Cameron, as I have said, got the men of the 1st Battalion together after the assault and kept them formed on the ramparts till between nine and ten; he then thanked them for their conduct throughout. ‘And now, men,’ he added, ‘you may fall out and amuse yourselves; but I expect you all to be in camp at tattoo to-night.’ It was a vain hope; and it was two days before the absentees returned, and discipline was restored.
On the day after the assault two officers of the 1st Battalion were talking over the events of the past night at the door of a tent, when two ladies approached from Badajos, and claimed their protection. They were evidently, from their appearance and manner, of the upper class of Spanish society. Both were handsome; and the younger, then about fourteen, very beautiful. The elder, though still young, addressed the Riflemen, and said that she was the wife of an officer in the Spanish service, who was in a distant part of Spain; that the young lady with her was her sister, who, having just completed her education in a convent, had been placed under her charge; that yesterday she had a comfortable house and home; that now it was in the possession of an infuriated and insane soldiery; that they had already suffered violence, as their bleeding ears, from which the ear-rings had been rudely torn, bore witness; and that to escape greater violence and dishonour worse than death, they had fled; and had resolved (however strange the step might seem) to throw themselves upon the honour and the protection of the first English officers they might meet. It need not be told that it was freely given, and chivalrously observed, and that they were conveyed to a place of safety. Nor will it seem strange to add that the acquaintance begun in so romantic a manner ripened into a warmer feeling; and that within two years, the younger of them, Donna Juana Maria de los Dolores de Leon, became the wife of him who had saved her, Harry Smith, then a Captain in the Regiment, and was long known in English society as Lady Smith, the honoured wife of the conqueror of Aliwal.
FOOTNOTES:
[92] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ vii. 356-7.
[93] MS. Record 1st Battalion.
[94] ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ vii. 82.
[95] Letter to Marshal Beresford: ‘Wellington Despatches,’ vii. 372.
[96] MS. Journal.
[97] ‘Leach,’ 204-5.
[98] It is said to be more than 4,000 feet above the level of the sea.