♦Montserrate taken by the French.♦
The fortified points which the Catalans still retained were Berga, Montserrate (for this had been made a military post), Figueras, Cardona, and the Seu d’Urgel. Berga was dismantled by Lacy, because he was unable to defend it, and it might have been a useful hold for the French. Orders arrived from Paris to demolish Tarragona, preserving only a redoubt there, to reduce Montserrate, and then prepare to march against the kingdom of Valencia. Suchet was at the same time created a marshal of the empire for his services; the massacre at Tarragona was considered as no reproach to him, or the army by which it had been perpetrated. By General Rogniat’s advice, the works which surrounded the upper town were preserved, because they might be defended by a thousand men: the other works were destroyed, and the greater part of the artillery removed to Tortosa. Montserrate was then attacked; ... its former peaceful inhabitants had removed to Majorca, and taken with them in time the treasures of their sanctuary. Great enterprise and activity were displayed in the attack; and the garrison, confiding too much in the natural strength of the mountain, suffered themselves to be surprised from its heights. This was a severe loss to the Catalans; for it was now their chief depôt, and they had counted upon its security. The ♦Fall of Figueras.♦ last calamity in this series of misfortunes was the fall of Figueras. When it had been blockaded between four and five months, and all the horses were eaten, the garrison sallied, and attempted to force their way through the besiegers. An aid-de-camp of the governor had deserted and given information of their purpose; the enemy therefore were prepared to receive them; nevertheless they made their way to the abattis, formed of trunks of trees, which they found impenetrable; ♦August 19.♦ and after three attempts in the course of one day, these gallant men were compelled to capitulate, three sacks of flour being all the provisions which were left. During two preceding days they had employed themselves in destroying whatever could be of use to the enemy. Honourable terms were obtained, and Martinez was made to say in his dispatch to his own Government that the garrison were treated by the French with the generosity which characterises that nation. That phrase would be rightly understood by ♦Base usage of the prisoners taken there.♦ the Spaniards. It had been stipulated that they should march out with their baggage, and deliver their arms on the glacis. But no sooner had they given up their arms than they were plundered; and they were marched into France in such a state of destitution, that they were indebted for needful covering to the humanity of the towns through which they passed. Eight hundred peasants were among these prisoners. Buonaparte sent them to the hulks at Brest and Rochefort, and there they were compelled to work with the convicts, being distinguished from them only by a dress of different colour, not by any difference in[30] treatment.
When Figueras had been recovered from the enemy, it was asserted in the Government gazette, that in consequence of that event the French had abandoned Hostalrich and Gerona, and that the English had taken Rosas; so readily did the Spaniards listen even to the idlest rumours of success! The French in like manner believing, or professing to believe, what they wished, gave out upon their recapture of this fortress that the war in Catalonia was ended: so M. Macdonald affirmed in his dispatches; and the vain boast was repeated in the Barcelonan journal, though in that city undeniable proofs of its falsehoods were daily and hourly received. One of the most remarkable men whom these troubles had drawn from obscurity into active life was Jose ♦Manso.♦ Manso, who at the commencement of the struggle followed the humble occupation of a miller upon a small patrimony of his own, near Barcelona; some French officers, by their outrageous conduct towards him, roused in him a spirit which under happier circumstances might never have been awakened, and he began his honourable warfare against the invaders with only three comrades. By a series of exploits skilfully planned and bravely executed, he had gained for himself a high reputation, which was in no slight degree enhanced by his moral worth; for it might truly be said of him that he was without fear and without reproach. When Manso entered upon this new course of life he was about two or three and twenty years of age, and was so uneducated that he could neither write nor read; but every portion of time that could now be spared from his military duties was devoted to self-improvement, and his progress in this kept full pace with his fortune. At this time he held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Catalan army; and when Suchet, soon after the fall of Tarragona, was on his way to the capital of the province, he, at the head of a detachment, harassed his march, and succeeded in cutting off some fifty of the enemy and taking six, between Ordal and Molins de Rey; but twelve of his soldiers were taken in these skirmishes, and the French commander ordered some of them to be shot, some to be hanged, and some to be burnt, though they claimed the protection to which they were entitled by the laws of war, and though they threw themselves at his feet and entreated mercy. His orders were executed; some thirty peasants of St. Vincente, Molins de Rey, and Palleja, who were working in the fields, were murdered in like manner; and every woman who fell into the hands of these inhuman troops became their victim. Manso issued a proclamation denouncing these crimes before God and man; and declaring that the right of reprisals which till then he had from humanity forborne to exercise should instantly be enforced; he hung his six prisoners in the immediate vicinity of Barcelona; and gave notice, that every Frenchman who from that hour fell into his hands should be put to death, till the enemy should have learnt to treat as prisoners of war brave men who were fighting for their country, which had been perfidiously invaded, their religion, which was insolently outraged, and their king, who had been treacherously decoyed into captivity.
