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Python
Interviews

Discussions with Python Experts

Mike Driscoll

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Python Interviews
Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing

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 Foreword

Welcome, all, to Python Interviews!

People often get confused about open source programming
languages, focusing merely on the technology behind the language
— be it the language itself, the libraries available for it, or the
impressive products that are built with it — and not on the
ecosystem of individuals that are responsible for the language
existing in the first place.
Python is an open source language, driven mostly by volunteer
efforts from all around the globe. It's important to focus not only
on the technology behind what makes Python great, but also the
individuals that make it great as well.
The world of Python is not one comprised merely of code, but of
a community of like-minded individuals coming together to make
the world a better place through the open source ethos. Thousands
of individuals have contributed towards the success of Python.
This book contains interviews with an excellent selection of the
individuals that power Python and its wonderful open source
community. It dives into the personal backgrounds of these
individuals and the opinions they have about the community, the
technology, and the direction we're headed in, together.
But, must importantly — it exposes that Python, the programing
language, is indeed comprised of persons, just like you, trying to
make a difference in the world, one step at a time.

Kenneth Reitz
Director at Large for the Python Software Foundation
 Contributor

About the Author

Mike Driscoll has been using Python since
April 2006. He blogs for the Python Software
Foundation. Other than blogging, he enjoys
reading novels, listening to a wide variety of
music, and learning photography. He writes
documentation for the wxPython project's wiki
page and helps wxPython users on their mailing
list. He also helps Python users on the PyWin32
list and occasionally the comp.lang.py list too.

Packt is Searching for Authors Like You

If you're interested in becoming an author for Packt, please
visit authors.packtpub.com and apply today. We have worked
with thousands of developers and tech professionals, just like you,
to help them share their insight with the global tech community.
You can make a general application, apply for a specific hot topic
that we are recruiting an author for, or submit your own idea.
 Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Chapter 1: Brett Cannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2: Steve Holden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 3: Carol Willing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter 4: Glyph Lefkowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Chapter 5: Doug Hellmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Chapter 6: Massimo Di Pierro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Chapter 7: Alex Martelli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Chapter 8: Marc-André Lemburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Chapter 9: Barry Warsaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Chapter 10: Jessica McKellar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Chapter 11: Tarek Ziadé . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Chapter 12: Sebastian Raschka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Chapter 13: Wesley Chun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Chapter 14: Steven Lott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Chapter 15: Oliver Schoenborn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Chapter 16: Al Sweigart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Chapter 17: Luciano Ramalho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Table of Contents

Chapter 18: Nick Coghlan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Chapter 19: Mike Bayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Chapter 20: Jake Vanderplas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Chapter 21: Other Books You May Enjoy . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Artificial Intelligence with Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .346
Understanding Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .347
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think . . . . . . 348

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Page ii
 Preface
Near the end of 2016, I was brainstorming with my editor about
the kinds of books might be of interest. I had been doing a series
of articles on my blog called PyDev of the Week that inspired us into
crafting a book based on interviewing core members of the Python
community. I spent some time hashing out 20 names of people that
I thought would be good for the book and then I started contacting
them in 2017.

Over the course of about 8-12 months, I ended up interviewing

20 pillars of the Python community, although my list changed
several times over that period. Some people weren't available or
couldn't be reached. But I persevered and managed to pull together
a well-rounded set of representatives of the Python programming
community.

In this book, you will get interesting anecdotes about the history of
Python and its creators, such as Brett Cannon and Nick Coghlan.
You will discover why Python didn't have Unicode support in its
first release, and you'll hear from core developers about where they
think Python is going in the future. You will also hear from some
well-known Python authors, like Al Sweigart, Luciano Ramalho, and
Doug Hellman.

I also spoke with some of the creators or core developers of

popular third-party packages in Python, such as web2py (Massimo
Di Pierro), SQLAlchemy (Mike Bayer), and the Twisted Framework
(Glyph Lefkowitz), among others.
Preface

My interview with Carol Willing was a lot of fun. She is also a

core developer of the Python language itself, so learning her views
on women in technology and Python was quite enlightening. She is
also a contributor to Project Jupyter, so learning more about that
project was exciting.

I think you will find Alex Martelli and Steve Holden's interviews
to be especially compelling as they have been working with Python
for a very long time and have many interesting insights.

There is a lot to learn from all the individuals that I spoke with.
If you happen to know them, you know that even better than I
do. All of them were great to chat with and very responsive to me
even on the shortest of timelines. If you happen to meet them at
a conference, be sure to thank them for their contributions.

Special thanks go out to all the people I interviewed. They took time
out of their lives to help me with this project and I truly appreciate
it. I also want to thank my editors for keeping this project on
track. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Evangeline, for putting
up with me interviewing people at random times throughout the
summer. And finally, I want to thank you, dear reader, for checking
out this book.

Page iv
 1
Brett Cannon
Brett Cannon is a Canadian software
engineer and Python core developer.
He is a principal software developer at
Microsoft, where he works on editing
tools. Previous roles include software
engineer at Google and creator at
Oplop. Brett became a fellow of the
Python Software Foundation (PSF) in
2003 and served as a director of the
PSF between 2013 and 2014. He is a former PyCon US committee
member and was conference chair of PyData Seattle 2017. Brett
led the migration of CPython to GitHub and created importlib.
Among his open source achievements is caniusepython3 and he is the
co-author of 17 successful Python Enhancement Proposals.

Discussion themes: core developers, v2.7/v3.x, Python

sprints.
Catch up with Brett Cannon here: @brettsky
Brett Cannon

Mike Driscoll: Why did you become a computer programmer?

Brett Cannon: I always found computers interesting, as far back as

I can remember. I was lucky enough to go to an elementary school
with a computer lab full of Apple IIes, back when that was the
cutting edge, so I was exposed to them relatively early on.

In the year between junior high and high school, I took a computer
class over the summer and that included a little bit of Apple BASIC.
I did it and I excelled at it, to the point that I think I finished the
entire class in the first week. It hadn't really clicked that I could do
that for a job at that point.

This continued through high school, and then when it came time
to pick courses for junior college, my mom had me promise her
two things. I agreed that I would take a course in philosophy and
I would take a course in computer programming. So that's what I
did and I loved both.

Once again, I read my introductory C book in the first two weeks,

which was supposed to last for the whole semester. I remember
the first time I finished it, I sat down and implemented tic-tac-toe
one day after class. I even forgot to eat dinner! It was just one of
those eureka moments. The feeling of boundless creativity that this
tool provided just engulfed me. That's how I got into programming.

Brett Cannon: 'The feeling of boundless

creativity that this tool provided just engulfed
me. That's how I got into programming.'

Page 2
 Brett Cannon

I knew that tic-tac-toe was a solved problem, so I thought that I

could actually write the logic so that I could play tic-tac-toe perfectly
as a program. I spent something like six hours one evening doing
it, and I was utterly blown away that I was actually able to do that.
It opened up the possibilities of what computers could do, and the
freedom of it and the ability to think about the problems just really
grabbed me. I've been doing it ever since.

Driscoll: What led you to becoming so involved with Python and

its community?

Cannon: Well, I ended up going to Berkeley and getting a degree

in philosophy, but I kept taking computer science courses. The
introductory computer science course at Berkeley had an entrance
exam, and I was worried that I didn't know object-oriented
programming, since I only knew C. So I looked around for an
object-oriented programming language. I found Python, learned it,
loved it, and kept writing personal programs in it.

At some point along the way, I needed time.strptime , the

function to take a string that represents a datetime and parse it
back into a time tuple. I was on Windows at the time, and time.
strptime wasn't available on Windows. As a result, I came up
with a way to parse it where you had to still plug in the locale
information but it would still parse it.

Page 3
Brett Cannon

Back then, ActiveState's cookbook site was still a thing, so I posted

my recipe of how to do strptime up on ActiveState. Later,
O'Reilly published the first edition of Python Cookbook, and Alex
Martelli included that recipe as the last recipe in the book, which
also happened to be the longest recipe in the book.

Brett Cannon: 'So I posted my recipe of how

to do strptime up on ActiveState.'

It still ticked me off, though, that people had to input their locale
information. I was frustrated that I couldn't solve that. So in the
back of my mind, I was continuously thinking about how I could
get that locale information out. Eventually, I solved it. It was actually
the week after graduating from Berkeley, and I gifted myself the
time to write up the solution, so that you didn't have to enter locale
information anymore.

After I did that, I emailed Alex Martelli, since we'd exchanged emails
a couple of times at that point, and I said, "Hey, I've fixed this so
it's not necessary to input the locale anymore. How do I get this
upstream?" Alex Martelli said, "Oh, well you just email this mailing
list, Python-Dev, and you can submit the patch."

Brett Cannon: 'Alex Martelli said, "Oh, well

you just email this mailing list, Python-Dev,
and you can submit the patch."'

Page 4
 Brett Cannon

So, I emailed the list and I think Skip Montanaro was the first
person to respond. Skip just said, "Yeah, that's great, just upload the
file and we'll work at it and accept it." I thought that was awesome.
I was able to contribute to this project and this language, which I
thought was really interesting.

