CHAPTER II.
1812. April. While the Anglo-British army was thus cleansing and strengthening its position on the frontier of Portugal, the progress of the war in other parts had not been so favourable to the common cause. It has already been shewn that Gallicia, in the latter part of 1811, suffered from discord, poverty, and ill success in the field; that an extraordinary contribution imposed upon the province, had been resisted by all classes, and especially at Coruña the seat of Government; finally that the army torn by faction was become hateful to the people. In this state of affairs Castaños having, at the desire of lord Wellington, assumed the command, removed the seat of Government to St. Jago, leaving the troops in the Bierzo under the marquis of Portazgo.
Prudent conduct and the personal influence of the new captain-general soothed the bitterness of faction, and stopped, or at least checked for the moment, many of the growing evils in Gallicia, and the regency at Cadiz assigned an army of sixty thousand men for that province. But the revenues were insufficient even to put the few troops already under arms in motion, and Castaños, although desirous to menace Astorga while Marmont was on the Agueda, could not, out of twenty-two thousand men, bring even one division into the field. Nevertheless, so strange a people are the Spaniards, that a second expedition against the colonies, having with it all the field-artillery just supplied by England, would have sailed from Vigo but for the prompt interference of sir Howard Douglas.
When Castaños saw the penury of his army, he as usual looked to England for succour, at the same time, however, both he and the Junta made unusual exertions to equip their troops, and the condition of the soldiers was generally ameliorated. But it was upon the efforts of the Partidas that the British agent chiefly relied. His system, with respect to those bodies, has been before described, and it is certain that under it, greater activity, more perfect combination, more useful and better timed exertions, had marked their conduct, and their efforts directed to the proper objects, were kept in some subordination to the operations of the allies. This was however so distasteful to the regular officers, and to the predominant faction, always fearful of the priestly influence over the allies, that sir Howard was offered the command of six thousand troops to detach him from the Guerilla system; and the Partidas of the northern provinces would now have been entirely suppressed, from mere jealousy, by the general government, if lord Wellington and sir H. Wellesley had not strenuously supported the views of Douglas which were based on the following state of affairs.
The French line of communication extending from Salamanca to Irun, was never safe while the Gallician and Asturian forces, the English squadrons, and the Partidas in the Montaña, in Biscay, in the Rioja, and in the mountains of Burgos and Leon, menaced it from both sides. The occupation of the Asturias, the constant presence of a division in the Montaña, the employment of a corps to threaten Gallicia, and the great strength of the army of the north, were all necessary consequences of this weakness. But though the line of communication was thus laboriously maintained, the lines of correspondence, in this peculiar war of paramount importance, were, in despite of numerous fortified posts, very insecure, and Napoleon was always stimulating his generals to take advantage of each period of inactivity, on the part of the British army, to put down the partidas. He observed, that without English succours they could not remain in arms, that the secret of their strength was to be found on the coast, and that all the points, which favoured any intercourse with vessels, should be fortified. And at this time so anxious was he for the security of his correspondence, that he desired, if necessary, the whole army of the north should be employed merely to scour the lines of communication.
In accordance with these views, Santona, the most important point on the coast, had been rendered a strong post in the summer of 1811, andSee [Plan, No. 6.] then Castro, Portagalete at the mouth of the Bilbao river, Bermeo, Lesquito, and Guetaria, were by degrees fortified. This completed the line eastward from Santander to St. Sebastian, and all churches, convents, and strong houses, situated near the mouths of the creeks and rivers between those places were entrenched. The partidas being thus constantly intercepted, while attempting to reach the coast, were nearly effaced in the latter end of 1811, and a considerable part of the army of the north was, in consequence, rendered disposable for the aid of the army of Portugal. But when Bonet, because of the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, evacuated the Asturias, the French troops in the Montaña were again exposed to the enterprizes of the seventh army, which had been immediately succoured by Douglas, and which, including guerillas, was said to be twenty-three thousand strong. Wherefore Napoleon had so early as March directed that the Asturias should be re-occupied, and one of Bonet’s brigades, attached to the army of the north, rejoined him in consequence; but the pass of Pajares being choked with snow, Bonet, who was then on the Orbijo, neglected this order until the approach of finer weather.
