CHAPTER III.
Witha detachment, consisting of one major, two captains, four subalterns, one assistant-surgeon, and 248 rank and file, I took leave of Athlone on the morning of the 17th of August 1811, and proceeded to Fairbane, on our way to the place of embarkation. On the 18th we moved forward to Birr—next day to Roscrea—on the 20th to Thurles—and on the 21st to Tipperary, where we halted on the following day. On the 23d our route led us to Mitchelstown, and to Fermoy on the 24th. Here an order had preceded us for forty-eight of the detachment to return to Athlone, they being considered too young to undergo the fatigues of a Peninsular campaign. The poor young lads, on being made acquainted with their new destiny, absolutely shed tears of sincere heart-felt sorrow. Two hours before day-light, on the morning of the 30th, they commenced their retrograde movement; and about as long after day-break we also bade adieu to Fermoy,—proceeded to Cork,—and on the followingmorning embarked at Monkston, on board of the Minerva transport.
Having previously purchased a competent stock of provisions for our little voyage, we weighed anchor at seven o'clock on the morning of the 7th of September, and shortly after quitted Cove harbour, under a gentle breeze from the land. Continuing to scud along with a favourable gale, we descried the Rock of Lisbon a little after sun-rise on the 19th. About two o'clock a pilot paid us a visit, and carried the old bark up the majestic Tagus in fine style, to a berth opposite Fort-Belem. At three o'clock, p.m. on the following day, we disembarked at the Blackhorse square. The men were quartered in a convent, and the officers upon the inhabitants.
The exterior appearance of Lisbon from the Tagus is extremely beautiful, vieing in splendour with the finest city in Europe. But the interior view of it is so truly disgusting, that we are forced to place it in a scale beneath the rank of the very lowest. The streets, which are narrow and ill-paved, are filthy beyond description. But how can it be otherwise, when every night, between nine and ten o'clock, every thing, no matter how disgusting, is tumbled from the windows and balconies of the houses into the streets, and with so little warning, that the ominous Garde-del'eau seldom reaches the ears of the passengers till they have been completely soused by their brethren in the upper regions. Now, to remove this abominablenuisance, which offends the eye, as well as the nasal organs of every stranger, none of the inhabitants ever contribute either personal service, or pecuniary aid. What, therefore, can be expected in a city such as Lisbon, but filth, particularly when it possesses no scavengers, save the rains of heaven which occasionally descend in torrents, and hordes of half-starved dogs, which are confined all day without meat, and in the evening turned adrift to find food as they best can, to satisfy the cravings of hunger. The piteous howlings of those wretched animals, as they crawl along the streets, would wring a tear of sympathy from the heart of a savage; and yet it produces no other effect on that of a Portuguese, than to excite a laugh at the expense of the individual who may have the humanity to commiserate the cruel fate of the poor four-footed scavengers.
A little before our arrival at Lisbon, a party of officers, on landing from England, agreed to dine together previous to retiring to their respective billets. Happy to meet, and sorry to part, they continued to while away the time so pleasantly, that the clock told nine before they were aware that more than seven hours of the last half of the day had passed away. As their quarters lay in different parts of the city, each individual at parting had to act as his own guide. In the group there was one, who, to an amiable, added rather a timorous disposition. This officer had proceededbut a short way on his journey, when the usual cry, Garde-del'eau, struck his ears from various quarters at the same time. Being alike ignorant of the language, as of the customs of the Portuguese, he fancied himself surrounded by individuals who intended doing him some bodily harm. Pausing a moment, to see if any friendly hand was near, or any loop-hole by which he could effect his escape, he was glad to observe but few people in the street, and that the greater portion of his enemies were several stories above him. This discovery led him to try if a good pair of heels would remove him to a place of greater safety. He accordingly started at a pace which would not have disgraced any of the winners of the Great St Leger, but in the hurry, his foot unfortunately struck the corner of a broken flag, when down he tumbled, amidst shouts of Garde-del'eau, and the contents of numerous mortars from the batteries above. In a twinkling he started to his feet, and bounded along like a deer, he knew not whither, every now and then receiving the partial contents of an additional mortar. At length worn-out, and observing something resembling a guard-house, he walked in. His appearance, however, being a little cadaverous, the officer of the guard (a Portuguese) shewed at first a disinclination to hold converse with him; but on the British hero making his hair-breadth 'scapes known to his foreign brother, the latter, though he deeply commiserated the fate of his visitor's uniform,yet enjoyed a hearty laugh at his expense, in which not only the guard, but the subject of merriment himself, ultimately joined.
