[692] Dispatches, vii. 119, July 18th.
[693] It is contained in the ‘Memorandum for Colonels Frampton and Fletcher’ of 19th July, dated the day after the dispatch to Lord Liverpool which sets forth the whole project.
[694] Bredin’s and Glubb’s, which had long been lying at Lisbon without horses, and had taken no part in the field operations of 1810 and 1811. Holcombe’s battery was soon afterwards substituted for Glubb’s. See Dickson’s Diary (ed. Leslie) for months of August-October 1811.
[695] Wellington saw this clearly enough; he writes to Lord Liverpool on August 27: ‘If we cannot maintain this blockade, the enemy must bring 50,000 men to raise it, and then they can undertake nothing else this year, for they must still continue to watch Rodrigo, and we shall so far save the cause. Meanwhile if they offer me a favourable opportunity of bringing any of them to action, I shall take it.’ Dispatches, viii. p. 232.
[696] Mr. Fortescue sends me the subjoined note on Spencer from a suppressed letter of Wellington to Pole at Apsley House, not to be found in any of the editions of the Dispatches. ‘The person who is now here as second in command is very unfit for his situation. He is a good executive officer, but has no mind, and is incapable of forming any opinions of his own. He is the centre of all the vulgar and foolish opinions of the day. Thus you are aware that, from former experiences, I cannot depend upon him for a moment, for anything. He gives his opinion upon every subject, changes it with the wind, and if any misfortune occurs, or the act recommended by him is disapproved of, there is no effort to be looked for from him.’ This verdict does not much differ, save in strength of expression, from the opinion of minor contemporaries, such as Tomkinson and Stepney, e. g. ‘Sir Brent Spencer, a zealous gallant officer, had no great military genius. He was anxious and fidgety when there was nothing to do, but once under fire looked like a philosopher solving a problem—perfectly cool and self-possessed.’ (Stepney’s Leaves from a Diary of an Officer of the Guards, p. 80.) See also in Stepney for notes as to Spencer’s resentment at his supersession by Graham. This has value, as the diarist was a favourite of the general, who had offered to make him his aide-de-camp.
[697] 11th Light Dragoons and 1st Hussars K.G.L.
[698] 3rd Dragoon Guards and 4th Dragoons. Properly belonging to Erskine’s cavalry division in the Alemtejo, but borrowed.
[699] 1st Royals and 12th Light Dragoons.
[700] 14th and 16th Light Dragoons.