days to unite on the centre, and five days to concentrate on either extremity.'-p. 273.

The

Here is, again, one of those statements of which there are so many in Colonel Napier's work, calculated to mislead rather than to instruct the reader. The words flanks and wings are not used here in their proper and ordinary military signification, and our author's object evidently is, to represent the French army as being more separated and disjointed, and consequently less easily to be assembled to act on the defensive than was in fact the case. order (which is found in General Riccard's register) for General Mermet to move forward the infantry and artillery of his division from Oporto and Villa Novo, is dated on the 8th of May only; at which time no more than one battalion of the 31st regiment was so far advanced as Grijaó. And when Mermet was ordered forward, he was at the same time directed to be prepared for a movement to have a supply of provisions on hand-and to have all the spare carriages collected which he could procure in the country where he was. The troops between the Douro and the Vouga occupied, therefore, merely a temporary post of observation, and did not form the wing or the flank of an army in position.

We come now to the passage of the Douro-the first important achievement which took place after Sir Arthur Wellesley's return to the Peninsula. We have already alluded to the excuse which Colonel Napier finds for Marshal Soult's surprise in the intrigue hatched amongst some of his officers: which intrigue, be it observed, had been disclosed, and the principal agent in it imprisoned, three days ere the British General appeared before Oporto. Our author finds also another excuse-which can hardly be admitted, however, but at the expense of some portion of the French Marshal's professional ability, as well as his local knowledge.

'The Duke of Dalmatia's attention was now principally directed," says Colonel Napier, 'to the river in its course below the city; for the reports of his cavalry led him to believe that Hill's division had been disembarked at Ovar from the ocean; and he expected that the empty vessels would come round to effect a passage at the mouth of the Douro.' -pp. 280, 281.

Even supposing Marshal Soult to have given credit to these reports of his cavalry, if indeed such reports were really made, he must have been aware that the empty transports could not approach the entrance of the Douro unobserved that the bar, and the fort at the mouth of the river, would occasion some delay in their entrance-and that even when all other obstacles should be overcome, the passage of troops across the river by transports could not be a very rapid operation. But independently of all this, how is it possible to believe that Marshal Soult could regard the

the part of the river below Oporto as the quarter most requiring to be attended to, when he had already made all his preparations for effecting his retreat in the opposite direction by Valonga ; which retreat could be disturbed only by the enemy passing at Oporto or above it?

Colonel Napier proceeds to give an account of Sir Arthur Wellesley's passage of the Douro.

'The ultimate object of the campaign, and the immediate safety of Beresford's corps, alike demanded that the Douro should be quickly passed. But how force the passage of a river, deep, swift, more than three hundred yards wide, and with ten thousand veterans guarding the opposite bank! Alexander the Great might have turned from it without shame!'-pp. 281, 282.

We do not know whether our author intends this passage as a compliment to the Douro at the expense of the Indus, or as a compliment to the British General at the expense of the Macedonian monarch. Happily, however,

' A poor barber, evading the French patroles, had during the night come over the water in a small skiff. Colonel Waters, a staff-officer, a quick, daring man, discovered this, and aided by the barber, and by the prior of Amarante, who gallantly offered his services, immediately passed the river, and in half an hour returned unperceived with three large barges. Meanwhile eighteen pieces of artillery were got up to the convent of Sarea, and Major-General John Murray was directed, with the German brigade, some squadrons of the 14th dragoons, and two guns, upon the Barca de Avintas, three miles above. He had orders to seek for boats and effect a passage there also if possible, and when Waters returned, some of the English troops were pushed towards Murray in support, while others cautiously approached the brink of the river under Sarea.†

'It was now ten o'clock; the French were still tranquil and unsuspicious; the British wondering and expectant. Sir Arthur was informed that one boat was brought up to the point of passage. "Well, let the men cross," was his reply, and at this simple order an officer with twenty-five soldiers of the Buffs embarked, and in a quarter of an hour silently placed themselves in the midst of the enemy's army. The Seminary (a large stone building) was thus gained.

