CHAPTER I.
1812. As Wellington’s operations had now deeply affected the French affairs in the distant provinces, it is necessary again to revert to the general progress of the war, lest the true bearings of his military policy should be overlooked. The battle of Salamanca, by clearing all the centre of Spain, had reduced the invasion to its original lines of operation. For Palombini’s division having joined the army of the centre, the army of the Ebro was broken up; Caffarelli had concentrated the scattered troops of the army of the north; and when Clauzel had led back the vanquished army of Portugal to Burgos, the whole French host was divided in two distinct parts, each having a separate line of communication with France, and a circuitous, uncertain, attenuated line of correspondence with each other by Zaragoza instead of a sure and short one by Madrid. But Wellington was also forced to divide his army in two parts, and though, by the advantage of his central position, he retained the initial power, both of movement and concentration, his lines of communication were become long, and weak because the enemy was powerful at either flank. Wherefore on his own simple strength in the centre of Spain he could not rely, and the diversions he had projected against the enemy’s rear and flanks became more important than ever. To these we must now turn.
EASTERN OPERATIONS.
See [Book XVII. Chap. II.] It will be recollected that the narrative of Catalonian affairs ceased at the moment when Decaen, after fortifying the coast line and opening new roads beyond the reach of shot from the English ships, was gathering the harvest of the interior. Lacy, inefficient in the field and universally hated, was thus confined to the mountain chain which separates the coast territory from the plains of Lerida, and from the Cerdaña. The insurrectionaryCaptain Addington’s correspondence, MSS. spirit of the Catalonians was indeed only upheld by Wellington’s successes, and by the hope of English succour from Sicily; for Lacy, devoted to the republican party in Spain, had now been made captain-general as well as commander-in-chief, and sought to keep down the people, who were generally of the priestly and royal faction. He publicly spoke of exciting a general insurrection, yet, in his intercourse with the English naval officers, avowed his wish to repress the patriotism of the Somatenes; he was not ashamed to boast of his assassination plots, and History of the conspiracies against the French army in Catalonia, published at Barcelona, 1813. received with honour, a man who had murdered the aide-de-camp of Maurice Mathieu; he sowed dissentions amongst his generals, intrigued against all of them in turn, and when Eroles and Manso, who were the people’s favourites, raised any soldiers, he transferred the latter as soon as they were organized to Sarzfield’s division, at the same time calumniating that general to depress his influence. He quarrelled incessantly with captain Codrington, and had no desire to see an English force in Catalonia lest a general insurrection should take place, for he feared that the multitude once gathered and armed would drive him from the province and declare for the opponents of the cortez. And in this view the constitution itself, although emanating from the cortez, was long withheld from the Catalans, lest the newly declared popular rights should interfere with the arbitrary power of the chief.
July. Such was the state of the province when intelligence that the Anglo-Sicilian expedition had arrived at Mahon, excited the hopes of the Spaniards and the fears of the French. The coast then became the great object of interest to both, and the Catalans again opened a communication with the English fleet by Villa Nueva de Sitjes, and endeavoured to collect the grain of the Campo de Taragona. Decaen, coming to meet Suchet who had arrived at Reus with two thousand men, drove the Catalans to the hills again; yet the Lerida district was thus opened to the enterprises of Lacy, because it was at this period that Reille had detached general ParisSee [Book XVII. Chap. II.] from Zaragoza to the aid of Palombini; and that Severoli’s division was broken up to reinforce the garrisons of Lerida, Taragona, Barcelona, and Zaragoza. But the army of the Ebro being dissolved, Lacy resolved to march upon Lerida, where he had engaged certain Spaniards in the French service to explode the powder magazine when he should approach; and this odious scheme, which necessarily involved the destruction of hundreds of his own countrymen, was vainly opposed by Eroles and Sarzfield.
