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UNDERSTANDING AND TEACHING
READING COMPREHENSION

The ultimate aim of reading is not the process of reading the words, but understanding
what we read. There has been an increasing emphasis on the importance of reading com-
prehension in recent years but, despite this, there is very little written on this vital topic
accessible to trainee and practising teachers and teacher educators.
Understanding and Teaching Reading Comprehension presents an overview of recent find-
ings on reading comprehension development and comprehension problems in children.
It provides a detailed examination of the development of key skills that contribute to
comprehension and the characteristics of children who have reading comprehension dif-
ficulties, and examines ways in which comprehension can be supported and improved. It
is accessibly written for students and professionals with no previous background in the
psychology of reading or reading problems.
This indispensable handbook asks the question “what is comprehension?” The authors
consider comprehension of different units of language: understanding single words, sen-
tences and connected prose, and outline what readers (and listeners) have to do to success-
fully understand an extended text. This book also considers comprehension for different
purposes, in particular reading for pleasure and reading to learn, and explores how reader
characteristics such as interest and motivation can influence the comprehension process.
To comprehend well, readers need to coordinate a range of skills. These include word
reading ability, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic skills, memory and discourse level skills
such as the ability to make inferences, knowledge about text structure and metacognitive
skills. The authors discuss how each one contributes to the development of reading com-
prehension, how the development of these skills (or their precursors) in pre-�readers pro-
vides the foundation for reading comprehension development, and how a failure to
develop these skills can lead to poor reading comprehension.
Areas covered include:

• word reading and comprehension

• development of comprehension skills
• comprehension difficulties
• assessment
• teaching for improvement.
Throughout the text successful experimental and classroom-based interventions are high-
lighted. Practical ideas for use in the classroom and summary boxes detailing key points
and explaining technical terms are included in each chapter.

Jane Oakhill is Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex.

Kate Cain is Professor in Language and Literacy in the Department of Psychology at

Lancaster University.

Carsten Elbro is Professor of Reading and Director of the Centre for Reading Research
at the University of Copenhagen.
 UNDERSTANDING AND
TEACHING READING
COMPREHENSION
A handbook

Jane Oakhill, Kate Cain and Carsten Elbro

ROUTLEDGE

Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 J. Oakhill, K. Cain and C. Elbro
The right of Jane Oakhill, Kate Cain and Carsten Elbro to be identified as authors of this
work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Oakhill, Jane.
Understanding and teaching reading comprehension : a handbook / Jane Oakhill, Kate
Cain, Carsten Elbro.
pages cm
1. Reading–Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Reading comprehension–Handbooks,
manuals, etc. I. Cain, Kate. II. Elbro, Carsten. III. Title.
LB1050.O215 2014
428.4'3–dc23 2014009245

ISBN: 978-0-415-69830-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-69831-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-75604-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
CONTENTS

List of illustrations  vi

1 What it’s all about 1

2 Skills and processes 11

3 Assessing comprehension and the characteristics of poor comprehenders 22

4 Inferences: going beyond explicit details to make sense of text 38

5 Knowing and learning the meanings of words 54

6 Sentences and their connections 69

7 Finding and using text structure when reading 82

8 Does it make sense? Monitoring for meaning 94

9 Pulling it all together 105

References 115
Author index 124
Subject index 128
Illustrations

Figures
1.1 Skilled reading depends on abilities with both word reading and language
comprehen�sion 3
1.2 A double dissociation between word decoding and language
comprehension 5
2.1 An overview of some of the component processes of reading 12
4.1 Less-skilled comprehenders have particular difficulties making inferences that
require the combination of information across several sentences in a text 48
4.2 A graphic organiser can elucidate the contributions from both the text
and the reader 51
5.1 Links between words can be based on shared aspects of word meanings 58
8.1 Less-skilled comprehenders have particular difficulties detecting incompatible
pieces of information when they are separated by several sentences 100
9.1 Some examples of the relations between components of reading
comprehension 107

Tables
3.1 Questions and answers to the lion story 23
4.1 Types of inference questions 41
6.1 Connectives grouped by logical function 74
7.1 An overview of different informational text structures and their signal
words 83
7.2 Examples of prompts and multiple-choice questions to assess children’s
understanding of narrative structure 86
7.3 Examples of materials used to assess sensitivity to different informational
text struc�tures 87
8.1 Comprehension monitoring 94
 Illustrations╇╇ vii

8.2 Fix-up strategies that can be used when things do not make sense 95
8.3 Explicit and implicit inconsistencies 97
8.4 Example of comprehension monitoring text used by Tunmer et al. (1983) 100
8.5 Example of a conversation to model comprehension monitoring
behaviours 101
This page intentionally left blank
1
WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT
“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”
Attributed to Edmund Burke, 1729–1797

The purposes of this chapter are:

• to introduce the concept of Mental Models as representations of text,

• to introduce the Simple View of Reading and the distinction between word reading
and language comprehension,
• to explain the relation between word reading and reading comprehension,
• to distinguish between poor word readers and poor comprehenders.

The click of comprehension

Reading comprehension is important, not just for understanding text, but for broader
learning, success in education, and employment. It is even important for our social lives,
because of email, text, and social networking sites. Reading comprehension is a complex
task, which requires the orchestration of many different cognitive skills and abilities.
Of course, reading comprehension is necessarily dependent on at least adequate word
reading: readers cannot understand a whole text if they cannot identify (decode) the
words in that text. Likewise, good reading comprehension will depend on good language
understanding more generally. This requires comprehension of the individual words and
the sentences that they form. However, comprehension typically requires the compre-
hender to integrate the sense of these words and sentences into a meaningful whole. To
do so, construction of a suitable mental model is necessary. A mental model is a mental
representation that is created from information in the real, or an imagined, world – i.e. a
gist representation of what the comprehender has read (or heard, or seen). It might, but
does not necessarily, include imagery. Try Activity 1.1 to get an idea of how important
it is to be able to construct a coherent mental model to make sense of the words and
sentences of the text.
You might have guessed what the text in Activity 1.1 is about, but if you are like most
of the participants in Smith and Swinney’s study (1992), you found it hard to make sense
of. Now read the text again, but with the title “Building a snowman”. Now you will find
that the obscure references, to e.g. substance, and turns of phrase elaborateness of the final
product, suddenly fall into place, and the whole makes perfect sense when you have the
appropriate framework for a mental model. Smith and Swinney (building on much earlier
work by Bransford & Johnson, 1972) showed that people who were asked to read the
above text without a title took considerably longer to read it, and had worse recall of its
content, than those who were given the title and were able to use the framework it pro-
vided to create an appropriate mental model.
2╇╇ What it’s all about

Activity 1.1╇ The need for a mental model for understanding a

text

Read the following short text and try to make sense of it:

This process is as easy as it is enjoyable. This process can take anywhere from
about one hour to all day. The length of time depends on the elaborateness of
the final product. Only one substance is necessary for this process. However, the
substance must be quite abundant and of suitable consistency. The substance is
best used when it is fresh, as its lifespan can vary. Its lifespan varies depending on
where the substance is located. If one waits too long before using it, the sub-
stance may disappear. This process is such that almost anyone can do it. The
easiest method is to compress the substance into a denser mass than it had in its
original state. This process gives a previously amorphous substance some struc-
ture. Other substances can be introduced near the end of the process to add to
the complexity of the final product. These substances are not necessary. However,
many people find that they add to the desired effect. At the end of the process,
the substance is usually in a pleasing form.

The example illustrates two important points. First, it is very difficult to understand
a text without an appropriate mental model. This model may draw not only on titles
but also on pictures or, very often, on general knowledge. When information in the
text is successfully integrated into a mental model, comprehension “clicks”. Perhaps
you experienced this “click of comprehension” when you had the title and re-Â�read
the text?
The second point is that reading a title or seeing a picture of the situation after you
have read the text may help only a little. But if you had seen the title before the text, it
would have made the text substantially more comprehensible. The point is that a frame-
work for the construction of an appropriate mental representation makes the text much
easier to understand, to reflect about, and to remember.

