their depredations in the environs of Oropeza. The proprietors of the
three mules, on which M. Rodriguez, I, and my servant were riding one
evening in this neighbourhood, were recounting to us the "grand deeds"
of these robbers, which, even in full daylight, would have made the hair
of one's head stand on end, when, by the faint light of the moon, we
perceived a man hiding himself behind a tree; we were six, and yet this
sentry on horseback had the audacity to demand our purses or our lives:
my servant, at once answered him--"You must then believe us to be very
cowardly; take yourself off, or I will bring you down by one shot of my
carabine." "I will be off," returned the worthless fellow "but you will
soon hear news of me." Still full of fright at the remembrance of the
stories which they had just been relating, the three "arieros" besought
us to quit the high road and cast ourselves into a wood which was on our
left. We yielded to their proposal; but we lost our way. "Dismount,"
said they, "the mules have been obeying the bridle and you have directed
them wrongly. Let us retrace our way as far as the high road, and leave
the mules to themselves, they will well know how to find their right way
again." Scarcely had we effected this manoeuvre, which succeeded
marvellously well, when we heard a lively discussion taking place at a
short distance from us. Some were saying: "We must follow the high
road, and we shall meet with them." Others maintained that they must get
into the wood on the left. The barking of the dogs, by which these
individuals were accompanied, added to the tumult. During this time we
pursued our way silently, more dead than alive. It was two o'clock in
the morning. All at once we saw a faint light in a solitary house; it
was like a light-house for the mariner in the midst of the tempest, and
the only means of safety which remained to us. Arrived at the door of
the farm, we knocked and asked for hospitality. The inmates, very little
reassured, feared that we were thieves, and did not hurry themselves to
open to us.
Impatient at the delay, I cried out, as I had received authority to do
so, "In the name of the King, open to us!" They obeyed an order thus
given; we entered pell-mell, and in the greatest haste, men and mules,
into the kitchen, which was on the ground-floor; and we hurried to
extinguish the lights, in order not to awaken the suspicions of the
bandits who were seeking for us. Indeed, we heard them, passing and
repassing near the house, vociferating with the whole force of their
lungs against their unlucky fate. We did not quit this solitary house
until broad day, and we continued our route for Tortosa, not without
having given a suitable recompense to our hosts. I wished to know by
what providential circumstance they happened to have a lamp burning at
that unseasonable hour. "We had killed a pig," they told me, "in the
course of the day, and we were busy preparing the black puddings." Had
the pig lived one day more, or had there been no black puddings, I
should certainly have been no longer in this world, and I should not
have the opportunity to relate the story of the robbers of Oropeza.
Never could I better appreciate the intelligent measure by which the
constituent assembly abolished the ancient division of France into
provinces, and substituted its division into departments, than in
traversing for my triangulation the Spanish border kingdoms of
Catalonia, Valencia, and Aragon. The inhabitants of these three
provinces detested each other cordially, and nothing less than the bond
of a common hatred was necessary to make them act simultaneously against
France. Such was their animosity in 1807 that I could scarcely make use
at the same time of Catalonians, Aragons, and Valencians, when I moved
with my instruments from one station to another. The Valencians, in
particular, were treated by the Catalonians as a light, trifling,
inconsistent people. They were in the habit of saying to me, "_En el
reino de Valencia la carne es verdura, la verdura agua, los hombres
mugeres, las mugeres nada_"; which may be translated thus: "In the
kingdom of Valencia meat is a vegetable, vegetables are water, men are
women, and women nothing."
On the other hand, the Valencians, speaking of the Aragons, used to call
them "_schuros_."
Having asked of a herdsman of this province who had brought some goats
near to one of my stations, what was the origin of this denomination, at
which his compatriots showed themselves so offended:
"I do not know," said he, smiling cunningly at me, "whether I dare
answer you." "Go on, go on," I said to him, "I can hear anything without
being angry." "Well, the word _schuros_ means that, to our great shame,
we have sometimes been governed by French kings. The sovereign, before
assuming power, was bound to promise under oath to respect our freedom
and to articulate in a loud voice the solemn words _lo Juro!_ As he did
not know how to pronounce the J he said _schuro_. Are you satisfied,
señor?" I answered him, "Yes, yes. I see that vanity and pride are not
dead in this country."
