[689] I quote from the original in the Record Office, not from the mutilated version printed in the Parliamentary Papers and elsewhere.

[690] Blakeney, of the 28th, says: ‘We employed the greater part of Jan. 1 in turning or dragging the drunken men out of the houses into the streets, and sending forward as many as could be moved. Yet little could be effected with men incapable of standing, much less of marching’ (p. 50).

[691] ‘T.S.’ of the 71st (Journal, p. 58).

[692] Adam Neale, p. 188. Both he and ‘T.S.’ mention the parading of the wounded men along the lines.

[693] Cf. Blakeney, Neale, Londonderry, and James Moore.

[694] Not the Guia, as the English generally call it.

[695] I take my account of the skirmish mainly from Blakeney, whose narrative is admirable. Those of Londonderry, Napier, and Neale do not give so many details.

[696] They were the 15th Chasseurs and the 3rd Hussars.

[697] Forty-eight is the number given in Cope’s excellent History of the Rifle Brigade.

[698] He was shot by Tom Plunket, a noted character in the 95th, from a range that seemed extraordinary to the riflemen of that day.

[699] Napoleon’s not very convincing account of the combat (Nap. Corresp., 14,647) runs as follows: ‘Trois mille Ecossais, voulant défendre les gorges de Picros près de Villafranca, pour donner le temps à beaucoup de choses à filer, ont été culbutés. Mais le général Colbert pétillant de faire avancer sa cavalerie, une balle l’a frappé au front, et l’a tué.’

[700] From Adam Neale’s Spanish Campaign of 1808, pp. 190, 191.

[701] For French evidence of this see the journal of Fantin des Odoards of the 31st Léger: ‘Plusieurs jeunes Anglaises devenues la proie de nos cavaliers étaient mises à l’encan en même temps que les chevaux pris avec elles. J’ai vu, à mon grand scandale, qu’elles n’avaient pas toujours la préférence’ (p. 196). Cf. the miserable story of Mrs. Pullen in the Recollections of Rifleman Harris, p. 142.

[702] The whole of this story may be found in Londonderry (i. 272), Ormsby (ii. 140), James Moore (p. 190), as well as in Napier.

[703] General Orders (Lugo, Jan. 6, 1809).

[704] In defence of the unfortunate Galicians, whose patriotism and good faith has been impugned by so many English narrators of the retreat, it is only necessary to quote the reflections of two dispassionate eye-witnesses. Leith Hay (i. 132) writes: ‘To expect that the peasantry were to rush from their houses, and supply the wants of our soldiers with the only provision that they possessed for their own families—who might in consequence be left in the midst of the mountains, at midwinter, to starve—was imagining friendly feeling carried to an unnatural extent, and just as likely to happen as it would have been if, Napoleon having invaded Britain, an English yeoman should have earnestly requested one of our own soldiers to accept the last morsel of bread he had the means of obtaining for his children.’ Ormsby (ii. 162) says, to much the same effect: ‘As to their inhospitable reception of us, and the concealment of provisions, in candour I must be their apologist, and declare my conviction that the charge in many instances is unfounded and in others exaggerated. Do those who are most loud in their complaints honestly think that an army of 30,000 Spaniards would be better received in England than we were in Spain? I doubt it much. The people, dispirited and alarmed, began to look to self-preservation as the primary or sole object of their care. Add to this the horror and dismay which the excesses of our soldiers struck, and you will not be surprised that villages and houses were frequently deserted. Is it a matter of astonishment that the peasantry fled into the recesses of their mountains, intimidated by our presence and confounded by our crimes?’

[705] For instances of kindness shown by the peasantry see Ormsby (ii. 139). On the other hand the educated classes were often sulky, and even insolent, because they thought that Moore was deliberately abandoning Spain from cowardice. See in Ormsby the anecdotes of the Alcalde of Pinhalla (ii. 79) and the Alcalde of Villafranca (ii. 127), as also of the abuse which he got from a ‘furious canon of Lugo,’ on whom he was billeted (ii. 147, 148).

[706] Outside Betanzos Paget halted, stopped the marauding stragglers, and had them stripped of their plunder. Blakeney of the 28th saw 1,500 men searched. ‘It is impossible to enumerate the different articles of plunder which they had crammed into their packs and haversacks—brass candlesticks bent double, bundles of common knives, copper saucepans, every kind of domestic utensil, without regard to weight or value’ (p. 92).

