Chapter 10: Almeida.
The winter was long and tedious but, whenever the weatherpermitted, Terence set his men at work; taking them twice a weekfor long marches, so as to keep their powers in that directionunabated. The sandals turned out a great success. The men had nogreatcoats, but they supplied the want by cutting a slit in thecentre of their black blankets and passing the head through it.This answered all the purposes, and hid the shabby condition oftheir uniforms.
General Hill occasionally rode over to inspect this and the otherPortuguese regiments encamped near them.
"That is a very good plan of yours, Colonel O'Connor," he said, thefirst time the whole regiment turned out in their sandals. "It is amuch more sensible footgear than the boots."
"I should not have adopted them, General, if the men had had anyboots to put on; but those they had became absolutely unwearable.Some of the soles were completely off, the upper leathers were socut and worn that they were literally of no use and, in many cases.they were falling to pieces. The men like the sandals much better,and certainly march with greater ease. Yesterday they did thirtymiles, and came in comparatively fresh."
"I wish the whole army were shod so," the general said. "It wouldimprove their marching powers, and we should not have so many menlaid up, footsore. I should say that the boots supplied to the armyare the very worst that soldiers were ever cursed with. They areheavy, they are nearly as hard as iron when the weather is dry, andare as rotten as blotting paper when it is wet. It is quite anaccident if a man gets a pair to fit him properly. I believe itwould be better if they were trained to march barefooted. Theirfeet would soon get hardened and, at any rate, it would be animprovement on the boots now served out to them.
"I wish the other Portuguese regiments were as well drilled and aswell set up as your fellows. Of course, your men don't look smart,at present, and would not make a good show on a parade ground; butI hear that there are a large quantity of uniforms coming out,shortly; and I hope, long before the campaign opens, they will allbe served out. The British regiments are almost as badly off as thenative ones. However, I suppose matters will right themselvesbefore the spring; but they are almost as badly off, now, as theywere when they marched into Corunna. The absurdity of the wholething is that all the newly-raised Portuguese levies, who willcertainly not be called upon to cross the frontier until next year,have got uniforms; while the men who have to do the work are almostin rags."
Two or three of the officers of the Fusiliers rode over frequently,to stop for a night or so with Terence; and the latter found timepass much more pleasantly than he had done before Ryan had joinedhim. During the day both their hands were full; but the eveningswere very pleasant, now that he had Dick as well as Herrara to talkto. The feeling of the responsibility on his shoulders steadiedRyan a good deal, and he was turning out a far more usefulassistant than Terence had expected; but when work was over, hisspirits were as high as ever, and the conversation in Terence'stent seldom languished.
Spring came, but there was no movement on the part of the troops.Ney, with 50,000 men, began the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in earnest.The Agueda had now become fordable; and Crawford, with his lightbrigade, 2500 strong, was exposed to a sudden attack at any time.On the 1st of June Terence received orders to march with hisregiment to Guarda, where Wellington was concentrating the greaterportion of his army; leaving Hill, with 12,000 men, to guard thesouthern portion of the frontier.
Both the Spanish and Portuguese urged the general to relieve CiudadRodrigo; but Wellington refused, steadily, to hazard the wholefortune of the campaign on an enterprise which was unlikely tosucceed. His total force was but 56,000 men, of whom 20,000 wereuntried Portuguese. Garrisons had to be placed at several points,and 8000 Portuguese were posted at Thomar, a day's march fromAbrantes, as a reserve for Hill.
It was not only the 50,000 infantry and 8000 cavalry of Massena,who now commanded in front of Ciudad Rodrigo, that he had to reckonwith. Regnier's division was at Coria; and could, in three easymarches, reach Guarda; or in four fall on Hill at Abrantes; andwith but 26,000 men in line, it would have been a desperateenterprise, indeed, to attack 60,000 veteran French soldiers merelyfor the sake of carrying off the 5000 undisciplined Portuguesebesieged at Ciudad.
