The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence by William Lawrence (fiction novels to read TXT) 📖

we made them retreat, leaving the hard fought for but really insignificant bridge in our possession. We found nearly thirty of the enemy lying there killed and wounded, while we only lost about fifteen in all. But we did not delay over our captured bridge, for the blood of victory once in our veins, we pressed on for more and traced them down, continually firing as we passed through the village.

Unfortunately I sprained my foot here, which disabled me from following, and a Portuguese inhabitant having asked our officer to let one of our men stay in his house to guard it from plunder whilst we remained in or near the village, the officer said to me, "Corporal Lawrence, you may as well stay with the man as you are so lame, and it will do to give you a rest." The company was to go back to the house where the cyder had been found, so I was rather glad of this occurrence, as I calculated I should get more attention paid me than if I had been with my comrades. I accordingly seated myself near the door of the man's house, and he soon brought me about a pint of wine with a piece of bread, for which I was very grateful, as I was very hungry and the wine proved to be much more to my taste than my previous ration of cyder.

I had not been sitting there long, however, before I heard a heavy footstep descending the staircase of the house, and on looking up, found it belonged to a Frenchman who had been up there for the purpose of plunder, and was now coming away with a good-sized bundle of clean linen under his arm. When he saw me he immediately bolted out of a back door which led into a field. I made a desperate plunge at him with my bayonet, but owing to my bad foot I could not get near enough to him to hurt him; still I managed to stop his burden, for he had forced that against the bayonet to shield himself from it. As soon as I could extricate my musket, I hobbled as quickly as I could to the back door and sent a bullet after him; but he had got some distance away, and I cannot say exactly whether I hit him; though I think it broke his arm, for I saw it drop immediately, and his motion became more slackened as he passed out of sight, which contented me as much as if I had killed him.

I then went back into the house and blew the Portuguese up for not keeping a better watch than to let a Frenchman find his way upstairs, as he might have killed us both. The Portuguese said he did not know how he got up there, neither did he very much care so long as he was gone now. I told him I thought he was a very easy-going customer, and pointed out that I had saved his linen for him, and his wife took it upstairs again as if nothing had happened, he likewise remarked that there was no fear of the Frenchman having taken any money, for he had none. He then gave me some more bread and wine, and when I had stopped two or three hours longer, during which time I drank the wine and stowed the bread into my haversack till I should feel more inclined to eat it, I left them, not feeling altogether safe there, as the enemy might very likely fall back. I returned over our well-deserved bridge to the cyder-house, as we had named it after the barrel we had found there. On my arrival my comrades seemed to smell out my bread, and they came and hovered round me like bees while I divided it as well as I could, for I was not hungry myself, and it was soon devoured.

We only stayed about two or three hours longer at this house until the army came up, and we again joined our different regiments. We halted near this place for the night, and our butchers commenced work killing bullocks for our supply. I think scarcely a drop of blood was wasted, for even that was caught in our kettles and boiled and eaten, and was found to be very good. Each sergeant had to send in his return for the meat required for his company, at the rate of two pounds for each man; and when he had received it, the cooking immediately commenced.

This was the last cooking that my fellow-corporal Burke, whom I have referred to before, ever took part in. But before relating how that happened I may as well mention that the butchers were entitled as a sort of perquisite to the bullocks' heels, which they sometimes sold. Burke bought two of these at this place for fifteenpence, and began cooking them in a somewhat peculiar manner, being either too hungry or too impatient to cook them properly by boiling. What he did was to put them on the fire to fizzle just as they came from the butcher, not even cleaning them, or taking any of the hair off; and every now and then he would gnaw the portion off that he thought was done, in order to get the underdone part closer to the fire. In this way he finished both the hocks, and for a time seemed satisfied, evidently thinking he had had a good supper.

