Our animals and baggage having joined us the next day, we took the road towards Santarem, and about dusk reached the causeway leading up a steep hill into the town, where the French, previously to their retreat under Marshal the Prince of Essling The excessive heat of the following day having somewhat subsided, towards the cool of the evening we began our march, but, by some unaccountable After the usual halt we pursued our march through Punhete to Abrantes, where two of us were nearly carried away amongst the quicksands, while bathing in the river Tagus, and only reached the shore by making the greatest efforts. Various individuals had been drowned at this place by the current. Having halted here one whole day, we crossed over the bridge of boats to the southern province of the Alentejo, and entered Gaviao, where I was billeted in a very poor house. At night I entered a recess, much fatigued, and, upon quitting the mattrass in the morning, the bugs had made such a feast on my right leg from the hip to the very sole of Passing onwards in our march, on the ninth day, we ascended a high hill on the summit of which stood Aronches, commanding an extensive prospect over a diversified sandy country, intersected with forests, vineyards, rocks, and small fields of Indian corn, and encompassed by dilapidated walls formed of loose stones carelessly heaped one on another without mortar. The streets of the town were narrow, and almost deserted, with huge shapeless rocks at every few yards, rearing their heads, and blocking up the way, whilst a solitary Portuguese was seen striking an old battered guitar with all his fingers (as on a tambourine) and hallooing forth some ditty loud enough to be heard in the distant valleys. The heat of the day was quite overpowering, the firmament was of heavenly blue, while the sun shone forth in full splendour, forcing us to retire to some shady spot from its scorching rays, and to take some repose after the fatigues of the march. Towards the close of the evening we again stood on the ramparts to inhale the cool and delicious air. The shades of night had scarcely hidden the face of the country from our view, when the moon, rising in all her grandeur, threw a pale light around, and tipped with silver the On the 20th of July we descended into the valley, and, at the edge of a wood, awaited the coming of the division, from an advanced camp on their way to Castello de Vida. Every eye was on the stretch, and in the distance we descried a cloud of dust rolling towards us, the bright sparkling rays of the sun-beams playing on the soldiers' breast plates, when suddenly the leading regiment of the light division burst forth; their bronzed countenances and light knapsacks, and their order of march, all united to inspire a conviction that their early discipline had not only been maintained amidst privations, battles and camps, but had become matured by experience. They had traversed mountains, and forded rivers; the grim and icy hand of death had grasped many in the unhealthy marshes of the Alentejo, and with sure effect had scattered balls amidst their ranks without distinction: yet the remainder of these veterans were still bent onwards, to gather fresh laurels in the rugged and uncertain paths of fortune. Seven regiments of light infantry and riflemen defiled before us with their thread-bare jackets, their brawny necks loosened from their stocks, their wide and patched trowsers of various colours, and brown-barrelled Under the wide-spreading branches of a venerable cork-tree, decorated with pack-saddles, accoutrements, and other military trappings, dinner was served up and laid out on a pair of hampers, which served us instead of a table. Beef, biscuit, tea, rum, and wine, composed our fare, it being a Let us, for a moment, withdraw the veil of futurity, and make a few anticipations. On my right tranquilly slumbers a youthful warrior of sixteen years old, and on my left unconsciously sleeps the other, one year older. Lieutenant E. Freer is doomed to undergo two more years of the toils of war, to suffer sickness and privation, and, at the sanguinary assault of Badajoz, to receive a severe wound in the upper part of the thigh; and lastly, at the age of nineteen, while in the Pyrenees, a ball passes through his right arm, and enters his side: he staggers, utters three words, and falls a lifeless corpse amid those dreary regions! Lieutenant J. Considine, at the assault of Badajoz, receives a ball through his body, and, stretched on the damp sod, enveloped in darkness, bleeds inwardly. A light is held over his pale face, and discovers the blood flowing from his mouth. Borne, however, to a place of security, he recovers. The next year he is tormented by a malignant fever, and afterwards, on the highest pinnacle of the Pyrenees, a ball strikes him; his thigh-bone is broken near the hip: he cries for help. I look down: he lies prostrate between my legs. The