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 THE 
 
 LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 THE SUBALTERN," " CHELSEA PENSIONERS,' 
 "THE HUSSAR," &C. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, 
 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 1844,
 
 C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.
 
 8^3 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The following pages come before the Pub- 
 lic, under circumstances whicli will, I trust, 
 be accepted as a sujSicient apology for tliq^ 
 ?" appearance as a separate work. 
 ^ About four years ago, the hero of the 
 ^ narrative, George Farmer, formerly a pri- 
 ^ vate in the 11th Light Dragoons, came to 
 '^ me to complain, as many of his class are 
 ^>^"^ accustomed to do, of poverty. He told me, 
 ^ at the same time, that he had kept a journal 
 ' of his proceedings during more than twenty 
 ■ years of a somewhat eventful life j and begged
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 that I would take the trouble to read, and if 
 possible, turn it for him to some account. I 
 accordingly read his story. It seemed to me 
 sufficiently interesting to warrant its insertion, 
 as a series of papers, in a professional maga- 
 zine ; and with this view I rewrote the nar- 
 rative and sent it to Mr. Colburn. 
 
 Mr. Colburn has remunerated the old 
 soldier to his heart's content, and more 
 than compensated me for the trouble which 
 I have had. He has likewise come to the 
 conclusion, that the tale is not unworthy 
 to be collected into the form which it has 
 now assumed; and I shall be very glad to 
 find that he is no loser by his liberality. 
 
 G. R. G. 
 
 Chelsea College, 
 Nov. 1843.
 
 THE 
 
 LIGHT DRAGOOK 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 How I enlisted, and what befel me then. 
 
 As I cannot imagine that among such as 
 may honour these pages by a perusal, there 
 are any who would take much interest in the 
 personal history of one so humble as my- 
 self, I think it best to pass over all the 
 incidents of my early life, and to come at 
 once to the period of my enlistment. Who 
 I am, where I was born, to what class of 
 society my father and mother belonged, are 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 points -vvitli whicli I alone am concerned. 
 And for the rest, it is fair to avow, that if 
 the incidents of my boyhood were all strung 
 together, they would not make up a tale 
 worth telling, far less a . narrative which 
 would for a single hour be remembered. 
 
 I entered the service in the summer of 
 1808, by enhsting as a private in the 11th 
 regiment of Light Dragoons. The corps 
 being at that time stationed in Ireland, I 
 was sent with several recruits besides, to 
 the depot at Maidstone; where for some 
 time I ran the career which is appointed for 
 recruits in general, and acquired some 
 knowledge of the darker shades in human 
 nature, if I learned nothing better. It un- 
 fortunately happens, however, that our first 
 experience of this great book is not often 
 favourable to our morals ; and I confess that 
 I am not an exception to the general rule. 
 My extreme youth — for I was not more 
 than seventeen years of age — exposed me
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 6 
 
 to many and great temptations. Tlie same 
 circumstance laid me open to chicanery and 
 deceit on the part of those around me ; and 
 I lament to say, that I became the victim as 
 well of my own folly as of the knavery of 
 others. How I suffered from the former of 
 these evils, it is not worth while to tell. 
 Young men would scarce take the trouble 
 to follow my details, were I to give them ; and 
 if they did, I am quite sure they would never 
 condescend to be warned by them. But it is 
 not impossible that they may think it worth 
 while to attend to such of my admonitions as 
 seem to bear upon the behaviour of others ; 
 and I accordingly request that they will take 
 good heed of the following aphorisms : 
 
 1. When you join your depot, you usu- 
 ally arrive with a good deal of money in 
 your pocket ; that is to say, you get your 
 bounty as soon as you have passed, and 
 appear in your own eyes to be enormously 
 rich. Be assured that it is quite possible 
 b2
 
 4 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 to run througli as mucli as ten or twelve 
 guineas: and don't take the trouble to 
 throw your shillings and halfcrowns at 
 people's heads, as if they were of no value. 
 
 2. You find a comrade particularly civil: 
 begin to suspect he has fallen in love — not 
 with you, but your money ; and button up 
 your pockets in exact proportion to the zeal 
 which he manifests for trying their depth. 
 
 3. Non-commissioned officers are in an 
 especial manner to be shunned, whenever 
 they profess to hold you in favour, or seem 
 to relax the bonds of discipline, in order 
 that you may not be distressed by them. 
 These harpies desire only to make a prey 
 of you. They will first suck you dry, and 
 then grind you to powder. 
 
 4. Endeavour to begin your career as it 
 is your wisdom not less than your duty to go 
 forward with it. Aim at the character of 
 a sober and steady man, and you will, with- 
 out doubt, succeed in deserving it.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 5 
 
 5. Keep your temper, even if you be 
 wronged, especially when the wrong is put 
 upon you by a superior. Truth and justice 
 are sure to prevail in the end ; whereas, it 
 often happens that he who is eager to anti- 
 cipate that end is crushed in the struggle. 
 
 6. Finally, be alert in striving to acquire 
 all necessary drills, and an acquaintance with 
 your duty in general. It will be of far more 
 benefit to you to be well thought of by a 
 few good men, and by your officers, than to 
 to be called " a capital fellow " by scores 
 of scamps, who will only laugh at your re- 
 morse so soon as they have succeeded in 
 bringing you into trouble. 
 
 But I am fast getting into a prose, so let 
 me pull up; otherwise I may fail to carry, 
 as I intend to do, public interest along with 
 me. 
 
 Well, then, I enlisted in London; and, 
 marching to Maidstone, underwent the cus- 
 tomary examinations; after which I was
 
 6 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 attested before a magistrate, and had my 
 bounty paid with strict exactitude. Unfor- 
 tunately for me, however, the society into 
 which I was thrown bore no resemblance 
 at all to a well-regulated regiment. The 
 barracks were filled with small detachments 
 from a countless variety of corps, and the 
 sergeants and corporals, on whom the internal 
 discipline both of regiments and depots 
 mainly depends, seem to me, at this distance 
 of time, to have been selected from the very 
 scum of the earth. Like a band of harpies, 
 they pounced upon us recruits, and never 
 let us loose from their talons till they had 
 thoroughly pigeoned us. We were invited 
 to their rooms of an evening, — introduced 
 to their wives, who made much of us, — 
 praised, favoured, screened, and cajoled, till 
 our funds began to run low, and then they 
 would have nothing more to say to us. 
 Under these circumstances, we were suffi- 
 ciently well pleased when the order came to
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 7 
 
 join the regiment at Clonmel : and, being put 
 in cliarge of one Corporal Gorman, we began 
 our journey, profoundly ignorant both of 
 the route we were to follow, and the extent 
 of funds which would be allowed us during 
 the continuance of the march. 
 
 An admirable specimen was Corporal 
 Gorman of the sort of land-sharks out of 
 which the staff of the recruiting department 
 used long ago to be formed. His first step 
 was to extract from each of us, in the shape 
 of a loan, whatever happened to remain of 
 our bounty. His next, to defraud us of the 
 better half of our marching-money, by pay- 
 ing over to us^ respectively, day by day, one 
 shilling, and applying one shilling and a 
 penny to his own use. Like bad men in 
 general, however, whom long impunity has 
 hardened, he committed the mistake, in the 
 end, of overshooting his mark, and we hav- 
 ing been much irritated by his tyrannical 
 behaviour, reported him, when at Lichfield,
 
 8 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 to a magistrate. It appeared that he was not 
 now about to form his first acquaintance with 
 that functionary. His worship knew him 
 well ; and, by a threat of bringing the case 
 before the s^eneral commanding; the district, 
 soon forced the knave to pay back the 
 money which we, in our simplicity, had 
 lent him. The arrears of our marching- 
 money on the other hand, we never suc- 
 ceeded in recovering. He promised, indeed, 
 from stage to stage, that all should be cleared 
 off; and prevailed upon us, on our arrival 
 in Dublin, to sign our accounts, which he 
 himself had made up, and by which we ac- 
 knowledged that we had been fully settled 
 with. But he entirely forgot to return, as he 
 had pledged himself to do, the sum that was 
 needed to render the acknowledgment ac- 
 curate; and, quietly handing us over to a 
 worthy not unlike himself, took his passage 
 in the packet for Holyhead, and left us. 
 I joined the head-quarters of my regiment
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 9 
 
 at Clonmel at a moment when both town 
 and country rang with the exploits of two 
 celebrated robbers, called, respectively, Bren- 
 nan and Hogan. Brennan, as all the world 
 knows, was originally a soldier — unless my 
 memory be at fault — in the 12th Light Dra- 
 goons; from which regiment he deserted in 
 consequence of some quarrel with one of the 
 officers, that he might take, after the fashion 
 of Dick Turpin of old, to the road. His 
 courage was as reckless as his presence of 
 mind was astonishing ; neither of which, how- 
 ever, would have much availed, had he not, 
 at the same time, been thoroughly acquainted 
 with the locale of the scene of his operations ; 
 but in this respect his advantages were fully 
 as remarkable as in others, for there was 
 not a hole or crevice in the counties of Cork, 
 Tipperary, and Wexford, with which he 
 seems not to have been familiar. Moreover, 
 Brennan displayed^ in the management of 
 his reckless business, quite as much of sound
 
 10 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 policy as of hardihood. He was never known 
 to rob, or in any way to molest, a peasant, 
 an artisan, or a small farmer. He made war, 
 and professed to make war only upon the 
 rich, out of the plunder taken from whom 
 he would often assist the poor; and 
 the poor in return not only refused to 
 betray him, but took care that he should 
 be warned in time, whenever any imminent 
 danger seemed to threaten. The conse- 
 quence was, that for full five years — a long 
 space of time for a highwayman to be at 
 large, even in Ireland — he continued to levy 
 contributions upon all who came in his way, 
 and had always about him the means of satis- 
 fying his own wishes. As might be expected, 
 a great clamour was raised. Government was 
 petitioned for troops wherewith to hunt him 
 down. Large rewards were offered to any 
 persons who should betray him: and day 
 and night the magistracy of the counties 
 were abroad, with dragoons at their heels,
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 11 
 
 striving to intercept him. I heard that on 
 one occasion, when Lord Caher, the most 
 indefatigable of his pursuers, ran him hard, 
 his horse became spent ere it could carry 
 him to the Kilworth hill; and that it was 
 only by quitting the saddle, and diving into 
 the recesses of a wood, close by, that he 
 managed to make good his escape. His 
 favourite roadster fell, on that occasion, into 
 the hands of his enemies; and he never 
 ceased to lament the circumstance as a very 
 grievous calamity. 
 
 Of Hogan I am unable to say more than 
 that common report spoke of him as a ped- 
 ler, whose brave resistance to Brennan's 
 attack originally won for him the friendship 
 of the outlaw. It is said that the bandit 
 fell in with his future associate one day 
 when the pressure of want was peculiarly 
 severe upon him. He had alighted, for 
 some purpose or another, when the pedler 
 came up ; and, not anticipating any resist-
 
 12 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ance, he carelessly desired tlie latter to ren- 
 der up his pack. But the pedler, instead 
 of obeying the command, closed instantly 
 with his assailant. A fierce struG^oie took 
 
 CD 
 
 place between them, neither having time to 
 appeal to the deadly weapons with which 
 both, it appeared, were armed. 
 
 " Who the devil are you?" said Brennan 
 at last, after he had rolled with his anta- 
 gonist in the dust till both were weary. 
 " Sure, then, I didn't think there was a man 
 in all Tipperary as could have fought so 
 long with Bill Brennan." 
 
 " Och, then, blood and ouns !" exclaimed 
 the other, " if you be Brennan, arrah ! then, 
 arn't I Paddy Hogan ? and if you cry stand 
 to all the world in Tipperary, sure don't I 
 do that same to the folks in Cork?" 
 
 This was quite enough for Brennan. He 
 entertained too high a respect for his own 
 profession to exercise it in hostility towards 
 a brother of the order; so he struck up, on
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 13 
 
 the instant, an alliance with the pedler, and 
 the two thenceforth played one into the 
 hands of the other. 
 
 Of the manner in which Brennan was ac- 
 customed to do his work, the following anec- 
 dote will give a just idea: 
 
 Once upon a time, when the regiment of 
 
 ■ Militia lay in quarters at Clonmel, two 
 
 of the officers drove, in a one-horse chaise, 
 to Fethard, where they had engaged to be 
 present at a public dinner that was to be 
 eaten at the principal inn in the place. They 
 joined the company as they had proposed to 
 do, and sat till a late hour at night, when, 
 their companions departing, they likewise 
 ordered their gig, and walked into what was 
 called the travellers'-room till it should be 
 brought round to the door. There were 
 several strangers in the room; one of whom, 
 a well-dressed man, stood by the fire. But 
 of these the militia officers took no notice, 
 their heads, as it appeared, being filled with
 
 14 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 anticipations of what might befal on their 
 way back to Clonmel. One, indeed, did not 
 hesitate to express regret that they had sat 
 so late. 
 
 " These are troublesome times," observed 
 he ; " and who knows but we may encounter 
 Brennan himself?" 
 
 " What of that?" was the answer. " You 
 and I are surely not afraid to encounter one 
 man. We have a brace of pistols : only let 
 the scoundrel show himself, and see how I'll 
 handle him I" 
 
 The stranger who lounged over the firq 
 looked up as these words were uttered, but 
 took no notice of them. Only, when they 
 quitted the apartment he withdrew also, — 
 no salutation or mark of courtesy having 
 passed between them. 
 
 The gig being by this time brought 
 round, the two militia officers took their 
 seats, and in high goodhumour and excel- 
 lent spirits drove off. They continued their
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 15 
 
 journey for a while without meeting with, 
 any adventure ; till all at once, just as they 
 had reached a peculiarly dismal part of the 
 road, a man sprang from one of the ditches, 
 and seized the horse's head. 
 
 "I'll trouble you, gentlemen," said he, 
 presenting a pistol towards them at the 
 same time, "to alight. I should be very 
 sorry to hurt either of you ; but by my soul ! 
 if you don't do as I bid you, or try to open 
 the locker, I'll blow your brains out in a 
 jiffy. It shall be no joke to you, anyhow." 
 
 The officers sat stock-still, staring at each 
 other, and not knowing what to make of it ; 
 but at last one, less flabbergasted than the 
 other, exclaimed — 
 
 " And who the devil are you, that we 
 should accommodate you in that manner?" 
 
 " Gentlemen," was the reply, " my name 
 is Brennan." 
 
 There was magic in the sound of the word. 
 Not another question was put, not another
 
 16 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 
 
 remonstrance offered, but, making all possible 
 haste, botli of them sprang to the ground, and 
 stood as if waiting the bandit's further or- 
 ders. Brennan, however, was by no means 
 a sanguinary person ; and in the present in- 
 stance he had a whim to indulge as well as 
 a booty to collect. He instantly assumed the 
 vacated seat, and gathering up the reins, 
 looked down upon his discomfited foes, and 
 cried, " The next time you happen to make 
 mention of my name, you'll probably treat it 
 with more respect." So saying, he wheeled 
 round, and wishing the militia-men good 
 night, drove off. 
 
 A comfortless tramp these heroes had of 
 it, over a dozen miles of muddy road, ere 
 they reached Clonmel. They slunk quietly 
 to their barrack-rooms, however, being ex- 
 tremely desirous of concealing their own 
 shame, and Brennan's triumph from the 
 knowledge of their brother-officers ; and for 
 a space of not less than six months they
 
 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 17 
 
 succeeded. But at tlie termination of that 
 period, when the regiment stood under arms 
 at evening parade, a boy entered the bar- 
 rack-yard, leading in his hand a horse and 
 gig, both of which were famihar to every 
 one present. The boy walked up to the 
 commanding officer and handed him a 
 note, which he read with evident asto- 
 nishment. This, of course, increased the 
 curiosity of the rest, who gathered round 
 their colonel, while our two chap-fallen heroes 
 slank away, and took refuge in their own 
 quarters. The colonel was desired to read 
 aloud. He did so ; and then the boy being 
 questioned, the whole secret came out. Amid 
 shouts of laughter from the audience to 
 which he addressed himself, the urchin imi- 
 tated Brennan's style of telling the story, and 
 then, not without some substantial marks of 
 the officer's favour, he was permitted to 
 withdraw. It is scarcely necessary to add, 
 that the two worthies who, carrying arms, 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 forgot at the moment of trial, to make use of 
 them, never showed themselves again in the 
 
 ranks of the mihtia. 
 
 Brennan's career, though a very remark- 
 able one, could scarce, in the nature of 
 things, terminate otherwise than in his own 
 destruction. Many a narrow escape he made, 
 many a feat of daring and activity he per- 
 formed; but in the end, accident proved more 
 fatal to him than all the designs and projects 
 of his pursuers. It happened, one day, that a 
 gentleman riding along the high-road, ob- 
 served two men creep through a gap in one of 
 the hedges, and disappear on the other side. 
 He instantly conceived the notion that they 
 might be Brennan and his ally, the pedler; 
 so he hurried off to Lord Caher, and told 
 both what he knew and what he conjectured. 
 His lordship's eagerness to effect the capture 
 of the bandit had not abated a jot, and, 
 thinking it highly probable that his in- 
 formant's suspicion might be well founded,
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 19 
 
 he gave orders for a detachment of the 11th 
 to mount their horses, and directed, at the 
 same time, the Sligo mihtia to march with 
 all haste, and extending their files to sur- 
 round the spot. For within this hedge, 
 through which the mysterious strangers had 
 been seen to pass, was a new house, as yet 
 incomplete, with a stack or two of furze cut 
 down and piled up for fuel ; and his lordship 
 justly concluded, that if he could make of 
 these the centre of a circle, of which the radii 
 should be respectively half a mile in length, 
 he might pretty surely count on picking up 
 every living thing that might have establish- 
 ed itself, either by accident or design, within 
 the circumference of that circle. 
 
 I well remember that I formed one of the 
 mounted detachment, which performed the 
 service of which I am now speaking, and 
 the strange excitement of the chase, I shall 
 never, till my dying day, forget. The 
 militia marched as they were directed, 
 c2
 
 20 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 and, extending their files, soon placed the 
 unfinished domicile, with its appurtenances, 
 within a cordon. This was gradually nar- 
 rowed, while our mounted men kept a look- 
 out in the rear, and made ready to start off 
 in desperate pursuit, should the game be 
 sprung, and trust to speed of foot for escape. 
 By-and-by the infantry closed upon the 
 house, searched it through, and found it 
 empty ; it may be imagined there was an 
 expression of blank astonishment in every 
 face, till one of our men suddenly exclaimed, 
 '' You haven't examined the chimney ; you 
 may depend upon it you'll find him there." 
 It was no sooner said than done ; for the 
 speaker sprang from his horse, ran inside, 
 poked his head up the kitchen chimney, and 
 in an instant withdrew it again. It was well 
 for him that he did so, for almost simul- 
 taneously with his backward leap, came the 
 report of a pistol, the ball from which struck 
 the hearth without wounding any body. It
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 21 
 
 is impossible for me to describe tke scene 
 that followed. Nobody cared to get below 
 tlie robber; nobody fancied that it would be 
 possible to get above him ; and threats and 
 smooth speeches were soon shown to be 
 alike unavailing to draw him from his 
 hiding-place. But the marvel of the ad- 
 venture did not stop there. While a crowd 
 of us were gathered about the house, some 
 shoutmg on Brennan to surrender, others 
 firing at the top of the chimney, a sort of 
 salute which the robber did not hesitate to 
 answer, — one of the Sligo men suddenly 
 called out from the rear, that he had pricked 
 a man with his bayonet among the gorse. 
 In an instant search was made, and sure 
 enough there lay Brennan himself, on his 
 back in a narrow ditch, with a brace of 
 pistols close beside his feet, of which, how- 
 ever, he did not judge it expedient to make 
 use. He was instantly seized, disarmed, and 
 put in charge of a sufficient guard; while the
 
 22 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 remainder of us addressed ourselves to the 
 capture of his companion, concerning whom 
 we could not for an instant doubt that he 
 was Hogan. 
 
 "When Brennan gave himself up, he did 
 so with a singularly mild and serene aspect. 
 There was no expression of ferocity in his 
 countenance ; no look which could be under- 
 stood to imply either bitter agony because 
 of the fate which had overtaken him, or a 
 desperate resolution to sell his life at the 
 highest. His whole bearing, on the con- 
 trary, was that of a man perfectly recon- 
 ciled to his fate ; not, indeed, very hopeful, 
 yet far from desperate ; and, therefore, little 
 disposed to shed either his own or any other 
 person's blood unnecessarily. Hogan, on the 
 contrary, resembled one of the wild beasts, 
 which in Norway, or some of the other 
 countries where battues are carried on upon 
 a scale more magnificent than in Eng- 
 land, the hunters contrive to hem within
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 23 
 
 their toils, seeking to capture liim alive 
 rather than kill him ; for Hogan would not 
 listen to any proposal of surrender. He 
 mounted, on the contrary, to the very edge 
 of the chimney, making of its brickwork a 
 sort of parapet to protect him from our bul- 
 lets, and fired pistol after pistol, till his am- 
 munition became exhausted, and he was 
 forced, with extreme reluctance, to descend. 
 " In the name of common sense,'' said Lord 
 Caher, " why did you offer such a useless 
 resistance? you knew all the while that you 
 must be taken at last — why then wantonly 
 put your own and other men s lives in jeo- 
 pardy?'' But Hogan would not condescend 
 to reply. He drew up his tall muscular 
 figure to the utmost, and looking disdain- 
 fully upon the throng that surrounded him, 
 he continued silent. 
 
 Brennan and Hogan were placed each on 
 the croup of a horseman's saddle, and in this 
 manner, under a sufficient escort, were con-
 
 24 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 veyed to the watcli-liouse in Calier. It 
 seemed to me that Hogan evinced manifest 
 tokens of satisfaction, as soon as lie ascer- 
 tained that he stood not alone in misfortune ; 
 a strange disposition, yet the reverse of un- 
 common, and indicative of no extraordinary 
 ferocity on the part of him who is swayed by 
 it. But however this may be, the prisoners 
 rode on contentedly enough, and were in due 
 time safely lodged in their narrow quarters. 
 
 It seemed, however, that neither the 
 inconveniences attached to the cell, nor 
 their anticipation of the fate that was before 
 them, had any power to work mischievously 
 upon their humour. How Hogan conducted 
 himself I cannot so decidedly describe ; but of 
 Brennan, it is fresh in my recollection, that he 
 was throughout singularly cheerful and con- 
 fiding. He told us many stories of his own 
 narrow escapes. He pointed out several of 
 our men who had more than once been in pur- 
 suit of him, and whose lives,lhe declared, had
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 25 
 
 over and over again been in his hands, though 
 a sense of what was right would not permit 
 him to take them. " Why should I shoot 
 you?" was the tenour of his appeal. " I have 
 been a soldier in my day, and know that a 
 soldier must obey whatever orders he may 
 receive. No, no — I should have the guilt 
 of Cain on my soul, had any one of your 
 regiment died by my hands ; and yet more 
 than once you had wellnigh forced me to 
 the extremity." Then he would launch out 
 in praise of his favourite mare, whose death 
 he deplored as the severest calamity that 
 ever befel him, and invariably wound up by 
 expressing his conviction, that after all he 
 would never be hanged. " There is no proof 
 against me," was his argument. '' There's 
 nobody to swear that by me he was ever 
 wronged ; and were the fact different, I am 
 sure that the people will not permit me to 
 be put to death." In this respect, however, 
 Brennan had deceived himself; for the law.
 
 26 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 when it puts forth its might is, even in Ire- 
 land, stronger than the mere will or caprice 
 of a mob. 
 
 Having been detained in the guard-room 
 of Caher all night, the prisoners were re- 
 moved next day to Clonmel, where, in due 
 time, the assizes came on, and they were put 
 upon their trial. Many charges were brought 
 against both, and especially against Brennan; 
 yet the robber was so far in the right, that 
 nobody could be persuaded to swear to his 
 identity. At length a quaker, whose car- 
 riage had been robbed near Fermoy, mounted 
 the witness-box, and went so far as to de- 
 clare a belief, that he saw in Brennan the 
 individual who had stopped it. He would 
 not, indeed, assert positively that the case 
 was so, — he only believed that Brennan was 
 the man. On this evidence, not very expli- 
 cit we must allow, yet, without doubt the 
 best which could, under the circumstances, 
 be procured, Brennan \vrs found guilty ; and
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 27 
 
 both he and Hogan, who, on some such evi- 
 dence, was in like manner convicted, re- 
 ceived sentence of death. How shall I de- 
 scribe the scene that followed ? Multitudes 
 from all parts of the surrounding country, 
 and from the distance, in some instances, of 
 fifty miles from the town, had flocked in to 
 witness the trial ; and now that their idol 
 was doomed to die, their grief and con- 
 sternation exceeded all conceivable bounds. 
 Bearded men wept in the court-house like 
 children. There were groans, deep and bit- 
 ter, rising from every quarter; and more 
 than one, especially among the women, 
 fainted away, and was carried out. Mean- 
 while the troops, anticipating an attempt at 
 rescue, stood to their arms, and the whole 
 night long the streets were patroled ; but no 
 disturbance took place. After indulging for 
 an hour or two in useless howling, the crowd 
 melted away, and long before midnight a
 
 28 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 profound calm pervaded every corner of the 
 town. 
 
 At last the terrible day of execution ar- 
 rived, and Brennan, with his associate, being 
 placed in an open cart, passed about half-past 
 nine in the morning, imder a strong military 
 escort, beneath the arched gateway of the 
 gaol. Again had formidable preparations 
 been made to meet and repel violence, should 
 any be offered: but again the thunder-cloud 
 dispersed, without any outburst of its fury. 
 The crowd, to be sure, was prodigious ; but 
 what can a mere crowd attempt or hope to 
 accomplish against even a handful of dis- 
 ciplined and well-armed soldiers? and where, 
 as happened to be the case that day, the 
 soldiers are numerous, then must even the 
 thought of resistance be scouted. Not a 
 hand was raised in defence of the prisoners 
 during all the progress from the prison to 
 the gallows, and round the gallows the
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 29 
 
 multitudes that assembled stood^ if not mute, 
 at all events motionless. It was curious at 
 the time to mark the difference of character 
 that showed itself in the bearings of the two 
 men : Brennan gazed cheerfully round him 
 all the while he was in the cart, and re- 
 cognising in the crowd several of his friends, 
 perhaps followers, he nodded and smiled to 
 them gaily, Hogan, on the contrary, though 
 equally self-collected, was far more reserved, 
 for he never bestowed upon any of the 
 throng one mark of recognition, nor once 
 addressed a word to his fellow-sufferer. Yea, 
 and after the cords had been adjusted, and 
 the unhappy men stood, waiting for the 
 signal which should carry the vehicle from 
 beneath, and leave them to die between earth 
 and heaven ; — even then Hogan turned aside 
 with undisguised contempt and loathing, 
 from the hand which his associate offered to 
 his pressure; and wrapping himself up in 
 his own thoughts, sternly and resolutely pre-
 
 30 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 pared for the issue. It was not long of coming. 
 At a given signal tlie cart drove away, and 
 amid yells, more loud and terrible tlian men 
 ever utter, except in the Emerald Isle, the 
 souls of these two noted malefactors were 
 wrenched from their bodies. I must not, 
 however, forget to mention, that the two re- 
 nowned highwaymen suffered not alone. A 
 young man, found guilty of forcibly carrying 
 away a girl from her home and the protec- 
 tion of her parents, was the same day exe- 
 cuted in pursuance of his sentence ; and he 
 chose to die in a garb which excited not 
 only our surprise, but our ridicule. He 
 came to be hanged in a garment of white 
 flannel, made tight to the shape, and orna- 
 mented in all directions with knots of blue 
 ribbon, rather more befitting a harlequin on 
 the stage, than a wretched culprit whose life 
 had become forfeit to the offended laws.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 31 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Service in Ireland, and Embarkation for Portugal. 
 
 Throughout the whole period of my so- 
 journ in Tipperary, amounting to not less 
 than seven months, the peace of the county 
 was disturbed, and men's lives put in con- 
 tinual jeopardy, by the prevalence of party 
 feuds, far more desperate in their nature than 
 any with which the present generation seems 
 to be familiar. There were two factions in 
 particular, the Shanavests and Caravats, who 
 waged one upon the other an unceasing war 
 of extermination. Every day brought to 
 our quarters the report of some murder or 
 horrid personal outrage — every night made
 
 32 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 known to us that some act of incendiarism 
 liad been perpetrated. Highway robbery, 
 too, was very frequent, insomuch that the 
 mail never passed from point to point, except 
 under an escort of dragoons; while smugghng 
 was carried on to such a degree, that the 
 trade of the licensed distiller brought him 
 no returns. A melancholy time of it had we 
 under such circumstances. What with con- 
 stant demands to protect a gentleman's house, 
 or calls upon us to assist in extinguishing the 
 flames that had been applied to it; what 
 with escorts to protect the mail, parties to 
 put down a still, patrols to keep the roads 
 safe, and guards to preserve the peace at 
 different fairs, neither we nor our horses 
 knew what it was to have four-and-twenty 
 hours on which we could count, as disposa- 
 ble for purposes — I do not say of relaxation, 
 but — of ordinary regimental or common 
 duty. Our entire life was one of alarms, ex- 
 cursions, and disappointments ; for I cannot
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 33 
 
 deny, that we became in the end extremely 
 irritated towards the people whose miscon- 
 duct thus harassed us ; and, as a necessary 
 consequence, were deeply mortified as often 
 as we failed in making prisoners of the 
 wretches whose violations of the law broke 
 in so often upon our repose. 
 
 Among the various painful duties, which 
 then engaged me, there is not one on which 
 I now look back with more unmixed abhor- 
 rence that the operation of still-hunting. 
 There was no hour of the night or day at 
 which we could consider ourselves free from 
 the chance of being roused and sent forth, we 
 knew not whither, under the guidance of an 
 excise officer. Unless my memory mislead 
 me, too, these demands upon our activity 
 came with much greater frequency during 
 the night than when the sun was shining ; 
 while winter seemed to be the season when 
 the smuggler chiefly plied his trade, doubt- 
 less with the laudable desire of rendering 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 our researches among the mountains as littl6 
 agreeable to us as possible. How often have 
 I been roused from my warm bed, required 
 to saddle and mount my horse amid pitchy 
 darkness, and sent forth, I could not tell in 
 what direction, to achieve a conquest over 
 an iron pot and a tin worm ! Ay, and what is 
 more, the conquest, contemptible as in the 
 ear of the civilian it may sound, was not 
 always achieved. It is marvellous with what 
 accuracy the distillers received information 
 of our movements — often when we flattered 
 ourselves that we were least open to the eye 
 of scrutiny. Over and over again, I have 
 ridden long miles through the mountain 
 passes, my horse floundering in the snow, or 
 tripping over pits and holes, to the immi- 
 nent risk both of my neck and his own; 
 and after all, when we reached the spot 
 where the seizure was to have been effected, 
 we found nothing save the traces of an ex- 
 tinguished fire, and two or three peasants,
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 35 
 
 wlio never omitted to laugh at us. In like 
 manner, the duties of escorting the mail were 
 by no means agreeable. Amid thickets, or 
 in the ditches, parties of armed men would 
 lie, who would sometimes kill both men and 
 horses with their fire, while for us to search 
 for them, except through the medium of our 
 carbines, was impossible. 
 
 It is not, however, because of these annoy- 
 ances alone that my recollection of service 
 in Ireland is any thing but agreeable to my- 
 self, or creditable to the temper of the people. 
 I admit that provisions were cheap, that 
 whiskey was abundant, and that I never saw 
 an individual Irishman of a temper, which 
 may not deserve to be described as generous, 
 and hospitable, and open. But as a people 
 they were perfect savages, not merely in their 
 mode of dealing with those against whom they 
 entertained a feud, but against persons in 
 whose society they set out with professing to 
 take delight, and with whom they got drunk 
 d2
 
 36 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 in all tlie glee imaginable. The case, for. ex- 
 ample, was not unfrequent of a party coming 
 in to a public-house to drink, carousing to- 
 gether in perfect goodhumour till their senses 
 became confused, and then quarrelling ve- 
 hemently, they could not tell why. Forth^ 
 with came into play, poker, shovel, tongs, 
 benches, and knives, till many a time the 
 floor of the tap-room swam with blood, and 
 of the persons frequenting it not a few were 
 borne off grievously, sometimes mortally, 
 wounded. Then their fairs and wakes 
 were invariably of such a nature, that 
 troops were sent to observe them, and to 
 hinder the commission of all manner of 
 violence. Yet even this precaution was 
 not invariably found to avail. I remember, 
 for example, that not far from the town in 
 which we were quartered, an event befell, 
 of which even now it is not easy to write 
 without a shudder. There had been a fune- 
 ral, which, coming from some remote corner
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 37 
 
 in tlie country, was attended by a score or 
 two of ragged peasants, all of whom fol- 
 lowed the corpse, howling as is their wont, 
 and nowise insensible to the stimulating in- 
 fluence of strong drink. The mourners 
 having deposited their deceased friend in 
 his grave, adjourned, as a matter of course, 
 to the whiskey-shop, where they pledged 
 his memory in as many draughts as the 
 state of their finances would allow. Hav- 
 ing exhausted these, and thoroughly in- 
 flamed themselves, they set out to return 
 home ; and well would it have been had they 
 followed up this resolution, without looking 
 either to the right hand or to the left. 
 