The Simple View of Reading

It is helpful to distinguish between two main components in reading: word decoding and
language comprehension. Word reading (or decoding) refers to the ability to read single
words out of context. Language comprehension refers to our ability to understand words,
sentences, and text. These are the two key components in The Simple View of Reading
(originally proposed by Gough & Tunmer, 1986).
The point of The Simple View of Reading is that variation in reading ability can be
captured (simply) in only two components: word reading (decoding) and language com-
prehension. The name, The Simple View of Reading, is not intended to imply that
reading (or learning to read) is a simple process but, rather, that it is a simple way of con-
ceptualising the complexity of reading.
 What it’s all about╇╇ 3

Language
comprehension

Reading

Word reading

Figure 1.1â•… S killed reading depends on abilities with both word reading and language comprehen-
sion (adapted from Scarborough, 2001).

More precisely, reading ability depends on the product of the two components:
Readingâ•›=â•›Word Readingâ•›×â•›Language Comprehension (Râ•›=â•›WRâ•›×â•›LC), not just on the
sum of the two. This means that if one of the components (either word reading or lan-
guage comprehension) is zero, overall reading ability will be zero. Thus, if a child cannot
read any words or if a child does not have any language comprehension skills, s/he
cannot read.
An illustration of the necessity of both components – word reading skills and language
comprehension – comes from a story about John Milton’s strategy for reading Greek
texts after he became blind. Milton got his daughters to learn to decode the ancient
Greek alphabet. They were then able to read aloud the texts in ancient Greek to their
father, but they could not understand them, because they did not have any knowledge of
Greek, whereas Milton could understand, but not decode, the words. Thus, the daugh-
ters provided the word reading skills, and Milton provided the language comprehension
skills.

The Simple View on development

Although word reading and language comprehension are largely separate skills, it should
always be kept in mind that successful reading demands the interplay of both of these
skills, and so they both need to be encouraged and supported from the onset of reading
instruction. However, the two skills contribute differently to overall reading as the child
develops. For the beginning reader, decoding is new, and children differ hugely in decod-
ing ability. Language comprehension, on the other hand, is quite well developed, espe-
cially considering the undemanding books that beginning readers are typically presented
with. So in beginning readers, the variation in reading ability is almost identical to the
variation in word reading.
4╇╇ What it’s all about

In the early school years, children need to establish fluent and automatic word reading,
which, although not sufficient for good reading overall, is obviously necessary. However,
for most children, this is a time-�limited task: the child needs to reach the level of com-
petence at which word reading becomes a “self-Â�teaching mechanism” (Share, 1995) (see
Box 1.1). The ability to comprehend texts (including the ability to appreciate texts in
different content areas and genres), however, is a skill that will continue to develop
throughout adult life.
The language comprehension that provides the foundation for reading comprehen-
sion develops before children have any formal reading instruction. When they come to
school, children are already very competent comprehenders and producers of spoken
language without having had formal instruction in these skills (see Box 1.1). Thus, when
children become competent at decoding, it is their competence in language comprehen-
sion that will determine their overall reading ability. So in more advanced reading, good
language comprehension will be more crucial than word recognition.

Box 1.1╇ The importance of being taught to decode words

Unfortunately, learning to read words does not usually come naturally to children, in
contrast to learning to speak. Humans have used speech to communicate for tens of
thousands of years, but reading is, in the historical context, a relatively new skill and
it is only in the last hundred years or so that the majority of people in Western societies
have been able to read and write. Thus there is no reason to expect that the ability to
read would have evolved and have innate roots as the ability to speak is generally
assumed to (e.g. Pinker, 1994). Indeed, in many cultures still, the ability to read is the
exception, rather than the norm. Learning to read is a matter of learning to crack a
code.
In English, children need to be taught the relations between letters or letter com-
binations (graphemes) and the sounds (phonemes) in the language. This is very dif-
ferent from learning a whole new language – it is simply a way of coding the language
they already know and speak. This point has an important consequence. There is no
logic to the idea that learning to read should come “naturally” to children if they are
placed in a literate environment, just like learning to speak. Children learning to read
simply have to learn to map the written form of a language they already know well,
onto its spoken form. As Gough and Hillinger (1980) put it: Learning to read is an
“unnatural act”.
Luckily, children do not need to be taught every single written word or all conven-
tions of the orthographic system. The point of the “self-Â�teaching mechanism” (see e.g.
Share, 1995) is that children are able to learn to identify new words on their own once
they master the basic letter-�sounds and how they blend to form spoken words. Of
course, in order for the self-�teaching mechanism to kick in, children need to be pre-
sented with books at an appropriate level for their ability: i.e. books that are sufficiently
challenging (with some words that they have not come across before), but not too
difficult.
 What it’s all about╇╇ 5

The alphabetic code in English is notoriously difficult, but even the spelling of irreg-
ular words, like island or sword, is far from random. Almost all the letters correspond to
sounds in the spoken word, with the exception of one silent letter in each of these
words. So these irregularities should not be used as a justification for teaching children
by a whole word method. When taught by a whole word method children do not
become independent readers unless they extract the letter-�sound rules for themselves
– which they take an exceedingly long time to do (Brady, 2011; Seymour & Elder,
1986).
Some teachers are concerned that if children are taught by a sounding out/phonics
approach, typically using decodable books (which might not have the most exciting
storylines), then they might become overly focused on decoding, at the expense of
comprehension. However, there is no evidence for this concern. In fact, children who
have early, intensive training in phonics tend not only to be better at word reading
later, but also to have superior comprehension skills (see e.g. National Reading Panel,
2000).

Even though children typically have a high level of communicative competence when
they start school they do not have all the language skills in place that they need for text
comprehension. It is a common misconception that, in order to develop competence in
reading, beginning readers would need only to be taught to decode the written word,
and then their language comprehension skills would kick in and they would be able to
understand written texts just as well as they understand oral language. This is a miscon-
ception because it ignores the fact that written texts are, in important ways, different from
spoken interactions (see “Written vs. spoken language” below), and written texts typic-
ally require memory abilities and other cognitive skills that are not so crucial in under-
standing everyday interactions.

The Simple View on reading difficulties

Recently, the Simple View is often presented schematically, as in Figure 1.2. This repres-
entation makes it clear how children with specific comprehension problems can, for
example, be differentiated from children who have specific word reading problems (i.e.
dyslexics) or generally poor readers (sometimes called “garden variety” poor readers in
the literature).

Language comprehension

Word reading Poor Good

Poor Generally poor reader Dyslexic
Good Poor comprehender Good reader

Figure 1.2â•…  double dissociation between word decoding and language comprehension. Prob-
A
lems with one component may occur independently of problems with the other.
6╇╇ What it’s all about

A consideration of the quadrants in more detail reveals three distinct types of poor
reader (though of course in real life, these distinctions might not always be so clear-�cut).
First, children with dyslexia have severe problems learning to read words. They need
much more time and structured instruction than other children to learn the basic ortho-
graphic system – how letters typically sound – and how to use the system to blend letter-
�sounds into recognisable words. Children with dyslexia do not typically have problems
with spoken language comprehension. They have difficulties with text comprehension
because of their problems with word reading. In many cases of dyslexia, word reading
continues to be slow and attention demanding. This puts limitations on the mental
resources that could otherwise have been spent on comprehension (Perfetti, 1985) so
dyslexics might also have some level of reading comprehension problem.
Poor comprehenders have difficulties with reading comprehension, despite develop-
ing good word reading skills and having no other apparent language or cognitive prob-
lems. Their problems are not usually apparent or detected before the 3rd or 4th year of
schooling, because reading books in the early years are very undemanding in terms of
language comprehension plus, as mentioned above, in the early years children’s reading
competence is typically limited by their ability to read the words. As reading books
become increasingly complex, poor comprehenders may experience unexpected reading
difficulties (e.g. Catts, Compton, Tomblin, & Bridges, 2012), and their teachers may be
surprised and disappointed by the drop in these children’s reading abilities. These chil-
dren with specific reading comprehension problems, i.e. the poor comprehenders, will be the
focus of much of this book.
Some children have problems with the development of both word reading and language
comprehension; they are termed generally poor readers. Children with early language
impairments have a higher risk than other children of developing such general reading
problems (Bishop, 2001), though the particular combination and extent of the language
impairments may also lead to isolated problems with word decoding (Catts et al., 2012).

