[96] Vacani, iii. 105-6. This fact is mentioned by no other author.
[97] Arteche, v. 207-9, makes Reding deliver a second attack on Souham in the early afternoon. This is, I think, an error, caused by a misreading of Cabanes’ somewhat confused account of the fight, from which it might be possible (if no other sources existed) to deduce a second Spanish advance. But Cabanes is really dealing with the later phases of the first combat only. It is conclusive that neither Reding himself, in his official dispatch, St. Cyr, Doyle, nor Vacani mention any engagement in the early afternoon.
[98] St. Cyr in his Memoirs (p. 123) makes the curious statement that he silenced his artillery after it had fired only three rounds, lest he should frighten off the Spaniards before he could reach them with his infantry, and so prevent the latter from closing and winning as decisive a victory as possible. One is almost prone to doubt the story, and to suppose that the cessation of fire was due to the fear of killing his own men when they were getting close to the Spanish line. Arteche puts this incident too early in the fight, during Reding’s supposed second attack.
[99] Among them was an English officer named Reid.
[100] Including Colonels Dumont and Antunez commanding respectively the Walloon and Spanish guards, the Marquis of Casteldosrius commanding the cavalry brigade, three of Reding’s aides-de-camp, and eighty other officers. Two colonels were killed, a brigadier-general (Saint Ellier) and many other superior officers wounded.
[101] ‘Votre Altesse me dit qu’il n’y a rien autour de nous qui puisse résister à 6,000 hommes. Je lui demande pardon. La division Souham a été quelque temps seule le 25, et nous avons vu qu’il était temps que l’autre division arrivât.... On ne peut nier que les troupes espagnoles gagnent tous les jours, et nous sommes forcés de leur rendre justice; à la bataille de Valls elles se sont très-bien battues.’ St. Cyr to Berthier, Valls, March 6, 1809.
[102] See vol. i. p. 436.
[103] See vol. i. pp. 446-7.
[104] Few of the French historians mention these changes, but they are quite certain. On Nov. 23 ‘the division Maurice Mathieu’ means the 1st of the 3rd Corps; on Dec. 1, it means the 2nd of the 6th Corps.
[105] See vol. i. pp. 446-7.