Laming had had no answer. Neither had two further nominations. Bruce and Wyllie made attempts, but unsuccessful.
‘Mr Hervey?’
Hervey searched hard for what else there might be, other than the restatement of Laming’s conclusion in different form. He looked uncertain as he spoke. ‘If the French were to take the Cerro de Medellin, it would no longer be possible for us to hold the position?’
Edmonds smiled wryly. ‘Ah, yes, indeed, Mr Hervey. That is the material point. Mark, gentlemen, that the Cerro de Medellin is the very hinge on which this position turns. Once lost, the position will fall, exactly as the heaviest door will fall for want of a serviceable hinge.’
A smile came to the lips of Conway, the senior subaltern. ‘Then the commander-in-chief had better post the Fourteenth on the hill to fill it with screws!’
The laughter was loud as the lieutenant-colonel rode over.
‘I love a good joke, gentlemen. I would have the whole regiment share it on the morning of a general action. But I think there is little opportunity now, for if you look yonder . . .’
Hervey and the others seized their telescopes and turned towards the Alberche. He saw smoke spread for a mile and more across the front, half a league away, the very smoke of Ai: And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way; and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. Were there Joshua-men out there, even now, he wondered. How were they to know what the enemy did beyond the smoke unless there were spies there – or cavalry? And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai. But what burned? There was no city. Hervey peered through his telescope, but he could make out nothing at all.
‘The corn stooks, gentlemen – the shelters: that is what burns,’ said Lord George. ‘The question is, do we fire them to cover our withdrawal, or do the French to cover their advance? Either way, gentlemen, it is the time for cavalry. To your troops, please!’
A quarter of an hour later, the Sixth were ranked in two lines by squadrons. ‘Mark, Hervey, Lord George’s promptness in this,’ said Lieutenant Martyn. ‘For no orders have come from Cotton.’
Hervey did mark it. And he relished what it might bring.
Martyn continued to search with his telescope. ‘Our advance division is withdrawing, evidently. See!’
Hervey saw redcoats a mile away, marching towards them in good order, and unhurried. The columns of Spanish would be well past, now; just a few stragglers limping by. One of Cotton’s gallopers had said the main body of them were marching by the southern road, which meant that Talavera must be teeming with troops; and no doubt they were already hard at work fortifying the city. What was it that Sir Arthur Wellesley would ask of his cavalry, therefore? If the brigades to their front were not being pressed hard, as evidently they were not, there would be no need of cavalry to cover the withdrawal. Was it the intention, then, to wait for night, and for the brigades to come into the main position under cover of darkness? In which case, too, there would be no need for cavalry. Hervey sighed: that would be disappointing in the extreme, for not only would they be deprived of an action, they would have the indignity of being mere spectators to the infantry’s battle (and of bearing the taunts thereafter).
Just as Hervey was about to ask Martyn’s opinion, Lord George came up. The commanding officer’s charger, a liver-chestnut a full hand higher than Jessye, moved with an extension that spoke of both the animal’s quality and his rider’s purpose.
‘Sir Edward, send someone to see what goes there,’ said Lord George, giving the merest nod in the direction of the infantry. ‘It would be well to know if we have given up the Alberche once and for all.’
‘Very good, Colonel.’
Sir Edward felt no need of elaboration, couched though his orders were in the most gentlemanly and imprecise terms. Lord George’s intention was clear, and he could trust to his captain’s discretion how it was to be accomplished. The infantry may have the most of the fighting, Hervey reflected, but they did it with enough words of command to fill a book. The cavalry had their own manual, with evolutions as complex, but there remained the imperative for prompt and independent action, requiring discrimination and celerity – the cavalry coup d’oeil. He sat a little taller in the saddle, and surveyed the field.
‘Mr Laming, Mr Hervey,’ said Sir Edward, without turning his head. ‘Take a serjeant’s detachment apiece and make contact with the infantry to discover what the enemy does and what the divisional commander’s intention is there. Mr Laming, take as your left boundary the road to our front, and, Mr Hervey, it is to be your right boundary, both to use it as you will. But the Alberche is to be the limit of any reconnaissance. I would have a first report within the hour, if you please.’ Sir Edward’s tone and manner reflected that of the lieutenant-colonel, but a degree sharper.
