History of the Peninsular War, Volume 6 (of 6)

by Robert Southey

CONTENTS OF THE SIXTH VOLUME

[CHAPTER XLI.]
(CONTINUED.)
	Page
Duran enters Soria	[1]
Members of the Junta of Burgos seized by the French and put to death	[2]
Circumstances of the execution	[4]
Treatment of their bodies	[5]
Retaliatory executions	[6]
El Manco	[7]
Mutual retaliations	[7]
Guerrilla exploits	[8]
Intercepted letters from the Intruder	[9]
Sir Rowland Hill’s expedition against the bridge of Almaraz	[12]
Ballasteros defeated at Bornos	[16]
Lord Wellington advances into Spain	[16]
Salamanca	[17]
The Tormes	[18]
The allies enter Salamanca	[18]
Siege of the forts there	[19]
Marmont moves to relieve them	[21]
Surrender of the forts	[24]
Marmont falls back upon the Douro	[25]
Lord Wellington advances to that river	[26]
The Douro	[27]
Marmont reinforced by General Bonnet	[28]
Lord Wellington retires before him	[29]
Battle of Salamanca	[33]
Proceedings of Sir Home Popham on the coast of Biscay	[41]
[CHAPTER XLII.]
Appeal of the Intruder to the Spaniards	[47]
State of Madrid	[48]
Measures of the Intruder before the battle of Salamanca	[49]
Advance of the allies	[50]
Affair at Majalahonda	[51]
The enemy retire from Madrid	[51]
The allies enter	[52]
The new constitution proclaimed there	[52]
The Buen Retiro	[53]
Surrender of the Retiro	[56]
The constitution sworn to	[56]
General Foy’s movement	[58]
Measures of police at Madrid	[59]
Lord Wellington’s situation	[61]
Anglo-Sicilian army	[62]
Majorcan division	[63]
The expedition arrives on the coast of Catalonia	[64]
Defeat of the Spaniards at Castalla	[65]
The expedition lands at Alicante	[66]
The French fall back to the Xucar	[66]
They withdraw from Santander	[67]
And are driven from Bilbao	[67]
State of the Galician army	[67]
The French break up the siege of Cadiz	[68]
Movement of General La Cruz Mourgeon and Colonel Skerrett upon Seville	[69]
Brigadier-General Downie	[69]
The French driven from Seville	[71]
Rejoicing in that city	[73]
Honours rendered to Lord Wellington	[74]
St. Teresa appointed co-patroness of Spain	[74]
Lord Wellington commander-in-chief of the Spanish armies	[77]
His situation at Madrid	[77]
He moves toward Burgos	[79]
The French withdraw from Valladolid	[79]
The allies advance to Burgos	[80]
Burgos	[81]
The allies enter Burgos	[85]
Castle of Burgos	[86]
The horn-work on St. Miguel’s taken	[87]
Failure in assaulting the first line	[89]
A second assault fails	[90]
A third by daylight proves successful	[91]
Major Cocks	[93]
The second line assaulted with ill success	[95]
Movement of the French in the North	[95]
Ballasteros refuses to act under the British commander	[96]
He is exiled to Ceuta	[97]
General Maitland gives up the command of the Anglo-Sicilian army	[98]
Unsuccessful attempt upon Denia	[99]
The French prepare to march from the South against Lord Wellington	[99]
Castle of Chinchilla taken by them	[99]
They begin their march	[100]
Lord Wellington raises the siege of Burgos	[101]
Retreat from Burgos	[101]
Disorder during the retreat	[102]
The allies halt	[104]
Sir Rowland Hill retreats from the Xarama	[106]
State of Madrid	[107]
The allies withdraw from Madrid	[107]
The French enter	[108]
Junction of the retreating armies	[109]
Junction of the French armies	[110]
Lord Wellington retreats to Salamanca	[111]
And from thence to the Agueda	[112]
Sufferings of the army	[112]
Sir Edward Paget made prisoner	[114]
Lord Wellington reaches Ciudad Rodrigo	[115]
The French retire to the Tormes	[116]
Castle of Alba de Tormes evacuated	[116]
Lord Wellington’s circular letter to the commanding officers of battalions	[117]
[CHAPTER XLIII.]
Opinions of the opposition	[122]
Marquis Wellesley calls for inquiry	[122]
Lord Grenville	[124]
Mr. Ponsonby	[125]
Mr. Freemantle	[125]
Mr. Whitbread	[125]
Motion of thanks to the armies	[127]
Sir F. Burdett	[127]
Marquis Wellesley moves for a committee	[129]
Earl Grey	[131]
Earl of Liverpool	[132]
Earl Bathurst	[132]
Lord Holland	[133]
Lord Wellington goes to Cadiz	[133]
Arrangements concerning the Spanish armies	[134]
Lord Wellington goes to Lisbon	[135]
Relaxed discipline of the Portugueze army	[135]
Buonaparte withdraws troops from Spain	[137]
Exactions of the French	[138]
Longa’s movements in the North	[138]
Mina’s movements	[140]
Caffarelli recalled from Spain	[141]
Clausel endeavours to hunt Mina down	[141]
Renovales made prisoner	[143]
Castro de Urdiales taken by General Foy	[143]
Enormities committed there by the French	[144]
Marshal Soult called from Spain	[145]
The Intruder goes to Valladolid	[145]
Anglo-Sicilian army	[146]
Sir John Murray takes the command	[146]
Defeat of Elio’s corps	[147]
Suchet marches against the Anglo-Sicilian army	[147]
Battle of Castalla	[149]
Lord Wellington opens the campaign	[153]
The left of his army crosses the Douro	[153]
Affair near Salamanca	[154]
Passage of the Ezla	[157]
Sir Rowland Hill crosses the Douro	[159]
The French abandon Burgos	[161]
The Ebro	[162]
Passage of the Ebro	[163]
The French fall back upon Vittoria	[163]
Vittoria	[165]
Battle of Vittoria	[166]
Sir Thomas Graham proceeds against General Foy	[175]
The French driven from Tolosa	[176]
Foy retreats into France	[177]
Passages is surrendered	[178]
Castro abandoned by the enemy	[178]
Pancorbo taken	[179]
Clausel retires to Zaragoza	[179]
Preparations for the siege of Pamplona	[180]
[CHAPTER XLIV.]
Expedition from Alicante	[181]
Col de Balaguer taken by the Anglo-Sicilian army	[182]
The expedition lands near Tarragona	[183]
Suchet’s movements for the relief of that place	[185]
Sir John Murray raises the siege	[186]
Suchet approaches Col de Balaguer and retires again	[188]
Sir John re-lands the troops	[189]
Lord W. Bentinck takes the command	[190]
Fort at Col de Balaguer demolished	[190]
Unsuccessful movements of the Spaniards in Valencia	[191]
The expedition returns to Alicante	[192]
Suchet’s measures after the battle of Vittoria	[192]
Lord Wellington undertakes the siege of S. Sebastian’s	[193]
Clausel retreats into France by way of Jaca	[193]
Duran invites Mina to act with him for the deliverance of Zaragoza	[194]
Affair before Zaragoza	[195]
Second sally of the French	[197]
Duran arrives before the city	[197]
The French withdraw from the city, leaving a garrison	[198]
Suchet draws off the remaining garrisons in Aragon	[201]
Duran enters Zaragoza	[202]
Mina takes the command	[203]
The Aljaferia surrendered	[204]
Conduct of the Zaragozans during their captivity	[204]
S. Sebastian’s	[207]
Distribution of the allied army	[208]
Siege of S. Sebastian’s	[210]
Convent of S. Bartolomé taken	[211]
The batteries open	[213]
Unsuccessful assault	[214]
The siege suspended	[217]
Soult appointed Commander-in-chief	[218]
His address to the troops	[219]
Critical situation of the allied army	[220]
Soult’s movements for the relief of Pamplona	[221]
Battles of the Pyrenees	[222]
Siege of S. Sebastian’s resumed	[230]
Preparations for assaulting the town	[233]
Soult moves for its relief	[234]
Assault of the town	[234]
Sir James Leith wounded	[238]
Sir Richard Fletcher slain	[239]
The town taken	[239]
The French defeated in their attempt to relieve it	[241]
Siege of the castle	[244]
Excesses committed in the town	[246]
The garrison surrenders	[247]
[CHAPTER XLV.]
The remains of Romana’s army return from the North	[251]
Lord W. Bentinck invests Tarragona	[251]
Suchet raises the siege	[253]
The French abandon Tarragona	[254]
Plans proposed to Suchet by Soult	[254]
Suchet surprises the allies at the pass of Ordal	[256]
The Anglo-Sicilians retreat	[257]
The command devolves upon Sir William Clinton	[258]
Position of the armies in the Pyrenean frontier	[261]
Levy ordered in France for Soult’s army	[262]
Speech of M. Regnaud de S. Jean Angely	[262]
Of the Comte de Beurnonville	[262]
Lord Wellington’s orders upon entering France	[263]
Passage of the Bidassoa	[264]
The Bidassoa	[265]
Attack of the French position	[266]
Conduct of the French peasantry	[270]
Pamplona surrendered	[272]
Soult’s position on the Nivelle	[274]
Battles of the Nivelle	[278]
The allies cantoned between that river and the sea	[287]
S. Jean de Luz	[288]
Discipline observed by the allies	[289]
The inhabitants return to their homes	[290]
Bayonne	[291]
Passage of the Nive	[292]
Soult takes a defensive position	[306]
The allies wait in their cantonments for better weather	[307]
Marshal Beresford restores the colours of certain Portugueze militia regiments	[308]
Conduct of the Spanish and Portugueze soldiers at Dantzic	[309]
Ill conduct of the Spanish government towards Lord Wellington	[310]
Change of Regency	[310]
Proceedings in Parliament	[311]
Lord Grenville’s speech	[312]
Marquis Wellesley	[314]
Lord Liverpool	[315]
Mr. Charles Grant	[316]
Mr. Whitbread	[318]
Mr. Canning	[320]
Mr. Whitbread	[325]
Militia allowed to volunteer for foreign service	[325]
Lord Holland	[326]
Terms offered by the allies to Buonaparte	[328]
Buonaparte treats with Ferdinand	[329]
Conference between Comte de Laforest and Ferdinand	[329]
Treaty concluded at Valençay	[334]
Duque de San Carlos sent to the Regency	[335]
Secret instructions from Ferdinand	[337]
Macanaz sent to Valençay	[338]
Zayas and Palafox released	[339]
Palafox sent to the Regency	[340]
Reply of the Spanish government	[340]
Measures of the Cortes	[341]
[CHAPTER XLVI.]
Buonaparte’s speech to his council	[344]
Proceedings of the French government	[345]
Comte Dejean	[345]
Regnaud de S. Jean d’Angely	[345]
Lacepède	[346]
Buonaparte’s speech to the Legislative Assembly	[347]
British regulations for trading with the captured French ports	[347]
Injury done by destroying the woods in this part of the Pyrenees	[350]
Movements in the month of January	[352]
False reports circulated by the French government	[353]
The Duc d’Angoulême goes to Lord Wellington’s army	[354]
Rochejaquelein comes to the British camp	[355]
Lord Wellington refuses to send an expedition to the coast of Poitou	[357]
Suchet fails in an attempt to surprise a British corps	[358]
The German troops in Barcelona disarmed	[359]
Troops withdrawn from Suchet’s army	[359]
Failure of an attempt against the enemy at Molins del Rey	[360]
Farther drafts from Suchet’s army	[361]
He retires to Gerona	[361]
Van Halen opens a correspondence with Eroles	[363]
He deserts from the French army	[363]
His scheme for recovering certain places	[364]
The deceit tried at Tortosa	[365]
It fails there	[367]
Attempt at Lerida	[368]
And at Mequinenza, where it succeeds	[369]
Success at Lerida	[370]
And at Monzon	[372]
The three garrisons made prisoners	[373]
Suchet dismantles Gerona and other places	[374]
State of Lord Wellington’s army	[375]
Operations are renewed	[376]
Preparations for crossing the Adour	[378]
The Adour	[379]
Passage of the Adour	[381]
Entrance of the flotilla	[386]
A bridge carried over the Adour	[389]
Passage of the Gaves	[391]
Orthes	[392]
Battle of Orthes	[394]
The French driven from Aire	[399]
Soult draws nearer the Pyrenees	[400]
The allies enter Pau	[401]
Deputies arrive from Bourdeaux	[402]
The Duc d’Angoulême proceeds thither with Marshal Beresford	[402]
The Landes	[403]
The Buonapartists withdraw from Bourdeaux	[404]
The Duc enters, and the white flag is hoisted there	[405]
Failure of the negotiations at Chatillon	[407]
Soult’s proclamation	[409]
Admiral Penrose enters the Gironde	[411]
Proceedings at Valençay	[414]
Ferdinand set at liberty	[416]
His arrangement with Marshal Suchet	[418]
He writes from Gerona to the Regency	[420]
Ferdinand goes to Zaragoza	[420]
Soult resumes the offensive	[421]
He retreats upon Tarbes	[422]
Farther retreat to Toulouse	[422]
Passage of the Garonne	[424]
Toulouse	[426]
Soult’s position there	[428]
Battle of Toulouse	[430]
Soult retires from Toulouse	[437]
The allies enter	[438]
Louis XVIII proclaimed there	[439]
Sally of the French from Bayonne	[439]
Sir John Hope taken prisoner	[441]
The French repulsed	[442]
Suchet and Soult acknowledge the new government	[444]
Disposition of Ferdinand on his return	[446]
Impolitic measures of the Cortes	[447]
Cardinal Bourbon’s reception by Ferdinand	[452]
Elio meets the King	[453]
Ferdinand enters Valencia	[453]
The officers swear fidelity to him	[455]
General Wittingham’s advice	[456]
Memorial of the Serviles	[457]
Stone of the Constitution removed	[458]
Ferdinand’s declaration	[459]
He enters Madrid	[465]
Subsequent conduct of the people and of the government	[466]
Lord Wellington returns to England	[467]
He takes his seat in the House of Lords	[468]
The Lord Chancellor’s speech	[468]
The House of Commons congratulate him on his return	[469]
He returns thanks to the House	[469]
The Speaker’s speech	[470]
Conclusion	[471]

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HISTORY
OF THE
PENINSULAR WAR.

---

CHAPTER XLI.
(CONTINUED.)
GUERRILLAS, AND THEIR EXPLOITS. SIR ROWLAND HILL’S SUCCESS AT ALMARAZ. BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.

♦May, 1812. Duran enters Soria.♦

At this time, when nothing could be expected from the Spanish armies, the Guerrillas acted in larger bodies than before, and engaged in more difficult enterprises than they had yet undertaken. Duran having obtained a plan of the fortifications of Soria from an architect who resided there, resolved upon attacking that city as an important post, from whence the French commanded a considerable extent of country. Soria, which stands on the Douro, near the supposed site of Numantia, and contained about 1,100 families in the middle of the last century, is surrounded by an old wall eighteen feet in height and six in thickness, to which some works adapted to a more modern art of war had been added; the suburb also had been fortified, and the castle strengthened. He approached the city by a circuitous route (during a most tempestuous night of wind ♦March 18.♦ and snow, which froze as it fell,) and reaching it at daybreak scaled the walls, forced the suburb, and obtained possession of the city. The enemy retired into the castle, and Duran prepared to besiege it, setting fire to four convents to clear the way for his operations.

The adventurers had arrived in fortunate time, for the morrow was St. Joseph’s day, when a ball and supper were to have been given in honour of the Intruder for his name’s sake, and the delicacies which had been prepared for this occasion served to regale these unexpected and unwelcome visiters. Battering-rams were employed with great effect against the old walls, that the city might no longer afford protection to the French; the public money was seized, great quantities of grain and biscuit dispatched by all the means of transport which could be found, and a contribution levied upon the inhabitants, for hitherto they had contributed nothing to the national troops, being under the yoke of the French, and thinking it evil enough to pay what the invaders exacted; but the Guerrillas admitted of no such excuse: they supposed the people to be rich because it was a trading city, and many who had formerly been rich proprietors dwelt there; the contribution, therefore, was not likely to be lightly imposed. Duran enrolled also such men as he thought fit for service, ordered others who might have been serviceable to the enemy to leave the city, and retreated himself without loss, when a detachment arrived from Aranda to the succour of the garrison.

♦Members of the Junta of Burgos seized by the French and put to death. March 21.♦

This enterprise led to a tragedy characteristic of the spirit in which the war was carried on on both sides. The French, who had come in time to save the castle of Soria, obtained intelligence that the Junta of Burgos were in a village called Grado; and there, under the guidance of a Spanish traitor, Moreno by name, a party of 450 horse, making a march of fourteen leagues in less than four-and-twenty hours, surprised them early in the morning. Some twenty soldiers with their commander were found fast asleep, and made prisoners, as were three members of the Junta and the secretary of the Intendency: but more persons escaped than were taken, though the enemy set every house on fire, with the intention of burning those who might have hidden themselves. As soon as the news was known, Duran and the Junta of Soria sent to the French commander in that city, reminding him that the prisoners taken there had been treated with humanity, and threatening reprisals if the persons who had now been captured should be put to death. This was of no avail. The vice-president of the Junta, D. Pedro Gordo, who was the parochial priest of Santibañez, was inhumanly scourged by Moreno, ... perhaps from some impulse of private enmity: the prisoners were then conducted to Aranda, from whence the soldiers contrived to effect their escape. Navas, the secretary of Gordo, and the two other members of the Junta, D. Jose Ortiz de Covarrubios, and D. Eulogio Jose de Muro, with a young lad, son of the former, were sent in irons to Soria, there to be tried by the criminal Junta of that ♦April 2.♦ city. The trial, which took place during the night, occupied five hours, all the formalities of justice being observed; and the boy, whom because of his youth it would have been monstrous to condemn, was acquitted: the other four were sentenced to death, and four priests were ordered immediately to attend them; but no more time was allowed than was necessary for bringing together and forming the soldiers who were to conduct them to the place of execution.

The different behaviour of the sufferers was such as deeply to affect the spectators. Ortiz was greatly moved at the thought of leaving his son fatherless and destitute;

♦Circumstances of the execution.♦ but overcoming that emotion with a Spaniard’s feeling, he commended the boy to God as the orphan’s Father, and called upon the Lord to receive his soul as a victim for his religion and his country. The priest held a crucifix in one hand as he went to execution, and beat his breast incessantly with the other; and while tears of ardent devotion streamed down his cheeks, implored with a loud voice forgiveness for his own sins and for those of the people. Muro, who was a much younger man than either, was of a weak constitution, still further weakened by the fatigues he had undergone in the performance of his duties; so that what with ill treatment, and what he had suffered during twelve days’ imprisonment, there seemed to be an entire prostration of his strength; faintings and cold sweats succeeded each other, and it was thought he would expire before he could reach the place where he was to be put to death. He had asked earnestly for a crucifix; the priest who attended him not knowing for what service he had been summoned had improvidently left his house without one; he gave him therefore in its stead a rosary, with a medal attached to it, on which was the image of Our Lady of the Pillar. Muro had studied in the university of Zaragoza, where it is said he had never omitted, for a single day, to visit and adore the tutelary idol of that city; and this trifling circumstance, which at any other time would have appeared to him light as air, acted upon him now in a manner that might seem miraculous or incredible to those who cannot comprehend the force of imagination and the strength of a believing mind; for no sooner had he seen what image the medal bore, than, as if by an influx of divine support, he put off all weakness and proceeded to the place of death with a firm step and a cheerful countenance, and ejaculations of jubilant devotion. When they came to the foot of the hill on the top of which they were to suffer, “Up, brothers!” he exclaimed, “up! let us ascend this our Mount Calvary, where it is vouchsafed to us that we should imitate our Redeemer! I pray and trust that this hour our offences shall be blotted out by virtue of the blood which on his holy Calvary he shed for our sins.” In this spirit he knelt down upon the fatal spot, raised his eyes to heaven, and presented his breast to the soldiers. The Spaniards compared the circumstances of this man’s death with what the French themselves had related of Marshal Lasnes, how after he had received his mortal wound, a visit from Buonaparte comforted and for a while revived him: “Let patron,” said they, “be compared with patron, client with client, and cause with cause!”

♦Treatment of their bodies.♦

The bodies of these victims were suspended from the gallows till the following day, when the French gave orders that they should be taken down and buried. But the execution had been an act of impolitic severity: after Duran’s recent visit the national cause would not have been popular in Soria, unless the national feeling had been thus provoked; and that feeling was now manifested in a manner which the invaders had not looked for. The clergy, the nobles, the different brotherhoods of the city, and the people assembled: the bodies were carried to the church of St. Salvador in procession, with a long line of tapers, and a most numerous attendance; they were then dressed in grave clothes with becoming decency, that of the priest in his sacerdotal habits. So public and ostentatious a funeral was considered by the French an insult to their authority; soldiers, therefore, were sent to interrupt it, and some of the attendants were compelled to carry the bodies back to the gallows and hang them there again, the priest in his alb, the others in their shrouds; there they remained many days, and what the birds and the dogs had left was then buried at the foot of the gallows.

♦Retaliatory executions.♦

When D. Jose O’Donell, who commanded what was called the 2nd and 3rd army then in Murcia, received official intelligence of these executions, he wrote to Duran, as acting commander in Aragon and Soria, and instructed him to put to death ten prisoners, without distinction of rank, for each of the four victims, first apprising the nearest French commandant that he had received these orders, and should act upon them unless such reparation were made as might be deemed proportionate to the offence. Without waiting for such instructions, the Merino had exacted vengeance upon a larger scale. Having defeated a considerable body of the French who had marched from Aranda, to collect requisitions, killed and wounded some 150 and taken about 500 prisoners, he put 110 of them to death, twenty of these being in reprisals for each member of the Junta of Burgos; the others, at the rate of ten for each of his own people whom the French had executed. The other prisoners were marched into Asturias where opportunity might be found for embarking them; but all the officers, twelve in number, including the lieutenant-colonel, their commander, were reserved to be shot unless General Rey, who commanded at Burgos, would rescue them from that fate by delivering the traitor Moreno into the Merino’s hands. The unhappy prisoners are said to have addressed a letter to Rey, entreating him to save their lives by complying with this proposal, for they well knew that in these cases the Spaniards never failed to execute what they threatened. The issue has not been related, but may easily be guessed, as it was scarcely possible that the French commander should so far break his faith with a Spaniard in the Intruder’s service as to deliver him to certain death.

♦El Manco.♦

There were no persons whom the Spaniards regarded with such hatred as those who had forsaken the national cause, and entered into the Intruder’s service. Albuir, known as a Guerrilla chief by the name of El Manco, had taken this course, and became therefore a special object of vengeance to his countrymen: it is the only instance of any man who had acquired celebrity as a Guerrillero becoming a traitor, while in the officers of the army such cases were not unfrequent: this was because the regular officers were men, who, having entered the service either as a matter of course or of compulsion, felt severely the poverty of the government, and often had little else to do than to talk of its errors, complain of its abuses, and speculate upon its hopeless condition; whereas the Guerrilla leaders led a life of incessant activity and animating hope, and most of them were impelled to that course by a strong feeling either of their country’s injuries or of their own.

♦Mutual retaliation.♦

At this time Lord Wellington’s successes had animated the Spaniards with a hope of deliverance, and made the French more intent upon extirpating those persons who, by keeping up the national spirit in what they deemed the subjected provinces, occupied a large part of the invading force. They attempted to surprise the Junta of Aragon, as they had that of Burgos, and a detachment from Palombini’s troops nearly effected this at Mochales, in the lordship of Molina: the Junta escaped, but the enemy sacked the village, stripped the women in the market-place, and hung the alcalde and two other persons; in reprisals for whom, Jabarelli, the late commandant at Calatayud, and ten other prisoners, were shot by the Spaniards. Vicente Bonmati, the leader of a Guerrilla party, had been put to death at Petrel, in Valencia, with circumstances of peculiar cruelty; the French having tied his hands, transfixed them with a bayonet, and then parading him through the streets, pricked him with their bayonets till he died. Upon this the Camp Marshal Copons, provincial commandant-general in that kingdom, gave orders to shoot the first prisoner who should be taken, and informed the nearest French commandant, that for every other such execution twenty prisoners should be put to death. Such reprisals were but too characteristic of a vindictive people, capable of inflicting as well as enduring anything; but they were evidences also of that high-mindedness which the Spaniards retained in their lowest fortune; never abasing themselves, never submitting to the insolent assumption of authority, nor for a moment consenting that might should be allowed to sanction injustice. Their parties, meantime, acquired a confidence from their own experience, and from the success of their allies. ♦May 5.Guerrilla exploits.♦ Mendizabal appeared before Burgos, and drove the enemy from the monastery of Las Huelgas and the hospital del Rey. Duran entered Tudela ♦May 28.♦ by escalade, and destroyed a battering train of artillery which had been brought thither from Zaragoza, with the intent, he supposed, of laying siege to ♦May 30.♦ Ciudad Rodrigo. The Empecinado attacked the French in Cuenca; they withdrew from it in the night, and he destroyed their fortifications there, and set fire to the Inquisition. Mina received information that a strong convoy was about to set forth from Vittoria for France, escorting some prisoners taken from Ballasteros. He determined to intercept them upon the plains of Arlaban, which had been the scene of one of his most successful exploits in the preceding year; and in order to deceive the enemy, he wrote letters which were thrown into their hands, declaring his intention of marching upon the river Arga, to form a junction at the foot of the Pyrenees with two of his battalions. The enemy, ♦April 9.♦ supposing that this dreaded commander was far distant, began their march: his orders were, after one discharge to attack with the bayonet, and that no soldier should touch the convoy on pain of death till the action was ended. It was of no long duration; the vanguard were presently slaughtered; the centre and the rear, consisting of Poles and of Imperial Guards, made a brave but unavailing resistance: from 600 to 700 were slain, 500 wounded, and 150 taken, with the whole convoy, and about 400 prisoners set at liberty. M. Deslandes, the Intruder’s private secretary, was in the convoy; he got out of his carriage, and endeavoured to escape in a peasant’s dress, with which it seems he had provided himself, in anticipation of some such danger; but this disguise cost him his life, which would have been saved had it been known in time who he was. His wife, an Andalusian lady, with two of her countrywomen, who were married to officers in the enemy’s service, fell into Mina’s hands. Very few would have escaped if the French had not erected a fort at Arlaban, in consequence of their last year’s loss, and this served as a protection for the fugitives.

♦Intercepted letters from the Intruder.♦

Some letters from the Intruder were found upon his secretary. One was to Buonaparte, reminding him how, when he returned to Spain at his desire twelve months before, his Imperial Majesty had told him, that at the worst he could quit that country in case their hopes should not be realised, and that then he should have an asylum in the south of the empire. “Sire,” said he, “events have deceived my hopes; I have done no good, and I have no hopes of doing any. I entreat your Majesty, therefore, to let me resign into your hands the right to the crown of Spain, which four years ago you deigned to transfer to me. I had no other object in accepting the crown than the happiness of this vast monarchy, and it is not in my power to effect that. I entreat your Majesty to receive me into the number of your subjects, and to believe that you will never have a more faithful servant than the friend whom nature has given you.” There were other letters of the same date to his wife, whom he had left in Paris, and who was to deliver that which he had written to the Emperor only in case the decree for uniting to France the provinces beyond the Ebro should have been published; otherwise she was to await his farther directions. In another letter to her he said, that if the Emperor made war against Russia, and thought his presence in Spain could be useful, he would remain there, provided that both the military and civil authority were vested in him; otherwise his desire was to return to France. Should there be no Russian war, he would remain with or without the command, provided nothing were exacted from him which could make it believed that he consented to a dismemberment of the monarchy: provided also that troops enough and territory enough were left him, and that the monthly loan of a million, which had been promised, were paid. In that case he would remain as long as he could, thinking himself as much bound in honour not to quit Spain lightly, as he should be to quit it, if, during the war with England, sacrifices were required from him which he neither could nor ought to make, except at a general peace, for the good of Spain, of France, and of Europe. A decree for uniting to France the provinces beyond the Ebro, if it arrived unexpectedly, he said, would make him depart the next day; and if the Emperor should adjourn his projects till a time of peace, he must supply him with means of subsistence during the war. But if he inclined either to his removal, or to any of those measures which must cause him to remove, it was then of great consequence that he should return to France on kindly terms with the Emperor, and with his sincere and full consent; and this was what reason dictated to him, and what was more conformable to the situation of the miserable country over which he had been made king, and to his own domestic relations. In that case, he asked from the Emperor a domain in Tuscany, or in the south, some three hundred leagues from Paris. The course of events, and the false position in which he found himself, so contrary, he said, to the rectitude and loyalty of his character, had greatly injured his health: he was growing old; nothing but honour and duty could detain him where he was, and his inclination would drive him away, unless the Emperor explained himself in a different manner from what he had hitherto done. There was also a letter to his brother Louis, expressing a hope to see him one day in good health, and with the happiness which arises from a good conscience.... That happiness the intrusive king Joseph might well envy! It is little excuse for him that he was more weak than wicked, and in mere weakness had consented to be made the instrument of his brother’s insatiable ambition. Even in these letters, where he manifested a full sense of his humiliating situation, no consciousness is expressed of its guilt. For the sake of his own credit, and no doubt of his own personal safety, he protested against any immediate dismemberment of Spain; but he would have been contented to serve his brother’s purpose, by nominally retaining the kingdom, till a pretext could be found for dismembering it at a general peace.

But how long he should retain it depended upon something more than the will and pleasure of Napoleon Buonaparte, and this he was soon made to apprehend. ♦Sir Rowland Hill’s expedition to the bridge of Almaraz.♦ Lord Wellington was not about to remain idle with his victorious army; he prepared for offensive operations, and the first step was to interrupt the communication between the armies of Soult and Marmont. All the permanent bridges on the Tagus below that of Arzobispo had been destroyed; and the only way which was practicable for a large army was by a bridge of boats at Almaraz, in the line of the high road, where the noble bridge erected in Charles the Fifth’s time, at the city of Plasentia’s cost, had been demolished. For the protection of this important post, the French had thrown up strong works on both sides of the river: they had formed a flanked tête-du-pont on the left bank, riveted with masonry and strongly intrenched; and on the high ground above it they had constructed a large and strong redoubt, called Fort Napoleon, with an interior intrenchment, and a loop-holed tower in its centre; here they had mounted nine pieces of cannon, and had garrisoned it with between 400 and 500 men. On the right bank, there was a redoubt called Fort Ragusa, in honour of Marshal Marmont, of the same strength and construction, except that the tower had a double tier of loopholes; this flanked the bridge, and between the redoubt and the bridge there was a flêche. For farther security, the invaders had fortified an old castle commanding the Puerto de Miravete, about a league distant, being the only pass for carriages of any kind by which the bridge could be approached. A marked alteration of climate is perceptible upon crossing the narrow mountain ridge over which the road here passes. Coming from Castille, the traveller descends from this ridge into a country, where, for the first time, the gum-cistus appears as lord of the waste, ... the most beautiful of all shrubs in the Peninsula for the profusion of its delicate flowers, and one of the most delightful for the rich balsamic odour which its leaves exude under a southern sun; but which overspreads such extensive tracts, where it suffers nothing else to grow, that in many parts both of Portugal and Spain it becomes the very emblem of desolation. The old castle stood at little distance from the road, on the summit of the sierra: the French had surrounded it by a lower enceinte, twelve feet high; they had fortified a large venta, or travellers’ inn, upon the road, and had constructed two small works between the inn and the castle, forming altogether a strong line of defence.

Sir Rowland Hill, to whom this important service had been intrusted, broke up from Almandralejo on the 12th of May, with part of the 2nd division of infantry, and six of the 24-pounder iron howitzers which had been used against Badajoz. The Marquis de Almeida, who was a member of the Junta of Extremadura, accompanied them, and from him and from the people, Sir Rowland received the most ready and effectual assistance which it was in their power to bestow. On the morning of the 16th they reached Jaraicejo, an old and decayed town, about eight miles from the summit of the pass; and on the same evening they advanced in three columns ... the left, under Lieutenant-General Chowne, toward the castle of Miravete; Sir Rowland himself, with the right under Major-General Howard, toward a pass through which a most difficult and circuitous footpath leads by the village of Romangordo to the bridge; and the centre, under Major-General Long, along the high road, to the Puerto. The artillery was with the centre: both the flank columns were provided with ladders, and it was intended that both should escalade the forts against which they were directed; but the difficulties of the way were such, that it was found impossible for them to reach their respective points before daybreak: as the enemy, therefore, could not be taken by surprise, Sir Rowland judged it best to defer the attack till they should be better acquainted with the position and nature of the works; and the troops bivouacked on the sierra. It was found that the castle, because of its peculiar situation, could not be carried without a long operation: a false attack therefore was directed to be made upon it by Lieutenant-General Chowne, and Sir Rowland, with the right, and the 6th Portugueze caçadores (about 2,000 men in all), on the evening of the 18th began to descend by the mountain path which he had originally proposed to take. They were provided with twelve scaling-ladders of sixteen feet in length; and he relied, as in this case he well might do, upon the valour of the troops, to supply the want of artillery. Although the distance was little more than six miles, the way was so difficult, that notwithstanding all the exertions of officers and men the head of the column did not arrive near the fort till it was break of day, and it was two or three hours later before the rear came up; but during this time the troops were completely concealed by the hill, and the feint against the castle had induced the enemy to believe that the bridge forts would not be attacked till the pass should have been forced, and a way made for the guns.

♦May 19.♦

Could the attack have been made before day, it was intended that the tête-du-pont should have been escaladed, and the bridge destroyed at the same time that Fort Napoleon was assaulted; but well knowing how much depended upon celerity, Sir Rowland did not wait till the troops who were appointed to this part of the operations could come up; with the first battalion of the 50th and one wing of the 71st, he escaladed the fort in three places nearly at the same time. At first a determined resistance was made, but the enemy soon slackened their destructive fire: they took to flight as soon as the assailants were on the top of the parapet; they abandoned the tower, and were driven at the point of the bayonet through their entrenchment, and through the tête-du-pont, and across the bridge. The commander of Fort Ragusa on the opposite bank, with a cowardice rarely shown among French officers, but with a selfish disregard for the soldiers which was too common among them, cut the bridge, in consequence of which many leaped into the river and perished, and 259 were made prisoners, including the governor and sixteen officers; and acting with further folly in his fear, he evacuated his own fort, which was perfectly safe from any attack, and retired with his garrison to Naval Moral, three leagues off, for which he was brought to summary trial at Talavera and shot.... Both forts were entirely destroyed by the conquerors, and the whole apparatus of the bridge, and the stores, which were in such abundance as to prove that this point had justly been considered a most important station by the enemy. The loss in this signal enterprise was, two officers and 31 men killed, 13 and 131 wounded.

The garrison ought to have been prepared for such an attack; for Marmont had apprehended it, and in that apprehension had marched a detachment to the Puerto del Pico, with the view of reinforcing Talavera in case the bridge should be lost. Sir Rowland retired by Truxillo to his former position in front of Badajos; and on the second day after his success, a division of the central army, under General d’Armagnac, crossed the Tagus by the Puente del Arzobispo, to relieve the isolated garrison at Miravete. Both Soult and Marmont had put their forces in motion as soon as they were informed of Sir Rowland’s march: the latter arrived upon the Tagus too late to prevent the evil, and without the means of repairing it; the former, when he found that the allies had passed Truxillo on their return, gave up the hope of intercepting them. He returned to Seville, and, regarding with uneasy apprehension the enterprising spirit of an enemy whom he had once affected to despise, gave directions for strengthening the line of the Guadalete, lest a force should be landed at St. Roque’s or at Algeziras, and endanger his communication with the besieging army before Cadiz. Bornos, as the most important point upon the line, was fortified with great care. Ballasteros ♦Ballasteros defeated at Bornos.♦ thought to interrupt the progress of the works, and accordingly brought all the force he could muster, consisting of about 6,000, to attack the French division there of 4,500 under General Corroux. Collecting his troops at La Majada de Ruiz, and marching from thence early in the afternoon of one day, he succeeded in fording the Guadalete unperceived ♦June 1.♦ at dawn on the next. The attack was made bravely, but, with the usual ill fortune and ill discipline of a Spanish army, some mistake led to confusion, and confusion was followed by panic: the French were not strong enough to pursue them beyond the river, and Ballasteros retired with the loss of about 1,000 killed and wounded, and half as many prisoners, ... a fourth of his whole force.

♦Lord Wellington advances into Spain.♦

Meantime Badajoz had been fully supplied; the means of transport which had been used for that service were then employed in storing Ciudad Rodrigo; a month’s consumption for the whole army was deposited there; the bridge at Alcantara was repaired for a readier communication with Sir Rowland’s corps; and on the 13th of June the army broke up from its cantonments on the Agueda. On the 16th they came up with the enemy, about six miles from Salamanca, on the Valmusa, and there was a skirmish with their cavalry; in the evening the French withdrew across the Tormes, and the army bivouacked within a league of Salamanca.

♦Salamanca♦

When the earliest accounts of Spain begin, Salamanca was already a considerable place, and known by a name little different from what it bears at present. It fell to decay after the Moorish conquest, but was re-peopled at the same time with certain other towns upon the Tormes, by the Leonese in the 10th century, after the great battle of Simancas: in the 13th King St. Ferdinand removed thither the university from Palencia. It soon became one of the most flourishing seats of learning in Christendom, and continued to be so till Spain rejected the light of the reformation. In its best days it is said to have contained no fewer than 8,000 native students, and 7,000 from foreign countries: when the present war began, the number little exceeded 3,000, among whom a few Irish were the only foreigners. The population consisted of some 3,400 families: it had once been much greater. But Salamanca was still an important and a famous place: popular fiction had made its name familiar to those who are unacquainted with its history; while to the antiquary, the historian, and the philosopher, it is a city of no ordinary interest. The Roman road, which extended from thence to Merida, and so to Seville, may still be traced in its vicinity: its bridge of twenty-seven arches, over the Tormes, is said to be in part a Roman work. The Mozarabic liturgy is retained in one of its churches. Its cathedral, though far inferior to some of the older edifices, whether of Moorish or Gothic architecture, in Spain, is a large and imposing structure. Twenty-five parish churches are enclosed within its walls, twenty convents of monks or friars, eleven of nuns: these, with its numerous colleges, give it an imposing appearance from without, and a melancholy solemnity within. Nowhere, indeed, were there more munificent endowments for education, and for literature, and for religion; and nowhere could be less of that happy effect which the benefactors in their piety had contemplated: the philosophy which was taught there was that of the schoolmen, the morality that of the casuists, the religion that of the Inquisition. It is a popular belief in Spain, that the Devil also has his college at Salamanca, where students of the black art take their degrees in certain caverns, every seventh being left with him, in earnest of the after-payment to which they all are bound.

♦The Tormes.♦

The city stands in a commanding situation on the right bank of the Tormes, a river of considerable magnitude there, which rises near the Sierra de Tablada in Old Castille, and falls into the Douro on the Portuguese frontier, opposite Bemposta. The country round is open, without trees, and with a few villages interspersed, in which the houses are constructed of clay. On the left of the river there are extensive pastures, on the right a wide and unenclosed corn country. The pastures are common, and the arable land occupied after a manner not usual in other parts of Spain: it is cultivated in annual allotments, and reverts to the commonalty after the harvest.

♦The allies enter Salamanca.♦

Marmont had apprehended this advance of the allies, and had applied for reinforcements without effect. He showed some cavalry and a small body of infantry in front of the town, and manifested an intention of holding the heights on the south side of the Tormes; but in the evening of the 16th the enemy withdrew over the river, and the allies bivouacked within a league of Salamanca. The French retired from that city during the night, leaving some 800 men in the fortifications which they had constructed there. These works commanded the bridge; the left column of the allied army therefore crossed at the ford of El Campo, a league below the city, the centre and the right at the ford of Santa Martha. The utmost joy was expressed by the inhabitants when the English entered, and women crowded to thank Lord Wellington and bless him for their deliverance. Some aching hearts there were among those who had connected themselves by marriage, or by looser ties, with the enemies of their country, but the general feeling was that of perfect and grateful joy; for though this city had suffered none of the immediate evils of war, its consequences had been severely felt there. During the three years of its captivity the French had demolished thirteen of its convents and twenty-two of its twenty-five colleges; the people had been compelled to labour upon works erected for their own subjugation; and the last act of the enemy before they left the city, was to set fire to such houses as obstructed the defence of their works, ... consisting of a fort and two redoubts. For the same reason they had previously demolished the Convent of St. Augustine, the colleges of Cuenca and ♦Siege of the forts there.♦ Oviedo, and the magnificent King’s College. The fort was formed out of the Convent of St. Vicente, a large building in the centre of the angle of the old wall, on a perpendicular cliff over the Tormes. The windows had been built up and loop-holed; on both sides it was connected by lines of works with the old wall. There was a fascine battery in a re-entering angle of the convent, not enclosed by these lines, and this was protected by a loop-holed wall, with a palisade in front. ♦Col. Jones’s sieges. 158–9.♦ The demolition of so many substantial edifices supplied timber of the best quality, and in abundance, for gates, drawbridges, palisades, and splinter proofs; and the whole was well flanked in every part. The ground to the south, which was toward the bridge, fell by a steep descent: at the bottom was a small stream flowing to the Tormes; and on the opposite bank the convents of San Cayetano and La Merced had been converted with great skill into two redoubts, with well-covered perpendicular escarpes, deep ditches, and casemated counterscarps; they were also full of bomb-proofs, made by supporting a roof horizontally and vertically with strong beams, and covering it with six feet of earth. These works were seen at once to be far more respectable than Lord Wellington had expected to find, his information amounting to little more than that some convents had been fortified. It was necessary to reduce them before the army could advance, but the means of attack had been provided on this inadequate knowledge: they consisted of only four iron eighteen-pounders and four 24-pounder iron howitzers, with an hundred rounds for each. The engineers had only 400 intrenching tools, without any stores; there were present three engineer officers, with nine men of the corps of royal military artificers; and the works were soon found to be even more formidable than they appeared.

♦June 17.♦

The sixth division broke ground before the fort. The left wing of the army moved to Villares de la Reyna, a league in advance of Salamanca; the right and centre bivouacked on the Tormes, near Santa Martha, on the right bank. Lieutenant-Colonel Ponsonby’s brigade followed the retiring enemy, and skirmished with them for two leagues. A battery was erected for breaching the main wall of the fort. It was nearly full moon; little could be done therefore during the first night. An attempt to blow in part of the counterscarp opposite to the intended breach, was frustrated by the vigilance of a dog; and an attempt at mining it failed also, the party being ordered to withdraw in consequence of the loss sustained by a plunging fire from the top of the convent. On the second night two batteries were completed: they opened the following morning, and beat down part of the wall; but the enemy’s musketry fired with great effect from loopholes in the upper windows, and their fire was more than ordinarily destructive, because of the large openings of the embrasures which were necessary for such short pieces as the howitzers. More ammunition was sent for to Almeida. Early on the third day, the lower part of the convent wall, three feet and a half thick, was pierced through, and at a single shot half the length of that face of the building came down, bringing the roof with it, and laying the interior open: the men were seen firing through the loopholes at the moment of its fall, and they of course were buried in the ruins. Carcasses were then fired into the convent, to set it on fire, but the enemy’s precautions prevented them from taking effect.

♦Marmont moves to relieve them.♦

Marmont at this time moved forward from Fuente Sabuco, making the most display of the force which he could then bring together: it was estimated at about 16,000 men. He advanced as if with a determination of giving battle, firing artillery the whole way to give the forts notice of his approach. Lord Wellington immediately formed the allied army upon the heights: his left, where the rains had formed a deep ravine, rested on a chapel; his centre was in the village of S. Christobal de la Cuesta, and his right on another eminence in front of Castellanos de los Moriscos.... The advanced posts retired before the enemy with little loss; there was a considerable cannonade on both sides; the enemy’s cavalry were dislodged by our guns from the position in which they had halted; and Marmont, after manœuvring for some time in front of the position, took up ground in the plain below it, near the village of Villares, and just out of cannon-shot, his right resting upon the great road to Toro, his left in Castellanos de los Moriscos. The allies were under arms at daylight, expecting an attack. In the course of the day the French received reinforcements, but not sufficient to justify them in bringing on an action, scarcely in exposing themselves ♦June 21.♦ to one. Both armies remained quiet in front of each other, the allies on the heights, the French close under their position, occupying Castellanos de los Moriscos in force, and having a considerable bivouac between that village and another on their right: both villages were soon completely unroofed for firewood, and there were wells in both, whereas the allies were badly off for wood and water, which were brought to them in insufficient supply from Salamanca. There was not a tree on the position; but the midsummer sun was less powerful than it usually is in that country, and the troops did not suffer from heat.

During the night, the French occupied an eminence on the right flank of the allies. Sir Thomas Graham was directed to dislodge them. The 58th and 61st carried the hill immediately, and drove them from the ground with considerable loss. The enemy’s troops got under arms, expecting a general attack, but they made no attempt ♦June 23.♦ to regain the hill. They retired in the night, and on the following evening posted themselves with their right on the heights near Cabeza Vellosa, their left on the Tormes at Huerta, their centre at Aldea Rubia, their object in this movement being to communicate with the garrison. Lord Wellington therefore changed the front of his army, placing the right at S. Martha, and the advanced posts at Aldea Lingua; and he sent Major-General Bock’s brigade of heavy dragoons across the river in order to observe the fords. By this time a battery which had been opened on the Cayetano redoubt had beaten down the palisades and injured the parapet; and when night closed 300 men from the 6th division were ordered to attack it by escalade. The undertaking was difficult, and the men seemed to feel it. Major-General Bowes went forward with the storming party; he was wounded, returned to the attack as soon as his wound was dressed, and was then killed. The enemy made so resolute a resistance, that only two ladders were reared against the redoubt, and no one mounted them: 120 men were killed or wounded in this unsuccessful attempt. On the following evening a truce was made for removing the killed and wounded; till then the French would neither allow them to be removed, nor remove them themselves.

