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Full text of "THE HISTORIANS HISTORY OF THE WORLD 2"

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SPAIN AND THE FBENCH KEVOLUTION 333 

[1808 A.D.] 

the common enemy of France and Spain for this rebellion ; he declared that 
he had received a previous warning of it which he had not credited, until 
the rebellion had burst upon him, and he was compelled to chastise the 
offenders ; he assured them that the emperor was anxious to preserve the in- 
tegrity of the Spanish monarchy without separating from it a single village 
or exacting any war tax ; he exhorted the ministers of the church, the magis- 
trates, gentlemen, landholders, and merchants to use their influence to keep 
down sedition. <2 

Meanwhile by Napoleon's orders Charles IV, Maria Louisa, and Godoy 
had been sent to Bayonne where Ferdinand awaited Napoleon's pleasures 



THE KOYAL FAMILY AT BAYONNE 



Immediately after the arrival of the royal parents, with Napoleon's 
approval, Godoy being their principal and well-nigh only councillor, Ferdi- 
nand was summoned, and in the presence of the foreign sovereign Charles 
commanded him to restore the crown on the morning of the following dav 
by means of a pure and simple abdication, threatening him that, in event of 
his refusal, he, his brothers, and all his suite should from that moment be 
treated as exiles. 

Napoleon supported him with energy, and when Ferdinand was about to 
reply, his august father sprang from his seat, and attempted to strike him. 
accusing him of wishing to deprive him of life as well as of his crown. The 
queen, silent up to then, became enraged, outraging her son with insulting 
affronts, being carried away to such a point by her ungovernable anger that, 
according to Napoleon, she herself begged him to bring Ferdinand to the 
scaffold, which demand, if true, coming from a mother, strikes one with 
horror. Her son remained mute, and sent in his abdication, dated May 1st, 
on these conditions : that the king his father should return to Madrid, 
whither Ferdinand should accompany him, to be treated as his most dutiful 
son ; that in presence of an assembly of the cortes Ferdinand should formally 
renounce the crown, explaining his motives for so doing ; that King Charles 
should not take back with him to Spain any persons who had justly incurred 
the nation's hatred. . 

Charles IV, as might be supposed, did not accede to his son s conditions, 
and on the 2nd sent him a written reply, in which, in the midst of various 
severe though just reflections, Napoleon's hand is discerned, and even his 

expressions such as : " Everything must be done for the people, and noth- 

ino* for himself ; I cannot consent to any convocation of an assembly ; & new 
suggestion of your inexperienced followers." Such was Bonaparte's invari- 
able aversion to popular assemblies, although without them he might have 
remained in the obscurity in which fate had placed him. 

On the 5th of May, the report reached Bayonne of what had occurred in 
Madrid on the Dos de Mayo. It was five in the afternoon; all were seated 
save the prince- Charles repeated his former accusations, insulted Ferdi- 
nand with asperity, blamed him for the rising and for the consequent 
deaths; and, calling him a perfidious traitor, again warned him that unless 
lie resigned the crown he should be declared a usurper without delay, and he 
and all his household looked upon as conspirators against the lite ol tueir 
sovereign. On the 6th Ferdinand, being intimidated, made a pure and 
simple abdication in favour of his father in the terms set down by the latter. 
Charles had not waited for his son's abdication to conclude a treaty with 




334 THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 

[1808 A.D.] 

Napoleon by which he ceded to him the crown without any other restriction 
than that of preserving the integrity of the kingdom and the Catholic 
religion to the exclusion of all others. Small and petty even to the last, 
Don Manuel Godoy only haggled obstinately over an article relating to pen- 
sions. For the rest, the manner in which Charles gave up the crown 
covered with shame the father, who with one blow indirectly deprived all 
his sons of their succession to the throne. Arranged in a foreign land, in 
the eyes of the world this abdication lacked the indispensable circumstance 
of having been executed freely and willingly, above all being in favour of the 
sovereign within whose territory this important article had been inserted in 
the treaty. 

So ended the reign of Charles IV ; and no one better than himself gives us 
an exact and true idea of his life than, when dining with Napoleon in Bayonne, 
he expressed himself as follows : " Every day, winter and summer, I went 
hunting until twelve o'clock ; then I dined, and immediately returned to my 
hunting until twilight. Manuel [Godoy] gave me the news, and I went to 
bed, to begin the same life on the following day, unless some important cere- 
mony prevented me." Such was the manner in which the king had governed 
for the space of twenty years. According to the sketch which he draws of 
himself, he merits the same title [faineant] as that applied to various kings 
of France of the Merovingian dynasty. Nevertheless, Charles possessed 
qualities which might have made him shine as a king, and fulfil all the duties 
of his high calling, but for his idleness and the weakness which caused him 
to blindly give way to the queen's will and irregular caprices. With another 
wife than Maria Louisa, his reign would not have compared unfavourably with 
that of his august predecessor, and although the situation of Europe was 
very different, as a result of the French Revolution, yet, well governed and 
without interior discord, Spain might perhaps have peacefully continued her 
industries and advancement without upheavals and confusion. The abdica- 
tion of Ferdinand in favour of Charles IV, and of the latter in favour of 
Napoleon being formally drawn up, there yet lacked Ferdinand's renounce- 
ment of his rights as prince of Asturias, because although he had restored 
the crown to his father on the 6th of May, he had not by this act renounced 
his rights as immediate heir. It appears according to Don Pedro Cevallos 
that upon Ferdinand refusing to accede to this last concession Napoleon said, 
"There is no medium, prince, between renouncement and death." Others 
deny this threat,, and indeed it would seem strange that such rigorous 
measures should have been resorted to with a person who had so clearly shown 
his weakness. 

The queen of Etruria, in spite of the flattering attention she had bestowed 
on Murat and the French, was no happier in her negotiations than the rest 
of her family. The Treaty of Fontainebleau could not be kept with her 
son because Napoleon had promised the deputies of Portugal to maintain 
the integrity of that kingdom; nor could indemnification be granted her 
in Italy, as to allow any branch of the Bourbons to reign in that country 
was contrary to Napoleon's great views; the queen was compelled to be 
satisfied with this reply, accept the pension allotted her, and submit to the 
same fate as her parents. 

During the stay of the prince of Asturias and the infantes in Bayonne 
various plots were set on foot for their escape. A resident of Cevera de 
Alhama received money from the supreme junta of Madrid for that purpose. 
The duke of ^Mahon had sent the offer of a large sum from San Sebastian for 
the same object. Ferdinand's counsellors received the money in his name 



SPAIN AND THE EEENCH REVOLUTION 335 

[1808 A.D.] 

and by his orders, but the flight never took place, although several plans 
were proposed. They would have required less vigilance on the part of the 
French government and more courage on the part of the Spanish princes to 
bring 1 them to a successful ending. 

The renunciations being formally executed, Napoleon lost no time in 
despatching the members of the royal family of Spain to the interior of 
France. Charles IV and his wife, the queen of Etruria and her children, 
the infante Don Francisco, and the Prince of the Peace, left for Fontaine- 
bleau on the 10th of May, and thence proceeded to Compiegne. On the 
11 th Ferdinand VII, his brother and uncle, the infantes Don Carlos and 
' Don Antonio, left Bayonne ; the palace of Valengay, the property of Prince 
Talleyrand, being assigned as their residence.*- 




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, Y-' : ";' 1 -^' .inib, fi.-ld; ^anifestoes, decrees 

' 7Y;YY rkiVrmi; ' <' n hllll ^uie a gallam, 

-' i-J.irlr presented..~ : patriotism supportina- a 

:.?, .t r<] ^.ir assembly uoriun^ to restore a despotic 

- -i.m- a t..,v, ;ril music,,-, the lower armed iA the 

:'!-;. i h" upstart holders, seeretly ubhorrino- f ree 

: 77 r u ; iuie, trembled at tho ilomoc.ratic activity 

'/.--' h'riii all the bad passions of the multitude 

- - v v .:.;d iv ; r,. u ,. ra (i< as well as save.. The country 

" ; ! '':-;>;<:' i n- U-tiehis oi a revolution; tumults 

i '' j d: .- : :i .t.-d the sensible part of the community ; 

i ';" : ;i:ve , (-\iin!.;;, e \ l rrniina I e: I*.- : : !:iM-rtv, I he Asj.urias, spread in the 

....; .. . - ;;. /..',-;' L.\ MI- enJinc'ils, composed of the most 

. . : f ; . ., . .- ;.. :-. : i-ji!i-d]!i-n*-d persons of tluiir respective 

, . .. . , ; . : .- . ..2 vrv pr'\jjn'f, and most, Isirg'e to^vns. 

\{ , , , ; , . ... ;:;!^;t!i-d; main.' persons fell sacrifices to 

, . i;rd bv th'-ir o\\ii eonduel:, of being 

, ... ' , ..'' .. .; ] ..,..!:. \V h'n' Srulle, as next in importance 

T M . .' . |; . ; .-;. I'M:- ;: .1 !' i !n- un:aibdned cities ol" Spain, 

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THK riCNINSULAIt W/VE 359 

.n.] 

had enjoined him to repair with all speed. Cuosta, with the army of Castile, 
anil Blake with that of indicia, had united at. Rio See.o, where their com- 
bined forces amounted to tliirty thousand men* Bessie-res attacked them on 
the Mth of July with little more than fifteen thousand. The superior skill 
and discipline of the French very soon prevailed over their courage and 
numbers. They lost live or six thousand men, killed and wounded, ami 
twelve hundred prisoners. 'Flu* two generals threw tin* blame on each 
other, and separated in mutual disgust. This victory cost Bessie ra* iesn 
than four hundred men. Joseph pursued his journey; and on the 20th 
imule his triumphant entry into Madrid, Orders had been given that the 
streets through which the procession was to pass should be. decorated, accord- 
ing to Spanish custom, by hanging 1 tapestry, etc., from tho windowSi and 
that the church bells should be, rung. The inhabitants obeyed; but the 
tapestry they hung out was old, dirty, and ragged, and the. hells tollitt gg 
for u funeral. The, meanest of the populace scorned to pick up the money 
scattered amongst- them as the king passed, leaving it to the. French soldiorn; 
and the theatres, which were opened gratis in honour of the day, were, filled 
only bv Frenchmen. The council of Castile, which had previously nocnuttil 
disposed to submit, refused to take the oath required of them to the new 
sovereign and constitution, alleging that, both must, first receive the satiation 
of the nation through the eortes; and the. Spanish soldiers, who did duty 
jointly with the French, deserted by whole guards at a lime, leaving not a 
single sentinel at his post. The first- tidings received by Joseph at Madrid 
were* in harmony with tin* character of his reception. 

Dupont had advanced prosperously, defeating all who opposed him, at* fat* 
as Cordova, which 1m took by storm, but almost without resistance. However, 
Castanos, an old soldier, attacked Dupont with about double, his numbofft, 
and gained a victory HO complete that at Baylen, whither four days of 
engagement had drawn the, French main body, and upon tho very day 
of Joseph^ entrance into Madrid, Dupont, with nearly twenty thousand 
men, surrendered upon condition of being sent with Inn whole corps to 
France. The. terms of the capitulation were afterwards broken by thu 
vindictive rage of the, peasantry, whom their generals could not control. 
Numbers wen* put to death, and the rest, instead of being sent to France, 
were confined in the hulks in the buy of Cadi/,, where they suffered every 
kind of misery, and the greater part perished.'' In its moral cITectH the 
battle of Baylen was one. of those events which, insignificant in themselves, 
cause great changes in tho affairs of nations. The defeat of Rio Seeo, tho 
preparations of Moneey for a second attack on Valencia,, the miserable plight 
of SaragoHsu, the despondency of tho ablest men of Spain, and the disgust 
lltul terror generally excited by the excesses of the. populace, weighed heiivy 
on the Spanish cause: one victory more, and the moral as well as the. physi- 
cal force! of Spain would have been crushed. Tim victory of Baylen opened 
as it were a new crater for Spanish pride, vanity, and arrogance; tin* glory 
of past ages seemed to bo renewed, every man thought himself a Cid, und, 
in the surrender of Dupont, saw, not the deliverance of Spain, but thil 
immediate conquest of France*. u We arc obliged to our friends the Klljf- 
lish," was a common phrase among them when conversing with the oHieera 
of Sir John Moore's army; tl we thank them for their goodwill, we shall 
escort them through France to Calais, the. journey will be pleasanter tliuu a 
luiit voyage,: they shall not have the trouble of lighting the French, and 
we shall be pleased, to have them spectators of our victories/* This absurd 
confidence might have led to great things, but it was a voice --"-nothing more. ^ 



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THE PENINSULAS WAR 341 

[1808 A.D.] 

supersede him, and, as, it proved, eacli other. The nomination of one of 
these could not be blamed, for Sir John Moore then certainly ranked higher 
in public estimation as a general than Sir Arthur Wellesley ; but Sir Harry 
Burrard and Sir Hew Dalrymple had never been in situations to display 
military capacity. Sir Harry Burrard arrived on the very day that the 
reinforcements joined Sir Arthur; and with all the caution of old age refused 
to sanction the advance of an army deficient in cavalry and artillery horses, 
especially as ten thousand men were daily expected with Sir John Moore. 

