Robert Southey — History of the Peninsular War — CHAPTER XLI. (CONTINUED.) GUERRILLAS, AND THEIR EXPLOITS. SIR ROWLAND HILL’S SUCCESS AT ALMARAZ. BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.

CHAPTER XLI. (CONTINUED.) GUERRILLAS, AND THEIR EXPLOITS. SIR ROWLAND HILL’S SUCCESS AT ALMARAZ. BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.

♦May, 1812. Duran enters Soria.♦

At this time, when nothing could be expected from the Spanish armies, the Guerrillas acted in larger bodies than before, and engaged in more difficult enterprises than they had yet undertaken. Duran having obtained a plan of the fortifications of Soria from an architect who resided there, resolved upon attacking that city as an important post, from whence the French commanded a considerable extent of country. Soria, which stands on the Douro, near the supposed site of Numantia, and contained about 1,100 families in the middle of the last century, is surrounded by an old wall eighteen feet in height and six in thickness, to which some works adapted to a more modern art of war had been added; the suburb also had been fortified, and the castle strengthened. He approached the city by a circuitous route (during a most tempestuous night of wind ♦March 18.♦ and snow, which froze as it fell,) and reaching it at daybreak scaled the walls, forced the suburb, and obtained possession of the city. The enemy retired into the castle, and Duran prepared to besiege it, setting fire to four convents to clear the way for his operations.

The adventurers had arrived in fortunate time, for the morrow was St. Joseph’s day, when a ball and supper were to have been given in honour of the Intruder for his name’s sake, and the delicacies which had been prepared for this occasion served to regale these unexpected and unwelcome visiters. Battering-rams were employed with great effect against the old walls, that the city might no longer afford protection to the French; the public money was seized, great quantities of grain and biscuit dispatched by all the means of transport which could be found, and a contribution levied upon the inhabitants, for hitherto they had contributed nothing to the national troops, being under the yoke of the French, and thinking it evil enough to pay what the invaders exacted; but the Guerrillas admitted of no such excuse: they supposed the people to be rich because it was a trading city, and many who had formerly been rich proprietors dwelt there; the contribution, therefore, was not likely to be lightly imposed. Duran enrolled also such men as he thought fit for service, ordered others who might have been serviceable to the enemy to leave the city, and retreated himself without loss, when a detachment arrived from Aranda to the succour of the garrison.

♦Members of the Junta of Burgos seized by the French and put to death. March 21.♦

This enterprise led to a tragedy characteristic of the spirit in which the war was carried on on both sides. The French, who had come in time to save the castle of Soria, obtained intelligence that the Junta of Burgos were in a village called Grado; and there, under the guidance of a Spanish traitor, Moreno by name, a party of 450 horse, making a march of fourteen leagues in less than four-and-twenty hours, surprised them early in the morning. Some twenty soldiers with their commander were found fast asleep, and made prisoners, as were three members of the Junta and the secretary of the Intendency: but more persons escaped than were taken, though the enemy set every house on fire, with the intention of burning those who might have hidden themselves. As soon as the news was known, Duran and the Junta of Soria sent to the French commander in that city, reminding him that the prisoners taken there had been treated with humanity, and threatening reprisals if the persons who had now been captured should be put to death. This was of no avail. The vice-president of the Junta, D. Pedro Gordo, who was the parochial priest of Santibañez, was inhumanly scourged by Moreno, ... perhaps from some impulse of private enmity: the prisoners were then conducted to Aranda, from whence the soldiers contrived to effect their escape. Navas, the secretary of Gordo, and the two other members of the Junta, D. Jose Ortiz de Covarrubios, and D. Eulogio Jose de Muro, with a young lad, son of the former, were sent in irons to Soria, there to be tried by the criminal Junta of that ♦April 2.♦ city. The trial, which took place during the night, occupied five hours, all the formalities of justice being observed; and the boy, whom because of his youth it would have been monstrous to condemn, was acquitted: the other four were sentenced to death, and four priests were ordered immediately to attend them; but no more time was allowed than was necessary for bringing together and forming the soldiers who were to conduct them to the place of execution.

The different behaviour of the sufferers was such as deeply to affect the spectators. Ortiz was greatly moved at the thought of leaving his son fatherless and destitute;

♦Circumstances of the execution.♦ but overcoming that emotion with a Spaniard’s feeling, he commended the boy to God as the orphan’s Father, and called upon the Lord to receive his soul as a victim for his religion and his country. The priest held a crucifix in one hand as he went to execution, and beat his breast incessantly with the other; and while tears of ardent devotion streamed down his cheeks, implored with a loud voice forgiveness for his own sins and for those of the people. Muro, who was a much younger man than either, was of a weak constitution, still further weakened by the fatigues he had undergone in the performance of his duties; so that what with ill treatment, and what he had suffered during twelve days’ imprisonment, there seemed to be an entire prostration of his strength; faintings and cold sweats succeeded each other, and it was thought he would expire before he could reach the place where he was to be put to death. He had asked earnestly for a crucifix; the priest who attended him not knowing for what service he had been summoned had improvidently left his house without one; he gave him therefore in its stead a rosary, with a medal attached to it, on which was the image of Our Lady of the Pillar. Muro had studied in the university of Zaragoza, where it is said he had never omitted, for a single day, to visit and adore the tutelary idol of that city; and this trifling circumstance, which at any other time would have appeared to him light as air, acted upon him now in a manner that might seem miraculous or incredible to those who cannot comprehend the force of imagination and the strength of a believing mind; for no sooner had he seen what image the medal bore, than, as if by an influx of divine support, he put off all weakness and proceeded to the place of death with a firm step and a cheerful countenance, and ejaculations of jubilant devotion. When they came to the foot of the hill on the top of which they were to suffer, “Up, brothers!” he exclaimed, “up! let us ascend this our Mount Calvary, where it is vouchsafed to us that we should imitate our Redeemer! I pray and trust that this hour our offences shall be blotted out by virtue of the blood which on his holy Calvary he shed for our sins.” In this spirit he knelt down upon the fatal spot, raised his eyes to heaven, and presented his breast to the soldiers. The Spaniards compared the circumstances of this man’s death with what the French themselves had related of Marshal Lasnes, how after he had received his mortal wound, a visit from Buonaparte comforted and for a while revived him: “Let patron,” said they, “be compared with patron, client with client, and cause with cause!”

♦Treatment of their bodies.♦

The bodies of these victims were suspended from the gallows till the following day, when the French gave orders that they should be taken down and buried. But the execution had been an act of impolitic severity: after Duran’s recent visit the national cause would not have been popular in Soria, unless the national feeling had been thus provoked; and that feeling was now manifested in a manner which the invaders had not looked for. The clergy, the nobles, the different brotherhoods of the city, and the people assembled: the bodies were carried to the church of St. Salvador in procession, with a long line of tapers, and a most numerous attendance; they were then dressed in grave clothes with becoming decency, that of the priest in his sacerdotal habits. So public and ostentatious a funeral was considered by the French an insult to their authority; soldiers, therefore, were sent to interrupt it, and some of the attendants were compelled to carry the bodies back to the gallows and hang them there again, the priest in his alb, the others in their shrouds; there they remained many days, and what the birds and the dogs had left was then buried at the foot of the gallows.

♦Retaliatory executions.♦

When D. Jose O’Donell, who commanded what was called the 2nd and 3rd army then in Murcia, received official intelligence of these executions, he wrote to Duran, as acting commander in Aragon and Soria, and instructed him to put to death ten prisoners, without distinction of rank, for each of the four victims, first apprising the nearest French commandant that he had received these orders, and should act upon them unless such reparation were made as might be deemed proportionate to the offence. Without waiting for such instructions, the Merino had exacted vengeance upon a larger scale. Having defeated a considerable body of the French who had marched from Aranda, to collect requisitions, killed and wounded some 150 and taken about 500 prisoners, he put 110 of them to death, twenty of these being in reprisals for each member of the Junta of Burgos; the others, at the rate of ten for each of his own people whom the French had executed. The other prisoners were marched into Asturias where opportunity might be found for embarking them; but all the officers, twelve in number, including the lieutenant-colonel, their commander, were reserved to be shot unless General Rey, who commanded at Burgos, would rescue them from that fate by delivering the traitor Moreno into the Merino’s hands. The unhappy prisoners are said to have addressed a letter to Rey, entreating him to save their lives by complying with this proposal, for they well knew that in these cases the Spaniards never failed to execute what they threatened. The issue has not been related, but may easily be guessed, as it was scarcely possible that the French commander should so far break his faith with a Spaniard in the Intruder’s service as to deliver him to certain death.

