CHAPTER I

NAPOLEON AT MADRID

From December 4 to December 22 the Emperor remained fixed in the neighbourhood of Madrid. He did not settle down in the royal palace, and it would seem that he made no more than one or two hurried visits of inspection to the city[526]. He established himself outside the gates, at Chamartin, a desolate and uncomfortable country house of the Duke of Infantado, and devoted himself to incessant desk-work[527]. It was here that he drew up his projects for the reorganization of the kingdom of Spain, and at the same time set himself to the task of constructing his plans of campaign against those parts of the Peninsula which still remained unsubdued. In seventeen days, uninterrupted by the cares of travel, Bonaparte could get through an enormous amount of business. His words and deeds at this period are well worth studying, for the light that they throw alike on his own character and on his conceptions of the state and the needs of Spain.

[526] Not, as the Spaniards whispered, because he feared the stiletto of some fanatical monk, but because he wished to leave the place clear for his brother Joseph. For the curious story of his visit to the royal palace, and long study of the portrait of Philip II, see Toreño, i. 309.

[527] For the discomforts of Chamartin see the _Mémoires sur la Révolution d’Espagne_ of De Pradt. Though belonging to one of the richest nobles of Spain, it had not a single fireplace, and the imperial courtiers and aides-de-camp had to shiver in the ante-rooms over miserable _braseros_.

His first act was to annul the capitulation which he had granted to the inhabitants of Madrid. Having served its purpose in inducing the Junta to yield, it was promptly violated. ‘The Spaniards have failed to carry it out,’ he wrote, ‘and I consider the whole thing void[528].’ Looking at the preposterous clauses which he had allowed to be inserted in the document, there can be no doubt that this was his intention at the very moment when he ratified it. It was a small thing that he should break engagements, such as those in which he had promised not to quarter troops in the monasteries (Article 7), or to maintain all existing officials in their places (Article 2). But having guaranteed security for their life and property, freedom from arrest, and free exit at their pleasure, to such persons as chose to remain behind in the city, it was shameless to commence his proceedings with a proscription and a long series of arrests. The list of persons declared traitors and condemned to loss of life and goods was not very long: only ten persons were named, and seven of these were absent from Madrid. But the three others, the Prince of Castelfranco, the Marquis of Santa Cruz, and the Count of Altamira, were seized and dispatched into France, sentenced to imprisonment for life.

[528] ‘La capitulation, n’ayant pas été tenue par les habitants de Madrid, est nulle,’ Napoleon to Belliard, Dec. 5 (_Nap. Corresp._, 14,534). He scolds Belliard for having allowed the document to be printed and placarded on the walls. Every copy was to be torn down at once. In what respect the Spaniards had broken the treaty he does not state. He may have referred to the evasion of Castelar’s troops.

The arrests were a much more serious matter. In flagrant contravention of the terms of surrender, Bonaparte put under lock and key all the members of the Council of the Inquisition on whom he could lay hands, irrespective of what their conduct had been during the reign of the Supreme Junta. He also declared all the superior officers of the army resident in Madrid, even retired veterans, to be prisoners of war, and liable to answer with their necks for the safety of the captives of Dupont’s corps. Among them was discovered an old French _émigré_, the Marquis de Saint-Simon, who had entered the service of Charles IV as far back as 1793, and had taken part in the last campaign. The Emperor refused to consider him as a Spaniard, declared that he was one of his own subjects, had him tried by court-martial, and condemned him to death. All this was to lead up to one of those odious comedies of magnanimity which Bonaparte sometimes practised for the benefit of the editor of the _Moniteur_. Saint-Simon’s daughter was admitted to the imperial presence to beg for her father’s life, and the master of the world deigned to commute the punishment of the ‘traitor’ to imprisonment for life in the mountain-fortress of Joux[529]. This was a repetition of the Hatzfeldt affairs at Berlin, and Saint-Simon was treated even worse than the unfortunate Prussian nobleman of 1806. Truly the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel!

[529] Cf. _Nap. Corresp._, 14,708, with De Pradt (p. 205-6) and Arteche (iii. 432).

Among other persons who were arrested were Don Arias Mon, president of the Council of Castile, the Duke of Sotomayor, and about thirty other notables: some were ultimately sent away to France, others allowed to go free after swearing allegiance to Joseph Bonaparte.

All these measures were designed to strike terror into the hearts of the Spaniards. But at the same time the Emperor issued a series of decrees--in his own name and not in that of his brother, the titular king--which were intended to conciliate them by bestowing upon them certain tangible benefits. He knew that there existed the nucleus of a Liberal party in Spain, and hoped to draw it over to his side by introducing certain much-needed reforms in the administration of the country. With this object he removed the tiresome inter-provincial octroi duties, abolished all feudal dues and all rights of private jurisdiction, declared that all monopolies should be annulled, and forbade all assignments of public revenues to individuals. Such measures would have seemed excellent to many good Spaniards, if they had been introduced by a legitimate ruler: but coming from the hand of a foreign conqueror they were without effect. Moreover there was hardly a square mile of Spanish territory, outside Madrid and the other towns held by the French, where Napoleon’s writs could run. Every village which was unoccupied was passively or actively disobedient. The reforms, therefore, were but on paper. Another series of decrees, which appeared at the same time, were in themselves quite as justifiable as those which were concerned with administrative changes, but were certain to offend nine-tenths of the Spanish nation. They dealt with the Church and its ministers. The most important was one which declared (with perfect truth) that there were far too many monasteries and nunneries in Spain, and that it was necessary to cut them down to one-third of their existing number. The names of those which were destined to survive were published: to them the inmates of the remaining institutions were to be transferred, as vacancies arose. The suppressed convents were to become the property of the state. Part of their revenues was to be devoted to raising the salaries of the secular clergy, so that every parish priest should have an income of 2,400 reals (about £25). Monks or nuns who might choose to leave the monastic life were to be granted a small pension[530]. At the same time the Inquisition was abolished ‘as dangerous to the crown and to civil authority,’ and all its property confiscated. In Madrid there was seized 2,453,972 reals in hard cash--about £25,000; the smallness of the amount much surprised the French, who had vague ideas concerning the fabulous wealth of the institution[531].

[530] For details see the decree in _Nap. Corresp._, 14,528. The last-named clause curiously resembles a provision of Henry VIII of England, at the Dissolution of 1536.

[531] Cf. _Nap. Corresp._, 14,563, and De Pradt, _Mémoires_, &c., p. 205.

The only results of these measures were that every Spaniard was confirmed in his belief that Napoleon was a concealed atheist and an irreconcilable enemy of all religion. Could anything else be expected of one who (in spite of his _Concordats_ and _Te Deums_) was after all a child of the Revolution? The man who had persecuted the Pope in January, 1808, would naturally persecute the monks of Spain in December. As to the Inquisition, its fate inspired no rejoicing: it had been effete for many years: there was not a prisoner in any of its dungeons. Indeed it had enjoyed a feeble popularity of late, for having refused to lend itself as a tool to Godoy. The only result of Napoleon’s decree for its abolition was that it acquired (grotesque as the idea may seem) considerable credit in the eyes of the majority of the Spanish people, as one of the usurper’s victims. Never was work more wasted than that which the Emperor spent on his reforms of December, 1808. They actually tended to make old abuses popular with the masses, merely because he had attempted to remove them. As to the possibility of conciliating the comparatively small body of Liberals, he was equally in error: they agreed with the views of Jovellanos: reforms were necessary, but they must come from within, and not be imposed by force from without. They were Spaniards first and reformers afterwards. The only recruits whom Bonaparte succeeded in enrolling for his brother’s court were the purely selfish bureaucrats who would accept any government--who would serve Godoy, Ferdinand, Joseph, a red republic, or the Sultan of Turkey with equal equanimity, so long as they could keep their places or gain better ones.

The Emperor had a curious belief in the power of oaths and phrases over other men, though he was entirely free himself from any feebleness of the kind. He took considerable pains to get up a semblance of national acceptance of his brother’s authority, now that his second reign was about to begin. Joseph had appeared at Chamartin on December 2[532]: but he was not allowed to re-enter Madrid for many days. The Emperor told him to stay outside, at the royal palace of the Pardo, till things were ready for his reception. This was not at all to the mind of the King, who took his position seriously, and was deeply wounded at being ordered about in such an arbitrary fashion. He sent in a formal protest against the publication of the decrees of December 4: his own name, he complained, not that of his brother, ought to have appeared at the bottom of all these projects of reform. He had never coveted any crown, and least of all that of Spain: but having once accepted the position he could not consent to be relegated into a corner, while all the acts of sovereignty were being exercised by his brother. He was ready to resign his crown into the hands from which he had received it: but if he was not allowed to abdicate, he must be allowed to reign in the true sense of the word. It made him blush with shame before his subjects[533] when he saw them invited to obey laws which he had never seen, much less sanctioned. Napoleon refused to accept this abdication: he looked at matters from an entirely different point of view. He was master of Spain, as he considered, not merely by the cession made at Bayonne, but by the new title of conquest. He intended to restore Joseph to the throne, but till he had done so he saw no reason why he should not exercise all the rights of sovereignty at Madrid. If, in a moment of pique, he said that his brother might exchange the crown of Spain for that of Italy, or for the position of lieutenant of the Emperor in France during his own numerous absences, there is clear evidence that these were empty words. His dispatches show not the least sign of any project for the future of Spain other than the restoration of Joseph; and while the latter was at the Pardo he was continually receiving notes concerning the reorganization of the Spanish army and finances, which presuppose his confirmation on the throne within the next few days[534].

[532] Napier (i. 273) makes a curious blunder in saying that he remained at Burgos.

[533] This odd phrase is used by Joseph himself in his letter of Dec. 8, sent from the Pardo, after he had received the decrees issued on Dec. 4 by his brother.

[534] There is a complete _catena_ of letters and dispatches from Dec. 4 to Dec. 22, in which the retention of Joseph as king is presupposed: (1) 14,531 [Dec. 5] advises him to raise a Spanish army; (2) 14,537 [Dec. 7] advises the Spaniards to ‘make their King certain of their love and confidence’; (3) 14,543 [Dec. 9], the allocution to the Corregidor, bids the Madrileños swear fidelity on the Sacrament to their King; (4) 14,558 [Dec. 13] speaks of the knitting up again of the bonds which attach Joseph’s subjects to their sovereign; (5) 14,593 [Dec. 18] gives the King advice as to the reorganization of his finances. None of them could have been written if there had been any real intention of ousting Joseph from the throne.

It would seem that Napoleon’s real object in keeping his brother off the scene, and acting as if he intended to annex Spain to France as a vassal province, was merely to frighten the inhabitants of Madrid into a proper frame of mind. If they remained recalcitrant, and refused to come before him with petitions for pardon, they were to be threatened with a purely French military government. If they bowed the knee, they should have back King Joseph and the mockery of liberal and constitutional monarchy which he represented. So much we gather from the Emperor’s celebrated proclamation of December 7, and his allocution to the Corregidor and magistrates of Madrid two days later. Both of these addresses are in the true Napoleonesque vein. In the first we read that if the people of Spain prefer ‘the poisons which the English have ministered to them’ to the wholesome régime introduced from France, they shall be treated as a conquered province, and Joseph shall be removed to another throne. ‘I will place the crown of Spain on my own brow, and I will make it respected by evil-doers, for God has given me the strength and the force of will necessary to surmount all obstacles.’ In the second, which is written in a mood of less rigour, the inhabitants of Madrid are told that nothing could be easier than to cut up Spain into provinces, each governed by a separate viceroy. But if the clergy, nobles, merchants, and magistrates of the capital will swear a solemn oath upon the Blessed Sacrament to be true and loyal for the future to King Joseph, he shall be restored to them and the Emperor will make over to him all his rights of conquest. We cannot stop to linger over the other details of these addresses: one of the most astounding statements in them is that the quarrel between King Charles and King Ferdinand had been hatched by the English ministry[535], and that the Duke of Infantado, acting as their tool, was plotting to make Spain England’s vassal, ‘an insensate project which would have made blood run in torrents’! But this mattered little, as within a few weeks every English soldier would have been cast out of the Peninsula, and Lisbon no less than Saragossa, Valencia, and Seville would be flying the French flag[536].

[535] _Nap. Corresp._, 14,547, p. 108.

[536] Napier (i. 273) prints Bonaparte’s allocution in full, with the astonishing comment that it ‘was an exposition of the principles upon which Spain was to be governed, and it forces reflection upon the passionate violence with which men resist positive good, to seek danger, misery, and death rather than resign their prejudices.’ Is the desire for national independence a prejudice? And should it be easily resigned for ‘positive good,’ e.g. administrative reform?

In accordance with the Emperor’s command, the notables of Madrid, civil and ecclesiastical, were compelled to go through the ceremony of swearing allegiance to King Joseph on the Holy Sacrament, which was exposed for several days in every church for this purpose. Apparently a very large number of persons were induced, by terror or despair, to give in their formal submission to the intrusive King. Three pages of the _Madrid Gazette_ for December 15 are filled with the names of the deputies of the ten quarters and sixty-four _barrios_ of the city, who joined in the formal petition for the restoration to them of ‘that sovereign who unites so much kindness of heart with such an interest in the welfare of his subjects, and whose presence will be their joy.’

Satisfied with this declaration, and pretending to take it as the expression of the wishes of every Spaniard who was not the paid agent of England or the slave of the Inquisition, the Emperor was graciously pleased to restore Joseph to all his rights. Great preparations were made for his solemn entry, which was celebrated with considerable state in the month of January.

But his plans for the reorganization of Spain only formed a part of the Emperor’s work at Chamartin. He was also busied in the reconcentration of his armies, for the purpose of overrunning those parts of the Peninsula which still remained unconquered. On the very morrow of the fall of Madrid he had pushed out detachments in all directions, to cover all the approaches to the capital, and to hunt down any remnants of the Spanish armies which might still be within reach[537]. He was particularly hopeful that he might catch the army of the Centre, which, with Ney and Maurice Mathieu at its heels, was coming in from the direction of Siguenza and Calatayud. To intercept it the fusiliers of the Guard marched for Alcala, one of Victor’s divisions for Guadalajara, and another for Aranjuez; while Bessières with the Guard cavalry, and one of Latour-Maubourg’s brigades of dragoons, swept all the country around the Tajuna and the Tagus. But, as we have already seen, La Peña’s famishing men ultimately got away in the direction of Cuenca. When it was certain that they had escaped from the net, Napoleon rearranged his forces on the eastern side of Madrid. Bessières, with Latour-Maubourg’s whole division of dragoons[538], occupied cantonments facing at once towards Cuenca and towards La Mancha: the Marshal’s head quarters, on December 11, were at Tarancon. Of Victor’s infantry, one division (Ruffin) marched on Toledo, which opened its gates without resistance; another, that of Villatte, remained at Aranjuez with an advanced guard at Ocaña, a few miles further south. The third division of the 1st Corps, that of Lapisse, remained at Madrid. Ney’s troops were also at hand in this quarter: when La Peña had finally escaped from him, he was told to leave the division of Dessolles at Guadalajara and Siguenza. These forces were destined to keep open the communications between Madrid and Aragon, where the siege of Saragossa was just about to begin. With his other two divisions, those of Marchand and Maurice Mathieu[539], Ney was directed to march into Madrid: he was to form part of the mass of troops which the Emperor was collecting, in and about the capital, for new offensive operations. For this same purpose the 4th Corps, that of Lefebvre, was brought up from Old Castile: the Marshal with his two leading divisions, those of Sebastiani and Leval, arrived in Madrid on December 9: his third division, that of Valence, composed of Poles, was some way to the rear, having only reached Burgos on December 1. But by the thirteenth the whole corps was concentrated at Madrid. A few days later the divisions of Sebastiani and Valence were pushed on to Talavera, as if to form the advanced guard of an expedition against Estremadura, while that of Leval remained in Madrid[540]. Talavera had been occupied, before the Duke of Dantzig’s arrival, by the cavalry of Lasalle and Milhaud, who drove out of it without difficulty the demoralized troops that had murdered San Juan. This mob, now under the orders of Galluzzo, the Captain-General of Estremadura, fled behind the Tagus and barricaded the bridges of Arzobispo and Almaraz, to cover its front.

[537] _Nap. Corresp._, 14,525.

[538] I cannot speak for certain as to the moment at which Digeon’s brigade of dragoons, which had been lent to Lannes for the Tudela campaign, rejoined Latour-Maubourg. But probably it came across with Ney, as it was with its division by Dec. 28 (Jourdan’s _Mémoires_, p. 138).

[539] The latter had taken over Lagrange’s division after Tudela.

[540] This division was incomplete, having left behind in Biscay two Dutch and one German battalions.

It will thus be seen that the troops of Victor, Lefebvre, and Dessolles, with the cavalry of Latour-Maubourg, Lasalle, and Milhaud thrown out in front of them, formed a semicircle protecting Madrid to the east, the south, and the south-west. On the north-west, in the direction of the Guadarrama and the roads towards the kingdom of Leon, the circle was completed by a brigade of Lahoussaye’s division of dragoons, who lay in and about Avila[541]. In the centre, available for a blow in any direction, were the whole of the Imperial Guard (horse and foot), Ney’s corps, Lapisse’s division of Victor’s corps, and Leval’s division of Lefebvre’s corps, besides King Joseph’s Guards--a total of at least 40,000 men. It only needed the word to be given, and these troops (after deducting a garrison for Madrid) could march forward, either to join Lefebvre for a blow at Lisbon, or Victor for a blow at Seville.

[541] The other brigade was astray near Toledo, contrary to the Emperor’s intention: _Nap. Corresp._, 14,594, orders it to march on Talavera.

Meanwhile there were still reinforcements coming up from the rear: the belated corps of Mortier, the last great instalment of the army of Germany, had at last reached Vittoria, accompanied by the division of dragoons of Lorges. The Marshal was directed to take his corps to Saragossa, in order to assist Lannes and Moncey in the siege of that city; but the dragoons were sent to Burgos on the road to Madrid. Moreover Junot’s corps, after having been refitted and reorganized since its return from Portugal, was also available. Its leading division, that of Delaborde, had crossed the Bidassoa on December 4, and had now reached Burgos. The other two divisions, those of Loison and Heudelet (who had replaced Travot at the head of the 3rd Division) were not far behind. They could all be brought up to Madrid by the first day of January. The last division of reserve cavalry, Millet’s four regiments of dragoons, was due a little later, and had not yet crossed the frontier.

That the Emperor believed that there was no serious danger to be apprehended from the side of Leon and Old Castile, is shown by the fact that he allotted to these regions only the single corps of Soult. Nor had the Duke of Dalmatia even the whole of his troops in hand, for the division of Bonnet was immobilized in Santander, and only those of Merle and Mermet were near his head quarters at Carrion. The cavalry that properly belonged to his corps were detached, under Lasalle, in New Castile. Instead of them he had been assigned the four regiments forming the division of Franceschi[542]. He was promised the aid of Millet’s dragoons when they should arrive, but this would not be for some three weeks at the least. Nevertheless, with the 15,000 foot and 1,800 or 2,000 light cavalry at his disposal, Soult was told that he commanded everything from the Douro to the Bay of Biscay, and that he might advance at once into Leon, as there was nothing in his way that could withstand him[543]. As far as the Emperor knew, the only hostile force in this direction was the miserable wreck of Blake’s army, which had been rallied by La Romana on the Esla. In making this supposition he was gravely mistaken, and if Soult had obeyed his orders without delay, and advanced westward from Carrion, he would have found himself in serious trouble; for, as we shall presently see, the English from Salamanca were in full march against him at the moment when the Emperor dispatched these instructions. It was in the valley of the Douro, and not (as Bonaparte intended) in that of the Tagus that the next developments of the winter campaign of 1808 were to take place.

[542] 8th Dragoons, 22nd Chasseurs, 1st Supplementary regiment of Chasseurs, and Hanoverian Chasseurs.

[543] Cf. _Nap. Corresp._, 14,581 (of Dec. 10, 1808, but wrongly dated Dec. 17 in the collection), the rough draft of the dispatch to be sent to Soult, with the full document, which was fortunately captured on its way to Carrion, and fell into the hands of Sir John Moore. It is printed in the original French in James Moore’s account of his brother’s campaign (London, 1809). The documents tally accurately, but Berthier has expanded, as was his wont, Napoleon’s short phrases.

It remains only to speak of the north-east. The Emperor was determined that Saragossa should pay dearly for the renown that it had won during its first siege. He directed against it not only Moncey’s force, the troops which had won Tudela, but the whole of Mortier’s 5th Corps. One of its divisions was to take post at Calatayud, relieving Musnier’s eight battalions at that point, and to keep open (with the aid of Dessolles) the road from Saragossa to Madrid: but the rest would be available to aid in the siege. More than 40,000 men were to be turned against Palafox and the stubborn Aragonese. With Catalonia we need not deal in this place: the operations in the principality had little or no connexion with those in the rest of Spain. St. Cyr and Duhesme, with the 7th Corps, had to work out their own salvation. They were not to expect help from the Emperor, nor on the other hand were they expected to assist him for the present, though it was hoped that some day they might invade Aragon from the side of Lerida.

Looking at the disposition of the French troops on December 15-20, we can see that the Emperor had it in his power to push the central mass at Madrid, supported by the oncoming reserves under Junot and Lorges, either to support Lefebvre on the road to Lisbon, or Victor on the road to Seville. As a matter of fact there can be no doubt that the former was his intention. He was fully under the impression that the English army was at this moment executing a hasty retreat upon Portugal, and he had announced that his next move was to hurl them into the sea. ‘Tout porte à penser que les Anglais sont en pleine marche rétrograde,’ he wrote to Soult on December 10. On December 12 he issued in his _Bulletin_ the statement that the ‘English are in full flight towards Lisbon, and if they do not make good speed the French army may enter that capital before them[544].’ If anything was wanted to confirm the Emperor in his idea that the English were not likely to be heard of in the north, it was the capture by Lasalle’s cavalry of eight stragglers belonging to the King’s German Legion near Talavera. ‘When we catch Hanoverians the English cannot be far off,’ he observed[545], and made all his arrangements on the hypothesis that Moore would be met in the valley of the Tagus, and not in that of the Douro. In so doing he was breaking one of his own precepts, that censuring generals ‘qui se font des tableaux’ concerning their enemy’s position and intentions, before they have sufficient data upon which to form a sound conclusion. All that he really knew about Moore and his army was that they had reached Salamanca in the middle of November, and had been joined towards the end of the month by Hope’s column that marched--as we shall presently relate--via Badajoz and the Escurial. Of the existence of this last division we have clear proof that Bonaparte was aware, for he inserted a silly taunt in the _Bulletin_ of December 5 to the effect that ‘the conduct of the British had been dishonourable. Six thousand of them were at the Escurial on November 20: the Spaniards hoped that they would aid in the defence of the capital of their allies. But they did not know the English: as soon as the latter heard that the Emperor was at the Somosierra they beat a retreat, joined the division at Salamanca, and retired towards the sea-coast.’ There is also no doubt that the Emperor had received intelligence of a more or less definite sort concerning the landing of Baird’s division at Corunna. It is vaguely alluded to in the 10th _Bulletin_, and clearly spoken of in the _Madrid Gazette_ of December 17[546]. But though aware of the existence of all the three fractions of the British army, Bonaparte could draw no other deduction from the facts at his disposal than that the whole of them would promptly retreat to Portugal, when the passage of the Somosierra and the fall of Madrid became known to their commander-in-chief. Lisbon, he thought, must be their base of operations, and on it they must retire: he had forgotten that one of the advantages of sea-power is that the combatant who possesses it can transfer his base to any port that he may choose. So far from being tied to Lisbon was Moore, that he at one moment contemplated making Cadiz his base, and finally moved it to Corunna.

[544] See the statement in the _Madrid Gazette_ for Dec. 12 (p. 1576). It is not in the _Correspondance de Napoléon_, and contains invaluable details as to the placing of the French army on that day.

[545] ‘Le général Lasalle a pris huit Hanovriens.... Puisqu’il a pris des Hanovriens, cela sent la proximité des Anglais’ (_Nap. Corresp._, 14,551, Dec. 12). These must have been stragglers from Hope’s division, which had passed Talavera at least a fortnight before. The Germans with it were the 3rd Light Dragoons, K.G.L.

[546] Napoleon seems to have got the knowledge of Baird’s arrival from the London newspapers. An English brigantine, called the _Ferret_, ran into Santander, under the impression that it was still in Spanish hands. On board were many journals, with details about the Cintra Court of Inquiry, and about the reinforcements for Spain. Long extracts from them were reprinted in the _Madrid Gazette_ for the second half of December. The danger of the press already existed!

With pre-conceived ideas of this sort in his head, the Emperor was preparing to push on his main body in support of the advanced troops under Lefebvre and Lasalle on the road to Estremadura and Portugal. Victor meanwhile was to guard against the unlikely chance of any move being made on Madrid by the shattered ‘Army of the Centre’ from Cuenca, or by new Andalusian levies. Already Lasalle’s horsemen were pushing on to Truxillo and Plasencia, almost to the gates of Badajoz and to the Portuguese frontier, when unexpected news arrived, and the whole plan of campaign was upset.

Instead of retiring on Lisbon, Sir John Moore had pushed forward into the plains of Old Castile, and was advancing by forced marches to attack the isolated corps of Marshal Soult. Bonaparte was keenly alive, now as always, to the danger of a defeat in the valley of the Douro. Moreover the sight of a British army in the field, and within striking distance, acted on him as the red rag acts upon the bull. No toil or trouble would be too great that ended in its destruction, and looking at his maps the Emperor thought that he saw the way to surround and annihilate Moore’s host. Throwing up without a moment’s delay the whole plan for the invasion of Portugal, he marched for the passes of the Guadarrama with every man that was disposable at Madrid. His spirits were high, and the event seemed to him certain. He sent back to his brother Joseph the command to put in the Madrid newspapers and circulate everywhere the news that 36,000 English troops were surrounded and doomed to destruction[547]. Meanwhile, with 50,000 men at his back, he was marching hard for Arevalo and Benavente.

[547] I know no better way of displaying the Napoleonesque method than the printing opposite each other of his dispatches 14,620 and 14,626, both addressed to Joseph Bonaparte. For the benefit of the newspapers the English army was to be overstated by 10,000 or 12,000 men!

14,620. 14,626.

Faites mettre dans les journaux Leur force _réelle_ est de 20,000 et répandre partout que 36,000 à 21,000 infanterie, et de 4,000 Anglais sont cernés. Je suis à 5,000 de cavalerie avec une sur leurs derrières tandis que quarantaine de pièces de canon. le maréchal Soult est devant eux.

SECTION VIII: CHAPTER II

MOORE AT SALAMANCA

It will be remembered that on October 6, 1808, the command of the British forces in Portugal had passed into the hands of Sir John Moore, to the entire satisfaction of Wellesley and the other officers who had served under those slow and cautious generals Sir Hew Dalrymple and Sir Harry Burrard. The moment that the news of Vimiero was received, and long before the details of the Convention of Cintra could come to hand, the Government had determined to send on the victorious British army into Spain, and to assist it with heavy reinforcements from home. Dalrymple was even informed that he might cross the frontier at once, if he chose, without waiting for any detailed instructions from the War Office[548]. Wellesley, as we have seen, thought that his chief should have done so without delay, and observed that if _he_ had charge of affairs the army would be at Madrid by October 1[549].

[548] Castlereagh to Dalrymple, Sept. 2, 1808: ‘As circumstances may come to your knowledge which might render the immediate employment of your disposable forces in the north of Spain of the utmost importance to the common cause, without waiting for orders from hence, I am to inform you that you should not consider the present instructions as depriving you of the latitude of discretion which you now possess, without waiting for express orders from hence.’

[549] See p. 274.

Yet when Moore took over the command, he found that little or nothing had been done to carry out this design. The delay was partly occasioned by the tardy evacuation of Portugal by Junot’s troops: the last of them, as we have seen[550], did not leave the Tagus till the month of October had begun. But it was still more due to the leisurely and feeble management of Dalrymple, who would not march without detailed and definite orders from home. He might well have begun to move his brigades eastward long before the last small detachments of the French had disappeared. But when on October 6 Dalrymple’s successor looked around him, he found that the whole army was still concentrated in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, save Hope’s two brigades, and these had been sent forward to the frontier not so much for the purpose of entering Spain, as for that of bringing moral force to bear on General Galluzzo, and compelling him to abandon his ridiculous siege of Elvas. Two things had been especially neglected by Dalrymple--the exploration of the roads that lead from Portugal into Spain, and the pressing on of the formation of a proper divisional and regimental transport for the army. It is strange to find that he had remembered the existence of both of these needs: his dispatches speak of his intention to send officers both towards Badajoz and into Beira, and he asserts that ‘the army is in high order and fit to move when required[551].’ Yet his successor had to state that as a matter of fact no body of information about the routes and resources of Portugal and Spain had been collected, and that the scheme for moving and feeding the army had not been drawn up. ‘When I shall pass the frontier of Portugal,’ wrote Moore to Castlereagh, ‘it is impossible for me at this instant to say: it depends on a knowledge of the country which I am still without, and on commissariat arrangements yet unmade[552].’ We may grant that Dalrymple had been somewhat handicapped by the fact that his army had been landed, in the old haphazard British fashion, without any proper military train. We may also concede that no one could have foreseen that the Portuguese and Spanish governments would be unable to supply any useful information concerning the main roads and the resources of their own countries. But the whole month of September had been at the disposal of the late commander-in-chief, and he, with his quartermaster-general, Murray, must take the blame of having failed to accomplish in it all that might have been done. Within a fortnight after the Convention of Cintra had been signed, British officers ought to have explored every road to the frontier, and to have reported on their facilities. Yet on October 6 Moore could not find any one who could tell him whether the roads Lisbon-Sabugal-Almeida, and Lisbon-Abrantes-Castello Branco were or were not practicable for artillery! And this was in spite of the fact that a British detachment had actually marched from Lisbon to Almeida, in order to receive the surrender of the garrison of that fortress. The fact would seem to be that Dalrymple had placed his confidence in the native governments of the Peninsula. He vainly imagined that the Portuguese engineers could supply him with accurate details concerning the roads and resources of Beira and the Alemtejo. He sent a very capable officer--Lord William Bentinck--to Madrid, and entered into communication with the Spanish government. From them he hoped that he might get some account of the plan of campaign in which his army was to join, a list of the routes which it would be convenient for him to use, and details as to the way in which he could collect and carry provisions. As a matter of fact he could only obtain a quantity of vague and generally useless suggestions, some of which argued an astonishing ignorance of military affairs in those who made them. If there had been a Spanish commander-in-chief, Dalrymple might have extracted from him his views about the campaign that must shortly begin. But the Junta had steadfastly refused to unite the charge of their many armies in the hands of a single general: they told Lord William that he might make inquiries from Castaños: but the Andalusian general could only speak for himself. It was not he, but a council of war, that would settle the plan of operations: he could only give Bentinck the conclusions that had been arrived at after the abortive meeting of generals that had taken place on September 5. In answer to a string of questions administered to him by Dalrymple’s emissary, as to the routes that the British army had better follow, and the methods of supply that it had better adopt, he could only reply that he was at present without good maps, and could not give the necessary information in detail. He could only refer Bentinck to the newly formed Commissariat Board (_Junta de Víveres_), which ought to be able to designate the best routes with reference to the feeding of the army and the establishment of magazines[553]. Of course this board turned out to know even less than Castaños himself. Nothing whatever was done for the British army, with the exception that a certain Colonel Lopez was sent to its head quarters to act as the representative of the _Junta de Víveres_. It does not seem that he was able to do anything for the expeditionary force that they could not have done for themselves. In this way the whole time that Dalrymple had at his disposal had been wasted in the long correspondence with Madrid, and not a soldier had passed the frontier when Moore took up the command.

[550] See p. 283, dealing with the garrison of Elvas.

[551] Dalrymple to Castlereagh, Sept. 27.

[552] Moore to Castlereagh from Lisbon, Oct. 9, 1808.

[553] The very interesting (and sometimes very sensible) replies of Castaños to Bentinck will be found in the latter’s letter to Dalrymple (Oct. 2).

Meanwhile, it ought at least to have been possible to make preparations in Portugal, even if nothing could be done in Spain. But the question of transport and commissariat was a very difficult one. The British army had struggled from Mondego Bay to Lisbon with the aid of the small ox-wagons of the country-side, requisitioned and dismissed from village to village. But clearly a long campaign in Spain could not be managed on these lines. A permanent provision of draught and pack animals was required, and natives must be hired to drive them. The few regular enlisted men of the Royal Wagon Train who had reached Portugal were only enough to take care of the more important military stores. Moreover their wagons turned out to be much too heavy for the roads of the Peninsula, and had to be gradually replaced by country carts[554]. The great mass of the regimental baggage and the food had always to be transported on mules, or vehicles bought or hired from the peasantry. The Portuguese did not care to contract to take their animals over the frontier, and it was most difficult to collect transport of any kind, even with the aid of the local authorities. When once Moore’s dreadful retreat began, his drivers and muleteers deserted their wagons and beasts, and fled home, resolved that if they must lose their property they would not lose their lives also[555].

[554] Moore to Castlereagh from Salamanca, Dec. 10, 1808.

[555] A good account of the difficulties of transport in Moore’s army will be found in Quartermaster Surtees’s _Twenty-five Years in the Rifle Brigade_. Placed in charge of the baggage and beasts of the 2/95th, he found it absolutely impossible to keep the native drivers from absconding, even when they had to sacrifice their beasts to do so (pages 81-82).

In later years Wellington gradually succeeded in collecting a large and invaluable army of Spanish and Portuguese employés, who--in their own fashion--were as good campaigners as his soldiery, and served him with exemplary fidelity even when their pay was many months in arrear. But in 1808 this body of trained camp-followers did not exist, and Moore had the greatest difficulty in scraping together the transport that took him forward to Salamanca. As to commissariat arrangements, he found that even though he divided his army into several small columns, and utilized as many separate routes as possible, it was not easy for the troops to live. The commissariat officers, sent on to collect magazines at the various halting-places, were so inexperienced and so uniformly ignorant of the Portuguese tongue, that even where they were energetic they had the greatest difficulty in catering for the army. Wellesley, as we have already seen[@repeated 556 note], had been complaining bitterly of their inefficiency during the short Vimiero campaign. Moore, more gracious in his phrases, wrote that ‘we have a Commissariat extremely zealous, but quite new and inexperienced in the important duties which it falls to their lot to perform.’ This was but one of the many penalties which England had to pay for her long abstention from continental warfare on a large scale. It is easy to blame the ministry, the permanent officials in London, or the executive officials on the spot[556]. But in reality mere want of knowledge of the needs of a great land-war accounts for most of the mistakes that were committed. To lavish angry criticism on individuals, as did the Opposition papers in England at the time, was almost as unjust as it was useless. The art of war, in this as in its other branches, had to be learnt; it was not possible to pick it up by intuition. Nothing can be more interesting than to look through the long series of orders and directions drawn up by the quartermaster-general’s department between 1809 and 1813, in which the gradual evolution of order out of chaos by dint of practical experience can be traced. But in October, 1808, the process was yet in its infancy.

[556] See p. 231.

It was with the greatest difficulty, therefore, that Moore got his army under weigh. He found it, as he wrote to Castlereagh, ‘without equipment of any kind, either for the carriage of the light baggage of regiments, artillery stores, commissariat stores, or any other appendage of an army, and without a magazine formed on any of the routes by which we are to march[557].’ Within ten days, however, the whole force was on the move. The heavy impedimenta were placed in store in Lisbon: it was a thousand pities that the troops did not leave behind their women and children, whose presence with the regiments was destined to cause so many harrowing scenes during the forced marches of the ensuing winter. They were offered a passage to England, but the greater part refused it, and the colonels (from mistaken kindness) generally allowed them to march with their corps.

[557] Moore to Castlereagh, Oct. 9, 1808.

The direction in which the army was to move had been settled in a general way by the dispatches sent from Castlereagh to Dalrymple in September[558]. It was to be held together in a single mass and sent forward to the Ebro, there to be put in line with Blake and Castaños. An attempt on the part of the Junta to distract part of it to Catalonia had been firmly and very wisely rejected. The French were still on the defensive when the plan was drawn out, and Burgos had been named as the point at which the British troops might aim. It was very close to the enemy, but in September neither English nor Spanish statesmen were taking into consideration the probability of the advent of the Emperor, and his immediate assumption of the offensive. They were rather dreaming of an advance towards the Pyrenees by the allied armies. If the large reinforcements which were promised to Moore were destined to land at Corunna, rather than at Gihon or Santander, it was merely because these latter ports were known to be small and destitute of resources, not because they were considered to be dangerously near to the French. La Romana’s division, it will be remembered, was actually put ashore at Santander: it is quite possible that Sir David Baird’s troops might have been sent to the same destination, but for the fortunate fact that it was believed that it would be impossible to supply him with transport from the bare and rugged region of the Montaña. Corunna was selected as the landing-place for all the regiments that were to join Moore, partly on account of its safe and spacious port, partly because it was believed that food and draught animals could be collected with comparative ease from Galicia.

[558] Castlereagh to Dalrymple, Sept. 2, 1808.

More than 12,000 men, including three regiments of cavalry (the arm in which the force in Portugal was most deficient) and a brigade of the Guards, had been drawn from the home garrisons. The charge of this fine division had been given to Sir David Baird[559], an officer with a great Indian reputation, but comparatively unpractised in European warfare. They were embarked at Harwich, Portsmouth, Ramsgate, and Cork at various dates during September and October, and on the thirteenth of the latter month the main body of the force reached Corunna. By some stupid mismanagement at home the cavalry, the most important part of the expedition, were shipped off the last, and did not arrive till three weeks[560] after the rest of the troops had reached Spain.

[559] It is fair to this distinguished officer to state that his dispatches and letters show no trace whatever of the irascible and impracticable temper that has been attributed to him. They are most sensible, cautious, and prudent, and not at all what might have been expected from the hero of the story of ‘the lad that was chained to our Davie.’

[560] The 7th and 10th Hussars apparently on Nov. 7, the 15th Hussars on Nov. 12. See Baird to Castlereagh, Nov. 8 and 13, 1808.

By October 18 Moore reported that the greater part of his troops were already in motion, and as Baird’s infantry had reached Corunna on the thirteenth, it might have been expected that the junction of their forces would have taken place in time to enable them to play a part in the defensive campaign against Napoleon which ended in the fall of Madrid on December 4. If the troops had marched promptly, and by the best and shortest routes, they might have easily concentrated at Salamanca by the middle of November: Napier suggests the thirteenth[561] as a probable day, and considering the distances the date seems a very reasonable one. At that moment Gamonal and Espinosa had only just been fought and lost: Tudela was yet ten days in the future: sixteen days were to elapse before the Somosierra was forced. It is clear that the British army, which at Salamanca would have been only seven marches (150 miles) from Madrid, and four marches (eighty miles) from Valladolid, might have intervened in the struggle: whether its intervention might not have ended in disaster, considering the enormous forces of the French[562], is another matter. But the British Government intended that Moore and Baird should take part in the campaign: the Junta had been told to expect their help: and for the consolidation of the alliance between the two nations it was desirable that the help should be given in the most prompt and effective fashion.

[561] Napier, i. 347.

[562] It is to be remembered that Baird’s cavalry would not have been up till Nov. 20-25, owing to its tardy start from England. Nothing could have been more unlucky.

There is no possibility of asserting that this was done. Moore and Baird did not join till December 20: no British soldier fired a single shot at a Frenchman before December 12[563]. The whole army was so much out of the campaign that Bonaparte never could learn what had become of it, and formed the most erroneous hypotheses concerning its position and intentions. We may frankly say that not one of his movements, down to the fall of Madrid, was in the least influenced by the fact that there was a British force in Spain.

[563] At the skirmish at Rueda on that date.

That this circumstance was most unfortunate from the political point of view it would be childish to deny. It gave discontented Spaniards the opportunity of asserting that they had been deserted and betrayed by their allies[564]. It afforded Bonaparte the chance, which he did not fail to take, of enlarging upon the invariable selfishness and timidity of the British[565]. It furnished the critics of the ministry in London with a text for declamations against the imbecility of its arrangements. It is true that after the fall of Madrid Moore was enabled, by the new situation of affairs, to make that demonstration against the French lines of communication in Castile which wrecked Napoleon’s original plan of campaign, and saved Lisbon and Seville. But this tardy though effective intervention in the struggle was a mere afterthought. Moore’s original plan had been to make a tame retreat on Lisbon, when he discovered that he was too late to save Madrid. It was a mere chance that an intercepted dispatch and an unfounded rumour caused him to throw up the idea of retiring into Portugal, and to strike at the Emperor’s flank and rear by his famous march on Sahagun. Without this piece of good fortune he would never have repaired the mischief caused by the lateness of his original arrival on the scene. How that late arrival came to pass it is now our duty to investigate.

[564] See the letters from Spanish officers in the _Madrid Gazette_ for Dec. 19, 1808.

[565] See the Dec. 5 _Bulletin_, and the inspired articles in the _Madrid Gazette_ for Dec. 14.

As far as Moore’s own army was concerned, the loss of time may be ascribed to a single cause--a mistake made in the choice of the roads by which the advance into Spain was conducted. It was the original intention of the British general to march on Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo by three parallel routes, those by Coimbra and Celorico, by Abrantes, Castello Branco, and Guarda, and by Elvas, Alcantara, and Coria[566]. He was compelled to utilize the last-named road, which was rather circuitous and notoriously bad, by the fact that Dalrymple had left Hope’s two brigades at Elvas, and that any advance from that place into the kingdom of Leon could only be directed across the bridge of Alcantara. If Moore had stuck to this original resolve, and used none but these three roads, his army might have been concentrated at Salamanca on or about November 13. This could have been done with ease if all the reserve artillery and heavy baggage had taken the Coimbra-Celorico road, the easiest of the three, and nothing but an irreducible minimum had been allowed to follow the columns which went by the other routes. It would have been necessary also to move the troops in masses of not less than a brigade, and to keep them well closed up.

[566] Moore to Castlereagh, Oct. 9: ‘The march from this will be by the three roads Coimbra, Guarda, and Alcantara.’

Moore had the best intentions: he cut down the baggage to what he considered the smallest practicable bulk, and started off the leading regiments on the Coimbra route as easily as October 11, two days after he had taken over the command[567]. ‘I am sufficiently aware,’ he wrote, ‘of the importance of even the name of a British army in Spain, and I am hurrying as much as possible[568].’ Then followed an irreparable mistake: it was all-important to find out which of the roads was most suitable for artillery and heavy baggage. Moore consulted the available officers of the old Portuguese army, and received from them the almost incredibly erroneous information that neither the Coimbra-Celorico-Almeida road nor the Abrantes-Guarda-Almeida road was practicable for artillery. It would seem that he also sought information from the officers whom Dalrymple had sent out into the province of Beira, and that their answers tallied with those of the Portuguese[569], for he wrote to Castlereagh that ‘every information agreed that neither of them was fit for artillery or could be recommended for cavalry.’ General Anstruther, then in command at Almeida, must take a considerable share in the blame that has to be distributed to those who failed to give the Commander-in-chief accurate information, for he more than any one else had been given the chance of trying these roads. But whatever may be the proportion in which the censure must be distributed, a certain amount must be reserved for Moore himself. He ought on first principles to have refused to believe the strange news that was brought to him. It might have occurred to him to ask how heavy guns of position had found their way to the ramparts of Almeida, the second fortress of Portugal, if there was no practicable road leading to it. A few minutes spent in consulting any book dealing with Portuguese history would have shown that in the great wars of the Spanish Succession, and again in that of 1762[570], forces of all arms had moved freely up and down the Spanish frontier, in the direction of Celorico, Guarda, Sabugal, and Castello Branco. Even a glance at Dumouriez’s _Account of the Kingdom of Portugal_, the one modern military book on the subject then available, would have enabled Moore to correct the ignorant reports of the natives. Strangest of all, there seems to have been no one to tell him that, only four months before, Loison, in his campaign against the insurgents of Beira, had taken guns first from Lisbon to Almeida, then from Almeida to Pezo-de-Ragoa and Vizeu, and finally from Almeida to Abrantes[571]. It is simply astounding that no one seems to have remembered this simple fact. In short, it was not easily pardonable in any competent general that he should accept as possible the statement that there was no road for artillery connecting the capital of Portugal and the main stronghold of its north-eastern frontier. Moore did so, and in a fortnight was bitterly regretting his credulity. ‘If anything adverse happens,’ he wrote to his subordinate Hope, ‘I have not necessity to plead: the road we are now travelling [Abrantes-Villa Velha-Guarda] reached Guarda, and as far as I have already seen the road presents few obstacles, and those easily surmounted. This knowledge was only acquired by our own officers: when the brigade was at Castello Branco, it was still not certain that it could proceed[572].’ What made the case worse was that another of the three roads, the one by Coimbra and Celorico, was far easier than that by Guarda. Both Wellesley and Masséna took enormous trains of artillery and baggage over it in 1810, without any particular difficulty[573].

[567] Moore to Castlereagh, Oct. 9.

[568] Ibid., Oct. 11.

[569] Moore also consulted Colonel Lopez, the Spanish officer who had been sent to his head quarters by the Junta, as being specially skilled in roads and topography. But Lopez disclaimed any knowledge, and could only say that Junot’s artillery had been nearly ruined by the roads between Ciudad Rodrigo and Abrantes.

[570] e.g. in 1706 Lord Galway took over forty guns, twelve of which were heavy siege-pieces, from Elvas by Alcantara and Coria to Ciudad Rodrigo. In 1762 the Spaniards took no less than ninety guns from Ciudad Rodrigo by Celorico and Sabugal to Castello Branco, and thence back into Spain.

[571] Napier does not seem to know this, and distinctly states (i. 102) that Loison had no guns.

[572] Moore to Hope, from Almeida, Nov. 8.

[573] In endeavouring to excuse Moore, Napier takes the strange course of making out that the Guarda road, though usable, as experience showed, was ‘in a military sense, non-practicable’ from its difficulties. This will not stand in face of Moore’s words quoted above. Of the Coimbra-Celorico road he omits all mention (i. 345).

Misled by the erroneous reports as to the impracticability of the Portuguese roads, Moore took the unhappy step of sending six of the seven batteries of his corps, his only two cavalry regiments, and four battalions of infantry to act as escort[574], by the circuitous high-road from Elvas to Madrid. In order to reach Salamanca they were to advance almost to the gates of the Spanish capital, only turning off at Talavera, in order to take the route by the Escurial, Espinar, and Arevalo. To show the result of this lamentable divagation, it is only necessary to remark that from Lisbon to Salamanca via Coimbra is about 250 miles: from Lisbon to Salamanca via Elvas, Talavera, and Arevalo is about 380 miles: i.e. it was certain that the column containing all Moore’s cavalry and nearly all his guns would be at least seven or eight days late at the rendezvous, in a crisis when every moment was of vital importance. As a matter of fact the head of the main column reached Salamanca on November 13: the cavalry and guns turned up on December 4. It would not be fair, however, to say that the absence of Hope’s column delayed the advance of the whole army for so much as three weeks. It was only the leading regiments from Lisbon that appeared on November 13. However carefully the march of the rest had been arranged, the rear could not have come in till several days later: indeed the last brigade did not appear till the twenty-third: this delay, however, was owing to bad arrangements and preventable accidents. But it cannot be denied that the twelve days Nov. 23-Dec. 4 were completely sacrificed by the non-arrival of the cavalry and guns, without which Moore very wisely refused to move forward. If the army had been concentrated--Baird could easily have arrived from Corunna ere this--it would have been able to advance on November 23, and the campaign would undoubtedly have been modified in its character, for the Emperor would have learnt of the arrival of Moore upon the scene some days before he crossed the Somosierra and started on his march for Madrid. There can be no doubt that he would have changed his plans on receiving such news, for the sight of a British army within striking distance would have caused him to turn aside at once with a large part of his army. Very probably he might have directed Lefebvre, Victor, and the Imperial Guard--all the disposable forces under his hand--against Moore, and have left Madrid alone for the present as a mere secondary object. It is impossible to deny that disaster to the British arms might have followed: on the other hand Moore was a cautious general, as his operations in December showed. He would probably have retired at once to the mountains, and left the Emperor a fruitless stern-chase, such as that which actually took place a month later. But whether he would have fallen back on the route to Portugal, or on the route to Galicia, it is impossible to say: everything would have depended on the exact development of Napoleon’s advance, but the first-named alternative is the more probable[575].

[574] These were the 2nd, 36th, 71st, and 92nd Foot.