Activity 1.2╇ A simple view of your own reading

In your own experience, when have you found yourself in each of the four quadrants
of the “Simple View” diagram above? For example, have you experienced being able
to decode the words of a text but had real difficulties with comprehension, or not paid
attention to the meaning of the text?

• For each of the three quadrants that represent some aspect of reading difficulty try
to list at least one example of your experience as that type of reader.

There are at least four different sets of research findings that support the Simple View:

1 As discussed above, it is possible to have problems with word decoding but not with
comprehension, and it is possible to have problems with comprehension but not
with word decoding. This pattern is termed a “double dissociation”.
Other documents randomly have
different content
deplorable events, in which it is difficult to say which
of the opposite parties was most culpable. This was
now the fourth year of the war; the spirit of the
people, and the defects of their military system, had
been abundantly proved; nothing was wanting but to
remedy those defects by raising an army under the
direction of Lord Wellington, who had delivered
Portugal, and might by similar means speedily and
certainly have delivered Spain. Many causes
prevented this; one is to be found in a jealousy or
rather dislike of England, which had grown up in the
liberal party with their predilection for republican
France, and which continued with other errors from
the same source, still to actuate them. The pride of
the Spanish character was another and more widely
influencing cause: the Spaniards remembered that
their troops had once been the best in the world; and
this remembrance, which in the people so greatly
contributed to keep up their spirit, in the government
produced only a contented and baneful torpor which
seemed like infatuation. The many defeats, in the
course of four years, which they had sustained, from
that at Rio Seco to the last ruinous action before
Valencia, brought with them no conviction to the
successive governments of their radical weakness and
their radical error. After Lord Wellington had driven
Massena out of Portugal, it was proposed that the
command of the frontier provinces should be given
him, and that an army should be raised there under
him: it was debated in a secret sitting, and rejected
by an hundred voices against thirty.
“There are three classes of men,” said Dueñas,
“who will break up the Cortes, unless the Cortes
breaks down them: they who refuse to acknowledge
the sovereignty of the nation, calling it a mere
 chimera, and saying there is no sovereignty except
that of the king; they who distrust our cause, and say
that the few millions who inhabit Spain cannot make
head against all Europe; and, lastly, they who
imagine, that as the French have conquered while
they despise God, we may do the same.” The deputy’s
fears of the first and third of these classes were
groundless, and there were but few of the second, ...
but few Spaniards who despaired of Spain. Nothing,
however, could tend so much to increase their number
as the conduct of the government; it might well be
feared that a system, if system it could be called,
which trusted to its allies, and to the events that time
and chance might bring forth, would at length exhaust
Schemes for the hopes and the constancy, as well as the blood, of
strengthening the Spaniards. All considerate persons could not but
the perceive that the present government was in no
government. respect more efficient than that of the Central Junta
had been, which, for its inefficiency, would have been
broken up by an insurrection, if it had not prevented
such a catastrophe by a timely abdication. As a
remedy for this evil, the Cortes thought at one time of
taking the executive into their own hands, and
administering it by a committee chosen from their
own members; but the resemblance which this bore
to the system pursued by the French National
Convention, during the worst stage of the revolution,
deterred those who favoured it from bringing forward
a proposal that would reasonably have alarmed the
greater part of the assembly, and have disgusted the
nation. They who were of opinion that the Regency
would be more effective if vested in a single person
than in three or five, knew not where that person was
Cardinal to be found who should unite legitimate claims with
Bourbon. individual qualifications. Cardinal Bourbon occurred to
them, but as one who had neither the personal
The Infante D. respectability, nor the capacity desired. The Infante D.
Carlos. Carlos was supposed to possess sufficient strength of
character, and it was not doubted, that if opportunity
of attempting to escape could be offered him, he
would be not less desirous to avail himself of it than
Ferdinand had, luckily for himself, been found of
shrinking from the danger; but the failure in
Ferdinand’s case had greatly increased both the
The Princess of difficulties and dangers of such an attempt. There
Brazil. remained the princess of Brazil, whose right to the
Regency, under existing circumstances, was admitted
by the Council of Castille. She had spirit and abilities
equal to the charge; but, on the other hand, she was
known to be of an intriguing and dangerous
disposition, ... one who, being, by reason of her
station, sure of impunity in this world for any thing
which she might be inclined to commit, believed that
her father-confessor could at all times make her
equally secure in the next, and was notoriously
disposed to make full use of these convenient
privileges whenever any personal inclination was to be
gratified or any political object to be brought about.
Yet with this knowledge of her character, those British
statesmen who were best acquainted with the affairs
of the Peninsula at that time, and with what
advantages we might carry on the war there, if it
were vigorously pursued, and what were the
impediments which in far greater degree than the
entire force of the enemy impeded our progress,
agreed in opinion, that it should be the true policy of
England to support her claim, regarding the possible
consequences in Portugal, of her appointment to the
Spanish Regency, as a consideration of inferior
moment. There would yet be a difficulty concerning
the place to be fixed on for her residence: Lisbon it
could not be: ... pre-eminently fitted as that city was
 to be the capital of the united governments, the ill-will
between the Portugueze and Spaniards, which the
circumstances of the present war unhappily had not
tended to diminish, rendered this impossible; and, for
the same reason, Cadiz was hardly less objectionable.
It was thought, therefore, that the princess might
best reside at Madeira, and govern in Spain through a
Vice-Regent. The conduct of the Cortes in arrogating
the title of Majesty, and exercising, as, in fact they
did, the executive government through successive
Regencies, which they nominated and dissolved at
pleasure, made persons who were otherwise averse
to it accede to this scheme as involving fewer
inconveniences than any other which could be
proposed.
State of the Some change also, and of the same kind, appeared
Portugueze to be not less desirable in Portugal. The arrangement
government. which placed the Portugueze army under a British
general, introducing at the same time a large
proportion of British officers into that army, and that
which placed the whole military establishment under a
British commander-in-chief, had been necessary, and
the Portugueze themselves were sensible that it was
so. But it was not wisely done to put the Portugueze
fleet under a British admiral, nor to make the British
ambassador a member of the Regency: in the first
instance, a great expense was incurred in time of
extreme want; in both, some offence was given to
national feeling; and in neither was there any
advantage gained. Sir Charles Stuart was in no
enviable situation; there was a constant opposition
between him and the Souzas, who had great influence
at the court of the Rio, whose intentions were not to
be suspected, and whose abilities were of no common
order, but whose deep prepossessions prevented
them from adapting their views to the actual
circumstances of the country. When he exerted
himself to rectify habitual disorders, and provide for
demands which were continually recurring, and which
