Thirteen hundred dead and dying are
a grim sight upon a wide-spread battle-field, but when this number
Is heaped upon a confined space, where from a single high rock the
whole litter of broken and shattered bodies can be seen, and the
groans of the stricken rise in one long droning chorus to the ear,
then it is an iron mind indeed which can resist such evidence of
disaster. In a harder age Wellington was able to survey four
thousand bodies piled in the narrow compass of the breach of
Badajos, but his resolution was sustained by the knowledge that the
military end for which they fell had been accomplished. Had his
task been unfinished it is doubtful whether even his steadfast soul
would not have flinched from its completion. Thorneycroft saw the
frightful havoc of one day, and he shrank from the thought of such
another. 'Better six battalions safely down the hill than a mop up
in the morning,' said he, and he gave the word to retire. One who
had met the troops as they staggered down has told me how far they
were from being routed. In mixed array, but steadily and in order,
the long thin line trudged through the darkness. Their parched lips
would not articulate, but they whispered 'Water! Where is water?'
as they toiled upon their way. At the bottom of the hill they
formed into regiments once more, and marched back to the camp.
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