Charles O'Malley

MAJOR MONSOON.

patam to the battle of Corunna he was perfect : besides this, he possessed a mind retentive of even the most trifling details of his profession ; from the formation of a regiment to the in- troduction of a new button, from the laying down of a parallel to the price of a camp-kettle, he knew it all. To be sure, he had served in the Commissary-General's department for a number of years, and nothing instills such habits as this.

THE BIVOUAC.

When I contrasted the gay and lively tone of the conversa- tion which ran on around our bivouac fire, with the dry monot- ony and prosaic tediousness of my first military dinner at Cork, I felt how much the spirit and adventure of a soldier's life can impart of chivalrous enthusiasm to even the dullest and least susceptible. I saw even many who, under common cir- cumstances, would have possessed no interest, nor excited any curiosity, but now, connected as they were with the great events occurring around them, absolutely became heroes ; and it was with a strange, wild throbbing of excitement, I listened to the details of movements and marches, whose objects I knew not, but in which the magical words, Corunna, Vimeira, were mixed up, and gave to the circumstances an interest of the highest

THE SKIRMISH.

tented with the successive retreats our forces made ; and while the words Torres Vedras brought nothing to my mind but the last resting place before embarkation, the sad fortunes of Corunna were now before me, and it was with a gloomy and desponding spirit I followed the routine of my daily duty.

CHAPTER XCIV.

It was thus in the retreat upon Corunna fell Colonel Lefebvre.

THE LEGION.

From time to time the rumors of great events reached us. We heard that Soult, having succeeded in reorganizing his beaten army, was, in conjunction with Ney's corps, returning from the north ; that the Marshals were consolidating their forces in the neighborhood of Talavera, and that King Joseph himself, at the head of a large army, had marched for Madrid.

TALAVERA.

TALAVERA.

TALAVERA.

Having been despatched to the rear with orders for General Craufurd, I did not reach Talavera till the morning of the 28th. Two days' hard fighting had left the contending armies still face to face, and without any decided advantage on either side.

THE SKIRMISH.

For several months after the battle of Talavera my life presented nothing which I feel worth recording. Our good fortune seemed to have deserted us when our hopes were highest ; for, from the day of that splendid victory, we began our retrograde movement upon Portugal. Pressed hard by overwhelming masses of the enemy, we saw the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida fall successively into their hands. The Spaniards were defeated wherever they ventured upon a battle ; and our own troops, thinned by sickness and desertion, presented but a shadow of that brilliant army which only a few months previous had followed the retiring French beyond the frontiers of Portugal.