The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence by William Lawrence (best books to read for students .TXT) 📕

We had to get through a very thick wood of quite three or four miles in extent, which took us the whole night to accomplish; and in the morning when we were finally through, we lay down like so many loaded donkeys; still obliged, however, to remain in readiness, as we expected to be pursued. And soon enough we found we were, for we had not lain down very long before the enemy came up and charged us hotly, again forcing us to follow up our retreat, without even thinking this time of our two wounded burdens, who were left to the mercy of the enemy. In a few hours, however, we again joined the main army, or rather got into its line; and pleased enough we all were to get back.

We were then posted in a strong position on the heights of Villebar with the Spanish troops on our right. The French soon made their appearance and attacked the Spanish corps, who fired at them long before they came within bounds of shot, not having proper officers to guide them; those that ought to have been leading them on having instead placed themselves out of the way, leaving their men to do the dirty work; and of course these latter soon decamped too. Our regiment, however, was soon on the scene; and hastening in that direction, we managed to get there before the enemy had gained the summit of this important ridge. Orders had been issued by our officers not to fire till we could do good work; but this soon came to pass, for the French quickly sallied up and fired first, and we returned it in less than a minute. I never saw a single volley do so much execution in all my campaigning days, almost every man of their two first ranks falling; and then we instantly charged and chased them down the mountain, doing still further and more fearful havoc. When we had done we returned to our old summit again, where the captain cheered and praised us for our gallantry, saying that he had never seen a braver set of men, and that he hoped we would always succeed in preserving our ground equally well. Our likewise brave enemy tried again two hours later to shift us and take possession of our ground; but they were again received as before and again sent down the hill. We were again praised by our commander, who said, "I think they have got enough of it by this time, and won't make a third attack in a hurry;" but we were mistaken, for four hours had not passed before they were up again with fresh reinforcements. Some of our men then seemed to despair, for I heard them even say to the officers who were so bravely leading us on, "We shall have to be off this time." "Never mind," replied the officers, "keep your ground if possible, and don't let yourselves be beaten;" which we did like bricks, for on their arrival and trying to outflank us, so that we were obliged to wheel round to the left, the right flank opened fire as they were close upon us, and instantly charged right into them with the bayonet, forcing them to retreat.

They again fell up to support their other companies, who were attacking our other flank; but we reloaded and were then ready to meet them, again pouring another of our deadly volleys into their ranks and then going at them again with our bayonets like enraged bulldogs. The fight that ensued was most sanguinary, but we succeeded again in driving them down the mountain at last. I should think they must have numbered five to our one; in fact the whole of our fourth division was attacked, but all assisted equally bravely in retaining our position on the heights and earned great praise from our commanders. I do not myself think, however, that we could ever have routed so large a number of the French had it not been for our advantageous ground. Some Portuguese troops likewise behaved very well, but as for the Spaniards, I can safely affirm that after their first retreat I did not see any more of them again that day.

We encamped that night on the same ground that we had so well defended. Our captain, who was as nice a man as ever commanded in the Peninsula, always seeming to share everything with the men and bear the blunt as well as the smooth, and the losses as well as the profits, now said, "Come, my brave men, turn to and cook yourselves something to eat, for you have earned it well;" an order which we soon set about to obey. A quantity of rum had been sent up for us, so we were able to sit down tired as we were and enjoy ourselves as if nothing extraordinary had occurred that day. We then sent out a picket and prepared to take our rest for the night, the French not seeming inclined to sally up any more to engage us on those heights.

When the returns were called off the list, we found our killed and wounded amounted to seventy-four, but one more of our number was soon to be added to the sum total. A comrade of my own company went in search of sticks to liven up our fire: I told him to be careful and not get in sight of the enemy's picket, or they might have a pop at him, and he replied never fear, he would be careful; but the foolish fellow had been gone but a few minutes, when he was shot through the neck. Instead of keeping his own side of the hill, he had diverged on to the other close enough to be observed by one of the enemy's riflemen, who shot him as I have described. I happened to hear the shot, and found that it had been at him, so I went and dragged him back, pretty quickly as may be supposed, for I was fearful lest I should be shot likewise myself. The poor fellow was not dead, but exclaimed, "O corporal, I am a dead man!" When I had got him out of the enemy's reach and near our own lines, I took his stock from off his neck and he expired directly; so I had to leave him and rejoin our company with the news that another of us was gone, making seventy-five in all.