Lieutenant Martyn, though no order had been addressed to him directly, stood in the stirrups and turned his head. ‘Serjeant Crook, Serjeant Strange!’
In less than a minute, the two patrols – nine men each plus serjeant – were raising dust on the road down which the Spanish had marched all morning.
After half a mile Hervey swung north across the heath, which a few days before had supported so many sheep that it reminded him of Salisbury Plain. Now they were gone. Where, he had no notion. Not into the Sixth’s stomachs, that was certain. The smoke was getting thicker; he could see nothing at all beyond the Alberche. He could not even make out where exactly was the line of the river. If the French were crossing, they did so much further to the south, where it joined the Tagus, and where a bridge would save them wet feet. From his map he knew the Alberche ran south-west before bending more to the south for a mile until its confluence with the Tagus, and the road he had first ridden down, his boundary with Laming, swung due north at the bend, so if he crossed the road he knew he must turn half-right in order to come up to the river. Otherwise he would err north and find no one. He had never seen smoke so thick, not even in Wiltshire when the farmers burned the stubble. It had drifted so far that he could no longer see Laming’s patrol. He was becoming anxious about keeping direction.
Crack!
A dragoon clutched at his shoulder, with a look more astonished than pained.
Before Hervey knew what had happened there was a volley. Then bluecoats swarmed from the smoke, and his gut twisted so much that he near clutched it. ‘Draw swords!’
He heard them rasp from the scabbards behind him, then thought better of it.
‘Threes about!’
He turned, to see the movement already done, save for Serjeant Strange, who reined round calmly, keeping his sword vertical as if on parade.
‘Away!’
They spurred into an untidy gallop, Private Porter still clutching at his shoulder with his sword hand.
There was no time to worry for him. Hervey’s one thought was to put a safe distance between them and the voltigeurs. Musketry followed their every stride. A ball whistled through the crest of his Tarleton.
After two furlongs they pulled up, but it took Serjeant Strange’s bark to get them to front, sharp.
Hervey returned his sword and took out his telescope. The smoke was drifting again but he could just make out the French infantry turning south towards the road. Had Laming seen them, or heard?
‘We had better see what the others do, Serjeant Strange. We’ll make for that ruin yonder.’ He nodded to what looked to be a substantial farmhouse a hundred yards to their right. He could see redcoats to the rear of it, some of them lying down. ‘Can you ride back to the troop unaided, Porter?’
Private Porter could not speak.
‘Go with him, Corporal Welsh,’ said Hervey, shaking open his map. ‘Make your report to Captain Edmonds. Tell him that I intend standing at the . . . Casa de Salinas.’
&n
bsp; Corporal Welsh closed with Porter to support him, and then turned back for the troop. Hervey and the rest struck off at a canter in the opposite direction. He felt the deficiency of the report all too well, but what more could he do than send word of first contact and what he intended? He could hardly speculate as to how they had collided with the voltigeurs: the French might have crossed the Alberche under cover of the smoke, or the ‘voltigeurs’ might even be cavalry come down the north bank from Escalona, dismounting to advance through the smoke. It seemed unlikely, but it was possible. Would wet feet not have run into Anson’s brigade, however? They were in close watch of the river for just such a crossing.
He soon had his answer. As they closed with the brigade resting behind the Casa de Salinas a heavy musketry opened from the trees a hundred yards beyond. Scores of redcoats fell to the first volley. Many who jumped to their feet were instantly struck down. The fire continued – increased – as more French poured from the woods, blazing away as they found their line. Order among the redcoats dissolved.
Hervey galloped for the ruins, head low on Jessye’s neck. He pulled up in cover, saw they made it without loss, dismounted and scrambled atop a broken-down wall to see what assailed them. Only then did he wonder if he exceeded his orders.
