When the headquarters of the army were at St Jean de Luz, Soult made a
movement in front of our right centre, which the English general took
for a reconnaissance. As the French general perceived that we had
ordered preparations to receive him, he sent a flag of truce to demand
a cessation of hostilities, saying that he wanted to shoot an officer
and several men for acts of robbery committed by them, with every sort
of atrocity, on the farmers and peasantry of the country. The
execution took place in view of both armies, and a terrible lesson it
was. I cannot specify the date of this event, but think it must have
been the latter end of November, 1813. About the same time General
Harispe, who commanded a corps of Basques, issued a proclamation
forbidding the peasantry to supply the English with provisions or
forage, on pain of death; it stated that we were savages, and, as a
proof of this, our horses were born with short tails. I saw this
absurd proclamation, which was published in French and in the Basque
languages, and distributed all over the country. Before we left the
neighbourhood of Bayonne for Bordeaux, a soldier was hanged for
robbery, on the sands of the Adour. This sort of punishment astonished
the French almost as much as it did the soldier. On a march we were
very severe, and if any of our men were caught committing an act of
violence or brigandage, the offender was tried by a drum-head
court-martial, and hanged in a very short time.
I knew an officer of the 18th Hussars, W. R., young, rich, and a
fine-looking fellow, who joined the army not far from St Sebastian.
His stud of horses was remarkable for their blood, his grooms were
English, and three in number. He brought with him a light cart to
carry forage, and a fourgon for his own baggage. All went on well,
till he came to go on outpost duty; but not finding there any of the
comforts to which he had been accustomed, he quietly mounted his
charger, told his astonished sergeant that campaigning was not intended
for a gentleman, and instantly galloped off to his quarters, ordering
his servants to pack up everything immediately, as he had hired a
transport to take him off to England. He left us before any one had
time to stop him; and though despatches were sent off to the
Commander-in-Chief, requesting that a court-martial might sit to try
the young deserter, he arrived home long enough before the despatches
to enable him to sell out of his regiment. He deserved to have been
shot.
Sir John Hope, who commanded our corps d'armee at Bayonne, had his
quarters at a village on the Adour, called Beaucauld. He was good
enough to name me to the command of the village; which honour I did not
hold for many days, for the famous sortie from Bayonne took place soon
after, and the general was made prisoner.