William Francis Patrick Napier

“ The Portuguese guns had sent their shot amongst the thickest of Montbrun’s horsemen in the plain, but the latter passed the front ravine in half squadrons, and with amazing vigour riding up the rough height, on three sides, fell vehemently upon the allies. Neither the loose fire of the infantry, nor of the artillery, could stop them, but they were checked by the fine fighting of the cavalry, who charged the heads of the ascending masses, not once but twenty times, and always with a good will, thus maintaining the upper ground for above an hour. ”

“ Dear Sir,—I have received your letter of the 15th, and you will see by mine of the 17th, written as soon as I knew that your division and that of general Wilson were on Guarda, that I expected what happened, and that I wished you to withdraw from that position. In fact, troops ought not to be put in a strong position in which they can be turned if they have not an easy retreat from it; and if you advert to that principle in war, and look at the position of Guarda, you will agree with me that it is the most treacherous position in Portugal. ”

“ Cependant aujourd’hui l’armée de Portugal ne possède sur le nord du Tage, qu’un désert qui ne lui offre aucune espèce de moyens, ni pour les hommes ni pour les chevaux, et elle ne rencontre de la part des autorités de Madrid, que haine, qu’animosité. L’armée du centre, qui n’est rien, possède à elle seule un territoire plus fertile, plus étendu que celui qui est accordé pour toute l’armée de Portugal; cette vallée ne peut s’exploiter faute de troupes, et tout le monde s’oppose à ce que nous en tirions des ressources. ”

“ Then the soldiers eagerly [417] made themselves ready for a combat, so fiercely fought, so terribly won, so dreadful in all its circumstances, that posterity can scarcely be expected to credit the tale; but many are still alive who know that it is true.
The British general was so sensible of Phillipon’s firmness and of the courage of his garrison, that he spared them the affront of a summons, yet seeing the breach strongly entrenched, and the enemy’s flank fire, still powerful, he would not in this dread crisis, trust his fortune to a single effort. ”

“ Yet officers of all stations, followed more or less numerously by the men, were seen to start out, as if struck by a sudden madness, and rush into the breach, which yawning and glittering with steel, seemed like the mouth of some huge dragon belching forth smoke and flame. In one of these attempts, colonel Macleod of the forty-third, a young man, whose feeble body would have been quite unfit for war, if it had not been sustained by an unconquerable spirit, was killed. ”

“ Still, swarming round the remaining ladders, these undaunted veterans strove who should first climb, until all being overturned, the French shouted victory, and the British, baffled, but untamed, fell back a few paces, and took shelter under the rugged edge of the hill. Here when the broken ranks were somewhat re-formed the heroic colonel Ridge, springing forward, called, with a stentorian voice, on his men to follow, and, seizing a ladder, once more raised it against the castle, yet to the right of the former attack, where the wall was lower, and an embrasure offered some facility. ”

“ Wellington therefore changing his first plan, resolved to open a breach with his counter-batteries, which were not quite six hundred yards from the curtain, and then to storm the place without blowing in the counterscarp; in other words, to overstep the rules of science, and sacrifice life rather than time, for such was the capricious nature of the Agueda that in one night a flood might enable a small French force to relieve the place. ”

“ Let any man observe the wide extent of country he had to maintain; the frontiers fringed as it were with hostile armies, the interior suffering under war requisitions, the people secretly hating the French, a constant insurrection in the Ronda, and a national government and a powerful army in the Isla de Leon. Innumerable English and Spanish agents prodigal of money, and of arms, continually instigating the people of Andalusia to revolt; the coast covered with hostile vessels, Gibraltar sheltering beaten armies on one side, Cadiz on another, Portugal on a third, Murcia on a fourth ”

“ Si je correspond souvent avec le général Belliard, c’est que votre majesté est un général roi, et que je dois lui éviter des détails qu’un major-général lui soumet.
Aucun village d’Espagne n’a été réuni à la France, et l’empereur tient à ce que votre majesté ait en Espagne toute la considération qui lui est due. Tout depend encore du parti qu’on peut tirer de la nation. Ce qu’il y a de certain, c’est que les Anglais n’ont qu’un but ”

