| By Author | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Title | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Language |
|
Download this book: [ ASCII ] Look for this book on Amazon Tweet |
Title: History of the Peninsular War Volume VI (of 6)
Author: Southey, Robert
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "History of the Peninsular War Volume VI (of 6)" ***
Transcriber’s Note:
Sidenotes are shown in UPPER-CASE and enclosed in ♦DIAMOND SYMBOLS♦;
italic text is enclosed in _underscores_.
Superscripts are indicated as ^o, ^r, or ^{er}.
Other notes will be found at the end of this eBook.
HISTORY
OF THE
PENINSULAR WAR.
“Unto thee
“Let thine own times as an old story be.”
DONNE.
BY ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ. LL.D.
POET LAUREATE,
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY, OF THE
ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY OF HISTORY, OF THE ROYAL
INSTITUTE OF THE NETHERLANDS, OF THE
CYMMRODORION, OF THE MASSACHUSETTS
HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC.
A NEW EDITION.
_IN SIX VOLUMES._
VOL. VI.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
MDCCCXXXVII.
Ἱστορίας γὰρ ἐὰν ἀφέλῃ τις τὸ διὰ τί, καὶ πῶς, καὶ τίνος χάριν ἐπράχθη,
καὶ τὸ πραχθὲν πότερα εὔλογον ἔσχε τὸ τέλος, τὸ καταλειπόμενον αὐτῆς
ἀγώνισμα μὲν, μάθημα δὲ οὐ γίγνεται· καὶ παραυτίκα μὲν τέρπει, πρὸς δὲ
τὸ μέλλον οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ τὸ παράπαν.
POLYBIUS, lib. iii. sect. 31.
CONTENTS OF THE SIXTH VOLUME
CHAPTER XLI.
(CONTINUED.)
Page
Duran enters Soria 1
Members of the Junta of Burgos seized by the French and put to
death 2
Circumstances of the execution 4
Treatment of their bodies 5
Retaliatory executions 6
El Manco 7
Mutual retaliations 7
Guerrilla exploits 8
Intercepted letters from the Intruder 9
Sir Rowland Hill’s expedition against the bridge of Almaraz 12
Ballasteros defeated at Bornos 16
Lord Wellington advances into Spain 16
Salamanca 17
The Tormes 18
The allies enter Salamanca 18
Siege of the forts there 19
Marmont moves to relieve them 21
Surrender of the forts 24
Marmont falls back upon the Douro 25
Lord Wellington advances to that river 26
The Douro 27
Marmont reinforced by General Bonnet 28
Lord Wellington retires before him 29
Battle of Salamanca 33
Proceedings of Sir Home Popham on the coast of Biscay 41
CHAPTER XLII.
Appeal of the Intruder to the Spaniards 47
State of Madrid 48
Measures of the Intruder before the battle of Salamanca 49
Advance of the allies 50
Affair at Majalahonda 51
The enemy retire from Madrid 51
The allies enter 52
The new constitution proclaimed there 52
The Buen Retiro 53
Surrender of the Retiro 56
The constitution sworn to 56
General Foy’s movement 58
Measures of police at Madrid 59
Lord Wellington’s situation 61
Anglo-Sicilian army 62
Majorcan division 63
The expedition arrives on the coast of Catalonia 64
Defeat of the Spaniards at Castalla 65
The expedition lands at Alicante 66
The French fall back to the Xucar 66
They withdraw from Santander 67
And are driven from Bilbao 67
State of the Galician army 67
The French break up the siege of Cadiz 68
Movement of General La Cruz Mourgeon and Colonel Skerrett upon
Seville 69
Brigadier-General Downie 69
The French driven from Seville 71
Rejoicing in that city 73
Honours rendered to Lord Wellington 74
St. Teresa appointed co-patroness of Spain 74
Lord Wellington commander-in-chief of the Spanish armies 77
His situation at Madrid 77
He moves toward Burgos 79
The French withdraw from Valladolid 79
The allies advance to Burgos 80
Burgos 81
The allies enter Burgos 85
Castle of Burgos 86
The horn-work on St. Miguel’s taken 87
Failure in assaulting the first line 89
A second assault fails 90
A third by daylight proves successful 91
Major Cocks 93
The second line assaulted with ill success 95
Movement of the French in the North 95
Ballasteros refuses to act under the British commander 96
He is exiled to Ceuta 97
General Maitland gives up the command of the Anglo-Sicilian army 98
Unsuccessful attempt upon Denia 99
The French prepare to march from the South against Lord
Wellington 99
Castle of Chinchilla taken by them 99
They begin their march 100
Lord Wellington raises the siege of Burgos 101
Retreat from Burgos 101
Disorder during the retreat 102
The allies halt 104
Sir Rowland Hill retreats from the Xarama 106
State of Madrid 107
The allies withdraw from Madrid 107
The French enter 108
Junction of the retreating armies 109
Junction of the French armies 110
Lord Wellington retreats to Salamanca 111
And from thence to the Agueda 112
Sufferings of the army 112
Sir Edward Paget made prisoner 114
Lord Wellington reaches Ciudad Rodrigo 115
The French retire to the Tormes 116
Castle of Alba de Tormes evacuated 116
Lord Wellington’s circular letter to the commanding officers of
battalions 117
CHAPTER XLIII.
Opinions of the opposition 122
Marquis Wellesley calls for inquiry 122
Lord Grenville 124
Mr. Ponsonby 125
Mr. Freemantle 125
Mr. Whitbread 125
Motion of thanks to the armies 127
Sir F. Burdett 127
Marquis Wellesley moves for a committee 129
Earl Grey 131
Earl of Liverpool 132
Earl Bathurst 132
Lord Holland 133
Lord Wellington goes to Cadiz 133
Arrangements concerning the Spanish armies 134
Lord Wellington goes to Lisbon 135
Relaxed discipline of the Portugueze army 135
Buonaparte withdraws troops from Spain 137
Exactions of the French 138
Longa’s movements in the North 138
Mina’s movements 140
Caffarelli recalled from Spain 141
Clausel endeavours to hunt Mina down 141
Renovales made prisoner 143
Castro de Urdiales taken by General Foy 143
Enormities committed there by the French 144
Marshal Soult called from Spain 145
The Intruder goes to Valladolid 145
Anglo-Sicilian army 146
Sir John Murray takes the command 146
Defeat of Elio’s corps 147
Suchet marches against the Anglo-Sicilian army 147
Battle of Castalla 149
Lord Wellington opens the campaign 153
The left of his army crosses the Douro 153
Affair near Salamanca 154
Passage of the Ezla 157
Sir Rowland Hill crosses the Douro 159
The French abandon Burgos 161
The Ebro 162
Passage of the Ebro 163
The French fall back upon Vittoria 163
Vittoria 165
Battle of Vittoria 166
Sir Thomas Graham proceeds against General Foy 175
The French driven from Tolosa 176
Foy retreats into France 177
Passages is surrendered 178
Castro abandoned by the enemy 178
Pancorbo taken 179
Clausel retires to Zaragoza 179
Preparations for the siege of Pamplona 180
CHAPTER XLIV.
Expedition from Alicante 181
Col de Balaguer taken by the Anglo-Sicilian army 182
The expedition lands near Tarragona 183
Suchet’s movements for the relief of that place 185
Sir John Murray raises the siege 186
Suchet approaches Col de Balaguer and retires again 188
Sir John re-lands the troops 189
Lord W. Bentinck takes the command 190
Fort at Col de Balaguer demolished 190
Unsuccessful movements of the Spaniards in Valencia 191
The expedition returns to Alicante 192
Suchet’s measures after the battle of Vittoria 192
Lord Wellington undertakes the siege of S. Sebastian’s 193
Clausel retreats into France by way of Jaca 193
Duran invites Mina to act with him for the deliverance of
Zaragoza 194
Affair before Zaragoza 195
Second sally of the French 197
Duran arrives before the city 197
The French withdraw from the city, leaving a garrison 198
Suchet draws off the remaining garrisons in Aragon 201
Duran enters Zaragoza 202
Mina takes the command 203
The Aljaferia surrendered 204
Conduct of the Zaragozans during their captivity 204
S. Sebastian’s 207
Distribution of the allied army 208
Siege of S. Sebastian’s 210
Convent of S. Bartolomé taken 211
The batteries open 213
Unsuccessful assault 214
The siege suspended 217
Soult appointed Commander-in-chief 218
His address to the troops 219
Critical situation of the allied army 220
Soult’s movements for the relief of Pamplona 221
Battles of the Pyrenees 222
Siege of S. Sebastian’s resumed 230
Preparations for assaulting the town 233
Soult moves for its relief 234
Assault of the town 234
Sir James Leith wounded 238
Sir Richard Fletcher slain 239
The town taken 239
The French defeated in their attempt to relieve it 241
Siege of the castle 244
Excesses committed in the town 246
The garrison surrenders 247
CHAPTER XLV.
The remains of Romana’s army return from the North 251
Lord W. Bentinck invests Tarragona 251
Suchet raises the siege 253
The French abandon Tarragona 254
Plans proposed to Suchet by Soult 254
Suchet surprises the allies at the pass of Ordal 256
The Anglo-Sicilians retreat 257
The command devolves upon Sir William Clinton 258
Position of the armies in the Pyrenean frontier 261
Levy ordered in France for Soult’s army 262
Speech of M. Regnaud de S. Jean Angely 262
Of the Comte de Beurnonville 262
Lord Wellington’s orders upon entering France 263
Passage of the Bidassoa 264
The Bidassoa 265
Attack of the French position 266
Conduct of the French peasantry 270
Pamplona surrendered 272
Soult’s position on the Nivelle 274
Battles of the Nivelle 278
The allies cantoned between that river and the sea 287
S. Jean de Luz 288
Discipline observed by the allies 289
The inhabitants return to their homes 290
Bayonne 291
Passage of the Nive 292
Soult takes a defensive position 306
The allies wait in their cantonments for better weather 307
Marshal Beresford restores the colours of certain Portugueze
militia regiments 308
Conduct of the Spanish and Portugueze soldiers at Dantzic 309
Ill conduct of the Spanish government towards Lord Wellington 310
Change of Regency 310
Proceedings in Parliament 311
Lord Grenville’s speech 312
Marquis Wellesley 314
Lord Liverpool 315
Mr. Charles Grant 316
Mr. Whitbread 318
Mr. Canning 320
Mr. Whitbread 325
Militia allowed to volunteer for foreign service 325
Lord Holland 326
Terms offered by the allies to Buonaparte 328
Buonaparte treats with Ferdinand 329
Conference between Comte de Laforest and Ferdinand 329
Treaty concluded at Valençay 334
Duque de San Carlos sent to the Regency 335
Secret instructions from Ferdinand 337
Macanaz sent to Valençay 338
Zayas and Palafox released 339
Palafox sent to the Regency 340
Reply of the Spanish government 340
Measures of the Cortes 341
CHAPTER XLVI.
Buonaparte’s speech to his council 344
Proceedings of the French government 345
Comte Dejean 345
Regnaud de S. Jean d’Angely 345
Lacepède 346
Buonaparte’s speech to the Legislative Assembly 347
British regulations for trading with the captured French ports 347
Injury done by destroying the woods in this part of the Pyrenees 350
Movements in the month of January 352
False reports circulated by the French government 353
The Duc d’Angoulême goes to Lord Wellington’s army 354
Rochejaquelein comes to the British camp 355
Lord Wellington refuses to send an expedition to the coast of
Poitou 357
Suchet fails in an attempt to surprise a British corps 358
The German troops in Barcelona disarmed 359
Troops withdrawn from Suchet’s army 359
Failure of an attempt against the enemy at Molins del Rey 360
Farther drafts from Suchet’s army 361
He retires to Gerona 361
Van Halen opens a correspondence with Eroles 363
He deserts from the French army 363
His scheme for recovering certain places 364
The deceit tried at Tortosa 365
It fails there 367
Attempt at Lerida 368
And at Mequinenza, where it succeeds 369
Success at Lerida 370
And at Monzon 372
The three garrisons made prisoners 373
Suchet dismantles Gerona and other places 374
State of Lord Wellington’s army 375
Operations are renewed 376
Preparations for crossing the Adour 378
The Adour 379
Passage of the Adour 381
Entrance of the flotilla 386
A bridge carried over the Adour 389
Passage of the Gaves 391
Orthes 392
Battle of Orthes 394
The French driven from Aire 399
Soult draws nearer the Pyrenees 400
The allies enter Pau 401
Deputies arrive from Bourdeaux 402
The Duc d’Angoulême proceeds thither with Marshal Beresford 402
The Landes 403
The Buonapartists withdraw from Bourdeaux 404
The Duc enters, and the white flag is hoisted there 405
Failure of the negotiations at Chatillon 407
Soult’s proclamation 409
Admiral Penrose enters the Gironde 411
Proceedings at Valençay 414
Ferdinand set at liberty 416
His arrangement with Marshal Suchet 418
He writes from Gerona to the Regency 420
Ferdinand goes to Zaragoza 420
Soult resumes the offensive 421
He retreats upon Tarbes 422
Farther retreat to Toulouse 422
Passage of the Garonne 424
Toulouse 426
Soult’s position there 428
Battle of Toulouse 430
Soult retires from Toulouse 437
The allies enter 438
Louis XVIII proclaimed there 439
Sally of the French from Bayonne 439
Sir John Hope taken prisoner 441
The French repulsed 442
Suchet and Soult acknowledge the new government 444
Disposition of Ferdinand on his return 446
Impolitic measures of the Cortes 447
Cardinal Bourbon’s reception by Ferdinand 452
Elio meets the King 453
Ferdinand enters Valencia 453
The officers swear fidelity to him 455
General Wittingham’s advice 456
Memorial of the Serviles 457
Stone of the Constitution removed 458
Ferdinand’s declaration 459
He enters Madrid 465
Subsequent conduct of the people and of the government 466
Lord Wellington returns to England 467
He takes his seat in the House of Lords 468
The Lord Chancellor’s speech 468
The House of Commons congratulate him on his return 469
He returns thanks to the House 469
The Speaker’s speech 470
Conclusion 471
HISTORY
OF THE
PENINSULAR WAR.
CHAPTER XLI.
(CONTINUED.)
GUERRILLAS, AND THEIR EXPLOITS. SIR ROWLAND HILL’S SUCCESS AT ALMARAZ.
BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.
♦MAY, 1812.
DURAN ENTERS SORIA.♦
At this time, when nothing could be expected from the Spanish armies,
the Guerrillas acted in larger bodies than before, and engaged in
more difficult enterprises than they had yet undertaken. Duran having
obtained a plan of the fortifications of Soria from an architect who
resided there, resolved upon attacking that city as an important post,
from whence the French commanded a considerable extent of country.
Soria, which stands on the Douro, near the supposed site of Numantia,
and contained about 1,100 families in the middle of the last century,
is surrounded by an old wall eighteen feet in height and six in
thickness, to which some works adapted to a more modern art of war
had been added; the suburb also had been fortified, and the castle
strengthened. He approached the city by a circuitous route (during a
most tempestuous night of wind ♦MARCH 18.♦ and snow, which froze as
it fell,) and reaching it at daybreak scaled the walls, forced the
suburb, and obtained possession of the city. The enemy retired into the
castle, and Duran prepared to besiege it, setting fire to four convents
to clear the way for his operations.
The adventurers had arrived in fortunate time, for the morrow was
St. Joseph’s day, when a ball and supper were to have been given in
honour of the Intruder for his name’s sake, and the delicacies which
had been prepared for this occasion served to regale these unexpected
and unwelcome visiters. Battering-rams were employed with great effect
against the old walls, that the city might no longer afford protection
to the French; the public money was seized, great quantities of grain
and biscuit dispatched by all the means of transport which could be
found, and a contribution levied upon the inhabitants, for hitherto
they had contributed nothing to the national troops, being under
the yoke of the French, and thinking it evil enough to pay what the
invaders exacted; but the Guerrillas admitted of no such excuse: they
supposed the people to be rich because it was a trading city, and many
who had formerly been rich proprietors dwelt there; the contribution,
therefore, was not likely to be lightly imposed. Duran enrolled also
such men as he thought fit for service, ordered others who might have
been serviceable to the enemy to leave the city, and retreated himself
without loss, when a detachment arrived from Aranda to the succour of
the garrison.
♦MEMBERS OF THE JUNTA OF BURGOS SEIZED BY THE FRENCH AND PUT TO DEATH.
MARCH 21.♦
This enterprise led to a tragedy characteristic of the spirit in which
the war was carried on on both sides. The French, who had come in time
to save the castle of Soria, obtained intelligence that the Junta of
Burgos were in a village called Grado; and there, under the guidance of
a Spanish traitor, Moreno by name, a party of 450 horse, making a march
of fourteen leagues in less than four-and-twenty hours, surprised them
early in the morning. Some twenty soldiers with their commander were
found fast asleep, and made prisoners, as were three members of the
Junta and the secretary of the Intendency: but more persons escaped
than were taken, though the enemy set every house on fire, with the
intention of burning those who might have hidden themselves. As soon
as the news was known, Duran and the Junta of Soria sent to the French
commander in that city, reminding him that the prisoners taken there
had been treated with humanity, and threatening reprisals if the
persons who had now been captured should be put to death. This was of
no avail. The vice-president of the Junta, D. Pedro Gordo, who was the
parochial priest of Santibañez, was inhumanly scourged by Moreno, ...
perhaps from some impulse of private enmity: the prisoners were then
conducted to Aranda, from whence the soldiers contrived to effect their
escape. Navas, the secretary of Gordo, and the two other members of
the Junta, D. Jose Ortiz de Covarrubios, and D. Eulogio Jose de Muro,
with a young lad, son of the former, were sent in irons to Soria,
there to be tried by the criminal Junta of that ♦APRIL 2.♦ city. The
trial, which took place during the night, occupied five hours, all the
formalities of justice being observed; and the boy, whom because of his
youth it would have been monstrous to condemn, was acquitted: the other
four were sentenced to death, and four priests were ordered immediately
to attend them; but no more time was allowed than was necessary for
bringing together and forming the soldiers who were to conduct them to
the place of execution.
The different behaviour of the sufferers was such as deeply to affect
the spectators. Ortiz was greatly moved at the thought of leaving his
son fatherless and destitute; ♦CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE EXECUTION.♦ but
overcoming that emotion with a Spaniard’s feeling, he commended the
boy to God as the orphan’s Father, and called upon the Lord to receive
his soul as a victim for his religion and his country. The priest
held a crucifix in one hand as he went to execution, and beat his
breast incessantly with the other; and while tears of ardent devotion
streamed down his cheeks, implored with a loud voice forgiveness for
his own sins and for those of the people. Muro, who was a much younger
man than either, was of a weak constitution, still further weakened
by the fatigues he had undergone in the performance of his duties; so
that what with ill treatment, and what he had suffered during twelve
days’ imprisonment, there seemed to be an entire prostration of his
strength; faintings and cold sweats succeeded each other, and it was
thought he would expire before he could reach the place where he was
to be put to death. He had asked earnestly for a crucifix; the priest
who attended him not knowing for what service he had been summoned
had improvidently left his house without one; he gave him therefore
in its stead a rosary, with a medal attached to it, on which was the
image of Our Lady of the Pillar. Muro had studied in the university
of Zaragoza, where it is said he had never omitted, for a single day,
to visit and adore the tutelary idol of that city; and this trifling
circumstance, which at any other time would have appeared to him light
as air, acted upon him now in a manner that might seem miraculous or
incredible to those who cannot comprehend the force of imagination and
the strength of a believing mind; for no sooner had he seen what image
the medal bore, than, as if by an influx of divine support, he put
off all weakness and proceeded to the place of death with a firm step
and a cheerful countenance, and ejaculations of jubilant devotion.
When they came to the foot of the hill on the top of which they were
to suffer, “Up, brothers!” he exclaimed, “up! let us ascend this our
Mount Calvary, where it is vouchsafed to us that we should imitate our
Redeemer! I pray and trust that this hour our offences shall be blotted
out by virtue of the blood which on his holy Calvary he shed for our
sins.” In this spirit he knelt down upon the fatal spot, raised his
eyes to heaven, and presented his breast to the soldiers. The Spaniards
compared the circumstances of this man’s death with what the French
themselves had related of Marshal Lasnes, how after he had received his
mortal wound, a visit from Buonaparte comforted and for a while revived
him: “Let patron,” said they, “be compared with patron, client with
client, and cause with cause!”
♦TREATMENT OF THEIR BODIES.♦
The bodies of these victims were suspended from the gallows till
the following day, when the French gave orders that they should be
taken down and buried. But the execution had been an act of impolitic
severity: after Duran’s recent visit the national cause would not
have been popular in Soria, unless the national feeling had been thus
provoked; and that feeling was now manifested in a manner which the
invaders had not looked for. The clergy, the nobles, the different
brotherhoods of the city, and the people assembled: the bodies were
carried to the church of St. Salvador in procession, with a long line
of tapers, and a most numerous attendance; they were then dressed
in grave clothes with becoming decency, that of the priest in his
sacerdotal habits. So public and ostentatious a funeral was considered
by the French an insult to their authority; soldiers, therefore, were
sent to interrupt it, and some of the attendants were compelled to
carry the bodies back to the gallows and hang them there again, the
priest in his alb, the others in their shrouds; there they remained
many days, and what the birds and the dogs had left was then buried at
the foot of the gallows.
♦RETALIATORY EXECUTIONS.♦
When D. Jose O’Donell, who commanded what was called the 2nd and
3rd army then in Murcia, received official intelligence of these
executions, he wrote to Duran, as acting commander in Aragon and Soria,
and instructed him to put to death ten prisoners, without distinction
of rank, for each of the four victims, first apprising the nearest
French commandant that he had received these orders, and should
act upon them unless such reparation were made as might be deemed
proportionate to the offence. Without waiting for such instructions,
the Merino had exacted vengeance upon a larger scale. Having defeated
a considerable body of the French who had marched from Aranda, to
collect requisitions, killed and wounded some 150 and taken about
500 prisoners, he put 110 of them to death, twenty of these being in
reprisals for each member of the Junta of Burgos; the others, at the
rate of ten for each of his own people whom the French had executed.
The other prisoners were marched into Asturias where opportunity might
be found for embarking them; but all the officers, twelve in number,
including the lieutenant-colonel, their commander, were reserved to be
shot unless General Rey, who commanded at Burgos, would rescue them
from that fate by delivering the traitor Moreno into the Merino’s
hands. The unhappy prisoners are said to have addressed a letter
to Rey, entreating him to save their lives by complying with this
proposal, for they well knew that in these cases the Spaniards never
failed to execute what they threatened. The issue has not been related,
but may easily be guessed, as it was scarcely possible that the
French commander should so far break his faith with a Spaniard in the
Intruder’s service as to deliver him to certain death.
♦EL MANCO.♦
There were no persons whom the Spaniards regarded with such hatred
as those who had forsaken the national cause, and entered into the
Intruder’s service. Albuir, known as a Guerrilla chief by the name of
El Manco, had taken this course, and became therefore a special object
of vengeance to his countrymen: it is the only instance of any man
who had acquired celebrity as a Guerrillero becoming a traitor, while
in the officers of the army such cases were not unfrequent: this was
because the regular officers were men, who, having entered the service
either as a matter of course or of compulsion, felt severely the
poverty of the government, and often had little else to do than to talk
of its errors, complain of its abuses, and speculate upon its hopeless
condition; whereas the Guerrilla leaders led a life of incessant
activity and animating hope, and most of them were impelled to that
course by a strong feeling either of their country’s injuries or of
their own.
♦MUTUAL RETALIATION.♦
At this time Lord Wellington’s successes had animated the Spaniards
with a hope of deliverance, and made the French more intent upon
extirpating those persons who, by keeping up the national spirit in
what they deemed the subjected provinces, occupied a large part of
the invading force. They attempted to surprise the Junta of Aragon,
as they had that of Burgos, and a detachment from Palombini’s troops
nearly effected this at Mochales, in the lordship of Molina: the Junta
escaped, but the enemy sacked the village, stripped the women in the
market-place, and hung the alcalde and two other persons; in reprisals
for whom, Jabarelli, the late commandant at Calatayud, and ten other
prisoners, were shot by the Spaniards. Vicente Bonmati, the leader
of a Guerrilla party, had been put to death at Petrel, in Valencia,
with circumstances of peculiar cruelty; the French having tied his
hands, transfixed them with a bayonet, and then parading him through
the streets, pricked him with their bayonets till he died. Upon
this the Camp Marshal Copons, provincial commandant-general in that
kingdom, gave orders to shoot the first prisoner who should be taken,
and informed the nearest French commandant, that for every other such
execution twenty prisoners should be put to death. Such reprisals were
but too characteristic of a vindictive people, capable of inflicting
as well as enduring anything; but they were evidences also of that
high-mindedness which the Spaniards retained in their lowest fortune;
never abasing themselves, never submitting to the insolent assumption
of authority, nor for a moment consenting that might should be allowed
to sanction injustice. Their parties, meantime, acquired a confidence
from their own experience, and from the success of their allies. ♦MAY
5. GUERRILLA EXPLOITS.♦ Mendizabal appeared before Burgos, and drove
the enemy from the monastery of Las Huelgas and the hospital del Rey.
Duran entered Tudela ♦MAY 28.♦ by escalade, and destroyed a battering
train of artillery which had been brought thither from Zaragoza, with
the intent, he supposed, of laying siege to ♦MAY 30.♦ Ciudad Rodrigo.
The Empecinado attacked the French in Cuenca; they withdrew from it in
the night, and he destroyed their fortifications there, and set fire
to the Inquisition. Mina received information that a strong convoy was
about to set forth from Vittoria for France, escorting some prisoners
taken from Ballasteros. He determined to intercept them upon the plains
of Arlaban, which had been the scene of one of his most successful
exploits in the preceding year; and in order to deceive the enemy,
he wrote letters which were thrown into their hands, declaring his
intention of marching upon the river Arga, to form a junction at the
foot of the Pyrenees with two of his battalions. The enemy, ♦APRIL 9.♦
supposing that this dreaded commander was far distant, began their
march: his orders were, after one discharge to attack with the bayonet,
and that no soldier should touch the convoy on pain of death till
the action was ended. It was of no long duration; the vanguard were
presently slaughtered; the centre and the rear, consisting of Poles and
of Imperial Guards, made a brave but unavailing resistance: from 600
to 700 were slain, 500 wounded, and 150 taken, with the whole convoy,
and about 400 prisoners set at liberty. M. Deslandes, the Intruder’s
private secretary, was in the convoy; he got out of his carriage, and
endeavoured to escape in a peasant’s dress, with which it seems he
had provided himself, in anticipation of some such danger; but this
disguise cost him his life, which would have been saved had it been
known in time who he was. His wife, an Andalusian lady, with two of her
countrywomen, who were married to officers in the enemy’s service, fell
into Mina’s hands. Very few would have escaped if the French had not
erected a fort at Arlaban, in consequence of their last year’s loss,
and this served as a protection for the fugitives.
♦INTERCEPTED LETTERS FROM THE INTRUDER.♦
Some letters from the Intruder were found upon his secretary. One was
to Buonaparte, reminding him how, when he returned to Spain at his
desire twelve months before, his Imperial Majesty had told him, that
at the worst he could quit that country in case their hopes should
not be realised, and that then he should have an asylum in the south
of the empire. “Sire,” said he, “events have deceived my hopes; I
have done no good, and I have no hopes of doing any. I entreat your
Majesty, therefore, to let me resign into your hands the right to
the crown of Spain, which four years ago you deigned to transfer to
me. I had no other object in accepting the crown than the happiness
of this vast monarchy, and it is not in my power to effect that. I
entreat your Majesty to receive me into the number of your subjects,
and to believe that you will never have a more faithful servant than
the friend whom nature has given you.” There were other letters of
the same date to his wife, whom he had left in Paris, and who was to
deliver that which he had written to the Emperor only in case the
decree for uniting to France the provinces beyond the Ebro should have
been published; otherwise she was to await his farther directions. In
another letter to her he said, that if the Emperor made war against
Russia, and thought his presence in Spain could be useful, he would
remain there, provided that both the military and civil authority were
vested in him; otherwise his desire was to return to France. Should
there be no Russian war, he would remain with or without the command,
provided nothing were exacted from him which could make it believed
that he consented to a dismemberment of the monarchy: provided also
that troops enough and territory enough were left him, and that the
monthly loan of a million, which had been promised, were paid. In that
case he would remain as long as he could, thinking himself as much
bound in honour not to quit Spain lightly, as he should be to quit it,
if, during the war with England, sacrifices were required from him
which he neither could nor ought to make, except at a general peace,
for the good of Spain, of France, and of Europe. A decree for uniting
to France the provinces beyond the Ebro, if it arrived unexpectedly,
he said, would make him depart the next day; and if the Emperor should
adjourn his projects till a time of peace, he must supply him with
means of subsistence during the war. But if he inclined either to his
removal, or to any of those measures which must cause him to remove,
it was then of great consequence that he should return to France on
kindly terms with the Emperor, and with his sincere and full consent;
and this was what reason dictated to him, and what was more conformable
to the situation of the miserable country over which he had been made
king, and to his own domestic relations. In that case, he asked from
the Emperor a domain in Tuscany, or in the south, some three hundred
leagues from Paris. The course of events, and the false position in
which he found himself, so contrary, he said, to the rectitude and
loyalty of his character, had greatly injured his health: he was
growing old; nothing but honour and duty could detain him where he was,
and his inclination would drive him away, unless the Emperor explained
himself in a different manner from what he had hitherto done. There
was also a letter to his brother Louis, expressing a hope to see him
one day in good health, and with the happiness which arises from a
good conscience.... That happiness the intrusive king Joseph might
well envy! It is little excuse for him that he was more weak than
wicked, and in mere weakness had consented to be made the instrument
of his brother’s insatiable ambition. Even in these letters, where he
manifested a full sense of his humiliating situation, no consciousness
is expressed of its guilt. For the sake of his own credit, and no
doubt of his own personal safety, he protested against any immediate
dismemberment of Spain; but he would have been contented to serve his
brother’s purpose, by nominally retaining the kingdom, till a pretext
could be found for dismembering it at a general peace.
But how long he should retain it depended upon something more than the
will and pleasure of Napoleon Buonaparte, and this he was soon made to
apprehend. ♦SIR ROWLAND HILL’S EXPEDITION TO THE BRIDGE OF ALMARAZ.♦
Lord Wellington was not about to remain idle with his victorious
army; he prepared for offensive operations, and the first step was to
interrupt the communication between the armies of Soult and Marmont.
All the permanent bridges on the Tagus below that of Arzobispo had been
destroyed; and the only way which was practicable for a large army was
by a bridge of boats at Almaraz, in the line of the high road, where
the noble bridge erected in Charles the Fifth’s time, at the city of
Plasentia’s cost, had been demolished. For the protection of this
important post, the French had thrown up strong works on both sides of
the river: they had formed a flanked _tête-du-pont_ on the left bank,
riveted with masonry and strongly intrenched; and on the high ground
above it they had constructed a large and strong redoubt, called Fort
Napoleon, with an interior intrenchment, and a loop-holed tower in its
centre; here they had mounted nine pieces of cannon, and had garrisoned
it with between 400 and 500 men. On the right bank, there was a redoubt
called Fort Ragusa, in honour of Marshal Marmont, of the same strength
and construction, except that the tower had a double tier of loopholes;
this flanked the bridge, and between the redoubt and the bridge there
was a flêche. For farther security, the invaders had fortified an old
castle commanding the Puerto de Miravete, about a league distant, being
the only pass for carriages of any kind by which the bridge could be
approached. A marked alteration of climate is perceptible upon crossing
the narrow mountain ridge over which the road here passes. Coming from
Castille, the traveller descends from this ridge into a country, where,
for the first time, the gum-cistus appears as lord of the waste, ...
the most beautiful of all shrubs in the Peninsula for the profusion
of its delicate flowers, and one of the most delightful for the rich
balsamic odour which its leaves exude under a southern sun; but which
overspreads such extensive tracts, where it suffers nothing else to
grow, that in many parts both of Portugal and Spain it becomes the very
emblem of desolation. The old castle stood at little distance from the
road, on the summit of the sierra: the French had surrounded it by a
lower _enceinte_, twelve feet high; they had fortified a large _venta_,
or travellers’ inn, upon the road, and had constructed two small works
between the inn and the castle, forming altogether a strong line of
defence.
Sir Rowland Hill, to whom this important service had been intrusted,
broke up from Almandralejo on the 12th of May, with part of the 2nd
division of infantry, and six of the 24-pounder iron howitzers which
had been used against Badajoz. The Marquis de Almeida, who was a
member of the Junta of Extremadura, accompanied them, and from him and
from the people, Sir Rowland received the most ready and effectual
assistance which it was in their power to bestow. On the morning of the
16th they reached Jaraicejo, an old and decayed town, about eight miles
from the summit of the pass; and on the same evening they advanced in
three columns ... the left, under Lieutenant-General Chowne, toward
the castle of Miravete; Sir Rowland himself, with the right under
Major-General Howard, toward a pass through which a most difficult and
circuitous footpath leads by the village of Romangordo to the bridge;
and the centre, under Major-General Long, along the high road, to the
Puerto. The artillery was with the centre: both the flank columns were
provided with ladders, and it was intended that both should escalade
the forts against which they were directed; but the difficulties of the
way were such, that it was found impossible for them to reach their
respective points before daybreak: as the enemy, therefore, could not
be taken by surprise, Sir Rowland judged it best to defer the attack
till they should be better acquainted with the position and nature of
the works; and the troops bivouacked on the sierra. It was found that
the castle, because of its peculiar situation, could not be carried
without a long operation: a false attack therefore was directed to be
made upon it by Lieutenant-General Chowne, and Sir Rowland, with the
right, and the 6th Portugueze caçadores (about 2,000 men in all), on
the evening of the 18th began to descend by the mountain path which
he had originally proposed to take. They were provided with twelve
scaling-ladders of sixteen feet in length; and he relied, as in this
case he well might do, upon the valour of the troops, to supply the
want of artillery. Although the distance was little more than six
miles, the way was so difficult, that notwithstanding all the exertions
of officers and men the head of the column did not arrive near the fort
till it was break of day, and it was two or three hours later before
the rear came up; but during this time the troops were completely
concealed by the hill, and the feint against the castle had induced the
enemy to believe that the bridge forts would not be attacked till the
pass should have been forced, and a way made for the guns.
♦MAY 19.♦
Could the attack have been made before day, it was intended that the
_tête-du-pont_ should have been escaladed, and the bridge destroyed at
the same time that Fort Napoleon was assaulted; but well knowing how
much depended upon celerity, Sir Rowland did not wait till the troops
who were appointed to this part of the operations could come up; with
the first battalion of the 50th and one wing of the 71st, he escaladed
the fort in three places nearly at the same time. At first a determined
resistance was made, but the enemy soon slackened their destructive
fire: they took to flight as soon as the assailants were on the top of
the parapet; they abandoned the tower, and were driven at the point of
the bayonet through their entrenchment, and through the _tête-du-pont_,
and across the bridge. The commander of Fort Ragusa on the opposite
bank, with a cowardice rarely shown among French officers, but with a
selfish disregard for the soldiers which was too common among them,
cut the bridge, in consequence of which many leaped into the river
and perished, and 259 were made prisoners, including the governor
and sixteen officers; and acting with further folly in his fear, he
evacuated his own fort, which was perfectly safe from any attack, and
retired with his garrison to Naval Moral, three leagues off, for which
he was brought to summary trial at Talavera and shot.... Both forts
were entirely destroyed by the conquerors, and the whole apparatus of
the bridge, and the stores, which were in such abundance as to prove
that this point had justly been considered a most important station by
the enemy. The loss in this signal enterprise was, two officers and 31
men killed, 13 and 131 wounded.
The garrison ought to have been prepared for such an attack; for
Marmont had apprehended it, and in that apprehension had marched
a detachment to the Puerto del Pico, with the view of reinforcing
Talavera in case the bridge should be lost. Sir Rowland retired by
Truxillo to his former position in front of Badajos; and on the
second day after his success, a division of the central army, under
General d’Armagnac, crossed the Tagus by the Puente del Arzobispo,
to relieve the isolated garrison at Miravete. Both Soult and Marmont
had put their forces in motion as soon as they were informed of Sir
Rowland’s march: the latter arrived upon the Tagus too late to prevent
the evil, and without the means of repairing it; the former, when he
found that the allies had passed Truxillo on their return, gave up
the hope of intercepting them. He returned to Seville, and, regarding
with uneasy apprehension the enterprising spirit of an enemy whom he
had once affected to despise, gave directions for strengthening the
line of the Guadalete, lest a force should be landed at St. Roque’s
or at Algeziras, and endanger his communication with the besieging
army before Cadiz. Bornos, as the most important point upon the line,
was fortified with great care. Ballasteros ♦BALLASTEROS DEFEATED
AT BORNOS.♦ thought to interrupt the progress of the works, and
accordingly brought all the force he could muster, consisting of about
6,000, to attack the French division there of 4,500 under General
Corroux. Collecting his troops at La Majada de Ruiz, and marching from
thence early in the afternoon of one day, he succeeded in fording the
Guadalete unperceived ♦JUNE 1.♦ at dawn on the next. The attack was
made bravely, but, with the usual ill fortune and ill discipline of a
Spanish army, some mistake led to confusion, and confusion was followed
by panic: the French were not strong enough to pursue them beyond the
river, and Ballasteros retired with the loss of about 1,000 killed and
wounded, and half as many prisoners, ... a fourth of his whole force.
♦LORD WELLINGTON ADVANCES INTO SPAIN.♦
Meantime Badajoz had been fully supplied; the means of transport which
had been used for that service were then employed in storing Ciudad
Rodrigo; a month’s consumption for the whole army was deposited there;
the bridge at Alcantara was repaired for a readier communication with
Sir Rowland’s corps; and on the 13th of June the army broke up from
its cantonments on the Agueda. On the 16th they came up with the
enemy, about six miles from Salamanca, on the Valmusa, and there was a
skirmish with their cavalry; in the evening the French withdrew across
the Tormes, and the army bivouacked within a league of Salamanca.
♦SALAMANCA♦
When the earliest accounts of Spain begin, Salamanca was already a
considerable place, and known by a name little different from what it
bears at present. It fell to decay after the Moorish conquest, but was
re-peopled at the same time with certain other towns upon the Tormes,
by the Leonese in the 10th century, after the great battle of Simancas:
in the 13th King St. Ferdinand removed thither the university from
Palencia. It soon became one of the most flourishing seats of learning
in Christendom, and continued to be so till Spain rejected the light
of the reformation. In its best days it is said to have contained no
fewer than 8,000 native students, and 7,000 from foreign countries:
when the present war began, the number little exceeded 3,000, among
whom a few Irish were the only foreigners. The population consisted of
some 3,400 families: it had once been much greater. But Salamanca was
still an important and a famous place: popular fiction had made its
name familiar to those who are unacquainted with its history; while
to the antiquary, the historian, and the philosopher, it is a city
of no ordinary interest. The Roman road, which extended from thence
to Merida, and so to Seville, may still be traced in its vicinity:
its bridge of twenty-seven arches, over the Tormes, is said to be in
part a Roman work. The Mozarabic liturgy is retained in one of its
churches. Its cathedral, though far inferior to some of the older
edifices, whether of Moorish or Gothic architecture, in Spain, is a
large and imposing structure. Twenty-five parish churches are enclosed
within its walls, twenty convents of monks or friars, eleven of nuns:
these, with its numerous colleges, give it an imposing appearance from
without, and a melancholy solemnity within. Nowhere, indeed, were
there more munificent endowments for education, and for literature,
and for religion; and nowhere could be less of that happy effect which
the benefactors in their piety had contemplated: the philosophy which
was taught there was that of the schoolmen, the morality that of the
casuists, the religion that of the Inquisition. It is a popular belief
in Spain, that the Devil also has his college at Salamanca, where
students of the black art take their degrees in certain caverns, every
seventh being left with him, in earnest of the after-payment to which
they all are bound.
♦THE TORMES.♦
The city stands in a commanding situation on the right bank of the
Tormes, a river of considerable magnitude there, which rises near
the Sierra de Tablada in Old Castille, and falls into the Douro on
the Portuguese frontier, opposite Bemposta. The country round is
open, without trees, and with a few villages interspersed, in which
the houses are constructed of clay. On the left of the river there
are extensive pastures, on the right a wide and unenclosed corn
country. The pastures are common, and the arable land occupied after a
manner not usual in other parts of Spain: it is cultivated in annual
allotments, and reverts to the commonalty after the harvest.
♦THE ALLIES ENTER SALAMANCA.♦
Marmont had apprehended this advance of the allies, and had applied
for reinforcements without effect. He showed some cavalry and a small
body of infantry in front of the town, and manifested an intention
of holding the heights on the south side of the Tormes; but in the
evening of the 16th the enemy withdrew over the river, and the allies
bivouacked within a league of Salamanca. The French retired from that
city during the night, leaving some 800 men in the fortifications
which they had constructed there. These works commanded the bridge;
the left column of the allied army therefore crossed at the ford of
El Campo, a league below the city, the centre and the right at the
ford of Santa Martha. The utmost joy was expressed by the inhabitants
when the English entered, and women crowded to thank Lord Wellington
and bless him for their deliverance. Some aching hearts there were
among those who had connected themselves by marriage, or by looser
ties, with the enemies of their country, but the general feeling was
that of perfect and grateful joy; for though this city had suffered
none of the immediate evils of war, its consequences had been severely
felt there. During the three years of its captivity the French had
demolished thirteen of its convents and twenty-two of its twenty-five
colleges; the people had been compelled to labour upon works erected
for their own subjugation; and the last act of the enemy before they
left the city, was to set fire to such houses as obstructed the defence
of their works, ... consisting of a fort and two redoubts. For the same
reason they had previously demolished the Convent of St. Augustine,
the colleges of Cuenca and ♦SIEGE OF THE FORTS THERE.♦ Oviedo, and the
magnificent King’s College. The fort was formed out of the Convent of
St. Vicente, a large building in the centre of the angle of the old
wall, on a perpendicular cliff over the Tormes. The windows had been
built up and loop-holed; on both sides it was connected by lines of
works with the old wall. There was a fascine battery in a re-entering
angle of the convent, not enclosed by these lines, and this was
protected by a loop-holed wall, with a palisade in front. ♦COL. JONES’S
SIEGES. 158–9.♦ The demolition of so many substantial edifices supplied
timber of the best quality, and in abundance, for gates, drawbridges,
palisades, and splinter proofs; and the whole was well flanked in
every part. The ground to the south, which was toward the bridge,
fell by a steep descent: at the bottom was a small stream flowing to
the Tormes; and on the opposite bank the convents of San Cayetano
and La Merced had been converted with great skill into two redoubts,
with well-covered perpendicular escarpes, deep ditches, and casemated
counterscarps; they were also full of bomb-proofs, made by supporting
a roof horizontally and vertically with strong beams, and covering it
with six feet of earth. These works were seen at once to be far more
respectable than Lord Wellington had expected to find, his information
amounting to little more than that some convents had been fortified.
It was necessary to reduce them before the army could advance, but
the means of attack had been provided on this inadequate knowledge:
they consisted of only four iron eighteen-pounders and four 24-pounder
iron howitzers, with an hundred rounds for each. The engineers had
only 400 intrenching tools, without any stores; there were present
three engineer officers, with nine men of the corps of royal military
artificers; and the works were soon found to be even more formidable
than they appeared.
♦JUNE 17.♦
The sixth division broke ground before the fort. The left wing of the
army moved to Villares de la Reyna, a league in advance of Salamanca;
the right and centre bivouacked on the Tormes, near Santa Martha, on
the right bank. Lieutenant-Colonel Ponsonby’s brigade followed the
retiring enemy, and skirmished with them for two leagues. A battery was
erected for breaching the main wall of the fort. It was nearly full
moon; little could be done therefore during the first night. An attempt
to blow in part of the counterscarp opposite to the intended breach,
was frustrated by the vigilance of a dog; and an attempt at mining it
failed also, the party being ordered to withdraw in consequence of the
loss sustained by a plunging fire from the top of the convent. On the
second night two batteries were completed: they opened the following
morning, and beat down part of the wall; but the enemy’s musketry
fired with great effect from loopholes in the upper windows, and
their fire was more than ordinarily destructive, because of the large
openings of the embrasures which were necessary for such short pieces
as the howitzers. More ammunition was sent for to Almeida. Early on
the third day, the lower part of the convent wall, three feet and a
half thick, was pierced through, and at a single shot half the length
of that face of the building came down, bringing the roof with it,
and laying the interior open: the men were seen firing through the
loopholes at the moment of its fall, and they of course were buried in
the ruins. Carcasses were then fired into the convent, to set it on
fire, but the enemy’s precautions prevented them from taking effect.
♦MARMONT MOVES TO RELIEVE THEM.♦
Marmont at this time moved forward from Fuente Sabuco, making the
most display of the force which he could then bring together: it was
estimated at about 16,000 men. He advanced as if with a determination
of giving battle, firing artillery the whole way to give the forts
notice of his approach. Lord Wellington immediately formed the allied
army upon the heights: his left, where the rains had formed a deep
ravine, rested on a chapel; his centre was in the village of S.
