At night, after a fatiguing march, the brigade as usual was quartered in a damp church. The day following we proceeded on our march, but a great deal of anxiety was experienced lest a celebrated pass (Las Goras) which we had to advance upon, should be occupied by the enemy. About four o’clock we arrived, but found it in possession of the Queen’s troops, and for the first time, we bivouacked in a wood. The next morning the harassed and jaded condition of the men was so evident, that we could not proceed until several bullock-carts had been procured.
On the following morning we continued our march for several days, till we arrived at the banks of the river Ebro, the scene of many of my former campaigns. After passing the bridge the prospect became beautifully varied, the Ebro silently meandering in its serpentine course, through a broad and fertile valley, at the base of a chain of mountains which, verging towards the Mediterranean, were here and there dotted with villages and lonely cottages, the scattered husbandmen quietly occupied in the tillage of their fields.
We still continued to advance for about fifteen miles, through a country increasing at every turn in beauty and attraction, until we entered a very narrow pass, surrounded on every side by stupendous and rocky mountains, all rising so abruptly, and to such a magnificent height, that they seemed to threaten destruction to the whole Legion as it passed beneath.
This formidable passage could with ease be defended by a handful of men against several thousands. The immense and natural magazines of rocks that appeared to nod destruction to the passing stranger, might be hurled with awful effect on troops marching below.
Early in the afternoon the Legion reached Onai, a small and very ancient town, celebrated for its splendid and richly endowed monastery. Our brigade was quartered for the night in the monastery, and as we entered I observed the monks and friars apparently in great consternation, making a hasty exit with their beds and furniture. Time and war had made strange changes in this magnificent convent, originally built for the religious exercises and devotional retirement of its monkish recluses, was now turned into a barrack; its sacred silence seldom disturbed but by the devotional hum of the prostrate “sinners,” now broken in upon by boisterous clamour and the sacrilegious intrusion of men whose worldly object and employment formed a strong contrast to the ascetic life of the secluded monks.
On the 9th of November, very early, we proceeded on our line of march towards Breviesca. An attack of the enemy’s cavalry was at this time expected in great force, therefore the whole of the Rifles, prior to marching, were ordered to load. Our Colonel and General Reid called me on one side, and told me, as my company was going to take the advanced-guard, they wished me to keep a good look out, as everything in the shape of cavalry was sure to be our enemy. We had not proceeded more than a mile on the road, and before the morning had clearly dawned, when the advanced files cried out to me the cavalry were formed across the road. I made it a rule, during the march, to leave my two Lieutenants with the rear subdivision, and take the advance myself, as they were inexperienced, and knew little of these matters. I instantly ordered the bugler to sound the halt, merely to give notice to the battalion in the rear, and dismounting from my pony took one of the men’s rifles. I sent directions for the Lieutenant to see the men get under cover in the most secure manner, in case the cavalry should charge, and to keep up a brisk fire on them. I then advanced to the front file, and immediately challenged the cavalry, then about fifty yards from me, with rifle cocked and half presented. The answer was given, “amigos” (friends). I then ordered them to advance, which a few did, with their officer, very cautiously. When I found them to be the Queen’s troops I allowed them to pass. There was about a troop. Before we had proceeded a quarter of a mile further, we came in sight of a regiment of infantry, which immediately threw out a company in extended order on both sides of the road. This put us on our metal again, and bringing up the rear section, I gave them directions to extend; but no man to fire without receiving orders from me. We then advanced most cautiously, when I perceived an officer waving a white handkerchief on a sword, and advancing towards me. I instantly met him, and found these also to be Queen’s troops, the cavalry which we first met being their advance-guard. General M’Dougal and General Reid, with our Colonel de Rottenberg, rode up, and thanked me for the cautious manner in which I had acted, remarking that, had any inexperienced officer been in my place, most serious consequences might have ensued, as the Queen’s troops had taken us for the enemy, not knowing that any of the Legion was dressed otherwise than in red uniform. I jokingly replied, I had been brought up in Wellington’s school, where we were taught to make no blunders. I could find, the short time I had been with the Legion, that chief part of the officers did not know a friend from the enemy. We arrived at Breviesca about four o’clock in the afternoon, much to the joy of the Legion, as it was appointed as a temporary place of rest, if not of winter quarters.
This march occupied nine days. The distance from Bilboa, by the circuitous and difficult route we had taken, was about sixty leagues, which is, upon an average, about twenty English miles a day.
Breviesca is an ancient town of considerable extent, situated in an open plain, in the province of Castile; and is distant from Vittoria about forty miles, and twenty from Burgos; it is surrounded by a mud wall.
Head-quarters were now at Breviesca, but the town not affording accommodation sufficient for the whole Legion, several regiments were quartered in the adjacent villages.
The inhabitants of this and the neighbouring localities, had been much oppressed at different periods, and particularly by the French, during the Peninsular war. The old patrone of the house in which I was quartered, gave me a long recital of the exactions he had been subject to, during that period, by soldiers of different armies, these he related with the tears rolling over his aged cheeks, which, no doubt, his extraordinary sufferings had mainly contributed to wither. Indeed, the Spaniards, since my last sojourn amongst them, had made but very little progress towards improvement, the joint influence of foreign invasion, priestcraft, and civil strife, having so long, and so continually absorbed their energies, that they could scarcely be said to have recovered themselves: their beautiful country, rich as it was in natural resources, now bore the appearance of a desert, patched here and there only, by the hands of the cultivator, who planted in fear, and gathered in trembling, under the dreadful probabilities of having it uprooted, or trodden down by the soldiers of either party, and himself, perhaps, and his family stretched lifeless amid the ruin.