Serjeant Strange clambered up beside him. ‘Irish, sir, Connaughts,’ he said in the measured voice of Suffolk. ‘They’re good men packed tight in ranks with a serjeant’s spontoon to prod them, but the devil’s own without it.’
Hervey looked back. They were running now, as if the hounds of hell were after them.
‘They’ll not re-form until they gets behind a standing line, sir. Mightn’t we go and form?’
Hervey inclined his head. ‘I reckon we’re more useful to them here, Serjeant Strange.’ He did not add ‘if we ourselves aren’t cut off’.
As suddenly as the French had appeared there were green jackets on the far side of the road.
Serjeant Strange saw them first. ‘Sixtieth, sir, yonder! A welcome sight, they.’
Strange’s capacity for understatement was ever arresting: Hervey sighed with relief as he saw the other battalion of General Donkin’s brigade – Rifles, not so regulated as musket-infantry, and, resting in the cover of trees, evidently not thrown into confusion by surprise.
The Sixtieth opened a counter-fire. It soon told. The French checked and began falling back.
Here was their chance of escape, Hervey realized. If they galloped now, they would be clear away before the French could come on again. For all he knew, too, voltigeurs might already have worked themselves further round to the south. But where was Laming?
‘Look, sir!’ Serjeant Strange pointed up the road.
Laming and his men were galloping flat out for the ruin. Hervey saw what must happen, but hadn’t the slightest means of averting it. In seconds they were galloping across the Sixtieth’s front. Three horses went down, their dragoons hit in leg or side.
Hervey’s men began waving and cheering. ‘Here! Over here!’
Laming’s patrol pulled up hard in the cover of the ruin. Hervey jumped down from the wall and ran to his fellow cornet.
‘The French are pouring across the river,’ gasped Laming, for once not troubling to maintain a pose. ‘There’s no sign of Anson’s brigade. They must’ve crossed well to the north.’
‘That were our men firing, sir,’ said Serjeant Crook, jumping from the saddle, his horse in a worse lather than any. ‘Bell and Owens is down.’ He glanced at the others. ‘And Horncastle.’
‘Good God,’ said Laming, horrified by what he had just led them into. ‘We’d better go back.’
‘You and me, sir, and Corporal Hart,’ insisted Crook. ‘The others should stay here.’
‘Yes, very well.’ Laming was glad of the advice, his thoughts still on what had happened. ‘Shall you wait here, Hervey?’
‘I shall.’ He did not add ‘unless we are driven out’.
The Sixtieth’s fire was slackening. Hervey watched as Laming, Crook and Corporal Hart galloped back to where the dragoons had fallen. He did not see the little group of staff officers galloping up from Talavera until they had dismounted and begun scrambling up the wall next to him. The profile of the foremost was unmistakable, however – hawklike.
Shots rang out from the right, almost behind them. Hervey turned to see French sharpshooters swarming through the scrub, out of sight to the Sixtieth. Sir Arthur Wellesley at once jumped down from the wall and turned and looked at him, though without a word. Serjeant Strange had fired his carbine by the time the commander-in-chief’s foot was in the stirrup, and he had reloaded and fired a second time before Hervey realized they could have no support from the Sixtieth.
‘Mount!’
Serjeant Strange fired both his pistols, deliberately and in turn, while the others eagerly complied with Hervey’s order.
As they edged round the rear of the farmhouse, Hervey saw Laming coming back down the road – and none too hurriedly – two of the dragoons lying lifeless across the saddle. He glanced back at the sharpshooters. The ruin stood in their line of sight: they could afford to take it at a trot and give Laming some support – but not for long.
‘Thank you, gentlemen,’ said Lord George Irvine, gravely but surely. ‘Admirably clear reports. I compliment you on choosing the position of observation, Mr Hervey. I am saddened by the loss of two men, and to our own fire, but I fear it is ever thus in our business. You acted very properly, Mr Laming. I commend your address in recovering them.’
The two cornets saluted, reined about and rode back to the right of the line, with Sir Edward Lankester leading. When they were halted again, Hervey turned to his troop-leader and spoke in a lowered voice. ‘Serjeant Strange acted throughout with very marked coolness, Sir Edward. He stood firing his carbine as we remounted at the ruin, totally unbidden.’