Brett Cannon: 'I was able to contribute to this

project and this language, which I thought
was really interesting.'

All of this happened during a gap year I was taking between

undergraduate and graduate school. I was trying to get into graduate
school for computer science and I knew that I was going to need
some more programming experience, beyond the courses I was
taking. I thought that I could contribute to Python and help out.
I had all the time in the world back then, so I decided I'd get
involved.

Brett Cannon: 'I decided I'd get involved.'

I got on the mailing list and I lurked around asking questions.

Then in that same year, I offered to start taking up the Python-Dev
summaries, which had stopped at that point. Once again, I figured
I had the time to do it, and I realized it was a good way for me
to learn, because it forced me to read every single solitary email
in Python-Dev.

One interesting side effect was that I got to know about any small
issues that nobody had time to take care of, so I saw anything that
cropped up before almost anybody else. I was able to very easily
pick up small issues to fix and learn, and I was able to continually
do that.

Page 5
Brett Cannon

In the guise of the Python-Dev summaries, I got to ask more and

more questions.

At some point, I knew enough, and I became a core developer right

after the first PyCon (at least the first conference labeled PyCon),
in 2003. At that point I was hooked. I'd got to know the team and
the people had become friends of mine. I just enjoyed it so much
and it was fun, so I stuck with it and I've never really stopped for
longer than a month since.

https://wiki.python.org/moin/GetInvolved

That doesn't mean that you have to be a core developer to get into
the Python community. As long you enjoy it, you can get hooked
however it makes sense to you.

Driscoll: What then made you decide to start blogging and writing
about Python?

Cannon: Blogging is one of those ways to get involved and since

I enjoy writing, that medium happened to fit the way that I like to
communicate. I started doing it way back when, and I've more or
less consistently done it ever since. I always enjoy that aspect of
dispensing knowledge to the world as best as I can.

Driscoll: Was it important that you got into Python at just the right
time? Do you recommend getting in early on projects?

Cannon: Yes, it was one of those situations where I was in the

right place at the right time, and with the free time I needed to get
going. I managed to start when I had enough time to contribute
as much as I wanted.

Page 6
 Brett Cannon

I also got started when the Python project wasn't that big. I
remember when I started my master's degree, people would ask
what I did in my spare time. When I said I contributed to Python,
they'd reply, "Is that the language with the white space?" So I've
just been doing this for a long time.

So yes, I got involved in the project at an ideal point, before interest

in the language surged around 2005. I sometimes wish that I'd
been able to get started with it earlier somehow, but I'd have been
younger, so that might not have worked. So it was serendipitous
that it all just came together when it did.

Driscoll: What parts of Python have you actively contributed to? Is

there a module that you helped start or you had a major influence
on, such as the datetime module?

Cannon: My influence was actually the time module. I predate the

datetime module! The first modules that I ever authored were
the dummy_thread and dummy_threading modules that were
in Python 2.

That was another one of those instances where someone came

forward and recommended it as a cool thing to do. They said they'd
get to it, but over time they didn't get to it, so I emailed them
saying, "Hey, are you going to get to this?" They said no, but that
it would still be a useful thing to do, so I did it. Those were the
first modules that I ever authored from scratch.

Page 7
Brett Cannon

I've essentially touched, I think, everything in the Python language

at this point. I've even touched the parser, which very few people
ever have to touch. I think that I helped to write warnings for some
tokenization thing at one point. I played a big part in the compiler,
when we switched from going from a concrete syntax tree to byte
code, to then having a proper concrete syntax tree, to an abstract
syntax tree to Python.

Brett Cannon: 'I've essentially touched, I

think, everything in the Python language at
this point.'

Jeremy Hilton had started that project, and Guido van Rossum
basically gave everyone an ultimatum, because the project had been
taking years to finish. So Guido said, "You have until the next
release to finish this."

Brett Cannon: 'So Guido said, "You have

until the next release to finish this."'

I jumped in and helped Jeremy to carry it the last half of the way.
I did a similar thing with the warnings module. Neil Norbits had
started to implement it, but he kind of drifted off the project, so I
picked it up and finished it the rest of the way. That's how I ended
up being one of the people who knew the warnings module a
little too well!

Page 8
 Brett Cannon

What else has led me to becoming so involved in Python? Probably

the one thing that I'm most known for is importlib. I wrote most
of the current implementation of import (all of it for Python 3.3)
and then Nick Coghlan and Eric Snow helped a lot subsequently,
but the whole importlib package was my doing. Those are the
ones that come to mind in terms of what came directly from me,
but I've basically just touched everything everywhere. I can't keep
track anymore after 14 years!

Driscoll: I know what you mean. I hate it when I come across

some code and I think, "Who wrote this, and why is it so bad?" I
then remember that I wrote it a good two years ago!

Cannon: Yeah, if you manage to read your own code from six
months ago and it still looks good, then there's probably something
wrong. It usually means you haven't learned something new yet.

Brett Cannon: 'If you manage to read your

own code from six months ago and it still
looks good…it usually means you haven't
learned something new yet.'

Driscoll: What do you consider to be the best thing about being

a core developer of Python?

Cannon: Probably just the friendships that I've made through being
one. A lot of the core developers are friends of mine.

Page 9
Brett Cannon

We get together once a year and I get to spend almost 24 hours a

day for a whole week with a lot of these people. That's on top of
the time I get to spend with them online throughout the rest of
the year. It's probably more time than I get to spend with a lot of
my friends, because how often do you actually get to take basically
a full week of vacation with good friends of yours?

So yeah, it's honestly the friendships at this point. It's being able to
hang out and work with these people, learn from them and enjoy
what we do and keep doing that.

I don't think about the impact of Python very often. It's a little
mind-boggling sometimes to think about, so I try not to dwell on it.
I don't want any form of an ego because of it, so I try to actively
not think about it too much. If I do just sit here and think about
working on this language that's used by however many millions of
developers, then that's a bit of an eye-opener. It's kind of cool to
be able to say that I work on that, but primarily it's about getting
to work with friends.

I still remember very clearly when I first joined the team, and even
further back when I joined the mailing list, so although people say
I'm one of these big high-up leads on the Python developer team,
I've never fully acclimated to that idea. I just don't think of myself
that way. Guido famously was once asked at Google, "On a scale
of one to ten, how well do you know Python?" He said an eight.

'Guido famously was once asked at Google,

"On a scale of one to ten, how well do you
know Python?" He said an eight.'

Page 10
 Brett Cannon

No one knows the entire system, because it's way too big a program
to know. We can all fit the basic semantics in our heads, but not
all the intricate details of how it actually works. How many people
know descriptors or meta classes like the back of their hand? I
have to look up that stuff on occasion, so nobody knows the
whole system.

Driscoll: So where do you see Python going as a language, as a

whole? Do you see it getting more popular in certain fields, or is
Python getting into legacy status like C++?

Cannon: Python is in an interesting position today, where there

are very few places where Python hasn't penetrated into as a major
player. Sure, there are certain areas, like low-level operating systems
and kernel development, that don't suit Python, but otherwise it can
feel like Python is pretty much everywhere.

The one place I know we're still second with Python is in data
science. I think our growth trends project that Python won't
immediately overtake R as a data science language in the next couple
of years at least. But long term, I do think that Python will catch
up. Otherwise, I just don't know very many other fields, that don't
require a systems language, where we aren't competitive for first
place with Python.

Page 11
Brett Cannon

I suppose another area, where Python isn't so strong, may be

desktop apps, to a certain extent. Even on the desktop, people use
us, so it's not like it's devoid, but there's just a lot of competition
in that space. In the long term, and we might even be there already,
we will hit the tipping point where there's so much Python code
everywhere, that Python itself will probably never go away.

Brett Cannon: 'In the long term, and we

might even be there already, we will hit the
tipping point where there's so much Python
code everywhere, that Python itself will
probably never go away.'

Hopefully, Python will never be uttered in the same passing breath

as COBOL, and maybe we'll be loved a little bit more and for
longer, but I don't see us ever really going anywhere. I think there's
just too much code at this point to have us ever disappear.

Driscoll: Python is one of the major languages in the current AI

and machine learning boom. What do you think makes Python such
a good language for this?

Cannon: I think the ease of learning Python is what makes it good

for AI. The people currently working in AI has expanded beyond
just software developers, and now encompasses people like data
scientists, who do not write code constantly.

That means that there is a desire for a programming language that

can be easily taught to non-programmers. Python fits that need
nicely. You can look at how Python has garnered traction with
people in the sciences and in computer science education, to see
how this is not a new trend.

Page 12
 Brett Cannon

Driscoll: Should people move over to Python 3 now?

Cannon: As someone who helped to make Python 3 come about,

I'm not exactly an unbiased person to ask about this. I obviously
think people should make the switch to Python 3 immediately, to
gain the benefits of what has been added to the language since
Python 3.0 first came out.

Brett Cannon: 'I hope people realize that the

transition to Python 3 can be done gradually,
so the switch doesn't have to be abrupt or
especially painful.'

