[712] Fantin des Odoards gives a vivid and picturesque account of the relief caused to the pursuers, by the sudden plunge into fine spring-like weather, on descending from the snows of the interior (p. 198).
[713] There is a good account of the bickering in Blakeney, pp. 102-5.
[714] I obtain these figures from the Parliamentary Returns of 1809.
[715] There can be no doubt that this strange suggestion was made, as Moore himself mentions it in his dispatch of Jan. 13, the last which he wrote.
[716] Paget had just lost his senior brigadier, Anstruther, who died of dysentery in Corunna that day. His second brigade was commanded by Disney.
[717] His two brigadiers were Beresford and Fane.
[718] The force stood as follows:—
| Infantry—1st Division, Merle (Brigades Reynaud, Sarrut, Thomières). | ||
| 2nd Léger (three batts.) | ||
| 4th Léger (four batts.) | ||
| 15th of the Line (three batts.) | ||
| 36th of the Line (three batts.) | ||
| Each of Merle’s regiments (of which three were originally two battalions and one three battalions strong) had received an additional battalion from the dissolved corps of Junot, before leaving Astorga. | ||
| 2nd Division, Mermet (Brigades Gaulois, Jardon, Lefebvre). | ||
| 31st Léger (four batts.) | ||
| 47th of the Line (four batts.) | ||
| 122nd of the Line (four batts.) | ||
| 2nd Swiss Regiment (two batts.) | ||
| 3rd Swiss Regiment (one batt.) | ||
| The 47th had received two, and the 31st Léger and 2nd Swiss each one battalion from Junot’s corps. The 122nd was a new regiment, consolidated from six battalions of the ‘Supplementary Legions of Reserve.’ | ||
| 3rd Division, Delaborde (Brigades Foy and Arnaud). | ||
| 17th Léger (three batts.) | ||
| 70th of the Line (four batts.) | ||
| 86th of the Line (three batts.) | ||
| 4th Swiss Regiment (one batt.) | ||
| The 70th and 86th, from Portugal, had each received a battalion from Merle’s division, where they had been serving in the autumn. The 17th Léger had been transferred from the 6th Corps to the 2nd. | ||
| Cavalry—Lahoussaye’s Division of Dragoons (Brigades Marisy and Caulaincourt). | ||
| 17th, 18th, 19th, and 27th Dragoons—four regiments. | ||
| Lorges’s Division of Dragoons (Brigades Vialannes and Fournier). | ||
| 13th, 15th, 22nd, and 25th Dragoons—four regiments. | ||
| Franceschi’s Mixed Division (Brigades Debelle and Girardin [?]). | ||
| 1st Hussars, 8th Dragoons, 22nd Chasseurs, and Hanoverian Chasseurs—four regiments. | ||
| Artillery—600 men (?): exact figures not available. | ||
[719] e.g. Le Noble in his Campagne du Maréchal Soult, 1808-9, p. 41.
[720] Blakeney, p. 114.