News of the French—Castilian Costume—Equipment of the Army—Melancholy
Court-martial Case—Wellington in the Battle of Fuentes d’Onore—The
Chances of War—Anecdotes of Wellington—His Opinions of the War—The New
Mutiny Act—Wellington on “Vetus”—General Murray—Advance of the French.
Head-quarters, Frenada, April 12, 1813.
MY DEAR M——,
From what I hear, if we could only get grass, Lord Wellington would
move about the second week in May. There is no immediate prospect of
this, as you will perceive, when I tell you that the Military Secretary
has sent all his horses nearly a hundred miles off for grass.
The news here is, that some more of the French, about twenty men
from every regiment, are ordered home. Some, but I believe no great
number hitherto, are actually gone: and about three or four thousand
conscripts are supposed to have arrived in Spain to fill up the
vacancies of the old soldiers removed. Head-quarters will not now
probably move until we march; and, from report, we shall not go to
Guinaldo, but stay here quietly until the army is drawn up around us,
ready to move.
The clergy, both here and in Spain, are in general, I understand,
fortunately of the same opinion as to the Pope’s signing the Concordat,
as you say the emigrants are; that he did it from compulsion, or that a
different instrument was substituted for his signature. It was feared
that artful plan would have assisted Bonaparte in Spain.
I hear the same accounts of the state of commerce at Lisbon as George
sends from London. Old Colonel Arentschild here says, “She (meaning
England) will make enough in Germany, by trade, to enable her, in the
first six months, to carry on the war for two years, if necessary.”
I fear the news in the papers concerning the Prince of Orange was
rather premature. He states, that he has hitherto had no offer except
from the Continent, nor heard anything from the newspaper. It will
prove a prophecy, I hope, instead of a fact. He seems a very amiable,
deserving youth, is liked by every one, and has had the greatest of
all advantages for a young prince, that of being educated in a great
measure with persons who have behaved to him as if he were their equal.
So, indeed, he is treated now; except that he has a little more respect
paid to him, which I believe is really felt, for he lives nearly on
terms of equality with Lord Fitzroy Somerset, Lord March, Colonel G——,
&c., and is quite one of the set, and is little or no restraint to
any one. I met him, two days ago, scrambling down on the banks of the
Coa, three miles off, by himself on foot. He must just now have some
interesting subjects for contemplation, and I have no doubt some very
flattering visions pass through his brain.
I am looking so much better than when I arrived at head-quarters, that
Lord Wellington and several others think I am an exception to the
general rule, and that the climate here agrees with me. Lord Wellington
says he has had so many ill and dead since he has been here, that he
does not like to think of it; many, like General Hulse, &c., whose loss
he feels in every way. He says now, he is always ready to let every one
go home when first he complains, and is disposed to tell every one who
looks ill to be off.
I have just seen some very handsome specimens of the Castilian dresses,
male and female, of the higher classes of rich peasantry, made I
believe, by a tailor from Salamanca. The three female dresses Lord
Wellington means to give to his nieces for masquerades; they are
covered with work—embroidery, lace, and gold; he gives two thousand
dollars for them. The man’s dress was for Lord March, and is certainly
most becoming to almost every one.
I must now go and consider the new intended Bill to punish our
offenders here, which Lord Beresford has sent for Lord Wellington
to consult him upon it, and he has sent it to me—the draught of the
intended Act I mean; and as every one makes some observation, I must
make a few also. So, for the present, adieu.
I never told you that some of our military great boys here got very
tipsy on the commemoration of the fall of Badajoz, and went to a poor
_Juge de Fores_, that is a Portugal law magistrate, who was on a visit,
and poured a bottle of blacking partly in his mouth, and partly over
him, at twelve at night; and then made him dress, and go and help break
poor C——’s only pane of glass, and upset his bed, as he had retired.
Soldiers, lawyers, and all, I see, are boys at times alike.
_April 13th._—Much too hot for hunting I should think; but all the
sportsmen are out. Lord Wellington has not got good horses to be idle;
he works them well. Besides all the hunting, &c., the day before
yesterday, after doing business until twelve o’clock, off he went by
himself, without saying a word to any one, across to Ciudad Rodrigo,
seventeen miles off, inspected all the works, and was back again here
in five hours and a half to dinner. He says that they are now going on
very well there, and seems to be a little anxious about his own town. I
suspect when we do move that we shall get on fast, for Lord Wellington
will like to pass the Douro before the French know his plans.
