The following day, the twenty-second, Palafox said to the messenger who
came under a flag of truce from Moncey to propose terms of surrender.
"_I do not know how to surrender. After death, we will talk about
that._"
He followed this with a long and eloquent article which was published
in the "Gazette;" but, according to general opinion, neither that
document nor any of the proclamations which appeared with the signature
of the commanding general were his own composition, but that of his
friend, Basilio Boggiero, a man of great judgment, who was often seen
in situations of danger, in the company of patriots and military
leaders.
It is excusable to say that the army of the defence was very much
inspired by the glorious action of the twenty-first. It was necessary
to give expression to this ardor, to arrange a sortie, and so in effect
it was done; but it happened that all wished to take part in this at
the same time, and it was necessary to bury the dead. The sorties,
arranged with prudence, were expedient; because the French, extending
their lines around the city, were preparing for a regular siege, and
had begun upon their outer works.
The district of Saragossa contained many people, which seemed to the
common mind a great advantage, but which seemed to the intelligent a
great danger, because of the immense destruction of human life which
hunger would quickly bring,--hunger, that terrible general who is
always the conqueror of overcrowded besieged cities. Because of this
excess of people, the sorties were timely.
Renovales made one on the twenty-fourth with the troops of the fortress
of San José, and cut down an olive grove which hid the works of the
enemy.
Don John O'Neill made a sally from the suburb on the twenty-fifth with
the volunteers of Aragon and Huesca, taking the chance of advantage
from the enemy's lack of preparation, and killing many of the enemy's
men.
On the thirty-first was made the most telling sally of all, striking in
two distinct places and with considerable forces. During the early part
of the day we had divided to perfection the works of the first French
parallel, thrown up about three hundred and twenty yards from the
walls. They were working actively, not resting by night, and we could
see that they had signals of colored lanterns along the whole line.
From time to time we discharged our guns, but we caused very little
destruction. If troops were especially needed for a reconnoissance,
they were despatched in less than no time.
The morning of the thirty-first arrived, and my battalion was charged
to be ready to march upon orders from Renovales to attack the enemy in
their centre, from the Torrero to the Muela road, while General Butron
did the same by the Bernardona, that is to say, by the French left,
sallying with sufficient forces of infantry and cavalry by the gates of
Sancho and Portillo.
In order to distract the attention of the French, the general commanded
that a battalion should be divided into skirmishing parties by the
Tenerias, calling the attention of the enemy in that direction. In the
mean time, with some of the soldiers of Olivenza and part of those of
Valencia, we advanced by the Madrid road straight towards the French
lines. The skirmishing parties were on both sides of the road when
the enemy became aware of our presence, and now we were quicker than
deer in doing up the first troop of French infantry which came to meet
us. Behind a half-ruined country house some fortifications had been
thrown up, and they began firing with good aim and much slaughter. For
an instant we remained undecided, then some twenty men of us flanked
the country house, while the rest followed the high road, pursuing the
fugitives; but Renovales dashed forward and led us on, cutting down and
bayoneting those who were defending the house. At the moment when we
set foot within the first defence I noticed that my rank was thinned
out. I saw some of my companions fall, breathing their last sighs. I
looked to my right, fearing not to find my beloved friend among the
living; but God had preserved him. Montoria and I were unharmed.
We could not spend much time in communicating to each other the
satisfaction that we felt at finding ourselves still alive, because
Renovales gave orders to follow on, in the direction of the line of
intrenchments that the French were raising. We abandoned the high road
and made a deflection, turning to the right with the intention of
joining the volunteers of Huesca, who were attacking by the Muela road.
It may be understood by what I have related that the French did not
expect that sortie, and that, taken completely unawares, they were
holding there, besides the scanty force that kept the works, the
engineers occupied in digging the trenches of the first parallel. We
attacked them vigorously, turning upon them a murderous fire, improving
the minutes well before the dreaded reinforcements should arrive. We
took prisoners those whom we met without arms; we shot those who had
them. We took the picks and spades,--all this with unequalled energy,
animating one another with fiery words, exalted above all by the
thought that they were watching us from the city.
In this attack we were fortunate, for while we were destroying those
at work on the intrenchments, the troops who had made the sortie on
the left were carrying on a successful struggle with the detachments
which the enemy had in the Bernardona. While the volunteers of Huesca,
the grenadiers of Palafox, and the Walloon guards defeated the French
infantry, the squadron of Numancia and Olivenza cavalry cautiously
emerged through the Puerta de Sancho, and making a wide détour
occupied the Alagon road on one side, and the Muela on the other,
exactly when the French drew back from the left to the centre, in need
of greater auxiliary forces. Finding themselves in their element, our
fiery cavalry sprang forward, destroying whatever was encountered in
the way, and then the disgraced infantry, who were fleeing towards
Torrero, fell, and were trampled underfoot.
