Note 123 — Chapter XIII · THE PENINSULAR WAR (continued 2)

[Napierb says: “San Sebastian, a third-rate fortress and in bad condition when invested, resisted a besieging army possessing an enormous battering train, for sixty-three days. The place was, in fact, won by accident—the ignition of the French powder-barrels and shells, which alone opened the way into the town.” Of the sad atrocities committed by the British troops, Napier goes on to say:

“A thunderstorm, coming down from the mountains with unbounded fury immediately after the place was carried, added to the confusion of the fight. This storm seemed to be a signal from hell for the perpetration of villany which would have shamed the most ferocious barbarians of antiquity. At Rodrigo intoxication and plunder had been the principal object; at Badajoz lust and murder were joined to rapine and drunkenness; but at San Sebastian, the direst, the most revolting cruelty was added to the catalogue of crimes. One atrocity of which a girl of seventeen was the victim staggers the mind by its enormous, incredible, indescribable barbarity. The resolution of the troops to throw off discipline was quickly made manifest. A British staff officer was pursued with a volley of small arms and escaped with difficulty from men who mistook him for the provost-marshal of the 5th division; a Portuguese adjutant who endeavoured to prevent some wickedness was put to death in the market-place, not with sudden violence from a single ruffian, but deliberately by a number of English soldiers; and though many officers exerted themselves to preserve order and many men were well conducted, the rapine and violence commenced by villains spread; the camp-follower soon crowded into the place, and the disorder continued until the flames, following the steps of the plunderer, put an end to his ferocity by destroying the whole town.”]