On the morning of the 21st, Junot fell upon the British army, with the 
impetuosity characterising his countrymen and Napoleon's warriors. They 
were, however, repulsed in every attack; the defects of the position, and the 
almost total want of cavalry, were immediately remedied by the ability of 
the general, and the loss was far greater on the side of the French, and less 
on that of the British, than at Roliza. The battle was over by noon ; a 
considerable portion of the army had not been engaged, and Sir Arthur 
proposed to follow up his victory, pursue the retreating enemy, cut him off 
from Lisbon, and thus deliver the capital from the French yoke. Again 
Burrard's caution prevailed to forbid the pursuit, and still the army remained 
at Vimeiro. 

Sir Harry Burrard's authority expired almost as soon as he had thus 
unfortunately used it ; and on the 22nd Sir Hew Dalrymple landed to take the 
supreme command. On the evening of the same day, before he could well 
make himself master of the state of affairs, General Kellermann was sent by 
Junot to the British camp to propose an armistice, and the evacuation of 
Portugal by the French troops upon conditions. Such as it was, the so-called 
Convention of Cintra was signed, and Portugal delivered from her conquerors, 
on the 30th of August, within a month of General Wellesley's landing. 

The authority of Queen Maria and the prince-regent was now restored 
throughout Portugal. Sir Hew Dalrymple reinstated the council of regency 
appointed by the prince at his departure, and began his preparations for 
entering Spain. He was, however, recalled to stand a sort of trial for con- 
eluding the Convention of Cintra which provoked wild rage in England; Sir 
Harry Burrard and Sir Arthur Wellesley returned home to give evidence 
upon the subject, and the command devolved upon Sir John Moore. 

About sixty thousand French troops were now left in Spain. But the 
British army with all its reinforcements did not exceed twenty-five thousand 
men Sir John Moore was of a temperament rather desponding than san- 
ffuine although a brave and able officer, he had not the self-reliance charac- 
teristic of a master-mind, and the conduct of the Spaniards abundantly 
iustified bis mistrust of the allies, in co-operation with whom he was re- 
quired to risk an army too valuable to be rashly hazarded, but too small 
singly to engage the French forces now concentrated upon the ^bro. But 
now that Spanish energy had driven the intrusive king and his foreign 
troops almost to the foot of the Pyrenees, Spanish pride deemed all accom- 
plished, and the restraints that had compelled union were no more. Provin- 
cial ambition, local, and even individual interests, jealousy, and intrigue 
tainted the patriotism of the juntas. 

Meanwhile discussions were going on as to the mode of government to be 
adopted. Florida-Blanca, the president of the Murcian junta, and the Coun- 
cil Jf Castile (which, on the evacuation of Madrid, had there assumed the 
reins of government) strongly pointed out the necessity of some central 
executive power, and the evils "resulting from the existing anarchy of inde- 
juntas. The convocation of the cortes, or the choice of a Sicilian 



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T1IK 1HSTOKY nK SPAIN" 



jiriutM* as tvi(*>itU UIMV pruposril % aai.ni;.sl thT r\piili'al,N. At Im^th it 
\\a> ai;iv*m>l I \vo ilrput n*-* Irnin its o\vu hmjy to 
form a ivntral aiul so\ m-i^n junta, <-a<'h M-paratr junta, Ii\vt?\rr, still jjnv- 

rTflinif il- s \\n pl'o\ in**''. Tin- rmiral jU!iia U ,1 . il:--.t ,il Ii-l ;i| Anutjttr/, tU 

tht< *Jttli of Srpii-iahrr. Plumb P.lain-a, on.- MI tin- Maivian *l'putirs, was 
chusra piv.Miirat ( 1\ -ilan-. \\.i-. tin- 'n:\ niln-r ai-ailrr ! aia'h ivputa. 

liW K ami its thv-t iih-a-urr vsa.-> ;i ..'.am pi '!. tin. itii-n oj I'Vnliiiaml VII. 

Kranrr via-* n>u- pnurin;;; "Hi- ltunl:'l thmi ,4ii! .il>htiu.il mm int Sjiuin f 
Nr\\ *luKr n|" I :> ,lrliiiun'iK ti-mjMr,uii\ linMm- t Is'- .Ma*-tl in ;i crr;^'i*nt 
uratanl t-hrai. 

Our uf >ir Ailhur \Vi !! -l-^ '.- I'-.i-'-'ir- !: ai'j'j-tvinv: th- < 'n\ mtia f 
(*iutni hal l-m that it nntn-.i,.u'; \ .. t r!.i- Kn/h h anu> at hl..'it\ lu rutrr 
Spain. Hat tlu * al\ anla^r wa - ;? ij.-: 1 r.f.'lr.-ii-l ..; ],,t in th.-i-.nr .l inv'.s, 
tii'iitin^ tin- i-ii-. uai-it in-'r ^ !' lis.u .-.-n -, m: i-:.. h v. a n*t till tl.- i';.M!i!nnj{ 
iifcK'tMi.,'! 1 that Sir .!.!. n \I ... i- ^ ,,.-! ,.;,[. ; . t.. .-nt.-f Spain, an- 1 .iprj-. 
at- with th' arau*-; j '".!.'.. I ar.-'ii^l th-- l ; :.-ij. h. >n la\il Uain! u as, 
at lh* '^iHif f ini\ '.'"Ht t < % i i .ii!ia u ;* h l*n I ii'-u- an* I in-n, ^ i a m t unlT M !'*% 
\vht app'intrl Sa!aiaan--a !: th.-u ninrJi'-n, Nr;tij-r !i..l m,r ai-aii.s if 
franspi't hal l--a ]n\ iinl ; fiai;l Ma.-, unl'u : ni -It- -1 uuh pt-ruuiary n- 
s*itnv*;s \\hi!'t th' tiah'-iaa an-1 Au-.tiiau j^nla-, t li> -u,yh : al uml.mt 1\ Mip* 
ptit-*l hv t!i f prul'u.' 1 nuiJiilii-'-n'-'' "* tlu- Kir.;'; .h r^ur.lr}, r.-t"u.--.'"l th* triHipa 
of Ihnr lu-in-tai-tj , ",rr\ h:al 'l" MU-.-MU;-. hi*I''l, jm,t !' t hr juatar* 
ilpprar to ha\r aii-.aj*}-^'-'! ?'; ia":j'-\ ?.'? i>. Kn/i-tn-l t- ? l;rir <.r,, u ptirposr?,, 
iiliit *'|I"U !o ha\- nia't- n> it .- \\ h, it .-,; ^ { I L- .1: :u > an-1 :"4Mn" f . \l.in 
iTualil not tTi.-,-, th- i'r.'nt j.-i-, till th- Il!h-l" N-'.. iul'rr ; aiil tin- al*:.nrl prr- 
i*i|iilat!<>a !' thr *-jitia! junta, anl ! !{-> ;n-- v j"-n n'-'-l ! /'Hr-]\i!-, u h \\n-r* 
rijlia! in an! h'n? tot '.i.a;tn -^ h,i-i a'j*a'lv )'t'^M.."h! fl,' Sj-ani-h f'r''% into 
1'nltiMMis uilli th- l-'i-'-Ji'-li. Al?T inaiiV > ia l - -.' --1 ; . !jir = h;n.' aijl aiaao-u V riajt, 
llhiko hal IM-I-U il-f.-al-il, 0,-tMiM-r ;t't ; Jf i.;, l.Jrl.M.- t !ul hail jvtP'afnl, 
rulliinl hi-* nil-lit aal h-in^ j.in--'l ?\ .'np- "i 1 ..i lv"iaana'- trop- s aijaiu 
Ilillitt* hiM'l. 

Nap*h-na hint ''I'll -i it -* I s j'..i i ii n t !- *"t K > !" \ \ :!:!' r, ani t h>' taJlu* 4 H k M 
of IIIH ^rimiH ua- aaa-i].it-U a^]-.i:--ii' . < >u ih- l ( Mh, >-u!f, ilul.-- of Hal- 
litiilia, attat L l, *!!' iil au-i u 1 ?. 1 ' ..- i li ...hi. !! t)^-n tann*l 
!l}tfin th- lua- "I trlM ,it -I P. a! .-, 7 J M \ ' , 1 il ! P .lun". Irjr.itiMl at 
Khpinn'-.a Mj| ti* !Hh. anl s ' /t ' , , \, it- 1 ." II . i -n t h' I'th, 

l*lii' i,;;i"ral"r pal ' J t \*'^ :a'. '* , : ! !  .! in , i. i :^ * 1 , '. II j i , f . 1 s t / "U"li *ti'iap- 
|iinl-tj ia .ill h* rh' ai , i ru^!*" >n-.. in 1 "M 1 . i ..ut'l f i ps, aa*l 
4.*xt?rl*-l laai * ll tirnuMU , i . * ,,' .^ , .^ *i -, {,< ! -u. T!,*- rniprrur 
i\n\\ liuitrd h J..' . i ' i i, * I > * u , rip,-" . v, ! * ! * I'.ali \ vvpt 
tin* plain .HI I. .' t .in1 : '. n,. 

Xapoh'.*ii JJM*\ a*!^an'l np'n Ma-i M, ., 1 .- ;',oJ j-iM.-hrtl HIM! 
HtUttkri) ill*- Soaioai-ua. Thr pi . \i i l* !' i 1 ' < n-f il s an Juan; hi* 
IroiipH llrii aftir tiling oa \n!!i , aM-l aJ?-. f < - '1 -n /J t t-i *-\ru-i- thinr 
\ art-it ,iijf lh*n mil-*] tiwat* nuaial j *t tf ? h , ml i.tiii!''i'!iin! 
Thr I'i*hih ri* *t tlj- UP* aJ ui$ a!" s !r-i'|"' I, .ui'i app**an-'i 
Math at. In ihr itt..aiai : il.in -i ti.< ;n .',* ,* ;i- '. *'j litr *-!-uiia! 




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'. THE PENINSULAR WAR 

[1808 A.D.] . . .. 

Cdy 

Napoleon appeared before .Madrid on the 2nd of December, and sum- 
moned the city to surrender, with fearful threats in case of resistance On 
the morning of the 5th Morla surrendered Madrid. The emperor took BO* 
session of the palace of the kings of Spain ; and in his proclamations 
threatened the Spaniards that, unless by their conduct they earned Joseph's 
pardon, he would find another kingdom for his brother, and make Spain a 




CUENCA 

French province. Such threats were not adapted to conciliate the haughty 
Spaniards ; and the really beneficial decrees he promulgated, diminishing 
the exorbitant power of the clergy and the number of monks and nuns, by 
exasperating the whole ecclesiastical body, confirmed the nation in its 
enmity to him and his dynasty. Regardless of this enmity, however, 
Napoleon prepared to overrun and subjugate Portugal and the south of 
Spain with his grand army, whilst a division of thirty-five thousand men 
again besieged Saragossa. "The central junta continued its fight to Seville, 
and the troops, which the different generals had rallied in considerable num- 
bers, prepared to defend the Sierra Morena and the Tagus. 



MOORE'S FAMOUS RETREAT 

Moore's situation was unquestionably one of great difficulty^ The 
French are stated to have had two hundred thousand men m bpain ; lie 
could not bring into the field above twenty-five thousand ; Madna had 
fallen ; and of the Spanish armies nothing remained within his reach out 
the few thousands, half clothed and half armed, that La Romana was endeav- 
ouring to organise. Moore had lost all confidence in Spanish professions, and 
was convinced that Frere, who vehemently urged him to attempt something. 



