Siege of the Col de Balaguer—A Reconnoitering Party—Raising of the Siege of Tarragona—Lieutenant-General Sir John and Lady Murray—Rear-Admiral Benjamin Hallowell—Viscount and Viscountess Mahon—Palermo, Veniros; upset in a boat—Valencia—Holland.

Towards the end of May, 1813, embarking 300 men of the 67th Regiment, under Colonel Prevost, an officer who had distinguished himself at the battle of Barrosa, we sailed with the expedition from Alicant to lay siege to the castle of the Col de Balaguer and the city of Tarragona. The land forces, under the command of Lieut.-General Sir John Murray, consisted of about 20,000 men, but, unfortunately, not more than 5000 were British and Germans, the rest being Spaniards and Sicilians. The naval part was under the orders of that intelligent and indefatigable officer, Rear-Admiral Benjamin Hallowell.

On the 3rd of June, when off the castle of the Col de Balaguer, the whole of the 67th Regiment, with Rolle’s and Dillon’s, and a company of artillery, making together about 900 men, were ordered to invest it. The navy was placed under the command of the gallant Captain Charles Adams, of the Invincible (74), by whose great exertions the troops, guns, and stores were soon landed, and who personally superintended every difficult and dangerous undertaking during the siege. Captain Carroll, of the Volcano, was landed to assist troops, and a more intrepid and excellent officer could not have been selected.

The fortress was situated on a high hill, in a most difficult pass, through which winds the main road from Tortosa to Tarragona. It was armed with twelve heavy pieces, two ten-inch mortars, two howitzers, and had a garrison of more than a hundred men. Its elevated position, and surrounding heights, difficult of access, required the greatest labour to drag up the guns and mortars necessary to establish our batteries. No time, however, was to be lost; Marshal Suchet, with 10,000 men, being in full march from the neighbourhood of Valencia to relieve it, and succour Tarragona.

After a siege of five days the place surrendered. I had the pleasure of assisting, with a party of seamen, to form the mortar battery, which was no sooner opened than the shells were thrown with such precision by the artillery that an expense magazine was blown up in the castle, which, just as our breaching battery was about to open, capitulated. An artilleryman and myself had a most providential escape. Being very busy placing sand bags on the battery, on the morning of the 8th, just before day-break, down came three of the enemy’s shells. I ordered the working party to get behind the sand bags, and lie flat on their faces to avoid the splinters. One shell from an howitzer exploded behind us; two ten-inch followed, one fell about a couple of yards in front of me and the artilleryman, which made us both jump to get out of its way, when down came the second on the other side of us. The man called out very coolly—“I’ll be d—— if we are not done now!” After falling on the ground both fuses went out, and, much to our satisfaction, the shells, of course, did not explode.

Captain Stodart, of the Strombolo, a brave officer, was employed to form the breaching battery, and Lieutenants Corbyn and P——, of H.M.S. Invincible, worked like slaves with their party to drag the heavy guns up hills, or what in England would be called mountains, by tackles and purchases.

The commander of the French fort was perfectly astonished to see the places the guns had been dragged up in so short a time; and Suchet, who calculated upon its holding out ten days, was in a great rage when he heard it had been taken in five. I have his address to his corps upon the subject by me now, in which he informs his army “that a military commission will sit upon the conduct of the commander of the fortress of Balaguer.”

We had done our part, and were looking for intelligence from our army before Tarragona with anxiety, as we could at night see the shells in the air, and hear the firing on both sides.

Colonel Prevost, and Captain Charles Adam, of the Invincible, thinking it advisable to make a reconnaissance towards Tortosa to gain intelligence of the advance of the French marshal (for the information we got from the Spaniards was so vague that we could place no dependence upon it), on the morning of the 9th of June they, in company with Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, Captain Arabin (Royal Artillery), Captain Du Cane, of the 20th Light Dragoons, with four of his men and myself, started from the castle we had taken, at three in the morning, all well mounted, to try and get a peep into Tortosa, about twenty miles from Balaguer, and where it was reported Suchet was to arrive in the course of the day.

