If Ciudad Rodrigo had been provisioned at this time as it ought to, and as Lord Wellington expected it would have been, his intention was immediately after the capture of Badajoz to have advanced upon Seville with 40,000 men; that movement would instantly have raised the siege of Cadiz, and Soult might probably have been obliged to withdraw from Andalusia, and take up a defensive position on the Tagus. But the British Commander’s operations were still crippled by the insufficiency of his means; the Spaniards were not to be relied on for any exertions, however necessary, for their own deliverance; the Portugueze were paralysed by the poverty to which the government and the nation were reduced; and the British ministry were not yet sufficiently encouraged by success and by popular opinion, to increase their efforts and therewith an expenditure ♦Marmont enters Beira.♦ already unexampled in amount. Marshal Marmont, meantime, supposing that Soult would be able to raise the siege of Badajoz, thought the opportunity favourable for an attempt upon the Beira frontier. Lord Wellington had foreseen this, and had ♦Arrangement for the defence of that frontier.♦ little means of providing against it. Relying, however, upon the officers whom he had left in command at Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, for all that could be done by vigilance and sound judgment, he had directed General Bacellar to collect the Portugueze militia corps and march thither, ... Sylveira to protect the Tras-os-Montes, and Brigadier-Generals Sir Nicholas Trant and Sir John Wilson to cover that part of Beira extending from the Douro along the Coa to Sabugal, with especial orders to look to the safety of a considerable magazine of ammunition at Celorico. Bacellar fixed his head-quarters at Lamego; the two Anglo-Portugueze Brigadiers had about 3500 men, but only a single squadron of dragoons between them, and but a small proportion of the men had served with them in the former campaigns. In Portugal, the militia is a service in which no man willingly either enters or continues, for they receive only half the pay of the regular soldier, and half the ration of provisions, and are clothed at their own expense. This body is composed wholly of married men, or of widowers having children, these being the only persons exempted from the conscription: such men were naturally anxious and desirous of returning home, whenever, by means of favour or of corruption, they could obtain leave; in the interval of the campaign, their places were supplied by others of the same class; two-thirds at least of the whole number consisted of such raw recruits, and the others had not been exercised one day since they were disbanded in the spring of the preceding year.
♦Marmont deterred by a feint from assaulting Almeida.♦
Marmont did not know how weak a force could be brought into the field rather to observe his movements than to oppose them; but he knew that Ciudad Rodrigo was ill-stored with provisions, and that the injury which Brennier had done to the fortifications of Almeida when he abandoned that place had been insufficiently repaired. Advancing, therefore, from Salamanca with about 20,000 men, including 1200 cavalry, he summoned Ciudad Rodrigo: the Spaniards had made so little progress in repairing the works, that he might probably have carried it by escalade; but the French had now lost something of their confidence; he was afraid of committing himself, and leaving one division to blockade it, proceeded with the rest of his army towards Almeida. Colonel Le Mesurier commanded in that fortress, and its safety depended much more upon the character of its commander than upon its own strength or that of the garrison, which consisted entirely of militia. Trant, arriving with his division upon the Coa just at this time, and receiving intelligence there of the enemy’s movements, proceeded without delay to occupy the position of the Cabeço Negro, which Lord Wellington had occupied during Massena’s operations against Almeida: the French were already arriving before that place, and it was with difficulty that a corps of between 7 and 800 Spaniards under D. Carlos d’España escaped their close pursuit and effected a junction with this body of Portugueze. It was of great consequence to communicate with Colonel Le Mesurier now. Trant, though exposed to the fire of the French advanced posts, effected this, and during a short interview, they agreed upon the course to be pursued in case Almeida should be seriously threatened; and also, that during the night an attempt should be made to impose upon the French by making show as of a considerable force upon the left bank of the Coa. Accordingly, fires were kindled to the right and left of the position; and the enemy, deceived by this easy stratagem into a belief that a corps of British troops was present, gave up their intention of assaulting the fortress; they only threw forward a reconnoitring party upon the glacis, which the Governor drove back with loss.
Had Marmont assaulted the place, he might probably have captured it, and would have found there a battering-train, which would have enabled him to break ground before Ciudad Rodrigo. On the following morning he withdrew, and leaving Almeida in the rear proceeded to Sabugal, where he established his head-quarters: it was now at his option either to advance upon the Tagus by Castello Branco, or by Guarda upon the Mondego and Celorico; but his operations had neither been ♦Advance of the French to Castello Branco and their retreat.♦ well concerted, nor were they vigorously pursued. His advanced guard followed the first hussars, who had been left under Major-General Alten in front of Ciudad Rodrigo, through Lower Beira, but at a distance; and they entered Castello Branco, that officer having fallen back thither, and retiring from thence before them with Brigadier-General Le Cor’s brigade of militia which had been stationed there. The hospital and the stores were removed beyond the Tagus. The enemy did not cross the river in pursuit, and when Alten and Le Cor recrossed, the French retreated, evacuating the city two days after they had taken possession of it.