 The persons who carried the corpse to 
 its grave, belonged to one or other of the 
 rival factions, I cannot tell which. That, 
 however, is a matter of no moment, for both 
 were alike ferocious, and either would have 
 been guilty in this particular instance of the
 
 38 THE LIGHT DBAGOON. 
 
 horrible crimes of wliicli I am about to 
 make mention. Having drunk freely, as 
 lias been stated, tlie mourners set out to re- 
 turn home, and came, as they proceeded, 
 upon the house of a respectable farmer, who 
 owed allegiance to a party hostile to their 
 own. Like madmen, they sprang within 
 the inclosure, burst open his door, and 
 meeting the servant girl in the passage, in- 
 stantly put her to death. They then rushed 
 into the kitchen, where the farmer and his 
 wife were seated, an aged couple, from whom 
 no molestation could be apprehended : them 
 they pierced with many wounds ; after 
 which, they slew the cows in the stall, the 
 horses in the stable, and the very dog and 
 cat that wandered about the premises. In a 
 word, a more atrocious massacre never was 
 perpetrated, even in the county of Tippe- 
 rary, though Tipperary has in all ages been 
 renowned for the little value which its in-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 39 
 
 habitants put either upon their own hves, 
 or on the lives of other people. 
 
 After this account of the duties which 
 were imposed upon us, and the sort of life 
 which we led while quartered at CJonmel, 
 it will scarcely be wondered at when I say- 
 that the order which one day reached us, to 
 march forthwith upon Dublin, was by me 
 greeted with unqualified satisfaction. The 
 23rd light dragoons having been directed 
 to proceed on foreign service, it became 
 our business to supply their place; and this 
 we did early in the spring of 1809, our 
 respective squadrons meeting, on more than 
 one occasion, as they moved, — we to the 
 capital, they towards Cork harbour. We 
 occupied Dublin for something more than a 
 year; and had the satisfaction, such as it 
 was, of witnessing there the celebration of 
 the great Jubilee. I need scarcely add, that 
 the Jubilee of which I speak commemo- 
 rated the fiftieth year of the reign of
 
 40 THE LIGHT DRAGOOISr. 
 
 George III., and was kept up with extra- 
 ordinary spirit in all parts of his majesty's 
 dominions. I greatly question, however? 
 whether in any town throughout the em- 
 pire, more of the external show of loyalty 
 was exhibited than in Dublin. For three 
 whole days men exhibited their gladness, 
 first by a grand review of the troops in 
 St. Stephen's Green; next by a general 
 illumination ; and last of all in a sort of 
 carnival, where all manner of irregula- 
 rities were freely perpetrated, no human 
 being caring to find fault with them. For 
 example, the streets were thronged both 
 night and day with minstrels, maskers, and 
 mummers ; for whom every door was thrown 
 freely open, and who were regaled wher- 
 ever they came with vivres and a hearty 
 welcome. Neither, as far as I know, was 
 any advantage taken of such frankness to 
 work evil to the persons or the property of 
 the individuals who displayed it. Yet we
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 41 
 
 had slender reason to congratulate ourselves 
 that we happened to be present on so ani- 
 mating an occasion : from four o'clock in the 
 afternoon of one day, till seven in the fol- 
 lowing morning, both we and the Scots 
 Greys were employed to patrol the streets ; 
 one half of the town being intrusted to the 
 care of the Greys^ and the other committed 
 to our especial keeping. We all did our 
 duty, without doubt; yet we heartily re- 
 joiced when the gaieties came to an end, 
 and we were permitted to return to the 
 ordinary occupation of our lives. 
 
 So passed the year 1809, of which my 
 general recollections amount to this, and no 
 more — that if not positively an era in my 
 existence, it has left no stamp of extreme 
 misery on my soul. Still there was very 
 little mourning in the corps when the arri- 
 val of the 7th Hussars set us free, and we 
 embarked, in the same transports which 
 brought them into the Liffey, for Holy-
 
 42 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 head. There we landed in safety : a plea- 
 sant march of twenty-two days carried us to 
 Weymouth, where the head-quarters of the 
 regiment being established, detachments went 
 abroad to various out-stations, of which 
 Farnham and Porchester were two. At the 
 latter of these posts I found myself, with 
 twenty of my comrades, the charge being 
 committed to us of keeping guard over 
 French prisoners, who, to the number of 
 7000 at the least, were cooped up within 
 the walls of the castle. 
 
 Whatever grounds of boasting may belong 
 to us as a nation — and I am the last man in 
 the world to think of diminishing their num- 
 ber, I am afraid that our mode of dealing 
 with the prisoners taken from the French 
 during the war scarcely deserves to be 
 classed among them. Absolute cruelties 
 were never, I believe, perpetrated on those 
 unfortunate beings; neither, as far as I 
 know, were they, on any pretence what-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 43 
 
 ever, stinted in the allowance of food 
 awarded to tliem. But, in other respects 
 they fared hardly enough. Their sleeping 
 apartments, for instance, were very much 
 crowded. Few paroles were extended to 
 them, (it is past dispute, that when the 
 parole was obtained, they were, without 
 distinction of rank, apt to make a bad use of 
 it,) while their pay was calculated on a 
 scale as near to the line of starvation, as 
 could in any measure correspond with our na- 
 tional renown for humanity. On the other 
 hand, every possible encouragement was 
 given to the exercise of ingenuity among the 
 prisoners themselves, by the throwing open 
 of the castle yard once or twice a week, when 
 their wares were exhibited for sale, amid 
 numerous groups of jugglers, tumblers, and 
 musicians, all of whom followed their re- 
 spective callings, if not invariably with skill, 
 always with most praiseworthy perseverance.
 
 44 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 Moreover, the ingenuity of the captives 
 taught them how, on these occasions, to 3et 
 up stalls, on which all manner of trinkets 
 were set forth, as well as puppet-shows, and 
 Punch's opera, — in witnessing which, John 
 Bull's good humour was sure to be called 
 into play. Then followed numerous pur- 
 chases, particularly on the part of the country 
 people, of bone and ivory nicknacks, fa- 
 bricated invariably with a common penknife, 
 yet always neat and not unfrequently ele- 
 gant. Nor must I forget to mention the daily 
 market, which the peasantry, particularly the 
 women, were in the habit of attending, and 
 which usually gave scope for the exchange 
 of Jean Crapaud's manufactures for Nancy's 
 eggs, or Joan's milk, or home-baked loaf. 
 This, though it took place at an early hour 
 in the morning, was day after day an inte- 
 resting spectacle to us, who, not seeking to 
 pry beyond the mere surface of things, were
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 45 
 
 apt to quit the castle-yard witli a notion, that, 
 after all, the prisoners had no great cause to 
 be dissatisfied with their lot. 
 
 A prisoner, however, is always dissatisfied 
 with his lot — how indeed can he be other- 
 wise? and we at Porchester, like others em- 
 ployed on a similar duty elsewhere, were in 
 due time taught the truth of this axiom. It 
 happened one night, that a sentry, whose post 
 lay outside the walls of the old castle, was 
 startled by a sound as of a hammer driven 
 against the earth beneath his feet. The man 
 stopped, listened, and was more and more 
 convinced, that neither his fears nor his ima- 
 gination had misled him ; so he reported the 
 circumstance to the serjeant, who next visited 
 his post, and left him to take in the matter 
 such steps as might be expedient. The ser- 
 jeant, as in duty bound, having first ascer- 
 tained that the man spoke truly, made his 
 report to the captain on duty, who immedi- 
 ately doubled the sentry at the indicated spot,
 
 46 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 and gave strict orders, that should so much 
 as one French prisoner be seen making his 
 way beyond the castle walls, he should be 
 shot without mercy. Then was the whole of 
 the guard got under arms ; then were beacons 
 fired in various quarters, while far and near, 
 from Portsmouth not less than from the can- 
 tonments, more close at hand, bodies of troops 
 marched upon Porchester. Among others 
 came the general of the district, bringing with 
 him a detachment of sappers and miners; by 
 whom all the floors of the several bed-rooms 
 were tried, and who soon brought the matter 
 home to those engaged in it. Indeed, one man 
 at last was taken in the gallery which he was 
 seeking to enlarge ; his only instrument being 
 a spike nail wherewith to labour. 
 
 The plot thus detected was a very exten- 
 sive, and must, if carried through, have 
 proved a desperate one to both parties. For 
 weeks previous to the discovery the pri- 
 soners, it appeared, had been at work, and
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 47 
 
 from not fewer than seven rooms, all of them 
 on the ground-floor, they had sunk shafts 
 twelve feet in depth, and caused them all to 
 meet at one common centre, whence as many 
 chambers went off. These were driven be- 
 yond the extremity of the outer wall; and 
 one — that of .which the sentry was thus un- 
 expectedly made aware — the ingenious miners 
 had carried forward with such skill, that in 
 two days more it would have been in a con- 
 dition to be opened. The rubbish, it ap- 
 peared, which from these several covered 
 ways they scooped out, was carried about by 
 the prisoners in their pockets, till they found 
 an opportunity of scattering it over the 
 surface of the great square. Yet the des- 
 perate men had a great deal more to encoun- 
 ter than the mere obstacles which the exca- 
 vation of the castle of Porchester presented- 
 Their first proceeding, after emerging into 
 upper air, must needs have been to surprise 
 and overpower the troops that occupied the
 
 48 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 barracks immediately contiguous ; an opera- 
 tion of doubtful issue at the best, and not to 
 be accomplished without a terrible loss of life, 
 certainly on one side — probably on both. 
 Moreover, when this was done — and that it 
 might, and probably would have been 
 done, no thinking man will doabt — there 
 remained for the fugitives the still more ar- 
 duous task of making their way through the 
 heart of the garrison town of Portsmouth, and 
 seizing a flotilla of boats, should such be high 
 and dry upon the beach. Yet worse even 
 than this remained, for both the harbour and 
 the roads were crowded with ships of war, 
 the gauntlet of whose batteries the deserters 
 must of necessity have run ; and out of which 
 no reasonable man among them could hope 
 to escape with life, supposing him to hazard 
 life, rather than give up all hope or chance 
 of liberty. In all sincerity, then, I am in- 
 chned to believe that the detection of this plot 
 was to both parties a merciful arrangement of
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 49 
 
 Divine Providence, inasmuch as the struggle 
 would have been desperate, the mortality very 
 great, and in all probability the whole would 
 have resulted in the recommittal of the survi- 
 vors of those who began the fray, to a more 
 rigid confinement than that from which they 
 
 sought to escape. 
 
 About a month after the occurrence of this 
 adventure I got a furlough to visit my friends, 
 with whom I spent several weeks very agree- 
 ably. I then rejoined the regiment, which 
 had received orders only the day before to 
 prepare for foreign service, and no great while 
 afterwards it began its march towards the point 
 of embarkation. There occurred, during the 
 progress of that journey, a circumstance which 
 not only distressed me a good deal at the mo- 
 ment, but in some sort affected the whole of 
 my subsequent career of life. In my troop 
 there were two non-commissioned officers — 
 a Serjeant Waldron and a Corporal Rents, as 
 different in their tempers and habits one from 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 another as if they did not belong to the same 
 species. Corporal Eents was a very noble 
 fellow — sober, steady, kind, generous, and 
 open-hearted. Serjeant Waldron was a 
 cross-grained, ill-conditioned creature, who 
 delighted in nothing so much as to annoy the 
 " Johnny Eaws ;'' the elegant name which it 
 was his pleasure to bestow upon all who 
 might have recently joined the regiment. 
 With Corporal Eents I had early formed an 
 intimate friendship, and it was the great ob- 
 ject of both that we should be placed on 
 parade as comrades; but the matter, some- 
 how or another, was not arranged when the 
 order to proceed upon foreign service was 
 promulgated. On the march, however, we 
 made a point of being as much as possible 
 together. There was, indeed, but one man 
 between Eents and myself in the order of 
 files, and him I easily persuaded to change 
 places with me ; so that aU the while we 
 were upon the road I enjoyed the advantage
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 51 
 
 of my Mend's conversation, as he enjoyed 
 tlie advantage of mine. Nevertheless, we were 
 not long permitted to proceed thus unmo- 
 lested ; Serjeant Waldron took little pleasure 
 in our discussions, inasmuch as they partook 
 in no respect of the ribald and loose converse 
 which in those days, at least, was too much 
 in fashion among soldiers; and he marked 
 his disapprobation of our tone, by ordering 
 me back to my proper place in the line of 
 march. Like a young soldier as I was, I 
 ventured to remonstrate, saying that I merely 
 wanted to chat a little with the corporal, 
 and would get into my place whenever a halt 
 should be ordered. At this he became very 
 savage, and repeating his order, desired that 
 I would not presume to call the wisdom of it 
 in question. " Now, Serjeant," said I, very 
 foolishly, " what difference can it make to 
 you whether I or your own proper covering 
 file ride next you?' "What!" said he in a 
 rage, " do you still refuse to obey ? " And 
 e2
 
 52 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 SO saying lie clapped spurs to his horse, aud 
 rode off in search of the officer. In a moment 
 a lieutenant of our troop — a very austere 
 man, whose name it is not worth while to 
 mention, — returned with the Serjeant^ and 
 not waiting to hear a word that I might say, 
 desired me to take my proper station in the 
 column, and to be put down for the baggage- 
 guard when the march should end. I was 
 excessively indignant at this; but what could 
 I do? At first I determined not to take this 
 extra guard, to merit which I had done no- 
 thing ; but a little calm reflection convinced 
 me of the folly of such a resolution, and I 
 made up my mind that it would be best for 
 me to submit with patience to whatever load 
 my superiors might impose. 
 
 I took my proper place in the line of 
 march, and at the close of the movement 
 received notice that at ten o'clock it would 
 be my turn to mount sentry under the mar- 
 ket-place. Meanwhile I adjourned with my
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 53 
 
 comrades to the quarters whicli had been 
 assigned us, and drinking freely with them, 
 never thought of stirring till the clock had 
 struck ten. Then, however, I jumped up, 
 paid my reckoning, and ran off to the mar- 
 ket-place, which, being close at hand, I must 
 have reached within a minute or two of the 
 time appointed for my appearance there. 
 A corporal was in command, greatly resem- 
 bling in his habits and temper my friend 
 Serjeant Waldron. " Are you aware," said 
 he, " how late it is ? You are a full half 
 hour behind your time, and I have put 
 another man in your place as sentry. I shall 
 confine you, and make a report of the cir- 
 cumstance to the captain in the morning. 
 You are drunk, sir, as well as late." 
 
 It was to no purpose that I assured the 
 corporal of my absolute innocence of the 
 offence with which he last charged me ; and 
 protested that the clock had just struck ten 
 in the quarter whither I had been sent. He
 
 54 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 would not listen to me for a moment, but, 
 putting me under arrest, stated the case, 
 doubtless in terms as strong as lie could 
 find, to tlie captain. I was at tHs time a 
 very young soldier — neither, from the hour 
 of my enlistment, had I ever been confined 
 before ; so the disgrace sat heavily upon me, 
 and I fretted over it. But no important 
 evil arose, at least directly, out of it. The 
 following morning I took my place in the 
 ranks, which I was permitted to retain all 
 the way to Honiton, and from which, it is 
 right to add, I was never, after all, removed. 
 While we lay in this place, however, wait- 
 ing for the transports to be fitted up^ which 
 were destined to carry us to the seat of war, 
 the captain sent for me, and severely repri- 
 manded me for the crimes of which I was 
 charged with being guilty. He said that he 
 was not only vexed but surprised to hear such 
 things of me, whom he had taught himself 
 to consider as one of the most sober men in the
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 55 
 
 troop ; and he charged me, as I hoped for en- 
 couragement, and desired not to incur its op* 
 posite, never to be found in so disgraceful a 
 situation again. Hard, hard was the task 
 of gulping all this down, while my own con- 
 science told me that the charges were quite 
 groundless ; yet I felt at the moment that to 
 deny them would be profitless — so I put the 
 padlock on my soul, and remained silent. I 
 earnestly advise all young soldiers first of all 
 to win the good opinion of their captain, and 
 then, at every sacrifice of immediate gra- 
 tification, to preserve it. The captain has 
 every thing in his power, both to promote 
 and to retard the soldier's advancement ; and 
 if you once get into his black books, it will 
 cost you many a day of anxiety, and a con- 
 siderable display of luck in your favour, to 
 get out of them again. 
 
 I remember that about this time I received 
 a very acceptable present from home, in the 
 shape of various articles that would be use-
 
 56 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ful during the voyage, as well as some money 
 and tobacco, which I freely divided with my 
 comrades, and for which they were very 
 grateful. This was hardly done, when we 
 proceeded to Plymouth, where the ships 
 were fitted up and lying to receive us; but 
 of their state of preparation we could very 
 little avail ourselves, inasmuch as the wind 
 was, and long continued to be, adverse. 
 Under these circumstances, it was a sort of 
 privilege to me, that, having for my com- 
 rade a young man intimately acquainted with 
 the mysteries of boatmanship, I was joined 
 to him, and had it in charge to execute the 
 officers' commissions, as well as to purchase 
 vegetables daily for the men in the same 
 transport. I recollect, too, that the doctor 
 having taken his passage on board of our 
 ship, was, by my comrade and myself, pulled, 
 day after day, round the different vessels 
 among which our people were distributed; 
 and that our excursions were not always un-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 57 
 
 fruitful, at least in the accession of creature 
 comforts. But this order of things was 
 happily not destined to last for ever. The 
 wind shifted in due time, and an enormous 
 fleet, amounting, on a moderate computation, 
 to not less than one hundred sail of all sizes 
 and descriptions, hauled in their anchors at 
 a given signal, and, under a very slender 
 convoy, put to sea. 
 
 Generally speaking, there is not much 
 in the voyage from England to the seat of 
 war, which, in the life of a soldier, deserves 
 to be recorded. In my own particular case, 
 however, the rule can scarce be said to have 
 held good; for, first, having on a certain 
 occasion towed a dead horse ashore, I was 
 one of a boat's crew that with difficulty 
 regained the ship again; and next, my old 
 enemy, Serjeant Waldron, put me to a very 
 great strait. It happened one day that he 
 saw me playing with my comrades on the 
 forecastle, and that, being in a singularly
 
 58 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 bad humour, lie ordered me below to look 
 after the horses. I told him that I had 
 done that duty the day previously ; yet he 
 would take no refusal, and affecting once 
 more to regard me as a mutineer, he desired 
 that I would remain below till he should 
 give me leave to show myself upon deck. 
 As a matter of course I obeyed, though the 
 old hands pitied me much, and protested 
 that had the dispute occurred with one of 
 them, they would have carried it through very 
 differently. Still I went to the stables^ and 
 abode there three whole days, and emerged 
 again into upper air only when it became 
 manifest, both to myself and others, that my 
 health would suffer from longer confinement. 
 A very angry man was Serjeant Waldron, 
 when his eye encountered mine near the 
 mainmast. He swore vehemently against 
 my outrageous behaviour, would have forced 
 me below again, had not the rest of the men 
 openly withstood him, and ended by hurry-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 59 
 
 ing off to the officer in command, and mak- 
 ing a highly-coloured report of the whole 
 proceeding. It is not to be wondered at if 
 the officer should have adopted the Ser- 
 jeant's view of the case, he being an old man 
 and I a young one ; or that, being assured of 
 my turbulent and mutinous disposition, he 
 should have consented to punish me next day 
 by the infliction of a picketing. But, though 
 Serjeant Waldron got all things ready, my 
 comrades sustained me with the assurance 
 that they would not permit the shghtest 
 wrong to be put upon me ; and their good 
 will, fortunately attained its object, without 
 bringing any individual of the number into 
 jeopardy. It chanced that a smart gale 
 came on that night, so that in the morning, 
 when the parade was formed, the ship rolled 
 heavily, and the serjeant going to call the 
 officer, found him deadly sick. With the 
 utmost difficulty he was persuaded to rise, 
 but he never got to the place where the in-
 
 60 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 struments of punishment were arranged. A 
 heavy sea struck the vessel — the officer 
 reeled and fell, and both he and Serjeant 
 Waldron were in an instant covered with 
 an ointment less odoriferous by far than 
 that of which Arabia is the source. Poor 
 fellow ! our commandant was very much 
 ashamed of himself, as well as extremely 
 wroth with the person who had drawn him 
 into the scrape. He accused Serjeant Wal- 
 dron of having occasioned his disgrace, 
 desired in a pet that the prisoner should 
 be set at liberty, and diving once more into 
 his own cabin, permitted both the crime 
 with which I stood charged, and the punish- 
 ment that had been threatened, to be 
 forgotten.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 61 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Voyage to Lisbon— State of the City — March to the 
 Front — Wounded Men — Camp at Elvas. 
 
 There occurred very little during our 
 passage to Lisbon of wliicli it is worth 
 while to take notice, or concerning which it 
 may with truth be said that it differed in 
 any respect from the ordinary adventures 
 that attend men during the progress of sea 
 voyages in general. We had the customary 
 alternations of fair weather and foul, bring- 
 ing with them their usual accompaniments 
 of comfort and its opposite, the whole being 
 summed up by a seven days' calm, off the 
 coast of Vigoj and, as that was not the 
 age of steam navigation, the seven days in
 
 62 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 question rolled but heavily away. Neither 
 can it be said that a cruise in the jolly-boat, 
 after an enormous log of mahogany, which 
 with some labour we overtook, but were un- 
 able to turn to an account, gave much agree- 
 able variety to the scene. Let me then 
 carry my reader forward to the Tagus ; our 
 entrance into which struck me as it does 
 every stranger, with astonishment. I say 
 nothing of the prodigious width of the river 
 at its mouth ; nor of the myrtle-clothed hills 
 that greet your eye as you ascend : for it is 
 on Lisbon itself so soon as it rises, like a 
 queen, out of the water, that your gaze is 
 with irresistible interest turned. And never, 
 surely, has the young man's hopes more 
 cruelly differed from the realities of life, 
 than this fair city differs, as soon as 
 3^ou plant your foot upon its quays, from 
 what it appeared to be while yet looked at 
 from a distance. 
 
 As seen in the far-off horizon, Lisbon
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 63 
 
 looks like a city of palaces. The dazzling 
 wliiteness of the houses,wliich catcli and reflect 
 the sun's rays, — the series of terraces along 
 which they are built, rising, in the fashion of 
 an amphitheatre, from the river's brink, — 
 the many spires and towers which adorn its 
 churches, — all these give an air of magnifi- 
 cence to the place which prepares you to en- 
 counter, at every turn, marks, not of squalor? 
 but of wealth. How cruelly the result dis- 
 appoints you ! Walls stuccoed over, with 
 the stucco crumbling to pieces, — narrow 
 streets, choked up with filth of the most 
 horrid kind, — miserable wretches crowding 
 about, as if they lacked not only the incHna- 
 tion but the physical power to exert them- 
 selves, — all these, with a thousand symptoms 
 besides of indolence and squalor, and a na- 
 tional character utterly degraded, left us, on 
 landing, no room to inquire how far our ex- 
 pectations in reference to the Portuguese 
 capital had outrun the reahty. And yet
 
 64 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 Lisbon was in perpetual bustle during that 
 season. Day after day ships arrived, bring- 
 ing men, or stores, or munitions of war from 
 England. The quays were continually 
 crowded with soldiers, sailors, and camp-fol- 
 lowers , while the river itself seemed to sup- 
 port a very forest of masts. Indeed, I never 
 shall forget the splendour of the panorama 
 on that day when our little squadron 
 stemmed its strong current ; for we met full 
 in the teeth an enormous fleet, under convoy 
 of the Caledonia, 110, and did not make our 
 way through the throng without both giving 
 and receiving some serious damage. 
 
 Black Horse Square will doubtless be fa- 
 mihar to many who honour these reminiscences 
 with a perusal. It was there that, according to 
 custom, we brought up ; and there, after time 
 had been given to arrange our accoutre- 
 ments and get our harness in order, the re- 
 giment was formed. I was not so fortunate, 
 however, as to march with my corps ; for a
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 65 
 
 Serjeant's party having been directed to pro- 
 ceed on foot with the officers' baggage, it 
 became necessary to intrust their horses to 
 the care of some of their comrades, and my 
 old friend, Serjeant Waldron, doubtless to 
 show that I was not forgotten, committed to 
 me the care of his charger. Now Serjeant 
 Waldron was an extremely careless man. 
 He had tossed his saddle, bridle, &c., he did 
 not know where, on first embarking ; and it 
 took so much time to find them that long 
 before I was in a condition to move, the last 
 of the horse-party had departed. Moreover, 
 when I did find them, they, or rather the 
 saddle, was in a deplorable condition ; for it 
 had got into the horse's crib, and he, of 
 course, had not spared it in any way. With 
 some difficulty, however, I fastened it upon 
 his back ; and mounting my own, began, 
 with the Serjeant's charger in my hand, to 
 thread my way in the best manner I could 
 towards Belem. But such a journey ! The 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 ^6 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 horses being young and skittisli from long 
 confinement, pranced and kicked so that I 
 could scarcely command them ; and more 
 than once the saddle on which I sat turned, 
 through my inabihty to sit straight. I ques- 
 tion, indeed, whether I should have reached 
 my destination at all, but for the kindness of 
 an English soldier who happened to come up 
 just as, for the sixth time, my saddle had 
 gone round and compelled me to dismount ; 
 and he volunteering to hold the Serjeant's, 
 I was enabled so to adjust my own beast 
 that all his pranks proved insufiicient, 
 from that time, to incommode me in my 
 seat. Then, following the guidance of my 
 friendly comrade, I pushed on ; and, finally, 
 to my extreme delight, found myself de- 
 livered from a hateful office, and once more 
 in comparative comfort, because restored to 
 my regimental duty. 
 
 I am not going to swell these pages by 
 describing matters of which a thousand ac-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 67 
 
 counts, more or less accurate, have appeared 
 already. Lisbon was to me what it seems 
 to have been to my countrymen in general, — 
 a scene of very little enjoyment; for though 
 the climate is dehcious, and fruit and wine 
 are abundant, the manners of the inhabit- 
 ants were, and I doubt not still are, pre- 
 eminently disgusting. Of the lower classes 
 I am bound to state, that they are at once 
 the most indolent and filthy portion of the 
 human race with which I have ever formed 
 an acquaintance. With the exception of a 
 peculiar tribe, called Galegos, who are not, 
 by-the-by, Portuguese, but Spaniards, there 
 does not seem to be anywhere the smallest 
 disposition to industry among them. The 
 consequence is that these Galegos, though 
 despised and shunned by their townsmen in 
 general, are by far the best-dressed and 
 healthiest-looking people in the city; and, 
 as always occurs in such cases, they are like- 
 wise the most civil and the best informed. In 
 r2
 
 68 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 like manner, the women appear to entertain 
 very indefinite notions as to the duties which 
 devolve upon mothers and sisters in families. 
 They have no idea of keeping their habita- 
 tions tidy, but move about among the filth, 
 which both within doors and without sur- 
 rounds them, as if the atmosphere produced 
 by it were not only familiar but agreeable. 
 But woe to the individual, whether male or 
 female, who ventures to walk the streets by 
 night. Unless he be sheltered by an um- 
 brella, not even a progress along the crown 
 of the causeway will save him ; for the good 
 folks of Edinburgh are lame in the art, com- 
 pared with the Lisboners — who discharge 
 their vessels without even a " gardeloo,'^ 
 and seldom miss their mark, provided there 
 be a living thing beneath to aim at. 
 
 Nobody can have visited Lisbon without 
 being struck with the frequency and mag- 
 nitude of the religious processions which are 
 there conducted. Of these, therefore, I need
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 69 
 
 not take notice. But there was another 
 ceremony — in its purpose, without doubt, 
 humane and excellent, though in its results 
 of doubtful utility — of which I am bound to 
 make mention. I was struck one day with 
 the sight of a string of eight or ten cars, each 
 drawn by four fat oxen, before and after 
 which went a crowd of persons, some well- 
 dressed, others very much the reverse, 
 among whom went sundry monks, bearing 
 baskets in their hands, which they held up 
 to the doors and windows of the better sort 
 of houses as they passed. Into these the 
 charitable threw loaves of bread, and other 
 victuals, the whole of which being laid up 
 in the cars, are transported, by-and-by, to 
 one of the churches. There the monks mix 
 the whole into caldrons, and convert them, 
 with other ingredients, into soup ; for which 
 dense crowds of ragged and miserable look- 
 ing wretches wait eagerly at the doors. I 
 found, upon inquiry, that the process went
 
 70 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 on — I do not exactly remember how often 
 — but at stated intervals ; and tliat the mul- 
 titudes who looked to this precarious source 
 for a large share of their subsistence were 
 very great. 
 
 Of the dresses of the women, both high 
 and low, why should I make mention? 
 Wrapped up in their loose cloaks or man- 
 tillos, the former walk only to church, with 
 faces so covered that a pair of bright black 
 eyes are alone to be seen, and feet and ankles 
 of excellent symmetry. Each of these is fol- 
 lowed at a respectful distance by an aged 
 attendant, or duenna. Whereas the poorer 
 sort walk alone in a mantle, formed fre- 
 quently of scarlet cloth, with black velvet 
 trimmings, long sleeves, and white handker- 
 chiefs about their heads. Long black veils 
 are likewise much worn, chiefly by respect- 
 able tradesmen's wives and daughters — who, 
 not unattended by their duennas, pass to 
 and fro without scruple in the dirty streets —
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 71 
 
 and from the merry becks and nods which 
 these girls cast upon you as you pass, you 
 are apt, if a stranger, to form but an in- 
 different opinion of their virtue. But in 
 this you are quite mistaken. The Portu- 
 guese women are naturally frank and good- 
 natured; so that a bearing which among us 
 would tell against a young woman on the 
 score of immodesty, is among them the com- 
 mon method of marking their good will 
 towards the party saluted. 
 
 I have spoken of Lisbon as being, at that 
 time, a scene of perpetual bustle and great 
 confusion. The arrival of fresh troops, and 
 the departure of men unfit for service, were 
 matters of hourly occurrence ; while a sadder 
 spectacle by far met us day by day, when 
 on the beach we beheld multitudes of un- 
 happy women, who, not having been per- 
 mitted to follow their husbands to the front, 
 were waiting till their respective turns came, 
 that they might return home. Of these all
 
 72 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 interrogated eagerly each new-comer from 
 tlie seat of war, as lie arrived ; though tlieir in- 
 quiries seldom referred to others than the indi- 
 viduals on whom they respectively depended. 
 Poor creatures, it made my heart bleed to 
 listen to the shrieks of some, when told that 
 their husbands were killed; and to the sad 
 low moaning of others, to whom the vague 
 reply was given, that the party appealed to 
 was incapable of satisfying their wishes. 
 And then to hear them deplore their wretched 
 fate — that they had not been able to follow 
 the one human being to whom they were at- 
 tached — that they must go back to a coun- 
 try where nobody cared for or knew them. 
 I declare that, though little given to the melt- 
 ing mood, I have often been obliged to hurry 
 away, lest my feehngs should quite over- 
 power me in the very middle of the throng. 
 One anecdote more I crave permission to 
 transcribe, ere I pass on to other and more 
 stirring matters. It will not, I dare say, be
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 73 
 
 forgotten by any who visited Lisbon in 1810, 
 that tlie river was nigbt and day crowded 
 with country boats, the owners of which 
 made a harvest by landing passengers from 
 the ships as they came in, and would not 
 make way for the ships' boats ; which, on the 
 contrary, they obstructed. It chanced, on a 
 certain occasion, that an officer, charged 
 with important despatches, endeavoured in 
 a man-of-war's boat, to make good his land- 
 ing at Belem Shps. The Portuguese water- 
 men, as usual, blocked up the passage, and 
 neither his threats nor his entreaties, nor the 
 assurance that he was proceeding on urgent 
 duty, could prevail upon them to give way. 
 At last he stood up, and called upon one of 
 these people, who had placed himself di- 
 rectly between the boat and the shore, to 
 move aside. The man insolently refused, 
 and, grasping a boat-hook, made signs that 
 he would resist the further advance of the 
 Englishman by force. The officer lost all
 
 74 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 patience at this, and, drawing a pistol, shot 
 tlie man dead on the instant. There was 
 no delay after this in opening for him a pas- 
 sage. To the right and left the panic-struck 
 boatmen drew aside, and he landing, pro- 
 ceeded on foot, unmolested to the place 
 of his destination. But though the water- 
 men were too cowardly to resent the death 
 of their companion when it occurred, they 
 made a prodigious fuss about it immediately 
 afterwards. The corpse was carried in pro- 
 cession, unwashed, and in the dress in which 
 it fell, through all the streets of the city; and 
 mdney was collected from every passer by, 
 in order to defray the expenses of the fiineral. 
 I never heard that any consequences more 
 serious than this arose out of an affair which, 
 in almost any other town in Europe, must 
 have produced a bitter feud between the 
 strangers and the natives. At the same 
 time it is but fair to add, that there is no 
 reliance to be placed either on the forbear-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 75 
 
 ance or the generosity of a Portuguese. If 
 you happen to offend him, and a convenient 
 opportunity offer, he will thrust his knife 
 into your body without scruple ; and where 
 the odds in number are much against you, 
 the sooner you take to your heels the better. 
 After a sojourn of ten days in the capital 
 of Portugal, we received orders to march to 
 the front ; and went forward on our way in 
 the highest possible spirits, and full of an- 
 ticipations of glory and enjoyment. We 
 crossed the Tagus in open boats, to a place 
 called Aldea Golegas, and proceeded thence 
 to Estremadura. There a furious thunder- 
 storm overtook us, with rain so incessant 
 and heavy, that in an incredibly short space 
 of time the whole town became inundated; 
 the water running in the streets a depth of a 
 foot at the least, and sweeping into the cel- 
 lars, where most of the poorer people dwelt, 
 with the fury of a river. Our condition was 
 of course cheerless enough, yet we bore it
 
 76 
 
 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 without murmuring, and would have been 
 truly thankful, so early as the following 
 day, to take it back in exchange for 
 that which then befel us; for at the 
 village where we halted there arrived on 
 cars, about 700 Wounded men from Al- 
 buera, whose plight was as pitiable — I might 
 have used a stronger expression, and said 
 horrible — as it is easy for the human imagi- 
 nation to'conceive. No doubt they had re- 
 ceived, when first taken in hand by the sur- 
 geons, all the care which the nature of their 
 condition would allow. But they had per- 
 formed since that period a long journey, 
 through a barren country, and under a broil- 
 ing sun — and their wounds remaining un- 
 dressed all this while, were now in such a 
 state as to defy description. 
 