it was ruinous to neglect, the whole host of intriguers
was in action against him, and he incurred the dislike
of the prince, of whose ear his opponents had
possession: on the other hand, the repeated
complaints from head-quarters against the
misconduct of the Portugueze government under
which the native army was mouldering away more
rapidly than it had been formed, seemed to include
him of course among the persons upon whom the
blame was laid. Yet his colleagues, as well as he, were
more to be pitied than condemned, for what they left
undone. The whole revenues of the house of
Braganza were at this time remitted to Brazil, ... no
unfit arrangement, as the family was there to be
supported. But the court received also the revenues
from Madeira and the Western Isles, and the
establishments in Africa, and yet called for money
from Portugal! It had left so great a part of the old
court establishment there that the expenses of that
part exceeded the whole produce of the crown lands;
and it was continually sending persons from Brazil, to
be provided for at home; ... this, at a time when
Portugal with only half its former revenues, and with a
ruined people, had to support an army fourfold more
numerous than in its days of prosperity!
The prince of Brazil was jealous of his prerogative;
... and there were those about him who lost no
opportunity of insinuating that England aimed at
establishing a permanent influence over the
government of Portugal. This was so old an art of
faction, that even from new circumstances it could
 derive no strength; and although, if he were at
Lisbon, he would be within reach of the insidious
proposals of the French, who would have no difficulty
in finding intriguers to second them, yet, on the
whole, those persons whose opinions carried most
weight thought it desirable that he should be urged to
return, his presence nearer Lisbon being as necessary
as that of the princess was deemed to be at Cadiz.
But the statesmen who advised this seem to have
overlooked the circumstances of Brazil, where at that
time the presence of the court was the only check
upon the revolutionary spirit which was then
gathering strength: that consideration alone must
have detained the prince there; and if the claim of the
princess had been more popular than it was at Cadiz,
the conduct of the Portugueze diplomatists on this
occasion was sufficient to ruin it.
M. Wellesley’s Marquis Wellesley, whose views were always
views. comprehensive, thought that nothing of importance
could be done in the field, unless an efficient Spanish
army were raised of 30 or 40,000 men. To expect any
thing from it under its present establishment, he
argued, would be to deceive ourselves; ... any thing
short of a thorough reform under a British
commander and British officers, Great Britain
providing also for the pay and subsistence of the
whole, would be fruitless; and this we could not
afford. But we might take into our pay an army of
30,000 men, and assist Spain with a loan of five or six
millions for raising another: a much larger sum would
be saved by this expenditure if it shortened the war a
single year; and that it might be so shortened, no one
who had faith in British courage, and knew the
capacity of the British commander, could doubt. But
Marquis Wellesley had not that ascendancy in the
 cabinet to which in the opinion of his admirers he was
entitled, and which, perhaps, he had expected to
assert. His colleagues might have acted with more
vigour, if their tenure of the government had been
more secure; the sense of that insecurity, and the
constant struggle wherein they were engaged at
home, made them regard difficulties as insuperable,
which would have disappeared if they had had
sufficient confidence in themselves.
This want of energy must have been fatal, if Lord
Wellington had not been eminently qualified for the
arduous situation in which he was placed. Both his
mind and body were equal to all that was required
from them. He rose about four, and after a slight
breakfast was usually on horseback from daylight till
about the hour of noon. He was then employed till
three, in transacting business with the officers of the
army, or in writing his orders and letters, answering
every dispatch and letter as it was brought before
him. At three he dined, was on horseback again at
five, till evening closed, and was then employed in
business till ten, when he retired to rest. Mortifying as
it was, having in himself glorious anticipations of what
he could effect with adequate means, at the same
time to feel himself crippled for want of them; no
embarrassments ever had the effect of perplexing his
judgment, or leading him to despond; but making his
preparations with long forethought, he waited the
opportunity for attempting whatever his means
allowed him to undertake.
Lord Wellington The force with which he intended to besiege
prepares for Ciudad Rodrigo consisted of 17,000 British, and
the siege of 14,000 Portugueze, ... so inferior to what Marmont
Ciudad
might bring into the field against him, that every thing
Rodrigo.
depended upon secrecy in his plans, and celerity in
their execution. That he would undertake the siege
was what every officer who reasoned, or talked about
the ensuing campaign, could not but conclude; but
when it was his intention was not communicated even
to those persons in whom he placed most confidence,
34
and of whom he entertained the highest opinion.
The works of Almeida which Brennier had demolished,
when with so much credit to himself he abandoned
the place, were restored; British and Portugueze
troops in equal numbers being employed upon them,
and receiving working money, and such of them as
were bricklayers or stonemasons, and acted as
artificers, double pay. This, which the French might
consider a defensive measure, was for the purpose of
providing a safe depôt for the battering train. That
train was conveyed up the Douro forty miles, farther
than the boats of the country had navigated the river
before, our engineers having removed the
impediments which rendered it innavigable. There had
been such difficulty in obtaining means of transport,
that for this reason alone, Lord Wellington had been
obliged to undertake feeding all the Portugueze troops
that were incorporated in the British divisions. The
system of the Portugueze commissariat was to
embargo carts and cattle for this service, ... a
grievous evil to the owners, who knew that they were
likely never to be paid, and that their beasts would
probably be worked to death; unless, therefore, they
were closely watched, they, as might be expected,
deserted, and left the supplies to take their chance.
Nor, when British faith was pledged for payment of
the commissariat accounts, was there any perceptible
amendment, so long as the means of transport were
to be supplied by the local authorities: these
authorities showed little alacrity in executing the
 orders of government, and the people as little in
obeying their requisitions; for the magistrates being
delivered from immediate danger had relapsed into
that apathy which had long pervaded every
department of the body politic. There were 20,000
carts in Alentejo, and yet, when Lord Wellington was
on that frontier, it was with difficulty that 600 could be
procured for the service of the army. The institutions
of the country were excellent; but government could
not enforce the laws, and the magistrates would not:
the British were the only persons who observed them,
and by that observance, subjected themselves to
serious inconvenience; they depended upon the civil
magistrate, who neglected his duty, and they were
then left to shift for themselves. To prevent this evil, a
waggon train was now attached to the British
commissariat, and upwards of 600 carts, each capable
of carrying eight hundred weight, and upon a better
construction than the primitive carts of the country,
were built at Lisbon, Porto, and Almeida. To this latter
place the battering train was conveyed towards the
close of November; and when relying upon Lord
Wellington’s comparative weakness, and the
improbability of his attempting any serious operation
at that season, Marmont had detached Montbrun to
the eastern coast, and Dorsenne had ordered two
other divisions to Asturias and the Montaña: the allied
troops began to make fascines and gabions at their
respective head-quarters on the 27th of December;
and the 6th of January was fixed for the investment of
Ciudad Rodrigo.

