L. treat on wards Benavente was so directed, that he early inter- CHAP. cepted the British from their communication with Portugal; and if he could have reached the latter 1808. town before Sir John Moore, he would have cut him They reoff from the line of retreat to Galicia also, and ren- the line of dered the situation of the army all but desperate. Galicia. This catastrophe, however, was prevented by the prudent foresight of the English commander, who, having received vague but alarming accounts of the march of a large French army from the South, suspended his advance on the 23d, and on the 24th commenced his retreat towards Galicia, to the infinite mortification of the soldiers, who were in the highest state of vigour and spirits, and in whom an unbroken series of brilliant successes at the outposts had produced an unbounded confidence in their own prowess, likely, if not met by overwhelming odds, to have led to the most important and glorious results. On the 26th, Dec. 26. Baird's troops passed the Esla on their retreat, while Moore, who was with the rearguard to protect the passage of the stores and baggage over the bridge of Castro-Gonzalo, was threatened by a large body of Ney's horsemen. Lord Paget, however, with two squadrons of the 10th, charged and overthrew them, making a hundred prisoners, besides numbers killed and wounded. Indeed, the superiority of the English horse had become so apparent, that they set all odds at defiance, never hesitated to attack the enemy's1 Lond. i. cavalry, though threefold in number, and had already Nap. i. made five hundred prisoners, during the few days 462, 464. they had been engaged in active operations.1 By this timely retreat, Sir John Moore reached Benavente before the enemy; and the hazardous operation of crossing the Esla, then a roaring torrent VOL. VI. 3 H 247, 253. Tor. i. 188, 189. L. CHAP. Swoln by melting snow, and over planks laid across the broken arches of the bridge of Castro, in the dark, 1808. was successfully performed by General Craufurd with the rearguard. The army remained two days at that place, reposing from its fatigues, under the shelter of valry with its magnificent baronial castle, almost unequalled in Europe for extent and grandeur. Discipline, how Gallant action of light ca the enemy, and capture of Lefebvre Desnou ettes. * This splendid relic of feudal grandeur is thus described by an eloquent eyewitness, whose pictures, equally vivid in travels as history, have given to prose all the colours of poetry. "The Castle of Benavente is one of the finest monuments of the age of chivalry; nothing in England approaches to it in magnificence. Berkeley, Raby, even Warwick, are poor fabrics in comparison. With Gothic grandeur it has the richness of Moorish decoration; open alcoves where Saracenic arches are supported by pillars of porphyry and granite; cloisters with fountains playing in their courts; jasper columns, and tesselated floors; niches all over, and seats in the walls, over-arched in various forms, and enriched with every grotesque adornment of gold and silver, and colours which are hardly less gorgeous. It belonged to the Duke of Ossuna, and the splendour of old times was still continued there. The extent of this magnificent structure may be estimated from this single circumstance, that two regiments, besides artillery, were quartered within its walls; they proved the most destructive enemies that had ever entered them; the officers, who felt and admired the beauties of this venerable pile, attempted in vain to save it from devastation. Every thing combustible was seized; fires were lighted against the fine walls, and pictures of unknown value, the works, perhaps, of the greatest Spanish masters, were heaped together as fuel. Fortunately the archives of the family escaped."-SOUTHEY, i. 499. In the midst of this disgraceful scene of unbridled license and military devastation, there is one trait of heroic presence of mind, which in some degree redeems the character of the British soldier. Several thousand infantry slept in the long galleries of an immense convent built round a square; the horses of the cavalry and artillery, scarcely less numerous, were in the corridor below, so closely jammed together, that no one could pass between them, and there was but one entrance. Two officers, returning at night from the Bridge of Castro, being desirous of finding shelter for their men, entered the gate of this convent, and perceived with horror that a large window-shutter was on fire, and the flames were spreading to the rafters above, from whence a single spark falling on the straw under the horses would ignite the whole, and six thousand men and horses would inevitably perish. Without saying a word, one of them (Captain Lloyd of the 43d) made a sign to his companions to keep silence, and springing on the nearest horse, ran L. ever, had already become seriously relaxed during the CHAP. retreat, though only of three days' duration, from Sahagun; the spirit of the men had been surprisingly 1808. depressed by the thoughts of retiring before the enemy; the officers had, in a great degree, lost their authority, and disorders equally fatal to the army and inhabitants had already commenced. But these evils were accumulating only in the front part of the column, which was suffering merely under the