The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-18 00:00:00

HORRORS AND ATROCITIES OF AN ASSAULT.

By this time, General Phillippon, theFreneh governor (of Bade-
jos).had surrendered. When he found the 3d division had got pos-
session of the castle, and were .preparing to move down to second
the attack of the breaches by takiug the enemy in rear, and that
General Walker, with a part of the sth division, had escaladed,
and established themselves at the other end of the town, he
deemed ;further resistance useless, and retired, with the gar-
rison, to St. Cristoval, on the opposite side of the river; and
shortly after the whole surrendered prisoners of war, the troops,
after being stripped of their arms and accoutrements, being
marched along in the ditch to one of the gates, from whence
they were escorted on their way to Elves. They passed near
the breaches while I was there, and I had a full view of them as
they moved along. I thought they seemed under great appre-
hension for their safety, as they appeared quite downcast and
dejected, which is not generally the case with French prisoners,
who will shrug their shoulders, and tell you it is the fortane of
war; but these poor fellows, who certainly had made a noble
defence, seemed row-spirited and timid to a degree. Certainly
by the rules of war, 1- believe, they might have been put to
death, for having stood an asault of the place; but a British
general does not resort to the same measures which their Mar-
shal Suchet did at Tarragona, when he put all, both soldiers
and inhabitants, to the sword. Soon after daylight, the remain-
ing men of attacking, divisions began to rush into the town, in
hopes of sharing, with those who had already entered, the plun-
der they imagined it would afford; and though every thing was
done by Colonel Barnard, aided by the other officers, to keep
out those of the light division, it was useless, though he even
risked his life to prevent their entering. He had bravely, during
the attack, repeatedly ascended the -breach in hopes of over-
coming the obstacles which preSented themselves, but he had
always been driven back, although he escaped unhurt where all
was death around him; and now his life nearly fell a sacrifice,
in endeavouring to restore that discipline is his division which
this unfortunate and unsuccessful assault had considerably im-
paired. He opposed his personal and bodily strength to the
entrance of the plunderers, but in vain. They rushed in, in
spite of all opposition; and in wrenching a musket from one of
the soldiers of the 52d, who was forcing past him, he fell, and
was nigh precipitated into the ditch. He, however, finding
resistance here in vain, set off, accompanied by several other
officers, into the town, to endeavour to restrain, as much as lay
in his power, the licentiousness of those inside, whose bad
passions, it was but too evident, would be let loose upon the
defenceless inhabitants. I had been in company with Captain
Percival, my commanding-officer before alluded to, from the
time of my first coming down to the division before daylight;
and now he and I, hearing the heart-piercing and afflicting
groans which arose from the numbers of wounded still lying iu
the ditch, set to work to get as many of these poor fellows
removed as was in our power. This we found a most arduous
and difficult undertaking, as we could not do it without the aid
of a considerable number of men; and it was a work of danger
to attempt to force the now lawless soldiers to obey, and stop
with us till this work of necessity and humanity was accom-
plished. All thought of what they owed their wounded com-
rades, and of the probability thlif ere long a similar fate might
be their own, was swallowed isp in their abominable rage for
drink and plunder : however, by perseverance, and by occa-
sionally using his stick, my commandant at length compelled
a few fellows to lend their assistance in removing what we
could into the town, where it was intended the hospitals should
be established. But this was a most heart-rending duty: for,
from the innumerable cries of—' Oh ! for God's sake come and
remove me !' it was difficult to select the most proper objects
for such care. Those who appeared likely to die, of course it
would have been but cruelty to put to the pain of a removal;
and many who, from the nature of their wounds, required great
care and attention in carrying them, the half-drunken brutes
whom we were forced to employ exceedingly tortured and
injured; nay, in carrying one man out of the ditch they very
frequently kicked or trode upon several others, whom to touch
was like death to them, and which produced the most agonising
cries imaginable. I remember at this time• Colonel (the late
Sir Neil) Campbell passed out at the breach, and as he had for-
merly been a captain in our regiment, many of the poor fellows
who lay there knew him, and beseeched him in the most piteous
manner to have them removed. He came to me, and urged upon
me iu the strone•est manner to use every exertion to get the poor
fellows away. 'ihis evinced he had a feeling heart; but he was
not probably aware, that for that purpose both my commanding
officer and myself had been labouring for hours; but it soon be
gan to grow excessively hot, and what- with the toil and the heat,
of the sun, and the very unpleasant effluvia which now arose from
the numerous dead and wounded, we were both compelled, about
mid-day, to desist from our distressing though gratifying labours.
