[436] During which occurred the dramatic duel in front of the line between Captain Waldron and a French Grenadier officer mentioned in Napier, v. p. 59. The picturesqueness of the story induced some critics to doubt it. But there is no getting over the fact that Waldron gave his opponent’s weapon, which was a sword of honour presented by the Emperor, to the Quartermaster-General (Donkin), who forwarded it to the Duke of York, and the Commander-in-Chief gazetted Waldron to a brevet-majority in consequence. (See Trimble’s Historical Record of the 27th, p. 64.) It is extremely odd (as Arteche remarks) that Suchet in his short and insincere account of Castalla tells a story of a French officer who killed an English officer in single combat (Mémoires, ii. p. 308).
[437] I am inclined to think the latter, as it is doubtful whether, with the spur between, Adam’s fighting-ground was visible from Whittingham’s.
[438] Taking Murray’s casualty list for comparison with Suchet’s, we find that he had 4 officers killed and 16 wounded to 649 men at Biar and Castalla, i. e. 1 officer to 32 men. But this was an exceptionally low proportion of officers lost. At such a rate Suchet might have lost 2,000 men! I take 1,300 as a fair estimate.
[439] Cf. Wellington, Dispatches, x. pp. 354-5, in which Wellington asks what sort of a victory was it, if Suchet was able to hold the pass of Biar, only two miles from the battlefield, till nightfall?
[440] See [Appendix] on Castalla losses, English and French, at the end of the volume.
[441] Six companies of Dillon came from Sicily, to replace the 2/67th at Cartagena.
[442] Wellington to Dumouriez, Supplementary Dispatches, vii. 482-3, and to Cooke, ibid. pp. 477-8.
[443] Wellington to Liverpool, November 23, 1812. Dispatches, ix. p. 572.
[444] Wellington to Graham, January 31. Dispatches, x. p. 67.
[445] Wellington to Bathurst. Ibid., p. 104.