From the immense number of British officers and soldiers that were continually parading the streets of Lisbon, a stranger not knowing the cause, would, on first witnessing the novel spectacle, have been apt enough to exclaim, "What! has Portugal become a colony of Great Britain?" From morning to night the Adjutant General, Quarter-master General, and Town-major's offices were constantly filled with officers and non-commissioned officers. Some reporting their arrival from England—others from the army. Some were applying for a passage to England—others for a route to the army on the frontiers. Some were necessarily and usefully employed in copying extracts from the general orders of the army, regarding the marching of detachments to and from the army,—others were in quest of billets,—and the whole were in close pursuit of the Commissary.
Having received our camp equipment, and every other article we required, we embarked in boats at six o'clock on the morning of the 28th of September, and both wind and tide being favourable, the whole disembarked at Valada, forty miles above Lisbon, at two o'clock in the afternoon. This small village stands on the right bank of the Tagus, and at that time almost every house in it boreample testimony of the friendship which the ruthless invaders entertained for the proprietors.
When Lord Wellington retired from Almeida to the far-famed position of Torres-Vedras, the inhabitants were invited to remove their persons and property to a place of security in rear of the allied army.Amongst the fewwho were deaf to all entreaty, was an elderly man, who, with his wife, and a beautiful daughter, occupied a house in Valada. On Massena's progress being arrested at Torres-Vedras, the whole country was instantly over-run with his legions, in search of shelter from the inclemency of the weather. Valada, as a matter of course, was occupied, and a party quartered on the obstinate old man. They had not been many days in the house before the sparkling eyes of the beautiful Maria had so far captivated the hearts of the foreign inmates, that two of them successively paid their addresses to her, which, however, she rejected with marked disdain. This so irritated the villains, that from that day they sought the ruin of the family. The eyes of the father being at length opened, he, with the most sincere and poignant grief, beheld for the first time, his daughter standing on the brink of inevitable destruction. But alas, it was too late to retrieve the error into which his obstinacy had betrayed him. An order arriving for the detachment to proceed to Santarem, one of her lovers again made Maria a tender of his hand, which was rejectedas before. This was conclusive of her fate. In an instant the innocent girl was dragged from under her father's roof, and he, in an attempt to rescue her from the grasp of the ruffians, received a wound from one of their bayonets, of which he soon after died. Her mother was afterwards maltreated, and the house plundered; in fact nothing was left but the bleeding trunk of the once happy father—the wretched mother—and the once beautiful and happy, but thenceforth the miserable and unhappy Maria. The former then lay hid from the sight of men, but the other two I saw in Valada; the widowed mother mourning over the loss of a beloved husband, and the misfortunes of an only daughter; and poor Maria, deprived of a parent's fostering care, sat brooding over her misfortunes, with misery staring her in the face, being unable to render any assistance to her mother from the barbarous treatment she experienced at the hands of the vile miscreants.
How often since that time have I fancied that I heard this interesting girl repeating, in all the calm utterance of despair,
——"O cover notHis blood, thou earth; nor ye, ye blessed soulsOf heroes, and of murdered innocence,O! never let your everlasting criesCease round the eternal throne, till the Most High,For all these unexampled wrongs, hath givenFull overflowing vengeance."
Our route led us on the 29th to the once beautiful city of Santarem, but then little better than a heap of ruins. That part of it denominated the New Town, stands on the summit of a considerable eminence, and commands a most extensive and delightful view of the vale of the Tagus, and country on its left bank. The Old Town is built along the eastern base of the hill, close to the bank of the river.
