. Battles of the nineteenth century . pretended to skirmi-h, and, divid-ing into two parties, one pursued the oiliertowards our lines, where they were challenged,and allowed to pass, on replying in Portuguese. There was some excuse for the conduct of ourpickets, as the French dragoons, in consequenceof the difficulty of procuring new fromFrance, were allowed to use the brown cloth sogeneral all over the Peninsula, and were thuseasily miscaken for our Portuguese allies, someof whom also dressed in brown. But we weresoon undeceived, for the troopers dashed at the. days of Philip II. an
. Battles of the nineteenth century . pretended to skirmi-h, and, divid-ing into two parties, one pursued the oiliertowards our lines, where they were challenged,and allowed to pass, on replying in Portuguese. There was some excuse for the conduct of ourpickets, as the French dragoons, in consequenceof the difficulty of procuring new fromFrance, were allowed to use the brown cloth sogeneral all over the Peninsula, and were thuseasily miscaken for our Portuguese allies, someof whom also dressed in brown. But we weresoon undeceived, for the troopers dashed at the. days of Philip II. and the Spanish Armada ;others were cast in the reigns of Philip also John IV. of Portugal, who reignedin 1640 ; we had 24-pounders of George , and Russian naval guns ; the bulk of theextraordinary medley being obsolete brass engineswhich required seven to ten minutes to coolbetween each discharge, lest the overheatingshould cause the muzzles to drop. The ammunition was little better, and anengineer officer tells us that his 18-pound shotwas of three distinct sizes, which had to besorted out and painted difterent colours, while itwas often possible to put a finger between theball and the top of the gun, when the formerwas placed ready for ramming. Yet, with thismiserable materiel we were expected to fightthe most intelligent army in Europe ! Wellington learned from his spies that thegarrison were to make a sally on the 19th, andat I oclock the Talavera Gate suddenly opened, 17 engineers park, cut down some men, andgalloped off with several hundreds of
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