May. In May, Marmont having returned from Portugal, the emperor’s order was reiterated, and the French troops on the Orbijo, being augmented to fifteen thousand drew the attention of the Gallicians to that quarter, while Bonet, passing the mountains of Leon, with eight thousand men, re-occupied Oviedo, Grado, and Gihon, and established small posts communicating through the town of Leon, with the army of Portugal. Thus a new military line was established which interrupted the Gallicians’ communications with the partidas, the chain of sea-port defences was continued to Gihon, a constant intercourse with France was maintained, and those convoys came safely by water, which otherwise would have had to travel by land escorted by many troops and in constant danger.
Meanwhile Marmont, having distributed his division in various parts of Leon, was harassed by the partidas, especially Porlier’s, yet he proceeded diligently with the fortifying of Toro and Zamora, on the Douro, and converted three large convents at Salamanca into so many forts capable of sustaining a regular siege; the works of Astorga and Leon were likewise improved, and strong posts were established at Benavente, La Baneza, Castro-Contrigo, and intermediate points. The defensive lines of the Tormes and the Douro were thus strengthened against the British general, and as four thousand men sufficed to keep the Gallician forces of the Bierzo and Puebla Senabria in check, the vast and fertile plains of Leon, called the Tierras de Campos, were secured for the French, and their detachments chased the bands from the open country.
Sir Howard Douglas observing the success of the enemy in cutting off the Partidas from the coast, and the advantage they derived from the water communication; considering also that, if lord Wellington should make any progress in the coming campaign, new lines of communication with the sea would be desirable, proposed, that a powerful squadron with a battalion of marines and a battery of artillery, should be secretly prepared for a littoral warfare on the Biscay coast. This suggestion was approved of, and sir Home Popham was sent from England, in May, with an armament, well provided with scaling-ladders, arms, clothing, and ammunition for the Partidas, and all means to effect sudden disembarkations. But the ministers were never able to see the war in its true point of view, they were always desponding, or elated, and sanguine, beyond what reason warranted in either case. Popham was ordered not only to infest the coast but, if possible, to seize some point, and hold it permanently as an entrance into Biscay, by which the French positions might be turned, if, as in 1808, they were forced to adopt the line of the Ebro! Now at this period three hundred thousand French soldiers were in the Peninsula, one hundred and twenty thousand were in the northern provinces, and, without reckoning the army of the centre which could also be turned in that direction, nearly fifty thousand were expressly appropriated to the protection of this very line of communication, on which a thousand marines were to be permanently established, in expectation of the enemy being driven over the Ebro by a campaign which was not yet commenced!
While Marmont was in Beira, the activity of the seventh army, and of the Partidas, in the Montaña, was revived by the supplies which sir Howard Douglas, taking the opportunity of Bonet’s absence, had transmitted to them through the Asturian ports. The ferocity of the leaders was remarkable. Mina’s conduct was said to be very revolting; and on the 16th of April the curate Merino coming from the mountains of Espinosa, to the forests between Aranda de Duero, and Hontorica Valdearados, took several hundred prisoners, and hanged sixty of them, in retaliation for three members of the local junta, who had been put to death by the French; he executed the others also in the proportion of ten for each of his own soldiers who had been shot by the enemy. The ignorance and the excited passions of the Guerilla chiefs, may be pleaded in mitigation of their proceedings, but to the disgrace of England, these infamous executions by Merino were recorded with complacency, in the newspapers, and met with no public disapprobation.
There are occasions, when retaliation, applied to men of rank, may stop the progress of barbarity, yet the necessity should be clearly shewn, and the exercise restricted to such narrow limits, that no reasonable ground should be laid for counter-retaliation. Here, sixty innocent persons were deliberately butchered to revenge the death of three, and no proof offered that even those three were slain contrary to the laws of war; and though it is not to be doubted that the French committed many atrocities, some in wantonness, some in revenge, such savage deeds as the curate’s are inexcusable. What would have been said if Washington had hanged twenty English gentlemen, of family, in return for the death of captain Handy; or if sir Henry Clinton had caused twenty American officers, to die, for the execution of André? Like atrocities are, however, the inevitable consequence of a Guerilla system not subordinate to the regular government of armies, and ultimately they recoil upon the helpless people of the country, who cannot fly from their enemies. When the French occupied a district, famine often ensued, because to avoid distant forages they collected large stores of provisions from a small extent of country, and thus the Guerilla system, while it harassed the French, without starving them, both harassed and starved the people. And many of the chiefs of bands, besides their robberies, when they dared not otherwise revenge affronts or private feuds, would slay some prisoners, or stragglers, so as to draw down the vengeance of the French on an obnoxious village, or district. This in return produced associations of the people, for self-defence in many places, by which the enemy profited.
