History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5 (of 6)Southey, Robert
History
History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5 (of 6)
Southey, Robert
Peninsular War, 1807-1814
allies were doing what, he hoped, such men alone were capable of ...
plundering the British baggage? Was this true? It was not the Spanish
people he complained of; he gave them every credit; but he gave their
leaders none. If all this was so, or nearly so, were the British armies
to be risked so worthlessly? Were they to be abandoned to treachery or
cowardice? For in either or both must have originated the unnatural,
ungrateful, and infamous treatment they had met with.”
♦REMARKS ON THE FAILURE OF THE EXPEDITION.♦
Whatever error of judgment General Lapeña might have committed, the
charges thus brought against him and his army were as ill-founded as
they were intemperately urged. Instead of being cold-blooded spectators
of the battle, the main body of the Spaniards were four miles distant;
there was a thick wood between them and the scene of action, and they
were themselves actually engaged at the time. And it is worthy of
remark, that while invectives, which had no other tendency than to
produce a breach between England and Spain, were thus lavished upon the
Spaniards, by those politicians who would have had us abandon Spain
and Portugal to the tyrant’s pleasure, the French were endeavouring
to excite discontent between the two countries by accusations which
directly contradicted these aspersions. Marshal Victor affirmed in
his official account, that when he determined to attack the heights,
the Spaniards under Lapeña were at the time warmly engaged; the
cannonade and the fire of the musketry were extremely brisk, he said;
and with that falsehood which characterised the execrable system of
his government, he added, that the English, according to their custom,
had wished to place the Spaniards in the post of danger, and expose
themselves as little as possible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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