[575] Napier has a long note, in justification of Moore, to the effect that if the concentration point of the British army had been Burgos instead of Salamanca, Hope’s detour would have cost no waste of time, and would have been rather profitable than otherwise. But Moore distinctly looked upon the movement as a deplorable necessity, not as a proper strategical proceeding. ‘It is a great round,’ he wrote to Castlereagh on October 27, when announcing this modification of his original plan, ‘and will separate the corps, for a time, from the rest of the army: _but there is no help for it_.’ Moreover he stated, in this same letter, that he would not move forward an inch from Salamanca till Hope should have reached Espinar, on the northern side of the Guadarrama Pass. At a later date he announced that he should not advance till Hope had got even nearer to him, and made his way as far as Arevalo [letter of Nov. 24]. He was too good a general to dream of a concentration at Burgos, when once he had ascertained the relative positions of the Spanish and the French armies, for that place was within a couple of marches of the enemy’s outposts at Miranda and Logroño. There is, in short, no way of justifying Hope’s circular march, when once it is granted that the roads of Northern Portugal were not impracticable for artillery. Moore knew this perfectly well, as his letter to Hope, which we have quoted on p. 495 shows. No arguments are worth anything in his justification when he himself writes ‘if anything adverse happens, I have not necessity to plead.’ This is the language of an honest man, conscious that he has made a mistake, and prepared to take the responsibility. Napier’s apology for him (i. 345-7) is but ingenious and eloquent casuistry.

The erroneous direction given to Moore’s cavalry and guns, however, was not the only reason for the late appearance of the British army upon the theatre of war. Almost as much delay was caused by a piece of egregious folly and procrastination, for which the Spaniards were wholly responsible. When Sir David Baird and the bulk of his great convoy arrived in the harbour of Corunna on October 13, he was astonished to find that the Junta of Galicia raised serious objections to allowing him to land. Their real reason for so doing was that they wished the British troops to disembark further east, at Gihon or Santander. They did not realize the military danger of throwing them ashore in places so close to the French army, nor did it affect them in the least when they were told that the equipment of Baird’s force in those barren regions would be almost impossible. All that they cared for was to preserve Galicia from the strain of having to make provisions for the feeding and transport of a second army, when all its resources had been sorely tried in supplying (and supplying most indifferently) the troops of Blake. They did not, however, make mention of their real objections to Baird’s disembarkation in their correspondence with him, but assumed an attitude of very suspicious humility, stating that they considered their functions to have come to an end now that the Central Junta had met, and that they thought it beyond their competence to give consent to the landing of such a large body of men without explicit directions from Aranjuez. Baird could not offer to land by force, in face of this opposition. He did not, however, move off to Santander (as the Galicians had hoped), but insisted that an officer should be promptly dispatched to the Supreme Junta. This was done, but the delay in receiving an answer was so great that thirteen days were wasted: the Galician officer bearing the consent of the central government travelled (so Moore complained) with the greatest deliberation, as if he were carrying an unimportant message in full time of peace[576]. The first regiments, therefore, only landed on October 26, and it was not till November 4 that all the infantry were ashore. Thus they were certain to be late at the rendezvous in the plains of Leon. Nor was this all: the Supreme Junta had suggested that, in order to facilitate the feeding of the division, Baird should send it forward not in large masses but in bodies of 2,000 men, with a considerable interval between them. The advice was taken, and in consequence the troops were soon spread out over the whole length of road between Corunna and Astorga. The greatest difficulty was found in equipping them for the march: Galicia, always a poor country, had been almost stripped of mules and carts to supply Blake. It was absolutely impossible to procure a sufficient train for the transport of Baird’s food and baggage. He was only able to gather enough beasts to carry his lighter impedimenta from stage to stage, by the offer of exorbitant rates of hire. He vainly hoped to complete his equipment when he should have reached the plains. Part of his difficulties was caused by lack of money: the Government at home had not realized that only hard cash would circulate in Spain: dollars in abundance were to come out in the _Tigre_ frigate in a few weeks: meanwhile it was expected that the Spaniards would gladly accept British Government bills. But so little was paper liked in the Peninsula that only £5,000 or £6,000 in dollars could be raised at Corunna[577]: without further resources it would have been impossible to begin to push the army forward. The feat was only accomplished by borrowing 92,000 dollars from the Galician Junta. For this act, carefully ignored by Napier, they deserve a proper recognition: it shows a much better spirit than might have been expected after their foolish behaviour about the disembarkation. Shortly after, Baird succeeded in getting £40,000 from Mr. Frere, the new minister to Madrid, who chanced to arrive at Corunna with £410,000 in cash destined for the Spanish government. Finally on November 9 the expected ship came in with the 500,000 dollars that had been originally intended to be divided between Corunna and Lisbon, and Baird had as much money as he could possibly require, even when mules and draught-oxen had risen to famine prices in Galicia[578]. If he still found it hard to move, it was because this poor and desolate province was really drained dry of resources[579].

[576] Moore to Bentinck from Salamanca, Nov. 13, 1808.

[577] Baird to Castlereagh, Oct. 14, 1808.

[578] Napier knew the correspondence of Baird by heart. It is therefore most unfair in him to suppress the loan made by the Galician Junta, which appears in Sir David’s letters of Oct. 22, 29, and Nov. 13, as also the receipt of the 500,000 dollars sent by the British Government in the _Tigre_, which is acknowledged in the letter of Nov. 9. He implies that the only sums received were £40,000 from Mr. Frere and £8,000 from Sir John Moore. The simple fact is that no good act done by a Spanish Junta or a Tory minister is ever acknowledged by Napier.

[579] After reading Sir Charles Vaughan’s diary, showing how hard he and Mr. Stuart found it to procure enough draught animals to take their small party from Corunna to Madrid, in September, 1808, I cannot doubt that by October the collecting of the transport for a whole army was an almost impossible task in Galicia.

But what between the Junta’s folly in hindering the landing of the troops, and the unfortunate lack of money in the second half of October, all-important time was lost. Baird ought to have been near Salamanca by November 13: as a matter of fact he had only reached Astorga with three brigades of infantry and some artillery, but without a single mounted man to cover his march, on November 22. There he received, to his infinite dismay, the news that Blake had been routed at Espinosa on November 11, and Belvedere at Gamonal on November 10. There was now no Spanish army between him and the French: the latter might be advancing, for all he knew, upon Leon. He heard of Soult being at Reynosa, and Lefebvre at Carrion: if they continued their advance westward, they would catch him, with the 9,000 infantry of the Corunna column, marching across their front on the way to Salamanca. Appalled at the prospect, he halted at Astorga, and, after sending news of his situation to Moore, began to prepare to retreat on Corunna, if the marshals should continue their movement in his direction. This, as we have already seen, they did not: Napoleon had no knowledge of the position of the British troops, and instead of ordering the dukes of Dalmatia and Dantzig to push westward, moved them both in a southerly direction. Soult came down to Sahagun and Carrion: Lefebvre, on being relieved by the 2nd Corps, moved on Madrid by way of Segovia. Thus Baird, left entirely unmolested, was in the end able to join Moore.

It is time to turn to the movements of that general. After sending off Sir John Hope on his unhappy circular march by Badajoz and the Escurial, he set out from Lisbon on October 26. He took with him the whole force in Portugal, save a single division which was left behind to protect Lisbon, Elvas, and Almeida while a new native army was being reorganized. This detachment was to be commanded by Sir John Cradock, who was just due from England: it comprised four battalions of the German Legion, a battalion each of the 9th, 27th, 29th, 31st, 40th, 45th, and 97th Foot, the wrecks of the 20th Light Dragoons, and six batteries of artillery--about 9,000 men in all. The rest, twenty-five battalions of infantry, two cavalry regiments and seven batteries, marched for Spain. Two brigades under Beresford took the good road by Coimbra and Celorico to Almeida: three under Fraser went by Abrantes and Guarda, taking with them the single battery which Moore had retained with his main body, in order to try whether the roads of Eastern Portugal were as bad as his advisers had reported. Two brigades under General Paget, starting from Elvas, not from Lisbon, separated themselves from Hope and marched on Ciudad Rodrigo by Alcantara and Coria. The general himself followed in the track of Fraser, whom he overtook and passed in the neighbourhood of Castello Branco[580].

[580] It may perhaps be worth while to give the composition and brigading of Moore’s army on the march from Lisbon and Elvas to Salamanca.

There marched by Coimbra and Almeida, Beresford [1/9th, 2/43rd, 2/52nd] #/ and Fane [1/38th, 1/79th, 2/95th]. By Abrantes and Guarda went Bentinck [1/4th, 1/28th, 1/42nd, and four companies 5/60th] and Hill [1/5th, 1/32nd, 1/91st]: this column took with it one battery: it was followed by two isolated regiments, the 1/6th and 1/50th. The corps which marched from Elvas by Alcantara, under Paget, was composed of the brigades of Alten (1st and 2nd Light Battalions of the K. G. L.) and Anstruther 20th, 1/52nd, 1/95th. The 3rd Regiment joined the army from Almeida, where it was in garrison, and the 1/82nd came up late from Lisbon. It was originally intended that Bentinck and Beresford should form a division under Fraser, Anstruther and Alten a division under Paget. Of the troops which reached Salamanca the 3rd and 5/60th were sent back to Portugal.

The original brigading of Baird’s force was:--Cavalry Brigade (Lord Paget) 7th, 10th, and 15th Hussars. 1st Brigade (Warde) 1st and 3rd batts. of the 1st Foot Guards. 2nd Brigade (Manningham) 3/1st, 1/26th, 2/81st. 3rd Brigade (Leith) 51st, 2/59th, 76th. Light Brigade (R. Crawfurd) 2/43rd, 1/95th, 2/95th (detachments). The 2/14th and 2/23rd were also present, perhaps as a brigade under Mackenzie.

All these arrangements were temporary, and at Sahagun, as we shall see, the whole army was recast. A complete table of Moore’s army, with its final organization, force, and losses, will be found in the Appendix.

The march was a most unpleasant one, for the autumn rains surprised the troops in their passage through the mountains. Moreover some of the regiments were badly fed, as Sataro, the Portuguese contractor who had undertaken to supply them with meat, went bankrupt at this moment and failed to fulfil his obligations. Nevertheless the advance was carried out with complete success: the men were in good heart, marched well, and generally maintained their[581] discipline. On November 13 the leading regiments began to file into Salamanca, whither the Commander-in-chief had already preceded them. The concentration would have been a little more rapid but for a strange mistake of General Anstruther, commanding at Almeida, who detained some of the troops for a few days, contrary to the orders which had been sent him. But by the twenty-third the three columns had all joined at Salamanca[582], where Moore now had 15,000 infantry and the solitary battery that had marched with Fraser’s division. The guns had met with some tiresome obstacles, but had surmounted them with no great difficulty, and Moore now saw (as we have already shown) that he might have brought the whole of his artillery with him, if only he had been given correct information as to the state of the roads.

[581] Moore names one regiment only as an exception.

[582] Save two stray battalions, which had started last from Lisbon.

On November 23, then, the British commander-in-chief lay at Salamanca, with six infantry brigades and one battery. Baird lay at Astorga, with four brigades and three batteries: a few of his battalions were still on the march from Galicia. Hope, with Moore’s cavalry and guns, was near the Escurial. Lord Paget with Baird’s equally belated cavalry, which had left Corunna on the fifteenth, was between Lugo and Astorga. The situation was deplorable, for it was clear that the army would require ten days more to concentrate and get into full fighting order, and it was by no means certain that those ten days would be granted to it. Such were the unhappy results of the false direction given to Hope’s column, and of the enforced delay of Baird at Corunna, owing to the folly of the Galician Junta.

It may easily be guessed that Moore’s state of mind at this moment was most unenviable. He had received, much at the same time as did Baird, the news of Gamonal and Espinosa. He was aware that no screen of Spanish troops now lay between him and the enemy. He had heard of the arrival of Milhaud’s dragoons at Valladolid, and of Lefebvre’s corps at Carrion, and he expected every moment to hear that they were marching forward against himself. Yet he could not possibly advance without cavalry or guns, and if attacked he must fly at once towards Portugal, for it would be mad to attempt to fight in the plains with no force at his disposition save a mass of foot-soldiery. If the French moved forward from Valladolid to Zamora on the one side, or to Avila on the other, he would inevitably be cut off from Baird and Hope. There was no serious danger that any one of the three columns might be caught by the enemy, if they halted at once, for each had a clear and safe line of retreat, on Lisbon, Corunna, and Talavera respectively. But if they continued their movement of concentration the case was otherwise. To any one unacquainted with Bonaparte’s actual design of throwing all his forces on Madrid by the Somosierra road, it looked not only possible, but probable, that the enemy would advance westward as well as southward from his present positions, and if he did so the game was up. The British army, utterly unable to concentrate, must fly in three separate directions. Moore and Hope might ultimately unite in front of Lisbon: Baird might be shipped round from Corunna to the same point. But this movement would take many weeks, and its moral effect would be deplorable. What would be thought of the general who marched forward till he was within eighty miles of the French, and then ordered a precipitate retreat, without even succeeding in concentrating his army or firing a single shot? The thought filled Moore’s heart with bitterness: must he, with all his ability and with his well-earned reputation, swell the list of the failures, and be reckoned with the Duke of York, Dalrymple, and Hutchinson among the generals who were too late--who had their chance of fame, and lost it by being an hour, or a week, or a month behind the decisive moment? But on one point he was clear: he must run no unnecessary risk with the forces committed to him: they were, as was once remarked, not _a_ British field-army, but the only British field-army. Supposing they were destroyed, no such second host existed: it would take years to make another. There were still many regiments on home service, but those which now lay at Salamanca and Astorga were the pick of the whole, the corps chosen for foreign service because they were the fittest for it.

The question, then, which Moore had to put to himself was whether he should persist in attempting to complete the concentration of his army, and in case of success take an active part in the campaign, or whether he should simply order each fraction of the British forces to retreat at once towards some safe base. The way in which the question should be answered depended mainly on two points--what would be the movements of the French during the next few days, and what Spanish troops existed to co-operate with the British army, in case it were determined to commence active operations. For clearly the 30,000 men of Moore and Baird could not hope to struggle unaided against the whole French army in Spain.

To explain Moore’s action, it is necessary to remember that he started with a strong prejudice against trusting the British army to the mercy of Spanish co-operation. He had been receiving very gloomy reports both from Mr. Stuart, the temporary representative of the British Government at Aranjuez, and from Lord William Bentinck, the military agent whom Dalrymple had sent to Madrid. The latter was one of the few British officers who (like Wellesley) foresaw from the first a catastrophe whenever the French reinforcements should cross the Ebro[583]. Moreover the character of Moore’s correspondence with the Central Junta, before and during his advance, had conspired with the reports of Stuart and Bentinck to give him a very unfavourable idea of the energy and administrative capacity of our allies. He had been vexed that the Junta refused to put him in direct communication with the Spanish generals[584]. He complained that he got from them tardy, unfrequent, and inaccurate news of the enemy’s movements. He was disgusted that Lopez, the officer sent to aid him in moving his troops, turned out to know even less about the roads of the Spanish frontier than he did himself. But above all he professed that he was terrified by the apathy which he found both among the officials and the people of the kingdom of Leon and Old Castile. He had been politely received by the authorities both at Ciudad Rodrigo and at Salamanca, but he complained that he got little but empty compliments from them.

[583] There is an undertone of gloom in most of Bentinck’s very capable letters, which contrasts sharply with the very optimistic views expressed by Doyle and most of the other military agents. On Oct. 2 he ‘feels the danger forcibly’ of the want of a single commander for the Spanish armies. On Sept. 30 he remarks that ‘the Spanish troops consider themselves invincible, but that the Spanish Government ought not to be deluded by the same opinion.’ On Nov. 14 ‘he must not disguise that he thinks very unfavourably of the affairs of Spain: the Spaniards have not the means to repel the danger that threatens’: most of his letters are in more or less the same strain.

[584] Except with Castaños, from whom some sensible but rather vague advice was procured.

There was some truth in this allegation, though certain facts can be quoted against it[585], even from Moore’s own correspondence. Leon and Old Castile had, as we have already had occasion to remark, been far less energetic than other parts of the Peninsula in raising new troops and coming forward with contributions to the national exchequer. They had done no more than furnish the 10,000 men of Cuesta’s disorderly ‘Army of Castile,’ a contingent utterly out of proportion with their population and resources. Nor did they seem to realize the scandal of their own sloth and procrastination. Moore had expected to see every town full of new levies undergoing drill before marching to the Ebro, to discover magazines accumulated in important places like Ciudad Rodrigo and Salamanca, to find the military and civil officials working busily for the armies at the front. Instead he found an unaccountable apathy. Even after the reports of Espinosa and Gamonal had come to hand, the people and the authorities alike seemed to be living in a sort of fools’ paradise, disbelieving the gloomy news that arrived, or at least refusing to recognize that the war was now at their own doors. Moore feared that this came from want of patriotism or of courage.

[585] e.g. in his letter of Nov. 19 Moore speaks of the town of Salamanca as doing its best for him: the clergy were exerting themselves, and a convent of nuns had promised him £5,000. In his _Journal_ he has a testimonial to the fidelity with which the people of Tordesillas protected an English officer from a raiding party of French cavalry. There are some similar notes in British memoirs: e.g. ‘T.S.’ of the 71st expresses much gratitude for the kindness of the people of Peñaranda, who, when Hope’s division arrived in a drenched and frozen condition, rolled out barrels of spirits into the streets and gave every man a good dram before the regiments marched on. Some towns, e.g. Zamora and Alba de Tormes, behaved well in opposing (though without any hope of success) the French, when they did appear.

As a matter of fact, the people’s hearts were sound enough[586], but they had still got ‘Baylen on the brain’: they simply failed to recognize the full horror of the situation. That their armies were not merely beaten but dispersed, that the way to Madrid was open to Bonaparte, escaped them. This attitude of mind enraged Moore. ‘In these provinces,’ he wrote, ‘no armed force whatever exists, either for immediate protection or to reinforce the armies. The French cavalry from Burgos, in small detachments, are overrunning the province of Leon, and raising contributions to which the inhabitants submit without the least resistance: the enthusiasm of which we heard so much nowhere appears. Whatever good-will there is (and among the lower orders I believe there is a good deal) is taken no advantage of. I am at this moment in no communication with any of their generals. I am ignorant of their plans, or those of their government[587].’ And again, he adds in despair, ‘I hope a better spirit exists in the southern provinces: here no one stirs--and yet they are well inclined[588].’ While Leon and Old Castile were in this state of apathy, it was maddening to Moore to receive constant appeals from the Supreme Junta, begging that the British army might move forward at once. Their dispatches were accompanied by representations, which Moore knew to be inaccurate, concerning the numbers and enthusiasm of the Spanish armies still in the field, and by misrepresentations of the force of the French. They were also backed by urgent letters from Mr. Frere, the new ambassador at Madrid, urging him to give help at all costs.

[586] As to the conduct of the Spaniards I think that the best commentary on it is that of Leith Hay (i. 80-1), who was riding all over Castile and Leon in these unhappy weeks. ‘Thus terminated a journey of about 900 miles, in which a considerable portion of the country had been traversed, under circumstances which enabled me to ascertain the sincere feeling of the people. It is but justice to say that I met with but one sentiment as to the war: that I was everywhere treated with kindness. I mention this as a creditable circumstance to the inhabitants of the Peninsula, and in contradiction to the statements often recorded, unjustly in my opinion, as to the want of faith, supineness, and perfidy of the Spanish people.... Their conduct was throughout distinguished by good faith, if it was at the same time rendered apparently equivocal from characteristic negligence, want of energy, and the deficiency of that moral power that can alone be derived from free institutions and an enlightened aristocracy.’

[587] Moore to Castlereagh from Salamanca, Nov. 24.

[588] Ibid., Dec. 8.

These appeals were intolerable to a man who dared not advance because his army (partly by his own fault, partly owing to circumstances that had not been under his control) was not concentrated. From the point of view of policy, Moore knew that it was all-important that he should take the field: but, from the point of view of strategy, he saw that an advance with the 15,000 men that he had at Salamanca might very probably lead to instant and complete disaster. He refused to move, but all the time he knew that his refusal was having the worst effect, and would certainly be represented by his critics as the result of timidity and selfishness. It was this consciousness that caused him to fill his dispatches with the bitterest comments on the Spanish government and people. He had been induced to advance to Salamanca, he said, by false pretences. He had been told that there was a large army in front of him, ready to cover his concentration. He had been informed that the whole country-side was full of enthusiasm, that he might look for ready help from every official, that when once he had crossed the frontier transport and food would be readily provided for him. Instead, he found nothing but apathy and disasters. ‘Had the real strength and composition of the Spanish armies been known, and the defenceless state of the country, I conceive that Cadiz, not Corunna, would have been chosen for the disembarkation of the troops from England: and Seville or Cordova, not Salamanca, would have been selected as the proper place for the assembling of this army[589].’ Thus he wrote to Castlereagh: to Frere, in reponse to constant invitations to strike a blow of some sort in behalf of Spain, he replied in more vigorous terms[590]. ‘Madrid is threatened; the French have destroyed one army (Blake’s), have passed the Ebro, and are advancing in superior numbers against another (Castaños’), which from its composition promises no resistance, but must retire or be overwhelmed. No other armed force exists in this country: I perceive no enthusiasm or determined spirit among the people. This is a state of affairs quite different from that conceived by the British Government, when they determined to send troops to the assistance of Spain. It was not expected that these were to cope alone with the whole force of France: as auxiliaries they were to aid a people who were believed to be enthusiastic, determined, and prepared for resistance. It becomes therefore a question whether the British army should remain to be attacked in its turn, or should retire from a country where the contest, from whatever circumstances, is become unequal.’

[589] Moore to Castlereagh from Salamanca, Nov. 24.

[590] Moore to Frere from Salamanca, Nov. 27.

All that Moore wrote was true: yet, granting the accuracy of every premise, his conclusion that he ought to retire to Portugal was not necessarily correct. The British Government had undoubtedly over-estimated the power and resources of Spain: the Supreme Junta had shown no capacity for organization or command: most of the Spanish generals had committed gross military blunders. But none of these facts were enough to justify Moore in washing his hands of the whole business, and marching out of Spain without firing a shot. He had not been sent to help the patriots only if they were powerful and victorious, to desert them if they proved weak and unlucky. If these had been the orders issued to him by Castlereagh, all Bonaparte’s taunts about the selfishness and timidity of the British Government would have been justified. It was true that on his arrival at Salamanca he found the aspect of the war very different from what he had expected at the moment of his quitting Lisbon. Instead of aiding the victorious Spanish armies to press up to the Pyrenees, he would have to cover their retreat and gain time for the reorganization of the scattered remnants of their first line of defence. To reject this task because the Supreme Junta had been incapable, or Blake and Palafox rash and unskilful, would have been unworthy of a man of Moore’s talents and courage.

Yet in a moment of irritation at the mismanagement that he saw before him, and of anger at the continual importunities that he was receiving from the Central Junta and from Mr. Frere, Moore nearly committed this fault. The last piece of news which broke down his resolution and drove him to order a retreat was the account of the battle of Tudela. If he had been forced to wait for the notification of this disaster through Spanish official sources, he might have remained ignorant of it for many days. But Charles Vaughan, the secretary of Mr. Stuart, had been in the camp of Palafox, and had ridden straight from Tudela to Madrid, and from Madrid to Salamanca--476 miles in six days[591]. He brought the intelligence of Castaños’ defeat to the English commander-in-chief on the night of November 28. Moore lost not a moment in dictating orders of retreat to the whole army. In the few hours that elapsed before midnight he gave his own troops directions to prepare to retire on Portugal, sent Hope a dispatch bidding him turn off on to cross-roads and move by Peñaranda on Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, and wrote to Baird that he must return to Corunna, re-embark his army, and bring it round by sea to Lisbon.

[591] The notes and diaries of this ancient member of my own College have been of enormous use to me for side-lights on Spanish politics during 1808. His summary of his great ride from Caparrosa in Navarre to Corunna, between November 21 and December 2, is perhaps worth quoting. ‘From Caparrosa to Madrid and from Madrid to Salamanca, with the dispatches for Sir John Moore, containing the defeat of the army commanded by General Castaños, I rode post. I stayed the night at Salamanca, and at two o’clock on the following day (Nov. 29) I set out for Astorga with dispatches for Sir D. Baird, and with Sir J. Moore’s dispatches for England. I was detained only six hours at Astorga, and after riding two days and two nights on end arrived at Corunna the evening of Dec. 2. The post-horses at every relay in Spain were at this time so overworked that the journey was tiresome and painful. I had ridden 790 miles from Caparrosa to Corunna in eleven days (Nov. 21 to Dec. 2). I had a night’s rest at Agreda, Cetina, and Salamanca, and two at Madrid.’ Deducting two days in Madrid, the ride was really one of 790 miles in nine days.

The spirit in which Moore acted is shown by the wording of his letter to Hope:--‘I have determined to give the thing up, and to retire. It was my wish to have run great risks to fulfil what I conceive to be the wishes of the people of England, and to give every aid to the Spanish cause. But they have shown themselves equal to do so little for themselves, that it would only be sacrificing this army, without doing any good to Spain, to oppose it to such numbers as must now be brought against us. A junction with Baird is out of the question, and with you, perhaps, problematical.... This is a cruel determination for me to make--I mean to retreat: but I hope you will think the circumstances such as demand it[592].’

[592] Moore to Hope from Salamanca, Nov. 28.

To Moore, weighed down by the burden of responsibility, and worried by the constant pressure of the Spaniards at Madrid, ‘who expected every one to fly but themselves,’ this resolve to retreat seemed reasonable, and even inevitable. But it was clearly wrong: when he gave the order he was overwrought by irritation and despondency. He was sent to aid the Spaniards, and till he was sure that he could do absolutely nothing in their behalf, it was his duty not to abandon them. The British army was intended to be used freely in their cause, not to be laid up--like the talent in the napkin--lest anything might happen to it. Its mere presence at Salamanca was valuable as an encouragement to the Spaniards, and a check on the free movement of the French. Above all, it was not yet proved that the concentration with Baird and Hope was impossible: indeed, the events of the last few days were rendering it more and more likely that the junction might, after all, take place. The French cavalry which had appeared at Valladolid had gone off southward, without any attempt to move in the direction of Salamanca. Soult and Lefebvre were also moving in a direction which would not bring them anywhere near the British army. Hope had crossed the Guadarrama unhindered, and was now near Villacastin, only seventy miles from Moore’s head quarters. Under these circumstances it was most impolitic to order an instant retreat. What would have been thought of Moore if this movement had been carried out, and if after the British columns had reached Corunna and Almeida the news had come that no French infantry had ever been nearer than fifty miles to them, that their concentration had been perfectly feasible, and that Napoleon had possessed no knowledge of their whereabouts? All these facts chanced to be true--as we have seen. The Emperor’s advance on Madrid was made without any reference to the British army, by roads that took him very far from Salamanca: he was marching past Moore’s front in serene unconsciousness of his proximity. If, at the same moment, the British had been hurrying back to Portugal, pursued only by phantoms hatched in their general’s imagination, it is easy to guess what military critics would have said, and what historians would have written. Moore would have been pronounced a selfish and timid officer, who in a moment of pique and despondency deliberately abandoned his unhappy allies.

Fortunately for his own reputation and for that of England, his original intentions of the night of November 28 were not fully carried out. Only Baird’s column actually commenced its retrograde movement. That general received Moore’s letter from Vaughan on the thirtieth, and immediately began to retire on Galicia. Leaving his cavalry and his light brigade at Astorga, to cover his retreat, he fell back with the rest of his division to Villafranca, fifty miles on the road towards Corunna. Here (as we shall see) he received on December 6 a complete new set of orders, countermanding his retreat and bidding him return to the plains of Leon.

Hope also had heard from Moore on the thirtieth, had been informed that the army was to retire on Portugal, and was told to make forced marches by Peñaranda and Ciudad Rodrigo to join his chief--unless indeed he were forced to go back by the way that he had come, owing to the appearance of French troops in his path. Fortunately no such danger occurred: Hope arranged his two cavalry regiments as a screen in front of his right, in the direction of Arevalo and Madrigal. He hurried his infantry and guns by Fontiveros and Peñaranda, along the road that had been pointed out to him. The cavalry obtained news that patrols of French dragoons coming from the north had pushed as far as Olmedo and La Nava--some sixteen or eighteen miles from their outposts--but did not actually see a single hostile vedette. This was lucky, as, if Napoleon had heard of a British force hovering on the flank of his advancing columns, he would certainly have turned against it the troops that were covering the right flank of his advance on Madrid--Lefebvre’s corps and the dragoons of Milhaud. But, as it chanced, Hope was entirely unmolested: he moved, as was right, with his troops closed up and ready for a fight: on the night of the thirtieth his infantry actually slept in square without piling arms: during the ensuing thirty-six hours they marched forty-seven miles before they were allowed to encamp at Peñaranda. There they were practically in safety: slackening the pace for the exhausted infantry and for the over-driven oxen of the convoy, Hope drew in to Alba de Tormes, where he was only fifteen miles from Salamanca[593]. Here he received orders not to push for Ciudad Rodrigo, but to turn northward and join the main body of the army, which was still--as it turned out--in its old positions. Thus on December 3 Moore could at last dispose of his long-lost cavalry and guns, and possessed an army of 20,000 men complete in all arms. This very much changed the aspect of affairs for him, and removed one of his main justifications for the projected retreat on Portugal. Hope also brought information as to the movements of the French which was of the highest importance. He reported that their columns were all trending southward, none of them to the west of Segovia. He had also heard of the infantry of the 4th Corps, and could report that it had marched by Valladolid and Olmedo on Segovia, evidently with the intention of driving Heredia’s Estremaduran troops out of the last-named city, and of opening the Guadarrama Pass[594]. There was no sign whatever of any movement of the French in this quarter towards Salamanca. Thus the Emperor’s plan for a concentration of his whole army on Madrid became clear to Moore’s discerning eyes.

[593] There is a good, but short, account of this forced march, in bitter cold, to be found in the memoir of ‘T.S.’ of the 71st, one of Hope’s four infantry regiments. He speaks of a curious fact that I have nowhere else seen mentioned, viz. that at Peñaranda the artillery horses were so done up that Hope buried six guns, and turned their teams to help the other batteries. Apparently they were dug up a few days after by troops sent out from Salamanca, as the tale of batteries is complete when Moore resumed his march.

[594] I think that Napier (i. 287-8) somewhat exaggerates the danger which Hope ran in his march from Villacastin to Alba de Tormes. Of course if Lefebvre had been marching on Salamanca, the situation would have been dangerous: but as a matter of fact he was marching on the Guadarrama, which Hope had safely passed on the twenty-eighth. Every mile that the British moved took them further from Lefebvre’s route: his infantry was never within fifty miles of Hope’s convoy: and supposing his brigade of cavalry had got in touch with the British, it could have done nothing serious against a force of all arms in the hands of a very capable general. The ‘4,000 cavalry’ of which Napier speaks were in reality only 1,500.

SECTION VIII: CHAPTER III

MOORE’S ADVANCE TO SAHAGUN

Moore’s determination to retreat on Portugal lasted just seven days. It was at midnight on November 28-29 that he wrote his orders to Baird and Hope, bidding the one to fall back on Corunna and the other on Ciudad Rodrigo. On the afternoon of December 5 he abandoned his scheme, and wrote to recall Baird from Galicia: on the tenth he set out on a very different sort of enterprise, and advanced into the plains of Old Castile with the object of striking at the communications of the French army. We have now to investigate the curious mixture of motives which led him to make such a complete and dramatic change in his plan of campaign.

Having sent off his dispatches to Hope and Baird, the Commander-in-chief had announced next morning to the generals who commanded his divisions and brigades his intention of retreating to Portugal. The news evoked manifestations of surprise and anger that could not be concealed. Even Moore’s own staff did not succeed in disguising their dismay and regret[595]. The army was looking forward with eagerness to another campaign against the French under a general of such well-earned reputation as their present chief: a sudden order to retreat, when the enemy had not even been seen, and when his nearest cavalry vedettes were still three or four marches away, seemed astounding. There would have been remonstrances, had not Moore curtly informed his subordinates that ‘he had not called them together to request their counsel, or to induce them to commit themselves to giving any opinion on the subject. He was taking the whole responsibility entirely upon himself: and he only required that they would immediately prepare to carry it into effect.’ In face of this speech there could be no argument or opposition: but there was murmuring in every quarter: of all the officers of the army of Portugal Hope is said to have been the only one who approved of the Commander-in-chief’s resolve. The consciousness of the criticism that he was undergoing from his own subordinates did not tend to soften Moore’s temper, which was already sufficiently tried by the existing situation of affairs.

[595] See James Moore’s memoir of his brother, p. 72; compare Napier, i. 292, and Lord Londonderry’s account of his own observations at Salamanca, in his _History of the Peninsular War_, i. 220, 221.

After announcing this determination, it might have been expected that Moore would fall back at once on Almeida. But while beginning to send back his stores and his sick[596], he did not move his fighting-men: the reason (as he wrote to Castlereagh[597]) was that he still hoped that he might succeed in picking up Hope’s division, if the French did not press him. Accordingly he lingered on, waiting for that general’s approach, and much surprised that the enemy was making no advance in his direction. It was owing to the fact that he delayed his departure for five days, on the chance that his lost cavalry and guns might after all come in, that Moore finally gained the opportunity of striking his great blow and saving his reputation.

[596] The heavy ammunition and all the sick who could be moved were sent off on Dec. 5, under the escort of the 5/60th. See Moore’s ‘General Orders’ for that day, and Ormsby, ii. 54.

[597] Moore to Castlereagh, from Salamanca, Nov. 29.

During this period of waiting and of preparation to depart, appeals from many quarters came pouring in upon Moore, begging him to advance at all costs and make his presence felt by the French. The first dispatches which he received were written before his determination to retreat was known: after it was divulged, his correspondents only became the more importunate and clamorous. Simultaneous pressure was brought to bear upon him by the British ambassador at Aranjuez, by the Supreme Junta, by the general who now commanded the wrecks of the Spanish army of Galicia, and by the military authorities at Madrid. Each one of them had many and serious considerations to set before the harassed Commander-in-chief.

Moore had been so constantly asserting that Blake’s old ‘Army of the Left’ had been completely dispersed and ruined, that it must have been somewhat of a surprise to him when the Marquis of La Romana wrote from Leon, on November 30, to say that he was now at the head of a considerable force, and hoped to co-operate in the oncoming campaign. The Galicians had rallied in much greater numbers than had been expected: their losses in battle had not been very great, and the men had dispersed from sheer want of food rather than from a desire to desert their colours. Their equipment was in the most wretched condition, and their shoes worn out: but their spirit was not broken, and if they could get food and clothing, they were quite prepared to do their duty. La Romana enclosed a dispatch of Soult’s which had been intercepted, and remarked that the news in it (apparently a statement of the marshal’s intention to move westward) made it advisable that the English and Spanish armies should at once concert measures for a junction[598].

[598] La Romana to Moore, from Leon, Nov. 30.

All that the Marquis stated was perfectly true: his army was growing rapidly, for his muster-rolls of December 4 showed that he had already 15,600 men with the colours, exclusive of sick and wounded: ten days later the number had gone up to 22,800[599]. This was a force that could not be entirely neglected, even though the men were in a dire state of nakedness, and were only just recovering from the effects of their dreadful march from Reynosa across the Cantabrian hills. Moore had always stated, in his dispatches to Castlereagh, that there was no Spanish army with which he could co-operate. He was now offered the aid of 15,000 men, under a veteran officer of high reputation and undoubted patriotism. The proposal to retreat on Portugal seemed even less honourable than before, when it involved the desertion of the Marquis and his much-tried host.

[599] See the ‘morning states’ for the army of Galicia on Dec. 4 and Dec. 14, in Arteche (iv. 532, 533).

Not long after the moment at which La Romana’s dispatch came to hand, there arrived at Salamanca two officers deputed by the Central Junta to make a final appeal to Moore. These were Don Ventura Escalante, Captain-General of the kingdom of Granada, and the Brigadier-General Augustin Bueno. They had started from Aranjuez on November 28, and seem to have arrived at the British head quarters on December 3 or 4. They brought a letter from Don Martin de Garay, the secretary to the Junta, stating that they were authorized to treat with Moore for the drawing up of a plan of campaign, ‘by which the troops of his Britannic Majesty may act in concert with those of Spain, accelerating a combined movement, and avoiding the delays that are so prejudicial to the noble enterprise in which the two nations are engaged[600].’ The proposal that the two generals made would appear to have been that Moore should march on Madrid by the Guadarrama Pass, picking up Hope’s division on the way, and ordering Baird to follow as best he could. They wished to demonstrate to their despondent ally that it was possible to concentrate for the defence of Madrid a force sufficient to hold the Emperor at bay. If the British came up, they hoped even to be able to repulse him with decisive effect. They alleged that Castaños had escaped from Tudela with the Andalusian divisions almost intact, and must now be at Guadalajara, quite close to the capital, with 25,000 good troops. Heredia, with the rallied Estremaduran army, was at Segovia, and had 10,000 bayonets: San Juan with 12,000 men was occupying the impregnable Somosierra. Andalusian and Castilian levies were coming in to Madrid every day--they believed that 10,000 men must already be collected. This would constitute when united a mass of nearly 60,000 men: if Moore brought up 20,000 British troops all must go well, for Napoleon had only 80,000 men in the north of Spain. After deducting the army sent against Saragossa, and the detachments at Burgos and in Biscay, as also the corps of Soult, he could not have much more than 20,000 men concentrated for the attack on Madrid. All this ingenious calculation was based on the fundamental misconception that the French armies were only one-third of their actual strength--which far exceeded 200,000 men. But on this point Moore was as ill informed as the Spaniards themselves, and the causes which he alleged for refusing to march on Madrid had nothing to do with statistics. He informed them that his reasons for proposing to retreat on Portugal were that the Spanish armies were too much demoralized to offer successful resistance to the Emperor, and that the road to the capital was now in the possession of the French. He then introduced Colonel Graham, who had just returned from a meeting with San Juan, and had heard from him the story of the forcing of the Somosierra on November 29. Of this disaster Escalante and Bueno were still ignorant: they had to learn from English lips that the French were actually before the gates of Madrid, that Heredia and San Juan were in flight, and that their junction with Castaños (wherever that general might now be) had become impossible. This appalling news deeply affected Escalante and Bueno, but they then turned to urging Moore to unite with La Romana, and march to the relief of Madrid. The British general replied that he did not believe that the Marquis had 5,000 men fit to take the field along with the British[601], and that any such scheme would be chimerical. His whole bearing towards the emissaries of the Junta seems to have been frigid to the verge of discourtesy. How much they irritated him may be gathered from the account of the interview which he sent to Mr. Frere two days later. In language that seems very inappropriate in an official dispatch--destined ere long to be printed as a ‘Parliamentary Paper’--he wrote: ‘The two generals seemed to me to be two weak old men, or rather women, with whom it was impossible for me to concert any military operations, even had I been so inclined. Their conferences with me consisted in questions, and in assertions with regard to the strength of different Spanish corps, all of which I knew to be erroneous. They neither knew that Segovia or the Somosierra were in the hands of the enemy. I shall be obliged to you to save me from such visits, which are very painful[602].’

[600] Martin de Garay to Moore, from Aranjuez, Nov. 28, 1808.

[601] This answer is recorded in the despairing appeal which Escalante wrote to Moore from Calzada de Baños on Nov. 7, after having started back to join the Junta. The rest of Moore’s arguments can be gathered from his own dispatches.

[602] Moore to Frere, from Salamanca, Dec. 6, 1808.

It is clear that the mission of Escalante and Bueno had no great share in determining Sir John to abandon his projected retreat on Portugal, though it may possibly have had some cumulative effect when taken in conjunction with other appeals that were coming in to him at the same moment. It was quite otherwise with the dispatches which he received from the authorities at Madrid, and from the British ambassador at Aranjuez: in them we may find the chief causes of his changed attitude. The Madrid dispatch was written by Morla and the Prince of Castelfranco--the two military heads of the Junta of Defence which had been created on December 1--in behalf of themselves and their colleagues. It was sent off early on December 2, before Napoleon had begun to press in upon the suburbs, for it speaks of the city as menaced, not as actually attacked by the enemy. It amounted to an appeal to Moore to do something to help Madrid--not necessarily (as has been often stated) to throw himself into the city, but, if he judged it best, to manœuvre on the flank and rear of the Emperor’s army, so as to distract him from his present design. The writers stated, in much the same terms that Escalante and Bueno had used, that Castaños with 25,000 men from Tudela and San Juan with 10,000 men from the Somosierra were converging on the capital, and added that the Junta had got together 40,000 men for its defence. With this mass of new levies they thought that they could hold off for the moment the forces that Napoleon had displayed in front of them; but when his reserves and reinforcements came up the situation would be more dangerous. Wherefore they made no doubt that the British general would move with the rapidity that was required in the interests of the allied nations. They supposed it probable that Moore had already united with La Romana’s army, and that the two forces would be able to act together.

There is no reason to think, with Napier and with Moore’s biographer[603], that this dispatch was written by Morla with the treacherous intent of involving the British army in the catastrophe that was impending over the capital. Morla ultimately betrayed his country and joined King Joseph, but there is no real proof that he contemplated doing so before the fall of Madrid. The letter was signed not only by him but by Castelfranco, of whose loyalty there is no doubt, and who was actually arrested and imprisoned by Bonaparte. Moreover, if it had been designed to draw Moore into the Emperor’s clutches, it would not have given him the perfectly sound advice to fall upon the communications of the French army after uniting with La Romana--the precise move that the British general made ten days later with such effect. It would have begged him to enter Madrid, without suggesting any other alternative.

[603] See James Moore (p. 86-7), where he vilely mistranslates the letter--even rendering _corte_ by ‘country’; and Napier (i. 291), where the same accusation is formulated.

Moore had always stated that his reluctance to advance into Spain had been due, in no small degree, to the apathy which he had found there: but now the capital, as it seemed, was about to imitate Saragossa and to stand at bay behind its barricades. He had no great confidence in its power to hold out. ‘I own,’ he wrote to Castlereagh, ‘that I cannot derive much hope from the resistance of one town against forces so formidable, unless the spark catches and the flame becomes pretty general[604].’ But he could realize the dishonour that would rest upon his own head if, as now seemed possible, Madrid were to make a desperate resistance, and at the same moment the British army were to be seen executing unmolested a tame retreat on Portugal. The letter of Morla and Castelfranco he might perhaps have disregarded, suspecting the usual Spanish exaggerations, if it had stood alone. But it was backed up by an appeal from the most important British sources. Mr. Stuart, whose forecasts Moore had always respected because they were far from optimistic[605], had written him to the effect that ‘the retrograde movements of the British divisions were likely to produce an effect not less serious than the most decisive victory on the part of the enemy.’ Frere, the newly arrived ambassador to the Central Junta, launched out into language of the strongest kind. He had already discovered that his opinions were fundamentally opposed to those of Moore: this was but natural, as the general looked upon the problem that lay before him from a military point of view, while the ambassador could only regard its political aspect. Any impartial observer can now see that the advance of the British army into Spain was likely to be a hazardous matter, even if Hope and Baird succeeded in joining the main body at Salamanca. On the other hand, it is quite clear that the Spanish government would have every reason to regard itself as having been abandoned and betrayed, if that advance were not made. Balancing the one danger against the other, it seems evident that Frere was right, and that it was Moore’s duty to make a diversion of some sort against the French. Executed on any day before Madrid fell, such a movement would have disturbed Bonaparte and distracted him from his main plan of operations. Nor would the operation have been so hazardous as Moore supposed, since his junction with Hope had become certain when that general reached Peñaranda, while Baird had never had any French troops in his neighbourhood. The retreat on Galicia was always open: that on Portugal was equally available till the moment when the capitulation of Madrid set free great masses of Bonaparte’s central reserve.

[604] Moore to Castlereagh, from Salamanca, Dec. 5.

[605] Stuart to Moore, from Madrid, Nov. 30.

In his earlier epistles to Moore Frere had deprecated the idea of a retreat, and had suggested that if for military reasons an advance should be impracticable, it would at least be possible that the British army might remain on Spanish ground. He had soon learnt that the general entertained very different views, and his penultimate letter, that of November 30, shows signs of pique at the small impression that his arguments had made upon his correspondent[606]. Now on December 3 he wrote from Talavera, whither he had followed the Supreme Junta in their flight, to try his last effort. To his previous arguments he had only one more to add, the fact that on December 1-2 the people of Madrid were showing that spirit of fanatical patriotism which Moore had sought in vain hitherto among the Spaniards. The populace, as he had learnt, was barricading the streets and throwing up batteries: 30,000 citizens and peasants were now under arms. Considering their spirit, he had no hesitation in taking upon himself the responsibility of representing the propriety, not to say the necessity, of doing something in their behalf. The fate of Spain depended absolutely, for the moment, on some help being given by the British army. Frere had first-hand evidence of the enthusiasm which was reigning in Madrid on the first day of December, having spoken to several persons who had just left the capital, including a French _émigré_ colonel, one Charmilly, to whose care he entrusted his last letter to the Commander-in-chief. But so convinced was he that no argument of his would affect Sir John Moore, that he took a most improper step, and endeavoured to appeal to the public opinion of the army over the head of its general. He entrusted Charmilly with a second letter, which he was only to deliver if Moore refused to countermand his retreat after reading the first. This document was a request that in case Sir John remained fixed in his original determination, he would allow the bearer of these letters to be examined before a Council of War. Frere thought that Charmilly’s account of what was going on in Madrid would appeal to the Brigadiers, if it had no effect on the Lieutenant-General--and probably he was not far wrong. Such a plan struck at the roots of all military obedience: it could only have occurred to a civilian. If anything could have made the matter worse, it was that the document should be entrusted not to a British officer but to a foreign adventurer, a kind of person to whom the breach between the civil and military representatives of Great Britain ought never to have been divulged. Moreover Charmilly (though Frere was not aware of this fact) chanced to be personally known to Moore, who had a very bad opinion of him[607]. The _émigré_ was said to have been implicated in the San Domingo massacres of 1794, and to have been engaged of late in doubtful financial speculations in London. To send him to Salamanca with such an errand seemed like a deliberate insult to the Commander-in-chief. Frere was innocent of this intention, but the whole business, even without this aggravation, was most unwise and improper.

[606] ‘I do not know that I can in any way express with less offence the entire difference of our opinions on this subject, than by forwarding what I had already written, in ignorance of the determination [to retreat] which you had already taken’ (Aranjuez, Nov. 30).

[607] He had called on Sir John a few days before, while on his way to Madrid to solicit a military post from the Junta. Moore wrote on Nov. 27 to Mr. Stuart, to say that he had seen him and that ‘he never could help having a dislike to people of this description.’

Charmilly handed in his first document on the evening of December 5, a few hours after Morla’s messenger had delivered the appeal from Madrid. Moore received him in the most formal way, dismissed him, and began to compare Frere’s information with that of the Junta of Defence, of the emissaries from Aranjuez, and of his other English correspondents. Putting all together, he felt his determination much shaken: Madrid, as it seemed, was really about to defend itself: the preparations which were reported to him bore out the words of Morla and Castelfranco. His own army was seething with discontent at the projected retreat: Hope being now only one march away, at Alba de Tormes, he could no longer plead that he was unable to advance because he was destitute of cavalry and guns. Moreover, he was now so far informed as to the position--though not as to the numbers--of the French, that he was aware that there was no very serious force in front of himself or of Baird: everything had been turned on to Madrid. Even the 4th Corps, of which Hope had heard during his march, was evidently moving on Segovia and the Guadarrama.

Contemplating the situation, Moore’s resolution broke down: he knew what his army was saying about him at the present moment: he guessed what his government would say, if it should chance that Madrid made a heroic defence while he was retreating unpursued on Lisbon and Almeida. A man of keen ambition and soldierly feeling, he could not bear to think that he might be sacrificing his life’s work and reputation to an over-conscientious caution. Somewhere between eight o’clock and midnight on the night of December 5 he made up his mind to countermand the retreat. He dashed off a short note to Castlereagh, and a dispatch to Baird, and the thing was done. To the war-minister he wrote that ‘considerable hopes were entertained from the enthusiastic manner in which the people of Madrid resist the French.’ This hope he did not share himself, but ‘in consequence of the general opinion, which is also Mr. Frere’s, I have ordered Sir David Baird to suspend his march [to Corunna] and shall myself continue at this place until I see further, and shall be guided by circumstances.’ To Madrid he would not go till he was certain that the town was making a firm defence, and that the spirit of resistance was spreading all over Spain: but the plan of instant retreat on Portugal was definitely abandoned[608]. The dispatch to Baird shows even more of the General’s mind, for he and his subordinate were personal friends, and spoke out freely to each other. The people of Madrid, Moore wrote, had taken up arms, refused to capitulate, and were barricading their streets--they said that they would suffer anything rather than submit. Probably all this came too late, and Bonaparte was too strong to be resisted. ‘There is, however, no saying, and I feel myself the more obliged to give it a trial, as Mr. Frere has made a formal representation, which I received this evening. All this appears very strange and unsteady--but if the spirit of enthusiasm _does_ arise in Spain, and the people _will_ be martyrs, there is no saying what our force may do.’ Baird therefore was to stay his march on Corunna, to make arrangements to return to Astorga, and to send off at once to join the main army one of his three regiments of hussars[609]. All this was written ere midnight: at early dawn Moore’s mind was still further made up. He sent to Sir David orders to push his cavalry to Zamora, his infantry, brigade by brigade, to Benavente, in the plains of Leon. ‘What is passing at Madrid may be decisive of the fate of Spain, and we must be at hand to take advantage of whatever happens. The wishes of our country and our duty demand it of us, with whatever risk it may be attended.... But if the bubble bursts, and Madrid falls, we shall have a run for it.... Both you and me, though we may look big, and determine to get everything forward, yet we must never lose sight of this, that at any moment affairs may take the turn that will render it necessary to retreat[610].’

