This last proposition relative to Catalonia was a favourite plan of all the leading men at Madrid; so certain were they of success on the Ebro, that finding no British force was likely to be granted for that purpose, they withdrew eight or nine thousand men from the army near Tudela, and directed them upon Lerida.
Thus much I have thought it necessary to relate about the agents, and now quitting that subject, I shall narrate
THE OPERATIONS OF THE SPANISH ARMIES IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE BATTLE OF BAYLEN.
When that victory caused Joseph to abandon Madrid, the patriotic troops, guided by the caprice of the generals, moved in a variety of directions, without any fixed object in view, and without the slightest concert. Indeed all persons seemed to imagine that the war was at an end, and that rejoicing and triumph alone ought to occupy the minds of good Spaniards.
The Murcian and Valencian army separated. General Llamas, with twelve thousand infantry, and a few cavalry, took the road to Madrid, and arrived there before any of the other generals. General St. Marc, a Fleming by birth, with greater propriety, carried the Valencians to the relief of Zaragoza. On the road he joined his forces with those of the baron de Versage, and the united troops, amounting to sixteen thousand, entered Zaragoza on the 15th, one day after Verdier and Lefebre had broken up the siege and retired to Tudela. The French left their heavy guns and many stores behind them. The Valencians and Arragonese pursued, and on the 19th their advanced guard overtook the retiring force, but were beaten by the French cavalry. On the 20th Lefebre abandoned Tudela and took a position at Milagro. On the 21st, St. Marc and Versage occupied Tudela. The peasantry of the valleys, encouraged by the approach of a regular army, and by the successful defence of Zaragoza, assembled on the left flank of the French, and threatened their communications. Meanwhile Palafox gave himself up to festivity and rejoicing, and did not even begin to repair the defences of Zaragoza until the end Cavallero. of the month. He assumed supreme authority, and in various ways discovered the most inordinate and foolish presumption; and among other acts he decreed that no Arragonese should henceforward be liable to the punishment of death for any crime.
The army of Andalusia was the most efficient body of men in arms throughout Spain: it contained thirty thousand regular troops, provided with a good train Cox’s Correspondence. MSS. of artillery, and flushed with recent victory; but they were constrained to remain idle by the junta of Seville, who detained them to aid in asserting its own supremacy over the other juntas of Andalusia, and even brought back a part to Seville to assist in an ostentatious triumph. It was not until a full month Whittingham’s Correspondence. MSS. after the capitulation of Dupont, that Castaños made his entry into the capital, at the head of a single division of seven thousand men, another of the same force being left at Toledo, and the rest of his army quartered at Puerto del Rey, St. Helena, and Carolina, in the Sierra Morena.
The infantry of the Estremaduran army was at first composed of new levies; but it was afterwards strengthened by the Walloon and royal guards, and sir Hew Dalrymple supplied general Galluzzo with every needful equipment. According to the stipulations of a treaty between the juntas of Seville and Badajos, the cavalry was to be placed under the command of Castaños; it was in number about four thousand, and with the exception of Cuesta, no other Spanish general possessed any efficient body of horsemen. Orders and entreaties, and even the intervention of sir Hew Dalrymple, were resorted to by the council of Castille, the generals and the military agents, to induce Galluzzo to send this body of cavalry forward to the capital; but he remained deaf to their representations, and occupied himself, as we have seen, in thwarting the execution of the convention of Cintra by a pretended siege of fort La Lippe.
The Spanish captives, released by that treaty, were clothed, armed, and sent to Catalonia in British transports; Sir H. Dalrymple’s papers. MS. and sir Hew Dalrymple, at the same time, forwarded ten thousand musquets, and ammunition in proportion, for the service of the Catalans.
It has been before stated that one thousand five hundred Spaniards, commanded by the marquis of Valladeras, co-operated with the Portuguese during the campaign of Vimiero. But they never penetrated beyond Guarda, and being destitute of money, were reduced to great distress; they could not subsist where they were, nor yet march away. From this dilemma, Ibid. sir Hew, by a timely advance of ten thousand dollars, relieved them, and Valladeras joined Blake. That general, after the defeat of Rio Seco, separated the Gallician army from the army commanded by Cuesta, and sheltered himself from the pursuit of Bessieres in the mountains behind Astorga. His reserve division had not been engaged in the battle, and the resources Doyle’s letters. of the province, aided by the succours from England, were sufficient, to place him again at the head of thirty thousand infantry.