[426] Fantin des Odoards (p. 233) says that the French left 1,800 men in the hospitals. This is probably a little too high an estimate: there were only 2,150 French sick in Braga, Viana, and Oporto on May 10—five-sixths of them at Oporto. But many convalescents had marched with Mermet early on the eleventh. Wellington in his first dispatch merely says that he had taken 700 sick in the hospitals. But three days later, in a letter to Admiral Berkeley, he writes that he has 2,000 sick, wounded and captured French in his hands, and must send them to England at once (Wellington Dispatches, iv. 337). He therefore asks for shipping for them at the rate of two tons per man. Allowing for 300 unwounded prisoners at Oporto, and 100 at Grijon, there remain 1,500, or somewhat more, for the men in hospital.

[427] See Le Noble, Campagne de Galice, pp. 250-2.

[428] Loison reported to Soult that he lost only a chef de bataillon and eighty men, but that the horses of himself and Generals Heudelet and Maransin were killed under them. The figures given are probably an understatement.

[429] The British brigade of Tilson was to have led the attack. They were burning for a fight. ‘I never witnessed so much enthusiasm,’ writes an eye-witness, ‘as was shown by the men. The advance was a perfect trot, but on our arrival we found the enemy had fled.’ (From an unpublished letter of Lord Gough, then colonel of the 87th regiment, which has been placed at my disposal by the kindness of Mr. R. Rait of New College, who is preparing a life of that officer.)

[430] ‘Un de ces Navarrins, qui vont tous les ans en Portugal parcourir les villages pour y couper les cochons qu’on veut engraisser,’ says Le Noble [p. 254]. ‘Une espèce de contrebandier que le général Dulauloi avait trouvé,’ says St. Chamans, Soult’s aide-de-camp (p. 147).

[431] Several of the French diarists relate this curious incident. ‘L’argent blanc ne tentait personne,’ says Fantin des Odoards, p. 234, ‘à cause de sa pesanteur et de son inutilité momentaire. On permit le pillage des fourgons du payeur, et chose inouïe, il n’y fut presque pas touché. Les soldats regardaient en passant les sacs, secouaient la tête et s’éloignaient sans y mettre la main. Pour moi, je m’emparai d’un sac de 2,400 francs; cette lourde somme m’embarassait: elle aurait blessé mon cheval, et après l’avoir portée pendant une lieue je l’abandonnai’ [p. 234]. ‘Les grenadiers du 70^e servaient d’escorte au trésor,’ says Le Noble, ‘l’intendant-général les invita de prendre des fonds. Ayant rencontré leur officier, le lieutenant Langlois, à Toro, il lui demanda ce qu’avaient pu emporter ses soldats. “Rien,” répliqua-t-il, “ils portaient la caisse à tour de rôle pour quelque distance, et la jetèrent ensuite.”’ Naylies also mentions the dispersion of the treasure. The reader will compare this incident with the rolling of Moore’s treasure down the cliffs of Herrerias during the Corunna retreat. Soult certainly scattered his cash more widely.

[432] When the troops got at the wine they drank only too well: Hartmann in his Journal records that twenty of his German Legion gunners drank forty-one bottles of port at a sitting (p. 71).

[433] Wellington Dispatches, iv. 327. To Marshal Beresford, from Oporto, night of the twelfth.

[434] A Captain Mellish, Wellington Dispatches, iv. 330 [to Murray] and 332 [to Beresford].

[435] Deposition of the Secretary to the late Governor of Oporto. Wellington Supplementary Dispatches, vi. 262 [May 13, afternoon].

[436] Wellington Dispatches, iv. 330, afternoon of May 13.

[437] Ibid. iv. 332, morning of May 14.

[438] It is astonishing to find that Murray succeeded in taking two light three-pounder guns over this difficult path. The fact reflects great credit on his gunners.

[439] The state of Amarante was dreadful. ‘I was never witness to such a scene of misery and horror as here presented itself,’ says Lord Gough in an unpublished letter to his father. ‘Every house and public building of every description, with the exception of a monastery which covered the passage of the bridge, a chapel, and about five detached houses, was burnt to the ground, with many of the late inhabitants lying dead in the streets.’

