[210] Letter of Captain Brotherton [now lost] quoted in Napier, ii. 438, and dated from Oimbra on Feb. 21.
[211] All the details of the Galician insurrection may be found in the very interesting Los Guerrilleros Gallegos de 1809, of Pardo de Andrade, reprinted at Corunna in 1892. It is absolutely contemporary and mainly composed of original documents written by men who shared in the rising. But naturally it contains errors and exaggerations.
[212] Long details of all this fighting may he found in the narrative of the Alcalde of Rivadavia, on pp. 130-44 of vol. ii. of Los Guerrilleros Gallegos. The details are probably exaggerated, but the reader can hardly refuse to believe that there is a solid substratum of truth. The Alcalde notes that the infantry were far better behaved than Lahoussaye’s dragoons, of whom he tells tales of quite incredible ferocity, even alleging that they burnt the wounded.
[213] Le Noble says (p. 96) that at Ginzo the peasants had with them General Mahy and La Romana’s vanguard division. But General Arteche gives documentary evidence (p. 347) to prove that on that day Mahy and his troops were at Baltar, twenty miles away behind the mountains. If there were regulars present they were only detachments or stragglers.
[214] For the bishop of Orense’s sarcastic reply see Arteche, v. 351. For the general effect of the proclamation see St. Chamans: of the atrocities of the French, Los Guerrilleros Gallegos give ample and sometimes incredible accounts.
[215] See Le Noble (p. 98) for this dispatch and its effect on the morale of the army.
[216] For the malcontents and their views see Le Noble, pp. 98-9. St. Chamans, on the other hand (p. 119), says that the army started in good spirits and with a great contempt for all insurgents, Spanish or Portuguese. As a trusted staff officer of the Marshal, he no doubt represents the optimistic view at head quarters.
[217] There was also a third road, that by Montalegre and Ruivaens, by which Soult ultimately evacuated Portugal; but as it was not available for wheeled traffic, it could not be used by an army with artillery.
[218] Compare the narrative of the colonel of the Barcelona Light Infantry, printed by Arteche in v. 359-61 of his Guerra de la Independencia, with the highly-coloured account in Le Noble, 104-5. The seven Spanish Corps engaged were Segovia, Zamora, Barcelona, Majorca, Orense, Betanzos, Aragon. None of them had more than 200 bayonets in line: the Galician regiments far less. The three last-named corps lost a flag each. [Betanzos should be substituted for Tuy in the list in Le Noble, p. 105, line 10.]
[219] Napier (ii. 47) is wrong in saying that La Romana escaped via Braganza; he did not enter Portugal, but kept on his own side of the frontier, on the Monterey-La Gudina-Puebla de Senabria road.