Tuesday.—Lord Wellington arrived last night at six o’clock. I saw him with the rest who happened to be in the market-place when he came. He was looking well.
There is a great quantity of game around us, and the sportsmen supply their tables. It is not mere sport here, but more like the case of Robinson Crusoe, a matter of necessity. Nearly all our luxuries are thus obtained. Commissary H——, two days since, went across the Coa for about five hours, and brought home five hares, four couple of cocks, three snipes, one partridge, and a rabbit. All these animals are remarkably good here, except the partridges, which are nothing in comparison to ours, and I think not so good as the French. Lord Wellington, except presents now and then, buys up all we can get—gives 8s. for a hare, and so on. Turkeys are only to be had thirty miles off: the price, which has been 25s., is now 14s. Powder and shot are very scarce, only a little to be had now and then at Almeyda. This you will think at the head-quarters of sixty thousand men rather strange, but the same stuff which kills men will not bring down birds. We have three odd sorts of packs of hounds here, and the men hunt desperately: firstly, Lord Wellington’s, or, as he is called here, the Peer’s; these are fox-hounds, about sixteen couple; they have only killed one fox this year, and that was what is called mobbed. These hounds, for want of a huntsman, straggle about and run very ill, and the foxes run off to their holes in the rocks on the Coa. Captain W—— goes out, stops the holes over-night, halloos, and rides away violently. The ground is a light gravel and rock all over the country. From a hard rock sometimes the horse gets up to his belly in wet gravelly sand; thus we have many horses lamed, and some bad falls. The next set of hounds are numerous,—greyhounds. The Commissary-general, Sir R. Kennedy, is a great man in this way, and several others. And thirdly, the Capitan Mor here, that is the principal man of the place, has an old poacher in his establishment, with a dozen terriers, mongrels, and ferrets, and he goes out with the officers to get rabbits. Lord Wellington has a good stud of about eight hunters; he rides hard, and only wants a good gallop, but I understand knows nothing of the sport, though very fond of it in his own way. There will soon, I hear, be good trout-fishing in the Coa and in the streams in the ravines near it.
Wednesday, January 27th.—It has happened just as I expected; I have no time to add more, for I have three new cases to draw charges in, and most troublesome ones too: one of four fellows, old commissariat clerks I suppose turned off, who have been about the country living by their wits, extorting provisions, forage, &c., from the Spaniards, by frauds, false passports, &c., under pretence of acting for the English and Portuguese Commissariat. There are thirty-seven enclosures sent to me, papers taken upon them, all in Spanish, in general badly written, and no translation. The case, it is to be feared, will never be proved. I have got General O’Lalor to help me in this case. In short, my hands are full again; and my report of the old stories not made out. We occupy from Coria, Guinaldo, Vizeu, Covilhaon, and even almost to Coimbra; hospitals at Celerico, Vizu, Coimbra a few, Abrantes, and Santarem. I fear my Court-martial will be moved farther off. Some additional attached Spaniards are to have their head-quarters at Fuentes d’Onore to be about his Excellency, now that he takes the command of the whole generals, &c., and General Vandeleur and the famous Caçadores are to move from thence in consequence; the arrangements, however, are not yet completed.
Head-Quarters, Frenada, February 2nd, 1813.—Lord Wellington is returned in high spirits and great good-humour with every one; and, in spite of the number of deaths here, which are very formidable (between four and five hundred every week for the last six), declares that he shall take the field this year with nearly forty thousand British, and, on the whole, with a hundred and fifty thousand of one sort or other.
General Vandeleur is to go to Fuente Guinaldo, and the Courts-martial will in future be there. It is about twenty-four miles off. I must sleep out always, and shall thus lose one or two days’ post; this will be inconvenient to me, and just now to the service, but it cannot be avoided. The General is very good-humoured, and we are very good friends; he has offered me a quarter, and a dinner, if I will bring my bed. At present our weather is colder than ever, but generally clear frost; the wind is excessively sharp. The ice yesterday on the road would bear my horse; and the thermometer, at seven in the evening, was four degrees below the freezing point; at night sometimes it is much colder.
