on my side, and place a knapsack under, my head: he then passed on into the action, and I shall never know to whose generosity I was indebted, as I conceive, for my life; of what rank he was I cannot say, he wore a blue great coat. Byand-bye another tirailleur came and knelt and fired over me, loading and firing many times, and conversing with great gaiety all the while.

While the battle continued in that part, several of the wounded men and dead bodies near me were hit with the balls, which came very thick in that place. Towards evening, when the Prussians came, the continued roar of the cannon along theirs and the British line, growing louder and louder as they drew near, was the finest thing I ever heard. It was dusk, when two squadrons of Prussian cavalry, both of them two deep, passed over me in full trot, lifting me from the ground and tumbling me about cruelly; the clatter of their approach, and the apprehensions it excited, may be easily conceived. Had a gun come that way, it would have done for me. The battle was nearly over, or removed to a distance—the cries and groans of the wounded all around me became every instant more and more audible, succeeding to the shouts of "Vive l'Empereur!"-the discharges of musketry and cannon; now and then intervals of perfect silence, which were worse than the noise-I thought the night would never end. Much about this time I found a soldier of the Royals lying across my legs, who had probably crawled thither in his agony; his weight, convulsive motions, his noises, and the air issuing through a wound in his side, distressed me greatly; the latter circumstance most of all, as the case was my own. It was not a dark night, and the Prussians were wandering about to plunder, and the scene in Ferdinand Count Fathom came into my mind, though no women, I believe, were there; several of them came and looked at me, and passed on at length one stopped to examine me. I told him, as well as I could, (for I could say but little in German) that I was a British officer, and had been plundered already; he did not desist, however, and pulled me about roughly before he left me. About an hour before midnight I saw a soldier in a British uniform coming towards me; he was, I sus

spect, on the same errand. He came and looked in my face; I spoke instantly, telling him who I was, and assuring him of a reward if he would remain by me. He said he belonged to the 40th regiment, but had missed it. He released me from the dying man; being unarmed, he took up a sword from the ground, and stood over me pacing backwards and forwards. At eight o'clock in the morning, the English were seen at a distance; he ran to them, and a messenger was sent off to Hervey. A cart came for me. I was placed in it, and carried to a farm-house, about a mile and a half distant, and laid in the bed from which poor Gordon, as I understood afterwards, had been just carried out; the jolting of the cart, and the difficulty of breathing, were very painful. I had received seven wounds; a surgeon slept in my room, and I was saved by continual bleeding, one hundred and twenty ounces in two days, besides the great loss of blood on the field.

The lances, from their great length and weight, would have struck down my sword long before I lost it, if it had not been bound to my hand. What became of my horse I know not; it was the best I ever had.

The man from the Royals was still breathing when I was removed in the morning, and was soon after taken to the hospital.

Sir Denis Pack said, the greatest risk he ran the whole day, was in stopping his men, who were firing on me and my regiment, when we began to charge. The French make a great clamour in the action, the English only shout.

Much confusion arose, and many mistakes, from similarity of dress. The Belgians, in particular, suffered greatly from their resemblance to the French, being still in the very same clothes they had served in under Buonaparte."

WONDERFUL ESCAPE OF AN OFFICER,

LOST IN THE WILDS OF CAFFRARIA

EXTRACT of a letter from an officer serving with the army in Caffraria:—

"I have now been three months under canvas, exposed to most inclement weather cut off for a long time from communication with the colony, from the rivers being swollen, and deprived of the com