344 



THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 



[1808 A.D.] 

was deceived by his zeal in the Spanish cause and his ignorance of the 
Spanish character. Nevertheless Moore resolved to make such a diversion 
as should recall Napoleon from the south and from Portugal, and, if possi- 
ble, to destroy Soult, who was within his reach with inferior numbers, before 
he could be reinforced. But he undertook this bold and generous enter- 
prise with a heavy heart, and, as appears from his own letters, as sacrificing 
his own judgment to what he knew were the expectations of the British 
public. Moore began his movement on the llth, effected his junction with 
Baird, and reached Sahagun on the 21st of December. There he halted two 
days for his supplies, meaning to attack Soult on the 24th. But on the 23rd 
he received information that Napoleon, upon hearing of his advance, had 
suspended all his operations in the south and west, and was marching in full 
force against the English. The projected diversion was thus accomplished ; 




LISBON IN 1800 

(From an old Spanish print) 

and he began his retreat towards Galicia, where he proposed embarking, and 
carrying his army southwards to join the Spanish forces collecting in Anda- 
lusia. The retreat was most disastrous. Officers and men disliked it ; the 
bonds of discipline were early relaxed, and the bulk of the army was a mere 
drunken mob, never resuming any semblance of order or propriety except 
when there appeared a prospect of a battle. Then all were again found 
British soldiers. 

Before discussing this famous disaster we may quote the words of H. 
M. Stephens,^ who, after calling Moore " the only English general who has 
gained lasting fame by the conduct of a retreat," and referring to his death 
as showing "how a modern Bayard should die in battle every thought for 
others, none for himself," thus sums up his position in history : 

"It may be possible, in the face of his heroic death, to exaggerate 
Moore's actual military services, but his influence on the British army can- 
not be overrated. The true military spirit of discipline and of valour, both 
in officers and men, had become nearly extinct during the American war. 
Abercromby, who looked back to the traditions of Miiiden, was the first to 



n08-i809A. D .] 



THE 



WAR 



345 



power a stat P . cess of the esperirn,,;, 

p'i -iml !> i ^ a statesman are shown m his despatches written it '<,' 

^vm^T^ that ? iey r ere the pupils of &^^SV ~ 

in V C ^- m /?' he V 1 ^ 1 ^ 1 an ^^ian. The description of Mnore' 
in Napier t is perhaps the finest piece of military history in the EriV 

wSS^ nl ? b f CaUSC ^ aUth r Pnt,U teci^ 5 &t 

usthc sold OT f d ! ^ th f r treat , ; and > if Na P ier felt to ls Wellington 
cib the soldiers of the Tenth legion felt towards Csar,i he felt towards Mn "^ 
the personal love and devotion of a cavalier towards Montrose ^ arUi> * u -^- 
VVe can do no better than quote at some length Kapler's famous arrov,,,r 
l rom lus work which lias been favourably compared with those of Tlracvdicie^ 
Xenophon, and Csesar.a * ' 

Napier's Story of Moore s Retreat 

That Moore succoured Spain in her extremity, and, in her hour of weak- 
ness, intercepted the blow descending to crush her, no man of candour can 
deny. For what troops, what preparations, what courage, what eaiaeity 
was there in the south to have resisted even for an instant the pi-ogres* of a 
man like Napoleon, who, in ten days and in the depth of winter, crossii!^ 
the snowy ridge of the Carpentinos, had traversed two hundred miles of 
hostile country, and transported fifty thousand men from Madrid to Astoria, 
in a shorter time than a Spanish courier would have taken to travel the same 
distance? This stupendous march was rendered fruitless by the quleknes- 
of Moore; but Napoleon, though he failed to destroy the English army, 
resolved, nevertheless, to cast it forth from the peninsula. Being himself 
recalled to France by tidings that the Austrian storm was ready to burst, Le 
fixed upon Soult to continue the pursuit. Including Laborde, Heudeleu and 
Loison's division, nearly sixty thousand men and ninety-one guns were put 
on the track of the English army. 

Soult, nowise inferior to any of his nation, if the emperor be exce}*te L 
followed Moore with vigour. Nineteen thousand British troops posted in 
strong ground might have offered battle to very superior numbers ;^ vet 
where was tlie use of merely fighting an enemy who had three hundred thou- 
sand men in Spain ? Nothing could be gained, but Moore might by a quick 
retreat roach" bis ships unmolested, and carry his army from that narrow cor- 
ner to the southern provinces and renew the war under more favourable 
circumstances. But in the immense wine-vaults of Bembibre hundreds ui 
men remained inebriated, the followers of the army crowded the houses, and 
many of Komana's disbanded men were mixed with this heterogeneous mass 
of marauders, drunkards, muleteers, women, and children. Moore, leaving 
a small guard, with, them, proceeded to CalcabeUos. At Calcabellos ti.e 
reserve took up a position, Baird marched to Herrerias, and Moore went onto 



These are Napier's words in dedicating bis great work to Wellington.] 



346 



THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 



[1809 A.D.] 

Villa Franca ; but in that town also great excesses had been committed by the 
preceding divisions; the magazines were plundered, the bakers driven from 
the ovens, the wine-stores forced, the commissaries prevented making the 
regular distributions; the doors of the houses were broken, and a scandalous 
insubordination then showed a discreditable relaxation of discipline by the 
officers. Moore arrested this disorder, and caused one man taken in the act 
of plundering a magazine to be hanged in the market-place. 

Under the most favourable circumstances, the tail of a retreating force 
exhibits terrible scenes of distress, and on the road near Nogales the follow- 
ers of the army were dying fast from cold and hunger. The soldiers, bare- 
footed, harassed, and weakened by their excesses at Bembibre and Villa 
Franca, were dropping to the rear by hundreds, while broken carts, dead 
animals, and the piteous spectacle of women and children, struggling or fall- 
ing exhausted in the snow, completed a picture of war, which like Janus has 
a double face. 

The British army was not provided to fight above one battle ; there were no 
draught cattle, no means of transporting reserve ammunition, no magazines, no 
hospitals, no second line, no provisions : a defeat would have been ruin, a 
victory useless. A battle is always a serious affair ; two battles in such cir- 
cumstances, though both should be victories, would have been destruction. 
A terrible storm of wind and rain, mixed with sleet, commenced as the army 
broke up from the position at Lugo ; the marks were destroyed, the guides 
lost the true direction, only one of the divisions gained the main road, the 
other two were bewildered, and when daylight broke the rear columns were 
still near to Lugo. The fatigue, the depression of mind occasioned by this 
misfortune, and the want of shoes broke the order of the march, stragglers 
became numerous, and unfortunately Baird, thinking to relieve the men dur- 
ing a halt which took place in the night, desired the leading division to take 
refuge from the weather in some houses a little way off the road. Complete 
disorganisation followed this imprudent act. The commander-in-chief, who 
covered this march with the reserve and cavalry, ordered several bridges to 
be destroyed, but the engineers failed of success in every attempt. 

As the troops approached Corunna, on January 12th, 1809, the general's 
looks were directed towards the harbour, but an expanse of water pain- 
fully convinced him -that to fortune at least he was in no way beholden ; 
contrary winds still detained the fleet at Vigo, and the last consuming exer- 
tion made by the army was rendered fruitless. The men were put into 
quarters, and their leader awaited the progress of events. The reserve was 
posted between the village of El Burgo and the road of Santiago de Compos- 
tella. For twelve days these hardy soldiers had covered the retreat, during 
which time they traversed eighty miles of road in two marches, passed sev- 
eral nights under arms in the snow of the mountains, were seven times en- 
gaged, and now took the outposts having fewer men missing from the ranks, 
including those who had fallen in battle, than any other division in the 
army : an admirable instance of the value of good discipline, and a manifest 
proof of the malignant injustice with which Moore has been accused of 
precipitating his retreat beyond the measure of human strength. 

Now a painful measure was adopted ; the ground in front of Corunna 
is impracticable for cavalry, the horses were generally foundered, it was 
impossible to embark them all in the face of an enemy, and a great number 
were reluctantly ordered to be shot ; worn down and foot-broken, they 
would otherwise have been distributed among the French cavalry, or used 
as draught cattle until death relieved them from procrastinated suffering. 



THE PENINSULAR WAE 



347 



[1809 A.D.] 

But the very fact of their being so foundered was one of the results of 
inexperience ; the cavalry had come out to Corunna without proper equip- 
ments, the horses were ruined, not for want of shoes but want of hammers 
and nails to put them on. Soon the French gathered on the Mero, and 
Moore sought a position of battle. On the evening of the 14th the trans- 
ports from Vigo hove in sight ; the dismounted cavalry, the sick, the best 
horses, and fifty pieces of artillery were embarked, six British and three 
Spanish guns being kept on shore for action. When Laborde's division 
arrived, on the 15th, the French force was not less than twenty thou- 
sand men, and Soult made no idle evolutions of display. Distributing his 
lighter guns along the front of his position, he opened a fire from the heavy 
battery on his left, and instantly descended the mountain with three columns 
covered by clouds of skirmishers. The ground about that village was inter- 
sected by stone walls and hollow roads ; a severe scrambling fight ensued, the 
French were forced back with great loss, but, being reinforced, renewed 
the fight beyond the village. Major Napier, 1 commanding the 50th, was 
wounded and taken prisoner, and Elvina then became the scene of another 
contest. The line of the skirmishers being supported vigorously, checked 
the advance of the enemy's troops in the valley ; at the same time the centre 
and left of the army also became engaged, and a furious action ensued along 
the line, in the valley, and on the hills. Sir John Moore, while earnestly 
watching the result of the fight about the village of Elvina, was struck on 
the left breast by a cannon-shot. 

Notwithstanding this great disaster the troops gained ground, and when 
the night set in, their line was considerably advanced beyond the original 
position of the morning, while the French were falling back in confusion. 
Their disorder facilitated the original plan of embarking during the night. 
Hope, upon whom the command had devolved, resolved therefore to ship 
the army, and so complete were the arrangements that no confusion or diffi- 
culty occurred ; the pickets kindled fires to cover the retreat, and were 
themselves withdrawn at daybreak to embark under the protection of Hill's 
brigade, which was in position under the ramparts of Corunna. 

When the morning of the sixteenth dawned, the French, seeing the Brit- 
ish position abandoned, pushed some battalions to the heights of San Lucia, 
and about midday opened a battery on the shipping in the harbour. This 
caused great confusion amongst the transports, several masters cut their 

1 The author's eldest brother ; he was said to be slain. When the French renewed the 
attack on Elvina, he was somewhat in advance of that village, and alone, for the troops were 
scattered by the nature of the ground. Being hurt in the leg, he endeavoured to retire, but was 
overtaken, and thrown to the ground with five wounds ; a French drummer rescued him, and 
when a soldier with whom he had been struggling made a second attempt to kill him, the drum- 
mer once more interfered. The morning after the battle Marshal Soult sent his own surgeon to 
Major Napier, and, with a kindness and consideration very uncommon, wrote to Napoleon, desir- 
ing that his prisoner might not be sent to France, which from the system of refusing exchanges 
would have ruined his professional prospect ; the drummer also received the cross of the Legion 
of Honour. When the 2nd corps quitted Corunna, Marshal Soult recommended his prisoner 
to the attention of Marshal Ney. The latter, treating him rather with the kindness of a friend 
than the civility of an enemy, lodged him with the French consul, supplied him with money, 
gave him a general invitation to his house, and not only refrained from sending him to France, 
but when by a flag of truce he knew that Major Napier's mother was mourning for him as dead, 
he permitted him, and with him the few soldiers taken in the action, to go at once to England, 
merely exacting a promise that none should serve until exchanged. I would have not touched 
at all upon these private adventures, were it not that gratitude demands a public acknowledg- 
ment of such generosity, and that demand is rendered more imperative by the after misfortunes 
of Marshal Ney. That brave and noble-minded man's fate is but too well known. He who had 
fought five hundred battles for France, not one against her, was shot as a traitor ! Could the 
bitterest enemy of the Bourbons have more strongly marked the difference between their interests 
and those of the nation ? 






