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italic text is enclosed in _underscores_. Other notes will be found at
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HISTORY
OF THE
PENINSULAR WAR.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.
HISTORY
OF THE
PENINSULAR WAR.
“Unto thee
“Let thine own times as an old story be.”
DONNE.
BY ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ. LL.D.
POET LAUREATE,
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY, OF THE
ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY OF HISTORY, OF THE ROYAL
INSTITUTE OF THE NETHERLANDS, OF THE
CYMMRODORION, OF THE MASSACHUSETTS
HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC.
A NEW EDITION.
_IN SIX VOLUMES._
VOL. III.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
MDCCCXXVIII.
Ἱστορίας γὰρ ἐὰν ἀφέλῃ τις τὸ διὰ τί, καὶ πῶς, καὶ τίνος χάριν ἐπράχθη,
καὶ τὸ πραχθὲν πότερα εὔλογον ἔσχε τὸ τέλος, τὸ καταλειπόμενον αὐτῆς
ἀγώνισμα μὲν, μάθημα δὲ οὐ γίγνεται· καὶ παραυτίκα μὲν τέρπει, πρὸς δὲ
τὸ μέλλον οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ τὸ παράπαν.
POLYBIUS, lib. iii. sect. 31.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
PAGE
Treaty between Great Britain and Spain 1
Surrender of Coruña 3
Situation and strength of Ferrol 5
Surrender of Ferrol 6
Exultation of the French 8
Pursuit of Romana’s army 10
Dismay in Galicia 11
Romana retreats toward Monterrey 12
Blake leaves the army 13
The French cease the pursuit 14
Buonaparte is advised that Austria is arming 15
Change in his views concerning Spain 16
He returns to France 18
His professions to the Spaniards at Madrid 19
Registers opened 24
The people of Madrid take the oath of allegiance to Joseph 25
Addresses to the Intruder 26
Edicts of the Intruder before his return to Madrid 27
His entrance into Madrid 29
Edicts against the patriots 31
Circular epistle to the clergy 32
Condition of Madrid 34
False intelligence published by the intrusive government 36
Unwillingness of the Spaniards to believe that Morla was a
traitor 37
Proofs of his prior treachery 38
Morla’s letter to the Central Junta 39
His letter to the governor of Cadiz 41
Arrest and cruel imprisonment of the French at Cadiz 42
Death of Florida Blanca 43
Marques de Astorga chosen president of the Central Junta 44
Catalonia 45
Siege of Barcelona 46
St. Cyr appointed to command the French 48
He determines upon besieging Rosas 50
Dilapidated state of that fortress 52
Preparations for the siege 52
British squadron in the Bay of Rosas 54
Disposition of the Italian troops to desert 56
Attack upon Fort Trinidad repulsed 57
The French establish themselves in the town 59
Lord Cochrane arrives, and throws himself into Fort Trinidad 59
Gallant defence of the fort 60
The citadel captured, and the fort evacuated 62
St. Cyr marches to relieve Barcelona 63
He discovers a mountain path near Hostalrich 64
Indecision of General Vives 67
He marches against the French 68
Rout of the Spaniards at Llinas 68
Retreat of the Spaniards from Barcelona to the Llobregat 71
St. Cyr marches against them 72
Indecision of the Spaniards 73
The Spaniards routed and pursued to Tarragona 76
CHAPTER XVII.
The Spaniards not discouraged by their reverses 80
Condition of Infantado’s army at Cuenca 81
Dreams of offensive operations 83
Movement against the French at Tarancon 84
Venegas falls back from Tarancon to Ucles 84
Rout of the Spaniards at Ucles 86
Cruelties committed there by the French 88
Infantado collects the fugitives 89
Retreat from Cuenca 91
Loss of the artillery 92
Infantado frustrates a movement of the enemy against the
Carolina army 94
He is superseded by Cartaojal 95
Calumnies against Castaños 96
His memorial to the Central Junta 99
Conde de Montijo’s intrigues 100
Progress of the French in Castille and Leon 101
New levies raised by the Spaniards 102
Temporizing conduct of certain magistrates 103
Sir Robert Wilson 103
He raises a Portugueze legion at Porto 104
Sir Robert goes to Ciudad Rodrigo 106
He refuses to return to Porto 107
Effect of his movements 108
Part of the legion detained at Porto 109
Displeasure of the authorities there 110
Rank given him by the Spanish government 110
Proposal that British troops should be admitted into Cadiz 111
Objections of the Spanish government 112
Troops arrive in the bay 114
Mr. Frere’s representations to the Central Junta 114
Reply of the Spanish government 116
Their proposal for employing the troops 117
Conference with Mr. Frere 117
Mr. Frere requests Cuesta’s opinion 120
Cuesta’s reply 122
Close of the discussion 123
Insurrection at Cadiz 127
Confidence of the people in the English 129
Proclamation of the governor 130
Murder of D. Juan de Heredia 131
The tumult subsides 131
Proclamation of the Central Junta 132
CHAPTER XVIII.
Castaños accused at Zaragoza as a traitor 135
State of public feeling in that city 136
Measures of precaution 137
None of the inhabitants leave the city 139
Supposed miracles 140
Works of defence 141
The city crowded with soldiers 144
Preparations within the city 145
Marshal Moncey reconnoitres the Torrero 145
The French appear before the city 146
They take the Torrero 146
Unsuccessful attack upon the suburbs 148
Moncey summons Palafox to surrender 149
The investment of the city completed 150
Proclamation of Palafox to the people of Madrid 152
Junot takes the command of the French 153
St. Joseph’s and the Redoubt of the Pillar taken 153
Rumours of success, and rejoicings in the city 154
An infectious disease appears in the city 155
Attempts of Lazan and Francisco Palafox to succour the city 157
Condition of the army in Catalonia 158
Reding takes the command 159
The army re-formed at Tarragona 160
Conduct of the French under St. Cyr 162
Orders to attempt the relief of Zaragoza 164
Tardiness in obeying them 166
Defeat of the peasantry 166
Alcañiz occupied by the French 166
Movements in Navarre and Aragon 167
Marshal Lasnes takes the command 167
He summons Palafox to surrender 168
The French enter the city, but with great loss 168
They establish themselves in the Trinidad Convent 171
Convents of S. Augustin and S. Monica won 171
The enemy proceed by mining 173
Progress of the pestilence 174
First talk of surrender in the city 176
The contest carried on by fire 177
Convent of Jesus in the suburb taken 179
St. Francisco taken 180
The French begin to murmur 182
Not even an attempt is made to relieve the city 183
The suburbs taken 185
The university taken 186
Palafox transfers his authority to a Junta 186
Condition of the besieged 187
Flag of truce sent to the French 189
Last efforts of the besieged 190
D. Pedro Maria Ric goes out to treat with Marshal Lasnes 192
Capitulation 194
Farther conditions asked, and refused 196
Conduct of the French 198
Treatment of the prisoners 198
Palafox compelled by threats of death to sign orders for
delivering up four fortresses 201
He is sent into France 202
Demands of the French 203
Lasnes makes his entrance 204
Baseness of the suffragan bishop 204
Language of the French upon their triumph 206
Decree of the Central Junta 206
Address to the nation 208
Honours decreed to the inhabitants of Zaragoza 211
Falsehoods of the French government 212
CHAPTER XIX.
Portugal threatened by the French 214
Preparations of the English for evacuating Lisbon 214
Address of the Portugueze Regency to the nation 215
State of public feeling at Lisbon 216
Marshal Soult ordered to enter Portugal from Galicia 218
Difficulty of providing for the French army 219
His confidence of success 220
Combined plans of the French 220
Vigo and Tuy occupied by the French 221
Preparations for crossing the Minho below Tuy 221
Failure of the attempt 223
Soult marches by way of Orense 223
Romana rouses the Galicians 224
Opinion of his strength 225
Villages burnt by the French 226
Intended plan of co-operation between Romana and Silveira 226
Difference between Marshals Soult and Ney 227
Rout of Romana’s army 228
The French remove their sick and wounded to Monterrey 229
Situation of Chaves 230
Silveira retires from Chaves 231
Some mutinous officers resolve to defend it 232
Surrender of Chaves 232
The French establish their hospital there 234
Preparations for defence at Porto 235
Advance of the French from Chaves 237
Tumults at Braga 238
General Freire murdered 240
The Portugueze routed before Braga 242
The French enter Braga 243
They appear before Porto 245
Oliveira murdered 246
The Bishop leaves the city 247
Porto taken 247
Massacre there 248
Soult remains in Porto 250
Disposition of the inhabitants 251
Marshal Soult’s views respecting the Liberals and the Jews 252
His hopes of becoming King of Northern Lusitania 254
He visits the Church of N. Senhor de Bouças 256
Chaves retaken by Silveira 260
Proceedings at Coimbra 262
Colonel Trant takes a position upon the Vouga 265
Cruelties of the French 268
Positions of the French and Portugueze 269
Romana captures the garrison at Villa Franca 270
Efforts of the Galicians 273
Barrios sent into Galicia 275
The Portugueze and Galicians blockade Tuy 276
Vigo 277
The Spaniards appear before Vigo 278
Recapture of that place 279
Blockade of Tuy 283
The Portugueze recross the Minho 284
The French in Tuy relieved and withdrawn 284
CHAPTER XX.
Plans of the intrusive government 286
Effect of the war upon the French soldiery 287
Temper of the Spanish generals in La Mancha and Extremadura 290
Reforms in the Spanish army 291
The Duque del Alburquerque 291
He proposes offensive operations 292
They are undertaken when too late 293
The Duke sent to join Cuesta 294
Cartaojal advances against the French 294
Rout of the Carolina army at Ciudad Real 295
Operations of Marshal Victor 295
The French cross the Puente del Arzobispo 296
Cuesta retreats from the Puerto de Miravete 297
Skirmishes at Truxillo and Miajadas 298
Junction with Alburquerque’s division 301
Cuesta offers battle at Medellin 301
Battle of Medellin 303
Misconduct of the Spanish cavalry 304
Cuesta thrown and wounded 304
Dispersion of the Spanish army 305
No quarter given 306
Escape of Alburquerque 307
The remnant of the Spanish army collect 308
Cuesta disgraces those who had behaved ill 309
The Junta act wisely and generously upon these defeats 310
Their appeal to the people 311
Tribunal of public safety 312
Correspondence on the Intruder’s part with the Junta 313
Measures for securing Badajoz 317
A crusade proclaimed there 318
Regulations concerning the ejected religioners 319
Plans of the intrusive government 320
Sir Robert Wilson’s conduct at Ciudad Rodrigo 321
Attempt to surprise that fortress 323
The French summon it 324
March of Lapisse to unite with Victor 325
The French enter Alcantara 325
Junction of Lapisse and Victor 327
CHAPTER XXI.
Conduct of the opposition in England 328
Return of the troops from Coruña 332
The King’s speech 333
Proceedings in Parliament 334
Lord Sidmouth 334
Earl St. Vincent 335
Lord Grenville 335
Earl of Liverpool 336
Mr. Ponsonby 338
Mr. Whitbread 339
Debates on the overture from Erfurth 341
Lord Grenville 341
Lord Auckland 341
Mr. Canning 341
Lord Henry Petty 343
Mr. Whitbread 343
Mr. Croker 346
Mr. Whitbread’s speech circulated by the French government 347
Debates on the campaign in Portugal 348
Both parties agree in extolling Sir John Moore 348
Inquiry into the campaign in Spain called for 349
Lord Grenville 349
Lord Erskine 349
Mr. Ponsonby 350
Lord Castlereagh 354
Mr. Tierney 354
Mr. Canning 357
Mr. Windham 361
Sir John Moore’s dispatches 367
Mr. Frere’s correspondence with Sir John Moore 372
Earl Grey 373
Earl of Liverpool 374
Mr. Canning 377
Earl Grey 381
Expedition to the Scheldt 382
Troops sent to Portugal 384
Earl of Buckinghamshire 384
CHAPTER XXII.
Feelings of the Portugueze toward the English 387
Sir Arthur Wellesley’s instructions 388
General Beresford appointed commander-in-chief of the
Portugueze army 389
He begins to reform the army 390
Intercepted letter from General Kellermann to Soult 392
Laborde sent to attack Silveira at Amarante 393
State of Penafiel when the French entered 394
The Bridge of Amarante 395
Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick killed in defending it 397
The French endeavour to throw a bridge over the river 398
Repeated attempts to effect the passage 399
Plan for demolishing the Portugueze entrenchments 400
The French win the bridge 401
Situation of the enemy 402
Sir Arthur Wellesley lands at Lisbon 404
He communicates his plans to Cuesta 404
Views of the Philadelphes in Marshal Soult’s army 406
The Sieur D’Argenton goes to Sir Arthur Wellesley to explain
their views 409
Advance of the British army towards Porto 410
D’Argenton is arrested 411
Soult prepares to retreat from Portugal 412
The French driven from Albergaria 413
They are driven from their position at Grijo 414
Measures of Soult to prevent the passage of the Douro 415
Passage of that river 416
Deliverance of Porto 418
Soult and Loison effect a junction on their retreat 421
Sir Arthur pursues the French 422
Sufferings of the enemy in their flight 423
Loss of the French at Puente de Misarella 425
The pursuit given over at Montalegre 425
Movement of troops from Aragon 426
Reasons for not continuing the pursuit 427
Victor enters Portugal by way of Alcantara, and speedily
retreats 428
Soult reaches Orense 429
Romana enters Asturias, and displaces the Junta 429
Combined movements of the French against Romana 430
Romana escapes by sea 431
Ney returns into Galicia 432
The French in Lugo relieved by Soult 433
Mahy returns to Mondoñedo 434
The French driven from Compostella 435
Combined operations of Marshals Ney and Soult in Galicia 436
Romana rejoins his army 437
Proceedings of Soult 437
Cruelties exercised by the French 439
Defeat of the French at the Bridge of S. Payo 440
The Spaniards retaliate upon the invaders 443
Soult retreats out of Galicia 443
Ferrol and Coruña evacuated by the French 444
Soult complains of certain officers 446
He recommends a plan for securing Galicia 447
Romana summoned to take his place in the Central Junta 448
He orders a monument to be erected to Sir John Moore 449
His farewell to the army 450
Address of the Central Junta to the Galicians 451
CHAPTER XXIII.
