justice!" In a few minutes afterwards he died; and his corpse, wrapped
in a military cloak, was interred by the officers of his staff, in the
citadel of Corunna. The guns of the enemy paid his funeral honours, and
Soult, with a noble feeling of respect for his valour, raised a monument
to his memory on the field of battle.
NAPIER.
[Note:_Battle of Corunna_. The French army having proclaimed Joseph
Buonaparte, King of Spain, the Spanish people rose as one man in
protest, and sought and obtained the aid of England. The English armies
were at first driven back by Napoleon; but the force under Sir John
Moore saved its honour in the fight before Corunna, 16th January, 1809,
which enabled it to embark in safety.]
* * * * *
BATTLE OF ALBUERA.
The fourth division was composed of two brigades: one of Portuguese
under General Harvey; the other, under Sir William Myers, consisting of
the seventh and twenty-third regiments, was called the Fusilier Brigade;
Harvey's Portuguese were immediately pushed in between Lumley's dragoons
and the hill, where they were charged by some French cavalry, whom they
beat off, and meantime Cole led his fusiliers up the contested height.
At this time six guns were in the enemy's possession, the whole of
Werle's reserves were coming forward to reinforce the front column of
the French, the remnant of Houghton's brigade could no longer maintain
its ground, the field was heaped with carcasses, the lancers were riding
furiously about the captured artillery on the upper parts of the
hill, and behind all, Hamilton's Portuguese and Alten's Germans, now
withdrawing from the bridge, seemed to be in full retreat. Soon,
however, Cole's fusiliers, flanked by a battalion of the Lusitanian
legion under Colonel Hawkshawe, mounted the hill, drove off the lancers,
recovered five of the captured guns and one colour, and appeared on the
right of Houghton's brigade, precisely as Abercrombie passed it on the
left.