[446] The total given by the governor to Warre of Beresford’s staff (see his Letters, ed. Dr. Warre, p. 270) were 3 officers and 40 men killed, 11 officers and 140 men wounded. Martinien’s lists show 12 officers hit, 5 in the 65th, 2 each in the 15th and 17th Léger, 1 each in 86th, artillery, and engineers. But these admirable lists are not quite complete.
[447] This is said to have been the result of the escort’s smoking round the store!
[448] Printed in Marmont’s Mémoires, iv. p. 410.
[449] If Marmont had marched for Alba de Tormes on the 28th, as he intended to do, Wellington would have had the 6th Division in hand, as well as the rest of his troops, for a battle on the 29th: for the forts fell early on the 27th June.
[450] See his explanation of his intentions in Mémoires, iv. pp. 219-20.
[451] In this dispatch and that of July 6 following, Marmont seems to understate his own force at the moment, saying that he can dispose of only 30,000 infantry, and 2,000 cavalry or a trifle over. Allowing for the artillery, engineers and sappers, gendarmerie and train, which the monthly returns show, this would give an army of some 35,000 or 36,000 in all. But the returns (see [Appendix]) indicate a higher figure for the infantry; after all deductions for detachments, garrisons, and sick have been made, it looks as if there must have been 33,000 or even 34,000 available. Generals with a ‘point to prove’ are always a little easy with their figures.
[452] This is again one of the Scovell intercepted cipher-dispatches, captured and brought to Wellington a day or two after it was written. It was a duplicate, and presumably the other copy reached Madrid.
[453] See Wellington to Lord Liverpool, June 25. Dispatches, ix. pp. 253-4, and to Hill, ix. pp. 256-7, and again to Lord Liverpool, ix. pp. 261-2.
[454] See Wellington to Lord Liverpool, June 18. Dispatches, ix. p. 241, and June 25, p. 253. There was also in Wellington’s hands an intercepted letter of Joseph to Soult of May 26, distinctly saying that if Marmont is attacked in June, D’Erlon must pass the Tagus and go to his help. This is in the Scovell ciphers.
[455] Wellington to Hill, July 11. Dispatches, ix. p. 281. The idea that Joseph might operate on his own account begins to emerge in the correspondence on the 14th. Dispatches, ix. p. 283.