Arrival of the Gazette—More Courts-martial—The Mad
Commissary—Intentions of Lord Wellington—Social
Amusements—Sporting—Wellington’s Fox-hounds—His Stud—A Dinner at the
Commander-in-Chief’s—Number of Courts-martial—Anecdotes of Wellington.
Head-quarters, Frenada, Jan. 3, 1813.
MY DEAR M——,
In hopes of giving you letters every week, I must seize every odd
half-hour to write in, and you must not be nice as to my writing, &c.,
as my hand is quite tired of the regular official style, and my fingers
cold, for we still have fine, clear, frosty weather; but in the middle
of the day it is very pleasant.
Pray thank John very much for his parcel of newspapers, and especially
for that of the 17th December, with the _Gazette_, &c., and the
glorious news. I was the only person here with a paper of the 17th.
Head-quarters had only that of the evening of the 16th with the
_Gazette_; and though this was, in fact, much the same, this was an
event—and I sent mine up to Colonel Campbell, by his desire, for his
dinner-party at head-quarters. It has been in constant request ever
since.
All the Guerilla party reports here state, that a body of French
cavalry has left Spain for France, for some purpose. They say that from
three to four thousand men are gone; this agrees with your story; but
our Portuguese Quarter-Master, from his spies, reports otherwise. The
forces in this neighbourhood are now but small; about four hundred
men in Salamanca, which, by-the-by, has been much plundered; and the
English dollars, which they extorted from the hungry troops by their
high prices, pretty well squeezed out of them. At Segovia there are
only one thousand men, more at Valladolid, and a force at Madrid, and
thus dispersed about; but as to their being starved, their country is
much better, I believe, than ours; and as I have already told you, our
Commissary goes to Salamanca for bread. The light division near this
place, and troop of Horse Artillery, have had scarcely any corn for
their horses for the three last weeks, and the cavalry will not be fit
to act much before April and May.
Yesterday a great event occurred here—the arrival of a Guerilla chief,
who was formerly a sort of smuggler or robber. This man, whose name,
I believe, is Sumeil, attacked a French party, carrying despatches
from King Joseph to France, at a village near Valladolid, at twelve
o’clock at night. He came in upon the French by surprise, and the plan
succeeded. The despatches were seized, some of them on the person of
the courier, but the most material in a secret place in the pummel of a
saddle. A little spring in the buckle of the brass ornament discovered
a keyhole, and in the saddle was the pocket to conceal the papers.
They are principally in cipher, but some have been made out, and are,
I understand, important. I have heard the contents of only one letter
from King Joseph to the family in France, full of complaints of want of
money and much distress; he states that he cannot get a dollar. From
eighty to a hundred prisoners were taken by the party. These prisoners
were French, and two English officers were released. The French were
much irritated, and sent eleven squadrons of cavalry after the Guerilla
chief, but he got off with most of his prisoners, booty, despatches,
and party. Only one or two of the officers, and a few of the Guerilla
privates, have yet arrived here, but more, with the prisoners, are
expected shortly. Sumeil expects to be made a General for this. He was
at first very shy of suffering the aide-de-camp and Colonel Campbell
to look at his despatches, desiring to show them to Lord Wellington
in person; nor could he consent to give up the most important, until
General O’Lalor, who was at Ciudad Rodrigo, was sent for, and explained
matters to him. I was to have met them at head-quarters at dinner the
day of their arrival, but they were busily engaged at cards when sent
for; and said they were tired, and declined going out to dinner. I was
very sorry for this, as it would have been curious to see their manners
at a formal dinner.
I have sent out my mules and Portuguese to forage. They now are obliged
to go so far for it that they cannot get home by night, and soon, I
fear, must stay out some days. I must get another horse; Colonel C——
has a handsome Spanish horse to sell, strong, showy, and, considering
the price of horses here, not very dear, two hundred and fifty dollars;
it is a sort of a Rubens, sleek, black, manège horse, with a fine,
thick, curved, sleek, black neck.
