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 Chapter 1  An Overview of Managerial Finance 2

9. Cultural differences in do not impact the multinational corporations as they expand into different
geographic regions.
ANS: F DIF: Easy TOP: Multinational Corporations
10. Normal profits are those that result in rates of return that are just sufficient to attract new capital
in financial markets.
ANS: T DIF: Easy TOP: Normal profits
11. If a firm's managers want to maximize stock price it is in their best interests to operate efficient,
low-cost plants, develop new and safe products that consumers want, and maintain good
relationships with customers, suppliers, creditors, and the communities in which they operate.
ANS: T DIF: Easy TOP: Social welfare and finance
12. In a competitive marketplace "good ethics" is a wonderful idea but an impractical standard. There
are simply too few benefits to be gained from maintaining high business ethics.
ANS: F DIF: Easy TOP: Business ethics
13. Exchange rate risk is the risk that the cash flows from a foreign project will be worth less than
those same cash flows denominated in the parent company's home currency.
ANS: T DIF: Easy TOP: Exchange rate risk
14. A financial manager's task is to make decisions concerning the acquisition and use of funds for
the greatest benefit of the firm.
ANS: T DIF: Easy TOP: Financial management
15. Incentive compensation plans are used to attract and retain top managerial talent as well as to
align the interests of management with shareholders.
ANS: T DIF: Easy TOP: Managerial incentives
16. The finance function is relatively independent of most other corporate functions. Marketing
decisions, for example, might affect the firm's need for funds but are not affected by conditions in
financial markets or other financing issues.
ANS: F DIF: Medium TOP: Financial management
17. In a competitive marketplace, if managers deviate too far from making decisions that are
consistent with stockholder wealth maximization, they risk being disciplined by the market. Part
of this discipline involves the threat of being taken over by groups who are more aligned with
stockholder interests.
ANS: T DIF: Medium TOP: Managerial incentives
18. The disadvantages associated with a proprietorship are similar to those under a partnership. One
exception to this is due to the formal nature of the partnership agreement and the commitment of
the partners' personal assets. As a result, partnerships do not have difficulty raising large amounts
of capital.
ANS: F DIF: Medium TOP: Partnership
19. The term multinational corporation is used to describe a firm that operates in two more countries.
ANS: T DIF: Medium TOP: Multinational corporations

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Chapter 1  An Overview of Managerial Finance 3

20. Nations do not have the sovereignty to expropriate the assets of a firm without compensation.
ANS: F DIF: Medium TOP: Political risk
21. Having the manager's compensation tied to the company's performance increases the agency
problem that corporations face.
ANS: F DIF: Medium TOP: Agency problem
22. Managers of firms using accounting manipulations to inflate current earnings are likely to
generate long-term benefits to the shareholders of the firm.
ANS: F DIF: Medium TOP: Business Ethics
23. A proprietorship is an unincorporated business owned by one individual and the owner benefits
from the limited liability for business which limits his losses to what he has invested in the
company.
ANS: F DIF: Medium TOP: Proprietorship
24. The corporate charter is a document filed with the secretary of the state in which the firm is
incorporated that provides information about the company, including its name, address, directors,
and amount of capital stock.
ANS: T DIF: Medium TOP: Corporate charter and bylaws
25. Industrial groups are organizations comprised of companies in different industries with common
ownership interests, which include firms necessary to sell and manufacture products.
ANS: T DIF: Medium TOP: Foreign forms of business

MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. The primary goal of a publicly-owned firm interested in serving its stockholders should be to
a. Minimize the debt used by a firm.
b. Maximize expected EPS.
c. Minimize the chances of losses.
d. Maximize the stock price per share.
e. Maximize expected net income.
ANS: D DIF: Easy OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Goal of firm
2. Which of the following mechanisms is not used by shareholders to get managers to act in
shareholder's best interests?
a. Threat of firing
b. Managerial compensation.
c. Golden parachute.
d. Threat of takeover.
e. Answers b and c above.
ANS: C DIF: Easy OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Managerial incentives

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Chapter 1  An Overview of Managerial Finance 4

3. Which of the following is a reason why companies move into international operations?
a. To take advantage of lower production costs in regions of inexpensive labor.
b. To develop new markets for their finished products.
c. To better serve their primary customers.
d. Because important raw materials are located abroad.
e. All of the above.
ANS: E DIF: Easy OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: International operations motivation
4. Which of the following should be the primary goal pursued by the financial manager of a firm?
a. Maximize net income (profits).
b. Maximize the firm's net worth, or book value.
c. Maximize dividends paid to common stockholders.
d. Minimize variable operating expenses.
e. Maximize the market value of the firm's stock.
ANS: E DIF: Easy OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Agency costs
5. Everything else equal, including firm size, dollar sales, type of product sold, and so forth, the
primary difference between the proprietorship and partnership business forms is that
a. a partnership has more owners than a proprietorship.
b. the combined personal liability associated with a partnership is significantly less than the
combined personal liability associated with a proprietorship.
c. a partnership generally is easier to form than a proprietorship.
d. the annual growth rate of a proprietorship is limited by law, whereas the growth rate of a
partnership is always potentially unlimited.
e. there are many more businesses that are formed as partnerships than proprietorships.
ANS: A DIF: Easy OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Firm organization
6. The primary goal of a financial manager should be to __________.
a. minimize operating costs
b. minimize interest payments
c. minimize tax payments
d. maximize operating income each year
e. maximize the value of the firm's stock
ANS: E DIF: Easy OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Goal of firm
7. Which of the following statements is correct?
a. Given the multi-owner nature of most large corporations, agency costs associated with
perquisite consumption are not really a problem.
b. Managers may operate in the stockholders' best interests, but they may also operate in
their own personal best interests. As long as managers stay within the law, there simply
are not any effective controls that stockholders can implement to control managerial
decision making.
c. Shareholder agency costs include the opportunity costs associated with constraining
managerial freedom but do not include managerial salaries.
d. An agency relationship exists when one or more persons hire another person to perform
some service but withhold decision-making authority from that person.
e. All of the above statements are false.
ANS: C DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Agency costs

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Chapter 1  An Overview of Managerial Finance 5

