[514] Jameson’s Record.
[515] Jameson’s Record, p. 27.
[516] In a note to this poem, Scott says that the 71st and 79th, on seeing Cameron fall, raised a dreadful shriek of grief and rage; “they charged with irresistible fury the finest body of French grenadiers ever seen, being a part of Bonaparte’s selected guard. The officer who led the French, a man remarkable for stature and symmetry, was killed on the spot. The Frenchman who stepped out of the ranks to take aim at Colonel Cameron was also bayoneted, pierced with a thousand wounds, and almost torn to pieces by the furious Highlanders, who, under the command of Colonel Cadogan, bore the enemy out of the contested ground at the point of the bayonet.”
[517] His portrait is on [p. 504,] vol. ii.
[518] “Sergeant Mackenzie had previously applied to Major Cocks for the use of his dress sabre, which the major readily granted, and used to relate with great satisfaction that the sergeant returned it to him in a state which indicated that he had used it with effect.”
[519] Captain Jameson’s Record.
[520] His portrait will be found on the steel-plate of [Colonels of the 71st and 72nd Regiments].
[521] As the part taken by the 79th in the Peninsular battles has been described at some length in connection with the 42nd and other regiments, it is unnecessary to repeat the details here.
[522] Whilst the enemy thus gained a temporary possession of the redoubts, Lieutenant Ford and seven men of the 79th, who were in a detached portion of the work, separated from its front face by a deep road, had their retreat cut off by a whole French regiment advancing along this road in their rear, when one of the men, with great presence of mind, called out “sit down,” which hint was immediately acted on, with the effect of saving the party from being made prisoners, as the enemy supposed them to be wounded, and a French officer shrugged his shoulders in token of inability to render them any assistance!
[523] Jameson’s Historical Record, p. 43.