prudence could have provided. ♦EXPEDITION UNDER LORD BLAYNEY.♦ An
enterprise of greater moment, on the south coast, was attempted about
the same time, and failed from other causes, but mainly because the
information upon which it was undertaken proved to be fallacious. The
French had experienced less resistance in Andalusia than in any other
part of Spain. They ♦MOUNTAINS OF RONDA.♦ were, however, far from
being unmolested there, and in the mountains of Ronda the national
character was well displayed, by the incessant hostilities which the
people carried on against their invaders. The man who struck the spark
there had been Professor of ♦ORTIZ DE ZARATE.♦ Mathematics at Alicant;
Don Andres Ortiz de Zarate was his name. In the early days of this
dreadful revolution, he had taken an active part in the national cause,
and afterwards was employed in service that required no slight degree
of ability, by General Doyle; but perceiving from the mismanagement
which prevailed in every department, civil or military, that the south
of Spain would be overrun, as the north had been, he removed his
family to Gibraltar, where, as a professional teacher, he could have
supported them respectably, if he had not regarded the deliverance of
his country more than his own concerns. But no sooner had the French
taken possession of the kingdoms of Andalusia, than he obtained a
supply of arms from the Governor of Gibraltar; and going among the
villages, hamlets, and huts in the mountains of Ronda, roused a people
who required only some moving spirit to put them in action: in the
course of a fortnight 6000 men placed themselves under his orders.
For himself he sought neither honours nor emolument; and when General
Jacome y Ricardos, who was at that time Commandant at the camp of
St. Roque, would have obtained rank for him from the Government, he
declined it, saying, it would be time enough to receive the reward of
his services when the country should be free. He soon became so popular
among these mountaineers, that when he entered a town or village he
was received with military honours, and the streets were decorated
with hangings by day, and illuminated at night, as at the greatest
festivals. This popularity might not have been obtained, if it had
been necessary for him to levy contributions upon the people; but he
commenced his operation in happy time, when the enemy had collected
their first harvest of exactions, most or all of which fell into his
hands, and was by him delivered over to the public service. The enemy,
who had expected no such warfare, suffered severely in it; they lost
some thousands, and _El Pastor_, as, for some unexplained reason,
Ortiz de Zarate was then called, had become a celebrated name, when
his career was impeded by some of those intrigues and jealousies which
so frequently injured the national cause. He retired, in consequence,
to Gibraltar, leaving General Valdenebro to command a people who were
now no longer unanimous in any thing except their unabated hatred of
the invaders. A deputation followed him there, accompanied by three
hundred persons, and the Commandant of St. Roque’s prevailed upon him
to return; but he would only go in the capacity of secretary to a
military officer. Finding then that things were going ill, and that
half the force which he had raised and organized was dispersed, he
repaired to Cadiz, to inform the Government of the state of affairs,
and require the repayment of what he had expended in the service,
which was the whole of his own means, and some allowance for the
prizes which he had taken from the enemy. His personal enemies had
been embarked with him, and no sooner had he entered that city than he
was arrested, put in irons, and thrown into a dungeon. The Spaniards
had so long been accustomed, not to an absolute merely, but to an
arbitrary Government, that even those authorities whose intentions
were truly equitable were continually committing unjust and arbitrary
acts. After twelve months’ imprisonment, Ortiz de Zarate, who had thus
been treated as a criminal, was acquitted of all the charges which had
been preferred against him; his honour, loyalty, and patriotism, were
fully acknowledged, and he received payment of his claims in part.
It was of importance to encourage the mountaineers whom he had put
in action, and a plan therefore was formed for getting possession of
Frangerola, a castle on the coast, between Marbella and Malaga, about
twenty miles from the latter place. The castle was understood to be a
place which might easily be taken by a coup-de-main; its capture would
open a communication with the inhabitants of the Sierra, and hopes
were entertained that it might lead also to the expulsion of the enemy
from Malaga, where they were represented as being in no strength:
the guns on the mole there were said to have been removed, and the
citadel to be in a ♦LD. BLAYNEY SAILS FROM GIBRALTAR.♦ defenceless
state. In consequence of these representations, an expedition sailed
from Gibraltar, under the command of Major-General Lord Blayney: it
consisted of four British companies (amounting to 300 men), and 500
German, Polish, and Italian deserters. They proceeded to Ceuta, and
there took on board the Spanish regiment of Toledo. This regiment
was said to be perfectly equipped; but upon examination it was found
that there was a deficiency of 148 firelocks, and that they had been
embarked without a single ♦OCT. 14.♦ round of ammunition. These
deficiencies were supplied; the squadron soon anchored in a small bay,
called Cala de Moral, and there the troops landed on a sandy beach,
without any to oppose them.
♦HE LANDS NEAR THE CASTLE OF FRANGEROLA.♦
It had been proposed to Lord Blayney that he should disembark near
Malaga, and that while he called off the enemy’s attention on the land
side, the squadron should alarm the city from the eastward, and the
boats push for the mole, and land a party to assist the inhabitants,
who, it was confidently expected, would take the opportunity of rising
against their oppressors. But Lord Blayney properly distrusted the
information upon which this advice was founded, and he had little
confidence in the motley assemblage under his command; being not
without apprehension that the confusion of their tongues might affect
their movements in the hour of action. He chose to begin, therefore,
with the castle of Frangerola, which is about two leagues east of the
bay in which he landed. Upon arriving before it, he found it to be a
large square fort, occupying the whole hillock on which it stands,
strongly built, commanding every part of the beach where boats could
land, and in a state of defence very unlike what he had been led to
expect. When he sent in a summons to surrender, a resolute refusal was
returned; the fort opened its fire upon the gun-boats, sunk one, and
occasioned some loss in others. Lord Blayney advanced close to the
works, for the purpose of drawing the enemy’s attention from the water:
here he was contending with musquetry against grape-shot and stone
walls. Major Grant was mortally wounded in this unequal engagement, and
several men killed; but the riflemen did their part well; the enemy’s
guns were for a time silenced, the boats took their stations, and he
withdrew the troops. He now directed the Spaniards to the summit of
a hill, with a ravine in front, which would have been a sufficient
protection from any sudden attack; but the Spanish Colonel objected
that it was Sunday, and that it was not the custom of his countrymen
to fight upon that day. These Spaniards were not in good humour with
their allies, nor perhaps with the service, for which they had been
taken from their comfortable quarters at Ceuta: by a misarrangement
arising from mere inattention, they had been served in the transport
with meat on a meagre day; and they were discontented also because
there was no priest embarked with them. Lord Blayney, however,
prevailed upon the Commandant to detach four companies, for the purpose
of occupying a pass near Mijas, and preventing the enemy in that town
from sending assistance to the fort. A hundred Germans were added to
this detachment; the English officer who conducted this service was
persuaded by the Spaniards to attack the town, though his orders were
to act on the defensive; the consequence was, that he was repulsed, and
obliged rapidly to fall back on the main body.