March. Soon after this exploit a large convoy having marched from Burgos towards France, Merino endeavoured to intercept it, and Mendizabel, who notwithstanding his defeat by Bonet, had again gathered twelve hundred cavalry, came from the Liebana, and occupied the heights above Burgos. The French immediately placed their baggage and followers in the castle, and recalled the convoy, whereupon the Spaniards, dispersing in bands, destroyed the fortified posts of correspondence, at Sasamon, and Gamonal, and then returned to the Liebana. But Bonet had now re-occupied the Asturias, the remnant of the Spanish force, in that quarter, fled to Mendizabel, and the whole shifted as they could in the hills. Meanwhile Mina displayed great energy. In February he repulsed an attack near Lodosa, and having conveyed the prisoners taken at Huesca to the coast, returned to Aragon and maintained a distant blockade of Zaragoza itself. In March he advanced, with a detachment, to Pina, and captured one of Suchet’s convoys going to Mequinenza; but having retired, with his booty, to Robres, a village on the eastern slopes of the Sierra de Alcubierre, he was there betrayed to general Pannetier, who with a brigade of the army of the Ebro, came so suddenly upon him that he escaped death with great difficulty.
He reappeared in the Rioja, and although hotly chased by troops from the army of the north, escaped without much loss, and, having five thousand men, secretly gained the defiles of Navas Tolosa, behind Vittoria, where on the 7th of April, he defeated with great loss a Polish regiment, which was escorting the enormous convoy that had escaped the curate and Mendizabel at Burgos. The booty consisted of treasure, Spanish prisoners, baggage, followers of the army, and officers retiring to France. All the Spanish prisoners, four hundred in number, were released and joined Mina, and, it is said, that one million of francs fell into his hands, besides the equipages, arms, stores, and a quantity of church plate.
On the 28th he captured another convoy going from Valencia to France, but general Abbé, who had been recently made governor of Navarre, now directed combined movements from Pampeluna, Jacca, and Sangüesa, against him. And so vigorously did this general, who I have heard Mina declare to be the most formidable of all his opponents, urge on the operations, that after a series of actions, on the 25th, 26th, and 28th of May, the Spanish chief, in bad plight, and with the utmost difficulty, escaped by Los Arcos to Guardia, in the Rioja. Marshal Victor seized this opportunity to pass into France, with the remains ofMay. the convoy shattered on the 7th, and all the bands in the north were discouraged. However, Wellington’s successes, and the confusion attending upon the departure of so many French troops for the Russian war, gave a powerful stimulus to the partizan chiefs in other directions. The Empecinado, ranging the mountains of Cuenca and Guadalaxara, pushed his parties close to Madrid; Duran entered Soria, and raised a contribution in the lower town; Villa Campa, Bassecour, and Montijo, coming from the mountains of Albarracin, occupied Molino and Orejuella, and invested Daroca; the Catalonian Gayan, taking post in the vicinity of Belchite, made excursions to the verySee [Plan, No. 6.] gates of Zaragoza; the Frayle, haunting the mountains of Alcañiz and the Sierra de Gudar, interrupted Suchet’s lines of communication by Morella and Teruel, and along the right bank of the Ebro towards Tortoza. Finally, Gay and Miralles infested the Garriga on the left bank.
