How to deal with the juramentados, as those Spaniards were called who had entered into Joseph’s armies, was a question which now became of great importance. Hitherto it had been possible to execute the rigour of the law, and put to death those who were taken in arms against their country; but the tide having now turned, it might reasonably be expected that they would eagerly desert a cause in which they had never heartily engaged; and the policy of thus recruiting the Spanish army, instead of driving these men to despair, was so evident, that Alava, immediately on the occupation of Madrid, issued a proclamation, as commissary for the Government, inviting them to accept the free pardon which the Cortes had offered them on the publication of the new constitution. Great numbers in consequence came over. Another measure of the Intrusive Government, which was not less obvious and dangerous in its possible results, than the scheme of raising a Spanish force to be employed in the subjugation of Spain, was that of selling or otherwise disposing of confiscated houses and lands, and thus binding the new possessors to their allegiance by the only tie which they would not be likely under any circumstances to break. They had contrived thus to connect with the French interest many who would have been unwilling or unable to purchase property of this description; for under pretext of embellishing the capital, they pulled down about a fourth of it, and by way of compensating the owners of the demolished dwellings, assigned among them in exchange the houses of those who adhered to the national cause. This policy the Cortes met by a timely decree, declaring all purchases of confiscated estates null, and empowering the rightful owners to enter upon them whenever the fortune of war should permit, and authorising them to exact from the intrusive proprietors the mean profits, and the amount of any waste which they might have committed.
♦Lord Wellington’s situation.♦
Lord Wellington was now enjoying the highest reward which can fall to the lot of a successful commander. He was living in a palace, the most magnificent in Europe, from which he had driven an Usurper; and the blessings of the people accompanied him wherever he went. The municipal authorities gave a bull-fight in his honour, and when he appeared in the royal box, the air rung with the repeated shouts of not less than 12,000 spectators. He could not walk abroad by daylight because of the pressure of the multitudes who gathered round him; even in the dark when he went into the Prado, though he and his suite were dressed in blue great coats in hopes of escaping notice, they were generally recognized and followed by crowds, the women pressing to shake hands, and some even to embrace them. Welcomed as he was with overflowing joy by a grateful people as their deliverer, his satisfaction would have been complete, if the same difficulties with which he had struggled since the commencement of the war had not still impeded his plans; for he was still embarrassed by the want of adequate means, and disappointed in his hopes of co-operation. He was without money. The United States of America had declared war against Great Britain, with no just cause, nor even plausible pretext for hostilities. Lord Wellington received the news of this declaration immediately after the battle of Salamanca. The troops in Portugal depended in great measure for corn upon the importation from America to that country; and he deemed it necessary, without delay, to make large purchases at Lisbon, that the subsistence of the army might not be endangered. But this required a great expenditure, the effect of which was now severely felt, for no pecuniary resources were to be found in Madrid. The inhabitants fed the garrison, and the produce of the sequestered ♦Col. Jones’s account of the war, 2. 122.♦ and crown lands was readily given up to the allies, on promise of future payment; but when money was required for the military chest, a few thousand dollars were all that could be procured upon the most unquestionable security, and of this sum much was in base coin.
♦Anglo-Sicilian army.♦
Lord Wellington had counted with as much confidence as he ever allowed himself to place upon arrangements which were not wholly under his own control, on the promised co-operation of an expedition to the eastern coast. The most urgent solicitations from that part of Spain for aid had long been disregarded by the British Government; and the Catalans, who of all the Spaniards made the greatest and most persevering exertions in their own defence, had been left from the commencement of the struggle until this time with no other help than occasional supplies of money and arms, scantily apportioned, and the assistance of a few ships of war. And now, when the strong fortresses, one after another had fallen, and the British Government at length resolved to withdraw part of its troops from Sicily, where the intrigues of that poor kingdom, and the expectation of chances in Italy which were little likely to occur, and of little importance if they had occurred, had unduly detained them; only 6000 men were detached from Sicily, without cavalry, and a considerable number of them consisting of such foreigners as could be enlisted in the Mediterranean. Lieutenant-General Maitland was appointed to the command, and they sailed in company with a squadron from the Mediterranean fleet under Rear-Admiral Hallowell. The common opinion was that they were destined for Corfu, because heavy artillery was embarked with them.
