Note 474 — SECTION XXVI: CHAPTER V

In a private letter to Sir H. Taylor, D’Urban uses even stronger language: ‘Our cavalry instead of retiring leisurely, had fallen back (indeed I may say fled) rapidly before the advanced guard of the enemy. The left bank of the Albuera was given up without the slightest attempt at dispute. This error on the part of the officer commanding the cavalry was so completely of a piece with his conduct upon more than one previous occasion, that it became imperatively necessary to relieve him.’ (D’Urban MSS.)