Proceedings of the French after the fall of Zaragoza 456
State of the Catalan army 457
Reding determines to act on the offensive 460
The Spaniards driven from Igualada 461
Failure of the French against the Abbey of the S. Creus 462
Reding takes the field, and collects his scattered troops 465
He is advised to retreat 466
Battle of Valls 469
The French received at Reus 472
Arrangement concerning the wounded 473
Alarm at Tortosa 474
Lazan separates his army from Reding’s command 475
Mortality in Tarragona 476
St. Cyr removes to the plain of Vicq 477
Vicq deserted by its inhabitants 480
Arrest of the persons in office at Barcelona for refusing the
oath 481
Prisoners sent into France 483
Barcelona relieved by sea 484
Reding dies of his wounds 484
Peasants of the Vallés 486
Blake appointed to the command 488
Movements of the Aragonese 488
Monzon recovered by the Spaniards 490
Capture of a French detachment 491
Blake moves upon Alcañiz 492
The French withdraw 495
Suchet comes against him 496
Defeat of the French before Alcañiz 497
Anniversary of the insurrection at Valencia 499
Celebration of S. Ferdinand’s day 500
Executions in Barcelona 502
Blake advances toward Zaragoza 504
Suchet attacks the Spaniards 505
Blake retreats to Belchite 506
Flight of the Spaniards 507
Blake’s resignation not accepted 509
Commencement of the Guerillas 511
Porlier 511
The Empecinado 511
Renovales in the valleys of Roncal 512
He defeats a French detachment 512
A second party defeated 513
Proclamation of the Duque de Mahon 514
Executions and reprisals 516
Attempts to win over Renovales 517
Troops sent from Zaragoza against him 520
He capitulates for the valleys 522
Xavier Mina 523
Siege of Gerona commenced 526
HISTORY
OF THE
PENINSULAR WAR.
CHAPTER XVI.
TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND SPAIN. SURRENDER OF CORUNA AND
FERROL. SITUATION OF ROMANA’S ARMY. BUONAPARTE RETURNS TO FRANCE.
PROCEEDINGS AT MADRID. OPERATIONS IN CATALONIA.
♦1809. JANUARY.♦
♦TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND SPAIN.♦
Happily for the interests of Great Britain, and for its honour, which
is paramount to all interests, the British government entertained
more generous hopes than its General had done, and acted upon wiser
views. At the very time when the Spaniards had sustained the heaviest
losses, and our own army was known to be in full retreat, a treaty
was signed at London between Great Britain and the Spanish nation
acting in the name of Ferdinand. It proclaimed a christian, stable,
and inviolable peace between the two countries, perpetual and sincere
amity, and strict alliance during the war with France; and it
pronounced an entire and lasting oblivion of all acts of hostility done
on either side in the course of the late wars wherein they had been
engaged against each other. His Britannic Majesty engaged to assist
the Spaniards to the utmost of his power, and not to acknowledge any
other King of Spain, and of the Indies thereunto appertaining, than
Ferdinand VII., his heirs, or such lawful successor as the Spanish
nation should acknowledge; and the Spanish government engaged, on
behalf of Ferdinand, never to cede to France any portion of the
territories or possessions of the Spanish monarchy in any part of the
world. The contracting parties bound themselves to make common cause
against France, and not to make peace except by common consent. It was
agreed by an additional article, that as the existing circumstances
did not admit of the regular negotiation of a treaty of commerce with
all the care and consideration due to so important a subject, such
a negotiation should be effected as soon as it was practicable; and
meantime mutual facilities afforded to the commerce of both countries,
by temporary regulations, founded on reciprocal utility. Another
separate article provided that the Spanish government should take the
most effectual measures for preventing the Spanish squadrons, in all
their ports, from falling into the power of France. Before the treaty
could reach Spain, the mischief against which this latter article was
intended to provide had been done in the ports of Galicia.
♦SURRENDER OF CORUÑA.♦
There were Englishmen at Coruña, who, when Sir John Moore was
preparing to embark, doubted whether the inhabitants would protect
his embarkation. In the bitterness of grief and shame they said,
“should the Galicians tell us that we came into their country and by
the imposing display of our well-equipped army prevented them from
defending their native mountains; that they entrusted their passes to
us and we abandoned them to the enemy; that disregarding any service
which seemed immaterial to our own safety, we let the French occupy the
approaches to their city; ... should the volunteers of Coruña tell us
this (they said), and throw down their arms when they see us flying to
our ships, ... we should have little right to complain of desertion or
abandonment!” But the Spaniards are a more generous people than these
doubts implied. Astonished indeed they were at the manner in which an
army that had excited by its proud appearance the highest hopes as well
as the highest admiration, had retreated through one of the strongest
and most defensible countries in Europe; but severely as these hopes
were disappointed, and cruelly as they suffered in consequence, they
were not betrayed into one unworthy act or expression of resentment.
The Governor of Coruña, D. Antonio de Alcedo, had made vigorous
preparations as soon as it seemed likely that the enemy might enter
Galicia. His name will be remembered as the author of a Geographical
Dictionary of Spanish America, much more accurate and copious than
any former work relating to those countries. It would be well for him
could it be forgotten in the history of his own. While he expected that
the British army would make a stand, and maintain Coruña and Ferrol
at least, even if they abandoned the field, he held brave language,
calling upon the inhabitants to supply stakes, beams, fascines and
butts for additional works, and exhorting the women to busy themselves
in providing sacks to be filled with earth. “If the French come,” said
he in his proclamation, “I will take such measures that Coruña shall be
not less gloriously distinguished than Gerona, Valencia, and Zaragoza.
But should fortune prove adverse to us, as a chastisement from God for
our sins, I will bury myself in the ruins of this fortress rather than
surrender it to the enemy: thus finishing my days with honour, and
trusting that all will follow my example.” Wherever in Spain a Governor
was found willing to set such an example, the resolution to follow it
was not wanting.
Coruña is a regular fortress, and might long have held out against
any means which Marshal Soult could have brought against it. But when
an English army with the sea open to them for succours did not think
of maintaining it, it is not surprising that the inhabitants should
have despaired of making a successful resistance. Their Governor was
prepared to play the traitor; he had still however honour enough left
not to propose a capitulation till the last transport was beyond the
enemy’s power. Terms were then easily agreed on, the one party asking
♦JAN. 19.♦ only what the other would have imposed. Alcedo stipulated
for a general amnesty; that all persons in office should retain their
appointments on taking an oath to the Intruder; and that the military
who took that oath might either continue in the service or receive
their dismissal at their own option, such as refused the oath becoming
prisoners of war. He himself set the example of swearing allegiance to
Joseph Buonaparte; and soon in his own person properly experienced with
what fidelity the French kept their engagements, for they presently
dismissed him from his government and sent him into France.
♦SITUATION AND STRENGTH OF FERROL.♦
Coruña and Ferrol are situated on the opposite sides of a spacious
bay which receives in four deep inlets the rivers Mero, Mandeu, Eume
and Juvia. Ferrol is placed in the deepest and most capacious of
these inlets, and nothing which skill and expense could effect had
been spared during the last half century for improving the natural
advantages of the harbour, and rendering it impregnable. It had
thus been rendered one of the strongest naval establishments in the
world, being also one of the most commodious. To force the passage
is impossible, ships having for the distance of a league to file one
by one along a shore defended by forts. Equal care had been taken to
protect it on the land side. There were at this time eight ships of the
line in the harbour, of which three were of the largest size, ... three
frigates, and a considerable number of smaller vessels. From Betanzos
to Ferrol was but a march of fourteen miles farther than from Betanzos
to Coruña; and it was a topic of exultation for the French, that the
English in the precipitance of their flight had not marched upon Ferrol
instead of Coruña, where they might have occupied a fortress strong
enough to be called impregnable, and have secured the squadron. It was
still fresh in remembrance that when Sir James Pulteney had landed
on the coast there with a part of that army by which the French were
afterwards expelled from Egypt, he deemed it more prudent to re-embark
his troops without attempting any thing, than to hazard an attack
against so formidable a place. It is indeed almost impossible to lay
regular siege to it: the nature of the ground being such that trenches
cannot be opened there.
♦SURRENDER OF FERROL.♦
Marshal Soult found in Coruña a battering train sufficient for making
a feint of besieging Ferrol; that it would not be in his power to take
it he well knew; ... but he reckoned upon the pusillanimity and treason
of the commanders, and upon the fortune of Buonaparte. The population
was estimated at 8000, double the number in Coruña; but the peasantry
from the adjacent country had flocked thither, and there were 8000
men within its walls, burning with hatred and indignation against the
French, and requiring only a leader in whom they could confide. The
persons in authority they suspected, and with too much reason. One of
these, the admiral D. Pedro Obregon, they displaced and threw into
prison; it was only removing one traitor to make room for another. D.
Francisco Melgarejo, who succeeded to the command of the squadron,
opened a correspondence with the enemy by water; and the military
commanders, equally ready to betray their country and their trust, sent
messengers round by land at the same time. Accordingly General Mermet
had no sooner made a demonstration of investing the town, than the
Castles of La Palma and San Martin were abandoned to him; and as the
disposition of the people was of no avail against the vile purposes
of their chiefs civil and military, the town ♦JAN. 26.♦ was delivered
up, upon the same terms as Coruña; a few additional articles being
added, stipulating for the arrears of pay, as also that if resistance
were made in any part of Galicia, no inhabitant of Ferrol should be
compelled to serve against his countrymen. Obregon was then released
from prison, and placed by the French at the head of the arsenal; he
and the comrades of his treason took the oath of allegiance to the
Intruder; and those persons who had been most active in arresting
him and in promoting the national cause were seized and reserved for
punishment.
♦EXULTATION OF THE ENEMY.♦
If the Central Junta had at one time dissembled the danger of the
country (or rather partaken too much of that unreasoning confidence
which was one characteristic of the Spaniards), they never attempted
to conceal its disasters, nor to extenuate them. On such occasions
their language was frank and dignified, becoming the nation which
they represented. In announcing the loss of Coruña and Ferrol,
they pronounced the surrender of those strong places to have been
cowardly and scandalous, and promised to condemn the persons who had
thus betrayed their duty, to condign punishment. The enemy meantime
failed not to blazon forth their triumphs in this Galician campaign:
to represent the battle of Coruña as a victory on their part was a
falsehood, which all circumstances, except those of the action itself,
tended to confirm; ... and the results of the campaign had been so
rapid, and apparently so complete, as to excite their own wonder. Three
British regiments, they said, the 42d, 50th, and 52d, had been entirely
destroyed in the action, and Sir John Moore killed in attempting to
charge at their head, with the vain hope of restoring the fortune of
the day. The English had lost every thing which constitutes an army,
artillery, horses, baggage, ammunition, magazines, and military
chests. 80 pieces of cannon they had landed, they had re-embarked no
more than 12. 200,000 weight of powder, 16,000 muskets, and 2,000,000
of treasure (about £83,000) had fallen into the hands of the pursuers,
and treasure yet more considerable had been thrown down the precipices
along the road between Astorga and Coruña, where the peasantry and the
soldiers were now collecting it. 5000 horses had been counted which
they had slaughtered upon the way, ... 500 were taken at Coruña, and
the carcasses of 1200 were infecting the streets when the conquerors
entered that town. The English would have occupied Ferrol and seized
the squadron there, had it not been for the precipitance of their
retreat, and the result of the battle to which they had been brought at
last. Thus then had terminated their expedition into Spain! thus, after
having fomented the war in that unhappy country, had they abandoned
it to its fate! In another season of the year not a man of them would
have escaped; now the facility of breaking up the bridges, the rapidity
of the winter torrents, shortness of days, and length of nights, had
favoured their retreat. But they were driven out of the peninsula,
harassed, routed, and disheartened. The kingdom of Leon, the province
of Zamora, and all Galicia, which they had been so desirous to cover,
were conquered and subdued; and Romana, whom they had brought from the
Baltic, was, with the wreck of his army, reduced to less than 2500
men, wandering between Vigo and Santiago, and closely pursued.... This
was the most stinging of all the French reproaches. Wounded to the
heart as we were that an English army should so have retreated, still
we knew that wherever our men had been allowed to face the enemy they
had beaten them; and that, however the real history of the battle of
Coruña might be concealed from the French people, the French army had
received a lesson there, which they would remember whenever it might be
our fortune to encounter them again. But that we should have drawn such
a force in pursuit of Romana, who, if he were taken prisoner, would be
put to death with the forms of justice, by a tyrant who made mockery
of justice, was of all the mournful reflections which this disastrous
expedition excited, the most painful and the most exasperating.
♦PURSUIT OF ROMANA’S ARMY.♦
At this time indeed Romana’s situation might have appeared hopeless to
any but a Spaniard, and few Spaniards would have regarded it with such
equanimity as this high-minded nobleman. In the virtuous determination
of doing his duty to the uttermost, whatever might betide, he trusted
Providence with the event, and gave way to no despondent or repining
thought. A detachment under G. Franceschi had pursued his army after it
had separated from Sir J. Moore at Astorga, and according to the French
statements taken some 3000 men, and killed a great number before he
entered the Val de Orras. The charge of completing its destruction was
then transferred by Soult to M. Ney, and he dispatched G. Marchand’s
division and a regiment of cavalry as amply sufficient for the intended
service. Romana left his vanguard under D. Gabriel de Mendizabal to
cover the Val de Orras, and the Riberas del Sil; ... one division was
posted at Pueblo de Tribes and Mendoya, to support him if he should
be attacked, and defend the bridge over the Bivey; the others were
distributed where they could find subsistence, and at the same time
afford support to the more advanced.