_Wednesday, April 14th, Post-day._—This will be but a stupid packet,
as I have no news or events here to communicate. General Castanos
arrived here yesterday in a great lumbering carriage, with eight mules
and ropes from Cadiz, on his way to his division. He called here for
instructions.
We have had in my own line another murder: a private grenadier of the
Buffs shot his officer, on their private parade at Placencia, in the
second division, from the window of his quarter, just opposite to that
of the officer, and just as he came out to the men, who were all there.
The officer was Lieutenant Annesley. The grenadier wounded a sergeant
at the same time, and was instantly secured. No quarrel or disagreement
was known, but he said that he was satisfied he had killed his enemy,
and the day before, when another man committed suicide, he said, “What
a fool, not to kill his enemy first, if he had one!” The officer is
well spoken of. The conduct of the grenadier resembles madness more
than anything else, yet they say he was not mad; I have just sent out a
charge against him, and an order for his trial.
Our own army is now quite clothed, I believe. I fear that the
Portuguese are only in the middle of theirs, and will not have finished
these three weeks. You have no notion what there is to be done before
an army like ours is fit to move in such a country as this. We have
been three months getting up these clothes from Lisbon for our men; the
tents have not yet arrived for head-quarters, and some say that only
the army are to use them. I suppose, however, that we must carry them.
Lord Tweeddale continues here as an amateur, and will probably advance
with us. When we march I may not be able to write so often, as our time
will be much occupied, and pen and ink will not be always at hand.
An order has just now come out to pay everything up to the 24th of
December, that the officers may have a little money to prepare for the
march.
_Head-Quarters, Frenada, April 17th, 1813._—The corn looks very ill
about this place, very thin, very yellow, and indeed positively very
bad crops. Whether this is, however, also only comparatively bad as
to other years I cannot say; it would appear to be so to some extent.
The soil is here very poor, and I suspect the harvest is never very
abundant. Several parts of Spain have this year suffered much from the
want of rain, and the very early heat of the weather; Estremadura in
particular: where the sun has been very powerful, everything has been
burnt up. My authority for this is General O’Donoghue.
In my own department I have another rather melancholy story. Mr. M——,
a clerk in the commissariat department, had been guilty of fraud and
embezzlement of stores (some pork, rice, and milk), to no great amount,
as far as I could prove under 20_l._; but it was sold out of the store
at Galigas, in a neighbouring village. By Lord Wellington’s orders I
made out a charge against M——, and sent it to him at Coimbra, with an
order from the Commissary for him to attend under close arrest at Cea
to take his trial, as the witnesses were near Galigas. Soon after the
receipt of this letter and order he shot himself, and has thus put an
end to the whole business. He was well connected in England, it is
said, has respectable friends, and was in a good situation there. A
woman with whom he lived here, I believe, was the cause of the whole.
When he turned her off she stirred up the witnesses against him, and
was the cause of its being made known to Sir R. Kennedy, and by his
means to Lord Wellington, when of course a prosecution was inevitable.
By the Mutiny Act he was liable to transportation for life, fine,
imprisonment, or pillory: and he could not stand the disgrace. He
partly admitted the charge, but pleaded sickness and distress. It was
unfortunate that the discovery fell on such a subject, for it was, I
believe, the first falling off from general good conduct.
I have now got a Court-martial in the fourth division, the only one
which has been hitherto free, to sit near Escalpaon, and to try three
fellows for going out at night and stealing seven sheep, keeping sentry
as a guard over the two shepherds, whilst they skinned the sheep and
divided the meat; two other men, of better characters, were with them,
and they are therefore to be admitted as witnesses against the three.
The Court at Coimbra has suffered the two worst fellows to escape
almost with twelve hundred lashes; they ought to have been hung, for
they are desperate fellows, both Irishmen. They have been most mutinous
and insolent whilst under trial, and one of them, a few days since,
said he did not know whether he was to be hung or flogged this time,
but if the latter, he would take care next time that there should be no
witnesses to tell of what he had done.
