[71] According to Joseph’s letter to Montbrun (Correspondence of King Joseph, viii. p. 294) a battalion or two may have joined Montbrun, as he tells that general that he is glad to know that the troops of his army have given satisfaction.
[72] Suchet, Mémoires, ii. p. 234, for dates.
[73] Marmont accuses Montbrun exactly as Napoleon accuses Marmont!
[74] On his first appearance he sent to summon Alicante, and received the proper negative answer. But Schepeler, who was in the place, says that the governor, General de la Cruz, showed signs of yielding. Fortunately the other generals did not. It would have been absurd to treat seriously a force of 4,000 infantry and 1,500 horse with only six light guns! (Schepeler, p. 520.)
[75] It is alluded to in a dispatch of the Emperor to Berthier on that day. ‘Le duc de Dalmatie a l’ordre d’envoyer une colonne en Murcie pour faire une diversion.’ St. Cloud, Nov. 19.
[76] Napoleon to Berthier, Paris, Jan. 27, 1812.
[77] See Suchet’s Mémoires, ii. pp. 237-8.
[78] These were Chinchilla, 2nd of Murcia, and a new locally raised battalion called 2nd of Alicante. He was in March handed over also Canarias, Burgos, and Ligero de Aragon, which had belonged to Freire till that date.