I take my morning walk daily, from eight till nine, to secure some
exercise, whilst Henry lights my fire and gets breakfast ready. Instead
of the gravel walk at Sheen or in Lincoln’s Inn gardens, it is a stroll
over the rocks, down towards the Coa river, which is almost two miles
from hence, and in parts is wild and picturesque; large masses of
rock, rounded by the weather, stunted trees, stone-wall enclosures, a
succession of ravines, and ruined fortified villages on the hills at a
distance; for Castello Bom, Castello Mendas, Castello Rodrigues, and
Almeyda, which, as well as Guarda, are in sight from the rocky hill,
half a mile from hence. Behind the whole, the sierras of Portugal and
Spain, now generally covered with snow. By these means, and with a
hasty ride or walk now and then in the middle of the day, my health
is certainly better. The work, except on account of health, I have no
sort of objection to: I only lament the delay in the proceedings, on
account of the sickness of the prisoners and witnesses. However, I may
have been of some use in law lecturing, and helping the other Deputy
Judge-Advocates; and no trouble has been spared by me in facilitating
matters.
If the news from Russia be good to the extent supposed, it is thought
here that the French will withdraw from hence this spring, at least
behind the Ebro. This, however, I much doubt; though it seems agreed
that, at any rate, we are not in a state to follow, without very great
disadvantage, and almost destruction to our cavalry.
_January the 4th._—There are strong reports, as I have said, that the
French are retiring; but General O’Lalor, whom I have just seen, tells
me his accounts are otherwise, and that no French have left, or are
leaving Spain; on the contrary, he assured me that the intercepted
letters from Soult state that the contest will, in the next campaign,
be between the Douro and the Tagus. D’Aranda de Duero is therefore
to be fortified, and made a good depôt, until the Emperor can send
reinforcements enough to enable them to enter Portugal. The French
head-quarters are at Madrid, nor does it appear that there is any
intention at present to give it up, though the Spaniards thought
otherwise from some letters of Soult, who ordered some of his men,
detachments of his corps, and letters, to be sent to him from Valencia,
but this seems to be only to complete his own corps. General O’Lalor
told me that a muleteer of Paget’s had just arrived from Bayonne,
with a pass, which he showed me, for him to return to Portugal as Sir
Edward Paget’s muleteer. This man says the French on the frontiers were
told that our retreat was a rout, our loss immense, and that sixteen
thousand prisoners had been taken, who were said to be on the road; he
added that many were fools enough to go several leagues to see them,
and found they were about two thousand five hundred; they also reported
that the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Paget, was taken.[2]
We are trying to send French gazettes of the Russian business to the
French army, to give some of them a better notion of affairs in that
quarter, as it seems the armies hear little or nothing from France, and
at long intervals.
_January the 6th._—I am just setting out for Fuentes to try my mad
Commissary, and from the fear of not having time before post on my
return, I must now close my letter.
_Head-Quarters, Frenada, January 16th, 1813._—I was so much occupied
last week that I could not find time to give you one of my usual
scrawls before the post-day. The business of the mad Commissary’s was
finished in two long days last week, but I have had a long job in
copying it fair, as he put in a half-mad defence of five sheets in
folio. He is now off for Lisbon. I have bought Colonel C——’s horse for
two hundred and fifty dollars.
Our last accounts from Lord Wellington are Cadiz, the 8th. He was
going to Lisbon on the 9th or 10th. He has taken the command of the
Spaniards; and is expected here on the 23rd. Lord Fitzroy Somerset
seems much pleased with Cadiz; I do not know whether Lord Wellington
is. The Prince of Orange is not yet returned from Oporto. He has been
very much fêted and entertained; there is dancing every night, and he
is much pleased. Lord March is just returned from thence; Colonel G——
from Seville; so we all begin to reassemble here. I have just been
making out on a large sheet the states of the Courts-martial for Lord
Wellington. They are thirty-one in number, which are now going on, just
finished, or which are to proceed when witnesses can be collected. At
present my place is no sinecure.
