Spaniards broke into cries--“The little fair boy!--Forward with the little fair boy!” and they tore through the abattis, and furiously charging the two French regiments drove them up the hill and over and hurried them into the embrace of General Kemp’s ascending brigade, who sent them waltzing with graceful velocity round the base of the hill. But although gallant example will almost always fix wavering resolve and give impetus and immediate decision to calculating courage, yet it but seldom succeeds in eliciting bravery out of cowardice. The surest criterion by which to judge of the gallantry and steadiness of the Spaniards during those operations is by reference to the casualties they suffered. It is true that a body of men may suffer great loss even in running away, but in the present instance there was no retreating; all was fighting forward; and when men advancing or standing still suffer severe loss, it is a certain proof of bravery and firmness. The loss of the enemy during these last combats was fourteen hundred men; and that of the allies, British, Portuguese and Spaniards, sixteen hundred; and of this number eight hundred were Spaniards. [Sidenote: INADEQUACY OF SPANISH OFFICERS.] Most persons who have written on the campaigns in the Peninsula represent the Spanish army as ragged, half-famished wretches; nor did I refrain from such epithets on seeing the miserable troops commanded by the Marquis Romana in the campaign of Sir John Moore; but on reflection no blame could be attached either to their immediate commanders or to the soldiers for their motley appearance. The scandal and disgrace were the legitimate attributes of the Spanish Government. The members of the Cortez and Juntas were entirely occupied in peculation, amassing wealth for themselves and appointing their relatives and dependents to all places of power and emolument, however unworthy and unqualified; and although it was notorious that shiploads of arms, equipments, clothing and millions of dollars were sent from England for the use and maintenance of the Spanish troops, yet all was appropriated to themselves by the members of the general or local governments or their rapacious satellites, while their armies were left barefoot, ragged and half-starved. In this deplorable state they were brought into the field under leaders many of whom were scarcely competent to command a sergeant’s outlying piquet; for in the Spanish army, as elsewhere, such was the undue influence of a jealous and covetous aristocracy, that, unsupported by their influence, personal gallantry and distinction, however conspicuous, were but rarely rewarded. This is a pernicious system, especially with an army in the field; for injustice and neglect powerfully tend to damp and dispirit the ardour even of the most zealous and devoted, and discourage that laudable ambition which is the lifespring in the breast of a true soldier.