ADVENTURES OF A SOLDIER WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. BEING THE MEMOIRS OF EDWARD COSTELLO, K.S.F. FORMERLY A NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICER IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE, LATE CAPTAIN IN THE BRITISH LEGION, AND NOW ONE OF THE WARDENS OF THE TOWER OF LONDON; COMPRISING NARRATIVES OF THE CAMPAIGNS IN THE PENINSULA UNDER THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, AND THE SUBSEQUENT CIVIL WARS IN SPAIN. What, must I tell it thee? As o’er my ev’ning fire I musing sat Some few days since, my mind’s eye backward turn’d Upon the various changes I have pass’d— How in my youth with gay attire allur’d, And all the grand accoutrements of war, I left my peaceful home: Then my first battles, When clashing arms, and sights of blood were new: Then all the after-chances of the war; Ay, and that field, a well-fought field it was. COUNT BASIL. Second Edition. LONDON: COLBURN AND CO., PUBLISHERS, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1852. LONDON: Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street. TO GENERAL SIR A. F. BARNARD, K.C.B, K.C.H. &c. &c. &c. COLONEL OF THE RIFLE BRIGADE, AND GOVERNOR OF CHELSEA COLLEGE, THIS VOLUME Is most respectfully Dedicated, BY THE AUTHOR, EDWARD COSTELLO. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. So many Lives of Soldiers have already been written, and by abler pens than mine, and so many tales have arisen out of the chequered scenes of the late Peninsular War, and the short existence of the British Legion, that I dare not be very sanguine of creating for my work any great degree of interest.