The result of the siege was what might have been anticipated, when Wellington, with adequate means, had issued his order that the place should fall. On the morning of the 31st the assault was delivered, and after a long, bloody, and doubtful struggle, the fortress was carried.
Would that with the fall of that well-defended city the sad detail of “siege and slaughter” closed! “At Ciudad Rodrigo intoxication and plunder had been the principal object; at Badajoz, lust and murder were joined to rapine and drunkenness; but at San Sebastian the direst, the most revolting cruelty was added to the catalogue of crimes.” * Thank God! from witnessing that horrid scene, the fosterer and I were exempted. In accordance with Mark Antony’s advice, I had determined to give General Key “leg-bail” and on the night of the 27th, Dame Fortune behaving towards us like a real gentlewoman, we contrived to get clear of San Sebastian before our friends the besiegers could manage to get in.
* Napier.
But that event, in this my hurried but “eventful history,” requires another chapter.
CHAPTER XLII. A NOCTURNAL ADVENTURE, AND PREPARATIONS FOR ESCAPE.
“Arthur. Mercy on me!
Methinks, nobody should be sad but I; .
* * * By my Christendom,