Mendizabal and two other generals, La Carrera and Carlos de España, got away, under cover of the battalions which forced their passage through toward the west. In all about 2,500 infantry escaped into Badajoz[75], and a somewhat smaller number towards Portugal[76]. The rest were destroyed--only 800 or 900 had been killed or wounded, but full 4,000 were taken prisoners, along with seventeen guns--the entire artillery of the army--and six standards. The French loss, though under-estimated by Soult in his dispatch at the ridiculous figure of 30 killed and 140 wounded, was in truth very small--not exceeding 403 in all. It fell almost entirely on the cavalry--who had done practically the whole of the work. The regimental returns show that only four officers in the infantry were killed or wounded, to thirteen in the mounted arm. In proportion this battle was more disastrous to the vanquished and less costly to the victors than even Medellin or Ocaña. It is difficult to write with patience of the culpable negligence of Mendizabal, in allowing himself to be surprised in such a position, when he was amply provided with cavalry, or of the conduct of the Spanish and Portuguese horse in abandoning their infantry without striking a single blow, when even a show of resistance might at least have given their comrades time to save themselves. For the battalions on the heights could have escaped into Badajoz, or even have retreated along the Guadiana without desperate loss, if they had been granted an hour’s respite: while if the French cavalry could have been detained till the infantry battle on the heights was decided, it is quite clear that Mendizabal in his splendid fighting position, and with double numbers, could have held his own and driven off the attack of the nine battalions of Mortier. [75] The statement that only a few men escaped into Badajoz is disproved by the figures of the surrender-rolls of March 11th, which show 1,108 men of La Carrera’s division, 554 of Virues’s division, and 995 of battalions of Garcia’s division which had not been told off to the regular garrison, as laying down their arms. [76] There escaped into Portugal, beside the cavalry, the greater part of the regiments La Union from Garcia’s division, Rey and Princesa from that of Virues, Vittoria from that of La Carrera, and fragments of Zamora, and 1st of Barcelona. The whole, reorganized into new battalions, made a weak brigade of 1,800 men under Carlos de España in April. [Illustration: BADAJOZ. The French Siege (Jan.-March 1811), & the Battle of the Gebora (Feb. 19th 1811).]