Lord Wellington said at dinner the day before yesterday, “We must move
by the end of the first week in May, that’s positive.” And then spoke
sharply to Colonel F—— of the artillery, because the artillery was
not arrived. The Colonel coolly replied, “My lord, I do not think the
artillery have been, or will be, the cause of your lordship staying at
Frenada. Transport is the great difficulty—animals are so scarce. The
Portuguese make much money, but are afraid of spending it, or getting
or breeding animals for fear of their being seized or embargoed.” An
engineer has been appointed and sent to each division, and a messenger
or Spanish courier (who arrived three days since in four days from
Cadiz post), was last night sent post round through Seville to Alicant.
Something, therefore, is in agitation, and all this looks like
preparation for moving. He expected to arrive at Alicant in eight days
at furthest, if not in seven.
Lord Wellington the other day was again talking of the battle of
Fuentes d’Onore. He said that he was obliged to ride hard to escape,
and thought at one time, as he was on a slow horse, that he should have
been taken. The whole of head-quarters, general and all, he added,
English dragoons and French dragoons, were all galloping away together
across the plain, and he more than once saw a French dragoon in a green
coat within twenty yards of him. One Frenchman got quite past them all,
and they could not knock him off his horse. At last they caught his
bridle and stopped him.
_21st April._—We sup early (as you call your late dinners) here,
and are as smart as you are in England in that respect. At present
half-past seven is the hour. We cannot change this hour till Lord
Wellington does, for business is now going on till six. We also beat
the most fashionable in London in one respect, for we have no female
society at all here. There is one lady here, Mrs. S——, and that is
all the English we see, once in a week perhaps; and then the men
preponderate so that the tone of the society is quite male. There
is one Portuguese lady, niece to the Capitan Mor here, or principal
resident inhabitant: but she is ugly, and said to be perfumed too
strongly with oily salt fish. She is no favourite, and is very little
noticed. Her little uncle hunts with Lord Wellington on a little
country pony, and does wonders in that way; he seems an active little
Portuguese.
Lieutenant-Colonel W——, in the Adjutant-general’s Department here,
who was ill when I joined, has now returned. He has had some curious
adventures in this country. He once fell in, accompanied by two
dragoons, with a small party of French, close to their main body, who
were attending some baggage. He, his men consenting, attacked the
French, beat them off, plundered their baggage, and brought off the
best mule. The latter he kept himself, and has it here now, and the
two soldiers took the money, &c. On another occasion, he was riding
quietly with Captain D——, of the same department, on the advance from
the lines at Torres Vedras on the retreat of Massena. They were quietly
jogging on, and were about to enter a place intended to be English
head-quarters that day. When close to it, they found the French were
still there in force, and saw three French dragoons close upon them,
who, however, did not see them. They resolved to attack by surprise.
They knocked two off from their horses, and attacked the third; he got
away and they pursued him. In the mean time the other two set off.
It ended, however, in W—— and D—— securing one dragoon horse, and
some other booty, with which they got safely away. Soon after this
Lieutenant-Colonel W—— was himself taken prisoner at Sabugal, when
the French advanced during the siege of Badajoz. He was then mounted
on this very dragoon horse, which he had kept as booty; the horse was
known by the French when he was carried in. He was asked how he came
by the horse? He said he bought it of a soldier; and as the three
Frenchmen had reported that they had been attacked by a “dozen men
in buckram,” and had said nothing of two officers, it all went off
well, and he kept their secret and his own. He refused to give his
parole, and was therefore ill fed, and kept prisoner with privates, and
treated like the rest, except that they let him ride Dragon, as he had
christened his horse.
Near Salamanca, a Spanish friend to whom he had been kind came to offer
his services to him: “Only get me a new pair of very sharp rowels to
my spurs,” said he, “that is all I want.” This was done, and on the
next day, the party, a whole French column of infantry, marched on at
daybreak about seven. Just near the end of the wood, near Salamanca,
in a wide open part of the road, he observed that most of the French
horsemen were dismounted; so turning about, he used his new rowels
strongly, got the start of them in some way, and was off. He galloped
till he heard no one behind him. At first there was a shout of “_Le
Mayo, le Mayo_,” and some pursued; he then crossed another road where
another French party was, got round by the mountains, reached, I think,
Tamones by eleven that night, and to Fuentes d’Onore next day safely.