The Minho regiment had only received their new uniforms a monthbefore the order came, and made a good show as they marched intoGuarda, where Wellington's headquarters were now established. WhenTerence reported himself to the adjutant general, the latter said:
"At present, Colonel O'Connor, you cannot be employed in yourformer work of scouting. The French are altogether too powerful fora couple of battalions to approach them and, with 8000 cavalry,they would make short work of you. Crawford must soon fall backbehind the Coa. His position already is a very hazardous one. Ithas therefore been decided to place 1500 of your men along on thisside of the Coa and, with half a battalion, you will march at onceto Almeida to strengthen the garrison of that place which, as soonas Crawford retires, is certain to be besieged. It should be ableto offer a long and stout resistance.
"You will, of course, be under the general orders of thecommandant; but you will receive an authorization to takeindependent action, should you think fit: that is to say, if youfind the place can be no longer defended, and the commandant isintending to surrender, you are at liberty to withdraw yourcommand, if you find it possible to do so."
On the following morning the corps left Guarda and, leaving abattalion and a half on the Coa, under Herrara; Terence, with 500men, after a long march, entered Almeida that night. The town,which was fortified, was occupied only by Portuguese troops. It wascapable of repulsing a sudden attack, but was in no condition towithstand a regular siege. It was deficient in magazines and bombproofs; and the powder, of which there was a large supply, wasstored in an old castle in the middle of the town. On entering theplace, Terence at once called upon Colonel Cox, who was in command.
"I am glad that you have come, Colonel O'Connor," the latter said."I know that Lord Wellington expects me to make a long defence, andto keep Massena here for at least a month but, although I mean todo my best, I cannot conceal from myself that the defences areterribly defective. Then, too, more than half my force arenewly-levied militia, in whom very little dependence can be placed.Your men will be invaluable, in case of assault; but it is notassault I fear, so much as having the place tumbling about our earsby their artillery, which can be so placed as to command it fromseveral points. We are very short of artillery, and the guns arewell nigh as old as the fortifications."
"We will do our best, Colonel, in any direction you may point out;and I think that we could defend a breach against any reasonableforce brought against it. I may say that I have been ordered, ifthe worst comes to the worst, to endeavour to make my way out ofthe town before it surrenders."
For a fortnight the place was left unmolested. Crawford's divisionstill kept beyond the Coa, and his cavalry had had severalengagements with French reconnoitring parties. On the 2nd of July,however, the news came that, after a most gallant resistance,Ciudad Rodrigo had surrendered; and it was now certain that thestorm would roll westward, in a very short time. Massena, however,delayed strangely; and it was not until daylight on the 24th that asudden roll of musketry, followed almost immediately by a heavyartillery fire, told the garrison of Almeida that the lightdivision was suddenly attacked by the enemy.
Crawford had received the strictest orders not to fight beyond theCoa; but he was an obstinate man, and had so long maintained hisposition across the river that he believed that, if attacked, heshould be able to withdraw over the bridge before any very strongforce could be brought up to attack him. In this he was mistaken.The country was wooded, and the French march was unsuspected untilthey were close upon Crawford's force. The light division had,however, been well trained; indeed, it was composed of veteranregiments, and had been practised to get under arms with the leastpossible delay. They were, therefore, already drawn up when theFrench fell upon them and, fighting ha
rd and sternly, repelled allthe efforts of the enemy's cavalry to cut them off from the bridge.Driving back the French light infantry, the Light Division crossedin safety, although with considerable loss; and repulsed, withgreat slaughter, every attempt of the French to cross the bridge.
Almeida was now left to its fate. Again Massena delayed, and it wasnot until the 18th of August that the siege was begun. On the 26thsixty-five heavy guns, that had been used in the siege of CiudadRodrigo, opened fire upon the town. The more Terence saw of theplace, the more convinced was he that it could not long be held,after the French siege guns had been placed in position. Moreover,there was great lukewarmness on the part of several of thePortuguese officers, while the rank and file were dispirited by thefate of Ciudad Rodrigo, and by the fact that they had, as it seemedto them, been deserted by the British army.
"I don't like the look of things, at all," he had said to Bull andRyan, the evening before the siege guns began their work. "In thefirst place the defences will crumble, in no time, under the Frenchfire. In the second place, I don't think that the Portuguese, withthe exception of our own men, have any fight in them. Da Costa, thelieutenant governor, openly declares that the place is indefensible,and that it is simply throwing away the lives of the men to resist.He is very intimate, I observe, with Bareiros, the chief of theartillery. Altogether, things look very bad. Of course, we shallstay here as long as the place resists; but I am afraid that won'tbe for very long.
