[585] The Emperor’s stormy dispatch came in due course, but only in September, see [pp. 276-7].
[586] Doyle, as his numerous letters in the Record Office show, was such a furious partisan of the family of Palafox, that he believed that all the Spanish authorities were in a conspiracy to keep them down. He especially hated Blake.
[587] On June 9, Frere writes to tell Wellesley that if he could only have destroyed Soult at Oporto, instead of merely chasing him across the frontier, it would have been possible to secure him the post of Generalissimo at once. This chance had gone by, but ‘your friends here (among whom you may count Mr. de Garay) are doing their best for you.’ [Record Office, from Seville, June 9, 1809.]
[588] Wellington to Frere, from Abrantes, June 16, 1809.
[589] I can nowhere find the date of the transference, but it took place before July: the old regiments of Calatrava, Sagunto, Alcantara, and Pavia, which were with Venegas’s army in March, had been transferred to Cuesta’s by June, as also the new regiments of Sevilla, and Cazadores de Madrid. My most valuable source of information is an unpublished dispatch of Cuesta’s in the Madrid War Office, which gives all the names of regiments, but not their numbers.
[590] These totals may be regarded as certain, being drawn from the dispatch of Cuesta’s alluded to above, which I was fortunate enough to find at Madrid. Unfortunately no regimental figures are given, only the gross total.
[591] Wellesley to Frere, Wellington Dispatches, iv. 524.
[592] That of Charles Stewart (Lord Londonderry) on pp. 382-3 of the first volume of his History of the Peninsular War.
[593] As to the equipment of the Spaniards, the following quotation from Leslie (p. 135) may be worth giving: ‘Their uniforms were of every variety of colour, the equipment and appointments of the most inferior description. One could not but lament these defects, for the men were remarkably fine, possessing all the essential qualities to make good soldiers—courage, patience, and soberness. Their officers, in general, were the very reverse! The line infantry were in blue uniforms with red facings. The Provincial Corps, called “Volunteers,” were mostly dressed in the brown Spanish cloth of the country, with green or yellow facings. Some had chakoes, others broad-brimmed hats with the rim turned up at one side: all had cap-plates of tin announcing their designation. Some had belts, others none. They had no pouches, but a broad belt of soft leather, in which were placed a row of tin tubes, each holding a cartridge, with a fold of leather to cover them, fastened round the waist. The cavalry were heavy and light dragoons, with some regiments of Hussars. Some were tolerably well dressed, in blue or yellow uniforms with red facings. Some had boots, but more long leather leggings, coming up above the knee. The horses were small, active, and hardy, of the Spanish Barbary breed.’
[594] They estimated him at only 10,000 men, but he had really 20,000, Wellesley to Castlereagh, July 15, from Plasencia.