The French had fed their horses in the fields at night on grass, and
were soon blown. He had refused to suffer his horse to leave him, and
gave him only a little bran, yet though his horse was a slow one too,
he thus got safely off. He has since sold the horse. Lord Wellington
asked him “Why?” He said, “Because, my lord, I was very near being
taken again on him when with your lordship at the battle of Fuentes
d’Onore, and that would be awkward, as the horse is known by the
French.” He seems an odd character.
The Commissaries all live here exceedingly well, the Lord knows how out
of their pay; and that ought to be nearly their only advantage.
_Frenada, Head-Quarters, April 24, 1813._—Four Generals have
arrived—Graham, Fane, Picton, and Oswald: Sir Stapleton Cotton, who
has received orders to command the whole cavalry, has, however, not
yet arrived, and is much wanted; but Graham and Picton are very good
officers.
Lord Wellington, a few days since, said that he hoped the Spaniards
were in many respects getting on much better; that there was a numerous
body now well clothed at least, and armed and tolerably disciplined;
that he was always ordering the drills to go on with spirit, and
by perseverance he thought they were much improving; that he never
interfered with the mode, but asked what their military rules and laws
were, and then said, “Well, that is very good; now mind and see that
they are put in force, and, remember, it is not I but your law orders
this; I have only to see your laws executed, which are very good, and
they must be obeyed.” He said, the Staff here seemed well satisfied.
The artillery is what Lord Wellington rails at most. They cannot get
on so well as he thinks they ought, or at least as he wants them to
do. I do not mean in particular at this moment, but generally. The
officers commanding this part of the army are rather heavy and slow,
or, as Lord Wellington said himself one day of a late commander, “I
took care to let him feel that I thought him very stupid.” “That must
have been,” General Murray said privately, “by telling him so in plain
terms, I have no doubt.” Colonel F——, who commanded the artillery at
the battle of Salamanca, and who is very well spoken of by every one,
but at times, I believe, is slow, was once with Lord Wellington at an
audience when things went wrong, and Lord Wellington got irate, who
told him pretty nearly that his friend concerning whom he was inquiring
“might go to h—.” Colonel F—— came muttering out, “I’ll go, Sir, to the
Quarter-Master-general for a route,” which Lord Wellington heard, and
laughed at well.
General Murray says that on hunting-days he could get almost anything
done, for Lord Wellington stands whip in hand ready to start, and soon
despatches all business. Some of the Generals, Lord Wellington observed
one day, used to come and hunt and then get on business, and get him to
answer things in a hasty way, which he did not intend, but which they
acted upon. “Oh, d—— them,” said he, “I won’t speak to them again when
we are hunting.” Colonel F——’s friend on his route to his destination
would have found plenty of fuel but less green forage than we have here.
By all accounts the first day after we were in Badajoz, the scene was
very shocking in every way. Nothing but dead and wounded on all sides,
and drunkenness and plunder in all directions. Even Lord Wellington,
when in the street with his staff, was followed by drunken soldiers,
continually firing feux-de-joie over his head with ball-cartridges, and
never thinking where the balls went.
The Portuguese Government have got bolder, and have tried some of our
people by their laws, when caught in the act, and have sent two or
three of them to the coast of Africa. If this were generally known,
it would do more good, I believe, than our flogging. Lord Wellington
said formerly, that their government always declined trying our people
themselves, but now they generally accepted the offer when made.
Lieutenant K——, of the Guards, who was tried and acquitted last week of
ordering a sentry to fire and killing a native, was very much alarmed
lest the Portuguese should try him, as it was at first agreed. It was a
hasty act on his part, but there was a slight riot, and I think in law
he was properly acquitted, for he was struck with a stone by some one
in the mob which was collected.
My cases are now rather increasing again, I think, and will probably
continue until we march. I have had two very blackguard officers to
try in the Royal Drivers’ corps. Sheep-stealing has now succeeded to
pig-shooting, as pork is out of season. The horses are now like mad
when turned out, and are scampering all over the country.
I had a long conversation with Lord Wellington yesterday. After
discussing our business up and down the market-place, he said that
“the want of rain began to be very alarming; but that as soon as the
pontoons arrived he would be off. The heavy artillery have started two
or three days since from Castello Branco, and will be here by the 31st.
