CHAPTER SEVEN.
The shout Of battle now began, and rushing sound Of onset ... 'Twixt host and host but narrow space was left. MILTON.
From the deservedly high character borne by the captain of the frigatewhich I was ordered to join, he was employed by Lord Collingwood on themost confidential services; and we were sent to assist the Spaniards intheir defence of the important fortress of Rosas, in Catalonia. It hasalready been observed that the French general St. Cyr had entered thatcountry, and, having taken Figueras and Gerona, was looking with awistful eye on the castle of Trinity, on the south-east side, thecapture of which would be a certain prelude to the fall of Rosas.
My captain determined to defend it, although it had just been abandonedby another British naval officer, as untenable. I volunteered, though asupernumerary, to be one of the party, and was sent: nor can I butacknowledge that the officer who had abandoned the place had shown morethan a sound discretion. Every part of the castle was in ruins. Heapsof crumbling stones and rubbish, broken gun-carriages, and split guns,presented to my mind a very unfavourable field of battle. The onlyadvantage we appeared to have over the assailants was that the breachwhich they had effected in the walls was steep in the ascent, and theloose stones either fell down upon them or gave way under their feet,while we plied them with every kind of missile. This was our onlydefence, and all we had to prevent the enemy marching into the works, ifworks they could be called.
There was another and very serious disadvantage attending our locality.The castle was situated very near the summit of a steep hill, the upperpart of which was in possession of the enemy, who were by this meansnearly on a level with the top of the castle, and on that eminence,three hundred Swiss sharpshooters had effected a lodgement, and thrownup works within fifty yards of us, keeping up a constant fire at thecastle. If a head was seen above the walls, twenty rifle-bulletswhizzed at it in a moment, and the same unremitted attention was paid toour boats as they landed.
On another hill, much to the northward, and consequently, furtherinland, the French had erected a battery of six 14-pounders. Thisagreeable neighbour was only three hundred yards from us, and, allowingshort intervals for the guns to cool, this battery kept up a constantfire upon us from daylight till dark. I never could have supposed in myboyish days that the time would arrive when I should envy a cock uponShrove Tuesday; yet such was case when in this infernal castle. It wascertainly not giving us fair play; we had no chance against such aforce; but my captain was a knight-errant, and as I had volunteered, Ihad no right to complain. Such was the precision of the enemy's fire,that we could tell the stone that would be hit by the next shot, merelyfrom seeing where the last had struck, and our men were frequentlywounded by the splinters of granite with which the walls were built, andothers picked off, like partridges, by the Swiss corps on the hill closeto us.
Our force in the castle consisted of a hundred and thirty English seamenand marines, one company of Spanish, and another of Swiss troops inSpanish pay. Never were troops worse paid and fed or better fired at.We all pigged in together, dirty straw and fleas for our beds; our foodon the same scale of luxury; from the captain downwards there was nodistinction. Fighting is sometimes a very agreeable pastime, but excess"palls on the sense:" and here we had enough of it, without what Ialways thought an indispensable accompaniment, namely, a good bellyfull;nor did I conceive how a man could perform his duty without it; but hereI was forced, with many others, to make the experiment, and when theboats could not land, which was often the case, we piped to dinner _proforma_ as our captain liked regularity, and drank cold water to fill ourstomachs.
I have often heard my poor uncle say that no man knows what he can dotill he tries; and the enemy gave us plenty of opportunities ofdisplaying our ingenuity, industry, watchfulness, and abstinence. Whenpoor Penelope wove her web, the poet says:--
"The night unravelled what the day began."
With us it was precisely the reverse: the day destroyed all the laboursof the night. The hours of darkness were employed by us in fillingsand-bags, and laying them in the breach, clearing away rubbish, andpreparing to receive the enemy's fire, which was sure to recommence atdaylight. These avocations, together with a constant and most vigilantwatch against surprise, took up so much of our time that little was leftfor repose, and our meals required still less.