1812. The time of year, and the exhausted state of the

January. country, contributed to deceive the French: they did
not suppose that Lord Wellington would, in the depth
of winter, undertake an operation of such importance,
nor that his army could long endure the privations to
which they must be exposed. Every thing which could
serve for the support of man or beast had been
consumed for miles and miles around; and on that
part of the frontier there was little grain at any time,
the tract for corn commencing at Salamanca and its
neighbourhood, where the enemy were cantoned. The
allied troops were four days together without bread;
and the officers purchased it at the rate of three
shillings the quartern loaf, and at one time five. The
horses, though hardy as if they had never stood in a
stable, and rough as if never groom had laid his hand
upon their coats, began to fail; all the straw having
been consumed, they had nothing to subsist on
except coarse long grass pulled up from under the
trees, and so thoroughly sun-dried that little
nourishment was left in it. Because of this scarcity,
the three brigades of cavalry took the outpost duty in
rotation, ... and the regiments lost about fifty horses
each by starvation.
A heavy rain fell on the first night of the new year;
and the weather continued so inclement till the fifth,
that the investment was necessarily deferred till two
days later than the time originally fixed. General
Mackinnon’s brigade marching from Aldea da Ponte to
Robledo, six-and-twenty miles through a continued
oak forest, had in many places to make their way
knee-deep in snow; between 300 and 400 men were
left on the road, of whom some died on the march,
several afterwards of fatigue. There was no camp-
equipage with the army, nor cover near the town; the
troops were therefore cantoned in the nearest
villages, and it was regulated, that the light, first, and
third divisions, should alternately take the duties of
 the siege, each remaining four-and-twenty hours on
the ground.
Ciudad Ciudad Rodrigo stands in the middle of a plain
Rodrigo. some sixteen miles in circumference, surrounded by
hills, which rise gradually, ridge behind ridge above
each other on every side, far as the eye can reach.
From those heights, at a distance of ten or twelve
miles, the movement of the British army might be
perceived; but the enemy seem at this time to have
exercised no vigilance, and voluntary information was
never given them by the Spaniards. The city is on a
rising ground, on the right bank of the Agueda, which
in that part of its course forms many little islets. The
citadel standing on a high mount has been likened,
for its situation, to Windsor Castle. The works were
old, and in many respects faulty; and the suburbs,
which are about three hundred yards from the town
on the west, had no other defence, at the time of the
former siege, than a bad earthen intrenchment hastily
thrown up; but the French had made strong posts of
three convents, one in the centre of the suburbs, and
one on either flank; and they had converted another
convent just beyond the glacis on the north-west
angle of the place into an infantry post. Being thus
supported, the works of the suburbs, bad as they
Colonel Jones’s were, were thought fully capable of resisting a coup
Journal of the de main. The ground is every where flat and rocky
siege, pp. 82– except on the north, where there are two pieces of
3. rising ground, one at the distance of six hundred
yards from the works, being about thirteen feet higher
than the ramparts, the other at less than a third of
that distance, nearly on a level with them: the soil
here is very stony, and in the winter season water
rises at the depth of half a foot below the surface.
The enemy had provided against an attack on this
 side, by erecting a redoubt upon the higher ground,
which was supported by two guns, and a howitzer in
battery on the fortified convent of S. Francisco at four
hundred yards distance; and a large proportion of the
artillery of the place was in battery to fire upon the
approach from the hill.
On this side, however, it was deemed advisable to
make the attack, because of the difficulty of cutting
trenches in a rocky soil, and the fear of delay in
winning the suburbs, ... the garrison being sure of
relief if they could gain even but a little time. On this
side, too, it was known, by Massena’s attack, that the
walls might be breached at a distance from the glacis;
whereas, on the east and south it was doubtful,
because of a fall in the ground, whether this could be
done without erecting batteries on the glacis: but here
a small ravine at the foot of the glacis and its
consequent steepness, would conceal the workmen
during their operations for blowing in the
Colonel Jones’s counterscarp, a circumstance which had great weight
Journal, 84. in forming the plan of an attack, where not a single
officer had ever seen such an operation performed.
Time was of such importance, and such
preparations had been made before the army moved
from its quarters, that ground was broken on the very
night of the investment. At nine that night, a
A redoubt detachment under Lieutenant Colbourne of the 52nd
carried. attacked the redoubt on the upper teson or hill.
Lieutenant Thomson (of the Royal engineers)
preceded the detachment with a party of men
carrying ladders, fascines, axes, &c.: he found the
palisades to be within three feet of the counterscarp,
and nearly of the same height: fascines were
immediately laid from the one to the other, by which,
as by a bridge, part of the storming party walked over.
When they came to the escarpe, which was not
revêted, the men scrambled up, some of them
sticking their bayonets into the sods, and so entered
the work; while another party went round to the
gorge, where there was no ditch, and forced the gate.
Only four of the garrison escaped into the town, and
only three were killed; two officers and forty-three
men were made prisoners; the loss of the assailants
was six men killed, three officers and sixteen men
wounded. A lodgment was then made on the hill near
the redoubt, and with little loss, because the enemy
directed their fire chiefly into the work; and a
communication was opened to it.
The siege was carried on with extraordinary vigour;
and Lord Wellington calculating upon intelligence
which he received, that Marmont would advance to
relieve the place even before the rapid plan of
operations on which he had determined could be
carried through, resolved to form a breach, if possible,
from the first batteries, and storm the place with the
counterscarp entire, if he could not wait until it should
be blown up. The weather increased the difficulties of
the undertaking: while the frost continued, men could
not work through the night; and when it broke, they
who were employed in the sap worked day and night
up to their knees in water, under the declivity of a hill
down which the rain had poured. Of 250 mules
attached to the light division, fifty died in conveying
ammunition to the breaches, ... destroyed by being
overworked, and by want of needful rest and
sufficient food. The garrison were encouraged, not
only by the confident expectation of relief, (for they
knew Marmont was strong enough to effect it, and
could not suppose that, for want of foresight, he had
disabled himself for attempting it in time,) but also by
 the failure of the allies at Badajoz, and the inferiority
of our engineering department. They omitted no
means of defence, and neglected no opportunity
which presented itself. On the night, between the
Convent of 13th and 14th, the convent of Santa Cruz, in which
Santa Cruz they kept a strong guard, was attacked and taken.
taken. From the steeple of the cathedral which commanded
the plain, and where there was always an officer on
the look-out, they noticed a careless custom, that
when the division to be relieved saw the relieving
division advancing, the guards and workmen were
withdrawn from the trenches to meet it; sore
weariness and pinching cold were present and
pressing evils, which made them overlook the danger
of leaving the works unguarded at such intervals.
Profiting by this, some 500 men made a sortie at the
right point of time, upset most of the gabions which
during the preceding night had been placed in
advance of the first parallel, penetrated some of them
January 14. into the right of that parallel, and would have pushed
into the batteries and spiked the guns, had it not
been for the steady conduct of a few workmen, whom
an officer of engineers collected into a body; on the
approach of part of the first division, they retired into
the town.
Captain Ross Captain Ross of the engineers, one of the directors,
killed. was killed by a chain shot from St. Francisco’s: he was
brother to that excellent officer who afterward fell at
Baltimore, and was himself a man of great
professional promise, uniting with military talents, a
suavity of manners, and a gentleness of disposition,
especially to be prized in a profession where humanity
is so greatly needed. His friend and comrade,
Lieutenant Skelton, was killed at the same time, and
buried with him, in the same grave, in a little retired
 valley, not far from the spot where they fell. Colonel
(then Captain) Jones, (to whose history of the war,
and more especially, to whose Journal of the Sieges
this work is greatly indebted,) placed a small pedestal
with an inscription to mark the grave, and with
prudent as well as christian feeling, surmounted it
with a cross. That humble monument has, because of
its christian symbol, been respected; ... Spaniards
have been seen kneeling there, and none pass it
without uncovering their heads.
A howitzer placed in the garden of St. Francisco’s
convent so as to enfilade one of the batteries, had
caused many casualties and impeded the progress of
the work. The convent also looked into the rear of the
second parallel. Two guns which were opened upon
this edifice on the 14th, at the same time that twenty-
five were opened against the walls of the place, did
not drive the enemy from their advantageous post; a
party, therefore, of the 40th regiment was ordered to
force into it at dusk, and as soon as they had
St. Francisco’s escaladed the outer wall, the French, leaving their
taken and the artillery, retired into the town, not from the convent
suburbs. only, but from the suburbs, which were immediately
occupied by the 40th.
The batteries had injured the wall so much on the
second day, as to give hopes of speedily bringing it
down. A fog compelled them to cease firing on the
16th; the engineers took advantage of the cover
which the fog afforded them, and placed fifty gabions
in prolongation of the second parallel. That parallel
was pushed to its proper extent on the left in the
course of the night, and the lower teson crowned by
it. The sappers also broke out the head of the sap:
but they could do nothing on the hill, and but little in
the sap, because of their inexperience, and because
 the enemy’s artillery knocked over their gabions,
Col. Jones’s nearly as fast as they could be replaced. Yet, the
Journal of assistance which the engineers derived from the men
Sieges, 102. of the third division, who had been instructed in
sapping during the summer, was invaluable, and
enabled them to push the approaches three hundred
yards nearer than at the attack of Badajoz, under a
much heavier fire. An unusual length of time was
nevertheless required for throwing up the batteries,
owing to the small front of the work, against which
the enemy directed an incessant fire of shell; they
fired during the siege 11,000 shells and nearly 10,000
shot upon the approaches: their practice was
remarkably accurate, and not one shot was fired at
them in return. “It was not unfrequent to have three
or four large shells in the course of an hour explode in
the middle of the parapet of a battery, each having
Col. Jones’s the effect of a small mine, and scattering the earth in
Journal of every direction. In consequence of this dire
Sieges, 103. destruction, the parapets were of necessity made of a
great thickness.” But on the other hand, a confidence
was felt both by the officers and men, which they had