Christobal de la Cuesta, and his right on another eminence in front
of Castellanos de los Moriscos.... The advanced posts retired before
the enemy with little loss; there was a considerable cannonade on
both sides; the enemy’s cavalry were dislodged by our guns from the
position in which they had halted; and Marmont, after manœuvring for
some time in front of the position, took up ground in the plain below
it, near the village of Villares, and just out of cannon-shot, his
right resting upon the great road to Toro, his left in Castellanos de
los Moriscos. The allies were under arms at daylight, expecting an
attack. In the course of the day the French received reinforcements,
but not sufficient to justify them in bringing on an action, scarcely
in exposing themselves ♦JUNE 21.♦ to one. Both armies remained quiet
in front of each other, the allies on the heights, the French close
under their position, occupying Castellanos de los Moriscos in force,
and having a considerable bivouac between that village and another on
their right: both villages were soon completely unroofed for firewood,
and there were wells in both, whereas the allies were badly off for
wood and water, which were brought to them in insufficient supply from
Salamanca. There was not a tree on the position; but the midsummer sun
was less powerful than it usually is in that country, and the troops
did not suffer from heat.
During the night, the French occupied an eminence on the right flank
of the allies. Sir Thomas Graham was directed to dislodge them. The
58th and 61st carried the hill immediately, and drove them from the
ground with considerable loss. The enemy’s troops got under arms,
expecting a general attack, but they made no attempt ♦JUNE 23.♦ to
regain the hill. They retired in the night, and on the following
evening posted themselves with their right on the heights near Cabeza
Vellosa, their left on the Tormes at Huerta, their centre at Aldea
Rubia, their object in this movement being to communicate with the
garrison. Lord Wellington therefore changed the front of his army,
placing the right at S. Martha, and the advanced posts at Aldea Lingua;
and he sent Major-General Bock’s brigade of heavy dragoons across the
river in order to observe the fords. By this time a battery which had
been opened on the Cayetano redoubt had beaten down the palisades
and injured the parapet; and when night closed 300 men from the 6th
division were ordered to attack it by escalade. The undertaking was
difficult, and the men seemed to feel it. Major-General Bowes went
forward with the storming party; he was wounded, returned to the attack
as soon as his wound was dressed, and was then killed. The enemy made
so resolute a resistance, that only two ladders were reared against the
redoubt, and no one mounted them: 120 men were killed or wounded in
this unsuccessful attempt. On the following evening a truce was made
for removing the killed and wounded; till then the French would neither
allow them to be removed, nor remove them themselves.
♦JUNE 24.♦
There had been a report on the preceding afternoon, that the enemy had
crossed at Huerta. Lord Wellington was on the hill at Aldea Lingua by
daybreak. It was certain that they had made some movement, but the
morning was so foggy that nothing could be seen. Soon Major-General
Bock’s brigade was heard skirmishing, and from their fire it was
evident that they were losing ground. The French had crossed about two
in the morning in considerable force; and when the fog cleared General
Bock was seen retiring in the best order before superior numbers, who
had also the advantage of having artillery with them. Lord Wellington,
upon the first certainty that the enemy had passed the Tormes, ordered
the 1st and 7th divisions, under Sir Thomas Graham, to cross and take
up a position to the right in front of Santa Martha, and Major-General
Le Marchant’s brigade of cavalry was sent to support General Bock; the
rest of the army he concentrated between Castellanos de los Moriscos
and Cabrerizas, keeping the advanced posts at Aldea Lingua. The French,
who had crossed with 10,000 infantry and fourteen squadrons of horse,
gained possession of Calvarasa de Abaxo; but seeing the disposition
which was made for their reception, they did not venture upon an
attack. About three in the afternoon they began to withdraw, and
before night they had repassed the river to their former position. The
allies also recrossed.
Both armies remained quiet during the following day, but on the next
night a communication was carried along the bottom of the ravine
between the redoubts and the fort, and a piquet was lodged under the
gorge of S. Cayetano. On the morrow a supply of ammunition ♦SURRENDER
OF THE FORTS.♦ arrived, and red-hot shot were then fired against San
Vicente. By the third shot the roof of a large square tower on the
convent was set on fire and consumed; but the conflagration did not
spread, and during the day wherever fires broke out they were speedily
extinguished. The inhabitants said that the powder in the fort was well
secured; but no activity on the enemy’s part could long counteract
the means of destruction which were now employed. Hot shot were fired
during the whole night: by ten in the morning the convent was in
flames. At the same time a breach had been effected in the gorge of S.
Cayetano: the troops were formed in readiness for assaulting it, when
a white flag was hoisted there, and the commanding officer offered
to surrender that and the other redoubt in two hours, which time he
asked for that he might represent his situation to the commandant in
San Vicente. Lord Wellington offered him five minutes to march out, in
which case he should preserve his baggage; but it presently appeared
that he was only negotiating for the sake of gaining time, as in
fact he could not venture without the commandant’s sanction to carry
into effect the capitulation which he had offered. He was ordered,
therefore, to take down his white flag. The commandant meantime sent
out a flag of truce, and proposed to surrender San Vicente in three
hours: five minutes were allowed, and as at the expiration of that
short term there was no appearance of their coming out, both redoubts
were stormed, and carried with little resistance. The troops moved
forward against the fort: a few shot were fired from it, by which six
men were killed or wounded; but with that the resistance ended: the
enemy even helped the Portuguese caçadores into the work, and Lord
Wellington allowed them to march out with the honours of war, but to
be prisoners of war, the officers retaining their personal military
baggage, and the soldiers their knapsacks. There were 36 pieces of
cannon in the forts, with large depôts of clothing, and military stores
of every kind: these were consigned to the Spaniards, and the works
were destroyed. The prisoners were somewhat more than 700; the loss of
the besiegers about 450.
♦MARMONT FAILS BACK UPON THE DOURO.♦
Marmont commenced his retreat at midnight, as if, said the Spaniards,
he had only come thither to witness the capture of his fort, and see
the illumination made by it when on fire. At daylight their column was
nearly out of sight, and their rear-guard moving off the ground. During
this tarriance the French, considering that part of Spain no longer as
a subjected but as a hostile country, had acted in the same spirit of
disgraceful barbarity as had rendered their name execrable in Portugal;
and when they departed they left the villages of Castellanos de los
Moriscos, Huerta, Babila Fuente, Villoria, and Villaruela in flames:
where they did not burn the villages they sacked the houses, and
murdered those who had ventured to remain in them; and where they did
not trample down the standing corn, they set fire to it. The popular
feeling had been strongly manifested during the operations against the
forts: not only were all necessaries and accommodations for the wounded
abundantly supplied, but women of all ranks offered their services to
attend on them. High mass was performed this day in the Cathedral,
at which Lord Wellington and most of the general officers attended.
Lord Wellington gave a dinner in Salamanca, and the Junta a ball in
the evening; but some of the principal inhabitants absented themselves
because they were partisans of the French, and others from a prudential
fear, lest the enemy should return and again obtain possession of the
city.
♦JUNE 29. LORD WELLINGTON ADVANCES TO THE DOURO.♦
The French withdrew their garrison from Alba de Tormes, and retired
towards the Douro in three columns ... one upon Toro, and the others
upon Tordesillas. The allies broke up the next day, following their
march, and encamped upon the Guarena. On the morrow Marmont had
collected his force, as if with an intention of making a stand on
the right bank of that river; his rear was on the hills in front of
Alaejos: they moved off before the advanced guard could come up. The
allies bivouacked every night in an open country, without a tree to
shade them, and where it was necessary to seek for wood at the distance
of several miles, the inhabitants frequently using straw for fuel.
The enemy continued to fall back toward the Douro, closely followed
by one who would let no opportunity escape him. On the 2nd of July
their cavalry were on the plain toward Tordesillas, and they had a
considerable force of infantry in Rueda; but they were compelled to
withdraw from thence, and the town was occupied by the advance of
the allied army. On the following day, this part of the army was
ordered into the plain, as if with a view of attacking Tordesillas;
while the left column, strengthened by the brigades of Generals Bock
and Le Marchant, moved on Pollos, where there is a ford. There was
some cannonading on the part of the enemy there, and an affair of
light troops; and some of the allies passed the river, but they were
withdrawn at night: it was then seen that there was no intention of
forcing the passage, and orders were given for the distribution of
the army. Lord Wellington fixed his head-quarters at Rueda. The French
occupied Tordesillas in force: they had a considerable bivouac in the
rear of that town, and the bridge there was fortified.
After the recapture of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos, Marmont could not
be surprised that the forts at Salamanca fell, even if he had known
with what scanty means they had been attacked; and as he had not been
brought to action, his army took credit to themselves for having braved
a superior force. The French had lost much of their confidence in
battle against the English, but they still relied upon their skill in
manœuvring; and Marmont, knowing that he should soon have the advantage
in numbers, availed himself of all the opportunities which the nature
of the country afforded him for gaining time. ♦THE DOURO.♦ He was in
possession of the line of the Douro. That river rises in the Sierra
de Orbion, in Old Castille, issuing from a large and deep tarn, high
on the mountain: passing the site of Numancia, it comes to Soria, and
so to Berlanga, Osma, and Santesteban de Gormas: in this part of its
course its banks are remarkable for the jessamine with which they are
profusely clothed. Having left Aranda, it passes by the Cistercian
monastery of Valbueno, a place denoting by its name the happy
circumstances of its position, and where the monks used to account
among the goodly things which had fallen to their lot the barbel and
trout with which the Douro supplied them. The Pisuerga, having already
received the Arlanza and the Carrion, joins it by Simancas; and though
it brings the larger body of water to the junction, loses its name
there. The Douro then makes for Tordesillas: for the first ten leagues
of its way its course is s. s. w., then westward till it reaches this
old city, where it bends to the southward for a few leagues, passing
S. Roman de Hornija, the now obscure burial-place of Chindasuintho,
one of the most powerful of the Wisigoth kings; then it resumes its
western course, waters Toro and Zamora, cities of great name in the
Spanish annals, and having collected all the rivers of Leon on its way,
enters Portugal. Of all the rivers in the Peninsula, the Douro has the
longest course. From its junction with the Pisuerga, till it receives
the Tormes on the frontier of Portugal, it flows through a wide valley,
the right bank for the most part skirting the heights. The French were
in possession of all the ♦COLONEL JONES’S ACCOUNT OF THE WAR, 2. 100.♦
bridges, and from the mouth of the Pisuerga to Zamora there is but one
point favourable for passing an army from the left in presence of an
enemy: that point is three leagues above Toro, at Castro Nuño, where
there is a good ford, a favourable bend in the river, and advantages of
ground. There could be little hope, therefore, of striking an efficient
blow against Marmont so long as he kept his force concentrated behind
the Douro, and it was in his power to cross the river at any of its
bridges or fords whenever he might think that opportunity invited.
♦MARMONT REINFORCED BY G. BONNET.♦
But the French, according to the barbarous system which Buonaparte
pursued, were without magazines, and trusted to their command of the
country for subsistence: Marmont therefore had this anxious object
to distract his attention; and the Guerrillas were actively employed
both upon his flanks and rear in intercepting his supplies, and in
occupying troops who would otherwise have reinforced him. Two parties
under Sorniel and Bourbon, with 700 cavalry were on the right; D.
Julian Sanches, with 500, on the left; while Porlier displayed his
usual activity on the side of Asturias; and Mina and Duran in Navarre
and Aragon: on that side their efforts were effectual: but General
Bonnet joined him from the north, and increased his force to 47,000
men, thus making it numerically superior to that of the allies. Lord
Wellington’s situation was at this time an anxious one: he had counted
upon the aid which the Gallician army might have given him in occupying
some of the enemy by besieging Astorga; in that undertaking, however,
they were more dilatory than had been intended; and he was now aware
that the force intended to co-operate with him by acting upon the
eastern coast was upon so small a scale, that he could place little
hope upon it, and no reliance. The French suffered at this time nothing
for want of magazines or means of transport, because they took what
they wanted, and preyed upon the country. The British Government would
not, even in an enemy’s territories, carry on war upon so inhuman and
iniquitous a system; but it exposed its army to privations, and its
general to perplexities and difficulties which might have paralysed
any weaker mind than Lord Wellington’s, by the parsimony with which it
apportioned his means. When he advanced from Salamanca, there were but
20,000 dollars in the military chest: the harvest was abundant, but how
was bread to be obtained without money? ... and the same want would be
felt in bringing his supplies from Ciudad Rodrigo, and other places in
the rear of that fortress. The very difficulty of removing his wounded
to the frontier of Portugal was sufficient to deter him from seeking an
action on the Douro.
♦LORD WELLINGTON RETIRES BEFORE HIM.♦
On the 15th and 16th, Marmont concentrated his troops between Toro and
San Roman: two divisions crossed the bridge at Toro on the evening of
the 16th, and Lord Wellington moved the allies that night to Fuente
la Peña and Canizal, intending to concentrate them on the Guarena.
But it was ascertained next day, that during the night the enemy had
repassed the bridge, and destroyed it after them; then making forced
marches to Tordesillas, which is six leagues above Toro, crossed again
there, and early on the morning of the 18th were on the Trebancos.
Marmont might well applaud himself both for the celerity and the
skill of these movements: he had marched forty miles; had opened his
communication with the army of the centre, which was then moving from
Madrid to support him; and by advancing in force on Castrejon he
endangered the light and 4th divisions, with Major-General Anson’s
brigades of cavalry, which there had not been time for calling in.
The enemy commenced a very heavy cannonade against the cavalry; they
were scattered about in squadrons, and so escaped without much loss;
and immediate measures had been taken to provide for their retreat
and junction. The troops at Castrejon maintained their posts till the
cavalry joined them; then they retired in perfect order to Tordesillas
de la Orden, and thence to the Guarena, having the enemy’s whole army
on their left flank or in their rear; and the French getting possession
of the heights above that river, before the allies had crossed, brought
forty guns to bear upon them, under the fire of which they joined the
army on the left bank. Four streams which unite about a league below
Canizal, form the Guarena: the French crossed at Castrillo, a little
below the junction, and manifested an intention to press upon the left
of the allies; with this view they endeavoured to occupy a ridge above
Castrillo, but Lieutenant-General Cole’s division advanced to meet them
with the bayonet; they gave way; the cavalry charged, General Carrier
and between 300 and 400 men were made prisoners, and one gun taken.
In the course of the day, the allies lost about 100 in killed, 400
wounded, and 50 prisoners; but the check which Marmont received made
him more circumspect in his movements.
The allies took up a position for the night on the Guarena, from
Castrillo on the left, to beyond Canizal on the right. The enemy
occupied the opposite side of the valley with their whole force. Both
armies ♦JULY 19.♦ remained quiet till two in the afternoon of the
following day, when the French withdrawing all their troops from the
right marched by Tarrazona, as if with an intention of turning the
right of the allies. Counter-movements were consequently made; the
artillery fired at the enemy’s advance, and in that dry season the
corn took fire in several places, and burnt for a mile in extent. Lord
Wellington expected a battle on the plain of Vallesa in the morning,
and made every preparation for it; the men bivouacked in two lines
in order of battle, and stood to their arms at daybreak, ready to
receive an attack; but as soon as it was light, the enemy were seen
moving in several columns to their left, on Babilafuente; the allies
made a correspondent movement to the right: at any moment either
commander might have brought on a general action; but it was a game
of skill in which they were engaged, not of hazard. Marmont’s march
was estimated at five leagues, that of the allies at four, being in
the inner circle; they moved in parallel lines, frequently within
half cannon shot. The enemy encamped that night at Babilafuente and
Villamela; the allies at Cabeza Vellosa, the 6th division and a brigade
of cavalry being upon the Tormes at Aldea ♦JULY 21.♦ Lengua. On the
following day, the French crossed that river by the fords near Alba
and Huerta, and moved by their left towards the road leading to Ciudad
Rodrigo. In the evening the allies crossed also, part by the bridge at
Salamanca, part by the ford of Santa Martha. A dreadful storm came on
of thunder and lightning with heavy rain; the different divisions of
infantry were seen by the lightning marching to their ground, their
muskets reflecting the flashes. The 5th dragoon guards had just got
to their ground; many of the men had lain down; their horses were
fastened together by their collars for the night, but terrified by the
lightning, they set off full gallop and ran over the men, eighteen of
whom were hurt; and two and thirty horses were lost, having probably
gone to the enemy’s lines.
It was evident from Marmont’s manner of manœuvring, that he did not
mean to attack the allies, unless at such advantage as might seem to
render his success certain; and it seemed not less evident, that by
pursuing this system, turning their flank and keeping possession of
the heights, he would drive them to the frontier if they continued
to act upon the defensive. All the stores which were at Salamanca
were ordered to the rear of the army, and the inhabitants were in the
utmost consternation, apprehending, not without good apparent reason,
that they should presently be brought under the yoke of the French
again. Lord Wellington had placed the troops in a position, the right
of which was upon one of two heights called the two Arapiles; and the
left on the Tormes below the ford of Santa Martha. The enemy had still
a large corps above Babilafuente, on the right of the river; for this
reason, the 3rd division and Brigadier-General D’Urban’s cavalry were
left on the same side at Cabrerizos; and Lord Wellington thought it
not improbable, that when Marmont should find in the morning that the
allies were prepared for him on the left of the Tormes, he would alter
his plan, and manœuvre by the other bank. In the course of the night
he was informed that the cavalry and horse-artillery of the army of
the north had arrived at Pollos to join Marmont, and that they would
effect a junction with him the next day, or the day after at latest.
During the night the enemy took possession of Calvarasa de arriba,
and of a height near that village called Nuestra Señora de la Peña;
the allied cavalry were in possession of Calvarasa de abaxo, which is
between three and four miles from the upper village, and near the river.
♦JULY 22. BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.♦
The last night’s storm had not cleared the atmosphere, and the morning
rose threateningly, in clouds. The French were early in motion, and
from the manner in which they marched and countermarched their troops,
it was impossible to divine what might be their intention. Soon after
daylight detachments from both armies attempted to gain the yet
unoccupied Arapiles hill; but the enemy had been concealed in the woods
nearer that point, and their infantry were discovered on the summit
when the allies were in the act of advancing to it: their detachment
was also the strongest. By occupying this point they materially
strengthened their own position, and were the better enabled to annoy
that of the allies. Early in the day the light troops of the 7th
division and the 4th _caçadores_ of General Pack’s brigade were engaged
with the enemy on the height of N. Señora de la Peña, which they gained
and kept through the day. But the possession of the farther Arapiles by
the French made it necessary for Lord Wellington to extend the right of
his army to the heights behind the village of that name, and to occupy
that village with the 4th division under Lieutenant-General Cole.
Doubtful as Marmont’s intentions still were, the British commander
judged that his objects were on the left of the Tormes, and therefore
he ordered the 3rd division and D’Urban’s cavalry from the other bank,
and placed them behind Aldea Tejada.
During these movements the French kept up a heavy cannonade and fire
of light troops. The day, meantime, had cleared. Their force was
formed in columns of attack in rear of the Arapiles hill, the left
resting upon an extensive wood; thence they could either by a rapid
march interpose between Lord Wellington and Ciudad Rodrigo, or wait an
opportunity for debouching from behind the Arapiles, and separating
the corps of his army. Marmont was too skilful a tactician himself
not to perceive that all his movements were watched by one who well
knew how to counteract them; nevertheless, hoping to deceive his
antagonist, he marched a strong force to the right and formed columns
of attack opposite the 5th division, which was in rear of the village
of Arapiles. Lord Wellington soon perceived that nothing serious was
intended by this manœuvre, and returned to direct the operations of
his right, which he now threw back to that side of the Arapiles,
forming nearly a right angle with that which he had occupied in the
morning. About two in the afternoon the French Marshal perceiving
that his last demonstration had produced no effect, pushed forward
his columns rapidly to the left, with the intent of turning the right
flank of the allies, and interposing between them and Ciudad Rodrigo.
Till now the operations of the day had induced a belief in the British
army that it was intended only to meet manœuvre by manœuvre, and to
continue their retreat as soon as it was night. Indeed the army of the
centre, with the Intruder at its head, was on the way to join Marmont
within three days’ march, and a considerable body of cavalry and horse
artillery was still nearer. But Lord Wellington had anxiously been
looking for the opportunity which was now presented him: he was at
dinner when information was brought him of this movement, which was
made under cover of a heavy cannonade, and accompanied with skirmishers
in his front and on his flank, and with a body of cavalry who made
the British dragoons and light troops give way before them. But the
generals of division had either misunderstood or ill executed their
commander’s intentions, and they weakened their line by dangerously
extending it: Lord Wellington at once perceived this; he rose in such
haste as to overturn the table, exclaiming, that Marmont’s good genius
had forsaken him: in an instant he was on horseback, and issued his
orders for attack.
The right he reinforced with the 5th division, placing it behind the
village of Arapiles, on the right of the 4th, and with the 6th and 7th
in reserve. These having taken their stations, he ordered Major-General
Pakenham to move forward with the 3rd and General D’Urban’s cavalry,
and two squadrons of the 14th light dragoons under Lieutenant-Colonel
Hervey, in four columns, to turn the enemy’s left on the heights,
while Brigadier-General Bradford’s brigade, the 5th division, under
Lieutenant-General Leith, the 4th, under Lieutenant-General Cole, and
the cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton, should attack them in front,
supported in reserve by the 6th and 7th under Major-Generals Clinton
and Hope, and D. Carlos d’España’s Spanish division; Brigadier-General
Pack, with the 1st and 16th Portuguese regiments, was to support the
left of the 4th division, by attacking the hill which the enemy held.
The first and the light divisions occupied the ground on the left of
the Arapiles in reserve.
As soon as the formation was effected, the attack commenced from the
right. Major-General Pakenham moved along a valley at a quick rate,
crossed the extended left of the enemy, almost before they were
aware of his intention, drove them back in confusion and overthrew
everything before him. Brigadier-General D’Urban’s Portugueze cavalry
and Lieutenant-Colonel Hervey’s squadrons of the 14th, supported him in
the most gallant style, defeated every attempt which was made upon his
flank, cut in upon the enemy’s broken infantry, and put numbers of them
to the sword. The attack in front was made with equal ardour: the fifth
division had been exposed for about an hour to a continued and heavy
cannonade; no orders were ever more welcome to the soldiers who were
stretched on the ground to avoid its effects, than those which bade
them advance against the enemy. The distance was more than a mile, up
a steep height crowned by twenty pieces of cannon, and their left had
to pass through the village which formed a considerable obstruction;
they advanced in perfect order, not firing a shot till they had gained
the summit, from whence the guns which had annoyed them were hastily
withdrawn, nor till they had received the fire of the enemy, who were
formed into squares to resist them. When they were within some thirty
yards the word was given to fire and charge; this instantly threw
the squares into disorder; the heavy cavalry coming up on the right
increased their confusion; they fled then, and in their flight fell in
with the remains of their extreme left, flying before Major-General
Pakenham’s division. Lieutenant-General Leith was severely wounded
in the act of breaking into the squares. Pakenham and the cavalry
constantly bringing up their right, so as to outflank the points on
which the French attempted to make a stand, drove them from one height
to another and made above 3000 prisoners. The 4th and 5th divisions
acquiring in like manner strength upon the enemy’s flank in proportion
as they advanced, carried height after height, till at length the
enemy’s left rallied on their centre; and on the last height, after its
crest had been gained, one division of their infantry charged Cole’s
division, which, after a severe contest, in which Cole was wounded,
gave way.
This temporary success was owing to the failure of Pack’s attack
upon the Arapiles; it was bravely made, but the Portugueze failed to
carry it against the disadvantage of such strong ground; the attempt,
however, was not without some good effect, for it occupied troops who
would otherwise have been engaged against General Cole in his advance,
and who were not now at leisure to oppose him, till, notwithstanding
this temporary success, it was too late. Beresford, who happened to be
on the spot, directed a brigade of the 5th division, which was in the
second line, to change its front, and bring its fire on the enemy’s
flank; while thus engaged he was wounded. Three British generals had
thus been disabled, and in a most successful charge against a body of
infantry, Major-General Le Marchant was killed, at the head of his
own brigade. Lord Wellington now ordered up the 6th division under
Major-General Clinton. That division marching under a heavy fire
deployed at the foot of a hill, and beginning then to fire regular
volleys, suffered severely as it advanced; it was vigorously attacked
by a body of cavalry which had been concealed behind the Arapiles,
and for some minutes the contest appeared doubtful; but when Clinton
was enabled to form his two right battalions into line, and charge,
the French again lost heart, and abandoned the important point which
they had till then maintained. Their right still resisted, having
been reinforced by the troops who now withdrew in good order from the
Arapiles, and by those who had fled from the left.
They re-formed and took up their ground with equal promptitude and
skill almost at right angles to their original front, the infantry
along the crest of the hill in line, supported by heavy close columns
in reserve, the cavalry in masses on their flanks, and the artillery
posted at the advanced knolls, so as to sweep the whole face of the
height. The 1st and light divisions were ordered against these, with
two brigades of the 4th, to turn their right, while the 6th supported
by the 3rd and 5th, attacked the front. Clinton advanced up the rocky
and steep height inline, without firing a shot, and under a murderous
fire of musketry and artillery: but he charged with the bayonet, drove
them from a commanding conical eminence, and captured two guns. Their
flank was attacked at the same time; and then, beaten at all points,
they fled through the woods towards the Tormes, cavalry, infantry,
and baggage all mixed together. The defeat was complete, and so would
have been the destruction, if darkness had not opportunely covered
their flight. Lord Wellington, with the 1st and light divisions, and
Major-General William Anson’s brigade of the 4th, and some squadrons of
cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton, pursued them towards Huerta and the
fords of the Tormes, as long as any of them could be found together;
but night soon put an end to the pursuit, and enabled great numbers who
had been taken prisoners to escape. A sentinel mistook Sir Stapleton
Cotton in the dark for an enemy, fired, and wounded him.
This memorable battle, which lasted from three in the afternoon till
ten at night, took place within sight of the city; the ground with its
heights rising gradually one behind another, forming, as it were, a
fine theatre for such a spectacle. On the part of the allies, nearly
5000 were killed and wounded. General Le Marchant’s loss was greatly
regretted: he was a native of Guernsey, who having served in the
light dragoons under the Duke of York in the years 1793 and 1794,
applied himself with zeal and ability to the study of his profession,
introduced the Hungarian sword exercise into the British army, and drew
up a manual for the use of the cavalry, which was published by the
war-office. The royal military college was in great measure planned
by him; he was appointed lieutenant-governor of that institution, and
discharged the duties of the office till 1811, when he could no longer
retain it, being promoted to the rank of Major-General. He then joined
the army in Portugal in command of a brigade, but had not been long
in that country, when the unexpected death of his wife rendered it
necessary that he should return to England for the arrangement of his
domestic affairs: that mournful business having been performed, he
rejoined the army, and shortly afterwards fell, being in the 47th year
of his age. His eldest son, who was an ensign in the guards, was at his
side when he fell. The Prince Regent manifested with proper munificence
his sense of General Le Marchant’s worth, by granting a pension of £300
to that son, £100 to each of three younger sons, and £120 to each of
his five daughters.... The loss of the French was very great; besides
the dead and wounded, they left 7000 prisoners on the field. Eleven
guns and two eagles were taken: it is said that more than ten were
captured, but that there were men base enough to conceal them, and sell
them to persons at Salamanca, who deemed it good policy as well as a
profitable speculation, to purchase them for the French. Marmont was
disabled early in the action, Bonnet also was wounded, and the command
then devolved upon General Clausel, who was wounded also, but not so as
to incapacitate him. Generals Ferey, Desgraviers, and Thomieres were
killed.
At break of day, the pursuit was renewed with the same troops, and with
Major-General Bock and Anson’s brigades, which had joined them during
the night. The first and light divisions were ordered to the ford of
Huerta, Lord Wellington having supposed that the enemy must make their
passage there, because the castle at Alba de Tormes was occupied
by the Spaniards; but the troops who garrisoned it had, without his
knowledge, been withdrawn, so that Clausel, making a most rapid march
during the night, crossed the river there without molestation. Having
crossed in pursuit, the cavalry came up with the enemy’s rear-guard of
horse and foot between Garci Hernandez and Peñarandilla: a detachment
from the 11th and 16th dragoons charged their cavalry, which fled, and
left the infantry to their fate. Major-General Bock, then, with the
heavy brigade of the King’s German legion, attacked them, when posted
upon a hill in square, and in what is described as one of the finest
charges that was ever seen, rode completely through them. The whole
body, consisting of three battalions, were made prisoners, the brigade
losing in the charge 30 killed and nearly 50 wounded. In the course of
the day, the enemy were joined by 1200 cavalry belonging to the army of
the north, who, though too late to be of any greater service, covered
the retreat of their centre to Peñaranda de Bracamonte: one column
went by Macotora; the other which had crossed the Tormes at Encina and
Huerta moved on El Campo and Cebolla. They had their head-quarters at
Flores de Avila, ten leagues from the field of battle, for a few hours
on the second night, and hastened from thence by Arevalo, towards
Valladolid. Their dead were found in many places by the road-side, and
their stragglers met with as little mercy from the peasantry as they
had been accustomed to show; yet many of their rear-guard were taken
without arms, having thrown them away as impediments in their flight.
The pursuit was continued on the 24th; but the enemy made exceedingly
long marches, and had little to encumber them while hastening to their
resources both in men and means, and the pursuers having to bring
up their supplies far from behind could not keep up an equal pace.
On that day they only came up with the rear-guard, which hastened
away at their approach. On the following the advance halted for the
army to close up; Colonel Arentschild’s brigade entered Arevalo; and
a non-commissioned officer’s patrol captured two officers and 27 men
of Joseph’s own cavalry, in Blasco Sancho, between Arevalo and Avila.
The Intruder had reached that place, hastening with the army of the
centre to join Marmont upon the Tormes; he was met there with tidings
of the defeat, and then turned towards Segovia, as if retreating upon
Madrid: soon however receiving fuller advices, he endeavoured to divert
the pursuers by threatening an advance upon their flank. The routed
army, meantime, whose movements were conducted with great ability
by Clausel, concentrated themselves on the right bank of the Douro,
between Puente de Duero and the other bridge at Tudela de Duero; they
crossed the river as soon as the allies advanced towards them, hastened
to Valladolid, and making no tarriance there, continued their retreat
to Burgos. Lord Wellington entered Valladolid on the 30th amid the
acclamations of the people. There he discontinued the pursuit, and
prepared to march against the Intruder, with the intention of either
bringing him to action, or driving him from Madrid.
♦PROCEEDINGS OF SIR HOME POPHAM ON THE COAST OF BISCAY.♦
Meantime, a squadron under Sir Home Popham which sailed from Coruña,
to co-operate with the Guerrillas, and occupy the enemy upon the side
of Biscay, rendered all the service which had been expected from
it. Sir Howard Douglas and General Carrol embarked in the Venerable
with Sir Home. They arrived off Lequeitio on the 18th of June, where
the French had possession of a hill-fort, commanding the town, and
strong enough to resist any body of infantry; they had also 200 men
fortified in a convent within the town, and into this the garrison
retired when the Pastor D. Gaspar Jauregui arrived with his party to
act in concert with the squadron. The convent might have been destroyed
by the ships, but the town must in that case have suffered also; it
was determined, therefore, to attack the fort, which was so situated
that the enemy thought it quite inaccessible to cannon. They knew not
what British seamen are capable of on shore. At a time when the sea
broke with such violence against the rocks at the foot of the hill,
that it was doubtful whether a boat could reach the land, Lieutenant
Groves succeeded in landing a gun there. It was hove up for a short
distance by a moveable capstan; but this was too tedious an operation,
and it was dragged to the summit by six and thirty pair of oxen, 400
of the Pastor’s men, and 100 seamen, headed by the Honourable Captain
Bouverie. It was immediately mounted; the first shot was fired at
four in the afternoon, and so well was it served, that by sunset a
practicable breach was made. The Guerrillas volunteered to storm;
they were repulsed in the first attempt, but succeeded in the second,
and such of the enemy as escaped on the opposite side got into the
convent. In the course of the evening the sea had abated, a landing was
effected upon the island of S. Nicholas, from whence the convent could
be battered without damage to the town; three carronades were planted
there; at dawn, a 24-pounder was brought to the east side of the town,
within 200 yards of the convent, and another was in the act of being
landed upon the island to bombard it, when the French commandant beat
a parley, and surrendered with 290 men. The Guerrillas had lost 50 in
killed and wounded, not a man belonging to the squadron was hurt. The
muskets, stores, and three small guns, which were found there were
given to the Pastor. Two 18-pounders in the fort were rendered useless;
the fort itself was demolished and the convent blown up. The next
morning a column of 1100 men were seen which had arrived within two
leagues of Lequeitio, but hearing from the peasantry that the English
had disembarked 2000 men, they retired. Some intercepted letters were
now transmitted to Sir Home, by which the commandant at Guernica was
instructed to prepare rations for a French general and 2600 of the
Imperial Guards.
The squadron was now to have co-operated in an attack upon Bilbao,
but the wind proved unfavourable for getting round Cape Machichago,
and part of the ships fetched the anchorage of Bermeo. The enemy had
retired from that place, leaving a small magazine of provisions ♦JUNE
23.♦ in a fortified convent; these were distributed to the poor; and
the battery on the hill and all the fortified places which the French
had occupied were destroyed: the works at Plencia were in like manner
demolished, and the batteries on each side of the ♦JUNE 24.♦ inlet
below the bar of the Ybeyzabal, or Narrow River, the beautiful and
tranquil stream which forms the port of Bilbao: on one side were the
castle of Galea, and the batteries of Algorta and Begona; on the other
the batteries of El Campillo, Las Quersas and Xebiles. Early on the
following morning some parties of the enemy entered the destroyed
batteries of Algorta, but retired upon the squadron’s making a
disposition to stand up the inlet; they then formed in the plain, and
were found to consist of 2000 men at Algorta, while 400 were sent to
Puerta Galetta. Three of the British sloops closed with the fort there,
silenced it, and drove them from thence. It was supposed that this was
the corps for which rations had been ordered at Guernica, and that it
had been thus drawn off from its original destination.
♦JULY 2.♦
The squadron then made for Guetaria; two companies of marines were
landed for the purpose of reconnoitring the place, previous to an
intended attack, but the Guerrillas who were expected to co-operate
were engaged with the enemy in a different quarter; parties of the
French were seen crossing the hills; the intention, therefore, was
relinquished, ♦JULY 6.♦ and the marines re-embarked without loss.
Sir Home then sailed for Castro, where Sir George Collier had landed
a company of marines to assist Longa in a concerted attack. Longa
was there at the time and place appointed; more marines were landed,
and guns with hearty exertions of well-directed skill were drawn up
heights that might have seemed inaccessible to men less earnest in
their duty. They were placing them in a battery to the east of the
town, when 2500 of the enemy appeared on the heights of S. Pelayo;
the parties upon this were re-embarked, and Longa found it necessary
to change his ground, after which he sustained an action, in which
no advantage was gained over him. Somewhat disheartened by this, the
French marched into the town that evening, and were driven out of it
on the morrow by the fire of the squadron: they then took post on
the hills, and under favour of the night retired towards Laredo. The
castle then surrendered with 150 men, and having been put in a state of
defence, was garrisoned by ♦JULY 10. JULY 11.♦ the marines and Spanish
artillerymen of the Iris. Their next attempt was a combined attack
upon Puerta Galleta, which was abandoned because the enemy were found
to be in greater strength than had been expected; the French on their
part failed equally in endeavouring to recover Castro. Their moveable
column had now been drawn by a feint to Santona; from thence it could
not reach Guetaria in less than four days; another attempt therefore
was made upon that place in concert with the Pastor, and with one of
Mina’s battalions. The latter, after two days’ severe march, did not
arrive till it was too late; for when the enemy’s guns on one side had
been silenced, ♦JULY 19.♦ and a battery was ready to open upon them
on the other, intelligence was received that a considerable body of
French troops was hastening thither by forced marches. The Guerrillas
maintained a brave action against them, till the superiority of the
enemy’s numbers was ascertained, and made it necessary for them to
retreat; but this action prevented the re-embarkation of the British in
time, so that two guns were in consequence destroyed, and 32 men made
prisoners.
These operations of Sir Home Popham’s squadron were of service in many
ways. Troops were thus occupied who would otherwise have joined Marmont
before the battle of Salamanca; the corps which relieved Guetaria was
recalled from that direction, and Caffarelli was prevented from sending
the infantry who were to have assisted in driving the English into
the Tagus. The ports which were liberated lost no time in conveying
supplies to the free parts of the kingdom, and vessels from them
arrived daily at Coruña laden with corn and wine. And the Guerrillas,
as well as the regular troops of Spain, received a countenance and
support which enabled them to hold towards the enemy the language
of confident hope. Renovales, who was Commandant-General in Biscay,
addressed a letter to the French Governor of Bilbao, General Roquet,
remonstrating against the cruelties which General Mouton had committed
with his column: “for the security of a fortress,” he said, “or to
prevent an insurrection, the rules of military precaution might render
it proper to put some few persons of respectability in confinement,
but that cottages and private dwellings should be outraged, and that
peaceable persons should be tortured by stripes, by the bayonet, and
by fire, was what no laws of war could justify. The Spaniards were a
people who might be softened by generosity though not subdued by it;
but if this system of terror were persisted in towards them, ... if it
were still to be war at the knife’s point, the Biscayans, instead of
yielding a foot to him, would meet him half way in such warfare. Four
and twenty officers were in his hands, and should suffer for the next
act of cruelty on the part of the French. He concluded by assuring
Roquet that the day was not far distant when Bilbao would be delivered,
and that he, Renovales, would then, at the head of 10,000 Biscayans,
fulfil his duty as he had hitherto done, and first of all towards
himself.
CHAPTER XLII.
LORD WELLINGTON ENTERS MADRID. THE FRENCH RETIRE FROM ANDALUSIA. SIEGE
OF BURGOS, AND RETREAT OF THE ALLIES.
♦JULY, 1812.♦
Buonaparte could keep the French people ignorant of the course which
events had taken in Portugal and Spain; but even the vigilance of his
military tyranny could not prevent the Spaniards from knowing that the
allies, having driven out the French from the one kingdom, had entered
the other, and had recovered the two strong places of Ciudad Rodrigo
and ♦APPEAL OF THE INTRUDER TO THE SPANIARDS.♦ Badajoz. Fresh appeals
were made by the Intrusive Government to the fears and jealousies
of a people whom they had now began to apprehend it would be found
impossible to subdue. “What would it avail them,” it was asked, “if
they were to set up Infantado, or the Empecinado, or Ballasteros, or
any other of their countrymen for king? Wherefore should they persist
in an obstinate and unavailing resistance after the Bourbon dynasty
had been extinguished by that great man whom Providence had appointed
to regenerate Spain, and who for their happiness had selected Joseph
to reign over them? Why did they not rally round his throne?” The
Spaniards only ridiculed such appeals; and the French themselves, in
derision, called Joseph King of the Highways, as one whose authority
extended no farther than his patrols and armies could enforce it. His
was indeed a miserable condition; the brother, of whose wicked will
he had, in despite of his own understanding and heart, consented to
become the instrument, regarded him with displeasure, because he had
met with a resistance which was not to be overcome; the nation upon
which he had been insolently intruded, regarded him with deeper hatred
than perhaps had ever before been co-existent with the feeling of
sincere contempt; the army by which alone he was scarcely supported
despised him, and the French generals kept up towards him a semblance
of respect.
♦STATE OF MADRID.♦
But odious as the usurpation was everywhere, it was rendered peculiarly
so at Madrid, by the presence of the Intruder and of his ministers.
Being the seat of the Intrusive Government, more of those traitors were
collected there who had made the miseries of their country a means
for their own advancement; and as the commanders in other parts cared
little for the necessities of the court, heavier imposts were exacted
from the inhabitants, at the very time when a remission of taxes was
announced in edicts, which, if intended to be executed, were never
carried into effect. The duties payable upon the entrance and exit of
wheat, rice, and pulse of every kind, were repealed by a decree, but
continued to be exacted as before, and at the same time, new duties
were imposed upon wine, oil, meat and vegetables. A loan of 20 million
reales was soon exhausted, a contribution of eight millions was then
demanded from the trading part of the people; and an equivalent
proportion was taken in kind from the occupiers of land. Eight per
cent. upon the value of houses were first required, then ten, and
then fifteen; the poorest artisan was compelled to take out an annual
license for the exercise of his calling; even the water carriers were
subjected to this tax. Having collected a great quantity of grain,
the Government sold it at a price more suited to its own wants than
to the condition of the people: the hospitals were crowded with sick
and starving poor; and of the persons who died during the first six
months of this year, two-thirds perished in consequence of misery and
want. Patient endurance was all that the people of Madrid could oppose
to their oppressors; but they lived in firm belief that the day of
deliverance would come, believed every rumour of success on the part of
their countrymen and their allies, and with the same determined will,
discredited whatever was related of their reverses. They looked upon
the account of Ballasteros’s defeat at Bornos as so much exaggerated
that it was unworthy of belief; and with more reasonable incredulity
when it was reported that Marmont had totally defeated the allies
and taken 20,000 prisoners, while the French and their partisans
congratulated each other upon the news, they required dates and
details, and assured themselves that it was nothing more than one of
the enemy’s customary falsehoods.
♦MEASURES OF JOSEPH BEFORE THE BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.♦
Indeed, before the battle of Salamanca, it was made sufficiently
apparent by circumstances which the French were unable to conceal, that
however confidently they might expect some great success, they had
as yet obtained none. The garrison at the Puerto de Miravete, which
had been relieved after the destruction of the bridge at Almaraz,
was withdrawn now, the Puente del Arzobispo was abandoned, and they
withdrew also from Talavera, which was immediately entered by the
Medico. Most of their garrisons at the same time withdrew from La
Mancha, and they were followed by those miserable people, who, having
accepted offices, whether high or low, under the Intrusive Government,
dared not remain without French protection in any place where they were
known. Exertions were made for fortifying Toledo; and in the works
which were carried on for the same purpose at the Retiro, the people of
Madrid saw unequivocal proof, that the French apprehended at least the
possibility of an advance of the allies upon the capital. To prevent
that danger, they had thus collected their forces from all quarters,
thinking then to attack Lord Wellington with such superior numbers as
would render success certain: but Joseph and M. Jourdan were too slow
in moving from Madrid, and meantime Marmont had been too confident
of his strength and of his skill. If he had delayed his passage of
the Tormes only for two days, till the army of the centre should have
joined, the enemy persuaded themselves that Lord Wellington could
not have escaped from utter defeat, and that that victory would have
secured the entire conquest of Spain.
♦ADVANCE OF THE ALLIES.♦
The event could not be kept secret at Madrid; every one knew what
no one dared publish; and while false intelligence was sedulously
spread abroad by the Intrusive Government, and the police was more
than ordinarily active in arresting suspected persons, every one
congratulated his friends and neighbours upon a victory the extent of
which was magnified in proportion to their hopes. They entertained no
doubt but that Marmont had been killed, and his whole army destroyed.
Lord Wellington moved from Cuellar on the 6th of August, leaving
General Clinton’s division there, and General Anson’s brigade of
cavalry to observe the line of the Douro. He arrived at Segovia on
the 7th, and at S. Ildefonso on the 8th, the beautiful summer retreat
of the kings of Spain: there he halted one day that the right of
the army might have time to come up. The passage of the Guadarama
mountains was effected without opposition. Brigadier-General d’Urban,
with the Portugueze cavalry, the first light battalion of the German
Legion, and Captain M’Donald’s troop of horse artillery, drove in on
the morning of the 16th, about 2000 French cavalry; they moved toward
Naval Carnero, and returned from thence in the evening with the
Intruder himself, to make a reconnoissance. D’Urban formed the ♦AUGUST.
AFFAIR AT MAJALAHONDA.♦ Portugueze cavalry in front of Majalahonda,
and ordered them to charge the enemy’s leading squadrons, which
seemed too far advanced. The Portugueze pushed on, but unexpectedly
disgraced themselves; their officers set them a brave example, but
in vain, and the Visconde de Barbacena, who behaved remarkably well,
was taken prisoner; the men turned about shamefully, fled through the
village, and left the guns behind them which had been moved forward
for their support. M’Donald’s troop exerted themselves to bring them
off, but owing to the rough ground, one carriage was broken, two
were overturned, and thus the three fell into the enemy’s hands. The
German dragoons who had been formed behind the village rallied the
fugitives, charged the enemy, and stopped their progress, but suffered
considerable loss. In this affair, about 200 men were killed, wounded,
or taken, and 120 horses. The left of the allied army being not three
miles distant, two brigades of horse and foot moved forward to support
the troops in advance; the French retired as soon as they saw them, and
withdrew during the night, leaving the guns. The piquets of the allies
took post that evening on the mountains, in sight of Madrid.
♦THE ENEMY RETIRE FROM MADRID.♦
The enemy, who from Madrid had been looking through telescopes toward
the passes of the Guadarama, had seen D’Urban’s detachment on the
evening of the 9th. Orders were then given and revoked by the resident
members of the Government, with the precipitation of fear: it was
determined to abandon the capital on the following morning, and the
adherents of the Intruder prepared in all haste for their departure;
some selling their goods for any price that could be obtained for them,
others, intrusting them to the care of their friends, and not a few
soliciting the compassion of those who had been found faithful to their
country. The families of these unhappy men were objects of compassion
even to the populace, notwithstanding the indignation which was felt
at the men themselves, who bitterly repented now, not so much their
guilt as their short-sightedness in supposing that they had taken the
stronger side. The troops under whose protection they retired would
have saved them from any outrage or insult if any had been intended;
but they had not proceeded far from the gates before many of them
were plundered by these protectors. Two of Joseph’s ministers entered
Madrid with a strong escort the next day, for the supposed purpose of
destroying papers, and securing effects which could not be carried away
in the hurry of the removal. They retired in the evening, and on the
morning of the 12th all the troops who remained shut themselves up in
the Retiro. The shops which, during the two preceding days, had been
closed were then opened, and Madrid became a scene of such joy as had
never been witnessed ♦THE ALLIES ENTER.♦ in the days of its proudest
prosperity. Soon after middle day the allies began to enter through
streets so crowded with gratulating multitudes, that the officers who
were on horseback at the head of their men, could scarcely make their
way, and scarcely keep their seats, so eagerly did the Spaniards press
to shake hands with them, as if nothing but an English mode of greeting
could make their exultation and their hearty welcome sufficiently
intelligible.
