or four to pass
abreast, and a continual fire was poured upon it from the walls of a
neighbouring convent, so that they were believed to have lost not less
than a thousand men in passing. The loss of the allies on this day
amounted to 400 killed, about 2060 wounded, and 150 missing, nearly
1600 of these being Spaniards. The brunt of the action had fallen upon
them; and in this respect it was a day of great importance, because it
made the French feel their own growing inferiority, and apprehend that
San Marcial would teach the Spaniards the same confidence in themselves
which the Portugueze had learned at Busaco. Among the British officers
who fell was Captain Douglas of the 51st: he is thus mentioned in a
work wherein so many crimes have been recorded, because his brother
officers bore this testimony to him, that he was the only man they knew
of whom they could truly say there was nothing in him in the slightest
degree approaching to a vice. The men of his company carried him off
the field, made his grave carefully, and gave him a soldier’s burial
with all the marks of respect which they could bestow.
The effort on Soult’s part had been great, and was deemed so by Lord
Wellington, for a Portugueze brigade was withdrawn from the besieging
corps during the assault. As soon as the town had been carried, ♦SIEGE
OF THE CASTLE OF S. SEBASTIAN’S.♦ preparations were made for reducing
the castle. The enemy still held the convent of S. Teresa, the garden
of which, inclosed as usual in such establishments with a high wall,
reached a good way up the hill, toward their upper defences; and from
thence they marked any who approached within reach of fire, so that
when a man fell, there was no other means of bringing him off than
by sending the French prisoners upon this service of humanity. The
town presented a dreadful spectacle both of the work of war and of
the wickedness which in war is let loose. It had caught fire during
the assault, owing to the quantity of combustibles of all kinds which
were scattered about; the French rolled their shells into it from the
castle; and while it was in flames, the troops were plundering, and
the people of the surrounding country flocking to profit by the spoils
of their countrymen. The few inhabitants who were to be seen seemed
stupified with horror; they had suffered so much, that they looked with
apathy at all around them, and when the crash of a falling house made
the captors run, they scarcely moved. Heaps of dead were lying every
where, English, Portugueze, and French, one upon another, with such
determination had the one side attacked and the other maintained its
ground. Very many of the assailants lay dead on the roofs of the houses
which adjoined the breach. The bodies were thrown into the mines and
other excavations, and there covered over so as to be out of sight,
but so hastily and slightly that the air far and near was tainted; and
fires were kindled in the breaches to consume those which could not be
otherwise disposed of. The hospital presented a more dreadful scene,
... for it was a scene of human suffering; friend and enemy had been
indiscriminately carried thither, and were there alike neglected; ...
on the third day after the assault many of them had received neither
surgical assistance, nor food of any kind; and it became necessary to
remove them on the fifth, when the flames approached the building:
much of this neglect would have been unavoidable, even if that humane
and conscientious diligence, which can be hoped for from so few, had
been found in every individual belonging to the medical department,
the number of the wounded being so great; and little help could be
received from the other part of the army, because it had been engaged
in action on the same day. ♦EXCESSES COMMITTED IN THE CITY.♦ The
hideous circumstances of war were indeed at this time to be seen in S.
Sebastian’s, divested of its pomp: and to a thoughtful mind its actual
horrors were less painful than the brutal insensibility with which they
were regarded by men whose nature, originally bad, had been worsened
by their way of life. Great exertions were made to stop the excesses
which at such times are to be expected; but the utmost exertions can do
little among troops who believe themselves privileged by the occasion
to break loose from the restraints of military discipline, and who are
not more fearless of death than they are, while in health and strength,
of judgment. The town was sacked: had it been an enemy’s town, it could
not have suffered more from its captors. Sentries were placed at all
the outlets to make the plunderers lay down their booty, but all that
could be secreted about the person was carried off; and the Spaniards
of Passages and other places were ready, as at a fair, to purchase the
spoils of their countrymen. A reproach was brought upon the British
name. The French seized the opportunity of endeavouring to fix upon
their enemies the same odious imputation which they themselves were
conscious of having deserved; they accused the British of setting fire
to the town, indiscriminately murdering friend and foe, and pillaging
the place under the eyes of their officers, who made no attempt to
restrain them. These charges were brought forward by that party in
Spain who, without inclining in ♦SEPTEMBER.♦ the slightest degree
toward the French, manifested on all occasions their jealousy and their
envious dislike of England; and they added the farther calumny, that
the captors had plundered the churches, and, by giving way to excess of
every kind, lost the favourable time for following up their success
and taking the castle. All was false, except that great excesses had
been committed: the difference between the conduct of the British at
S. Sebastian’s, and that of the French at Porto, Tarragona, and other
places, being this, that the crimes which the former perpetrated
were checked as soon as they could be by the officers, acknowledged
by the generals as evils which they had not been able to prevent,
severely condemned by them, and punished: those of the French had been
systematic and predetermined; the men were neither checked nor reproved
by their generals; and so far were the generals from receiving any
mark of disapprobation from their government, that the acts themselves
were ostentatiously proclaimed in bulletins and official reports, in
the hope of intimidating the Portugueze and Spaniards, and without any
sense of shame.