The French, they say, have been for some time in motion here, but I
believe only to forage, &c.; their last movements are southward of
Madrid and towards Seville again, but this is thought to be either a
feint or to be for the sake of supplies.
Doctor M’Gregor has been a tour to visit the sick; of whom I am sorry
to say many have died; more than I was aware of. He has been as far as
Oporto.
I have gone on very smoothly with my Courts-martial. General V—— is the
President, and has been very civil. They are all light infantry, and
have been very attentive, orderly, and obedient.
_January 17th._—The house which I now occupy belongs to the Portuguese
lad who is in my service, and who is about eighteen. It is a droll
circumstance to live in the house of your own servant, who receives six
dollars a month, and is a tolerable groom. These reverses are here very
frequent in the fortunes of this class of people. He owns three houses
here, such as they are—stone barns; and his family had sheep, goats,
and land.
There is plenty of game about, and we now get woodcocks frequently,
shot by the officers, very good hares, better, I think, than in
England, a few good snipes and plovers, and a very few partridges; the
latter are very wild. We have had, off and on, frost for this month and
more, and some very fine days, others like a London November fog, a
little snow, and now and then a day’s rain; but in eight hours again,
from a sudden change of wind, all dry and frost. The sun, when out,
makes the mid-day very pleasant; and though the winds are very cold,
and produce very hard ground and thick ice for the time in a very short
period, yet the ice does not continue, as in England, and accumulate.
It never gets much thicker than it is in one night with a cold wind,
and in the daytime the ground is soft; the cold, therefore, though for
a time very sharp, certainly cannot be near so intense in reality as in
England. We go to bed sometimes with the ground entirely wet at eleven
o’clock, and at six in the morning find there has been a very hard
frost, which is then going off again.
The population here is very considerably thinned, and there is much
less land in cultivation than formerly; the people remaining have
generally lost their flocks and their animals for agriculture. Few
have now means of ploughing and manuring. The vineyards are generally
in a very neglected state also; not manured or in any way attended to,
and eaten close down by our hungry animals. Yet the labour required is
so moderate, and the light soil seems so productive, that the country
might very soon recover itself; but we take the oxen over the whole
country, buy up, and eat up everything. Out of our reach, in the Tras
os Montes, are plenty of poultry, sheep, turkeys, &c. The Portuguese,
naturally lazy, never repair the damages of war, never rebuild, clean
out, or set to work to bring things round. They despair, and only just
work to supply our market with onions, 4_d._ each; eggs, 3_d._ each;
potatoes alone rather cheap at 2_d._ the pound; pork, 1_s._ 6_d._ the
pound, and good. The Spaniards, on the contrary, begin, very soon
after the armies go, to restore; they put on their tiles, rebuild
their walls, and especially whitewash the inside of their houses;
they collect their cooking-vessels, and get to work on their farms.
The peasantry recover themselves much more and much faster than the
Portuguese, but yet they have not in any one place suffered so much and
so often as this part of Portugal has; and in this town they are pretty
much as lazy as the other.
_The 20th._—A very interesting case of a poor deserter whom we tried
yesterday at Fuentes, I must copy out fair to carry over to the general
president for his signature to-morrow. The deserter, poor fellow!
deserted for love to the Spaniards, with a Spanish girl from the
neighbourhood of Madrid whom he had brought away with him. She had been
most honest and faithful in very trying scenes during the retreat. On
being ordered to send her off by his Captain, he appeared to have had
no intention of going over to the French. I was not aware of the merit
of his story till I copied the whole out fairly. It was translated in
broken bits, by a not very skilful interpreter. Three deserters came in
here yesterday; they are Flemings. They report that part of the French
cavalry are gone to France, and that all the cars round Salamanca have
been put in requisition to carry off the sick from the hospital there.
