The thousand Spanish marines, with Colonel Santana at their head were directed straight through the open gate. They spread out to link with their other attack and sweep down through the town, searching for strong points and any other signs of resistance.
Out in the lagoon, MacKenzie had worked a minor miracle. It wasn’t a flotilla that he led, but a long straggling line of boats, slipping over the sandbars at the harbour mouth and assembling little by little half a mile from the wharves and jetties. He had something close to five hundred armed marines waiting, with more boats joining all the time.
The hardest part was being patient and waiting until the gunfire from the diversion ceased and the noise of muskets and yells of fighting around the ladders also died away.
He knew that his Spanish allies were meant to be over the walls and moving through the town by one o’clock, but there were no obvious sounds of clashing between attackers and defenders before he gave the signal to row across to the jetties and begin the assault from the sea.
Fortunately there was no moon yet risen to show up the rowing craft to the gunners, who surely had to feel distracted and uneasy about what was going on behind them.
The Royal Marines swarmed ashore with bayonets fixed and yelling ‘viva’ as loud as they could. Answering yells from the buildings to their left identified the Spaniards and stopped them firing into one another.
It also told any French soldiers outside the few remaining strongholds that the town had fallen. They surrendered vociferously wherever they were. It was not easy to see them, but the constant and insistent chorus of ‘je rends’ did much to save their lives from the exultant marines.
By the morning, the Hornets had removed the network of ropes and most of the spikes and quietly retired from the scene. Santana and MacKenzie were left, very unwillingly to accept the credit and congratulations from a delighted and amazed admiral, who had been taken to the edge of despair before the final attack, about which he had been informed only after it had taken place.
Hamish MacKay was generous with his praise and congratulations when he went to inform him that the Hornets were leaving to rejoin Wellington.
“Ye hae a fair prize here, Sir Home. It is ideally placed tae be defended against a whole French army, given your complete control of the sea. Caffarelli is two days away, but hae nae enough men tae trouble ye behind these defences. I wish ye joy o’ your success.
I also bring ye news that makes your achievement much more important strategically. Ten days ago Lord Wellington beat Marmont decisively south o’ Salamanca. The victory opens up the entire country tae our army, though the French shall still outnumber us if they can concentrate their armies.
I can nae tell what his lordship shall attempt next, Sir Home, but I am certain that it shall be in the north and centre o’ Spain. Consider this, Santander is much closer than Lisbon as a base for supplies and reinforcements.
It is impertinent o’ me tae doubt that your orders gie ye any guidance or even that they anticipated that ye should gain Santander. Shall ye decide tae turn the port intae a supply base, wi’out waiting for orders, I can assure ye that Lord Wellington shall back your decision and shall want even more than ye can give. May I tell him that ye are giving the matter your serious consideration?”
Popham was as relaxed as he had every right to be after the fall of Santander. He gazed placidly at MacKay. “No Colonel! You may not tell him that! The time for consideration is long past. You may now tell him that the conversion of Santander into a secure base for supplies and reinforcements is proceeding momentarily and that it is doing so before my despatch containing my submission to Admiralty on the subject shall reach England.
Any support that he may care to give shall, of course, carry enormous weight, but I confide that Admiralty shall support my view.
You may also convey my thanks and gratitude to your ridiculously young subordinate. I may not have his youth, but I am not yet in my dotage and I do tend to know what happens in my command, even in those parts only loosely connected to mere sailors.
His help and tact in pulling my chestnuts out of the fire shall ensure a sympathetic ear, should I ever be in a position to reciprocate. He seems so frighteningly competent though, that I cannot envisage a situation where he could possibly look to me for advice.”
CHAPTER 22
The remains of the Army of Portugal fled north of the Duero, closely pursued by Wellington’s forces, with the Naval Division of Sir Joshua Welbeloved well to the fore.