♦FAILURE OF THE EXPEDITION.♦
During the night, the men were exposed, without shelter, to a continual
heavy rain, such as is common at that season in those countries, and is
never seen in our climate, except sometimes during the short duration
of a thunder-storm. It was accompanied with thunder now. But the night
was actively employed in landing artillery; which could not be done by
day, because the guns of the castle completely commanded the beach.
Soldiers and sailors exerted themselves heartily; and before daybreak a
battery for one thirty-two pound carronade was completed on the shore,
and another for two twelve-pounders and a howitzer, on a rocky hill,
350 yards from the castle. Though ♦OCT. 15.♦ the artillery could not
make impression upon the solid old masonry of the walls, it destroyed
part of the parapet, and the musquetry did such execution, that Lord
Blayney entertained good hope of success; when, to his surprise, he
learnt that the garrison had been reinforced before his arrival, that
it was in sufficient strength for him to expect that a sortie would
be made, and that Sebastiani was on the way from Malaga with 4700
foot, 800 horse, and sixteen pieces of artillery; ... his own force
amounted only to 1400 men, and the four guns which had been landed.
These he could not re-embark under the fire of the castle, and he would
not abandon; and at this time, just as he was about to strengthen
his position, by occupying a ruined tower, the Rodney, and a Spanish
line-of-battle ship, appeared off the coast, with the eighty-second
regiment, 1000 strong, to reinforce him. Boats were sent off to assist
in landing them, and Lord Blayney was about to station gun-boats so as
to rake the beach; but before either object could be effected, some 600
infantry, and sixty horse, sallied from the castle. It was a complete
surprise; the British troops were in front, taking provisions; the
enemy made their attack on the Spaniards and the foreigners on the
left: these men took to flight, and abandoned the battery. At this
moment the troops had pushed off from the ships, and Lord Blayney,
trusting in them and in the strength of his position, formed the
few British soldiers who were with him, and retook the guns by the
bayonet, but not before part of the ammunition had been blown up. A
doubt was now entertained whether some troops who were moving toward
them upon the left were friends or foes; some said they were Spaniards;
the German deserters declared them to be French. The hesitation and
delay which this doubt occasioned enabled the enemy (for enemies they
were) to approach without opposition; and when Lord Blayney, having
ascertained the ♦LORD BLAYNEY AND THE BRITISH TROOPS TAKEN.♦ truth too
late, charged them, the conflict ended in his being made prisoner, with
about 200 men, some forty having been killed. This was the fate of the
English soldiers; most of the deserters went over to the enemy. The
men who were in the boats had then no course left but to return to the
ships, fortunate in having thus seen the termination of an ill-planned
expedition, without being farther engaged in it.
♦DEFEAT OF GENERAL BLAKE.♦
It had not been supposed that Sebastiani could bring together so large
a body of men as he had put in motion on this occasion. Some movement
was expected from the inhabitants of Malaga, but with little reason;
for the individuals who had exerted themselves most in resisting the
entrance of the enemy into that city were, such of them as escaped
from the slaughter, at this time in prison, with their leader, Colonel
Avallo, upon some of those vague charges which, in Spain, under any
of its Governments, were deemed sufficient grounds for throwing men
into a dungeon, and leaving them there. It had been intended also that
Sebastiani’s attention should have been called off in a different
direction, by Blake, with the central army. That army was too slow
in its movements to produce any effect in favour of Lord Blayney’s
attempt; its head-quarters at this time were at Murcia, and its advance
at Velez el Rubio. It was not till a fortnight after the failure at
Frangerola, that the French thought it necessary to take any measures
against this ill-disciplined, ill-appointed, ill-constituted body. The
enemy’s troops were so distributed, that a considerable force could be
assembled, within twenty-four hours, at any point where their presence
was required; but before Sebastiani could ♦NOV. 3.♦ reach Baza, General
Rey, with one regiment of dragoons, a regiment of Polish lancers, and a
detachment of infantry, had routed an army which was exposed in a place
without protection, and was completely broken at the first charge[9].
Between 1000 and 2000 were killed, and some 1200 taken; the officers
here behaved better than the men, for the latter threw down their
arms, and cried for quarter; while, of the former, all who were made
prisoners had received sabre wounds. The prisoners were in a miserable
condition, appearing half starved and half naked; a large portion of
them consisted of old men and boys, and those who could not keep pace
with their escort were shot upon the way.
Not discouraged by these repeated losses and multiplied disgraces
the Spaniards continued to pursue that system of hostility which was
carried on wherever the French were nominally masters of the country;
a mode ♦IRREGULAR WAR.♦ of war destructive to the invaders against
whom it was directed, but dreadful also in its effect upon the people
by whom it was waged. The Junta ♦SEE VOL. I.♦ of Seville had, from
the beginning of the struggle, perceived that the strength of Spain
lay in her people, and not in her armies. The Central Junta also had
early acknowledged the importance of that irregular and universal
warfare for which the temper of the Spaniards and the character of
the country were equally adapted; and they attempted to regulate it by
a long edict, giving directions for forming _Partidas_ of volunteers,
and _Quadrillas_, which were to consist of smugglers, appointing them
pay, enacting rules for them, and subjecting them to military law; but
it is manifest that these restrictions would only be observed where the
Government had sufficient authority to enforce them, which was only
where they had armies on foot, and that when thus restricted, little
was to be done by it. They spoke with a clear understanding of the
circumstances in which Spain was placed when they proclaimed a Moorish
war[10], and bade the Spaniards remember in what manner their fathers
had exterminated a former race of invaders. The country, they said,
was to be saved by killing the enemies daily, just as they would rid
themselves of a plague of locusts; a work which was slow, but sure,
and in its progress would bring the nation to the martial pitch of
those times, when it was a pastime to go forth and seek the Hagarenes.
They reminded them of the old Castilian names, for skirmishes[11],
ambushments, assaults, and stratagems, the necessary resources of
domestic warfare, and told them that the nature of the country and of
the inhabitants rendered Spain invincible.
This character, on the part of the Spaniards, the war had now assumed
in all parts of Spain. The French were no sooner masters of the field,
than they found themselves engaged in a wearing, wasting contest,
wherein discipline was of no avail, and by which, in a country of
such extent and natural strength, any military power, however great,
must ultimately be consumed. In any other part of Europe, they would
have considered the conquest complete after such victories as they
had obtained; but in Spain, where army after army had been routed,
and city after city taken, ... when Joseph reigned at Madrid, and
Soult commanded in Seville, ... when Victor was in sight of Cadiz, and
Massena almost in sight of Lisbon, ... when Buonaparte had put all
his other enemies under his feet, and in the height of his fortune,
and plenitude of his power, had no other object than to effect the
subjugation of the Peninsula, ... the generals and the men whom he
employed there were made to feel that the cause in which they were
engaged was as hopeless as it was unjust. They were never safe except
when in large bodies, or in some fortified place. Every day some
of their posts were surprised, some escort or convoy cut off, some
detachment put to death; dispatches were intercepted, plunder was
recovered, and what excited the Spaniards more than any, or all other
considerations, vengeance was taken by a most vindictive people for
insupportable wrongs. In every part of Spain, where the enemy called
themselves masters, leaders started up, who collected about them the
most determined spirits; followers enough were ready to join them; and
both among chiefs and men, the best and the worst characters were to be
found: some were mere ruffians, who if the country had been in peace
would have lived in defiance of the laws, as they now defied the force
of the intrusive Government; others were attracted by the wildness and
continual excitement attendant upon a life of outlawry and adventure,
to which, in the present circumstances of the nation, honour, instead
of obloquy, was attached; but many were influenced by the deepest
feelings and strongest passions which act upon the heart of man; love
of their country, which their faith elevated and strengthened; and
hope which that love and that faith rendered inextinguishable; and
burning hatred, seeking revenge for the most wanton and most poignant
injuries that can be inflicted upon humanity.