But this does not prove much, as it would at any rate be an unsafe
place, and out of their line of defence next campaign. They state that
the sick have been very numerous, and Salamanca well plundered.
I have been one morning over to Almeyda to breakfast with the governor
and see the town. At breakfast I met a sawny Spanish signora, with a
crying, poor-looking child: she breakfasted on beefsteaks, onions,
partridges, and wine, and did nothing all day. Almeyda is twelve miles
off. I rode thither on my new horse. He is just such a horse as you
would admire, prancing, showy, sleek, like a Flemish picture of a
horse, rather clumsy and heavy; but he went well and quietly. Almeyda
is in ruins; a mere heap of rubbish! The works are being repaired, and
much is already done; but there is yet a great deal to do, and the
workmen, though well watched, seem very lazy. There are very good shops
among the ruins for the materials of all articles of wearing apparel;
these from Oporto, and not dear; cloth and baize of all sorts, linen,
stockings, but not a cup and saucer to be had, or a drinking-glass.
Most of the new work at Almeyda is at present only earth—slanting so
that you might run up in a storm, I think; but the masonry is going on,
and it would cost some men to storm it, if we defend it. At present
there is only a Portuguese garrison.
_Head-Quarters, Frenada, January 23rd, 1813._—I do not quite feel as
I did in England, nor can I make out that others do either. There
is a languor and laziness which seem in some degree catching from
the natives, as they have it in such perfection. We have had almost
constant frost or cold, fog and sleet, but in general clear cold days
ever since Christmas. It seems that we are likely to have some snow,
which hitherto we have only on the sierras and hills (where it lies
almost constantly), except a very few storms of snow which melted as
it fell; and then rain in February; then some warm days in March and
in April, with very cold mornings and nights, and some very cold days
again, even so late as in May at times. By-the-by, our English post
from all the different parts of the army, to each other, and to Lisbon,
is now in general in very good order, which saves me much trouble in
my extensive correspondence relative to the Courts-martial. I have
now also got through the great worry of the number of cases which
came upon me at once, and, though fully employed, business comes more
regularly. I have persevered in being civil and useful as far as I
could to every one, never objecting to anything, answering all queries,
and taking everything upon myself. I endeavour to model the whole as
it was arranged in England, before the Adjutant-general’s offices did
two-thirds of the business of Judge-Advocate. As I have no clerk,
and am not allowed a soldier, this at times presses me hard, but the
greatest stress is now over, though new cases come in regularly. I
yesterday sent in one against a Lieutenant-colonel, with six charges
and thirty-seven witnesses. I have another Commissary just come in
here as a prisoner, for purposely burning down a house, a mischievous
freak, when drunk.
I now dine out about three or four times in the week, generally once or
twice at head-quarters—and occasionally with Major and Mrs. Scobell,
who give very pleasant little dinners, and tender meat, and a loo
party afterwards. He is a clever man, in the Quarter-Master-general’s
department, and has the command of the corps of guides, and the
arrangement of the English post through the country.
The report current now is, that next campaign is to be in camp, and not
in towns and villages, as Lord Wellington wants to keep the army more
together than he can do in quarters; and unless he goes into camp, the
other Generals also leave their divisions and come into the towns. At
any rate, it will not be as it was last year, when the men went into
camp in February and March, as, from general rumour, the army will not
be in a state to move much before the end of April; nearly one-third
are still sick, and this state of things mends now but slowly; this I
observe from the general daily state of the whole army made for Lord
Wellington, which is kept most perfectly. The horses will not be ready
till they have had a month’s green food in March and April; straw, bad
hay, and a little Indian corn do not suit them for very active service.
I want a neat lantern sent out, to go out after dark in these horrible
villages, where if you go only a hundred yards in the dark you step
from a rock half up your legs in mud.
