Madrid had lost more than two-thirds of its inhabitants since its occupation by the French, but an influx of people from all the surrounding country now filled it as if there had been no depopulation; and amid this multitude, on the following day, the new constitution was proclaimed by D. Carlos de España, who was appointed governor of the capital and province, ... a charge for which no one could be better qualified by clearness of judgment, and promptitude in executing what he saw to be right. Their acclamations were hushed as soon as they knew what they were called upon to hear; and the deep silence with which they listened to the constitutional act was interrupted only by the enemy’s cannon from the Retiro, which seemed rather like a salute in honour of the ceremony, than an enemy’s artillery employed in defence of their last hold in the capital. The act was received with exultant delight; young minds and generous ones, whose natural ardour enabled them to believe what they eagerly desired, persuaded themselves that the Spaniards had now established their freedom as well as achieved their independence; the happy days of Athens and of Sparta, they said, seemed to be restored; and the people of Madrid already appeared like a nation accustomed to liberty, and to deliberate concerning their own interests.
♦The Buen Retiro.♦
On that evening Lord Wellington invested the Retiro, where Marshal Jourdan, with little prudence, had left a garrison of 1700 men. At the eastern extremity of Madrid, Philip II. had a small palace, or rather house of retreat, pleasantly situated by the Prado or public walk, on a rising ground, and immediately adjoining the convent of S. Geronimo. Philip IV. took a fancy to the site; and Olivares, whose chief object seemed to be that of amusing his royal master at whatever cost, purchased adjacent land enough for a large palace, with its gardens and a park four miles in circuit; and such enormous sums were lavished upon the edifice and the grounds, that the additional imposts which were required for this expenditure, or artfully, perhaps, imputed to it, were one of the causes which provoked the revolt in Catalonia, and occasioned the separation of Portugal from the Spanish monarchy. The palace contained a theatre, spacious itself, and opening into the gardens, which might thus be made upon occasion a continuation of the scene; in this theatre the master-pieces of the Spanish drama were represented before a court who delighted in dramatic literature; and Ferdinand VI. gratified his dear Queen Barbara’s hereditary love of music, with Italian operas, performed under Farinelli’s direction. Formerly the Buen Retiro contained a large collection of pictures by the greatest masters of Italy, Spain, and the Low Countries; many of these were transferred to other palaces when this began to be neglected, and the French had now made spoil of the rest. But there were ceilings painted by Luca Jordano, which were not removable; and in a compartment of that in the great saloon, Spain was pictured, ruling the terrestrial globe, ... a dream of ambition which her kings of the Austrian line had entertained, which the craftiest as well as the wildest heads among the Romish clergy encouraged, and which many circumstances seemed to concur in favouring, when, under the blessing of Providence, the Dutch, by their patriotic and religious virtue, averted that evil from the world. Two other noted works of art were still to be seen in the Buen Retiro; one, remarkable for its design, was a bronze statue of Charles V. trampling upon the Spirit of Reformation which lay, personified as Heresy in chains, at his feet; the other, which for the surpassing skill of the sculptor was even more remarkable, was an equestrian statue of Philip IV. cast by Pietro Tacca of Florence, weighing, it is said, not less than nine tons, and yet supported only by the hind legs, the horse being in the act of galloping. Within the precincts of the palace were many pavilions which used to be assigned to the courtiers when the court resided there. The gardens were of that formal style in which art allows as little as possible of nature to be seen, ... where water is brought at great expense to spout from fountains and fill circular fish-ponds, the gardener exercises his topiary genius upon trees and shrubs, and humble evergreens are compelled to grow in fantastic patterns, like a vegetable carpet. The park was a thick wood, with broad avenues, a central pond having a pavilion in its centre, and a large piece of water at its termination, on which gilded gondolas awaited the king’s pleasure when he was disposed to take the diversion of fishing, his retinue beholding the sport from the little pavilions which decorated its sides. Like all the other palaces of the kings of Spain, the Buen Retiro was a place in which a meditative beholder was forcibly reminded of the vanity of human greatness. Those kings, above all other European sovereigns, had been loved and reverenced by their people; their palaces were among the wonders of the modern world, and no expenditure, no efforts of ingenuity and art had been spared in embellishing their summer retreats: but these things had been grievously compensated, not alone by the never-ending anxieties of state, and the gloom of disappointed ambition, but by a more than ordinary share of the afflictions incident to human nature, coming upon themselves or their families, ... maladies of body and of mind alike incurable and painful; ... madness, fatuity, weak intellects, ... conscious of their weakness, and of the awful responsibility in which their birth had placed them, ... morbid consciences, and broken hearts.
After the accession of Charles III. the Retiro ceased to be a royal residence, and part of its buildings were converted into a royal manufactory of porcelain. Its park, however, continued to be a fashionable promenade, the more agreeable, because carriages were not allowed to enter; but the French had now made it a depôt for their artillery stores, the victims whom they arrested for political offences were confined there, and they had fortified it as a military post, but with less judgment than their engineers had displayed on any other occasion. ♦Surrender of the Retiro.♦ The outer line was formed by the palace, the museum, and the park wall, with flèches thrown out in part to flank it; the second was a bastioned line of nine large fronts, but with no outworks except a ravelin and a lunette; the interior was an octagonal star fort, closely surrounding what had been the porcelain manufactory. The garrison was far too small for the outer enceintes, and Marshal Jourdan had therefore left written orders, that if they were seriously attacked, they should confine their defence to the star fort, which, however, itself would be rendered nearly indefensible if the manufactory were destroyed. A copy of this order was found, and on the night of the 13th, Major-General Pakenham drove in their posts from the Prado and the botanical garden, made them retire from the outer enceintes, broke through the wall in many places, ♦August 14.♦ and established his troops in the palace. In the morning arrangements were made for driving them from the bastioned lines, and for battering the manufactory; but the governor saw that resistance was useless, and he surrendered. The number of prisoners taken there and in the hospital amounted to 2500, and there fell into the hands of the allies 189 pieces of cannon, and above 20,000 stand of arms, with a great quantity of ammunition and stores of all kinds. The eagles also of the 13th and 51st regiments were found there, and sent to England.