balls carry death and destruction around: we are under the walls storming a fort, and fighting hand to hand. Four soldiers attempt to carry him off, Early the next morning we were again on the road. The martial music struck up, and continued to play for a short distance: the word passed to march at ease: conversation then commenced. The soldiers lighted their pipes; and, before the sun had reached its meridian, we filed into Portalegre. The streets were marked off, in the first instance, for different corps; then the houses, again, subdivided amongst officers and soldiers; the latter portioned off according to the size of the different dwellings; the butt ends of the soldiers' firelocks serving as knockers, to rouse the sulky inmates, who would fain plead ignorance of the arrival of so many guests. It was by no means an uncommon occurrence for owners of houses to try all kinds of expedients, by absence, paltry excuses, or otherwise, to drive away the tired officers in disgust, who presented billets of lodgement. One day, an officer on the staff had patiently waited some time at a door without being able to gain admittance, until at length the Another division entered the town the same day. The army was composed of eight divisions of infantry, besides cavalry and artillery; the former force was known throughout the army by the following familiar appellations: "the gentlemen's sons," "the surprisers," "the fighting division," "the supporters," "the invisibles," "the never heard of," "the all-sorts," and "the division:" but, before the end of this most sanguinary war, they all fought again and again, covering themselves with fame and lasting glory. The following day we proceeded to Castello de Vida, an ancient fortified place within a league of Marvao. The first brigade entered the town, and the second bivouacked in a grove without its walls. The adjacent country presented a wild appearance; but more particularly the latter town, which was perched on a rugged and stupendous mountain, inaccessible on every side, save only one approach, and even that impracticable for carriages, the road winding under the overhanging shelving of rocks, others of which reared their rugged points in the very middle of this (hardly to be so termed) pathway. A party of us with difficulty ascended to this strange place, at a season of the year when every particle of vegetation is parched and dried up. The adjacent grey precipices presented a frightful wilderness,—the hiding-place of innumerable wolves. The mind of the beholder on surveying such a prospect became perplexed how so barren a spot, even at the remotest period of antiquity, should have been fixed on for any human habitation, far more for a fortification. Some cannon of ancient construction were still on the ramparts, but few mounted, and even the carriages of those mouldering to decay. Here and there a few miserable Portuguese were observed basking in a sunny corner, grouped and huddled together, and consisting of young and old women Quitting this isolated place, and returning to our quarters, we remained there two or three days, and then resumed our march towards the northern frontier. The first night we halted in a wood near Niza. The next morning, an hour before day light, we started; and, while passing over the summit of a high hill, as the morning dawned, we observed a thick mist overspreading an extensive valley. As the sun rose, its refulgent light pierced through the white fog, which resembled a beautiful floating sea, out of which peeped forth the tops of hills covered with investing shrubs. As the rolling mist passed away, so these apparent islands enlarged, until nothing of this enchanting illusion remained, except a bare country covered with gum cistus, (a small tree,) producing a most sickly smell, and the more particularly to those with empty stomachs. After a fatiguing weary march, half suffocated by heat, added to which our eyes, nose, and mouth, were filled with sand, we descended the pass of Villa Velha, where we observed a number of vultures perched on the pinnacles of inaccessible rocks, as if watching our motions, or waiting in anticipation of more devoted victims. Crossing the Tagus by the bridge of boats, we bivouacked under the agreeable shade of an olive grove. The surrounding scenery presented every The jolting of these vehicles frequently tore off the plasters, and ripped open anew the wounds of the suffering soldiers; nor was it at all unusual to behold the sick, wounded, and dying, with pallid countenances expressive of unheard-of agonies, while these engines of torture, drawn by a pair of bullocks, with their heads thrust under a shapeless piece of wood, (for the purpose of yoking them together,) rolled on their heavy way. The conductor guided them with a long pole, with a piece of pointed iron at the end of it, which he poked into the beasts' necks, and directed them by such sort of "sharp practice." |