the castle and the town was very favorable to the enemy in their retreat; numerous small houses, walls, and hedges, affording them shelter, and enabling them to keep up a galling and incessant fire on their assailants, many of whom were killed and wounded. Among the latter were Captains Lake and Collier, the former of whom received a musket-ball in his right arm. The British, however, succeeded in gaining the height immediately above the town, from which a large body of troops was seen to issue and form a junction with the garrison of the castle. The Guerillas of Campillo being at this time much dispersed, and no appearance of Porlier’s division, which, according to the original plan, was to have attacked Santander on the land side, Captain Lake was compelled to order a retrograde movement, which he had no sooner done, than a second wound (in the head) deprived him for a time of his senses; and in that state he was conveyed towards the beach, the men under his orders retiring to the castle, where the British colours had previously been hoisted.
Notwithstanding this failure, the enemy’s troops were soon after compelled to evacuate Santander, and otherwise considerably annoyed, as appears by an intercepted letter from their commander, Caffarelli, in answer to an order he had received to join Marshal Marmont, wherein he stated, that a British armament being on the coast, he could not detach a single man; indeed, some troops, whom he had already sent, were recalled on the appearance of the squadron, the operations of which were acknowledged by Lord Wellington to have greatly assisted the movements of his army[1].
The severe wounds received by Captain Lake, deprived the country of his services for a period of four months, during which the Magnificent was commanded pro tempore by Captain John Hayes. On his return to that ship, he joined the Channel fleet, and continued under the orders of Lord Keith until the termination of the war in Europe, some time previous to which he captured an American letter of marque, pierced for 18 guns, from Concarneau bound to Charlestown.
- ↑ At the period alluded to above (Aug. 1812,) Lord Wellington’s headquarters were at Cuellar, and M. Marmont retreating from the neighbourhood of Valladolid, which place he had been compelled to abandon, leaving behind him 4,000 sick and wounded, together with a large quantity of stores, ammunition, &c.
