Читать книгу The Story of a Peninsular Veteran. Sergeant in the Forty-Third Light Infantry, during the Peninsular War онлайн

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After the army had made good its landing, which was effected without opposition, one of the first acts of our commander was to issue a proclamation, in which he announced the object of the expedition, lamented the necessity of the cause of it, and expressed a hope that the Danish fleet, then at anchor in the roads, would be surrendered without bloodshed; at the same time declaring, that if it were not given up, force would be used to secure it; in which event, he argued, the innocent blood unavoidably shed would be chargeable on those who advised resistance to a measure dictated by imperious necessity. To this specimen of military logic, rendered so conclusive by the force of arms, the Danes deigned no reply. The government resolved to defend the capital, and thus convince the world that the country intended to maintain its honour and property against the assailants, whether they came from the Thames or the Seine, and show the fallacy of the reasoning upon which the British ministry founded the expediency of their present extraordinary measure. Paper contentions and the rivalry of manifestoes were therefore relinquished; and as neither party chose to recede, negotiation was succeeded by the rude appeal to arms.