8. Which of the following is an example of an area of business where use of "questionable" ethics is
considered a necessity?
a. Attracting and sustaining new customers.
b. Hiring and keeping skilled employees.
c. Keeping up with competition.
d. Dealing with firms who use "questionable" ethics.
e. None of the above.
ANS: E DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Business ethics
9. Which of the following actions is consistent with social responsibility but is necessarily
inconsistent with stockholder wealth maximization?
a. Investing in a smokestack "scrubber" to reduce the firm's air pollution as mandated by law.
b. Voluntarily installing expensive machinery to treat effluent discharge which currently is
being dumped into a river where it is ruining the drinking water of the community where
the plant is located.
c. Investing in a smokestack filter to reduce sulphur-dioxide emissions in order to reduce the
current tax being levied on the firm by the state for its pollution.
d. Making a large corporate donation to the local community in order to fund a recreation
complex that will be used by the community and the firm's employees.
e. Each of the above actions is consistent with social responsibility and none are necessarily
inconsistent with stockholder wealth maximization.
ANS: E DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Social responsibility
10. Which of the following statements is correct?
a. The corporate bylaws are the set of rules drawn up by the state to enable managers to run
the firm in accordance with state laws.
b. Procedures for electing corporate directors are contained in bylaws while the declaration
of the activities that the firm will pursue and the number of directors are included in the
corporate charter.
c. Procedures which govern changes in the bylaws of the corporation are contained in the
corporate charter.
d. Although most companies design a charter, only the bylaws are legally required to be filed
with the secretary of state in order for a corporation to be in official existence.
ANS: B DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Corporate charter and bylaws
11. Which of the following statements is correct?
a. A hostile takeover is a primary method of transferring ownership interest in a corporation.
b. The corporation is a legal entity created by the state and is a direct extension of the legal
status of its owners and managers, that is, the owners and managers are the corporation.
c. Unlimited liability and limited life are two key advantages of the corporate form over
other forms of business organization.
d. In part due to limited liability and ease of ownership transfer, corporations have less
trouble raising money in financial markets than other organizational forms.
e. Although stockholders of the corporation are insulated by limited legal liability, the legal
status of the corporation does not protect the firm's managers in the same way.
ANS: D DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Corporate form
12. Which of the following statements is correct?
a. In a partnership, liability for other partners' misdeeds includes but is limited to the amount
a particular partner has invested in the business.
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Chapter 1  An Overview of Managerial Finance 6

b. Partnerships must be formed according to specific rules which include the filing of a
formal written agreement with state authorities where the partnership does business.
c. A fast growth company would be more likely to set up a partnership for its business
organization than would a slow-growth company.
d. Partnerships have difficulty attracting capital in part because of the other disadvantages of
the partnership form of business, including impermanence of the organization.
e. A major disadvantage of a partnership as a form of business organization is the high cost
and practical difficulty of its formation.
ANS: D DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Partnership
13. Which of the following statements is correct?
a. A major disadvantage of a regular partnership or a corporation as a form of business is the
fact that they do not offer their owners limited liability, whereas proprietorships do.
b. An advantage of the corporate form for many businesses is the fact the corporate tax rate
always exceeds the personal tax rate, which is the rate at which proprietorships and
partnerships are taxed.
c. There are more partnerships and sole proprietorships than corporations in the U.S., but
corporations produce more goods and services than do other forms of business.
d. Because corporations enjoy the benefits of limited liability, easy transferability of
ownership interest, unlimited life, and favorable tax status relative to the situation for
partnerships and proprietorships, most large businesses choose to incorporate.
e. Because lawyers have the incorporation process so automated (e.g., word processors for
drawing up the necessary papers), it is less expensive to form a corporation than to form a
proprietorship or partnership.
ANS: C DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Firm organization
14. Which of the following statements is correct?
a. The optimal dividend policy is the one that satisfies the shareholders because they supply
the firm's capital.
b. The use of debt financing has no effect on earnings per share (EPS) or stock price.
c. The riskiness of projected EPS depends upon how the firm is financed.
d. Stock price is dependent on the projected EPS and the use of debt but not on the timing of
the earnings stream.
e. Dividend policy is one aspect of the firm's financial policy that is determined directly by
the shareholders.
ANS: C DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Financial policy and earnings
15. Which of the following statements about the corporate form of business organization is incorrect?
a. The corporation is the easiest form of business organization to establish.
b. In the United States, corporations generate a significantly greater percentage of total
annual sales than either partnerships or proprietorships.
c. Corporations generally are larger than either partnerships or proprietorships.
d. One of the most important features of the corporate form of business organization is that
stockholders have limited liability.
e. None of the above.
ANS: A DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Firm organization

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Chapter 1  An Overview of Managerial Finance 7

16. Which of the following statements is incorrect?

a. Large European firms generally have many more individual owners than large U.S. firms.
b. One reason domestic firms "go global" is to sell products in new markets.
c. Often firms can avoid regulatory hurdles that apply to foreign manufacturers by
establishing operations in the country where the hurdles apply.
d. A difficulty associated with doing business in international markets is that not all countries
have the same currency.
e. Cultural differences among countries make it difficult for a multinational firm to use the
same marketing strategy—that is, packaging, advertising, and so forth—in every country
in which it operates.
ANS: A DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Multinational managerial finance
17. In the United States, the most common form of business is the __________, and the form of
business that generates most of the sales and profits is the __________.
a. corporation; corporation
b. corporation; proprietorship
c. proprietorship; partnership
d. proprietorship; corporation
e. corporation; partnership
ANS: D DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Firm organization
18. Which of the following statements is correct?
a. Other things held constant, it is generally safer to invest money in a proprietorship than in
a corporation.
b. There really is no difference between a general partnership and a corporation, because
both have multiple owners and both offer limited liability to the owners.
c. If you are planning to start a business, which you will run as the sole employee, and if you
expect the business to earn $1,000,000 per year before taxes, you always can minimize the
total taxes you pay by setting up the business as a corporation.
d. According to the text, "agency problems" tend to increase when managers own larger
relative amounts of the company's stock.
e. Maximizing the income statement item "net income" might not be the best goal for a
corporation if the managers are interested in maximizing the economic welfare of the
firm's stockholders (that is, the firm's stock price).
ANS: E DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Corporate form
19. Paying Payroll Service (PPS) recently declared bankruptcy. The price of PPS's stock has dropped
from approximately $10 per share one year ago to $1 today. You can imagine that stockholders
are not happy that the value of their stock has dropped so significantly. At the same time the
financial position of the firm was deteriorating, PPS executives increased their salaries and
perquisites substantially. Nothing they did violated any laws or was considered an unethical act.
We would most likely describe this situation as __________.
a. an agency problem.
b. an accounting glitch.
c. an appropriate use of the tax laws.
d. an appropriate action, because executive compensation should always be increased
substantially each year.
e. acceptable, because it is obvious that the executives were trying to maximize the value of
the firm, which is what the shareholders want them to do.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Chapter 1  An Overview of Managerial Finance 8

