But it was not alone the enemy the Duke had to encounter. During this retreat, he experienced considerable annoyance from the misconduct of his own men ; and the success of his movements was at one time put to hazard, by the following act of presumptuous disobedience.

"Knowing that the most direct road was impassable, he had directed the divisions by another road, longer, and apparently more difficult: this seemed such an extraordinary proceeding to some general officers, that, after consulting together, they deemed their commander unfit to conduct the army, and led their troops by what appeared to them the fittest line of retreat! Meanwhile Wellington, who had, before daylight, placed himself at an important point on his own road, waited impatiently for the arrival of the leading division until dawn, and then suspecting something of what had happened, galloped to the other road, and found the would-be commanders, stopped by that flood which his arrangements had been made to avoid. The insubordina

tion, and the danger to the whole army, were alike glaring, yet the practical rebuke was so severe and well-timed, the

humiliation so complete, and so deeply felt, that, with one proud sarcastic observation, indicating contempt more than anger, he led back the troops and drew off all his forces safely. However some confusion and great danger still attended the operation, for even on this road one water gully was so deep that the light division which covered the rear, could only pass it man by man over a felled tree, and it was fortunate that Soult, unable to feed his troops a day longer, stopped on the Huebra with his main body, and only sent some cavalry to Tamames."

The following observations of our author, upon the retreat, are very just; even his prejudices against aristocracy seem to have been overcome, by the greatness of Wellington's military ge

nius

"Pursued by a superior army and seeing his cavalry defeated, he turned as a savage lion at the Carrion, nor would he have removed so quickly from that lair, if the bridges at Palencia and Banos had been destroyed according to his order.- Neither is his cool self-possession to be

overlooked; for when both h's flanks were thus exposed, instead of falling back in a hurried manner to the Duero, he judged exactly the value of the rugged ground on the left bank of the Pisuerga, in opposition to the double advantage obBanos; nor did the difficulty which Soutained by the enemy at Palencia and ham and Caffarelli, independent commanders and neither of them accustomed to move large armies, would find, in suddenly changing their line of operations, escape him. His march to Cabeçon and his position on the left of the Pisuerga was not a retreat, it was the shift of a practised captain.

whole

"When forced to withdraw Hill from the Tagus, he, on the instant, formed a new combination to fight that great battle on the Adaja which he had intended to deliver near the Guadalaviar; and though the splendid exploit of Captain Guingret, at Tordesillas, baffled this intent, he, in return, baffled Souham by that ready stroke of generalship, the posting of his army in front of Rueda, thus forbidding a passage by the restored bridge. Finally, if he could not maintain the line of the Duero, nor that of the Tormes, it was because rivers can never be permaand yet he did not quit the last without nently defended against superior forces, a splendid tactical illustration. I mean piles to the Valmusa, a movement made that surprising movement from the Aranot in confusion and half flight, but in close order of battle, his columns ready for action, his artillery and cavalry skirmishing, passing the Junguen without disorder, filing along the front of and winding into the rear of a most powerful French army, the largest ever collected in one mass in the Peninsula, an army having twice as many guns as the allies,

and twelve thousand able horsemen to boot. And all these great and skilful actions were executed by Lord Wellingnations; soldiers, fierce indeed, and vaton with an army composed of different liant, terrible in battle, but characterised by himself as more deficient in good discipline than any army of which he had ever read!"

ties with which our great commander But an adequate idea of the difficulhad to contend, can only be formed when the reader has seen the embarrassments which were caused him, by the obstinate, bigoted, and jealous government of Portugal, who could only, with the utmost difficulty, be withheld from courses by which the safety of his army would be compromised; and the erroneous schemes of finance which were proposed to him from home, and

which he was more than once called upon to expose, when all his faculties were required to watch the evolutions of a powerful and a daring enemy. But for this we must refer the reader to the volume before us.

In the battle of Castalla, which was fought against Suchet, by Sir John Murray, in the April of 1813, the following striking incident is recorded.— Our men were strongly intrenched upon heights, which were assailed by the French with great intrepidity.

