There could now scarcely be a doubt as to the proper person to be appointed to the supreme command of the armies in Portugal. If any such doubt had lingered, it ought to have been dissipated by Sir Arthur's memorandum of the 7th of March, by other suggestions he offered to ministers with rare brevity, clearness, and precision, and by the concurring opinion of the best officers in the British army. Men as well as officers, Portuguese as well as British, called loudly for his return to the Peninsula. In spite of the very illiberal and very unwise opposition of Lord Folkestone, and a few other individuals of that party, votes of thanks to Sir Arthur, and a resolution in approbation of the gallant conduct of the non-commissioned officers and privates who had fought at Roliça and Vimeiro, were passed by both Houses in the month of February. Towards the end of March, Sir Arthur Wellesley, having previously On resigned his office of secretary for Ireland, as well as his seat in parliament, and having taken a long farewell of home politics, accepted the chief command of the British forces in the Peninsula. the 15th of April he set sail from Portsmouth for Lisbon in the Surveillante' frigate, which was very nearly lost in a storm at the back of the Isle of Wight, the night after she quitted Spithead.* The fleet having on board his horses, two regiments of heavy dragoons, and some horses for the artillery, sailed a few days after him; and a regiment of hussars, the 24th foot, and a brigade of light infantry, very soon followed. On the 22nd of April he arrived safely at Lisbon, and took the command of the army, which had now been left for some time in the hands of Sir J. Cradock. Almost as soon as he arrived, he said he thought that Marshal Soult would not remain long in Portugal. Soult, after the capitulation of the Spaniards at Coruña, had obtained easy possession of Ferrol, Bilboa, and all the most important places on the northern coast of Spain. Then he had proceeded towards Portugal, and, having entered that country by Braga, he had taken possession of Oporto on the 29th of March, after a spiritless resistance of been accustomed woefully to neglect, or to leave to their inferiorsthinking barrels of salt pork and bags of biscuits unworthy the attention of well-bred gentlemen and gallant soldiers-but for the reforms he gradually introduced into our un-systematised commissariat department, there would have been no such glorious victories as Salamanca, Vitoria, and Toulouse; but the British army would have been wasted away by famine, and driven from the Peninsula with disgrace. For the rest of this memorandum on the defence of l'ortugal, see Colonel Gurwood, Wellington Dispatches. only two days. Upon the rapid advance of Soult Sir J. Cradock had concentrated his forces for the defence of Lisbon. There were other discouraging circumstances: the French had reduced many towns and districts on the east of the Ebro; Zaragoza, a second time besieged, was not so valorous or so fortunate as in 1808, but had been obliged to surrender at discretion on the 14th of February; and, what was gloomiest of all, the Spaniards at Madrid, and in many other large cities and districts, seemed to be quietly resigning themselves to the dominion of King Joseph. Still, however, Note by Colonel Gurwood, in Dispatches. there were some brighter glimpses-some few indications of Spanish patriotism and resolution: for no sooner had Soult evacuated Galicia than the people rose in arms, and several places in the Asturias and in the Biscayan provinces had been re-taken by the patriots. Moreover, in Portugal, a body of Portuguese regulars had been admirably disciplined in the English manner by General Beresford, to whom the Prince Regent of Portugal had given the chief command of all his troops. Beresford's Portuguese, being added to the British reinforcements, enabled Sir Arthur to take the field with an army of about 25,000 men. His first business was to dislodge Soult from Oporto; and to this end, and after leaving a division on the Tagus to guard the eastern frontiers against the French division or corps of Victor, stationed in Spanish Estremadura, he quitted Lisbon, on the 28th of April, for Coimbra. Having collected his forces at Coimbra, he moved, on the 9th of May, in the direction of Oporto, driving back all the French who had advanced south of the Douro.