d speech and political
ideals that grows stronger every year.

For years the _Shannon_ and the _Chesapeake_ lay peacefully side by
side in the Medway, and the two famous ships might well have been
preserved as trophies. The _Chesapeake_ was bought by the Admiralty
after the fight for exactly L21,314, 11s. 11 1/4d., and six years
afterwards she was sold as mere old timber for 500 pounds, was broken
up, and to-day stands as a Hampshire flour-mill, peacefully grinding
English corn; but still on the mill-timbers can be seen the marks of
the grape and round shot of the _Shannon_.

THE GREAT BREACH OF CIUDAD RODRIGO

"Attend, all ye who list to hear our noble England's praise,
I tell of the thrice famous deeds she wrought in ancient days."
--MACAULAY.

The three great and memorable sieges of the Peninsular war are those of
Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, and San Sebastian. The annals of battle
record nowhere a more furious daring in assault or a more gallant
courage in defence than that which raged in turn round each of these
three great fortresses. Of the three sieges that of Badajos was the
most picturesque and bloody; that of San Sebastian the most sullen and
exasperated; that of Ciudad Rodrigo the swiftest and most brilliant. A
great siege tests the fighting quality of any army as nothing else can
test it. In the night watches in the trenches, in the dogged toil of
the batteries, and the crowded perils of the breach, all the frippery
and much of the real discipline of an army dissolves. The soldiers
fall back upon what may be called the primitive fighting qualities--the
hardihood of the individual soldier, the daring with which the officers
will lead, the dogged loyalty with which the men will follow. As an
illustration of the warlike qualities in our race by which empire has
been achieved, nothing better can be desired than the story of how the
breaches were won at Ciudad Rodrigo.

At the end of 1811 the English and the French were watching each other
jealously across the Spanish border. The armies of Marmont and of
Soult, 67,000 strong, lay within touch of each other, barring
Wellington's entrance into Spain. Wellington, with 35,000 men, of whom
not more than 10,000 men were British, lay within sight of the Spanish
frontier. It was the winter time. Wellington's army was wasted by
sickness, his horses were dying of mere starvation, his men had
received no pay for three months, and his