[440] The best testimony to Beresford’s good conduct is that Wellesley (Wellington Dispatches, iv. 343) says that he had exactly anticipated the instructions sent him, and carried them out on his own initiative. Napier’s criticism (ii. 116-7) is unfair and misleading.

[441] The best account of Beresford’s forced march is to be found in the unpublished letter of Lord Gough (then major of the 87th) which, as I have already mentioned, has been shown me by Mr. R. Rait of New College. He says: ‘The business of crossing the river took the Brigade (Tilson’s) four hours: the evening set in with a most dreadful fall of rain, which continued all night, and the next three days and nights. Our road lay over almost impassable mountains, made more so by the rain that swelled the mountain rivulets into rivers. In the dark many men lost the column, several fell into pits excavated by the falling water: many lay down in the road from fatigue and hunger, and the greater part lost their shoes.... Next day we pursued our melancholy march at five o’clock, the men nearly fainting with hunger: about twelve we fell in with some cars of bread belonging to a Portuguese division, which Gen. Tilson pressed for the men; this (with some wine) enabled us to proceed, and that night at twelve we reached Chaves, after a forced march of three days, with only twelve hours’ halt. The men were without a shoe to their feet, and hundreds fallen out from fatigue and hunger.... The 88th had, of 700 with which they joined us, only 150 in the ranks.... Part of the officers and nearly all the men had their feet cut to the bone for want of shoes.’

[442] The brigade had a company of the 5/60th attached, so had three instead of two light companies.

[443] ‘Il y avait à l’arrière-garde un excellent régiment d’infanterie légère, qui (vu la nature du terrain) pouvait facilement braver une armée entière: et bien, à l’apparition de l’ennemi, il s’est débandé sans qu’on ait pu lui faire entendre raison. La confusion qui a été le résultat de cette terreur panique a été épouvantable. Fantassins et cavaliers se précipitaient les uns sur les autres, jetaient leurs armes, et luttaient à qui courrait le plus vite. Le pont étroit et sans parapet ne pouvait suffire à l’impatience des fuyards, ils se pressaient tellement que nombre d’hommes furent précipités et noyés dans le torrent ou écrasés sous les pieds des chevaux. Si les Anglais avaient été en mesure de profiter de cette épouvante, je ne sais pas en vérité ce que nous serions devenus, tant la peur est contagieuse, même chez les plus braves soldats.’ Fantin des Odoards, p. 236.

[444] Lord Munster’s Campaign of 1809, pp. 177-8.

[445] The French rearguard actually saw Silveira arriving. Naylies, p. 90.

[446] For this part of the pursuit see the diary of Hawker [of the 14th Light Dragoons], who returned to Montalegre with Silveira’s men.

[447] These details are mainly from the letter of Gough of the 87th, which I have already had occasion to quote, when dealing with Beresford’s movements. I cannot find any corroboration for Napier’s account of Beresford’s and Silveira’s pursuit in ii. pp. 112-3 of his history.

[448] See mainly Le Noble’s calculation on pp. 353-4 of his Campagne de 1809.

[449] The rest of Silveira’s prisoners were Hispano-Portuguese ‘legionaries,’ see p. 266.

[450] Napier (ii. 113) says, ‘1,800 at Viana and Braga, 700 at Oporto,’ figures that should be reversed, for at the two last places only the sick of Heudelet’s and Lorges’ divisions were captured, while at Oporto the main central hospital fell into the hands of the British. Le Noble says that there were 2,150 men in hospital altogether on May 10.

[451] See p. 341.

[452] The respective distances seem to be about 255 and 120 miles.

[453] Napier, ii. 113.

[454] See p. 321.

[455] ‘In respect to Soult, I shall omit nothing that I can do to destroy him—but I am afraid that with the force I have at my disposal, it is not in my power to prevent him retreating into Spain.’ Wellesley to Frere, May 9, 1809.

[456] From Montalegre, May 18, 1809.

[457] i.e. its sick and wounded.

[458] Napier, Arteche, and Schepeler all agree in this, the former only making the excuse that Silveira may not have fully understood Beresford’s orders, owing to the difficulty of language. But Beresford spoke and wrote Portuguese fluently.