There was some originality in one of our modes of defence, and which,not being _secundum artem_, might have provoked the smile of anengineer. The captain contrived to make a shoot of smooth deal boards,which he received from the ship: these he placed in a slanting directionin the breach, and caused them to be well greased with cook's slush; sothat the enemies who wished to come into our hold, must have jumped downupon them, and would in an instant be precipitated into the ditch belowa very considerable depth, where they might either have remained tillthe doctor came to them, or, if they were able, begin their labours _denovo_. This was a very good bug-trap; for, at that time, I thought justas little of killing a Frenchman as I did of destroying the filthylittle nightly depredator just mentioned.
Besides this slippery trick, which we played them with great success, weserved them another. We happened to have on board the frigate a largequantity of fish-hooks; these we planted, not only on the greasy boards,but in every part where the intruders were likely to place their handsor feet. The breach itself was mined, and loaded with shells andhand-grenades! masked guns, charged up to the muzzle with musket-balls,enfiladed the spot in every direction. Such were our defence; and,considering that we had been three weeks in the castle, opposed to suchmighty odds, it is surprising that we only lost twenty men. The crisiswas now approaching.
One morning, very early, I happened to have the look-out. The streak offog which during the night hangs between the hills in that country, andpresses down into the valleys, had just begun to rise, and the stars togrow more dim above our heads, when I was looking over the castle-walltowards the breach. The captain came out and asked me what I waslooking at. I told him I hardly knew; but there did appear somethingunusual in the valley, immediately below the breach. He listened amoment, looked attentively with his night-glass, and exclaimed, in hisfirm voice, but in an undertoned manner, "To arms!--they are coming!"
In three minutes every man was at his post; and though all were quick,there was no time to spare, for by this time the black column of theenemy was distinctly visible, curling along the valley like a greatcentipede; and, with the daring enterprise so common among the troops ofNapoleon, had begun in silence to mount the breach. It was an awful andeventful moment; but the coolness and determination of the littlegarrison was equal to the occasion.
The word was given to take good aim, and a volley from the masked gunsand musketry was poured into the thick of them. They paused--deepgroans ascended! They retreated a few paces in confusion, then rallied,and again advanced to the attack; and now the fire on both sides waskept up without intermission. The great guns from the hill fort, andthe Swiss sharpshooters, still nearer, poured copious volleys upon us,and with loud shouts cheered on their comrades to the assault. As theyapproached and covered our mine, the train was fired, and up they wentin the air, and down they fell buried in the ruins. Groans, screams,confusion, French yells, British hurras, rent the sky! The hillsresounded with the shouts of victory? We sent them hand-grenades inabundance, and broke their shins in glorious style. I must say that theFrench behaved nobly, though many a tall grenadier and pioneer fell bythe symbol in front of his warlike cap. I cried with rage andexcitement; and we all fought like bull-dogs, for we knew there was noquarter to be given.
Ten minutes had elapsed since the firing began, and in that time many abrave fellow had bit the dust. The head of their attacking column hadbeen destroyed by the explosion of our mine. Still they had re-formed,and were again half-way up the breach when the day began to dawn; and wesaw a chosen body of one thousand men, led on by their colonel, andadvancing over the dead which had just fa
llen.
The gallant leader appeared to be as cool and composed as if he were atbreakfast; with his drawn sword he pointed to the breach, and we heardhim exclaim, "_Suivez moi_!" I felt jealous of this brave fellow--jealous of his being a Frenchman; and I threw a lighted hand-grenadebetween his feet--he picked it up, and threw it from him to aconsiderable distance.
"Cool chap enough that," said the captain, who stood close to me; "I'llgive him another," which he did, but this the officer kicked away withequal _sang froid_ and dignity. "Nothing will cure that fellow,"resumed the captain, "but an ounce of lead on an empty stomach--it's apity, too, to kill so fine a fellow--but there is no help for it."
So saying, he took a musket out of my hand, which I had just loaded--aimed, fired--the colonel staggered, clapped his hand to his breast, andfell back into the arms of some of his men, who threw down theirmuskets, and took him on their shoulders, either unconscious orperfectly regardless of the death-work which was going on around them.The firing redoubled from our musketry on this little group, every manof whom was either killed or wounded. The colonel, again left tohimself, tottered a few paces further, till he reached a small bush, notten yards from the spot where he received his mortal wound. Here hefell; his sword, which he still grasped in his right hand, rested on theboughs, and pointed upwards to the sky, as if directing the road to thespirit of its gallant master.