These parties began to be formed immediately after Buonaparte swept
the land before him to Madrid, and from that time they continued to
increase in numbers and activity, as the regular armies declined in
reputation and in strength. The enemy made a great effort to put them
down after the battle of Ocaña, and boasted of having completely
succeeded, because the guerrillas disappeared before them, dispersing
whenever they were in danger of being attacked by a superior force.
There was nothing in their dress to distinguish them from the
peasantry; every one was ready to give them intelligence or shelter;
they knew the country perfectly; each man shifted for himself in time
of need; and when they re-assembled at the appointed rallying place,
so far were they from being dispirited by the dispersion, that the
ease with which they had eluded the enemy became a new source of
confidence. They became more numerous and more enterprising after
it had been seen how little loss they sustained, when, for a time,
the intrusive Government made it its chief object to extirpate them;
their escapes, as well as their exploits, were detailed both in the
official and provincial Gazettes; and the leaders became known in all
parts, not of Spain only, but of Europe, by their own names, or the
popular appellations which had been given them indicative of their
former profession or personal appearance. _El Manco_, the man with a
maimed arm, commanded one band; the Old Man of Sereña another. There
was _el Frayle_, the Friar; _el Cura_, the Priest; _el Medico_, the
Doctor; _el Cantarero_, the Potter; _el Cocinero_, the Cook; _el
Pastor_, the Shepherd; _el Abuelo_, the grand-father. One chief was
called _el Chaleco_, from the fashion of his waistcoat; he won for
himself a better reputation than might have been expected from such
an appellation: another obtained the name of _Chambergo_, from his
slouched hat. Names of worse import appear among them; there was the
_Malalma_, the Bad Soul, de Aibar, and the _Ladron_, the Robber, de
Lumbier.
A large portion of the men who engaged under these leaders were
soldiers, who had escaped in some of the miserable defeats to which the
rashness of the Government and the incapacity of their generals had
exposed them; or who had deserted from the regular army to this more
inviting service. Smugglers also, a numerous and formidable class of
men, now that their old occupation was destroyed, took to the guerrilla
life, and brought to it the requisites of local knowledge, hardiness
and audacity, and the quick sense of sight and hearing which they had
acquired in carrying on their dangerous trade by night. But the greater
number were men who, if circumstances had permitted, would have passed
their life usefully and contentedly in the humble stations to which
they were born; labourers, whom there were now none to employ, ...
retainers, who partook the ruin of the great families to which they and
their ancestors had been attached; ... owners or occupiers of land,
whose fields had been laid waste, and whose olive-yards destroyed; and
the whole class of provincial tradesmen, whose means of subsistence
were cut off, happy if they had only their own ruin and their country’s
quarrel to revenge, and not those deeper injuries of which dreadful
cases were continually occurring wherever the enemy were masters.
Monks, also, and friars, frocked and unfrocked, were among them:
wherever the convents were suppressed, and their members forbidden to
wear the habit on pain of death, which was done in all the provinces
that the French overran, the young took arms, the old employed
themselves in keeping up the spirit of the people; and the intrusive
Government paid dearly for the church property, when those who had
been previously supported by it exchanged a life of idleness for one
of active exertion in the national cause, some to preach a crusade
against the invaders, others to serve in it. These whom oppression
had driven out from the cloister were not the only religioners who
took arms. Not a few in the parts of the country which were still
free took the opportunity, precious to them, of escaping from the
servitude to which they were bound, disgusted with the follies of their
profession, sick of its impostures, or impatient of its restraints.
Public opinion encouraged them in this course; the multitude ascribing
their conduct to a religious zeal for their country, while those who
wished for the reformation of the abuses which had prepared the way for
all this evil, were glad to see this disposition manifest itself in a
class of men whom they justly regarded as one of the pests of Spain.
The General of the Franciscans applied to Mendizabal to deliver up a
friar who had enlisted in his army; but the application was so little
in accord with the spirit of the times, that Mendizabal’s answer was
read with universal approbation by the Spaniards. “The head of the
Franciscans,” said that commander, “must have forgotten what Cardinal
Ximenes de Cisneros did when he commanded the army which took Oran.
If that prelate in those days thought of nothing but destroying the
Koran, and substituting the Gospel in its stead, what would he do now,
when the religion of our fathers and our mother country is in danger?
I have taken a lesson from his Eminency. Let the present head of the
order send me a list of all the brethren capable of bearing arms,
not forgetting himself, if he is fit for service, and we will march
together and free our religion and our country. Inspire then your
friars, that they may be agents in this noble work, putting away all
kind of sloth; and let no other cry be heard than that of ‘War against
the tyrant, freedom for our religion, our country, and our beloved
Ferdinand.’” While this course was taken by the monks and friars, it
is related of the nuns in the subjected parts of the country, that
they passed ♦ROCCA. 240.♦ the nights in praying for the success and
deliverance of their countrymen, and the days in preparing medicines
and bandages for the sick and wounded French.
♦STATE OF THE GUERRILLA WARFARE.♦
Fewer guerrilla parties appeared in Andalusia than in any other
province, although more had been expected there, from the fierier
character of the people, and the local circumstances; the land being
divided between the cathedrals, a few convents, and a few great
proprietors, and the greater part of the inhabitants day-labourers, who
were likely to be tempted ♦ANDALUSIA.♦ by the prospect of a predatory
life. But Andalusia seemed as if its generous blood had been exhausted
in the first years of the war; and at this time the mountaineers of
Ronda were the only part of its population who opposed a determined
resistance to the intrusive Government. Their general, Valdenebro,
tendered his resignation because the Regency had made him subordinate
to the Marques de Portago, who commanded at the Campo de S. Roque; he
had performed good service there; and it was stated in the Cortes as an
example for imitation, that one or two patriots, and one or two priests
who possessed local knowledge, and were of ordinary rank, but of
extraordinary courage, composed his adjutants, his aides-de-camp, and
his whole staff. The orator did not bear in mind that Valdenebro was
at the head, not of an army, but of an irregular force. Forest-flies
these mountaineers were called, to express the ♦MOUNTAINS OF RONDA.♦
pertinacity with which they annoyed the enemy, and the facility with
which they eluded him. Ready themselves to endure all privations, to
encounter all dangers, to make any sacrifices in the national cause,
they regarded submission in such a cause, when it proceeded from
weakness, as little less odious than the conduct of those traitors who
accepted office under the intrusive Government; and because the city
of Ronda had made no resistance to the French, they looked upon the
name as disgraced, and called their mountainous region the _Serrania de
Fernando_ VII., to mark their indignation against the conduct of its
capital. If the spirit of such a people could have been subdued, the
enemy were neither wanting in activity nor in inhumanity for effecting
their purpose. They had light pieces of artillery for mountain service,
two of which were carried by a mule, one on each side, balancing each
other; the carriages and ammunition-boxes were made portable in the
same way: and their attacks were so frequent, that in the course of two
years there was one village which they entered forcibly fifty times.
