第 31 页

choosing a place as far away as possible from that of the chief, so

that they could laugh, joke, and even sing, without fear of disturbing

his lordship.

Sam soon became a high favorite with the light-hearted young fellows,

and his services as forager for the mess were in high esteem.

Three days of hard riding took them to Almeida, where the breaches

caused by the great explosion had been repaired, and the place put

into a defensible position. Tom and Peter had been afraid that

there would be at least four months of enforced inactivity before

the spring; but they soon found that the post of aide-de-camp to

Wellington was no sinecure. For the next month they almost lived in

the saddle. The greater portion of the English army was indeed lying

on the Agueda, but there were detached bodies of British and large

numbers of Portuguese troops at various points along the whole line

of the Portuguese frontier, and with the commanders of these Lord

Wellington was in constant communication.

Towards the end of December some large convoys of heavy artillery

arrived at Almeida, but every one supposed that they were intended to

fortify this place, and none, even of those most in the confidence of

the commander-in-chief, had any idea that a winter campaign was about

to commence. The French were equally unsuspicious of the truth. Twice

as strong as the British, they dreamt not that the latter would take

the offensive, and the French marshals had scattered their troops at

considerable distances from the frontier in winter quarters.

Upon the last day of the year the Scudamores both happened to have

returned to the front--Tom from Lisbon, and Peter from a long ride to

a distant Portuguese division. There was a merry party gathered round

a blazing fire in the yard of the house where they, with several other

aides-de-camp, were quartered. Some fifty officers of all ranks were

present, for a general invitation had been issued to all unattached

officers in honor of the occasion. Each brought in what liquor he

could get hold of, and any provisions which he had been able to

procure, and the evening was one of boisterous fun and jollity. In

the great kitchen blazed a fire, before which chickens and ducks

were roasting, turkeys and geese cut up in pieces for greater

rapidity of cooking, were grilling over the fire, and as they came

off the gridiron they were taken round by the soldier-servants to

their masters as they sat about on logs of wood, boxes, and other

substitutes for chairs. Most of the officers present had already

supped, and the late-comers were finishing their frugal meal, after

which the soldiers would take their turn. There was a brewing of punch

and an uncorking of many a bottle of generous wine; then the song and

laugh went round, and all prepared to usher in the new year joyously,

when a colonel of the staff, who had been dining with Lord Wellington,

entered. "Here's a seat, colonel," was shouted in a dozen places, but

he shook his head and held up his hand.

"Gentlemen, I am sorry to disturb you, but orders must be obeyed.

Villiers, Hogan, Scudamores both, Esdaile, Cooper, and Johnson, here

are despatches which have to be taken off at once. Gentlemen, I

should recommend you all to look to your horses. All attached to the

transport had better go to their head-quarters for orders."

"What is up, colonel?" was the general question.

"The army moves forward at daybreak. We are going to take Ciudad."

A cheer of surprise and delight burst from all. There was an emptying

of glasses, a pouring out of one more bumper to success, and in

five minutes the court was deserted save by some orderlies hastily

devouring the interrupted supper, and ere long the tramp of horses

could be heard, as the Scudamores and their comrades dashed off in

different directions with their despatches.

The next morning a bridge was thrown over the Agueda at Marialva,

six miles below Ciudad, but the investment was delayed, owing to the

slowness and insufficiency of the transport. Ciudad Rodrigo was but

a third-class fortress, and could have been captured by the process

of a regular siege with comparatively slight loss to the besiegers.

Wellington knew, however, that he could not afford the time for a

regular siege. Long before the approaches could have been made, and

the breaches effected according to rule, the French marshals would

have been up with overwhelming forces.

Beginning the investment on the 7th, Wellington determined that it

must be taken at all costs in twenty-four days, the last day of

the month being the very earliest date at which, according to his

calculations, any considerable body of French could come up to its

relief.

Ciudad lies on rising ground on the bank of the Agueda. The

fortifications were fairly strong, and being protected by a very high

glacis, it was difficult to effect a breach in them. The glacis is the

smooth ground outside the ditch. In well-constructed works the walls

of the fortification rise but very little above the ground beyond,

from which they are separated by a broad and deep ditch. Thus the

ground beyond the ditch, that is, the glacis, covers the walls from

the shot of a besieger, and renders it extremely difficult to reach

them. In the case of Ciudad, however, there were outside the place

two elevated plateaux, called the great and small Teson: Guns placed

on these could look down upon Ciudad, and could therefore easily

breach the walls. These, then, were the spots from which Wellington

determined to make the attack. The French, however, were aware of the

importance of the position, and had erected on the higher Teson an

inclosed and palisadoed redoubt, mounting two guns and a howitzer. A

great difficulty attending the operation was that there were neither

fuel nor shelter to be obtained on the right bank of the river, and

the weather set in very cold, with frost and snow, at the beginning

of the siege. Hence the troops had to be encamped on the left bank,

and each division, as its turn came, to occupy the trenches for

twenty-four hours, took cooked provisions with it, and waded across

the Agueda.

On the 8th, Pack's division of Portuguese and the light division waded

the river three miles above the fortress, and, making a circuit took

up a place near the great Teson. There they remained quiet all day.

The French seeing that the place was not yet entirely invested paid

but little heed to them. At nightfall, however, Colonel Colborne,

with two companies from each of the regiments of the light division,

attacked the redoubt of San Francisco with such a sudden rush that it

was carried with the loss of only twenty-four men, the defenders, few

and unprepared, being all taken prisoners. Scarcely, however, was the

place captured than every gun of Ciudad which could be brought to bear

upon it opened with fury. All night, under a hail of shot and shell,

the troops labored steadily, and by daybreak the first parallel, that

is to say, a trench protected by a bank of earth six hundred yards

in length was sunk three feet deep. The next day the first division,

relieved the light division.