♦June 24.♦

There had been a report on the preceding afternoon, that the enemy had crossed at Huerta. Lord Wellington was on the hill at Aldea Lingua by daybreak. It was certain that they had made some movement, but the morning was so foggy that nothing could be seen. Soon Major-General Bock’s brigade was heard skirmishing, and from their fire it was evident that they were losing ground. The French had crossed about two in the morning in considerable force; and when the fog cleared General Bock was seen retiring in the best order before superior numbers, who had also the advantage of having artillery with them. Lord Wellington, upon the first certainty that the enemy had passed the Tormes, ordered the 1st and 7th divisions, under Sir Thomas Graham, to cross and take up a position to the right in front of Santa Martha, and Major-General Le Marchant’s brigade of cavalry was sent to support General Bock; the rest of the army he concentrated between Castellanos de los Moriscos and Cabrerizas, keeping the advanced posts at Aldea Lingua. The French, who had crossed with 10,000 infantry and fourteen squadrons of horse, gained possession of Calvarasa de Abaxo; but seeing the disposition which was made for their reception, they did not venture upon an attack. About three in the afternoon they began to withdraw, and before night they had repassed the river to their former position. The allies also recrossed.

Both armies remained quiet during the following day, but on the next night a communication was carried along the bottom of the ravine between the redoubts and the fort, and a piquet was lodged under the gorge of S. Cayetano. On the morrow a supply of ammunition ♦Surrender of the forts.♦ arrived, and red-hot shot were then fired against San Vicente. By the third shot the roof of a large square tower on the convent was set on fire and consumed; but the conflagration did not spread, and during the day wherever fires broke out they were speedily extinguished. The inhabitants said that the powder in the fort was well secured; but no activity on the enemy’s part could long counteract the means of destruction which were now employed. Hot shot were fired during the whole night: by ten in the morning the convent was in flames. At the same time a breach had been effected in the gorge of S. Cayetano: the troops were formed in readiness for assaulting it, when a white flag was hoisted there, and the commanding officer offered to surrender that and the other redoubt in two hours, which time he asked for that he might represent his situation to the commandant in San Vicente. Lord Wellington offered him five minutes to march out, in which case he should preserve his baggage; but it presently appeared that he was only negotiating for the sake of gaining time, as in fact he could not venture without the commandant’s sanction to carry into effect the capitulation which he had offered. He was ordered, therefore, to take down his white flag. The commandant meantime sent out a flag of truce, and proposed to surrender San Vicente in three hours: five minutes were allowed, and as at the expiration of that short term there was no appearance of their coming out, both redoubts were stormed, and carried with little resistance. The troops moved forward against the fort: a few shot were fired from it, by which six men were killed or wounded; but with that the resistance ended: the enemy even helped the Portuguese caçadores into the work, and Lord Wellington allowed them to march out with the honours of war, but to be prisoners of war, the officers retaining their personal military baggage, and the soldiers their knapsacks. There were 36 pieces of cannon in the forts, with large depôts of clothing, and military stores of every kind: these were consigned to the Spaniards, and the works were destroyed. The prisoners were somewhat more than 700; the loss of the besiegers about 450.

♦Marmont fails back upon the Douro.♦

Marmont commenced his retreat at midnight, as if, said the Spaniards, he had only come thither to witness the capture of his fort, and see the illumination made by it when on fire. At daylight their column was nearly out of sight, and their rear-guard moving off the ground. During this tarriance the French, considering that part of Spain no longer as a subjected but as a hostile country, had acted in the same spirit of disgraceful barbarity as had rendered their name execrable in Portugal; and when they departed they left the villages of Castellanos de los Moriscos, Huerta, Babila Fuente, Villoria, and Villaruela in flames: where they did not burn the villages they sacked the houses, and murdered those who had ventured to remain in them; and where they did not trample down the standing corn, they set fire to it. The popular feeling had been strongly manifested during the operations against the forts: not only were all necessaries and accommodations for the wounded abundantly supplied, but women of all ranks offered their services to attend on them. High mass was performed this day in the Cathedral, at which Lord Wellington and most of the general officers attended. Lord Wellington gave a dinner in Salamanca, and the Junta a ball in the evening; but some of the principal inhabitants absented themselves because they were partisans of the French, and others from a prudential fear, lest the enemy should return and again obtain possession of the city.

♦June 29. Lord Wellington advances to the Douro.♦

The French withdrew their garrison from Alba de Tormes, and retired towards the Douro in three columns ... one upon Toro, and the others upon Tordesillas. The allies broke up the next day, following their march, and encamped upon the Guarena. On the morrow Marmont had collected his force, as if with an intention of making a stand on the right bank of that river; his rear was on the hills in front of Alaejos: they moved off before the advanced guard could come up. The allies bivouacked every night in an open country, without a tree to shade them, and where it was necessary to seek for wood at the distance of several miles, the inhabitants frequently using straw for fuel. The enemy continued to fall back toward the Douro, closely followed by one who would let no opportunity escape him. On the 2nd of July their cavalry were on the plain toward Tordesillas, and they had a considerable force of infantry in Rueda; but they were compelled to withdraw from thence, and the town was occupied by the advance of the allied army. On the following day, this part of the army was ordered into the plain, as if with a view of attacking Tordesillas; while the left column, strengthened by the brigades of Generals Bock and Le Marchant, moved on Pollos, where there is a ford. There was some cannonading on the part of the enemy there, and an affair of light troops; and some of the allies passed the river, but they were withdrawn at night: it was then seen that there was no intention of forcing the passage, and orders were given for the distribution of the army. Lord Wellington fixed his head-quarters at Rueda. The French occupied Tordesillas in force: they had a considerable bivouac in the rear of that town, and the bridge there was fortified.

After the recapture of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos, Marmont could not be surprised that the forts at Salamanca fell, even if he had known with what scanty means they had been attacked; and as he had not been brought to action, his army took credit to themselves for having braved a superior force. The French had lost much of their confidence in battle against the English, but they still relied upon their skill in manœuvring; and Marmont, knowing that he should soon have the advantage in numbers, availed himself of all the opportunities which the nature of the country afforded him for gaining time. ♦The Douro.♦ He was in possession of the line of the Douro. That river rises in the Sierra de Orbion, in Old Castille, issuing from a large and deep tarn, high on the mountain: passing the site of Numancia, it comes to Soria, and so to Berlanga, Osma, and Santesteban de Gormas: in this part of its course its banks are remarkable for the jessamine with which they are profusely clothed. Having left Aranda, it passes by the Cistercian monastery of Valbueno, a place denoting by its name the happy circumstances of its position, and where the monks used to account among the goodly things which had fallen to their lot the barbel and trout with which the Douro supplied them. The Pisuerga, having already received the Arlanza and the Carrion, joins it by Simancas; and though it brings the larger body of water to the junction, loses its name there. The Douro then makes for Tordesillas: for the first ten leagues of its way its course is s. s. w., then westward till it reaches this old city, where it bends to the southward for a few leagues, passing S. Roman de Hornija, the now obscure burial-place of Chindasuintho, one of the most powerful of the Wisigoth kings; then it resumes its western course, waters Toro and Zamora, cities of great name in the Spanish annals, and having collected all the rivers of Leon on its way, enters Portugal. Of all the rivers in the Peninsula, the Douro has the longest course. From its junction with the Pisuerga, till it receives the Tormes on the frontier of Portugal, it flows through a wide valley, the right bank for the most part skirting the heights. The French were in possession of all the ♦Colonel Jones’s account of the war, 2. 100.♦ bridges, and from the mouth of the Pisuerga to Zamora there is but one point favourable for passing an army from the left in presence of an enemy: that point is three leagues above Toro, at Castro Nuño, where there is a good ford, a favourable bend in the river, and advantages of ground. There could be little hope, therefore, of striking an efficient blow against Marmont so long as he kept his force concentrated behind the Douro, and it was in his power to cross the river at any of its bridges or fords whenever he might think that opportunity invited.

♦Marmont reinforced by G. Bonnet.♦

But the French, according to the barbarous system which Buonaparte pursued, were without magazines, and trusted to their command of the country for subsistence: Marmont therefore had this anxious object to distract his attention; and the Guerrillas were actively employed both upon his flanks and rear in intercepting his supplies, and in occupying troops who would otherwise have reinforced him. Two parties under Sorniel and Bourbon, with 700 cavalry were on the right; D. Julian Sanches, with 500, on the left; while Porlier displayed his usual activity on the side of Asturias; and Mina and Duran in Navarre and Aragon: on that side their efforts were effectual: but General Bonnet joined him from the north, and increased his force to 47,000 men, thus making it numerically superior to that of the allies. Lord Wellington’s situation was at this time an anxious one: he had counted upon the aid which the Gallician army might have given him in occupying some of the enemy by besieging Astorga; in that undertaking, however, they were more dilatory than had been intended; and he was now aware that the force intended to co-operate with him by acting upon the eastern coast was upon so small a scale, that he could place little hope upon it, and no reliance. The French suffered at this time nothing for want of magazines or means of transport, because they took what they wanted, and preyed upon the country. The British Government would not, even in an enemy’s territories, carry on war upon so inhuman and iniquitous a system; but it exposed its army to privations, and its general to perplexities and difficulties which might have paralysed any weaker mind than Lord Wellington’s, by the parsimony with which it apportioned his means. When he advanced from Salamanca, there were but 20,000 dollars in the military chest: the harvest was abundant, but how was bread to be obtained without money? ... and the same want would be felt in bringing his supplies from Ciudad Rodrigo, and other places in the rear of that fortress. The very difficulty of removing his wounded to the frontier of Portugal was sufficient to deter him from seeking an action on the Douro.

♦Lord Wellington retires before him.♦

On the 15th and 16th, Marmont concentrated his troops between Toro and San Roman: two divisions crossed the bridge at Toro on the evening of the 16th, and Lord Wellington moved the allies that night to Fuente la Peña and Canizal, intending to concentrate them on the Guarena. But it was ascertained next day, that during the night the enemy had repassed the bridge, and destroyed it after them; then making forced marches to Tordesillas, which is six leagues above Toro, crossed again there, and early on the morning of the 18th were on the Trebancos. Marmont might well applaud himself both for the celerity and the skill of these movements: he had marched forty miles; had opened his communication with the army of the centre, which was then moving from Madrid to support him; and by advancing in force on Castrejon he endangered the light and 4th divisions, with Major-General Anson’s brigades of cavalry, which there had not been time for calling in. The enemy commenced a very heavy cannonade against the cavalry; they were scattered about in squadrons, and so escaped without much loss; and immediate measures had been taken to provide for their retreat and junction. The troops at Castrejon maintained their posts till the cavalry joined them; then they retired in perfect order to Tordesillas de la Orden, and thence to the Guarena, having the enemy’s whole army on their left flank or in their rear; and the French getting possession of the heights above that river, before the allies had crossed, brought forty guns to bear upon them, under the fire of which they joined the army on the left bank. Four streams which unite about a league below Canizal, form the Guarena: the French crossed at Castrillo, a little below the junction, and manifested an intention to press upon the left of the allies; with this view they endeavoured to occupy a ridge above Castrillo, but Lieutenant-General Cole’s division advanced to meet them with the bayonet; they gave way; the cavalry charged, General Carrier and between 300 and 400 men were made prisoners, and one gun taken. In the course of the day, the allies lost about 100 in killed, 400 wounded, and 50 prisoners; but the check which Marmont received made him more circumspect in his movements.

The allies took up a position for the night on the Guarena, from Castrillo on the left, to beyond Canizal on the right. The enemy occupied the opposite side of the valley with their whole force. Both armies ♦July 19.♦ remained quiet till two in the afternoon of the following day, when the French withdrawing all their troops from the right marched by Tarrazona, as if with an intention of turning the right of the allies. Counter-movements were consequently made; the artillery fired at the enemy’s advance, and in that dry season the corn took fire in several places, and burnt for a mile in extent. Lord Wellington expected a battle on the plain of Vallesa in the morning, and made every preparation for it; the men bivouacked in two lines in order of battle, and stood to their arms at daybreak, ready to receive an attack; but as soon as it was light, the enemy were seen moving in several columns to their left, on Babilafuente; the allies made a correspondent movement to the right: at any moment either commander might have brought on a general action; but it was a game of skill in which they were engaged, not of hazard. Marmont’s march was estimated at five leagues, that of the allies at four, being in the inner circle; they moved in parallel lines, frequently within half cannon shot. The enemy encamped that night at Babilafuente and Villamela; the allies at Cabeza Vellosa, the 6th division and a brigade of cavalry being upon the Tormes at Aldea ♦July 21.♦ Lengua. On the following day, the French crossed that river by the fords near Alba and Huerta, and moved by their left towards the road leading to Ciudad Rodrigo. In the evening the allies crossed also, part by the bridge at Salamanca, part by the ford of Santa Martha. A dreadful storm came on of thunder and lightning with heavy rain; the different divisions of infantry were seen by the lightning marching to their ground, their muskets reflecting the flashes. The 5th dragoon guards had just got to their ground; many of the men had lain down; their horses were fastened together by their collars for the night, but terrified by the lightning, they set off full gallop and ran over the men, eighteen of whom were hurt; and two and thirty horses were lost, having probably gone to the enemy’s lines.

It was evident from Marmont’s manner of manœuvring, that he did not mean to attack the allies, unless at such advantage as might seem to render his success certain; and it seemed not less evident, that by pursuing this system, turning their flank and keeping possession of the heights, he would drive them to the frontier if they continued to act upon the defensive. All the stores which were at Salamanca were ordered to the rear of the army, and the inhabitants were in the utmost consternation, apprehending, not without good apparent reason, that they should presently be brought under the yoke of the French again. Lord Wellington had placed the troops in a position, the right of which was upon one of two heights called the two Arapiles; and the left on the Tormes below the ford of Santa Martha. The enemy had still a large corps above Babilafuente, on the right of the river; for this reason, the 3rd division and Brigadier-General D’Urban’s cavalry were left on the same side at Cabrerizos; and Lord Wellington thought it not improbable, that when Marmont should find in the morning that the allies were prepared for him on the left of the Tormes, he would alter his plan, and manœuvre by the other bank. In the course of the night he was informed that the cavalry and horse-artillery of the army of the north had arrived at Pollos to join Marmont, and that they would effect a junction with him the next day, or the day after at latest. During the night the enemy took possession of Calvarasa de arriba, and of a height near that village called Nuestra Señora de la Peña; the allied cavalry were in possession of Calvarasa de abaxo, which is between three and four miles from the upper village, and near the river.

♦July 22. Battle of Salamanca.♦

The last night’s storm had not cleared the atmosphere, and the morning rose threateningly, in clouds. The French were early in motion, and from the manner in which they marched and countermarched their troops, it was impossible to divine what might be their intention. Soon after daylight detachments from both armies attempted to gain the yet unoccupied Arapiles hill; but the enemy had been concealed in the woods nearer that point, and their infantry were discovered on the summit when the allies were in the act of advancing to it: their detachment was also the strongest. By occupying this point they materially strengthened their own position, and were the better enabled to annoy that of the allies. Early in the day the light troops of the 7th division and the 4th caçadores of General Pack’s brigade were engaged with the enemy on the height of N. Señora de la Peña, which they gained and kept through the day. But the possession of the farther Arapiles by the French made it necessary for Lord Wellington to extend the right of his army to the heights behind the village of that name, and to occupy that village with the 4th division under Lieutenant-General Cole. Doubtful as Marmont’s intentions still were, the British commander judged that his objects were on the left of the Tormes, and therefore he ordered the 3rd division and D’Urban’s cavalry from the other bank, and placed them behind Aldea Tejada.

During these movements the French kept up a heavy cannonade and fire of light troops. The day, meantime, had cleared. Their force was formed in columns of attack in rear of the Arapiles hill, the left resting upon an extensive wood; thence they could either by a rapid march interpose between Lord Wellington and Ciudad Rodrigo, or wait an opportunity for debouching from behind the Arapiles, and separating the corps of his army. Marmont was too skilful a tactician himself not to perceive that all his movements were watched by one who well knew how to counteract them; nevertheless, hoping to deceive his antagonist, he marched a strong force to the right and formed columns of attack opposite the 5th division, which was in rear of the village of Arapiles. Lord Wellington soon perceived that nothing serious was intended by this manœuvre, and returned to direct the operations of his right, which he now threw back to that side of the Arapiles, forming nearly a right angle with that which he had occupied in the morning. About two in the afternoon the French Marshal perceiving that his last demonstration had produced no effect, pushed forward his columns rapidly to the left, with the intent of turning the right flank of the allies, and interposing between them and Ciudad Rodrigo. Till now the operations of the day had induced a belief in the British army that it was intended only to meet manœuvre by manœuvre, and to continue their retreat as soon as it was night. Indeed the army of the centre, with the Intruder at its head, was on the way to join Marmont within three days’ march, and a considerable body of cavalry and horse artillery was still nearer. But Lord Wellington had anxiously been looking for the opportunity which was now presented him: he was at dinner when information was brought him of this movement, which was made under cover of a heavy cannonade, and accompanied with skirmishers in his front and on his flank, and with a body of cavalry who made the British dragoons and light troops give way before them. But the generals of division had either misunderstood or ill executed their commander’s intentions, and they weakened their line by dangerously extending it: Lord Wellington at once perceived this; he rose in such haste as to overturn the table, exclaiming, that Marmont’s good genius had forsaken him: in an instant he was on horseback, and issued his orders for attack.

The right he reinforced with the 5th division, placing it behind the village of Arapiles, on the right of the 4th, and with the 6th and 7th in reserve. These having taken their stations, he ordered Major-General Pakenham to move forward with the 3rd and General D’Urban’s cavalry, and two squadrons of the 14th light dragoons under Lieutenant-Colonel Hervey, in four columns, to turn the enemy’s left on the heights, while Brigadier-General Bradford’s brigade, the 5th division, under Lieutenant-General Leith, the 4th, under Lieutenant-General Cole, and the cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton, should attack them in front, supported in reserve by the 6th and 7th under Major-Generals Clinton and Hope, and D. Carlos d’España’s Spanish division; Brigadier-General Pack, with the 1st and 16th Portuguese regiments, was to support the left of the 4th division, by attacking the hill which the enemy held. The first and the light divisions occupied the ground on the left of the Arapiles in reserve.

As soon as the formation was effected, the attack commenced from the right. Major-General Pakenham moved along a valley at a quick rate, crossed the extended left of the enemy, almost before they were aware of his intention, drove them back in confusion and overthrew everything before him. Brigadier-General D’Urban’s Portugueze cavalry and Lieutenant-Colonel Hervey’s squadrons of the 14th, supported him in the most gallant style, defeated every attempt which was made upon his flank, cut in upon the enemy’s broken infantry, and put numbers of them to the sword. The attack in front was made with equal ardour: the fifth division had been exposed for about an hour to a continued and heavy cannonade; no orders were ever more welcome to the soldiers who were stretched on the ground to avoid its effects, than those which bade them advance against the enemy. The distance was more than a mile, up a steep height crowned by twenty pieces of cannon, and their left had to pass through the village which formed a considerable obstruction; they advanced in perfect order, not firing a shot till they had gained the summit, from whence the guns which had annoyed them were hastily withdrawn, nor till they had received the fire of the enemy, who were formed into squares to resist them. When they were within some thirty yards the word was given to fire and charge; this instantly threw the squares into disorder; the heavy cavalry coming up on the right increased their confusion; they fled then, and in their flight fell in with the remains of their extreme left, flying before Major-General Pakenham’s division. Lieutenant-General Leith was severely wounded in the act of breaking into the squares. Pakenham and the cavalry constantly bringing up their right, so as to outflank the points on which the French attempted to make a stand, drove them from one height to another and made above 3000 prisoners. The 4th and 5th divisions acquiring in like manner strength upon the enemy’s flank in proportion as they advanced, carried height after height, till at length the enemy’s left rallied on their centre; and on the last height, after its crest had been gained, one division of their infantry charged Cole’s division, which, after a severe contest, in which Cole was wounded, gave way.

This temporary success was owing to the failure of Pack’s attack upon the Arapiles; it was bravely made, but the Portugueze failed to carry it against the disadvantage of such strong ground; the attempt, however, was not without some good effect, for it occupied troops who would otherwise have been engaged against General Cole in his advance, and who were not now at leisure to oppose him, till, notwithstanding this temporary success, it was too late. Beresford, who happened to be on the spot, directed a brigade of the 5th division, which was in the second line, to change its front, and bring its fire on the enemy’s flank; while thus engaged he was wounded. Three British generals had thus been disabled, and in a most successful charge against a body of infantry, Major-General Le Marchant was killed, at the head of his own brigade. Lord Wellington now ordered up the 6th division under Major-General Clinton. That division marching under a heavy fire deployed at the foot of a hill, and beginning then to fire regular volleys, suffered severely as it advanced; it was vigorously attacked by a body of cavalry which had been concealed behind the Arapiles, and for some minutes the contest appeared doubtful; but when Clinton was enabled to form his two right battalions into line, and charge, the French again lost heart, and abandoned the important point which they had till then maintained. Their right still resisted, having been reinforced by the troops who now withdrew in good order from the Arapiles, and by those who had fled from the left.

They re-formed and took up their ground with equal promptitude and skill almost at right angles to their original front, the infantry along the crest of the hill in line, supported by heavy close columns in reserve, the cavalry in masses on their flanks, and the artillery posted at the advanced knolls, so as to sweep the whole face of the height. The 1st and light divisions were ordered against these, with two brigades of the 4th, to turn their right, while the 6th supported by the 3rd and 5th, attacked the front. Clinton advanced up the rocky and steep height inline, without firing a shot, and under a murderous fire of musketry and artillery: but he charged with the bayonet, drove them from a commanding conical eminence, and captured two guns. Their flank was attacked at the same time; and then, beaten at all points, they fled through the woods towards the Tormes, cavalry, infantry, and baggage all mixed together. The defeat was complete, and so would have been the destruction, if darkness had not opportunely covered their flight. Lord Wellington, with the 1st and light divisions, and Major-General William Anson’s brigade of the 4th, and some squadrons of cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton, pursued them towards Huerta and the fords of the Tormes, as long as any of them could be found together; but night soon put an end to the pursuit, and enabled great numbers who had been taken prisoners to escape. A sentinel mistook Sir Stapleton Cotton in the dark for an enemy, fired, and wounded him.

This memorable battle, which lasted from three in the afternoon till ten at night, took place within sight of the city; the ground with its heights rising gradually one behind another, forming, as it were, a fine theatre for such a spectacle. On the part of the allies, nearly 5000 were killed and wounded. General Le Marchant’s loss was greatly regretted: he was a native of Guernsey, who having served in the light dragoons under the Duke of York in the years 1793 and 1794, applied himself with zeal and ability to the study of his profession, introduced the Hungarian sword exercise into the British army, and drew up a manual for the use of the cavalry, which was published by the war-office. The royal military college was in great measure planned by him; he was appointed lieutenant-governor of that institution, and discharged the duties of the office till 1811, when he could no longer retain it, being promoted to the rank of Major-General. He then joined the army in Portugal in command of a brigade, but had not been long in that country, when the unexpected death of his wife rendered it necessary that he should return to England for the arrangement of his domestic affairs: that mournful business having been performed, he rejoined the army, and shortly afterwards fell, being in the 47th year of his age. His eldest son, who was an ensign in the guards, was at his side when he fell. The Prince Regent manifested with proper munificence his sense of General Le Marchant’s worth, by granting a pension of £300 to that son, £100 to each of three younger sons, and £120 to each of his five daughters.... The loss of the French was very great; besides the dead and wounded, they left 7000 prisoners on the field. Eleven guns and two eagles were taken: it is said that more than ten were captured, but that there were men base enough to conceal them, and sell them to persons at Salamanca, who deemed it good policy as well as a profitable speculation, to purchase them for the French. Marmont was disabled early in the action, Bonnet also was wounded, and the command then devolved upon General Clausel, who was wounded also, but not so as to incapacitate him. Generals Ferey, Desgraviers, and Thomieres were killed.

At break of day, the pursuit was renewed with the same troops, and with Major-General Bock and Anson’s brigades, which had joined them during the night. The first and light divisions were ordered to the ford of Huerta, Lord Wellington having supposed that the enemy must make their passage there, because the castle at Alba de Tormes was occupied by the Spaniards; but the troops who garrisoned it had, without his knowledge, been withdrawn, so that Clausel, making a most rapid march during the night, crossed the river there without molestation. Having crossed in pursuit, the cavalry came up with the enemy’s rear-guard of horse and foot between Garci Hernandez and Peñarandilla: a detachment from the 11th and 16th dragoons charged their cavalry, which fled, and left the infantry to their fate. Major-General Bock, then, with the heavy brigade of the King’s German legion, attacked them, when posted upon a hill in square, and in what is described as one of the finest charges that was ever seen, rode completely through them. The whole body, consisting of three battalions, were made prisoners, the brigade losing in the charge 30 killed and nearly 50 wounded. In the course of the day, the enemy were joined by 1200 cavalry belonging to the army of the north, who, though too late to be of any greater service, covered the retreat of their centre to Peñaranda de Bracamonte: one column went by Macotora; the other which had crossed the Tormes at Encina and Huerta moved on El Campo and Cebolla. They had their head-quarters at Flores de Avila, ten leagues from the field of battle, for a few hours on the second night, and hastened from thence by Arevalo, towards Valladolid. Their dead were found in many places by the road-side, and their stragglers met with as little mercy from the peasantry as they had been accustomed to show; yet many of their rear-guard were taken without arms, having thrown them away as impediments in their flight.

The pursuit was continued on the 24th; but the enemy made exceedingly long marches, and had little to encumber them while hastening to their resources both in men and means, and the pursuers having to bring up their supplies far from behind could not keep up an equal pace. On that day they only came up with the rear-guard, which hastened away at their approach. On the following the advance halted for the army to close up; Colonel Arentschild’s brigade entered Arevalo; and a non-commissioned officer’s patrol captured two officers and 27 men of Joseph’s own cavalry, in Blasco Sancho, between Arevalo and Avila. The Intruder had reached that place, hastening with the army of the centre to join Marmont upon the Tormes; he was met there with tidings of the defeat, and then turned towards Segovia, as if retreating upon Madrid: soon however receiving fuller advices, he endeavoured to divert the pursuers by threatening an advance upon their flank. The routed army, meantime, whose movements were conducted with great ability by Clausel, concentrated themselves on the right bank of the Douro, between Puente de Duero and the other bridge at Tudela de Duero; they crossed the river as soon as the allies advanced towards them, hastened to Valladolid, and making no tarriance there, continued their retreat to Burgos. Lord Wellington entered Valladolid on the 30th amid the acclamations of the people. There he discontinued the pursuit, and prepared to march against the Intruder, with the intention of either bringing him to action, or driving him from Madrid.

♦Proceedings of Sir Home Popham on the coast of Biscay.♦

Meantime, a squadron under Sir Home Popham which sailed from Coruña, to co-operate with the Guerrillas, and occupy the enemy upon the side of Biscay, rendered all the service which had been expected from it. Sir Howard Douglas and General Carrol embarked in the Venerable with Sir Home. They arrived off Lequeitio on the 18th of June, where the French had possession of a hill-fort, commanding the town, and strong enough to resist any body of infantry; they had also 200 men fortified in a convent within the town, and into this the garrison retired when the Pastor D. Gaspar Jauregui arrived with his party to act in concert with the squadron. The convent might have been destroyed by the ships, but the town must in that case have suffered also; it was determined, therefore, to attack the fort, which was so situated that the enemy thought it quite inaccessible to cannon. They knew not what British seamen are capable of on shore. At a time when the sea broke with such violence against the rocks at the foot of the hill, that it was doubtful whether a boat could reach the land, Lieutenant Groves succeeded in landing a gun there. It was hove up for a short distance by a moveable capstan; but this was too tedious an operation, and it was dragged to the summit by six and thirty pair of oxen, 400 of the Pastor’s men, and 100 seamen, headed by the Honourable Captain Bouverie. It was immediately mounted; the first shot was fired at four in the afternoon, and so well was it served, that by sunset a practicable breach was made. The Guerrillas volunteered to storm; they were repulsed in the first attempt, but succeeded in the second, and such of the enemy as escaped on the opposite side got into the convent. In the course of the evening the sea had abated, a landing was effected upon the island of S. Nicholas, from whence the convent could be battered without damage to the town; three carronades were planted there; at dawn, a 24-pounder was brought to the east side of the town, within 200 yards of the convent, and another was in the act of being landed upon the island to bombard it, when the French commandant beat a parley, and surrendered with 290 men. The Guerrillas had lost 50 in killed and wounded, not a man belonging to the squadron was hurt. The muskets, stores, and three small guns, which were found there were given to the Pastor. Two 18-pounders in the fort were rendered useless; the fort itself was demolished and the convent blown up. The next morning a column of 1100 men were seen which had arrived within two leagues of Lequeitio, but hearing from the peasantry that the English had disembarked 2000 men, they retired. Some intercepted letters were now transmitted to Sir Home, by which the commandant at Guernica was instructed to prepare rations for a French general and 2600 of the Imperial Guards.

The squadron was now to have co-operated in an attack upon Bilbao, but the wind proved unfavourable for getting round Cape Machichago, and part of the ships fetched the anchorage of Bermeo. The enemy had retired from that place, leaving a small magazine of provisions ♦June 23.♦ in a fortified convent; these were distributed to the poor; and the battery on the hill and all the fortified places which the French had occupied were destroyed: the works at Plencia were in like manner demolished, and the batteries on each side of the ♦June 24.♦ inlet below the bar of the Ybeyzabal, or Narrow River, the beautiful and tranquil stream which forms the port of Bilbao: on one side were the castle of Galea, and the batteries of Algorta and Begona; on the other the batteries of El Campillo, Las Quersas and Xebiles. Early on the following morning some parties of the enemy entered the destroyed batteries of Algorta, but retired upon the squadron’s making a disposition to stand up the inlet; they then formed in the plain, and were found to consist of 2000 men at Algorta, while 400 were sent to Puerta Galetta. Three of the British sloops closed with the fort there, silenced it, and drove them from thence. It was supposed that this was the corps for which rations had been ordered at Guernica, and that it had been thus drawn off from its original destination.

♦July 2.♦

The squadron then made for Guetaria; two companies of marines were landed for the purpose of reconnoitring the place, previous to an intended attack, but the Guerrillas who were expected to co-operate were engaged with the enemy in a different quarter; parties of the French were seen crossing the hills; the intention, therefore, was relinquished, ♦July 6.♦ and the marines re-embarked without loss. Sir Home then sailed for Castro, where Sir George Collier had landed a company of marines to assist Longa in a concerted attack. Longa was there at the time and place appointed; more marines were landed, and guns with hearty exertions of well-directed skill were drawn up heights that might have seemed inaccessible to men less earnest in their duty. They were placing them in a battery to the east of the town, when 2500 of the enemy appeared on the heights of S. Pelayo; the parties upon this were re-embarked, and Longa found it necessary to change his ground, after which he sustained an action, in which no advantage was gained over him. Somewhat disheartened by this, the French marched into the town that evening, and were driven out of it on the morrow by the fire of the squadron: they then took post on the hills, and under favour of the night retired towards Laredo. The castle then surrendered with 150 men, and having been put in a state of defence, was garrisoned by ♦July 10.
July 11.♦ the marines and Spanish artillerymen of the Iris. Their next attempt was a combined attack upon Puerta Galleta, which was abandoned because the enemy were found to be in greater strength than had been expected; the French on their part failed equally in endeavouring to recover Castro. Their moveable column had now been drawn by a feint to Santona; from thence it could not reach Guetaria in less than four days; another attempt therefore was made upon that place in concert with the Pastor, and with one of Mina’s battalions. The latter, after two days’ severe march, did not arrive till it was too late; for when the enemy’s guns on one side had been silenced, ♦July 19.♦ and a battery was ready to open upon them on the other, intelligence was received that a considerable body of French troops was hastening thither by forced marches. The Guerrillas maintained a brave action against them, till the superiority of the enemy’s numbers was ascertained, and made it necessary for them to retreat; but this action prevented the re-embarkation of the British in time, so that two guns were in consequence destroyed, and 32 men made prisoners.

These operations of Sir Home Popham’s squadron were of service in many ways. Troops were thus occupied who would otherwise have joined Marmont before the battle of Salamanca; the corps which relieved Guetaria was recalled from that direction, and Caffarelli was prevented from sending the infantry who were to have assisted in driving the English into the Tagus. The ports which were liberated lost no time in conveying supplies to the free parts of the kingdom, and vessels from them arrived daily at Coruña laden with corn and wine. And the Guerrillas, as well as the regular troops of Spain, received a countenance and support which enabled them to hold towards the enemy the language of confident hope. Renovales, who was Commandant-General in Biscay, addressed a letter to the French Governor of Bilbao, General Roquet, remonstrating against the cruelties which General Mouton had committed with his column: “for the security of a fortress,” he said, “or to prevent an insurrection, the rules of military precaution might render it proper to put some few persons of respectability in confinement, but that cottages and private dwellings should be outraged, and that peaceable persons should be tortured by stripes, by the bayonet, and by fire, was what no laws of war could justify. The Spaniards were a people who might be softened by generosity though not subdued by it; but if this system of terror were persisted in towards them, ... if it were still to be war at the knife’s point, the Biscayans, instead of yielding a foot to him, would meet him half way in such warfare. Four and twenty officers were in his hands, and should suffer for the next act of cruelty on the part of the French. He concluded by assuring Roquet that the day was not far distant when Bilbao would be delivered, and that he, Renovales, would then, at the head of 10,000 Biscayans, fulfil his duty as he had hitherto done, and first of all towards himself.

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CHAPTER XLII.
LORD WELLINGTON ENTERS MADRID. THE FRENCH RETIRE FROM ANDALUSIA. SIEGE OF BURGOS, AND RETREAT OF THE ALLIES.

♦July, 1812.♦

Buonaparte could keep the French people ignorant of the course which events had taken in Portugal and Spain; but even the vigilance of his military tyranny could not prevent the Spaniards from knowing that the allies, having driven out the French from the one kingdom, had entered the other, and had recovered the two strong places of Ciudad Rodrigo and ♦Appeal of the Intruder to the Spaniards.♦ Badajoz. Fresh appeals were made by the Intrusive Government to the fears and jealousies of a people whom they had now began to apprehend it would be found impossible to subdue. “What would it avail them,” it was asked, “if they were to set up Infantado, or the Empecinado, or Ballasteros, or any other of their countrymen for king? Wherefore should they persist in an obstinate and unavailing resistance after the Bourbon dynasty had been extinguished by that great man whom Providence had appointed to regenerate Spain, and who for their happiness had selected Joseph to reign over them? Why did they not rally round his throne?” The Spaniards only ridiculed such appeals; and the French themselves, in derision, called Joseph King of the Highways, as one whose authority extended no farther than his patrols and armies could enforce it. His was indeed a miserable condition; the brother, of whose wicked will he had, in despite of his own understanding and heart, consented to become the instrument, regarded him with displeasure, because he had met with a resistance which was not to be overcome; the nation upon which he had been insolently intruded, regarded him with deeper hatred than perhaps had ever before been co-existent with the feeling of sincere contempt; the army by which alone he was scarcely supported despised him, and the French generals kept up towards him a semblance of respect.

♦State of Madrid.♦

But odious as the usurpation was everywhere, it was rendered peculiarly so at Madrid, by the presence of the Intruder and of his ministers. Being the seat of the Intrusive Government, more of those traitors were collected there who had made the miseries of their country a means for their own advancement; and as the commanders in other parts cared little for the necessities of the court, heavier imposts were exacted from the inhabitants, at the very time when a remission of taxes was announced in edicts, which, if intended to be executed, were never carried into effect. The duties payable upon the entrance and exit of wheat, rice, and pulse of every kind, were repealed by a decree, but continued to be exacted as before, and at the same time, new duties were imposed upon wine, oil, meat and vegetables. A loan of 20 million reales was soon exhausted, a contribution of eight millions was then demanded from the trading part of the people; and an equivalent proportion was taken in kind from the occupiers of land. Eight per cent. upon the value of houses were first required, then ten, and then fifteen; the poorest artisan was compelled to take out an annual license for the exercise of his calling; even the water carriers were subjected to this tax. Having collected a great quantity of grain, the Government sold it at a price more suited to its own wants than to the condition of the people: the hospitals were crowded with sick and starving poor; and of the persons who died during the first six months of this year, two-thirds perished in consequence of misery and want. Patient endurance was all that the people of Madrid could oppose to their oppressors; but they lived in firm belief that the day of deliverance would come, believed every rumour of success on the part of their countrymen and their allies, and with the same determined will, discredited whatever was related of their reverses. They looked upon the account of Ballasteros’s defeat at Bornos as so much exaggerated that it was unworthy of belief; and with more reasonable incredulity when it was reported that Marmont had totally defeated the allies and taken 20,000 prisoners, while the French and their partisans congratulated each other upon the news, they required dates and details, and assured themselves that it was nothing more than one of the enemy’s customary falsehoods.

♦Measures of Joseph before the battle of Salamanca.♦

Indeed, before the battle of Salamanca, it was made sufficiently apparent by circumstances which the French were unable to conceal, that however confidently they might expect some great success, they had as yet obtained none. The garrison at the Puerto de Miravete, which had been relieved after the destruction of the bridge at Almaraz, was withdrawn now, the Puente del Arzobispo was abandoned, and they withdrew also from Talavera, which was immediately entered by the Medico. Most of their garrisons at the same time withdrew from La Mancha, and they were followed by those miserable people, who, having accepted offices, whether high or low, under the Intrusive Government, dared not remain without French protection in any place where they were known. Exertions were made for fortifying Toledo; and in the works which were carried on for the same purpose at the Retiro, the people of Madrid saw unequivocal proof, that the French apprehended at least the possibility of an advance of the allies upon the capital. To prevent that danger, they had thus collected their forces from all quarters, thinking then to attack Lord Wellington with such superior numbers as would render success certain: but Joseph and M. Jourdan were too slow in moving from Madrid, and meantime Marmont had been too confident of his strength and of his skill. If he had delayed his passage of the Tormes only for two days, till the army of the centre should have joined, the enemy persuaded themselves that Lord Wellington could not have escaped from utter defeat, and that that victory would have secured the entire conquest of Spain.

♦Advance of the allies.♦

The event could not be kept secret at Madrid; every one knew what no one dared publish; and while false intelligence was sedulously spread abroad by the Intrusive Government, and the police was more than ordinarily active in arresting suspected persons, every one congratulated his friends and neighbours upon a victory the extent of which was magnified in proportion to their hopes. They entertained no doubt but that Marmont had been killed, and his whole army destroyed. Lord Wellington moved from Cuellar on the 6th of August, leaving General Clinton’s division there, and General Anson’s brigade of cavalry to observe the line of the Douro. He arrived at Segovia on the 7th, and at S. Ildefonso on the 8th, the beautiful summer retreat of the kings of Spain: there he halted one day that the right of the army might have time to come up. The passage of the Guadarama mountains was effected without opposition. Brigadier-General d’Urban, with the Portugueze cavalry, the first light battalion of the German Legion, and Captain M’Donald’s troop of horse artillery, drove in on the morning of the 16th, about 2000 French cavalry; they moved toward Naval Carnero, and returned from thence in the evening with the Intruder himself, to make a reconnoissance. D’Urban formed the ♦August.Affair at Majalahonda.♦ Portugueze cavalry in front of Majalahonda, and ordered them to charge the enemy’s leading squadrons, which seemed too far advanced. The Portugueze pushed on, but unexpectedly disgraced themselves; their officers set them a brave example, but in vain, and the Visconde de Barbacena, who behaved remarkably well, was taken prisoner; the men turned about shamefully, fled through the village, and left the guns behind them which had been moved forward for their support. M’Donald’s troop exerted themselves to bring them off, but owing to the rough ground, one carriage was broken, two were overturned, and thus the three fell into the enemy’s hands. The German dragoons who had been formed behind the village rallied the fugitives, charged the enemy, and stopped their progress, but suffered considerable loss. In this affair, about 200 men were killed, wounded, or taken, and 120 horses. The left of the allied army being not three miles distant, two brigades of horse and foot moved forward to support the troops in advance; the French retired as soon as they saw them, and withdrew during the night, leaving the guns. The piquets of the allies took post that evening on the mountains, in sight of Madrid.

♦The enemy retire from Madrid.♦

The enemy, who from Madrid had been looking through telescopes toward the passes of the Guadarama, had seen D’Urban’s detachment on the evening of the 9th. Orders were then given and revoked by the resident members of the Government, with the precipitation of fear: it was determined to abandon the capital on the following morning, and the adherents of the Intruder prepared in all haste for their departure; some selling their goods for any price that could be obtained for them, others, intrusting them to the care of their friends, and not a few soliciting the compassion of those who had been found faithful to their country. The families of these unhappy men were objects of compassion even to the populace, notwithstanding the indignation which was felt at the men themselves, who bitterly repented now, not so much their guilt as their short-sightedness in supposing that they had taken the stronger side. The troops under whose protection they retired would have saved them from any outrage or insult if any had been intended; but they had not proceeded far from the gates before many of them were plundered by these protectors. Two of Joseph’s ministers entered Madrid with a strong escort the next day, for the supposed purpose of destroying papers, and securing effects which could not be carried away in the hurry of the removal. They retired in the evening, and on the morning of the 12th all the troops who remained shut themselves up in the Retiro. The shops which, during the two preceding days, had been closed were then opened, and Madrid became a scene of such joy as had never been witnessed ♦The allies enter.♦ in the days of its proudest prosperity. Soon after middle day the allies began to enter through streets so crowded with gratulating multitudes, that the officers who were on horseback at the head of their men, could scarcely make their way, and scarcely keep their seats, so eagerly did the Spaniards press to shake hands with them, as if nothing but an English mode of greeting could make their exultation and their hearty welcome sufficiently intelligible.

♦The new constitution proclaimed.♦

Madrid had lost more than two-thirds of its inhabitants since its occupation by the French, but an influx of people from all the surrounding country now filled it as if there had been no depopulation; and amid this multitude, on the following day, the new constitution was proclaimed by D. Carlos de España, who was appointed governor of the capital and province, ... a charge for which no one could be better qualified by clearness of judgment, and promptitude in executing what he saw to be right. Their acclamations were hushed as soon as they knew what they were called upon to hear; and the deep silence with which they listened to the constitutional act was interrupted only by the enemy’s cannon from the Retiro, which seemed rather like a salute in honour of the ceremony, than an enemy’s artillery employed in defence of their last hold in the capital. The act was received with exultant delight; young minds and generous ones, whose natural ardour enabled them to believe what they eagerly desired, persuaded themselves that the Spaniards had now established their freedom as well as achieved their independence; the happy days of Athens and of Sparta, they said, seemed to be restored; and the people of Madrid already appeared like a nation accustomed to liberty, and to deliberate concerning their own interests.

♦The Buen Retiro.♦

On that evening Lord Wellington invested the Retiro, where Marshal Jourdan, with little prudence, had left a garrison of 1700 men. At the eastern extremity of Madrid, Philip II. had a small palace, or rather house of retreat, pleasantly situated by the Prado or public walk, on a rising ground, and immediately adjoining the convent of S. Geronimo. Philip IV. took a fancy to the site; and Olivares, whose chief object seemed to be that of amusing his royal master at whatever cost, purchased adjacent land enough for a large palace, with its gardens and a park four miles in circuit; and such enormous sums were lavished upon the edifice and the grounds, that the additional imposts which were required for this expenditure, or artfully, perhaps, imputed to it, were one of the causes which provoked the revolt in Catalonia, and occasioned the separation of Portugal from the Spanish monarchy. The palace contained a theatre, spacious itself, and opening into the gardens, which might thus be made upon occasion a continuation of the scene; in this theatre the master-pieces of the Spanish drama were represented before a court who delighted in dramatic literature; and Ferdinand VI. gratified his dear Queen Barbara’s hereditary love of music, with Italian operas, performed under Farinelli’s direction. Formerly the Buen Retiro contained a large collection of pictures by the greatest masters of Italy, Spain, and the Low Countries; many of these were transferred to other palaces when this began to be neglected, and the French had now made spoil of the rest. But there were ceilings painted by Luca Jordano, which were not removable; and in a compartment of that in the great saloon, Spain was pictured, ruling the terrestrial globe, ... a dream of ambition which her kings of the Austrian line had entertained, which the craftiest as well as the wildest heads among the Romish clergy encouraged, and which many circumstances seemed to concur in favouring, when, under the blessing of Providence, the Dutch, by their patriotic and religious virtue, averted that evil from the world. Two other noted works of art were still to be seen in the Buen Retiro; one, remarkable for its design, was a bronze statue of Charles V. trampling upon the Spirit of Reformation which lay, personified as Heresy in chains, at his feet; the other, which for the surpassing skill of the sculptor was even more remarkable, was an equestrian statue of Philip IV. cast by Pietro Tacca of Florence, weighing, it is said, not less than nine tons, and yet supported only by the hind legs, the horse being in the act of galloping. Within the precincts of the palace were many pavilions which used to be assigned to the courtiers when the court resided there. The gardens were of that formal style in which art allows as little as possible of nature to be seen, ... where water is brought at great expense to spout from fountains and fill circular fish-ponds, the gardener exercises his topiary genius upon trees and shrubs, and humble evergreens are compelled to grow in fantastic patterns, like a vegetable carpet. The park was a thick wood, with broad avenues, a central pond having a pavilion in its centre, and a large piece of water at its termination, on which gilded gondolas awaited the king’s pleasure when he was disposed to take the diversion of fishing, his retinue beholding the sport from the little pavilions which decorated its sides. Like all the other palaces of the kings of Spain, the Buen Retiro was a place in which a meditative beholder was forcibly reminded of the vanity of human greatness. Those kings, above all other European sovereigns, had been loved and reverenced by their people; their palaces were among the wonders of the modern world, and no expenditure, no efforts of ingenuity and art had been spared in embellishing their summer retreats: but these things had been grievously compensated, not alone by the never-ending anxieties of state, and the gloom of disappointed ambition, but by a more than ordinary share of the afflictions incident to human nature, coming upon themselves or their families, ... maladies of body and of mind alike incurable and painful; ... madness, fatuity, weak intellects, ... conscious of their weakness, and of the awful responsibility in which their birth had placed them, ... morbid consciences, and broken hearts.