It was now between twelve and one o'clock, and though we had
a great many removed, a much greater number lay groaning in
the ditch ; but our strength was exhausted, for he was lame,
and unable to move much, and I had been obliged to assist in
carrying many myself, the drunken scoundrels whom we had
pressed into the service seldom making more than one or two
trips till they deserted us. But my lamented friend and mess-
mate, poor Cary, was still to search for ; and, after a considerable
time, he was found beneath one of the ladders by which they
had descended into the ditch. He was shot through the head,
and I doubt not received his death-wound on the ladder, from
which in all probability. he fell. He was stripped completely
naked, save a flannel waistcoat, which he wore next his skin.
I had him taken up and placed upon a shutter, (he still breathed
a little, though quite insensible,) and carried him to the camp.
A sergeant and some men, whom we had pressed to carry him,
were so drunk that they let him fall from off their shoulders,
and his body fell with great force to the ground. I shuddered,
but poor Cary, I believe, was past all feeling, of the fall would
have greatly injured him. We laid him in bed in his tent, but
it was not long ere my kind, esteemed, and lamented friend
breathed his last. Poor Croudace had also died immediately
after reaching the hospital, whither he had been carried when
he was shot. Thus I lost two of my most particular and inti-
mate acquaintances, from both of whom I had received many
acts of kindness and friendship. They will long live in my
memory. Cary was buried next day behind our tents, one of
the officers (my other messmate) reading the funeral service.
I cannot help adverting to some of the scenes which I witnessed
in the ditch, while employed there as above noticed. One of
the first strange sights that attracted our notice was soon after
our arrival. An officer with yellow facing came out of the
town with a frail fair one leaning on his arm, and carrying in
her other hand a cage with a bird in it; and she tripped it over
the bodies of the dead and dying with all the ease and indiffer-
ence of a person moving in a ball-room,—no more concern
being evinced by either of them, than if nothing extraordinary
had occurred. It was really lamentable to see such an utter
absence of all right feeling. Soon after this the men began to
come out with their plunder. Some of them had dressed them-
selves in priests' or friars' garments,—some appeared in female
dresses, as nuns, &c. ; and, in short, all the whimsical and
fantastical figures almost imaginable were to be seen coming
reeling out of the town, for by this time they were nearly all
drunk. I penetrated no farther into the town that day than to
a house a little beyond the breach, where I had deposited the
wounded ; but I saw enough in this short trip to disgust me
with the doings in Badajos at this time. I learnt that no house,
church, or convent, was held sacred by the infuriated and now
ungovernable soldiery; but that priests or nuns, and common
people, all shared alike, and that an) who shelved the least re-
sistance were instantly sacrificed to their fury. They had a
method of firing through the lock of any door that happened to
he shut against them, which almost invariably had the effect of
forcing it open; and such scenes were witnessed in the streets
as baffle descriptor. One man of our first battalion, I am told,
had got a hogshead of brandy into the streets, and, getting his
mess-tin, and filling it from the cask, and seating himself
astride like,Bacchus, swore that every person who came past
should drink, be who he may. His commanding officer hap-
pened to be one who came that way, and he was compelled to
take the tin and drink, for had he refused, it is not improbable
the wretch would have shot him, for his rifle was loaded by his
side, and the soldiers had by this time become quite past all
control. Another, who had been fortunate enough to obtain a
considerable quantity of doubloons, put them in his haversack,
and was making his way out of the town, but was induced,
before he left it, 'to drink more than he could carry. He laid
him down somewhere to take a nap, and awoke soon after
without even his shoes, and not only were the doubloons gone,
but all his own necessaries also. In short, a thousand of the
most tragi-eomical spectacles that can possibly be imagined,
might be witnessed in this devoted city. The officers did all
they could to repress these outrages, but the soldiers were now
so completely. dispersed, that one quarter of them could not be
found: and indeed the only benefit almost that the officers
could render was, by each placing himself in a house, which
generally secured i from being broken open and plundered.
