Head-Quarters, Frenada, April 17th, 1813.—The corn looks very ill about this place, very thin, very yellow, and indeed positively very bad crops. Whether this is, however, also only comparatively bad as to other years I cannot say; it would appear to be so to some extent. The soil is here very poor, and I suspect the harvest is never very abundant. Several parts of Spain have this year suffered much from the want of rain, and the very early heat of the weather; Estremadura in particular: where the sun has been very powerful, everything has been burnt up. My authority for this is General O’Donoghue.
In my own department I have another rather melancholy story. Mr. M——, a clerk in the commissariat department, had been guilty of fraud and embezzlement of stores (some pork, rice, and milk), to no great amount, as far as I could prove under 20l.; but it was sold out of the store at Galigas, in a neighbouring village. By Lord Wellington’s orders I made out a charge against M——, and sent it to him at Coimbra, with an order from the Commissary for him to attend under close arrest at Cea to take his trial, as the witnesses were near Galigas. Soon after the receipt of this letter and order he shot himself, and has thus put an end to the whole business. He was well connected in England, it is said, has respectable friends, and was in a good situation there. A woman with whom he lived here, I believe, was the cause of the whole. When he turned her off she stirred up the witnesses against him, and was the cause of its being made known to Sir R. Kennedy, and by his means to Lord Wellington, when of course a prosecution was inevitable. By the Mutiny Act he was liable to transportation for life, fine, imprisonment, or pillory: and he could not stand the disgrace. He partly admitted the charge, but pleaded sickness and distress. It was unfortunate that the discovery fell on such a subject, for it was, I believe, the first falling off from general good conduct.
I have now got a Court-martial in the fourth division, the only one which has been hitherto free, to sit near Escalpaon, and to try three fellows for going out at night and stealing seven sheep, keeping sentry as a guard over the two shepherds, whilst they skinned the sheep and divided the meat; two other men, of better characters, were with them, and they are therefore to be admitted as witnesses against the three. The Court at Coimbra has suffered the two worst fellows to escape almost with twelve hundred lashes; they ought to have been hung, for they are desperate fellows, both Irishmen. They have been most mutinous and insolent whilst under trial, and one of them, a few days since, said he did not know whether he was to be hung or flogged this time, but if the latter, he would take care next time that there should be no witnesses to tell of what he had done.
Lord Wellington said at dinner the day before yesterday, “We must move by the end of the first week in May, that’s positive.” And then spoke sharply to Colonel F—— of the artillery, because the artillery was not arrived. The Colonel coolly replied, “My lord, I do not think the artillery have been, or will be, the cause of your lordship staying at Frenada. Transport is the great difficulty—animals are so scarce. The Portuguese make much money, but are afraid of spending it, or getting or breeding animals for fear of their being seized or embargoed.” An engineer has been appointed and sent to each division, and a messenger or Spanish courier (who arrived three days since in four days from Cadiz post), was last night sent post round through Seville to Alicant. Something, therefore, is in agitation, and all this looks like preparation for moving. He expected to arrive at Alicant in eight days at furthest, if not in seven.
Lord Wellington the other day was again talking of the battle of Fuentes d’Onore. He said that he was obliged to ride hard to escape, and thought at one time, as he was on a slow horse, that he should have been taken. The whole of head-quarters, general and all, he added, English dragoons and French dragoons, were all galloping away together across the plain, and he more than once saw a French dragoon in a green coat within twenty yards of him. One Frenchman got quite past them all, and they could not knock him off his horse. At last they caught his bridle and stopped him.
21st April.—We sup early (as you call your late dinners) here, and are as smart as you are in England in that respect. At present half-past seven is the hour. We cannot change this hour till Lord Wellington does, for business is now going on till six. We also beat the most fashionable in London in one respect, for we have no female society at all here. There is one lady here, Mrs. S——, and that is all the English we see, once in a week perhaps; and then the men preponderate so that the tone of the society is quite male. There is one Portuguese lady, niece to the Capitan Mor here, or principal resident inhabitant: but she is ugly, and said to be perfumed too strongly with oily salt fish. She is no favourite, and is very little noticed. Her little uncle hunts with Lord Wellington on a little country pony, and does wonders in that way; he seems an active little Portuguese.
Lieutenant-Colonel W——, in the Adjutant-general’s Department here, who was ill when I joined, has now returned. He has had some curious adventures in this country. He once fell in, accompanied by two dragoons, with a small party of French, close to their main body, who were attending some baggage. He, his men consenting, attacked the French, beat them off, plundered their baggage, and brought off the best mule. The latter he kept himself, and has it here now, and the two soldiers took the money, &c. On another occasion, he was riding quietly with Captain D——, of the same department, on the advance from the lines at Torres Vedras on the retreat of Massena. They were quietly jogging on, and were about to enter a place intended to be English head-quarters that day. When close to it, they found the French were still there in force, and saw three French dragoons close upon them, who, however, did not see them. They resolved to attack by surprise. They knocked two off from their horses, and attacked the third; he got away and they pursued him. In the mean time the other two set off. It ended, however, in W—— and D—— securing one dragoon horse, and some other booty, with which they got safely away. Soon after this Lieutenant-Colonel W—— was himself taken prisoner at Sabugal, when the French advanced during the siege of Badajoz. He was then mounted on this very dragoon horse, which he had kept as booty; the horse was known by the French when he was carried in. He was asked how he came by the horse? He said he bought it of a soldier; and as the three Frenchmen had reported that they had been attacked by a “dozen men in buckram,” and had said nothing of two officers, it all went off well, and he kept their secret and his own. He refused to give his parole, and was therefore ill fed, and kept prisoner with privates, and treated like the rest, except that they let him ride Dragon, as he had christened his horse.
Near Salamanca, a Spanish friend to whom he had been kind came to offer his services to him: “Only get me a new pair of very sharp rowels to my spurs,” said he, “that is all I want.” This was done, and on the next day, the party, a whole French column of infantry, marched on at daybreak about seven. Just near the end of the wood, near Salamanca, in a wide open part of the road, he observed that most of the French horsemen were dismounted; so turning about, he used his new rowels strongly, got the start of them in some way, and was off. He galloped till he heard no one behind him. At first there was a shout of “Le Mayo, le Mayo,” and some pursued; he then crossed another road where another French party was, got round by the mountains, reached, I think, Tamones by eleven that night, and to Fuentes d’Onore next day safely. The French had fed their horses in the fields at night on grass, and were soon blown. He had refused to suffer his horse to leave him, and gave him only a little bran, yet though his horse was a slow one too, he thus got safely off. He has since sold the horse. Lord Wellington asked him “Why?” He said, “Because, my lord, I was very near being taken again on him when with your lordship at the battle of Fuentes d’Onore, and that would be awkward, as the horse is known by the French.” He seems an odd character.
The Commissaries all live here exceedingly well, the Lord knows how out of their pay; and that ought to be nearly their only advantage.
Frenada, Head-Quarters, April 24, 1813.—Four Generals have arrived—Graham, Fane, Picton, and Oswald: Sir Stapleton Cotton, who has received orders to command the whole cavalry, has, however, not yet arrived, and is much wanted; but Graham and Picton are very good officers.