The day after the king’s execution the French minister of foreign affairs ordered his agents to declare war on every country which refused to recognise the republic or treat with her. Thus did the Revolution throw its challenge to Europe, and attacked so as not to be itself attacked. It was no longer with kings but with peoples that it wished to deal. As for Spain, neutrality and disarmament on both sides—that was the ultimatum which Bourgoing offered Godoy, reserving to France the right to maintain garrisons in the strongholds on the frontier.
The convention was the first in its declaration of war, drawn up by Barère in the style of the period. “The intrigues of the court of St. James,” it said, “have triumphed at Madrid. The papal nuncio has sharpened the dagger of fanaticism in the states of the Catholic king. The Bourbons must vanish from the throne they usurped, thanks to the blood and gold of our ancestors.”
Spain responded by a firm but altogether moderate declaration of war. A royal decree banished from the peninsula within three days all the French who were not resident there. Moreover, this war, which De Aranda himself was powerless to prevent, had become popular in Spain before it had been declared; the gazettes were full of offers and contributions; there was an outbreak of enthusiasm quite on a par with that of France.[c]
Toulon proclaimed the dauphin, as Louis XVII, according to the constitution of 1791, and invited the united English and Spanish fleets under Lord Hood and Don Juan de Langara, to take possession of their town, port, and fortifications in his name. Charles likewise prepared to invade France by land. A powerful Spanish army commanded by Ricardos, governor of Catalonia, and reinforced with the Portuguese auxiliaries, crossed the Pyrenees, and entered Roussillon. On the 22nd of June, 1793, they took Bellegarde, one of the strongest frontier fortresses, afterwards occupying several places of less note, leaving them to winter in force on the French territories. The Portuguese troops displayed great gallantry in all these actions.
[1793-1794 A.D.]
But it was only in this southwestern portion of France that the ill fortune of the republicans continued to the end of the year. In the course of the autumn they everywhere else recovered their losses. Toulon likewise was retaken.
In the year 1794, whilst France seemed most completely disorganised and enfrenzied by Jacobinical fury and terror, her armies, rendered well-nigh innumerable by the masses of population poured into her camps, and led by generals, often of names till then unknown, who started up either from the ranks or from professions and trades the least akin to arms, were almost uniformly victorious. The prodigious reinforcements sent, in the very beginning of the year, to the southwestern provinces turned the fortune of war against the Spaniards and Portuguese. Early in February they suffered two severe defeats near St. Jean-de-Luz. In April the Spaniards were similarly vanquished in Roussillon, but still occupied their principal conquests. Towards the latter end of that month, however, the brave veteran, General Dugommier, was sent to supersede the incompetent French commanders in Roussillon. The consequences were fatal to the peninsular armies. In the beginning of May, Dugommier gained two victories over them—one near Céret, and the other near Coullioure—in which the baggage, equipage, and artillery of the defeated armies, with about nine thousand prisoners, fell into the hands of the victors. The remaining Spanish conquests in Roussillon surrendered.
Ricardos, whose military talents and experience had been one main cause of Spanish success, was now no more. He was succeeded by the count de la Union, a young grandee. He made a daring and vigorous effort to relieve Bellegarde, but in the end was defeated, with the loss of twenty-five hundred men, and compelled to retreat. Bellegarde capitulated on the 20th of September, after a five months’ siege. General Dugommier immediately entered Catalonia, and in the beginning of October again engaged La Union, whom he again defeated, but purchased the victory with his own life. His army followed the retreating enemy, and in the course of a few days avenged their general’s death by that of the count de la Union, and three more Spanish generals, who fell in another battle, fought on the 20th of the same month, when the Spaniards were once more beaten, and completely routed. The Spanish army sought shelter behind the lines, which had, during the last six months, been diligently prepared for the protection of Catalonia against an invading foe. These, though defended by forty thousand men, and fortified with eighty-three redoubts, the French, now commanded by General Pérignon, next attacked with irresistible impetuosity, and carried in the space of three hours, when, without further obstacle, they advanced upon Figueras. The works of Figueras were deemed pretty nearly impregnable; it was abundantly provided, and well garrisoned. But the panic that seems to have ensued upon the count de la Union’s death, and that had facilitated the forcing of the lines, had extended hither, and Figueras, to the astonishment even of the besiegers, surrendered almost without resistance. Several places in the north of Catalonia followed its example. At the western extremity of the Pyrenees the French arms were equally successful.
Charles and his new minister, Godoy, were undismayed by these disasters. They endeavoured to excite the population to rise in a mass against the invaders. Their attempts were unavailing; and whilst the French complained of the stupid and superstitious insensibility of the people, whom their promises of liberty could not allure to join (fraternise, as they called it) with them, the court of Madrid complained equally of popular disaffection, as a main cause of the failure of their efforts to defend the country. The nation seems, in fact, to have taken no interest in the war. The nobles, however, and the clergy, including the orders of knighthood and the monastic orders, were zealous in the cause, and freely offered ample contributions from their salaries, ecclesiastical revenues, commanderies, and private fortunes, to meet the exigency of the moment.