After the accession of Charles III. the Retiro ceased to be a royal residence, and part of its buildings were converted into a royal manufactory of porcelain. Its park, however, continued to be a fashionable promenade, the more agreeable, because carriages were not allowed to enter; but the French had now made it a depôt for their artillery stores, the victims whom they arrested for political offences were confined there, and they had fortified it as a military post, but with less judgment than their engineers had displayed on any other occasion. ♦Surrender of the Retiro.♦ The outer line was formed by the palace, the museum, and the park wall, with flèches thrown out in part to flank it; the second was a bastioned line of nine large fronts, but with no outworks except a ravelin and a lunette; the interior was an octagonal star fort, closely surrounding what had been the porcelain manufactory. The garrison was far too small for the outer enceintes, and Marshal Jourdan had therefore left written orders, that if they were seriously attacked, they should confine their defence to the star fort, which, however, itself would be rendered nearly indefensible if the manufactory were destroyed. A copy of this order was found, and on the night of the 13th, Major-General Pakenham drove in their posts from the Prado and the botanical garden, made them retire from the outer enceintes, broke through the wall in many places, ♦August 14.♦ and established his troops in the palace. In the morning arrangements were made for driving them from the bastioned lines, and for battering the manufactory; but the governor saw that resistance was useless, and he surrendered. The number of prisoners taken there and in the hospital amounted to 2500, and there fell into the hands of the allies 189 pieces of cannon, and above 20,000 stand of arms, with a great quantity of ammunition and stores of all kinds. The eagles also of the 13th and 51st regiments were found there, and sent to England.

♦The constitution sworn to.♦

The inhabitants of Madrid, who looked upon this strong hold of their oppressors as a Bastille, were desirous of thronging thither to see the place where so many of their countrymen had been sacrificed; but this was not permitted, both the British commander and the Spanish authorities seeking as much as possible to prevent any thing which might excite the vindictive feelings of the people. That same day, the churches in every parish were opened for administering the oath of fidelity to the new constitution; and multitudes crowding thither with an eagerness which might well have excited apprehension of its stability, swore to they knew not what. Napoleon, it was said, had promised to regenerate them, and they were regenerated; for through his means, who had intended nothing less, the Spaniard had been converted from a slave to a citizen; the superstitious had thrown off his prejudices, the coward his fears, the credulous his credulity; the idle had become industrious, the selfish man generous, and the reckless one had learned to think. While those who knew little of history and less of human nature exulted thus in the persuasion, that the habits of a whole people might be changed as lightly as an inconsiderate man changes his opinion, and that inveterate evils may suddenly be cured by legislation as if by miracle, and leave no scar behind; the general joy was kept up by fast following tidings from all parts of successes, which, though little more than the necessary consequences in most instances of the battle of Salamanca and the occupation of Madrid, were considered each by the multitude as an important achievement in itself. On the same day that the Retiro was surrendered, the French withdrew from Toledo to join the army of the centre, with which the Intruder was retreating towards Valencia: they destroyed their artillery, and all the ammunition which they could not carry; and hardly had they left the city before the Abuelo’s party entered, and the bells rung, and the squares and streets were illuminated. ♦August 16.♦ Guadalaxara was attacked by the Empecinado, and after a vain resistance, above 700 French were made prisoners there. The enemy retired from Logroño, and Duran hastened thither and destroyed its outer fortifications, its fort, and its inquisition. A detachment was sent from Zaragoza to bring away the garrisons from Tarrazona and Borja, and destroy the works there.

♦Gen. Foy’s movement.♦

General Foy, with 6000 infantry and 1200 horse, part of Marmont’s army, now under his command, moved from the neighbourhood of Valladolid with the intent of raising the blockade of Toro and Zamora, and the siege of Astorga. The garrison at Tordesillas, consisting of 250 men, had previously surrendered to ♦August 17.♦ Santocildes. The Spaniards retired from before Toro at their approach, in good order and with little loss; the enemy bringing off their garrison, were then joined by another body of equal force, and proceeded towards Astorga; 300 of their cavalry were sent forward to that city, but when they entered it they found that the Spaniards had withdrawn, and had marched the garrison, consisting of 1200 men, prisoners towards Coruña: for Castaños knowing that a force was advancing which his army was in no condition to meet, had successfully employed the easy artifice of representing to ♦August 18.♦ the commander that relief was impossible, and resistance hopeless, and thus he had induced him to ♦August 21.♦ surrender. Foy was at Baneza, half way between Benevente and Astorga, when he received this mortifying intelligence; he then turned back to the Ezla, and marched upon Carvajales, thinking to surprise the Conde de Amarante, who with the militia of Tras-os-Montes, then serving voluntarily beyond their own frontier, was blockading Zamora; the Conde retreated ♦August 29.♦ without loss, and the French general bringing off the garrison marched for Tordesillas.

Some of the traitors who had made themselves conspicuous in the Intruder’s service, fell into the hands of ♦Measures of police at Madrid.♦ their countrymen at Guadalaxara; others who were conscious that they had been weak rather than wicked, and that in submitting to him for their own good, they had not aggravated the crime by injuring those who had persisted in their duty, presented themselves voluntarily to the newly constituted authorities in Madrid, thinking it better to take the chance of mercy, than to fly they knew not whither, without resources, without friends, and without the consolation which those who act righteously find in their own hearts. There were writers on this occasion who cried for vengeance in a most ferocious spirit. They called upon the people of Madrid to prepare graves for their guilty countrymen who had thus presented themselves at the foot of the gallows! They advised them to go to the governor, and with one voice require justice upon these wretches, as what the nation was entitled to demand; ... the sword for some, chains for others, and strict confinement till the conclusion of the war for those who were suspected, and who, if they were left at large, might act as secret agents for the French. This atrocious language failed of its intended effect, for the presence of the allied troops maintained order; and a vigilant police had been established, not for the oppression of the people, but for their security.

No needless severity was used. D. Carlos d’España made known by an edict, that persons of both sexes in that capital carried on a correspondence with those unhappy Spaniards who had followed the French, and that in this manner they supplied the enemy with intelligence; all such communication, therefore, was prohibited to all persons, on pain of being brought before a council of war, and condemned irremissibly to suffer the punishment appointed for spies. The families of the fugitives, and of those who had enriched themselves by the purchase of what the Intrusive Government called national goods, were ordered to remain in their houses under the word of three respectable sureties, and not to leave them except for the purpose of attending their religious duties; but their wives and daughters were advised to retire into a convent, as the course which consisted best with their own honour, and with that of their husbands and fathers, for whom they might there offer up their prayers, supplicating Providence to bring them in its mercy back to the path of duty which they had forsaken.

How to deal with the juramentados, as those Spaniards were called who had entered into Joseph’s armies, was a question which now became of great importance. Hitherto it had been possible to execute the rigour of the law, and put to death those who were taken in arms against their country; but the tide having now turned, it might reasonably be expected that they would eagerly desert a cause in which they had never heartily engaged; and the policy of thus recruiting the Spanish army, instead of driving these men to despair, was so evident, that Alava, immediately on the occupation of Madrid, issued a proclamation, as commissary for the Government, inviting them to accept the free pardon which the Cortes had offered them on the publication of the new constitution. Great numbers in consequence came over. Another measure of the Intrusive Government, which was not less obvious and dangerous in its possible results, than the scheme of raising a Spanish force to be employed in the subjugation of Spain, was that of selling or otherwise disposing of confiscated houses and lands, and thus binding the new possessors to their allegiance by the only tie which they would not be likely under any circumstances to break. They had contrived thus to connect with the French interest many who would have been unwilling or unable to purchase property of this description; for under pretext of embellishing the capital, they pulled down about a fourth of it, and by way of compensating the owners of the demolished dwellings, assigned among them in exchange the houses of those who adhered to the national cause. This policy the Cortes met by a timely decree, declaring all purchases of confiscated estates null, and empowering the rightful owners to enter upon them whenever the fortune of war should permit, and authorising them to exact from the intrusive proprietors the mean profits, and the amount of any waste which they might have committed.

♦Lord Wellington’s situation.♦

Lord Wellington was now enjoying the highest reward which can fall to the lot of a successful commander. He was living in a palace, the most magnificent in Europe, from which he had driven an Usurper; and the blessings of the people accompanied him wherever he went. The municipal authorities gave a bull-fight in his honour, and when he appeared in the royal box, the air rung with the repeated shouts of not less than 12,000 spectators. He could not walk abroad by daylight because of the pressure of the multitudes who gathered round him; even in the dark when he went into the Prado, though he and his suite were dressed in blue great coats in hopes of escaping notice, they were generally recognized and followed by crowds, the women pressing to shake hands, and some even to embrace them. Welcomed as he was with overflowing joy by a grateful people as their deliverer, his satisfaction would have been complete, if the same difficulties with which he had struggled since the commencement of the war had not still impeded his plans; for he was still embarrassed by the want of adequate means, and disappointed in his hopes of co-operation. He was without money. The United States of America had declared war against Great Britain, with no just cause, nor even plausible pretext for hostilities. Lord Wellington received the news of this declaration immediately after the battle of Salamanca. The troops in Portugal depended in great measure for corn upon the importation from America to that country; and he deemed it necessary, without delay, to make large purchases at Lisbon, that the subsistence of the army might not be endangered. But this required a great expenditure, the effect of which was now severely felt, for no pecuniary resources were to be found in Madrid. The inhabitants fed the garrison, and the produce of the sequestered ♦Col. Jones’s account of the war, 2. 122.♦ and crown lands was readily given up to the allies, on promise of future payment; but when money was required for the military chest, a few thousand dollars were all that could be procured upon the most unquestionable security, and of this sum much was in base coin.

♦Anglo-Sicilian army.♦

Lord Wellington had counted with as much confidence as he ever allowed himself to place upon arrangements which were not wholly under his own control, on the promised co-operation of an expedition to the eastern coast. The most urgent solicitations from that part of Spain for aid had long been disregarded by the British Government; and the Catalans, who of all the Spaniards made the greatest and most persevering exertions in their own defence, had been left from the commencement of the struggle until this time with no other help than occasional supplies of money and arms, scantily apportioned, and the assistance of a few ships of war. And now, when the strong fortresses, one after another had fallen, and the British Government at length resolved to withdraw part of its troops from Sicily, where the intrigues of that poor kingdom, and the expectation of chances in Italy which were little likely to occur, and of little importance if they had occurred, had unduly detained them; only 6000 men were detached from Sicily, without cavalry, and a considerable number of them consisting of such foreigners as could be enlisted in the Mediterranean. Lieutenant-General Maitland was appointed to the command, and they sailed in company with a squadron from the Mediterranean fleet under Rear-Admiral Hallowell. The common opinion was that they were destined for Corfu, because heavy artillery was embarked with them.

♦Majorcan division.♦

The Majorcan division of Spanish troops which was to co-operate with them, was supposed to be in a more efficient state than any of the Spanish armies. This division had been raised upon the suggestion of General Whittingham, Majorca being a safe place, where they might be properly trained before they were brought into the field; but the materials were not so unexceptionable as the design. Some 250 Germans who had been made prisoners with Dupont’s army, were taken from the island of Cabrera as volunteers; though, if free-will had influenced them, they would, like the Swiss, have entered the Spanish service upon the first opportunity, instead of remaining two years in that miserable place of confinement. Majorca itself supplied so few willing soldiers, that criminals who had been transported thither from Catalonia and Valencia were enlisted, ... fellows of such a description, that those who were not deemed capable of service were kept in prison: discipline, however, and equitable treatment, of which even bad men are sensible, made them better than was expected. Cuesta sent to this division all who were discharged from the hospitals; and as runaways from the routs in Valencia and Murcia could be collected or caught, they were shipped for Majorca, and incorporated in this hopeful force. No officer however was appointed without secret and strict inquiry into his character. Other difficulties, which might not so probably have been anticipated, impeded the equipment of this division. The plan was unpopular in the island, the more so, perhaps, because it was set on foot by an Englishman who was also invested with the command. Upon Cuesta’s death, the situation of affairs was critical; the authorities withheld all supplies from the troops, who were also threatened as well as insulted in pasquinades: convents had been converted into barracks for their use, and this may possibly have been one cause of offence. An agreement had been concluded with the Dey of Algiers for a supply of horses, but it was broken off for want of money, the Superior Junta of Majorca disregarding all orders from the Regency. The institution of a military academy was another cause of dislike, owing to the habits of insubordination which prevailed in Majorca, as in every other part of the Spanish dominions. By prudent conduct, however, impediments were removed, and dislike softened or overcome; the troops were clothed and armed by Great Britain, and their hospital supplied: and when the expedition from Sicily called for them at Palma, 4500 men embarked, in a state of efficient discipline.

♦July 24.The expedition arrives on the coast of Catalonia.♦

The fleet made for the eastern coast of Spain, and on the first of August anchored in the bay of Blanes, at the mouth of the Tordera. The enemy occupied Tosa, and had a redoubt there which covered the town and protected the coast. On that and the following day demonstrations of landing were made; but upon an interview with Eroles, it was found that any such measure would be worse than useless, with so inadequate a force. That able Spaniard saw that it was better for the Catalans to be left as they had so long been to their own exertions, than to give the French an opportunity of bringing superior numbers against a British expedition: and it was agreed that the best service which such a force could then perform was to secure the city of Alicante, at that time endangered in consequence of a defeat which Joseph O’Donell ♦Defeat of the Spaniards at Castalla. June 21.♦ had suffered in its vicinity. He had endeavoured to drive the vanguard of Marshal Suchet’s army, under General Harispe, back upon the Xucar, from the line which it occupied at Castalla and Ibi, and other points of the mountainous country; but as usual, when the Spaniards were brought forward in regular war, against well-disciplined and well-commanded troops, some of the officers either misunderstood their orders or executed them ill, and some of the men losing courage as soon as they lost hope, threw into confusion those who were braver than themselves; their loss amounted to 4000 men, being little less than the whole number which they attacked, and they left more than 10,000 muskets in their flight. Suchet, who was the most enterprising and successful of all the French generals in Spain, would have taken advantage of this shameful defeat, and endeavoured to obtain possession of Alicante, if the force at his disposal ♦August.♦ had not been greatly diminished. Buonaparte had withdrawn all the Poles in his service from the peninsular, for the Russian campaign; and this deprived him of six thousand of his best troops, at a time when his army was otherwise greatly weakened by sending succours to Caffarelli in Navarre, and by the increased exertions which it was necessary to make against Duran and the Empecinado, Villacampa and Bassecourt. Before the battle of Salamanca the Intruder, in his dreams of triumph, informed Suchet that he must prepare for marching towards Madrid, and then accompanying him to the Tagus; and he ordered him to form a camp of 8000 men between Albaceyte and San Clemente; such a force it was impossible for him to spare; he could not venture to weaken himself further than by detaching 1500 men to Requeña and Cuenca, to relieve General Darmagnac, and he represented to Joseph that he could not move for Madrid with one of his divisions, unless he received orders to evacuate Valencia. The last orders from Paris were to direct all his efforts to the preservation of the countries under his command, and to keep his force concentrated. General Maitland knew less of Marshal Suchet’s actual strength than of his relative superiority to any force that could be brought against him; the best course, therefore, seemed to be that upon which he resolved; to secure the important fortress and port of Alicante, both as a place of arms from whence future operations might be undertaken, and as a rallying point for the wreck of Joseph O’Donell’s army. Thither ♦The expedition lands at Alicante.♦ accordingly the Anglo-Sicilian expedition sailed: contrary winds and bad weather retarded it some days upon the passage, but on the evening of August the 9th they anchored in the harbour, and on the following day the troops were landed.

The French who were in sight of the fortress retired upon this, and formed their line in Chichona, Ibi, Castalla, Biar, and Villena. But Suchet saw that this position would not be tenable against General Maitland’s corps; ♦The French fall back to the Xucar.♦ he concentred his divisions, therefore, about St. Philippe; fixed his head-quarters in that city; threw up field-works there, and upon the high road from Valencia to Madrid; and constructed a bridge of boats over the Xucar, near Alberique, which he secured with a tête-du-pont. His intention was not to fall back without fighting, provided the allies should attack him only in front, and were not too greatly superior in numbers. But the superiority was soon on his own side: the allies took the field on the 14th, and occupied the country from which the enemy retired; on the 18th they received intelligence that the Intruder with the force which he could bring together was about to join the army of Valencia, and then it became necessary for General Maitland to fall back to his position in front of Alicante.

The expedition which was to have effected a diversion in the east of Spain, was thus for the time rendered useless, not having been upon a sufficient scale to accomplish the purpose for which it was designed. Meantime the squadron on the north-east coast proceeded successfully, acting in concert with some of the ablest Guerrilla ♦The French withdraw from Santander. August 2.♦ leaders. Caffarelli found it prudent to withdraw his garrisons from Torrelavega and Santander, lest they should be made prisoners; the latter place was entered by Porlier; the constitution was proclaimed there while salutes of joy were fired by the Spanish troops and the British vessels; ♦They are driven from Bilbao.♦ and Renovales made good his word to General Rouget by driving him from Bilbao, and defeating him in an attempt at recovering it. There also the constitution was proclaimed. The Te Deum was performed in Santiagos church, and the Cid Campeador in the theatre; and all the unmarried men from the age of 17 to 45, were enrolled for Mendizabal’s army. On that side there had been no want of exertion, and no disappointment; but the Gallician army, from which more might have been looked for, considering the resources of the province, served for little more than to manifest the gross incapacity or negligence with which ♦State of the Gallician army.♦ affairs of the greatest moment were conducted: nominally it amounted to 30,000 men, and nearly that number were supposed to be mustered, paid and fed, and yet 11,000 infantry and 350 horse were all that Santocildes had under his command, and these were badly disciplined and miserably equipped.

♦The French break up the siege of Cadiz. August 20.♦

On the night of the eighth day after the entrance of the allies into Madrid, the news of that event reached Cadiz, where it excited among the inhabitants the joyful hope of being speedily delivered from the blockade: and deeper emotions in those exiles who had left their houses and families in the metropolis. On the 24th the French broke up the siege; they threw shells during the preceding night; those which were filled with lead and discharged from howitzers with a velocity of about 2000 feet per second, ♦Sir Howard Douglas’s Naval Gunnery, p. 61.♦ ranged to the astonishing distance of three miles. They burst their guns by overcharging them, placing their muzzles one against another and exploding them by means of portfires and trains; and thus almost the whole of their artillery between Chiclana and Rota, consisting of 600 pieces, were rendered unserviceable. Many, however, were left uninjured for the Spaniards to take possession of, as well as thirty gun-boats, and a great quantity of stores. The necessity of this retreat had been foreseen by Soult as soon as he was informed of the battle of Salamanca. Before that action he had been meditating another attack upon Tarifa, as a place from whence he could easily communicate with Tangiers and the Barbary coast, and thus secure supplies for feeding the army under his command. Sir Rowland Hill’s movements withdrew him from this project: and after Marmont’s defeat he prepared to abandon Seville, but to hold the Carthusian convent there, which he occupied as a citadel. Strong working parties were employed in adding to its defences, while at the same time the French packed up their public documents and their private plunder for removal. But on this occasion the Spaniards were on the alert.

♦Movement of La Cruz Mourgeon and Col. Skerrett upon Seville.♦

As early as the middle of August the enemy had blown up the Castle of Niebla, and retired from the whole county of that name; and on the very day that they broke up from before Cadiz, Camp Marshal D. Juan de la Cruz Mourgeon, in concert with Colonel Skerrett, judged it advisable to make a forward movement on Seville, and for this purpose to force the corps of observation at San Lucar la Mayor, consisting of 350 cavalry and 200 foot. Brigadier-General Downie was second in command of the Spanish force. This officer was born in Stirlingshire, and commenced his military career by accompanying Miranda in his first expedition to Venezuela, an adventure for which those foreigners who were taken in it paid the forfeit of their lives. He joined Sir J. Moore’s army as Assistant Commissary-General, was with Sir Arthur Wellesley in the campaign of 1809, and in the ensuing year, having entered the Spanish service, raised, with the approbation of his own government, the loyal legion of Extremadura and was appointed Colonel-Commandant thereof. The legion was armed and clothed by the British Government, and he revived in it the old Spanish costume, ... or something resembling it; and several of the young nobility are said to have entered it on that account. By this and by his character, which in some respects resembled their own, he made himself popular among the Spaniards; insomuch that the Marquesa de Conquista, the representative of the Pizarros, presented him with the sword of her ancestor, the famous, or infamous, conqueror of Peru.

They marched from Manzanilla with 800 men, consisting of the 1st regiment of guards, the 87th, and a Portugueze regiment, accompanied by 600 Spanish troops: the Spaniards attacked on the right, the British and Portugueze on the left: the enemy were driven through the streets, leaving some killed, wounded, and prisoners, and the allies took post at San Lucar without the loss of a man. Leaving his advance in that town, and the British and Portugueze on the right bank of the river San Lucar, the Spanish general returned to Castilleja del Campo, being the place whither the persons from whom he received intelligence directed their communications. Various and contradictory accounts were brought thither on the morning of the 26th concerning the intentions of the enemy in Seville; but in the afternoon he received positive information that Soult, with the greater part of his force, was about to move by way of Alcala upon Marchena. Arrangements were immediately made, that the troops should collect at San Lucar, and after two hours’ rest there, proceed towards Seville at three on the following morning, in the hope that by this movement they might accelerate the retreat of the French, and save Seville from being plundered. On arriving at Espartinas, they ascertained that Soult had left the city with 5000 foot and 500 horse. General Mourgeon, upon this, sending out some Guerrillas to cover his flanks, proceeded, and arrived on the heights ♦August 27.♦ of Castilleja de la Cuesta, immediately above Seville, at six in the morning. The French, occupied some olive grounds close to the village, and some forty infantry garrisoned the redoubt of Santa Brigida from which the guns had been withdrawn. They were driven from the olive grounds into the plain, where for awhile the cavalry, 100 in number, protected the retreat of the foot, some 150: but they were so pressed by the Spanish vanguard and annoyed by an English field-piece, that they took to flight, and many of the men were made prisoners. The redoubt was attacked at the same time, with more bravery than judgment, and the Spaniards sustained some loss; the columns then advanced into the plain, by which the redoubt was turned and its communication cut off: and Colonel Skerrett ordered it to be masked by a detachment of Portugueze.

♦The French driven from Seville.♦

The Spaniards then made a detour to the right, in order to reach the bridge of Triana by the road of S. Juan de Alfarache, and thus intercept the retreat of the enemy and prevent them from cutting or burning the bridge. Skerrett, meantime, advanced a field-piece to keep in check the enemy’s fire at one of the gates opposite; and after allowing time for the Spanish column to arrive, the British and Portugueze advanced to the attack in front, the cavalry and artillery at a gallop, supported by the grenadiers of the guards and the infantry following. The enemy abandoned the gate: the British and Portugueze entered the suburb, and advanced near to the bridge as rapidly as possible; they were checked at the turn of the street by a fire of grape-shot and musketry; the grenadiers advanced to their support; the Spanish cavalry under D. José Canterac, (whom Mourgeon, foreseeing the necessity, had ordered to leave the column and hasten straight through the suburb, arrived at this point of time,) and the allies, drove every thing before them. They advanced to the bridge under a heavy fire. The enemy had retired from the plain in three columns, with two pieces of artillery and 200 horse; and had taken a position with the river on their right, and their rear resting on the suburb: two guns were brought to bear on them by Captain Roberts of the artillery; they were driven from their position, and then made a stand upon the bridge, which they hoped to defend long enough to gain time for destroying it. Downie with his legion twice attempted to force a passage, and was twice repulsed, and each time wounded. In a third attempt he leaped over the chasm which the enemy had then made; and at the same moment a grape-shot shattered his cheek-bone and destroyed one of his eyes. He fell from his horse, stunned by the wound; when his recollection returned he found himself a prisoner, but in time to throw Pizarro’s sword among his own people. On their part the attack was kept up with so much spirit, aided as they now were by some guns well placed and well-worked, that the enemy could not extend the breach which they had made: and the inhabitants, even while their fire continued, set all the bells ringing, displayed hangings from their balconies as for a festival, hastened to the bridge and laid planks across the chasm, and enabled their deliverers to pass. The French then retired to the Triunfo and there again made a stand; but soon retreated through the city, and leaving it by the Puerta Nueva and the Puerta de Carmona, took the direction of Alcala. They left there two pieces of artillery, many horses, much baggage, and some two hundred prisoners. The deliverers could make no speed in pursuing them, for the streets were crowded with rejoicing multitudes, and their previous exertions as well as their want of cavalry would have made it imprudent to continue the pursuit. Downie was treated with great barbarity by his captors. Miserably wounded as he was, he was tied upon the carriage of a gun, and in that condition dragged along with them in their retreat; and this is said to have been done by General Villatte’s direction. Having taken him some forty miles, and not expecting him to survive, they left him in a hut, taking however, his parole not to serve again in case of recovery, till he should have been regularly exchanged.

By this well-timed enterprise, Seville was saved from the contribution which would have been exacted from it, and the devastation which was threatened. A division of French troops, about 7000 in number, from the blockade of Cadiz, passed by during the following night; they meant to have taken up their quarters there; but supposing that it was occupied by Sir Rowland Hill’s force, they had no inclination to encounter such an enemy, and moved hastily to their right, on Carmona. Ballasteros had hung upon their flank from Ronda, and continued to harass them till they reached Granada. From thence Soult concerted his movements with Suchet and the Intruder. Sir Rowland meantime was ordered to the Tagus with his corps, there to connect its operations with the main body of the allied army, and the British troops from Cadiz were embarked for Lisbon.

♦Rejoicings at Seville.♦

On the second day after the deliverance of Seville, the constitution was proclaimed there in the Plaza de S. Francisco with the same success as in other parts of Spain. A bull fight also was exhibited, for the twofold purpose of gratifying the people in what to the disgrace of the Spaniards was their favourite diversion, and of raising money for the troops. Among other rejoicings, the Inquisition prepared to celebrate a thanksgiving festival; but General Mourgeon intimated to them that he had no authority to re-establish them, and that they would not be suffered to appear as a corporate body. By the retreat of the French from Andalusia, a large and populous, and most productive province reverted to the legitimate government: but, though its resources were thus increased, there was little ground for hoping that they would be directed with more ability than in the early part of the struggle. There was the same generous and devoted sense of duty to their country in individuals; the same strong spirit of nationality in the great body of the people; but on the part of the government there were the same embarrassments to contend with; the same inexperience which the frequent changes in administration allowed no time for curing, and the same incapacity which no experience could cure. The ablest heads were more intent upon carrying into effect their own theories of political reformation, than of devising means to complete the deliverance of the country. The indiscretion with which they hurried on measures that the people were wholly unprepared for, provoked a strong resistance in the Cortes itself; and the obstinate bigotry of the one party was not more manifest than the presumptuous confidence, and the political intolerance of the other. A jealousy of the English prevailed even in persons whose hatred of the French could not be doubted; and in some it seemed to acquire ♦Honours rendered to Lord Wellington.♦ strength in proportion to the celebrity which Lord Wellington had obtained; the people however rendered justice to his merits, as in such cases they will always do when they are not artfully misled; the Great Lord was the appellation which they commonly gave him, and no indication was wanting of that national gratitude which he so well deserved. The Regency had conferred upon him the order of the Golden Fleece; and through their hands the Condessa de Chincon, D. Maria Teresa de Borbon, presented him with the collar of the order, which had belonged to her father the Infante D. Luiz; that it had been her father’s, she said, was the only thing which made it valuable to her; but for its intrinsic value it was a princely present.

♦St. Teresa appointed co-patroness of Spain.♦

A subject not less characteristic than curious had been brought before the Government. The barefooted Carmelites in Cadiz presented a memorial, stating that Philip III. and the Cortes of 1617, had chosen St. Teresa for patroness and advocate of Spain, under the Apostle Santiago, that the nation in all its emergencies might invoke her, and avail itself of her intercession. At that time the saint had only been beatified; but her canonization shortly afterwards took place, and then the Cortes of 1626 published the decree, which was confirmed by Pope Urban VIII., without prejudice to the rights of Santiago, St. Michael the Archangel, and the most Holy Virgin. Jealous, nevertheless, of the imprescriptible rights of their own saint, the chapter of Compostella exerted their influence at Rome with such success, that the decree was suspended against the wishes both of the King and Cortes. That wish, however, continued in the royal family; and Charles II., in a codicil to his will, declaring that he had always desired to establish the co-patronship of St. Teresa for the benefit of his kingdom, charged his successors to effect it. The Carmelites now urged that at no time could it more properly be effected than at the present, when her potent patronage was needed against invaders, who sowed the seeds of impiety wherever they carried their arms. This memorial was referred to a special ecclesiastical commission; and in conformity to the opinion of that commission the Cortes elected St. Teresa patroness and protectress, under Santiago, of those kingdoms; decreed that her patronship should forthwith take effect; enjoined all archbishops, bishops, and prelates, to see that the correspondent alterations should be made in the ritual for the saint’s day; and required the Regency to give orders for printing, publishing, and circulating this decree. The community of the barefooted Carmelites then returned thanks for this appointment of their Mother the Saint. “It was a decree,” they said, “which would fill all the natives of those kingdoms with consolation and hope, and they flattered themselves that from that moment Spain would experience the powerful intercession of its new protectress.” “My great Mother, S. Teresa de Jesus, Co-patroness of the Spains!” exclaimed the prior, in an address which was printed among the proceedings of the Cortes, “the very idea makes me eternally bless the law that sanctions it. This has been a business of much time, an affair of some ages, a work of many and mighty hands; but the glory of completing it has been reserved for the fathers of the country, for the congress of lights, for your majesty the Cortes, which has been the glorious instrument of this work of the Eternal. And it was fitting that the country of heroes should have the heroine of nations at its head, who like another mother of the Maccabees should encourage its sons to triumph and to glory. This Deborah is not less sage than she who judged Israel, not less valiant; and the Baraks who will come forward under her protection will not be intimidated by danger. She is not a Moabitess to pervert the armies of Israel. She is a Jael who will destroy the forces of Sennacherib; a Semiramis, who will overthrow the hosts of the sanguinary Cyrus. At the sight of this fortunate Esther, Spain would lift her head and conceive higher hopes. The unanimous consent of the whole nation, the vows of the Spaniards of both hemispheres, would rise to heaven, and uniting themselves at this moment with the intercessions of their great Co-patroness, form that imperious voice which commands the winds and the tempests, rules the seas, makes itself felt in the dark regions of the abyss, and ascending the eternal mountain of the Lord, puts aside the decree of extermination that threatens us, substitutes for it that of our aggrandizement and elevation, and brings a blessing upon those judicious, prudent, ♦Diario de las Cortes, t. 14. pp. 56, 94, 96, 103.♦ and sage Mordecais, whose wise resolution has been the cause of this portent.” In this language did the descendants of the Prophets who dwelt on Mount Carmel, the children of the great Teresa, offer upon the altar of gratitude the incense of their respect and veneration to the Cortes!

While one set of unbelievers promoted this act of superstition, and another condescended to it, a decree of more consequence was obtained from the Spanish Government, which had become sensible that the war must now be carried on upon one plan of operations, under the direction of a single mind, and that a mind equal to the ♦Lord Wellington appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish armies.♦ emergency had been manifested in Lord Wellington. The Cortes therefore conferred upon him the command in chief of the Spanish armies, during the co-operation of the allied forces in the defence of the peninsula; and the Marquis signified his acceptance of the charge, subject to the Prince Regent’s approbation, “the delay of obtaining which,” he said, “would not impede his operations, because, upon all occasions on which he had communicated with the Generals and Commandants of the Spanish troops, he had received from them the utmost attention, and all the assistance which they could afford him.” The Prince’s consent was not delayed; and in signifying it, his Royal Highness expressed his satisfaction in the measure, as considering it to be a just and signal proof that the Spanish nation rightly appreciated the military talents and reputation of Lord Wellington, and that the Cortes had taken a comprehensive view of the manner in which the war ought to be conducted.

♦His Situation at Madrid.♦

Lord Wellington meantime had more reason to be satisfied with the approbation of his own Government, than with the support that it afforded him. Successful as his campaign had thus far been, there had been a loss of time in it, for want of means, and that want had occasioned much to depend upon the chance of circumstances; whereas, had there been an adequate force under his command, the results would have depended as far as possible in war, upon his own sagacity, and the superiority of British troops. An additional force of 15,000 men, with which to have covered the northern frontier during the siege of Badajoz, would have enabled him to fulfil his first intention of marching upon Seville, after the fall of that fortress; the campaign might then have been commenced two months earlier, and time would have remained, after having freed the south of Spain, for operations in the centre and north. Having been compelled to abandon that intention, lest Marmont should recover Ciudad Rodrigo and overrun the north of Portugal, he had succeeded to his utmost hopes in the plan which he had of necessity adopted, not of choice. After that success, the want of adequate means left him as little choice as before. To have marched into Valencia against the collected armies of Soult, Suchet, and the Intruder, would have rendered it impossible to keep up his communications with Portugal; and except on that communication he could have no safe dependence for supplies. There was moreover the weighty consideration that the yellow fever had broken out in Murcia, and had approached so near to Alicante, that the most rigorous precautions were deemed necessary for preserving that part of the country from the contagion. But independent of all other considerations, he had neither sufficient troops to attack the united forces in the south, nor sufficient money to subsist his army beyond Madrid. Of the 70,000 dollars which he had borrowed there, he was obliged to make over half to the Portugueze, for the relief of their pressing necessities; and he had raised the loan on condition of repaying it at the expiration of a month. By acting in the north he should keep open his communication and his retreat; and in the north also the reinforcements, which after the tidings of his success he was sure would be expedited by all possible exertions, might join him before the enemy could move against him with their combined forces, from all quarters. The Intruder had with him 14,000 men, Suchet had 28,000 disposable in the field, and the army of the south, under Soult, consisted of 55,000; in all 97,000: in the north, there were the army of the north 10,000 strong, and the remains of Marmont’s army, now under Clausel, estimated at 25,000. Against this force, which had resumed its activity, it was resolved to act; and to this determination there was the farther motive, that if the Galician army were put in possession of Burgos, the castle there might enable it to make a stand upon that front, and with the assistance of a British and Portugueze corps to hold the army of Portugal in check while he should be engaged in active operations in the south. The castle would thus become a tête-de-cantonment to this corps of observation, and the French when deprived of it would not possess any strong post on the great line of communication between France and the interior of Spain, this castle commanding the only good road for artillery, and for the movement of convoys.

♦Lord Wellington moves toward Burgos.♦

Accordingly, on the 1st September, Lord Wellington departed from Madrid, leaving the two divisions which were most in need of rest in garrison there. Sir Rowland was ordered to the Xarama, so to cover the capital on that side; and Ballasteros was requested to join him, in case Soult, whose retreat from Andalusia was not yet known, should move on Madrid; otherwise to be in readiness for acting upon the Marshal’s line of march. The troops collected at Arevalo, moved from thence on the 4th, and on the 6th crossed the Douro at the fords of Herrera and ♦The French withdraw from Valladolid.♦ El Abrojo; the enemy withdrew from Valladolid at their approach, crossed the Pisuerga, blew up the centre arch of the bridge, and retired along the right bank of that river to Dueñas. Some skirmishing took place in front of that town, and the cavalry picket drove the enemy out, and established themselves there on the night of the 10th. On the following day, Lord Wellington entered Palencia, where the English as usual were received with joyful acclamations, and where the new Constitution was proclaimed. From thence he communicated with Santocildes, and there learned from him to how small a force the Galician army amounted, and how little that force could be relied on. With all Lord Wellington’s experience of Spanish co-operation, he had not expected this; knowing both the ability and good-will of Castaños, he hoped to have found the army in a state of such efficiency that he might have stationed it at Burgos in a few days, and then without loss of time have returned to Madrid, there to prepare for the contest which might be expected in that quarter. The Galician army joined at Pampaliega on the 16th; the 11,000 of whom it consisted were then separated into three divisions, and each was directed to march in rear of a British division, no doubt being entertained but that they would behave well if they were not exposed to heavy attacks of the enemy’s cavalry.

♦The allies advance to Burgos.♦

The allies now moved up the beautiful valley of the Pisuerga, from Valladolid, along the right bank of the river, to the place where it receives the Arlanzon; and then along both banks of the Arlanzon, up its valley towards Burgos. It is a tract of country in which nature seems to invite human industry, and man has not been negligent in profiting by the advantages of soil and climate and running waters. Every inch of the valley is cultivated, and the hills are on both sides covered with cornfields and vineyards. The country is as strong also in a military point of view as it is fertile; out of the high road in the valley the way is continually interrupted by rivulets and deep ditches: the hills on either side afford admirable flanks for the movements of an army, and there are heights from the river to the hills on either side for strong defensive positions. The French General was not a man to overlook this advantage, and the enemy were found on the 16th strongly posted with their left on the Arlanzon and their right on the mountains. Lord Wellington made arrangements to turn their position; but they decamped during the night, and in the morning their whole army was seen retiring in five columns along the valley, and the hills on either side. They were estimated at about 18,000 infantry and more than 2000 horse, and their line of baggage was longer and closer than men who had served in India had ever seen with an Indian army; for they had pressed all the cattle in the country, and left nothing transportable for any marauders who might follow them. Clausel entered Burgos on the evening of the 17th; Marmont and Bonnet, who were still incapacitated by their wounds, had left that city a few days before. Caffarelli came thither from Vittoria to confer with him: a council of war was held that night; at two in the morning the French commenced their retreat, and by ten o’clock they had left the city and the suburbs.

♦Burgos.♦

Fabling authors have ascribed the foundation of Burgos to an imaginary King Brygus, and mistaken antiquaries have endeavoured to identify its site with that of the one or other Augostobriga, both having been far distant. The earliest authentic accounts speak only of some scattered habitations in this well-watered part of the country, till, at the latter end of the ninth century, D. Diego Rodriguez, Count of Castile, better known in Spanish history as Diego Porcelos, erected a castle there by order of Alfonso III., and founded a frontier town under its protection, which, from the old Burgundian word for a fortress, obtained the name of Burgos. The castle was built upon a hill which commands the rich plain watered by the rivers Arlanzon, Vena, and Cardenuela: in former times it was of great strength and beauty, cresting the summit of the hill, and towering above the houses, which in those times covered the slope; but when the succession to the throne of Castile was disputed by Alfonso V. of Portugal, against Ferdinand and Isabella, in right of his wife Juana, the castle took part with that injured and most unfortunate princess, and firing upon the city, destroyed the best street, which was upon the descent: after this, the lower ground was built upon, and the castle was left standing alone upon the heights. During the sixteenth century, Burgos was the mart through which the whole interior trade with the ports in the Bay of Biscay was carried on, and from whence the Segovian cloth was sent to all parts of Europe. Its population was then from 35,000 to 40,000, exclusive of foreigners, who were many in number; it had been reduced to 8000 or 9000, the place having declined after the seat of government was fixed at Madrid. Most of the Spanish cities may be traced to much higher antiquity; many exceed it in size; but there are few which are connected with so many of those historical recollections in which the Spaniards seem above all other nations to delight. It was the birthplace of Count Ferran Gonzalez, and of the Cid Campeador; the former used to knight his warriors in St. Lorenzo’s church. A beautiful triumphal arch has been erected to his honour upon the site of the dwelling in which he was born; and his statue, with those of the two judges, Nuño Rasurez, and Layn Calvo, Diego Porcelos, the Cid, and the Emperor Charles V., adorns the gate of St. Maria, which opens upon one of the bridges.

Our Edward I. was knighted by his brother-in-law, Alfonso the Wise, in S. Maria de las Huelgas, a nunnery founded by Alfonso V. and his English Queen Leonor, within sight of the city. Its church was preferred by the Castilian kings for the performance of any remarkable ceremony, the place for which was not prescribed; three kings therefore in succession were crowned there, and it was long a place of interment for the royal family. Except that at Fulda, no other nunnery ever possessed such privileges, or was so largely endowed. The cathedral, than which there is no more elaborate or more magnificent specimen of what may be called monastic architecture, was founded in 1221, by King St. Ferdinand and the Bishop Maurice, (who is said to have been an Englishman, either by birth or blood,) about 150 years after the see of Oca had been removed thither: among the relics which were shown, there was a handkerchief of the prophet Elijah, and a lock of Abraham’s hair, and one of St. Apollonia’s innumerable teeth. Two short leagues from the city is the monastery of St. Pedro de Cardeña, a far older foundation than the cathedral; where, from the time that two hundred of its monks were massacred by the Moors the pavement used on the anniversary of their martyrdom to sweat blood, till that blood, which through so many centuries had cried for vengeance, was appeased by the final subjugation of the misbelievers. There the Cid lies and his wife Ximena: some of the French officers at the commencement of this treacherous invasion used to visit the church and spout passages from Corneille’s tragedy over their tomb. There too lie his daughters, D. Elvira and D. Sol; and his father Diego Laynez; and his kinsman Alvar Fañez Minaya, and his nephew Martin Antolinez, and Martin Pelaez, the Asturian, names which will be held in remembrance as long as chivalrous history shall be preserved. And before the gate of the monastery the Cid’s good horse Bavieca lies buried, and Gil Diaz his trusty servant, by the side of that good horse, which he had loved so well.

But of objects of antiquity or veneration, that on which the people of Burgos prided themselves most was a miraculous crucifix in the convent of St. Augustine, which a merchant of that city, on his homeward voyage from Flanders, found at sea, floating in a chest shaped like a coffin. The learned have concluded, upon a comparison of dates and circumstances, that it is the identical image which was carved by Nicodemus, and carried from Jerusalem to Berytus; where, being again nailed and pierced by unbelieving Jews in the 8th century, blood issued from its wounds, and miraculously healed both Jews and Christians of their diseases. When Berytus fell under the yoke of the Saracens, the Christians, to save it from farther profanation, coffined it thus carefully and committed it in faith to the waves. Strong, however, as the circumstantial evidence for this identity was admitted to be, many persons piously preferred believing that it was no work of human hands, but had been sent from heaven, in order that there should be on earth one perfect resemblance of our crucified Saviour. They supported this opinion by the alleged and admitted fact, that no one has ever been able to ascertain of what material the image is made: the flesh, they say, is so elastic that it yields like that of a living body to the touch, and resumes its natural rotundity when the pressure is removed; the head moves to whatever side it may be inclined, and the arms, if they are unfastened, fall like those of a corpse; and the hair, and beard, and nails, seem not as if they were carved, or fixed there, but as if they grew. Volumes have been published filled with authenticated accounts of the miracles which this crucifix has performed. Kings, nobles, and prelates, have vied with each other in enriching the chapel wherein it is placed. So many lamps have been presented, that they are said literally to have hid the vault of the chapel, covering its whole extent; and of these the meanest were of massive silver. On each side of the altar stood thirty silver candlesticks, each taller than the tallest man, and heavier than many men could lift. The candlesticks upon the altar were of massive gold; between them were gold and silver crosses, set with precious stones; and crowns rich with pearls and sparkling with diamonds were suspended over the altar. Above the altar the miraculous crucifix is placed, behind three curtains embroidered with jewellery and pearls. It was shown only to persons of great distinction, and not to them till after many ceremonies, and till they had heard two masses: bells were then rung to give notice that all who were present must fall upon their knees, while the sacred curtains were undrawn. The great captain Gonsalvo de Cordoba, when he would have ascended to inspect it closely, was overcome with sudden awe, and withdrew, saying he would not tempt the Lord. And Isabella, the Catholic Queen, for whom one of the nails which fastened the image to the cross was taken out, that she might enshrine it among her relics, fainted when she saw the arm drop; and when she came to herself, repenting of her intention, as though such piety had partaken of the sin of sacrilege, ordered the nail to be reverently replaced.... It is a relief for those whose thoughts have been long employed upon the wickedness and the sufferings of their fellow-creatures, if their attention can sometimes be drawn away by such examples of their weakness and their credulity.

♦The allies enter Burgos.♦

When the enemy withdrew from Burgos they were joined by 9000 infantry of the army of the north under General Souham, who took the command, and retiring to Briviesca halted there in a strong position. On the morning of the 18th the allies took possession of the heights to the north-west of the castle, and entered the city, where they were received with the usual acclamations. But this was no day of joy to the inhabitants: the garrison, who from their fort completely commanded both the city and the suburbs, opened a fire of musketry and grape into the principal streets, and burned the houses which were nearest them; and on the other hand the Guerrillas began to plunder, as if it were an enemy’s town of which they had taken forcible possession. Alava, by threats, by blows, and by unremitting exertions, restored order at last; and his efforts were not a little assisted by a rumour which he caused to be spread among them, that the French were returning in great force: these marauders then took to their heels, and a Spanish battalion was posted in the city, and a battalion of caçadores in the suburbs.

♦Castle of Burgos.♦

On the following day the castle was invested. One division remained on the left of the Arlanzon; part of the army forded it, and marched round the heights of St. Miguel; their advance drove the enemy from three detached flêches which they were constructing, to see into the hollows on the side of the hill, and took possession of such parts as were under cover. The remainder of the army was advanced on the high road in front of Monasterio to cover the attack. Upon reconnoitring the castle it was found much stronger than had been expected: it was a lofty building, built with the solidity of old times, flanked with small round towers, and its roof sufficiently strong to bear guns of large calibre which the French had placed upon it. The keep had been converted into a casemated battery; the lower part of the hill had been surrounded by an uncovered scarp wall of difficult access, and between these defences two lines of field-works had been constructed, thickly planted with cannon, and encircling the hill. The garrison under General Du Breton consisted of nearly 3000 men, well provided with stores of all kinds. It was apparent that approaches against them must be carried on regularly: the most sanguine entertained no hope of succeeding in less than seven or eight days; nor would that hope have been entertained if the deficiency of means had been considered, unless an undue reliance had been placed upon military courage in circumstances where skill and science are of far more avail. The siege establishments of the army had been deficient in all the former sieges, in all which, therefore, success had been dearly purchased; but here there was not even the skeleton of an establishment. There were five officers of engineers, but not a sapper or miner; and only eight men of the royal military artificers, to whom 81 artificers of the line were added. The artillery consisted of three 18-pounders, and five 24-pounder iron howitzers, with 300 rounds of ammunition for each, and 15 barrels of powder. The engineers’ stores were scanty in proportion; but in a store which the enemy had left in the town a considerable number of entrenching tools were found. Lord Wellington had no other means within his reach when he moved from Madrid. He had no means of transporting more guns and ammunition from Madrid, or from Ciudad Rodrigo, to Burgos. The Intruder and the French armies had swept Castille of all the mules and horses upon which they could lay hands; and if some might still have been purchased at high prices, there was no money to pay for them in the military chest.

