♦Marshal Soult’s proclamation.♦
This was subsequent to the declaration of Bourdeaux in favour of the Bourbons; and when the news of that declaration was known in England, some apprehensions were felt for its immediate consequences to the persons who were principally concerned. What mercy they might expect if Buonaparte should maintain himself upon the throne was plainly indicated in a proclamation addressed at this time by Marshal Soult to his troops; it was directed against the British General as well as the Royalists, and in the spirit of one who had served the tyrant in his schemes of iniquitous ambition, without scruple and without remorse. “Soldiers,” said he, in this remarkable address, “there will be no repose for us till this hostile army shall be annihilated, or till it shall have evacuated the territory of the Emperor. It does not suspect the dangers which surround, nor the perils which await it; but time will teach this army, and the General who commands it, that our territory is not invaded with impunity, and that French honour is not with impunity insulted. The British General has had the audacity to incite you and your countrymen to revolt and sedition! He has dared insult the national honour: he has had the baseness to excite the French to break their oaths, and to be guilty of perjury! Yet a few days and those who have been capable of believing in the sincerity and delicacy of the English will learn to their cost that the English have no other object in this war than to destroy France by its own instrumentality, and reduce the French to servitude like the Portugueze, the Sicilians, and all the other people who have groaned under their yoke. Let these deluded Frenchmen look back upon the past; they will see the English at the head of every conspiracy, of the overthrow of all principles, of the destruction of all establishments, whether of greatness or of industry, for the sake of gratifying their inordinate ambition and their insatiable avarice. Is there a single point on the surface of the globe where they have not either by fraud or violence brought about the ruin of the manufactories which rivalled or surpassed their own? Soldiers, let us devote to shame and general execration every Frenchman who shall have favoured the projects of the enemy; there is no longer any bond between them and us! Our motto is Honour and Fidelity. Our duty is marked out: implacable hatred to traitors and to the enemies of the French name: interminable war to those who would divide in order to destroy us; as well as to the wretches who would desert the imperial eagles for any other standard! Let us have always in our minds fifteen ages of glory, and the innumerable triumphs which have rendered our country illustrious! Let us contemplate the prodigious efforts of our great Emperor, and his signal victories which will eternize the French name! Let us be worthy of him, and that we may bequeath to our posterity without a stain the inheritance which we have received from our fathers!”
This proclamation was more in accord with the moral than with the military reputation which Marshal Soult had established for himself. It ill became him as a great General to pour out coarse and angry invectives against his adversary; but the rancour with which he reviled and calumniated the English, the threat of interminable war to them, and of implacable hatred to the French loyalists, these were in the spirit of his councils and his conduct. For he had proved himself by his impassibility not less than by his talents, worthy of the confidence which Buonaparte placed in him ... and of the service in which he had been employed. But his exhortation to the French soldiers that they should be worthy of their Emperor was superfluous: Buonaparte’s soldiers had long been worthy of him! To this Jaffa had borne witness: Madrid and Porto, Ucles and Tarragona were witnesses; the wrongs, the sufferings, and the curses of all Europe testified it; and the confederated nations, in whom the insolence and the excesses of those soldiers had roused a feeling which no ordinary war could have excited, and who were now moving from the Tagus and the Elbe, the Danube and the Moskwa against the general oppressor, ... the common enemy, ... the individual who, when he might have conferred greater benefits upon Europe than ever sovereign before him, in ancient or modern times, had deliberately chosen the evil part, and employed his mighty power to bring about the worst ends by the most flagitious means.