♦DISMAY IN GALICIA.♦
The country was in a state of the utmost alarm. The Vizconde de
Quintanilla, one of the deputies for Leon to the Central Junta, had
been sent to Romana’s army, and disagreeing with him before the retreat
commenced, had preceded him, in the hope of taking some measures which
might be serviceable to the common cause. Manifest as it was that Sir
J. Moore had given up that cause in his heart as hopeless, it had
never been apprehended that he would retreat with such precipitation,
and abandon Coruña and Ferrol to their fate; ports the maintenance of
which was of so great importance to Great Britain as long as she took
any part in the contest. Of all the Spaniards the Galicians had least
reason to fear that the war would be brought to their own doors; and
their consternation was extreme when they saw the enemy among them.
Quintanilla repaired to Santiago, from which city the Archbishop had
fled, having been insulted by the people, and dreading farther outrages
from the insubordination which these dreadful times produced. As it
seemed that nothing could be done for resisting the enemy, Quintanilla
endeavoured at least to disappoint them of their expected booty, and
proposed that the church plate should be removed. In such treasure that
city was peculiarly rich, having been during many centuries more in
vogue than any other place of pilgrimage in Europe; but his advice was
rejected, upon the ground that the populace, who were suspicious of
whatever was done, would not suffer it.
♦ROMANA RETREATS TOWARD MONTERRY.♦
Romana’s was a buoyant spirit, not to be depressed by any dangers. He
had read the British General rightly, but his confidence in the British
character was unshaken; and in the expectation that something would be
attempted upon the coast, he moved one of his divisions from Mazeda
to Taboada and other villages near Lugo, for the purpose of observing
and harassing the enemy. This movement was ordered the day before the
battle of Coruña. On the afternoon of the 17th he was apprised that
5000 French were at St. Esteban de Ribas del Sil, three leagues from
Orense, and in the night advice came from Mendizabal that he had been
attacked by a detachment moving upon that city. Romana reconnoitred
this force; they were plainly waiting for reinforcements, but even in
their present state he was not strong enough to resist them; for as
soon as he entered Galicia, the whole of the new levies had dispersed:
they belonged to that province, and feeling themselves within reach
of home, believed with some reason that they could provide better
for themselves than it was in the power of their general and their
government to provide for them.
At his last interview with Sir J. Moore it had been arranged that the
British army should make its stand at Villafranca, and there defend the
entrance into Galicia, while the Marquis should endeavour to collect
and reform his troops upon the river Sil. But because this resolution,
fatally for Sir J. Moore, had been abandoned, Romana’s left flank and
rear were exposed to the enemy. They were at leisure to direct their
efforts against him, and he saw that the only way of escape open for
him was by Monterry. In that direction therefore he moved, and fixed
his head-quarters on the 21st at Villaza, a league from that town, on
the side of Portugal. Here, ♦BLAKE LEAVES THE ARMY.♦ to his surprise
and displeasure, he found that Blake, who had continued with the army
till this day, had left it without giving him any intimation of his
departure, taken with him the officers whom he could trust, and left
directions for others to follow him through Portugal. The camp-marshal,
D. Rafael Martinengo, was missing also: his conduct, though irregular,
was afterwards honourably explained; he had gone to collect stragglers.
With regard to General Blake, serving only as an individual after he
had been removed from the command, he was at liberty to retire whither
and when he pleased, ... but not thus, in a manner derogatory to the
commander, subversive of discipline, and injurious to the army. His
disappearance, and that of the officers who followed him, increased
the distrust and despondency of the troops; and the reports which they
spread to excuse themselves for thus withdrawing, contributed still
farther to dishearten the people. “I assure your excellency,” said
Romana, when he communicated this to the war minister, “that I never
gave a more trying proof of patriotism, love to my King, and gratitude
to the government which in his name has conferred so many honours
upon me, than in taking upon myself the command of this army in such
circumstances, and retaining it, though abandoned by those who ought
to have assisted me. I know not wherein this patriotism consists which
is so loudly vaunted ... any reverse, any mishap, prostrates the minds
of these people, and, thinking only of saving their own persons, they
sacrifice their country, and compromise their commander.”
♦THE FRENCH CEASE THE PURSUIT.♦
The next intelligence was of Sir J. Moore’s death in action with M.
Soult. The first thought which occurred to Romana was that this would
not have happened if they had given battle to that very Soult at
Saldaña. It was his firm persuasion that if the British force and his
ill-fated troops had been united in October, they might have driven
the French beyond the Pyrenees. The British had now actually embarked.
Coruña and Ferrol were still points of hope; and if the governors
there performed their duty, he could yet render them some service in
the field. With this view he moved to cover the province of Tuy; but
having reached La Guironda, he learnt in the night that the French with
superior forces were at hand. His troops, though well equal to the
business of harassing an enemy that should be otherwise employed, would
have been lost if brought to action; he returned therefore to Oimbra,
with the intention, if he should be pursued, of entering Portugal, and
making through Tras-os-Montes for Ciudad Rodrigo, there to refit his
army, or reinforce some other with the remnant that was left. A little
respite was allowed him, for the French did not think the wreck of this
army of sufficient consequence to fatigue themselves by pursuing and
hunting it down. Where he and his handful of fugitives were secreting
themselves they knew not, and on his part Romana knew as little what
was passing in other parts of Spain.
♦BUONAPARTE ADVISED THAT AUSTRIA IS ARMING.♦
Buonaparte had never appeared so joyous as when he left Madrid with
the expectation of surprising Sir John Moore. He had intended ♦DE
PRADT, 211.♦ to go to Lisbon, and the troops had actually received
orders to hold themselves in readiness for beginning their march toward
that capital, but the desire of encountering a British army made him
change his intention; and Lisbon was thus doubly preserved from a
second subjugation, for this movement interposed between the British
and Portugal, and if Sir J. Moore had retreated thither, he would have
abandoned Lisbon as he did Coruña. When there was no longer a hope of
overtaking the English, Buonaparte stopped at Astorga; it was more
consistent with his dignity that a detachment of his army should hunt
them to the coast, than that he should continue the pursuit in person.
Beyond that city, therefore, he would not have proceeded, even if
dispatches had not reached him there which recalled him into France. He
had designs against Austria, concerning which the Emperor Alexander had
been deceived at Erfurt: his intention had been to complete the easy
subjugation of Spain before he began to execute these further projects
of insatiable ambition; but he was informed that Austria, instead of
waiting for the blow, was preparing to avail herself of the advantage
which the Spanish war afforded her. The news was not unwelcome to him;
for he had now entertained a new train of ambitious and perfidious
thoughts, which made him desirous of leaving Spain. From Astorga he
turned back to Valladolid, and remained there a few days to make his
last arrangements before he returned into France.
♦CHANGE IN HIS VIEWS CONCERNING SPAIN.♦
An attachment to his family was almost the only human part of
Buonaparte’s character; but when any object of aggrandisement
presented itself to his all-grasping desires, that attachment stood
as little in his way as the obligations of truth, honour, and justice.
He had been sincere in his intention of giving Spain to Joseph, while
he thought it an easy gift, and one which in its results would prove
beneficial to the giver. The resistance which had been made to the
intrusion, and the reverses which his arms had for a time experienced,
disturbed and mortified him; and in that temper of mind which escapes
self-condemnation by reproaching others, he imputed to Joseph’s flight
from Madrid, as a consequence, the very spirit of resistance which had
rendered that measure necessary for his own preservation. For this
reason there had been no cordiality at their meeting; he had treated
Joseph with disrespect, as well as coldness, and leaving him in the
rear, had issued edicts by his own authority, and in his own name. This
had been resented by Joseph, as far as one who was the receiver of a
stolen crown could resent it: having been made King, he represented
it was proper he should appear to be such; to debase him was not
the way of rendering him more acceptable to a proud and high-minded
nation. In addition to this there was another cause of discontent
between them. Whatever country Buonaparte entered, that country was
made to support his army; war was to him no expense, ... the cost fell
always upon his enemies or his allies. Thus he had expected to proceed
in Spain; ... but even when he was master of Madrid the intrusive
government had no other revenue than the duties which were paid at
his gates, and Joseph, instead of paying his brother’s armies, looked
to him for the maintenance of his own court. Joseph had represented
also the impolicy of continuing to exasperate the people by a system
of military exactions; and Napoleon, impatient of any contradiction,
instantly perceived that a King of Spain, whether of the Buonaparte
or the Bourbon dynasty, must have a Spanish feeling incompatible with
that entire subserviency to himself which he expected and required.
Having so lately and so solemnly guaranteed the integrity of Spain,
and proclaimed his brother king, he could not at once subvert his own
arrangements; ♦DE PRADT, 207–225.♦ but he avowed to M. de Pradt at this
time that when he had given that kingdom, he did not understand the
value of the present: follies would be committed, he said, which would
throw it again into his hands, and he would then divide it into five
viceroyalties.
♦HE RETURNS TO FRANCE.♦
He apprehended no difficulty in this: any military opposition which
could be attempted he despised, the more entirely because of the ease
with which the Spanish armies had been dispersed, ... and the moral
obstacles he was still incapable of appreciating. A dispatch reached
him from Galicia, and upon reading it he said to those about him,
“Every thing proceeds well. Romana cannot resist a fortnight longer.
The English will never make another effort; and three months hence the
war will be at an end.” One of the marshals hinted at the character of
the people and of the country. “It is a La Vendée,” he replied; “I have
tranquillized La Vendée. Calabria also was in a state of insurrection,
... wherever there are mountains there are insurgents; but the kingdom
of Naples is tranquil now. It is not enough to command an army well,
... one must have general views. The continental system is not the
same as in the time of Frederick; the great powers must absorb the
smaller. The priests have considerable influence here, and they use
it to exasperate the people: but the Romans conquered them; the Moors
conquered them; and they are not near so fine a people now as they were
then. I will settle the government firmly; I will interest the nobles,
and I will cut down the people with grape-shot. What do they want?
the Prince of Asturias? Half the nation object to him: ... besides he
is dead to them. There is no longer any dynasty to oppose to me. They
say the population is against us. Why Spain is a perfect solitude, ...
there are not five men to a square league. Besides, if it ♦JONES’S
ACCOUNT OF THE WAR, VOL. I. 165.♦ be a question of numbers, I will pour
all Europe into their country. They have to learn what a first-rate
power can effect.” With this flagitious determination the remorseless
tyrant returned into France.
♦PROFESSIONS TO THE SPANIARDS AT MADRID.♦
Before he left Madrid to march against the English, an address
framed by the traitors of that city in the name of the magistrates
and citizens was presented to him by the Corregidor. They thanked
him for his gracious clemency, that in the midst of conquest he had
thought of the safety and welfare of the conquered, and forgiven all
which had been done during the absence of Joseph, their king: and they
entreated that it might please him to grant them the favour of seeing
King Joseph once more among them, to the end that under his laws that
capital and the whole kingdom might enjoy the happiness which they
expected from the benevolence of their new sovereign’s character. The
tyrant replied to this in one of his characteristic harangues. “I am
pleased,” he said, “with the sentiments of the city of Madrid. I regret
the injuries she has suffered, and am particularly happy that, under
existing circumstances, I have been able to effect her deliverance, and
to protect her from great calamities, and have accomplished what I owed
to myself and my nation. Vengeance has had its due: it has fallen upon
ten of the principal culprits; ... the rest have entire and absolute
forgiveness.” He then touched upon the reforms by which he thought
to reconcile the Spaniards to a foreign yoke. “I have preserved the
spiritual orders, but with a limitation of the number of monks: they
who were influenced by a divine call shall remain in their cloisters;
with regard to those whose call was doubtful, or influenced by worldly
considerations, I have fixed their condition in the class of secular
priests. Out of the surplus of monastic property I have provided for
the maintenance of the pastors, that important and useful branch of the
clergy. I have suppressed that court which was a subject of complaint
to Europe and the present age. Priests may guide the minds of men, but
must exercise no temporal or corporal jurisdiction over the citizens.
I have annulled those privileges which the grandees usurped during
times of civil war. I have abolished feudal rights, and henceforth
every one may set up inns, ovens, mills, employ himself in fishing
and rabbit-hunting, and give free scope to his industry, provided he
respects the laws. The selfishness, wealth, and prosperity of a small
number of individuals were more injurious to your agriculture than the
heat of the Dog-days. All peculiar jurisdictions were usurpations, and
at variance with the rights of the nation. I have abolished them. As
there is but one God, so should there be in a state but one judicial
power.