[608] Moore to Castlereagh, from Salamanca, Dec. 5.

[609] Moore to Baird, from Salamanca, Dec. 5.

[610] Moore to Baird, from Salamanca, Dec. 6. The strange grammar would seem to show that the letter was dashed off in a hurry, and never revised.

If only Moore had discovered on November 13, instead of on December 5, that events at Madrid were important, and that his country’s wishes and his duty required him to take a practical interest in them, the winter campaign of 1808 would have taken--for good or evil--a very different shape from that which it actually assumed. Meanwhile his resolve came too late. Madrid had actually capitulated thirty-six hours before he received the letters of Morla and of Frere. Moreover the offensive could not be assumed till Baird should have retraced his steps from Villafranca, and returned to the position at Astorga from which his wholly unnecessary retreat had removed him.

A painful and rather grotesque scene had to be gone through on the morning of December 6. Colonel Charmilly had been received by Moore on the previous night in such a dry and formal manner, that it never occurred to him that the letter which he had delivered was likely to have had any effect. Accordingly he presented himself for the second time next morning, with Frere’s supplementary epistle, taking it for granted that retreat was still the order of the day, and making the demand for the assembly of a Council of War. Moore, fresh from the severe mental struggle which attended the reversal of all his plans, was in no mood for politeness. Righteously indignant at what seemed to him both a deliberate personal insult, and an intrigue to undermine his authority with his subordinates, he burst out into words of anger and contempt, and told his provost-marshal to expel Charmilly from the camp without a moment’s delay[611]. When this had been done, he sat down to write a dispatch to Frere, in which his conscientious desire to avoid hard words with a British minister struggled in vain with his natural resentment. He began by justifying his original resolve to retreat; and then informed his correspondent that ‘I should never have thought of asking your opinion or advice, as the determination was founded on circumstances with which you could not be acquainted, and was a question purely military, of which I thought myself the best judge.’ When he made up his mind, the army had been hopelessly divided into fractions, and there was good reason at that moment to fear that the French would prevent their concentration. But as the resistance made by the people of Madrid had deterred Bonaparte from detaching any corps against him, and the junction of the British divisions now seemed possible, the situation was changed. ‘Without being able to say exactly in what manner, everything shall be done for the assistance of Madrid, and the Spanish cause, that can be expected from an army such as I command.’ But Moore would not move till Baird came up, and even then, he said, he would only have 26,000 men fit for duty[612]. Believing that Frere’s conduct had been inspired by a regard for the public welfare, he should abstain from any comment on the two letters brought by Colonel Charmilly. But he must confess that he both felt and expressed much indignation at a person of that sort being made the channel of communication between them. ‘I have prejudices against all that class, and it is impossible for me to put any trust in him. I shall therefore thank you not to employ him in any communication with me[613].’

[611] Charmilly, greatly indignant, published a narrative of the whole, in which he justified himself and his character. It does not alter the main facts of the case.

[612] His muster-rolls show 33,000 troops in all, with 29,000 actually present with the colours, but Leith’s brigade and the 82nd, 2,539 men, were not up.

[613] Moore to Frere, Dec. 6. The version presented to Parliament has been somewhat expurgated: I quote from that given by James Moore.

Moore had kept his temper more in hand than might have been expected, considering the provocation that he had received: the same cannot be said for Frere, whose next letter, written from Truxillo on December 9, ended by informing the general that ‘if the British army had been sent abroad for the express object of doing the utmost possible mischief to the cause of Spain, short of actually firing upon the Spanish troops, they would have most completely fulfilled their purpose by carrying out exactly the measures which they have taken[614].’ This was unpardonable language from one official writing a state paper to another, and it is regrettable to find that Frere made no formal apology for it in his later dispatches. Even when he discovered that Moore was actually executing a diversion against the communications of the French army, he only wrote that he was ‘highly gratified’ to find that they were at last agreed on the advisability of such a move[615]. Frere’s uncontrolled expressions showed that he was entirely unfit for a diplomatic post, and cannot be too strongly reprobated. At the same time we are forced to concede that his main thesis was perfectly true: nothing could have been more unhappy than that the aid of a British army of 33,000 men should have been promised to Spain: that the army should have marched late, in isolated divisions and by the wrong roads: that after its van had reached Salamanca on November 13, it should not have taken one step in advance up to December 5: that just as Madrid was attacked it should tamely begin to retreat on Corunna and Lisbon. Moore was only partly responsible for all this: but it is certain that the whole series of movements had in truth been calculated to do the utmost possible mischief to the cause of Spain and of England. If Moore had died or been superseded on December 4, 1808, he would have been written down as wellnigh the worst failure in all the long list of incompetent British commanders since the commencement of the Revolutionary War.

[614] Frere to Moore, from Truxillo, Dec. 9.

[615] Frere to Moore, from Merida, Dec. 14.

It is, therefore, with all the greater satisfaction that we now pass on to the second part of the campaign of the British army in Spain, wherein Moore showed himself as resourceful, rapid, and enterprising as he had hitherto appeared slow and hesitating. Having once got rid of the over-caution which had hitherto governed his movements, and having made up his mind that it was right to run risks, he showed that the high reputation which he enjoyed in the British army was well deserved.

Moore’s first intention, as is shown by his orders to Baird and his letters to Castlereagh, was merely to disturb the French communications by a sudden raid on Valladolid, or even on Burgos. If Madrid was really holding out, the Emperor would not be able to send any large detachment against him, unless he made up his mind to raise the siege of the capital. It was probable that Bonaparte would consider the destruction of an English army of even more importance than the prosecution of the siege, and that he would come rushing northward with all his army. In that case, as Moore wrote to Baird, ‘we shall have a run for it,’ but Madrid would be saved. In short, Napoleon was to be treated like the bull in the arena, who is lured away from a fallen adversary by having a red cloak dangled before his eyes. Supposing that the main force of the French were turned upon him, Moore was perfectly well aware that his line of retreat on Portugal would be cut, for troops marching from the neighbourhood of Madrid, via the Guadarrama Pass, might easily seize Salamanca. But it is one of the privileges of the possessor of sea-power that he can change his base whenever he chooses, and Moore wrote to Castlereagh to request that transports might be massed at Corunna for the reception of his army. If forced to fall back on that place he intended to sail round to Lisbon or to Cadiz, as circumstances might dictate.

In the unlikely event of Bonaparte’s persisting in the siege of Madrid, and sending only small detachments against the British army, Moore thought that he would be strong enough to make matters very unpleasant for the enemy in Old Castile. If he beat the forces immediately opposed to him, and seized Valladolid and Burgos, the Emperor would be compelled to come north, whether he wished it or no.

All these plans were perfectly reasonable and well concerted, considering the information that was at Moore’s disposition on December 6. But that information was based on two false premises: the one was that Madrid was likely to hold out for some little time--Moore never supposed that it could be for very long, for he remained fixed in his distrust of Spanish civic virtues: the second was that the French army in the north of Spain did not amount to more than 80,000 or 100,000 men, an estimate which had been repeated to him by every Spaniard with whom he had communicated, and which had been confirmed, not only by Frere, but by Stuart and other English correspondents in whom he had some confidence. If he had known that the French had entered Madrid on December 4, and that they numbered more than 250,000 bayonets and sabres, his plans would have been profoundly modified[616].

[616] Moore’s plans between Dec. 6 and 10, the day on which he got news of the fall of Madrid, must be gathered from his rather meagre dispatches to Castlereagh of midnight, Dec. 5, and of Dec. 8; from his much more explicit letters to Frere on Dec. 6 and 10; from that to La Romana on Dec. 8; and most of all from the very interesting and confidential letters to Baird on Dec. 6 and 8.

His doubts as to the permanence of the outburst of enthusiasm in Madrid are plainly expressed in nearly every one of these epistles. The terrible under-estimate of Napoleon’s disposable forces is to be found in that to Castlereagh on Dec. 12, where he writes that ‘the French force in Spain may fairly be set down at 80,000 men, besides what is in Catalonia.’ Acting upon this hypothesis, it is no wonder that he was convinced that Bonaparte could not both besiege Madrid and hunt the British army.

Moore’s original intention was to move on Valladolid, a great centre of roads, and a sort of halfway-house between Burgos and Madrid. Meanwhile, Baird was to come down from Astorga via Benavente, and to converge on the same point. A cavalry screen in front of the combined force was formed, by pushing the two regiments which belonged to Moore’s own corps towards Alaejos and Tordesillas, on the south bank of the Douro; while Baird’s cavalry brigade, under Lord Paget, made a forced march from Astorga to Toro, and extended itself north of the river. Moore’s infantry was not to move till the tenth, but that of Baird was already returning as fast as it could manage from Villafranca to Astorga. The unfortunate orders of retreat, issued on November 29, had cost Sir David six marches, three from Astorga to Villafranca and three from Villafranca to Astorga--time lost in the most miserable and unnecessary fashion. One of his brigades, that of General Leith[617], was now so far off that it never managed to overtake the army, and was out of the game for something like a fortnight. But the rest, which had only to return from Villafranca[618], succeeded in joining the main body in much better time than might have been expected. The fact was that the news of an advance had restored the high spirits of the whole army, and the men stepped out splendidly through the cold and rainy winter days, and easily accomplished their twenty miles between dawn and dusk.

[617] Consisting of the 51st Regiment, 59th (2nd batt.), and 76th.

[618] Except the ‘Light Brigade’ of Baird’s army which had never left Astorga, having been intended to act with the cavalry as a rearguard.

Moore, meanwhile, was occupied at Salamanca in making the last preparations for his advance. He had already sent back into Portugal one large convoy on December 5, escorted by the fifth battalion of the 60th Regiment. He now dispatched another which marched by Ciudad Rodrigo, where it picked up the 3rd Foot, who guarded it back to Portugal[619]. The two between them contained all his heavy baggage, and all the sick from his base hospital who could bear transport--probably more than 1,500 invalids: for the total number of the sick of the army was very nearly 4,000, and the larger half of them must have belonged to Moore’s own corps, which was in worse trim than that of Baird. The loss of the regiments sent off on escort duty was partly made up a few days later by the arrival of the 82nd, which came up by forced marches from Oporto, and reached Benavente on December 26. It was the leading battalion of a brigade which the government had resolved to add to Moore’s force from the slender division of Cradock: the other two battalions of the brigade were too far behind, and never succeeded in joining the field-army[620]. Allowing for these final changes we find that Moore and Baird started forth with 29,946 effective sabres and bayonets--in which are included 1,687 men on detachment: they left behind them nearly 4,000 sick[621]. If we deduct 2,539 for Leith’s brigade, which was still far beyond Villafranca, and for the belated 82nd, the actual force which carried out the great raid into the plain of Old Castile must have been just over 25,000 strong: of these 2,450 were cavalry, and there were 1,297 artillery gunners and drivers with sixty-six guns.

[619] The 3rd had been at Ciudad Rodrigo since Oct. 29 guarding communications.

[620] They were the 45th (1st batt.) and the 97th.

[621] See the tables in the Appendix. It seems to result that the gross total who marched from Corunna and Lisbon was 33,884, that the deduction of 3,938 sick leaves 29,946. Leith’s battalions and the 82nd were 2,539 strong, the men on detachment 1,687: this leaves 25,720 for the actual marching force.

Moore had, of course, given notice to La Romana of his change of plan: in response to his letter of December 6 the Marquis expressed his pleasure at the prospect of the union of the allied armies, and his wish to co-operate to the best of his power[622]. He had now collected 20,000 men--a formidable army on paper--and was certain to do his best, but what that might amount to was very doubtful. It was well known that a great part of his troops were not fit to move: but it was not till a few days later that Moore received definite intelligence as to the exact amount of military aid that might be furnished by the army of the Left.

[622] As Arteche very truly observes, the letter of La Romana cannot be safely quoted (after the fashion of James Moore on his p. 122) as approving of the retreat on Portugal. He is answering the dispatch of Dec. 6, not that of Nov. 28.

The British troops were fully committed to their new plan of campaign--Baird was hastening back to Astorga, the sick and the convoys had started for Portugal, the cavalry had pushed well to the front--when Moore suddenly received a piece of intelligence which profoundly modified the situation. Madrid had fallen into the hands of Bonaparte: the news was brought by Colonel Graham, who had been sent off with the reply to Morla and Castelfranco. Forced to make a long detour, because all the direct roads were known to be in the hands of the French, he had fallen in at Talavera with the fugitive army from the Escurial, and had almost witnessed the murder of San Juan. From information given him by various persons, and especially by two belated members of the Central Junta, he learnt that Napoleon had stormed the Retiro and the Prado, and that Morla had signed a capitulation. The populace were said to be still in possession of their arms, and it was supposed that there would be much trouble in pacifying the city; but there was no doubt that, from a military point of view, it was in the Emperor’s power[623].

[623] Graham to Moore, from Talavera, Dec. 7-8.

Considering Moore’s earlier doubts and hesitations, we should almost have expected that this news would have induced him to throw up his whole plan for an advance into Old Castile, and once more to order a retreat on Almeida. But he evidently considered that he was now committed to the raid on Bonaparte’s lines of communication, and thought that, even if he could not save Madrid, he could at least distract the enemy from an attempt to push further south, and give the Spanish armies time to rally. There was a chance, as he wrote to Castlereagh[624], that he might effect something, and he should take it, committing himself to Fortune: ‘If she smiles we may do some good: if not, we shall still I hope have the merit of having done all that we could. The army, for its numbers, is excellent, and is (I am confident) quite determined to do its duty.’

[624] Moore to Castlereagh, from Salamanca, Dec. 10.

On December 11 the infantry at last began to move forward from Salamanca--a month all but two days had elapsed since its vanguard reached that city. On that day the reserve division, under General E. Paget, and Beresford’s brigade of Fraser’s division marched for Toro, where they found Lord Paget with Baird’s cavalry, ready to cover their advance. These troops were to form the left-hand column of the advance on Valladolid. On the next day Hope’s detachment from Alba de Tormes, and the brigades of Bentinck, Fane, Hill, and Charles Alten from Salamanca, which formed the right-hand column, marched for Alaejos and Tordesillas. In front of them was Charles Stewart’s cavalry brigade, which, on the same evening (December 12), fell upon a French cavalry patrol at Rueda and captured it whole, only one man escaping. The prisoners turned out to belong to the 22nd Chasseurs cf Franceschi’s cavalry division, which, as it was discovered, lay at Valladolid without any infantry supports[625]. They expressed the greatest surprise at finding themselves assailed by English cavalry, as they were under the impression that Moore had retired on Lisbon some days before. This side-light on the general ignorance prevailing in the French army as to the position and designs of the British was very valuable: the first meeting with the enemy, trifling as was the success, promised well for the future.

[625] There were thirty of these dragoons: with them were fifty infantry, apparently a belated detail or foraging party from Lefebvre’s corps.

On the thirteenth Moore himself came up from Salamanca to Alaejos, where he overtook the infantry. Stewart’s cavalry meanwhile pushed on to Tordesillas and Medina del Campo, without coming across any traces of the French. At Tordesillas they found themselves in touch with Lord Paget’s horsemen on the other side of the Douro, who had also met with no opposition whatever. On the fifteenth the whole army would have converged on Valladolid, if Moore’s original intention had been carried out. But a fortunate accident intervened to prevent this march, which would have placed the British troops nearer to Madrid and to the Emperor than did the route which they finally adopted.

There was brought to Moore at Alaejos an intercepted dispatch from Berthier to Soult, containing the most valuable information. The officer bearing it had been sent off from Madrid without an escort, according to the Emperor’s usual habit--a habit that cost the lives of some scores of unfortunate aides-de-camp during the first year of the Peninsular War. It was only by experience that Napoleon and his marshals learnt that isolated officers travelling in this fashion were devoted in Spain to probable death and possible torture, as Marbot (after a personal experience of the kind) bitterly observed. The bearer of this particular dispatch had been murdered by peasants at the post-house of Valdestillos, near Segovia.

The document was full of invaluable facts and details. It informed Soult that with his existing force--the two infantry divisions of Merle and Mouton, and the four cavalry regiments of Franceschi’s division[626]--he was strong enough to march straight before him from Saldaña, and to overrun the whole kingdom of Leon. He was to seize the towns of Leon, Zamora, and Benavente, and to sweep the débris of the army of Galicia into its native mountains. He would find nothing else to oppose him; for the English, as all accounts agreed, were in full retreat on Lisbon. They had last been heard of at Salamanca and the Escurial. A knowledge of this plan was valuable to Moore, but still more so was what followed--a sketch of the position of the French army at the moment when the dispatch was written. The advanced guard of the ‘Grand Army’ (Lefebvre’s corps) was at Talavera, and would shortly be at Badajoz: Bessières was chasing Castaños beyond the Upper Tagus, on the road to Valencia. Mortier’s and Junot’s corps had reached Spain: the former had been ordered off to aid in the siege of Saragossa: the latter was on the march to Burgos, and its leading division had reached Vittoria. The chief omission was that Berthier did not mention the Imperial Guard or the corps of Ney, which were in or about Madrid when he wrote, and were probably destined to follow Lefebvre’s march on Badajoz and Lisbon. The dispatch ends with the curious note that ‘His Majesty is in the best of health. The city of Madrid is quite tranquil: the shops are open, theatrical amusements have been resumed, and you would never suppose that our first addresses to the place had been emphasized by 4,000 cannon-balls[627].’

[626] Berthier speaks as if Mouton were still commanding one of Soult’s divisions, but he was now gone, and Mermet’s name ought to appear.

[627] This dispatch, though often published, has been deliberately omitted (like some others) in the _Correspondance de Napoléon_, vol. xviii, probably because it shows the Emperor in one of his least omniscient moods.

Moore was thus placed in possession of the Emperor’s plan of campaign, and of the dislocation of the greater part of his army. Most important of all, he discovered that his own position and designs were wholly unsuspected. His mind was soon made up: Soult, as it seemed, with his 15,000 or 16,000 men at Saldaña and Carrion, was about to move forward into Leon. He would thus be placed at an enormous distance from the Emperor, and would have no solid supports save the leading division of Junot’s corps, which must now be drawing near to Burgos. If he advanced, the whole British army, aided by whatever troops La Romana could produce, might be hurled upon him. The results could not be doubtful, and a severe defeat inflicted on the 2nd Corps would shake the hold of the French on Northern Spain, and ruin all the Emperor’s plans. Moreover the region where Soult might be looked for, about Carrion, Sahagun, and Mayorga, was far more remote from Madrid than the Valladolid country, where Moore was originally intending to strike his blow, so that several days would be gained before the Emperor could interfere.

Accordingly, on December 15, the whole army suddenly changed its direction from eastward to northward. The left-hand column of the infantry crossed the Douro at Zamora, the right-hand column at Toro. The cavalry, screening the march of both, went northward from Tordesillas to the banks of the Sequillo, pushing its advanced parties right up to Valladolid, and driving back the dragoons of Franceschi, several of whose detachments they cut off, capturing a colonel and more than a hundred men. They intercepted the communications between Burgos and Madrid to such effect that Bonaparte believed that the whole British army was moving on Valladolid, and drew up his first plan of operations under that hypothesis[628].

[628] It is clear from _Nap. Corresp._, 14,614, 14,616-7, that Franceschi actually evacuated Valladolid and retired northwards. Napoleon at first believed that Moore had occupied the place: but 14,620 mentions that no more happened than that 100 hussars swooped down on it on Dec. 19, and carried off the intendant of the province and 300,000 reals (£3,000) from the treasury. This exploit is omitted by nearly every English writer. Only Vivian mentions it in his diary, and says that the lucky captors belonged to the 18th Hussars (_Memoirs_, p. 94). What became of the money?

Meanwhile four good marches [December 16-20] carried Moore’s infantry from Zamora and Toro by the route Villalpando-Valderas to Mayorga. The weather was bitterly cold, which in one way favoured the movement, for the frost hardened the country roads, which would otherwise have been mere sloughs of mud. A little snow fell from time to time, but not enough to incommode the troops. They marched well, kept their discipline, and left few sick or stragglers behind. This was the result of good spirits, for they had been told that they would meet the French before the week was out. At Mayorga the junction with Baird’s column was safely effected.

When the army had thus completed its concentration, Sir John Moore, for reasons which it is not quite easy to understand, rearranged all its units. He formed it into four divisions and two independent light brigades. The 1st Division was given to Sir David Baird, the 2nd to Sir John Hope, the 3rd to General Fraser, the 4th (or Reserve) to General E. Paget. The two light brigades were under Charles Alten and Robert Crawfurd (now as always to be carefully distinguished from Catlin Crawfurd, who commanded a brigade of Hope’s division). All the old arrangements of the army of Portugal were broken up: Baird was given three regiments which had come from Lisbon: on the other hand he had to make over four of his Corunna battalions to Hope and two to Fraser. Apparently the idea of the Commander-in-chief was to mix the corps who had already had experience of the French in Portugal with the comparatively raw troops who had landed in Galicia. Otherwise it is impossible to understand the gratuitous divorce of regiments which had been for some time accustomed to act together. The cavalry was formed as a division of two brigades under Lord Paget: the three hussar regiments from Corunna formed one, under General Slade; the two corps from Lisbon the other, under Charles Stewart, the brother of Lord Castlereagh. Of the whole army only the 82nd and Leith’s brigade were still missing: the former had not yet reached Benavente. The belated regiments of the latter were still on the further side of Astorga, and never took any part in the advance.

During this march Moore at last got full information as to the state of La Romana’s troops, and the aid that might be expected from them. The Marquis himself, writing to contradict a false report that he was retiring on Galicia, confessed that two-thirds of his 20,000 men wanted reclothing from head to foot, and that there was a terrible want of haversacks, cartridge-boxes, and shoes. He complained bitterly that the provinces (i.e. Asturias and Galicia) were slack and tardy in forwarding him supplies, and laid much of the blame on them[629]. But he would move forward the moment he could be assisted by Baird’s troops in pressing the French in his front. He reported that Soult had 10,000 infantry at Saldaña, Carrion, and Almanza, with cavalry out in advance at Sahagun: he dared not move across their front southward, for to do so would uncover the high-road through Leon to the Asturias. But the appearance of Baird on the Benavente-Palencia road should be the signal for him to advance against the French in conjunction with his allies[630].

[629] Toreño, being an Asturian, is rather indignant at Romana’s reflection on the Junta of his province, and observes (i. 324) that the Marquis did not take the trouble to ask for help from them, only writing them a single letter during his stay at Leon. But they sent him some tents, and took in some of his sick. From Galicia there was coming for him an enormous convoy with 100 wagons of English boots and clothes: but it was three weeks too late, and had only reached Lugo by Jan. 1.

[630] Romana to Moore, from Leon, Dec. 14.

Romana’s description of his army did not sound very promising. But a confidential report from an English officer who had visited his cantonments gave an even less favourable account of the Galicians. Colonel Symes had seen four of the seven divisions which formed the ‘Army of the Left.’ He wrote that the soldiers were ‘in general, stout young men, without order or discipline, but not at all turbulent or ferocious. Their clothing was motley, and some were half-naked. Their manœuvres were very confusedly performed, and the officers were comparatively inferior to the men. The equipment was miserable: of sixteen men of General Figueroa’s guard only six had bayonets. The springs and locks of the muskets often did not correspond. A portion of them--at least one-third--would not explode, and a French soldier could load and fire his piece with precision thrice, before a Spaniard could fire his twice.’ Of the three divisions which he saw reviewed at Leon, one (the 5th, the old troops from the Baltic) seemed superior to the rest, and was armed with good English firelocks: there was also a corps of light troops, 1,000 men in uniform, who might be called respectable[631].... Without undervaluing the spirit of patriotism of the Spaniards, which might in the end effect their deliverance, the writer of the report could only say that they were not, and for a very long time could not be, sufficiently improved in the art of war to be coadjutors in a general action with the British: if any reliance were placed on Spanish aid in the field, terrible disappointment must result: ‘we must stand or fall through our own means[632].’ Colonel Symes doubted whether La Romana would even dare to take his troops into the field at all--wherein he did the Marquis grave injustice: he had every intention of doing his best--though that best turned out to be merely the bringing to the front of the 7,000 or 8,000 men out of his 22,000, who were more or less armed and equipped, while the rest were left behind as wholly unserviceable.

[631] Possibly the two light infantry battalions (Catalonia and Barcelona) of the Baltic division.

[632] Symes to Baird, from Leon, Dec. 14. Baird, of course, forwarded the letter to Moore. I have cut down the report to one-third of its bulk, by omitting the less important parts.

With this document before him, Moore must have found a certain grim humour in the perusal of a letter from the Supreme Junta, which reached him at Toro on December 16, informing him that La Romana would join him with 14,000 ‘picked men,’ and that within a month 30,000 more Asturian and Galician levies should be at his disposal. This communication was brought to him by Francisco Xavier Caro, the brother of the Marquis, who was himself a member of the Junta. With him came Mr. Stuart, as an emissary from the British minister, bringing the last of those unhappy epistles which Frere had written before he knew that the plan of retreating on Portugal had been given up. We have already quoted one of its insulting phrases on page 524: the rest was in the same strain. Fortunately, it could be disregarded, as Moore was actually advancing on the enemy, with a definite promise of help from La Romana. Caro professed to be much delighted that the Junta’s hopes were at last obtaining fruition. Stuart expressed surprise and grief at the tone of Frere’s letters, and ‘seemed not much pleased at his mission[633].’ This was the last of the many troubles with the British and Spanish civil authorities which were destined to harass the Commander-in-chief. For the future it was only military cares that were to weigh upon his mind.

[633] Moore’s diary, quoted in his brother’s memoir of him, pp. 141, 142.

On December 20 the army had concentrated at Mayorga. Somewhat to his disappointment Moore discovered that Soult had not begun the advance on Leon which Berthier’s intercepted dispatch had ordered. Either no duplicate of it had been received by the Marshal, or he had been disconcerted by the report that the English were on the move for Valladolid. That they were coming against his own force he can as yet hardly have guessed. He was still in his old position, one infantry division at Saldaña, the other at Carrion. Debelle’s light-cavalry brigade lay in front as a screen, with its head quarters at Sahagun, only nine miles from the English advanced pickets, which had reached the abbey of Melgar Abaxo.

The proximity of the enemy led Lord Paget, who showed himself throughout the campaign a most admirable and enterprising cavalry commander, to attempt a surprise. Marching long ere dawn with the 10th and 15th Hussars, he reached the vicinity of Sahagun without being discovered. Debelle had no outlying vedettes, and his main-guard on the high-road was suddenly surrounded and captured before it was aware that an enemy was near. Only a single trooper escaped, but he aroused the town, and Paget, hearing the French trumpets sounding in the streets, saw that he must lose no time. He sent General Slade with the 10th Hussars by the straight road into Sahagun, while he himself galloped around it with the 15th to cut off the enemy’s retreat. As he reached the suburb he found Debelle forming up his two regiments--the 8th Dragoons and the 1st Provisional Chasseurs--among the snow-covered stumps of a vineyard. Nothing could be seen of the 10th, which was scouring the town, but Paget formed up the 15th for a charge. His first movement was checked by an unexpected ditch; but moving rapidly down it he crossed at a place where it was practicable, and found Debelle changing front to meet him. Catching the French before they had begun to move--their new formation was not yet quite completed--Paget charged into them without hesitation, though they outnumbered him by nearly two to one. He completely rode down the front regiment, the provisional chasseurs, and flung it back on to the dragoons, who broke and fled. The chasseurs, who were commanded by Colonel Tascher, a cousin of the Empress Josephine, were half destroyed: two lieutenant-colonels, eleven other officers, and 157 men were taken prisoners, twenty were killed, many were wounded[634]. The regiment indeed was so mauled that Bonaparte dissolved it soon after, and replaced it in Franceschi’s division by the 1st Hussars, which had just arrived from France.

[634] Compare Lord Londonderry (a participator in the charge), Vivian, Adam Neale, and on the French side, Colonel St. Chamans, Soult’s aide-de-camp. The British lost only 14 men (Vivian, p. 97).

This was perhaps the most brilliant exploit of the British cavalry during the whole six years of the war. When the Peninsular medals were distributed, nearly forty years after, a special clasp was very rightly given for it, though many combats in which a much larger number of men were engaged received no such notice. While reading the records of later stages of the war the historian must often regret that Wellington never, till Waterloo, had the services of Paget as commander of his light cavalry. There were unfortunate personal reasons which rendered the presence of the victor of Sahagun and Benavente impossible in the camp of the victor of Vimiero[635].

[635] After his return from Spain in January, 1809, Paget eloped with the wife of Henry Wellesley, the younger brother of Wellington. Naturally they could not be placed together for many years, and Paget lost his chance of seeing any more of the war. But at Waterloo he gloriously vindicated his reputation as the best living British cavalry-officer.

The scared survivors of Debelle’s brigade rode back to give Soult notice that the enemy was upon him, and might close in on the very next day. Meanwhile Moore’s infantry, following in the wake of Paget’s horse, reached Sahagun on the evening of the twenty-first. It was to be almost their last step in advance. The general allowed one day’s rest to enable the rear divisions to close up to the van, so that all might advance on Saldaña and Carrion in a compact mass. He intended to deliver his much-desired blow at Soult upon the twenty-third.

The Duke of Dalmatia, though he had heard nothing as yet of the British infantry, made the right inference from the vigorous way in which his cavalry had been driven in, and concluded that Moore was not far off. He drew down his second infantry division from Saldaña to Carrion, thus concentrating his corps, and sent aides-de-camp to Burgos and Palencia to hurry up to his support every regiment that could be found. The disposable troops turned out to be Lorges’s division of dragoons, and Delaborde’s division of the 8th Corps, which were both on their way from Burgos to Madrid. The rest of Junot’s infantry was two days off, on the road from Vittoria to Burgos. The brigade of Franceschi’s cavalry which had evacuated Valladolid, was also heard of on the Palencia road. No news or orders had been received from Madrid, with which place communication was now only possible by the route of Aranda, that by Valladolid being closed.

If Moore, allowing his infantry the night of the twenty-first and the morning of the twenty-second to recruit their strength, had marched on Carrion on the afternoon of the latter day, he would have caught Soult at a disadvantage at dawn on the twenty-third, for none of the supporting forces had yet got into touch with the Marshal. If the latter had dared to make a stand, he would have been crushed: but it is more probable that--being a prudent general--he would have fallen back a march in the direction of Burgos. But, as it chanced, Moore resolved to give his men forty-eight hours instead of thirty-six at Sahagun--and twelve hours often suffice to change the whole situation. The army was told to rest as long as daylight lasted on the twenty-third, and to march at nightfall, so as to appear in front of the bridge of Carrion at dawn on the twenty-fourth. Attacked at daybreak, the Marshal would, as Moore hoped, find no time to organize his retreat and would thus be forced to fight.

While waiting at Sahagun for the sun to set, Moore received a dispatch from La Romana to say that, in accordance with his promise, he had marched from Leon to aid his allies. But he could only put into the field some 8,000 men and a single battery--with which he had advanced to Mansilla, with his vanguard at Villarminio, on the road to Saldaña. He was thus but eighteen miles from Sahagun, and though he had only brought a third of his army with him, could be utilized in the oncoming operations.

But this was not the only news which reached Moore on the afternoon of the twenty-third. Only two short hours before he received the dispatch from Mansilla, another note from La Romana had come in, with information of very much greater importance. A confidential agent of the Marquis, beyond the Douro, had sent him a messenger with news that all the French forces in the direction of the Escurial were turning northward and crossing the Guadarrama. Putting this intelligence side by side with rumours brought in by peasants, to the effect that great quantities of food and forage had been ordered to be collected in the villages west of Palencia, Moore drew the right inference. What he had always expected had come to pass. Napoleon had turned north from Madrid, and was hastening across the mountains to overwhelm the British army[636].

[636] From Moore’s dispatch to La Romana, written on the twenty-third, we gather that the letter with the news about the French movements came in about six p.m., and the second one with the report that the Spaniards had reached Mansilla about eight. The latter is acknowledged in a postscript to Moore’s reply to the former. The resolve to retreat was made between six and eight o’clock.

Without losing a moment, Moore countermanded his advance on Carrion. The orders went out at nine o’clock, when the leading brigades had already started. As the men were tramping over the frozen snow, in full expectation of a fight at dawn, they were suddenly told to halt. A moment later came the command to turn back by the road that they had come, and to retire to their bivouacs of the previous day. Utterly puzzled and much disgusted the troops returned to Sahagun.

SECTION VIII: CHAPTER IV

NAPOLEON’S PURSUIT OF MOORE: SAHAGUN TO ASTORGA

We have many times had occasion in this narrative to wonder at the extreme tardiness with which news reached the Spanish and the English generals. It is now at the inefficiency of Napoleon’s intelligence department that we must express our surprise. Considering that Moore had moved forward from Salamanca as far back as December 12, and had made his existence manifest to the French on that same day by the successful skirmish at Rueda, it is astonishing to find that the Emperor did not grasp the situation for nine days. Under the influence of his pre-conceived idea that the British must be retiring on Lisbon, he was looking for them in every other quarter rather than the banks of the Upper Douro. On the seventeenth he was ordering reconnaissances to be made in the direction of Plasencia[637] in Estremadura (of all places in the world) to get news of Moore, and was still pushing troops towards Talavera on the road to Portugal. The general tendency of all his movements was in this direction, and there can be no doubt that in a few days his great central reserve would have followed in the wake of Lasalle and Lefebvre, and started for Badajoz and Elvas. On the nineteenth he reviewed outside Madrid the troops that were available for instant movement--the Imperial Guard, the corps of Ney, the divisions of Leval and Lapisse--about 40,000 men with 150 guns, all in excellent order, and with fifteen days’ biscuit stored in their wagons[638]. Of the direction they were to take we can have no doubt, when we read in the imperial correspondence orders for naval officers to be hurried up to reorganize the arsenal of Lisbon[639], and a private note to Bessières--the commander-in-chief of the cavalry--bidding him start his spare horses and his personal baggage for Talavera[640].

[637] _Nap. Corresp._, 14,577 [Dec. 17], orders Lasalle’s cavalry to push for Plasencia in order to get news of the British army.

[638] Napier (i. 304) says that there were 60,000 men present, but it is hard to see how such a number could have been collected on that day at Madrid; and the official account of the review in the _Madrid Gazette_ for Dec. 23 says that 40,000 men appeared, ‘all in beautiful order, and testifying their enthusiasm by their shouts as His Majesty rode past the front of each regiment.’ The Emperor never understated his forces on such occasions: the tendency was the other way.

[639] _Nap. Corresp._, 14,514, to Admiral Decrès. Cf. De Pradt, p. 211.

[640] _Nap. Corresp._, 14,553, to Bessières, Dec. 12.

The Emperor’s obstinate refusal to look in the right direction is very curious when we remember that Moore’s cavalry was sweeping the plains as far as Valladolid from December 12 to 16, and that on the eighteenth Franceschi had abandoned that important city, while Soult had got news of Moore’s being on the move two days earlier. Clearly either there was grave neglect in sending information on the part of the French cavalry generals in Old Castile, or else the Emperor had so convinced himself that the British were somewhere on the road to Lisbon, that he did not read the true meaning of the dispatches from the north. Be this as it may, it is evident that there was a serious failure in the imperial intelligence department, and that a week or more was wasted. Bonaparte ought to have been astir two or three days after Stewart and Paget drove in Franceschi’s screen of vedettes. As a matter of fact it was nine days before any move was made at the French head quarters: yet Rueda is only ninety-five miles from Madrid.

The first definite intelligence as to the English being on the move in Old Castile reached the Emperor on the evening of December 19. Yet it was only on the twenty-first that he really awoke to the full meaning of the reports that reached him from Soult and Franceschi[641]. But when he did at last realize the situation, he acted with a sudden and spasmodic energy which was never surpassed in any of his earlier campaigns. He hurled on to Moore’s track not only the central reserve at Madrid, but troops gathered in from all directions, till he had set at least 80,000 men on the march, to encompass the British corps which had so hardily thrown itself upon his communications. Moore had been perfectly right when he stated his belief that the sight of the redcoats within reach would stir the Emperor up to such wrath, that he would abandon every other enterprise and rush upon them with every available man.

[641] In _Nap. Corresp._ there is no trace of movement till the twenty-second.

On the evening of the twenty-first the French troops from every camp around Madrid were pouring out towards the Escurial and the two passes over the Guadarrama. The cavalry of Ney’s corps and of the Imperial Guard was in front, then came the masses of their infantry. Lapisse’s division fell in behind: an express was sent to Dessolles, who was guarding the road to Calatayud and Saragossa, to leave only two battalions and a battery behind, and to make forced marches on the Escurial with the rest of his men. Another aide-de-camp rode to set Lahoussaye’s division of dragoons on the move from Avila[642]. Finally messengers rode north to bid Lorges’s dragoons, and all the fractions of Junot’s corps, to place themselves under the orders of Soult. Millet’s belated division of dragoons was to do the same, if it had yet crossed the Ebro.

[642] All this can be studied in _Nap. Corresp._, 14,609, 14,611, 14,614. The march out towards the Escurial is fixed, by the _Madrid Gazette_ of Dec. 23, as having begun late on the twenty-first.

The Emperor, once more committing the error of arguing from insufficient data, had made up his mind that the English were at Valladolid[643]. He had no news from that place since Franceschi had abandoned it, and chose to assume that Moore, or at any rate some portion of the British army, was there established. Under this hypothesis it would be easy to cut off the raiders from a retreat on Portugal, or even on Galicia, by carrying troops with extreme speed to Tordesillas and Medina de Rio Seco. This comparatively easy task was all that Napoleon aimed at in his first directions. Villacastin, Arevalo, Olmedo, and Medina del Campo are the points to which his orders of December 21 and 22 require that the advancing columns should be pushed.

[643] This error appears in _Nap. Corresp._, 14,614 [Dec. 22], ‘si les Anglais veulent tenir à Valladolid’; 14,616 [Dec. 23] says, ‘Les Anglais paraissent être à Valladolid, probablement avec une avant-garde.’ It is only on Dec. 27 that he writes to King Joseph that they had never been there at all, save with a flying party of 100 light cavalry.

For the maintenance of Madrid, and the ‘containing’ of the Spanish armies at Cuenca and Almaraz, the Emperor left nothing behind but the corps of Lefebvre, two-thirds of the corps of Victor, and the three cavalry divisions of Lasalle, Milhaud, and Latour-Maubourg--8,000 horse and 28,000 foot in all, with ninety guns[644]. King Joseph was left in nominal command of the whole. Such a force was amply sufficient to hold back the disorganized troops of Galluzzo and Infantado, but not to advance on Seville or on Lisbon. It was impossible that any blow should be dealt to the west or the south, till the Emperor should send back some of the enormous masses of men that he had hurled upon Moore. Thus the English general’s intention was fully carried out: his raid into Old Castile had completely disarranged all Bonaparte’s plans. It gave the Spaniards at least two months in which to rally and recover their spirits, and it drew the field-army of the Emperor into a remote and desolate corner of Spain, so that the main centres of resistance were left unmolested.

[644] This is Napoleon’s own estimate (_Nap. Corresp._, 14,615). Marshal Jourdan, who was more or less in charge of the whole, as chief of the staff to King Joseph, says that there were in reality only 30,000 men in all (_Mémoires Militaires_, p. 130). Not only was Victor’s corps short of the division of Lapisse (which the Emperor had carried off), but Lefebvre’s was also incomplete, as two Dutch and one German battalions of Leval’s division were behind in Biscay, garrisoning Bilbao and other points. King Joseph’s Guards had also left some detachments behind, and were not up to full strength (_Nap. Corresp._, 14,615).

Napoleon had guessed part, but by no means all, of Moore’s design. ‘The manœuvre of the English is very strange,’ he wrote to his brother Joseph; ‘it is proved that they have evacuated Salamanca. Probably they have brought their transports round to Ferrol, because they think that the retreat on Lisbon is no longer safe, as we could push on from Talavera by the left bank of the Tagus and shut the mouth of the river.... Probably they have evacuated Portugal and transferred their base to Ferrol, because it offers advantages for a safe embarkation. But while retreating, they might hope to inflict a check on the corps of Soult, and may not have made up their mind to try it till they had got upon their new line of retreat, and moved to the right bank of the Douro. They may have argued as follows: “If the French commit themselves to a march on Lisbon, we can evacuate on Oporto, and while doing so are still on our line of communications with Ferrol. Or, possibly, they may be expecting fresh reinforcements. But whatever their plan may be, their move will have a great influence on the end of this whole business.”’

The Emperor thought therefore that Moore’s main object had been to change an unsafe base at Lisbon for a safe one in Galicia, and that the demonstration against Soult was incidental and secondary. It does not seem to have struck him that the real design was to lure the central field-army of the French from Madrid, and to postpone the invasion of the south. Many of his apologists and admirers have excused his blindness, by saying that Moore’s plan was so rash and hazardous that no sensible man could have guessed it. But this is a complete mistake: the plan, if properly carried out, was perfectly sound. Sir John knew precisely what he was doing, and was prepared to turn on his heel and go back at full speed, the instant that he saw the least movement on the side of Madrid. It was in no rash spirit that he acted, but rather the reverse: ‘I mean to proceed bridle in hand,’ he said; ‘and if the bubble bursts, we shall have a run for it.’[645] And on this principle he acted: three hours after he got notice that Napoleon was on the march, he started to ‘make a run for it’ to Astorga, and his promptness was such that his main body was never in the slightest danger from the Emperor’s rush on Benavente, fierce and sudden though it was. The disasters of the second part of the retreat were not in the least caused by Napoleon’s intercepting movement, which proved an absolute and complete failure.

[645] Moore to Baird, from Salamanca, Dec. 6.

But to proceed: Ney’s corps, which led the advance against Moore, crossed the Guadarrama on the night of December 21, and had arrived safely at Villacastin, on the northern side of the passes, on the morning of the twenty-second. As if to contradict the Emperor’s statement--made as he was setting out--that ‘the weather could not be better,’ a dreadful tempest arose that day. When Bonaparte rode up from Chamartin, to place himself at the head of his Guard, which was to cross the mountains on the twenty-second, he found the whole column stopped by a howling blizzard, which swept down the pass with irresistible strength and piled the snow in large drifts at every inconvenient corner of the defile. It is said that several horsemen were flung over precipices by the mere force of the wind. The whole train of cannon and caissons stuck halfway up the ascent, and could neither advance nor retreat. Violently irritated at the long delay, Napoleon turned on every pioneer that could be found to clear away the drifts, set masses of men to trample down the snow into a beaten track, forced the officers and all the cavalry to dismount and lead their horses, and unharnessed half the artillery so as to give double teams to the rest. In this way the Guard, with the Emperor walking on foot in its midst, succeeded at last in crawling through to Villacastin by the night of December 23. A considerable number of men died of cold and fatigue, and the passage had occupied some sixteen hours more than had been calculated by the Emperor. The troops which followed him had less trouble in their passage, the tempest having abated its fury, and the path cleared by the Guard being available for their use.

At the very moment at which Moore was countermanding the advance on Sahagun--about seven o’clock on the evening of the twenty-third--Napoleon was throwing himself on his couch at Villacastin, after a day of fatigue which had tried even his iron frame. For the next week the two armies were contending with their feet and not their arms, in the competition which the French officers called the ‘race to Benavente[646].’ Napoleon was at last beginning to understand that he had not before him the comparatively simple task of cutting the road between Valladolid and Astorga, but the much harder one of intercepting that between Sahagun and Astorga. For the first three days of his march he was still under some hopes of catching the English before they could cross the Esla--and if any of them had been at Valladolid this would certainly have been possible. On December 24 he was at Arevalo: on Christmas Day he reached Tordesillas, where he waited twenty-four hours to allow his infantry to come up with his cavalry. On the twenty-seventh he at last understood--mainly through a letter from Soult--that the English were much further north than he had at first believed. But he was still in high spirits: he did not think it probable that Moore also might have been making forced marches, and having seized Medina de Rio Seco with Ney’s corps, he imagined that he was close on the flank of the retreating enemy. ‘To-day or to-morrow,’ he wrote to his brother Joseph on that morning, ‘it is probable that great events will take place. If the English have not already retreated they are lost: even if they have already moved they shall be pursued to the water’s edge, and not half of them shall re-embark. Put in your newspapers that 36,000 English are surrounded, that I am at Benavente in their rear, while Soult is in their front[647].’ The announcement was duly made in the _Madrid Gazette_, but the Emperor had been deceived as to the condition of affairs, which never in actual fact resembled the picture that he had drawn for himself[648].

[646] The phrase will be found in De Pradt, p. 211.

[647] _Nap. Corresp._, 14,620 (Napoleon to King Joseph, Dec. 27).

[648] Oddly enough Joseph had anticipated his brother’s orders, by putting in the _Madrid Gazette_ of that very day a notice that a British corps was in the most critical position, that its retreat was cut off, and that ‘London, so long insensible to the woes of Spain, will soon grieve over a disaster that is her own and not that of another.’

Sir John had commenced his retreat from Sahagun on the twenty-fourth, with the intention of retiring to Astorga, and of taking up a position on the mountains behind it that might cover Galicia. He did not intend to retire any further unless he were obliged[649]. If Soult should follow him closely, while the Emperor was still two or three marches away, he announced his intention of turning upon the Marshal and offering him battle. He wrote to La Romana asking him to hold the bridge of Mansilla (the most northerly passage over the Esla) as long as might be prudent, and then to retire on the Asturias, leaving the road to Galicia clear for the English army[650].

[649] Moore to La Romana, from Sahagun, night of Dec. 23-4.

[650] Moore to La Romana, from Sahagun, Dec. 24.

At noon on the twenty-fourth Moore started off in two columns: Baird’s division marched by the northern road to Valencia de Don Juan, where the Esla is passable by a ford and a ferry: Hope and Fraser took the more southern route by Mayorga and the bridge of Castro Gonzalo. The reserve division under E. Paget, and the two light brigades, remained behind at Sahagun for twenty-four hours to cover the retreat. The five cavalry regiments were ordered to press in closely upon Soult, and to keep him as long as possible in doubt as to whether he was not himself about to be attacked.

This demonstration seems to have served its purpose, for the Marshal made no move either on the twenty-fourth or the twenty-fifth. Yet by the latter day his army was growing very formidable, as all the corps from Burgos and Palencia were reporting themselves to him: Lorges’s dragoons had reached Frechilla, and Delaborde with the head of the infantry of Junot’s corps was at Paredes, only thirteen miles from Soult’s head quarters at Carrion. Loison and Heudelet were not far behind. Yet the English columns marched for two days wholly unmolested.

On the twenty-sixth Baird crossed the Esla at Valencia: the ford was dangerous, for the river was rising: a sudden thaw on the twenty-fourth had turned the roads into mud, and loosened the snows. But the guns and baggage crossed without loss, as did also some of the infantry, the rest using the two ferry-boats[651]. Hope and Fraser, on the Mayorga road, had nothing but the badness of their route to contend against. The soil of this part of the kingdom of Leon is a soft rich loam, and the cross-roads were knee-deep in clay: for the whole of the twenty-sixth it rained without intermission: the troops plodded on in very surly mood, but as yet there was no straggling. It was still believed that Moore would fight at Astorga, and, though the men grumbled that ‘the General intended to march them to death first and to fight after[652],’ they still kept together.

[651] There is a good account of this dangerous passage in Adam Neale’s _Spanish Campaign of 1808_.

[652] Memoir of ‘T.S.’ of the 71st Highlanders, p. 53.

But already signs were beginning to be visible that their discipline was about to break down. A good deal of wanton damage and a certain amount of plunder took place at the halting-places for the night--Mayorga, Valderas, and Benavente. A voice from the ranks explains the situation. ‘Our sufferings were so great that many of the men lost their natural activity and spirits, and became savage in their dispositions. The idea of running away, without even firing a shot, from the enemy we had beaten so easily at Vimiero, was too galling to their feelings. Each spoke to his fellow, even in common conversation, with bitterness: rage flashed out on the most trifling occasion of disagreement. The poor Spaniards had little to expect from such men as these, who blamed them for their inactivity. Every man found at home was looked upon as a traitor to his country. “Why is not every Spaniard under arms and fighting? The cause is not ours: are we to be the only sufferers?” Such was the common language, and from these feelings pillage and outrage naturally arose[653].’ The men began to seize food in the towns and villages without waiting for the regular distribution, forced their way into houses, and (the country being singularly destitute of wood) tore down sheds and doors to build up their bivouac fires. The most deplorable mischief took place at Benavente, where the regiment quartered in the picturesque old castle belonging to the Duchess of Osuna burnt much of the mediaeval furniture, tore down the sixteenth-century tapestry to make bed-clothes, and lighted fires on the floors of the rooms, to the destruction of the porcelain friezes and alcoves[654]. Moore issued a strongly-worded proclamation against these excesses on December 27, blaming the officers for not keeping an eye upon the men, and pointing out that ‘not bravery alone, but patience and constancy under fatigue and hardship were military virtues[655].’ Unfortunately, such arguments had little effect on the tired and surly rank and file. Things were ere long to grow much worse.