The British

* The hope of effecting the passage of the Douro at Oporto, notwithstanding the destruction of the bridge, was suggested by the consideration that, in war, the most perilous enterprises have often succeeded, in consequence of the remissness occasioned by their seeming impracticability. The British general marched from Grijaó to Villa Nova with that impression on his mind; and the result proved the reasonableness of his anticipations. A French officer of considerable rank, who had belonged to Marshal Soult's corps d'armée at Oporto, and was subsequently made prisoner in Spain, stated at Lord Wellington's head quarters, that the Marshal received with ridicule the first reports brought to him that the English soldiers were crossing the Douro.

+ We do not know why Colonel Napier gives the name of Sarea to the convent called Santo Agustinho da Serra.

army instantly crowded to the bank of the river; Paget's and Hill's divisions collected at the point of passage, and Sherbrooke's division where the boat bridge had been cut away from Villa Nova. Paget himself had passed in the third boat, and having mounted the roof of the Seminary was already struck down with a dangerous wound. Hill took his place.

..

The remainder of the army kept passing the river at different points, and the artillery, from the height of Sarea, still searched the enemy's columns as they hurried along the line of retreat. If General Murray had then fallen boldly in upon the disordered crowds, their discomfiture would have been complete; but he suffered column after column to pass him, without even a cannon shot, and seemed fearful lest they should turn and push him into the river. General Charles Stewart and Major Hervey, impatient of this timidity, charged with the two squadrons of dragoons, and riding over the enemy's rear-guard, as it was pushing through a narrow road to gain an open space beyond, unhorsed Laborde and wounded Foy; but on the English side Hervey lost an arm, and his gallant horsemen, receiving no support from Murray, had to fight their way back with loss. pp. 285-286.

,

We know nothing of the barber, and have nothing to say about him, except that we very strongly suspect that, like Don Quixote's friend of the same calling, he has had no existence except in military romance. But if there really was such a person, we think our author ought, in justice to this plebeian patriot, to have found out and recorded his name, as he has allotted to him so important a part. The statement which is made respecting General Murray and the German brigade, and some squadrons of the 14th Dragoons, implies that those troops were sent from Villa Nova to Avintas, whilst the artillery was bringing up to the Serra convent. But why has Colonel Napier departed here from the account given in the despatch of Sir Arthur Wellesley? which is as follows :

'On the night of the 11th the enemy crossed the Douro, and destroyed the bridge over that river. It was important, with a view to the operations of Marshal Beresford, that I should cross the Douro immediately: and I had sent Major-General Murray in the morning with a battalion of the Hanoverian Legion, a squadron of cavalry, and two 6-pounders, to endeavour to collect boats, and, if possible, to cross the river at Avintas, about four miles above Oporto; and I had as many boats as could be collected brought to the ferry, immediately above the towns of Oporto and Villa Nova.' - Gurwood, vol. iv. p. 298.

We annex below* the original instruction given in the afternoon

* Head-quarters, Convent of Grijaô, 11th May, 1809. Order of march for the 12th of May.

of

The troops upon the heights of Grijaô, under Lieutenant-General Paget, will move forward to-morrow morning at six o'clock along the great road to Oporto by Carvalhaos.

The troops in advance upon the heights of Carvalhaos, under Major-General Murray, will hold themselves in readiness to move forward on the arrival of the troops from Grijaß at Carvalhaos.

Two

of the 11th of May for the march of the army on the day follow: ing. The enemy having crossed the Douro, however, and destroyed the bridge that night, a separate order was subsequently given to General Murray to proceed direct to Avintas from the ground on which he had halted the day before, taking with him the force mentioned in the despatch; but the other three battalions of the German Legion marched to Villa Nova. Colonel Napier misleads his readers in the above passage ge therefore in three particulars :-1st, as to the time when the order was given to Sir John Murray to march to Avintas, and the place he marched from; 2nd, as to the force which he took with him; and 3rd, as to the distance of Avintas from Oporto, which is not three miles, but two Portuguese leagues, which make about nine English miles.* But Colonel Napier is not only guilty of misleading his readers as to facts; he proceeds to found, upon his own misstatement of facts, what we must call, and shall prove to be, most unwarranted calumnies. Before we proceed, however, to refute these calumnies, we must add another, which occurs a few pages further

on.

