HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



183 



Berthier,amountedtoabout5,000. 

 The number of the Spaniards kill- 

 ed at the siege, was 1,500, and 

 500 wounded were left in the 

 liospitals. The French found at 

 Astorga 20 pieces of cannon and 

 two mortars. The loss of the 

 French, as stated by Junot, in all 

 the different encounters with the 

 enemy, both in Astorga and the 

 territory around it, was only about 

 160 killed and 400 wounded. The 

 Spaniards stated, probably with 

 equal exaggeration, that the loss 

 of the French in killed and wound- 

 ed was not less than ^jOOO. After 

 the fall of Astorga, and not a 

 little subsequent skirmishing with 

 the Guerillas, the 8th corps joined 

 that of marshal Ney, alias the 

 duke of Echlingen, before Ciudad 

 Rodrigo. 



Marshal Ney entertained a con- 

 siderable degree of apprehension 

 that general Junot, between whom 

 and himself there was not a good 

 understanding, might not co-ope- 

 rate with him for the reduction of 

 Ciudad Rodrigo with that cor- 

 diality and promptitude which cir- 

 cumstances demanded. In the 

 first week of May the half of 

 Ney's corps had already sat down 

 before that place, and for open- 

 ing trenches he only wanted to 

 know if the duke of Abrantes was 

 willing to aid him with the gar- 

 risons of Zamora and Toro, to re- 

 lieve his posts of communication, 

 and if it was his intention to 

 support him substantially in case 

 of need. But if the duke (Junot) 

 should not agree to any of these 

 propositions, then marshal Ney 

 was determined to undertake the 



siege alone, establishing his com- 

 munication by the Avila. Mar- 

 shal Soult (duke of Dalmatia) had 

 written a letter to Ney, April 30, 

 to send a strong party as far as the 

 Tagus for clearing his left. The 

 answer to this letter gives an 

 accurate idea of Ney's situation at 

 this period, and also conveys 

 some notion of that kind of irre- 

 gular and mountainous warfare, in 

 which the French were now in- 

 volved. Such a detachment as 

 was required, marshal Ney ob- 

 served, must be 1,500 men at least, 

 which he was not, at the present 

 moment, in a condition to spare, 

 as the whole of the troops under 

 his command scarcely sufficed to 

 cover the immense range they oc- 

 eupied. He was under the neces- 

 sity of detaching3,000 men as aux- 

 iliaries to the artillery train, for 

 guarding the ovens and magazines 

 he had constructed behind the line 

 of blockade, and protecting con- 

 voys from Salamanca. It was ne- 

 cessary to have a strong post at 

 St. Felix, for observing Almeida, 

 and a detachment on the left of 

 the Agueda to cut off all commu- 

 nication between that place and 

 the country around, and counter- 

 act the movements of the English. 

 The trenches, too, before Ciudad 

 Rodrigo, for the space of four days, 

 would require 4,000 men to work 

 at them ; on the whole, there 

 would not remain to hira more 

 than 12,000 men in camp ready 

 for fighting, if a battle should be- 

 come necessary. Yet, under all 

 these disadvantages, he was deter- 

 mined to go on with the siege, and 

 he hoped with success.* 



• Ney to Soult, Salamanca, 16tU of May, 1810. 