♦THE NEW CONSTITUTION PROCLAIMED.♦
Madrid had lost more than two-thirds of its inhabitants since its
occupation by the French, but an influx of people from all the
surrounding country now filled it as if there had been no depopulation;
and amid this multitude, on the following day, the new constitution was
proclaimed by D. Carlos de España, who was appointed governor of the
capital and province, ... a charge for which no one could be better
qualified by clearness of judgment, and promptitude in executing what
he saw to be right. Their acclamations were hushed as soon as they knew
what they were called upon to hear; and the deep silence with which
they listened to the constitutional act was interrupted only by the
enemy’s cannon from the Retiro, which seemed rather like a salute in
honour of the ceremony, than an enemy’s artillery employed in defence
of their last hold in the capital. The act was received with exultant
delight; young minds and generous ones, whose natural ardour enabled
them to believe what they eagerly desired, persuaded themselves that
the Spaniards had now established their freedom as well as achieved
their independence; the happy days of Athens and of Sparta, they said,
seemed to be restored; and the people of Madrid already appeared like
a nation accustomed to liberty, and to deliberate concerning their own
interests.
♦THE BUEN RETIRO.♦
On that evening Lord Wellington invested the Retiro, where Marshal
Jourdan, with little prudence, had left a garrison of 1700 men. At
the eastern extremity of Madrid, Philip II. had a small palace, or
rather house of retreat, pleasantly situated by the Prado or public
walk, on a rising ground, and immediately adjoining the convent of S.
Geronimo. Philip IV. took a fancy to the site; and Olivares, whose
chief object seemed to be that of amusing his royal master at whatever
cost, purchased adjacent land enough for a large palace, with its
gardens and a park four miles in circuit; and such enormous sums were
lavished upon the edifice and the grounds, that the additional imposts
which were required for this expenditure, or artfully, perhaps, imputed
to it, were one of the causes which provoked the revolt in Catalonia,
and occasioned the separation of Portugal from the Spanish monarchy.
The palace contained a theatre, spacious itself, and opening into the
gardens, which might thus be made upon occasion a continuation of the
scene; in this theatre the master-pieces of the Spanish drama were
represented before a court who delighted in dramatic literature; and
Ferdinand VI. gratified his dear Queen Barbara’s hereditary love of
music, with Italian operas, performed under Farinelli’s direction.
Formerly the Buen Retiro contained a large collection of pictures by
the greatest masters of Italy, Spain, and the Low Countries; many
of these were transferred to other palaces when this began to be
neglected, and the French had now made spoil of the rest. But there
were ceilings painted by Luca Jordano, which were not removable; and
in a compartment of that in the great saloon, Spain was pictured,
ruling the terrestrial globe, ... a dream of ambition which her kings
of the Austrian line had entertained, which the craftiest as well
as the wildest heads among the Romish clergy encouraged, and which
many circumstances seemed to concur in favouring, when, under the
blessing of Providence, the Dutch, by their patriotic and religious
virtue, averted that evil from the world. Two other noted works of
art were still to be seen in the Buen Retiro; one, remarkable for its
design, was a bronze statue of Charles V. trampling upon the Spirit of
Reformation which lay, personified as Heresy in chains, at his feet;
the other, which for the surpassing skill of the sculptor was even
more remarkable, was an equestrian statue of Philip IV. cast by Pietro
Tacca of Florence, weighing, it is said, not less than nine tons,
and yet supported only by the hind legs, the horse being in the act
of galloping. Within the precincts of the palace were many pavilions
which used to be assigned to the courtiers when the court resided
there. The gardens were of that formal style in which art allows as
little as possible of nature to be seen, ... where water is brought at
great expense to spout from fountains and fill circular fish-ponds,
the gardener exercises his topiary genius upon trees and shrubs, and
humble evergreens are compelled to grow in fantastic patterns, like
a vegetable carpet. The park was a thick wood, with broad avenues, a
central pond having a pavilion in its centre, and a large piece of
water at its termination, on which gilded gondolas awaited the king’s
pleasure when he was disposed to take the diversion of fishing, his
retinue beholding the sport from the little pavilions which decorated
its sides. Like all the other palaces of the kings of Spain, the Buen
Retiro was a place in which a meditative beholder was forcibly reminded
of the vanity of human greatness. Those kings, above all other European
sovereigns, had been loved and reverenced by their people; their
palaces were among the wonders of the modern world, and no expenditure,
no efforts of ingenuity and art had been spared in embellishing their
summer retreats: but these things had been grievously compensated,
not alone by the never-ending anxieties of state, and the gloom of
disappointed ambition, but by a more than ordinary share of the
afflictions incident to human nature, coming upon themselves or their
families, ... maladies of body and of mind alike incurable and painful;
... madness, fatuity, weak intellects, ... conscious of their weakness,
and of the awful responsibility in which their birth had placed them,
... morbid consciences, and broken hearts.
After the accession of Charles III. the Retiro ceased to be a royal
residence, and part of its buildings were converted into a royal
manufactory of porcelain. Its park, however, continued to be a
fashionable promenade, the more agreeable, because carriages were not
allowed to enter; but the French had now made it a depôt for their
artillery stores, the victims whom they arrested for political offences
were confined there, and they had fortified it as a military post, but
with less judgment than their engineers had displayed on any other
occasion. ♦SURRENDER OF THE RETIRO.♦ The outer line was formed by the
palace, the museum, and the park wall, with flèches thrown out in part
to flank it; the second was a bastioned line of nine large fronts, but
with no outworks except a ravelin and a lunette; the interior was an
octagonal star fort, closely surrounding what had been the porcelain
manufactory. The garrison was far too small for the outer enceintes,
and Marshal Jourdan had therefore left written orders, that if they
were seriously attacked, they should confine their defence to the star
fort, which, however, itself would be rendered nearly indefensible if
the manufactory were destroyed. A copy of this order was found, and on
the night of the 13th, Major-General Pakenham drove in their posts from
the Prado and the botanical garden, made them retire from the outer
enceintes, broke through the wall in many places, ♦AUGUST 14.♦ and
established his troops in the palace. In the morning arrangements were
made for driving them from the bastioned lines, and for battering the
manufactory; but the governor saw that resistance was useless, and he
surrendered. The number of prisoners taken there and in the hospital
amounted to 2500, and there fell into the hands of the allies 189
pieces of cannon, and above 20,000 stand of arms, with a great quantity
of ammunition and stores of all kinds. The eagles also of the 13th and
51st regiments were found there, and sent to England.
♦THE CONSTITUTION SWORN TO.♦
The inhabitants of Madrid, who looked upon this strong hold of their
oppressors as a Bastille, were desirous of thronging thither to see
the place where so many of their countrymen had been sacrificed; but
this was not permitted, both the British commander and the Spanish
authorities seeking as much as possible to prevent any thing which
might excite the vindictive feelings of the people. That same day,
the churches in every parish were opened for administering the oath
of fidelity to the new constitution; and multitudes crowding thither
with an eagerness which might well have excited apprehension of its
stability, swore to they knew not what. Napoleon, it was said, had
promised to regenerate them, and they were regenerated; for through
his means, who had intended nothing less, the Spaniard had been
converted from a slave to a citizen; the superstitious had thrown off
his prejudices, the coward his fears, the credulous his credulity; the
idle had become industrious, the selfish man generous, and the reckless
one had learned to think. While those who knew little of history and
less of human nature exulted thus in the persuasion, that the habits
of a whole people might be changed as lightly as an inconsiderate man
changes his opinion, and that inveterate evils may suddenly be cured
by legislation as if by miracle, and leave no scar behind; the general
joy was kept up by fast following tidings from all parts of successes,
which, though little more than the necessary consequences in most
instances of the battle of Salamanca and the occupation of Madrid, were
considered each by the multitude as an important achievement in itself.
On the same day that the Retiro was surrendered, the French withdrew
from Toledo to join the army of the centre, with which the Intruder
was retreating towards Valencia: they destroyed their artillery, and
all the ammunition which they could not carry; and hardly had they
left the city before the Abuelo’s party entered, and the bells rung,
and the squares and streets were illuminated. ♦AUGUST 16.♦ Guadalaxara
was attacked by the Empecinado, and after a vain resistance, above 700
French were made prisoners there. The enemy retired from Logroño, and
Duran hastened thither and destroyed its outer fortifications, its
fort, and its inquisition. A detachment was sent from Zaragoza to bring
away the garrisons from Tarrazona and Borja, and destroy the works
there.
♦GEN. FOY’S MOVEMENT.♦
General Foy, with 6000 infantry and 1200 horse, part of Marmont’s army,
now under his command, moved from the neighbourhood of Valladolid
with the intent of raising the blockade of Toro and Zamora, and the
siege of Astorga. The garrison at Tordesillas, consisting of 250 men,
had previously surrendered to ♦AUGUST 17.♦ Santocildes. The Spaniards
retired from before Toro at their approach, in good order and with
little loss; the enemy bringing off their garrison, were then joined
by another body of equal force, and proceeded towards Astorga; 300 of
their cavalry were sent forward to that city, but when they entered
it they found that the Spaniards had withdrawn, and had marched the
garrison, consisting of 1200 men, prisoners towards Coruña: for
Castaños knowing that a force was advancing which his army was in no
condition to meet, had successfully employed the easy artifice of
representing to ♦AUGUST 18.♦ the commander that relief was impossible,
and resistance hopeless, and thus he had induced him to ♦AUGUST 21.♦
surrender. Foy was at Baneza, half way between Benevente and Astorga,
when he received this mortifying intelligence; he then turned back to
the Ezla, and marched upon Carvajales, thinking to surprise the Conde
de Amarante, who with the militia of Tras-os-Montes, then serving
voluntarily beyond their own frontier, was blockading Zamora; the Conde
retreated ♦AUGUST 29.♦ without loss, and the French general bringing
off the garrison marched for Tordesillas.
Some of the traitors who had made themselves conspicuous in the
Intruder’s service, fell into the hands of ♦MEASURES OF POLICE AT
MADRID.♦ their countrymen at Guadalaxara; others who were conscious
that they had been weak rather than wicked, and that in submitting to
him for their own good, they had not aggravated the crime by injuring
those who had persisted in their duty, presented themselves voluntarily
to the newly constituted authorities in Madrid, thinking it better to
take the chance of mercy, than to fly they knew not whither, without
resources, without friends, and without the consolation which those
who act righteously find in their own hearts. There were writers on
this occasion who cried for vengeance in a most ferocious spirit.
They called upon the people of Madrid to prepare graves for their
guilty countrymen who had thus presented themselves at the foot of
the gallows! They advised them to go to the governor, and with one
voice require justice upon these wretches, as what the nation was
entitled to demand; ... the sword for some, chains for others, and
strict confinement till the conclusion of the war for those who were
suspected, and who, if they were left at large, might act as secret
agents for the French. This atrocious language failed of its intended
effect, for the presence of the allied troops maintained order; and a
vigilant police had been established, not for the oppression of the
people, but for their security.
No needless severity was used. D. Carlos d’España made known by
an edict, that persons of both sexes in that capital carried on
a correspondence with those unhappy Spaniards who had followed
the French, and that in this manner they supplied the enemy with
intelligence; all such communication, therefore, was prohibited
to all persons, on pain of being brought before a council of war,
and condemned irremissibly to suffer the punishment appointed for
spies. The families of the fugitives, and of those who had enriched
themselves by the purchase of what the Intrusive Government called
national goods, were ordered to remain in their houses under the
word of three respectable sureties, and not to leave them except for
the purpose of attending their religious duties; but their wives
and daughters were advised to retire into a convent, as the course
which consisted best with their own honour, and with that of their
husbands and fathers, for whom they might there offer up their prayers,
supplicating Providence to bring them in its mercy back to the path of
duty which they had forsaken.
How to deal with the _juramentados_, as those Spaniards were called who
had entered into Joseph’s armies, was a question which now became of
great importance. Hitherto it had been possible to execute the rigour
of the law, and put to death those who were taken in arms against
their country; but the tide having now turned, it might reasonably
be expected that they would eagerly desert a cause in which they had
never heartily engaged; and the policy of thus recruiting the Spanish
army, instead of driving these men to despair, was so evident, that
Alava, immediately on the occupation of Madrid, issued a proclamation,
as commissary for the Government, inviting them to accept the free
pardon which the Cortes had offered them on the publication of the new
constitution. Great numbers in consequence came over. Another measure
of the Intrusive Government, which was not less obvious and dangerous
in its possible results, than the scheme of raising a Spanish force
to be employed in the subjugation of Spain, was that of selling or
otherwise disposing of confiscated houses and lands, and thus binding
the new possessors to their allegiance by the only tie which they would
not be likely under any circumstances to break. They had contrived thus
to connect with the French interest many who would have been unwilling
or unable to purchase property of this description; for under pretext
of embellishing the capital, they pulled down about a fourth of it, and
by way of compensating the owners of the demolished dwellings, assigned
among them in exchange the houses of those who adhered to the national
cause. This policy the Cortes met by a timely decree, declaring all
purchases of confiscated estates null, and empowering the rightful
owners to enter upon them whenever the fortune of war should permit,
and authorising them to exact from the intrusive proprietors the mean
profits, and the amount of any waste which they might have committed.
♦LORD WELLINGTON’S SITUATION.♦
Lord Wellington was now enjoying the highest reward which can fall to
the lot of a successful commander. He was living in a palace, the most
magnificent in Europe, from which he had driven an Usurper; and the
blessings of the people accompanied him wherever he went. The municipal
authorities gave a bull-fight in his honour, and when he appeared in
the royal box, the air rung with the repeated shouts of not less than
12,000 spectators. He could not walk abroad by daylight because of
the pressure of the multitudes who gathered round him; even in the
dark when he went into the Prado, though he and his suite were dressed
in blue great coats in hopes of escaping notice, they were generally
recognized and followed by crowds, the women pressing to shake hands,
and some even to embrace them. Welcomed as he was with overflowing joy
by a grateful people as their deliverer, his satisfaction would have
been complete, if the same difficulties with which he had struggled
since the commencement of the war had not still impeded his plans;
for he was still embarrassed by the want of adequate means, and
disappointed in his hopes of co-operation. He was without money.
The United States of America had declared war against Great Britain,
with no just cause, nor even plausible pretext for hostilities. Lord
Wellington received the news of this declaration immediately after the
battle of Salamanca. The troops in Portugal depended in great measure
for corn upon the importation from America to that country; and he
deemed it necessary, without delay, to make large purchases at Lisbon,
that the subsistence of the army might not be endangered. But this
required a great expenditure, the effect of which was now severely
felt, for no pecuniary resources were to be found in Madrid. The
inhabitants fed the garrison, and the produce of the sequestered ♦COL.
JONES’S ACCOUNT OF THE WAR, 2. 122.♦ and crown lands was readily given
up to the allies, on promise of future payment; but when money was
required for the military chest, a few thousand dollars were all that
could be procured upon the most unquestionable security, and of this
sum much was in base coin.
♦ANGLO-SICILIAN ARMY.♦
Lord Wellington had counted with as much confidence as he ever allowed
himself to place upon arrangements which were not wholly under his own
control, on the promised co-operation of an expedition to the eastern
coast. The most urgent solicitations from that part of Spain for aid
had long been disregarded by the British Government; and the Catalans,
who of all the Spaniards made the greatest and most persevering
exertions in their own defence, had been left from the commencement
of the struggle until this time with no other help than occasional
supplies of money and arms, scantily apportioned, and the assistance
of a few ships of war. And now, when the strong fortresses, one after
another had fallen, and the British Government at length resolved
to withdraw part of its troops from Sicily, where the intrigues of
that poor kingdom, and the expectation of chances in Italy which
were little likely to occur, and of little importance if they had
occurred, had unduly detained them; only 6000 men were detached from
Sicily, without cavalry, and a considerable number of them consisting
of such foreigners as could be enlisted in the Mediterranean.
Lieutenant-General Maitland was appointed to the command, and they
sailed in company with a squadron from the Mediterranean fleet under
Rear-Admiral Hallowell. The common opinion was that they were destined
for Corfu, because heavy artillery was embarked with them.
♦MAJORCAN DIVISION.♦
The Majorcan division of Spanish troops which was to co-operate with
them, was supposed to be in a more efficient state than any of the
Spanish armies. This division had been raised upon the suggestion of
General Whittingham, Majorca being a safe place, where they might be
properly trained before they were brought into the field; but the
materials were not so unexceptionable as the design. Some 250 Germans
who had been made prisoners with Dupont’s army, were taken from the
island of Cabrera as volunteers; though, if free-will had influenced
them, they would, like the Swiss, have entered the Spanish service upon
the first opportunity, instead of remaining two years in that miserable
place of confinement. Majorca itself supplied so few willing soldiers,
that criminals who had been transported thither from Catalonia and
Valencia were enlisted, ... fellows of such a description, that those
who were not deemed capable of service were kept in prison: discipline,
however, and equitable treatment, of which even bad men are sensible,
made them better than was expected. Cuesta sent to this division all
who were discharged from the hospitals; and as runaways from the
routs in Valencia and Murcia could be collected or caught, they were
shipped for Majorca, and incorporated in this hopeful force. No
officer however was appointed without secret and strict inquiry into
his character. Other difficulties, which might not so probably have
been anticipated, impeded the equipment of this division. The plan
was unpopular in the island, the more so, perhaps, because it was set
on foot by an Englishman who was also invested with the command. Upon
Cuesta’s death, the situation of affairs was critical; the authorities
withheld all supplies from the troops, who were also threatened as well
as insulted in pasquinades: convents had been converted into barracks
for their use, and this may possibly have been one cause of offence. An
agreement had been concluded with the Dey of Algiers for a supply of
horses, but it was broken off for want of money, the Superior Junta of
Majorca disregarding all orders from the Regency. The institution of a
military academy was another cause of dislike, owing to the habits of
insubordination which prevailed in Majorca, as in every other part of
the Spanish dominions. By prudent conduct, however, impediments were
removed, and dislike softened or overcome; the troops were clothed
and armed by Great Britain, and their hospital supplied: and when the
expedition from Sicily called for them at Palma, 4500 men embarked, in
a state of efficient discipline.
♦JULY 24.
THE EXPEDITION ARRIVES ON THE COAST OF CATALONIA.♦
The fleet made for the eastern coast of Spain, and on the first of
August anchored in the bay of Blanes, at the mouth of the Tordera. The
enemy occupied Tosa, and had a redoubt there which covered the town
and protected the coast. On that and the following day demonstrations
of landing were made; but upon an interview with Eroles, it was found
that any such measure would be worse than useless, with so inadequate
a force. That able Spaniard saw that it was better for the Catalans
to be left as they had so long been to their own exertions, than to
give the French an opportunity of bringing superior numbers against
a British expedition: and it was agreed that the best service which
such a force could then perform was to secure the city of Alicante, at
that time endangered in consequence of a defeat which Joseph O’Donell
♦DEFEAT OF THE SPANIARDS AT CASTALLA. JUNE 21.♦ had suffered in its
vicinity. He had endeavoured to drive the vanguard of Marshal Suchet’s
army, under General Harispe, back upon the Xucar, from the line which
it occupied at Castalla and Ibi, and other points of the mountainous
country; but as usual, when the Spaniards were brought forward in
regular war, against well-disciplined and well-commanded troops, some
of the officers either misunderstood their orders or executed them
ill, and some of the men losing courage as soon as they lost hope,
threw into confusion those who were braver than themselves; their
loss amounted to 4000 men, being little less than the whole number
which they attacked, and they left more than 10,000 muskets in their
flight. Suchet, who was the most enterprising and successful of all
the French generals in Spain, would have taken advantage of this
shameful defeat, and endeavoured to obtain possession of Alicante, if
the force at his disposal ♦AUGUST.♦ had not been greatly diminished.
Buonaparte had withdrawn all the Poles in his service from the
peninsular, for the Russian campaign; and this deprived him of six
thousand of his best troops, at a time when his army was otherwise
greatly weakened by sending succours to Caffarelli in Navarre, and by
the increased exertions which it was necessary to make against Duran
and the Empecinado, Villacampa and Bassecourt. Before the battle of
Salamanca the Intruder, in his dreams of triumph, informed Suchet that
he must prepare for marching towards Madrid, and then accompanying him
to the Tagus; and he ordered him to form a camp of 8000 men between
Albaceyte and San Clemente; such a force it was impossible for him to
spare; he could not venture to weaken himself further than by detaching
1500 men to Requeña and Cuenca, to relieve General Darmagnac, and he
represented to Joseph that he could not move for Madrid with one of his
divisions, unless he received orders to evacuate Valencia. The last
orders from Paris were to direct all his efforts to the preservation of
the countries under his command, and to keep his force concentrated.
General Maitland knew less of Marshal Suchet’s actual strength than of
his relative superiority to any force that could be brought against
him; the best course, therefore, seemed to be that upon which he
resolved; to secure the important fortress and port of Alicante,
both as a place of arms from whence future operations might be
undertaken, and as a rallying point for the wreck of Joseph O’Donell’s
army. Thither ♦THE EXPEDITION LANDS AT ALICANTE.♦ accordingly the
Anglo-Sicilian expedition sailed: contrary winds and bad weather
retarded it some days upon the passage, but on the evening of August
the 9th they anchored in the harbour, and on the following day the
troops were landed.
The French who were in sight of the fortress retired upon this, and
formed their line in Chichona, Ibi, Castalla, Biar, and Villena. But
Suchet saw that this position would not be tenable against General
Maitland’s corps; ♦THE FRENCH FALL BACK TO THE XUCAR.♦ he concentred
his divisions, therefore, about St. Philippe; fixed his head-quarters
in that city; threw up field-works there, and upon the high road
from Valencia to Madrid; and constructed a bridge of boats over the
Xucar, near Alberique, which he secured with a _tête-du-pont_. His
intention was not to fall back without fighting, provided the allies
should attack him only in front, and were not too greatly superior in
numbers. But the superiority was soon on his own side: the allies took
the field on the 14th, and occupied the country from which the enemy
retired; on the 18th they received intelligence that the Intruder with
the force which he could bring together was about to join the army of
Valencia, and then it became necessary for General Maitland to fall
back to his position in front of Alicante.
The expedition which was to have effected a diversion in the east of
Spain, was thus for the time rendered useless, not having been upon a
sufficient scale to accomplish the purpose for which it was designed.
Meantime the squadron on the north-east coast proceeded successfully,
acting in concert with some of the ablest Guerrilla ♦THE FRENCH
WITHDRAW FROM SANTANDER. AUGUST 2.♦ leaders. Caffarelli found it
prudent to withdraw his garrisons from Torrelavega and Santander, lest
they should be made prisoners; the latter place was entered by Porlier;
the constitution was proclaimed there while salutes of joy were fired
by the Spanish troops and the British vessels; ♦THEY ARE DRIVEN
FROM BILBAO.♦ and Renovales made good his word to General Rouget by
driving him from Bilbao, and defeating him in an attempt at recovering
it. There also the constitution was proclaimed. The _Te Deum_ was
performed in Santiagos church, and the Cid Campeador in the theatre;
and all the unmarried men from the age of 17 to 45, were enrolled for
Mendizabal’s army. On that side there had been no want of exertion, and
no disappointment; but the Gallician army, from which more might have
been looked for, considering the resources of the province, served for
little more than to manifest the gross incapacity or negligence with
which ♦STATE OF THE GALLICIAN ARMY.♦ affairs of the greatest moment
were conducted: nominally it amounted to 30,000 men, and nearly that
number were supposed to be mustered, paid and fed, and yet 11,000
infantry and 350 horse were all that Santocildes had under his command,
and these were badly disciplined and miserably equipped.
♦THE FRENCH BREAK UP THE SIEGE OF CADIZ.
AUGUST 20.♦
On the night of the eighth day after the entrance of the allies into
Madrid, the news of that event reached Cadiz, where it excited among
the inhabitants the joyful hope of being speedily delivered from the
blockade: and deeper emotions in those exiles who had left their houses
and families in the metropolis. On the 24th the French broke up the
siege; they threw shells during the preceding night; those which were
filled with lead and discharged from howitzers with a velocity of about
2000 feet per second, ♦SIR HOWARD DOUGLAS’S NAVAL GUNNERY, P. 61.♦
ranged to the astonishing distance of three miles. They burst their
guns by overcharging them, placing their muzzles one against another
and exploding them by means of portfires and trains; and thus almost
the whole of their artillery between Chiclana and Rota, consisting
of 600 pieces, were rendered unserviceable. Many, however, were left
uninjured for the Spaniards to take possession of, as well as thirty
gun-boats, and a great quantity of stores. The necessity of this
retreat had been foreseen by Soult as soon as he was informed of the
battle of Salamanca. Before that action he had been meditating another
attack upon Tarifa, as a place from whence he could easily communicate
with Tangiers and the Barbary coast, and thus secure supplies for
feeding the army under his command. Sir Rowland Hill’s movements
withdrew him from this project: and after Marmont’s defeat he prepared
to abandon Seville, but to hold the Carthusian convent there, which he
occupied as a citadel. Strong working parties were employed in adding
to its defences, while at the same time the French packed up their
public documents and their private plunder for removal. But on this
occasion the Spaniards were on the alert.
♦MOVEMENT OF LA CRUZ MOURGEON AND COL. SKERRETT UPON SEVILLE.♦
As early as the middle of August the enemy had blown up the Castle of
Niebla, and retired from the whole county of that name; and on the very
day that they broke up from before Cadiz, Camp Marshal D. Juan de la
Cruz Mourgeon, in concert with Colonel Skerrett, judged it advisable to
make a forward movement on Seville, and for this purpose to force the
corps of observation at San Lucar la Mayor, consisting of 350 cavalry
and 200 foot. Brigadier-General Downie was second in command of the
Spanish force. This officer was born in Stirlingshire, and commenced
his military career by accompanying Miranda in his first expedition
to Venezuela, an adventure for which those foreigners who were taken
in it paid the forfeit of their lives. He joined Sir J. Moore’s army
as Assistant Commissary-General, was with Sir Arthur Wellesley in the
campaign of 1809, and in the ensuing year, having entered the Spanish
service, raised, with the approbation of his own government, the loyal
legion of Extremadura and was appointed Colonel-Commandant thereof.
The legion was armed and clothed by the British Government, and he
revived in it the old Spanish costume, ... or something resembling it;
and several of the young nobility are said to have entered it on that
account. By this and by his character, which in some respects resembled
their own, he made himself popular among the Spaniards; insomuch
that the Marquesa de Conquista, the representative of the Pizarros,
presented him with the sword of her ancestor, the famous, or infamous,
conqueror of Peru.
They marched from Manzanilla with 800 men, consisting of the 1st
regiment of guards, the 87th, and a Portugueze regiment, accompanied
by 600 Spanish troops: the Spaniards attacked on the right, the British
and Portugueze on the left: the enemy were driven through the streets,
leaving some killed, wounded, and prisoners, and the allies took post
at San Lucar without the loss of a man. Leaving his advance in that
town, and the British and Portugueze on the right bank of the river San
Lucar, the Spanish general returned to Castilleja del Campo, being the
place whither the persons from whom he received intelligence directed
their communications. Various and contradictory accounts were brought
thither on the morning of the 26th concerning the intentions of the
enemy in Seville; but in the afternoon he received positive information
that Soult, with the greater part of his force, was about to move by
way of Alcala upon Marchena. Arrangements were immediately made, that
the troops should collect at San Lucar, and after two hours’ rest
there, proceed towards Seville at three on the following morning, in
the hope that by this movement they might accelerate the retreat of
the French, and save Seville from being plundered. On arriving at
Espartinas, they ascertained that Soult had left the city with 5000
foot and 500 horse. General Mourgeon, upon this, sending out some
Guerrillas to cover his flanks, proceeded, and arrived on the heights
♦AUGUST 27.♦ of Castilleja de la Cuesta, immediately above Seville, at
six in the morning. The French, occupied some olive grounds close to
the village, and some forty infantry garrisoned the redoubt of Santa
Brigida from which the guns had been withdrawn. They were driven from
the olive grounds into the plain, where for awhile the cavalry, 100 in
number, protected the retreat of the foot, some 150: but they were so
pressed by the Spanish vanguard and annoyed by an English field-piece,
that they took to flight, and many of the men were made prisoners. The
redoubt was attacked at the same time, with more bravery than judgment,
and the Spaniards sustained some loss; the columns then advanced into
the plain, by which the redoubt was turned and its communication cut
off: and Colonel Skerrett ordered it to be masked by a detachment of
Portugueze.
♦THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM SEVILLE.♦
The Spaniards then made a detour to the right, in order to reach
the bridge of Triana by the road of S. Juan de Alfarache, and thus
intercept the retreat of the enemy and prevent them from cutting or
burning the bridge. Skerrett, meantime, advanced a field-piece to
keep in check the enemy’s fire at one of the gates opposite; and
after allowing time for the Spanish column to arrive, the British and
Portugueze advanced to the attack in front, the cavalry and artillery
at a gallop, supported by the grenadiers of the guards and the infantry
following. The enemy abandoned the gate: the British and Portugueze
entered the suburb, and advanced near to the bridge as rapidly as
possible; they were checked at the turn of the street by a fire of
grape-shot and musketry; the grenadiers advanced to their support; the
Spanish cavalry under D. José Canterac, (whom Mourgeon, foreseeing the
necessity, had ordered to leave the column and hasten straight through
the suburb, arrived at this point of time,) and the allies, drove every
thing before them. They advanced to the bridge under a heavy fire. The
enemy had retired from the plain in three columns, with two pieces
of artillery and 200 horse; and had taken a position with the river
on their right, and their rear resting on the suburb: two guns were
brought to bear on them by Captain Roberts of the artillery; they were
driven from their position, and then made a stand upon the bridge,
which they hoped to defend long enough to gain time for destroying
it. Downie with his legion twice attempted to force a passage, and was
twice repulsed, and each time wounded. In a third attempt he leaped
over the chasm which the enemy had then made; and at the same moment
a grape-shot shattered his cheek-bone and destroyed one of his eyes.
He fell from his horse, stunned by the wound; when his recollection
returned he found himself a prisoner, but in time to throw Pizarro’s
sword among his own people. On their part the attack was kept up with
so much spirit, aided as they now were by some guns well placed and
well-worked, that the enemy could not extend the breach which they
had made: and the inhabitants, even while their fire continued, set
all the bells ringing, displayed hangings from their balconies as for
a festival, hastened to the bridge and laid planks across the chasm,
and enabled their deliverers to pass. The French then retired to the
Triunfo and there again made a stand; but soon retreated through the
city, and leaving it by the Puerta Nueva and the Puerta de Carmona,
took the direction of Alcala. They left there two pieces of artillery,
many horses, much baggage, and some two hundred prisoners. The
deliverers could make no speed in pursuing them, for the streets were
crowded with rejoicing multitudes, and their previous exertions as
well as their want of cavalry would have made it imprudent to continue
the pursuit. Downie was treated with great barbarity by his captors.
Miserably wounded as he was, he was tied upon the carriage of a gun,
and in that condition dragged along with them in their retreat; and
this is said to have been done by General Villatte’s direction. Having
taken him some forty miles, and not expecting him to survive, they left
him in a hut, taking however, his parole not to serve again in case of
recovery, till he should have been regularly exchanged.
By this well-timed enterprise, Seville was saved from the contribution
which would have been exacted from it, and the devastation which was
threatened. A division of French troops, about 7000 in number, from the
blockade of Cadiz, passed by during the following night; they meant to
have taken up their quarters there; but supposing that it was occupied
by Sir Rowland Hill’s force, they had no inclination to encounter such
an enemy, and moved hastily to their right, on Carmona. Ballasteros had
hung upon their flank from Ronda, and continued to harass them till
they reached Granada. From thence Soult concerted his movements with
Suchet and the Intruder. Sir Rowland meantime was ordered to the Tagus
with his corps, there to connect its operations with the main body of
the allied army, and the British troops from Cadiz were embarked for
Lisbon.
♦REJOICINGS AT SEVILLE.♦
On the second day after the deliverance of Seville, the constitution
was proclaimed there in the Plaza de S. Francisco with the same success
as in other parts of Spain. A bull fight also was exhibited, for the
twofold purpose of gratifying the people in what to the disgrace of the
Spaniards was their favourite diversion, and of raising money for the
troops. Among other rejoicings, the Inquisition prepared to celebrate
a thanksgiving festival; but General Mourgeon intimated to them that
he had no authority to re-establish them, and that they would not be
suffered to appear as a corporate body. By the retreat of the French
from Andalusia, a large and populous, and most productive province
reverted to the legitimate government: but, though its resources were
thus increased, there was little ground for hoping that they would be
directed with more ability than in the early part of the struggle.
There was the same generous and devoted sense of duty to their country
in individuals; the same strong spirit of nationality in the great
body of the people; but on the part of the government there were the
same embarrassments to contend with; the same inexperience which the
frequent changes in administration allowed no time for curing, and the
same incapacity which no experience could cure. The ablest heads were
more intent upon carrying into effect their own theories of political
reformation, than of devising means to complete the deliverance of the
country. The indiscretion with which they hurried on measures that
the people were wholly unprepared for, provoked a strong resistance
in the Cortes itself; and the obstinate bigotry of the one party was
not more manifest than the presumptuous confidence, and the political
intolerance of the other. A jealousy of the English prevailed even in
persons whose hatred of the French could not be doubted; and in some
it seemed to acquire ♦HONOURS RENDERED TO LORD WELLINGTON.♦ strength
in proportion to the celebrity which Lord Wellington had obtained;
the people however rendered justice to his merits, as in such cases
they will always do when they are not artfully misled; the Great Lord
was the appellation which they commonly gave him, and no indication
was wanting of that national gratitude which he so well deserved. The
Regency had conferred upon him the order of the Golden Fleece; and
through their hands the Condessa de Chincon, D. Maria Teresa de Borbon,
presented him with the collar of the order, which had belonged to her
father the Infante D. Luiz; that it had been her father’s, she said,
was the only thing which made it valuable to her; but for its intrinsic
value it was a princely present.
♦ST. TERESA APPOINTED CO-PATRONESS OF SPAIN.♦
A subject not less characteristic than curious had been brought
before the Government. The barefooted Carmelites in Cadiz presented a
memorial, stating that Philip III. and the Cortes of 1617, had chosen
St. Teresa for patroness and advocate of Spain, under the Apostle
Santiago, that the nation in all its emergencies might invoke her,
and avail itself of her intercession. At that time the saint had only
been beatified; but her canonization shortly afterwards took place,
and then the Cortes of 1626 published the decree, which was confirmed
by Pope Urban VIII., without prejudice to the rights of Santiago, St.
Michael the Archangel, and the most Holy Virgin. Jealous, nevertheless,
of the imprescriptible rights of their own saint, the chapter of
Compostella exerted their influence at Rome with such success, that
the decree was suspended against the wishes both of the King and
Cortes. That wish, however, continued in the royal family; and Charles
II., in a codicil to his will, declaring that he had always desired
to establish the co-patronship of St. Teresa for the benefit of his
kingdom, charged his successors to effect it. The Carmelites now
urged that at no time could it more properly be effected than at the
present, when her potent patronage was needed against invaders, who
sowed the seeds of impiety wherever they carried their arms. This
memorial was referred to a special ecclesiastical commission; and in
conformity to the opinion of that commission the Cortes elected St.
Teresa patroness and protectress, under Santiago, of those kingdoms;
decreed that her patronship should forthwith take effect; enjoined
all archbishops, bishops, and prelates, to see that the correspondent
alterations should be made in the ritual for the saint’s day; and
required the Regency to give orders for printing, publishing, and
circulating this decree. The community of the barefooted Carmelites
then returned thanks for this appointment of their Mother the Saint.
“It was a decree,” they said, “which would fill all the natives
of those kingdoms with consolation and hope, and they flattered
themselves that from that moment Spain would experience the powerful
intercession of its new protectress.” “My great Mother, S. Teresa
de Jesus, Co-patroness of the Spains!” exclaimed the prior, in an
address which was printed among the proceedings of the Cortes, “the
very idea makes me eternally bless the law that sanctions it. This has
been a business of much time, an affair of some ages, a work of many
and mighty hands; but the glory of completing it has been reserved
for the fathers of the country, for the congress of lights, for your
majesty the Cortes, which has been the glorious instrument of this work
of the Eternal. And it was fitting that the country of heroes should
have the heroine of nations at its head, who like another mother of
the Maccabees should encourage its sons to triumph and to glory. This
Deborah is not less sage than she who judged Israel, not less valiant;
and the Baraks who will come forward under her protection will not be
intimidated by danger. She is not a Moabitess to pervert the armies of
Israel. She is a Jael who will destroy the forces of _Sennacherib_;
a Semiramis, who will overthrow the hosts of the sanguinary Cyrus.
At the sight of this fortunate Esther, Spain would lift her head and
conceive higher hopes. The unanimous consent of the whole nation, the
vows of the Spaniards of both hemispheres, would rise to heaven, and
uniting themselves at this moment with the intercessions of their great
Co-patroness, form that imperious voice which commands the winds and
the tempests, rules the seas, makes itself felt in the dark regions of
the abyss, and ascending the eternal mountain of the Lord, puts aside
the decree of extermination that threatens us, substitutes for it that
of our aggrandizement and elevation, and brings a blessing upon those
judicious, prudent, ♦DIARIO DE LAS CORTES, T. 14. PP. 56, 94, 96, 103.♦
and sage Mordecais, whose wise resolution has been the cause of this
portent.” In this language did the descendants of the Prophets who
dwelt on Mount Carmel, the children of the great Teresa, offer upon
the altar of gratitude the incense of their respect and veneration to
the Cortes!
While one set of unbelievers promoted this act of superstition, and
another condescended to it, a decree of more consequence was obtained
from the Spanish Government, which had become sensible that the war
must now be carried on upon one plan of operations, under the direction
of a single mind, and that a mind equal to the ♦LORD WELLINGTON
APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE SPANISH ARMIES.♦ emergency had been
manifested in Lord Wellington. The Cortes therefore conferred upon him
the command in chief of the Spanish armies, during the co-operation
of the allied forces in the defence of the peninsula; and the Marquis
signified his acceptance of the charge, subject to the Prince Regent’s
approbation, “the delay of obtaining which,” he said, “would not
impede his operations, because, upon all occasions on which he had
communicated with the Generals and Commandants of the Spanish troops,
he had received from them the utmost attention, and all the assistance
which they could afford him.” The Prince’s consent was not delayed;
and in signifying it, his Royal Highness expressed his satisfaction in
the measure, as considering it to be a just and signal proof that the
Spanish nation rightly appreciated the military talents and reputation
of Lord Wellington, and that the Cortes had taken a comprehensive view
of the manner in which the war ought to be conducted.
♦HIS SITUATION AT MADRID.♦
Lord Wellington meantime had more reason to be satisfied with the
approbation of his own Government, than with the support that it
afforded him. Successful as his campaign had thus far been, there
had been a loss of time in it, for want of means, and that want had
occasioned much to depend upon the chance of circumstances; whereas,
had there been an adequate force under his command, the results would
have depended as far as possible in war, upon his own sagacity, and
the superiority of British troops. An additional force of 15,000 men,
with which to have covered the northern frontier during the siege
of Badajoz, would have enabled him to fulfil his first intention of
marching upon Seville, after the fall of that fortress; the campaign
might then have been commenced two months earlier, and time would have
remained, after having freed the south of Spain, for operations in the
centre and north. Having been compelled to abandon that intention,
lest Marmont should recover Ciudad Rodrigo and overrun the north of
Portugal, he had succeeded to his utmost hopes in the plan which he
had of necessity adopted, not of choice. After that success, the
want of adequate means left him as little choice as before. To have
marched into Valencia against the collected armies of Soult, Suchet,
and the Intruder, would have rendered it impossible to keep up his
communications with Portugal; and except on that communication he could
have no safe dependence for supplies. There was moreover the weighty
consideration that the yellow fever had broken out in Murcia, and had
approached so near to Alicante, that the most rigorous precautions
were deemed necessary for preserving that part of the country from
the contagion. But independent of all other considerations, he had
neither sufficient troops to attack the united forces in the south,
nor sufficient money to subsist his army beyond Madrid. Of the 70,000
dollars which he had borrowed there, he was obliged to make over half
to the Portugueze, for the relief of their pressing necessities; and he
had raised the loan on condition of repaying it at the expiration of a
month. By acting in the north he should keep open his communication and
his retreat; and in the north also the reinforcements, which after the
tidings of his success he was sure would be expedited by all possible
exertions, might join him before the enemy could move against him with
their combined forces, from all quarters. The Intruder had with him
14,000 men, Suchet had 28,000 disposable in the field, and the army
of the south, under Soult, consisted of 55,000; in all 97,000: in the
north, there were the army of the north 10,000 strong, and the remains
of Marmont’s army, now under Clausel, estimated at 25,000. Against this
force, which had resumed its activity, it was resolved to act; and to
this determination there was the farther motive, that if the Galician
army were put in possession of Burgos, the castle there might enable it
to make a stand upon that front, and with the assistance of a British
and Portugueze corps to hold the army of Portugal in check while he
should be engaged in active operations in the south. The castle would
thus become a _tête-de-cantonment_ to this corps of observation, and
the French when deprived of it would not possess any strong post on the
great line of communication between France and the interior of Spain,
this castle commanding the only good road for artillery, and for the
movement of convoys.
♦LORD WELLINGTON MOVES TOWARD BURGOS.♦
Accordingly, on the 1st September, Lord Wellington departed from
Madrid, leaving the two divisions which were most in need of rest in
garrison there. Sir Rowland was ordered to the Xarama, so to cover the
capital on that side; and Ballasteros was requested to join him, in
case Soult, whose retreat from Andalusia was not yet known, should move
on Madrid; otherwise to be in readiness for acting upon the Marshal’s
line of march. The troops collected at Arevalo, moved from thence on
the 4th, and on the 6th crossed the Douro at the fords of Herrera and
♦THE FRENCH WITHDRAW FROM VALLADOLID.♦ El Abrojo; the enemy withdrew
from Valladolid at their approach, crossed the Pisuerga, blew up the
centre arch of the bridge, and retired along the right bank of that
river to Dueñas. Some skirmishing took place in front of that town,
and the cavalry picket drove the enemy out, and established themselves
there on the night of the 10th. On the following day, Lord Wellington
entered Palencia, where the English as usual were received with joyful
acclamations, and where the new Constitution was proclaimed. From
thence he communicated with Santocildes, and there learned from him to
how small a force the Galician army amounted, and how little that force
could be relied on. With all Lord Wellington’s experience of Spanish
co-operation, he had not expected this; knowing both the ability and
good-will of Castaños, he hoped to have found the army in a state of
such efficiency that he might have stationed it at Burgos in a few
days, and then without loss of time have returned to Madrid, there
to prepare for the contest which might be expected in that quarter.
The Galician army joined at Pampaliega on the 16th; the 11,000 of
whom it consisted were then separated into three divisions, and each
was directed to march in rear of a British division, no doubt being
entertained but that they would behave well if they were not exposed to
heavy attacks of the enemy’s cavalry.
♦THE ALLIES ADVANCE TO BURGOS.♦
The allies now moved up the beautiful valley of the Pisuerga, from
Valladolid, along the right bank of the river, to the place where it
receives the Arlanzon; and then along both banks of the Arlanzon, up
its valley towards Burgos. It is a tract of country in which nature
seems to invite human industry, and man has not been negligent in
profiting by the advantages of soil and climate and running waters.
Every inch of the valley is cultivated, and the hills are on both sides
covered with cornfields and vineyards. The country is as strong also
in a military point of view as it is fertile; out of the high road in
the valley the way is continually interrupted by rivulets and deep
ditches: the hills on either side afford admirable flanks for the
movements of an army, and there are heights from the river to the hills
on either side for strong defensive positions. The French General was
not a man to overlook this advantage, and the enemy were found on the
16th strongly posted with their left on the Arlanzon and their right
on the mountains. Lord Wellington made arrangements to turn their
position; but they decamped during the night, and in the morning their
whole army was seen retiring in five columns along the valley, and the
hills on either side. They were estimated at about 18,000 infantry and
more than 2000 horse, and their line of baggage was longer and closer
than men who had served in India had ever seen with an Indian army;
for they had pressed all the cattle in the country, and left nothing
transportable for any marauders who might follow them. Clausel entered
Burgos on the evening of the 17th; Marmont and Bonnet, who were still
incapacitated by their wounds, had left that city a few days before.
Caffarelli came thither from Vittoria to confer with him: a council of
war was held that night; at two in the morning the French commenced
their retreat, and by ten o’clock they had left the city and the
suburbs.