There is a shocking set of servants at head-quarters; idle, drunken
English servants and soldiers, almost all bad, and the Portuguese are
every day running off with something or other from their masters and
others. There has been no chaplain here for these last eight or nine
months, or any notice taken in any manner of Sunday! It used to be,
I hear, a very regular and imposing thing to attend divine service
performed out of doors with hats off, but the people must now think
we have no religion at all, as almost every public business goes on
nearly the same as on ordinary days. The English soldiers, however,
keep it as a holiday, though the Portuguese will many of them work,
particularly after three o’clock. We have had a glee or two with the
aides-de-camp of the Prince of Orange and some others. There is also
a Spanish Commissary who sings and plays the guitar very well. I wish
my violoncello were more portable, and, with a flute or two, we should
have a little music now and then here, in the evenings. They have asked
me to send for a collection of glees.
People here are all very sore about the Americans and our taken
frigates. I think we deserve it a little. Our contempt for our old
descendants and half brothers has always rather disgusted me, and with
some English is carried so far as not to be bearable. This reverse may
set matters right. The Americans have faults enough; we should allow
them their merits. Our sailors all thought the Americans would not dare
to look them in the face. I think the army rather rejoice, and laugh
aside at all this falling on the navy, as they bullied so much before.
I will not write to you of northern or English news, for it would be
absurd; you would, if I did, receive comments and observations on
what was nearly forgotten, or entirely altered, by the time my letter
reached you. I keep this paper under my business heap, and take it out
and scribble when anything occurs. Lord Wellington is to arrive to-day;
and I must get up my lesson for to-morrow, so adieu!
_Tuesday._—Lord Wellington arrived last night at six o’clock. I saw him
with the rest who happened to be in the market-place when he came. He
was looking well.
There is a great quantity of game around us, and the sportsmen supply
their tables. It is not mere sport here, but more like the case of
Robinson Crusoe, a matter of necessity. Nearly all our luxuries are
thus obtained. Commissary H——, two days since, went across the Coa
for about five hours, and brought home five hares, four couple of
cocks, three snipes, one partridge, and a rabbit. All these animals
are remarkably good here, except the partridges, which are nothing
in comparison to ours, and I think not so good as the French. Lord
Wellington, except presents now and then, buys up all we can get—gives
8_s._ for a hare, and so on. Turkeys are only to be had thirty miles
off: the price, which has been 25_s._, is now 14_s._ Powder and shot
are very scarce, only a little to be had now and then at Almeyda.
This you will think at the head-quarters of sixty thousand men rather
strange, but the same stuff which kills men will not bring down birds.
We have three odd sorts of packs of hounds here, and the men hunt
desperately: firstly, Lord Wellington’s, or, as he is called here, the
Peer’s; these are fox-hounds, about sixteen couple; they have only
killed one fox this year, and that was what is called mobbed. These
hounds, for want of a huntsman, straggle about and run very ill, and
the foxes run off to their holes in the rocks on the Coa. Captain
W—— goes out, stops the holes over-night, halloos, and rides away
violently. The ground is a light gravel and rock all over the country.
From a hard rock sometimes the horse gets up to his belly in wet
gravelly sand; thus we have many horses lamed, and some bad falls. The
next set of hounds are numerous,—greyhounds. The Commissary-general,
Sir R. Kennedy, is a great man in this way, and several others. And
thirdly, the Capitan Mor here, that is the principal man of the place,
has an old poacher in his establishment, with a dozen terriers,
mongrels, and ferrets, and he goes out with the officers to get
rabbits. Lord Wellington has a good stud of about eight hunters; he
rides hard, and only wants a good gallop, but I understand knows
nothing of the sport, though very fond of it in his own way. There will
soon, I hear, be good trout-fishing in the Coa and in the streams in
the ravines near it.