348 THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 

[1809 A.D.] 

cables, and four vessels went on shore, but the troops were rescued by the men- 
of-war's boats, the strande J vessels burned, and the fleet got out of harbour. 
Hill then embarked at the citadel, which was maintained by a rearguard 
under Beresford until the 18th, when, the wounded being all on board, the 
troops likewise embarked ; the inhabitants faithfully maintained the town 
meanwhile, and the fleet sailed for England. The loss of the British, never 
officially published, was estimated at eight hundred ; of the French at three 
thousand. The latter is probably an exaggeration, yet it must have been great. 
From the spot where he fell, the general was carried to the town by his 
soldiers ; his blood flowed fast and the torture of the wound was great ; yet 
the unshaken firmness of his mind made those about him, seeing the resolu- 
tion of his countenance, express a hope of his recovery : he looked steadfastly 
at the injury for a moment, and said : "No, I feel that to be impossible." 
Several times he caused his attendants to stop and turn round, that he might 
behold the field of battle ; and when the firing indicated the advance of the 
British, he discovered his satisfaction and permitted the bearers to proceed. 
When life was almost extinct, with an unsubdued spirit, as if anticipating the 
baseness of his posthumous calumniators, he exclaimed : " I hope the people 
of England will be satisfied. I hope my country will do me justice." In a 
few minutes afterwards he died, and his corpse, wrapped in a military cloak, 
was interred by the officers of his staff in the citadel of Corunna. The guns 
of the enemy paid his funeral honours, and Soult with a noble feeling of 
respect for his valour raised a monument to his memory on the field. & 

A Spanish Opinion of the Retreat 

English historians, especially Napier, & are so severe in their aspersions on 
the Spanish that it is only fair to give the words of a Spanish historian and 
contemporary, the count de Toreiio, who says : 

" The residents of Corunna with disinterested zeal not only assisted the 
English, but also kept faith with them, and did not immediately surrender 
the fortress, a noble example rarely given by towns when they see themselves 
abandoned by those from whom they expected protection and aid. So ended 
General Moore's retreat, censured by some among his own compatriots, 
upheld and even praised by others. Leaving the investigation and criticism 
of this campaign to military men, we are of opinion that the chance of being 
compelled to light before his troops embarked, and also his having ended his 
days honourably on the field of battle, have lent lustre to the glory and good 
name of General Moore. For the rest, if a veteran well-disciplined army 
such as the English, provided with abundant supplies, began a retreat before 
combating, in the progress of which retreat there were witnessed such dis- 
orders, such damage, such scandals, who can wonder that there were disorders 
and confusion in the Spanish retreats, executed after fighting, with an army 
of raw recruits, lacking all resources, and in their own country ? We do not 
say this to detract from British glory, but in defence of our own, so reviled 
by certain English writers by those indeed who took part in this disastrous 
campaign." f 

FKENCH SUCCESSES 

In Catalonia an attempt by the Spaniards to recover Barcelona was 
defeated by St. Cyr, who likewise took Rosas. In Galicia La Romana shel- 
tered himself and his little band amidst the mountains, whilst Soult overran 



[1809 A.*.] THE PENI ^STJLAR WAS 

we P ^oVbo^^TF2^l^ TV S n " the E >^ ' 
squadron ii* its port. f U Wed lta 6Xample ' Delivering up 

On the 22ncl of January, 
entrance does not appear to 
national feeling- as tlie " 



349 



1 



jnopaied to stand a second, yet more destructive. For a while the si* 
languished, and dissension existed amongst the besiegin* 45 -as But 
the , 22ud of January, 1809, Laxanes assumed the commalulTam on The' "t 

t K ^T^traf b ? S iegei>S 5T Ced thei1 ' entraMe int the t0 ' anS for thJe- 
ucUvs the atiuggie, street by street and house by house, was maintained 

with all the cu-oumata.B of affecting heroism recorded on the former oeea- 

that had thronged to defend Saragossa were " 



si on. But the 

. . -. - - ^."^v-"-*. jw VJ.\^JL\>AJ.VL lociJLtiimjJbftui WtJJTfcJ llfT 

bane : pestilence was engendered in the crowded cellars, and proved a yet 
more deadly foe thaxi the French. The posts were manned by hospital 
patients, sitting, because they could not stand ; Palafox was In Ills bed 
delirious ; uncl on tine 22nd of February the junta capitulated. Laiines 
violated the caj>itulat;ion in many points, and sent Palafox, whose liberty had 
been stipulated, prisoner to France. The central junta loaded the city and 
all its inhabitants ai^d defenders with praises, honour, and rewards. 1 * 

The re -conquest of Portugal was now the object of the French. Soult 
\vas appointed governor of that kingdom, and ordered to invade it from the 
north, whilst "Victor and Lapisse were to co-operate with him, the former In 
the south, itiicl tlie latter from. Ciudad Rodrigo. 

Soult took Oporto by storm on the 29th of March, fixed his headquarters 
there, and seems to liave meditated becoming king of northern Lusitania, if 
not of Portugal. Rut Oporto was the limit of his conquest. Behind him 
La llomaiii't, wlio hadL rallied Ms constantly increasing army, found Xey full 
employment, and Sil veira was again master of Tras-os-Montes. In the south 
Victor could not invade Alemtejo till he should have defeated Cuesta and 
the EstreniatLnran a/rmy ; and Lapisse could not make himself master* of 
Ciudad Roclrig-o, wlnicli was defended chiefly by Sir Robert Wilson with his 
Lusitanian legion. This legion was the first attempt, in the course of the 
war, to improve ttie Portuguese soldiers, by placing them under British 
officers. The prince of Brazil was induced to send General Beresford a 
commission, as field-marshal and general-in-chief of the Portuguese army. 
Witli this commission, Beresford landed early in March, and immediately 
proceeded to train -fche troops and to place over them as many effective 
English officers as lae thought national jealousy would bear (always, how- 
ever, nominally commanded by a native colonel). 

Bonaparte is calculated to have had at this time about 270,000 men in 

Lnd called Sarai*os>a 

^ v^~~ iio , and it shows thus: 

Thirty-live tliousaiid French, in the midst ol insurrections, and despite of circumstances peculiarly 
favourable to the defence, reduced fifty thousand of the bravest and most energetic men in ^ain. 
The latter smlt'ered nobly, but was tlieir example imitated? Gerona indeed, although less ce^e- 
brated, rivalled, perhaps more than rivalled, the glory of Saragossa ; elsewhere her late spoice. 
not trumpet-toilgued to. arouse, but with a wailing voice that carried dismay to the heart ut ^ 
nation."] 



[iaooA.1..] 



THE 



WAR 



351 



thenceforward unmolested bv invicl*r< 

this iiew 1 foeint^^.P aSS f S rf d ; ,. an ? Sil " Artllur led tlle British army a^ain^t 
An .mm.ehlksioi^* 1 ^ * + 9 Ues * a th ? ^intenanee of the post of Takven, 

: i^S.* %-tier portion on the Guadiana. Venegas was defeated 

ii my oi Aragon and Valencia liad been 
of Spain appeared to be inevitable. 



Meanwhile the central junta exerted themselves to reinforce Cue*ta> 
army, which, had been surprised and half destroyed by the enemy since its 
separation from tlie English ; and they thought of removing the immana*e- 
ahlo general. _A_ paralytic stroke saved them that trouble, bv compellfuo- 
him to resign. The command of the principal army of fifty thousand men 
was given to .A^r-eizaga who was ordered to free Madrid, before the reinforee- 
nio.nts, set at liberty by the end of the Austrian war, could reach Spain. 
Ihe same^ pccxiliarity of the Spanish character, namely, assuming as done 
whatever is promised, or even wished, seems to have convinced the* inexperi- 
enced statesmen, of the central junta that the general they had sent to con- 
quer could^ not l^e beaten, and that a decree, ordering the English army to be 
well supplied, iinxist answer every purpose, though they took no measures for 
procuring the px-o visions or the cattle required. Lord Wellington remained 
in his can toiina exits ; and on the 17th of November, Areizaga was totally 
defeated at Oeu.fia. The French now menaced Portugal : the British general 
was prepai'ecl f 01? its protection. 

The Frcnclx were masters of nearly all Spain north of the Sierra Morena, 
with the exception of G-alicia, Valencia, and Catalonia ; and in this last 
province, Jiltlxoxigh it resisted most stoutly, the French army, under St. Cyi% 
held the field, a,xid Gerona, one of the .most important fortresses not in their 
hands, fell in December, after emulating the glory of Saragossa during 
a seven moixtlis' siege. 1 But their garrisons were distressed, and their 

[iLafucnte & gives the following incidents of the siege of Gerona: "The holy patron of the 
town, St. Narcissu.s, -was named generalissimo, it being to his protection and intercession that 
the devout residents attributed their safety in the attacks and dangers of the wars of past times, 
Of the 900 men wlao garrisoned the fortress of Monjuich 511 soldiers and 18 officers had perished, 
and nearly all the rest were wounded before it was abandoned. It cost the French 3,000 men t j 
conquer the ruins. "Whenever the limited number of the garrison permitted, Alvarez ordered 
.sullies to be made Toy small bodies of men. It is related how, on the occasion of one of these sallies. 
the officer \vlio wsxs to direct it was asked where he would take refuge in case of necessity. * In 
the cemetery, 1 lie replied. 

: When NovenVber had set in the town was ravaged by pestilence, while it su^ereJL 




-XV/iilJii WJL XHU VCillUCX, J.,t/iw wviVAiv-j-w ,*v ~ . -^ 

niost valiant beflKxrL to fail, and yet the dauntless governor Alvarez seized or harshly 

the emissaries despatched by the French general to advise him to surrender. And upon he a. .^ 



THE PENINSULAR WAR 353 

[1809-1810 A.D.] 

irregular Portuguese troops were treated with wanton cruelty, and their 
women exposed to the grossest outrage from the French soldiery, until 
almost every individual in the Spanish guerilla bands, and the Portuguese 
irregulars, had a private injury to revenge ; and even sympathy in their 
resentments can barely palliate the sanguinary temper in which that revenge 
was sought. And to these personal motives of exasperation was added a 
deep sense of religious horror, since the French emperor had seized upon 
the estates of the church, upon Rome itself, and carried Pope Pius VII, 
who refused to sanction his spoliation, a prisoner to France. From the 
influence of so many various feelings, the whole of Spain was now overrun 
by fierce guerillas, and Joseph, in fact, was only master of the places actually 
occupied by French soldiers. 

As soon as the French movements threatened Portugal, Lord Wellington 
could not hope, with 27,000 British, and 30,000 nearly untried Portuguese 
troops, to defend Portugal against 80,000 French veterans, led by an able 
general, and supported by bodies of 30,000 or 40,000 men, acting as a rear- 
guard. 

THE LINES OF TOREES VEDBAS 

The British commander was even then directing the construction of 
those military works, known as the lines of Torres Vedras, by which the 
naturally strong ground covering Lisbon was rendered nearly impregnable ; 
and his main object upon the frontier appears to have been retarding the 
enemy's advance, until those lines should be perfected and the harvest 
gathered in. He intended that the inhabitants should then evacuate the 
intermediate district, with all their provisions and movable property ; and 
that he himself, retreating to his lines, should draw Massena into a desert 
country, where the French marshal could not subsist his troops, and would 
find himself confronted by a strong army, in an impregnable position, whilst 
his rear and communications were harassed by militia and ordenanzas, the 
proper name of the Portuguese armed peasantry. 

Massena, recently created by his imperial master, the prince of Essling, 
dedicated the spring to assembling his army, and making preparations; nor was 
it until he began the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo that the line by which he pro- 
posed to invade Portugal was ascertained. That town was gallantly defended 
by its governor, Herrasti, assisted by the guerilla chief, Sanchez, from the 
4th of June till the 10th of July, 1810. When the place was no longer 
tenable, Sanchez and his band, breaking through the besiegers, escaped, and 
Herrasti capitulated. Lord Wellington's plan required that he should 
hazard no attempt to relieve the besieged, 1 but his menacing position had 
long kept Massena' s usually enterprising temper in check, and continued to 
do so; for upwards of a month was suffered to elapse after the fall of 

[* The Spanish historian, the count de Torefio,/says of this siege: 

"All the residents, without distinction of class, age, or sex, rushed to the assistance of the 
troops. Lorenza, a woman of the people, distinguished herself among the women, being twice 
wounded ; and even two blind men, one led by a faithful dog, employed themselves in useful 
works, ever smiling and jovial, visiting the posts of greatest danger, crying out above the hissing 
of the balls, ' Courage, boys ; long live Ferdinand VII ! Viva Ciudad Rodrigo I ' 

u The Spaniards were angered with the English for not assisting the town. Lord Wellington 
had come thither from the Guadiana disposed, and even as it were in honour bound to compel the 
French to raise the siege. In this case he could not put forward the usual excuse that the Span- 
iards did not defend themselves, or that by their want of concert they caused the failure of the 
well-matured plans of their allies. The marquis de la Romana came from Badajoz to Welling- 
ton's headquarters, and joined his prayers to those of the residents and authorities of Ciudad 

H. W. VOL. X. 2 A 




3T4 THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 

[1810 A.r>.] 