♦THE GARRISON SURRENDERS.♦
Preparations were immediately made for reducing the castle, the plan
being to erect batteries on the works of the town, and breach the Queen
batteries, the Mirador, and the keep. On the 3rd, some discussion
concerning a surrender was entered into with General Rey, which he
broke off when it was required that the garrison should lay down their
arms and become prisoners of war. These terms the general knew he
could obtain at the last moment, and possibly he still entertained
some hope of holding out till another effort could be made for his
relief; as, even after he had retired into the castle, some artillery
and ammunition reached him there from France, it being impossible,
upon such a coast, and when the ports were so near, entirely to cut
off the communication. The Convent of S. Teresa was taken on the 5th:
by this time the flames, which continued still to spread, had driven
the troops from their more advanced stations, and made them retire to
the ramparts. By the evening of the 7th, the roofs of such houses and
steeples as remained unburnt were prepared ♦SEPT. 8.♦ for musketry;
and on the following morning nearly sixty pieces of ordnance opened on
the castle. With great exertions, directed by Captain Smith, of the
navy, guns were got up the steep scarp of the islet of S. Clara, and
there mounted on a battery, which the sailors manned. The wall of the
Mirador was so hard, that the balls at first split upon striking it;
nevertheless, it was peeled by the continual fire, and was beginning to
come down, when the white flag was hung out. All the enemy’s batteries
were at that time utterly demolished, those on the sea line alone
excepted; the guns dismounted, the carriages knocked to pieces, and
the castle in ruins. There were no barracks, nor any covering for the
troops except holes, which had been excavated in every nook and corner,
to serve for them as splinter-proofs; and of these many were filled
with water, much rain having fallen during the preceding week: but for
the prisoners, who were in the hands of the garrison, there was no
shelter, and many of them were killed by the fire of their friends.
The French general might have obtained credit for an act of generous
humanity, and of policy as well, if he had released these prisoners,
sending a trumpet with them to declare his reasons for so doing, and
to express his reliance upon British honour that an exchange should be
allowed for them; for this no doubt would have been agreed to, though
the advantage was so manifestly to the enemy.
General Rey, on displaying the white flag, said he would send officers
to confer on the terms of surrender. Sir Thomas Graham replied, no
others would be offered than what had already been stated; the garrison
must lay down their arms, and be made prisoners of war. During the
whole siege they had lost about 2400 men, and they had now eaten all
their horses. Yielding of necessity now, they were especially anxious
that they should be under British protection, be embarked at Passages
as the nearest port, and conveyed directly to England; and this was
promised. One article requested that the _Commissaire de Guerre_,
having with him the widow and the two daughters of his brother, who had
died at Pamplona, might be allowed to return with them to France, he
being their chief support. General Rey was indignant that an article
about women should appear in the capitulation of such a garrison, and
after such a defence; and this he expressed coarsely, as if a soldier
disparaged his character by showing any consideration for humanity!
♦SEPT. 10.♦
On the 10th, the Portugueze were formed in the streets of the ruined
city; the British on the ramparts. The day was fine, after a night of
heavy rain. About noon the garrison marched out at the Mirador gate.
The bands of two or three Portugueze regiments played occasionally;
but altogether it was a dismal scene, amid ruins and vestiges of fire
and slaughter: a few inhabitants were present, and only a few. Many
of the French soldiers wept bitterly, there was a marked sadness in
the countenances of all, and they laid down their arms in silence.
Colonel S. Ouary, the commandant of the place, had been uniformly
attentive to the officers who had been prisoners. When this kindness
was now acknowledged, he said that he had been twice a prisoner in
England; that he had been fifty years in the service, and on the 15th
of the passing month he should have received his dismission: he was
now sixty-six, he said, an old man, and should never serve again; and
if he might be permitted to retire into France, instead of being sent
to England, he should be the happiest of men. Sir Thomas Graham wrote
to Lord Wellington in favour of the kind-hearted old man, and it may
be believed that the application was not made in vain. Captain Sougeon
was recognized at this time, who, on the day of the first assault, had
descended the breach to assist our wounded: “There,” said he, pointing
to his men, “are the remains of the brave 22nd; we were 250 the other
day, now not more than 50 are left.” Lord Wellington, upon being
informed of his conduct, sent him to France. Eighty officers and 1756
men were all the remains of the garrison, and of these 25 officers and
512 men were in the hospital.