After a pleasant ride of about sixteen miles, and as we had just got a glimpse of Tortosa, on reaching the summit of a hill we all at once entered a serpentine road, surrounded by high banks and ravines, which completely prevented our seeing beyond a short distance. Jogging on quietly, we met an old Spanish woman thumping two mules past us as hard as she could, calling out, “Los Franceses, los Franceses,” but not a word more could we get out of the signora. We, therefore, rode on to the next turn of the road, when, just at the corner, plump we came upon the advance guard of the French army, a regiment of cuirassiers. They for a moment stopped their horses, being as much surprised to see us as we were to meet them. With one glance they saw who we were—out came their carbines and swords—pop, pop, and a charge, which knocked over one of our dragoons, and “sauve qui peut,” or the devil take the hindmost, became the order of the day. Away we scampered—they after us, with a regular view halloa, and a flourish of French fashionable words, but not of the most select phraseology. Reader, if you wish to know them, I refer you to the scene of Madame Rambouillet and the Novice in Sterne’s “Sentimental Journey.” After a capital gallop of four miles, we regularly beat them, with the loss of only one of our party, who in the charge was knocked head over heels and taken prisoner. Luckily for us we had left a corporal’s guard of the 20th Light Dragoons about four miles in our rear upon a steep eminence, which commanded a good view of part of the road. The corporal, seeing how matters stood, and that we were coming back a deuced deal faster than we went, with a French regiment of cavalry after us, very cleverly came trotting up, and showed himself at the top of the hill with his men. The enemy, thinking we had a strong body of cavalry there, pulled up their horses and gave over the chase.

Our ride had not been for nothing—we had had a good gallop, and found out where our neighbours were, who towards evening drove in our picket of dragoons, and established themselves not far from us.

News was immediately sent to Lieutenant-General Sir John Murray, who was before Tarragona, of the arrival of the French army in our neighbourhood.

Our situation was strong, and having the castle, which commanded the road, neither cannon nor cavalry could pass from Tortosa. Marshal Suchet came the next day and had a peep at the fortress, sent some light troops across the mountains to feel us, and halted his army a few miles off.

Lieutenant-General Sir John Murray, as I said before, had nearly 20,000 men, but, unfortunately for him, only 5000 were British and Germans—the rest Spaniards and Sicilians, on whom he could place no dependence in the hour of need—otherwise no general ever had a better opportunity of beating a divided army.

We had stopped Suchet, with his 10,000 men, from advancing on the Valencia side by the capture of the castle of Col de Balaguer: therefore he would only have had to cope with the Barcelona corps of 8000, and the Lerida of 2000 men, so that, after leaving a sufficient number of men to carry on the siege for a day or two, which the rear-admiral even offered to do with the sailors and marines alone, he might have beaten the enemy in detail. I am speaking, supposing he had had 16,000 or 20,000 British or German soldiers; but really with such a set, strong in point of numbers, but wanting the vigour and bottom of English troops, it certainly would have been running a great risk, and he had not the nerve to attempt it.

Great blame was attached to the general for embarking in such a hurry, and leaving his guns and stores behind. The gallant, clever naval chief felt it most severely, fearing lest any blame should be attached to him for not taking on board the stores and artillery: he, therefore, remonstrated very warmly upon the subject, but it was in vain.

The whole may be summed up in a few words. Marshal Suchet retired to Tortosa—the Lerida corps back to their old quarters—the Barcelona retrograded also—the Anglo-Spanish and Sicilian army embarked in a hurry—we blew up the castle of Balaguer that had been taken—the French garrison of Tarragona sallied forth, took all our battering train and stores, which we had been collecting, at a great expense, for months before, into the town, and played checkmate with the guns that had taken Badajos, for it was the same train. In short, all the troops ran away from each other the same day.

No sooner was the army embarked than the commander of the forces, learning that the French corps had retired, requested they might be re-landed the next day, which was complied with, but it was then too late—we had lost our battering guns and stores, and nothing could be done.

Lieutenant-General Lord William Bentinck arrived shortly afterwards, the troops were again embarked, and I was ordered to proceed to Alicant and take on board Sir John and Lady Murray, and convey them to Palermo, he being appointed to the command of the forces there.

I found the Honourable Lady John Murray a most agreeable, clever, sensible, pleasant woman, and Lieutenant-General Sir John Murray a very amiable man in private life, and although much condemned at the time for not fighting Marshal Suchet and taking Tarragona, yet neither those who had the command of the army previous to him, nor General Lord William Bentinck, who took the command of the troops from Sir John Murray, gained more laurels or succeeded much better than he did.

