The French governor Chalot, a chef d’escadron, had replied to every summons which Tenreyro sent him, that he was not authorised to surrender to peasantry. Captain M’Kinley having now arrived, he was again summoned to surrender, and negotiations were begun, which continued till the third day, when Morillo joined the besiegers with the force from Pontevedra, ♦March 26.♦ consisting of new levies and retired veterans, 1500 of whom had come forward to assist in the deliverance of their country; a council of war was held, by which Morillo was appointed commander-in-chief, and requested to assume the title of colonel, for the sake of appearing of more consequence to M. Chalot, whose complaint it was, that he was not summoned by an officer of sufficient rank. Having been thus ♦March 27.♦ promoted to accommodate the chef d’escadron, he sent him a summons in due form to surrender within two hours. Chalot replied, that he could not possibly capitulate till he had heard the opinion of the council of war, of which he was president; the members were at present dispersed, and he required twenty-four hours to collect them. Morillo returned a verbal answer, that he granted him another two hours, and the French, after ineffectually attempting to prolong the term, delivered in their proposals of capitulation, which were, that they should march out with arms, baggage, the whole of their equipage, and with the honours of war; that they should be conveyed in English vessels to the nearest French port, on parole not to bear arms against Spain or her allies till exchanged, or till peace should have taken place; that the money belonging to the French government, and destined for the payment of the troops, should remain in the hands of the paymaster, who was accountable for it; and that the papers relating to the accounts of the regiments should be preserved; finally, that the troops should not lay down their arms, nor the town and forts be delivered up, till the moment of embarking. Morillo, with the three French officers who brought these proposals, and two Spaniards, went on board the Lively, to lay them before Captain M’Kinley, and answer them with his concurrence. The answer was in a spirit becoming England and Spain. The garrison were required to ground their arms on the glacis, and surrender themselves prisoners of war, the officers being allowed to retain their swords and wearing apparel, nothing more. The demand respecting the money was refused; the place was to be taken possession of as soon as the French grounded their arms, and if these articles were not ratified within an hour, hostilities were to recommence.
The officers who were sent to negotiate agreed to these terms, but the ratification was delayed beyond the hour allotted; and the Spaniards, who were prepared to execute what they had threatened, began the assault between eight and nine at night; while those who had muskets kept up a fire upon the enemy, others began to hew down the gates. An old man particularly distinguished himself at the gate of Camboa, by the vigour with which he laid on his strokes, splintering the wood, and when a ball went through him, by the composure with which he died, happy to have fallen in the discharge of his duty, and in the hour of victory. D. Bernardo Gonzalez, the commanding officer of the detachment from Pontevedra, sprang forward, and taking up the axe of the dead, continued the same work, notwithstanding he was thrice wounded; till a fourth wound disabled him, and he was borne away: seven Spaniards fell at this point. Meantime Morillo was informed that the capitulation was now ratified, and forcing his way through the ranks amidst the fire, with great difficulty he made himself heard, and put a stop to the assault.
On the following morning, when Morillo had made preparations to enter and occupy the place, information was brought him from the little town of Porriño, that a reinforcement from Tuy was on the way to the French. Porriño is about a league to the eastward of the road between these two places, and equidistant about two leagues from both. News, therefore, could not be brought so soon but that the troops must closely follow it. Morillo instantly sent off a part of his force as secretly as possible to intercept them, and he remained hurrying the embarkation of the French, by telling them that he could not restrain the rage of the peasantry. How well they had deserved any vengeance which the peasantry could inflict the garrison were perfectly conscious, and were therefore as eager to get on board as Morillo was to see them there. In this haste, the baggage could not be examined conformably to the capitulation, for the hurry of both parties was increased by hearing a firing from the town. The troops from Tuy had arrived under its walls, and, to their astonishment, a fire was opened upon them. They were attacked, routed, and pursued with such vigour, that out of 450, not more than a fifth part escaped; seventy-two were taken prisoners, and sent on board to join their countrymen; the rest were either killed or wounded. The military chest, containing 117,000 francs, had been delivered up according to the terms; but an examination of the baggage was thought necessary; about 20,000 more were discovered; and the whole of both[10] sums was distributed among the troops and peasantry. Never had a more motley army been assembled: ... men of all ranks and professions bore arms together at this time in Galicia; among those who distinguished themselves were soldiers and sailors; D. Francisco Sanchez Villamarin, the Alferez of a band of students from Santiago; the Abbot of Valladares, and the first preacher of the Franciscans, Fr. Andres Villagelvi.