"I was speaking to Colonel Cox this afternoon. He is a brave man,and with trustworthy troops would, I am sure, hold the town untilthe last; but, unsupported as he is, he is in the hands of theserascally Portuguese officers. I told him that, if he ordered me todo so, I would undertake with my men to arrest the whole of them;but he said that that would bring on a mutiny of all their troops;and this, bad as the situation already was, would only make mattersmuch worse. I then suggested that, as the French are driving theirtrenches towards those two old redoubts outside the wall, I would,if he liked, place our force in them; and would undertake to holdthem, pointing out that if they fell into the hands of the enemythey would soon mount their cannon there, and bring down the wholewall facing in that direction.
"He quite agreed with that view of the case, but said that it wouldbe a very exposed position; still, as our fellows were certainlythe only trustworthy troops he had, he should be very glad if Iwould undertake the defence at once, as the French were pushingtheir approaches very fast towards them. I said that I was sure wecould hold them for some little time; and that, indeed, it seemedto me that the French intended to bombard the town rather than tobreach the walls, knowing the composition of the garrison and,perhaps, having intelligence that their courage would be so shaken,by a heavy fire, that the place would surrender in a much shortertime than it would take to breach the walls. Accordingly, he hasgiven me leave to march our men up there, at daybreak tomorrow;taking with us ten days' provisions.
"I said that if he had trouble with the other Portuguese regimentsI would, on his hoisting a red flag on the church steeple, march inat once to seize and shoot the leaders of the mutiny, if he wishedit. Of course, one of my reasons for wanting to take charge of theredoubts was that we should have more chance of withdrawing, fromthem, than we should of getting out of the town, itself, in theconfusion and panic of an approaching surrender."
Bull and Ryan both agreed with Terence and, at daybreak the nextmorning, the half battalion marched out, relieved the Portuguesetroops holding the two redoubts, and established themselves there.They had brought with them a number of intrenching tools, and wereaccompanied by an engineer officer. So, as soon as they reached theredoubts, several parties of men were set to work, to begin to sinkpits for driving galleries in the direction of the approaches thatthe French were pushing forward; while others assisted a party ofartillerymen to work the guns. Some of the best shots in the corpstook their places on the rampart, and were directed to maintain asteady fire on the French working parties.
The roar of cannon, when the French batteries opened fire on thetown, was prodigious; and it was not long before it was evidentthat there was no present design, on the part of the French, toeffect a breach.
"I expect they have lots of friends in the town," Terence said toDick Ryan, as they watched the result of the fire; "and they makesure that the garrison will very soon lose heart. Do you see howmany shots are striking the old castle? That looks as if the Frenchknew that it was the magazine. They are dropping shell there, too;and that alone is enough to cause a scare in the town, for if oneof them dropped into the magazine, the consequences would beterrific. They are not pushing on the trenches against us withanything like the energy with which they have been working for thepast week; and it is certainly curious that they should not keep upa heavier fire from their batteries upon us, for it is evident thatthey cannot make an assault, on this side of the town, at any rate,until they have captured our redoubts."
"I wish we were well out of it," Ryan exclaimed. "It is quitecertain that the place must fall, sooner or later; and though wemight beat the French back several times, it must come to the same,in the end. The thing I am most concerned about, at present, is howwe are to get away."
"I quite agree with you, Dick; and you know, we have had severallooks at the French lines, from the roof of the church. Theirbatteries are chiefly on this side of the town; but most of theirtroops are encamped on the other side, so as to be in readiness tomeet any attempt of Wellington to succour the place; and also toshow the garrison that there is no chance, whatever, of their beingable to draw off. We agreed that the chances would be much betterof getting out on this side than on the other."
"Yes; but we also agreed, Terence, that there would be a good dealmore difficulty in getting safely back; for practically the wholeof their army would be between us and Wellington."
"It will be a difficult business, Dicky, whichever way we go; and Isuppose that, at last, we shall have to be guided by circumstances."
In a very short time, fires broke out at several points in thetown. The guns on the walls made but a very feeble reply to theFrench batteries; and one or two bastions, where alone a brisk firewas at first maintained, drew upon themselves such a storm ofmissiles from the French guns that they were soon silenced.
