[340] Savary had left the army on Aug. 4, and returned to France.
[341] See his Mémoires (pp. 66, 67) for the situation at this date.
[342] He arrived at Irun on Aug. 30 (Madrid Gazette, Sept. 17th, 1808).
[343] Proclamation of the Council, dated Aug. 1, published Aug. 2 in the Gazette. There is an original copy of the broadsheet in the Vaughan Papers.
[344] On Aug. 9 the reader is invited to believe that Roussillon has risen against Napoleon, and that the peasantry have stormed its frontier-fortress of Bellegarde.
[345] i.e. Woolwich.
[346] It is hard to agree with Napier’s verdict that ‘The Council was not wanting to itself; the individuals comprising it did not hesitate to seize the reins of power when the French had departed, and the prudence with which they preserved tranquillity in the capital, and prevented all reaction, proves that they were not without merit, and forms a striking contrast to the conduct of the provincial Juntas, under whose savage sway every kind of excess was committed and even encouraged’ (Napier, i. 299).
[347] All these quotations come from the documents inserted by Toreño in his fifth book (i. 262).
[349] Lord Collingwood’s Correspondence, ii. 98.