♦Conduct of the Junta of Catalonia.♦
The French asserted also in their journals, that the Junta of Catalonia had fled to Majorca, giving up the principality in despair. The Spanish frigates had indeed run for that island, contrary to orders, carrying with them the archives, and the money, stores, ammunition, and medicines intended for the inland fortresses, and at that time especially needed by them. But the Junta were at their post when Catalonia was left to stand or fall by its own strength, and when without their presence there could have been none to call forth or direct it. In many parts of Spain the provincial Juntas disregarded sometimes, and sometimes counteracted, the orders of the Government; but here the duties of Government devolved upon the Junta. From Solsona they now issued some of those proclamations which contributed so greatly to support the national cause, calling upon their countrymen in the language of hope and heroism and indignation, and exhorting them to rely upon their good cause and their own right arms, and the justice of the Almighty. The Barcelonan journal said that Lacy had fled with the Junta. If they who made this assertion believed it themselves, they ♦Lacy’s proclamation.♦ were speedily undeceived. That general declared in a proclamation, that if his well-founded hope of soon seeing better days should be disappointed, he would die with the last soldier rather than abandon his post: eight days he allowed the dispersed troops for rejoining their colours at the places fixed upon; those who should not then have rejoined were to be pursued as deserters by the civil and military authorities. “Catalans,” said he, “the country is in danger, and now more than ever stands in need of your exertions. The Junta and your general are bound to explain to you your situation, because true courage consists not in being ignorant of danger, but in overcoming it. The fall of Tarragona has made that situation critical in the extreme, not desperate. There yet remain to us inextinguishable hatred of oppression and ardent love of independence; ... there yet remain to us strong-holds and mountains; ... there remain to us the arms of our numerous and valiant youth for recovering what is lost, and for making the enemy know that the attempt to conquer us is vain. With fewer resources did Pelayo from the mountains of Covadonga begin the deliverance of Spain: and there are not wanting to us chiefs who are determined to follow his glorious example. Great efforts are necessary: let our efforts then be united, and for those who have not spirit to follow this resolution, let them abandon us and join the enemy, that we may know whom to treat as enemies, and whom as friends. The priest, the religioner, the father of a family, every one has wrongs to avenge, every one has much to lose, and our country calls upon all. In all parts the alarm-bell is heard, and wherever there are enemies, there should be Catalans to fight them. War and vengeance must be our only business; and, like our forefathers, let us leave to the women the care of our houses and families!”
♦Retreat of the cavalry from Catalonia to Murcia.♦
Yet while Lacy held this language, and used at the same time every exertion for collecting the dispersed troops, he was obliged to dismiss a body of cavalry, from utter inability to support them, or even to feed the horses. Brigadier D. Gervasio Gasca commanded this division, which contained twelve superior and 112 subaltern officers, 922 men, and about 500 horses, the remains of the regiment of Alcantara, the Numancian dragoons, Spanish hussars, cazadores of Valencia, and hussars of Granada. They had to make their way through Aragon, into a free province, and incorporate themselves with the first army they could find. The details of their march show the skill with which the enemy had chosen his positions, so as to give him military command of the country; for near as Valencia was, Gasca was six weeks on the way, and travelled between 700 and 800 miles before he could effect his junction with a Spanish army. He began this perilous retreat on the 25th of July, with his horses in miserable condition for want of food, and without money; getting provisions and information as he could find them; and having no means of procuring either, except such as chance or charity might bestow. At Graus, a small party of the enemy were found, whom they kept in check with a part of their force, while the rest forded the Esera by Barazona. Making long marches, so as to outrun the intelligence of the enemy, they succeeded in passing the rivers Cinca and Gallego without opposition; but when they were in the district of Las Cinco Villas de Aragon, knowing that the French from Barbastro and Huesca were about to collect and cut them off, they made yet longer marches, taking a more devious direction, and moving by night. Notwithstanding these precautions, they were attacked at midnight near the village of Luesia, by what force they knew not, but the fire came from the village, and from a height which commanded the ground over which they were passing. Gasca could not prevent his men from making a precipitate retreat; he had only time to name a place of rendezvous; and while the enemy, who consisted of 1000 foot, and from two to three hundred horse, under the Polish general Chlopiski, hastened to cut them off from the pass of the Gallego, Gasca avoided them by entering Navarre, where he rested three days at Eybar, expecting help from Espoz y Mina to effect the perilous passage of the Ebro. Three parties of that distinguished leader’s cavalry came to assist and guide him: their knowledge of the country was of essential service; they made a rapid and unexpected march to one of the fords of the river; its waters were swoln, and they were obliged in some places to swim: the passage, however, was effected, and immediately Gasca marched from four in the afternoon of one day till eight on the following morning, that he might get out of reach of the garrisons of Tafalla, Caparroso, and Tudela. The danger was now less imminent, though still sufficiently great; they made shorter marches, varying their direction, according to the intelligence they procured of the enemy; and thus, after six weeks of such hardships as few people, except the Spaniards, could have sustained, they joined the army in Murcia by the circuitous way of Guadalaxara and Cuenca, having lost upon the road four officers, 153 men, and 213 horses: the greater part of these men had been dispersed in the night route at Luesia; the horses had mostly died upon the march.
♦State of the enemy in Catalonia.♦
But the Catalans, in circumstances under which almost any other people would have despaired, never lost hope; their saying was, that now, when the fortified places were lost, the war was only begun. And indeed, deplorable as the state of things was for the natives, it was far more so for the invaders: they were masters of almost every fortress, but their dominion did not extend beyond the walls. They levied contributions upon the villages near, and this was all; ... they could only move in large detachments, and wherever they moved they were harassed by the armed peasantry and the Somatenes. The daily and hourly cost of life at which they kept their ground was such, that the enemy, who avowed their determination of extirpating half the inhabitants in order to intimidate the rest, must have exhausted the resources, if not the patience, of France, before such a determination could be executed. In the preceding year Suchet had dispersed a proclamation, declaring that Great Britain and her Spanish allies had made peace with France, and acknowledged Joseph Buonaparte as king of Spain. The French now circulated a report that negotiations were going on, and with such probability of success, that Talleyrand had been sent to London, and the Emperor himself had gone to the coast for the purpose of expediting the business. But these artifices availed them nothing, for Doyle contradicted their falsehood in addresses which were carried everywhere, and eagerly received, ... and British ships were still upon the coast, to act wherever opportunity might offer.
♦Las Medas recovered by the Spaniards.♦