“There is no obstacle,” he continued, “which can long resist the
execution of my resolutions. But what transcends my power is this,
to consolidate the Spaniards as one nation, under the sway of the
king, should they continue to be affected with those principles of
hatred to France which the partizans of England and the enemies of the
continent have infused into the bosom of Spain. I can establish no
nation, no king, no independence of the Spaniards, if the king be not
assured of their attachment and fidelity. The Bourbons can no longer
reign in Europe. The divisions of the royal family were contrived by
the English. It was not the dethronement of King Charles and of the
favourite, that the Duke del Infantado, that tool of England, had
in view. The intention was, to establish the predominant influence
of England in Spain; a senseless project, the result of which would
have been a perpetual continental war. No power under the influence
of England can exist on the continent. If there be any that entertain
such a wish, the wish is absurd, and will sooner or later occasion
their fall. It would be easy for me, should I be compelled to adopt
that measure, to govern Spain, by establishing as many viceroys in
it as there are provinces. Nevertheless, I do not refuse to abdicate
my rights of conquest in favour of the king, and to establish him in
Madrid, as soon as the 30,000 citizens which this capital contains,
the clergy, nobility, merchants, and lawyers shall have declared their
fidelity, set an example to the provinces, enlightened the people,
and made the nation sensible that their existence and prosperity
essentially depend upon a king and a free constitution, favourable to
the people, and hostile only to the selfishness and haughty passions
of the grandees. If such be the sentiments of the inhabitants, let the
30,000 citizens assemble in the churches; let them, in the presence
of the holy sacrament, take an oath, not only with their mouths, but
also with their hearts, and without any jesuitical equivocation, that
they promise support, attachment, and fidelity to their king; let the
priests in the confessional and the pulpit, the merchants in their
correspondence, the lawyers in their writings and speeches, infuse
these sentiments into the people: ... then will I surrender my right
of conquest, place the king upon the throne, and make it my pleasing
task to conduct myself as a true friend of the Spaniards. The present
generation may differ in their opinions; the passions have been too
much brought into action; but your grandchildren will bless me as their
renovator; they will reckon the day when I appeared among you among
their memorable festivals; and from that day will the happiness of
Spain date its commencement. Thus,” he concluded, addressing himself
to the Corregidor, “you are informed of the whole of my determination.
Consult with your fellow-citizens, and consider what part you will
choose; but whatever it be, make your choice with sincerity, and tell
me only your genuine sentiments.”
There was something more detestable in this affectation of candour
and generosity than in his open and insolent violence. “Consult!
and consider what part you will choose, and make your choice with
sincerity!”... The Spanish nation had made their choice! They had made
it at Baylen and at Reynosa, at Cadiz and at Madrid, at Valencia and at
Zaragoza; for life or for death; deliberately, and yet as if with one
impulse, ... with enthusiasm, and yet calmly, ... had that noble people
nobly, and wisely, and religiously made their heroic choice. They had
written it in blood, their own and their oppressors’. Its proofs were
to be seen in deserted houses and depopulated towns, in the blackened
walls of hamlets which had been laid waste with fire, in the bones
which were bleaching upon the mountains of Biscay, and in the bodies,
French and Spaniard, which were at that hour floating down the tainted
Ebro! Here, in the capital, their choice had been recorded; they who
had been swept down by grape-shot in its streets, or bayoneted in the
houses, they who had fallen in the heat of battle before its gates,
and they who in cold blood had been sent in droves to execution, alike
had borne witness to that choice, and confirmed it, and rejoiced in
it with their dying breath. And this tyrant called upon the people of
Madrid now to tell him their sentiments, ... now when their armies were
dispersed, and they themselves, betrayed and disarmed, were surrounded
by his legions!
♦REGISTERS OPENED.♦
Registers were opened in every quarter, and, if French accounts could
be believed, 30,000 fathers of families rushed thither in crowds, and
signed a supplication to the conqueror, entreating him to put an end to
their misfortunes, by granting them his august brother Joseph for their
king. If this impossible eagerness had really been manifested, it could
admit of no other solution than that the people of Madrid, bitterly
as they detested and heartily as they despised Joseph, yet thought it
a less evil to be governed by him than by the tyrant himself, ... for
this was the alternative allowed them. But a census of this kind, as
it is called, like those which coloured Buonaparte’s assumption, first
of the consulship for life, and then of an hereditary throne, was
easily procured, when neither threats, nor persuasions, nor fraud, nor
violence were spared.
♦THE PEOPLE OF MADRID TAKE THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE TO JOSEPH.♦
The ceremony of voting and taking the oath was delayed till after
Buonaparte’s departure, “because,” said the French journalists, “a
suspicion of fear might else have attached to it. The act was now more
noble, as being entirely free, ... as being confirmed by the weightiest
considerations whereby a people can be influenced, their interest,
their happiness, and their glory.” With such language the better part
of the French nation were insulted, and the unreflecting deceived,
while all knowledge of the real state of things was shut out by the
vigilance of a government, conscious enough of wickedness to know that
it required concealment. The votes were then exacted, the host was
exposed in all the churches, and the priests were compelled to receive
from their countrymen at the altar, and as they believed in the actual
and bodily presence of their Saviour and their God, a compulsory oath
of allegiance to the Intruder. The Catholic system has a salvo in such
cases; and the same priests who administered the oath were believed
by the French themselves to have released those who took it from its
obligations.
♦ADDRESSES TO THE INTRUDER.♦
The higher ranks in Madrid had shown themselves from the commencement
of these troubles as deficient in public spirit as they had long been
in private virtues. Scarcely an individual in that capital who was
distinguished for rank, or power, or riches, had stood forward in the
national cause, so fallacious is the opinion that those persons will be
most zealous in the defence of their country, who have what is called
the largest stake in it. Addresses from all the councils and corporate
bodies of the metropolis were dispatched to Buonaparte while he tarried
at Valladolid, ... all alike abject, and all soliciting that they might
be indulged with the presence of their king. The Council of state, by
a deputy, expressed its homage of thanks for the generous clemency of
the conqueror. “What gratitude,” said he, “does it not owe you for
having snatched Spain from the influence of those destructive councils
which fifty years of misfortune had prepared for it; for having rid it
of the English armies, who threatened to fix upon its territories the
theatre of continental war! Grateful for these benefits, the Council
of state has still another supplication to lay at the feet of your
majesty. Deign, sire, to commit to our loyalty your august brother,
our lord and King. Permit him to re-enter Madrid, and to take into his
hands the reins of government; that under the benevolent sway of this
august prince, whose mildness, wisdom, and justice, are known to all
Europe, our widowed and desolate monarchy may find a father in the best
of Kings.” D. Bernardo Yriarte spoke for the Council of the Indies. “It
entirely submits itself,” he said, “to the decrees of your Majesty,
and to those of your august brother, the King our master, who is to
create the happiness of Spain, as well by the wisdom and the assemblage
of the lofty virtues which he possesses, as by the powerful support
of the hero of Europe, upon whom the Council of the Indies founds its
hopes of seeing those ties reunited, which ought always to unite the
American possessions with the mother country.” The Council of finance
requested that it might behold in Madrid the august and beloved brother
of the Emperor, expecting from his presence the felicity and repose of
the kingdom. The Council of war supplicated him, through an effect of
his august beneficence, to confer upon the capital the felicity of the
presence of their sovereign, Joseph I. This was the theme upon which
all the deputations rung their changes. The Council of marine alone
adding an appropriate flattery to the same request, expressed its hope
of contributing to the liberty of the seas.
♦EDICTS OF THE INTRUDER BEFORE HIS RETURN TO MADRID.♦
Joseph meantime had exercised his nominal sovereignty in passing
decrees. By one the circulation of French money was permitted till
farther measures concerning it should be announced; by another all
persons entitled to any salary or pension from the government were
deprived of it till they should have taken the oath of allegiance to
him. He made an attempt also in the autumn, before reinforcements
entered Spain, to place the persons belonging to his army under civil
protection: and for this purpose required that in every district
occupied by the army, from eight to thirty stand of arms should be
deposited in every town-house, and an equal number of the respectable
inhabitants registered to serve as an escort therewith for any officer
or serjeant either on his road as an invalid, or in the execution of
any commission. They were also to act as a patrol, for the purpose
of preventing any insults or outrages which might be offered to the
military, and if men did not volunteer for this service, which would
entitle them to pay and rewards, the magistracy were to fix upon
those whom they deemed fit to discharge it. He created also a new
military order by the name of the _Orden Militar de España_. The Grand
Mastership was reserved to himself and his successors; and the two
oldest Captains General of the Army and the Fleet were always to be
Grand Chancellor and Grand Treasurer: but the order itself was open to
soldiers of every rank who should deserve it. A pension of 1000 _reales
vellon_ was attached to the order, and the device was a crimson star,
bearing on one side the Lion of Leon with this motto ... _Virtute et
Fide_; on the other the Castle of Castille with _Joseph Napoleo,
Hispaniarum et Indiarum Rex, instituit_. Decrees were also issued for
raising new regiments, one to be called the Royal Foreign, and the
other the first of the Irish Brigade.
♦JOSEPH’S ENTRANCE INTO MADRID.♦
On the 22d of January the Intruder re-entered that city, from which he
had been driven by the indignation of a whole people. At break of day
his approach was announced by the discharge of an hundred cannon; a fit
symphony, announcing at once to the people by what right he claimed
the throne, and by what means he must sustain himself upon it. From
the gate of Atocha to the church of St. Isidro, and from thence to the
palace, the streets were lined with French troops, and detachments
were stationed in every part of the city, more for the purpose of
overawing the inhabitants than of doing honour to this wretched puppet
of majesty, who, while he submitted to be the instrument of tyranny
over the Spaniards, was himself a slave. The cavalry advanced to the
Plaza de las Delicias to meet him; there he mounted on horseback, and
a procession was formed of his aides-de-camp and equerries, the grand
major domo, the grand master of the ceremonies, the grand master of
the hounds, with all the other personages of the drama of royalty, the
members of the different councils, and those grandees who, deserting
the cause of their country, stained now with infamy names which had
once been illustrious in the Spanish annals. At the gate of Atocha
the governor of Madrid was ready to present him with the keys. As
soon as he entered another discharge of an hundred cannon proclaimed
his presence, and all the bells struck up. He proceeded through the
city to the church of St. Isidro, where the suffragan Bishop, in his
pontificals, the canons, vicars, and rectors, the vicar-general, and
the prelates of the religious orders, received him at the gate, and
six of the most ancient canons conducted him to the throne. Then
the suffragan Bishop addressed him in the only language which might
that day be used, the language of servility, adulation, impiety, and
treason. The Intruder’s reply was in that strain of hypocrisy which
marked the usurpation of the Buonapartes with new and peculiar guilt.
This was his speech:
“Before rendering thanks to the Supreme Arbiter of Destinies, for my
return to the capital of this kingdom entrusted to my care, I wish to
reply to the affectionate reception of its inhabitants, by declaring
my secret thoughts in the presence of the living God, who has just
received your oath of fidelity to my person. I protest, then, before
God, who knows the hearts of all, that it is my duty and conscience
only which induce me to mount the throne, and not my own private
inclination. I am willing to sacrifice my own happiness, because I
think you have need of me for the establishment of yours. The unity of
our holy religion, the independence of the monarchy, the integrity of
its territory, and the liberty of its citizens, are the conditions
of the oath which I have taken on receiving the crown. It will not be
disgraced upon my head; and if, as I have no doubt, the desires of the
nation support the efforts of its king, I shall soon be the most happy
of all, because you through me will all be happy.”
♦EDICTS AGAINST THE PATRIOTS.♦
Two rows of banqueting tables were laid out in the nave of the church,
where the civil and military officers of the intruder, and the members
of the councils, were seated according to their respective ranks. High
mass was performed by the chapel-royal, and a solemn Te Deum concluded
the mockery. That done, Joseph proceeded with the same form to the
palace, and a third discharge of an hundred guns proclaimed his arrival
there. On the day which followed this triumphal entry, its ostentatious
joy, and the affected humanity and philanthropy of his professions,
he issued a decree for the formation of special military tribunals,
which should punish all persons with death who took arms against him,
or enlisted others for the patriotic cause: the gallows was to be the
mode of punishment, and over the door of the sufferer’s house a shield
was to be placed, for infamy, recording the cause and manner of his
ignominious death. Any innkeeper or householder in whose dwelling a
man should be enlisted for the Junta’s service should undergo the same
fate; but if they gave information, 400 reales were promised them,
or an equivalent reward. The very day that this decree was issued,
mingling, like his flagitious brother, words of blasphemy with deeds of
blood, he addressed a circular epistle to the Archbishops and Bishops
of the realm, commanding them to ♦CIRCULAR EPISTLE TO THE CLERGY.♦
order a Te Deum in all the churches of their respective dioceses. “In
returning to the capital (this was his language), our first care,
as well as first duty, has been to prostrate ourselves at the feet
of that God who disposes of crowns, and to devote to him our whole
existence for the felicity of the brave nation which he has entrusted
to our care. For this only object of our thoughts we have addressed
to him our humble prayers. What is an individual amid the generations
who cover the earth? What is he in the eyes of the Eternal, who alone
penetrates the intentions of men, and according to them determines
their elevation? He who sincerely wishes the welfare of his fellows
serves God, and omnipotent goodness protects him. We desire that, in
conformity with these dispositions, you direct the prayers of the
faithful whom Providence has entrusted to you. Ask of God, that his
spirit of peace and wisdom may descend upon us, that the voice of
passion may be stifled in meditating upon such sentiments as ought to
animate us, and which the general interests of this monarchy inspire:
that religion, tranquillity, and happiness may succeed to the discords
to which we are now exposed. Let us return thanks to God for the
success which he has been pleased to grant to the arms of our august
brother and powerful ally the Emperor of the French, who has had no
other end in supporting our rights by his power than to procure to
Spain a long peace, founded on her independence.”
A heavy load of national guilt lay upon the nations of the Peninsula;
and those persons, who, with well-founded faith, could see and
understand that the moral government of the world is neither less
perfect, nor less certain in its course, than that material order
which science has demonstrated, ... they perceived in this dreadful
visitation the work of retribution. The bloody conquests of the
Portugueze in India were yet unexpiated; the Spaniards had to atone
for extirpated nations in Cuba and Hayti, and their other islands,
and on the continent of America for cruelties and excesses not less
atrocious than those which they were appointed to punish. Vengeance had
not been exacted for the enormities perpetrated in the Netherlands,
nor for that accursed tribunal which, during more than two centuries,
triumphed both in Spain and Portugal, to the ineffaceable and eternal
infamy of the Romish church. But the crimes of a nation, like the vices
of an individual, bring on their punishment in necessary consequence,
... so righteously have all things been ordained. From the spoils of
India and America the two governments drew treasures which rendered
them independent of the people for supplies; and the war which their
priesthood waged against knowledge and reformation succeeded in
shutting them out from these devoted countries. A double despotism, of
the throne and of the altar, was thus established, and the result was a
state of degradation, which nothing less than the overthrow of both, by
some moral and political earthquake, loosening the very foundations of
society, could remove. Such a convulsion had taken place, and the sins
of the fathers were visited upon the ♦CONDITION OF MADRID.♦ children.