With the life of the colonel ended the hopes of the French for that day.The officers, we could perceive, did their duty--cheered, encouraged,and drove on their men, but all in vain. We saw them pass their swordsthrough the bodies of the fugitives; but the men did not even mindthat--they would only be killed in their own way--they had had fightingenough for one breakfast. The first impulse, the fiery onset, had beenchecked by the fall of their brave leader, and _sauve qui peut_, whethercoming from the officers or drummers, no matter which, terminated theaffair, and we were left a little time to breathe, and to count thenumber of our dead.
The moment the French perceived from their batteries that the attempthad failed, and that the leader of the enterprise was dead, they pouredin an angry fire upon us. I stuck my hat on the bayonet of my musket,and just showed it above the wall. A dozen bullets were through it in aminute: very fortunately my head was not in it.
The fire of the batteries having ceased, which it generally did atstated periods, we had an opportunity of examining the point of attack.Scaling-ladders and dead bodies lay in profusion. All the wounded hadbeen removed, but what magnificent "food for powder" were the bodieswhich lay before us!--all, it would seem, picked men; not one less thansix feet, and some more: they were clad in their grey _capots_, torender their appearance more _sombre_, and less discernible in thetwilight of the morning: and as the weather was cold during the nights,I secretly determined to have one of those great-coats as a _chere amie_to keep me warm in night-watches. I also resolved to have the colonel'ssword to present to my captain; and as soon as it was dark I walked downthe breach, brought up one of the scaling-ladders, which I deposited inthe castle; and having done so much for the king, I set out to dosomething for myself.
It was pitch dark. I stumbled on: the wind blew a hurricane, and thedust and mortar almost blinded me; but I knew my way pretty well. Yet,there was something very jackall-like, in wandering about among deadbodies in the night-time and I really felt a horror at my situation.There was a dreadful stillness between the blasts, which the pitchdarkness made peculiarly awful to an unfortified mind. It is for thisreason that I would ever discourage night-attacks, unless you can relyon your men. They generally fail: because the man of common bravery,who would acquit himself fairly in broad daylight, will hang back duringthe night. Fear and darkness have always been firm allies; and areinseparably playing into each other's hands. Darkness conceals fear,and therefore fear loves darkness, because it saves the coward fromshame; and when the fear of shame is the only stimulus to fight,daylight is essentially necessary.
I crept cautiously along, feeling for the dead bodies. The first I laidmy hand on, made my blood curdle. It was the lacerated thigh of agrenadier, whose flesh had been torn off by a hand-grenade. "Friend,"said I, "if I may judge from the nature of your wound, your great-coatis not worth having." The next subject I handled, had been betterkilled. A musket-ball through his head had settled all his tradesmen'sbills; and I hesitated not in becoming residuary legatee, as I was surethe assets would more than discharge the undertaker's bill; but the bodywas cold and stiff, and did not readily yield its garment.
I, however, succeeded in obtaining my object; in which I arrayed myself,and went on in search of the colonel's sword; but here I had beenanticipated by a Frenchman. The colonel, indeed, lay there, stiffenough, but his sword was gone. I was preparing to return, when Iencountered, not a dead, but a living enemy.
"_Qui vive_?" said a low voice.
"_Anglais bete_!" answered I, in a low tone: and added, "_mais lescorsairs ne se battent pas_."
"C'est vrai," said he; and growling, "_bon soir_," he was soon out ofsight. I scrambled back to the castle, gave the counter-sign to thesentinel, and showed my new great-coat with a vast deal of glee andsatisfaction; some of my comrades went on the same sort of expedition,and were rewarded with more or less success.
In a few days, the dead bodies on the breach were nearly denuded bynightly visitors; but that of the colonel lay respected and untouched.The heat of the day had blackened it, and it was now deprived of all itsmanly beauty, and nothing remained but a loathsome corpse. The rules ofwar, as well as of humanity, demanded the honourable interment of theremains of this hero; and our captain, who was the very flower ofchivalry, desired me to stick a white handkerchief on a pike, as a flagof truce, and bury the bodies, if the enemy would permit us.