♦The horn work on S. Miguel’s taken.♦

On the side toward the country the castle was commanded by the heights of S. Miguel, which are separated from it by a deep ravine. The summit is about the same level as the upper works of the castle, at a distance of 300 yards. On this height the enemy had nearly completed a large horn work: the branches were not perfect: the rear, on the advance of the allies, had been closed by an exceedingly strong palisade; and in front they had begun to throw up three flêches, from which they had now been driven. As a preliminary to any attack, it was necessary to win the horn work. The arrangements for this were, that two parties should march that night, one upon each salient angle of the demi-bastions, enter the ditch, the counterscarp being unfinished, and escalade them, under protection of 150 men, who were to march direct on the front of the work, halt at the edge of the ditch, and keep up a continued fire on those who defended the parapet.... A third storming party under the Honourable Major Cocks was to march round the rear of the work, and endeavour to force in at the gorge. This plan was better arranged than executed. The covering party began to fire as soon as they were put in motion, and continued firing as they advanced, till they reached the ditch where they ought to have begun their fire: by that time so many of their men had been killed and wounded that the rest dispersed. The attack on both semi-bastions was not more fortunately conducted: the ladders were not long enough for the face of the work; ... and the troops, remembering the murderous character of the former sieges which they had witnessed rather than their eventual success, hung back. Major Cocks lost in advancing nearly half his party by the fire of the castle, but he found that the garrison of the horn work neglected the gorge, being fully occupied with the attack in front. He therefore with little opposition got over the palisades and entered the body of the work with about 140 men: these he divided, posting one-half on the ramparts to ensure the entry of the co-operating force in front, and with the other he formed opposite the gateway, in the hope of making the garrison prisoners: they were about 500 in number, under a chef de bataillon, and had his support been brought up in time there was every probability of his capturing them; but the French running from their works, mere weight of numbers did for them as much as determined courage could have done; they literally ran over this little party and escaped into the ♦Col. Jones’s account of the sieges, p. 191.♦ castle. Their loss did not exceed 70 men, that of the assailants amounted to 420, including six officers killed and fifteen wounded.

Such a beginning, though successful, was not likely to give the troops confidence. And it was now found, ... which could not be understood by a ground-plan of the works, nor indeed be exactly ascertained till they were in possession of St. Miguel’s hill, ... that although this hill commanded from its narrow side that on which the enemy’s works were erected, it was itself commanded by the terrace of the castle. The breadth of St. Miguel’s is parallel to the length of the castle-hill, and consequently St. Miguel’s is outflanked by the castle-hill; and as the surrounding ground is so low as to be completely overlooked, and commanded by that hill, it was impossible to erect batteries on any spot except the narrow ridge, which was not only out-flanked by the opposite height, ♦Failure in assaulting the first line.♦ but commanded by it. Trenches however were now opened to secure a communication with the horn work, and afford cover for the men; batteries were erected; and in order to save the troops from unnecessary fatigue, Lord Wellington resolved to assault the outer line, on the night of the 22nd, without waiting to form a breach in it. A party of Portugueze were to advance from some houses in the suburb close to the wall, cut down the palisades, and take the line in flank and rear, while a British party were to advance under a ridge of ground, and escalade the wall in front. The houses afforded cover to the one party, the ridge to the other, until the moment of attack. But no serious attack was made; the Portugueze were checked by a fire from a guard-house on the line, and could not be induced to enter the ditch: the British planted their ladders, and the officers mounted, but very few men followed them. Major Lawrie of the 79th, who commanded this party, was killed. Captain Frazer Mackenzie was struck down by a blow on the head; he recovered himself, mounted a second time, and was shot through the knee. The enemy, whose attention was not diverted by any other attack, mounted the parapet, and fired down upon the assailants, who stood crowded in the ditch unable now to advance, and still unwilling to retire. Lord Wellington was watching the attack from the hill of St. Miguel, under a fire of musketry, grape-shot, and shells; and when he saw that the Portugueze did nothing, and that the party in front made no progress, he ordered the attempt to be relinquished, after the loss of about three hundred and thirty men. The wounded were brought in in the morning during an hour’s truce.

♦A second assault fails.♦

The original plan was now resumed of working up to the wall, and mining under it. The enemy placed two or three guns behind a projecting palisade, which was so close as perfectly to secure them, and from whence they did great execution. As there were neither sappers, miners, nor pioneers, the engineer officers were obliged not only to direct every operation, but to stand by and instruct the working parties; and while thus employed, Captain Williams was killed. It seemed miraculous that any of these valuable officers escaped. The enemy could not now but have discovered that the besiegers were miserably provided with artillery, and that they had no ammunition to spare; nevertheless they began to prepare their second line for an obstinate defence. On the evening of the 29th the miners hit upon the foundation of the wall, mined it, and charged the mine with twelve barrels of powder. At midnight it was sprung, and threw down the wall. Three hundred men were in readiness for storming: a serjeant and four men, the advance of a party of twenty who were to lead the way, mounted without opposition, for the enemy were panic-stricken: they remained some minutes on the top of the breach before the French, perceiving that they were not supported, took courage and drove them down. The officer in command of the first advance did not discover the breach, ... he returned into the parallel, reporting that the mine had failed, and the storming party, in consequence of this error, was withdrawn. After this, Lord Wellington determined to have no more night attacks.

♦A third by daylight proves successful. Oct. 4.♦

A supply of gunpowder having been obtained from Sir Home Popham’s squadron, a second mine was completed: the first breach was rendered practicable, and the explosion which made the second was the signal for assaulting both. Immediately before the explosion, and while in the act of communicating that all was ready, Lieutenant-Colonel Jones of the engineers was severely wounded, an officer whose Journals of the Sieges, and whose general Account of the War have been the most useful as well as the most trust-worthy of the printed authorities from which the present history has been composed. About an hundred feet of the wall were thrown down by the explosion: the storming party, instead of being composed of detachments from different regiments, consisted of the 24th regiment, supported by the working and covering parties in the trenches, a reserve of 500 men having also been formed in the parallel. This assault was made in the face of day. The officer who led the left party was at the foot of the old breach before the smoke had cleared away, and he was the first man on the top of it; and the dust had scarcely subsided before the troops had gained the summit of both breaches, and driven the enemy into their covered way, and behind their new palisades. During the night the besiegers established themselves in both breaches, and along the wall to the left of them, and began an approach towards the second line of works. But the rains now began to set in heavily; and on the following afternoon 300 of the garrison made a sortie from their covered way, gained possession of the first breach, and retained it long enough to ruin the lodgment and carry off the tools. They did not get possession of the second breach, nor of the parallel along the parapet: but the advantage which they had gained was sufficient to encourage them, and to lessen the confidence of the besiegers, who could not but perceive that they were struggling against all advantages of situation, and with means the most inadequate. The enemy could not depress their guns so as to bear upon the new works, but they kept up a constant fire of musketry upon them, and from time to time rolled large shells down the steep glacis, and these either carried away the gabion where the men were breaking ground in the night, or lodging against it and bursting, blew it to pieces. The rain was now so heavy that much time was daily expended in draining and keeping the communications up the steep banks and breaches practicable. The garrison meantime were never idle: they had now disabled two of the three 18-pounders; and making another sortie at two in the morning of the 8th, from the covered way with 400 men, they surprised the advanced covering party, drove the remainder from the parallel of the outer line, and once more levelled the work and ♦Major Cocks killed.♦ carried off the tools. Major Cocks was killed in a charge to regain it: he was shot through the body when ascending the breach, by a French infantry man close to him: the ball entered on the right side between the fourth and the fifth rib, passed through the great artery immediately above the heart, and so out at the left side, breaking the left arm. Major Cocks was a young officer of the highest promise. He was the eldest son of Lord Somers, and by the demise of his maternal grandfather, in possession of a large landed estate; but preferring the military profession to the peaceful enjoyment of good fortune, and to the pursuits whereto his station in society invited him, he devoted himself to the study of that profession with an ardour, of which an ordinary observer would not, from his mild manners and habitual composure, have supposed him capable. Entering early into the service, and leaving his regiment in England, he joined the army at Lisbon in the spring of 1809, for the purpose of acquiring the Portugueze and Spanish languages. He was in the south of Spain when the French attempted to surprise Cadiz, and he it was who gave Alburquerque the first information of their movements, by which timely advice that magnanimous Spaniard was enabled to prevent their design and throw himself into the place. He read much, and let no opportunity pass unimproved of perfecting by practice the knowledge which he acquired from books: and thus he had distinguished himself on so many occasions, that the promotion which his rank and fortune might have commanded was not more rapid than his conspicuous merit had deserved. When the dispatches relating the capture of the horn work on S. Michael’s reached home, his commission as Lieutenant-Colonel was immediately sent out; but before these dispatches arrived in Spain, his career was closed. On the day preceding his death he was field-officer of the trenches: the day was very wet, and he went round to every sentry to see that the orders were clearly understood, ... a duty generally left to the serjeant who posts them, and not often attended to by a subaltern having only a picket of twenty men; but Major Cocks never spared himself, and never left anything which depended upon him undone. The death of such a man (for such men are rare) was justly regarded in the army as a national loss. He was buried in the camp ground of his regiment near Bellema, Lord Wellington, Sir Stapleton Cotton, Generals Anson and Pack, with the whole of their staffs, attending his funeral, and the officers of the 79th (his own regiment) and of the 16th light dragoons.

After this second successful sortie, no further attempt was made to push the works between the outer and second line: a third breach was effected with the view of making a flank attack at the moment of assaulting the second line in front; but when it was made, it could not be stormed for want of musket ammunition. The enemy attempted to repair it during the night, but were several times driven in. A small supply of powder having now been received from Santander, the howitzers were put in battery; but the 24-pound shot were nearly expended, and for the 18-pounders the 16-pound shot fired by the enemy were collected and made to serve: when the embrazures were opened, the guns could not be run in on account of the weather, and one of the batteries was silenced in half an hour by the enemy’s fire. By the 18th, a sufficient opening had been made in an exposed part of the second line; and the church of St. Roman, which was near the second line, had been mined. The ♦The second line assaulted with ill success.♦ assault was made by daylight; the works were immediately carried with very little loss, and some of the German legion escaladed the third line; but they were few, and were presently driven back, for the course of the siege had taken confidence from the besiegers and given it to the besieged; and when the guards gained the parapet, the garrison rallied on the terre plein of the work, and assembled in force, then advanced, and drove the assailants back completely from the line. The mine under the church did little injury to it; but it so alarmed the enemy, that they exploded their own mines, which destroyed the greater part: the troops lodged themselves in the ruins, and a communication was carried to this point during the night. A convoy of heavy artillery and ammunition was now on its way from Santander, and the castle might then have been reduced in a few days, without further loss; but it was now too late, and after that failure all circumstances induced Lord Wellington to think only of retreat.

♦Movements of the French in the north.♦

On the day of that failure, the enemy were joined at Breviesca by the army of observation from Alava, and the remainder of the army of the north. This force considerably outnumbered that which Lord Wellington could bring against them, and in cavalry they were greatly superior. They made a show of coming on in front; and in consequence, the covering army moved up near Quintana-palla, and was joined by most of the besieging corps. On the 20th they advanced in force, drove in the pickets, and obtained possession of Quintana-palla; but Sir Edward Paget drove them back, and recovered the place, and they then desisted from their offensive movements. Intelligence which Lord Wellington had reason to expect arrived on the following day, that the united forces of the enemy in the south were in motion. Ballasteros, who had hitherto, if with little success and no great ♦Ballasteros refuses to act under the British commander.♦ skill, displayed the most indefatigable activity, had in a mood of sullen resentment at the appointment of Lord Wellington to the chief command, ceased to molest the enemy. He had hung upon the flanks of Soult’s army, and harassed it as far as Granada, with more effect than in any of his former enterprises, because the enemy were dispirited and on their retreat; but upon receiving instructions to obey Lord Wellington’s orders, he took no farther measures for annoying the French, refused to act in concert with Sir Rowland Hill, according to the plan which the British Commander had laid down, and remained obstinately inactive at the most critical time. At length he published a letter to the minister at war, saying, that from the time when the French treacherously seized the four fortresses, he had spared no efforts for raising the nation, and that no person had contributed more to the event of the second of May than himself, without which events, Spain would not have been in its present state. From that time he had never laid aside his arms, and had resisted all solicitations which the foreigners had made him to the prejudice of his country, ... inexorable in being a Spaniard and nothing but a Spaniard, and that his countrymen should be so, like him: this having been his principle, without any regard to his own fortune, he had always found the nation ready to support it in every sense. “And now he was surprised,” he said, “to see that the English General, Lord Wellington, was by a resolution of the Cortes appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish armies; those armies, thousands upon thousands of whose companions in arms were in the grave, having fallen in defending the reputation of their country, were observing what would be his conduct on this occasion; and he should not consider himself worthy of being an Aragonese, if he did not represent to the government, that he could not condescend to a determination which disparaged the Spanish name.” He spoke of the English as a nation to whom the Spaniards were bound by true friendship and fair dealing, but of whose fair promises and bad faith no one could give more information than the then president of the Regency, the Duque del Infantado. “Was Spain,” he asked, “like the petty kingdom of Portugal, that the command of its armies should be intrusted to a foreigner? Had its revolution begun like that of Portugal? Had it not still resources of its own? Had it not generals, officers, and soldiers, who still supported the honour which they had inherited from their forefathers; and who in the present war had made both English and French know that they were nothing inferior to them in discipline or in courage, and that they had chiefs of their own who knew how to lead them to victory? Finally, he required that the opinion of the soldiers and of the people should be taken upon this matter; if they condescended to the appointment, he should renounce his employments, and retire to his own house, thus manifesting, that he had only the honour and the welfare of his country in view, not any ambitious or interested end.”

♦He is exiled to Ceuta.♦

Ballasteros was a rude, intrepid, enterprising, and persevering soldier of fortune, handsome in person, strong in body, and of a hale constitution; very useful as a partizan at the head of 4000 or 5000 men, but incapable of conducting any extensive operations with a regular army. Before the appointment of Lord Wellington took place he was in no good humour with the Government, and the Government on its part as little pleased with him. With some better parts of the national character, he partook in no slight degree of its boastfulness, and entertaining a most exaggerated notion of his own merits, made no scruple of saying that Ballasteros had done more for Spain than all her other chiefs put together, and that in spite of the Government, Ballasteros, unassisted and discouraged, would continue to do more than the favourites of the Regency, whose pockets were filled with doubloons by the English. But though he had a large party among the lower orders in Cadiz, and some of his regiments were much attached to him, he overrated his own importance as greatly as his own deserts; he was unpopular in the provinces and disliked by his officers: and when the Government put him under arrest for thus defying its authority, marched him under an escort to Malaga, and sent him from thence to Ceuta as an exile, not a hand, and scarcely a voice was raised in his defence. Some seditious writings indeed were published in his favour at Cadiz, but they produced no effect. The loss of an active partizan was regretted, and the error of an honest, though obstinate and wrong-headed man; but the army and the nation concurred in condemning him, and in approving the promptitude and decision with which the Government had acted.

Meantime, in consequence of this inactivity, in dereliction of all duty, on Ballasteros’s part, and of the inefficiency of the Anglo-Sicilian army, Marshal Soult and Suchet were enabled, without any impediment, to concert their operations with the Intruder, and carry them ♦Gen. Maitland gives up the command of the Anglo-Sicilian army.♦ into effect. General Maitland’s health gave way under the anxieties of his situation, so that it became necessary for him to return to Sicily. Major-General William Clinton was sent from thence to take the command in his stead, and till his arrival, it devolved upon Major-General John Mackenzie. That general made an attempt to seize the castle of Denia by a coup-de-main: from its strength and its position on commanding ground close to the sea it might have easily been maintained against the enemy, and would have afforded great opportunity for annoying ♦Unsuccessful attempt upon Denia.♦ him. Major-General Donkin, Quarter-Master-General of this army, was intrusted with the enterprise; it failed, but the men and guns which had been landed were re-embarked with ♦The French prepare to march from the south against Lord Wellington.♦ little loss. Knowing that nothing was to be apprehended from this army in its present state, Marshals Jourdan, Soult, and Suchet, held a counsel in presence of the Intruder, at Fuente la Higuera. They had feared at one time that it might have been necessary to abandon Valencia: that apprehension was removed, and they now believed that, as the long and brave resistance which had been made by the garrison at Burgos had given the army of Portugal time to recover strength and to unite with the troops in the north, nothing more was required for restoring their affairs, than that the armies of the south and the centre should co-operate with it, for the double purpose of beating Lord Wellington, and re-establishing the Intrusive government at Madrid. It was not deemed necessary to take any part of Suchet’s forces for this service; the state of Aragon and Catalonia on the one hand, and the presence of the Anglo-Sicilian expedition on the other, made it dangerous to weaken him.

At the point where the roads from Alicante and Valencia ♦Castle of Chinchilla taken by the French.♦ to Madrid join, stands the little castle of Chinchilla; it was in possession of the Spaniards, and while the Intruder was reconnoitring it one day with a telescope, a shot from an eight-pounder passed close by him. This place the French besieged; it was ably defended by the Governor D. Juan Antonio Cearra, who was a lieutenant-colonel of engineers: but the enemy were not scrupulous as to any means which could accelerate their success; and during a night’s truce they erected a battery of eight guns, in the most advantageous situation; by this battery the works were much injured, and the garrison considerably reduced in number; and of twenty artillerymen, ♦Oct. 9.♦ there only remained eight to work the guns, when some of these men were struck dead by lightning, many more, and among them the governor, wounded by it, and the works so shaken, that it became necessary to surrender. The enemy’s preparations ♦They begin their march.♦ were complete soon after this obstacle was removed; and on the 16th of October, the Intruder set out from Valencia towards the Tagus, with Marshals Jourdan and Soult at the head of 70,000 troops, 10,000 being cavalry. Lord Wellington received intelligence of this from Sir Rowland Hill on the 21st, and the same advices informed him that the Tagus was already fordable by individuals in many places, and was likely soon to be so for an army. As long as the Tagus remained unfordable, Sir Rowland’s position was tolerably secure; but when the river fell, it became too hazardous for him to maintain an advanced position near Madrid in front of an enemy so greatly superior. It was necessary that Lord Wellington should move towards him, lest the corps under his own command should be insulated in consequence of the movements which Sir Rowland might find himself compelled to make. He determined therefore to fall back upon the Douro, so as to afford Sir Rowland a point upon which to return, and by uniting their forces, to secure a retreat into Portugal.

♦Lord Wellington raises the siege of Burgos.♦

This resolution was executed as promptly as it was formed. He instantly raised the siege, and filed his whole army in the night of the 21st under the walls of the castle and over the bridge, which was closely enfiladed by its artillery; a bold and unprecedented manœuvre, which military men adduce as a proof that the march of troops cannot be stopped by the fire of artillery in the night. The allies moved in silence and good order; but a party of Guerrillas, regardless of discipline, then, as at all times, put their horses to their speed, and the clatter which they made alarmed the garrison. A fire was consequently opened from the guns which were directed on the bridge, and the first discharge was most destructive; but the gunners then lost the range and direction, and their farther fire served only to quicken the speed of the carriages. Every thing was brought away in this retreat except the three disabled guns, and the eight pieces of the enemy which had been taken in the horn-work. The loss of the allies during the siege amounted to 24 officers and 485 men killed; 68 officers and 1487 men wounded ♦Retreat from Burgos.♦ and missing. The enemy did not begin to follow till late on the ensuing day; 10,000 of their troops encamped that day on the south of Burgos, and on the morrow at noon they came up in force with the retreating army. Sir Stapleton Cotton detained them for above three hours at the passage of the Hormaza, in front of Celada del Camino; they were twice charged there by Major-General Anson’s brigade with great success, and the rear-guard continued to fall back in the best order, till the Guerrillas on their left were driven in and came flying upon them, four or five of the enemy’s squadrons being mixed with them in pursuit. In the confusion which ensued, the French were mistaken for Spaniards, and, favoured by that mistake, they fell upon the flank and rear of the allies. Some loss was sustained, and Lieutenant-Colonel Pell, of the 16th dragoons, was taken prisoner, having had his horse shot. A very superior body of cavalry, in which the enemy were strong, now came up, and the allied cavalry fell back hastily, lest they should be surrounded; but having crossed a wide and deep ditch by a narrow bridge, the brigades of Major-Generals Bock and Anson charged their pursuers when only part had filed over: in this they were repulsed, hardly pressed, and forced upon the infantry rear-guard of German light troops under Colonel Halkett; that officer formed his troops in four squares, and the men behaving, as that legion ever did, admirably, repulsed the enemy in several charges, and checked the ♦The allies cross the Pisuerga.♦ pursuit. The right of the army crossed the Pisuerga that afternoon at Torquemada, and the left at Cordovilla, where head-quarters were established that night.

The army continued its march on the 24th towards ♦Disorders during the retreat.♦ the Carrion. Throughout the north of Castille, which is a great wine country, the wine is stowed either in caves dug in the hill sides, or excavated in the earth, the soil from the excavation being formed into a mound over them, and the entrance appearing like the chimney of a subterraneous dwelling. These cellars were now filled with new wine; the soldiers broke into them during the night, and it was not without the greatest exertions that the officers in the morning could put their battalions in march. The enemy, however, after their yesterday’s repulse were less pressing; and the whole army having that day marched twenty miles, took up its ground behind the Carrion with its right at Dueñas and its left at Villa Muriel; and here the brigade of guards which had disembarked at Coruña joined them. The retreating army did not exceed 20,000 men; the French displayed above thirty; they were confident also in the superiority of their cavalry, in that country the most efficient force; and as it is their national character to be easily elated, they might well be elated now at having baffled Lord Wellington before so poor a fortress as the castle at Burgos, and compelled him who had driven Massena out of Portugal, and routed Marmont at Salamanca, to retreat before them. English soldiers are neither lightly elated, nor soon cast down; they keep their courage on a retreat, for that never gives way; but they become disdainful of control when they have no opportunity of wreaking their wrathful feelings upon the enemy who is in pursuit, and insubordination is then the sin which most easily besets them. This was already felt, though as yet they had suffered little, and though the retreat was so deliberately made, and with so firm a face toward the enemy, that the men lost none of their confidence in their Commander.

The army halted on the 25th, and measures were taken for impeding the pursuit. A battalion of the royals was posted at Palencia, to cover the operations for destroying the bridges over the Carrion at that old city; but the French assembled there in such force that the commanding officer being attacked and overpowered, found it necessary to retire upon Villa Muriel, and the bridges were left uninjured for the pursuers to pass. Two other bridges over the same river at Villa Muriel and at Dueñas were mined, that they might be exploded on the enemy’s approach, and one in like manner over the Pisuerga at Tariago. The two former were successfully exploded, that at Villa Muriel under a fire of grape-shot from the enemy; but they discovered a ford there, and passed over a considerable body both of horse and foot. A false report that the enemy had already crossed at Tariago, delayed the commencement of the work there; the French came up before it was completed; it was exploded prematurely, and consequently to no effect; their cavalry galloped over and made the party prisoners. This enabled them to push a corps on the right into contact with the posts on the Carrion; their passing at Palencia made it necessary for Lord Wellington to change the front of his army, and this second success rendered his farther retreat difficult, and even precarious. Major-Generals Pringle and Barnes were therefore ordered to attack those who had crossed the Pisuerga; the Spanish troops co-operated in this, and the enemy were driven across the river with considerable loss. Neither could they maintain themselves upon the Carrion after having forded at Villa Muriel; the Spaniards who were employed to dislodge them, faltered in the charge, and Alava, while leading them on and in the act of encouraging them, fell badly wounded: the fall of this gallant leader did not inspire them with more courage, but the Brunswickers were then ordered to advance; those brave men ran into the village without firing a shot; the Spaniards took heart and followed them, and the French withdrew; and the fifth division under General Oswald advancing against their main body, compelled it to recross.

♦Oct. 26. The allies halt.♦

The next day the allies retreated sixteen miles without molestation, and crossed the Pisuerga at Cabezon del Campo; the bridge there was barricadoed and mined, and the army halted in its rear. The ruined bridges at Dueñas and Villa Muriel had impeded Souham’s movements, so that he did not approach till evening; he then halted his whole army ♦Oct. 27.♦ on the right bank of the Pisuerga. The morning of the 27th was foggy, but when the mist cleared, their whole force was seen encamped at about three miles’ distance. They brought up two brigades of artillery and cannonaded the town, with little other harm than that of severely wounding Lieutenant-Colonel Robe of the artillery. Being opposed to a superior fire, they made no farther attempt in front, but made considerable detachments to their right, through Cigales, with a view of getting possession of the bridge at Valladolid, and thus interposing in the rear of the retreating army. Lord Wellington had an opportunity of seeing their whole force from a high ground, and saw that they were in very great strength. On the 28th they extended their right still farther, and endeavoured in the morning to force the bridge over the Douro at Simancas, which was defended by Colonel Halkett, with his brigade of the 7th division, while the Earl of Dalhousie, with the remainder of the division, defended the bridge at Valladolid. Halkett being hard pressed blew up the bridge, and disappointed them of their passage there; at the same time he sent the Brunswick Oels regiment to Tordesillas, whither the enemy detached troops in the evening, and where also the bridge over the Douro was destroyed in time. Lord Wellington sent orders to the Brunswickers to take post on its ruins, in such manner as to prevent them from repairing it; and breaking up from the Pisuerga, he crossed the Douro on the 29th, by the bridges of Puente Douro, and Tudela, both which, and that at Quintanilla also, were blown up, and subsequently those at Toro and Zamora. The pursuers that evening displayed more enterprise than they had hitherto shown; they passed a body of men in the night of the 29th, by swimming the Douro near Tordesillas, and these gallant fellows falling upon the guard who had been left in a tower on the south end of the bridge, and looked for no attack on that side, surprised and overpowered them, and immediately fell to work to restore the communication. Lord Wellington was apprised of this in time, or it would have frustrated all his former precautions; he marched his army early on the morrow, and posted them on the heights, between Rueda and Tordesillas, immediately opposite and near the bridge: the bridge by this time had been nearly repaired, but the French had made no attempt to pass; and in that position, which he strengthened with batteries, Lord Wellington remained from the 30th till the 6th of November, the enemy meantime extending along the river from Toro to Valladolid. He thus obtained the double object of resting the troops, and gaining time for Sir Rowland Hill’s movements; for, ... though his first view had been in falling back upon the Douro to afford Sir Rowland a point upon which to retire when he should no longer be able to maintain an advanced position in front of Madrid, against the very superior force which would be brought against him, ... having seen the strength of Souham’s army, it had become necessary to order Sir Rowland to break up from the Xarama, for the purpose of securing his own retreat.

♦Sir Rowland Hill retreats from the Xarama.♦

Sir Rowland was an officer upon whom Lord Wellington might always rely with the most perfect confidence. He expected such orders, and receiving them on the 29th, intended to begin his march on the following morning; but the mine which should have destroyed the Puente Larga, on the Xarama, failed; and the enemy, who had collected a large body between that bridge and Aranjuez, immediately made an attack upon the allied post there. They were repulsed by Colonel Skerrett with considerable loss on their part, and that of some forty men on ours: this affair delayed the march of Sir Rowland’s right till the evening, the enemy however made no subsequent attempt to molest him, farther than by picking up such stragglers as fell behind for the sake of plundering and drinking; and these were numerous. The army marched all night and reached Madrid on the following morning. That capital presented ♦State of Madrid.♦ a melancholy scene: it was known that these allies could make no attempt to defend it, and that their retreat would be followed by the entrance of the enemy; and two days before, when the Military and Provisional Government were about to transfer their authority to the Ayuntamiento, that body dissolved itself, regardless of its duty. Upon this, the Regidor D. Pedro Baranda, who had been on the point of resigning his office, came bravely and honourably forward to take himself the charge from which they had shrunk, and summoning persons to his aid who had been in authority when the French withdrew, began to take measures for averting the evils which there was so much cause to apprehend. The letters in the post-office were sent off to Avila, lest they should be seized by the enemy, and many persons brought into danger by their contents. And to prevent the excesses which must be expected, if on the entrance of the enemy the prisons should be thrown open, the alcaydes were called upon to deliver in ♦November.♦ a list of those persons who were imprisoned for disloyalty to the national cause, and they were set at liberty while there yet existed an authority which could restrain them from acts of immediate vengeance.

♦The allies withdraw from Madrid.♦

There were large depôts of provisions in the Retiro and in the convent of Monserrate, which the allied army had no means of carrying with them in their retreat, and orders were therefore given that they should be burnt. The municipality requested that they might rather be disposed of either by sale, or as a loan, for the inhabitants and the hospitals; it was not at the commissary’s discretion to accede to this proposal; but instead of destroying the stores, the people in the immediate vicinity were invited to help themselves there. It seemed, indeed, in this retreat, that in the economy of an army the English had yet every thing to learn: the troops were at this time scantily provided with food, their line of supply had been along the valley of the Tagus, the arrangements for changing its direction failed, and before the men effected their junction with Lord Wellington’s army, the sweet acorns which they found in the wood formed no slight part of their subsistence. The works at the Retiro were destroyed before the troops withdrew from Madrid, and the artillery there was rendered useless: their departure resembled that of the French in this respect, that they were accompanied by a considerable number of Spaniards, for whom it would have been dangerous to place themselves at the mercy of the Intrusive Government; but such persons were objects of commiseration and respect to their countrymen, not of contempt and execration.

While the allies retired leisurely towards the pass of ♦The French enter.♦ the Guadarrama, a French officer presented himself on the afternoon of November 1, at the bridge of Toledo, announcing on the part of General Drouet, that King Joseph would enter on the morrow with his army, and requiring that a deputation should go out to meet and welcome him. On the morrow, accordingly, the Ayuntamiento went forth accompanied by some of the parish priests, of the titular nobility, and of those who held office under the Intruder. Baranda briefly represented the peaceable conduct of the inhabitants, and expressed to Joseph’s minister of the Interior, that his only wish was to retire to his own house, where he might consult his own health, and look after his own affairs. This permission was easily obtained, as the French presently re-established the former functionaries; but on the 6th, the municipality were informed that circumstances rendered it necessary for the troops to leave the capital for some days; and that, in the meantime, they must take upon themselves the charge of preserving tranquillity. Baranda was then summoned from his short retirement, and required again to act as President of the Ayuntamiento. At two on the afternoon of the 7th, the troops departed to reinforce Marshal Soult, who had followed Sir Rowland’s movements; and in less than two hours after their departure, Lieutenant-Colonel Mondedeu, the commandant of a Guerrilla party, entered; on the morrow, the Medico arrived with part of his band, the Empecinado’s division on the following day, and on the 11th, the Camp Marshal Bassecourt with some of his troops. Fewer disorders were committed than might have been expected under such circumstances, and those chiefly by peasants and deserters, who thought to take advantage of the sort of interregnum in which the capital was left; but the officers caused these offenders to be arrested, and exerted themselves to prevent excesses. But the inhabitants were told that, as the human means of effecting with God’s blessing their own deliverance, they must contribute towards the support of the soldiers as much as their necessities could spare; and it may be supposed that this contribution was exacted with less compunction on the one part, and submitted to with less unwillingness on the other, because both well knew that when the French returned, the locust would devour what the palmer-worm had left.

On the 6th Sir Rowland reached Arevalo, which is ♦Junction of the retreating armies.♦ about 80 miles from Madrid; the troops had suffered much from the weather, more from the gross ill management on the part of the commissariat and the staff, and not a little from their own irregularities, moral discipline having long been disregarded in modern armies. He was now in communication with Lord Wellington, and was instructed to continue his march by Fonteveros upon Alba de Tormes. By this time Lord Wellington’s army had been recruited by rest, and the enemy had rendered the bridges passable at Toro and at Tordesillas: he broke up therefore from his position in front of the latter city before daylight, leaving the fires burning: that day he fell back to Torrecilla de la Orden, continued his march the following day, and on the 8th took up the position which he had twice before occupied in front of Salamanca. Sir Rowland crossed the Tormes the same day at Alba, occupied that town and castle with Major-General Howard’s brigade, and stationed a Portugueze division on the left of the Tormes, under Major-General Hamilton, to support them. They were not followed during their retreat from the Douro; the enemy halted to collect provisions ♦Junction of the French armies.♦ and bring up their detachments, and the armies of Portugal and the north then formed their junction with those of the south, and of the centre under Soult and the Intruder: their united force amounted to not less than 80,000 foot and 12,000 horse, being the whole of their disposable force in Spain, and it was believed that they had with them not fewer than 200 pieces of cannon. The allies had 48,000 foot and 5000 horse. On the 9th the enemy drove in the piquets in front of Alba, and Major-General Long was obliged to withdraw his brigade through that town on the following morning. The enemy then, who were directing their main efforts against the right of the allies, approached their position on the Tormes, and prepared to force a passage. They attacked the troops in Alba with twenty pieces of cannon, and bringing up 15 squadrons and a considerable force of infantry threatened an assault, their light troops advancing close to the walls which had been hastily thrown up. They continued their fire from two o’clock till darkness had closed; but they made no impression on the brave troops who were opposed to them, and therefore they did not repeat the attempt. The intermediate time till the 14th they employed in reconnoitring the fords, and the position which Lord Wellington occupied in front of Salamanca; and on the 14th they commenced the passage at three fords, about two leagues above Alba, near Lucinas.

♦Lord Wellington retreats from Salamanca.♦

Lord Wellington immediately broke up from St. Christoval, ordered the troops to move towards Arapiles, and as soon as he had ascertained the direction of the enemy’s march from the fords, moved with a division of infantry and all the cavalry he could collect to attack them; but they had already crossed in too great force. The wind at this time blew strong, and a thick rain rendered all objects indistinct at little distance; Lord Wellington, nevertheless, under cover of a cannonade, reconnoitred their position, and saw that they were too strongly posted at Mozarbes to be attacked. In the evening therefore he withdrew the troops from the neighbourhood of Alba, having destroyed the bridges, and leaving only a Spanish garrison of 300 men in the castle, into which the remains of an old palace had been converted. During the night, and in the course of the ensuing morning, he moved the greater part of the troops through Salamanca, and placed Sir Edward Paget, with the first division of infantry on the right, at Aldea Tejada, to secure the passage there over the little river Zunguen, in case the movements of the French on his right flank should compel him to make choice either of giving up his communications with Ciudad Rodrigo or with Salamanca. The inhabitants of that city were some preparing for the worst, and others helplessly expecting it, yet with a lingering hope that another battle upon that ground which had proved so destructive to Marmont’s army might once more deliver them. Lord Wellington himself had this possibility in mind, and did not order the commissariat and hospital stores to be removed from Salamanca till the movements of the French rendered it certain that, notwithstanding their great superiority in numbers, they would not venture to bring on a general action. They fortified their position at Mozarbes, and sent out bodies of horse and foot towards their left, to act upon the communications of the allies with Ciudad Rodrigo. This was a sure game; they were too strong and too strongly posted for Lord Wellington to think of attacking them; nothing therefore remained for him but to retreat upon his resources; and this was the more necessary because the men were nearly exhausted with the fatigues of so long and arduous a campaign; there was little regard to discipline among them, except when in the immediate presence of an enemy, and the horses were dying of exhaustion and for want of forage.

♦Retreat to the Agueda.♦

On the 15th the army was put in motion to retire, in three columns, observing, as well as the country would allow, parallel distances. Sir Rowland commanded the first, Sir Edward Paget the centre, the third consisted of the Spanish army. They crossed the Zunguen, passed the left flank of the enemy’s position, and encamped that night in the olive-grounds, on the Vamusa, one of the smaller rivers which find their way into the Tormes. The weather was most unfavourable, and the way sometimes over stony and ploughed grounds, sometimes over swampy or inundated low lands. The ♦Sufferings of the army.♦ troops arrived at their halting places greatly fatigued. They were without shelter of any sort; it was impossible to kindle fires because of the heavy and incessant rain; and they were still farther dispirited by finding that the supplies had been forwarded to Ciudad Rodrigo. Bread for three days in advance had been issued to them as usual, but English soldiers are seldom provident, and when such demands were made upon their strength, the natural means of supporting and recruiting it could never be more needful. There was no provender for the horses, the bark of trees and sprigs of wild briar were the only and miserable substitutes that could be found. The French never displayed less vigour than at this time; the overweening contempt which they had once affected for the British troops had been so thoroughly corrected, that they made no attempt to overwhelm an enemy greatly inferior in number, and retreating under circumstances of great difficulty and distress. They only sent a body of cavalry with light artillery in pursuit; and these contented themselves with picking up stragglers and such baggage as fell behind. The army bivouacked on the 16th in a wood about two leagues from Tamames; the ground in many places was covered with water, but the rain ceased, and some biscuit was issued. The day’s march had been most painful, over such heavy ground that at every step the horses sunk to the fetlock, and the men to their ancles; but while the men were filling their havresacks with sweet acorns, which they rejoiced to meet with, in the want of other food, the horses now and then picked up a little grass.

The 17th was another wet and misty day; the army left its bivouack at six; an extensive wood lay before them: the enemy now followed close upon their rear, and the light companies were ordered to extend themselves through the wood for the purpose of protecting the flanks and the baggage. This service was not easily to be performed against so great a force of cavalry as was now harassing the movements of a disorderly army. Wherever the way was through the woods, the officers as well as men carried on a successful warfare against the herds of swine which at that season are turned there to feed upon the acorns; the Spaniards, it is said, began; the wretched state of their commissariat was their excuse, and the allies had the same excuse for following the example; and so eagerly was it followed, that the continued firing of musquetry on all sides, often occasioned an apprehension that the piquets were warmly engaged, and even that the army was surrounded. This occurred so often that it produced incaution at last, and the enemy’s fire was mistaken for pig-shooting. Owing to the badness of the roads, and the swollen state of the rivulets, there was an interval of about a mile between ♦Sir Edward Paget made prisoner.♦ two of the infantry divisions. Sir Edward Paget, who commanded the centre column, rode to the rear, alone, for the purpose of discovering the cause of this interval: a body of the enemy’s cavalry meantime had entered between these divisions; they had pursued a troop of Portugueze horse from the left flank: the firing had been ascribed to the pig-shooters, and Sir Edward falling in with the French was made prisoner, being without support: they might have done much hurt had they been more enterprising or more aware of their advantage. At this time the troops were descending upon the little village of S. Muñoz, in a valley between two hills; the Huebra which runs into the Douro has its course along this valley, a deep and rapid stream; both hills are covered with oaks, and the declivity on both sides is difficult and steep. The troops when they had forded were formed in open columns on the heights, and halted. A fog came on early in the afternoon, under cover of which the enemy got possession of a hill upon the right of the British line; they brought up some mountain guns, and commenced a fire upon the rear-guard, consisting of the light division, under Major-General Alten, while it was fording the river. Some loss was sustained by them. The guns of Major Macdonald’s troops of horse-artillery returned their fire successfully, but during the cannonade he was severely wounded. The enemy’s cavalry followed as soon as the division had crossed, and began to hem them in; and though the troops formed in squares, they succeeded in charging them in the low ground.

♦Lord Wellington reaches Ciudad Rodrigo.♦

There was now some appearance that an action might be brought on; the men were sufficiently eager for this, they longed to revenge themselves upon the French for the privations and sufferings of their retreat; they made no doubt of beating them, and they anticipated with hungry eagerness the pleasure of taking their supplies. As Lord Wellington came to pass the column in review, the word, “here he comes,” passed along, and carried with it sure confidence to every heart, ... that confidence which before the works at Burgos could not be felt, being given in the field as fully as it was deserved. But the French also knew that the British commander and his troops might justly rely upon each other, and they would not hazard a battle. The cannonade was continued on both sides till evening closed. The men bivouacked as usual on the wet ground, their cloaks and blankets soaked with rain; but the rain had ceased, it was a moonlight night, and they had the satisfaction of knowing that another day’s march would bring them to Ciudad Rodrigo, beyond which the enemy could not follow them, and where their privations would be at an end. Between three and four in the morning they moved from their bivouack; the enemy followed them that day only with their cavalry. Lord Wellington’s head-quarters were in Ciudad Rodrigo that night, and on the 19th and 20th the army entered the Portugueze frontier, crossing the Agueda. The loss during this retreat of about 240 miles amounted to 196 killed, 663 wounded, 421 missing, and 280 horses; many of the men who had been returned as missing afterwards came in; but others, among whom were some valuable officers, died in consequence of the fatigues and hardships which they had endured.

♦The French retire to the Tormes.♦

The enemy retired as soon as the allies had reached Ciudad Rodrigo, and they withdrew from the Tormes also as soon as the castle of Alba was surrendered. The Spanish Governor Don José de Miranda held out there with great gallantry, and made more than a hundred prisoners in some well-directed ♦Castle of Alba de Tormes evacuated.♦ sallies. Some characteristic correspondence passed between him and the French; they required him to surrender and rely upon their generosity, otherwise he must expect to be treated with the utmost rigour; he in reply spoke of his duties as a soldier, and boasted of his brilliant garrison. The French allowed him an hour for returning a second answer, and bade him tremble if it were a refusal; in his reply he bade them do their duty as he should perform his, and told them that if the fortune of war should be in their favour, his numerous prisoners, who had been treated in the best manner, would be the victims. In this strain, but in letters which increased in length, and became more and more courteous, the correspondence was continued from the 14th of November till the 24th, on the night of which Miranda left the fortress in the hands of Lieutenant D. Nicolas Soler, with 20 men, the prisoners and the sick; and informing the French commander, in his last communication, that this officer was instructed to deliver up the place, he with the remainder of the garrison effected their escape, making their way through many dangers, but with little loss, to the Puerto del Pico.

As soon as it was ascertained that the enemy had withdrawn from the Tormes, Lord Wellington distributed the troops in winter cantonments, the left being retired to Lamego, and the right thrown forward as ♦Lord Wellington’s circular letter to the commanding officers.♦ far as Baños and Bejar, to hold the passes. He then addressed a circular letter to the commanding officers of battalions, for the purpose of drawing their attention in a very particular manner to the state of discipline of the troops. “The discipline of every army,” he said, “after a long and active campaign, becomes in some degree relaxed, and requires the utmost attention on the part of the generals and other officers to bring it back to the state in which it ought to be for service; but I am concerned to have to observe, that the army under my command has fallen off in this respect in the last campaign in a greater degree than any army with which I have ever served, or of which I have ever read. Yet this army has met with no disaster; it has suffered no privations which but trifling attention on the part of the officers could have prevented, and for which there existed no reason whatever in the nature of the service; nor has it suffered any hardships excepting those resulting from the inclemencies of the weather at a time when they were most severe. It must be obvious, however, to every officer that from the time the troops commenced their retreat from the neighbourhood of Burgos on one hand, and from Madrid on the other, the officers lost all command over their men. Irregularities and outrages of all descriptions were committed with impunity, and losses have been sustained which ought never to have occurred. Yet, the necessity for retreat existing, none was ever made in which the troops made such short marches; none on which they made such long and repeated halts; and none on which the retreating armies were so little pressed in the rear by the enemy. We must look therefore to some cause besides those resulting from the operations in which we have been engaged. I have no hesitation in attributing these evils to the habitual inattention of the officers of the regiments to their duty as prescribed by the standing regulations of the service, and by the orders of this army.

“I am far from questioning the zeal, still less the gallantry and spirit of the officers; and I am quite certain that as their minds can be convinced of the necessity of minute and constant attention, to understand, recollect, and carry into execution the orders which have been issued for the performance of their duty, and that the strict performance of their duty is necessary to enable the army to serve the country as it ought to be served, they will in future fix their attention to these points. Unfortunately the inexperience of the officers has induced many to conceive that the period during which an army is on service is one of relaxation from all rule, instead of being, as it is, the period during which, of all others, every rule for the regulation and control of the conduct of the soldier, for the inspection and care of his arms, ammunition, accoutrements, necessaries and field equipments, and his horse and horse appointments, for the receipt and issue, and care of his provisions, and the regulation of all that belongs to his food and the forage for his horse, must be most strictly attended to by the officer of his company or troop, if it is intended that an army, a British army in particular, shall be brought into the field of battle in a state of efficiency to meet the enemy on the day of trial.

“These are the points then to which I most earnestly entreat you to turn your attention, and the attention of the officers under your command, Portugueze as well as English, during the period in which it may be in my power to leave the troops in their cantonments. The commanding officers of regiments must enforce the orders of the army regarding the constant inspection and superintendence of the officers over the conduct of the men of their companies in their cantonments; and they must endeavour to inspire the non-commissioned officers with a sense of their situation and authority; and the non-commissioned officers must be forced to do their duty, by being constantly under the view and superintendence of the officers. By these means the frequent and discreditable recourse to the authority of the provost, and to punishments by the sentence of courts-martial will be prevented, and the soldiers will not dare to commit the offences and outrages of which there are too many complaints, when they know that their officers, and their non-commissioned officers, have their eyes and attention turned towards them. The commanding officers of regiments must likewise enforce the orders of the army regarding the constant, real inspection of the soldiers’ arms, ammunition, accoutrements and necessaries, in order to prevent at all times the shameful waste of ammunition, and the sale of that article, and of the soldiers’ necessaries. With this view both should be inspected daily.”

He proceeded to say that he had frequently observed during the late campaign with how much more ease and celerity the French soldiers cooked their food than the British. This disadvantage on our part, he said, must be ascribed to the same cause as the other evils which he lamented, “the want of attention in the officers to the orders of the army and to the conduct of their men, and the consequent want of authority over their conduct. Certain men of each company should be appointed to cut and bring in wood, others to fetch water, and others to get the meat, &c. to be cooked: and it would soon be found if this practice were duly enforced, and a particular hour for serving the dinners, and for the men dining, named, as it ought to be, equally as for the parade, that cooking would no longer require the inconvenient length of time which it had lately been found to take, and that the soldiers would not be exposed to the privation of their food at the moment when the army may be engaged in operations with the enemy.” He concluded by repeating that the great object of the general and field officers must be to get the captains and subalterns of the regiments to understand, and to perform the duties required from them, as the only mode by which the discipline and efficiency of the army could be restored and maintained during the next campaign.