"The ascent in front of Whittingham's post, being very rugged and steep, and the upper parts entrenched, the battle there resolved itself at once into a fight of light troops, in which the Spaniards maintained their ground with resolution; but on the other side of the jut, the French mounted the heights, slowly indeed and with many skirmishes, yet so firmly, that it was evident nothing but good fighting would send them down again. Their light troops spread over the whole face of the Sierra, and, here and there attaining the summit, were partially driven down again by the AngloItalian troops; but where the main body came upon the second battalion of the twenty-seventh there was a terrible crash. For the ground having an abrupt declination near the top, enabled the French to form a line under cover, close to the British, who were lying down waiting for orders to charge; and while the former were unfolding their masses, a grenadier officer, advancing alone, challenged the captain of the twenty-seventh grenadiers to single combat. Waldron, an agile vigorous Irishman and of boiling courage, instantly sprung forward, the hostile lines looked on without firing a shot, the swords of the champions glittered in the sun, the Frenchman's head was cleft in twain, and the next instant the twentyseventh jumping up with a deafening shout, fired a deadly volley, at half pistol shot distance, and then charged with such a shock that, maugre their bravery and numbers, the enemy's soldiers were overthrown, and the side of the Sierra was covered with the killed and wounded.In Murray's despatch this exploit was erroneously attributed to Colonel Adam, but it was ordered and conducted by Co

lonel Reeves alone."

This battle seems to have been brought on against the wishes of both commanders; and certainly, the victory was not improved, as it should have been, by Sir John Murray; who, if our author is to be credited, exhibited a timidity in the onset, and a hesitation

and a tardiness in the pursuit, which we have not often seen occasion to censure in the conduct of a British soldier.

Of the campaign in 1813, we cannot afford space to speak at any length, and common justice would not be doneit, by any hasty or transient survey of Lord Wellington's profound and scientific stratagetical combinations. He had now to contend against the concentrated power of all the French generals in Spain, who were unfettered by the difficulties with which he had to struggle in all his delicate and perilous operations. For,

"The allied army was not so lithe as the French army; the latter carried, on occasion, ten days' provisions on the soldiers' backs, or it lived upon the country, and was, in respect of its organization and customs, a superior military machine; the former never carried more than three

days' provisions, never lived upon the country, avoided the principle of making the war support the war, paid or promised to pay for every thing, and often carried in its marches even the corn for its cavalry. The difference of this or ganization, resulting from the difference of policy between the two nations, was a complete bar to any great and sudden excursion on the part of the British general, and must always be considered in judging his operations."

Such were his comparative disadvantages; notwithstanding which, in six weeks, with one hundred thousand men he marched six hundred miles, passed six rivers, gained one decisive battle, invested two fortresses, and drove one hundred and twenty thousand veteran troops from Spain. All the details of our author respecting these events are very interesting; and cordially do we accord our meed of praise to the general fidelity of his narrative, and the vigour and brilliancy of his descriptions. Had he only eschewed politics, all would have been well; but, he fancies that to be his strength, which is, in fact, his weakness; and the temptation to introduce it presents his parade of low radicalism, whenever itself, can only excite disgust or pity in the mind of the enlightened reader. But upon this we have already observed; and we can assure him, however little he may be disposed to credit us, that our strictures have been made "more in sorrow than in anger."

Into his controversy with the Quarterly Review, and the other able an

ONE evening a very pretty peasantgirl was alone in her father's cottage, preparing supper for the family, when an individual entered, and, after the usual unceremonious fashion of the country, sat down opposite her, beside the fire. It was evident at once what this person's feelings were towards the girl; but, unfortunately for himself, he belonged to a class, which the gentler sex does not, we fear, sufficiently appreciate. Jack Cumeskey, or as he was more commonly called, Jack Rhua, (Anglicé, Red Jack,) was a simple, honest-hearted fellow; somewhat clownish both in mind and person, but distinguished by the most devoted generosity of character. His good qualities gained him universal esteem,but this was not sufficient to satisfy the heart of Jack, whose dreams had become tinged of late with the crimson of a certain sun-burnt cheek; and who, notwithstanding his short and clumsy stature, and the unhappy colour of his round and closely shorn head, dared to aspire to the love of the fairest girl of Ballycorly.

"How are you this evenin', Nelly?" he said, as he took his seat by the hob. "I'm well, Jack, I'm obleeged to you," said the girl, in a tone much more sprightly than poor Jack's; "and how is yourself?"

Oh, in troth, Nelly, I'm bravely,thank God and you; and doin' bravely;" he added, "all to a trifle, or so, that I needn't perplex myself talkin' about.”

"And musha what's that, Jacky darlint?" said the other, in the same light and bantering manner.

Oh, in troth you know bravely what it is," said Jack; "only you think it mighty cute-like not to let on."

No! Faith but I'd take my oath you did; only you want me to be tellin' you now," he cried, with a triumphant air; for he had wit enough to perceive the advantage he had accidentally acquired.

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Why bad cess to your impidence,” exclaimed Nelly; "I want you to be tellin' me!"