I went out accordingly, with a spade and a pick-axe; but the_tirailleurs_ on the hill began with their rifles, and wounded one of mymen. I looked at the captain, as much as to say, "Am I to proceed?" Hemotioned with his hand to go on, and I then began digging a hole by theside of a dead body, and the enemy, seeing my intention, desisted fromfiring. I had buried several, when the captain came out and joined me,with a view of reconnoitring the position of the enemy. He was seenfrom the fort, and recognised; and his intention pretty accuratelyguessed at.
We were near the body of the colonel, which we were going to inter; whenthe captain, observing a diamond-ring on the finger of the corpse, saidto one of the sailors, "You may just as well take that off; it can be ofno use to him now." The man tried to get it off; but the rigidity ofthe muscles after death prevented his moving it. "He won't feel yourknife, poor fellow," said the captain; "and a finger more or less is nogreat matter to him now: off with it."
The sailor began to saw the finger-joint with his knife, when down camea twenty-four pound shot, and with such a good direction that it tookthe shoe off the man's foot, and the shovel out of the hand of anotherman. "In with him, and cover him up!" said the captain.
We did so; when another shot, not quite so well directed as the first,threw the dirt in our faces, and ploughed the ground at our feet. Thecaptain, then ordered his men to run into the castle, which theyinstantly obeyed; while he himself walked leisurely along through ashower of musket-balls from those cursed Swiss dogs, whom I mostfervently wished at the devil, because, as an aide-de-camp, I felt boundin honour as well as duty to walk by the side of my captain, fullyexpecting every moment that a rifle-ball would have hit me where Ishould have been ashamed to show the scar. I thought this funeral pace,after the funeral was over, confounded nonsense; but my fire-eatingcaptain never had run away from a Frenchman, and did not intend to beginthen.
I was behind him, making these reflections, and as the shot began to flyvery thick, I stepped up alongside of him, and by degrees brought himbetween me and the fire. "Sir," said I, "as I am only a midshipman, Idon't care so much about honour as you do; and therefore, if it makes nodifference to you, I'll take the liberty of getting under your lee." Helaughed,
and said, "I did not know you were here, for I meant you shouldhave gone with the others; but, since you are out of your station, MrMildmay, I will make that use of you which you so ingeniously proposedto make of me. My life may be of some importance here; but yours verylittle, and another midshipman can be had from the ship only for asking:so just drop astern, if you please, and do duty as a breastwork for me!"
"Certainly, sir," said I, "by all means;" and I took my stationaccordingly.
"Now," said the captain, "if you are `_doubled up_,' I will take you onmy shoulders!"
I expressed myself exceedingly obliged, not only for the honour he hadconferred on me, but also for that which he intended; but hoped I shouldhave no occasion to trouble him. Whether the enemy took pity on myyouth and _innocence_, or whether they purposely missed us, I cannotsay: I only know I was very happy when I found myself inside the castlewith a whole skin, and should very readily have reconciled myself to anymeasure which would have restored me even to the comforts andconveniencies of a man-of-war's cockpit. All human enjoyment iscomparative, and nothing ever convinced me of it so much and so forciblyas what took place at this memorable siege: Fortune, and the well-knowncowardice of the Spaniards, released me from this jeopardy; theysurrendered the citadel, after which the castle was of no use, and weran down to our boats as fast as we could; and notwithstanding the veryassiduous fire of the watchful _tirailleurs_ on the hill, we all got onboard without accident.
There was one very singular feature in this affair. The Swissmercenaries in the French and Spanish services, opposed to each other,behaved with the greatest bravery, and did their duty with unexceededfidelity; but being posted so near, and coming so often in contact witheach other, they would cry truce for a quarter of an hour, while theymade inquiries after their mutual friends; often recognising each otheras fathers and sons, brothers and near relatives, fighting on oppositesides. They would laugh and joke with each other, declare the truce atan end, then load their muskets, and take aim, with the sameindifference, as regarded the object, as if they had been perfectstrangers; but, as I before observed, fighting is a trade.
