[720] The fact that these guns were actually French explains Le Noble’s statement that the captured pieces were largely ‘de modèle français.’ Napier has a strange statement, whose source I cannot discover, to the effect that ‘Cuesta on his march to Meza d’Ibor left fifteen guns upon the road, which Albuquerque’s flight uncovered. A trumpeter attending an English flag of truce treacherously or foolishly made known the fact to the French, who immediately sent cavalry to fetch them off.’ Napier, ii. 189.
[721] It will he remembered that on March 17, Victor turned Del Parque’s division out of the Meza de Ibor position. But the latter had only 5,000 men, not enough to man the whole line, while the Duke of Belluno had two divisions for the frontal attack, and turned the Meza with another, that of Villatte. Cuesta had 30,000 men and more, quite sufficient to hold the entire position.
[722] Wellesley went to visit his allies on the Meza upon the morning of Aug. 10, and found that half the guns and baggage had been dragged up on the ninth, but that there was still a great accumulation at the foot of the steep slope, between the Ibor river and the lower edge of the plateau. He was in great distress at the notion that the French might come up at any moment, drive in the rearguard, and capture the rear sections of the Spanish train; see Wellington Dispatches, v. 22, to Lord Wellesley, from Deleytosa, Aug. 10.
[723] From Soult’s dispatch of Aug. 13, it appears that a Colonel Ornano, with a regiment of dragoons, was detailed to examine the banks of the Tagus in search of the ford, but failed to find it. The cause is not hard to seek, for it crosses the river diagonally on a narrow shelf of rock with deep water on either side. It is not less than four feet deep, and Leach of the 95th, who was on guard at its southern end, describes it as ‘not exactly practicable for infantry even at the driest season of the year’ (p. 94). The English, knowing its exact course, were established in positions from which they could concentrate upon it in a few minutes. We may rationally suppose, therefore, that Ney would have found the Tagus not less difficult to pass on Aug. 9, than the Oitaben had been on June 8.
[724] Soult to Joseph, Aug. 9, from Arzobispo: ‘Je serai disposé soit à marcher sur Lisbonne pour détruire les établissements anglais avant que leur armée ne puisse y arriver, et à lui rendre son embarquement difficile, soit à marcher sur Ciudad Rodrigo pour en faire le siège.... Dans le cas du premier mouvement (qui produira infailliblement de grands résultats) j’aurai l’honneur de prier V. M. d’avoir la bonté de faire connaître à MM. les maréchaux ducs de Trévise et d’Elchingen que telle est son intention, afin que toute observation soit ainsi prévenue, et qu’on ne puisse m’attribuer aucun sentiment d’amour-propre.’
[725] Joseph, exaggerating the enemy’s force, was under the impression that they had fully 100,000 men: see his letter to Napoleon of July 31.
[726] Ney has been accused of deserting Soult, and retiring from Almaraz and Navalmoral on his own responsibility, and contrary to the orders of his immediate superior. But Jourdan’s dispatch of Aug. 9 to the Minister of War shows that the Duke of Elchingen was obeying directions sent to him from the royal head quarters. ‘Le roi a pensé,’ he writes, ‘qu’on ne devait pas, quant à présent, chercher à pénétrer ni en Andalousie ni en Portugal.... Le duc de Dalmatie renverra promptement le 6me corps sur Salamanque pour en chasser les ennemis, et couvrir la Vieille Castille conjointement avec le Général Kellermann.’ Ney then was strictly correct in stating in his dispatch of Aug. 18, that he had acted in obedience to his orders.
[727] Joseph to Napoleon, from Valdemoro, August 7.
[728] Jourdan to Belliard, from Bargas, August 8.
[729] See Wellesley’s letter of Aug. 14 to Beresford, concerning the departure of the French. Robert Craufurd estimated the force that had marched on Plasencia at 15,000 men, Donkin at 25,000. If the latter had judged the numbers correctly, Wellesley supposed that both Ney and Soult must have gone by this road: this was actually the case.