A few days since I heard an anecdote about the siege of Rodrigo, which shows the man. Scarcely any one knew what was to be done; the great preparations were all made in Almeida, and most supposed, as I believe the French did, that everything which arrived was for the purpose of defence there, not of attack elsewhere. On a sudden the army was in front of Rodrigo. A new advanced work was discovered, which had to be taken before any progress could be made in the siege. To save men and time, an instant attack was resolved upon. Scaling-ladders were necessary; the engineers were applied to; they had none with them, for they were quite ignorant of the plans—an inconvenience which has often arisen in different departments from Lord Wellington’s great secrecy, though the general result, assisted by his genius, has been so good. The scaling could not take place without ladders; Lord Wellington was informed of this. “Well,” says he, “you have brought up your ammunition and stores, never mind the waggons, cut them all up directly, they will make excellent ladders—there you see, each side piece is already cut.” This was done, and by the help of these novel ladders, the work was scaled forthwith.
At Badajoz, he found so little to be had in the regular way for a siege, from want of transport, and so many difficulties in consequence from the regular bred artillery generals, that he became principal engineer himself, making use of Colonel Dickson, the acting man, as his instrument. These sieges procured Dickson his majority and lieutenant-colonelcy; and though only a Captain in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, he now conducts the whole of that department here, because he makes no difficulties.
In one instance Lord Wellington is not like Frederick the Great. He is remarkably neat, and most particular in his dress, considering his situation. He is well made, knows it, and is willing to set off to the best what nature has bestowed. In short, like every great man present or past, almost without exception, he is vain. He cuts the skirts of his own coats shorter, to make them look smarter: and only a short time since, on going to him on business, I found him discussing the cut of his half-boots, and suggesting alterations to his servant. The vanity of great men shows itself in different ways, but in my opinion always exists in some shape or other.
February 22nd, 5 o’clock.—The flotilla has just got out of Sacoa Bay preparatory to the operations to-morrow. A beautiful sight! Six or seven ships of war, and fifty other vessels—everyone alive! Forty form the bridge. I hope it may succeed, but many doubt it.
P.S. Lord Wellington is moving on the Gaves with seven divisions. The cable bridge is in the boats, and the engineers on board. The affair is to begin by driving in the picquets, when five hundred men are then to be sent over on the rafts, the guns of the French battery spiked, the French corvette burnt, and then the bridge is to be thrown across!
February 24th, 1814.—I rose at half-past four, to go over and see the crossing of the Adour yesterday, and the formation of the bridge. At daylight I discovered that the whole flotilla had been dispersed by the gale of the night before, and no part was near the mouth of the Adour. Several officers returned in consequence, declaring that nothing could be done. Thinking otherwise myself, and that this movement would somehow take place, being connected with Lord Wellington’s movement on our right on the Gaves, I went on, and found all the Spaniards on the road in front of Bayonne, but doing nothing. All was quiet for a very long time. About twelve o’clock, however, they were ordered to move on and make a feint, and an attack was made by our great guns and rockets at the same time, on the French armed corvette and gun-boats, to destroy the latter, and at the same time to draw off the attention of the French from the mouth of the river below Anglet, where we intended to cross on the rafts.
The Spaniards were not much opposed, and went on boldly enough, as far as was intended, and had a few wounded. The sharp-shooting, however, was very slack. The fifth division at the same time, made a show on their side, between the Nive and the Adour, but not with any serious intention. I then went into an empty house with Dr. Macgregor and some others, to make a fire and get some breakfast, which they had brought with them; and adding our several stocks together, we fared very well. We then made our way through Anglet, and across the sands, and through a pine-wood, to the river’s mouth. A brigade of Guards, another of the King’s German Legion, the Light Battalion (most excellent men), and a Rocket Brigade, were there all ready to pass, but from the immense difficulties which had been met with in the transport of the boats and pontoons over land, only two of the light companies were over about one o’clock, when I arrived, and a temporary suspension of the passage of men had been ordered by General Hope.
The order, however, had just come again to pass over as fast as possible, and before I left the spot (about three o’clock) three rafts, formed each upon three pontoons, and carrying each about fifty or fifty-five men, were at work ferrying across on a cable, and the six small boats were also plying, so that about five hundred men were then nearly over, and they were going at the rate of two hundred, or two hundred and fifty per hour. I left the rocket men, each with one rocket ready in his hand, and three on his back in a case, with three poles on his shoulder, just going to cross.
Elphinstone had been quite in despair; the pontoon car sunk so much in the sand, that at last thirty horses would not move them, and for the last five hundred yards they were conveyed on the shoulders of the guardsmen; twenty-six men to a pontoon. At length all his difficulties were thus overcome, and the non-arrival of the bridge, of which we could see nothing, was not his fault, but that of the weather.
I helped the engineering again a little, by joining the party who were endeavouring to find the best place to which to fix cables against high-water—as I discovered the last tide-mark in the sands, and thus found a landing-place and post, clearly above high-water mark; for the springs were past, and of course every succeeding tide would rise to a less height. We then proceeded along the river towards our battery on the bank, which was firing at the corvette, &c. When we had gone a little way through the pine-wood, we found all the roads almost stopped by trees cut down by the French, and the road we took near the bank, which was clear, carried us opposite a smaller French corvette and three gun-boats, which had just placed themselves in the river. At first we thought them a part of our intended bridge, but soon found it otherwise, and that we should be fired at, for our small party on the other side the river had not advanced, and all the opposite bank and village, as well as the boats, were still in possession of the French. We therefore turned, and at last made our way through to the battery. There we learnt that the guns and rockets had sunk one gun-boat, and frightened away the rest and the corvette, which had all been hauled up close to the bridge under Bayonne, where we saw them.