Sebastiani, in whose military command this district was comprised,
was a person who betrayed no compunction in carrying the abominable
edict of M. Soult into effect; and scarcely a day passed in which
several prisoners were not put to death in Granada in conformity to
that decree. Among the instances of heroic virtue which were displayed
here during the continuance of this tyranny, there are two which were
gratefully acknowledged by the national Government. Lorenzo Teyxeyro,
an inhabitant of Granada, who had performed the dangerous service
of communicating intelligence to the nearest Spanish general, was
discovered, and might have saved his life if he would have named the
persons through whom the communication was carried on; but he was true
to them as he had been to his country, and suffered death contentedly.
The other instance was attended with more tragic circumstances. Captain
Vicente Moreno, who was serving with the mountaineers of Ronda, was
made prisoner, carried to Granada, and there had the alternative
proposed to him of suffering by the hangman, or entering into the
intruder’s service. Sebastiani showed much solicitude to prevail upon
this officer, having, it may be believed, some feeling of humanity, if
not some fore-feeling of the opprobrium which such acts of wickedness
draw after them in this world, and of the account which is to be
rendered for them in the next. Moreno’s wife and four children were
therefore, by the General’s orders, brought to him when he was upon the
scaffold, to see if their entreaties would shake his resolution; but
Moreno, with the courage of a martyr, bade her withdraw, and teach her
sons to remember the example which he was about to give them, and to
serve their country, as he had done, honourably and dutifully to the
last. This murder provoked a public retaliation which the Spaniards
seldom exercised, but ... when they did ... upon a tremendous scale.
Gonzalez, who was member in the Cortes for Jaen, had served with
Moreno, and loved him as such a man deserved to be loved; and by his
orders seventy French prisoners were put to death at Marbella.
So wicked a system as that which Buonaparte’s generals unrelentingly
pursued could nowhere have been exercised with so little prospect of
success, and such sure effect of calling forth a dreadful vengeance,
as among the Spaniards. Against such enemies they considered all means
lawful; this was the feeling not here alone, but throughout the body
of the nation; the treacherous commencement of the war on the part of
the French, and the systematic cruelty with which it had been carried
on, discharged them, they thought, from all observances of good faith
or humanity towards them; and upon this principle they acted to its
full extent. The labourer at his work in the fields or gardens had a
musket concealed at hand, with which to mark the Frenchman whom ill
fortune might bring within his reach. Boys, too young to be suspected
of any treachery, would lead a party of the invaders into some fatal
ambuscade; women were stationed to give the signal for beginning the
slaughter, and that signal was sometimes ♦ROCCA, 225, 226. 212.♦ the
hymn to the Virgin! Not fewer than 8000 French are said to have been
cut off in the mountains of Ronda.
There, however, it was more properly a national than a guerrilla
warfare; the work of destruction being carried on less by roving
parties than by the settled inhabitants, who watched for every
opportunity of vengeance. There were more bands in Extremadura than in
Andalusia, but ♦ESTRDEMADURA.♦ there were not many; for Extremadura
was not in the line for convoys, which always offered the ♦D. TORIBIO
BUSTAMENTE.♦ most inviting prey. The most noted leader in the province
was D. Toribio Bustamente, known by the name of _Caracol_, who had
been master of the post-office at Medina del Rio Seco; among the
other horrors which were committed in that unhappy town after Cuesta
and Blake were defeated by M. Bessieres, the wife of this man had
been violated and murdered, and his son also, a mere child, had
been butchered. From that hour he devoted himself to the pursuit of
vengeance, and many were the enemies who suffered under his hand for
the crimes of their countrymen, till, after a career of two years,
he fell at the pass of Miravete with the satisfaction of a man who,
in the performance of what he believed to be his sacred duty, had
found the death which he desired. Bustamente’s men acquired a good
character, as well for their behaviour to the inhabitants, as for the
courage and success with which they harassed the enemy: but there were
other parties in Extremadura, who inflicted more injury upon their
countrymen than upon the French. This was the case in La Mancha also;
the Government, with a vigour which it seldom exerted, arrested some of
the banditti leaders, and brought them to justice; but such examples
were too few to deter other ruffians from pursuing the same course,
while the authority of either Government, national or intrusive, was
so ill-established, that there was no other law than that of the
strongest. One adventurer, however, in this province raised himself
to respectability and rank by his services, though known by the
unpromising appellation ♦FRANCISCO ABAD, THE CHALECO.♦ of _El Chaleco_.
Francisco Abad Moreno was his name: he began his career as a common
soldier, and escaping from some rout, joined company with two fugitives
of his own regiment, and began war upon his own account. Their first
exploit was to kill an enemy’s courier and his escort; and shortly
afterwards having added two recruits to his number, he presented to
the Marques of Villafranca, at Murcia, five carts laden with tobacco,
quicksilver, and plate, which he had taken from the French, and the
ears[12] of thirteen Frenchmen who had fallen by their hands! His party
increased as his name became known; and he cut off great numbers of
the enemy, sometimes in Murcia, sometimes in La Mancha, intercepting
their convoys and detachments. Showing as little mercy as he looked
for, and expecting as little as he showed, he faced with desperate or
ferocious courage the danger from which there was no escape by flight,
swimming rivers when swoln by rain, or employing any means that might
give him the victory. On one occasion he broke a troop of the French
by discharging a blunderbuss loaded with five-and-thirty bullets; it
brought down nine of the enemy, according to his own account, and he
received so severe a contusion on the shoulder from the recoil, that it
entirely disabled him for a time; but the party was kept together under
his second in command, Juan de Bacas, and its reputation enhanced by
greater exploits.
One service which Bacas performed diffused a general feeling of
vindictive joy through La Mancha and the adjacent ♦CIRIA, THE NERO OF
LA MANCHA.♦ provinces. D. Benito Maria Ciria acted for the intrusive
Government as governor and _corregidor_ of La Mancha. He was a man of
information and singular activity, who might have obtained for himself
an honourable remembrance, if he had displayed the same zeal in the
cause of his country which he exerted for its oppressors. From the
beginning he was suspected of favouring the Intruder, and had been
apprehended on that suspicion before the French forced the passes of
the Sierra Morena; the military Junta of La Carolina spared him, and
upon the first appearance of the enemy, he proved that his intentions
had not been mistaken, by joining them. From that time Ciria served
them with the rancorous alacrity of a true traitor, insomuch that
he was called the Nero of La Mancha. This evil celebrity drew on
him its proper punishment. Bacas was on the watch for a favourable
opportunity, and as soon as it occurred, he entered Almagro at the
head of his guerrillas, and seized him in the streets of that city:
the people called out for his punishment upon the spot, but Bacas
felt that the solemnity of a judicial sentence would make the example
more impressive; he carried his prisoner therefore to Valencia de
Alcantara, and delivered him there to the arm of the law, under which
he suffered as a traitor. A victory could not have occasioned greater
exultation throughout La Mancha; if Bacas and his party, it was said,
had performed no other service than that of bringing this offender to
justice, they would have deserved well of their country for that alone.
