At Alaejos an intercepted despatch of the prince of Neufchatel was brought to head-quarters; the contents were important enough to change the direction of the march. It was addressed to the duke of Dalmatia. Madrid was said to be perfectly tranquil, the shops opened, and the public amusements going forward as in a time of profound peace. The fourth corps of the army was at Talavera, on its way towards Badajos; this movement, it was observed, would force the English to retire to Portugal, if, contrary to the emperor’s belief, they had not already done so. The fifth corps were on the march to Zaragoza, and the eighth to Burgos. The duke was directed to drive the Spaniards into Gallicia, to occupy Leon, Benevente, and Zamora, and to keep the flat country in subjection, for which purpose his two divisions of infantry, and the cavalry brigades of Franceschi and Debelle, were considered sufficient. It is remarkable that the first correct information of the capitulation of Madrid should have been acquired by the perusal of this document, ten days after the event had taken place; nor is it less curious, that while Mr. Frere’s letters were filled with vivid descriptions of Spanish enthusiasm, Napoleon should have been so convinced of their passiveness as to send this important despatch by an officer, who rode post, without an escort and in safety, until his abusive language to the postmaster at Valdestillos created a tumult, by which he lost his life. Captain Waters, an English officer sent to obtain intelligence, happening to arrive in that place, heard of the murder, and immediately purchased the despatch for twenty dollars. The accidental [Appendix, No. 13], section 4. information thus obtained was the more valuable, that neither money nor patriotism had induced the Spaniards to bring any intelligence of the enemy’s situation, and each step the army had hitherto made was in the dark.
It was now certain that Burgos was or would be strongly protected, and that Baird’s line of march was unsafe if Soult, following these instructions, advanced. On the other hand, as the French appeared to be ignorant of the British movements, there was some chance of surprising and beating the second corps before Napoleon could come to its succour. Hope immediately passed the Douero at Tordesillas, and directed his march upon Villepando; head-quarters were removed to Toro, and Valderas was given as the point of junction to Baird’s division, the head of which was now at Benevente.
Sir John Moore’s Papers. MSS.
The 16th, Mr. Stuart arrived at Toro, accompanied by don Fe. Xr. Caro, a member of the Spanish government, who brought two letters, the one from the junta, the other from Mr. Frere. That from the junta complained, that when Romana proposed to unite fourteen thousand picked men to the British army, with a view to make a forward movement, his offer had been disregarded, and a retreat determined upon, in despite of his earnest remonstrances; this retreat they declared to be uncalled for, and highly impolitic, “as the enemy was never so near his ruin as in that moment.” If the Spanish and British armies should unite, they said, it would give “liberty to the Peninsula,” that “Romana, with his fourteen thousand select men,” was still ready to join sir John Moore, and that “thirty thousand fresh levies would in a month be added to the ranks of the allied force.”
This tissue of falsehoods, for Romana had approved of the intention to retreat, and never had above six Ibid. thousand men armed, was addressed to Mr. Frere, and by him transmitted to the general, together with one from himself, which, in allusion to the retreat upon Portugal, contained the following extraordinary passages: “I mean the immense responsibility with which you charge yourself by adopting, upon a supposed military necessity, a measure which must be followed by immediate, if not final, ruin to our ally, and by indelible disgrace to the country with whose resources you are entrusted.” “I am unwilling to enlarge upon a subject in which my feelings must be stifled, or expressed at the risk of offence, which, with such an interest at stake, I should feel unwilling to excite, but this much I must say, that if the British army had been sent abroad for the express purpose of doing the utmost possible mischief to the Spanish cause, with the single exception of not firing a shot against their troops, they would, according to the measures now announced as about to be pursued, have completely fulfilled their purpose.”
