At Tangier, of course, on the night of the 5th, all anxiety had ceased; peace was considered concluded, and three boat-loads of fresh provisions had been sent off to the squadron by the Caid.[67]
THE BATTLE OF ISLY.
The son of the Emperor had exchanged letters with Marshal Bugeaud during the first days of August: both spoke of peace, and only of peace. Letters from the Emperor of a prior date to the 2d—afterwards taken—breathe nothing but peace; they announce that peace is about to be made, and he enjoins his son not to leave till all is finally settled, and to do everything that could be agreeable to the French. On the 11th, the intelligence arrived that peace had been concluded: then arrived an aide-de-camp of Marshal Soult at the French camp with letters from the government in Paris, enjoining the Marshal to abstain from all offensive measures, and inclosing a letter from Lord Aberdeen to M. Guizot, which stated that in that event he could not answer for the consequences. The Marshal threw the letter upon the ground and stamped upon it, and taking the aide-de-camp by the arm, said “M. de V. vous en serez.”
On the 14th the son of the Sultan is awakened by an alarm, “The French army is in sight.” He tells his people the Marshal is coming to pay him a visit before his departure, and after giving orders for a tent to be pitched, and coffee—which he knew the French liked—to be sought for and prepared, he again assumed, to use the phraseology of Antar, “the attitude of repose.” He is again awakened—“The French are on us”—and the French were on them—found the coffee ready, and instead of drinking, spilt it. The loss of the Moors was eight hundred men by suffocation.
While the Emperor had every wish to make peace, and every dread of war, the troops had no disposition to fight. The Ai Tata (fifteen thousand) and several other tribes, their best cavalry, had drawn apart, having come to observe, not to act. They had formally announced to the Sultan, that if he prosecuted his present system of intercourse with Europeans, and of commercial monopoly, they would reserve their strength to defend their own mountains.
The French government, in like manner, had every disposition to make peace, and every reason to avoid war. Its dread was not Morocco, but Algiers: its interests were bound up with Morocco against the military colonial usurpation that defied the power of the cabinet, and threatened the institutions of the country. Consequently, after intelligence received of the victory of Isly, of the bombardment of Tangier,[68] and with the certainty that Mogadore was at the time also bombarded, the instructions were despatched for the treaty signed at Tangier on the 10th September, by which nothing was demanded more than had been settled before.[69]
FOOTNOTES:
[63] “Western Barbary,” p. 165.
[64] In answer to the comments to which the circumstance gave rise, it was stated “from the Convent,” that the reason why the Russian was saluted first, was that as it was near sunset, the fort would not have had time to return the salute, if it had waited till she had saluted first.
[65] Since the above was written, Sir R. Wilson has disappeared from this scene. I do not on that account suppress what I have written, as I have not brought any charge against him; and his acts here commented upon, are viewed merely as illustrative of the system of government by secrecy and intrigue.