[459] See p. 192.

[460] Napoleon to Ney, from Paris, Feb. 18, 1809.

[461] ‘Ne comptez sur aucun renfort: croyez plutôt qu’on pourrait être dans le cas de porter ailleurs une de vos divisions.’

[462] Acevedo’s division, deducting the regular troops [Hibernia (two batts.), and Provincial of Oviedo], had some 6,000 men: while 5,200 remained behind in Asturias. See pp. 632 and 637 of vol. i.

[463] Apparently consisting in February of three battalions and a Spanish Legion which Napoleon had organized out of the prisoners of Blake’s and La Romana’s armies: 2,998 men in all. The Legion waited till it had received arms and clothing, and then deserted en masse and went to join the insurgents. For angry correspondence on this incident see Napoleon to King Joseph, Feb. 20, and King Joseph to Napoleon, March 7, 1809.

[464] The total of French troops in Old Castile, garrisoning Valladolid, Soria, Palencia, and Burgos, &c., was only 5,342 men. Nothing was disposable for field operations save Kellermann’s division of dragoons. In Biscay, behind Bonnet, there were only 1,762 men, and in Alava 876. Practically nothing could have been sent to reinforce Leon or Santander, till Mortier’s corps came up.

[465] For this fiasco see Toreno, i. pp. 400-1.

[466] These dispositions of the Asturian army, which have never before been published, are taken from a dispatch from the Junta at Oviedo, which Mr. Frere sent to Lord Castlereagh on March 24 [Record Office]. The regiments were:—

• At Colombres, under Maj.-General F. Ballasteros:
• Luanco, Castropol, Navia, Luarca, Villaviciosa, Llanes, Cangas de Oñis, Cangas de Tineo, Don Carlos.
• At Pajares and Farna, under Brigadier Don Christoval Lili:
• Siero, Provincial of Oviedo, Covadonga.
• At La Mesa, under Brigadier Don F. Manglano:
• Riva de Sella, Pravia.
• At Castropol, under Colonel T. Valdez:
• Lena, Grado, Salas, Ferdinando VII.
• At Oviedo, under Lieut.-General Worster:
• Gijon, Infiesto.

The Junta report that they have over 20,000 men, the regiments being very strong, some of them reaching 1,200 bayonets, or even more.

[467] Carrol to La Romana, March 28, ‘The Junta, in fact, command the armies in every respect. They have absolute power, and have rendered themselves highly obnoxious to the people of the province, and are at present entirely guided by the will and caprice of three or four individuals...’

[468] Such also was the opinion of Captain Carrol, the British representative at Oviedo. He writes to Castlereagh on Feb. 10 in the following terms: ‘I am sorry to have to represent that the supplies hitherto granted to this province have not been applied (to use the mildest expressions) with that judgment and economy that might have been expected, and that the benefits resulting to this province and the common cause are by no means proportionate to the liberality with which those supplies were granted by the British Government’ [Record Office]. Toreno, as a patriotic Asturian, hushes up all these scandals.

[469] The number of unwounded prisoners was 574, that of killed and wounded nearly 700.

[470] The captives were sent off immediately into the Asturias. Carrol saw them arrive at Oviedo.

[471] There is a long dispatch of Mendizabal to La Romana in the Record Office, giving details of the storm of Villafranca, which was all over in four hours.

[472] Captain Carrol had written to him a few days before to beg him to hasten to Oviedo: ‘I strongly advise your Excellency’s repairing to this city (Oviedo), and adopting such plans and measures for the better government of the province and the active operations of the army as your Excellency shall think meet.’ There were similar appeals from Spanish officers discontented with the Junta.

[473] It may be worth while to quote the opening clauses of La Romana’s proclamation explaining his coup d’état; it is dated the day after his ‘purge’ of the Junta: a copy exists in the Record Office, forwarded to Castlereagh by Carrol:—‘Me es forzoso manifestar con mucho sentimiento que la actual Junta de Asturias, aunque de las mas favorecidas por la generosidad britannica en toda classe de subsidios, es la que menos ha coadyuvado a la grande y heroyca empresa de arrojar a los enemigos de nuestro patrio suelo. Formada esta Junta por intriga, y por la prepotencia de algunos sugetos y familias conexionadas, se propuse arrogarse un poder absoluto e indefinido: serven los individuos mutuamente en sus proyectos y despiques, desechan con pretextos infundidos y aun calumniosos al que no subscribiese a ellos, y contentan a los menesterosos con comisiones o encargos de interes,’ &c.

