I am induced to think that the change from home service to real campaigning is much more striking, as well as far more difficult to realize, in the case of the light horseman, than in that of the infantry soldier. The infantry soldier finds himself, it is true, deprived, when he takes the field, of his comfortable barrack-room; while his provisions, instead of being served out daily, and by measure, may fall short from time to time, or utterly disappear. Then, again, he mounts guard--not over a stout brick building, which nobody dreams of assailing--but in the open fields, where all his wits must be about him, in order to prevent an active enemy from passing his line, cutting him and his picket off, and bringing ruin on the army. In every other respect, however, his life is pretty much what it ever was. He must keep his arms and accoutrements clean, himself tidy, attend parades, perform marches, and fight battles as often as to his own leader, or to the leader of the adverse host, a battle may be desirable. But, except in the matter of fighting, he must do all this at home likewise; and if his bed be often the wet ground, and his canopy the lowering sky, why there is no help for it; he must make the most of them. The light horseman on the contrary, has not only his own wants, but those of his charger, to attend to; and the difference to the horse in the sort of life, which on service he is required to lead, is infinitely greater than the difference to his rider--supposing both to have been reared in England. In Portugal, for example, we had Indian corn served out as forage, which our horses would not taste, and which we could not get them to taste till we tried the experiment of soaking: moreover, we had to seek their litter where we could find it, to cut for them green meat, and train them to sleep picketed and in the open air, under which not a few broke down; and to bestow upon them in general a much larger portion of our care, than we had ever been taught, in the process of home duty, to consider requisite. In like manner, it was new to us to go on picket, and to sit on horses as videttes, for two hours on a stretch. It was equally new to our horses to have their saddles and housings fastened on for twenty-four hours together, and to receive their food with the bits hanging at their chests, and every thing prepared for action at a moments notice. I do not mean to say, that where men's feelings or imaginations are interested, all this is not very delightful; on the contrary, there springs up between the rider and his horse, a companionship, to which there is no parallel in any one of the many varied connexions which human life in its progress enables us to form; and such companionship is always pleasant, whether the cord binds us to a brute, or to our fellow-man. But some imagination is requisite in order to carry us into this train of feeling; and hence you invariably find, that in the light cavalry at least, your imaginative people make the best soldiers. Moreover, as the light cavalry are always employed, wherever the nature of the country will allow, at outposts, both men and horses are forced to acquire habits of vigilance, such as to be rightly understood, must have been both witnessed and experienced. The cavalry soldier sleeps, like his charger, with one eye and one ear always open. Both must be quick to perceive the first flash of a carbine, or the first blast of the trumpet; and both must be in a condition to take their places in the ranks, within a minute or two after the alarm is given.

Then again, patrolling, which is an especial duty, puts the metal both of men and horses to the test. You must move forward as if you had a hundred eyes: you must be cool and collected, and prepared for every conceivable adventure. Neither hedges nor ditches must offer insuperable obstacles to your progress, whether you be required to take ground to the front or rear; and you must be quite as ready and as willing to gallop off when to convey intelligence is your business, as to fight with carbine or sword, where you are desired to delay an enemy's progress. In a word, both the light dragoon and his horse are called upon, as soon as they take their station in the front of an army, to acquire, as if by intuition, new ideas on every subject; for, except in the formation of column or line, and the art of breaking up into order of march, and closing into squadrons again, the home drill--at least in 1809 and 1810--had not taught us much of our real duty.

The light horseman who lays himself out to become a useful member of his profession, is sure to succeed. He will first of all devote himself to his horse; and then his horse as if grateful for the kindness shown, will do for him in return innumerable services. Thus, during a night march, when the dragoon, overcome by fatigue, drops asleep, the faithful animal will slacken his pace, or sway from side to side, in order to prevent his master from falling. In like manner, if they be passing in the dark through broken and dangerous ground, the horse will often refuse to obey either spur or rein: his superior instinct directing him to avoid the perils, into which the ignorance or over-anxiety of his master was about to hurry them. Moreover, the horse knows his master's voice: it eats out of his palm, lowers its head for the well-known caress, and licks his hand like a dog in acknowledgment. And when it comes to this, let not the light dragoon be afraid to trust his charger in every thing. If they be the attacking party, his horse will carry him bravely on: if it be necessary to fly, there is no fence which he will refuse, or which, unless it actually exceed his physical powers to surmount, he will not by some means either overleap or scramble through.

