Following the orders of Napoleon, marshal Victor should have been at Merida before the middle of February. In that position he would have confined Cuesta to the Sierra Morena; and with his twelve regiments of cavalry he could easily have kept all the flat country, as far as Badajos, in subjection. That fortress itself had no means of resistance, and, certainly, there was no Spanish force in the field capable of impeding the full execution of the emperor’s instructions, which were also reiterated by the king. Nevertheless, the duke of Belluno remained inert at this critical period, and the Spaniards, attributing his inactivity to weakness, endeavoured to provoke the blow so unaccountably withheld; for Cuesta was projecting offensive movements against Victor, and the duke of Albuquerque was extremely anxious to attack Toledo from the side of La Mancha.
Cartoajal opposed Albuquerque’s plans, but offered him a small force with which to act independently. The duke complained to the junta of Cartoajal’s proceedings, and Mr. Frere, whose traces are to be found in every intrigue, and every absurd project broached at this period, having supported Albuquerque’s complaints, Cartoajal was directed by the junta to follow the duke’s plans: but the latter was himself ordered to join Cuesta, with a detachment of four or five thousand men.
ROUT OF CIUDAD REAL.
Cartoajal, in pursuance of his instructions, marched with about twelve thousand men, and twenty guns, towards Toledo; and his advanced guard attacked a regiment of Polish lancers, near Consuegra: but the latter retired without loss. Hereupon, Sebastiani, with about ten thousand men, came up against him, and the leading divisions encountering at Yebenes, the Spaniards were pushed back to Ciudad Real, where they halted, leaving guards on the river in front of that town. The French, however, forced the passage, and a tumultuary action ensuing, Cartoajal was totally routed, with the loss of all his guns, a thousand slain, and several thousand prisoners. The vanquished fled by Almagro; and the French cavalry pursued even to the foot of the Sierra Morena.
This action, fought on the 27th of March, and commonly called the battle of Ciudad Real, was not followed up with any great profit to the victors. Sebastiani gathered up the spoils, sent his prisoners to the rear, and, holding his troops concentrated on the Upper Guadiana, awaited the result of Victor’s operations: thus enabling the Spanish fugitives to rally at Carolina, where they were reinforced by levies from Grenada and Cordova.
While these events were passing in La Mancha, Estremadura was also invaded; for the king having received a despatch from Soult, dated Orense and giving notice that the second corps would be at Oporto about the 15th of March, had reiterated the orders that Lapisse should move to Abrantes, and that the duke of Belluno should pass the Tagus, and drive Cuesta beyond the Guadiana.
Victor, who appears for some reason to have been averse to aiding the operations of the second corps, remonstrated, and especially urged that the order to Lapisse should be withdrawn, lest his division should arrive too soon, and without support, at Abrantes. This time, however, the king was firm, and, on the 14th of March, the duke of Belluno, having collected five days’ provisions, made the necessary dispositions to pass the Tagus.
The amount of the Spanish force immediately on that river was about sixteen thousand men; but Cuesta had several detachments and irregular bands General Semelé’s Journal of Operations, MS. in his rear, which may be calculated at eight thousand more. The Duke of Belluno, however, estimated the troops in position before him at thirty thousand, a great error for so experienced a commander to make.
But, on the other hand, Cuesta was as ill informed; for this was the moment when, with his approbation, colonel D’Urban proposed to sir John Cradock, that curiously combined attack against Victor, already noticed; in which, the Spaniards were to cross the Tagus, and sir Robert Wilson was to come down upon the Tietar. This, also, was the period that Mr. Frere, apparently ignorant that there were at least twenty-five thousand fighting men in the valley of the Tagus, without reckoning the king’s or Sebastiani’s troops, proposed that the twelve thousand British, under sir John Cradock, should march from Lisbon to “drive the fourth French corps from Toledo,” and “consequently,” as he phrased it, “from Madrid.” The first movement of marshal Victor awakened Cuesta from these dreams.