[653] I am again quoting from the admirable narrative of ‘T.S.’, the private in the 71st. Compare Ormsby’s _Letters_, ii. 92-3, for the wanton plundering.

[654] The French did worse, as they burnt the whole castle when they occupied it during the first days of the new year. But that is no justification for the conduct of the British. For a description of the damage done see Ormsby, ii. 102, 103.

[655] General Order, issued at Benavente on Dec. 27.

The infantry, as we have seen, accomplished their march to Benavente without molestation, and all, including the rearguard, were across the Esla by the twenty-seventh. Paget’s cavalry, however, had a much more exciting time on the last two days. Finding that he was not attacked, Soult began to bestir himself on the twenty-sixth: he sent Lorges’s dragoons after the British army, in the direction of Mayorga, while with Franceschi’s cavalry and the whole of his infantry he marched by the direct road on Astorga, via the bridge of Mansilla.

Lorges’s four regiments were in touch with the rearguard of Paget’s hussars on the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh, but they were not the only or the most important enemies who were now striving to drive in Moore’s cavalry screen. The advanced guard of the Emperor’s army had just come up, and first Colbert’s brigade of Ney’s corps and then the cavalry of the Guard began to press in upon Paget: Lahoussaye’s dragoons arrived on the scene a little later. It is a splendid testimonial to the way in which the British horsemen were handled, that they held their own for three days against nearly triple forces on a front of thirty miles[656]. No better certificate could be given to them than the fact that the Emperor estimated them, when the fighting was over, at 4,000 or 5,000 sabres, their real force being only 2,400. He wrote, too, in a moment of chagrin when Moore’s army had just escaped from him, so that he was not at all inclined to exaggerate their numbers, and as a matter of fact rated the infantry too low.

But under the admirable leading of Paget the British cavalry held its own in every direction. Moore was not exaggerating when he wrote on the twenty-eighth that ‘they have obtained by their spirit and enterprise an ascendency over the French which nothing but great superiority of numbers on their part can get the better of[657].’ The 18th Light Dragoons turned back to clear their rear six times on December 27, and on each occasion drove in the leading squadrons of their pursuers with such effect that they secured themselves an unmolested retreat for the next few miles. At one charge, near Valencia de Don Juan, a troop of thirty-eight sabres of this regiment charged a French squadron of 105 men, and broke through them, killing twelve and capturing twenty. The 10th Hussars, while fending off Lorges’s dragoons near Mayorga, found that a regiment of the light cavalry of Ney had got into their rear and had drawn itself up on a rising ground flanking the high-road. Charging up the slope, and over soil deep in the slush of half-melted snow, they broke through the enemy’s line, and got off in safety with 100 prisoners. Every one of Paget’s five regiments had its full share of fighting on the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh, yet they closed in on to Benavente in perfect order, with insignificant losses, and exulting in a complete consciousness of their superiority to the enemy’s horse. Since the start from Salamanca they had in twelve days taken no less than 500 prisoners, besides inflicting considerable losses in killed and wounded on the French. They had still one more success before them, ere they found themselves condemned to comparative uselessness among the mountains of Galicia.

[656] Five regiments (7th, 10th, and 15th Hussars, 18th Light Dragoons, 3rd K. G. L.) were being pressed by thirteen French regiments--four each of Lorges’s and Lahoussaye’s, two of Colbert’s, and three of the Guard.

[657] Moore to Castlereagh, from Benavente, Dec. 28.

On the twenty-eighth Robert Crawfurd’s brigade had waited behind in the mud and rain, drawn up in front of the bridge of Castro Gonzalo, ‘standing for many hours with arms posted, and staring the French cavalry in the face, while the water actually ran out of the muzzles of their muskets[658].’ At last our hussars retired, and Crawfurd blew up two arches of the bridge when Paget had passed over, and moved back on Benavente, after some trifling skirmishing with the cavalry of the Imperial Guard, who had come up in force and tried to interrupt his work. The indefatigable British horsemen left pickets all along the river on each side of the broken bridge, ready to report and oppose any attempt to cross.

[658] _Recollections of Rifleman Harris_, p. 171.

After resting for a day in Benavente Moore had sent on the divisions of Fraser and Hope to Astorga, by the highway through La Baneza. The division of Baird, marching from Valencia by villainous cross-roads, converged on the same point, where the three corps met upon December 29. Their march was wholly unmolested by the French, who were being successfully held back by Moore’s rearguard under the two Pagets--the cavalry general and the commander of the reserve division--and by Crawfurd and Alten’s light brigades. On the same morning that the main body reached Astorga, the infantry of the rearguard marched out of Benavente, leaving behind only the horsemen, who were watching all the fords, with their supports three miles behind in the town of Benavente. Seeing that all the infantry had disappeared, Lefebvre-Desnouettes, who commanded the cavalry of the Guard, thought it high time to press beyond the Esla: it was absurd, he thought, that the mass of French horsemen, now gathered opposite the broken bridge of Castro Gonzalo, should allow themselves to be kept in check by a mere chain of vedettes unsupported by infantry or guns. Accordingly he searched for fords, and when one was found a few hundred yards from the bridge, crossed it at the head of the four squadrons of the chasseurs of the Guard, between 500 and 600 sabres[659]. The rest of his troops, after vainly seeking for other passages, were about to follow him. The moment that he had got over the water Lefebvre found himself withstood by the pickets, mainly belonging to the 18th Light Dragoons, who came riding in from their posts along the river to mass themselves opposite to him. When about 130 men were collected, under Colonel Otway, they ventured to charge the leading squadrons of the chasseurs, of course with indifferent success. After retiring a few hundred yards more, they were joined by a troop of the 3rd Dragoons of the King’s German Legion, under Major Burgwedel, and again turned to fight. At this second clash the front line of the pursuers was broken for a moment, and the dragoons who had burst through the gap had a narrow escape of being surrounded and captured by the second line, but finally fought their way out of the _mêlée_ with no great loss. Charles Stewart, their brigadier, now came up and rallied them for the second time: he retired towards the town in good order, without allowing himself to be cowed by Lefebvre’s rapid advance, for he knew that supports were at hand. Lord Paget, warned in good time, had drawn out the 10th Hussars under cover of the houses of the southern suburb of Benavente. He waited till the chasseurs drew quite near to him, and were too remote from the ford they had crossed to be able to retire with ease: then he suddenly sallied out from his cover and swooped down upon them. The pickets at the same moment wheeled about, cheered, and charged. The enemy, now slightly outnumbered--for the 10th were fully 450 sabres strong, and the pickets at least 200--made a good fight. A British witness observes that these ‘fine big fellows in fur caps and long green coats’ were far better than the line regiments with which the hussars had hitherto been engaged. But in a few minutes they were broken, and chased for two miles right back to the ford by which they had crossed. Lefebvre himself was captured by a private of the 10th named Grisdale, his wounded horse having refused to swim the river[660]. With him there were taken two captains and seventy unwounded prisoners. The chasseurs left fifty-five men dead or hurt upon the field, and many of those who got away were much cut about[661]. The British casualties were fifty, almost all from the men who had furnished the pickets, for the 10th suffered little: Burgwedel, who had led the Germans of the 3rd K. G. L., was the only officer hurt[662].

[659] Napoleon (_Nap. Corresp._, 14,623) says that the regiment of chasseurs was only 300 strong, and their loss only sixty. But the splendid regiments of the Guard cavalry had not yet fallen to this small number of sabres.

[660] He was sent to England, and long lived on parole at Cheltenham. While he was there Charles Vaughan called on him, and got from him some valuable information about the first siege of Saragossa, whose history he was then writing. In 1811 Lefebvre broke his parole and escaped to France, where Napoleon welcomed him and restored him to command.

[661] Larrey, the Emperor’s surgeon, commenting on sabre-wounds, says that no less than seventy wounded of the chasseurs came under his care on this occasion.

[662] In James Moore’s book this gallant officer appears under the English disguise of Major Bagwell, under which I did not at first recognize him (p. 181). Oddly enough Adam Neale makes the same mistake (p. 179).

The remnant of the chasseurs crossed the river, and were immediately supported by other regiments, who (after failing to find another ford) had come down to that which Lefebvre had used. They showed some signs of attempting a second passage, but Lord Paget turned upon them the guns of Downman’s horse-battery, which had just galloped up from Benavente. After two rounds the enemy rode off hastily from the river, and fell back inland. They had received such a sharp lesson that they allowed the British cavalry to retreat without molestation in the afternoon. Napoleon consoled himself with writing that the British were ‘flying in panic’--a statement which the circumstances hardly seemed to justify[663]--and gave an exaggerated account of the disorders which they had committed at Valderas and Benavente, to which he added an imaginary outrage at Leon[664]. But there is no more talk of Moore’s corps being surrounded--wherefore it suddenly shrinks in the Emperor’s estimation, being no longer 36,000 strong, but only ‘21,000 infantry, with 4,000 or 5,000 horse.’ Lefebvre’s affair he frankly owned, when writing to King Joseph, was disgusting: ‘by evening I had 8,000 horse on the spot, but the enemy was gone[665].’

[663] _Nap. Corresp._, 14,623 (Napoleon to Josephine, from Benavente, Dec. 31), ‘Les Anglais fuient épouvantés.’

[664] _Nap. Corresp._, 14,626 (Napoleon to King Joseph). Joseph is to insert in the Madrid papers letters written from these three places with descriptions of the brigandage practised by the English--‘à Leon ils ont chassé les moines.’ No English troops had ever been within thirty miles of Leon!

[665] ‘Cette affaire m’a coûté une soixantaine de mes chasseurs. Vous sentez combien cela m’a été désagréable’ (ibid.).

Paget indeed was so effectively gone, that though French cavalry by the thousand crossed the ford that night they could do nothing. And Crawfurd had so thoroughly destroyed the bridge of Castro Gonzalo--he had blown up the central pier, and not merely cut the crowns of the arches--that infantry and guns could not cross till the thirtieth. It was only on that day that the heads of Ney’s corps and of the Imperial Guard came up: Lapisse’s division was still far behind, at Toro. All that the rapid forced marches of the Emperor had brought him was the privilege of assisting at Paget’s departure, and of picking up in Benavente some abandoned carts, which Moore had caused to be broken after burning their contents.

Napoleon still consoled himself with the idea that it was possible that Soult might have been more fortunate than himself, and might perhaps already be attacking the English at Astorga. This was not the case: after learning that Moore had disappeared from his front, the Duke of Dalmatia had taken the road Sahagun-Mansilla, as the shortest line which would bring him to Astorga, the place where any army intending to defend Galicia would make its first stand. This choice brought him upon the tracks of La Romana’s army, not of the British. The Marquis, when Moore retired, had moved back on Leon, but had sent to his ally a message to the effect that he could not accept the suggestion to make the Asturias his base, and would be forced, when the enemy advanced, to join the British at Astorga. It was absolutely impossible, he said, to repair to the Asturias, for the pass of Pajares, the only coach-road thither, was impassable on account of the snow[666]. La Romana left as a rearguard at the all-important bridge of Mansilla, his 2nd Division, 3,000 strong, with two guns. Contrary to Moore’s advice he would not blow up the bridge, giving as his reason that the Esla was fordable in several places in its immediate neighbourhood. This was a blunder; but the officer in command of the 2nd Division committed a greater one, by drawing up his main body in front of the bridge and not behind it--a repetition of Cuesta’s old error at Cabezon. Soult did not come in contact with the Spanish rearguard till four days after he had left Carrion: so heavy had been the rain, and so vile the road, that it took him from the twenty-sixth to the twenty-ninth to cover the forty-five miles between Carrion and Mansilla. But on the morning of December 30 he delivered his attack: a tremendous cavalry-charge by the chasseurs and dragoons of Franceschi broke the Spanish line, and pursuers and pursued went pell-mell over the bridge, which was not defended for a moment. The French captured 1,500 men--who were cut off from re-crossing the river--two guns, and two standards. Hearing of this disaster La Romana at once evacuated Leon, which Soult seized on the thirty-first. The place had been hastily fortified, and there had been much talk of the possibility of defending it[667]; but at the first summons it opened its gates without firing a shot. The Marquis--leaving 2,000 sick in the hospitals, and a considerable accumulation of food in his magazines--fell back on Astorga, much to the discontent of Moore, who had not desired to see him in that direction. Soult at Leon was only twenty-five miles from Astorga: he was now but one march from Moore’s rearguard, and in close touch with the Emperor, who coming up from the south reached La Baneza on the same day--the last of the old year, 1808.

[666] Symes to Moore, from La Romana’s camp at Mansilla, Dec. 25.

[667] Ibid.

The divisions of Baird, Hope, and Fraser, as we have already seen, had reached Astorga on the twenty-ninth, the reserve division and the light brigades (after a most fatiguing march from Benavente) on the thirtieth, while the cavalry was, as always, to the rear, keeping back the advancing squadrons of Bessières. Thus on the thirtieth the English and Spanish armies were concentrated at Astorga with every available man present--the British still 25,000 strong; for they had suffered little in the fighting, and had not yet begun to straggle--but Romana with no more than 9,000 or 10,000 of the nominal 22,000 which had been shown in his returns of ten days before. His 2nd Division had been practically destroyed at Mansilla: he had left 2,000 sick at Leon, and many more had fallen out of the ranks in the march from that place--some because they wished to desert their colours, but more from cold, disease, and misery; for the army was not merely half naked, but infected with a malignant typhus fever which was making terrible ravages in its ranks[668].

[668] All witnesses agree that the army of Galicia was in a most distressing condition. ‘This army was literally half naked and half starved,’ says Adam Neale. ‘A malignant fever was raging among them, and long fatigues, privation, and this mortal distemper made them appear like spectres issuing from a hospital rather than an army’ (p. 181). ‘T.S.’ describes them as ‘looking more like a large body of peasants driven from their homes, and in want of everything, than a regular army ’ (p. 56). The men fit for service are described as being no more than 5,000 strong.

Moore had told La Romana on the twenty-fourth that he hoped to make a stand at Astorga. The same statement had been passed round the army, and had kept up the spirits of the men to some extent, though many had begun to believe that ‘Moore would never fight[669].’ There were magazines of food at Astorga, and much more considerable ones of military equipment: a large convoy of shoes, blankets, and muskets had lately come in from Corunna, and Baird’s heavy baggage had been stacked in the place before he marched for Sahagun. The town itself was surrounded with ancient walls, and had some possibilities of defence: just behind it rises the first range of the Galician mountains, a steep and forbidding chain pierced only by the two passes which contain the old and the new high-roads to Corunna. The former--the shorter, but by far the more rugged--is called the defile of Foncebadon; the latter--longer and easier--is the defile of Manzanal.

[669] ‘We all wished it, but none believed it,’ writes ‘T.S.’ ‘We had been told the same at Benavente, but our movement had no appearance of a retreat in which we were to face about and make a stand: it was more like a shameful flight’ (p. 56). This undoubtedly was the prevailing view in the ranks.

The question was at once raised as to whether the position in rear of Astorga should not be seriously defended. The town itself would naturally have to be given up, if the French chose to press on in force; but the two defiles might be fortified and held against very superior numbers. To turn 25,000 British troops out of them would have been a very serious task, and the Spaniards meanwhile could have been used for diversions on the enemy’s flank and rear. La Romana called upon Moore, at the moment of the latter’s arrival at Astorga, and proposed that they should join in defending the passes. To give them up meant, he said, to give up also the great upland valley behind them--the Vierzo--where lay his own dépôts and his park of artillery at Ponferrada, and where Moore also had considerable stores and magazines at Villafranca. The proposal was well worthy of being taken into account, and was far from being--as Napier calls it--‘wilder than the dreams of Don Quixote!’ for the positions were very strong, and there was no convenient route by which they could be turned. The only other way into Galicia, that by Puebla de Sanabria, is not only far away, but almost impassable at midwinter from the badness of the road and the deep snow. Moreover it leads not into the main valley of the Minho, but into that of the Tamega on the Portuguese frontier, from which another series of difficult defiles have to be crossed in order to get into the heart of Galicia. La Romana thought that this road might practically be disregarded as an element of danger in a January campaign.

The suggestion of the Marquis deserved serious consideration. Moore’s reasons for a summary rejection of the proposal are not stated by him at any length[670]. He wrote to Castlereagh merely that there was only two days’ bread at Astorga, that his means of carriage were melting away by the death of draught beasts and the desertion of drivers, and that he feared that the enemy might use the road upon his flank--i.e. the Puebla de Sanabria route--to turn his position. He purposed therefore to fall back at once to the coast as fast as he could, and trusted that the French, for want of food, would not be able to follow him further than Villafranca. To these reasons may be added another, which Moore cited in his conversation with La Romana, that the troops required rest, and could not get it in the bleak positions above Astorga[671].

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

[671] This plea is not to be found in any of Moore’s dispatches, but only in La Romana’s account of the interview which he sent to the Junta.

Some of these reasons are not quite convincing: though there were only two days’ rations at Astorga, there were fourteen days’ at Villafranca, and large dépôts had also been gathered at Lugo and Corunna. These could be rendered available with no great trouble, if real energy were displayed, for there was still (as the disasters of the retreat were to show) a good deal of wheeled transport with the army. The flanking road by Puebla de Sanabria was (as we have said) so difficult and so remote that any turning corps that tried it would be heard of long before it became dangerous. There would be great political advantage in checking Bonaparte at the passes, even if it were only for a week or ten days. Moreover, to show a bold front would raise the spirits of the army, whose growing disorders were the marks of discontent at the retreat, and whose one wish was to fight the French as soon as possible. As to the rest which Moore declared to be necessary for the troops, this could surely have been better given by halting them and offering to defend the passes, than by taking them over the long and desolate road that separated them from Corunna. The experiences of the next eleven days can hardly be called ‘rest.’

Though clearly possible, a stand behind Astorga may not have been the best policy. Napoleon had a vast force in hand after his junction with Soult, and he was a dangerous foe to brave, even in such a formidable position as that which the British occupied. But it is doubtful whether this fact was the cause of Moore’s determination to retreat to the sea. If we may judge from the tone of his dispatches, his thought was merely that he had promised to make a diversion, under strong pressure from Frere and the rest; that he had successfully carried out his engagement, and lured the Emperor and the bulk of the French forces away from Madrid; and that he considered his task completed. In his letter of December 31 to Castlereagh, he harks back once more to his old depreciation of the Spaniards--they had taken no advantage of the chance he had given them, they were as apathetic as ever, his exertions had been wasted, and so forth[672]. In so writing he made a mistake: his campaign was so far from being wasted that he had actually saved Spain. He had caused the Emperor to lose the psychological moment for striking at Seville and Lisbon, when the spirits of the patriots were at their lowest, and had given them three months to rally. By the time that the southward move from Madrid was once more possible to the French, Spain had again got armies in the field, and the awful disasters of November and December, 1808, had been half forgotten.

[672] ‘Abandoned from the beginning by everything Spanish, we were equal to nothing by ourselves. From a desire to do what I could, I made the movement against Soult. As a diversion it has answered completely: but as there is nothing to take advantage of it, I have risked the loss of an army to no purpose. I find no option now but to fall down to the coast as fast as I am able.... The army would, there cannot be a doubt, have distinguished itself, had the Spaniards been able to offer any resistance. But from the first it was placed in situations in which, without the possibility of doing any good, it was itself constantly risked’ (Moore to Castlereagh, from Astorga, Dec. 31).

It seems improbable, from Moore’s tone in his dispatch of December 31, that he ever had any serious intention of standing behind Astorga. He had fallen back upon his old desponding views of the last days of November, and was simply set on bringing off the British army in safety, without much care for the fate of the Spaniards whom he so much disliked and contemned. The only sign of his ever having studied the intermediate positions between Astorga and Corunna lies in a report addressed to him on December 26, by Carmichael Smith of the Royal Engineers. This speaks of the Manzanal--Rodrigatos position as presenting an appearance of strong ground, but having the defect of possessing a down-slope to the rear for six miles, so that if the line were forced, a long retreat downhill would be necessary in face of the pursuing enemy. The engineer then proceeded to recommend the position of Cacabellos, a league in front of Villafranca, as being very strong and safe from any turning movement. But Moore, as we shall see, refused to stand at the one place as much as at the other, only halting a rearguard at Cacabellos to keep off the pursuing horse for a few hours, and never offering a pitched battle upon that ground. It is probable that nothing would have induced him to fight at either position, after he had once resolved that a straight march to the sea was the best policy.

So little time did Moore take in making up his mind as to the desirability of holding the passes above Astorga, that he pushed on Baird’s, Fraser’s, and Hope’s divisions towards Villafranca on the thirtieth, while Paget’s reserve with the two light brigades followed on the thirty-first. The whole British army was on the other side of Astorga, and across the passes, when Soult and Bonaparte’s columns converged on La Baneza. Their infantry did not enter Astorga till the first day of the new year, thirty-six hours after Moore’s main body had evacuated the place.

But this easy escape from the Emperor’s clutches had been bought at considerable sacrifices. Astorga was crammed with stores of all kinds, as we have already had occasion to mention: food was the only thing that was at all short. But there was not sufficient transport in the place, and the retreating army was already losing wagons and beasts so fast that it could not carry off much of the accumulated material that lay before it. A hasty attempt was made to serve out to the troops the things that could be immediately utilized. La Romana’s Spaniards received several thousand new English muskets to replace their dilapidated weapons, and a quantity of blankets. Some of the British regiments had shoes issued to them; but out of mere hurry and mismanagement several thousand pairs more were destroyed instead of distributed, though many men were already almost barefoot. There were abandoned all the heavy baggage of Baird’s division (which had been stacked at Astorga before the march to Sahagun), an entire dépôt of entrenching tools, several hundred barrels of rum, and many scores of carts and wagons for which draught animals were wanting. A quantity of small-arms ammunition was blown up. But the most distressing thing of all was that those of the sick of the army who could not bear to be taken on through the January cold in open wagons had to be left behind: some four hundred invalids, it would seem, were abandoned in the hospital and fell into the hands of the French[673].

[673] Compare Moore to Castlereagh (from Astorga, Dec. 31) with _Nap. Corresp._, 14,637, and with James Moore’s memoir (p. 184), and ‘T.S.’s autobiography (p. 57).

The most deplorable thing about these losses was that all the evacuation and destruction was carried out under difficulties, owing to the gross state of disorder and indiscipline into which the army was falling. The news that they were to retreat once more without fighting had exasperated the men to the last degree. Thousands of them got loose in the streets, breaking into houses, maltreating the inhabitants, and pillaging the stores, which were to be abandoned, for their private profit. The rum was naturally a great attraction, and many stragglers were left behind dead drunk, to be beaten out of the place by the cavalry when they left it on the night of the thirty-first. La Romana had to make formal complaint to Moore of the misbehaviour of the troops, who had even tried to steal his artillery mules and insulted his officers. There can be no doubt that if the rank and file had been kept in hand many valuable stores could have been distributed instead of destroyed, and the straggling which was to prove so fatal might have been nipped in the bud. But the officers were as discontented as the men, and in many regiments seem to have made little or no effort to keep things together. Already several battalions were beginning to march with an advanced guard of marauders and a rearguard of limping stragglers, the sure signs of impending trouble.

By the thirty-first, however, Astorga was clear of British and Spanish troops. Moore marched by the new high-road, the route of Manzanal: La Romana took the shorter but more rugged defile of Foncebadon. But he sent his guns along with the British, in order to spare the beasts the steeper ascents of the old _chaussée_. The terrible rain of the last week was just passing into snow as the two columns, every man desperately out of heart, began their long uphill climb across the ridge of the Monte Teleno, towards the uplands of the Vierzo.

NOTE

This account of the retreat from Sahagun is constructed from a careful comparison of the official documents with the memoirs and monographs of the following British eye-witnesses:--Robert Blakeney (of the 28th), Rifleman Harris and Sergeant Surtees (of the 2/95th), Lord Londonderry, and Lord Vivian of the Cavalry Brigade, Leith Hay (Aide-de-Camp to General Leith), Charles and William Napier, T.S. of the 71st, Steevens of the 20th, the Surgeon Adam Neale, and the Chaplain Ormsby. Bradford, another chaplain, has left a series of admirable water-colour drawings of the chief points on the road as far as Lugo, made under such difficulties as can be well imagined. Of French eye-witnesses I have used the accounts of St. Chamans, Fantin des Odoards, Naylies, De Gonneville, Lejeune, and the detestably inaccurate Le Noble.

SECTION VIII: CHAPTER V

SOULT’S PURSUIT OF MOORE: ASTORGA TO CORUNNA

When he found that Moore had escaped from him, Napoleon slackened down from the high speed with which he had been moving for the last ten days. He stayed at Benavente for two nights, occupying himself with desk-work of all kinds, and abandoning the pursuit of the British to Bessières and Soult. The great _coup_ had failed: instead of capturing the expeditionary force he could but harass it on its way to the sea. Such a task was beneath his own dignity: it would compromise the imperial reputation for infallibility, if a campaign that had opened with blows like Espinosa, Tudela, and the capture of Madrid ended in a long and ineffectual stern-chase. If Bonaparte had continued the hunt himself, with the mere result of arriving in time to see Moore embark and depart, he would have felt that his prestige had been lowered. He tacitly confessed as much himself long years after, when, in one of his lucubrations at St. Helena, he remarked that he would have conducted the pursuit in person, if he had but known that contrary winds had prevented the fleet of British transports from reaching Corunna. But of this he was unaware at the time; and since he calculated that Moore could be harassed perhaps, but not destroyed or captured, he resolved to halt and turn back. Soult should have the duty of escorting the British to the sea: they were to be pressed vigorously and, with luck, the Emperor trusted that half of them might never see England again. But no complete success could be expected, and he did not wish to appear personally in any enterprise that was but partially successful.

Other reasons were assigned both by Napoleon himself and by his admirers for his abandonment of the pursuit of Moore. He stated that Galicia was too much in a corner of the world for him to adventure himself in its mountains--he would be twenty days journey from Paris and the heart of affairs. If Austria began to move again in the spring, there would be an intolerable delay before he could receive news or transmit orders[674]. He wished to take in hand the reorganization of his armies in Italy, on the Rhine, and beyond the Adriatic. All this was plausible enough, but the real reason of his return was that he would not be present at a fiasco or a half-success. It would seem, however, that there may have been another operating cause, which the Emperor never chose to mention; the evidence for it has only cropped up of late years[675]. It appears that he was somewhat disquieted by secret intelligence from Paris, as to obscure intrigues among his own ministers and courtiers. The Spanish War had given new occasions to the malcontents who were always criticizing the Empire. Not much could be learnt by the French public about the affair of Bayonne, but all that had got abroad was well calculated to disgust even loyal supporters of the Empire. The talk of the _salons_, which Napoleon always affected to despise, but which he never disregarded, was more bitter than ever. It is quite possible that some hint of the conspiracy of the ‘Philadelphes,’ which four months later showed its hand in the mysterious affair of D’Argenteau, may have reached him. But it is certain that he had disquieting reports concerning the intrigues of Fouché and Talleyrand. Both of those veteran plotters were at this moment in more or less marked disgrace. For once in a way, therefore, they were acting in concert. They were relieving their injured feelings by making secret overtures in all directions, in search of allies against their master. Incredible as it may appear, they had found a ready hearer in Murat, who was much disgusted with his brother-in-law for throwing upon him the blame for the disasters of the first Spanish campaign. Other notable personages were being drawn into the cave of malcontents, and discourses of more than doubtful loyalty were being delivered. Like many other cabals of the period, this one was destined to shrink into nothingness at the reappearance of the master at Paris[676]. But while he was away his agents were troubled and terrified: they seem to have sent him alarming hints, which had far more to do with his return to France than any fear as to the intentions of Austria[677].

[674] These reasons will be found set forth at length in _Nap. Corresp._, 14,684 (to King Joseph, Jan. 11), and 14,692 (to Clarke, Jan. 13).

[675] There is a distinct allusion to the matter, however, in Fouché’s _Mémoires_ (i. 385).

[676] For a long account of all this intrigue see the _Mémoires_ of Chancellor Pasquier (i. 355, &c.). He says that it was discovered by Lavalette, the Postmaster-General, who sent information to the Viceroy of Italy, in consequence of which a compromising letter from Caroline Bonaparte (at Naples) to Talleyrand was seized. The reproaches which he puts into Napoleon’s mouth must, I fancy, be taken as about as authentic as an oration in Thucydides.

[677] There was also at this moment a slight recrudescence of the old agitation of the _chouans_ in the west of France. Movable columns had to be sent out in the departments of the Mayenne and Sarthe. See _Nap. Corresp._, 14,871-2.

An oft-repeated story says that the Emperor received a packet of letters from Paris while riding from Benavente to Astorga on January 1, 1809, and, after reading them by the wayside with every sign of anger, declared that he must return to France. If the tale be true, we may be sure that the papers which so moved his wrath had no reference to armaments on the Danube, but were concerned with the intrigues in Paris. There was absolutely nothing in the state of European affairs to make an instant departure from Spain necessary. On the other hand, rumours of domestic plots always touched the Emperor to the quick, and it must have been as irritating as it was unexpected to discover that his own sister and brother-in-law were dabbling in such intrigues, even though ostensibly they were but discussing what should be done if something should happen in Spain to their august relative.

Already ere leaving Benavente the Emperor had issued orders which showed that he had abandoned his hope of surrounding and crushing Moore. He had begun to send off, to the right and to the left, part of the great mass of troops which he had brought with him. On December 31 he wrote to Dessolles, and ordered him to give his division a short rest at Villacastin, and then to return to Madrid, where the garrison was too weak. On January 1, the whole of the Imperial Guard was directed to halt and return to Benavente, from whence it was soon after told to march back to Valladolid. Lapisse’s division of Victor’s corps, which had got no further than Benavente in its advance, was turned off to subdue the southern parts of the kingdom of Leon. To the same end were diverted D’Avenay’s[678] and Maupetit’s[679] brigades of cavalry. Quite contrary to Moore’s expectations and prophecies, the people of this part of Spain displayed a frantic patriotism, when once the enemy was upon them. Toro, an open town[680], had to be stormed: Zamora made a still better resistance, repulsed a first attack, and had to be breached and assaulted by a brigade of Lapisse’s division. The villagers of Penilla distinguished themselves by falling upon and capturing a battery of the Imperial Guard, which was passing by with an insufficient escort. Of course the guns were recovered, and the place burnt, within a few days of the exploit[681].

[678] This was a temporary brigade, made up of the 3rd Dutch Hussars and a provisional regiment of dragoons.

[679] 5th Dragoons and part of the regiment of Westphalian _Chevaux-Légers_; they belonged to the corps-cavalry of Lefebvre.

[680] The defence of Toro was headed by a stray English officer. The place was taken by D’Avenay, not by Maupetit as Arteche says. See the _Mémoires_ of De Gonneville, i. 207.

[681] For information on these rather obscure operations consult the _Mémoires_ of De Gonneville (of D’Avenay’s brigade) and _Nap. Corresp._, 14,685.

Having sent off the Guards, Lapisse, Dessolles, and Maupetit’s and D’Avenay’s cavalry, the Emperor had still a large force left in hand for the pursuit of Moore. There remained Soult’s and Ney’s corps, the horsemen of Lahoussaye, Lorges, and Franceschi, and the greater part of Junot’s 8th Corps. The Emperor had resolved to break up this last-named unit: it contained many third-battalions belonging to regiments which were already in Spain: they were directed to rejoin their respective head quarters. When this was done, there remained only enough to make up two rather weak divisions of 5,000 men each. These were given to Delaborde and Heudelet, and incorporated with Soult’s 2nd Corps. Loison’s division, the third of the original 8th Corps, was suppressed[682]. Junot himself was sent off to take a command under Lannes at the siege of Saragossa. When joined by Delaborde and Heudelet, Soult had a corps of exceptional strength--five divisions and nearly 30,000 bayonets. He could not use for the pursuit of Moore Bonnet’s division, which had been left to garrison Santander. But with the remainder, 25,000 strong, he pressed forward from Astorga in pursuance of his master’s orders. His cavalry force was very large in proportion: it consisted of 6,000 sabres, for not only were three complete divisions of dragoons with him, but Ney’s corps-cavalry (the brigade of Colbert) was up at the front and leading the pursuit. Ney himself, with his two infantry divisions, those of Maurice Mathieu and Marchand, was a march or two to the rear, some 16,000 bayonets strong. If Soult should suffer any check, he was sure of prompt support within three days. Thus the whole force sent in chase of Moore mustered some 47,000 men[683].

[682] There were only two battalions remaining with Loison by Jan. 10.

[683] A month after the pursuit of Moore had ended, and the battle of Corunna had been fought, the four infantry divisions of Soult’s corps which were in Galicia had still 19,000 effective bayonets for the invasion of Portugal. The three cavalry divisions were some 5,300 strong. Ney’s corps, which had hardly been engaged, had 16,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. There were still, therefore, 41,300 men in hand of the two corps. It is impossible to make the losses from the long pursuit in the snow and the battle of Corunna less than 4,500 or 5,000 men, when we reflect that Moore lost 6,000, of whom only 2,000 were prisoners, and that Soult suffered at least 1,500 casualties in the Corunna fighting.

The head of the pursuing column was formed by Lahoussaye’s dragoons and Colbert’s light cavalry: in support of these, but always some miles to the rear, came Merle’s infantry. This formed the French van: the rest of Soult’s troops were a march behind, with Heudelet’s division for rearguard. All the 2nd Corps followed the English on the Manzanal road: only Franceschi’s four regiments of cavalry turned aside, to follow the rugged pass of Foncebadon, by which La Romana’s dilapidated host had retired. The exhausted Spaniards were making but slow progress through the snow and the mountain torrents. Franceschi caught them up on January 2, and scattered their rearguard under General Rengel, taking a couple of flags and some 1,500 men: the prisoners are described as being in the last extremity of misery and fatigue, and many of them were infected with the typhus fever, which had been hanging about this unfortunate corps ever since its awful experience in the Cantabrian hills during the month of November[684].

[684] _Nap. Corresp._, 14,662. ‘Les hommes pris sur La Romana étaient horribles à voir,’ says Napoleon, who saw them at Astorga.

Moore’s army, as we have already seen, had marched out from Astorga--the main body on December 30, the rearguard on the thirty-first. After determining that he would not defend the passes of Manzanal and Foncebadon, the general had doubted whether he should make his retreat on Corunna by the great _chaussée_, or on Vigo, by the minor road which goes via Orense and the valley of the Sil. It is strange that he did not see that his mind must be promptly made up, and that when once he had passed the mountains he must commit himself to one or the other route. But his dispatches to Castlereagh show that it was not till he had reached Lugo that he finally decided in favour of the main road[685]. He must have formed the erroneous conclusion that the French would not pursue him far beyond Astorga[686]: he thought that they would be stopped by want of provisions and by fatigue. Having formed this unsound hypothesis, he put off the final decision as to his route till he should reach Lugo. Meanwhile, to protect the side-road to Vigo he detached 3,500 of his best troops, Robert Crawfurd’s light brigade [the 43rd (1st batt.), 52nd (2nd batt.), and 95th (2nd batt.)], and Alten’s brigade of the German Legion. They diverged from the main road after leaving Astorga, and marched, by Ponferrada and La Rua, on Orense. How much they suffered on the miserable bypaths of the valley of the Sil may be gathered in the interesting diaries of Surtees and Harris: but it was only with the snow and the want of food that they had to contend. They never saw a Frenchman, embarked unmolested at Vigo, and were absolutely useless to Moore during the rest of the campaign. It is impossible to understand how it came that they were sent away in this fashion, and nothing can be said in favour of the move. Unless the whole army were going by the Orense road, no one should have been sent along it: and the difficulties of the track were such that to have taken the main body over it would have been practically impossible. As it was, 3,500 fine soldiers were wasted for all fighting purposes. The duty of covering the rear of the army, which had hitherto fallen to the lot of Crawfurd, was now transferred to General Paget and the ‘Reserve Division[687].’ One regiment of hussars [the 15th] was left with them: the other four cavalry corps pushed on to the front, as there was no great opportunity for using them, now that the army had plunged into the mountains.

[685] This is made absolutely certain by his letter of Jan. 13, in which he says that ‘at Lugo I became sensible of the impossibility of reaching Vigo, which is at too great a distance.’ On starting from Astorga, then, he still thought that he might be able to embark at that port. A glance at the map shows that the march Astorga-Lugo-Vigo is two sides of a triangle. If the Vigo route was to be taken, the only rational places to turn on to it are Astorga and Ponferrada.

[686] ‘After a time the same difficulties which affect us must affect him [Soult]: therefore the rear once past Villafranca, I do not expect to be molested’ (Moore to Castlereagh, from Astorga, Dec. 31).

[687] Consisting of the 20th Foot, and the first battalions of the 28th, 52nd, 91st, and 95th.

Colbert and Lahoussaye took some little time, after leaving Astorga, before they came upon the rear of Moore’s army. But they had no difficulty in ascertaining the route that the English had taken: the steep uphill road from Astorga into the Vierzo was strewn with wreckage of all kinds, which had been abandoned by the retreating troops. The long twelve-mile incline, deeply covered with snow, had proved fatal to a vast number of draught animals, and wagon after wagon had to be abandoned to the pursuers, for want of sufficient oxen and mules to drag them further forward. Among the derelict baggage were lying no small number of exhausted stragglers, dead or dying from cold or dysentery.

The whole _morale_ of Moore’s army had suffered a dreadful deterioration from the moment that the order to evacuate Astorga was issued. As long as there was any prospect of fighting, the men--though surly and discontented--had stuck to their colours. Some regiments had begun to maraud, but the majority were still in good order. But from Astorga onward the discipline of the greater part of the corps began to relax. There were about a dozen regiments[688] which behaved thoroughly well, and came through the retreat with insignificant losses: on the other hand there were many others which left from thirty to forty per cent. of their men behind them. It cannot be disguised that the enormous difference between the proportion of ‘missing’ in battalions of the same brigade, which went through exactly identical experiences, was simply due to the varying degrees of zeal and energy with which the officers kept their men together. Where there was a strong controlling will the stragglers were few, and no one fell behind save those who were absolutely dying. The iron hand of Robert Crawfurd brought the 43rd and 95th through their troubles with a loss of eighty or ninety men each. The splendid discipline of the Guards brigade carried them to Corunna with even smaller proportional losses. There is no mistaking the coincidence when we find that the battalion which Moore denounced at Salamanca as being the worst commanded and the worst disciplined in his force, was also the one which left a higher percentage of stragglers behind than any other corps. The fact was that the toils of the retreat tried the machinery of the regiments to the utmost, and that where the management was weak or incompetent discipline broke down. It was not the troops who had the longest marches or the most fighting that suffered the heaviest losses: those of Paget’s division, the rearguard of the whole army, which was constantly in touch with the French advance, compare favourably with those of some corps which never fired a shot between Benavente and Corunna. It is sad to have to confess that half the horrors of the retreat were due to purely preventible causes, and that if the badly-managed regiments had been up to the disciplinary standard of the Guards or the Light Brigade, the whole march would have been remembered as toilsome but not disastrous. Moore himself wrote, in the last dispatch to which he ever set his hand, that ‘he would not have believed, had he not witnessed it, that a British army would in so short a time have been so completely demoralized. Its conduct during the late marches was infamous beyond belief. He could say nothing in its favour but that when there was a prospect of fighting the men were at once steady, and seemed pleased and determined to do their duty[689].’ This denunciation was far too sweeping, for many corps kept good order throughout the whole campaign: but there was only too much to justify Moore’s anger.

[688] The reader should note, in the Appendix dealing with the numbers of Moore’s army, the very small proportional losses suffered by the two battalions of the Guards, the 43rd (1st batt.), 4th, 42nd, 71st, 79th, 92nd, 95th (2nd batt.), and the cavalry.

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

The serious trouble began at Bembibre, the first place beyond the pass of Manzanal, where Hope’s, Baird’s, and Fraser’s divisions had encamped on the night of the thirty-first. The village was unfortunately a large local dépôt for wine: slinking off from their companies, many hundreds of marauders made their way into the vaults and cellars. When the divisions marched next morning they left nearly a thousand men, in various stages of intoxication, lying about the houses and streets. The officers of Paget’s Reserve, who came up that afternoon, describe Bembibre as looking like a battle-field, so thickly were the prostrate redcoats strewn in every corner. Vigorous endeavours were made to rouse these bad soldiers, and to start them upon their way; but even next morning there were multitudes who could not or would not march[690]. When the Reserve evacuated the place on January 2, it was still full of torpid stragglers. Suddenly there appeared on the scene the leading brigade of Lahoussaye’s dragoons, pushing down from the pass of Manzanal, and driving before them the last hussar picket which Paget had left behind. The noise of the horsemen roused the lingerers, who began at last to stagger away, but it was too late: ‘the cavalry rode through the long line of these lame defenceless wretches, slashing among them as a schoolboy does among thistles[691].’ Most of the stragglers, it is said, were still so insensible from liquor that they made no resistance, and did not even get out of the road[692]. A few, with dreadful cuts about their heads and shoulders, succeeded in overtaking the Reserve. Moore had the poor bleeding wretches paraded along the front of the regiments, as a warning to drunkards and malingerers.

[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.

Meanwhile Baird and Hope’s divisions had reached Villafranca on the first, and scenes almost as disgraceful as those of Bembibre were occurring. The town was Moore’s most important dépôt: it contained fourteen days’ rations of biscuit for the whole army, an immense amount of salt-beef and pork, and some hundreds of barrels of rum. There was no transport to carry off all this valuable provender, and Moore ordered it to be given to the flames. Hearing of this the troops broke into the magazines, and began to load themselves with all and more than they could carry, arguing, not unnaturally, that so much good food should not be burnt. Moore ordered one man--who was caught breaking into the rum store--to be shot in the square. But it was no use; the soldiers burst loose, though many of their officers cut and slashed at them to keep them in the ranks, and snatched all that they could from the fires. Some forced open private houses and plundered, and in a few cases maltreated, or even murdered, the townsfolk who would not give them drink. A great many got at the rum, and were left behind when the divisions marched on January 3[693].

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

While these orgies were going on at Villafranca, Paget and the Reserve had been halted six miles away, at Cacabellos, where the high-road passes over the little river Cua[694]. There was here a position in which a whole army could stand at bay, and Moore’s engineers had pointed it out to him as the post between Astorga and Lugo where there was the most favourable fighting-ground. It is certain that if he had chosen to offer battle to Soult on this front, the Marshal would have been checked for many days--he could not have got forward without calling up Ney from Astorga, and there is no good road by which the British could have been outflanked. But Moore had no intention of making a serious defence: he was fighting a rearguard action merely to allow time for the stores at Villafranca to be destroyed.

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

The forces which were halted at Cacabellos consisted of the five battalions of the Reserve (under Paget), the 15th Hussars, and a horse-artillery battery. A squadron of the cavalry and half of the 95th Rifles were left beyond the river, in observation along the road towards Bembibre: the guns were placed on the western side of the Cua, commanding the road up from the bridge. The 28th formed their escort, while the other three battalions of the division were hidden behind a line of vineyards and stone walls parallel with the winding stream[695].

[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.

About one o’clock in the afternoon the French appeared, pushing cautiously forward from Bembibre with Colbert’s cavalry brigade of Ney’s corps now at their head, while Lahoussaye’s division of dragoons was in support. The infantry were not yet in sight. Colbert, a young and very dashing officer, currently reputed to be the most handsome man in the whole French army, was burning to distinguish himself. He had never before met the British, and had formed a poor opinion of them from the numerous stragglers and drunkards whom he had seen upon the road. He thought that the rearguard might be pushed, and the defile forced with little loss. Accordingly he rode forward at the head of his two regiments[696], and fell upon the squadron of the 15th Hussars which was observing him. They had to fly in hot haste, and, coming in suddenly to the bridge, rode into and over the last two companies of the 95th Rifles, who had not yet crossed the stream. Colbert, sweeping down close to their heels, came upon the disordered infantry and took some forty or fifty prisoners before the riflemen could escape across the water[697]. But, seeing the 28th and the guns holding the slope above, he halted for a moment before attempting to proceed further.

[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_.

Judging however, from a hasty survey, that there were no very great numbers opposed to him, the young French general resolved to attempt to carry the bridge of Cacabellos by a furious charge, just as Franceschi had forced that of Mansilla five days before. This was a most hazardous and ill-advised move: it could only succeed against demoralized troops, and was bound to fail when tried against the steady battalions of the Reserve division. But ranging his leading regiment four abreast, Colbert charged for the bridge: the six guns opposite him tore the head of the column to pieces, but the majority of the troopers got across and tried to dash uphill and capture the position. They had fallen into a dreadful trap, for the 28th blocked the road just beyond the bridge, while the 95th and 52nd poured in a hot flanking fire from behind the vineyard walls on either side. There was no getting forward: Colbert himself was shot as he tried to urge on his men[698], and his aide-de-camp Latour-Maubourg fell at his side. After staying for no more than a few minutes on the further side of the water, the brigade turned rein and plunged back across the bridge, leaving many scores of dead and wounded behind them.

[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.

Lahoussaye’s dragoons now came to the front: several squadrons of them forded the river at different points, but, unable to charge among the rocks and vines, they were forced to dismount and to act as skirmishers, a capacity in which they competed to no great advantage against the 52nd, with whom they found themselves engaged. It was not till the leading infantry of Merle’s division came up, not long before dusk, that the French were enabled to make any head against the defenders. Their voltigeurs bickered with the 95th and 52nd for an hour, but when the formed columns tried to cross the bridge, they were so raked by the six guns opposite them that they gave back in disorder. After dark the firing ceased, and Moore, who had come up in person from Villafranca at the sound of the cannon, had no difficulty in withdrawing his men under cover of the night. In this sharp skirmish each side lost some 200 men: the French casualties were mainly in Colbert’s cavalry, the British were distributed unequally between the 95th (who suffered most), the 28th, and 52nd: the other two regiments present (the 20th and 91st) were hardly engaged[699].

[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.’

Marching all through the night of 3rd-4th of January the Reserve division passed through Villafranca, where stores of all kinds were still blazing in huge bonfires, and did not halt till they reached Nogales, eighteen miles further on. They found the road before them strewn with one continuous line of wreckage from the regiments of the main body. The country beyond Villafranca was far more bare and desolate than the eastern half of the Vierzo: discipline grew worse each day, and the surviving animals of the baggage-train were dying off wholesale from cold and want of forage. The cavalry horses were also beginning to perish very fast, mainly from losing their shoes on the rough and stony road. As soon as a horse was unable to keep up with the regiment, he was (by Lord Paget’s orders) shot by his rider, in order to prevent him from falling into the hands of the French. Many witnesses of the retreat state that the incessant cracking of the hussars’ pistols, as the unfortunate chargers were shot, was the thing that lingered longest in their memories of all the sounds of these unhappy days.

Beyond Villafranca the Corunna road passes through the picturesque defile of Piedrafita, by which it reaches the head waters of the Nava river, and then climbing the spurs of Monte Cebrero comes out into the bleak upland plain of Lugo. This fifty miles contained the most difficult and desolate country in the whole of Moore’s march, and was the scene of more helpless and undeserved misery than any other section of the retreat. It was not merely drunkards and marauders who now began to fall to the rear, but steady old soldiers who could not face the cold, the semi-starvation, and the forced marches. Moore hurried his troops forward at a pace that, over such roads, could only be kept up by the strongest men. On January 5 he compelled the whole army to execute a forced march of no less than thirty-six continuous hours, which was almost as deadly as a battle. This haste seems all the less justifiable because the district abounded with positions at which the enemy could be held back for many hours, whenever the rearguard was told to stand at bay. At Nogales and Constantino, where opposition was offered, the French were easily checked, and there were many other points where similar stands could have been made. It would seem that Moore, shocked at the state of indiscipline into which his regiments were falling, thought only of getting to the sea as quickly as possible. Certainly, the pursuit was not so vigorous as to make such frantic haste necessary. Whenever the Reserve division halted and offered battle, the French dragoons held off, and waited, often for many hours, for their infantry to come up.

‘All that had hitherto been suffered by our troops was but a prelude to this time of horrors,’ wrote one British eye-witness. ‘It had still been attempted to carry forward our sick and wounded: here (on Monte Cebrero) the beasts which dragged them failed, and they were left in their wagons, to perish among the snow. As we looked round on gaining the highest point of these slippery precipices, and observed the rear of the army winding along the narrow road, we could see the whole track marked out by our own wretched people, who lay expiring from fatigue and the severity of the cold--while their uniforms reddened in spots the white surface of the ground. Our men had now become quite mad with despair: excessive fatigue and the consciousness of disgrace, in thus flying before an enemy whom they despised, excited in them a spirit which was quite mutinous. A few hours’ pause was all they asked, an opportunity of confronting the foe, and the certainty of making the pursuers atone for all the miseries that they had suffered. Not allowed to fight, they cast themselves down to perish by the wayside, giving utterance to feelings of shame, anger, and grief. But too frequently their dying groans were mingled with imprecations upon the General, who chose rather to let them die like beasts than to take their chance on the field of battle. That no degree of horror might be wanting, this unfortunate army was accompanied by many women and children, of whom some were frozen to death on the abandoned baggage-wagons, some died of fatigue and cold, while their infants were seen vainly sucking at their clay-cold breasts[700].’ It is shocking to have to add that the miserable survivors of these poor women of the camp were abominably maltreated by the French[701].

