300 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[SEPT. 



what will be termed the quiet march of 

 friends over a friendly country. The wri- 

 ter is hastening 1 to overtake the army then 

 on its march towards France in the last 

 peninsular campaign. 



At length I could descry the wide and sweeping 

 track of the advancing armiesin the abstract, 

 melancholy to contemplate! The country was 

 chiefly covered with a luxuriant crop of corn, over 

 which the immense column of the army passed, 

 with its baggage, artillery, and cattle : the traces 

 of the cavalry of the infantry and of the can- 

 non, could be distinctly and plainly distinguished 

 from eacli other ; and although their road was 

 through the high and firm corn, the pressure upon 

 it was so great that nothing but clay could he seen, 

 except at the verges of the tracks, where the bro- 

 ken and trampled wheat was less over-trodden. 

 Then there was as much cut down for forage as de- 

 stroyed by feet; the mark of the rough sickle of 

 the commissaries, the dragoons, and the muleteers, 

 were in patches all around, disfiguring the beauti- 

 ful waving ocean of yellowing corn, &c. 



The siege of St. Sebastian is well de- 

 scribed. The author contradicts the 

 " Subaltern " here and there in several 

 particulars, and charges him with a little 

 occasional colouring at the same time, 

 allowing the general correctness of his 

 details : 



I went into the town through the breach, in the 

 evening, and there witnessed the true horrors of 

 war ; the soldiers were, for the most part, half 

 drunk all were busy plundering and destroying ; 

 every tiling of value was ransacked furniture 

 thrown out of the windows shops rifled packages 

 of goods torn open and scattered about the streets 

 close to the breach, as well as the breach itself, 

 covered with dead and wounded : over these 

 bodies, of necessity, I passed on my way. As few. 

 women were in the town, the horrors attending 

 the sex under such circumstances were also few ; 

 and the attempt at ill-treating a female on the day 

 subsequent to the capture of the town, was sum- 

 marily punished by Lord Beresford on the spot. 

 It was thus : although plunder was nearly sub- 

 dued on the day after entering St. Sebastian, yet 

 stragglers were prowling about in spite of all 

 efforts to prevent farther mischief: a woman was 

 looking out of a window on the first floor of a 

 house, and I saw a drunken Portuguese soldier run 

 into the passage directly befow where the woman 

 was. Lord Beresford happened to be walking a 

 little before me in a plain blse coat and cocked 

 hat, accompanied by another officer : his lordship 

 saw the Portuguese running into the house, and 

 presently we heard the screams of a female the 

 woman had gone from the window. Lord Beres- 

 ford instantly followed the Portuguese, and in a 

 few minutes brought his senhorship down by the 

 cullar; then with the flat of his sword gave the 

 fellow thatsi>it oi drubbing which a powerful man, 

 like his lordship, is capable of inflicting. Under 

 the circumstances I thought it well bestowed, and 

 far better than trying him by a court-martial. 



This, by the way, reminds us of a fact, 

 which we have never seen alluded to, 

 though it must be known to numbers 

 occurring at a place (the name of which 



we forget) the first halt on quitting Bur- 

 gos in the march to France surpassing 

 the rape of the Sabines in atrocity, and 

 perhaps in numbers. A regiment of dra- 

 goons between four and five hundred at 

 least as soon as they had stabled their 

 horses set out together, invaded the 

 town, seized the women, old and young, 

 married and single, without discrimina- 

 tion, and after effecting their purpose, 

 returned quietly to quarters. The deed 

 was done in the confidence that they were 

 too numerous to punish. The peasants 

 complained but no redress was to be 

 had ; they were unable to point out indi- 

 viduals all being dressed alike. The 

 matter was reported at head-quarters ; but 

 nothing could be done or at least nothing 

 was done ; the commander said it was 

 "too bad" smiled and the matter was 

 thought of no more. We do not state this 

 fact to throw blame on the commander. 

 It is one of the calamities of war but one 

 that should not be forgotten in the esti- 

 mate. Of the fact itself we have no doubt 

 whatever it came direct from a superior 

 officer of the corps. 



The following seems to be thought a 

 good thing such measures we suppose 

 are occasionally necessary : 



General Picton, like Otway's Pierre, was a 

 " bold rough soldier," that stopped at nothing; he 

 was a man whose decisions were as immutable, 

 as his conceptions were quick and effective, in all 

 things relative to the command which he held. 

 While in the Peninsula, an assistant commissary 

 (commonly called assistant-commissary general, 

 the rank of which appointment is equal to a cap- 

 tain's) through very culpable carelessness, once 

 failed in supplying with rations the third division 

 under General Picton's command, and on being 

 remonstrated with by one of the principal officers 

 of the division, on 'account of the deficiency, de- 

 clared, with an affected consequence unbecoming 

 the subject, that he should not be able to supply 

 the necessary demand for some days. This was 

 reported to the general, who instantly sent for the 

 commissary, and laconically accosted him with 

 " Do you see that tree, Sir?" 

 " Yes, General, I do. 1 ' 



" Well, if my division be not provided with ra- 

 tions to-morrow by twelve o'clock, I'll hang you 

 on that very tree." 



The confounded commissary muttered, and re- 

 tired. The threat was alarming; so he lost not a 

 moment in proceeding at a full gallop to head-quar- 

 ters, where he presented himself to the Duke of 

 Wellington, complaining most emphatically of the 

 threat which General Picton had held out to him. 

 " Did the General say he would hang you, Sir?" 

 demanded his grace. 



" Yes, my lord, he did," answered the commis- 

 sary. 



" Well, Sir," returned the Duke, ' if he said so, 

 believe me he means to do it, and you have no 

 remedy but to provide the rations." 



The spur of necessity becomes a marvellous use- 

 ful instrument in sharpening a man to activity; 

 and the commissary found it so ; for the rations 



