HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES TO CANTO III.
This Canto describes the battles of Sauroren on the Pyrenees, with the leading incidents in the minor combats of Buenza, Doña Maria, Echallar and Ivantelly which followed. The first battle of Sauroren took place on the 28th July, 1813, the fourth anniversary of the battle of Talavera, and was remarkable for the extraordinary valour displayed by the French under Soult, which, having obtained a slight success at Buenza, they repeated with almost frantic efforts at Echallar and Ivantelly on the 2nd August, their principal object being to relieve San Sebastian. But in vain. Lord Wellington described the first of these actions as “bludgeon work.” The loss on both sides was very considerable; but it was here demonstrated by our soldiers, in the words of Napier “that their opponents however strongly posted could not stand before them.” The actions will be found detailed in his History, book xxi. chap. 5.
The incident of the defence of the mountain top by flinging down rocks, is taken from the previous combat, where it occurred as described by Napier in the following words: “The British, shrunk in numbers, also wanted ammunition, and a part of the eighty-second under Major Fitzgerald was forced to roll down stones to defend the rocks on which they were posted.” (Hist. ibid.) The allusions to Sisyphus and to Ajax will I trust be excused. It is difficult to exaggerate such incidents. There was surely something Titanic in the character of this Pyrenean warfare.
The Spanish regiment which gave way towards the end of the battle (the poor soldiers were starved by their miserable commissariat) was that of El Pravia, which was stationed on the left of the fortieth, and the latter regiment justly styled by Napier the “invincible” victoriously concluded the combat. “Four times this assault was renewed, and the French officers were seen to pull up their tired men by the belts, so fierce and resolute they were to win. It was, however the labour of Sisyphus.” (Napier, ibid.) The cavalry engagement was maintained by our tenth and eighteenth hussars. I occasionally detach my heroes, Nial and Morton, to other infantry corps for poetic effect.
The terrible scene at the bridge of Yanzi is described by Captain Cooke in his Memoirs as follows:—“We overlooked the enemy at stone’s throw, and from the summit of a tremendous precipice. The river separated us, but the French were wedged in a narrow road with inaccessible rocks on one side and the river on the other. Confusion impossible to describe followed, the wounded were thrown down in the rush and trampled upon, the cavalry drew their swords and endeavoured to charge up the pass of Echallar, but the infantry beat them back; and several, horses and all, were precipitated into the river; some fired vertically at us, the wounded called out for quarter, while others pointed to them supported as they were on branches of trees, on which were suspended great coats clotted with gore, and blood-stained sheets taken from different habitations to aid the sufferers.”
The incident of extricating Wellington by the agency of Nial and Morton from his imminent peril of falling into the hands of the French is taken from the following passage at the end of Napier’s description of the combat of Ivantelly: “Lord Wellington narrowly escaped the enemy’s hands. He had carried with him towards Echallar half a company of the forty-third as an escort, and placed a sergeant named Blood with a party to watch in front while he examined his maps. The French who were close at hand sent a detachment to cut the party off; and such was the nature of the ground that their troops, rushing on at speed, would infallibly have fallen unawares upon Lord Wellington, if Blood, a young intelligent man, seeing the danger, had not with surprising activity, leaping rather than running down the precipitous rocks he was posted on, given the general notice, and as it was the French arrived in time to send a volley of shot after him as he galloped away.” (Hist. book xxi. c. 5.)
The prodigies accomplished by our Peninsular veterans, of which this and the preceding Canto fall short in the narration, need little attestation. But here is the testimony of one of Napoléon’s Generals:—“Bien que leurs corps soient robustes, leurs ames énergiques, et leurs esprits industrieux,” &c. (Foy, Hist. Guerre. Pénins. liv. ii.) “Le Prince-Noir et Talbot étaient nés dans Albion. Marlborough et ses douze mille soldats n’avaient pas été les moins redoutables ennemis de Louis XIV. * * Nos soldats revenus d’Egypte disaient à leurs camarades la valeur indomptée des Anglais. Il n’etait pas besoin d’une réflexion profonde pour déviner que l’ambition, la capacité, et le courage sont bons à autre chose qu’à être embarqués sur des vaisseaux.” (Ibid.) “Leur humeur inquiète et voyageuse les rend propres á la vie errante des guerriers, et ils possèdent une qualité, la plus précieuse de toutes sur les champs de bataille, le calme dans la colère. * * Telle est la puissance Anglaise. C’est Bonaparte en action, mais Bonaparte toujours jeune et toujours vigoureux, Bonaparte persévérant dans sa passion, Bonaparte immortel.” (Ibid.) “Le soldat Anglais ... son corps est robuste. Son ame est vigoureuse, parceque son père lui a dit et ses chefs lui répétent sans cesse que les enfants de la vieille Angleterre, abreuvés de porter et rassasiés de bœuf roti, valent chacun pour le moins trois individus de ces races pygmées qui végètent sur le continent d’Europe. * * Il marche en avant. Dans l’action, il ne regarde pas à droite ni à gauche.” (Ibid.)
The brilliancy of our cavalry service is equally acknowledged, though French military writers strive sometimes to mock it, very ineffectually, as in the following example; “Dans la retraite de la Corogne, les corps de cavalerie faisaient halte; le chef commandait: Pied à terre; prenez vos pistolets; et à un troisième commandement, chaque cavalier brûlait la cervelle à son cheval en un temps et deux mouvements.” (Foy, Hist. Guerre. Pénins. liv. ii.)