[389] Not to speak of the bridge of Sabugal, six miles above the Ponte Sequeiro and hopelessly out on the flank.
[390] viz. the light companies of 17 British and 4 Portuguese battalions, plus 4 companies of the 5/60th, 1 of the 3/95th, and 2 extra light companies of the K.G.L. attached to Löwe’s brigade.
[391] Both Napier (iii. p. 150) and Tomkinson (p. 100) say that the British cavalry, nominally 1,520 sabres, had only about 1,000 in line that day, owing to details, orderlies, &c., absent from the ranks. This is probably an over-great deduction.
[392] See tables at end, [Appendix IX]. 1st Division, 7,565 men; 3rd Division, 5,480 men; 7th Division, 4,600 men; Light Division, 3,815 men; Ashworth’s Portuguese, 2,539 men, or 23,999.
[393] The statement made by several French authors that Masséna did not order Ferey to attack Fuentes on the 3rd, and that Loison and Ferey acted without orders, is directly contradicted by the Marshal’s own dispatch, in which he takes all responsibility: ‘J’espérais enlever Fuentes et m’y maintenir; je le fis attaquer, et il fut bientôt occupé.’
[394] But some in Marchand’s, which must have been fairly heavily engaged, judging from the casualty list of officers in Martinien.
[395] For an excellent account of the first day’s fighting in Fuentes village, see the diary of ‘J. S.’ of the 71st in Constable’s Memorials of the late War, i. 87-9. The regiment charged right up the French slope after recovering the place, and was attacked ineffectually by cavalry. Marbot (ii. p. 459) has a story that the second attack of the French would have succeeded if the Hanoverian Legion, in its red coats, had not been fired into from the rear in mistake by the 66th Ligne, which took them for British.
[396] Masséna, in his dispatch describing the battle, says that on the morning of the 4th the Allies made a serious attempt to turn Ferey out of the houses beyond the brook which he occupied. But we have no trace of any regular fighting in any of the British narratives; there was certainly some bickering across the brook, but apparently nothing more.
[397] See his Orders for the day, in [Appendix XIII].
[398] 85th and 2nd Caçadores.