To move and manage a Spanish army in those days was next to an impossibility. They were too proud to be taught, and too ignorant and obstinate to do anything of themselves.

Having landed my passengers at Palermo, I embarked three hundred of the 44th Regiment to join the army of Lord William Bentinck on the coast of Catalonia. I met at the above city Viscount and Viscountess Mahon, with their two children, fine boys of ten and eleven years’ old. His lordship wished to go to Minorca, and, as we had orders to touch there, I had much pleasure in giving them a passage.

On our arrival at Port Mahon we were placed under quarantine, which prevented my landing Lord and Lady Mahon and family. The accommodation being not suited to ladies at the lazaretto, I was delighted when my amiable passengers made up their minds to remain on board.

Having received orders to proceed to the coast of Catalonia with the troops, we sailed at the end of August for the mouth of the river Ebro, but, not finding the expedition there, we shaped our course for Tarragona, and on the 4th of September joined the admiral, who directed me to land the 44th Regiment at Villa Nova. The town of Villa Nova and the village of Veneros nearly join. There is an open roadstead for ships, and the winds from the S.E. to S.W. throw in a heavy swell upon the bar and beach. The holding ground is good, and numerous vessels during many parts of the year arrive for the purpose of shipping wine, which is either rafted off or taken on board in the country boats. The wine is most excellent, and of different kinds, both white and red. The latter is so good, and so much resembles port, that when I was there ten ships and brigs were lying in the roads taking it in, to be landed at Oporto, and converted into port wine for the English market. I was informed that there were annually sent from this place to Portugal ten thousand pipes. Another very pleasant wine there was, “Alba Flora,” besides sweet wines of various kinds, one of which had the sparkling qualities of champagne.

It had been blowing strong from the southward previous to our arrival, and the swell had not gone down.

Between the ships and the landing-place was a bar, on which the sea broke with great violence, and which boats had to pass. Those belonging to the country being well calculated for going through the breakers, and whose crews were acquainted with the place, dashed through the surf extremely well.

I thought that by following them in my shell of a gig, and waiting for a smooth, after three successive waves had broken upon the bar, I might get safe also; but I was soon taught a different lesson—the sea was more nimble than the gig, and although the men pulled to the utmost to go faster than the breakers, yet they beat us hollow, and taking the boat up on one of their white tops, spun us over in a moment. Fortunately we had not far to swim, and as soon as the waves had beaten us over the bar we got into quite smooth water, when, sticking to the boat and oars, we soon reached the shore, though not without a precious good ducking. We had, unfortunately, the viscountess’s poor abigail in the boat, who never before had had such a swim in salt water, so it was something new to her, and gave her an opportunity of adding a paragraph to her letter when she wrote home, describing her foreign travels by sea, land, and under the water. She was nearly drowned, poor thing! but keeping her on her back we swam with her ashore. She was carried to a Spanish house, wrapped up in blankets, where a few drops of comfort in the shape of brandy, and some hours’ repose, made her as lively as a lark again.

By the way of drying myself, and getting the salt water out of me, I mounted a mule, and rode to Villa Franca, the head-quarters of our army, distant about thirteen miles, to see some old military friends.

The country around was very pretty, and we had a fine view of the celebrated Mount Serrat, rising from a plain in numerous mountains and spires,[L] with convents upon them; but the whole of that part of the country was forbidden ground, being occupied by the French army. On my return in the evening I visited my water-nymph, and was happy to find her quite recovered from the severe morning’s ducking. I offered to take her off again with me in the gig, which she, like a wise woman, declined; being a novice in the art of swimming, and not liking the first lesson I gave her, she preferred returning to the ship next day in a country boat. The day having turned out fine, the swell towards evening had somewhat gone down, though it was still so great that I was nearly swamped going back to the ship.

On taking leave of the gallant Rear-Admiral Benjamin Hallowell next day, he gave me a letter of thanks, and did me the honour to say he was sorry to part with me; the regrets were mutual, for it was a pleasure to be under the command of an officer of his abilities and experience. He has not many months ago paid the debt of nature, full of years and honours, beloved and respected by all who knew him, and generally regretted by the service. He was one of those

Such men as Lords Howe, Duncan, St. Vincent, Nelson, Saumarez, Keats, Hallowell, &c., are not mushrooms of a day’s growth, but the experience of a long and hazardous service in all parts of the world had braced their nerves and trained their minds to the task, which they performed with such credit to themselves and honour and glory to their country.