ANS: A DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Agency costs

20. Compared to corporations, what is the primary disadvantage of partnerships as forms of business
organizations?
a. The tax rates applied to partnership are higher than the tax rates applied to corporations.
b. Any dividends paid to the owners of a partnership business are taxed twice—once at the
partnership level and once at the personal, or individual level.
c. Partnerships generally are much easier to form (start up) than corporations.
d. Partnerships have unlimited lives whereas corporations do not.
e. The owners of a partnership—that is, the partners—have unlimited liability when it comes
to business obligations whereas the owners of a corporation have limited liability.
ANS: E DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Partnership
21. All else equal, in which of the following forms of business would the possibility of an agency
problem be the greatest?
a. An U.S. corporation that is publicly traded.
b. A proprietorship.
c. A partnership in which all the partners share management and decision-making
responsibilities equally.
d. A foreign corporation with concentrated ownership—that is, relatively few owners.
ANS: A DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Agency costs
22. All of the following are external factors that influence the stock prices of the firm except
a. legal constraints
b. capital structure
c. tax laws
d. general level of economic activity
e. conditions in the stock market
ANS: B DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Miscellaneous concepts
23. Management may expropriate wealth from bondholders to shareholders through which of the
following actions:
a. take on new ventures with much greater risk than was anticipated by creditors.
b. take on more debt to increase the returns to shareholders.
c. issue more stock than was anticipated by creditors.
d. answers a and b are correct.
e. answers b and c are correct.
ANS: A DIF: Medium OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Managerial incentives
24. Which of the following statements concerning "agency problems" is most correct?
a. Regardless of economic conditions, if a firm's stock price falls during the year, this
indicates that the firm's managers must not be acting in the best interests of the
shareholders.
b. One method of controlling agency problems is to engage in the taking of "poison pills."
c. One of the best means to control agency problems is to require the managers and other
important decision makers of the firm to also be owners of the firm.
d. Agency problems probably would not exist if the important decisions of a firm were made
by persons who have no vested interests, such as ownership, in the firm.
e. None of the above is a correct statement.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Chapter 1  An Overview of Managerial Finance 9

ANS: C DIF: Tough OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Agency costs

25. Which of the following statements concerning a firm's quest to maximize wealth is correct?
a. In extremely competitive industries, we would expect firms would voluntarily engage in
many socially beneficial projects to try to maximize their stocks' values.
b. Actions that maximize a firm's stock price are inconsistent with maximizing social
welfare.
c. The concepts of social responsibility and ethical responsibility on the part of corporations
are completely different and neither is relevant in maximizing stock price.
d. In a competitive market, if a group of firms does not spend resources making social
welfare improvements, but another group does, in general, this will not affect the second
group's ability to attract funds.
e. If government did not mandate socially responsible corporate actions, such as those
relating to product safety and fair hiring practices, most firms in competitive markets
probably would not pursue such policies voluntarily.
ANS: E DIF: Tough OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual
TOP: Social responsibility
26. The 11 "titles" in the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 establish standards for accountability and
responsibility of financial reporting information for major corporations. Which of the following
activities does the act not provide rules that a corporation must abide by?
a. The corporation must have a committee that consists of outside directors to oversee the
firm's audits.
b. The corporation must hire an external auditor that will render an unbiased (independent)
opinion concerning the firm's financial statement.
c. The corporation must maximize social welfare through funding of environmentally
friendly activities.
d. The corporation must provide additional information about the procedures used to
construct and report financial statements.
e. The firm's CEO and CFO must certify financial reports submitted to the Securities
Exchange Commission.
ANS: C DIF: Tough OBJ: TYPE: Conceptual TOP: Business ethics

