Resuming our march next morning, we advanced five leagues and encamped. Here we could neither get wood nor long grass, nor any kind of substitute for them to boil our kettles. We were consequently compelled to apply to the chief magistrate of a town adjoining our camp, to hand over to us for a suitable compensation, two or three houses to supply us with fuel. On the 6th, we moved first upon Valladolid, but when within a few miles of it, we brought up our right shoulders, and marched to Cigales. Resuming the pursuit of the flying host on the 7th, we advanced to Duennas, and encamped. Here we were presented with a most appalling spectacle, the dead bodies of two French soldiers lying on a dunghill, not placed there by the Spaniards, but by their own friends, and what is more revolting, one of them before he was dead. The dunghill was immediately under the window of a house which they used as an hospital. Conduct such as this is quite unpardonable.
On the 8th we advanced to Torquemada. During the night the wind blew a hurricane, and the rain poured down upon us plenteously. Next day and the one following, we plodded our way towards Burgos up to the knees in mud; and after crossing the Arlanzon, on the afternoon of the 10th, encamped on a height about a league from its left bank. On the 11th we moved forward one league to Los-Valbasas and encamped, and on the following day we drew five leagues nearer to Burgos, where we expected to have warm work. Just as our division had taken up its ground for the night, as we thought, the sound of artillery in our front called us to arms. In a few minutes we were on the road to the scene of action, but had not advanced above a mile, when we were stopped at a little deep stream, the bridge over which the enemy had destroyed. On this obstacle being surmounted, we crossed, and after advancing two miles farther, halted; and in half-an-hour thereafter, were ordered to return to the same ground on which we had originally pitched our tents. We accordingly retraced our steps, both wet and weary. This unseasonable little affair between our light troops, horse artillery, and the enemy's rear-guard, ended in favour of the former, who succeeded in driving back the latter with the loss of some killed and wounded, and one piece of artillery.
At five o'clock in the morning of the 13th of June, Joseph Bonaparte, in a fit of temporary insanity unquestionably, blew up the castle of Burgos. This unexpected act of the enemy afforded a key to his future intentions, for it intimated as plainly as language could have done, that he had no intention of giving us battle south of the Ebro. The destruction of this fortress was the first fruits of the British General's admirable plan of operations. Seeing that it was Joseph Bonaparte's intention to defend the passage of the Douro, Lord Wellington caused Sir Thomas Graham to cross the Douro, as before noticed, and subsequently to hang on the enemy's right flank, in order to turn him out of every position he might occupy. The first part of his operations being attended with success, the hero of Barossa continued to manœuvre in a similar manner all the way to the Ebro, which he crossed on the 14th at Arenas, and, by turning the enemy out of their position in the line of the Ebro, opened a passage for the centre division on the 15th, and Sir Rowland Hill's corps on the day following.
Descending into the vale of the Ebro, the road leads first down a deep ravine, then in a zig-zag form down the face of the mountain, which is high and rugged. From the summit of the latter, the bands of the different battalions played some favourite airs all the way down, the rocks on each side re-echoing the shrill sounds of the trumpet, the sweeter notes of the clarion, and the wild murmuring sounds of the bag-pipe, with very beautiful effect. Bonaparte having decreed all the country north of the Ebro to be annexed to his dear France, the band of each battalion on crossing the bridge, struck up the "Downfall of Paris," which, added to the cheers of the soldiers, made the hills and the valleys ring, till from a thousand places, the latter re-echoed the glad acclamations of the happy band of British soldiers.
After crossing the Ebro, we threaded our way up the left bank, the road on each side being hounded by the river on the left, and a rugged and inaccessible mountain on the right. In several places, the road has not only been cut out of the rock, but the rock actually overhangs the road, and part of the water in more places than one. To retire from such strong ground without making some shew of defending the line of the Ebro, was rather astonishing. However, we were not at all displeased with them for doing so. Having kept close to the river for two or three miles, we turned to the right, and after a farther march of a league, halted, and encamped.
On the 17th we proceeded towards Vittoria, and after a movement of three leagues, encamped in a plain, in which we discovered a few of our companions in a distant corner, busily engaged like ourselves in preparing some scalding soup. On the 18th and 19th we continued moving in the direction of Vittoria, and, on the evening of the latter, encamped on a height which overlooks Miranda-del-Ebro.
On the 18th the light division came in contact with a body of the enemy in charge of stores, which they attacked, and handled roughly. The same division was engaged in a similar employment on the day following. On the 20th the whole closed up to within three or four leagues of Vittoria, in front of which Joseph had taken up a position on the preceding day, with the intention of giving us battle.
CHAPTER XVIII.
A little after day-break on the 21st, the troops were ordered to be in readiness to march at a moment's notice; but whether we were to be engaged in pursuing or combating the enemy, no one could tell. Appearances, however, were in favour of the latter; for, instead of marching at the expiration of the usual period allowed to intervene between the sounding of the warning-horn and the advance, we remained two hours in camp, waiting instructions, before we could move to perform our part in the grand drama of the day. About five o'clock, however, all suspense was at an end.—To arms, resounded through the camp. In a few minutes every man was at his post, and in a few more we were on the road to Puebla, where we arrived about eight.
On leaving our encampment, the rain, which till then had fallen in gentle showers, entirely ceased, and soon after the sun burst from behind the gloomy curtain, to spread his cheering rays over fields yet unstained with blood,—over rivers, whose streams, meandering through Zadora's vale, were yet undisturbed by the strife of man,—to cheer the sons of freedom on their march to the field of honour, hundreds of whom were destined, long before he had finished his daily course, to take their departure for that bourne from whence no traveller returns.