[30] Cf., for example, Nap. Corresp., 14,741 and 14,749, where Austria is said to have changed her tone and stopped her preparation, with 14,721 and 14,779, which show a most hostile spirit against her.
[31] For the details, see Nap. Corresp., 14,780, written to Bessières from Paris on Feb. 15.
[32] As a matter of fact, as has been stated elsewhere, Soult though working his hardest did not leave Corunna till Feb. 20, 1809, nor take Oporto till March 29.
[33] It will be remembered (see vol. i. p. 529), that they went via Talavera, Merida, and Llerena.
[34] Canning to Frere, Jan. 14, 1809 (Record Office).
[35] The 29th, 3/27th, and 2/9th regiments.
[36] As Canning wrote to Frere, after receiving the news of the abortive expedition, ‘The enclosed copy of the instructions under which Sir G. Smith was sent out, will show you that the step taken by that officer was not to have been taken except at the direct solicitation of the Spanish authorities.... He has been directed to leave Cadiz at once, and you may assure the Junta that no separate or secret commission was, has been, or ever will be entrusted to any officer or other person,’ Feb. 26 (Record Office).
[37] Frere, by his own showing, exceeded the bounds of diplomatic evasion. He writes to Canning (Feb. 9) to say that the dispatch of the Lisbon troops had been a complete surprise to him, as he had not received any information on the subject. ‘It occurred to me, however, that it was best to take it upon myself, and to affect to consider it a thing of course, and to say that I had sent orders in conformity with the note which I had received from Mr. de Garay. In order to give this some semblance of truth, I did afterwards write a letter to Lisbon to this effect, and sent it off before I dispatched my note to Mr. de Garay. This did not prevent me from being assailed by remonstrances.’ Finally he proceeded to tell the Junta ‘that he only wished to see Cadiz occupied in the extreme case of an immediate attack by the French’ (Record Office).
[38] For Villel’s eccentricities in detail see Toreno, i. pp. 375-6, and Arteche, v. p. 107.
[39] See Col. Leslie (of the 29th), Memoirs, p. 94.