"It is quite evident that the Portuguese gunners have not muchfight in them," Bull said.
"I am afraid it is the disaffection among their officers that isparalysing them," Terence said. "But I quite admit that it may begood policy to keep the men under cover. They really could do nogood against the French batteries; which have all the advantage ofposition, as well as numbers and weight of metal; and it wouldcertainly be well to reserve the troops till the French drive theirtrenches close up. If I thought that the silence of the guns on thewalls were due to that, I should be well content; but I am afraidit is nothing of the sort. If the French keep up their fire, as atpresent, for another forty-eight hours, the place will throw openits gates. The inhabitants must be suffering frightfully. Ofcourse, if Colonel Cox had men he could thoroughly rely upon, hewould be obliged to harden his heart and disregard the clamour ofthe townspeople for surrender; but as the garrison is prettycertain to make common cause with them, it seems to me that theplace is lost, if the bombardment continues."
In a short time, seeing that the working parties in the enemy'strenches made no attempt to push them farther forward, Terencewithdrew the men from their exposed position on the ramparts--leavingonly a few there on the lookout--and told the rest to lie down on theinner slopes, so as to be in shelter from the French fire. Bull wasin command of the force in the other redoubt, which was a quarter ofa mile away. The redoubts were, however, connected by a deep ditch,so that communication could be kept up between them, or reinforcementssent from one to the other, unobserved by the enemy, except by thoseon one or two elevated spots.
All day the roar of the cannon continued. From a dozen points,smoke and flame rose from the city, and towards these the Frenchbatteries chiefly di
rected their fire, in order to hinder theefforts of the garrison to check the progress of the conflagration.
Just after dark, as Ryan and Terence were sitting down in an angleof the bastion to eat their supper, there was a tremendous roar;accompanied by so terrible a shock that both were thrown prostrateupon the ground with a force that, for the moment, half stunnedthem. A broad glare of light illuminated the sky. There was therumble and roar of falling buildings and walls; and then came dull,crashing sounds as masses of brickwork, hurled high up into theair, fell over the town and the surrounding country. Then came adead silence, which was speedily broken by the sound of loudscreams and shouts from the town.
"It is just as we feared," Terence said as, bruised and bewildered,he struggled to his feet. "The magazine in the castle hasexploded."
He ordered the bugler to sound the assembly and, as the mengathered, it was found that although many of them had been hurtseverely, by the violence with which they had been thrown down,none had been killed either by the shock or the falling fragments.An officer was at once sent to the other redoubt, to inquire howthey had fared; and to give orders to Bull to keep his men underarms, lest the French should take advantage of the catastrophe, andmake a sudden attack.
"Ryan, do you take the command of the men, here, until I come back.I will go into the town and see Colonel Cox. I fear that the damagewill be so great that the town will be really no longer defensibleand, even if it were, the Portuguese troops will be so cowed thatthere will be no more fight left in them."
It was but five hundred yards to the wall. Terence was unchallengedas he ran up. The gate was open and, on entering, he saw that thedisaster greatly exceeded his expectations. The castle had beenshattered into fragments, the church levelled to the ground and, ofthe whole town, only six houses remained standing. Five hundredpeople had been killed.
The wildest confusion prevailed. The soldiers were running aboutwithout object or purpose, apparently scared out of their senses.Women were shrieking and wringing their hands, by the ruins oftheir houses. Men were frantically tugging at beams, and masses ofbrickwork, to endeavour to rescue their friends buried under theruins. Presently he came upon Colonel Cox, who had just been joinedby Captain Hewitt, the only British officer with him; who hadinstantly gone off to see the amount of damage done to thedefences, and had brought back news that the walls had beenlevelled in several places, and the guns thrown into the ditch.
Da Costa, Bareiros, and several other Portuguese officers wereloudly clamouring for instant surrender and, the French shellsagain beginning to fall into the town, added to the prevailingterror. In vain the commandant endeavoured to still the tumult, andto assure those around him that the defence might yet be continued,for a short time; and better terms be obtained than if they were,at once, to surrender.
"Can I do anything, Colonel?" Terence said. "My men are stillavailable."
The officer shook his head.