I hope people realize that the transition to Python 3 can be done

gradually, so the switch doesn't have to be abrupt or especially
painful. Instagram switched in nine months, while continuing to
develop new features, which shows that it can be done.

Driscoll: Looking ahead, what's happening with Python 4?

Cannon: The Python 4 thing is a whole conversation of its own,

of course. I haven't heard much about Python 4, and I'd be happy
to hear about it. It's mythical and it doesn't exist. Python 4 is like
Py4k dreaming versus Py3k. Just where could the language go?

Page 13
Brett Cannon

When it becomes time to do Python 4, we'll probably clean up the

standard library a good amount and strip it down. There are some
language elements we'll probably finally get rid of, instead of leaving
them in there for compatibility with Python 2.

Brett Cannon: 'When it's time to do Python

4, we'll probably clean up the standard library
a good amount, and strip it down.'

For Python 4, we'll likely have a tracing garbage collector, instead

of reference counting to get that parallelism. I don't know yet, but
that's where I see it going: more or less the same, especially because
we've come to rely more on the things that the community has
built up around Python. I mean, one of the reasons we have huge
standard libraries, is because it negates the internet, right?

Python itself predates Unicode as an official standard, because

Python first went public in February 1991 and Unicode 1.0 went
final in October 1991. I wasn't aware of that. I had to look it up,
because it's one of those things where people ask me, "Hey, why
didn't you do Unicode from the beginning like Java?" It's like, well,
we predate Unicode, so that's why!

So in the future, I don't think the standard library will need to be

quite as big as it is today. We don't need it to be if you can just
pip install the equivalent libraries.

Page 14
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proud of his own unripened skill, and perhaps, from the experience
of San Christoval, undervaluing his adversary’s tactics; desirous also,
it was said, to gain a victory without the presence of a king;
Marmont, pushed on by fate, madly broke the chain which restrained
his enemy’s strength.
To understand the remarkable movements which were now
about to commence, it must be borne in mind that the French army,
while the harvest was on the ground, had no regard to lines of
communication; it had supports on all sides, and the troops were
taught to reap the standing corn, and grind it themselves if their
cavalry could not seize flour in the villages. This organization,
approaching the ancient Roman military perfection, baffled the
irregular, and threw the regular force of the allies entirely upon the
defensive; their flanks once turned a retreat must follow to save the
communications; but the French offered no point for retaliation.
Wherefore, with a force composed of four different nations,
Wellington was to make difficult evolutions in an open country, his
only chances of success being the casual errors of his adversary, an
able general, who knew the country perfectly and had troops well
disciplined, and of one nation. The game would have been quite
unequal if the English had not been so strong in cavalry.
In the course of the 15th and 16th Marmont, who had previously
made deceptive movements, concentrated his beautiful and gallant
army on its right towards Toro, which place, intercepted letters,
reports of deserters and the talk of the peasants, had for several
days assigned as his point of passage. On the morning of the 16th
English exploring officers, passing the Duero near Tordesillas, found
only the garrison there, and in the evening the reports stated, that
two French divisions had already crossed by the bridge of Toro;
wherefore Wellington united his centre and left at Canizal, on the
Guarena, during the night, intending to attack; but as he had still
some doubts of the real object, he left Sir Stapleton Cotton on the
Trabancos with the right wing, composed of the fourth and light
divisions and Anson’s cavalry. Suddenly Marmont recalled his troops,
returned to Tordesillas and Pollos, passed the Duero and
concentrated at Nava del Rey in the evening of the 17th, some of his
men having marched forty, some fifty miles without a halt.
Wellington was then near Toro, and Cotton remained behind the
Trabancos during the night without orders, in a bad position;
Wellington however hastened to his aid, bringing up Bock’s, Le
Marchant’s, and Alten’s cavalry, while the fifth division took post six
miles in rear of the Trabancos.

C ombats of C astrejon and the G uarena .