♦Admiral Penrose enters the Gironde.♦
But if some fears were entertained in England for the loyalists at Bourdeaux who had not waited to declare their loyalty till the danger would have been in delaying the declaration, a generous sympathy also was manifested. The militia availed themselves of the act which allowed them to volunteer for foreign service. The example was set by the Marquis of Buckingham and Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, and they sailed as soon as possible with 4000 men for the Gironde. Contrary winds impeded their passage: meantime Buonaparte had ordered a division under General Decaen to march against it by Perigueux, and Lhuillier collected what force he could to the north of the city. But Buonaparte and his Generals had now no force at their disposal strong enough to put down the spirit that had shown itself; the rich raised companies of cavalry, the artisans formed a volunteer guard for the Duc; and Lord Wellington was now so well acquainted with the disposition of the French people, that without any fears for Bourdeaux, he recalled Marshal Beresford with two divisions, thinking that Lord Dalhousie with 5000 men would secure it from any attempt that could be made against it. Admiral Penrose had hastened thither with ♦March 27.♦ the Egmont, the Andromache, and Belle Poule frigates, and some smaller vessels, and entered the Gironde without sustaining any loss from the fire of the forts and batteries at its mouth. There was more danger from the difficulty of the navigation, but this also was surmounted by the skill and the exertion of British seamen. The enemy had the Regulus line-of-battleship, three brigs of war, and some chasse-marées lying in the river, and the squadron chased them as high as the shoal of Talmont, where the French passed up through the narrow channel to the north, which had been buoyed for the purpose, and then took shelter under the strong batteries on each side of Talmont bay, the British squadron anchoring outside the shoal. Fort de Blaye still prevented the navigation of the Garonne; the mayor of that place would willingly have hoisted the white flag, but though he found means of letting the Duc know his own sentiments, he could not persuade the garrison to take that part. While the Admiral prepared to act against it, Lord Dalhousie, taking Rochejaquelein for his guide, crossed the Garonne, and pushed the enemy’s parties under General Lhuillier, beyond the Dordogne; ♦April 4.♦ he then crossed that river at St. Andre de Cubzac, with a view to the attack of the fort, but learning that Lhuillier with 300 cavalry and 1200 foot had retired by Etauliers, he moved on that point, intending to turn back again upon Blaye if that General continued his retreat. Lhuillier however drew out his corps in a large open common near Etauliers, and occupied some woods in front of it: the woods were soon cleared; the enemy’s horse and foot gave way and retired through the town, leaving scattered parties to shift for themselves; some 300 prisoners were taken, including about 30 officers, great numbers dispersed in the woods, and the conscripts took the desired opportunity of escaping. On the preceding day a detachment under Captain Coode, of the Porcupine, took or destroyed a numerous ♦March.♦ flotilla, which had been equipped in haste, and which, before the arrival of the British squadron, had threatened the coast of Medoc, and Bourdeaux itself. Among the prizes was a splendid barge designed for the Emperor when he visited that city, with his name on the stern, and his golden eagle on the prow; this the sailors humbly requested might be presented with their duty to the Prince Regent. Another corps of 600 seamen and marines, under Captain Harris of the Belle Poule, landed, marched more than fifty miles in six-and-thirty hours, reduced and dismantled five forts, destroyed 47 pieces of cannon and 17 mortars, and re-embarked without any loss. The Regulus and the smaller vessels which had sought protection with it, were attacked and burnt, and by the 9th of April the river was cleared as high up as Blaye. General Merle held out in that fortress till the 16th; when the news that had arrived induced the Admiral to agree to an armistice with him, and the Gironde was then opened from its mouth to Bourdeaux.
♦Proceedings at Valançay.♦
Meantime another restoration, which once might have been deemed as little likely as that of the Bourbons in France, had taken place. When Ferdinand and his counsellors at Valançay found that neither San Carlos nor Palafox returned from their mission, they represented to Laforest that the best mode of removing all difficulties would be for the Emperor to let Ferdinand depart unconditionally, relying upon his honour to fulfil the treaty, if the obstacles to it should not be insurmountable. Suchet had given advice to the same effect, seeing that at that time, when there was no longer a hope of retaining any hold on Spain, it was of great consequence to withdraw from thence the garrisons, and that they could be extricated only by this means. If Ferdinand were honourable enough to restore them to their country upon being put in possession of the places which they occupied, the great and only advantage which was now desired would be obtained; if he should refuse to do this, or be unable to effect it, doubtful as it was what his authority might be, nothing would be lost, nor ever risked by the experiment. This the French government saw; and they were not without hope that the presence of Ferdinand in his own country might lead to a civil war, which would have the effect of at least embarrassing the English, and probably of impeding their operations in Gascony.
