Note 41 — BATTLE OF BARROSA. 5th. March, 1811.

An interesting anecdote has been preserved of this officer’s canine friend:—“After the battle of Barrosa, the wounded of both nations were, from want of means of transport, necessarily left upon the field of action the whole night and part of the following day. General Rousseau, a French general of division, was of the number; his dog, a white one of the poodle kind, which had been left in quarters upon the advance of the French force, finding that the general returned not with those who escaped from the battle, set out in search of him; found him at night in his dreary resting-place, and expressed his affliction by moans, and by licking the hands and feet of his dying master. When the fatal crisis took place, some hours after, he seemed fully aware of the dreadful change, attached himself closely to the body, and for three days refused the sustenance which was offered him. Arrangements having been made for the interment of the dead, the body of the general was, like the rest, committed to its honourable grave; the dog lay down upon the earth which covered the beloved remains, and evinced by silence and deep dejection his sorrow for the loss he had sustained. The English commander, General Graham, whose fine feelings had prompted him to superintend the last duties due to the gallant slain, observed the friendless mourner, drew him, now no longer resisting, from the spot, and gave him his protection, which he continued to him until his death, many years after, at the general’s residence in Perthshire.”—Maxwell’s Victories of the British Army.