These letters were dated at Truxillo; for the junta, not thinking themselves safe at Badajos, had proceeded so far on their way to Seville. On that side the French had continued to advance, the remnants of the Spanish armies to fly, and every thing bore the [Appendix, No. 13], section 7. most gloomy appearance. Mr. Frere knew this. In a subsequent letter he acknowledged that the enthusiasm was extinguished, and a general panic commencing, at the moment when he was penning these offensive passages. He was utterly ignorant of the numbers, the situation, and the resources of the enemy, but he formed hypotheses, and upon the strength of them insulted sir John Moore, and compromised the interests of his country; and in this manner the British general, while struggling with unavoidable difficulties, had his mind harassed by a repetition of remonstrances and representations in which common sense, truth, and decency were alike disregarded. On this occasion he furnished a remarkable instance of the control he exercised over his personal feelings, when the public welfare was at stake. As Mr. Frere had acknowledged the receipt of a letter of the 10th, it was probable that he had also received the general’s answer (written before the 10th) to the communication made through Charmilly; but as he did not say so, Sir John Moore took advantage of the omission, and with singular propriety and dignity thus replied to him: “With respect to your letter delivered to me at Toro by Mr. Stuart, I shall not remark upon it. It is in the style of the two which were brought to me by colonel Charmilly, and consequently was answered by my letter of the 6th, of which I send you a duplicate; that subject is I hope at rest!”
At Toro sir John Moore ascertained that Romana, although aware of the advance of the British, and engaged to support them, was retiring into Gallicia. Sir John Moore’s Papers. That nobleman, nominally commander-in-chief of the Spanish armies, was at the head of a few thousand Col Symes’ Correspce. miserable soldiers; for the Spaniards, with great ingenuity, contrived to have no general when they had an army, and no army when they had a general. Gen. Leith. After the dispersion of Blake’s people at Reynosa, Romana rallied about five thousand men at Renedo, in the valley of Cabernigo, and endeavoured to make a stand on the borders of the Asturias, but without any success, for the vile conduct of the Asturian junta, joined to the terror created by the French victories, had completely subdued the spirit of the peasantry, and ruined the resources of that province. Romana complained that, when checked for misconduct, his soldiers quitted their standards; indeed that any should have been found to join their colours is to be admired; for among the sores of Spain there were none more cankered, more disgusting, than the venality, the injustice, the profligate corruption of the [Appendix, No. 13], section 5. Asturian authorities, who, without a blush, openly divided the English subsidies, and defrauded, not only the soldiers of their pay and equipments, but the miserable peasants of their hire, doubling the wretchedness of poverty, and deriding the misery they occasioned by pompous declarations of their own virtue. From the Asturias the marquis led the remnants of Blake’s force to Leon about the period of sir John [Appendix, No. 13], Section 7. Moore’s arrival at Salamanca; like others, he had been deceived as to the real state of the country, and at this time repented that he had returned to Spain.
Romana was a person of talent, quickness, and information, but disqualified by nature for military command; a lively principle of error pervaded all his notions of war; no man ever bore the title of a general who was less capable of directing an army, neither was he exempt from the prevailing weakness of his countrymen. At this moment, when he had not the strength to stand upright, his letters were teeming with gigantic offensive projects, and although he had before approved of the intention to retreat, he was now as ready to urge a forward movement, promising to co-operate with twenty thousand soldiers when he could scarcely muster a third of that number of men, who, half armed, were hardly capable of distinguishing their own standards; and at the very time he made the promise, he was retiring into Gallicia; not that he meant to deceive, for he was as ready to advance as to retreat, but this species of boasting is inherent in his nation, and Romana was a true Spaniard.
It has been asserted that Caro offered the chief command of the Spanish armies to sir John Moore, and that the latter refused it; this is not true: Caro had no power to do so, and if he had, there were no armies to command; but that gentleman in his interview either was, or affected to be, satisfied of the soundness of the English general’s views, and ashamed of the folly of the junta.
The 18th, head-quarters were at Castro Nuevo; from that place sir John Moore wrote to Romana, informing him of his intention to fall upon Soult, desiring his co-operation, and requesting that the Marquis would, according to his own plan given to the British minister in London, reserve the Asturias for his line of communication, and leave the Gallicias open to the British.