[91] The exact loss is uncertain, but Bourke himself was wounded, and Martinien’s lists show 15 other casualties among French and Italian officers: Vacani (vi. p. 65) says that the 7th Italian line alone lost 15 killed and 57 wounded. A loss of 16 officers implies at least 300 men hit.
[92] For numerous anecdotes of Eroles and lively pictures of his doings the reader may refer to the Memoirs of Edward Codrington, with whom he so often co-operated.
[93] Napoleon to Berthier, March 8th, 1812.
[94] Apparently about the same time that Villacampa and his division came up to replace him in Aragon.
[96] For all this see Schepeler, pp. 570-1; King Joseph’s Letters (Ducasse), viii. pp. 291 and 305; and Toreno, iii. pp. 81-2.
[97] There seems to be an error of dates in Napier, iv. p. 172, concerning Mina’s operations, as the surprise of the convoy at Salinas is put after Mina’s escape from Pannetier at Robres. But Mina’s own Memoirs fix the date of the latter as April 23rd, 1812, while the former certainly happened on April 7th. Toreno (iii. p. 87) has got the sequence right.
[98] There is a curious and interesting account of this in Mina’s own Memoirs, pp. 31-2, where he relates his narrow escape, and tells how he had the pleasure of hanging his treacherous lieutenant, and three local alcaldes, who had conspired to keep from him the news of Pannetier’s approach.
[99] Napoleon to Berthier, Dec. 30, 1811, speaks of the order to march having been already given. The two regiments were in Castile by March: when precisely they left Drouet I cannot say—perhaps as late as February.