(July, 1812.)
At daybreak Cotton’s outposts were driven in, yet the bulk of his
cavalry and a troop of horse artillery showed a front, having the two
infantry divisions in support; the fourth behind his left, the light
division behind his right, but widely separated by a valley. The
country was open, like the downs of England, with here and there
water-gullies, dry hollows and naked heads of land, behind one of
which, on the other side of the Trabancos, lay the French army.
Cotton, seeing only horsemen, pushed his cavalry towards the river,
advancing cautiously by his right along some high table-land, where
his troops were lost at first in the morning fog, then thick on the
stream. Very soon the deep tones of artillery shook the ground, the
sharp ring of musketry was heard in the mist, and the 43rd
Regiment was hastily brought through the village of Castrejon to
support the advancing cavalry; for besides the deep valley
separating the fourth from the light division, there was a ravine with
a marshy bottom between the cavalry and infantry, and the village
furnished the only good passage.
The cannonade became heavy, and the spectacle surprisingly
beautiful. The lighter smoke and mist, mingling and curling in
fantastic pillars, formed a huge and glittering dome tinged with
many colours by the rising sun, and through the gross vapour below
the restless horsemen were seen or lost, as the fume thickened from
the rapid play of the artillery; the bluff head of land beyond the
Trabancos, now covered with French troops, appeared by an optical
deception close at hand, dilated to the size of a mountain, and
crowned with gigantic soldiers, who were continually breaking off
and sliding down into the fight. Suddenly a dismounted English
cavalry officer stalked from the midst of the smoke towards the line
of infantry; his gait was peculiarly rigid, and he appeared to hold a
bloody handkerchief to his heart; but that which seemed a cloth was
a broad and dreadful wound: a bullet had entirely effaced the flesh
from his left shoulder and breast and carried away part of his ribs,
his heart was bared and its movement plainly discerned. It was a
piteous and yet a noble sight, for his countenance though ghastly
was firm, his step scarcely indicated weakness, and his voice never
faltered. This unyielding man’s name was Williams. He died a short
distance from the field of battle, it was said in the arms of his son, a
youth of fourteen, who had followed his father to the Peninsula in
hopes of obtaining a commission, for they were not in affluent
circumstances.
Cotton maintained this exposed position until seven o’clock,
when Wellington and Beresford came up, and both were like to have
been slain together. For a squadron of French cavalry, breaking away
from the head of land beyond the Trabancos, had just before come
with such speed across the valley that it was for a moment thought
they were deserting; but with headlong course they mounted the
table-land on which Cotton’s left wing was posted, and drove a
whole line of British cavalry skirmishers back in confusion. The
reserves then came up from Alaejos, and these furious swordmen,
scattered in all directions, were in turn driven away or cut down; yet
thirty or forty, led by their gallant officer, suddenly appeared above
the ravine separating the British wings, just as Wellington and
Beresford arrived on the slope beneath them. Some infantry picquets
were in the bottom, higher up were two guns covered by a squadron
of light cavalry disposed in perfect order, and when the French
officer saw this squadron he reined in his horse with difficulty, his
men gathering in a confused body round him; they seemed lost, but
their daring leader waving his sword soused down with a shout on
the English troopers, who turning, galloped through the guns, and
the whole mass, friends and enemies, went like a whirlwind to the
bottom, carrying away in the tumult Wellington and Beresford. The
French horsemen were now quite exhausted and a reserve of heavy
dragoons cut most of them to pieces; yet their invincible leader,
assaulted by three enemies at once, struck one dead from his horse,
and with surprising exertions saved himself from the others, though
they rode hewing at him on each side for a quarter of a mile.
Scarcely was this over when Marmont, having ascertained that a
part only of Wellington’s army was before him, crossed the
Trabancos in two columns, and penetrating between the light and
fourth divisions marched straight upon the Guarena. The British
retired in three columns, the light division being between the fifth
division and the French, close to the latter, the cavalry on the flanks
and rear. The air was extremely sultry, the dust rose in clouds, and
the close order of the troops was rendered very oppressive by a
siroc wind; but where the light division marched the military
spectacle was strange and grand. Hostile columns of infantry, only
half musket-shot from each other, were marching impetuously
towards a common goal, the officers on each side pointing forwards
with their swords, or touching their caps and waving their hands in
courtesy, while the German cavalry, huge men, on huge horses, rode
between in a close compact body as if to prevent a collision: at times
the loud tones of command to hasten the march were heard passing
from the front to the rear on both sides, and now and then the rush
of French bullets came sweeping over the columns, whose violent
pace was continually accelerated.
Thus moving for ten miles, yet keeping the most perfect order,
both parties approached the Guarena, and the enemy seeing the
light division, although more in their power than the others, was yet
outstripping them in the march, increased the fire of their guns and
menaced an attack with infantry: the German cavalry instantly drew
close round, the column plunged suddenly into a hollow dip of
ground on the left, and ten minutes after the head of the division
was in the stream of the Guarena between Osmo and Castrillo. The
fifth division entered it at the same time higher up on the left, and
the fourth division passed on the right. The soldiers of the light
division, tormented with thirst yet long used to their enemy’s mode
of warfare, drunk as they marched; those of the fifth division, less
experienced, stopped a few moments, and on the instant forty
French guns gathering on the heights above sent a tempest of
bullets amongst them. So nicely timed was the operation.
The Guarena, flowing from four distinct sources which united
below Castrillo, offered a very strong line of defence; yet Marmont,
hoping to carry it in the first confusion, brought up all his artillery
and pushed the head of his right column over an upper branch.
Wellington, expecting this, had previously ordered up the other
divisions of his army, and they were in line before Marmont’s
infantry, oppressed with heat and long marches, could gather
strength to attempt the passage of the other branch. Carier’s
brigade of cavalry first crossed, and was followed by a column of
infantry, just as the fourth division had gained the table-land above.
Carier’s horsemen entered the valley on the left, the infantry in one
column menaced the front, but the sedgy banks of the stream would
have been difficult to force, if Victor Alten, slow to perceive an
advantage, had not suffered the French cavalry to cross first in
considerable numbers without opposition. Then he assailed them by
successive squadrons instead of regiments, and when the 14th and
German Hussars were hard-pressed, brought up the 3rd Dragoons,
who were however driven back by the fire of the infantry, and many
fell. Finally Carier being wounded and taken, the French retired, and
meanwhile the 27th and 40th Regiments, coming down the hill,
broke the enemy’s infantry with an impetuous bayonet charge:
Alten’s horsemen then sabred some of the fugitives.
Marmont lost a general and five hundred soldiers by this combat,
but, though baffled at one point, and beaten at another, he
concentrated his army and held both banks of the branch he had
gained. Wellington also concentrated, and as the previous operations
had only cost him six hundred men and the French but eight
hundred, the day being still young, the positions open and within
cannon-shot, a battle was expected. Marmont’s troops had however
been marching for two days and nights, and Wellington’s plan did
not admit of fighting unless in defence, or with such advantage as
that he could crush his opponent and keep the field afterwards
against the king.
The French marshal had passed a great river, surprised the allies’
right, and pushed it back above ten miles: he had nevertheless failed
as a general. His aim had been, by menacing the communication
between Salamanca and Rodrigo, to draw the allies back; yet on the
evening of the 16th, having passed the Duero at Toro, he was nearer
to Salamanca than they were, and, persisting, Wellington must have
fought him at disadvantage, or passed the Tormes at Huerta to
regain the road of Rodrigo. Marmont however relinquished this
stroke to march eighty miles in forty-eight hours, and after many
nice evolutions, in which he lost a thousand men by the sword and
fatigue, found his adversary on the 18th facing him in the very
position he had turned on the evening of the 16th!
On the 19th the armies were quiet until evening, when the
French were suddenly concentrated in one mass on their left.
Wellington made a corresponding movement on the tableland above,
which caused the light division to overlook the enemy’s main body,
then at rest round the bivouac fires; it would have remained so if Sir
Stapleton Cotton coming up had not turned a battery upon a group
of French officers. At the first shot they seemed surprised—for it was
a discourteous and ill-considered act—at the second their gunners
run to their pieces, and a reply from twelve heavier guns wounded
an artillery-officer, killed several British soldiers, swept away a whole
section of Portuguese, and compelled the division to withdraw in a
mortifying manner to avoid unnecessary blood-spilling.
Wellington now expected a battle, because the heights he
occupied trended backwards to the Tormes on the shortest line, and
as he had thrown a Spanish garrison into the castle of Alba de
Tormes he thought the French could not turn his right; if they
attempted it, he could shoulder them off the Tormes at the ford of
Huerta. At daybreak however, instead of crossing the Guarena in
front to dispute the high land, Marmont marched rapidly up the river
and crossed the stream, though the banks were difficult, before any
disposition could be made to oppose him. He thus turned the right
and gained a new range of hills trending also towards the Tormes,
and parallel to those which Wellington possessed. Then commenced
a scene similar to that of the 18th but on a greater scale. The allies
moving in two lines of battle within musket-shot of the French
endeavoured to cross their march, the guns on both sides
exchanged rough salutations as the accidents of ground favoured
their play, and the officers, like gallant gentlemen who bore no
malice and knew no fear, made their military recognitions, while the
horsemen on each side watched with eager eyes for an opening to
charge: but the French, moving as one man along the crest of the
heights, preserved the lead and made no mistake.
Soon it became evident that the allies would be outflanked,
wherefore Wellington, falling off a little, made towards the heights
occupied by Marmont during the siege of the forts, intending to halt
there while an advanced guard, forcing a march, secured the
position and fords of Christoval. But he made no effort to seize the
ford of Huerta, for his own march had been long, the French had
passed over nearly twice as much ground, and he thought they
could not reach the Tormes that day. When night approached he
discovered his error. His second line had indeed got the heights of
Vellosa, but his first line was heaped up in low ground near the
French army, whose fires, crowning all the opposite hills, showed
they commanded the ford of Huerta. Wellington then ordered the
bivouac fires to be made with much smoke, under cover of which he
filed the troops off with great celerity towards Vellosa; but the
Portuguese cavalry, coming in from the front, were mistaken for
French and lost some men by cannon-shot ere they were
recognised.
Very much disquieted by this day’s operations was the English
leader. Marmont, perfectly acquainted with the country, had
outflanked and outmarched him, and gained the command of the
Tormes, thus securing his junction with the king’s army, and enabled
to fight or wait for reinforcements, while the scope of the allies’