♦BURGOS.♦
Fabling authors have ascribed the foundation of Burgos to an imaginary
King Brygus, and mistaken antiquaries have endeavoured to identify
its site with that of the one or other Augostobriga, both having
been far distant. The earliest authentic accounts speak only of some
scattered habitations in this well-watered part of the country, till,
at the latter end of the ninth century, D. Diego Rodriguez, Count of
Castile, better known in Spanish history as Diego Porcelos, erected
a castle there by order of Alfonso III., and founded a frontier town
under its protection, which, from the old Burgundian word for a
fortress, obtained the name of Burgos. The castle was built upon a hill
which commands the rich plain watered by the rivers Arlanzon, Vena,
and Cardenuela: in former times it was of great strength and beauty,
cresting the summit of the hill, and towering above the houses, which
in those times covered the slope; but when the succession to the throne
of Castile was disputed by Alfonso V. of Portugal, against Ferdinand
and Isabella, in right of his wife Juana, the castle took part with
that injured and most unfortunate princess, and firing upon the city,
destroyed the best street, which was upon the descent: after this, the
lower ground was built upon, and the castle was left standing alone
upon the heights. During the sixteenth century, Burgos was the mart
through which the whole interior trade with the ports in the Bay of
Biscay was carried on, and from whence the Segovian cloth was sent to
all parts of Europe. Its population was then from 35,000 to 40,000,
exclusive of foreigners, who were many in number; it had been reduced
to 8000 or 9000, the place having declined after the seat of government
was fixed at Madrid. Most of the Spanish cities may be traced to much
higher antiquity; many exceed it in size; but there are few which are
connected with so many of those historical recollections in which
the Spaniards seem above all other nations to delight. It was the
birthplace of Count Ferran Gonzalez, and of the Cid Campeador; the
former used to knight his warriors in St. Lorenzo’s church. A beautiful
triumphal arch has been erected to his honour upon the site of the
dwelling in which he was born; and his statue, with those of the two
judges, Nuño Rasurez, and Layn Calvo, Diego Porcelos, the Cid, and the
Emperor Charles V., adorns the gate of St. Maria, which opens upon one
of the bridges.
Our Edward I. was knighted by his brother-in-law, Alfonso the Wise,
in S. Maria de las Huelgas, a nunnery founded by Alfonso V. and
his English Queen Leonor, within sight of the city. Its church was
preferred by the Castilian kings for the performance of any remarkable
ceremony, the place for which was not prescribed; three kings therefore
in succession were crowned there, and it was long a place of interment
for the royal family. Except that at Fulda, no other nunnery ever
possessed such privileges, or was so largely endowed. The cathedral,
than which there is no more elaborate or more magnificent specimen of
what may be called monastic architecture, was founded in 1221, by King
St. Ferdinand and the Bishop Maurice, (who is said to have been an
Englishman, either by birth or blood,) about 150 years after the see
of Oca had been removed thither: among the relics which were shown,
there was a handkerchief of the prophet Elijah, and a lock of Abraham’s
hair, and one of St. Apollonia’s innumerable teeth. Two short leagues
from the city is the monastery of St. Pedro de Cardeña, a far older
foundation than the cathedral; where, from the time that two hundred
of its monks were massacred by the Moors the pavement used on the
anniversary of their martyrdom to sweat blood, till that blood, which
through so many centuries had cried for vengeance, was appeased by
the final subjugation of the misbelievers. There the Cid lies and his
wife Ximena: some of the French officers at the commencement of this
treacherous invasion used to visit the church and spout passages from
Corneille’s tragedy over their tomb. There too lie his daughters, D.
Elvira and D. Sol; and his father Diego Laynez; and his kinsman Alvar
Fañez Minaya, and his nephew Martin Antolinez, and Martin Pelaez, the
Asturian, names which will be held in remembrance as long as chivalrous
history shall be preserved. And before the gate of the monastery the
Cid’s good horse Bavieca lies buried, and Gil Diaz his trusty servant,
by the side of that good horse, which he had loved so well.
But of objects of antiquity or veneration, that on which the people of
Burgos prided themselves most was a miraculous crucifix in the convent
of St. Augustine, which a merchant of that city, on his homeward
voyage from Flanders, found at sea, floating in a chest shaped like
a coffin. The learned have concluded, upon a comparison of dates and
circumstances, that it is the identical image which was carved by
Nicodemus, and carried from Jerusalem to Berytus; where, being again
nailed and pierced by unbelieving Jews in the 8th century, blood issued
from its wounds, and miraculously healed both Jews and Christians of
their diseases. When Berytus fell under the yoke of the Saracens, the
Christians, to save it from farther profanation, coffined it thus
carefully and committed it in faith to the waves. Strong, however, as
the circumstantial evidence for this identity was admitted to be, many
persons piously preferred believing that it was no work of human hands,
but had been sent from heaven, in order that there should be on earth
one perfect resemblance of our crucified Saviour. They supported this
opinion by the alleged and admitted fact, that no one has ever been
able to ascertain of what material the image is made: the flesh, they
say, is so elastic that it yields like that of a living body to the
touch, and resumes its natural rotundity when the pressure is removed;
the head moves to whatever side it may be inclined, and the arms, if
they are unfastened, fall like those of a corpse; and the hair, and
beard, and nails, seem not as if they were carved, or fixed there, but
as if they grew. Volumes have been published filled with authenticated
accounts of the miracles which this crucifix has performed. Kings,
nobles, and prelates, have vied with each other in enriching the
chapel wherein it is placed. So many lamps have been presented, that
they are said literally to have hid the vault of the chapel, covering
its whole extent; and of these the meanest were of massive silver.
On each side of the altar stood thirty silver candlesticks, each
taller than the tallest man, and heavier than many men could lift. The
candlesticks upon the altar were of massive gold; between them were
gold and silver crosses, set with precious stones; and crowns rich with
pearls and sparkling with diamonds were suspended over the altar. Above
the altar the miraculous crucifix is placed, behind three curtains
embroidered with jewellery and pearls. It was shown only to persons
of great distinction, and not to them till after many ceremonies, and
till they had heard two masses: bells were then rung to give notice
that all who were present must fall upon their knees, while the sacred
curtains were undrawn. The great captain Gonsalvo de Cordoba, when he
would have ascended to inspect it closely, was overcome with sudden
awe, and withdrew, saying he would not tempt the Lord. And Isabella,
the Catholic Queen, for whom one of the nails which fastened the
image to the cross was taken out, that she might enshrine it among
her relics, fainted when she saw the arm drop; and when she came to
herself, repenting of her intention, as though such piety had partaken
of the sin of sacrilege, ordered the nail to be reverently replaced....
It is a relief for those whose thoughts have been long employed upon
the wickedness and the sufferings of their fellow-creatures, if their
attention can sometimes be drawn away by such examples of their
weakness and their credulity.
♦THE ALLIES ENTER BURGOS.♦
When the enemy withdrew from Burgos they were joined by 9000 infantry
of the army of the north under General Souham, who took the command,
and retiring to Briviesca halted there in a strong position. On the
morning of the 18th the allies took possession of the heights to
the north-west of the castle, and entered the city, where they were
received with the usual acclamations. But this was no day of joy to the
inhabitants: the garrison, who from their fort completely commanded
both the city and the suburbs, opened a fire of musketry and grape into
the principal streets, and burned the houses which were nearest them;
and on the other hand the Guerrillas began to plunder, as if it were
an enemy’s town of which they had taken forcible possession. Alava,
by threats, by blows, and by unremitting exertions, restored order at
last; and his efforts were not a little assisted by a rumour which
he caused to be spread among them, that the French were returning in
great force: these marauders then took to their heels, and a Spanish
battalion was posted in the city, and a battalion of _caçadores_ in the
suburbs.
♦CASTLE OF BURGOS.♦
On the following day the castle was invested. One division remained
on the left of the Arlanzon; part of the army forded it, and marched
round the heights of St. Miguel; their advance drove the enemy from
three detached flêches which they were constructing, to see into the
hollows on the side of the hill, and took possession of such parts as
were under cover. The remainder of the army was advanced on the high
road in front of Monasterio to cover the attack. Upon reconnoitring
the castle it was found much stronger than had been expected: it was
a lofty building, built with the solidity of old times, flanked with
small round towers, and its roof sufficiently strong to bear guns of
large calibre which the French had placed upon it. The keep had been
converted into a casemated battery; the lower part of the hill had
been surrounded by an uncovered scarp wall of difficult access, and
between these defences two lines of field-works had been constructed,
thickly planted with cannon, and encircling the hill. The garrison
under General Du Breton consisted of nearly 3000 men, well provided
with stores of all kinds. It was apparent that approaches against them
must be carried on regularly: the most sanguine entertained no hope
of succeeding in less than seven or eight days; nor would that hope
have been entertained if the deficiency of means had been considered,
unless an undue reliance had been placed upon military courage in
circumstances where skill and science are of far more avail. The
siege establishments of the army had been deficient in all the former
sieges, in all which, therefore, success had been dearly purchased;
but here there was not even the skeleton of an establishment. There
were five officers of engineers, but not a sapper or miner; and only
eight men of the royal military artificers, to whom 81 artificers of
the line were added. The artillery consisted of three 18-pounders,
and five 24-pounder iron howitzers, with 300 rounds of ammunition for
each, and 15 barrels of powder. The engineers’ stores were scanty in
proportion; but in a store which the enemy had left in the town a
considerable number of entrenching tools were found. Lord Wellington
had no other means within his reach when he moved from Madrid. He had
no means of transporting more guns and ammunition from Madrid, or from
Ciudad Rodrigo, to Burgos. The Intruder and the French armies had swept
Castille of all the mules and horses upon which they could lay hands;
and if some might still have been purchased at high prices, there was
no money to pay for them in the military chest.
♦THE HORN WORK ON S. MIGUEL’S TAKEN.♦
On the side toward the country the castle was commanded by the heights
of S. Miguel, which are separated from it by a deep ravine. The summit
is about the same level as the upper works of the castle, at a
distance of 300 yards. On this height the enemy had nearly completed
a large horn work: the branches were not perfect: the rear, on the
advance of the allies, had been closed by an exceedingly strong
palisade; and in front they had begun to throw up three flêches, from
which they had now been driven. As a preliminary to any attack, it was
necessary to win the horn work. The arrangements for this were, that
two parties should march that night, one upon each salient angle of the
demi-bastions, enter the ditch, the counterscarp being unfinished, and
escalade them, under protection of 150 men, who were to march direct
on the front of the work, halt at the edge of the ditch, and keep up a
continued fire on those who defended the parapet.... A third storming
party under the Honourable Major Cocks was to march round the rear of
the work, and endeavour to force in at the gorge. This plan was better
arranged than executed. The covering party began to fire as soon as
they were put in motion, and continued firing as they advanced, till
they reached the ditch where they ought to have begun their fire:
by that time so many of their men had been killed and wounded that
the rest dispersed. The attack on both semi-bastions was not more
fortunately conducted: the ladders were not long enough for the face
of the work; ... and the troops, remembering the murderous character
of the former sieges which they had witnessed rather than their
eventual success, hung back. Major Cocks lost in advancing nearly half
his party by the fire of the castle, but he found that the garrison
of the horn work neglected the gorge, being fully occupied with the
attack in front. He therefore with little opposition got over the
palisades and entered the body of the work with about 140 men: these he
divided, posting one-half on the ramparts to ensure the entry of the
co-operating force in front, and with the other he formed opposite the
gateway, in the hope of making the garrison prisoners: they were about
500 in number, under a _chef de bataillon_, and had his support been
brought up in time there was every probability of his capturing them;
but the French running from their works, mere weight of numbers did
for them as much as determined courage could have done; they literally
ran over this little party and escaped into the ♦COL. JONES’S ACCOUNT
OF THE SIEGES, P. 191.♦ castle. Their loss did not exceed 70 men, that
of the assailants amounted to 420, including six officers killed and
fifteen wounded.
Such a beginning, though successful, was not likely to give the troops
confidence. And it was now found, ... which could not be understood
by a ground-plan of the works, nor indeed be exactly ascertained till
they were in possession of St. Miguel’s hill, ... that although this
hill commanded from its narrow side that on which the enemy’s works
were erected, it was itself commanded by the terrace of the castle. The
breadth of St. Miguel’s is parallel to the length of the castle-hill,
and consequently St. Miguel’s is outflanked by the castle-hill; and as
the surrounding ground is so low as to be completely overlooked, and
commanded by that hill, it was impossible to erect batteries on any
spot except the narrow ridge, which was not only out-flanked by the
opposite height, ♦FAILURE IN ASSAULTING THE FIRST LINE.♦ but commanded
by it. Trenches however were now opened to secure a communication
with the horn work, and afford cover for the men; batteries were
erected; and in order to save the troops from unnecessary fatigue, Lord
Wellington resolved to assault the outer line, on the night of the
22nd, without waiting to form a breach in it. A party of Portugueze
were to advance from some houses in the suburb close to the wall,
cut down the palisades, and take the line in flank and rear, while a
British party were to advance under a ridge of ground, and escalade
the wall in front. The houses afforded cover to the one party, the
ridge to the other, until the moment of attack. But no serious attack
was made; the Portugueze were checked by a fire from a guard-house on
the line, and could not be induced to enter the ditch: the British
planted their ladders, and the officers mounted, but very few men
followed them. Major Lawrie of the 79th, who commanded this party, was
killed. Captain Frazer Mackenzie was struck down by a blow on the head;
he recovered himself, mounted a second time, and was shot through the
knee. The enemy, whose attention was not diverted by any other attack,
mounted the parapet, and fired down upon the assailants, who stood
crowded in the ditch unable now to advance, and still unwilling to
retire. Lord Wellington was watching the attack from the hill of St.
Miguel, under a fire of musketry, grape-shot, and shells; and when he
saw that the Portugueze did nothing, and that the party in front made
no progress, he ordered the attempt to be relinquished, after the loss
of about three hundred and thirty men. The wounded were brought in in
the morning during an hour’s truce.
♦A SECOND ASSAULT FAILS.♦
The original plan was now resumed of working up to the wall, and mining
under it. The enemy placed two or three guns behind a projecting
palisade, which was so close as perfectly to secure them, and from
whence they did great execution. As there were neither sappers, miners,
nor pioneers, the engineer officers were obliged not only to direct
every operation, but to stand by and instruct the working parties; and
while thus employed, Captain Williams was killed. It seemed miraculous
that any of these valuable officers escaped. The enemy could not now
but have discovered that the besiegers were miserably provided with
artillery, and that they had no ammunition to spare; nevertheless they
began to prepare their second line for an obstinate defence. On the
evening of the 29th the miners hit upon the foundation of the wall,
mined it, and charged the mine with twelve barrels of powder. At
midnight it was sprung, and threw down the wall. Three hundred men were
in readiness for storming: a serjeant and four men, the advance of a
party of twenty who were to lead the way, mounted without opposition,
for the enemy were panic-stricken: they remained some minutes on the
top of the breach before the French, perceiving that they were not
supported, took courage and drove them down. The officer in command of
the first advance did not discover the breach, ... he returned into
the parallel, reporting that the mine had failed, and the storming
party, in consequence of this error, was withdrawn. After this, Lord
Wellington determined to have no more night attacks.
♦A THIRD BY DAYLIGHT PROVES SUCCESSFUL.
OCT. 4.♦
A supply of gunpowder having been obtained from Sir Home Popham’s
squadron, a second mine was completed: the first breach was rendered
practicable, and the explosion which made the second was the signal for
assaulting both. Immediately before the explosion, and while in the
act of communicating that all was ready, Lieutenant-Colonel Jones of
the engineers was severely wounded, an officer whose Journals of the
Sieges, and whose general Account of the War have been the most useful
as well as the most trust-worthy of the printed authorities from which
the present history has been composed. About an hundred feet of the
wall were thrown down by the explosion: the storming party, instead
of being composed of detachments from different regiments, consisted
of the 24th regiment, supported by the working and covering parties
in the trenches, a reserve of 500 men having also been formed in the
parallel. This assault was made in the face of day. The officer who led
the left party was at the foot of the old breach before the smoke had
cleared away, and he was the first man on the top of it; and the dust
had scarcely subsided before the troops had gained the summit of both
breaches, and driven the enemy into their covered way, and behind their
new palisades. During the night the besiegers established themselves
in both breaches, and along the wall to the left of them, and began
an approach towards the second line of works. But the rains now began
to set in heavily; and on the following afternoon 300 of the garrison
made a sortie from their covered way, gained possession of the first
breach, and retained it long enough to ruin the lodgment and carry off
the tools. They did not get possession of the second breach, nor of the
parallel along the parapet: but the advantage which they had gained
was sufficient to encourage them, and to lessen the confidence of the
besiegers, who could not but perceive that they were struggling against
all advantages of situation, and with means the most inadequate. The
enemy could not depress their guns so as to bear upon the new works,
but they kept up a constant fire of musketry upon them, and from time
to time rolled large shells down the steep glacis, and these either
carried away the gabion where the men were breaking ground in the
night, or lodging against it and bursting, blew it to pieces. The rain
was now so heavy that much time was daily expended in draining and
keeping the communications up the steep banks and breaches practicable.
The garrison meantime were never idle: they had now disabled two of the
three 18-pounders; and making another sortie at two in the morning of
the 8th, from the covered way with 400 men, they surprised the advanced
covering party, drove the remainder from the parallel of the outer
line, and once more levelled the work and ♦MAJOR COCKS KILLED.♦ carried
off the tools. Major Cocks was killed in a charge to regain it: he was
shot through the body when ascending the breach, by a French infantry
man close to him: the ball entered on the right side between the fourth
and the fifth rib, passed through the great artery immediately above
the heart, and so out at the left side, breaking the left arm. Major
Cocks was a young officer of the highest promise. He was the eldest
son of Lord Somers, and by the demise of his maternal grandfather,
in possession of a large landed estate; but preferring the military
profession to the peaceful enjoyment of good fortune, and to the
pursuits whereto his station in society invited him, he devoted himself
to the study of that profession with an ardour, of which an ordinary
observer would not, from his mild manners and habitual composure, have
supposed him capable. Entering early into the service, and leaving
his regiment in England, he joined the army at Lisbon in the spring
of 1809, for the purpose of acquiring the Portugueze and Spanish
languages. He was in the south of Spain when the French attempted
to surprise Cadiz, and he it was who gave Alburquerque the first
information of their movements, by which timely advice that magnanimous
Spaniard was enabled to prevent their design and throw himself into
the place. He read much, and let no opportunity pass unimproved of
perfecting by practice the knowledge which he acquired from books:
and thus he had distinguished himself on so many occasions, that the
promotion which his rank and fortune might have commanded was not more
rapid than his conspicuous merit had deserved. When the dispatches
relating the capture of the horn work on S. Michael’s reached home, his
commission as Lieutenant-Colonel was immediately sent out; but before
these dispatches arrived in Spain, his career was closed. On the day
preceding his death he was field-officer of the trenches: the day was
very wet, and he went round to every sentry to see that the orders were
clearly understood, ... a duty generally left to the serjeant who posts
them, and not often attended to by a subaltern having only a picket
of twenty men; but Major Cocks never spared himself, and never left
anything which depended upon him undone. The death of such a man (for
such men are rare) was justly regarded in the army as a national loss.
He was buried in the camp ground of his regiment near Bellema, Lord
Wellington, Sir Stapleton Cotton, Generals Anson and Pack, with the
whole of their staffs, attending his funeral, and the officers of the
79th (his own regiment) and of the 16th light dragoons.
After this second successful sortie, no further attempt was made to
push the works between the outer and second line: a third breach was
effected with the view of making a flank attack at the moment of
assaulting the second line in front; but when it was made, it could not
be stormed for want of musket ammunition. The enemy attempted to repair
it during the night, but were several times driven in. A small supply
of powder having now been received from Santander, the howitzers were
put in battery; but the 24-pound shot were nearly expended, and for the
18-pounders the 16-pound shot fired by the enemy were collected and
made to serve: when the embrazures were opened, the guns could not be
run in on account of the weather, and one of the batteries was silenced
in half an hour by the enemy’s fire. By the 18th, a sufficient opening
had been made in an exposed part of the second line; and the church of
St. Roman, which was near the second line, had been mined. The ♦THE
SECOND LINE ASSAULTED WITH ILL SUCCESS.♦ assault was made by daylight;
the works were immediately carried with very little loss, and some of
the German legion escaladed the third line; but they were few, and were
presently driven back, for the course of the siege had taken confidence
from the besiegers and given it to the besieged; and when the guards
gained the parapet, the garrison rallied on the _terre plein_ of the
work, and assembled in force, then advanced, and drove the assailants
back completely from the line. The mine under the church did little
injury to it; but it so alarmed the enemy, that they exploded their own
mines, which destroyed the greater part: the troops lodged themselves
in the ruins, and a communication was carried to this point during the
night. A convoy of heavy artillery and ammunition was now on its way
from Santander, and the castle might then have been reduced in a few
days, without further loss; but it was now too late, and after that
failure all circumstances induced Lord Wellington to think only of
retreat.
♦MOVEMENTS OF THE FRENCH IN THE NORTH.♦
On the day of that failure, the enemy were joined at Breviesca by
the army of observation from Alava, and the remainder of the army
of the north. This force considerably outnumbered that which Lord
Wellington could bring against them, and in cavalry they were greatly
superior. They made a show of coming on in front; and in consequence,
the covering army moved up near Quintana-palla, and was joined by
most of the besieging corps. On the 20th they advanced in force,
drove in the pickets, and obtained possession of Quintana-palla; but
Sir Edward Paget drove them back, and recovered the place, and they
then desisted from their offensive movements. Intelligence which Lord
Wellington had reason to expect arrived on the following day, that the
united forces of the enemy in the south were in motion. Ballasteros,
who had hitherto, if with little success and no great ♦BALLASTEROS
REFUSES TO ACT UNDER THE BRITISH COMMANDER.♦ skill, displayed the most
indefatigable activity, had in a mood of sullen resentment at the
appointment of Lord Wellington to the chief command, ceased to molest
the enemy. He had hung upon the flanks of Soult’s army, and harassed
it as far as Granada, with more effect than in any of his former
enterprises, because the enemy were dispirited and on their retreat;
but upon receiving instructions to obey Lord Wellington’s orders, he
took no farther measures for annoying the French, refused to act in
concert with Sir Rowland Hill, according to the plan which the British
Commander had laid down, and remained obstinately inactive at the most
critical time. At length he published a letter to the minister at war,
saying, that from the time when the French treacherously seized the
four fortresses, he had spared no efforts for raising the nation, and
that no person had contributed more to the event of the second of May
than himself, without which events, Spain would not have been in its
present state. From that time he had never laid aside his arms, and
had resisted all solicitations which the foreigners had made him to
the prejudice of his country, ... inexorable in being a Spaniard and
nothing but a Spaniard, and that his countrymen should be so, like
him: this having been his principle, without any regard to his own
fortune, he had always found the nation ready to support it in every
sense. “And now he was surprised,” he said, “to see that the English
General, Lord Wellington, was by a resolution of the Cortes appointed
Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish armies; those armies, thousands
upon thousands of whose companions in arms were in the grave, having
fallen in defending the reputation of their country, were observing
what would be his conduct on this occasion; and he should not consider
himself worthy of being an Aragonese, if he did not represent to the
government, that he could not condescend to a determination which
disparaged the Spanish name.” He spoke of the English as a nation to
whom the Spaniards were bound by true friendship and fair dealing, but
of whose fair promises and bad faith no one could give more information
than the then president of the Regency, the Duque del Infantado. “Was
Spain,” he asked, “like the petty kingdom of Portugal, that the command
of its armies should be intrusted to a foreigner? Had its revolution
begun like that of Portugal? Had it not still resources of its own?
Had it not generals, officers, and soldiers, who still supported the
honour which they had inherited from their forefathers; and who in
the present war had made both English and French know that they were
nothing inferior to them in discipline or in courage, and that they
had chiefs of their own who knew how to lead them to victory? Finally,
he required that the opinion of the soldiers and of the people should
be taken upon this matter; if they condescended to the appointment,
he should renounce his employments, and retire to his own house, thus
manifesting, that he had only the honour and the welfare of his country
in view, not any ambitious or interested end.”
♦HE IS EXILED TO CEUTA.♦
Ballasteros was a rude, intrepid, enterprising, and persevering
soldier of fortune, handsome in person, strong in body, and of a
hale constitution; very useful as a partizan at the head of 4000 or
5000 men, but incapable of conducting any extensive operations with
a regular army. Before the appointment of Lord Wellington took place
he was in no good humour with the Government, and the Government on
its part as little pleased with him. With some better parts of the
national character, he partook in no slight degree of its boastfulness,
and entertaining a most exaggerated notion of his own merits, made no
scruple of saying that Ballasteros had done more for Spain than all
her other chiefs put together, and that in spite of the Government,
Ballasteros, unassisted and discouraged, would continue to do more than
the favourites of the Regency, whose pockets were filled with doubloons
by the English. But though he had a large party among the lower orders
in Cadiz, and some of his regiments were much attached to him, he
overrated his own importance as greatly as his own deserts; he was
unpopular in the provinces and disliked by his officers: and when the
Government put him under arrest for thus defying its authority, marched
him under an escort to Malaga, and sent him from thence to Ceuta as an
exile, not a hand, and scarcely a voice was raised in his defence. Some
seditious writings indeed were published in his favour at Cadiz, but
they produced no effect. The loss of an active partizan was regretted,
and the error of an honest, though obstinate and wrong-headed man; but
the army and the nation concurred in condemning him, and in approving
the promptitude and decision with which the Government had acted.
Meantime, in consequence of this inactivity, in dereliction of
all duty, on Ballasteros’s part, and of the inefficiency of the
Anglo-Sicilian army, Marshal Soult and Suchet were enabled, without
any impediment, to concert their operations with the Intruder, and
carry them ♦GEN. MAITLAND GIVES UP THE COMMAND OF THE ANGLO-SICILIAN
ARMY.♦ into effect. General Maitland’s health gave way under the
anxieties of his situation, so that it became necessary for him to
return to Sicily. Major-General William Clinton was sent from thence
to take the command in his stead, and till his arrival, it devolved
upon Major-General John Mackenzie. That general made an attempt to
seize the castle of Denia by a _coup-de-main_: from its strength and
its position on commanding ground close to the sea it might have
easily been maintained against the enemy, and would have afforded
great opportunity for annoying ♦UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT UPON DENIA.♦
him. Major-General Donkin, Quarter-Master-General of this army, was
intrusted with the enterprise; it failed, but the men and guns which
had been landed were re-embarked with ♦THE FRENCH PREPARE TO MARCH FROM
THE SOUTH AGAINST LORD WELLINGTON.♦ little loss. Knowing that nothing
was to be apprehended from this army in its present state, Marshals
Jourdan, Soult, and Suchet, held a counsel in presence of the Intruder,
at Fuente la Higuera. They had feared at one time that it might have
been necessary to abandon Valencia: that apprehension was removed, and
they now believed that, as the long and brave resistance which had been
made by the garrison at Burgos had given the army of Portugal time to
recover strength and to unite with the troops in the north, nothing
more was required for restoring their affairs, than that the armies
of the south and the centre should co-operate with it, for the double
purpose of beating Lord Wellington, and re-establishing the Intrusive
government at Madrid. It was not deemed necessary to take any part of
Suchet’s forces for this service; the state of Aragon and Catalonia on
the one hand, and the presence of the Anglo-Sicilian expedition on the
other, made it dangerous to weaken him.
At the point where the roads from Alicante and Valencia ♦CASTLE OF
CHINCHILLA TAKEN BY THE FRENCH.♦ to Madrid join, stands the little
castle of Chinchilla; it was in possession of the Spaniards, and
while the Intruder was reconnoitring it one day with a telescope,
a shot from an eight-pounder passed close by him. This place the
French besieged; it was ably defended by the Governor D. Juan Antonio
Cearra, who was a lieutenant-colonel of engineers: but the enemy were
not scrupulous as to any means which could accelerate their success;
and during a night’s truce they erected a battery of eight guns, in
the most advantageous situation; by this battery the works were much
injured, and the garrison considerably reduced in number; and of twenty
artillerymen, ♦OCT. 9.♦ there only remained eight to work the guns,
when some of these men were struck dead by lightning, many more, and
among them the governor, wounded by it, and the works so shaken, that
it became necessary to surrender. The enemy’s preparations ♦THEY BEGIN
THEIR MARCH.♦ were complete soon after this obstacle was removed; and
on the 16th of October, the Intruder set out from Valencia towards the
Tagus, with Marshals Jourdan and Soult at the head of 70,000 troops,
10,000 being cavalry. Lord Wellington received intelligence of this
from Sir Rowland Hill on the 21st, and the same advices informed him
that the Tagus was already fordable by individuals in many places, and
was likely soon to be so for an army. As long as the Tagus remained
unfordable, Sir Rowland’s position was tolerably secure; but when the
river fell, it became too hazardous for him to maintain an advanced
position near Madrid in front of an enemy so greatly superior. It
was necessary that Lord Wellington should move towards him, lest the
corps under his own command should be insulated in consequence of the
movements which Sir Rowland might find himself compelled to make. He
determined therefore to fall back upon the Douro, so as to afford Sir
Rowland a point upon which to return, and by uniting their forces, to
secure a retreat into Portugal.
♦LORD WELLINGTON RAISES THE SIEGE OF BURGOS.♦
This resolution was executed as promptly as it was formed. He instantly
raised the siege, and filed his whole army in the night of the 21st
under the walls of the castle and over the bridge, which was closely
enfiladed by its artillery; a bold and unprecedented manœuvre, which
military men adduce as a proof that the march of troops cannot be
stopped by the fire of artillery in the night. The allies moved in
silence and good order; but a party of Guerrillas, regardless of
discipline, then, as at all times, put their horses to their speed,
and the clatter which they made alarmed the garrison. A fire was
consequently opened from the guns which were directed on the bridge,
and the first discharge was most destructive; but the gunners then
lost the range and direction, and their farther fire served only to
quicken the speed of the carriages. Every thing was brought away in
this retreat except the three disabled guns, and the eight pieces
of the enemy which had been taken in the horn-work. The loss of the
allies during the siege amounted to 24 officers and 485 men killed;
68 officers and 1487 men wounded ♦RETREAT FROM BURGOS.♦ and missing.
The enemy did not begin to follow till late on the ensuing day; 10,000
of their troops encamped that day on the south of Burgos, and on the
morrow at noon they came up in force with the retreating army. Sir
Stapleton Cotton detained them for above three hours at the passage
of the Hormaza, in front of Celada del Camino; they were twice
charged there by Major-General Anson’s brigade with great success,
and the rear-guard continued to fall back in the best order, till the
Guerrillas on their left were driven in and came flying upon them, four
or five of the enemy’s squadrons being mixed with them in pursuit. In
the confusion which ensued, the French were mistaken for Spaniards,
and, favoured by that mistake, they fell upon the flank and rear of
the allies. Some loss was sustained, and Lieutenant-Colonel Pell, of
the 16th dragoons, was taken prisoner, having had his horse shot. A
very superior body of cavalry, in which the enemy were strong, now
came up, and the allied cavalry fell back hastily, lest they should
be surrounded; but having crossed a wide and deep ditch by a narrow
bridge, the brigades of Major-Generals Bock and Anson charged their
pursuers when only part had filed over: in this they were repulsed,
hardly pressed, and forced upon the infantry rear-guard of German light
troops under Colonel Halkett; that officer formed his troops in four
squares, and the men behaving, as that legion ever did, admirably,
repulsed the enemy in several charges, and checked the ♦THE ALLIES
CROSS THE PISUERGA.♦ pursuit. The right of the army crossed the
Pisuerga that afternoon at Torquemada, and the left at Cordovilla,
where head-quarters were established that night.
The army continued its march on the 24th towards ♦DISORDERS DURING
THE RETREAT.♦ the Carrion. Throughout the north of Castille, which is
a great wine country, the wine is stowed either in caves dug in the
hill sides, or excavated in the earth, the soil from the excavation
being formed into a mound over them, and the entrance appearing like
the chimney of a subterraneous dwelling. These cellars were now filled
with new wine; the soldiers broke into them during the night, and it
was not without the greatest exertions that the officers in the morning
could put their battalions in march. The enemy, however, after their
yesterday’s repulse were less pressing; and the whole army having that
day marched twenty miles, took up its ground behind the Carrion with
its right at Dueñas and its left at Villa Muriel; and here the brigade
of guards which had disembarked at Coruña joined them. The retreating
army did not exceed 20,000 men; the French displayed above thirty;
they were confident also in the superiority of their cavalry, in that
country the most efficient force; and as it is their national character
to be easily elated, they might well be elated now at having baffled
Lord Wellington before so poor a fortress as the castle at Burgos,
and compelled him who had driven Massena out of Portugal, and routed
Marmont at Salamanca, to retreat before them. English soldiers are
neither lightly elated, nor soon cast down; they keep their courage
on a retreat, for that never gives way; but they become disdainful
of control when they have no opportunity of wreaking their wrathful
feelings upon the enemy who is in pursuit, and insubordination is
then the sin which most easily besets them. This was already felt,
though as yet they had suffered little, and though the retreat was so
deliberately made, and with so firm a face toward the enemy, that the
men lost none of their confidence in their Commander.
The army halted on the 25th, and measures were taken for impeding the
pursuit. A battalion of the royals was posted at Palencia, to cover
the operations for destroying the bridges over the Carrion at that old
city; but the French assembled there in such force that the commanding
officer being attacked and overpowered, found it necessary to retire
upon Villa Muriel, and the bridges were left uninjured for the pursuers
to pass. Two other bridges over the same river at Villa Muriel and at
Dueñas were mined, that they might be exploded on the enemy’s approach,
and one in like manner over the Pisuerga at Tariago. The two former
were successfully exploded, that at Villa Muriel under a fire of
grape-shot from the enemy; but they discovered a ford there, and passed
over a considerable body both of horse and foot. A false report that
the enemy had already crossed at Tariago, delayed the commencement of
the work there; the French came up before it was completed; it was
exploded prematurely, and consequently to no effect; their cavalry
galloped over and made the party prisoners. This enabled them to push
a corps on the right into contact with the posts on the Carrion; their
passing at Palencia made it necessary for Lord Wellington to change the
front of his army, and this second success rendered his farther retreat
difficult, and even precarious. Major-Generals Pringle and Barnes
were therefore ordered to attack those who had crossed the Pisuerga;
the Spanish troops co-operated in this, and the enemy were driven
across the river with considerable loss. Neither could they maintain
themselves upon the Carrion after having forded at Villa Muriel; the
Spaniards who were employed to dislodge them, faltered in the charge,
and Alava, while leading them on and in the act of encouraging them,
fell badly wounded: the fall of this gallant leader did not inspire
them with more courage, but the Brunswickers were then ordered to
advance; those brave men ran into the village without firing a shot;
the Spaniards took heart and followed them, and the French withdrew;
and the fifth division under General Oswald advancing against their
main body, compelled it to recross.
♦OCT. 26. THE ALLIES HALT.♦
The next day the allies retreated sixteen miles without molestation,
and crossed the Pisuerga at Cabezon del Campo; the bridge there was
barricadoed and mined, and the army halted in its rear. The ruined
bridges at Dueñas and Villa Muriel had impeded Souham’s movements,
so that he did not approach till evening; he then halted his whole
army ♦OCT. 27.♦ on the right bank of the Pisuerga. The morning of the
27th was foggy, but when the mist cleared, their whole force was seen
encamped at about three miles’ distance. They brought up two brigades
of artillery and cannonaded the town, with little other harm than that
of severely wounding Lieutenant-Colonel Robe of the artillery. Being
opposed to a superior fire, they made no farther attempt in front, but
made considerable detachments to their right, through Cigales, with
a view of getting possession of the bridge at Valladolid, and thus
interposing in the rear of the retreating army. Lord Wellington had an
opportunity of seeing their whole force from a high ground, and saw
that they were in very great strength. On the 28th they extended their
right still farther, and endeavoured in the morning to force the bridge
over the Douro at Simancas, which was defended by Colonel Halkett, with
his brigade of the 7th division, while the Earl of Dalhousie, with the
remainder of the division, defended the bridge at Valladolid. Halkett
being hard pressed blew up the bridge, and disappointed them of their
passage there; at the same time he sent the Brunswick Oels regiment
to Tordesillas, whither the enemy detached troops in the evening,
and where also the bridge over the Douro was destroyed in time. Lord
Wellington sent orders to the Brunswickers to take post on its ruins,
in such manner as to prevent them from repairing it; and breaking up
from the Pisuerga, he crossed the Douro on the 29th, by the bridges of
Puente Douro, and Tudela, both which, and that at Quintanilla also,
were blown up, and subsequently those at Toro and Zamora. The pursuers
that evening displayed more enterprise than they had hitherto shown;
they passed a body of men in the night of the 29th, by swimming the
Douro near Tordesillas, and these gallant fellows falling upon the
guard who had been left in a tower on the south end of the bridge,
and looked for no attack on that side, surprised and overpowered
them, and immediately fell to work to restore the communication. Lord
Wellington was apprised of this in time, or it would have frustrated
all his former precautions; he marched his army early on the morrow,
and posted them on the heights, between Rueda and Tordesillas,
immediately opposite and near the bridge: the bridge by this time had
been nearly repaired, but the French had made no attempt to pass; and
in that position, which he strengthened with batteries, Lord Wellington
remained from the 30th till the 6th of November, the enemy meantime
extending along the river from Toro to Valladolid. He thus obtained the
double object of resting the troops, and gaining time for Sir Rowland
Hill’s movements; for, ... though his first view had been in falling
back upon the Douro to afford Sir Rowland a point upon which to retire
when he should no longer be able to maintain an advanced position in
front of Madrid, against the very superior force which would be brought
against him, ... having seen the strength of Souham’s army, it had
become necessary to order Sir Rowland to break up from the Xarama, for
the purpose of securing his own retreat.
♦SIR ROWLAND HILL RETREATS FROM THE XARAMA.♦
Sir Rowland was an officer upon whom Lord Wellington might always
rely with the most perfect confidence. He expected such orders,
and receiving them on the 29th, intended to begin his march on the
following morning; but the mine which should have destroyed the Puente
Larga, on the Xarama, failed; and the enemy, who had collected a large
body between that bridge and Aranjuez, immediately made an attack
upon the allied post there. They were repulsed by Colonel Skerrett
with considerable loss on their part, and that of some forty men on
ours: this affair delayed the march of Sir Rowland’s right till the
evening, the enemy however made no subsequent attempt to molest him,
farther than by picking up such stragglers as fell behind for the sake
of plundering and drinking; and these were numerous. The army marched
all night and reached Madrid on the following morning. That capital
presented ♦STATE OF MADRID.♦ a melancholy scene: it was known that
these allies could make no attempt to defend it, and that their retreat
would be followed by the entrance of the enemy; and two days before,
when the Military and Provisional Government were about to transfer
their authority to the _Ayuntamiento_, that body dissolved itself,
regardless of its duty. Upon this, the Regidor D. Pedro Baranda,
who had been on the point of resigning his office, came bravely and
honourably forward to take himself the charge from which they had
shrunk, and summoning persons to his aid who had been in authority
when the French withdrew, began to take measures for averting the
evils which there was so much cause to apprehend. The letters in the
post-office were sent off to Avila, lest they should be seized by the
enemy, and many persons brought into danger by their contents. And to
prevent the excesses which must be expected, if on the entrance of the
enemy the prisons should be thrown open, the alcaydes were called upon
to deliver in ♦NOVEMBER.♦ a list of those persons who were imprisoned
for disloyalty to the national cause, and they were set at liberty
while there yet existed an authority which could restrain them from
acts of immediate vengeance.
♦THE ALLIES WITHDRAW FROM MADRID.♦
There were large depôts of provisions in the Retiro and in the convent
of Monserrate, which the allied army had no means of carrying with them
in their retreat, and orders were therefore given that they should be
burnt. The municipality requested that they might rather be disposed of
either by sale, or as a loan, for the inhabitants and the hospitals;
it was not at the commissary’s discretion to accede to this proposal;
but instead of destroying the stores, the people in the immediate
vicinity were invited to help themselves there. It seemed, indeed,
in this retreat, that in the economy of an army the English had yet
every thing to learn: the troops were at this time scantily provided
with food, their line of supply had been along the valley of the Tagus,
the arrangements for changing its direction failed, and before the
men effected their junction with Lord Wellington’s army, the sweet
acorns which they found in the wood formed no slight part of their
subsistence. The works at the Retiro were destroyed before the troops
withdrew from Madrid, and the artillery there was rendered useless:
their departure resembled that of the French in this respect, that
they were accompanied by a considerable number of Spaniards, for whom
it would have been dangerous to place themselves at the mercy of the
Intrusive Government; but such persons were objects of commiseration
and respect to their countrymen, not of contempt and execration.
While the allies retired leisurely towards the pass of ♦THE FRENCH
ENTER.♦ the Guadarrama, a French officer presented himself on the
afternoon of November 1, at the bridge of Toledo, announcing on the
part of General Drouet, that King Joseph would enter on the morrow with
his army, and requiring that a deputation should go out to meet and
welcome him. On the morrow, accordingly, the _Ayuntamiento_ went forth
accompanied by some of the parish priests, of the titular nobility,
and of those who held office under the Intruder. Baranda briefly
represented the peaceable conduct of the inhabitants, and expressed to
Joseph’s minister of the Interior, that his only wish was to retire to
his own house, where he might consult his own health, and look after
his own affairs. This permission was easily obtained, as the French
presently re-established the former functionaries; but on the 6th, the
municipality were informed that circumstances rendered it necessary
for the troops to leave the capital for some days; and that, in the
meantime, they must take upon themselves the charge of preserving
tranquillity. Baranda was then summoned from his short retirement, and
required again to act as President of the _Ayuntamiento_. At two on the
afternoon of the 7th, the troops departed to reinforce Marshal Soult,
who had followed Sir Rowland’s movements; and in less than two hours
after their departure, Lieutenant-Colonel Mondedeu, the commandant of a
Guerrilla party, entered; on the morrow, the Medico arrived with part
of his band, the Empecinado’s division on the following day, and on
the 11th, the Camp Marshal Bassecourt with some of his troops. Fewer
disorders were committed than might have been expected under such
circumstances, and those chiefly by peasants and deserters, who thought
to take advantage of the sort of interregnum in which the capital was
left; but the officers caused these offenders to be arrested, and
exerted themselves to prevent excesses. But the inhabitants were told
that, as the human means of effecting with God’s blessing their own
deliverance, they must contribute towards the support of the soldiers
as much as their necessities could spare; and it may be supposed that
this contribution was exacted with less compunction on the one part,
and submitted to with less unwillingness on the other, because both
well knew that when the French returned, the locust would devour what
the palmer-worm had left.
On the 6th Sir Rowland reached Arevalo, which is ♦JUNCTION OF THE
RETREATING ARMIES.♦ about 80 miles from Madrid; the troops had suffered
much from the weather, more from the gross ill management on the
part of the commissariat and the staff, and not a little from their
own irregularities, moral discipline having long been disregarded
in modern armies. He was now in communication with Lord Wellington,
and was instructed to continue his march by Fonteveros upon Alba de
Tormes. By this time Lord Wellington’s army had been recruited by
rest, and the enemy had rendered the bridges passable at Toro and at
Tordesillas: he broke up therefore from his position in front of the
latter city before daylight, leaving the fires burning: that day he
fell back to Torrecilla de la Orden, continued his march the following
day, and on the 8th took up the position which he had twice before
occupied in front of Salamanca. Sir Rowland crossed the Tormes the
same day at Alba, occupied that town and castle with Major-General
Howard’s brigade, and stationed a Portugueze division on the left of
the Tormes, under Major-General Hamilton, to support them. They were
not followed during their retreat from the Douro; the enemy halted to
collect provisions ♦JUNCTION OF THE FRENCH ARMIES.♦ and bring up their
detachments, and the armies of Portugal and the north then formed
their junction with those of the south, and of the centre under Soult
and the Intruder: their united force amounted to not less than 80,000
foot and 12,000 horse, being the whole of their disposable force in
Spain, and it was believed that they had with them not fewer than 200
pieces of cannon. The allies had 48,000 foot and 5000 horse. On the
9th the enemy drove in the piquets in front of Alba, and Major-General
Long was obliged to withdraw his brigade through that town on the
following morning. The enemy then, who were directing their main
efforts against the right of the allies, approached their position on
the Tormes, and prepared to force a passage. They attacked the troops
in Alba with twenty pieces of cannon, and bringing up 15 squadrons and
a considerable force of infantry threatened an assault, their light
troops advancing close to the walls which had been hastily thrown up.
They continued their fire from two o’clock till darkness had closed;
but they made no impression on the brave troops who were opposed to
them, and therefore they did not repeat the attempt. The intermediate
time till the 14th they employed in reconnoitring the fords, and the
position which Lord Wellington occupied in front of Salamanca; and on
the 14th they commenced the passage at three fords, about two leagues
above Alba, near Lucinas.
♦LORD WELLINGTON RETREATS FROM SALAMANCA.♦
Lord Wellington immediately broke up from St. Christoval, ordered the
troops to move towards Arapiles, and as soon as he had ascertained the
direction of the enemy’s march from the fords, moved with a division
of infantry and all the cavalry he could collect to attack them; but
they had already crossed in too great force. The wind at this time blew
strong, and a thick rain rendered all objects indistinct at little
distance; Lord Wellington, nevertheless, under cover of a cannonade,
reconnoitred their position, and saw that they were too strongly posted
at Mozarbes to be attacked. In the evening therefore he withdrew the
troops from the neighbourhood of Alba, having destroyed the bridges,
and leaving only a Spanish garrison of 300 men in the castle, into
which the remains of an old palace had been converted. During the
night, and in the course of the ensuing morning, he moved the greater
part of the troops through Salamanca, and placed Sir Edward Paget, with
the first division of infantry on the right, at Aldea Tejada, to secure
the passage there over the little river Zunguen, in case the movements
of the French on his right flank should compel him to make choice
either of giving up his communications with Ciudad Rodrigo or with
Salamanca. The inhabitants of that city were some preparing for the
worst, and others helplessly expecting it, yet with a lingering hope
that another battle upon that ground which had proved so destructive to
Marmont’s army might once more deliver them. Lord Wellington himself
had this possibility in mind, and did not order the commissariat
and hospital stores to be removed from Salamanca till the movements
of the French rendered it certain that, notwithstanding their great
superiority in numbers, they would not venture to bring on a general
action. They fortified their position at Mozarbes, and sent out bodies
of horse and foot towards their left, to act upon the communications
of the allies with Ciudad Rodrigo. This was a sure game; they were
too strong and too strongly posted for Lord Wellington to think of
attacking them; nothing therefore remained for him but to retreat upon
his resources; and this was the more necessary because the men were
nearly exhausted with the fatigues of so long and arduous a campaign;
there was little regard to discipline among them, except when in the
immediate presence of an enemy, and the horses were dying of exhaustion
and for want of forage.
