Lord Wellington was at Medina in a large nunnery where there were twenty-five ladies, who came and played at bo-peep with us in the chapel, which was a handsome building. The altar was very rich, and in the centre was a piece of clock-work of small moveable figures describing the crucifixion.
On that day General Jeron arrived, the General of the Gallician Spanish army acting with us, and he dined there. Castanos, the former General, is now a sort of General of two armies, and amuses himself by parading through all the towns and places in the rear of the army, Burgos last: I suppose he is employed somehow in this way. Jeron is a man about thirty-six, I should think, and looks very much like a gentleman and a man of talent; he is very well spoken of, and considered as one of the best of the Spanish leaders. Through Corunna we have news to the 6th of June. Talking during dinner of the late accounts from Bonaparte, and of the sentimental story about Duroc, which Lord Wellington was laughing at, General Jeron said, “If there was such a place as hell, he thought Bonaparte quite right, and that he and Duroc would most certainly meet again there.”
Yesterday, the 17th, we started again (having had no halts) for Quincoces, five long leagues almost, towards Vittoria, but to the left: there our head-quarters were yesterday, in that and the neighbouring villages. The troops I think were pushed on in this way, from an account received from Longa and others, that the French rear was still at Pencorbo, and part even at Briviesca, on the other side of the Ebro. Longa gave great hopes of doing something. We have, however, our difficulties from this. We get no corn for the horses, and bread is very scarce; stores gone for the present, for we outrun our supplies, and there is very little to be bought. We have bought some and baked it, to supply us as we go, but some divisions have been for one or two days entirely without, and others on short allowance. We hope now soon to get into a better country, towards Vittoria, but Longa and the French have cleared everything about this country.
Longa, when we came to Quincoces, was ordered on to Orduna, having had all he could from this place. On taking leave he collected all their oxen for the plough, ninety in number, all they had left, and drove them off. The people received us with tears and lamentations, and with no small fear, not knowing what we should require next. My patron seemed quite stupified and melancholy. We told this to General Alava, and he galloped off with two dragoons after Longa’s people and the oxen, overtook them, and compelled them to restore them to the owners, to their no small satisfaction. At last we found eight hundred pounds of bread, that is, flour; half a day’s rations for head-quarters only. We bought it, paid for it with guineas, and baked it—voilà la différence! But this cannot last or be general; the divisions cannot do this.
We last night heard that the French were over the river Ebro, and as near Vittoria as we were. However, we advanced in hopes of something arising, and head-quarters were ordered to be at this place, Berberena, and the neighbouring villages. It was intended that Marshal Beresford should have been at a village half a league in front of this place, but when we arrived near here, about nine o’clock, we found two divisions of the 1st and 5th halted here until further orders. We heard a cannonading in the front, at this village, and found that the French were making some stand in a narrow pass near it, and in the village. Beresford was put into a village to the rear of us, and an order soon came out for all baggage to proceed to that village for security. Mine was unloaded; but as I saw the French just before us, only about a mile off or little more, I made my people all load again and stand ready to be off, whilst I went with my glass to the end of the village, to a rising ground, to witness the skirmishing, and to be ready to act accordingly.
A brisk cannonade was going on, a few shells were thrown, and a light infantry attack. The French I saw very plainly in the churchyard and village on the hill beyond. They advanced under a ridge in the ground and some bushes, where they stood above an hour and more, when I saw our men and the Portuguese advance gradually and drive them back. The cannon advanced also, and the French by degrees went out of sight round the hill, our guns and soldiers after them. Very few I believe were killed on either side; but our light division I find went round by Espeja, and, falling in with another division early in the day, routed them so completely, that two battalions dispersed, and the light division got a quantity of mules and baggage, with a good deal of money; some privates got two or three hundred pounds. About three hundred prisoners were taken, and some of the runaways are still coming in. One French battalion fled towards Frias, and some Spaniards are sent off after them.
Morillas, Head-Quarters, June 20th.—Our orders yesterday morning (the 19th) were to set out at eight o’clock through Osma, where a little affair took place the day before, and so on to Escorta, following the fourth division. We did this, and I was riding with the doctors just before that division on towards Escorta, when we were told that the French were only two miles in advance, and that there was nothing between us. Upon this we turned out of the road into a field of vetches for the horses, and let the fourth division go by, and have the honour of preceding us, as we did not quite think the French would run away at the sight of us civilians. When this division came well up we went on, passed through Escorta to another village half a league beyond, and then, by the advice of an officer, who told us they were going to attack the French, who were strong at this place, Morillas, and that the passage of the river was to be forced, we ascended a high hill on our right, which commanded the whole scene of action, and there with our glasses we could distinctly see everything.
As soon as the light division had got almost round the hill on our right, from the direction nearly of the Frias road, in order to be ready to advance and turn the French position, the fourth division advanced to the village here, and the skirmishing began from the houses and a chapel on the river. In about half an hour our men entered the village, and we got about three field-pieces into play close to it. We then saw the French, who were in considerable force on the other side, and formed into a crescent on a hill near, begin to move off, at first gently, but soon in quick time, and a part of our division was very soon formed beyond the village over the river. The skirmishing thus went on all the way up the road and hill beyond to another village half a league further on the hill, where the French were drawn up in greater force. When our men got up, however, the enemy went off pretty quickly, and were last night in great force, some say fifty thousand, in a plain about a league and a half from this, and about half way to Vittoria.
The pass here was very defensible, and not easily turned; but the resistance was very slight, and few fell on either side. I suppose the French were afraid of bringing on a general action by further resistance. They had not any artillery with them near here, I conclude, from the fear of losing their guns, as just through and near the village the road is so bad and narrow, that our baggage, without any resistance, did not pass through to the two divisions beyond until dark at eight o’clock, our head-quarter baggage having all followed on here.
Lord Wellington walked into a house and made it head-quarters. I have a sort of barn here. We have had wet and cold weather for these three days; I can scarcely keep myself warm to write, though with my cap on and double waistcoats. This is considered extraordinary here for the 20th of June, though the climate is always much colder and more subject to wet than in the more southern parts of Spain.