not partaken at either of the former sieges; the
officers had sufficient means at their disposal, and the
men seemed, to perceive that the operations were
differently conducted. The artillery was excellent, as
well as ample in quantity, and its effect was materially
improved by a circumstance in which accident
corrected an actual defect of science. There happened
to be a considerable quantity of shot in the fortress at
Almeida, and of all calibres; when there was such
want of transport for bringing shot from the rear, it
became of great importance to take as many of these
as could be made serviceable: shot of a larger size
than what are commonly employed were thus
accidentally brought into use, and some 2000 or 3000
 of what are termed very high shot were brought
Sir H. Dickson, forward during the latter days of the siege. The
in Sir Howard consequence was, that because the windage was thus
Douglas’s diminished, the firing became so singularly correct,
Treatise on that every shot seemed to tell on the same part of the
Naval Gunnery,
wall as the preceding one; whereas, when shot of the
p. 84.
ordinary size were fired at the same distance, some
struck high and others low, although the pointing was
carefully the same.
On the 17th, a breach had been made, and the
guard in the second parallel kept up a continued fire
through the night, to prevent the garrison from
clearing it. At daylight following, a battery of seven
twenty-four pounders opened upon an old tower; and
next day when this tower had nearly been brought
down, and the main breach appeared practicable,
Jan. 19. Lord Wellington, after a close reconnoissance,
resolved upon giving the assault at seven o’clock that
evening. The enemy were perfectly prepared; they
had constructed intrenchments on the ramparts near
the breach, by means of cuts through the terre-plein,
perpendicular to the parapet, with a breast-work in
rear of them, to enfilade and rake the whole: so that
if the assailants gained the summit of the breach,
their alternative must be either to force the
intrenchments, or get down a wall sixteen feet in
depth, at the bottom of which impediments of every
kind had been arrayed.
The place At dusk the columns of attack were formed, and
taken by they moved forward at the rising of the moon: 150
assault. sappers, under the direction of Captains M’Leod and
Thomson, royal engineers, and Captain Thompson of
the 74th, advanced from the second parallel to the
edge of the ditch, each man carrying two bags filled
with hay, which they threw into the ditch, reducing its
 depth thus from nearly fourteen feet to eight. Major-
General Mackinnon followed close with his brigade,
consisting of the 45th, 74th, and 88th, ... the men
jumped into the ditch upon the bags; the enemy,
though not yet wanting in heart, wanted the coolness
of deliberate courage: they had accumulated shells
and combustibles upon the breach, and at the foot of
it, but they fired them too soon, so that the
tremendous discharge was mostly spent before the
troops reached their point of action. Ladders were
instantly fixed upon the bags; they were not sufficient
in number, the breach being wide enough for a
hundred men abreast; but the short delay that this
occasioned produced no evil, for the 5th arrived from
the right to take part in the assault, and their eventual
success was facilitated by the speedier progress of the
light division on the left. That division moved
simultaneously with Mackinnon’s column from behind
Craufurd the convent of St. Francisco against the little breach,
mortally under a heavy fire of musketry from the ramparts, by
wounded. which Major-General Craufurd, who commanded, and
was considerably in front, animating his men and
leading them on, was mortally wounded. The
counterscarp here was not so deep, the breach was
not obstinately defended, and no interior defence had
been prepared, so that the assailants carried it
without much difficulty, and began to form on the
ramparts. Meantime Major-General Mackinnon’s
brigade, aided by the 5th, after a short but severe
struggle gained the summit of the great breach.
Giving up the breach, where first one mine was
sprung and then a smaller, though neither with much
effect, the enemy retired behind a retrenchment,
where they stood their ground resolutely, and a
severe contest ensued. But Brigadier-General Pack,
who had been ordered with his brigade to make a
 false attack upon the southern face of the fort,
converted it into a real one; and his advanced guard
under Major Lynch, following the enemy’s troops from
the advanced works into the fausse braye, made
prisoners of all opposed to them: and while the
garrison was thus disheartened on one side, the
success of the light division on the other took from
them all hope as soon as it was known; they gave
way at once, and the retrenchment was carried. The
brigade then dividing to the right and left, General
Mackinnon said to Ensign Beresford, “Come,
Beresford, you are a fine lad, we will go together!” ...
these were the last words which he was heard to
utter, for presently some powder exploded; Beresford
was blown up, but fell without much injury into the
Mackinnon arms of Mackinnon’s aide-de-camp Captain Call.
killed. Mackinnon himself was among the many brave men
killed by the explosion, and in him the nation lost an
officer of the highest promise in the British army.
The enemy were now driven at the point of the
bayonet into the great square, and were pursued from
house to house, till they threw down their arms and
called for quarter; and this was granted them, in the
first heat of the onslaught, when, as they afterwards
confessed, judging from what they themselves would
have done, they expected nothing else than to be
massacred. The place was won about nine at night:
the troops, British and Portugueze, spread themselves
all over the town, and got at the stores; but
fortunately a guard was placed in time over the spirit-
magazine, in which fifty pipes of good cogniac were
found: had the men got at these, the amount of
deaths would have been increased. It was a scene of
wild disorder till daylight. The night was miserably
cold, and the men crowded into the ruined houses to
 make fires: these rotten edifices soon caught the
flames, and the conflagration became dreadful. Very
little booty was to be gained in a town which the
French had sacked, and which, indeed, had been
deserted before they occupied it upon their conquest;
what the men found was wholesome as well as
welcome after their late hard fare, and they were
seen each carrying three or four loaves stuck upon his
bayonet. The enemy had pulled down many of the
houses for firewood, and those which were nearest
the ramparts had been demolished by our guns,
though especial care had been taken to spare the
town by battering it only in breach.
The governor, General Banier, was made prisoner,
with seventy-eight officers and 1700 soldiers. Great
quantities of ammunition and stores were found, a
well-filled armoury, and an arsenal abundantly
supplied; 109 pieces of ordnance mounted on the
ramparts; and moreover, the battering-train of
Marmont’s army, consisting of forty-four guns with
their carriages. The loss of the allies consisted of
three officers and seventy-seven men killed, twenty-
four wounded and 500 during the siege; six officers
General and 140 men killed, sixty and 500 wounded, in
Craufurd. storming the breaches. Craufurd’s wound, though
severe, was not thought dangerous, but it proved
fatal on the fifth day. He had entered the army at the
age of fifteen, and in the course of two-and-thirty
years few officers had seen so much or such varied
service. Early in life his abilities and professional zeal
were noticed by his then colonel, Sir Charles Stuart,
than whom no man was better qualified to appreciate
them. During peace he pursued the study of his
profession in all its branches upon the continent for
three years, then went to India, and there
 distinguished himself in two campaigns under Lord
Cornwallis. He was employed on a military mission
with the Austrian armies during the years 1795, 1796,
and 1797, and again in 1799; was made prisoner in
the ill-planned and not more happily executed
expedition against Buenos Ayres; and afterwards
commanded the light division of Sir John Moore’s
army in Spain. With that miserable retreat his course
of ill fortune terminated. He joined Sir Arthur
Wellesley the day after the battle of Talavera;
sustained a severe attack from very superior numbers
and in a perilous position upon the Coa; signalized
himself at Busaco; rejoined his division after a short
absence, when the troops were drawn up for action at
Fuentes d’Onoro, and was saluted by them with three
cheers in presence of the enemy. “I cannot report his
death,” said Lord Wellington in his dispatch, “without
expressing my sorrow and regret that his Majesty has
been deprived of the services, and I of the assistance
of an officer of tried talents and experience, who was
an ornament to his profession, and was calculated to
render the most important services to his country.” He
was buried with all military honours in the breach
before which he received his mortal wound.
General Mackinnon also had been interred in the breach
Mackinnon. which he had won; but this was done hastily, by some
pioneers under General Picton’s orders, and the
officers of the Coldstream guards, in which regiment
he had long served, removed his body to Espeja, and
there deposited it with due honours. In Craufurd the
army lost one of its most experienced officers; in
Mackinnon one of the greatest promise, in whom
were united all the personal accomplishments,
intellectual endowments, and moral virtues which in
their union constitute the character of a perfect
soldier. He was one of those men whom the dreadful
discipline of war renders only more considerate for
others, more regardless of themselves, more alive to
the sentiments and duties of humanity. He was born
near Winchester in 1773, but his father was chief of a
numerous clan in the Hebrides. His military education
was commenced in France, his family having removed
to Dauphiny because of his elder brother’s state of
health; and Buonaparte, then a military student, was
a frequent visitor at their house. It is one of the
redeeming parts of Buonaparte’s character, that he
never forgot his attachment to that family; that during
the peace of Amiens he invited them to France, where
they might receive proofs of it; and that when he
heard of General Mackinnon’s death, he manifested
some emotion. He entered the army in his 15th year,
served three years as a subaltern in the 43rd, was
employed at the commencement of the war in raising
an independent company, and then exchanged into
the Coldstream guards. During the Irish rebellion, he
was attached to the staff as major of brigade to Sir
George Nugent; and distinguishing himself greatly in
that horrible service, was distinguished also for his
humanity. He was in the expedition to the Helder,
volunteered to Egypt, and was at the siege of
Copenhagen. In 1809 he joined the army in Portugal,
was at the passage of the Douro, and had two horses
killed under him at Talavera; how ably he conducted
himself when left in the charge of the wounded after
that action has been related in its proper place. At
Busaco he displayed so much skill and promptitude,
that Sir Arthur, immediately after the battle, returned
him thanks in person. He distinguished himself also on
many occasions during Massena’s retreat, and led that
last charge against the French at Fuentes d’Onoro
which drove them finally from the ground. The
 unwholesome heat in the vicinity of Badajoz induced
some recurrence of a disease with which he had been
attacked in Egypt, and he returned for a few weeks to
England there to recruit his health. In 1804 he had
married a daughter of Sir John Call: she planted in his
garden a laurel for every action in which her husband
was engaged; and when in his last visit she took him
into the walk where they were flourishing, he said to
her, that she would one day have to plant a cypress at
the end. Perhaps this country has never sustained so
great a loss since the death of Sir Philip Sidney.

