[193] Ibid., iv. 168.

[194] Ibid., iv. 59.

[195]The brigading was as follows:—1st Brigade (Hill), 5th, 9th, 38th; 2nd Brigade (Ferguson), 36th, 40th, 71st; 3rd Brigade (Nightingale), 29th, 82nd; 4th Brigade (Bowes), 6th, 32nd; 5th Brigade (C. Crawfurd), 50th, 91st; 6th Brigade (Fane), 45th, 5/60th, 2/95th. Before Vimiero the 45th and 50th changed places (see the narrative of Col. Leach of Fane’s Brigade). It is worth noting that six of these sixteen battalions, as also the 20th Light Dragoons, had just returned from the disheartening work of the Buenos Ayres expedition. They were the 5th, 36th, 38th, 40th, 45th, and 71st.

[196] Journal of a Soldier of the 71st Regiment (Edin. 1828), p. 47.

[197] Wellesley to Burrard, August 8 (Well. Disp., iv. 53).

[198] Napier, i. 197.

[199] According to the figures given by the Portuguese historian of the war, Da Luz Soriano, they stood as follows:—

A few troopers of the Lisbon Police Guard, forty-one in all, according to Soriano, deserted Junot and joined the army before Vimiero. Landsheit of the 20th Light Dragoons mentions their arrival, and says that they were put in company with his regiment. This would give 2,375 as the total of the Portuguese whom Trant commanded.

[200]Well. Disp. (iv. 78) says 1,400, but in his narrative of Roliça Sir Arthur accounts for 1,600, 1,200 in his right and 400 in his centre column. As a middle figure between Wellesley and Soriano, 2,000 would probably be safe.

[201] Their allies did not think much of their looks. Col. Leslie describes them thus: ‘The poor fellows had little or no uniform, but were merely in white jackets, and large broad-brimmed hats turned up at one side, some having feathers and others none, so that they cut rather a grotesque appearance’ (p. 40).

[202] Delaborde’s numbers at the combat of Roliça have been the cause of much controversy. Wellesley in one of his dispatches estimated them at as much as 6,000 men; the unveracious Thiébault would reduce them as low as 1,900. But it is possible to arrive at something like the real figures.

Delaborde brought out from Lisbon two battalions of the 70th, the 26th Chasseurs à Cheval, and five guns. Thomières joined him from Peniche with the 1st Provisional Light Infantry (a battalion each of the 2nd and 4th Léger) and with the 4th Swiss.

The numbers of these corps had been on July 15:—

But each of the four French corps had given its grenadier company as a contribution to the ‘Reserve Grenadier Battalions’ which Junot had organized. The battalions being on the old nine-company establishment (see Foy’s large table of the Armée d’Espagne, note d) we must deduct one-ninth of each, or about 500 men in all. We have also to allow for six companies of the 4th Swiss sent to garrison Peniche; not for the whole battalion, as Foy says in iv. 306, for there were Swiss in the fight of Roliça (Leslie’s Military Journal, p. 43), and at Vimiero in the official state of Junot’s army we find two companies of this corps with Brennier’s brigade. We must deduct, then, three-fourths of them from the force present with Delaborde, i.e. some 740 men. This leaves 4,276 men for the four and a quarter battalions under fire at Roliça. Of course Junot’s troops must have had a few men in hospital since July 15, the date of the return which we are using. But they cannot have been many. The 70th had been quiet in its quarters in Lisbon. The other three battalions had been in Loison’s Beira expedition, and had lost some men therein, but all before July 11. If we concede 300 sick on August 16, it is ample. We can allow therefore for 4,000 infantry, 250 cavalry, and some 100 gunners present with Delaborde, i.e. his total force must have been about 4,350 men—a number much closer to Wellesley’s 6,000 than to Thiébault’s 1,900; Foy, usually so accurate, is clearly wrong in bringing the figures down to 2,500 (iv. 310).

[203] The name of Lieutenant Bunbury, of the 2/95th, perhaps deserves remembrance as that of the first British officer killed in the Peninsular War.

[204] Foy, iv. 309.

[205] I cannot find the authority for Napier’s statement that Fane joined Ferguson in the second move. He seems still to have acted in the centre.

[206] Col. Leslie’s narrative, p. 43. The 4th Swiss was a very discontented corps; individuals of it had begun to desert to the British even before Roliça (Leach, p. 44), and a considerable number of them took service in the 60th Rifles after the Convention of Cintra, refusing to return to France.

[207] Well. Disp., iv. 83, 87.

[208] Foy says only one gun, but Wellesley, who had better opportunities of knowing, says that he took three (Well. Disp., iv. 83).

[209] Thiébault solemnly states our loss at 2,000 men! Mémoires, iv. 186.

[210] That corps lost no less than 190 officers and men, among whom were six officers taken prisoners.

