[720] The fact that these guns were actually French explains Le Noble’s statement that the captured pieces were largely ‘de modèle français.’ Napier has a strange statement, whose source I cannot discover, to the effect that ‘Cuesta on his march to Meza d’Ibor left fifteen guns upon the road, which Albuquerque’s flight uncovered. A trumpeter attending an English flag of truce treacherously or foolishly made known the fact to the French, who immediately sent cavalry to fetch them off.’ Napier, ii. 189.

[721] It will he remembered that on March 17, Victor turned Del Parque’s division out of the Meza de Ibor position. But the latter had only 5,000 men, not enough to man the whole line, while the Duke of Belluno had two divisions for the frontal attack, and turned the Meza with another, that of Villatte. Cuesta had 30,000 men and more, quite sufficient to hold the entire position.

[722] Wellesley went to visit his allies on the Meza upon the morning of Aug. 10, and found that half the guns and baggage had been dragged up on the ninth, but that there was still a great accumulation at the foot of the steep slope, between the Ibor river and the lower edge of the plateau. He was in great distress at the notion that the French might come up at any moment, drive in the rearguard, and capture the rear sections of the Spanish train; see Wellington Dispatches, v. 22, to Lord Wellesley, from Deleytosa, Aug. 10.

[723] From Soult’s dispatch of Aug. 13, it appears that a Colonel Ornano, with a regiment of dragoons, was detailed to examine the banks of the Tagus in search of the ford, but failed to find it. The cause is not hard to seek, for it crosses the river diagonally on a narrow shelf of rock with deep water on either side. It is not less than four feet deep, and Leach of the 95th, who was on guard at its southern end, describes it as ‘not exactly practicable for infantry even at the driest season of the year’ (p. 94). The English, knowing its exact course, were established in positions from which they could concentrate upon it in a few minutes. We may rationally suppose, therefore, that Ney would have found the Tagus not less difficult to pass on Aug. 9, than the Oitaben had been on June 8.

[724] Soult to Joseph, Aug. 9, from Arzobispo: ‘Je serai disposé soit à marcher sur Lisbonne pour détruire les établissements anglais avant que leur armée ne puisse y arriver, et à lui rendre son embarquement difficile, soit à marcher sur Ciudad Rodrigo pour en faire le siège.... Dans le cas du premier mouvement (qui produira infailliblement de grands résultats) j’aurai l’honneur de prier V. M. d’avoir la bonté de faire connaître à MM. les maréchaux ducs de Trévise et d’Elchingen que telle est son intention, afin que toute observation soit ainsi prévenue, et qu’on ne puisse m’attribuer aucun sentiment d’amour-propre.’

[725] Joseph, exaggerating the enemy’s force, was under the impression that they had fully 100,000 men: see his letter to Napoleon of July 31.

[726] Ney has been accused of deserting Soult, and retiring from Almaraz and Navalmoral on his own responsibility, and contrary to the orders of his immediate superior. But Jourdan’s dispatch of Aug. 9 to the Minister of War shows that the Duke of Elchingen was obeying directions sent to him from the royal head quarters. ‘Le roi a pensé,’ he writes, ‘qu’on ne devait pas, quant à présent, chercher à pénétrer ni en Andalousie ni en Portugal.... Le duc de Dalmatie renverra promptement le 6^me corps sur Salamanque pour en chasser les ennemis, et couvrir la Vieille Castille conjointement avec le Général Kellermann.’ Ney then was strictly correct in stating in his dispatch of Aug. 18, that he had acted in obedience to his orders.

[727] Joseph to Napoleon, from Valdemoro, August 7.

[728] Jourdan to Belliard, from Bargas, August 8.

[729] See Wellesley’s letter of Aug. 14 to Beresford, concerning the departure of the French. Robert Craufurd estimated the force that had marched on Plasencia at 15,000 men, Donkin at 25,000. If the latter had judged the numbers correctly, Wellesley supposed that both Ney and Soult must have gone by this road: this was actually the case.