♦El Manco.♦

There were no persons whom the Spaniards regarded with such hatred as those who had forsaken the national cause, and entered into the Intruder’s service. Albuir, known as a Guerrilla chief by the name of El Manco, had taken this course, and became therefore a special object of vengeance to his countrymen: it is the only instance of any man who had acquired celebrity as a Guerrillero becoming a traitor, while in the officers of the army such cases were not unfrequent: this was because the regular officers were men, who, having entered the service either as a matter of course or of compulsion, felt severely the poverty of the government, and often had little else to do than to talk of its errors, complain of its abuses, and speculate upon its hopeless condition; whereas the Guerrilla leaders led a life of incessant activity and animating hope, and most of them were impelled to that course by a strong feeling either of their country’s injuries or of their own.

♦Mutual retaliation.♦

At this time Lord Wellington’s successes had animated the Spaniards with a hope of deliverance, and made the French more intent upon extirpating those persons who, by keeping up the national spirit in what they deemed the subjected provinces, occupied a large part of the invading force. They attempted to surprise the Junta of Aragon, as they had that of Burgos, and a detachment from Palombini’s troops nearly effected this at Mochales, in the lordship of Molina: the Junta escaped, but the enemy sacked the village, stripped the women in the market-place, and hung the alcalde and two other persons; in reprisals for whom, Jabarelli, the late commandant at Calatayud, and ten other prisoners, were shot by the Spaniards. Vicente Bonmati, the leader of a Guerrilla party, had been put to death at Petrel, in Valencia, with circumstances of peculiar cruelty; the French having tied his hands, transfixed them with a bayonet, and then parading him through the streets, pricked him with their bayonets till he died. Upon this the Camp Marshal Copons, provincial commandant-general in that kingdom, gave orders to shoot the first prisoner who should be taken, and informed the nearest French commandant, that for every other such execution twenty prisoners should be put to death. Such reprisals were but too characteristic of a vindictive people, capable of inflicting as well as enduring anything; but they were evidences also of that high-mindedness which the Spaniards retained in their lowest fortune; never abasing themselves, never submitting to the insolent assumption of authority, nor for a moment consenting that might should be allowed to sanction injustice. Their parties, meantime, acquired a confidence from their own experience, and from the success of their allies. ♦May 5.Guerrilla exploits.♦ Mendizabal appeared before Burgos, and drove the enemy from the monastery of Las Huelgas and the hospital del Rey. Duran entered Tudela ♦May 28.♦ by escalade, and destroyed a battering train of artillery which had been brought thither from Zaragoza, with the intent, he supposed, of laying siege to ♦May 30.♦ Ciudad Rodrigo. The Empecinado attacked the French in Cuenca; they withdrew from it in the night, and he destroyed their fortifications there, and set fire to the Inquisition. Mina received information that a strong convoy was about to set forth from Vittoria for France, escorting some prisoners taken from Ballasteros. He determined to intercept them upon the plains of Arlaban, which had been the scene of one of his most successful exploits in the preceding year; and in order to deceive the enemy, he wrote letters which were thrown into their hands, declaring his intention of marching upon the river Arga, to form a junction at the foot of the Pyrenees with two of his battalions. The enemy, ♦April 9.♦ supposing that this dreaded commander was far distant, began their march: his orders were, after one discharge to attack with the bayonet, and that no soldier should touch the convoy on pain of death till the action was ended. It was of no long duration; the vanguard were presently slaughtered; the centre and the rear, consisting of Poles and of Imperial Guards, made a brave but unavailing resistance: from 600 to 700 were slain, 500 wounded, and 150 taken, with the whole convoy, and about 400 prisoners set at liberty. M. Deslandes, the Intruder’s private secretary, was in the convoy; he got out of his carriage, and endeavoured to escape in a peasant’s dress, with which it seems he had provided himself, in anticipation of some such danger; but this disguise cost him his life, which would have been saved had it been known in time who he was. His wife, an Andalusian lady, with two of her countrywomen, who were married to officers in the enemy’s service, fell into Mina’s hands. Very few would have escaped if the French had not erected a fort at Arlaban, in consequence of their last year’s loss, and this served as a protection for the fugitives.

♦Intercepted letters from the Intruder.♦

Some letters from the Intruder were found upon his secretary. One was to Buonaparte, reminding him how, when he returned to Spain at his desire twelve months before, his Imperial Majesty had told him, that at the worst he could quit that country in case their hopes should not be realised, and that then he should have an asylum in the south of the empire. “Sire,” said he, “events have deceived my hopes; I have done no good, and I have no hopes of doing any. I entreat your Majesty, therefore, to let me resign into your hands the right to the crown of Spain, which four years ago you deigned to transfer to me. I had no other object in accepting the crown than the happiness of this vast monarchy, and it is not in my power to effect that. I entreat your Majesty to receive me into the number of your subjects, and to believe that you will never have a more faithful servant than the friend whom nature has given you.” There were other letters of the same date to his wife, whom he had left in Paris, and who was to deliver that which he had written to the Emperor only in case the decree for uniting to France the provinces beyond the Ebro should have been published; otherwise she was to await his farther directions. In another letter to her he said, that if the Emperor made war against Russia, and thought his presence in Spain could be useful, he would remain there, provided that both the military and civil authority were vested in him; otherwise his desire was to return to France. Should there be no Russian war, he would remain with or without the command, provided nothing were exacted from him which could make it believed that he consented to a dismemberment of the monarchy: provided also that troops enough and territory enough were left him, and that the monthly loan of a million, which had been promised, were paid. In that case he would remain as long as he could, thinking himself as much bound in honour not to quit Spain lightly, as he should be to quit it, if, during the war with England, sacrifices were required from him which he neither could nor ought to make, except at a general peace, for the good of Spain, of France, and of Europe. A decree for uniting to France the provinces beyond the Ebro, if it arrived unexpectedly, he said, would make him depart the next day; and if the Emperor should adjourn his projects till a time of peace, he must supply him with means of subsistence during the war. But if he inclined either to his removal, or to any of those measures which must cause him to remove, it was then of great consequence that he should return to France on kindly terms with the Emperor, and with his sincere and full consent; and this was what reason dictated to him, and what was more conformable to the situation of the miserable country over which he had been made king, and to his own domestic relations. In that case, he asked from the Emperor a domain in Tuscany, or in the south, some three hundred leagues from Paris. The course of events, and the false position in which he found himself, so contrary, he said, to the rectitude and loyalty of his character, had greatly injured his health: he was growing old; nothing but honour and duty could detain him where he was, and his inclination would drive him away, unless the Emperor explained himself in a different manner from what he had hitherto done. There was also a letter to his brother Louis, expressing a hope to see him one day in good health, and with the happiness which arises from a good conscience.... That happiness the intrusive king Joseph might well envy! It is little excuse for him that he was more weak than wicked, and in mere weakness had consented to be made the instrument of his brother’s insatiable ambition. Even in these letters, where he manifested a full sense of his humiliating situation, no consciousness is expressed of its guilt. For the sake of his own credit, and no doubt of his own personal safety, he protested against any immediate dismemberment of Spain; but he would have been contented to serve his brother’s purpose, by nominally retaining the kingdom, till a pretext could be found for dismembering it at a general peace.

