The Earl of Peterborough had not satisfied himself with depriving the
enemy of all information as to his advance. He took steps to confuse and
alarm them by false news. By means of large bribes he prevailed upon two
peasants to carry each a copy of the same letter to Colonel Jones, who
commanded in San Matteo. He took the further step of insuring their
loyalty by arresting their families as hostages, and, moreover, took
care that they should know nothing as to the real state of things that
they could report if treacherously inclined.
He arranged that one of them should go in first and, passing through the
besiegers' lines, should arouse their suspicions, and should then, when
arrested, give up the letter concealed upon him, and should also betray
the route by which his companion was endeavoring to reach the city,
so that the second messenger would also be captured and his letter be
taken. The letters were as follows:
“To COLONEL JONES: You will hardly believe yourself what this letter
informs you of, if it come safe to you; and though I have taken the best
precaution, it will do little prejudice if it falls into the enemy's
hands, since they shall see and feel my troops almost as soon as they
can receive intelligence, should it be betrayed to them. The end for
which I venture it to you is that you may prepare to open the furthest
gate toward Valencia, and have four thousand Miquelets ready, who
will have the employment they love and are fit for, the pursuing and
pillaging a flying enemy. The country is as one can wish for their
entire destruction. Be sure, upon the first appearance of our troops and
the first discharge of our artillery, you answer with an English halloo,
and take to the mountains on the heights with all your men. The Conde
de las Torres must take the plains, the hills on the left being almost
impassable, and secured by five or six thousand of the country people.
But what will gall him most will be the whole regiment of Nebot, which
revolted to us near Valencia, is likewise among us.
“I was eight days ago myself in Barcelona, and I believe the Conde de
las Torres must have so good intelligence from thence that he cannot be
ignorant of it. What belongs to my own troops and my own resolutions
I can easily keep from them, though nothing else. You know the force I
have, and the multitudes that are gathering from all parts against us,
so I am forced to put the whole into this action, which must be decided
to give any hopes to our desperate game. By nine or ten, within an hour
after you can receive this, you will discover us on the tops of the
hills, not two cannon shot from their camp.
“The advantages of the sea are inconceivable, and have contributed to
bring about what you could never expect to see, a force almost equal
to the enemy in number, and you know that less would do our business.
Besides, never men were so transported as to be brought in such secrecy
so near an enemy. I have near six thousand men locked up this night
within the walls of Traguera. I do not expect you will believe it till
you see them.
“You know we had a thousand foot and two hundred dragoons in Tortosa.
Wills and a thousand foot English and Dutch came down the Ebro in boats,
and I embarked a thousand more at Tarragona when I landed at Vinaroz,
and the artillery from thence I brought in country carts. It was easy
to assemble the horse. Zinzendorf and Moras are as good as our own,
and with our English dragoons make up in all near two thousand. But the
whole depends upon leaving them a retreat without interruption.
“Dear Jones, prove a good dragoon, be diligent and alert, and preach the
welcome doctrine to your Miquelets, plunder without danger.
“Your friend, PETERBOROUGH.”
The two letters fell into the hands of Las Torres, and so artfully had
the capture been contrived, that it never occurred to him to doubt the
truth of these mendacious documents. Orders were instantly given to
prepare for a march, and almost at the same time two events occurred in
the siege works which caused confusion of the troops. Several mines had
been unskillfully sunk and charged; one of these prematurely exploded
and destroyed forty of the workmen. The remaining mines Colonel Jones
contrived to swamp by turning the course of a brook into them, thus
rendering them harmless. While the troops were confused with these
disasters, the news of the contents of the intercepted letters spread
through the camp, causing a general panic; and almost immediately
afterward the advance guard of Peterborough's force were seen, according
to the promise contained in the letters, on the crests of the hills.
By able management the twelve hundred men were made to appear vastly
more numerous than they were. The dragoons showed in various parties
at different points of the hilltops, and, after pausing as if to
reconnoiter the camp, galloped back as if to carry information to a main
body behind; while the infantry availed themselves of the wooded and
uneven ground to conceal their weakness. It seemed, indeed, to the enemy
that the tops of all the hills and the avenues of approach were covered
by advancing columns. Las Torres, unsuspicious of stratagem, was now
convinced that his position was one of extreme danger, while confusion
reigned in the camp. The tents were hastily struck, the guns spiked, and
in a few minutes the Spanish army started along the Valencia road in a
retreat which might almost be called a flight.