This letter excited no little surprise in the nation, mortifying and disgraceful as the faults were which were thus openly and manfully exposed. But it was not more severe than the occasion called for. No retreat had ever been conducted with greater military skill; and nothing but that skill, and the reputation which the British troops had established for themselves under its direction, could have saved the army from the consequences of the ignorance or neglect of duty in many of the officers, and the insubordination of the men, which was a consequence of such neglect or ignorance. The circumstances of that retreat justified the whole severity of Lord Wellington’s remarks, and would more evidently have done so, if the sufferings of the army had been more broadly stated; for though the marches had indeed been short, and the halts long and frequent, no army which was not flying from an enemy, but retreating before it, in strength, ever suffered so much from exposure, and hunger, and exhaustion. Nothing could be more judicious than his orders during the whole retreat, and nothing more irregular than the way in which they were carried into effect; and this, though in part owing to casual and unavoidable obstructions on the way, arose in a far greater degree from negligence and incapacity. Sometimes divisions were moved too soon, more frequently too late, and kept standing on wet ground, in the rain, for two hours, perishing with cold, waiting the order to move. Their clothes were seldom dry for six hours together, and during the latter part of the retreat continually wet; sometimes they were bivouacked in a swamp, when better ground was near: they lay down upon the wet ground, fell asleep from mere exhaustion, were roused to receive their meat, and had then no means of dressing it, ... the camp-kettles had been sent on, or by some error were some miles in the rear, or the mules which carried them had foundered on the way; and no fire could be kindled on wet ground, with wet materials, and under a heavy rain. The subalterns threw the blame upon their superiors, and these again upon theirs, all complaining of incompetence in some of the general officers, and carelessness or supercilious neglect in some of the staff. But the intended effect was produced. That something was deficient in the equipments of the army was perceived, and in part remedied. Alas! no one observed that there was an utter want of that discipline by virtue of which Cromwell conquered, which rendered the Swedes invincible under their great Gustavus, and to which the Prince of Parma owed little less than to his own military genius, admirable as that was.

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CHAPTER XLIII.
OPERATIONS DURING THE WINTER AND SPRING. BATTLE OF VITTORIA.

♦November, 1812.Opinions of the opposition.♦

Lord Wellington’s failure at Burgos, and his consequent retreat to the Agueda, gave the Whigs a last opportunity of repeating their predictions, that the war in the Peninsula must prove unsuccessful, and they availed themselves of it with unabated confidence. The more rancorous radicals insulted the nation for the hopes which had been entertained, exulted in the reverses which they magnified, and reviled the ministers and the General, ... the ministers both for having continued the war, and for “starving” it; Lord Wellington both for inactivity and for rashness, for doing too little and too much, for wasting time at Madrid, and for attempting a siege with such inadequate means, that nothing but the most profuse expenditure of blood could afford even a forlorn hope of its succeeding. Even when the events of the Russian campaign made it evident that the formidable tyranny against which we had so long contended must soon be overthrown, the opposition, as well as the revolutionists, turned away their eyes from the prospect.

♦Marquis Wellesley calls for inquiry.♦

Parliament met at the latter end of November. In the Prince Regent’s speech it was stated, that the southern provinces of Spain had been delivered in consequence of the battle of Salamanca; and that, though it had been necessary to withdraw from the siege of Burgos and to evacuate Madrid, the effort of the enemy for rendering it so had occasioned sacrifices on his part, which must materially contribute to extend the resources and facilitate the exertions of the ♦Nov. 30.♦ Spaniards. On this occasion, Marquis Wellesley called upon the Peers, to inquire whether the system which had hitherto been pursued was founded upon just and extended principles; whether an able and efficient exertion of our resources had been made; whether such means as the country possessed had been fully employed; and whether the result had been such as the nation had a right to expect from the possession of those means, and the right application of them. He wished it were possible to fix in the minds of their lordships something like a definite and precise object, as the issue of the contest in the Peninsula. In his mind, the only legitimate object was, the expulsion of the French armies from Spain; and the war had been carried on in a way totally inadequate to the production of that result. The plan which of all others all mankind must reprobate, was that of employing our resources with a view rather to what might be spared in expense, than to what might be effected by exertion: thus exposing the sinews of our strength to hourly danger, and bearing hard upon our finances, yet effecting neither economy nor success, but falling dead as it were between both. A vast expense of blood and treasure had been lavished, without accomplishing any one definite object. The best assistance we could afford to Russia was by carrying on the war in Spain upon a broad and extensive scale; it had not been so carried on, and he charged upon that system, therefore, a defection from the cause of Russia. He did not mean to dispute that the last campaign had been beneficial to Spain; but his objection was, that those benefits were imperfectly secured, and that they could not expect them to be permanent.

♦Lord Grenville.♦

Lord Grenville repeated and persisted in his old opinion, that the deliverance of Spain was beyond the utmost means of this country to effect; and that it was cruel and base to embark the population of that country in so hopeless a cause, merely for the sake of a little temporary advantage. The ministers had not advanced one step in the accomplishment of this object; and this third advance into the interior of Spain had, by its failure, proved the correctness of the data on which his opinion was founded. Their boast of having delivered Andalusia was an empty boast: no one doubted that the deliverance was more than temporary, and that the French could not re-occupy the provinces whenever they pleased. It was the want of means, the failure of supplies and resources, which had led to the unproductive results of all their exertions. The blame did not lie with the Spaniards, but with those who encouraged the hopes which they had no right to entertain: the fault was with the English ministers, who in their ignorance overrated the condition of Spain, and anticipated more from her than she could by possibility perform. He asked also, why ministers, with a revenue of one hundred and five millions, or more, by estimate, extorted by means the most grinding and oppressive from a suffering people, were yet unable to supply Lord Wellington’s military chest? The difficulty arose from their incapacity, not from the deficient resources of the country, much as they had been drained. They might diminish by one half the income of every individual in this country, with as little effect or promise of ultimate success as had attended those plans which led them to circulate a vile and adulterated currency in paper coin throughout the nation. When such had been its effects, why not at this moment stop the contest in Spain?

♦Mr. Ponsonby.♦

In the House of Commons, Mr. Ponsonby said, it was useless to carry farther an unprofitable contest; it was useless to waste the blood and the treasures of England for an unattainable object; it had been proved that the power of England was not competent to drive the French out of the Peninsula.

♦Mr. Freemantle.♦

Mr. Freemantle was decidedly of opinion, that by the battle of Salamanca we had gained nothing but glory; that the deliverance of Spain was no nearer its accomplishment than when Lord Wellington was posted at Torres Vedras, and that our prospects at the present moment were not nearly so bright as at the commencement of the last session, ... at which time his declared opinion had been, that we could entertain no rational prospect of making any impression upon ♦Mr. Whitbread.♦ the enemy in Spain. Mr. Whitbread’s tone upon that subject was somewhat modified; he admitted that the situation in which we now stood in Spain was glorious beyond example, in so far as related to the achievements of our armies, though with respect to the expulsion of the French, we were not so near our object as some people supposed. There was this difference between an offensive and a defensive war; that an offensive war ought always to be a war of spirit. When vigorous efforts therefore were to be made in Spain, there ought to be no limit to that vigour. Let an application therefore be made to the Prince Regent, to know from him whether the greatest possible use had been made by ministers of the means with which they were intrusted for carrying on the war, before coming to a decision on the merits of ministers, or the probability of the war being in future carried on with success. He was far from wishing to refuse them the means necessary for carrying it to a successful issue; but feeling for the people who were groaning under accumulated burdens and threatened with the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s financial abilities, he thought the last resources of the country ought not to be granted without security for their being properly applied. Under all these circumstances, he was desirous of imploring the Prince Regent to take into consideration, whether or not it was at present possible to bring about a pacification. Buonaparte was on his retreat to his resources, his force not annihilated, though certainly in great danger, and this was what the House were to congratulate themselves on, and for which they were to go to the Prince Regent with an address on the prosperous state of the country! If the situation of affairs on the continent was good for any thing, it was this, that the Emperor of France having failed in his object, an opportunity was now offered when it would not be inglorious, and when it would certainly be highly useful to propose to the enemy some arrangement for peace. Buonaparte was at present in a perilous situation, and every exertion ought to be made, by taking advantage of it to procure a peace. But a feeling seemed to pervade the minds of certain persons, that peace should not be concluded with that man, ... a feeling which he wished to eradicate from this country: for, in the probable course of events, we should be obliged to make peace with him. Let him therefore be sent to openly and manfully! The fate of the mission would be speedily known; and the issue would be a conviction on the mind of every one, whether a permanent and honourable peace could be procured or not.

♦Motion of thanks to the armies.
Sir Francis Burdett.♦

When a motion for thanks to Lord Wellington and his army for the battle of Salamanca was brought forward, Sir Francis Burdett said, he was far from wishing; invidiously to detract from the merits of men who had devoted their exertions to the service of their country, or to withhold from them any recompense that it was in the power of Parliament to bestow: but when he heard the battle of Salamanca represented as having been equal in importance to the battle of Blenheim, and to other great battles which had completely changed the aspect of the whole affairs of Europe, he could not suffer such delusions to go forth uncontradicted, ... delusions which were calculated to plunge the country, under the direction of the same persons, still more deeply in a destructive and ruinous war: for after their boasted and over-praised victories, we were still as far from our object as ever. What! were we to suffer the French troops to recover from the effect of their discomfiture and exhaustion, and to wait until the tide of good fortune which had attended us flowed back on its source? Were we to be satisfied with a retreat? Yet, where now was the Marquis of Wellington? In what direction were we to look for the glorious results of the campaign? In what manner was the diminution of the French power in Spain evinced? Nothing seemed to have resulted from all our advantages but calamity and distress; and it followed, therefore, that either Lord Wellington was not entitled to the praise which the House was called upon to bestow, or that the fault of our failure was attributable to the gross negligence and imbecility of the ministers. Lord Castlereagh, Sir Francis pursued, in the plenitude of his satisfaction, had not confined himself to Spain, but had travelled out of his course, and taken the House to Russia, where in the destruction of from 200,000 to 300,000 human beings, in the burning of Moscow, and in the devastation of an immense tract of Russian territory, he found new causes of congratulation, new sources of national pride and gratitude! Would he be equally inclined to consider it a matter of triumph, if Buonaparte (which in his opinion was more than probable) should extricate himself from his perils, and after having found good winter-quarters, return to the contest with renovated ardour in the spring? Could he believe it possible that Russia could continue such a contest, and undergo a repetition of similar dreadful experiments and sacrifices? Supposing he marched to Petersburgh, which seemed to be his ultimate intention, would the same mode of defence as at Moscow be adopted? Would Russia burn Petersburgh too? He for one could not greatly admire the magnanimity of burning that, the preservation of which ought to have been fought for; nor could he see the shining character of the Emperor Alexander, who was not, like the Emperor of the French, personally sharing in the dangers of the war. He could not subdue the conviction which arose in his mind on viewing all these things, of the utter impossibility of the Emperor of Russia’s feeling any exultation whatever: on the contrary, he thought that unfortunate individual must be oppressed by a view of the irreparable calamities to which himself and his people had been, and were ♦Dec. 7.♦ likely still further to be, exposed. Farther than this, when a grant was moved to the Marquis of Wellington, Sir Francis said, he did not wish to divide the House upon it, but he wished to move, that the consideration of the grant should be deferred till some inquiries had been made into the late extraordinary campaign. Lord Wellington’s victories had none of the characteristics which distinguished those of Marlborough. It had been observed, and by military men too, that he had brought his army into difficulties, but that his men had fought him out of them again; and that in the capture of the fortresses which he had won, a waste of life was to be complained of. The cause of Spain appeared to him infinitely more hopeless than it was at the commencement of the campaign, ... the case of the Peninsula more deplorable than ever.

♦M. Wellesley moves for a committee of inquiry. March 12.♦

Marquis Wellesley moved for a committee to inquire into the conduct of the war in the Peninsula. “My Lords,” said he, “what secret cause amidst the splendid scene that has been exhibited in the Peninsula, ... what malign influence amidst the rejoicings and acclamations of triumph, has counteracted the brilliant successes of our arms, and has converted the glad feelings of a just exultation into the bitterness of regret and disappointment? With an army in discipline and spirit superior to any that had ever been assembled, uniting in itself qualities so various, as never to have entered into the composition of any other such assemblage of force; ... with a general, pronounced by the whole world to be unsurpassed in ancient or modern times; the pride of his country, the refuge and hope of Europe; ... with a cause in which justice vied with policy, combining all that was ardent in the one motive, with all that was sober in the other; ... with the eyes of Europe fixed on our movements; ... with the admiration of the world excited by our achievements: ... how is it that our hopes have been raised only to be frustrated? How is it that we have been allowed to indulge in expectation of an approaching completion of success, only to behold the utter disappointment of our wishes? Why has a system of advance suddenly and inevitably been converted into a system of retreat? When victory actually sprung from the bosom of retreat, why was the glorious victor compelled to relapse into his retrogression? Why has it happened that we have seen the great conqueror who chased the French armies from the plains of Salamanca, pursued in his turn, by those whom he had conquered, over those plains which had been the scene of his former triumphs? Why, in conclusion, has a system of offence shrunk into a system of defence, and what is the reason that our military operations in the Peninsula have ended where they began?

“I should be lost to every feeling of honour, and to every sense of duty to the country, if I did not state that the effect of this campaign altogether has been not to approximate you towards your object, but to remove you from it; and that this calamity has arisen from the insufficiency of those means which, by a small addition, might have been rendered effective. I maintain, that the object we had in view, (the only honest object ... the only great object ... which we could pursue, or hope to obtain by our operations in Spain,) was the expulsion of the French, or, at least, a considerable diminution of their power, with a view to the freedom of the people, and the independence of the Spanish monarchy. This was, certainly, the main object which we ought to have contemplated; the ultimate object of the British nation was, certainly, by the deliverance of the peninsula of Spain, to lay a solid foundation for the establishment of a permanent and honourable peace.

“What I have contended is, that the efforts we have made have not been equal to the resources of the country; that they have not been such as the magnitude, the infinite importance of the cause demanded, and as the favourableness of the opportunity particularly called for; that we have not made even a faint approximation to the object of the war, the expulsion of the French from the Peninsula; but that the French have been enabled, by our reverses, to consolidate their power in Spain, and to systematize the moral and military subjugation of the country. We ought to have called forth all our resources, ... and we have made no extraordinary sacrifices; we ought to have strained every nerve at this momentous crisis, ... and we have remained little better than idle spectators of the fate of Spain. We have been deterred by petty objections; by calculations of expense, which are but as dust in the balance.”

♦Earl Grey.♦

Earl Grey supported the motion for a committee, saying, that the great objects of the campaign had not been realized, but that, on the contrary, there had been a complete failure, ... a great and lamentable failure; and that it was one of the most important duties of that house, in cases of ill success, to vindicate the interests of the country, by visiting with its severest censure the causers of the misfortune. Aware as the ministers were, he said, of the state of Europe, and knowing, as they must have known, the effect that at such a crisis would have been produced by a vigorous and decisive effort in the Peninsula, it was their bounden duty to have provided Lord Wellington with ample means for carrying through his enterprising projects, and crowning them with brilliant and unqualified success. Nothing had happened which induced him to repent of his opinion, that the efforts of the Spanish people could alone enable them to withstand the overwhelming power of France. This sentiment he had uttered under the supposition that no other power would stand up against the French Emperor, and that that Emperor would not depart from the unity of council and of action, by which his greatest successes had been achieved. And, indeed, if with such a commander and such an army as ours, and at a time when the army of France in the north had met with disasters, greater than which never fell upon a host assembled for the purposes of injustice and ambition, ... if under these circumstances we had achieved so little in Spain, what would have been the issue, if one-tenth only of the forces employed against Russia had been turned against us? The time had called for exertion, and the exertions had failed, ... failed almost entirely as to their great object: the French were left in possession of the best parts of Spain; and we had not advanced in any degree, considering the effects of the last campaign upon the minds of the Spaniards, to the accomplishment of our object. Such was the case, and it called loudly for inquiry.

♦The Earl of Liverpool.♦

To these assertions the Earl of Liverpool replied, that the campaign which had been thus represented as a failure and a defeat, was, in fact, the most brilliant that had been achieved by British arms in any period of our history. They had been seeking as a great object, that the whole force of Spain should be placed under the command of Lord Wellington, and that object had at length been accomplished. Every exertion that could be made had been made, for sending out troops to the Peninsula and for supplying them there, and the success of the war was indisputable. Portugal had been rescued from the enemy, and placed in a state of security, and now one-third of Spain was relieved from their presence. Spain and Portugal had set the example which Russia had followed, with the great advantage of having a government in full activity to direct all its strength. The example thus set and thus followed would have an effect among the other nations of Europe, would rouse their spirit, animate their exertions, and teach them in what manner to resist oppression, ... teach them that an united nation, determined to resist an invader, could not ♦Earl Bathurst.♦ be conquered! ... Earl Bathurst argued to the same purpose, saying, that something had been effected, if the views of England were what Marquis Wellesley had powerfully described them to be at the beginning of the war in Spain, ... first, to create a diversion in favour of our allies; secondly, to encourage resistance in other countries, by showing its effects in Spain; and thirdly, to prevent the commercial and military means of that country from falling into the hands of our enemy. Those had been the views of England, those were the views of the present Government, and those views had been forwarded by the last campaign. And Lord Wellington was satisfied with the conduct of the administration during that campaign, ... a declaration which had not been sought for by the ministers, but which he had voluntarily made.

In these debates the Whigs manifested the same disposition to magnify our reverses and depreciate our success, and the same propensity for predicting discomfiture and disgrace which had characterized their conduct during the whole struggle. The feeling with which they continued to regard Buonaparte, notwithstanding his ♦April 2.Lord Holland.♦ inordinate ambition and his remorseless tyranny, was farther exhibited by Lord Holland, when, upon presenting some petitions for peace, he expressed his trust that ministers entertained no chimerical notions of wresting from France what she had acquired during the last twenty years, nor of humiliating the great prince who now ruled that country; and his willingness to believe that they had not neglected the opportunity which the successes of Russia afforded for opening a negotiation! But they better understood their duty to their allies, and to Europe, and to their country; and being instructed by experience as well as encouraged by sure hope, they spared no efforts now for enabling Lord Wellington to open the ensuing campaign with means which ♦Lord Wellington goes to Cadiz.♦ should render success certain. Lord Wellington went to Cadiz at the close of the year, to make arrangements with the Spanish ministers for the co-operation of the Spanish armies. A deputation from the Cortes was sent to compliment him on his arrival; he paid his respects, in consequence, to that assembly; expressed his thanks in a brief and modest speech, for the different marks of honour and confidence which he had received from it; and said, that not the Spaniards alone looked to it with hope, but the whole world was concerned in the happy issue of their vigorous endeavours to save Spain from general destruction, and to establish in that monarchy a system founded upon just principles, which should promote and secure the prosperity of all the citizens, and the greatness of the Spanish nation. In reply, the president complimented him upon his victories, which had been celebrated, he said, like those of the Genius of Good over the Genius of Evil. The Cortes did not now hope or trust for new triumphs from the Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo, they looked upon them as certain; and looked, not only that the Spanish and allied armies under such a leader would drive the French beyond the Pyrenees, but that, if it should be needful, they would pitch their victorious tents upon the banks of the Seine; it would not be the first time that the Spanish lions had trampled on its banks upon the old fleur-de-lys of France.

♦Arrangements for the co-operation of the Spanish armies.♦

It was arranged that 50,000 Spanish troops should be placed at his disposal. The army under Castaños formed part of these; it consisted of what had formerly been called the 5th, 6th, and 7th armies, now comprehended under the name of the fourth: Castaños was to hold also the captaincies-general of the province of Extremadura, Old Castille and Leon, Galicia and Asturias. There was to be an army of reserve in Andalusia under the Conde de Abisbal, and an army of reserve in Galicia. The other armies were that of Catalonia, which was the first; of this Copons held the command: he was also captain-general of that province, and of that part of Aragon which was on the right of the Ebro; the second, which Elio, captain-general of Valencia, Murcia, and New Castille, commanded; and the third (formerly the fourth) under the Duque del Parque, who was also charged with the captaincies-general of Jaen and Granada.

♦Lord Wellington goes to Lisbon.♦

From Cadiz, Lord Wellington repaired to Lisbon. Triumphal arches were erected in all the towns through which he passed, from Elvas to the Tagus. The ships, the troops, and the people of Lisbon, received him with such honours as he deserved; greater could be paid to no man; and there was a general and voluntary illumination during three successive nights. A drama was composed to celebrate his victories, and represented in his presence at the royal theatre of San Carlos, where all the boxes were decorated with angels bearing crowns and shields, on which the initials of Lord Wellington were inscribed; O Nome, “The Name,” was the title of the piece, and it was preluded by a hymn in honour of the Prince of Brazil, and the exhibition of his portrait under a canopy. The scene then represented the Elysian fields, where, in the pitiable style of operatic invention, Glory, and Posterity, and Camoens, and the Great Constable, Nuno Alvares Pereira, with sundry other Lusitanian worthies, recitatived in praise of Lord Wellington, Lord Beresford, and the Portugueze and British armies; and down came angels and genii presenting illuminated scrolls, inscribed with the names of his victories.

♦Relaxed discipline of the Portugueze army.♦

The Portugueze army was, at this time, reproved by Lord Beresford for its want of discipline during the late retreat, in terms not less severe than those of Lord Wellington’s letter. Certain officers were suspended for scandalous neglect and total disregard of their duties: and it was stated, that, in every instance, complaints had been made by the commandants of corps or brigades, of inactivity and want of zeal in the officers of all those corps which had suffered extraordinary loss during the retreat. That such losses were occasioned by the negligence of the officers was proved by the fact, that other corps in the same marches, and under the same circumstances, difficulties, and privations, had none of their men missing; the officers of those corps were named with due praise. Marshal Beresford added, he deemed it important to remind the army, that with all the reasons which he had (and he was happy to say that he had every reason) for praising the conduct of the Portugueze officers, when they were in presence of an enemy, and exposed to fire, valour, nevertheless, was not the only thing needful; firmness and constancy were equally so for supporting the reverses, and fatigues, and privations, to which a military life is subject; and if the officers did not yield under such circumstances, the soldiers certainly would not; for no soldier, and especially no Portugueze soldier, ever would be backward in any thing when his officer set him an example; nor would ever commit any fault or manifest any discontent, so long as he saw his officer doing his duty under the same circumstances, and setting him an example of courage, firmness, and constancy. One of the army surgeons had been brought before a court-martial for neglecting the sick and wounded under his care, while they were in the hospital at Madrid. He was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment, and the loss of a month’s pay. Marshal Beresford, in confirming the sentence, expressed his disapprobation of it; a punishment so little in proportion to the crime, he said, was not likely to impress persons who had neither the proper feelings of men or of Christians; for what could be more horrible, than to see men who had been wounded in the service of their Prince and of their country, or whose health had been broken in that service, neglected by one who had received rank, honour, and pay, for the express intent of making him more attentive in his treatment of them? What could be worse than that such a person should be found preferring his own ease, or interest, or temporary convenience, to his duty towards his God, and his Prince, and his fellow-creatures, and leaving them either to perish through his neglect, or to fall into the hands of the enemy?

♦January.♦

The consequences of the retreat were severely felt; in January, more than a third of the British army were on the sick list, fever being the principal disease, which want of clothing had, with fatigue, contributed to produce, and want of cleanliness to propagate. In personal appearance and in clothing, the British troops were at this time much worse than the Portugueze. But supplies of every kind, as well as large reinforcements, were received during the winter, no time being lost, and no care neglected. The infantry had suffered so much from want of cover, that they were now provided with tents, three for each company, and these were borne by the animals which used before to carry the camp kettles, tin kettles being substituted for iron ones, ... one to six men, and light enough for the men to carry it by turns on their knapsacks. Tents were not thought necessary for the cavalry, because not being either heated or exhausted so much in their marches, they were better able to stand the cold at night.

♦Buonaparte withdraws troops from Spain.♦

While the British force in the Peninsula was increased, and the Spanish rendered more available than it had been in any former campaign, that of the French was weakened; the enormous loss which Buonaparte had suffered in Russia, and the obstinate ambition with which he kept large garrisons in the north of Germany, rendering it necessary for him to withdraw troops from Spain. From 10 to 20,000 repassed the Pyrenees; not fewer than 140,000 were still left, ... good troops, well-officered, and under commanders of high reputation and approved skill. But both officers and men had had their confidence abated; the generals felt that even the resources of the conscription were exhaustible; and as little hope, when they considered the present state of their Emperor’s fortunes, could be entertained of subjugating the Spaniards, the object upon which all seemed to be most intent was that of enriching themselves by plunder, while it was still in their power ♦Exactions of the French.♦ to do so. M. Suchet left scarcely one picture of any value in Valencia, either in the convents, churches, or private houses; and that city was thus deprived of the finest works of Juanes, ... works which, precious as they are, were there enhanced in value by the local and religious feeling with which his fellow-citizens regarded the productions of their saintly painter. There and everywhere contributions were imposed and exacted in a manner which made it apparent that the Intrusive government treated them now not as subjects who were to be taxed, but as enemies from whom all that could be extorted was to be taken. Their operations on the side of New Castille and Leon were at this time confined to periodical circuits for the purpose of enforcing the payment of contributions. On the side of the Tagus they fortified the right bank of the river, repaired the Puente del Arzobispo, and occupied Almaraz, though they did not restore the bridge there.

♦Longa acts successfully against the enemy. Nov. 28.♦

Meantime the Spaniards were not idle. Longa surprised General Fromant in the valley of Sedano, when returning to Burgos with the requisitions which he had collected, and with sixty respectable householders whom he was taking away as hostages for the contribution: the hostages were rescued, Fromant with about 700 of his men killed, and nearly 500 taken prisoners. A party of the enemy had entered Bilbao, these also he surprised, and they suffered the loss of 200 men; then making for Salinas de Anaña, which was the strongest hold of the French in that district, he besieged it with 2500 men and five pieces of artillery, and after three days, the remainder of the garrison, consisting of 250, surrendered at discretion. This so dismayed the enemy that they abandoned Nauclares and Armiñon, which he was proceeding to attack, and both fortresses were demolished by his orders. His next object was the Fuerte del Cubo de Pancorbo, a post of importance for its situation, and for the care with which it had been strengthened; here too the garrison were made prisoners and the fort demolished. Caffarelli meantime was vainly besieging Castro, where he suffered some loss, and found it necessary to give up the attempt, that he might check Longa in his career of success. That active partizan was now threatening Breviesca; he eluded Caffarelli and Palombini when they moved against him, and retreating to Zovalina, there to refresh his troops, ordered his retreat so well that they were uncertain what direction he had taken; Caffarelli therefore reinforced his garrisons, and repairing to Vittoria himself, left Palombini at Poza with 3000 foot and 300 horse to protect the high road, and be ready to act against Longa. ♦Feb. 13.♦ But while a third of that force was detached to levy contributions, Longa surprised the remainder at daybreak: their collected plunder and some 300 prisoners fell into his hands, and they suffered a further loss of between two and three hundred in killed and wounded. The approach of their detachment, and of a large body on its way from Burgos to Vittoria, then rendered it necessary for him to retire.

While Longa thus harassed the enemy in the north of ♦Mina’s movements.♦ Spain, Mina was assailing them with his wonted activity in Navarre and Aragon. The English landed two 12-pounders for him in the Deva, together with clothing, ammunition, and other things of which he was in need; 600 of his men were ready to receive and escort these. The French endeavoured to intercept them, and were repulsed in the attempt; and Mina was no sooner possessed of the guns than he attacked the enemy in Tafalla, where they had a garrison of 400 men. General ♦Feb. 11.♦ Abbé moved to relieve it with all the disposable force from Pamplona; but he was beaten back by a part of Mina’s force which had been left to observe that city, and on the fifth day of the siege the garrison surrendered as prisoners of war. The wounded he sent under an escort to Pamplona; destroyed the fort at Tafalla, and the works, ... also a Franciscan Convent, and an old palace in which the French might have established a garrison; and he demolished in like manner two other such edifices at Olite, that the road might be clear between Pamplona and Tudela. From Tafalla he proceeded to Sos in Upper Aragon, a fort which the enemy had occupied more than three years, and fortified sufficiently as long as the Spaniards could bring no guns against it. They were on the point of surrendering after a four days’ siege, when General Paris arrived from Zaragoza and carried off the garrison, leaving the fort half ruined: Mina completed its demolition, and by this enterprise laid open the road between Pamplona and Jaca. Shortly after, Fermin de Leguia, who was under ♦Feb. 20.♦ his orders, ventured, without instructions, upon an adventure which was executed as boldly as it ♦March 11.♦ was designed. With only fifteen men, being the whole of his party, he approached the castle of Fuenterrabia in the night, scaled the wall with one man by the help of spikes and ropes which supplied the place of a ladder, surprised the sentinel, got possession of the keys, opened the gates for his men, and took eight artillerymen prisoners, while the remainder of the garrison, who dreamt of no danger, were sleeping in the town. He then spiked the guns, threw into the sea all the ammunition which he could not carry away, set fire to the castle, and though pursued by the enemy retreated without loss. Mina was heard of next at Lodosa, where he attacked a detachment of 1000 French, few of whom ♦March 29.Caffarelli recalled from Spain.♦ escaped, 635 being made prisoners. Caffarelli had at this time been called to France, giving up the command in the north to Clausel; that able general hoped to signalize himself by destroying an indefatigable enemy who had baffled the efforts of all his predecessors; and this was the first proof which he made of that enemy’s ability. Mina next attempted to intercept a convoy which was going from Tolosa to Pamplona; the convoy was alarmed in time, but the attempt led to an affair with Abbé’s force, in which the French retired with the loss of full 300 men.

♦Clausel endeavours to hunt Mina down.♦

Clausel had left a considerable garrison in Puente la Reyna, well fortified for the sort of war which they might have to sustain; and an advanced post of 50 men at Mendigorria, in an old church of S. Maria, which they had fortified. While he was in pursuit of Mina from Estella, and Abbé from Pamplona, their skilful antagonist led them to suppose that he was in the valley of Berrueza, ... then making a rapid counter-march with one of his regiments, appeared in Mendigorria. The garrison at Puente outnumbered him both in horse and foot, but they did not ♦April 21.♦ venture to interrupt him in his operations; and he set fire to the church. The French had no other resource than to ascend the tower, and fire upon them from thence. He sent a trumpet to offer terms, but they would not allow him to approach, either in the confident expectation of being succoured from Puente, or because they were confounded by the situation in which they found themselves; for the smoke and the flames distressed them so dreadfully, that in the course of half an hour, they prepared to let themselves down by ropes; but Mina ordered ladders to the roof of the church, from whence they descended, and were made prisoners. The Guerrilla chief, now Camp-Marshal in the regular service, took credit to himself for sparing their lives when by the laws of war they had placed them at his mercy: by this time indeed both the invaders and the Spaniards in Navarre had found it their interest to revert to the humanities of civilized warfare. His own hospital was in the valley of Roncal, and from the combined movements of Clausel and Abbé he inferred that it was their intention to deprive him of that retreat, the only one which there was for his wounded and invalids. Not being strong enough to resist the force which was now brought against him, he removed all who were in a condition to bear removal, and left the others to the enemy’s mercy, calling to mind no doubt with satisfaction his own recent conduct at Tafalla and Mendigorria: as he had hoped, the men were humanely treated by General Abbé, though the hospital effects were destroyed, and Isaba, which had been deserted by its inhabitants, was set on fire, and 150 houses burnt. Clausel employed the months of April and May in endeavouring to hunt this formidable enemy down, of whom in an intercepted letter to the Intruder, he said, that he would be Lord of Navarre unless it were occupied by a corps of from 20 to 25,000 men; because when he was weak he always avoided an action, and fell upon detachments when he was sure of victory. In the course of this attempt the loss which his own men sustained from fatigue far exceeded any that he inflicted upon Mina’s hardy troops, who were intimately acquainted with the country, and accustomed to the hair-breadth scapes of such campaigns. At no time, however, was so much apprehension entertained for Mina’s safety, though he himself relied with his wonted confidence upon his resources and his fortune, now too not without certain knowledge that his pursuers would soon be called off to a contest which for them would be of a far more serious kind.

♦Renovales made prisoner.♦

On the side of Biscay the enemy were more successful; they surprised and captured Renovales, with six of his officers, at Carvajalez de Zamora; and Castro, from which Caffarelli had been repulsed, was taken by General Foy, after a siege of eighteen days. The Governor Don Pedro Pablo Alvares ♦Castro de Urdiales taken by Gen. Foy.♦ discharged his duty to the utmost, and the Lyra, Royalist, and Sparrow sloops of war, and the Alphea schooner, under Captain Bloye, assisted in the defence. Foy brought all the force which he could collect against it, and proceeded as if he hoped to strike the province as well as the garrison with terror, ... for he offered no terms, and seemed determined to take the place by storm, let it cost what it would. When he had made a breach wide enough to admit twenty men abreast, he turned his guns on the town and castle, and threw shells incessantly at the bridge that connected the ♦May 11.♦ castle with the landing-place, hoping thus to cut off the retreat of the garrison, which at the commencement of the siege consisted of 1200 men. At noon the enemy entered in great numbers through the breach and by escalade in various parts; the garrison when they could no longer defend the town retreated into the castle, the ships’ boats were in readiness to receive them, and they were embarked by companies under a tremendous fire of musquetry, two companies remaining to defend the castle, till the last gun was thrown into the sea. Every soldier was brought off, and many of the inhabitants, and landed at Bermeo on the following day. The town was burnt. Foy indeed acted in the spirit of ♦Enormities committed there by the French.♦ his Portugueze campaign; as he had offered no terms he showed no mercy, but when the town was entered put the defenders to the bayonet without distinction. It had been well if the wickedness of the enemy had ended there; but in one of their unsuccessful attacks many of their men had been pushed down a ravine by their fellows while pressing forward to the charge, the bridge by which they expected to cross having been destroyed by the English; and because the inhabitants had not informed them of the destruction of this bridge, they butchered men and women, sparing none, and inflicting upon them cruelties which nothing but a devilish nature could devise.

Little attempt was made on the enemy’s part to annoy the allies during the winter and spring. Foy, with 1500 infantry and 100 horse, had endeavoured, in February, to surprise the post at Bejar, but was promptly repulsed; and the French in the same month advanced from Orbigo and Castro Gondoles as far as Astorga and Manzanal in one direction, and to the Puebla de Sanabria and Mombuey in another, the Gallician army retreating before them, and then resuming their former position when the enemy in their turn had retired. Much greater activity was shown in plundering the inhabitants; and this kind of war, wherein there could be no resistance, was carried on so shamelessly, that the Intruder, it was said, deemed it necessary to call one of the generals to account.

Clausel was of opinion that an error had been committed in not concentrating their forces more upon the Ebro, which might have been done, he said, without abandoning Castille, and this error, he feared, they should find cause to repent. But the Intruder’s council had determined upon taking the Douro for their line of defence; and with this view they threw up works on the right bank at every assailable point, relying, as Soult had formerly done at Porto, upon the security which that deep ♦M. Soult called from Spain.♦ and rapid river might afford them. Marshal Soult had been called away in March to take part in the campaign in Germany. The head-quarters of what had been his army were removed from Toledo to Madrid early in April, and Toledo was abandoned; but troops were kept at Illescas, and reconnoissances made by the cavalry towards Escalona, the Alberche, and Añobes del Tajo, apprehending some movement of Sir Rowland’s army in this direction. The ♦The Intruder goes to Valladolid.♦ Intruder, leaving that capital to which he was never to return, removed his court, or rather his head-quarters, to Valladolid, where the Palace Gardens were put in order for his recreation, and some defensive works constructed. On the 11th of April, General Hugo, who had been left with the command in Madrid, informed the Ayuntamiento that the troops were about to depart, and that they must take measures for preserving tranquillity and guarding the public buildings, civil and military. The most precious articles in the cabinet of natural history were sent off, with whatever else could be removed from the other public establishments, and all arrears of contribution were exacted with the utmost rigour. Beasts enough were not left in Madrid for the scavengers’ use, so that the inhabitants were ordered to collect the sweepings of the streets into the squares, and there burn what used to be carried into the country for manure. The people of that poor capital had always clung to the hope of deliverance with a strength of belief which characterizes the nation, and in the movements of their oppressors they now saw reasonable ground for expecting that it could not be long delayed.

♦Anglo-Sicilian army.♦

The pride of the French too had been at this time abated on the eastern coast, where Suchet had hitherto boasted of success in all his undertakings. Major-General William Clinton arrived at Alicante in November to take the command from which his health had compelled General Maitland to retire; and notwithstanding the difficulties which were opposed by a false point of honour, by a jealousy as ill-founded as it was ill-timed, and perhaps by treasonable intentions, he succeeded in obtaining consent to garrison the castle with British troops. In December a reinforcement of 4000 men, British and foreign, arrived from Palermo, under Major-General James Campbell, who by seniority superseded General Clinton in the command, which he was to hold till the then hourly expected arrival of Lord William Bentinck from Sicily. But Lord William was detained by political circumstances in that island, where the hopeless attempt had been undertaken of improving a government before any improvement has been effected either in those who are to govern or be governed; and, ♦Sir John Murray takes the command.♦ as no end could be seen to this delay, Lieutenant-General Sir John Murray was sent out from England to command the allied forces in that part of Spain. Feeble as that allied force was, and inert as its feebleness had compelled it to be, it had yet employed Suchet’s attention during the autumn and winter.

That general had his head-quarters for the most part at San Felippe, between Alicante and Valencia, and about three leagues from the Xucar. Some trivial affairs were all that occurred, till Sir John Murray soon after his arrival took the army out of its cantonments, apparently with the view of making the French marshal fall back and concentrate his forces on that river. After an unsuccessful attempt at surprising an enemy’s detachment in the populous village of Alcoy, he moved forward and took up a position near the town of Castalla, where in the preceding summer Don Joseph O’Donnell had sustained a severe defeat. While Sir John made ♦Defeat of Elio’s corps.♦ this movement on the right, General Elio with a separate Spanish corps of 12,000 men moved on the left to Yecla, Villena, and the flat country in that direction. There was an old castle in Villena, and Elio garrisoned it with 800 of his best troops. Suchet was not a man to lose any opportunity which was presented him: he saw that one of Elio’s divisions had taken post at Yecla, within reach of Fuente-la-Higuera, where his own advance was placed, and too far from that of the allies which was at Villena, 25 miles distant. During the night he collected the flower of his army at Fuente-la-Higuera, and marched with one division, the cavalry and the reserve, upon Villena, while, with the other part of his force, General Harispe proceeded rapidly to Yecla, ♦April 12.♦ unseen by the Spaniards. At break of day he came in sight of them; they retreated from one position to another, but were out-manœuvred and beaten, and after losing some four or five hundred men, 1200 laid down their arms.

♦Suchet marches against the Anglo-Sicilian army.♦

On the afternoon of the same day, Suchet was seen advancing within a few miles of Villena, which is about two leagues to the westward of Castalla. Sir John Murray immediately withdrew the Majorcan division from Alcoy, and concentrating his force, occupied the strong position of Castalla. His left, consisting of that division, was placed on the rocky and almost inaccessible hills south of the town, ... the range terminating there. Major-General Mackenzie’s division, and the 58th regiment from Lieutenant-General Clinton’s occupied the town, and the ground to the right; here and in front of the castle some redoubts and batteries had been constructed. The remainder of the position was covered by a strong ravine which rendered it almost inaccessible on that side; and there Lieutenant-General Clinton was stationed, supported by three battalions of General Roche’s division as a column of reserve. The position was well taken. The second battalion of the 27th foot, the 1st Italian regiment, and the Calabrian free corps, had on the first alarm been pushed forward beyond Villena, under Colonel Adam, and with them a detachment of cavalry commanded by Colonel Lord Frederick Bentinck. The object of this movement was to observe the enemy’s motions: it brought on a cannonade, and the French endeavoured to break in upon our troops, and enter Villena pell-mell with them; but Colonel Adam, following his instructions, fell back upon Biar without loss. Sir John, being now assured that Suchet meditated a serious movement, urged General Elio to withdraw his 800 men from Villena, where the castle, in its imperfect state of defence, was not tenable against such an enemy; but the Spanish general was not to be persuaded. The French entered Villena that evening, pushing their light troops beyond ♦April 12.♦ it towards Biar; and on the morrow the commandant surrendered at the first summons, and he and his battalion were made prisoners of war.

In the afternoon, Suchet advanced in force towards Biar; which village is situated at the entrance of a strong pass, in a range of hills running nearly parallel with the position of the allies. About four o’clock he commenced a serious attack upon Colonel Adam’s detachment. That officer’s orders were to fall back upon Castalla, but to dispute the pass; and this he did for five hours against a very superior force, with the utmost gallantry and skill; till being overpowered by numbers, and having both flanks turned, he retreated then to the pass, and took the place which had been allotted to him in the position, on the high ground to the left of Castalla, having in this unequal conflict both inflicted and sustained very considerable loss. Two mountain guns fell into the enemy’s hands; they could not be brought off, because they were disabled; Colonel Adam therefore directed Captain Arabin to fight them to the last, and then abandon them. Before day closed, the French were seen in great force on the road to Biar, and on the hills opposite the position; but darkness prevented any farther operations for ♦Battle of Castalla. April 13.♦ the night. At daybreak they were perceived in great numbers along the defile of Biar, and in the plain ground which separates it from the hills near Castalla; and in the course of the morning they posted several large masses of infantry, as if in preparation for a decided attack. Their success against Elio’s corps had increased their confidence; and they had accustomed themselves to speak of this army as composed of the rabble of the allied nations, and to talk of driving them into the sea.

About one, they pushed forward a large column of cavalry to the village of Onil, about two miles in front of Castalla, and this movement was continued parallel to the front of the allies, until nearly opposite the right of the position. Sir John Murray had foreseen this: the ground was unfavourable for cavalry, and no notice was taken of the movement. Three masses of infantry at the same time moved rapidly from their right, crossed the plain ground in front of the pass, and with a gallantry, which, in the words of the British general, entitled them to the highest praise, commenced an attack on the centre and the left. The left had been weakened; for about an hour before the attack, General Whittingham had been ordered, with the three regiments which he had in position there, to make a reconnoissance upon the enemy’s right flank; but this was the key of the position; and the consequence of thus weakening it might have been disastrous if Colonel D. Julian Romero had not opportunely arrived there with two regiments from Alcoy. Upon this point, from whence more than half its force had been withdrawn, the main attack was made; and notwithstanding the difficult approach to it, the assailants gained ground. The Spaniards, who had expended all their cartridges, were observed to be retiring, and the enemy moving in considerable force to the left of our centre. The moment was critical. Just as the assailants had gained the summit, Colonel Adam, whom they were proceeding to attack in front, prevented them, and giving them no time to recover breath after the exertion of such an ascent, charged and overthrew their column, killing, wounding, or taking prisoner, during the pursuit, almost every man opposed to his brigade. The Spaniards resumed their ground. Whittingham too had no sooner apprehended the intention of the enemy, than he returned with all speed, and arrived in time to take part in the action, in which, and in the pursuit, the Spaniards distinguished themselves. The total failure of the enemy here seemed to be felt along their whole line of attack; they retreated every where. The cavalry, which had now advanced toward the front of the allies, fell rapidly back on perceiving this unexpected reverse, and entered the defile in such confusion, that had the advantage been vigorously pursued, a signal victory might, in all likelihood, have been obtained. Suchet, having united his broken battalions with those which he kept in reserve, took up a hasty position at the entrance of the defile. Sir John Murray, still retaining the height, moved a considerable part of his army into the plain, and formed it in front of the enemy, within cannon-shot, his right flank covered with the cavalry, his left resting on the hills. In this state, Marshal Suchet thought that the English did not choose to make an attack, and Sir John Murray, that the French did not choose to wait for one; ... for the line of the allies was scarcely formed when the enemy began their retreat, and continued it through the night, the action terminating at dusk with a distant cannonade.

The French had 18,000 infantry in the field, and 1600 cavalry: the allies were not much inferior in infantry; but greatly so in horse. The loss of the allies was 670 killed, wounded, and missing, the greater number of the killed being Spaniards: 800 of the enemy were left dead in front of the line which they had attacked: no prisoners were taken except such as were wounded; but Suchet sent 2000 of Elio’s soldiers prisoners to Tortosa on their way to France, and represented that his success on the one part of the operations balanced his failure on the other. If this had been the case numerically, which it was not, it was far otherwise in reputation. He had suffered a mortifying defeat; but what must most have tended to console him for it was, his satisfaction at perceiving that there was no intention on the part of the allies to pursue their victory. He retreated that night to Villena through Biar, where he left many dead and dying. Sir John, on the following day, marched his army in two columns to Alcoy, hoping (though with little confidence in that hope) that he might force the strong pass of Albayda, and reach the intrenched position of the enemy at S. Felippe before they could; this he thought better than a direct pursuit, because the road which the French had taken was favourable for cavalry, and he was greatly inferior in that arm. In the vicinity of Alcoy he remained till the 17th, and then advanced with the whole army into the open country, to the foot of the Albayda pass, about a league in front of Alcoy. But this being a lateral movement, made after the enemy had so far the start as to have passed all that was perilous for him, and got into a strong country, with his forces collected and restored to order, was an unimportant demonstration which had no effect; and he returned after it to his position at Castalla.

Marshal Suchet had not been more successful in machinations of another kind. Before the battle of Castalla, an Italian regiment in the Anglo-Sicilian army had been corrupted, and would have betrayed its post in an attack concerted with that view, if a timely discovery had not been made. A scheme also had been formed for delivering Alicante into his hands; but this also was detected, and three of his emissaries suffered death for it at Alcoy. Frey Assensio Nebot, known as a Guerrilla chief, by the name of El Frayle, the Friar, had more than any other partizan annoyed the French in Valencia. His party was well organized, and provided with a regularity which was seldom to be found in the regular Spanish armies: so rigorous were the measures employed against him, that women were put to death for supplying him with means and intelligence; and at length it was affirmed, that three criminals who had been condemned to capital punishment obtained their lives, and the promise of a good reward, on condition of presenting themselves to the Friar as volunteers, and taking an opportunity to assassinate him. Mr. Tupper, who had been the British consul at Valencia, and whose zealous services were never wanting to the common cause, obtained information of this villany, and the Friar was thus put upon his guard.

