[123] Sir Charles Vaughan was introduced to the heroine by Palafox while he was staying in Saragossa in October. He describes her as ‘a handsome young woman of the lower class,’ and says that when he met her she was wearing on her sleeve a small shield of honour with the name ‘Zaragoza’ inscribed on it. The fact that the dead sergeant was her lover is given by Palafox in his short narrative of the siege, which ought to be a good authority enough.
[124] Napier, with all his prejudice against the Spaniards, does not venture to absolutely reject the story. ‘Romantic tales of women rallying the troops and leading them forward at the most dangerous period of the siege were current; their truth may be doubted. Yet when suddenly environed with horrors, the sensitiveness of women, driving them to a kind of frenzy, might have produced actions above the heroism of men’ (i. 45). W. Jacob, M.P., in his Travels in the South of Spain in 1809-10 (p. 123), says that he met Agostina at Seville, wearing a blue artillery tunic, with one epaulette, over a short skirt; she was present when Lord Wellesley entered Seville, and was welcomed by the Junta.
[125] Foy exaggerates considerably when he says that from July 12 onward ‘the blockade of Saragossa was complete’ (iii. 300). Reinforcements entered on several subsequent occasions.
[126] Caballero and Toreño put the distressing scenes at the hospital and the escape of the lunatics during the assault on the 4th, but Arteche seems more correct in placing them during the bombardment of the preceding day.
[127] I find in the Vaughan Papers the following note: ‘General Lefebvre-Desnouettes was residing at Cheltenham on parole, having been taken prisoner at Benavente by Lord Paget. I went to Cheltenham on May 27, 1809, for the express purpose of seeing the general. He told me that he had advanced at first with no more than 3,000 men, but that after General Verdier joined him, the French force employed against Saragossa was 15,000 men. I understood that in the attack of July 2 and the previous fighting they lost 2,000 men, and that their total loss in the whole siege was 4,000, including three generals wounded.’ Nap. Corresp. (xvii. 389, 426) calls the whole force before Saragossa on August 2, 17,300 men. But there seems to have been present in all only—
| (1) Lefebvre-Desnouettes’ column: | |||||
| Brigade Grandjean | |||||
| 2nd of the Vistula (1st and 2nd batts.) | 1376 | ||||
| 70th of the line (3rd batt.) | 379 | ||||
| 4th bataillon de marche | 581 | ||||
| 6th ditto | 655 | = | 2991 | ||
| Brigade Habert | |||||
| 1st of the Vistula (1st and 2nd batts.) | 1243 | ||||
| 1st supplementary regiment of the Legions of Reserve (1st and 2nd batts.) | 1030 | ||||
| 47th of the line (3rd batt.) | 420 | ||||
| 15th ditto (4th batt.) | 411 | = | 3104 | ||
| Cavalry | |||||
| Regiment of Polish Lancers | 717 | ||||
| 5th escadron de marche | 217 | = | 934 | ||
| (2) Division of Gomez Freire: | |||||
| 14th Provisional Regiment (1st, 2nd, and 3rd batts.) | 1173 | ||||
| 7th bataillon de marche | 334 | ||||
| 5th Portuguese infantry | 265 | ||||
| Portuguese Cazadores | 288 | = | 2060 | ||
| (3) Column of Colonel Piré (arrived June 29): | |||||
| 3rd of the Vistula (1st and 2nd batts.) | 1332 | ||||
| National Guards d’élite (two batts.) | 971 | ||||
| 3rd, 8th, and 9th escadrons de marche | 275 | = | 2578 | ||
| (4) Bazancourt’s Brigade (arrived August 1): | |||||
| 14th of the line (1st and 2nd batts.) | 1488 | ||||
| 44th ditto (1st and 2nd batts.) | 1614 | ||||
| 11th escadron de marche | 205 | = | 3307 | ||
| (5) Artillery and train | 561 | = | 561 | ||
| Total | 15,535 | ||||
These are mainly Belmas’s figures. He mentions a battalion of the 16th of the line as present at the great assault. There must be some error here, as that regiment was not in Spain. It is probably a misprint for the 70th of the line, which is not mentioned by him as present, though it certainly was so.
[128] The story sounds theatrical, but is vouched for by good authorities, Vaughan and Palafox himself, who chose the words for the type of the reverse of the medal that was issued to the defenders of Saragossa (see Arteche, ii. 394).
[129] Napier maintains (i. 45) that the city was saved only because the French fell to pillaging, a contention which seems very unjust to the Saragossans.
[130] Perhaps his name, Fray Ignacio de Santaromana, deserves as much remembrance as that of Agostina. His conduct in a critical moment was just as inspiring and told as much as hers (see Arteche, ii. 406).