XV.

1809. January.

Jan. 3.

CHAP. The troops, therefore, were hurried on: the artillery and head-quarters went foremost; General Baird's column, and the cavalry, under Lord Paget, covered the rear. The advanced guard of the enemy, under General Colbert, were close at their heels: Merle's division joined them on the 3d, and on the afternoon of that day they ventured to attack the rear-guard at Cacabelos. They were repulsed by the dragoons and riflemen. General Colbert received a ball in his forehead, and fell; he was an officer of great promise, and of so fine a person, that Canova is Isaid to have called him the modern Antinous. Having thus once more shown the enemy what they could do in battle, the rear of the army, reluctantly and almost broken-hearted, continued their retreat.

Retreat continued

Franca.

From Villa Franca to Castro is one continued from Villa ascent up Monte del Cebrero for about fifteen miles, through one of the wildest, most delightful, and most defensible countries in the world. The road is a royal one, cut with great labour and expense in the side of the mountain, and following all its windings; for some part of. the way it overhangs the river Valcarce, a rapid mountain stream, which falls into the Burbia near the town, and afterwards joins the Sil, to pass through the single outlet in the gorge of the Bierzo. Oaks, alders, poplars, hazels, and chestnuts grow in the bottom, and far up the side of the hills the apple, pear, cherry, and mulberry are wild in this country; the wild olive, also, is

XV.

1809.

January.

found here; and here are the first vineyards CHAP. which the traveller sees on his way from Coruña into the heart of Spain. The mountains are cultivated in some parts even to their summits, and trenches are cut along their sides, for the purpose of irrigating them. Even those writers whose journals were written during the horrors of such a flight noticed this scenery with admiration. It was now covered with snow: .. there was neither provision to sustain nature, nor shelter from the rain and snow, nor fuel for fire, to keep the vital heat from total extinction, nor place where the weary and foot-sore could rest for a single hour in safety. All that had hitherto been suffered was but the prelude to this consummate scene of horrors. It was still attempted to carry on some of the sick and wounded: the beasts which drew them failed at every step; and they were left in their waggons, to perish amid the snow. "I looked round," says an officer, “when we had hardly gained the highest point of those slippery precipices, and saw the rear of the army winding along the narrow road. . I saw their way marked by the wretched people who lay on all sides expiring, from fatigue and the severity of the cold:

their bodies reddened in spots the white surface of the ground." The men were now desperate excessive fatigue, and the feeling of the disgrace there was in thus flying before the enemy, excited in them a spirit which was almost mutinous: . . a few hours' pause was what they desired, an opportunity of facing the French, the

XV.

1809.

January.

CHAP. chance of an honourable and speedy death, the certainty of sweetening their sufferings by taking vengeance upon their pursuers. A Portugueze bullock-driver, who had faithfully served the English from the first day of their march, was seen on his knees amid the snow, with his hands clasped, dying in the attitude and act of prayer. He had at least the comfort of religion in his passing hour. The soldiers who threw themselves down to perish by the way-side gave utterance to far different feelings with their dying breath: shame and strong anger were their last sentiments; and their groans were mingled with imprecations upon the Spaniards, by whom they fancied themselves betrayed, and upon the generals, who chose rather to let them die like beasts than take their chance in the field of battle. That no horror might be wanting, women and children accompanied this wretched army: . . some were frozen to death in the baggage-waggons, which were broken down, or left upon the road for want of cattle; some died of fatigue and cold, while their infants were pulling at the exhausted breast: .. one woman was taken in labour upon the mountain; she lay down at the turning of an angle rather more sheltered than the rest of the way from the icy sleet which drifted along; . . there she was found dead, and two babes, which she had brought forth, struggling in the snow: . . a blanket was thrown over her, to cover her from sight, . . the only burial which could be afforded, . . and the infants were

XV.

given in charge to a woman who came up in one CHAP. of the bullock-carts,.. to take their chance for surviving through such a journey.

1809. January.

Treasure

While the reserve were on this part of the road, they met between thirty and forty waggons abandoned. filled with arms, ammunition, shoes, and clothing, from England, for Romana's army. There was no means of carrying them back; . . such things as could be made use of were distributed to the soldiers as they passed, and the rest were destroyed. Indeed, the baggage which was with the army could not be carried on: nearly an hundred waggons, laden with shoes and clothes, were abandoned upon this ascent. The dollars, too, could no longer be dragged along: had the resolution of sacrificing them been determined upon in time, they might have been distributed among the men: in this manner, great part might have been saved from the enemy, and they who escaped would have had some little compensation for the hardships which they had undergone.. they were now cast over the side of the precipice, in hopes that the snow might conceal them from the French: .. many men are supposed to have been lost, in consequence of having dropped behind, for the hope of recovering some of this money. Dreadful as this march appeared to those who beheld the wreck of the army strewing its line of road, it was perhaps still more so for them who performed it in a night stormy and dark, wading through sludge and snow, stumbling over the bodies of beasts and

VOL. II.

L L

XV.

CHAP. men, and hearing, whenever the wind abated, the groans of those whose sufferings were not yet terminated by death.

1809

January.

The army collects at Lugo.

From the summit of this mountain to Lugo is nearly twelve leagues. There are several bridges upon the way, over glens and gills, which might have impeded the pursuit, had they been destroyed. One, in particular, between Nogales and Marillas, is the most remarkable work of art between Coruña and Madrid. This bridge, which is called Puente del Corzul, crosses a deep ravine: from its exceeding height, the narrowness of its lofty arches, and its form, which, as usual with the Spanish bridges, is straight, it might at a little distance be mistaken for an aqueduct. Several of those of ficers who knew the road relied much upon the strength of the ravine, and the impossibility that the French could bring their guns over, if the bridge were destroyed. Grievous as it was to think of destroying so grand a work, its destruction was attempted; but, as in most other instances, to no purpose; whether the pioneers performed their office too hastily, or because their implements had been abandoned upon the way.

The different divisions had been ordered to halt and collect at Lugo. Sir John Moore was now sensible of the impossibility of reaching Vigo,.. the distance was double that to Coruña, the road was said to be impracticable for artillery, and the place itself offered no advan