operations would hourly become more restricted. Meanwhile
Caffarelli having finally detached eighteen hundred cavalry with guns
to aid Marmont, they were coming on, and the king also was taking
the field; hence though a victory should be won, unless it was
decisive, Wellington’s object would not be advanced. That object
was to deliver the Peninsula by a course of solid operations,
incompatible with sudden and rash strokes unauthorized by anything
but hope; wherefore, yielding to circumstances, he resolved to
retreat on Portugal and abide his time; yet with a bitter spirit,
nothing soothed by the recollection that he had refused to fight at
advantage exactly one month before upon the very hills he now
occupied. Nevertheless that steadfast temper which then prevented
him from seizing an adventitious chance would not now let him yield
to fortune more than she could ravish from him: he still hoped to
give the lion’s stroke, and resolved to cover Salamanca and the
communication with Ciudad Rodrigo to the last moment. The
uncertainty of war was now shown. This inability to hold his ground
was made known to Castaños by a letter, which Marmont
intercepted, and immediately decided to push on without waiting for
the king, who afterwards announced this accident as a subtle stroke
by Wellington to draw on a premature battle!
On the 21st, the allies being on San Christoval, the French threw
a garrison into Alba de Tormes, from whence the Spaniards had
been withdrawn by Carlos España, without the knowledge of the
English general. Marmont then passed the Tormes by the fords,
between Alba and Huerta, and moving up the valley of the
Machechuco encamped at the outer edge of a forest. Wellington also
passed the Tormes in the evening by the bridge of Salamanca and
the fords of Santa Marta and Aldea Lengua; but the third division
and D’Urban’s cavalry remaining on the right bank, intrenched
themselves, lest the French, who had left a division on the heights of
Babila Fuente, should recross the Tonnes in the night and
overwhelm them.
 When the light division descended the rough side of the Aldea
Lengua mountain to cross the river night had come down suddenly,
and with more than common darkness, for a storm, that usual
precursor of a battle in the Peninsula, was at hand. Torrents of rain
deepened the ford, the water foamed and dashed with increasing
violence, the thunder was frequent and deafening, and the lightning
passed in sheets of fire close over the column, playing upon the
points of the bayonets. One flash falling amongst the cavalry near
Santa Marta killed many men and horses, while hundreds of
frightened animals, breaking loose and galloping wildly about, were
supposed to be the enemy charging in the darkness, and some of
their patrols were indeed at hand, hovering like birds of prey: but
nothing could disturb the beautiful order in which the serene
veterans of the light division were seen by the fiery gleams to pass
the foaming river, pursuing their march amidst this astounding
turmoil, alike regardless of the storm and the enemy.
The position now taken was nearly the same as that occupied by
General Graham a month before, when the forts of Salamanca were
invested. The left wing rested in low ground on the Tormes, having a
cavalry post in front. The right wing was extended on a range of
heights, which ended also in low ground, near the village of Arapiles:
this line, perpendicular to the Tormes from Huerta to Salamanca,
was parallel to it from Alba to Huerta, and covered Salamanca.
Meanwhile the enemy, extending his left along the edge of the
forest, menaced the line of communication with Rodrigo; and in the
night advice came that General Chauvel, bringing up Caffarelli’s
horsemen and twenty guns, had reached Pollos the 20th, and would
join Marmont the 22nd or 23rd. Hence Wellington, feeling he must
now retreat to Rodrigo, and fearing the French cavalry thus
reinforced would hamper his movements, determined, unless they
attacked him or committed some flagrant fault, to retire before
Chauvel’s horsemen could arrive.
At daybreak on the 22nd, Marmont called the troops at Babila
Fuente over the Tormes, brought Bonet’s and Maucune’s divisions
out of the forest, and took possession of the ridge of Calvariza Ariba;
he also occupied in advance of it on his right, a wooded height on
which was an old chapel called Nuestra Señora de la Pena. But at a
little distance from his left and from the English right, stood a pair of
solitary hills, called indifferently the Arapiles or the Hermanitos.
Steep and savagely rugged, about half cannon-shot from each other,
their possession would have enabled Marmont to cross Wellington’s
right, and force a battle with every advantage. Nevertheless they
were neglected by the English at first, until Colonel Waters, having
observed an enemy’s detachment stealing towards them, informed
Beresford, who thought it of no consequence, but Waters then rode
to Wellington who immediately sent troops to seize them. A combat
similar to that which happened between Cæsar and Afranius at
Lerida now ensued; for the French, seeing this detachment, broke
their own ranks and running to the encounter gained the first
Arapiles and kept it, yet were repulsed in an endeavour to seize the
second. This skirmish was followed by one at Nuestra Señora de la
Pena, half of which was gained, the enemy keeping the other half:
Victor Alten, aiding the attack with a squadron of German hussars,
was there wounded by a musket-shot.
The loss of the distant Arapiles rendered a retreat difficult to the
allies during daylight; for though the one gained was a fortress in
the way of the French army, Marmont, by extending his left and
gathering a force behind his own rock, could frame a dangerous
battle during the movement. Wellington therefore extended his
troops on the right of his own Hermanito, placing the light
companies of the Guards at the village of Arapiles in low ground,
and the fourth division, with exception of the 27th Regiment, on a
gentle ridge behind them. The fifth and sixth divisions he gathered
in one mass upon the internal slope of the English Hermanito, where
the ground being hollow, hid them from the enemy. During these
movements a sharp cannonade was exchanged from the tops of
those frowning hills, on whose crowning rocks the two generals sat
like ravenous vultures watching for their quarry.
Marmont’s project was not yet developed. His troops from Babila
Fuente were still in the forest some miles off, and he had only two
divisions close up. The occupation of Calvariza Ariba and Nuestra
Señora de la Pena might be therefore only a daring defensive
measure to cover the formation of his army; but the occupation of
the Hermanito was a start forward for an advantage to be
afterwards turned to profit, and seemed to fix the operations on the
left of the Tormes. In this doubt Wellington brought up the first and
light divisions to confront the French on Calvariza Ariba, and calling
the third division and D’Urban’s cavalry over the river, posted them in
a wood near Aldea Tejada, entirely refused to the enemy and unseen
by him, yet securing the main road to Rodrigo. Thus the position
was suddenly reversed. The left now rested on the English
Hermanito, the right on Aldea Tejada; that which was the rear
became the front, the interval between the third and fourth divisions
being occupied by Bradford’s Portuguese infantry, a Spanish division,
and the British cavalry.
Breaks and hollows so screened the men that few could be seen
by the French, and those seemed pointing to the Rodrigo road in
retreat; moreover, the commissariat and baggage had been ordered
to the rear and the dust of their march was seen many miles off:
nothing indicated an approaching battle. Such a state of affairs could
not last long. At twelve o’clock Marmont, thinking the important
bearing of his Hermanito on Wellington’s retreat would induce the
latter to drive him thence, brought up Foy’s and Ferey’s divisions in
support, placing the first, with some guns, on a wooded height
between the Hermanito and Nuestra Señora de la Pena; the second,
with Boyer’s dragoons, on a ridge behind Foy. Nor was this ill-timed,
for Wellington, thinking he could not insure a safe retreat in daylight,
was going to attack, but on the approach of these troops gave
counter-orders lest he should bring on a general battle
disadvantageously.
The French from Babila Fuente had not then reached the edge
of the forest, yet Marmont resolved to fight, and fearing the allies
would retreat before his own dispositions were completed, ordered
Thomières’ division, covered by fifty guns and supported by the light
cavalry, to make a flank movement by its left and menace the
Rodrigo road. Then hastening the march of his other divisions, he
watched when Wellington should move in opposition to Thomières,
designing to fall upon him by the village with six divisions of infantry
and Boyer’s dragoons, which he now ordered to take fresh ground
on the left of the Hermanito rock, leaving only one regiment of
cavalry with Foy.
In these new circumstances the two armies embraced an oval
basin, formed by different ranges of hills that rose like an
amphitheatre, the Arapiles rocks appearing like the doorposts.
Around this basin, which was more than a mile from north to south
and more than two miles from east to west, the hostile forces were
grouped. The northern and western half formed the allies’ position;
the eastern heights were held by the French right; their left,
consisting of Thomières’ division, the artillery and light cavalry,
moved along the southern side of the basin, but with a wide loose
march; for there was a long space between Thomières’ division and
those in the forest destined to form the centre; a longer space
between him and the divisions about the French Hermanito. The
artillery, fifty guns, massed on Thomières’ right flank, opened its fire
grandly, taking ground to the left by guns in succession as the
infantry moved on; and these last marched eagerly, continually
contracting their distance from the allies and bringing up their left
shoulders as if to envelope Wellington’s position and embrace it with
fire. At this time also, Bonet’s troops, one regiment of which held the
French Arapiles, carried the village of that name, and although soon
driven from the greatest part of it again maintained a fierce struggle.
Marmont’s first arrangements had occupied several hours, but as
they gave no positive indication of his designs, Wellington, ceasing
to watch them, had retired from his Hermanito; but when he was
told the French left was in motion pointing towards the Ciudad
Rodrigo road, he returned to the rock and observed their movements
for some time with a stern contentment. Their left wing was entirely
separated from the centre, the fault was flagrant, and he fixed it
with the stroke of a thunderbolt. A few orders issued from his lips
like the incantations of a wizard, and suddenly the dark mass of
troops which covered the English Hermanito, as if possessed by
some mighty spirit, rushed violently down the interior slope of the
mountain and entered the great basin, amidst a storm of bullets
which seemed to shear away the whole surface of the earth over
which they moved. The fifth division instantly formed on the right of
the fourth, connecting the latter with Bradford’s Portuguese, who
hastened forward at the same time from the right of the army, and
then the heavy cavalry, galloping up on the right of Bradford, closed
this front of battle. The sixth and seventh divisions, flanked on the
right by Anson’s light cavalry, were ranged at half cannon shot on a
second line, which was prolonged by the Spaniards in the direction
of the third division; and this last, reinforced by two squadrons of
the 14th Dragoons, and D’Urban’s Portuguese horsemen, formed the
extreme right of the army. Behind all, on the highest ground, the
first and light divisions and Pack’s Portuguese were disposed in
heavy masses as a reserve.
When this grand disposition was completed, the third division
and its attendant horsemen, formed in four columns and flanked on
the left by twelve guns, received orders to cross Thomières’ line of
march. The remainder of the first line, including the main body of
the cavalry, was to advance when the attack of the third division
should be developed; and as the fourth division must in this forward
movement necessarily lend its flank to the enemy’s troops stationed
on the French Hermanito, Pack was to assail that rock the moment
the left of the British line passed it. Thus, after long coiling and
winding, the armies came together, and drawing up their huge trains
like angry serpents mingled in deadly strife.

