♦Measures of the British Government.♦
Arms, ammunition, and clothing were dispatched to the northern provinces, immediately upon the arrival of the Deputies: men, they said, they did not want. Colonel Sir Thomas Dyer, Major Roche, and Captain Patrick, were sent at the same time on a military mission to Asturias, and Lieut.-Colonel Doyle, Captain Carroll, and Captain Kennedy, to Galicia. The Spanish prisoners were released and sent home; and, in the King’s speech, at the close of the ♦July 4.♦ session, Spain was recognised as a natural friend and ally. It was there declared, “that the British government would make every exertion for the support of a people thus nobly struggling against the tyranny and usurpation of France; that it would be guided in the choice and direction of its exertions by the wishes of those in whose behalf they were employed; and that, in contributing to the success of this just and glorious cause, England had no other object than that of preserving unimpaired the integrity and independence of the Spanish monarchy.” An order of council appeared on the same day, announcing that hostilities against Spain had ceased. Nor was Portugal overlooked by the British government. Lieut.-Colonel Brown, Colonel Trant, and Captain Preval, were sent to obtain intelligence of the state of affairs in the northern provinces, and preparations were made for sending an expedition under Sir Arthur Wellesley, to free that kingdom from the French; and in thus delivering an old and faithful ally, to operate a powerful diversion in aid of the Spaniards.
♦Movements of the French in Navarre and Old Castile.♦
The French in Spain, meantime, had acted with their wonted celerity, and for the most part, at first, with their wonted success. General Verdier having routed the people who had assembled at Logroño, entered that town, and put the leaders of the people to death as rioters. General Frère defeated a body of 5000 men at Segovia, and reduced the city to submission. Lasalle marched from Burgos upon the little town of Torquemada, where Queen Juana, in former times, watched during so many weeks the body of her husband, as jealously as if he had been living; suffered no woman to approach the church wherein his bier was placed; and listened eagerly to the knave who flattered her insane affliction with a tale, that a certain King fourteen years after his death had been restored to life, and why might not a like miracle be vouchsafed in compassion to her grief, and in answer to her prayers? Some 6000 Spaniards had gathered together there: ♦Torquemada burnt.♦ he dispersed them with great slaughter, and burnt the place; then marched upon Palencia, disarmed the inhabitants of that city and the vicinity, and being joined at Duenas by General Merle, proceeded against Valladolid, which had declared for the national cause.
♦G. Cuesta attempts at first to quiet the people.♦
D. Gregorio de la Cuesta, whom Ferdinand had appointed Captain-General of Castille and Leon, had endeavoured to suppress the spirit of resistance when it first manifested itself in those kingdoms. He was in correspondence with Urquijo; and the leaders of that party, who were considered as the Liberales of Spain before they attached themselves to the service of the Intruder, reckoned upon his co-operation, and had already nominated him to the Vice-royalty of Mexico. ♦Nellerto, t. 2, p. 203.♦ Cuesta was an old brave man, energetic, hasty, and headstrong: in the better ages of Spain he would have been capable of great and terrible actions; and the strong elements of the Spanish character were strongly marked in his resolute, untractable, and decided temper. Yet the national spirit was dormant within him till it was awakened by the voice of the nation. He published a proclamation at Valladolid, exhorting the people to remain tranquil, and accept the powerful protection which was offered to the kingdom, and threatening with punishment all who should attempt to raise disturbances, or take part in them. And when the Ayuntamiento of Leon applied to him for advice how to act upon the abdication of the Bourbons, he resented their application as implying a doubt of his own sentiments; and replied, that nothing ought to be attempted against the determination of the Supreme Junta who governed in the Emperor’s name; that the nation ought peaceably to wait for the King whom Napoleon should appoint; that a struggle without arms, ammunition, or union, must needs be hopeless; and that even if any successes were obtained, the leaders would quarrel among themselves for command, and a civil war must arise, which would end in the destruction of the kingdom. But when Cuesta saw how strong the tide of popular feeling had set in, and that what he had looked upon at first merely as a seditious movement, ♦Impugnacion al Manifesto del G. Cuesta, p. 8, 9.♦ ♦He takes the national side.♦ had assumed the sacred and indubitable character of a national cause, perceiving then that the choice was not between subordination and anarchy, but between France and Spain, he chose the better part, and entered into it heartily, and exerted himself to embody and discipline the impatient volunteers, who, in their honest hatred of the French, would have hurried to their own destruction.