I was always fond of a good horse; and no sooner became aware of the necessity for exertion that was imposed upon me, than I gave up my undivided care and attention to the noble animal which I rode. He was young, but full of spirit; and though like the rest he soon fell away in flesh, I had the happiness to see, from the condition of his coat, and the spirit and alacrity which on all occasions characterized him, that his health was excellent: there was plenty of muscle and bone in him, with a fair portion of blood; so that set us to what work they would, I always got well through it. It was not so with many of my comrades; not a few of whom seemed to regard their horses as incumbrances, always except at the moment when the value of the horse was most felt, and when, of course, theirs, in nine cases out of ten, failed them. Let me not, however, be understood as applying this reproof to a majority, nor indeed to any large number of the men of the 11th; on the contrary, it was only among the drunkards and other bad characters that this indifference to the animal, on whose efficiency their own depended, displayed itself; and such men, place them in what situation you might, would have been sure to disgrace themselves. Still, I think that there were few who took so much pains with their horses as I did; and that I lost nothing by the superior knowledge in grooming, which this fondness for my own beast gave me, will be abundantly shown, as the reader goes on with my narrative.

We had occupied our encampment some time, taking our turns in outpost duty, and occasionally skirmishing with the enemy, when there arrived at our lines one day a body of persons, whose uncouth appearance and strangely anomalous equipment excited in us to the full as much of wonder as admiration. They were guerillas, or armed peasants, whom the French not unaptly describe as brigands; of whom some had once been regular soldiers belonging to the broken armies of Spain, while others were petty farmers, or the sons of farmers, chiefly from the mountains of Estremadura. Of the composition of these corps, enough has been said in other quarters to convey to the minds of my countrymen in general a tolerably accurate acquaintance with the subject. Created partly by the war, partly by the smuggling habits of the people, the guerillas did here and there excellent service; by attacking convoys, harassing columns in their march, and cutting off detachments which were either numerically weak, or separated themselves too much from the corps on which they depended. As was to be expected, I found, on becoming more familiar with the Spaniards, that there was no end to the tales of daring and of cruelty, of which one or two of the guerilla chiefs had been the hero. Moreover, it must not be supposed, that when I speak of the guerilla chiefs, I allude only to such men as Mina, Don Julian de Sanchez, or such like. Every town and village in Spain had its regular chieftain, whose exploits the youths and maidens loved to recount; and who, in the eyes of his admiring neighbours, was of infinitely more use in clearing the Peninsula of its invaders, than Lord Wellington and all his generals put together. Neither was it an unusual thing to find a priest at the head of his own band, of whom, by-the-by, it is asserted, that if they were the most courageous--of which there seems to be little doubt--they were likewise the most merciless of all who waged war, not, as soldiers but as robbers. I heard it said, that about Irun and other frontier towns, the inhabitants used to keep a regular account of the strength of the different French corps as they entered Spain, as well as of the convoys of sick and wounded, which were told off to quit it; and that on the information derived from this source, the guerillas were accustomed to act in almost all the most successful of the enterprizes, which gave a character of its own to the late Spanish war.

Our friends the guerillas did not long abide among us, whose method of waging war accorded very little either with their habits or their wishes. They sought for plunder, and liked it the better when they won it at the cost of a great many lives to the enemy. We faced the French squadrons fairly in the field, and never dreamed of molesting them, unless some important operation should be in progress. It came out, however, in due course of time, that the French were not yet disposed to act on so lofty a principle; and indeed, though we were the sufferers, I cannot find in my heart seriously to blame them. The circumstances of the case were these:--