“ When Marmont brought his convoy into Ciudad, it would appear he had no intention of fighting, but tempted by the false position of the allies, and angry at the repulse of his cavalry on the Lower Azava, he turned his scouting troops into columns of attack. And yet he permitted his adversary to throw dust in his eyes for thirty-six hours at Guinaldo; and at Aldea Ponte his attack was a useless waste of men, because there was no local advantage offered, and he did not intend a great battle. ”

“ Now all armies come to the siege of a town with great advantages; for first the besieged cannot but be less confident than the assailants; they are a few against a many, and being on the defensive, are also an excised portion of their own army, and without news, which damps the fiery spirit. They are obliged to await their adversary’s time and attack, their losses seem more numerous, in proportion to their forces, because they are more concentrated, and then the wounded are not safe even in the hospitals. ”

“ Les guerrilles ont été hier aux portes de Valladolid, et il y à cinq a six jours que soixante dix Français ont été détruits à Villalon; la terreur s’est emparée de tous les esprits, et l’on croit que trois cent hommes ne suffisent pas pour faire paner un courrier: malgré cela, je parterai demain, escorté par deux cent hommes avec un convoi de prisonniers de Ciudad Rodrigo, donc le nombre n’est pas considérable, parcequ’ici on leur accorde la liberté moyennant une somme qu’on règle avec le général Kellermann pour les frais de la guerre. ”

“ L’armée du centre en Espagne est pleinement entièrement sous les ordres de votre majesté, le général Belliard ne doit point prendre le titre de major-général, mais celui que lui ont toujours attribué les ordres émanées de l’empereur, de chef d’état-major de l’armée du centre. Si votre majesté n’est pas content de ce général, je vous engage, sire, à en proposer un autre qui ait votre confiance. C’est à votre majesté, sire, qu’il appartient de suspendre, de renvoyer, de traduire même à des commissions militaires quand il y a lieu, les généraux et officiers de l’armée du centre ”

“ Further on, however, there was a wooded declivity, leading to the Mondego, and here, while the head of the troops was passing the river below, forty dragoons, sent up by Bacellar, the evening before, were pressed by the French, and galloped through the rear-guard of eight hundred infantry; these last seeing the enemy dismount to fire their carabines, and finding that the wet had damaged their own powder, fled also, and the French followed with hue and cry. ”

“ On pense que Valence ne se soumettra que par l’approche d’une armée, et après la prise de Tarragone le corps du général Suchet sera disponible.—Les affaires paroissent s’améliorer en Portugal, le duc d’Istrie va établir l’ordre dans le nord de l’Espagne. J’envoye mon aide-de-camp le colonel Le Jeune voir l’état des choses à Grénade, Malaga, Cadiz et Badajos. Je prie votre majesté d’avoir des bontés pour lui. L’empereur est en bonne santé, l’imperatrice est bientôt à terme, et nous esperons un roi des Romains. L’empereur affermit de plus en plus le grand empire. ”

“ Having now shewn the prudence of lord Wellington with respect to the campaign generally, it remains to consider the siege of Badajos, which has so often been adduced in evidence, that not skill but fortune plumed his ambitious wing; a proceeding indeed most consonant to the nature of man; for it is hard to avow inferiority, by attributing an action so stupendous to superior genius alone. A critical scientific examination would be misplaced in a general history, but to notice some of the leading points which involve the general conception will not be irrelevant. ”

“ On the other hand, the Peninsulars were cheered by seeing so powerful a monarch, as the czar, rise in opposition to Napoleon, and the English general found the principal basis of his calculations realized by this diversion. He had never yet been strong enough to meet eighty thousand French troops in battle, even under a common general; but his hopes rose when he saw the great warrior of the age, not only turning himself from the contest, but withdrawing from it a reserve of four hundred thousand veterans, whose might the whole world seemed hardly able to withstand. ”

“ The French general had however completed his batteries on the night of the 27th, and in the morning of the 28th they opened with a crashing effect. One magazine blew up in the bastion of Cervantes; all the guns in that of San Paulo were dismounted; the wall fell away in huge fragments before the stroke of the batteries, and from the Olivo, and from all the old French trenches, the guns and mortars showered bullets and shells into the place. ”