The different camps of our army were for several days after,
more like rag-fairs than military encampments, such quantities
of wearing-apparel of all kinds were disposing of by one set of
plunderers to the other. An English army is perhaps, generally
speaking, under stricter discipline than any other in the world;
but in proportion as they are held tight while they are in hand,
if circumstances occur to give them liberty, I know of no army
more difficult to restrain when once broke loose. A reason may
perhaps be assigned for it in part. On such occasions as this
siege, where they were long and much exposed to fatigue almost
insupportable, to the most trying scenes of difficulty and
danger, which were generally borne with cheerfulness and
alacrity, they perhaps reasoned with themselves and one another

in this manner,—that as they had borne so much and so pa-
tiently to get possession of the place, it was but fair that twy
should have some indulgence whan their work and trials went
crowned with success, especially as the armies of other powers
make it a rule generally to give an assaulted fortress up to
llunder. They had also become quite reckless of life from to
ong exposure to death ; but an English army cannot plunder
the French. The latter keep themselves more sober, and
look more to the solid and substantial benefit to be derived from
it, while the former sacrifice every thing to drink ; and when
once in a state of intoxication, with all the bad passions set
loose at the same time, I know liot what they will hesitate po
perpetrate."—Surtees's Twenty-fire Years in the Rifle Brigade:

LIFE BOAt.-A Mr. Penshort is stated to have contrived a
very important improvement, by which the life-boitt may be
launched in five minutes instead of thirtya vast matter when
gallant lives are at stake. _ _

VEsuvlus.—The mouncain has been in a state of activity
during all the early part of December; and in consequence of
the prolonged eruptions, the lava had, according to the latest
accounts, spread considerably, and threatened the habitations
at the foot.

ORIGIN OF PROPERTY.—The first objects of property were
tile fruits which a man gathered, and,the wild animals he caught;
next to these, the tents and houses which he built, the tools he
made use of to catch or prepare his food; and afterwards, wea-
pons of war and offence. Many of the savage tribes in Ninth
America have advanced no farther than this yet; -for they are
said to reap their harvest, and return the produce of their market
with foreigners into the common hoard or treasury of the tribe.
Flocks and herds of tame animals soon become property;
Abel, the second son of Adam, was a keeper of sheep; sheep
and oxen, camels and asses, composed the wealth of the Jewish
patriarchs, as they do still of the modern Arabs. As the world
was first peopled in the east, where there existed a great scarcity
of water, wells, probably, were next made property; as we learn
from the frequent and serious mention of them in the Old Tes-
tament, and contentions and treaties about them, and, from its
being recorded among the most memorable achievements of
very eminent men that they dug or discovered a well.—Land,
which is now so important a part of property, which alone out
laws call real property, and regard upon all occasions with
such peculiar attention, was probably not made property in any
country till long after the institution of many other species of
property; that is, till the country became populous, and tillage
began to be thought of. The first partition of an estate which
we read of, was that which took place between Abram and Lot:
and was one of the simplest imaginable : " If thou wilt take the
left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to th 6
right hand, then I will go to the left."—There are no traces of
property in land in Caesar's account. of Britain : but little of it
in the history of the Jewish patriarchs : none of it found among
the nations of North America: the Scythians are expressly said
to have appropriated their cattle and houses, but to have left
their land in common.—Property in immoveables continued, at
first, no longer than the occupation, that is, so long as a man's
family continued in possession of a cave, or his flocks depastured
upon a neighbouring hill—no one attempted, or thought he had
a right, to disturb or drive them out; but when the man quitted
the cave, or changed his pasture, the first who found them un-
occupied entered upon them by the same title as his predeces-
sors, and made way, in his turn, for any one that happened to
succeed him. All more permanent property in land was pro-
bably posterior to civil government and to laws; 'and, therefore,
settled by these, or according to the will of the reigning chief,
—Paley.
CHARLEMAGNE'S PROGRESS TO ROME.—Charlemagne set
out from Pavia, accompanied by a considerable army, and an
immense train of bishops, priests, and nobles; and, passing
through Tuscany, he advanced by rapid journeys upon Rome.
Shouts and songs of triumph greeted him on the way; town°,
castles, and villages, poured forth to see him pass; the serf, the,
citizen, and the noble, joined in acclamations which welcomed
the conqueror of the Lombards; and dead Italy seemed to reviver
at the glorious aspect of the victor. Thirty miles from the city,
lie was met by all those who could still boast of generous blood
in Rome, with ensigns and banners; and at a mile's distance
from the walls, the whole schools came forth to receive
bearing in their hands branches of the palm and the olive, an"
singing, in the sweet Roman tongue! the praises and gratulation'
of their mighty deliverer. Thither, too, came the standard of
the cross, with which it had been customary to meet the Exarclas
on their visits to the city; and truly, since the days of lid
ancient splendour, never had Rome beheld such a sight it 4
entered her gates with the monarch of the Francs. It was 13010
no savage army come to ravage and to spoil, with hunger and
hatred in their looks, and foulness and barbarism in their gar'
meats. On the contrary, a long train of the princes and nobles
of a warlike and beautiful nation, mingling, in the brilliant
robes of peace, with all the great of a people they had delivered,
entered the gates of Rome, and, amidst songs of victory and
shouts of joy, were led forward, through all the splendid
remains of ancient art, the accumulated magnificence Of
centuries of power and conquest, by a monarcu such as the
world has seen but once. ' Above the ordinary height of man.