"Massena will see, in the morning," he said, "that he has but tomarch in. If these men would fight, we could still, perhaps, defendthe breaches for a day or two. But it would only be uselessslaughter. However, as they won't fight, I must send a flag oftruce out, and endeavour to make terms. At any rate, ColonelO'Connor, if you can manage to get off with your command, by allmeans do so. Of course, I shall endeavour to obtain terms for thegarrison to march out; but I fear that Massena will hear of nothingbut unconditional surrender."
"Thank you, Colonel. Then I shall at once return to my corps, andendeavour to make my way through."
On returning to the redoubt, Terence sent a message to Bull to cometo him at once and, when he arrived, told him and Ryan the state ofthings in the town, and the certainty that it would surrender, atonce.
"The Portuguese are so clamorous," he said, "that a flag of trucemay be despatched to Massena, in half an hour's time. ThePortuguese are right so far that, if the place must be surrendered,there is no reason for any longer exposing the troops and thetownsfolk to the French bombardment. Therefore it is imperativethat, if we are to make our way out, we must do so before the placesurrenders.
"We agreed, yesterday, as to the best line to take. The Frenchforce here is by no means considerable, their main body beingbetween this and the Coa. Massena, knowing the composition of thegarrison here, did not deem it requisite to send a larger forcethan was necessary to protect the batteries; and the major portionof these are on the heights behind the city. Between the roadleading to Escalon and that through Fort Conception there is noFrench camp, and it is by that line we must make our escape.
"We know that there are considerable forces, somewhere near VillaPuerca; but when we reach the river Turones we can follow its banksdown, with very little fear. It is probable that they have a forceat the bridge near San Felices; but I believe the river is fordablein many places, now. At any rate, they are not likely to be keepinga sharp watch anywhere, tonight. They must all know that thattremendous explosion will have rendered the place untenable and,except at the batteries which are still firing, there will be nogreat vigilance; especially on this side, for it would hardly besupposed that, even if the garrison did attempt to escape, theywould take the road to the east, and so cut themselves off fromtheir allies and enter a country wholly French.
"Of course, with us the case is different. We can march farther andfaster than any French infantry. The woods afford abundant placesof concealment, and we are perfectly capable of driving off anysmall bodies of cavalry that we may meet. Fortunately we have eightdays' provision of biscuit. Of course, it was with a view to thisthat I proposed that we should bring out so large a supply with us.
"Now, I think we had better start at once."
"I quite agree with you, Colonel," Bull said. "I will return to theother redoubt, and form the men up at once. I shall be ready in aquarter of an hour."
"Very well, Bull. I will move out from here, in a quarter of anhour from the present time, and march across and join you as youcome out. We must move round between your redoubt and the town. Inthat way we shall avoid the enemy's trenches altogether."
The men were at once ordered to fall in. Fortunately, none were soseriously disabled as to be unfit to take their places in theranks. The necessity for absolute silence was impressed upon them,and they were told to march very carefully; as a fall over a stone,and the crash of a musket on the rocks, might at once call theattention of a French sentinel. As the troops filed out through theentrance to the redoubt, Terence congratulated himself upon theirall having sandals, for the sound of their tread was faint, indeed,to what it would have been had they been marching in heavy boots.
At the other redoubt they were joined by Bull, with his party.There was a momentary halt while six men, picked for theirintelligence, went on ahead, under the command of Ryan. They wereto move twenty paces apart. If they came upon any solitarysentinel, one man was to be sent back instantly to stop the column;while two others crawled forward and surprised and silenced thesentry. Should their way be arrested by a strong picket, they wereto reconnoitre the ground on either side; and then one was to besent back, to guide the column so as to avoid the picket.
When he calculated that Ryan must be nearly a quarter of a mile inadvance, Terence gave orders for the column to move forward. When ashort distance had been traversed, one of the scouts came in, withthe news that there was a cordon of sentries across their path.They were some fifty paces apart, and some must be silenced beforethe march could be continued.
Ten minutes later, another scout brought in news that four of theFrench sentries had been surprised and killed, without any alarmbeing given; and the column resumed its way, the necessity forsilence being again impressed upon the men. As they went forward,they received news that two more of the sentries had been killed;and that there was, in consequence, a gap of 350 yards betweenthem. A scout led the way through the opening thus formed. It wasan anxious ten minutes, but the passage was effected without anyalarm being given; the booming of the guns engaged in bombardingthe town helping to cove
r the sound of their footsteps.