Two packets have just arrived; the last brought Lord Wellington the last good news from Wilna. I have dined once at head-quarters since Lord Wellington’s return, with Sumeil the Guerilla chief, looking like a dirty German private dragoon, in a smart new cavalry jacket, on one side of me, and Dr. Curtis, the Catholic head of the Salamanca college (who has been sent off from Salamanca very lately), opposite to me. The Spanish General O’Lalor treated Sumeil like a child, told him what to do and eat; but he had, I conclude, dined long before, for he ate little or nothing. Dr. Curtis seemed to be a clever, sensible, gentleman-like priest. He said the French knew immediately of Lord Wellington’s absence, but were not clear about it, and very anxious in their inquiries to ascertain the fact. General Hill’s corps, who did not share in the early siege of Rodrigo last year in January, nor the wet bad work at Badajoz, are by far the most healthy part of the army, and, next to them, the light division here. The fifth and seventh, near Lamego, are the worst, and the Guards (the new comers) very bad. General Hill has only about fourteen hundred in the hospital, and about seven thousand fit for service. I suppose we shall have an active campaign next year, if the whole be not put an end to by peace, which is not improbable, if the Allies are not too unreasonable in consequence of their successes. If Austria will join in dictating the terms with Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain, they should be very good for Europe; but if the devil Bonaparte be driven hard, he will rouse himself, appeal to the vanity of the French, and recoil upon us stronger than ever. The Gil Blas set of swindlers who went about Spain with false papers and passes, raising the wind under pretence of getting supplies for the British and Portuguese commissariat service (one was a German, two Spaniards, and the fourth a Portuguese), I much fear it will not be easy to convict.
February the 3rd.—You must excuse my writing, for it is done at all odd moments, as a relaxation from all my formal letters of business, which require a good deal of method and order in a small compass not to get into scrapes, such as sending witnesses to wrong places, &c. As I have Courts sitting here at Fuente Guinaldo in the light division; at Lamego, in the fifth; at Maimento, in the seventh; at Alter de Chaon; at Coria, in the second division; at Maimento de Biera, in the third; and at Lisbon; letters coming at all hours of the day about each, a witness wanted here, a difficulty arising there, and so on; I can only get on by keeping a book, in which I instantly put down the exact state of everything, and keep copies of all my letters till the business is over; and I make it a rule, if possible, to answer every letter by return of post, as the only way not to get in arrear. I am very glad that I persuaded my Court at Fuentes d’Onore to have patience, and let me take down all the long love story I told you of, of the deserter Prang Neigabauer. It was quite a pretty story. Lord Wellington pardoned him, from the good character of his regiment, and that which the Colonel gave him. The Prince of Orange is returned, and we are all here again assembled in this magnificent town!
5 o’clock.—I have been sent for twice to-day by Lord Wellington, besides twice last night, and have so much on my hands about Spaniards, Portuguese, and English, that I cannot add more.
Head-Quarters, Frenada, February 7th, 1813.—There never were known so many Courts-martial in this army as at the present moment, and as I have the whole direction of them all, I really scarcely know where to turn, and my fingers are quite fatigued, as well as my brains, with the arrangements and difficulties as to witnesses, &c. I sent out seventeen letters yesterday, and to-day I have one case of thirteen prisoners who have been committing every sort of outrage on their march here. Lord Wellington is now much more easy with me, and seems to trust to me more. Yesterday I was pleased when he said, “If your friends knew what was going on here, they would think you had no sinecure. And how do you suppose I was plagued when I had to do it nearly all myself?”
He seemed to feel relieved, and of course I could not but feel gratified. I can assure you, however, that we have none of us much idle time. Dr. M’Gregor has seven hundred medical men to look after. The Quarter-Master-general, all the arrangement of the troops, clothing, &c. The Adjutant-general, daily returns of the whole, constantly checked by an eye which finds out even a wrong casting-up of numbers in the totals. Lord Wellington reads and looks into everything. He hunts almost every other day, and then makes up for it by great diligence and instant decision on the intermediate days. He works until about four o’clock, and then, for an hour or two, parades with any one whom he wants to talk to, up and down the little square of Frenada (amidst all the chattering Portuguese) in his grey great coat.