[268] The 6th and 9th cavalry.
[269] Brotherton to Castlereagh, March 13.
[270] Entre-Douro-e-Minho had a population of 500,000 souls, Tras-os-Montes only 180,000.
[271] Of Lahoussaye’s division.
[272] Brotherton to Cradock, from Povoa de Aguiar, March 13.
[273] He was called Magelhaes Pizarro, but cannot be said to have shown either the endurance of the Portuguese seaman, or the reckless courage of the Spanish conquistador, whose historic names he bore.
[274] See Naylies, p. 81; St. Chamans, p. 120; Le Noble, p. 120; and Des Odoards, p. 213.
[275] Lorges’ other brigade, that of Fournier, had been (as it will be remembered) left behind in Galicia with Marshal Ney.
[276] Every French diarist of Soult’s army has tales of the stoic courage displayed by the Portuguese clergy. A story from Naylies of Lahoussaye’s dragoons may serve as an example. Near Braga he came on a cart escorted by a single priest with a gun on his shoulder. He was the chaplain of a convent, who was taking out of harm’s way a party of nuns. When he saw himself overtaken, he quietly waited in the middle of the road, shot the first dragoon dead, and was killed by the second as he was trying to reload his musket.
[277] St. Chamans, Mémoires, pp. 119-21.