Madrid, the seat of Philip II., “that sad intelligencing tyrant,” who
from thence, as our great Milton said, “mischieved the world with his
mines of Ophir,” that city which once aspired to be the mistress of the
world, and had actually tyrannized over so large a part of it, was now
itself in thraldom. The Spanish cloak, which was the universal dress of
all ranks, was prohibited in the metropolis of Spain, and no Spaniard
was allowed to walk abroad in the evening, unless he carried a light.
All communication between the capital and the southern provinces, the
most fertile and wealthiest of the kingdom, was cut off. Of the trading
part of the community, therefore, those who were connected with the
great commercial cities of the south coast were at once ruined, and
they whose dealings lay with the provinces which were the seat of war
were hardly more fortunate. The public creditors experienced that
breach of public faith which always results from a violent revolution.
The intrusive government acknowledged the debt, and gave notice of its
intention to pay them by bills upon Spanish America: for this there
was a double motive, the shame of confessing that the Intruder was
unable to discharge the obligations of the government to whose rights
and duties he affected to succeed, and the hope of interesting the
holders of these bills in his cause: but so little possibility was
there of his becoming master of the Indies, that the mention of such
bills only provoked contempt. While commercial and funded property
was thus destroyed, landed property was of as little immediate value
to its owner. No remittances could be made to the capital from that
part of Spain which was not yet overrun; and the devastations had
been so extensive every where as to leave the tenant little means of
paying the proprietor. These were the first-fruits of that prosperity
which the Buonapartes promised to the Spaniards, ... these were the
blessings which Joseph brought with him to Madrid! He, meantime, was
affecting to participate in rejoicings, and receiving the incense
of adulation, in that city where the middle classes were reduced to
poverty by his usurpation, and where the wives whom he had widowed,
and the mothers whom he had made childless, mingled with their prayers
for the dead, supplications for vengeance upon him as the author of
their miseries. The theatre was fitted up to receive him, the boxes
were lined with silk, the municipality attended him to his seat, he
was presented with a congratulatory poem upon his entrance, and the
stage curtain represented the ♦1809. FEBRUARY.♦ Genius of Peace with
an olive-branch in his left hand, and a torch in his right, setting
fire to the attributes of war. Underneath was written, ♦FEB. 18.♦ “Live
happy, Sire! reign and pardon!” At the very time when this precious
specimen of French taste complimented the Intruder upon his clemency,
an extraordinary criminal Junta was formed, even the military tribunals
not being found sufficiently extensive in their powers for the work
of extermination which was begun. It was “for trial of assassins,
robbers, recruiters in favour of the insurgents, those who maintained
correspondence with them, and who spread false reports.” Persons
apprehended upon these charges were to be tried within twenty-four
hours, and sentenced to the gallows, and the sentence executed without
appeal.
♦FALSE INTELLIGENCE PUBLISHED BY THE INTRUSIVE GOVERNMENT.♦
Another of the Intruder’s decrees enjoined that the Madrid Gazette
should be under the immediate inspection of the Minister of Police,
and copies of it regularly sent to every Bishop, parochial priest,
and municipality, that the people might be informed of the acts of
government, and of public events. Joseph’s ministers, under whatever
self-practised delusion they entered his service, conformed themselves
in all things now to the spirit of Buonaparte’s policy, and employed
force and falsehood with as little scruple as if they had been trained
in the revolutionary school. While they affected to inform the people
of what was passing, they concealed whatever was unfavourable,
distorted what they ♦1809. JANUARY.♦ told, and feigned intelligence
suited to their views. They affirmed that the English goods taken at
Bilbao, S. Andero, and the ports of Asturias, would defray the expenses
of the war; and that England itself was on the point of bankruptcy.
Such multitudes, it was affirmed, had repaired to Westminster Hall to
give bail for their debts, that it seemed as if all London had been
there; numbers were thrown down by the press, and trodden under foot,
... many almost suffocated, and some were killed. Such falsehoods were
not too gross for the government where it could exclude all truer
information; where this was not in its power, it resorted to the more
feasible scheme of exciting suspicions against England; and here the
Buonapartes had a willing agent in Morla.
♦UNWILLINGNESS OF THE SPANIARDS TO BELIEVE THAT MORLA WAS A TRAITOR.♦
Prone as the Spaniards were in these unhappy times to suspect any
person, and to act upon the slightest suspicion, they were slow in
believing that Morla had proved false. The people of Cadiz would
hardly be convinced that their governor, whose patriotic addresses
were still circulating among them, could possibly have gone over to
the Intruder. So many measures of utility, so many acts of patriotism
and of disinterested vigilance in his administration, were remembered,
that the first reports of his perfidy were indignantly received; a fact
so contrary to all their experience was not to be credited, and they
felt as if they injured him in listening to such an accusation. He had
established among them a reputation like that which a Cadi sometimes
enjoys in Mahommedan countries, where his individual uprightness
supplies the defects of law, and resists the general corruption of
manners. A peasant, whom he had acquitted upon some criminal charge,
brought him a number of turkeys, as a present in gratitude for his
acquittal. Morla put him in prison, consigned the turkeys to the gaoler
for his food, and set him at liberty when he had eaten them all.
There was neither law, equity, nor humanity in this, ... yet it had
an extravagant, oriental ostentation of justice, well calculated to
impress the people with an opinion of his nice honour and scrupulous
integrity. But this man, who in all his public writings boasted of his
frankness and of his honourable intentions, was in reality destitute
both of truth and honour; and the revolution, which developed some
characters and corrupted others, only unmasked his. Early in these
troubles Lord Collingwood and Sir Hew Dalrymple had discovered ♦PROOFS
OF HIS PRIOR TREACHERY.♦ his duplicity. He had signed, and was believed
to have written, Solano’s ill-timed and worse-intended proclamation,
in which the English were spoken of with unqualified reprobation, and
as the real enemies against whom all true Spaniards ought to unite;
and when warned by Solano’s fate, he joined in the national cause,
the desire of injuring that cause by every possible means seems to
have been the main object of his crooked policy. When Castaños wanted
the assistance of General Spencer’s corps, he threw out hints to that
General that it would be required for the defence of Cadiz; though,
from jealousy of the English, at that very time he prevented the Junta
from bringing the garrison of Ceuta into the field, and had given it as
his decided opinion that no English troops should be admitted into any
Spanish fortress. And while he endeavoured to make the Junta of Seville
suspicious of English interference, he recommended to the accredited
agents of England, that they should interfere early and decidedly in
forming a central government, and appointing a commander-in-chief, and
that their influence should be strengthened by marching an army into
Spain.
♦MORLA’S LETTER TO THE CENTRAL JUNTA;♦
But the most prominent feature of Morla’s sophisticated character was
his odious hypocrisy. In the letter which announced to the Central
Junta the capitulation of Madrid he bestowed the highest eulogiums
upon the Intruder and himself. “Yesterday,” said he, “as a Counsellor
of State I saw Prince Joseph, our appointed King, and the object of
the rabble’s contumely. I assure you, with all that ingenuousness
which belongs to me, that I found him an enlightened philosopher, full
even to enthusiasm of the soundest principles of morality, humanity,
and affection to the people whom his lot has called him to command.
My eulogies might appear suspicious to those who do not know me
well; I suppress them therefore, and only say thus much, that the
Junta, according to circumstances, may regulate its own conduct and
resolutions upon this information. My whole aim and endeavour will
always be for the honour and integrity of my country. I will not do
myself the injustice to suppose that any of the nation can suspect
me of perfidy; my probity is known and accredited, and therefore I
continue to speak with that candour and ingenuousness which I have
always used.” He also delivered his opinion as an individual who was
most anxious for the good of the nation, that the governor of Cadiz
should be instructed not to let the English assemble either in or near
that city in any force; but that, under pretext of securing himself
from the French, he should throw up works against them, reinforce the
garrison, and secretly strengthen the batteries toward the sea. And
that advices should be dispatched to the Indies, for the purpose of
preventing treasure or goods from being sent, lest they should fall
into the hands of these allies, who having no longer any hope of
defending the cause, would seek to indemnify themselves at the expense
of the Spaniards. The Junta published this letter as containing in
itself sufficient proofs of perfidiousness and treason in the writer.
And they observed that at the very time when this hypocrite was
advising them to distrust the English, and arm against them, large sums
had been remitted them from England, farther pecuniary aids were on
the way, their treasures from America had been secured from the French,
by being brought home in British ships, and Great Britain had given the
most authentic proof of its true friendship with Spain, by refusing to
negotiate with Buonaparte.
♦AND TO THE GOVERNOR OF CADIZ.♦
Shortly afterwards a letter of Morla’s was intercepted, written in the
same strain to D. Josef Virues, the provisional governor of Cadiz. The
thorough hypocrite talked of the good which he had done in surrendering
Madrid, and the consolation which he derived from that reflection; he
lamented over his beloved Cadiz and its estimable inhabitants, who
had given him so many proofs of their confidence and affection, and
wished that he could avert the dangers that impended over them with
the sacrifice of his own blood. “If it became an English garrison,” he
said, “it would be more burdensome to the nation than Gibraltar, and
the commerce of the natives would be ruined: much policy as well as
courage would be required to prevent this. I need not,” he concluded,
“exhort your excellency to defend Cadiz with the honour and patriotism
which become you; but when you have fulfilled this obligation,
honourable terms may save the city, and secure its worthy inhabitants.”
In consequence of this letter it became necessary to remove Virues
from the command, more for his own sake than for any distrust of his
principles, though he had at one time been Godoy’s secretary, and
though Morla had been his friend and patron. Unwilling, and perhaps
unable to believe that one whom he had so long been accustomed to
regard with respect and gratitude was the consummate hypocrite and
traitor which he now appeared to be, Virues attempted to excuse Morla
as having acted under compulsion, an excuse more likely to alleviate
for the time his own feelings than to satisfy his judgement. But he
felt that under these circumstances it was no longer proper for him
to remain in possession of an important post: high as he stood in the
opinion of his countrymen, the slightest accident might now render
him suspected; and at this crisis it was most essential that the
people should have entire confidence in their chiefs. He therefore
gladly accepted a mission to England, and D. Felix Jones, who had
distinguished himself in the operations against Dupont, was appointed
governor. Instead of additional defences toward the sea, new works were
begun on the land side, to protect the city against its real enemies,
and Colonel Hallowell came from Gibraltar to direct them. Ammunition
and stores in abundance were sent from Seville. The new governor began
by taking measures of rigorous precaution. No person whatever, not even
an Englishman, was permitted to go a mile beyond the city without a
passport. Every Frenchman ♦ARREST AND CRUEL IMPRISONMENT OF THE FRENCH
AT CADIZ.♦ in the place was arrested and sent on board the ships. This
was intended for their own security as well as the safety of the city;
for so highly were the people incensed against that perfidious nation,
and such was their fear of treachery in every person belonging to it,
that they purposed putting all whom they should find at large to death;
and it was said that three hundred knives had been purchased at one
shop, to be thus employed. Had there been leisure, or had the Spaniards
been in a temper for humane considerations, these persons ought to have
been supplied with means of transport to their own country; instead of
which they were consigned to a most inhuman state of confinement. The
property also of all French subjects, under which term the natives of
all countries in subjection to France were included, was confiscated;
... and in consequence above three hundred shops were shut up, and
more than as many families reduced to ruin. Thus it is, that in such
times injustice provokes retaliation, wrongs lead to wrongs, and evil
produces evil in miserable series.
♦DEATH OF FLORIDA BLANCA.♦
At this juncture, when every hour brought tidings of new calamities and
nearer danger, Florida Blanca, the venerable president of the Central
Junta, died, at the great age of eighty-one; fatigue, and care, and
anxiety having accelerated his death. When the order of the Jesuits
was abolished, he was ambassador at Rome, and is believed to have been
materially instrumental in bringing about that iniquitous measure; and
it was under his ministry that Spain joined the confederacy against
Great Britain during the American war. These are acts of which
he had abundant reason to repent; but there were specious motives
for both; and this must be said of Florida Blanca, that of all the
ministers who have exercised despotic authority in Spain, no other
ever projected or accomplished half so much for the improvement of the
people and the country. Whatever tended to the general good received
his efficient support, and twenty years of subsequent misrule had not
been sufficient to undo the beneficial effects of his administration.
It was Godoy’s intention that his exile from the court should be felt
as a disgrace and a punishment; but the retirement to which it sent him
suited the disposition and declining years of the injured man, and he
passed his time chiefly in those religious meditations which are the
natural support and solace of old age. Many rulers and statesmen have
retired into convents when they have been wearied or disgusted with
the vanities and vexations of the world; few have been called upon,
like Florida Blanca, in extreme old age, to forsake their retirement,
their tranquillity, and their habits of religious life, for the higher
duty of serving their country in its hour of danger. The Central Junta
manifested their sense of his worth by conferring a grandee-ship upon
his heir, and all his legitimate descendants who should succeed him
in ♦MARQUES DE ASTORGA PRESIDENT OF THE JUNTA.♦ the title. He was
succeeded as president by the Marques de Astorga, a grandee of the
highest ♦1808.♦ class, and the representative of some of the proudest
names in Spanish history. The education of this nobleman had been
defective, as was generally the case with Spanish nobles, and his
person excited contempt in those who are presumptuous and injurious
enough to judge only by appearances. But he had not degenerated from
the better qualities of his illustrious ancestry: they who knew him
best, knew that he possessed what ought to be the distinctive marks of
old nobility: he was generous, magnanimous, and high-spirited, without
the least apparent consciousness of being so.