[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.

Not only was the greater part of the baggage-train of the army lost between Villafranca and Lugo, but other things of more importance. A battery of Spanish guns was left behind on the crest of Monte Oribio for want of draught animals, and the military chest of the army was abandoned between Nogales and Cerezal. It contained about £25,000 in dollars, and was drawn in two ox-wagons, which gradually fell behind the main body as the beasts wore out. General Paget refused to fight a rearguard action to cover its slow progress, and ordered the 28th Regiment to hurl the small kegs containing the money over a precipice. The silver shower lay scattered among the rocks at the bottom: part was gathered up by Lahoussaye’s dragoons, but the bulk fell next spring, when the snow melted, into the hands of the local peasantry [Jan. 4].

On the further side of the mountains, between Cerezal and Constantino, the army was astounded to meet a long train of fifty bullock-carts moving southward. It contained clothing and stores for La Romana’s army, which the Junta of Galicia, with incredible carelessness, had sent forward from Lugo, though it had heard that the British were retreating. A few miles of further advance would have taken it into the hands of the French. Very naturally, the soldiery stripped the wagons and requisitioned the beasts for their own baggage. The shoes and garments were a godsend to those of the ragged battalions who could lay hands on them, and next day at Constantino many of the Reserve fought in whole- or half-Spanish uniforms.

The skirmish at Constantino, on the afternoon of January 5, was the most important engagement, save that of Cacabellos, during the whole retreat. It was a typical rearguard action to cover a bridge: the British engineers having failed in their endeavour to blow up the central arch, Paget placed his guns so as to command the passage, extended the 28th and the 95th along the nearer bank of the deep-sunk river, and held out with ease till nightfall. Lahoussaye’s dragoons refused, very wisely, to attempt the position. Merle’s infantry tried to force the passage by sending forward a regiment in dense column, which suffered heavily from the guns, was much mauled by the British light troops ranged along the water’s edge, and finally desisted from the attack, allowing Paget to withdraw unmolested after dark. The French were supposed to have lost about 300 men--a figure which was probably exaggerated: the British casualties were insignificant.

On January 6 Paget and the rearguard reached Lugo, where they found the main body of the army drawn out in battle order on a favourable position three miles outside the town. The fearful amount of straggling which had taken place during the forced marches of the fourth and fifth had induced Moore to halt on his march to the sea, in order to rest his men, restore discipline, and allow the laggards to come up. A tiresome _contretemps_ had made him still more anxious to allow the army time to recruit itself. He had made up his mind at Herrerias (near Villafranca) that the wild idea of retiring on Vigo must be given up. The reports of the engineer officers whom he had sent to survey that port, as well as Ferrol and Corunna, were all in favour of the last-named place. Accordingly he had sent orders to the admiral at Vigo, bidding him bring the fleet of transports round to Corunna. At the same time Baird was directed to halt at Lugo, and not to take the side-road to Vigo via Compostella. Baird duly received the dispatch, and should have seen that it was sent on to his colleagues, Hope and Fraser. He gave the letter for Fraser to a private dragoon, who got drunk and lost the important document. Hence the 3rd Division started off on the Compostella road, a bad bypath, and went many miles across the snow before it was found and recalled. Baird’s negligence cost Fraser’s battalions 400 men in stragglers, and having marched and countermarched more than twenty miles, they returned to Lugo so thoroughly worn out that they could not possibly have resumed their retreat on the sixth[702].

[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.

Moore had found in Lugo a dépôt containing four or five days’ provisions for the whole force, as well as a welcome reinforcement--Leith’s brigade of Hope’s division, which had never marched to Astorga, and had been preceding the army by easy stages in its retreat. Including these 1,800 fresh bayonets, the army now mustered about 19,000 combatants. Since it left Benavente it had been diminished by the strength of the two Light Brigades detached to Vigo (3,500 men), by 1,000 dismounted cavalry who had been sent on to Corunna, by 500 or 600 sick too ill to be moved, who had been left in the hospitals of Astorga and Villafranca, and by about 2,000 men lost by the way between Astorga and Lugo. Moore imagined that the loss under the last-named head had been even greater: but the moment that the army halted and the news of approaching battle flew round, hundreds of stragglers and marauders flocked in to the colours, sick men pulled themselves together, and the regiments appeared far stronger than had been anticipated. The Commander-in-chief issued a scathing ‘General Order’ to the officers commanding corps with regard to this point. ‘They must be as sensible as himself of the complete disorganization of the army. If they wished to give the troops a fair chance of success, they must exert themselves to restore order and discipline. The Commander of the Forces was tired of giving orders which were never attended to: he therefore appealed to the honour and feelings of the army: if those were not sufficient to induce them to do their duty, he must despair of succeeding by any other means. He had been obliged to order military executions, but there would have been no need for them if only officers did their duty. It was chiefly from their negligence, and from the want of proper regulations in the regiments, that crimes and irregularities were committed[703].’

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

The Lugo position was very strong: on the right it touched the unfordable river Minho, on the left it rested on rocky and inaccessible hills. All along the front there was a line of low stone walls, the boundaries of fields and vineyards. Below it there was a gentle down-slope of a mile, up which the enemy would have to march in order to attack. The army and the general alike were pleased with the outlook: they hoped that Soult would fight, and knew that they could give a good account of him.

The Marshal turned out to be far too circumspect to run his head against such a formidable line. He came up on the sixth, with the dragoons of Lahoussaye and Franceschi and Merle’s infantry. On the next morning Mermet’s and Delaborde’s divisions and Lorges’s cavalry appeared. But the forced marches had tried them no less than they had tried the British. French accounts say that the three infantry divisions had only 13,000 bayonets with the eagles, instead of the 20,000 whom they should have shown, and that the cavalry instead of 6,000 sabres mustered only 4,000. Some men had fallen by the way in the snow, others were limping along the road many miles to the rear: many were marauding on the flanks, like the British who had gone before them. Heudelet’s whole division was more than two marches to the rear, at Villafranca.

On the seventh, therefore, Soult did no more than feel the British position. He had not at first been sure that Moore’s whole army was in front of him, and imagined that he might have to deal with no more than Paget’s Reserve division, with which he had bickered so much during the last four days. He was soon undeceived: when he brought forward a battery against Moore’s centre, it was immediately silenced by the fire of fifteen guns. A feint opposite the British right, near the river, was promptly opposed by the Brigade of Guards. A more serious attack by Merle’s division, on the hill to the left, was beaten back by Leith’s brigade, who drove back the 2nd Léger and 36th of the Line by a bayonet-charge downhill, and inflicted on them a loss of 300 men.

On the eighth many of Soult’s stragglers came up, but he still considered himself too weak to attack, and sent back to hurry up Heudelet’s division, and to request Ney to push forward his corps to Villafranca. He remained quiescent all day, to the great disappointment of Moore, who had issued orders to his army warning them that a battle was at hand, and bidding them not to waste their fire on the tirailleurs, but reserve it for the supporting columns. As the day wore on, without any sign of movement on the part of the French, the British commander began to grow anxious and depressed. If Soult would not move, it must mean that he had resolved to draw up heavy reinforcements from the rear. It would be mad to wait till they should come up: either the Marshal must be attacked at once, before he could be strengthened, or else the army must resume its retreat on Corunna before Soult was ready. To take the offensive Moore considered very doubtful policy--the French had about his own numbers, or perhaps even more, and they were established in a commanding position almost as strong as his own. Even if he beat them, they could fall back on Heudelet and Ney, and face him again, in or about Villafranca. To win a second battle would be hard work, and, even if all went well, the army would be so reduced in numbers that practically nothing would remain for a descent into the plains of Leon.

Accordingly Moore resolved neither to attack nor to wait to be attacked, but to resume his retreat towards the sea. It was not a very enterprising course; but it was at least a safe one; and since the troops were now somewhat rested, and (as he hoped) restored to good spirits, by seeing that the enemy dared not face them, he considered that he might withdraw without evil results. Accordingly the evening of the eighth was spent in destroying impedimenta and making preparations for retreat. Five hundred foundered cavalry and artillery horses were shot, a number of caissons knocked to pieces, and the remainder of the stores of food destroyed so far as was possible. At midnight on January 8-9 the army silently slipped out of its lines, leaving its bivouac fires burning, so as to delude the enemy with the idea that it still lay before him. Elaborate precautions had been taken to guide each division to the point from which it could fall with the greatest ease into the Corunna road. But it is not easy to evacuate by night a long position intersected with walls, enclosures, and suburban bypaths. Moreover the fates were unpropitious: drenching rain had set in, and it was impossible to see five yards in the stormy darkness. Whole regiments and brigades got astray, and of all the four divisions only Paget’s Reserve kept its bearings accurately and reached the _chaussée_ exactly at the destined point. For miles on each side of the road stray battalions were wandering in futile circles when the day dawned. Instead of marching fifteen miles under cover of the night, many corps had got no further than four or five from their starting-point. Isolated men were scattered all over the face of the country-side, some because they had lost their regiments, others because they had deliberately sought shelter from the rain behind any convenient wall or rock.

Continuing their retreat for some hours after daybreak, the troops reached the village of Valmeda, where their absolute exhaustion made a halt necessary. The more prudent commanders made their men lie down in their ranks, in spite of the downpour, and eat as they lay. But Baird, from mistaken kindness, allowed his division to disperse and to seek shelter in the cottages and barns of neighbouring hamlets: they could not be got together again when the time to start had arrived, and Bentinck and Manningham’s brigades left an enormous proportion of their men behind. The same thing happened on a smaller scale with Hope’s and Fraser’s divisions: only Paget’s regiments brought up the rear in good order. But behind them trailed several thousand stragglers, forming a sort of irregular rearguard. There was more dispersion, disorder, and marauding in this march than in any other during the whole retreat. The plundering during this stage seems to have been particularly discreditable: the inhabitants of the villages along the high-road had for the most part gone up into the hills, in spite of the dreadful weather. The British seem to have imputed their absence to them as a crime, and to have regarded every empty house as a fair field for plunder. As a matter of fact it was not with the desire of withholding aid from their friends that the Galicians had disappeared, but from fear of the French. If they had remained behind they would have been stripped and misused by the enemy. But the unreasoning soldiery chose to regard the unfortunate peasants as hostile[704]: they wantonly broke up doors and furniture, and stole all manner of useless household stuff. Even worse outrages occasionally happened: where the inhabitants, in outlying farms and hamlets, had remained behind, they turned them out of their houses, robbed them by force, and even shot those who resisted. In return, it was but natural that isolated marauders should be killed by the angry country-folk. But the good spirit of the Galicians was displayed in many places by the way in which they fed stragglers[705], and saved them from the French by showing them bypaths over the hills. No less than 500 men who had lost their way were passed on from village to village by the peasants, till they reached Portugal.

[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).

What between deliberate marauding for food or plunder[706], and genuine inability to keep up with the regiment on the part of weakly men, Moore’s main body accomplished the march from Lugo to Betanzos in the most disorderly style. Paget’s rearguard kept their ranks, but the troops in front were marching in a drove, without any attempt to preserve discipline. An observer counted one very distinguished regiment in Manningham’s brigade of Baird’s division, and reports that with the colours there were only nine officers, three sergeants, and three privates when they reached the gates of Betanzos[707].

[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.

Fortunately for Moore, the French pursued the retreating army with the greatest slackness. It was late on the morning of the ninth before Soult discovered that the British were gone: the drenching rain which had so incommoded them had at least screened their retreat. After occupying Lugo, which was full of dead horses, broken material, and spoiled provisions, the Marshal pushed on Franceschi’s cavalry in pursuit. But he had lost twelve hours, and Moore was far ahead: only stragglers were captured on the road, and the British rearguard was not sighted till the passage of the Ladra, nearly halfway from Lugo to Betanzos[708]. This was late in the day, and Paget was not seriously molested, though the engineers who accompanied him failed to blow up the bridges over the Ladra and the Mendeo, partly because their powder had been spoilt by the rain, partly (as it would seem) from unskilful handiwork.

[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.

The fatiguing retreat was continued through part of the night of January 9-10, and on the following morning all the regiments reached Betanzos, on the sea-coast. The indefatigable Reserve division took up a position on a low range of heights outside the town, to cover the incoming of the thousands of stragglers who were still to the rear. From this vantage-ground they had the opportunity of witnessing a curious incident which few of the narrators of the retreat have failed to record. Franceschi’s cavalry had resumed the pursuit, and after sweeping up some hundreds of prisoners from isolated parties, came to the village at the foot of the hills where the stragglers had gathered most thickly. At the noise of their approach, a good number of the more able-bodied men ran together, hastily formed up in a solid mass across the road, and beat off the French horsemen by a rolling fire. This had been done more by instinct than by design: but a sergeant of the 43rd, who assumed command over the assembly, skilfully brought order out of the danger[709]. He divided the men into two parties, which retired alternately down the road, the one facing the French while the other pushed on. The chasseurs charged them several times, but could never break in, and the whole body escaped to the English lines[710]. They had covered the retreat of many other stragglers, who ran in from all sides while the combat was going on. Yet in spite of this irregular exploit, the army lost many men: on this day and the preceding ninth, more than 1000 were left behind--some had died of cold and fatigue, some had been cut down by the French. But the majority had been captured as they straggled along, too dazed and worn out even to leave the road and take to the hillside when the cavalry got among them[711].

[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.

Soult had as yet no infantry to the front, and Moore remained for a day at Betanzos, observed by Franceschi’s and Lahoussaye’s cavalry, which dared not molest him. On January 11 he resumed his march to Corunna, with his army in a far better condition than might have been expected. The weather had turned mild and dry, and the climate of the coastland was a pleasant change from that of the mountains[712]. The men had been well fed at Betanzos with food sent on from Corunna, and, marching along the friendly sea with their goal in sight, recovered themselves in a surprising manner. Their general was not so cheerful: he had heard that the fleet from Vigo had failed to double Cape Finisterre, and was still beating about in the Atlantic. He had hoped to find it already in harbour, and was much concerned to think that he might have to stand at bay for some days in order to allow it time to arrive.

[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).

At Betanzos more sacrifices of war-material were made by the retiring army. Moore found there a large quantity of stores intended for La Romana, and had to spike and throw into the river five guns and some thousands of muskets. A considerable amount of food was imperfectly destroyed, but enough remained to give a welcome supply to the famishing French. It had been intended to blow up Betanzos bridge, but the mines were only partially successful, and the 28th Regiment from Paget’s Reserve division had to stay behind and to guard the half-ruined structure against Franceschi’s cavalry, till the main body had nearly reached Corunna, and the French infantry had begun to appear.

On the night of the eleventh, the divisions of Hope, Baird, and Fraser reached Corunna, while that of Paget halted at El Burgo, four miles outside the town, where the _chaussée_ crosses the tidal river Mero. Here the bridge was successfully blown up: it was only the second operation of the kind which had been carried out with efficiency during the whole retreat. Another bridge at Cambria, a few miles further up the stream, was also destroyed. Thus the French were for the moment brought to a stand. On the twelfth their leading infantry column came up, and bickered with Paget’s troops, across the impassable water, for the whole day[713]. But it was not till the thirteenth that Franceschi discovered a third passage at Celas, seven miles inland, across which he conducted his division. Moore then ordered the Reserve to draw back to the heights in front of Corunna. The French instantly came down to the river, and began to reconstruct the broken bridge. On the night of the thirteenth infantry could cross: on the fourteenth the artillery also began to pass over. But Soult advanced with great caution: here, as at Lugo, he was dismayed to see how much the fatigues of the march had diminished his army: Delaborde’s division was not yet up: those of Merle and Mermet were so thinned by straggling that the Marshal resolved not to put his fortune to the test till the ranks were again full.

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

This delay gave the British general ample time to arrange for his departure. On the thirteenth, he blew up the great stores of powder which the Junta of Galicia had left stowed away in a magazine three miles outside the town. The quantity was not much less than 4,000 barrels, and the explosion was so powerful that wellnigh every window in Corunna was shattered.

On the afternoon of the fourteenth the long-expected transports at last ran into the harbour, and Moore began to get on board his sick and wounded, his cavalry, and his guns. The horses were in such a deplorable state that very few of them were worth reshipping: only about 250 cavalry chargers and 700 artillery draught-cattle were considered too good to be left behind[714]. The remainder of the poor beasts, more than 2,000 in number, were shot or stabbed and flung into the sea. Only enough were left to draw nine guns, which the general intended to use if he was forced to give battle before the embarkation was finished. The rest of the cannon, over fifty in number, were safely got on board the fleet. The personnel of the cavalry and artillery went on shipboard very little reduced by their casualties in the retreat. The former was only short of 200 men, the latter of 250: they had come off so easily because they had been sent to the rear since Cacabellos, and had retreated to Corunna without any check or molestation. Along with the hussars and the gunners some 2,500 or 3,000 invalids were sent on board. A few hundred more, too sick to face a voyage, were left behind in the hospitals of Corunna. Something like 5,000 men had perished or been taken during the retreat; 3,500 had embarked at Vigo, so that about 15,000 men, all infantry save some 200 gunners, remained behind to oppose Soult. Considering all that they had gone through, they were now in very good trim: all the sick and weakly men had been sent off, those who remained in the ranks were all war-hardened veterans. Before the battle they had enjoyed four days of rest and good feeding in Corunna. Moreover, they had repaired their armament: there were in the arsenal many thousand stand of arms, newly arrived from England for the use of the Galician army. Moore made his men change their rusty and battered muskets for new ones, before ordering the store to be destroyed. He also distributed new cartridges, from an enormous stock found in the place. The town was, in fact, crammed with munitions of all sorts. Seeing that there would be no time to re-embark them, Moore utilized what he could, and destroyed the rest.

[714] I obtain these figures from the _Parliamentary Returns_ of 1809.

SECTION VIII: CHAPTER VI

THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA

When Sir John Moore found that the transports were not ready on the twelfth, he had recognized that he might very probably have to fight a defensive action in order to cover his retreat, for two days would allow Soult to bring up his main-body. He refused to listen to the timid proposal of certain of his officers that he should negotiate for a quiet embarkation, in return for giving up Corunna and its fortifications unharmed[715]. This would have been indeed a tame line of conduct for a general and an army which had never been beaten in the field. Instead he sought for a good position in which to hold back the enemy till all his impedimenta were on shipboard. There were no less than three lines of heights on which the army might range itself to resist an enemy who had crossed the Mero. But the first two ranges, the Monte Loureiro just above the river, and the plateaux of Palavea and Peñasquedo two miles further north, were too extensive to be held by an army of 15,000 men. Moore accordingly chose as his fighting-ground the Monte Moro, a shorter and lower ridge, only two miles outside the walls of Corunna. It is an excellent position, about 2,500 yards long, but has two defects: its western and lower end is commanded at long cannon-range by the heights of Peñasquedo. Moreover, beyond this extreme point of the hill, there is open ground extending as far as the gates of Corunna, by which the whole position can be turned. Fully aware of this fact, Moore told off more than a third of his army to serve as a flank-guard on this wing, and to prevent the enemy from pushing in between the Monte Moro and the narrow neck of the peninsula on which Corunna stands.

[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.

Soult, even after he had passed the Mero and repaired the bridges, was very circumspect in his advances. He had too much respect for the fighting power of the English army to attack before he had rallied his whole force. When Delaborde’s division and a multitude of stragglers had joined him on the fifteenth, he at last moved forward and seized the heights of Palavea and Peñasquedo, overlooking the British position. There was some slight skirmishing with the outposts which had been left on these positions, and when the French brought down two guns to the lower slopes by Palavea, and began to cannonade the opposite hill, Colonel McKenzie, of the 5th Regiment, made an attempt to drive them off, which failed with loss, and cost him his life.

As the French pressed westward along these commanding heights, Moore saw that he might very possibly be attacked on the following day, and brought up his troops to their fighting-ground, though he was still not certain that Soult would risk a battle. The divisions of Hope and Baird were ranged along the upper slopes of the Monte Moro: the ten battalions of the former on the eastern half of the ridge, nearest the river, the eight battalions of the latter on its western half, more towards the inland. Each division had two brigades in the first line and a third in reserve. Counting from left to right, the brigades were those of Hill and Leith from Hope’s division, and Manningham and Bentinck from Baird’s. Behind the crest Catlin Crawfurd supported the two former, and Warde’s battalions of Guards the two latter. Down in the hollow behind the Monte Moro lay Paget’s division, close to the village of Eiris[716]. He was invisible to the French, but so placed that he could immediately move out to cover the right wing if the enemy attempted a turning movement. Lastly, Fraser’s division lay under cover in Corunna, ready to march forth to support Paget the moment that fighting should begin[717]. Six of the nine guns (small six-pounders), which Moore had left on shore, were distributed in pairs along the front of Monte Moro: the other three were with Paget’s reserve.

[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.

After surveying the British position from the Peñasquedo heights, Soult had resolved to attempt the manœuvre which Moore had thought most probable--to assault the western end of the line, where the heights are least formidable, and at the same moment to turn the Monte Moro by a movement round its extreme right through the open ground. Nor had it escaped him that the ground occupied by Baird’s division was within cannon-shot of the opposite range. He ordered ten guns to be dragged up to the westernmost crest of the French position, and to be placed above the village of Elvina, facing Bentinck’s brigade. The rest of his artillery was distributed along the front of the Peñasquedo and Palavea heights, in situations that were less favourable, because they were more remote from the British lines. The hills were steep, no road ran along their summit, and the guns had to be dragged by hand to the places which they were intended to occupy. It was only under cover of the night that those opposite Elvina were finally got to their destination.

Soult’s force was now considerably superior to that which was opposed to him, sufficiently so in his own estimation to compensate for the strength of the defensive positions which he would have to assail. He had three infantry divisions with thirty-nine battalions (Heudelet was still far to the rear), and twelve regiments of cavalry, with about forty guns[718]. The whole, even allowing for stragglers still trailing in the rear, and for men who had perished in the snows of the mountains, must have been over 20,000 strong. The cavalry had 4,500 sabres, and the infantry battalions must still have averaged over 500 men, for in November they had nearly all been up to 700 bayonets, and even the toilsome march in pursuit of Moore cannot have destroyed so much as a third of their numbers: only Merle’s division had done any fighting. It is absurd of some of the French narrators of the battle to pretend that Soult had only 13,000 infantry--a figure which would only give 330 bayonets to each battalion[719].

[718] The force stood as follows:--

Infantry--1st Division, Merle (Brigades Reynaud, Sarrut, Thomières). } Each of Merle’s regiments (of which 2nd Léger (three batts.) } three were originally two battalions 4th Léger (four batts.) } and one three battalions strong) had 15th of the Line (three batts.) } received an additional battalion from 36th of the Line (three batts.) } the dissolved corps of Junot, before } leaving Astorga.

2nd Division, Mermet (Brigades Gaulois, Jardon, Lefebvre). } The 47th had received two, and the 31st Léger (four batts.) } 31st Léger and 2nd Swiss each one 47th of the Line (four batts.) } battalion from Junot’s corps. The 122nd of the Line (four batts.) } 122nd was a new regiment, 2nd Swiss Regiment (two batts.) } consolidated from six battalions of 3rd Swiss Regiment (one batt.) } the ‘Supplementary Legions of } Reserve.’

3rd Division, Delaborde (Brigades Foy and Arnaud). } The 70th and 86th, from Portugal, 17th Léger (three batts.) } had each received a battalion from 70th of the Line (four batts.) } Merle’s division, where they had been 86th of the Line (three batts.) } serving in the autumn. The 17th 4th Swiss Regiment (one batt.) } Léger had been transferred from the } 6th Corps to the 2nd.

Cavalry--Lahoussaye’s Division of Dragoons (Brigades Marisy and Caulaincourt). 17th, 18th, 19th, and 27th Dragoons--four regiments.

Lorges’s Division of Dragoons (Brigades Vialannes and Fournier). 13th, 15th, 22nd, and 25th Dragoons--four regiments.

Franceschi’s Mixed Division (Brigades Debelle and Girardin [?]). 1st Hussars, 8th Dragoons, 22nd Chasseurs, and Hanoverian Chasseurs--four regiments.

Artillery--600 men (?): exact figures not available.

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

Soult’s plan was to contain the British left and centre with two of his divisions--those of Delaborde and Merle--while Mermet and the bulk of the cavalry should attack Moore’s right, seize the western end of Monte Moro, and push in between Baird’s flank and Corunna. If this movement succeeded, the British retreat would be compromised: Delaborde and Merle could then assail Hope and prevent him from going to the rear: if all went right, two-thirds of the British army must be surrounded and captured.

The movement of masses of infantry, and still more of cavalry and guns, along the rugged crest and slopes of the Peñasquedo heights, was attended with so much difficulty, that noon was long passed before the whole army was in position. It was indeed so late in the day, that Sir John Moore had come to the conclusion that Soult did not intend to attack, and had ordered Paget’s division, who were to be the first troops to embark, to march down to the harbour[720]. The other corps were to retire at dusk, and go on shipboard under cover of the night.

[720] Blakeney, p. 114.

But between 1.30 and 2 o’clock the French suddenly took the offensive: the battery opposite Elvina began to play upon Baird’s division, columns descending from each side of it commenced to pour down into the valley, and the eight cavalry regiments of Lahoussaye and Franceschi, pushing out from behind the Peñasquedo heights, rode northward along the lower slopes of the hills of San Cristobal, with the obvious design of cutting in between the Monte Moro and Corunna.

Moore welcomed the approach of battle with joy: he had every confidence in his men and his position, and saw that a victory won ere his departure would silence the greater part of the inevitable criticism for timidity and want of enterprise, to which he would be exposed on his return to England. He rode up to the crest of his position, behind Baird’s division, took in the situation of affairs at a glance, and sent back orders to Paget to pay attention to the French turning movement, and to Fraser to come out from Corunna and contain any advance on the part of the enemy’s cavalry on the extreme right.

For some time the English left and centre were scarcely engaged, for Merle and Delaborde did no more than push tirailleurs out in front of their line, to bicker with the skirmishers of Hill, Leith, and Manningham. But Bentinck’s brigade was at once seriously assailed: not only were its lines swept by the balls of Soult’s main battery, but a heavy infantry attack was in progress. Gaulois and Jardon’s brigades of Mermet’s division were coming forward in great strength: they turned out of the village of Elvina the light company of the 50th, which had been detached to hold that advanced position, and then came up the slope of Monte Moro, with a dense crowd of tirailleurs covering the advance of eight battalion columns. Meanwhile the third brigade of Mermet’s division was hurrying past the flank of Bentinck’s line, in the lower ground, with the obvious intention of turning the British flank. Beyond them Lahoussaye’s dragoons were cautiously feeling their way forward, much incommoded by walls and broken ground.

All the stress of the first fighting fell on the three battalions of Bentinck, on the hill above Elvina. Moore was there in person to direct the fight: Baird, on whom the responsibility for this part of the ground would naturally have fallen, was wounded early in the day, by a cannon-ball which shattered his left arm[721], and was borne to the rear. When the French came near the top of the slope, driving in before them the British skirmishing line, the Commander-in-chief ordered the 42nd and 50th to charge down upon them. The 4th, the flank regiment of the whole line, could not follow them: it was threatened by the encircling movement of the French left, and Moore bade it throw back its right wing so as to form an angle _en potence_ with the rest of the brigade, while still keeping up its fire. The manœuvre was executed with such precision as to win his outspoken approval--‘That is exactly how it should be done,’ he shouted to Colonel Wynch, and then rode off to attend to the 50th and 42nd, further to his left.

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

Here a very heavy combat was raging. Advancing to meet the French attack, these two battalions drove in the tirailleurs with the crushing fire of their two-deep line, and then became engaged with the supporting columns on the slopes above Elvina. For some time the battle stood still, but Moore told the regiments that they must advance to make their fire tell, and at last Colonel Sterling and Major Charles Napier led their men over the line of stone walls behind which they were standing, and pressed forward. The head of the French formation melted away before their volleys, and the enemy rolled back into Elvina. The 42nd halted just above the village, but Napier led the 50th in among the houses, and cleared out the defenders after a sharp fight. He even passed through with part of his men, and became engaged with the French supports on the further side of the place. Presently Mermet sent down his reserves and drove out the 50th, who suffered very heavily: Charles Napier was wounded and taken, and Stanhope the junior major was killed[722]. While the 50th was reforming, Moore brought up the divisional reserve, Warde’s two magnificent battalions of Guards, each of which, in consequence of their splendid discipline during the retreat, mustered over 800 bayonets. With these and the 42nd he held the slope above Elvina in face of a very hot fire, not only from the enemy’s infantry but from the battery on the opposite heights, which swept the ground with a lateral and almost an enfilading fire. It was while directing one of the Guards’ battalions to go forward and storm a large house on the flank of the village that Moore received a mortal wound. A cannon-ball struck him on the left shoulder, carrying it away with part of the collar-bone, and leaving the arm hanging only by the flesh and muscles above the armpit[723]. He was dashed from his horse, but immediately raised himself on his sound arm and bade his aide-de-camp Hardinge see that the 42nd should advance along with the Guards. Then he was borne to the rear, fully realizing that his wound was mortal: his consciousness never failed, in spite of the pain and the loss of blood, and he found strength to send a message to Hope to bid him take command of the army. When his bearers wished to unbuckle his sword, which was jarring his wounded arm and side, he refused to allow it, saying ‘in his usual tone and with a very distinct voice, “It is well as it is. I had rather that it should go out of the field with me.”’ He was borne back to Corunna in a blanket by six men of the Guards and 42nd. Frequently he made them turn him round to view the field of battle, and as he saw the French line of fire rolling back, he several times expressed his pleasure at dying in the moment of victory, when his much-tried army was at last faring as it deserved.

[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.

While Bentinck’s brigade and the Guards were thus engaged with Mermet’s right, a separate combat was going on more to the west, where Edward Paget and the Reserve division had marched out to resist the French turning movement. The instant that Moore’s first orders had been received, Paget had sent forward the 95th Rifles in extended order to cover the gap, half a mile in breadth, between the Monte Moro and the heights of San Cristobal. Soon afterwards he pushed up the 52nd into line with the riflemen. The other three battalions of the division moved out soon after. Paget had in front of him a brigade--five battalions--of Mermet’s division, which was trying to slip round the corner of Monte Moro in order to take Baird in the flank. He had also to guard against the charges of Lahoussaye’s cavalry more to his right, and those of Franceschi’s chasseurs still further south. Fortunately the ground was so much cut up with rough stone walls, dividing the fields of the villages of San Cristobal and Elvina, that Soult’s cavalry were unable to execute any general or vigorous advance. When the British swept across the low ground, Lahoussaye’s dragoons made two or three attempts to charge, but, forced to advance among walls and ravines, they never even compelled Paget’s battalions to form square, and were easily driven off by a rolling fire. The Reserve division steadily advanced, with the 95th and 52nd in its front, and the horsemen gave back. It was in vain that Lahoussaye dismounted the 27th Dragoons and ranged them as _tirailleurs_ along the lower slopes of the heights of San Cristobal. The deadly fire of Paget’s infantry thinned their ranks, and forced them back. It would seem that the 95th, 28th, and 91st had mainly to do with Lahoussaye, while the 52nd and 20th became engaged with the infantry from the division of Mermet, which was bickering with the 4th Regiment below the Monte Moro, and striving to turn its flank. In both quarters the advance was completely successful, and Paget pushed forward, taking numerous prisoners from the enemy’s broken infantry. So far did he advance in his victorious onslaught that he approached from the flank the main French battery on the heights of Peñasquedo, and thought that (if leave had been given him) he would have been able to capture it: for its infantry supports were broken, and the cavalry had gone off far to the right. But Hope sent no orders to his colleague, and the Reserve halted at dusk at the foot of the French position.

Franceschi’s horsemen meanwhile, on the extreme left of the French line, had at first pushed cautiously towards Corunna, till they saw Fraser’s division drawn up half a mile outside the gates, on the low ridge of Santa Margarita, covering the whole neck of the peninsula. This checked the cavalry, and presently, when Paget’s advance drove in Lahoussaye, Franceschi conformed to the retreat of his colleague, and drew back across the heights of San Cristobal till he had reached the left rear of Soult’s position, and halted in the upland valley somewhere near the village of Mesoiro.

We left Bentinck’s and Warde’s brigades engaged on the slopes above Elvina with Mermet’s right-hand column, at the moment of the fall of Sir John Moore. The second advance on Elvina had begun just as the British commander-in-chief fell: it was completely successful, and the village was for the second time captured. Mermet now sent down his last reserves, and Merle moved forward his left-hand brigade to attack the village on its eastern side. This led to a corresponding movement on the part of the British. Manningham’s brigade from the right-centre of the British line came down the slope, and fell upon Merle’s columns as they pressed in towards the village. This forced the French to halt, and to turn aside to defend themselves: there was a long and fierce strife, during the later hours of the afternoon, between Manningham’s two right-hand regiments (the 3/1st and 2/81st) and the 2nd Léger and 36th of the Line of Reynaud’s brigade. It was prolonged till the 2/81st had exhausted all its ammunition, and had suffered a loss of 150 men, when Hope sent down the 2/59th, the reserve regiment of Leith’s brigade, to relieve it. Soon afterwards the French retired, and the battle died away at dusk into mere distant bickering along the bottom of the valley, as a few skirmishers of the victorious brigade pursued the retreating columns to the foot of their position.

Further eastward Delaborde had done nothing more than make a feeble demonstration against Hope’s very strong position on the heights above the Mero river. He drove in Hill’s pickets, and afterwards, late in the afternoon, endeavoured to seize the village of Piedralonga[724], at the bottom of the valley which lay between the hostile lines. Foy, who was entrusted with this operation, took the voltigeur companies of his brigade, and drove out from the hamlet the outposts of the 14th Regiment. Thereupon Hill sent down Colonel Nicholls with three more companies of that corps, supported by two of the 92nd from Hope’s divisional reserve. They expelled the French, and broke the supports on which the voltigeurs tried to rally, taking a few prisoners including Foy’s brigade-major. Delaborde then sent down another battalion, which recovered the southern end of the village, while Nicholls held tightly to the rest of it. At dusk both parties ceased to push on, and the firing died away. The engagement at this end of the line was insignificant: Foy lost eighteen killed and fifty wounded from the 70th of the Line, and a few more from the 86th. Nicholls’s casualties were probably even smaller[725].

[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.

Soult had suffered such a decided reverse that he had no desire to prolong the battle, while Hope--who so unexpectedly found himself in command of the British army--showed no wish to make a counter-attack, and was quite contented to have vindicated his position. He claimed, in his dispatch, that at the end of the engagement the army was holding a more advanced line than at its commencement: and this was in part true, for Elvina was now occupied in force, and not merely by a picket, and Paget on the right had cleared the ground below the heights of San Cristobal, which Lahoussaye had been occupying during the action. Some of the French writers have claimed that Soult also had gained ground[726]: but the only fact that can be cited in favour of their contention is that Foy was holding on to the southern end of Piedralonga[727]. All the eye-witnesses on their side concede that at the end of the action the marshal’s army had fallen back to its original position[728].

[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).

English critics have occasionally suggested that the success won by Paget and Bentinck might have been pressed, and that if the division of Fraser had been brought up to their support, the French left might have been turned and crushed[729]. But considering that Soult had fourteen or fifteen intact battalions left, in the divisions of Merle and Delaborde[730], it would have been well in his power to fight a successful defensive action on his heights, throwing back his left wing, so as to keep it from being encircled. Hope was right to be contented with his success: even if he had won a victory he could have done no more than re-embark, for the army was not in a condition to plunge once more into the Galician highlands in pursuit of Soult, who would have been joined in a few days by Heudelet, and in a week by Ney.

[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.

The losses suffered by the two armies at the battle of Corunna are not easy to estimate. The British regiments, embarking on the day after the fight, did not send in any returns of their casualties till they reached England. Then, most unfortunately, a majority of the colonels lumped together the losses of the retreat and those of the battle. It is lucky, however, to find that among the regiments which sent in proper returns are nearly all those which fought the brunt of the action. The 50th and 42nd of Bentinck’s brigade were by far the most heavily tried, from the prolonged and desperate fighting in and about Elvina. The former lost two officers killed and three wounded, with 180 rank and file: the Highland battalion thirty-nine rank and file killed and 111 (including six officers) wounded. The Guards’ brigade, on the other hand, which was brought up to support these regiments, suffered very little; the first battalion of the 1st Regiment had only five, the second only eight killed, with about forty wounded between them. In Manningham’s brigade the 81st, with its loss of three officers and twenty-seven men killed, and eleven officers and 112 men wounded, was by far the heaviest sufferer: the Royals may also have had a considerable casualty-list, but its figures are apparently not to be found, except confused with those of the whole retreat. Paget’s division in its flank march to ward off the French turning movement suffered surprisingly little: of its two leading regiments the 1/95th had but twelve killed and thirty-three wounded, the 1/52nd five killed and thirty-three wounded. The other three battalions, which formed the supports, must have had even fewer men disabled. Hope’s division, with the exception of the 14th and the 59th, was not seriously engaged: the few battalions which sent in their battle-losses, apart from those of the retreat, show figures such as six or ten for their casualties on January 16. Fraser’s whole division neither fired a shot nor lost a man. It is probable then that Hope, when in his dispatch he estimated the total loss of the British army at ‘something between 700 and 800,’ was overstating rather than understating the total.

Soult’s losses are even harder to discover than those of Moore’s army. His chronicler, Le Noble[731], says that they amounted to no more than 150 killed and 500 wounded. The ever inaccurate Thiers reduces this figure to 400 or less. On the other hand Naylies, a combatant in the battle, speaks of 800 casualties; and Marshal Jourdan, in his _précis_ of the campaign, gives 1,000[732]. But all these figures must be far below the truth. Fantin des Odoards has preserved the exact loss of his own corps, the 31st Léger, one of the regiments of Mermet’s division, which fought in Elvina. It amounted to no less than 330 men[733]. The other four regiments of the division were not less deeply engaged, and it is probable that Mermet alone must have lost over 1,000 in killed and wounded. Two of his three brigadiers went down in the fight: Gaulois was shot dead, Lefebvre badly hurt. Of Merle’s division, one brigade was hotly engaged in the struggle with Manningham’s battalions, in which our 2/81st lost so heavily. The French cannot have suffered less, as they were the beaten party. Lahoussaye’s dragoons must also have sustained appreciable loss: that of Delaborde (as we have already seen) was limited to about eighteen killed and fifty wounded. Of unwounded prisoners the British took seven officers and 156 men. If we put the total of Soult’s casualties at 1,500, we probably shall not be far wrong. All the later experience of the war showed that, when French troops delivered in column an uphill attack on a British position and failed, they suffered twice or thrice the loss of the defenders: we need only mention Vimiero and Busaco. On this occasion there was the additional advantage that Moore’s army had new muskets and good ammunition, while those of Soult’s corps were much deteriorated. A loss of 1,500 men therefore seems a fair and rational estimate. The impression left by the battle on Soult’s mind was such that, in his first dispatch to the Emperor, he wrote that he could do no more against the English till he should have received large reinforcements[734]. But two days later, when Hope had evacuated Corunna, he changed his tone and let it be understood that he had gained ground during the battle, and had so far established an advantage that his position forced the English to embark. This allegation was wholly without foundation. Hope simply carried out the arrangements which Moore had made for sending off the army to England, and his resolve was dictated by the condition of his troops, who urgently needed reorganization and repose, and not by any fear of what the Marshal could do against him.

[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.’

Moore, borne back to his quarters in Corunna, survived long enough to realize that his army had completely beaten off Soult’s attack, and had secured for itself a safe departure. In spite of his dreadful wound he retained his consciousness to the last. Forgetful of his own pain, he made inquiries as to the fate of his especial friends and dependants, and found strength to dictate several messages, recommending for promotion officers who had distinguished themselves, and sending farewell greetings to his family. He repeatedly said that he was dying in the way he had always desired, on the night of a victorious battle. The only weight on his mind was the thought that public opinion at home might bear hardly upon him, in consequence of the horrors of the retreat. ‘I hope the people of England will be satisfied,’ he gasped; ‘I hope my country will do me justice.’ And then his memory wandered back to those whom he loved: he tried in vain to frame a message to his mother, but weakness and emotion overcame him, and a few minutes later he died, with the name of Pitt’s niece (Lady Hester Stanhope) on his lips. Moore had expressed a wish to be buried where he fell, and his staff carried out his desire as far as was possible, by laying him in a grave on the ramparts of Corunna. He was buried at early dawn on the seventeenth, on the central bastion that looks out towards the land-side and the battle-field. Hard by him lies General Anstruther, who had died of dysentery on the day before the fight. Soult, with a generosity that does him much credit, took care of Moore’s grave, and ordered a monument to be erected over the spot where he fell[735]. La Romana afterwards carried out the Marshal’s pious intentions.

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

Little remains to be said about the embarkation of the army. At nine o’clock on the night of the battle the troops were withdrawn from the Monte Moro position, leaving only pickets along its front. Many regiments were embarked that night, more on the morning of the seventeenth. By the evening of that day all were aboard save Beresford’s brigade of Fraser’s division, which remained to cover the embarkation of the rest.

Soult, when he found that the British had withdrawn, sent up some field-pieces to the heights above Fort San Diego, on the southern end of the bay. Their fire could reach the more outlying transports, and created some confusion, as the masters hastily weighed anchor and stood out to sea. Four vessels ran on shore, and three of them could not be got off: the troops on board were hastily transferred to other ships, with no appreciable loss: from the whole army only nine men of the Royal Wagon Train are returned as having been ‘drowned in Corunna harbour,’ no doubt from the sinking of the boat which was transhipping them. General Leith records, in his diary, that on the vessel which took him home there were fragments of no less than six regiments: we can hardly doubt that this must have been one of those which picked up the men from the stranded transports.

Beresford’s brigade embarked from a safe point behind the citadel on the eighteenth, leaving the town in charge of the small Spanish garrison under General Alcedo, which maintained the works till all the fleet were far out to sea, and then rather tamely surrendered. This was entirely the doing of their commander, a shifty old man, who almost immediately after took service with King Joseph[736].

[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.’

The returning fleet had a tempestuous but rapid passage: urged on by a raging south-wester the vessels ran home in four or five days, and made almost every harbour between Falmouth and Dover. Many transports had a dangerous passage, but only two, the _Dispatch_ and the _Smallbridge_, came to grief off the Cornish coast and were lost, the former with three officers and fifty-six men of the 7th Hussars, the latter with five officers and 209 men of the King’s German Legion[737]. So ended the famous ‘Retreat from Sahagun.’

[737] Cf. for their losses the _Parliamentary Papers for 1809_ (pp. 8, 9), and Beamish’s _History of the German Legion_.

Moore’s memory met, as he had feared, with many unjust aspersions when the results of his campaign were known in England. The aspect of the 26,000 ragged war-worn troops, who came ashore on the South Coast, was so miserable that those who saw them were shocked. The state of the mass of 3,000 invalids, racked with fever and dysentery, who were cast into the hospitals was eminently distressing. It is seldom that a nation sees its troops returning straight from the field, with the grime and sweat of battle and march fresh upon them. The impression made was a very unhappy one, and it was easy to blame the General. Public discontent was roused both against Moore and against the ministry, and some of the defenders of the latter took an ungenerous opportunity of shifting all the blame upon the man who could no longer vindicate himself. This provoked his numerous friends into asserting that his whole conduct of the campaign had been absolutely blameless, and that any misfortunes which occurred were simply and solely the fault of maladministration and unwise councils at home. Moore was the hero of the Whig party, and politics were dragged into the discussion of the campaign to a lamentable extent. Long years after his death the attitude of the critic or the historian, who dealt with the Corunna retreat, was invariably coloured by his Whig or Tory predilections.

The accepted view of the present generation is (though most men are entirely unacquainted with the fact) strongly coloured by the circumstance that William Napier, whose eloquent history has superseded all other narratives of the Peninsular War, was a violent enemy of the Tory ministry and a personal admirer of Moore. Ninety years and more have now passed since the great retreat, and we can look upon the campaign with impartial eyes. It is easy to point out mistakes made by the home government, such as the tardy dispatch of Baird’s cavalry, and the inadequate provision of money, both for the division which started from Lisbon and for that which started from Corunna. But these are not the most important causes of the misfortunes of the campaign. Nor can it be pleaded that the ministry did not support Moore loyally, or that they tied his hands by contradictory or over-explicit orders. A glance at Castlereagh’s dispatches is sufficient to show that he and his colleagues left everything that was possible to be settled by the General, and that they approved each of his determinations as it reached them without any cavilling or criticism[738].

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

Moore must take the main responsibility for all that happened. On the whole, the impression left after a study of his campaign is very favourable to him. His main conception when he marched from Salamanca--that of gaining time for the rallying of the Spanish armies, by directing a sudden raid upon the Emperor’s communications in Castile--was as sound as it was enterprising. The French critics who have charged him with rashness have never read his dispatches, nor realized the care with which he had thought out the retreat, which he knew would be inevitable when his movement became known at Madrid. He was never for a moment in any serious danger of being surrounded by the Emperor, because he was proceeding (as he himself wrote) ‘bridle in hand,’ and with a full knowledge that he must ‘have a run for it’ on the first receipt of news that Napoleon was upon the march. His plan of making a diversion was a complete success: he drew the Emperor, with the 70,000 men who would otherwise have marched on Lisbon, up into the north-west of the Peninsula, quite out of the main centre of operations. Napoleon himself halted at Astorga, but 45,000 men marched on after the British, and were engulfed in the mountains of Galicia, where they were useless for the main operations of the war. Spain, in short, gained three months of respite, because the main disposable field-army of her invaders had been drawn off into a corner by the unexpected march of the British on Sahagun. ‘As a diversion the movement has answered completely,’ wrote Moore to Castlereagh from Astorga[739], and with justice. That the subsequent retreat to Corunna was also advisable we must concede, though the arguments in favour of attempting a defence of Galicia were more weighty than has generally been allowed[740].

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

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

But when we turn to the weeks that preceded the advance from Salamanca, and that followed the departure from Astorga, it is only a very blind admirer of Moore who will contend that everything was arranged and ordered for the best. That the army, which began to arrive at Salamanca on November 13, did not make a forward move till December 12 is a fact which admits of explanation, but not of excuse. The main governing fact of its inactivity was not, as Moore was always urging, the disasters of the Spaniards, but the misdirection of the British cavalry and artillery on the roundabout route by Elvas, Talavera, and the Escurial. For this the British general was personally responsible: we have already shown that he had good reasons for distrusting the erroneous reports on the roads of Portugal which were sent in to him, and that he should not have believed them[741]. He ought to have marched on Almeida, with his troops distributed between the three available roads, and should have had a compact force of all arms concentrated at Salamanca by November 15. Even without Baird he could then have exercised some influence on the course of events. As it was, he condemned himself--by the unmilitary act of separating himself from his guns and his horsemen--to a month of futile waiting, while the fate of the campaign was being settled a hundred and fifty miles away.

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

The chance that Napoleon turned his whole army upon Madrid, and did not send a single corps in search of the British, gave Moore the grand opportunity for striking at the French communications, which he turned to such good account in the middle of December. But, though he so splendidly vindicated his reputation by this blow, we cannot forget the long hesitation at Salamanca by which it was preceded, nor the unhappy project for instant retreat on Portugal, which was so nearly put into execution. If it had been carried out, Moore’s name would have been relegated to a very low place in the list of British commanders, for he would undoubtedly have evacuated Lisbon, just as he had prepared to evacuate Corunna on the day before he was slain. We have his own words to that effect. On November 25 he put on paper his opinion as to the defence of Portugal. ‘Its frontier,’ he wrote, ‘is not defensible against a superior force. It is an open frontier, all equally rugged, but all equally to be penetrated. If the French succeed in Spain, it will be vain to attempt to resist them in Portugal. The British must in that event immediately take steps to evacuate the country[742].’ It is fortunate that Sir Arthur Wellesley was not of this opinion, or the course of the Peninsular War, and of the whole struggle between Bonaparte and Britain, might have been modified in a very unhappy fashion.

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

So much must be said of Moore’s earlier faults. Of his later ones, committed after his departure from Astorga, almost as much might be made. His long hesitation, as to whether he should march on Vigo or on Corunna, was inexcusable: at Astorga his mind should have been made up, and the Vigo road (a bad cross-route on which he had not a single magazine) should have been left out of consideration. By failing to make up his mind, and taking useless half-measures, Moore deprived himself of the services of Robert Crawfurd and 3,500 of the best soldiers of his army. But, as we have shown elsewhere, the hesitation was in its origin the result of the groundless hypothesis which Moore had formed--one knows not from what premises--that the French would not be able to pursue him beyond Villafranca.

