Lord Wellington, who had been a near spectator of the achievements of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH, bestowed the warmest encomiums on the regiment. He galloped up to it, and taking Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace by the hand, said, “Wallace, I never saw a more gallant charge than that just now made by your regiment.” In his public despatches he repeated the expressions of approbation which he had used during the heat of the combat, as the following extracts will show:— “One division of French infantry arrived at the top of the ridge, when it was attacked in the most gallant manner by the EIGHTY-EIGHTH Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace.”... “In these attacks Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace, &c. &c., distinguished themselves.”... “I have also to mention in a particular manner, the conduct of Captain Dansey of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH Regiment.”... “And I beg to assure your Lordship, that I never witnessed a more gallant attack than that made by the EIGHTY-EIGHTH, Forty-Fifth, and Eighth Portuguese regiments, on the enemy’s division which reached the ridge of the Sierra.” The Colonel of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH, Marshal Beresford, joined in the praises bestowed upon his regiment, and recognised the faces of some of the veteran soldiers who had served in India, Egypt, and South America: these men crowded around him with that affectionate familiarity which the high-wrought feelings of such a moment, the sense of a community in past dangers, from which rank gave no protection, and a companionship in present safety, sometimes permitted even from the private soldier to the general. The cluster of rocks, so lately the scene of deadly conflict, presented a singular spectacle even to those whom use had familiarized with such sights. At their foot many of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH were stretched on the field, while in the chasms were to be seen numerous Frenchmen still in the very attitude in which death had overtaken them; some reclining backwards against a crag as if asleep, others leaning forwards over a projecting stone, as in the act of firing; while at the foot of the precipice, on the further side, were many who had been dashed to pieces in their vain endeavours to escape.