18 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



ed who are guilty of similar enor- 

 mities. But he considers that 

 there would be no need of pro- 

 ceeding to such extremities, if the 

 officers did their duty : as it is 

 chiefly from their negligence, and 

 the want of proper regulations in 

 the regiments, that crimes and ir- 

 regularities are committed in quar- 

 ters and upon the march.'' It was 

 not, it may be fairly presumed, 

 any ordinary degree of irregula- 

 rity and excess that drew from the 

 commander in chief such heavy 

 and repeated censures. — Sir John, 

 in a letter dated at Benevento, 27th 

 December, ISOS, tells the Marquis 

 of Romana, that *' The people of 

 that part of Spain seemed to be 

 less well-disposed than those he 

 had hitherto met with. Some of 

 the corregidors and alcaids had of 

 late run away from the towns, 

 which had been the unavoidable 

 cause of irregularities having been 

 committedby thetroops, "for,"says 

 Sir John, " when the magistrates are 

 not present to give regularly, the 

 soldier must take, and this pro- 

 duces a mischievous habit." From 

 the time that our army turned fiom 

 Sahagun, their footsteps were 

 marked with robbery and insolence 

 to the inhabitants: wiiich was ag- 

 gravated by the want of both par- 

 ties understanding each others' lan- 

 guage. 



Our soldiers detested and des- 

 pised the Spaniards for refusing to 

 open their doors to the allies and 

 defenders of their beloved Ferdi- 

 nand. They were disappointed 

 and soured at retreating from the 

 approach of the enemy : and this 

 they attributed to the cowardly con- 

 duct of the Spaniards,by whom they 

 considered themselves to have been 

 betrayed. The Spanish peasantry 



and villagers, again, poor, and des- 

 titute of every thing beyond mere 

 necessaries, were but ill disposed 

 to share their pittance with men 

 whom they hated, and even ab- 

 horred as heretics, whom they 

 dreaded as guests, and whom 

 they now conceived to be aban- 

 doning them to all the fury 

 of an enraged enemy. Such 

 wants and sentiments on either 

 side, engendered all the bitter- 

 ness wliich marked the inter- 

 course of the two nations dur- 

 ing the remainder of the cam- 

 paign. 



Before Sir John Moore quitted 

 Benevento, about 5 or 60Q 

 of Buonaparte's imperial cavalry 

 crossed a ford below the town, 

 and attacked the English pickets, 

 who immediately assembled to the 

 amount of 220 men under briga- 

 dier general Stewart, retired slow- 

 ly, disputing every inch of ground, 

 and repeatedly charging through 

 the enemy's squadrons, till the ar- 

 rival of Lord Paget with the 10th 

 hussars ; who, together with the 

 pickets, drove the enemy into the 

 river, killing or wounding 55, and 

 taking 70 prisonerss among whom 

 was the young general Le Febre, 

 commander of Buonaparte's impe- 

 rial guard. Buonaparte is said to 

 have viewed the action from a lofty 

 hill, about a league from Bene- 

 vento. 



Here Sir John Moore detached 

 general Crauford with 3,000 cho- 

 sen troops on the road to Orense. 

 Had he neglected this precaution, 

 Buonaparte might have sent a 

 light corps by this road, headed 

 the British columns, and obstruct- 

 ed their retreat. Besides, there 

 was great reason to apprehend that 

 the whole army could not have 



been 