♦Lord Wellington opens the campaign.♦

Lord Wellington was now prepared to open the campaign, and, for the first time, with such means as enabled him to act in full confidence of success. If the Anglo-Sicilian army should not achieve any signal service, he was yet assured that it would give sufficient employment to Suchet, so that the Intruder could look for no support from that side. The British force under his command consisted of 48,000 effective men; the Portugueze of about 28,000; the Galician of 18,000. The enemy were not inferior in number, and could more surely rely upon the whole of ♦May.♦ their troops; but the change in their Emperor’s fortune and in their own had been such, that they looked only to a defensive campaign, and trusted to their strong position on the Douro. In the middle of May Lord Wellington put his troops in motion. The cavalry which had wintered in the neighbourhood of Coimbra began their movement at the end of April: they went by the way of Porto to Braga, where they rested some days, and proceeding to Braganza, reached that place, which was the point of union for the left of the army, on the 22d of May. The left of the army under Sir Thomas Graham crossed the Douro in Portugal, between Lamego and the frontier. The siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in the preceding year could not have been undertaken unless that river had been rendered navigable far above the point to which the Portugueze barks formerly ascended: it had now been opened as high as to the mouth of the Agueda; and boats had been quietly collected at different points, without exciting any suspicion that they were ♦The left of the army crosses the Douro.♦ designed for the passage of the troops. Five divisions of infantry and two brigades of cavalry were thus placed upon the right bank of the Douro, while the enemy supposed that they had only to guard against an attempt from the left. The difficulties of the march were indeed very great; most of the roads are so narrow that carriages could barely pass between the thick walls which bounded them; and the mountain streams had their course in ravines, from whence the ascent is so laborious that sixty men could not without great exertion enable the horses to drag the artillery up. Nevertheless, hope and ardour overcame all difficulties; and the advantage which the troops derived from being provided with shelter was sensibly felt: out of a division of 6000 men, there were but 120 sick after a march of 250 miles, through such a country. When these were far on their way, Lord Wellington, with two divisions of British infantry, a Portugueze one under the Conde de Amarante, a Spanish one under Morillo, and some corps of cavalry, advanced from Ciudad Rodrigo by the direct road to Salamanca; the remainder of the army under Sir Rowland Hill moved upon the same point by Alba de Tormes.

The line of their retreat in November was still too evidently marked by the skeletons of the poor animals who had been worked to death in that cruel service. A division of infantry under General Villatte had been left in Salamanca, with some artillery, and three squadrons of horse. They evacuated the city upon the approach of the allies, but they lingered too long upon ♦May 26.Affair near Salamanca.♦ the high ground in its vicinity. When Lord Wellington was within half a league of Salamanca, he and his staff got upon a rocky height which commanded a full view of the city and adjacent country. Below him were his own videttes, and beyond them those of the enemy, each supported by piquets. To the right were the Arapiles, a name known only in topography before, but which had now a place in military history; and in the same direction, but more behind him, the heads of two columns, forming Sir Rowland’s division, were seen on two nearly parallel roads. Through a glass, the enemy were observed drawn up; two battalions and a squadron to the right of the city, near a ruined convent; two squadrons on the Tormes, near the bridge; half a squadron guarding the ford, about a mile above the city, near S. Martha; ... and behind the city a battalion in reserve. Villatte having barricadoed the bridge and the principal communications throughout the town, seemed to have thought himself sure of an easy retreat. The 1st German hussars, favoured by ground which concealed them from the enemy, inclined toward the ford, while the 14th light dragoons, keeping beyond the reach of fire, edged along the left bank of the river. The enemy appeared in some confusion, but remained stationary, as if waiting for something; and beyond the city, in the direction of Miranda de Duero and Zamora, their piquets were withdrawing, and mules and baggage joining them from all sides. It was now nearly ten in the forenoon, and the day very hot. The head of Sir Rowland’s right column, which consisted of cavalry, and a troop of horse artillery, under General Fane, were within two miles of S. Martha, marching for the ford: the enemy now began to move, first in the direction of Toro, but presently, as if wavering, bending to their right, they kept close to the Tormes, in the direction of Arevalo; and retired rapidly, but in good order, when Fane with his six squadrons had crossed the river. It was well for them that this cavalry was already jaded by a long march; but the horse artillery, as soon as, owing to the ravines and the intricacies of the ground, it could be brought into use, opened upon them with great effect, every shot going through their crowded ranks. They retired with extreme rapidity, but in excellent order, and the artillery pursued as quickly as a very deep country, occasionally intersected with hollow roads, would allow. When the enemy came to Aldea Lengua, there was an opportunity of attacking them with every probability of forcing them to lay down their arms; but strict orders had been given not to pass a ravine just by that village; and the moment (never to be regained in war) went by. When orders came to proceed, it was just too late; the pursuit however was continued, and some three miles beyond the village a charge was attempted by two squadrons, but feebly, for the horses were now far spent; the enemy formed into squares, and repulsed them by a volley, though with little loss. The pursuit was continued about three miles farther. Some of the French were taken, being unable to march farther from fatigue; and many threw away their knapsacks, and sacks full of biscuit, and of corn, but no troops under such circumstances could have behaved better; ... and some proofs were given of what better deserves to be called ferocious intrepidity than courage. One of their men who was severely wounded attempted to destroy himself; and another obstinately refusing to surrender when it was not possible for him to escape, compelled those who would fain have saved his life to cut him down. The affair ended in front of Aldea Rubia; a corps of infantry and cavalry retiring from Alba, when threatened by Major-General Long and by Morillo’s division, joined the enemy here; and Lord Wellington, as his infantry had not come up, recalled the troops from the pursuit. Above fourscore of the French lay dead on the road, and many fell among the standing corn: some 200 were made prisoners; and some baggage, ammunition, and provisions, with Villatte’s coach, were taken.

♦Passage of the Ezla.♦

During the two following days, Lord Wellington established the troops which had marched from the Agueda and Extremadura Alta between the Tormes and the Lower Douro. On the 29th he left Salamanca, and reached Miranda de Duero. The enemy had destroyed all the bridges upon the river except that at Zamora. Opposite Miranda there is a ferry, where this deep and rapid stream is from 80 to 100 yards wide, and the rocks on either side from 400 to 500 feet high. When it is so swoln that the ferry is impracticable, the only way by which travellers can cross is after the old Peruvian manner, in a sort of hammock or cradle, fastened to a rope, which is secured upon two projecting points of rock, about thirty feet above the ordinary level of the ♦Florez Esp. Sagrada, t. 16, p. 3.♦ water. Here Lord Wellington crossed, and on the following day joined Sir Thomas Graham’s corps at Carvajales on the Ezla. This river, which upon good grounds is believed to have been the Astura of the ancients, and in Leon is called the Rio Grande, descends from the Puertos de Asturias, passes by Mansilla to Benevente, near which town it receives the Cea from the east, and the larger river Orbigo from the west, and enters the Douro below Zamora. At daybreak on the 31st the troops began to ford: the enemy so little apprehended danger on that side, that they had only a piquet there, and thus no opposition was offered to a very difficult and perilous passage. The ford was intricate; the water nearly chin deep; the bottom rough and stony; and the stones large and loose. The hussar brigade began the passage, entering in a body; and as it was supposed that a village on the opposite hill was occupied by the enemy, and as it was necessary that some infantry should cross to support the advance of the hussars, each dragoon had a soldier holding by his stirrup. But this impeded the horses: alarmed both by, the stream and the unsafe footing, they became unmanageable and plunged forward: the men, who before could scarcely keep their feet against the force and weight of the stream, lost at once their footing and their hold; they were plunged into the water, their knapsacks overweighed them and kept them on their backs, and in this manner they struggled at the mercy of the current. There were, fortunately, three or four small islands just at this part; and by these most of the officers and men were stopped, but several valuable lives were lost. The hussars exerted themselves with exemplary humanity to assist the infantry, and one of their corporals lost his own life in the performance of this generous duty. In this way the 51st and the Brunswick Oel’s corps, as well as the cavalry, passed. Their orders were to ascend the hill and take the village: the enemy’s piquet were made prisoners. A pontoon bridge was then thrown across, and the remainder of the corps passed over.

♦June.♦

The French seem now for the first time to have comprehended Lord Wellington’s plan, and found themselves out-manœuvred by an enemy to whom they had hitherto allowed no credit for any thing except courage, and that only because they had been so often beaten by them that it was no longer for their own credit to deny it. No sooner were they menaced by the advance of the columns than they destroyed the bridge at Zamora, and retired from that city and from Toro. Both cities were entered by the allies; and at daybreak on the first of June the hussar brigade under Colonel Grant came up near Toro with the enemy’s rear-guard, who retired rapidly to the village of Morales, in the direction of Tordesillas. After having been cannonaded by two guns, which were all that could be brought up in time through the deep sandy roads, the French formed behind the village. The hussars passed on both sides of the village, and instantly charged them; upon which they made off with all speed for a little bridge across a marshy bottom, faced about there, being supported by some guns belonging to their infantry, and stood a charge. They were worsted in it, but passed the bridge; part of the 10th hussars pursued, and Captain Lloyd advancing with great spirit, but few followers, was taken: they were again pressed, and retired hastily on the infantry, losing more than 200 prisoners in these affairs, and so many in killed and wounded, that the 16th regiment of dragoons was almost destroyed. Captain Lloyd was ill-treated by his captors; they beat him and rifled him, but left him in their retreat. Though the fighting was almost in the street of Morales, the Spaniards were now so accustomed to sights of war, that within ten minutes after the firing had ceased the women were spinning at their doors, and the little children at play as if nothing had happened.

♦Sir Rowland Hill crosses the Douro. June 3.♦

Lord Wellington halted at Toro, that the light division and the troops under Sir Rowland might cross the Douro by the bridge there, that his rear-guard might come up, and that the Galician army should unite itself with his left. The whole of the allied force was now on the right side of the Douro: leaving then half the reserve-ammunition near Zamora to spare the horses (which were already suffering), he proceeded: the French, whose force was distributed between Valladolid, Tordesillas, and Medina, retiring as he advanced, their rear crossing at the Puente de Duero, on the same day that the allies accomplished their first object in the campaign, by uniting on the right side of that river. The enemy now concentrated their force behind the Pisuerga: there also there was strong ground for defence; but abandoning that also when Lord Wellington manœuvred on their right, they withdrew behind the Carrion. The Intruder quitted Palencia on the 6th, and the greater part of his troops early on the following morning, after a night passed in the fear of close pursuit. When Lord Wellington entered that city, flowers were thrown upon him from the windows, and a shower of roses from the upper gratings of a nunnery. The enemy had not left a morsel of bread, nor a drop of wine in that city: and when they hastily retired from a bivouac near Tordesillas, leaving it to be occupied by a part of Sir Rowland’s corps, the fuel which the troops found collected there consisted of doors, window-frames, tables, and drawers, from the houses in the neighbourhood.

From the Ezla to Palencia the troops had marched through one continued track of corn, where villages were so thinly scattered, that it seemed unaccountable where the cultivators were to be found. The land was generally in wheat, with a fair proportion of barley, and here and there a crop of vetches and clover. They moved generally by two roads, and on each side of each at least twenty yards were trampled down. The horses were fed on green barley nearly the whole march. The intention of the British Government was to pay the inhabitants for whatever the army must of necessity take from them; and on the part of the Government, the full payment was in fact made: but little of that payment reached the poor people to whom it was due. For want of specie, the commissaries could pay upon the spot only in bills; to the peasantry these were worth no more than what the land-sharks who follow in the wake of an army chose to offer for them; and in this iniquitous manner large fortunes were amassed, ... a species of roguery which many of the Portugueze (though as a people the Portugueze are eminent for probity) were not slow in learning.

♦The French abandon Burgos.♦

The army crossed the Carrion on the 7th, following an enemy who seemed undetermined where to make a stand. On the 12th, Lord Wellington found it necessary after such rapid movements to halt his left, while the right under Sir Rowland advanced to reconnoitre the strength of the French, and the position which they had taken up near Burgos, where great pains had been taken to strengthen the fortifications of the castle. They were posted in considerable force on the heights to the left of the Hormaza, with their right above the village of that name, and their left in front of Estapar. Part of the allied force flanked them on their right, another marched against the heights of Hormaza, the remainder threatened those of Estapar; without waiting to be attacked they were dislodged, and retreated hastily for Burgos, suffering considerable loss from the horse artillery, and losing a gun and some prisoners, but retreating in the best order. More presence of mind indeed was shown by them hitherto in presence of the enemy, and in action, than in their counsels. They posted themselves on the left of the Arlanzon and of the Urbel, which were then greatly swoln with rains: but in the night they retreated into the city, and hurrying from it, blew up the castle early in the morning, about an hour after the Intruder had left it. They seemed to have been aware that there was no longer any hope of recovering their ascendancy, and to have intended to bring upon the city a destruction which should prevent the inhabitants from rejoicing in their deliverance. But the hurry, and fear, and confusion, with which their preparations were made defeated this malignant purpose. Several mines failed; some which were primed did not explode; others were so ill managed that they blew the earth inwards: and as the explosion took place some hours sooner than was intended, the destruction which was intended for their enemies fell in part upon themselves. Many of their men who were lingering to plunder perished as they were loading their horses with booty in the streets and squares, and three or four hundred were blown up in the fort. Above 1000 shells had been placed in the mines: the explosion was distinctly heard at the distance of fifty miles; and the pavement of the cathedral was covered with the dust into which its windows had been shivered by the shock. The town escaped destruction owing to the failure of so many of the mines, but the castle was totally destroyed, ... gates, beams, masses of masonry, guns, carriages, and arms lying in one heap of ruins; ... some of the mines had laid open the breaches, and exposed the remains of those who had fallen during the siege.

♦The Ebro.♦

The object of the enemy now was to occupy a position behind the Ebro, blocking up the great road by placing a garrison in the castle of Pancorbo, and calling to their assistance the corps from Biscay, Navarre, and Aragon. But Lord Wellington, repeating the manœuvre which had before so perfectly succeeded, had already sent his left column to effect its passage in a quarter from whence they apprehended no danger. The Ebro rises in the mountains of Santillana, its principal source being at the northern extremity of Old Castille, towards the Asturian frontier, near a town which from that cause is called Fontibre. The Sierra de Oca prevents it from trending westward, like the other great rivers of Spain; and at Miranda de Ebro, the point at which the Intruder had instructed the different divisions of his army to make for with all speed, it appears nearly as large a stream as at Tortosa, though in the course of the intervening sixty leagues it receives many and large rivers, one of them the Aragon, of such magnitude, that it is called the husband (el varou) of the Ebro. While the remainder of the army were pushing the enemy back ♦Passage of the Ebro by the allies.♦ upon Burgos, the left column had been detached to effect its passage above Frias by the bridges of S. Martin and Rocamunde: the road thither had been deemed impracticable for carriages, and on that supposed impracticability the enemy relied; but the confidence of the British General was partaken by his army, and well seconded by them in all ways; exertions which nothing but zeal and eager hope could have accomplished were made; and the artillery was lowered down the steep banks of the river where there were none to offer any resistance. The French had calculated not without reason on the line of the Ebro, if they had had foresight or been allowed leisure to occupy it. The road begins to descend the mountains about three miles from the right bank, and for more than half that way winds down a continued defile, which admits only eight or ten men abreast, and being withal tremendously steep, is so paved that horses can scarcely keep their feet there. Another such defile, and of greater length, is to be passed on the opposite side. A few ditches cut across the route, a few trees placed as barricadoes, a rock blown up to block the pass, a hundred or two of men to defend it, and to roll stones from the crags and precipices above, might have stopped any force that attempted the passage. The left column crossed on the 14th, the remainder of the army on the 15th, at the same points and by the Puente de Arenas, and on the following day they moved to the right, in the direction of Vittoria.

♦The French fall back upon Vittoria.♦

They knew at this time little of the enemy, not even who commanded their united force, whether Marshal Jourdan or General Gazan, the Intruder’s command being of course merely nominal; it was thought that their intention was to have given battle upon the main road, near Briviesca; but this alone was certain, that their plans had been disconcerted by Lord Wellington’s movements and sudden advance, and that they were in that state of irresolution which prepares even the best soldiers for defeat. On the 16th and 17th they assembled a considerable force near Espejo, composed of troops which had been employed against Longa and Mina, and of others detached from the main body of their army. They had also a division of infantry, with some cavalry, at Frias, to observe the movements of the allies after the passage of the Ebro. These detachments, in all about 16,000 men, moved on the 18th, those from Frias upon S. Millan, and those from Espejo upon Osma. The light division, under Major-General Alten, drove them from S. Millan, and cut off the brigade of their rear-guard, of whom it killed and wounded many, took 300 prisoners, with a considerable quantity of baggage, and dispersed the rest among the mountains, ... from thence to be brought in by the peasants and the guerrillas. Sir Thomas Graham arrived at Osma at the same time with the enemy’s corps; they were considerably superior in numbers, nevertheless they retired as soon as an intention was shown of attacking them: presently they returned briskly, as if to become assailants in their turn, but their reception was not such as to encourage them, and they once more retired towards Espejo, and being followed thither, withdrew to the heights. The enemy’s head-quarters were that day at Pancorvo. During the night they moved from thence towards Vittoria; and on the following day their rear-guard was found strongly posted, having its right covered by the village of Subijana, and its left upon the heights in front of ♦June 19.♦ Pobes. The light division attacked them in flank on the right, Sir Lowry Cole with the 4th in front, and they were driven back upon their main force, of which a view was then obtained, but no correct judgment could be formed of its numbers, because they were in part concealed by the mountains, and a thick rain was falling during the whole day. On that night they took up a position in front of Vittoria.

♦Vittoria.♦

This city, which is now the capital of the province of Alava, and stands in a valley, bounded on one side by a part of the Pyrenees, and on the other by a range of bold though inferior mountains, was founded in 1181 by Sancho VII. of Navarre, a king distinguished by the appellations of the Wise and the Valiant. There had been a village called Gasteiz on the site; Sancho thinking it a good situation for a fortress which might check the incursions of his Castillian neighbours ♦Garchay, L. 24, cap. 13. pp. 187–8.♦ on that side, rebuilt, peopled and fortified it, and gave his new town the name of Victoria, in memorial of some now forgotten victory obtained in that vicinity over them. Juan II. of Castille made it a city. It is now divided into the old and new towns, the latter being the larger and better part of what in peaceful times was a populous, industrious, and prosperous place, containing more than a thousand houses, and twice that number in the suburbs.

♦Position of the French army.♦

In front of this city the enemy had taken their position, under the nominal command of the Intruder, but actually commanded by Marshal Jourdan, as the Major-General of the army. Their left rested upon the heights which terminated at the Puebla de Arlanza; and they had a reserve in rear of their left, at the village of Gomecha: their centre extended along a range of strong heights on the left bank of the Zadorra, its right resting on a circular hill that commands the valley to which that river gives name; this hill they had covered with infantry, flanked and defended with several brigades of guns; their right was in advance of the river, above the village of Abechuco, to defend the passage. This position, extending about eight miles, covered the three great roads which from Bilbao, Logroño, and Madrid, converge upon Vittoria; it crossed also the main road to Bayonne, upon which immense convoys were seen, moving towards France with the last harvest and the last gleanings of their plunder. The city was filled with others awaiting their turn for departure. It is remarkable that, within sight of this ground, the battle of Najara was fought, in which Edward the Black Prince, acting as the ally of a bad man, defeated the best troops of France under their most distinguished leader Bertram du Guesclin, who was come in support of a worse. It is also remarkable that the Prince of Brazil, before the battle of Vittoria was fought, should have conferred the title of Duque da Victoria upon Lord Wellington.

Lord Wellington halted his columns on the 20th, in order to close them up, for since reaching the Ebro they had necessarily been extended, because of the nature of the country: only the 6th division was left at Medina de Pomal to cover the march of supplies from the rear. That day he made a close reconnoissance of the enemy’s position in every part, with the determination of attacking them on the following morning, if they should continue there. There was little disparity of numbers between the two armies, each having from 70 to 75,000 men. Lord Wellington instantly perceived that the position, though in most respects well chosen, was too confined, that it showed an inconsiderable front, and was liable to be taken in flank.

♦Battle of Vittoria.♦

At daybreak on the 21st of June the allied army was put in motion. The right under Sir Rowland, consisting of the second British division, the Conde de Amarante’s Portugueze division, and Morillo’s Spanish corps, was to commence the action by attacking the heights of La Puebla, upon which the enemy’s left rested. Sir Thomas Graham with the left, composed of the 1st and 5th divisions, Generals Pack and Bradford’s brigades of infantry, Generals Bock and Anson’s brigades of horse, and Longa’s Spanish division, was directed to turn their right by a wide movement, and, crossing the Zadorra, to cut off their retreat by the road to Bayonne. As soon as either of these corps should be in a situation to manœuvre on the other side the river, the centre, consisting of the 3d, 4th, 7th, and light divisions, in two columns, was to advance, and the whole then push forward on the city, and attack it simultaneously in front and in flank, ... whereby the French would be compelled either to abandon it and their precious convoys, or risk a battle in the hope of preserving them. The Spaniards, under Morillo, began the action, and attacked the heights with great gallantry; their leader was wounded, but remained in the field; the enemy stood firm, and made great efforts to retain their ground, perceiving when too late, that they had neglected to occupy it in sufficient strength. Strong reinforcements were sent from their centre to its support, so that Sir Rowland found it necessary to detach thither, first, the 71st regiment, and the light infantry battalions of Major-General Walker’s brigade, and successively other troops; the contest was very severe, and the loss considerable. Here the Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Cadogan was mortally wounded, an officer, in Lord Wellington’s words, “of great zeal and tried gallantry, who had acquired the respect and regard of the whole profession, and of whom it might have been expected, that if he had lived he would have rendered the most important services to his country.” At length the enemy were driven at the point of the bayonet from these heights; and under the cover which the possession of this ground afforded, Sir Rowland crossed the Zadorra at La Puebla, passed the difficult defile, two miles in length, which is formed by the heights and the river, and then attacked and won the village of Sabijana de Alva, which covered the left of the enemy’s lines. They on their part made repeated attempts to regain this important point, and with that hope drew from their centre a considerable force; again and again they endeavoured to recover the village, but their efforts, though bravely and perseveringly made, were unsuccessful.

The difficult nature of the country delayed the communication between the different columns, and it was late before Lord Wellington knew that the 3d and 7th divisions, under the Earl of Dalhousie, had arrived at their appointed station. The 4th and the light divisions, however, crossed the Zadorra immediately after Sir Rowland had gained possession of Sabijana, the former at the bridge of Nanclares, the latter at the Tres Puentes; almost at the same time the Earl of Dalhousie’s column arrived at Mendonza, and the 3rd division, under Sir Thomas Picton, charged and took the bridge higher up, and crossed and was followed by the 7th. These bridges the enemy ought to have destroyed, but from the beginning of the campaign a want of foresight had been manifested in all their operations, though when in action their generals displayed the habitual promptitude of experienced commanders. The four divisions which had now crossed, and which formed the centre of the allied army, were destined to attack the heights on which the right of the enemy’s centre was placed, while Sir Rowland should move forward from Sabijana to attack the left. The French had lined those heights with artillery, which opened on the allies as soon as they attempted to advance from the river, and with so destructive a fire that it became necessary for them to halt and bring two brigades of guns to oppose it. Meantime the contest was maintained at Sabijana with great obstinacy; the enemy feeding their attacks from a wood, in which their troops were assembled in great force. But when a brigade which Sir Rowland had detached along a range of mountains to turn their flank appeared, and at the same time Sir Thomas Picton approached their front, they gave over their attempts to recover the village, and began to think rather of retreat than of a successful resistance. And when Sir Thomas pushed on to take the large circular hill in flank, while the fourth division moved simultaneously upon the village in the centre, their whole force prepared to fall back upon the town, retreating before the allies could close, but keeping up a hot fire from their artillery. The third division first came in contact with their columns, and by a gallant attack captured 28 of their guns which they had not time to draw into the road. The other divisions pressed them in front. At this moment both the winning and the losing game were played with equal skill, “the allies advancing by echellons of battalions, in two or three lines, according ♦Colonel Jones’s Account, 2. 158.♦ to the nature of the ground; and the French retiring before them in the most orderly manner, and taking advantage of every favourable opportunity to make a stand.” And here it happened, that General Colville’s brigade, which was on the left of the centre, and most in advance, became, by an accident of the ground, separated from its support; the enemy, who lost no opportunity in action, attacked it with a far superior force, but the brigade stood firm, though out of 1800 men it lost 550.

While the right and the centre, following up their success, were pushing the enemy back upon Vittoria, the left was advancing upon that town by the high road from Bilbao. Sir Thomas Graham with that column had been moved on the preceding evening to Margina, and had then so considerable a round to make, that it was ten o’clock before he began to descend into the plain. General Giron with the Spanish army had been detached to the left under a different view of the state of affairs; but having been recalled and reached Orduña on the yesterday, he marched from thence in the morning so as to be in readiness to support Sir Thomas Graham, if his support should be required. The enemy had a division of infantry and some cavalry advanced upon the Bilbao road, resting their right on some strong heights covering the village of Gamarra Mayor, and both that village and Abechuco were strongly occupied as têtes-du-pont to the bridges over the Zadorra at those places. The heights were attacked both in front and flank by Brigadier-General Pack’s Portugueze brigade, and Longa’s Spanish division, supported by Major-General Anson’s brigade of light dragoons, and the 5th division of infantry, all under the command of Major-General Oswald; and they were carried, both Spaniards and Portugueze behaving admirably. Longa then with little resistance got possession of Gamarra Menor, and the larger village of the same name was stormed and taken by Brigadier-General Robinson’s brigade of the 5th division, which advanced under a heavy fire of artillery and musketry without firing a shot: the enemy suffered severely there, and lost three pieces of cannon. Sir Thomas Graham then proceeded to attack the village of Abechuco with the 1st division; they formed a strong battery against it, under cover of which Colonel Halkett’s brigade advanced to the attack, supported by General Bradford’s brigade of Portugueze infantry. Three guns and a howitzer were taken on the bridge here, and the village was carried. While the contest at Abechuco continued, the enemy seeing their communication with Bayonne threatened, marched a strong body to their right in the hope of recovering Gamarra Mayor: they were driven back in confusion; made a second attempt, and were again repulsed, for Sir Thomas had loop-holed the houses in front of the bridge, placed artillery to flank the approach, and stationed several battalions concealed along the walls, and their fire repelled the enemy upon a third advance. But the French had two divisions of infantry in reserve upon the heights on the left of the Zadorra; Sir Thomas, therefore, could not cross the river with such a corps in front, till the troops which had moved upon the centre and the left of the French should have driven them through Vittoria. About six in the evening this was done, and the corps which held him in check retreated then lest it should be taken in rear. The left then crossed the Zadorra, took possession of the high road to Bayonne, and forced the right as well as the left centre of the enemy back into the Pamplona road; and now they were unable to hold any position long enough for drawing off their artillery and baggage. In the expressive language of an officer who bore his part in the victory, “they were beaten before the town, and in the town, and through the town, and out of the town, and behind the town, and all round about the town.” Every where they had been attacked, every where beaten, and now every where were put to utter rout. They themselves had in many actions made greater slaughter of a Spanish army, but never in any instance had they reduced an army, even of raw volunteers, to such a state of total wreck. Stores, baggage, artillery, every thing was abandoned; one gun and one howitzer only were they able to carry off, and the gun was taken before it could reach Pamplona. 151 pieces of brass ordnance on travelling carriages were taken; more than 400 caissons, more than 14,000 round of ammunition, and nearly two millions of musket-ball cartridges. The loss on the part of the allies consisted of 501 British killed, 2808 wounded: 150 Portugueze and 89 Spaniards killed, 899 and 466 wounded, ... the total loss not amounting to 5000. The French acknowledged a loss of 8000, ... unquestionably it was greater; not more than a thousand prisoners were taken; for so soon as they found themselves irretrievably defeated, they ran, and never did brave soldiers when beaten display more alacrity in flight. Having abandoned all their ammunition waggons, they had not powder to blow up the bridges; had this been done, the pursuit would have been greatly impeded; attempts were made to break them up with pick-axes, and in this they partly succeeded in several places. But the country was too much intersected with ditches for cavalry to act with effect in a pursuit; and infantry who moved in military order could not at their utmost speed keep up with a route of fugitives. Yet, precipitate as their flight was, they took great pains to bear off their wounded, and dismounted a regiment of cavalry to carry them on. And they carefully endeavoured to conceal their dead, stopping occasionally to collect them and throw them into ditches, where they covered them with bushes. Many such receptacles were found containing from ten to twenty bodies.

The Intruder, who now appears for the last time upon the stage of his everlasting infamy, narrowly escaped. The tenth hussars entered Vittoria at the moment that he was hastening out of it in his carriage. Captain Wyndham with one squadron pursued, and fired into the carriage, and Joseph had barely time to throw himself on his horse and gallop off under the protection of an escort of dragoons. The carriage was taken, and in it the most splendid of his trinkets, and the most precious articles of his royal plunder. Marshal Jourdan’s staff was among the trophies of the field; it was rather more than a foot long, and covered with blue velvet, on which the imperial eagles were embroidered; and it had been tipped with gold; but the first finder secured the gold for himself. The case was of red morocco with silver clasps, and with eagles on it, and at either end the Marshal’s name imprinted in gold letters. Lord Wellington sent it to the Prince Regent, and was gracefully presented in return with the staff of a Field-Marshal of Great Britain. The spoils resembled those of an Oriental rather than of an European army; for the Intruder, who in his miserable situation had abandoned himself to every kind of sensuality, had with him all his luxuries. His plunder, his wardrobe, his sideboard, his larder, and his cellar, fell into the conqueror’s hands. The French officers, who carried the pestilential manners of their nation wherever they went, followed his example as far as their means allowed, and thus the finest wines and the choicest delicacies were found in profusion. The wives and mistresses of the officers had gathered together in one house, where they were safe, and from whence they were sent in their own carriages with a flag of truce to Pamplona. Poodles, parrots, and monkeys, were among the prisoners. Seldom has such a scene of confusion been witnessed as that which the roads leading from the field of battle presented; ... broken down waggons stocked with claret and champagne, others laden with eatables dressed and undressed, casks of brandy, apparel of every kind, barrels of money, books, papers, sheep, cattle, horses, and mules, abandoned in the flight. The baggage was presently rifled, and the followers of the camp attired themselves in the gala dresses of the flying enemy. Portugueze boys figured about in the dress coats of French general officers; and they who happened to draw a woman’s wardrobe in the lottery, converted silks, satins, and embroidered muslins, into scarfs and sashes for their masquerade triumph. Some of the more fortunate soldiers got possession of the army chest, and loaded themselves with money: “Let them,” said Lord Wellington, when he was informed of it; “they deserve all they can find, were it ten times more.” The camp of every division was like a fair; benches were laid from waggon to waggon, and there the soldiers held an auction through the night, and disposed of such plunder as had fallen to their share to any who would purchase it. Even dollars became an article of sale, for they were too heavy to be carried in any great numbers; eight were offered for a guinea, ... guineas which had been struck for the payment of the troops in Portugal, and made current there by a decree of the Regency, being the gold currency. The people of Vittoria had their share in the spoils, and some of them indemnified themselves thus for what they had suffered in their property by the enemy’s exactions.

The city sustained no injury, though the French were driven through it, and though great part of the battle might be seen from every window. Nothing could be more mournful than its appearance that night, ... a lantern at every door, and no one in the streets. It was the first place where the allies had found that the inhabitants were French in feeling. Two days of heavy rain impeded the pursuit; but that rain saved many houses from the flames, for the French wreaked their vengeance upon every thing which they could destroy in their flight. Every house at which the pursuers arrived had been gutted by the fugitives, every village set on fire, and the few inhabitants who had not taken flight in time had met with no mercy; at every step the allies found havoc, and flames, and misery, the dying and the dead. Such was the panic among the fugitives, that, finding the gates of Pamplona closed, they attempted to force their way over the walls, and did not desist till they were opposed by a serious fire of cannon and musketry. A council of war was held there, in which it was resolved to blow up the works and abandon the place; with this intent they destroyed ammunition and tore down palisades from the outworks. But the Intruder knew that the possession of so strong a fortress would in some degree cover his flight; and the last act of his usurped authority was to order that every article of food and fuel should be taken from the Spaniards who were within reach. By the rigorous execution of this order, the quantity in the town was more than doubled; and having left a garrison there, the flying force continued their way to the Pyrenees. Their rear was still in sight of Pamplona, when the right and centre of the allies were checked in their pursuit by a fire from the walls.

♦Sir T. Graham proceeds against G. Foy.♦

Sir Thomas Graham with the left of the army was ordered to march by Puerto S. Andrian upon Villa Franca, in the hope of intercepting General Foy, who occupied Bilbao after the atrocities which he had committed in Castro. The orders were not received till the 23rd, when the weather and the ways in consequence were so bad, that only a small part of the column could pass the mountain that day; and it was not till the 24th that Sir Thomas, with Major-General Anson’s brigade of light dragoons, the light battalions of the German legion, and two Portugueze brigades could march from Segura, the rest of the troops not having come up. The roads were so slippery with the rain, and in many places so steep, that horses could scarcely keep their feet, or the infantry make any progress. This allowed Foy time to withdraw the troops from some of the military stations there, and with his collected force he began his retreat into France. The allies came to the junction of the roads from Bilbao and from Vittoria to Bayonne just as the enemy’s rear had passed it. The French occupied in force some strong ♦June 24.♦ ground on the right of the Oria, in front of the village of Olaverria, about a mile and a half from Villa Franca; they were dislodged from thence, and allowed the pursuers to take possession of the town, meaning to make their stand at Tolosa. During the night, Longa’s corps joined Sir Thomas, and the advance of General Giron’s. On the following morning the enemy evacuated Celequiz, and took up a very strong position between that place and Tolosa, covering the road to Pamplona. Longa was then directed to march by Alzo upon Lizara in order to flank his left, while General Mendizabel was requested to dispatch some battalions from Aspeytia to flank his right, which rested upon a mountain with an inaccessible ravine in front. The French were driven from the summit of a hill lying between the Pamplona and Vittoria roads, on the right of the allies, by a very skilful attack of Lieutenant-Colonel Williams, and the possession of this important point enabled the assailants to act on the Pamplona road. In the course of the afternoon the Spaniards arrived at their ♦The French driven from Tolosa.♦ destination, and between six and seven a general attack was made, one column advancing upon the Vittoria road, another on the left; General Bradford driving the enemy in on their front by the Pamplona road, and Longa still more on the right from the side of the mountains, turning, and forcing from very strong positions, all their posted bodies on the right of the town. Still they held the town; and it was found much more capable of defence than had been represented; this was generally the case with their fortified posts, so prone were the Spaniards to report things always according to their hopes; the walls had been loop-holed, and new towers erected to flank it. The Vittoria gate was barricadoed and the Pamplona one on the bridge; both were flanked by convents and other large buildings which the enemy occupied; the place was nowhere open, and a strong wood block-house had been constructed in the Plaza, of so much importance had it been deemed. A nine-pounder was brought up close to the Vittoria gate, under cover of the light battalions’ fire; the gate was burst open: at the same time, the walls were attacked and gained under a considerable fire, and about half an hour after night closed, the enemy forsook the place, flying from every point, and the troops entered amidst the vivas of the inhabitants, who had fully expected to have been plundered that night by the retreating enemy. The British officer who first entered thought they were in some danger from their deliverers, considering the mixed composition of the troops, and how likely it was that some parties away from their regiments might take advantage of the darkness and the confusion. He advised them therefore to shut their doors, and, to the credit of the troops, it must be added, that no outrage or excess was committed. Longa and the German legion passed on, and formed immediately beyond the town. The loss of the allies on this and the preceding day amounted to about 400. Sir Thomas Graham was struck during the attack by a musket-ball; the hurt was not serious, and he attempted to conceal it, but could not, and was obliged to dismount.

♦June 26.♦

On the morrow one brigade was placed on the Pamplona road, and another on the Bayonne, each about a league from Tolosa; a third occupied Alegria, and Sir Thomas then halted two days to ascertain ♦Foy retreats into France.♦ the advance of Lord Wellington on his right. Foy had retreated to Anduain, where he destroyed the bridge; but he now knew himself to be no longer safe within the Spanish territory, and lost no time in making his way into France. A brigade of the Galician army attacked his rear-guard on the Bidassoa at Irun, and drove them over the bridge. They still maintained a strong stone block-house there, which served as a head to the bridge, and some loop-holed houses on the Spanish side of the river. General Giron sent for some Spanish artillery to dislodge them; an ♦June 30.♦ English brigade of nine pounders was sent from Oyarzun to act with it; the French then found it necessary to abandon their post, and they blew up the block-house and burnt the bridge. In all these affairs no troops could have behaved better than the Spanish; and General Giron, with a natural and becoming feeling, had been very desirous that this last exploit should fall to their part. The garrison at Passages, 150 in number, ♦Passages is surrendered.♦ surrendered on the same day to Longa, and on the following the garrison of Guetaria, being blockaded by land, evacuated the town and fort, ♦Castro abandoned by the enemy.♦ and went by sea to St. Sebastian. Castro de Urdiales, the scene of General Foy’s atrocities, had been abandoned the day after the battle of Vittoria, the British squadron having cut off the garrison from all supplies by sea, and the Spaniards by land. A British vessel heaving opportunely in sight, the commandant withdrew precipitately, without destroying his artillery and powder, or injuring the castle. A few old women were the only survivors in the town, and their tale of the barbarities which the French and Italian troops had committed there is too dreadful for recital; there is, however, a satisfaction in recording that fourteen of the perpetrators were among the prisoners taken at Bilbao, and were deservedly put to death. The garrison got by sea to Santona, that and St. Sebastian being the only points which the enemy now occupied upon that coast. The French had left 700 men in Pancorbo, a post commanding a ravine through which the high road ♦Pancorbo taken.♦ from Burgos to Vittoria passes. The Andalusian army of reserve, under the Conde de Abisbal, was on its way to join the main force. Lord Wellington requested him to make himself master of the town and lower works, and blockade, as closely as he could, the castle, which is situated on a high rock. Abisbal assaulted and took the town and the fort of Santa Marta on the 28th; and cutting off the garrison in the castle from the spring which supplied them with water, compelled them to surrender two days afterwards, when in all other respects they were well provided for a regular defence.

♦Clausel retires to Zaragoza.♦

General Clausel’s corps, consisting of part of the army of the north, and one division of the army of Portugal, 14,000 in all, had been recalled from its operations against Mina to join the collected force of the Intruder. Coming in a direction which none of the fugitives had taken, he approached Vittoria the day after the battle, and finding that city in possession of Major-General Pakenham’s division, which had just arrived there, and having no means of communicating with the routed army, he retired immediately towards Logroño. There he halted, hoping to obtain information whereby to direct his movements; and Lord Wellington thinking there was some prospect of intercepting his retreat, moved three divisions towards Tudela, and the 5th and 6th from Vittoria and Salvatierra towards Logroño. Clausel, who was at this time harassed by the indefatigable Mina, and by Don Julian Sanchez with his regiment of cavalry, left Logroño on the 24th, taking with him the garrison of that place, and marching on the left bank of the Ebro, crossed it by the bridge at Lodosa, and reached Calahorra on the following day. On the next he arrived at Tudela; but the Alcalde of that city informed him that the allies were on the road to meet him, upon which he marched toward Zaragoza, taking with him this garrison also.

♦Preparations for the siege of Pamplona.♦

Sir Rowland meantime following the main body of the defeated army on their retreat over the Pyrenees, dislodged them from every point which they attempted to hold, and obtained possession of the passes of S. Esteban, Donna Maria, Maya, and Roncesvalles. It was now Lord Wellington’s intention to besiege Pamplona: with this intent the heavy guns and stores for the siege were brought from Santander to Deba, a little town to the westward of S. Sebastian’s: there they were landed, and cows and bullocks had been collected for transporting them to the trenches: but the intelligence which Lord Wellington received from the Anglo-Sicilian army rendered it necessary to give up this intention, and every thing therefore was reshipped.

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CHAPTER XLIV.
OPERATIONS OF THE ANGLO-SICILIAN ARMY. RECOVERY OF ZARAGOZA. SIEGE OF ST. SEBASTIAN. BATTLES OF THE PYRENEES.

♦1813.♦

♦Expedition from Alicante.♦

It was part of Lord Wellington’s plan that Marshal Suchet should be engaged on the eastern coast by the Anglo-Sicilian army, and thus prevented from sending assistance to the French in Aragon and on the upper Ebro. His position upon the line of the Xucar was too strong to be attacked in front by the force under Sir John Murray’s command, or acting in concert with him; and a movement by Requeña and Utiel upon their right flank, and by Tortosa and Lerida towards the rear, seemed as hazardous as it would have been circuitous and difficult. A naval expedition remained for consideration; and if a vigorous attack were made either upon Tarragona or Rosas, Suchet’s attention must necessarily be drawn thither, so that he could give no aid to the armies in the north, and must leave the open part of the kingdom of Valencia to the Spaniards. Tarragona was preferred as the point of attack, and Sir ♦April 14.♦ John was instructed to embark with that view. If he should succeed in his attempt against that place, an establishment would be secured on the coast north of the Ebro, so as to open a communication with the Spanish army in Catalonia: but this was a question of time and means, and if Suchet should be strong enough in Catalonia to frustrate the attempt, Sir John was directed in that case to return immediately, and land as far north in the kingdom of Valencia as he could, ♦June.♦ and there join with the right of the Spanish armies, to assist them in profiting by the opportunity which Suchet’s absence and the withdrawal of a considerable part of his force from the Xucar might be expected to afford.

The expedition was to have been kept secret; but the preparations which were made at Alicante for the embarkation of a considerable corps could not be concealed, and Suchet was speedily informed of them. Already he had apprehended, by a movement of the Spaniards from La Mancha upon Cuenca, and of Villacampa from the frontiers of Aragon upon the upper Guadalaviar, that it was intended by a combined operation to compel him to evacuate Valencia; but as at that time Clausel’s activity relieved him from any inquietude with regard to Mina, he was enabled to withdraw a division from Aragon, and to place Pannetier’s brigade between Tortosa and Valencia, that he might direct it upon whatever point should be threatened, without leaving the line of the Xucar exposed.

♦Col de Balaguer taken by the Anglo-Sicilian army.♦

By the end of May the expedition, consisting of 700 cavalry, and 14,600 infantry, including Whittingham’s division of 5000, and above 4000 Italians, had embarked, and on the last day of that month the fleet, commanded by Rear-Admiral Hallowell, sailed from Alicante. It was seen from Valencia; and the French troops from the side of Tortosa were instructed to be ready for moving whithersoever the debarkation might call them. After a very favourable passage, the fleet anchored on the evening of the 2nd in the port of Salon, within sight of Tarragona. The soldiers who had been ordered to hold themselves in readiness to land were put into the boats, but the surf ran so high that Admiral Hallowell pronounced the attempt too dangerous, and therefore they returned to the ships. But before the fleet came to anchor a brigade, under Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost, was judiciously detached to get possession of the fort at Col de Balaguer, that point commanding the only road by which artillery could be brought to the relief of Tarragona. General Copons, who had been apprized of the expedition, occupied Reus at that time, and sent two battalions, at first, to co-operate in the attack upon this fort, and afterwards two more in consequence of some movements from Tortosa. The attack was vigorously pressed. On the 5th the place was battered in breach; on the 7th a magazine exploded; the garrison, consisting of 80 men, were intimidated by this, and the commandant capitulated. On this side, therefore, no succours could now reach Tarragona, which is about six leagues from Col de Balaguer, except by a circuitous march of three days, through a very difficult country: there was a pass indeed by which the place might be approached, but it was not practicable for artillery.

♦The expedition lands near Tarragona.♦

Meantime the debarkation had been effected on the 3rd, in broad day, and with an order, a precision, and a rapidity, peculiar to the English in their naval operations. Having reconnoitred the fortress, Sir John Murray determined upon ♦M. Suchet’s Mem. 2, 311.♦ attacking it on the western side, which was the weakest, and that on which stores might most conveniently be brought up to the batteries. General Bertoletti, who commanded in Tarragona, did not confine himself within the walls; he occupied the Fuerte Real, and the ruins of the bastion of St. Carlos, which, though, like all the external works, it had been demolished, presented still an imposing appearance; and great exertions were made for repairing it. These works were between 350 and 400 yards from the body of the place, to the southward, and nearer the sea, the approach being exceedingly difficult, and covered by the fire of the town. But they were thought to be the key of the place, and that if the besiegers could establish themselves there, Tarragona must fall in three days. Accordingly two batteries were begun on the evening of the 4th, and on the morning of the 6th they opened their fire with good effect; another was erected during the night, and on the morning of the 8th the commanding engineer reported that a practicable breach in the Fuerte Real had been made; but he requested that it might not be stormed, because its immediate possession could be turned to no account, and to retain it would cost the lives of many men. The fire therefore was continued only to prevent its re-establishment. Meantime, when the weather would permit, the artillery and engineer horses, and the cavalry and artillery stores, were landed, and the operations of the engineers were so far advanced that two heavy batteries were constructed to enfilade the place. The city was then summoned to surrender; but as none of the batteries were as yet within 500 yards of the place, and the fire of the besieged had been very superior to that of the besiegers, General Bertoletti would not listen to the summons. On the 11th, the commanding officer of engineers reported that he was perfectly prepared to push the siege with vigour; and according to Sir John Murray’s order, Major-General Sir William Clinton, who had that day been left in temporary command of the siege, resolved to storm the Fuerte Real at nine that night. Accordingly a disposition for the assault was made, and arrangements for distracting the enemy’s attention by a simultaneous show of attack along the whole of his front, aided from the side of the sea by the bomb-vessels and gun-boats.

Marshal Suchet meantime, leaving General Harispe with the command on the Xucar, had made for ♦Suchet’s movement for the relief of Tarragona.♦ Tortosa by forced marches with one division, his reserve, and a brigade of cavalry: and before his arrival he had dispatched orders for the garrison of that place to secure the Col de Balaguer; but the fort there was taken before any attempt to succour it was made, and he could therefore bring with him no artillery in his attempt to raise the siege of Tarragona. He had directed also Generals Decaen and Maurice Mathieu to march for the relief of the place. On the side of Tortosa all due precautions had been taken, by getting possession of the fort which absolutely commanded that singular pass. On the other side, Sir John Murray had ordered General Whittingham to see if the road could by any means be broken up or impeded, ... but in an open country this was found impracticable in any part, except at a point near the sea, and within two miles of Tarragona. When Whittingham was at Torre de Embarra upon this investigation, Manso, who had 2000 men at Vendrell, came there to inform him that Decaen, from Hostalric and the country beyond it, would arrive that night at Barcelona, where there would then be a force of 12,000 foot and 400 horse, disposable for the relief of Tarragona. This information General Whittingham communicated to Sir John Murray on the 9th, observing that the enemy might advance to succour that place, in two columns, one by the road along the coast, the other by the heights, upon the left of the besieging army; the Spanish division, which formed the left, would thus be exposed in flank to a superior force, and in a position that was commanded by the heights, and had the fortified city in its rear: and he suggested to Sir John that he should leave General Copons with the Catalan army to cover the siege, while he, with the British troops and the Majorcan division, marched immediately upon Villa Franca to attack Decaen; that General would have advanced beyond Villa Franca; victory, considering the number and the quality of the allied troops, would not be doubtful, and it would decide the contest in Catalonia; and after driving him from Molins de Rey, and destroying the stone bridge over the Llobregat, by which bridge alone artillery could be brought across that river, there would be time to return and encounter Marshal Suchet.