Since I have just spoken of a shepherd, I will say that in Spain, the
class of individuals of both sexes destined to look after herds,
appeared to me always less further removed than in France, from the
pictures which the ancient poets have left us of the shepherds and
shepherdesses in their pastoral poetry. The songs by which they
endeavour to while away the tedium of their monotonous life, are more
remarkable in their form and substance than in the other European
nations to which I have had access. I never recollect without surprise,
that being on a mountain situated at the junction-point of the kingdoms
of Valencia, Aragon, and Catalonia, I was all at once overtaken by a
violent storm, which forced me to take refuge in my tent, and to remain
there squatting on the ground. When the storm was over and I came out
from my retreat, I heard, to my great astonishment, on an isolated peak
which looked down upon my station, a shepherdess who was singing a song
of which I only recollect these eight lines, which will give an idea of
the rest:--
* * * * *
A los que amor no saben
Ofreces las dulzuras
Y a mi las amarguras
Que s'e lo quo es amar.
Las gracias al me certé
Eran cuadro de flores
Te cantaban amores
Por hacerte callar.
Oh! how much sap there is in this Spanish nation! What a pity that they
will not make it yield fruit!
In 1807, the tribunal of the Inquisition existed still at Valencia, and
at times performed its functions. The reverend fathers, it is true, did
not burn people, but they pronounced sentences in which the ridiculous
contended with the odious. During my residence in this town, the holy
office had to busy itself about a pretended sorceress; it doomed her to
go through all quarters of the town astride on an ass, her face turned
towards the tail, and naked down to the waist. Merely to observe the
commonest rules of decency, the poor woman had been plastered with a
sticky substance, partly honey, they told me, to which adhered an
enormous quantity of little feathers, so that to say the truth, the
victim resembled a fowl with a human head. The procession, whether
attended by a crowd I leave it to be imagined, stationed itself for some
time in the cathedral square, where I lived. I was told that the
sorceress was struck on the back a certain number of blows with a
shovel; but I do not venture to affirm this, for I was absent at the
moment when this hideous procession passed before my windows.
We thus see, however, what sort of spectacles were given to the people
in the commencement of the nineteenth century, in one of the principal
towns of Spain, the seat of a celebrated university, and the native
country of numerous citizens distinguished by their knowledge, their
courage, and their virtues. Let not the friends of humanity and of
civilization disunite; let them form, on the contrary, an indissoluble
union, for superstition is always on the watch, and waits for the moment
again to seize its prey.
I have mentioned in the course of my narrative that two Carthusians
often left their convent in the _Desierto de las Palmas_, and came,
though prohibited, to see me at my station, situated about two hundred
metres higher. A few particulars will give an idea of what certain monks
were, in the Peninsula, in 1807.
One of them, Father Trivulce, was old; the other was very young. The
former, of French origin, had played a part at Marseilles, in the
counter-revolutionary events of which this town was the theatre, at the
commencement of our first revolution. His part had been a very active
one; one might see the proof of this in the scars of sabre cuts which
furrowed his breast. It was he who was the first to come. When he saw
his young comrade march up, he hid himself; but as soon as the latter
had fully entered into conversation with me, Father Trivulce showed
himself all at once. His appearance had the effect of Medusa's head.
"Reassure yourself," said he to his young compeer; "only let us not
denounce each other, for our prior is not a man to pardon us for having
come here and infringed our vow of silence, and we should both receive a
punishment, the recollection of which would long remain." The treaty was
at once concluded, and from that day forward the two Carthusians came
very often to converse with me.
The youngest of our two visitors was an Aragonian, his family had made
him a monk against his will. He related to me one day, before M. Biot,
(then returned from Tarragon, where he had taken refuge to get cured of
his fever,) some particulars which, according to him, proved that in
Spain there was no longer more than the ghost of religion. These details
were mostly borrowed from the secrets of confession. M. Biot manifested
sharply the displeasure which this conversation caused him; there were
even in his language some words which led the monk to suppose that M.
Biot took him for a kind of spy. As soon as this suspicion had entered
his mind, he quitted us without saying a word, and the next morning I
saw him come up early, armed with a light gun. The French monk had
preceded him, and had whispered in my ear the danger that threatened my
companion. "Join with me," he said, "to turn the young Aragonian monk
from his murderous project." I need scarcely say that I employed myself
with ardour in this negotiation, in which I had the happiness to
succeed. There were here, as must be seen, the materials for a chief of
_guerilleros_. I should be much astonished if my young monk did not play
his part in the war of independence.