The pontoons are stuck somewhere on the road.” He discussed the war
here, and in the North, with me: observing that, “a country ought to
think well before it undertook to do what Spain did; that, certainly,
Spain and Portugal were the fittest places to try the experiment of a
battle for the mere soil, because in general there was nothing else in
the country much worth fighting for, or which could be much damaged.”
“As, for instance,” he added, “what is this village worth? burn it,
and a few hundreds would make it as good as ever with a little labour;
but now,” he continued, “he believed that a great portion of the
Spaniards began to be very anxious to bring the business to a close;
they had rather that we should beat out the French and be off, but,
next to that, they had sooner the French beat us out, and had quiet
possession, than that such a war as that of the last three years
should be continued.” He said “he thought the Cortes were going on
ill; that they were unpopular, knew it, and did not know how to set
about becoming otherwise; that he disapproved of their meddling with
the royal feudal tithes, or church property, and particularly with the
elections of the next assembly, with which he thought they had nothing
to do. They have declared the elections of one district all void, from
some informality, and as the new elections have run much upon priests,
they have been trying to make these void, as being within the clause
concerning placemen in their constitution—‘that no placeman was to be
elected for his own district.’ However,” he continued, “in the present
state of things all the real and urgent business, and what is now the
most material, namely, all relating to the army and the war, is done
here, at Frenada, and let them squabble at Cadiz; if they will leave us
alone, I don’t care. Portugal is for some time quite safe and out of
the scrape, and if things go on well I think Spain will be out of the
scrape also.” “But,” he added, “he should be almost sorry to see such
a war as this has been carried on all over Germany, where there is so
much to destroy, and to be lost.”
In spite of the poverty of the country and the difficulty as to
obtaining bullocks, we have somehow or other collected one thousand
here to begin the campaign with: I hear one hundred and fifty fine ones
for the artillery.
_April 26th._—I am kept going to the last minute. A number of new cases
are come in, and I am very busy again; the more so, as the time is so
short, and so uncertain when all my Courts are to break up. I cannot
get below a dozen cases in hand, for new ones arise faster than I try
the old ones.
I have just heard from Coimbra, that one Court-martial is broken up by
a division of cavalry moving down to Oporto. I do not quite understand
this, but conclude that they will pass the river somewhere below,
and so march through the Tras os Montes, and join us again on the
other side of the Douro, and have a good untouched country to advance
through—otherwise this does not look like a march. No one knows,
however, and probably I know as much as the Adjutant-General. I must
now write to Lord Wellington; this movement at Coimbra has disturbed
two of my Coimbra cases very much.
The new Mutiny Act has been sent out to me. There are several changes,
one I see which I suggested; but the business is very much bungled.
The Mutiny Act and Articles of War are now at variance, as the latter
have not been altered with the former. By the first, an officer may be
tried here by a Court of seven members; by the articles, there must be
thirteen.
Some of the fifth division have, I hear, moved across the Douro at
Lamego. This confirms the opinion I have given above, especially as
D’Urban’s Portuguese cavalry are all north of the Mondego, and have
been some time there. This will disturb another of my Courts. Lord
Wellington says, that the witnesses must follow and try and catch the
Court; but I am no hunter, and shall try to remove the case to another
place. I dine with Lord Wellington.
_Head-Quarters, Frenada, Saturday May 1st, 1813._—This last week I
have again been very busy, and shall remain so, no doubt, until we
move. This will probably be in a week or so, for our wings are in
motion. The cavalry round by Oporto, as I mentioned before, and some
Portuguese infantry, under Colonel Hamilton, are advancing to Alcantara
from near Portalegre and Eloss. We shall soon be drawing together, but
head-quarters, I have very little doubt, will be the last to move.
We have just got the “_Spanish Gazette_,” of Seville, with Elio’s
letter, stating the victory gained by General Murray near Alicant,
and his driving Suchet back with loss, through Bejar and Villana to
Fuente Higuera. I conclude you will have heard this in England before
this reaches you. We have no English account, but Lord Wellington
seems to consider it very good news. He came running into the Military
Secretary’s room, where I was yesterday, to communicate this, saying,
“Murray has beat Suchet, Fitzroy.” I always expected the fighting would
begin in that quarter this campaign. We got also yesterday from Lisbon
the almost incredible good news that Austria had agreed to join the
Allies with eighty thousand men in Germany, and one hundred thousand
in Italy, and that Davoust and Grenier had been again defeated. Lord
Wellington seems rather to give credit to all this. Poor Bony will go
mad if it should prove all to be true.
