[36] It appears therefore that men who had not borne arms had been delivered over to Grouchy’s bloody tribunal; and that though the commission was suppressed, the French reserved to themselves the power of trying and punishing the Spaniards who had taken part in the insurrection.
[37] Azanza and O’Farrill say that they were confirmed in this opinion by the arrival of Perez de Castro, a day or two afterwards, from Bayonne, who assured them that Ferdinand and his friends had been in the greatest alarm lest the Junta should have begun to act upon these instructions, or lest they should by any means have fallen into the Emperor’s hands. (Memoria, sec. 85.) This is very possible, after the renunciation had been made, and they had submitted to their fate. But when the apology proceeds to say how well and bravely the instructions would have been acted upon had they arrived in time, the writers give themselves credit for a higher degree of virtue than was evinced either by their conduct then or afterwards. (Id. sec. 90, 91.) Among the inconveniences of resisting the French, they represent the necessity of putting the English in possession of certain maritime posts, and the probability that England would have retained those posts for herself, to be another reproach to the Spaniards like Gibraltar! (Id. sec. 89.)
[38] Sir John Carr adds, that immediately afterwards this man was seized with frenzy, threw himself from a window, and was killed on the spot. In an account of these transactions, given in a letter from Cadiz, and published by Llorente (under his anagram of Nellerto), in the third volume of his Memoirs for the History of the Revolution of Spain, Solano is said to have taken the Carthusian by the leg and thrown him out of the window, ... as if he had waited till the mob were actually in his apartment before he attempted to escape! The general accuracy of that letter is confirmed by another (in the same collection) by the Count de Teba, in explanation of his own conduct. Llorente (the ex-secretary of the Inquisition) has a notable note upon the subject: he says, the insurrection in Andalusia was brought about by the intrigues of the cabinet of London, carried on by the commander of the blockading squadron, and the governor at Gibraltar; that had it not been for these machinations the province would have been tranquil, there would have been no battle of Baylen, King Joseph would have remained at Madrid, Solano and the Count del Aguila would not have been murdered ... the Spanish colonies would not have been lost ... and at the fall of Napoleon, Joseph would have ceased to be King of Spain, as Jerome ceased to be King of Westphalia. Did Llorente himself believe, or could he think to make others believe, that Napoleon would have been overthrown, if he had made himself master of Spain without opposition? And was it in the expectation and hope that his fall would be brought about without human means, that he swore allegiance to King Joseph?
[39] This opinion of M. Larrey is confirmed by some cases of death produced by cordial waters which occurred, I think, at Dublin, a few years ago. An account was published in some journal, but I cannot refer to it, having met with it in the course of chance-reading, and not thinking at the time that I should ever have occasion to notice it. Except that the dose was stronger, the cases are precisely in point: and they show also, which is equally in point, that poisons of this kind which prove fatal in some instances, are taken with perfect impunity in many others.
[40] M. De Pradt says these addresses were previously submitted to Buonaparte, and he was not satisfied with that of the Grandees, which expressed wishes for the happiness of Joseph and Spain, but contained no direct acknowledgement of him. Une bonne reconnaissance, bien formelle, bien prononcée, était ce qu’il fallait a Napoleon. He lost his temper, and was heard to say to Infantado, No tergiversation, Sir! acknowledge him plainly, or plainly refuse to do it. Il faut être grand dans le crime comme dans la vertu. Do you choose to return to Spain and place yourself at the head of the insurgents? I give you my word to send you there in safety; but I will tell you, that in eight days, ... no, ... in four and twenty hours, you shall be shot. The Duke excused himself upon the plea of composing in a language of which he was not master, and amended the address.
I have not such implicit reliance upon the authority of M. De Pradt as to insert this in the text. The Duque del Infantado and the other persons who had been trepanned with Ferdinand, were compelled to commit themselves in so many ways, that it would have been very useless to have equivocated in a single instance. No men were ever more justified in disclaiming as their own acts what had been done under manifest compulsion.
[41] Vedel had surrounded and made prisoners one battalion of Reding’s corps before he knew of Dupont’s surrender. He was in full retreat, two or three leagues on his way; and, had it not been for the capitulation, might probably have recrossed the Sierra Morena with as little opposition as he had passed it. Castaños had with him only 10,000 regular troops, and 15,000 peasants, who were incorporated at Utrera. This was the whole Spanish force. The French lost 4000 in killed and wounded, and 17,000 laid down their arms. The success at Baylen, therefore, was as extraordinary as any of those victories for which Santiago obtained credit in the heroic age of Spain.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks remedied.