The anecdote which I am about to relate will amply prove that religion
was, with the Carthusian monks of the _Desierto de las Palmas_, not the
consequence of elevated sentiments, but a mere compound of superstitious
practices.
The scene with the gun, always present to my mind, seemed to make it
clear to me that the Aragon monk, if actuated by his passions, would be
capable of the most criminal actions. Hence, I had a very disagreeable
impression when one Sunday, having come down to hear mass, I met this
monk, who, without saying a word, conducted me by a series of dark
corridors into a chapel where the daylight penetrated only by a very
small window. There I found Father Trivulce, who prepared himself to say
mass for me alone. The young monk assisted. All at once, an instant
before the consecration, Father Trivulce, turning towards me, said these
exact words: "We have permission to say mass with white wine; we
therefore make use of that which we gather from our own vines: this wine
is very good. Ask the prior to let you taste it, when on leaving this
you go to breakfast with him. For the rest, you can assure yourself this
instant of the truth of what I say to you." And he presented me the
goblet to drink from. I resisted strongly, not only because I considered
it indecent to give this invitation in the middle of the mass, but
because, besides, I must own I conceived the thought for a moment that
the monks wished, by poisoning me, to revenge themselves on me for M.
Biot having insulted them. I found that I was mistaken, that my
suspicions had no foundation; for Father Trivulce went on with the
interrupted mass, drank, and drank largely, of the white wine contained
in one of the goblets. But when I had got out of the hands of the two
monks, and was able to breathe the pure air of the country, I
experienced a lively satisfaction.
The right of asylum accorded to some churches was one of the most
obnoxious privileges among those of which the revolution of 1789 rid
France. In 1807, this right still existed in Spain, and belonged, I
believe, to all the cathedrals. I learnt, during my stay at Barcelona,
that there was, in a little cloister contiguous to the largest church of
the town, a brigand,--a man guilty of several assassinations, who lived
quietly there, guaranteed against all pursuit by the sanctity of the
place. I wished to assure myself with my own eyes of the reality of the
fact, and I went with my friend Rodriguez into the little cloister in
question. The assassin was then eating a meal which a woman had just
brought him. He easily guessed the object of our visit, and made
immediately such demonstrations as convinced us that, if the asylum was
safe for the robber, it would not be so long for us. We retired at once,
deploring that, in a country calling itself civilized, there should
still exist such crying, such monstrous abuses.
In order to succeed in our geodesic operations, to obtain the
cöoperation of the inhabitants of the villages near our stations, it was
desirable for us to be recommended to the priests. We went,
therefore,--M. Lanusse, the French Vice-Consul, M. Biot, and I,--to pay
a visit to the Archbishop of Valencia, to solicit his protection. This
archbishop, a man of very tall figure, was then chief of the
Franciscans; his costume more than negligent, his gray robe, covered
with tobacco, contrasted with the magnificence of the archiepiscopal
palace. He received us with kindness, and promised us all the
recommendations we desired; but, at the moment of taking leave of him,
the whole affair seemed to be spoiled. M. Lanusse and M. Biot went out
of the reception room without kissing the hand of his grace, although he
had presented it to each of them very graciously. The archbishop
indemnified himself on my poor person. A movement, which was very near
breaking my teeth, a gesture which I might justly call a blow of the
fist, proved to me that the chief of the Franciscans, notwithstanding
his vow of humility, had taken offence at the want of ceremony in my
fellow visitors. I was going to complain of the abrupt way in which he
had treated me, but I had the necessities of our trigonometrical
operations before my eyes, and I was silent.
Besides this, at the instant when the closed fist of the archbishop was
applied to my lips, I was still thinking of the beautiful optical
experiments which it would have been possible to make with the
magnificent stone which ornamented his pastoral ring. This idea, I must
frankly declare, had preoccupied me during the whole of the visit.
M. Biot having at last come to seek me again at Valencia, where I
expected, as I have before said, some new instruments, we went on to
Formentera, the southern extremity of our arc, of which place we
determined the latitude. M. Biot quitted me afterwards to return to
Paris, whilst I made the geodesical junction of the island of Majorca to
Iviza, and to Formentera, obtaining thus, by means of one single
triangle, the measure of an arc of parallel of one degree and a half.