Ciudad Rodrigo ere the French general proceeded to lay siege to the neigh- 
bouring Portuguese fortress, Almeida. 

The allied army, falling back as he advanced, offered no interruption. 
But an English officer commanded the Portuguese garrison in Almeida, and 
a defence yet longer than Ciudad Rodrigo's was confidently expected. An 
accident caused the explosion of the principal powder magazine on the 26th 
of August, when, through the panic of some and the treachery of others, 
the garrison flung down their arms, and forced the mortified governor to 
capitulate. Massena concentrated his forces about the middle of September 




SALAMANCA 









tumple rt cl 



~~ vxj. Kj^iiici of tilt; JL i jnf 
r, remained obstinate. 
- ans, a wide field is here open to 
._-- i, -*tu respect to the Spanish milito^/T"""*. lstorians llave lar o el Y and wrath- 

not have ended the 
enemy enabled to 
^"ish cause. The 

, qualifying the 



THE PENINSULAR WAE 



355 



[1810 A.D.] 

Massena, learning that there was a mountain road by which he could turn 
the left of his adversary's position, filed off his troops in that direction, 
vainly hoping to reach Coimbra the first/ On the 29th Lord Wellington 
prevented him, by retreating upon that city along the direct road. 

It was not till they actually saw the allied army retreating before the 
invaders that the inhabitants prepared to obey Lord Wellington's proclama- 
tion, and forsake their homes. And now it was too late to attain the end 
for which the order had been given. The provisions were left behind, the 
mills were scarcely damaged ; whilst the helpless and desolate crowds that, 
Hying from the enemy, accompanied the troops, encumbered their march, and 
gave birth to the usual disorders of a retreat. Such disorders were, however, 
repressed by the vigour with which Lord Wellington punished, and the pre- 
cautions he took to prevent them ; whilst Massena' s negligence indulged his 
troops in a license that rendered the disorder of the pursuing far greater 
than even now was that of the retreating army. At Coimbra alone the 
French troops, during the three days they spent there, wasted and destroyed 
stores that might have supplied two months' subsistence. But at Coimbra 
Massena was still ignorant of the existence of the lines of Torres Vedras ; 
and still believing that he was merely chasing the British to their ships, 
he probably saw no need of restraining his troops or of providing against 
famine. 

On the 10th of October the allied army took up its position within those 
extraordinary lines, of which one end rested upon the sea, and the other 
upon the Tagus, extending in length twenty -nine miles, at about thirty-five 
miles average distance from Lisbon. The utmost skill of the engineer had 
been exerted to improve the natural strength of this mountain line, and to 
supply its deficiencies. A second line of fortifications had been prepared 
some ten miles nearer Lisbon, in case the first should be lost, or prove too 
extensive for the numbers occupying it ; and a third to protect a possible 
forced embarkation. But this danger was happily gone by. Reinforce- 
ments arrived from England, additional Portuguese corps were assembled, 
and La Romana, at Lord Wellington's request, brought in two Spanish divi- 
sions. Before the end of the month seventy thousand regular troops were 
within the lines, ready to be moved, along convenient roads, to whatever 
points might be threatened, whilst sixty thousand Portuguese militia manned 
the different forts and redoubts that commanded the approaches. 

Massena halted in disagreeable surprise before the stupendous fortress. 
He was obliged to send foraging detachments to great distances ; these were 
cruelly harassed, and sometimes cut off by the Portuguese militia and orcle- 
nanzas. Towards the middle of November, Massena withdrew from before 
the lines, and took up a strong position at Santarem, upon the Tagus. 
Wellington, to observe him, stationed himself in advance of his lines, upon 
which he could fall back at a moment's warning. 

Throughout the greater part of Spain meanwhile a desultory warfare had 
been carried on, in which the French were generally successful. Victor was 
conducting the siege of Cadiz, an operation that proceeded languidly on both 
sides, from want of numbers on Victor's, and the usual causes on that of the 
Spaniards. 

The assembling of the cortes was looked to as the period and as the means 
of the regeneration of Spain. These hopes were confirmed, and the peculiar 
character of the Spanish resolution was, at the same time, curiously illus- 
trated by the mode in which the elections were carried on, even in the pro- 
vinces most thoroughly occupied by the French. Considerable bodies of 



33(5 TJtlJtiJ HJ.ttJ.UrtX U-D ^x^o.^ 

[1810-1811 A.IX] 

armed peasants, or of guerillas, sometimes temporarily drove the French 
from the town where an election was appointed to take place, sometimes 
merely held them at bay, whilst the suffrages were collected. And thus, 
almost everywhere, deputies were elected who, sooner or later, found their 
way to Cadiz. On the 24th of September, 1810, the cortes were solemnly 
opened. The assembly immediately decreed a new levy of 150,000 men, 
together with provision for the support and equipment of all the Spanish 
armies. But then, as if this decree had sufficed for expelling the enemy, who 
held the whole country in subjection, they dedicated their whole attention to 
framing a constitution, and to establishing sweeping theories, resembling 
those adopted by the French National Assembly, and equally democratic in 
their tenor. The disputes that ensued between the cortes and the regency 
ended in the dissolution of the latter body, for whom was substituted an 
executive council of three. The cortes offended the clergy by attacking 
the Inquisition, and attempting other ecclesiastical reforms for which the 
country was unripe, exasperated the whole church, and sowed the seeds of 
the fatal subsequent reaction that robbed Spain of all the internal benefits 
she ought to have derived from the restoration of her representative legis- 
lature. 

Although they had allowed the colonies to send deputies to the cortes, 
they were not willing to treat the colonists as brethren. The colonies had 
unanimously professed their loyalty to Ferdinand, and their adhesion to the 
national cause. The emissaries employed by Napoleon and Joseph to seduce 
them had been everywhere derided and punished ; and the American reve- 
nues, regularly conveyed to the mother-country by English vessels, ought, if 
fairly applied, to have done much towards supporting the war. 

On the intelligence of the surrender of Seville, the subjugation of Anda- 
lusia, and the flight and dispersion of the central junta, the province of Cara- 
cas assumed that Spain was conquered ; and, declaring that it never would 
submit to Joseph, cast off the authority of the mother-country whilst pro- 
claiming inviolable fidelity to Ferdinand. This example was followed by the 
other provinces of Terra Firma, as the north coast of the South American con- 
tinent was called ; and on the 19th of April, 1810, the Venezuela confederation 
proclaimed its independent existence under Ferdinand VII. They refused to 
acknowledge the Cadiz regency and cortes, -with, whom they carried on a paper 
war; and those bodies, vehemently resenting this daring assertion of inde- 
pendence, divided the forces that should have been dedicated to the expulsion 
of the enemy from Spain, in order to compel colonial submission. 

From the injudicious appointment to the chief command of the worst of all 
the Spanish generals, Lapena, Cadiz must have fallen, if Soult had not been 
ordered by ISapoleon to co-operate with Masseiia against Portugal. Lapena, 
to whom Grraham, as a measure of conciliation, gave up the supreme command, 
stood inactive in a safe and distant post, with eleven thousand Spaniards, 
whilst at Barrosa, Graham, with little more than four thousand English 
and Portuguese, fought and defeated nearly nine thousand French. By 

' 1S * S refusal even to pursue the beaten enem y> the Benefit 

? n ? UCC ^ W T \ L The council and cortes approved of 
r,c V CkimeC the meiit f the victoi T> and <^aham, in 

resigning his command to General Cooke, joined .Lord Wellington 

4d?heF ^M ^ f JanU ^ 18H - Oli had ea^tulSd on 
d IzaM clSi f Tf i if T * Bada J z - La Romana's successor, Men- 
defend^! 7 ^t; but Don Raphael Menacho, the governor of 
defended the place stoutly, and Soult remained before it. In 



THE 



a 
6 "^^ 






tiers nf P^,^l TI * A P ril Ma ss6na was finally driven across me iron- 

ihslSi^Hr^^^^^ 



FAILURES IK SPAIN 

B Lord Wellington, having now again delivered Portugal, asked for such 
reinforcements as might enable him to undertake the deliverance of Spain 
without being, as before, dependent upon the obstinate generals and feeble 
counsels of that country. But to the feasibility of his future schemes, and 
even to the maintenance of Portugal and of Cadiz, the recovery of Almeida 
Omdad Rodrigo, and Badajoz was indispensable. The first of these fortresses 
Wellington immediately blockaded, and directed Marshal Beresford to lav 
siege to the last. J 

Massena, having refreshed, re-equipped, and reorganised his army in 
Spam, inarched to relieve Almeida. His advance produced the battle of 
1 uentes de Onoro, fought on the 5th of May, in which, after an obstinate and 
sanguinary contest, they were repulsed, and again retreated. Brennier, the 
governor of Almeida, then despairing of relief, blew up the fortifications of 
the place, made his way, with little loss, through the British lines, and rejoined 
Massena. Ciudad Rodrigo was next blockaded, but the French easily intro- 
duced convoys, and the blockade was abandoned. Little progress was made 
in the south. Some smaller places Marshal Beresford recovered ; but he had 
scarcely invested Badajoz when the approach of Soult, with a powerful army, 
obliged him to raise the siege. He fought a battle at Albuera on the 16th of 
May. But the victory was purchased by the loss of forty-five hundred 
British, killed and wounded, out of six thousand, and twenty-six hundred 
Germans, Spaniards, and Portuguese. Lord Wellington arrived in Beres- 
f ord's camp soon after the battle, and Badajoz was besieged a second time 
under his own direction. 

On the night of the 5th of June an attempt was made to storm. It failed; 
was repeated two nights later, and again failed, both times with heavy loss. 
Upon this second repulse, as the combined French armies, to the amount of 
seventy thousand men, were approaching, Lord Wellington, who had but 
fifty-six thousand, and was particularly inferior to his adversaries in cavalry, 
raised the siege, and withdrew the troops to a strong position, limiting himself, 

P Napier,/'-, while admitting the harshness of Masse'na's deeds, blames the Portuguese peas- 
antry for many atrocities, and says that at least one of the worst outrages blamed upon Mass&ia's 
men. the pulling to pieces of Joao Fs body was actually done by the British themselves. Many 
of. the charges against the French he declares not only slanderous but impossible.] 



[1811-1812 A.D.] 

for the present, to the defence of Portugal. No other war raged now to dis- 
tract the attention of the French emperor ; but he did not again take the 
command of the peninsular armies, and it is difficult to assign a valid reason 
for his conduct. He contented himself with sending reinforcements to the 
extent of fifty thousand men, naming Marinont, duke of Ragusa, to supersede 
Mass6na, whose conduct of the invasion of Portugal he of course blamed ; 
and placing Catalonia, like Aragon, under Sachet's command, and also 
Valencia when he should have conquered that province. 

Suchet had deserved this confidence : he had done more than any other 
French general both to conquer Spain and to bend her to the yoke. Aragon. 
was tolerably submissive ; Tarragona, the last fortress of Catalonia, fell in 
June. Considering his work clone in Catalonia, although guerilla bands 
still occupied the mountain fastnesses, and the bold and able Sarsfield 
watched every opportunity of directing them upon the French, Suchet 
next invaded Valencia. He defeated several detachments of the Spanish 
army, and on the 16th of October laid siege to Murviedro. Blake gave 
battle on the 25th of October, and was defeated. Upon this disaster, Mur- 
viedro capitulated, and Blake took another strong position to protect the 
capital, Valencia, where Suchet, on the 26th of December, again defeated 
him, driving him into Valencia. There Suchet besieged him, and compelled 
him to capitulate on the 8th of January, 1812. This campaign, the most 
successful the French had made in Spain since the first, Napoleon rewarded 
by creating Suchet duke of Albufera, and granting him the royal domain of 
that name in Valencia, as an inalienable fief of the French empire. 