[474] Carrol, who was an eye-witness of the scene, thought that the Marquis ‘had re-formed the Junta in the most quiet, peaceable and masterly manner.’ The last epithet seems the most appropriate of the three. Carrol to Castlereagh, April 10, 1809 [in Record Office].

[475] Letters of La Romana to Mahy in Appendix to Arteche, vol. vi. p. 145.

[476] Ibid., p. 146.

[477] Napoleon to Joseph, from Paris, April 10, 1809.

[478] For details concerning the composition of this expedition see Jourdan’s Mémoires, p. 196.

[479] The force that marched on the Asturias was composed of the 25th Léger, 27th and 59th of Maurice Mathieu’s division, the 39th from Marchand’s, the 3rd Hussars, and 25th Dragoons.

Maucune’s detachment consisted of two battalions each of the 6th Léger and the 76th, with the 15th Chasseurs and one battery.

Fournier’s detachment was composed of the 15th Dragoons, two battalions of the 69th, and one of the 76th.

[480] Carrol gives an excellent account of the French invasion in a long dispatch written from Vigo on June 3. He says that the Marquis only heard of Ney’s approach by the peasants flying from Cangas de Tineo on the morning of May 17. He himself was sent out to verify the incredible information, and came on the French as they were crossing the Navia, only thirty miles from Oviedo. He rode back in haste, and met one Asturian battalion coming up, and afterwards the regiment of La Princesa. Romana had no other troops, and only a few hundred half-armed peasantry joined in the defence of the bridge of Gallegos.

[481] ‘Ce dernier pont de Gallegos fut assez bien défendu par le régiment de la Princesse, mais néanmoins il fut enlevé, ainsi qu’une pièce de douze.’ Ney to King Joseph, Oviedo, May 21.

[482] ‘Les magasins et les plus riches maisons de la ville furent pillés par les paysans et la populace. Ces malheureux, ivres d’eau-de-vie, entreprirent de défendre la ville et firent feu dans toutes les rues.’ Ney to King Joseph, Oviedo, May 21.

[483] They were called the Pique and the Plutus. Carrol was nearly captured while burning the latter, and escaped in an open boat.

[484] The 116th and 117th of Morlot’s division.

[485] The plain from which Santiago gets its name of Santiago de Compostella.

[486] All this may be studied in two dispatches of Bonnet to King Joseph, dated Santander, June 12 and June 20.

[487] The phrase occurs in a dispatch of Jourdan’s written in August.

[488] There is clear evidence of this quarrel in the diaries and memoirs of the officers of both corps. ‘Nous fûmes d’abord bien reçus à Lugo’—writes Soult’s aide-de-camp St. Chamans—‘mais le Maréchal Ney étant arrivé, les choses changèrent de face, et on eût dit que nous n’étions plus un corps français: tout nous était refusé: même nos malades mouraient en foule dans les hôpitaux, faute d’aliments: car tout était réservé, par les ordres de Ney, pour son corps d’armée, et on peut bien dire qu’on nous traita de Turc en Maure’ (p. 150). Des Odoards is equally precise: ‘Une fâcheuse mésintelligence a éclaté entre les troupes de Ney et les nôtres: les duels sont survenus, et peu s’en est fallu qu’oubliant que nous sommes, les uns et les autres, enfants de la France, il n’y ait eu engagement général. Le non-succès de notre entreprise, l’état de délabrement de notre tenue, out servi de texte aux mauvaises plaisanteries, aux propos outrageants, dont des scènes sanguinaires ont été la suite. Les soldats seuls ont d’abord pris part à ces rixes, puis elles ont gagné les officiers, et s’il faut croire certain bruits, les maréchaux ont eu eux-mêmes une entrevue fort orageuse’ (p. 240). According to the common report this ‘stormy interview’ actually ended in Ney’s drawing his sword upon Soult, and being only prevented by General Maurice Mathieu from assailing him. This tale was told to Captain Boothby (see his Memoirs, ii. p. 31) by a French officer who said that he had been an eye-witness of the scene.

