♦1808.
May.
The seizure of the fortresses, and the advance of the French troops, had roused the spirit of the Spaniards; their hopes had been excited to the highest pitch by the downfal of Godoy and the elevation of Ferdinand; and in that state of public feeling, the slaughter at Madrid, and the transactions at Bayonne, were no sooner known, than the people, as if by an instantaneous impulse over the whole kingdom, manifested a determination to resist the insolent usurpation. Abandoned as they were by one part of the Royal Family, deprived of the rest; forsaken too by those nobles and statesmen, whose names carried authority, and on whose talents and patriotism they had hitherto relied; ... betrayed by their government, and now exhorted to submission by all the constituted authorities civil and religious which they had been accustomed to revere and to obey; ... their strong places and frontier passes in possession of the enemy; the flower of their own troops some in Italy, others in the north of Europe; and a numerous army of the French, accustomed to victory, and now flushed with Spanish slaughter, in their capital and in the heart of the country; under these complicated disadvantages and dangers, they rose in general and simultaneous insurrection against the mightiest military power which had ever till that time existed; a force not more tremendous for its magnitude than for its perfect organization, wielded always with consummate skill, and directed with consummate wickedness. A spirit of patriotism burst forth which astonished Europe, and equalled the warmest hopes of those who were best acquainted with the Spanish nation: for those persons who knew the character of that noble people, ... who were familiar with their past history, and their present state; who had heard the peasantry talk of their old heroes, of Hernan Cortes and of the Cid; ... who had witnessed the passionate transfiguration which a Spaniard underwent when recurring from the remembrance of those times to his own; ... his brave impatience, his generous sense of humiliation, and the feeling with which his soul seemed to shake off the yoke of these inglorious days, and take sanctuary among the tombs of his ancestors, ... they knew that the spirit of Spain was still alive, and had looked on to this resurrection of the dry bones. As no foresight could have apprehended the kind of injury with which the nation had been outraged, nor have provided against the magnitude of the danger, so by no possible concert could so wide and unanimous a movement have been effected. The holiest and deepest feelings of the Spanish heart were roused, and the impulse was felt throughout the Peninsula like some convulsion of the earth or elements.
The firing on the 2d of May was heard at Mostoles, a little town about ten miles south of Madrid, and the Alcalde, who knew the situation of the capital, dispatched a bulletin to the south, in these words: “The country is in danger; Madrid is perishing through the perfidy of the French. All Spaniards, come to deliver it!” ♦Alvaro Florez Estrada, p. 126.♦ No other summons was sent abroad than this, which came from an obscure and unauthorized individual, in a state of mind that would have made him rush upon the French bayonets; but this stirred up the people in the southern provinces; and in truth no summons was needed, for the same feeling manifested itself every where as soon as the details of the massacre were known, and the whole extent of the outrage which had been offered to the nation. Buonaparte was totally ignorant of the Spanish character, and in that ignorance had pursued the only course which could have provoked a national resistance. If he had declared war against Spain, at the beginning, no enthusiasm could have been raised in favour of the government, and he might have dictated the terms of submission as a conqueror. The opinion of his magnanimity and greatness would have gone before him; the Spaniards, prone to admire what is romantic and miraculous, and taught by their own history to disregard the injustice and the inhumanity of wars which are waged for conquest, had been dazzled by the splendour of his portentous career; and had he appeared to them as an open, honourable foe, the pretension that he was appointed to fulfil the ways of Providence, might have found among them a submissive, and perhaps a willing belief.
♦Deputies from Asturias sent to England.♦
Asturias was the first province in which the insurrection assumed a regular form. A Junta of representatives was elected, who assembled at Oviedo, and declared that the entire sovereignty had devolved into their hands. The commander in chief in that principality, who attempted to suppress these movements, was in danger of losing his life; and the Conde del Pinar, and the poet, D. Juan Melendez Valdes, who were sent by Murat from Madrid to appease the people, were glad to escape from the indignation which their mission provoked. The first act of the Junta was to dispatch two noblemen to solicit aid from England: they put off from ♦May 25.♦ Gijon in an open boat, and got on board an English privateer which happened to be cruizing off that port. Agents also were sent to Leon and to Coruña, inviting the Leonese and the Gallicians to unite with them against the common enemy.