The dissensions with the colonies likewise diverted both the attention and 
the resources of the Spanish government from the vigorous prosecution of 
the war. In every American province insurrection now raged. In Mexico, 
after a severe struggle, the Spaniards regained the ascendency. In South 
America the insurgents everywhere prevailed, as will be described later in 
the histories of Spanish America. 

The year 1812 opened with an exploit, the brilliant rapidity of which 
seems equally to have confounded the French and enraptured the Spaniards. 
Lord Wellington had long been silently forwarding every preparation for 
the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. On the 8th of January, 1812, he suddenly 
appeared before the place, invested it, and on the 19th the town was 
stormed, c But throwing off the restraints of discipline, the British troops 
committed frightful excesses ; the town was fired in three or four places, the 
soldiers menaced their officers and shot each other ; many were killed in 
the market-place, intoxication soon increased the tumult, and at last, the fury 
rising to absolute madness, a fire was wilfully lighted in the middle, of the 
great magazine, by which the town, would have been blown, to atoms but for 
the energetic courage of some officers and a few soldiers who still preserved 
their senses. 

To recompense an exploit so boldly undertaken and so gloriously finished, 
Lord Wellington was created duke of Ciudad Rodrigo by the Spaniards, 
earl of Wellington by the English, marquis of Torres Vedras by the Portu- 
guese. & 

By disguising his designs, Lord Wellington hoped to master Badajoz 
like Ciudad Rodrigo, before Soult and Marmont should have time to hear 
of the siege, and unite their forces to raise it. On the 16th of March, 1812, 
Badajoz was invested. The works were hurried on with the diligence 
already practised, and on the 24th an important fort was carried by assault. 
On the 30th information was received that Soult was advancing with his 




THE tMlifSULAR WAR 35 

[1812 A.D.] 

whole disposable force to raise the siege ; that Graham and Hill were retreating 
before him towards Albuera ; that Marmont, taking advantage of the allied 
army's removal, had crossed the frontier, blockaded Ciudad Rodrigo, masked 
Almeclai, and marched southwards, plundering and ravaging the country, as 
far as Castello Branco ; and that the cavalry and militia, left to observe him, 
had fallen back, the latter upon the mountains, the former towards the 
Tagus. In consequence of this threatening intelligence, the siege was 
pressed with increased ardour ; on the 6th of April three sufficient breaches 
were made ; and on the night of that day they were stormecl.c 

The account of this desperate attack is perhaps the most dramatic, and 
is certainly the most famous, portion of Napier's History of the War in the 
Peninsula, which, as we have already stated, is regarded as the most 
eminent military history in the English language. We quote herewith the 
greater part of what is a masterwork of literature describing a master work 
of heroism. 

NAPIER'S ACCOUNT OF THE ASSAULT ON BADAJOZ 

Dry but clouded was the night, the air thick with watery exhalations from 
the rivers, the ramparts and the trenches unusually still ; yet a low mur- 
mur pervaded the latter, and in the former lights were seen to flit here and 
there, while the deep voices of the sentinels at times proclaimed that all was 
w^ll at Badajoz. The French, confiding in Phillipon's direful skill, watched 
from their lofty station the approach of enemies whom they had twice before 
baffled, and now hoped to drive a third time blasted and ruined from the walls. 
The British, standing in deep columns, were as eager to meet that fiery destruc- 
tion as the others were to pour it down, and both were alike terrible for their 
strength, their discipline, and the passions awakened in their resolute hearts. 
Former failures there were to avenge, and on both sides leaders who furnished 
no excuse for weakness in the hour of trial. The possession of Badajoz had 
become a point of personal honour with the soldiers of each nation, but the 
desire for glory with the British was clashed by a hatred of the citizens on 
an old grudge ; and recent toil and hardship with much spilling of blood 
had made many incredibly savage; for these things render the nobleminded 
indeed averse to cruelty but harden the vulgar spirit : numbers also, like 
Caesar's centurion, who could not forget the plunder of Avaricum, were 
heated with the recollection of Ciudad Rodrigo and thirsted for spoil. Thus 
every spirit found a cause of excitement, the wondrous power of discipline 
bound the whole together as with a band of iron, and in the pride of arms 
none doubted their might to bear down every obstacle that man could 
oppose to their fury. 

At 10 o'clock, the castle, the San Roque, the breaches, the Pardaleras, 
the distant bastion of San Vincente, and the bridge-head on the other side of 
the Guadiana were to have been simultaneously assailed, and it was hoped the 
strength of the enemy would shrivel within that fiery girdle. But many 
are the disappointments of war. An unforeseen accident delayed the attack 
of the 5th division, and a lighted carcass thrown from the castle, falling close 
to the 3rd division, discovered their array and compelled them to anticipate 
the signal by half an hour. Then, everything being suddenly disturbed, the 
double columns of the 4th and light divisions also moved silently and swiftly 
against the breaches, and the guard of the trenches rushing forward with a 
shout encompassed the San Roque with fire and broke, in so violently that 
scarcely any resistance was made. But a sudden blaze of light and the 
rattling of musketry indicated the commencement of a more vehement combat 



orf . THE HISTOJK.Y UJb r.a.ij>i 

o60 xiiJJ [1813 A.D.] 

a t the castle There General Kempt -for Picton hurt by a fall ia the 
and expecti 10- no change in the hour, was not present - there Kempt, I 
led the Td diTision. Having passed the Rivillas in single files by a 
, led the dia amb M mu k try , he had re-formed, and running up 
,Jd lf^?5 the caSle, where he fell severely wounded, 
and She * carried back to the trenches met Picton, who was hastening 
to take the command. 




VlMEIRO 

Meanwhile the troops, spreading along the front, had reared their heavy 
ladders, some against the lofty castle, some against the adjoining front on 
the left, and with incredible courage ascended amidst showers of heavy 
stones, logs of wood, and bursting shells rolled off the parapet, while from 
the flanks the enemy plied his musketry with fearful rapidity, and in front 
with pikes and bayonets stabbed the leading assailants or pushed the ladders 
from the walls ; and all this was attended with deafening shouts and the 
crash of breaking ladders, and the shrieks of crushed soldiers answering 
to the sullen stroke of the falling weights. Still swarming round th6 
remaining ladders those undaunted veterans strove who should first climb, 
until all being overturned, the French shouted victory, and the British, 
baffled but untamed, fell back a few paces and took shelter under the rugged 
edge of the hill. There the broken ranks were somewhat re-formed, and 
the heroic Ridge, springing forward, seized a ladder, and calling with stento- 
rian voice on his men to follow, once more raised it against the castle, yet to 
the right of the former attack, where the wall was lower and an embrasure 
offered some facility. A second ladder was soon placed alongside of the 
first by the grenadier officer Canch, and the next instant he and Ridge were 
on the rampart, the shouting troops pressed after them, the garrison, amazed 
and in a manner surprised, were driven righting through the double gate 
into the town, and the castle was won. A reinforcement from the French 
reserve then came up, a sharp action followed, both sides fired through the 



.Att WAR ; mi 

i;ate, and ihe mem) retired; but Uid^y fell, and no man died that uijjUt 
w : 5th more idory yet many died, HIH! there was much tjlorv. 

All tins time th- tumult ut the Breaches, was such as if the verv earth had 
been rent asunder and it.s central tires bursting upwards uncontrolled. The 
two divisie-js had reached the ^kicis just as the tiring at the eastle com- 
wenccd, and the Hash ot a single muskrt discharged from the covered way 
as a signal shotted them that the Frenelt were ready ; yet no stir was heard 
und darkness covered the breaches. Some hay-packs were thrown, some 
ladders placed, and the foilojn hoprs and storming partitas of the li^ht 
di\ isjon, the hundred in all, descended into tin*  ol .-.hell . and p.ul--i barrel-,. 

For an in .taut the lr,djf di\ra*n '.tood on the brink of the ditch amazed 
at the ternlie .hjht, but ihen with a :,httit that matchetl even the*, sound of 
the r\ploa'n the iu 35 l!e>A d*v\i! the Udders, or disdaining their ai tilled ttilli w,itT from the inundation; into tliat watery snare 
the head of the 4 1 h di>? .in tell, aisd it is said abovt* a hundred of the. fusi- 
liers the mm >f Aibuer.i, \veir tberr smothered. Those, who followexl 
chr-cked ji'l, but, a- if ."uel* a dr-ia^fes- had bt*eu expected, turned t-o t-he. left 
and thu-; i-ame upn the faceof ihe uuj'utisht*d ravrlin, which beiujj rouifh a,ml 
broken was mi^t.tKru for the breach, und instantly coviu'exl with men; yet 
a wide and deep rhitsm \VUH ^tilt bet \vi-eji them and the ramparts, from 
whence came a deiidh t'^'e w.t^tiitit their ranks. Thus bafiled tlu\y also c.om- 
menced ;t rapid tli.seharife of mitsivi*t*v and disrder ensued. Now a multi- 
tude bounded up the t.nva! breach a-, ii driven by a whirhviut K in , i, 



tin * fi t*.t 

l.tsL 1 ,t i!.. 



< JU 4i] THE PENINSULAR WAR 365 

S nie k * wn > soine that wil1 * be known; for in such a tumult 
Kf ? n bser ^, and often the observers fell themselves ^Xv 

br J^K^* r hat / iey S T : but n ^ no natio * * sent f o S 
Diavei tioops to battle than those who stormed Badajoz. When the extent 

h s mtmS h * 8 liaV C 7 aS made kn Wn t0 Lord Wellington, the finnne^o 
JIloc- I f ave , w ^ f or a moment, and the pride of conquest yielded to a 
passionate burst of grief for the loss of his gallant soldiers 6 J 



BRITISH PROGKESS 

One result of this triumph was the immediate and final retreat of the 
,v i 1 ;>' 01 , U Estrem adura and Portugal. Marmont raised the blockade of 
Cmdad Rodrigo, and fell back to Salamanca. 

In Spain, the native leaders meanwhile continued their desultory war- 
hire ; Lacy, Sarsfield, Rovira, Mina, and Porlier in the north, the Empecinado 
and banchez in the Castiles, and Ballasteros in the south, gained trifling 
advantages over the enemy in divers engagements ; but for want of concert 
no material result was obtained from their successes, whilst Suchet made 
himself master of the whole kingdom of Valencia, with the single exception 
ot Alicante. In. Tarif a, a town defended only by an old wall, eighteen hun- 
dred English and Spanish troops, commanded by Colonel Skerrett, repulsed 
ten thousand French led by the duke of Belluno in person. 1 

Meanwhile General Hill had driven the French from Almaraz upon the 
Tagus, and thus obtained possession of the only place through which the 
enemy's armies of Portugal and of the south could conveniently keep up their 
communication across the river. The earl of Wellington then advanced 
towards Salamanca on the 13th of June, 1812. He there, despite the efforts 
of Marmont, reduced several very strong forts. Marmont retreated to the 
Douro. A series of masterly manoeuvres ensued, in which, during six days, 
the contending generals displayed all the resources of their art. The advan- 
tage in this pure trial of skill remained with the Briton, who, on the 22nd 
of July, seizing upon a rash movement of Marmont's, instantly attacked him, 
and gained the splendid victory of Salamanca, in which the French lost seven 
thousand prisoners, at least as many killed and wounded, including three 
generals killed and four wounded, amongst whom was Marmont himself, 
eleven pieces of artillery, and two eagles. The loss of the allies amounted 
to fifty-two hundred killed and wounded, the former including one general, 
the latter five. 

Clausel, who upon Marmont's being disabled, succeeded to the command, 
rallied the routed army, and retreated to Burgos. Wellington pursued him 
as far as Valladolid, and then turning southwards, marched upon Madrid. 
Joseph had not above twenty thousand men for the defence of his capital ; 
he abandoned it at the approach of the allies ; but weakened himself by 
leaving a garrison of two thousand men in a fortress adjoining the palace of 
linen Retiro. They capitulated on the approach of the British. Lord 
Wellington entered Madrid on the 12th of August, and was received with 
every demonstration as the deliverer of Spain. The new constitution was 
proclaimed in the capital, and sworn to with eager zeal. And now the 

p Though Skerrett was covered with honours for this victory, Napier & shows that he was 
forced by certain officers to defend the place against his will, and that his mistakes even then 
were only overcome by Captains Smith and Mitchell. He sets the numbers of the garrison at 
twenty-five hundred ; the number of Trench was variously rated between five and ten thousand.] 