♦Evil of his hesitation.♦
But great evil arose from the resistance which he had opposed to the patriotic cause. Where the principal persons and constituted authorities declared themselves frankly and freely at first, the zeal of the people was easily restrained within due bounds, and no excesses were committed; but wherever the higher orders acted manifestly in deference to the multitude, and in fear of them, the mob knew that they were masters, and always abused their power. Thus it was at Valladolid. General Miguel Cevallos was imprisoned there by Cuesta, as the only means of preserving him: the ferocious rabble broke in, dragged him out, and murdered him, and paraded with his head and lacerated limbs in bloody and abominable triumph through the streets. Nor was this the only ill consequence: while he advised submission, and endeavoured to enforce it, time, which should have been employed in uniting, arming, and training the willing people, was irrecoverably lost; ♦Impugnacion, p. 13.♦ and when the French approached Valladolid, they found Cuesta at the head of an undisciplined assemblage numerous enough and brave enough to raise a vain and unreasonable confidence in themselves, and perhaps in him. ♦He is defeated at Cabezon.♦ They had taken post at Cabezon, a village surrounded with vineyards, two leagues from the city. Lasalle having reconnoitred their position, ordered General Sabatier to charge them, while Merle cut off their retreat from Valladolid. According to the French account they stood the enemy’s fire half an hour, then took to flight, leaving upon the ground a thousand dead (the seventh part of their number), and 4000 muskets. Cuesta, with the remains of his army, retired to the borders of Leon, defeated, but not discouraged. ♦The French enter Valladolid.♦ Valladolid was now at the conqueror’s mercy; and the Bishop, with the other heads of the clergy, came out to intercede for it. The people were disarmed, the adjoining country was kept down by military force, and deputies from Valladolid, Segovia, and Palencia were sent to Bayonne to solicit the Emperor’s clemency, and pledge themselves for the allegiance of their fellow citizens. Two detachments under Generals Merle and Ducos were then ordered into the Montañas de Santander by different routes. The patriots, consisting almost wholly of untrained volunteers, were beaten at Lantueño, at Soncello, and at Venta del Escudo. ♦They enter Santander.♦ The two detachments entered the city on the same day, and Santander also was compelled to send deputies with promises of submission to Bayonne. By these operations Marshal Bessieres kept Navarre and the three Biscayan provinces in subjection, and, for the time, reduced the Montaña and the greater part of Old Castile.
♦G. Lefebvre Desnouettes defeats the Aragonese.♦
The movements of the French had not been less successful on the side of Aragon. General Lefebvre Desnouettes was ordered to suppress the insurrection in that kingdom. He began by arresting D. Francisco Palafox in Pampluna, who having accompanied Ferdinand to Bayonne as his chief equerry, was on his way through that city with the supposed intention of joining his brother. Lefebvre then marched from Pampluna upon Tudela. Palafox had detached a ♦June 9.♦ body of Aragonese from Zaragoza, chiefly armed peasantry, to assist the Tudelans in defending the passage of the Ebro: they were defeated by superior discipline and superior numbers, their cannon were taken, and Lefebvre having entered Tudela, put the leaders of the insurrection to death, following, after Murat’s example, the principle of the tyrant whom he served, that the Spaniards who opposed him were to be considered and treated as rebels. The French paid dearly in the end for the insolent barbarity with which they thus began the war: it called forth the revengeful spirit of the nation, and the contest assumed a character hateful to humanity, the guilt and the reproach of which must lie mainly upon those by whom the provocation was given. Lefebvre then repaired the bridge over the Ebro, which had been burnt, and advanced to the village of Mallen, where the Marquis de Lazan, at ♦June 13.♦ the head of ten thousand raw troops, with two hundred dragoons, and eight ill-mounted cannon, had taken a position, with the canal of Aragon on the right, and the village on the left, and supported by an olive grove. A short but bloody action ensued: brave as the Aragonese were, they were in no condition to oppose flying artillery, well disciplined troops, and a powerful cavalry. They were defeated, but not disheartened; and on the following day sustained another action with the same ill success at Alagon, about four leagues from Zaragoza. ♦He marches against Zaragoza.♦ The French then approached the city, expecting that not more resistance would be made there than at Valladolid, and that the submission or punishment of the capital would intimidate the rest of Aragon; this object was to be aided by a movement from the side of Catalonia.