 There was no lack of willingness on our 
 parts to assist them. We soon cleared out 
 the best houses in the place; spread straw, 
 iand, where we could find it, linen, for them
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 77 
 
 on the floors, and gave ourselves up to tlie 
 business of cleansing ttieir hurts, the smell 
 proceeding from which was fearful. Over and 
 over again we were forced to quit the mise- 
 rable patients in a hurry, and run out into 
 the open air^ in order to save ourselves from 
 fainting; while they, poor fellows, reproached 
 us, with a degree of bitterness which none 
 of us cared, even in thought, to resent for a 
 moment. I need scarcely add that among 
 that mutilated crowd there were here and 
 there strange specimens of frail humanity. 
 One pair of wretches I particularly remember, 
 an Irishman and a Frenchman, who travelled 
 in the same car, both of whom had lost their 
 legs — not partially, but entirely — and who 
 yet ceased not to abuse and revile one another 
 from morning till night. It was melancholy 
 to hear them railing, in their respective 
 tongues, and threatening one another in a 
 manner strikingly characteristic of the two 
 nations. Paddy doubled his fist from time to
 
 78 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 
 
 time, and shook it at Jean Crapot, wMle Jean 
 would put his hand towards his left side, as 
 much as to say, " Would that there were a 
 sword in mine hand, for then would I slay 
 thee." 
 
 We did our duty faithfully by our mutilated 
 countrymen ; so faithfully, indeed, that weeks 
 passed away ere I was able entirely to over- 
 come the effect which the distressing occu- 
 pation had produced upon me. I could nei- 
 ther eat nor sleep, for every thing seemed to 
 be tainted with effluvia from those cankered 
 wounds, and my dreams were all such as to 
 make sleep a burden. Fortunately for us, 
 however, we were not long condemned to 
 the torture ; for war must be fed for ever 
 with new victims, and we turned our backs 
 upon those already smitten, on the morning 
 after we had met them. Our next stage 
 was Elvas, where, in a beautiful olive-plan- 
 tation, we formed our camp; and beyond 
 which we were not destined, at least for a
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 79 
 
 time, to proceed. Moreover, as if fate had 
 determined to console us in some sort for the 
 distressing rencounter of the preceding day, 
 we met this morning, while on the march, 
 about 500 French prisoners ; who, under an 
 escort of Portuguese, were proceeding to the 
 depot at Lisbon, and ultimately to the hulks. 
 Poor fellows, we pitied them too; for the 
 Portuguese ceased not to insult and abuse 
 them — flourishing their swords over the cap- 
 tives' heads, and heaping all manner of offen- 
 sive epithets upon them. Beyond this, how- 
 ever, they did not venture to go, because by 
 this time English discipline was in some mea- 
 sure established in the Portuguese army ; and 
 English discipline, as well as English feeling, 
 sanctions no act of cruelty towards a discom- 
 fited foeman.
 
 80 THE LIGHT DRAGOOIT. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Light Dragoon and his Horse — The Guerillas — A 
 Battle and its Results. 
 
 Of Elvas and its beauties, including the 
 fertile plain out of which it rises, the noble 
 aqueduct which brings its supplies of water 
 from the neighbouring mountains, and the 
 forts by which it is commanded, I have no- 
 thing to tell which has not been told at least 
 a hundred times already. Moreover, mere 
 description is, in my opinion, of very little 
 use in such cases; for things which appeal 
 to the outward senses, must by the senses 
 alone be examined — that is, if the party cu- 
 rious concerning them be indeed desirous of 
 having his curiosity gratified. Besides, were
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 81 
 
 it otherwise, I am no master of the art of 
 description. Mine was a hmnble, albeit a 
 somewhat varied career, to detail which alone 
 I have been induced to take up the pen ; and 
 so leaving the description of Elvas to those 
 more com^petent, in their own estimation, to 
 deal with it, I pass at once to the details of a 
 private dragoon's life, as that is spent in the 
 immediate presence of an enemy. 
 
 I am induced to think that the change 
 from home service to real campaigning is 
 much more striking, as well as far more dif- 
 ficult to realize, in the case of the light 
 horseman, than in that of the infantry soldier. 
 The infantry soldier finds himself, it is true, 
 deprived, when he takes the field, of his 
 comfortable barrack-room; while his pro- 
 visions, instead of being served out daily, 
 and by measure, may fall short from time to 
 time, or utterly disappear. Then, again, he 
 mounts guard — not over a stout brick 
 building, which nobody dreams of assaiUng 
 
 VOL. L G
 
 82 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 — but in tlie open fields, where all liis wits 
 must be about him, in order to prevent an 
 active enemy from passing his line, cutting 
 him and his picket off, and bringing ruin on 
 the army. In every other respect, however, 
 his life is pretty much what it ever was. 
 He must keep his arms and accoutrements 
 clean, himself tidy, attend parades, perform 
 marches, and fight battles as often as to his 
 own leader, or to the leader of the adverse 
 host, a battle may be desirable. But, except 
 in the matter of fighting, he must do all 
 this at home likewise ; and if his bed be often 
 the wet ground, and his canopy the lowering 
 sky, why there is no help for it; he must 
 make the most of them. The light horse- 
 man on the contrary, has not only his own 
 wants, but those of his charger, to attend 
 to ; and the difference to the horse in the sort 
 of life, which on service he is required to 
 lead, is infinitely greater than the difference 
 to his rider — supposing both to have been
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 83 
 
 reared in England. In Portugal, for ex- 
 ample, we had Indian corn served out as 
 forage, whicli our horses would not taste, 
 and which we could not get them to taste 
 till we tried the experiment of soaking: 
 moreover, we had to seek their litter where 
 we could find it, to cut for them green meat, 
 and train them to sleep picketed and in the 
 open air, under which not a few broke down ; 
 and to bestow upon them in general a much 
 larger portion of our care, than we had ever 
 been taught, in the process of home duty, to 
 consider requisite. In like manner, it was 
 new to us to go on picket, and to sit on 
 horses as videttes, for two hours on a stretch. 
 It was equally new to our horses to have 
 their saddles and housings fastened on for 
 twenty-four hours together, and to receive 
 their food with the bits hanging at their 
 chests, and every thing prepared for action at 
 a moment's notice. I do not mean to say, 
 that where men's feehngs or imaginations are 
 g2
 
 84 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 interested, all this is not very delightful; on 
 the contrary, there springs up between the 
 rider and his horse, a companionship, to 
 which there is no parallel in any one of the 
 many varied connexions which human hfe 
 in its progress enables us to form; and such 
 companionship is always pleasant, whether 
 the cord binds us to a brute, or to our fellow- 
 man. But some imagination is requisite in 
 order to carry us into this train of feeling; 
 and hence you invariably find, that in the 
 light cavalry at least, your imaginative 
 people make the best soldiers. Moreover, as 
 the light cavalry are always employed, 
 wherever the nature of the country will 
 allow, at outposts, both men and horses are 
 forced to acquire habits of vigilance, such as 
 to be rightly understood, must have been 
 both witnessed and experienced. The 
 cavalry soldier sleej)s, like his charger, with 
 one eye and one ear always open. Both 
 must be quick to perceive the first flash of
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 85 
 
 a carbine, or the first blast of the trumpet ; 
 and both must be in a condition to take their 
 places in the ranks, within a minute or two 
 after the alarm is given. 
 
 Then again, patrolling, which is an especial 
 duty, puts the metal both of men and horses 
 to the test. You must move forward as if 
 you had a hundred eyes: you must be 
 cool and collected, and prepared for every 
 conceivable adventure. Neither hedges nor 
 ditches must offer insuperable obstacles to 
 your progress, whether you be required to 
 take ground to the front or rear; and you 
 must be quite as ready and as willing to 
 gallop off when to convey intelligence is 
 your business, as to fight with carbine or 
 sword, where you are desired to delay an 
 enemy's progress. In a word, both the light 
 dragoon and his horse are called upon, as 
 soon as they take their station in the front 
 of an army, to acquire, as if by intuition, 
 new ideas on every subject; for, except in
 
 86 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 the formation of column or line, and the art 
 of breaking up into order of march, and 
 closing into squadrons again, the home drill 
 — at least in 1809 and 1810 — had not taught 
 us much of our real duty. 
 
 The light horseman who lays himself out 
 to become a useful member of his profession, 
 is sure to succeed. He will first of all de- 
 vote himself to his horse; and then his 
 horse as if grateful for the kindness shown, 
 will do for him in return innumerable 
 services. Thus, during a night march, when 
 the dragoon, overcome by fatigue, drops 
 asleep, the faithful animal will slacken his 
 pace, or sway from side to side, in order to 
 prevent his master from falling. In like 
 manner, if they be passing in the dark 
 through broken and dangerous ground, the 
 horse will often refuse to obey either spur or 
 rein : his superior instinct directing him to 
 avoid the perils, into which the ignorance or 
 over-anxiety of his master was about to
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 87 
 
 hurry them. Moreover, the horse knows 
 his master's voice : it eats out of his palm, 
 lowers its head for the wellknown caress, 
 and licks his hand like a dog in acknow- 
 ledgment. And when it comes to this, let 
 not the light dragoon be afraid to trust his 
 charger in every thing. If they be the at- 
 tacking party, his horse will carry him 
 bravely on : if it be necessary to fly, there is 
 no fence which he will refuse, or which, 
 unless it actually exceed his physical powers 
 to surmount, he will not by some means, 
 either overleap or scramble through. 
 
 I was always fond of a good horse ; and 
 no sooner became aware of the necessity for 
 exertion that was imposed upon me, than I 
 gave up my undivided care and attention to 
 the noble animal which I rode. He was 
 young, but full of spirit; and though like 
 the rest he soon fell away in flesh, I had the 
 happiness to see, from the condition of his 
 coat, and the spirit and alacrity which on
 
 88 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 all occasions characterized him, that his 
 health was excellent: there was plenty of 
 muscle and bone in him, with a fair portion 
 of blood; so that set us to what work they 
 would, I always got well through it. It was 
 not so with many of my comrades; not a 
 few of whom seemed to regard their horses 
 as incumbrances, always except at the mo- 
 ment when the value of the horse was most 
 felt, and when, of course, theirs, in nine 
 cases out of ten, failed them. Let me not, 
 however, be understood as applying this 
 reproof to a majority, nor indeed to any large 
 number of the men of the 11th; on the 
 contrary, it was only among the drunkards 
 and other bad characters that this indif- 
 ference to the animal, on whose efficiency 
 their own depended, displayed itself; and 
 such men, place them in what situation you 
 might, would have been sure to disgrace 
 themselves. Still, I think that there were 
 few who took so much pains with their
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 89 
 
 horses as I did; and that I lost nothing by 
 the superior knowledge in grooming, which 
 this fondness for my own beast gave me, will 
 be abundantly shown, as the reader goes on 
 with my narrative. 
 
 We had occupied our encampment some 
 time, taking our turns in outpost duty, and 
 occasionally skirmishing with the enemy, 
 when there arrived at our lines one day a 
 body of persons, whose uncouth appearance 
 and strangely anomalous equipment excited 
 in us to the full as much of wonder as admi- 
 ration. They were guerillas, or armed pea- 
 sants, whom the French not unaptly describe 
 as brigands ; of whom some had once been 
 regular soldiers belonging to the broken 
 armies of Spain, while others were petty 
 farmers, or the sons of farmers, chiefly from 
 the mountains of Estremadura. Of the com- 
 position of these corps, enough has been said 
 in other quarters to convey to the minds of 
 my countrymen in general a tolerably ac-
 
 90 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 curate acquaintance with the subject. Cre- 
 ated partly by the war, partly by the smug- 
 gling habits of the people, the guerillas did 
 here and there excellent service ; by attack- 
 ing convoys, harassing columns in their 
 march, and cutting off detachments which 
 were either numerically weak, or separated 
 themselves too much from the corps on 
 which they depended. As was to be ex- 
 pected, I found, on becoming more familiar 
 with the Spaniards, that there was no end 
 to the tales of daring and of cruelty, of 
 which one or two of the guerilla chiefs had 
 been the hero. Moreover, it must not be 
 supposed, that when I speak of the guerilla 
 chiefs, I allude only to such men as Mina, 
 Don Julian de Sanchez, or such like. Every 
 town and village in Spain had its regular 
 chieftain, whose exploits the youths and 
 maidens loved to recount ; and who, in the 
 eyes of his admiring neighbours, was of 
 infinitely more use in clearing the Peninsula
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 91 
 
 of its invaders, than Lord Wellington and 
 all his generals put together. Neither was 
 it an unusual thing to find a priest at the 
 head of his own band, of whom, by-the-by, 
 it is asserted, that if they were the most cou- 
 ra2:eous — of which there seems to be little 
 doubt — they were likewise the most mer- 
 ciless of all who waged war, not as soldiers 
 but as robbers. I heard it said, that about 
 Irun and other frontier towns, the inha- 
 bitants used to keep a regular account of the 
 strength of the different French corps as 
 they entered Spain, as well as of the con- 
 voys of sick and wounded, which were told 
 off to quit it ; and that on the information 
 derived from this source, the guerillas were 
 accustomed to act in almost all the most 
 successful of the enterprizes, which gave a 
 character of its own to the late Spanish 
 war. 
 
 Our friends the guerillas did not long 
 abide among us, whose method of waging
 
 92 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 
 
 war accorded very little either with their 
 habits or their wishes. They sought for 
 plunder, and liked it the better when they 
 won it at the cost of a great many lives to 
 the enemy. We faced the French squadrons 
 fairly in the field, and never dreamed of 
 molesting them, unless some important ope- 
 ration should be in progress. It came out, 
 however, in due course of time, that the 
 French were not yet disposed to act on so 
 lofty a principle ; and indeed, though we 
 were the sufferers, I cannot find in my heart 
 seriously to blame them. The circumstances 
 of the case were these : — 
 
 While we lay in the vicinity of Elvas, the 
 enemy began to show in and around Ba- 
 dajos a large force, of which a considerable 
 portion were horsemen. It was our business 
 to watch them; and as the 11th, with a de- 
 tachment from the 3rd German Hussars con- 
 stituted the entire amount of cavalry then 
 on the spot, our vigilance as well as har-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 93 
 
 dihood was more than once put sliarply to 
 the trial. For the most part we came pretty 
 well out of these affairs ; but in the end, the 
 troop of which I was a member suffered all 
 but annihilation. It happened that when we 
 were on picket, a trooper belonging to the 
 Germans deserted to the enemy ; and car- 
 rying with him accurate information relative 
 both to our position and our strength, ena- 
 bled them, without hazard, to arrange a 
 plan for cutting us off. They marched, after 
 nightfall, with the greater part of their ca- 
 valry, — threw a strong body into a wood on 
 our extreme right, — and, keeping it there 
 concealed, made their appearance at dawn 
 in our front, with a force greatly superior 
 indeed to ours in point of numbers, yet no- 
 wise so formidable as to justify us in our own 
 eyes were we to flee before them. Accord- 
 ingly a smart skirmish began ; which lasted 
 without intermission three hours, and the 
 excitement of which hindered us from pay-
 
 94 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ing any particular attention to what was 
 going on all the while in our rear. At last, 
 however, some of us chancing to look back, 
 beheld a formidable line drawn out, in such 
 order as to bar our way completely, were 
 we to think of retreating upon the regiment ; 
 for the left of the line rested upon a river, 
 and the right leaned upon the wood from 
 which the whole had, during the progress 
 of our affair, emerged. It is marvellous how 
 slow men generally are to perceive that they 
 have got into a scrape. We never for a 
 moment supposed that these were French- 
 men; we took it for granted that they were 
 Portuguese brought up, we did not care to 
 inquire from what quarter, but placed where 
 they were, manifestly for our support. On, 
 therefore, we went with our amusement, till 
 the enemy in our front suddenly called in 
 their skirmishers, and with four squadrons 
 advanced to charge. We were quite inca- 
 pable of making head against such disparity
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 95 
 
 of numbers ; so we gave ground section after 
 section, turning to check the advance, and 
 still keeping up a warm skirmishing fire as 
 opportunity offered. " Eetire upon the Por- 
 tuguese, men " exclaimed the captain ; " when 
 they perceive that we are overpowered they 
 will advance; and then, ho! for another push 
 at these rascals." 
 
 We did retire upon what we beheved to 
 be Portuguese; neither did we discover our 
 mistake till something less than a hundred 
 yards of ground divided us ; and then what 
 was to be done. The odds were out of all 
 calculation ; yet we were nowise disposed to 
 be taken; so at the captain's orders we 
 closed our files, and rode right at them. 
 Never were men so entirely confounded. It 
 was clear that they expected nothing of the 
 sort ; for they sat still, looking us in the face, 
 and never made a movement to meet us. 
 The consequence was, that coming upon 
 them at speed, with all the weight and acti-
 
 96 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 vity of our more powerful horses, we lite- 
 rally knocked them down like nine pins. 
 Over they went, the horse and rider rolUng 
 on the ground; while we, cutting and slash- 
 ing as we rode, broke through. But, alas ! 
 for us, there was a second line behind the 
 first, which behaved differently. We in our 
 turn were charged, and the battle became in 
 a few seconds a mere affair of swords, where 
 there was no room to move either to the 
 front or the rear. The result could not be 
 doubtful for five minutes. Outnumbered and 
 hemmed in, we were almost to a man cut 
 off. Eight were killed on the spot, twenty 
 were wounded, and sixty-three good soldiers 
 on the whole, lost to the service. The only 
 man, indeed, who escaped to tell the tale, 
 was one of our officers, who, being particu- 
 larly well mounted, made a dash at the ene- 
 my's line; and laying about him, opened a 
 way for himself, though not till he had re- 
 ceived a severe wound in the shoulder.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 97 
 
 In the course of that onelee, many feats of 
 gallantry were performed ; indeed, the enemy's 
 loss in killed and wounded was far greater 
 than ours, inasmuch as not fewer than fifty, 
 belonging to the latter class, were brought to 
 the hospital of which we became inmates. 
 But there was one man in particular, who died 
 so nobly, that I feel myself bound, as an act 
 of justice to his memory, to speak of him. 
 His name was Wilson. In temper and dis- 
 position, he was the quietest and most inof- 
 fensive creature in the troop ; who never had 
 a cross word with any one, nor ever, as far as 
 I could perceive, was put even slightly out of 
 his way. Nothing could induce Wilson to 
 lose his temper — nothing put him into a 
 hurry; whatever he did was done as if the 
 doer were a piece of clock-work, and the 
 matter to be arranged something which could 
 not possibly miscarry. Wilson was, besides, 
 remarkably sober : he never drank even his 
 allowance to an end. But if he did not drink 
 
 VOL. L H
 
 98 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 he ate with a voracity which I have seldom 
 seen equalled. Bread was his favourite food ; 
 and before his single pair of jaws whole loaves 
 would disappear, as often as he succeeded in 
 laying hand upon them. But Wilson's ca- 
 reer, both of fighting and eating, was destined 
 this day to end; and he fell thus: 
 
 I saw him engaged hand to hand with a 
 Trench dragoon: I saw him — for I was by 
 this time disabled by a severe wound, and 
 stretched at length beside others of my suf- 
 fering comrades — give and receive more than 
 one pass, with equal skill and courage. Just 
 then, a French officer stooping over the body 
 of one of his wounded countrymen, who 
 dropped at the instant on his horse's neck^ 
 delivered a thrust at poor Harry Wilson's 
 body, and delivered it effectually. I firmly 
 believe that Wilson died on the instant : yet, 
 though he felt the sword in its progress, he, 
 with characteristic self-command, kept his eye 
 still on the enemy in his front ; and, raising
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 99 
 
 himself in liis stirrups, let fall upon the 
 Frenchman's helmet such a blow, that brass 
 and skull parted before it, and the man's 
 head was cloven asunder to the chin. It was 
 the most tremendous blow I ever saw struck ; 
 and both he who gave, and his opponent who 
 received it, dropped dead together. The brass 
 helmet was afterwards examined by order of 
 the French officer, who, as w^ell as myself, 
 was astonished at the exploit; and the cut 
 was found to be as clean as if the sword had 
 gone through a turnip, not so much as a dent 
 being left on either side of it. 
 
 The fighting was now over, and there be- 
 gan a scene, of which I cannot think without 
 blushing for the chivalry of our adversaries. 
 Not content with taking our horses and arms, 
 or even the purses and watches of such as 
 possessed them, they proceeded to strip us of 
 our jackets, boots^ and even of our overalls ; 
 apparently bent, as it seemed to me, on leav- 
 ing us nothing whereby we might be distin- 
 h2
 
 100 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 guislied as British soldiers. I do not know 
 how far the system might have been carried, 
 had not our captain, who spoke French flu- 
 ently, remonstrated with the ofiicer in com- 
 mand ; upon which an order was given to put 
 a stop to the plunder j and to most of us our 
 jackets, at least, were restored. But of watches, 
 money, and boots, no account was taken ; and 
 we were marched off, some of us in a very 
 sorry plight, to the rear. 
 
 The wounds inflicted in this trifling af- 
 fair, were all very ghastly. Being inflicted 
 entirely with the sword, and falling, at least 
 among the French, chiefly upon the head and 
 face, the appearance presented by these man- 
 gled wretches was hideous ; neither were we, 
 though in almost every instance pierced 
 through, one whit more presentable. It is 
 worthy of remark, that the French cavalry, 
 in nine cases out often, make use of the point, 
 whereas we strike with the edge, which is, in 
 my humble opinion, far more effective. But,
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOOlSr. 101 
 
 however this may be, of one fact I am quite 
 sm^e, that as far as appearances can be said 
 to operate in rendering men timid, or the re- 
 verse, the womided among the French were 
 much more revohing than the wounded 
 among ourselves. It is but candid to add, 
 that the proportion of severely wounded was 
 pretty equal on both sides ; indeed, I suspect 
 that there was a greater number of our people 
 than of the enemy, whom it was found ne- 
 cessary to transport to the hospital, by sling- 
 ing them over the backs of horses. 
 
 I was somewhat surprised at the moment, 
 and I confess that the feeling has scarce left 
 me yet, that the French should have been 
 permitted to carry off a whole troop of dra- 
 goons, in the face of a corps, with infantry 
 and cavalry at least strong enough to inter- 
 rupt them in the operation. I dare say, how- 
 ever, that the reasons which dictated so much 
 supineness to the lookers-on were adequate, — 
 at least, I am bound to suppose so ; but, be
 
 102 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 this as it may, we were, after the fashion 
 which I have just described, carried off under 
 the noses of our reserves ; the whole of which 
 had turned out, and now stood quietly to 
 observe the issue. We did not go, however, 
 without misfortune having wrought its ac- 
 customed changes in the moral positions of 
 those who partook in it. When I was lying 
 wounded, for example, near the spot where 
 the captain stood, (a lucky accident for me, 
 by the way, inasmuch as it saved me from 
 undergoing the same process of plunder with 
 the rest,) I saw not far from me, my old 
 enemy, Serjeant Waldron, covered with his 
 own blood, and so disfigured that, till he 
 spoke, I could not recognise him. He knew 
 me, however, and calling me by name, be- 
 sought me to lift him up. I plead guilty to 
 the crime of having allowed the remembrance 
 of ancient wrongs to come across me even 
 then ; and, in the height of my indignation, I 
 answered him with an oath, and told him
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 103 
 
 that I would have nothing to say to him. 
 But my better feehng gained the mastery im- 
 mediately afterwards ; and I was in the act of 
 moving towards him, when a number of the 
 enemy pushed in between us, and I was hin- 
 dered from fulfilling my intention. He re- 
 covered from his wounds, and died the fol- 
 lowing year at Briangon in France. My 
 friend the corporal, too, who reported me on 
 the march, fell in this skirmish. He was en- 
 deavouring to force his way through the in- 
 terval between two French squadrons, when , 
 one of the enemy's officers, perceiving his in- 
 tention, thrust at him with his sword, which 
 entering under one ear, and coming out at 
 the other, killed him on the spot. 
 
 Finally, it may not be out of place to re- 
 cord, that the lieutenant, who, to say the least 
 of it, showed me no great kindness, lost his 
 arm. Thus, the only three men in the corps 
 whom I found austere, suffered in this affair, 
 from which, with the exception of a severe 
 wound in my sword-arm, I escaped unhurt.
 
 104 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 A March, long but not agreeable. 
 
 Our destination was Badajos, into wliich 
 we had so sooner entered than we were all 
 interrogated respecting our names, ages, and 
 length of service; and the answers which 
 we gave being entered in a sort of register- 
 book, we were forthwith dismissed to our 
 respective destinations. The wounded had 
 an option between the hospital and the pri- 
 son ; and, strange to sa j, many preferred the 
 latter, partly, I suspect, because they had no 
 great faith in either the skill or the tender- 
 ness of French attendants, partly because 
 they preferred the society and companionship 
 pf their countrymen to that of foreigners, I
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 105 
 
 was among the number of those who foolishly 
 preferred the prison;— and great and lasting 
 reasons I had to repent of it; for in the 
 hospital we should have had at least re- 
 gular dressing for our hurts ; whereas in pri- 
 son we could only apply to each other's 
 wounds portions of chewed tobacco. To 
 me the consequence was, that my wound 
 healed too fast upon the surface, and skinn- 
 ing over ere a cure had been effected at the 
 bottom, it soon suppurated, and broke out 
 again. I need not assure those to whom' 
 such subjects are familiar, that a wound 
 which breaks out after having been once 
 ostensibly cured, is always a thousand times 
 more troublesome than at the beginning. 
 For a full month after mine took this turn, 
 I despaired of saving the arm ; and I am in- 
 debted for it at this moment chiefly^ I be- 
 lieve to a good constitution, into the vigour 
 of which no excesses of any kind had made 
 an inroad.
 
 106 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 
 
 During our stay at Badajos, we suffered a 
 good deal by reason, not only of the indif- 
 ferent nature, but of the scanty allowance, 
 of the provisions issued out to us. Each 
 man received, per diem, four ounces of bad 
 goat's flesh, with six ounces of black bread; 
 but neither wine nor vegetables were served 
 out ; and as to salt, we never knew that such 
 an article had existence. I believe, how- 
 ever, that in point of feeding we were not 
 by many degrees worse treated than the 
 French themselves, who could derive no 
 supplies at all from the surrounding country, 
 and into whose magazines time had already 
 made grievous inroads. Indeed, it was me- 
 lancholy to see the whole face of the sur- 
 rounding country in flames; for the Span- 
 iards, aware that they would not be able 
 to reap the corn for themselves, set it on fire 
 as soon as it approached to ripeness, in order 
 that the enemy might not be benefited by it. 
 
 Our sojourn in Badajos was brief — only
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 107 
 
 four days ; at the termination of whicli we 
 set out, on foot, for Merida. We suffered 
 as may be imagined, terribly during that 
 marcli ; for, besides that several of us were 
 wounded, cavalry soldiers are but little ac- 
 customed to pedestrian excursions, and the 
 heat was quite overwhelming. Our lieute- 
 nant, indeed, (for there was no distinction 
 ' made in the treatment of officers, from that 
 awarded to privates,) became at last so weak 
 that he fainted. Still, there was neither 
 time given to rest, nor horse, nor mule, nor 
 vehicle of any kind furnished for his con- 
 veyance. The French guard brought him 
 to by shaking; and he was forced at the 
 bayonet's point to struggle on — the captain 
 supporting him as well as he could, till we 
 reached a halting-place. 
 
 It was a miserable, ruined village, without 
 inhabitants, or provisions, or accommodation 
 of any kind; and into one of the dilapidated 
 huts we were unceremoniously thrust. "We
 
 108 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 were all famishing; for no food had been 
 issued ere we quitted Badajos, and nothing 
 of the sort was to be had here ; yet we had 
 endeavoured to provide against the ex- 
 tremity, too, by gathering vetches on the 
 road-side as we passed along. Neither were 
 the means of dressing them wanting, inas- 
 much as I had exchanged my boots with a 
 French soldier for a cooking-kettle and a 
 pair of shoes; and the vetches being duly 
 boiled, we endeavoured to make a meal upon 
 them, but none of us could eat them : they 
 were so bitter, that our gorges rose, and we 
 threw them away in despair. 
 
 The next morning by break of day, the 
 drum called us from our lairs ; and a morsel 
 of black bread having been handed to each, 
 we fell in, and the march began. It was 
 neither so long nor so fatiguing as that of 
 yesterday; and it ended at a solitary shed 
 — a sort of long room, in which the farmer, 
 whose house stood a little way off, seemed 
 to have been accustomed to store his oil,
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 109 
 
 for there were a good many large jars in 
 one comer, all of tliem empty. Into two of 
 these a couple of our men crept during the 
 night — so cleverly, that the fact of their 
 having done so was unknown even between 
 themselves ; and as we did not discover their 
 absence till we had performed a good por- 
 tion of a day's journey, they were fortunate 
 enough to make good their escape. 
 
 The third day brought us to Merida, 
 which we entered by crossing a long bridge, 
 built, I believe, by the Romans, and still 
 used in the common traffic of the town. We 
 were halted in the market-place, where 
 crowds, both of the inhabitants and of French 
 soldiers immediately surrounded us. The 
 former expressed great commiseration for 
 our fate — the latter gloried in our capture 
 and were not backward in saluting us with 
 such epithets as marked a feehng for us 
 both of hatred and contempt. But they did 
 us no serious injury : and as we were per-
 
 110 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 mitted to halt here a day, our jaded Hmbs 
 gathered a good deal of refreshment from 
 the indulgence. On, however, we went at 
 last, towards Madrid, changing our escort 
 every third or fourth day, and leaving be- 
 hind us one or more of our comrades at 
 almost every hospital which we reached. 
 Among others, a Portuguese major had on 
 one occasion the charge of us — a deserter, as 
 I need scarcely add, from the ranks of his 
 own army ; and if, in some respects, he ap- 
 peared inclined to show us kindness, in 
 others he cost us a prodigious deal of unne- 
 cessary trouble. Moreover, his was the 
 only command which gave birth to any thing 
 like an adventure. It was this : 
 
 We were not far from Truxillo, when 
 groups of strange-looking men, that kept 
 hovering about our flanks and in our front, 
 caused an alarm. They were all mounted ; 
 but either because they considered our con- 
 voy too strong to be attacked, or that they
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. Ill 
 
 wishe(J to draw us deeper into a wild and 
 uninhabited country, they held, for a time, 
 so far aloof, that none of us could quite de- 
 termine what their occupation might be. 
 We, that is^ we English prisoners, believed, 
 because we hoped that they were guerillas ; 
 whereas the major, though manifestly ill at 
 ease, scouted the idea. But he was not 
 destined to remain very long under a mis- 
 taken impression. The numbers of the 
 stragglers increased : they halted on the 
 road before us, and, spreading off to the 
 right and left, bore down in a sort of irre- 
 gular line. 
 
 The major no sooner saw this, than he 
 detached a portion of his mounted force to 
 oppose them. The cavaliers soon met, and 
 forthwith a fire of carbines and pistols left 
 us no room to doubt that a body of ma- 
 rauders were around us, and that our fate 
 depended entirely on the courage with which 
 they might push the enterprise. A council
 
 112 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 of war was promptly held among tlie Eng- 
 lish ; and we agreed that, as soon as the 
 affair should grow warm and close, we 
 would rush upon the dismounted guard, 
 which observed us, seize their arms, and 
 give assistance to the guerillas. I do not 
 know how far our intentions might have 
 been divined by the major, for he appeared 
 all this time in a state of the most pitiable 
 alarm ; yet he gave his orders with perfect 
 propriety ; and when in our rear a fire was 
 likewise opened, he detached people in that di- 
 rection also to sustain the guard. Then began 
 a scene of awful confusion. We were a large 
 convoy : there might be perhaps sixty laden 
 mules, besides cars of various descriptions 
 filled with goods ; while our escort consisted 
 of at least three hundred men, of whom up- 
 wards of one hundred were cavalry. But 
 corps of even three hundred Frenchmen en- 
 tertained the greatest dread of the guerillas, 
 and the muleteers and attendants went very
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 113 
 
 far beyond tliem in the exhibition of their 
 terror. In a moment, the latter began to 
 cut away the baggage, and to prepare for a 
 more rapid flight on the backs of the mules. 
 The cars, too, were in various instances 
 emptied, and the bullocks goaded into a trot ; 
 while the parties both in front and rear ga- 
 thered strength every minute, and the noise 
 of the strife waxed vehement. It was then 
 that the major halted ; and seeing us collect 
 into groups, advanced towards us. He used 
 no threats ; probably he guessed that we • 
 Englishmen were not likely to be swayed by 
 them ; but he implored us for our own 
 sakes, and for his, to lie down upon the 
 ground and keep quiet. We did as he de- 
 sired, by no means relinquishing our own 
 purpose; — of which the execution, by the 
 way, seemed every moment to become more * 
 easy ; for the guards, like their commander, 
 took fright, and crept in among us as it 
 seemed for protection. But, alas ! for the 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 realization of our hopes, the guerillas, as 
 usual, fought for booty, not for honour. 
 They appeared, also, to be perfectly well ac- 
 quainted with the nature of the convoy — 
 even to the particular waggons which con- 
 tained the treasure ; and these having been 
 abandoned, whether purposely or not, I can- 
 not say, they gathered round them in a 
 crowd, and advanced no further. 
 
