How passing wonder HE, who made him such; A worm! a god !—I tremble at myself, PROCRASTINATION. Where is to-morrow? In another world. Our mountain hopes; spin out eternal schemes STORMING OF ST. SEBASTIAN. [Abridged from the spirited narrative of the Rev. G. R. Gleig, late Chaplain-general of the army. It gives a good idea of the mode of conducting a siege, and of the feelings of the soldiers engaged, together with a vivid description of the storming of a fortress, and of the attendant horrors of war. St. Sebastian was stormed in the year 1813, during the Peninsular war. The place was held by the French, and attacked by the British, and their allies, the Portuguese.] SIEGE OPERATIONS. ST. SEBASTIAN occupies a neck of land which juts into the sea, being washed on two sides by the waters of the Bay of Biscay, and on the third by the river Gurumea. This stream cannot be forded near the town except at low tide; it therefore adds not a little to the strength of the place. Across the isthmus, from the river to the bay, is erected a chain of stupendous masonry, consisting of several bastions1 and towers, and covered 2 by a ditch and glacis 3; whilst the castle, built upon a high hill, completely commands the whole. The tents of the besiegers were placed upon a low range of hills, about two miles distant from the town, and were pitched among the orchards, and in the valleys and ravines, so as to be hidden from the enemy. Leading from them to the first parallel were cut various covered ways-that is, roads sunk in the ground so far as that troops might march along without exposing themselves to the fire of the enemy; and the parallel was drawn almost upon the brow of the ridge. In the ruined convent of Bartholeme, which stood near, was established the principal magazine of powder, shot, workingtools, and other necessaries for the siege; and here, as a matter of course, the reserve, or main body of the piquet guard, was stationed. The first parallel extended some way beyond the town, on both sides, and was connected with the second, as that again was with the third, by other covered ways, cut in an oblique direction towards the enemy's works; but no sap had been attempted. The third parallel therefore completed the work of the besiegers, and it was carried within a few hundred yards of the foot of the rampart.7 In each of these parallels batteries were built, as well as on the brows of all the surrounding heights, but as yet they were masked by slight screens of sand and turf. There is no species of duty in which a soldier is liable to be employed so galling, or so disagreeable, as a siege: not that it is deficient in causes of excitement, which, on the contrary, are in hourly operation; but it ties him so completely down to one spot, and breaks in so repeatedly upon his hours of rest, and exposes him so constantly to danger, and that, too, at times and in places where no honour is to be gained, that we cannot greatly wonder at the feelings of absolute hatred which generally prevail, among the privates at least of a besieging army, against the garrison which does its duty to its country by holding out to the last extremity. Everything which could be done to retard the progress of the siege was done by the French on this occasion. Night after night petty sorties were made, with no other apparent design than to disturb the repose and to harass the spirits of the besiegers. 9 Meanwhile the besieging army was busily employed in bringing up ammunition, and in dragging into battery 10 one of the most splendid trains of heavy ordnance11 which a British general has ever had at his command. On the evening of the 26th of August (1813), these matters were completed. Accordingly, soon after daybreak on the 27th, a single shell was thrown as a signal for the batteries to open, and then a most tremendous cannonade began. The first salvo,12 indeed, was one of the finest things of the kind I have ever witnessed. Without taking the trouble to remove the slight covering of sand and turf which masked the batteries, the artillerymen, laying their guns by such observations as small apertures left for the purpose enabled them to effect, fired upon the given signal, and thus caused the guns to clear a way for themselves. An unintermitting fire was kept up from morning till night, so that by sunset on the 30th the breach 13 in the walls was considered practicable. WAITING TO ATTACK. It was resolved to storm the place on the following morning. The forlorn hope 14 took its station at the mouth of the most advanced trench at half-past ten o'clock. The tide, which had long turned, was now fast ebbing, and these gallant fellows beheld its departure with a degree of feverish anxiety such as he only can imagine who has stood in a similar situation. It would be difficult to convey to the mind of an ordinary reader anything like a correct notion of the state of feeling which takes possession of a man waiting for the commencement of a battle. In the first place time appears to move upon leaden wings: every minute seems an hour, and every hour a day. Then there is a strange commingling of levity and seriousness within him—a levity which prompts him to laugh, he scarce knows why, and a seriousness which urges him ever and anon to lift up a mental prayer to the throne of grace. On such occasions little or no conversation passes. The privates generally lean upon their firelocks-the officers upon their swords; and few words, except monosyllables, are wasted. On these occasions, too, the faces of the bravest often change colour, and the limbs of the most resolute tremble, not with fear, but with anxiety; whilst watches are consulted, till the individuals who consult them grow absolutely weary of the employment. On the whole, it is a situation of higher excitement, and darker and deeper agitation, than any other in human life; nor can he be said to have felt all which man is capable of feeling, who has not experienced it. THE ATTACK. Noon had barely passed when, the low state of the tide giving evidence that the river might be forded, the word was given to advance. Silent as the grave, the column moved forward. In one instant the leading files had cleared the trenches, and the others poured on in quick succession after them, when the work of death began. The enemy, having reserved their fire till the head of the column had gained the middle of the stream, then opened with the most deadly effect. Grape, canister,15 musketry, shells, grenades, and every species of missile, were hurled from the ramparts, beneath which our gallant fellows dropped like corn before the reaper; insomuch that, in the space of two minutes, the river was literally choked up with the bodies of the killed and wounded, over whom, without discrimination, the advancing divisions pressed on. The opposite bank was soon gained, and the short space between the landingplace and the foot of the breach rapidly cleared, without a single shot having been returned by the assailants. But here the most alarming prospect awaited them. Instead of a wide and tolerably level chasm, the breach presented the appearance only of an ill-built wall, thrown considerably from its perpendicular to ascend which, even though unopposed, would be no easy task. It was, however, too late to pause; besides, the men's blood was hot, and their courage on fire. So they pressed on, clambering up as they best could, and effectually hindering one another from falling back by the eagerness of the rear ranks to follow those in front. Shouts and groans were now mingled with the roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry; our front ranks likewise had an opportunity of occasionally firing with effect; and the slaughter on both sides was dreadful. At length the head of the column forced its way to the summit of the breach, where it was met in the most gallant style by the bayonets of the garrison. When I say the |