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly
accessible website, in whole or in part.
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 which the French had occupied; and there he
determined to attack them, moving first upon
Ponferrada, where he made some prisoners, and
recovered a good quantity of corn, several four-
pounders, and one dismounted twelve-pounder, part
of his own stores and artillery. Having remounted the
larger gun, Romana dispatched his Camp-marshal D.
Gabriel de Mendizabal to attack the garrison at
Villafranca. That officer’s first care was to get between
them and Galicia, while the commander-in-chief
intercepted their retreat towards Astorga: for this
purpose he proceeded to Cacabelos, and sent one
March 17. detachment round by the right to occupy the bridge
at the other end of the town, while another filed
round by the left to join it there; every horseman
taking up a foot soldier behind him to ford the
Valcarce, and the smaller river which falls into it.
Mendizabal, with the remainder of the troops,
advanced along the road. His advanced parties drove
in the French at all points, till they retired to the
castle. The twelve-pounder was brought up; but the
Spaniards found that the French fired securely from
the old fortification while they themselves were
exposed; upon this they entered, and, with fixed
bayonets, advanced to storm the castle. Mendizabal
was at their head; a ball passed through his clothes
without wounding him. He summoned the enemy to
surrender, and upon their hesitating what answer to
return, repeated the summons with a threat, that if
they refused, every man should be put to the sword.
The white flag was then hoisted, and a negotiation
begun, which the French were conducting with a view
to gain time, till the Spanish commander cut it short,
by allowing them a quarter of an hour to surrender at
discretion. Upon this they submitted; Mendizabal
then, as an act of free grace, permitted the officers to
 keep their horses and portmanteaus, and the men
their knapsacks; and the colonel-commandant of the
French, in returning thanks for this generosity,
complimented him upon his good fortune in having
captured the finest regiment in the Emperor
Napoleon’s service. The prisoners were about 800.
The Spaniards lost two officers and thirty men, eighty-
two wounded. The result of the success was, that the
Bierzo was cleared of the French, who fell back from
the neighbouring part of Asturias upon Lugo, there to
make a stand, supported by their main force, which
was divided between Santiago, Coruña, and Ferrol.
Efforts of the Marshal Ney had still a predominant force in Galicia
Galicians. after Soult’s army was departed; there were garrisons
in every town which was sufficiently important, either
for its size or situation, to require one, and the French
had military possession of the province. But they had
yet to subdue the spirit of the people; and the
Galicians, who had no longer an example of panic and
disorder before their eyes, carried on the war in their
own way. Captain M’Kinley in the Lively frigate, with
the Plover sloop under his command, arrived off the
coast to assist them. He discovered none of that
apathy for their own country, none of that contented
indifference who was to be their master, none of that
sullen and ungrateful dislike of the English, of which
the retreating army had complained so loudly; he
heard from them only expressions of gratitude to the
British government and praise of the British nation; he
perceived in them the true feelings of loyalty and
patriotism, and saw in all their actions honest,
enthusiastic ardour, regulated by a cool and
determined courage. The invaders attempted, by the
most unrelenting severity, to keep them down. On the
7th of March a party of French entered the little towns
 of Carril and Villa Garcia, murdered some old men and
women in the streets, set fire to the houses of those
persons whom they suspected of being hostile to
them, and then retreated to Padron. To lay waste
villages with fire, abandon the women to the soldiery,
and put to death every man whom they took in arms,
was the system upon which the French under
Marshals Ney and Soult proceeded. Such a system, if
it failed to intimidate, necessarily recoiled upon their
own heads; and the thirst of vengeance gave a
character of desperation to the courage of the
Galicians. About an hundred French were pillaging a
convent, when Don Bernardo Gonzalez, with two-and-
thirty Spaniards, fell upon them, and did such
execution while the enemy were in disorder and
encumbered with their plunder, that only sixteen
escaped. During three days the French attempted to
destroy the peasants of Deza and Trasdira; the men of
Baños and Tabieros came to aid their countrymen,
and the invaders at length retreated with the loss of
114 men. A party from Pontevedra entered Marin:
March 9. here the Lively and the Plover opened their fire upon
them, and as they fled from the English ships, their
officers fell into the hands of the peasantry. In this
kind of perpetual war the French were wasted; a
malignant fever broke out among them, which raged
particularly at their head-quarters in Santiago, and
many who had no disease died of the fatigue which
they endured from being incessantly harassed, and
kept night and day on the alarm.
Barrios sent D. Manuel Garcia de Barrios, who held the rank of
into Galicia. Lieutenant-Colonel, had arrived in Galicia early in
March with credentials from the Central Junta
authorising him to take such measures as he might
deem expedient for its recovery, ... and this was all
 with which the government could furnish him. He had,
however, two brave and able officers under him, D.
Manuel Acuña and D. Pablo Morillo, then a young
Vol. ii. p. 460. man, who had already distinguished himself upon the
Tagus. These officers took the coast and the interior
in this military mission, while Barrios took the
southern part of the province; and they
communicated with Romana and Silveira. Barrios was
with the latter General when the French approached
Chaves, and, being prevented by an accident from
leaving the town with him, was shut in there during
its short siege. Aware that if the enemy recognised
him they would probably put him to death, or at best
compel him to choose between imprisonment and
taking the oaths to the Intruder, he escaped over the
walls when they entered the place, and remained for
some days secreted in a cottage, suffering severely
from a fall and from want of food, and having lost
every thing, even his papers. He made his way,
however, to the Valle Real de Lobera, where he
thought Romana would have taken some measures
for raising men; and there he found the spirit which
he expected. His report of himself and of his
commission was believed, though he had no
credentials to produce: a Junta was formed,
volunteers were raised, and there, in a confined
district, where they were half blockaded by the
enemy, plans were laid for the deliverance of Galicia,
Barrios having for his coadjutors the abbots of S.
Mamed and Couto. Their communication with Romana
was impeded by the French at Lugo; but they
received tidings of co-operation in another quarter
where they had not looked for it, and prepared with
all alacrity to take advantage of the opportunity that
offered.
The Portugueze While Soult was before Chaves a party of
and Galicians Portugueze, under Alexandre Alberto de Serpa,
blockade Tuy. crossed the Minho near its mouth, and were joined at
March 10. Guardia by the peasantry; in a few days some
thousand men had collected; the Mayorazgo, D.
Joaquin Tenreyro, put himself at their head, and their
parish priests acted as officers. The two Abbots, who
had taken the title of Generals, and disputed which
should be called Commander-in-chief of Galicia,
compromised their difference by electing Barrios
commandant-general of the province of Tuy and
division of the Minho, and they set out with all the
force they could muster to join one party of these
insurgents who blockaded the French in Tuy, while
Morillo and Acuña were directed to join the others,
who, officered as they were, undisciplined and ill
equipped, had proceeded to besiege the enemy’s
garrison in Vigo. It had been Soult’s intention,
neglecting all points of less importance, to
concentrate in Tuy all the troops belonging to his
army whom he had left in Galicia. But when a column
of about 800 men, under the chef d’escadron Chalot,
bringing with it the heavy baggage of the general
officers and the military chest, was on the way thither
from Santiago, General Lamartiniere ordered them to
Vigo, where the resources were greater both for the
men and horses.
Vigo. The town of Vigo is situated in a bay, which is one
of the largest, deepest, and safest in the whole coast
of the peninsula. It is built upon a rock; but,
notwithstanding the severe loss which the Spaniards,
during the War of the Succession, suffered in that
port, no care had been taken to fortify it; it had
merely a wall, a fort flanked with four bastions on the
land side, and an old castle, equally dilapidated,
 toward the sea. The neighbourhood of Ferrol has
made it neglected as a naval station, and Galicia is too
poor a country for foreign commerce. There was,
however, a manufactory of hats there, which were
exported to America; and a fishery was carried on so
extensively as to afford employment for thirty
mercantile houses. It derived some importance also
from being the seat of government for the province of
Tuy. The population amounted to 2500. Sir John
Moore had at first fixed upon this port as the place of
his embarkation, and ordered the transports there;
and the delay occasioned by waiting till they came
round Cape Finisterre to join him at Coruña gave time
for the French to come up, and for that battle, which,
while it redeemed the character of the army, proved
fatal to himself.
The Spaniards Captain Crawford, in the Venus frigate, was off the
appear before port, and he wrote to Captain M’Kinley, who was then
Vigo. at Villa Garcia, in the Lively, telling him how much the
presence of his ship would contribute to the success
of the Spaniards. Meantime Morillo arrived to examine
the state of the siege. He learnt that a reinforcement
of 1800 French were at this time in Pontevedra, about
four leagues off. They had to cross the bridge of St.
Payo, over a river which discharges itself into the
head of the Bay of Vigo, and Morillo immediately took
