Combining these moral and physical considerations, Graham had reason to expect several days of free action; and thus indeed it happened, and with a worthy colleague he would have raised Appendix, [No. IX.] Section 5.the blockade: more than that could scarcely have been hoped, as the French forces would have concentrated either before Cadiz or about Seville or Ecija; and they had still fifty thousand men in Andalusia.
Victor’s attack on the 5th, was well-judged, well-timed, vigorous; with a few thousand more troops he alone would have crushed the allies. The unconquerable spirit of the English prevented this disaster; but if Graham or his troops had given way, or even hesitated, the whole army must have been driven like sheep into an enclosure; the Almanza creek on one side, the sea on the other, the San Petri to bar their flight, and the enemy hanging on their rear in all the fierceness of victory. Indeed, such was La Peña’s misconduct, that the French, although defeated, gained their main point; the blockade was renewed, and it is remarkable that, during the action, a French detachment passed near the bridge of Zuazo without difficulty, and brought back prisoners; thus proving that with a few more troops Victor might have seized the Isla. Meanwhile Ballasteros, who had gone against Seville, was chased, in a miserable condition, to the Aroche hills, by Daricau.
In Cadiz violent disputes arose. La Peña, in an address to the Cortes, claimed the victory for himself. He affirmed that all the previous arrangements were made with the knowledge and approbation of the English general, and the latter’s retreat into the Isla he indicated as the real cause of failure: Lascy and general Cruz-Murgeon also published inaccurate accounts of the action, and even had deceptive plans engraved to uphold their statements. Graham, stung by these unworthy proceedings, exposed the conduct of La Peña in a letter to the British envoy; and when Lascy let fall some expressions personally offensive, he enforced an apology with his sword; but having thus shewn himself superior to his opponents at all points, the gallant old man soon afterwards relinquished his command to general Cooke, and joined lord Wellington’s army.
CHAPTER III.
While discord prevailed at Cadiz, the siege of Badajos continued. Early in March, the second parallel being completed and the Pardaleras taken into the works, the approaches were carried by sap to the covered way, and mines were prepared to blow in the counterscarp. Nevertheless, Rafael Menacho, the governor, was in no manner dismayed; his sallies were frequent and vigorous, his activity and courage inspired his troops with confidence, he had begun to retrench in the streets behind the part attacked, and as the fire of the besiegers was also inferior to that of the besieged, every thing seemed to promise favourably for the latter: but, on the evening of the 2d, during a sally, in which the nearest French batteries were carried, the guns spiked, and trenches partly ruined, Menacho was killed, and the command fell to Imas, a man so unworthy that a worse could not be found. At once the spirit of the garrison died away, the besiegers’ works advanced rapidly, the ditch was passed, a lodgement was made on one of the ravelins, the rampart was breached, and the fire of the besieged being nearly extinguished, on the 10th of March the place was summoned in a peremptory manner.
At this time the great crisis of the campaign had passed, and a strong body of British and Portuguese troops were ready to raise the siege of Badajos. In three different ways, by telegraph, by a letter, and by a confidential messenger, the governor was informed, that Massena was in full retreat and that the relieving army was actually in march. The breach was still impracticable, provisions were plentiful, the garrison above eight thousand strong, the French army reduced, by sickness, by detachments Lord Wellington’s Despatch.and the previous operations, to less than fourteen thousand men. Imas read the letter, and instantly surrendered, handing over at the same moment the intelligence thus obtained to the enemy. But he also demanded that his grenadiers should march out of the breach, it was granted, and he was obliged to enlarge the opening himself ere they could do so! Yet this man so covered with opprobrium, and who had secured his own liberty while consigning his fellow soldiers to a prison, and his character to infamy, was never punished by the Spanish rulers: lord Wellington’s indignant remonstrances forced them, indeed, to bring him to trial, but they made the process last during the whole war.
When the place fell, Mortier marched against Campo Mayor, and Latour Maubourg seizing Albuquerque and Valencia d’Alcantara, made six hundred prisoners; but Soult, alarmed by the effects of the battle of Barosa, returned to Andalusia, having, in fifty days, mastered four fortresses and invested a fifth; having killed or dispersed ten thousand men, and having taken twenty thousand with a force which, at no time, exceeded the number of his prisoners: yet great and daring and successful as his operations had been, the principal object of his expedition was frustrated, for Massena was in retreat. Lord Wellington’s combinations had palsied the hand of the conqueror.
While the siege of Badajos was proceeding, no change took place in the main positions of either army at Santarem. The English general, certain that the French, who were greatly reduced by sickness, must soon quit their ground if he could relieve Badajos, was only waiting for his reinforcements to send Beresford with fourteen thousand men against Soult; when the battle of the Gebora ruined this plan and changed his situation. The arrival of the reinforcements could not then enable him to detach a sufficient number of men to relieve Badajos, and it was no longer a question of starving Massena out, but of beating him, before Soult could take Badajos and the two armies be joined. In this difficulty, abandoning the design of raising the siege by a detachment, lord Wellington prepared to attack Massena’s army in front on the side of Tremes, while Beresford, crossing at Abrantes, fell upon the rear; he hoped thus to force back the French right and centre, and to cut off the left and to drive it into the Tagus. However, nothing could be attempted until the troops from England arrived, and day after day passed in vain expectation of their coming. Being embarked in January, they would have reached Lisbon before the end of that month, had sir Joseph Yorke, the admiral, charged to conduct the fleet, taken advantage of a favourable wind, which blew when the troops were first put on board; but he neglected this opportunity, contrary gales followed, and a voyage of ten days was thus prolonged for six weeks.
On the other hand, the French general’s situation was becoming very perilous. To besiege Abrantes was above his means, and although that fortress was an important strategic point for the allies who had a moveable bridge, it would not have been so for the French. Massena could only choose then, to force the passage of the Tagus alone, or to wait until Soult appeared on the left bank, or to retreat. For sometime he seemed inclined to the first, shewing great jealousy of the works opposite the mouth of the Zezere, and carrying his boats on wheel-carriages along the banks of the Tagus, as if to alarm Beresford and oblige him to concentrate to his left: yet that general relaxed nothing of his vigilance, neither spy nor officer passed his lines of observation, and Massena knew, generally, that Soult was before Badajos, but nothing more. However, time wore away, sickness wasted the army, food became daily scarcer, the organization of the troops was seriously loosened, the leading generals were at variance, and See Vol. IIthe conspiracy to put St. Cyr at the head of the army in Spain was by no means relinquished.