_Wednesday, January 27th._—It has happened just as I expected; I have
no time to add more, for I have three new cases to draw charges in,
and most troublesome ones too: one of four fellows, old commissariat
clerks I suppose turned off, who have been about the country living
by their wits, extorting provisions, forage, &c., from the Spaniards,
by frauds, false passports, &c., under pretence of acting for the
English and Portuguese Commissariat. There are thirty-seven enclosures
sent to me, papers taken upon them, all in Spanish, in general badly
written, and no translation. The case, it is to be feared, will never
be proved. I have got General O’Lalor to help me in this case. In
short, my hands are full again; and my report of the old stories
not made out. We occupy from Coria, Guinaldo, Vizeu, Covilhaon,
and even almost to Coimbra; hospitals at Celerico, Vizu, Coimbra a
few, Abrantes, and Santarem. I fear my Court-martial will be moved
farther off. Some additional attached Spaniards are to have their
head-quarters at Fuentes d’Onore to be about his Excellency, now that
he takes the command of the whole generals, &c., and General Vandeleur
and the famous Caçadores are to move from thence in consequence; the
arrangements, however, are not yet completed.
_Head-Quarters, Frenada, February 2nd, 1813._—Lord Wellington is
returned in high spirits and great good-humour with every one; and, in
spite of the number of deaths here, which are very formidable (between
four and five hundred every week for the last six), declares that he
shall take the field this year with nearly forty thousand British,
and, on the whole, with a hundred and fifty thousand of one sort or
other.
General Vandeleur is to go to Fuente Guinaldo, and the Courts-martial
will in future be there. It is about twenty-four miles off. I must
sleep out always, and shall thus lose one or two days’ post; this will
be inconvenient to me, and just now to the service, but it cannot
be avoided. The General is very good-humoured, and we are very good
friends; he has offered me a quarter, and a dinner, if I will bring my
bed. At present our weather is colder than ever, but generally clear
frost; the wind is excessively sharp. The ice yesterday on the road
would bear my horse; and the thermometer, at seven in the evening, was
four degrees below the freezing point; at night sometimes it is much
colder.
Two packets have just arrived; the last brought Lord Wellington the
last good news from Wilna. I have dined once at head-quarters since
Lord Wellington’s return, with Sumeil the Guerilla chief, looking
like a dirty German private dragoon, in a smart new cavalry jacket,
on one side of me, and Dr. Curtis, the Catholic head of the Salamanca
college (who has been sent off from Salamanca very lately), opposite
to me. The Spanish General O’Lalor treated Sumeil like a child, told
him what to do and eat; but he had, I conclude, dined long before, for
he ate little or nothing. Dr. Curtis seemed to be a clever, sensible,
gentleman-like priest. He said the French knew immediately of Lord
Wellington’s absence, but were not clear about it, and very anxious in
their inquiries to ascertain the fact. General Hill’s corps, who did
not share in the early siege of Rodrigo last year in January, nor the
wet bad work at Badajoz, are by far the most healthy part of the army,
and, next to them, the light division here. The fifth and seventh,
near Lamego, are the worst, and the Guards (the new comers) very
bad. General Hill has only about fourteen hundred in the hospital,
and about seven thousand fit for service. I suppose we shall have an
active campaign next year, if the whole be not put an end to by peace,
which is not improbable, if the Allies are not too unreasonable in
consequence of their successes. If Austria will join in dictating the
terms with Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain, they should be very
good for Europe; but if the devil Bonaparte be driven hard, he will
rouse himself, appeal to the vanity of the French, and recoil upon
us stronger than ever. The Gil Blas set of swindlers who went about
Spain with false papers and passes, raising the wind under pretence of
getting supplies for the British and Portuguese commissariat service
(one was a German, two Spaniards, and the fourth a Portuguese), I much
fear it will not be easy to convict.