perish. At daybreak a gleam of hope dawned on me, and eagerly did I seek to discover in the features of the country some point to which I might direct my steps. Fruitless as my endeavours were the preceding night, so were they on the succeeding morning. I rose from my concealment in the utmost anguish of mind: ere I had paced a dozen yards a tremendous large lion presented himself to my view, couchant under a bush: I passed within a yard of his tail, so immediately did I come upon him; but he stirred not, and if he saw me he was regardless of his prey. Never rose the sun more majestically grand than on this eventful day. O God, it was then I acknowledged thy power supreme! Plac- | ing myself under the Almighty protection, I bent my steps, as it were by instinct, in a direction which brought me to a river. Here I paused on the banks to reflect on my condition. The alternative presented was, either to follow its course, which would bring me to a known point, whence I might enter into the colony, or else to remain where I was with expectation of being picked up by a party sent from the camp in search of me. The former offered so many obstacles that I gave up the idea as totally impracticable in such a country, and without food; the latter I embraced, though, had I possessed my pistol loaded at the time, my state of mind was such, that its distraction might have driven me to the rashest and basest of acts. Four hours elapsed in this state. I saw Caffres in every direction, but Providence screened me from their view. I became faint for want of food, which had not entered my lips for thirty-six hours, and I was so lacerated by thorns, &c. that I began to think of a future state as near at hand. Towards mid-day, however, I was roused by the sound of bugles; I listened, and found it was not imaginary, as before, but at a great distance. How to make myself heard I knew not, and having lost my horse, I could not proceed with any dispatch towards the sound. I threw away the incumbrance of my pistols and part of my dress, and made for the highest and most clear point of land near me. l'erched upon this I again listened, but the sound retired. I left my post and ran at my utmost speed, found I approached, and gained confidence and spi

rits.

After two hours I could make myself heard, was answered, and at length discovered by a party, which had all night been looking for me, and were returning, giving up the pursuit. You may judge my joy was unbounded; I cried like a child, so strongly were my feelings acted upon. Being congratulated on my wonderful escape, by my deliverers, I was placed on horseback and conducted to the camp, where I had been given up; and on my arrival being announced, it was asked, if not my remains, rather than a living carcase, approached. Thus ends my tale. The distance at which I was found was ten miles from the camp, and it moved the same day; another half hour, and my doorn had been sealed."

VARIETIES.

APSLEY HOUSE.

THE following most remarkable and in teresting particulars relating to Apsley House, the present residence of his Grace the Duke of Wellington, may not be generally known. King George II. riding on horseback one day in Hyde Park, met with an old soldier, whom he recognized as having fought under him at the battle of Dettingen, and with great condescension, fell into discourse with him. The King finally asked him what he could do for him? Why, please your Majesty, returned the soldier, my wife keeps an apple-stall on the bit of waste ground as you enter the park, and if your Majesty would be pleased to make us a grant of it, we might build a little shed, and improve our trade. The King complied with his request, and a grant was given him. The shed was erected. The situation was excellent, and the business of the old woman became brisk and prosperous. Their only son, in process of time, was articled to an attorney, and gave indications of making a figure in his profession. After some years, the old soldier being dead, and the grant of the late King being overlooked or forgotten, the then Lord Chancellor, attracted by the eligibility of the situation, removed the shed of the old woman, and laid out the ground as the site of the present mansion. Alarmed and terrified by this measure, and not venturing to contend with such high authority, she consulted with her son (whose articles were now nearly

in such an extremity. The son calmed her fears in the best manner he was able, and promised to find her a remedy as soon as the structure should be completed. This was no sooner done than he waited upon his Lordship, to request some remuneration for what he alleged to be a trespass on his mother's rights. The latter, as soon as he began to perceive the claim of the applicant was reasonably founded, tendered some hundreds as a compensation, which, under the advice of her son, the old woman rejected; and, to make the story short, upon the next interview, the son demanded of his Lordship four hundred pounds a-year as a ground-rent! adding, that if he did not like the terms, he was at liberty to take his house away again, as his mother did not want it! His Lordship acceded, and the house yields, to this day, the above rent to the descendants of an old apple

woman.

GHOST AND NO GHOST.