* By the 11th he occupied the southern bank of that river opposite the town of Oporto. The French had destroyed the bridges and removed the boats to their own side; and Soult was preparing to retire leisurely by the road to Galicia. But Wellesley determined that the Marshal's retreat should not be quite so comfortable: he sent General Murray with a brigade to pass the Douro, about four miles above Oporto, whilst the brigade of guards was directed to cross the river at the suburb of Villanova, and the main body, under Wellesley's own eye, was to attempt a passage in the centre, by means of any boats that they could find, just above the town. The Douro at this part is very rapid, and nearly three hundred yards wide. The ground on the left bank, or English side of the river, was protected and commanded by some cannon placed on the height of the Serra convent at Villanova; and there appeared to be a good position for our troops on the opposite side of the river, till they should be collected in sufficient numbers. The enemy took no notice of the collecting of boats by the English, or of the embarkation of our troops, till after the first battalion (the Buffs) were landed, and had taken up their selected position, on the opposite bank, under the command of Major-General the Honourable Sir E. Paget. The French then made a most furious attack, which they continued for about two • We have no room for details of minor engagements; but in this advance there were two affairs of some importance. On the 10th of May Sir Arthur attempted to surprise the French cavalry which had crossed the Douro; and, although the surprise failed, several advantages were gained in the field, and one piece of cannon was taken. The Portuguese riflemen, and the Portuguese students, who had volunteered into the army, behaved remarkably well. On the 11th of May the French gave him a field-day. His advanced guard, consisting only of the first battalion of detachments, two battalions of the German Legion, and Colonel Doyle's battalion of the 16th Portuguese regiment, completely beat a corps of about 4000 infantry. The Portuguese troops again behaved remarkably well. It was already clear that, under good British officers, full reliance might be placed upon them. On their retreat the French were hotly pursued by two squa drons of dragoons, led by Brigadier General the Honourable Charles Stewart (now Marquess of Londonderry), who destroyed many, and took some prisoners.-Wellington Dispatches. + Brother to the Marquess of Anglesey. hours; but the Buffs got possession of an unfinished building called the Seminario, from which nothing could dislodge them; and, although cavalry, infantry, and artillery, under the command of Marshal Soult himself, were hurled against them, the Buffs most gallantly kept their position, till supported successively by the 48th and 66th regiments, belonging to the brigade of Major-General Hill, who crossed the river in fine style, by a Portuguese battalion, and afterwards by the first battalion of detachments. General Paget was wounded soon after the French attack commenced, when the command of these troops devolved upon General Hill.* While Hill was maintaining the combat at the Seminario, and giving ample occupation to Soult, General Sherbrooke, with the guards (one brigade) and the 29th regiment, crossed the river lower down, entered into the very town of Oporto, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants, charged the French through the streets, and presently appeared upon Soult's right flank. In the meantime General Murray had crossed the river at Avintas, about four miles higher up, and the head of his column now began to show itself on the French left. Soult instantly ordered a retreat, which was effected in the utmost confusion: he left behind his sick and wounded, and many prisoners, besides artillery and ammunition, and retired by Amarante, with the intention of passing through Tras-os-Montes into Spain. Thus the fair city of Oporto was left in possession of the British. The passage of the broad and rapid Douro, effected in broad day, with most defective means of transport, and in presence of a French marshal at the head of 10,000 veterans, has been considered one of Wellington's finest achievements. He had lost only 23 killed and 98 wounded. Soult's loss was very large, and the sick and wounded he left in Oporto amounted to 700. On taking possession of Oporto, General Wellesley issued a very necessary proclamation, strictly enjoining the inhabitants to respect the French wounded and prisoners. "I call upon the inhabitants of Oporto to be merciful to the wounded and prisoners! By the laws of war they are entitled to my protection, which I am determined to afford them; and it will be worthy of the generosity and bravery of the Portuguese nation not to revenge the injuries which have been done to them on these unfortunate persons, who can only be considered as instruments in the hands of the more powerful, who are still in arms against us." He also wrote immediately to Marshal Soult to request him to send some French medical officers to take care of their sick and wounded, as he could not spare his own army surgeons, and as he did not wish to trust to the practitioners of the *General Paget, who had behaved so nobly under Sir John Moore, lost his right arm at Oporto. "I cannot say too much in favour of the officers and troops. They have marched in four days over eighty miles of most difficult country, have gained many important positions, and have engaged and defeated three different bodies of the enemy's troops."