measures for defending the passage. From Don Juan
Antonio Gago, an inhabitant of Marin, who was at the
head of 500 peasants, he obtained two eight-
pounders, and from the town of Redondella one
twenty-four and two eighteen-pounders. With these
means of defence he entrusted this position to Don
Juan de O’Dogherty, a lieutenant in the Spanish navy,
who had the command of three gun-boats. While he
was taking these necessary measures, part of
 Romana’s army, which Soult boasted of having
destroyed a fortnight before, drove the enemy back
from Pontevedra, and took possession of the town.
Morillo joined them; and being of opinion that the
reduction of Vigo was the most important object
which could then be undertaken, they proceeded to
that place.
Recapture of The French governor Chalot, a chef d’escadron,
that place. had replied to every summons which Tenreyro sent
him, that he was not authorised to surrender to
peasantry. Captain M’Kinley having now arrived, he
was again summoned to surrender, and negotiations
were begun, which continued till the third day, when
Morillo joined the besiegers with the force from
Pontevedra, consisting of new levies and retired
March 26. veterans, 1500 of whom had come forward to assist in
the deliverance of their country; a council of war was
held, by which Morillo was appointed commander-in-
chief, and requested to assume the title of colonel, for
the sake of appearing of more consequence to M.
Chalot, whose complaint it was, that he was not
summoned by an officer of sufficient rank. Having
been thus promoted to accommodate the chef
March 27. d’escadron, he sent him a summons in due form to
surrender within two hours. Chalot replied, that he
could not possibly capitulate till he had heard the
opinion of the council of war, of which he was
president; the members were at present dispersed,
and he required twenty-four hours to collect them.
Morillo returned a verbal answer, that he granted him
another two hours, and the French, after ineffectually
attempting to prolong the term, delivered in their
proposals of capitulation, which were, that they
should march out with arms, baggage, the whole of
their equipage, and with the honours of war; that
they should be conveyed in English vessels to the
nearest French port, on parole not to bear arms
against Spain or her allies till exchanged, or till peace
should have taken place; that the money belonging to
the French government, and destined for the payment
of the troops, should remain in the hands of the
paymaster, who was accountable for it; and that the
papers relating to the accounts of the regiments
should be preserved; finally, that the troops should
not lay down their arms, nor the town and forts be
delivered up, till the moment of embarking. Morillo,
with the three French officers who brought these
proposals, and two Spaniards, went on board the
Lively, to lay them before Captain M’Kinley, and
answer them with his concurrence. The answer was in
a spirit becoming England and Spain. The garrison
were required to ground their arms on the glacis, and
surrender themselves prisoners of war, the officers
being allowed to retain their swords and wearing
apparel, nothing more. The demand respecting the
money was refused; the place was to be taken
possession of as soon as the French grounded their
arms, and if these articles were not ratified within an
hour, hostilities were to recommence.
The officers who were sent to negotiate agreed to
these terms, but the ratification was delayed beyond
the hour allotted; and the Spaniards, who were
prepared to execute what they had threatened, began
the assault between eight and nine at night; while
those who had muskets kept up a fire upon the
enemy, others began to hew down the gates. An old
man particularly distinguished himself at the gate of
Camboa, by the vigour with which he laid on his
strokes, splintering the wood, and when a ball went
through him, by the composure with which he died,
happy to have fallen in the discharge of his duty, and
in the hour of victory. D. Bernardo Gonzalez, the
commanding officer of the detachment from
Pontevedra, sprang forward, and taking up the axe of
the dead, continued the same work, notwithstanding
he was thrice wounded; till a fourth wound disabled
him, and he was borne away: seven Spaniards fell at
this point. Meantime Morillo was informed that the
capitulation was now ratified, and forcing his way
through the ranks amidst the fire, with great difficulty
he made himself heard, and put a stop to the assault.
On the following morning, when Morillo had made
preparations to enter and occupy the place,
information was brought him from the little town of
Porriño, that a reinforcement from Tuy was on the
way to the French. Porriño is about a league to the
eastward of the road between these two places, and
equidistant about two leagues from both. News,
therefore, could not be brought so soon but that the
troops must closely follow it. Morillo instantly sent off
a part of his force as secretly as possible to intercept
them, and he remained hurrying the embarkation of
the French, by telling them that he could not restrain
the rage of the peasantry. How well they had
deserved any vengeance which the peasantry could
inflict the garrison were perfectly conscious, and were
therefore as eager to get on board as Morillo was to
see them there. In this haste, the baggage could not
be examined conformably to the capitulation, for the
hurry of both parties was increased by hearing a firing
from the town. The troops from Tuy had arrived under
its walls, and, to their astonishment, a fire was
opened upon them. They were attacked, routed, and
pursued with such vigour, that out of 450, not more
than a fifth part escaped; seventy-two were taken
 prisoners, and sent on board to join their countrymen;
the rest were either killed or wounded. The military
chest, containing 117,000 francs, had been delivered
up according to the terms; but an examination of the
baggage was thought necessary; about 20,000 more
10
were discovered; and the whole of both sums was
distributed among the troops and peasantry. Never
had a more motley army been assembled: ... men of
all ranks and professions bore arms together at this
time in Galicia; among those who distinguished
themselves were soldiers and sailors; D. Francisco
Sanchez Villamarin, the Alferez of a band of students
from Santiago; the Abbot of Valladares, and the first
preacher of the Franciscans, Fr. Andres Villagelvi.
Blockade of The French had at this time 5000 men at Santiago,
Tuy. where they were fortifying themselves. Morillo
hastened to place Pontevedra in a state of defence
against them, and to secure the bridge of S. Payo,
that they might not be able to form any farther
junction; for they were now calling in all their smaller
detachments, and General Lamartiniere had then
collected about 3300 men in Tuy, including some 1200
invalids. A fire which was opened against that place
across the river from Valença was soon silenced, and
the efforts of the disorderly besiegers were not more
effectual. Report magnified their numbers to 20,000;
but when Barrios arrived to recompose the dispute
between the General-Abbots, by taking the command,
he found only a fifth part of the estimated force, and
only a fourth of these provided with muskets. Having
obtained six pieces of cannon from Salvatierra and
Vigo, and a scanty supply of ammunition from the
same places, from Bayona, and from his Portugueze
neighbours at Valença and Monçam, he carried on the
blockade in spite of all the efforts of the garrison.
 1809. Marshal Soult was under no small anxiety for this
April. place; he had recommended it to Ney’s especial care;
but he had reason to fear that Ney would have
The Portugueze
recross the
sufficient employment for all his force; and he knew
Minho. what effect the fall of a second garrison would
produce not upon the people of the country alone, but
also upon his own men; for he was not ignorant that
the better spirits in his army detested the service
upon which they were employed, and that many even
of the worst dreaded it. After entering Braga he
dispatched a party of horse in that direction, for of the
many messengers whom he had sent to Tuy since he
marched from thence on his expedition into Portugal,
not one had returned. They learnt at Barcellos that it
was blockaded, that it had thrown shells into Valença,
and that the garrison were strong enough to sally and
incommode the besiegers. Soult could take no
measures then for their relief, and he supposed that
the news of his success in Portugal would alone
relieve them to a considerable degree, by drawing off
the Portugueze from the blockade: so in fact it
proved; they recrossed the Minho as soon as they
heard of his entrance into Braga, and it was their
departure which enabled Lamartiniere to make his
unfortunate attempt for relieving Vigo.
The French in Having removed his sick and wounded from Braga
Tuy relieved to Porto, for they were safe nowhere but under the
and withdrawn. immediate protection of the army, the Marshal sent
Generals Graindorges and Heudelet to relieve Tuy and
subdue the intermediate country, where the
Portugueze General Botelho had put the Corregidor of
Barcellos to death for having welcomed the French on
their former reconnoissance from Braga. They entered
April 8. Ponte de Lima after some resistance; the weak and
dilapidated fortress of Valença was surrendered to
 them, and Barrios, who upon tidings of their
April 10. movements had made an unsuccessful attack upon
Tuy, retired during the night to S. Comba. The French
boasted that Lapella and Monçam, Villa Nova and
Caminha had opened their gates to them, and that
the fort of Insoa, at the mouth of the Minho, had
capitulated: the names carried as lofty a sound as if
the places were of any strength, or possessed any
importance, or could have been defended against
them, or held by them. But in fact the only advantage
expected or derived from the expedition was that of
removing with all speed the garrison and all the
moveable effects first from Tuy to Valença, that they
might be on the safer side of the Minho, and then
with the least possible delay to Porto. In that city
Marshal Soult remained, unable to prosecute his plans
of conquest, and not more in hope of co-operation
from Lapisse and Victor, than in apprehension that a
British force might anticipate their tardy movements.
 CHAPTER XX.
OPERATIONS IN LA MANCHA AND
EXTREMADURA. BATTLES OF CIUDAD REAL
AND MEDELLIN.