♦RETREAT TO THE AGUEDA.♦
On the 15th the army was put in motion to retire, in three columns,
observing, as well as the country would allow, parallel distances. Sir
Rowland commanded the first, Sir Edward Paget the centre, the third
consisted of the Spanish army. They crossed the Zunguen, passed the
left flank of the enemy’s position, and encamped that night in the
olive-grounds, on the Vamusa, one of the smaller rivers which find
their way into the Tormes. The weather was most unfavourable, and the
way sometimes over stony and ploughed grounds, sometimes over swampy
or inundated low lands. The ♦SUFFERINGS OF THE ARMY.♦ troops arrived
at their halting places greatly fatigued. They were without shelter of
any sort; it was impossible to kindle fires because of the heavy and
incessant rain; and they were still farther dispirited by finding that
the supplies had been forwarded to Ciudad Rodrigo. Bread for three days
in advance had been issued to them as usual, but English soldiers are
seldom provident, and when such demands were made upon their strength,
the natural means of supporting and recruiting it could never be more
needful. There was no provender for the horses, the bark of trees and
sprigs of wild briar were the only and miserable substitutes that could
be found. The French never displayed less vigour than at this time;
the overweening contempt which they had once affected for the British
troops had been so thoroughly corrected, that they made no attempt to
overwhelm an enemy greatly inferior in number, and retreating under
circumstances of great difficulty and distress. They only sent a
body of cavalry with light artillery in pursuit; and these contented
themselves with picking up stragglers and such baggage as fell behind.
The army bivouacked on the 16th in a wood about two leagues from
Tamames; the ground in many places was covered with water, but the rain
ceased, and some biscuit was issued. The day’s march had been most
painful, over such heavy ground that at every step the horses sunk
to the fetlock, and the men to their ancles; but while the men were
filling their havresacks with sweet acorns, which they rejoiced to meet
with, in the want of other food, the horses now and then picked up a
little grass.
The 17th was another wet and misty day; the army left its bivouack
at six; an extensive wood lay before them: the enemy now followed
close upon their rear, and the light companies were ordered to extend
themselves through the wood for the purpose of protecting the flanks
and the baggage. This service was not easily to be performed against
so great a force of cavalry as was now harassing the movements of a
disorderly army. Wherever the way was through the woods, the officers
as well as men carried on a successful warfare against the herds
of swine which at that season are turned there to feed upon the
acorns; the Spaniards, it is said, began; the wretched state of their
commissariat was their excuse, and the allies had the same excuse
for following the example; and so eagerly was it followed, that the
continued firing of musquetry on all sides, often occasioned an
apprehension that the piquets were warmly engaged, and even that the
army was surrounded. This occurred so often that it produced incaution
at last, and the enemy’s fire was mistaken for pig-shooting. Owing
to the badness of the roads, and the swollen state of the rivulets,
there was an interval of about a mile between ♦SIR EDWARD PAGET MADE
PRISONER.♦ two of the infantry divisions. Sir Edward Paget, who
commanded the centre column, rode to the rear, alone, for the purpose
of discovering the cause of this interval: a body of the enemy’s
cavalry meantime had entered between these divisions; they had pursued
a troop of Portugueze horse from the left flank: the firing had been
ascribed to the pig-shooters, and Sir Edward falling in with the French
was made prisoner, being without support: they might have done much
hurt had they been more enterprising or more aware of their advantage.
At this time the troops were descending upon the little village of
S. Muñoz, in a valley between two hills; the Huebra which runs into
the Douro has its course along this valley, a deep and rapid stream;
both hills are covered with oaks, and the declivity on both sides is
difficult and steep. The troops when they had forded were formed in
open columns on the heights, and halted. A fog came on early in the
afternoon, under cover of which the enemy got possession of a hill upon
the right of the British line; they brought up some mountain guns,
and commenced a fire upon the rear-guard, consisting of the light
division, under Major-General Alten, while it was fording the river.
Some loss was sustained by them. The guns of Major Macdonald’s troops
of horse-artillery returned their fire successfully, but during the
cannonade he was severely wounded. The enemy’s cavalry followed as soon
as the division had crossed, and began to hem them in; and though the
troops formed in squares, they succeeded in charging them in the low
ground.
♦LORD WELLINGTON REACHES CIUDAD RODRIGO.♦
There was now some appearance that an action might be brought on; the
men were sufficiently eager for this, they longed to revenge themselves
upon the French for the privations and sufferings of their retreat;
they made no doubt of beating them, and they anticipated with hungry
eagerness the pleasure of taking their supplies. As Lord Wellington
came to pass the column in review, the word, “here he comes,” passed
along, and carried with it sure confidence to every heart, ... that
confidence which before the works at Burgos could not be felt, being
given in the field as fully as it was deserved. But the French also
knew that the British commander and his troops might justly rely upon
each other, and they would not hazard a battle. The cannonade was
continued on both sides till evening closed. The men bivouacked as
usual on the wet ground, their cloaks and blankets soaked with rain;
but the rain had ceased, it was a moonlight night, and they had the
satisfaction of knowing that another day’s march would bring them to
Ciudad Rodrigo, beyond which the enemy could not follow them, and where
their privations would be at an end. Between three and four in the
morning they moved from their bivouack; the enemy followed them that
day only with their cavalry. Lord Wellington’s head-quarters were in
Ciudad Rodrigo that night, and on the 19th and 20th the army entered
the Portugueze frontier, crossing the Agueda. The loss during this
retreat of about 240 miles amounted to 196 killed, 663 wounded, 421
missing, and 280 horses; many of the men who had been returned as
missing afterwards came in; but others, among whom were some valuable
officers, died in consequence of the fatigues and hardships which they
had endured.
♦THE FRENCH RETIRE TO THE TORMES.♦
The enemy retired as soon as the allies had reached Ciudad Rodrigo,
and they withdrew from the Tormes also as soon as the castle of Alba
was surrendered. The Spanish Governor Don José de Miranda held out
there with great gallantry, and made more than a hundred prisoners in
some well-directed ♦CASTLE OF ALBA DE TORMES EVACUATED.♦ sallies. Some
characteristic correspondence passed between him and the French; they
required him to surrender and rely upon their generosity, otherwise he
must expect to be treated with the utmost rigour; he in reply spoke of
his duties as a soldier, and boasted of his brilliant garrison. The
French allowed him an hour for returning a second answer, and bade him
tremble if it were a refusal; in his reply he bade them do their duty
as he should perform his, and told them that if the fortune of war
should be in their favour, his numerous prisoners, who had been treated
in the best manner, would be the victims. In this strain, but in
letters which increased in length, and became more and more courteous,
the correspondence was continued from the 14th of November till the
24th, on the night of which Miranda left the fortress in the hands
of Lieutenant D. Nicolas Soler, with 20 men, the prisoners and the
sick; and informing the French commander, in his last communication,
that this officer was instructed to deliver up the place, he with the
remainder of the garrison effected their escape, making their way
through many dangers, but with little loss, to the Puerto del Pico.
As soon as it was ascertained that the enemy had withdrawn from the
Tormes, Lord Wellington distributed the troops in winter cantonments,
the left being retired to Lamego, and the right thrown forward as ♦LORD
WELLINGTON’S CIRCULAR LETTER TO THE COMMANDING OFFICERS.♦ far as Baños
and Bejar, to hold the passes. He then addressed a circular letter
to the commanding officers of battalions, for the purpose of drawing
their attention in a very particular manner to the state of discipline
of the troops. “The discipline of every army,” he said, “after a long
and active campaign, becomes in some degree relaxed, and requires the
utmost attention on the part of the generals and other officers to
bring it back to the state in which it ought to be for service; but I
am concerned to have to observe, that the army under my command has
fallen off in this respect in the last campaign in a greater degree
than any army with which I have ever served, or of which I have ever
read. Yet this army has met with no disaster; it has suffered no
privations which but trifling attention on the part of the officers
could have prevented, and for which there existed no reason whatever
in the nature of the service; nor has it suffered any hardships
excepting those resulting from the inclemencies of the weather at a
time when they were most severe. It must be obvious, however, to every
officer that from the time the troops commenced their retreat from the
neighbourhood of Burgos on one hand, and from Madrid on the other, the
officers lost all command over their men. Irregularities and outrages
of all descriptions were committed with impunity, and losses have been
sustained which ought never to have occurred. Yet, the necessity for
retreat existing, none was ever made in which the troops made such
short marches; none on which they made such long and repeated halts;
and none on which the retreating armies were so little pressed in the
rear by the enemy. We must look therefore to some cause besides those
resulting from the operations in which we have been engaged. I have
no hesitation in attributing these evils to the habitual inattention
of the officers of the regiments to their duty as prescribed by the
standing regulations of the service, and by the orders of this army.
“I am far from questioning the zeal, still less the gallantry and
spirit of the officers; and I am quite certain that as their minds
can be convinced of the necessity of minute and constant attention,
to understand, recollect, and carry into execution the orders which
have been issued for the performance of their duty, and that the
strict performance of their duty is necessary to enable the army to
serve the country as it ought to be served, they will in future fix
their attention to these points. Unfortunately the inexperience of the
officers has induced many to conceive that the period during which
an army is on service is one of relaxation from all rule, instead of
being, as it is, the period during which, of all others, every rule
for the regulation and control of the conduct of the soldier, for the
inspection and care of his arms, ammunition, accoutrements, necessaries
and field equipments, and his horse and horse appointments, for the
receipt and issue, and care of his provisions, and the regulation of
all that belongs to his food and the forage for his horse, must be most
strictly attended to by the officer of his company or troop, if it is
intended that an army, a British army in particular, shall be brought
into the field of battle in a state of efficiency to meet the enemy on
the day of trial.
“These are the points then to which I most earnestly entreat you to
turn your attention, and the attention of the officers under your
command, Portugueze as well as English, during the period in which
it may be in my power to leave the troops in their cantonments. The
commanding officers of regiments must enforce the orders of the army
regarding the constant inspection and superintendence of the officers
over the conduct of the men of their companies in their cantonments;
and they must endeavour to inspire the non-commissioned officers with
a sense of their situation and authority; and the non-commissioned
officers must be forced to do their duty, by being constantly under the
view and superintendence of the officers. By these means the frequent
and discreditable recourse to the authority of the provost, and to
punishments by the sentence of courts-martial will be prevented, and
the soldiers will not dare to commit the offences and outrages of which
there are too many complaints, when they know that their officers,
and their non-commissioned officers, have their eyes and attention
turned towards them. The commanding officers of regiments must likewise
enforce the orders of the army regarding the constant, real inspection
of the soldiers’ arms, ammunition, accoutrements and necessaries, in
order to prevent at all times the shameful waste of ammunition, and the
sale of that article, and of the soldiers’ necessaries. With this view
both should be inspected daily.”
He proceeded to say that he had frequently observed during the late
campaign with how much more ease and celerity the French soldiers
cooked their food than the British. This disadvantage on our part,
he said, must be ascribed to the same cause as the other evils which
he lamented, “the want of attention in the officers to the orders of
the army and to the conduct of their men, and the consequent want of
authority over their conduct. Certain men of each company should be
appointed to cut and bring in wood, others to fetch water, and others
to get the meat, &c. to be cooked: and it would soon be found if this
practice were duly enforced, and a particular hour for serving the
dinners, and for the men dining, named, as it ought to be, equally as
for the parade, that cooking would no longer require the inconvenient
length of time which it had lately been found to take, and that the
soldiers would not be exposed to the privation of their food at the
moment when the army may be engaged in operations with the enemy.” He
concluded by repeating that the great object of the general and field
officers must be to get the captains and subalterns of the regiments
to understand, and to perform the duties required from them, as the
only mode by which the discipline and efficiency of the army could be
restored and maintained during the next campaign.
This letter excited no little surprise in the nation, mortifying and
disgraceful as the faults were which were thus openly and manfully
exposed. But it was not more severe than the occasion called for.
No retreat had ever been conducted with greater military skill; and
nothing but that skill, and the reputation which the British troops
had established for themselves under its direction, could have saved
the army from the consequences of the ignorance or neglect of duty in
many of the officers, and the insubordination of the men, which was a
consequence of such neglect or ignorance. The circumstances of that
retreat justified the whole severity of Lord Wellington’s remarks,
and would more evidently have done so, if the sufferings of the army
had been more broadly stated; for though the marches had indeed been
short, and the halts long and frequent, no army which was not flying
from an enemy, but retreating before it, in strength, ever suffered so
much from exposure, and hunger, and exhaustion. Nothing could be more
judicious than his orders during the whole retreat, and nothing more
irregular than the way in which they were carried into effect; and
this, though in part owing to casual and unavoidable obstructions on
the way, arose in a far greater degree from negligence and incapacity.
Sometimes divisions were moved too soon, more frequently too late,
and kept standing on wet ground, in the rain, for two hours, perishing
with cold, waiting the order to move. Their clothes were seldom dry
for six hours together, and during the latter part of the retreat
continually wet; sometimes they were bivouacked in a swamp, when better
ground was near: they lay down upon the wet ground, fell asleep from
mere exhaustion, were roused to receive their meat, and had then no
means of dressing it, ... the camp-kettles had been sent on, or by some
error were some miles in the rear, or the mules which carried them had
foundered on the way; and no fire could be kindled on wet ground, with
wet materials, and under a heavy rain. The subalterns threw the blame
upon their superiors, and these again upon theirs, all complaining
of incompetence in some of the general officers, and carelessness or
supercilious neglect in some of the staff. But the intended effect
was produced. That something was deficient in the equipments of the
army was perceived, and in part remedied. Alas! no one observed that
there was an utter want of that discipline by virtue of which Cromwell
conquered, which rendered the Swedes invincible under their great
Gustavus, and to which the Prince of Parma owed little less than to his
own military genius, admirable as that was.
CHAPTER XLIII.
OPERATIONS DURING THE WINTER AND SPRING. BATTLE OF VITTORIA.
♦NOVEMBER, 1812.
OPINIONS OF THE OPPOSITION.♦
Lord Wellington’s failure at Burgos, and his consequent retreat to
the Agueda, gave the Whigs a last opportunity of repeating their
predictions, that the war in the Peninsula must prove unsuccessful,
and they availed themselves of it with unabated confidence. The more
rancorous radicals insulted the nation for the hopes which had been
entertained, exulted in the reverses which they magnified, and reviled
the ministers and the General, ... the ministers both for having
continued the war, and for “starving” it; Lord Wellington both for
inactivity and for rashness, for doing too little and too much, for
wasting time at Madrid, and for attempting a siege with such inadequate
means, that nothing but the most profuse expenditure of blood could
afford even a forlorn hope of its succeeding. Even when the events
of the Russian campaign made it evident that the formidable tyranny
against which we had so long contended must soon be overthrown, the
opposition, as well as the revolutionists, turned away their eyes from
the prospect.
♦MARQUIS WELLESLEY CALLS FOR INQUIRY.♦
Parliament met at the latter end of November. In the Prince Regent’s
speech it was stated, that the southern provinces of Spain had been
delivered in consequence of the battle of Salamanca; and that, though
it had been necessary to withdraw from the siege of Burgos and to
evacuate Madrid, the effort of the enemy for rendering it so had
occasioned sacrifices on his part, which must materially contribute
to extend the resources and facilitate the exertions of the ♦NOV.
30.♦ Spaniards. On this occasion, Marquis Wellesley called upon the
Peers, to inquire whether the system which had hitherto been pursued
was founded upon just and extended principles; whether an able and
efficient exertion of our resources had been made; whether such means
as the country possessed had been fully employed; and whether the
result had been such as the nation had a right to expect from the
possession of those means, and the right application of them. He wished
it were possible to fix in the minds of their lordships something like
a definite and precise object, as the issue of the contest in the
Peninsula. In his mind, the only legitimate object was, the expulsion
of the French armies from Spain; and the war had been carried on in
a way totally inadequate to the production of that result. The plan
which of all others all mankind must reprobate, was that of employing
our resources with a view rather to what might be spared in expense,
than to what might be effected by exertion: thus exposing the sinews
of our strength to hourly danger, and bearing hard upon our finances,
yet effecting neither economy nor success, but falling dead as it were
between both. A vast expense of blood and treasure had been lavished,
without accomplishing any one definite object. The best assistance we
could afford to Russia was by carrying on the war in Spain upon a broad
and extensive scale; it had not been so carried on, and he charged
upon that system, therefore, a defection from the cause of Russia. He
did not mean to dispute that the last campaign had been beneficial to
Spain; but his objection was, that those benefits were imperfectly
secured, and that they could not expect them to be permanent.
♦LORD GRENVILLE.♦
Lord Grenville repeated and persisted in his old opinion, that the
deliverance of Spain was beyond the utmost means of this country to
effect; and that it was cruel and base to embark the population of
that country in so hopeless a cause, merely for the sake of a little
temporary advantage. The ministers had not advanced one step in
the accomplishment of this object; and this third advance into the
interior of Spain had, by its failure, proved the correctness of the
data on which his opinion was founded. Their boast of having delivered
Andalusia was an empty boast: no one doubted that the deliverance
was more than temporary, and that the French could not re-occupy the
provinces whenever they pleased. It was the want of means, the failure
of supplies and resources, which had led to the unproductive results of
all their exertions. The blame did not lie with the Spaniards, but with
those who encouraged the hopes which they had no right to entertain:
the fault was with the English ministers, who in their ignorance
overrated the condition of Spain, and anticipated more from her than
she could by possibility perform. He asked also, why ministers, with
a revenue of one hundred and five millions, or more, by estimate,
extorted by means the most grinding and oppressive from a suffering
people, were yet unable to supply Lord Wellington’s military chest?
The difficulty arose from their incapacity, not from the deficient
resources of the country, much as they had been drained. They might
diminish by one half the income of every individual in this country,
with as little effect or promise of ultimate success as had attended
those plans which led them to circulate a vile and adulterated currency
in paper coin throughout the nation. When such had been its effects,
why not at this moment stop the contest in Spain?
♦MR. PONSONBY.♦
In the House of Commons, Mr. Ponsonby said, it was useless to carry
farther an unprofitable contest; it was useless to waste the blood and
the treasures of England for an unattainable object; it had been proved
that the power of England was not competent to drive the French out of
the Peninsula.
♦MR. FREEMANTLE.♦
Mr. Freemantle was decidedly of opinion, that by the battle of
Salamanca we had gained nothing but glory; that the deliverance of
Spain was no nearer its accomplishment than when Lord Wellington
was posted at Torres Vedras, and that our prospects at the present
moment were not nearly so bright as at the commencement of the last
session, ... at which time his declared opinion had been, that we could
entertain no rational prospect of making any impression upon ♦MR.
WHITBREAD.♦ the enemy in Spain. Mr. Whitbread’s tone upon that subject
was somewhat modified; he admitted that the situation in which we now
stood in Spain was glorious beyond example, in so far as related to the
achievements of our armies, though with respect to the expulsion of the
French, we were not so near our object as some people supposed. There
was this difference between an offensive and a defensive war; that an
offensive war ought always to be a war of spirit. When vigorous efforts
therefore were to be made in Spain, there ought to be no limit to that
vigour. Let an application therefore be made to the Prince Regent,
to know from him whether the greatest possible use had been made by
ministers of the means with which they were intrusted for carrying on
the war, before coming to a decision on the merits of ministers, or
the probability of the war being in future carried on with success. He
was far from wishing to refuse them the means necessary for carrying
it to a successful issue; but feeling for the people who were groaning
under accumulated burdens and threatened with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer’s financial abilities, he thought the last resources of
the country ought not to be granted without security for their being
properly applied. Under all these circumstances, he was desirous of
imploring the Prince Regent to take into consideration, whether or not
it was at present possible to bring about a pacification. Buonaparte
was on his retreat to his resources, his force not annihilated,
though certainly in great danger, and this was what the House were
to congratulate themselves on, and for which they were to go to the
Prince Regent with an address on the prosperous state of the country!
If the situation of affairs on the continent was good for any thing,
it was this, that the Emperor of France having failed in his object,
an opportunity was now offered when it would not be inglorious, and
when it would certainly be highly useful to propose to the enemy
some arrangement for peace. Buonaparte was at present in a perilous
situation, and every exertion ought to be made, by taking advantage
of it to procure a peace. But a feeling seemed to pervade the minds
of certain persons, that peace should not be concluded with that man,
... a feeling which he wished to eradicate from this country: for, in
the probable course of events, we should be obliged to make peace with
him. Let him therefore be sent to openly and manfully! The fate of the
mission would be speedily known; and the issue would be a conviction on
the mind of every one, whether a permanent and honourable peace could
be procured or not.
♦MOTION OF THANKS TO THE ARMIES. SIR FRANCIS BURDETT.♦
When a motion for thanks to Lord Wellington and his army for the battle
of Salamanca was brought forward, Sir Francis Burdett said, he was far
from wishing; invidiously to detract from the merits of men who had
devoted their exertions to the service of their country, or to withhold
from them any recompense that it was in the power of Parliament to
bestow: but when he heard the battle of Salamanca represented as
having been equal in importance to the battle of Blenheim, and to
other great battles which had completely changed the aspect of the
whole affairs of Europe, he could not suffer such delusions to go
forth uncontradicted, ... delusions which were calculated to plunge
the country, under the direction of the same persons, still more
deeply in a destructive and ruinous war: for after their boasted and
over-praised victories, we were still as far from our object as ever.
What! were we to suffer the French troops to recover from the effect
of their discomfiture and exhaustion, and to wait until the tide of
good fortune which had attended us flowed back on its source? Were
we to be satisfied with a retreat? Yet, where now was the Marquis of
Wellington? In what direction were we to look for the glorious results
of the campaign? In what manner was the diminution of the French
power in Spain evinced? Nothing seemed to have resulted from all our
advantages but calamity and distress; and it followed, therefore,
that either Lord Wellington was not entitled to the praise which the
House was called upon to bestow, or that the fault of our failure was
attributable to the gross negligence and imbecility of the ministers.
Lord Castlereagh, Sir Francis pursued, in the plenitude of his
satisfaction, had not confined himself to Spain, but had travelled out
of his course, and taken the House to Russia, where in the destruction
of from 200,000 to 300,000 human beings, in the burning of Moscow,
and in the devastation of an immense tract of Russian territory, he
found new causes of congratulation, new sources of national pride and
gratitude! Would he be equally inclined to consider it a matter of
triumph, if Buonaparte (which in his opinion was more than probable)
should extricate himself from his perils, and after having found good
winter-quarters, return to the contest with renovated ardour in the
spring? Could he believe it possible that Russia could continue such
a contest, and undergo a repetition of similar dreadful experiments
and sacrifices? Supposing he marched to Petersburgh, which seemed to
be his ultimate intention, would the same mode of defence as at Moscow
be adopted? Would Russia burn Petersburgh too? He for one could not
greatly admire the magnanimity of burning that, the preservation of
which ought to have been fought for; nor could he see the shining
character of the Emperor Alexander, who was not, like the Emperor of
the French, personally sharing in the dangers of the war. He could not
subdue the conviction which arose in his mind on viewing all these
things, of the utter impossibility of the Emperor of Russia’s feeling
any exultation whatever: on the contrary, he thought that unfortunate
individual must be oppressed by a view of the irreparable calamities to
which himself and his people had been, and were ♦DEC. 7.♦ likely still
further to be, exposed. Farther than this, when a grant was moved to
the Marquis of Wellington, Sir Francis said, he did not wish to divide
the House upon it, but he wished to move, that the consideration of
the grant should be deferred till some inquiries had been made into
the late extraordinary campaign. Lord Wellington’s victories had none
of the characteristics which distinguished those of Marlborough. It
had been observed, and by military men too, that he had brought his
army into difficulties, but that his men had fought him out of them
again; and that in the capture of the fortresses which he had won, a
waste of life was to be complained of. The cause of Spain appeared to
him infinitely more hopeless than it was at the commencement of the
campaign, ... the case of the Peninsula more deplorable than ever.
♦M. WELLESLEY MOVES FOR A COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY.
MARCH 12.♦
Marquis Wellesley moved for a committee to inquire into the conduct
of the war in the Peninsula. “My Lords,” said he, “what secret cause
amidst the splendid scene that has been exhibited in the Peninsula,
... what malign influence amidst the rejoicings and acclamations of
triumph, has counteracted the brilliant successes of our arms, and has
converted the glad feelings of a just exultation into the bitterness
of regret and disappointment? With an army in discipline and spirit
superior to any that had ever been assembled, uniting in itself
qualities so various, as never to have entered into the composition
of any other such assemblage of force; ... with a general, pronounced
by the whole world to be unsurpassed in ancient or modern times; the
pride of his country, the refuge and hope of Europe; ... with a cause
in which justice vied with policy, combining all that was ardent in the
one motive, with all that was sober in the other; ... with the eyes of
Europe fixed on our movements; ... with the admiration of the world
excited by our achievements: ... how is it that our hopes have been
raised only to be frustrated? How is it that we have been allowed to
indulge in expectation of an approaching completion of success, only
to behold the utter disappointment of our wishes? Why has a system
of advance suddenly and inevitably been converted into a system of
retreat? When victory actually sprung from the bosom of retreat, why
was the glorious victor compelled to relapse into his retrogression?
Why has it happened that we have seen the great conqueror who chased
the French armies from the plains of Salamanca, pursued in his turn,
by those whom he had conquered, over those plains which had been the
scene of his former triumphs? Why, in conclusion, has a system of
offence shrunk into a system of defence, and what is the reason that
our military operations in the Peninsula have ended where they began?
“I should be lost to every feeling of honour, and to every sense
of duty to the country, if I did not state that the effect of this
campaign altogether has been not to approximate you towards your
object, but to remove you from it; and that this calamity has arisen
from the insufficiency of those means which, by a small addition,
might have been rendered effective. I maintain, that the object we had
in view, (the only honest object ... the only great object ... which
we could pursue, or hope to obtain by our operations in Spain,) was
the expulsion of the French, or, at least, a considerable diminution
of their power, with a view to the freedom of the people, and the
independence of the Spanish monarchy. This was, certainly, the main
object which we ought to have contemplated; the ultimate object of the
British nation was, certainly, by the deliverance of the peninsula of
Spain, to lay a solid foundation for the establishment of a permanent
and honourable peace.
“What I have contended is, that the efforts we have made have not been
equal to the resources of the country; that they have not been such as
the magnitude, the infinite importance of the cause demanded, and as
the favourableness of the opportunity particularly called for; that we
have not made even a faint approximation to the object of the war, the
expulsion of the French from the Peninsula; but that the French have
been enabled, by our reverses, to consolidate their power in Spain,
and to systematize the moral and military subjugation of the country.
We ought to have called forth all our resources, ... and we have made
no extraordinary sacrifices; we ought to have strained every nerve at
this momentous crisis, ... and we have remained little better than
idle spectators of the fate of Spain. We have been deterred by petty
objections; by calculations of expense, which are but as dust in the
balance.”
♦EARL GREY.♦
Earl Grey supported the motion for a committee, saying, that the
great objects of the campaign had not been realized, but that, on
the contrary, there had been a complete failure, ... a great and
lamentable failure; and that it was one of the most important duties
of that house, in cases of ill success, to vindicate the interests
of the country, by visiting with its severest censure the causers of
the misfortune. Aware as the ministers were, he said, of the state
of Europe, and knowing, as they must have known, the effect that at
such a crisis would have been produced by a vigorous and decisive
effort in the Peninsula, it was their bounden duty to have provided
Lord Wellington with ample means for carrying through his enterprising
projects, and crowning them with brilliant and unqualified success.
Nothing had happened which induced him to repent of his opinion, that
the efforts of the Spanish people could alone enable them to withstand
the overwhelming power of France. This sentiment he had uttered
under the supposition that no other power would stand up against the
French Emperor, and that that Emperor would not depart from the unity
of council and of action, by which his greatest successes had been
achieved. And, indeed, if with such a commander and such an army as
ours, and at a time when the army of France in the north had met with
disasters, greater than which never fell upon a host assembled for the
purposes of injustice and ambition, ... if under these circumstances
we had achieved so little in Spain, what would have been the issue, if
one-tenth only of the forces employed against Russia had been turned
against us? The time had called for exertion, and the exertions had
failed, ... failed almost entirely as to their great object: the French
were left in possession of the best parts of Spain; and we had not
advanced in any degree, considering the effects of the last campaign
upon the minds of the Spaniards, to the accomplishment of our object.
Such was the case, and it called loudly for inquiry.
♦THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL.♦
To these assertions the Earl of Liverpool replied, that the campaign
which had been thus represented as a failure and a defeat, was, in
fact, the most brilliant that had been achieved by British arms in any
period of our history. They had been seeking as a great object, that
the whole force of Spain should be placed under the command of Lord
Wellington, and that object had at length been accomplished. Every
exertion that could be made had been made, for sending out troops to
the Peninsula and for supplying them there, and the success of the
war was indisputable. Portugal had been rescued from the enemy, and
placed in a state of security, and now one-third of Spain was relieved
from their presence. Spain and Portugal had set the example which
Russia had followed, with the great advantage of having a government
in full activity to direct all its strength. The example thus set and
thus followed would have an effect among the other nations of Europe,
would rouse their spirit, animate their exertions, and teach them
in what manner to resist oppression, ... teach them that an united
nation, determined to resist an invader, could not ♦EARL BATHURST.♦
be conquered! ... Earl Bathurst argued to the same purpose, saying,
that something had been effected, if the views of England were what
Marquis Wellesley had powerfully described them to be at the beginning
of the war in Spain, ... first, to create a diversion in favour of
our allies; secondly, to encourage resistance in other countries, by
showing its effects in Spain; and thirdly, to prevent the commercial
and military means of that country from falling into the hands of our
enemy. Those had been the views of England, those were the views of
the present Government, and those views had been forwarded by the last
campaign. And Lord Wellington was satisfied with the conduct of the
administration during that campaign, ... a declaration which had not
been sought for by the ministers, but which he had voluntarily made.
In these debates the Whigs manifested the same disposition to magnify
our reverses and depreciate our success, and the same propensity
for predicting discomfiture and disgrace which had characterized
their conduct during the whole struggle. The feeling with which they
continued to regard Buonaparte, notwithstanding his ♦APRIL 2. LORD
HOLLAND.♦ inordinate ambition and his remorseless tyranny, was farther
exhibited by Lord Holland, when, upon presenting some petitions for
peace, he expressed his trust that ministers entertained no chimerical
notions of wresting from France what she had acquired during the last
twenty years, nor of humiliating the great prince who now ruled that
country; and his willingness to believe that they had not neglected
the opportunity which the successes of Russia afforded for opening a
negotiation! But they better understood their duty to their allies, and
to Europe, and to their country; and being instructed by experience
as well as encouraged by sure hope, they spared no efforts now for
enabling Lord Wellington to open the ensuing campaign with means which
♦LORD WELLINGTON GOES TO CADIZ.♦ should render success certain. Lord
Wellington went to Cadiz at the close of the year, to make arrangements
with the Spanish ministers for the co-operation of the Spanish
armies. A deputation from the Cortes was sent to compliment him on
his arrival; he paid his respects, in consequence, to that assembly;
expressed his thanks in a brief and modest speech, for the different
marks of honour and confidence which he had received from it; and said,
that not the Spaniards alone looked to it with hope, but the whole
world was concerned in the happy issue of their vigorous endeavours to
save Spain from general destruction, and to establish in that monarchy
a system founded upon just principles, which should promote and secure
the prosperity of all the citizens, and the greatness of the Spanish
nation. In reply, the president complimented him upon his victories,
which had been celebrated, he said, like those of the Genius of Good
over the Genius of Evil. The Cortes did not now hope or trust for new
triumphs from the Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo, they looked upon them as
certain; and looked, not only that the Spanish and allied armies under
such a leader would drive the French beyond the Pyrenees, but that, if
it should be needful, they would pitch their victorious tents upon the
banks of the Seine; it would not be the first time that the Spanish
lions had trampled on its banks upon the old fleur-de-lys of France.
♦ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CO-OPERATION OF THE SPANISH ARMIES.♦
It was arranged that 50,000 Spanish troops should be placed at his
disposal. The army under Castaños formed part of these; it consisted
of what had formerly been called the 5th, 6th, and 7th armies, now
comprehended under the name of the fourth: Castaños was to hold also
the captaincies-general of the province of Extremadura, Old Castille
and Leon, Galicia and Asturias. There was to be an army of reserve
in Andalusia under the Conde de Abisbal, and an army of reserve in
Galicia. The other armies were that of Catalonia, which was the first;
of this Copons held the command: he was also captain-general of that
province, and of that part of Aragon which was on the right of the
Ebro; the second, which Elio, captain-general of Valencia, Murcia, and
New Castille, commanded; and the third (formerly the fourth) under the
Duque del Parque, who was also charged with the captaincies-general of
Jaen and Granada.
♦LORD WELLINGTON GOES TO LISBON.♦
From Cadiz, Lord Wellington repaired to Lisbon. Triumphal arches
were erected in all the towns through which he passed, from Elvas to
the Tagus. The ships, the troops, and the people of Lisbon, received
him with such honours as he deserved; greater could be paid to no
man; and there was a general and voluntary illumination during three
successive nights. A drama was composed to celebrate his victories, and
represented in his presence at the royal theatre of San Carlos, where
all the boxes were decorated with angels bearing crowns and shields,
on which the initials of Lord Wellington were inscribed; _O Nome_,
“The Name,” was the title of the piece, and it was preluded by a hymn
in honour of the Prince of Brazil, and the exhibition of his portrait
under a canopy. The scene then represented the Elysian fields, where,
in the pitiable style of operatic invention, Glory, and Posterity, and
Camoens, and the Great Constable, Nuno Alvares Pereira, with sundry
other Lusitanian worthies, recitatived in praise of Lord Wellington,
Lord Beresford, and the Portugueze and British armies; and down came
angels and genii presenting illuminated scrolls, inscribed with the
names of his victories.
♦RELAXED DISCIPLINE OF THE PORTUGUEZE ARMY.♦
The Portugueze army was, at this time, reproved by Lord Beresford for
its want of discipline during the late retreat, in terms not less
severe than those of Lord Wellington’s letter. Certain officers were
suspended for scandalous neglect and total disregard of their duties:
and it was stated, that, in every instance, complaints had been made
by the commandants of corps or brigades, of inactivity and want of zeal
in the officers of all those corps which had suffered extraordinary
loss during the retreat. That such losses were occasioned by the
negligence of the officers was proved by the fact, that other corps
in the same marches, and under the same circumstances, difficulties,
and privations, had none of their men missing; the officers of those
corps were named with due praise. Marshal Beresford added, he deemed
it important to remind the army, that with all the reasons which he
had (and he was happy to say that he had every reason) for praising
the conduct of the Portugueze officers, when they were in presence of
an enemy, and exposed to fire, valour, nevertheless, was not the only
thing needful; firmness and constancy were equally so for supporting
the reverses, and fatigues, and privations, to which a military life is
subject; and if the officers did not yield under such circumstances,
the soldiers certainly would not; for no soldier, and especially
no Portugueze soldier, ever would be backward in any thing when
his officer set him an example; nor would ever commit any fault or
manifest any discontent, so long as he saw his officer doing his duty
under the same circumstances, and setting him an example of courage,
firmness, and constancy. One of the army surgeons had been brought
before a court-martial for neglecting the sick and wounded under his
care, while they were in the hospital at Madrid. He was sentenced to a
month’s imprisonment, and the loss of a month’s pay. Marshal Beresford,
in confirming the sentence, expressed his disapprobation of it; a
punishment so little in proportion to the crime, he said, was not
likely to impress persons who had neither the proper feelings of men or
of Christians; for what could be more horrible, than to see men who had
been wounded in the service of their Prince and of their country, or
whose health had been broken in that service, neglected by one who had
received rank, honour, and pay, for the express intent of making him
more attentive in his treatment of them? What could be worse than that
such a person should be found preferring his own ease, or interest, or
temporary convenience, to his duty towards his God, and his Prince, and
his fellow-creatures, and leaving them either to perish through his
neglect, or to fall into the hands of the enemy?
♦JANUARY.♦
The consequences of the retreat were severely felt; in January, more
than a third of the British army were on the sick list, fever being
the principal disease, which want of clothing had, with fatigue,
contributed to produce, and want of cleanliness to propagate. In
personal appearance and in clothing, the British troops were at this
time much worse than the Portugueze. But supplies of every kind, as
well as large reinforcements, were received during the winter, no time
being lost, and no care neglected. The infantry had suffered so much
from want of cover, that they were now provided with tents, three for
each company, and these were borne by the animals which used before to
carry the camp kettles, tin kettles being substituted for iron ones,
... one to six men, and light enough for the men to carry it by turns
on their knapsacks. Tents were not thought necessary for the cavalry,
because not being either heated or exhausted so much in their marches,
they were better able to stand the cold at night.
♦BUONAPARTE WITHDRAWS TROOPS FROM SPAIN.♦
While the British force in the Peninsula was increased, and the Spanish
rendered more available than it had been in any former campaign, that
of the French was weakened; the enormous loss which Buonaparte had
suffered in Russia, and the obstinate ambition with which he kept
large garrisons in the north of Germany, rendering it necessary for
him to withdraw troops from Spain. From 10 to 20,000 repassed the
Pyrenees; not fewer than 140,000 were still left, ... good troops,
well-officered, and under commanders of high reputation and approved
skill. But both officers and men had had their confidence abated;
the generals felt that even the resources of the conscription were
exhaustible; and as little hope, when they considered the present
state of their Emperor’s fortunes, could be entertained of subjugating
the Spaniards, the object upon which all seemed to be most intent was
that of enriching themselves by plunder, while it was still in their
power ♦EXACTIONS OF THE FRENCH.♦ to do so. M. Suchet left scarcely one
picture of any value in Valencia, either in the convents, churches, or
private houses; and that city was thus deprived of the finest works of
Juanes, ... works which, precious as they are, were there enhanced in
value by the local and religious feeling with which his fellow-citizens
regarded the productions of their saintly painter. There and everywhere
contributions were imposed and exacted in a manner which made it
apparent that the Intrusive government treated them now not as subjects
who were to be taxed, but as enemies from whom all that could be
extorted was to be taken. Their operations on the side of New Castille
and Leon were at this time confined to periodical circuits for the
purpose of enforcing the payment of contributions. On the side of the
Tagus they fortified the right bank of the river, repaired the Puente
del Arzobispo, and occupied Almaraz, though they did not restore the
bridge there.
♦LONGA ACTS SUCCESSFULLY AGAINST THE ENEMY.
NOV. 28.♦
Meantime the Spaniards were not idle. Longa surprised General Fromant
in the valley of Sedano, when returning to Burgos with the requisitions
which he had collected, and with sixty respectable householders whom
he was taking away as hostages for the contribution: the hostages were
rescued, Fromant with about 700 of his men killed, and nearly 500
taken prisoners. A party of the enemy had entered Bilbao, these also
he surprised, and they suffered the loss of 200 men; then making for
Salinas de Anaña, which was the strongest hold of the French in that
district, he besieged it with 2500 men and five pieces of artillery,
and after three days, the remainder of the garrison, consisting of
250, surrendered at discretion. This so dismayed the enemy that they
abandoned Nauclares and Armiñon, which he was proceeding to attack, and
both fortresses were demolished by his orders. His next object was the
Fuerte del Cubo de Pancorbo, a post of importance for its situation,
and for the care with which it had been strengthened; here too the
garrison were made prisoners and the fort demolished. Caffarelli
meantime was vainly besieging Castro, where he suffered some loss, and
found it necessary to give up the attempt, that he might check Longa
in his career of success. That active partizan was now threatening
Breviesca; he eluded Caffarelli and Palombini when they moved against
him, and retreating to Zovalina, there to refresh his troops, ordered
his retreat so well that they were uncertain what direction he had
taken; Caffarelli therefore reinforced his garrisons, and repairing to
Vittoria himself, left Palombini at Poza with 3000 foot and 300 horse
to protect the high road, and be ready to act against Longa. ♦FEB. 13.♦
But while a third of that force was detached to levy contributions,
Longa surprised the remainder at daybreak: their collected plunder and
some 300 prisoners fell into his hands, and they suffered a further
loss of between two and three hundred in killed and wounded. The
approach of their detachment, and of a large body on its way from
Burgos to Vittoria, then rendered it necessary for him to retire.
While Longa thus harassed the enemy in the north of ♦MINA’S MOVEMENTS.♦
Spain, Mina was assailing them with his wonted activity in Navarre
and Aragon. The English landed two 12-pounders for him in the Deva,
together with clothing, ammunition, and other things of which he was in
need; 600 of his men were ready to receive and escort these. The French
endeavoured to intercept them, and were repulsed in the attempt; and
Mina was no sooner possessed of the guns than he attacked the enemy
in Tafalla, where they had a garrison of 400 men. General ♦FEB. 11.♦
Abbé moved to relieve it with all the disposable force from Pamplona;
but he was beaten back by a part of Mina’s force which had been left
to observe that city, and on the fifth day of the siege the garrison
surrendered as prisoners of war. The wounded he sent under an escort
to Pamplona; destroyed the fort at Tafalla, and the works, ... also a
Franciscan Convent, and an old palace in which the French might have
established a garrison; and he demolished in like manner two other
such edifices at Olite, that the road might be clear between Pamplona
and Tudela. From Tafalla he proceeded to Sos in Upper Aragon, a fort
which the enemy had occupied more than three years, and fortified
sufficiently as long as the Spaniards could bring no guns against it.
They were on the point of surrendering after a four days’ siege, when
General Paris arrived from Zaragoza and carried off the garrison,
leaving the fort half ruined: Mina completed its demolition, and by
this enterprise laid open the road between Pamplona and Jaca. Shortly
after, Fermin de Leguia, who was under ♦FEB. 20.♦ his orders, ventured,
without instructions, upon an adventure which was executed as boldly
as it ♦MARCH 11.♦ was designed. With only fifteen men, being the whole
of his party, he approached the castle of Fuenterrabia in the night,
scaled the wall with one man by the help of spikes and ropes which
supplied the place of a ladder, surprised the sentinel, got possession
of the keys, opened the gates for his men, and took eight artillerymen
prisoners, while the remainder of the garrison, who dreamt of no
danger, were sleeping in the town. He then spiked the guns, threw into
the sea all the ammunition which he could not carry away, set fire to
the castle, and though pursued by the enemy retreated without loss.
Mina was heard of next at Lodosa, where he attacked a detachment of
1000 French, few of whom ♦MARCH 29. CAFFARELLI RECALLED FROM SPAIN.♦
escaped, 635 being made prisoners. Caffarelli had at this time been
called to France, giving up the command in the north to Clausel; that
able general hoped to signalize himself by destroying an indefatigable
enemy who had baffled the efforts of all his predecessors; and this
was the first proof which he made of that enemy’s ability. Mina
next attempted to intercept a convoy which was going from Tolosa to
Pamplona; the convoy was alarmed in time, but the attempt led to an
affair with Abbé’s force, in which the French retired with the loss of
full 300 men.
♦CLAUSEL ENDEAVOURS TO HUNT MINA DOWN.♦
Clausel had left a considerable garrison in Puente la Reyna, well
fortified for the sort of war which they might have to sustain; and
an advanced post of 50 men at Mendigorria, in an old church of S.
Maria, which they had fortified. While he was in pursuit of Mina from
Estella, and Abbé from Pamplona, their skilful antagonist led them to
suppose that he was in the valley of Berrueza, ... then making a rapid
counter-march with one of his regiments, appeared in Mendigorria. The
garrison at Puente outnumbered him both in horse and foot, but they
did not ♦APRIL 21.♦ venture to interrupt him in his operations; and
he set fire to the church. The French had no other resource than to
ascend the tower, and fire upon them from thence. He sent a trumpet
to offer terms, but they would not allow him to approach, either in
the confident expectation of being succoured from Puente, or because
they were confounded by the situation in which they found themselves;
for the smoke and the flames distressed them so dreadfully, that in
the course of half an hour, they prepared to let themselves down by
ropes; but Mina ordered ladders to the roof of the church, from whence
they descended, and were made prisoners. The Guerrilla chief, now
Camp-Marshal in the regular service, took credit to himself for sparing
their lives when by the laws of war they had placed them at his mercy:
by this time indeed both the invaders and the Spaniards in Navarre
had found it their interest to revert to the humanities of civilized
warfare. His own hospital was in the valley of Roncal, and from the
combined movements of Clausel and Abbé he inferred that it was their
intention to deprive him of that retreat, the only one which there was
for his wounded and invalids. Not being strong enough to resist the
force which was now brought against him, he removed all who were in a
condition to bear removal, and left the others to the enemy’s mercy,
calling to mind no doubt with satisfaction his own recent conduct
at Tafalla and Mendigorria: as he had hoped, the men were humanely
treated by General Abbé, though the hospital effects were destroyed,
and Isaba, which had been deserted by its inhabitants, was set on
fire, and 150 houses burnt. Clausel employed the months of April and
May in endeavouring to hunt this formidable enemy down, of whom in an
intercepted letter to the Intruder, he said, that he would be Lord of
Navarre unless it were occupied by a corps of from 20 to 25,000 men;
because when he was weak he always avoided an action, and fell upon
detachments when he was sure of victory. In the course of this attempt
the loss which his own men sustained from fatigue far exceeded any that
he inflicted upon Mina’s hardy troops, who were intimately acquainted
with the country, and accustomed to the hair-breadth scapes of such
campaigns. At no time, however, was so much apprehension entertained
for Mina’s safety, though he himself relied with his wonted confidence
upon his resources and his fortune, now too not without certain
knowledge that his pursuers would soon be called off to a contest which
for them would be of a far more serious kind.
