Volume 3 > Half-Volume 5

39
doubt that the greater number of these had been occa-
sioned by the drunken brutality of our own soldiers.
After he had taken an account of the cases both
within and without the walls, and made arrange-
ments for their treatment, he entered the tent of
Wellington with his report, and found his lordship
writing the despatches. At such a favourable moment
the doctor ventured to plead in behalf of the medical
staff: "I trust, my lord, you are satisfied that the
medical officers during last night did their duty, as
well as the military officers, and that you will receive
my testimony that they discharged their arduous and
laborious duties most zealously, and often under cir-
cumstances of personal danger of which they were
regardless." "I have myself witnessed it," replied
the general. M'Grigor then said to him, "Nothing
could more gratify those officers, nothing could be a
greater incentive to their exertions on future occa-
sions, than his noticing them in his public de-
spatches." "Is that usual?" asked Wellington.
The doctor, without directly answering the question,
said, "It would be of the most essential service;"
and ventured to add, "that really their extraordinary
exertions gave them in justice a claim to this." Wel-
lington rejoined, "I have finished my despatches�
but, very well, I will add something about the
doctors." This he amply and honourably did, and
when the gazette appeared the medical officers of
the army in England were delighted to find that the
merits of their brethren were publicly recognized and
acknowledged as well as those of the military officers.
It was the first time this had been done, and ever
since the example has been followed both in the
army and navy.
Although the toils of the military officers are suc-
ceeded after victory by rest and enjoyment, there is
no such intermission for the medical department of
an army; and their labours, which were great both
before and during the siege of Badajoz, were multi-
plied tenfold after the town was taken. Even the
wreck and ruin produced by success is frightful, and
the wounds of the victor are often of deadly character.
Having gathered up the surviving relics of the storm-
ing of Badajoz, and seen them properly accommo-
dated and placed in the way of recovery�for which
purpose every church, monastery, convent, and public
building at Badajoz and Elvas had to be converted
into an hospital�M'Grigor followed the movements
of the commander-in-chief. He was present at the
battle of Salamanca, after which his labours were so
arduous that he was obliged to remain there until
he was recalled by positive orders to head-quarters.
On his way he found many of the sick and wounded
of our army, both officers and soldiers, who were
not only without medicines and medical attendance,
but without food; and as they were sinking fast under
their privations, he wrote to Salamanca for a supply
of medical and purveying officers, and also a supply
of provisions to each of the places he had visited.
On arriving at Madrid, which was the head-quarters
for the time, he waited upon Lord Wellington, who
was then in the act of sitting for his portrait by a
Spanish artist, and to whom he gave a detail of the
state of the wounded at Salamanca, and of those
whom he had visited on his way to the Spanish
capital. "But when I came," adds the doctor, "to
inform him that for their relief I had ordered up
purveying and commissariat officers, he started up,
and in a violent manner reprobated what I had done.
It was to no purpose that I pleaded the number of
seriously ill and dying I had met with; and that
several men and some officers had died without ever
having been seen by a medical officer. I even al-
luded to what had formerly occurred at Talavera,
and to the clamour raised in England when it was
known that so many wounded and sick had been left
to the mercy of the enemy. All was in vain. His
lordship was in a passion, and the Spanish artist,
ignorant of the English language, looked aghast,
and at a loss to know what I had done to enrage
his lordship so much. 'I shall be glad to know,'
exclaimed his lordship, 'who is to command the
army? I or you? I establish one route, one line
of communication for the army; you establish
another, and order the commissariat and the supplies
by that line. As long as you live, sir, never do so
again; never do anything without my orders.' I
pleaded that 'there was no time to consult him to
save life.' He peremptorily desired me ' never again
to act without his orders.' Hereupon I was about
to take my leave, when, in a lower tone of voice, he
begged I would dine with him that day, and of
course I bowed assent."
After this fortune turned against the British arms,
and Lord Wellington was compelled to retreat from
Burgos, after unsuccessfully besieging it. Before he
had given orders for this dispiriting movement, he
sent for Dr. M'Grigor, to whom he communicated
the unpleasant intelligence, saying, that he must
leave the place on that very night; "but what," he
anxiously added, "is to become of our sick and
wounded?" The doctor's reply tranquillized him
in this matter. Seeing that his lordship was so
much troubled with the siege, he had of his own
accord enlisted every cart and mule that came with
provisions to the army, to carry off his sick and
wounded patients in return to the hospitals he had
established at Valladolid, so that only about sixty
would be left behind whose condition would not
bear removal. This relieved Wellington's anxiety,
and that evening the retreat was commenced. On
reaching Valladolid his lordship's disquietude about
the sick was removed, for the hospitals there had
lately contained 2000 patients whom he could neither
protect nor leave behind. But the doctor had used
the same provident care which he had exercised at
Burgos: he had again put every cart and mule in
requisition, and forwarded them to Salamanca, so
that not more than 100 soldiers and officers would
be left behind. "And you have made Salamanca
choke full? I cannot stop there." "No, they are
in movement from Salamanca on Ciudad Rodrigo,
and from that to the Pise hospital buildings which
we erected near the Douro, and move from thence
on Oporto, with instructions to the principal medical
officer there to have them in readiness for embarka-
tion should that be necessary." Thus while Lord
Wellington had been conducting the retreat of the
army, M 'Grigor had been providing for the more diffi-
cult retreat of the sick and helpless, and had con-
ducted it with such admirable foresight, that they were
placed in safety without encumbering the march of
the troops. During this interview Lord Wellington
was at a post on the bridge against which the enemy
kept a very heavy cannonade, and in the upper floor
of a small house which was riddled with shot. Hearing
that the sick and wounded were thus disposed of, he
exclaimed in a transport, "This is excellent! Now I
care not how soon we are off." It was now time for
M 'Grigor to justify these proceedings, which had been
undertaken on his own responsibility. "My lord,"
he said, "you recollect how much you blamed me at
Madrid for the steps which I took on coming up to
the army, when I could not consult your lordship, and
acted for myself as I had done." "It is all right as
it has turned out," replied Wellington; "but I re-
commend you still to have my orders for what you
do." When the army in its retreat had passed the