 I have no language in which to describe 
 our mortification, when we saw the Spa- 
 niards turn the waggons on the road, and 
 drive them to the rear. The French, on the 
 contrary, seemed beside themselves with joy ; 
 while our commandant did not fail to praise 
 us for our good behaviour, and to assure us 
 that we should by no means be the losers by 
 it. This was a poor compensation to us for 
 the loss of our liberty. Yet we had not ad- 
 vanced half a league, ere we had reason to 
 congratulate ourselves on our prudence, in- 
 asmuch as there met us there a battaUon,
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 115 
 
 which the officer commanding in the next 
 town had sent out to meet us. Thus escort- 
 ed we entered Truxillo, every window being 
 crowded with heads as we passed beneath ; 
 and, being marched to the prison, we were 
 there left for a brief space, to speculate on 
 the sort of treatment that might be afforded 
 us. 
 
 We had not indulged these anticipations 
 many minutes, when the Portuguese major 
 paid us a visit, to renew his expressions of 
 satisfaction at our behaviour during the at- 
 tack of the guerillas, and to promise us the 
 indulgence of a day's rest as our reward. 
 He assured us, likewise, that care would be 
 taken to supply us with an abundance of 
 provisions : and he was as good as his word ; 
 for, in as short a space of time as was neces- 
 sary to bake the bread, a store of new loaves 
 was handed in, with an allowance of fresh 
 meat. But the Portuguese major was not 
 the only person who seemed to feel for our 
 i2
 
 116 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 wants, and to be desirous of relieving them. 
 As evening closed, a quantity of loaves were 
 thrown in at our window by the inhabitants, 
 till we soon had enough to last us, not for 
 the day alone, but for a whole week, sup- 
 posing the means of transport to have been 
 accessible. In like manner two live sheep 
 were given to us early on the following 
 morning, which we lost no time in slaugh- 
 tering, with bread more and more abundant, 
 all the gift of the inhabitants; and a fire 
 being lighted, and the carcases duly cut up, 
 we counted on a day of, to us, extreme en- 
 joyment ; but in this we were disappointed. 
 The major, either jealous of the good will 
 shown to us by the Spaniards; or, which is 
 not improbable, fearing that an attempt 
 might be made to rescue us, suddenly re- 
 voked his promise of a day's halt, and or- 
 dered the prisoners to be paraded. It was 
 to no purpose that we protested against such 
 a palpable breach of an engagement. The
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 117 
 
 major had the power, and he chose to exer- 
 cise it; so there remained for us only to 
 pack up as much of our meat as we could 
 carry, and to take our accustomed places in 
 the convoy. 
 
 Seven long leagues under a burning sun 
 we accomplished that day ; of which the 
 effects were made apparent in the utter de- 
 composition of our meat. Not having any 
 other means of conveying it except suspend- 
 ed in lumps from sticks, it soon began to 
 spoil ; and had become, when we halted, so 
 offensive, that we were forced to cast it 
 away. Our evening's meal was therefore 
 made, as usual, upon bread and water. 
 Neither was there anybody in the miserable 
 hamlet where we slept who possessed the 
 power, whatever his inclination might be, to 
 render our fare more nutritious. On the mor- 
 row, however, after traversing the field on 
 which the battle of Talavera had been fousjht, 
 we entered Talavera itself; and again expe-
 
 118 THE LIGHT DBAGOON. 
 
 rienced, in a degree more gratifying than 
 ever, tlie liberality and kindness of the Spa- 
 niards. Tar be it from me to detract from 
 the excellency of the motives which swayed 
 these generous creatures. I do not for a 
 moment doubt, that we English, had we come 
 alone, would have been dealt by exactly as 
 befel, yet it is proper to observe that we did 
 not come alone. From the different towns 
 through which we passed, our commandant 
 gathered together all the Spanish prisoners 
 that were in confinement, of which the num- 
 ber, when we reached Salamanca that day, 
 had swelled to 300 at the least. It is quite 
 possible, therefore, that the inhabitants, com- 
 miserating their countrymen, extended to us, 
 in like manner, a share of the feeling, — in 
 which case we were much the gainers by the 
 misfortune of our fellow-captives. But, how- 
 ever this may be, soup, bread, wine, and 
 fresh hay to lie down upon, were all brought 
 in ample quantities to the prison; and of the
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 119 
 
 three former luxuries we partook abundantly, 
 and with extreme gratefulness. The latter, 
 however, we were not permitted to enjoy; 
 for again the jealousy of our commandant 
 stood in the way ; and, just as we had stripped 
 and laid ourselves out for a night of sound 
 sleep, the horrid drum called us to the muster. 
 It was a cruel outrage this upon our ex- 
 hausted strength. We had performed a fair 
 day's journey since morning, and were ill 
 able to endure the fatigue of a night march ; 
 nevertheless, endure it we did, over six- 
 leagues of deep sand ; and then, just as the 
 dawn was beginning to break, we halted. 
 Not yet, however, was any permanent rest 
 afforded to us. The last stages between 
 Talavera and the capital were, it appeared, 
 peculiarly dangerous to convoys like ours; 
 and our commandant was directed, in conse- 
 quence, to steal a march upon the Spaniards, 
 of whose intention to deliver us some rumour 
 had got abroad. Accordingly, at the expi-
 
 120 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ration of two hours we were roused from our 
 beds on tlie sand, and commanded to push 
 on ; nor did we stop, even for a moment, till 
 the suburbs of Madrid were gained. 
 
 It was the common practice of the French 
 to show off their prisoners to the Spaniards, 
 with the greatest possible ostentation. For 
 this purpose they used to march us by cir- 
 cuitous routes, in order to carry us through 
 the larger towns, and always took care to 
 enter these at an hour when the mass of the 
 inhabitants should be abroad. This good 
 custom, it was not to be supposed that they 
 would omit in the capital ; and hence, though 
 we arrived within half a mile of it so early 
 as three o'clock, we were kept lying by the 
 wayside till six, the season — especially on a 
 Sunday — when high and low, rich and 
 poor, are to be found in the public pro- 
 menades, or seated at the balconies. Mean- 
 while, our guards set to work, furbish- 
 ing up their arms, washing their faces and
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 121 
 
 hands, and otherwise getting rid, as far as 
 circumstances would allow, of the stains and 
 soils of travel ; and, finally, when the proper 
 moment came, we were ordered to take our 
 places. 
 
 I never shall forget, as long as I live, the 
 circumstances which attended our entry into 
 Madrid. We — that is, the English — were in 
 a truly pitiable state. Covered with dust 
 and sweat, ragged, unshaven, and foot-sore, 
 we made but a sorry appearance, even beside 
 the escort ; and they, be it observed, were not 
 over-nice in their persons. Yet we were sur- 
 rounded, so soon as we passed the gate, by 
 crowds of well-dressed people, whose very 
 commiseration — and I believe that most of 
 them pitied us sincerely — became, by reason 
 of the earnestness with which they pressed 
 forward to give vent to it^ an intolerable bur- 
 den. For myself, I was certainly not in a 
 condition to receive gracefully the salutations
 
 122 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 of the fair. I had taken off my overalls on 
 the march, and now stood in a pair of flannel 
 drawers, — very black, be it observed, and 
 somewhat scanty, — without shoes or stock- 
 ings on my lower limbs, and having the upper 
 part of my person covered by a helmet and a 
 military jacket. As to my face and beard, 
 these were what weeks of toil had rendered 
 them. And yet I was quite unconscious of 
 the ridiculous figure which I must have pre- 
 sented, till an old woman, forcing her way 
 through the throng, suddenly caught me in 
 her arms, and, weeping aloud, covered me, to 
 my extreme horror, with kisses- It was in 
 vain that I struggled to shake her off. She 
 held me with so tight a grasp, that I began to 
 dream of dying by suffocation: nor could all 
 my efforts succeed in forcing the hands asun- 
 der which she had twined round my neck. 
 Poor creature! I never could make out why 
 these marks of affection were shown to me.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 123 
 
 — whether I resembled her son, or was to her 
 nothing more than a stranger in distress, — 
 but that she meant well, the termination of 
 the adventure sufficiently indicated. Having 
 indulged her feelings as long as was agreeable 
 to herself, she suffered me to go, and, slipping 
 a pisetta into my hand, disappeared amid the 
 crowd. 
 
 The proceedings of this old woman caused 
 me naturally to turn an eye upon my own 
 person, and I confess that I never felt so 
 ashamed in all my life ; for, of the multitudes 
 who flocked round to gaze, a large propor- 
 tion were young women, before whom I had 
 little ambition to appear in the character of 
 Don Quixote. Well pleased, therefore, was 
 I, when the officer, after a quarter of an hour's 
 halt, gave the word to move on — and more 
 satisfied still, when the building which had 
 been set apart as our place of confinement 
 appeared in view. It was not very inviting,
 
 124 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 
 
 to be sure, in its exterior, yet it promised at 
 least to liide us from an inquisitive crowd; 
 and I therefore entered beneath its portal 
 with a lighter step than I had as yet planted 
 since I first turned my back on the position 
 of the British army.
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOOM. 125 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Prisoners' Fare, and Spanish Flirtation. 
 
 Of all the places of confinement into which 
 I ever was thrust, this at Madrid was the 
 most horrible. It had been originally a barn 
 or storehouse; it measured about twenty 
 feet by ten; and there was no other opening 
 in it except the folding-doors by which we 
 were admitted, and which at night were se- 
 cured upon us. We found in it several in- 
 fantry soldiers, belonging chiefly to the 3d 
 Buffs ; and the state in which they were may 
 be guessed at when I describe the sort of 
 furniture with which the prison-house was 
 garnished. Some trusses of hay there were
 
 126 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 to lie down upon, not only worn, from long 
 usage, into powder, but literally alive with 
 vermin. Then, again, as the upper part of 
 the cell was used for purposes which I need 
 not particularize, the stench was horrible, 
 while the squalid appearance of our country- 
 men told a tale of very hard fare, and the 
 general absence of soap and water. With 
 respect, again, to our diet, it consisted of the 
 prison allowance, namely a pound and half 
 of bread per day, — not made from wheat, 
 but almost entirely from beans, and soaked, 
 if we chose it, in cold water. 
 
 I have heard a good deal of the harsh 
 treatment which French prisoners were ac- 
 customed to receive in the hulks at Ports- 
 mouth, and in other depots through Great 
 Britain; but I defy any set of men to suffer 
 greater hardships than those which were in- 
 flicted upon us during the whole period of 
 our sojourn in this prison of the Spanish 
 capital.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 127 
 
 Our comrades of tlie Buffs seemed to have 
 been long enough in confinement to tame 
 down, in some degree, their spirits to their 
 fate. They lay down, night after night, on 
 the living straw, and showed no disposition 
 to refuse us a share of it ; but we could not 
 bring ourselves to follow their example. On 
 the contrary, we swept a portion of the floor, 
 next to the entrance, as clean as we could 
 make it ; and there, on the hard stones, found 
 such rest as they were calculated to afford. 
 At the same time let me do justice to our 
 captors. They did not prevent us from 
 walking backwards and forwards, during the 
 day, on the space in front of our prison, round 
 which sentries were planted; and, shght as 
 the indulgence may appear to persons more 
 happily circumstanced, by us it was very 
 highly esteemed. I verily believe, indeed, 
 that but for these promenades, not one-half 
 of us would have lived to tell how the enemy 
 used to treat us.
 
 128 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 We had occupied our quarters but a few 
 days, when an officer, evidently of high 
 rank, — for his dress was richly embroidered, 
 and a numerous staff attended him, — paid us 
 a visit. I am inclined to suspect that he was 
 a person more elevated than he wished us to 
 believe : indeed, I mistake the matter much 
 if I did not see him, on a future occasion, 
 enact the part of Majesty itself But, how- 
 ever this may be, he read — whether Joseph, 
 or not — a sort of proclamation from a paper, 
 with the purport of which an interpreter 
 who accompanied him made us acquainted. 
 It was an invitation from the intrusive king 
 to join his service. It set forth that he was 
 in want of volunteers, and especially of men 
 accustomed to the duties of the cavalry; 
 and it gave assurance of liberal treatment, 
 and promotion, so soon as they should earn 
 it, to such as might close with the offer. 
 There was but one feeling excited amongst 
 us by this precious document, and we did
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 129 
 
 not scruple to make it known. The reader 
 was greeted with murmurs and groans of 
 disapprobation. Indeed, I went so far as to 
 hiss, a salutation in which I was immediately 
 joined by my comrades. One would have 
 thought that an officer, even if he felt dis- 
 appointed by the result, would at least have 
 had respect for the sentiment of honour 
 which dictated ever so unmannerly a refusal : 
 but it was not so with the personage before 
 us. He flew into a violent passion; in- 
 sisted on being told by whom the hissing 
 was begun ; and threatened in case we sought 
 to screen the culprit, that he would inflict 
 a severe punishment upon the whole. I 
 confess that I was not without apprehension, 
 lest some of my fellow-prisoners would be- 
 tray me ; and I own that I expected such an 
 issue from the infantry, — but I did them injus- 
 tice, — to a man they refused to speak. Yet 
 I am sorry to say that, in another respect, 
 they were not all so true to their own ho- 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 
 
 nour. Two men — one belonging to the buffs, 
 the other wearini]^ the uniform of the 49 th 
 regiment — stepped out as volunteers for King 
 Joseph's service; and, being carried away 
 by the still angry officer, visited us no 
 more. 
 
 King Joseph, if indeed it were he, kept his 
 promise to our hurt. We were shut up in 
 the prison for three whole days — a terrible 
 punishment, it must be confessed, even if our 
 offence had deserved it. But at the expira- 
 tion of that period his wrath appeared to 
 subside, and we found the barn-door thrown 
 open, as it used to be. We did not, of course, 
 fail to take advantage of the privilege ; yet, 
 except to myself, this little promenade was 
 not the source of any adventure : and mine 
 seems, at this distance of time, so ridiculous 
 that I scarcely know in what terms to de- 
 scribe it. But describe it I will. 
 
 To the right of the prison-door was a 
 street, w4iich communicated with one of the
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 131 
 
 great squares of the city, though by what 
 name called, or by what class of persons in- 
 habited, I never had an opportunity to ascer- 
 tain. The street in question was entered 
 through an archway, over which was a suite 
 of apartments, and close beside it a flight of 
 stone steps, where, during the three weeks 
 that I remained in Madrid, I was accustomed 
 to spend no inconsiderable portion of my 
 time. A corporal of the 13th Light Dra- 
 goons, being, like myself, a prisoner, con- 
 tracted for me a great liking, and lent 
 me a book, which I read with avidity^ be- 
 lieving all the while that its details were 
 authentic. The book was neither more nor 
 less than Gil Bias ; and it took the faster hold 
 of my imagination, because I made acquaint- 
 ance with it, for the first time, on the spot 
 where many of the hero's adventures are laid. 
 With Gil Bias in my hand, then, I was in the 
 daily practice of repairing to the flight of stone 
 steps, where I used to sit down, and in fol- 
 k2
 
 132 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 lowing the fortunes of an imaginary person, 
 cease for some hours to speculate on what 
 might be my own. My perseverance in this 
 custom at length attracted the notice of the 
 people who dwelt in the apartments above 
 the archway, and more than once I could 
 distinguish- the drapery of a female, who 
 seemed to watch me from the casement 
 above. Gentle reader, have some mercy 
 upon a youth, whose head was so full of the 
 stories of Spanish devotion and Spanish in- 
 trigue, that he quite forgot to take into ac- 
 count the absolute unfitness of his own bearing 
 to enact, at that moment, the part of a cava- 
 lier. I confess then, that rags, and filth, and 
 squalor notwithstanding, I took it into my 
 wise head that some fair creature, dwelling 
 in that elevated chamber, had fallen despe- 
 rately in love with me. How I hugged the 
 blessed vision to my soul! How brilliant 
 were the pictures which I drew of her youth, 
 her beauty, her extreme gentleness, her lofty
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOOK 133 
 
 spirit, and, dearest and sweetest of all, her 
 absolute devotion to me! Gil Bias! Gil 
 Bias was a commonplace character com- 
 pared with me. I was on the brink of ad- 
 ventures which would throw all his into the 
 shade. Accordingly, day after day I re- 
 paired to my wonted station, with a heart so 
 full of its own musinQ;s that if ever I was 
 myself in love at all, which is very doubtful, 
 I was in love then with a being which my 
 own imagjination had created. 
 
 Not a syllable did I breathe of my happy 
 state to any of my comrades. Even the corpo- 
 ral of the 13th remained in ignorance of the 
 results to which his book had largely contri- 
 buted ; indeed, my plan was to become master 
 of my fair prize in the first instance, and then 
 to establish a claim on the gratitude of my 
 countrymen, by making them all in some 
 sort, partakers in my good fortune. For 
 away upon the wings of the wind my fancy 
 carried me, till I became a Spanish grandee
 
 134 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 at the least, and tlie prison-liouse was emp- 
 tied of its inhabitants. Well, then, day by 
 day, I repaired to my station, and each time 
 I saw, fluttering behind the opened case- 
 ment, the same feminine robe which had 
 originally set my heart in a flame. 
 
 At length a hand and arm, covered by a long 
 black glove, were thrust out. They made 
 a sign to me — to me! beyond all question; 
 and when I returned it, by rising and bow- 
 ing my head, the hand was instantly with- 
 drawn. " She is coming," said I to myself; 
 " be still, silly heart — prithee, beat not so. 
 She is coming, and I shall require all my 
 energies to carry me well through the inter- 
 view." She was coming, sure enough; for 
 scarcely had I resumed my seat when a 
 door opened close behind me, and I heard 
 a shrill cracked voice exclaim, " Signor In- 
 glese." I turned round instantly — but con- 
 ceive my horror. There stood at the door- 
 way a little old woman, as ugly as it is pos-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 135 
 
 sible for woman to be, who held in her hand 
 a bundle of cigars, and offered them, with 
 a few copper coins, for my acceptance. Down, 
 down, in an instant, fell the fairy fabric 
 which for livelong days I had been building. 
 
 It was no enamoured senorita that had 
 so often watched me. I had excited no 
 tender passion in any bosom, young or 
 old; but was a mere object of charity to 
 one of the most odious-lookino; hsifis that 
 ever wore soiled cap over unkempt locks. 
 I declare that I was so completely taken 
 aback by the revelation, that I could not so 
 much as obey the old woman's signal, far 
 less thank her. However, grandmamma 
 w^as a good old lady, and would not be re- 
 fused. She kept becking and becking, till 
 at last I moved towards her, when, thrust- 
 ing the cigars and coppers simultaneously 
 into my fist, she muttered something, to 
 which I could make no reply, and most un- 
 ceremoniously shut the door in my face.
 
 136 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 It would be idle in me to attempt a de- 
 lineation of the feelings which now swayed 
 me. First, there was a sense of keen morti- 
 fication, then of the ridiculous, equally keen; 
 and, last of all, a consciousness that I had 
 behaved extremely ill to my aged benefac- 
 tress — who, albeit she did not bring what I 
 expected, brought the best which she, doubt- 
 less, had to offer. I reproached myself se- 
 verely because I had omitted to thank her; 
 and passing from that to a review of my 
 own situation, I determined not again to 
 put myself in the way of being mistaken 
 for one who sat to receive alms. But the 
 most severe ordeal of all yet remained to go 
 through. Somehow or another I could not 
 keep my own counsel, and, telling the whole 
 story to my troop-comrade, I got heartily 
 laughed at for my pains. To do him jus- 
 tice, however, Jack was very merciful in 
 his mirth; he contented himself with ad- 
 vising me to return the book, the study of
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 137 
 
 which had proved too great a trial for my 
 wits, and sharing the cigars with me, we 
 smoked them out, often pausing to laugh 
 again at the ludicrous issue of my most ro- 
 mantic day-dream. 
 
 At last the order arrived for the prisoners 
 to be mustered, and marched with a convoy 
 which was then about to return into France. 
 Well pleased were we when this announce- 
 ment reached us ; for though the term 
 " French prison" seemed to insure for us an 
 indefinite period of confinement, our saffer- 
 ings in Madrid had been such as to recon- 
 cile us even to that prospect, provided it 
 brought not in its train a renewal of the 
 hardships that were passed. Our arrange- 
 ments for the journey, moreover, were very 
 soon made. We had no baggage to pack, 
 and, as to other matters, with these we had 
 little concern. Unfortunately for me, how- 
 ever, my friend, the old woman, having, I 
 presume, got scent of what was in progress,
 
 138 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 made me a present of a pair of rope-shoes, 
 which I, forsooth, imagined would, when 
 stuffed with cotton, prove peculiarly agree- 
 able to a pair of stockingless feet. Accord- 
 ingly I slung my leather affairs over my 
 shoulder, and tying on the old damsel's 
 ropes, placed myself in the line of march, 
 and went on. But I had not proceeded 
 many miles ere I discovered that I had 
 committed a grievous mistake. The cotton 
 soon got into lumps — the rope wore my 
 skin into blisters; and I was forced^ after 
 enduring indescribable agony, to throw the 
 old woman's gift away, and return to my 
 leathers. I have sometimes wondered since, 
 whether the old jade, annoyed at the cold 
 reception which I gave her, did not fall 
 upon this ungenerous method of avenging 
 herself 
 
 Our march through Madrid was a very 
 curious one. About 700 Spanish prisoners 
 having been added to our force, the proces-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 139 
 
 sion covered a prodigious extent of street; for 
 multitudes of Frenclimen took advantag;e of 
 the escort which guarded us, and, with their 
 families and effects, wended their way home. 
 In addition to these^ we had a prodigious 
 number of waggons, all laden with the 
 plunder of churches, convents, and even of 
 private dwellings; while the armed force 
 which guarded the whole could not fall 
 short of 500 men. But these were the least 
 remarkable features in the conduct of the 
 little drama. No attempt being made to 
 clear the streets, enormous crowds choked 
 them up, — whose business, almost undis- 
 guised, it was to aid their countrymen in 
 escaping. Thus, from time to time, a wave 
 of human beings would break in upon the 
 escort, with the efflux of which some half- 
 dozen Spanish prisoners were sure to be 
 carried oiF; and as these were instantly de- 
 nuded of whatever articles of military cloth- 
 ing they might happen to wear, and had
 
 140 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ordinary peasants' dresses thrown over them, 
 it was impossible for the guard, bluster as 
 they might, to recognise and recapture them. 
 Then, again, holes were here and there cut 
 in certain brick walls, along which our route 
 lay, and prisoner after prisoner, leaping 
 through, disappeared, and was heard of no 
 more. I firmly believe that ere we cleared 
 the capital not less than a third part of the 
 Spanish prisoners had escaped; and I have 
 more than once been surprised at myself 
 that I did not attempt, by a similar process, 
 to recover my liberty. 
 
 Our progress through the town^ and for 
 some little way after we quitted it, was full 
 of interest ; for we might say with perfect 
 truth that it brought us acquainted with the 
 entire Spanish nation. There, in their car- 
 riages, drawn each by eight or ten mules, 
 went the proud and indolent hidalgos, their 
 imbecile-looking countenances exhibiting no 
 expression at all, and themselves attracting
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 141 
 
 no marks of respect from their inferiors. 
 Here walked the Castilian gentleman, 
 wrapped up in his ample cloak, with all the 
 dignity of an ancient Roman. Close beside 
 him strode the muleteer from La Mancha, 
 carrying a goad in his hand, and wearing a 
 sort of kilt made of hide. He was followed 
 by a group of Andalusians, whose long 
 brown vests, checkered with blue and 
 red, and their hair tied up in long silken 
 fillets, gave to them an air and manner 
 peculiarly their own. With prodigious vo- • 
 lubility they were conversing, while their 
 quick black eyes moved hither and thither, 
 as if their speech, rapid as it was, could not 
 keep pace with the flow of their ideas. Then 
 again we encountered women sitting in the 
 corners of the streets, and dressing food for 
 these strangers. Long lines of mules, bearing 
 burdens on their backs, and bells at their 
 manes, which tinkled as they went; with 
 asses by the score, which one man was lead-
 
 142 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ing, while he talked to them incessantly, and 
 seemed to be fully understood. And, to sum 
 up all, the ringing of the church bells, the 
 strange dialects in which the crowd was 
 speaking, the swarthy visages of most, the 
 sonorous utterance of all, gave such complete 
 occupation to the senses, that reason and ima- 
 gination both became paralyzed. We had 
 no time at the moment to compare one idea 
 with another ; nor was it till long after that 
 the full extent of the information they com- 
 municated became, upon reflection, known 
 to myself 
 
 Before I quit Madrid, and in doing so turn 
 a leaf in my personal history, I may, perhaps, 
 be pardoned if I place on record here a little 
 piece of intelhgence respecting King Joseph's 
 habits and tastes, which I picked up — I am 
 sure I have forgotten how — on the spot. 
 Probably the reader is aware that the Span- 
 ish patriots, the more to enlist the prejudices 
 of their countrymen against him, represented
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 143 
 
 Joseph, botli in tlieir writings and tlieir 
 speeches, as personally a deformed man. 
 He was crooked, they said, and blind of an 
 eye. Now Joseph might not care much 
 about a libel on his beauty, were his beauty 
 alone affected by it ; but knowing how much 
 importance his loving subjects attached to the 
 circumstance, he took every means in his 
 power to disabuse them of the fallacy. With 
 this view he used to go a great deal into 
 public. He walked the streets attended only 
 by the members of his family. He carried 
 tapers in many processions ; and seldom or < 
 ever saw a person, no matter how humble, 
 looking at him, but he turned round and 
 stared the individual full in the face. Yet 
 all his care availed not. The Spaniards de- 
 rided the notion of his carrying a taper out 
 of reverence for a religion which they be- 
 lieved that he had abjured; and, as to his 
 blindness, they persisted, in spite of all that 
 could be urged to the contrary, in declaring
 
 144 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 that it was real. Were tlie Spaniards sin- 
 gular in this respect ? I suspect not. There 
 is no arguing against prejudice, be the sub- 
 ject proposed for discussion what it may; 
 and the conviction of the people of Madrid 
 that Joseph was a Cyclops, amounted to a 
 prejudice. Then let not these worthy people 
 be held at nought in a country where men's 
 greatest boast it is to think for themselves; 
 and where all have been taught by expe- 
 rience the truth of the distich — 
 
 Convince a man against his will, 
 You'll find him but a doubter still.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 145 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 How Prisoners are sometimes treated on a March. 
 
 The marcli of a body of prisoners from 
 one place of restraint to another cannot be 
 expected to furnisli mucli matter for de- 
 scription. Our progress, indeed, was marked 
 througliout by a succession of hardships and 
 sufferings, even to look back upon which 
 never fails of exciting in me sensations the 
 reverse of comfortable ; for I hold it to be 
 one of those popular errors which men mis- 
 take for truths — ^merely because they are 
 continually repeated — that the memory of 
 sorrows past brings present joy. Yet I must 
 not withhold from my reader a few slight 
 
 VOL. I, L
 
 146 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 sketches, sucli as may enable him to form 
 some idea of a condition of hfe, into which 
 it is my most earnest hope that he may never, 
 from personal experience, become initiated. 
 
 I have quite forgotten the name of the 
 place to which our first day's march out of 
 Madrid conducted us ; but I well remember 
 that the journey, from its commencement to 
 its termination, was to me prolific of distress. 
 In the first place, the sun shone out with an 
 intensity of heat, such as constitutions worn 
 down with hard fare and long confinement 
 could ill sustain; while the dust, rising in 
 clouds from each footstep as it was planted, 
 got into our throats and lungs, and well-nigh 
 choked us. In the next place, my feet, lace- 
 rated by the rope-sandals which the old 
 woman had given me, became one mass of 
 blisters. It was to little purpose that I re- 
 moved the immediate cause of this evil, after 
 the evil itself had been fairly incurred; I 
 did not enjoy one moment ^s respite from
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 147 
 
 acute pain throughout the whole of that and 
 the succeeding day. Nor was it from this 
 cause alone that I suffered. Convoys, such 
 as that of which I then found myself a mem- 
 ber, were accustomed to halt for an hour or 
 two at noon, in order that the escort might 
 be refreshed and the prisoners rested j the 
 former by eating their dinners, the latter by 
 sleeping on the ground. Like my compa- 
 nions in affliction, I threw myself down so 
 soon as the long-wished for permission was 
 given, but I could not sleep; on the con- 
 trary, I lay writhing in agony; and when 
 the order came to fall in again, I was quite 
 incapable of obeying it. 
 
 It happened that just as I was making an 
 abortive effort to stand upright, a French 
 officer approached, who, noticing the cause 
 of my weakness, and greatly commiserating 
 it, desired me to get upon a waggon laden 
 with wool which stood near. " It belongs 
 to our convoy," said he, " and will carry 
 l2
 
 148 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 you to the end of this day's journey, at all 
 events. Get up, my poor fellow, and take 
 your rest." 
 
 I thanked hhn, and with the help of 
 my comrade, managed to scramble to the 
 top of the bales — but, unfortunately, I went 
 not alone. Two or three of the rest, 
 seeing how comfortable I had made myself, 
 ascended the waggon in like manner, and 
 lay down, like me, at length. But the wag- 
 goner had not been consulted as to the pro- 
 priety of these arrangements; and we were 
 soon made to feel that he regarded the mat- 
 ter in a different point of view from our- 
 selves. We were scarcely settled, when he 
 approached the vehicle, with an expression 
 of fierce anger in his countenance, and forth- 
 with, without having spoken a word, he 
 began to belabour us about the heads and 
 faces with his whip. My comrades, more 
 active than I, soon leaped down. For me, 
 I suffered in silence, for the height of the
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 149 
 
 bales from the ground was considerable, 
 and the bare thought of jumping upon my 
 bruised feet was agony. I therefore took 
 the blows, which continued to fall in showers 
 upon me, with all the patience which I 
 could muster, till in the end they wore me 
 out, and I fainted. I believe that in this 
 plight I fell from the waggon; at all events, 
 when I recovered my senses I found myself 
 lying upon the road, and, on lifting my 
 head, I had the satisfaction to perceive that 
 the convoy was advanced a long way to the 
 front. What was to be done? I was even* 
 less capable of exertion then than I had 
 been ere the halt took place. My very 
 comrade, too, had abandoned me, and the 
 rear-guard were preparing to quit their 
 ground. Now the rear-guard had already 
 shown, on more than one occasion, that 
 they were determined not to favour the 
 escape of any prisoner who should, under 
 the pretext of inability to proceed, drop 
 behind the column ; they had shot, without
 
 150 THE LIGHT DKAG002T. 
 
 mercy, every straggler whom tliey fomid it 
 impossible to drive before them. What 
 should I do? — struggle on, or lie still, with 
 the certainty of death as my reward? I 
 declare that the weight of a straw would 
 have turned the scale to either side that 
 day ; for if ever man felt existence to be a 
 burden, I did. Yet there is an instinct of 
 self-preservation within, which will not per- 
 mit us deliberately to resign life, so long as 
 the chances of saving it appear to be within 
 our reach. I made a desperate effort to 
 rise, and succeeded; but as to moving on, 
 that I believe would have been impossible, 
 had not Providence sent a means of trans- 
 port to my relief. 
 
 While I tottered, rather than stood, upon 
 my blistered feet, a Spanish coach happened 
 to pass ; fastened beneath the perch of which 
 was a spare pole, projecting a foot or two 
 from the rear. A rope, likewise, hung from 
 the top of the vehicle, as if it had been sus- 
 pended there for my especial use; this I
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 151 
 
 seized with a desperate clutch, just as the 
 hinder wheel rolled beyond my station. I 
 was swung to the back of the carriage in- 
 stantly; and scrambling upon the pole, I 
 made the rope fast round my middle, and 
 felt that I was secure. Never has human 
 breast beaten more gratefully than mine did 
 at that instant; for the coming up of the 
 carriage seemed to me to have been directed 
 by Heaven for the preservation of my life. 
 Neither was I indifferent to the fate of 
 others; for observing, not long afterwards 
 that another of our men had fallen, and, 
 was, like myself, entirely exhausted, I 
 shouted out to him so soon as the carriage 
 approached the spot where he lay, and in- 
 vited him to join me, which, with a despe- 
 rate effort, he did. I made room for him 
 on the pole. By then imtying the rope, 
 and passing it round our middles, both were 
 made fast, and w^e jogged on, uneasily 
 enough, as the judicious reader will beheve,
 
 152 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 yet very thankful for the blessing, such as 
 it was, which a kind Providence had thrown 
 in our way. 
 
 We had journeyed thus about three Eng- 
 lish miles, when the same officer who had 
 advised me to ascend the waggon rode up. 
 He instantly recognised me, but not only 
 did not require either of us to descend, but 
 expressed himself well pleased that I had 
 found a substitute for the resting-place from 
 which the waggoner had driven me. Nei- 
 ther did his kindness end there. The car- 
 riage was his own; it contained his wife 
 and two children, whom he was escorting 
 back into France, and who carried with 
 them their own provisions, which they were 
 accustomed to cook over night, and to eat 
 upon the march. He ordered the driver to 
 stop, rode up to the coach- window, made 
 his lady pour out two cups of wine, and 
 brought them, with some slices of bread and 
 sausages, to us. We ate and drank with
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 153 
 
 grateful hearts, and received from the repast 
 so mucli refreshment, that we found our- 
 selves, when occasion required, fully capable 
 of walking; and the occasion did present 
 itself somewhat sooner than we could have 
 wished, for the coachman, to make up for 
 lost time, drove his horses into a trot, and 
 the end of the pole — an uneasy seat at the 
 best — was no longer endurable. We were 
 forced to abandon our position. Neverthe- 
 less we held on by the rope, which dragged 
 us into a run, during which blisters and 
 bruises were alike disregarded; and we 
 arrived in good time at the yard within 
 which the rest of the prisoners had been 
 thrust, not, to all appearance, greatly more 
 distressed than the strongest of them. 
 
