that the next morning-state of Cuesta’s army which has been preserved shows that regiment with only 300 men surviving out of two whole battalions[189]. If any of the infantry of the Spanish right wing escaped at all, it was partly owing to the fact that the two cavalry regiments in the centre of the line[190] showed a much better spirit than their comrades on the wings, and protected the flight of some battalions. Moreover a frightful thunderstorm swept over the plains late in the afternoon, darkened the whole horizon, and caused the French squadrons to halt and cease their pursuit. [186] Half-a-dozen French authorities speak of the wrath of the chasseurs as justifiable, because their comrades at Miajadas had been murdered (_égorgés_, or _lâchement assassinés_). But the Spaniards had killed them in fair fight. [187] Rocca, _Mémoires_, p. 82. [188] Ibid., p. 84. [189] See the Table in Arteche, vi. 476. [190] These were the hussar regiments ‘Volunteers of Spain’ and ‘Estremadura’ (late Maria Luisa). Cuesta says in his dispatch that they saved the battalions of Merida, and Provincial of Badajoz, which had been surrounded and nearly cut off. [Illustration: BATTLE OF MEDELLIN MARCH 28TH 1809] The slaughter, nevertheless, had been terrible. Of the 10,000 men whom the Spaniards lost on this fatal day three-fourths fell by the edge of the sword: only 1,850 prisoners were sent back to Talavera, and even if some others had succeeded in escaping during their march to the rear, it is certain that the Spanish casualty-list amounted to at least 7,500 men. Nine standards were taken--less than might have been expected, for the twenty-three Spanish battalions present must have brought forty-six to the field. Twenty pieces of artillery fell into the hands of the French, out of the thirty which Cuesta had possessed. Some few batteries therefore (perhaps the horse artillery of the evasive cavalry brigades) had succeeded in escaping from the rout. Most French authors unite in stating that the total loss on their side was only 300 men[191]. This figure is as absurd as that given for Soult’s losses at Corunna: there were five hours of fighting, and for a long time the battle had gone by no means in favour of Victor’s men. It is improbable that they suffered less than 1,000 casualties, and the figure may have been higher, for one brigade of Latour-Maubourg’s dragoons was beaten back while charging guns--always a bloody business for cavalry--while the German battalions which retired across the plain in column, played on by artillery and harassed by skirmishers, must also have suffered severely.