[211] The 5th, 9th, 29th, 82nd, 5/60th, and four companies of the 2/95th, in all 4,635 men. They lost respectively 46, 72, 190, 25, 66, and 42 men, or 441 in all; while the rest of the army (ten British and four Portuguese battalions) only lost the remaining 38 of the total of 479 casualties suffered on the 17th, i.e. were not really engaged.

[212] As Foy well puts it, the idea was that ‘le Portugal était dans Lisbonne, et Lisbonne était à elle seule tout le Portugal’ (iv. 283).

[213] See his curious criticism on Junot, recorded by Thiébault in iv. 268, 269 of his Mémoires.

[214] For clearness it may be worth while to give the dislocation of Junot’s army on the day of the battle of Vimiero, adding the force of each unit on July 15, the last available return.

All the four cavalry regiments of Margaron’s division, 1,754 sabres, were present at Vimiero, save one troop of dragoons captured with Quesnel at Oporto.

[215] I cannot make out whether this was the 31st or the 32nd Léger. Foy and Thiébault omit to give the detail.

[216] Junot had created two of these regiments of grenadiers, each of two battalions. The second was at this moment with Loison.

[217] Junot’s numbers at Vimiero are as much disputed as Delaborde’s at Roliça. Among the French accounts the figures vary from 12,500 to 9,200. Foy, usually the most conscientious historian, gives 11,500; Thiébault, both in his narrative, published in 1816, and in his private Mémoires, descends to 9,200. Wellesley estimated the army that he had fought at 14,000 (Well. Disp., iv. 101).

It will be well to give the corps present, and to examine into their probable strength. Just before the landing of the British they had stood as follows (I have arranged them in their new brigading):—

This is not far from Wellesley’s estimate of 14,000 men.

[218] Anstruther’s Brigade from Ramsgate consisted of—

With them the 43rd and 52nd, so famous in many a Peninsular battle-field in the Light Division, made their appearance.

[219] Of Acland’s Brigade from Harwich there disembarked—

The ship that bore Colonel Ross and two and a half companies of the 20th had drifted so far off the shore that it did not succeed in getting its freight delivered till late on the twenty-first.

[220] It may be well to give Wellesley’s army at Vimiero:—

We have also to add the Portuguese of Trant, 2,000 or 2,100 men, making 18,800 for the whole force.

Napier’s estimate on p. 499 of vol. i. of his Peninsular War, is unfortunately quite inaccurate; he has—

(1) Omitted to deduct from each regiment the losses at Roliça, 474 in all.

(2) Counted the 50th Regiment twice. It had been moved from Catlin Crawfurd’s to Fane’s brigade the day after Roliça, in exchange for the 45th. Napier has inserted it, and counted it, in both places with its 945 men.

(3) Forgotten that Spencer’s artillery, 245 men, had been left behind for want of horses.

(4) Omitted (very excusably) to note that two and a half companies of the 20th Regiment were not ashore yet, having drifted away on a disabled transport, so that the regiment is given 135 too strong.

There is therefore a total excess of no less than 1,799 British troops. On the other hand, the Portuguese of Trant are probably understated by some 350 bayonets.

[221] Leach’s Sketches, p. 50. He was himself on the line of pickets, 200 strong, which held the wooded height from which Junot afterwards viewed the battle.

[222] Napier says that the news was brought ‘by a German officer of dragoons, who showed some consternation.’ This statement much offended the news-bearer Landsheit, a sergeant of the 20th Light Dragoons, not an officer. He has left his protest in his interesting autobiography, p. 264.

[223] Col. Leslie’s Military Journal, p. 52.

[224] Col. Leach’s Sketches, pp. 50, 51.

[225] Thiébault (iv. 188, 189) expresses (and with reason) his wonder that Junot mixed his divisions so hopelessly, and thinks that it would have been more rational to send Delaborde and his second brigade after Brennier, instead of breaking up Loison’s division by taking the supporting brigade from it.

[226] The best narrative of the fight on Vimiero Hill is that in General Anstruther’s ‘Journal,’ printed in the memoir attached to Wyld’s Atlas: Leach and Rifleman Harris give many interesting details.

[227] All this comes from the narrative, which I have already utilized in more than one place, of Sergeant Landsheit of the 20th.

[228] Taylor, like the heroic Blake, and like Graham the victor of Barossa, was one of Oxford’s few fighting men. Every visitor to Christ Church sees his memorial stone, stating how he had reformed and disciplined the regiment, when it came home a skeleton from the West Indies in 1805, and had practically to be raised anew. Since then it had been in the unfortunate expedition to Buenos Ayres.

[229] There is a good account of this charge in the anonymous ‘T.S.’ of the 71st, p. 50.

[230] There are clear accounts of this fighting in Col. Leslie’s autobiography, p. 61, as well as in the narrative of ‘T.S.’ of the 71st.

[231] Evidence of Col. Torrens at the Court of Inquiry (Proceedings, p. 127).