From Rosas we proceeded to join the admiral off Toulon; and beinginformed that a battery of six brass guns, in the port of Silva, wouldbe in possession of the French in a few hours, we ran in, and anchoredwithin pistol-shot of it. We lashed blocks to our lower mast-heads,rove hawsers through them, sent the ends on shore, made them fast to theguns, and hove off three of them, one after another, by the capstan; andhad the end of the hawser on shore, ready for the others, when ourmarine videttes were surprised by the French, driven in, and retreatedto the beach, with the loss of one man taken prisoner.
Not having sufficient force on shore to resist them, we re-embarked ourparty, and the French, taking up a position behind the rocks, commenceda heavy fire of musketry upon us. We answered it with the same; and nowand then gave them a great gun; but they had the advantage of position,and wounded ten or eleven of our men from their elevated stations behindthe rocks. At sunset this ceased, when a boat came off from the shore,pulled by one Spaniard; he brought a letter for the captain, from theofficer commanding the French detachment. It presented the Frenchcaptain's compliments to ours; regretted the little interruption he hadgiven to our occupation; remarked that the weather was cold, and as hehad been ordered off in a hurry, he had not had time to provide himself;and as there was always a proper feeling among _braves gens_, requesteda few gallons of rum for himself and followers.
This request was answered with a _polite note_, and the spiritsrequired. The British captain hoped the commandant and his party wouldmake themselves comfortable, and have a _bon repos_. The captain,however, intended the Frenchman should pay for the spirits, though notin money, and sent in the bill about one o'clock in the morning.
All at that hour was as still as death; the French guard had refreshedthemselves, and were enjoying the full extent of our captain'sbenefaction, when he observed to us that it was a pity to lose the boatwhich was left on shore, as well as the other brass guns, and proposedmaking the attempt to bring off both. Five or six of us stripped, andlowering ourselves into the water very gently, swam ashore, in abreathless kind of silence that would have done honour to a Pawnee LoupIndian. The water was very cold, and at first almost took away myrespiration. We landed under the battery, and having first secured ourboat without noise, we crept softly up to where the end of the hawserslay by the side of the guns, to which we instantly made them fast.About a dozen French soldiers were lying near, keeping watch, fastasleep.
We might easily have killed them all; but as we considered they wereunder the influence of our rum, we abhorred such a violation ofhospitality. We helped ourselves, however, to most of the muskets thatwere near us, and very quietly getting into the boat, put off and rowedwith two oars to the ship. The noise of the oars woke some of thesoldiers, who, jumping up, fired at us with all the arms they had left;and I believe soon got a reinforcement, for they fired both quick andwell; and, as it was starlight and we were naked, our bodies were easilyseen, so that the shot came very thick about us.
"Diving," said I, "is not running away;" so over we all went, excepttwo. I was down like a porpoise, never rising till my head touched theship's copper. I swam round the stern, and was taken in on the sideopposite the enemy. My captain, I daresay, would have disdained such acompromise; but though I was as proud as he was, I always thought, withFalstaff, that "discretion was the better part of valour," especially ina midshipman.
The men left in the boat got safe on board with her. The hands were allready, and the moment our oars splashed in the water they hove roundcheerfully, and the guns came galloping down the rocks like youngkangaroos. They were soon under water, and long before the Frenchmencould get a cut at the hawsers. They then fired at them with theirmuskets, in hopes of stranding the rope, but they failed in that also.We secured the guns on board, and, before daylight, got under weigh, andmade sail for the fleet, which we joined shortly afterwards. I herelearned that my own ship had fought a gallant action with an enemy'sfrigate, had taken her opponent, but had suffered so much, that she wasordered home for repairs, and had sailed for England from Gibraltar.
I had letters of introduction to the rear-admiral, who was second incommand; and I thought, under these circumstances the best thing I coulddo would be to "clean myself," as the phrase used to be in those days,and go on board and present them. I went accordingly, and saw theflag-captain, who took my letters in to the admiral, and brought out averbal, and not a very civil message, saying, I might join the ship, ifI pleased, until my own returned to the station. As it happened to suitmy convenience, I did please; and the manner in which the favour wasconferred disburdened my mind of any incumbrance of gratitude. Thereception was not such as I might have expected: had the letters notbeen from people of distinction, and friends of the rear-admiral, Ishould much have preferred remaining in the frigate, whose captain alsowished it, but that was not allowed.