[730] Wellesley to Villiers, Aug. 12: ‘The French having been moving since the ninth towards Plasencia.... I can form no decided opinion respecting their intentions. I think, however, that if they meditated a serious attack on Portugal they would not have moved off in daylight, in full sight of our troops. I suspect these movements are intended only as a feint, to induce us to separate ourselves from the Spaniards, in order to cover Portugal.’

[731] These regiments were, Line infantry, nos. 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 23, all (save no. 15) two battalions strong, and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th Cazadores, with no. 2 of the Lusitanian Legion, and the ‘Voluntarios Académicos’ of Coimbra.

[732] Viz. 2/5th, 2/11th, 2/28th, 2/34th, 2/42nd, 2/39th, 2/88th.

[733] See Wellesley to Beresford, Aug. 14.

[734] That this official did something, if not so much as Wellesley required, is shown by the letter to Cuesta of Aug. 11, in which it is said that ‘the British army has received no provisions since it was at Deleytosa, excepting some sent from Truxillo by Señor Lozano de Torres,’ while again on Aug. 8, Wellesley says that ‘we have had nothing since the third, save 4,000 lbs. of biscuit, and that was divided among 30,000 [say 23,000] mouths.’

[735] On Aug. 12, Wellesley writes from Jaraicejo to say that the dépôt at Abrantes is much too large, and that some of the flour ought to be sent back to Santarem, or even to Lisbon, till only 300,000 rations should be left.

[736] Wellesley to his brother Lord Wellesley, at Seville, Aug. 8.

[737] See Wellesley to Cuesta from Jaraicejo, Aug. 11.

[738] Lord Munster (p. 251) confesses that ‘so pressing were our wants that one of our commissaries took from them (the Spaniards) by force a hundred bullocks and a hundred mule loads of bread.’ Cuesta needs no further justification. But it is clear that his own men were doing things precisely similar.

[739] See the above-quoted dispatch to Cuesta of Aug. 11.

[740] See especially the remarks of Leach, George Napier, Leith-Hay, Stothert, and Cooper.

[741] Wellesley to Castlereagh, from Truxillo, Aug. 21, 1809.

[742] In his dispatch to the Marquis Wellesley, from Merida, Aug. 24, he observes that he had considered himself in honour bound to continue his co-operation unless (1) Soult should invade Portugal, or (2) the Spaniards should move off towards another theatre of war, i.e. La Mancha, or (3) he should himself be starved out, as actually happened.

[743] Eguia’s unhappy phrase was ‘If notwithstanding this answer [to the effect that the Truxillo magazines should be placed in charge of a British commissary] your Excellency should persist in marching your troops into Portugal, I shall be convinced that other causes, and not only the want of subsistence, have induced your Excellency to decide on taking such a step.’ [From Deleytosa, Aug. 19.]

[744] ‘I have had the honour of receiving your Excellency’s letter of this day’s date, and I feel much concerned that anything should have occurred to induce your Excellency to express a doubt of the truth of what I have written to you. As however your Excellency entertains that doubt, any further correspondence between us appears unnecessary, and accordingly this is the last letter which I shall have the honour of addressing to you.’ Wellesley to Eguia, Aug. 19.

[745] ‘It is said that Don L. de Calvo promised and engaged to supply the British army, upon which I have only to observe that I had already trusted too long to the promises of Spanish agents, and I had particular reason for want of confidence in Don L. de Calvo. At the moment when he was assuring me that the British army should have all the food the country could afford, I had in my possession an order from him directing the magistrates of Guadalupe to send to the Spanish head quarters provisions which a British commissary had prepared for the magazine at Truxillo.’ Oct. 30, to Marquis Wellesley.

[746] ‘I have no provisions, no horses, no means of transport, I am overloaded with sick; the horses of the cavalry are scarcely able to march, or those of the artillery to draw their guns. The officers and soldiers alike are worn down by want of food and privations of every description.’ Wellesley to Marquis Wellesley, Miajadas, Aug. 22.

[747] Lord Wellesley to Sir Arthur Wellesley, Seville, Aug. 22.

[748] The Armistice of Znaim was signed July 12. The Falmouth packet with the news reached Lisbon only on Aug. 9. Yet Wellesley had heard rumours of peace as early as Aug. 4 [Well. Disp. iv. 560].