 I asked for no portion of my comrades' 
 rations that night. I was too much ex- 
 hausted even to eat; but throwing myself 
 down upon the ground, with a stone for 
 my pillow, I soon fell asleep. At daybreak
 
 154 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 next morning we were roused as usual, and 
 tlie marcli began; the guards pushing us for- 
 ward with very Httle regard either to our 
 comfort or their own reputation for humanity. 
 In my own case, however, it seemed as if the 
 endurance of the preceding day had har- 
 dened me for all that was to follow ; for I 
 felt, to my great surprise, comparatively 
 well, and trudged on — not indeed at ease, 
 but suffering far less, even from blistered feet 
 than many of those around me. Moreover, I 
 observed that the Spaniards, however accus- 
 tomed they might be to the burning suns of 
 their own country, were far less capable of 
 sustaining fatigue than the English. For 
 one of our people that dropped behind, a 
 score of these unfortunate wretches were 
 knocked up ; and he in the Spanish garb who 
 once gave in never found an opportunity to 
 recover. I believe that this shocking prac- 
 tice of shooting their exhausted prisoners 
 was resorted to by the French in reprisal
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 155 
 
 of similar atrocities perpetrated upon their 
 countrymen by the Spaniards. The French 
 themselves, at least, so accounted for the 
 barbarism 5 but, however this may be, I am 
 sure that no good results arose out of it — 
 inasmuch as the mutual antipathies of the 
 two people became only, from day to day, 
 more confirmed. I regret to be obliged to 
 add, that this day an English prisoner suffered 
 the same fate — and yet I had the best rea- 
 son for believing that his executioner slew 
 him in ignorance. The facts were these : 
 
 A soldier of my own regiment, whose 
 clothes had melted from his back, contrived, 
 somehow or another, to get possession of a 
 Spanish dress, which he wore upon the 
 march ; and on account of which, as it hap- 
 pened to be in excellent repair, he became 
 an object of something like envy to his more 
 destitute companions. Poor fellow! his 
 constitution was not by nature so robust as 
 mine; and he repeatedly declared that, let
 
 156 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 come what might, it was impossible for him 
 to proceed further. We encouraged him as 
 well as we could; we took it by turns to 
 lend him our arms: but all would not do. 
 At the foot of an enormous mountain, which 
 it was necessary to cross, in order to reach 
 the place of our destination for the night, 
 the pleasant town of Segovia, he sat down 
 by the way-side, and resigned himself to his 
 fate. There was not strength enough in us 
 to carry him. There were neither horses, 
 nor mules, nor cars for the conveyance of the 
 feeble ; we had, therefore, nothing for it but 
 to commit him to God's keeping, and to 
 march on. But God saw that this day he 
 had run out the measure of time that was 
 allotted to him; and his labours, and his 
 anxieties, and his hopes, and his fears, were 
 all brought to an end. 
 
 It happened that my comrade and I, 
 feeling unusually fresh, took it into our 
 heads to diverge from the proper line of
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 157 
 
 march; and making for an elbow of the 
 mountain, began to dimb, under the ex- 
 pectation that we should thus head the co- 
 lumn, and find time to rest at the summit. 
 We were not deceived in this expectation; 
 and yet we were both tempted, by-and-by, 
 to regret that we yielded to the impulse : for, 
 though we reached the mountain's brow, and 
 found a luxurious bank of soft herbage to 
 recline upon, the spectacle which met our 
 gaze, as we looked down upon the plain 
 beneath, was harrowing in the extreme. 
 The rear-guard of a convoy, of which 
 prisoners of war form a part, marches, be it 
 observed, a long way behind the closing 
 files of the column. I believe that this wide 
 interval is interposed between them and the 
 captives for the humane purpose of giving 
 to the feeble among the latter as good a 
 chance for recovery as may be ; but it does 
 not always succeed. To-day, for example, 
 we were horrified by observing — far, far
 
 158 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 
 
 away, in the distance — one little column of 
 smoke rise after another, even when by us 
 no report of musketry could be heard. But 
 our feelings were not yet entirely harrowed 
 up, for we had fixed our eyes in a great 
 measure upon the spot where our poor com- 
 rade was sitting, and we were resolved to 
 judge, from the fate which should attend 
 him, of that which we apprehended might 
 have been awarded to others. 
 
 I have no power of language in which to 
 describe the breathless anxiety with which 
 we watched the gradual approach of the 
 armed party towards the base of the moun- 
 tain. On and on it came, — another and 
 another little blue column ascending, — and, 
 by-and-by, faint and feeble, the sharp ring- 
 ing in the ear, which told of a musket or a 
 carbine discharged. Still we doubted the 
 reality; for, as chance would have it, none 
 of these things took place anywhere within 
 half-a-mile of the spot where our com-
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 159 
 
 rade was sitting. But our doubts were not 
 destined to operate for ever. 
 
 " See, Tom! they are approaching," ex- 
 claimed I, grasping my comrade's arm with 
 a convulsive motion. " Look, look! there 
 is one of them stepping out from the column; 
 and now he approaches him. See, see! he 
 stoops over him, — he is going to assist him. 
 Oh! yes, — they will rise him up. But why 
 does he step back ?" 
 
 Let me draw a veil over what followed. 
 We saw the musket levelled — we beheld the 
 flash, — and, long ere the report reached us, 
 our poor countryman rolled backwards to 
 the earth. 
 
 The convoy reached Segovia, in a chapel 
 at the outskirts of which we were halted; 
 and right glad were we to find, when thrust 
 into the interior, that the floor was covered 
 with nice clean straw. We lay down, 
 thanking Heaven for a luxury to which we 
 had long been strangers; but the time alotted
 
 160 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 for the enjoyment of it proved very brief 
 One of ns going to tlie door, overheard the 
 sentry talking, to his great surprise, to ano- 
 ther French soldier in English. Our guard, 
 it appeared, had been changed; and we 
 were now under the charge of a detachment 
 from the Irish brigade, of which a scoundrel 
 named Smith was at the head. He was an 
 officer in the service of Napoleon, — a traitor 
 to his country and his legitimate sovereign; 
 and, like all such renegades, remarkable for 
 his hatred of the people whose cause he had 
 abandoned. From what passed between 
 the sentry and his Irish comrade in French 
 uniform, we learned that Captain Smith 
 was determined to take time by the fore- 
 lock, and, regardless of our sufferings, to 
 compass not less than seven leagues more 
 ere he permitted us to rest for the night. 
 
 Now we had already traversed six leagues, 
 of which a considerable portion lay over 
 mountains^ and the seven with which we
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 161 
 
 •were threatened scarcely dipped at all into 
 the plain : our horror may therefore be ima- 
 gined. Nevertheless, no good result at- 
 tended our effort at remonstrance. To the 
 deputation which we sent to implore his cle- 
 mency he replied in language which I do 
 not care to repeat, summing up all with 
 this announcement : " I know that there is 
 a long journey before you ; but I advise you 
 not to think of cutting it short ; for I am a 
 man of my word. No straggling, you scoun- 
 drels ! remember, I have plenty of ball-cart- 
 ridges." 
 
 It was useless to remonstrate with one 
 whose nature seemed to be cast in so savage 
 a mould; so we packed up our miserable 
 wallets, took our places in the column, and 
 at the word of command Inoved on. With 
 one exception, this proved to be by far the 
 most distressing day's march which we ac- 
 complished. The road — a mere track, v/hich 
 led from one hill-top to another — soon cut 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 our wounded feet to pieces. The rain began 
 to fall; and we, having but our tattered uni- 
 forms to oppose to it, were wet to the skin 
 in half-an-hour. Moreover, we could not 
 venture, let our necessities be what they 
 might, to diverge, even for an instant, from 
 the direct hne; for Mr. Smith took more 
 than one opportunity of repeating his threats; 
 and we learned from the unfortunate wretches 
 whom he commanded that it would give 
 him positive pleasure to carry them into 
 effect. 
 
 I speak of these men as unfortunate 
 wretches, because I found, upon inquiry, 
 that they were not all naturalized French- 
 men, the remains of Emmett's and O'Con- 
 nor's bands, — out of which, as is well 
 known, the Irish Brigade had been formed. 
 One, on the contrary, I recognised as an old 
 acquaintance, who, after having lived as 
 hostler at the Greyhound in Blandford, had 
 enlisted in an English regiment, been taken
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 163 
 
 prisoner, and prevailed upon to take ser- 
 vice witli the enemy. This man assured 
 me that there were several in the corps si- 
 milarly circumstanced with himself, not one 
 of whom had put on the French uniform ex- 
 cept with a view to escape so soon as a con- 
 venient opportunity might occur. But such 
 opportunities the French took care not to 
 afford. " We dare not go beyond our can- 
 tonments," he added, " without running the 
 risk of death upon the spot. For the , gen- 
 darmes have orders to shoot us without 
 trial; and we know, from experience, that 
 they are ready to obey them. If there be 
 any in your batch that are tempted to adopt 
 this method of delivering themselves from 
 immediate suffering, warn them from me that 
 no good will come of it. I cannot now re- 
 turn to the condition of a prisoner ; but, if I 
 could, it would not be blistered feet, nor yet 
 hardships tenfold more severe than those 
 which you suffer, that would tempt me again 
 M 2
 
 164 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 to profess myself a traitor. Escape if you 
 can, and die in prison if you cannot; but 
 never take service in the Frencli army." 
 
 I trudged on, pondering with painful in- 
 terest the words which my old acquaintance 
 had spoken; till, just as twihght began to 
 deepen into night, I found, to my inexpres- 
 sible relief, that the journey of seven leagues 
 had been accomplished. Not even then, 
 however, did the ferocity of Mr. Smith cease 
 to display itself. Instead of affording us the 
 shelter of some public building, (for we 
 halted in a town of which I have forgotten 
 the name,) he thrust us into a stable-yard, 
 the soil of which was become, in consequence 
 of the rain, a heap of mud; and, without 
 straw or litter of any kind to lie down upon, 
 without so much as serving out a morsel of 
 bread or a draught of water, he told us to 
 make the best of a lodging which was a 
 great deal too good for such as we. 
 
 Upon the sufferings of that night I shall
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 165 
 
 never cease to look back except with unmi- 
 tigated horror. My bed was the soft earth, 
 — my canopy the stormy sky ; yet I slept, — 
 though, when I woke, it was in a state so 
 benumbed and cold, that all power to move 
 hand or foot was for a while denied me. 
 
 I do not know how I should have re- 
 covered strength enough to stir from my lair, 
 had not a comrade, whose constitution seemed 
 more hardy than my own, befriended me. 
 This man, perceiving that I was quite chilled, 
 ran to a sort of sutlery, which was not far 
 distant, and purchasing a glass of brandy, 
 returned with it to me. I drank it as a man 
 may be supposed to drink water, who comes 
 suddenly, in the middle of an Arabian de- 
 sert, upon a secret spring. I blessed the hand 
 likewise, that supplied the medicine, and 
 rose in five minutes greatly invigorated by 
 it. Yet I made but a bad march that day. 
 My feet gave way again: I was entirely 
 spent: and the first halt which we made,
 
 166 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 on a wild and desolate moor, I threw myself 
 down upon the ground, and wellnigh prayed 
 that death would come to my release. 
 
 I was in this mood, suffering extreme 
 agony from my feet, when, on lifting up my 
 head, I beheld, not far from me, a spectacle 
 which — be it spoken in all remorse and com- 
 punction of heart — served but to aggravate 
 my distresses fourfold. Somehow or ano- 
 ther I had detached myself a good way from 
 my comrades, and, lying near a waggon, I 
 saw a man descend from it, spread a table- 
 cloth upon the grass, and convey to it a most 
 inviting assortment both of eatables and 
 drinkables. To these he forthwith addressed 
 himself: and, oh ! gentle reader, if ever you 
 have known what it was to gaze, yourself 
 fasting, upon a feast that had been spread for 
 others, then you will have some fellow-feel- 
 ing for the agonies which, throughout the 
 interminable space of perhaps two or three 
 minutes, I endured. Both my appetite and
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 167 
 
 my suffering were, moreover, enhanced by 
 tlie sort of half conviction wliicli took pos- 
 sion of me, that the happy man on whom 
 mine eyes rested was not French, but Eng- 
 Hsh; for all his proceedings were redolent 
 of the practices of that favoured land where 
 the commonest peasant eats wheaten bread 
 to his bacon, and never thinks of resting his 
 jaws till his crop be thoroughly filled. 
 
 Heaven forgive me! but, over and over 
 again, I invited myself to breakfast with the 
 fortunate individual, — not once presuming 
 to imagine that, be his nativity what it might*, 
 he would take the whim into his head of in- 
 viting me ; yet he did. I daresay my gaze 
 was abundantly expressive; but, however 
 this may be, my surprise and delight defy 
 the power of language to describe them, 
 when all at once I heard him, after stopping 
 the movement of his jaws for an instant, ex- 
 claim, " I say, comrade, are you peckish?
 
 168 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 If SO, come and mess witli me -, there's lots 
 for both of us." 
 
 I need not say that I waited for no second 
 invitation. The influence of fatigue seemed 
 to pass away under the excitement of the 
 prospect thus opened out to me; and I 
 sprang from the earth with the agihty of 
 one who had spent the night between a pair 
 of clean Holland sheets. I don't think many 
 such breakfasts have been eaten, either in 
 Spainpr elsewhere, from that day to this. I 
 declare that I felt quite ashamed of myself, so 
 tremendous was the onslaught which I made 
 upon the meatpasty and the flask of wine 
 wherewith I was invited to wash it down. 
 
 Having appeased the cravings of a well- 
 tried appetite, I entered into conversation 
 with my hospitable entertainer, who in- 
 formed me that he was a soldier of the 10th 
 Hussars; that he had been taken prisoner, 
 and released by a French general, who of-
 
 THE LIGHT DBAGOON. 169 
 
 fered him a situation in his family as groom. 
 This he did not feel authorized to refuse ; 
 and he had lived for some time with his mas- 
 ter in a state of comfort and respectability, 
 which made him wellnigh forget that he was 
 an exile from the land of his birth. 
 
 Having told me all this, he went on to 
 say, that he and his master were travelling 
 under the escort of our convoy, into France ; 
 and that, if I liked it, he would reserve a 
 place for me on his waggon, and use his best 
 endeavours to treat me well throughout the 
 remainder of the journey. It is scarcely 
 necessary to add, that I closed thankfully 
 with his oifer. 
 
 Hiding myself under the straw, I escaped 
 the observation of the guard, and was thus 
 pleasantly conveyed as far as Miranda, where 
 the cavalcade halted for the night, and where 
 I found an opportunity of being useful to my 
 fellow-prisoners, the bare remembrance of
 
 170 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 whicli makes my heart swell, at this day, 
 with triumph. The circumstances were 
 these : 
 
 Under the protection of my friend Joseph, 
 I not only travelled secure, but was, at the 
 termination of the stage, treated with marked 
 generosity by one or two French officers who 
 seemed somehow or another to be attached 
 to his master's family. One of them gave 
 me a five-franc piece ; another presented me 
 with a foraging-cap ; a third supplied the 
 place of my dilapidated uniform with a good 
 jacket and a pair of trousers; while Joseph 
 himself, carrying me to the stables, showed 
 me an excellent bed laid down, of which 
 fresh straw and two or three horse-cloths 
 constituted the materials. He then con- 
 ducted me to one or two wine-houses, where 
 we drank, in moderation, with the French 
 soldiers, and found them not only agreeable, 
 but exceedingly generous, companions. For
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 171 
 
 example, rations were issued out to tliem that 
 night — an allowance of bread and meat to 
 each man ; which they did not seem to value 
 in the least degree, because, as they said, the 
 Spaniards were bound at every stage to pro- 
 vide them with better. I asked Joseph whe- 
 ther it might not be possible to hinder the 
 waste of throwing these viands away by beg- 
 ging them as a gift to the starving English 
 prisoners. Joseph instantly stated the case 
 to the French soldiers, and, without a single 
 exception, they acceded to his wishes. The 
 bread and meat were given to me. I carried 
 them away to the bottom of a garden, lighted 
 a fire, and, with the addition of some pot 
 herbs, made a capital mess. With this Joseph 
 and I made our way to the prison, and the 
 joy and gratitude of its poor inmates filled my 
 heart with strange feelings and my eyes with 
 tears. I could not, however, venture to lin- 
 ger long among them, for I knew that, if dis-
 
 172 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 covered, I should be at once brought back to 
 the condition of a prisoner. I therefore left 
 Joseph to minister to their wants more in 
 detail; and, after cordially embracing my 
 comrades, retreated to the stable.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 173 
 
 CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 The darkest Hour is nearest the Dawn. 
 
 From that time till the convoy reached 
 Segovia I managed to share Joseph's waggon 
 by day, and his excellent board and snug 
 quarters at night. By some unlucky accident, 
 however, I was detected, just as our vehicle 
 was entering the latter place ; and the conse- 
 quences were, my immediate removal from 
 the influence of my friend's kindness, and my 
 return to the companionship, in every sense 
 of the expression, of my fellow-prisoners. Not 
 that Joseph forsook me : he visited me in our 
 place of confinement at Segovia, bringing 
 with him a flask of wine and a large loaf of
 
 174 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 bread, and took of me an affectionate fare- 
 well — liis master's route and ours diverging 
 at tliis point one from the other. We did 
 not j3art, however, till after we had ex- 
 changed assurances that, if Fortune should 
 ever bring us together again, we would with- 
 out fail renew our intimacy. I am happy 
 in being able to record that Fortune did thus 
 favour us; and that she was doubly kind to 
 me, by enabling me, in a distant land, to pay 
 back, in some sort, the favours which I re- 
 ceived from him in this my hour of humilia- 
 tion and suffering. 
 
 I do not know whence it came about, but 
 the further we removed from the Portuguese 
 frontier the less kind the Spaniards, as a 
 people, showed themselves towards us. At 
 Segovia, for example, the inhabitants, though 
 they provided their countrymen with good 
 things of every sort, brought little or nothing 
 to us; and we were reduced, in consequence, 
 to subsist as well as we could upon our scanty
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 175 
 
 allowance of very indifferent bread. It was 
 but natural that tlie consideration of this fact 
 should not be without its effect upon us. We 
 began first to eriYj and then to dislike our 
 companions in exile; and seeing them flush 
 of money, while we ourselves were penniless^ 
 the idea gradually matured itself, " Why 
 should not we, by fair means or by foul, 
 share in their abundance?" When men are 
 suffering real privations, and there are pro- 
 fusion and waste all around them, the mo- 
 ralist may say what he will, but they don't 
 readily listen to the voice which would whis- 
 per of self-denial, and patience, and absti- 
 nence. We soon discovered, for instance, 
 that the Spanish prisoners had large sums of 
 money at their command, which they squan- 
 dered continually in gambling, as if it had 
 been applicable to no other use than that of 
 keeping alive a violent excitement among 
 them. I have often seen as many as forty or 
 even sixty dollars on the ground at a time,
 
 176 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 for whicli different groups were tossing, and 
 whicli changed hands over and over again, 
 according as the guess of this or that specu- 
 lator proved to be correct. At first we were 
 mere spectators of the pastime ; but, by-and- 
 by, we began to argue that the money would 
 be at least as well applied in the purchase of 
 a few necessaries for us, as it seemed to be in 
 the encouragement of an idle and profitless 
 spirit of gambling among our allies. Accord- 
 ingly, having watched till a tolerably rich 
 treasure cumbered the surface of the earth, 
 about a dozen of us suddenly broke the ring and 
 began to help ourselves, without compunction, 
 to the dollars and other coins that lay scat- 
 tered around us. The Spaniards, of course, 
 raised a clamour, but they attempted nothing 
 more ; while the French, instead of interfer- 
 ing in their behalf, only laughed at them. 
 The result was^ that, for several days, we had 
 tobacco to our pipes, and onions to eat with 
 our bread, while the gamblers, if not cured,
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 177 
 
 were rendered a few degrees more cautious in 
 tlie exhibitions which they made both of their 
 wealth and their cupidity. 
 
 In this manner we proceeded as far as Yal- 
 ladolid, where, numbers falhng sick, and many 
 more becoming lame through exertion, a halt 
 of three days was permitted. It sufficed to 
 fill the hospitals with invalids — few of whom, 
 I have reason to believe, ever quitted them 
 alive. But, however this may be, all who 
 were in a fit state to travel marched, on the 
 fourth day, to Burgos — whence a moderate 
 stage carried us to Sallada, overwhelmed by 
 the oppressive heat of the weather and stifled 
 with dust. Here an event befel, of which, 
 as it gave an entirely novel colouring to the 
 whole of my after fate, I feel myself, in some 
 measure, required to give a somewhat detailed 
 account. 
 
 When thrust back into the common prison- 
 house, I had been deprived, by the escort, of 
 the few articles of wearing apparel which 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 Joseph had procured for me, and was now, 
 in consequence, more squalid and torn than 
 ever. I had no jacket at all — only a waist- 
 coat out at the elbows ; no shirt, no stockings, 
 no cap : indeed, I was altogether as perfect a 
 representation of abject poverty as the fancy 
 of the most fanciful could well describe. In 
 this condition I entered Sallada, and went 
 with my comrades, to the prison yard, into 
 which, by-and-by, came several French and 
 English officers, the latter, prisoners like 
 ourselves, though, of course, in better plight ; 
 and as it seemed, much thought of by their 
 captors. 
 
 Among others, there drew near a gentleman 
 in the uniform of a regiment of Lancers — a 
 manevidently of rank and consequence, whom 
 a considerable personal staff attended, and 
 who appeared to have some object to gain 
 by his visit. I saw him stop beside a man 
 of the 13th; and, by means of an interpreter 
 who bore him company, enter with that per- 
 son into conversation. Not knowing why I
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 179 
 
 did so, I listened to what passed between 
 them, and found that the foreigner was de- 
 sirous of engaging the EngUshman to serve 
 him as groom, and that the EngUshman, 
 though not personally averse to the arrange- 
 ment, stated a fact which at once stood in the 
 way of its completion. He told the inter- 
 preter that he was married and had a family ; 
 upon which that personage, though with great 
 kindness, stated that, with a man so circum- 
 stanced, the count was not desirous of enter- 
 ing into an engagement. He had scarcely 
 said so, when his own and his employer's eyes 
 falling upon me, both approached, and the 
 interpreter opened with me the same subject. 
 I was completely taken by surprise. I 
 assured him that I neither could nor would 
 listen to any such proposition, but w^as deter- 
 mined to share my comrades' fate, be it what 
 it might, till, by the course of a regular ex- 
 change, we should be enabled to return to our 
 regiment. It is not worth while to fatigue 
 n2
 
 180 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 the reader's patience by describing how both 
 the count and the interpreter pressed the 
 point; for the officer of rank proved to be 
 the German Count Goltstein, who was at 
 that time at the head of the Lanciers de 
 Bourg, in the service of Napoleon. But 
 the resuhs were, in a few words, these. I 
 believe that I should have stood out against 
 all his proposals, though they were both 
 numerous and liberal, had not an English 
 officer, who overheard the dialogue, inter- 
 fered to set aside my scruples. He assured 
 me that, if I was afraid of being compelled 
 to take up arms against my own country, I 
 laboured under a very groundless species of 
 alarm; that the Count Goltstein was a man 
 of honour — far more attached at heart to 
 the English than to the French; and who, 
 let happen what might, would not only not 
 urge, but never permit, my passing into the 
 ranks of the enemy. Finally, he and the 
 interpreter set such tempting offers before
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 181 
 
 me, that I did not know how to refuse them. 
 I was to be at the head of the stables; to 
 have charge especially of an English tho- 
 rough-bred mare ; to be well fed, well clothed, 
 well looked after, and to receive as wages. 
 Or pocket-money, call it which you may, one 
 guinea per month. Surely I am not to blame 
 for having accepted this engagement, when 
 the sole choice submitted to me was between 
 its acceptance, and my continuance for some 
 indefinite, yet, without doubt, protracted, 
 space of time, a prisoner of war. But, be 
 this as it may, I did accept it; and I am* 
 bound to add that I never found any just 
 cause to repent of the decision. 
 
 A sorrowful scene was that which occurred 
 between me and my fellow-captives, when I 
 returned the same day to the place of confine- 
 ment to bid them farewell. Some envied, 
 others pitied, but all grieved to lose me ; and 
 my own heart bled as 1 squeezed their hands 
 — ^not knowing whether I should ever be
 
 182 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 permitted to do so again. Yet I cherislied 
 tlie hope that, in my new situation, opportu- 
 nities of serving them might occur, from 
 which I secretly resolved that I should never 
 turn away ; and I thank God that I kept the 
 resolution. Meanwhile, however, the count's 
 interpreter, who bore me company^ was be- 
 ginning to exhibit symptoms of impatience. 
 
 '' The count's quarters," said he, " are in 
 a village two good leagues distant, and it is 
 absolutely necessary that we should reach 
 them before dark." 
 
 " But how shall we do that, sir?" replied 
 I ; " I have marched six leagues to-day al- 
 ready, and no consideration on earth would 
 induce me to walk half a league farther." 
 
 " I do not wish you to walk," answered 
 he ; and then he went on to explain, that if a 
 horse of any kind were to be had in the vil- 
 lage, he would procure it for me, though the 
 arrangement might not, it appeared, be with- 
 out its difficulties, owing to the alarm of the
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 183 
 
 Spaniards in this quarter, who invariably 
 abandoned their houses on the approach of a 
 French force. The result, however, was, that 
 he did procure me an animal, — a long-legged, 
 sharp-boned mule, which he took away from 
 a countryman when working it in a plough ; 
 and on the sharp back of which he mounted 
 me. And thus, riding between him and his 
 chief, (for the count himself, at the head of 
 a troop of his lancers, waited for us in the 
 outskirts of the village,) I made my way to 
 my new quarters, not without having an 
 endless variety of questions put to me re- 
 specting the strength and disposition of the 
 English army; all of which I answered as 
 vaguely and on as magnificent a scale as 
 possible. But these are points on which it 
 is scarcely worth while to touch. What 
 can a private soldier know of the true condi- 
 tion of a force in which he is a mere unit ? 
 or if he did, how can the querist suppose
 
 184 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 that he will communicate his knowledge in 
 its simplicity ? 
 
 We reached the village where the Lanciers 
 de Bourg were stationed, about nine o'clock 
 in the evening; and I was immediately di- 
 rected to the count's stables, where I was 
 given to understand, that I should find a 
 person who was capable of conversing with 
 me in my own language. I proceeded to 
 the place pointed out, and was a good deal 
 struck both with the size and excellence of 
 the stud, and the richness of the furniture, 
 which was scattered somewhat carelessly 
 about the stables. But the object which 
 chiefly attracted my attention was a pot- 
 bellied, rubicund, and evidently half-sober 
 man, who no sooner turned his fish-like eyes 
 upon me, than he hailed me with the excla- 
 mation, " How do you do, countryman? 
 You be welcome !" I could perceive, from 
 the peculiarity of his accent, that my new
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 185 
 
 acquaintance was not Englisli ; and I very 
 soon heard from himself tliat lie was German: 
 that he had served in England as a private 
 in Hompeshe's Dragoons, whence, on the 
 dissolution of the corps, he had returned 
 home, and passed into the count's service : 
 for the count's estates lay round the village 
 of which he was a native ; and, unless my 
 memory deceive me, he was himself the son 
 of one of the count's baurmen. Moreover, 
 I heard him, with infinite pleasure, launch 
 out in praise of our master's generosity and 
 honour; which came upon mine ear the 
 more agreeably, that I did not listen to it 
 fasting, — for my worthy comorado produced 
 his cold tongue and his flagon of wine, both 
 of which passed away famously; till, by-and- 
 by, a sense of drowsiness quite overpowered 
 me, and I besought him to point out a place 
 where I might lie down. He was not back- 
 ward in doing this. He called a servant, 
 ordered him to make a bed for me in a room
 
 186 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 adjoining his own; and conducting me thi- 
 ther, pointed out a comfortable palliasse, on 
 which I lost no time in throwing myself. 
 In less than five minutes I was fast asleep. 
 
 I do not know how long I may have lain 
 in a state of unconsciousness, when the touch 
 of a soft hand applied to one of my feet, 
 which was covered with blisters, awoke me. 
 There was a light in my room, which, on 
 partially opening my eyes, I ascertained to 
 proceed from a chamber-lamp, which a vene- 
 rable-looking hidalgo, with hair white as 
 snow, was holding in his hand, for the bene- 
 fit of two young maidens in their labour of 
 Christian charity. These gentle creatures 
 were both employed in washing and dress- 
 ing the feet and legs of me — an entire 
 stranger. One, indeed, they had already 
 rendered comfortable, by cleansing it tho- 
 roughly, and swathing it in soft linen, while 
 I was asleep: the other they were now in 
 the act of mollifying; and tender as their
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 187 
 
 touch was, even it broke in upon my rest, 
 so lacerated was the member, and by long 
 travel so impregnated with fragments of 
 gravel and thorns. How shall I describe 
 the delicacy and gentleness with which these 
 high-born maidens extracted both from my 
 flesh! And then they whispered words of 
 commiseration and charity, which they 
 would not utter aloud, because they feared 
 to awaken me. I declare that I could scarcely 
 credit my own senses, so entirely did the 
 scene resemble the delusion of a dream. But 
 the old gentleman, by-and-by, discovered that 
 I was not asleep; and then the ladies, with 
 natural modesty, stepped back, till he had 
 reassured and urged them to their generous 
 task again. The results were, that my 
 bruised and torn limbs were thoroughly 
 cleaned, and bandaged with the softest and 
 finest linen; and that my benefactors pressed 
 upon me a cup of chocolate, with some sweet 
 cakes : after consuming which, I placed my
 
 188 THE LIGHT DEAGOOK 
 
 head once more upon tlie pillow. And 
 then — and not till then — the Spaniards with- 
 drew. 
 
 I never saw these kind people again. I 
 do not even know their names; nor can I 
 guess at the motive which urged them thus 
 to exercise, in my case, feelings of benevo- 
 lence, which were manifestly congenial to 
 their nature. But I suspect that they mis- 
 took me for a prisoner newly taken; and 
 that their sympathies were the more power- 
 fully awakened by the idea, that I was suf- 
 fering all the bitterness attendant on a recent 
 blight of my prospects. Be this, however, as 
 it may, I heartily blessed them in my prayers 
 that night, — and often bless them now, when 
 the remembrance of their kindness comes 
 over me. Doubtless they have had, and will 
 continue to have, their reward. 
 
 I felt so comfortable after the dressing of 
 my legs, and slept so soundly, that it was 
 broad daylight when I awoke ; which indeed
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 189 
 
 miglit not have occurred even then, had not 
 my German friend Kruger called me. He 
 had evidently been drinking, and seemed 
 somewhat impatient for the lack of my so- 
 ciety; for he desired me to get up without 
 any further delay, unless I were wilhng to 
 go without my dinner. Now, the very sound 
 of the word had been so long strange in my 
 ear, that I experienced no desire at all to 
 neglect the opportunity of improving it; I 
 therefore rose at his bidding, and putting on 
 the fragments of apparel of which I could yet 
 boast the possession, I accompanied him to 
 an apartment, in which the whole of the 
 count's servants were assembled. At the 
 end of the table sat his valet or steward; 
 next to him the coachman ; then the cook, — 
 the very beau ideal of his nation, thin and 
 spare, with sharp features, and a white linen 
 cap upon his head ; and by-and-by, as each 
 could find a place, grooms, stable-boys, and 
 menials of humbler degree. To me the seat
 
 190 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 of honour was assigned, on the right hand of 
 the valet; for Kruger led me there as his 
 friend, and no one showed the slightest in- 
 clination to resist or resent the intrusion; 
 and the consequence was, that throughout 
 the progress of the meal, I felt that, there 
 were few lots in life with which mine could 
 be exchanged, except at a disadvantage. For 
 my fellow-servants vied with one another in 
 heaping civilities upon me, and in loading 
 my plate with the most delicate morsels. 
 Then, again, the wine was both good and 
 abundant; we had our pipes and to- 
 bacco, with which to sum up all, and 
 we sat conversing by means of signs, for 
 not one word of each other's language 
 could we utter, till nearly ten o'clock at 
 night. At last, however, the party broke 
 up; after which Kruger, so completely dis- 
 guised that he could no longer articulate, yet 
 sober enough to point out a horse which was 
 intended for my riding during the march of
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 191 
 
 the morrow, rolled himself on his straw, and 
 left me to retire to my pleasant palliasse at 
 my leisure. 
 
 When I awoke next morning, I found, 
 somewhat to my chagrin, that the march 
 was already begun. The count, and all his 
 household, indeed, were gone; and on hur- 
 rying to the stable, I ascertained that the last 
 of the grooms, after sending off the baggage, 
 were about to follow. They had reserved, 
 indeed, for me, my own horse; neither did 
 Kruger appear to have forgotten me, inas- 
 much as a great coat and foraging cap were 
 laid, so as to attract my notice, in the hall. 
 But Kruger, like all the rest, seemed to have 
 given me the slip, whether because his own 
 duties engrossed him, I cannot tell. To say 
 the truth, however, the consideration of this 
 point occupied very little of my attention. 
 I harnessed my steed— a Spanish jennet, and 
 not a bad one ; I took a long pull at the skin 
 of wine, which, by this time more than half
 
 192 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 exhausted, stood in a corner of Kruger's dor- 
 mitory; and, vaulting into the saddle, began 
 my journey, I knew not whither, in a frame 
 of mind by many degrees more joyous than I 
 had experienced since the day of my capture. 
 It was a bright, clear, sunny day, and I 
 enjoyed my excursion extremely. Of my 
 own corps, — if, indeed, the expression be 
 allowable, when speaking of the regiment of 
 Lancers which my master commanded, — I 
 saw nothing throughout the day ; but I over- 
 took, soon after clearing the village, a column 
 of French infantry, which served me in some 
 sort as a guide, though from time to time ra- 
 ther provokingly. The French, when march- 
 ing, will not allow any persons, except offi- 
 cers, to pass the heads of their columns ; I 
 was therefore stopped when making the at- 
 tempt to get before the infantry, and had 
 nothing for it, except to regulate my pace by 
 theirs. Yet, I was very happy notwithstand- 
 ing; and made an excellent meal, without
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 193 
 
 dismounting, off tlie half of a cold fowl, which 
 honest Kruger had stuffed into my great-coat 
 pocket. Finally, at the end of about four or 
 five hours, I reached the outskirts of a large 
 town, on the bridge that led to which a 
 Serjeant of the Lancers was standing, who 
 immediately recognising my horse, made 
 signs to me to follow, while he should lead 
 the way to the quarter in which the count 
 had estabhshed himself. I need scarcely add, 
 that I obeyed the signal with good will : to 
 what purpose, the reader, if his patience be 
 not exhausted, will learn in the next chapter. 
 