But how long he should retain it depended upon something more than the will and pleasure of Napoleon Buonaparte, and this he was soon made to apprehend. ♦Sir Rowland Hill’s expedition to the bridge of Almaraz.♦ Lord Wellington was not about to remain idle with his victorious army; he prepared for offensive operations, and the first step was to interrupt the communication between the armies of Soult and Marmont. All the permanent bridges on the Tagus below that of Arzobispo had been destroyed; and the only way which was practicable for a large army was by a bridge of boats at Almaraz, in the line of the high road, where the noble bridge erected in Charles the Fifth’s time, at the city of Plasentia’s cost, had been demolished. For the protection of this important post, the French had thrown up strong works on both sides of the river: they had formed a flanked tête-du-pont on the left bank, riveted with masonry and strongly intrenched; and on the high ground above it they had constructed a large and strong redoubt, called Fort Napoleon, with an interior intrenchment, and a loop-holed tower in its centre; here they had mounted nine pieces of cannon, and had garrisoned it with between 400 and 500 men. On the right bank, there was a redoubt called Fort Ragusa, in honour of Marshal Marmont, of the same strength and construction, except that the tower had a double tier of loopholes; this flanked the bridge, and between the redoubt and the bridge there was a flêche. For farther security, the invaders had fortified an old castle commanding the Puerto de Miravete, about a league distant, being the only pass for carriages of any kind by which the bridge could be approached. A marked alteration of climate is perceptible upon crossing the narrow mountain ridge over which the road here passes. Coming from Castille, the traveller descends from this ridge into a country, where, for the first time, the gum-cistus appears as lord of the waste, ... the most beautiful of all shrubs in the Peninsula for the profusion of its delicate flowers, and one of the most delightful for the rich balsamic odour which its leaves exude under a southern sun; but which overspreads such extensive tracts, where it suffers nothing else to grow, that in many parts both of Portugal and Spain it becomes the very emblem of desolation. The old castle stood at little distance from the road, on the summit of the sierra: the French had surrounded it by a lower enceinte, twelve feet high; they had fortified a large venta, or travellers’ inn, upon the road, and had constructed two small works between the inn and the castle, forming altogether a strong line of defence.

Sir Rowland Hill, to whom this important service had been intrusted, broke up from Almandralejo on the 12th of May, with part of the 2nd division of infantry, and six of the 24-pounder iron howitzers which had been used against Badajoz. The Marquis de Almeida, who was a member of the Junta of Extremadura, accompanied them, and from him and from the people, Sir Rowland received the most ready and effectual assistance which it was in their power to bestow. On the morning of the 16th they reached Jaraicejo, an old and decayed town, about eight miles from the summit of the pass; and on the same evening they advanced in three columns ... the left, under Lieutenant-General Chowne, toward the castle of Miravete; Sir Rowland himself, with the right under Major-General Howard, toward a pass through which a most difficult and circuitous footpath leads by the village of Romangordo to the bridge; and the centre, under Major-General Long, along the high road, to the Puerto. The artillery was with the centre: both the flank columns were provided with ladders, and it was intended that both should escalade the forts against which they were directed; but the difficulties of the way were such, that it was found impossible for them to reach their respective points before daybreak: as the enemy, therefore, could not be taken by surprise, Sir Rowland judged it best to defer the attack till they should be better acquainted with the position and nature of the works; and the troops bivouacked on the sierra. It was found that the castle, because of its peculiar situation, could not be carried without a long operation: a false attack therefore was directed to be made upon it by Lieutenant-General Chowne, and Sir Rowland, with the right, and the 6th Portugueze caçadores (about 2,000 men in all), on the evening of the 18th began to descend by the mountain path which he had originally proposed to take. They were provided with twelve scaling-ladders of sixteen feet in length; and he relied, as in this case he well might do, upon the valour of the troops, to supply the want of artillery. Although the distance was little more than six miles, the way was so difficult, that notwithstanding all the exertions of officers and men the head of the column did not arrive near the fort till it was break of day, and it was two or three hours later before the rear came up; but during this time the troops were completely concealed by the hill, and the feint against the castle had induced the enemy to believe that the bridge forts would not be attacked till the pass should have been forced, and a way made for the guns.

♦May 19.♦

Could the attack have been made before day, it was intended that the tête-du-pont should have been escaladed, and the bridge destroyed at the same time that Fort Napoleon was assaulted; but well knowing how much depended upon celerity, Sir Rowland did not wait till the troops who were appointed to this part of the operations could come up; with the first battalion of the 50th and one wing of the 71st, he escaladed the fort in three places nearly at the same time. At first a determined resistance was made, but the enemy soon slackened their destructive fire: they took to flight as soon as the assailants were on the top of the parapet; they abandoned the tower, and were driven at the point of the bayonet through their entrenchment, and through the tête-du-pont, and across the bridge. The commander of Fort Ragusa on the opposite bank, with a cowardice rarely shown among French officers, but with a selfish disregard for the soldiers which was too common among them, cut the bridge, in consequence of which many leaped into the river and perished, and 259 were made prisoners, including the governor and sixteen officers; and acting with further folly in his fear, he evacuated his own fort, which was perfectly safe from any attack, and retired with his garrison to Naval Moral, three leagues off, for which he was brought to summary trial at Talavera and shot.... Both forts were entirely destroyed by the conquerors, and the whole apparatus of the bridge, and the stores, which were in such abundance as to prove that this point had justly been considered a most important station by the enemy. The loss in this signal enterprise was, two officers and 31 men killed, 13 and 131 wounded.

The garrison ought to have been prepared for such an attack; for Marmont had apprehended it, and in that apprehension had marched a detachment to the Puerto del Pico, with the view of reinforcing Talavera in case the bridge should be lost. Sir Rowland retired by Truxillo to his former position in front of Badajos; and on the second day after his success, a division of the central army, under General d’Armagnac, crossed the Tagus by the Puente del Arzobispo, to relieve the isolated garrison at Miravete. Both Soult and Marmont had put their forces in motion as soon as they were informed of Sir Rowland’s march: the latter arrived upon the Tagus too late to prevent the evil, and without the means of repairing it; the former, when he found that the allies had passed Truxillo on their return, gave up the hope of intercepting them. He returned to Seville, and, regarding with uneasy apprehension the enterprising spirit of an enemy whom he had once affected to despise, gave directions for strengthening the line of the Guadalete, lest a force should be landed at St. Roque’s or at Algeziras, and endanger his communication with the besieging army before Cadiz. Bornos, as the most important point upon the line, was fortified with great care. Ballasteros ♦Ballasteros defeated at Bornos.♦ thought to interrupt the progress of the works, and accordingly brought all the force he could muster, consisting of about 6,000, to attack the French division there of 4,500 under General Corroux. Collecting his troops at La Majada de Ruiz, and marching from thence early in the afternoon of one day, he succeeded in fording the Guadalete unperceived ♦June 1.♦ at dawn on the next. The attack was made bravely, but, with the usual ill fortune and ill discipline of a Spanish army, some mistake led to confusion, and confusion was followed by panic: the French were not strong enough to pursue them beyond the river, and Ballasteros retired with the loss of about 1,000 killed and wounded, and half as many prisoners, ... a fourth of his whole force.

♦Lord Wellington advances into Spain.♦

Meantime Badajoz had been fully supplied; the means of transport which had been used for that service were then employed in storing Ciudad Rodrigo; a month’s consumption for the whole army was deposited there; the bridge at Alcantara was repaired for a readier communication with Sir Rowland’s corps; and on the 13th of June the army broke up from its cantonments on the Agueda. On the 16th they came up with the enemy, about six miles from Salamanca, on the Valmusa, and there was a skirmish with their cavalry; in the evening the French withdrew across the Tormes, and the army bivouacked within a league of Salamanca.

♦Salamanca♦

When the earliest accounts of Spain begin, Salamanca was already a considerable place, and known by a name little different from what it bears at present. It fell to decay after the Moorish conquest, but was re-peopled at the same time with certain other towns upon the Tormes, by the Leonese in the 10th century, after the great battle of Simancas: in the 13th King St. Ferdinand removed thither the university from Palencia. It soon became one of the most flourishing seats of learning in Christendom, and continued to be so till Spain rejected the light of the reformation. In its best days it is said to have contained no fewer than 8,000 native students, and 7,000 from foreign countries: when the present war began, the number little exceeded 3,000, among whom a few Irish were the only foreigners. The population consisted of some 3,400 families: it had once been much greater. But Salamanca was still an important and a famous place: popular fiction had made its name familiar to those who are unacquainted with its history; while to the antiquary, the historian, and the philosopher, it is a city of no ordinary interest. The Roman road, which extended from thence to Merida, and so to Seville, may still be traced in its vicinity: its bridge of twenty-seven arches, over the Tormes, is said to be in part a Roman work. The Mozarabic liturgy is retained in one of its churches. Its cathedral, though far inferior to some of the older edifices, whether of Moorish or Gothic architecture, in Spain, is a large and imposing structure. Twenty-five parish churches are enclosed within its walls, twenty convents of monks or friars, eleven of nuns: these, with its numerous colleges, give it an imposing appearance from without, and a melancholy solemnity within. Nowhere, indeed, were there more munificent endowments for education, and for literature, and for religion; and nowhere could be less of that happy effect which the benefactors in their piety had contemplated: the philosophy which was taught there was that of the schoolmen, the morality that of the casuists, the religion that of the Inquisition. It is a popular belief in Spain, that the Devil also has his college at Salamanca, where students of the black art take their degrees in certain caverns, every seventh being left with him, in earnest of the after-payment to which they all are bound.

