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their aim by the smoke and flames from the explosions, and too few in

number, entirely failed to quell the French musketry. About midnight,

when two thousand brave men had fallen, Wellington, who was on a

height close to the quarries, ordered the remainder to retire and

re-form for a second assault; he had heard the castle was taken,

but thinking the enemy would still resist in the town, was resolved

to assail the breaches again. This retreat from the ditch was not

effected without further carnage and confusion. The French fire never

slackened. A cry arose that the enemy was making a sally from the

distant flanks, and there was a rush towards the ladders. Then the

groans and lamentations of the wounded, who could not move and

expected to be slain, increased, and many officers who had not heard

of the order, endeavored to stop the soldiers from going back; some

would even have removed the ladders but were unable to break the

crowd."

While this terrible scene was passing, the victory had been decided

elsewhere. The capture of the castle by Picton would, in itself, have

caused the fall of the town upon the following day, but Leith, with

the fifth division, after hard fighting, scaled the St. Vincente

bastion, and came up through the town and took the defenders of the

breaches in the rear. Then the French gave way, the British poured in,

and the dreadful scenes which had marked the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo

were repeated, and even surpassed. Up to the present day the name of

an Englishman is coupled with a curse in the town of Badajos. At this

siege, as at the last, the Scudamores acted the part of lookers on,

and although they bitterly regretted it, it was well for them that it

was so. The capture of Badajos cost the allied army five thousand men,

of whom three thousand five hundred fell on the night of the assault.

Each of the divisions which attacked the breaches lost over twelve

hundred men, and the 52nd Regiment, who formed part of the light

division, lost their full share. Among the ranks of the officers the

slaughter was particularly great, and scarce one escaped without

a wound. The Scudamores would fain have volunteered to join their

regiment in the assault, but it was well known that Lord Wellington

would not allow staff officers to go outside their own work. Therefore

they had looked on with beating hearts and pale faces, and with

tears in their eyes, at that terrible fight at the Triudad, and had

determined that when morning came they would resign their staff

appointments and ask leave to join their regiment. But when morning

came, and the list of the killed and wounded was sent in, and they

went down with a party to the breach to collect the wounded, they

could not but feel that they had in all probability escaped death, or

what a soldier fears more, mutilation. "After all, Tom," Peter said,

"we have done some active service, and our promotion shows that we

are not cowards; there can be no reason why we should not do our duty

as the chief has marked it out for us, especially when it is quite

as likely to lead to rapid promotion as is such a murderous business

as this." After this no more was said about resigning the staff

appointment, which gave them plenty of hard work, and constant change

of scene, whereas had they remained with the regiment they would often

have been stationed for months in one place without a move.

CHAPTER XVI.

SALAMANCA.

The great triumphs of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos did not lead to the

rapid successes which Wellington had hoped. The French generals,

on hearing of the loss of the latter fortress, again fell back,

and Wellington was so much hampered by shortness of money, by the

inefficiency, obstinacy, and intrigues of the Portuguese Government,

and by want of transport, that it was nearly three months before he

could get everything in readiness for an advance into Spain. At last

all was prepared, and on the 13th of June the army once more crossed

the Agueda and marched towards the Tamar in four columns. On the 17th

it was within six miles of Salamanca, and Marshal Marmont, unable for

the moment to stem the tide of invasion, evacuated the city, which

that evening blazed with illuminations, the people being half wild

with joy at their approaching deliverance. The French, however, had

not entirely departed, for eight hundred men still held some very

strong forts overlooking and guarding the city.

These forts held out desperately; the British battering train

was weak, and upon the 23d Marmont, having received considerable

reinforcements, advanced to raise the siege. Wellington, however,

refused to be tempted to leave his trenches to deliver a general

battle, but faced the enemy with a portion of his army while he

continued the siege.

Marmont, upon his part, believing that the forts could hold out for

fifteen days, put off the attack, as he knew that large reinforcements

were coming up. His calculations were frustrated by one of the forts

taking fire on the 27th, when an assault was delivered, and the whole

of the forts surrendered; Marmont at once fell back across the Douro,

there to await the arrival of his reinforcements.

Wellington, on his part, followed slowly, and his army took up a

position between Canizal and Castrejon, thereby covering the roads

from Toro and Tordesillas, the only points at which the French could

cross the river. The reports of the spies all agreed that the former

was the place at which the crossing would be made.

On the 16th of July an officer rode into Canizal, at headlong pace,

with the news that a reconnoitering party had crossed the Douro that

morning near Tordesillas, and had found that place deserted, except by

a garrison; and an hour later the news came in that three divisions of

the enemy were already across the river at Toro. Five minutes later

the Scudamores were on horseback, carrying orders that the whole of

the army, with the exception of the fourth and light divisions, which

were on the Trabancos, under General Cotton, were to concentrate at

Canizal that night. By the morning the movement was accomplished.

The day wore on in somewhat anxious expectation, and towards afternoon

Wellington, accompanied by Lord Beresford, and escorted by Alten's,

Bock's and Le Marchant's brigades of cavalry, started to make a

reconnaissance of the enemy's movements. Caution was needed for the

advance, as it was quite uncertain whether the French were pushing

on through the open country towards Canizal, or whether they were

following the direct road from Toro to Salamanca. Evening closed in,

but no signs of the French army were seen, and the party halted about

six miles from Toro, and small parties of cavalry were despatched

right and left to scour the country, and find out where the enemy had

gone.

"It's very strange where the French can have got to," was the remark

made, for the fiftieth time among the staff.