A few days since at dinner at Lord Wellington’s, he got upon the
subject of “Vetus.” He said, “He thought he knew the author, and that
he had been in India—not Mackintosh, as reported here.” He then went on
to say, “he did not think much of Vetus’s letters:[3] that many of his
facts as to this country were quite without foundation; that neither
Vetus, nor the O. P.’s, nor Lord Wellesley, knew anything about the
war here, and what could or could not be done; that he fully believed
Government had done all they could; that the men who did come could
not have been here sooner, and perhaps had better have come still
later; that more cavalry he could not have employed, had he had them at
Lisbon, for want of transport for food; that when he advanced formerly
to Talavera, he left several thousand men at Lisbon, because he could
not supply them had they been with the army; that even now he could not
have brought up the Hussar brigade into the field, unless by draughting
home the three regiments whose men he lately had sent back, and thus
setting at liberty their transport; that the Guards, Life and Blues,
he knew of some time since, and sent five months ago to Estremadura to
collect mules for their supply; that every two dragoons employed a mule
to feed the men and horses, and that all this difficulty in the detail
was quite unknown at home. In short, he said, Lord Wellesley knew
nothing about the matter, and he had no reason to be dissatisfied with
Government at home.” All this made several of us stare. I am told that
Lord Wellington was very angry with Lord Wellesley for his resignation,
and hardly spoke to any one for some days after he had heard the fact.
Lord Paget has just sent up here two of the Hussars, a corporal and
a private, to wait as orderlies on my lord the peer; two very fine
fellows. This was done out of compliment. They will only be ruined at
head-quarters, which is a terrible place for soldiers and servants;
over-pay, great idleness, and every third house a vine-house.
I have just read Mrs. M. A. Clark and the Messrs. Fitzgerald’s, &c.,
which Lord Fitzroy Somerset sent me by desire of Lord Wellington. It is
a curious production, and very ingenious as I understand it, merely as
a punishment on the Chancellor of the Exchequer for not letting her
profit by the Treasury, and, at the same time, a strong inducement to
all others in her favour, held over their heads _in terrorem_, not to
be guilty of equal ingratitude; that is, not to neglect making up her
deficiencies in cash when a hint has been given them of the necessity.
_May 2nd._—Lord Wellington, I hear is to go to-day to General Cole’s
division, the fourth, near the Figuiera, above Castello Rodrigo, and
near Eschalo. He sends his hounds over the six leagues to-day: they
hunt there to-morrow. On Tuesday he is to review the fourth division,
and return here to dinner at Frenada afterwards. Lord Wellington said,
some days since, he would move on the 5th of May: some of the army
may, and will, I have no doubt; but I do not think _we_ shall before
the 10th. Ho one knows, however; and I dare say no one will know until
the day before, when all will be in a bustle. I hope we shall not set
out in this weather, however, which continues constant cold, rain, and
wind. By watching sharp, I can generally get an hour’s ride dry; but it
will be rather dismal work to start on a long march in this wet, and
it would, from the state of the roads, knock up the mules too much at
first, when I take it they will have far enough to go.
If the news from Austria be true, and General Murray has really beaten
Suchet in an English and not merely in a Spanish fashion, the French,
when they hear we have crossed the Douro, will probably go at once
behind the Ebro, carrying all they can with them that is moveable and
worth carriage. At present, however, their plan seems to be, to try to
make a stand on the Douro first. They are evidently receding gradually
from Madrid.
_Later._—I have just heard that part of my gossip of head-quarters is
not correct. Lord Wellington has got a cold, and has determined not to
go to General Cole to-day, though the weather has now cleared up.
_May 3rd, Monday._—Lord Wellington is rather worse to-day, I hear, and
does not leave Frenada. I hope his review will be quite put off. He
has, I believe, only a bad cold. We have still no further news from
Alicant: at Cadiz they had only seen the same account that we have. Mr.
Wellesley says that the people were in high spirits about it there,
though I suspect that some of the Spaniards did not behave well. The
allied loss is reported to be nine hundred, that of the French at two
thousand. If we could kill off at this rate, and make the Spaniards
bear a fair share, this would do very well. I have since heard from
Colonel C—— that it is supposed Elio’s troops behaved ill, and threw
away their arms. Elio’s corps had received orders not to fight, but to
unite with General Murray: he was just about to do so, and part of his
corps was on his left, but too far distant, and gave way when attacked.