Briefly they gathered at Valladolid. It was a substantial town and was capable of being defended if the army wished to be trapped. Wellington’s forces gathered to the west, crossing the Duero. With them, the Hornets were probing the defences and to the north, the First Battalion of Hornets, led by Hamish MacKay and Algernon Cholmondeley, was approaching cautiously, intent on joining the rest of the division after more than two months of making life miserable for General Caffarelli.
The French fled to the east, to the relative safety of ground held by units of the Army of the North. Wellington abandoned the chase. Clausel still had twenty to thirty thousand beaten men, but together with Caffarelli could bring together a force greater than Wellington’s victorious army.
The commander-in-chief had other plans. Very quickly he decided that Clausel and Caffarelli could represent no threat to him until the end of the year, provided that he made no move to attack them.
He now controlled central Spain, with the only army able to make any kind of challenge being the Royal Guard of fifteen thousand men based in Madrid and guarding King Joseph Bonaparte. The damage to French prestige and pride following the loss of their capital would be the greatest possible reward for all the blood spilt at Salamanca. His army moved south toward Madrid.
The reunion of the First Battalion with the rest of the division was also joyful for reasons unrelated to fighting and warfare. Juanita MacKay rushed into the arms of Mercedes Welbeloved, with the news that she too was pregnant with the MacKay’s second child and that she was expecting it less than a month after the Condesa’s.
It gave both Welbeloved and MacKay additional incentive to go with Wellington to Madrid. Santiago del Valle, the home base of the Hornets and one of the mountain estates of the Conde y Condesa de Alba y Hachenburg was quite close to the capital and was where both women would go to give birth. There was already a sizeable nursery at Santiago, ruled over by Isabella Hickson, the daughter of ‘Tio Pepe’ Gomez, the Condesa’s estate manager, also the honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the Spanish Avispónes Battalion.
Don Luis Quintana was appointed temporary Governor of Valladolid and was left there with his dragoons until General Santocildes could arrive to garrison the town. As an additional incentive, as Santocildes would not be needing cavalry to garrison Valladolid, Quintana would be offered promotion and attached permanently to Wellington’s army, if he could bring with him all fifteen hundred of his dragoons; a force that had already been trained to Wasp standards by Welbeloved and MacKay.
* * *
Madrid was in frantic fiesta. El Rey Intruso, the Intrusive King, Joseph Bonaparte was in full flight south with his personal guard, hundreds of wagons and coaches filled with money and treasures, gifted and looted during his four years on the throne.
The cortège; for it contained all the mourners for things that might have been; included hundreds of afrancesados. Those were the Spaniards who had supported the French and their ideals of liberty equality and fraternity and had stayed loyal to those ideals, even when it had become painfully obvious that the French themselves no longer believed in them.
They suffered the most, being preyed upon by the soldiers who were supposed to protect them. The Conde de Alba was pulled from his carriage, beaten to death and the few possessions that he had managed to save distributed among a company of chasseurs-à-pied. The captain of the company had been looking carefully in the other direction at the time, but the best selection of the poor collection of booty, found its w
ay onto the backs of the two carriage horses that were now his personal possessions.
Many of the valuable portraits and other family treasures that he should have been carrying were in the baggage train of the king himself. They were the gifts that had ensured that his cousin had been declared traitor three years before and that the title and estates had been transferred to the afrancesado count.
The Intrusive King and his sorry cortège fled south and screamed for help from Marshals Suchet and Soult. Both of them had refused point blank when their help was really needed. They always claimed that they owed their allegiance only to his brother the Emperor and were busy building up their own fiefdoms. Even now they showed reluctance to pay more than lip service until the true facts of the disaster at Salamanca were finally brought home to them.
It had become a matter of self interest with the realisation that control of their domains had become quite untenable and that the only course of action was to combine their armies with those of the king and drive the allies out of Spain. Then would be the time to reconquer their kingdoms and start all over again.
By the time they took the decision to come to Joseph’s aid, Wellington had been a month in Madrid. He was wrestling with an almost impotent Spanish government to try and form a Spanish army that had some chance of standing with honour alongside his own against the scattered, but still potentially overwhelming strength of the French armies left in Spain.
