“It may be mentioned as a curious incident, that during the battle, when Lord Wellington was giving directions for the third division to attack a height in possession of the enemy, the Spanish General Alava, who during the war was personally attached to Lord Wellington’s staff, remarked that the hill in question was, by the tradition of the country, known as the Altura de los Ingleses or Hill of the English: this is supposed to be the hill alluded to in the Chronicles.”—Mackie.
[220] “The Bivouac.”
[221] It is remarkable that, within sight of this ground, the battle of Najara was fought, in which Edward the Black Prince, acting as the ally of a bad man, defeated the best troops of France, under their most distinguished leader, Bertram du Guescelin, who had come in support of a worse. It is also remarkable, that the Prince of Brazil, before the battle of Vitoria was fought, should have conferred the title of Duque de Victoria upon Lord Wellington.—Southey.
[222] “We chanced to meet a Curé on the French side of the Pyrenees, at whose house General Merle had been quartered, shortly after the battle, who said that the general was furious, exclaiming against Joseph, and vowing that the matériel of three armies (those of the south, the centre, and of Portugal) had been sacrificed to save fifty putaines and their baggage.”—Peninsular Recollections.
[223] “General Morillo, with all his roughness and his ignorance, was an enthusiastic admirer of every thing English. Throughout the whole course of his various services during the war, he evinced a strong and marked feeling of attachment and respect for the troops of that country. He had raised himself from the lowest ranks by his enterprising courage and cordial exertion in forwarding every scheme or measure calculated, as he conceived, to resist French domination. He had obtained considerable authority over the division of Spaniards under his immediate orders; his courage was undoubted; his devotion to Sir Rowland Hill, with whom he had long served, unbounded. Under these circumstances, this officer, in most respects a very ordinary man, became known to the army, and his name identified with some degree of distinction.”—Leith Ilay.
[224] “The Bivouac.”
[225] “The Bivouac.”
[226] “From the number of muskets left on the field, the wounded must have been very great: wounded men invariably get quit of every thing that incumbers their retreat; but a musket is scarcely ever to be seen whole, as the first comer always snaps it across the small of the stock.”—Peninsular Recollections.
[227] “A squadron of the German hussars, however, overtook and engaged their rear-guard, near Pamplona: the enemy employed against the hussars the only long gun he had remaining; the hussars forced back the enemy; and as the gun was retiring on the high-road, a carbine shot struck one of the horses, which becoming unruly, the gun was dragged from the causeway and upset. The hussars immediately took possession of it.”
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