Ferdinand and his counsellors might have escaped from any imputation of bad faith in this transaction, if they had not themselves claimed credit for acting with duplicity. When they said the fulfilment of the treaty might be relied on, if there were no insurmountable obstacles, they well supposed that such obstacles existed in their relations to the allied powers; “but,” says the Canon Escoiquiz, “not knowing this of a certainty, we had a right, when treating with so perfidious a person, to put it in doubt; and by this just dissimulation to obtain the object of our wishes, which was the King’s liberty. Skilfully to deceive with truth a man so false was not an evil deed, but an excellent one; and this was our maxim[8].” They represented farther that an unconditional liberation was of all things most likely to conciliate Ferdinand’s entire good-will; that it would moreover make the allied powers believe Buonaparte to be sincere in his desire of peace, and which was of more consequence, gratify the French nation, who had always indignantly regarded the war with Spain; that if Ferdinand should find it impossible to confirm the peace with France, it was not his interest that France should be dismembered, and to prevent any such danger he would only carry on an illusive war, merely to save appearances; that even if it were his desire to carry it on with vigour, he must of necessity be less able to do this than the Regency, because of the changes which his arrival in Spain could not but produce; finally, that his farther detention would occasion the Emperor a great and useless expense, and must also be a matter of some anxiety, when it was so possible that he might be delivered by the arms of the allies. Buonaparte, indeed, seems at one time to have been sensible either of the reproach which he had brought upon himself by his treachery toward Ferdinand, or of the likelihood that some successful plan might be formed for his escape; and it was once his intention to have shipped him off for Mexico, or for any other part of the Spanish colonies which he might have preferred, with Charles IV. and the Queen, the Infantes, his brothers, the Queen of Etruria, and as many other members of the family as he could collect, and to have given them large possessions there; but upon discovering that none of those colonies were at his disposal, as he had hoped them to be, and considering moreover that Ferdinand might easily from thence find his way to Spain, and there protest against the validity ♦Idea Sencilla, 78.♦ of his renunciation, he abandoned this project. At present, willing to be rid of him, knowing that his presence now could do him no hurt any where, desiring to get his soldiers out of Spain, which he had no hope of effecting by any other means, and perhaps also having a hope that Ferdinand’s return might create new troubles in that country, he readily assented to the proposal; and Laforest was instructed by the first post after the receipt of his dispatch to inform Ferdinand and the Infantes, that they were at liberty to depart unconditionally, and that orders had been given for forwarding to them the necessary passports.
♦Ferdinand is set at liberty.♦
Ferdinand had endured captivity as contentedly as if his patience had been the effect of philosophy or of religion. Nothing, however, could have rejoiced him more than this reply; and, as if believing that his return would be not less a matter of joy to the Regency, he determined that as soon as the passports came, Zayas should precede him by three or four days, and travel with all speed to notify his approach, that preparations might be made for receiving him. This happiness was but of six hours’ duration; for on the evening of the same day, San Carlos arrived with the refusal of the treaty. To conceal this was impossible, the utmost publicity having been given to it by the Spanish press; and as it was likely to irritate Buonaparte, whose violent temper was well known to his ministers, Laforest proposed that San Carlos himself should be the first bearer of the intelligence, and present with it such representations as might tend to appease him, and if possible avert his displeasure. The Duque accordingly, who had come post from Madrid, set off without delay, and at the same speed for Paris. Buonaparte was then with the army in the neighbourhood of Troyes; the ministers at Paris had withheld the passports till they should receive fresh instructions, and not allowing the Duque to proceed, sent him back to Valençay. Laforest, however, was of opinion that he should repair to the Emperor’s quarters: San Carlos again departed; failing to find, and perhaps not being able to follow him in the rapidity of his movements, he communicated his business by letter: the course which Laforest recommended coincided with the advice given by Suchet, in whom Buonaparte had great confidence, and the result was that orders were sent to Paris for forwarding the passports without delay. They reached Valençay on the night of March 7; San Carlos arrived on the 9th; Zayas set out for Madrid the next day. He bore a dispatch to the Regency, wherein Ferdinand said that their letter, which he had now received by Palafox, had filled his soul with satisfaction: he saw in it how anxiously the nation wished for his return, which he desired not less ardently, that he might devote all his powers to the good of his beloved subjects, to whom he was so greatly indebted on so many accounts. Then, after notifying his speedy departure, he said that the re-establishment of the Cortes, concerning which the Regency had informed him, and the other measures for the good of the realm which had been adopted during his absence, deserved his approbation, because they were in conformity with his ♦Idea Sencilla, 113, 119.♦ own royal intentions. On the following Sunday, March 13, Ferdinand and the Infantes commenced their journey towards Perpignan.