♦Sir John Murray raises the siege.♦

To this suggestion Sir John paid no regard; but late in the evening of the 11th, when every thing was ready for an immediate assault upon the Fuerte Real, he received intelligence that Suchet was advancing with 12,000 men from the side of Tortosa, and Decaen with 8000 from Barcelona; upon which he determined immediately to raise the siege, and with such haste as to abandon all the heavy artillery, ammunition, and stores that had been landed. He thought it would have been an useless waste of the lives of British soldiers to assault a work which, if carried, must, in his opinion, have been abandoned the next day: he placed no reliance upon the Spaniards under Copons, who had not more than 8500 disposable men, and those without pay, discipline, artillery, or means of subsisting, and whom he considered totally incapable of acting in the field. He distrusted his own foreign troops, who worked slowly at the siege, with great unwillingness, and with so little steadiness, that it had required an additional party of 200 British soldiers to carry to the batteries the ammunition which one of their parties threw away when they came under fire. The French too, he thought, had all advantages; they had fortresses in every direction to furnish them supplies, to retire upon if they wished to avoid an action till they could bring together more troops, or to cover them if they were defeated; whereas he was in the open field, without any point of support, or of retreat, except to the ships: and how serious an operation would it be to embark an army in an open bay, and on a beach where he had learned by experience that it was impossible to disembark in any but the lightest boats! Three days at least would be required to complete this re-embarkation. He decided, therefore, upon beginning it without delay.

Admiral Hallowell strongly remonstrated against abandoning the artillery, and engaged to bring off every thing, if Sir John would only give him the night from the 12th to the 13th; but that commander gave ear to less hopeful counsels, most unfortunately for himself. For public opinion loudly condemned his conduct; it became the subject of a court-martial; and though the sentence acquitted him upon all other charges, it pronounced that he had committed an error of judgment in abandoning his artillery, when it might have been brought off. The embarkation was commenced at daybreak. At first some of the valuable stores were sent off, but orders were given to abandon them. Great part of the infantry were put on board during the day in full view of the besieged, who crowded on the ramparts to behold what they were unable to understand. Sir John himself embarked early in the evening; but it was not till near midnight that the 1st division, under Sir William Clinton, who was left in command of the troops on shore, moved to the beach; and so completely were the enemy deceived as to its movements, by the piquets of this division having been kept at their advanced stations till darkness had closed, that not a man ventured without the walls, and not a shot was fired during the night, except from the ramparts, nor did any enemy show himself to molest the embarkation. The cavalry of the Majorcan division were embarked on the morning of the 13th, by means of a mole constructed for the purpose, about two leagues from the town; but the other cavalry and a great part of the field artillery were ordered by land to the Col de Balaguer, whither Sir John Murray repaired in the Bristol early on the 13th, and where the whole armament was directed to assemble.

♦Suchet approaches Col de Balaguer, and retires again.♦

While the allies were thus re-embarking with discreditable precipitance, two other armies thought it necessary in consequence of this movement to retreat also, in equal haste, ... General Copons from the vicinity of Reus to the mountains, lest he should be exposed to a combined attack from Decaen and the garrison of Tarragona; and Decaen himself to Barcelona, apprehending that the allies had raised the siege for the purpose of bringing him to action. On the evening of the 13th an enemy’s detachment was seen advancing by the piquets in front of the fort at Col de Balaguer, and judging that this might be the advance of Suchet’s force, Sir John ordered part of the infantry to be re-landed as it arrived from Tarragona, in order to cover the embarkation of the cavalry and field-artillery, which had reached that point in the course of the day. He was not mistaken in this judgment, ... Marshal Suchet having found the way by the mountains impracticable, thought to force his way by the Col, expecting to reduce the fort with as little difficulty as the allies had done; and on the 14th he presented himself there on the road from Tortosa with the main body of his army. He found a battalion in position covering the fort; but, to his astonishment, he also discovered the British fleet at anchor between the Col and Hospitalet. His light troops and skirmishers extended themselves along the hills, and approached within cannon-shot of the fort. But he found it impossible to advance, so completely was the road on that side commanded by the fort and by the judicious station taken by the ships of war, which could anchor there close to the shore; and it was equally impossible for an army to remain there many hours, there being no water within many miles. He found it necessary, therefore, to retire the same evening to the village of Perillo, not knowing what had occurred at Tarragona, alarmed as well as surprised at what he had seen, and holding himself prepared to follow the movements of the fleet.

♦June 15. Sir John re-lands the troops.♦

On the following morning he made a second movement on Valdellos, as if intending to attempt the mountain road. As soon as Sir John Murray was informed of this he apprehended that it was Suchet’s intention to turn the position which the allies occupied, and enter the plain of Tarragona in their rear; upon which the farther embarkation of the cavalry was suspended, and nearly the whole of the infantry were put on shore. He also sent a strong division, and all the cavalry, under Major-General Mackenzie, to observe the enemy’s motions, and attack them if they should attempt to press farther forward. They remained on the 16th nearly in the same position; but intelligence came that a column was in march from the side of Tarragona, and as this would have rendered General Mackenzie’s situation extremely critical, he was ordered to retire to Hospitalet, and accordingly retreated thither in the course of the night. Sir John now determined to take up a position in the plain, between the high ground of the Col and the sea, and this was done on the 17th. The left rested on the hills, which are almost inaccessible on that side; the ground in front, though level, was impracticable for cavalry, because it is intersected from the hills to the sea with gullies and deep ravines caused by the winter rains. The right extended to the shore, and was greatly protected by the gun-boats and the fire of the shipping. In this strong position he had resolved to wait the enemy’s attack, but in the forenoon it was ascertained that they had retired on both sides, Suchet toward Tortosa, and Decaen toward Barcelona, after throwing supplies into Tarragona. Sir John then assembled a council of war, in which it was concluded that as nothing farther in the way of offensive operations could be attempted by the army in its then state, and as no advantage could be expected from remaining where they were, and acting defensively, the most advisable measure was to re-embark and return to Alicante, there to re-equip the army.

♦Lord W. Bentinck takes the command.♦

In the afternoon of this busy day Lord William Bentinck, who had long been looked for, arrived from Sicily to take the command. The Mediterranean fleet, under Sir Edward Pellew, came with him, having quitted its station off Toulon in the hope of assisting the operations against Tarragona, either by its presence there, or by making a show of landing at and attacking Rosas. Lord William on assuming the command confirmed the opinion of the council of war, and ordered the troops to be immediately re-embarked. The weather being such as to raise a high surf, rendered this very difficult; nevertheless by great exertions on the part of the navy, every thing was got on board by ♦Fort at Col de Balaguer demolished.♦ the midnight of the 19th. At the same time the fort at Col de Balaguer, having been dismantled and ruined, was blown up; and on the ensuing day, Admiral Hallowell and the Anglo-Sicilian army made sail for Alicante from their bootless expedition, and Sir Edward Pellew returned with the Mediterranean fleet to his wonted station.

The explosion of the fort announced to the French that the English had abandoned all thought of any further operations in lower Catalonia, ... much to Marshal Suchet’s relief, who while they remained there deemed it necessary to observe their movements, and yet felt ♦Unsuccessful movements of the Spaniards in Valencia.♦ that he was wanted upon the Xucar. General Elio’s army, joined by that which Ballasteros had formerly commanded, but was now under the Duque del Parque, had endeavoured to take advantage of his absence with so large a part of his force. On the 11th they had attacked General Harispe’s rear-guard, under General Mesclop, when on the road from S. Philippe to its position on the Xucar, but were repulsed at the village of Rogla with some loss, and Elio himself was for a little while in the enemy’s hands, but he had the good fortune to escape without being recognized. The French then pursued their march without farther molestation to the bridge over the Xucar. On the 13th the Spaniards presented themselves in force there, and while a cannonade was kept up on that side, the Duque del Parque attacked Alcira by the two roads of Carcagente and of Gandia. General Habert let their principal column approach the suburb, then charged it at the moment when it began to deploy, threw it into confusion, routed it with the loss of 400 killed and more than 600 prisoners; and this in time for repairing to support his left on the Gandia road, and there also to defeat the assailants. Notwithstanding this success, General Harispe was far from feeling secure in his position. He informed Marshal Suchet that there were in his front not less than 28,000 of the least bad Spanish infantry, and from 2000 to 3000 cavalry in a good state; this, he said, the prisoners agreed in affirming, and the intelligence was not of a kind to make them feel more secure than they ought to be. The departure of the expedition from Balaguer Roads after the total failure of its object enabled the Marshal to hasten back towards the Xucar, and he did this with the more speed, because there was a report that its intention was to intercept him on his way to Valencia, by landing either at Puerto de los Alfaques, ♦The fleet suffers on its return to Alicante.♦ or at Castellon de la Plana. But the fleet had no other object in view than that of returning to Alicante, and in this it suffered much from storms. Eighteen transports were driven on the Alfaques; the troops were taken out, and fifteen of the vessels were got off, but the others were lost.

♦Suchet’s measures after the battle of Vittoria.♦

On landing at Alicante, Lord William received intelligence of the battle of Vittoria. Suchet had apprehended no such tidings. Buonaparte seems to have entertained till the last a blind persuasion that his schemes of ambition in Spain and every where else must finally be successful, and the instructions which he had sent to the Marshal were that he should endeavour to gain time, and lose no ground, till the affairs of the north should be finished, when, if it were then necessary, dispositions would be made in favour of the armies in Spain. The Marshal, however, knew that he must lose no time in retiring from Valencia; that province therefore was delivered by the battle of Vittoria, as Andalusia had been by the battle of Salamanca. He thought to retain upon it a hold which would enable him at any time to return by leaving a garrison of 1200 men in Murviedro, stored for twelve months, the place having been materially strengthened during the eighteen months which had elapsed since the French obtained possession of it: 500 men were also left in Peñiscola, 120 in Denia, and as many in Morella, that little fort commanding a mountain-road, by which a corps of infantry without cannon could at any time re-enter Valencia from Aragon. Looking forward therefore to the probable resumption of their conquests, with the hopefulness which characterizes the French character, and with the confidence which he might justly feel in his own ability of improving all circumstances to the best advantage, he commenced his retreat with the less reluctance because Clausel apprized him that he had arrived at Zaragoza with 14,000 men, and would establish himself ♦Suchet’s Mémoires, 2, 310–324.♦ upon the Gallego, in readiness either to co-operate with the army of Aragon, or with the Intruder, if the army on that side should resume the offensive.

♦Lord Wellington undertakes the siege of St. Sebastian.♦

A junction between Clausel and Suchet was what Lord Wellington apprehended as soon as he heard that the expedition against Tarragona had failed, and that consideration made him at once give up his intention of laying siege to Pamplona. Unwelcome as the tidings were, this change of purpose may have compensated for the failure, ... Pamplona ♦July.♦ being so much stronger than it was at that time supposed to be by the allies, and the British army still so defective in its engineer’s department, that the siege might probably have proved unsuccessful. Resorting therefore to the surer method of blockading a city, which there was reason to believe was not provided for a long siege, he intrusted that service to the Spaniards, and ordered works to be thrown up on every side, to prevent the escape of the garrison, and to cut them off from all supplies; and he determined to besiege St. Sebastian’s, where farther means of attack could be obtained by sea. The service was intrusted to Sir Thomas Graham, with 10,000 men.

♦Clausel retreats into France by way of Jaca.♦

But the failure in Catalonia was soon compensated by the events which took place in Aragon. Clausel, not waiting for Marshal Suchet’s movements, nor to consult with him, left his artillery at Zaragoza, and made for France by way of Jaca. The Spaniards supposed that his chief motive was the desire of securing the riches which he had amassed. Mina was marching upon the same point with a far inferior force, in the hope of intercepting some of this booty, when he ♦Duran invites Mina to act with him for the deliverance of Zaragoza.♦ received orders which suspended his progress. Duran at the same time, as commandant in Lower Aragon, was instructed to take such opportunity as might offer for acting against the enemy in Zaragoza. This veteran, who was then at Ricla, sent Colonel Tabuenca to inform Mina of Clausel’s retreat, and to confer with him upon a plan of speedy operations for the recovery of that capital, where there were no other troops remaining than a not numerous garrison, and against which he should immediately move. Tabuenca was then with his regiment at Borja; Mina was supposed to be at Gallud: not finding him there, Tabuenca hastened to Pedrola; but there he found D. Julian Sanchez, who directed him to look for Mina at Alagon; and from Alagon Cruchaga directed him to Las Casetas, and there at one in the morning Tabuenca arrived and found him. Upon delivering his dispatches, he stated that General Duran had selected him to be the bearer, because, being a native of Zaragoza, and having been present during both sieges, he could give him the fullest local information, upon which their combined operations might be concerted. Mina replied, that their forces were not sufficient for such an enterprise. He had approached the city, he said, upon an assurance that the enemy had evacuated it; but an intercepted letter had just been brought him, in which the governor, General Paris, ordered the garrisons on the left of the Ebro to maintain their posts, because succours were on the way to them from Marshal Suchet.

Tabuenca had not expected such a reply. He represented that the united force of the two divisions amounted to from 10,000 to 12,000 infantry, and 1500 horse; that the garrison did not at the utmost exceed 5000, including invalids; that when with that number so wide a circuit was to be covered, various false attacks might distract their attention, and an entrance be effected where they least apprehended it: and that when once the Spaniards should have set foot upon the walls, they might count upon as many brave soldiers as there were men of Zaragoza. The reinforcements which the governor looked for were, he said, far off, and could not, if time were made good use of, arrive till they would be useless. There was more reason to fear that Clausel might march back; but even in that case they could maintain themselves in Zaragoza. Paris could not defend the city, if he were vigorously assailed: and though he might bring off the garrison by the bridge over the Ebro, the French could not carry off their booty. Mina replied, that he had only three regiments of infantry on the right of the Ebro, and cavalry was of little use; but in the morning he expected information from the place, and would then determine whether to remain or to retire. Tabuenca observed, that the regiments on the left bank would not be useless if they were made to approach, and that the cavalry might be dismounted; and he requested him at least to bring down the regiments which he had at Alagon and Pedrola, that the enemy’s attention might thus be drawn toward Las Casetas, when Duran came with his division, as he would do, to Maria or Cadrete. To this Mina consented.

♦July 8.♦

Early in the morning, Tabuenca’s regiment, which had followed him, arrived at the Puente de la ♦Affair before Zaragoza.♦ Claveria, where he joined it, and proceeded on the right of the canal of Tauste toward the Puente de la Muela, meaning to give the men some rest there, while he went in search of Duran. They had scarcely been an hour upon the way, when a fire of musketry was heard on the left toward Las Casetas, and an orderly of Mina’s came in all haste to recall them, because the enemy had attacked him. Tabuenca, confiding in his own knowledge of the ground, represented to Mina, that instead of obeying this order, it would be better that he should occupy the Puente de la Muela, whereby he should divert the enemy’s attention, if, as might be expected, more troops should issue out, and at the same time secure that point in case Duran should make for it. Mina approved of this suggestion. The alarm had been occasioned by a body of horse, some 150 in number, who had been sent on an exploring party; they were charged by Mina’s cavalry, and compelled to retreat with all speed; but other bodies presently sallied to their support, and one of about 1000 foot and 100 horse made for the Puente de la Muela. Tabuenca, who had with him about 1400 men, quickened his pace and anticipated them; and seeing this they halted, hesitated, and then fell back. Their main force advanced against Mina upon the road to Las Casetas; troops also came to his support, and his men behaved with their wonted gallantry. The enemy were superior both in horse and foot, and when the body which had been disappointed in their intention of occupying the bridge of La Muela joined them, the Navarrese could with difficulty keep their ground; but Tabuenca hastening with part of his men, approached the enemy on their left flank, under cover of some olive yards, and opened upon them a fire as opportune as it was unexpected; taking advantage of the movement which this occasioned among them, Mina charged with such effect, that they retreated hastily till they were under the fire of their works. Mina then encamped his troops between the Casetas and the heights of La Bernardona, ... he had now with him 4000 foot and 1500 horse; and Tabuenca regarding this affair as a preliminary to the recovery of Zaragoza, ordered his regiment to march immediately upon the Casa Blanca and the Torrero, while he took the same course with the detachment which had been engaged. These posts, which had been so obstinately disputed in the former sieges, were abandoned by the French at their approach; and the Spaniards entered them, rejoicing in their success, and in being enabled to rest, after a march of four-and-twenty hours, during which they had had no other refreshment than a hasty meal at Grisen.

♦Second sally of the French.♦

Between four and five in the afternoon the French sallied a second time and in greater force. They attacked Mina’s division, which was supported by D. Julian Sanchez with his Castilian lancers; but while thus engaged, Tabuenca, leaving just troops enough in the works which he had taken to cover his retreat should that be necessary, attacked the enemy on their left and in their rear, and the result was that they were driven into the city, leaving some two hundred killed. Mina’s loss in killed and wounded amounted in ♦Duran arrives before the city.♦ the course of the day to 115; Tabuenca’s to 28. Duran arrived after the affair, just as evening was closing; that morning, as he was about to march from Muel for Cadrete, he was informed that a French detachment had gone from Zaragoza to bring off the garrison of Almunia which a party of his troops were blockading; and he was preparing to intercept them when a dispatch from Tabuenca made him hasten with all speed to the more important scene of action. Early on the morrow, Mina and Julian Sanchez came to confer with him in the Casa Blanca, and Duran proposed that they should assault the city on the following night: the wall, he said, might be escaladed at many points; the enemy’s attention might be distracted by false attacks, and they were sure of assistance from within. This veteran had frequently distinguished himself by assaulting towns that were imperfectly fortified; Mina was less accustomed to such service, and more disposed to watch for and profit by any opportunity that might be offered him in the field: he was of opinion that they ought to remain before the city and collect thither the remainder of their forces; and in that opinion he persisted when Duran on the following evening renewed the proposal: for he judged rightly, that by a little delay success would be rendered more certain, and obtained at less cost of life.

♦The French withdraw from Zaragoza.♦

D. Julian Sanchez removed with his lancers that evening to the Casa Blanca. The enemy allowed no one to go out of the gates: they had suffered too much in the two sallies of the preceding day to venture upon a third; and their vigilance was such that eager as the inhabitants were to communicate with those through whom they expected now to obtain the deliverance for which they so long offered up their prayers, they could convey no intelligence: neither, indeed, was it easy for them to determine what were the intentions of the French; for though they had their plunder packed up for removal and the carriages laden with it, and though they mined the stone bridge over the Ebro, they made at the same time other demonstrations, which were intended to show that it was not their purpose to abandon the city. A little before eight in the evening two guns were fired, which were the signal for a general movement, ... coaches, carts, and sumpter beasts were collected about the Puerta del Angel, and the troops began to file over the stone bridge. This movement was succeeded by stillness, and just before midnight the bridge was blown up. Duran was presently informed by his outposts where the explosion had been, and that the French had abandoned the city; immediately he sent D. Julian Sanchez and Tabuenca to ascertain what damage had been done to the bridge, and whether it were possible to pursue the enemy: he charged them also to give immediate directions for rendering it passable, and not to enter the city unless it should be absolutely necessary, nor suffer any soldier to enter it, that there might be no opportunity for any of those excesses which on such occasions were so likely to be committed; for the same purpose he posted guards at all the gates. The Ayuntamiento however deemed it best, that Sanchez should enter with his lancers, and with a patrol of the citizens maintain order: the principal streets were presently illuminated, the people waiting for no orders or concert, but acting with one common feeling; and the Coso was crowded to see the entrance of the deliverers.

Duran had lost no time in apprizing Mina of what had occurred, and requesting to see him that they might arrange their joint entrance. The Ayuntamiento, between one and two in the morning, came to the Casa Blanca, bringing the keys to Duran, and informing him that the enemy had left about 700 men in the Aljaferia, whose presence, they added, could not prevent him from entering Zaragoza and giving the inhabitants a day of jubilee. Duran replied, that he waited for General Mina to enter with him; but Mina neither appeared, nor any messenger from him, till about seven in the morning, when, passing by the Casa Blanca, without alighting, or turning aside to the building in which the Ayuntamiento and Duran were awaiting him, he sent a chaplain to inform the old general that he was going on to the Torrero. Not a little surprised at this, they all went out in hope of speaking with him, but it was too late; and when one of the Ayuntamiento was deputed to seek him at the Torrero, and let him know that they were waiting for him, he was not found there. The forenoon was far advanced before he, with some of his chief officers, approached the Puerta Quemada, where Duran with his division and the Ayuntamiento were expecting them; his cavalry was at that time fording the Ebro; and merely saying to Duran that he was about to pursue the enemy with them, he rode away. Even noble minds are not always free from infirmity, and this conduct was ascribed to a jealous desire of engrossing to himself the glory of having delivered Zaragoza; for which reason he did not choose to enter with Duran, who was an older camp marshal, and as such, and also as commandant-general of Lower Aragon, must have entered at the head of the troops. But if this unworthy feeling existed, there were fairer motives that mingled with it; he thought it better that his infantry should remain encamped than that they should be quartered in the city; and the pursuit of General Paris was certainly an object of no trifling importance. Two of Mina’s regiments thinking that they were following Paris toward Leciñena, fell in with him unexpectedly, and were attacked by him in the rear, and found it necessary to take up a position, first upon a height near that place, and then near the Ermita de Magallon. The French, whose business should then have been rather to secure themselves by a rapid retreat, than to seek for trivial advantages, lost some time in vainly endeavouring to dislodge them. Giving up the attempt, at last they took the road to Alcubierre; the Spaniards then pursued, harassed their rear, and compelled them to abandon, at the foot of the mountain there, the greater part of the coaches, calesas, and carts, laden with spoil which they had brought from Zaragoza. Paris meantime accelerated his retreat, and effected it, but not without losing the greater part of his convoy, all his artillery, and considerable numbers in killed and wounded, and some fifty prisoners, of whom about twenty were Spanish traitors. Mina arrived with his cavalry after the spoil had been taken, and when it was too late to continue the pursuit.

♦Suchet draws off the remaining garrisons in Aragon.♦

Paris’s orders had been to make for Mequinenza if he were compelled to leave Zaragoza; this he found impossible, and was glad to effect his escape by Huesca and Jaca. Marshal Suchet, after leaving a garrison of 4500 men in Tortosa, under Baron Robert, moved toward the frontier of Aragon, with the double view of saving Paris, and of enabling a detachment to rejoin him which he had sent to destroy the castles at Teruel and Alcañiz, and bring off the garrisons. The detachment having arrived at Caspe, Suchet pushed his columns to Fabera, and had now his army on the right bank of the Ebro ... having its right at Caspe, its centre at Gandessa, and its left at Tortosa. Here he received intelligence that Paris was driven upon Jaca; that Clausel, who had moved down from Jaca with a view of securing Zaragoza, finding it too late, had again retreated, and retiring still further, had taken a position with his corps upon the frontier of France, and that the whole of Aragon was lost. Nothing remained for him but to draw off the garrisons of Zuera, Gurrea, Anzanigo, Ayerbe, Huesca, Belchite, Fuentes, Pina, Bujaraloz and Caspe, and to think only of combining his operations with General Decaen for maintaining Catalonia. He crossed the Ebro therefore at Mequinenza, Mora, and ♦July 15.Suchet’s Mémoires, 2, 329–331.♦ Tortosa; and in passing between Hospitalet and Cambrils, was cannonaded by the English fleet. To maintain the line of the lower Ebro after the deliverance of Aragon was impossible; it was equally so to feed his army in the sterile environs of Tortosa, where he was also in danger of having the defiles in his rear occupied by the enemy, who might come by sea, and interpose between him and the strong places in Catalonia; he determined therefore upon moving on Reus, Valls, and Tarragona.

♦Duran enters Zaragoza. July 10.♦

Meantime Duran, manifesting no displeasure at the discourtesy which had been shown towards him, made his entrance into Zaragoza. His first business was to march through the rejoicing streets to the church of Our Lady of the Pillar, and here offer up thanksgiving; his second was to lay siege to the castle. The heavy artillery of his division was sent for, and approaches regularly made; and the Zaragozans, after having so often seen the Spaniards who had been made prisoners in Aragon or Valencia, marched through their streets, had now the satisfaction of seeing a French garrison brought prisoners thither in their turn from La Almunia, where they had surrendered to a detachment of the Sorian division. During the first days of the siege, Mina, finding it in vain to pursue General Paris, returned, and took up his quarters with his troops in the suburb; and this was supposed to be a farther indication of jealousy towards Duran, because by remaining on that side of the Ebro which appertained to his own district of Upper Aragon, he was not under his command; it was deemed more strange that he took no part whatever at this time in the operations of the siege, but left it wholly to be carried on by the Sorian division; in fact, he was daily expecting to be appointed to the command of the whole province. Before that appointment arrived, intelligence came that Suchet had advanced to Fabara and Caspe; upon which he crossed the bridge, began his retreat to Las Casetas and to Alagon, and sent orders to Tabuenca to follow him with his regiment: Tabuenca replied that he was under General Duran’s command, and could not leave Zaragoza without his orders. And Duran, as soon as he was informed of this, sent to Mina, saying he could not allow the regiment of Rioja to accompany him in his retreat (a retreat of which he was no otherwise informed than by the orders which had been sent to its colonel), because being determined to defend the city, he required its presence, and indeed he requested the support of some of his troops also; for if the enemy should advance to Zaragoza, which he did not expect, the retreat of the Spanish troops would have a most prejudicial effect upon the public mind; the two divisions were strong enough to meet the French and give them battle, and this they ought to do; but for himself, with his single division, he could defend the city. This indeed Duran at that juncture could well have done; but if the alternative had been to meet Suchet in the field, or to retreat, the course which Mina followed, in pursuance of his usual system, would have been unquestionably the most judicious.

♦Mina takes the command.♦

It was soon ascertained that Suchet had retreated, upon which Mina returned to Zaragoza; he then took up his quarters in the city, and the siege of the Aljaferia was carried on jointly by the two divisions; and on the fourth day after his return, the commission which he had looked for arrived, appointing him Commandant-General of all Aragon. The same day brought orders for Duran to join the army of Catalonia, leaving, however, such regiments as Mina might think proper to detain. Mina took two out of four regiments, and one of three squadrons of cavalry; with the remainder Duran departed for Catalonia, leaving to Mina the reputation of effecting the deliverance of Zaragoza, which certainly was not due to him, and was not needed for one who had rendered more signal services to his country, when its fortunes were at the lowest ebb, than any other individual. Duran was remarkable among all the partizans who distinguished themselves in this war for the

♦Reconquista de Zaragoza, pp. 23–84.♦ discipline which, as an old officer, he introduced among his troops, and which he maintained by means that made him equally respected and beloved. Father, or grandfather, were the appellations by which they called him, and which he deserved by the care which he manifested on all occasions for them. On ♦The Aljaferia surrendered.♦ the second day after his departure a redoubt was blown up, in which the commanding officer of the artillery, and 28 men who were in garrison there, perished. This was said to have been his own act; and it was said also that another artillery officer intended to set fire to the powder-magazine, but was prevented by the soldiers, who with their besiegers must otherwise have been destroyed, and with them no small part of the city. The motive assigned for this insane desperation was resentment against the commandant of the place for determining to capitulate, though the works had sustained little injury, and were abundantly provided for a long defence. Immediately after this the garrison surrendered.

♦Conduct of the Zaragozans during their captivity.♦

Thus, after four years of captivity, Zaragoza was delivered from its detested enemies. During the greater part of that time no tidings but those of ill fortune had reached the Zaragozans, ... the defeat of their armies, the capture of one strong hold after another, some having yielded through famine, others to the strength and skill of the besiegers, and more having been basely or traitorously given up. And though they well knew that the journals of the Intrusive Government, like those in France, were conducted upon a system of falsehood, suppressing every thing which could not be made appear favourable to Buonaparte’s views, they could not doubt the substance of these tidings, nor, in some of the worst cases, the extent of the national loss. The prisoners who were taken in Blake’s defeat before Murviedro, and the still greater number who surrendered with him at Valencia, had been marched through the streets of Zaragoza, in the depth of winter, and in a condition which would have moved any soldiers to compassion except those of Buonaparte and of the generals whom he employed in Spain: without shoes and stockings, foot-sore, half naked, half famished, they were driven and outraged and insulted by an enemy who seemed, together with the observances of civilized war, to have renounced the feelings of humanity. At such times the Zaragozans, without distinction of rank or sex, crowded about their unfortunate countrymen to administer what consolation they could, to weep over them, and to share with them their own scanty supplies of clothing and of food. On such occasions, too, all the respectable families, as if by one consent, kept days of mourning and humiliation[1], each in their houses: and more earnest prayers were never offered up than they breathed in bitterness of soul for the deliverance of their injured country, and for vengeance upon their merciless and insolent oppressors.

At the time of the deliverance, and long after, the city and its environs bore miserable vestiges of the two sieges. Ruined houses were to be seen far and near on every side, and the broken walls of what once had been fertile inclosures. Some streets were merely ruins; in others, the walls of the houses were literally covered with the marks of musket-balls, and in some places large holes had been made in them by the numbers which had struck there. Most of the churches and convents were nothing but heaps of ruins; the Capuchin’s convent had been so totally demolished, that only a solitary cross remained to mark the spot where it had stood. Nothing had been repaired except the Aljaferia and such of the fortifications as the French re-fortified for their own security. Much of this material destruction was reparable; but precious monuments of antiquity had been destroyed, ... precious libraries and precious manuscripts, which never could be replaced; and upon most of the inhabitants irreparable ruin had been brought. The loss of life which had been sustained there may be summed up: broken fortunes and broken hearts are not taken into the account; but the sufferers had the proud and righteous satisfaction of knowing that they had not suffered in vain. The two sieges of Zaragoza, that in which it was overcome, not less than that which it successfully resisted, contributed more than any other event to keep up the national spirit of the Spaniards, to exalt the character of the nation, and to excite the sympathy and the admiration of other countries. And the good will not pass away with the generation upon whom the evil fell. There is no more illustrious example of public virtue in ancient or modern history than this of Zaragoza. Such examples are not lost upon posterity; and such virtue, as it affords full proof that the Spanish character retains its primitive strength, affords also the best ground for hope, not only that Spain may resume its rank in Christendom as a great and powerful kingdom, but also that the Spaniards may become, religiously and politically, a free and enlightened nation; not by the remote consequences of a sudden and violent revolution, which always brings with it more evils than it sweeps away, but by the progress of wisdom and truth, working their sure though slow effect in God’s good time, among a patient, thoughtful, and devout people.

♦St. Sebastian’s.♦

Aragon having now been wholly delivered from the enemy, no attempt could be made from that side to relieve Pamplona; the blockade of that city was safely intrusted to the Spaniards, who were now becoming an efficient part of the allied armies; and meantime the siege of St. Sebastian’s was made Lord Wellington’s immediate object. St. Sebastian’s, which is the most important town in Guipuzcoa, stands at the mouth of the little river Urumea, on a peninsula between two arms of the sea, and at the foot of a high hill. A bay forms its port, which has been widened and deepened, but is still small and shallow, and so insecure in certain winds, that ships have been driven from their anchors there; yet to this port the town owes its origin, and its fortifications, which were first erected to protect the shipping. Close at hand, on the side towards France, is the capacious harbour of Passages, surrounded by mountains, with an entrance between the rocks so strait, that only a single ship can pass, and that only by towing; formerly it served for ships of the line, but under the mal-administration of later years it had been neglected, and was now so far filled up, that none but small craft and vessels of 200 or 300 tons came in: for this reason, probably, the Caraccas Company, whose port it had been, removed to St. Sebastian’s. There also the entrance is very narrow, being confined between two moles. The town contains from 600 to 700 houses, in twenty streets, all which are paved with large smooth stones, and several of them long, broad, and straight: the suburbs were more extensive, and the whole population was estimated at 13,000.

Few places present a more formidable appearance; the only land approach is over a low sandy isthmus, occupied by one front of fortification, and this narrow road is commanded by the castle; but on the left flank there are considerable sand-hills some 600 or 700 yards distant, which completely enfilade and take in reverse the front defences. Those which cross the isthmus are a double line of works, with the usual counterscarp, covered way, and glacis; but those which run lengthways consist only of a single line, and trusting to the waters in their front to render them inaccessible, are built without any cover. The northern line is from top to bottom quite exposed to the sand-hills; the Urumea, which washes the town on that side, is fordable for some hours before and after low water, and the tide recedes so much that during that time there is a considerable space left dry by which troops can march to the foot of the wall. Yet the wall had been left uncovered, though Marshal Berwick had availed himself of this defect when he attacked the place in 1719, and by effecting a breach there had made the garrison retire into the castle. In the revolutionary war, St. Sebastian’s was taken by the French without resistance; for though the troops would have done their duty in defending it, the inhabitants, rather than endure the horrors of a siege, allowed the magistrates, some of whom were timid and others traitorous, to surrender.

♦Distribution of the allied army.♦

After the battle of Vittoria, Jourdan had thrown a garrison of between 3000 and 4000 men into the place. The conduct of the siege was intrusted to Sir Thomas Graham, and the fifth division, under Major-General Oswald, consisting of Major-Generals Hay and Robinson’s British brigades, and Major-General Spry’s Portugueze, were employed in carrying it on. The first division, under Major-General Howard, consisting of the 1st and 2nd brigades of guards under Colonel Maitland and Major-General Stopford, with the brigades of the German legion, and Lord Aylmer’s, were in position covering the great road between Irun and Oyarzun, and supporting Don Manuel Freyre’s Spanish corps which crowned the heights of S. Marzial and guarded the line of the Bidassoa from the Crown Mountain to the sea. Giron and Longa kept up the communication with the left of the centre at Vera: this consisted of the 7th and light divisions, under the Earl of Dalhousie and Baron Alten ... the former posted in the pass of Etchalar, the latter on the mountain of S. Barbara, and in the town of Vera. The right of the centre, commanded by Sir Rowland, occupied the valley of Bastan, and with Major-Generals Pringle and Walker’s brigades of the 2d division, under Lieutenant-General the Hon. Sir William Stewart, guarded the passes of Maya. The Conde de Amarante, with Colonel Ashworth and Brigadier-General Da Costa’s Portugueze brigades, held the minor passes of Col d’Ariette and Col d’Espegas on the right, leading also into the valley of Bastan. Another Portugueze brigade of this division, under Brigadier-General Campbell, occupied a strong position between the valleys of Aldudes and Hayra, keeping communication on its left through the Port de Berdaritz with the valley of Bastan, and through the Port d’Alalosti on its right, with the right wing of the army, in the pass of Roncesvalles. The 6th division, under Major-General Pack, occupied S. Estevan, and formed the reserve of the centre, ready to support the troops at Maya or at Etchalar. The right wing covered the direct approaches to Pamplona from St. Jean de Pied-de-Port: in its front Major-General Byng’s brigade of the 2d division guarded the passes of Roncesvalles and Orbaicete; Morillo, with a division of Spanish infantry supporting the latter post; Sir Lowry Cole, with the 4th division, was in second line, at Biscarret, in rear of the pass of Roncesvalles. The 3rd division formed the reserve under Sir Thomas Picton, and was stationed at Olaque. This was the distribution of the allied army, guarding the passes of the Western Pyrenees, and covering the blockade of Pamplona and the siege of S. Sebastian’s. As the best means of saving time and labour in that siege, it was determined to follow Marshal Berwick’s mode of attack, breach the exposed wall from the sand-hills, and storm it as soon as the breach should be made practicable, trusting by quick movement to pass through the fire of the front line of works.

♦Siege of S. Sebastian’s.♦

When the troops appointed for the siege arrived in sight of the place, the whole of the works and of the castellated hill appeared to be in motion, so busily were the enemy every where employed in strengthening their defences. The Spaniards, who were previously blockading the place, could offer little interruption to them, because they had no artillery; but serious operations were now to commence, and the French, though they neither distrusted their own skill, nor that every possible exertion would be made for their relief, knew that all that skill and all those exertions would be called for. As a preliminary measure, it was necessary for the besiegers to drive the garrison from a post which they occupied, about 700 or 800 yards in advance of the town, formed by the convent of S. Bartolomé, and an unfinished redoubt, adjoining it, on the extremity of the steep hill towards the river, and from a small circular work which they made with casks on the causeway. Approaches were made, and batteries erected in the course of the night, between the 13th and 14th of July, with a celerity that surprised the French; and in the morning the guns opened upon the side of the convent. It was soon beaten down, ... the chapel, with its organ and costly adornments, was laid open, and demolished, and the roof fell in; but the French were not driven from the ruins. A false attack was made to ascertain whether they intended to maintain an obstinate resistance there; the troops carried it farther than their orders directed, and were fain to return with some loss. It was then attempted to drive the garrison out by means of red-hot shot; the Portugueze were less expert at this service than they had shown themselves in the field, they fired shot which had not been half heated, and frequently missed the whole building. Beams and whatever else was combustible from the neighbouring houses were used for heating the furnace; and at length the convent was set on fire in several places, but the garrison succeeded in extinguishing the flames as often as they broke out. The enemy, meantime, kept up from the town an incessant fire of shot and shells upon the batteries. After 2500 eighteen-pound shot and 450 ♦Convent of S. Bartolomé taken.♦ shells had been fired at the convent, it was found that the French were not to be dislodged by any other means than by the bayonet. Accordingly two columns were formed, one under the direction of Major-General Hay, on the right, to cross the ravine near the river, and attack the redoubt; the left, under Major-General Bradford, to attack the convent. Major-General ♦July 17.♦ Oswald commanded. The attack was begun about ten in the forenoon: the enemy in the convent were not aware of it till it was made; but the movement was perceived from the town and castle; troops were sent to reinforce the garrison, and a heavy fire was opened upon the assailants; ... it was soon discontinued, because they came to close quarters, and it must then have proved equally destructive to both parties. The reinforcement was not of more advantage, for thinking to take one body of the assailants in the rear, they were encountered and charged by another, and driven upon the convent, where the garrison had already been overpowered, and those who escaped were driven with the fugitives from the works down the hill, through the village of S. Martin’s, immediately below, which the enemy had burnt. The impetuosity of the pursuers could not be restrained; their directions not to pass the village were disregarded; they followed the French to the foot of the glacis, and suffered on their return. The garrison behaved gallantly, and lost 250 men; the loss of the allies amounted to 70. A fire from the town was kept up upon this post for twenty-four hours; and most of the dead with which the ground between it and the town was strewn, remained unburied there during the remainder of the siege, so great was the danger in collecting them, each party being jealous of the approach of an enemy to their works, even upon such an office.

Two batteries were thrown up during the night in a situation to enfilade and take in reverse the defences of the town. This in the loose sand was a most difficult work, and the fire of the enemy was directed with great precision to interrupt it; four sentinels were killed in succession through one loop-hole. The only eminence from whence artillery could be brought to bear directly on the town, though still about a hundred feet below it, was above the convent, and almost adjoining its walls. Here a battery was erected; the covered way to it passed through the convent, and the battery itself was constructed in a thickly-peopled burial-ground. A more ghastly circumstance can seldom have occurred in war; ... for coffins and corpses in all stages of decay were exposed when the soil was thrown up to form a defence against the fire from the town, and were used indeed in the defences; and when a shell burst there, it brought down the living and the dead together. An officer was giving his orders, when a shot struck the edge of the trenches above him; two coffins slipped down upon him with the sand, the coffins broke in their fall, the bodies rolled with him for some distance, and when he recovered he saw that they had been women of some rank, for they were richly attired in black velvet, and their long hair hung about their shoulders and their livid faces. The soldiers, in the scarcity of firewood, being nothing nice, broke up coffins for fuel with which to dress their food, leaving the bodies exposed; and till the hot sun had dried up these poor insulted remains of humanity, the stench was as dreadful as the sight.

The village of S. Martin, or rather its ruins, were now occupied, and approaches were struck out there ♦The batteries open.♦ to the right and left. On the 20th the batteries opened, and early in the evening the enemy abandoned the circular redoubt. The next day a flag of truce was sent with a summons to the governor, but not received. Meantime a parallel across the isthmus had been begun; in cutting it, the men came upon a channel level with the ground, in which a pipe was laid for conveying water into the town. The aqueduct was four feet high, and three feet wide. Lieutenant Reid of the engineers ventured to explore it, and at the end of 230 yards, he found it closed by a door in the counterscarp, opposite to the face of the right demi-bastion of the horn-work. It was thought that if a mine were formed at this point, the explosion would throw up earth enough against the escarp, which was only twenty-four feet high, to form a way over it; and accordingly sand-bags and barrels of powder were lodged there.

The service of the breaching battery was severe; the enemy of course directed every disposable gun against it, and their shells repeatedly blew up every platform there, and dismounted the guns. The seamen who assisted them did their duty nobly, as they always did; but with characteristic hardihood disregarded all injunctions tending to their own preservation, till many of them had suffered. Three of their officers and sixteen of their men were killed and wounded there in the course of three ♦Unsuccessful assault.♦ days. By mid-day of the 22nd, a breach had been made about 600 feet long, and, as it seemed, perfectly practicable, the wall being entirely levelled. It was strongly advised that this should be stormed on the following morning, as early as the light and the tide would admit; instead of this, orders were given to make another breach to the left in a more oblique part of the wall; one sure disadvantage of delay being that the time employed in making the second breach would be well used by the enemy in intrenching the first. After battering this second point for some hours, information was received from a civil engineer who was well acquainted with the place, that the wall to the right of the breach ♦July 24.♦ was a toise thinner than elsewhere; thither therefore the guns were directed, and before the night of the 23rd, a practicable breach was made there also. Great part of the town had already been ruined by the fire; it was at this time in flames, and the frequent crashing of houses was heard amid the roaring of the artillery. Before daybreak the trenches were filled with troops for storming and for supporting the assault, which was ordered for four o’clock; the batteries were to continue their fire upon the second breach till the moment of attack, and then all available guns were to be directed so as to restrain the enemy’s flanking fire from two towers, ... which, though much injured, were still occupied, ... or otherwise to assist as occasion might be perceived. All was in readiness, when about an hour after daybreak the order was countermanded, upon a misconception that because the houses at the back of the breach were on fire, the troops would not be able to advance after they should have gained the summit. The remainder of the day was spent in widening the second breach; time at this juncture was of such value that it was hoped the delay might only be for twelve hours, and the assault made at four in the evening; but it was thought a more important consideration that there would then be but few hours of daylight, and therefore the following morning was appointed.

Major-General Hay’s brigade formed the column of attack; Major-General Spry’s Portugueze brigade, Major-General Robinson’s, and the 4th Caçadores of Brigadier-General Wilson’s, were in reserve in the trenches, the whole under the direction of Major-General Oswald. The attack was made an hour before, instead of after daylight, because the tide was returning, and was already two feet deep under the wall where the ground is dry at low water. But some confusion was probably occasioned by the darkness; and the chance of success would have been greater if the arrangements had been made known to more of those officers who were to take part in executing them. The distance of the uncovered approach from the trenches to the breach was about 300 yards, over rocks covered with sea-weed, and intermediate pools of water, and in the face of an extensive front of works; the breach was flanked by two towers: the fire of the place was yet entire, and when the troops rushed from the trenches, it was presently seen that the French were not unapprized of the intended attempt, and that they had lost no time in making their preparations for defence; every gun which looked that way from the castle, and from the hill, was brought to bear upon the assailants, and from all around the breach they were flanked and enfiladed with a most destructive fire of grape and musketry. Blazing planks and beams were thrown transversely across the walls and on the breach; and stones, shot, shells, and hand grenades, were showered upon the allies with dreadful effect.

At this time the mine was sprung, and with as much effect as had been intended. It brought down a considerable length of the counterscarp and glacis, and astonished the enemy so greatly, that they abandoned for awhile that part of the works. When the Portugueze who were to take advantage of this hastened to the spot, there were no scaling-ladders, ... an officer ran to the foot of the breach, in hope the engineers there might be provided with them; ... if he had but one ladder, he said, he could post his whole party in the town: ... but ladders had not been needed here, and not thought of for the point where they might be required. The enemy had thus time to recover from their surprise; and the Portugueze, standing their ground with soldier-like fidelity, were miserably sacrificed, nearly the whole of this party being killed before the order for recalling them arrived.

Meantime Lieutenant Jones of the engineers with an officer and nine men of the first royals, gained the top of the great breach; and men were rushing up to follow them, when the enemy sprung a mine in one place, and in another drew the supports from under a false bridge, thus blowing up some of the assailants, and precipitating others upon the spikes which had been fixed below. The men who were at the foot of the breach were then panic-stricken; they, as well as the French, remembered that in such situations the victory is not to the brave or the strong, if superior skill is opposed to courage and strength: they ran back, ... it was impossible to rally them, and they suffered much. The intention was, that another column should pass in the rear of the first, between it and the sea to the second breach, and storm it; but the discomfiture of the first party prevented this, and none of these reached their destination. The whole was over before morning had fairly opened, and in the course of an hour, 45 officers and above 800 men were killed, wounded, or missing.

The river prevented any immediate communication, so that at the batteries it was thought that hardly anything more than a false alarm had taken place, till, as day dawned, they discovered through their glasses the bodies of officers and men in the breach, and under the demi-bastion and retaining wall. Presently one or two of the enemy appeared on the breach, and a serjeant came down among the wounded, raising some, and speaking to others. The firing which had been continued occasionally on the breach was then stopped; more of the French appeared; a kind of parley took place between them and the men at the head of the trenches; and half an hour’s truce was agreed on for the purpose of removing the wounded and the dead; but so jealous were the French that they would not allow the dead who were nearest them to be approached; some of the wounded they carried into the town, and others were borne by their soldiers into the British lines. While the troops were yet under arms, not knowing whether another attack might be ordered, a British officer saw one of his Portugueze soldiers start off, and reproved him for so doing, when after awhile the man returned; but the Portugueze replied, scarcely able to command his voice or restrain his tears as he spake, that he had only been burying his comrade, ... and in fact it appeared that with no other implement than his bayonet and his hand, he had given his poor friend and countryman a soldier’s burial in the sand. The officers who fell in this attack were buried together, each in a shell, in one grave, in a garden near the encampment.