The true Conde y Condesa de Alba y Hachenburg did not find out about the death of her cousin for many months. It was not really relevant. They reoccupied the Madrid mansion and the nearby estate, both stripped of much of the furniture and valuables. They gathered together those of their old retainers that that had survived the incumbency of the afrancesado conde. Their properties were left with a caretaker staff and the Condesa went back to Santiago del Valle to rest until the birth of her child. It had always been her favourite estate. She and Juanita forewent the frantic life of the capital to relax in what comfort they could before the armies of France combined against them once more.
Welbeloved stayed in Madrid. He wanted to take the opportunity to rest his division after four years almost continuous service. It was an unrealistic desire as he knew full well, but he did work out a system where half of them could be rested for a week or so, leaving the other two battalions available for whatever the commander-in chief needed.
Lord Wellington was desperate to know exactly where King Joseph had gone and whether Marshals Suchet and Soult were rallying to his support. The three French armies left in Spain each had at least the same strength as the victorious Anglo-Portuguese army and there was the Royal Guard in addition.
In spite of making Wellington commander-in-chief of the Spanish armies since Salamanca, it was becoming increasingly obvious that they were willing to promise him anything he wanted, but were quite unable to fulfil any of these commitments. There was no way that they could raise forces or improve the forces that they did have to produce an army capable of competing with the French.
He found himself commander-in-chief of a fictional army with rebellious Spanish generals who hated the idea of a foreigner being appointed above their heads.
Two battalions of Hornets were therefore despatched to keep watch on the movements of the French. The other two battalions would relieve them in a couple of weeks. In the meantime many would be able to return to their wives, lovers and children, waiting for them in the safe surroundings of Santiago del Valle.
Honours flowed in to Wellington. Already created Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo by the Cortez, he was now made Generalissimo and awarded Spain’s highest honour, the Golden Fleece. The Prince of Wales raised him from Earl to Marquess, but turned down the suggestion that he should be a Field Marshal in case it caused jealousy among other senior generals.
Welbeloved was already a conde by appointment of the Cortez and because it legitimised his wife’s title when it was stripped from her by King Joseph. Now he became Marqués de Santiago y Alba and Mercedes the Marquesa. Rather neatly it removed the German Hachenburg from the new honorific and added the new Marquesa’s favourite estate, thus avoiding confusion with the already extant Duque de Alba.
Among the Spanish honours to other allied officers, both Vere and MacKay were singled out as members of the fabled Avispónes Morenos and given the title of Barón with a confirmed rank of Brigadier General in the Spanish army. Salary for the rank and lands for the titles were not mentioned.
As the new Marquess Wellington remarked to Welbeloved, the new Marqués de Santiago y Alba. “I cannot see the point of making me a Marquess, but the grant of money that goes with it shall be useful in purchasing a seat.
The Spanish honours have cost them nothing, but I suppose they can be seen as pretty baubles and shall be useful in dealing with the locals. Perhaps her new title shall recompense Doña Mercedes for the looting of so much of your estates by Joseph? I understand that you have acquired an adjacent estate following the death of the original owner."
“Indeed so, Your Grace, though it is largely mountainous and the revenues probably less than many of the Irish estates. The circumstances are somewhat mysterious in that it had come under the control of a religious despot as a kind of unholy republic. No one knows what happened to the original owner, but one of my Spanish battalions-in-training went in and restored order.
After all this unpleasantness is over, I cannot see the admiralty being willing to continue supporting the Hornets and the new estate may be useful. I have it in mind to recompense the soldiers in the Spanish Battalion by offering land and farms at a peppercorn rent to those who have given service to the Avispónes.
A similar undertaking is already in preparation in Portugal, thanks to enlightened assistance from members of Pom’s illustrious family. It takes care of some of my responsibility for half of my division, when the Navy no longer pays their wages. What is likely to happen to my British and German Battalions remains out of my control. Government gratitude to old soldiers is not something that is ever to be relied upon.”
The Confrontation at Salamanca Page 27