Note 401 — SECTION XXVI: CHAPTER III

The accusation against Montbrun, made by Napier and several French writers, of having waited for two hours after dawn, and then of having suffered himself to be delayed for another hour by the pursuit of a mere Spanish irregular band, is clearly groundless. We have the diaries of two officers of the squadrons of the 14th (Major Brotherton and Cornet F. Hall) who prove that the attack was made in the dusk of early dawn. ‘Just at daybreak,’ says the former, ‘I requested Don Julian to show me where his pickets were placed. He pointed out to me what he said was one of them, but I observed to him that in the dusk of morning it looked too large for a picket. The sun rising rapidly dispelled the fog, and the illusion at the same time, for Don Julian’s picket proved to be a whole French regiment dismounted. They now mounted immediately and advanced against us.’ (See the Diary in Hamilton’s History of the 14th Hussars.)