♦The siege suspended.♦

Lord Wellington came over from Lesaca on the same day about noon, and determined upon renewing the attack; the second breach was to be completed, the demi-bastion thrown down, and fresh troops appointed for another assault. But the ammunition was now running low; and upon his return that night he received intelligence of movements on the enemy’s part in the Pyrenees, which made him forthwith dispatch orders for withdrawing the guns from the batteries and converting the siege into a blockade.

♦Soult appointed Commander-in-chief.♦

Marshal Soult had been sent back from Germany as Lieutenant of the Emperor, and Commander-in-chief of the French armies in Spain. Of all the French Generals employed in the Peninsula, he had obtained the highest reputation; and undoubtedly no one could be better entitled to the praise of those authors who write history, with a mere military feeling, reckless of all higher considerations. That impassibility which he considered as one of the first essentials for a general in such a war, and of which proof had been given in his proclamations and his acts, recommended him to Buonaparte not less than his great ability. The remains of the armies of Portugal, of the centre and of the north, were united; their ranks, which had so often been thinned, were filled by a new conscription; and the whole being re-formed into nine divisions of infantry, was called the army of Spain; the right, centre, and left, were under Generals Reille, Drouet, Compte d’Erlon, and Clausel; the reserve, under General Villatte: there were two divisions of dragoons under Generals Treillard and Tilly, and a light division under General Pierre Soult. In the expectation of success every exertion had been used to increase the strength of their cavalry, though of little use in the Pyrenees, that the war might be once more carried beyond the Ebro; and with the same view a large proportion of artillery was provided. The decree which appointed Marshal Soult bore date on the first of July; he took the command on the 13th, and his preparations were forwarded with the ability, activity, and hopefulness by which the French are characterized in such ♦His address to the troops.♦ things. He issued an address to his troops, containing more truth than was usually admitted into a French state paper, because the truth in that place could not possibly be concealed; but it was sufficiently coloured with artful misrepresentations and with falsehood. “The armies of France,” it said, “guided by the powerful and commanding genius of the Emperor Napoleon, had achieved in Germany a succession of victories as brilliant as any that adorned their annals. The presumptuous hopes of the enemy had thus been confounded; and the Emperor, who was always inclined to consult the welfare of his subjects, by following moderate counsels, had listened to the pacific overtures which the enemy made to him after their defeat. But in the interim, the English, who, under the pretence of succouring the inhabitants of the Peninsula, were in reality devoting them to ruin, had taken advantage of the opportunity afforded them. A skilful leader,” said Marshal Soult, “might have discomfited their motley levies; and who could doubt what would have been the result of the day at Vittoria if the general had been worthy of his troops? Let us not however,” he continued, “defraud the enemy of the praise which is their due. The dispositions and arrangements of their general have been prompt, skilful, and consecutive; and the valour and steadiness of his troops have been praiseworthy. Yet do not forget that it is to the benefit of your example they owe their present military character; and that whenever the relative duties of a French general and his troops have been ably fulfilled, their enemies have commonly had no other resource than in flight.” In one part of this address Marshal Soult rendered justice to Lord Wellington; but this latter assertion strikingly exemplifies the character of the vain-glorious people whom he was addressing. He himself had been repulsed by a far inferior British force at Coruña; had been driven from Porto, and defeated in the bloody field of Albuhera. He was addressing men who had been beaten at Vimeiro, beaten at Talavera, beaten at Busaco, beaten at Fuentes d’Onoro, routed at Salamanca, and scattered like sheep at Vittoria. They had been driven from Lisbon into France; and yet the general who had so often been baffled addressed this language to the very troops who had been so often and so signally defeated! “The present situation of the army,” he pursued, “is imputable to others: let the merit of repairing it be yours. I have borne testimony to the Emperor of your bravery and your zeal. His instructions are to drive the enemy from those heights which enable them arrogantly to survey our fertile valleys, and to chase them across the Ebro. It is on the Spanish soil that your tents must next be pitched, and your resources drawn. Let the account of our successes be dated from Vittoria, and the birth-day of the Emperor be celebrated in that city.”

♦Critical situation of the allied army.♦

Lord Wellington’s situation had not during the whole war been so critical as at this time. He had two blockades to maintain, and two points to cover, sixty miles distant from each other, in a mountainous country, where the heights were so impassable that there could be no lateral communication between his divisions. His force was necessarily divided in order that none of the passes might be left undefended, but the enemy could choose their point of attack, and bring their main force to bear upon it; thus they would have the advantage of numbers; and they had the farther advantage, that a considerable proportion of their troops, all who had belonged to the army of the north, had been accustomed to mountain warfare, in which the British and Portugueze had had no experience.

♦Soult’s movements for the relief of Pamplona.♦

Soult’s first object was to relieve Pamplona, which could only be relieved by some such great effort as he intended; whereas S. Sebastian’s, as long as the garrison could maintain themselves there, had always the possibility of receiving supplies along the coast. With this view he collected a convoy of provisions and stores at St. Jean de Pied-de-Port. Meantime the hostile forces, though each within their own frontier, were encamped in some places upon opposite heights, within half cannon-shot; and their sentries within 150 yards of each other. Hitherto with the Spaniards and Portugueze it had been, in the ever-memorable phrase of Palafox, war at the knife’s edge; but that national contest, in which the aggressors had treated courtesy and humanity with as much contempt as justice, was at an end; it was a military contest now, and the two armies offered no molestation to each other in the intervals of the game of war. The French, gay and alert as usual, were drumming and trumpeting all day long; the more thoughtful English enjoying the season and the country, looking down with delight upon the sea and the enemy’s territory, and Bayonne in the distance, and sketching in the leisure which their duties might allow the beautiful scenery of the Pyrenees. The right of the allied army was at Roncesvalles, the sacred ground of romance, where in the seventeenth century a spot was shown as still reddened with the blood of the Paladins; and where Our Lady, under some one of her thousand and one appellations, may perhaps still continue to work miracles in the chapel wherein they were interred. From that pass, and from the pass of Maya, the roads converge on Pamplona; and Soult made his arrangements for attacking both on the same day in force, ... for doing which he had the great advantage that Lord Wellington was at the opposite extremity of the line, near S. Sebastian’s.

♦Battles of the Pyrenees.♦

Accordingly, on the 24th, he assembled the right and left wings of his army, with one division of his centre, and two divisions of cavalry, at St. Jean de Pied-de-Port; and on the 25th (the same day that the unsuccessful assault upon S. Sebastian’s was made) he began his operations, and in person, with about 35,000 men, attacked General Byng’s post at Roncesvalles. Sir Lowry Cole moved up to his support with the 4th division; and they maintained their ground obstinately, against very superior numbers, though with considerable loss. But in the afternoon the enemy turned their position; and Sir Lowry deemed it necessary to withdraw in the night, and marched accordingly to Lizoain, in the neighbourhood of Zubiri. General Drouet, with 13,000 men, was to force the position of Maya: early in the morning he manœuvred against each of the four passes, and against the Conde de Amarante’s division, which was posted on the right. Under cover of these demonstrations, he collected his main strength behind a hill immediately in front of the pass of Aretesque, and from thence about noon made a sudden and rapid advance, favoured by a most unexpected chance. Two advanced videttes, who had been posted on some high ground to give timely notice of an enemy’s approach, had fallen asleep during the heat of the day; the French were thus enabled to advance unseen, and the piquet had scarcely time to give the alarm before the enemy were upon them. The light infantry companies of the second brigade sustained the attack with great steadiness; when they were overpowered, the 34th and 50th regiments came up, and afterward the right wing of the 92d; for as the other passes were not to be left unguarded, troops could only be brought from them by successive battalions, as the need became more urgent. Opposed as they thus were to very superior forces, the 32d lost more than a third of its numbers, and the 92d battalion was almost destroyed. The allies retired slowly, defending every point as succours enabled them to make a stand, but still over-matched; till, about six in the evening, Major-General Barnes’s brigade of the 7th division came to their support; then they recovered that part of their post which was the key of the position, and might have reassumed their ground; but Sir Rowland, having been apprized that Sir Lowry Cole must retire, deemed it necessary to withdraw them during the night to Irurita. They had been engaged seven hours, and lost four guns and more than sixteen hundred men.

During the whole of the following day, the enemy remained inactive beyond the Puerto de Maya. On that day Sir Thomas Picton, who, as soon as he was informed of Soult’s movements, had crossed to Zubiri with his division, moved forward to support the troops at Lizoain, and assumed the command there as senior officer. The enemy’s whole force advanced against them early in the afternoon, and they retired skirmishing to some strong ground, which they maintained, in order of battle, till night closed. Generals Picton and Cole concurred then in opinion that the post of Zubiri would not be tenable for so long a time, as it would be necessary for them to wait there. Early on the 27th, therefore, they began to retreat still farther, and took up a position to cover the blockade of Pamplona. The garrison of that fortress had been informed by some deserters from the Walloon guards that Soult, with a powerful army, was advancing victoriously to their relief, and that relief was certain. Their hopes were raised to the highest pitch; the firing was only five miles distant. The state of things appeared so critical to Abisbal, that he prepared to raise the blockade, and spiked some of his guns; and the enemy sallied, got possession of several batteries, and took fourteen pieces of cannon, before Don Carlos d’España could repulse them. The position which the retreating troops took to cover the blockade had its right in front of the village of Huarte, extending to the hills beyond Olaz, and its left on the heights in front of the village of Villalba, the right of this wing resting on a height which covered the road from Zubiri and Roncesvalles, and the left at a chapel behind Sorauren, on the road from Ostiz. Morillo’s division of Spanish infantry was in reserve, with that part of Abisbal’s corps which was not engaged in the blockade; and from the latter two regiments were detached to occupy part of the hill by which the road from Zubiri was defended. The British cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton were placed on the right, near Huarte, being the only ground on which cavalry could act. The river Lanz runs in the valley which was on the left of the allies, and on the right of the French, in the road to Ostiz. Beyond this river is a range of mountains connected with Ligasso and Marcalain, by which places it was now necessary to communicate with the rest of the army.

Lord Wellington arrived as these divisions were taking up their ground; and shortly afterwards Soult formed his army on a mountain between the Ostiz and the Zubiri roads, the front of the mountain extending from one road to the other. One division he placed on a bold height to the left of the Zubiri road, and in some villages in front of the third division, where he had also a large body of cavalry. The same evening he pushed forward a corps to take possession of a steep hill on the right of General Cole’s division: it was occupied by a Portugueze battalion and a Spanish regiment; these troops defended their post with the bayonet, and drove the enemy back. Seeing the importance of this point, Lord Wellington reinforced it with the 40th and with another Spanish regiment, so that the further efforts of the French there were as unsuccessful as the first; but they took possession of Sorauren, on the Ostiz road, whereby they acquired the communication by that road; and they kept up a fire of musketry along the line till it was dark.

In the morning General Pack’s division arrived. Lord Wellington then directed that the heights on the left of the valley of the Lanz should be occupied, and that this division should form across the valley in rear of the left of General Cole’s, resting its right on Oricain, and its left upon the heights. They had scarcely taken the position in the valley when they were attacked in great force from Sorauren: the enemy advanced steadily to the attack; but the front was defended from the heights on their left by their own light troops, and from the height on the right, and on the rear, by the 4th division and a Portugueze brigade; and the French were soon driven back, with great loss, by the fire in their front, both flanks, and rear. This was a false move from which Soult never recovered: with a view of extricating his troops from the situation in which they were now placed, he attacked the height on which the left of the 4th division stood, and where the 7th Caçadores were posted, at an ermida, or chapel, behind Sorauren. Momentary possession was obtained of it; but the Caçadores returned to their ground, supported by Major-General Ross at the head of his brigade, and the enemy were driven down. The battle now became general along the whole of these heights, but only in one point to the advantage of the French, which was where a battalion of Major-General Campbell’s Portugueze regiment was posted; that battalion was overpowered, it gave way immediately on the right of Ross’s brigade: the French then established themselves on the line of the allies, and Ross was obliged to withdraw from his post. Upon this, Lord Wellington ordered the 27th and 48th to charge, first that body of the enemy which had established itself there, and then those on the left. Both charges succeeded; the enemy were driven back: the 6th division at the same time moved forward nearer to the left of the 4th; the attack upon this front then ceased entirely, and was but faintly continued on other points of the line. Every regiment in the 4th division charged with the bayonet that day, and the 40th, 7th, 20th, and 23rd, four different times. Their officers set them the example, and Major-General Ross had two horses shot under him. The events of that day abated Marshal Soult’s confidence, and made him feel how little he could expect to succeed against such troops and such a commander. He no longer thought of dating his report of the operations from Vittoria, and celebrating the Emperor Napoleon’s birth-day in that city; and he sent back his guns, his wounded, and great part of his baggage, to S. Jean de Pied-de-Port, while they could be sent in safety.

On the 29th both armies remained quiet in their positions, each expecting the result of its combinations. Sir Rowland had been ordered to march upon Lizasso by Lanz, and the Earl of Dalhousie from San Esteban upon the same place; both arrived there on the 28th, and Lord Dalhousie’s division came to Marcalain, thus assuring Sir Rowland’s communication with the main body. Marshal Soult’s manœuvres were now baffled, for the allies were become one army; but he saw one chance for victory still remaining, and he was not a man to let any opportunity escape him. Drouet’s corps, before which Sir Rowland had retired, followed his march, and arrived at Ostiz on the 29th. Thus the French force also became one army. The Marshal thought his position between the Arga and Lanz was by nature so exceedingly strong, and so little liable to attack, that he might without apprehension withdraw from it the bulk of his troops. Occupying, therefore, still the same points, but drawing on to his left the troops which were on the heights opposite the third division, he reinforced Drouet with one division, and during the night of the 29th occupied in strength the crest of the mountain opposite to the 6th and 7th divisions, thus connecting his right in its position with the force which had been detached to attack Sir Rowland, his object being thus to open the Tolosa road, turn the left of the allies, and relieve St. Sebastian’s, now that he had failed in the attempt for the relief of Pamplona.

On the morning of the 30th his troops were observed to move in great numbers toward the mountains on the right of the Lanz, with what intent Lord Wellington at once perceived, and determined to attack the French position in front. He ordered Lord Dalhousie to possess himself of the top of the mountain opposite him, and turn their right, and Sir Thomas Picton to cross the heights from which the French division had been withdrawn, and from the Roncesvalles road turn their left, and he made his arrangements for attacking them in front, as soon as the effect of these movements on both flanks should appear. In every point these intentions were effected. Lord Dalhousie with General Inglis’s brigade drove them from the mountains: Major-General Pakenham who had the command of the 6th division, Major-General Pack having been wounded, then turned the village of Sorauren, and Major-General Byng’s brigade attacked and carried the village of Ostiz. Sir Lowry Cole attacked their front, when their confidence in themselves as well as in their ground had thus been shaken, the French were then compelled to abandon a position which Lord Wellington declared to be one of the strongest and most difficult of access that he had ever seen occupied by troops.

While these operations were going on, and in proportion as they succeeded, troops were detached to support Sir Rowland. Late in the morning the enemy appeared in his front, and made many vigorous attacks, while Drouet manœuvred upon his left: every attack was repulsed, and the allies maintained their ground, till Drouet, by a more distant movement, ascended the ridge, and came absolutely round their left flank; Sir Rowland then leisurely retired about a mile to a range of heights near Eguarras, and repelled every attempt to dislodge him from that strong ground. Lord Wellington meantime pursued the enemy after he had driven them from their position on the mountain, and at sunset he was at Olaque, immediately in the rear of their attack upon Sir Rowland. Their last hope had failed, and, withdrawing from Sir Rowland’s front during the night, they retreated with great ability through the pass of Doña Maria, and left two divisions there in a strong position to cover their rear in the pass. Sir Rowland and Lord Dalhousie were ordered to attack the pass; they moved by parallel roads; and the enemy, closely pressed by the 7th division, were ascending the hill in great haste, when Sir Rowland arrived at the foot of the pass, not in time to cut off any part of their rear. Both divisions ascended the hill, each by its own road; and the French took up a strong position at the top of the pass, with a cloud of skirmishers in front. On the left, which was Sir Rowland’s side, the attack was led by Lieutenant-General Stewart with Major-General Walker’s brigade; they forced the skirmishers back to the summit of the hill, but coming there upon the main body, found it so numerous and so strongly posted, that they deemed it necessary to withdraw till the 7th division should come into closer co-operation. They had not long to wait for this: General Stewart was wounded, and the command devolved upon Major-General Pringle; he renewed the attack on that side, while Lord Dalhousie pressed the enemy on the other; both divisions gained the height about the same time, and the enemy, after sustaining a very considerable loss, retired; they were pursued for some way down, but a thick fog favoured them, and prevented the allies from profiting further by the advantage they had gained. Lord Wellington meantime moved with Major-General Byng’s brigade and Sir Lowry Cole’s division through the pass of Velate upon Irurita, thus turning their position on Doña Maria. A large convoy of provisions and stores was taken by Major-General Byng ♦August 1.♦ at Elizondo. The pursuit was continued during the following day in the vale of Bidassoa. Byng possessed himself of the valley of Bastan and the position on the Puerto de Maya; and at the close of the day the different divisions were re-established nearly on the same ground which they had occupied when their operations commenced, eight days before. The enemy had now two divisions posted on the Puerto de Echalar, and nearly their whole army behind that pass; and Lord Wellington resolved to dislodge them by a combined attack and movement of the 4th, 7th, and light divisions, which had advanced by the vale of the Bidassoa towards the frontier. The 7th, taking a shorter line across the mountains from Sumbilla, arrived before the 4th. Major-General Barnes’s brigade was formed for the attack, advanced before the others could co-operate, and with a regularity and gallantry which, Lord Wellington says, he has seldom seen equalled, drove the two French divisions from the formidable heights which they vainly endeavoured to maintain. Major-General Kempt’s brigade of the light division likewise drove a very considerable force from the rock which forms the left of the pass; and thus no enemy was left in the field, within this part of the Spanish frontier. During these operations the loss of the allies amounted to 6000 in killed, wounded, and missing; that of the French exceeded 8000. On both sides great ability had been manifested; seldom indeed has the art of war been displayed with such skill, and upon such difficult ground. To guard against the repetition of so formidable an effort on the enemy’s part, the positions which the allies occupied were strengthened by redoubts and intrenchments. While the main scene of action lay in the neighbourhood of Pamplona, that portion of the enemy’s force which had been left to observe the allies on the great road from Irun, attacked Longa, who occupied that part of the Bidassoa and the town of Vera with his division. He repulsed them with great loss; and it was not the least of the discouraging reflections, which could not but occur to the enemy after the failure of all these well-planned and well-attempted endeavours, that the Spanish troops had now become as efficient as the Portugueze.

♦Siege of St. Sebastian’s resumed.♦

During these eventful days the guns had been withdrawn from the batteries before St. Sebastian’s, and, with all the stores, embarked at Passages, and the transports had been sent to sea; but a blockade was kept up, and the guard continued to hold the trenches. The vigilant enemy made a sortie on the morning of the 27th, and carried off between 200 and 300 Portugueze and English from the trenches prisoners into the town. Want of foresight on the part of the besiegers allowed them this opportunity, for some of the guns of the left embrasures had, in apprehension of such an attempt, been arranged so as to take the enemy in flank; and those guns were withdrawn with the others. On the 3rd the French surprised a patrol in the parallel and made them prisoners: but Soult’s defeat was known ♦August 6.♦ now; the stores were re-landed at Passages, and Sir Thomas Graham waited only for the arrival of more artillery and ammunition from England to recommence the siege. The infantry meantime rested on its arms; and the cavalry, who longed to eat the green maize (which was prohibited), kept their horses in good exercise in looking for straw. The 17th was Buonaparte’s birth-day; three salutes were fired from the Castle of St. Sebastian’s on the eve preceding, as many at four in the morning, and again at noon; and at night the words “Vive Napoleon le Grand” were displayed in letters of light upon the castle: ... it was the last of his birth-days that was commemorated by any public celebration. The expected artillery arrived at Passages on the 18th. That little town had never in the days of its prosperity, when it was the port of the Caraccas Company, presented a scene so busy, nor while it lasted so gainful to the inhabitants and peasantry of the surrounding country. The market for the army was held here, which they supplied with necessaries, the produce of the land; and which at this time wanted nothing wherewith England could supply it, so frequent now and so easy was the intercourse. Here the reinforcements were landed, which, now that the British government had caught the spirit of its victorious general, were no longer limited by parsimonious impolicy. When the horses were to be landed they were lowered from the transports into the sea, and guided by a rope as they swam to shore; but this sudden transition from the extreme heat of the hold to the cold water proved fatal to several of them.

The garrison of St. Sebastian’s employed the time which the blockade afforded them so well, in strengthening their defences and adding new ones, that when the allies had to recommence the siege, the place was stronger than before. The plan now determined on was to lay open the two round towers on each end of the first breach, and connect it with the second breach, which was to the right, add to it another on the left, and demolish a demi-bastion to the left of the whole, by which the approach was flanked. A mortar battery was also erected for the purpose of annoying the castle across the bay. Sailors were employed in this, and never did men more thoroughly enjoy their occupation. They had double allowance of grog, as their work required; and at their own cost they had a fiddler; they who had worked their spell in the battery went to relieve their comrades in the dance, and at every shot which fell upon the castle they gave three cheers. Little effect was produced by this battery, because of its distance. Between it and the town is the island of St. Clara, high and rocky, about half a mile in circumference, which the French occupied; it was deemed expedient to dislodge them and take possession of it, because the season was approaching when ships might be obliged to leave the coast, and this spot facilitated the enemy’s communication with their own country. The only landing-place was under a flight of steps, commanded by a small intrenchment on the west point of the island, and exposed to the whole range of works on the west side of the rock and of the walls; the garrison, consisting of an officer and twenty-four men, were thus enabled to make such a resistance, that nineteen of the assailants were killed and wounded. The island however was taken, and the garrison made prisoners.

The actual siege recommenced on the 24th; and at the following midnight the enemy made a sortie, entered the advanced part of the trenches and carried confusion into the parallel; but when they attempted to sweep along its right, a part of the guard checked them, and they retired into the town, taking with them about twelve prisoners. The batteries opened on the morning of the 26th. On the night of the 27th another sortie was tried; but experience had made the besiegers more vigilant, and it was repulsed before the slightest mischief could be done. Nothing that skill and ingenuity could devise was omitted by the garrison; they repaired by night as far as possible the injury which had been done in the day; cleared away the rubbish; and at the points at which the batteries were directed, let down large solid beams to break the force of the shot. But in this branch of the art of war, the means of attack are hitherto more efficient than those of defence; and in the course of the 29th the enemy’s fire was nearly subdued. They lost many men by our spherical case shot; and they attempted to imitate what they had found so destructive, by filling common shells with small balls, and bursting them over the heads of the besiegers; but these were without effect. On the night of the 29th there was a false attack made with the hope of inducing the enemy to spring the mines, which it was not doubted that they had prepared; they fired most of their guns, but the end was not answered, for no mine was exploded.

♦Preparations for assaulting the town.♦

Men were now invited to volunteer for the assault, such men, it was said, “as knew how to show other troops the way to mount a breach.” When this was communicated to the 4th division, which was to furnish 400 men, the whole division moved forward. The column of attack was formed of the 2nd brigade of the 5th division, commanded by Major-General Robinson, with an immediate support of 150 volunteers from the light division, 400 from the first, and 200 from the 4th; and with the remainder of the 5th division in reserve, the whole under the direction of Sir James Leith. Sir James had been severely wounded in the battle of Salamanca, and his constitution still felt the effects of the Walcheren fever; but leaving England as soon as he was sufficiently recovered to discharge his duties, he arrived at S. Sebastian’s on the 29th, and resumed the command of his division in the trenches, Major-General Oswald, who had held it during his absence, resigning it and acting as a volunteer. As the breaches now appeared to be practicable, the assault was ordered for eleven o’clock on the forenoon of the 31st, being the time of low water; and to prepare debouches for the troops, three shafts were sunk at the advanced sap on the right, for the purpose of breaking through the sea wall, which was of masonry, four feet thick and ten feet above the high water mark; they were sunk eight feet below the surface, and each loaded with 540 pounds of powder.

♦Soult moves for its relief.♦

Marshal Soult, meantime, as soon as he knew that the siege had been recommenced, leaving one division in front of the British light division, and another in front of the 7th, moved the rest of his army to the camp at Urogne, with the obvious intention of making an attempt to relieve the place. Under that expectation all the troops of horse artillery were ordered to march, and the artillery not employed in the siege was sent to the front. The eve of the assault was therefore a time of more than usual anxiety; for if either the assault should fail, or Soult should succeed, the situation of the allies would be rendered critical. In the course of the day the wood and rubbish of the right breach took fire, and a mine near it exploded; and in the afternoon five small mines within the town were blown up by ♦Assault of S. Sebastian’s.♦ the falling of a shell. The evening closed in with a storm of thunder and lightning and heavy rain. Two hours after midnight the three mines were sprung, and completely effected the purpose of blowing down the sea wall; the etonnoirs were immediately connected; a good passage out for the troops was thus formed, and the farther object was attained of securing all the works in their rear from any galleries which the enemy might have run out in that direction. In the morning there was such a fog, and the smoke in consequence hung so, that nothing could be seen; but about nine o’clock a gentle sea-breeze began to clear the mist, and the sun soon shone forth. Sir Thomas Graham, having completed the arrangements with Sir James Leith, left him to command the assault, and crossed the Urumea to the batteries of the right attack, from whence all might be distinctly seen, and orders for the fire of the batteries immediately given, according to circumstances. Sir James held it as an article of his military belief that British troops could not fail in any thing which they undertook. He now took the opinion of the chief engineer, Sir Richard Fletcher, as to the spot from whence he could best overlook and direct the desperate service of the day; the place they fixed on was upon the beach, about thirty yards in advance of the debouche from the trenches; and there, without any cover or protection whatever, they both took their stand; for it was a maxim with him that however brave the troops, and however devoted the officers, the example of those in command was, beyond every thing, essential.

About eleven o’clock the advanced parties moved out of the trenches, and the enemy almost immediately exploded two mines, for the purpose of blowing down the wall to the left of the beach, along which the troops were advancing to the breach; the passage between the wall and the water was narrow, and they expected, by the fragments of masonry which would be thrown down, to obstruct the line of march. This intent failed; but about twenty men were crushed by the ruins of the wall. The garrison, as on the former assault, were perfectly prepared; and from the Mirador battery, and the battery del Principe, on the castle hill, they opened a fire of grape and shells upon the columns. The forlorn hope, consisting of an officer and thirty men, fell to a man; the front of the columns which followed were cut off, as by one shot; and the breach, when the assailants reached it, was presently covered with their bodies; many of those who were ascending it were thrown down by the bodies of those above them, the living, the wounded, and the dead, rolling together down the ruins. From the Mirador and Prince batteries, from the keep of the castle, from the high curtain to the left of the breach, and from some ruined houses in front, about forty yards distant, which were loop-holed and lined with infantry, a concentrated fire was kept up; a line of intrenchment had been carried along the nearest parallel walls; this was strongly occupied, and it entirely swept the summit of the breach; and, in addition to all this, the horn-work flanked and commanded the ascent. The tower of Amesquita, on the left of the breach, was the only available point of defence which had not been manned; overlooked it could not have been by such engineers as those who conducted the defence: undoubtedly they considered the means which they had provided to be more than sufficient, and that no courage, however desperate, could in the face of them carry a breach which, upon all rules of art, was actually impracticable. That every art of defence which science and experience could devise would be practised was expected; it was known, also, that the garrison were as little deficient in confidence as in numbers, and that they had stores in abundance; but if there had been even a suspicion that the ground at the point of attack was what it was now found to be, it is certain that the assault, under such circumstances, would never have been ordered.

Nothing, in fact, could have been more fallacious than the external appearance of the breach. Up to the end of the curtain it was as accessible, quite to the terre-plein, as it seemed to be; but there the enemy’s situation was commanding, and the ascent itself was exposed to the horn-work: but this was the only point where it was passable, and there only by single files. Except on this point, there was a perpendicular fall from fifteen to twenty-five feet in depth, along the back of the whole breach, extensive as it was. Houses had been built against the interior of the wall; these were now in ruins; and there was no way of descending, except here and there by an end wall which remained standing; but the very few who could by this means get into the streets were exposed to an incessant fire from the opposite houses. During the suspension of the siege, every possible preparation had been made by the enemy, with the advantage of knowing the point which would be attacked; so that they had a great number of men covered by intrenchments and traverses in the horn-work, on the ramparts of the curtain, and in the town itself opposite the breach. The most determined courage was displayed by the troops, who were brought forward in succession from the trenches to this place of slaughter. Military duty was never discharged with more entire devotion than it was at this time both by officers and men. No man outlived the attempt to gain the ridge. The slope of the breach afforded shelter from musketry; but the nature of the stone rubbish rendered it impossible for the working parties to form a lodgement there, notwithstanding their utmost exertions, and the troops were exposed to the shells and grape from the batteries of the castle; and on the way to the breach so severe and continuous a fire was kept up that Sir James Leith was obliged to send directions for removing the dead and the dying from the debouches, which were so choked up as to prevent the passage of the troops.

♦Sir James Leith wounded.♦

A plunging shot struck the ground near the spot where Sir James was standing, rebounded, struck him on the chest, and laid him prostrate and senseless. The officers near thought certainly that he was killed; but he recovered breath, and then recollection, and resisting all entreaties to quit the field, continued to issue his orders. Sir Thomas Graham meantime accepted the offer of a part of Major-General Bradford’s Portugueze brigade to ford the river and assist in the assault. The advance of a battalion under Major Snodgrass, and of a detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel M’Bean, was made rapidly and firmly, under a very heavy fire of grape, along the beach and over a creek knee-deep. They got over, but not without great loss, and bore their part in what Sir Thomas Graham began now to think was an all but desperate attempt: and desperate it must have proved, if, upon consulting with Colonel Dickson, who commanded the artillery, he had not ventured to direct that the guns should be turned against the curtain. A heavy fire was immediately directed there, passing only a few feet above the heads of our own troops, and it was kept up with a precision of practice beyond all example. The troops who were employed in the assault were astonished at hearing the roar of cannon from behind them; they saw the enemy swept from the curtain; a few of their own men were brought down also by the first discharge: the second made the intent fully intelligible; its effect upon the enemy was visible, and a great effort was then ordered to gain the high ridge at all hazards.

At this time a shell burst near Sir James Leith, tore off the flesh of his left hand, and broke the arm in two places; still he continued to give directions, till, fainting from loss of blood, he was carried from the field. Major-General Hay succeeded to the command. Almost ♦Sir Richard Fletcher slain.♦ immediately afterwards, and nearly on the same spot, Sir Richard Fletcher talking to General Oswald, was killed by a musket-ball, which struck him in the spine of the neck. This was a great loss to his friends and his country: he was of such amiable qualities, as well as of such sterling worth, that no man was ever more respected and loved; and that his professional talents were of the highest order had been shown by the lines of Torres Vedras.

♦The city taken.♦

As Sir James Leith was carried through the trenches to the rear, he met the remaining part of his division pressing forward to execute his orders; and the men of the 9th regiment, recognizing their general, promised him not to desist from their exertions until the place should be taken. Just as they arrived at the breach, a quantity of cartridges exploded behind one of the traverses of the curtain; the fire of the artillery had occasioned this; and it caused some confusion among the enemy, who already apprehended that the tide of fortune was turning against them. The narrow pass was now gained and maintained; hats were waved from the terre-plein of the curtain; the troops rushed forward and drove the enemy down the steep flight of steps near the great gate leading from the works into the town. The troops on the right of the breach about the same time forced the barricadoes on the top of the narrow line wall, and found their way into the houses that joined it. In many places it was necessary to apply scaling-ladders before the men could get down. At the centre of the main breach there was an excavation below the descent, and a barricado at some feet farther back; here, therefore, any who should have descended would have been inclosed as a mark for the enemy, till the way was cleared for them by a flanking fire from a round tower on the right, which took the French in reverse. The French themselves were inclosed in a barricado between that tower and the right breach, and their dead lay there heaped upon each other. The contest was still maintained from barricadoes in the streets, and by firing from the houses; till between four and five in the afternoon, the enemy were driven from their last defence in the town, except the Convent of S. Teresa, and retired into the castle. By that time the town was on fire in many places; and, to add to the horrors of a place taken by assault, the vindictive enemy fired upon it from their upper defences, and rolled their shells into it.

About three in the afternoon, the day, which had been sultry, became unusually cold; the sky was overcast, and between the blackness of the sky, the rain, and the smoke, it was as dark as a dusky evening; but when darkness would in its natural course have closed the town was in flames. A dreadful night of thunder and rain, and wind succeeded; and it was made far more dreadful by man than by the elements. It is no easy task for officers, after the heat of an assault, to restrain successful troops who are under no moral restraint; and on this day so many officers had perished that the men fancied themselves exempt from all control. They sacked the place, and gave way to such excesses that if the French could have suspected the state of drunkenness to which men so excellently brave in action had reduced themselves, they might very probably have retaken part of the town, if not the whole. The loss of the assailants amounted to nearly 1600 British and 800 Portugueze killed and wounded; 700 of the garrison were made prisoners.

♦The French defeated in their attempt to relieve it.♦

On the morning of the assault the French made a second effort for the relief of S. Sebastian’s. Three divisions of Spaniards, under General Freyre, occupied the heights of S. Marcial on the left of the Bidassoa, and the town of Irun, thus covering the road to the besieged fortress. The position was exceedingly strong, the front and the left being covered by the river, and their right resting on the Sierra de Haya. They were supported by the first division of British infantry, under Major-General Howard, and by Lord Aylmer’s brigade on the left, and in the rear of Irun; and by Longa’s division near the Sierra in rear of their right. Still farther to secure them, Lord Wellington, knowing that during the 29th and 30th the enemy were assembling a large force at Vera, moved two brigades of the 4th division to the left of the Sierra, and occupied the heights on the right of that mountain, between the convent of S. Antonio and Vera; and Lezaca with a Portugueze brigade, to prevent it from being turned in that direction. On the 30th also he moved Major-General Inglis’s brigade to the bridge of Lezaca, and gave orders for the troops in the Puertos of Etchalar, Zugarramundi, and Maya, to attack the enemy’s weakened post in front of their positions.

Before daylight on the 31st the enemy crossed the Bidassoa with a very large force, two divisions by a ford in front of the left of the Spaniards, while a third, under protection of batteries which they had thrown up during the night, were constructing a bridge over the river, about three quarters of a mile above the high road. The two divisions immediately attacked the Spaniards along the whole front of their position on the heights of S. Marcial. The attack was made with that confidence which the French had always felt when the Spaniards were opposed to them in regular action; but the boldness with which they commenced it was ill maintained; for the Spaniards waited firmly till the assailants had nearly reached the summit of the steep ascent, then charged them with the bayonet whilst in column, and instantly broke them. As often as the French repeated the attack so often were they driven back, some of them even across the river, where many in their haste lost the direction of the ford and perished. The division which had been pushed across the Bidassoa to protect the construction of the bridge, made a subsequent attempt on the right of the Spaniards, with no better success. But as the course of the river was immediately under the heights on the French side, and a considerable bend in that part of the stream was flanked by their batteries, the Spaniards could not prevent the pontooners from completing their work; and in the afternoon the enemy marched over a considerable body, which, with the divisions who had crossed at the fords, made another desperate attack upon the Spanish position. Lord Wellington, who pronounced the conduct of the Spaniards on this day to have been equal to that of any troops whom he had ever seen engaged, appeared in front of their line at the moment when the French advanced to this last attack. He was received with loud and repeated shouts, and the men, proud of supporting in his sight the character which they felt that they had this day deserved, again beat back the assailants. They showed themselves indeed so capable of defending their post without assistance, that the two British divisions were not brought into action, the nature of the ground being such that they could not be employed on the flanks of the enemy’s corps. When the French were at length convinced that all their efforts were in vain, they took advantage of a violent storm and the darkness which came on with it, to retire hastily from this front. Many took to the river in their fear, to sink or swim if they should miss the fords; and in this attempt so many were seen to perish, the river being swoln by the storm, that latterly the fugitives crowded to the bridge, and at last pressed upon it in such numbers, that it sunk beneath their weight, and most of those who were passing at the moment were lost.

About the same time that the enemy commenced their operations on this side, a very strong body of their infantry crossed the Bidassoa, in two columns, by the fords below Salon, in front of the position occupied by the 9th Portugueze brigade. Major-General Inglis moved with his brigade to their support, and finding he could not maintain the heights between Lezaca and the river, withdrew to those in front of the convent, protecting there the right of the Spanish army, and at the same time the approach by Oyarzun to S. Sebastian’s. Major-General Kempt meantime moved a brigade of the light division to Lezaca, by which he kept the enemy in check; and the Earl of Dalhousie was directed likewise to support Major-General Inglis; but being engaged at the Puerto de Zugarramundi, he could not begin his march till late in the afternoon, nor arrive before the ensuing morning, when the operations were at an end. For the enemy, when they found that Major-General Inglis was in a position from which they could not dislodge him, and knew that they had completely failed at the heights of San Marcial, felt that their situation on the Spanish side of the Bidassoa was becoming every moment more critical, and retired during the night. But the river had then so risen, and was still rising so fast, that the rear of their column was obliged to cross by the bridge at Vera: and to effect this, they attacked the posts of the light division about three in the morning. If a sufficient force could have been spared for guarding this point, a very considerable part of Soult’s army might have been taken. The bridge was not wide enough for more than three or four to pass abreast, and a continual fire was poured upon it from the walls of a neighbouring convent, so that they were believed to have lost not less than a thousand men in passing. The loss of the allies on this day amounted to 400 killed, about 2060 wounded, and 150 missing, nearly 1600 of these being Spaniards. The brunt of the action had fallen upon them; and in this respect it was a day of great importance, because it made the French feel their own growing inferiority, and apprehend that San Marcial would teach the Spaniards the same confidence in themselves which the Portugueze had learned at Busaco. Among the British officers who fell was Captain Douglas of the 51st: he is thus mentioned in a work wherein so many crimes have been recorded, because his brother officers bore this testimony to him, that he was the only man they knew of whom they could truly say there was nothing in him in the slightest degree approaching to a vice. The men of his company carried him off the field, made his grave carefully, and gave him a soldier’s burial with all the marks of respect which they could bestow.

The effort on Soult’s part had been great, and was deemed so by Lord Wellington, for a Portugueze brigade was withdrawn from the besieging corps during the assault. As soon as the town had been carried, ♦Siege of the castle of S. Sebastian’s.♦ preparations were made for reducing the castle. The enemy still held the convent of S. Teresa, the garden of which, inclosed as usual in such establishments with a high wall, reached a good way up the hill, toward their upper defences; and from thence they marked any who approached within reach of fire, so that when a man fell, there was no other means of bringing him off than by sending the French prisoners upon this service of humanity. The town presented a dreadful spectacle both of the work of war and of the wickedness which in war is let loose. It had caught fire during the assault, owing to the quantity of combustibles of all kinds which were scattered about; the French rolled their shells into it from the castle; and while it was in flames, the troops were plundering, and the people of the surrounding country flocking to profit by the spoils of their countrymen. The few inhabitants who were to be seen seemed stupified with horror; they had suffered so much, that they looked with apathy at all around them, and when the crash of a falling house made the captors run, they scarcely moved. Heaps of dead were lying every where, English, Portugueze, and French, one upon another, with such determination had the one side attacked and the other maintained its ground. Very many of the assailants lay dead on the roofs of the houses which adjoined the breach. The bodies were thrown into the mines and other excavations, and there covered over so as to be out of sight, but so hastily and slightly that the air far and near was tainted; and fires were kindled in the breaches to consume those which could not be otherwise disposed of. The hospital presented a more dreadful scene, ... for it was a scene of human suffering; friend and enemy had been indiscriminately carried thither, and were there alike neglected; ... on the third day after the assault many of them had received neither surgical assistance, nor food of any kind; and it became necessary to remove them on the fifth, when the flames approached the building: much of this neglect would have been unavoidable, even if that humane and conscientious diligence, which can be hoped for from so few, had been found in every individual belonging to the medical department, the number of the wounded being so great; and little help could be received from the other part of the army, because it had been engaged in action on the same day. ♦Excesses committed in the city.♦ The hideous circumstances of war were indeed at this time to be seen in S. Sebastian’s, divested of its pomp: and to a thoughtful mind its actual horrors were less painful than the brutal insensibility with which they were regarded by men whose nature, originally bad, had been worsened by their way of life. Great exertions were made to stop the excesses which at such times are to be expected; but the utmost exertions can do little among troops who believe themselves privileged by the occasion to break loose from the restraints of military discipline, and who are not more fearless of death than they are, while in health and strength, of judgment. The town was sacked: had it been an enemy’s town, it could not have suffered more from its captors. Sentries were placed at all the outlets to make the plunderers lay down their booty, but all that could be secreted about the person was carried off; and the Spaniards of Passages and other places were ready, as at a fair, to purchase the spoils of their countrymen. A reproach was brought upon the British name. The French seized the opportunity of endeavouring to fix upon their enemies the same odious imputation which they themselves were conscious of having deserved; they accused the British of setting fire to the town, indiscriminately murdering friend and foe, and pillaging the place under the eyes of their officers, who made no attempt to restrain them. These charges were brought forward by that party in Spain who, without inclining in ♦September.♦ the slightest degree toward the French, manifested on all occasions their jealousy and their envious dislike of England; and they added the farther calumny, that the captors had plundered the churches, and, by giving way to excess of every kind, lost the favourable time for following up their success and taking the castle. All was false, except that great excesses had been committed: the difference between the conduct of the British at S. Sebastian’s, and that of the French at Porto, Tarragona, and other places, being this, that the crimes which the former perpetrated were checked as soon as they could be by the officers, acknowledged by the generals as evils which they had not been able to prevent, severely condemned by them, and punished: those of the French had been systematic and predetermined; the men were neither checked nor reproved by their generals; and so far were the generals from receiving any mark of disapprobation from their government, that the acts themselves were ostentatiously proclaimed in bulletins and official reports, in the hope of intimidating the Portugueze and Spaniards, and without any sense of shame.

♦The garrison surrenders.♦

Preparations were immediately made for reducing the castle, the plan being to erect batteries on the works of the town, and breach the Queen batteries, the Mirador, and the keep. On the 3rd, some discussion concerning a surrender was entered into with General Rey, which he broke off when it was required that the garrison should lay down their arms and become prisoners of war. These terms the general knew he could obtain at the last moment, and possibly he still entertained some hope of holding out till another effort could be made for his relief; as, even after he had retired into the castle, some artillery and ammunition reached him there from France, it being impossible, upon such a coast, and when the ports were so near, entirely to cut off the communication. The Convent of S. Teresa was taken on the 5th: by this time the flames, which continued still to spread, had driven the troops from their more advanced stations, and made them retire to the ramparts. By the evening of the 7th, the roofs of such houses and steeples as remained unburnt were prepared ♦Sept. 8.♦ for musketry; and on the following morning nearly sixty pieces of ordnance opened on the castle. With great exertions, directed by Captain Smith, of the navy, guns were got up the steep scarp of the islet of S. Clara, and there mounted on a battery, which the sailors manned. The wall of the Mirador was so hard, that the balls at first split upon striking it; nevertheless, it was peeled by the continual fire, and was beginning to come down, when the white flag was hung out. All the enemy’s batteries were at that time utterly demolished, those on the sea line alone excepted; the guns dismounted, the carriages knocked to pieces, and the castle in ruins. There were no barracks, nor any covering for the troops except holes, which had been excavated in every nook and corner, to serve for them as splinter-proofs; and of these many were filled with water, much rain having fallen during the preceding week: but for the prisoners, who were in the hands of the garrison, there was no shelter, and many of them were killed by the fire of their friends. The French general might have obtained credit for an act of generous humanity, and of policy as well, if he had released these prisoners, sending a trumpet with them to declare his reasons for so doing, and to express his reliance upon British honour that an exchange should be allowed for them; for this no doubt would have been agreed to, though the advantage was so manifestly to the enemy.

General Rey, on displaying the white flag, said he would send officers to confer on the terms of surrender. Sir Thomas Graham replied, no others would be offered than what had already been stated; the garrison must lay down their arms, and be made prisoners of war. During the whole siege they had lost about 2400 men, and they had now eaten all their horses. Yielding of necessity now, they were especially anxious that they should be under British protection, be embarked at Passages as the nearest port, and conveyed directly to England; and this was promised. One article requested that the Commissaire de Guerre, having with him the widow and the two daughters of his brother, who had died at Pamplona, might be allowed to return with them to France, he being their chief support. General Rey was indignant that an article about women should appear in the capitulation of such a garrison, and after such a defence; and this he expressed coarsely, as if a soldier disparaged his character by showing any consideration for humanity!

♦Sept. 10.♦

On the 10th, the Portugueze were formed in the streets of the ruined city; the British on the ramparts. The day was fine, after a night of heavy rain. About noon the garrison marched out at the Mirador gate. The bands of two or three Portugueze regiments played occasionally; but altogether it was a dismal scene, amid ruins and vestiges of fire and slaughter: a few inhabitants were present, and only a few. Many of the French soldiers wept bitterly, there was a marked sadness in the countenances of all, and they laid down their arms in silence. Colonel S. Ouary, the commandant of the place, had been uniformly attentive to the officers who had been prisoners. When this kindness was now acknowledged, he said that he had been twice a prisoner in England; that he had been fifty years in the service, and on the 15th of the passing month he should have received his dismission: he was now sixty-six, he said, an old man, and should never serve again; and if he might be permitted to retire into France, instead of being sent to England, he should be the happiest of men. Sir Thomas Graham wrote to Lord Wellington in favour of the kind-hearted old man, and it may be believed that the application was not made in vain. Captain Sougeon was recognized at this time, who, on the day of the first assault, had descended the breach to assist our wounded: “There,” said he, pointing to his men, “are the remains of the brave 22nd; we were 250 the other day, now not more than 50 are left.” Lord Wellington, upon being informed of his conduct, sent him to France. Eighty officers and 1756 men were all the remains of the garrison, and of these 25 officers and 512 men were in the hospital.

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