552 
the town of Talavera, and hutted in a 
wood alittle to its lett. Here our most 
honourable confederates amused them- 
selves, by dragging, through: the streets 
the body of a Frenchman, whom they 
had accidentally killed in the preceding 
skirmish :—this, I suppose, is chivalry ! 
. The town of Talaveta I did not enter; 
but it has an external appearance of 
grandeur, far surpassing any other place 
I have seen in Spain: part of it is, I fear, 
ere this, in ashes; as; when the French 
retired from -it this afternoon, immense 
confiagrations were seen in the suburbs 
leadive to Madrid. 
23d. The King of France, -with twenty thou- 
sand men, 
Marched out to fight, and then, marched 
back again: 
So did Sir Arthur Wellesley. The French, 
it was known, had taken up a position on 
the opposite side of a small fordable 
river, which, about four miles from 
Talavera, intersects the road leading to 
Madrid :.against. this position, our army 
advanced ; nothing doubting but that an 
action would immediately take place, 
and fully anticipating a glorious result.— 
Having taken it,for granted that the po- 
sition, and strength of the enemy, had 
been accurately ascertained : after wait- 
ing, however, for an hour or more, ina 
wood near to the before-mentioned 
brook, our colamn was suddenly coun- 
termanded, and the advanced division 
retreated about two miles to the neigh- 
bourhood of a ruined convent; whilst 
the main body of our army returned to’ 
Talavera. For this movement, so tan- 
ta:ising to the spirit amd expectations of 
our army, various reasons have been sur- . 
mised ; ‘and, amongst others, the follow- 
ing:—1. That Sir Arthur Wellesley, or 
the persons appointed by him, had not 
sufficiently reconnoitred the enemy’s 
position. 2. That the said enemy 
proved to be in greater force than was 
expected: and, 3dly, that Cuesta, and 
his army, were not ready to attack. 
That something like a reconnoitre had 
taken place, the following anecdote will 
testify, as 1¢ will also shew the estima- 
tion in which the Spaniards are held by the’ 
French:—An English officer of engineers, 
whilst employed upon his duty,was observ- 
ed by a Frenchman, who immediately ap- 
* plied his hand to his hat, and madéa’ 
respectful bow : two Spanish oficérs just” 
afterwards came in sight, when the same | 
hand was instaitaneously and’ coutemp- 
tuously applied to his most ignobie part. 
The validity of the second reason, time 
Journal of an Officer, belonging fo ihe 
[Nov. 3, 
will shew ;- and if we wait till the third 
objection is removed, we may wait (in 
my opinion) till time shall be no more. 
24th, The mountain: that was in 
labour, has at length brought forth its 
mouse, Our leaders this day sunimoned 
fresh resulution, and- again advanced: 
but the bird was flown. Victor knew: 
our force better than we did his; had 
consequently amused us with a vast pa- 
rade of troops, and made good a retreat 
in the night... As Sterne says, “they 
certainly manage these things better in 
France.” Well, we now dashed through 
the river, and ascended the terrible 
height: which was to. have hurled de- 
struction on usvall; 
ought to have attacked them on the pre- 
ceding day, ou each flank, as well as in 
front; and had we done so, there can be 
little doubt but we should have taken, or 
destroyed, at least two-thirds of Vietor’s 
fifteen or eighteen thousand men ; and this 
with very ‘inconsiderable loss. to OurF- 
selves, 
On this small eminence, the Frenidh 
had built, and left entire, a beautiful 
town of temporary huts, the completest 
of the kind I ever beheld; and, ‘amongst 
other buiidings, a neat and commodious 
theatre. We continued our route, and 
alittle beyond the village of Casselagos, 
found the bodies’ of two Spanish pea- 
sants, who had not long been dead: one 
of elie was shot through the heart ; the’ 
other had been burnt to death, and lay 
with his arms lifted up, his fists clenched, 
and his face distorted in all the expres- 
sions of horror, which the poor wretch, 
in the agonies of such a death, must ne- 
cessarily have exhibited. On this day, 
a French captain of cavalry, and three or 
four private men, were taken prisoners — 
by our light dragoons; about a leagae 
beyond Casselagos, we went a little out 
of our direct road, and forded a river for 
the convenience "OF a ‘sheltering wood, 
where we constructed our abodes, and 
where I learnt that the twe Spaniards ‘had 
been killed by the French, in the man- 
ner I have described, in consequence of 
having been met ee arms in their’ 
hands. In’ this situation we continued 
two days, suffering greatly from tempes- 
tuous weather, and want of every species _ 
of food ; far, to the cr edit of our illustrious” : 
commander, and his commissaries, they 
religiously obey tliat portion of a 
which enjoins’ ‘them to’ “take no thought — 
for the morrow;” and in trath, it would. be 
sound policy in us all, to comfort our-— 
selves with the doctrine that * sufficient 
but the truth is, we | 