Sir Edward did not reply at once, looking straight ahead as if thinking matters over. ‘It should, of course, be unremarkable, but I fear it is not. Strange is a singular NCO; he shows address and judgement in high measure, as well as loyalty.’ He did not add ‘and courage’, for that was meant to be the common currency of the rank. ‘I never had dealings with him much, but Edmonds speaks well of him always. He’s a Methodist, of course, but he’s not preachy. I’ve a notion his quality is from the impulse of his religion.’ And then he smiled, in a resigned sort of way. ‘Not like Armstrong. Not at all like Armstrong.’ He shook his head. ‘And yet each in their way is the finest of the rank. Except, of course, Armstrong does not have the rank!’ He sighed. ‘When we will have occasion to restore it, I would not like to say. Strange will be serjeant-major, I’ve no doubt, but Armstrong will be fortunate to be promoted quartermaster.’
Hervey said nothing. Despite the intimacy before Oporto, when Sir Edward had seemed to share more with him than mere duty required, Hervey still had an impression of a taciturn disposition, and remained uncertain as to what his troop-leader’s confidences tended.
Half an hour later, at two o’clock, with the French momentarily checked by Major-General John Mackenzie’s brigade, behind which the Irish had rallied, the Sixth received orders to withdraw to the line of defence. General Cotton’s voice, composed but stentorian, carried to right marker and left flanker alike: ‘Lord George, the Sixth to do rearguard, if you will. Allow me to retire one half of one mile with the Fourteenth. The Sixteenth I have already sent back. Anson’s will be covering the infantry.’
Lord George Irvine touched the peak of his Tarleton to the brigadier. ‘Very well, Sir Stapleton.’ Then he turned to his regiment. ‘Number One and Number Two Squadrons, skirmishers out!’
Sir Edward Lankester and Captain Thomas Lennox, C Troop leader, repeated the order to their squadrons.
Out from the ranks trotted a dozen corporals and dragoons, drill-book fashion – The Regiment in the Withdrawal.
‘Flankers!’
Two dragoons from right and left squadrons trotted out a hundred yards to either fla
nk, ready to do the skirmishers’ job there if the enemy worked round unseen.
In ten more minutes, Hervey saw Colonel Anson’s brigade – the 23rd Light Dragoons and the 1st Hussars of the King’s German Legion – coming up from Talavera at a fast trot. Now General Mackenzie’s division (he had command of a second brigade as well as his own) could begin to withdraw.
Ten minutes later, with Anson’s cavalry in a tight masking formation two hundred yards to their front, Mackenzie’s men were marching back towards Talavera. Hervey turned in the saddle to see how far General Cotton and the Fourteenth had got: a quarter of a mile, and retiring very deliberately at the walk. He could not understand why the French made no move, having been so bold in crossing the river in the first place and surprising Donkin’s men.
Not a minute later he understood all too well, as horse artillery began firing from the olive groves where the Sixtieth had stood not an hour before. The shot fell short of Anson’s brigade, half a mile to the right of where the Sixth stood, but not by much.
‘Tricky of them, that,’ said Sir Edward, in a bemused sort of way, and taking out his telescope. ‘They gave no notice with cavalry.’ He searched the entire front. At a range of a thousand yards the damage would not be too great: Anson’s men would be able to see the shot approaching, and evade. It was well, however, that the French had no ‘Monsieur Shrapnel’ to provide them with exploding shot. He frowned. ‘I wonder if we shall see them dare to follow in the open.’
The 6th Light Dragoons now became spectators at a field day, except that it was conducted with shotted guns, and carbines with ball-cartridge. Every officer had out his telescope, and every dragoon strained his eyes to see the evolutions. French skirmishers – chasseurs à cheval – came out of the olive groves and began exchanging fire with Anson’s. At three hundred yards they troubled each other even less than the guns troubled the main body. After a quarter of an hour of ineffective cannonading and musketry, the artillery limbered up and trotted out from cover protected by two strong squadrons of chasseurs.
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