[707] Adam Neale, p. 196. The same battalion could show 500 bayonets for the battle of Corunna, so the men were not far off, as it would seem.

[708] Le Noble (Campagne du Maréchal Soult, p. 24) says that Franceschi made a ‘charge’ here and took 500 prisoners. The number of prisoners is very probably correct, but it is hardly a ‘charge’ when isolated stragglers are picked up. The rearguard was never molested, and retired without having to fire a shot.

[709] This sergeant’s name was William Newman. He was rewarded by an ensign’s commission in the 1st West India Regiment.

[710] I think that it must be to this combat that one of the reminiscences of ‘T.S.’ of the 71st relates, though he is vague in his dates. ‘Sleep was stealing over me when I perceived a bustle around me. It was an advanced party of the French. Unconscious of my action I started to my feet, levelled my musket, which I still retained, fired and formed with the other stragglers. There were more of them than of us, but the action and the approach of danger in a shape which we could repel roused our downcast feelings.... While we ran they pursued, the moment we faced about they halted. We never fought but with success, never were attacked but we forced them to retire’ (p. 60).

[711] The stragglers’ battle in front of Betanzos is described by Adam Neale (p. 196), Blakeney (pp. 90, 91), and Steevens of the 20th (p. 70), as well as by Napier and the other historians. I find no account of it in Le Noble or the other French narrators, such as Naylies, St. Chamans, or Fantin des Odoards. Le Noble gives instead a wholly fictitious account of an engagement of Franceschi with English cavalry, in which the latter lost a thousand men and five guns (p. 34). As the cavalry had marched for Corunna before Franceschi came up, and lost only about 200 men in the whole campaign, I am quite at a loss to understand what can be the foundation of this romance.

[712] Fantin des Odoards gives a vivid and picturesque account of the relief caused to the pursuers, by the sudden plunge into fine spring-like weather, on descending from the snows of the interior (p. 198).

[713] There is a good account of the bickering in Blakeney, pp. 102-5.

[714] I obtain these figures from the Parliamentary Returns of 1809.

[715] There can be no doubt that this strange suggestion was made, as Moore himself mentions it in his dispatch of Jan. 13, the last which he wrote.

[716] Paget had just lost his senior brigadier, Anstruther, who died of dysentery in Corunna that day. His second brigade was commanded by Disney.

[717] His two brigadiers were Beresford and Fane.

[718] The force stood as follows:—

[719] e.g. Le Noble in his Campagne du Maréchal Soult, 1808-9, p. 41.

[720] Blakeney, p. 114.

[721] His dispatch to Castlereagh, of Jan. 18, proves that he was wounded before Moore fell.

[722] Every student of the Peninsular War should read Charles Napier’s vivid and thrilling account of the storm of Elvina. William Napier reprinted it in vol. i of his brother’s biography. Charles was within an ace of being murdered after surrender, and was saved by a gallant French drummer.

[723] Letter of his aide-de-camp Hardinge in James Moore’s Life, p. 220.

[724] Erroneously called in most British and French accounts Palavea Abaxo. The latter village is at the foot of the French line, a little to the north.

[725] For an account of this combat from the French side see Foy’s report to Delaborde, printed in Girod de l’Ain’s Vie militaire du Général Foy (appendix), where the losses of the brigade are given. On the English side the 92nd lost three killed and five wounded (see Gardyne’s History of the 92nd Regiment). The 14th do not separate their battle-losses from those of the retreat in their casualty-returns. They had sixty-six dead and missing in the whole campaign, and put on board at Corunna seventy-two sick and wounded. Probably not more than ten of the former and thirty of the latter were hit in the battle; if the casualties were any larger on January 16 the losses in the retreat must have been abnormally small in the 14th Regiment.

[726] Of course the untrustworthy Le Noble does so, and falsifies his map accordingly.

[727] Foy’s brigade engaged two battalions of the 70th Regiment, besides three companies of voltigeurs of the 86th; this was all that Delaborde sent forward. There were two chefs de bataillon among the wounded.

