254 
INGILBY DIARY. 
June loth. Puebla d'Azarva in Spain. The Brigade became permanently 
attached to the 1st Division of Iufantry, which consisted of the 
Guards, German Legion, two Highland Regiments, and the 24th 
Regiment. 
„ nth. The Army advanced in two Corps and passed the Aqueda. 
, i 3 th. Bivouacked at Zenebron. 
* uth. Tamames. 
„ isth. Yilla Alba de los Llanos. 
„ i6th. Matella. In the night of the 17th the French Army quitted Sala¬ 
manca, and on the 18th we passed the Tormes above the town at the 
ford of La Martha and bivouacked on the right bank. The French 
had fortified a large convent and another smaller detached building, 
and left a garrison in each. The latter commanded the approach by 
the old Roman bridge over the Tormes leading into the town. They 
had also levelled all the houses and buildings near both forts and made 
a clear space of between 200 and 300 yards towards the town for the 
range of their cannon. 
Towards the other side the forts were defended by the Tormes, 
which ran pretty close under the walls of both buildings. The forts 
were immediately invested, and in the night of the 18th we used 
the greatest exertions to construct two batteries, one to be directed 
against each fort. There was a great scarcity of tools and the ground 
excessively hard, but notwithstanding at sunrise we commenced the 
fire, but the shots from the forts shattered our incomplete and flimsy 
batteries, constructed out of the rubbish and ruins of the levelled 
houses; and the materials made use of, such as flock mattresses, &c., 
for want of sods in order to face the works and keep up the dry 
crumbling of the embrasures, caught fire from the muzzles of the 
howitzers and proved very inconvenient, and, which effectually con¬ 
tributed to aid the enemy's fire, rendered our battery, at least for the 
howitzers, nearly untenable. Notwithstanding, after a few hours we 
succeeded in battering down the side wall of the convent, which fell, 
accompanied by the cheers of the gunners, but it was useless, and 
failed to fill up the ditch, or offer any appearance of facilitating an 
assault. Captain Elige was killed on the spot, and the gunners 
suffered severely. Kneeling and placing myself at an embrasure to 
watch the effects of a shot in order to ascertain how far we were 
correct in our fire, I gave the order without turning, “ Fire ” for the 
howitzer on my left hand, by mistake the non-commissioned officer 
fired the piece which was exactly behind me and close to my head, 
while looking through the embrasure. Completely stunned by the 
violence of the concussion I fell, of course, as if shot, but soon recover¬ 
ing no other mischief seemed done than by the fire singeing my hair 
and tarnishing the epaulet on my right shoulder and excepting that 
both my ears gushed out with blood instantly. Presently after the 
Commander-in-Chief came into the battery and addressing some ques¬ 
tions to me, I found myself too completely deafened to hear a syllable. 
„ 20 th. The French Army advanced with the intention to raise the siege. 
We moved forward and took up a position upon the heights of St. 
Christoval and Mourisca, a league in front of Salamanca, and left 