The orders were, for all the corps, Elio’s, Del Parque’s, &c., to unite
with General Murray without a battle. General Murray will scarcely be
able to do much (if he has beat Suchet) with his small force, if he
cannot trust the Spaniards. I hope, however, Whittingham’s corps has
behaved well.
_May 4th, Tuesday._—Lord Wellington has just got eight of the Prince
Regent’s grey stallions up from Lisbon to draw his carriage on the
march: they are small, but showy, little, prancing, round-carcassed
animals. They have the same mark as is on my black horse from Machacha;
but mine beats them in beauty. To-day they were tried, and not having
been for some time, or ever, in harness, or not liking the country so
well as Lisbon, they would not for a long time go at all. One reared
up and fell backwards twice, clean over, and one got astride the pole.
They got on better, however, at last, and did not break the carriage
as I expected. Lord Wellington’s six old large mules would do the work
much better, though they are not so showy for Spain.
I saw Lord Wellington to-day, he said he was much better; but has
apparently a heavy, bad cold.
_May 5th._—Here we are, still mum, as I expected; and the reason for
it is now said to be that the pontoons are not yet arrived. They left
Castello Branco May the 1st only, and, it is said, cannot reach this
place before the 9th. Monday the 10th is now talked of; I think,
however, it may be still Thursday next, the day after the post-day
again, before we stir; most people say, however, Tuesday the 11th; much
may depend on news. Of course, Lord Wellington must be very anxious to
know the true state of the North of Europe before we start; and the
present strong south-west gales are much against our hearing soon; he
also wishes to know the exact effect of the fight at Alicant. I dined
yesterday at head-quarters, and Lord F. Somerset told me that they had
more irregular accounts of the latter business, and that they became
less and less satisfactory. It was understood that the Spaniards, when
first attacked alone, were charged and quite cut up by the French—_muy
mal tratado_, is the Spanish private account; and one whole regiment,
I am told, surrendered. Three regiments are considered to be _mis hors
de combat_. Our army, it appears, did certainly afterwards at last
beat back a French partial attack with loss; but our vanguard had been
beaten back before, and the loss in our army, English and Sicilians,
without Spaniards, was nine hundred. This will not do; still it is to
be hoped that Whittingham’s people behaved better.
Lord Wellington dined at table again yesterday, and was much better.
I sat next to him on one side and the Prince of Orange on the other,
as there happened to be no other grandees there; and we had much
conversation. This has happened two or three times lately, when I
have been there, and there are few besides his own establishment
present. He always calls the two who are on his right and left, and
Campbell settles the rest. Lord F. Somerset sent me yesterday a little
pamphlet of Lord Wellington’s, containing the account of the Russian
retreat—rather a catchpenny, I think; and, though not exceeding the
Russian gazettes in the number of French prisoners, adding several
rather incredible details, such as the French crawling into the fires
like gnats into a candle, without being sensible of their danger, &c.
The French, who had quitted Toledo altogether, have again advanced,
and occupied it with much the same force as before, to the great
discomfiture of the junta there, who thought the “_Esclaves_” (as they
call them in the account of the Alicant battle) were gone for good and
for ever. To-day Lord Wellington keeps the anniversary of the battle of
Fuentes d’Onore, and all present at that battle are to dine with him.
_5th (Later)._—Since writing the above, I have received a case of a
deserter from the Isla de Leon. Two years since he deserted to the
French, and persuaded others to go with him. As no time is now to be
lost, I have drawn the charge and sent the whole off to Lamego for
trial directly. My only Court which has as yet moved, or had orders to
move, is that at Coimbra, who are cavalry, and are now at Oporto. I
have sent Mr. Commissary D——, from Coimbra, there to be tried, for a
breach of orders; and a number of witnesses are all gone with him on
both sides to Oporto: I only hope they may not, by any sudden order,
have all their march for nothing. We have now, since Christmas, tried
eighty cases, and there are still ten in hand, besides about thirty
which have come to nothing.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] If the letters of Vetus were written, as was supposed, by Lord
Wellesley, it is quite clear that Lord Wellington was ignorant of the
fact.—ED.