♦Badajoz secured by Romana.♦
The service which Romana had rendered at that crisis was only of less importance than the preservation of the Isle of Leon. He had secured Badajoz when a corps of 12,000 men from Seville thought to have obtained possession of it by a coup-de-main: some Portugueze had come to his assistance, and their artillerymen distinguished themselves when the enemy ventured to approach the walls. Baffled in this attempt, the French retired to Merida, Zafra, and S. Marta, where they were annoyed by the division of his army under D. Carlos O’Donnell, brother to the commander in Catalonia.
♦The British take a position on the frontiers of Beira.♦
Lord Wellington had nearly 9000 sick when his head-quarters were removed from Badajoz; but when, in clear anticipation of the enemy’s intentions, he took a position on the frontiers of Beira, they rapidly recovered strength in that salubrious country. On the side of Alentejo he knew that the invasion would not be attempted; attempts in that quarter had always proved unsuccessful: if Badajoz and Elvas had been reduced, Lisbon was secured by the Tagus, and there is no other part of Portugal in which an army would suffer so much from disease, and from want of water; this indeed Loison ♦See vol. ii. p. 181.♦ had experienced. On the side of Gallicia the French had so lately felt how difficult it was to retreat, that it was altogether unlikely they would risk the same danger again, even if it had not been necessary again to obtain possession of that province as a preliminary measure. It appeared certain, therefore, that the attempt would be made by way of Beira, the only remaining and most practicable route for an invading army. Their first step must be to besiege Ciudad Rodrigo. This, he knew, had been recommended by a council of war held in September at Salamanca; and its success, he then observed, would do more evil than the French could effect in any other way; for it would cut off the only communication of the Spanish government with the northern provinces, give the enemy the command of Castille, and probably draw after it the loss of Almeida. Looking, therefore, to Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida as the points of which the enemy must obtain possession before they could march either upon Lisbon or Porto, he chose a position in the segment of a circle, of which the convex part was opposed to the quarter from whence the invasion was expected. Guarda, Celorico, Pinhel, and the west bank of the Coa, were its four main points; the Coa, with its tributary streams, flowing in front of his line along the greater part of its extent. That river rises in the Sierra de Xalma, which is a part of the Serra da Gata, and enters Portugal by Folgosinho; another stream, which is also regarded as its source, rises near Sabugal; it receives many smaller rivers, and falls into the Douro near Villa Nova de Foscoa. Its waters are supposed to be excellent for dying wool and tempering steel, but unwholesome.
♦Astorga summoned by the French.♦
Before the French entered upon their operations in this quarter, they thought it necessary to obtain complete possession of Leon, that their communication might be open with Valladolid. They had been repulsed in an attempt upon Astorga, in the preceding September, by Santocildes, who remained as governor there. That city was surrounded with walls, which gave it an appearance of antiquity, not of strength. They had been erected many centuries ago, and were so massive, and at the same time considered as of so little consequence for purposes of defence, that the poor were permitted to dig holes in them which served for habitations. The garrison consisted of about 3000 men, of whom from 500 to 600 were on the hospital list. Some attempts had been made to render the city defensible, according to the system of modern warfare, by the enemy, after Buonaparte entered it in pursuit of Sir J. Moore; and when the Spaniards recovered it, they added to these works. Still the fortifications were such, that though the French might deem them sufficient against an armed peasantry, or a guerilla party, it was never expected that any resistance would be made there against a regular force. After the French had overrun Andalusia, and when they were proclaiming, that the brigands had been put to the sword, and the Napoleonic throne established in Cadiz, ... for this falsehood was in such phrase asserted in their Spanish gazettes, ... Loison, whose head-quarters were at Bañeza, the nearest town, wrote to the governor, telling him, that King Joseph had entered Seville amid the acclamations of the inhabitants; that Andalusia had submitted; the ♦Feb. 16.♦ Junta was dissolved; and almost all the people of Spain, awakened now to a sense of their true interest, had had recourse to the clemency of their sovereign, who received them like a father. He urged Santocildes to imitate so good an example, and appoint a place where they might meet and confer upon such terms as must needs persuade him to this wise and honourable course. Santocildes replied to this overture, that he knew his duty, and would do it.
♦Siege of Astorga.♦
On the 21st of March, Junot invested Astorga with 12,000 men, of whom about a tenth part were cavalry, by means of which he became master of the open country. The vigorous measures of Santocildes obstructed his operations so much, that a month elapsed before he opened his batteries. They began on three sides ♦1810.
March.♦ at once, at daybreak on the 20th of April, and soon effected a breach on the north, by the Puerta de Hierro; but immediately behind the breach the Spaniards pulled down a house, the foundations of which served as a formidable trench; they kept up their fire during the night, and at eleven the following morning Junot once more summoned the governor to surrender, declaring that, if he held out two hours longer, the city should be stormed, and the garrison put to the sword. The governor having returned a becoming answer, the batteries renewed their fire; the bombardment was recommenced; the cathedral was set on fire, with many other houses, and a whole street in the suburbs; and the French, thinking to profit by the confusion, assaulted the breach: 2000 men were appointed for this service: great part perished before they could reach the wall; the remainder mounted the breach; the works within impeded them, a destructive fire was poured upon them, and after an hour and a half they were repulsed. At the same time the suburb was assaulted, and with the same success; the enemy being three times baffled in their attempts. Their loss this day amounted to 1500 men.
♦Its surrender.♦
Had the city been well stored, it would have cost the besiegers still dearer; but after this signal success, Santocildes found himself with only thirty round of cartridges remaining for the men, and eight only for the artillery. Junot passed the night in making a covered way from the trenches to the foot of the breach, where he lodged a large body of picked men. Meantime a council of war was held; the impossibility of resisting with advantage for want of ammunition was admitted; some officers proposed that they should cut their way through the besiegers; ... the strength of the enemy’s cavalry was one impediment to this, but it was rejected on account of the inhabitants; for Astorga was not like Hostalrich, where the garrison had only themselves to provide for; and unless terms were made for the town’s-people, what they might expect from such conquerors as Junot and Loison was but too well known. Fresh works of defence were thrown up within the breach while this deliberation was going on, that nothing might be omitted, and at daybreak a capitulation was proposed. They demanded and obtained the honours of war for themselves; security for the inhabitants, both in person and property; that the men should keep their knapsacks, and the officers their horses, swords, and baggage. This part of the capitulation was broken, and the officers were plundered as they left the town. Even Junot, however, returned Santocildes his sword, saying, that so brave a man ought not to be without one. In the course of the siege the enemy lost 2500 in killed alone; so dearly was Astorga purchased. But the more gallant its resistance, the more was that misconduct to be regretted which had infected the provincial Juntas as strongly as the Central Government. Since July last Gallicia had been entirely delivered from the enemy; the population of that province, when the census of 1797 was taken, amounted to nearly a million and a half; the people had shown their spirit, and if due exertions had been made on the part of the civil and military authorities, an army might have been formed there, capable not only of preserving Astorga, but of essentially co-operating with the British and Portugueze in the subsequent operations.