poor, and very handsome.
When Saragossa was besieged by the French during the Peninsular War, she
carried food every afternoon to the soldiers who were defending the
batteries. One day the attack was so fierce, and the fire so deadly,
that by the gate of Portillo not a single man was left alive to repulse
the terrible enemy. When Augustina reached the spot with her basket of
coarse and scanty provisions, she saw the last gunner fall bleeding on
the walls. Not for an instant did she hesitate; but springing over a
pile of dead bodies, she snatched the match from his stiffening fingers
and fired the gun herself. Then calling on her countrymen to rally their
broken ranks, she led them back so unflinchingly to the charge that the
French were driven from the gate they had so nearly captured, and the
honour of Spain was saved. When the siege was lifted and the city free
a pension was settled on Augustina, together with the daily pay of an
artilleryman, and she was permitted to wear upon her sleeve an
embroidered shield bearing the arms of Saragossa. Lord Byron, in his
poem 'Childe Harold,' has described her beauty her heroism, and the
desperate courage with which she defended the breach:

'Who can avenge so well a leader's fall?
What maid retrieve when man's flushed hope is lost!
Who hang so fiercely on the flying Gaul,
Foiled by a woman's hand before a battered wall?'

For the story of Mary Ambree we must leave the chroniclers--who to their
own loss and shame never mention her at all--and take refuge with the
poets. From them we learn all we need to know, and it is quickly told.
Her lover was slain treacherously in the war between Spain and Holland,
the English being then allies of the Dutch; and, vowing to avenge his
death, she put on his armour and marched to the siege of Ghent, where
she fought with reckless courage on its walls. Fortune favours the
brave, and wherever the maiden turned her arms the enemy was repulsed,
until at last the gallant Spanish soldiers vied with the English in
admiration of this valorous foe:

'If England doth yield such brave lassies as thee.
Full well may she conquer, faire Mary Ambree.'

Even the Great Prince of Parma desired to see this dauntless young girl,
and finding her as chaste as she was courageous and beautiful, he
permitted her to sail for home without any molestation from his army.

'Then to her own countr