I have had long instructions to write to the three other Judge-Advocates and summonses for witnesses to send to every regiment and to the Commandants about here, and that over and over again. As fast as one prisoner or witness got well, another became sick, and half the cases are now pending in this way. Then comes a long case to abstract for Lord Wellington; then an opinion for the Adjutant-general by return of post. For these three weeks I have been writing nearly seven hours a day, circulating copies of the charges to prisoners, to the Courts, and to the prosecutors, and much of my labour is thrown away by the sickness of the prisoners and witnesses. I have nine here in the Provost’s hands for trial, and five are in the hospital—one just dead. There is one comfort, the reflection that such a press of business is never likely to recur. The Gazette and newspapers you sent me afforded me considerable amusement and comfort. Since Lord Wellington has been absent, Colonel Colin Campbell remains to do the honours and invite at the great house. I spent Christmas-day there, and have dined several times. Besides a good dinner and the best society, I there hear the latest news and get honour. The party is now very small.
After ten days of horrible damp, cold, rainy weather, we have now a thoroughly good genuine English frost, with an east wind, quite like an old friend in England; but the sun has some power, so that it is like our frosts in February rather than Christmas. We see here very few of the officers. Just before Lord Wellington went he was angry at all the applications for leave of absence, observing, “A pretty army I have here! They all want to go home: but no more shall go except the sick.” As the sick are now fast recovering, I may mention what I did not like to do a month ago, that the returns of the sick were then between nineteen and twenty thousand! You would have no idea of this. I have dined here with Major and Mrs. Scobell, the only lady here. I have also dined with Lord Aylmer, the acting Adjutant-general here, who is very civil. The Commissary, Mr. H——, keeps a good table, and often asks me. Dr. H—— is our doctor now at head-quarters—a sensible man. Lord March has lent me two volumes of Goldsmith’s works.
Castanos’ army went back in an orderly manner. Our Commissary reports well of them, and of the country, where, he says (that is, in the Tras os Montes), there is an abundance of bread, poultry, turkeys, &c., and of many things we have no notion of here. They have procured two turkeys at head-quarters this Christmas, and have had mince-meat in tins by the post from Lisbon.
We send to the woods for firing, and bring it home on the mules, and send out from four to six leagues, that is, from sixteen to twenty-four miles, for hay or straw. Ten pounds of straw a-day is the allowance for the animals, but I fear it will not hold out, as the villages are now nearly all emptied. We shall soon have to get little bundles of dry grass, which are already brought to our splendid market for sale. The Lamego wine is the only wine which I can drink with comfort,—it is a sort of port. The Sierra di Francia is the next best,—a much lighter wine, from the Sierras towards Madrid, from hence between thirty and forty miles off.
Lord Wellington, whom I saw every day for the last three or four days before he went, I like much in business affairs. He is very ready, and decisive, and civil, though some complain a little of him at times, and are much afraid of him. Going up with my charges and papers for instructions, I feel something like a boy going to school. I expect to have a long report to make on his return.
I hear a good account of Ballasteros’s army: that it is better equipped than that of Castanos’. I wish it had done more. The French are supposed still to have about a hundred and eighty thousand men in the Peninsula. I do not believe their force in this neighbourhood has increased or diminished. Some have receded to Vittoria, but have been traced by the spies (of whom we have one constantly at Burgos) no further, nor have many supplies of men to any amount been discovered, I believe. We have some difficulty in getting fed; bread in the markets is about 9d. a pound; barley for the horses very scarce: we often go without for two days. A commissary-agent is now in Salamanca buying bread. The villages between Rodrigo and Salamanca, described in my journey, are, it is said, quite destroyed. We did much, the French the rest. Pork is the only thing abundant, about 1s. 6d. per pound, very rich but too fat, and the fat not firm; the flesh sweeter and richer than that of our pork, from the acorns on which the swine feed, and which are like chestnuts.
I was a little nervous at the first Court-martial, but it went off pretty well, and I got the whole over and brought away eight sides of notes in three hours. To-morrow I take my fair copy to be signed, &c. In my way to this Court-martial, Henry and I were puzzled by a river which seemed to be over our necks,—a deep hole off a rock. At last I made out a way zigzag, only about three feet deep; there was no one near or on either side; I should have had a swim, I am told, as people are sometimes drowned there. A ducking the first time of my appearance in public would have been awkward.
Two cases have just been brought in to me; they are for shooting natives, one an alcalde. Adieu.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It was generally supposed that these celebrated letters, often compared to those of Junius, were written by Lord Wellesley.