It would have been well for humanity, and honourable for Spain, if
those who were engaged with right feelings in their country’s cause
had always shown this regard to order and the course of law; but the
Spaniards had, under long misrule, become a lawless nation; the great
trampled upon the laws, and by the people murder was scarcely regarded
as a crime; in their vindictive feelings they were unrestrained by any
religious awe, or any apprehension of earthly punishment. A squadron of
the La Manchan Crusaders entered this very city of Almagro; they sacked
the house of the traitor who collected the revenues for the Intruder;
and because his wife in her rage reviled them, professed her attachment
to King Joseph, and threatened them with vengeance in his name, they
killed her; and Ureña, a priest, who commanded the party, related the
circumstance with perfect complacency in his official dispatch. The
heart of the nation was already hard, and the little which might have
been done by the legitimate Government for correcting the national
inhumanity, and inducing, or at least endeavouring to induce, a more
christian, a more civilized, a more humane spirit, was neglected.
♦NEW CASTILLE.
D. VENTURA XIMENEZ.♦
New Castille swarmed with guerrillas, among whom were some of the most
distinguished chiefs. D. Ventura Ximenez made himself formidable in the
parts about Toledo, till one day in action his horse carried him into
the enemy’s ranks; his people rescued him, but not till he had received
two sabre wounds and a pistol-shot. They carried him to Navalucillos,
where he died. A price had been set upon his head; his body therefore
was disinterred by the French, and the head carried to Toledo, that
the dragoon who had shot him might receive the reward. In this
province there were some of the vilest depredators who under the name
of guerrillas infested Spain. ♦GUERRILLA BANDITTI.♦ For as in times
of pestilence or earthquake, wretches are found obdurate enough in
wickedness to make the visitation a cover for their guilt, and enrich
themselves by plunder; so now, in the anarchy of Spain, they whose evil
disposition had been restrained, if not by efficient laws, yet in some
degree by the influence of settled society, abandoned themselves, when
that control was withdrawn, to the impulses of their own evil hearts.
These banditti plundered and murdered indiscriminately all who fell
into their hands. The guerrilla chief, D. Juan Abril, caught a band of
seven, who made Castille the scene of their depredations; and he found
in their possession gold and silver bars, and other property, to the
amount of half a million reales. A ruffian belonging to one of these
bands was taken by the French, and in order to save his life, offered
to show them the place where his comrades had secreted their booty;
accordingly a commissioner from the criminal Junta of Madrid, with two
alguazils, and an escort of forty horse, was appointed to go with him.
The deposit was in the wood of Villa Viciosa, eight leagues from the
capital, and there they found effects to the value of more than 700,000
reales. But D. Juan Palarea, the Medico, from whose party the bandit
had originally deserted, had obtained intelligence of their movements,
and intercepted them on their return; five only of the escort escaped,
six were made prisoners, the rest were killed; and the commissioner was
put to death, as one whose office precluded him from mercy, and even
from commiseration.
Of the wretches whom this dissolution of government let loose upon
mankind, the banditti were the boldest, ♦CRIMES OF JOSÉ PEDRAZUELA
AND HIS WIFE.♦ but not the worst. A more extraordinary and flagitious
course was chosen by José Pedrazuela, who had been an actor at Madrid.
He assumed the character of a commissioner under the legitimate
Government, and being acknowledged as such in the little town of
Ladrada in Extremadura, condemned and executed, under a charge of
treason, any persons whom from any motive he chose to destroy: the
victims were carried at night to a wood, where their graves had been
made ready, and there their throats were cut, or they were shot, or
beaten to death. The people supposing him to be actually invested with
the authority which he assumed, submitted to him in terror, as the
French had done to Collot d’Herbois and the other monsters whom this
Pedrazuela was imitating. His wife, Maria Josefa Garcia della Valle,
was privy to the imposture, and if possible exceeded him in cruelty.
Before they could withdraw, as they probably designed to do when
they had sufficiently enriched themselves, Castaños heard of their
proceedings, and instantly took measures for arresting them in their
career of blood. They were brought to trial at Valencia de Alcantara;
thirteen of these midnight murders were proved against them: it was
said that in the course of three months they had committed more than
threescore. The man was hanged and quartered, the woman strangled by
the _garrote_. The Spaniards had not brought upon themselves the guilt
of revolution, but they were visited by all its horrors!
The better guerrilla chiefs maintained order where they could, and
whenever any of the banditti fell into their hands, ordered them to
summary execution. There was another class of criminals whom they took
every opportunity of bringing under the laws of their outraged country,
... those Spaniards who took an active part in the Intruder’s service.
The alcalde of Brihuega was ♦THE ALCALDE OF BRIHUEGA.♦ notorious
for his exertions against those who were suspected of corresponding
with the national Government, or in any way aiding it; his wife was
passionately attached to the same cause, and the Empecinado one day
intercepted a dispatch from her to the nearest French commander:
he entered the town, and made her and her husband prisoners. The
dispatch had provoked a barbarous spirit in the men, for they cut off
the woman’s hair, shaved her eyebrows, tarred and feathered her, and
in that condition paraded her through the streets; after which they
delivered them both to the Junta of the province for judgment. The
Empecinado seems to have had an especial pleasure in pursuing traitors
of this description. He had set intelligencers ♦RIGO.♦ upon one Rigo,
who, having affected great zeal in the national cause, fled afterwards
to the capital, obtained a considerable appointment there, and became a
persecutor of all who carried on any communication with the Government
or the armed Spaniards. This man was keeping his marriage-day at a
house a little way from Madrid, when, during the wedding-feast, the
Empecinado entered the court-yard at the head of a sufficient band,
and demanded that Rigo should be delivered up, saying no injury should
be offered to any other of the party. Flight or resistance were alike
impossible; the miserable traitor was surrendered into his hands, and
sent immediately under a trusty escort to Cadiz; the officer into whose
charge he was given being enjoined not to depart from that city till
he should have seen him ♦JOSEPH’S ESCAPE FROM THE EMPECINADO.♦ put to
death in the great square. Joseph himself narrowly escaped a similar
fate from the same daring adventurer. He was dining at La Alameda, six
miles from Madrid, on the road to Guadalaxara, with Gen. Belliard, and
a festive party, when their entertainment was interrupted by an alarm
that the Empecinado was approaching, and they fled hastily towards the
capital, for not a moment was to be lost. The Intruder had a second
escape on the road from Guadalaxara: the Empecinado knew his movements,
and six days after the French had boasted of having totally defeated
him, and dispersed his band of brigands, he took post at Cogolludo,
and pursued Joseph so closely that more than forty of his rear-guard
were cut off at Torrejon and El Molar, before they could come within
protection of the garrison of Madrid. So little indeed had that
garrison the command of the surrounding country, that a whole party
which had been sent out from thence were one day taken and hung by the
way-side, within a short distance from the walls.
