The French army expected to meet a vigorous resistance in the Basque provinces, especially as the lay of the land lent itself so admirably to intelligent strategy. But General Ballesteros, to whom had been given the task of defending these provinces, surprised perhaps by the rapidity of an invasion, ordered his troops to retire before the enemy’s advance-guard. San Sebastian received the French with cannon-shot and refused to open its gates, but Fuenterrabia and the Passage were occupied immediately. The duke of Angoulême ordered Bourke to follow up the siege of San Sebastian, and himself went straight on with the bulk of the army for Vitoria. The French troops found without the slightest difficulty all provisions and stores needed, thanks to the business-like ways of the commissariat Ouvrard, who knew how to raise the speculative spirit in the Basques, and faithfully paid for all goods brought him. This brought into a country ravaged by poverty an unexpected good instead of ruin and desolation. There was no danger encountered in scaling the Pyrenees. The duke of Angoulême, conqueror without fighting, could establish his headquarters at Vitoria and patiently wait the concentration of all his columns before marching directly on the capital.
After the government departed, military authority was concentrated at Madrid in the hands of General O’Donnell, the count of Abisbal. A vigorous defence was expected in the Guadarrama defiles, but the count was not straightforward in his dealing. He had arrived at the highest honours by flattering each party successively. Instead of arming the population and occupying the most important points, he entered into secret negotiations with the staff of the duke of Angoulême, which had received most detailed instructions to spare bloodshed by using means of corruption, with which it had been generously provided. Gained over to the cause against which he had pronounced in 1820, Abisbal openly pointed out to his officers the impossibility of resisting the invasion. The army officers, indignant, went in a body to his house and intimated that it was time for him to resign. Abisbal realised the danger he ran, and fled to France.
An army thus abandoned by its leader at the last moment, found itself unfit to arrest the victorious march of the duke of Angoulême. Of the two generals who had succeeded Abisbal, one of them, Castel dos Ruis, decided to go on into Estremadura heading the bulk of his troops. The other, Zayas, was left with a feeble corps of from twelve to fifteen hundred to obtain a capitulation which would at least assure life and property to the inhabitants of Madrid. This last measure was full of foresight, for while the near coming of the French army was spoken of, Bessières, the same leader of the band who a little before had threatened Madrid, had made a bold move and pretended to occupy the city, while his followers hoped to give it over to pillage. But Zayas, with the help of the garrison and national militia, fearlessly barred his passage, forced him to retreat, and kept him outside the city walls until the arrival of the first French troops—this, in spite of his repeated threats and the rage of all the bad subjects greedily anticipating an easily won booty.
The multitude in all large cities are always ready for a spectacle, fête, or anything emotional. Moreover, Madrid had within her a crowd of partisans of absolutist principles—all those who belonged to the palace or the clergy, all those whom a liberal administration had deprived of employment, and the relations of refugees. These warmly welcomed him who was conqueror over a constitutional system. But the duke of Angoulême, although received with open arms, with acclamation, song, and dance, could hardly mistake the general feeling. For while the absolutists thronged the streets, the middle class, who alone desired and upheld liberty, hid their humiliation by their firesides. The duke had to put an end to the excesses of a mad populace who would overthrow the constitution and pillage the houses of all the well-known constitutionists. For three days the manolas overran the town singing the Pitita; they went into the churches and solemnly put Ferdinand’s portrait on the altar in place of the saints. In the hope of getting out of this anarchistic situation, the duke hastened to give a definite form to the new government, which would definitely take matters in hand, in a proclamation dated from Alcobendas (23rd of May, 1823), announcing his intention of leaving the Spaniards to govern themselves and inviting the former counsellors of Castile and the Indies to choose a regency to take the helm of the state until Ferdinand had recovered his full liberty. The duke of Angoulême made the terrible mistake of sanctioning nominations that were fatal and soon to be regretted. Then having seen the regency commence work with the duke of Infantado as president, and the new ministry formed wherein Canon Victor Saez was minister of foreign affairs and Don J. B. Erro minister of finance, he thought he could rest with perfect security and have nothing but his military operations to occupy him until Ferdinand was seized from the cortes.
The unlucky prince did not realise that, in confiding the government of Spain to personages picked out by former counsellors, he was practically condemning the unhappy country to ten years of a horrible system of persecution and religious fanaticism; that he was making the French flag responsible for the organisation of the most odious government which the human mind could conceive, and soiling the white flag he wished to hold high by making it the symbol of ignorance, fanaticism, and shameful arbitration.[b]
Meanwhile the cortes held Ferdinand practically a prisoner in Seville. On the approach of the French the king, protesting violently, was haled to Cadiz, after the appointment of a regency of three. In his diary Ferdinand describes vividly the humiliation of his position, and it is evident that he was treasuring up a wealth of grudges to repay with all his liberality in spite. Late in June Cadiz was besieged by land and sea. After a heavy bombardment, during which Ferdinand kept signalling to the duke of Angoulême, Cadiz fell on the 23rd of September, 1823, and on October 1st Ferdinand was delivered free to the French at Puerto de Santa Maria.
THE RETURN OF FERDINAND (1823 A.D.)
The 1st of October Ferdinand crossed from Cadiz to Santa Maria. He was scarcely in possession of his authority before he annulled every act which had been passed since March 7th, 1820, and announced that he considered himself released from all obligations towards his rebellious subjects and that he was going to punish their assaults. The extreme party which carried him with it no longer restrained its vengeance. The duke of Angoulême returned to Madrid and left immediately for Paris. The king proceeded to the capital where the absolutist party welcomed him in triumph. But there he saw that he must submit to a new yoke, for when certain officers of the voluntary royalists were presented to him, remembering the national militia he remarked that they were “the same dogs with different collars.”
The conquerors gave themselves up to the intoxication of vengeance. One of the victims most passionately demanded was Riego, who paid the penalty for his deeds on the 7th of November in the public square of Madrid.[129] The generals Ballesteros and Morillo went into exile. The prisons were full to overflowing. The populace hurled its rage against the liberals, who were proscribed under the name of Negros; during the ministry of Victor Saez, the king’s confessor, the hangman seemed to be the most active instrument of power.