On the 12th of July, Eroles’ division, that general being absent, was incorporated with Sarzfield’s and other troops at Guisona, and the whole journeying day and night reached Tremp on the 13th. Lacy having thus turned Lerida, would have resumed the march at mid-day, intending to attack the next morning at dawn, but the men were without food, and exhausted by fatigue, and fifteen hundred had fallen behind. A council of war being then held, Sarzfield, who thought the plot wild, would have returned, observing that all communication with the sea was abandoned, and the harvests of the Camps de Taragona and Valls being left to be gathered by Sarzfield’s Vindication, MSS. the enemy, the loss of the corn would seriously affect the whole principality. Displeased at the remonstrance, Lacy immediately sent him back to the plain of Urgel with some infantry and the cavalry, to keep the garrison of Balaguer in check; but in the night of the 16th when Sarzfield had reached the bridge of Alentorna on the Segre, fresh orders caused him to return to Limiana on the Noguera. Meanwhile Lacy himself had advanced by Agen towards Lerida, the explosion of the magazine took place, many houses were thrown down, two hundred inhabitants and one hundred and fifty soldiers were destroyed; two bastions fell, and the place was laid open.
Henriod the governor, although ignorant of the vicinity of the Spaniards, immediately manned the breaches, the garrison of Balaguer, hearing the explosion marched to his succour, and when the Catalan troops appeared, the citizens enraged by the destruction of their habitations aided the French; Lacy then fled back to Tremp, bearing the burthen of a crime which he had not feared to commit, but wanted courage to turn to his country’s advantage. To lessen the odium thus incurred, he insidiously attributed the failure to Sarzfield’s disobedience; and as that general, to punish the people of Barbastro for siding with the French and killing twenty of his men, had raisedCaptain Codrington’s Papers, MSS. a heavy contribution of money and corn in the district, he became so hateful, that some time after, when he endeavoured to raise soldiers in those parts, the people threw boiling water at him from the windows as he passed.
Before this event Suchet had returned to Valencia, and Dacaen and Maurice Mathieu marched against colonel Green, who was entrenched in the hermitageIdem. of St. Dimas, one of the highest of the peaked rocks overhanging the convent of Montserrat. Manso immediately raised the SomatenesLaffaille’s Campaigns in Catalonia. to aid Green, and as the latter had provisions the inaccessible strength of his post seemed to defy capture; yet he surrendered in twenty-four hours, and at a moment when the enemy, despairing of success, were going to relinquish the attack. He excused himself as being forced by his own people, but he signed the capitulation. Decaen then set fire to the convent of Montserrat and the flames seen for miles around was the signal that the warfare on that holy mountain was finished. After this the French general marched to Lerida to gather corn and Lacy again spread his troops in the mountains.
During his absence Eroles had secretly been preparing a general insurrection to break out when the British army should arrive, and it was supposed that his object was to effect a change in the government of the province; for though Lacy himself again spoke of embodying the Somatenes if arms were given to him by sir Edward Pellew,Codrington’s Papers, MSS. there was really no scarcity of arms, the demand was a deceit to prevent the muskets from being given to the people, and there was no levy. Hence the discontent increased and a general desire for the arrival of the British troops became prevalent; the miserable people turned anxiously towards any quarter for aid, and this expression of conscious helplessness was given in evidence by the Spanish chiefs, and received as proof of enthusiasm by the English naval commanders, who were more sanguine of success than experience would warrant. All eyes were however directed towards the ocean, the French in fear, the Catalans in hope; and the British armament did appear off Palamos, but after three days, spread its sails again and steered for Alicant, leaving the principality stupified with grief and disappointment.
This unexpected event was the natural result of previous errors on all sides, errors which invariably attend warlike proceedings when not directed by a superior genius, and even then not always to be avoided. It has been shewn how ministerial vacillation marred lord William Bentinck’s first intention of landing in person with ten or twelve thousand men on the Catalonian coast; and how after much delay general Maitland had sailed to Palma with a division of six thousand men, Calabrians, Sicilians and others, troops of no likelihood save that some three thousand British and Germans were amongst them. This force was afterwards joined by the transports from Portugal having engineers and artillery officers on board, and that honoured battering train which had shattered the gory walls of Badajos. Wellington had great hopes of this expedition; he had himself sketched the general plan of operations; and his own campaign had been conceived in the expectation, that lord William Bentinck, a general of high rank and reputation, with ten thousand good troops, aided with at least as many Spanish soldiers, disciplined under the two British officers Whittingham and Roche, would have early fallen on Catalonia to the destruction of Suchet’s plans. And when this his first hope was quashed, he still expected that a force would be disembarked of strength, sufficient, in conjunction with the Catalan army, to take Taragona.