In this dreadful warfare blood called for blood; cruelty produced
retaliation, and retaliation was retaliated by fresh cruelties. Eight
of the Empecinado’s men were taken in the Guadarrama mountains, and
nailed to the trees there, for the purpose of intimidating their
fellows: such a spectacle had the sure effect of exasperating them, and
the same number of Frenchmen were soon nailed to the same trees, in the
same spirit of inhuman vengeance.
♦DESERTION OF THE JURAMENTADOS.♦
A lieutenant of his party, Mesa by name, went over to the French, and
engaged to bring them the head of this dreaded partisan; his interest
was so good, and his proposals so plausible, that they gave him the
rank of captain in one of the Spanish regiments which the Intruder
was raising, and sent him with a company of 200 Spanish cavalry to
perform his promise; when they came near Guadalaxara, the men put him
to death, and joined their countrymen in arms. Such an example might
have taught Joseph and his ministers how little they could depend
upon the Spaniards, who by misery, or severe usage, were forced into
his service. Half naked and ill-fed, kept in miserable prisons, or
at the hardest work, upon the canals, where such work was at hand,
winter and summer, sometimes up to the middle in water, they enlisted
with the determination of making their escape. In the course of five
months not less than 12,000 entered with this purpose; and on the first
opportunity that offered, whole companies, including the officers,
deserted, with arms and baggage. The celebrity of the Empecinado
encouraged them to these attempts, and his movements in the vicinity of
Madrid facilitated their escape. Like the other distinguished guerrilla
leaders, he soon obtained rank from the national Government, but he
looked to it neither for pay nor supplies. ♦JUNTA OF GUADALAXARA.♦
The Junta of Guadalaxara used the utmost exertions to assist him; the
members of this Junta performed their duty with perfect fidelity in
a situation where they were continually in extreme danger, from the
vicinity of a strong enemy’s force. They were as often in the woods and
wilds as in human habitations, and yet they collected stores, clothing,
and money for the armies, while in this state of outlawry under the
intrusive Government; and they circulated a newspaper which they
printed in the mountains near the sources of the Tagus.
The Empecinado was supposed to have 500 horse under his command,
and 2,200 foot; but this force was perpetually varying in number,
according to the chance of war; and the guerrillas generally acted
with better ♦THE MEDICO.♦ success in small parties. The Medico’s party
was estimated at 300 horse. This leader, joining with the band of D.
Casimero Moraleja, fell in with 140 of the enemy’s troops, escorting
a convoy from Madrid, about four leagues from Toledo, near Yuncles.
Some twenty _Juramentados_, as the Spanish recruits were called because
of the oath which was administered to them when they entered the
Intruder’s service, immediately laid down their arms; the others,
of whom ♦FOURSCORE FRENCH BURNT IN A CHAPEL.♦ fourscore were French
grenadiers under the _Chef-d’escadron_ Labarthe, took possession of
an Ermida, and refused to surrender when they were summoned, little
apprehending the horrible alternative. The Spaniards set fire to the
building on all sides; no mercy was shown to those who endeavoured
♦NAYLIES, 275.♦ to escape from the flames; eight persons only were
happy enough to be made prisoners in time; the bodies[13] of all the
rest were left in the smoking ruins.
♦CRUELTIES AND RETALIATIONS.♦
These details were published in the Regency’s Gazette; there was
nothing revolting to the public mind in such horrors, because the
Spaniards had been accustomed to cruelties, by the history of their
American conquests (wherein the enormities of the conquerors have not
been concealed), and by the Inquisition: and if the heart of the nation
had not thus previously been hardened, the nature of this war must have
hardened it. The decree of the intrusive Government for putting to
death every Spaniard who should be taken in arms had not indeed been
carried into effect; too many had been taken to render this possible in
a christian country; ministers and generals, who might have braved the
guilt, shrunk from the odium of enforcing such a measure; and it may be
deemed certain, that if the French troops had been commanded to enforce
it, they would not have obeyed. But toward the guerrillas the soldiers
could entertain no feeling either of honour or humanity: they put to
death all ♦NAYLIES, 274.♦ who were taken in arms and not in uniform;
not regarding, or probably not considering, that a great proportion
of the regular troops were in that condition! It was not to be
expected that they should ask themselves on which side the provocation
was given, and with whom the cruelty began. And yet, barbarous as
Buonaparte’s predatory system of war necessarily made them, and with
all the irritation which the guerrillas occasioned, they were less
barbarous than those who were in authority over them: prisoners whom
they spared in the field were, in obedience to rigid orders, shot if
they lagged upon their march into captivity; and even after they had
entered France, numbers were thus ♦LORD BLAYNEY, I. 487.♦ put to death
in cold blood. All who were regarded as brigands, who acted in the
provincial Juntas, or against whom any proof appeared of acting under
the Juntas, or giving intelligence or assistance to the guerrillas,
were executed by the summary sentence of some arbitrary tribunal.
Heads were exposed on poles, bodies left hanging upon the gallows, or
the trees; and in the market-place of large towns, the wall against
which the victims were shot was pierced with bullets, and the ground
blackened with blood! Nowhere was this system of terror pursued more
unrelentingly ♦OLD CASTILLE.♦ than in Old Castille, and yet nowhere
were the guerrillas more active or more formidable. In ten parties,
under known leaders, their numbers were estimated at 1,300 horse, and
2,500 foot. D. Geronimo Merino, the priest of Villabrau, known by the
name of ♦THE CURA.♦ _El Cura_, was the most remarkable of them for the
ferocity with which he acted against enemies who were made ferocious
by the dreadful circumstances in which they were placed. It was not to
be expected that the Spaniards should make this allowance for their
invaders; but they did not claim it for themselves; they proclaimed for
admiration and example actions at which humanity should shudder: it
became a matter of praise among them, as in the days of Pizarro and
Garcia de Paredes, to possess the qualities of a ruffian; and if the
appearance[14] corresponded to the manners and character, the popular
hero was perfect in his vocation. Yet mercy appears to have been more
frequently shown by the guerrillas than extended to them. They obtained
consideration with their own Government, and with the English, by
bringing in prisoners, and were encouraged so to do; whereas the French
soldiers knew that if an armed Spaniard were taken he would be put to
death, and might consider it merciful at once to slay a fallen enemy,
rather than deliver him over to execution. The guerrillas also, by
conveying their prisoners to one of the Spanish fortresses, or to a
part of the country where the allies were in force, obtained a respite,
for the time, from that life of incessant vigilance and insecurity,
exertion and exposure, which, without some such occasional relief, no
bodily strength could have long supported. It was by the peasantry that
the greatest cruelties were committed upon such miserable Frenchmen
as fell into their hands, ♦ROCCA, 145.♦ and by the women, who are
said to have sometimes vied with the worst American savages in their
unutterable barbarities.