Tom and Peter, now that the army was stationary, had an easier time of

it, and obtained leave to cross the river to see the operations. The

troops had again to wade through the bitter cold water, and at any

other time would have grumbled rarely at the discomfort. When they

really engage in the work of war, however, the British soldier cares

for nothing, and holding up their rifles, pouches and haversacks, to

keep dry, the men crossed the river laughing and joking. There was but

little done all day, for the fire of the enemy was too fast and deadly

for men to work under it in daylight. At night the Scudamores left

their horses with those of the divisional officers, and accompanied

the troops into the trenches, to learn the work which had there to

be done. Directly it was dusk twelve hundred men fell to work to

construct their batteries. The night was dark, and it was strange to

the Scudamores to hear the thud of so many picks and shovels going,

to hear now and then a low spoken order, but to see nothing save when

the flash of the enemy's guns momentarily lit up the scene. Every half

minute or so the shot, shell, and grape came tearing through the air,

followed occasionally by a low cry or a deep moan. Exciting as it was

for a time, the boys having no duty, found it difficult long to keep

awake, and presently dozed off--at first to wake with a start whenever

a shell fell close, but presently to sleep soundly until dawn. By that

time the batteries, eighteen feet thick, were completed.

On the 10th the fourth division, and on the 11th the third, carried

on the works, but were nightly disturbed, not only by the heavy fire

from the bastions, but from some guns which the French had mounted on

the convent of San Francisco in the suburb on the left. Little was

effected in the next two days, for the frost hardened the ground and

impeded the work. On the night of the 13th the Santa Cruz convent was

carried and the trenches pushed forward, and on the next afternoon the

breaching batteries opened fire with twenty-five guns upon the points

of the wall at which it had been determined to make the breaches,

while two cannons kept down the fire of the French guns at the convent

of San Francisco. The French replied with more than fifty pieces,

and all night the tremendous fire was kept up on both sides without

intermission. Just at daybreak the sound of musketry mingled with the

roar of cannon, as the 40th Regiment attacked and carried the convent

of San Francisco. Through the 16th, 17th, and 18th the artillery

duel continued, some times one side, sometimes the other obtaining

the advantage; but during each night the trenches of the besiegers

were pushed forward, and each day saw the breaches in the ramparts

grow larger and larger. On the 19th the breaches were reported as

practicable--that is, that it would be possible for men to scramble up

the fallen rubbish to the top, and orders were therefore given for the

assault for that night.

The attack was to be made at four points simultaneously; the 5th,

94th, and 77th were to attack from the convent of Santa Cruz, to make

for the ditch, enter it, and work their way along to the great breach;

Mackinnon's brigade of the third division was to attack the great

breach from the front; the light division posted behind the convent

of San Francisco were to attack from the left, and make their way to

the small breach; while a false attack, to be converted into a real

one if the resistance was slight, was to be made by Pack's Portuguese

at the St. Jago gate at the opposite side of the town. As night fell

the troops moved into their position, and Lord Wellington went to

the convent of San Francisco, from whose roof he could survey the

operations. The Scudamores, with the rest of the staff, took up

their places behind him. Suddenly there was a shout on the far right,

followed by a sound of confused cheering and firing, while flashes of

flame leapt out along the walls, and the guns of the place opened fire

with a crash. Now the 5th, 94th, and 77th rushed with great swiftness

along the ditch, when, at the foot of the great breach, they were

met by the third division. Together they poured up the breach, and

the roar of musketry was tremendous. Once at the top of the breach,

however, they made no progress. From a trench which had been cut

beyond it, a ring of fire broke out, while muskets flashed from every

window in the houses near. It was evident that some serious obstacle

had been encountered, and that the main attack was arrested.

"This is terrible," Peter said, as almost breathless they watched the

storm of fire on and around the breach. "This is a thousand times

worse than a battle. It is awful to think how the shot must be telling

on that dense mass. Can nothing be done?"

"Hurrah! There go the light division at the small breach," Tom

exclaimed, as the French fire broke out along the ramparts in that

quarter. A violent cheer came up even above the din from the great

breach, but no answering fire lights the scene, for Major Napier,

who commanded, had forbidden his men to load, telling them to trust

entirely to the bayonet. There was no delay here; the firing of the

French ceased almost immediately, as with a fierce rush the men of the

light division bounded up the ruins and won the top of the breach. For

a moment or two there was a pause, for the French opened so fierce a

fire from either side, that the troops wavered. The officers sprang

to the front, the soldiers followed with the bayonet, and the French,

unable to stand the fierce onslaught, broke and fled into the town.

Then the men of the light division, rushing along the walls, took

the French who were defending the great breach in rear, and as these

gave way, the attacking party swept across the obstacles which, had

hitherto kept them, and the town was won. Pack's Portuguese had

effected an entrance at the St. Jago gate, which they found almost

deserted, for the garrison was weak, and every available man had been

taken for the defence of the breaches.

Thus was Ciudad Rodrigo taken after twelve days' siege, with a loss

of twelve hundred men and ninety officers, of which six hundred and

fifty men and sixty officers fell in that short, bloody fight at the

breaches. Among the killed was General Craufurd, who had commanded at

the fight on the Coa.

Upon entering the town three days afterwards, at the termination of

the disgraceful scene of riot and pillage with which the British

soldier, there as at other places, tarnished the laurels won by his

bravery in battle, the boys went to the scene of the struggle, and

then understood the cause of the delay upon the part of the stormers.

From the top of the breach there was a perpendicular fall of sixteen

feet, and the bottom of this was planted with sharp spikes, and strewn

with the fragments of shells which the French had rolled down into