The country was open. The dead, the dying, and the wounded were scattered abroad; some in tents, others exposed to the sun by day, and the heavy dew at night. With considerable difficulty, I found at length my friend, Lieutenant Madden, lying in a tent with his trowsers on and his shirt off, covered with blood, bandaged across the body to support his broken shoulder, laid on his back, and unable to move. He asked for his brother.—"Why does he not come to see me?" I turned my head away; for his gallant young brother (a captain of the 52nd) was amongst the slain!
Captain Merry, of the 52nd, was sitting on the ground sucking an orange. He said, "How are you?—You see that I am dying; a mortification has ensued." A grape-shot had shattered his knee; and he had told the doctor that he preferred death rather than to permit such a good leg to be amputated. Another officer had just breathed his last between these two sufferers.
The camp became a wilderness, some of the tents being thrown down, others vacant, and flapping in the wind, while the musketry still rattled in the town, announcing the wild rejoicing of our troops.
[18] Some Portuguese troops watched the right bank of the river on the side of Portugal, but, during the latter end of the siege, part of the fifth division under General Leith took that duty.
[19] I have often been told, from undoubted authority, that this soldier was one of the first who entered the small breach at Rodrigo, and whose Stentorian voice rose above the din of arms.
[20] He was mortally wounded at New Orleans, as Brigade-major, while scrambling up the enemy's lines. His horse had been killed under him. He was taken prisoner, and died raving mad from the agony of the wound through his body.
[21] He was killed; and his twin-brother, of the 52nd light infantry, fell two years after at St. Sebastian, also at the head of twenty-five volunteers from that regiment.
[22] This was with the exception of the two regiments of Portuguese Caçadores, who were left in reserve in the quarries; but many of them afterwards came towards the breaches.
[23] He had also two unhealed body wounds open, which he had received at Rodrigo, and one in the trenches at Badajoz a few days before. He now commands the 52nd regiment.
[24] The right corner looking from the ramparts; but, as we attacked, it was on the left.