Tall Talking.
The
Spaniards are reported to be the most superb boasters that ever existed.
The very character of their language, with its long and sonorous words, and its sounding phrases, seems to encourage the spirit of gasconade.
No people can talk so magnificently about small affairs, or utter quibbles in heroics, so naturally, so gracefully, with so much gravity, and with effects so immutably ludicrous.--When speaking of their own achievements, they ascend into the very seventh heaven of invention, and nothing in fable is so marvellous as what they make out of the simplest occurrences of the day.
They had peculiar opportunities to indulge this vein during their long war with the first
Napoleon, and they did not neglect a single one of them.
Never since troops first trod the field of battle were such prodigies of valor performed; never were such fearful odds so fearlessly encountered; never were such unparalleled victories gained; never such piles of slaughter beheld; never such numbers of trophies and prisoners won from a conquered foe as the
Spanish generals constantly reported to the Cortez, the Cortez to
England, and the
English newspapers to the world.
Foreign nations were for a time completely deceived — for a time believed the
Spanish soldiers the heroes they represented themselves to be — and refused to listen to the
French, who asserted that, so far from performing all these prodigies of valor in very truth, the
Spanish armies scarcely dared look the bronzed veterans of the
Rhine and the
Danube in the face, and invariably fled like sheep whenever dispositions were made to give them the charge.
There were many Spanish rhodomontade generals at that day, the least of whom deserved to have his history written by
Cervantes, that inimitable master of the ludicrous in action.
The have all had their day, and have been sung by better men than we. "But one we would select from that proud throng" because of his infinite and inexpressible superiority to all others in that profession, in which they all so far surpassed the rest of mankind.
This is the
Conde de Belvidere, a young nobleman, who, on
Napoleon's advance in 1808, headed that division of the
Spanish army directly opposed to the column that marched under the orders of
Marshal Soult.--This division
Soult found drawn up in order of battle at Gamonæ, immediately in front of the ancient town of
Burgos, which it was its mission to defend.
He thought so little of any resistance it was likely to make that he ordered the attack to be made almost without halting, and certainly without dismounting from the post-horse which he was riding — for he had travelled fast to overtake his army, and had found it in presence of the enemy.
The effect was instantaneous.
The
Spaniards, to the number of 20,000, threw away their arms, knapsacks, and everything calculated to impede their flight; broke into a thousand fragments, scattered to all the quarters of the compass, and fled faster than the wild deer of the mountains,
Belvidere himself leading the way, and keeping far in advance of the most fleet- footed.
For four days this heroic chief continued to run, and at the end of four days he found time to write to the Cortez, and to inform them that he had been attacked by an overwhelming force, had stood his ground for twenty-four hours, slaying a prodigious number of the foe, had then commenced falling slowly back, and had retired, fighting all the way, to the place from which he dated, and which was about one hundred miles from the field of battle!
At that moment
Col. Napier expressed the belief that there was not a Spanish soldiers within twenty miles of
Belvidere.
We said this story could not be surpassed — and we are sure it could not, at least in
Spain.
But the
Yankees beat the Spaniards as far in romancing as the Spaniards beat the rest of the world.--Here, for instance, is a Yankee description of the disgraceful flight of the
Yankees at
Kernstown, in the late action at that place:
"The battle which was fought at this place lasted all day; that is, the engagement which was here commenced was continued until dark, the enemy in the meantime having, by force of numbers, driven our men to within six miles of
Martinsburg.
"Soon after the opening of the engagement, as it promised to be a serious one, the commanding general made every possible preparation to make a stand and fight it out on the spot.
But this was soon found to be impracticable, because no sooner had we formed our lines than the enemy's superiority in numbers gave him the very easy advantage of outflanking us.
"As we, from time to time, changed position, (the firing both with musketry and cannon being at the same time continued with all our effective force,) the enemy moved up. Every possible resistance for each new and further advance was presented.
The rebels fought with great obstinacy, and so did we. They made dash after dash with their cavalry to turn our flanks, but did not succeed.
Some of the charges which they made were promptly rendered sportive.
But in one grand charge which they executed, and in which it was estimated that from twenty to twenty-five thousand troops participated, we lost heavily in prisoners.
Besides these, we lost either four pieces or a whole battery of artillery.
This charge decided the work of the day. Our commanders saw they could do nothing against the overwhelming odds against them, and resolved to fall back slowly.
"In the charge referred to, it is true, our lines were for a few minutes broken, during which time the rebels took the prisoners and artillery; but the
Union troops rallied again, and
Averill's cavalry covered their unwilling retirement.
"The day's operations closed with each party in line of battle, the rebels advancing with bold front and our men falling back in good and perfect order."
This is communicated in a letter to
the New York
Herald, and may be regarded as one of the most sublime of all its numberless inventions.
Our readers have not forgotten the actual occurrences of that conflict — for
Kernstown must be meant, since there has been no other battle in that vicinity.
The cowardly scoundrels fled before our line could be formed.
None but our skirmishers came in contact with them, and the skirmishers alone had the honor of routing them, if it can be esteemed an honor to rout such a gang of arrant cowards.
They fled through
Winchester without looking to the right or left, and with the
Confederates chasing them, as hounds chase a deer or a hare.
They threw away their weapons, almost to a man, and our troops gathered them in by thousands.
Few prisoners were made.
Few
could have been made unless
General Early had been furnished with a pack of greyhounds.
They ran thirty- eight miles without stopping, and here is the account of their exploit.
Truly,
Belvidere is outdone!
