[536] There is a good account of the skirmish on the Bayas in Wachholz, p. 314. He remarks on the abominable weather, ‘incredible for the time of year—continuous unbearable cold and rain—the sun visible only for short intervals. Very bad roads.’
[537] For all this see Tomkinson’s Diary, p. 243. His statement that the column went off on the Orduña road by mistake and was at once set right, seems to me conclusive against Napier’s views.
[538] An English eye-witness calls it ‘nowhere fordable’: a French eye-witness ‘fordable everywhere’; both are wrong. Cf. Fortescue, ix. p. 152.
[539] Jourdan’s Mémoires, p. 474.
[540] See Toreno, iii. pp. 233-6.
[541] There is an account of this skirmish in Digeon’s report, and in Hay’s Reminiscences under Wellington, pp. 107-8.
[542] Jourdan, p. 473.
[543] The fortified position north of the defile of Salinas, where the road from Bilbao to France joins the great chaussée.
[544] i. e. the position above the northern exit from the plain of Vittoria.
[545] Not counting Pakenham and Giron, but including Longa and Morillo.