1809. Marshal Soult imputed the failure of his expedition

March. to a deviation from the plan which Buonaparte had
prescribed, in not taking possession of Ciudad
Rodrigo. Lapisse had been prevented from doing this
when it might have been done without difficulty, by
the unexpected appearance of Sir Robert Wilson in
that quarter; and Victor, who might have taken the
place in spite of any resistance which could then have
been opposed, was employed in operations more
likely to gratify the pride of the French, but of much
less importance to the iniquitous cause in which they
were engaged.
Plans of the Reasons, however, were not wanting for this
intrusive change of plan. The danger from the spirit of the
government. people in Galicia and in Portugal had either not been
foreseen, or disregarded; while the French, well
knowing in how short a time men of any nation may
be made efficient soldiers by good discipline, and
seeing with what celerity, after so many severe
defeats, the armies of La Carolina and Extremadura
had been brought into the field, deemed it necessary
to attack those armies before they should become
 formidable, and destroy them, as far as their
destruction could be effected by the most merciless
carnage, ... for such Buonaparte’s generals, to whose
pleasure the government of Spain was in fact
entrusted, were determined to make. They had been
trained in the school of the Revolution, and the
temper which they had acquired there fitted them for
the service of such a master; and Joseph’s miserable
ministers, who had penned their edicts of
extermination in the hope of intimidating their
countrymen, had the misery of knowing that those
edicts were acted upon to the letter. Wrung with
compunction their hearts were, for some of them had
begun life with good hearts, generous feelings, and
upright intentions; but having allowed themselves to
be engaged in an evil cause, they were now so far in
blood, that one deadly sin drew on another, in
dreadful and necessary series.
Effect of the By the letters which were intercepted at this time it
war upon the appeared that mothers and wives in France
French soldiery. congratulated themselves if the objects of their
affection were employed in Spain, rather than in the
Austrian war, so little did they apprehend the real and
dreadful character of such a service. The armies in La
Mancha were not better supplied than those in
Galicia; weeks sometimes elapsed in which they
received neither bread for themselves nor barley for
their horses, having to subsist as they could by
chance and by plunder. This mode of life had given
them the ferocity and the temper of banditti, and
would have led to the total subversion of discipline
among any soldiers less apt for discipline than the
French. The infantry sometimes murmured under their
privations, delivered their opinions freely, and held
sometimes towards their officers a language which
might be deemed insolent; but a jest produced more
effect upon them than a reprimand, a good-humoured
reply brought them into good humour; and the
prospect of action giving them a hope of discharging
their ill feelings upon the Spaniards, always animated
them, and made them alert in obedience. The cavalry
had better means of providing for themselves, and
more opportunities of plunder; they therefore were
always respectful as well as submissive to their
officers, lest they should be dismounted and deprived
of these advantages. The character of the service in
which they were incessantly employed gave both to
men and horse a sort of Tartar-like sagacity which
perhaps had never before been seen among the
troops of a highly civilized people. Savages could
scarcely have been more quick-sighted in discovering
a pass, detecting an ambush, or descrying a distant
enemy. And the attachment between horse and rider
became such, that if a trooper waking from sleep saw
by the condition of his beast that in a fit of
drunkenness he had over-ridden or any ways abused
it, he would in the first emotions of self-reproach
abjure wine and shed tears, with imprecations upon
himself, go on foot whenever he could to spare the
horse, and give him the bread which should have
been his own portion. And yet this humanizing feeling
did not render them more humane toward their
enemies. Since the religious wars in France no contest
had been carried on with so ferocious a spirit on both
sides. That cruelty which in the middle ages was
common to all nations had been continued among the
Spaniards by the effects of the Inquisition, and by
their bull-fights, ... among the French by the inhuman
character of their old laws, and afterwards by the
Revolution; on both sides it was called into full action,
retaliation provoking retaliation, and revenge. Even
 the cheerfulness of the French, which is their peculiar
and happy characteristic, which if not a virtue itself, is
connected with many virtues, and without which no
virtue can have its proper grace, ... even that quality
was corrupted by the dreadful warfare in which they
were engaged. Light minds go beyond the point of
fortitude in that disregard of death which the
continual presence of danger necessarily induces.
That which the wise and good regard with silent
composure is to them a theme for bravados and
Rocca, 84, 87. heart-hardening mockery. It became common for the
French, when they recognised a comrade among the
slain, to notice him not by any expression of natural
feeling, but by some coarse and unfeeling jest. The
evil here was to themselves alone; but their
oppressions were rendered more intolerable, and their
cruelties more devilish, because they were exercised
mirthfully.
Temper of the The armies under Cartaojal and Cuesta were at this
Spanish time in such a state that they deserved to have been
generals in La better commanded, if the government had known
Mancha and
Extremadura.
where to look for better commanders. With all
Cuesta’s good qualities, his popularity among the
troops, his sure integrity, his courage, and the
enterprising energy which in spite of age and
infirmities he was capable of exerting, caprice,
obstinacy, and a desperate rashness which no
experience could correct, made him a most unfit man
to be trusted with such a stake in such times. All his
desire was to meet the enemy in fair battle, where he
could draw out his men in full display; and if all his
men had been as thoroughly brave as himself, the old
man’s system would not have been erroneous.
Cartaojal, on the contrary, was so convinced that
discipline was every thing, and that the best thing
 which could be done with his troops was to drill them,
that he let slip fair opportunities of exercising them in
successful enterprise. It seems almost as if a fatality
overruled the councils of the Spaniards, both in the
cabinet and in the field; and that if these generals had
merely been interchanged, Cartaojal’s caution might
have saved the Extremaduran army, and Cuesta’s
enterprise have seized the advantages which were
presented to that of La Carolina.
If severe measures could have restored discipline,
they were not wanting; and they were used with such
Reforms in the effect as for a time to stop desertion. One essential
Spanish army. reform was introduced. All the infantry officers were
till this time mounted, and this practice occasioned a
great consumption of forage when forage could hardly
be obtained for the cavalry; it led also to these farther
inconveniences, that the march of the columns was
never conducted as it ought, for want of the
immediate presence and attention of the officers; and
that in case of retreat the mounted officer had a
facility for expediting his escape which might operate
as a dangerous temptation upon such officers in such
times. No general could have ventured upon this
needful reformation without drawing upon himself the
ill-will of those whom it affected; the Junta, however,
sent orders that no person in the infantry under the
rank of major (except the adjutant) should be allowed
a horse. This was done by British advice; and if there
had been no more jealousy of the British in inferior
agents than existed in the Central Junta, the cordial
co-operation of the two nations would have met with
no obstruction.
The Duque de The most efficient arm of Cartaojal’s force was the
Alburquerque. cavalry. It had been under the Marquez de Palacios,
who had the reputation of being the best cavalry
 officer in Spain, and was at this time commanded by
the Duque de Alburquerque, D. Jose Maria de la
Cueva. This nobleman, then in his thirty-fifth year,
united in his own person many of those names which
are most illustrious in Spanish history, and he had
inherited also in no diminished portion the best and
noblest qualities of that proud ancestry. His education
had been neglected, so that his mind was not stored
like Romana’s, neither was it equally under self-