-Sir Arthur's Dispatch to Viscount Castlereagh, in Colonel Gurwood, Wellington Dispatches. town of Oporto, who, whatever might be the amount of their humanity, were certainly not distinguished by professional skill. He assured Soult that his medical officers should be returned to him as soon as they had cured the wounded; and he proposed a cartel or mutual exchange of prisoners. Whatever Sir Arthur could do to diminish the horrors of war was done, and promptly. We firmly believe it to have been in the nature of Soult to respond on his part; but it was impossible for him to subdue or control the ferocity of some of the troops that were serving under him, and that were driven frantic by their reverses and sufferings, and the merciless attacks of the Portuguese peasantry, which could only be checked by the immediate presence of British forces, who could not be everywhere. Almost from the first commencement of the Spanish war there had been murmuring and discontent among the French troops, divisions and jealousies among the superior officers, and intrigues which embraced a very wide field, and which had many ramifications, some of which have never been explained or understood; while some are known to have originated in secret societies. A few days before gaining possession of Oporto, Sir Arthur Wellesley had obtained information from a French officer, or at least an officer in the French service (a Captain .... ...., himself one of the conspirators), that conspiracies existed in Soult's army. The English general did what he was justified in doing by the law and practice of war, and what no belligerent, having the means, ever neglected to do. On the 9th of May, Captain ...... was seized on his return to Oporto, after his last interview with Sir Arthur Wellesley. His papers were likewise seized, among which were found English passports, and the captain could not deny that he had had communications with the English general. It appeared that he had been endeavouring to gain over the French General ......, who, instead of entering into his views, revealed the secret to Soult. Captain......, at the persuasion of the officer of gendarmes who had charge of him, revealed the names of some of his fellow-conspirators, and they were seized likewise. Sir Arthur obtained the original orders for their seizure and confinement au secret. They were all marched away as prisoners after the evacuation of Oporto. But on the 13th of May, Captain ......, having fired at the officer of gendarmes who had induced him to reveal the names of his accomplices, escaped and came to Sir Arthur in Oporto. He reported that he had escaped by the advice of a colonel of dragoons, one of the principals of the conspiracy, who conceived that when he should be gone there would be no evidence against himself. The conspirators had intended nothing less than to seize Soult, and induce the other general officers to lead the army back into France.* This Captain..... It appears that this Captain ...... first got into communication with Sir Arthur Wellesley as early as the 25th of April, and at Lisbon, to which city he had gone secretly with Major Douglas, who was serv ing under General Beresford in the Portuguese army. He informed Sir Arthur that great discontent and dissatisfaction with the measures gave Sir Arthur very important information concerning Soult's movements and intentions; he showed him a paper very ably drawn up, as he said, by a French officer of high rank, which pointed out the different lines of retreat, and the line which Soult would prefer. He solemnly declared that the conspiracy in the French army still existed, and that, sooner or later, it must burst forth and fall heavily upon the head of the usurper; and he talked of the war in Spain as being odious to the army and to the whole French nation. Sir Arthur sent him to England and profited by his of Bonaparte prevailed throughout the French army, and particularly .... in the corps of Marshal Soult, which had suffered, and was still suffering, extreme distress; that a large portion of the officers of Soult's army were determined to revolt, and to seize the general, together with such of his principal officers as were supposed to be particularly attached to the interests of Bonaparte, if that army should be so pressed by the British as to oblige Soult to concentrate in situations