In their dispersion, many fell beneath our bayonets, and if their
desire to flee from the horses was great, great also was our anxiety
to receive them in manner worthy of our swords. Some ran, throwing
themselves into the trenches, not being able to jump over them; others
surrendered at discretion, throwing down their arms; some defended
themselves with heroism, permitting themselves to be slain before
giving up; and at the last there failed not a few who, shutting
themselves up in the brick kiln filled up with boughs and timber,
set fire to it, preferring to die by roasting, rather than be taken
prisoners.
All this which I have related in detail passed in a very short
time, while the French commander, having seen enough in this hour,
detached sufficient forces to hold back and punish our too audacious
expedition. They beat the drum in Monte Torrero, and we saw a great
force of cavalry coming against us; but we who were with Renovales had
had our desire, the same as those with Butron, and were not obliged to
wait for those horsemen who arrived at the end of the action; so we
retired, giving them from a distance a "Good-day" of the most sharp and
pointed phrases in our vocabulary. We still had time to make useless
some pieces placed ready for employment on the following day. We took a
multitude of tools and spades, and we destroyed in all haste whatever
we could of their intrenchments without losing hold upon the dozens of
prisoners, of which we had taken up a collection.
Juan Pirli, one of our companions in the battalion, was carrying home
to Saragossa the steel helmet of an engineer for the admiration of the
public, and also a frying-pan in which were still the remnants of a
breakfast begun in camp before Saragossa and ended in the other world.
We had had nine killed and eight wounded in our battalion. When
Augustine rejoined me near the Carmen gate, I noticed that one of his
hands was stained with blood.
"Are you wounded?" I asked, examining the hand. "It is nothing more
than a scratch."
"It is a scratch," he replied; "but it was not made by ball, lance, nor
sabre, but by teeth, because when I gripped that Frenchman who lifted
up his pick to brain me, the damned fellow set his teeth into my hand
like a dog at bay."
When we entered the city, some by the Puerta del Carmen, some by the
Portillo, all the pieces of the redoubts and forts of Mediodia poured
a fire against the columns which were coming after us. The two sorties
combined had done damage enough to the French. In addition to losing
many men, a small part of their intrenchments had been made useless
to them, and we had possessed ourselves of a considerable number of
their tools. Besides this, the official engineers that Butron took with
him on that daring venture had had time to examine the works of the
besiegers, and measure them, and could give descriptions of them to the
commanding general.
The rampart wall was invaded by the people. They had heard within the
city the shooting of the skirmishes, and men and women, old people and
children had run out to see what glorious action was bulletined on the
plaza. We were received with exclamations of rejoicing, and from San
José all the way to the Trinitarios, the long line of men and women,
looking towards the battlefield, climbed upon the walls, and clapping
their hands at our arrival, waving their handkerchiefs, presented a
magnificent sight. After the cannon sounded, the redoubts together
poured a fire upon the field that we had just abandoned, and their
voices seemed a triumphal salvo, as it mingled with the huzzas and
shouts of joy.
In the surrounding houses, the windows and balconies were filled with
women, and the interest or curiosity of some of those in the streets
was such that they went into the hurrying crowd in numbers, and up to
the cannons, to congratulate the brave souls and soothe with kind words
their nerves, high strung with the noise of artillery, which is unlike
anything else in the world. It was necessary to command the multitude
to depart from the fortress at the Portillo. The crowd in the Santa
Engracia gave that place the aspect of a theatre, of a public festival.
The fire of the cannon ceased at last, having no more need to protect
our retreat, and the Castle Aljaferia alone sent an occasional shot
against the works of the enemy.
In reward for our action on that day it was granted us on the next to
wear a red ribbon on the breast by way of decoration; in justice to the
hazards of that sortie, Father Boggiero told us, among other things
uttered by the mouth of our general, "Yesterday you marked the last day
of the year with an action worthy of yourselves. At the sound of the
bugle your swords leaped from their scabbards and struck to the ground
haughty heads humbled by your valor and patriotism. Numantia! Olivenza!
I have now seen that your light horse will know how to preserve the
honor of this army and the enthusiasm of these sacred walls! Wear these
blood-stained swords that are the sign of your glory and the protection
of your country."