government. But his military talents were such as to
impress upon all who knew him the belief that if
experience and opportunity had been afforded, he
would have ranked among the great captains of the
age: for he was ardent without being incautious,
capable alike of planning with clear forethought and
executing with celerity, far-sighted, prompt in
decision, and above all endowed with that true and
rare nobility of soul which is essential to true
greatness.
He proposes A man of this stamp wins the love of the soldiery
offensive as certainly as he obtains their confidence. Hope
operations. became their ruling passion when Alburquerque was
present; and their success in some enterprises, and
the skill with which their commander baffled the
movements of the enemy in others, gave the fairest
prospect of success if the system of enterprise were
persevered in. In pursuance of that system, and with
the intention of making a diversion in favour of
Cuesta, against whom there was reason to believe
that the French were preparing a serious attack, the
Duke proposed to advance upon Toledo, where they
had 4000 foot and 1500 horse, with 12,000 or 15,000
infantry, 4000 horse, and twenty pieces of horse
artillery; and perceiving but too well that his
reputation and popularity were regarded with jealous
 eyes, he advised that the expedition should be not
under his own command, but that of a superior
officer; and he represented to Cartaojal that the
object of forming and disciplining the raw troops
would be carried on more certainly and securely while
that part of the army which was fit for service
occupied the enemy by harassing and keeping them
on the alarm. The plan was too bold for one of
Cartaojal’s temper; he saw the necessity of training
the army, and did not consider that enterprise is the
best training, and the only, that can be carried on
within reach of an active enemy. He ordered him,
however, to advance with 2000 horse and four pieces
of artillery; and the Duke felt that, as an attempt
made with such a force could only end in a precipitate
retreat, the intention must be to wreck his reputation
by exposing him to certain failure.
They are His representations, however, to the Junta were so
undertaken well seconded, that instructions came for advancing
when too late. upon Toledo with all the disposable force of the army.
But when Cartaojal communicated this to the Duke,
he ordered him to deliver up the command of the
vanguard to D. Juan Bernuy, and march himself
immediately with Bassecourt’s and Echavarri’s
divisions of 3500 men and 200 cavalry for Guadalupe,
The Duke sent to reinforce Cuesta. It was sufficiently mortifying for
to join Cuesta. the Duke to be removed from the cavalry which had
acquired credit and confidence while he was at their
head, and this too at the moment when the measure
which he had so strenuously urged was about to be
undertaken; but it was more painful to know that the
attempt had been delayed till there was no longer any
reasonable prospect of success. With the little body of
new-raised infantry which was now placed under his
command he began his march for Extremadura, and
 the ill-fated army of La Carolina commenced its
operations at a moment when it was thus deprived of
the only General who possessed its confidence.
Cartaojal The head-quarters of that army were at Ciudad
advances Real, the cavalry occupying a line from Manzanares to
against the that city through Damiel, Torralva, and Carrion, and
French.
the infantry in the towns to the left and in the rear of
Valdepenas. Cartaojal thought this a most
advantageous position, having the Sierra Morena
behind him as a sure refuge if he were defeated,
whereas the enemy, were they to be repulsed in an
attack, would be exposed in the open plains, and have
to cross the Zeucara and the Guadiana in their flight.
Having advanced to Yebenes, and found the French
ready to advance themselves, Cartaojal retreated
upon Consuegra; that place, to his surprise, was
occupied by the enemy in great strength: he fell back,
therefore, to his former position, in the advantage of
which he trusted, ... and there, eight and forty hours
after he had commenced this useless and harassing
movement, the French appeared in pursuit, drove in
his cavalry, and prepared to attack him in force on the
following morning. They were commanded by General
Sebastiani, who had superseded Marshal Lefebvre.
Rout of the The action which ensued is, even upon their own
Carolina army accounts, disgraceful to both parties; to the
at Ciudad Spaniards, because they were successively driven
Real. from every point where they attempted to stand, and
pursued to the entrance of the Sierra; to the
March 17. conquerors, because Sebastiani stated in his official
report that the Spaniards fled on the first charge
without resistance, and that he had sabred more than
3000 of them in their flight. Eighteen pieces of
cannon, and 4000 prisoners, including nearly 200
officers, were, according to the same report, taken.
 The fugitives felt a confidence in the Sierra which they
had not done in their General, and collected in
considerable numbers at Despeñaperros, Venta
Quemada, and Montizon; head-quarters were
established in the village of S. Elena, two leagues in
advance of Carolina, and the French, without pursuing
them into the mountains, halted at Santa Cruz,
awaiting there the success of Victor’s operations
against Cuesta.
Operations of Marshal Victor’s corps, leaving La Mancha about
Marshal Victor. the middle of the preceding month, occupied a line
upon the Tagus from Talavera to Almaraz; his head-
quarters were at the latter place, where he was
preparing materials for a floating bridge, Cuesta
having blown up the arches of the Puente de Almaraz.
A bridge was necessary here, because, though they
could have crossed the river at two other points, there
was no road from either of those points practicable for
artillery. But the bridge could not be constructed while
the Spaniards occupied a post which effectually
commanded the passage. Cuesta was aware of these
preparations, and also that there was an intention of
passing over a detachment higher up to attack him on
that flank; accordingly he reinforced it, and removed
his head-quarters from Jaraicejo to Puerto de
Miravete, that he might be near the scene of
operations.
The French The French detachment, as he had foreseen,
cross the effected their passage at Puente del Arzobispo, or the
Puente del Archbishop’s Bridge, so called from its founder, D.
Arzobispo.
Pedro Tenorio. A wooden bridge which existed in his
days had been swept away by a flood; and as it was
March 16. there that pilgrims from the western side of the river
passed to pay their devotions to the famous image of
our Lady of Guadalupe, he built the present edifice of
 stone, and founded an hospital for their
accommodation, and a town, which he named Villa
Franca, but which soon took its appellation more
conveniently from the bridge. It became a point of
considerable importance in the campaigns of this year.
The enemy crossed with little or no resistance, and
March 17. the advanced parties of the Spaniards fell back upon
the division which was stationed at La Mesa de Ibor,
and thence, after an unsuccessful stand, to the village
of Campillo, but in good order; their whole conduct
having been such as to satisfy the Commander-in-
chief, who occupied a strong position, and expected
that he should well be able to repel this division of the
enemy, while Camp-Marshal Henestrosa, with the
vanguard, would prevent their main body from
establishing their bridge at Almaraz.
Cuesta retreats But the French, who had crossed at Arzobispo,
from the Puerto after dislodging the Spaniards from their positions at
de Miravete. Mesa de Ibor and Fresnedoso, divided into two
columns; the one proceeded by the circuitous way of
Deleitosa and Torrecillas, with the intent of getting
into Cuesta’s rear, between Jaraicejo and Miravete,
and thus to cut off his communication and supplies;
the other marched by Valduaña toward the bridge of
Almaraz, to dislodge Henestrosa, and thereby free the
passage of the river. Cuesta’s army consisted of about
16,000 men; the French were little if at all superior in
numbers, but he believed that they had 20,000 foot
and 3000 cavalry; and learning that Henestrosa,
under the belief that his right was threatened by a
superior force, had withdrawn from his post, and that
the enemy had already begun to cross the Tagus, he
determined to retreat toward Truxillo, lest he should
be attacked at the same time both in the front and in
the rear. This brave old man was cautious when he
 ought to have been bold, and rash in enterprise when
March 18. he ought to have been cautious. Had Henestrosa been
supported in time (for there had been time enough to
support him), the ground was so strong, and the
Spaniards in such a temper, that the French could