 VOL. L
 
 194 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 I see more of the World, and fare better. 
 
 Under tlie guidance of the serjeant I soon 
 made my way to the house in which the 
 count had estabhshed himself, and found that 
 he and all his servants were fast asleep. Upon 
 this my steps were turned towards the stable ; 
 and the appearance of the stud, in point both 
 of numbers and breed, excellent^ yet exhibit- 
 ing in their dirty coats manifest tokens of 
 neglect, greatly surprised me. It was quite 
 evident that not so much as a wisp of straw 
 had been applied to any of their backs since 
 they came in; while their feet were clogged 
 by mud, and their hoofs filled, in the hollows,
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 195 
 
 with gravel. This was not at all according 
 to my notions of a well-ordered stable ; so, 
 making choice of the English mare, I led her 
 out into the yard, and stripping to the skin — 
 for, in truth, I was not worth a shirt — I set 
 about dealing with her according to the most 
 approved principles of grooming. 
 
 I was thus employed — having carefully 
 washed her feet, and, by means of a brush, 
 made her coat smooth and sleek — when the 
 count, attended by his intrepreter, came out 
 into the yard. He was prodigiously struck 
 w^ith the change of appearance which my 
 careful grooming had created in his favourite ; 
 but I thought that he looked anxious, too, 
 and I was not long kept in ignorance as to 
 the cause. 
 
 " Is it your custom in England," demanded 
 the interpreter, " to strip to the skin when 
 you work? Our master is fearful lest you 
 should catch cold, and begs that you will 
 think of yourself." 
 
 o2
 
 196 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 I replied to this inquiry, as the real state 
 of the case required, by explaining that I 
 stood in nature's garb for the most obvious of 
 all reasons, — namely, that I had not been 
 master of a shirt since the day I was taken 
 prisoner. Nothing could exceed the kindness 
 and commiseration of the count when the 
 statement was repeated to him. He sent the 
 interpreter into the house for three of his own 
 shirts, which he gave to me. Jle then pre- 
 sented me with a louis-d'or, and desired that, 
 so soon as I should have completed my job, 
 I would first refresh myself from the cook's 
 larder, and then go and make such purchases 
 as the state of my wardrobe might render 
 necessary. It is scarcely worth while to add 
 that orders so agreeable in themselves were 
 to the minutest tittle attended to. I ate a 
 hearty luncheon, refreshed myself by bathing 
 in the Douro, put on one of my new shirts, 
 and walked forth a prouder and a happier 
 man than I had been for many a day. The
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 197 
 
 next hour saw me in possession of a silk 
 handkerchief for my neck, of four of a Hke 
 texture for my pocket, of several pairs of 
 stockings, and a hat ; and, after all, I had sil- 
 ver enough left wherewith to treat Kruger to 
 a good bottle of wine. In a word, my situa- 
 tion was as pleasant as it is possible for that 
 of any man to be who feels that he is, after 
 all, but a prisoner at large ; and who receives 
 at the hands of foreigners and strangers those 
 marks of regard, which bring not with them 
 their perfect value unless they come from our 
 countrymen and our friends. 
 
 It is not worth while to describe how we 
 continued our march, first to Yalladohd, and 
 afterwards to Salamanca. Pleasant excur- 
 sions these were to me; for I rode my own 
 horse, without having any other charge com- 
 mitted to me than to lead the English mare, 
 which was my masters especial favourite; 
 and not unfrequently my master himself rode 
 by my side, and, through the interpreter, con-
 
 198 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 versed with me. With respect to our living, 
 tliat was of the best ; and we invariably 
 made choice of some beautiful glade or covert 
 in which to eat our noonday meal. More- 
 over, in Salamanca I was measured for two 
 entire suits of clothes; to convey which, as 
 well as the rest of my wardrobe, a portman- 
 teau was given to me. No man in my situ- 
 ation could, indeed, be more entirely com- 
 fortable; nor was I left without evidence 
 that to others I was become the object of 
 something like envy. But that is a misfor- 
 tune from which I greatly fear that no suc- 
 cessful candidate for advancement, in any 
 situation of life, is free. Take the lead of 
 your fellows, ever so slightly, and they may 
 seem for a while to admire, — go on, heading 
 them more and more, and they soon come to 
 hate. So much for human nature. 
 
 We remained in Salamanca a considerable 
 space of time; of which I did not fail to take 
 advantage, by visiting every object in that
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 199 
 
 celebrated seat of learning whicli was de- 
 scribed to me as worth the attention of a 
 stranger. Of the general effect of the city, 
 as it is first seen at a distance, with its endless 
 spires, towers, and domes, I need not say 
 much. The traveller, if he approach it while 
 the rays of the setting sun light up its gilded 
 cupolas, finds himself almost involuntarily 
 led into the delusion that the home of some 
 oriental prince is near at hand ; and though 
 the idea may wear out before the lower gate 
 is passed, it is succeeded by others scarcely 
 more familiar. For Salamanca, at least when 
 I resided in it, resembled no other city which 
 I have visited even in Spain. Its colleges 
 were then in their integrity, — its cathedral, 
 pure and graceful in its architecture, unin- 
 jured; and even the dwelhng-houses, which 
 adjoined to the old Moorish walls, and over- 
 looked, by their narrow casements, the bat- 
 tlements which surrounded them, had a cha-
 
 200 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 racter so peculiarly tlieir own, that I find 
 myself entirely incapable of describing it. 
 
 With respect again to the inhabitants, these 
 struck me as having even more than the ac- 
 customed allowance of Spanish indolence 
 about them. Salamanca cannot have been, 
 at any period, a place of great trade. Like 
 Oxford and Cambridge among ourselves, it 
 is overhung by an atmosphere of academic 
 abstraction ; yet we naturally expect to find, 
 where shops are abundant, some display of 
 the spirit of barter, and neither in Oxford 
 nor Cambridge are we disappointed. But in 
 Salamanca the whole world seems asleep. 
 You walk abroad in the middle of the day, 
 and the streets are empty; you go forth in 
 the cool of the evening to be met by hidalgos 
 wrapped up in their cloaks, who, unwashed 
 and unshaven^ lounge from point to point, as 
 if the act of movino; were a labour all but 
 insupportable. And then again for the
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 201 
 
 women. They may have been better than 
 the men ; I verily beheve that they were ; 
 but m the matter of dress, never have Eve's 
 daughters so striven to disfigure themselves. 
 Thpir long thin waists contrasted singularly 
 with a degree of fulness both above and 
 below, which quite surprised me; and their 
 movements were, in consequence, such as 
 might be expected, altogether ungraceful. I 
 confess that I do not retain any pleasant 
 remembrance of a city, which in its archi- 
 tectural arrangements presents a thousand 
 beautiful features, and in which, as far as my 
 own personal case was concerned, I had every 
 motive for being satisfied with my residence. 
 In a place thus miserably circumstanced, 
 it will not surprise the reader to be told, that 
 I met with few adventures which made 
 strong demands upon my interest. One, in- 
 deed, if such it deserve to be termed, I may 
 be permitted to describe ; even though the 
 results were to affect me with no very pleas-
 
 202 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ing ideas of tlie Spanisli character, as con- 
 nected with one of the most solemn acts in 
 which rational creatures can take part. 
 
 I remember one day strolling into the ca- 
 thedral, where I was greatly struck by the 
 progress of a funeral ceremony, which had 
 only just begun. The corpse was that of a 
 young woman of some rank, which lay in its 
 last robes upon a sort of platform in the mid- 
 dle of the chancel, — pale, and with the long 
 black hair gathered in braids over the fore- 
 head. She was somewhat gorgeously ar- 
 rayed ; had a jewelled ring upon one of her 
 fingers — possibly the gift of a betrothed, — 
 and a golden crucifix suspended from her 
 neck, while earrings, also of gold, were in 
 her ears, and a brilliant clasped, or seemed 
 to clasp, the band upon her brow. I did not 
 get sufficiently near to judge of her beauty; 
 but, as far as a cursory examination will 
 enable me to speak, I should say that her fea- 
 tures were regular ; and that there was a soft.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 203 
 
 sweet, gentle expression in her sunken fea- 
 tures. 
 
 The corpse, when I entered the church, 
 seemed to have been just conveyed to its tem- 
 porary resting-place — a platform, on which 
 the black bier was laid. It had scarce settled 
 down, if I may so express myself, when cer- 
 tain vergers approached, and enveloped it, 
 all below the waist, in a black velvet pall, 
 while a body of priests performed mass at the 
 high altar, and a crowd of Carthusian friars 
 sang a requiem for the dead with great ef- 
 fect. Innumerable wax candles burned both 
 at the head and at the feet of the deceased. 
 Her maid was in attendance beside them ; 
 and the rapidity with which she crossed her- 
 self — lighting and extinguishing from time 
 to time her own taper — seemed to indicate 
 that she took a deep and solemn interest in 
 the ceremony. Meanwhile, the grave, which 
 had been prepared near one of the smaller 
 altars, stood open ; and by-and-by a monk.
 
 204 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 bearing a huge black crucifix in his hand, 
 approached it. This he planted at the head 
 of the orifice ; and, as if his doing so had 
 been the signal that all was ready^ a huge, 
 muscular, large-headed man, dressed in the 
 ordinary attire of a workman, and probably 
 the gravedigger, approached the bier. The 
 music suddenly ceased — the masses were 
 ended — and that barbarian seized the corpse, 
 which, without regard even to the semblance 
 of decency, he threw up, as if it had been a 
 bundle of rags, into his arms. He bore it 
 thus across the aisle, and, descending with it 
 into the grave, laid it in the coffin, which 
 yawned at the bottom of the hole. But his 
 business did not end there — the monster sud- 
 denly thrust up his arm, and drew towards 
 him, first, the lid of the coffin, and next the 
 black pall, with which he entirely shrowded 
 both himself and his future proceedings ; it 
 is therefore impossible for me to say what he 
 might have done during the half hour that
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 205 
 
 he lingered in the grave j but I own that 
 my imagination turned towards the jewels 
 and the golden crucifix, none of which could 
 I conceive it probable that he would leave 
 to be devoured by the tomb. Nor was this 
 the only transaction that disgusted me in 
 the winding up of what, in its commence- 
 ment, was an exceedingly striking ceremony. 
 No sooner was the dead body removed out 
 of sight, and the candles that stood beside 
 the bier extinguished, than a spirit of ex- 
 treme levity appeared to take possession of 
 all whom the building contained. I heard 
 the murmur of a light, and, as it seemed, 
 a frivolous conversation pass through the 
 crowd, while laughter, scarcely suppressed, 
 told where each joke had taken effect, and 
 spoke very little in favour either of them 
 who uttered or of those who received it. 
 Perhaps it might be prejudice on my part, 
 but I own that I was thoroughly disgusted. 
 I turned away, and walked home, not with-
 
 206 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 out a conviction that, after all, there is more 
 of real subUmity in the simple and affecting 
 burial service of my ow^n church than in all 
 the mummery of masses and requiems with 
 which the feelings of the heart seemed to be 
 quite at discord. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the total disregard 
 exhibited by the French for every thing 
 which a Christian people are apt to consi- 
 der sacred. Of the churches in Salamanca 
 very many had been converted hj them 
 into barracks, and even into stables. In the 
 former, you might see bands of soldiers cook- 
 ing their provisions over fires, which they had 
 lighted on the paved floors of the very altar- 
 places, and fed with gilded wood, broken 
 from the altars themselves. The smoke, of 
 course, having no outlet except the doors 
 and windows, rose and curled about the 
 Gothic pillars, blackening the walls, and de- 
 filing; the carved work with which the roofs 
 were ornamented ; while the loud laugh, the
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 207 
 
 coarse wit, and coarser song, sounded pecu- 
 liarly hideous in a place whence tlie voice of 
 prayer and praise might alone be expected to 
 proceed. But if the churches in which the 
 infantry had quarters were hideous, a thou- 
 sandfold more disgusting was the spectacle 
 presented by those into which corps of ca- 
 valry had been thrust. There, not the men 
 only, but the horses, defiled God's house, in 
 a manner, to look back upon which makes 
 me shudder. The floors lay a foot deep in 
 manure and litter : the marble pavements 
 w^ere beaten into fragments by the hoofs of 
 the animals. No care was taken to preserve 
 the brass monuments, which, in one church 
 in particular, must have been, a short while 
 previously, both numerous and singularly 
 beautiful ; while into the very stone walls 
 rings seemed to have been driven, to which, 
 here and there, a brute more restive than 
 the others was tied up. 
 
 They whose thoughts are continually turn-
 
 208 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ed towards the field of battle or the toilsome 
 march, draw for themselves but an imperfect 
 representation of the horrors that attend a 
 state of warfare. It is when armies force 
 their way into the haunts of civilized hfe, — 
 when soldiers and citizens become incongru- 
 ously huddled together, — when armed bands, 
 that are accustomed to the touch of deadly 
 weapons, stretch themselves forth to commit 
 havoc, — and domicile and fane, and temple 
 and town-hall, are alike polluted by the 
 sounds and sights that appertain only to the 
 camp, — then it is that war offers to the gaze 
 of the looker-on its most hideous features ; and 
 our visions of glory, and renown, and high 
 prowess, are all obscured by the contempla- 
 tion of suffering and much wrong. I freely 
 confess, that I used to pass these desecrated 
 churches by in a frame of mind quite unbe- 
 coming the occasion. I said to myself, over 
 and over again, " The miscreants who thus 
 defile the temples of the Living God do not
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 209 
 
 deserve to triumph, and triumpli they as- 
 suredly will not." 
 
 There was a very large French force at 
 this time in and around Salamanca, — ac^ 
 cording to their own account, at least seven- 
 ty-five thousand men. It had been collected 
 for some time, for the avowed purpose of 
 driving the English into the sea ; and now 
 preparations were made for the immediate 
 accomplishment of this much-desired ob- 
 ject. Of these, while they were going on, 
 I saw, of course, very little ; though the 
 extra work performed in all the bakehouses 
 did not escape me. But by-and-by the truth 
 came out, and the count himself disclosed it. 
 " We march to-morrow," said he, one 
 morning to me, " on an expedition from which 
 I, for one, augur no good. We are going to 
 advance towards Lisbon ; and, the better to 
 ensure celerity for our movements, all our 
 baggage is to be left behind. We shall carry 
 nothing with us, either on the men's backs or 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 by the cars except twelve days' provisions ; 
 and, before these are expended, your coun- 
 trymen, it is assumed will be driven to their 
 ships. But, as I greatly doubt the issue, I 
 don't mean to take you along with me. 
 Eemain where you are; take good care of 
 the horses; and, depend upon it that, ere 
 many days pass, we shall meet again." 
 
 I thanked my master for the consideration 
 which induced him to screen me from the 
 disgrace of even following in the train of 
 an armed force which was going to march 
 against my countrymen; and determined 
 that, as far as dihgence and care on my part 
 could avert the evil, he should find no rea- 
 son to complain that his horses had been 
 neglected. 
 
 The prediction which Count Golstein ven- 
 tured to make ere the march began was veri- 
 fied to the letter. I saw the columns of in- 
 fantry and cavalry defile from Salamanca, 
 with all the pomp and circumstance of war.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 211 
 
 The horses were in good condition, — the 
 men fresh, well-appointed, and in excellent 
 spirits. The bands of the several regiments 
 played favourite airs, and flags and banners 
 floated to the breeze, — for the movement was 
 begun with extraordinary magnificence. 
 How different was the order of their return ! 
 In an inconceivably short space of time they 
 came back, crest-fallen and dejected, having 
 suffered quite as much from the lack of pro- 
 visions and forage as from the sword ; for 
 the system adopted during the first retreat 
 to Torres Yedras was still rigidly acted up 
 to. Every town and village was deserted 
 on the approach of the French, — every 
 morsel of bread carried away, — every animal 
 removed, or else slaughtered; while the very 
 corn in the fields was set on fire and con- 
 sumed in order to prevent it from falling into 
 the enemy's hands. The consequence was, that 
 each league which they traversed in advance 
 served but to involve them in deeper difli- 
 
 p2
 
 212 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 
 
 culties ; and, long ere the twelve days were 
 expired, on which they had counted as secu- 
 ring a triumph, both leaders and followers 
 saw that the case was desperate. 
 
 The historian has recorded in what man- 
 ner the retreat to Salamanca was conducted. 
 Horses died by scores — men foundered, and 
 were taken or put to death by the peasantry, 
 guns and carriages were abandoned at every 
 pass. There was distress and anxiety 
 everywhere. I shall never forget the soil- 
 stained and demoralized appearance which 
 the different regiments presented when once 
 more they entered the town. The spirits, 
 too, and tempers of all ranks were broken ; 
 and they seemed ripe for almost any species 
 of outrage. 
 
 " I told you how it would be," exclaimed 
 
 my master ; " I was sure that evil would come 
 of it. Your countrymen are as obstinate as 
 the rocks on which they have planted them- 
 selves. They have handled us very roughy ;
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 213 
 
 neitlier have I, in my own proper person, 
 come off scot-free. That scoundrel, Kruger, 
 has deserted with one of my best horses, 
 and a portmanteau filled with some of the 
 most valuable portions of my wardrobe. 
 However, here we are; and we must make 
 the most of it. How does the mare go on?"
 
 214 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 Forced Marches, and tlielr Results. 
 
 There never lived a kinder or a more 
 generous man tlian the Count Yon Golstein. 
 His own losses, liis own privations, were 
 invariably tlie subjects wliicli engrossed the 
 smallest share of his attention; and never 
 was the disposition more completely shown, 
 than now, on his return to Salamanca. The 
 French had brought back with them very 
 few prisoners; but among these there hap- 
 pened to be some men of my own regiment, 
 of whose condition my master immediately 
 informed me, desiring me at the same time 
 to visit and relieve them as far as I was
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 215 
 
 able. I went instantly to tlie tower in which 
 they were shut up; and the emotions to 
 which they all gave way, for they recognised 
 me in an instant, I cannot undertake to de- 
 scribe. Poor fellows, they were footsore, 
 and half naked; and as men's hearts are 
 generally softened by the sort of misfortune 
 to which they were subject, they lifted up 
 their voices and wept, when they saw me 
 come among them. But I did not come 
 merely to pry. Having ascertained their 
 number, I hurried off, and my kind master 
 supplying the funds, I purchased a quantity 
 of meat and bread, which the cook and I 
 made ready between us. With this, and 
 half-a-dozen bottles of brandy, I made my 
 way back — not indeed without considerable 
 risk of annoyance from the French soldiers 
 — who were quite as badly off as their cap- 
 tives, and whom the steam of the savoury 
 mess excited wellnigh to violence. But as 
 I had taken the precaution to ensure the
 
 216 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 convoy of tlie servant of one of the officers 
 on guard, I succeeded in conveying my 
 treasure in safety to the prisoners' tower; 
 and the eagerness with which the food was 
 devoured, and the keen rehsh with which 
 they drank the liquor, sufficiently testified 
 that to luxurious living they had long been 
 strangers. Happy men were they in a few 
 minutes: they sang, they chatted, they 
 capered, and danced. In a word, and with 
 the thoughtlessness which belongs to their 
 calling, they forgot the evils that were past, 
 and shutting their eyes to the certainty that 
 evil would come again, they made themselves 
 exceedingly comfortable in what the present 
 hour could offer. 
 
 I rejoiced, as may be supposed, in the 
 work of my own hands; neither did my 
 power to serve them end there. My master 
 desired me to select one out of the number, 
 who might supply the place of Kruger, and 
 be a companion to myself; and as my troop-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 217 
 
 messmate — by name Judd — happened to 
 be there, I could not of course hesitate as 
 to the individual whom I should select. 
 Judd thankfully closed with an offer, of 
 which I made him fully aware of the value ; 
 and accompanying me home, became forth- 
 with both an active and a willing assistant 
 in the work of the stable. Of the remainder, 
 I never saw more till the peace of 1814: 
 they were marched away early in the morn- 
 ing succeeding the day of what they called 
 " the feast;" and Judd and I could give 
 them no more than all the little money we 
 had about us, and our best wishes for their 
 welfare. 
 
 My mind was full of the situation of my 
 poor comrades, when one day as I was rid- 
 ing through the streets, I found myself ac- 
 costed in good set English, by a " How do 
 you, countryman; what make you here?" 
 I looked about, and saw a dapper little 
 fellow in a civilian's dress; who, following
 
 218 ' THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 up Ms first salutation, approached, and made 
 immediate acquaintance with me. He 
 told me that his name was Smith — that 
 his father had married a Frenchwoman, 
 and now followed the French army as a 
 sort of travelling bootmaker, and that, by 
 every body of every nation who made trial of 
 his skill, he was admitted to be a first-rate 
 workman. " But, come to the house where 
 my father and mother hve," continued he, 
 ^^ and I will introduce you to scenes that will 
 amuse, if they do not greatly edify." 
 
 " I'm the man for your father and mother,'* 
 replied I ; " depend upon it I shall visit you 
 shortly," and so we parted. 
 
 I confess that I had forgotten my new 
 acquaintance altogether, when on the follow- 
 ing evening he visited me at the stables; 
 and as I had nothing better to do, I agreed 
 to accompany him to the paternal mansion. 
 It was a very mean apartment, in a very 
 mean street, through the excessive gloom of
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 219 
 
 wliicli, I could witli difficulty discover tliree 
 human beings seated, two of tliem upon 
 stools, the third in an arm chair; two were 
 men, who appeared so entirely engrossed 
 with cobbling,, that they scarcely lifted up 
 their eyes when we entered; while the 
 third was a woman — as curious a specimen of 
 the genus, as these eyes of mine have ever 
 beheld. I could not hope, by any descrip- 
 tion, to convey to the minds of others an 
 idea, even partially just, of the squalor of 
 her appearance. I say nothing of her filth, 
 though that was extreme, nor yet of her 
 complexion, in comparison with which, 
 saffron deserves to be accounted pure; 
 neither will I speak of her apparel, which 
 no Jew from Kag Fair, whom I, at least, 
 have ever encountered, would have ad- 
 mitted within the portals of his storehouse. 
 But there was a strange intermixture of 
 cunning and simpHcity in her eye, which 
 would have tickled me much, but for the
 
 220 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 tiger glance whicli from time to time super- 
 seded it. 
 
 " I've brought a countrymen to drink tea 
 with us, mother," said Joe. 
 
 " He's welcome," was the reply; "make 
 him sit down.^' 
 
 I sat down, and forthwith two broken 
 cups were produced, by means of which, 
 and a crazy teapot, we managed to discuss 
 some pint or so of slops. It was not Joe's 
 cue, however, to let the jollification end 
 there. He gave me a hint, which I did not 
 fail to take, by offering myself to stand treat 
 for some brandy — to procure which, Joe, 
 after a few modest denials on his mother's 
 part, was sent abroad. Doubtless the reader 
 has anticipated much of what is to follow. 
 The old lady drank cupfuls of raw spirit, 
 encouraging her husband and journeyman 
 to do the same, till the two latter fairly 
 rolled from their stools insensible, and she 
 gave evident tokens of a rapid approach to
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 221 
 
 the same state of helplessness. I looked 
 disgusted and somewhat alarmed, but Joe 
 only laughed at me. " Ply her well," said 
 he; " she is a perfect bag of sand, and a 
 good deal is needed to bring her to the 
 proper point; but once there, and for as 
 long as three or four weeks on a stretch, she 
 will continue in a state of absolute helpless- 
 ness. Here, mother, take another cup; it 
 will do you good." 
 
 The old hag muttered something, drank, 
 and was conveyed by her hopeful child to 
 bed. She complained of thirst : he gave her 
 a fresh dose; and she fell asleep in a mo- 
 ment, muttering something about a stocking 
 all the while. 
 
 Joe clapped his hands, and laughed aloud, 
 while he exclaimed, " Now, my boy — now, 
 we have done it ; and you, as well as I, shall 
 have your reward." So saying, he drew from 
 beneath the cushion of the arm-chair a stock- 
 ing crammed with silver and copper coins,
 
 222 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 dollars, half-dollars, quarter-dollars, and I 
 don't know all wliat. " This is nothing," 
 said he, pouring some of them out ; " at the 
 bottom of all are certain doubloons and louis- 
 d'ors, for which I think that I can find a far 
 better use than any to which she dreamed of 
 applying them. Come, friend, help yourself : 
 don't be bashful; nobody ever throve in the 
 world that could not help himself." 
 
 I positively refused to touch a stiver; at 
 which Joe laughed heartily; and, when I pro- 
 ceeded to remonstrate with him, his mirth 
 only increased. - " Why, man," said he, " this 
 sort of thing occurs regularly at stated periods. 
 The old woman dearly loves both her money 
 and the brandy -bottle : as long as she has 
 resolution enough to keep the latter at a dis- 
 tance, the treasure accumulates, for she starves 
 us all, and makes us work like galley-slaves ; 
 but, when the stocking becomes full, we al- 
 ways have a spree, which ends, as you see 
 that this is going to do, by my making myself
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 223 
 
 master of its contents. The old hag will not 
 awake for these three weeks at least; that 
 is to say, she will merely open her eyes 
 and ask for drink — which I shall faithfully 
 give her. And when she does get up, every 
 thing will be forgotten, except that which 
 I choose to tell her; — that she has spent 
 all her savings in liquor. Why, then, 
 should I scruple to enjoy myself, since nobody 
 suffers ?" 
 
 " But she is your mother," said I, in re- 
 monstrance ; "■ how can you thus work upon 
 her vices and abuse her infirmities?" 
 
 " She is as much my mother as she is 
 yours," replied the hopeful ; " and if she 
 were, what then?" 
 
 My friend Joe's notions both of morals and 
 manners were so very different from mine, 
 that, with the termination of what he called 
 " the spree," our intimacy ended. I frequently 
 met him in my walks and rides, and learned 
 from him that his mother kept to her time;
 
 224 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 that she slept soundly for three weeks, and 
 rose at their termination a greater screw than 
 ever. But neither his arguments nor his en- 
 treaties could prevail upon me to share with 
 him in the amusements which the plunder of 
 the stocking procured. On the contrary, I felt 
 something like compassion for the wretched 
 old couple; and there, again, was in due 
 time taught that I had been exceedingly 
 weak for my pains. When consciousness 
 returned to that amiable family, they found 
 themselves, as a matter of course, destitute. 
 To work they accordingly set, and, very much 
 to their satisfaction, the old man received an 
 order to wait upon an officer of rank, and 
 measure him for half-a-dozen pairs of boots. 
 But Smith the elder was destitute even of a 
 coat wherewith to cover his upper man ; and 
 I, in an evil hour, was persuaded by his help- 
 mate to lend him a new cloak which I had 
 purchased. I never saw the mantle again, 
 except at a distance; and then it enshrouded
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 225 
 
 the form of Madam Smith herself, while she 
 sat in her little donkey-cart, and accompanied 
 the army on its march from Salamanca to 
 Yalladolid. I would have taken it from her 
 on the spot; but she saw me coming, and 
 with rare skill contrived to hand it over to 
 her husband, who, being on foot, glided round 
 some of the baggage-cars, and was at once 
 lost to my vision. At Yalladolid I made 
 another attempt to recover my property; 
 but it proved equally unsuccessful; indeed, 
 I was overwhelmed on this occasion with 
 such a torrent of abuse, that I had not the 
 courage to face a similar infliction, even if 
 the recovery of the cloak had been ensured. 
 Besides, the brutes had utterly soiled and 
 misused it; for it was their coat by day and 
 their bed by night. I therefore gave the 
 beldame a hearty benediction, and went my 
 way. 
 
 We had not long occupied our new quar- 
 ters in Valladohd, when intelligence of a ris- 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 THE LIGHT DBAGOON. 
 
 ing in Astorga reached us, and a considerable 
 corps, of which my master's regiment formed 
 a part, received orders to proceed, by forced 
 marches, for the purpose of repressing it. If 
 the forced marches of the French army be 
 conducted at all times in the order which 
 distinguished this, it must be confessed that 
 they make but light of the sufferings both of 
 man and beast. We were formed every 
 morning, and actually en route by three 
 o'clock. At eight we halted and breakfasted; 
 at nine we again moved on, and halted again 
 at two to dine, and a couple of hours were 
 then afforded to refresh ; but at the termina- 
 tion of these the column moved ; and it was 
 always eight — often as late as nine or ten — 
 ere we halted for the night. The halt, how- 
 ever, was not, at least at all times, a season 
 of rest. There were cattle to be procured, 
 killed, and cooked, for the morrow. There 
 was forage to be collected, and the horses to 
 be fed. There was not unfrequently the pro-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 227 
 
 cess of baking to be carried througli; for 
 we depended everywliere upon tlie supplies 
 whicli the country could afford for our main- 
 tenance. Many a time have we found our- 
 selves so occupied, by the necessity of attend- 
 ing to these wants, that midnight came ere 
 we could throw ourselves on the ground, 
 and catch an hour's broken sleep beside our 
 horses. Yet in some respects the march was 
 not disagreeable ; and it was replete with in- 
 terest throughout. For example, we, of the 
 cavalry, leaving the high-road to the infantry 
 and the guns, struck into all manner of by- 
 paths, which carried us through a succession 
 of vineyards, of which the fruit hung in large 
 clusters, ripe, and ready for gathering. Again, 
 it not unfrequently happened that our rear 
 and flank patrols had the satisfaction of main- 
 taining a continued skirmish with bands of 
 guerillas, who fired upon them from the 
 broken ground, and hovered round them 
 like vultures watching their prey. 
 q2
 
 228 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 Then, again, the towns and villages, but 
 especially the latter, were all but deserted as 
 we approached; and all sent forth, as soon 
 as our backs were turned, fresh bodies of 
 armed peasants to annoy us. At the same 
 time we were invariably met at the entrance 
 of the towns by the civic authorities, who 
 professed either to adhere to King Joseph, 
 or, at all events, to be neutrals in the con- 
 test; and who hoped, by these means, very 
 generally in vain, to preserve their own and 
 their townsmen's property from violation. 
 For, in good sooth, the French were fearful 
 plunderers. It struck me, too, that the offi- 
 cers never made so much as an effort to re- 
 strain them; and the results were, that places 
 which we found comparatively prosperous on 
 our arrival, we left with all the evidences 
 of rapine and violence about them. And 
 desperate was the revenge which the out- 
 raged Spaniard took, as often as an unfor- 
 tunate French soldier fell into his hands.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 229 
 
 Neither wounds nor weakness roused his 
 pity. He slew the straggler as if he had 
 been a wild beast, and often added torture 
 ere he ended him. 
 
 Sixteen days of constant marching brought 
 us at length to Astorga ; in and around which 
 the corps proceeded to establish itself. The 
 cavalry had quarters within the walls; the 
 infantry and guns encamped outside; and 
 strange and wild were the scenes which 
 they alike enacted, — from which, as may be 
 supposed, the ill-fated Spaniards were the 
 sufferers. I must, however^ in common jus- 
 tice observe, that the Spanish authorities 
 brought the evil, in some measure, on them- 
 selves. They assured our general, for in- 
 stance, that the town was destitute of stores, 
 and that, unless he had the means of vic- 
 tualling his own troops, they ran great risk 
 of starving. This was but sorry news for 
 men who had not tasted a wholesome or 
 regular meal for a fortnight, and were all
 
 230 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 but desperate in consequence. But a little 
 exercise of the ingenuity habitual to our 
 troopers soon refuted the declarations of the 
 alcalde. Two doors from a large house 
 which was assigned to the lancers as a bar- 
 rack, there was discovered, in the lumbre, 
 or ground-floor kitchen, a trap-door, by 
 raising which a man introduced himself into 
 a capacious cellar, well filled with all manner 
 of stores, sufficient for the rehef of one 
 entire battalion. Tanned hides were there 
 for making shoes, flitches of bacon, large 
 bags of caravanceros, and skins of wine 
 in abundance. As might have been 
 expected, the success of this individual 
 prompted many more to prosecute their 
 researches; and our general had soon the 
 satisfaction to know that he ran very little 
 hazard of starving. Now, if he had been 
 content to appropriate these stores, while at 
 the same time he maintained strict discipline 
 among his people, nobody could have blamed
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 231 
 
 him. The troops must be fed — so must 
 their horses; but he went much beyond 
 this. The soldiers received a sort of un- 
 spoken licence to plunder; and terrible was 
 the havoc which in their wantonness they 
 occasioned. Moreover, the honour of the 
 women, and here and there the lives of the 
 men, fell a sacrifice not unfrequently. But 
 let me not go on : — in the camp of the in- 
 fantry you might see all manner of rich 
 hangings converted into tents. The soldiers 
 lay, or danced and sung among the tents, 
 arrayed in priests' robes and ladies' dresses ; 
 while the lancers, in spite of Count Gol- 
 stein's best exertions to prevent it, were not 
 altogether free from similar atrocities. Of 
 course the town became rapidly thinned of 
 its inhabitants, of whom all who were ca- 
 pable of bearing arms went to swell the 
 amount of the Spanish forces. Yet were 
 the French not yet cured of their propensity
 
 232 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 to evil. They persisted in carrying on the 
 war more like savages than civilized men; 
 and they suffered in consequence all the 
 outrages of which their own historians too 
 much complain.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 233 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Burgos while occupied by the French. 
 