_February the 3rd._—You must excuse my writing, for it is done at all
odd moments, as a relaxation from all my formal letters of business,
which require a good deal of method and order in a small compass not to
get into scrapes, such as sending witnesses to wrong places, &c. As I
have Courts sitting here at Fuente Guinaldo in the light division; at
Lamego, in the fifth; at Maimento, in the seventh; at Alter de Chaon;
at Coria, in the second division; at Maimento de Biera, in the third;
and at Lisbon; letters coming at all hours of the day about each, a
witness wanted here, a difficulty arising there, and so on; I can only
get on by keeping a book, in which I instantly put down the exact state
of everything, and keep copies of all my letters till the business is
over; and I make it a rule, if possible, to answer every letter by
return of post, as the only way not to get in arrear. I am very glad
that I persuaded my Court at Fuentes d’Onore to have patience, and let
me take down all the long love story I told you of, of the deserter
Prang Neigabauer. It was quite a pretty story. Lord Wellington
pardoned him, from the good character of his regiment, and that which
the Colonel gave him. The Prince of Orange is returned, and we are all
here again assembled in this magnificent town!
_5 o’clock._—I have been sent for twice to-day by Lord Wellington,
besides twice last night, and have so much on my hands about Spaniards,
Portuguese, and English, that I cannot add more.
_Head-Quarters, Frenada, February 7th, 1813._—There never were known
so many Courts-martial in this army as at the present moment, and as I
have the whole direction of them all, I really scarcely know where to
turn, and my fingers are quite fatigued, as well as my brains, with the
arrangements and difficulties as to witnesses, &c. I sent out seventeen
letters yesterday, and to-day I have one case of thirteen prisoners
who have been committing every sort of outrage on their march here.
Lord Wellington is now much more easy with me, and seems to trust to me
more. Yesterday I was pleased when he said, “If your friends knew what
was going on here, they would think you had no sinecure. And how do you
suppose I was plagued when I had to do it nearly all myself?”
He seemed to feel relieved, and of course I could not but feel
gratified. I can assure you, however, that we have none of us much idle
time. Dr. M’Gregor has seven hundred medical men to look after. The
Quarter-Master-general, all the arrangement of the troops, clothing,
&c. The Adjutant-general, daily returns of the whole, constantly
checked by an eye which finds out even a wrong casting-up of numbers in
the totals. Lord Wellington reads and looks into everything. He hunts
almost every other day, and then makes up for it by great diligence and
instant decision on the intermediate days. He works until about four
o’clock, and then, for an hour or two, parades with any one whom he
wants to talk to, up and down the little square of Frenada (amidst all
the chattering Portuguese) in his grey great coat.
General Alava, whom I have seen lately much more about Spanish
business, is a very gentleman-like, and appears to me to be a clever
man.
We have had constant frost hitherto; but I fear the rain is going now
to begin. Some of the days lately have been delightful, like the frosty
days in England at times at the end of February, with a fine clear warm
sun in the daytime.
I have just heard of five German deserters, brought in to the Provost
here; and shall, I suppose, have to try them. They were taken on the
other side of Rodrigo by the Spaniards; they are just come out to us
from England. Don Julian’s cavalry are very useful in this way, and
very active. The Cortes want to encourage farming in the country, and
will give land to any wounded soldiers of the allied armies, English as
well as natives, on condition of building and living on the spot.
General Wimpfen, one of the Chief’s new Spanish staff, is arrived, and
will be stationed with us.
At Ciudad Rodrigo they are going to set up a Spanish newspaper, which
is to come out once in a week: I mean to take it in. My new black
horse goes on hitherto very well; I like him much; but use him little.
Whenever I can, I get a gallop and a trot for an hour on the common
just close by, and return home to write again.
Excuse this stupid letter. I am very tired and must to bed.
On Thursday, the 11th, I go to Fuente Guinaldo, and shall probably
sleep there, at General Vandeleur’s.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Meaning Lieut.-General Sir Edward Paget, second in command, who was
taken prisoner in the retreat. Lord Paget, afterwards Earl of Uxbridge,
now Marquis of Anglesea, was not in the Peninsula at this time.