The temper of the Zaragozans after their victory was not less heroic than their conduct during the struggle. It might have been expected that some degree of exhaustion would have succeeded the state of excitement to which they had been wrought; and that the widowed, the childless, and they who were left destitute, would now have lamented what they had lost, or, at least, that they themselves had not perished also. This, however, was not so. Mr. Vaughan visited Zaragoza a little while after the siege, and remained there during several weeks: he saw (they are his own impressive words) “many a parent who had lost his children, and many a man reduced from competence to poverty, but he literally did not meet with one human being who uttered the slightest complaint: every feeling seemed to be swallowed up in the memory of what they had recently done, and in a just hatred of the French.” These are the effects of patriotism, aided and strengthened by religion: its influence, thus elevated and confirmed, made women and boys efficient in the time of action, and the streets of a city not less formidable to an invader than the best constructed works of defence. Let not the faith which animated the Aragonese be called superstition, because our Lady of the Pillar, Santiago, and St. Engracia, were its symbols. It was virtually and essentially religion in its inward life and spirit; it was the sense of what they owed equally to their forefathers and their children; the knowledge that their cause was as righteous as any for which an injured and insulted people ever rose in arms; the hope that by the blessing of God upon that cause they might succeed; the certain faith that if they fell, it was with the feeling, the motive, and the merit of martyrdom. Life or death therefore became to the Zaragozans only not indifferent, because life was useful to the cause for which they held it in trust, and were ready to lay it down: they who fell expired in triumph, and the survivors rather envied than regretted them. The living had no fears for themselves, and for the same reason they could have no sorrows for the dead. The whole greatness of our nature was called forth, ... a power which had lain dormant, and of which the possessors themselves had not suspected the existence, till it manifested itself in the hour of trial.
When the dead were removed, and the ruins sufficiently cleared, Ferdinand was proclaimed ♦August 20.♦ with all the usual solemnities; a ceremony, at other times attended with no other feeling than such as sports and festivity occasion, now made affecting by the situation of Ferdinand himself, and the scene which surrounded the spectators; walls blackened with fire, shattered with artillery, and stained with ♦August 25.♦ blood. The obsequies of the Spaniards who had fallen were next performed with military honours, and their funeral oration pronounced from the pulpit. The brave priest Santiago Sass was made chaplain to the commander in chief, and Palafox gave him a captain’s commission. These were times when the religion of Mattathias and the Maccabees was required; and the priest of the altar was in the exercise of his duty, when defending it, sword in hand, in the field. A pension was settled upon Augustina, and the daily pay of an artilleryman. She was also to wear a small shield of honour embroidered upon the sleeve of her gown, with Zaragoza inscribed upon it. Tio Jorge was killed during the siege. Other persons, who had distinguished themselves, were rewarded; and the general reward which Palafox conferred upon the Zaragozan people, is strongly characteristic of Spanish ♦Sept. 20.♦ feeling. By his own authority, and in the name of Ferdinand, he conferred upon all the inhabitants of the city and its districts, of both sexes and of all ranks, the perpetual and irrevocable privilege of never being adjudged to any disgraceful punishment by any tribunal for any offence, except for treason or blasphemy.
CHAPTER X.
INSURRECTION IN PORTUGAL.
♦1808.
May.♦
While these events were passing in Spain, Portugal also was convulsed by this political ♦An agent sent from Badajoz to the Spaniards at Lisbon.♦ earthquake. The first insurrection in Madrid had been no sooner known at Badajoz, than an anonymous proclamation from that city was circulated on the Portugueze border; and a lieutenant of the Walloon Guards, by name Moretti, was sent to consult at Lisbon with General Carraffa upon the means of withdrawing the Spanish troops. Carraffa thought it too hazardous to declare ♦Neves, t. iii. 7.♦ himself at that time; but though in other respect acting altogether in subservience to Junot, he did not make him acquainted with the transaction, and Moretti returned in safety.
♦Difficulties of Junot’s situation.♦
Junot was now disturbed from his dreams of royalty; yet his head lay as uneasily as if it had worn a crown. Like the other French commanders, when the insurrectionary movement became general throughout Spain, he thought it impossible that any continued or formidable resistance could be opposed to the power of France: but his own situation was exposed to peculiar danger; he was farther removed from assistance than any of the other commanders in the Peninsula; there was an English squadron in sight, watching the course of events, and in defiance of all his vigilance, well informed of whatever was going on; and it was not to be doubted, that if a favourable opportunity offered, Great Britain would make an effort for the deliverance of Portugal. Pursuant to his instructions from Madrid, he had sent into Galicia the remains of Taranco’s division, so that Carraffa’s was now the only one which remained; some 4000 of these were at Porto, the rest were in detachments at Lisbon, Mafra, Santarem, and on the other side the Tagus at Setubal, Cezimbra, and ♦Neves, iii. 66.♦ other places. In the hope of exciting a national feeling against them, and thereby counteracting that sympathy which their common language, manners, and religion, and now a sense of their common interest, were producing between them and the Portugueze, rumours were spread, that by an arrangement made with Buonaparte, Portugal was to be governed by Spain till its fate should be determined at a general peace. But this artifice failed. The Spaniards were not to be deceived; from the time when they knew that Ferdinand had been inveigled to Bayonne, there was an end of all good understanding between them and the French; and they were so ready to engage in personal quarrels, from the national indignation which possessed them, that it was found necessary to confine them to their quarters at an early hour in the evening. Care was taken to divide them into small detachments, and station every where with them a superior number of French. Many deserted, especially of those who were quartered beyond the Tagus. Some made their way to the Spanish frontiers in strong parties. The regiment of Murcia marched for Spain in a body, in defiance of its colonel; a detachment of 600 French was sent from Lisbon to intercept them; they met at ♦Neves, iii. 67.♦ Os Pegoens; this was a case in which individual ♦Observador Portuguez, 287.♦ strength and determination were of more avail than military discipline; the Spaniards were victorious, and proceeded on their way, receiving the utmost kindness from the people, and nearly two hundred wounded French were landed at Lisbon.
♦Kellermann takes the command in Alem-Tejo.♦