♦RENOVALES MADE PRISONER.♦
On the side of Biscay the enemy were more successful; they surprised
and captured Renovales, with six of his officers, at Carvajalez de
Zamora; and Castro, from which Caffarelli had been repulsed, was taken
by General Foy, after a siege of eighteen days. The Governor Don Pedro
Pablo Alvares ♦CASTRO DE URDIALES TAKEN BY GEN. FOY.♦ discharged his
duty to the utmost, and the Lyra, Royalist, and Sparrow sloops of war,
and the Alphea schooner, under Captain Bloye, assisted in the defence.
Foy brought all the force which he could collect against it, and
proceeded as if he hoped to strike the province as well as the garrison
with terror, ... for he offered no terms, and seemed determined to
take the place by storm, let it cost what it would. When he had made a
breach wide enough to admit twenty men abreast, he turned his guns on
the town and castle, and threw shells incessantly at the bridge that
connected the ♦MAY 11.♦ castle with the landing-place, hoping thus to
cut off the retreat of the garrison, which at the commencement of the
siege consisted of 1200 men. At noon the enemy entered in great numbers
through the breach and by escalade in various parts; the garrison when
they could no longer defend the town retreated into the castle, the
ships’ boats were in readiness to receive them, and they were embarked
by companies under a tremendous fire of musquetry, two companies
remaining to defend the castle, till the last gun was thrown into the
sea. Every soldier was brought off, and many of the inhabitants, and
landed at Bermeo on the following day. The town was burnt. Foy indeed
acted in the spirit of ♦ENORMITIES COMMITTED THERE BY THE FRENCH.♦ his
Portugueze campaign; as he had offered no terms he showed no mercy,
but when the town was entered put the defenders to the bayonet without
distinction. It had been well if the wickedness of the enemy had ended
there; but in one of their unsuccessful attacks many of their men had
been pushed down a ravine by their fellows while pressing forward to
the charge, the bridge by which they expected to cross having been
destroyed by the English; and because the inhabitants had not informed
them of the destruction of this bridge, they butchered men and women,
sparing none, and inflicting upon them cruelties which nothing but a
devilish nature could devise.
Little attempt was made on the enemy’s part to annoy the allies
during the winter and spring. Foy, with 1500 infantry and 100 horse,
had endeavoured, in February, to surprise the post at Bejar, but was
promptly repulsed; and the French in the same month advanced from
Orbigo and Castro Gondoles as far as Astorga and Manzanal in one
direction, and to the Puebla de Sanabria and Mombuey in another,
the Gallician army retreating before them, and then resuming their
former position when the enemy in their turn had retired. Much greater
activity was shown in plundering the inhabitants; and this kind of war,
wherein there could be no resistance, was carried on so shamelessly,
that the Intruder, it was said, deemed it necessary to call one of the
generals to account.
Clausel was of opinion that an error had been committed in not
concentrating their forces more upon the Ebro, which might have been
done, he said, without abandoning Castille, and this error, he feared,
they should find cause to repent. But the Intruder’s council had
determined upon taking the Douro for their line of defence; and with
this view they threw up works on the right bank at every assailable
point, relying, as Soult had formerly done at Porto, upon the security
which that deep ♦M. SOULT CALLED FROM SPAIN.♦ and rapid river might
afford them. Marshal Soult had been called away in March to take part
in the campaign in Germany. The head-quarters of what had been his
army were removed from Toledo to Madrid early in April, and Toledo was
abandoned; but troops were kept at Illescas, and reconnoissances made
by the cavalry towards Escalona, the Alberche, and Añobes del Tajo,
apprehending some movement of Sir Rowland’s army in this direction.
The ♦THE INTRUDER GOES TO VALLADOLID.♦ Intruder, leaving that capital
to which he was never to return, removed his court, or rather his
head-quarters, to Valladolid, where the Palace Gardens were put in
order for his recreation, and some defensive works constructed. On
the 11th of April, General Hugo, who had been left with the command
in Madrid, informed the _Ayuntamiento_ that the troops were about to
depart, and that they must take measures for preserving tranquillity
and guarding the public buildings, civil and military. The most
precious articles in the cabinet of natural history were sent off, with
whatever else could be removed from the other public establishments,
and all arrears of contribution were exacted with the utmost rigour.
Beasts enough were not left in Madrid for the scavengers’ use, so that
the inhabitants were ordered to collect the sweepings of the streets
into the squares, and there burn what used to be carried into the
country for manure. The people of that poor capital had always clung to
the hope of deliverance with a strength of belief which characterizes
the nation, and in the movements of their oppressors they now saw
reasonable ground for expecting that it could not be long delayed.
♦ANGLO-SICILIAN ARMY.♦
The pride of the French too had been at this time abated on the
eastern coast, where Suchet had hitherto boasted of success in all
his undertakings. Major-General William Clinton arrived at Alicante
in November to take the command from which his health had compelled
General Maitland to retire; and notwithstanding the difficulties which
were opposed by a false point of honour, by a jealousy as ill-founded
as it was ill-timed, and perhaps by treasonable intentions, he
succeeded in obtaining consent to garrison the castle with British
troops. In December a reinforcement of 4000 men, British and foreign,
arrived from Palermo, under Major-General James Campbell, who by
seniority superseded General Clinton in the command, which he was to
hold till the then hourly expected arrival of Lord William Bentinck
from Sicily. But Lord William was detained by political circumstances
in that island, where the hopeless attempt had been undertaken of
improving a government before any improvement has been effected either
in those who are to govern or be governed; and, ♦SIR JOHN MURRAY TAKES
THE COMMAND.♦ as no end could be seen to this delay, Lieutenant-General
Sir John Murray was sent out from England to command the allied forces
in that part of Spain. Feeble as that allied force was, and inert as
its feebleness had compelled it to be, it had yet employed Suchet’s
attention during the autumn and winter.
That general had his head-quarters for the most part at San Felippe,
between Alicante and Valencia, and about three leagues from the Xucar.
Some trivial affairs were all that occurred, till Sir John Murray soon
after his arrival took the army out of its cantonments, apparently
with the view of making the French marshal fall back and concentrate
his forces on that river. After an unsuccessful attempt at surprising
an enemy’s detachment in the populous village of Alcoy, he moved
forward and took up a position near the town of Castalla, where in the
preceding summer Don Joseph O’Donnell had sustained a severe defeat.
While Sir John made ♦DEFEAT OF ELIO’S CORPS.♦ this movement on the
right, General Elio with a separate Spanish corps of 12,000 men moved
on the left to Yecla, Villena, and the flat country in that direction.
There was an old castle in Villena, and Elio garrisoned it with 800 of
his best troops. Suchet was not a man to lose any opportunity which
was presented him: he saw that one of Elio’s divisions had taken post
at Yecla, within reach of Fuente-la-Higuera, where his own advance was
placed, and too far from that of the allies which was at Villena, 25
miles distant. During the night he collected the flower of his army
at Fuente-la-Higuera, and marched with one division, the cavalry and
the reserve, upon Villena, while, with the other part of his force,
General Harispe proceeded rapidly to Yecla, ♦APRIL 12.♦ unseen by the
Spaniards. At break of day he came in sight of them; they retreated
from one position to another, but were out-manœuvred and beaten, and
after losing some four or five hundred men, 1200 laid down their arms.
♦SUCHET MARCHES AGAINST THE ANGLO-SICILIAN ARMY.♦
On the afternoon of the same day, Suchet was seen advancing within a
few miles of Villena, which is about two leagues to the westward of
Castalla. Sir John Murray immediately withdrew the Majorcan division
from Alcoy, and concentrating his force, occupied the strong position
of Castalla. His left, consisting of that division, was placed on the
rocky and almost inaccessible hills south of the town, ... the range
terminating there. Major-General Mackenzie’s division, and the 58th
regiment from Lieutenant-General Clinton’s occupied the town, and the
ground to the right; here and in front of the castle some redoubts
and batteries had been constructed. The remainder of the position
was covered by a strong ravine which rendered it almost inaccessible
on that side; and there Lieutenant-General Clinton was stationed,
supported by three battalions of General Roche’s division as a column
of reserve. The position was well taken. The second battalion of the
27th foot, the 1st Italian regiment, and the Calabrian free corps, had
on the first alarm been pushed forward beyond Villena, under Colonel
Adam, and with them a detachment of cavalry commanded by Colonel Lord
Frederick Bentinck. The object of this movement was to observe the
enemy’s motions: it brought on a cannonade, and the French endeavoured
to break in upon our troops, and enter Villena pell-mell with them; but
Colonel Adam, following his instructions, fell back upon Biar without
loss. Sir John, being now assured that Suchet meditated a serious
movement, urged General Elio to withdraw his 800 men from Villena,
where the castle, in its imperfect state of defence, was not tenable
against such an enemy; but the Spanish general was not to be persuaded.
The French entered Villena that evening, pushing their light troops
beyond ♦APRIL 12.♦ it towards Biar; and on the morrow the commandant
surrendered at the first summons, and he and his battalion were made
prisoners of war.
In the afternoon, Suchet advanced in force towards Biar; which village
is situated at the entrance of a strong pass, in a range of hills
running nearly parallel with the position of the allies. About four
o’clock he commenced a serious attack upon Colonel Adam’s detachment.
That officer’s orders were to fall back upon Castalla, but to dispute
the pass; and this he did for five hours against a very superior force,
with the utmost gallantry and skill; till being overpowered by numbers,
and having both flanks turned, he retreated then to the pass, and took
the place which had been allotted to him in the position, on the high
ground to the left of Castalla, having in this unequal conflict both
inflicted and sustained very considerable loss. Two mountain guns fell
into the enemy’s hands; they could not be brought off, because they
were disabled; Colonel Adam therefore directed Captain Arabin to fight
them to the last, and then abandon them. Before day closed, the French
were seen in great force on the road to Biar, and on the hills opposite
the position; but darkness prevented any farther operations for ♦BATTLE
OF CASTALLA. APRIL 13.♦ the night. At daybreak they were perceived
in great numbers along the defile of Biar, and in the plain ground
which separates it from the hills near Castalla; and in the course of
the morning they posted several large masses of infantry, as if in
preparation for a decided attack. Their success against Elio’s corps
had increased their confidence; and they had accustomed themselves to
speak of this army as composed of the rabble of the allied nations, and
to talk of driving them into the sea.
About one, they pushed forward a large column of cavalry to the village
of Onil, about two miles in front of Castalla, and this movement was
continued parallel to the front of the allies, until nearly opposite
the right of the position. Sir John Murray had foreseen this: the
ground was unfavourable for cavalry, and no notice was taken of the
movement. Three masses of infantry at the same time moved rapidly from
their right, crossed the plain ground in front of the pass, and with
a gallantry, which, in the words of the British general, entitled
them to the highest praise, commenced an attack on the centre and the
left. The left had been weakened; for about an hour before the attack,
General Whittingham had been ordered, with the three regiments which
he had in position there, to make a reconnoissance upon the enemy’s
right flank; but this was the key of the position; and the consequence
of thus weakening it might have been disastrous if Colonel D. Julian
Romero had not opportunely arrived there with two regiments from
Alcoy. Upon this point, from whence more than half its force had been
withdrawn, the main attack was made; and notwithstanding the difficult
approach to it, the assailants gained ground. The Spaniards, who had
expended all their cartridges, were observed to be retiring, and the
enemy moving in considerable force to the left of our centre. The
moment was critical. Just as the assailants had gained the summit,
Colonel Adam, whom they were proceeding to attack in front, prevented
them, and giving them no time to recover breath after the exertion of
such an ascent, charged and overthrew their column, killing, wounding,
or taking prisoner, during the pursuit, almost every man opposed to
his brigade. The Spaniards resumed their ground. Whittingham too had
no sooner apprehended the intention of the enemy, than he returned
with all speed, and arrived in time to take part in the action, in
which, and in the pursuit, the Spaniards distinguished themselves.
The total failure of the enemy here seemed to be felt along their
whole line of attack; they retreated every where. The cavalry, which
had now advanced toward the front of the allies, fell rapidly back on
perceiving this unexpected reverse, and entered the defile in such
confusion, that had the advantage been vigorously pursued, a signal
victory might, in all likelihood, have been obtained. Suchet, having
united his broken battalions with those which he kept in reserve, took
up a hasty position at the entrance of the defile. Sir John Murray,
still retaining the height, moved a considerable part of his army into
the plain, and formed it in front of the enemy, within cannon-shot, his
right flank covered with the cavalry, his left resting on the hills. In
this state, Marshal Suchet thought that the English did not choose to
make an attack, and Sir John Murray, that the French did not choose to
wait for one; ... for the line of the allies was scarcely formed when
the enemy began their retreat, and continued it through the night, the
action terminating at dusk with a distant cannonade.
The French had 18,000 infantry in the field, and 1600 cavalry: the
allies were not much inferior in infantry; but greatly so in horse. The
loss of the allies was 670 killed, wounded, and missing, the greater
number of the killed being Spaniards: 800 of the enemy were left dead
in front of the line which they had attacked: no prisoners were taken
except such as were wounded; but Suchet sent 2000 of Elio’s soldiers
prisoners to Tortosa on their way to France, and represented that his
success on the one part of the operations balanced his failure on the
other. If this had been the case numerically, which it was not, it was
far otherwise in reputation. He had suffered a mortifying defeat; but
what must most have tended to console him for it was, his satisfaction
at perceiving that there was no intention on the part of the allies
to pursue their victory. He retreated that night to Villena through
Biar, where he left many dead and dying. Sir John, on the following
day, marched his army in two columns to Alcoy, hoping (though with
little confidence in that hope) that he might force the strong pass of
Albayda, and reach the intrenched position of the enemy at S. Felippe
before they could; this he thought better than a direct pursuit,
because the road which the French had taken was favourable for cavalry,
and he was greatly inferior in that arm. In the vicinity of Alcoy he
remained till the 17th, and then advanced with the whole army into the
open country, to the foot of the Albayda pass, about a league in front
of Alcoy. But this being a lateral movement, made after the enemy had
so far the start as to have passed all that was perilous for him, and
got into a strong country, with his forces collected and restored to
order, was an unimportant demonstration which had no effect; and he
returned after it to his position at Castalla.
Marshal Suchet had not been more successful in machinations of another
kind. Before the battle of Castalla, an Italian regiment in the
Anglo-Sicilian army had been corrupted, and would have betrayed its
post in an attack concerted with that view, if a timely discovery had
not been made. A scheme also had been formed for delivering Alicante
into his hands; but this also was detected, and three of his emissaries
suffered death for it at Alcoy. Frey Assensio Nebot, known as a
Guerrilla chief, by the name of _El Frayle_, the Friar, had more than
any other partizan annoyed the French in Valencia. His party was well
organized, and provided with a regularity which was seldom to be found
in the regular Spanish armies: so rigorous were the measures employed
against him, that women were put to death for supplying him with means
and intelligence; and at length it was affirmed, that three criminals
who had been condemned to capital punishment obtained their lives, and
the promise of a good reward, on condition of presenting themselves
to the Friar as volunteers, and taking an opportunity to assassinate
him. Mr. Tupper, who had been the British consul at Valencia, and whose
zealous services were never wanting to the common cause, obtained
information of this villany, and the Friar was thus put upon his guard.
♦LORD WELLINGTON OPENS THE CAMPAIGN.♦
Lord Wellington was now prepared to open the campaign, and, for the
first time, with such means as enabled him to act in full confidence
of success. If the Anglo-Sicilian army should not achieve any signal
service, he was yet assured that it would give sufficient employment to
Suchet, so that the Intruder could look for no support from that side.
The British force under his command consisted of 48,000 effective men;
the Portugueze of about 28,000; the Galician of 18,000. The enemy were
not inferior in number, and could more surely rely upon the whole of
♦MAY.♦ their troops; but the change in their Emperor’s fortune and in
their own had been such, that they looked only to a defensive campaign,
and trusted to their strong position on the Douro. In the middle of
May Lord Wellington put his troops in motion. The cavalry which had
wintered in the neighbourhood of Coimbra began their movement at the
end of April: they went by the way of Porto to Braga, where they rested
some days, and proceeding to Braganza, reached that place, which was
the point of union for the left of the army, on the 22d of May. The
left of the army under Sir Thomas Graham crossed the Douro in Portugal,
between Lamego and the frontier. The siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in the
preceding year could not have been undertaken unless that river had
been rendered navigable far above the point to which the Portugueze
barks formerly ascended: it had now been opened as high as to the
mouth of the Agueda; and boats had been quietly collected at different
points, without exciting any suspicion that they were ♦THE LEFT OF THE
ARMY CROSSES THE DOURO.♦ designed for the passage of the troops. Five
divisions of infantry and two brigades of cavalry were thus placed upon
the right bank of the Douro, while the enemy supposed that they had
only to guard against an attempt from the left. The difficulties of
the march were indeed very great; most of the roads are so narrow that
carriages could barely pass between the thick walls which bounded them;
and the mountain streams had their course in ravines, from whence the
ascent is so laborious that sixty men could not without great exertion
enable the horses to drag the artillery up. Nevertheless, hope and
ardour overcame all difficulties; and the advantage which the troops
derived from being provided with shelter was sensibly felt: out of a
division of 6000 men, there were but 120 sick after a march of 250
miles, through such a country. When these were far on their way, Lord
Wellington, with two divisions of British infantry, a Portugueze one
under the Conde de Amarante, a Spanish one under Morillo, and some
corps of cavalry, advanced from Ciudad Rodrigo by the direct road to
Salamanca; the remainder of the army under Sir Rowland Hill moved upon
the same point by Alba de Tormes.
The line of their retreat in November was still too evidently marked
by the skeletons of the poor animals who had been worked to death in
that cruel service. A division of infantry under General Villatte had
been left in Salamanca, with some artillery, and three squadrons of
horse. They evacuated the city upon the approach of the allies, but
they lingered too long upon ♦MAY 26. AFFAIR NEAR SALAMANCA.♦ the
high ground in its vicinity. When Lord Wellington was within half a
league of Salamanca, he and his staff got upon a rocky height which
commanded a full view of the city and adjacent country. Below him were
his own videttes, and beyond them those of the enemy, each supported
by piquets. To the right were the Arapiles, a name known only in
topography before, but which had now a place in military history; and
in the same direction, but more behind him, the heads of two columns,
forming Sir Rowland’s division, were seen on two nearly parallel roads.
Through a glass, the enemy were observed drawn up; two battalions and a
squadron to the right of the city, near a ruined convent; two squadrons
on the Tormes, near the bridge; half a squadron guarding the ford,
about a mile above the city, near S. Martha; ... and behind the city a
battalion in reserve. Villatte having barricadoed the bridge and the
principal communications throughout the town, seemed to have thought
himself sure of an easy retreat. The 1st German hussars, favoured by
ground which concealed them from the enemy, inclined toward the ford,
while the 14th light dragoons, keeping beyond the reach of fire, edged
along the left bank of the river. The enemy appeared in some confusion,
but remained stationary, as if waiting for something; and beyond the
city, in the direction of Miranda de Duero and Zamora, their piquets
were withdrawing, and mules and baggage joining them from all sides.
It was now nearly ten in the forenoon, and the day very hot. The head
of Sir Rowland’s right column, which consisted of cavalry, and a troop
of horse artillery, under General Fane, were within two miles of S.
Martha, marching for the ford: the enemy now began to move, first in
the direction of Toro, but presently, as if wavering, bending to their
right, they kept close to the Tormes, in the direction of Arevalo; and
retired rapidly, but in good order, when Fane with his six squadrons
had crossed the river. It was well for them that this cavalry was
already jaded by a long march; but the horse artillery, as soon as,
owing to the ravines and the intricacies of the ground, it could be
brought into use, opened upon them with great effect, every shot going
through their crowded ranks. They retired with extreme rapidity, but
in excellent order, and the artillery pursued as quickly as a very deep
country, occasionally intersected with hollow roads, would allow. When
the enemy came to Aldea Lengua, there was an opportunity of attacking
them with every probability of forcing them to lay down their arms; but
strict orders had been given not to pass a ravine just by that village;
and the moment (never to be regained in war) went by. When orders came
to proceed, it was just too late; the pursuit however was continued,
and some three miles beyond the village a charge was attempted by two
squadrons, but feebly, for the horses were now far spent; the enemy
formed into squares, and repulsed them by a volley, though with little
loss. The pursuit was continued about three miles farther. Some of the
French were taken, being unable to march farther from fatigue; and
many threw away their knapsacks, and sacks full of biscuit, and of
corn, but no troops under such circumstances could have behaved better;
... and some proofs were given of what better deserves to be called
ferocious intrepidity than courage. One of their men who was severely
wounded attempted to destroy himself; and another obstinately refusing
to surrender when it was not possible for him to escape, compelled
those who would fain have saved his life to cut him down. The affair
ended in front of Aldea Rubia; a corps of infantry and cavalry retiring
from Alba, when threatened by Major-General Long and by Morillo’s
division, joined the enemy here; and Lord Wellington, as his infantry
had not come up, recalled the troops from the pursuit. Above fourscore
of the French lay dead on the road, and many fell among the standing
corn: some 200 were made prisoners; and some baggage, ammunition, and
provisions, with Villatte’s coach, were taken.
♦PASSAGE OF THE EZLA.♦
During the two following days, Lord Wellington established the troops
which had marched from the Agueda and Extremadura Alta between the
Tormes and the Lower Douro. On the 29th he left Salamanca, and reached
Miranda de Duero. The enemy had destroyed all the bridges upon the
river except that at Zamora. Opposite Miranda there is a ferry, where
this deep and rapid stream is from 80 to 100 yards wide, and the rocks
on either side from 400 to 500 feet high. When it is so swoln that the
ferry is impracticable, the only way by which travellers can cross is
after the old Peruvian manner, in a sort of hammock or cradle, fastened
to a rope, which is secured upon two projecting points of rock, about
thirty feet above the ordinary level of the ♦FLOREZ ESP. SAGRADA, T.
16, P. 3.♦ water. Here Lord Wellington crossed, and on the following
day joined Sir Thomas Graham’s corps at Carvajales on the Ezla. This
river, which upon good grounds is believed to have been the Astura
of the ancients, and in Leon is called the Rio Grande, descends from
the Puertos de Asturias, passes by Mansilla to Benevente, near which
town it receives the Cea from the east, and the larger river Orbigo
from the west, and enters the Douro below Zamora. At daybreak on
the 31st the troops began to ford: the enemy so little apprehended
danger on that side, that they had only a piquet there, and thus no
opposition was offered to a very difficult and perilous passage. The
ford was intricate; the water nearly chin deep; the bottom rough and
stony; and the stones large and loose. The hussar brigade began the
passage, entering in a body; and as it was supposed that a village on
the opposite hill was occupied by the enemy, and as it was necessary
that some infantry should cross to support the advance of the hussars,
each dragoon had a soldier holding by his stirrup. But this impeded
the horses: alarmed both by, the stream and the unsafe footing, they
became unmanageable and plunged forward: the men, who before could
scarcely keep their feet against the force and weight of the stream,
lost at once their footing and their hold; they were plunged into the
water, their knapsacks overweighed them and kept them on their backs,
and in this manner they struggled at the mercy of the current. There
were, fortunately, three or four small islands just at this part;
and by these most of the officers and men were stopped, but several
valuable lives were lost. The hussars exerted themselves with exemplary
humanity to assist the infantry, and one of their corporals lost his
own life in the performance of this generous duty. In this way the 51st
and the Brunswick Oel’s corps, as well as the cavalry, passed. Their
orders were to ascend the hill and take the village: the enemy’s piquet
were made prisoners. A pontoon bridge was then thrown across, and the
remainder of the corps passed over.
♦JUNE.♦
The French seem now for the first time to have comprehended Lord
Wellington’s plan, and found themselves out-manœuvred by an enemy to
whom they had hitherto allowed no credit for any thing except courage,
and that only because they had been so often beaten by them that it
was no longer for their own credit to deny it. No sooner were they
menaced by the advance of the columns than they destroyed the bridge
at Zamora, and retired from that city and from Toro. Both cities
were entered by the allies; and at daybreak on the first of June the
hussar brigade under Colonel Grant came up near Toro with the enemy’s
rear-guard, who retired rapidly to the village of Morales, in the
direction of Tordesillas. After having been cannonaded by two guns,
which were all that could be brought up in time through the deep sandy
roads, the French formed behind the village. The hussars passed on
both sides of the village, and instantly charged them; upon which they
made off with all speed for a little bridge across a marshy bottom,
faced about there, being supported by some guns belonging to their
infantry, and stood a charge. They were worsted in it, but passed the
bridge; part of the 10th hussars pursued, and Captain Lloyd advancing
with great spirit, but few followers, was taken: they were again
pressed, and retired hastily on the infantry, losing more than 200
prisoners in these affairs, and so many in killed and wounded, that
the 16th regiment of dragoons was almost destroyed. Captain Lloyd was
ill-treated by his captors; they beat him and rifled him, but left
him in their retreat. Though the fighting was almost in the street of
Morales, the Spaniards were now so accustomed to sights of war, that
within ten minutes after the firing had ceased the women were spinning
at their doors, and the little children at play as if nothing had
happened.
♦SIR ROWLAND HILL CROSSES THE DOURO.
JUNE 3.♦
Lord Wellington halted at Toro, that the light division and the troops
under Sir Rowland might cross the Douro by the bridge there, that his
rear-guard might come up, and that the Galician army should unite
itself with his left. The whole of the allied force was now on the
right side of the Douro: leaving then half the reserve-ammunition
near Zamora to spare the horses (which were already suffering), he
proceeded: the French, whose force was distributed between Valladolid,
Tordesillas, and Medina, retiring as he advanced, their rear crossing
at the Puente de Duero, on the same day that the allies accomplished
their first object in the campaign, by uniting on the right side of
that river. The enemy now concentrated their force behind the Pisuerga:
there also there was strong ground for defence; but abandoning that
also when Lord Wellington manœuvred on their right, they withdrew
behind the Carrion. The Intruder quitted Palencia on the 6th, and the
greater part of his troops early on the following morning, after a
night passed in the fear of close pursuit. When Lord Wellington entered
that city, flowers were thrown upon him from the windows, and a shower
of roses from the upper gratings of a nunnery. The enemy had not left a
morsel of bread, nor a drop of wine in that city: and when they hastily
retired from a bivouac near Tordesillas, leaving it to be occupied by a
part of Sir Rowland’s corps, the fuel which the troops found collected
there consisted of doors, window-frames, tables, and drawers, from the
houses in the neighbourhood.
From the Ezla to Palencia the troops had marched through one continued
track of corn, where villages were so thinly scattered, that it
seemed unaccountable where the cultivators were to be found. The land
was generally in wheat, with a fair proportion of barley, and here
and there a crop of vetches and clover. They moved generally by two
roads, and on each side of each at least twenty yards were trampled
down. The horses were fed on green barley nearly the whole march. The
intention of the British Government was to pay the inhabitants for
whatever the army must of necessity take from them; and on the part
of the Government, the full payment was in fact made: but little of
that payment reached the poor people to whom it was due. For want of
specie, the commissaries could pay upon the spot only in bills; to the
peasantry these were worth no more than what the land-sharks who follow
in the wake of an army chose to offer for them; and in this iniquitous
manner large fortunes were amassed, ... a species of roguery which many
of the Portugueze (though as a people the Portugueze are eminent for
probity) were not slow in learning.
♦THE FRENCH ABANDON BURGOS.♦
The army crossed the Carrion on the 7th, following an enemy who seemed
undetermined where to make a stand. On the 12th, Lord Wellington found
it necessary after such rapid movements to halt his left, while the
right under Sir Rowland advanced to reconnoitre the strength of the
French, and the position which they had taken up near Burgos, where
great pains had been taken to strengthen the fortifications of the
castle. They were posted in considerable force on the heights to
the left of the Hormaza, with their right above the village of that
name, and their left in front of Estapar. Part of the allied force
flanked them on their right, another marched against the heights of
Hormaza, the remainder threatened those of Estapar; without waiting
to be attacked they were dislodged, and retreated hastily for Burgos,
suffering considerable loss from the horse artillery, and losing a gun
and some prisoners, but retreating in the best order. More presence of
mind indeed was shown by them hitherto in presence of the enemy, and
in action, than in their counsels. They posted themselves on the left
of the Arlanzon and of the Urbel, which were then greatly swoln with
rains: but in the night they retreated into the city, and hurrying from
it, blew up the castle early in the morning, about an hour after the
Intruder had left it. They seemed to have been aware that there was no
longer any hope of recovering their ascendancy, and to have intended to
bring upon the city a destruction which should prevent the inhabitants
from rejoicing in their deliverance. But the hurry, and fear, and
confusion, with which their preparations were made defeated this
malignant purpose. Several mines failed; some which were primed did not
explode; others were so ill managed that they blew the earth inwards:
and as the explosion took place some hours sooner than was intended,
the destruction which was intended for their enemies fell in part upon
themselves. Many of their men who were lingering to plunder perished as
they were loading their horses with booty in the streets and squares,
and three or four hundred were blown up in the fort. Above 1000 shells
had been placed in the mines: the explosion was distinctly heard at the
distance of fifty miles; and the pavement of the cathedral was covered
with the dust into which its windows had been shivered by the shock.
The town escaped destruction owing to the failure of so many of the
mines, but the castle was totally destroyed, ... gates, beams, masses
of masonry, guns, carriages, and arms lying in one heap of ruins; ...
some of the mines had laid open the breaches, and exposed the remains
of those who had fallen during the siege.
♦THE EBRO.♦
The object of the enemy now was to occupy a position behind the Ebro,
blocking up the great road by placing a garrison in the castle of
Pancorbo, and calling to their assistance the corps from Biscay,
Navarre, and Aragon. But Lord Wellington, repeating the manœuvre which
had before so perfectly succeeded, had already sent his left column to
effect its passage in a quarter from whence they apprehended no danger.
The Ebro rises in the mountains of Santillana, its principal source
being at the northern extremity of Old Castille, towards the Asturian
frontier, near a town which from that cause is called Fontibre. The
Sierra de Oca prevents it from trending westward, like the other
great rivers of Spain; and at Miranda de Ebro, the point at which the
Intruder had instructed the different divisions of his army to make
for with all speed, it appears nearly as large a stream as at Tortosa,
though in the course of the intervening sixty leagues it receives many
and large rivers, one of them the Aragon, of such magnitude, that it
is called the husband (_el varou_) of the Ebro. While the remainder
of the army were pushing the enemy back ♦PASSAGE OF THE EBRO BY THE
ALLIES.♦ upon Burgos, the left column had been detached to effect its
passage above Frias by the bridges of S. Martin and Rocamunde: the
road thither had been deemed impracticable for carriages, and on that
supposed impracticability the enemy relied; but the confidence of the
British General was partaken by his army, and well seconded by them in
all ways; exertions which nothing but zeal and eager hope could have
accomplished were made; and the artillery was lowered down the steep
banks of the river where there were none to offer any resistance. The
French had calculated not without reason on the line of the Ebro, if
they had had foresight or been allowed leisure to occupy it. The road
begins to descend the mountains about three miles from the right bank,
and for more than half that way winds down a continued defile, which
admits only eight or ten men abreast, and being withal tremendously
steep, is so paved that horses can scarcely keep their feet there.
Another such defile, and of greater length, is to be passed on the
opposite side. A few ditches cut across the route, a few trees placed
as barricadoes, a rock blown up to block the pass, a hundred or two
of men to defend it, and to roll stones from the crags and precipices
above, might have stopped any force that attempted the passage. The
left column crossed on the 14th, the remainder of the army on the 15th,
at the same points and by the Puente de Arenas, and on the following
day they moved to the right, in the direction of Vittoria.
♦THE FRENCH FALL BACK UPON VITTORIA.♦
They knew at this time little of the enemy, not even who commanded
their united force, whether Marshal Jourdan or General Gazan, the
Intruder’s command being of course merely nominal; it was thought
that their intention was to have given battle upon the main road,
near Briviesca; but this alone was certain, that their plans had
been disconcerted by Lord Wellington’s movements and sudden advance,
and that they were in that state of irresolution which prepares even
the best soldiers for defeat. On the 16th and 17th they assembled a
considerable force near Espejo, composed of troops which had been
employed against Longa and Mina, and of others detached from the main
body of their army. They had also a division of infantry, with some
cavalry, at Frias, to observe the movements of the allies after the
passage of the Ebro. These detachments, in all about 16,000 men, moved
on the 18th, those from Frias upon S. Millan, and those from Espejo
upon Osma. The light division, under Major-General Alten, drove them
from S. Millan, and cut off the brigade of their rear-guard, of whom
it killed and wounded many, took 300 prisoners, with a considerable
quantity of baggage, and dispersed the rest among the mountains, ...
from thence to be brought in by the peasants and the guerrillas. Sir
Thomas Graham arrived at Osma at the same time with the enemy’s corps;
they were considerably superior in numbers, nevertheless they retired
as soon as an intention was shown of attacking them: presently they
returned briskly, as if to become assailants in their turn, but their
reception was not such as to encourage them, and they once more retired
towards Espejo, and being followed thither, withdrew to the heights.
The enemy’s head-quarters were that day at Pancorvo. During the night
they moved from thence towards Vittoria; and on the following day their
rear-guard was found strongly posted, having its right covered by the
village of Subijana, and its left upon the heights in front of ♦JUNE
19.♦ Pobes. The light division attacked them in flank on the right, Sir
Lowry Cole with the 4th in front, and they were driven back upon their
main force, of which a view was then obtained, but no correct judgment
could be formed of its numbers, because they were in part concealed by
the mountains, and a thick rain was falling during the whole day. On
that night they took up a position in front of Vittoria.
♦VITTORIA.♦
This city, which is now the capital of the province of Alava, and
stands in a valley, bounded on one side by a part of the Pyrenees,
and on the other by a range of bold though inferior mountains, was
founded in 1181 by Sancho VII. of Navarre, a king distinguished by the
appellations of the Wise and the Valiant. There had been a village
called Gasteiz on the site; Sancho thinking it a good situation for a
fortress which might check the incursions of his Castillian neighbours
♦GARCHAY, L. 24, CAP. 13. PP. 187–8.♦ on that side, rebuilt, peopled
and fortified it, and gave his new town the name of Victoria, in
memorial of some now forgotten victory obtained in that vicinity over
them. Juan II. of Castille made it a city. It is now divided into the
old and new towns, the latter being the larger and better part of what
in peaceful times was a populous, industrious, and prosperous place,
containing more than a thousand houses, and twice that number in the
suburbs.
♦POSITION OF THE FRENCH ARMY.♦
In front of this city the enemy had taken their position, under the
nominal command of the Intruder, but actually commanded by Marshal
Jourdan, as the Major-General of the army. Their left rested upon
the heights which terminated at the Puebla de Arlanza; and they had
a reserve in rear of their left, at the village of Gomecha: their
centre extended along a range of strong heights on the left bank of
the Zadorra, its right resting on a circular hill that commands the
valley to which that river gives name; this hill they had covered with
infantry, flanked and defended with several brigades of guns; their
right was in advance of the river, above the village of Abechuco,
to defend the passage. This position, extending about eight miles,
covered the three great roads which from Bilbao, Logroño, and Madrid,
converge upon Vittoria; it crossed also the main road to Bayonne, upon
which immense convoys were seen, moving towards France with the last
harvest and the last gleanings of their plunder. The city was filled
with others awaiting their turn for departure. It is remarkable that,
within sight of this ground, the battle of Najara was fought, in which
Edward the Black Prince, acting as the ally of a bad man, defeated
the best troops of France under their most distinguished leader
Bertram du Guesclin, who was come in support of a worse. It is also
remarkable that the Prince of Brazil, before the battle of Vittoria was
fought, should have conferred the title of Duque da Victoria upon Lord
Wellington.
Lord Wellington halted his columns on the 20th, in order to close them
up, for since reaching the Ebro they had necessarily been extended,
because of the nature of the country: only the 6th division was left
at Medina de Pomal to cover the march of supplies from the rear.
That day he made a close reconnoissance of the enemy’s position in
every part, with the determination of attacking them on the following
morning, if they should continue there. There was little disparity
of numbers between the two armies, each having from 70 to 75,000
men. Lord Wellington instantly perceived that the position, though
in most respects well chosen, was too confined, that it showed an
inconsiderable front, and was liable to be taken in flank.
♦BATTLE OF VITTORIA.♦
At daybreak on the 21st of June the allied army was put in motion. The
right under Sir Rowland, consisting of the second British division, the
Conde de Amarante’s Portugueze division, and Morillo’s Spanish corps,
was to commence the action by attacking the heights of La Puebla,
upon which the enemy’s left rested. Sir Thomas Graham with the left,
composed of the 1st and 5th divisions, Generals Pack and Bradford’s
brigades of infantry, Generals Bock and Anson’s brigades of horse,
and Longa’s Spanish division, was directed to turn their right by a
wide movement, and, crossing the Zadorra, to cut off their retreat
by the road to Bayonne. As soon as either of these corps should be
in a situation to manœuvre on the other side the river, the centre,
consisting of the 3d, 4th, 7th, and light divisions, in two columns,
was to advance, and the whole then push forward on the city, and attack
it simultaneously in front and in flank, ... whereby the French would
be compelled either to abandon it and their precious convoys, or risk
a battle in the hope of preserving them. The Spaniards, under Morillo,
began the action, and attacked the heights with great gallantry; their
leader was wounded, but remained in the field; the enemy stood firm,
and made great efforts to retain their ground, perceiving when too
late, that they had neglected to occupy it in sufficient strength.
Strong reinforcements were sent from their centre to its support, so
that Sir Rowland found it necessary to detach thither, first, the 71st
regiment, and the light infantry battalions of Major-General Walker’s
brigade, and successively other troops; the contest was very severe,
and the loss considerable. Here the Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Cadogan was
mortally wounded, an officer, in Lord Wellington’s words, “of great
zeal and tried gallantry, who had acquired the respect and regard of
the whole profession, and of whom it might have been expected, that
if he had lived he would have rendered the most important services
to his country.” At length the enemy were driven at the point of the
bayonet from these heights; and under the cover which the possession of
this ground afforded, Sir Rowland crossed the Zadorra at La Puebla,
passed the difficult defile, two miles in length, which is formed by
the heights and the river, and then attacked and won the village of
Sabijana de Alva, which covered the left of the enemy’s lines. They
on their part made repeated attempts to regain this important point,
and with that hope drew from their centre a considerable force; again
and again they endeavoured to recover the village, but their efforts,
though bravely and perseveringly made, were unsuccessful.
The difficult nature of the country delayed the communication between
the different columns, and it was late before Lord Wellington knew that
the 3d and 7th divisions, under the Earl of Dalhousie, had arrived at
their appointed station. The 4th and the light divisions, however,
crossed the Zadorra immediately after Sir Rowland had gained possession
of Sabijana, the former at the bridge of Nanclares, the latter at the
Tres Puentes; almost at the same time the Earl of Dalhousie’s column
arrived at Mendonza, and the 3rd division, under Sir Thomas Picton,
charged and took the bridge higher up, and crossed and was followed by
the 7th. These bridges the enemy ought to have destroyed, but from the
beginning of the campaign a want of foresight had been manifested in
all their operations, though when in action their generals displayed
the habitual promptitude of experienced commanders. The four divisions
which had now crossed, and which formed the centre of the allied army,
were destined to attack the heights on which the right of the enemy’s
centre was placed, while Sir Rowland should move forward from Sabijana
to attack the left. The French had lined those heights with artillery,
which opened on the allies as soon as they attempted to advance from
the river, and with so destructive a fire that it became necessary for
them to halt and bring two brigades of guns to oppose it. Meantime the
contest was maintained at Sabijana with great obstinacy; the enemy
feeding their attacks from a wood, in which their troops were assembled
in great force. But when a brigade which Sir Rowland had detached along
a range of mountains to turn their flank appeared, and at the same time
Sir Thomas Picton approached their front, they gave over their attempts
to recover the village, and began to think rather of retreat than of a
successful resistance. And when Sir Thomas pushed on to take the large
circular hill in flank, while the fourth division moved simultaneously
upon the village in the centre, their whole force prepared to fall back
upon the town, retreating before the allies could close, but keeping
up a hot fire from their artillery. The third division first came in
contact with their columns, and by a gallant attack captured 28 of
their guns which they had not time to draw into the road. The other
divisions pressed them in front. At this moment both the winning and
the losing game were played with equal skill, “the allies advancing
by echellons of battalions, in two or three lines, according ♦COLONEL
JONES’S ACCOUNT, 2. 158.♦ to the nature of the ground; and the French
retiring before them in the most orderly manner, and taking advantage
of every favourable opportunity to make a stand.” And here it happened,
that General Colville’s brigade, which was on the left of the centre,
and most in advance, became, by an accident of the ground, separated
from its support; the enemy, who lost no opportunity in action,
attacked it with a far superior force, but the brigade stood firm,
though out of 1800 men it lost 550.
While the right and the centre, following up their success, were
pushing the enemy back upon Vittoria, the left was advancing upon
that town by the high road from Bilbao. Sir Thomas Graham with that
column had been moved on the preceding evening to Margina, and had
then so considerable a round to make, that it was ten o’clock before
he began to descend into the plain. General Giron with the Spanish
army had been detached to the left under a different view of the
state of affairs; but having been recalled and reached Orduña on
the yesterday, he marched from thence in the morning so as to be
in readiness to support Sir Thomas Graham, if his support should
be required. The enemy had a division of infantry and some cavalry
advanced upon the Bilbao road, resting their right on some strong
heights covering the village of Gamarra Mayor, and both that village
and Abechuco were strongly occupied as _têtes-du-pont_ to the bridges
over the Zadorra at those places. The heights were attacked both in
front and flank by Brigadier-General Pack’s Portugueze brigade, and
Longa’s Spanish division, supported by Major-General Anson’s brigade
of light dragoons, and the 5th division of infantry, all under the
command of Major-General Oswald; and they were carried, both Spaniards
and Portugueze behaving admirably. Longa then with little resistance
got possession of Gamarra Menor, and the larger village of the same
name was stormed and taken by Brigadier-General Robinson’s brigade of
the 5th division, which advanced under a heavy fire of artillery and
musketry without firing a shot: the enemy suffered severely there,
and lost three pieces of cannon. Sir Thomas Graham then proceeded to
attack the village of Abechuco with the 1st division; they formed a
strong battery against it, under cover of which Colonel Halkett’s
brigade advanced to the attack, supported by General Bradford’s
brigade of Portugueze infantry. Three guns and a howitzer were taken
on the bridge here, and the village was carried. While the contest at
Abechuco continued, the enemy seeing their communication with Bayonne
threatened, marched a strong body to their right in the hope of
recovering Gamarra Mayor: they were driven back in confusion; made a
second attempt, and were again repulsed, for Sir Thomas had loop-holed
the houses in front of the bridge, placed artillery to flank the
approach, and stationed several battalions concealed along the walls,
and their fire repelled the enemy upon a third advance. But the French
had two divisions of infantry in reserve upon the heights on the left
of the Zadorra; Sir Thomas, therefore, could not cross the river with
such a corps in front, till the troops which had moved upon the centre
and the left of the French should have driven them through Vittoria.
About six in the evening this was done, and the corps which held him
in check retreated then lest it should be taken in rear. The left then
crossed the Zadorra, took possession of the high road to Bayonne, and
forced the right as well as the left centre of the enemy back into
the Pamplona road; and now they were unable to hold any position long
enough for drawing off their artillery and baggage. In the expressive
language of an officer who bore his part in the victory, “they were
beaten before the town, and in the town, and through the town, and
out of the town, and behind the town, and all round about the town.”
Every where they had been attacked, every where beaten, and now every
where were put to utter rout. They themselves had in many actions
made greater slaughter of a Spanish army, but never in any instance
had they reduced an army, even of raw volunteers, to such a state of
total wreck. Stores, baggage, artillery, every thing was abandoned;
one gun and one howitzer only were they able to carry off, and the
gun was taken before it could reach Pamplona. 151 pieces of brass
ordnance on travelling carriages were taken; more than 400 caissons,
more than 14,000 round of ammunition, and nearly two millions of
musket-ball cartridges. The loss on the part of the allies consisted
of 501 British killed, 2808 wounded: 150 Portugueze and 89 Spaniards
killed, 899 and 466 wounded, ... the total loss not amounting to 5000.
The French acknowledged a loss of 8000, ... unquestionably it was
greater; not more than a thousand prisoners were taken; for so soon
as they found themselves irretrievably defeated, they ran, and never
did brave soldiers when beaten display more alacrity in flight. Having
abandoned all their ammunition waggons, they had not powder to blow up
the bridges; had this been done, the pursuit would have been greatly
impeded; attempts were made to break them up with pick-axes, and in
this they partly succeeded in several places. But the country was too
much intersected with ditches for cavalry to act with effect in a
pursuit; and infantry who moved in military order could not at their
utmost speed keep up with a route of fugitives. Yet, precipitate as
their flight was, they took great pains to bear off their wounded, and
dismounted a regiment of cavalry to carry them on. And they carefully
endeavoured to conceal their dead, stopping occasionally to collect
them and throw them into ditches, where they covered them with bushes.
Many such receptacles were found containing from ten to twenty bodies.
The Intruder, who now appears for the last time upon the stage of
his everlasting infamy, narrowly escaped. The tenth hussars entered
Vittoria at the moment that he was hastening out of it in his carriage.
