As Hill had just called out the three garrison regiments of Portuguese from Badajoz, he had now between 18,000 and 19,000 of his own army in position, besides Villemur’s Spanish cavalry. This last, together with Long’s and Slade’s squadrons, were thrown out in front of the Albuera river, with their vedettes in Santa Marta, Almendral, and Corte de Peleas, only a mile or two from the French advanced posts. They were directed not to give way till they were severely pressed, as Hill wished to avoid at all costs the kind of surprise that had befallen Beresford in 1811, when Long had retired so precipitately before the French horse that he could give no account of their strength, nor of the position of Soult’s infantry. But the expected advance of the enemy hung fire—from the 21st onwards Hill was waiting to be attacked, and sending almost daily accounts of the situation to Wellington: but the main body of the French moved no farther forward. This was all the more surprising to the English general because he had intercepted a letter written on May 31 from King Joseph to Drouet, in which the latter was directed to ‘passer sur le corps à Hill[681],’ and then to come up to the Tagus to join the Army of the Centre. Not knowing how entirely Soult and D’Erlon were ignoring all orders from Madrid, both Wellington and his trusty lieutenant thought that such instructions must almost certainly bring about an action. The former wrote to the latter on June 28th, after receiving several statements of the situation: ‘if you should find that Drouet separates his troops, or if he pretends to hold you in check with a smaller body of men than you think you can get the better of, fall upon him, but take care to keep a very large proportion of your troops in reserve.... I should prefer a partial affair to a general one, but risk a general affair—keeping always a large body of reserve, particularly of cavalry—rather than allow Drouet to remain in Estremadura and keep you in check.’ But the enemy neither came on for a general action, nor scattered his troops so widely as to induce Hill to risk an attack on any point of his line. He remained with his infantry massed about Villafranca and Fuente del Maestre, and only demonstrated with his cavalry.
The cause of this inactivity on Drouet’s part was partly, perhaps, his over-estimate of Hill’s strength, but much more Soult’s unwillingness to obey the orders sent him from Madrid. He was determined not to detach a third part of his army to the Tagus, to join the Army of the Centre. He was by this time fully embarked on his long course of insubordinate action, with which we have already dealt when writing of the King’s desires and their frustration[682]. On the 26th May Joseph had sent him the dispatch which directed that D’Erlon must come up northward, if Wellington’s main attack turned out to be directed against Marmont and the Army of Portugal: ‘his corps is the pivot on which everything turns: he is the counterpoise which can be thrown into the balance in one scale or the other, according as our forces have to act on the one side or the other[683].’ Drouet himself had at the same time received that order to the same effect, sent to him directly and not through his immediate superior, which so much scandalized Soult’s sense of hierarchical subordination[684]. On getting the Madrid dispatch of May 26 upon June 8th, Soult had written to say that Wellington’s real objective was Andalusia and not the North, that Marmont was utterly misled if he supposed that he was to be attacked by the main body of the allies, that Graham, with two British divisions, was still at Portalegre in support of Hill, and that Drouet had therefore been forbidden to lose touch with the Army of the South by passing towards the Tagus. If he departed, the whole fabric of French power in the South would go to pieces, ‘I should have to pack up and evacuate Andalusia after the smallest check.’ Drouet should ‘contain’ Hill, but could do no more. In a supplementary dispatch of June 12, provoked by the receipt of Joseph’s direct orders to Drouet, Soult went further, definitely stating that the troops in Estremadura should not go to the Tagus, ‘where they would be lost to the Army of the South, but would never arrive in time to help the Army of Portugal.’ If Drouet passed the Tagus, Hill would march on Seville, and on the sixth day would capture that insufficiently garrisoned capital, put himself in communication with Ballasteros, and raise the siege of Cadiz. ‘I repeat that the Army of the South cannot carry out its orders, and send Count D’Erlon and 15,000 men to the valley of the Tagus, without being compelled to evacuate Andalusia within the fortnight.... If your Majesty insists, remove me from command, I do not wish to be responsible for the inevitable disaster that must follow[685].’
At the same time Drouet, much vexed at having personal responsibility thrown upon his shoulders, by the King’s direct orders to him to march without consulting Soult, wrote to Madrid that he was very weak, that Hill was in front of him with a superior force, and that Barrois and Pierre Soult, who had just joined him, were under strict orders not to go beyond the Guadiana, so that if he himself marched towards the Tagus it would be with a very small force. But he dare not make that move: ‘I am absolutely obliged to stop where I am [Villafranca] in presence of Hill, who still remains concentrated on the Albuera position, which he has entrenched, with at least 25,000 men.’ Indeed an attack by Hill was expected day by day: ‘at the moment of writing there is lively skirmishing going on at the outposts, and news has come in that the whole allied army is advancing[686].’ Drouet, in short, was determined to evade responsibility, and summed up the situation by the conclusion that he was acting for the best in ‘containing’ Hill and his very large detachment, who could be of no use to Wellington in the campaign which the latter was now reported to have begun against Marmont in the North. He could do no more.