While we lay in the vicinity of Elvas, the enemy began to show in and around Badajos a large force, of which a considerable portion were horsemen. It was our business to watch them; and as the 11th, with a detachment from the 3rd German Hussars, constituted the entire amount of cavalry then on the spot, our vigilance as well as hardihood was more than once put sharply to the trial. For the most part we came pretty well out of these affairs; but in the end, the troop of which I was a member suffered all but annihilation. It happened that when we were on picket, a trooper belonging to the Germans deserted to the enemy; and carrying with him accurate information relative both to our position and our strength, enabled them, without hazard, to arrange a plan for cutting us off. They marched, after nightfall, with the greater part of their cavalry,--threw a strong body into a wood on our extreme right,--and, keeping it there concealed, made their appearance at dawn in our front, with a force greatly superior indeed to ours in point of numbers, yet nowise so formidable as to justify us in our own eyes were we to flee before them. Accordingly a smart skirmish began; which lasted without intermission three hours, and the excitement of which hindered us from paying any particular attention to what was going on all the while in our rear. At last, however, some of us chancing to look back, beheld a formidable line drawn out, in such order as to bar our way completely, were we to think of retreating upon the regiment; for the left of the line rested upon a river, and the right leaned upon the wood from which the whole had, during the progress of our affair, emerged. It is marvellous how slow men generally are to perceive that they have got into a scrape. We never for a moment supposed that these were Frenchmen; we took it for granted that they were Portuguese brought up, we did not care to inquire from what quarter, but placed where they were, manifestly for our support. On, therefore, we went with our amusement, till the enemy in our front suddenly called in their skirmishers, and with four squadrons advanced to charge. We were quite incapable of making head against such disparity of numbers; so we gave ground section after section, turning to check the advance, and still keeping up a warm skirmishing fire as opportunity offered. "Retire upon the Portuguese, men," exclaimed the captain; "when they perceive that we are overpowered they will advance; and then, hol! for another push at these rascals."

We did retire upon what we believed to be Portuguese; neither did we discover our mistake till something less than a hundred yards of ground divided us; and then what was to be done. The odds were out of all calculation; yet we were nowise disposed to be taken; so at the captain's orders we closed our files, and rode right at them. Never were men so entirely confounded. It was clear that they expected nothing of the sort; for they sat still, looking us in the face, and never made a movement to meet us. The consequence was, that coming upon them at speed, with all the weight and activity of our more powerful horses, we literally knocked them down like nine pins. Over they went, the horse and rider rolling on the ground; while we, cutting and slashing as we rode, broke through. But, alas! for us, there was a second line behind the first, which behaved differently. We in our turn were charged, and the battle became in a few seconds a mere affair of swords, where there was no room to move either to the front or the rear. The result could not be doubtful for five minutes. Outnumbered and hemmed in, we were almost to a man cut off. Eight were killed on the spot, twenty were wounded, and sixty-three good soldiers on the whole, lost to the service. The only man, indeed, who escaped to tell the tale, was one of our officers, who, being particularly well mounted, made a dash at the enemy's line; and laying about him, opened a way for himself, though not till he had received a severe wound in the shoulder.

In the course of that mélée, many feats of gallantry were performed; indeed, the enemy's loss in killed and wounded was far greater than ours, inasmuch as not fewer than fifty, belonging to the latter class, were brought to the hospital of which we became inmates. But there was one man in particular, who died so nobly, that I feel myself bound, as an act of justice to his memory, to speak of him. His name was Wilson. In temper and disposition, he was the quietest and most inoffensive creature in the troop; who never had a cross word with any one, nor ever, as far as I could perceive, was put even slightly out of his way. Nothing could induce Wilson to lose his temper--nothing put him into a hurry; whatever he did was done as if the doer were a piece of clock-work, and the matter to be arranged something which could not possibly miscarry. Wilson was, besides, remarkably sober: he never drank even his allowance to an end. But if he did not drink he ate with a voracity which I have seldom seen equalled. Bread was his favourite food; and before his single pair of jaws whole loaves would disappear, as often as he succeeded in laying hand upon them. But Wilson's career, both of fighting and eating, was destined this day to end; and he fell thus:

I saw him engaged hand to hand with a French dragoon: I saw him--for I was by this time disabled. by a severe wound, and stretched at length beside others of my suffering comrades--give and receive more than one pass, with equal skill and courage. Just then, a French officer stooping over the body of one of his wounded countrymen, who dropped at the instant on his horse's neck, delivered a thrust at poor Harry Wilson's body, and delivered it effectually. I firmly believe that Wilson died on the instant: yet, though he felt the sword in its progress, he, with characteristic self-command, kept his eye still on the enemy in his front; and, raising himself in his stirrups, let fall upon the Frenchman's helmet such a blow, that brass and skull parted before it, and the man's bead was cloven asunder to the chin. It was the most tremendous blow I ever saw struck, and both he who gave, and his opponent who received it, dropped dead together. The brass helmet was afterwards examined by order of the French officer, who, as well as myself, was astonished at the exploit; and the cut was found to be as clean as if the sword had gone through a turnip, not so much as a dent being left on either side of it.

The fighting was now over, and there began a scene, of which I cannot think without blushing for the chivalry of our adversaries. Not content with taking our horses and arms, or even the purses and watches of such as possessed them, they proceeded to strip us of our jackets, boots, and even of our overalls; apparently bent, as it seemed to me, on leaving us nothing whereby we might be distinguished as British soldiers. I do not know how far the system might have been carried, had not our captain, who spoke French fluently, remonstrated with the officer in command; upon which an order was given to put a stop to the plunder; and to most of us our jackets, at least, were restored. But of watches, money, and boots, no account was taken; and we were marched off, some of us in a very sorry plight, to the rear.

The wounds inflicted in this trifling affair were all very ghastly. Being inflicted entirely with the sword, and falling, at least among the French, chiefly upon the head and face, the appearance presented by these mangled wretches was hideous; neither were we, though in almost every instance pierced through, one whit more presentable. It is worthy of remark, that the French cavalry, in nine cases out of ten, make use of the point, whereas we strike with the edge, which is, in my humble opinion, far more effective. But, however this may be, of one fact I am quite sure, that as far as appearances can be said to operate in rendering men timid, or the reverse, the wounded among the French were much more revolting than the wounded among ourselves. It is but candid to add, that the proportion of severely wounded was pretty equal on both sides; indeed, I suspect that there was a greater number of our people than of the enemy, whom it was found necessary to transport to the hospital, by slinging them over the backs of horses.

I was somewhat surprised at the moment, and I confess that the feeling has scarce left me yet, that the French should have been permitted to carry off a whole troop of dragoons, in the face of a corps, with infantry and cavalry at least strong enough to interrupt them in the operation. I dare say, however, that the reasons which dictated so much supineness to the lookers-on were adequate,--at least, I am bound to suppose so; but, be this as it may, we were, after the fashion which I have just described, carried of under the noses of our reserves; the whole of which had turned out, and now stood quietly to observe the issue. We did not go, however, without misfortune having wrought its accustomed changes in the moral positions of those who partook in it. When I was lying wounded, for example, near the spot where the captain stood, (a lucky accident for me, by the way, inasmuch as it saved me from undergoing the same process of plunder with the rest,) I saw not far from me, my old enemy, Serjeant Waldron, covered with his own blood, and so disfigured that, till he spoke, I could not recognise him. He knew me, however, and calling me by name, besought me to lift him up. I plead guilty to the crime of having allowed the remembrance of ancient wrongs to come across me even then; and, in the height of my indignation, I answered him with an oath, and told him that I would have nothing to say to him. But my better feeling gained the mastery immediately afterwards; and I was in the act of moving towards him, when a number of the enemy pushed in between us, and I was hindered from fulfilling my intention. He recovered from his wounds, and died the following year at Briançon in France. My friend the corporal, too, who reported me on the march, fell in this skirmish. He was endeavouring to force his way through the interval between two French squadrons, when one of the enemy's officers, perceiving his intention, thrust at him with his sword, which entering under one ear, and coming out at the other, killed him on the spot.

Finally, it may not be out of place to record, that the lieutenant, who, to say the least of it, showed me no great kindness, lost his arm. Thus, the only three men in the corps whom I found austere, suffered in this affair, from which, with the exception of a severe wound in my sword-arm, I escaped unhurt.