Captain Wyndham with one squadron pursued, and fired into the carriage,
and Joseph had barely time to throw himself on his horse and gallop off
under the protection of an escort of dragoons. The carriage was taken,
and in it the most splendid of his trinkets, and the most precious
articles of his royal plunder. Marshal Jourdan’s staff was among the
trophies of the field; it was rather more than a foot long, and covered
with blue velvet, on which the imperial eagles were embroidered; and
it had been tipped with gold; but the first finder secured the gold
for himself. The case was of red morocco with silver clasps, and
with eagles on it, and at either end the Marshal’s name imprinted in
gold letters. Lord Wellington sent it to the Prince Regent, and was
gracefully presented in return with the staff of a Field-Marshal of
Great Britain. The spoils resembled those of an Oriental rather than
of an European army; for the Intruder, who in his miserable situation
had abandoned himself to every kind of sensuality, had with him all
his luxuries. His plunder, his wardrobe, his sideboard, his larder,
and his cellar, fell into the conqueror’s hands. The French officers,
who carried the pestilential manners of their nation wherever they
went, followed his example as far as their means allowed, and thus
the finest wines and the choicest delicacies were found in profusion.
The wives and mistresses of the officers had gathered together in one
house, where they were safe, and from whence they were sent in their
own carriages with a flag of truce to Pamplona. Poodles, parrots,
and monkeys, were among the prisoners. Seldom has such a scene of
confusion been witnessed as that which the roads leading from the field
of battle presented; ... broken down waggons stocked with claret and
champagne, others laden with eatables dressed and undressed, casks of
brandy, apparel of every kind, barrels of money, books, papers, sheep,
cattle, horses, and mules, abandoned in the flight. The baggage was
presently rifled, and the followers of the camp attired themselves in
the gala dresses of the flying enemy. Portugueze boys figured about
in the dress coats of French general officers; and they who happened
to draw a woman’s wardrobe in the lottery, converted silks, satins,
and embroidered muslins, into scarfs and sashes for their masquerade
triumph. Some of the more fortunate soldiers got possession of the
army chest, and loaded themselves with money: “Let them,” said Lord
Wellington, when he was informed of it; “they deserve all they can
find, were it ten times more.” The camp of every division was like a
fair; benches were laid from waggon to waggon, and there the soldiers
held an auction through the night, and disposed of such plunder as had
fallen to their share to any who would purchase it. Even dollars became
an article of sale, for they were too heavy to be carried in any great
numbers; eight were offered for a guinea, ... guineas which had been
struck for the payment of the troops in Portugal, and made current
there by a decree of the Regency, being the gold currency. The people
of Vittoria had their share in the spoils, and some of them indemnified
themselves thus for what they had suffered in their property by the
enemy’s exactions.
The city sustained no injury, though the French were driven through
it, and though great part of the battle might be seen from every
window. Nothing could be more mournful than its appearance that night,
... a lantern at every door, and no one in the streets. It was the
first place where the allies had found that the inhabitants were
French in feeling. Two days of heavy rain impeded the pursuit; but
that rain saved many houses from the flames, for the French wreaked
their vengeance upon every thing which they could destroy in their
flight. Every house at which the pursuers arrived had been gutted by
the fugitives, every village set on fire, and the few inhabitants who
had not taken flight in time had met with no mercy; at every step the
allies found havoc, and flames, and misery, the dying and the dead.
Such was the panic among the fugitives, that, finding the gates of
Pamplona closed, they attempted to force their way over the walls, and
did not desist till they were opposed by a serious fire of cannon and
musketry. A council of war was held there, in which it was resolved
to blow up the works and abandon the place; with this intent they
destroyed ammunition and tore down palisades from the outworks. But
the Intruder knew that the possession of so strong a fortress would in
some degree cover his flight; and the last act of his usurped authority
was to order that every article of food and fuel should be taken from
the Spaniards who were within reach. By the rigorous execution of this
order, the quantity in the town was more than doubled; and having left
a garrison there, the flying force continued their way to the Pyrenees.
Their rear was still in sight of Pamplona, when the right and centre of
the allies were checked in their pursuit by a fire from the walls.
♦SIR T. GRAHAM PROCEEDS AGAINST G. FOY.♦
Sir Thomas Graham with the left of the army was ordered to march by
Puerto S. Andrian upon Villa Franca, in the hope of intercepting
General Foy, who occupied Bilbao after the atrocities which he had
committed in Castro. The orders were not received till the 23rd, when
the weather and the ways in consequence were so bad, that only a small
part of the column could pass the mountain that day; and it was not
till the 24th that Sir Thomas, with Major-General Anson’s brigade of
light dragoons, the light battalions of the German legion, and two
Portugueze brigades could march from Segura, the rest of the troops
not having come up. The roads were so slippery with the rain, and in
many places so steep, that horses could scarcely keep their feet, or
the infantry make any progress. This allowed Foy time to withdraw
the troops from some of the military stations there, and with his
collected force he began his retreat into France. The allies came to
the junction of the roads from Bilbao and from Vittoria to Bayonne just
as the enemy’s rear had passed it. The French occupied in force some
strong ♦JUNE 24.♦ ground on the right of the Oria, in front of the
village of Olaverria, about a mile and a half from Villa Franca; they
were dislodged from thence, and allowed the pursuers to take possession
of the town, meaning to make their stand at Tolosa. During the night,
Longa’s corps joined Sir Thomas, and the advance of General Giron’s.
On the following morning the enemy evacuated Celequiz, and took up a
very strong position between that place and Tolosa, covering the road
to Pamplona. Longa was then directed to march by Alzo upon Lizara
in order to flank his left, while General Mendizabel was requested
to dispatch some battalions from Aspeytia to flank his right, which
rested upon a mountain with an inaccessible ravine in front. The French
were driven from the summit of a hill lying between the Pamplona and
Vittoria roads, on the right of the allies, by a very skilful attack of
Lieutenant-Colonel Williams, and the possession of this important point
enabled the assailants to act on the Pamplona road. In the course of
the afternoon the Spaniards arrived at their ♦THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM
TOLOSA.♦ destination, and between six and seven a general attack was
made, one column advancing upon the Vittoria road, another on the left;
General Bradford driving the enemy in on their front by the Pamplona
road, and Longa still more on the right from the side of the mountains,
turning, and forcing from very strong positions, all their posted
bodies on the right of the town. Still they held the town; and it was
found much more capable of defence than had been represented; this
was generally the case with their fortified posts, so prone were the
Spaniards to report things always according to their hopes; the walls
had been loop-holed, and new towers erected to flank it. The Vittoria
gate was barricadoed and the Pamplona one on the bridge; both were
flanked by convents and other large buildings which the enemy occupied;
the place was nowhere open, and a strong wood block-house had been
constructed in the Plaza, of so much importance had it been deemed. A
nine-pounder was brought up close to the Vittoria gate, under cover
of the light battalions’ fire; the gate was burst open: at the same
time, the walls were attacked and gained under a considerable fire, and
about half an hour after night closed, the enemy forsook the place,
flying from every point, and the troops entered amidst the _vivas_ of
the inhabitants, who had fully expected to have been plundered that
night by the retreating enemy. The British officer who first entered
thought they were in some danger from their deliverers, considering
the mixed composition of the troops, and how likely it was that some
parties away from their regiments might take advantage of the darkness
and the confusion. He advised them therefore to shut their doors,
and, to the credit of the troops, it must be added, that no outrage
or excess was committed. Longa and the German legion passed on, and
formed immediately beyond the town. The loss of the allies on this and
the preceding day amounted to about 400. Sir Thomas Graham was struck
during the attack by a musket-ball; the hurt was not serious, and he
attempted to conceal it, but could not, and was obliged to dismount.
♦JUNE 26.♦
On the morrow one brigade was placed on the Pamplona road, and another
on the Bayonne, each about a league from Tolosa; a third occupied
Alegria, and Sir Thomas then halted two days to ascertain ♦FOY RETREATS
INTO FRANCE.♦ the advance of Lord Wellington on his right. Foy had
retreated to Anduain, where he destroyed the bridge; but he now knew
himself to be no longer safe within the Spanish territory, and lost
no time in making his way into France. A brigade of the Galician army
attacked his rear-guard on the Bidassoa at Irun, and drove them over
the bridge. They still maintained a strong stone block-house there,
which served as a head to the bridge, and some loop-holed houses on
the Spanish side of the river. General Giron sent for some Spanish
artillery to dislodge them; an ♦JUNE 30.♦ English brigade of nine
pounders was sent from Oyarzun to act with it; the French then found
it necessary to abandon their post, and they blew up the block-house
and burnt the bridge. In all these affairs no troops could have
behaved better than the Spanish; and General Giron, with a natural
and becoming feeling, had been very desirous that this last exploit
should fall to their part. The garrison at Passages, 150 in number,
♦PASSAGES IS SURRENDERED.♦ surrendered on the same day to Longa, and
on the following the garrison of Guetaria, being blockaded by land,
evacuated the town and fort, ♦CASTRO ABANDONED BY THE ENEMY.♦ and went
by sea to St. Sebastian. Castro de Urdiales, the scene of General Foy’s
atrocities, had been abandoned the day after the battle of Vittoria,
the British squadron having cut off the garrison from all supplies by
sea, and the Spaniards by land. A British vessel heaving opportunely in
sight, the commandant withdrew precipitately, without destroying his
artillery and powder, or injuring the castle. A few old women were the
only survivors in the town, and their tale of the barbarities which
the French and Italian troops had committed there is too dreadful for
recital; there is, however, a satisfaction in recording that fourteen
of the perpetrators were among the prisoners taken at Bilbao, and were
deservedly put to death. The garrison got by sea to Santona, that and
St. Sebastian being the only points which the enemy now occupied upon
that coast. The French had left 700 men in Pancorbo, a post commanding
a ravine through which the high road ♦PANCORBO TAKEN.♦ from Burgos
to Vittoria passes. The Andalusian army of reserve, under the Conde
de Abisbal, was on its way to join the main force. Lord Wellington
requested him to make himself master of the town and lower works, and
blockade, as closely as he could, the castle, which is situated on a
high rock. Abisbal assaulted and took the town and the fort of Santa
Marta on the 28th; and cutting off the garrison in the castle from the
spring which supplied them with water, compelled them to surrender two
days afterwards, when in all other respects they were well provided for
a regular defence.
♦CLAUSEL RETIRES TO ZARAGOZA.♦
General Clausel’s corps, consisting of part of the army of the north,
and one division of the army of Portugal, 14,000 in all, had been
recalled from its operations against Mina to join the collected force
of the Intruder. Coming in a direction which none of the fugitives had
taken, he approached Vittoria the day after the battle, and finding
that city in possession of Major-General Pakenham’s division, which
had just arrived there, and having no means of communicating with the
routed army, he retired immediately towards Logroño. There he halted,
hoping to obtain information whereby to direct his movements; and
Lord Wellington thinking there was some prospect of intercepting his
retreat, moved three divisions towards Tudela, and the 5th and 6th from
Vittoria and Salvatierra towards Logroño. Clausel, who was at this
time harassed by the indefatigable Mina, and by Don Julian Sanchez
with his regiment of cavalry, left Logroño on the 24th, taking with
him the garrison of that place, and marching on the left bank of the
Ebro, crossed it by the bridge at Lodosa, and reached Calahorra on the
following day. On the next he arrived at Tudela; but the Alcalde of
that city informed him that the allies were on the road to meet him,
upon which he marched toward Zaragoza, taking with him this garrison
also.
♦PREPARATIONS FOR THE SIEGE OF PAMPLONA.♦
Sir Rowland meantime following the main body of the defeated army
on their retreat over the Pyrenees, dislodged them from every point
which they attempted to hold, and obtained possession of the passes
of S. Esteban, Donna Maria, Maya, and Roncesvalles. It was now Lord
Wellington’s intention to besiege Pamplona: with this intent the heavy
guns and stores for the siege were brought from Santander to Deba, a
little town to the westward of S. Sebastian’s: there they were landed,
and cows and bullocks had been collected for transporting them to the
trenches: but the intelligence which Lord Wellington received from the
Anglo-Sicilian army rendered it necessary to give up this intention,
and every thing therefore was reshipped.
CHAPTER XLIV.
OPERATIONS OF THE ANGLO-SICILIAN ARMY. RECOVERY OF ZARAGOZA. SIEGE OF
ST. SEBASTIAN. BATTLES OF THE PYRENEES.
♦1813.♦
♦EXPEDITION FROM ALICANTE.♦
It was part of Lord Wellington’s plan that Marshal Suchet should be
engaged on the eastern coast by the Anglo-Sicilian army, and thus
prevented from sending assistance to the French in Aragon and on the
upper Ebro. His position upon the line of the Xucar was too strong to
be attacked in front by the force under Sir John Murray’s command,
or acting in concert with him; and a movement by Requeña and Utiel
upon their right flank, and by Tortosa and Lerida towards the rear,
seemed as hazardous as it would have been circuitous and difficult.
A naval expedition remained for consideration; and if a vigorous
attack were made either upon Tarragona or Rosas, Suchet’s attention
must necessarily be drawn thither, so that he could give no aid to
the armies in the north, and must leave the open part of the kingdom
of Valencia to the Spaniards. Tarragona was preferred as the point
of attack, and Sir ♦APRIL 14.♦ John was instructed to embark with
that view. If he should succeed in his attempt against that place, an
establishment would be secured on the coast north of the Ebro, so as
to open a communication with the Spanish army in Catalonia: but this
was a question of time and means, and if Suchet should be strong enough
in Catalonia to frustrate the attempt, Sir John was directed in that
case to return immediately, and land as far north in the kingdom of
Valencia as he could, ♦JUNE.♦ and there join with the right of the
Spanish armies, to assist them in profiting by the opportunity which
Suchet’s absence and the withdrawal of a considerable part of his force
from the Xucar might be expected to afford.
The expedition was to have been kept secret; but the preparations which
were made at Alicante for the embarkation of a considerable corps could
not be concealed, and Suchet was speedily informed of them. Already he
had apprehended, by a movement of the Spaniards from La Mancha upon
Cuenca, and of Villacampa from the frontiers of Aragon upon the upper
Guadalaviar, that it was intended by a combined operation to compel him
to evacuate Valencia; but as at that time Clausel’s activity relieved
him from any inquietude with regard to Mina, he was enabled to withdraw
a division from Aragon, and to place Pannetier’s brigade between
Tortosa and Valencia, that he might direct it upon whatever point
should be threatened, without leaving the line of the Xucar exposed.
♦COL DE BALAGUER TAKEN BY THE ANGLO-SICILIAN ARMY.♦
By the end of May the expedition, consisting of 700 cavalry, and 14,600
infantry, including Whittingham’s division of 5000, and above 4000
Italians, had embarked, and on the last day of that month the fleet,
commanded by Rear-Admiral Hallowell, sailed from Alicante. It was seen
from Valencia; and the French troops from the side of Tortosa were
instructed to be ready for moving whithersoever the debarkation might
call them. After a very favourable passage, the fleet anchored on the
evening of the 2nd in the port of Salon, within sight of Tarragona.
The soldiers who had been ordered to hold themselves in readiness to
land were put into the boats, but the surf ran so high that Admiral
Hallowell pronounced the attempt too dangerous, and therefore they
returned to the ships. But before the fleet came to anchor a brigade,
under Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost, was judiciously detached to get
possession of the fort at Col de Balaguer, that point commanding
the only road by which artillery could be brought to the relief of
Tarragona. General Copons, who had been apprized of the expedition,
occupied Reus at that time, and sent two battalions, at first, to
co-operate in the attack upon this fort, and afterwards two more in
consequence of some movements from Tortosa. The attack was vigorously
pressed. On the 5th the place was battered in breach; on the 7th a
magazine exploded; the garrison, consisting of 80 men, were intimidated
by this, and the commandant capitulated. On this side, therefore, no
succours could now reach Tarragona, which is about six leagues from Col
de Balaguer, except by a circuitous march of three days, through a very
difficult country: there was a pass indeed by which the place might be
approached, but it was not practicable for artillery.
♦THE EXPEDITION LANDS NEAR TARRAGONA.♦
Meantime the debarkation had been effected on the 3rd, in broad day,
and with an order, a precision, and a rapidity, peculiar to the English
in their naval operations. Having reconnoitred the fortress, Sir John
Murray determined upon ♦M. SUCHET’S MEM. 2, 311.♦ attacking it on the
western side, which was the weakest, and that on which stores might
most conveniently be brought up to the batteries. General Bertoletti,
who commanded in Tarragona, did not confine himself within the
walls; he occupied the Fuerte Real, and the ruins of the bastion of
St. Carlos, which, though, like all the external works, it had been
demolished, presented still an imposing appearance; and great exertions
were made for repairing it. These works were between 350 and 400 yards
from the body of the place, to the southward, and nearer the sea, the
approach being exceedingly difficult, and covered by the fire of the
town. But they were thought to be the key of the place, and that if
the besiegers could establish themselves there, Tarragona must fall
in three days. Accordingly two batteries were begun on the evening of
the 4th, and on the morning of the 6th they opened their fire with
good effect; another was erected during the night, and on the morning
of the 8th the commanding engineer reported that a practicable breach
in the Fuerte Real had been made; but he requested that it might not
be stormed, because its immediate possession could be turned to no
account, and to retain it would cost the lives of many men. The fire
therefore was continued only to prevent its re-establishment. Meantime,
when the weather would permit, the artillery and engineer horses, and
the cavalry and artillery stores, were landed, and the operations
of the engineers were so far advanced that two heavy batteries were
constructed to enfilade the place. The city was then summoned to
surrender; but as none of the batteries were as yet within 500 yards
of the place, and the fire of the besieged had been very superior to
that of the besiegers, General Bertoletti would not listen to the
summons. On the 11th, the commanding officer of engineers reported that
he was perfectly prepared to push the siege with vigour; and according
to Sir John Murray’s order, Major-General Sir William Clinton, who
had that day been left in temporary command of the siege, resolved to
storm the Fuerte Real at nine that night. Accordingly a disposition
for the assault was made, and arrangements for distracting the enemy’s
attention by a simultaneous show of attack along the whole of his
front, aided from the side of the sea by the bomb-vessels and gun-boats.
Marshal Suchet meantime, leaving General Harispe with the command
on the Xucar, had made for ♦SUCHET’S MOVEMENT FOR THE RELIEF OF
TARRAGONA.♦ Tortosa by forced marches with one division, his reserve,
and a brigade of cavalry: and before his arrival he had dispatched
orders for the garrison of that place to secure the Col de Balaguer;
but the fort there was taken before any attempt to succour it was made,
and he could therefore bring with him no artillery in his attempt to
raise the siege of Tarragona. He had directed also Generals Decaen and
Maurice Mathieu to march for the relief of the place. On the side of
Tortosa all due precautions had been taken, by getting possession of
the fort which absolutely commanded that singular pass. On the other
side, Sir John Murray had ordered General Whittingham to see if the
road could by any means be broken up or impeded, ... but in an open
country this was found impracticable in any part, except at a point
near the sea, and within two miles of Tarragona. When Whittingham was
at Torre de Embarra upon this investigation, Manso, who had 2000 men at
Vendrell, came there to inform him that Decaen, from Hostalric and the
country beyond it, would arrive that night at Barcelona, where there
would then be a force of 12,000 foot and 400 horse, disposable for the
relief of Tarragona. This information General Whittingham communicated
to Sir John Murray on the 9th, observing that the enemy might advance
to succour that place, in two columns, one by the road along the
coast, the other by the heights, upon the left of the besieging army;
the Spanish division, which formed the left, would thus be exposed in
flank to a superior force, and in a position that was commanded by the
heights, and had the fortified city in its rear: and he suggested to
Sir John that he should leave General Copons with the Catalan army to
cover the siege, while he, with the British troops and the Majorcan
division, marched immediately upon Villa Franca to attack Decaen; that
General would have advanced beyond Villa Franca; victory, considering
the number and the quality of the allied troops, would not be doubtful,
and it would decide the contest in Catalonia; and after driving him
from Molins de Rey, and destroying the stone bridge over the Llobregat,
by which bridge alone artillery could be brought across that river,
there would be time to return and encounter Marshal Suchet.
♦SIR JOHN MURRAY RAISES THE SIEGE.♦
To this suggestion Sir John paid no regard; but late in the evening
of the 11th, when every thing was ready for an immediate assault upon
the Fuerte Real, he received intelligence that Suchet was advancing
with 12,000 men from the side of Tortosa, and Decaen with 8000 from
Barcelona; upon which he determined immediately to raise the siege, and
with such haste as to abandon all the heavy artillery, ammunition, and
stores that had been landed. He thought it would have been an useless
waste of the lives of British soldiers to assault a work which, if
carried, must, in his opinion, have been abandoned the next day: he
placed no reliance upon the Spaniards under Copons, who had not more
than 8500 disposable men, and those without pay, discipline, artillery,
or means of subsisting, and whom he considered totally incapable of
acting in the field. He distrusted his own foreign troops, who worked
slowly at the siege, with great unwillingness, and with so little
steadiness, that it had required an additional party of 200 British
soldiers to carry to the batteries the ammunition which one of their
parties threw away when they came under fire. The French too, he
thought, had all advantages; they had fortresses in every direction to
furnish them supplies, to retire upon if they wished to avoid an action
till they could bring together more troops, or to cover them if they
were defeated; whereas he was in the open field, without any point
of support, or of retreat, except to the ships: and how serious an
operation would it be to embark an army in an open bay, and on a beach
where he had learned by experience that it was impossible to disembark
in any but the lightest boats! Three days at least would be required to
complete this re-embarkation. He decided, therefore, upon beginning it
without delay.
Admiral Hallowell strongly remonstrated against abandoning the
artillery, and engaged to bring off every thing, if Sir John would
only give him the night from the 12th to the 13th; but that commander
gave ear to less hopeful counsels, most unfortunately for himself. For
public opinion loudly condemned his conduct; it became the subject of
a court-martial; and though the sentence acquitted him upon all other
charges, it pronounced that he had committed an error of judgment in
abandoning his artillery, when it might have been brought off. The
embarkation was commenced at daybreak. At first some of the valuable
stores were sent off, but orders were given to abandon them. Great part
of the infantry were put on board during the day in full view of the
besieged, who crowded on the ramparts to behold what they were unable
to understand. Sir John himself embarked early in the evening; but it
was not till near midnight that the 1st division, under Sir William
Clinton, who was left in command of the troops on shore, moved to the
beach; and so completely were the enemy deceived as to its movements,
by the piquets of this division having been kept at their advanced
stations till darkness had closed, that not a man ventured without
the walls, and not a shot was fired during the night, except from the
ramparts, nor did any enemy show himself to molest the embarkation.
The cavalry of the Majorcan division were embarked on the morning of
the 13th, by means of a mole constructed for the purpose, about two
leagues from the town; but the other cavalry and a great part of the
field artillery were ordered by land to the Col de Balaguer, whither
Sir John Murray repaired in the Bristol early on the 13th, and where
the whole armament was directed to assemble.
♦SUCHET APPROACHES COL DE BALAGUER, AND RETIRES AGAIN.♦
While the allies were thus re-embarking with discreditable
precipitance, two other armies thought it necessary in consequence of
this movement to retreat also, in equal haste, ... General Copons from
the vicinity of Reus to the mountains, lest he should be exposed to a
combined attack from Decaen and the garrison of Tarragona; and Decaen
himself to Barcelona, apprehending that the allies had raised the siege
for the purpose of bringing him to action. On the evening of the 13th
an enemy’s detachment was seen advancing by the piquets in front of the
fort at Col de Balaguer, and judging that this might be the advance of
Suchet’s force, Sir John ordered part of the infantry to be re-landed
as it arrived from Tarragona, in order to cover the embarkation of
the cavalry and field-artillery, which had reached that point in the
course of the day. He was not mistaken in this judgment, ... Marshal
Suchet having found the way by the mountains impracticable, thought to
force his way by the Col, expecting to reduce the fort with as little
difficulty as the allies had done; and on the 14th he presented himself
there on the road from Tortosa with the main body of his army. He found
a battalion in position covering the fort; but, to his astonishment,
he also discovered the British fleet at anchor between the Col and
Hospitalet. His light troops and skirmishers extended themselves along
the hills, and approached within cannon-shot of the fort. But he found
it impossible to advance, so completely was the road on that side
commanded by the fort and by the judicious station taken by the ships
of war, which could anchor there close to the shore; and it was equally
impossible for an army to remain there many hours, there being no water
within many miles. He found it necessary, therefore, to retire the
same evening to the village of Perillo, not knowing what had occurred
at Tarragona, alarmed as well as surprised at what he had seen, and
holding himself prepared to follow the movements of the fleet.
♦JUNE 15. SIR JOHN RE-LANDS THE TROOPS.♦
On the following morning he made a second movement on Valdellos, as
if intending to attempt the mountain road. As soon as Sir John Murray
was informed of this he apprehended that it was Suchet’s intention to
turn the position which the allies occupied, and enter the plain of
Tarragona in their rear; upon which the farther embarkation of the
cavalry was suspended, and nearly the whole of the infantry were put
on shore. He also sent a strong division, and all the cavalry, under
Major-General Mackenzie, to observe the enemy’s motions, and attack
them if they should attempt to press farther forward. They remained
on the 16th nearly in the same position; but intelligence came that
a column was in march from the side of Tarragona, and as this would
have rendered General Mackenzie’s situation extremely critical, he was
ordered to retire to Hospitalet, and accordingly retreated thither in
the course of the night. Sir John now determined to take up a position
in the plain, between the high ground of the Col and the sea, and this
was done on the 17th. The left rested on the hills, which are almost
inaccessible on that side; the ground in front, though level, was
impracticable for cavalry, because it is intersected from the hills to
the sea with gullies and deep ravines caused by the winter rains. The
right extended to the shore, and was greatly protected by the gun-boats
and the fire of the shipping. In this strong position he had resolved
to wait the enemy’s attack, but in the forenoon it was ascertained
that they had retired on both sides, Suchet toward Tortosa, and Decaen
toward Barcelona, after throwing supplies into Tarragona. Sir John then
assembled a council of war, in which it was concluded that as nothing
farther in the way of offensive operations could be attempted by the
army in its then state, and as no advantage could be expected from
remaining where they were, and acting defensively, the most advisable
measure was to re-embark and return to Alicante, there to re-equip the
army.
♦LORD W. BENTINCK TAKES THE COMMAND.♦
In the afternoon of this busy day Lord William Bentinck, who had
long been looked for, arrived from Sicily to take the command. The
Mediterranean fleet, under Sir Edward Pellew, came with him, having
quitted its station off Toulon in the hope of assisting the operations
against Tarragona, either by its presence there, or by making a show of
landing at and attacking Rosas. Lord William on assuming the command
confirmed the opinion of the council of war, and ordered the troops to
be immediately re-embarked. The weather being such as to raise a high
surf, rendered this very difficult; nevertheless by great exertions on
the part of the navy, every thing was got on board by ♦FORT AT COL DE
BALAGUER DEMOLISHED.♦ the midnight of the 19th. At the same time the
fort at Col de Balaguer, having been dismantled and ruined, was blown
up; and on the ensuing day, Admiral Hallowell and the Anglo-Sicilian
army made sail for Alicante from their bootless expedition, and Sir
Edward Pellew returned with the Mediterranean fleet to his wonted
station.
The explosion of the fort announced to the French that the English had
abandoned all thought of any further operations in lower Catalonia, ...
much to Marshal Suchet’s relief, who while they remained there deemed
it necessary to observe their movements, and yet felt ♦UNSUCCESSFUL
MOVEMENTS OF THE SPANIARDS IN VALENCIA.♦ that he was wanted upon
the Xucar. General Elio’s army, joined by that which Ballasteros
had formerly commanded, but was now under the Duque del Parque, had
endeavoured to take advantage of his absence with so large a part of
his force. On the 11th they had attacked General Harispe’s rear-guard,
under General Mesclop, when on the road from S. Philippe to its
position on the Xucar, but were repulsed at the village of Rogla with
some loss, and Elio himself was for a little while in the enemy’s
hands, but he had the good fortune to escape without being recognized.
The French then pursued their march without farther molestation to the
bridge over the Xucar. On the 13th the Spaniards presented themselves
in force there, and while a cannonade was kept up on that side, the
Duque del Parque attacked Alcira by the two roads of Carcagente and of
Gandia. General Habert let their principal column approach the suburb,
then charged it at the moment when it began to deploy, threw it into
confusion, routed it with the loss of 400 killed and more than 600
prisoners; and this in time for repairing to support his left on the
Gandia road, and there also to defeat the assailants. Notwithstanding
this success, General Harispe was far from feeling secure in his
position. He informed Marshal Suchet that there were in his front not
less than 28,000 of the least bad Spanish infantry, and from 2000 to
3000 cavalry in a good state; this, he said, the prisoners agreed in
affirming, and the intelligence was not of a kind to make them feel
more secure than they ought to be. The departure of the expedition
from Balaguer Roads after the total failure of its object enabled
the Marshal to hasten back towards the Xucar, and he did this with
the more speed, because there was a report that its intention was to
intercept him on his way to Valencia, by landing either at Puerto
de los Alfaques, ♦THE FLEET SUFFERS ON ITS RETURN TO ALICANTE.♦ or
at Castellon de la Plana. But the fleet had no other object in view
than that of returning to Alicante, and in this it suffered much from
storms. Eighteen transports were driven on the Alfaques; the troops
were taken out, and fifteen of the vessels were got off, but the others
were lost.
♦SUCHET’S MEASURES AFTER THE BATTLE OF VITTORIA.♦
On landing at Alicante, Lord William received intelligence of the
battle of Vittoria. Suchet had apprehended no such tidings. Buonaparte
seems to have entertained till the last a blind persuasion that his
schemes of ambition in Spain and every where else must finally be
successful, and the instructions which he had sent to the Marshal
were that he should endeavour to gain time, and lose no ground, till
the affairs of the north should be finished, when, if it were then
necessary, dispositions would be made in favour of the armies in Spain.
The Marshal, however, knew that he must lose no time in retiring
from Valencia; that province therefore was delivered by the battle
of Vittoria, as Andalusia had been by the battle of Salamanca. He
thought to retain upon it a hold which would enable him at any time
to return by leaving a garrison of 1200 men in Murviedro, stored for
twelve months, the place having been materially strengthened during the
eighteen months which had elapsed since the French obtained possession
of it: 500 men were also left in Peñiscola, 120 in Denia, and as many
in Morella, that little fort commanding a mountain-road, by which a
corps of infantry without cannon could at any time re-enter Valencia
from Aragon. Looking forward therefore to the probable resumption of
their conquests, with the hopefulness which characterizes the French
character, and with the confidence which he might justly feel in his
own ability of improving all circumstances to the best advantage,
he commenced his retreat with the less reluctance because Clausel
apprized him that he had arrived at Zaragoza with 14,000 men, and would
establish himself ♦SUCHET’S MÉMOIRES, 2, 310–324.♦ upon the Gallego,
in readiness either to co-operate with the army of Aragon, or with the
Intruder, if the army on that side should resume the offensive.
♦LORD WELLINGTON UNDERTAKES THE SIEGE OF ST. SEBASTIAN.♦
A junction between Clausel and Suchet was what Lord Wellington
apprehended as soon as he heard that the expedition against Tarragona
had failed, and that consideration made him at once give up his
intention of laying siege to Pamplona. Unwelcome as the tidings
were, this change of purpose may have compensated for the failure,
... Pamplona ♦JULY.♦ being so much stronger than it was at that time
supposed to be by the allies, and the British army still so defective
in its engineer’s department, that the siege might probably have proved
unsuccessful. Resorting therefore to the surer method of blockading a
city, which there was reason to believe was not provided for a long
siege, he intrusted that service to the Spaniards, and ordered works
to be thrown up on every side, to prevent the escape of the garrison,
and to cut them off from all supplies; and he determined to besiege St.
Sebastian’s, where farther means of attack could be obtained by sea.
The service was intrusted to Sir Thomas Graham, with 10,000 men.
♦CLAUSEL RETREATS INTO FRANCE BY WAY OF JACA.♦
But the failure in Catalonia was soon compensated by the events which
took place in Aragon. Clausel, not waiting for Marshal Suchet’s
movements, nor to consult with him, left his artillery at Zaragoza, and
made for France by way of Jaca. The Spaniards supposed that his chief
motive was the desire of securing the riches which he had amassed.
Mina was marching upon the same point with a far inferior force, in
the hope of intercepting some of this booty, when he ♦DURAN INVITES
MINA TO ACT WITH HIM FOR THE DELIVERANCE OF ZARAGOZA.♦ received orders
which suspended his progress. Duran at the same time, as commandant in
Lower Aragon, was instructed to take such opportunity as might offer
for acting against the enemy in Zaragoza. This veteran, who was then at
Ricla, sent Colonel Tabuenca to inform Mina of Clausel’s retreat, and
to confer with him upon a plan of speedy operations for the recovery
of that capital, where there were no other troops remaining than a
not numerous garrison, and against which he should immediately move.
Tabuenca was then with his regiment at Borja; Mina was supposed to be
at Gallud: not finding him there, Tabuenca hastened to Pedrola; but
there he found D. Julian Sanchez, who directed him to look for Mina at
Alagon; and from Alagon Cruchaga directed him to Las Casetas, and there
at one in the morning Tabuenca arrived and found him. Upon delivering
his dispatches, he stated that General Duran had selected him to be the
bearer, because, being a native of Zaragoza, and having been present
during both sieges, he could give him the fullest local information,
upon which their combined operations might be concerted. Mina replied,
that their forces were not sufficient for such an enterprise. He had
approached the city, he said, upon an assurance that the enemy had
evacuated it; but an intercepted letter had just been brought him, in
which the governor, General Paris, ordered the garrisons on the left of
the Ebro to maintain their posts, because succours were on the way to
them from Marshal Suchet.
Tabuenca had not expected such a reply. He represented that the united
force of the two divisions amounted to from 10,000 to 12,000 infantry,
and 1500 horse; that the garrison did not at the utmost exceed 5000,
including invalids; that when with that number so wide a circuit was
to be covered, various false attacks might distract their attention,
and an entrance be effected where they least apprehended it: and that
when once the Spaniards should have set foot upon the walls, they might
count upon as many brave soldiers as there were men of Zaragoza. The
reinforcements which the governor looked for were, he said, far off,
and could not, if time were made good use of, arrive till they would be
useless. There was more reason to fear that Clausel might march back;
but even in that case they could maintain themselves in Zaragoza. Paris
could not defend the city, if he were vigorously assailed: and though
he might bring off the garrison by the bridge over the Ebro, the French
could not carry off their booty. Mina replied, that he had only three
regiments of infantry on the right of the Ebro, and cavalry was of
little use; but in the morning he expected information from the place,
and would then determine whether to remain or to retire. Tabuenca
observed, that the regiments on the left bank would not be useless if
they were made to approach, and that the cavalry might be dismounted;
and he requested him at least to bring down the regiments which he had
at Alagon and Pedrola, that the enemy’s attention might thus be drawn
toward Las Casetas, when Duran came with his division, as he would do,
to Maria or Cadrete. To this Mina consented.
♦JULY 8.♦
Early in the morning, Tabuenca’s regiment, which had followed him,
arrived at the Puente de la ♦AFFAIR BEFORE ZARAGOZA.♦ Claveria, where
he joined it, and proceeded on the right of the canal of Tauste toward
the Puente de la Muela, meaning to give the men some rest there, while
he went in search of Duran. They had scarcely been an hour upon the
way, when a fire of musketry was heard on the left toward Las Casetas,
and an orderly of Mina’s came in all haste to recall them, because the
enemy had attacked him. Tabuenca, confiding in his own knowledge of the
ground, represented to Mina, that instead of obeying this order, it
would be better that he should occupy the Puente de la Muela, whereby
he should divert the enemy’s attention, if, as might be expected,
more troops should issue out, and at the same time secure that point
in case Duran should make for it. Mina approved of this suggestion.
The alarm had been occasioned by a body of horse, some 150 in number,
who had been sent on an exploring party; they were charged by Mina’s
cavalry, and compelled to retreat with all speed; but other bodies
presently sallied to their support, and one of about 1000 foot and
100 horse made for the Puente de la Muela. Tabuenca, who had with him
about 1400 men, quickened his pace and anticipated them; and seeing
this they halted, hesitated, and then fell back. Their main force
advanced against Mina upon the road to Las Casetas; troops also came
to his support, and his men behaved with their wonted gallantry. The
enemy were superior both in horse and foot, and when the body which
had been disappointed in their intention of occupying the bridge of
La Muela joined them, the Navarrese could with difficulty keep their
ground; but Tabuenca hastening with part of his men, approached the
enemy on their left flank, under cover of some olive yards, and opened
upon them a fire as opportune as it was unexpected; taking advantage
of the movement which this occasioned among them, Mina charged with
such effect, that they retreated hastily till they were under the fire
of their works. Mina then encamped his troops between the Casetas and
the heights of La Bernardona, ... he had now with him 4000 foot and
1500 horse; and Tabuenca regarding this affair as a preliminary to the
recovery of Zaragoza, ordered his regiment to march immediately upon
the Casa Blanca and the Torrero, while he took the same course with
the detachment which had been engaged. These posts, which had been so
obstinately disputed in the former sieges, were abandoned by the French
at their approach; and the Spaniards entered them, rejoicing in their
success, and in being enabled to rest, after a march of four-and-twenty
hours, during which they had had no other refreshment than a hasty meal
at Grisen.
♦SECOND SALLY OF THE FRENCH.♦
Between four and five in the afternoon the French sallied a second
time and in greater force. They attacked Mina’s division, which was
supported by D. Julian Sanchez with his Castilian lancers; but while
thus engaged, Tabuenca, leaving just troops enough in the works which
he had taken to cover his retreat should that be necessary, attacked
the enemy on their left and in their rear, and the result was that they
were driven into the city, leaving some two hundred killed. Mina’s loss
in killed and wounded amounted in ♦DURAN ARRIVES BEFORE THE CITY.♦ the
course of the day to 115; Tabuenca’s to 28. Duran arrived after the
affair, just as evening was closing; that morning, as he was about to
march from Muel for Cadrete, he was informed that a French detachment
had gone from Zaragoza to bring off the garrison of Almunia which a
party of his troops were blockading; and he was preparing to intercept
them when a dispatch from Tabuenca made him hasten with all speed to
the more important scene of action. Early on the morrow, Mina and
Julian Sanchez came to confer with him in the Casa Blanca, and Duran
proposed that they should assault the city on the following night:
the wall, he said, might be escaladed at many points; the enemy’s
attention might be distracted by false attacks, and they were sure
of assistance from within. This veteran had frequently distinguished
himself by assaulting towns that were imperfectly fortified; Mina was
less accustomed to such service, and more disposed to watch for and
profit by any opportunity that might be offered him in the field: he
was of opinion that they ought to remain before the city and collect
thither the remainder of their forces; and in that opinion he persisted
when Duran on the following evening renewed the proposal: for he judged
rightly, that by a little delay success would be rendered more certain,
and obtained at less cost of life.
♦THE FRENCH WITHDRAW FROM ZARAGOZA.♦
D. Julian Sanchez removed with his lancers that evening to the
Casa Blanca. The enemy allowed no one to go out of the gates: they
had suffered too much in the two sallies of the preceding day to
venture upon a third; and their vigilance was such that eager as the
inhabitants were to communicate with those through whom they expected
now to obtain the deliverance for which they so long offered up their
prayers, they could convey no intelligence: neither, indeed, was it
easy for them to determine what were the intentions of the French; for
though they had their plunder packed up for removal and the carriages
laden with it, and though they mined the stone bridge over the Ebro,
they made at the same time other demonstrations, which were intended
to show that it was not their purpose to abandon the city. A little
before eight in the evening two guns were fired, which were the signal
for a general movement, ... coaches, carts, and sumpter beasts were
collected about the Puerta del Angel, and the troops began to file over
the stone bridge. This movement was succeeded by stillness, and just
before midnight the bridge was blown up. Duran was presently informed
by his outposts where the explosion had been, and that the French had
abandoned the city; immediately he sent D. Julian Sanchez and Tabuenca
to ascertain what damage had been done to the bridge, and whether
it were possible to pursue the enemy: he charged them also to give
immediate directions for rendering it passable, and not to enter the
city unless it should be absolutely necessary, nor suffer any soldier
to enter it, that there might be no opportunity for any of those
excesses which on such occasions were so likely to be committed; for
the same purpose he posted guards at all the gates. The _Ayuntamiento_
however deemed it best, that Sanchez should enter with his lancers, and
with a patrol of the citizens maintain order: the principal streets
were presently illuminated, the people waiting for no orders or
concert, but acting with one common feeling; and the Coso was crowded
to see the entrance of the deliverers.
Duran had lost no time in apprizing Mina of what had occurred, and
requesting to see him that they might arrange their joint entrance.
The _Ayuntamiento_, between one and two in the morning, came to the
Casa Blanca, bringing the keys to Duran, and informing him that the
enemy had left about 700 men in the Aljaferia, whose presence, they
added, could not prevent him from entering Zaragoza and giving the
inhabitants a day of jubilee. Duran replied, that he waited for General
Mina to enter with him; but Mina neither appeared, nor any messenger
from him, till about seven in the morning, when, passing by the Casa
Blanca, without alighting, or turning aside to the building in which
the _Ayuntamiento_ and Duran were awaiting him, he sent a chaplain
to inform the old general that he was going on to the Torrero. Not
a little surprised at this, they all went out in hope of speaking
with him, but it was too late; and when one of the _Ayuntamiento_ was
deputed to seek him at the Torrero, and let him know that they were
waiting for him, he was not found there. The forenoon was far advanced
before he, with some of his chief officers, approached the Puerta
Quemada, where Duran with his division and the _Ayuntamiento_ were
expecting them; his cavalry was at that time fording the Ebro; and
merely saying to Duran that he was about to pursue the enemy with them,
he rode away. Even noble minds are not always free from infirmity, and
this conduct was ascribed to a jealous desire of engrossing to himself
the glory of having delivered Zaragoza; for which reason he did not
choose to enter with Duran, who was an older camp marshal, and as such,
and also as commandant-general of Lower Aragon, must have entered at
the head of the troops. But if this unworthy feeling existed, there
were fairer motives that mingled with it; he thought it better that
his infantry should remain encamped than that they should be quartered
in the city; and the pursuit of General Paris was certainly an object
of no trifling importance. Two of Mina’s regiments thinking that they
were following Paris toward Leciñena, fell in with him unexpectedly,
and were attacked by him in the rear, and found it necessary to take
up a position, first upon a height near that place, and then near
the Ermita de Magallon. The French, whose business should then have
been rather to secure themselves by a rapid retreat, than to seek for
trivial advantages, lost some time in vainly endeavouring to dislodge
them. Giving up the attempt, at last they took the road to Alcubierre;
the Spaniards then pursued, harassed their rear, and compelled them to
abandon, at the foot of the mountain there, the greater part of the
coaches, _calesas_, and carts, laden with spoil which they had brought
from Zaragoza. Paris meantime accelerated his retreat, and effected
it, but not without losing the greater part of his convoy, all his
artillery, and considerable numbers in killed and wounded, and some
fifty prisoners, of whom about twenty were Spanish traitors. Mina
arrived with his cavalry after the spoil had been taken, and when it
was too late to continue the pursuit.
♦SUCHET DRAWS OFF THE REMAINING GARRISONS IN ARAGON.♦
Paris’s orders had been to make for Mequinenza if he were compelled to
leave Zaragoza; this he found impossible, and was glad to effect his
escape by Huesca and Jaca. Marshal Suchet, after leaving a garrison
of 4500 men in Tortosa, under Baron Robert, moved toward the frontier
of Aragon, with the double view of saving Paris, and of enabling a
detachment to rejoin him which he had sent to destroy the castles at
Teruel and Alcañiz, and bring off the garrisons. The detachment having
arrived at Caspe, Suchet pushed his columns to Fabera, and had now
his army on the right bank of the Ebro ... having its right at Caspe,
its centre at Gandessa, and its left at Tortosa. Here he received
intelligence that Paris was driven upon Jaca; that Clausel, who had
moved down from Jaca with a view of securing Zaragoza, finding it
too late, had again retreated, and retiring still further, had taken
a position with his corps upon the frontier of France, and that the
whole of Aragon was lost. Nothing remained for him but to draw off
the garrisons of Zuera, Gurrea, Anzanigo, Ayerbe, Huesca, Belchite,
Fuentes, Pina, Bujaraloz and Caspe, and to think only of combining his
operations with General Decaen for maintaining Catalonia. He crossed
the Ebro therefore at Mequinenza, Mora, and ♦JULY 15. SUCHET’S
MÉMOIRES, 2, 329–331.♦ Tortosa; and in passing between Hospitalet and
Cambrils, was cannonaded by the English fleet. To maintain the line of
the lower Ebro after the deliverance of Aragon was impossible; it was
equally so to feed his army in the sterile environs of Tortosa, where
he was also in danger of having the defiles in his rear occupied by the
enemy, who might come by sea, and interpose between him and the strong
places in Catalonia; he determined therefore upon moving on Reus,
Valls, and Tarragona.
♦DURAN ENTERS ZARAGOZA.
