=Siege of Badajoz.=--Before bringing to a successful issue the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, Wellington had been busily engaged in preparing for the third siege of Badajoz. On March 16th, 1812, it was invested, but the weather for some time was particularly unfavourable to the besiegers, rain falling in torrents so that the men in the trenches were knee-deep in mud and water. By March 23rd, however, the weather had improved, and the ground was in better condition for placing the guns, which by the 25th were in position at Picurina, the place being taken by storm on that day. On the 26th breaching batteries opened fire on the city, and by April 6th it was deemed possible to storm the castle by escalade, Picton's division being ordered to do so. The bastion of La Trinidad was to be stormed by Colville's division, and the Santa Maria by the light division under Colonel Barnard, while the lunette of San Rocque was to be carried by the 48th under Major Wilson. At 10 o'clock at night the attack was made: General Kempts, leading his brigade to the foot of the castle, was there wounded, but, his men dashing on, the castle was won in an hour and a half. "At the breaches the tumult was such as if the earth had been rent asunder ... the carnage was frightful. It is doubtful whether, since the invention of gunpowder, any mass of men had ever been more fearfully exposed to all its murderous power. The dying were piled upon the dead in mounds, which the living could not pass; and the French soldiers, undisturbed in their avocation, raised the deriding cry _'Vive l'Empéreur!'_" By midnight 2,000 men had fallen outside the city, and Wellington ordered the troops to withdraw; but this was as impossible as to go forward. Meanwhile some of the 5th division had entered the town (the 4th Regiment being in first), which by 6 o'clock the next morning was surrendered by the Governor. The besiegers lost 131 officers and 1,707 rank and file killed, and 564 officers and 6,083 men wounded. Napier states that "when the havoc of the night was told to Wellington, the pride of conquest sunk into a passionate burst of grief for the loss of his gallant soldiers," for in the assault alone the British casualties were 59 officers and 744 men killed, and 258 officers and 2,600 rank and file wounded. No wonder one of the Connaught Rangers exclaimed with an oath, "Och! Boys, Soudradrodrago was but a flay-bite to this." The 43rd Monmouth Light Infantry lost more men than any other regiment; 20 officers, including its chief, Colonel M'Leod (who was only twenty-seven), 335 sergeants and privates killed and wounded. Alas! the Saturnalia of Ciudad Rodrigo was repeated, and the disciplined men who had fought with such valour gave way to demoniacal passions which we of to-day can scarce believe. The indignity of the threatened gallows was the only way in which Wellington could curb his men, but not before several of the worst plunderers had been executed.