ver the dead and dying, bounded like blood-hounds on their prey.
Meanwhile the ramparts trembled beneath the tramp of the light division,
who, having forced the lesser breach, came down upon the flank of the
French. The garrison, however, thickened their numbers, and bravely held
their ground. Man to man now was the combat. No cry for quarter, no
supplicating look for mercy; it was the death struggle of vengeance and
despair. At this instant an explosion louder than the loudest thunder shook
the air; the rent and torn up ramparts sprang into the sky; the conquering
and the conquered were alike the victims; for one of the greatest magazines
had been ignited by a shell; the black smoke, streaked with a lurid flame,
hung above the dead and the dying. The artillery and the murderous musketry
were stilled, paralyzed, as it were, by the ruin and devastation before
them. Both sides stood leaning upon their arms; the pause was but
momentary; the cries of wounded comrades called upon their hearts. A fierce
burst of vengeance rent the air; the British closed upon the foe; for one
instant they were met; the next, the bayonets gleamed upon the ramparts,
and Ciudad Rodrigo was won.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE RAMPART.

While such were the scenes passing around me, of my own part in them, I
absolutely knew nothing; for until the moment that the glancing bayonets
of the light division came rushing on the foe, and the loud, long cheer of
victory burst above us, I felt like one in a trance. Then I leaned against
an angle of the rampart, overpowered and exhausted; a bayonet wound, which
some soldier of our own ranks had given me when mounting the breach, pained
me somewhat; my uniform was actually torn to rags; my head bare; of my
sword, the hilt and four inches of the blade alone remained, while my left
hand firmly grasped the rammer of a cannon, but why or wherefore I could
not even guess. As thus I stood, the unceasing tide of soldiery pressed on;
fresh divisions came pouring in, eager for plunder, and thirsting for the
spoil. The dead and the dying were alike trampled beneath the feet of that
remorseless mass, who, actuated by vengeance and by rapine, sprang fiercely
up the breach.

Weak and exhausted, faint from my wound, and overcome by my exertions, I
sank among the crumbling ruin. The loud shouts which rose from the town,
mingled with cries and screams, told the work of pillage was begun; while
still a dropping musketry could