To the flag-ship, therefore, I came, and why I was brought here, I nevercould discover, unless it was for the purpose of completing a menagerie,for I found between sixty and seventy midshipmen already assembled.They were mostly youngsters, followers of the rear-admiral, and had seenvery little, if any, service, and I had seen a great deal for the time Ihad been afloat. Listening eagerly to my "yarns," the youthful ardourof these striplings kindled, and they longed to emulate my deeds. Theconsequence was, numerous applications from the midshipmen to be allowedto join the frigates on the station; not one was contented in theflag-ship; and the captain having discovered that I was the tarantulawhich had bitten them, hated me accordingly, and not a jot more than Ihated him.
The captain was a very large, ill-made, broad-shouldered man, with alack-lustre eye, a pair of thick lips, and a very unmeaning countenance.He wore a large pair of epaulettes; he was irritable in his temper; andwhen roused, which was frequent, was always violent and overbearing.His voice was like thunder and when he launche
d out on the poormidshipmen, they reminded me of the trembling bird which, whenfascinated by the eye of the snake, loses its powers, and falls at onceinto the jaws of the monster. When much excited, he had a custom ofshaking his shoulders up and down; and his epaulettes, on theseoccasions, flapped like the huge ears of a trotting elephant. At themost distant view of his person or sound of his voice, every midshipman,not obliged to remain, fled, like the land-crabs on a West-India beach.He was incessantly taunting me, was sure to find some fault or otherwith me, and sneeringly called me "one of your frigate midshipmen."
Irritated by this unjust treatment, I one day answered that I _was_ afrigate midshipman, and hoped I could do my duty as well as anyline-of-battle midshipman, of my own standing, in the service. For thisinjudicious and rather impertinent remark, I was ordered aft on thequarter-deck, and the captain went in to the admiral, and askedpermission to flog me; but the admiral refused, observing, that he didnot admire the system of flogging young gentlemen: and, moreover, in thepresent instance he saw no reason for it. So I escaped; but I led a sadlife of it, and often did I pray for the return of my own ship.
Among other exercises of the fleet, we used always to reef topsails atsunset, and this was usually done by all the ships at the same moment,--waiting the signal from the admiral to begin; in this exercise there wasmuch foolish rivalry, and very serious accidents, as well as numerouspunishments, took place, in consequence of one ship trying to excelanother. On these occasions our captain would bellow and foam at themouth, like a mad bull, up and down the quarter-deck. One fine eveningthe signal was made, the topsails lowered, and the men laying out on theyards, when a poor fellow from the main-topsail-yard fell, in his tryingto lay out; and, striking his shoulder against the main channels, brokehis arm. I saw he was disabled, and could not swim: and, perceiving himsinking, I darted overboard, and held him until a boat came and pickedhim up; as the water was smooth and there was little wind, and the shipnot going more than two miles an hour, I incurred little risk.
When I came on deck I found the captain fit for Bedlam, because theaccident had delayed the topsails going to the mast-head quite as quickas the rest of the fleet. He threatened to flog the man for fallingoverboard, and ordered me off the quarter-deck. This was a greatinjustice to both of us. Of all the characters I ever met with, holdingso high a rank in the service, this man was the most unpleasant.
Shortly after, we were ordered to Minorca to refit; here, to my greatjoy, I found my own ship, and I "shook the dust off my feet," andquitted the flag with a light heart. During the time I had been onboard, the admiral had never said, "How do ye do?" to me--nor did hesay, "Good bye," when I quitted. Indeed, I should have left the shipwithout ever having been honoured with his notice, if it had nothappened that a favourite pointer of his was a shipmate of mine. Irecollect hearing of a man who boasted that the king had spoken to him;and when it was asked what he had said, replied, "He desired me to getout of his way."
My intercourse with the admiral was about as friendly and flattering.Pompey and I were on the poop. I presented him with a piece of hide tognaw, by way of pastime. The admiral came on the poop, and seeingPompey thus employed, asked who gave him that piece of hide? The yeomanof the signals said it was me. The admiral shook his long spy-glass atme, and said, "By God, sir, if ever you give Pompey a bit of hide again,I will flog you."
This is all I have to say of the admiral, and all the admiral ever saidto me.