It was to repress these bands that the army of the Ebro, containing twenty thousand men, of whom more than sixteen thousand were under arms, was formed by drafts from Suchet’s army, and given to general Reille. That commander immediately repaired to Lerida, occupied Upper Aragon with his own division, placed Severoli’s division between Lerida and Zaragoza, and general Frere’s between Lerida, Barcelona, and Taragona; but his fourth division, under Palombini, marched direct from Valencia towards the districts of Soria and Calatayud, to form the link of communication between Suchet and Caffarelli. The latter now commanded the army of the north, but the imperial guards, with the exception of one division, had quitted Spain, and hence, including the government’s and the reserve of Monthion, this army was reduced to forty-eight thousand under arms. The reserve at Bayonne was therefore increased to five thousand men, and Palombini was destined finally to reinforce Caffarelli, and even to march, if required, to the aid of Marmont in Leon. However the events of the war soon caused Reille to repair to Navarre, and broke up the army of the Ebro, wherefore it will be clearer to trace the operations of these divisions successively and separately, and in the order of the provinces towards which they were at first directed.
February. Palombini having left a brigade at the entrenched bridge of Teruel, relieved Daroca on the 23d of February, and then deceiving Villa Campa, Montijo, and Bassecour, who were waiting about the passes of Toralva to fall on his rear-guard, turned them by the Xiloca, and reached Calatayud. This effected, he fortified the convent of La Peña, which, as its name signifies, was a rocky eminence, commanding that city and forming a part of it. But on the 4th of March, having placed hisMarch. baggage and artillery in this post, under a guard of three hundred men, he dispersed his troops to scour the country and to collect provisions, and the partidas, seeing this, recommenced operations. Villa Campa cut off two companies at Campillo on the 8th, and made a fruitless attempt to destroy the Italian colonel Pisa at Ateca. Five hundred men were sent against him, but he drew them towards the mountains of Albarracin, and destroyed them at Pozonhonda on the 28th; then marching another way, he drove the Italians from their posts of communication as far as the town of Albarracin on the road to Teruel, nor did he regain the mountains until Palombini came up on his rear and killed some of his men. The Italian general then changing his plan, concentrated his division on the plains of Hused, where he suffered some privations, but remained unmolested until the 14th of April, when he again marched to co-operate with Suchet in a combined attempt to destroy Villa Campa. The Spanish chief evaded both by passing over to the southern slopes of the Albarracin mountains, and before the Italians could return to Hused, Gayan, in concert with the alcalde of Calatayud, had exploded a plot against the convent of La Peña.
April. Some of the Italian officers, including the commandant, having rashly accepted an invitation to a feast, were sitting at table, when Gayan appeared on a neighbouring height; the guests were immediately seized, and many armed citizens ran up to surprise the convent, and sixty soldiers were made prisoners, or killed in the tumult below; but the historian, Vacani, who had declined to attend the feast, made a vigorous defence, and on the 1st of May general St. Pol and colonel Schiazzetti, coming from Hused, and Daroca, raised the siege. Schiazzetti marched in pursuit, and as his advanced guard was surprised at Mochales by a deceit of the alcalde, he slew the latter, whereupon the Spaniards killed the officers taken at the feast of Calatayud.
May. Gayan soon baffled his pursuers, and then moved by Medina Celi and Soria to Navarre, thinking to surprise a money convoy going to Burgos for the army of Portugal, but being followed on one side by a detachment from Hused, and met on the other by Caffarelli, he was driven again to the hills above Daroca. Here he renewed his operations in concert with Villa Campa and the Empecinado, who came up to Medina Celi, while Duran descended from the Moncayo hills, and this menacing union of bands induced Reille, in May, to detach general Paris, with a French regiment and a troop of hussars, to the aid of Palombini. Paris moved by Calatayud, while Palombini briskly interposing between Duran and Villa Campa, drove the one towards Albarracin and the other towards Soria; and in June, after various marches, the two French generals uniting, dislodged the Empecinado from Siguenza, chasing him so sharply that his band dispersed and fled to the Somosierra.
During these operations, Mina was pressed by Abbé, but Duran entering Tudela by surprise, destroyed the artillery parc, and carried off a battering train of six guns. Palombini was only a few marches from Madrid, and the king, alarmed by lord Wellington’s preparations for opening the campaign, ordered him to join the army of the centre, but these orders were intercepted, and the Italian general retraced his steps, to pursue Duran. He soon recovered theJune. guns taken at Tudela, and drove the Spanish chief through the Rioja into the mountains beyond the sources of the Duero; then collecting boats, he would have passed the Ebro, for Caffarelli was on the Arga, with a division of the army of the north, and a brigade had been sent by Reille to the Aragon river with the view of destroying Mina. This chief, already defeated by Abbé, was in great danger, when a duplicate of the king’s orders having reached Palombini, he immediately recommenced his march for the capital, which saved Mina. Caffarelli returned to Vittoria, and the Italians reaching Madrid the 21st of July, became a part of the army of the centre, having marched one hundred and fifty miles in seven days without a halt. Returning now to the other divisions of the army of the Ebro, it is to be observed, that their movements being chiefly directed against the Catalans, belong to the relation of that warfare.
