[166] ‘I strongly recommend to you, unless you mean to incur the risk of the loss of your army, not to have anything to do with Spanish warfare, on any ground whatever, in the existing state of things.... If you should take up Cadiz you must lay down Portugal.’ Wellington to Castlereagh, Dispatches, v. 90.
[167] See vol. ii. pages 286-8.
[168] See also vol. ii. page 286, of this book.
[169] All these quotations are from Wellington to Lord Liverpool, April 2, 1810, a long dispatch written from Vizeu, every word of which is well worth study.
[170] I found these passages in letters to Sir John Le Marchant, then in command at the Staff College at High Wycombe, from a highly-placed friend in Portugal. It is notable that other contemporary epistles from younger men, old pupils of Le Marchant, show a far more cheery spirit. The correspondence (from which I shall have many other passages to quote) was placed at my disposition by the kindness of Sir Henry Le Marchant, grandson of Sir John.
[171] See vol. ii. pages 440-1 and 620.
[172] See vol. ii. pages 600-1. Beresford had some 18,000 men with him.
[173] See tables in vol. ii. pages 629-31.
[174] On Sept. 15, 1809, the 22nd, which had been destroyed by Soult at Oporto, had only 193 men. The 8th had but 369, the 15th 577, the 24th 505.
[175] Ten regiments present at Bussaco had over 1,100 men each, only one less than 800. This was the 22nd, mentioned above as practically non-existent a year before. It had only recruited up to the strength of one battalion: all the rest had two. The strongest regiment was the 11th with 1,438 men.