chosen with a view to defence rather than with a view to the subsistence of the French troops. Captain earnestly asked for passports for himself and two other captains of Soult's army to go to France, where they wished to communicate with three general officers and with other persons dissatisfied with the existing order of things. Sir Arthur communicated with the British admiral and obtained the passports euabling the three French captains to go to France by sea. Sir Arthur, however, pledged himself no further, telling the conspirators that, though he wished them success, the line which he would take must depend upon circumstances. "Your lordship," said Sir Arthur, writing to Castlereagh," will observe that I have not thought it proper to discourage the disposition which appears to prevail among the French officers; at the same time that I have taken care not only not to pledge myself to any particular line of conduct, but that those concerned should understand that I do not consider myself pledged by anything that has passed. The successful revolt of a French army might be attended by the most extensive and important consequences; whereas their defeat, or what is a more improbable event, their sur render, would affect only local interests and objects, excepting that either of these events would add to the reputation of his majesty's arms."-Dispatch dated Lisbon, 27th April, in Colonel Gurwood, Wellington Dispatches. In a more private communication Sir Arthur assured Castlereagh that he fully believed in the intention of some of the French officers to revolt; that the existence of this intention was confirmed in his mind by the recollection of what had dropped from nearly every individual of Junot's army with whom he had conversed when in Portugal last year; but that he much doubted whether it would be quite so easy to carry the intention successfully into execution. He added, that he certainly should not count upon or wait for a revolt, but try his own means of subduing Soult. On his advance towards the Douro Sir Arthur saw the French captain again by night, and at a bivouac fire, on the road between Fornos and Martede. He was now informed that there were two parties in Soult's army: one, determined to seize him at all events: the other, who wished to seize him only in case of his declaring himself King of Portugal-a bold and strange design, of which both Marshalt Soult and his predecessor Junot were at different times suspected. Captain ...... said that, if Soult could only be induced to declare himself king, the whole army of Laborde and Loison would declare against him, and lead the army back into France. He proposed to Sir Arthur two plans: oue, that the English should endeavour to draw Soult into a snare by persuading some of the people in that part of the country to address him and invite him to declare himself king, and even that Sir Arthur himself should write to the marshal to recommend the same measure, as one most likely to pacify Portugal and Spain :-the other plan was, that Sir Arthur, who, as yet, was only at Coimbra, should make his dispositions, and attack Soult forthwith. To the first wild plan the English general replied, that he could have nothing to do with it, as it must deprive him of the confidence of the Portuguese. With respect to the attack, he told "our friend" that he would make it as soon as he could, but that the time must depend upon circumstances. According to a French authority some nobles, burghers, and priests had, during Soult's residence in Oporto, presented addresses in their own name and in the name of several Portuguese towns, inviting the marshal to put an end to the troubles of the country by declaring himself king of it under the [suzerainty of the Emperor Napoleon; Soult had accepted the invitation, with the proviso of the emperor's approbation; the marshal addressed to his generals of division a printed proclamation drawn up in this sense, which they were requested to put into the order of the day of the army; but the generals refused to do this, and wrote to acquaint Bonaparte, then in Germany, with this curious intrigue. According to the same authority, the officer that communicated with Sir Arthur Wellesley was the AdjutantMajor d'Argenton; and the ensemble of the great design of the conspirators was to make all the French troops in the Peninsula revolt against Bonaparte, bring back General Moreau, place him at the head of all those corps d'armée, and then invade France while Bonaparte should be contending on the Danube with the Archduke Charles, overthrow his throne and his whole system, and erect a republic or a free constitutional monarchic government.