Note 46 — OPENING OF PENINSULAR WAR. BATTLE OF ROLICA.
Reading edition
“At this time, also, that system of warfare began, which soon extended through Spain, and occasioned greater losses to the French than they suffered in all their pitched battles. The first adventurers attracted notice by collecting stragglers from their own dispersed armies, deserters from the enemy, and men who, made desperate by the ruin of their private affairs in the general wreck, were ready for any service in which they could at the same time gratify their just vengeance and find subsistence.” Southey.—