[728] ‘Chaque armée resta sur son terrain,’ says St. Chamans, Soult’s senior aide-de-camp (the man who so kindly entreated Charles Napier, as the latter’s memoirs show). ‘A la nuit, qui seule a pu terminer cette lutte opiniâtre, nous nous sommes retrouvés au point d’où nous étions partis à 3 heures,’ says Fantin des Odoards, of Mermet’s division (p. 200). ‘Nos troupes furent obligées, par des forces supérieures, de rentrer dans leurs premiers postes,’ says Naylies, of Lahoussaye’s dragoons (p. 46).

[729] Blakeney urges this very strongly (pp. 117, 118); Graham also.

[730] It would seem that only the 2nd Léger and 36th of the Line of Merle, and the 70th of Delaborde, had been seriously engaged.

[731] Belmas gives the same number, probably copying Le Noble.

[732] Jourdan’s Mémoires, p. 126.

[733] Fantin des Odoards, p. 201.

[734] See Marshal Jourdan’s very judicious remark on Soult’s bulletins in his Mémoires militaires (p. 127). ‘His first dispatch was not that of a general who imagined that he had been successful.’

[735] The inscription was to run: ‘Hic cecidit Iohannes Moore dux exercitus Britannici, in pugna Ianuarii xvi, 1809, contra Gallos a duce Dalmatiae ductos.’

[736] St. Chamans calls him ‘un vieux faible et sans moyens, mené par une espèce de courtisane.’ Mr. Stuart (in a note to Vaughan) describes him as an ‘unscrupulous old rascal.’

[737] Cf. for their losses the Parliamentary Papers for 1809 (pp. 8, 9), and Beamish’s History of the German Legion.

[738] In fairness to the government Castlereagh’s dispatches, 92-105 in the Parliamentary Papers for 1809, should be carefully studied.

[739] Moore to Castlereagh, from Astorga, Dec. 31, 1808.

[740] See the arguments stated on pp. 554-5.

[741] See the facts stated on pp. 493-5.

[742] Moore to Castlereagh, from Salamanca, Nov. 25.

[743] Napier, i. 349.

[744] ‘Thus ended the career of Sir John Moore, a man whose uncommon capacity was sustained by the purest virtue, and governed by a disinterested patriotism, more in keeping with the primitive than the luxurious age of a great nation. His tall graceful person, his dark searching eyes, strongly defined forehead, and singularly expressive mouth indicated a noble disposition and a refined understanding. The lofty sentiments of honour habitual to his mind were adorned by a subtle playful wit, which gave him in conversation the ascendency which he always preserved by the decisive vigour of his action. He maintained the right with a vehemence bordering on fierceness, and every important transaction in which he was engaged increased his reputation for talent, and confirmed his character as a stern enemy to vice, a steadfast friend to merit, a just and faithful servant of his country. The honest loved him, the dishonest feared him; he did not shun, but scorned and spurned the base, and, with characteristic propriety, they spurned at him when he was dead.... If glory be a distinction, for such a man death is not a leveller!’ (Peninsular War, i. 333.)

[745] Of transports fitted for carrying horses Dalrymple only had at this moment those which had brought 180 horses for the 20th Light Dragoons, 300 of the Irish commissariat, and 560 of the 3rd Light Dragoons of the German Legion, which had just arrived with Moore.

[746] These articles are shortened of some unimportant verbiage and details.

[747] The meaning of this odd and crabbed phrase is shown by the French duplicate of the Convention—‘d’en faire passer le produit en France.’ Murray should have written ‘the proceeds’ instead of ‘the sale.’

[748] Murray’s English does not here translate Kellermann’s French: the latter has ‘détenus en Espagne,’ i.e. ‘at present prisoners in Spain,’ not ‘who may have been detained in Spain.’ For the persons intended were primarily General Quesnel, his staff, and escort, who had been seized in Portugal and then taken into Spain. The clause also covered some French officers and commissaries who had been seized at Badajoz and elsewhere while making their way to Lisbon, at the moment when the insurrection broke out.

[749] The hostage for the English army was Col. Donkin. I cannot find out who was the naval hostage.

[750] i.e. Junot and his chief officers preferred the hospitalities of a man of war to the hard fare of a transport.

[751] Includes fifty-six men drowned on return voyage to England.

[752] The 76th Regiment failed to send in its disembarkation return, so that its loss has to be averaged.

[753] Includes twenty-two men drowned on return voyage to England.

[754] Includes 187 men drowned on return voyage to England.

[755] Includes twenty-two drowned on return voyage to England, and nine drowned in Corunna harbour.