-Histoire Parlementaire de la Revolution Francaise. advice. He wrote to Beresford, who was at Villa Real with his Portuguese corps - "Keep Villa Real, if you can do so with safety, and depend upon my being close upon the heels of the French." When Soult reached Amarante he found that General Loison had abandoned the bridge there. This obliged him to change his route, and, marching by Guimaraens and Braga, he intended to make for Salamonde and Montealegre, and thence into Galicia, the part of Spain from which he had advanced in the early spring. But, on the evening. of the 16th of May, he was overtaken on the road near Salamonde by Sir Arthur, who cut up his rear-guard and took some prisoners. A good many of the French were killed and wounded, and a great many more of them were lost in crossing a narrow bridge over the Cabado, in the dark and in the hurry of their flight. On our side the Guards only were engaged. "We should have had the whole of Soult's rear-guard," says Sir Arthur, "if we had but had half an hour more daylight. ....I shall follow him to-morrow....He has lost every thing-cannon, ammunition, baggage, military-chest, and his retreat is, in every respect, even in weather, a pendant for the retreat to Coruña.” Thus speedily was Sir John Moore avenged on the French marshal who had pursued him. Soult, like Moore, had to retire through a mountainous country he left the road strewed with dead horses and mules, and with the bodies of French soldiers, who were put to death by the peasantry before the advance-guard of the British could come up and save them. The French, by their own conduct, had provoked this merciless retaliation. "Their soldiers," says Wellesley, "have plundered and murdered the peasantry at their pleasure; and I have seen many persons hanging in the trees by the sides of the road, executed for no other reason that I could learn, excepting that they have not been friendly to the French invasion and usurpation of the government of their country; and the route of their column on their retreat could be traced by the smoke of the villages to which they set fire."* The same horrible scenes occurred in all the subsequent retrograde movements of the French: the blessed fountains of mercy were dried up in the invaders and in the invaded. With troops that carried with them over the roughest roads artillery, baggage, and full equipments, Sir Arthur could not hope to come up with Soult with an army that had lightened itself by throwing away everything, and that depended for its provisions on plunder. He stopped his pursuit at Montealegre, a few leagues from the frontier of Spain, across which the French fled in irremediable disorder-in a state so crippled that they could do no harm, and might have been destroyed by Romana, But if that general had had any force at all. Romana, who ought to have met Soult on the borders of Galicia, was again "nowhere." Sir Arthur returned by Ruivaes, Braga, and * Dispatch to Viscount Castlereagh, dated Montealegre, 18th May, in Colonel Gurwood, Wellington Dispatches. S. Terso to Oporto, where he diligently applied | himself to the means of improving the commissariat; of fostering a kindly feeling between the British and Portuguese officers; of remedying the most crying distresses of the Portuguese people; and of obtaining the most accurate information as to the nature of the country and the state of the roads. It was while he was at Oporto that he learned that Mr. Frere had been superseded by his own brother the Marquess of Wellesley, whose appointment led, in course of time, to very important results. But by the 26th of May, the greater part of the British troops had crossed the Mondego, and all Sir Arthur's arrangements were completed for an advance into Spain, where he intended to co-operate with, or at least to receive some aid from, General Cuesta, who commanded the army of Estremadura, and who was said to have collected on the Guadiana from 40,000 to 50,000 men. Sir Arthur, The advanced guard of the British army entered Spain by Zarza-la-Mayor on the 2nd of July; and on the 8th Sir Arthur's headquarters were at Plasencia.* He had not come into Spain quite so strong as he could have wished; but he thought that, counting Craufurd's brigade, which was shortly expected, he should have nearly 20,000 rank and file of infantry, and about 3000 cavalry. Cuesta crossed the Tagus by the bridge of Almaraz, and effected his junction with Wellesley at Oropesa on the 20th of July; but the Spanish general was now found to have no more than 30,000 men, and these were, for the most part, discouraged by repeated defeats, and were lank, lean, and hungry besides. who now for the first time saw a Spanish army in the field, was but little satisfied with what he saw : there was a defective organization, very little discipline, and a proud and bigoted and jealous spirit, which foreboded