Still more open to criticism is the headlong pace at which Moore conducted the last stages of the retreat. Napier has tried to represent that the marches were not unreasonable: ‘in eleven days,’ he wrote, ‘a small army passed over a hundred and fifty miles of good road[743].’ But we have to deduct three days of rest, leaving an average of about seventeen miles a day; and this for January marching, in a rugged snow-clad country, is no trifle. For though the road was ‘good,’ in the sense that it was well engineered, it was conducted over ridge after ridge of one of the most mountainous lands in Europe. The desperate uphill gradients between Astorga and Manzanal, and between Villafranca and Cerezal, cannot be measured in mere miles when their difficulty is being estimated. The marching should be calculated by hours, and not by miles. Moreover, Moore repeatedly gave his men night-marches, and even two night-marches on end. Half the horrors of the dreadful stage between Lugo and Betanzos came from the fact that the army started at midnight on January 8-9, only rested a few hours by day, and then marched again at seven on the evening of the ninth, and through the whole of the dark hours between the ninth and tenth. Flesh and blood cannot endure such a trial even in good weather, and these were nights of hurricane and downpour. Who can wonder that even well-disposed and willing men lagged behind, sank down, and died by hundreds under such stress?

[743] Napier, i. 349.

All this hurry was unnecessary: whenever the rearguard turned to face the French, Soult was forced to wait for many hours before he could even begin an attempt to evict it. For his infantry was always many miles to the rear, and he could not effect anything with the horsemen of his advanced guard against Paget’s steady battalions--as Cacabellos sufficiently showed. Napier urges that any position that the British took up could be turned by side-roads: this is true, but the flanking movement would always take an inordinate time, and by the moment that the French had started upon it, the British rearguard could have got off in safety, after having delayed the enemy for the best part of a day. If, instead of offering resistance only at Cacabellos, Constantino, and Lugo, Moore had shown fight at three or four other places--e.g. at the narrow pass of Piedrafita, the passage of the Ladra, and the defile of Monte Falqueiro--he need not have hurried his main body beyond their strength, and left the road strewn with so many exhausted stragglers. French and English eye-witnesses alike repeatedly express their surprise that such positions were left undefended. While not disguising the fact that a great proportion of the British losses were due to mere want of discipline and sullen discontent on the part of the rank and file, we cannot fail to see that this was not the sole cause of the disasters of the retreat. The General drove his men beyond their strength, when he might, at the cost of a few rearguard skirmishes, have given them four or five days more in which to accomplish their retreat. Moore arrived at Corunna on January 11: it was January 16 before Soult had so far collected his army that he could venture to attack. At any other point, the result of offering battle would have been much the same. No excuse for Moore can be made on the ground of insufficient supplies: at Villafranca, Lugo, and Betanzos he destroyed enormous quantities of food, and often so imperfectly that the French succeeded in living for several days on what they could save from the flames.

In making these criticisms we are not in the least wishing to impugn Moore’s reputation as a capable officer and a good general. He was both, but his fault was an excessive sense of responsibility. He could never forget that he had in his charge, as was said, ‘not _a_ British army, but _the_ British army’--the one efficient force that the United Kingdom could put into the field. He was loth to risk it, though ultimately he did so in his admirably conceived march on Sahagun. He had also to think of his own career: among his numerous friends and admirers he had a reputation for military infallibility which he was loth to hazard. Acting under a strong sense of duty he did so, but all the while he was anxiously asking himself ‘What will they say at home?’ It was this self-consciousness that was Moore’s weak point. Fortunately he was a man of courage and honour, and at the critical moment recovered the confidence and decision which was sometimes wanting in the hours of doubt and waiting.

Few men have been better loved by those who knew them best. To have served in the regiments which Moore had trained at Shorncliffe in 1803-5, was to be his devoted friend and admirer for life and death. Handsome, courteous, just, and benevolent, unsparing to himself, considerate to his subordinates, he won all hearts. ‘He was a very king of men,’ wrote Charles Napier; and Charles’s more eloquent brother has left him a panegyric such as few generals have merited and fewer still obtained[744].

[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.)

APPENDICES

I

GODOY’S PROCLAMATION OF OCT. 5, 1806

ESPAÑOLES!

En circunstancias menos arriesgadas que las presentes han procurado los vasallos leales auxiliar á sus soberanos con dones y recursos anticipados á las necesidades; pero en esta prevision tiene el mejor lugar la generosa accion de súbdito hácia su señor. El reino de Andalucía privilegiado por la naturaleza en la produccion de caballos de guerra ligeros; la provincia de Extremadura que tantos servicios de esta clase hizo al señor Felipe V. ¿verán con paciencia que la caballería del rey de España esté reducida é incompleta por falta de caballos? No, no lo creo; antes sí espero que del mismo modo que los abuelos gloriosos de la generacion presente sirvieron al abuelo de nuestro rey con hombres y caballos, asistan ahora los nietos de nuestro suelo con regimientos ó compañías de hombres diestros en el manejo del caballo, para que sirvan y defiendan à su patria todo el tiempo que duren las urgencias actuales, volviendo despues llenos de gloria y con mejor suerte al descanso entre su familia. Entonces sí que cada cual se disputará los laureles de la victoria; cual dirá deberse á su brazo la salvacion de su familia; cual la de su gefe; cual la de su pariente ó amigo, y todos á una tendrán razon para atribuirse á sí mismos la salvacion de la patria. Venid pues, amados compatriotas, venid á jurar bajo las banderas del mas benéfico de los soberanos: venid y yo os cubriré con el manto de la gratitud, cumpliéndoos cuanto desde ahora os ofrezco, si el Dios de las victorias nos concede una paz tan feliz y duradera cual le rogamos. No, no os detendrá el temor, no la perfidia: vuestros pechos no abrigan tales vicios, ni dan lugar á la torpe seduccion. Venid pues y si las cosas llegasen á punto de no enlazarse las armas con las de nuestros enemigos, no incurriréis en la nota de sospechosos, ni os tildaréis con un dictado impropio de vuestra lealtad y pundonor por haber sido omisos á mi llamamiento.

Pero si mi voz no alcanzase á despertar vuestros anhelos de gloria, sea la de vuestros inmediatos tutores ó padres del pueblo á quienes me dirijo, la que os haga entender lo que debeis á vuestra obligacion, á vuestro honor, y á la sagrada religion que profesais.

EL PRÍNCIPE DE LA PAZ.

San Ildefonso, 5 de octubre de 1806.

II

THE TREATY OF FONTAINEBLEAU

TRAITÉ SECRET ENTRE S.M.I. NAPOLÉON, EMPEREUR DES FRANÇAIS, ROI D’ITALIE, ETC., ET SA MAJESTÉ CATHOLIQUE CHARLES IV, ROI D’ESPAGNE, ETC.

Art. 1er. La province entre Minhô et Duero, la ville d’Oporto y comprise, sera donnée en toute propriété et souveraineté à S. M. le roi d’Etrurie, avec le titre de roi de la Lusitanie septentrionale.

2. La province d’Alentéjo, et le royaume des Algarves, seront donnés en toute propriété et souveraineté au prince de la Paix, dont il jouira avec le titre de prince des Algarves.

3. Les provinces de Beira, Tras-los-Montes et de l’Estramadure portugaise, resteront en dépôt jusqu’à la paix générale, et alors on disposera d’elles selon les circonstances, et conformément à ce qui sera convenu entre les deux hautes parties contractantes.

4. Le royaume de la Lusitanie septentrionale sera possédé par les descendans de S. M. le roi d’Etrurie, héréditairement et suivant les lois de succession qui sont en usage dans la famille régnante de S. M. le roi d’Espagne.

5. La principauté des Algarves sera possédée par les descendans du prince de la Paix, héréditairement et d’après les lois de succession qui sont en usage dans la famille régnante de S. M. le roi d’Espagne.

6. A défaut de descendans ou héritiers légitimes du roi de la Lusitanie septentrionale ou du prince des Algarves, ces pays seront donnés moyennant l’investiture par S. M. le roi d’Espagne, pourvu qu’ils ne puissent jamais être réunis sous une seule personne, ni à la couronne d’Espagne.

7. Le royaume de la Lusitanie septentrionale, et la principauté des Algarves, reconnaîtront comme protecteur S. M. le roi d’Espagne, et les souverains de ces pays ne pourront jamais faire la paix ni la guerre sans le consentement du roi catholique.

8. Si les provinces de Beira, de Tras-los-Montes et de l’Estramadure portugaise, restant en dépôt, étaient rendues au tems de la paix générale à la maison de Bragance, en échange de Gibraltar, la Trinité, et d’autres colonies que les Anglais ont conquises sur l’Espagne et ses alliés, le nouveau souverain de ces provinces aurait à l’égard de S. M. C. le roi d’Espagne les mêmes soumissions que le roi de la Lusitanie septentrionale, et le prince des Algarves, et il possédera sous les mêmes conditions.

9. S. M. le roi d’Etrurie cède en toute propriété et souveraineté le royaume d’Etrurie à S. M. l’empereur des Français, roi d’Italie.

10. Quand l’occupation définitive des provinces du Portugal sera effectuée, les différens princes qui doivent les posséder nommeront d’accord les commissaires pour fixer les limites naturelles.

11. S. M. l’empereur des Français, roi d’Italie, garantit à S. M. C. le roi d’Espagne la possession de ses états du continent d’Europe, situés au midi des Pyrénées.

12. S. M. l’empereur des Français, roi d’Italie, s’oblige à reconnaître S. M. C. le roi d’Espagne comme empereur des deux Amériques quand tout sera prêt, afin que S. M. puisse prendre ce titre, ce qui pourra arriver au tems de la paix générale, ou le plus tard, d’ici à trois ans.

13. Les hautes puissances contractantes accorderont les moyens de faire à l’amiable une division égale des îles, colonies et autres propriétés d’outre-mer du Portugal.

14. Le présent traité restera secret, il sera ratifié, et les ratifications seront échangées à Madrid dans vingt jours.

Fait à Fontainebleau, le 27 octobre 1807.

DUROC.

EUGENIO IZQUIERDO.

CONVENTION SECRÈTE.

Art. 1er. Un corps de troupes impériales françaises, de vingt-cinq mille hommes d’infanterie et de trois de cavalerie, entrera en Espagne, il fera sa jonction avec un corps de troupes espagnoles, composé de huit mille hommes d’infanterie, trois mille de cavalerie, et trente pièces d’artillerie.

2. Au même tems, une division de troupes espagnoles de dix mille hommes prendra possession de la province d’entre Minhô et Duero, et de la ville d’Oporto, et une autre division de six mille hommes, composée pareillement de troupes espagnoles, prendra possession de l’Alentéjo et du royaume des Algarves.

3. Les troupes françaises seront nourries et entretenues par l’Espagne, et leur solde payée par la France pendant tout le temps de leur passage en Espagne.

4. Depuis le moment où les troupes combinées seront entrées en Portugal, les provinces de Beira, Tras-los-Montes et l’Estramadure portugaise (qui doivent rester en dépôt), seront administrées et gouvernées par le général commandant des troupes françaises, et les contributions qui leur seront imposées seront au profit de la France. Les provinces qui doivent composer le royaume de la Lusitanie septentrionale et la principauté des Algarves seront administrées et gouvernées par les généraux commandant les divisions espagnoles qui en prendront possession, et les contributions qui leur seront imposées resteront au bénéfice de l’Espagne.

5. Le corps du centre sera sous les ordres du commandant des troupes françaises, aussi bien que les troupes espagnoles qui lui seront réunies. Cependant, si le roi d’Espagne ou le prince de la Paix trouvaient convenable et jugeaient à propos de s’y rendre, le général commandant des troupes françaises et elles-mêmes seront soumises aux ordres du roi d’Espagne ou du prince de la Paix.

6. Un autre corps de quarante mille hommes de troupes françaises sera réuni à Bayonne le 20 novembre prochain ou avant ce temps-là, et il devra être prêt à marcher sur le Portugal, en passant par l’Espagne, si les Anglais envoient des renforts et menacent d’attaquer le premier. Cependant, ce nouveau corps de troupes n’entrera que quand les deux hautes parties contractantes se seront mises d’accord pour cet effet.

7. La présente convention sera ratifiée, et l’échange des ratifications sera faite au même temps que le traité d’aujourd’hui.

Fait à Fontainebleau, le 27 octobre 1807.

DUROC.

EUGENIO IZQUIERDO.

III

PAPERS RELATING TO THE ‘AFFAIR OF THE ESCURIAL’

LETTER OF CHARLES IV TO NAPOLEON.

MONSIEUR MON FRÈRE,

Dans le moment où je ne m’occupais que des moyens de coopérer à la destruction de notre ennemi commun; quand je croyais que tous les complots de la ci-devant reine de Naples avaient été ensevelis avec sa fille, je vois avec une horreur qui me fait frémir, que l’esprit d’intrigue le plus horrible a pénétré jusque dans le sein de mon palais. Hélas! mon cœur saigne en faisant le récit d’un attentat si affreux! mon fils aîné, l’héritier présomptif de mon trône, avait formé le complot horrible de me détrôner; il s’était porté jusqu’à l’excès d’attenter contre la vie de sa mère! Un attentat si affreux doit être puni avec la rigueur la plus exemplaire des lois. La loi qui l’appelait à la succession doit être révoquée: un de ses frères sera plus digne de le remplacer et dans mon cœur et sur le trône. Je suis dans ce moment à la recherche de ses complices pour approfondir ce plan de la plus noire scélératesse; et je ne veux perdre un seul moment pour en instruire V. M. I. et R., en la priant de m’aider de ses lumières et de ses conseils.

Sur quoi je prie Dieu, mon bon frère, qu’il daigne avoir V. M. I. et R. en sa sainte et digne garde.

CHARLES.

A St.-Laurent, ce 29 octobre 1807.

LETTER OF PRINCE FERDINAND TO CHARLES IV.

SEÑOR:

Papá mio: he delinquido, he faltado á V. M. como rey y como padre; pero me arrepiento, y ofrezco á V. M. la obediencia mas humilde. Nada debia hacer sin noticia de V. M.; pero fui sorprendido. He delatado á los culpables, y pido á V. M. me perdone por haberle mentido la otra noche, permitiendo besar sus reales pies á su reconocido hijo.

FERNANDO.

San Lorenzo, 5 de noviembre de 1807.

PROCLAMATION OF CHARLES IV, PARDONING THE PRINCE.

REAL DECRETO.

La voz de la naturaleza desarma el brazo de la venganza, y cuando la inadvertencia reclama la piedad, no puede negarse á ello un padre amoroso. Mi hijo ha declarado ya los autores del plan horrible que le habian hecho concebir unos malvados: todo lo ha manifestado en forma de derecho, y todo consta con la escrupulosidad que exige la ley en tales pruebas: su arrepentimiento y asombro le han dictado las representaciones que me ha dirigido.

En vista de ellos y á ruego de la reina mi amada esposa perdono á mi hijo, y le volveré á mi gracia cuando con su conducta me dé pruebas de una verdadera reforma en su frágil manejo; y mando que los mismos jueces que han entendido en la causa desde su principio la sigan, permitiéndoles asociados si los necesitaren, y que concluida me consulten la sentencia ajustada á la ley, segun fuesen la gravedad de delitos y calidad de personas en quienes recaigan; teniendo por principio para la formacion de cargos las respuestas dadas por el príncipe á las demandas que se le han hecho; pues todas estan rubricadas y firmadas de mi puño, asi como los papeles aprehendidos en sus mesas, escritos por su mano; y esta providencia se comunique á mis consejos y tribunales, circulándola á mis pueblos, para que reconozcan en ella mi piedad y justicia, y alivien la afliccion y cuidado en que les puso mi primer decreto; pues en él verán el riesgo de su soberano y padre que como á hijos los ama, y asi me corresponden. Tendreislo entendido para su cumplimiento.

San Lorenzo, 5 de noviembre de 1807.

YO EL REY.

IV

ABDICATION OF CHARLES IV

Como los achaques de que adolezco no me permiten soportar por mas tiempo el grave peso del gobierno de mis reinos, y me sea preciso para reparar mi salud gozar en un clima mas templado de la tranquilidad de la vida privada, he determinado despues de la mas seria deliberacion abdicar mi corona en mi heredero y mi muy caro hijo el príncipe de Asturias. Por tanto es mi real voluntad que sea reconocido y obedecido como rey y señor natural de todos mis reinos y dominios. Y para que este mi real decreto de libre y espontánea abdicacion tenga su éxito y debido cumplimiento, lo comunicareis al consejo y demas á quien corresponda.

Dado en Aranjuez, á 19 de marzo de 1808.

YO EL REY.

A Don Pedro Cevallos.

V

THE SPANISH ARMY IN 1808

[Mainly from the table in Arteche, vol. i, Appendix 9.]

N.B.--The numbers are taken from returns made on various days between March and June, 1808. They include only rank and file. The officers should have been ninety-eight to a regiment of guards, seventy to a line regiment, forty-one to a light battalion, thirty-four to a militia battalion, forty-two to a cavalry regiment. But most corps were under strength in officers, no less than in men, in June, 1808, and Arteche, giving every regiment of infantry a complete staff of officers, is clearly over-estimating them. He gives e.g. 2,450 officers of line infantry, the possible maximum, while the _Estado Militar_ for 1808 gives only 1,521 present; so with the militia he gives 1,887 officers, while apparently there were only 1,230 actually existing. It would seem that his gross total of 7,222 officers ought to be cut down to 5,911. For the rank and file we get:--

ROYAL GUARD.

CAVALRY. _Numbers._ _Quartered in_

Life Guards 615 } Old Castile Royal Carabineers 540 } and Madrid. ----- Total 1,155

INFANTRY. _Numbers._ _Quartered in_

Halberdiers } (one compy.) 152 } Madrid.

Spanish Guards } 1, 2 Barcelona. (three batts.) 3,294 } 3 New Castile.

Walloon Guards } 1 Madrid. (three } 2 Barcelona. batts.) 2,58 } 3 Portugal. ------ Total 6,029

INFANTRY OF THE LINE.

N.B.--Each regiment had three battalions of four companies, and should have numbered 2,186 bayonets.

_Numbers._ _Quartered in_

Africa 898 { 1, 3 Andalusia. { 2 S. Sebastian.

America 808 { 1 New Castile. { 2, 3 Valencia.

Aragon 1,294 Galicia.

Asturias 2,103 Denmark.

Borbon 1,544 Balearic Isles.

Burgos 1,264 Andalusia.

Cantabria 1,024 Ceuta (Africa).

Ceuta 1,235 ” ”

Cordova 793 Andalusia.

Corona 902 ”

España 1,039 Ceuta (Africa).

Estremadura 770 Catalonia.

Granada 1,113 Balearic Isles.

Guadalajara 2,069 Denmark.

Jaen 1,755 { 1, 2 Andalusia. { 3 Ceuta (Africa).

Leon 1,195 Galicia.

Majorca 1,749 { 1, 2 Portugal. { 3 Estremadura.

Malaga 854 Andalusia.

Murcia 1,762 { 1, 2 Portugal { 3 Andalusia.

Navarre 822 Galicia.

Ordenes Militares 708 } 1 Estremadura. } 2, 3 Andalusia.

Princesa 1,969 Denmark.

Principe 1,267 Galicia.

Reina 1,530 Andalusia.

{ 1 S. Sebastian. Rey 1,353 { 2 Portugal. { 3 Galicia.

Saragossa 1,561 { 1, 2 Portugal. { 3 Andalusia.

Savoia 936 Valencia.

Seville 1,168 Galicia.

Soria 1,311 Balearic Isles.

Toledo 1,058 { 1, 2 Galicia. { 3 Portugal.

Valencia 923 Murcia.

Volunteers of } ” Castile 1,487 }

Voluntarios de } 1 Portugal. la Corona 1,296 } 2, 3 Galicia.

Voluntarios del } Madrid. Estado 742 }

Zamora 2,096 Denmark. ------ Total 44,398

LIGHT INFANTRY.

N.B.--The regiment had only a single battalion of six companies. It should have numbered 1,200 bayonets.

_Numbers._ _Quartered in_

1st of Aragon 1,305 { Madrid and Saragossa.

2nd of Aragon 1,225 Balearic Isles.

Barbastro 1,061 { ½ Andalusia. { ½ Portugal.

1st of Barcelona 1,266 Denmark.

2nd of Barcelona 1,300 Balearic Isles.

Campo Mayor 1,153 { ½ Portugal. { ½ Andalusia.

1st of Catalonia 1,164 Denmark.

2nd of Catalonia 685 Galicia.

Gerona 1,149 { ½ Portugal. { ½ Andalusia.

Tarragona 1,142 { ½ Pampeluna. { ½ Estremadura.

Volunteers of { ½ Portugal. Navarre 963 { ½ Galicia.

Volunteers of { ½ Portugal. Valencia 1,242 { ½ Andalusia. ------ Total 13,655

FOREIGN INFANTRY.

N.B.--The Swiss Regiments had two battalions, the others three.

_Numbers._ _Quartered in_

IRISH.

Irlanda 513 { 1 Estremadura. { 2, 3 Andalusia.

Hibernia 852 { 1 Asturias. { 2, 3 Galicia.

Ultonia 351 Gerona.

ITALIAN.

Naples 288 Galicia.

SWISS.

1. Wimpfen 2,079 Catalonia.

2. Reding Senior 1,573 New Castile.

3. Reding Junior 1,809 Andalusia.

4. Beschard 2,051 Balearic Isles.

5. Traxler 1,757 Murcia.

6. Preux 1,708 Madrid. ------ Total 12,981

MILITIA.

N.B.--The four grenadier regiments had two battalions each, and should have been 1,600 strong; the rest one battalion, 600 strong.

_Numbers._ _Quartered in_

Prov. Gren. of Old Castile 1,605 Portugal. New Castile 1,430 Portugal. Andalusia 1,413 Andalusia. Galicia 1,377 { 1 Galicia. { 2 Portugal. Alcazar 595 Andalusia. Avila 574 Valencia. Badajoz 589 Andalusia. Betanzos 599 Galicia. Burgos 577 Andalusia. Bujalance 594 Andalusia. Chinchilla 558 ” Ciudad Real 575 ” Ciudad Rodrigo 585 ” Compostella 599 Galicia. Cordova 584 Andalusia. Cuenca 596 ” Ecija 589 ” Granada 553 ” Guadix 588 ” Jaen 584 ” Jerez 574 ” Laredo 571 Santander. Leon 591 Galicia. Logroño 558 Andalusia. Lorca 562 ” Lugo 589 Galicia. Majorca 570 Balearic Isles. Malaga 401 Andalusia. Mondoñedo 591 Galicia. Monterrey 591 ” Murcia 564 Murcia. Orense 584 Galicia. Oviedo 543 Asturias. Plasencia 593 Andalusia. Pontevedra 568 Galicia. Ronda 574 Andalusia. Salamanca 600 Galicia. Santiago 596 ” Segovia 591 ” Seville 547 Andalusia. Siguenza 579 ” Soria 582 Valencia. Toledo 579 Andalusia. Toro 553 ” Truxillo 567 ” Tuy 583 Galicia. Valladolid 562 ” ------ Total 30,527

CAVALRY.

N.B.--Each regiment had five squadrons, and should have numbered about 700 sabres.

1. HEAVY CAVALRY.

_Regiment._ _Numbers._ _Quartered in_

1st Rey 634 Denmark. 2nd Reina 668 Old Castile. 3rd Principe 573 New Castile. 4th Infante 615 Denmark. 5th Borbon 616 Catalonia. 6th Farnesio 517 Andalusia. 7th Alcantara 589 Portugal. 8th España 553 Andalusia. 9th Algarve 572 Denmark. 10th Calatrava 670 Andalusia. 11th Santiago 549 Portugal. 12th Montesa 667 Andalusia. ------ Total 7,232

2. LIGHT CAVALRY.

CAZADORES. _Numbers._ _Quartered in_

1st Rey 577 Madrid. 2nd Reina 581 Portugal. 3rd Almanza 598 Denmark. 4th Pavia 663 Andalusia. 5th Villaviciosa 628 Denmark. 6th Sagunto 499 Andalusia.

HUSSARS.

1st Numancia 630 Valencia. 2nd Lusitania 554 Madrid. 3rd Olivenza 558 Portugal. 4th Voluntarios } New Castile. de España 548 } 5th Maria Luisa 680 Estremadura. 6th Españoles 692 Balearic Isles. ------ Total 7,208

A scheme was on foot for converting eight of the light regiments into dragoons. Several of them are designated sometimes as dragoons, sometimes as cazadores or hussars.

N.B.--The 14,440 troopers had only 9,526 horses!

ARTILLERY.

1. FIELD.

_Numbers._ _Quartered in_

1st Regiment 1,143 Catalonia. 2nd ” 1,146 Valencia and Murcia. 3rd ” 1,078 Andalusia. 4th ” 1,043 Galicia. ------ Total 4,410

Each regiment consisted of ten batteries; of the whole forty, six were horse-artillery. 477 men (four batteries) were in Denmark.

2. GARRISON.

Two ‘Brigades’ and fifteen ‘Compañias Fijas’ at various places, in all 1,934.

Adding general staff, &c., the total of the artillery, field and garrison, was 292 officers and 6,679 men.

ENGINEERS.

169 officers and a battalion of sappers. The latter was quartered at Alcala de Henares, and had a strength of 922 men, besides 127 detached in Denmark.

GENERAL TOTAL (Rank and File only).

_Infantry._ _Cavalry._ _Artillery._ _Engineers._ Royal Guard 6,029 1,155 Infantry of the Line 44,398 Light Infantry 13,655 Foreign Infantry 12,981 Militia 30,527 Cavalry 14,440 Artillery 6,679 Engineers 1,049 -------- ------ ------ ------ 107,590 15,595 6,679 1,049 = 130,913

Add 5,911 officers, and we get a gross total of 136,824.

VI

THE FIRST FRENCH ‘ARMY OF SPAIN’

1. ‘1ST CORPS OF OBSERVATION OF THE GIRONDE’ [ARMY OF PORTUGAL].

Commander, General JUNOT. Chief of the Staff, General Thiébault.

_Men._ 1st Division, General DELABORDE (Brigades Avril and Brennier): 15th of the Line (3rd batt.), 1,033; 47th ditto (2nd batt.), 1,210; 70th ditto (1st and 2nd batts.), 2,299; 86th ditto (1st and 2nd batts.), 2,116; 4th Swiss (1st batt.), 1,190. Total, seven battalions 7,848

2nd Division, General LOISON (Brigades Charlot and Thomières): 2nd Léger (3rd batt.), 1,255; 4th ditto (3rd batt.), 1,196; 12th ditto (3rd batt.), 1,302; 15th ditto (3rd batt.), 1,314; 32nd of the Line (3rd batt.), 1,265; 58th ditto (3rd batt.), 1,394; 2nd Swiss (2nd batt.), 755. Total, seven battalions 8,481

3rd Division, General TRAVOT (Brigades Graindorge and Fusier): 31st Léger (3rd batt.), 653; 32nd ditto (3rd batt.) 983; 26th of the Line (3rd batt.), 537; 66th ditto (3rd and 4th batts.), 1,004; 82nd ditto (3rd batt.), 861; _Légion du Midi_ (1st batt.), 797; Hanoverian Legion, 703. Total, eight battalions 5,538

Cavalry Division, General KELLERMANN (Brigades Margaron and Maurin): 26th Chasseurs, 244; 1st Dragoons, 261; 3rd ditto, 236; 4th ditto, 262; 5th ditto, 249; 9th ditto, 257; 15th ditto, 245. Total seven squadrons 1,754

Artillery, Train, &c. 1,297 ------ Total of the Corps (twenty-two battalions, seven squadrons) 24,918

2. ‘2ND CORPS OF OBSERVATION OF THE GIRONDE.’

Commander, General DUPONT. Chief of the Staff, General Legendre.

_Men._ 1st Division, General BARBOU (Brigades Pannetier and Chabert): Garde de Paris (2nd batts. of 1st and 2nd Regiments), 1,454; 3rd Legion of Reserve (1st and 2nd batts.), 2,057; 4th ditto (1st, 2nd, and 3rd batts.), 3,084; Marines of the Guard, 532; 4th Swiss (2nd batt.), 709. Total, nine battalions 7,836

2nd Division, General VEDEL (Brigades Poinsot and Cassagne): 1st Legion of Reserve (three batts.), 3,011; 5th ditto (three batts.), 2,695; 3rd Swiss (1st batt.), 1,178. Total, seven battalions 6,884

3rd Division, General FRERE (Brigades Laval and Rostolland): 15th Léger (2nd batt.), 1,160; 2nd Legion of Reserve (three batts.), 2,870; 2nd Swiss (1st batt.), 1,174. Total, five battalions 5,204

Cavalry Division, General FRÉSIA (Brigades Rigaud and Dupré): 1st Provisional Cuirassiers, 778; 2nd ditto, 681; 1st Provisional Chasseurs, 556; 2nd ditto, 662; 6th Provisional Dragoons, 623. Total, fifteen squadrons 3,300

Artillery, Train, &c. 1,204 ------ Total of the Corps (twenty-one battalions, fifteen squadrons) 24,428

3. ‘CORPS OF OBSERVATION OF THE OCEAN COAST.’

Commander, Marshal MONCEY. Chief of the Staff, General Harispe.

_Men._ 1st Division, General MUSNIER (Brigades Brun and Isemburg): 1st Provisional Regiment of Infantry (four batts.), 2,088; 2nd ditto, 2,183; 3rd ditto, 2,118; 4th ditto, 2,232; Westphalian battalion, 1,078. Total, seventeen battalions 9,699

2nd Division, General GOBERT (Brigades Lefranc and Dufour): 5th Provisional Regiment (four batts.), 2,095; 6th ditto, 1,851; 7th ditto, 1,872; 8th ditto, 1,921; Irish Legion, 654. Total, seventeen battalions 8,393

3rd Division, General MORLOT (Brigades Bujet and Lefebvre): 9th Provisional Regiment (four batts.), 2,448; 10th ditto, 2,146; 11th ditto, 2,062; Prussian battalion, 493. Total, thirteen battalions 7,149

Cavalry Division, General GROUCHY (Brigades Privé and Wathier): 1st Provisional Dragoons, 660; 2nd ditto, 872; 1st Provisional Hussars, 597; 2nd ditto, 721. Total, twelve squadrons 2,850

Artillery, Train, &c. 1,250 ------ Total of the Corps (forty-seven battalions, twelve squadrons) 29,341

4. ‘CORPS OF OBSERVATION OF THE PYRENEES.’

Commander, Marshal BESSIÈRES. Chief of the Staff, General Lefebvre-Desnouettes.

_Men._ 1st Division, General MERLE (Brigades Darmagnac and Gaulois): 47th of the Line (1st batt.), 1,235; 86th ditto (two companies), 231; 3rd Swiss (2nd batt.), 721; 1st _Régiment de Marche_ (two batts.), 965; 1st Supplementary Regiment of the Legions of Reserve (two batts.), 2,096. Total, six and a quarter battalions 5,248

2nd Division, General VERDIER (Brigades Sabathier and Ducos): 17th Provisional Regiment (four batts.), 2,110; 18th ditto, 1,928; 13th ditto, 2,185; 14th ditto, 2,295. Total, sixteen battalions 8,518

Cavalry Division, General LASALLE: 10th Chasseurs, 469; 22nd ditto, 460; _Escadron de Marche_ of Cuirassiers, 153. Total, seven squadrons 1,082

Artillery, Train, &c. 408

Detached troops belonging to the Corps of Bessières.

(1) Garrison of Pampeluna, General D’AGOULT: 15th of the Line (4th batt.), 435; 47th ditto (3rd batt.), 297; 70th ditto (3rd batt.), 488; 5th _Escadron de Marche_ of Cuirassiers, 329; Artillery, 63 1,612

(2) Garrison of San Sebastian, General THOUVENOT: 2nd Supplementary Regiment of the Legions of Reserve (4th batt.), 890; Dépôt Battalion, 1,240; Cavalry Dépôt, 60; Artillery, 28 2,218 ------ Total of the Corps (twenty-seven and a quarter battalions, nine squadrons) 19,086

5. ‘CORPS OF OBSERVATION OF THE EASTERN PYRENEES.’

Commander, General DUHESME. Chief of the Staff, Colonel Fabre.

_Men._ 1st Division, General CHABRAN (Brigades Goulas and Nicolas). 2nd of the Line (3rd batt.), 610; 7th ditto (1st and 2nd batts.), 1,785; 16th ditto (3rd batt.), 789; 37th ditto (3rd batt.), 656; 56th ditto (4th batt.), 833; 93rd ditto (3rd batt.), 792; 2nd Swiss (3rd batt.), 580. Total, eight battalions 6,045

2nd Division, General LECCHI (Brigades Milosewitz and ?): 2nd Italian Line (2nd batt.), 740; 4th ditto (3rd batt.), 587; 5th ditto (2nd batt.), 806; Royal _Vélites_ (1st batt.), 519; 1st Neapolitan Line (1st and 2nd batts.), 1,944. Total, six battalions 4,596

Cavalry Brigade, General Bessières: 3rd Provisional Cuirassiers, 409; 3rd Provisional Chasseurs, 416 825

Cavalry Brigade, General Schwartz: Italian Chasseurs of the Prince Royal, 504; 2nd Neapolitan Chasseurs, 388 892

Artillery, Train, &c. 356 ------ Total of the Corps (fourteen battalions, nine squadrons) 12,714

6. IMPERIAL GUARD.

Commander, General DORSENNE.

_Men._ 1st Fusiliers (three batts.), 1,570; 2nd ditto, 1,499; Marines of the Guard [detached to Dupont’s Corps]. Total, six battalions. 3,069

Dragoons, 252; Chasseurs and Mamelukes, 321; _Gendarmes d’élite_, 304; Polish Light Horse, 737; Guard of the Duke of Berg, 148 1,762

Artillery, &c. 1,581 ------ Total (six battalions, nine squadrons) 6,412

7. TROOPS WHICH ENTERED SPAIN AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR, IN JUNE, JULY, AND AUGUST.

_Men._ Division MOUTON (Brigades Rey and Reynaud): 2nd Léger (1st and 2nd batts.); 4th ditto (1st, 2nd, and 4th batts.); 12th ditto (1st and 2nd batts.); 15th of the Line (1st and 2nd batts.); _Garde de Paris_ (one batt.) 5,100

Brigade of General BAZANCOURT: 14th of the Line (1st and 2nd batts.), 1,488; 44th ditto (1st and 2nd batts.), 1,614 3,102

Polish Brigade (Colonel Chlopiski): 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of the Vistula (each of two batts.) 3,951

Four _Bataillons de Marche_ (Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7) 2,281

Division of General REILLE at Perpignan [for details see p. 320] 8,370

Division of General CHABOT (‘Reserve of Perpignan’) 2,667

Portuguese Troops, before Saragossa (two batts.) 553

National Guards of the Pyrenees, before Saragossa (two batts.) 971

General Dépôt at Bayonne 7,659

Battalions, companies, and smaller drafts sent to join their corps in June-August 8,687

_Escadrons de Marche_, Polish Lancers, Cavalry of the Imperial Guard 3,911

Artillery, drafts 851

Engineers, ditto 101 ------ Total 48,204

GENERAL TOTAL.

_Men._ Junot’s Corps 24,918 Dupont’s Corps 24,428 Moncey’s Corps 29,341 Bessières’ Corps 19,086 Duhesme’s Corps 12,714 Imperial Guard 6,412 Troops which entered Spain in June, July, and August 48,204 ------- 165,103

N.B.--The organization and the greater part of the figures come from the table at the end of vol. iv of Foy’s history of the Peninsular War. But a few corrections are made where more detailed information is available, especially in the seventh section, where Foy is incomplete (e.g. he omits one of Mouton’s brigades).

VII

PAPERS RELATING TO THE TREACHERY AT BAYONNE

PROTEST OF CHARLES IV AGAINST HIS ABDICATION.

Protesto y declaro que todo lo que manifiesto en mi decreto del 19 de marzo, abdicando la corona en mi hijo, fue forzado por precaver mayores males y la efusion de sangre de mis queridos vasallos, y por tanto de ningun valor.

YO EL REY.

Aranjuez, 21 de marzo de 1808.

LETTER OF NAPOLEON TO FERDINAND VII.

MON FRÈRE,

J’ai reçu la lettre de V. A. R. Elle doit avoir acquis la preuve, dans les papiers qu’elle a eu du roi son père, de l’intérêt que je lui ai toujours porté. Elle me permettra, dans la circonstance actuelle, de lui parler avec franchise et loyauté. En arrivant à Madrid, j’espérais porter mon illustre ami à quelques réformes nécessaires dans ses Etats, et à donner quelque satisfaction à l’opinion publique. Le renvoi du prince de la Paix me paraissait nécessaire pour son bonheur et celui de ses peuples. Les affaires du Nord ont retardé mon voyage. Les événemens d’Aranjuez ont eu lieu. Je ne suis point juge de ce qui s’est passé, et de la conduite du prince de la Paix; mais ce que je sais bien, c’est qu’il est dangereux pour les rois d’accoutumer les peuples à répandre du sang et à se faire justice eux-mêmes. Je prie Dieu que V. A. R. n’en fasse pas elle-même un jour l’expérience. Il n’est pas de l’intérêt de l’Espagne de faire du mal à un prince qui a épousé une princesse du sang royal, et qui a si long-temps régi le royaume. Il n’a plus d’amis; V. A. R. n’en aura plus, si jamais elle est malheureuse. Les peuples se vengent volontiers des hommages qu’ils nous rendent. Comment, d’ailleurs, pourrait-on faire le procès au prince de la Paix, sans le faire à la reine et au roi votre père? Ce procès alimentera les haines et les passions factieuses; le résultat en sera funeste pour votre couronne; V. A. R. déchire par là ses droits. Qu’elle ferme l’oreille à des conseils faibles et perfides. Elle n’a pas le droit de juger le prince de la Paix: ses crimes, si on lui en reproche, se perdent dans les droits du trône. J’ai souvent manifesté le désir que le prince de la Paix fût éloigné des affaires. L’amitié du roi Charles m’a porté souvent à me taire, et à détourner les yeux des faiblesses de son attachement. Misérables hommes que nous sommes! faiblesse et erreur, c’est notre devise. Mais tout cela peut se concilier. Que le prince de la Paix soit exilé d’Espagne, et je lui offre un refuge en France. Quant à l’abdication de Charles IV, elle a eu lieu dans un moment où mes armées couvraient les Espagnes; et, aux yeux de l’Europe et de la postérité, je paraîtrais n’avoir envoyé tant de troupes que pour précipiter du trône mon allié et mon ami. Comme souverain voisin, il m’est permis de vouloir connaître, avant de reconnaître, cette abdication. Je le dis à V. A. R., aux Espagnols, au monde entier: Si l’abdication du roi Charles est de pur mouvement, s’il n’y a pas été forcé par l’insurrection et l’émeute d’Aranjuez, je ne fais aucune difficulté de l’admettre, et je reconnais V. A. R. comme roi d’Espagne. Je désire donc causer avec elle sur cet objet. La circonspection que je porte depuis un mois dans ces affaires doit lui être garant de l’appui qu’elle trouvera en moi, si, à son tour, des factions, de quelque nature qu’elles soient, venaient à l’inquiéter sur son trône.

Quand le roi Charles me fit part de l’événement du mois d’octobre dernier, j’en fus douloureusement affecté, et je pense avoir contribué, par des insinuations que j’ai faites, à la bonne issue de l’affaire de l’Escurial. V. A. R. avait bien des torts; je n’en veux pour preuve que la lettre qu’elle m’a écrite, et que j’ai constamment voulu oublier. Roi à son tour, elle saura combien les droits du trône sont sacrés. Toute démarche près d’un souverain étranger, de la part d’un prince héréditaire, est criminelle. V. A. R. doit se défier des écarts et des émotions populaires.

On pourra commettre quelques meurtres sur mes soldats isolés, mais la ruine de l’Espagne en serait le résultat. J’ai déjà vu avec peine qu’à Madrid on ait répandu des lettres du capitaine-général de la Catalogne, et fait tout ce qui pouvait donner du mouvement aux têtes. V. A. R. connaît ma pensée toute entière: elle voit que je flotte entre diverses idées qui ont besoin d’être fixées. Elle peut être certaine que, dans tous les cas, je me comporterai avec elle comme avec le roi son père. Qu’elle croie à mon désir de tout concilier, et de trouver des occasions de lui donner des preuves de mon affection et de ma parfaite estime.

Sur ce, je prie Dieu qu’il vous ait en sa sainte et digne garde.

NAPOLÉON.

Bayonne, le 16 avril 1808.

SECOND ABDICATION OF CHARLES IV.

Art. Ier. S. M. le roi Charles, n’ayant en vue pendant toute sa vie que le bonheur de ses sujets, et constant dans le principe, que tous les actes d’un souverain ne doivent être faits que pour arriver à ce but; les circonstances actuelles ne pouvant être qu’une source de dissensions d’autant plus funestes que les factions ont divisé sa propre famille, a résolu de céder, comme il cède par le présent, à S. M. l’empereur Napoléon, tous ses droits sur le trône des Espagnes et des Indes, comme au seul qui, au point où en sont arrivées les choses, peut rétablir l’ordre: entendant que ladite cession n’ait lieu qu’afin de faire jouir ses sujets des deux conditions suivantes:

1º. L’intégrité du royaume sera maintenue. Le prince que S. M. l’empereur Napoléon jugera devoir placer sur le trône d’Espagne sera indépendant, et les limites de l’Espagne ne souffriront aucune altération.

2º. La religion catholique, apostolique et romaine sera la seule en Espagne. Il ne pourra y être toléré aucune religion réformée, et encore moins infidèle, suivant l’usage établi jusqu’aujourd’hui.

II. Tous actes faits contre ceux de nos fidèles sujets, depuis la révolution d’Aranjuez, sont nuls et de nulle valeur, et leurs propriétés leur seront rendues.

III. Sa majesté le roi Charles ayant ainsi assuré la prospérité, l’intégrité et l’indépendance de ses sujets, Sa Majesté l’Empereur s’engage à donner refuge dans ses états au roi Charles, à la reine, à sa famille, au prince de la Paix, ainsi qu’à ceux de leurs serviteurs qui voudront les suivre, lesquels jouiront en France d’un rang équivalent à celui qu’ils possédaient en Espagne.

The remaining seven articles have reference to the estates and revenues in France, which the Emperor makes over to Charles IV and his family.

RESIGNATION OF HIS RIGHTS BY FERDINAND VII.

Art. I. Son Altesse Royale le prince des Asturies adhère à la cession faite par le roi Charles, de ses droits au trône d’Espagne et des Indes, en faveur de Sa Majesté l’Empereur des Français, roi d’Italie, et renonce, en tant que de besoin, aux droits qui lui sont acquis, comme prince des Asturies, à la couronne des Espagnes et des Indes.

II. Sa Majesté l’Empereur des Français, roi d’Italie, accorde en France à Son Altesse Royale le prince des Asturies le titre d’Altesse Royale, avec tous les honneurs et prérogatives dont jouissent les princes de son rang. Les descendans de Son Altesse Royale le prince des Asturies conserveront le titre de prince et celui d’Altesse Sérénissime, et auront toujours le même rang en France, que les princes dignitaires de l’Empire.

The remaining five articles have reference to the estates and revenues in France, which the Emperor makes over to Ferdinand.

VIII

THE CAPITULATION OF BAYLEN

1. ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF CASTAÑOS

N.B.--* marks an old regiment of the regular army; † a militia regiment; ‡ a regiment of new levies.

Commander-in-chief, Lieut.-General FRANCISCO XAVIER CASTAÑOS. Chief of the Staff, Major-General Tomas Moreno.

_Men._ 1st Division, General TEODORO REDING: *Walloon Guards (3rd batt.), 852; *Reina, 795; *Corona, 824; *Jaen, 922; *Irlanda, 1,824; *3rd Swiss, 1,100; *Barbastro (half batt.), 331; †Jaen, 500; ‡1st of Granada, 526; ‡Cazadores of Antequera, 343; ‡Tejas, 43 Total 8,453 Cavalry attached to the 1st Division: *Montesa, 120; *Farnesio, 213; *_Dragones de la Reina_, 213; *Numancia, 100; *Olivenza, 140; ‡Lancers of Utrera and Jerez, 114. Total 900 One horse-battery (six guns), one field-battery (four guns) 200 Two companies of sappers 166 ----- Total of the Division 9,719

2nd Division, Major-General Marquis COUPIGNY: *Ceuta, 1,208; *Ordenes Militares, 1,909; †Granada, 400; †Truxillo, 290; †Bujalance, 403; †Cuenca, 501; †Ciudad Real, 420; ‡2nd of Granada, 450; ‡3rd of Granada, 470; ‡Volunteers of Catalonia, 1,178. Total 7,229 Cavalry attached to 2nd Division: *Borbon, 401; *España, 120. Total 521 One horse-battery (six guns) 100 One company of sappers 100 ------ Total of the Division 7,950

3rd Division, Major-General FELIX JONES: *Cordova, 1,106; *Light Infantry of Valencia (half batt.), 359; *ditto of Campo-Mayor, 800; †Burgos, 415; †Alcazar, 400; †Plasencia, 410; †Guadix, 459; †Lorca, 490; †Seville, 267. Total 4,706 Cavalry attached to 3rd Division: *Calatrava, 222; *Santiago, 86; *Sagunto, 101; *Principe, 300. Total 709 ------ Total of the Division 5,415

4th Division (Reserve), Lieut.-General MANUEL LA PEÑA: *Africa, 525; *Burgos, 2,089; *Saragossa (3rd batt.), 822; *Murcia (3rd batt.), 420; *2nd Swiss, 243; *Marines, 50; †Provincial Grenadiers of Andalusia, 912; †Siguenza, 502. Total 5,563 Cavalry attached to 4th Division: *Pavia, 541 541 Artillery, two horse-batteries (twelve guns) (?) 302 Sappers, one company 100 ------ Total of the Division 6,506

Total of the army, 29,590: viz. infantry, 25,951; cavalry, 2,671; artillery, 602; sappers, 366, with twenty-eight guns.

N.B.--The force of the two flying columns of Col. Cruz-Murgeon and the Conde de Valdecañas is not ascertainable. They were both composed of new levies: Arteche puts the former at 2,000 foot, and the latter at 1,800 foot and 400 horse. Other authorities give Cruz-Murgeon 3,000 men.

It should be noted that Castaños’ field-army does not comprise the whole number of men under arms in Andalusia. Most of the regular regiments had left behind their third battalion, which was being completed with recruits, and was not fit to take the field. Of all the regiments only Burgos, Irlanda, and Ordenes Militares seem to have gone forward three battalions strong.

2. CORRESPONDENCE OF THE FRENCH GENERALS.

(_a._) GENERAL DUPONT TO GENERAL VEDEL.

Je vous prie, mon cher général, de vous porter le plus rapidement possible sur Baylen, pour y faire votre jonction avec le corps qui a combattu aujourd’hui à Mengibar et qui s’est replié sur cette ville. Le sixième régiment provisoire et deux escadrons, l’un de dragons et l’autre de chasseurs, sont réunis à votre division.

J’espère que l’ennemi sera rejeté demain sur Mengibar, au delà du fleuve, et que les postes de Guarraman et de la Caroline resteront en sûreté; ils sont d’une grande importance.

Lorsque vous aurez obtenu ce succès, je désire que vous réunissiez à Andujar une partie de vos forces, afin de combattre l’ennemi qui se trouve devant nous. Vous ne laisserez à Baylen que ce qui sera nécessaire pour sa défense.

Si l’ennemi occupe Baëza, il faut l’en chasser.

Recevez mes assurances d’amitié.

Le général DUPONT.

Andujar, le 16 juillet 1808.

(_b._) GENERAL VEDEL TO GENERAL DUPONT.

Mon général,

Il est huit heures et demie. J’arrive à Baylen, où je n’ai trouvé personne. Le général Dufour en est parti à minuit et a marché sur Guarraman. Comme il n’a laissé personne pour m’instruire des motifs de cette démarche, je ne puis rien dire de positif à cet égard; mais le bruit commun étant que les troupes ennemies, qui out attaqué hier le général Belair, se sont dirigées avec celles qui étaient à Ubeda, vers les gorges, par Linharès et Sainte-Hélène, on doit penser que le général Dufour s’est mis à leur poursuite, afin de les combattre.

Comme les instructions de Votre Excellence portent que je dois faire ma jonction avec le corps qui s’était replié sur Baylen, quoique harassé et fatigué, je partirai d’ici pour me rendre encore aujourd’hui à Guarraman, afin de regagner la journée que l’ennemi a sur moi, l’atteindre, le battre, et déjouer ainsi ses projets sur les gorges.

Je vais écrire au général Dufour, pour l’informer de mon mouvement, savoir quelque chose de positif sur sa marche et sur les données qu’il peut avoir de celle de l’ennemi.

· · · · · · · · ·

Le général de division,

VEDEL.

Baylen, le 17 juillet 1808.

(_c._) GENERAL DUPONT TO GENERAL VEDEL.