I then went to Majorca, to measure there the latitude and the azimuth.
At this epoch, the political fermentation, engendered by the entrance of
the French into Spain, began to invade the whole Peninsula and the
islands dependent on it. This ferment had as yet in Majorca only reached
to the ministers, the partisans, and the relations of the Prince of
Peace. Each evening, I saw, drawn in triumph in the square of Palma, the
capital of the island of Majorca, on carriages, the effigies in flames,
sometimes of the minister Soller, another time those of the bishop, and
even those of private individuals supposed to be attached to the
fortunes of the favourite Godoï. I was far from suspecting then that my
turn would soon arrive.
My station at Majorca, the _Clop de Galazo_, a very high mountain, was
situated exactly over the port where _Don Jayme el Conquistator_
disembarked when he went to deliver the Balearic Islands from the Moors.
The report spread itself through the population that I had established
myself there in order to favour the arrival of the French army, and that
every evening I made signals to it. But these reports had nothing
menacing until the moment of the arrival at Palma, the 27th of May,
1808, of an ordnance officer from Napoleon. This officer was M.
Berthémie; he carried to the Spanish squadron, at Mahon, the order to go
in all haste to Toulon. A general rising, which placed the life of this
officer in danger, followed the news of his mission. The Captain-General
Vivés only saved his life by shutting him up in the strong castle of
Belver. They then bethought themselves of the Frenchman established on
the _Clop de Galazo_, and formed a popular expedition to go and seize
him.
M. Damian, the owner of a small kind of vessel called a Mistic, which
the Spanish Government had placed at my disposal, was beforehand with
them, and brought me a costume by means of which I disguised myself. In
directing myself towards Palma, in company with this brave seaman, we
met with the rioters who were going in search of me. They did not
recognize me, for I spoke Majorcan perfectly. I strongly encouraged the
men of this detachment to continue their route, and I pursued my way
towards Palma. At night I went on board the Mistic, commanded by Don
Manuel de Vacaro, whom the Spanish Government had placed under my
orders. I asked this officer if he would conduct me to Barcelona,
occupied by the French, promising him that if they made any attempt to
keep him there, I would at once return and surrender myself a prisoner.
Don Manuel, who up to this time had shown extreme obsequiousness towards
me, had now no words but those of rudeness and distrust. There occurred
on the pier where the Mistic was moored a riotous movement, which Vacaro
assured me was directed against me. "Do not be uneasy," said he to me;
"if they should penetrate into the vessel you can hide yourself in this
trunk." I made the attempt; but the chest which he showed me was so
small that my legs were entirely outside, and the cover could not be
shut down. I understood perfectly what that meant, and I asked M. Vacaro
to let me also be shut up in the castle of Belver. The order for
incarceration having arrived from the captain-general, I got into the
boat, where the sailors of the Mistic received me with emotion.
At the moment of their crossing the harbour the populace perceived me,
commenced a pursuit, and it was not without much difficulty that I
reached Belver safe and sound. I had only, indeed, received on my way
one slight wound from a dagger in the thigh. Prisoners have often been
seen to run with all speed _from_ their dungeon; I am the first,
perhaps, to whom it has happened to do the reverse. This took place on
the 1st or 2d of June, 1808.
The governor of Belver was a very extraordinary personage. If he is
still alive he may demand of me a certificate as to his priority to the
modern hydropathists; the grenadier-captain maintained that pure water,
suitably administered, was a means of treatment for all illnesses, even
for amputations. By listening very patiently to his theories, and never
interrupting him, I won his good opinion. It was at his request, and
from interest in our safety, that a Swiss garrison replaced the Spanish
troop which until then had been employed as the guard of Belver. It was
also through him that I one day learnt that a monk had proposed to the
soldiers who went to bring my food from the town, to put some poison
into one of the dishes.
All my old Majorcan friends had abandoned me at the moment of my
detention. I had had a very sharp correspondence with Don Manuel de
Vacaro in order to obtain the restitution of the passport of safety
which the English Admiralty had granted to us. M. Rodriguez alone
ventured to visit me in full daylight, and bring me every consolation in
his power.