B attle of S alamanca . (July, 1812.)

Marmont from his Hermanito saw the country beneath him
suddenly covered with enemies at a moment when he was in the act
of making a complicated evolution, and when, by the rash advance
of his left, his troops were separated into three parts too dispersed
to assist each other, those nearest the enemy being neither strong
enough to hold their ground nor aware of what they had to
encounter. The third division was however still hidden by the
western heights, and he hoped the tempest of bullets in the basin
beneath would check the British line until he could bring up his other
divisions and by the village of Arapiles fall on what was now the left
of the allies’ position. But even this his only resource for saving the
battle was weak, for there were in reserve the first and light
divisions and Pack’s Portuguese, in all twelve thousand troops, with
thirty pieces of artillery; the village was also well disputed, and the
English rock stood out as a strong bastion of defence. However,
nothing daunted, Marmont despatched officer after officer, some to
hasten the troops from the forest, others to stop the progress of his
left wing; and with a sanguine expectation he still looked for victory,
until Pakenham shot with the third division like a meteor across
Thomières’ path; then pride and hope alike died within him, and
desperately he was hurrying in person to that fatal point, when an
exploding shell stretched him on the earth with a broken arm and
two deep wounds in his side. Confusion ensued, and the troops,
distracted by ill-judged orders and counter-orders, knew not where
to move, whom to fight, or whom to avoid.
It was five o’clock when Pakenham fell upon Thomières; and it
was at a moment when that general, whose column had gained an
open isolated hill, expected to see the allies in full retreat towards
the Rodrigo road, closely followed by Marmont from the Arapiles.
The counter-stroke was terrible! Two batteries of artillery, placed on
the summit of the western heights, suddenly took his troops in flank,
Pakenham’s massive columns, supported by cavalry, were in his
front, and two-thirds of his own division, lengthened out and
unconnected, were still in a wood, where they could hear but could
not see the storm now bursting; from the chief to the lowest soldier
all felt they were lost, and in an instant Pakenham, the most frank
and gallant of men, commenced the battle.
As the British masses came on, forming lines while in march, the
French gunners, standing up manfully, sent out showers of grape,
and a crowd of light troops poured in a fire of musketry, under cover
of which the main body endeavoured to display a front. But bearing
onwards through the skirmishers with the might of a giant
Pakenham broke the half-formed lines into fragments, and sent the
whole in confusion upon the advancing supports; one only officer
remained by the artillery; standing alone he fired the last gun at the
distance of a few yards, but whether he lived or there died could not
be seen for the smoke. Some squadrons of light cavalry fell on the
right of the third division; the 5th Regiment repulsed them, and then
D’Urban’s Portuguese horsemen, reinforced by two squadrons of the
14th Dragoons under Felton Harvey, gained the enemy’s flank, while
the Oporto regiment, led by the English Major Watson, charged his
infantry, but Watson fell deeply wounded and his men retired.
Pakenham continued his tempestuous course against the
remainder of Thomières’ troops, which were now arrayed on the
wooded heights behind the first hill, yet imperfectly and offering two
fronts; the one opposed to the third division and its attendant
horsemen, the other to the fifth division, Bradford’s brigade, and the
main body of cavalry and artillery, all of which were now moving in
one great line across the basin. Meanwhile Bonet, repulsed from the
village of Arapiles, was sharply engaged outside with the fourth
division, Maucune kept a menacing position behind the French
Hermanito, Clausel’s division came up from the forest, and the
connection of the centre and left was in some measure restored: two
divisions were however yet in the rear, and Boyer’s dragoons were
still in march. Thomières had been killed, Bonet succeeding Marmont
was disabled, hence more confusion; but the command then
devolved on Clausel, and he was of a capacity to sustain this terrible
crisis, which may be thus described. The fourth and fifth divisions
and Bradford’s brigade, hotly engaged, were steadily gaining ground
on the English left; the heavy cavalry, Anson’s light dragoons, and
Bull’s troop of artillery were next in line, advancing at a trot on
Pakenham’s left, and on that general’s right D’Urban’s horsemen
overlapped the enemy. Thus in less than half an hour, and before an
order of battle had even been formed by the French, their
commander-in-chief and two other generals had fallen, and the left
of their army was turned, thrown into confusion and enveloped.
Clausel’s division had now joined Thomières’, and a new front
had been spread on the southern heights, yet loosely and unfit to
resist; for the troops were, some in double lines, some in columns,
some in squares, a powerful sun struck on their eyes, and the light
soil, stirred up and driven forward by a breeze, which arose in the
west at the moment of attack, came mingled with smoke full upon
them in such stifling volumes, that scarcely able to breathe and quite
unable to see their fire was given at random. In this situation, while
Pakenham, bearing onward with conquering violence was closing on
their flank, and the fifth division advancing with a storm of fire on
their front, the interval between the two attacks was suddenly filled
with a whirling cloud of dust, moving swiftly forward and carrying
within its womb the trampling sound of a charging multitude. As it
passed the left of the third division, Le Marchant’s heavy horsemen,
flanked by Anson’s light cavalry, broke out at full speed, and the next
instant twelve hundred French infantry, formed in several lines, were
trampled down with a terrible clangour and tumult. Bewildered and
blinded they cast away their arms and run through the openings of
the British squadrons, stooping and demanding quarter, while the
dragoons, big men on big horses, rode onward, smiting with their
long glittering swords in uncontrollable power, and the third division,
following at speed, shouted as the French masses fell in succession
before this dreadful charge.
Nor were these valiant swordsmen yet exhausted. Le Marchant
and many officers had fallen, but Cotton and all his staff were still at
their head, and with ranks confused and blended in one mass, still
galloping forward, they sustained from a fresh column an irregular
stream of fire which emptied a hundred saddles; yet with fine
courage and downright force, the survivors broke through this the
third and strongest body of men that had encountered them, and
Lord Edward Somerset, continuing his course at the head of one
squadron with a happy perseverance, captured five guns. The
French left was thus entirely broken, more than two thousand
prisoners were taken, their light horsemen abandoned that part of
the field, and Thomières’ division no longer existed as a military
body. Anson’s cavalry, which had passed quite over the hill and had
suffered little in the charge, was now joined by D’Urban’s troopers
and took the place of Le Marchant’s exhausted men; the heavy
German dragoons followed in reserve, forming with the third and
fifth divisions and the guns one formidable line, two miles in advance
of where Pakenham had first attacked: and that impetuous officer
with unmitigated strength still pressed forward spreading terror and
disorder on the enemy’s left.
But while these signal events, which occupied about forty
minutes, were passing on the allies’ right, a terrible battle raged in
the centre. For when the first shock of the third division had been
observed, the fourth division, moving in a line with the fifth, had
passed the village of Arapiles under a prodigious cannonade, and
vigorously driving Bonet’s troops step by step to the southern and
eastern heights, had compelled them to mingle with the broken
remains of Clausel’s and Thomières’ divisions. This combat having
opened the French Hermanito about the time of the cavalry charge,
enabled Pack’s Portuguese to assail that rock, and the front of battle
was thus completely defined, for Foy’s division was then exchanging
a distant cannonade with the first and light divisions. However
Bonet’s troops, notwithstanding Marmont’s fall and the loss of their
own general, fought strongly, and Clausel made a surprisingly
vigorous effort and beyond all men’s expectations to restore the
battle. Soon a great change was visible. Ferey’s division, drawn off
from the height of Calvaraza, arrived in the centre behind Bonet’s
men; the light cavalry, Boyer’s dragoons, and two divisions of
infantry from the forest, were also united there; and on this mass of
fresh men Clausel rallied the remnants of his own and Thomières’
division. Thus Sarrut’s, Brennier’s and Ferey’s unbroken divisions,
supported by all the cavalry, were suddenly massed to cover the line
of retreat on Alba de Tormes, while Maucune still held the French
Hermanito, having Foy on his right.
 But Clausel, not content with having thus got the army together
in a condition to effect a retreat, attempted to turn the tide of
victory, founding hope on a misfortune which had befallen Pack. For
that officer, ascending the French Hermanito in one heavy column,
was within thirty yards of the summit, believing himself victorious,
when the enemy leaped suddenly forward from the rocks upon his
front and upon his left flank; the hostile masses closed, there was a
thick cloud of smoke, a shout, a stream of fire, and the side of the
hill was covered with the dead, the wounded and flying Portuguese.
They were unjustly scoffed at for this failure, no troops could have
withstood that crash upon such steep ground, and the propriety of
attacking the hill at all seems questionable. The result went nigh to
shake the whole battle. For the fourth division had just then reached
the southern ridge of the basin, and one regiment had actually
gained the summit when twelve hundred French, arrayed on the
reverse slope, charged up hill when the British were quite breathless
and disordered by the previous fighting; the French came up
resolutely and without a shot won the crest, and even pursued down
the other side until two supporting regiments below checked them.
This counter-blow took place at the moment of Pack’s defeat,
and then Maucune, no longer in pain for the Hermanito, menaced
the left flank and rear of the fourth division with skirmishers, until a
wing of the 40th Regiment, wheeling about with a rough charge,
cleared the rear. Maucune would not engage more deeply at that
time, yet Ferey’s troops pressed vigorously against the front of the
fourth division, and Brennier did the same by the first line of the fifth
division; Boyer’s dragoons also came on rapidly, and the allies
outflanked and overmatched lost ground. Fiercely and fast the
French followed, and the fight once more raged in the basin below.
General Cole had before this fallen deeply wounded, Leith had the
same fortune, but Beresford promptly drew Spry’s Portuguese
brigade from the second line of the fifth division, and thus flanked
the advancing columns of the enemy: yet he also fell desperately
wounded, and Boyer’s dragoons came freely into action, because
Anson’s cavalry had been checked, after Le Marchant’s charge, by a
heavy fire of artillery.
Now the crisis of battle arrived, victory was for the general who
had the strongest reserves in hand, and Wellington, seen that day at
every point where and when his presence was most required,
brought up the sixth division, and turned the scale by a charge,
rough, strong, and successful. Nevertheless the struggle was no
slight one. Hulse’s brigade, which was on the left, went down by
hundreds, and the 61st and 11th Regiments won their way
desperately and through such a fire as British soldiers only can
sustain. Some of Boyer’s dragoons also, breaking in between the
fifth and sixth divisions, slew many men and caused some disorder
in the 53rd; yet that brave regiment lost no ground, nor did Clausel’s
impetuous counter-attack avail at any point, after the first burst,
against the steady courage of the allies. The southern ridge was
thus regained, the French generals Menne and Ferey were wounded,
the first severely, the second mortally; Clausel himself was hurt,
Boyer’s reserve of dragoons, coming on at a canter, were met and
broken by the fire of Hulse’s noble brigade, and the current of the
fight once more set for the British. The third division continued to
outflank the enemy’s left, Maucune abandoned the Hermanito, Foy
retired from Calvariza, and the allied host, righting itself as a gallant
ship after a sudden gust, again bore onwards in blood and gloom:
for though the air, purified by the storm of the night before, was
peculiarly clear, one vast cloud of smoke and dust rolled along the
basin, and within it was the battle with all its sights and sounds of
terror.
When Wellington had thus restored the fight in the centre, he
directed the first division to push between Foy and the rest of the
French army, which would have rendered it impossible for the latter
to rally or escape; but this order was not executed, and Foy’s and
Maucune’s divisions were skilfully used by Clausel to protect his
retreat. Foy, posted on undulating ground and flanked by dragoons,
covered the roads to the fords of Huerta and Encina; Maucune,
reinforced with fifteen guns, was on a steep ridge in front of the
forest, covering the road to Alba de Tormes; and behind this ridge,
the rest of the army, then falling back in disorder before the third,
fifth and sixth divisions, took refuge. Wellington immediately sent
the light division in two lines, flanked by dragoons, against Foy, and
supported them with the first division in columns, flanked on the
right by two brigades of the fourth division, which he drew from the
centre when the sixth division had restored the fight. The seventh
division and the Spaniards followed in reserve, the country was
covered with troops, and a new army seemed to have arisen out of
the earth.
Foy, throwing out a cloud of skirmishers, retired by wings, firing
heavily from every rise of ground upon the light division, which
returned no shot, save by its skirmishers; for three miles this march
was under his musketry, occasionally thickened by a cannonade, but
the French aim was baffled by the twilight and rapid gliding of the
lines. Meanwhile the French general Desgraviers was killed, the
flanking brigades from the fourth division penetrated between
Maucune and Foy, and it seemed difficult for the latter to extricate
his troops. Yet he did so thus. Augmenting his skirmishers on the
last defensible ridge, along the foot of which run a marshy stream,
he redoubled his musketry and made a menacing demonstration
with his horsemen just as the darkness fell; the British guns
immediately opened, a squadron of dragoons galloped forwards from
the left, the infantry impetuously hastened to the summit of the hill,
and a rough shock seemed at hand, but there was no longer an
enemy: the main body had gone into the forest on their left during
the firing, and the skirmishers fled swiftly after covered by the
smoke and coming night.
Maucune was now maintaining a noble battle. He was outflanked
and outnumbered, yet the safety of the French army depended on
his courage, he knew it, and Pakenham, marking his bold
demeanour, advised Clinton, who was immediately in his front, not
to assail him until the third division should have turned his left.
Nevertheless Clinton plunged his troops into action under great
disadvantage; for after remaining some time unnecessarily under
Maucune’s batteries, which ploughed heavily through their ranks,
they were suddenly directed to attack the hill, and aided by a
brigade of the fourth division they rushed up; but in the darkness of
the night the fire showed from afar how the battle went. On the
English side a sheet of flame was seen, sometimes advancing with
an even front, sometimes pricking forth in spear heads, now falling
back in waving lines, anon darting upwards in one vast pyramid, the
apex of which often approached yet never gained the actual summit
of the mountain; but the French musketry, rapid as lightning,
sparkled along the brow of the height with unvarying fulness, and
with what destructive effects the dark gaps and changing shapes of
the adverse fire showed too plainly: meanwhile Pakenham turned
the left, Foy glided into the forest, and Maucune’s task being then
completed, the effulgent crest of the ridge became black and silent
and the whole French army vanished as it were in the darkness.
During this fight Wellington in person made the light division
advance towards the ford of Huerta, having the forest on his right;
for he thought the Spanish garrison was still in the castle of Alba,
and that the enemy must be found at the fords. For this final stroke
he had strengthened his left wing; nor was he diverted from it by
Foy’s retreat into the forest, because it pointed towards the fords of
Encina and Gonzalo, where the right wing of the allies would find
him; moreover a squadron of French dragoons, bursting from the
forest soon after dark and firing their pistols, had passed at full
gallop across the front of the 43rd Regiment towards the ford of
Huerta, indicating great confusion in the defeated army, and
confirming Wellington’s notion as to the direction: yet the troops
were then marching through standing corn, where no enemy could
have preceded them!
Had the castle of Alba been held the French could not have
carried off a third of their army; nor would they have been in much
better plight if Carlos España, who soon discovered his error in
withdrawing the garrison, had informed Wellington of the fact; but
he suppressed it and suffered the colonel who had only obeyed his
orders to be censured. The left wing therefore reached the fords
without meeting any enemy, and, the night being far spent, was
there halted. The right wing, exhausted by long fighting, halted after
the action with Maucune, and thus the French gained Alba
unmolested; yet the action did not terminate without two
remarkable accidents. While riding close behind the 43rd Regiment,
Wellington was struck in the thigh by a spent ball which passed
through his holster; and in the night Sir Stapleton Cotton, who had
gone to the ford of Huerta, was, in returning, shot through the arm
by a Portuguese sentinel whose challenge he disregarded. These
were the last events of this famous battle in which the English
general, to use a French officer’s expression, defeated forty
thousand men in forty minutes! Yet he fought it as if his genius
disdained such trial of its strength. Late in the evening of that great
day I saw him behind my regiment, then marching towards the ford.
He was alone, the flush of victory was on his brow, his eyes were
eager and watchful, but his voice was calm and even gentle. More
than the rival of Marlborough, for he had defeated greater generals
than Marlborough ever encountered, he seemed with prescient pride
only to accept the victory as an earnest of greater glory.