♦Marmont attempts to surprise the Portugueze at Guarda.♦
Meantime Bacellar, who had removed his head-quarters to Celorico, instructed Trant and Wilson to occupy Guarda, relying upon Dumouriez’ erroneous opinion of the advantages of a position which Lord Wellington afterwards pronounced to be the most treacherous one in Portugal. They, though they were not at that time aware of the defects of the ground which they were ordered to take, would far rather have moved behind the Mondego, from whence the magazines at Celorico might have been better protected. The French were dispersed over a large extent of country for the purpose of procuring provisions, and for plunder; but Marmont, having collected about 10,000 of his men and half his cavalry, on the evening of the day on which his advanced guard retired from Castello Branco, advanced upon Guarda, expecting to surprise the Portugueze divisions there. A hundred men under a Captain and two Lieutenants had been stationed about half a mile in front of the town, on the Sabugal road. Marmont himself advancing with 500 cavalry, surprised and captured the out-piquet of the party, and pushed on within 200 yards of the city, but hearing the drums beat to arms, and being unsupported by infantry, he thought it prudent to fall back upon his main force. The Portugueze, who at that moment could have offered little resistance even to a less formidable enemy, soon drew up on the outside of the town, towards the danger; it was just at daybreak, and they ascertained the great superiority of the French in time to commence their retreat. Guarda being untenable, and the troops having only rations for the present day, and depending upon Celorico for supplies which would now be cut off, Trant, therefore, in concurrence with Wilson’s opinion, resolved to retire behind the Mondego, which was about six miles distant. Two battalions were continued in position, while the remainder retired through the town, and took up ground in its rear unobserved by the enemy; but no sooner were the whole set in motion than the French cavalry followed, threatening to charge the columns. The ground for about five miles was entirely open; but a regiment was successively halted in echelle for the protection of the troops in march, and by this means the movement went on in perfect order, till the moment when all danger seemed to be at an end.
♦Flight of the Portugueze militia by the Mondego.♦
Immediately before the road to Celorico reaches the Mondego, it descends a sloping ground, much broken and covered with wood. The enemy’s horse was by this time pressing them close; Trant, therefore, halted his rear-guard of one battalion within the wood, about a hundred yards from the summit of the hill, where they could not be attacked by cavalry, and where by making a stand, they might have gained time for the rest of the troops to ford the river and form on the opposite side. But it had not ceased raining for some hours, and when they were ordered to fire upon some of the French who dismounted, and were firing their carabines upon them, very few of the firelocks went off; the men instantly lost confidence, and every one thought to escape unnoticed by favour of the ground. Trant presently found himself with not more than a hundred men besides the officers of his staff and of the regiment. The panic which these fugitives spread was increased by the small party of Portugueze cavalry, which having been employed thus far in watching the enemy, retreated with too much precipitation through the rear-guard, glad to find themselves in comparative safety among the trees; and some of them escaping to the main body, it was supposed from their report that the whole of the rear-guard had been cut off. All efforts of the officers were in vain; they took to flight; the enemy’s cavalry descended the hill unopposed, and made about two hundred prisoners without killing or wounding a single man. Five colours were lost in this rout, the bearers having either hid them in the wood, or thrown them into the Mondego; and a few men were drowned in hurrying over the river. Some of the fugitives hastened to Celorico, declaring that the enemy were in full pursuit, and continuing their flight, they spread the same report all the way to Coimbra. It had this ill effect at Celorico that the officer in charge of the depôt there set it on fire, concluding hastily, that what these persons reported as eye-witnesses, must to its ♦Marmont retreats.♦ whole extent be true. But night had closed opportunely for the Portugueze; their officers succeeded in rallying them beyond the river, and the French did not attempt to pass, waiting till the morning: during the night Marmont received unwelcome tidings that Badajoz had fallen, and that Lord Wellington was on his way to the north; he therefore retraced his steps towards Sabugal, concentrated his army there, and then commenced his retreat upon Salamanca, raising the blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo. The enemy in this expedition had robbed and murdered the inhabitants as usual; but they derived no advantage from it whatever, having attempted more than they could execute, and leaving unattempted what they might have achieved.
Marshal Beresford noticed the conduct of the militia in the severest terms; and it is worthy of remark, that the order which contained this censure found its way into the Moniteur, ... of so much consequence was it deemed at Paris to depreciate the Portugueze soldiers now when the French had begun to find them formidable. An alferes and two serjeants were brought to trial at Coimbra, for cowardice, and for spreading fearful and false reports upon their flight: they were condemned to death and executed. The Porto militia regiment in which the panic had begun was deprived of its colours till it should recover its character in the presence of the enemy; two other regiments which had lost theirs were not to have them restored till, in like manner, they had effaced the stain of their late conduct; and the Penafiel militia, which had lost one and preserved the other, was ordered to deposit that other with the Camara of their town till they should have approved themselves worthy to be intrusted with it again. As this was the only instance in which the Portugueze had disgraced themselves since their military establishment had been reformed, it was treated with the greatest severity.
♦Lord Wellington retires to Beira.♦