fatigues of the march and the severity of the weather; no decline of spirit or enterprize was perceptible in the rearguard, which was in presence of the enemy. Pickets of cavalry had been left to guard the fords of the Esla; and, on the 28th, a body of six hundred horsemen of Dec. 28. the Imperial Guard crossed over, and began to drive in the rearguard, stationed in that quarter to repel their incursions. Instantly, these gallant horsemen made ready to oppose them, and though only two hundred in number, repeatedly faced about, and by successive charges, under Colonel Otway, retarded the advance of the enemy till assistance was at hand. At length the enemy having been drawn sufficiently far into the plain, the 10th, who were formed, concealed by some houses, suddenly appeared, and advanced to the assistance of their brave comrades. At the joy-1 Lond. i. ful sight of the well-known plumes, the retiring horsemen wheeled about, a loud cheer was given, and the 467, 468. whole bore down at full speed upon the enemy. The 189, 190. Imperial Guard, the flower of the French army,'127. along the backs of the others till he reached the flaming shutter, which by great efforts he tore from its hinges and flung into the court-yard without giving any alarm; which, in such circumstances, would have been hardly less destructive than the flames.-See Life of a Sergeant, p. 143; and NAPIER, i, 467. 253, 256. Nap. i. Tor. i. Larry, iii. * CHAP. wreathed with the trophies of Austerlitz, were in an L. instant broken and driven over the Esla, with the 1808. loss of a hundred and thirty killed, and seventy prisoners, among whom was their commander, General Lefebvre Desnouettes. The Emperor con tinues the pursuit to Astorga. Jan. 1, 1809. The The destruction of the bridge of Castro-Gonzalo was so thoroughly effected, that it delayed for two days the advance of the French, who could not cross the stream at other points from its swollen state; but at length, the arches having been restored, Bessières crossed on the 30th with nine thousand horsemen, and reached Benavente, which had been evacuated by the English on the same day. At the same time, the bridge of Mansilla, guarded by Romana's troops, was forced by a charge of cavalry, and Soult passing over, overspread the plains of Leon with his troops, and captured the town of the same name, with great stores belonging to the Spanish government. whole army, consisting of the guards, reserve, Soult's and Ney's corps, in all seventy thousand strong, including ten thousand horse, and a hundred pieces of cannon, were, on the 1st January, united by the Emperor at Astorga. The union of so great a force in that remote part of the Peninsula, was both the highest compliment that could be paid by that great general to the prowess of the English army, the important stroke delivered by its commander, and the strongest proof of the vigour and celerity with which, by long experience and admirable arrangements, the movements of the French troops could be effected. In ten days Napoleon had not only transported fifty thousand men from Madrid to Astorga, a distance of two hundred miles, but crossed the Guadarrama range * Ante, v. 481. 1 L. 1808. when enveloped in a frightful snow-storm, and the CHAP. torrent of the Esla when swoln by wintry rains; in each of which operations more than a day's march had been lost, so that the advanced posts of his army Tor. ii. at least had marched the astonishing number of twenty- 189, 190. five miles a-day when actually in motion, in the depth 256, 259. of winter; an instance of exertion almost unparalleled Pellet, in modern times. But they were there left by Na- 1809, i. 47, poleon.1 Lond. i. Guerre de 48. returns to On the road between Benavente and Astorga, when riding in pursuit at the gallop with the advanced posts, But thence he was overtaken by a courier with despatches; he in- Paris. stantly dismounted, ordered a bivouac-fire to be lighted by the roadside, and seating himself beside it on the ground, was soon so lost in thought as to be insensible to the snow which fell in thick flakes around him. He had ample subject for meditation; they contained authentic intelligence of the accession of Austria to the European Confederacy, and the rapid preparations which her armies were making for taking the field. On the spot, he wrote an order for calling into immediate activity the second levy of 80,000 conscripts authorized by the Senatus Consultum of 10th October preceding; and proceeding slowly and pensively on to Astorga, remained there for two days, writing innu * It has been greatly exceeded, however, in the same country in later times, though by a much smaller force. In December 1836, the Spanish General Gomez marched from the lines of St Roque in front of Gibraltar to Tudela on the Ebro: He left St Roque on the 24th November, and reached the Ebro on the 17th December, having repeatedly fought, and been driven to circuitous roads to avoid the enemy on the way. The distance was above 500 miles, performed in twenty-five days. There is no such instance of sustained effort in modern times. Septimius Severus marched from Vienna to Rome, a distance of 800 miles, in forty days, or twenty miles a-day; but he had the glittering prospect of the empire to animate his exertions.-See Ann. Reg. 1836, 379, 380, and GIBBON, ch. iv. |