Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-07-05
STORMING OF A CITY.

l. When city is taken by storm, in military
phrase, and in accordance with the usages of
war, it is " iven up to the soldiers" What
this means will be apparent from the frightful
picture of Badajos, as it had been carried BY the
Allies, under Wellington, April 6, 1921. An
English officer who participated in the assault,
says:
1t was nearly dusk, and the few hours while
lslept bad madela fearful change in the eondi-
n the soldissy. In the mosaing
x 8cTe 0bedIentt to tfie officers, and preserved
the semblance of subordination /; now they were
fin astate of furious intoxication; discipline
was forgotten, and the splendid troops of yester
day had become fierce and sanguinary rabbIe,
dead to every touch of human feeling, and filed
with every demoniac passion that can brutalize
the man. The city was in terrible confusion.
and on every side horrible tokens of military IL
cense met the eye.
" One street, as approached the castle, was
almost choked with broken furniture: for the
houses had been almost gutted from the cellar
to the garrett, the partitions torn down, and even
the beds ripped up and scattered to the winds,
in the hope that gold might be found concealed.
A convent at the end of the etrada of St. John
was in flames, and saw more than one wretched
nun in the arms of drunken soldier.
"Furthr on the confusion seemed greater.
Brandy and wine casks were rolled out before
the stores, some were full, some half drunk out.
more STAYED in, in mere wantonness, and the Ii
quors running through the kennel. Many har-
rowing scream saluted the ear of the pas,er by :;
many female supplication was heard asking in
vain for mercy. How could it be otherwise.
when it is remembered that twenty thousand
furious and licentious madmen were loose upon
an immense population, among which many of
the loveliest women upon earth might be found.
All within that devoted city was at the disposal
of an infuriated army, over whom for the first
time control was lost, aided by an infamous col
lection of camp followers, who were, if possible,
more sanguinary and pittiless even than those
WHO uuu DrdFtu b06 EtOfm.
It is useless to dwell upon scene from
which the heart revolts. Few females in that
beautiful town were saved that night from in
suit. The noble and the beggar-the nun, and
the wife and daughter of the artisan-youth
and age, all were involved in the general ruin.
None were respected, and consequently few es-
capped The madness of those desperate brigands
were variousiy exhibited. Some fired through
doors and windows, Others at church bells many
at the wretched inhabitants as they fed into the
streets to escape the bayonets of the savages who
were demolishing their property within doors !;
while some wretches, as if blood had not flowed
in sufficient torrents already, shot from the win.
dows their own companions as they staggered on
below. What chances had the miserable inhab.
itants Of escaping death, when more than one
officer perished by the bayonets and bullets Of
the very men whom few hours before he had
led to the ASSAULT"
This city contained about l6, 600 inhabitants
and had twice before, within the space of thir
teen months, been subjected to the horrors Of .
seige by the " Eberators of the Peninsular.''
If sucha dreadful fate awaits the inhabitant.
of Sebastopool, in the event Of its fall, may We
not hope and pray that the attack upon it may
not succeed