J’ai reçu votre lettre de Baylen; d’après le mouvement de l’ennemi, le général Dufour a très-bien fait de le gagner de vitesse sur la Caroline et sur Sainte-Hélène, pour occuper la tête des gorges; je vois avec plaisir que vous vous hâtez de vous réunir à lui, afin de combattre avec avantage, si l’ennemi se présente. Mais, au lieu de se rendre à Sainte-Hélène, l’ennemi peut suivre la vieille route, qui de Baëza va à Guëmada, et qui est parallèle à la grande route; s’il prend ce parti, il faut le gagner encore de vitesse au débouché de cette route, afin de l’empêcher de pénétrer dans la Manche. D’après ce que vous me dites, ce corps ne serait que d’environ dix mille hommes, et vous êtes en mesure de la battre complétement; s’il est plus considérable, manœuvrez pour suspendre sa marche, ou pour le contenir dans les gorges, en attendant que j’arrive à votre appui.

· · · · · · · · ·

Si vous trouvez l’ennemi à la Caroline, ou sur tout autre point de la grande route, tâchez de le battre, pour me venir rejoindre et repousser ce qui est devant Andujar.

· · · · · · · · ·

Mille amitiés.

Le général DUPONT.

Andujar, le 17 juillet 1808.

N.B.--It will be seen that by letter (_a_) Dupont deliberately divides his army into two halves. By letter (_b_) Vedel shows that he made no reconnaissances, but acted merely on ‘le bruit commun.’ By letter (_c_) Dupont accepts Vedel’s erroneous views without suspicion, and authorizes him to go off on the wild-goose chase which he was projecting.

3. CAPITULATION.

Leurs Excellences MM. le comte de Casa Tilly et le général don Francisco Xavier Castaños, commandant en chef l’armée d’Espagne en Andalousie, voulant donner une preuve de leur haute estime à Son Excellence M. le général comte Dupont, grand aigle de la Légion d’honneur, commandant en chef le corps d’observation de la Gironde, ainsi qu’à l’armée sous ses ordres, pour la belle et glorieuse défense qu’ils out faite contre une armée infiniment supérieure en nombre, et qui les enveloppait de toutes parts; sur la demande de M. le général de brigade Chabert, commandant de la Légion d’honneur, et chargé des pleins pouvoirs de Son Excellence le général en chef de l’armée française, en présence de Son Excellence M. le général comte Marescot, grand aigle de la Légion d’honneur et premier inspecteur du génie, ont arrêté les conventions suivantes:

Art. 1er. Les troupes françaises sous les ordres de Son Excellence M. le général Dupont sont prisonnières de guerre, la division Vedel et les autres troupes françaises en Andalousie exceptées.

2. La division de M. le général Vedel, et généralement toutes les troupes françaises en Andalousie, qui ne sont pas dans la position de celles comprises dans l’article 1er, évacueront l’Andalousie.

3. Les troupes comprises dans l’article 2 conserveront généralement tous leurs bagages, et, pour éviter tout sujet de trouble pendant la marche, elles remettront leur artillerie, train et autres armes, à l’armée espagnole, qui s’engage à les leur rendre au moment de leur embarquement.

4. Les troupes comprises dans l’article 1er du traité sortiront de leur camp avec les honneurs de la guerre; chaque bataillon ayant deux canons en tête; les soldats armés de leurs fusils, qui seront déposés à quatre cents toises du camp.

5. Les troupes de M. le général Vedel et autres, ne devant pas déposer les armes, les placeront en faisceaux sur le front de bandière; elles y laisseront aussi leur artillerie et leur train. Il en sera dressé procès-verbal par des officiers des deux armées, et le tout leur sera remis ainsi qu’il est convenu dans l’article 3.

6. Toutes les troupes françaises en Andalousie se rendront à San-Lucar et à Rota, par journées d’étape, qui ne pourront excéder quatre lieues de poste, avec les séjours nécessaires, pour y être embarquées sur des vaisseaux ayant équipage espagnol, et transportées en France au port de Rochefort.

7. Les troupes françaises seront embarquées aussitôt après leur arrivée. L’armée espagnole assure leur traversée contre toute agression hostile.

8. MM. les officiers généraux, supérieurs et autres, conserveront leurs armes, et les soldats leurs sacs.

9. Les logements, vivres et fourrages, pendant la marche et la traversée, seront fournis à MM. les officiers généraux et autres y ayant droit, ainsi qu’à la troupe, dans la proportion de leur grade, et sur le pied des troupes espagnoles en temps de guerre.

10. Les chevaux de MM. les officiers généraux, supérieurs et d’état-major, dans la proportion de leur grade, seront transportés en France, et nourris sur le pied de guerre.

11. MM. les officiers généraux conserveront chacun une voiture et un fourgon; MM. les officiers supérieurs et d’état-major, une voiture seulement, sans être soumis à aucun examen, _mais sans contrevenir aux ordonnances et aux lois du royaume_.

12. Sont exceptées de l’article précédent les voitures prises en Andalousie, dont l’examen sera fait par M. le général Chabert.

13. Pour éviter la difficulté d’embarquer les chevaux des corps de cavalerie et d’artillerie, compris dans l’article 2, lesdits chevaux seront laissés en Espagne, et seront payés, d’après l’estimation de deux commissaires français et espagnol, et acquittés par le gouvernement espagnol.

14. Les blessés et malades de l’armée française, laissés dans les hôpitaux, seront traités avec le plus grand soin, et seront transportés en France sous bonne et sûre escorte, aussitôt après leur guérison.

15. Comme, en diverses rencontres et particulièrement à la prise de Cordoue, plusieurs soldats, au mépris des ordres des généraux et malgré les efforts des officiers, se sont portés à des excès qui sont inévitables dans les villes qui opposent encore de la résistance au moment d’être prises, MM. les généraux et autres officiers prendront les mesures nécessaires pour retrouver les vases sacrés qu’on pourrait avoir enlevés, et les restituer, s’ils existent.

16. Tous les employés civils, attachés à l’armée française, ne sont pas considérés comme prisonniers de guerre; ils jouiront cependant, pour leur transport en France, de tous les avantages de la troupe, dans la proportion de leur emploi.

17. Les troupes françaises commenceront à évacuer l’Andalousie le 23 juillet, à quatre heures du matin. Pour éviter la grande chaleur, la marche des troupes s’effectuera de nuit, et se conformera aux journées d’étape qui seront réglées par MM. les officiers d’état-major français et espagnols, en évitant le passage des villes de Cordoue et de Séville.

18. Les troupes françaises, pendant leur marche, seront escortées par la troupe de ligne espagnole, à raison de trois cents hommes d’escorte par colonne de trois mille hommes, et MM. les officiers généraux seront escortés par des détachements de cavalerie et d’infanterie de ligne.

19. Les troupes, dans leur marche, seront toujours précédées par des commissaires français et espagnols, qui devront assurer les logements et les vivres nécessaires, d’après les états qui leur seront remis.

20. La présente capitulation sera portée de suite à Son Excellence M. le duc de Rovigo, commandant en chef les troupes françaises en Espagne, par un officier français qui devra être escorté par des troupes de ligne espagnoles.

21. Il est convenu par les deux armées qu’il sera ajouté, comme articles supplémentaires, à la capitulation, ce qui peut avoir été omis et ce qui pourrait encore augmenter le bien-être des troupes françaises pendant leur séjour en Espagne, et pendant la traversée.

_Signé_,

XAVIER CASTAÑOS. MARESCOT, Général de Division.

CONDE DE TILLY. CHABERT, Général de Brigade.

VENTURA ESCALANTE, Capitan-General de Granada.

SUPPLEMENTARY ARTICLES OF AUGUST 6.

Art. 1er. On a déjà sollicité du roi d’Angleterre et de l’amirauté anglaise des passe-ports pour la sûreté du passage des troupes françaises.

2. L’embarquement s’effectuera sur des vaisseaux de l’escadre espagnole, ou sur tous autres bâtiments de transport qui seront nécessaires pour conduire le total des troupes françaises, au moins par division, à commencer par celle du général Dupont, et immédiatement après, celle du général Vedel.

3. Le débarquement s’effectuera sur les côtes du Languedoc ou de Provence, ou bien au port de Lorient, selon que le voyage sera jugé plus commode et plus court.

4. On embarquera des vivres pour un mois et plus, afin de prévenir tous les accidents de la navigation.

5. Dans le cas qu’on n’obtînt pas de l’Angleterre les passe-ports de sûreté qu’on a demandés, alors on traitera des moyens les plus propres pour le passage par terre.

6. Chaque division des troupes françaises sera cantonnée sur différents points, dans un rayon de huit à dix lieues, en attendant que le susdit embarquement ait son effet.

Ainsi fait à Séville, le 6 août 1808.

_Signé_,

XAVIER CASTAÑOS.

LETTER OF THE CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF ANDALUSIA, REPUDIATING THE CAPITULATION.

Monsieur le général Dupont,

Je n’ai jamais eu ni de mauvaise foi, ni de fausse dissimulation: de là vient ce que j’écrivis à V. E., sous la date du 8, dicté, d’après mon caractère, par la plus grande candeur, et je suis fâché de me voir obligé, par votre réponse en date d’hier, de répéter en abrégé ce que j’eus l’honneur de dire alors à V. E., et ce qui certainement ne peut manquer de se vérifier.

Ni la capitulation, ni l’approbation de la junte, ni un ordre exprès de notre souverain chéri, ne peuvent rendre possible ce qui ne l’est pas; il n’y a point de bâtiments, ni de moyens de s’en procurer pour le transport de votre armée. Quelle plus grande preuve que celle de retenir ici très-dispendieusement les prisonniers de votre corps, pour n’avoir point de quoi les transporter sur d’autres points hors du continent?

Lorsque le général Castaños promit d’obtenir des Anglais des passe-ports pour le passage de votre armée, il ne put s’obliger à autre chose qu’à les demander avec instance, et c’est ce qu’il a fait. Mais comment V. E. put-elle croire que la nation britannique accéderait à la laisser passer, certaine qu’elle allait lui faire la guerre sur un autre point, ou peut-être sur le même?

_Je me persuade que ni le général Castaños, ni V. E. ne crurent que ladite capitulation pût être exécutée: le but du premier fut de sortir d’embarras, et celui de V. E. d’obtenir des conditions qui, quoique impossibles, honorassent sa reddition indispensable. Chacun de vous obtint ce qu’il désirait, et maintenant il est nécessaire que la loi impérieuse de la nécessité commande._

Le caractère national ne permet d’en user avec les Français que d’après cette loi, et non d’après celle des représailles; V. E. m’oblige de lui exprimer des vérités qui doivent lui être amères. _Quel droit a-t-elle d’exiger l’exécution impossible d’une capitulation avec une armée qui est entrée en Espagne sous le voile de l’alliance intime et de l’union, qui a emprisonné notre roi et sa famille royale, saccagé ses palais, assassiné et volé ses sujets, détruit ses campagnes et arraché sa couronne?_ Si V. E. ne veut s’attirer de plus en plus la juste indignation des peuples, que je travaille tant à réprimer, qu’elle cesse de semblables et d’aussi intolérables réclamations, et qu’elle cherche, par sa conduite et sa résignation, à affaiblir la vive sensation des horreurs qu’elle a commises récemment à Cordoue. V. E. croit bien assurément que mon but, en lui faisant cet avertissement, n’a d’autre objet que son propre bien: le vulgaire irréfléchi ne pense qu’à payer le mal par le mal, sans apprécier les circonstances, et je ne peux m’empêcher de rendre V. E. responsable des résultats funestes que peut entraîner sa répugnance à ce qui ne peut manquer d’être.

Les dispositions que j’ai données à D. Juan Creagh, et qui ont été communiquées à V. E., sont les mêmes que celles de la junte suprême, et sont, en outre, indispensables dans les circonstances actuelles: le retard de leur exécution alarme les peuples et attire des inconvénients: déjà ledit Creagh m’a fait part d’un accident qui me donne les plus grandes craintes. _Quel stimulant pour la populace, de savoir qu’un seul soldat était porteur de 2,180 livres tournois!_

C’est tout ce que j’ai à répondre à la dépêche de V. E., et j’espère que celle-ci sera la dernière réponse relative à ces objets, demeurant, sur toute autre chose, dans le désir de lui être agréable, étant son affectionné et sincère serviteur,

MORLA.

IX

THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA

1. DEFINITIVE CONVENTION FOR THE EVACUATION OF PORTUGAL BY THE FRENCH ARMY.

The Generals commanding-in-chief of the British and French armies in Portugal having determined to negotiate and conclude a treaty for the evacuation of Portugal by the French troops, on the basis of the agreement entered into on the 22nd instant for a suspension of hostilities, have appointed the undermentioned officers to negotiate the same in their names: viz. on the part of the General-in-chief of the British army, Lieut.-Col. Murray, Quartermaster-General, and on the part of the French army, M. Kellermann, General of Division, to whom they have given authority to negotiate and conclude a Convention to that effect, subject to their ratification respectively, and to that of the Admiral commanding the British fleet at the entrance of the Tagus. These two officers, after exchanging their full powers, have agreed upon the articles which follow:--

I. All the places and forts in the kingdom of Portugal occupied by the French troops shall be delivered up to the British army in the state in which they are at the moment of the signature of the present Convention.

II. The French troops shall evacuate Portugal with their arms and baggage: they shall not be considered prisoners of war: and on their arrival in France they shall be at liberty to serve.

III. The English Government shall furnish the means of conveyance for the French army, which shall be disembarked in any of the ports of France between Rochefort and L’Orient inclusively.

IV. The French army shall carry with it all its artillery of French calibre, with the horses belonging to it, and the tumbrils supplied with sixty rounds per gun. All other artillery arms and ammunition, as also the military and naval arsenals, shall be given up to the British army and navy, in the state in which they may be at the period of the ratification of the Convention.

V. The French army shall carry away with it all its equipment, and all that is comprehended under the name of property of the army, that is to say its military chest, and the carriages attached to the field commissariat and field hospital, or shall be allowed to dispose of such part of the same on its account, as the Commander-in-chief may judge it unnecessary to embark. In like manner all individuals of the army shall be at liberty to dispose of all their private property of every description, with full security hereafter for the purchasers.

VI. The cavalry are to embark their horses, as also the Generals and other officers of all ranks: it is, however, fully understood that the means of conveyance[745] for horses at the disposal of the British Commander-in-chief are very limited: some additional conveyance may be procured in the port of Lisbon.

[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.

VII. In order to facilitate the embarkation, it shall take place in three divisions, the last of which will be principally composed of the garrisons of the places, of the cavalry and artillery, the sick, and the equipment of the army. The first division shall embark within seven days from the ratification of the Convention, or sooner if possible.

VIII. The garrisons of Elvas, Peniche, and Palmella will be embarked at Lisbon; that of Almeida at Oporto, or the nearest harbour. They will be accompanied on their march by British commissaries, charged with providing for their subsistence and accommodation.

IX. All the French sick and wounded who cannot be embarked are entrusted to the British army.... The English Government shall provide for their return to France, which shall take place by detachments of 150 or 200 men at a time[@ 746 repetido].

X. As soon as the vessels employed to carry the army to France shall have disembarked it ... every facility shall be given them to return to England without delay: they shall have security against capture until their arrival in a friendly port[746].

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

XI. The French army shall be concentrated in Lisbon, or within a distance of about two leagues from it. The British army will approach to within three leagues of the capital, so as to leave about one league between the two armies.

XII. The forts of St. Julian, the Bugio, and Cascaes shall be occupied by the British troops on the ratification of the Convention. Lisbon and its forts and batteries, as far as the Lazaretto or Trafaria on one side, and the Fort St. Joseph on the other inclusively, shall be given up on the embarkation of the second division, as shall be also the harbour and all the armed vessels in it of every description, with their rigging, sails, stores, and ammunition. The fortresses of Elvas, Almeida, Peniche, and Palmella shall be given up so soon as British troops can arrive to occupy them: in the meantime the British General-in-chief will give notice of the present Convention to the garrisons of those places, as also to the troops in front of them, in order to put a stop to further hostilities.

XIII. Commissaries shall be appointed on both sides to regulate and accelerate the execution of the arrangements agreed upon.

XIV. Should there arise any doubt as to the meaning of any article, it shall be explained favourably to the French army.

XV. From the date of the ratification of the present Convention, all arrears of contributions, requisitions, and claims of the French Government against the subjects of Portugal, or other individuals residing in this country, founded on the occupation of Portugal by the French troops since December, 1807, which may not have been paid up are cancelled; and all sequestrations laid upon their property, movable or immovable, are removed, and the free disposal of the same is restored to their proper owners.

XVI. All subjects of France, or of powers in friendship or alliance with France, domiciliated in Portugal, or accidentally in this country, shall be protected. Their property of every kind, movable and immovable, shall be respected, and they shall be at liberty either to accompany the French army or to remain in Portugal. In either case their property is guaranteed to them with the liberty of retaining or disposing of it, and of passing the sale[747] of it into France or any other country where they may fix their residence, the space of one year being allowed them for that purpose.

[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.’

It is fully understood that shipping is excepted from this arrangement; only, however, as regards leaving the port, and that none of the stipulations above mentioned can be made the pretext of any commercial speculation.

XVII. No native of Portugal shall be rendered accountable for his political conduct during the period of the occupation of this country by the French army. And all those who have continued in the exercise of their employments, or who have accepted situations under the French Government, are placed under the protection of the British commanders. They shall suffer no injury in their persons or property, it not having been at their option to be obedient or not to the French Government. They are also at liberty to avail themselves of the stipulations of the sixteenth article.

XVIII. The Spanish troops detained on board ship in the port of Lisbon shall be given up to the General-in-chief of the British army, who engages to obtain of the Spaniards to restore such French subjects, either military or civil, as may have been detained[748] in Spain, without having been taken in battle or in consequence of military operations, but on the occasion of the occurrences of the 29th of May last, and the days immediately following.

[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.

XIX. There shall be an immediate exchange established for all ranks of prisoners made in Portugal since the commencement of the present hostilities.

XX. Hostages of the rank of field-officers shall be mutually furnished on the part of the British army and navy, and on that of the French army, for the reciprocal guarantee of the present Convention.

The officer representing the British army to be restored on the completion of the articles which concern the army, and the officer of the navy on the disembarkation of the French troops in their own country. The like is to take place on the part of the French army[749].

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

XXI. It shall be allowed to the General-in-chief of the French army to send an officer to France with intelligence of the present Convention. A vessel will be furnished by the British Admiral to carry him to Bordeaux or Rochefort.

XXII. The British Admiral will be invited to accommodate His Excellency the Commander-in-chief[750] and the other principal French officers on board of ships of war.

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

Done and concluded at Lisbon this thirteenth day of August, 1808.

GEORGE MURRAY, Quar.-Mas.-Gen. KELLERMANN, Général de Division.

Three unimportant supplementary articles were added, one stipulating that French civilian prisoners in the hands of the English or Portuguese should be released, another that the French army should subsist on its own magazines till it embarked, a third that the British should allow the free entry of provisions into Lisbon after the signature of the Convention.

2. REPORT OF THE COURT OF INQUIRY.

On a consideration of all circumstances, as set forth in this Report, we most humbly submit our opinion, that no further military proceeding is necessary on the subject. Because, howsoever some of us may differ in our sentiments respecting the fitness of the Convention in the relative situation of the two armies, it is our unanimous declaration, that unquestionable zeal and firmness appear throughout to have been exhibited by Lieut.-Generals Sir Hew Dalrymple, Sir Harry Burrard, and Sir Arthur Wellesley, as well as that the ardour and gallantry of the rest of the officers and soldiers, on every occasion during this expedition, have done honour to the troops, and reflected lustre on Your Majesty’s arms.

All which is most dutifully submitted.

(Signed)

DAVID DUNDAS, General. MOIRA, General. PETER CRAIG, General. HEATHFIELD, General. PEMBROKE, Lieut.-Gen. G. NUGENT, Lieut.-Gen. OL. NICHOLLS, Lieut.-Gen.

Dec. 22, 1808.

3. LORD MOIRA’S ‘OPINION.’

I feel less awkwardness in obeying the order to detail my sentiments on the nature of the Convention, because that I have already joined in the tribute of applause due in other respects to the Officers concerned. My opinion, therefore, is only opposed to theirs on a question of judgment, where their talents are likely to have so much more weight, as to render the profession of my difference, even on that point, somewhat painful. Military duty is, however, imperious on me not to disguise or qualify the deductions which I have made during this investigation.

An Armistice simply might not have been objectionable, because Sir Hew Dalrymple, expecting hourly the arrival of Sir John Moore’s division, might see more advantage for himself in a short suspension of hostilities, than what the French could draw from it. But as the Armistice involved, and in fact established, the whole principle of the Convention, I cannot separate it from the latter.

Sir Arthur Wellesley has stated that he considered his force, at the commencement of the march from the Mondego river, as sufficient to drive the French from their positions on the Tagus. That force is subsequently joined by above 4,000 British troops, under Generals Anstruther and Acland. The French make an attack with their whole disposable strength, and are repulsed with heavy loss, though but a part of the British army is brought into action. It is difficult to conceive that the prospects which Sir Arthur Wellesley entertained could be unfavourably altered by these events, even had not the certainty of speedy reinforcements to the British army existed.

It is urged, that, had the French been pushed to extremity, they would have crossed the Tagus, and have protracted the campaign in such a manner as to have frustrated the more important view of the British Generals, namely, sending succours into Spain.

This measure must have been equally feasible for the French if no victory had been obtained over them; but I confess that the chance of such an attempt seems to me assumed against probability. Sir Hew Dalrymple notices what he calls ‘the critical and embarrassed state of Junot,’ before that General has been pressed by the British army; and, in explanation of that expression, observes, that the surrender of Dupont, the existence of the victorious Spanish army in Andalusia, which cut off the retreat of the French in that direction, and the universal hostility of the Portuguese, made the situation of Junot one of great distress. No temptation for the translation of the war into Alemtejo presents itself from this picture; nor does any other representation give ground to suppose, that Junot could have contemplated the measure, as holding forth any prospect but ultimate ruin, after much preliminary distress and disgrace. The strongest of all proofs as to Junot’s opinion, arises from his sending the very morning after the battle of Vimiero, to propose the evacuation of Portugal; a step which sufficiently indicated that he was satisfied he could not only make no effectual defence, but could not even prolong the contest to take the chance of accidents. He seems, indeed, to have been without any real resource.

I humbly conceive it to have been erroneous to regard the emancipation of Portugal from the French, as the sole or the principal object of the expedition.--Upon whatever territory we contend with the French, it must be a prominent object in the struggle to destroy their resources, and to narrow their means of injuring us, or those whose cause we are supporting. This seems to have been so little considered in the Convention, that the terms appear to have extricated Junot’s army from a situation of infinite distress, in which it was wholly out of play, and to have brought it, in a state of entire equipment, into immediate currency, in a quarter too, where it must interfere with our most urgent and interesting concerns.

Had it been impracticable to reduce the French army to lay down its arms unconditionally, still an obligation not to serve for a specified time might have been insisted upon, or Belleisle might have been prescribed as the place at which they should be landed, in order to prevent the possibility of their reinforcing (at least for a long time) the armies employed for the subjugation of Spain. Perhaps a stronger consideration than the merit of those terms presents itself. Opinion relative to the British arms was of the highest importance, as it might influence the confidence of the Spaniards, or invite the nations groaning under the yoke of France, to appeal to this country, and co-operate with it for their deliverance. The advantages ought, therefore, to have been more than usually great, which should be deemed sufficient to balance the objection of granting to a very inferior army, hopeless in circumstances, and broken in spirit, such terms as might argue, that, notwithstanding its disparity in numbers, it was still formidable to its victors. No advantages seem to have been gained that would not have equally followed from forcing the enemy to a more marked submission. The gain of time as to sending succours into Spain cannot be admitted as a plea; because it appears that no arrangements for the reception of our troops in Spain had been undertaken previous to the Convention; and this is without reasoning on subsequent facts.

I trust that these reasons will vindicate me from the charge of presumption, in maintaining an opinion contradictory to that professed by so many most respectable Officers; for, even if the reasons be essentially erroneous, if they are conclusive to my mind (as I must conscientiously affirm them to be), it is a necessary consequence that I must disapprove the Convention.

MOIRA, General.

December 27, 1808.

X

THE CENTRAL JUNTA OF REGENCY

LIST OF THE MEMBERS.

N.B.--The notes as to individuals are extracted from Arguelles.

1. For ARAGON. Don Francisco PALAFOX, Brigadier-General [younger brother of Joseph Palafox, the Captain-General]. Don Lorenzo CALVO DE ROZAS [Intendant-General of the Army of Aragon, long a banker in Madrid].

2. For ASTURIAS. Don Gaspar JOVELLANOS [Councillor of State, sometime Minister of Justice]. The Marquis of CAMPO SAGRADO, Lieut.-General.

3. For the CANARY ISLANDS. The Marquis of VILLANUEVA DEL PRADO.

4. For OLD CASTILE. Don Lorenzo BONIFAZ [Prior of Zamora]. Don Francisco Xavier CARO [a Professor of the University of Salamanca].

5. For CATALONIA. The Marquis of VILLEL [Grandee of Spain]. The Baron de SABASONA.

6. For CORDOVA. The Marquis DE LA PUEBLA [Grandee of Spain]. Don Juan RABE [a merchant of Cordova].

7. For ESTREMADURA. Don Martin GARAY [Intendant-General of Estremadura]. Don Felix OVALLE [Treasurer of the Army of Estremadura].

8. For GALICIA. The Conde de GIMONDE. Don Antonio ABALLE [an advocate].

9. For GRANADA. Don Rodrigo RIQUELME [Regent of the Chancellery]. Don Luis FUNES [Canon of Santiago].

10. For JAEN. Don Francisco CASTANEDO [Canon of Jaen]. Don Sebastian JOCANO [Accountant-General].

11. For LEON. Don Antonio VALDES [Bailiff of the Knights of Malta, sometime Minister of Marine]. The Vizconde de QUINTANILLA.

12. For MADRID. The Marquis of ASTORGA [Grandee of Spain]. Don Pedro SILVA [Patriarch of the Indies].

13. For the BALEARIC ISLES. Don Tomas VERI [Lieut.-Col. of Militia]. The Conde de AYAMANS.

14. For MURCIA. The Conde de FLORIDA BLANCA [sometime Secretary of State]. The Marquis DEL VILLAR.

15. For NAVARRE. Don Miguel BALANZA and Don Carlos AMATRIA [formerly representatives in the Cortes of Navarre].

16. For SEVILLE. The Archbishop of LAODICEA [Coadjutor-Bishop of Seville]. The Conde de TILLY.

17. For TOLEDO. Don Pedro RIVERO [Canon of Toledo]. Don José Garcia LATORRE [an advocate].

18. For VALENCIA. The Conde de CONTAMINA [Grandee of Spain]. The Principe PIO [Grandee of Spain and a Lieut.-Col. of Militia].

XI

THE SPANISH ARMIES, OCT.-NOV. 1808

N.B.--* signifies an old line or light regiment; † a militia battalion; ‡ a newly raised corps.

1. THE ARMY OF GALICIA [RETURN OF OCT. 31].

General BLAKE. _Officers._ _Men._ Vanguard Brigade, General MENDIZABAL: *2nd Catalonian Light Infantry (one batt.); *Volunteers of Navarre (one batt.); *two batts. of United Grenadiers; *Saragossa (one batt.); *one company of sappers 87 2,797

1st Division, General FIGUEROA: *Rey (two batts.); *Majorca (one batt.); *Hibernia (one batt.); *one batt. of united light companies; †Mondoñedo; ‡_Batallon Literario_; *one company of sappers 86 3,932

2nd Division, General MARTINENGO: *Navarre (two batts.); *Naples (two batts.); †Pontevedra; †Segovia; ‡‘Volunteers of Victory’ (one batt.); sappers, one company; Cavalry: *Reina (two squadrons); *Montesa (one squadron); and one detachment of mixed regiments. [The cavalry was 302 sabres in all.] 117 4,949

3rd Division, General RIQUELME: *Gerona Light Infantry (one batt.); *Seville (two batts.); *Marines (three batts.); †Compostella (one batt.); one company of sappers 119 4,677

4th Division, General CARBAJAL: *Barbastro Light Infantry (one batt.); *Principe (two batts.); *Toledo (two batts.); *two batts. of United Grenadiers; *Aragon (one batt.); †Lugo; †Santiago 143 3,388

5th Division [from Denmark], General Conde de SAN ROMAN: *Zamora (three batts.); *Princesa (three batts.); *1st Barcelona Light Infantry (one batt.); *1st Catalonian Light Infantry (one batt.); one company of sappers 159 5,135

Asturian Division: General ACEVEDO: *Hibernia (two batts.); †Oviedo; ‡Castropol; ‡Grado; ‡Cangas de Onis; ‡Cangas de Tineo; ‡Lena; ‡Luarca; ‡Salas; ‡Villaviciosa 233 7,400

Reserve Brigade, General MAHY: *Volunteers of the Crown (one batt.); *United Grenadiers (one batt.); †Militia Grenadiers (two batts.); ‡_Batallon del General_ (one batt.) 90 2,935

Detached Troops on the line of communications--Reynosa, Burgos, Astorga: *Saragossa (one batt.); *Buenos Ayres (one batt.); *Volunteers of the Crown (one batt.); †Santiago; †Tuy; †Salamanca; ‡_Batallon del General_ (one batt.); and seven detached companies of various corps 181 5,577

Detached troops left with the Artillery Reserve: †Betanzos; †Monterrey 40 900 Artillery Reserve (thirty-eight guns) 33 1,000 ----- ------ Total 1,288 42,690

N.B.--The four cavalry regiments from Denmark, Rey, Infante, Villaviciosa, and Almanza did not join Blake, being without horses, but marched on foot to Estremadura to get mounted. They had 147 officers and 2,252 men.

2. THE ARMY OF ARAGON.

General Joseph PALAFOX.

1st Division, General O’NEILLE: *Spanish Guards (one batt.), 609; *Estremadura (one batt.), 600; *1st Volunteers of Aragon (one batt.), 1,141; ‡1st Light Infantry of Saragossa, 614; ‡4th Tercio of Aragon, 1,144; ‡2nd of Valencia, 869; ‡1st Volunteers of Murcia, 1,029; ‡2nd ditto, 968; ‡Huesca, 1,219; ‡Cazadores de Fernando VII (Aragonese), 386; ‡Suizos de Aragon, 825; ‡Escopeteros de Navarra, 227; *Dragoons ‘del Rey,’ 169; artillery, 79; sappers, 47. Total 9,926 [From a return of Nov. 1, 1808, in the English Record Office.]

2nd Division, General SAINT MARCH: *Volunteers of Castile (three batts.); †Soria; ‡Turia (three batts.); ‡Volunteers of Borbon (one batt.); ‡Alicante (three batts.); ‡Chelva (one batt.); ‡Cazadores de Fernando VII (Valencian) (one batt.); ‡Segorbe (one batt.); *Dragoons of Numancia (620 sabres); one company of sappers. Total 9,060 [This total is from Vaughan’s diary. He was present when Palafox reviewed the division on Nov. 1, and took down the figures.]

3rd Division, General Conde de LAZAN [detached to Catalonia, Nov. 10]: ‡1st Volunteers of Saragossa, 638; ‡3rd Volunteers of Aragon, 593; ‡Fernando VII de Aragon, 648; ‡Daroca, 503; ‡La Reunion, 1,286; ‡Reserva del General, 934; artillery, 64; one troop of cavalry (Cazadores de Fernando VII), 22. Total 4,688 [The figures are from a table in Arteche, iii. 469.]

Reserve at Saragossa:

There was a mass of troops in the Aragonese capital which had not yet been brigaded, and in part had not even been armed or clothed in October. They included the following regiments _at least_: 2nd Volunteers of Aragon; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Tercios of Aragon; 2nd Light Battalion of Saragossa; and the battalions of Calatayud, Doyle, Barbastro, Jaca, Tauste, Teruel, and Torrero; besides (in all probability) some eight or ten other corps which are found existing in December, when the second siege began, though they cannot be proved to have existed in October. In that month, however, there must have been at least 10,000 armed men in the Aragonese reserve, perhaps as many as 15,000.

Total of the Army of Aragon, _at least_ 33,674 men, of which only 789 were cavalry.

3. ARMY OF ESTREMADURA.

General GALLUZZO [afterwards the Conde de BELVEDERE]. _Men._ 1st Division, Conde de BELVEDERE: [afterwards General DE ALOS] *Spanish Guards (4th batt.); *Majorca (two batts.); *2nd Light Infantry of Catalonia (one batt.); †Provincial Grenadiers (one batt.); one company of tirailleurs 4,160 Cavalry, *4th Hussars (‘Volunteers of Spain’) 360 Sappers, two companies; artillery, two batteries 408

2nd Division, General HENESTROSA: *Walloon Guards (4th batt.); ‡Badajoz (two batts.); ‡Valencia de Alcantara; ‡Zafra 3,300 Cavalry, 5th Hussars (Maria Luisa) 298 Sappers, two companies; artillery, two batteries 440

3rd Division, General TRIAS: †Badajoz; ‡Truxillo (one batt.); ‡Merida; ‡La Serena 3,580 Cavalry, 2nd Hussars (Lusitania) 300

Total of the Army, 12,846, of which 958 were cavalry.

[N.B.--From the _Madrid Gazette_ of Oct. 21, 1808, compared with the table in Arteche, iii. 496.]

4. ARMY OF THE CENTRE.

General CASTAÑOS. _Men._ 1st Division, Conde de VILLARIEZO: *Walloon Guards (two batts.); *Reina (three batts.); *Corona (two batts.); *Jaen (three batts.); *Irlanda (three batts.); *Barbastro (one batt.); †Jaen (about) 8,500 Out of these fifteen battalions nine were detached to the rear in or about Madrid, and were not present on the Ebro.

2nd Division, General GRIMAREST: *Ceuta (two batts.); Ordenes Militares (three batts.); †Truxillo; †Bujalance; †Cuenca; †Ciudad Real; ‡Tiradores de España; ‡Volunteers of Catalonia; ‡Tiradores de Cadiz; ‡Carmona (about) 6,000

3rd Division, General RENGEL: *Cordova (two batts.); *Volunteers of Valencia (one batt.); *Campo Mayor (one batt.); †Toledo; †Burgos; †Alcazar; †Plasencia; †Guadix; †Seville no. 1; †Lorca; †Toro. (about) 6,500 Out of these thirteen battalions four were detached to the rear, and were not present on the Ebro.

4th Division, General LA PEÑA: *Africa (two batts.); *Burgos (two batts.); *Saragossa (one batt.); *Murcia (two batts.); †Provincial Grenadiers of Andalusia (two batts.); †Siguenza; ‡Navas de Tolosa; ‡Baylen; ‡5th Battalion of Seville (about) 7,500

5th [Murcian-Valencian] Division, General ROCA [_vice_ General LLAMAS]: *Savoya (two batts.); *Valencia (three batts.); *America (three batts.); †Murcia; †Avila; ‡Liria; ‡Cazadores de Valencia (three batts.); ‡Orihuela (two batts.); Tiradores of Xativa and Cartagena (two companies); ‡Peñas de San Pedro (about) 8,000 [One regiment was left at Aranjuez as guard to the Junta, with General Llamas in command.]

‘Army of Castile,’ General PIGNATELLI [after Oct. 30, General CARTAOJAL]: *Cantabria (two batts.); †Leon Militia; ‡Grenadiers ‘del General’; ‡Cazadores de Cuenca; ‡1st, 2nd, and 3rd Volunteers of Leon; ‡1st, 2nd, and 3rd Tercios of Castile; ‡Tiradores de Castilla; ‡Volunteers of Benavente; ‡Volunteers of Zamora; ‡Volunteers of Ledesma Total (about) 11,000

The first-named four corps were made into a detached brigade under Cartaojal on Oct. 30: the others (except ‡Benavente in garrison at Burgos) were dispersed among the Andalusian divisions for misbehaviour at Logroño on Oct. 26.

Cavalry: *Farnesio; *Montesa; *Reina; *Olivenza; *Borbon; *España; *Calatrava; *Santiago; *Sagunto; *Principe; *Pavia; *Alcantara. Very few of these regiments had more than three squadrons at the front, some only one. The total was not more than 3,500 sabres, even including one or two newly raised free-corps, of insignificant strength (about) 3,500

Total of the Army of the Centre, about 51,000 men, of whom only about 42,000 were on the Ebro: the remaining 9,000 were in or about Madrid, and were incorporated in San Juan’s ‘Army of Reserve.’

5. ARMY OF CATALONIA.

[Morning state of Nov. 5, 1808.]

General VIVES. _Men._ Vanguard Division, Brigadier-General ALVAREZ: *Ultonia, 300; *Borbon (one batt.), 500; *2nd of Barcelona, 1,000; *1st Swiss (Wimpfen) (one batt.), 400; ‡1st Tercio of Gerona, 900; ‡2nd ditto, 400; ‡Tercio of Igualada, 400; ‡ditto of Cervera, 400; ‡1st ditto of Tarragona, 800; ‡ditto of Figueras, 400 5,500 Cavalry, ‡Hussars of San Narciso 100

1st Division, General Conde de CALDAGUES: *2nd Walloon Guards (one batt.), 314; *Soria (two batts.), 780; *Borbon (detachment), 151; *2nd of Savoia (two batts.), 1,734; *2nd Swiss (detachment), 270; ‡Tercio of Tortosa, 984; ‡Igualada and Cervera (detachments), 245; *sappers, 50 4,528 Cavalry: *Husares Españoles (two squadrons), 220; ‡Cazadores de Cataluña, 180 400 Artillery, one battery (six guns) 70

2nd Division, General LAGUNA: †Provincial Grenadiers of Old Castile (two batts.), 972; †ditto of New Castile (two batts.), 924; ‡Volunteers of Saragossa, 150; sappers, 30 2,076 Cavalry, *Husares Españoles 200 Artillery, one battery (seven guns) 84

3rd Division, General LA SERNA: *Granada (two batts.), 961; ‡2nd Tercio of Tarragona, 922; ‡‘Division of Arzu,’ 325; ‡Compañias Sueltas, 250 2,458

4th Division, General MILANS: ‡1st Tercio of Lerida, 872; ‡ditto of Vich, 976; ‡ditto of Manresa, 937; ‡ditto of Vallés, 925 3,710

Reserve: *Spanish Guards, 60; *Grenadiers of Soria, 188; *ditto of Wimpfen, 169; General’s bodyguard, 340; sappers, 20 777 Cavalry, *Husares Españoles 80 Artillery (four guns) 50

Total of the Army, 20,033, of which 780 are cavalry.

These five armies formed the front line. Their total strength was 151,243, if the 9,000 men left behind at Madrid are deducted.

TROOPS IN THE SECOND LINE.

1. ARMY OF GRANADA [MARCHING TOWARDS CATALONIA].

General REDING. _Men._ 1st Division: *2nd Swiss (Reding), 1,000; ‡1st Regiment of Granada [alias Iliberia] (two batts.), 2,400; ‡Baza (two batts.), 2,400; ‡Almeria, (two batts.), 2,400 8,200 2nd Division: ‡Santa Fé (two batts.), 2,400; ‡Antequera (one batt.), 1,200; ‡Loxa (two batts.), 2,400 6,000 Cavalry, ‡Hussars of Granada 670 Artillery (six guns) 130 ------ Total of the Army 15,000

N.B.--This return is from a dispatch from Granada in the _Madrid Gazette_ of Oct. 28, corroborated by another of Nov. 5, announcing the arrival of the force at Murcia.

2. GALICIAN RESERVES. _Officers._ _Men._ Detached Troops in garrison in Galicia: *Majorca (one batt.); *Leon (one batt.); *Aragon (one batt.) 77 2,010 Detached troops on the Portuguese frontier: *Leon (one batt.); †Orense; and four detached companies 48 1,600 --- ----- 125 3,610

3. ASTURIAN RESERVES.

[N.B.--This force is exclusive of the troops under Acevedo in the Army of Blake. The numbers are from a morning state of December.]

_Men._ ‡Covadonga,360; ‡Don Carlos, 335; ‡Ferdinand VII, 316; ‡Gihon, 586; ‡Infiesto, 489; ‡Llanes, 420; ‡Luanco, 400; ‡Navia, 528; ‡Pravia, 581; ‡Riva de Sella, 685; ‡Siero, 585. Total 5,285

4. ARMY OF RESERVE OF MADRID.

N.B.--This force, which fought at the Somosierra, consisted of parts of the Armies of Andalusia and Estremadura; its numbers have already been counted among the troops of those armies.

General SAN JUAN. _Men._ From the 1st Division of Andalusia: *Walloon Guards (one batt.), 500; *Reina (two batts.), 927; *Jaen (two batts.), 1,300; *Irlanda (two batts.), 1,186; *Corona (two batts.), 1,039 4,952

From the 3rd Division of Andalusia: *Cordova (two batts.), 1,300; †Toledo, 500; †Alcazar, 500; ‡3rd of Seville, 400 2,700

From the Army of Estremadura: ‡Badajoz (remains of two batts.) 566

Castilian Levies: ‡1st Volunteers of Madrid (two batts.), 1,500; ‡2nd ditto, 1,500 3,000

Cavalry: *Principe, 200; *Alcantara, 100; *Montesa, 100; ‡Volunteers of Madrid, 200 600

Artillery (twenty-two guns) 300 ------ Total 12,118

N.B.--Of this force the following battalions fled to Madrid, and afterwards joined the Army of the Centre:--1st Volunteers of Madrid, Corona, half 3rd of Seville, Reina, Alcazar. The following fled to Segovia, and joined the Army of Estremadura:--Jaen, Irlanda, Toledo, Badajoz, 2nd Volunteers of Madrid, Walloon Guards, and half 3rd of Seville.

5. ESTREMADURAN RESERVES.

[Left in garrison at Badajoz, when the three divisions of Galluzzo marched to Madrid.]

_Men._ ‡Leales de Fernando VII (three batts.), 2,256; ‡Plasencia (one batt.), 1,200; ‡Badajoz (one batt.), 752 4,208

Cavalry: ‡Cazadores of Llerena, 200? Cazadores of Toledo, 200? 400 ------ Total 4,608

[For these forces compare _Madrid Gazette_ of Oct. 21, giving organization of the Army of Estremadura, with the list of troops which marched forward to Burgos in first section of this Appendix. The above regiments remained behind, and are found in existence in Cuesta’s army next spring. See Appendix to vol. ii giving his forces.]

6. BALEARIC ISLES.

There apparently remained in garrison in the Balearic Isles, in November, the following troops:--

_Men._ *4th Swiss (Beschard) (two batts.), 2,121; *Granada (one batt.), 222; *Soria (one batt.), 413; †Majorca, 604 Total 3,360

7. MURCIAN AND VALENCIAN RESERVES.

[Mostly on the march to Saragossa in November, 1808. The figures mainly from a return of Jan. 1 are too low for the November strength.]

_Men._ *5th Swiss (Traxler), 1,757; ‡1st Tiradores de Murcia, 813; ‡2nd ditto, 124; ‡3rd Volunteers of Murcia, 1,151; ‡5th ditto, 1,077; ‡Florida-Blanca, 352; ‡3rd of Valencia (figures wanting;? 500) Total 5,774

8. ANDALUSIAN RESERVES.

_Men._ *España (three batts.), 1,039; †Jerez, 574; †Malaga, 401; †Ronda, 574; †Ecija, 589 Total 3,177

‡2nd of Seville, 500; ‡4th ditto, 433; ‡Cazadores of Malaga (one batt.), 1,200; ‡Velez Malaga (three batts.), 2,400; ‡2nd of Antequera (one batt.), 1,200; ‡Osuna (two batts.), 1,061 Total 6,794

In addition, the following regular regiments had each, as it would seem, left the _cadre_ of one battalion behind in Andalusia to recruit, before marching to the Ebro to join Castaños:--Africa, Burgos, Cantabria, Ceuta, Corona, Cordova, Murcia. What the total of their numbers may have been in November and December, it is impossible to say--perhaps 400 each may be allowed, giving a total of 2,800. Of cavalry regiments there must have been in existence in Andalusia the nucleus of the following new regiments:--‡Tejas; ‡Montañas de Cordova; ‡Granada. Their force was trifling--a single squadron, or at most two. If we give them 600 men in all, we shall probably be not far wrong. Several regular cavalry regiments had left the _cadre_ of one or two squadrons behind.

The existence of all these regiments in November--December can be proved. The 2nd and 4th of Seville reached Madrid in time to join in its defence against Napoleon, and then fled to join the Army of the Centre. The figures given are their January strengths, when they had already suffered severely. The Malaga regiment’s figure is from _Madrid Gazette_ of Nov. 29, recording its march out to Granada. The militia battalions Jerez, Malaga, Ronda, Ecija were all in existence in June, they did not march to the Ebro, and are found in the Army of the Centre in the spring of 1809. España was apparently in garrison at Ceuta, and only brought up to the front early in 1809. Velez Malaga, 2nd of Antequera, and Osuna are first heard of under Del Palacio in January, 1809. They must have been raised by December at the latest.

The total of the Andalusian reserves accounted for in this table is 13,371, but no such number could have been sent forward in December, as many of the battalions were not properly armed, much less uniformed. But some of the volunteers, all the militia, and the regular regiment España--perhaps 6,000 or 7,000 in all--should have been at Madrid by Dec. 1. Only 1,000 bayonets actually reached it before Napoleon’s arrival.

It would seem then that the second line of the Spanish Army consisted of something like the following numbers:--

_Men._ Army of Reserve of Madrid 12,118 Reding’s Granadan Divisions 15,000 Galician Reserves 3,610 Asturian Reserves 5,285 Estremaduran Reserves 4,608 Balearic Isles Reserves 3,360 Murcian and Valencian Reserves 5,774 Andalusian Reserves 13,371 Cavalry from Denmark, in march for Estremadura 2,252 ------ Total 65,378

Some of the battalions (e.g. the Valencians and Murcians who went to Saragossa) must have been much stronger in December; on the other hand, others (e.g. the Estremadurans) are probably over-estimated: they showed no such figures as those given above, when they took the field early in 1809.

N.B.--In several armies, notably in those of Aragon and the Centre, there are doubtful points. It is impossible to speak with certainty of the number of battalions which some corps took to the front. It will be noted that all the numbers given are much larger than those attributed by Napier (i. 504) to the Spanish armies. I have worked from detailed official figures, the greater part of which seem perfectly trustworthy.

XII

THE FRENCH ARMY OF SPAIN

IN NOVEMBER, 1808.

N.B.--The distribution of the regiments is that of November. The detailed strength of the corps, however, comes from an October return, and there had been several changes at the end of that month.

1ST CORPS. Marshal VICTOR, Duke of Belluno.

1st Division (Ruffin): 9th Léger, three batts. 24th of the Line, three batts. 96th ” four batts.

2nd Division (Lapisse): 16th Léger, three batts. 8th of the Line, three batts. 45th ” three batts. 54th ” three batts.

3rd Division (Villatte): 27th Léger, three batts. 63rd of the Line, three batts. 94th ” three batts. 95th ” three batts.

Corps Cavalry (Brigade Beaumont): 2nd Hussars. 26th Chasseurs.

The gross total of this corps on Oct. 10 was 33,937 men, of whom 2,201 were detached, and 2,939 in hospital. The 4th Hussars, originally belonging to this corps, was transferred to the 3rd Corps by November.

2ND CORPS. Marshal BESSIÈRES: after Nov. 9, Marshal SOULT.

1st Division (Mouton, afterwards Merle): 2nd Léger, three batts. 4th ” three batts. 15th of the Line, three batts. 36th ” three batts. [Garde de Paris, one batt.]

2nd Division (Merle, afterwards Mermet): 31st Léger, three batts. 47th of the Line, two batts. 70th ” one batt. 86th ” one batt. 1st Supply. Regt. } of the Legions } = 122nd of the of Reserve } Line, four batts. 2nd ditto } 2nd Swiss Regiment, one batt. 3rd ” ” one batt.

3rd Division (Bonnet): 13th Prov. Regt. } = 119th of the 14th ” } Line, four batts.

17th ” } = 120th of the 18th ” } Line, four batts.

Corps Cavalry (Division Lasalle): 9th Dragoons (transferred from Milhaud). 10th Chasseurs. 22nd ”

Lasalle, with the 9th Dragoons and 10th Chasseurs, was detached after Gamonal (Nov. 10) and replaced by Franceschi’s division. The corps received in January a reinforcement of twenty-two battalions from the dissolved 8th Corps, which formed two new divisions under Delaborde and Heudelet.

The gross total of this corps on Oct. 10 was 33,054 men, of whom 7,394 were detached and 5,536 in hospital.

3RD CORPS. Marshal MONCEY, Duke of Conegliano.

1st Division (Maurice Mathieu, afterwards Grandjean): 14th of the Line, four batts. 44th ” three batts. 70th ” one batt. 2nd of the Vistula, two batts. 3rd ” two batts.

2nd Division (Musnier): 1st Prov. Regt. } = 114th of the 2nd ” } Line, four batts.