It had been settled that Ryan and the column were both to marchstraight for a star, low down on the horizon, so that there was nofear of either taking the wrong direction. In another half hourthey were sure that they were well beyond the French lines; whoseposition, indeed, could be made out by the light of their bivouacfires.
For three hours they continued their march, at a rapid pace,without a check. Then they halted for half an hour, and then heldon their way till daybreak, when they entered a large village. Theyhad left the redoubts at about nine o'clock, and it was now five;so that they had marched at least twenty-five miles, and werewithin some ten miles of the Aqueda.
Sentries were posted at the edge of the wood, and the troops thenlay down to sleep. Several times during the day parties of Frenchcavalry were seen moving about; but they were going at a leisurelypace, and there was no appearance of their being engaged in anysearch. At nightfall the troops got under arms again, and madetheir way to the Aqueda.
A peasant, whom they fell in with soon after they started, hadundertaken to show them a ford. It was breast deep, but the streamwas not strong, and they crossed without difficulty, holding theirarms and ammunition well above the water. They learned that therewas, indeed, a French brigade at the bridge of San Felices.Marching north now, they came before daybreak upon the Douro. Herethey again lay up during the day and, that evening, obtained twoboats at a village near the mouth of the Tormes, and crossed intothe Portuguese province of Tras os Nontes.
The 500 men joined in a hearty cheer, on finding themselves safe intheir own country. After halting for a couple of days, Terencemarched to Castel Rodrigo and then, learning that the main body ofthe regiment was at Pinhel, marched there and joined them; hisarrival causing great rejoicing among his men, for it had beensupposed that he and the half battalion had been captured, at thefall of Almeida. The Portuguese regular troops at that place had,at the surrender at daybreak after the explosion, all taken servicewith the French; while the militia regiments had been disbanded byMassena, and allowed to return to their homes.
From here Terence sent off his report to headquarters, and askedfor orders. The adjutant general wrote back, congratulating him onhaving successfully brought off his command, and ordering the corpsto take post at Linares. He found that another disaster, similar tothat at Almeida, had taken place--the magazine at Albuquerquehaving been blown up by lightning, causing the loss of four hundredmen.
The French army were still behind the Coa, occupied in restoringthe fortifications of Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo, and it was notuntil the 17th of September that Massena crossed the Coa, and beganthe invasion of Portugal in earnest; his march being directedtowards Coimbra, by taking which line he hoped to prevent Hill, inthe south, from effecting a junction with Wellington.
The latter, however, had made every preparation for retreat and, assoon as he found that Massena was in earnest, he sent word to Hillto join him on the Alva, and fell back in that direction himself.
Terence received orders to co-operate with 10,000 of the Portuguesemilitia, under the command of Trant. Wilson and Miller were toharass Massena's right flank and rear. Had Wellington's orders beencarried out, Massena would have found the country deserted by itsinhabitants and entirely destitute of provisions; but as usual hisorders had been thwarted by the Portuguese government, who sentsecret instructions to the local authorities to take no steps tocarry them out; and the result was that Massena, as he advanced,found ample stores for provisioning his army.
The speed with which Wellington fell back baffled his calculationsand, by the time he approached Viseu, the whole British army wasunited, near Coimbra. His march had been delayed two days, by anattack made by Trant and Terence upon the advanced guard, as it wasmaking its way through a defile. A hundred prisoners were taken,with some baggage; and a serious blow would have been struck at theFrench, had not the new Portuguese levies been seized with panicand fled in confusion. Trant was, consequently, obliged to drawoff. The attack, however, had been so resolute and well-directedthat Massena, not knowing the strength of the force opposing him,halted for two days until the whole army came up; and thus affordedtime for the British to concentrate, and make their arrangements.
Plan of the Battle of Busaco.]
