[643] ‘I wish I could assert with truth that this retrogression was confined to our Spanish allies. But the truth must be told, and I regret to say that stragglers from the British army were among them, taking a similar direction to the rear. As they passed, they circulated reports of a most disheartening nature.’ Col. Leach’s Rough Sketches, p. 81. He was with Craufurd’s brigade, then coming up by forced marches from Plasencia, which met the fugitives near Oropesa on the morning of the twenty-eighth. ‘The road was crowded with fugitives, Spaniards innumerable, and lots of English commissary clerks, paymasters and sutlers, to say nothing of a few soldiers who said they were sick.’ Autobiography of Sir George Napier, p. 108.
[644] ‘Early in the morning some twenty-five Spanish soldiers, dressed in white, attended by several Popish priests, were marched up to the front of our regiment and shot. One, a young lad of nineteen or twenty years, dropped before the party fired, but to no use. For after the volley at ten paces, the firing party ran forward and shooting them in the head or breast completed their horrid work. These unfortunates belonged to regiments that had given way in the late battle.’ Diary of Cooper (of the 7th Fusiliers), pp. 25-6.
[645] That the panic took place at dusk, and not during the night attack, is completely proved by the Journal of General Sémélé, where it is noted as occurring in consequence of Victor’s earliest demonstration; as also by Wellesley’s note.
[646] The Battalion of Detachments was decidedly checked. They got somewhat into confusion, and halted. ‘The soldiers seemed much vexed,’ writes Leslie of the 29th, ‘we could hear them bravely calling out “There is nobody to command us! Only tell us what to do, and we are ready to dare anything.” There was a fault somewhere.’ Leslie, p. 144.
[647] Though the French official reports of casualties do not give any officers of the 9th Léger as prisoners, it is certain that Colonel Meunier was taken. See Leslie, p. 143. Being recovered, along with the other wounded prisoners, when Talavera was evacuated, his name did not get down among the list of missing, which was only drawn up on Aug. 10.
[648] See the Diary of Boothby of the R. E., one of the victims of this unhappy fusilade, p. 5.
[649] There are admirable narratives of the night-vigil and the dawn of Talavera, in the narratives of Leslie, Leith-Hay, and Lord Munster.
[650] ‘Le duc de Bellune rendit compte au roi du résultat de sa première attaque, et le prévint qu’il la renouvellerait au point du jour. Peut-être aurait on dû lui donner l’ordre d’attendre.... Mais ce maréchal, étant resté longtemps aux environs de Talavera, devait connaître parfaitement son terrain, et il paraissait si sûr du succès, que le roi le laissait libre d’agir comme il le désirait.... Il sentait que s’il adopterait l’avis du Maréchal Jourdan le duc de Bellune ne manquerait pas d’écrire à l’empereur “qu’on lui avait fait perdre l’occasion d’une brillante victoire sur les Anglais”.’ Jourdan’s Mémoires, pp. 256 and 259.
[651] Eliott’s Narrative, in his Defence of Portugal, p. 238.
[652] Lord Munster, p. 226.