On the 8th September we sailed from this anchorage for Tarragona, which place the French had evacuated, having first destroyed most of the guns and blown up part of the fortifications. Everything looked miserable and wretched in the extreme. Many of the houses were knocked to pieces, and the poor inhabitants, returning back to view the birthplaces of themselves and ancestors, found them reduced to a heap of ruins. I rode with my agreeable passengers to Reus, the second largest town in the province of Catalonia, where we dined after the Spanish fashion upon olla podrida, and other messes, stuffed full of garlic and bad oil. After walking about the town, and looking at a handsome church, the windows of which were of stained glass, we returned on board and sailed for Valencia. The peasantry of this province and of Catalonia are as fine a race of men as I ever saw in any country—tall, strong, and well made.

On the 15th September we anchored off the Grao de Valencia, and the next morning communicated with our consul according to orders, and landed Viscount and Viscountess Mahon and family, who took up their abode with Mr. Tupper, our representative, who was very civil and polite, and showed us the lions of the city. The cathedral was very fine, from the top of which we had a most magnificent view of a very fertile valley, producing rice, maize, flax, and other grain, besides almond and vine trees, the latter covered with beautiful purple and white grapes.

A small river runs past Valencia, over which are two tolerably fine stone bridges. We had a view also of the lake of Albufera, from which the French marshal, Suchet, derives his dukedom.

Valencia is one of the best towns I have seen in Spain, and the road from the grao, or beach, is extremely pretty, having trees planted on each side, to afford shelter from the sun. Neat little thatched cottages, scattered here and there, put me for a short time in mind of England.

After dinner at the consul’s, which was served up in the Spanish style, we went to the opera, and sat in a box with some pretty Spanish ladies, friends of Mr. Tupper. The opera was in honour of the Marquis of Wellington. It represented the Spaniards driving the Moors out of Spain; afterwards we had a fandango, and the whole concluded with a farce, the subject taken from Gil Blas, where he entertains at supper the sycophant.

Having re-embarked Viscount and Viscountess Mahon, I sailed for Altea Bay to complete our water. Altea has an export trade of almonds and raisins; several vessels during the summer and autumn months call there for a cargo. The anchorage is good, and sheltered from most winds, except those from south-east by east to south-south-west, which seldom blow direct on shore. I rode out several heavy gales there in the frigate I commanded, by giving her nearly two cables.

From this place we proceeded to Alicant, where we landed some stores for the garrison; and after showing the Viscount and his amiable lady the celebrated castle, we went to Gibraltar, where we unfortunately found the yellow fever raging to that degree amongst the inhabitants, that all intercourse was forbidden. The garrison was encamped on Europe Point, for the benefit of more air.

On the 5th October we sailed for England, touching at Lisbon on our way, and after a stormy passage of three weeks anchored in Plymouth Sound, from which place we were sent to the Motherbank to perform three weeks’ quarantine. On the 20th of November we moved to Spithead, where I landed my most agreeable and pleasant passengers with very great regret. I had had them on board for more than three months, so that my cabin felt quite a desert without their society.

After being detained at Portsmouth a few days, we proceeded to the Downs, and on the 14th December between six and seven hundred of His Majesty’s 37th and 56th Regiments were sent on board, with orders from Admiral Foley for me to land them at Goree, or the Brill, or Helveot Sluys; but owing to the winds and tide we were unable to fetch either. I therefore anchored off Schevelling, and communicated with our ambassador, Lord Clancarty, at the Hague, who desired the troops to be landed at the village of Schevelling. His excellency wishing to see me at the Hague, I went there to wait upon his lordship.

The little I was enabled to see of Dutchland, gave me a favourable opinion of the cleanliness of its people; and the neat pretty cottages from the beach to the city struck me as being particularly picturesque. Schevelling itself is nothing but a fishing place amongst sand hills; but the town of the Hague was neat, and in summer must be a pleasant place. But as the severe winter of 1813 was just commencing, I was obliged to hurry off from the coast as fast as possible, for fear of being caught upon a lee shore.

On our passage back to the Downs, the two branch pilots very nearly ran the ship upon the Galloper Sands in a fog, which obliged us to anchor off the light for a tide. The next day, however, we arrived safely in the Downs, and from thence we were sent to Sheerness to be docked and refitted.