[489] ‘Il se sépara de Ney, avec lequel il eût l’air d’arrêter, pour la conservation de la Galice, un plan de campagne auquel tous les deux étaient, je crois, résolus d’avance de ne pas se conformer, car ils voulaient le moins possible se trouver ensemble.’ St. Chamans (p. 151). This represents the view of Soult’s staff.

[490] La Romana (June 1, in the Record Office) gives present at Orense 9,633 men—of whom 7,094 were old soldiers, including 381 cavalry and 379 artillery.

[491] Carrol to Castlereagh, from Vigo, June 11.

[492] For some notes concerning Noroña’s character see Arteche, vi. 188.

[493] Carrol, writing from Vigo two days later, says that the French infantry ‘seemed determined at any risk to cross the water at low tide,’ that they came on very boldly, but could not face the fire, and finally gave back.

[494] Carrol, in the letter just quoted, says that thirty-nine dead bodies were left before the bridge-head of Caldelas, which the French could not carry off because of the hot fire that played upon the spot. He estimates the French total loss at 300, while that of Noroña was only 111.

[495] ‘I have been assured,’ says Napier (ii. 127), ‘by an officer of Ney’s personal staff [Col. D’Esménard] that he rashly concluded that personal feelings had swayed Soult to betray the 6th Corps. In this error he returned in wrath to Corunna.’ But was his conclusion rash, or wrong?

[496] Le Noble, p. 280.

[497] Fantin des Odoards, p. 242.

[498] ‘Le Maréchal crut, ou feignit de croire, que Ney avait changé d’idée,’ says his aide-de-camp St. Chamans, p. 151.

[499] La Romana writes to Carrol from Orense, on June 9, to say that he had been intending to march by cross-roads to fall on Ney’s flank, and so aid the division of Noroña. But Soult’s appearance at Monforte with 12,000 men [an under-estimate] compels him to remain behind to observe that marshal [Record Office].

[500] Carrol was with this party. He had come out from Vigo to join La Romana, was at La Gudina on June 16, and retreated to Monterey when Franceschi attacked that point. The Marquis turned back when he saw Franceschi move off eastward, and retired to his old head quarters at Orense. If Soult had pushed westward, the Spaniards had the choice between the road to Chaves and that back to Orense, and were in no danger.

[501] ‘Il (Ney) m’engageait à rester en Galice, et me représentait qu’il pourrait résulter pour lui de fâcheuses conséquences si j’en sortais. Cette proposition m’étonna: il me parut que M. le Maréchal Ney se conduisait à m’obliger à rester en Galice: car certainement rien ne l’empêchait de manœuvrer sur Orense, tandis que moi-même j’agissais contre La Romana.... Je me crus encore plus obligé qu’auparavant de suivre mon premier projet.’ Soult to Joseph, June 25.

[502] On reaching Zamora, Franceschi handed over the charge of his division to General Pierre Soult, the Marshal’s brother, and rode on towards Madrid with no escort but two aides-de-camp. They were captured near Toro by the celebrated guerrilla chief El Capuchino (Fray Juan Delica), who sent the important dispatches which they were bearing to Seville: Frere instantly forwarded a copy to Wellesley (July 9), who thus got invaluable information as to Soult’s situation and future intentions. In the Record Office there is a letter requesting that the news of Franceschi’s captivity may be sent to his wife in Paris, which was duly done. The unfortunate general was imprisoned first at Granada and then at Cartagena: in both places, it is said, he was treated with unjustifiable rigour, and kept in close confinement within four walls—it was the same usage that Napoleon meted out to Palafox. He died of a fever in 1811, after two years’ captivity.

[503] There is so much valuable information in these dispatches of Soult, dated June 25, from Puebla de Senabria, that I have printed the most important paragraphs as an Appendix—omitting the lengthy narrative of the operations on the Sil and the Bibey in which the Marshal vainly flattered himself that he had dispersed the armies of La Romana and ‘Chavarria’ (i.e. Echevarria).

[504] See sect. xi. chap. i. pp. 101-2.