The detached parties returned, bringing no news whatever, and Lord

Wellington again advanced slowly and cautiously towards Toro. Small

parties were pushed on ahead, and presently an officer rode back

with the news that he had been as far as the river, and that not a

Frenchman was to be seen. It was too late to do any more, and they

remained in uncertainty whether the enemy had recrossed the river

after making a demonstration, or whether they had marched to their

right, so as to make a circuit, and throw themselves between Ciudad

Rodrigo and Salamanca, upon the line of communication of the British

army.

Lord Wellington, with his staff, took possession of a deserted

farm-house, the cavalry picketed their horses round it, and the

Scudamores, who had been more than twenty-four hours in the saddle,

wrapped themselves in their cloaks, and stretching themselves on the

floor, were soon asleep. Just at midnight the sound of a horse's

footfall approaching at a gallop was heard, and an officer, who had

ridden, without drawing rein, from Canizal, dashed up to the farm.

Five minutes later the whole party were in the saddle again. The news

was important, indeed. Marmont had drawn his whole army back across

the Toro on the night of the 16th, had marched to Tordesillas, crossed

there, and in the afternoon, after a march of fifty miles, had fallen

upon Cotton's outposts, and driven them across the Trabancos.

Not a moment's time was lost by Wellington after he received the news;

but, unfortunately, six precious hours had already been wasted, owing

to the despatches not having reached him at Canizal. With the three

brigades of cavalry he set off at once towards Alaejos, while an

officer was despatched to Canizal, to order the fifth division to

march with all speed to Torrecilla de la Orden, six miles in the rear

of Cotton's position at Castrejon.

Four hours' riding brought them to Alaejos, where a halt for two or

three hours was ordered, to rest the weary horses and men. Soon after

daybreak, however, all thought of sleep was banished by the roar of

artillery, which told that Marmont was pressing hard upon Cotton's

troops. "To horse!" was the cry, and Lords Wellington and Beresford,

with their staff, rode off at full speed towards the scene of action,

with the cavalry following hard upon their heels. An hour's ride

brought them to the ground. Not much could be seen, for the country

was undulating and bare, like the Brighton Downs, and each depression

was full of the white morning mist, which wreathed and tossed

fantastically from the effects of the discharges of firearms, the

movements of masses of men, and the charges of cavalry hidden within

it. Upon a crest near at hand were a couple of British guns, with a

small escort of horse.

Suddenly, from the mist below, a party of some fifty French horsemen

dashed out and made for the guns. The supporting squadron, surprised

by the suddenness of the attack, broke and fled; the French followed

hard upon them, and just as Lord Wellington, with his staff, gained

the crest, pursuers and pursued came upon them, and in pell-mell

confusion the whole were borne down to the bottom of the hill. For

a few minutes it was a wild melee. Lords Wellington, Beresford, and

their staff, with their swords drawn, were in the midst of the fight,

and friends and foes were mingled together, when the leading squadrons

of the cavalry from Alaejos came thundering down, and very few of the

Frenchmen who had made that gallant charge escaped to tell the tale.

The mists were now rapidly clearing up, and in a short time the whole

French army could be seen advancing. They moved towards the British

left, and Wellington ordered the troops at once to retire. The British

fell back in three columns, and marched for the Guarena, through

Torrecilla de la Orden. The French also marched straight for the

river, and now one of the most singular sights ever presented in

warfare was to be seen.

The hostile armies were marching abreast, the columns being but a few

hundred yards apart, the officers on either side waving their hands to

each other. For ten miles the armies thus pressed forward the officers

urging the men, and these straining every nerve to get first to the

river. From time to time the artillery of either side, finding a

convenient elevation, would pour a few volleys of grape into the

opposing columns, but the position of the two armies, did not often

admit of this. Gradually Cotton's men, fresher than the French, who

had, in the two previous days, marched fifty miles, gained ground,

and, reaching the river, marched across by the ford, the winners of

the great race by so little that one division, which halted for a

moment to drink, was swept by forty pieces of French artillery, which

arrived on the spot almost simultaneously with it.

On the Guarena the British found the remaining divisions of the army,

which had been brought up from Canizal. These checked Marmont in an

attempt to cross at Vallesa, while the 29th and 40th Regiments, with

a desperate bayonet charge, drove Carier's French division back as it

attempted to push forward beyond Castrillo. Thus the two armies faced

each other on the Guarena, and Marmont had gained absolutely nothing

by his false movement at Toro, and his long and skillful detour by

Tordesillas.

Quickly the rest of the day passed, as did the one which followed, the

troops on both sides resting after their fatigues. Wellington expected

to be attacked on the next morning and his army was arranged in two

lines ready for the combat. At daybreak, however, Marmont moved his

army up the river, crossed at a ford there, and marched straight

for Salamanca, thus turning Wellington's right, and threatening his

communications. The British at once fell back, and the scene of the

previous day was repeated the armies marching along the crest of two

parallel hills within musket shot distance of each other.

This time however, the French troops, although they had marched

considerably farther than the English proved themselves the best

marchers, and when night fell Wellington had the mortification of

seeing them in possession of the ford of Huerta on the Tormes, thus

securing for Marmont the junction with an army which was approaching

under King Joseph, and also the option of either fighting or refusing

battle. Wellington felt his position seriously threatened, and sent

off a despatch to the Spanish General Castanos, stating his inability

to hold his ground, and the probability that he should be obliged to

fall back upon Portugal. This letter proved the cause of the victory

of Salamanca for it was intercepted by the French, and Marmont,

fearing that Wellington would escape him, prepared at once to throw

himself upon the road to Ciudad Rodrigo, and thus cut the British line

of retreat, in spite of the positive order which he had received from

King Joseph not to fight until he himself arrived with his army.

Upon the 21st both armies crossed the Tormes, the French at Alba and

Huerta, the British at Aldea Lengua, and San Marta. Upon that day the