August. Roche’s corps was most advanced in discipline, but the Spanish government delayed to place it under general Maitland, and hence it first sailed from the islands to Murcia, then returned without orders, again repaired to Murcia, and at the moment of general Maitland’s arrival off Palamos, was, under the command of Joseph O’Donel, involved in a terrible catastrophe already alluded to and hereafter to be particularly narrated. Whittingham’s levyGen. Donkin’s papers, MSS. remained, but when inspected by the quarter-master general Donkin it was found in a raw state, scarcely mustering four thousand effective men, amongst which were many French deserters from the island of Cabrera. The sumptuous clothing and equipments of Whittingham’s and Roche’s men, their pay regularly supplied from the British subsidy, and very much exceeding that of the other Spanish corps, excited envy and dislike; there was no public inspection, no check upon the expenditure, nor upon the delivery of the stores, and Roche’s proceedings on this last head, whether justly or unjustly I know not, were very generally and severely censured. Whittingham acknowledged that he could not trust his people near the enemy without the aid of British troops, and though the captain-general Coupigny desired their departure, his opinion was against a descent in Catalonia. Maitland hesitated, but sir Edward Pellew urged this descent so very strongly, that he finally assented and reached Palamos with nine thousand men of all nations on the 31st of July, yet in some confusion as to the transport service, which the staff officers attributed to the injudicious meddling of the naval chiefs.
Maitland’s first care was to open a communication with the Spanish commanders. Eroles came on board at once and vehemently and unceasingly urged an immediate disembarkation, declaring that the fate of Catalonia and his own existence depended upon it; the other generals shewed lessNotes by general Maitland, MSS. eagerness, and their accounts differed greatly with respect to the relative means of the Catalans and the French. Lacy estimated the enemy’s disposableGeneral Donkin’s papers, MSS. troops at fifteen thousand, and his own at seven thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry; and even that number he said he could with difficulty feed or provide with ammunition. Sarzfield judged the French to be, exclusive of Suchet’s moveable column, eighteen thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry; he thought it rash to invest Taragona with a less force, and that a free and constant communication with the fleet was absolutely essential in any operation. Eroles rated the enemy at thirteen thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry, including Suchet’s column; but the reports of the deserters gave twenty-two thousand infantry, exclusive of Suchet’s column and of the garrisons and Miguelettes in the enemy’s service.
No insurrection of the Somatenes had yet taken place, nor was there any appearance that such an event would happen, as the French were descried conducting convoys along the shore with small escorts, and concentrating their troops for battle without molestation. The engineers demanded from six to ten days to reduce Taragona after investment, and Decaen and Maurice Mathieu were then near Montserrat with seven or eight thousand good troops, which number could be doubled in a few days; the Catalans could not so soon unite and join Maitland’s force, and there was a general, although apparently, an unjust notion abroad, that Lacy was a Frenchman at heart. It was feared also, that the Toulon fleet might come out and burn the transports at their anchorage during the siege, and thus Wellington’s battering train and even the safety of the army would be involved in an enterprize promising little success. A full council of war was unanimous not to land, and the reluctance of the people to rise, attributed by captain Codrington to the machinations of traitors, was visible; Maitland also was farther swayed by the generous and just consideration, that as the Somatenes had not voluntarily taken arms, it would be cruel to excite them to such a step, when a few days might oblige him to abandon them to the vengeance of the enemy. Wherefore as Palamos appeared too strong for a sudden assault, the armament sailed towards Valencia with intent to attack that place, after a project, furnished by the quarter-master general Donkin and in unison with lord Wellington’s plan of operations; but Maitland, during the voyage, changed his mind and proceeded at once to Alicant.