Charlemagne was a giant in his stature as in his mind; but the
graceful and easy proportion of all his limbs spoke the con;
bination of wonderful activity with immense strength, and
pleased while it astonished. His countenance was as striking
as his figure; and his broad high forehead, his keen and flashing
eye, and bland unwrinkled brow, offered a bright picturet
wherein the spirit of physiognomy, natural to all men, migh"
trace the expression of a powerful intellect and a beuevold
heart. On so solemn an occasion as his entry into Rome, the
general simplicity of his attire was laid aside; and he uow ar,
peared blazing in all the splendour of rovalty,his robes wroue
of purple and gold, his brow encirled with jewels, and his veto
sandals glittering with precious stones. As he approached toe
church of St. Peter, and was met by the Exarch's cross, tit
monarch alighted from his horse, and, with his principal follof
ers, proceeded on foot to the steps of the cathedral. he malt
of his reverence for the shrine of the apostle were such as 4.,
sovereign might well pay, whose actions and whose power lel:
no fear of respect being construed into submission. In th'",
porch near the door, he was met by Pope Adrian, attended DI
all his clergy, clothed in the magnificent vestments of thci
Roman church; and while loud shouts rent the air of "Blessi.e.`:
be he who cometh in the name of the Lord!" the pontiff held
deliverer to his heart, poured forth his gratitude, and load'
him with blessings.'—James's History of Charlemagne.
CASES OF MONOMANIA.—Not many years since I dined witb.silt
friend, aman of distinguished abilities. There were other guest'',
table; our host was well, and in the full performance of his int!e
lectual manifestations, when, on a sudden, he was noticed to gro
signs of salutation to the door of the room, he welcomed an unse.,° ,
friend, arose, and handed him to a chair, addressed him, v„,
ceived his answers, and maintained the supposed conversatid`:,
This gentleman, next day, was completely free from+the stral
hallucination. The second example is one which I shall quekii
on indisputable authority. It is the history of the epidefer,
monomania of St. Souard, and never was there a history ni°,4
curious and extraordinary. A battalion of French sadie';
during the toils and dangers of a campaign, were marching
a certain point on a hot and overcoming day, and at double t,i,
usual speed. Their strength was 800 men, all hardy, seasoned
and courageous men, careless of danger, despising the
and little occupied with the thoughts of ghosts and pliant bt,
magoria. On the night of the occurrence in question, tp.
battalion was forced to occupy a narrow and low building, bar,.eci
calculated to accommodate 300 persons. Nevertheless ofol.
slept; but at midnight one and all were roused by fright,
screams issuing from all quarters of the house, and to the eYf
of the astonished, affrighted, soldiers, appeared the vision
huge dog, which bounded in through the window, and rus'tbe
with extraordinary heaviness and speed over the breasts of,
spectators. The soldiers quitted the building- in terror. rye,night, by the solicitation of the surgeon and chef de battail /4i
who accompained them, they once more resumed their PV
ous quarters. "We saw,'' says the narrator, " that
slept; wide awake we watched the arrival of the. hour of try
preceding panic, and midnight had scarcely struck whely
veteran soldiers for the second time started to their feet. Ag,,il
they had heard the supernatural voices; again the visionrio
hound had bestrode them to suffocation. The chef de battdle're.
and myself heard or saw nothing of these events." 13414
gentlemen, is a curious fact, and it is, perhaps, more we' t. 4
of attention as it seems to point out the special operatiend
physical causes in the production of the monomania, ad hose.
the direction of the delusion towards the organs, namely, '7,4"
of respiration, 'which had chiefly suffered in the prec.,liell
marches, and in the suffocating atmosphere of the den in
they slept. The last example I shall give you gentione%t
curred in my own person (a laugh), and yet believe to cif'
was not mad, at least I was not so at the time when the,reff
cumstance happened (increased laughter). 1 was but aor
young man, when one day I made my first visit to a dissec.rdiii
room, that of La Pitie, and there I saw the body of a chi, apa
an advanced state of putrefaction, all covered with larrteo,
worms. I returned home, and not caring much about the'tbe
ter, went to bed, and slept soundly. But when I arose {ridge
morning., and was crossing the room to open my window, .1,11510._
my astonishment to see lying on my table the very body,lol
yesterday at La Pitie. I started, rubbed my eyes, shook and
self, all in vain; there it was, blue, and green, and putriq
distill.. a
full of creeping worms. Never was anything more (le
seen, nevertheless the delusion soon vanished, and I rec.oev,
etit,
my reason (a laugh), which I am glad to say has sin;.lars
undisburbed by any such visionary spectres.---IL
Lectures in the Lancet.