This event, which happening five or even three months before would probably have changed the fate of the war, was now of little consequence. Suchet first proposed to Copons to escort Ferdinand with the French army to Barcelona and put him in possession of that place, but this the Spanish general dared not assent to, for he feared lord Wellington and his own regency, and was closely watched by colonel Coffin who had been placed near him by sir William Clinton. The French general then proposed to the king a convention for the recovery of his garrisons, to which Ferdinand agreed with the facility of a false heart. His great anxiety was to reach Valencia, because the determination of the Cortez to bind him to conditions before he recovered his throne was evident, the Spanish generals were apparently faithful to the Cortez, and the British influence was sure to be opposed to him while he was burthened with French engagements.
Suchet had been ordered to demand securities for the restoration of his garrisons previous to Ferdinand’s entry into Spain, but time was precious and he determined to escort him at once with the whole French army to the Fluvia, having first received a promise to restore the garrisons. He also retained his brother Don Carlos as a hostage forSuchet’s Memoirs. their return, but even this security he relinquished when the king in a second letter written from Gerona solemnly confirmed his first promise. On the 24th therefore in presence of the Catalan and French armies, ranged in order of battle on either bank of the Fluvia, Ferdinand passed that river and became once more king of Spain. He had been a rebellious son in the palace, a plotting traitor at Aranjuez, a dastard at Bayonne, an effeminate superstitious fawning slave at Valençay, and now after six years’ captivity he returned to his own country an ungrateful and cruel tyrant. He would have been the most odious and contemptible of princes if his favourite brother Don Carlos had not existed. Reaching the camp at Barcelona on the 30th he dined with sir William Clinton, reviewed the allied troops and then proceeded first to Zaragoza and finally to Valencia. Marshal Suchet says the honours of war were paidMemoirs by sir Wm. Clinton, MSS. to him by all the French garrisons but this was not the case at Barcelona: no man appeared, even on the walls. After this event the French marshal repassed the Pyrenees leaving only one division at Figueras and Clinton proceeded to break up his army, but was again stopped by the vexatious conduct of Copons who would not relieve the Anglo-Sicilians at the blockade, nor indeed take any notice of the English general’s communications on the subject before the 11th of April. On the 14th however the troops marched, part to embark at Taragona, part to join lord Wellington. Copons then became terrified lest general Robert, abandoning Tortoza, should join Habert at Barcelona, and enclose him between them and the division at Figueras, wherefore Clinton once more halted to protect the Spaniards.
Copons had indeed some reason to fear, forApril. Habert about this time received, and transmitted to Robert, the emperor’s orders to break out of Tortoza and gain Barcelona instead of passing by the valley of Venasque as Suchet had before prescribed: the twelve thousand men thus united were then to push into France. This letter was intercepted, copied, and sent on to Robert, whose answer being likewise intercepted shewed that he was not prepared and had no inclination for the enterprise. This seen Clinton continued his embarkation and thus completed his honourable but difficult task. With a force weak in numbers, and nearly destitute of every thing that constitutes strength in the field, he had maintained a forward and dangerous position for eight months; and though Copons’ incapacity and ill-will, and other circumstances beyond control, did not permit him to perform any brilliant actions, he occupied the attention of a very superior army, suffered no disaster and gained some advantages.
While his troops were embarking, Habert, in furtherance of the emperor’s project, made a vigorous sally on the 18th, and though repulsed with loss he killed or wounded eight hundred Spaniards. This was a lamentable combat. The war had terminated long before, yet intelligence of the cessation of hostilities only arrived four days later. Habert was now repeatedly ordered by Suchet and the duke of Feltre to give up Barcelona, but warned by the breach of former conventions he held it until he was assured that all the French garrisonsLafaille. in Valencia had returned safely to France, which did not happen until the 28th of May, when he yielded up the town and marched to his own country. This event, the last operation of the whole war, released the duchess of Bourbon. She and the old prince of Conti had been retained prisoners in the city during the Spanish struggle, the prince died early in 1814, the duchess survived, and now returned to France.
How strong Napoleon’s hold of the Peninsula had been, how little the Spaniards were able of their own strength to shake him off, was now apparent to all the world. For notwithstanding lord Wellington’s great victories, notwithstanding the invasion of France, six fortresses, Figueras, Barcelona, Tortoza, Morella, Peniscola, Saguntum and Denia were recovered, not by arms but by the general peace. And but for the deceits of Van Halen there would have been three others similarly situated in the eastern parts alone, while in the north Santona was recovered in the same manner; for neither the long blockade nor the active operations against that place, of which some account shall now be given, caused it to surrender.
The site of Santona is one of those promontories frequent on the coast of Spain which connected by low sandy necks with the main land offer good harbours. Its waters deep and capacious furnished two bays. The outer one or roadstead was commanded by the works of Santona itself, and by those of Laredo, a considerable town lying at the foot of a mountain on the opposite point of the harbour. A narrow entrance to the inner port was between a spit of land, called the Puntal, and the low isthmus on which the town of Santona is built. The natural strength of the ground was very great, but the importance of Santona arose from its peculiar situation as a harbour and fort of support in the Montaña de Santander. By holding it the French shut out the British shipping from the only place which being defensible on the land side furnished a good harbour between San Sebastian and Coruña; they thus protected the sea-flank of their long line of invasion, obtained a port of refuge for their own coasting vessels, and a post of support for the moveable columns sent to chase the partidas which abounded in that rough district. And when the battle of Vittoria placed the allies on the Bidassoa, from Santona issued forth a number of privateers who, as we have seen, intercepted lord Wellington’s supplies and interrupted his communication with Coruña, Oporto, Lisbon, and even with England.