Marmont’s Without delay the approaches were destroyed and

movements the works repaired. On the 27th the place had been
during the again rendered defensible. Marmont was at Toledo
siege. when he received the first tidings of its investment.
Hastening to Valladolid, he stated in his dispatches to
France on the 16th, that he had collected five
divisions for the purpose of throwing supplies into
Ciudad Rodrigo, but finding that force inadequate, he
had been fain to recall two divisions from the army of
the north: with these he should have 60,000 men,
and events might then be looked for as momentous in
their results as they would be glorious for the French
arms. Massena had been a month in reducing that
fortress; the calculation was, that it might hold out
against a regular siege, to which there should be no
interruption from without, four or five-and-twenty
days; Marmont expected to be in good time if he
came to its relief on the 29th; ... but his army was not
collected at Salamanca till the 24th; and when he
announced to his own government the loss of the
place, in which he said there was something so
incomprehensible that he would not allow himself to
make any observation upon it, it was too late to make
any movement for its recovery. The weather, which
 had so often been unfavourable to the allies, favoured
them on this occasion; heavy rains, which cut off their
communications, and which would have rendered it
impossible to fill in the trenches and close the
breaches, did not commence till four days after the
place had been rendered secure against a sudden
attack; and Marmont, whose battering-train had been
captured with it, could attempt nothing more.
Castaños was present at the siege, and to him as
Captain-General of that province the place was given
up. Before its capture, the Alcaldes of 230 pueblos
had repaired to his head-quarters, to testify their own
fidelity and that of their respective communities. Lord
Wellington bore testimony in his dispatches as well to
the loyalty and general good-will of the Spaniards in
those parts, as to the assistance he had derived from
Brigadier Alava; and from Julian Sanchez and D.
Carlos de España, who with their two bands had
watched the enemy on the other side the Tormes. A
thanksgiving-service for the reconquest was
performed with all solemnity at Cadiz; and the Cortes,
in conformity with the proposal of the Regency,
Lord Wellington conferred upon Lord Wellington the rank of a Grandee
made Duque of the first class, and the title of Duque de Ciudad
de Ciudad Rodrigo. The tidings could not have been more
Rodrigo. unexpected by Buonaparte himself, than it was by the
opponents of administration in England. At the
commencement of the session, they, in their old tone
of dismay, had repeated their denunciations of
discomfiture and utter failure: ministers were again
arraigned by them for their obstinate blindness, ... for
their wanton waste of money and of the public
strength, and for persisting in flattering and fallacious
language when they had brought the nation to the
very brink of ruin! Sir Francis Burdett said, that
Speeches of Sir whatever had been done by England for the rights of
F. Burdett and the King of Spain (who had resigned his whole
Mr. Whitbread. pretensions to Buonaparte), nothing had been done
for the Spanish people; that even if the cause of Spain
had been honourably undertaken by the British
government, it had now become perfectly hopeless;
our victories were altogether barren, and the French
were making regular and rapid strides towards the
subjugation of the Peninsula: but these evils, he said,
arose from the system of corruption which an
oligarchy of boroughmongers had established; and as
things now were, the progress of France was more
favourable to liberty than the success of England
would be! With more curious infelicity in his croakings,
Mr. Whitbread observed, that Lord Wellington after
pursuing Massena to the frontiers had been obliged to
fall back; that his attempt upon Ciudad Rodrigo had
proved abortive; that every thing which we could do
for Spain had already been done; and though the first
general of the age and the bravest troops in the world
had been sent to her assistance, nothing had been
accomplished, and, in short, the French were in
military possession of Spain. A month had not elapsed
Vote of thanks after the delivery of these opinions, before the thanks
to Lord of Parliament were voted to Lord Wellington for the
Wellington. He recovery of Ciudad Rodrigo, he was created an Earl of
is created an the United Kingdom, and an additional annuity of
Earl.
2000l. granted to him in consideration of his signal
services. In the course of the debate, Mr. Canning
took occasion to state that a revenue of 5000l. a year
had been granted to Lord Wellington by the
Portugueze government when they conferred upon
him the title of Conde de Vimeiro; that as Captain-
General of Spain, 5000l. a year had been offered him,
and 7000l. as Marshal in the Portugueze service; all
which he had declined, saying, he would receive
 nothing from Spain and Portugal in their present
state; he had only done his duty to his country, and to
his country alone he would look for reward.
Preparations The Earl of Wellington was already preparing for a
for the siege of more arduous siege. Eighteen 24-pounders had been
Badajoz. reserved at Lisbon for this service, when the
battering-train intended for Ciudad Rodrigo was sent
from the Tagus to the Douro. These, with some iron
guns which the Russian fleet had left there, and with
the engineers’ stores, were embarked at Lisbon in
large vessels, as if for some remote destination, then
transhipped at sea into smaller craft, and conveyed up
the Sadam to Alcacere do Sal. Fascines and gabions
were prepared at Elvas. The line of supply was
changed from the Douro to the Tagus; and as the
Beira frontier must for awhile be left open to the
enemy’s incursions, directions were given for forming
a temporary depôt at Celorico, the nearest point
where it could be deemed safe, and a grand magazine
beyond the Douro. Ciudad Rodrigo was in some
degree provisioned, as well as rendered thoroughly
defensible against any attack that the French had
means of making; and the troops were then put in
motion, glad to remove from an exhausted country,
where the labour of procuring forage amounted to
constant occupation for the cavalry, none being to be
found except the straw which the peasants had
reserved and endeavoured to conceal, as the only
subsistence left for their remaining cattle. Corn was so
scarce that the very few officers who could afford
such an expenditure paid the enormous price of
fourteen dollars the fanega for it, in prudence, as well
as in mercy to their beasts; and the owner, loading his
horse with his own precious provender, performed the
march himself on foot. One division of infantry
 remained on the Agueda, covered by a few cavalry
posts. The main body proceeding by rapid marches to
the Tagus crossed it, some at Abrantes, some at Villa
Velha. Lord Wellington having completed his
arrangements at Ciudad Rodrigo, and given it finally
over to the Spaniards, set out for Alemtejo on the 5th
of March, and on the 11th his head-quarters were
fixed at Elvas. On the 16th, the preparations being
completed, a pontoon bridge was thrown across the
Guadiana about a league below Badajoz; and the
light, 3rd, and 4th divisions, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Barnard, Generals Picton and Colville, crossed and
invested the place without opposition. General
Graham, with the 1st, 6th, and 7th divisions of
infantry, and Generals Slade and Le Marchant’s
brigades of cavalry, advanced to Los Santos, Zafra,
and Llerena, to oppose any movements on the part of
Marshal Soult; while Sir Rowland Hill with the 2nd
division, General Hamilton’s Portugueze division, and a
brigade of cavalry, moved from their cantonments
near Alburquerque to Merida and Almendralejo, thus
