[6] The first hint of this occurs in a letter to Lord Liverpool, from Cartaxo, December 21, in which Wellington ‘thinks it not improbable that a large part (if not the whole) of the French army of Andalusia may be introduced into the southern part of this kingdom [Portugal].’
[7] These arrangements are taken from the unpublished diary of D’Urban, the Quarter-Master-General of the Portuguese army.
[8] Wellington (December 8) sarcastically thanks Stewart for sending him plans for an attack on the enemy, but utterly scouts them. Dispatches, vii. pp. 36-7.
[9] See pp. 269-79 of vol. iii.
[10] Mentioned in Wellington’s dispatch of December 10 to Lord Liverpool, but the date December 4 is fixed by D’Urban’s diary. For exploits of Fenwick in November and December see Tomkinson’s Diary, pp. 58 and 66.
[11] The next messenger who got through was Major Casabianca, who started on January 21st with 400 men, and safely reached Rodrigo. See Fririon’s Journal of the Campaign of Portugal, p. 129.
[12] For a description of this see Lemonnier-Delafosse’s Mémoires, p. 95.
[13] ‘Les détachements se subdivisent à mesure qu’ils s’éloignent: et il en résulte que les hommes isolés des chefs se livrent à toute espèce de rapines et même à des cruautés sur les pauvres paysans,’ says Noël (p. 128).
[14] The story of the marauding sergeant ‘Maréchal Chaudron’ and his band, given by Marbot (ii. pp. 418-19), is probably exaggerated by that lively narrator—the scale is too large. But there was undoubtedly some foundation for the tale; see Lemonnier-Delafosse, Mémoires, p. 103.
[15] Guingret, pp. 124-6.