The Catalans were not more displeased than the British naval commanders at seeing the principality thus shaken off; yet the judgment of the latter seems to have been swayed partly from having given stronger hopes of assistance to the former than the circumstances would rigorously warrant; partly from that confidence, which inspired by continual success, is strength on their own element, but rashness on shore. Captain Codrington, fromCaptain Codrington’s papers, MSS. the great interest he took in the struggle, was peculiarly discontented; yet his own description of the state of Catalonia at the time, shows that his hopes rested more on some vague notions of the Somatenes’ enthusiasm, than upon any facts which a general ought to calculate upon. Lord Wellington indeed said, that he could see no reason why the plan he had recommended, should not have been successful; an observation made, however, when he was somewhat excited by the prospect of having Suchet on his own hands, and probably under some erroneous information. He had been deceived about the strength of the forts at Salamanca, although close to them; and as he had only just established a sure channel of intelligence in Catalonia, it was probable that he was also deceived with respect to Taragona, which if not strong in regular works was well provided and commanded by a very bold active governor, and offered great resources in the facility of making interior retrenchments.
The force of the Catalans lord Wellington knew principally from sir Edward Pellew, who had derived his information chiefly from Eroles, who very much exaggerated it, and lessened the enemy’s power in proportion. And general Maitland could scarcely be called a commander-in-chief, for lord William Bentinck forbade him to risk the loss of his division lest Sicily itself should thereby be endangered; and to avoid mischief from the winter season, he was instructed to quit the Spanish coast in the second week of September. Lord William and lord Wellington were therefore not agreed in the object to be attained. The first considered the diversion on the Spanish coast as secondary to the wants of Sicily, whereas Wellington looked only to the great interests at stake in the Peninsula, and thought Sicily in no danger until the French should reinforce their army in Calabria. He desired vigorous combined efforts of the military and naval forces, to give a new aspect to the war in Catalonia, and his plan was that Taragona should be attacked; if it fell the warfare he said would be once more established on a good base in Catalonia; if it was succoured by the concentration of the French troops, Valencia would necessarily be weak, and the armament could then proceed to attack that place, and if unsuccessful return to assail Taragona again.
This was an excellent plan no doubt, but Napoleon never lost sight of that great principle of war, so concisely expressed by Sertorius when he told Pompey that a good general should look behind him rather than before. The emperor acting on the proverb that fortune favours the brave, often urged his lieutenants to dare desperately with a few men in the front, but he invariably covered their communications with heavy masses, and there is no instance of his plan of invasion being shaken by a flank or rear attack, except where his instructions were neglected. His armies made what are called points, in war, such as Massena’s invasion of Portugal, Moncey’s attack on Valencia, Dupont’s on Andalusia; but the general plan of operation was invariably supported by heavy masses protecting the communications. Had his instructions, sent from Dresden, been strictly obeyed, the walls of Lerida and Taragona would have been destroyed, and only the citadels of each occupied with small garrisons easily provisioned for a long time. The field army would thus have been increased by at least three thousand men, the moveable columns spared many harassing marches, and Catalonia would have offered little temptation for a descent.
But notwithstanding this error of Suchet, Maitland’s troops were too few, and too ill-composed to venture the investment of Taragona. The imperial muster-rolls give more than eighty thousand men, including Reille’s divisions at Zaragosa, for the armies of Aragon and Catalonia, and twenty-seven thousand of the first and thirty-seven thousand of the second, were actually under arms with the eagles; wherefore to say that Decaen could have brought at once ten thousand men to the succour of Taragona, and, by weakening his garrisons, as many more in a very short time, is not to over-rate his power; and this without counting Paris’ brigade, three thousand strong, which belonged to Reille’s division and was disposable. Suchet had just before come to Reus with two thousand select men of all arms, and as O’Donel’s army had since been defeated near Alicant, he could have returned with a still greater force to oppose Maitland.