♦CATALONIA, 1808.♦
After the fall of Madrid there was yet one quarter to which the Junta
might look with reasonable hope, amid the disasters that crowded upon
them. If Barcelona could be recovered, the acquisition of that most
important place would balance the worst reverses which they had yet
sustained. But ill fortune every where pursued them, and there was this
to aggravate the disappointment, that their losses in Catalonia were
more imputable to misconduct than to any want of strength. A force had
been collected there fully equal both in numbers and discipline (had
it been directed with common prudence) to the services expected from
it. After the arrival of the troops from Portugal and Majorca, and
the Granadan army, it consisted of about 28,000 regular troops, and
1600 cavalry, besides the garrisons of Rosas, Hostalrich, and Gerona,
who were nearly 6000. The sea being commanded by their allies, was
open to them along the whole line of coast, except at Barcelona; and
the people, who have always been eminently distinguished for their
activity, industry, hardihood, and invincible spirit of independence,
were ready to make any sacrifices and any exertions for the deliverance
of their native land. The province too was full of fortified places,
and even in so defensible a country as Spain peculiarly strong by
nature. But to counterbalance these advantages, there were the
confusion and perplexity, as well as the distance of the Central Junta;
the inexperience and rashness of those who had taken upon themselves
the local government; want of science, of decision, and of ability in
the generals; want of authority every where; the fearful spirit of
insubordination, which on the slightest occasion was ready to break
out; ... and, above all, that reckless and unreasonable confidence
which had now become part of the Spanish character.
♦SIEGE OF BARCELONA.♦
There was some excuse for this confidence in the Catalans; they knew
their own temper and the strength of their country; and they had
obtained some signal successes before any regular troops came to their
assistance. But this remembrance, and the knowledge that so large
a regular force was in the field, induced a fatal belief that the
difficulties of the struggle were over, and that nothing remained to
complete their triumph but the recovery of Barcelona. And this, they
said, might easily be effected: the enemy there were weak, in want of
provisions, sickly, dispirited by defeat and desertion; the English
squadron at hand to assist in an attack upon Monjuich and the citadel;
and the inhabitants ready upon the first appearance of success to rise
upon their invaders and open the gates. Among the French and Italians
themselves, there were some, they affirmed, who would gladly forsake
the wicked cause wherein they were engaged, and by contributing to
deliver up these places atone for the treachery in which they had
been compelled to bear a part. This was the cry of the people; and
these representations were strengthened by some of the citizens, who
were perpetually proposing plans contradictory to each other, and
alike impracticable: the Supreme Junta represented the people but too
faithfully, partaking their inexperience, their impatience, and their
errors; and General Vives, surrounded by ignorant advisers, controlled
if not intimidated by popular opinion, and himself altogether
incompetent to the station which he filled, wasted the precious weeks
in a vain display before Barcelona; not perceiving or not regarding
that the possession of the city would have been useless to him while
the French possessed the citadel and Montjuich; that he had no means
for besieging those strong places; ... and above all, that if the
French were prevented from relieving them, they must inevitably soon
fall into his hands without a blow.
♦ST. CYR APPOINTED TO COMMAND THE FRENCH IN CATALONIA.♦
Duhesme, in fact, had announced to his government that his provisions
would not hold out beyond the month of December; and to throw in
supplies by sea was impossible. Buonaparte was well aware of the
danger, and saw in part what consequences might be apprehended
from it. He knew how Barcelona had been defended in the Succession
war, and had calculated that if it were now to be recovered by the
Spaniards it would cost him not less than fourscore thousand lives to
regain possession of it. Such a sacrifice he would have made without
one compunctious feeling; but that blood might have been expended
without effecting the purchase, ... for if such a siege had been
undertaken, England must and would have made exertions commensurate
to the occasion. That these consequences did not follow was owing to
the errors and incapacity of his opponents, not to his own measures.
In other cases the force which he prepared was always fully equal
to the service for which it was designed; in the present, it was so
inadequate, as to excite in the General, Gouvion Saint Cyr, a suspicion
that failure on his part would be more agreeable to the Emperor than
success. That General had belonged to the army of the Rhine, which was
an original sin in Buonaparte’s eyes; and having a command in Naples he
had refused to obtain addresses from the troops soliciting the First
Consul to take upon himself the imperial dignity; ... an irremissible
offence. Moreover, great commander as Buonaparte was, he was jealous of
any victories which were not obtained when he was in the field, so that
the renown might redound to himself. Indulging at once this littleness
of mind, and his personal or political dislike, it was his wish that
Gouvion St. Cyr should not distinguish himself by any brilliant
success; at the same time he knew the miserable state of the Spanish
armies, and still more of the counsels by which they were directed,
well enough to rely upon his relieving Barcelona. His instructions were
to effect that object, to collect considerable magazines in Figueras
at the enemy’s expense; to subdue the valleys, making ♦ST. CYR, 26.
42. DO. PIÈCES JUSTIFICATIVES, NO. 7.♦ them feel the whole weight of
the war, and in fine to crush the enemy: having these objects in view,
every thing was left to his own discretion.
When St. Cyr arrived at Perpignan, at the end of August, the town was
full of sick and wounded, for whose relief no preparation had been
made, so little had any reverses been expected. He found there some
Tuscan regiments, the poor Queen of Etruria’s guards, and a battalion
from the Valais ... for even that country was called upon to contribute
from its recesses to this insatiable tyrant’s demand for human life.
These troops had been sent back from Figueras by General Reille as
being quite unable to take the field, not for want of discipline only,
but of equipments, arms, and even necessary clothing. So miserable
was their condition, that it was deemed prudent to quarter them in
remote places, and train them out of sight, lest they should excite
indignation as well as commiseration in the people, who in the south of
France had always been ill affected toward Buonaparte, and suffering
at this time from the loss of their trade with Spain, detested the
injustice of the war, and were in a temper which might have ♦ST. CYR,
19. 34.♦ produced formidable consequences if any serious invasion
had been attempted on that side. During the autumn troops continued
to arrive there, mostly consisting of conscripts from Genoa, Naples,
and other parts of Italy: under good training they soon became good
soldiers, and only less to be trusted than the French because they
were more inclined to desert. These forces when collected amounted to
18,000 men. Reille had 4000 at Figueras, and 8000 were with Duhesme in
Barcelona.
♦HE DETERMINES UPON BESIEGING ROSAS.♦
Early in November St. Cyr received orders to enter Spain, and he
determined to commence his operations with the siege of Rosas.
While the fine roadstead which that fortress commands was open to
the English, there was scarcely a chance of throwing supplies into
Barcelona by sea; to escort them by land was not possible while Gerona
and Hostalrich were in possession of the Spaniards; and if those places
had been taken they could not be provisioned unless Rosas also were
held by the French. Rosas is situated four leagues east of Figueras,
in the bottom of the bay, where the plain of Ampurdan touches ♦1808.
NOVEMBER.♦ the skirts of the Pyrenees. The town, containing then about
1200 inhabitants, is built along the shore, and completely commanded by
the fortress; the fortress, which is an irregular pentangle, the town,
and a smaller fort, called, after a custom too prevalent in Catholic
countries, Fuerte de la Trinidad, forming a semi-circle round the bay.
This place had sustained a most gallant siege of ten weeks in 1795
after Figueras, strong as it was, had been surrendered without defence;
and when the commander, D. Domingo Yzquierdo, could maintain the almost
demolished works no longer, he succeeded in embarking the remains of
his garrison. ♦MARCILLAC. 299–313.♦ During the peace nothing had been
done to repair the works, as if no future war was to be apprehended.
Even after the present struggle had commenced, six months, in that
supineness which belongs to the Spanish character, had been suffered
to elapse without taking any measures for strengthening and securing
a place of such evident importance. There were many persons, and even
some members of the nearest Juntas, who were acquainted with the
details of the last siege, and knew what repairs were necessary, and
also what the points were which it was most material to strengthen. But
their attention was wholly engrossed by local and immediate interests,
and the pressing representations which the commandant of engineers
repeatedly addressed to the higher authorities produced no effect.
Nothing could rouse them from their dream of recovering Barcelona by
force of arms.
♦DILAPIDATED STATE OF THAT FORTRESS.♦
The Governor, however, D. Pedro O’Daly, Lieutenant-Colonel of the
regiment of Ulster, as soon as he apprehended an attack had made some
preparations; he ordered all strangers who had taken refuge there to
depart, and sent away by sea such of the garrison as were incapable of
service. The ditches were cleared, parapets formed, and guns mounted.
The north angle of the fort had been demolished by the explosion of a
magazine; a wall of stones without mortar was run up by the peasants;
it closed the breach, but that part of the works remained useless. The
stores were as incomplete as the works: there were neither measures
for the powder, nor saws for the fusees, ... hats and axes were used
instead. The buildings within the fort were in ruins, an old church and
one other edifice being all that were serviceable. Before the former
siege a line nearly half a mile in length, with some redoubts, had been
formed from the citadel to that part of the mountain range which is
called Puig-rom, for the purpose of covering the town; but it was now
in all parts so dilapidated, that though the garrison as well as the
inhabitants were aware how much they needed this additional ♦CABAÑES,
C. 10.♦ protection, any attempt at re-establishing it was deemed
hopeless.
♦PREPARATIONS FOR THE SIEGE.♦
Preparations for the siege had been made at Figueras, and in order to
deceive the Spaniards a report had been encouraged that the design was
against Gerona. St. Cyr established his head-quarters at Figueras, and
General Reille, to whom the conduct of the siege had been entrusted,
encamped before Rosas with his own division and that of the Italian
General Pino. General ♦NOV. 6.♦ Souham took a position between Figueras
and the Fluvia, to protect the besiegers on that side against any
attempt which might be made from Gerona; and Chabot was stationed
nearer the frontier, the General being well aware that the opposition
which he had to apprehend was not so much from regular troops as from
the whole population of the country. But the measures of the Catalans
were so ill-directed at this time, that the invaders suffered more
from the weather, and from the gross neglect of their own government
in sending them supplies, than from all the efforts of their enemies.
St. Cyr was obliged to send his cavalry back into France to the
neighbourhood of Beziers, that the horses might not perish for want
of fodder during the siege; and when he wrote pressingly for supplies
for his men, directions were sent him in return to collect and convoy
provisions to Barcelona. He ♦ST. CYR, 34–41♦ was desired not to regard
any reports concerning the rabble opposed to him, for it was nothing
more, and the time was fixed within which the Emperor expected that he
would be master of Barcelona and of the country ten leagues round. In
reply to this he stated that he would not break up the siege of Rosas
without positive orders; that it was sufficiently hazardous to advance
leaving Gerona behind him; but if Rosas were left also, Figueras would
be again blockaded by the Spaniards, and must fall, because it was not
possible to store it: so that the ♦DO. PIÈCES JUSTIF. 45–16.♦ only way
to secure that most important fortress was to take Rosas.
♦BRITISH SQUADRON IN THE BAY OF ROSAS.♦
However much St. Cyr and the government under which he acted differed
in other points, they both knew the incapacity of the forces opposed to
them, and relied upon it. They knew that there would be no difficulty
in routing the Spaniards whenever they were brought to action, that
nothing was to be apprehended from any combined operations, and that
neither by sea or land was any such exertion as the time required to
be expected from the English, ... the siege of Rosas would otherwise
have been a more perilous undertaking than the march to Barcelona.
The English had just force enough in the Bay to give the French an
opportunity of boasting that the siege was effected in spite of them,
and to show what might have been done if a flying squadron with troops
on board had been on the coast ready to act wherever it might be most
serviceable. Captain West was in the bay in the Excellent, with the
Lucifer and Meteor, bomb-vessels; and when the enemy, having taken
possession of the heights which encompass the whole bay, had driven
the troops in, and the peasants from the nearest villages with them,
and entered the town, these vessels bore a part in the action, and
assisted in dislodging them. Five-and-twenty marines were then sent
to reinforce Fort Trinidad, and the rest of the marines, with fifty
seamen, went cheerfully to assist in defending the citadel. Upon this
a report was spread by the enemy, who were always endeavouring to make
the Spaniards jealous of their allies, that the English had taken
possession of the place; and as while this report was circulated they
succeeded in intercepting all communications from Rosas to Gerona, the
Junta of that city wrote to Captain West, requesting an explanation of
his conduct. The artifice was then discovered; but not till the end had
been answered of deceiving the Junta for a time, and thus preventing
them from taking such measures for the relief of the place as might
have been in their power.
Reille had expected to take Rosas by a sudden attack. The commandant of
the engineers had served in that same capacity at the last siege, and
was therefore well acquainted with the place and with its weakness. On
the evening of the 9th a breach was made in the ramparts of the citadel
sufficient for twenty men abreast; but it was so dark that the enemy
did not discover the extent of the mischief. Immediate intelligence
was sent to the ships; one of the bomb-vessels was then stationed
where it could flank the breach, and the boats appointed to enfilade
the shore with carronades, while more seamen were landed to repair
the damage. British seamen are made of such materials, that it is
indifferent to them on what service they are employed; whether at sea
or ashore, whatever is to be done by courage, activity, intelligence,
and strenuous exertion, they can accomplish. The Spaniards exerted
themselves with emulous alacrity, and this, against which the enemy
had directed their fire as the weakest part of the works, was by their
united labour placed in a respectable state of defence.