THE celebrated general, Marshal Saxe, having arrived with a part of his army at a village in Germany, where they were to pass the night, proposed sleeping himself in an old castle, which had been long neglected, and was believed by all the neighbourhood to be haunted by spectres, whose nightly yells were often heard by those who dwelt beneath its walls. Marshal Saxe was not the man to be terrified by such reports, from taking possession of his destined champer. He accordingly went to bed at his usual time, but had not been long asleep before he was awakened by the most horrid noise his ears had ever heard, and while he was endeavouring to recollect himself, the door of his chamber opened, and a human figure of very large dimensions appeared at the side of his bed. The Marshal instantly discharged a pistol at the supposed spectre, which appeared to strike it, as it fell on the floor; he then rose from his bed and aimed a blow with his sabre at the figure, but the blade found a resistance, and shivered in his hand. At this moment the apparition rose, and beckoned the general to follow he obeyed the summons, and attended him to the end of a long gallery, where a trap door opened, and they sunk into a cavern, which communicated with a subterraneous

one of whom, clad in complete armour, traversed the castle every night to deter any person from inhabiting it. Thus it appeared that the steel resisted the ball, and shivered the Marshal's sword, but the villain was knocked down by its force, from which he however quickly recovered. Marshal Saxe, with his usual presence of mind, told them who he was, and laid before them the danger of detaining him, when he had a surrounding army who would dig to the centre of the earth to find him; but at the same time gave them an assurance, that, if they would conduct him back to his chamber, he would never relate the history of that night, while it could do them harm. The coiners paid a ready obedience to his will, and he kept his word with them, till a subsequent discovery of their concealment gave him full liberty to relate this extraordinary adventure.

CROMWELL.

In the civil wars, Sir William Smith was governor of Hillesdon-house, near Buckingham, where the King had a small garrison. This place was besieged and taken by Cromwell; but the officers capitulated to march out with their arms, without the gate, one of Cromwell's solbaggage, &c. As soon as they were diers snatched off Sir William's hat. He immediately complained to Cromwell of the fellow's insolence and breach of the capitulation." Sir," said Cromwell, discover him, I promise you he shall not "if you can point out the man, or I can go unpunished; in the mean time," taking off a new beaver which he had on his head, "be pleased to accept of this hat, instead of your own."

NOTICE.

Subscribers and the public are respectfully informed, that the original edition of the Tales of the Wars, or Naval and Military Chronicle, is published only by W. M. CLARK, 19, Warwick-lane, Puternoster-row; J. Pattie, 17, Highstreet, Bloomsbury; J. Cleave, 1, Shoe Lane; J. Hetherington, 126, Strand; had of all Booksellers in Town and Brittain, Paternoster-row; and may be Country.

J. LAST, Printer, 3, Edward-st. Hampstead-rd.

PROBABLY no description could convey to the reader's mind a better idea of the scenes and incidents connected with this memorable affair, than the following narrative, by an eye-witness, extracted from a clever little work entitled "Recollections of the Eventful Life of a Soldier." On the 25th of May, 1812, we marched towards Badajos, which the French had gained possession of in the beginning of the campaign, through the treachery of the Spanish governor, at the very time Lord Wellington had promised relief, and given orders to hold out. Having crossed the Guidiana, we encamped about three miles from it, on the slope of a small hill which skirted the Elvas road; here we constructed huts in the best manner we could, with bushes and branches of trees. On the night of the 29th, the stores and VOL. I.

ordnance having arrived, we marched down towards the town, for the purpose of breaking ground; it was fortunately very dark, and as we kept the greatest silence, the French were not aware of our approach. When we reached the place where it was intended we should open the trenches, we formed a line across the front of the town, where 2,000 intrenching tools had been laid. We were then told safety depended on expedition, for if the French discovered our presence before we had worked ourselves under cover, a warm salute might be expected. The officers were dependent on our exertions for safety; and it was remarked in what kind and familiar tones some of those spoke, who, in greater security, would have acted the blustering tyrant. I cannot understand what makes many

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