I could scarcely define my feelings during the action; but so far from feeling fear, when it first commenced, and the silent gloom of the night was broken by the rapid flash, and the reverberating thunder of the cannon, I felt a sensation something resembling delight; but it was of an awful kind—enthusiasm and sublimity, mixed with a sense of danger—something like what I have felt in a violent thunder storm.
The firing, on both sides, had been kept up without intermission from two o’clock in the morning; but as it now became dark, it was partially suspended. I then, for the first time, ventured to go below to the bomb-proof. The scene there was dismal—the wounded filled the whole place, and the doctor had not got through with the dressing of them. In this he was materially assisted from the commencement of the action by a female, (Mrs Reston,) whose heroism I have described in a subsequent volume. It is matter of surprise to many, that the courage she displayed, and the services she rendered on that occasion, should have been entirely overlooked by those who had the power of rewarding her, or that her claims on the country were not more warmly seconded by the officer who commanded in the fort.
Here let me pause in my narrative, to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of assistant-surgeon Bennet, who was with us during that trying period. To a fair knowledge of his profession, he added one of the kindest dispositions I ever knew any one possessed of; he was absolutely without one drop of gall in his composition; so much so, indeed, that some of the officers endeavoured to make him a butt for their raillery, but his native wit defeated their purpose, and turned against them their own weapons. Those who have been under his care will remember him with grateful feelings. But his career was brief; shortly after our arrival in Portugal, he caught infection from some of the sick whom he was attending, and died.
During the day I had little time to reflect on anything—all was noise and bustle; but now that I had time to look round, and saw the ramparts covered with the pale and disfigured corpses of those who, a few hours before, were rioting in the fulness of health and strength, and others writhing in agony, under the severe wounds they had received, I could not deny that I felt my heart sink within me, and sensations of a melancholy and solemn nature took place of those which had before excited my mind.
When daylight came in next morning, the firing again commenced as warmly as the preceding day; and the precision the French had attained with their shot was very remarkable. We had a flag-staff of the usual size, on which was hoisted the Spanish colours. They had cut it across with a cannon ball, it was repaired, and again replaced; but it was not five minutes up, when another shot brought it down again. This occurring four or five times successively, gave great offence to the sailors, who attributed all that we had suffered to fighting under the Spanish flag, and swore that if the union jack were up in its place, the French would not bring it down so easily.
‘There’s that bloody Spanish flag down again,’ said one of the tars.
‘Look ye, Jack! I have got our boat’s ensign here—let me go, and I’ll soon run it up.’
He went, and assisted in repairing the flag staff; but instead of again bending the Spanish flag to the halliards, he put the English in place of it.
A general huzza greeted its appearance. ‘Now, hang it! we’ll beat the French dogs,’ said the seamen; but the cheering attracted the notice of the commandant, and he ordered it to be hauled down again. Never was an order so reluctantly obeyed. In a few minutes, a shot cut through the flag staff. ‘There it goes down again—Oh, botheration;’ was the surly reply. ‘Let it lie there;’ and there it lay, for no one would meddle with it. ‘Better to fight without a flag at all, than under such a bloody treacherous flag as that,’ said an old sailor. ‘I never could bear it, unless when I saw it flying at the mast head of an enemy.’
By this time three of our guns were rendered unfit for service, and they had made great impression on our parapet, with a breach in the end of the bomb-proof. A corporal of our grenadier company had gone below to get some refreshment, and was raising a tin with some wine in it to his mouth, when a shot entered the breach, and striking some small arms that were placed against the wall, shivered them to pieces. One of the splinters entered his head, and he fell dead on the spot. The rest wounded several of the men beside him.