g was conducted in the most gentlemanly and
correct manner. The soldiers bathed together and exchanged their
rations, and the officers were on equally good terms. "The part of the
river of which I speak was occupied, on our side, by the Third division;
on the French side by the Seventh division. The French officers said to
us at parting, 'We have met, and have been for some time friends. We are
about to separate, and may meet as enemies. As friends we received each
other warmly; as enemies we shall do the same.' Ten days afterwards the
British Third and the French Seventh division were opposed to each other
at Salamanca, and the Seventh French was destroyed by the British
Third." Mr Grattan's wound was healed in ample time for him to assist at
the battle of Salamanca; a glorious victory, which would have been even
more complete had the British been properly seconded by their Portuguese
allies. The behaviour of these was any thing but creditable to their
nation. One detachment of cacadores actually threw themselves on their
faces to avoid the enemy's fire, and not all the blows showered on them
by their commander, Major Haddock, could induce them to exchange their
recumbent attitude for one more dignified. Notwithstanding this, and the
more fatal feebleness of Pack's brigade, the French were totally beaten,
and their loss was nearly four times that of the British. Lord
Wellington's opinion of the battle--a particularly honourable one to our
troops, inasmuch as they not only _fought_ better, but (which was not
always the case) moved and manoeuvred better, than the picked veterans
of the French army--is sufficiently shown by the fact that "he selected
it in preference to all his other victories, as the most fitting to be
fought over in sham-fight on the plains of St Denis, in the presence of
the three crowned heads who occupied Paris after the second abdication
of the Emperor Napoleon, in 1815."

At Salamanca, the right brigade of the Third division, including the
Connaught Rangers, charged the entire division of the French General
Thomiere. So awful was the volley that welcomed them, that more than
half the officers, and nearly the whole front rank, were swept away.
Doubtless the French thought this would prove a sickener, for great was
their consternation when, before the smoke had well cleared away, they
saw the shattered but dauntless brigade advancing fiercely and steadily
upon them. Panic-stricken, they wavered; "the