Now the English fleet was descried by the French off Palamos on the evening of the 31st of July, although it did not anchor before the 1st of August; Decaen and Maurice Mathieu with some eight thousand disposable men were then between Montserrat and Barcelona, that is to say, only two marches from Taragona; Lamarque with from four to five thousand, was between Palamos and Mataro, five marches from Taragona; Quesnel with a like number was in the Cerdaña, being about seven marches off; Suchet and Paris could have arrived in less than eight days, and from the garrisons, and minor posts, smaller succours might have been drawn; Tortoza alone could have furnished two thousand. But Lacy’s division was at Vich, Sarzfield’s at Villa Franca, Eroles’ divided between Montserrat and Urgel, Milan’s in the Grao D’Olot, and they required five days even to assemble; when united, they would not have exceeded seven thousand men, and with their disputing, captious generals, would have been unfit to act vigorously; nor could they have easily joined the allies without fighting a battle in which their defeat would have been certain.
Sarzfield judged that ten days at least were necessary to reduce Taragona, and positively affirmed that the army must be entirely fed from the fleet, as the country could scarcely supply the Catalonian troops alone. Thus Maitland would have had to land his men, his battering train and stores, and to form his investment, in the face of Decaen’s power, or, following the rules of war, have defeated that general first. But Decaen’s troops numerically equal, without reckoning the garrison of Taragona two thousand strong, were in composition vastly superior to the allies, seeing that only three thousand British and German troops in Maitland’s army, were to be at all depended upon in battle; neither does it appear that the platforms, sand-bags, fascines and other materials, necessary for a siege, were at this period prepared and on board the vessels.
It is true Maitland would, if he had been able to resist Decaen at first, which seems doubtful, have effected a great diversion, and Wellington’s object would have been gained if a re-embarkation had been secure; but the naval officers, having reference to the nature of the coast, declared that a safe re-embarkation could not be depended upon. The soundness of this opinion has indeed been disputed by many seamen, well acquainted with the coast, who maintain, that even in winter the Catalonian shore is remarkably safe and tranquil; and that Cape Salou, a place in other respects admirably adapted for a camp, affords a certain retreat, and facility of re-embarking on one or other of its sides in all weather. However, to Maitland the coast of Catalonia was represented as unsafe, and this view of the question is also supported by very able seamen likewise acquainted with that sea.
OPERATIONS IN MURCIA.
July. The Anglo-Sicilian armament arrived at Alicant at a critical moment; the Spanish cause was there going to ruin. Joseph O’Donel, brother to the regent, had with great difficulty organized a new Murcian army after Blake’s surrender at Valencia, and this army, based upon Alicant and Carthagena, was independent of a division under general Frere, which always hung about Baza, and Lorca, on the frontier of Grenada, and communicated through the Alpuxaras with the sea-coast. Both Suchet and Soult were paralyzed in some degree by the neighbourhood of these armies, which holding a central position were supported by fortresses, supplied by sea from Gibraltar to Cadiz, and had their existence guaranteed by Wellington’s march into Spain, by his victory of Salamanca, and by his general combinations. For the two French commanders were forced to watch his movements, and to support at the same time, the one a blockade of the Isla de Leon, the other the fortresses in Catalonia; hence they were in no condition to follow up the prolonged operations necessary to destroy these Murcian armies, which were moreover supported by the arrival of general Ross with British troops at Carthagena.
O’Donel had been joined by Roche in July, and Suchet, after detaching Maupoint’s brigade towards Madrid, departed himself with two thousand men for Catalonia, leaving general Harispe with not more than four thousand men beyond the Xucar. General Ross immediately advised O’Donel to attack him, and to distract his attention a large fleet, with troops on board, which had originally sailed from Cadiz to succour Ballesteros at Malaga, now appeared off the Valencian coast. At the same time Bassecour and Villa Campa, being free to act in consequence of Palombini’s and Maupoint’s departure for Madrid, came down from their haunts in the mountains of Albaracyn upon the right flankSee [Plan 6.] and rear of the French positions. Villa Campa penetrated to Liria, and Bassecour to Cofrentes on the Xucar; but ere this attack could take place, Suchet, with his usual celerity, returned from Reus. At first he detached men against Villa Campa, but when he saw the fleet, fearing it was the Sicilian armament, he recalled them again, and sent for Paris’ brigade from Zaragoza, to act by Teruel against Bassecour and Villa Campa. Then he concentrated his own forces at Valencia, but a storm drove the fleet off the coast, and meanwhile O’Donel’s operations brought on the
FIRST BATTLE OF CASTALLA.
