Note 24 — Chapter XI

General Thiebault affirms, that they had only 1900 in the field. An officer who was dying of his wounds informed Sir Arthur Wellesley that their numbers were 6000. General Thiebault asserts also, that in a charge made by General Brenier with two companies in front of Azambugeira, the 29th regiment having lost its colonel, and many of its officers and men, surrendered tout-entier: but that par-malheur the firing did not cease, and the wreck of the regiment saved itself by a spontaneous movement, leaving a major, eight officers, and fifty men, in the hands of the French. There is an official test by which the accuracy of this statement may be tried; and thereby it appears, that only four officers were missing in this action, and that there was no major among them. The loss of the English he states at more than 2000. The accuracy of our official lists of the killed and wounded is among those things relating to Great Britain which a Frenchman cannot understand.