9. Tales of Secret Service (25)
Worth a Brigade to Wellington
The Marshal thought that he had a fine opportunity for extracting information by finesse, and with feigned courtesy invited Grant to dine with him. He turned the conversation on to various topics: the character of Lord Wellington, the strong and weak points of the British army, its losses at the recent capture of Badajoz, and former exploits of Grant himself. To his surprise the prisoner found himself credited with several wholly apocryphal feats, e.g. that he had recently slept in the French headquarters under a disguise. He gradually got to understand that he was being confused with another Grant, also (as Napier remarks) a very remarkable man in his line, who had been wont to pervade all Spain under various assumed characters. “What the peculiar features of the character of this person —Lieutenant John Grant, of the 2nd [Veteran] Battalion—may have been”, writes McGrigor, “I cannot take upon me to describe. But he and Colquhoun Grant were at opposite poles in the estimation of the Spaniards. My brother-in-law they designated ‘Granto el Bueno’, the other ‘Granto el Malo’.”
The prisoner gradually came to see that he was being accused, in a bantering sort of way, of exploits contrary to the laws of war, and even to the laws of honour, and that it was little use disclaiming them. The conversation was continually turning on Wellington’s next move after the capture of Badajoz. Grant, who knew that his chief was at that moment marching on Sabugal with seven divisions at his back, had the greatest difficulty in putting questions aside and giving no hint of his knowledge. At the end of the dinner Marmont, finding that he could get nothing out of his guest, asked him whether he would give his word of honour not to attempt escape, or be put under strict confinement. Grant gave his parole.
As they were breaking up the Marshal remarked that he should be very grateful for the red coat on his back: but for that he would have suffered the penalty of the spy—a gallows twenty feet high.
Only just in time, for Wellington was now within a day’s march of him with a very superior force, Marmont retreated hastily on Salamanca. On his arrival there Grant was not treated at all as an officer on parole: a sentry was placed at his door, and a French captain was billeted with him, and seldom let him out of sight. Nevertheless, the prisoner contrived to send more than one secret missive to Wellington, with news as to the disposition of Marmont’s army.
McGrigor says that Wellington, to whom he was making daily reports on his department, was continually harping on the subject of Grant’s captivity. “He was worth a brigade to me; I wish he had not given his parole. If he had not done so, I should have offered a high reward to the guerrilla chiefs for his rescue.” A day after he observed: “Grant is really an extraordinary fellow. What think you of him, at this moment, when a prisoner, sending me information?” And therewith he showed two twisted scraps of paper, which, he said, a peasant had brought in that morning, and added: “The information, coming from Grant, I know will be correct, and is most valuable.’ He then read me a courteous reply to a letter which he had written to Marshal Marmont, offering to give in exchange for Grant any officer of the rank of colonel; he had several of them ready after the fall of Badajoz.”
Marmont in his answer promised an exchange, and added some polite remarks about the pleasure that it would give him to oblige an adversary of merit. After reading it, McGrigor expressed joy at the likelihood of seeing his brother-in-law in no long time. “Don’t you believe it”, said Wellington. “There is not a word of truth in his promise, for here I hold a dispatch from him to the Minister of War at Paris, which has been intercepted by Don Julian.”
It described Grant as a mischievous spy, who was being sent to France under a strong escort, and recommended him to the strictest surveillance of the police. This is undoubtedly the letter which I found myself among the Scovell papers, though it is signed by Lamartinière, Marmont’s Chief of Staff, and not by the Marshal himself.
To obtain a deluxe leatherbound edition of STUDIES ON THE NAPOLEONIC WARS, subscribe to Castalia History.