OPERATIONS IN ARAGON AND CATALONIA.
See Vol. IV Book XV. After the battle of Altafulla, the fall of Peniscola, and the arrival of Reille’s first division on the Ebro, Decaen, who had succeeded Macdonald in Upper Catalonia, spread his troops along the coast, with a view to cut off the communication between the British navy and the interior, where the Catalan army still held certain positions.
February. Lamarque, with a division of five thousand men, first seized and fortified Mataro, and then driving Milans from Blanes, occupied the intermediate space, while detachments from Barcelona fortified Moncada, Mongat, and Molino del Rey, thus securing the plain of Barcelona on every side.
The line from Blanes to Cadagués, including Canets, St. Filieu, Palamos, and other ports, was strengthened, and placed under general Bearman.
General Clement was posted in the vicinity of Gerona, to guard the interior French line of march from Hostalrich to Figueras.
Tortoza, Mequinenza, and Taragona were garrisoned by detachments from Severoli’s division, which was quartered between Zaragoza and Lerida, and in communication with Bourke’s and Pannetier’s brigades of the first division of the army of reserve.
General Frere’s division was on the communication between Aragon and Catalonia, and there was a division under general Quesnel, composed partly of national guards, in the Cerdaña. Finally there was a moveable reserve, of six or eight thousand men, with which Decaen himself marched from place to place as occasion required; but the supreme command of Valencia, Aragon, and Catalonia was with Suchet.
The Catalans still possessed the strong holds of Cardona, Busa, Sceu d’Urgel, and the Medas islands, and they had ten thousand men in the field. Lacy was at Cardona with Sarzfield’s division, and some irregular forces; colonel Green was organizing an experimental corps at Montserrat, near which place Erolles was also quartered; Rovira continued about the mountains of Olot; Juan Claros, who occupied Arenis de Mar when the French were not there, was now about the mountains of Hostalrich; Milans, Manso, and the Brigand Gros, being driven from the coast line, kept the hills near Manreza; Gay and Miralles were on the Ebro. But the communication with the coast being cut off, all these chiefs were in want of provisions and stores, and the French were forming new roads along the sea-line, beyond the reach of the English ship guns.
Lacy thus debarred of all access to the coast, feeding his troops with difficulty, and having a great number of prisoners and deserters to maintain in Cardona, and Busa, because Coupigny refused to receive them in the Balearic isles, Lacy, I say, disputing with the Junta, and the generals, and abhorred by the people, in his spleen desired captain Codrington to cannonade all the sea-coast towns in the possession of the French, saying he would give the inhabitants timely notice; but he did not do so, and when Codrington reluctantly opened his broadsides upon Mataro, many of the people were slain. The Catalans complained loudly of this cruel, injudicious operation, and hatingCapt. Codrington’s papers, MSS. Lacy, affected Erolles more than ever, and the former sent him with a few men to his native district of Talarn, ostensibly to raise recruits, and make a diversion in Aragon, but really to deprive him of his division and reduce his power.
The distress in the Catalan army now became so great, that Sarzfield was about to force his way to the coast, and embark his division to commence a littoral warfare, when Erolles having quicklyMarch. raised and armed a new division entered Aragon, whereupon Sarzfield followed him. The baron having entered the valley of Venasque, advanced to Graus, menacing all the district between Fraga and Huesca; but those places were occupied by detachments from Bourke’s brigade of the army of the Ebro, and at this moment Severoli arrived from Valencia, whereupon the Spaniards instead of falling back upon Venasque, retired up the valley of the Isabena, to some heights above Roda, a village on the confines of Aragon.
