I believe King Joseph’s gallantry in trying to seduce a young girl at Salvatierra, the night of the battle of Vittoria, was mentioned in a former letter by me. In this valley he performed a most noble feat: after the dinner given him by his patron and the neighbours, he permitted or ordered his servants to sweep off and carry away all the utensils, table-cloths, spoons, &c. The Padré at Arriez, our last place, told General Wimpfen that he had there carried off the sheets. This is a noble exit; and all his suite were without a change of linen.
The papers taken at Vittoria make it appear that nearly a million of property was taken after the battle—250,000l. in gold. Only about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars have been paid into the chest. Much was certainly plundered by the natives and soldiers: the latter were offering nine dollars for a guinea, for the sake of carriage. Lord Wellington, however, has his suspicions of pillage by the civil departments; has heard various stories, also, of money taken on the road back from Vittoria. I do not know what may come of this: I have made out but little satisfactory as yet. One gentleman, however, whom I examined yesterday intended to keep two thousand dollars. At the same time, the understanding that this was all fair seems to be pretty general.
Captain Brown was knocked off his horse by a sabre cut on the head and taken prisoner, but as he had his sword left, he cut down his guard, who was pricking him with his sword, and ran into our dragoons and escaped, changing his own horse for a French one in the confusion.
Lieutenant-Colonel May had a musket-ball in his belly. It passed through his double sash, his waistcoat, and pantaloons, and then, by striking the button of his drawers, was so deadened as only to give him a swelling the size of an egg, and he has been long with us again. I dined with him at Arriez the day before yesterday.
In the skirmish on the 5th, at Berrueta, we had about twenty wounded. The Spanish peasantry are a fine, stout, tall, well-made race of mountaineers, and behaved that day with spirit. Several would act with their firearms with our light troops, and brought in two prisoners; and one set would go on with a picket of six of our cavalry, and when told by Major Brotherton that they were acting foolishly, as he could not protect or support them if the French cavalry turned on him, they said they could run as fast as those French horses, and would not be caught so. The rulers here have also been forward in offering supplies, a good part of which, I believe, they were ordered to have collected by the French, and by which collection we have profited.
More Portuguese troops and artillery are now passing this way. I believe no English artillery has come this road. The Portuguese guns are not so wide in the wheels, having been made for their own roads, and are therefore more adapted to this.
Irurita, Head-Quarters, July 9th.—Still here. The day before yesterday, the 7th, the French showed fifteen thousand men in the Maya pass, two leagues and a-half in front, a line of nearly two miles. It took much time to climb the hills to turn this position. About four, we got possession of a hill which had that effect; the French saw their error, tried three times to recover it, drove back our men a little, but it would not do; they just now will not stand against us. A battalion of Caçadores behaved well, and drove them back once. A close column of theirs was opposed on the hill by two columns of ours, the 39th; our fellows, when near, shouted and came down to the charge, and the French were quickly off. It was dark, however, before the pass was abandoned, and past eleven before Lord Wellington and his staff got home to dinner, as he lost his way for some time in the fog, despising guides, &c. Yesterday the French, in part, came back to a little village near the pass, and stood some time against our light infantry; but the third shot of our two guns which were brought to bear, sent them scampering off. They little think that we have some eighteen field-pieces in this valley.
Yesterday Lord Wellington came in early, and left the French in another pass in the last Spanish village. They were, I hear, to be driven out to-day unless they retired. They had yesterday, however, nearly succeeded in surprising some of our men. They appeared in rear of our advanced troops, through a pass on our right, which communicates with the Roncesvalles pass to St. Jean Pied de Port, drove in a small picket, and came, about fifty of them, down very nearly to a village in which we had much baggage. The peasants said they had five hundred men there: they however went back again, and one of our serjeants, by himself, caught one of the stragglers when the others were gone. Just then there was only a small body of cavalry between their party and our baggage, and even between them and our head-quarters here. This was soon looked to, and a Caçadore regiment ordered into the neighbouring village. The peasants here continue to behave with great spirit and activity, and want to enter France to take some revenge. They had been told by the French that we were ten times worse in regard to plundering, &c., than themselves, and so the French are told now. The French respect their own people, and do not treat them like the Spaniards. In Spain a French encampment was covered with all the doors, window-shutters, beams, trees, &c., of the Spanish villages near; in France, though in rain, they are now seen without any such shelter on the bare ground.
The French peasants in these parts, I hear, are as fine men as the Spaniards here, and formidable. If we enter France, we must not wander and ride about as we do here, nor let our baggage cover leagues in extent. It is said that they disposed of four of our soldiers, Portuguese I believe, whom they caught stealing cherries. I do not think head-quarters will enter France, here at least, but enter down towards the sea: this is, however, only my speculation. General Byng sent an invitation yesterday to dine with him in France. The Spanish troops are in France in part also.
The day before yesterday Lord Wellington ordered young Fitzclarence to go and bring up two Portuguese companies to attack. He went. It was close by; but he was highly pleased with the order. When he had given his instructions, he saw a cherry-tree, and went up to break a bough off, and eat the cherries. When Lord Wellington lost his way the other night in the fog (returning to head-quarters), Fitzclarence told Lord Wellington he was sure the road was so-and-so, as they had passed the place where he found the two Portuguese companies. “How do you know that?” quoth Lord Wellington. “By that cherry-tree, which I was up in just afterwards,” was the answer. It amused Lord Wellington much; and yesterday he called to him, with a very grave face, and desired him to go and get some of the cherries, as if it were an important order. I believe we only lost about seventy men killed and wounded, Portuguese and all included, on the 7th.