♦The Tormes.♦

The city stands in a commanding situation on the right bank of the Tormes, a river of considerable magnitude there, which rises near the Sierra de Tablada in Old Castille, and falls into the Douro on the Portuguese frontier, opposite Bemposta. The country round is open, without trees, and with a few villages interspersed, in which the houses are constructed of clay. On the left of the river there are extensive pastures, on the right a wide and unenclosed corn country. The pastures are common, and the arable land occupied after a manner not usual in other parts of Spain: it is cultivated in annual allotments, and reverts to the commonalty after the harvest.

♦The allies enter Salamanca.♦

Marmont had apprehended this advance of the allies, and had applied for reinforcements without effect. He showed some cavalry and a small body of infantry in front of the town, and manifested an intention of holding the heights on the south side of the Tormes; but in the evening of the 16th the enemy withdrew over the river, and the allies bivouacked within a league of Salamanca. The French retired from that city during the night, leaving some 800 men in the fortifications which they had constructed there. These works commanded the bridge; the left column of the allied army therefore crossed at the ford of El Campo, a league below the city, the centre and the right at the ford of Santa Martha. The utmost joy was expressed by the inhabitants when the English entered, and women crowded to thank Lord Wellington and bless him for their deliverance. Some aching hearts there were among those who had connected themselves by marriage, or by looser ties, with the enemies of their country, but the general feeling was that of perfect and grateful joy; for though this city had suffered none of the immediate evils of war, its consequences had been severely felt there. During the three years of its captivity the French had demolished thirteen of its convents and twenty-two of its twenty-five colleges; the people had been compelled to labour upon works erected for their own subjugation; and the last act of the enemy before they left the city, was to set fire to such houses as obstructed the defence of their works, ... consisting of a fort and two redoubts. For the same reason they had previously demolished the Convent of St. Augustine, the colleges of Cuenca and ♦Siege of the forts there.♦ Oviedo, and the magnificent King’s College. The fort was formed out of the Convent of St. Vicente, a large building in the centre of the angle of the old wall, on a perpendicular cliff over the Tormes. The windows had been built up and loop-holed; on both sides it was connected by lines of works with the old wall. There was a fascine battery in a re-entering angle of the convent, not enclosed by these lines, and this was protected by a loop-holed wall, with a palisade in front. ♦Col. Jones’s sieges. 158–9.♦ The demolition of so many substantial edifices supplied timber of the best quality, and in abundance, for gates, drawbridges, palisades, and splinter proofs; and the whole was well flanked in every part. The ground to the south, which was toward the bridge, fell by a steep descent: at the bottom was a small stream flowing to the Tormes; and on the opposite bank the convents of San Cayetano and La Merced had been converted with great skill into two redoubts, with well-covered perpendicular escarpes, deep ditches, and casemated counterscarps; they were also full of bomb-proofs, made by supporting a roof horizontally and vertically with strong beams, and covering it with six feet of earth. These works were seen at once to be far more respectable than Lord Wellington had expected to find, his information amounting to little more than that some convents had been fortified. It was necessary to reduce them before the army could advance, but the means of attack had been provided on this inadequate knowledge: they consisted of only four iron eighteen-pounders and four 24-pounder iron howitzers, with an hundred rounds for each. The engineers had only 400 intrenching tools, without any stores; there were present three engineer officers, with nine men of the corps of royal military artificers; and the works were soon found to be even more formidable than they appeared.

♦June 17.♦

The sixth division broke ground before the fort. The left wing of the army moved to Villares de la Reyna, a league in advance of Salamanca; the right and centre bivouacked on the Tormes, near Santa Martha, on the right bank. Lieutenant-Colonel Ponsonby’s brigade followed the retiring enemy, and skirmished with them for two leagues. A battery was erected for breaching the main wall of the fort. It was nearly full moon; little could be done therefore during the first night. An attempt to blow in part of the counterscarp opposite to the intended breach, was frustrated by the vigilance of a dog; and an attempt at mining it failed also, the party being ordered to withdraw in consequence of the loss sustained by a plunging fire from the top of the convent. On the second night two batteries were completed: they opened the following morning, and beat down part of the wall; but the enemy’s musketry fired with great effect from loopholes in the upper windows, and their fire was more than ordinarily destructive, because of the large openings of the embrasures which were necessary for such short pieces as the howitzers. More ammunition was sent for to Almeida. Early on the third day, the lower part of the convent wall, three feet and a half thick, was pierced through, and at a single shot half the length of that face of the building came down, bringing the roof with it, and laying the interior open: the men were seen firing through the loopholes at the moment of its fall, and they of course were buried in the ruins. Carcasses were then fired into the convent, to set it on fire, but the enemy’s precautions prevented them from taking effect.

♦Marmont moves to relieve them.♦

Marmont at this time moved forward from Fuente Sabuco, making the most display of the force which he could then bring together: it was estimated at about 16,000 men. He advanced as if with a determination of giving battle, firing artillery the whole way to give the forts notice of his approach. Lord Wellington immediately formed the allied army upon the heights: his left, where the rains had formed a deep ravine, rested on a chapel; his centre was in the village of S. Christobal de la Cuesta, and his right on another eminence in front of Castellanos de los Moriscos.... The advanced posts retired before the enemy with little loss; there was a considerable cannonade on both sides; the enemy’s cavalry were dislodged by our guns from the position in which they had halted; and Marmont, after manœuvring for some time in front of the position, took up ground in the plain below it, near the village of Villares, and just out of cannon-shot, his right resting upon the great road to Toro, his left in Castellanos de los Moriscos. The allies were under arms at daylight, expecting an attack. In the course of the day the French received reinforcements, but not sufficient to justify them in bringing on an action, scarcely in exposing themselves ♦June 21.♦ to one. Both armies remained quiet in front of each other, the allies on the heights, the French close under their position, occupying Castellanos de los Moriscos in force, and having a considerable bivouac between that village and another on their right: both villages were soon completely unroofed for firewood, and there were wells in both, whereas the allies were badly off for wood and water, which were brought to them in insufficient supply from Salamanca. There was not a tree on the position; but the midsummer sun was less powerful than it usually is in that country, and the troops did not suffer from heat.

During the night, the French occupied an eminence on the right flank of the allies. Sir Thomas Graham was directed to dislodge them. The 58th and 61st carried the hill immediately, and drove them from the ground with considerable loss. The enemy’s troops got under arms, expecting a general attack, but they made no attempt ♦June 23.♦ to regain the hill. They retired in the night, and on the following evening posted themselves with their right on the heights near Cabeza Vellosa, their left on the Tormes at Huerta, their centre at Aldea Rubia, their object in this movement being to communicate with the garrison. Lord Wellington therefore changed the front of his army, placing the right at S. Martha, and the advanced posts at Aldea Lingua; and he sent Major-General Bock’s brigade of heavy dragoons across the river in order to observe the fords. By this time a battery which had been opened on the Cayetano redoubt had beaten down the palisades and injured the parapet; and when night closed 300 men from the 6th division were ordered to attack it by escalade. The undertaking was difficult, and the men seemed to feel it. Major-General Bowes went forward with the storming party; he was wounded, returned to the attack as soon as his wound was dressed, and was then killed. The enemy made so resolute a resistance, that only two ladders were reared against the redoubt, and no one mounted them: 120 men were killed or wounded in this unsuccessful attempt. On the following evening a truce was made for removing the killed and wounded; till then the French would neither allow them to be removed, nor remove them themselves.

♦June 24.♦

There had been a report on the preceding afternoon, that the enemy had crossed at Huerta. Lord Wellington was on the hill at Aldea Lingua by daybreak. It was certain that they had made some movement, but the morning was so foggy that nothing could be seen. Soon Major-General Bock’s brigade was heard skirmishing, and from their fire it was evident that they were losing ground. The French had crossed about two in the morning in considerable force; and when the fog cleared General Bock was seen retiring in the best order before superior numbers, who had also the advantage of having artillery with them. Lord Wellington, upon the first certainty that the enemy had passed the Tormes, ordered the 1st and 7th divisions, under Sir Thomas Graham, to cross and take up a position to the right in front of Santa Martha, and Major-General Le Marchant’s brigade of cavalry was sent to support General Bock; the rest of the army he concentrated between Castellanos de los Moriscos and Cabrerizas, keeping the advanced posts at Aldea Lingua. The French, who had crossed with 10,000 infantry and fourteen squadrons of horse, gained possession of Calvarasa de Abaxo; but seeing the disposition which was made for their reception, they did not venture upon an attack. About three in the afternoon they began to withdraw, and before night they had repassed the river to their former position. The allies also recrossed.