:uu; Tin: unr^ia 

r\|i|rr|-tralnl *nt 
inLalataiits a!,.| l; r thr uhdc liar u f man-h, trrnu- uas r\rr\ulirrr pri-tioiiii--- 
Maut, thr ill tiMMi ilri\ !, ami uiuli-i-rrs dr-M-ririi, ,-.;ouir \\iih, Mnur \ul 
thrir ratth-. Thr runuuir^ariat In^t nt-arly all fhr animals ami rarriajjt-; 
riu|.|..\'l, ihr villar-.r:; uriv ahainl. HUM I, ami thr umliT-niwiui,ssarirs \\t-rr 
lirwililiTnl HI- iKtra.iv.sfd In thr ti-rrilih- di,-,.. r drr thus spivad ahiMf th liin*. 

1 h* ivsf u| tltr ivin-ai h'-injj n nmulc :> trd uas nunlruilh mrt*' Vrj^ularit v, 
hut the r\t-r.-, ,*-.,, ;,tili runnniHrd I'lirui.-JuMl sdarin;^ rvidrurr that f hi* innral 
*'itmhh-t nl' a vvtirra! ranu.t ! 1'airlv jud-^rd h\ t'nllow intf in tin- \\akr uf a 
rrln-atiit;: anuv. d"hnv \\ a .-; an uaiit^nt' jro\ i,si,n:;, n,. Vianl.Nhip.s tu r\a;i- 
jM-ratr tin- mnu ainl \.i thr ant hur of ihi; hi.-.inn fintntril \ Spaniard;^ nr I'nrt mnir.sr, 
in  . than ninr iliMii-.and, in* indin-; ihr in , m thr :.ir-fr. 

^Vh-!i f h>" r.iniJaJ!"n IrriHUialrif, \\' r ! 1 1 1 ; | nil, r \ ;i:,| uTaf rd h\ thrnUlilnrt 

*t thr arm; and i hr mans rr'-,jn'^ hr Lad <-\ prj-irnrrd lurin:| I hr ram|aj!Mi, 
"' r ' 1 * ^*ni ! hi-i indi-.'jiahMn in a riimiar Irttrr adilrr.\.-,rd to thr :aiju-riur 
"U :'': - In nh-.tanrr it ilrr!ar-d that di rjj.iinr had drtrrinratrtl dnrtnt; 1 hr 
,im|Mi-.'n ;n a "'n-.ifT d".*T r fhan hr itad r\-r uitnr...-,rd nr c-\rr rrail of in 
auv armband Hu, Uifhn! au, di a.lrj^am nnn.nai |.ri\atin or hard;.hi|> 
iv-that -M! in.-l.-mi nt u.-ath.-r; that 1 hr nihrrr , had lo.a all n -inniantl <>\rr 
tln^ir lu.-n, .in.l rsr. .-.-,, ,,'il;.i .,-, ,,!' all Liml:, and ijjr\rlj -ahlr ln:r;rs h u d 

'"rnir-d ; tii.it no armv had *-, -r madr -.hortrr mart hr , in rrtrrat r 
had IMI-^-J; !",*.,!, .... I, M armv had rvrr hrm : lilfjr prrs.'.rd hv a jatrMlinjf 
rnrmv ; and thi, tin.ha|.jr\ .-.tat- ft' .ilt.iir, \\a-, t* hr t rarrd f >" f h<- l^ihif nai 

Iir-'T-rf isfd)it\ h\ lli>- j-i n nji-Jlt a! l)irrr.'' 




:v i r M-nnlii- 1 tf tr n-\ rr.;!*-, \ 
.nai,irtr. Tlji-i-r u.t:i nuihiu!-; tn rnnnti-i 
n ,Sj, tl in h_v th--.r i'ndifhi! r-\rr.r^ t *|" hr 

nanrr *jf f lit- d;>. ,,-u. iin , unit t h'- -ohnir,; 
f,i..u ii/, rr.-.itr,l I.,,rd \Vr!lin^f.n r.-un! i. 

\'-'lra ., n-.v, -..ufri-rrd nj..,i, hnu th.r tit!, 
i-ari,,!! ,.i" i.i . man; xli-t^nr-.; and i? miidt 
.n !' l!*- mu .t d.-ri,i-,r (! |" hi., j.rnii, ; aila 



368 THE HISTOEY OF SPAIN 

[1812-1813 A.D.] 

field under favourable circumstances ; and he, whose genius had hitherto 
been severely tried in contending with and surmounting every species of 
obstacle, might hope to pursue that more dazzling career of glory ^ which 
silences the cavils of envy and of ignorance. The resources of the peninsula, 
such as they were, were placed at his disposal. What was of more conse- 
quence, the French emperor, instead of constantly pouring reinforcements 
into Spain in numbers that almost seemed to render Lord Wellington's vic- 
tories barren triumphs, was compelled to withdraw thence many troops. 
Soult, with thirty thousand veterans, was recalled from Spain. 

The complicated arrangements requisite to bring so variously composed 
an army into activity, delayed Lord Wellington's opening the campaign until 
the middle of May ; when he took the field at the head of nearly seventy 
thousand men, English and Portuguese, independently of the Spanish army 
of Galicia under Castailos on his left, and another on his right under Don 
Carlos de Espana. The French had still 160,000 men in Spain; and as 
many of these as were not engaged in the eastern provinces under Suchet, 
or employed in garrison duty, were stationed around Madrid and between 
the capital and the Douro. 

Lord Wellington ordered General Murray to remove his troops by sea to 
Catalonia, in order both to relieve Valencia by drawing Suchet northwards, 
and to be nearer the scene of the principal operations, and sent Sir Thomas 
Graham, with the left wing of the army, to cross the Douro within the limits 
of Portugal, and thus turn a perhaps impregnable position, whilst he him- 
self with the centre, and Sir Rowland Hill with the right, advanced towards 
it in front, driving before them all detachments from the army of Portugal, 
as it was still termed, that were stationed south of the Douro. The 
manoeuvre seems to have confounded the enemy. The army of Portugal 
retreated. Joseph and Jourdan collected the army of the centre, and 
evacuating Madrid, hastened to join the army of Portugal near Burgos. 
Joseph fell back to Vitoria, the principal depot of the French in the northern 
provinces ; there he halted, drew up his army in battle array, and prepared 
to make a last struggle for his crown. It is said that the French occupied 
the very ground on which, in the fourteenth century, the Black Prince had 
defeated Du Guesclin and recovered the Castilian crown for Don Pedro. 

Lord Wellington on the 21st of June, 1813, attacked. The Spaniards 
fought with a courage that proved their former panics and failures to have 
been mainly attributable to want of confidence in their commanders and 
their comrades. The French wings were first assailed and driven back. 
Then, when their formidably posted centre had been weakened to support 
the wings, and was, besides, threatened on the flanks, that too was assailed 
and carried. The French had never before been so utterly routed. The 
whole army dispersed and fled; Joseph narrowly escaped being taken 
prisoner ; artillery, baggage, everything upon which the existence of an army 
depends fell into the hands of the victors, as well as the wives of many of the 
French superior officers, and the marshal's staff of Jourdan. The victory 
was actively followed up ; most of the French garrisons were taken, or sur- 
rendered upon being summoned ; the remaining French detachments, by a 
series of nearly bloodless manoeuvres, were driven across the Pyrenees ; and 
by the 7th of July no part of Joseph's army remained in Spain except the 
garrisons of Pamplona and San Sebastian. 

Suchet's was now the only French army in Spain, and his force remained 
unbroken in the eastern provinces, opposed to Sir John Murray. That 
general was conveyed with his troops by a British fleet from Alicante to the 



THE TKXIXSULAK WAR 



309 



Catalan rM>t, aini landing on the *h*d of June, near Tarragona, immediately 
invest od ihat tmvn. He hud made little progress with tho siege when 
Ma-bet >s ^idvanre Iruin Valencia was annoimml. Murray re-embarke.d his 
trumps \\iih ^''h iiviunitation, although Suehet was some marches distant, 
that he left his artillery ami stores behind. But, the news of the battle of 
Vitoi'ia and its emisequenees determined Suehet to abandon that province 
and eunrentnife his troops in Catalonia. Antgou was freed, and Alina had 
the !*Tatiti-atiin oi tveovoring the heroic Saragowui from her conquerors. 

When Napoleon reeeived thu tidings of the battle of Vitoria and its 
disustnm* results to his brother's hopes, ho sent, baek Soult to resume the 
eomtitatid i'mm uhieh he had taken him; to eolleet reiuforeemonts, r<;-or- 
t^anise tin* fugitive army, raise the, sieges of Pamplona and San Sebastian, 
and, in eoujtwettun \\ith Suehet, drive the British out of Spain. To enable 
him to ettee! t he.^r objects, 1m named him Imperial lieutenant in Spain, 
giving him authority far beyond wind- had ever before been Intrusted to any 
war.shai. Soult tun It the field at the head of nearly one hundred thousand 
men, enle, u i.urin-f to break through the extremity of the British, line, in 
order to jvlie\e Pamplona. The Kreneh marshal's first measures seemed to 
promise him Mieee.-.s, On tin* f>th of July, tSl.S, with about fifty thousand 
men, he ailaeKed two separate posts lield by divisions of (he right- wing 
under Sir lowland Hill. The allies fought- obstinately, but were obliged 
to tjive \\a\. < >n the 'JtJth Lord Wellington arrived on the, seene of action, 
immediately iViitUing to give battle, for tlu* protection of the bloekade of 
Pamplona. The Kivneh were defeated in two successive, engagements on tho 
.'JUfh;iud U-'t, after whieh Soult retreated into Kranet*. On the 1st of August 
the allied trot*j'i resumed their former positions amidst, the Pyrenees. 

The fuo Mrjfrs proeeethd ; but tlu* provisions in Pamplona still held 
nut : the fnrtifieatins of San Sebastian were, admirable, this approaches diHi- 
ftilt, and the garrison dtrfeiuled ils<*lf ptrtinae/iously. Wlutn the town was 
taken ( Amuf:,! 11), the siege, and espeeially tlu^ assault, had e.ost great 
nniubersof ii\-r-i nearly four thousand; and the troops, infuriated by the loss 
of their eowr.ide:4 and their own danger, eould not be restra,incul by tlu) few 
Min iving iUlieer i f the storming part v, or ev<*n taught to diserhninate hetwct^n 
friends and foe -i, Spaniards and Kreneh. Greater outrages are said to havo 
hern eiinunit ted upon I he inhabit ants of San Sebast ian t ban in any other town 
taken by the al!ie- ; and it was longer ere tlu* generals could restore order. 1 

[i \.ij-iri* >:.*.- " s-ui .^rliu.-.tinn* a ihml-nil** firtrnin ami in bud comHtiim when inv<'.si< i (I^ 
r*-, i-!*-. I ,i t*r :,;?;.; ,u:av j" . ,r.s;iiu; ;ui rnnrmttiw t;iM. rinK train, for Nixt.y-thivo days. Tin* 
|J,irr ;ri, tu ri " vt>'i*' j-int-d to nipiiu* and ihiuikfiHir.sn ; hut. at San Srba.st.ian, the 
tlij- .f*, flu 1 in < ' ; . *r;.i/- -iii*-ltv w ^- 1 uilb*d to l.bn <'atalo;tH* of *riinr-.s. One atroriiy of which a 
..*.il ii .'u", :,fn u -A ,.:, '.! i- : ;.--f inr..!ai i 1 i. f l c > i*fi tin* iniutl by itM cnonnou:i, incvnlibh', indr.nrribattU) bur- 
U t ;',. '!*;. j-.- . ; .? u . ! \\\r SrHjti to throw oti ili.-iriplinf wan (juickty niadi* utanifci-.t A 
!li,':.h j/.-i!* . .!* L m A: j.'i'.v.-.rd with a vulh-y of .small arnw and rncapcd with dilltculty from 
lam -Ah-i j i; i/. j.. l,.,:,t i- r !! provnM iiiaraha! of thr *>th division; a I'ornir.urMc adjutant who 
^jj-iritv. -.;.! ! * : ..--.:/ . .::.. v, i*-lrdni", i va;i put t.i d-ath in the market piact\ not with suddru 
^. ,.;, f: ,.- fc , .; ;:!:,},:, lu! ilr!dfratrly by a number of Kn?*,li';h Koldieri ; and though 
jji.ii.', .!}..;> r ; '*!''; f ,'--:u i'-iv-i t* Mv;,'r\ r 'order ami many men were well conducted, the; 
i i'v..*- .i:.-l v;-.'; 1 ; *.' :.;::.:** by villain:* ;;jii'i*ad ; iberamp J4luwcr ;;oon crowded into the place, 
.i:*'l'ij t t'",i,'i 'i-';.V ...'.:. .--l '.;:: d' tlr tl.itiifH, lM;!p.t; denounced the attempt to Napoleon, and took the opportunity to renew 
Ills often rejected request that he might be adopted into the imperial family, 
l>y receiving the hand of a Bonaparte princess. He was further said to 
^xiiploy his time in embroidering a robe for some image of the Virgin. But 
tlie stories were regarded as calumnious inventions, propagated for the pur- 
pose of lowering Ferdinand's character in general estimation; and the 
imprisoned king remained as before an object of loyal veneration, of esteem, 
xaitl pity. 

