The French works at the entrance of the town, by the bridge (tête de pont), were very strong, and cost much in labour and materials, for no use. They were formed by close piles of timber like the caissons for the foundation of a bridge, filled up with earth, and the tops lined by barrels of earth, with a ditch and guns, &c., placed, and the walls of the buildings round all loop-holed.
I rode all over the positions of the battle yesterday, on the hills, and examined all the forts and the monuments of French industry and British courage. They were most formidable places to approach, for the hills formed a regular smooth glacis from the works at the top to the valley below, and half way down were long low heaps of sod, or turf, made up to protect the advanced sharp-shooters, who were lying safe on the ground, protected behind them, though the barrier was not above two feet high. A church and a house loop-holed, formed the sort of citadel to two of the forts or redoubts for musquetry, with the guns around the outside. The ditches were not so deep, nor the works so complete as those near Vera, where the French had more time, nor were the roads or mountains so difficult to ascend; but there was less shelter to approach, from the greater smoothness of the ground. Almost the only chance of safety was following some hollow roads, and a ride or two on the hills.
16th (4 o’clock).—I have just heard that the mail goes in half an hour. There is, therefore, little time to add to this. Colonel G—— is come back: Soult very civil, but high and proud in his manner, not yet satisfied, and so circumstanced, does not yet join the royal cause; the consequence is, I hear, that the troops move to-morrow morning, and I fear we shall do the same then or soon after. This is very provoking, for the general result seems clear, and all bloodshed now useless. I suspect the truth of the hare story, as it is said that Soult’s army is still ignorant of what has happened, at least, nearly so. Pains are now being taken to circulate the proclamations, news, &c., in all directions round him, that the troops may learn the real state of things. I have to-day received the parcel from you, letter to 29th, and newspapers. Many thanks.
The museum here contains but a bad second-rate set of pictures. About a hundred have been carried away during the month of March, no one knows where; but I presume they were the best of those which were portable from their size.
There has been some difference of opinion, and confusion, we hear, at Montauban about royalty. Bayonne, it is to be feared, will abide by Soult, and do nothing yet.
Head-Quarters, Toulouse, April 18th, 1814, 5 o’clock.—The troops moved as I told you yesterday, and the order was actually out for head-quarters to move to-day, when Count Gazan came in yesterday, about mid-day, to announce Marshal Soult’s submission, I believe, to the new order of things, and to arrange cantonments, &c., for the two armies. He was closeted with General Murray a long time, and arrangements were made. He returned this morning to have the articles ratified, and to-night Lord G. Lennox has orders to be in readiness to go to England through Paris with the news. This last fact you will, perhaps, have heard, and probably before you get this.
We had yesterday a grand Te Deum, a most strange noisy military and religious ceremony attended with all the drums and military band; French civic soldiers, with their hats on, hallooing, shouting, singing, organs, &c., an immense crowd, and great cordiality. Unluckily, Gazan passed the door as the crowd was coming out; he was hooted, and saluted with “A bas Soult!” &c. This was a pity, but these changeable gentlemen are all in extremes. The troops are all going into cantonments immediately, and we shall for some time, I conclude, be quiet.
The bad news from Bayonne is very unlucky. General Hope is, I hear, not dangerously wounded; and his aide-de-camp is gone to Bayonne to comfort him in his confinement, which I trust will now be soon over. The affair seems to have been a surprise in a great measure, and the chief loss was in regaining the church, &c., of St. Etienne, which had been easily lost at first. Lord Dalhousie, on the other hand, seems to have gone on well alone, across the Dordogne.
The arsenal is here on a very large scale, and would have been a very great acquisition, were the war to have gone on. The French carried away almost everything but materials, of which there is abundance of wheel carriages, &c., and all the forges, &c., in order.
Head-Quarters, Toulouse, April 23rd, 1814.—Our life has now fallen into the old routine way again, and not only without daily events and little incidents to excite the mind, as has hitherto been the case, but also with the additional flatness and indifference, which cannot but be felt so immediately after a succession of such occurrences as have taken place within the last month. You will now have only the tittle-tattle of a country town (a French town certainly, and therefore somewhat novel), with which you must be satisfied. When Count Gazan came over here, to settle the terms of the armistice and line of demarcation, &c., with Generals Murray and Wimpfen, he was so much engaged that I could not see him, as I wished to do, and he went very suddenly back again. The terms you will see in the papers.