When Marshal Massena retired from before Lord Wellington at Torres-Vedras, he selected the position of Santarem as one admirably adapted for a defensive post, against an assailant moving from the side of Lisbon. The left of the French army rested on Santarem, and the right extended westward a considerable distance. What nature had left unfinished to render the position formidable, Massena endeavoured to accomplish. Field-works of various kinds crowned the eminence, while the face of the hill was studded with innumerable breast-works, from which thousands of Gallic soldiers for some time looked down upon their opponents with the scowl of defiance. From the plain the allied troops could advance by one road only to the assault of the left of the enemy's position, and that was so completely commanded by the works above noticed, that thousands of them would have bit the dust before they could have made the smallest impression in that quarter. For not attempting to drive Massena from this position,the British general was roundly but most unjustly censured by various classes in England. At first the troops were a little disappointed in not being allowed an opportunity of measuring weapons with the enemy; but before Massena finally relinquished his hold of Santarem, I believe there was not a man in the British army but was convinced that their chief acted on that occasion with his usual prudence and caution, in not attacking the crafty Marshal in his almost impregnable post, defended as it was by a numerous and veteran army, and commanded by a general, who, from his numerous successes, had been dubbed by hisImperial Master, the"Child of Fortune."
On the 30th we moved forward to Gallegao, fourteen miles from Santarem. During the last invasion of Portugal, some hundreds of the inhabitants of this large village were turned adrift on the world by the French, who subsequently ransacked and pillaged their houses, and then either threw them down, or burned them. But even these barbarous acts did not always satisfy the enemy. No: when it suited their convenience, murder was added to their long catalogue of crimes.
See yonder cottage, once the peaceful seatOf all the pleasures of the nuptial state.The sturdy son, the prattling infant there,And spotless virgin blessed the happy pair.In gentle sleep undreaming ill, they lay;But, oh! no more to see the cheerful day.
Observing a young man of genteel appearance walking rather hurriedly, and apparently in deep meditation, behind the counter of a very small coffee-shop, we stepped in under pretence of purchasing a cup of that excellent beverage, but, in reality, to obtain information relative to the conduct of the French troops during their sojourn in that town and vicinity. After enumerating various acts of uncommon barbarity, he informed us, that before the French invasion, his father, mother, brother, and two sisters, occupied one of the neatest cottages in Gallegao, where, blessed with a competency, they lived in the full possession of every earthly comfort, which a family united within itself, and possessing the esteem and love of its neighbours, could enjoy. Being the reputed possessor of riches, the enemy naturally conceived that the old man would have a portion of his cash secreted near his person, but how to lay their talons on it, they were for some time at a loss to invent a proper excuse. At length, however, the happy thought struck them, that as our informant was then in the ranks of the Portuguese army, nothing could be more plausible than a charge oftreasonagainst his father and brother. Accordingly they were seized, tried, and on a charge of corresponding with the British, condemned and executed. Their once happy abode was plundered and unroofed, and his beloved sisters were dragged from their native village, and compelled to accompany the murderers oftheir parent and brother. Of their fate he was then totally ignorant; but his opinion was, (and tears trickled down his cheek as he spoke,) that if they had escaped the fate of the former, it was not improbable but that both of them, rather than survive their dishonour, had put a period to their wretched existence.
Next morning we occupied Punhete, once a neat village, but then almost a ruin. It stands on a piece of level ground, at the confluence of the Tagus and Zezere, and is completely surrounded with hills, as barren as they are uninteresting to the eye. To those who have not witnessed the distressing spectacle, no language can properly convey the most distant notion of the destruction of property by the enemy at Punhete, in spring 1811.
Almost every piece of furniture, and every door and window in the village was removed to the French bivouac, in its vicinity, but not one article ever returned; for every thing was consigned to the flames, when the enemy took a final leave of Punhete. The village church was not even held sacred by the unhallowed crew. No: from under the sacred roof every thing portable was removed, and the interior of the building was then converted into a place of repose for mules and asses. God grant that a similar calamity may never befal the sacred edifices of our own happy isle!
On the 2nd of October, we entered Abrantes. This ancient city crowns the summit of a hill, twosides of which, the south and the east, are extremely steep and difficult of access. The base of the eminence on these sides, and part of the west, is washed by the Tagus, over which there was then a bridge of boats, by which all reinforcements and stores for the army, proceeding from Lisbon by Abrantes, crossed to the left bank, up which, those intended for General Hill's corps, ascended as far as Alpalhao, and turned to the right; and those for the main army, as high as Villa-Velha, where they again crossed the noble stream by a similar conveyance, and then proceeded to their destination by Castello-Branco. The claims of Abrantes to rank high as a military station, will be taken into consideration, along with those of Elvas and Castello-Branco.