♦Blockade of Tuy.♦
The French had at this time 5000 men at Santiago, where they were fortifying themselves. Morillo hastened to place Pontevedra in a state of defence against them, and to secure the bridge of S. Payo, that they might not be able to form any farther junction; for they were now calling in all their smaller detachments, and General Lamartiniere had then collected about 3300 men in Tuy, including some 1200 invalids. A fire which was opened against that place across the river from Valença was soon silenced, and the efforts of the disorderly besiegers were not more effectual. Report magnified their numbers to 20,000; but when Barrios arrived to recompose the dispute between the General-Abbots, by taking the command, he found only a fifth part of the estimated force, and only a fourth of these provided with muskets. Having obtained six pieces of cannon from Salvatierra and Vigo, and a scanty supply of ammunition from the same places, from Bayona, and from his Portugueze neighbours at Valença and Monçam, he carried on the blockade in spite of all the efforts of the garrison.
♦1809.
April.
Marshal Soult was under no small anxiety for this place; he had recommended it to Ney’s especial care; but he had reason to fear that Ney would have sufficient employment for all his force; and he knew what effect the fall of a second garrison would produce not upon the people of the country alone, but also upon his own men; for he was not ignorant that the better spirits in his army detested the service upon which they were employed, and that many even of the worst dreaded it. After entering Braga he dispatched a party of horse in that direction, for of the many messengers whom he had sent to Tuy since he marched from thence on his expedition into Portugal, not one had returned. They learnt at Barcellos that it was blockaded, that it had thrown shells into Valença, and that the garrison were strong enough to sally and incommode the besiegers. Soult could take no measures then for their relief, and he supposed that the news of his success in Portugal would alone relieve them to a considerable degree, by drawing off the Portugueze from the blockade: so in fact it proved; they recrossed the Minho as soon as they heard of his entrance into Braga, and it was their departure which enabled Lamartiniere to make his unfortunate attempt for relieving Vigo.
♦The French in Tuy relieved and withdrawn.♦
Having removed his sick and wounded from Braga to Porto, for they were safe nowhere but under the immediate protection of the army, the Marshal sent Generals Graindorges and Heudelet to relieve Tuy and subdue the intermediate country, where the Portugueze General Botelho had put the Corregidor of Barcellos to death for having welcomed the French on their former reconnoissance from Braga. They entered ♦April 8.♦ Ponte de Lima after some resistance; the weak and dilapidated fortress of Valença was surrendered to them, and Barrios, who upon ♦April 10.♦ tidings of their movements had made an unsuccessful attack upon Tuy, retired during the night to S. Comba. The French boasted that Lapella and Monçam, Villa Nova and Caminha had opened their gates to them, and that the fort of Insoa, at the mouth of the Minho, had capitulated: the names carried as lofty a sound as if the places were of any strength, or possessed any importance, or could have been defended against them, or held by them. But in fact the only advantage expected or derived from the expedition was that of removing with all speed the garrison and all the moveable effects first from Tuy to Valença, that they might be on the safer side of the Minho, and then with the least possible delay to Porto. In that city Marshal Soult remained, unable to prosecute his plans of conquest, and not more in hope of co-operation from Lapisse and Victor, than in apprehension that a British force might anticipate their tardy movements.