Note 100 — OPERATIONS FROM THE BATTLE OF TALAVERA TO THE AFFAIR OF THE COA.

The fire of forty-eight guns and mortars were concentrated on the little fort of Matagorda, and the feeble parapet disappeared in a moment before this crushing flight of metal. * * * The troops fell fast; the enemy shot quick and close; a staff, bearing the Spanish flag, was broken six times within an hour. * * * Thirty hours the tempest raged, and sixty-four men out of one hundred and forty were down, when the remnant of the garrison was removed. During this tremendous fire, a young drum-boy was ordered to fetch water from the well, but the youth hesitated; a sergeant’s wife, called Ritson, instantly caught up the bucket, crossed the line of fire, and though the cord that held the vessel was cut by a shot, she filled, and brought it safely back to the wounded men who were lying in the casemate.—Abridged from Napier.