which was singed and the ear cut and burnt. The poor fellow was very sorry for the accident. We soon put the Frenchman out of that. He left his cocked hat, which remained until dark, so that we had either killed or wounded him. My friends in camp joked me a good deal the next morning, observing, "Pray, what's the matter with your ear? How did the injury happen?" and so on. Weather for some days good. Storming of Badajoz [Sidenote: 6th] The Engineers now proclaimed the breaches practicable. Arrangements were made to storm the town. My old captain, Major O'Hare, was to lead the storming party. I wanted to go with him, but those senior demanded it as their right. The two Brigades of the Light Division fell in and moved on a little after dark, preceded by the Forlorn Hope and storming parties to the glacis. The 4th Division also were to storm the breaches with us, the 3rd to escalade the castle, and the 5th Division to attack Fort Pardeleras and escalade the town on that side. Our storming party was soon hotly engaged. Our columns moved on under a most dreadful fire of grape that mowed down our men like grass. We tore down the palisading and got upon the glacis. The havoc now became dreadful. My captain (Gray) was shot in the mouth. Eight or ten officers, and men innumerable, fell to rise no more. Ladders were resting against the counter-scarp from within the ditch. Down these we hurried, and as fast as we got down rushed forward to the breaches, where a most frightful scene of carnage was going on. Fifty times they were stormed, and as often without effect, the French cannon sweeping the ditches with a most destructive fire. Lights were thrown amongst us from the town that burnt most brilliantly, and made us easier to be shot at. In this way we remained for a considerable time. I was in a sort of frenzy stamping one of these lights out when an officer laid hold of me, saying, "Leave it, or when the light goes out your feet will be blown to pieces, as there is a live shell connected with it." The ditch now, from the place where we entered to near the top of the breaches, was covered with dead and dying soldiers. If a man fell wounded, ten to one that he ever rose again, for the volleys of musketry and grape shot that were incessantly poured amongst us made our situation too horrid for description. I had seen some fighting, but nothing like this. We remained passively here to be slaughtered, as we could do the besieged little injury from the ditch. We were ordered to leave the ditch and move away from the works. The Light Division formed up on the plain at some distance from the town. Here we observed the 3rd Division assailing the castle and escalading its walls. In consequence of the breaches being so furiously attacked, the French Governor, Phillipon, drew nearly the whole of the garrison to defend them, or the 3rd Division must have suffered infinitely more, as the walls were very high and the place difficult to enter.