Erolles had not more than a thousand regular infantry, three guns, and two hundred cavalry, for he had left five hundred in the valley of Venasque, and Bourke knowing this, and encouraged by the vicinity of Severoli, followed hastily from Benavarre, with about two thousand men of all arms, thinking Erolles would not stand before him. But the latter’s position besides being very steep and rough in front, was secured on both flanks by precipices, beyond which, on the hills, all the partidas of the vicinity were gathered; he expected aid also from Sarzfield, and was obliged to abide a battle or lose the detachment left in the valley of Venasque. Bourke keeping two battalions in reserve attacked with the third, but he met with a stubborn opposition, and after a long skirmish, in which he lost a hundred and fifty men, and Erolles a hundred, was beaten, and being wounded himself, retreated to Monza, in great confusion. This combat was very honorable to Erolles, but it was exposed to doubt and ridicule, at the time, by the extravagance of his public despatch; for he affirmed, that his soldiers finding their muskets too hot, had made use of stones, and in this mixed mode of action had destroyed a thousand of the enemy!
Severoli now advanced, and Erolles being still unsupported by Sarzfield, retired to Talarn, whereupon the Italian general returned to Aragon. Meanwhile Lacy who had increased his forces, approached Cervera, while Sarzfield, accused by Erolles of having treacherously abandoned him, joined with Gay and Miralles, occupying the hills about Taragona, and straitening that place for provisions. Milans and Manso also uniting, captured a convoyApril. at Arenis de Mar, and the English squadron intercepted several vessels going to Barcelona.
Decaen observing this fresh commotion came down from Gerona with his reserve. He relieved Taragona on the 28th of April, and then marched with three thousand men upon Lerida, but on the way, hearing that Sarzfield was at Fuentes Rubino, near Villa Franca, he took the road of Braffin and Santa Coloma instead of Momblanch, and suddenly turning to his right defeated the Spanish general, and then continued his march by Cervera towards Lerida. Lacy in great alarm immediately abandonedMay. Lower Catalonia and concentrated Manso’s, Milans’, Green’s, and Sarzfield’s divisions, in the mountains of Olot, and as they were reduced in numbers he reinforced them with select Somatenes, called the Companies of Preferencia. After a time however seeing that Decaen remained near Lerida, he marched rapidly against the convent of Mataro, with five thousand men and with good hope, for the garrison consisted of only five hundred, the works were not strong, and captain Codrington, who had anchored off Mataro at Lacy’s desire, lent someCapt. Codrington’s papers, MSS. ship guns; but his sailors were forced to drag them to the point of attack, because Lacy and Green had, in breach of their promise, neglected to provide means of transport.
The wall of the convent gave way in a few hours, but on the 5th, Lacy, hearing that Decaen was coming to succour the place, broke up the siege and buried the English guns without having any communication with captain Codrington. The French found these guns and carried them into the convent, yet Lacy, to cover his misconduct, said in the official gazette, that they were safely re-embarked.
After this disreputable transaction, Manso, who alone had behaved well, retired with Milans to Vich, Lacy went to Cardona, the French sent a large convoy into Barcelona, and the men of Erolles’ ancient division were, to his great discontent, turned over to Sarzfield, who took post near Molina del Rey, and remained there until theJune. 5th of June, when a detachment from Barcelona drove him to the Campo de Taragona. On the 14th of the same month, Milans was defeated near Vich by a detachment from the Ampurdan, and being chased for several days suffered considerably. Lamarque followed Sarzfield into the Campo and defeated him again on the 24th, near Villa Nueva de Sitjes, and this time the Spanish general was wounded, yet made his way by Santa Coloma de Querault and Calaf to Cardona where he rejoined Lacy. Lamarque then joined Deacen in the plains of Lerida, where all the French moveable forces were now assembled, with a view to gather the harvest; a vital object to both parties, but it was attained by the French.
This with Lacy’s flight from Mattaro, the several defeats of Milans, and Sarzfield, and the discontent of Erolles, disturbed the whole principality; and the general disquietude was augmented by the increase of all the frauds and oppressions, which both the civil and military authorities under Lacy, practised with impunity. Every where there was a disinclination to serve in the regular army. The Somatene argued, that while he should be an ill-used soldier, under a bad general, his family would either become the victims of French revenge or starve, because the pay of the regular troops was too scanty, were it even fairly issued, for his own subsistence; whereas, remaining at home, and keeping his arms, he could nourish his family by his labour, defend it from straggling plunderers, and at the same time always be ready to join the troops on great occasions. In some districts the people, seeing that the armyCodrington’s papers, MSS. could not protect them, refused to supply the partidas with food, unless upon contract not to molest the French in their vicinity. The spirit of resistance would have entirely failed, if lord Wellington’s successes at Ciudad and Badajos, and the rumour that an English army was coming to Catalonia, had not sustained the hopes of the people.