But he had not counted on his digestion, for having eaten so much on an empty stomach, and that too almost raw and mixed with a fair amount of soot, for the fire was not altogether clear, it was not long before he felt it begin to disagree with him, and he commenced to writhe about and was in fearful agonies all night. The doctor of the regiment was sent for, but he could do nothing for the man, and in the morning he was no better. We were then ordered to follow up the enemy, so that he had either to march on in this state or be left behind. He chose the former, so I got him along by helping him for about a mile, when he suddenly without saying a word to any one fell out of the ranks, lay down on a bank by the roadside, and expired in a few minutes. I was very much hurt at this, for he was one of my best comrades, but there was no help for it, and we had to leave him and march on.

We did not come in contact with the enemy at all that day, and encamped for the night, as we thought, but it afterwards proved to be for nearly a fortnight. Towards the end of that time, our captain, who was my best friend in the whole regiment, rejoined us, having been left behind owing to a slight wound which he had received while on the march three or four weeks previously, but of which he had now quite recovered. Our company was at that time very short of sergeants, for which I shall afterwards account, so he recommended my promotion to fill one of the vacancies to the colonel, who gave him a written order for the purpose, and I was put into the place of poor Ryan. I of course was very proud of my new title, and not only that, but I received one shilling and elevenpence pay per day, being an additional sixpence on what I had formerly.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The regiment refitted with clothing and provisions at St. Jean de Luz — Comments by Lawrence on the shameful behaviour of certain sergeants of his regiment — Marches and countermarches in the mountain passes — Lawrence temporizes as cook in behalf of his officers, and is rewarded with an extra allowance of rum — A wet night — Fall of San Sebastian — Lawrence acts as medical adviser to his captain and gets more rum — Battle of the Nivelle and the French driven well into their own country.

Very shortly after my promotion we were ordered to St. Jean de Luz, where we received new clothes, and high time it was that we did so too, for our old ones were scarcely worth owning as rags and fearfully dirty, the red of them having turned almost to black. I ought to have received a sergeant's suit, but owing probably to the quartermaster's obstinacy I only got a private's, the same sort as I had had before. Here we likewise received a good supply of bread and rum, which seemed to us like a new and even a luxurious diet.

I may as well here give the details about the sergeants of our regiment. I was the only one in my company where there ought to have been six when I was promoted, so the whole duty fell heavily on me. The rest had been wounded at some time or other before, and then never pushed on much to get back to their regiment; many when recovered preferring to skulk in the hospitals in paltry situations such as doorkeepers or ward-masters, so getting a little extra pay, and then, as I shall again have occasion to show, being too ready to make their appearance when the war was over. Fortunately, however, they then met with no great encouragement. They had really plenty of opportunity to follow up the regiment if they had chosen, but I suppose they thought they were best off out of the smell of powder, and probably they were, but still that does not throw a very creditable light on them.

After we had received our clothes and provisions, we did not lie long at St. Jean de Luz, but again started on our marches, cruising about in the Pyrenees. For some time nothing of any particular note occurred until we again fell in with the enemy, who were stationed in huts which they had erected in the various valleys. We attacked them, and some sharp work ensued, for they did not seem to like the idea of abandoning their houses, which were much more comfortable than the open winter air, but we at last drove them off and took possession of their habitations, which a part of our army occupied. As for our regiment itself, we marched up the side of a mountain and encamped there.

We again found ourselves very short of provisions there, and besides that the rain was falling in torrents all night. We had nothing over our heads at first to cover them, so we set to and gathered a quantity of grass, sticks, stubble, and like things, and made a kind of wall to keep off a little of the wind and beating rain; and then we tried to make up our fires with anything we could get together, but owing to the wetness of the substances, they were not very lively, and it was a long time before we could get them to burn at all.

Our captain asked me if I could boil him a piece of beef, so I told him I would try and see what I could do to make the best of the bad circumstances, and accordingly I and a corporal of my company at once set to work, first placing our hanger over the fire and then swinging the kettle on it with the beef. The beef nearly filled the kettle, and though it was pouring with rain, it was a very awkward place to get water, as there were no springs near and no tanks to catch the rain in; consequently we had only about a quart of water in the