♦ARAGON.♦
There were fewer of the roving guerrillas in Aragon, because something
with the name of an army was kept on foot there, and in such a state
that the regular service differed little from the course of life to
which the adventurers were reduced. In no other part of Spain was the
intrusive Government administered with greater ability and vigilance,
nor more in the spirit of remorseless oppression and rapacity. The
whole yearly revenue which had been raised in that province before the
invasion, amounted to from ten to twelve millions of _reales_: the
French exacted twelve per month as the ordinary contribution; they
called for extraordinary payments when they pleased; and after these
official exactions, the Aragonese were not exempted from the common
lot of their countrymen in being at the mercy of every plunderer. What
guerrilla parties there were in this part of the country were less
heard of, because on all sides there were chiefs whose reputation,
founded upon repeated successes, drew to their parties the men who
would otherwise have been dispersed ♦THE CANTERERO.♦ in smaller bands.
Anicio Algere, the Potter, whose scene of action was about Jaca, was
the only one who obtained any degree of celebrity here. But along the
great line of communication for the French armies, and especially the
high road from the Bidassoa to Madrid, where it was of most importance
for the enemy to secure the ways, and where most precautions were taken
for securing them, there the guerrillas were most active and most
daring. At the entrance of the villages houses were fortified with
ditches, parapets, embrasures for field-pieces, and loop-holes for
musquetry, and ditches and parapets across the roads. These stations
served a double purpose; for here at every step the sick and wounded,
who were on their way to France, were inspected with a vigilance so
severely exercised, that it seemed as if the persons in authority,
who could not escape from this hateful service, found a malignant
satisfaction in disappointing others of their expected deliverance.
They sometimes remanded men who had passed at several posts; and there
were cases in which the wound or the malady (aggravated, perhaps, by
so cruel a disappointment) proved ♦NAYLIES.♦ fatal at the very place
where the sufferer had been refused permission to proceed, upon the
plea that he was not sufficiently disabled!
Everywhere, but more especially at Irun and all the frontier places,
accounts were kept for the guerrillas of the troops, who passed
through, both of those who were entering the country, and of invalids
on their way from it. Every artifice was used to delay the enemy
when it was desired that one of these parties should have time to
come up for attack, or for securing a retreat. For this purpose the
priest or the alcalde would officiously prepare refreshments, while
some messenger, with all the speed of earnest good will, conveyed the
necessary intelligence. This would have occurred in ordinary wars; but
the treachery with which they had been invaded, and the cruelties which
were continually practised against them, made the Spaniards regard
any vengeance, however treacherous, as an act of justice. ♦ALCALDE OF
MONDRAGON.♦ An alcalde and his son were put to death at Mondragon for
having at different times assassinated more than two hundred Frenchmen.
When they were led to execution, they exulted in what they had done,
accounting it among their good and meritorious works; and they said to
their countrymen, ♦LORD BLAYNEY.♦ that if every Spaniard had discharged
his duty as well as they had done, the enemy would ere then have been
exterminated, and the land been free.
It was in this part of Spain that the most noted guerrilla leaders
appeared, the Empecinado only excepted; the most mountainous and
rugged country being most favourable to their mode of warfare. There
♦ASTURIAS. PORLIER.♦ were many bands in Asturias; the most numerous
was that which Porlier had raised; but Porlier was a man of family,
who had rank in the army, and his people had more of the feeling and
character of soldiers than was commonly found in such companies. There
were many also in the Montaña, where Longa obtained a good name. The
French endeavoured to counteract this system of national hostility, in
the province of Soria, by forcing the men into their own service: with
this view they ordered a conscription, and the alcalde of Valdenebro
was put to death by them in Burgo de Osma, for not having enforced it
in obedience to their authority. They called for all single men from
fifteen to forty years of age, and all married ones whose marriage was
not of earlier date than the year on which this dreadful struggle ♦D.
JOSÉ DURAN.♦ was begun. D. José Duran, an old officer who had grown
gray in the regular service, and whom the Junta of Soria had appointed
to the command there and in Rioja, impeded the execution of this
scheme, ♦NOV. 20.♦ by his enterprises and his edicts: he threatened
such of the inhabitants as were disposed to obey the orders of the
enemy, lest their own safety might be compromised; and he interdicted
the use of the word in that acceptation, saying it was their religion
and their liberty which were compromised by such obedience, and
that no Christian and true Spaniard could incur the guilt of such a
compromise. He forbade any inhabitant of the province to enter Soria
while the enemy kept a garrison there, on pain of being regarded as a
traitor, whatever motive or excuse he might allege. He declared that
every person obeying an order of the intrusive Government should be
put to death, ... every village burnt, ... so that nothing might exist
in Spain which had contributed towards its subjugation. Whenever the
enemy approached a village, the inhabitants were enjoined to leave it,
driving all their cattle into the mountains; and they were commanded
not to leave provision of any kind in their houses, unless it were
poisoned; to the end that either by want or by poison, the enemy, who
were employed in destroying an unoffending people, might be themselves
destroyed. The state of feeling may be understood in which such an
edict could be issued by a provincial Junta who lived in hourly peril,
and whose dearest connexions were the victims of foreign barbarity; but
when the edict itself was sanctioned by the national Government--for
sanctioned it was by being allowed to appear in the Regency’s Gazette
unannulled and uncensured--it became a national disgrace.
When the guerrillas of Asturias, the Biscayan provinces, Soria, or
Rioja, were closely pressed by the enemy, they usually sought refuge
in Navarre, or the higher parts of Aragon: here they had their chief
strength. The French, indeed, complained, in their intercepted
dispatches, that these bands gave the law in Navarre, levied
contributions there, and even collected the duties at the frontier
custom-houses. For this ♦XAVIER MINA.♦ superiority they were beholden
to Xavier Mina. His career was short, but remarkable not less for the
signal successes which he obtained, than for his hair-breadth escapes.
On one occasion he and his little party were driven to seek refuge
on a rock near Estella, where they defended the only accessible side
till night-fall, and escaped during the darkness by letting themselves
down the precipice by a rope. In the course of five months after his
first appearance in the field, his celebrity was such that he might
have raised an army from among the youth of Navarre and Upper Aragon,
if there had been means to arm, and officers to discipline them: owing
to the want of these, and chiefly of officers, he never had more than
1,200 under his command; greater numbers would have embarrassed him,
these he was capable of directing: voluntary rations were provided
for them by the villages, and for ammunition and money he looked to
the enemy, calling the wood of Tafalla his powder-magazine and his
mint. As a farther resource, he levied the duties of which the French
complained, and he collected the rents belonging to the convents and
churches, as having in this extremity reverted to the nation; and
from these funds he was enabled to pay liberally and regularly for
intelligence. The wisdom of his measures, not less than the chivalrous
spirit of enterprise which he displayed, made him so formidable to the
enemy, that his capture was considered by them as more important than
a victory, when accident threw ♦XAVIER MINA MADE PRISONER.♦ him into
their hands. Chance had delayed the advance of a convoy for which he
was waiting: he was informed of the delay, but proposed to wait still;
and went himself on horseback with only one companion, by moonlight,
to reconnoitre the ground. The enemy, who would have thought no
precautions necessary against a Spanish army at that time, stood in
such fear of Mina, that they had formed a double line of outposts, and
sent out patroles; by some of whom he and his comrade were surprised,
dismounted, and taken. It is remarkable that he was not put to death as
soon as identified, for he had been proscribed as a leader of banditti,
and his capture as such was exultingly announced; but some person of
more generosity than those who thus reviled him must have interfered;
and where so little that has the character of honour or humanity can be
recorded, it must be regretted that we know not to whom this redeeming
act should be ascribed.
