Iberia Won 17

Iberia Won 17

The concluding incident is from the combat of Maya, which took

place in the same neighbourhood a few days previously, and is

thus described by Captain Norton, of the 34th regiment.--“The

ninety-second met the advancing French column first with its right

wing drawn up in line, and after a most destructive fire and heavy

loss on both sides, the remnant of the right wing retired, leaving

a line of killed and wounded that appeared to have no interval.

The French column advanced up to this line and then halted, the

killed and wounded of the ninety-second forming a sort of rampart;

the left wing then opened its fire on the column, and as I was

but a little to the right of the ninety-second, I could not help

reflecting painfully how many of the wounded of their right wing

must have unavoidably suffered from the fire of their comrades.”

This frightful butchery appears to excite the enthusiasm of some

of its military historians. “So dreadful was the slaughter,” says

Napier, “that it is said the advancing enemy was actually stopped

by the heaped mass of dead and dying; and then the left wing of

that noble regiment coming down from the higher ground smote

wounded friends and exulting foes alike, as mingled together they

stood or crawled before its fire. * * The stern valour of the

ninety-second, principally composed of Irishmen, would have graced

Thermopylæ.”--_Hist. War. Penins._ book xxi. chap. 5.

 

 

III. “When Roland’s horn with its tremendous sound.”

 

La dove il corno sona tanto forte

Dopo la dolorosa rotta.

Pulci.

 

 

VIII. “Fired with the generous vintage, which gave all

The ruffian forth,” &c.

 

Κράτιστον μὲν τῆς ἀκμῆς τῶν χαιρῶν τυγχάνειν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ δυσκαταμαθέτως

ἔχουσιν. κ. τ. λ.

Isoc. _ad Nicocl._

 

“It is most excellent to enjoy moderately the height of felicity;

but this men find most difficult to learn.”

 

 

X. “Like Hebe for this flagrant Hercules.”

 

Τέρπεται ἐν θαλίῃς, καὶ ἔχει καλλίσφυρον Ἥβην,

Παῖδα Διὸς μεγάλοιο καὶ Ἥρης χρυσοπεδίλου.

Hom. _Od._ xi. 602.

 

“Flagrans amor Herculis Heben.”--Propert I. 13. 23.

 

 

XII. “Which like Camilla’s battle-axe, I ween.”

 

“Rapit indefessa bipennem.”--Virg. _Æn._ xi. 651.

 

“When fiery swift her footsteps past the steed.”

 

----“Pernicibus ignea plantis,

Transit equum cursu.”

--_Ib._ 718.

 

 

XIII. “Girt by her crescent-shielded Amazons.”

 

“Fœminea exsultant lunatis agmina peltis.”

--Virg. _Æn._ xi. 663.

 

 

XVII. “Hast thou not seen a clear and sparkling rill, &c.”

 

Qualis in aerii pellucens vertice montis

Rivus, muscoso prosilit e lapide;

Qui cùm de pronâ præceps est valle volutus,

Per medium densi transit iter populi.

Catul. lxvi.

 

 

XVIII. “A soldier frank, pellucid was his mind.”

 

Ἀλλ’ ἐνθάδ’, ἐν Τροίᾳ τ’, ἐλευθέραν φύσιν

Παρέχων, Ἄρη, τὸ κατ’ ἐμὲ, κοσμήσω δορί.

Eurip. _Iphig. in Aul._ 930.

 

“_Achil._ Both here and in Troy, displaying a frank mind, as far as

in me lies, I will illustrate Mars in battle.”

 

 

XX. --“Nial led ’mid War’s alarms

A file of Rifles.”

 

--Sævam

Militiam puer, et Cantabrica bella tulisti

Sub Duce.

Horat. _Epist._ i. 18.

 

 

XXI. “The Spaniards oft declared he was a girl.”

 

Era Medoro un mozo de veinte años,

Ensortijado el pelo, y rubio el bozo,

De mediana estatura, y de ojos graves,

Graves mirados, y en mirar suaves.

Lope de Vega, _Angelica_, iii.

 

 

XXVII. “Till rapid Soult,” &c.

 

Rapidity of conception and execution were marked features in

Marshal Soult’s military character. The decree by which Napoléon

appointed him his Lieutenant in Spain was issued at Dresden on

the 1st July, 1813, ten days after the battle of Vittoria. On the

eleventh day he was in the midst of the army in Spain! “The 12th,

Soult, travelling with surprising expedition, assumed the command

of the armies of the ‘north,’ the ‘centre,’ and the ‘south,’ now

reorganized in one body called ‘the Army of Spain.’ And he had

secret orders to put Joseph forcibly aside if necessary, but that

monarch voluntarily retired from the army.” Napier, _Hist. War in

the Penins._ book xxi. chap. 4. “Marshal Soult was one of the few

men whose indefatigable energy rendered them worthy lieutenants

of the emperor; and with singular zeal, vigour, and ability he

now served.”--_Ibid._ “Such was Soult’s activity that on the

16th all the combinations for a gigantic offensive movement were

digested.”--_Ibid._

 

 

XXIX. “His rugged spine full many a peak doth bear,

His ribs, huge ridges, part on either hand.”

 

This is the actual formation of the Pyrenees. A great spinal

ridge runs diagonally across this entire mountain tract, trending

westward. From this spine sierras shoot forth on both sides, and

the communications between the valleys formed by these ridges pass

over breaks in the sierras, called _puertos_ by the Spaniards, and

_cols_ by the French.

 

 

XXXI. “What clattering steed doth gallop fleet as air.”

 

On the 27th July, Wellington, having been unable to learn any thing

of the movements of Picton and Cole, who had been left in the

valley of Zubiri and on the adjoining heights of Linzoain, on the

evening preceding, and dreading lest Soult’s combinations should

cut them off, quitted Sir Rowland Hill’s quarters in the Bastan at

a very early hour in the morning (these early matutinal movements

have been always characteristic of his Grace) and descending the

valley of Lanz, reached Ostiz, a few miles from Sauroren, where he

met General Long with his brigade of light cavalry, who informed

him that Picton and Cole had abandoned the heights of Linzoain, and