The expedition which was to have effected a diversion in the east of Spain, was thus for the time rendered useless, not having been upon a sufficient scale to accomplish the purpose for which it was designed. Meantime the squadron on the north-east coast proceeded successfully, acting in concert with some of the ablest Guerrilla ♦The French withdraw from Santander. August 2.♦ leaders. Caffarelli found it prudent to withdraw his garrisons from Torrelavega and Santander, lest they should be made prisoners; the latter place was entered by Porlier; the constitution was proclaimed there while salutes of joy were fired by the Spanish troops and the British vessels; ♦They are driven from Bilbao.♦ and Renovales made good his word to General Rouget by driving him from Bilbao, and defeating him in an attempt at recovering it. There also the constitution was proclaimed. The Te Deum was performed in Santiagos church, and the Cid Campeador in the theatre; and all the unmarried men from the age of 17 to 45, were enrolled for Mendizabal’s army. On that side there had been no want of exertion, and no disappointment; but the Gallician army, from which more might have been looked for, considering the resources of the province, served for little more than to manifest the gross incapacity or negligence with which ♦State of the Gallician army.♦ affairs of the greatest moment were conducted: nominally it amounted to 30,000 men, and nearly that number were supposed to be mustered, paid and fed, and yet 11,000 infantry and 350 horse were all that Santocildes had under his command, and these were badly disciplined and miserably equipped.
♦The French break up the siege of Cadiz. August 20.♦
On the night of the eighth day after the entrance of the allies into Madrid, the news of that event reached Cadiz, where it excited among the inhabitants the joyful hope of being speedily delivered from the blockade: and deeper emotions in those exiles who had left their houses and families in the metropolis. On the 24th the French broke up the siege; they threw shells during the preceding night; those which were filled with lead and discharged from howitzers with a velocity of about 2000 feet per second, ♦Sir Howard Douglas’s Naval Gunnery, p. 61.♦ ranged to the astonishing distance of three miles. They burst their guns by overcharging them, placing their muzzles one against another and exploding them by means of portfires and trains; and thus almost the whole of their artillery between Chiclana and Rota, consisting of 600 pieces, were rendered unserviceable. Many, however, were left uninjured for the Spaniards to take possession of, as well as thirty gun-boats, and a great quantity of stores. The necessity of this retreat had been foreseen by Soult as soon as he was informed of the battle of Salamanca. Before that action he had been meditating another attack upon Tarifa, as a place from whence he could easily communicate with Tangiers and the Barbary coast, and thus secure supplies for feeding the army under his command. Sir Rowland Hill’s movements withdrew him from this project: and after Marmont’s defeat he prepared to abandon Seville, but to hold the Carthusian convent there, which he occupied as a citadel. Strong working parties were employed in adding to its defences, while at the same time the French packed up their public documents and their private plunder for removal. But on this occasion the Spaniards were on the alert.
♦Movement of La Cruz Mourgeon and Col. Skerrett upon Seville.♦
As early as the middle of August the enemy had blown up the Castle of Niebla, and retired from the whole county of that name; and on the very day that they broke up from before Cadiz, Camp Marshal D. Juan de la Cruz Mourgeon, in concert with Colonel Skerrett, judged it advisable to make a forward movement on Seville, and for this purpose to force the corps of observation at San Lucar la Mayor, consisting of 350 cavalry and 200 foot. Brigadier-General Downie was second in command of the Spanish force. This officer was born in Stirlingshire, and commenced his military career by accompanying Miranda in his first expedition to Venezuela, an adventure for which those foreigners who were taken in it paid the forfeit of their lives. He joined Sir J. Moore’s army as Assistant Commissary-General, was with Sir Arthur Wellesley in the campaign of 1809, and in the ensuing year, having entered the Spanish service, raised, with the approbation of his own government, the loyal legion of Extremadura and was appointed Colonel-Commandant thereof. The legion was armed and clothed by the British Government, and he revived in it the old Spanish costume, ... or something resembling it; and several of the young nobility are said to have entered it on that account. By this and by his character, which in some respects resembled their own, he made himself popular among the Spaniards; insomuch that the Marquesa de Conquista, the representative of the Pizarros, presented him with the sword of her ancestor, the famous, or infamous, conqueror of Peru.