The excellent M. Rodriguez, to while away the monotony of my
incarceration, remitted to me from time to time the journals which were
then published at different parts of the Peninsula. He often sent them
to me without reading them. Once I saw in these journals the recital of
the horrible massacres of which the town of Valencia--I make a mistake,
the _square of the Bull-fights_--had been the theatre, and in which
nearly the whole of the French established in this town (more than 350)
had disappeared under the pike of the bull-fighter. Another journal
contained an article bearing this title: "Relacion de la ahorcadura del
señor Arago e del señor Berthémie,"--literally, "Account of the
execution of M. Arago and M. Berthémie." This account spoke of the two
executed men in very different terms. M. Berthémie was a Huguenot; he
had been deaf to all exhortations; he had spit in the face of the
ecclesiastic who was present, and even on the image of Christ. As for
me, I had conducted myself with much decency, and had allowed myself to
be hung without giving rise to any scandal. The writer also expressed
his regret that a young astronomer had been so weak as to associate
himself with treason, coming under the disguise of science to assist the
entrance of the French army into a friendly kingdom.
After reading this article I immediately made my decision: "Since they
talk of my death," said I to my friend Rodriguez, "the event will not be
long in coming. I should prefer being drowned to being hung. I will make
my escape from this fortress; it is for you to furnish me with the
means."
Rodriguez, knowing better than any one how well founded my apprehensions
were, set himself at once to the work.
He went to the captain-general, and made him feel what would be the
danger of his position if I should disappear in a popular riot, or even
if he were forced to give me up. His observations were so much the
better comprehended, as no one could then predict what might be the
issue of the Spanish revolution. "I will undertake," said the
captain-general Vivés to my colleague Rodriguez, "to give an order to
the commander of the fortress, that when the right moment arrives, he
shall allow M. Arago, and even the two or three other Frenchmen who are
with him in the castle of Belver, to pass out. They will then have no
need of the means of escape which they have procured; but I will take no
part in the preparations which will become necessary to enable the
fugitives to leave the island; I leave all that to your responsibility."
Rodriguez immediately conferred secretly with the brave commander
Damian. It was agreed between them that Damian should take the command
of a half-decked boat, which the wind had driven ashore; that he should
equip it as if for a fishing expedition; that he should carry us to
Algiers; after which his reëntrance at Palmas, with or without fish,
would inspire no suspicion.
All was executed according to agreement, notwithstanding the
inquisitorial surveillance which Don Manuel de Vacaro exercised over the
commander of his "Mistic."
On the 28th July, 1808, we silently descended the hill on which Belver
is built, at the same moment that the family of the minister Soller
entered the fortress to escape the fury of the populace. Arrived at the
shore, we found there Damian, his boat, and three sailors. We embarked
at once, and set sail. Damian had taken the precaution of bringing with
us in this frail vessel the instruments of value which he had carried
off from my station at the Clop de Galazo. The sea was unfavourable;
Damian thought it prudent to stop at the little island of Cabrera,
destined to become a short time afterwards so sadly celebrated by the
sufferings which the soldiers of the army of Dupont experienced after
the shameful capitulation of Baylen. There a singular incident was very
near compromising all. Cabrera, tolerably near to the southern extremity
of Majorca, is often visited by fishermen coming from that part of the
island. M. Berthémie feared, justly enough, that the rumour of our
escape having spread about, they might dispatch some boats to seize us.
He looked upon our going into harbour as inopportune; I maintained that
we must yield to the prudence of the commander. During this discussion,
the three seamen whom Damian had engaged saw that M. Berthémie, whom I
had endeavoured to pass off as my servant, maintained his opinion
against me on a footing of equality. They then addressed themselves in
these terms to the commander:--
"We only consented to take part in this expedition upon condition that
the Emperor's aide-de-camp, shut up at Belver, should not be of the
number of those persons whom we should help off. We only wished to aid
the flight of the astronomer. Since it seems to be otherwise, you must
leave this officer here, unless you would prefer to throw him into the
sea."
Damian at once informed me of the imperative wishes of his boat's crew.
M. Berthémie agreed with me to suffer some abuse such as could only be
tolerated by a servant threatened by his master; all the suspicions
disappeared.
Damian, who feared also for himself the arrival of Majorcan fishermen,
hastened to set sail on the 29th of July, 1808, the first moment that
was favourable, and we arrived at Algiers on the 3d of August.