As I have remarked, we were greatly harassed; our picquets and the French were constantly in the habit of firing at each other, and scarce a day passed without some of the men being brought in, either killed or wounded. We had not yet established that understanding with the enemy, which avoided unnecessary bloodshed at the outposts which afterwards tended much to humanize the war.
Meanwhile the siege of Rodrigo was vigorously carried on by the French. The weather was intensely hot, and we delighted in bathing in a small river that flowed between the beacon-hill and the village. Many of us, while so amusing ourselves, would take these opportunities to wash our shirts in the running stream, laying them out to dry on the sand. Frequently, however, when thus employed, the alarm gun would be fired, and in a moment we might be observed, like so many water sprites, jumping out of the stream and hurrying on the wet shirts, actually wringing, and throwing them over our shoulders, while we fell in with our comrades. It was rather surprising, that I never felt any ill effects from these wet habiliments; but the men, from constant exposure, had become as hardy as the soil itself.
From the novelty, however, of the picquet duty, the men preferred it always to any other: as we amused ourselves generally at night watching the shells exchanged between the besieged and the assailants, the sight was very beautiful, sometimes as many as seven or eight-and-twenty crossing each other, like so many comets.
Once we were visited by the Duke himself, who, although his head-quarters were at the time, I believe, at Viseu, distant somewhat about twenty leagues, had come on a reconnoitring excursion to our outline picquets. While on sentry one day I recollect his Grace placing his telescope on my shoulders to take a view of the enemy’s position. Our intelligence was chiefly derived from deserters, a number of whom daily came over to us, and gave information that Ciudad could not hold out much longer.
One day we were unusually alarmed by an extraordinary bustle in the French camp; being on the advanced picquet, I could distinctly hear the cheering of men and firing of cannon: the whole of our division was ordered to fall in, and it was not until the morning following, that we learned that it originated in the news from Paris, of the Emperor’s marriage with the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.