“ He had thrown a wide glance over the Peninsula, knew his true situation, had pointed out to the Spaniards how to push their war to advantage, while the French were thus concentrated in Estremadura, and at this period had a right to expect assistance from them; for Soult and Marmont were united at Badajos, the army of the north and the army of the centre were paralysed by the flight of the king, and this was the moment, when Figueras having been surprised by Rovira, and Taragona besieged by Suchet, the French armies of Catalonia and Aragon were entirely occupied with those places. ”

“ Ne pensez donc plus, monsieur le maréchal, à aller dans le midi et marchez droit sur le Portugal, si lord Wellington fait la faute de se porter sur la rive gauche du Tage.... Profitez du moment où vos troupes se réunissent pour bien organiser et mettre de l’ordre dans le nord. Qu’on travaille jour et nuit à fortifier Salamanque qu’on y fasse venir de grosses pièces, qu’on fasse l’équipage de siège; enfin qu’on forme des magasins de subsistances. ”

“ Si l’empereur ne trouvait pas convenable d’adopter ce système j’ose le supplier de me donner un successeur dans le commandement qu’il m’avait confié. J’ai la confiance et le sentiment de pouvoir faire autant qu’un autre, mais tout restant [562] dans la situation actuelle la charge est au-dessus de mes forces. De quelques difficultés que soit le commandement général, quelqu’imposante que soit la responsabilité qui l’accompagne, elles me paraissent beaucoup moindres que celles que ma position entraine en ce moment. ”

“ The resolution of the besieged seemed in no manner abated, and their communication with the sea, although partially under the French fire, was still free; the sea itself was covered with ships of war, overwhelming reinforcements might arrive at any moment, and Campo Verde with ten thousand men was daily menacing his rear. ”

“ Let any man, I say, consider this, and he will be convinced that it was no common genius that could remain unshaken amidst such difficulties; yet Soult not only sustained himself, but contemplated the most gigantic offensive enterprises, and was at all times an adversary to be dreaded. What though his skill in actual combat was not so remarkable as in some of his contemporaries; who can deny him firmness, activity, vigour, foresight, grand perception, and admirable arrangement? It is this combination of high qualities that forms a great captain. ”

“ To crown this absurd conduct, he assigned the charge of the breach entirely to the Spanish troops, and if Smith had not insisted upon posting the forty-seventh British regiment alongside of them, this alone would have ruined the defence; because hunger, nakedness, and neglect, had broken the spirit of those poor men, and during the combat general Copons alone displayed the qualities of a gallant soldier. ”

“ At ten o’clock, the castle, the San Roque, the breaches, the Pardaleras, the distant bastion of San Vincente, and the bridge-head on the other side of the Guadiana, were to have been simultaneously assailed, and it was hoped that the strength of the enemy would shrivel within that fiery girdle. But many are the disappointments of war. An unforeseen accident delayed the attack of the fifth division; and a lighted carcass, thrown from the castle, falling close to where the men of the third division were drawn up, discovered their array, and obliged them to anticipate the signal by half an hour. ”

“ This short campaign of the militia I have treated at length, because it produced an undue effect at the time, and because it shews how trifling accidents will mar the greatest combinations; for here the English general’s extensive arrangements for the protection of Beira were utterly disconcerted by the slow advance of Silveira on the one side, and the rapid retreat of general Alten on the other. ”

“ You will be then convinced that, so far from having wantonly assailed the character of general Junot, I have made no slight effort to stem the torrent of abuse with which he has been unjustly overwhelmed; and believe me, madam, that the estimation in which an eminent man will be held by the world is more surely to be found in the literature of different countries than in the fond recollection of his own family. ”

“ No troops can hope to maintain a fortress eventually, without the aid of a succouring army; their ultimate prospect is death or captivity. The besiegers on the contrary have a certain retreat, know the real state of affairs, feel more assured of their object, have hope of profit, and a secure [476] retreat if they fail, while the besieged faintly look for succour, and scarcely expect life. To this may be added that the inhabitants are generally secret enemies of the garrison as the cause of their own sufferings.
The number of guns and quantity of ammunition, in a fortress, are daily diminished ”