"Ah sure you know well you do; and in troth I will tell you, and don't be vexed now, alanna. Well, he said as this-Docthor,' says he, there's no use in talkin', but it's hard to say what a man might do when he meets a girl that's as beautiful as the mornin' dawn, but has a kantankerous way, that the divil couldn't make his own of her.'"

"Well, Jack," said the maiden, stooping down to conceal a rising blush, "what is it you're like to do?"

Oh, by my faix I dont know what I'll do. I suppose I'll dhrown myself, or take a lover's lep off the Rock of Foyle, some mornin'. Any way, Nelly, if I stay in the one mind I'll assasshinate myself somehow or other, never fear me."

You will, now, Jack?"

Och! if I dont !"-But poor Jack might have spared his vows of selfdestruction. Nelly, whose womanly heart had yielded for an instant to the force of admiration, had now relapsed into her former mood, and all her lover's protestations being of a rather ludicrous character, produced the very contrary effect to what he desired. He sat looking at the fire, and Nelly stood looking at him; and certainly his face was an admirable study for a lighthearted girl, particularly as she saw, its lachrymose and varying expression, a manifestation of her own power.

in

On raising his head at length he encountered Nelly's eye,-the girl burst out laughing, and Jack, with the instinct of a true lover, offered at once the most effectual remonstrance to her ill-timed mirth. He leaped up, and flinging his arm round her neck, without leave or license ardently pressed

the lips of the fair scorner. He quickly, however, freed her from his embrace; for the weighty metal spoon, with which Nelly had been examining the boiling potatoes, descended with all the vigour of the maiden's arm on his unprotected head.

"Whoo!" cried Jack, clapping his hand on his cranium, and springing halfway across the floor. "The devil's in the woman's fist! Oh, bad luck to me," he added in most dolorous accents, "if it ben't gone to the bone!"

"Ha! more o' that to you!" exclaimed the girl, her face flushed with anger; "maybe that'll larn you manners agin, you impident blackguard !” "Whisht, Nelly M'Evoy,-whisht, I bid you, you catheract-You-youOch, murther! to go split a boy's skull for kissing that ugly mouth of your's, and be danged to you!"

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Well, never heed it," cried Nelly; "it's a mighty ugly mouth, I know; but sure your's is a purty mouth, Jack, and that's a comfort." Nelly knew she might slander, with perfect safety, the sweetest feature of her face; and when poor Jack beheld the white teeth slightly displayed by a satirical smile which curled her rosy lips, and thought of his own stout tusks, and the enormous chasm in which they were contained, he could not resist the ludicrous impression of the contrast.

"Oh no," he said, with a melancholy laugh; "I'm no beauty, the world knows but sure I'm what God made me,--you can't say agin that. And if I'm not a beauty," he added, "maybe I can take a beauty's fancy as well as them that is."

"Oh the sorra doubt, Jacky—if you were shaved."

ment, not knowing exactly what to say. "And who the divil tould you I had ?” he cried at last.

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Sure arn't you afther tellin' me yourself?”

No I'm not afther tellin' you. Why, bad luck to me, woman, do you think would I condescind to murther a decent boy, if it was a thing I had the same notion myself all the while? But it's easy seein', Nelly, what makes you so scornful to me. I'm not as white in the face and as smooth-goin' a chap as Willy O'Brien,

forbye being a poor man's son."

"On whisht and don't be makin' a fool of yourself,” cried Nelly, blushing to the eyes, and endeavouring to lift off the potato-pot from the crook, where it hung above the blazing turf. "Ah whoo! that's the way of it," exclaimed the other. 66 Well, come out of this, and don't be breaking the little arms of you, anyhow, Here! show us where I'll tumble them," he said, relieving the girl of her load.— "Now, can you say I'm jealous of Willy, you little beauty?"

Oh, in troth, Jack, you're a decent boy afther all."

"Oh I am—a wondherful decent boy, to myself it may be told. But faix only I have a regard for Willy, I'd be settlin' a trifle of accounts with him some o' these days."

Their tête-a-tête was here interrupted by the appearance of a rosy, curlyheaded boy, whose strong resemblance to Nelly at once announced their relationship.

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Well, Jack," he said, looking up with the same playful and mischievous expression which sometimes distinguished his sister's face; "how is Barney gettin' on these times?" Jack looked at the child, and then at Nelly, and he tried to laugh, but his embarrassment was most painfully evident.

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Whisht, sir, with your impidence," cried the girl, casting a reproving look on the young offender; go off and call your father in to supper;" and out he flew, glad of an opportunity to escape the anger he had so speedily excited. Poor Jack was sadly crestfallen.