[749] Canning to Lord Wellesley, London, Aug. 12: ‘The question which first arises is whether the state of things in Spain be such as that a British army of 30,000 men, acting in co-operation with the Spanish armies, could be reasonably expected either to effect the deliverance of the whole Peninsula, or to make head against the augmented force which Bonaparte may now be enabled to direct against that country. Upon this question your Excellency will receive the opinion of Sir A. Wellesley, to whom a copy of this dispatch is transmitted. If the opinion of Sir A. Wellesley shall be that, with so limited a force as 30,000 men, offensive operations in Spain could not prudently be attempted, and if he shall conceive that the utmost object to which such an army would be adequate is the defence of Portugal, your Excellency will then only have to state to the Spanish Government the nature of the instructions under which Sir A. Wellesley now acts.... If on the other hand Sir A. Wellesley shall entertain the opinion that with an effective British army of 30,000, combined with the Spanish and Portuguese armies, it might be possible either to expel the French from Spain, or to resist even their augmented force with a reasonable prospect of success ... your Excellency will then also receive the opinion of Sir A. Wellesley as to the conditions necessary to be obtained from the Spanish Government, as a preliminary to entering on any concerted system of joint military operations.’

[750] For Wellesley’s answer to Canning see his reply to his brother on Sept. 5, containing his ‘Observation on Mr. Secretary Canning’s Dispatch of Aug. 12,’ combined with the reference to his own dispatch of Aug. 24, which (as he writes to Castlereagh on Sept. 4) ‘gives the government my opinion upon all the points referred to in Mr. Canning’s dispatches.’ The quotation above comes from this last-named document of Aug. 24.

[751] The French force at Almonacid stood as follows:—4th Corps; Sebastiani’s division 6,000 men, Valence’s 4,000, Leval’s 3,000, and corps-cavalry (Merlin) 1,000. Milhaud’s dragoons had 2,200 men present; the King had brought up 600 horse and about 4,800 foot of his guards and of Dessolles’ division. The total therefore was about 3,800 cavalry and 17,800 foot.

[752] This remark I find in the narrative of General Bouligni, the commanding officer of engineers in the Army of La Mancha [Arteche, vi. 370]. Venegas was aiming his sneer at Castaños and at La Romana, who had got the nickname of ‘Marquis de la Romeria’ from his perpetual strategical movements to the rear.

[753] But see General Arteche’s calculation in vi. 392 of his Guerra de la Independencia.

[754] Soult to Joseph, Aug. 18, from Plasencia.

[755] Ney to Jourdan, from Salamanca, Aug. 22.

[756] See Joseph to Clarke, Aug. 22, and Napoleon to Clarke, Sept. 7.

[757] For a presentment of Joseph’s case see Chapter xii. of Jourdan’s Mémoires.

[758] Though named from Olivenza these regiments were actually raised in Northern Beira, with head quarters at Lamego, Olivenza having been ceded to Spain in 1801 at the treaty of Badajoz.

[759] Ces passe-ports devaient être délivrés aux noms supposés de Dupont et Garis, d’après les déclarations d’Argenton lui-même, du m^al Soult, du g^al Ricard, &c. L’un de ces passe-ports devait être utilisé par le cap^e Favre, aide de camp du g^al Lefebvre, qui voulait rentrer en France pour démissionner. L’autre devait servir à un officier supérieur qu’Argenton ne nomme pas, qui devait aller rendre compte de la situation à l’Empereur.

[760] The official report gives three missing officers here. But one of them was not a prisoner but turned up at Oropesa next morning, nominally sick. For this distressing story, see Leslie, pp. 155-6.

[761] Many of the casualties of the 5/60th were in the companies detached from the head quarters of the regiment, and not serving in Donkin’s brigade. It is unfortunately impossible to distinguish them, as all the regimental losses are given en bloc in the return.

[762] On arrival in Portugal, No. 6 company, 7th batt., was under 2nd Captain H. B. Lane; Captain C. D. Sillery joined shortly after the occupation of Oporto.