On the following morning I happened to observe an officer of the French army moving at some distance in front of our lines, having hanging from his pocket a fine watch-guard, which particularly took my attention and which I thought at the time would look very well on me; and being more daring than wise, I crawled towards him with my musket loaded, and when near enough as I thought to him, I fired; but it did him no mischief and only made him take himself off at once. I nearly got into a scrape through it, however, for I was fired at myself in return, the bullet fortunately only taking the butt end off my musket. I turned to run off, and another shot hit the knapsack on my back, but I soon got out of reach of their shot again, luckily, as it happened, without any injury; but it must have been a near thing, for when I next opened my knapsack, I found the ball had gone through the leather and my thickly-folded blanket and had at last been stopped by the sole of a shoe, and was lying there as flat as a halfpenny and about the same size.

The same day we were joined by the Fifty-third regiment Lord Wellington having sent it on to relieve us in case of another attack from the enemy. They offered to occupy our heights, so that we might fall back to the rear, but our captain would not consent to that; "For," as he said, "my men have fought well to defend their position, and I think they will be strong enough to keep it." He proposed, however, that they should keep out an outlying picket, so that we could take our rest, which would be the best way of relieving us, and their commander readily agreed to do so.

Thus we passed two or three days, both armies remaining inactive. Then one day a French officer was seen coming up the mountain, having laid down his sword, so our captain sent a lieutenant who could talk good French to meet him and see what he wanted. He found that he wished to know if we would allow him to send for their wounded, so an agreement was entered into that we should take all their killed and wounded halfway down the mountain, and that they should meet us there with ours in return. This plan was soon carried out; and when we had buried our dead, the wounded were conveyed to hospitals appropriated to them at the nearest convenient place.

All was still quiet on the following morning, but later in the day the whole body of our line appeared in motion, and we were ordered in company with the Fifty-third regiment to attack the enemy's post near us, acting in conjunction with the other front of our line; and this being done, we soon drove them right off the mountains. The Portuguese troops in our division fought well in this action. We followed up the retreating French to a village situated in a valley of the Pyrenees, where they were delayed owing to having to cross a river. General Cole immediately ordered our regiment up to stop them if possible; so off we went in quick time to the river, and on their seeing they were so quickly pursued and that there was no hope of escaping, they threw down their arms and gave themselves up prisoners to the number of about seven hundred.

We took a gold-mounted sword from their commander, and a gold plate out of his cap with an eagle engraved on it, which were given to our captain by the regiment as a present, as he was a universal favourite for his behaviour to the men in general.

The prisoners were then sent to St. Jean de Luz to be put on board ship, and so conveyed to England.

Continued retreat of the French — Narrow escape of Lord Wellington — Lawrence volunteers to remove the danger — Is successful, and earns the praise of Lord Wellington — Repeated engagements with the enemy — Lawrence, like most people who try to hedge, nearly comes to grief — Capture of a bridge and village — Lawrence, becoming lame, is left on guard over a Portuguese cottage — Surprises and discomfits a French intruder — Sad end of a hungry corporal — Lawrence made sergeant.

We marched slowly on, following up the enemy as closely as possible, often even having them in sight: and both armies were sometimes encamped for a week at a time, and employed meanwhile in skirmishing with each other.

At one of these halts the enemy by some means or other got three pieces of cannon on to the top of a steep mountain, probably by men dragging them up with ropes, as it was impossible for horses to have done it; and on our entering the valley, Lord Wellington happening to be with us, a shot from one of these carried his cocked hat completely off. Our