[632] Symes to Baird, from Leon, Dec. 14. Baird, of course, forwarded the letter to Moore. I have cut down the report to one-third of its bulk, by omitting the less important parts.
[633] Moore’s diary, quoted in his brother’s memoir of him, pp. 141, 142.
[634] Compare Lord Londonderry (a participator in the charge), Vivian, Adam Neale, and on the French side, Colonel St. Chamans, Soult’s aide-de-camp. The British lost only 14 men (Vivian, p. 97).
[635] After his return from Spain in January, 1809, Paget eloped with the wife of Henry Wellesley, the younger brother of Wellington. Naturally they could not be placed together for many years, and Paget lost his chance of seeing any more of the war. But at Waterloo he gloriously vindicated his reputation as the best living British cavalry-officer.
[636] From Moore’s dispatch to La Romana, written on the twenty-third, we gather that the letter with the news about the French movements came in about six p.m.,and the second one with the report that the Spaniards had reached Mansilla about eight. The latter is acknowledged in a postscript to Moore’s reply to the former. The resolve to retreat was made between six and eight o’clock.
[637] Nap. Corresp., 14,577 [Dec. 17], orders Lasalle’s cavalry to push for Plasencia in order to get news of the British army.
[638] Napier (i. 304) says that there were 60,000 men present, but it is hard to see how such a number could have been collected on that day at Madrid; and the official account of the review in the Madrid Gazette for Dec. 23 says that 40,000 men appeared, ‘all in beautiful order, and testifying their enthusiasm by their shouts as His Majesty rode past the front of each regiment.’ The Emperor never understated his forces on such occasions: the tendency was the other way.
[639] Nap. Corresp., 14,514, to Admiral Decrès. Cf. De Pradt, p. 211.
[640] Nap. Corresp., 14,553, to Bessières, Dec. 12.
[641] In Nap. Corresp. there is no trace of movement till the twenty-second.