Note 279 — SECTION XIII: CHAPTER IV

I agree with General Arteche in thinking that Eben’s dispatch to Cradock, from which this narrative is mainly drawn, does him no credit. Indeed, it is easy to adopt the sinister view that Eben was aiming at getting the command, did nothing to discourage the mob, and was indirectly responsible for Freire’s murder. As Arteche remarks ‘with a little more resolution and a little less personal ambition, the Baron could probably have prevented the catastrophe’ (vol. v. p. 393). But Freire’s conduct had been so cowardly and incapable that the peasants were reasonably incensed with him. Why had he not defended the rugged defiles of Venda Nova and Salamonde, and what could excuse his absconding and abandoning his army?