 We remained in the neighbourhood of 
 Astorga but a few days, at the expiration 
 of which the order to march was issued; 
 and, without having seen an open enemy, 
 or had any opportunity of taking vengeance 
 on a guerilla party, we began to retrace our 
 steps towards Toro. There was no devia- 
 tion either in the route, or in the rapidity 
 with which we traversed it; and the con- 
 sequence was, that our sufferings during the 
 retreat were to the full as intolerable as 
 they had been on the advance; and that, 
 when we reached Toro, both men and
 
 234 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 horses — but especially tlie latter — were all 
 but unfit for service. Among others, my 
 kind, good master fell sick, and the skill of 
 his physicians failing to set him on his legs 
 again, he was ordered to try the baths at 
 Valladolid. Thither I accompanied him, 
 and on the interval which we spent there, 
 I continue still to look back as on one of 
 the most agreeable in my life of captivity. 
 Valladolid is a large and stirring place : its 
 inhabitants are much given to public amuse- 
 ments, in which I found frequent opportu- 
 nities of joining; and lying, as it did, out 
 of the broad channel of the war, both they 
 and I were enabled to indulge our respec- 
 tive tastes freely and without apprehension. 
 My master, having derived considerable 
 benefit from the waters, at length took his 
 departure; and for a while we fixed our 
 quarters, with the lancers, of which he was 
 at the head, in the city of Burgos. Of the 
 local situation of that fine old town 1 need
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 235 
 
 not pause to speak, — with its hills over- 
 looking it on each side, and its citadel 
 crowning a rocky eminence, as if in defiance 
 of the enemy who dared attempt to reduce 
 it. But the condition both of the garrison 
 and the inhabitants at this moment was so 
 curious, that I cannot think of omitting to 
 notice it, — more especially as the truth has 
 never, to my knowledge at least, been told, 
 by any writer, whether French or English, 
 who has touched upon the subject. 
 
 It is well known that the hatred borne 
 by the Spaniards towards the French had 
 become, in 1812, bitter in the extreme. 
 Taught by experience that they were no 
 match for the invaders in the field, they 
 waged war upon them by private assassina- 
 tion, — insomuch that the French armies, 
 victorious everywhere, except where the 
 might of England encountered them, were 
 nowhere, throughout the Peninsula, masters 
 of a foot of ground beyond the limits of
 
 236 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 their different encampments. In like man ■ 
 ner, the garrisons wliicli occupied the towns 
 of Spain, were always in a state of siege. 
 There might be no organized force within 
 many leagues of them, nor the smallest 
 reason to apprehend the arrival of any 
 such. But each cottage in the suburbs, 
 if not in the heart of the town itself, 
 contained a little band of foemen, in their 
 own way more to be dreaded by far 
 than if they were openly in the field, 
 and banded together in companies and 
 battalions. In and around Burgos I soon 
 discovered that this was peculiarly the case. 
 At first, indeed, the manners of the people 
 deceived me quite ; for I fancied that they 
 were content, because of the gentleness and 
 deference with which they appeared to treat 
 not me alone, but every Frenchman with 
 whom they came openly into contact. But 
 the experience of a few days taught me, that 
 this air of meekness was put on, for the sole
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 237 
 
 purpose of enticing victims into their power. 
 There was scarcely a day passed without 
 bringing in reports of assassinations at- 
 tempted, if not perpetrated, upon our people. 
 ISFo man could walk half a mile beyond the 
 town without being fired at; and even in 
 the grand promenade, which extends along 
 the bank of the river, and is shaded on either 
 side by rows of noble trees, the same scenes 
 were constantly enacted. I have ridden over 
 and over with my master, to enjoy the re- 
 freshing breezes in that shady spot, and been 
 driven out again by showers of bullets, which 
 knocked the leaves about us, and came, we 
 knew not from whence. In a word, the 
 French were, both in camp and in quarters, 
 prisoners at large, with the comfortable as- 
 surance continually forced upon them, that 
 even within their own lines they could not 
 count on escaping the knife of the assassin. 
 
 When we first reached Burgos, the garri- 
 son was labouring under a terrible and con-
 
 238 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 tagious fever. The hospitals were all 
 crowded j and every morning at daylight a 
 couple of carts traversed the streets, collect- 
 ing the dead from the wards in which they 
 were lying, and transporting them to the 
 place of sepulture. It was a ditch dug some- 
 where among the hills, into which the bodies 
 were cast in heaps, no care being taken to 
 treat them with respect, nor any mourning 
 being made for their removal. Moreover, 
 several detachments were by-and-by sent 
 out to levy contributions on the surrounding 
 districts, and Burgos became, in consequence, 
 the grand depot of French plunder in this 
 quarter of Spain. The Spaniards were 
 neither unaware of this circumstance, nor 
 ignorant of the process by which our trea- 
 sures were gathered in; and in the begin- 
 ning of 1812, they made a demonstration 
 as if they had designed to appropriate them. 
 The circumstances of the case were these: 
 One morning in the month of January —
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 239 
 
 I have forgotten tlie precise date, an alarm 
 spread that heavy columns of troops were 
 advancing towards the town. We ran to 
 the most elevated stations which we could 
 find, and saw, sure enough, 6000 Spaniards 
 at the least, marching in good order along the 
 Madrid road, and apparently bent on car- 
 rying the town by a coup de main. Now, 
 it so happened, that the town was at this 
 moment in a peculiarly defenceless state. 
 The castle, indeed, stood above the reach of 
 insult, not from this body of troops alone, 
 but from their betters; but the town was 
 no further fortified than by 'pahsades, that 
 blocked up the principal entrances, and 
 light cannon so planted as to command the 
 bridges. Then again, the garrison, enfeebled 
 by sickness, was more than usually weak, in 
 consequence of the many detachments which 
 had gone out, consisting, as may be supposed, 
 of our strongest and healthiest men, and 
 commanded by our ablest battalion officers. 
 Still, though mustering scarcely 400 combat-
 
 240 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ants, tlie commandant put a bold face upon 
 the matter. All the persons living on the 
 southern side of the river were directed to 
 cross, and to establish themselves and their 
 baggage under the guns of the citadel. The 
 hospitals were emptied of every man who 
 might have strength enough to level a mus- 
 ket; and these being planted under cover of 
 the palisades, were directed to maintain 
 their post to the last extremity. At the 
 same time the utmost care was taken to 
 keep down a mutinous spirit, which the 
 first rumour of an advance on the part of 
 their countrymen had excited among the 
 inhabitants. They were commanded by 
 proclamation not to show themselves in 
 the streets, and were told that wherever 
 two should be found holding converse 
 together they would certainly be shot. 
 Every thing, indeed, was done, which in a 
 very trying case courage could suggest, or 
 prudence dictate ; and the results were, that 
 courage and prudence prevailed over mere
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 241 
 
 numbers, to direct whicli there was mani- 
 festly no head present. 
 
 Among other officers of merit my master 
 chanced to be detached; and with me it 
 mainly rested to save his property from the 
 danger of confiscation. I was estabhshed 
 in a house close to one of the barricades, 
 where, up to this moment, the people had 
 been particularly civil; but now, when I 
 came to pack up and made preparations for 
 moving, their tone entirely changed. They 
 refused to lend a helping hand in any way; 
 and not only rejected my application for a 
 skin of wine, but told me with significant 
 looks, that of wine I should not much longer 
 stand in need. Such conduct of course 
 served only to irritate ; and I was forced to 
 use the show of violence, by levelling a pis- 
 tol at the padrone's head; but there was no 
 occasion to go farther. I got my mules and 
 horses laden; and securing about two gal- 
 lons of wine, retired, with my fellow-servants, 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 to the heights near the castle, whence we 
 commanded an excellent view of the Spanish 
 bivouac. Why did they not push on? Why 
 did they halt, out of musket-shot of the 
 palisades, and make there an idle display 
 of their numbers? They ought to have 
 known their enemies better than to suppose 
 that they were the sort of people to be over- 
 awed by any thing of the sort. Had they 
 made the attempt, bravely, resolutely, and 
 without a check, it must have proved suc- 
 cessful. How earnestly I wished that half 
 the number of English troops had been 
 there ; for the booty would have been pro- 
 digious ; all the treasures, with no inconsi- 
 derable portion of the stores of the whole 
 French army, being, by some strange over- 
 sight, kept, not in the castle, but in the town. 
 The Spaniards either did not know this, 
 or they held the garrison in too much re- 
 spect; for they contented themselves with 
 driving in, towards dusk, a soHtary advanced
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 243 
 
 post, and taking possession of the convent 
 within which it had been established. We saw 
 them then Hght their fires, and make prepa- 
 rations as if to invest the place, and try upon 
 it the tedious process of a siege. But even 
 to this plan, absurd enough it must be ad- 
 mitted, they failed to adhere. Throughout 
 two days the blockade, such as it was con- 
 tinued. They were days to us of very con- 
 siderable discomfort; for we knew our 
 own weakness, and scarcely dared to hope 
 that it was hidden from them : yet they came 
 to an end at last, and with them all fears re- 
 specting the issue. The dawn of the third 
 morning showed the Spanish hues aban- 
 doned. Not a man remained beside the 
 fires, which had been recently trimmed and 
 continued to burn, nor was so much as a dog 
 left behind. Yet the Spaniards had not re- 
 treated in the proper sense of that term. 
 Intelligence of the routes pursued by our 
 various detachments having reached them, 
 r2
 
 244 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 
 
 tliey broke up into parties, and hurried off, 
 with the view of intercepting these on the 
 march, and so winning both glory and riches 
 from the spoil with which they were known 
 to be laden. They succeeded, however, very 
 imperfectly in both objects. Several of our 
 detachments sustained, indeed, a heavy loss ; 
 and one, which, when it went abroad, con- 
 sisted of a hundred men, returned with no 
 more than fifty ; but not in a solitary instance 
 was the escort overpowered, or the booty 
 taken away of which it was in charge. 
 
 It is marvellous even now to think of the 
 extreme accuracy with which the Spaniards 
 were accustomed to inform themselves, not 
 only of the movements of the French troops, 
 but of the personal habits and circumstances 
 of the individuals by whom detached bodies 
 were commanded. On the present occasion, 
 for example, there was a French lieutenant- 
 colonel sent forth with a hundred infantry 
 in a particular direction : he was a brave and
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOOiT. 245 
 
 a skilful officer, and tliough attacked by an 
 overwhelming force of cavalry, lie repulsed 
 them twenty times at least, keeping his trea- 
 sure always in the centre of his square. But 
 he was known to the assailants as one who 
 never stirred abroad without carrying all his 
 private property in a sort of valise behind 
 him, so that, while advancing to charge, the 
 Spaniards would call out to him that they 
 were determined to have his doubloons, and 
 that he had better give them up quietly. 
 The Frenchman held his course undaunted, 
 and had wellnigh reached Burgos ere the 
 fatal bullet struck him. But he died at last, 
 from a pistol-shot in the head ; and his valise, 
 containing about a hundred-and-fifty gold 
 pieces, became the property of the brave 
 men who had, for twelve long hours, sustained 
 his honour and their OAvn in a very unequal 
 contest. 
 
 For some time after the occurrence of these 
 events, my master and I kept our station in
 
 246 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 Burgos. He, like others, had lost a good 
 many men from his detachment, and one offi- 
 cer, whose poodle dog attached itself to me ; 
 but he had received no wound himself, and, 
 though still delicate, was able, for a while at 
 least, to go through with his duties. I am 
 not sure, however, that my readers would be 
 very deeply interested were I to detail to 
 them the manner in which day after day was 
 spent : let me be content, therefore, to repeat 
 one or two anecdotes, as illustrating the sort 
 of life which at that period I led, and then 
 we will pass together into new scenes, some 
 of which may possibly offer to them greater 
 attractions than the mere transcript of a pri- 
 soner's diary. 
 
 I was one day crossing the bridge at Bur- 
 gos, when, to my great surprise, I encountered 
 a man dressed in the uniform of the 12th 
 English Light Dragoons. We entered, as 
 may be imagined, at once into conversation, 
 and I ascertained that he had been taken at
 
 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 247 
 
 Grenalda ; that he was a farrier by trade, and 
 then in the service of the French General, 
 Count d'Orsun. A very extraordinary fellow 
 was my friend, Richard Kilby ; his ingenuity 
 as a working smith surpassed all that I have 
 ever witnessed, and, as a horse doctor, he 
 had either great skill or great good luck ; but 
 he was a determined drunkard — a profound 
 hater of the French nation — and, beyond 
 compare, the most self-willed and obstinate 
 individual of his race. He and I became, as 
 a matter of course^ sworn allies: we were 
 much together, for I helped him to turn his 
 shoes; and, acting as his interpreter, I first 
 procured for him from his master those sup- 
 plies of money without which his genius 
 never could have found a channel in which 
 to exercise itself ; yet I more than once had 
 reason to regret that an intimacy was ever 
 struck up between us, and am forced, though 
 reluctantly, to acknowledge that, when our 
 destinies carried us in different directions, I
 
 248 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 shed no tears over the prospect of being se- 
 parated from him for ever. 
 
 My friend Richard hated the French, and 
 never omitted an opportunity of telHng them 
 so : to be sure, he could not speak one word 
 of their language, nor did they understand a 
 syllable of his, so that the pleasant epithets 
 of " coward," " scoundrel," " rogue," " thief," 
 with which it was his constant practice to 
 greet them, passed by unnoticed, because 
 unknown. But in more ways than this he 
 delighted to tease them^ and he was quite 
 indefatigable in indulging his humours. For 
 example, his style of shoeing was so univer- 
 sally and justly admired that there was no 
 end to the applications which were made to 
 him by the French officers. He would never 
 attend to them, except when the purse was 
 at the lowest ebb, and even then he took 
 care to insult the groom by holding the 
 charger tight with one hand, and so keeping 
 him, till the amount of the charge — eight
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 249 
 
 francs — ^was put into tlie otlier. He was 
 constantly involving himself in quarrel^ from 
 the ruinous consequences of which nothing 
 short of his master's rank in the service could 
 have saved him; and once, at least, even 
 that might have failed, but for the peculiar 
 prowess by which he opposed, and finally 
 repulsed, the assailants. The story is this: 
 
 One Sunday, Eichard and I strolled be- 
 yond the limits of the town, and entering a 
 wine-house, drank our bottle of Malaga, on 
 the conclusion of which Richard complained 
 of being hungry. The woman of the house* 
 was cleaning, at the moment, a number of 
 salt herrings, two of which Eichard secured, 
 and put upon the coals to broil. He had 
 not perceived that some French grenadiers, 
 who equally with ourselves chanced to be 
 inmates of the apartment, had likewise made 
 a purchase of herrings, and were dressing 
 them ; and, having occasion to go out for a 
 moment, he was rendered quite furious by
 
 250 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 meeting one of these men witli a couple of 
 herrings in his hand. Eichard swore that 
 the fish were his — wrested them from the 
 grenadier, abused him hke a pickpocket, and 
 stripping off his jacket, challenged the French- 
 man to fight. Now, the Frenchman, must 
 have stood at least six feet three from the 
 ground, whereas the extreme height of Ei- 
 chard could not exceed five feet ; yet there 
 was the little farrier squaring at the giant, and 
 so conducting himself that the latter, in abso- 
 lute amazement, became rooted to the spot. 
 The landlady, in great alarm, entreated me 
 to withdraw my friend, and, with some diffi- 
 culty, I succeeded in doing so; but it was 
 only that he might thrust himself into ano- 
 ther situation, to the full as perilous, and far 
 more laughable, than this. We adjourned 
 to an old haunt of Eichard's — to the house of 
 a woman whom he had dubbed his mother; 
 and who, being regularly put in possession of 
 the whole amount of his earnings, could not
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 251 
 
 refuse — even though it was the hour of Di- 
 vine service — to open her door to her son. 
 Accordingly, we entered, were shown into a 
 parlour up stairs, and earnestly besought to 
 keep quiet, otherwise the landlady must get 
 into a scrape. 
 
 We sat quietly enough, till Dick observed 
 a patrol of gendarmes ascending the street, 
 and approaching the site of his mother's dwel- 
 ling. His wrath against their nation was 
 kindled, and he began first to swear and then 
 to sing at the top of his lungs. They halted 
 before the door, and ordered him to be quiet,* 
 but he only sang the louder. Then they 
 knocked and tried to enter, but the door was 
 bolted, and Dick hastened to reinforce the 
 bolts by piling up furniture against it. The 
 gendarmes threatened and blustered, while 
 Dick, finding in one corner of the room a bag 
 of large onions, opened upon them, with 
 these strange missiles^ a heavy fire. As might 
 be expected, they were furious, and though
 
 252 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 he kept tliem somewliat at bay as long as 
 his ammunition lasted, they would have cer- 
 tainly forced an entrance in the end, had he 
 not plied them with water — not scalding hot, 
 certainly, yet neither very cool, nor in its 
 nature very limpid. The guard retreated 
 with precipitation before such a torrent, and 
 Eichard shouted and laughed, as they shook 
 their ears — for his supply had been both 
 copious and very liberally dispensed. 
 
 Not having any particular desire to connect 
 my own name with pranks of this sort, I 
 escaped from Eichard as soon as the coast 
 was clear, and scarcely saw him again till 
 within a day or two of our final separation ; 
 though I heard of him from time to time, 
 and always heard with sorrow, that he con- 
 tinued to be the same reckless and unhappy 
 man that he was when I first encountered 
 him. JSTeither was his end unworthy of the 
 earlier part of his career. Having accom- 
 panied his master to Pampeluna, and well-
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 253 
 
 nigli exhausted liis patience, Dick, in a 
 drunken fit, deserted ; and falling among the 
 guerillas, was by them passed on from station 
 to station, till he finally rejoined his regiment 
 in Portugal. But he came with a constitution 
 entirely undermined: against the excessive 
 hardships which he encountered with the 
 guerillas, a frame worn down by hard drink- 
 ing, could not hold up ; and within a few 
 days after having reported himself to the 
 adjutant, he expired. Eichard left a son, 
 like himself a farrier, who afterwards served 
 with me on the cavalry staff, and many a 
 day have we spent hours together in mu- 
 tually detaihng, one to another, anecdotes of 
 his father's eccentricities. 
 
 I do not remember that there occurred 
 any thing else of moment while I continued 
 in Burgos, unless, indeed, the purchase of an 
 Irish horse may be so regarded, which, when 
 led in by a French groom, in a very mi- 
 serable state, I instantly recognised as having
 
 254 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 once belonged to one of my troop-mates in 
 the 11 til. He was so savage a brute that 
 neither his new master nor his servants 
 could ride him; for a French officer had 
 purchased him of an Englishman, in Portu- 
 gal, for ten Napoleons, and the Count Gol- 
 stein got him, in consequence, for the same 
 sum that had been paid for him. But the 
 horse knew me immediately: when I called 
 him by his name, he turned his head and 
 snuffed me all over, and became in my hands 
 as quiet and tractable as a lamb. With 
 none else, indeed, would he condescend to 
 be familiar, — for even my master never rode 
 him but once; but he followed me like a 
 dog, and neighed and whinnied whenever he 
 heard my voice even at a distance. The 
 count gave him to me, and I rode him con- 
 stantly for two years; at the termination of 
 which, his vicious humours wore out, so 
 that the count's son, to whom I ultimately 
 transferred him, found him invaluable as a
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 255 
 
 charger, and received the most satisfactory 
 proofs of his hardihood. Musch^ as he was 
 called, carried the young Count Golstein 
 through the whole of the campaign to Mos- 
 cow and the retreat in which it ended; and, 
 though much reduced in flesh, was still in 
 excellent health when he came again under 
 my care in his master s stables.
 
 256 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 We return to France. 
 
 After a residence in Burgos of some- 
 thing more than two months, the Count Gol- 
 stein received permission to revisit his native 
 country. He was accordingly directed to 
 proceed to Vittoria, and join himself there to 
 the sort of caravan which year by year passed, 
 under a strong escort, through the dangerous 
 defiles of the Pyrenees into France. I went 
 with him, of course, and never enjoyed my- 
 self more, in every sense of the term, than 
 during the week or two which, while waiting 
 for the assembling of the party, we spent in 
 the capital of the Basque provinces. Yittoria 
 is a singularly pleasant place, — for a Spanish
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 257 
 
 town clean and tidy, and well regulated; 
 and, being built along the side of a hill, is 
 very healthy, besides being abundantly sup- 
 phed with pure and excellent water. It 
 struck me, also, that the people were more 
 ahve to the influences of climate than those 
 of the more fertile plains of Castile and Ar- 
 ragon. The women, in particular, were both 
 beautiful in point of feature, and singularly 
 graceful, as well in their attire as in their 
 movements; and the humbler classes came 
 too near, in their habits, to what we read of 
 the damsels of old Palestine and Greece, not 
 to be in my eyes objects of peculiar interest. 
 Like the orientals, they go to draw water at 
 the public fountain ; and the vases in which 
 they carry home the pure element are at 
 once strictly classical in their shape, and poised, 
 w^ith classical exactness, on the heads of the 
 bearers. It used to excite both our surprise and 
 interest to see with what unerring exactitude 
 they bore their pitchers from the well to their 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 own houses. There was no balancing the 
 instrument by means of the hand. Planted 
 upon the top of the head, it appeared to rest 
 there by virtue of some balancing powder 
 inherent in the bearer; and over the rough- 
 est ground, as surely as over the smoothest, 
 she passed without spilhng a drop. I can- 
 not tell how often I have been tempted to 
 stand by and admire these beautiful "drawers 
 of water," and if from time to time I was 
 tempted to carry on with one or another a 
 little innocent flirtation, I pray the more 
 rigid of my readers not to judge me too 
 harshly for the act of imprudence. 
 
 If any thing could have taught the French 
 that their chances of reducing Spain to obe- 
 dience were blank, the care which they 
 were obliged to exercise for the purpose of 
 passing the most ordinary convoy across the 
 border ought to have done so. I believe 
 that there was no instance on record of a 
 moderately-sized party attempting that pas-
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 259 
 
 sage, and saving so much as an individual 
 alive, to tell how it had fared with his com- 
 panions. And even the accumulations of 
 months, though escorted by a strong batta- 
 lion, were glad by all manner of disguises to 
 conceal the true moment of their starting. 
 I found, for example, that, inclusive of sick, 
 wounded, weary, and persons whom real 
 business drew out of Spain, not fewer than 
 10,000 people were, when I reached Yittoria, 
 assembled there, for the single purpose of 
 being passed, under a military guard, into 
 France. Moreover, a corps of 600 infantry, 
 with four fieldpieces, were appointed to guard 
 them; and of waggons laden with baggage, and 
 public and private plunder, there was no end. 
 Yet, multitudinous as we were, it was not 
 accounted safe to undertake the threading 
 of those dangerous defiles, except under the 
 protection of a stratagem. Thus there came 
 out an order from the commandant, warn- 
 ing the travellers that, at a certain hour in 
 s2
 
 260 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 the morning of the third day subsequently 
 to the issue of his proclamation, they should 
 be ready to begin their journey. As might 
 be expected, intelhgence of this arrange- 
 ment spread far and wide through the pro- 
 vinces, and, without doubt, the guerillas 
 were everywhere on the alert, to intercept 
 and profit by the movement. But we stole 
 a march upon them. On the day immedi- 
 ately succeeding that on which the gover- 
 nor's handbill took its place at the corners 
 of the streets, there appeared a supple- 
 mentary command, by which we were di- 
 rected to pack our baggage, and hold our- 
 selves in readiness to move in one hour. 
 
 Never was the wisdom of any arrange- 
 ment more distinctly proved than this. We 
 had scarcely cleared the outskirts of the 
 town, ere groups of brigands began to draw 
 near us, which seemed to accumulate 
 strength in proportion as we penetrated 
 deeper and deeper among the mountains.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON". 261 
 
 But tliey never acquired sucli a power of 
 numbers as to justify tliem in their own 
 eyes in making a serious attack; and we, in 
 consequence, suffered nothing from first to 
 last except from an occasional and very 
 desultory fire of musketry. At the same 
 time there was enough, in the whole pro- 
 gress of the journey, to divert my attention- 
 for the moment, and to make a deep im- 
 pression upon my memory. In the first 
 place, the scenery exceeded, in point of 
 grandeur, all through which I had previously 
 passed. So bold, indeed, were the ascents, 
 and so steep the paths by which we re- 
 gained the depths of the valleys, that over 
 and over again I used to wonder how cars, 
 and waggons, and even horses, contrived to 
 traverse them. And then the wood was 
 gorgeous in the extreme: the magnificent 
 cork-tree overshadowing the base of 
 mountains, — on the sides, and here and 
 there the brows, of which waved far and
 
 262 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 wide whole forests of oak, and pine, and hazel. 
 But that which gave to our journey its most 
 engrossing interest was the constant proximity 
 of bands of robbers, who, like the vultures 
 that hover over a battle-field, seemed to 
 track our course, and seize every opportu- 
 nity that offered of molesting us. Repeatedly 
 •were we fired upon from the summits of in- 
 accessible corries, and repeatedly threatened 
 with more serious interruptions, which, 
 however, our great numerical superiority, 
 aided by the excellency of the device which 
 had hindered them from assembling in force 
 enough to meet us, effectually prevented. 
 Yet the knowledge that danger was con- 
 stantly at hand failed not to produce its ef- 
 fects as well upon the imaginative as upon 
 the timid. And, finally, the bracing na- 
 ture of the climate operated upon our nerves 
 and spirits to an extent which I have no 
 language adequate to describe. But the 
 case may be judged of so soon as I state, that
 
 THE LIGHT DEAGOON. 263 
 
 when, towards sunset on tlie second day, we 
 arrived in sight of Irun, there were com- 
 paratively few among ns who did not expe- 
 rience a sensation not very far from regret 
 that their perils were surmounted. 
 
 If I felt sorry at first on finding that I had 
 quitted the salubrious air of the mountains, 
 the feeling was at once dispelled when, to 
 my great surprise, I found myself addressed, 
 just after entering the town, by one who 
 spoke to me in excellent English, and whom, 
 in spite of the total change in his style and 
 attire, I soon recognised as a former com-- 
 rade in the 11th. I think that I have else- 
 where spoken of one Nicholas Brown, an 
 American by birth, who served in my 
 own troop, and whose liberation from the 
 prison at Salamanca I had been the means 
 of procuring. But, however this may be, 
 the person who now addressed me proved 
 to be this same Brown, and the reception 
 which he gave me was not more creditable
 
 264 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 to himself than it was, in the highest de- 
 gree, acceptable to me. I confess that, when 
 we first encomitered, I was a good deal sur- 
 prised by the elegance of his attire and 
 bearing. Neither was the sentiment di- 
 minished when he conducted me to his 
 apartments, — three well-furnished rooms in 
 the commandant's house, — and, ringing the 
 bell, ordered a servant to provide all things 
 necessary for our recreation. So, also, the 
 display of his wardrobe, his jewellery, and, 
 though last not least, his ready money, im- 
 pressed me with sentiments of great resj)ect. 
 But when the truth came out, my surprise, 
 at least, suffered a remarkable diminution. 
 The commandant's lady — not his wife — had, 
 it appeared, taken a fancy to Brown. She 
 was young, beautiful, and extremely fasci- 
 nating; and Brown, acting as men in his 
 circumstances are apt to do, readily gave 
 himself up to the bright intoxication. All 
 his wishes were in consequence prevented;
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 265 
 
 and lie very fairly told me, that, let him 
 escape from the condition of a prisoner when 
 he might, he would certainly not rejoin his 
 regiment. I confess that, bearing the fact 
 in my mind, that he was not an English- 
 man by lineage, I scarcely blamed him for 
 this; but, even if I had, the fact of his 
 meditating a public wrong to the state would 
 have scarcely justified me, in my own eyes, 
 for rejecting his private kindness. I spent 
 a day with him very pleasantly; and, next 
 morning, when we marched, as we did at 
 five o'clock, he rode several miles in my 
 company; neither did we part without feel- 
 ings of sincere and mutual regret. 
 
 We halted for a couple of days in Bayonne, 
 of the position and capabilites of which it is 
 not necessary for me to say any thing. The 
 intrenched camp, which at a later stage in 
 the war covered and rested upon it, was 
 not then begun; neither were the sluices 
 taken up, nor the low ground flooded; but
 
 266 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 the permanent fortifications both of the town 
 and the citadel were in excellent order ; and 
 being a sort of depot station for most of the 
 regiments employed in the north and east 
 of Spain, it could boast of a strong, if not a 
 very homogeneous garrison. It is cut in 
 halves, as the reader doubtless knows, by 
 the river Adour; and can boast of a popu- 
 lation greater by far, than the surface ex- 
 tent of the site would lead the traveller to 
 imagine. But I cannot say that my remem- 
 brances of Bayonne are very agreeable ; so I 
 content myself with stating, that we turned 
 our backs upon it with little regret ; and 
 plunging into that strange and wild district 
 called the Llandes, passed on by way of Dax, 
 towards Bordeaux. 
 
 The Llandes have been too often and too 
 accurately described by other travellers, to 
 render so much as an allusion to the pecu- 
 liarity of the scenery admissible from me. It 
 is an enormous plain of sand, which extends
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 267 
 
 along the sea from Bayonne to Bordeaux, 
 and measures, at a moderate computation, 
 at least two hundred miles in length, by 
 fifty or sixty, or perhaps more, in breadth. 
 In ancient times, the sands used to be quite 
 bare, and to shift, like those of the desert 
 of Alexandria, with every high wind that 
 blew, till a pious monk — whose name I 
 heard, but have forgotten — showed his 
 countryman how to reclaim, by planting the 
 waste with pine-trees. The roots of the 
 pine served as braces to bind the sand toge- 
 ther. The leaves and cones, as they fell and. 
 decayed, created a soil ; and now we come, 
 from time to time, in traversing a huge 
 forest, upon extensive clearances, over which 
 flocks of sheep and herds of cattle wander, 
 and neat villages are scattered. It struck 
 me, also, that the inhabitants of the Llandes 
 were a very happy, as well as a primitive 
 race. They seemed to have every thing 
 about them in abundance, which is neces-
 
 268 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 sary to sustain life, and many articles of 
 simple luxury. Moreover, they were light 
 of heart, free of speech, bold hunters of the 
 wolf and of the bear ; and, as I could gather 
 as much from what I saw as what I heard, 
 daring smugglers. Yet they appeared to be 
 an innocent race, notwithstanding this latter 
 propensity ; and their deference for their 
 priests was worthy of the patriarchal times. 
 Many a pleasant dance I had with the young 
 women^ and many a pleasant chat with the 
 old, after our tents were pitched, and our 
 horses dressed, and our convoy estabhshed. 
 
 We traversed the Llandes in the space, if 
 I recollect right, of five days, having been 
 greatly interested throughout the journey, 
 as well with the nature of the country, as 
 with the happy condition of its inhabitants. 
 Our resting-place was Bordeaux, of which, 
 for the same reasons which held me back 
 from describing Bayonne, I do not think 
 that it is worth while to say any thing. It
 
 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 269 
 
 is a noble city, very clean, full of bustle, and 
 adorned with many gorgeous edifices ; and 
 enriched as well as beautified by the proxi- 
 mity of the Garonne, which, in a fine volume 
 of water, flows past it. Besides, the oppor- 
 tunities afforded me of minutely examining 
 the place were not great ; for my master 
 having brought with him certain relics of a 
 French general who had been a friend of his, 
 and fallen in battle, set out, on the day after 
 our arrival, for the chateau in which the 
 widow dwelt, that he might tell her how her 
 husband's last moments were spent, and hand^ 
 over to her his treasures. I dare say, that to 
 the poor bereaved lady the visit was sad 
 enough, for she was a young and delicate 
 creature, not more, as it seemed, than twenty- 
 five years of age ; and her countenance, when 
 I saw her, told a tale of hopes altogether 
 blighted. But to me the excursion was full 
 of interest, and therefore I may as well make 
 mention of it.
 
 270 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 The chateau towards which our steps 
 were turned, lay a good day's journey from 
 Bordeaux ; and to reach it, we passed 
 through a succession of vineyards, inter- 
 spersed with luxuriant groves of olive and 
 myrtle. The highest order of cultivation, 
 too, was present everywhere, and food for 
 ourselves, as well as forage for our horses, 
 was both cheap and abundant. But it was 
 the abode of the widow and her domestic 
 establishment that principally engaged my 
 attention ; for any thing more gorgeous, yet 
 peculiar, I never witnessed. We reached a 
 village towards dusk, at the bottom of which 
 stood the chateau, — a fine mansion, with ex- 
 tensive stables and outhouses attached, — and 
 our reception, so soon as my master's name 
 had been announced, was of the most gra- 
 tifying kind. The entire household seemed, 
 indeed, to greet our arrival as a jubilee. My 
 master was led at once into the presence of 
 the lady ; while I had the horses taken from
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 271 
 
 me, and was conducted into a room^ where 
 a dozen maids were assembled, and seated 
 forthwitli as the honoured guest among 
 them. Not one word of their language could 
 I speak, nor one in a dozen could I under- 
 stand; and as for my efforts, whether I ad- 
 dressed them in English, or Spanish or Ger- 
 man, they were ahke unprofitable to gain 
 a hearing. Yet we continued to converse, 
 amid a great deal of laughter, by signs; and 
 as to drinking healths, that was managed by 
 hob-nobbing our glasses at momentary inter- 
 vals. It was, upon the whole, the most 
 amusing meal that I ever ate; and the 
 viands, as well as the wines, were excellent. 
 We spent two days with the French ge- 
 neral's widow, throughout which we were 
 treated with the greatest possible kindness. 
 My master was sumptuously lodged, in an 
 apartment the walls of which were entirely 
 covered with mirrors, and the floor laid with 
 oak, on which the polish was so fine that,
 
 272 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 till I pulled off my boots, I at least could not 
 stand upon it without slipping. There was, 
 too, a peculiarity about that chamber, which, 
 on one occasion put me to some inconve- 
 nience. The door shut with a spring ; and 
 being, hke the panels, overlaid with glass, I 
 found it impossible to make my way out 
 again, till my master, waking from his first 
 sleep, put his hand upon the catch and 
 threw it open. As to my own billet, it was 
 extremely comfortable, though in a remote 
 and gloomy wing of the castle. And then 
 the grounds were perfectly beautiful, with 
 parterres of flowers, terraces rising above 
 one another, all in the formal order of the 
 French school. But it is not worth while 
 to continue these details any further. We 
 abode in this hospitable mansion till the 
 morning of the third day ; on the arrival of 
 which we bade our friends farewell, and re- 
 turned the same evening to Bordeaux.
 