3rd ” } = 115th of the 4th ” } Line, four batts. [One Westphalian batt.]

3rd Division (Morlot): 5th Prov. Regt. { = 116th of the { Line, two batts.

9th ” } = 117th of the 10th ” } Line, four batts. [One Prussian batt.] [One Irish batt.]

4th Division (Grandjean): 5th Léger, three batts. 2nd Legion of Reserve, four batts. 1st of the Vistula, two batts.

Corps Cavalry (Brigade Wathier): 1st Provisional Cuirassiers (= 13th Cuirassiers). 1st Provisional Hussars. 2nd Provisional Light Cavalry (Hussars and Chasseurs).

Grandjean’s division (No. 4) was afterwards absorbed in Morlot’s [December], with the exception of the 1st of the Vistula, sent to join Musnier. The cavalry was afterwards strengthened by the 4th Hussars from the 1st Corps. The 121st of the Line (four batts.) arrived in December, and joined Morlot. The battalions in square brackets were left behind in the garrisons of Biscay and Navarre.

The gross total of the corps on Oct. 10 was 37,690 men, of whom 11,082 were detached in garrisons, &c. and 7,522 in hospital.

4TH CORPS. Marshal LEFEBVRE, Duke of Dantzig.

1st Division (Sebastiani): 28th of the Line, three batts. 32nd ” three batts. 58th ” three batts. 75th ” three batts.

2nd Division (Leval): Nassau Contingent, two batts. Baden ” two batts. Hesse-Darmstadt ” two batts. Frankfort ” one batt. Dutch ” two batts.

3rd Division (Valence): 4th of the Vistula, two batts. 7th ” two batts. 9th ” two batts.

Corps Cavalry (Brigade Maupetit): 5th Dragoons. 3rd Dutch Hussars. Westphalian _Chevaux-Légers_.

The gross total of this corps on Oct. 10 was 22,895 men, of whom 955 were detached and 2,170 in hospital.

5TH CORPS. Marshal MORTIER, Duke of Treviso.

1st Division (Suchet): 17th Léger, three batts. 34th of the Line, four batts. 40th ” three batts. 64th ” three batts. 88th ” three batts.

2nd Division (Gazan): 21st Léger, three batts. 28th ” three batts. 100th of the Line, three batts. 103rd ” three batts.

Corps Cavalry (Brigade Delaage): 10th Hussars. 21st Chasseurs.

The gross total of this corps on Oct. 10 was 24,552 men, of whom 188 were detached and 1,971 in hospital.

6TH CORPS. Marshal NEY, Duke of Elchingen.

1st Division (Marchand): 6th of the Line, three batts. 39th ” three batts. 69th ” three batts. 76th ” three batts.

2nd Division (Lagrange, afterwards Maurice Mathieu): 25th Léger, four batts. 27th of the Line, three batts. 50th ” four batts. 59th ” three batts.

Corps Cavalry (Brigade Colbert): 3rd Hussars. 15th Chasseurs.

The gross total on Oct. 10 was 38,033 men, of whom 3,381 were detached and 5,051 in hospital. This total, however, includes a division under Mermet, whose battalions were transferred to the 2nd and 3rd Corps, when the campaign began in November. The 6th Corps, including its cavalry and artillery, had probably not more than 20,000 net when it took the field in its final form.

7TH CORPS. General GOUVION ST. CYR.

1st Division (Chabran): 2nd of the Line, one batt. 7th ” two batts. 10th ” one batt. 37th ” one batt. 56th ” one batt. 93rd ” one batt. 2nd Swiss, one batt.

2nd Division (General Lecchi): 2nd Italian Line Regt., one batt. 4th ” ” one batt. 5th ” ” one batt. Italian Chasseurs (_Velites_), one batt. 1st Neapolitan Line Regt., two batts.

3rd Division (Reille): 32nd Léger, one batt. 16th of the Line, one batt. 56th ” one batt. 113th ” two batts. Prov. Regt. of Perpignan, four batts. 5th Legion of Reserve, one batt. _Chasseurs des Montagnes_, one batt. Battalion of the Valais, one batt.

4th Division (Souham): 1st Léger, three batts. 3rd ” one batt. 7th of the Line, two batts. 42nd ” three batts. 67th ” one batt.

5th Division (Pino): 1st Italian Light Regt., three batts. 2nd ” ” three batts. 4th Italian Line Regt., two batts. 5th ” ” one batt. 6th ” ” three batts. 7th ” ” one batt.

6th Division (Chabot): 2nd Neapolitan Line Regt., two batts. Chasseurs of the Pyrénées Orientales, one batt.

Corps Cavalry: Brigade Bessières: 3rd Provisional Cuirassiers. 3rd ” Chasseurs.

Brigade Schwartz: Italian Chasseurs of the Prince Royal. 2nd Neapolitan Chasseurs.

Brigade Fontane: Italian Royal Chasseurs. 7th Italian Dragoons.

Unattached Regiment: 24th Dragoons.

The gross total of this corps on Oct. 10 was 42,382 men, of whom 1,302 were detached and 4,948 in hospital. But this does not include several regiments which did not join St. Cyr from Italy till long after the date of the return. In January, 1809, he had 41,386 men present with the colours, and 6,589 in hospital, besides 543 prisoners. There had also been considerable losses in the fighting. Probably the corps in November--December was well over 50,000 strong.

8TH CORPS. General JUNOT, Duke of Abrantes.

Dissolved in December, 1808. The troops were drafted as follows:--

1st Division (Delaborde): 15th of the Line, one batt., drafted to join its regt. in Merle’s Div., 2nd Corps. 47th ” two batts. ” Mermet’s ” 70th ” three batts., received one more batt. from Mermet’s Div. 86th ” two batts. ” ” ” 4th Swiss, one batt.

This division, therefore, in January, 1809, consisted of four battalions 70th, three battalions 86th, and one battalion 4th Swiss. It was sent to join Soult, and strengthened by three battalions of the 17th Léger, thus having eleven battalions at Corunna.

2nd Division (Loison): 2nd Léger, one batt., drafted to join its regt. in Merle’s Div., 2nd Corps. 4th ” one batt. ” ” ” ” 12th ” one batt. ” ” Dessolles’ Div. 15th ” one batt. 32nd of the Line, one batt., drafted to join its regt. in Sebastiani’s Div., 4th Corps. 58th ” one batt. ” ” ” ” 2nd Swiss, one batt., drafted to join the batt. in Mermet’s Div., 2nd Corps.

The remaining battalion of this division, that of the 15th Léger, was drafted to join Heudelet’s Division, and became part of the 2nd Corps.

3rd Division (Heudelet): 31st Léger, one batt., drafted to join its regt. in Mermet’s Div. of 2nd Corps. 32nd ” one batt. 26th of the Line, two batts. 66th ” two batts. 82nd ” one batt. _Légion du Midi_, one batt. Hanoverian Legion, one batt.

N.B.--The last-named eight battalions, afterwards joined by one from Loison’s Division, were formed into the 4th Division of the 2nd Corps.

The whole corps cavalry of the 8th Corps was composed of provisional regiments, which were dissolved, and sent to join their units.

The 8th Corps on Oct. 10 had a gross total of 25,730 men, of whom 2,137 were detached, and 3,523 in hospital.

RESERVE.

(1) Independent Reserve Division (General DESSOLLES): 12th Léger, three batts. 43rd of the Line, three batts. 51st ” three batts. 55th ” three batts.

(2) Guards of the King of Spain (General SALIGNY): Four battalions of Infantry. One regiment of Cavalry. (Two regiments, mainly Spanish deserters, were added in January.)

The total is confused in the return of Oct. 10 with that of the Imperial Guard, and includes also some regiments left in garrison in the north, e.g. the 118th of the Line; including these the Reserve amounted to 13,000 men.

RESERVE OF CAVALRY.

Division of Dragoons, LATOUR-MAUBOURG: Brigades Oldenbourg, Perreimond, Digeon. 1st, 2nd, 4th, 14th, 20th, and 26th Dragoons. The gross total of the division on Oct. 10 was 3,695 sabres.

Division of Dragoons, MILHAUD: The 12th, 16th, and 21st Dragoons.

(The 5th and 9th Dragoons, originally belonging to this division, were transferred to Lefebvre and Lasalle respectively.)

The gross total of the division on Oct. 10 was 2,940 sabres, probably including one of the transferred regiments.

Division of Dragoons, LAHOUSSAYE: Brigades D’Avenay and Marisy. (On D’Avenay being transferred to an independent provisional brigade, Caulaincourt replaces him.) 17th, 18th, 19th, and 27th Dragoons.

The gross total of this division on Oct. 10 was 2,020 sabres.

Division of Dragoons, LORGES: Brigades Vialannes and Fournier. 13th, 15th, 22nd, and 25th Dragoons.

The gross total of this division on Oct. 10 was 3,101 sabres.

Division of Dragoons, MILLET (KELLERMANN after Jan. 1809): 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 11th Dragoons.

The gross total of this division on Oct. 10 was 2,903 sabres.

Division of Light Cavalry, FRANCESCHI: Brigades Debelle and Girardin (?). 8th Dragoons. 22nd _Chasseurs à Cheval_. ‘Supplementary Regiment’ of _Chasseurs à Cheval_. Hanoverian _Chevaux-Légers_.

The Provisional Chasseurs were dissolved in Jan. 1809, and replaced by the 1st Hussars. The 22nd belonged to the original corps-cavalry of Soult.

The numbers of this division (which had not yet been put together on October 10) seem unobtainable, save that the 1st Hussars was 712 strong. Probably Franceschi’s total would be about 2,400 sabres.

IMPERIAL GUARD.

Infantry:

Two regiments of Grenadiers (four batts.), two regiments of Chasseurs (four batts.), two regiments of Fusiliers (six batts.).

Cavalry:

One regiment each of _Chasseurs à Cheval_, Grenadiers, Dragoons, _Gendarmes d’élite_, Polish Light Horse, one squadron of Mamelukes. 36 guns.

The total was about 8,000 infantry and 3,500 horse, with 600 gunners.

N.B.--A few late-coming regiments, and a few units not attached to any division, are not included in the above tables, e.g. the 118th, 121st, and 122nd Regiments of the Line, and the 27th Chasseurs. Nor are there included the dépôt of undistributed conscripts at Bayonne, nor the battalions of National Guards forming movable columns inside the French frontier. But the 19,371 artillery of the army are included in the corps, divisions, and brigades.

GROSS TOTAL OF THE WHOLE ON OCTOBER 10.

_Total._ _Detached._ _Hospital or missing._ _Effective present._

1st Corps 33,937 2,201 2,939 28,797 2nd Corps 33,054 7,394 5,536 20,124 3rd Corps 37,690 11,082 7,522 19,086 4th Corps 22,895 955 2,170 19,770 5th Corps 24,552 188 1,971 22,393 6th Corps 38,033 3,381 5,051 29,601 7th Corps 42,382 1,302 4,948 36,132 8th Corps 25,730 2,137 3,523 20,070 Reserve Cavalry 17,059 } Imperial Guard 12,100 } 3,533 3,945 34,801 Reserve of Infantry } (Dessolles, Joseph’s } Guards, &c.) 13,120 } Troops on the march } from Germany not } 5,200 363 4,763 distributed to the } corps } Columns inside the } French frontier } 8,860 107 165 8,588 (National Guards) } ------- ------ ------ ------- 314,612 32,643 37,844 244,125

Exclusive of the dépôt of conscripts at Bayonne.

XIII

SIR JOHN MOORE’S ARMY:

ITS STRENGTH AND ITS LOSSES.

N.B.--The first column gives the strength of each of Baird’s regiments on Oct. 2, and of Moore’s regiments on Oct. 15, deducting from the latter men left behind in Portugal. The second column gives the men present with the colours on Dec. 19, but not those in hospital or ‘on command’ on that day. These last amounted on Dec. 19 to 3,938 and 1,687 respectively. The third column gives the numbers disembarked in England in January.

-----------------------+------------+-------------+-------------+------------- | _Total | _Effective | _Disembarked| |strength in | strength |in England in|_Deficiency._ |Oct. 1808._ | present on | Jan. 1809._ | | | Dec. 19, | | | | 1808._ | | -----------------------+------------+-------------+-------------+------------- Cavalry (Lord Paget).| | | | 7th Hussars | 672 | 497 | 575 | 97[751] 10th ” | 675 | 514 | 651 | 24 15th ” | 674 | 527 | 650 | 24 18th Light Dragoons | 624 | 565 | 547 | 77 3rd ” ” K.G.L. | 433 | 347 | 377 | 56 | ---- 3,078 | ---- 2,450 | ---- 2,800 | ---- 278 | | | | 1st Division (Sir | | | | D. Baird). | | | | Warde’s Brigade: | | | | 1st Foot Guards, | | | | 1st batt. | 1,340 | 1,300 | 1,266 | 74 ” ” | | | | 2nd batt. | 1,102 | 1,027 | 1,036 | 66 | | | | Bentinck’s Brigade: | | | | 4th Foot, 1st batt. | 889 | 754 | 740 | 149 42nd ” 1st batt. | 918 | 880 | 757 | 161 50th ” 1st batt. | 863 | 794 | 599 | 264 | | | | Manningham’s Brigade:| | | | 1st Foot, 3rd batt. | 723 | 597 | 507 | 216 26th ” 1st batt. | 870 | 745 | 662 | 208 81st ” 2nd batt. | 719 | 615 | 478 | 241 | ---- 7,424| ---- 6,712 | ---- 6,045 | ---- 1,379 | | | | 2nd Division (Sir J. | | | | Hope). | | | | Leith’s Brigade: | | | | 51st Foot | 613 | 516 | 506 | 107 59th ” 2nd batt. | 640 | 557 | 497 | 143 76th ” | 784 | 654 | 614 | 170 Hill’s Brigade: | | |[Estimate][752] 2nd Foot | 666 | 616 | 461 | 205 5th ” 1st batt. | 893 | 833 | 654 | 239 14th ” 2nd batt. | 630 | 550 | 492 | 138 32nd ” 1st batt. | 806 | 756 | 619 | 187 |---- 5,032 | ---- 4,482 | ---- 3,843 | ---- 1,189 Catlin Crawfurd’s | | | | Brigade: | | | | 36th Foot, 1st batt. | 804 | 736 | 561 | 243 71st ” 1st batt. | 764 | 724 | 626 | 138 92nd ” 1st batt. | 912 | 900 | 783 | 129 |---- 2,480 | ---- 2,360 | ---- 1,970 | ---- 510 | | | | 3rd Division | | | | (Lt.-Gen. Fraser). | | | | Beresford’s Brigade: | | | | 6th Foot, 1st batt. | 882 | 783 | 491 | 391 9th ” 1st batt. | 945 | 607 | 572 | 373 23rd ” 2nd batt. | 590 | 496 | 418 | 172 43rd ” 2nd batt. | 598 | 411 | 368 | 230 Fane’s Brigade: | | | | 38th Foot, 1st batt. | 900 | 823 | 757 | 143 79th ” 1st batt. | 932 | 838 | 777 | 155 82nd ” 1st batt. | 830 | 812 | 602 | 228 |---- 5,677 | ---- 4,770 | ---- 3,985 | ---- 1,692 | | | | Reserve Division | | | | (Maj.-Gen. E. Paget).| | | | Anstruther’s Brigade:| | | | 20th Foot | 541 | 499 | 428 | 113 52nd ” 1st batt. | 862 | 828 | 719 | 143 95th ” 1st batt. | 863 | 820 | 706 | 157 Disney’s Brigade: | | | | 28th Foot, 1st batt. | 926 | 750 | 624 | 302 91st ” 1st batt. | 746 | 698 | 534 | 212 |---- 3,938 | ---- 3,595 | ---- 3,011 | ---- 927 | | | | 1st Flank-Brigade | | | | (Col. R. Crawfurd).| | | | 43rd Foot, 1st batt. | 895 | 817 | 810 | 85 52nd ” 2nd batt. | 623 | 381 | 462 | 161 95th ” 2nd batt. | 744 | 702 | 648 | 96 |---- 2,262 | ---- 1,900 | ---- 1,920 | ---- 342 | | | | 2nd Flank-Brigade | | | | (Brig.-Gen. C. Alten).| | | | 1st Lt. Batt. K.G.L. | 871 | 803 | 708 | 163[753] 2nd ” ” | 880 | 855 | 618 | 262[754] |---- 1,751 | ---- 1,658 | ---- 1,326 | ---- 425 | | | | Artillery, &c. | 1,455 | 1,297 | 1,200 | 255[755] Staff Corps | 137 | 133 | 99 | 38 | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ Total | 33,234 | 29,357 | 26,199 | 7,035

[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.

It will be noted that if to the 29,357 of the second column there are added the 3,938 sick and the 1,687 men ‘on command,’ the gross total of the army on Dec. 19 must have been 34,982, a figure which exceeds that at the bottom of the first column. It would seem, therefore, that about 1,748 men in small detachments joined the army at Salamanca and elsewhere before Dec. 19. They must represent drafts and convoy-escorts coming up from Portugal. The apparent deficiency for the campaign therefore is 8,783. But it must not be supposed that these 8,783 men were all lost between Salamanca and Corunna: from them we must deduct (1) the 296 casualties by shipwreck while returning to England; (2) 589 rank and file who escaped individually to Portugal, and were then enrolled (along with the convalescent sick left behind by Moore’s regiments) in the two ‘battalions of detachments’ which fought at Talavera; (3) the number of sick discharged from Salamanca on to Portugal in the convoys escorted by the 5/60th and 3rd Regiments. I can nowhere find the number of these invalids stated, but it must have been large, as the total of the sick belonging to the whole army was nearly 4,000 in December. It will be a very modest estimate if we give 1,500 for those of them who were at Salamanca, the head quarters hospital of the army, and were capable of being moved back to Portugal.

We may therefore deduct under these three heads about 2,385 men. This figure taken from 8,783 leaves 6,398 for the real loss in the campaign.

But even from this total 400 more must be deducted, for 400 British convalescents were released by the Galician insurgents from French captivity and sent back to Lisbon in the spring of 1809. [‘Further papers relative to Spain and Portugal,’ p. 7 in _Parliamentary Papers_ for 1809.]

On the whole, then, about 5,998 men were actually lost. Napier’s estimate of 3,233 (i. 502) for the total loss is certainly too low. Of these 2,189 were prisoners sent to France. [Schepeler, ‘Table of prisoners sent to France, 1809-13’ on p. 150.] The remaining 3,809 perished in battle, by the road, or in hospital.

INDEX

Acevedo, general, commands division under Blake, 408; wounded at Espinosa, 415; murdered by the French, 426.

Acland, brigadier-general, arrives at Peniche, 241; at Vimiero, 249-58; gives evidence before the Court of Inquiry, 294.

Afrancesados, party of the, in Spain, 97.

Alagon, Palafox defeated at, 145.

Alcedo, general, governor of Corunna, surrenders to Soult, 596.

Alcolea, combat of, 129.

Alexander, Emperor of Russia, his meeting with Napoleon at Erfurt, 377.

Andalusia, province of, rises against the French, 69; its geography, 74, 80.

Anstruther, brigadier-general, arrives in Portugal, 248; at Vimiero, 250-61; in command at Almeida, 494; dies at Corunna, 595.

Antonio, Don, brother of Charles IV, appointed head of the Junta of Regency, 48; goes to Bayonne, 62; at Valençay, 56.

Army, the Spanish, its character and organization, 89-95: _see_ also Tables and Appendices v, viii, &c.

Army of Spain, the French, character of the first, 103-7; of the second, 107-13: _see_ also Tables and Appendices vi, &c.

Artillery, the, of the Spanish army, 94, 95; of the French army, 112; tactics of the, 120-2.

Asturias, Prince of the: _see_ Ferdinand.

Asturias, province of the, declares war on France, 65; sends emissaries to England, 66; sends troops to Blake’s army, 382, 384.

Baget, Juan, leader of Catalan _miqueletes_, 318, 322, 328.

Baird, Sir David, general, lands at Corunna, 484, 491, 498; advances to Astorga, 500; joins Moore at Mayorga, 532; wounded at Corunna, 584, 589.

Barcelona, treacherously seized by Duhesme, 36; operations round, 302, 318.

Baylen, battle of, 187-92; Convention of, 197-9; text of the Convention, Appendix, 621-3.

Bayonne, French troops at, 6-12, 34; treachery of Napoleon at, 51-6.

Beauharnais, Marquis of, French ambassador at Madrid, his negotiations with Ferdinand, Prince of the Asturias, 19, 20; refuses to acknowledge Ferdinand as King, 43, 46.

Belesta, general, joins Blake with his division, 208.

Belvedere, Conde de, defeated at Gamonal, 421-3.

Bembibre, the British at, 566.

Benavente, combat of, 549-51.

Bentinck, Lord William, British military representative in Madrid, 365; endeavours to get information from the Junta, 488; his correspondence with Moore, 504; at Corunna, 584.

Bernadotte, Jean Baptiste, marshal, Prince of Ponte Corvo, in command on the Baltic, 368; tricked by La Romana, 373.

Bessières, Jean Baptiste, marshal, Duke of Istria, leads a _corps d’armée_ into Spain, 40; his first operations, 125, 126; operations in Northern Spain, 140, 142, 166-72; victory at Medina de Rio Seco, 169-72; represses rising in Biscay, 356; superseded by Soult, 418; pursues Infantado, 470.

Bessières, general, leads French cavalry in Catalonia, 309, 318.

Betanzos, the stragglers’ battle at, during Moore’s retreat, 579.

Bilbao, taken and sacked by Merlin, 356; taken by Blake, 383; taken by Lefebvre, 400.

Biscay, rising in, 355, 356.

Blake, Joachim, captain-general of the province of Galicia, 163; his differences with Cuesta, 165; defeated at Medina de Rio Seco, 168-72; his operations in Biscay, 382, 384, 400; defeated at Zornoza, 407; at Valmaceda, 411; at Espinosa, 413-6; escapes into the Asturian hills, 427; superseded by La Romana, 427.

Bonaparte, Joseph: _see_ Joseph Napoleon.

Bonaparte, Louis, King of Holland, refuses the crown of Spain, 46.

Bonnet, general, at Gamonal, 422; occupies Santander, 429.

Bowes, general, B. F., commands brigade under Wellesley, 232; at Roliça, 237; at Vimiero, 249-59.

Brennier, general, at Roliça, 239; at Vimiero, 253-9.

Burgos, taken and sacked by Napoleon, 424.

Burrard, Sir Harry, second in command of British troops in Portugal, 226; arrives at Maceira Bay, 250; assumes command at Vimiero and refuses to advance, 260, 261; joins in negotiations for the Convention of Cintra, 268; summoned before the Court of Inquiry, 294.

Cabezon, combat of, 141.

Cacabellos, combat of, 567-9.

Caldagues, Count of, leader of Catalan levies, 327; relieves Gerona, 328-30.

Canning, George, Foreign Secretary, gives assistance to the Asturians, 66; permits the embarkation of Dupont’s troops after Baylen, 202; his speech on the Spanish insurrection, 222; sends Robertson to La Romana, 371; his replies to the Notes of France and Russia, 378, 379.

Caraffa, general, arrested by Junot, 208, 209; released by Convention of Cintra, 273.

Carlos, Don, brother of Ferdinand VII, sent to Bayonne to meet Napoleon, 47, 48; confined at Valençay, 55.

Castaños, general, in command of Andalusian army, 127; opposes Dupont at Andujar, 177; receives capitulation of Dupont, 197; marches on Madrid, 346; commands the ‘Army of the Centre,’ 385-431; defeated at Tudela, 441-4; his retreat, 447-9; superseded, 449.

Castelar, Marquis of, defends Madrid against Napoleon, 463-9.

Castlereagh, Robert, Stewart, viscount, his policy, 221, 223, 224; his confidence in Wellesley, 225; commends Wellesley to Dalrymple, 263; receives Wellesley’s report on the Spanish War, 289, 290; his correspondence with Moore, 487, 493, 506, 518, 522, 529, 548, 554, 597, 599.

Castro Gonzalo, combat of, 548.

Catalonia, province of, revolts against the French, 70; geography of, 82, 303-6; the struggle in, 301-33.

Cavalry, tactics of, in the Peninsular War, 117-20; the Spanish, its weakness, 92, 93, 120; the French, 105.

Cervellon, Conde de, captain-general of Valencia, his incapacity, 134-9.

Cevallos, Don Pedro, minister of Foreign Affairs, accompanies Ferdinand VII to Bayonne, 48; his interview with Napoleon, 51, 52; takes office under Joseph, 174; reappointed minister by the Supreme Junta, 359.

Chabert, general, at Baylen, 187, 189; negotiates terms of surrender, 196, 197.

Chabran, general, his expedition to Tarragona, 309; recalled by Duhesme, 312; checked at Granollers, 319.

Charles IV, King of Spain, his character, 13; arrests Ferdinand, Prince of the Asturias, for high treason, 21; pardons him, 23; compelled to disgrace Godoy, 41; abdicates in favour of Ferdinand, 42; withdraws his abdication, 45; summoned to Bayonne by Napoleon, 53; abdicates in favour of Napoleon, 55.

Charlot, general, at Vimiero, 254, 255.

Charmilly, colonel, emissary sent by Frere to Moore, 520-3.

Cintra, Convention of, 268-72; its terms, 272-8; Court of Inquiry on, 291-300.

Claros, Don Juan, leader of Catalan _miqueletes_, 321, 328.

Cochrane, Lord, harasses Duhesme’s troops, 324, 331; blockades Barcelona, 327.

Colbert, general, at Tudela, 441-4; slain at Cacabellos, 569.

Colli, Baron, his attempt to release Ferdinand from Valençay, 18.

Collingwood, Lord, commanding Mediterranean Fleet, refuses to allow embarkation of Dupont’s troops, 201.

Constantino, combat of, 572-3.

Cordova, sack of, by Dupont’s troops, 130.

Cortes, proposal to summon the, 362.

Corunna, Baird lands at, 484, 491, 498; arrival of Moore at, 581; battle of, 583-95.

Cotton, admiral, resents the terms of the Convention of Cintra, 271, 272; concludes an arrangement with Siniavin, 284, 285.

Coupigny, general, commands a division in Castaños’ army, 177, 180; at Baylen, 187, 191; delegate to the Army of the Centre, 395.

Crawfurd, Catlin, colonel, commands a brigade under Wellesley, 232; at Vimiero, 249-58; at Corunna, 584.

Crawfurd, Robert, colonel commanding Light Brigade, blows up the bridge at Castro Gonzalo, 548; retreats to Vigo, 564; his excellent discipline, 565.

Cruz-Murgeon, colonel, at Baylen, 191; his defence of Lerin, 394.

Cuesta, Gregorio de la, captain-general of Old Castile, his reluctance to take arms against the French, 68; his character and capacity, 141; defeated at Cabezon, 141; at Medina de Rio Seco, 165-72; his extravagant claims, 347, 348, 357; removed from his command, 359.

Dalrymple, Sir Hew, governor of Gibraltar, receives command of British troops in Portugal, 226; arrives at Vimiero, 263; his lack of confidence in Wellesley, 263-5; negotiates the Convention of Cintra, 268-72; his want of consideration for Portuguese authorities, 279, 283, 285; his dilatoriness, 287; summoned before the Court of Inquiry, 294; censured by the Commander-in-chief, 299.

Debelle, general, surprised by Paget at Sahagun, 535, 536.

Delaborde, general, marches against Wellesley, 236; defeated at Roliça, 236-40; at Vimiero, 246-62; at Corunna, 586-91.

Despeña Perros, pass of, 79, 80.

Digeon, general, at Tudela, 441, 443.

Duhesme, general, leads an army into Catalonia, 36; at Barcelona, 302; failure of expeditions against Catalan insurgents, 310, 312; marches on Gerona, 314; his repulse and retreat, 316-8; besieges Gerona again unsuccessfully, 325-30; retreats on Barcelona, 331.

Dupont, general, leads Second Corps of Observation of the Gironde into Spain, 34; composition of his army, 104, 107, 126; his first operations, 127; combat of Alcolea, 129; sacks Cordova, 130; retreats to Andujar, 132; defeated at Baylen, 190-2; capitulates, 197; imprisoned by Napoleon, 335.

Echávarri, Don Pedro de, defeated by Dupont at Alcolea, 128, 129.

Escoiquiz, Juan, canon of Toledo, his influence on Ferdinand VII, 16, 17; prompts the negotiations with Napoleon, 19, 20; accompanies Ferdinand to Bayonne, 48; his interview with Napoleon, 52.

Escurial, the affair of the, 23.

Espinosa de los Monteros, battle of, 413-6.

Etruria, King of, evicted by Napoleon, 35; promised Northern Portugal, 9.

Evora, defeat of the Portuguese at, 218.

Fane, general, H., commands brigade under Wellesley, 232; at Roliça, 237, 238; at Vimiero, 249-61.

Ferdinand, Prince of the Asturias, accused of treason, 12, 21; his character, 16-19; his intrigue with Napoleon, 20; his arrest and acquittal, 21, 23; pacifies the mob at Aranjuez, 41; becomes King on his father’s abdication, 42; enters Madrid, 43; his title not recognized by the French, 43, 46; tries to propitiate Napoleon, 47; meets Napoleon at Bayonne, 47-51; is forced to abdicate, 54; confined at Valençay, 55.

Ferguson, general, R., commands brigade under Wellesley, 232; at Roliça, 237, 239; at Vimiero, 249-60; gives evidence before the Court of Inquiry, 294, 295.

Filanghieri, captain-general of Galicia, murdered by soldiery, 66, 67.

Florida Blanca, Count, political influence of, 345; president of the Junta General, 359.

Fontainebleau, treaty of, 8-11.

Foy, general, his opinion of English infantry, 115; of English cavalry, 119; at Vimiero, 255; at Corunna, 591.

Franceschi, general, scatters La Romana’s troops at combat of Mansilla, 552; in the pass of Foncebadon, 563; pursues Moore’s army at Betanzos, 579; at Corunna, 589.

Francisco, Don, younger brother of Ferdinand VII, arrested by Murat, 60.

Freire, Bernardino, general, appointed head of Portuguese armies, 212; quarrels with Wellesley, 233; resents the terms of the Convention of Cintra, 270, 277, 278.

Frere, John Hookham, British minister in Spain, brings subsidies to Corunna, 365, 499; urges Moore to advance, 506, 519, 520; his controversy with Moore, 523, 524.

Frère, general, meets Moncey with reinforcements, 138.

Galicia, province of, revolts against the French, 66; its importance, 69; geography of, 80, 81; military operations in, 163-75.

Galluzzo, captain-general of Estremadura, attacks French garrison at Elvas, 276; refuses to draw off his troops, 279; recalled to Aranjuez, 420; commands the army of San Juan, 481.

Gamonal, combat of, 422, 423.

George III, King, his reply to the Corporation of London about the Convention of Cintra, 293.

Gerona, fortress of, held by the Spanish, 70; besieged by Duhesme, 316, 317; second siege of, 325-31.

Gironde, First Corps of Observation of the, 6, 7 (_see_ Junot); Second Corps of Observation of the, 12 (_see_ Dupont).

Gobert, general, reinforces Dupont, 179; defeated and mortally wounded at Mengibar, 181, 182.

Godoy, Manuel, Prince of the Peace, prime minister of Charles IV of Spain, his proclamation of Oct. 5, 1806, 4; his part in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, 9, 10; his character and policy, 12-5; his enmity to Prince Ferdinand, 20, 21; tries to propitiate Napoleon, 36; proposes the flight of the Spanish Court, 40, 41; disgraced and banished, 41; summoned to Bayonne by Napoleon, 53; his responsibility for the state of the Spanish army, 96-8.

Goulas, general, repulsed at Hostalrich, 325.

Graham, colonel, T., brings news of the fall of Madrid to Moore, 529.

Grimarest, general, at Tudela, 442, 443.

Guadarrama, the, Napoleon’s passage of, 543.

Heredia, Don Joseph, commands the Army of Estremadura, 452, 455, 471, 516.

Hill, general, R., commands brigade under Wellesley, 232; at Roliça, 237, 238; at Vimiero, 249, 253; at Corunna, 591.

Hope, Sir John, general, his advance on Elvas, 280, 487; his circuitous march to join Moore, 510, 511; at Corunna, 584; takes command of the army on Moore’s death, 591.

Ibarnavarro, Justo, brings the news of the treachery at Bayonne to Madrid, 59.

Infantado, Duke of, confidant of Ferdinand VII in the affair of the Escurial, 19, 22, 23; in Biscay, 356; defends Madrid against Napoleon, 463.

Inquisition, the, Godoy’s attitude towards, 15; abolished by Napoleon, 474-6.

Izquierdo, Eugenio, agent of Godoy, draws up the Treaty of Fontainebleau, 8; sends disquieting reports from Paris, 36.

John, Prince-Regent of Portugal, compelled to submit to the Continental System, 7; attacked by Napoleon, 29; his flight from Lisbon, 30.

Jones, Felix, general, commands a division in Castaños’ army, 177.

Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, accepts the crown of Spain, 46; enters Madrid, 173; his character, 174; his flight from Madrid, 175; at Miranda, 340; his return to Madrid, 479.

Jourdan, Jean Baptiste, marshal, commands the troops of King Joseph, 383, 384.

Jovellanos, Gaspar de, refuses the Ministry of the Interior under Joseph, 174; a member of the Junta General, 354; his Liberal views, 361, 362.

Junot, general, Duke of Abrantes, leads French army into Spain, 8; his invasion of Portugal, 26; his march on Lisbon, 27-30; his rule in Portugal, 206; his difficulties in Lisbon, 213, 214; defeated at Vimiero, 247-61; negotiates the Convention of Cintra, 266-72; evacuates Portugal, 280; retires to Spain, 450, 481.

Junta, or Council of Regency, appointed by Ferdinand VII, 48; its dealings with Murat, 58, 59; sends petition to Napoleon asking for Joseph Bonaparte as King, 63.

Junta General, creation of the, 352; its composition, 354; in session, 354-66; flies to Seville.

Juntas, the provincial: _see_ Galicia, Andalusia, Catalonia, &c.

Keates, Sir Richard, admiral commanding the fleet in the Baltic, 370; effects the escape of La Romana and his troops, 374.

Kellermann, François Christophe, general, retires on Lisbon, 216; his success at Alcacer do Sal, 242; at Vimiero, 246-56; negotiates the Convention of Cintra, 266-72.

Kindelan, general, treachery of, 372, 374.

Lahoussaye, general, commands dragoons at Cacabellos, 569; at Constantino, 572, 573; at Corunna, 589.

Lake, colonel, killed at Roliça, 238.

Lannes, Jean, marshal, Duke of Montebello, wins battle of Tudela, 436-44.

Lapisse, general, at Espinosa, 414, 415; sent against Salamanca, 561.

Lasalle, general, at Cabezon, 141; at Medina de Rio Seco, 167-71; at Gamonal, 422.

Lazan, Marquis of, defeated at Tudela, 144, 145; at Mallen, 145; sent to Catalonia to oppose Duhesme, 387.

Lecchi, general, seizes fortress of Barcelona, 37; besieged in Barcelona by Palacio, 327, 328; with Duhesme at Barcelona, 318.

Lefebvre, Francis Joseph, marshal, Duke of Dantzig, defeats Blake at Zornoza, 407; at Valmaceda, 411.

Lefebvre, general, reinforces Bessières, 337; wounded at Corunna, 594.

Lefebvre-Desnouettes, general, sent against Saragossa, 125, 142; victorious at Mallen, 144, 145; his siege of Saragossa, 145-52; superseded by Verdier, 152; at battle of Tudela, 444; taken prisoner at Benavente, 550.

Leite, general, defeated by Loison at Evora, 218; his difficulties with Galluzzo, 279.

Leith, general, J., takes part in Blake’s retreat, 426-9; commands a brigade under Moore, 501, 528, 533.

Leith Hay, major, his views on Spanish patriotism, 505, 577.

Leopold, Prince, of Sicily, intrigues for the Regency of Spain, 350.

Liger-Belair, general, defeated at Mengibar, 181.

Lisbon, seized by Junot, 30, 31; its importance, 209; condition of, under Junot, 213, 214; surrendered to the British by the Convention of Cintra, 273.

Llamas, Valencian general, at the council of war in Madrid, 357; at Aranjuez, 385.

Loison, general, in Northern Portugal, 213; retires on Abrantes, 216; his victory at Evora, 218; recalled to Lisbon, 218; at Vimiero, 246-52.

Lopez, colonel, Spanish attaché with Moore, 488, 494.

Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, his intrigues about the Spanish Regency, 350.

Lugo, combat of, 574, 575.

Madrid, description of, 75; its lack of importance politically, 75; its advantages as a centre of roads, 86; Joseph Bonaparte enters, 173; abandoned by Joseph, 175; its resistance to Napoleon, 462-9; Napoleon at, 473-85.

Maison, general, at Espinosa, 415.

Malaspina, general, defeated by Sebastiani, 416.

Mansilla, combat of, 552.

Maransin, general, evacuates Algarve, 212; storms Beja, 215.

Margaron, general, at Vimiero, 246-52.

Maria Luisa, queen of Charles IV of Spain, her character, 14; intrigues with Murat against Ferdinand VII, 44, 45; at Bayonne, 53.

Mataro, stormed and sacked by Duhesme, 315.

Mathieu, Maurice, general, at Tudela, 441-3.

Medina de Rio Seco, battle of, 168-72.

Mengibar, combat of, 181.

Merle, general, sent against Santander, 125, 142; at Cabezon, 141; at Medina de Rio Seco, 169-71; at Gamonal, 422; at Cacabellos, 569; at Constantino, 573; at Corunna, 586-90.

Milans, Francisco, leader of Catalan _somatenes_, repulses Chabran, 319; opposes Duhesme, 325, 328.

Milhaud, general, at Gamonal, 422.

_Miqueletes_, the, of Catalonia, 302, 306.

Moira, Francis Rawdon, Lord, on the Inquiry into the Convention of Cintra, 294-8.

Moncey, Bon Adrien Jeannot de, marshal, Duke of Conegliano, leads Corps of Observation of the Ocean Coast into Spain, 34; composition of his army, 126; his expedition against Valencia, 133; his repulse at Valencia, 136; retreats on Madrid, 138; at Tudela, 441.

Monteiro Mor, the (Conde de Castro Marim), resents the terms of the Convention of Cintra, 279, 283.

Montijo, Conde de, his operations on the Ebro, 381; field-deputy of the Junta, 395.

Moore, Sir John, general, returns from the Baltic, 224, 226; lands in Portugal, 270, 486; advances into Old Castile, 451, 485; his difficulties of transport, 486-91; at Salamanca, 486-512; resolves to retreat, 509, 510; his change of plans, 522, 523; his quarrel with Frere, 523, 524; advances to Sahagun, 537; his retreat before Napoleon, 538-59; is joined by La Romana at Astorga, 552; retreats before Soult, 556-88; wins battle of Corunna, 588, 589; his death and burial, 595; his character and achievements, 597-602.

Morla, Don Tomas de, general, repudiates the Capitulation of Baylen, 201; defends Madrid against Napoleon, 463; negotiates the surrender of the city, 469; takes office under Joseph, 472; his letter to Moore, 517, 518.

Mortier, Edouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph, Duke of Treviso, arrives in Spain, 481.

Mouton, general, at Medina de Rio Seco, 169-71; at Gamonal, 422.

Munster, George Earl of, his opinion of the Spanish army, 98.

Murat, Joachim, Grand-Duke of Berg, commands French forces in Spain, 38; his character and capacity, 39; enters Madrid, 43; refuses to acknowledge Ferdinand VII as king, 43; intrigues with Charles IV and Maria Luisa against Ferdinand, 44; induces the old king to withdraw his abdication, 45; his dealings with the Junta at Madrid, 58, 59; quells insurrection in Madrid, 60, 61; leaves Spain, 123; his intrigues with Fouché and Talleyrand, 560.

Napier, Sir William, general, historian of the Peninsular War, his strictures on the Spaniards, 89, 499; errors in his estimates of numbers, 251, 421, 639; his testimony to the Catalans, 302; misinformed with regard to La Romana’s army, 416; his defence of Moore’s strategy, 497, 597, 600; his eulogy on Moore, 602.

Napier, Major Charles, wounded and taken prisoner at Corunna, 588.

Napoleon, his projects against Spain, 2-11; intrigues with Ferdinand, Prince of the Asturias, 20-3; his treachery at Bayonne, 51; offers Joseph Bonaparte the kingdom of Spain, 46; his original plan of campaign in Spain, 123-6; his wrath at the Capitulation of Baylen, 334, 335; his new scheme of operations in Spain, 337-40; his treaty with the Czar Alexander, 377; his letter to King George III, 378; arrives in Spain, 397, 417; defeats Belvedere at Gamonal, 422; advances on Madrid, 449; crosses the Somosierra, 453-61; enters Madrid, 466-9; his scheme of reforms for Spain, 475, 476; his pursuit of Moore, 538-47; halts at Benavente, 559; returns to France, 561.

Ney, Michel, marshal, Duke of Elchingen, arrives in Spain, 341; fails to catch the retreating army of Castaños, 446, 448; joins in the pursuit of Moore, 545, 547, 561, 562.

Nightingale, general, M., commands brigade under Wellesley, 232; at Roliça, 237; at Vimiero, 249-59.

O’Farrill, general, Spanish Minister of War, takes office under Joseph, 174.

O’Neille, general, his blunders at Tudela, 435-44.

Oporto, Bishop of, Dom Antonio de Castro, head of the Portuguese Junta, 211; his interview with Wellesley, 228; resents the Convention of Cintra, 277, 278; his letter of complaint, 291.

O’Sullivan, Manuel, captain, repulses Goulas from Hostalrich, 325.

Paget, Edward, general, commands Reserve Division of Moore’s army, 533, 564; his success at Cacabellos, 568; at Constantino, 573; at Corunna, 589.

Paget, Henry Lord, surprises the French at Sahagun, 536; at Benavente, 550, 551.

Palacio, Marquis del, leads troops from Balearic Isles to Catalonia, 323; Captain-General of Catalonia, 327; invests Barcelona, 327.

Palafox, Francisco, Deputy of the Supreme Junta, 355; usurps command of the army of Castaños, 433.

Palafox, Joseph, leads the revolt against the French in Saragossa, 67; Captain-General of Aragon, 69; his character, 143; his defence of Saragossa, 143, 153-62; defeated at Alagon, 145; at Epila, 151; his fantastic plans, 391, 434-5.

Pampeluna, citadel of, seized by D’Armagnac, 36.

Peña, Manuel La, general, commands division in Castaños’ army, 177; arrives at Baylen, 192; threatens Dupont, 195; his cowardice at Tudela, 442-5; escapes from Ney, 470.

Pignatelli, general, commands Army of Castile, 385; retreats before Ney, 393; removed from his command, 385.

Polish Light Horse, charge of the, at the Somosierra, 459.

Portland Cabinet, the, resolves to aid risings in Spain and Portugal, 221, 222.

Portugal, kingdom of, compelled to submit to the Continental System, 7; conquest of, by French troops, 26-32; its army dissolved, 31; insurrection of, 205-18; evacuated by the French, 279, 280.

Pradt, Mgr. de, Archbishop of Malines, his memoirs, 5, 16, 17, 459, 473.

Reding, Teodoro, general, commands division under Castaños, 177; at Mengibar, 181, 182; marches on Baylen, 185; at battle of Baylen, 187-91; marches for Catalonia, 387-8.

Reille, general, succours Duhesme, 319; repulsed from Rosas, 321.

Roads, the, of Spain, 78-85.

Robertson, Rev. James, emissary from Canning to La Romana, 371; success of his mission, 372.

Roca, general, commands Valencian division at Tudela, 441.

Roliça, combat of, 236-40.

Romana, La, Marquis of, sent to the Baltic with Spanish troops, 90, 367; escapes with his army on British vessels, 371-4; supersedes Blake in command of the army of Galicia, 427; proposes a junction with Moore, 515, 528, 533, 534; joins Moore at Astorga, 553; retreats through the pass of Foncebadon, 563.

Rosas, resists Reille’s attack, 321.

Sabathier, general, at Medina de Rio Seco, 169-71.

Sahagun, combat of, 536.

St. Cyr, Laurent Gouvion, general, supersedes Duhesme in Catalonia, 332.

Saint March, general, at Tudela, 441.

San Juan, general, defeated at the Somosierra, 455-60; murdered by his own troops, 471.

San Roman, Count of, commands division from the Baltic at Espinosa, 413-6.

Santa Cruz, Marquis of, leads the revolt in the Asturias, 65.

Saragossa, first siege of, 145-62; story of the ‘Maid of,’ 154.

Savary, Anne Jean Marie Réné, general, Duke of Rovigo, at Madrid, 48; induces Ferdinand to meet Napoleon, 48; takes command at Madrid on Murat’s departure, 123, 166, 175; at the passage of the Somosierra, 456.

Schwartz, general, sent against Lerida, 309; retreats to Barcelona, 311.

Sebastiani, general, at Zornoza, 407; defeats Malaspina, 416.

Ségur, Philippe de, his description of the passage of the Somosierra, 459.

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, his speech on the Spanish insurrection, 222.

Siniavin, admiral commanding Russian fleet in the Tagus, refuses to aid Junot, 209; concludes terms with Admiral Cotton, 272, 284, 285.

Smith, Sir Sydney, admiral, blockades Lisbon, 29.

Solano, captain-general, murdered in Cadiz, 67.

Solignac, general, at Vimiero, 253-9.

_Somatenes_, irregular levies of Catalonia, 70, 306, 311.

Somosierra, combat of the, 456-60.

Soult, Nicolas Jean de Dieu, marshal, Duke of Dalmatia, arrives in Spain, 418; victorious at Gamonal, 422, 423; occupies Santander, 429; successful at Mansilla, 552; his pursuit of Moore, 557-83; refuses battle at Lugo, 574; fights at Corunna, 583-91; places inscriptions over Moore’s grave, 595.

Spencer, general B., brings division from Sicily and Gibraltar to join Wellesley, 230; his evidence at the Inquiry into the Convention of Cintra, 294, 295.

Strangford, Lord, British ambassador at Lisbon, 29, 30.

Stuart, Charles, British minister at Madrid, his remarks on the inactivity of the Supreme Junta, 365, 504; urges Moore to advance, 519; comes as emissary from Frere to Moore, 535.

Surtees, sergeant, his remarks on Spanish officers, 99.

Symes, colonel, M., his report on La Romana’s force, 534.

Tactics, the, of the French, 114-9; of the British, 114-22.

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Perigord, Prince of Benevento, opposes the invasion of Spain, 11; receives Ferdinand VII, Don Carlos, and Don Antonio at Valençay, 55, 56.

Taylor, lieut.-colonel, commands the 20th Regt. at Vimiero, 256.

Thiébault, Paul, general, chief of the staff to Junot, at the council of war at Torres Vedras, 266; his interview with Napoleon, 269; his evidence about the French peculations at Lisbon, 281.

Thomières, general, at Vimiero, 254, 255.

Toreño, historian of the Peninsular War, goes to London as an emissary from the Asturias, 66.

Trant, colonel, commands division of Portuguese under Wellesley, 234; at Roliça, 237; at Vimiero, 249.

Tudela, combat of, 144, 145; battle of, 439-44.

Valdez, don Antonio, imprisoned by Cuesta, 359.

Valencia, massacre of the French colony in, 68; Moncey’s expedition against, 133-6.

Valmaceda, combat of, 411.

Vaughan, Charles, secretary to the British minister in Madrid, his papers, 24, 143, 154; his opinion of the Central Junta, 365; brings the news of Tudela to Moore, 508.

Vedel, general, reinforces Dupont, 176; marches on La Carolina, 183; arrives late at Baylen, 193; retreats on La Carolina, 198; returns to Baylen, 199.

Verdier, general, at the siege of Saragossa, 152; retreats to Tudela, 161.

Victor, Claude Perrin, marshal, Duke of Belluno, his operations against Blake, 409, 413; at Espinosa, 414-6.

Villatte, general, at Zornoza, 407; his escape from Acevedo, 410; at Espinosa, 414.

Villoutreys, captain, asks suspension of hostilities from Reding, 192; imprisoned by Napoleon, 335.

Vimiero, battle of, 247-61.

Vives, general, neglects to help Catalonia, 323.

Wellesley, general, Sir Arthur, disembarks at Figueira, 218; his interview with the Bishop of Oporto and the Supreme Junta, 228; at Roliça, 236-40; at Vimiero, 247-61; his differences with Burrard and Dalrymple, 260-5; his views on the future of the war, 288; returns to England, 290; summoned before the Court of Inquiry on the Convention of Cintra, 294; his evidence against Burrard and Dalrymple, 295; returns to Lisbon, 300; his tactics, 114-22.

Wilson, Sir Robert, organizes the Lusitanian Legion, 280.

Zagalo, Bernard, the student, leader of revolt in Coimbra, captures Figueira, 217.

Zamora, resists Lapisse’s attack, 562.

Zornoza, battle of, 407.

END OF VOL. I

Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press, by HORACE HART, M. A.