C ombat of L a S erna . (July, 1812.)

During the few hours of darkness succeeding the battle of
Salamanca, Clausel with a wonderful diligence passed the Tormes at
Alba; but Wellington also crossed that river with his left wing at
daylight, and moving up stream overtook the French on the Almar
rivulet, near the village of La Serna, and launched his cavalry against
them. Their squadrons fled from Anson’s troopers, abandoning three
battalions of infantry, who in separate columns were making up a
hollow slope, hoping to gain the crest of some heights before the
pursuing cavalry could fall on, and the two foremost did reach the
higher ground and there formed squares; the last, when half-way
up, seeing Bock’s heavy German dragoons galloping hard on, faced
about and commenced a disorderly fire, and the squares above also
plied their muskets on the Germans, who, after crossing the Almar,
had to pass a turn of narrow road and clear rough ground before
opening a charging front. They dropped fast under the fire. By twos,
by threes, by tens, by twenties they fell, yet the mass, surmounting
the difficulties of the ground, hurtled on the column and went clean
through it: then the squares above retreated and several hundred
prisoners were made by those able and daring horsemen.
This charge was successful even to wonder, and the victors
standing in the midst of captives and admiring friends seemed
invincible; yet those who witnessed the scene, nay the actors
themselves remained with the conviction of the military truth,—that
cavalry are not able to cope with veteran infantry, save by surprise.
The hill of La Serna offered a frightful spectacle of the power of the
musket. The track of the Germans was marked by their huge bodies.
A few minutes only had the combat lasted, and above a hundred
had fallen—fifty-one were killed outright. In several places man and
horse had died simultaneously, and so suddenly, that falling together
on their sides they appeared still alive, the horse’s legs stretched out
as in movement, the rider’s feet in the stirrups, the bridle in hand,
the sword raised to strike, and the large hat fastened under the chin,
giving to the grim yet undistorted countenance a supernatural and
terrible expression.
When the French found their rear-guard attacked they turned to
its succour, but seeing the light division coming up recommenced the
retreat, and were soon joined by Caffarelli’s horsemen and guns,
under General Chauvel: too late they joined for the battle, yet
covered the retreat with a resolution that deterred the allied cavalry
from meddling with them. Clausel then carried his army off with
such celerity that his head-quarters were that night forty miles from
the field of battle.
King Joseph was at this time at Blasco Sancho, one short march
from the beaten army: he came to aid Marmont with fourteen
thousand men, and so early as the 24th could easily have effected a
junction, but he then knew only of Marmont’s advance from the
Duero, not of his defeat. Next day he received, from that marshal
and Clausel, letters describing the battle and saying the army must
go over the Duero to establish new communications with the Army
of the North. A junction with them was still possible, but the king
retreated in haste, leaving behind two officers and twenty-seven
horsemen, who were next day attacked and captured by seven
25
troopers of the 14th Dragoons led by Corporal Hanley, a noble
soldier, thus described by an officer under whom he had many times
charged. “A finer fellow never rode into the field. His feats, besides
the one at Blasco Sancho, were extraordinary. He was a very
handsome man, rode magnificently, and had altogether such a noble
bearing before the enemy as is not often seen.”
Clausel marched upon Valladolid, abandoning the garrisons of
Toro, Tordesillas and Zamora, and, being still pressed by the British,
went up the Arlazan river. Then the king passed over the Guadarama
mountains to Madrid and Wellington entered Valladolid, where he
found large stores, seventeen pieces of artillery, and eight hundred
sick and wounded men. This terminated the Salamanca operations,
which present the following remarkable results. On the 18th of July
Marmont’s army, forty-two thousand sabres and bayonets with
seventy-four guns, passed the Duero to attack the allies. On the
30th it repassed that river in retreat, having in those twelve days
marched two hundred miles, fought three combats, and a general
battle, in which one marshal of France, seven generals, and twelve
thousand five hundred men and inferior officers were killed,
wounded or taken, together with two eagles, several standards and
twelve guns, exclusive of those found at Valladolid. In the same
period the allies, who had forty-six thousand sabres and bayonets,
with sixty guns, the excess of men being Spanish, marched one
hundred and sixty miles, and had one marshal, Beresford, four
generals and six thousand men and officers killed or wounded.
 BOOK VIII.
Madrid—Siege of Burgos—Retreat from Burgos—Combat of Venta
de Pozo—Combat on the Carion—Retreat from Madrid—Alba de
Tormes—Combat of the Huebra.