The deadlock in front of the Albuera position lasted for many days—from June 21st till July 2nd. This was a very trying time for Hill’s corps—the weather was excessively hot, the ground was hideous with the insufficiently buried corpses of the battle of last year, and sickness was very prevalent in some regiments. For the first day or two after the arrival of the French at Villafranca and Almendralejo, an attack was expected each morning, but nothing in particular happened. Drouet kept quiet behind his cavalry screen, and did no more than send foraging parties out on his flanks, which ravaged the countryside as far as Merida and Feria. Over-valuing Hill’s strength, he dreaded to commit himself to an attack on a superior force, covered by field-works and in a fine position. Nothing was seen of him for ten days, save that on the 26th he felt the posts of the allies at Corte de Peleas and Santa Marta, and retired after a little cavalry skirmishing. On July 1, however, he executed a more searching reconnaissance, with three brigades of cavalry under the direction of Pierre Soult, Vinot’s in the centre, Sparre’s on the right, Lallemand’s on the left. Barrois’s infantry division came up in support. Vinot drove in a Portuguese cavalry regiment of J. Campbell’s brigade from Corte de Peleas[687], but retired when he found it supported by Long’s light dragoons in front of the Albuera position. Lallemand found Santa Marta held by Penne Villemur’s cavalry, and turned them out of it with considerable loss, for the Spanish general unwisely offered battle, and was routed after a very short contest. He retired into the wood of Albuera, whose edge was occupied by Slade’s heavy dragoons, supported by the pickets of Byng’s infantry brigade. A troop of the 3rd Dragoon Guards made a gallant charge to cover the retreat of the Spaniards, and suffered some loss in bringing them off. Lallemand at dusk pressed forward, and cut off a small party of the Buffs, who would have been taken prisoners if a troop of the 2nd Hussars K.G.L. had not rescued them by a sudden counter-attack. Sparre’s brigade on the right did no more than skirmish with the allied outposts along the lower course of the river Albuera. At night all the French cavalry retired, and D’Erlon wrote to Soult that his reconnaissance had ‘completely fulfilled its object,’ by making him certain that Hill had 25,000 foot, 3,000 horse, and a very strong force of artillery in position, so that it would be insane to attack him[688].
On the next morning, July 2nd, Hill determined to make use of Wellington’s permission to bring on an action, if he should judge that Drouet was not strong enough to face him. The weakness of the French demonstration had convinced him that the enemy was not ready to fight. Collecting the whole of his army, he advanced from the Albuera position towards Santa Marta, thus challenging Drouet to a fight. The enemy’s vedettes made no stand and retired when pushed. On reaching Santa Marta Hill halted for the night in battle order, and on the morning of the 3rd resumed his movement, which was directed to cutting off Drouet from the great road to Seville. While Erskine with the light cavalry (Long, and J. Campbell’s Portuguese) advanced down the high-road to Villalba, supported by one British and one Portuguese brigade of infantry, Hill himself, with the rest of his army, executed a flank march to Feria, and, having got behind the French left wing, turned inward and moved toward Los Santos. The enemy’s main body, at Villafranca and Fuente del Maestre, were thus prevented from using the high-road to Seville, and placed in a position which compelled Drouet either to fight, or to retire south-eastward towards Usagre and Llerena.
Next morning (July 4) Hill expected a battle, for Barrois’s division and all Pierre Soult’s cavalry were found in a strong position at Fuente del Maestre, and the rest of the French were close behind at Almendralejo. But when he continued his movement toward the right, outflanking Barrois instead of attacking him, the enemy gave way and retired, protected by his cavalry, retreating on Ribera, Hinojosa, and Usagre[689]. There was lively skirmishing between the squadrons of the British advanced guard, and those of the French rearguard, but no serious engagement.
The same general plan of action continued on the 5th. Hill, keeping his army well concentrated, moved in two columns on Usagre and Bienvenida, the bulk of his cavalry riding at the head of his left-hand column and pressing in the French horse. Drouet took up a position at Valencia de las Torres, where he had found strong ground, and thought on the 6th that he would risk a defensive action. But Hill, instead of marching in upon him, continued his flanking movement towards Llerena. Thereupon Drouet, finding that he would be cut off from Andalusia if he remained in his chosen position, evacuated it and fell back by Maguilla on Berlanga and Azuaga [July 7]. The two armies had thus got back into exactly the same positions in which they had lain on June 19th, before Hill’s retreat to Albuera. The tale of their manœuvres bears a curious resemblance to the contemporary movements of Wellington and Marmont between Salamanca and Tordesillas. In each case one combatant, when pressed, retired, and took up a strong position (Marmont at Tordesillas-Pollos-Toro, Hill at Albuera). He then issued from it after some days, and by persistent flank movements dislodged his opponent, and drove him back to the same position from which he had started, so that the situation came back to that which it had been three weeks before. But here the parallel ended—Marmont pressed his advantage too far, and got entangled in the disastrous manœuvre of July 22, which brought on the battle of Salamanca and his own ruin. Hill, contented with what he had achieved, halted at Llerena, and did not push matters to a decisive action. He had done all that Wellington desired in keeping Soult’s attention diverted from Marmont’s peril, and in ‘containing’ a hostile force as great as his own. Moreover he had driven it off the road to Seville, and if it retreated on Andalusia it would have to be on Cordova, by the road of Constantina, since no other remained available.
But a new development of this complicated and indecisive campaign began on July 10th. Drouet, thinking apparently that Hill’s farther advance might be stopped as effectively by assuming a position on his flank as by direct opposition in front, shifted his right wing (Daricau’s division and Sparre’s and Vinot’s cavalry) back to Zalamea and its neighbourhood, where Daricau had lain in May and June. He himself resumed his old head-quarters at Fuente Ovejuna. Now just at this time Hill received an intercepted letter of King Joseph to Drouet, dated June 21st, which repeated in angry terms the long-ignored orders that the Estremaduran detachment of the Army of the South was to march on Toledo without delay. ‘Vous aurez sans doute reçu les renforts que j’ai donné l’ordre au duc de Dalmatie de vous envoyer. Vous devez avoir quinze mille hommes. Agissez avec ce corps, et tout ce qui est sous le commandement du général Daricau. Rapprochez-vous de moi: passez le Tage, et mettez-vous en état d’agir suivant les événements; n’attendez aucun ordre[690].’