Note 654 — SECTION XXVIII: CHAPTER II

Toreno (ii. p. 544) makes out that the fault was with Contreras, and Napier, who used far more violent language, says that he ‘acted a shameful part.... The assault was momentarily expected, yet he ordered Sarsfield to embark immediately, averring that he had Campoverde’s peremptory commands. Sarsfield remonstrated vainly, saying that the troops would be left to an inefficient subordinate, but was compelled to embark, and Velasco, coming a few hours later, found only the dead bodies of his garrison. Contreras then assured Codrington and the Junta that Sarsfield had gone without orders, and betrayed his post!’ There is much misrepresentation in this: (1) Contreras had Campoverde’s command to send him Sarsfield without delay. (2) He passed the order on to Sarsfield, but did not know that the latter had gone off, without waiting a moment, after sending him a note to say that Don José Carlos, the senior colonel in the lower city, was incompetent to take command. Naturally Contreras thought that Sarsfield would have waited to see Velasco and hand over the troops to him. (3) Therefore Contreras was correct in saying to the Junta that Sarsfield departed ‘sin conocimiento mío,’ though he had sent him a passport to leave the town. See Arteche, ix. 288-9.