M adrid . (Aug. 1812.)

Wellington, having entirely separated the king’s army from
Marmont’s, had to choose between pursuing the latter and besieging
Burgos, or marching on Madrid. He adopted the last, and crossing
the Guadarama mountains descended on the Spanish capital, leaving
General Clinton with twelve thousand men to watch Clausel and co-
operate with Spaniards from Gallicia. Joseph had good troops, and
being unwilling to fly before a detachment occupied the Escurial,
placing detachments on all the roads. In this state D’Urban’s
Portuguese cavalry drove back Trielhard’s outposts and entered
Majadahonda. Some German infantry, Bock’s heavy cavalry, and a
troop of horse-artillery then entered Las Rozas, a mile in D’Urban’s
rear; but in the evening, Trielhard, reinforced by Schiazzetti’s Italian
dragoons and the lancers of Berg, returned; D’Urban called up the
horse artillery and would have charged, but his Portuguese fled, and
three of the guns being overturned on rough ground were taken.
The victorious cavalry passed through Majadahonda in pursuit, and
though the German dragoons, albeit surprised in quarters, stopped
the leading French squadrons, yet, when Schiazzetti’s horse came
up, the fight would have ended badly if Ponsonby’s cavalry and the
seventh division had not arrived. Trielhard then retired, carrying
away captive, the Portuguese general, Visconde de Barbacena, the
colonel of the German cavalry, and others of less rank. The whole
loss was above two hundred, and the German dead lay very thickly
in the streets; many were stretched in their shirts and trousers
across the sills of the doors, thus manifesting the suddenness of the
action and their own bravery.
After this combat the king crossed the Tagus with his court, but
in the most horrible confusion, for his army, composed of Spaniards,
French and Italians, began to plunder the convoy. Marshal Jourdan
threw himself into the midst of the disorderly troops, and being
aided by other generals, with great personal risk arrested the
mischief, and succeeded in making the multitude file over the bridge
of Aranjuez; yet the procession was lugubrious and shocking; crowds
of weeping women and children and despairing men, courtiers of the
highest rank, desperately struggling with savage soldiers for the
animals on which they were endeavouring to save their families.
Lord Wellington did not molest them. Ignorant of their situation, or
more probably, compassionating their misery and knowing the
troops could escape over the Tagus, he would not strike. Perhaps
also he thought it wise to leave Joseph with the burthen of a court.
The king, expecting to find a strong reinforcement from Soult at
Toledo, was inclined to march towards the Morena; instead of troops
he found a positive refusal, and a plan for uniting his own and
Suchet’s army to Soult’s in Andalusia. From thence all were to
menace Lisbon, but this was too vast for the king’s genius, and his
personal anger at being denied the troops, overcoming prudence, he
directed his march on Valencia, peremptorily commanding Soult to
abandon Andalusia and join him there. Meanwhile Wellington
entered Madrid and was met by the whole population—not with
feigned enthusiasm to a conqueror, for there was no tumultuous
exultation, famine was amongst them and misery had subdued their
spirit: but with tears and every sign of deep emotion they crowded
around his horse, hung by his stirrups, touched his clothes, and
throwing themselves on their knees blessed him aloud!
Madrid was still vexed by the presence of an enemy in the
Retiro, which was garrisoned with two thousand good soldiers
besides convalescents, and contained enormous stores, twenty
thousand stand of arms, one hundred and eighty pieces of artillery,
and the eagles of two French regiments. The works however were
bad, and the French yielding on terms were sent to Portugal, but on
the way were basely robbed and many murdered by the escort: an
infamous action perpetrated by Spaniards, far from Madrid. It was
strange to see French generals, used to war, thus giving up armies
as it were to their enemies; for including the garrisons of Toro,
Tordesillas, Astorga and Zamora, all of which might have been saved
but were not, and this of the Retiro, which should not have been
left, six thousand good soldiers were absolutely given as a present to
swell the loss of Salamanca.
Some time Wellington remained in Madrid, apparently occupied
with balls and bull-fights, yet really watching events to decide
whether he should operate in the north or south. The hour of action
came at last. Soult abandoned Andalusia, and the 29th of August his
rear-guard lost two hundred men in Seville, where it was attacked by
Colonel Skerrett and some Spaniards from Cadiz; the former then
joined Hill, who after a series of operations against Drouet, in one of
which he defeated the French cavalry, now came to La Mancha. The
south of Spain was for the enemy then a scene of confusion which
gave Wellington time for action in the north, where his presence was
absolutely required; for Clausel had re-occupied Valladolid with a
renovated force of twenty-two thousand men and fifty guns, Clinton
had made some serious errors, and the Spanish generals had as
usual failed on all points.
Leaving Hill a powerful force to co-operate with all the southern
Spanish armies beyond the Tagus, Lord Wellington quitted Madrid
the 1st of September, and at Arevalo concentrated twenty-one
thousand men, three thousand being cavalry; yet the Portuguese
soldiers were ill equipped, and could scarcely be fed, because of the
continued misconduct of their government.
On the 6th he passed the Duero to fight Clausel, and called on
Castaños to join him with the Gallicians; but seldom did a Spanish
general deviate into activity; Castaños delayed and Clausel retreated
slowly up the beautiful valleys of the Pisuerga and Arlanzan, which,
in denial of the stories about French devastation, were carefully
cultivated and filled to repletion with corn, wine and oil. Nor were
they deficient in military strength. Off the high road ditches and
rivulets impeded the troops, while cross-ridges continually furnished
strong positions, flanked with lofty hills on either side, by means of
which Clausel baffled his adversary in a surprising manner. Each day
he offered battle, yet on ground Wellington was unwilling to assail,
partly because he momentarily expected the Gallicians; chiefly
because of the declining state of his own army from sickness, and
that the hope of ulterior operations in the south made him unwilling
to lose men. By flank movements he dislodged the enemy, yet each
day darkness fell ere they were completed and the morning’s sun
always saw Clausel again in position. Thus he barred the way at
eight places, and finally covered Burgos the 16th, by taking the
strong position of Cellada del Camino.
But eleven thousand Spanish infantry, three hundred cavalry,
and eight guns, had now joined Wellington, who would have fallen
on frankly the 17th, if Clausel, alike wary and skilful, had not
observed the increased numbers and retired in the night to
Frandovinez; he was however next day pushed sharply back to the
heights of Burgos, and the following night passed through that town
leaving behind large stores of grain. Caffarelli, who had come down
to place the castle in a state of defence, now joined him and both
retreated upon Briviesca.
The allies entered Burgos amidst great confusion. The garrison
of the castle had set fire to some houses impeding the defence, the
conflagration spread, and the Partidas, gathering like wolves round a
carcass, entered the town for mischief. Mr. Sydenham, an eye-
witness not unused to scenes of war, thus described their
proceedings: “What with the flames and plundering of the guerillas,
who are as bad as Tartars and Cossacks of the Kischack or Zagatay
hordes, I was afraid Burgos would be entirely destroyed, but order
was at length restored by the manful exertions of Don Miguel Alava.”
 S iege of B urgos . (Sept. 1812.)
Caffarelli had placed eighteen hundred infantry, besides artillery-
men, in the castle; and Dubreton, the governor, in courage and skill
surpassed even the hopes of his sanguine countrymen. The works
inclosed a rugged hill, between which and the river the city of
Burgos was situated. An old wall with a new parapet and flanks
offered the first line of defence; the second line, within the other,
was of earth, a kind of field-retrenchment, but well palisaded; the
third line, similarly constructed, contained two elevated points, on
one of which was an intrenched building called the White Church, on
the other the ancient keep of the castle. This last, the highest point,
was intrenched and surmounted with a casemated work called the
Napoleon battery, which commanded everything around, save on the
north. There the hill of San Michael, only three hundred yards distant
and scarcely less elevated than the fortress, was defended by a
horn-work with a sloping scarp twenty-five, and a counterscarp ten
feet high. This work was merely closed by strong palisades, but was
under the fire of the Napoleon battery, well flanked by the castle,
and covered in front by intrenchments for out picquets. Nine heavy
guns, eleven field-pieces and six mortars or howitzers, were
mounted in the fortress; and as the reserve artillery and stores of
the Army of Portugal were deposited there the armament could be
augmented.

F irst A ssault . (Sept. 1812.)

So completely commanded were all the bridges and fords over
the Arlanzan by the castle guns, that two days elapsed ere the allies
could cross; but on the 19th, the passage being effected above the
town, Major Somers Cocks with the 79th, supported by Pack’s
Portuguese, drove in the French outposts on the hill of San Michael,
and in the night, reinforced with the 42nd Regiment, assailed the
horn-work. The conflict was murderous. The main storming column
was beaten off, and the attack would have failed if Cocks had not
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