Harispe’s posts were established at Biar, Castalla, and Onil on the right; at Ibi and Alcoy on the left. This line was not more than one march from Alicant. Colonel Mesclop, with a regiment of infantry and some cuirassiers held Ibi, and was supported by Harispe himself with a reserve at Alcoy. General Delort, with another regiment of infantry, was at Castalla, having some cuirassiers at Onil on his left, and a regiment of dragoons with three companies of foot at Biar on his right. In this exposed situation the French awaited O’Donel, who directed his principal force, consisting of six thousand infantry, seven hundred cavalry, and eight guns, against Delort; meanwhile Roche with threeSee [Plan 7.] thousand men was to move through the mountains of Xixona, so as to fall upon Ibi simultaneously with the attack at Castalla. O’Donel hoped thus to cut the French line, and during these operations, Bassecour, with two thousand men, was to come down from Cofrentes to Villena, on the right flank of Delort.
Suchet’s official correspondence, MSS. Roche, who marched in the night of the 19th, remained during the 20th in the mountains, but the next night he threaded a difficult pass, eight miles long, reached Ibi at day-break on the 21st, and sentSuchet’s Memoirs. notice of his arrival to O’Donel; and when that general appeared in front of Delort, the latter abandonedRoche’s correspondence, MSS. Castalla, which was situated in the same valley as Ibi, and about five miles distant from it. But he only retired skirmishing to a strong ridge General Delort’s official report behind that town, which also extended behind Ibi; this secured his communication with Mesclop, of whom he demanded succour, and at the same time he called in his own cavalry and infantry from Onil and Biar. Mesclop, leaving some infantry, two guns, and his cuirassiers, to defend Ibi and a small fort on the hill behind it, marched at once towards Delort, and thus Roche, finding only a few men before him, got possession of the town after a sharp skirmish, yet he could not take the fort.
At first O’Donel who had advanced beyond Castalla, only skirmished with and cannonaded the French in his front, for he had detached the Spanish cavalry to operate by the plains of Villena, to turn the enemy’s right and communicate with Bassecour. While expecting the effects of this movement he was astonished to see the French dragoons come trotting through the pass of Biar, on his left flank; they were followed by some companies of infantry, and only separated from him by a stream over which was a narrow bridge without parapets, and at the same moment the cuirassiers appeared on the other side coming from Onil. The Spanish cavalry had made no effort to interrupt this march from Biar, nor to follow the French through the defile,See [Appendix, No. 15.] nor any effort whatever. In this difficulty O’Donel turned two guns against the bridge and supported them with a battalion of infantry, but the French dragoons observing this battalion to be unsteady, braved the fire of the guns, and riding furiously over the bridge seized the battery, and then dashed against and broke the infantry. Delort’s line advanced at the same moment, the cuirassiers charged into the town of Castalla, and the whole Spanish army fled outright. Several hundred sought refuge in an old castle and there surrendered, and of the others three thousand were killed, wounded, or taken, and yet the victors had scarcely fifteen hundred men engaged, and did not lose two hundred. O’Donel attributed his defeat to the disobedience and inactivity of St. Estevan, who commanded his cavalry, but the great fault was the placing that cavalry beyond the defile of Biar instead of keeping it in hand for the battle.
This part of the action being over, Mesclop, who had not taken any share in it, was reinforced and returned to succour Ibi, to which place also Harispe was now approaching from Alcoy; but Roche favoured by the strength of the passes escaped, and reached Alicant with little hurt, while the remains of O’Donel’s divisions, pursued by the cavalry on the road of Jumilla, fled to the city of Murcia. Bassecour who had advanced to Almanza was then driven back to his mountain-haunts, where Villa Campa rejoined him. It was at this moment that Maitland’s armament disembarked and the remnants of the Spanish force rallied. The king, then flying from Madrid, immediately changed the direction of his march from the Morena to Valencia, and one more proof was given that it was England and not Spain which resisted the French; for Alicant would have fallen, if not as an immediate consequence of this defeat, yet surely when the king’s army had joined Suchet.
