the enemy had retired, but not from their shells, which they threw among us with great precision, and by which we lost a good many men; and latterly they moved round some guns to a position, from which the line of the road was completely raked by their fire. During this period of the battle, General Pack sate on horseback in the middle of the road, showing an example of the most undaunted bravery to the troops. I think I see him now, as he then appeared, perfectly calm and unmoved, and with a placid smile upon his face amidst a perfect storm of shot and shells. His aid-de-camp, Le Strange, who was afterwards killed at Waterloo, had his horse shot under him, and both came down together. A few minutes afterwards, I observed General Pack suddenly turn pale, and seem as if going to faint. This was occasioned by a ball which had passed through his leg. He rode slowly to the rear, where he had his wound dressed, and in a few minutes returned again.

Marshal Beresford's artillery having at length arrived, and the Spanish troops being once more brought forward, General Pack rode up in front of our brigade, and made the following announcement: 66 'I have just now been with General Clinton, and he has been pleased to grant my request, that in the charge which we are now to make upon the enemy's redoubts, the 42d regiment shall have the honour of leading on the attack :the 42d will advance. The order was immediately passed along the troops, and I could hear the last words dying away in the distance along our lines.

We immediately began to form for the charge

VOL. I.

2 B

9

upon the redoubts, which were about two or three hundred yards distant, and to which we had to pass over some ploughed fields. The grenadiers of the 42d regiment, followed by the other companies, led the way, and began to ascend from the road; but no sooner were the feathers of their bonnets seen rising over the embankment, than such a tremendous fire was opened from the redoubts and entrenchments, as in a very short time would have annihilated them. The right wing, therefore, hastily formed into line, and without waiting for the left, which was ascending by companies from the road, rushed upon the batteries, which vomited forth a storm of fire, grape-shot, and musketry, the most incessant, furious, and ter rific I ever witnessed.

Amidst the clouds of smoke in which they were curtained, the whole line of redoubts would every now and then start into view amidst the wild and frightful blaze, and then vanish again into utter darkness. Our men were mown down by sections. I saw six of the company to which I belonged fall together, as if swept away by the discharge of one gun, and the whole ground over which we rushed, was covered with the dead. The redoubts were erected along the side of a road, and defended by broad ditches filled with water. Just before our troops reached this obstruction, however, the enemy deserted them, and fled in all directions, leaving their last line of strongholds in our possession; but they still possessed two fortified houses close by, from which they kept up a galling and destructive fire.

I was then standing at the side of one of the batteries, which we had just taken, along with some

of the regiment, and a young officer, one of the tallest and finest looking men I ever beheld. This was the first time he had ever been under fire, but he behaved like a hero, and had snatched up a musket belonging to some soldier who had fallen, with which he was firing away upon the enemy like the most practised veteran. I happened to turn about my head for a moment, and when I looked back again, he was lying stretched on his back, the blood welling from his breast, and his feet quivering in the last convulsions of expiring nature. He had arrived from England only a short time before; and in his march from Passages through France to join his regiment, had been taken prisoner by a marauding party of French in our rear. He had escaped from his guard during a dark night, and concealed himself in a wood for a day or two until they were gone. When almost famished with hunger, he proceeded on his march, and luckily met with a British officer of rank, who supplied him with the means of reaching his regiment. He had joined us only two or three days previous to the battle, and was standing close beside me in the flush of youth, and health, and hope,-in the very moment of victory -the proudest one of life: His eye but twinkled once, and he lay a corpse at my feet!

"What art thou Spirit undefin'd,

That passest with man's breath away,
That giv'st him feeling, sense, and mind,

And leav'st him cold unconscious clay?"

While I was yet gazing upon him in a kind of stupor, I received a blow, as if from a huge club on the elbow. A musket ball had passed through the upper part of my arm, and splintered the bone. I

felt stunned, and, in a few moments, became faint, and dizzy, and fell. The first sensation which I was conscious of after my fall, was that of a burning thirst, universally felt after gunshot wounds. I observed our men still falling around me, in consequence of the fire from the two fortified houses, but at last the firing suddenly ceased, and a dead silence ensued. My faintness now beginning to wear off, I raised my head; and through the clouds of smoke which were clearing away, I observed that the road was covered with troops in blue uniform. At first I supposed them to be Spaniards, but was soon undeceived, and discovered them to be French. Out of about 500 men, which the 42d regiment brought into action, scarcely 90 reached the fatal redoubt from which the enemy had fled.

As soon as the smoke began to clear away, they discovered how matters stood, and advanced in great force in order to regain their strongholds. The 42d regiment immediately fell back upon the 79th and some other corps, now moving up to their support. Of these circumstances at the time, however, I was quite ignorant; and as escape was impossible, I lay quietly where I was on the roadside, hoping to avoid notice among the wounded and the dead.

The enemy marched past me in great force, keeping up a tremendous fire, and having drums beating in the rear. The main body had passed without taking any notice of me, when I was seized upon by two stragglers who had loitered behind. They immediately began to rifle my pockets, and one of them was in the act of tearing off my epaulet, when an officer came up, sword in

hand, and drove them off, to my great relief. My situation, however, became extremely uncomfortable, as I was exposed to the fire of our own troops, who were advancing upon the French to retake the batteries. Believing that the enemy would soon be driven back, and fearing that they might carry me off along with them; I got up, as soon as they were fairly past, and, supporting my wounded arm with the other, began to make the best of my way over the ploughed fields, in order to gain some place of safety; but I had not proceeded far, when I felt myself seized from behind by two French soldiers, who had been loitering in the rear, and who most unceremoneously marched off with me towards Toulouse.

The issue of this last attempt of the enemy' to retake their redoubts, is well known; they were a second time repulsed with great loss, and their whole army driven into Toulouse: But I proceed with my personal narrative.

As soon as my conductors and I were out of range of the fire from the British, they allowed me to rest a little, and one of them only remained with me. He presented me with his canteen of wine, and asked me if the French were not a very brave people; which leading question I thought proper to answer in the way he wished. As we proceeded along the road, we met a tall grim-looking soldier, who eyed me with a ferocious look, and threw a bundle of ball-cartridges at me, by which I received a severe blow on the head. My attendant was abundantly wroth, and, after abusing the ruffian, proceeded with me towards the town. It was a bright, beautiful evening, as we ap- proached Toulouse. About a hundred yards from