. Battles of the nineteenth century . h ; theair was heavy w-ith gunpowder smoke and thesickening stench of the stagnant pools ; indi-viduals and regiments alike surged and scrambledto find a passage ; until at last, getting on to anunfinished ravelin, mistaken in the confusion foia breach, both divisions w-ere jumbled together,and great disorder ensued. Wellington, watching from a hill, and seeingthe pause, exclaimed repeatedly : What can bethe matter ? sending aide-de-camp after aide-de-camp to report progress, as the glare revealedthe faces on the ramparts and the peculiarhollow booming rea
. Battles of the nineteenth century . h ; theair was heavy w-ith gunpowder smoke and thesickening stench of the stagnant pools ; indi-viduals and regiments alike surged and scrambledto find a passage ; until at last, getting on to anunfinished ravelin, mistaken in the confusion foia breach, both divisions w-ere jumbled together,and great disorder ensued. Wellington, watching from a hill, and seeingthe pause, exclaimed repeatedly : What can bethe matter ? sending aide-de-camp after aide-de-camp to report progress, as the glare revealedthe faces on the ramparts and the peculiarhollow booming reached him, caused by thegarrison firing down into the cavernous depthsof the ditch. At length there was a rush for the greatbreach. Officers and men, having extricatedthemselves from the carnage below, rushed on,to find an impenetrable barrier of sword-blades fixed in wooden beams and set firmlyacross the opening, while the debris in front wasstrewn with planks covered with spikes : if asoldier trod on one of them it slid down, either. THE 5TH DIVISION STORMING BY ESCALADE THE RAMPARTS OF SAN VINCENTE (A 2671. THE TAKING OF BADAJOZ. 263 throwing him on the spikes or sending himback on to the bayonets of his comrades ; and, tocrown all, the garrison rolled barrels of powderinto the middle of us, which exploded withshocking effect, filling the nostrils with thesmell of burning flesh and singed hair, andstrewing the breach with scarlet figures in everyconceivable attitude of agony and death ! Our gallant fellows charged madly in masses,in groups, and even singly, one private of theRifles forcing himself among the sword-blades,where the enem}^ shattered his bare head withtheir musket-butts. It was not until the cruel slaughter had lastedtwo hours that the diminished divisions with-drew to the bottom of the slope and stoodfurious and exhausted, but powerless to effecttheir aim, and still under a fire that wasthinning their broken ranks, while the enemycried mockingly down to them, Wh
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1901
