Junot refused the terms demanded, and, at five o’clock in the evening of the 21st, some picked troops ran up to the breach; but it was well retrenched and stockaded, and defended with great obstinacy, and the flank fire from Retebia stopped the supporting columns. The storming-party, thus abandoned to its own exertions, was held at bay on the summit of the breach; and being plied on both flanks, and in front, with shot from the houses of the town, and in rear by the musketry from Retebia, would have been totally destroyed, but for the scarcity of ammunition, which paralized the Spanish defence. Three hundred French fell on the breach itself, but the remainder finally effected a lodgement in the ruins, and, during the night, a second attack on Retebia proving successful, a communication was opened from the parallels to the lodgement, and strong working-parties were sent forward, who cut through the stockade into the town, when the governor surrendered.
Mahi, who had advanced to the edge of the mountains, as if he would have succoured the place, hearing of this event, retired to Bembibre, where his rear was overtaken and defeated by general Clausel on the 24th. He then fell back to Lugo, and recalled his detachment from Mombuey; but the French from Benevente were already in that quarter, and, on the 25th, totally defeated Echevaria at Castro Contrijo. Meanwhile, Junot placed garrisons in Astorga and Leon, and restored Bonet his division. That general, who had retired to Santander during the siege, then re-occupied Oviedo and Gihon, defeated the Asturians, and once more menaced Gallicia by the road of Concija, and by that of Sales; several slight actions ensued; but the French did not penetrate farther, and the Junta of Gallicia reinforced the Asturians with three thousand men.
During the siege of Astorga, the sixth corps was concentrated at Salamanca, a strong detachment of Kellerman’s troops siezed the pass of Baños, and Martin Carrera, quitting the hills, joined the English light division near Almeida. In fine, the great operations were commencing, and the line of communication with France, was encumbered with the advancing reinforcements. A large battering-train, collected from Segovia, Burgos, and Pampeluna, arrived at Salamanca; general Martineau, with ten thousand men for the eighth corps, reached Valladolid; general Drouet passed the Pyrennees with a ninth corps, composed of the fourth battalions of regiments already in Spain; and these were followed by seventeen thousand of the imperial guards, whose presence gave force to the rumour, that the emperor himself was coming to take the chief command.
Fortunately for the allies, this report, although rife amongst all parties, and credited both by Joseph’s ministers, and the French ambassador at Madrid, proved groundless; and a leader for the projected operations was still to be named. I have been informed that marshal Ney resumed the command of the sixth corps, under the impression that he was to conduct the enterprise against Portugal, that the intrigues of marshal Berthier, to whom he was obnoxious, frustrated his hopes, and that Napoleon, fatigued with the disputes of his lieutenants, had resolved to repair in person to the Peninsula: that his marriage, and some important political affairs, diverted him from that object, and that Massena, prince of Esling, was finally chosen, partly for his great name in arms, and partly that he was of higher rank than the other marshals, and a stranger to all the jealousies and disputes in the Peninsula. His arrival was known in May amongst the allies, and lord Wellington had no longer to dread the formidable presence of the French emperor.
That Massena’s base of operations might not be exposed to the interference of any other authority in Spain, the four military governments, of Salamanca, Valladolid, Asturias, and St. Andero were placed under his temporary authority, which thus became absolute in the northern provinces. But previous to taking the command of the troops, he repaired to Madrid, to confer with the king; and it would seem that some hesitation as to the line of invasion still prevailed in the French councils, because, in the imperial muster-rolls, the head-quarters of the army of Portugal are marked as being at Caceres in Estremadura, and the imperial guards are returned as part of that army, yet during the month of April only; a circumstance strongly indicating Napoleon’s intention to assume the command himself. The northern line was, however, definitively adopted; and, while the prince of Esling was still in the capital, the eighth corps passed the Tormes, and Ney commenced the
FIRST SIEGE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO.
Lord Wellington’s Correspondence. MSS.
This fortress had been commanded, in the beginning of the year, by a person whose conduct had been so suspicious, that lord Wellington demanded his removal. But don Andreas Herrasti, the actual governor, was a veteran of fifty years’ service, whose silver hairs, dignified countenance, and courteous manners excited respect; and whose courage, talents, and honour were worthy of his venerable appearance. His garrison amounted to six thousand fighting men, besides the citizens; and the place, built on a height overhanging the northern bank of the Agueda river, was amply supplied with artillery and stores of all kinds. The works were, however, weak, consisting of an old rampart, nearly circular, about thirty feet in height, and without other flanks than a few projections containing some light guns: a second wall, about twelve feet high, called a “fausse braie,” with a ditch and covered way, surrounded the first; but was placed so low on the hill, as scarcely to offer any cover to the upper rampart. There were no bomb-proofs, even for the magazine, and Herrasti was forced to place his powder in the church, which he secured as he might.
Beyond the walls, and totally severed from the town, the suburb of Francisco, defended by an earthern entrenchment, and strengthened by two large convents, formed an outwork to the north-east of the place. The convent of Santa Cruz served a like purpose on the north-west; and between these posts there was a ridge called the Little Teson, which, somewhat inferior in height to the town, was only a hundred and fifty yards from the body of the place. There was also a Greater Teson, which, rising behind the lesser at the distance of six hundred yards from the walls, overlooked the ramparts, and saw into the bottom of the ditch.
The country immediately about Ciudad Rodrigo, although wooded, was easy for troops; especially on the left bank of the Agueda, to which the garrison had access by a stone bridge within pistol-shot of the castle-gate. But the Agueda itself, rising in the Sierra de Francia, and running into the Douro, is subject to great and sudden floods; and six or seven miles below the town, near San Felices, the channel deepens into one continued and frightful chasm, many hundred feet deep, and overhung with huge desolate rocks.