[185] In a dispatch in the Record Office, Cuesta says that the particular corps which rode down himself and his staff was the raw ‘Toledo’ regiment.
[186] Half-a-dozen French authorities speak of the wrath of the chasseurs as justifiable, because their comrades at Miajadas had been murdered (égorgés, or lâchement assassinés). But the Spaniards had killed them in fair fight.
[187] Rocca, Mémoires, p. 82.
[188] Ibid., p. 84.
[189] See the Table in Arteche, vi. 476.
[190] These were the hussar regiments ‘Volunteers of Spain’ and ‘Estremadura’ (late Maria Luisa). Cuesta says in his dispatch that they saved the battalions of Merida, and Provincial of Badajoz, which had been surrounded and nearly cut off.
[191] This is the figure given by Jourdan, and General Sémélé, who ought to have known the facts. It is, of course, reproduced by Thiers, and the other historians. But I agree with Napier (ii. 71) in considering the figure ‘scarcely credible.’ Rocca says that the French lost 4,000 men, but from the context, I suspect this to be a misprint for 400. Schepeler, always a very well-informed and impartial writer, guesses at 2,000, and he may not be far wrong.
[192] By April 8 he had collected there 3,000 horse and 6,000 or 7,000 foot. Letter of D’Urban to Cradock, April 8.
[193] Rocca, Mémoires, p. 86.
[194] Regiment of Velez-Malaga (three batts.), and 2nd battalion of Antequera, 3,600 bayonets in all.