July. Meanwhile the partidas in the north, being aided by Popham’s expedition, obliged Reille to remove to Navarre, that Caffarelli might turn his whole attention to the side of Biscay, and the Montaña. Decaen then received charge of the Lower as well as of the Upper Catalonia, which weakened his position; and at the same time some confusion was produced, by the arrival of French prefects and councillors of state, to organize a civil administration. This measure, ostensibly to restrain military licentiousness, had probably the ultimate object of preparing Catalonia for an union with France, because the Catalans who have peculiar customs and a dialect of their own, scarcely call themselves Spaniards. Although these events embarrassed the French army, the progress of the invasion was visible in the altered feelings, of the people whose enthusiasm was stifled by the folly and corruption, with which their leaders aided the active hostility of the French.
The troops were reduced in number, distressed for provisions, and the soldiers deserted to the enemy, a thing till then unheard of in Catalonia, nay, the junta having come down to the coast were like to have been delivered up to the French, as a peace offering. The latter passed, even singly, from one part to the other, and the people of the sea-coastCodrington’s papers, MSS. towns readily trafficked with the garrison of Barcelona, when neither money nor threats could prevail on them to supply the British squadron. Claros and Milans were charged with conniving at this traffic, and of exacting money for the landing of corn, when their own people and soldiers were starving. But to such a degree was patriotism overlaid by the love of gain, that the colonial produce, seized in Barcelona, and other parts, was sold, by the enemy, to French merchants, and the latter undertook both to carry it off, and pay with provisions on the spot, which they successfully executed by means of Spanish vessels, corruptly licensed for the occasion by Catalan authorities.
Meanwhile the people generally accused the junta of extreme indolence, and Lacy, of treachery; and tyranny because of his arbitrary conduct in all things, but especially that after proclaiming a general rising, he had disarmed the Somatenes, and suppressed the independent bands. He had quarreled with the British naval officers, was the avowed enemy of Erolles, the secret calumniator of Sarzfield, and withal a man of no courage or enterprize in the field. Nor was the story of his previous life, calculated to check the bad opinion generally entertained of him. It was said that, being originally a Spanish officer, he was banished, for an intrigue, to the Canaries, from whence he deserted to the French, and again deserted to his own countrymen, when the war of independence broke out.
Under this man, the frauds, which characterize the civil departments of all armies in the field, became destructive, and the extent of the mischief may be gathered from a single fact. Notwithstanding the enormous supplies granted by England, the Catalans paid nearly three millions sterling, for the expense of the war, besides contributions in kind, and yet their soldiers were always distressed for clothing, food, arms, and ammunition.
This amount of specie might excite doubt, were it not that here, as in Portugal, the quantity of coin accumulated from the expenditure of the armies and navies was immense. But gold is not always the synonyme of power in war, or of happiness in peace. Nothing could be more wretched than Catalonia. Individually the people were exposed to all the licentiousness of war, collectively to the robberies, and revenge, of both friends and enemies. When they attempted to supply theCodrington’s papers, MSS. British vessels, the French menaced them with death; when they yielded to such threats, the English ships menaced them with bombardment, and plunder. All the roads were infested with brigands, and in the hills large bands of people, whose families and property had been destroyed, watched for straggling Frenchmen and small escorts, not to make war but to live on the booty; when this resource failed they plundered their own countrymen. While the land was thus harassed, the sea swarmed with privateers of all nations, differing from pirates only in name; and that no link in the chain of infamy, might be wanting,Codrington’s papers, MSS. the merchants of Gibraltar, forced their smuggling trade at the ports, with a shameless disregard for the rights of the Spanish government. Catalonia seemed like some huge carcass, on which all manner of ravenous beasts, all obscene birds, and all reptiles had gathered to feed.