364 THE BATTLE OF TALAVERA. 



darted a jet of flame from the sombre rank of French guns on our 

 left, and all was bustle amongst the groups of horse artillerymen 

 around them. Life seemed to have been instantaneously imparted 

 to both lines : flash succeeded flash, and report broke on the echoes 

 of report, till the lateral streams of sulphureous smoke, issuing succes- 

 sively from the grim mouths of the guns, circled broadly upwards, 

 and began to roll majestically over towards us. Presently our own 

 cannon began to answer : many bodies of light and heavy infantry 

 to our left advancing forwards, expanded their flanks, and drew out 

 in the valley : files of horse artillery, the trampling of their hoofs 

 mingling with the heavy roll of the following gun-carriages, were 

 galloping up into array ; and the voices of officers, the rattle of 

 drums, the thundering of the enemy's cannon, and the now frequent 

 discharges of that portion of the British which had come up, grandly 

 announced that the battle was commencing in reality. Under cover 

 of this heavy cannonade, the enemy pushed forward two divisions of 

 infantry to storm the height on our flank. By this time the whole 

 field was filled with clouds of white smoke, and it was only through 

 their intervals that I could catch a cloudy view of those who were 

 advancing. They reached the height, and rushed on at the charge 

 step; but from the jets of snow-white smoke which shot forward 

 from the melee, the unintermitting rattle of musketry, and the 

 flash of bayonets, I could see that their reception was warm and 

 unwavering. We were placed just on the ascent, and had a full 

 though not clear view of the conflict. The ground was most bravely 

 contested by our light-armed infantry, and through the smoke we 

 could see man after man fall beneath the thrust of the British bayonet. 

 The firing became hotter and fiercer : the officers were, on both 

 sides, to be seen running here and there, cheering on their men, and 

 combating in the thickest of the press. Meantime, fresh bodies of 

 men were brought forward from the rear of the two divisions ; they 

 were as gallantly received ; and the foremost ranks of the enemy, 

 falling into fragments, were thrown into irretrievable disorder. This 

 was the time for fresh efforts : the English soldiery pushed bravely 

 forwards, striking down the foremost, 'fusilading those who were 

 remote or detached, and carrying forward the whole, like sheep 

 before the bayonet. Amidst the rattle of this partial engagement, 

 pealed the thunders of the French and British artillery : showers of 

 balls were flying in all directions; horses and men falling, and fresh 

 tides of stifling smoke rolling upwards in extending masses. I could 

 see nothing but smoke, and the hundred flashes of the cannon. The 

 whole scene was filled with snow-white drifting vapour, through 

 which, phantom-like, groups would now and then flit into evanescent 

 existence. The noise of the ordnance was prodigious, and their 

 successive bangs, intermixed with the dropping fire of musquetry, 

 seemed the precursors of a universal destruction. Rumbling echoes 

 boomed heavily over the distant mountains, while a hundred rattlings 

 seemed to ring in various directions through the nearer atmosphere. 

 The attempt of the enemy to storm the height had entirely failed: 

 repulsed by the bayonets of Major General Hill's division, covered 

 by their guns, they retreated in the smoke to their own lines. 