Having rested our limbs on the 3rd, we advanced to Gavao on the 4th. Crossing by the bridge before mentioned, our route led us two leagues over a sandy plain, studded with cork trees; and then a similar distance over a heath as barren and uninteresting as any spot I had ever before traversed. In a morning when a little fog is skimming along the surface of the ground, the country around Gavao, when viewed from the spire of the village church, or any other building of equal height, presents a singular appearance—itsnatural undulationsgiving to the whole surrounding space, as far as the eye can reach, all the appearance of the mountain waves of a watery expanse,when violently agitated by a dreadful gale of wind.
At Alpalhao, on the 5th, the people complained bitterly of their poverty; but when they found that we required nothing from them, they praised the English and cursed the French, as roundly as the greatest enemy of the latter could have wished.
Early on the following morning we quitted Alpalhao, and moved forward to Portalegre, then the head-quarters of General Hill, as well as of our first battalion. Our march was a very dreary one; but the warm reception which we met with from our friends, who on our arrival hastened to welcome us to share their dangers and their glory, soon banished all traces of it from our remembrance.
On the breaking up of the allied army from its encampment in the vicinity of Estremoz, on the 1st of August, the main body under Lord Wellington, proceeded towards Almeida, and the remaining portion of it was formed into a corps of observation, which, at the date of our arrival at head-quarters, was composed of the following brigades of artillery, cavalry, and infantry, under the command of Lieutenant-General Rowland Hill.
Allied Artillery.Three Brigades, British and Portuguese.Allied Cavalry.Commanded byLieutenant General Sir William Erskine.
Allied Artillery.
Three Brigades, British and Portuguese.
Allied Cavalry.
Commanded byLieutenant General Sir William Erskine.
British Brigade.—Major-General Long.The 9th and 13th British Light Dragoons, and 2nd Hussars King's German Legion.Portuguese Brigade.—Colonel Campbell.The 4th and 10th Light Dragoons.2nd Division, Allied Infantry.Under the temporary command ofMajor-General Howard.1st British Brigade.—Major-General Howard.The 1st Battalions of the 50th, 71st, and 92nd Regiments, and one company 5th Rifle Battalion 60th Regiment.2nd Brigade.—Colonel Byng.The 1st Battalions of the 3rd and 57th, and 2nd Battalions of the 31st and 66th Regiments.3rd Brigade.—Colonel Wilson.The 1st Battalion 28th, and 2nd Battalions of the 34th and 39th Regiments.4th, or Portuguese Brigade.—Colonel Ashworth.The 6th and 18th Regiments of the Line, and 6th Cacadores.General Hamilton'sDivision of Portuguese Infantry.1st Brigade.—Brigadier-General Campbell.The 2nd and 14th Regiments of the Line.2nd Brigade.—Brigadier-General De Costa.The 4th and 10th Regiments of the Line.
British Brigade.—Major-General Long.
The 9th and 13th British Light Dragoons, and 2nd Hussars King's German Legion.
Portuguese Brigade.—Colonel Campbell.
The 4th and 10th Light Dragoons.
2nd Division, Allied Infantry.
Under the temporary command ofMajor-General Howard.
1st British Brigade.—Major-General Howard.
The 1st Battalions of the 50th, 71st, and 92nd Regiments, and one company 5th Rifle Battalion 60th Regiment.
2nd Brigade.—Colonel Byng.
The 1st Battalions of the 3rd and 57th, and 2nd Battalions of the 31st and 66th Regiments.
3rd Brigade.—Colonel Wilson.
The 1st Battalion 28th, and 2nd Battalions of the 34th and 39th Regiments.
4th, or Portuguese Brigade.—Colonel Ashworth.
The 6th and 18th Regiments of the Line, and 6th Cacadores.
General Hamilton'sDivision of Portuguese Infantry.
1st Brigade.—Brigadier-General Campbell.
The 2nd and 14th Regiments of the Line.
2nd Brigade.—Brigadier-General De Costa.
The 4th and 10th Regiments of the Line.