Colonel Jones, seeing the confusion that reigned, instantly sallied from
the town with his whole force in pursuit, and followed Las Torres for
nearly two leagues to Penasol, inflicting a loss of nearly three hundred
men upon the Spaniards; while Peterborough on the other side marched his
force through the abandoned intrenchments and into the town. Scarcely
halting, however, he made a show of pursuit as far as Albocazer, but
always keeping to the hills with such caution that in case the enemy
should learn his weakness, his retreat would still be secured. While on
the march a courier overtook him with two dispatches--the one from
King Charles, the other from the English resident with the court at
Barcelona.
The king told him that he would be obliged to countermand the
reinforcements he had promised him for the relief of San Matteo, in
consequence of the unfavorable state of affairs elsewhere. It,
however, conveyed to Peterborough something which he valued more than
reinforcements, namely, full power to act in accordance with his own
discretion. The dispatch from the British resident told him that news
had come that the Duke of Berwick, with the main army of France, freed
by the retreat of Lord Galway from all trouble on the western side of
Spain, was in full march for Catalonia.
The Prince of Serclaes, with four thousand men, watched the small
garrison at Lerida; the Duke of Noailles, with eight thousand French
troops from Roussillon, threatened Catalonia on a third side; while
Philip and Marshal Tesse had collected ten thousand men at Madrid. The
letter concluded with the words: “There is nothing here but distrust,
discontent, and despair.”
The responsibility left by the king's letter upon Peterborough was
great indeed. On the one hand, if he did not return to the defense of
Catalonia, the king might be exposed to imminent danger; and, on the
other, if he repassed the Ebro he might be accused of having left
Valencia and its loyal inhabitants to their fate, and would have
forfeited all the advantages that his audacity and skill had already
gained.
His difficulties in any case were enormous. His infantry were marching
almost barefooted; they were clothed in rags. The season was inclement,
the country mountainous and rough, and the horses of the dragoons so
exhausted that they could scarcely carry their riders. In obedience to
his instructions, here, as at Tortosa, he assembled his officers in a
council of war and asked their opinion. They were unanimous in saying
that, with the small and exhausted force under his orders, no further
operation could be undertaken for the conquest of Valencia, but that the
little army should post itself in such a position as might afford the
greatest facility for protecting the king.
Peterborough had thus on one side not only the difficulty of the
position, but the opinion of the council of war against a further
advance; but on the other hand he knew the anxiety of the king that
help should be given to the Valencians. He therefore announced to his
officers a resolution as desperate as that ever formed by a sane man.
He had listened gravely and in silence while the officers gave their
opinion, and then ordered that the footsore infantry, with a few of
the horse, should march back to Vinaroz, a little town on the seaside a
day's journey from Tortosa, where in case of necessity they might embark
in boats and be taken off to the ships. Then, to the stupefaction of
his officers, he announced his intention of himself proceeding with the
remaining dragoons, about a hundred and fifty in number, to conquer the
province of Valencia!
In vain the officers remonstrated, the earl was firm. The council
then broke up, and the troops prepared for their march in opposite
directions.
The parting of Peterborough and his officers was very sad, for they
doubted not it was a final one.
“I will yet endeavor,” he said, “however our circumstances seem
desperate, to secure the kingdom of Valencia; and since the king has
thought conquest possible in this present case, he cannot complain of my
motions, however rash they might appear. I am resolved, therefore, never
to repass the Ebro without positive orders from him.”
Before starting the earl wrote to Charles and explained fully his
intentions. It is evident from the tone of his letter that Peterborough
did not expect to survive this extraordinary expedition. The language
is grave and firm, and, though respectful, full of stronger remonstrance
and more homely advice than often reaches kings. It concluded:
“I have had but little share in your councils. If our advance had
been approved, if your majesty had trusted us... if your majesty had
permitted me to march into the kingdom of Valencia, when I so earnestly
desired it, without making me stay under pretense of the march of
imaginary troops; if your majesty would have believed me on that
occasion, your majesty would have had this time not only a viceroy of
Valencia but the kingdom. With what force I have I am going to march
straight to Valencia. I can take no other measures, leaving the rest to
Providence. The time lost (so much against my inclination) exposes me to
a sacrifice, at least I will perish with honor, and as a man deserving a
better fate.”
The earl now again sent orders to one thousand Spanish foot and three
hundred horse, which had before been nominally placed at his disposal,
but had never moved from the town in which they were garrisoned, to
follow him into Valencia; and at the same time he wrote to Colonel Wills
to march immediately with a like number of English horse and foot to his
assistance.