The ground chosen by Wellington to oppose Massena's advance was onthe edge of the Sierra Busaco; which was separated, by a deep andnarrow valley, from the series of hills across which the Frenchwere marching. There were four roads by which the French couldadvance. The one from Mortagao, which was narrow and little used,passed through Royalva. The other three led to the positionoccupied by the British force between the village of Busaco andPena Cova. Trant's command was posted at Royalva. Terence with hisregiment took post, with a Portuguese brigade of cavalry, on theheights above Santa Marcella, where the road leading south toEspinel forked; a branch leading from it across the Mondego, in therear of the British position, to Coimbra. Here he could be aided,if necessary, by the guns at Pena Cova, on the opposite side of theriver.
While the British were taking up their ground between Busaco andPena Cova, Ney and Regnier arrived on the crest of the oppositehill. Had they attacked at once, as Ney wished, they might havesucceeded; for the divisions of Spenser, Leith, and Hill had notyet arrived. But Massena was ten miles in the rear, and did notcome up until next day, with Junot's corps; by which time the wholeof the British army was ranged along the opposite heights.
Their force could be plainly made out from the French position, andso formidable were the heights that had to be scaled by anattacking force that Ney, impetuous and brave as he was, no longeradvocated an attack. Massena, however, was bent upon fighting. Hehad every confidence in the valour of his troops, and was averse toretiring from Portugal, baffled, by the long and rugged road he hadtravelled; therefore dispositions were at once made for the attack.Ney and Regnier were to storm the British position, while Junot'scorps was to be held in reserve.
At daybreak on the 29th the French descended the hill; Ney'stroops, in three columns of attack, moving against a large conventtowards the British left centre; while Regnier, in two columns,advanced against the centre. Regnier's men were the first engagedand, mounting the hill with great gallantry and resolution, pushedthe skirmishers of Picton's division before them and, in spite ofthe grape fire of a battery of six guns, almost gained the summitof the hill--the leading battalions establishing themselves amongthe rocks there, while those behind wheeled to the right.Wellington, who was on the spot, swept the flank of this force withgrape; and the 88th and a wing of the 45th charged down upon themfuriously.
The French, exhausted by their efforts in climbing the hill, wereunable to resist the onslaught; and the English and French, mixedup together, went down the hill; the French still resisting, butunable to check their opponents who, favoured by the steep descent,swept all before them.
In the meantime, the battalions that had gained the crest heldtheir own against the rest of the third division and, had they beenfollowed by the troops who had wheeled off towards their right, theBritish position would have been cut in two. General Leith, seeingthe critical state of affairs had, as soon as he saw the thirddivision pressed back, despatched a brigade to its assistance. Ithad to make a considerable detour round a ravine; but it nowarrived and, attacking with fury, drove the French grenadiers fromthe rocks; and pursued them, with a continuous fire of musketry,until they were out of range. The rest of Leith's division soonarrived, and General Hill moved his division to the position beforeoccupied by Leith. Thus, so formidable a force was concentrated atthe point where Regnier made his effort that, having no reserves,he did not venture to renew the attack.
On their right the French had met with no better success. In frontof the convent, but on lower ground, was a plateau; and on thisCrawford posted the 43rd and 52nd Regiments of the line, in aslight dip, which concealed them from observation by the French. Aquarter of a mile behind them, on the high ground close to theconvent, was a regiment of
German infantry. These were in fullsight of the enemy. The other regiment of the light division wasplaced lower down the hill, and supported by the guns of a battery.
Two of Ney's columns advanced up the hill with great speed andgallantry; never pausing for a moment, although their ranks wereswept by grape from the artillery, and a heavy musketry fire by thelight troops. The latter were forced to fall back before theadvance. The guns were withdrawn, and the French were within a fewyards of the edge of the plateau, when Crawford launched the 43rdand 52nd Regiments against them.
Wholly unprepared for such an attack, the French were hurled downthe hill. Only one of their columns attempted to retrieve thedisaster, and advanced against the right of the light division.Here, however, they met Pack's brigade; while Crawford's artilleryswept the wood through which they were ascending. Finally, theywere forced to retire down the hill, and the action came to an end.Never did the French fight more bravely; but the position, held bydetermined troops, was practically impregnable. The French loss inkilled and wounded was 4500, that of the allies only 1300; thedifference being caused by the fact that the French ranks,throughout the action, were swept with grape by the Britishbatteries; while the French artillery could do nothing to aid theirinfantry.