make a stand, and capturing 3000 prisoners. Almost simulneously, Pack's brigade advanced against the post on the Arapiles hill, whilst Cole and Leith attacked the front of their position, which was immediately forced; and Cotton's heavy cavalry making an opportune and irresistible charge upon a body of their disordered infantry, routed it and cut it to pieces; but the brave General Le Marchant fell at the head of his brigade in this enterprise. Meanwhile, the Allied infantry kept pressing forward its right, so as continually to acquire strength upon the enemy's flank; but the gallant effort of Pack on the Arapiles having failed, they were enabled to throw some troops on the flank of the 4th division, whilst that body, which had already carried the crests of the heights in front, was stoutly met by a reserve division under General Bennet. General Cole himself was wounded, and thus closely pressed, was compelled to give way, but Marshal Beresford, who happened to be on the spot, immediately brought up a brigade of the 5th division, which, by a change of front, took the enemy in flank with a heavy fire, and drove them again backwards. The left and centre of the enemy were now beaten, and a brigade from the division of General Clinton carried the Arapiles. The French_right was, however, as yet unbroken, whilst it was strengthened every moment by the troops defeated on the left; so that it presented a new and stubborn front on a well chosen position. Marmont had been wounded, but General Clausel, who had succeeded him in the command, rallied the disheartened army in a manner which excited the admiration of his enemies. Supported by a reserve, with the cavalry on their flanks, and their artillery posted on advanced knolls, the face of the heights was a clear glacis swept by their guns. Day was fast closing in, but Lord Wellington was not the man to rest satisfied with an imperfect victory. The 6th division, supported by other troops, therefore, was ordered to attack the enemy's position in front, whilst the 1st and Light Dragoons, with a British brigade and a Portuguese one from the 4th, were directed to turn their right. The French stood their ground manfully, and the 6th division suffered severe loss. It nevertheless mounted the hill, and in the face of a tremendous fire, charged them with the bayonet, and, supported by the movement of the 4th divi а sion on the flank, they drove them back in great disorder. The Allies pursued them in the direction of Huerta and the fords of the Tormes; but under cover of the woods and the darkness, a great number of the fugitives escaped who must otherwise have been captured. A field covered with slain, two eagles, eleven pieces of artillery, and 7000 prisoners, attested at once the severity of the contest and the splendour of the triumph. Three French generals were killed and four wounded. Among the latter, Marmont lost an arm by the bursting of a shell. The amount of the French loss was never correctly ascertained. The official account gives the total number of killed, wounded and missing of the Allied troops at 7264, of whom 690 British, 304 Portuguese, and 2 Spanish, were killed, and 4270 British, 1552 Portuguese, and 4 Spanish, wounded. Among the wounded were Generals Beresford, Cotton, Cole, Leith, and Alten. With the dawn of day, the Light Division continued its advance, crossing the Tormes at Huerta, whilst the heavy Germans, under Brock, overtook the French rear-guard in position on the heights of La Serna, protected by some squadrons of hussars. These were dispersed by a charge of the 11th and 16th, whilst the heavy brigade rode directly at the squares, and, by a furious onset, broke and scattered them in all directions. Numbers were cut to pieces; others saved themselves by throwing away their arms, hiding in the woods, and afterwards joining the retreating columns. In this dashing affair nearly a thousand prisoners fell into the hands of the victors. As a cavalry exploit, it has been highly commended. Brock did not lose more than 100 men by casualties on this occasion. The view from the summit of the Serna exhibited, we are told, a countless mass of all arms confusedly intermingled. Whilst the range permitted, the horse-artillery continued to send its round shot among them, but they gradually retired out of reach, and a strong corps of cavalry and a brigade of guns having arrived, opportunely enough, from the army of the north, covered the retreat, and preserved the fugitives from further molestation. This great battle lasted from three in the afternoon until ten. The inhabitants of Salamanca, who had watched the pro gress of the battle from the high grounds about the city, with breathless interest, displayed the most enthusiastic joy at this total discomfiture of their oppressors, and did not limit their gratitude to the victors to mere words. Mules and cars, laden with refreshment, and other necessaries, were dispatched to the camp, and hospitals were prepared for the reception of the wounded. High Mass was celebrated in the cathedral, and the streets were filled with rejoicing promenaders of all orders. Lord Wellington was present at the High Mass, and is thus described by Colonel Leith Hay:"I was much struck with the simplicity of Lord Wellington's attire. He wore a light grey pelisse coat, single breasted, without a sash, with his sword buckled round his waist, underneath the coat, the hilt merely protruding, with a cocked hat under his arm. He wore a white neckerchief." Several French historians of the late war attempt to gloss over the defeat at Salamanca, and have ascribed it chiefly to the absence of Marmont (who was severely wounded in an early part of the day) from the field. The fact is, however, undoubted, that he had committed so gross a blunder in the disposition of his force, that its discomfiture, if vigorously attacked, appeared to be certain. The action was pithily described at the time by a French officer, as the "beating of forty thousand men in forty minutes." Content with having disabled Marmont's army from reappearing in the field for some time, Lord Wellington did not attempt to pursue it beyond Valladolid, which he entered on the 30th, General Clausel falling back on Burgos; but, intending to strike a blow against King Joseph and the army of the centre, the Allied general re-crossed the Douro on the following day, and established his head-quarters at Cuellar. Having obtained supplies from the rear, Lord Wellington, leaving Clinton's division to observe the line of the Douro, with Anson's cavalry at Villavarrez, resumed his operations on the 6th of August, marching on the capital by the route of Segovia. Besides the capture of seventeen pieces of cannon, and nearly one thousand sick and wounded men at Valladolid, the French had sustained other and severe losses during the recent operations. The guerillas, under Martinez, made 300 prisoners-Tordesillas surrendered to Santo Cildes |