The king, on the receipt of Peterborough's letter, issued positive and
peremptory orders that the Spanish troops were at once to be set in
motion. Colonel Wills wrote in reply that an important action had taken
place at San Esteban de Litera on the 26th and 27th of January, between
General Conyngham with his brigade and the Chevalier d'Asfeldt, in
which, after a bloody contest, the French were driven from the field
with a heavy loss of killed, wounded, and prisoners, the allies had
also suffered serious loss, and General Conyngham had received a mortal
wound. The command, therefore, had devolved upon himself.
Having seen the infantry march off, Peterborough, attended only by his
two aides de camp, took his place at the head of his handful of cavalry
and proceeded on his desperate enterprise--an enterprise the most
extraordinary that has ever taken place between enemies of an equal
degree of civilization. It was a war of a general with a small escort,
but literally without an army, against able officers with thousands of
disciplined troops and numerous defensible towns and positions, against
enormous difficulties of country, against want and fatigue in every
shape, and above all, against hope itself.
And yet no one who had witnessed that little body march off would
have supposed that they were entering upon what seemed an impossible
expedition--an expedition from which none could come back alive. Worn
out and sorry as was the appearance of the horses, ragged and dirty that
of their riders, the latter were in high spirits. The contagion of the
extraordinary energy and audacity of their chief had spread among them;
they had an absolute confidence in his genius, and they entered upon the
romantic enterprise with the ardor of schoolboys.
Not less was the spirit of the two young aides de camp. Before starting
the earl had offered them the option of marching away with the infantry.
“It is not that I doubt your courage, lads, for I marked you both under
fire at Montjuich, but the fatigues will be terrible. You have already
supported, in a manner which has surprised me, the work which you have
undergone. You have already borne far more than your full share of the
hardships of the campaign, and I have, in my dispatches, expressed a
very strong opinion to the government as to the value of the services
you have rendered. You are both very young, and I should be sorry to see
your lives sacrificed in such an enterprise as that I am undertaking,
and shall think no less of you if you elect now to have a period of
rest.”
The young men had, however, so firmly and emphatically declined to leave
him that the earl had accepted their continued service.
The cavalry, instead of keeping in a compact body, were broken up into
parties of ten, all of whom followed different roads, spreading, through
every hamlet they passed, the news that a great army, of which they were
the forerunners, was following hotly behind. So that should any peasants
favorable to Philip's cause carry the news to Las Torres, that general
would be forced to believe that he was being pursued by a veritable
army. Many stragglers of the retreating force were picked up and handed
over to the peasantry to be sent as prisoners into Catalonia.
For the most part the little parties of cavalry were well received by
the populace; the majority of Valencians were in favor of King Charles,
and that night, when they halted, the weary horses obtained ample
supplies of grain and forage, and the troopers were made welcome to the
best the villages afforded.
A few extra horses were purchased by Peterborough during the day, and
it was well for his aides de camp that it was so, for scarcely had
they finished their meal than Peterborough ordered them again into the
saddle. They were to ride by crossroads right and left to the villages
where the different detachments had been ordered to halt, and to
tell them the routes marked out for them by which they would again
concentrate at midday, so as to ride in comparatively strong force
through a small town on the main road, whence news might, not
improbably, be sent on to Las Torres. After that they were again to
disperse and pervade the country.
Jack and Graham carried out these orders, taking guides from each
village through which they passed to the next, and it was near midnight
before they had finished their work. At four in the morning every
detachment was in motion, and at noon the troop was again concentrated.
Here the earl learned that a detachment of the enemy had remained behind
at Alcala, and, instead of carrying out his previous plan, he rode
straight with the whole of his dragoons to that town. When he approached
it he divided his force into three bodies, which entered the place
simultaneously by different gates, and the Spanish detachment, two
hundred strong, at once laid down their arms.
Evening was now approaching, and as the horses and dragoons were utterly
worn out, Peterborough halted for the night. He at once called together
the principal inhabitants, and informed them that he required all the
horses in the town, with such saddlery as they could obtain, to be
collected and forwarded for his use to a point he named.
The next morning the march was continued. Las Torres had continued his
flight, and this was hastened when he heard of the capture of Alcala. He
pushed through the town of Borriol and hastened on to Villa Real, a town
strongly favorable to King Charles. It opened its gates, however, on
the solemn promise of Las Torres to respect the life and property of the
inhabitants; but no sooner had his troops entered than he gave the order
for a general massacre and the sack of the town. This ferocious order
was executed, and very few of the inhabitants escaped with their lives.