[232] Message sent by Ferguson, borne by his aide-de-camp, Captain Mellish (Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry, p. 121).

[233] Evidence before the Court of Inquiry of Wellesley (Proceedings, pp. 116, 117), and of Col. Torrens (p. 127).

[234] Burrard’s account of his own views before the Court of Inquiry (Proceedings, pp. 115, 116, 135).

[235] See table of losses at Vimiero in the Appendix.

[236] Souvenirs Militaires of Hulot, who commanded one of the two reserve batteries, p. 235: ‘J’étais étonné de ne pas voir l’ennemi fondre sur mes pièces,’ &c.

[237] Wellesley’s evidence at the Court of Inquiry (Proceedings, p. 81).

[238] Castlereagh to Dalrymple, July 15 (Well. Disp., iv. 18).

[239] This figure, of course, does not include the garrisons of the outlying places, but only those immediately in and about the capital, after the 66th and compagnies d’élite marched to Torres Vedras.

[240] Hulot, Mémoires Militaires, p. 236.

[241] Questions asked of Wellesley by Burrard at the Court of Inquiry (Proceedings, p. 133).

[242] Wellesley to Mr. Stuart, Aug. 25, 1808 (Well. Disp., iv. 105); Wellesley’s address at the Court of Inquiry (Proceedings, p. 132).

[243] This is Wellesley’s own view (Well. Disp., iv. 121, 184, 185).

[244] Cf. for Junot’s address, Foy, iv. 341, and Thiébault.

[245] Hulot, Souvenirs Militaires, pp. 235, 236.

[246] But it is said that Delaborde urged the possibility of this move.

[247] Hulot heard this himself. Kellermann said ‘qu’il allait trouver les Anglais, pour voir à nous tirer de la souricière’ (p. 236).

[248] Foy, iv. 344, 345; Well. Disp., iv. 108.

[249] See the curious account of the Emperor’s interviews with Legendre and Thiébault, the chiefs of the staff to Dupont and Junot, who appeared before him simultaneously at Valladolid in January, 1809. The imperial thunders played so fiercely on the army of Andalusia that the army of Portugal got off easily (Thiébault, iv. 247-9). But Napoleon said that the English had saved him the pain of crushing an old friend by sending Dalrymple, Burrard, and Wellesley before a court-martial.

[250] Wellesley at the Court of Inquiry (Well. Disp., iv. 189).

[251] Wellesley’s evidence before the Court of Inquiry (Proceedings, p. 83).

[252] Napier, i. 225.

[253] Evidence of Wellesley before the Court of Inquiry (Proceedings, pp. 87-91).

[254] Foy, iv. 352, and Thiébault.

[255] Article 1 of the armistice mentioned ‘his Imperial and Royal Majesty, Napoleon I,’ though this formula did not recur in the Convention, which only spoke of the ‘French Army.’

[256] The full text will be found in the Appendix.

[257] For the strange way in which Junot utilized this permission for his personal profit, see page 281.

[258] Wellesley to Mr. Stuart, Sept. 1, 1808 (Well. Disp., iv. 121).

[259] Dalrymple’s Memoir of the Affairs of Portugal, p. 66.

[260] Dalrymple says that he signed the armistice so soon after landing, and with such an incomplete knowledge of the situation in Portugal, that he did not know that Freire’s army was anywhere in his neighbourhood (p. 65).

[261] Better known, from his court office, as the Monteiro Mor, which answers to our ‘Master of the Horse.’

[262] See Leite’s indignant letters to Dalrymple in Napier, vol. i. App. xii. De Arce is the real name of the Dearey of whom Napier speaks on p. 245. Cf. Dalrymple’s Memoir, p. 82.

[263] Foy, iv. 361, 362; Napier, i. 246, 247. Napier suppresses the part taken in saving the French by the Bishop and by Wilson, to neither of whom were his feelings friendly. Foy acknowledges the services of both. There is a good account of the whole by Wilson, in his papers at the Record Office.

[264] Napier, with his customary tenderness for French susceptibilities, has only very general allusions to these disgraceful peculations. My details are mainly from Thiébault (iv. 198-200), who frankly confesses everything, and gives many scandalous particulars. He was, as Napoleon wrote, ‘not delicate in money matters.’

[265] Cf. Thiébault, Napier, and some curious details given in the Annual Register for 1808, with Proby and Beresford’s Report.

[266] For previous acts and plans of this shameless person see Thiébault, iv. 151-3.

[267] Report of General Beresford and Lord Proby to Sir Hew Dalrymple after the evacuation.

[268] For the tumults and murders at the embarkation see Col. Leslie’s Military Journal, pp. 66-76, and Col. Wilkie’s English in Spain, p. 16.

[269] See Col. Steevens’ Reminiscences, pp. 54, 55; Col. Wilkie, p. 14; Col. Leslie, pp. 65, 66.