[14] Yet lord Byron has gravely asserted in prose and verse that the convention was signed at the marquis of Marialva’s house at Cintra; and the author of “The Diary of an Invalid,” improving upon the poet’s discovery, detected the stains of the ink spilt by Junot upon the occasion.
[15] There is good reason to believe, that a silly intrigue carried on through the medium of the princess of Tour and Taxis with Talleyrand, and some others, who were even then ready to betray Napoleon, was the real cause of the negotiation having been broken off by Mr. Canning.
[16] Sir Walter Scott, in his Life of Napoleon, inaccurately asserts, that sir John Moore, “sent ten thousand men, under sir David Baird, by sea, to Coruña,” and that “the general science of war, upon the most extended scale, seems to have been so little understood or practised by the English generals at this time, that instead of the country being carefully reconnoitred by officers of skill, the march of the army was arranged by such hasty and inaccurate information as could be collected from the peasants. By their reports general Moore was induced to divide his army”——What “the general science of war upon an extended scale” may mean, I cannot pretend to say; but that sir David Baird was sent by the government from England direct to Coruña, and that sir John Moore was not induced by the reports of the peasants to divide his army, may be ascertained by a reference to the [Appendix, No. 13], section 2.
[17] Navarre and Biscay being within the French line of defence, the inhabitants were, according to the civilians, de facto French subjects.
[18] In the winter of 1812, captain Hill, of the royal navy, was sent to Cronstadt to receive Spanish prisoners who had been taken by the Russians. Of five thousand Spaniards that were delivered to him, above four thousand were men who had escaped with Romana from the Danish isles in 1808. Captives at Espinosa, they had entered the French ranks, served in Napoleon’s continental wars, and being made prisoners by the Russians in the retreat from Moscow, were once more brought back to Spain in English vessels. This is a curious commentary upon the silly stories that have been promulgated relative to the desperate fighting of Blake’s army, and the devoted courage with which, Spartan-like, Romana’s soldiers died to a man upon the field of battle.
| MEN. | ||
| Landed at Gihon, 9th October, 1808 | 9,404 | |
| Deduct cavalry, which never joined Blake’s army | 1,404 | |
| —— | ||
| 8,000 | ||
| Prisoners delivered to captain Hill | 4,500 | |
| —— | ||
| 3,500 |
Now, if we make allowance, 1º. For natural and violent deaths during four years of service under Napoleon, 2º. For those who might not have been taken by the Russians, and if we believe that some might possibly have escaped from Espinosa alive, the number of Spartans will probably be thought not to have exceeded the classical number of 300.
[19] Dukes of Infantado, of Hijar, Medina Celi, and Ossuna; marquis Santa Cruz; counts Fernan, Miñez, and Altamira; prince of Castello Franco, Pedro Cevallos, and the bishop of St. Ander, were proscribed, body and goods, as traitors to France and Spain.
[20] The following remarkable instance of courage and discipline deserves to be recorded. John Walton, a native of the south of Ireland, and Richard Jackson, an Englishman, were posted in a hollow road on the plain beyond the bridge, and at a distance from their piquet. If the enemy approached, one was to fire, run back to the brow of the hill, and give notice if there were many or few; the other was to maintain his ground. A party of cavalry following a hay cart stole up close to these men, and suddenly galloped in, with a view to kill them and surprise the post. Jackson fired, but was overtaken, and received twelve or fourteen severe wounds in an instant; he came staggering on, notwithstanding his mangled state, and gave the signal. Walton, with equal resolution and more fortune, defended himself with his bayonet, and wounded several of the assailants, who retreated, leaving him unhurt; but his cap, his knapsack, his belts, and his musquet were cut in above twenty places, and his bayonet was bent double, his musquet covered with blood, and notched like a saw from the muzzle to the lock. Jackson escaped death during the retreat, and finally recovered of his wounds.
[21] Several thousand infantry slept in the long galleries of an immense convent built round a square; the lower corridors were filled with the horses of the cavalry and artillery, so thickly stowed that it was scarcely possible for a single man to pass them, and there was but one entrance. Two officers returning from the bridge, being desirous to find shelter for their men, entered the convent, and with horror perceived that a large window shutter being on fire, and the flame spreading to the rafters above, in a few moments the straw under the horses would ignite, and six thousand men and animals would inevitably perish in the flames. One of the officers, (captain Lloyd, of the forty-third,) a man of great activity, strength, and presence of mind, made a sign to his companions to keep silence, and springing on to the nearest horse, run along the backs of the others until he reached the flaming shutter, which he tore off its hinges and cast out of the window; then returning quietly, awakened some of the soldiers, and cleared the passage without creating any alarm, which in such a case would have been as destructive as the flames. Captain Lloyd was a man of more than ordinary talents; his character has been forcibly and justly depicted in that excellent little work called the “Life of a Sergeant.”