Both armies remained quiet during the following day, but on the next night a communication was carried along the bottom of the ravine between the redoubts and the fort, and a piquet was lodged under the gorge of S. Cayetano. On the morrow a supply of ammunition ♦Surrender of the forts.♦ arrived, and red-hot shot were then fired against San Vicente. By the third shot the roof of a large square tower on the convent was set on fire and consumed; but the conflagration did not spread, and during the day wherever fires broke out they were speedily extinguished. The inhabitants said that the powder in the fort was well secured; but no activity on the enemy’s part could long counteract the means of destruction which were now employed. Hot shot were fired during the whole night: by ten in the morning the convent was in flames. At the same time a breach had been effected in the gorge of S. Cayetano: the troops were formed in readiness for assaulting it, when a white flag was hoisted there, and the commanding officer offered to surrender that and the other redoubt in two hours, which time he asked for that he might represent his situation to the commandant in San Vicente. Lord Wellington offered him five minutes to march out, in which case he should preserve his baggage; but it presently appeared that he was only negotiating for the sake of gaining time, as in fact he could not venture without the commandant’s sanction to carry into effect the capitulation which he had offered. He was ordered, therefore, to take down his white flag. The commandant meantime sent out a flag of truce, and proposed to surrender San Vicente in three hours: five minutes were allowed, and as at the expiration of that short term there was no appearance of their coming out, both redoubts were stormed, and carried with little resistance. The troops moved forward against the fort: a few shot were fired from it, by which six men were killed or wounded; but with that the resistance ended: the enemy even helped the Portuguese caçadores into the work, and Lord Wellington allowed them to march out with the honours of war, but to be prisoners of war, the officers retaining their personal military baggage, and the soldiers their knapsacks. There were 36 pieces of cannon in the forts, with large depôts of clothing, and military stores of every kind: these were consigned to the Spaniards, and the works were destroyed. The prisoners were somewhat more than 700; the loss of the besiegers about 450.

♦Marmont fails back upon the Douro.♦

Marmont commenced his retreat at midnight, as if, said the Spaniards, he had only come thither to witness the capture of his fort, and see the illumination made by it when on fire. At daylight their column was nearly out of sight, and their rear-guard moving off the ground. During this tarriance the French, considering that part of Spain no longer as a subjected but as a hostile country, had acted in the same spirit of disgraceful barbarity as had rendered their name execrable in Portugal; and when they departed they left the villages of Castellanos de los Moriscos, Huerta, Babila Fuente, Villoria, and Villaruela in flames: where they did not burn the villages they sacked the houses, and murdered those who had ventured to remain in them; and where they did not trample down the standing corn, they set fire to it. The popular feeling had been strongly manifested during the operations against the forts: not only were all necessaries and accommodations for the wounded abundantly supplied, but women of all ranks offered their services to attend on them. High mass was performed this day in the Cathedral, at which Lord Wellington and most of the general officers attended. Lord Wellington gave a dinner in Salamanca, and the Junta a ball in the evening; but some of the principal inhabitants absented themselves because they were partisans of the French, and others from a prudential fear, lest the enemy should return and again obtain possession of the city.

♦June 29. Lord Wellington advances to the Douro.♦

The French withdrew their garrison from Alba de Tormes, and retired towards the Douro in three columns ... one upon Toro, and the others upon Tordesillas. The allies broke up the next day, following their march, and encamped upon the Guarena. On the morrow Marmont had collected his force, as if with an intention of making a stand on the right bank of that river; his rear was on the hills in front of Alaejos: they moved off before the advanced guard could come up. The allies bivouacked every night in an open country, without a tree to shade them, and where it was necessary to seek for wood at the distance of several miles, the inhabitants frequently using straw for fuel. The enemy continued to fall back toward the Douro, closely followed by one who would let no opportunity escape him. On the 2nd of July their cavalry were on the plain toward Tordesillas, and they had a considerable force of infantry in Rueda; but they were compelled to withdraw from thence, and the town was occupied by the advance of the allied army. On the following day, this part of the army was ordered into the plain, as if with a view of attacking Tordesillas; while the left column, strengthened by the brigades of Generals Bock and Le Marchant, moved on Pollos, where there is a ford. There was some cannonading on the part of the enemy there, and an affair of light troops; and some of the allies passed the river, but they were withdrawn at night: it was then seen that there was no intention of forcing the passage, and orders were given for the distribution of the army. Lord Wellington fixed his head-quarters at Rueda. The French occupied Tordesillas in force: they had a considerable bivouac in the rear of that town, and the bridge there was fortified.

After the recapture of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos, Marmont could not be surprised that the forts at Salamanca fell, even if he had known with what scanty means they had been attacked; and as he had not been brought to action, his army took credit to themselves for having braved a superior force. The French had lost much of their confidence in battle against the English, but they still relied upon their skill in manœuvring; and Marmont, knowing that he should soon have the advantage in numbers, availed himself of all the opportunities which the nature of the country afforded him for gaining time. ♦The Douro.♦ He was in possession of the line of the Douro. That river rises in the Sierra de Orbion, in Old Castille, issuing from a large and deep tarn, high on the mountain: passing the site of Numancia, it comes to Soria, and so to Berlanga, Osma, and Santesteban de Gormas: in this part of its course its banks are remarkable for the jessamine with which they are profusely clothed. Having left Aranda, it passes by the Cistercian monastery of Valbueno, a place denoting by its name the happy circumstances of its position, and where the monks used to account among the goodly things which had fallen to their lot the barbel and trout with which the Douro supplied them. The Pisuerga, having already received the Arlanza and the Carrion, joins it by Simancas; and though it brings the larger body of water to the junction, loses its name there. The Douro then makes for Tordesillas: for the first ten leagues of its way its course is s. s. w., then westward till it reaches this old city, where it bends to the southward for a few leagues, passing S. Roman de Hornija, the now obscure burial-place of Chindasuintho, one of the most powerful of the Wisigoth kings; then it resumes its western course, waters Toro and Zamora, cities of great name in the Spanish annals, and having collected all the rivers of Leon on its way, enters Portugal. Of all the rivers in the Peninsula, the Douro has the longest course. From its junction with the Pisuerga, till it receives the Tormes on the frontier of Portugal, it flows through a wide valley, the right bank for the most part skirting the heights. The French were in possession of all the ♦Colonel Jones’s account of the war, 2. 100.♦ bridges, and from the mouth of the Pisuerga to Zamora there is but one point favourable for passing an army from the left in presence of an enemy: that point is three leagues above Toro, at Castro Nuño, where there is a good ford, a favourable bend in the river, and advantages of ground. There could be little hope, therefore, of striking an efficient blow against Marmont so long as he kept his force concentrated behind the Douro, and it was in his power to cross the river at any of its bridges or fords whenever he might think that opportunity invited.

♦Marmont reinforced by G. Bonnet.♦

But the French, according to the barbarous system which Buonaparte pursued, were without magazines, and trusted to their command of the country for subsistence: Marmont therefore had this anxious object to distract his attention; and the Guerrillas were actively employed both upon his flanks and rear in intercepting his supplies, and in occupying troops who would otherwise have reinforced him. Two parties under Sorniel and Bourbon, with 700 cavalry were on the right; D. Julian Sanches, with 500, on the left; while Porlier displayed his usual activity on the side of Asturias; and Mina and Duran in Navarre and Aragon: on that side their efforts were effectual: but General Bonnet joined him from the north, and increased his force to 47,000 men, thus making it numerically superior to that of the allies. Lord Wellington’s situation was at this time an anxious one: he had counted upon the aid which the Gallician army might have given him in occupying some of the enemy by besieging Astorga; in that undertaking, however, they were more dilatory than had been intended; and he was now aware that the force intended to co-operate with him by acting upon the eastern coast was upon so small a scale, that he could place little hope upon it, and no reliance. The French suffered at this time nothing for want of magazines or means of transport, because they took what they wanted, and preyed upon the country. The British Government would not, even in an enemy’s territories, carry on war upon so inhuman and iniquitous a system; but it exposed its army to privations, and its general to perplexities and difficulties which might have paralysed any weaker mind than Lord Wellington’s, by the parsimony with which it apportioned his means. When he advanced from Salamanca, there were but 20,000 dollars in the military chest: the harvest was abundant, but how was bread to be obtained without money? ... and the same want would be felt in bringing his supplies from Ciudad Rodrigo, and other places in the rear of that fortress. The very difficulty of removing his wounded to the frontier of Portugal was sufficient to deter him from seeking an action on the Douro.

