SWABEY DIARY. 487 
all articles of import in this country and in Spain, is very great, and 
even since last year these articles have fallen; so certain and secure 
are the blessings of peace, and so advantageous the two years repose 
that this part of Portugal has now enjoyed. 
7th December.—I am obliged once again to cry shame against the 
regulations for the transport of the sick. The unfortunate beings 
more fit for their death-beds than for being moved from one place to 
another, are daily passing through here from Celorico to Coimbra on 
cars without springs, every jolt of which is sufficient to fracture a 
limb; others dying are left neglected and unpitied by the road side, 
two hundred probably having only one hospital mate to dress their 
wounds or minister to their diseases. I caught an infamous Portu- 
guese bullock driver, the lowest coward perhaps in creation, beating 
with a stick an unfortunate wounded soldier who had spilt his blood 
for the villain at Burgos, because he was too helpless to dismount from 
the car to walk up a hill. I need not add that the revenge I took on 
the miscreant was ample and severe. I actually beat him till I could 
not stand over him. 
The officers and escorts with these parties are too small and too 
inhuman for their duty. Pity and humanity are, I fear, neither allied 
to the modern hero nor his regulations. Lord Wellington, when the 
sick of his army are mentioned, hastily replies that he wishes never to 
hear but of effective men. Jivery day the effects of the retreat begin 
to shew themselves in the deaths of hundreds. 
It is but just to Lord Wellington to quote here the following 
incident (f.4.W.) :— 
“ As I think you will be amused and interested by an authentic 
anecdote of Lord Wellington, I will tell it to you. It comes 
from his aide-de-camp, Major Gordon,’ who brought over the 
account of the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo. 
“Some little time ago, when a party of officers were dining with him, 
one of them happened to say that he had just returned from 
a place where a post of our soldiers were stationed, and that a 
considerable number of sick were without shelter, and ex- 
posed to the severity of the weather. When the party broke 
up Lord Wellington ordered his horse and set off with Gordon. 
They rode to the post in question, about 30 miles® off, and 
arrived there about midnight. They found a great number 
of sick lying in the open air. 
“Lord Wellington immediately knocked up the commanding 
officer, and asked why the men were left in such a condition. 
He said ‘there was no accommodation for them in the place.’ 
1 © T have already seen enough of the unfortunate sick of this army to authorize the conviction 
that there is great room for improvement in the arrangements for the sick, and that more medical 
aid is much required. Humanity and policy equally dictate the necessity of care and tenderness 
towards sick men. J fear in many cases both have been wanting.” ‘Letters of Sir Augustus 
Frazer,” Coja, 21st January, 1813, p. 53. 
2 Lieut.-Colonel Sir A. Gordon, K.C.B., was killed at Waterloo. 
3 Probably this distance is incorrectly given, they could hardly haye ridden 60 miles during the 
night ; possibly it should be 13 miles,—(¥.4.w.). 