 THE LIGHT DRA.GOON. 273 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 I pursue my Journey — Domestic Brawl — A Sutler — 
 Germany — Dusseldorf — Changes of Fortune. 
 
 Our marcli from Bordeaux carried us 
 by easy stages through a very beautiful 
 country, the whole surface of which was co- 
 vered with vine plantations. We halted, 
 likewise, for one night in a large town, of 
 which I have forgotten the name, but which, 
 from its general aspect, and the business in 
 which the inhabitants were engaged^ re- 
 minded me very much of Birmingham. By- 
 and-by we reached Orleans, still famous for 
 its statue of Joan of Arc in the market- 
 place, and well filled, at the period of which 
 I now speak, with English detenus. I can- 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 not, however, pretend to give any description 
 of a city in which my sojourn extended not 
 beyond a single day ; nor, which was at the 
 moment still more mortifying to myself, did 
 I on that occasion visit Paris at all. For, 
 though the count had gone before us to the 
 capital, his instructions to us were, that we 
 should turn short by the road to the Rhenish 
 provinces, without touching on the great 
 city; and we, albeit sorely mortified at the 
 circumstance, had no choice except to obey. 
 Accordingly, we journeyed on, leisurely and 
 very pleasantly, through a rich country, and 
 under the influence of a genial sun ; taking 
 care to halt, whenever the opportunity of- 
 fered, at some pleasant village for the night, 
 and always meeting from the villagers a very 
 friendly reception. 
 
 We (I mean the count's domestics and 
 baggage) were attended throughout the 
 march by a small escort of Polish dragoons. 
 I mention this fact, because the wife of one
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 275 
 
 of the party acted as a sort of sutler to the 
 cavalcade, and by the oddity of her appear- 
 ance, as well as the strangeness of her pro- 
 ceedings, was the occasion of a good deal of 
 merriment and some wonder. She was sin- 
 gularly short, and happened to be in a state 
 when women in general avoid horse exercise. 
 Yet there she was, day after day, mounted 
 cross-legged on a brute at least seventeen 
 hands high, and laden with eggs, bottles, and 
 glasses, out of which she dispensed, with a 
 liberal hand, Cognac to such as required it. 
 One day we missed her from her accustomed 
 place. The cavalcade set forward, and she 
 went not with it ; ay, and more extraordi- 
 nary still, when the halting hour came, the 
 Circular Pole^ as we called her, failed to 
 make her appearance ; so we were forced to 
 get our schnaps, sorely against our will, at 
 the auberge. In Hke manner the march of 
 the following day began, without restoring 
 us to our Hebe ; and something like anxiety 
 t2
 
 276 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 was rising among us, when all at once there 
 was seen in the rear a tall horse at a swing- 
 ing trot, and a human form, or else that of a 
 baboon, perched upon its back. The ques- 
 tion of humanity did not, however, remain 
 unsolved long after the apparition arrived 
 within ear-shot ; for the old cry, " Boir, 
 boir, monsieurs, ein glass brande-wine," 
 soon told us that our old friend was still in 
 the land of the Hving. Nor did she come 
 alone: strapped upon her back, like a bundle 
 of rags, was a thumping boy, which in the 
 stable of the last halting-place had first seen 
 the light ; and which, as well as its mother, 
 showed that it was sound in wind, whatever 
 might be the case as to limbs. I confess 
 that I was astounded ; yet what will not Na- 
 ture do when circumstances make extraordi- 
 nary demands on her? 
 
 In this manner we passed .the fortresses of 
 Cambray, Valenciennes, and Avesnes, at the 
 latter of which my fellow-servants and I came
 
 THE LIGHT DKAGOON. 277 
 
 to an open rupture. They had never for- 
 given me the favour which our common mas- 
 ter showed me, and here they made up their 
 minds to let me feel the extent of their 
 vengeance. It happened, either by accident 
 or design, that the coachman, after washing 
 the carriage, placed it exactly across my stable 
 door, so that I could neither get access to the 
 horses nor lead them out to water. I could 
 not suppose that there was design in the 
 matter, neither did I care to put his good 
 humour to the test by begging him to remove 
 it ; so I wheeled it on one side with my own , 
 hands, and proceeded to arrange the horses. 
 My work was yet incomplete, when forth 
 from the house rushed my comrades: the 
 valet took the lead, and a volley of abuse was 
 instantly heaped upon me. At first I kept 
 my temper wonderfully. I asked them what 
 was wrong, and received in reply only fresh 
 abuse; till, by-and-by, my anger was in its 
 turn kindled, and I told the valet that, if he
 
 278 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 were not an old man, I would wring his nose 
 from his face. " Would you ?" cried he, 
 " we'll see." So saying, he ran aside, armed 
 himself with a sword, and advanced towards 
 me in a menacing attitude. I was very much 
 irritated, dashed into the stable, got a good 
 broom- handle^ and rushing out, prepared to 
 do battle; but lo! my enemy was gone. I 
 searched for him everywhere, but in vain; 
 till at last a thought striking me that he 
 might have ensconcedhimself in the carriage, 
 I wrenched open one of the doors, and he 
 leaped out through the other. Away he ran 
 across a meadow, still carrying with him the 
 naked sword, and away I set in pursuit; till, 
 coming up with him, I knocked the weapon 
 out of his hand, and laid him sprawling on 
 the grass. He now cried for quarter, and I 
 gave it; as, indeed, after soundly rating them 
 all, I extended my forgiveness to the rest of 
 the household; and it is but fair to add, that, 
 having amply apologised, and promised better
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOOK. 279 
 
 behaviour in tlie time to come, they con- 
 ducted themselves towards me ever after- 
 wards with the greatest good feeling and 
 attention. 
 
 We did not enter Paris, but leaving it 
 on one side, took the road by Liege, and 
 through Brabant, towards Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 It seemed to me as if a perpetual carnival 
 were established. The villages, as we tra- 
 versed them, were all alive with the gaie- 
 ties and dissipations of a fair; and strange 
 to say, the occurrence of each festival 
 seemed to keep pace with our arrival at. 
 the scene of the merry-making. I was 
 greatly pleased with all that I saw, and en- 
 joyed both the bustle of Liege, where there 
 are extensive iron- works, and the monastic 
 gravity of Aix-la-Chapelle, where Napoleon's 
 mother kept, in my day, a species of court, 
 and divided with the tomb of Charlemagne 
 the notice of strangers. The people did not
 
 280 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 speak in very favourable terms of her wliom 
 they described as the empress-mother. On 
 the contrary, they represented her to be 
 avaricious in the extreme; so much so, in- 
 deed, as to visit the market in person, and 
 cheapen the articles that might be needed 
 for her own household consumption.* But 
 the circumstance which most of all gave to 
 Aix-la-Chapelle its claims upon my notice 
 was, that here the count, who had rejoined 
 us near Paris, met, for the first time after three 
 years' absence, his wife and family. And 
 a very joyful greeting it was ; for the cou.n- 
 tess came, with her two daughters and her 
 sister, to welcome her lord to his home, and 
 
 * The Light Dragoon's observations agree in every 
 respect with what higher and better authority has told 
 us. Napoleon's mother was very stingy ; yet there was 
 a spirit of rationalism in it too. " You wish me to spend 
 more money," was her answer to many who complained. 
 " No, I will not. I shall have all these kings (mean- 
 ing her sons) to support yet."
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 281 
 
 a happier group it has seldom been my for- 
 tune to witness in any part of the world. 
 
 We spent a couple of days at Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, in order that the count and the 
 countess might, according to etiquette^ pay 
 their respects to the empress-mother; after 
 which we proceeded to Brael — for such was 
 the name of my master's chateau, and of the 
 grounds attached to it. The former was a 
 baronial castle, moated and drawbridged as 
 in ancient times, of prodigious extent, and 
 confronted by stabling and coach-houses, 
 where a hundred horses with a dozen of- 
 carriages might have been bestowed. The 
 farm-yard was also capacious, and contained 
 draught horses, cows, bulls, pigs, poultry, 
 and all the usual appliances of a country- 
 house, in abundance. So also the gardens, 
 the orchards, and the woods were extensive ; 
 yet over the whole hung an air of neglect 
 and desolation, such as bespoke a family in
 
 282 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 decay, or suffering from extreme mismanage- 
 ment in its affairs. I have reason to believe 
 that to the latter cause, rather than to the 
 encroachments of time or public calamity, 
 the dilapidated condition of Brael was owing; 
 for the late count had, it appeared, nomi- 
 nated his widow to be the guardian of the 
 property during his son's absence ; and the 
 widow, being a woman of very irregular 
 habits, cruelly abused the trust. The con- 
 sequence was^ that, when making a tour of 
 the castle, I found myself wandering from 
 one unfurnished room to another; the very 
 pictures themselves having been removed 
 from the walls and sold, in order that means 
 might be provided for the indulgence of her 
 passion for gaming. I never shall forget the 
 expression of the count's face when this 
 scene of waste and desolation opened upon 
 him. Not even the consciousness that he was 
 again in the bosom of his family seemed for 
 a while to afford him any relief: indeed, I
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 283 
 
 was half tempted to wonder that he did 
 not apply to be sent back to his regiment, 
 that, in the excitement and hurry of active 
 service, his private mortifications might be 
 forgotten. 
 
 The count was too little satisfied with his 
 dilapidated and unfurnished castle to make 
 there any lengthened stay ; yet a strong sense 
 of duty urged him to visit his mother, who 
 dwelt in another chateau, likewise his pro- 
 perty, at the distance of five leagues from 
 Brael. It was called Bolingdorf; and 
 thither, at the expiration of a few days, we 
 proceeded. The old lady, eccentric in the 
 extreme, gave us but a cool reception. We 
 abode with her, nevertheless, upwards of a 
 week, and greatly delighted the peasants and 
 retainers by our display both of pomp and 
 liberality: for the count, arraying his do- 
 mestics in new liveries, rode to church in 
 state, and gave a grand supper, to which a 
 ball succeeded, in the largest of the barns
 
 284 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 that adjoined the mansion. Going to church 
 in state, however, much more feasting the 
 lowly on costly viands were not at all in 
 the countess's way; so she and her son were 
 not slow in discovering that one house 
 would be too small to contain them both. 
 Wherefore our family removed to my mas- 
 ter's town-house in Dusseldorf; and there, 
 not unpleasantly, abovit a year of my ex- 
 istence was spent. 
 
 Having now exchanged the condition of a 
 soldier for that of a domestic in a private 
 family, my readers will probably agree with 
 me in opinion, that our wisest course will 
 be, not to adhere any longer to the form of a 
 connected narrative, but simply to describe 
 such occurrences as from to time to time 
 befel — to which at the moment some mea- 
 sure of interest was attached, and of which 
 the remembrance is still cherished. Let me, 
 then, begin by stating that the year which I 
 spent in the neighbourhood of the Rhine was
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 285 
 
 that which witnessed the infliction of the 
 first great blow upon the colossal empire of 
 Napoleon. The Russian campaign was 
 begun, and the drain of men and horses, not 
 upon France alone, but upon all the States 
 subject to French influence, was terrible. 
 Among other districts, the duchy of Berg, 
 of which Dusseldorf is the capital, received 
 orders, early in 1813, to supply the grand 
 army with a reinforcement of five thousand 
 infantry and five hundred cavalry. Instantly 
 the conscription was called into play. Berg 
 had already been pretty well denuded of 
 the stoutest and most active of its youth; 
 but the present demand was peremptory, 
 and was carried out in total disregard of 
 mercy. Accordingly, the names of all the 
 male inhabitants between the ages of fif- 
 teen and fifty being already in the keep- 
 ing of the proper authorities, a sort of 
 lottery-drawing took place, and forth from 
 the city ^went the gendarmes in every di-
 
 286 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 rection to secure their prizes. It was shock- 
 ing to see the poor wretches brought in, 
 twenty or thirty in a string, tied round the 
 neck with one cord, the end of which was 
 fastened to a mounted pohceman's saddle. 
 And then for their lodging they had a parti- 
 cular barrack, being well and rigidly guarded 
 there by a body of old French soldiers, every 
 effort to corrupt whose fidelity proved as 
 fruitless as were the endeavours to elude or 
 deceive their vigilance. Once, and once only, 
 a band of conscripts contrived, by rising sud- 
 denly upon the guard, to break through the 
 barrier; of whom about two hundred effected 
 their escape ; but even they, after wandering 
 some days in the woods, were glad to give 
 themselves up again ; for the authorities hav- 
 ing taken care to register each conscript as 
 he came in, noting down the exact name and 
 residence of his father and mother, the con- 
 script himself became from that instant a 
 mere instrument in their hands. Had he
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 287 
 
 deserted, they did not care so much as to 
 look for him; but they sent a patrol to his 
 father's house, seized the old man, threw him 
 into prison, and kept him there till his son 
 came back to his standard. There was not 
 one of all the two hundred fugitives who 
 was not by these means recovered: for filial 
 piety was in those days an active principle in 
 Germany, nor was its power to influence the 
 behaviour of individuals ever more clearly 
 shown than in the case of which I am now 
 speaking. 
 
 Such was the process by which five thou- 
 sand men were, in the space of a few days, 
 brought together. To collect the horses a 
 device not less summary was adopted. Wher- 
 ever the police agents saw within the duchy 
 an animal which seemed to be fit for military 
 service, they, without inquiring into its age 
 or capabilities, seized it. The proprietor 
 might complain, but who regarded him? 
 He received, in compensation for the loss
 
 288 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 of his beast, an order upon the treasury for 
 seven pounds sterling, which, in ninety-nine 
 instances out of a hundred, proved to be 
 worth its value in paper, and no more. 
 
 The men and horses being gathered to- 
 gether, the next thing was to officer and drill 
 them ; the former of which measures was 
 carried out, at least in the cavalry, by break- 
 ing up the skeleton of a lancer regiment which 
 had served in Spain, and distributing the 
 troopers, as captains, lieutenants, and sub- 
 lieutenants, throughout the newly-raised 
 levy. With respect again to the infantry, 
 I believe that an attempt was made to place 
 them under the command of those of their 
 own countrymen to whom in civil life they 
 had been accustomed to look up ; but it very 
 imperfectly succeeded. Be this, however, 
 as it may, three short weeks were all that 
 could be granted for organizing and training 
 tlie recruits ; at the termination of which 
 the whole were pronounced fit for service,
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 289 
 
 and received the rout to march into Eussia. 
 Surely there never took the field such a 
 body of cavalry ; for the men were incapa- 
 ble of sitting their horses, and the horses un- 
 broken to obey the bridle, far less the sound 
 of the trumpet ; and as to the infantry, they 
 could prime and load, certainly, and fire, and 
 load again ; but of the evolutions of a com- 
 mon company's parade they knew nothing. 
 Still the cry for men was great at head- 
 quarters, and the order was issued for the 
 Bergers to march, after their officers should 
 have presented themselves at a grand enter- 
 tainment which General Travier, the indi- 
 vidual appointed by the authorities at Paris 
 to superintend the equipment of the levies 
 in this quarter, had determined to give. 
 
 I was present at the dinner, my master, 
 Count Golstein, having purposely desired me 
 to wait upon himself ; and a scene more per- 
 fectly ludicrous, more unlike to every thing 
 of the sort which I had ever witnessed be- 
 
 VOL. I. u
 
 290 THE LIGHT DRAGOOI^. 
 
 fore, never, I must admit, passed under my 
 observation. At the upper table, where sat 
 General Travier, my master, the civil and 
 military authorities of the place, and several 
 men of rank from the neighbouring districts, 
 matters went forward pretty much as at 
 public dinners they are wont to do ; but 
 among the gentry who crowded the long 
 tables that stretched from one end of the 
 hall to the other, a widely different state 
 of things prevailed. There was scrambling 
 and pushing while the viands were before 
 them, — one was heaping an entire dish of 
 vegetables on his plate, another seizing and 
 keeping possession of a joint or a stew. 
 This gallant captain upset a butter-boat in 
 his neighbour's lap, — that newly-fledged 
 lieutenant poured a jug of gravy over the 
 shoulder of his friend beside him. It was 
 everywhere " make sure of what you can 
 reach, and never think of asking whether 
 any body would like to share it with you."
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 291 
 
 And then, when the process of givmg toasts 
 began, surely no caricaturist^ in the most 
 extravagant flight of his fancy, ever ima- 
 gined aught so grotesque. General Travier, 
 to be sure, pledged the emperor with great 
 spirit 5 and, though not one in twenty un- 
 derstood a word of what he said, was greeted, 
 till he sat down, with cheers. Then fol- 
 lowed " Success to the grand army," which 
 was prefaced by an assurance that " the gen- 
 tlemen whom he had the honour to address 
 were fortunate men, inasmuch as they were 
 about to march to certain glory, of which 
 the fruits would be a speedy advancement 
 to rank, distinctions, and wealth." That, 
 too, was cheered, not least vociferously by 
 those who could not comprehend a syllable 
 of the argument which the eloquent speaker 
 laboured to establish. But by-and-by wilder 
 and louder words were heard. The gentle- 
 men at the lower tables, conceiving that time 
 was precious, helped themselves in bumpers, 
 u2
 
 292 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 and soon got drunk ; wliereupon the occu- 
 pants of the high table withdrew ; and even 
 my disposition to laugh gradually exchanged 
 itself for a sense of deep disgust, and I, 
 though nowise required to do so, followed 
 my master. 
 
 Next morning, at seven o'clock, ^ve thou- 
 sand Berger infantry, and five hundred ca- 
 valry, began their march towards Russia. 
 It was a piteous spectacle that, — for wives, 
 and mothers, and sisters threw themselves 
 wildly into the ranks, and the sound of la- 
 mentation rose high above the notes of mar- 
 tial music. But what availed it ? The de- 
 cree had gone forth, — the ill-fated conscripts 
 held their way, — and few, if any, ever re- 
 turned to tell how it fared with them amid 
 the snows and frosts of Muscovy. 
 
 As the act of organizing this corps kept 
 Dusseldorf in a state of extreme bustle, so 
 the stillness that prevailed after the troops 
 had marched struck me as something awful.
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 293 
 
 You saw no human beings in tlie streets ex- 
 cept women and children. Even the old 
 men were few in number ; for the conscrip- 
 tion, like the standard of height, was often 
 stretched ; and they, like the women, seemed 
 to be fairly bowed down with sorrow for 
 the loss of their offspring. Every occurrence, 
 therefore, which promised in any way to 
 break in upon the gloom of total inaction 
 was hailed, at least by me, as a relief ; and 
 two there did occur, very different in them- 
 selves to be sure, yet both so striking that 
 I cannot think of passing them by unnoticed. 
 The first was the execution of a woman 
 and her paramour for the murder of the 
 husband of the former. The deceased had, 
 it appeared, by frugality and ceaseless la- 
 bour, contrived to amass some money as a 
 maker of brooms, which brooms he was in 
 the habit of cutting in a wood not far from 
 the city. He, therefore, finding years 
 increase upon him, hired a man to as- 
 sist him, and his wife proceeded to form
 
 294 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 with that person an iUicit connexion. 
 They say that Love is Wind, and, 
 without all doubt, he showed himself, in 
 this instance, to be at least fearfully short- 
 sighted ; for while the frail fair one was 
 really a handsome woman, the gallant, if 
 not absolutely deformed, was but by a hair- 
 breadth removed from deformity. Never- 
 theless he had charms in the eyes of the 
 broom-maker's wife, so irresistible, that at 
 last it was agreed between them that the 
 husband should be put out of the way. 
 
 The poor man was missed ; but as his 
 wife represented him to have gone on a visit 
 to some relatives at a distance nobody in- 
 quired further, and for several weeks all 
 went on smoothly. At the termination of 
 this interval, however, a body was found, 
 very much decomposed, yet distinguishable 
 as that of the broom-maker, floating on the 
 surface of a pond or small lake, which lay 
 deep in the forest whence his besoms used to 
 be drawn. It was immediately conveyed
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 295 
 
 into the city, and the woman and her lover 
 being arrested, arrangements were made for 
 putting them on their trial. How closely 
 does the eye of Providence watch over the 
 life of man ; and how rarely are they who 
 shed man's blood permitted to escape. Two 
 children, the eldest only eleven years old, 
 had, as it now came out, been spectators of 
 the butchery. They saw the old man — for 
 he was full sixty years of age — come, with his 
 journeyman and his wife, to his accustomed 
 spot, and stoop down, as he was wont to do, 
 for the purpose of cutting the heather where 
 it was longest. He was thus employed 
 when his servant stole behind and felled him 
 to the ground with a blow from a bludgeon. 
 The blows were repeated till his victim 
 ceased to struggle ; and then he, with his 
 paramour, dragged the body to the edge of 
 the pond and threw it in. But life, as it 
 appeared, had not been extinguished ; for 
 the guilty pair turning round, after they had
 
 296 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 proceeded some way from the spot, beheld 
 tlieir victim dragging himself towards the 
 shore, by means of the bulrushes which grew 
 in large quantities round the edges of the 
 pond. Instantly the woman turned back, 
 and, seizing a broom-handle, she pushed her 
 husband back into the water, and held him 
 under till he expired. 
 
 These facts having been proved at the 
 trial, there could, of course, be no doubt as 
 to the nature of the sentence. Both criminals 
 were condemned to be guillotined; but as it 
 was necessary in those days to get the sen- 
 tence of death confirmed at Paris, several 
 weeks elapsed ere the wretched pair were 
 taught that with them the business of the 
 world was ended. The woman, I was as- 
 sured, made very strenuous efforts to obtain, 
 if not a pardon, at least a commutation of her 
 sentence. She offered to pay as much as ten 
 thousand dollars into the imperial treasury. 
 Yet the emperor, or his representatives,
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 297 
 
 though sorely pressed for the sinews of war, 
 refused^ point blank, to have any deaUngs 
 with her. Accordingly the day was fixed, 
 and at the time appointed she and her part- 
 ner in crime were brought from the prison to 
 the scaffold, each in an open cart, and each 
 attended by a priest, who seemed, to do him 
 justice, most assiduous in the discharge of 
 his duty. The wretched woman looked to 
 her spiritual comforter with attention. Her 
 whole demeanour, likewise, was that of one 
 who knows that it is the reverse of a light 
 matter to die ; whereas the man, either from- 
 ignorance, or because he was more master of 
 himself, exhibited no symptoms at all of con- 
 cern. Both were, however, firm; nor did 
 she, even when the executioner stripped her 
 to the waist, shrink from her doom. But I 
 must not go on. It is a horrible species of 
 punishment. Easy it may be to the delin- 
 quent, when compared with strangulation; 
 but on the spectator the effect is far more
 
 298 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 disgusting: for there is something frightful 
 in the Hteral shedding of blood, especially as 
 by the guillotine it is shed— in torrents. Let 
 me, then, be content to state, that in three 
 seconds after they had been fastened to the 
 machine they lay before us, successively, 
 headless trunks; while we, or at least I, 
 turned away, utterly sickened by the spec- 
 tacle of which I had been the witness. 
 
 The second anecdote which I undertook to 
 repeat has reference to a phenomenon on 
 which, for aught I know to the contrary, may 
 be founded the well-known legend which re- 
 cords the destruction of a tyrannical chief in 
 his own castle, on the Rhine, by an inroad of 
 rats. The country about Dusseldorf is sub- 
 ject to periodical visitations from myriads of 
 field-mice. These tiny marauders advance 
 in such numbers, that every effort to destroy 
 them fails ; and wherever they go they mow 
 down the standing wheat before them, as 
 surely and wellnigh as quickly, as a band of
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 299 
 
 reapers. They feed entirely on the roots of 
 the stalk; and, grubbing for their food, while 
 the stalk is yet green, they utterly destroy as 
 they go forward. Moreover, they can neither 
 be arrested nor turned out of their direct 
 route ; but forward they go,Hkethe hurricane, 
 in a straight line, and their operations are 
 scarcely than the hurricane less destructive. 
 I tried to persuade the people that, if they 
 would only dig a deep and wide trench across 
 the field, the small marauders would be 
 stopped; but they paid no attention to me. 
 And the consequence was, that, throughout , 
 a space of several miles, — on a plateau not 
 very wide, to be sjre, but exceedingly fer- 
 tile, — all the labours of the seed-time were 
 rendered profitless, and the husbandmen en- 
 tirely cheated of their harvest. At last the 
 army of foragers reached a running stream, 
 which they could not pass; and I believe 
 that, in their efforts to do so, they all 
 perished.
 
 300 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 The people of Berg are very superstitious, 
 and, in one sense of the phrase, extremely 
 philosophical. No sooner were the mice 
 gone, than they set about collecting the da- 
 maged grain, laying it up as forage for the 
 cattle during the winter. And, while they 
 shrugged their shoulders, and declared that 
 the visitation came from God, and could not, 
 therefore, be avoided, they comforted them- 
 selves by the anticipation of a crop, tenfold 
 more abundant than that which had been 
 lost, on the following autumn. I have rea- 
 son to beheve that the calculation in question 
 never fails them. Whether it is that the mice 
 manure the land as they go on, or that the 
 removal of the grain by the process of mining 
 spares the soil more than if it were reaped, I 
 cannot pretend to say; but experience has 
 shown, that the season immediately succeed- 
 ing that of a visitation of the sort is invariably 
 more prolific, by many degrees, than the sea- 
 sons usually are. So bountiful is nature in
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 301 
 
 all her arrangements, even when she seems 
 at times to have declared war against us. 
 
 Time passed; and each new week — I 
 might have said each new day — beheld de- 
 tachment auer detachment arrive from the 
 interior of France, halt to organize itself, and 
 provide horses for the conveyance of its bag- 
 gage, and then push on, as the event proved, 
 to certain destruction. Every animal that 
 could move or carry a load, be it ever so 
 trifling, was, of course, taken up, and my 
 kind master, among others, parted with all 
 his stud, leaving me, for the first time since' 
 I joined him, entirely destitute of employ- 
 ment. It was under these circumstances, 
 and with his entire approbation, that I con- 
 sented to transfer my services to an English 
 family, called Grainger, then resident in the 
 place, and with them for a while I lived in 
 great comfort, albeit certainly not in idleness. 
 But the crisis had come, on which, at a period 
 not remote, he would have been accounted
 
 302 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 insane who should have reckoned; and bands 
 of stragglers, making their way back to their 
 homes, told us of the entire overthrow of 
 the grand army. The battle of Leipsic was 
 fought; and the wreck of the combatants 
 might, it appeared, be expected in full retreat 
 for the Ehine, which they desired to inter- 
 pose between themselves and their pursuers. 
 Moreover, the vigilance of the French in 
 guarding their prisoners, as well on the Ger- 
 man as on the opposite side of the river, seemed 
 to relax; and, one after another, the captives 
 regained their freedom, though not without 
 the endurance of much suffering. I remember 
 one bitter cold day, in the depth of the winter 
 of 1813-14, going out early in the morning 
 for the purpose of w^ashing the carriage, and 
 encountering at the yard-gate a spectacle 
 which greatly interested me. It was a young 
 man, dripping with wet, from whose person 
 the icicles were hanging, and v^-ho earnestly 
 besought me to tell whether there was not
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 303 
 
 an Englishman in the place. After a little 
 discussion, I made myself known, and learned 
 that he, a countryman of my own, with three 
 others, had escaped from a depot of prisoners 
 on the other side, and, swimming the Khine, 
 were now all but dead from cold, having 
 crouched together throughout the night in 
 a gravel'pit. I took them in, as may be 
 supposed, carried them to the servants' hall, 
 lighted a good fire in the stove, and from my 
 own wardrobe supplied them with a change 
 of dress. My master likewise behaved to 
 them with great kindness; and, conceahng- 
 them for a while, we eventually contrived to 
 pass them on, by a route which secured to 
 them a good chance of reaching England in 
 safety. They had, it appeared, been mates 
 of merchant-vessels, in which capacity they 
 were taken; and the name of one was Eo- 
 binson, from Tooley-street, in the Borough. 
 I cannot recall to my remembrance the pre- 
 cise channel through which intelligence of
 
 304 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 their safe return to London reached me ; yet 
 I know that they did escape in a smuggler 
 from Holland. I hope that they have since 
 prospered. 
 
 The Englishmen were scarcely gone, when 
 evidences, more and more conclusive, of the 
 turn which affairs had taken at Napoleon's 
 head-quarters, began everywhere to exhibit 
 themselves. Rumour after rumour came in 
 of fresh disasters sustained, and of a universal 
 disposition exhibiting itself throughout the 
 whole of the Ehenish provinces, to rise 
 against the iron yoke under which they had 
 so long lain. The people, indeed, were 
 everywhere eager to be led against their 
 oppressors; but chiefs to direct the insur- 
 rection were wanting, and the conse- 
 quence was, that an outbreak which oc- 
 curred at Elberfeldt was put down, with 
 great loss to the insurgents. It was deter- 
 mined, also^ by the victors to make an ex- 
 ample of four of the ringleaders, by putting
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 305 
 
 them publicly to death in the four most po- 
 pulous towns in the district; and one, an 
 unfortunate weaver, was brought to Dussel- 
 dorf, that he might there undergo the sen- 
 tence which a court-martial had awarded. 
 I went to the great square, for the purpose 
 of witnessing his execution ; and a very 
 shocking sight it was. The poor man, who 
 had been wounded in the battle, was carried 
 upon a sort of litter, by four French grena- 
 diers, and laid down in the market-place, 
 scarcely if at all conscious of what was 
 going on. A coffin had already been pre- 
 pared for him, and he was thrown on the 
 ground beside it ; in which attitude he was 
 shot, I verily believe, after the breath had 
 gone forth from the body. Neither this bar- 
 barous act, however, nor many more of a like 
 nature, sufficed to stem the tide of events, 
 which swept irresistibly onwards. The pe- 
 riod of French domination was come, and 
 
 VOL. I, X
 
 306 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 tlie lapse of a few days made all parties, 
 whether friends or foes, aware of the fact. 
 
 While I was looking, like all around me, 
 
 for what each new day might bring forth, I 
 
 chanced, once upon a time, to pass through 
 
 the market-place, where I encountered a 
 
 man leading a mule by the halter, whom I 
 
 felt myself irresistibly compelled to examine 
 
 closely. My surprise may be imagined, when 
 
 I recognised, in the squalid object before me, 
 
 the same Joseph, who, on my first capture 
 
 in Spain, had behaved to me with so much 
 
 kindness. He had, it appeared, followed 
 
 his master all the way to Moscow, and 
 
 shared in the hardships of the subsequent 
 
 retreat, at some stage in wliich the General 
 
 was wounded, and sent on, with others in a 
 
 similar phght, to France. Joseph, however, 
 
 did not accompany him, but marched with 
 
 his mule, throughout that inclement season, 
 
 which cost the invaders of Russia so many
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 307 
 
 lives, and utterly destroyed the Frencli 
 army. I took liim to my liome, of course, 
 and strongly urged his making his way to 
 England through Holland; but he refused 
 to act on my advice. " The mule is loaded 
 with my master's property," said he, " and 
 I cannot bear the thought of wronging him 
 of one fragment of it. I will take my 
 chance, penetrate into France, and, having 
 delivered it up, return home as I best can." 
 There was no blaming him for acting on a 
 principle of such perfect honesty, so I con- 
 tented myself with giving him a share of my 
 worldly goods, and recommending him to 
 keep well ahead of the retreating army, I 
 saw him to the edge of the Khine. and there 
 took leave of him. 
 
 I had just parted from Joseph, when I 
 learned from some market-people that a 
 corps of French troops was in full march 
 towards the town. About noon they ar- 
 rived, some six or seven hundred in num-
 
 308 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 
 
 ber, bringing with tliem two eight -pounders 
 and a howitzer. They encamped outside 
 the barrier, whither, with many more, I 
 went to see them. Never have I beheld 
 troops in such a pitiable plight. Their 
 arms, I beheve, were serviceable enough, 
 but their clothes were all in tatters; and 
 their frames, emaciated from constant fa- 
 tigue, and the absence of regularity in their 
 diet, seemed altogether unequal to any fur- 
 ther exertion. Their morale^ likewise, ap- 
 peared to be affected almost in an equal 
 degree with their physical powers, for the 
 very name of a Cossack made them shud- 
 der, and they were evidently incapable of 
 showing any steady front, if attacked. Nor, 
 indeed, was it intended that they should 
 attempt a stand on this side of the Rhine, 
 the object of their movement on Dusseldorf 
 being to get possession of the flying bridge, 
 and to carry that, with every boat and 
 barge that lay near, out of the reach of their
 
 THE LIGHT DRAGOON. 309 
 
 pursuers. Accordingly, after a halt of a 
 few days, during which period Buonaparte 
 with his staff and body-guard arrived, and 
 a regiment of cavalry with some more in- 
 fantry joined them, the whole moved oflf 
 without having offered to the town the 
 slightest molestation, and established them- 
 selves in a camp which had already been 
 formed along the farther bank, and from 
 which both they and their leaders hoped to 
 guard effectually against the passage of the 
 Rhine by the Allies. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 C. WHITIN':, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILUN0I9-UMBANA 
 
 3 0112 045857916 
 
 
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