Note 450 — SECTION XXI: CHAPTER III

I cannot resist quoting here Trant’s account of the engagement. He was a man of quaint humour, and the all too few letters from him to General J. Wilson, which have come into my hands by the courtesy of Wilson’s representative, Captain Bertram Chambers, R.N., inspire me with regret that I have not his whole correspondence. ‘I have once more been putting my fellows to a trial—my Caçadore battalion did not do as it ought, and had about thirty killed, wounded, and prisoners, without making scarcely any resistance—a pleasant business. On the 30th I was still at Agueda (Sardão and Agueda are one village, properly speaking, but divided by a bridge), though I was aware that the French principal force of cavalry was at Boyalva, only a league from Agueda, and I was completely cut off from the army. On that morning I had withdrawn the infantry to the Vouga, but placed my dragoons close to Agueda to observe the French, with the Caçadores at a half-way distance to support them. I put them in the most advantageous possible position, protected by a close pine wood, through which the French cavalry must pass. I had been from three in the morning till one o’clock, making my arrangements, and had just sat down to eat something, in a small village on the left of the Vouga, when a dragoon came flying to inform me that the French were coming on with two columns of cavalry in full speed. My coffee was not ready, and remained for the French to amuse themselves with. I had only time to get the Penafiel regiment over the bridge when the French arrived—five minutes sooner and I had been nabbed! I drew up in a good position, but the French did not cross the Vouga, and I returned to Oliveira without molestation—but not without a damned false alarm and panic on the part of the dragoons who were covering my rear. They galloped through the infantry, and carried confusion and all the comforts of hell to Oporto! Lieutenant-Colonel ‘Bravoure Bombasto,’ who commanded the Caçadores, ordered his men to fire, but thought that enough for his honour, as he instantly left them to shift for themselves, and never looked behind till he reached Oporto. I put this fellow, with four of the leading dragoons, into the common dungeon of this place, and am about to inflict some divisional punishment, for I daren’t report such conduct to the Marshal (Beresford), who does not punish by halves! My regiments of infantry—this is the brighter side of the picture—showed no agitation, notwithstanding the attack on their nerves. The enemy’s force, I now ascertain, was 800 cavalry, two pieces, and two infantry regiments. The cavalry alone would have done my business if they had crossed the Vouga! But they contented themselves with driving in the dragoons and the Caçadore battalion from Agueda. God bless you. N.T.’