♦The constitution sworn to.♦
The inhabitants of Madrid, who looked upon this strong hold of their oppressors as a Bastille, were desirous of thronging thither to see the place where so many of their countrymen had been sacrificed; but this was not permitted, both the British commander and the Spanish authorities seeking as much as possible to prevent any thing which might excite the vindictive feelings of the people. That same day, the churches in every parish were opened for administering the oath of fidelity to the new constitution; and multitudes crowding thither with an eagerness which might well have excited apprehension of its stability, swore to they knew not what. Napoleon, it was said, had promised to regenerate them, and they were regenerated; for through his means, who had intended nothing less, the Spaniard had been converted from a slave to a citizen; the superstitious had thrown off his prejudices, the coward his fears, the credulous his credulity; the idle had become industrious, the selfish man generous, and the reckless one had learned to think. While those who knew little of history and less of human nature exulted thus in the persuasion, that the habits of a whole people might be changed as lightly as an inconsiderate man changes his opinion, and that inveterate evils may suddenly be cured by legislation as if by miracle, and leave no scar behind; the general joy was kept up by fast following tidings from all parts of successes, which, though little more than the necessary consequences in most instances of the battle of Salamanca and the occupation of Madrid, were considered each by the multitude as an important achievement in itself. On the same day that the Retiro was surrendered, the French withdrew from Toledo to join the army of the centre, with which the Intruder was retreating towards Valencia: they destroyed their artillery, and all the ammunition which they could not carry; and hardly had they left the city before the Abuelo’s party entered, and the bells rung, and the squares and streets were illuminated. ♦August 16.♦ Guadalaxara was attacked by the Empecinado, and after a vain resistance, above 700 French were made prisoners there. The enemy retired from Logroño, and Duran hastened thither and destroyed its outer fortifications, its fort, and its inquisition. A detachment was sent from Zaragoza to bring away the garrisons from Tarrazona and Borja, and destroy the works there.
♦Gen. Foy’s movement.♦
General Foy, with 6000 infantry and 1200 horse, part of Marmont’s army, now under his command, moved from the neighbourhood of Valladolid with the intent of raising the blockade of Toro and Zamora, and the siege of Astorga. The garrison at Tordesillas, consisting of 250 men, had previously surrendered to ♦August 17.♦ Santocildes. The Spaniards retired from before Toro at their approach, in good order and with little loss; the enemy bringing off their garrison, were then joined by another body of equal force, and proceeded towards Astorga; 300 of their cavalry were sent forward to that city, but when they entered it they found that the Spaniards had withdrawn, and had marched the garrison, consisting of 1200 men, prisoners towards Coruña: for Castaños knowing that a force was advancing which his army was in no condition to meet, had successfully employed the easy artifice of representing to ♦August 18.♦ the commander that relief was impossible, and resistance hopeless, and thus he had induced him to ♦August 21.♦ surrender. Foy was at Baneza, half way between Benevente and Astorga, when he received this mortifying intelligence; he then turned back to the Ezla, and marched upon Carvajales, thinking to surprise the Conde de Amarante, who with the militia of Tras-os-Montes, then serving voluntarily beyond their own frontier, was blockading Zamora; the Conde retreated ♦August 29.♦ without loss, and the French general bringing off the garrison marched for Tordesillas.
Some of the traitors who had made themselves conspicuous in the Intruder’s service, fell into the hands of ♦Measures of police at Madrid.♦ their countrymen at Guadalaxara; others who were conscious that they had been weak rather than wicked, and that in submitting to him for their own good, they had not aggravated the crime by injuring those who had persisted in their duty, presented themselves voluntarily to the newly constituted authorities in Madrid, thinking it better to take the chance of mercy, than to fly they knew not whither, without resources, without friends, and without the consolation which those who act righteously find in their own hearts. There were writers on this occasion who cried for vengeance in a most ferocious spirit. They called upon the people of Madrid to prepare graves for their guilty countrymen who had thus presented themselves at the foot of the gallows! They advised them to go to the governor, and with one voice require justice upon these wretches, as what the nation was entitled to demand; ... the sword for some, chains for others, and strict confinement till the conclusion of the war for those who were suspected, and who, if they were left at large, might act as secret agents for the French. This atrocious language failed of its intended effect, for the presence of the allied troops maintained order; and a vigilant police had been established, not for the oppression of the people, but for their security.
No needless severity was used. D. Carlos d’España made known by an edict, that persons of both sexes in that capital carried on a correspondence with those unhappy Spaniards who had followed the French, and that in this manner they supplied the enemy with intelligence; all such communication, therefore, was prohibited to all persons, on pain of being brought before a council of war, and condemned irremissibly to suffer the punishment appointed for spies. The families of the fugitives, and of those who had enriched themselves by the purchase of what the Intrusive Government called national goods, were ordered to remain in their houses under the word of three respectable sureties, and not to leave them except for the purpose of attending their religious duties; but their wives and daughters were advised to retire into a convent, as the course which consisted best with their own honour, and with that of their husbands and fathers, for whom they might there offer up their prayers, supplicating Providence to bring them in its mercy back to the path of duty which they had forsaken.