[505] Toreno gives some curious details about the surrender of Jaca, which he says was largely due to the intrigues of a friar named José de Consolation, who preached resignation and submission to God’s will in such moving terms that the greater part of the garrison deserted! He was afterwards found to have been an agent of the French. The Central Junta sent the Governor Campos, the Corregidor Arcón, and the officers commanding the artillery and engineers before a court-martial, which condemned them all to death. Only the engineer was caught (he had openly joined the French) and shot. [Arteche, vi. p. 10.]

[506] Only the single regiment, America, whose cadre, sent back by Infantado from Cuenca, was being filled up with recruits from the Morella district. [Junot to King Joseph, from Saragossa, March 25.]

[507] See Joseph’s letter of April 6, and the Emperor’s orders, from Paris, of April 5 and April 10.

[508] See p. 378.

[509] See p. 378.

[510] It consisted of eight compagnies d’élite, viz. the voltigeur companies of the 14th Line, and the 2nd of the Vistula, and the grenadier and voltigeur companies of the 116th of the Line, with half a squadron of the 13th Cuirassiers. [Von Brandt, p. 62.]

[511] This little campaign can be studied in detail in Von Brandt, pp. 60-8. He was serving as lieutenant in the 2nd of the Vistula, and gives many details which are not to be found in Suchet or Arteche. Toreno would seem (ii. 10) to be wrong in saying that Habert tried to storm Monzon, and got over the river there, but was beaten back by Baget. Von Brandt says that there was nothing but a hot fire across the water, and that the attack could not be pushed home.

[512] It is necessary to enter a protest against Napier’s statement (vol. ii. p. 252), that Valencia did not do its fair share in defending the general cause of Spain—that ‘from the very commencement of the insurrection its policy was characterized by a singular indifference to the calamities that overwhelmed the other parts of the country.’ The contribution of Valencia to the national armies raised in 1808-9, compares well with that of the other provinces. These troops, too, were not used for local defence, but employed in other parts of Spain. Argüelles’ answer to Napier on this point seems conclusive: (see the Appendix-volume of his Observaciones, &c.). The troops sent out by Valencia were:—

These figures are exclusive of cavalry and artillery, and in some cases are under-estimated, as no morning-states of the troops survive for the earlier months of the campaign of 1808, and these totals are taken from returns made late in the year, when the regiments had begun to run low in numbers. For the enormous monetary contribution made by Valencia in 1808-9, see the tables in Argüelles.

[513] See p. 378.

[514] The 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th, and 121st of the line were all formed from the ‘Provisional Regiments’ of 1808.

[515] Suchet’s Mémoires. i. p. 11.

[516] ‘Le 3^me corps avait beaucoup souffert au siège de Saragosse. L’infanterie était considérablement affaiblie: les régiments de nouvelle formation surtout se trouvaient dans un état déplorable, par les vices inséparables d’une organisation récente et précipitée.... Des habits blancs bleus et de formes différentes, restes choquants de divers changements dans l’habillement, occasionnaient dans les rangs une bigarrure qui achevait d’enlever à des soldats déjà faibles et abattus toute idée de considération militaire. L’apparence de la misère les dégradait à leurs propres yeux ... Dans un état voisin du découragement, cette armée était loin de compenser par sa force morale le danger de sa faiblesse numérique.’ Suchet, p. 16.

Von Brandt speaks to much the same effect, and says that some of the troops gave a bad impression, and that he saw battalions which looked as if they would not stand firm against a sudden and fierce attack, such as that which Mina and his guerrillas used to deliver [p. 61].

[517] From a casual reading of Suchet, i. 17-21, it might be thought that the general had been joined by Habert before the battle. But he certainly was not, as the Memoirs of Von Brandt, who was with Habert, show that this brigade was at Villafranca, forty miles from Alcañiz, on the twenty-third, and only started (too late) to join its chief on the twenty-fourth. The mention of the 2nd of the Vistula on p. 21 of Suchet is a misprint for the 3rd of the Vistula of Musnier’s division. Half the 13th Cuirassiers was also absent with Habert.

[518] According to Suchet’s own figures from his May 15 return, the forces engaged must have been:—