♦Lord Wellington retires before him.♦

On the 15th and 16th, Marmont concentrated his troops between Toro and San Roman: two divisions crossed the bridge at Toro on the evening of the 16th, and Lord Wellington moved the allies that night to Fuente la Peña and Canizal, intending to concentrate them on the Guarena. But it was ascertained next day, that during the night the enemy had repassed the bridge, and destroyed it after them; then making forced marches to Tordesillas, which is six leagues above Toro, crossed again there, and early on the morning of the 18th were on the Trebancos. Marmont might well applaud himself both for the celerity and the skill of these movements: he had marched forty miles; had opened his communication with the army of the centre, which was then moving from Madrid to support him; and by advancing in force on Castrejon he endangered the light and 4th divisions, with Major-General Anson’s brigades of cavalry, which there had not been time for calling in. The enemy commenced a very heavy cannonade against the cavalry; they were scattered about in squadrons, and so escaped without much loss; and immediate measures had been taken to provide for their retreat and junction. The troops at Castrejon maintained their posts till the cavalry joined them; then they retired in perfect order to Tordesillas de la Orden, and thence to the Guarena, having the enemy’s whole army on their left flank or in their rear; and the French getting possession of the heights above that river, before the allies had crossed, brought forty guns to bear upon them, under the fire of which they joined the army on the left bank. Four streams which unite about a league below Canizal, form the Guarena: the French crossed at Castrillo, a little below the junction, and manifested an intention to press upon the left of the allies; with this view they endeavoured to occupy a ridge above Castrillo, but Lieutenant-General Cole’s division advanced to meet them with the bayonet; they gave way; the cavalry charged, General Carrier and between 300 and 400 men were made prisoners, and one gun taken. In the course of the day, the allies lost about 100 in killed, 400 wounded, and 50 prisoners; but the check which Marmont received made him more circumspect in his movements.

The allies took up a position for the night on the Guarena, from Castrillo on the left, to beyond Canizal on the right. The enemy occupied the opposite side of the valley with their whole force. Both armies ♦July 19.♦ remained quiet till two in the afternoon of the following day, when the French withdrawing all their troops from the right marched by Tarrazona, as if with an intention of turning the right of the allies. Counter-movements were consequently made; the artillery fired at the enemy’s advance, and in that dry season the corn took fire in several places, and burnt for a mile in extent. Lord Wellington expected a battle on the plain of Vallesa in the morning, and made every preparation for it; the men bivouacked in two lines in order of battle, and stood to their arms at daybreak, ready to receive an attack; but as soon as it was light, the enemy were seen moving in several columns to their left, on Babilafuente; the allies made a correspondent movement to the right: at any moment either commander might have brought on a general action; but it was a game of skill in which they were engaged, not of hazard. Marmont’s march was estimated at five leagues, that of the allies at four, being in the inner circle; they moved in parallel lines, frequently within half cannon shot. The enemy encamped that night at Babilafuente and Villamela; the allies at Cabeza Vellosa, the 6th division and a brigade of cavalry being upon the Tormes at Aldea ♦July 21.♦ Lengua. On the following day, the French crossed that river by the fords near Alba and Huerta, and moved by their left towards the road leading to Ciudad Rodrigo. In the evening the allies crossed also, part by the bridge at Salamanca, part by the ford of Santa Martha. A dreadful storm came on of thunder and lightning with heavy rain; the different divisions of infantry were seen by the lightning marching to their ground, their muskets reflecting the flashes. The 5th dragoon guards had just got to their ground; many of the men had lain down; their horses were fastened together by their collars for the night, but terrified by the lightning, they set off full gallop and ran over the men, eighteen of whom were hurt; and two and thirty horses were lost, having probably gone to the enemy’s lines.

It was evident from Marmont’s manner of manœuvring, that he did not mean to attack the allies, unless at such advantage as might seem to render his success certain; and it seemed not less evident, that by pursuing this system, turning their flank and keeping possession of the heights, he would drive them to the frontier if they continued to act upon the defensive. All the stores which were at Salamanca were ordered to the rear of the army, and the inhabitants were in the utmost consternation, apprehending, not without good apparent reason, that they should presently be brought under the yoke of the French again. Lord Wellington had placed the troops in a position, the right of which was upon one of two heights called the two Arapiles; and the left on the Tormes below the ford of Santa Martha. The enemy had still a large corps above Babilafuente, on the right of the river; for this reason, the 3rd division and Brigadier-General D’Urban’s cavalry were left on the same side at Cabrerizos; and Lord Wellington thought it not improbable, that when Marmont should find in the morning that the allies were prepared for him on the left of the Tormes, he would alter his plan, and manœuvre by the other bank. In the course of the night he was informed that the cavalry and horse-artillery of the army of the north had arrived at Pollos to join Marmont, and that they would effect a junction with him the next day, or the day after at latest. During the night the enemy took possession of Calvarasa de arriba, and of a height near that village called Nuestra Señora de la Peña; the allied cavalry were in possession of Calvarasa de abaxo, which is between three and four miles from the upper village, and near the river.

♦July 22. Battle of Salamanca.♦

The last night’s storm had not cleared the atmosphere, and the morning rose threateningly, in clouds. The French were early in motion, and from the manner in which they marched and countermarched their troops, it was impossible to divine what might be their intention. Soon after daylight detachments from both armies attempted to gain the yet unoccupied Arapiles hill; but the enemy had been concealed in the woods nearer that point, and their infantry were discovered on the summit when the allies were in the act of advancing to it: their detachment was also the strongest. By occupying this point they materially strengthened their own position, and were the better enabled to annoy that of the allies. Early in the day the light troops of the 7th division and the 4th caçadores of General Pack’s brigade were engaged with the enemy on the height of N. Señora de la Peña, which they gained and kept through the day. But the possession of the farther Arapiles by the French made it necessary for Lord Wellington to extend the right of his army to the heights behind the village of that name, and to occupy that village with the 4th division under Lieutenant-General Cole. Doubtful as Marmont’s intentions still were, the British commander judged that his objects were on the left of the Tormes, and therefore he ordered the 3rd division and D’Urban’s cavalry from the other bank, and placed them behind Aldea Tejada.

During these movements the French kept up a heavy cannonade and fire of light troops. The day, meantime, had cleared. Their force was formed in columns of attack in rear of the Arapiles hill, the left resting upon an extensive wood; thence they could either by a rapid march interpose between Lord Wellington and Ciudad Rodrigo, or wait an opportunity for debouching from behind the Arapiles, and separating the corps of his army. Marmont was too skilful a tactician himself not to perceive that all his movements were watched by one who well knew how to counteract them; nevertheless, hoping to deceive his antagonist, he marched a strong force to the right and formed columns of attack opposite the 5th division, which was in rear of the village of Arapiles. Lord Wellington soon perceived that nothing serious was intended by this manœuvre, and returned to direct the operations of his right, which he now threw back to that side of the Arapiles, forming nearly a right angle with that which he had occupied in the morning. About two in the afternoon the French Marshal perceiving that his last demonstration had produced no effect, pushed forward his columns rapidly to the left, with the intent of turning the right flank of the allies, and interposing between them and Ciudad Rodrigo. Till now the operations of the day had induced a belief in the British army that it was intended only to meet manœuvre by manœuvre, and to continue their retreat as soon as it was night. Indeed the army of the centre, with the Intruder at its head, was on the way to join Marmont within three days’ march, and a considerable body of cavalry and horse artillery was still nearer. But Lord Wellington had anxiously been looking for the opportunity which was now presented him: he was at dinner when information was brought him of this movement, which was made under cover of a heavy cannonade, and accompanied with skirmishers in his front and on his flank, and with a body of cavalry who made the British dragoons and light troops give way before them. But the generals of division had either misunderstood or ill executed their commander’s intentions, and they weakened their line by dangerously extending it: Lord Wellington at once perceived this; he rose in such haste as to overturn the table, exclaiming, that Marmont’s good genius had forsaken him: in an instant he was on horseback, and issued his orders for attack.