They marched from Manzanilla with 800 men, consisting of the 1st regiment of guards, the 87th, and a Portugueze regiment, accompanied by 600 Spanish troops: the Spaniards attacked on the right, the British and Portugueze on the left: the enemy were driven through the streets, leaving some killed, wounded, and prisoners, and the allies took post at San Lucar without the loss of a man. Leaving his advance in that town, and the British and Portugueze on the right bank of the river San Lucar, the Spanish general returned to Castilleja del Campo, being the place whither the persons from whom he received intelligence directed their communications. Various and contradictory accounts were brought thither on the morning of the 26th concerning the intentions of the enemy in Seville; but in the afternoon he received positive information that Soult, with the greater part of his force, was about to move by way of Alcala upon Marchena. Arrangements were immediately made, that the troops should collect at San Lucar, and after two hours’ rest there, proceed towards Seville at three on the following morning, in the hope that by this movement they might accelerate the retreat of the French, and save Seville from being plundered. On arriving at Espartinas, they ascertained that Soult had left the city with 5000 foot and 500 horse. General Mourgeon, upon this, sending out some Guerrillas to cover his flanks, proceeded, and arrived on the heights ♦August 27.♦ of Castilleja de la Cuesta, immediately above Seville, at six in the morning. The French, occupied some olive grounds close to the village, and some forty infantry garrisoned the redoubt of Santa Brigida from which the guns had been withdrawn. They were driven from the olive grounds into the plain, where for awhile the cavalry, 100 in number, protected the retreat of the foot, some 150: but they were so pressed by the Spanish vanguard and annoyed by an English field-piece, that they took to flight, and many of the men were made prisoners. The redoubt was attacked at the same time, with more bravery than judgment, and the Spaniards sustained some loss; the columns then advanced into the plain, by which the redoubt was turned and its communication cut off: and Colonel Skerrett ordered it to be masked by a detachment of Portugueze.
♦The French driven from Seville.♦
The Spaniards then made a detour to the right, in order to reach the bridge of Triana by the road of S. Juan de Alfarache, and thus intercept the retreat of the enemy and prevent them from cutting or burning the bridge. Skerrett, meantime, advanced a field-piece to keep in check the enemy’s fire at one of the gates opposite; and after allowing time for the Spanish column to arrive, the British and Portugueze advanced to the attack in front, the cavalry and artillery at a gallop, supported by the grenadiers of the guards and the infantry following. The enemy abandoned the gate: the British and Portugueze entered the suburb, and advanced near to the bridge as rapidly as possible; they were checked at the turn of the street by a fire of grape-shot and musketry; the grenadiers advanced to their support; the Spanish cavalry under D. José Canterac, (whom Mourgeon, foreseeing the necessity, had ordered to leave the column and hasten straight through the suburb, arrived at this point of time,) and the allies, drove every thing before them. They advanced to the bridge under a heavy fire. The enemy had retired from the plain in three columns, with two pieces of artillery and 200 horse; and had taken a position with the river on their right, and their rear resting on the suburb: two guns were brought to bear on them by Captain Roberts of the artillery; they were driven from their position, and then made a stand upon the bridge, which they hoped to defend long enough to gain time for destroying it. Downie with his legion twice attempted to force a passage, and was twice repulsed, and each time wounded. In a third attempt he leaped over the chasm which the enemy had then made; and at the same moment a grape-shot shattered his cheek-bone and destroyed one of his eyes. He fell from his horse, stunned by the wound; when his recollection returned he found himself a prisoner, but in time to throw Pizarro’s sword among his own people. On their part the attack was kept up with so much spirit, aided as they now were by some guns well placed and well-worked, that the enemy could not extend the breach which they had made: and the inhabitants, even while their fire continued, set all the bells ringing, displayed hangings from their balconies as for a festival, hastened to the bridge and laid planks across the chasm, and enabled their deliverers to pass. The French then retired to the Triunfo and there again made a stand; but soon retreated through the city, and leaving it by the Puerta Nueva and the Puerta de Carmona, took the direction of Alcala. They left there two pieces of artillery, many horses, much baggage, and some two hundred prisoners. The deliverers could make no speed in pursuing them, for the streets were crowded with rejoicing multitudes, and their previous exertions as well as their want of cavalry would have made it imprudent to continue the pursuit. Downie was treated with great barbarity by his captors. Miserably wounded as he was, he was tied upon the carriage of a gun, and in that condition dragged along with them in their retreat; and this is said to have been done by General Villatte’s direction. Having taken him some forty miles, and not expecting him to survive, they left him in a hut, taking however, his parole not to serve again in case of recovery, till he should have been regularly exchanged.
By this well-timed enterprise, Seville was saved from the contribution which would have been exacted from it, and the devastation which was threatened. A division of French troops, about 7000 in number, from the blockade of Cadiz, passed by during the following night; they meant to have taken up their quarters there; but supposing that it was occupied by Sir Rowland Hill’s force, they had no inclination to encounter such an enemy, and moved hastily to their right, on Carmona. Ballasteros had hung upon their flank from Ronda, and continued to harass them till they reached Granada. From thence Soult concerted his movements with Suchet and the Intruder. Sir Rowland meantime was ordered to the Tagus with his corps, there to connect its operations with the main body of the allied army, and the British troops from Cadiz were embarked for Lisbon.
♦Rejoicings at Seville.♦