The station I was ordered to take on the following day was of a melancholy cast. It was in the ditch, among the 159unburied dead. Nothing struck me more forcibly than the conduct of a soldier’s widow. Suspecting that her husband had fallen, she traversed this vale of death to seek him. Never shall I forget the anguish of her soul when she discovered the much-loved remains. The brave man had fallen covered with wounds; his countenance was sadly disfigured, and suffused with blood. She fell upon his face, and kissed his faded lips; she then gazed at the lifeless form, repeated her embraces, and gave way to the wild and ungovernable grief which struggled for expression. Sin! what hast thou done? Nor can I forbear observing, that a noble disregard for suffering, and fortitude of no common kind, were frequently shown both by officers and men, though severely hurt and disabled. None retired to the rear, until compelled by stern necessity. This resolute disposition to surmount, and if possible forget all surmountable difficulties, reminds me of a French royalist officer, in the late revolutionary war. Being engaged in a desperate action, he had the misfortune to have both his legs carried away by a cannon-ball. While lying on the ground, a wounded soldier indulged in loud and clamorous complaints: ‘Peace, friend,’ said the officer, ‘our God died upon the cross; our king perished on the scaffold; and I have lost my limbs. Revere the Almighty, and be patient.’ The siege of Ciudad Rodrigo lasted twelve days. When the commander-in-chief terminated his order for the assault, with this sentence, ‘Ciudad Rodrigo must be stormed this evening,’ he knew well that it would be nobly understood. The difficulties we had to encounter were great. The principal breach was cut off from the town by a perpendicular descent of sixteen feet; and the bottom was planted with sharp spikes, and strewed with live shells. The houses behind were all loop-holed and sprinkled with musketeers. The French had left their temporary bridges, but behind were parapets so powerfully defended, that it was said the 160third division could never have carried them, had not the light division taken the enemy in flank. To recompense an exploit so boldly undertaken and so nobly finished, Lord Wellington was created Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, by the Spaniards, Earl of Wellington, by the English, and Marquis of Torres Vedras, by the Portuguese. 161 CHAPTER VII. PRIZE MONEY—SIEGE OF BADAJOS—THE AUTHOR WOUNDED BY A MUSKET BALL—JOURNEY TO ELVAS—DESERTERS SHOT—RETURN TO ENGLAND—VISIT TO RELATIONS IN IRELAND—REJOINS AT MAIDSTONE—THE DROWNING MAN’S GRATITUDE.