♦ESPOZ Y MINA ELECTED TO SUCCEED HIM.♦
When Mina’s followers had thus lost their leader, disputes arose
concerning the command; and there being no one whose personal
qualifications were generally acknowledged, it was resolved to choose
his uncle for his name’s sake, for in that name there was a strength.
His uncle, Francisco Espoz y Mina, was born in 1781, in the village of
Ydozin, upon a little farm, the sole patrimony of his family, to which
he succeeded on his father’s death. His education consisted in having
merely been taught to read and write; and husbandry had been his only
occupation, till under the impulse of the general feeling he took arms
against the oppressors of his country; and having, according to his own
account, done to them all the hurt he could as long as he remained in
his own house, he enlisted as a volunteer in Doyle’s battalion. Soon
afterwards, using that freedom which the times allowed, he joined his
nephew’s guerrilla, and on the evening after the young hero’s capture,
he left the band apparently with the intention of betaking himself
to some other course of life; a deputation of seven persons followed
him, and urged him to take the command, which having against his will
accepted, he began to exercise with a strength of character that never
halted in half measures. One of his first acts was to put down those
who resisted the authority which he claimed as commander-in-chief of
the guerrillas of Navarre, and in which the Junta of Aragon confirmed
him. A certain Echeverria had aspired to this rank; he had some 800 men
in his company, consisting mostly of German deserters, who inflicted
more evil upon the peasantry than upon the French. Espoz y Mina, with
about half that force, surprised and arrested him, had him shot with
three of his principal comrades, and incorporated the men in his own
band. A gang of forty ruffians, with a woman by name Martina for their
leader, infested Biscay and Alava, and committed so many murders, that
the cry of the land went forth against them; he dispatched a party, who
surprised half these banditti with their execrable mistress at their
head, and they were sent to summary execution. Espoz y Mina himself
narrowly escaped from the treachery of another adventurer, who for
his evil countenance was known by the appellation of Malcarado. This
man had been a shepherd, and afterwards a serjeant in Mina’s troop.
He, too, intended to make war upon his own account; but finding that
this would not be permitted by the new guerrilla chief, who suffered
no banditti to exercise their vocation within his reach, he deemed
it better to make terms with the French than be exposed to danger on
both sides; feigning, therefore, to serve under Espoz y Mina, he gave
general Pannetier information of his movements, ... and drew off the
advanced guard from before the village of Robres, so as to give a
French detachment opportunity to enter while the chief was in bed. The
alarm roused him but just in time; he defended himself at the entrance
of the house with the bar of the door for want of any other weapon,
till his faithful follower, Luis Gaston, came to his assistance and
brought a horse. Enough of his people collected to make head against
the enemy, rout them, and rescue their prisoners. Immediately he
pursued Malcarado, and having what was deemed sufficient evidence of
his treason, ordered him to be shot, and the priest of the village and
three alcaldes to be hanged, side by side, as his accomplices.
A leader who acted always thus decisively, in disregard of forms,
upon the apparent justice of the case, inspired his followers with
confidence, and obtained submission everywhere. Where his orders were
not executed with the alacrity of good-will, they were obeyed for fear.
The alcaldes of every village were required to give him immediate
information whenever they received orders from the French for making
any requisition: it was at the hazard of their lives to do this; but
so surely as they failed to do it, they were seized in their beds and
shot. The miserable people were thus continually placed between two
dangers; but their hearts were with Mina; they were attached to him
by self-interest as well as by national feeling, for he encouraged
them to trade with France, receiving money from the rich traders for
passports, by which means he was enabled both to pay his men, and to
reward his spies liberally; and thus also he obtained many articles
which it would otherwise have been difficult to procure. Circumstances
having forced him into a way of life which he would not have chosen, he
devoted himself to it with his whole heart and soul; and his strength
both of constitution and character were equal to their trials. It is
said that two hours’ sleep sufficed for him; when he lay down it was
with his pistols in his girdle, and the few nights which he slept
under a roof were passed with less sense of security than he felt in
the wilds, although his first care was to secure the doors, and guard
against a surprisal. He was not encumbered with baggage; the nearest
house supplied the wardrobe when he changed his linen; and he and his
men wore sandals that they might more easily ascend the heights in
the hair-breadth adventures to which they were exposed. His powder
was made in a cave among the mountains; sometimes he obtained it from
Pamplona, notwithstanding the vigilance of the enemy. His hospital was
in a mountain village; when the French more than once endeavoured to
surprise it, timely intelligence was given, and the villagers carried
the sick and wounded in litters, upon their shoulders, into the
fastnesses. He kept no man in his troop who was known to be addicted to
women, lest by their likeliest means he might be betrayed. No gaming
was allowed among his men, nor were they permitted to plunder; when the
fight was over every one might keep what he could get; but woe to him
who should lay hand on the spoil before the struggle was at an end,
and the success had been pursued to the utmost!
In such enterprises as those of the two Minas and the other guerrilla
chiefs, the Timours, the Babers, and Khouli Khans of Eastern
history, were trained; but neither men nor officers were likely to
be formed in them for the operations of regular war. The restraints,
the subordination, the principle of obedience which the soldier is
compelled to learn, of the necessity of which his understanding is
convinced, and to which, if his disposition be good, he conforms
at last morally as well as mechanically, these in no slight degree
counteract the demoralizing tendencies of a military life, and
compensate for its heart-hardening ones. The good soldier becomes a
good citizen when his occupation is over; but the guerrillas were
never likely to forego the wild and lawless course in which they
were engaged; and, therefore, essential as their services now were,
thoughtful men looked with the gloomiest forebodings to what must
be the consequence of their multiplication, whenever this dreadful
struggle should be ended; they anticipated the ♦SEM. PATR. NO. 82,
P. 338.♦ utter ruin of Spain. The course of events, however, was not
to be controlled; circumstances had produced this irregular force,
and there was now no possibility of defending the country without it.
Lord Wellington had felt how hopeless it was to act in concert with
a Spanish army, wherein good intentions were frustrated by obstinate
counsels, and courage rendered unavailing by insubordination; but he
felt at this time of what importance it was to have a nation in his
favour, and how materially the movements of the enemy were impeded
and their difficulties increased by the guerrilla parties who acted
along their whole line, from the Pyrenees to the frontiers of Beira.
Massena’s situation became every day more trying; the French in Spain
were so little able to feed his army, that he was obliged to have his
biscuit from France, when it had to be escorted 800 miles through a
hostile country! It was as difficult for him to send dispatches as to
receive supplies; and the first intelligence which Buonaparte obtained
of his situation after he advanced to the lines of Torres Vedras, was
brought from London, by persons employed in smuggling guineas to the
continent.