Immediately on reaching Paris, after his calamitous retreat from. Leipsic, 
N~a,poleon addressed a letter to Ferdinand, telling him that England was 
3iadeavouring to overthrow the monarchy and nobility of Spain, in order to 
^tn,~blish a republic in that country, and offering him his liberty, together 
vvltli the alliance of France, that he might return to Spain, and put an end 
Lo "fclie disorders now convulsing the kingdom and further menacing it. 
/V.ter a little delay and negotiation Ferdinand yielded. On the llth of 
L>ee ember, 1813, a treaty was signed at Valengay, by which he was recognised 
LH Icing of Spain and the Indies, all old treaties and alliances between France 
txicl Spain were revived and confirmed, and Ferdinand undertook for the 
immediate evacuation of Spain and her dependencies by the English. Even 
:,1 lis treaty, however, Ferdinand referred to the approbation and sanction of 
il te regency and the cortes ; and San Carlos was despatched with a copy oHt 
jo ]\ladrid, whither the seat of government was now transferred from Cadiz. 
On the 8th of January, 1814, the regency through its president, the 
^itrciinal de Bourbon, addressed a respectful answer to the king, in which 
;lie;y- assured him of their joy at the prospect of his majesty's approaching 
Ib oration, but returned the treaty unratified, and transmitted copies of the 
, and of the treaty with England, which prevented its ratification. 
Towards the middle of February, 1814, the weather improved, and Lord 
Wellington drew his troops from their cantonments. By a series of able 
ria-raceuvres, and of engagements ending with the well-contested and brilliant 
victory of Orthez, gained on the 27th of February, he drove ^Soult suc- 
cessively from post to post, through a country of peculiar difficulty, and 
T-diiio- in strong defensive positions, of which the French marshal skil- 
endeavoured to avail himself, but was uniformly foiled by the superior 
'kill of his British competitor. Sir John Hope lay before Bayonne with 
lie left wing. By the help of an English squadron, under Admiral 



i wng. 

Penrose, the close investment of Bayonne laid open the direct road to Bor- 
ie-i-uix and on the 8th of March "Wellington sent Beresford with fifteen 
lioizsand men to make himself master of that town. Beresford was accom- 
Wnied by the duke of Angouleme, as a royalist party with the mayor at their 
Yea,a were well known to be anxiously expecting the prince. Ihe Drench 
r- L r risen evacuated the town as the allied troops approached, and the mhabit- 
7iits assuming the white cockade, and receiving the prince with enthusiastic 
ovalty, proclaimed Louis XVIII. Lord Wellington recalling Beresford, 
^commenced his operations against Soult. On the 18th they began their 
'Movement up the Adour, the French retiring before them. On the 19th, 



THK 



, ' M N 



N / 



\\.-, .; "-> 



THE PENINSULAR WAR *-* 

A.D.] **'" 

enemies, having; trusted to that cliance when they formed the sle^e I Be^re 
tlie British troops they fell ; but how horrible was the struggle, how niaiiv 
uet eats they recovered from, how many brave men they slew ; what ekui^f- 
aucl interpositions of fortune occurred before they could be rolled back upon 
their own frontiers ! And this is the glory of England, that her soldiers 
and liers only were capable of overthrowing them in equal battle. What 
battle except Baylen did the peninsulars win? What fortress did thev take 
by siege ? What place defend ? Sir Arthur Weliesley twice delivered 
1 ortugal. ^ Sir John Moore's inarch to Sahagun saved Andalusia and Lisbon 
from invasion at a critical moment. Sir Arthur's march to Talavera delivered 
Galicia.^ Graham saved Cadiz. Smith saved Tarifa. Wellington recap- 
tured Cixidad and Badajoz, rescued Andalusia from Soult and Valencia from 
Sucliet ; the Anglo-Sicilian army preserved Alicante, and finally recovered 
Tarragona and Barcelona under the influence of the northern operations. 
which, at the same time reduced Pamplona and San Sebastian. England 
indeed ccmld not alone have triumphed in the struggle, but for her share let 
this brief summary speak: 

She spent a sum of more than 100,000,000 sterling on her own opera- 
tions, she subsidised both Spain and Portugal, and with her supplies of 
clotliing, arms, and ammunition maintained the armies of each, even to the 
guerillas. From thirty up to seventy thousand British troops were employed 
by lier ; ami -while her naval squadrons harassed the French with descents 
upon, the coasts, and supplied the Spaniards with arms and stores and money 
lifter every defeat, her land-forces fought and won nineteen pitched battles 
and innumerable combats, made or sustained ten sieges, took four great 
fortresses, twice expelled the French from Portugal, preserved Alicante, 
Cartagena, Tarifa, Cadiz, Lisbon ; they killed, wounded, and took two hun- 
dred thousand enemies. And the bones of forty thousand British soldiers 
lie scattered on the plains and mountains of the peninsula. For Portugal 
ahe re-organised a native army and supplied officers who led it to victory ; 
and to the whole peninsula she gave a general whose like has seldom 
gone forth to conquer. And all this and more was necessary to redeem that 
land from France ! 

NAPIEll'S ESTIMATE OF WELLINGTON 

Wellington met the peculiar difficulties which attend generals con- 
trolled bv politicians. An English commander dare not risk much, wiien 
one disaster will be his ruin at home ; his measures must be subordinate 
to liis primary consideration. Wellington's caution, springing from that 
scmrce, had led friends and foes alike into wrong conclusions as to his system 
of war - the French call it want of enterprise, timidity ; the Lnglisk have 
denominated it the Fabian system. These are mere phrases. His system 
was t he same as that of all g/eat generals. He held his ^my in ho^k^ 
ini it with unmitigated labour always in a fit state to march or to %^;; ^ 
acted indifferently as occasion offered on the offensive or defensive, dispia^ 
in- in bo5i a complete mastery of his art. That he was less vast m k , 
less daring in execution, neither so rapid nor so original a com- 
s Napoleol, must be admitted ; and being later m the Held of gloij 



as 



374 1HE HISTOEY 0V 

[1814 A.D.] 

and Portuguese governments ; their systems of war were however alike 
in principle, their operations being only modified by their different political 
positions. Great bodily exertion, unceasing watchfulness, exact combina- 
tions to protect their flanks and communications without scattering their 
forces these were common to both ; in defence firm, cool, enduring, in 
attack fierce and obstinate ; daring when daring was politic, yet always 
operating by the flanks in preference to the front ; in these things they were 
alike : in following up a victory the English general fell short of the French 
emperor. The battle of Wellington was the stroke of a battering-ram 
down went the wall in ruins ; the battle of Napoleon was the swell and dash 
of a mighty wave before which the barrier yielded and the roaring flood 
poured onwards covering all. 

But there was nothing of timidity or natural want of enterprise to be dis- 
cerned in the English general's campaigns. Neither was he of the Fabian 
school. He recommended that commander's system to the Spaniards, he did 
not follow it himself ; his military polic3 r more resembled that of Scipio Af ri- 
canus. Wellington was never loath to fight when there was any equality of 
numbers. Slight therefore is the resemblance to the Fabian warfare. And 
for the Englishman's hardiness and enterprise, bear witness the passage of the 
Douro at Oporto, the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, the storming of Badajoz, 
the surprise of the forts at Mirabete, the march to Vitoria, the passage of the 
Bidassoa, the victory of the Nivelle, the passage of the Adour below Bayonne, 
the fight of Orthez, the crowning battle of Toulouse ! To say that he com- 
mitted faults is only to say that he made war ; to deny him the qualities of 
a great commander is to rail against the clear midday sun for want of light. 
Iron hardihood of body, a quick and sure vision, a grasping mind, untiring 
power of thought, and the habit of laborious minute investigation and arrange- 
ment all these qualities lie possessed, and with them that most rare faculty 
of coining to prompt and sure conclusions on sudden emergencies. This is 
the certain mark of a master-spirit in war.& 




CHAPTER XIV 
THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS 

[1814-1902 A.D.] 

ON the 7th of March, 1814, Ferdinand VII definitely received Ids passports 
irom the French. Master of himself once more, he began to think of means of 
returning to the capital and recovering his former power. But, at the same 
time, he resolved to avoid doing anything that would seem to sanction modi- 
fications accomplished by the cortes, regarding such as an attack on his sover- 
eign power. _ To enter Spain without making any promise at all was the 
essential point. The king's counsellors proposed he should send a king's 
messenger to Madrid bearing a letter carefully flattering the hopes of the 
Liberal party without undertaking to fulfil the slightest engagement with 
regard to it. Ferdinand acted on this advice, and charged General Zayas to 
bear to Madrid the news of his immediate return, and to give the regency a 
letter wherein were these ambiguous words : 

"As to the re-establishment of the cortes and all they have been able to do of use for the 
kingdom, during my absence, my approbation Trill be given in so far as it all conforms to my 
royal intentions/' 

The general set out for Madrid with this letter and hastened to arrive 
thither, where his coming produced the liveliest enthusiasm. The cortes 
affected to see in the message a pledge for the political future of their sover- 
eign, and abstained thenceforth from those energetic measures alone able to 
save them. While they thus lulled themselves in fancied security, Ferdinand 
had hastened to gain the Spanish frontier by Toulouse and Perpignan. On the 
2-itli of March he crossed the Fluvia, limit chosen by Marshal Suchet as 
the theatre which was to see the solemn restoration of the royal captive to the 
Spanish troops. The ceremony was carried out amid general enthusiasm, and 
all the people eagerly ran to assist at such a novel spectacle. 

From this moment, Ferdinand, reinstated in his kingly prerogatives, found 
himself under a double influence, one drawing him to the representative sys- 
tem, the other towards that absolute monarchy which best suited his desires 
and tastes. In all the towns he went through, and particularly in Gei-ona 
where he had stayed some days, a people mad with joy, drunk with enthusiasm, 

375 



376 THE HISTORY OF SPAIN 

[ISM A.D.] 

had cast themselves at his feet, liad dragged his carriage, and given most 
striking testimony of obedience and submission. 1 

Sure now of the destiny awaiting him, he decided to abandon the route 
fixed by the decree of the 2nd of February. 

During this triumphal journey (24th of March to the 6th of April), the 
gravest events had taken place in France, and one may conceive that Ferdi- 
nand, before attempting his coup d'Stat^ did not want to get too far away 
from the frontier, at any rate while the issues were doubtful. Certain 
events were very favourable : the entry of the allies into Paris ; the crea- 
tion of a provisionaiy government; Napoleon's abdication, and departure 
for Elba; and lastly the proclamation of Louis XVIII, which should lead to 
the suppression of hostilities and the end of the war. 

The Aragonese were* just as unbridled as the Catalans in expressing 
monarchial fanaticism. So while the authorities remained faithful to the 
regency, the people showed such enthusiasm for the king that he could no 
longer doubt for an instant that he could now venture all. Old courtiers, 
interested in seeing the ancient court restored, const