rum and water, and then conveyed them to the rear;
most of their wounds being bad, evidently from the bayonet, but not
mortal.

Owing to the success of taking this fort we were enabled to carry on
our works much nearer to the town, and by the beginning of April two
batteries were formed within three or four hundred yards of the place:
and in about five days, through the effects of our twenty-four
pounders, three practicable breaches were made in the walls.

Lord Wellington then ordered the town to be attacked on the night of
the 6th, having previously sent to know if it would surrender: and the
answer being "No," he asked for the inhabitants to be allowed to quit,
as he intended to take the town by assault. In consequence of this
some thousands of the inhabitants quitted the city.

A storming-party was selected from each regiment, and each of the
third, fourth, and light divisions was told off to a breach. I joined
the forlorn hope myself.

Before, however, that I proceed further in my account of this
sanguinary affair, I will relate an engagement that myself, Pig
Harding, and another of my comrades, George Bowden by name, entered
into before we even started on our way, of which the result showed
what a blind one it was. Through being quartered at Badajoz after the
battle of Talavera, all three of us knew the town perfectly well, and
so understood the position of most of the valuable shops: and hearing
a report likewise that if we succeeded in taking the place, there was
to be three hours' plunder, we had planned to meet at a silversmith's
shop that we knew about, poor Pig even providing himself with a piece
of wax candle to light us if needed.

But all this was doomed to disappointment. We were supplied with
ladders and grass bags, and having received and eaten our rations, and
each man carrying his canteen of water, we fell in at half-past eight
or thereabouts to wait for the requisite signal for all to advance.
During the interval our men were particularly silent: but at length
the deadly signal was given, and we rushed on towards the breach.

I was one of the ladder party, for we did not feel inclined to trust
to the Portuguese, as we did at Ciudad Rodrigo. On our arriving at the
breach, the French sentry on the wall cried out, "Who comes there?"
three times, or words to that effect in his own language, but on no
answer being given, a shower of shot, canister and grape, together
with fire-balls, was hurled a