age on the Adour, called Beaucauld. He was good
enough to name me to the command of the village; which honour I did not
hold for many days, for the famous sortie from Bayonne took place soon
after, and the general was made prisoner.

SIR JOHN WATERS

Amongst the distinguished men in the Peninsular war whom my memory
brings occasionally before me, is the well-known and highly popular
Quartermaster General Sir John Waters, who was born at Margam, a Welsh
village in Glamorganshire. He was one of those extraordinary persons
that seem created by kind nature for particular purposes; and, without
using the word in an offensive sense, he was the most admirable spy
that was ever attached to an army. One would almost have thought that
the Spanish war was entered upon and carried on in order to display his
remarkable qualities. He could assume the character of Spaniards of
every degree and station, so as to deceive the most acute of those whom
he delighted to imitate. In the posada of the village he was hailed by
the contrabandist or the muleteer as one of their own race; in the gay
assemblies he was an accomplished hidalgo; at the bull-fight the
toreador received his congratulations as from one who had encountered
the toro in the arena; in the church he would converse with the friar
upon the number of Ave Marias and Pater-nosters which could lay a
ghost, or tell him the history of everyone who had perished by the
flame of the Inquisition, relating his crime, whether carnal or
anti-Catholic; and he could join in the seguadilla or in the guaracha.
But what rendered him more efficient than all was his wonderful power
of observation and accurate description, which made the information he
gave so reliable and valuable to the Duke of Wellington. Nothing
escaped him. When amidst a group of persons, he would minutely watch
the movement, attitude, and expression of every individual that
composed it; in the scenery by which he was surrounded he would
carefully mark every object:--not a tree, not a bush, not a large
stone, escaped his observation; and it was said that in a cottage he
noted every piece of crockery on the shelf, every domestic utensil, and
even the number of knives and forks that were got ready for use at
dinner. His acquaintance with the Spanish language was marvellous; from
the finest works of Calderon to the ballads in the patois of every
province, he could quote, to the infinite delight of those with whom