♦DISPOSITION OF THE ITALIAN TROOPS TO DESERT.♦
Reille now found that neglected as Rosas had been, with its feeble
works, its unsupported garrison, and its insufficient stores, it was
necessary to proceed against it by regular siege. Some difficulties
he encountered from the state of the weather, some from the sallies
which were made to interrupt him; but his greatest uneasiness arose
from the desertion of the Italians, which was so frequent as to leave
no doubt that in case ♦ST. CYR, 38.♦ of any serious reverse the whole
division would go over to the Spaniards. The state of durance in which
the Pope was held had probably offended their religious feelings, and
the Tuscans perhaps in their indignation for the treatment of the Queen
of Etruria felt some sympathy with the Spaniards. But Buonaparte cared
not for the hearts of men, so their hands were at his service and
their lives at his disposal. And such are the effects of discipline,
that the Italians, who when left to themselves are the worst troops
in the world, became as efficient as the best soldiers in his army.
One regiment at this siege was composed of subjects turned out from
others, the refuse of the whole Italian army: example, encouragement,
and restraint, made them behave well in the field, ... and how they
behaved out of it was a matter of indifference to their officers and
the government which employed them. Two companies of Italians having
been surrounded and made prisoners by the Somatenes, under an old man
of seventy, (who had been a captain of Miquelets in the last war, and
now acted under the orders of the Spanish commander, D. Juan Claros),
St. Cyr gave orders to seize an equal number of the inhabitants, and
send them into France; there to be confined till an exchange should
take place; and this he did to give a humaner character to the war,
upon so brutal a system had it been carried on by his predecessors.
His plea was that the peasantry had entrapped his troops by leading
them astray; but the Catalans did not understand upon what principle he
acted, and were more exasperated than if he had pursued the old system
of burning their villages, because they believed that their countrymen
were thus carried off as recruits for Buonaparte’s armies in the north.
Among the Italian prisoners was the wife of an officer who accompanied
her husband in man’s attire.
♦ATTACK UPON FORT TRINIDAD REPULSED.♦
On the 16th the French attempted to carry Fort Trinidad by assault.
They were repulsed; returning in greater strength, they forced the
outer gate, and endeavoured to force the second; but here such a
steady fire of musquetry and hand-grenades was kept up against them,
that they retired a second time, leaving many of their men under the
walls. Captain West expecting a third attack, reinforced the fort with
a party of marines, who entered by means of a rope-ladder under an
incessant fire. Nothing could be more cordial than the co-operation
of the Spaniards and English at this time; but they were not strong
enough to prevent the enemy from erecting batteries, which compelled
the ships to keep at a distance, and a brave but unsuccessful attack
from Gerona upon Souham’s division on the Fluvia was the only effort
made to relieve them: on that side the Spaniards would have done
more had it not been for want of cavalry. There were two regiments
in Tarragona with excellent horses, but so miserably in want of
equipments, that it was impossible for them to take the field; there
was no money to equip them, and while they were thus remaining inactive
the enemy were overrunning the Ampurdan, and carrying on the siege of
Rosas at their will, because the Spaniards had no cavalry to keep them
in check. The French acted with a full knowledge of the Spaniards’
embarrassments, and in full reliance upon the paralysing imbecility
which such difficulties must needs produce; nevertheless St. Cyr was
far from feeling at ease, knowing that Barcelona must fall unless it
were speedily succoured, and that if the force which was now idly
besieging it were brought to the relief of Rosas, Catalonia might
speedily be cleared of its invaders, and Rousillon become in its turn
the scene of invasion. It was therefore necessary to press the siege,
the farthest day which had been appointed for his reaching ♦THE FRENCH
ESTABLISH THEMSELVES IN THE TOWN.♦ Barcelona being past. During the
night of the 27th an attack was made upon the town; the helpless part
of the inhabitants had been removed by sea at the first approach of
danger; there were about 500 men stationed there, some of whom were
peasants, the others part of the garrison: they defended themselves
with a courage to which the French, who are seldom just to their
enemies, bore witness; but they were overpowered; about 300 fell, and
hardly fifty escaped into the citadel. The conquerors immediately
established batteries under cover of the houses, then set fire to the
houses, and cut off the communication between the citadel and the fort.
They rendered it also impossible for the English to communicate with
the citadel. Captain West had at this time been superseded by Captain
Bennett of the Fame; and when an officer from the Marques de Lazan came
on board his ship with dispatches for the governor, some lives were
lost in an unsuccessful attempt at landing him.
♦LORD COCHRANE THROWS HIMSELF INTO FORT TRINIDAD.♦
The citadel was soon in a desperate state, and the fort might have
been considered so; for it was at this time battered in breach, and
a passage to the lower bomb-proof being nearly effected, the marines
of the Fame were withdrawn. At this juncture Lord Cochrane arrived
in the Imperieuse. During the month of September this gallant officer
with his single ship had kept the whole coast of Languedoc in alarm,
destroyed the newly-constructed semaphoric telegraphs (which were
of the utmost consequence to the numerous coasting convoys of the
French) at Bourdique, La Pinede, St. Maguire, Frontignan, Canet, and
Foy; demolished fourteen barracks of the gens-d’armes; blown up a
battery and the strong tower upon the lake of Frontignan; and not only
prevented any troops from being sent from that province into Spain,
but excited such dismay there, that 2000 men were drawn from Figueras
to oppose him. The coasting trade was entirely suspended during this
alarm; and with such consummate prudence were all his enterprises
planned and executed, that not one of his men was either killed or
hurt, except one, who was singed in blowing up the battery.
♦GALLANT DEFENCE OF THE FORT.♦
Lord Collingwood, with his wonted prudence, had entrusted Cochrane
with discretionary orders to assist the Spaniards wherever it could
be done with most probability of success, and he hastened to the Bay
of Rosas as soon as he knew of the siege, ... too late, and yet in
time to signalize himself. Captain Bennett, though he had withdrawn
his own men, did not alter Lord Collingwood’s orders, and Cochrane
threw himself into Fort Trinidad with eighty seamen and marines,
at a time when the garrison, amounting to the same number, would
else have surrendered, perceiving that further resistance had been
thought unavailing by the English themselves. ♦1808. DECEMBER.♦
This garrison was changed, and the new men brought with them fresh
hope and unexhausted strength. Cochrane formed a rampart within the
breach of palisadoes and barrels, ships’ hammock-cloths, awning, &c.
filled with sand and rubbish; these supplied the place of walls and
ditches. Sanson, the commandant of the engineers, pronounced the breach
practicable. His opinion was relied on with the more confidence because
he was well acquainted with the place; but the Captain who was ordered
to lead the assault thought otherwise; he had been in the Spanish
service, and in garrison at that very fort, and he said that it was
not possible to enter there; nevertheless he would make the attempt if
he were ordered, with the certainty of perishing in it, and leading
his party to destruction. Under such circumstances it requires more
firmness to give the order than to obey, ... but it is of a different
kind. The order was given, and the officer perished as he had foreseen
and foretold. Two of his companions escaped by the humanity of the
English, who, instead of killing four men whose lives were at their
mercy, suffered two to retire, while they drew up the others by a
rope, to secure them as prisoners. When the breach had been rendered
practicable, a more formidable assault was made. Lord Cochrane had
prepared for it with that sportiveness by which English sailors are
as much characterised as schoolboys. He not only stationed men with
bayonets immediately within the breach, to give the assailants an
immediate greeting, but he laid well-greased planks across the breach,
upon which many of the French slipped and fell in endeavouring to pass;
and he hung ropes there with fish-hooks fastened to them, by which not
a few were caught in their retreat. The enemy suffered a severe loss on
this occasion. There was in Lord Cochrane’s conduct here, and in all
places, that contempt of danger which in former ages would have been
imputed to a reliance upon charms, and which never fails to inspire
confidence. Once, while the besiegers were battering the fort, the
Spanish flag fell into the ditch: he let himself down by a rope through
a shower of balls to recover it, returned unhurt, and planted it again
upon the ♦THE CITADEL CAPTURED, AND THE FORT EVACUATED.♦ walls. The
citadel at length having been battered in breach till it was no longer
tenable, capitulated, and the garrison, marching out with the honours
of war, were sent prisoners[1] into France. Two thousand men, who had
given proof of steadiness and courage, were thus lost to Spain. Lord
Cochrane then saw that any farther resistance in Fort Trinidad was
impossible; and having maintained its shattered walls twelve days after
they had been deemed untenable, he embarked all the men, and blew up
the magazine.
♦ST. CYR MARCHES TO RELIEVE BARCELONA.♦
The French had thus been detained a whole month before a neglected
and ill-provided fortress. But the men who so often during this war
heroically defended half-ruined works, had too much reason to feel how
little it availed by their exertions to gain time for generals who knew
not how to use it. By the French commanders every thing was calculated,
... by the Spanish, nothing. On the day after the capitulation the
conquerors marched from Rosas; on the next day the whole army was
collected on the Fluvia, the cavalry having returned from France. The
force disposable for the relief of Barcelona consisted of 15,000 foot
and 1500 horse: more than twice their number might have been brought
against them, besides the Miquelets, who were esteemed by the French
themselves as the best light troops in Europe, and the whole peasantry,
always remarkable for their hardihood, and now animated with a hatred
of their invaders as intense as it was well-founded. To deceive an
enemy who was easily deceived, St. Cyr manœuvred as if he intended to
besiege Gerona. One precaution, and one only, had been effectually
taken by the Spaniards: they had broken up the road along the coast,
so as to render it impracticable, and any attempt at repairing it must
have been made under the guns of the English squadron. Hostalrich
commanded the other road, but this was not passable for artillery. He
sent back his guns and his ammunition waggons to Figueras, and having
reached La Bisbal, distributed to every soldier four days’ biscuit and
fifty cartridges, and with ♦DEC. 12.♦ no farther ammunition than ten
rounds per man more, which were carried upon mules, set off to force
his way to Barcelona, sure of well storing it when he arrived there
from the magazines of the besiegers.
♦HE DISCOVERS A MOUNTAIN PATH NEAR HOSTALRICH.♦
Claros, who saw the enemy debouche from La Bisbal, dispatched immediate
intelligence to General Vives, and taking a position with his Miquelets
and a party of Somatenes at Col de la Grange, opposed their march.
If this system had been well followed up, the French must soon have
expended their cartridges; but every thing had been concerted on their
part, and with the Spaniards in their multitude of counsellors there
was neither concert nor wisdom; and so ♦CABAÑES, P. II. P. 92.♦ well
were the French prepared, that they were better acquainted with the
country than the Spaniards themselves. In passing near Palamos they
received some shot from the English ships; it was the only part of the
route they had chosen which exposed them to this danger. They encamped
that night in the Val de Aro. The destination of the army could then no
longer be concealed; still it was of importance to keep the Spaniards
in doubt concerning its course, and St. Cyr profited by every hour
which they passed in indecision. The next day he arrived at Vidreras.
Lazan’s troops were seen behind them, to the right, on the heights of
Casa de la Selva; and on the 14th some skirmishing took place near
Mallorquinas between these troops and the rear of the French. This
gave them little interruption, and no alarm: what St. Cyr apprehended
was, that he should find Vives upon the Tordera, a strong position,
where some bodies of Miquelets and peasantry, well posted, might
have made him expend his ammunition, and easily have frustrated his
design; but it was the fate of the Spaniards now never to profit by the
opportunities which were offered them. Passing by Masanet and Martorell
de la Selva, upon the heights which command Hostalrich, he halted his
right at Grions and his left at Masanes, while search was made for a
mountain path, which leading out of reach of shot from the fortress,
comes into the Barcelona road beyond it. A man who had formerly kept
sheep in these parts had assured him that such a path existed, in
opposition to the statement of all the smugglers whom St. Cyr consulted
before he left Perpignan, and it was in reliance upon his single but
sure testimony that this course was taken. The officers of the staff
went to look for it, and returned exhausted with fatigue, declaring
that no such path was there. St. Cyr then, who had full reliance upon
his informant, set out himself, and after two hours’ search discovered
it, but in the attempt he had nearly fallen into the hands of a party
of Somatenes.
By this path, on the 15th, the French succeeded in passing Hostalrich;
they started at daybreak, and had just regained the high road when
the garrison, having discovered the way which they had taken, came
out and annoyed their rear. In the course of the day they lost about
two hundred men by repeated attacks of the Miquelets: and the troops,
harassed by these skirmishes and by a fatiguing march, in which they
had to cross many torrents, would fain have halted for the night when
they arrived at Puente de la Tordera. The defile of Treinta-pasos was
before them six miles in length, and St. Cyr knew that if they did not
pass it that night, they must fight their way through on the morrow. He
urged them forward therefore, leaving a handful of men at the entrance,
to keep the Miquelets in check. The Spaniards had endeavoured to impede
the way by breaking up the road and felling trees across it: but they
had neglected to occupy this important pass, and by eleven o’clock the
whole of the French ♦ST. CYR, 52–63.♦ army bivouacqued on the plain a
league from Llinas.
♦INDECISION OF GENERAL VIVES.♦
General Vives, during the whole time that the French were before
Rosas, had been occupied with the insane purpose of laying regular
siege to Barcelona. From this dream he was disturbed by advices from
Gerona that the firing at Rosas had ceased; and any hope which might
have remained was soon put an end to by certain intelligence of its
surrender from the British squadron. The Spanish Commander had taken
none of the ordinary means for obtaining information of the enemy’s
movements; he knew as little of their strength as of their plans:
he was ill acquainted with the country, and the persons by whom he
was surrounded were utterly ignorant of military affairs, and might
have perplexed a firmer spirit and a clearer understanding, by their
contrarious and vacillating counsels. It was a moment at which a blow
might have been struck not less momentous than the battle of Baylen;
for the destruction of St. Cyr’s army (and destruction must have been
the consequence of defeat) would have drawn after it the recovery of
Barcelona and Figueras, and effectual assistance might then have been
afforded to Zaragoza. But the unreasonable hopes which he had long
indulged were followed by an ominous prostration of mind. Fretted as
well as embarrassed by want of money; alarmed by tidings of the rout
at Tudela, and of the appearance of the enemy again before Zaragoza;
still more alarmed by receiving no advices from the side of Madrid,
and therefore with too much reason apprehending the worst, he had no
government to look to for orders, no reliance upon others, and none
♦DEC. 11.♦ upon himself. Four days were wasted in hopeless indecision;
then came intelligence at midnight from the Junta at Gerona that St.