interposing between Soult and Marmont, if the latter
should march from Salamanca with the intention of
forming a junction as in the preceding year.
Preparations The governor, G. Baron Philippon, had obtained
for its defence. intelligence from his spies of the preparations which
were making at Elvas, and had apprised Soult
accordingly that there was probably an intention of
again besieging Badajoz; but it was not till the day
before Lord Wellington arrived at Elvas that he knew a
battering-train had been collected there, and that the
allies were concentrating their forces near the
Alemtejo frontier. He had before this applied for a
supply of powder and shells, a convoy of which was
twice sent from Seville, and twice by Sir Rowland Hill’s
movements forced to put back, though the Comte
d’Erlon, General Drouet, had been charged to protect
it. The place had been greatly strengthened since the
last unsuccessful siege, especially on the side which
had then been attacked. Upon the spot where the
allies had planted their breaching-battery against Fort
St. Christoval, a lunette had been constructed by
Marshal Soult’s orders: its ditches were cut in the rock
to the depth of 14½ feet below the Berme: a powder-
magazine and a bomb-proof for fifty men had been
constructed there, and every means taken for
securing it against a coup-de-main. The Tête-de-Pont
also had been strengthened, and its communication
with Fort St. Christoval repaired, so that on that side
the place presented a most formidable appearance.
The Pardaleras too had been repaired and
strengthened, and magazines established in the
castle, into which, and into the citadel, it was the
governor’s intention to retire if the place should be
rendered no longer tenable. The enemy had also
formed galleries and trenches at each salient of the
counterscarp in front of what they supposed would be
the point of attack, that they might form mines under
the breaching-batteries, and afterwards sink shafts for
other mines, whereby to destroy the works in
proportion as the assailants should gain them, and
thus leave only a heap of ruins if the place should be
taken. No foresight indeed had been wanting on the
governor’s part. The peasantry having taken flight at
the first siege and left their lands uncultivated, he had
given directions for ploughing them with the oxen
which were intended for slaughter, and they were
sown by the soldiers within a circle of 3,000 yards:
the kitchen gardens had also been distributed among
the different corps and the officers of the staff, and in
these they had a valuable resource. Wood was
 wanting for blinds and for palisades, for these had
been almost wholly destroyed during the former
siege: they had no means of transport for it, and it
could only have been procured from a dangerous
distance: to make charcoal, they were fain to dig up
the root of olive-trees which had been burnt. A
convoy of some threescore mules laden with flour
arrived a few days before the investment, when the
garrison had about five weeks’ provisions in store.
The miserable townspeople were worse provided:
most of those who could remove without exposing
themselves to extreme distress had left the city before
it was first attacked; others forsook it now, who had
experienced the horrors of two former sieges, ... old
men, women, and children, carrying what little had
been left them, were on the road in every direction,
flying from a renewal of these horrors. The population
was reduced from 16,000 to little more than a fourth
of that number, who thought better to abide the worst
where they had a place wherein to lay their heads,
than to perish as wanderers.
Though the allied army had now no want of means
as in the former siege, they had no miners, nor was
there any person there who had ever seen such duty
performed; the sappers too had had very little
experience. The only course which could be pursued
was to batter from a distance the Trinidad bastion
where the counterguard in its front had not been
finished: this could be done from the hill on which the
Picurina redoubt stands; and that redoubt must be
carried and connected with the first parallel. The plan
was so hazardous, and so little according to rule, that
Colonel Jones’s “it never was for a moment approved by any one
Journals, 298. employed in drawing it up, or in the execution of it.”
No one doubted its success more than Lord
 Wellington himself; but it was deemed necessary to
reduce Badajoz, and there was no chance of reducing
it by any other course.
Siege of On the night of the 16th the besiegers broke
Badajoz. ground during a storm of wind, with heavy and
uninterrupted rain. It was so dark that nothing could
be seen by the enemy, and the tempest prevented
them from hearing the working parties, who under
these favourable circumstances were not discovered
till daylight, although only 160 yards from the covered
way of the fort. The ensuing night also was well
employed. The weather continued so rainy that the
trenches were knee-deep in mud and water. Had the
soil been heavier, it would not have been possible to
bring up the heavy artillery; manual assistance, as
well as sixteen bullocks, being required to draw along
each piece. It was a severe service for the three
divisions, who had to go through more than double
the work which had occupied four at Ciudad Rodrigo;
and their tents were far from being proof against such
rain. On the 18th the garrison made a sally with 1500
infantry and forty horse: they formed unobserved in
the communication from the lunette S. Roque to the
Picurina, then pushed forward, and were in the
parallel before the workmen could stand to their
arms; at the same moment the cavalry came round
the right flank of the parallel at a hand gallop, and
were presently in the depôts, a thousand yards in the
rear of the trenches. There they made great confusion
among the unarmed men, but retired on the
appearance of troops before they could destroy any
thing. They took two or three officers prisoners, tied
them to their saddles, and cantered off with them
some hundred yards, but on their falling from fatigue
let them go. The infantry meantime filled in a small
part of the parallel before the coverers came to the
relief of the working parties: they were then driven
back in great confusion, carrying off about 200
intrenching tools. But this sortie cost the allies about
150 men in killed and wounded; the commanding
engineer, Lieutenant-Colonel Fletcher, being among
the latter.
The weather, which had at first covered the
operations of the allies, continued now so rainy as to
impede them: the trenches were filled with water, and
there was no possibility of draining them, the ground
being a dead level; it was necessary to empty them
and make an artificial bottom of fascines. On the 21st
the enemy advanced two field-pieces on the right of
the Guadiana to enfilade the parallel: such an
intention having been apprehended on the preceding
day, the parallel had been thrown back during the
night; these guns, therefore, did little mischief, and
they were compelled to withdraw them by a few
riflemen posted on the banks of the river. But on the
following night they threw up cover for three field-
pieces there, brought them out soon after daybreak,
and kept up a very destructive fire throughout the
day, their shot pitching into the parallel at a range of
1400 yards. The inconvenience of having left the
place open on that side was then felt, and the 5th
division was ordered from Campo-mayor to invest it.
That evening the trenches were again filled by one of
those showers in which the rain seems rather to pour
down in streams than to fall in drops: the pontoon
bridge was carried away by the rise of the Guadiana,
and the current of that river became so rapid that the
flying bridges could with difficulty work: it became
doubtful, therefore, whether the army could be
supplied with provisions, and whether guns and
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