[552] Marmont says only one division, and I follow him here, as the best authority, though Foy in his Mémoires says two divisions.
[553] Slade’s and Barbaçena’s brigades. The other British cavalry brigade (Anson’s) had marched for the south on June 1, and was at this moment at Caria, near Castello Branco.
[554] Wellington was still more angry with Spencer for authorizing Pack to blow up the place, for the brigadier had very properly asked definite leave to do so from his immediate superior. Wellington argued that a proper reading of his dispatches would have showed Spencer that the destruction was only to be made in case Marmont actually marched on Almeida. See Dispatches, viii. p. 1.
[555] See Napier, iii. p. 312; Ainslie’s History of the Royals, pp. 120-1; Tomkinson, p. 105.
[557] Napier says that Spencer on his southern march ‘detached a division and his cavalry to Coria as flankers’ (iii. 312). I think this statement that the British flank-guard was pushed forward into Spain is an error, caused by the similarity of names between the Spanish Coria and Caria in Portugal, between Sabugal and Castello Branco. For it is certain that Anson’s cavalry brigade were at Caria June 3rd-9th, and then went on to Castello Branco and Villa Velha, while Slade’s cavalry were from the 7th to the 15th between Alfayates and Castello Branco. See the regimental histories.
[558] See Leach, p. 221.
[559] Napier’s statement (iii. p. 312) that ‘the Light Division did not leave a single straggler behind’ is contradicted by the note of Leach of the 95th (p. 221) that ‘on June 11 many hundreds of men were left by the wayside quite exhausted by the intense heat, which compelled us to make frequent halts by day and to proceed by night.’ Tomkinson also notes that the Light Division lost men, who fell dead from sunstroke while marching up the steep ascent to Niza on June 13th (p. 106). He says that the Light Division men were so willing that they marched on till the last possible moment, and reeled over to die.
[560] Foy’s Mémoires, ed. Girod de L’Ain, p. 146.
[561] According to a report brought to Wellington by a British intelligence-officer in that direction, as early as the 13th. But this is probably an error of a day. Dispatches, viii. p. 37.