'Enough! Enough! We have been suffering similar hardships here. My men are dying daily by the hundred. But not from lack of thought for them. 'Tis this accursed country and the myriad of brigands who prevent all but a trickle of supplies from reaching me. Ah, well. Go on now.'
'It was, I am told, this disastrous campaign that led to milord Wellington's becoming what he is today. He realised that success in war depended on healthy, well-fed troops. A great part of his time is spent in ensuring that his men lack for nothing. In consequence they adore him, are always in a condition to fight well, and when called on to make an extra effort never fail him.
'All through his youth his income was insufficient for him to support his position. In '96 his debts became so burdensome that, to escape his creditors, he went to India. There fortune favoured him. In the meantime his clever brother, Richard, had risen to a high position in the Government. In '98 he arrived in Calcutta as Governor General. It was he who fought the Mysore war against Tippoo Sahib. Wellington treated his Sepoy troops with the same fatherly care as his British regiments. Although still a junior commander he was responsible for the success of the campaign and, afterwards, won high praise for his administration of the conquered territory. There followed the Mahratta war, in which he achieved striking victories at Assaye and Argaou. Richard had already been rewarded by being raised in the peerage to Marquess Wellesley. In 1804 the General received his knighthood and returned to England. In 1807 he commanded the troops in the successful operation against Copenhagen. In 1808 he was sent to Portugal and Your Highness will be aware of his activities while in the Peninsula.' '
'I am. Only too well. And of the new tactics he was introduced, which have so bedevilled us. Victor was the first of our Marshals to encounter them. At Talavera he twice sent his massed columns against the British line, only to be repulsed with terrible loss. Both King Joseph and Jourdan urged him to break off the battle, but he insisted on a third assault, only to meet with a shattering defeat. The fire power of those redcoats in line is devastating, and Wellington's other innovation of having his battalions form squares when about to be attacked by cavalry would break the heart of even Murat.'
Massena then asked what Roger intended to do, to which he replied, 'My obvious duty is to report back to the Emperor as soon as possible. But I confess, even though I speak fluent Spanish and some Portuguese, I dread the thought of attempting to make my way through the murderous brigands who infest this country.'
'You would be mad to do so. In it every hand is against us. Even those of the children.' The Marshal shuffled among the papers in his desk, drew one out and went on:
'Just listen to this. It is a translation of a catechism that the Spanish priests make the children learn by heart:
'Question. Child, what art thou?
Answer. A Spaniard, by the grace of Cod.
Q. What do you mean by that?
A. An honest man.
Q. Who is our enemy?
A. The Emperor of the French.
Q. What is the Emperor Napoleon?
A. A wicked being, the source of all evils and the focus of all vices.
Q. How many natures has he?
A. Two; the human and the diabolical.
Q. How many Emperors of the French are there?
A. One actually, in three deceiving persons.
Q. What are they called?
A. Napoleon, Murat and Manuel Godoy, the Prince
of the Peace.
Q. Which is the most wicked?
A. They are all equally so.
Q. What are the French?
A. Apostate Christians, turned heretics.
Q. What punishment does a Spaniard deserve who fails in his duty?
A. The death and infamy of a traitor.
Q. Is it a sin to kill a Frenchman?
A. No, my father, heaven is gained by killing one of those heretical dogs.'
The Marshal laid the paper down. 'That shows you the hydra-headed monster to which we are opposed. If once it was discovered that you are a Frenchman, these fiends would roast and eat you. No, Breuc. You must stay here as one of my A.D.Cs. Since you understand their infernal tongue, you can be of use to me interrogating prisoners and translating captured documents.'
Roger agreed and thanked the Marshal. The interview being over, he then went off to find quarters and secure for himself a suitable uniform.
In the next few days he learned from his brother officers how matters had been going in other parts of Spain. There were several large Spanish armies and, whenever they joined battle with the French, they were always defeated. But the survivors faded away into the mountains where they re-formed to attack again; and they showed great courage in defending their cities, often refusing to surrender until half the citizens had been killed or wounded and a great part of the buildings reduced to rubble.
The previous autumn, Soult had invaded Andalusia. He now had his headquarters in Seville and had subdued the whole of southern Spain except for Cadiz. The red faced, self-opinionated, ex-drummer boy Victor was besieging it. But, as the city was situated at the end of a nine-mile long spit of land, without the assistance of a fleet there was little hope of taking it.
In the north-west Ney had earlier made a joint plan of campaign with Soult. When attacked by a large Spanish army, instead of coming to Ney's assistance, Soult had marched off to the south. Declaring that he had been betrayed and abandoned, Ney had evacuated Galicia and withdrawn his army into the plain of Leon. Thereupon the Emperor had ordered him home. A heartrending scene had followed, when Ney had had to say farewell to his famous Sixth Corps, which had been formed in 1804 at Boulogne as part of the Grande Armee that was to invade England, and which he had commanded ever since. But Ney was now back in Spain, commanding a corps under Massena, as also was Roger's old friend Androche Junot, Due d'Abrantes, who had failed so lamentably to hold Lisbon,
In the north-west, St. Cyr had been sent to subdue Catalonia. He had defeated the Spanish armies in the field, then laid siege to Gerona, the great fortress that blocked the eastern road through the Pyrenees from France to Spain. With great gallantry it had held out for six months. To take it cost the French twenty thousand men and when it did fall they were still harassed by clouds of enemies.
Angered by St. Cyr's lack of success, the Emperor had recalled him and sent Augereau to take over his command. Augerau had hung every Spaniard he could lay his hands on, in the hope of intimidating that rebellious people. His ruthless measures had proved useless. The Catalans continued to fight on and so many of the Marshal's enterprises failed that Napoleon had recalled him in disgrace and replaced him with Macdonald. But the Marshal who had recently won his baton at Wagram fared little better.
Only further south in Aragon had the French done well. In that province General Suchet had reduced the people to obedience by initiating a policy entirely contrary to that of all the other French Generals. He cleared the country of brigands, who blackmailed the peasantry into maintaining them, paid a fair price for everything, he commandeered, suppressed corruption, refused to allow King Joseph to steal works of art in that part of Spain, gave Spaniards a say in local government, began to rebuild Saragossa, restored its bullring and endowed hospitals and orphanages in the city.