[80] See vol. iii. pp. 503-4.
[81] Suchet says that the captain of the boat threw his letters overboard at the last moment, but that they floated and were picked up by the French. Was this a farce? Or is the whole story doubtful?
[82] Napier, Peninsular War, iv. p. 38.
[83] See letter printed in Belmas, iv. p. 248.
[84] See notes on discussions of this sort in Sir Edward Codrington’s Memoirs, i. pp. 264 and 277. He had seen much of the evils of both kinds of organization, and leaned on the whole to the irregulars, from a personal dislike for Lacy.
[85] Who called the raid an ‘insult’—Napoleon to Berthier, Paris, Feb. 29, 1812, and compare letter of March 8.
[86] There is an interesting account of the combat of Villaseca in Codrington’s Memoirs, i. pp. 254-6: he was present, having chanced to come on shore to confer with Eroles as to co-operation against Tarragona. An odd episode of the affair was that, when the French surrendered, they were found to have with them as prisoners Captains Flinn and Pringle, R.N., whom they had surprised landing at Cape Salou on the previous day.
[87] Napoleon to Berthier, Paris, Jan. 25, after the receipt of the news of the fall of Valencia.
[88] Details may be found in the dispatches of Feb. 29, and May 1st and 8th.
[89] See vol. iv. p. 215.