The following day, on the news coming in from various points in his rear
that the enemy were pressing after him, he marched his dispirited army
to Nules, where the inhabitants were well affected. In answer to his
appeal a thousand of the citizens enrolled themselves and undertook
to defend the town till the last against the English. Having assured
himself of their earnestness Las Torres inspected the muster, and,
having viewed all the dispositions for defense, continued his
flight. Nules was fortified by strong walls flanked with towers, the
fortifications were in an excellent state of defense, and the town could
have resisted a siege by a considerable army.
On arriving at Villa Real the British were horrified at the hideous
massacre which had taken place. They went from house to house and found
everywhere the bodies of the slaughtered inhabitants, and the ardor of
the dragoons was, if possible, heightened by the sight. They made but a
short stay here and then galloped on to Nules. As they neared the town
a fire of musketry was opened from the walls, but, wholly disregarding
this, the earl at the head of his men dashed up to the gates and
demanded, in an imperious tone, that the principal inhabitants should
assemble and hold parley with him.
The boldness of the earl's manner and the imperative tone in which he
spoke so astonished the citizens on the walls that they ceased firing,
and sent for their magistrates and priests. When these assembled on the
wall Peterborough told them in an angry tone that he gave them only
six minutes for deliberation, and that if they offered the slightest
resistance he would repeat at Nules the massacre which Las Torres
had carried out at Villa Real. He added that, unless they instantly
surrendered, he would blow down their walls the moment his artillery and
engineers arrived. The terror stricken magistrates at once summoned the
town council, and, upon their repeating Peterborough's terrible threats,
it was resolved at once to surrender, and the six minutes had scarcely
elapsed when the gates fell back on their hinges, and Peterborough and
his dragoons entered the town in triumph.
Here the wearied band enjoyed a rest for some days, Peterborough
spreading the alarm, which his presence excited, by giving orders that
great quantities of provisions and forage should be brought in from
all directions for the supply of the large army which he stated to be
following at his heels. As it never occurred to any one that he could
be pursuing an army of seven thousand men through a hostile country
with only a handful of dragoons, his statements were not doubted. The
requisitions were complied with, and provisions and stores poured into
the town.
Las Torres at Almenara, where he had again perpetrated a horrible
massacre, heard the news of great preparations that Peterborough was
making for the supply of his army, and considering his position to be
unsafe again retreated hastily.
At Nules two hundred horses were found and at once appropriated for the
use of the army. With a portion of his force Peterborough rode out to
Castillon de la Plana, an open town of some size, where the people were
well affected to the Austrian cause. Here he secured four hundred more
horses, at the same time assuring both friends and foes that his
army was driving the enemy out of the kingdom. On entering Nules,
Peterborough had sent orders for Lord Barrymore's regiment of British
infantry, at that time under the command of Colonel Pierce, to march
from Vinaroz, where they had been sent with the rest of the infantry
from San Matteo to Oropesa, a town about nine miles from Castillon,
where he had collected all the horses he had obtained during his march.
When the news reached Nules of the arrival of this regiment at Oropesa,
Lord Peterborough at once rode over. The regiment was formed up for his
inspection; it had marched with the greatest speed, and the men were
worn out and footsore with their long tramp over the stony hills. After
inspecting them the earl paid them a high compliment upon their past
achievements, and concluded by expressing his wish that they had but
horses and accouterments to try whether a corps of so high a character
would maintain their reputation in the novelty of mounted service.
The joke of their eccentric general seemed but a poor one to the
footsore and almost shoeless men, but they were astonished when Jack
rode forward and presented to each of the officers a commission,
which he had drawn out in the earl's name, as cavalry officers. Their
astonishment was changed to delight when Peterborough marched them to
the brow of the hill where they stood, and they saw eight bodies of
horses drawn up in order ready for their eight companies. Among
these were set apart three good chargers for each captain, two for
lieutenants, and one for cornets. He ordered the regiment to mount, and,
immensely amused at their sudden elevation to the cavalry service, the
troops rode back to the town.
From the moment when he started from San Matteo Peterborough had, in
spite of his incessant exertions and multifarious cares, been quietly
making preparations for this event. He had sent to Barcelona for the
necessary accouterments for these men and for the dismounted British
dragoons. The accouterments had been sent from Barcelona to the nearest
port on the seacoast, and by continually urging on the local carriers
the earl had, in nine days after leaving San Matteo, collected them in
readiness at his depot at Castillon, and thus raised his little band
of horse to nearly a thousand men. These he dispersed at once among the
well affected towns of the neighborhood, whose walls would render them
safe from the attack of an enemy unsupported by artillery, moving them
constantly from place to place, partly to accustom them to their new
duties, partly to confuse the enemy as to their numbers.