World's Best Histories — Volume 7: France

by François Guizot; Madame de Witt

Sir John Moore had resolved to offer battle to the French, and the hope of fighting had restored courage and obedience to the soldiers. He waited three days for Marshal Soult, but the French general's forces were diminished by the rapidity of the pursuit, and he did not accept the offer of fighting. Moore resumed his march towards Corunna, reckoning to find, on his arrival at the coast, the transport vessels which were necessary for his army. When at last, on the 11th January, he came in sight of the sea, not a single sail appeared over its vast extent. The contest becoming inevitable, Sir John ordered the bridges over the Mero to be blown up, and took up his position on the heights which command Corunna.

Marshal Soult had been delayed, by the necessity of repairing the bridges and rallying a division of his army which had fallen behind; and when at last, on the morning of the 16th, he attacked the English positions, the long-expected transports were crowding into the harbor, and a way of escape was open to the English army. A keenly-contested struggle took place, however, around the small village, Elvina, occupied by the troops of Sir David Baird, who was severely wounded. Sir John went to the assistance of his lieutenant, and when leading his men within range to the front, had his arm and collarbone shattered by a ball. He was carried back to the town by his soldiers, in a dying condition. The English still retaining their positions at nightfall, their embarkment was now certain, and General Hope, who had taken the command, pushed forward the preparations for departure.

Sir John Moore had just expired. "You know well," said he to his friend Colonel Anderson, "that this is how I always wished to die." After a short pause, he added, "I hope the English people will be satisfied; I hope that my country will do me justice." Without losing time in procuring a coffin, his soldiers dug a grave with their swords, and committed to earth the body of their general, still wrapped in his military cloak. The English army, which he had saved by his prudence and resolution, then hurriedly embarked, "and left him alone in his glory," as the poet has finely put it. Several weeks afterwards, when Marshal Ney took possession of Corunna, he had a stone placed on the tomb of his heroic enemy.

From Valladolid, where he was still staying, the Emperor Napoleon directed the movements of his armies; fortifying the defences of Italy, and commanding the movements of the troops intended for Germany, he at the same time wrote to all the princes of the Rheinish Confederation, reminding them peremptorily of their engagements, and referring to the lengthened war preparations of Austria as equivalent to a declaration of war. "Russia, as well as myself, is indignant at the extravagant conduct of Austria," he wrote to the King of Wurtemberg, on the 15th January; "we cannot conceive what madness has taken possession of the court of Vienna. When your Majesty reads this letter I shall be in Paris. One part of my army of Spain is now returning, to form an army of reserve; but, independently of that, without touching a single man of my army of Spain, I can send into Germany 150,000 men, and be there myself to advance with them upon the Inn at the end of February, without counting the troops of the Confederation. I suppose that your Majesty's troops are ready to march on the slightest movement; you are sensible of the great importance, if war is absolutely necessary, of carrying it on in our enemy's territory, rather than leaving it to settle on that of the Confederation. I beg of your Majesty to let me know in Paris your opinion on all those points. Can the waters of the Danube have acquired the property of the river Lethe?"

At the same time, to instruct King Joseph in the government of Spain, at the moment when that prince was about to visit his capital again, he thus wrote to him, at Prado:—"General Belliard's movement is excellent; a score of worthless fellows ought to be hanged. To-morrow I am to have seven hanged here, known to have had a share in all the excesses, and a nuisance to the respectable people, who have secretly denounced them, and who now regain courage on finding themselves rid of them. You must do the same at Madrid. Five-sixths of the town are good, but honest folks should be encouraged, and they cannot be so except by keeping in check the riff- raff. Unless a hundred or so of rioters and ruffians are got rid of, nothing is done. Of that hundred, get twelve or fourteen shot or hanged, and send the rest into France to the galleys. I think it necessary, especially at the first start, that your government should show a little vigor against the riff-raff. They only like and respect those whom they fear, and their fear alone may procure you the love and esteem of the rest of the nation.

"The state of Europe compels me to go to spend three weeks in Paris, and if nothing prevent I shall return here about the end of February. I believe I wrote you to make your entry into Madrid on the 14th. Denon wishes to take some paintings. I should prefer you to take all that are in the confiscated houses and suppressed convents, and make me a present of about fifty of its master-pieces, for the Paris museum. At the proper time and place I shall give you others. Send for Denon, and give him a hint of this. You understand that they must be really good; and it is said you are immensely rich in that kind."

King Joseph retook possession of his capital with a great display of magnificence, the brilliant success of the French arms having rallied round him the timid, and the discontented keeping silence. Before setting out for Paris, where he arrived on the 24th, the emperor said, "The attack upon Valentia must not be thought of until Saragossa is taken, which must be during the month of February:" and Marshal Lannes, who had charge of the siege operations for a month, justified the hopes of his master. On the 21st February, 1809, Saragossa at last surrendered, having been the object of several French attacks since June, 1808.

After the battle of Tudela the whole of the army in Aragon had fallen back upon Saragossa. Joseph Palafox had shut himself up in it with his two brothers, and the country population having followed in great numbers, 100,000 human beings were crowded together behind the ramparts of the town, in its old convents, within the dull walls of its embattled houses— almost everywhere without outside windows, and already threatening the enemy with their gloomy aspect. Throughout the province, at the call of the defenders of Saragossa the insurgent peasants intercepted the convoys of provisions intended for the French army, and the besiegers no less than the besieged suffered from want of food.

Napoleon had undervalued the resistance of the inhabitants of Saragossa. Always ordering the movements of his troops himself, and from a distance, he had sent Marshal Moncey with insufficient forces; and soon after, Junot was entrusted with the attack. The sallies of the Spanish were easily repulsed, but each assault cost a large number of men. The Aragonian riflemen, posted on the ramparts or the roofs of the houses, brought down, without exposing themselves, the bravest of our grenadiers. Everywhere the women brought the artillery-men food and ammunition; and one of them, finding a piece abandoned, applied the match to it herself, and continued firing it for several days. The whole of the population fought on the walls until they should have to fight in the streets and houses.

From redoubt to redoubt, from convent to convent, General Junot had slowly advanced, till the middle of January, 1809. When at last Marshal Lannes appeared before Saragossa, he had called to his assistance large reinforcements; and the troops posted in the suburbs, and who had not yet shared in the action, dispersed the hostile crowd there. The attack commenced with a vigor which quite equalled the energy of the resistance; and on the 27th January, after a general assault, which was deadly and long-continued, the entire circuit of the walls was carried by the French troops. It is a maxim of war that every town deprived of the protection of its walls capitulates, or surrenders at discretion; but in Saragossa the real struggle—the struggle of the populace—was only beginning. On the 28th, Lannes wrote to the emperor: "Never, sire, have I seen such keen determination as in putting our enemies here on their defence. I have seen women come to be killed at a breach. Every house has to be taken by storm; and without great precaution we should lose many soldiers, there being in the town 30,000 or 40,000 men, besides the inhabitants. We now hold Santa- Engracia as far as the Capucine convent, and have captured fifteen guns. In spite of all the orders I have given to prevent soldiers from rushing forward, their ardor getting the better of them has given us 200 wounded more than we ought to have."