no good fellowship with the English soldiery, who were, for the far greater part, Protestants, and, as such, heretics in the eyes of the Spaniards. Beyond the quality of courage (and that appears to have had its ebbs and flows), Cuesta had none of the qualities which constitute a general; he was ignorant, self-willed, and obstinate; and, although Wellesley calls him by no harsher name than that of "the old gentleman," it is quite evident that he thought him an old fool. The commencement of their intercourse was quite laughable: the old Spaniard received his ally with great etiquette and ceremony; but he would not con The general was much vexed by the delays and failures which had impeded his marching. He had expected to arrive in Spain ten or twelve days earlier. He writes on the 27th of June from Abrantes to Lord Castlereagh,-"Just to show you the uncertainty of all communications in this country, and probably the deficiencies of our com missariat, I shall mention that the money which arrived on the 15th at Lisbon, and was sent off immediately, did not arrive here till late on the 25th. It is the same with everything else. On the day I determined to move into Spain, I ordered everything that could be required for the army, and I have not had occasion to add to or alter the original order; yet the articles ordered are not yet arrived, notwithstanding that there is a water communication from Lisbon, and officers and others come up in five days. I believe much of this delay and failure is to be attributed to the want of experience of our commissariat; much to the want of money, and to our discredit in Portugal, on account of our large and long-owed debts; and something to the uncertainty and natural difficulties of all the communications in Portugal." descend to speak French with him, and, as Sir Arthur could not then talk Spanish, no conversation took place between them.* All the provisions that could be procured in the country were eaten up by Cuesta's people. At times, when Cuesta's camp abounded with provisions and forage, the British camp was so ill supplied that the men were reduced to half rations. The French," Wellesley says, can take what they like, and will take it, but we cannot even buy common necessaries." In vain appeals were made to the Spanish population, to the local authorities, to the juntas; Spanish inertness and prejudice, and, in some instances, a bias towards the French (for there was now a French party in some of the towns), all contributed to half starve the English army, which was ready and willing and able to pay liberally for whatever it wanted. There was, too, a notion among the victuallers, farmers, and tradespeople, that all the English were inordinately rich, and that it was proper and commendable to sell them the worst meat and drink at the highest possible prices. Between this Spanish greed, and the roguery of a part of our commissariat-which was not to be cured and made perfect in a day-excessive prices were paid for everything that was supplied to the army which had come into Spain to relieve it from the heavy yoke of France. When Wellesley first began his march, to enter the country and gave the hand to Cuesta, the French forces were thus disposed :-Marshal Victor, the nearest to the allied army, was in Estremadura, close to the borders of Portugal, with the first corps, numbering in the muster-rolls 35,000 men; General Sebastiani commanded the fourth corps, which was in La Mancha, and which counted about 20,000 men under arms; General Dessolles, with a division of reserve, and some of Joseph's guards (in all, 15,000 men), was at Madrid, taking care of the intrusive king; Kellermann and Bonnet were stationed in Old Castile, and on the borders of Leon and the Asturias, with two divisions that formed together 10,000 men: (all these corps and troops, forming a numerical total of 80,000 men, were considered as being immediately under the command of Joseph, who knew not how to command a troop of horse or a company of foot, but who was aided and assisted by Marshal Jourdan). Soult had collected the second corps in the northern provinces, hoping to be able to retrace his steps into Portugal with 20,000 men; and immediately dependent upon Soult were Marshal Mortier with the fifth corps, 16,000 strong, and Ney with the sixth corps, which also counted about 16,000 men under arms. Thus, Soult's force, in all, was about 52,000; and thus, in advancing into Spain, Sir Arthur, with none to aid him but the "old gentleman" and his 33,000 Spaniards, might come into collision with 132,000 French, the total of the two armies of King Joseph and Marshal Soult. But, besides all this mighty array, there were 50,000 Frenchmen in Aragon and Catalonia, under Suchet Letter from Sir Arthur to Mr. Frere. |