“The Valencian division, that is to say, two thousand four hundred of the four thousand three hundred soldiers who disembarked in this province, are now on board to return to Valencia. General Miranda says the desertion took place in consequence of the marquis’s determination to proceed to Aragon, which made them believe they would not be embarked. In short, most disgraceful has been the conduct of this division, and the marquis, as you will see by this letter to me, attaches to it no small portion of blame.”
Captain Codrington to the marquis of Campo Verde.
“Blake, July 5, 1811.
“I have to remind you that by ordering the Valencian division out of Taragona, in breach of the terms by which I bound myself when I brought them, you yourself broke the pledge given by me, and dissolved the contract.”
Extracted from captain Codrington’s papers.
“Minute of a conference betwixt generals Caro and Miranda with
general Doyle and myself this day.
“July 9, 1811.
“About eight o’clock generals Caro and Miranda came on board the Blake. After being seated in the cabin with general Doyle and myself, general Caro begged general Doyle would explain to me, that they were come in consequence of my promise, to request I would embark the division of Valencian troops which I had brought from Peniscola. I desired to know what promise general Caro understood me to have made? He answered, that I would take the above troops back to Valencia. I denied positively that I had made any promise to re-embark them if they should ever join the marquis of Campo Verde, although I had deeply pledged myself to restore them to general O’Donnel if they joined in a sortie from the garrison, which I was very confident would be decisive of its success. I then referred general Miranda to a similar explanation, which I gave to him, through general Doyle, on the day after our quitting Peniscola, when he had said he was ordered, both by his written instructions and by verbal explanation from general O’Donnel, not to land within the garrison. General Miranda instantly repeated that so he was; upon which general Doyle, to whom he had shewn those instructions jointly with myself, after leaving Taragona for Villa Nueva, when under a difficulty as to how he should proceed, referred him to them again, when it appearing that he was therein positively ordered ‘desembarear en la plaza de Tarragona,’ general Doyle stopped.
“General Miranda. ‘Ah! but read on.’