“Referring to their conduct on this occasion, the Duke of Wellington observes in his despatch, that he never witnessed a more gallant attack than that made by these two regiments on the division of the enemy which had then reached the ridge of the Sierra. In addition to this flattering testimony of his Grace, and in further evidence of the gallantry they displayed, it will be sufficient to state, that the loss sustained by these two corps on the occasion amounted to sixteen officers, seven sergeants, and two hundred and sixty-one men, being nearly one-half of the whole British loss in the battle.”—Mackie.
[114] Napier.
[115] It was said that by this discharge, two officers and ten British soldiers fell. This is not surprising, as the bayonets were literally touching.
[116] Nearly at this moment the following incident occurred:—“A poor orphan Portuguese girl, about seventeen years of age, and very handsome, was seen coming down the mountain, driving an ass, loaded with all her property, through the French army. * * * She passed over the field of battle with a childish simplicity, unconscious of her perilous situation, and scarcely understanding which were the hostile, and which the friendly troops; for no man on either side was so brutal as to molest her.”—Napier.
[117] The French loss was at first considerably exaggerated; and few English writers yet agree in estimating its amount. According to Colonel Jones, Massena’s loss was two thousand killed, three hundred prisoners, and from five to six thousand wounded. Napier only makes their killed eight hundred, and their wounded and prisoners about three thousand seven hundred. Other writers differ as widely in their estimates. The number given above is probably nearer to the true amount.
[118] “The patron of a house, occupied by an officer of the adjutant-general’s department, on arriving for other purposes, requested the servants to remove for a short time one of the horses out of a stall, where it had been standing for some days. As soon as the animal was removed, he proceeded to dig, and speedily exhumed three thousand crusada novas, which he had buried some months previous.”—Life on Service.
[119] “Fifty thousand of these fugitives found support and consolation in the hospitality and kindness of the citizens of Lisbon; but an equal number, who fled to the left bank of the Tagus, long remained exposed to the weather; and a large proportion miserably perished from hunger and disease before relief could be administered. Hard as was their lot, it was far more happy than that of the villagers in the rear, and on the skirts of the enemy’s cantonments, whose habitations, plundered of everything, and occasionally occupied by detachments of French, afforded their owners no supplies, and only a precarious shelter. Many of these wretched creatures passed the whole season of winter exposed to its inclemencies in the neighbouring woods or mountains, subsisting merely on roots and herbs; and on the advance of the allies returned to their homes, their bodies emaciated from abstinence, and their intellects impaired by long-continued apprehension; amongst them were girls of sixteen, who, become idiots, resembled in person women of fifty. Numbers of children of either sex, who’d survived the severe trial, flocked to the road-side as the army approached to demand relief; appearing so thin, pale, and haggard, that many a hardened veteran was observed to turn from the sight with disgust, as he compassionately bestowed on them a portion of the biscuit intended as his next day’s support.”—Jones’s Account of the War.
[120] “Above one hundred and fifty officers and five thousand men were made prisoners by this well-timed enterprise; three thousand five hundred muskets were taken, nearly the whole of which were charged, and hence the number of effective men may be estimated.”
[A curious inference of Doctor Southey. Surely the muskets of wounded men would be just as likely to be found loaded, as those of soldiers who had escaped unhurt.]—M.
[121] After driving the allied rear-guard from Sobral, “the French were pursuing their advantage,” says Doctor Southey, “when a peasant fell into their hands, who, unlike his countrymen, answered without hesitation all the interrogatories which were put to him; he told the commander that they were close upon the British lines, and pointed out to him where the batteries were, in constructing which he had himself laboured. Had it not been for this warning,” &c.—[Surely works that extended nearly thirty miles, for which fifty thousand trees had been allotted—on which three thousand artillerymen and engineers, and seven thousand peasants, had laboured—and on whose armament three hundred and nineteen heavy guns had been employed; works like these could not have been involved in all this mystery, and their very locality kept a secret from an officer like Massena, who commanded the most unbounded sources of information!]—M.