The approach to Badajoz from the side of Elvas is exceedingly interesting. The Portuguese fortress of Elvas is perched on a lofty hill, with the valley at its foot which separates it at the distance of three leagues from Badajoz and the mountains of the Spanish frontier. I was struck by the contrast between the warm and cultivated quintas on the Elvas side, and the bleakness on that of Badajoz. The sun had just risen over the hills of Spanish Estremadura, which clad in the deepest purple were boldly yet delicately limned along the sky. The road was covered with numberless screeching _carros_, and the whistling contrabandists and sturdy almocrebes conducting their mules in listless silence formed a wonderful contrast with my thoughts, which were full of the ‘pride, pomp, and circumstance’ of War. When I entered Badajoz, which I did from the side of Madrid, I could not help shuddering at the sight of those walls which, little more than thirty years back, witnessed so terrible a conflict--“a combat,” says Napier “so fiercely fought, so terribly won, so dreadful in all its circumstances, that posterity can scarcely be expected to credit the tale; but many are still alive who know that it is true.” (_Hist. War in the Penins._ book xvi. chap. 5.) The courage of Philippon and the garrison was of the highest order. The assault combined escalade and storm, and took place in the night of the 6th April, 1812. For a detailed description of this wonderful and terrific scene I must refer to Napier’s History, whose magnificent narrative it is impossible to abridge. “The ramparts crowded with dark figures and glittering arms were seen on the one side, and on the other the red columns of the British, deep and broad, were coming on like streams of burning lava; * * a crash of thunder followed, and with incredible violence the storming parties were dashed to pieces by the explosion of hundreds of shells and powder-barrels.” (Napier, _ibid._) “Now a multitude bounded up the great breach as if driven by a whirlwind, but across the top glittered a range of sword-blades, sharp-pointed, keen-edged on both sides, and firmly fixed in ponderous beams, which were chained together and set deep in the ruins; and fourteen feet in front, the ascent was covered with loose planks, studded with sharp iron points, on which the feet of the foremost being set the planks moved, and the unhappy soldiers, falling forward on the spikes, rolled down upon the ranks behind.” (_Ibid._) “Two hours spent in these vain efforts convinced the soldiers that the breach of the Trinidad was impregnable. * * Gathering in dark groups, and leaning on their muskets, they looked up with sullen desperation, while the enemy stepping out on the ramparts, and aiming their shot by the light of the fire-balls which they threw over, asked, as their victims fell, _Why they did not come into Badajoz?_” (_Ibid._) Five thousand men fell during the siege, of whom 3,500 were struck during the assault.