498 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



wounded ; but stating, that he 

 could not answer upon the other 

 demands contained in my letter, 

 having been obliged to refer them 

 to the commander in chief. 



Since the receipt of this letter, 

 Mr. Dillon, the assistant commis- 

 sary, has arrived from Talavera, 

 having been taken prisoner near 

 Cevolla on the 27th of July, pre- 

 vious to the action, and having 

 been allowed to come away. He 

 reports that the British officers and 

 soldiers, who are wounded, are do- 

 ing remarkably well, and are well 

 fed and taken care of; indeed, he 

 says, preferably to the French 

 troops. 



I propose to send colonel Wal- 

 ters with another flag of truce, to- 

 morrow morning, and a letter to 

 the commander in chief of the 

 French army, requesting that a 

 sura of money which 1 shall send 

 may be given to the officers; and I 

 shall endeavour to establish a car- 

 tel of exchange, as soon as possible. 

 —I have the honour to be, &c. 



Arthur Wellesley. 

 Lord Viscount Castlereagh, Sfc. Sfc. 



Truxillo, August 21, 1809. 

 My lord — when 1 marched from 

 Talavera on the 3rd instant, with a 

 view to oppose the French corps 

 which we had heard had passed 

 through the Puerto de Banos, and 

 had arrived at Placencia, sir Ro- 

 bert Wilson was detached upon the 

 left of the army, towards Esca- 

 lona; and before I marched on 

 that morning, I put him in commu- 

 nication with the Spanish general 

 Cuesta, who it had been settled 

 was to remain at Talavera. I un- 

 derstood that geneial Cuesta put 

 sir Robert in communication with 



his advanced guard, which retired 

 fromTalavera on the night of the 4th. 



Sir Robert Wilson, however, did 

 not arrive it Valada till the night 

 of the ^th, having made a long 

 march through the mountains ; and 

 as he was ttien six leagues from the 

 bridge of Arzo Bispo, and had to 

 cross the high road from Oropesa 

 to Talavera, of which the enemy 

 was in possession, he conceived 

 that he was too late to retire to 

 Arzo Bispo, and he determined to 

 move by Venta St. Julien and Cen- 

 tinello towards the Tietar.and across 

 that river towards the mountains 

 which separate Castille from Estre- 

 madura. 



Some of sir Robert Wilson's dis- 

 patches having missed me, I am 

 not aware by which of the passes 

 he went through the mountains, 

 but I believe by Tornavacas. He 

 arrived, however, at Banos on the 

 11th, and on the 12th was attack- 

 ed and defeated by the French 

 corps of marshal Ney, which, with 

 that of Soult, returned to Placen- 

 cia on the 9th, 10th, and lllh, 

 that of Ney having since gone on 

 towards Salamanca. 



I enclose sir Robert Wilson's ac- 

 count of the action. He has been 

 very active, intelligent, and useful, 

 in the command of the Portuguese 

 and Spanish corps with which he 

 was detached from this army. 



Before the battle of the 28th of 

 July, he had pushed his parties al- 

 most to the gates of Madrid, with 

 which city he was in communica- 

 tion ; and he would have been in 

 Madrid, if I had not thought pro- 

 per to call him in, in expectation 

 of that general action which took 

 place on the 28th of July. He af- 

 terwards alarmed the enemy on the 



right 