hardly have reached the position at Miravete without
sustaining a loss severe enough to have crippled
them. In pursuance of this unwise resolution, on the
night of the 18th he began his retreat, with the
intention of forcing his way through the French corps,
which he expected to fall in with, and of taking up the
best position he could find for his own subsistence,
and for covering the frontiers of Andalusia. But by
thus abandoning an excellent position, he left
Extremadura open to a hungry enemy.
Skirmishes at When the Central Junta were informed of these
Truxillo and movements, they imputed the disastrous measure to
Miajadas. Henestrosa’s abandonment of his post, and ordered
Cuesta to proceed against him with all the rigour of
the law. But the old General, though disposed at first
to condemn him, was too generous to do this. He
replied that the Camp-Marshal had in all other cases
behaved well, and with a courage amounting to
rashness, and that in this he had acted only under an
error of judgement. He met with no enemies on his
night march, and halting in the morning beyond the
Rio Monte, learnt that the detachment which he had
expected to encounter was taking a direction for
Truxillo. To Truxillo he proceeded on his retreat, and,
leaving Henestrosa to cover that city, took up a
position at the Puerto de Santa Cruz, forty miles from
the stronger pass whence he had retreated. There it
was his intention to wait till it should be seen whether
Alburquerque’s division could effect its junction, and
whether it would make him equal to the enemy. On
 the following morning Henestrosa was attacked, and
March 20. driven to a little bridge on the other side of Truxillo:
there he repulsed the enemy, and the skirmishing
continued all day, with equal loss on either side, the
Spaniards behaving in such a manner as to increase
the General’s confidence in his troops. Cuesta
expected now to be attacked on the morrow, either in
front or on his left toward the village of Abertura, and
had made up his mind to abide an action. But
Cuesta’s resolutions were sometimes changed with as
little consideration as they had been taken, for he was
a man who acted more frequently upon the impulse
of the moment than upon reflection. The whole of
Victor’s force was collected at Truxillo; his advanced
parties kept the Spaniards upon the alarm as well as
the alert, and Cuesta then began to apprehend that
the Puerto de S. Cruz was not defensible against the
superior force that would be brought against him,
especially as the ground was not favourable for
cavalry. In the morning, therefore, he recommenced
his retreat, evidently not knowing whither, and with
no determined purpose, but in good order and in
good heart, for, injudicious and ruinous as all the late
movements had been, the men were not yet
dispirited. While he was halting near Miajadas to
refresh the troops, the chasseurs of the enemy’s
advanced guard approached near enough to expose
themselves; the advantage was well taken, and the
French Colonel tore his hair in an agony of grief when
Rocca, 93. he saw some hundred and fifty of his finest men cut
down. This success was obtained by the regiments of
Infante and Almanza. It raised the spirits of the men,
a feeling of useful emulation was showing itself, and
Cuesta formed the wise resolution (if he had been
steady enough in his purposes to have kept it) of
exercising them in various movements from one
 position to another, without exposing them in battle,
and thus detaining the enemy till Cartaojal’s advance
upon Toledo should operate as a diversion in his
favour. That same evening, therefore, he retired to
Medellin; and the next day, thinking it probable that if
he remained the French would attack him on the
morrow, he marched for Campanario, to join
Alburquerque, who with his little division was coming
by way of Aguda and Garbayuela. He did not,
however, remain there till the junction was effected,
but moved to Valle de la Serena, chiefly for the sake
of facilitating his supplies. Some magazines had fallen
into the enemy’s hands at Truxillo, one of the ill
consequences arising from his rash retreat; there was
no want of food in that as yet unravaged country, but
he complained to the government of the incapacity
and irregularity of all the persons employed in that
department, and protested that unless this evil was
remedied it would be impossible for him to maintain
discipline, or prevent dispersion.
Junction with The information which Cuesta received at this time,
Alburquerque’s that a train of heavy artillery had been sent from
division. Madrid toward Extremadura, made him apprehend the
chief object of the enemy was to lay siege to Badajoz.
The possession of that fortress was so important
toward the success of their operations against
Portugal, that this design had been apprehended as
soon as they became masters of the field, and the
Governor had been repeatedly charged to omit no
means for putting it in a good state of defence.
Forming a new plan in consequence of this, Cuesta
informed the Central Junta that he should annoy the
besiegers, and cut off their communication with
Madrid. But he had no sooner effected his junction
with Alburquerque than he determined upon seeking
 the enemy, and offering battle in the first favourable
situation. It was not the addition of strength which
induced him to this measure, for he had expected to
meet 6000 men, and had found little more than half
that number; ... but long irresolution usually ends in
some rash resolve.
Cuesta offers Having forsaken that strong ground, which, if it
battle at had been defended as well as it was wisely chosen,
Medellin. would have covered Extremadura, it was as much
Cuesta’s policy to have avoided an action now as it
had been then to have stood an attack, for he knew
that he might expect a British army to co-operate with
him. Sometimes as facile and vacillating as he was
obstinate and impracticable at others, no man was
more unfit to command an army in critical times; and
yet the honest originality of his character, his fearless
and buoyant spirit which nothing could cast down, his
energy which neither age nor infirmity had abated,
and the warmth of his heart as well as his temper,
had won for him in no common degree the
attachment not of the soldiers alone, but of those
even who perceived and lamented his errors. The
enemy at this time occupied Merida and Medellin: the
latter town, memorable as having been the birth-place
of Hernan Cortes, stands on the left bank of the
Guadiana, in a wide and open plain, without tree or
cover of any kind. On that plain Cuesta formed his
March 28. whole force in one line, of about a league in extent,
without any reserve, disdaining all advantage of
ground, as if he had desired nothing but a fair field
and mere individual courage were to decide the day.
His army consisted of 20,000 infantry and 2000
cavalry. The vanguard, under Henestrosa, and the
Duque del Parque’s division, formed the left, which
Cuesta took under his own charge, as being placed on
 the highest ground, from whence he could overlook
the field. The centre was under D. Francisco de Trias.
D. Francisco de Eguia, who was second in command,
was with the right wing, which consisted of the
Marques de Portago’s division and Alburquerque’s, the
Duke having with him his own horse. The cavalry
were on the left, that being the point where the
French presented the greatest force.
Battle of Victor’s army consisted of about 18,000 foot and
Medellin. 2500 horse. He had collected his whole force there,
for the purpose of striking an efficient blow, and
destroying, if that were possible, the Spanish army, in
pursuance of the murderous system upon which he
had been instructed to act. They were formed in an
arc between the Guadiana and a cultivated ravine
which extends from Medellin to the village of
Mengabril; Lasalle’s division of light cavalry on the
left, the division of German infantry in the centre, in
large close columns; the dragoons under General
Latour-Maubourg on the right, the divisions of Villate
and Ruffin in reserve; their front was covered by six
batteries of four guns each. The action began about
eleven o’clock. These batteries opened on the Spanish
infantry, who were ordered by Cuesta to charge with
the bayonet and take them. The order was bravely
obeyed; two regiments of French dragoons charged
the foot, and were repulsed with loss: the German
division formed itself into a square, and resisted with
such difficulty the resolute attack of the Spaniards,
that Cuesta was in full hope of a complete victory, and
Victor not without apprehensions of a defeat, till part
of his reserve succeeded in enabling his infantry to
keep their ground. The Spaniards on the left had
taken the first battery; a strong body of horse,
protected by a column of infantry, advanced to
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