The advantages of possessing Santona were feltVol. 3. Book XI. Chapter V. early by both parties; the French seized it at once and although the Spaniards recovered possession of it in 1810 they were driven out again immediately. The English ministers then commenced deliberating and concocting extensive and for that reason injudicious and impracticable plans of offensive operations,Ibid. Book XII. Chapter I. to be based upon the possession of Santona; meanwhile Napoleon fortified it and kept it to the end of the war. In August 1812 its importance was better understood by the Spaniards, and it was continually menaced by the numerous bands of Biscay, the Asturias and the Montaña. Fourteen hundred men, including the crew of a corvette, then formed its garrison, the works were not very strong and only forty pieces of artillery were mounted. Napoleon however, foreseeing the disasters which Marmont was provoking, sent general Lameth, a chosen officer, to take charge of the defence. He immediately augmented the works and constructed advanced redoubts on two hills, called the Gromo and the Brusco, which like San Bartolomeo at San Sebastian closed the isthmus inland. He also erected a strong redoubt and blockhouse on the Puntal to command the straits, and to sweep the roadstead in conjunction with the fort of Laredo which he repaired. This done he formed several minor batteries and cast a chain to secure the narrow entrance to the inner harbour, and then covered the rocky promontory of Santona itself with defensive works.
Some dismounted guns remained in the arsenal, others which had been thrown into the sea by the Spaniards when they took the place in 1810 were fished up, and the garrison felling trees in the vicinity made carriages for them; by these means a hundred and twenty guns were finally placed in battery and there was abundance of ammunition. The corvette was not sea-worthy, but the governor established a flotilla of gun-boats, and other small craft, which sallied forth whenever the signal-posts on the head-land gave notice of the approach of vessels liable to attack, or of French coasters bringing provisions and stores. The garrison had previously lost many men, killed in a barbarous manner by the partidas, and in revenge they never gave quarter to their enemies. Lameth shocked at their inhumanity resolutely forbad under pain of death any farther reprisals, rewarded those men who brought in prisoners and treated the latter with gentleness: the Spaniards discovering this also changed their system and civilization resumed its rights. From this time military operations were incessant, the garrison sometimes made sallies, sometimes sustained partial attacks, sometimes aided the moveable columns employed by the different generals of the army of the north to put down the partizan warfare, which was seldom even lulled in the Montaña.
After the battle of Vittoria Santona being left to its own resources was invested on the land side by a part of the troops composing the Gallician or fourth Spanish army. It was blockaded on the sea-board by the English ships of war, but only nominally, for the garrison received supplies, and the flotilla vexed lord Wellington’s communications, took many of his store-ships and other vessels, delayed his convoys, and added greatly to the difficulties of his situation. The land blockade thus also became a nullity and the Spanish officers complained with reason that they suffered privations and endured hardships without an object. These complaints and his own embarassments, caused by lord Melville’s neglect, induced lord Wellington in October, 1813, when he could ill spare troops, to employ a British brigade under lord Aylmer in the attack of Santona; the project for reasons already mentioned was not executed, but an English engineer, captain Wells, was sent with some sappers and miners to quicken the operations of the Spanish officers, and his small detachment hasVictoires et Conquêtes. been by a French writer magnified into a whole battalion.
Captain Wells remained six months, for the Spanish generals though brave and willing were tainted with the national defect of procrastination. The siege made no progress until the 13th of1814. February. February 1814 when general Barco the Spanish commander carried the fort of Puntal in the night by escalade, killing thirty men and taking twenty-three prisoners, yet the fort being under the heavy fire of the Santona works was necessarily dismantled and abandoned the next morning. A picquet was however left there and the French opened their batteries, but as this did not dislodge the Spaniards Lameth embarked a detachment and recovered his fort. However in the night of the 21st general Barco ordered an attack to be made with a part of his force upon the outposts of El Grumo and Brusco, on the Santona side of the harbour, and led the remainder of his troops in person to storm the fort and town of Laredo. He carried the latter and also some outer defences of the fort, which being on a rock was only to be approached by an isthmus so narrow as to be closed by a single fortified house. In the assault of the body of this fort Barco was killed and the attack ceased, but the troops retained what they had won and established themselves at the foot of the rock where they were covered from fire. The attack on the other side, conducted by colonel Llorente, was successful; he carried the smallest of the two outworks on the Brusco, and closely invested the largest after an ineffectual attempt by mine and assault to take it. A large breach was however made and the commandant seeing he could no longer defend his post, valiantly broke through the investment and gained the work of the Grumo. He was however aided by the appearance on the isthmus of a strong column which sallied at the same time from the works on the Santona promontory, and the next day the Grumo itself was abandoned by the French.