♦Insurrection at Coruña.♦
The Asturian who came to Coruña upon this mission was ordered by one of the magistrates to leave the town immediately, and not to make his errand known to any person, on pain of being arrested and treated as a criminal. On the way back he stopped at Mondoñedo, where he learnt that the Leonese were in insurrection, and met as emissary from that kingdom, one of those generous spirits who were then every where employed in rousing the nation, and preparing it for the struggle which must ensue. The people of Mondoñedo entered with ardour into the common cause; and a student from the seminary there accepted the office of deputy from that city to Coruña, notwithstanding the risk which the Asturian had run. He went with the fair pretext of asking from the provincial government what course ought to be taken by the authorities at Mondoñedo, in consequence of the events in Asturias and Leon. Coruña was in a state of great ferment when he arrived; true and false reports were received with equal belief by the populace; it was affirmed that the sale of church property which Ferdinand had suspended was to be resumed; that Buonaparte would order off all the Spanish troops to the north of Europe, and that cart-loads of chains were on the way to manacle those soldiers who should refuse to march willingly. The captain-general of Gallicia and governor of Coruña, D. Antonio Filangieri, believed that the only course which it behoved him to pursue in the strange and perilous state of Spain, was to preserve order as far as possible; but the very precaution which he took to prevent an insurrection became the signal for it. The festival of St. Ferdinand, King of Spain, which is commemorated on the 30th of May, had always been celebrated as the saint’s-day of Ferdinand since he was acknowledged as Prince of Asturias; and in all fortified towns the flag should have been displayed and a salute fired. Filangieri forbade this to be done, lest it should occasion a dangerous movement among the people. The omission excited them more forcibly than the ceremony would have done: it was a silent but unequivocal act of assent to the iniquitous proceedings at Bayonne; and the people understanding it as such, collected in great numbers about the governor’s house, and insisted that the flag should be hoisted. Filangieri was a Neapolitan, who might have transferred his allegiance from a Bourbon King of Spain to a Buonaparte without any sacrifice of feeling, or violation of duty. His inclinations, however, were in favour of the country which had adopted him, and he obeyed the popular voice. They then required that a regiment which he had removed to Ferrol should be recalled, that the arms in the arsenal should be distributed among the inhabitants, that Ferdinand should be proclaimed King, and that war should be immediately declared against France. The governor demurred at this last demand; ... they broke into his house and seized his papers, and his life would probably have been sacrificed if he had not escaped at a garden door, and found shelter in a convent.
The multitude then hastened to the arsenal, and took possession of the arms; the soldiers offered no resistance, and soon openly declared for the cause of their country. Some officers who attempted to restrain the people were hurt; some houses were attacked; a warehouse was broke open because it was said the fetters in which refractory conscripts were to be conveyed to France were deposited there, and the French Consul would have been murdered, if some humaner persons had not conveyed him in time to Fort St. Antonio, upon an island in the sea. A portrait of Ferdinand was carried in procession through the streets; and the Vivas which accompanied that popular name were followed by a fearful cry of “Down with the French and the traitors!” But order was soon restored, and in great measure by the exertions of the clergy, who possessed at this time a double influence over the people, because no class of men displayed more fervour of patriotic loyalty. The heads of the monasteries and the parochial priests assembled with the constituted authorities of the town, the Regent of the Royal Audience, and the Governor, to whom obedience was now restored; they formed a permanent Junta of government, they sent officers to treat with the English squadron which was then blockading Ferrol, and they dispatched advices to Santiago, Tuy, Orense, Lugo, Mondoñedo, and ♦Nellerto. Mem. t. 3, No. 140.♦ Betanzos, requiring each of those cities to send a deputy to the Junta, and make the news known throughout their respective jurisdictions. In the course of three days the whole of Gallicia was in a state of insurrection, and a communication was immediately opened with England.
♦Excesses of the populace.♦