Cyr was on his march, and, having sent his artillery to Figueras, it
was evident that Barcelona was his object. Immediately General Reding
was dispatched with his division, consisting of about 4000 men, to
oppose him. Succeeding advices left no doubt of the direction of the
French; a council of war was held; Caldagues was of ♦HE MARCHES AGAINST
THE FRENCH.♦ opinion that the General should march against the enemy
with the greater part of his force, leaving only enough to keep up the
blockade: he took however not more than 5000 with him, and, having
dispatched instructions to the Marques de Lazan, followed Reding, and
having ♦DEC. 15. CABAÑES, P. 9. C. II.♦ joined him at Granollers, set
out from that place at midnight just when the French had passed without
opposition through the defile of Treinta-pasos: the Spaniards as they
left Granollers saw the fires of the enemy’s bivouac.
♦ROUT OF THE SPANIARDS AT LLINAS.♦
The intention was to occupy an advantageous position between Villalba
and Llinas: the artillery and the want of order in some of the raw
troops impeded their march; it was morning when the head of the column
arrived at Cardedeu, and before Vives could reach the ground which
he had intended to take he came in sight of the enemy, and his men,
after a night march of eight hours, had to draw up for battle. The
French were refreshed by rest: but they had consumed their biscuit,
and so much of their ammunition had been expended in skirmishing with
the Miquelets, that what remained would not have been sufficient for
an hour in action. St. Cyr had formed them in one column at daybreak.
When the Spanish artillery began to play upon the head of that column,
Pino, of whose division it was composed, sent an aide-de-camp, to ask
if any change was to be made in the dispositions for battle. St. Cyr’s
reply was, “We have neither time nor means to make dispositions. In
this covered country it would take at least three hours to reconnoitre
the enemy well, ... in less than two, Lazan might arrive to attack us
in the rear, and Milans might fall upon our left. We have not a minute
to lose; but must bring our whole force to bear upon the centre of
their line.” Notwithstanding these orders, the first brigade deployed,
and attacking the left of Reding’s division suffered considerably,
and began to give way. St. Cyr, when he saw his orders disobeyed,
instructed Pino to execute his original plan with the second brigade,
and, changing the direction of Souham’s division, sent it to turn
General Reding’s right. Two battalions were ordered to make a false
attack upon the left of the Spanish position. Here the rout began. The
centre was forced at the same time; and Vives and his staff, seeing all
hope lost on that side, hastened to the right, where the advantage
had hitherto appeared to be with Reding. But they carried panic with
them; Souham’s division decided the battle in that quarter with equal
celerity, and the steadiness with which some of the old troops behaved
was not supported well enough to save the Spaniards from a total and
scandalous defeat. It was eight o’clock when they formed for action,
and before nine they were in full flight. General Vives lost his horse,
and, escaping on foot across the mountains, reached Mataro, and got
on board a vessel. There was an end of all order: officers and men
shifted as they could, each for himself. One column alone under Colonel
Ybarrola retreated unbroken; and two out of fourteen guns were brought
off by a Sub-lieutenant named Uzurrun. Reding, who had been saved
by the speed of his horse from close pursuit, fell in with these at
Mommalo, rallied what fugitives could be collected, and retreated with
them by S. Culgat, across the Llobregat to Molins de Rey. The artillery
had been well served, and the French loss by their own account amounted
to 600 men. Of the Spaniards 2000 are said to have been taken, of
whom 800 were wounded. Their killed were about 400. The loss in men
was trifling, for the fugitives dispersed in all directions, and the
conquerors wasted no time in pursuit: but the most favourable ♦CABAÑES,
P. 3. C. 11. ST. CYR, 63–70.♦ opportunity which presented itself to
the Spaniards during the whole war was lost, ... the opportunity of
cutting off a second French army, which would have drawn after it the
recovery of Barcelona, and a second deliverance of Zaragoza.
♦RETREAT OF THE SPANIARDS FROM BARCELONA TO THE LLOBREGAT.♦
The firing was heard at Barcelona, from whence Duhesme, seeing so large
a part of the besieging force drawn off, sallied against the remainder:
he was bravely received, and repulsed at all points. But when night
came, Caldagues, who had been left in the command, hearing the fatal
issue of the battle, withdrew behind the Llobregat, removing almost
the whole of his artillery, but leaving copious magazines which Vives,
with that want of discretion that characterized all his conduct, had
collected at Sarrea, and which it was now impossible to save. The
retreat was effected without molestation; but so miserable a scene
had not for many generations been witnessed in Catalonia. The country
around Barcelona was one of the most flourishing and delightful parts
of the whole kingdom, bearing every mark of industry and opulence and
comfort. The whole population of that vicinity followed the retreat,
men, women, and children carrying upon their backs such effects as they
could bear, and leaving all the rest to the spoilers. The nuns of three
convents were among the fugitives: about an hundred of these poor women
were so advanced in years that they were hardly able to walk, ... since
childhood they had never been beyond the walls of their cloister, and
now they were thus driven abroad into the world. Reding had reached
Molins de Rey at midnight, and by great exertions restoring some order
among the troops which he had collected in his flight, took a position
upon the heights that command the bridge.
♦ST. CYR MARCHES AGAINST THEM.
DEC. 17.♦
St. Cyr entered Barcelona on the following morning, ill satisfied with
Duhesme for not having interposed to cut off the fugitives; and still
more displeased when he found that the distress of the garrison for
provisions had been greatly exaggerated, and that in consequence of
these false representations he had been compelled to undertake a march
so perilous that nothing but the gross incapacity of his opponents
♦DEC. 20.♦ could have saved the army from[2] destruction. He rested his
men three days, and on the fourth took a position on the left bank of
the Llobregat in face of the Spaniards, that they might have no time to
strengthen themselves in the advantageous post which they occupied, nor
to be joined by the troops under Lazan and Milans. But these officers
had no intention of joining; and Reding, upon whom the temporary
command had devolved, was less able than a Spaniard would have been to
struggle with the difficulties in which he found himself. A Spanish
General would neither have foreseen defeat nor have been cast down by
it; he would have thought a change of fortune as likely as a change
of weather; he would have relied upon the Saints and the Virgin, his
good cause and the insuperable constancy of his countrymen. But Reding
saw only the fearful realities of his situation; he knew that his
own knowledge of the art of war was of no avail when he could depend
neither upon officers nor men; and his sole hope was, that a speedy and
honourable death might remove him from the sight of calamities which
he deemed it impossible to avert. A more pitiable condition cannot be
conceived, ... except that of the brave and honourable men employed
against him, who from a sense of military duty served with their utmost
efforts a cause which they knew to be infamously unjust, and acting
in obedience to a merciless tyrant with miscreants worthy of such a
master, aided and abetted crimes at which their hearts revolted ...
sinning thus against God and man, against the light of conscience and
against their own souls.
♦INDECISION OF THE SPANIARDS. DEC. 18.♦
On the second day after the rout, Vives, who had landed at Sitges,
appeared upon the Llobregat, and having approved of Reding’s
dispositions, left him in the command while he went to Villafranca to
take measures with the Junta for calling out the whole peasantry of
the country, and for reuniting the dispersed troops. There was the
difficult task of providing for the army, ... their magazines had been
abandoned to the enemy, and they were in a country which now for six
months had been the immediate scene of war. They were without clothes
and without shelter, and a piercing wind from the mountains swept down
the valley of the Llobregat. ♦DEC. 20.♦ While they were employed in
felling trees and erecting huts, the alarm was given that the French
were taking a position in front of them. The men were immediately
placed under arms, and dispositions were made for maintaining a post
strong in itself, and defended by numerous artillery. But it was soon
perceived that the attack would not be made that day. St. Cyr fixed
his head-quarters in the centre at San Feliu, having his left at
Cornella and his right at Molins de Rey. He saw by the movements of the
Spaniards that they expected the main attack would be at that place,
by the bridge over which the high road passes to Tarragona, and a
little way beyond branches off to Zaragoza. They had in fact made such
preparations that it was impossible for the French to debouch there
while the point was defended with any resolution. St. Cyr therefore
ordered General Chabran to draw their attention thither during the
night, and not to make any real attempt till he should see both the
centre and the right of the enemy turned: for the river was fordable
in several places, and the Spaniards with strange improvidence had
taken no means for rendering it impassable in those points. Indeed
as soon as they were satisfied that the attack was delayed till the
morning, Reding held a council of war in his tent; and all who were
present agreed that considering the temper of the troops after their
late defeat, it would be imprudent to hazard another engagement....
Some were for retreating to Ordal, and occupying a position there; ...
it was not so defensible as that which they proposed to abandon; but
to men in their state of mind it seemed better, because it was at a
distance: others were for retiring at once to Tarragona, where the army
might be re-organized in safety. Reding himself thought it certainly
advisable to retreat: but he who had no fear of death was miserably
afraid of responsibility; and wanting resolution to act upon his own
judgement, dispatched a courier to solicit instructions from General
Vives, who was seven leagues off. Night came on; the troops were under
arms, exposed to severe cold and snow; the fires of both armies were
seen along their whole lines; ... an alarm was kept up at the bridge by
Chabran’s division, and from time to time the Spanish batteries fired
where they saw any movement on the opposite bank. At midnight no answer
from Vives had arrived; and Reding, not doubting that it would confirm
the opinion of the council, issued orders that the troops should be in
readiness to commence their retreat as soon as it came. But Vives also
sought to shift the responsibility from himself; and when his answer
arrived, which was not till four in the morning, its purport was, that
Reding was to retire to Ordal if he could not maintain himself on the
Llobregat. Reding now felt that the night had been lost in this ruinous
indecision, and finding the responsibility which he dreaded thrown back
upon him, deemed it better to die where he was than commence a retreat
with the certainty of being instantly and closely pursued. He made
this determination known to the officers who were about his person,
exhorting them to do their duty like true Spaniards, and die in defence
of their country: ♦CABAÑES, P. 3. C. 12.♦ they shook hands with him in
pledge of their promise, and in this temper waited for the attack.
♦DEC. 21.
THE SPANIARDS ROUTED, AND PURSUED TO TARRAGONA.♦
At break of morning on the shortest day in the year, the left wing of
the French under General Souham forded the river at St. Juan d’Espi,
and ascended the right bank to protect the centre, which in like
manner crossed in a line from St. Feliu, opposite to the right of the
Spaniards. The first brigade of the centre effected its passage before
any such intention was perceived or apprehended by their opponents.
The Spaniards could have given no greater proof of negligence than
in leaving undefended points which were so easily defensible, and
upon which the security of their position depended; but in making
dispositions as soon as they discovered the enemy’s movements, they
evinced a degree of skill which convinced the French that there were
officers among them who would have been formidable antagonists had they
commanded troops upon whom they could have relied. The first brigade,
however, was in time to establish itself with little opposition upon
the heights of Llors and S. Coloma; the second followed, and placed
itself at the foot of those heights, masked, in column, and ready to
debouch. Chabot’s troops crossed at the same ford, and marched to the
left of the others, with the intention of turning the Spaniards’ right.
The effect of these movements was, that the Spanish troops, dismayed,
as their officers had anticipated, by the late reverses, easily gave
way: the right was driven back behind the centre; that being attacked
also, was thrown back upon the left toward the bridge; their retreat
upon Villa Franca was cut off by Chabot: a detachment from the French
right, which had crossed at a ford above the bridge, intercepted them
also on the way to Martorell; and if Chabran had then forced the
passage of the bridge, they would have been beset on all sides, and
driven together for slaughter like wild beasts at a royal hunt in the
East. Chabran, however, not willing to expose his men to a loss which
might be spared, waited till Souham’s troops arrived on the opposite
bank, and then debouched from the bridge. There are no troops in the
world except the Spaniards, says St. Cyr, who could have escaped from
such a situation. They did it by abandoning every thing, and flying
every man his own way. General Reding and the officers who had pledged
themselves to die with him in maintaining the position had not even
an opportunity of dying afforded them, unless they had sought it like
suicides. The country being craggy, wooded, and full of ravines,
favoured the fugitives, so that during an active pursuit of fifteen
hours not more that some 1100 prisoners were taken. Caldagues was
among them, and the good service which he had performed in relieving
Gerona did not exempt him now from a suspicion of having betrayed the
Spaniards in favour of his countrymen. The pursuit was followed to the
very gates of Tarragona, and some of the fugitives did not stop till
they reached the Ebro. All the artillery, consisting of 50 pieces of
cannon, was taken; and large magazines of ammunition were found at
Villa Franca, to the great relief of the French, who had not enough in
Barcelona for a month’s consumption. Chabran’s division established
itself at Martorell, Chabot’s at S. Sadurni, Souham’s at Vendrell and
upon the left bank of the Gaya, Pino’s at Villa Franca, Villa Nueva,
and Sitjas. St. Cyr fixed his head-quarters at Villa Franca. Thus far
he had completely succeeded in whatever he had proposed: ... there was
no longer an army in the field to oppose him; Barcelona was not only
relieved, but stored and rendered secure; and Zaragoza (which in a
moral if not a military point of view was an object of more importance)
♦ST. CYR, 82–88. CABAÑES, P. 3. C. 12.♦ was precluded from all
succour in that quarter, from whence alone an effectual effort might
reasonably have been expected.