[692] Adam Neale, p. 188. Both he and ‘T.S.’ mention the parading of the wounded men along the lines.
[693] Cf. Blakeney, Neale, Londonderry, and James Moore.
[694] Not the Guia, as the English generally call it.
[695] I take my account of the skirmish mainly from Blakeney, whose narrative is admirable. Those of Londonderry, Napier, and Neale do not give so many details.
[696] They were the 15th Chasseurs and the 3rd Hussars.
[697] Forty-eight is the number given in Cope’s excellent History of the Rifle Brigade.
[698] He was shot by Tom Plunket, a noted character in the 95th, from a range that seemed extraordinary to the riflemen of that day.
[699] Napoleon’s not very convincing account of the combat (Nap. Corresp., 14,647) runs as follows: ‘Trois mille Ecossais, voulant défendre les gorges de Picros près de Villafranca, pour donner le temps à beaucoup de choses à filer, ont été culbutés. Mais le général Colbert pétillant de faire avancer sa cavalerie, une balle l’a frappé au front, et l’a tué.’
[700] From Adam Neale’s Spanish Campaign of 1808, pp. 190, 191.
[701] For French evidence of this see the journal of Fantin des Odoards of the 31st Léger: ‘Plusieurs jeunes Anglaises devenues la proie de nos cavaliers étaient mises à l’encan en même temps que les chevaux pris avec elles. J’ai vu, à mon grand scandale, qu’elles n’avaient pas toujours la préférence’ (p. 196). Cf. the miserable story of Mrs. Pullen in the Recollections of Rifleman Harris, p. 142.