[525] Suchet, Mémoires, p. 23.
[526] Von Brandt, Aus meinem Leben, i. 67.
[527] 44th of the Line, 1,069 bayonets, and 3rd of the Vistula, 964 bayonets, according to Suchet’s figures.
[528] Apparently a battalion of the 121st of the Line, the rest of which regiment was still in Navarre.
[529] The battalion of the 5th Léger belonged to Morlot’s division, the rest of which was dispersed in Navarre or absent: that of the 64th was one which Suchet had brought from Valladolid as his personal escort, and which properly belonged to the 5th Corps.
[530] Suchet says the morning was occupied in mere ‘tiraillement’ of the Spanish skirmishers and the 2nd of the Vistula. This is not borne out by the narrative of Von Brandt, of that corps. He says that the enemy came on ‘sehr lebhaft,’ that both battalions of his regiment were deeply engaged, that a regiment of Spanish dragoons in yellow [he calls it Numancia, but it was really Olivenza] charged into the skirmishing-line and nearly broke it. The 2nd of the Vistula used up all its cartridges, and lost ground. ‘Die Kavalleriezüge wurden jedoch jedesmal zurückgewiesen, aber nichtsdestoweniger verloren wir allmählich Terrain.’ The Spaniards were only driven off by a battery being drawn forward into the fighting-line. Then the fight stood still, but the regiment had suffered very heavily, and was finally drawn back and put into the reserve. (Aus meinem Leben, pp. 71-2.)
[531] The 2nd of the Vistula having been distracted to the centre, Habert had only the two battalions of the 14th of the Line, and one of the 5th Léger from the reserve.
[532] ‘Ihr Rückzug geschah in aller Ordnung und militärischer Haltung. Sie lagerten in der Nacht uns gegenüber, und hielten am anderen Morgen die Höhen von Botorrita ganz in der Nähe des Schlachtfeldes.’ [Von Brandt, i. 73.]
[533] Suchet (i. 24) says that Blake had been reinforced by 4,000 Valencians, when he fought at Belchite. This seems to have been an error, his reinforcement being Areizaga’s 6,000 men picked up at Botorrita, who were all Aragonese.
[534] He had twenty-two battalions and eight squadrons at Belchite (as he says himself, Mémoires, i. p. 34), while at Maria he had only fourteen battalions and seven squadrons.