Chapter LI: Section 1: Number and conduct of the French

A.

“As to the numbers of the French; the prisoners, the intercepted letters, the secret information from Chiclana, all accounts, in fact, concurred in stating that the troops employed _exceeded nine thousand men_!”

_Extracts from colonel Skerrett’s despatch._

“The enemy’s force employed in the siege is stated at _ten thousand, probably this is in some degree exaggerated_.”

B.

“The fact of the enemy, with _eleven thousand experienced soldiers_, not having made another effort after his assault of the 31st, &c.”

_Lord Wellington’s despatch._

“_January 19, 1812._

“By accounts which I have from Cadiz to the 27th December, I learn that the enemy invested Tarifa with a force of _about five thousand men_ on the 20th December, covering their operation against that place by another corps at Vejer.”

_Conduct of the French._

A.

“There was not, on the part of the leading French officer (an old lieutenant of the 94th) or of his followers, any appearance of panic or perturbation. Their advance was serene, steady, and silent, worthy of the 5th corps, of their Austrian laurels, of their ‘_vielles moustaches_.’”

SECTION 2.

_Conduct of the Spanish soldiers._

B.

“At the assault general Copons himself was the only person who shewed his head above the parapet. The precaution of outflanking him by three companies of the 47th regiment remedied the chance of evil, which so lamentable a want of chivalry might have occasioned, but the knights of older times were probably better fed than were our poor distressed friends.”