FACTS AND FICTION, 27 



objects from a coloured glass, and lose tlieir real value. 

 We have enough of it in England, and may thence judf^-e. 

 For instance, the Englishman leans back in his chair 

 with the most perfect confidence that English soldiers are 

 the best in the world, and at any rate that one Englishman 

 can beat two Frenchmen. But cross the Channel and the 

 picture is reversed, as the Frenchman thinks just the same 

 of liis soldiers. " But let facts speak," say you. *' Out 

 with them," says he, " and you will see how it is directly. 

 Bah ! to talk of the English army ; c^est hetise : you can 

 hardly say you have an army : 50,000 men . why it is but a 

 division of the grande armee of France. And then Wel- 

 lington, toujours Wellington — poh ! a decent general officer, 

 voila tout I " You refer to facts, i. e. French facts ; and what 

 do you find ? Why, that many battles which we claim, 

 they claim also; and that where the victory cannot be dis- 

 puted, they say we were five against one. On the column 

 of victory in Paris are inscribed the names of Salamanca, 

 Talavera, Toulouse, and others of our victories in Spain, 

 — so many indeed, that I only wonder some wag has not 

 added the name of Waterloo. In a history of the French 

 army now before me, we are described as being 80,000 to 

 35,000 at Salamanca ; three to one at Vittoria, and five to 

 one at the Nivelle. At Orthes we are said to have been 

 beaten ; Badajoz and St. Sebastian are passed over in 

 silence ; and Wellington is charged with expressly permitting 

 all kinds of " caimibalic" excesses in Spain, notwithstanding 

 the Gurwood dispatches. It is amusing to read the minute 

 details of battles with the Austrians, Prussians, and even 

 the poor Spaniai'ds who could not fight at all, and the little 