The right he reinforced with the 5th division, placing it behind the village of Arapiles, on the right of the 4th, and with the 6th and 7th in reserve. These having taken their stations, he ordered Major-General Pakenham to move forward with the 3rd and General D’Urban’s cavalry, and two squadrons of the 14th light dragoons under Lieutenant-Colonel Hervey, in four columns, to turn the enemy’s left on the heights, while Brigadier-General Bradford’s brigade, the 5th division, under Lieutenant-General Leith, the 4th, under Lieutenant-General Cole, and the cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton, should attack them in front, supported in reserve by the 6th and 7th under Major-Generals Clinton and Hope, and D. Carlos d’España’s Spanish division; Brigadier-General Pack, with the 1st and 16th Portuguese regiments, was to support the left of the 4th division, by attacking the hill which the enemy held. The first and the light divisions occupied the ground on the left of the Arapiles in reserve.

As soon as the formation was effected, the attack commenced from the right. Major-General Pakenham moved along a valley at a quick rate, crossed the extended left of the enemy, almost before they were aware of his intention, drove them back in confusion and overthrew everything before him. Brigadier-General D’Urban’s Portugueze cavalry and Lieutenant-Colonel Hervey’s squadrons of the 14th, supported him in the most gallant style, defeated every attempt which was made upon his flank, cut in upon the enemy’s broken infantry, and put numbers of them to the sword. The attack in front was made with equal ardour: the fifth division had been exposed for about an hour to a continued and heavy cannonade; no orders were ever more welcome to the soldiers who were stretched on the ground to avoid its effects, than those which bade them advance against the enemy. The distance was more than a mile, up a steep height crowned by twenty pieces of cannon, and their left had to pass through the village which formed a considerable obstruction; they advanced in perfect order, not firing a shot till they had gained the summit, from whence the guns which had annoyed them were hastily withdrawn, nor till they had received the fire of the enemy, who were formed into squares to resist them. When they were within some thirty yards the word was given to fire and charge; this instantly threw the squares into disorder; the heavy cavalry coming up on the right increased their confusion; they fled then, and in their flight fell in with the remains of their extreme left, flying before Major-General Pakenham’s division. Lieutenant-General Leith was severely wounded in the act of breaking into the squares. Pakenham and the cavalry constantly bringing up their right, so as to outflank the points on which the French attempted to make a stand, drove them from one height to another and made above 3000 prisoners. The 4th and 5th divisions acquiring in like manner strength upon the enemy’s flank in proportion as they advanced, carried height after height, till at length the enemy’s left rallied on their centre; and on the last height, after its crest had been gained, one division of their infantry charged Cole’s division, which, after a severe contest, in which Cole was wounded, gave way.

This temporary success was owing to the failure of Pack’s attack upon the Arapiles; it was bravely made, but the Portugueze failed to carry it against the disadvantage of such strong ground; the attempt, however, was not without some good effect, for it occupied troops who would otherwise have been engaged against General Cole in his advance, and who were not now at leisure to oppose him, till, notwithstanding this temporary success, it was too late. Beresford, who happened to be on the spot, directed a brigade of the 5th division, which was in the second line, to change its front, and bring its fire on the enemy’s flank; while thus engaged he was wounded. Three British generals had thus been disabled, and in a most successful charge against a body of infantry, Major-General Le Marchant was killed, at the head of his own brigade. Lord Wellington now ordered up the 6th division under Major-General Clinton. That division marching under a heavy fire deployed at the foot of a hill, and beginning then to fire regular volleys, suffered severely as it advanced; it was vigorously attacked by a body of cavalry which had been concealed behind the Arapiles, and for some minutes the contest appeared doubtful; but when Clinton was enabled to form his two right battalions into line, and charge, the French again lost heart, and abandoned the important point which they had till then maintained. Their right still resisted, having been reinforced by the troops who now withdrew in good order from the Arapiles, and by those who had fled from the left.

They re-formed and took up their ground with equal promptitude and skill almost at right angles to their original front, the infantry along the crest of the hill in line, supported by heavy close columns in reserve, the cavalry in masses on their flanks, and the artillery posted at the advanced knolls, so as to sweep the whole face of the height. The 1st and light divisions were ordered against these, with two brigades of the 4th, to turn their right, while the 6th supported by the 3rd and 5th, attacked the front. Clinton advanced up the rocky and steep height inline, without firing a shot, and under a murderous fire of musketry and artillery: but he charged with the bayonet, drove them from a commanding conical eminence, and captured two guns. Their flank was attacked at the same time; and then, beaten at all points, they fled through the woods towards the Tormes, cavalry, infantry, and baggage all mixed together. The defeat was complete, and so would have been the destruction, if darkness had not opportunely covered their flight. Lord Wellington, with the 1st and light divisions, and Major-General William Anson’s brigade of the 4th, and some squadrons of cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton, pursued them towards Huerta and the fords of the Tormes, as long as any of them could be found together; but night soon put an end to the pursuit, and enabled great numbers who had been taken prisoners to escape. A sentinel mistook Sir Stapleton Cotton in the dark for an enemy, fired, and wounded him.

This memorable battle, which lasted from three in the afternoon till ten at night, took place within sight of the city; the ground with its heights rising gradually one behind another, forming, as it were, a fine theatre for such a spectacle. On the part of the allies, nearly 5000 were killed and wounded. General Le Marchant’s loss was greatly regretted: he was a native of Guernsey, who having served in the light dragoons under the Duke of York in the years 1793 and 1794, applied himself with zeal and ability to the study of his profession, introduced the Hungarian sword exercise into the British army, and drew up a manual for the use of the cavalry, which was published by the war-office. The royal military college was in great measure planned by him; he was appointed lieutenant-governor of that institution, and discharged the duties of the office till 1811, when he could no longer retain it, being promoted to the rank of Major-General. He then joined the army in Portugal in command of a brigade, but had not been long in that country, when the unexpected death of his wife rendered it necessary that he should return to England for the arrangement of his domestic affairs: that mournful business having been performed, he rejoined the army, and shortly afterwards fell, being in the 47th year of his age. His eldest son, who was an ensign in the guards, was at his side when he fell. The Prince Regent manifested with proper munificence his sense of General Le Marchant’s worth, by granting a pension of £300 to that son, £100 to each of three younger sons, and £120 to each of his five daughters.... The loss of the French was very great; besides the dead and wounded, they left 7000 prisoners on the field. Eleven guns and two eagles were taken: it is said that more than ten were captured, but that there were men base enough to conceal them, and sell them to persons at Salamanca, who deemed it good policy as well as a profitable speculation, to purchase them for the French. Marmont was disabled early in the action, Bonnet also was wounded, and the command then devolved upon General Clausel, who was wounded also, but not so as to incapacitate him. Generals Ferey, Desgraviers, and Thomieres were killed.

At break of day, the pursuit was renewed with the same troops, and with Major-General Bock and Anson’s brigades, which had joined them during the night. The first and light divisions were ordered to the ford of Huerta, Lord Wellington having supposed that the enemy must make their passage there, because the castle at Alba de Tormes was occupied by the Spaniards; but the troops who garrisoned it had, without his knowledge, been withdrawn, so that Clausel, making a most rapid march during the night, crossed the river there without molestation. Having crossed in pursuit, the cavalry came up with the enemy’s rear-guard of horse and foot between Garci Hernandez and Peñarandilla: a detachment from the 11th and 16th dragoons charged their cavalry, which fled, and left the infantry to their fate. Major-General Bock, then, with the heavy brigade of the King’s German legion, attacked them, when posted upon a hill in square, and in what is described as one of the finest charges that was ever seen, rode completely through them. The whole body, consisting of three battalions, were made prisoners, the brigade losing in the charge 30 killed and nearly 50 wounded. In the course of the day, the enemy were joined by 1200 cavalry belonging to the army of the north, who, though too late to be of any greater service, covered the retreat of their centre to Peñaranda de Bracamonte: one column went by Macotora; the other which had crossed the Tormes at Encina and Huerta moved on El Campo and Cebolla. They had their head-quarters at Flores de Avila, ten leagues from the field of battle, for a few hours on the second night, and hastened from thence by Arevalo, towards Valladolid. Their dead were found in many places by the road-side, and their stragglers met with as little mercy from the peasantry as they had been accustomed to show; yet many of their rear-guard were taken without arms, having thrown them away as impediments in their flight.