That general, who had heard of the battle of Salamanca, the evacuation of Madrid and the approach of Joseph, and now saw a fresh army springing up in his front, hastened to concentrate his disposable force in the positions of San Felippe de Xativa and Moxente which he entrenched, as well as the road to Almanza with a view to secure his junction with the king. At the same time he established a new bridge and bridge-head at Alberique in addition to that at Alcira on the Xucar; and having called up Paris from Teruel and Maupoint from Cuenca resolved to abide a battle, which the slowness and vacillation of his adversaries gave him full time to prepare for.
August. Maitland arrived the 7th, and though his force was not all landed before the 11th, the French were still scattered on various points, and a vigorous commander would have found the means to drive them over the Xucar, and perhaps from Valencia itself. However the British general had scarcely set his foot on shore when the usual Spanish vexations overwhelmed him. Three principal roads led towards the enemy; one on the left, passed through Yecla and Fuente La Higuera, and by it the remnant of O’Donel’s army was coming up from Murcia; another passed through Elda, Sax, Villena, and Fuente de la Higuera, and the third through Xixona, Alcoy, and Albayda. Now O’Donel, whose existence as a general was redeemed by the appearance of Maitland, instantly demanded from the latter a pledge, that he would draw nothing either by purchase or requisition, save wine and straw, from any of these lines, nor from the country between them. The English general assented and instantly sunk under the difficulties thus created. For his intention was to have attacked Harispe at Alcoy and Ibi on the 13th or 14th, but he was only able to get one march from Alicant as late as the 16th, he could not attack before the 18th, and it was on that day, that Suchet concentrated his army at Xativa. The delay had been a necessary consequence of the agreement with O’Donel.
Maitland was without any habitude of command, his commissariat was utterly inefficient, and his field-artillery had been so shamefully ill-prepared in Sicily that it was nearly useless. He had hired mules at a great expense for the transport of his guns, and of provisions, from Alicant, but the owners of the mules soon declared they could not fulfil their contract unless they were fed by the British, and this O’Donel’s restrictions as to the roads prevented. Many of the muleteers also, after receiving their money, deserted with both mules and provisions; and on the first day’s march a convoy, with six days’ supply, was attacked by an armed banditti called a guerilla, and the convoy was plundered or dispersed and lost.
Maitland suffering severely from illness, was disgusted at these things, and fearing for the safety of his troops, would have retired at once, and perhaps have re-embarked, if Suchet had not gone back to Xativa; then however, he advanced to Elda, while Roche entered Alcoy; yet both apparently without an object, for there was no intention of fighting, and the next day Roche retired to Xixona and Maitland retreated to Alicant. To cover this retreat general Donkin pushed forward, with a detachment of Spanish and English cavalry, through Sax, Ibi, and Alcoy, and giving out that an advanced guard of five thousand British was close behind him, coasted all the French line, captured a convoy at Olleria, and then returned through Alcoy. Suchet kept close himself, in the camp of Xativa, but sent Harispe to meet the king who was now near Almanza, and on the 25th the junction of the two armies was effected; at the same time Maupoint, escaping Villa Campa’s assault, arrived from Cuenca with the remnant of his brigade.
When the king’s troops arrived, Suchet pushed his outposts again to Villena and Alcoy, but apparently occupied in providing for Joseph’s army and court he neglected to press the allies, which he might have done to their serious detriment. Meanwhile O’Donel who had drawn off Frere’s division from Lorca came up to Yecla with five or six thousand men, and Maitland reinforced with some detachments from Sicily, commenced fortifying a camp outside Alicant; but his health was quite broken, and he earnestly desired to resign, being filled with anxiety at the near approach of Soult. That marshal had abandoned Andalusia, and his manner of doing so shall be set forth in the next chapter; for it was a great event, leading to great results, and worthy of deep consideration by those who desire to know upon what the fate of kingdoms may depend.