♦Majorcan division.♦
The Majorcan division of Spanish troops which was to co-operate with them, was supposed to be in a more efficient state than any of the Spanish armies. This division had been raised upon the suggestion of General Whittingham, Majorca being a safe place, where they might be properly trained before they were brought into the field; but the materials were not so unexceptionable as the design. Some 250 Germans who had been made prisoners with Dupont’s army, were taken from the island of Cabrera as volunteers; though, if free-will had influenced them, they would, like the Swiss, have entered the Spanish service upon the first opportunity, instead of remaining two years in that miserable place of confinement. Majorca itself supplied so few willing soldiers, that criminals who had been transported thither from Catalonia and Valencia were enlisted, ... fellows of such a description, that those who were not deemed capable of service were kept in prison: discipline, however, and equitable treatment, of which even bad men are sensible, made them better than was expected. Cuesta sent to this division all who were discharged from the hospitals; and as runaways from the routs in Valencia and Murcia could be collected or caught, they were shipped for Majorca, and incorporated in this hopeful force. No officer however was appointed without secret and strict inquiry into his character. Other difficulties, which might not so probably have been anticipated, impeded the equipment of this division. The plan was unpopular in the island, the more so, perhaps, because it was set on foot by an Englishman who was also invested with the command. Upon Cuesta’s death, the situation of affairs was critical; the authorities withheld all supplies from the troops, who were also threatened as well as insulted in pasquinades: convents had been converted into barracks for their use, and this may possibly have been one cause of offence. An agreement had been concluded with the Dey of Algiers for a supply of horses, but it was broken off for want of money, the Superior Junta of Majorca disregarding all orders from the Regency. The institution of a military academy was another cause of dislike, owing to the habits of insubordination which prevailed in Majorca, as in every other part of the Spanish dominions. By prudent conduct, however, impediments were removed, and dislike softened or overcome; the troops were clothed and armed by Great Britain, and their hospital supplied: and when the expedition from Sicily called for them at Palma, 4500 men embarked, in a state of efficient discipline.
♦July 24.The expedition arrives on the coast of Catalonia.♦
The fleet made for the eastern coast of Spain, and on the first of August anchored in the bay of Blanes, at the mouth of the Tordera. The enemy occupied Tosa, and had a redoubt there which covered the town and protected the coast. On that and the following day demonstrations of landing were made; but upon an interview with Eroles, it was found that any such measure would be worse than useless, with so inadequate a force. That able Spaniard saw that it was better for the Catalans to be left as they had so long been to their own exertions, than to give the French an opportunity of bringing superior numbers against a British expedition: and it was agreed that the best service which such a force could then perform was to secure the city of Alicante, at that time endangered in consequence of a defeat which Joseph O’Donell ♦Defeat of the Spaniards at Castalla. June 21.♦ had suffered in its vicinity. He had endeavoured to drive the vanguard of Marshal Suchet’s army, under General Harispe, back upon the Xucar, from the line which it occupied at Castalla and Ibi, and other points of the mountainous country; but as usual, when the Spaniards were brought forward in regular war, against well-disciplined and well-commanded troops, some of the officers either misunderstood their orders or executed them ill, and some of the men losing courage as soon as they lost hope, threw into confusion those who were braver than themselves; their loss amounted to 4000 men, being little less than the whole number which they attacked, and they left more than 10,000 muskets in their flight. Suchet, who was the most enterprising and successful of all the French generals in Spain, would have taken advantage of this shameful defeat, and endeavoured to obtain possession of Alicante, if the force at his disposal ♦August.♦ had not been greatly diminished. Buonaparte had withdrawn all the Poles in his service from the peninsular, for the Russian campaign; and this deprived him of six thousand of his best troops, at a time when his army was otherwise greatly weakened by sending succours to Caffarelli in Navarre, and by the increased exertions which it was necessary to make against Duran and the Empecinado, Villacampa and Bassecourt. Before the battle of Salamanca the Intruder, in his dreams of triumph, informed Suchet that he must prepare for marching towards Madrid, and then accompanying him to the Tagus; and he ordered him to form a camp of 8000 men between Albaceyte and San Clemente; such a force it was impossible for him to spare; he could not venture to weaken himself further than by detaching 1500 men to Requeña and Cuenca, to relieve General Darmagnac, and he represented to Joseph that he could not move for Madrid with one of his divisions, unless he received orders to evacuate Valencia. The last orders from Paris were to direct all his efforts to the preservation of the countries under his command, and to keep his force concentrated. General Maitland knew less of Marshal Suchet’s actual strength than of his relative superiority to any force that could be brought against him; the best course, therefore, seemed to be that upon which he resolved; to secure the important fortress and port of Alicante, both as a place of arms from whence future operations might be undertaken, and as a rallying point for the wreck of Joseph O’Donell’s army. Thither ♦The expedition lands at Alicante.♦ accordingly the Anglo-Sicilian expedition sailed: contrary winds and bad weather retarded it some days upon the passage, but on the evening of August the 9th they anchored in the harbour, and on the following day the troops were landed.
The French who were in sight of the fortress retired upon this, and formed their line in Chichona, Ibi, Castalla, Biar, and Villena. But Suchet saw that this position would not be tenable against General Maitland’s corps; ♦The French fall back to the Xucar.♦ he concentred his divisions, therefore, about St. Philippe; fixed his head-quarters in that city; threw up field-works there, and upon the high road from Valencia to Madrid; and constructed a bridge of boats over the Xucar, near Alberique, which he secured with a tête-du-pont. His intention was not to fall back without fighting, provided the allies should attack him only in front, and were not too greatly superior in numbers. But the superiority was soon on his own side: the allies took the field on the 14th, and occupied the country from which the enemy retired; on the 18th they received intelligence that the Intruder with the force which he could bring together was about to join the army of Valencia, and then it became necessary for General Maitland to fall back to his position in front of Alicante.