The pursuit was continued on the 24th; but the enemy made exceedingly long marches, and had little to encumber them while hastening to their resources both in men and means, and the pursuers having to bring up their supplies far from behind could not keep up an equal pace. On that day they only came up with the rear-guard, which hastened away at their approach. On the following the advance halted for the army to close up; Colonel Arentschild’s brigade entered Arevalo; and a non-commissioned officer’s patrol captured two officers and 27 men of Joseph’s own cavalry, in Blasco Sancho, between Arevalo and Avila. The Intruder had reached that place, hastening with the army of the centre to join Marmont upon the Tormes; he was met there with tidings of the defeat, and then turned towards Segovia, as if retreating upon Madrid: soon however receiving fuller advices, he endeavoured to divert the pursuers by threatening an advance upon their flank. The routed army, meantime, whose movements were conducted with great ability by Clausel, concentrated themselves on the right bank of the Douro, between Puente de Duero and the other bridge at Tudela de Duero; they crossed the river as soon as the allies advanced towards them, hastened to Valladolid, and making no tarriance there, continued their retreat to Burgos. Lord Wellington entered Valladolid on the 30th amid the acclamations of the people. There he discontinued the pursuit, and prepared to march against the Intruder, with the intention of either bringing him to action, or driving him from Madrid.

♦Proceedings of Sir Home Popham on the coast of Biscay.♦

Meantime, a squadron under Sir Home Popham which sailed from Coruña, to co-operate with the Guerrillas, and occupy the enemy upon the side of Biscay, rendered all the service which had been expected from it. Sir Howard Douglas and General Carrol embarked in the Venerable with Sir Home. They arrived off Lequeitio on the 18th of June, where the French had possession of a hill-fort, commanding the town, and strong enough to resist any body of infantry; they had also 200 men fortified in a convent within the town, and into this the garrison retired when the Pastor D. Gaspar Jauregui arrived with his party to act in concert with the squadron. The convent might have been destroyed by the ships, but the town must in that case have suffered also; it was determined, therefore, to attack the fort, which was so situated that the enemy thought it quite inaccessible to cannon. They knew not what British seamen are capable of on shore. At a time when the sea broke with such violence against the rocks at the foot of the hill, that it was doubtful whether a boat could reach the land, Lieutenant Groves succeeded in landing a gun there. It was hove up for a short distance by a moveable capstan; but this was too tedious an operation, and it was dragged to the summit by six and thirty pair of oxen, 400 of the Pastor’s men, and 100 seamen, headed by the Honourable Captain Bouverie. It was immediately mounted; the first shot was fired at four in the afternoon, and so well was it served, that by sunset a practicable breach was made. The Guerrillas volunteered to storm; they were repulsed in the first attempt, but succeeded in the second, and such of the enemy as escaped on the opposite side got into the convent. In the course of the evening the sea had abated, a landing was effected upon the island of S. Nicholas, from whence the convent could be battered without damage to the town; three carronades were planted there; at dawn, a 24-pounder was brought to the east side of the town, within 200 yards of the convent, and another was in the act of being landed upon the island to bombard it, when the French commandant beat a parley, and surrendered with 290 men. The Guerrillas had lost 50 in killed and wounded, not a man belonging to the squadron was hurt. The muskets, stores, and three small guns, which were found there were given to the Pastor. Two 18-pounders in the fort were rendered useless; the fort itself was demolished and the convent blown up. The next morning a column of 1100 men were seen which had arrived within two leagues of Lequeitio, but hearing from the peasantry that the English had disembarked 2000 men, they retired. Some intercepted letters were now transmitted to Sir Home, by which the commandant at Guernica was instructed to prepare rations for a French general and 2600 of the Imperial Guards.

The squadron was now to have co-operated in an attack upon Bilbao, but the wind proved unfavourable for getting round Cape Machichago, and part of the ships fetched the anchorage of Bermeo. The enemy had retired from that place, leaving a small magazine of provisions ♦June 23.♦ in a fortified convent; these were distributed to the poor; and the battery on the hill and all the fortified places which the French had occupied were destroyed: the works at Plencia were in like manner demolished, and the batteries on each side of the ♦June 24.♦ inlet below the bar of the Ybeyzabal, or Narrow River, the beautiful and tranquil stream which forms the port of Bilbao: on one side were the castle of Galea, and the batteries of Algorta and Begona; on the other the batteries of El Campillo, Las Quersas and Xebiles. Early on the following morning some parties of the enemy entered the destroyed batteries of Algorta, but retired upon the squadron’s making a disposition to stand up the inlet; they then formed in the plain, and were found to consist of 2000 men at Algorta, while 400 were sent to Puerta Galetta. Three of the British sloops closed with the fort there, silenced it, and drove them from thence. It was supposed that this was the corps for which rations had been ordered at Guernica, and that it had been thus drawn off from its original destination.

♦July 2.♦

The squadron then made for Guetaria; two companies of marines were landed for the purpose of reconnoitring the place, previous to an intended attack, but the Guerrillas who were expected to co-operate were engaged with the enemy in a different quarter; parties of the French were seen crossing the hills; the intention, therefore, was relinquished, ♦July 6.♦ and the marines re-embarked without loss. Sir Home then sailed for Castro, where Sir George Collier had landed a company of marines to assist Longa in a concerted attack. Longa was there at the time and place appointed; more marines were landed, and guns with hearty exertions of well-directed skill were drawn up heights that might have seemed inaccessible to men less earnest in their duty. They were placing them in a battery to the east of the town, when 2500 of the enemy appeared on the heights of S. Pelayo; the parties upon this were re-embarked, and Longa found it necessary to change his ground, after which he sustained an action, in which no advantage was gained over him. Somewhat disheartened by this, the French marched into the town that evening, and were driven out of it on the morrow by the fire of the squadron: they then took post on the hills, and under favour of the night retired towards Laredo. The castle then surrendered with 150 men, and having been put in a state of defence, was garrisoned by ♦July 10.
July 11.♦ the marines and Spanish artillerymen of the Iris. Their next attempt was a combined attack upon Puerta Galleta, which was abandoned because the enemy were found to be in greater strength than had been expected; the French on their part failed equally in endeavouring to recover Castro. Their moveable column had now been drawn by a feint to Santona; from thence it could not reach Guetaria in less than four days; another attempt therefore was made upon that place in concert with the Pastor, and with one of Mina’s battalions. The latter, after two days’ severe march, did not arrive till it was too late; for when the enemy’s guns on one side had been silenced, ♦July 19.♦ and a battery was ready to open upon them on the other, intelligence was received that a considerable body of French troops was hastening thither by forced marches. The Guerrillas maintained a brave action against them, till the superiority of the enemy’s numbers was ascertained, and made it necessary for them to retreat; but this action prevented the re-embarkation of the British in time, so that two guns were in consequence destroyed, and 32 men made prisoners.

These operations of Sir Home Popham’s squadron were of service in many ways. Troops were thus occupied who would otherwise have joined Marmont before the battle of Salamanca; the corps which relieved Guetaria was recalled from that direction, and Caffarelli was prevented from sending the infantry who were to have assisted in driving the English into the Tagus. The ports which were liberated lost no time in conveying supplies to the free parts of the kingdom, and vessels from them arrived daily at Coruña laden with corn and wine. And the Guerrillas, as well as the regular troops of Spain, received a countenance and support which enabled them to hold towards the enemy the language of confident hope. Renovales, who was Commandant-General in Biscay, addressed a letter to the French Governor of Bilbao, General Roquet, remonstrating against the cruelties which General Mouton had committed with his column: “for the security of a fortress,” he said, “or to prevent an insurrection, the rules of military precaution might render it proper to put some few persons of respectability in confinement, but that cottages and private dwellings should be outraged, and that peaceable persons should be tortured by stripes, by the bayonet, and by fire, was what no laws of war could justify. The Spaniards were a people who might be softened by generosity though not subdued by it; but if this system of terror were persisted in towards them, ... if it were still to be war at the knife’s point, the Biscayans, instead of yielding a foot to him, would meet him half way in such warfare. Four and twenty officers were in his hands, and should suffer for the next act of cruelty on the part of the French. He concluded by assuring Roquet that the day was not far distant when Bilbao would be delivered, and that he, Renovales, would then, at the head of 10,000 Biscayans, fulfil his duty as he had hitherto done, and first of all towards himself.