'If General Murray had attacked vigorously, the ruin of the French army would have ensued. It was an opportunity that would have tempted a blind man to strike; the neglect of it argued want of military talent and of military hardihood.'-p. 300.

It would be difficult to bring a heavier charge against a general officer than is here brought by our historian against Sir John Murray; and the charge having been brought against that officer after his death, if we show that it is a groundless calumny, we shall have imposed upon Colonel Napier-in the opinion, we are convinced, of every impartial person and of every friend to truththe necessity of either disproving the evidence which we shall bring forward on the subject, or of acknowledging to the public the error he has fallen into, and making amends, in so far as it

Two squadrons of cavalry will continue to be attached to the infantry under Lieutenant-General Paget.

Lieutenant-General Payne with the cavalry will follow the troops under General Paget.

Lieutenant-General Sherbrooke will move at day-break with the troops under his orders, and will follow those already mentioned along the great road to Oporto. Major-General Hill, with the troops under his immediate orders, and the Portuguese troops under Colonel Trant, will march at five in the morning and proceed along the main road which leads from Ovar to Oporto.

'(Signed)

G. MURRAY,

Quarter-Master General.'

* The despatch of the 12th of May states erroneously the distance at four miles; but Colonel Napier has differed from the despatch to augment a mistake.

† General Sir John Murray, Bart., died at Frankfort in October, 1827-long before even the first of Colonel Napier's volumes made its appearance. His attack on Sir John is, the reader sees, in the second volume, which followed the first after a considerable interval.

may

may be in his power to do so, for the calumny to which he has given circulation.

We have already shown that the force which really marched to Avintas, under Sir John Murray, consisted, not of a brigade and some squadrons, but of one battalion (1st of the Legion),* and one squadron; and have stated that the remainder of the German Legion (2nd, 5th, and 7th battalions) marched to Villa Nova. We have now to state that the three battalions of the Legion which marched to Villa Nova, did not proceed from thence up the left bank of the Douro, but crossed the ferry from Villa Nova to Oporto after the brigade of Guards and some other troops had passed, and then proceeded by the Valonga road without seeing the enemy. These three battalions joined General Murray in the afternoon not far from Valonga, which is two leagues from Oporto on the road to Amaranthé.

The battalion which crossed the Douro at Avintas became engaged, soon after passing the river, with a part of the French force which had been stationed in that neighbourhood, but it never came within some miles even of the Seminario, which was defended by General Paget; and nothing could have been more faulty in every point of view on the part of General Murray than to have brought his single battalion (about six hundred men), at a distance from all support, into collision with Soult's whole force in its retreat. It is obvious, that instead of the ruin of the French army' being effected by such an inconsiderate step, the ruin of the 1st battalion of the German Legion would have been the consequence. As to Major Hervey's dragoons having to fight their way back with loss, the cause of it was that the French infantry in the rear of the column, being panic-struck † by the sudden and unlookedfor appearance of the British dragoons, threw themselves into the enclosures and broken ground on each side of the road, and it was by some of these men that Major Hervey's detachment was fired upon on its way back.

Colonel Napier has given a plan of the passage of the Douro, which corresponds to his narrative, but unhappily, both plan and narrative, as in the case of his plan and narrative of the battle of Vimiero, are at variance with the localities and with the real events. The plans in Colonel Napier's book are indeed the very worst we recollect to have seen in any considerable military publication of modern date. That of the affair which we have

* The Ist line battalion of the Legion, which marched to Avintas, consisted of about six hundred men,

+ We have heard General Foy himself state, that he was riding along without the smallest expectation of an enemy coming upon him from the rear of the column, as there was a considerable body of French infantry behind him, when suddenly he received a sabre cut from an English drigoon.

now