JULY 10.♦
Meantime Duran, manifesting no displeasure at the discourtesy which
had been shown towards him, made his entrance into Zaragoza. His first
business was to march through the rejoicing streets to the church of
Our Lady of the Pillar, and here offer up thanksgiving; his second
was to lay siege to the castle. The heavy artillery of his division
was sent for, and approaches regularly made; and the Zaragozans,
after having so often seen the Spaniards who had been made prisoners
in Aragon or Valencia, marched through their streets, had now the
satisfaction of seeing a French garrison brought prisoners thither in
their turn from La Almunia, where they had surrendered to a detachment
of the Sorian division. During the first days of the siege, Mina,
finding it in vain to pursue General Paris, returned, and took up his
quarters with his troops in the suburb; and this was supposed to be a
farther indication of jealousy towards Duran, because by remaining on
that side of the Ebro which appertained to his own district of Upper
Aragon, he was not under his command; it was deemed more strange that
he took no part whatever at this time in the operations of the siege,
but left it wholly to be carried on by the Sorian division; in fact,
he was daily expecting to be appointed to the command of the whole
province. Before that appointment arrived, intelligence came that
Suchet had advanced to Fabara and Caspe; upon which he crossed the
bridge, began his retreat to Las Casetas and to Alagon, and sent orders
to Tabuenca to follow him with his regiment: Tabuenca replied that he
was under General Duran’s command, and could not leave Zaragoza without
his orders. And Duran, as soon as he was informed of this, sent to
Mina, saying he could not allow the regiment of Rioja to accompany
him in his retreat (a retreat of which he was no otherwise informed
than by the orders which had been sent to its colonel), because being
determined to defend the city, he required its presence, and indeed
he requested the support of some of his troops also; for if the enemy
should advance to Zaragoza, which he did not expect, the retreat of the
Spanish troops would have a most prejudicial effect upon the public
mind; the two divisions were strong enough to meet the French and give
them battle, and this they ought to do; but for himself, with his
single division, he could defend the city. This indeed Duran at that
juncture could well have done; but if the alternative had been to meet
Suchet in the field, or to retreat, the course which Mina followed, in
pursuance of his usual system, would have been unquestionably the most
judicious.
♦MINA TAKES THE COMMAND.♦
It was soon ascertained that Suchet had retreated, upon which Mina
returned to Zaragoza; he then took up his quarters in the city, and the
siege of the Aljaferia was carried on jointly by the two divisions;
and on the fourth day after his return, the commission which he had
looked for arrived, appointing him Commandant-General of all Aragon.
The same day brought orders for Duran to join the army of Catalonia,
leaving, however, such regiments as Mina might think proper to detain.
Mina took two out of four regiments, and one of three squadrons of
cavalry; with the remainder Duran departed for Catalonia, leaving to
Mina the reputation of effecting the deliverance of Zaragoza, which
certainly was not due to him, and was not needed for one who had
rendered more signal services to his country, when its fortunes were
at the lowest ebb, than any other individual. Duran was remarkable
among all the partizans who distinguished themselves in this war for
the ♦RECONQUISTA DE ZARAGOZA, PP. 23–84.♦ discipline which, as an
old officer, he introduced among his troops, and which he maintained
by means that made him equally respected and beloved. Father, or
grandfather, were the appellations by which they called him, and which
he deserved by the care which he manifested on all occasions for them.
On ♦THE ALJAFERIA SURRENDERED.♦ the second day after his departure a
redoubt was blown up, in which the commanding officer of the artillery,
and 28 men who were in garrison there, perished. This was said to have
been his own act; and it was said also that another artillery officer
intended to set fire to the powder-magazine, but was prevented by the
soldiers, who with their besiegers must otherwise have been destroyed,
and with them no small part of the city. The motive assigned for this
insane desperation was resentment against the commandant of the place
for determining to capitulate, though the works had sustained little
injury, and were abundantly provided for a long defence. Immediately
after this the garrison surrendered.
♦CONDUCT OF THE ZARAGOZANS DURING THEIR CAPTIVITY.♦
Thus, after four years of captivity, Zaragoza was delivered from its
detested enemies. During the greater part of that time no tidings
but those of ill fortune had reached the Zaragozans, ... the defeat
of their armies, the capture of one strong hold after another, some
having yielded through famine, others to the strength and skill of the
besiegers, and more having been basely or traitorously given up. And
though they well knew that the journals of the Intrusive Government,
like those in France, were conducted upon a system of falsehood,
suppressing every thing which could not be made appear favourable
to Buonaparte’s views, they could not doubt the substance of these
tidings, nor, in some of the worst cases, the extent of the national
loss. The prisoners who were taken in Blake’s defeat before Murviedro,
and the still greater number who surrendered with him at Valencia,
had been marched through the streets of Zaragoza, in the depth of
winter, and in a condition which would have moved any soldiers to
compassion except those of Buonaparte and of the generals whom he
employed in Spain: without shoes and stockings, foot-sore, half naked,
half famished, they were driven and outraged and insulted by an enemy
who seemed, together with the observances of civilized war, to have
renounced the feelings of humanity. At such times the Zaragozans,
without distinction of rank or sex, crowded about their unfortunate
countrymen to administer what consolation they could, to weep over
them, and to share with them their own scanty supplies of clothing
and of food. On such occasions, too, all the respectable families, as
if by one consent, kept days of mourning and humiliation[1], each in
their houses: and more earnest prayers were never offered up than they
breathed in bitterness of soul for the deliverance of their injured
country, and for vengeance upon their merciless and insolent oppressors.
At the time of the deliverance, and long after, the city and its
environs bore miserable vestiges of the two sieges. Ruined houses were
to be seen far and near on every side, and the broken walls of what
once had been fertile inclosures. Some streets were merely ruins;
in others, the walls of the houses were literally covered with the
marks of musket-balls, and in some places large holes had been made
in them by the numbers which had struck there. Most of the churches
and convents were nothing but heaps of ruins; the Capuchin’s convent
had been so totally demolished, that only a solitary cross remained to
mark the spot where it had stood. Nothing had been repaired except the
Aljaferia and such of the fortifications as the French re-fortified for
their own security. Much of this material destruction was reparable;
but precious monuments of antiquity had been destroyed, ... precious
libraries and precious manuscripts, which never could be replaced; and
upon most of the inhabitants irreparable ruin had been brought. The
loss of life which had been sustained there may be summed up: broken
fortunes and broken hearts are not taken into the account; but the
sufferers had the proud and righteous satisfaction of knowing that they
had not suffered in vain. The two sieges of Zaragoza, that in which
it was overcome, not less than that which it successfully resisted,
contributed more than any other event to keep up the national spirit
of the Spaniards, to exalt the character of the nation, and to excite
the sympathy and the admiration of other countries. And the good will
not pass away with the generation upon whom the evil fell. There is no
more illustrious example of public virtue in ancient or modern history
than this of Zaragoza. Such examples are not lost upon posterity;
and such virtue, as it affords full proof that the Spanish character
retains its primitive strength, affords also the best ground for hope,
not only that Spain may resume its rank in Christendom as a great and
powerful kingdom, but also that the Spaniards may become, religiously
and politically, a free and enlightened nation; not by the remote
consequences of a sudden and violent revolution, which always brings
with it more evils than it sweeps away, but by the progress of wisdom
and truth, working their sure though slow effect in God’s good time,
among a patient, thoughtful, and devout people.
♦ST. SEBASTIAN’S.♦
Aragon having now been wholly delivered from the enemy, no attempt
could be made from that side to relieve Pamplona; the blockade of that
city was safely intrusted to the Spaniards, who were now becoming
an efficient part of the allied armies; and meantime the siege of
St. Sebastian’s was made Lord Wellington’s immediate object. St.
Sebastian’s, which is the most important town in Guipuzcoa, stands
at the mouth of the little river Urumea, on a peninsula between two
arms of the sea, and at the foot of a high hill. A bay forms its port,
which has been widened and deepened, but is still small and shallow,
and so insecure in certain winds, that ships have been driven from
their anchors there; yet to this port the town owes its origin, and
its fortifications, which were first erected to protect the shipping.
Close at hand, on the side towards France, is the capacious harbour
of Passages, surrounded by mountains, with an entrance between the
rocks so strait, that only a single ship can pass, and that only
by towing; formerly it served for ships of the line, but under the
mal-administration of later years it had been neglected, and was now so
far filled up, that none but small craft and vessels of 200 or 300 tons
came in: for this reason, probably, the Caraccas Company, whose port it
had been, removed to St. Sebastian’s. There also the entrance is very
narrow, being confined between two moles. The town contains from 600 to
700 houses, in twenty streets, all which are paved with large smooth
stones, and several of them long, broad, and straight: the suburbs were
more extensive, and the whole population was estimated at 13,000.
Few places present a more formidable appearance; the only land approach
is over a low sandy isthmus, occupied by one front of fortification,
and this narrow road is commanded by the castle; but on the left flank
there are considerable sand-hills some 600 or 700 yards distant, which
completely enfilade and take in reverse the front defences. Those
which cross the isthmus are a double line of works, with the usual
counterscarp, covered way, and glacis; but those which run lengthways
consist only of a single line, and trusting to the waters in their
front to render them inaccessible, are built without any cover. The
northern line is from top to bottom quite exposed to the sand-hills;
the Urumea, which washes the town on that side, is fordable for some
hours before and after low water, and the tide recedes so much that
during that time there is a considerable space left dry by which
troops can march to the foot of the wall. Yet the wall had been left
uncovered, though Marshal Berwick had availed himself of this defect
when he attacked the place in 1719, and by effecting a breach there had
made the garrison retire into the castle. In the revolutionary war, St.
Sebastian’s was taken by the French without resistance; for though the
troops would have done their duty in defending it, the inhabitants,
rather than endure the horrors of a siege, allowed the magistrates,
some of whom were timid and others traitorous, to surrender.
♦DISTRIBUTION OF THE ALLIED ARMY.♦
After the battle of Vittoria, Jourdan had thrown a garrison of
between 3000 and 4000 men into the place. The conduct of the siege
was intrusted to Sir Thomas Graham, and the fifth division, under
Major-General Oswald, consisting of Major-Generals Hay and Robinson’s
British brigades, and Major-General Spry’s Portugueze, were employed
in carrying it on. The first division, under Major-General Howard,
consisting of the 1st and 2nd brigades of guards under Colonel Maitland
and Major-General Stopford, with the brigades of the German legion,
and Lord Aylmer’s, were in position covering the great road between
Irun and Oyarzun, and supporting Don Manuel Freyre’s Spanish corps
which crowned the heights of S. Marzial and guarded the line of the
Bidassoa from the Crown Mountain to the sea. Giron and Longa kept up
the communication with the left of the centre at Vera: this consisted
of the 7th and light divisions, under the Earl of Dalhousie and Baron
Alten ... the former posted in the pass of Etchalar, the latter on
the mountain of S. Barbara, and in the town of Vera. The right of the
centre, commanded by Sir Rowland, occupied the valley of Bastan, and
with Major-Generals Pringle and Walker’s brigades of the 2d division,
under Lieutenant-General the Hon. Sir William Stewart, guarded the
passes of Maya. The Conde de Amarante, with Colonel Ashworth and
Brigadier-General Da Costa’s Portugueze brigades, held the minor passes
of Col d’Ariette and Col d’Espegas on the right, leading also into
the valley of Bastan. Another Portugueze brigade of this division,
under Brigadier-General Campbell, occupied a strong position between
the valleys of Aldudes and Hayra, keeping communication on its left
through the Port de Berdaritz with the valley of Bastan, and through
the Port d’Alalosti on its right, with the right wing of the army, in
the pass of Roncesvalles. The 6th division, under Major-General Pack,
occupied S. Estevan, and formed the reserve of the centre, ready to
support the troops at Maya or at Etchalar. The right wing covered the
direct approaches to Pamplona from St. Jean de Pied-de-Port: in its
front Major-General Byng’s brigade of the 2d division guarded the
passes of Roncesvalles and Orbaicete; Morillo, with a division of
Spanish infantry supporting the latter post; Sir Lowry Cole, with the
4th division, was in second line, at Biscarret, in rear of the pass
of Roncesvalles. The 3rd division formed the reserve under Sir Thomas
Picton, and was stationed at Olaque. This was the distribution of the
allied army, guarding the passes of the Western Pyrenees, and covering
the blockade of Pamplona and the siege of S. Sebastian’s. As the best
means of saving time and labour in that siege, it was determined to
follow Marshal Berwick’s mode of attack, breach the exposed wall from
the sand-hills, and storm it as soon as the breach should be made
practicable, trusting by quick movement to pass through the fire of the
front line of works.
♦SIEGE OF S. SEBASTIAN’S.♦
When the troops appointed for the siege arrived in sight of the place,
the whole of the works and of the castellated hill appeared to be in
motion, so busily were the enemy every where employed in strengthening
their defences. The Spaniards, who were previously blockading the
place, could offer little interruption to them, because they had no
artillery; but serious operations were now to commence, and the French,
though they neither distrusted their own skill, nor that every possible
exertion would be made for their relief, knew that all that skill and
all those exertions would be called for. As a preliminary measure, it
was necessary for the besiegers to drive the garrison from a post which
they occupied, about 700 or 800 yards in advance of the town, formed by
the convent of S. Bartolomé, and an unfinished redoubt, adjoining it,
on the extremity of the steep hill towards the river, and from a small
circular work which they made with casks on the causeway. Approaches
were made, and batteries erected in the course of the night, between
the 13th and 14th of July, with a celerity that surprised the French;
and in the morning the guns opened upon the side of the convent. It was
soon beaten down, ... the chapel, with its organ and costly adornments,
was laid open, and demolished, and the roof fell in; but the French
were not driven from the ruins. A false attack was made to ascertain
whether they intended to maintain an obstinate resistance there; the
troops carried it farther than their orders directed, and were fain
to return with some loss. It was then attempted to drive the garrison
out by means of red-hot shot; the Portugueze were less expert at
this service than they had shown themselves in the field, they fired
shot which had not been half heated, and frequently missed the whole
building. Beams and whatever else was combustible from the neighbouring
houses were used for heating the furnace; and at length the convent
was set on fire in several places, but the garrison succeeded in
extinguishing the flames as often as they broke out. The enemy,
meantime, kept up from the town an incessant fire of shot and shells
upon the batteries. After 2500 eighteen-pound shot and 450 ♦CONVENT OF
S. BARTOLOMÉ TAKEN.♦ shells had been fired at the convent, it was found
that the French were not to be dislodged by any other means than by the
bayonet. Accordingly two columns were formed, one under the direction
of Major-General Hay, on the right, to cross the ravine near the river,
and attack the redoubt; the left, under Major-General Bradford, to
attack the convent. Major-General ♦JULY 17.♦ Oswald commanded. The
attack was begun about ten in the forenoon: the enemy in the convent
were not aware of it till it was made; but the movement was perceived
from the town and castle; troops were sent to reinforce the garrison,
and a heavy fire was opened upon the assailants; ... it was soon
discontinued, because they came to close quarters, and it must then
have proved equally destructive to both parties. The reinforcement was
not of more advantage, for thinking to take one body of the assailants
in the rear, they were encountered and charged by another, and driven
upon the convent, where the garrison had already been overpowered,
and those who escaped were driven with the fugitives from the works
down the hill, through the village of S. Martin’s, immediately below,
which the enemy had burnt. The impetuosity of the pursuers could not be
restrained; their directions not to pass the village were disregarded;
they followed the French to the foot of the glacis, and suffered on
their return. The garrison behaved gallantly, and lost 250 men; the
loss of the allies amounted to 70. A fire from the town was kept up
upon this post for twenty-four hours; and most of the dead with which
the ground between it and the town was strewn, remained unburied
there during the remainder of the siege, so great was the danger in
collecting them, each party being jealous of the approach of an enemy
to their works, even upon such an office.
Two batteries were thrown up during the night in a situation to
enfilade and take in reverse the defences of the town. This in the
loose sand was a most difficult work, and the fire of the enemy was
directed with great precision to interrupt it; four sentinels were
killed in succession through one loop-hole. The only eminence from
whence artillery could be brought to bear directly on the town, though
still about a hundred feet below it, was above the convent, and almost
adjoining its walls. Here a battery was erected; the covered way to
it passed through the convent, and the battery itself was constructed
in a thickly-peopled burial-ground. A more ghastly circumstance can
seldom have occurred in war; ... for coffins and corpses in all stages
of decay were exposed when the soil was thrown up to form a defence
against the fire from the town, and were used indeed in the defences;
and when a shell burst there, it brought down the living and the dead
together. An officer was giving his orders, when a shot struck the
edge of the trenches above him; two coffins slipped down upon him with
the sand, the coffins broke in their fall, the bodies rolled with him
for some distance, and when he recovered he saw that they had been
women of some rank, for they were richly attired in black velvet, and
their long hair hung about their shoulders and their livid faces. The
soldiers, in the scarcity of firewood, being nothing nice, broke up
coffins for fuel with which to dress their food, leaving the bodies
exposed; and till the hot sun had dried up these poor insulted remains
of humanity, the stench was as dreadful as the sight.
The village of S. Martin, or rather its ruins, were now occupied, and
approaches were struck out there ♦THE BATTERIES OPEN.♦ to the right
and left. On the 20th the batteries opened, and early in the evening
the enemy abandoned the circular redoubt. The next day a flag of truce
was sent with a summons to the governor, but not received. Meantime
a parallel across the isthmus had been begun; in cutting it, the men
came upon a channel level with the ground, in which a pipe was laid for
conveying water into the town. The aqueduct was four feet high, and
three feet wide. Lieutenant Reid of the engineers ventured to explore
it, and at the end of 230 yards, he found it closed by a door in the
counterscarp, opposite to the face of the right demi-bastion of the
horn-work. It was thought that if a mine were formed at this point,
the explosion would throw up earth enough against the escarp, which
was only twenty-four feet high, to form a way over it; and accordingly
sand-bags and barrels of powder were lodged there.
The service of the breaching battery was severe; the enemy of course
directed every disposable gun against it, and their shells repeatedly
blew up every platform there, and dismounted the guns. The seamen
who assisted them did their duty nobly, as they always did; but with
characteristic hardihood disregarded all injunctions tending to their
own preservation, till many of them had suffered. Three of their
officers and sixteen of their men were killed and wounded there in the
course of three ♦UNSUCCESSFUL ASSAULT.♦ days. By mid-day of the 22nd, a
breach had been made about 600 feet long, and, as it seemed, perfectly
practicable, the wall being entirely levelled. It was strongly advised
that this should be stormed on the following morning, as early as the
light and the tide would admit; instead of this, orders were given to
make another breach to the left in a more oblique part of the wall;
one sure disadvantage of delay being that the time employed in making
the second breach would be well used by the enemy in intrenching the
first. After battering this second point for some hours, information
was received from a civil engineer who was well acquainted with the
place, that the wall to the right of the breach ♦JULY 24.♦ was a toise
thinner than elsewhere; thither therefore the guns were directed, and
before the night of the 23rd, a practicable breach was made there
also. Great part of the town had already been ruined by the fire; it
was at this time in flames, and the frequent crashing of houses was
heard amid the roaring of the artillery. Before daybreak the trenches
were filled with troops for storming and for supporting the assault,
which was ordered for four o’clock; the batteries were to continue
their fire upon the second breach till the moment of attack, and then
all available guns were to be directed so as to restrain the enemy’s
flanking fire from two towers, ... which, though much injured, were
still occupied, ... or otherwise to assist as occasion might be
perceived. All was in readiness, when about an hour after daybreak the
order was countermanded, upon a misconception that because the houses
at the back of the breach were on fire, the troops would not be able
to advance after they should have gained the summit. The remainder of
the day was spent in widening the second breach; time at this juncture
was of such value that it was hoped the delay might only be for twelve
hours, and the assault made at four in the evening; but it was thought
a more important consideration that there would then be but few hours
of daylight, and therefore the following morning was appointed.
Major-General Hay’s brigade formed the column of attack; Major-General
Spry’s Portugueze brigade, Major-General Robinson’s, and the 4th
_Caçadores_ of Brigadier-General Wilson’s, were in reserve in the
trenches, the whole under the direction of Major-General Oswald. The
attack was made an hour before, instead of after daylight, because
the tide was returning, and was already two feet deep under the wall
where the ground is dry at low water. But some confusion was probably
occasioned by the darkness; and the chance of success would have been
greater if the arrangements had been made known to more of those
officers who were to take part in executing them. The distance of the
uncovered approach from the trenches to the breach was about 300 yards,
over rocks covered with sea-weed, and intermediate pools of water, and
in the face of an extensive front of works; the breach was flanked by
two towers: the fire of the place was yet entire, and when the troops
rushed from the trenches, it was presently seen that the French were
not unapprized of the intended attempt, and that they had lost no
time in making their preparations for defence; every gun which looked
that way from the castle, and from the hill, was brought to bear upon
the assailants, and from all around the breach they were flanked and
enfiladed with a most destructive fire of grape and musketry. Blazing
planks and beams were thrown transversely across the walls and on the
breach; and stones, shot, shells, and hand grenades, were showered upon
the allies with dreadful effect.
At this time the mine was sprung, and with as much effect as had been
intended. It brought down a considerable length of the counterscarp and
glacis, and astonished the enemy so greatly, that they abandoned for
awhile that part of the works. When the Portugueze who were to take
advantage of this hastened to the spot, there were no scaling-ladders,
... an officer ran to the foot of the breach, in hope the engineers
there might be provided with them; ... if he had but one ladder, he
said, he could post his whole party in the town: ... but ladders had
not been needed here, and not thought of for the point where they might
be required. The enemy had thus time to recover from their surprise;
and the Portugueze, standing their ground with soldier-like fidelity,
were miserably sacrificed, nearly the whole of this party being killed
before the order for recalling them arrived.
Meantime Lieutenant Jones of the engineers with an officer and nine
men of the first royals, gained the top of the great breach; and men
were rushing up to follow them, when the enemy sprung a mine in one
place, and in another drew the supports from under a false bridge,
thus blowing up some of the assailants, and precipitating others upon
the spikes which had been fixed below. The men who were at the foot
of the breach were then panic-stricken; they, as well as the French,
remembered that in such situations the victory is not to the brave or
the strong, if superior skill is opposed to courage and strength: they
ran back, ... it was impossible to rally them, and they suffered much.
The intention was, that another column should pass in the rear of the
first, between it and the sea to the second breach, and storm it; but
the discomfiture of the first party prevented this, and none of these
reached their destination. The whole was over before morning had fairly
opened, and in the course of an hour, 45 officers and above 800 men
were killed, wounded, or missing.
The river prevented any immediate communication, so that at the
batteries it was thought that hardly anything more than a false alarm
had taken place, till, as day dawned, they discovered through their
glasses the bodies of officers and men in the breach, and under the
demi-bastion and retaining wall. Presently one or two of the enemy
appeared on the breach, and a serjeant came down among the wounded,
raising some, and speaking to others. The firing which had been
continued occasionally on the breach was then stopped; more of the
French appeared; a kind of parley took place between them and the men
at the head of the trenches; and half an hour’s truce was agreed on for
the purpose of removing the wounded and the dead; but so jealous were
the French that they would not allow the dead who were nearest them
to be approached; some of the wounded they carried into the town, and
others were borne by their soldiers into the British lines. While the
troops were yet under arms, not knowing whether another attack might
be ordered, a British officer saw one of his Portugueze soldiers start
off, and reproved him for so doing, when after awhile the man returned;
but the Portugueze replied, scarcely able to command his voice or
restrain his tears as he spake, that he had only been burying his
comrade, ... and in fact it appeared that with no other implement than
his bayonet and his hand, he had given his poor friend and countryman a
soldier’s burial in the sand. The officers who fell in this attack were
buried together, each in a shell, in one grave, in a garden near the
encampment.
♦THE SIEGE SUSPENDED.♦
Lord Wellington came over from Lesaca on the same day about noon,
and determined upon renewing the attack; the second breach was to be
completed, the demi-bastion thrown down, and fresh troops appointed for
another assault. But the ammunition was now running low; and upon his
return that night he received intelligence of movements on the enemy’s
part in the Pyrenees, which made him forthwith dispatch orders for
withdrawing the guns from the batteries and converting the siege into a
blockade.
♦SOULT APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.♦
Marshal Soult had been sent back from Germany as Lieutenant of the
Emperor, and Commander-in-chief of the French armies in Spain. Of all
the French Generals employed in the Peninsula, he had obtained the
highest reputation; and undoubtedly no one could be better entitled to
the praise of those authors who write history, with a mere military
feeling, reckless of all higher considerations. That _impassibility_
which he considered as one of the first essentials for a general in
such a war, and of which proof had been given in his proclamations
and his acts, recommended him to Buonaparte not less than his great
ability. The remains of the armies of Portugal, of the centre and of
the north, were united; their ranks, which had so often been thinned,
were filled by a new conscription; and the whole being re-formed into
nine divisions of infantry, was called the army of Spain; the right,
centre, and left, were under Generals Reille, Drouet, Compte d’Erlon,
and Clausel; the reserve, under General Villatte: there were two
divisions of dragoons under Generals Treillard and Tilly, and a light
division under General Pierre Soult. In the expectation of success
every exertion had been used to increase the strength of their cavalry,
though of little use in the Pyrenees, that the war might be once more
carried beyond the Ebro; and with the same view a large proportion
of artillery was provided. The decree which appointed Marshal Soult
bore date on the first of July; he took the command on the 13th,
and his preparations were forwarded with the ability, activity, and
hopefulness by which the French are characterized in such ♦HIS ADDRESS
TO THE TROOPS.♦ things. He issued an address to his troops, containing
more truth than was usually admitted into a French state paper,
because the truth in that place could not possibly be concealed; but
it was sufficiently coloured with artful misrepresentations and with
falsehood. “The armies of France,” it said, “guided by the powerful
and commanding genius of the Emperor Napoleon, had achieved in Germany
a succession of victories as brilliant as any that adorned their
annals. The presumptuous hopes of the enemy had thus been confounded;
and the Emperor, who was always inclined to consult the welfare of
his subjects, by following moderate counsels, had listened to the
pacific overtures which the enemy made to him after their defeat. But
in the interim, the English, who, under the pretence of succouring
the inhabitants of the Peninsula, were in reality devoting them to
ruin, had taken advantage of the opportunity afforded them. A skilful
leader,” said Marshal Soult, “might have discomfited their motley
levies; and who could doubt what would have been the result of the
day at Vittoria if the general had been worthy of his troops? Let us
not however,” he continued, “defraud the enemy of the praise which is
their due. The dispositions and arrangements of their general have
been prompt, skilful, and consecutive; and the valour and steadiness
of his troops have been praiseworthy. Yet do not forget that it is to
the benefit of your example they owe their present military character;
and that whenever the relative duties of a French general and his
troops have been ably fulfilled, their enemies have commonly had no
other resource than in flight.” In one part of this address Marshal
Soult rendered justice to Lord Wellington; but this latter assertion
strikingly exemplifies the character of the vain-glorious people whom
he was addressing. He himself had been repulsed by a far inferior
British force at Coruña; had been driven from Porto, and defeated in
the bloody field of Albuhera. He was addressing men who had been beaten
at Vimeiro, beaten at Talavera, beaten at Busaco, beaten at Fuentes
d’Onoro, routed at Salamanca, and scattered like sheep at Vittoria.
They had been driven from Lisbon into France; and yet the general who
had so often been baffled addressed this language to the very troops
who had been so often and so signally defeated! “The present situation
of the army,” he pursued, “is imputable to others: let the merit of
repairing it be yours. I have borne testimony to the Emperor of your
bravery and your zeal. His instructions are to drive the enemy from
those heights which enable them arrogantly to survey our fertile
valleys, and to chase them across the Ebro. It is on the Spanish soil
that your tents must next be pitched, and your resources drawn. Let the
account of our successes be dated from Vittoria, and the birth-day of
the Emperor be celebrated in that city.”
♦CRITICAL SITUATION OF THE ALLIED ARMY.♦
Lord Wellington’s situation had not during the whole war been so
critical as at this time. He had two blockades to maintain, and two
points to cover, sixty miles distant from each other, in a mountainous
country, where the heights were so impassable that there could be no
lateral communication between his divisions. His force was necessarily
divided in order that none of the passes might be left undefended, but
the enemy could choose their point of attack, and bring their main
force to bear upon it; thus they would have the advantage of numbers;
and they had the farther advantage, that a considerable proportion of
their troops, all who had belonged to the army of the north, had been
accustomed to mountain warfare, in which the British and Portugueze had
had no experience.
♦SOULT’S MOVEMENTS FOR THE RELIEF OF PAMPLONA.♦
Soult’s first object was to relieve Pamplona, which could only
be relieved by some such great effort as he intended; whereas S.
Sebastian’s, as long as the garrison could maintain themselves there,
had always the possibility of receiving supplies along the coast. With
this view he collected a convoy of provisions and stores at St. Jean
de Pied-de-Port. Meantime the hostile forces, though each within their
own frontier, were encamped in some places upon opposite heights,
within half cannon-shot; and their sentries within 150 yards of each
other. Hitherto with the Spaniards and Portugueze it had been, in the
ever-memorable phrase of Palafox, war at the knife’s edge; but that
national contest, in which the aggressors had treated courtesy and
humanity with as much contempt as justice, was at an end; it was a
military contest now, and the two armies offered no molestation to
each other in the intervals of the game of war. The French, gay and
alert as usual, were drumming and trumpeting all day long; the more
thoughtful English enjoying the season and the country, looking down
with delight upon the sea and the enemy’s territory, and Bayonne in
the distance, and sketching in the leisure which their duties might
allow the beautiful scenery of the Pyrenees. The right of the allied
army was at Roncesvalles, the sacred ground of romance, where in the
seventeenth century a spot was shown as still reddened with the blood
of the Paladins; and where Our Lady, under some one of her thousand and
one appellations, may perhaps still continue to work miracles in the
chapel wherein they were interred. From that pass, and from the pass of
Maya, the roads converge on Pamplona; and Soult made his arrangements
for attacking both on the same day in force, ... for doing which he had
the great advantage that Lord Wellington was at the opposite extremity
of the line, near S. Sebastian’s.
♦BATTLES OF THE PYRENEES.♦
Accordingly, on the 24th, he assembled the right and left wings of his
army, with one division of his centre, and two divisions of cavalry,
at St. Jean de Pied-de-Port; and on the 25th (the same day that the
unsuccessful assault upon S. Sebastian’s was made) he began his
operations, and in person, with about 35,000 men, attacked General
Byng’s post at Roncesvalles. Sir Lowry Cole moved up to his support
with the 4th division; and they maintained their ground obstinately,
against very superior numbers, though with considerable loss. But in
the afternoon the enemy turned their position; and Sir Lowry deemed it
necessary to withdraw in the night, and marched accordingly to Lizoain,
in the neighbourhood of Zubiri. General Drouet, with 13,000 men, was to
force the position of Maya: early in the morning he manœuvred against
each of the four passes, and against the Conde de Amarante’s division,
which was posted on the right. Under cover of these demonstrations,
he collected his main strength behind a hill immediately in front of
the pass of Aretesque, and from thence about noon made a sudden and
rapid advance, favoured by a most unexpected chance. Two advanced
videttes, who had been posted on some high ground to give timely notice
of an enemy’s approach, had fallen asleep during the heat of the day;
the French were thus enabled to advance unseen, and the piquet had
scarcely time to give the alarm before the enemy were upon them. The
light infantry companies of the second brigade sustained the attack
with great steadiness; when they were overpowered, the 34th and 50th
regiments came up, and afterward the right wing of the 92d; for as
the other passes were not to be left unguarded, troops could only be
brought from them by successive battalions, as the need became more
urgent. Opposed as they thus were to very superior forces, the 32d lost
more than a third of its numbers, and the 92d battalion was almost
destroyed. The allies retired slowly, defending every point as succours
enabled them to make a stand, but still over-matched; till, about six
in the evening, Major-General Barnes’s brigade of the 7th division came
to their support; then they recovered that part of their post which
was the key of the position, and might have reassumed their ground;
but Sir Rowland, having been apprized that Sir Lowry Cole must retire,
deemed it necessary to withdraw them during the night to Irurita. They
had been engaged seven hours, and lost four guns and more than sixteen
hundred men.
During the whole of the following day, the enemy remained inactive
beyond the Puerto de Maya. On that day Sir Thomas Picton, who, as soon
as he was informed of Soult’s movements, had crossed to Zubiri with his
division, moved forward to support the troops at Lizoain, and assumed
the command there as senior officer. The enemy’s whole force advanced
against them early in the afternoon, and they retired skirmishing to
some strong ground, which they maintained, in order of battle, till
night closed. Generals Picton and Cole concurred then in opinion that
the post of Zubiri would not be tenable for so long a time, as it would
be necessary for them to wait there. Early on the 27th, therefore, they
began to retreat still farther, and took up a position to cover the
blockade of Pamplona. The garrison of that fortress had been informed
by some deserters from the Walloon guards that Soult, with a powerful
army, was advancing victoriously to their relief, and that relief was
certain. Their hopes were raised to the highest pitch; the firing was
only five miles distant. The state of things appeared so critical to
Abisbal, that he prepared to raise the blockade, and spiked some of
his guns; and the enemy sallied, got possession of several batteries,
and took fourteen pieces of cannon, before Don Carlos d’España could
repulse them. The position which the retreating troops took to cover
the blockade had its right in front of the village of Huarte, extending
to the hills beyond Olaz, and its left on the heights in front of the
village of Villalba, the right of this wing resting on a height which
covered the road from Zubiri and Roncesvalles, and the left at a chapel
behind Sorauren, on the road from Ostiz. Morillo’s division of Spanish
infantry was in reserve, with that part of Abisbal’s corps which was
not engaged in the blockade; and from the latter two regiments were
detached to occupy part of the hill by which the road from Zubiri was
defended. The British cavalry under Sir Stapleton Cotton were placed
on the right, near Huarte, being the only ground on which cavalry
could act. The river Lanz runs in the valley which was on the left
of the allies, and on the right of the French, in the road to Ostiz.
Beyond this river is a range of mountains connected with Ligasso and
Marcalain, by which places it was now necessary to communicate with the
rest of the army.
Lord Wellington arrived as these divisions were taking up their ground;
and shortly afterwards Soult formed his army on a mountain between the
Ostiz and the Zubiri roads, the front of the mountain extending from
one road to the other. One division he placed on a bold height to the
left of the Zubiri road, and in some villages in front of the third
division, where he had also a large body of cavalry. The same evening
he pushed forward a corps to take possession of a steep hill on the
right of General Cole’s division: it was occupied by a Portugueze
battalion and a Spanish regiment; these troops defended their post
with the bayonet, and drove the enemy back. Seeing the importance
of this point, Lord Wellington reinforced it with the 40th and with
another Spanish regiment, so that the further efforts of the French
there were as unsuccessful as the first; but they took possession of
Sorauren, on the Ostiz road, whereby they acquired the communication by
that road; and they kept up a fire of musketry along the line till it
was dark.
In the morning General Pack’s division arrived. Lord Wellington then
directed that the heights on the left of the valley of the Lanz should
be occupied, and that this division should form across the valley in
rear of the left of General Cole’s, resting its right on Oricain, and
its left upon the heights. They had scarcely taken the position in the
valley when they were attacked in great force from Sorauren: the enemy
advanced steadily to the attack; but the front was defended from the
heights on their left by their own light troops, and from the height
on the right, and on the rear, by the 4th division and a Portugueze
brigade; and the French were soon driven back, with great loss, by the
fire in their front, both flanks, and rear. This was a false move from
which Soult never recovered: with a view of extricating his troops from
the situation in which they were now placed, he attacked the height on
which the left of the 4th division stood, and where the 7th _Caçadores_
were posted, at an _ermida_, or chapel, behind Sorauren. Momentary
possession was obtained of it; but the _Caçadores_ returned to their
ground, supported by Major-General Ross at the head of his brigade,
and the enemy were driven down. The battle now became general along
the whole of these heights, but only in one point to the advantage of
the French, which was where a battalion of Major-General Campbell’s
Portugueze regiment was posted; that battalion was overpowered, it
gave way immediately on the right of Ross’s brigade: the French then
established themselves on the line of the allies, and Ross was obliged
to withdraw from his post. Upon this, Lord Wellington ordered the 27th
and 48th to charge, first that body of the enemy which had established
itself there, and then those on the left. Both charges succeeded; the
enemy were driven back: the 6th division at the same time moved forward
nearer to the left of the 4th; the attack upon this front then ceased
entirely, and was but faintly continued on other points of the line.
Every regiment in the 4th division charged with the bayonet that day,
and the 40th, 7th, 20th, and 23rd, four different times. Their officers
set them the example, and Major-General Ross had two horses shot under
him. The events of that day abated Marshal Soult’s confidence, and made
him feel how little he could expect to succeed against such troops
and such a commander. He no longer thought of dating his report of
the operations from Vittoria, and celebrating the Emperor Napoleon’s
birth-day in that city; and he sent back his guns, his wounded, and
great part of his baggage, to S. Jean de Pied-de-Port, while they could
be sent in safety.
On the 29th both armies remained quiet in their positions, each
expecting the result of its combinations. Sir Rowland had been ordered
to march upon Lizasso by Lanz, and the Earl of Dalhousie from San
Esteban upon the same place; both arrived there on the 28th, and Lord
Dalhousie’s division came to Marcalain, thus assuring Sir Rowland’s
communication with the main body. Marshal Soult’s manœuvres were now
baffled, for the allies were become one army; but he saw one chance for
victory still remaining, and he was not a man to let any opportunity
escape him. Drouet’s corps, before which Sir Rowland had retired,
followed his march, and arrived at Ostiz on the 29th. Thus the French
force also became one army. The Marshal thought his position between
the Arga and Lanz was by nature so exceedingly strong, and so little
liable to attack, that he might without apprehension withdraw from it
the bulk of his troops. Occupying, therefore, still the same points,
but drawing on to his left the troops which were on the heights
opposite the third division, he reinforced Drouet with one division,
and during the night of the 29th occupied in strength the crest of the
mountain opposite to the 6th and 7th divisions, thus connecting his
right in its position with the force which had been detached to attack
Sir Rowland, his object being thus to open the Tolosa road, turn the
left of the allies, and relieve St. Sebastian’s, now that he had failed
in the attempt for the relief of Pamplona.
On the morning of the 30th his troops were observed to move in great
numbers toward the mountains on the right of the Lanz, with what intent
Lord Wellington at once perceived, and determined to attack the French
position in front. He ordered Lord Dalhousie to possess himself of the
top of the mountain opposite him, and turn their right, and Sir Thomas
Picton to cross the heights from which the French division had been
withdrawn, and from the Roncesvalles road turn their left, and he made
his arrangements for attacking them in front, as soon as the effect
of these movements on both flanks should appear. In every point these
intentions were effected. Lord Dalhousie with General Inglis’s brigade
drove them from the mountains: Major-General Pakenham who had the
command of the 6th division, Major-General Pack having been wounded,
then turned the village of Sorauren, and Major-General Byng’s brigade
attacked and carried the village of Ostiz. Sir Lowry Cole attacked
their front, when their confidence in themselves as well as in their
ground had thus been shaken, the French were then compelled to abandon
a position which Lord Wellington declared to be one of the strongest
and most difficult of access that he had ever seen occupied by troops.
While these operations were going on, and in proportion as they
succeeded, troops were detached to support Sir Rowland. Late in the
morning the enemy appeared in his front, and made many vigorous
attacks, while Drouet manœuvred upon his left: every attack was
repulsed, and the allies maintained their ground, till Drouet, by a
more distant movement, ascended the ridge, and came absolutely round
their left flank; Sir Rowland then leisurely retired about a mile to a
range of heights near Eguarras, and repelled every attempt to dislodge
him from that strong ground. Lord Wellington meantime pursued the
enemy after he had driven them from their position on the mountain,
and at sunset he was at Olaque, immediately in the rear of their
attack upon Sir Rowland. Their last hope had failed, and, withdrawing
from Sir Rowland’s front during the night, they retreated with great
ability through the pass of Doña Maria, and left two divisions there
in a strong position to cover their rear in the pass. Sir Rowland
and Lord Dalhousie were ordered to attack the pass; they moved by
parallel roads; and the enemy, closely pressed by the 7th division,
were ascending the hill in great haste, when Sir Rowland arrived at
the foot of the pass, not in time to cut off any part of their rear.
Both divisions ascended the hill, each by its own road; and the
French took up a strong position at the top of the pass, with a cloud
of skirmishers in front. On the left, which was Sir Rowland’s side,
the attack was led by Lieutenant-General Stewart with Major-General
Walker’s brigade; they forced the skirmishers back to the summit of the
hill, but coming there upon the main body, found it so numerous and
so strongly posted, that they deemed it necessary to withdraw till the
7th division should come into closer co-operation. They had not long to
wait for this: General Stewart was wounded, and the command devolved
upon Major-General Pringle; he renewed the attack on that side, while
Lord Dalhousie pressed the enemy on the other; both divisions gained
the height about the same time, and the enemy, after sustaining a very
considerable loss, retired; they were pursued for some way down, but
a thick fog favoured them, and prevented the allies from profiting
further by the advantage they had gained. Lord Wellington meantime
moved with Major-General Byng’s brigade and Sir Lowry Cole’s division
through the pass of Velate upon Irurita, thus turning their position
on Doña Maria. A large convoy of provisions and stores was taken by
Major-General Byng ♦AUGUST 1.♦ at Elizondo. The pursuit was continued
during the following day in the vale of Bidassoa. Byng possessed
himself of the valley of Bastan and the position on the Puerto de Maya;
and at the close of the day the different divisions were re-established
nearly on the same ground which they had occupied when their operations
commenced, eight days before. The enemy had now two divisions posted on
the Puerto de Echalar, and nearly their whole army behind that pass;
and Lord Wellington resolved to dislodge them by a combined attack
and movement of the 4th, 7th, and light divisions, which had advanced
by the vale of the Bidassoa towards the frontier. The 7th, taking a
shorter line across the mountains from Sumbilla, arrived before the
4th. Major-General Barnes’s brigade was formed for the attack, advanced
before the others could co-operate, and with a regularity and gallantry
which, Lord Wellington says, he has seldom seen equalled, drove the
two French divisions from the formidable heights which they vainly
endeavoured to maintain. Major-General Kempt’s brigade of the light
division likewise drove a very considerable force from the rock which
forms the left of the pass; and thus no enemy was left in the field,
within this part of the Spanish frontier. During these operations the
loss of the allies amounted to 6000 in killed, wounded, and missing;
that of the French exceeded 8000. On both sides great ability had been
manifested; seldom indeed has the art of war been displayed with such
skill, and upon such difficult ground. To guard against the repetition
of so formidable an effort on the enemy’s part, the positions which the
allies occupied were strengthened by redoubts and intrenchments. While
the main scene of action lay in the neighbourhood of Pamplona, that
portion of the enemy’s force which had been left to observe the allies
on the great road from Irun, attacked Longa, who occupied that part
of the Bidassoa and the town of Vera with his division. He repulsed
them with great loss; and it was not the least of the discouraging
reflections, which could not but occur to the enemy after the failure
of all these well-planned and well-attempted endeavours, that the
Spanish troops had now become as efficient as the Portugueze.
♦SIEGE OF ST. SEBASTIAN’S RESUMED.♦
During these eventful days the guns had been withdrawn from the
batteries before St. Sebastian’s, and, with all the stores, embarked
at Passages, and the transports had been sent to sea; but a blockade
was kept up, and the guard continued to hold the trenches. The vigilant
enemy made a sortie on the morning of the 27th, and carried off between
200 and 300 Portugueze and English from the trenches prisoners into
the town. Want of foresight on the part of the besiegers allowed them
this opportunity, for some of the guns of the left embrasures had, in
apprehension of such an attempt, been arranged so as to take the enemy
in flank; and those guns were withdrawn with the others. On the 3rd
the French surprised a patrol in the parallel and made them prisoners:
but Soult’s defeat was known ♦AUGUST 6.♦ now; the stores were re-landed
at Passages, and Sir Thomas Graham waited only for the arrival of more
artillery and ammunition from England to recommence the siege. The
infantry meantime rested on its arms; and the cavalry, who longed to
eat the green maize (which was prohibited), kept their horses in good
exercise in looking for straw. The 17th was Buonaparte’s birth-day;
three salutes were fired from the Castle of St. Sebastian’s on the eve
preceding, as many at four in the morning, and again at noon; and at
night the words “_Vive Napoleon le Grand_” were displayed in letters of
light upon the castle: ... it was the last of his birth-days that was
commemorated by any public celebration. The expected artillery arrived
at Passages on the 18th. That little town had never in the days of its
prosperity, when it was the port of the Caraccas Company, presented
a scene so busy, nor while it lasted so gainful to the inhabitants
and peasantry of the surrounding country. The market for the army was
held here, which they supplied with necessaries, the produce of the
land; and which at this time wanted nothing wherewith England could
supply it, so frequent now and so easy was the intercourse. Here the
reinforcements were landed, which, now that the British government had
caught the spirit of its victorious general, were no longer limited
by parsimonious impolicy. When the horses were to be landed they were
lowered from the transports into the sea, and guided by a rope as they
swam to shore; but this sudden transition from the extreme heat of the
hold to the cold water proved fatal to several of them.
The garrison of St. Sebastian’s employed the time which the blockade
afforded them so well, in strengthening their defences and adding new
ones, that when the allies had to recommence the siege, the place was
stronger than before. The plan now determined on was to lay open the
two round towers on each end of the first breach, and connect it with
the second breach, which was to the right, add to it another on the
left, and demolish a demi-bastion to the left of the whole, by which
the approach was flanked. A mortar battery was also erected for the
purpose of annoying the castle across the bay. Sailors were employed
in this, and never did men more thoroughly enjoy their occupation.
They had double allowance of grog, as their work required; and at
their own cost they had a fiddler; they who had worked their spell in
the battery went to relieve their comrades in the dance, and at every
shot which fell upon the castle they gave three cheers. Little effect
was produced by this battery, because of its distance. Between it and
the town is the island of St. Clara, high and rocky, about half a mile
in circumference, which the French occupied; it was deemed expedient
to dislodge them and take possession of it, because the season was
approaching when ships might be obliged to leave the coast, and this
spot facilitated the enemy’s communication with their own country.
The only landing-place was under a flight of steps, commanded by a
small intrenchment on the west point of the island, and exposed to the
whole range of works on the west side of the rock and of the walls;
the garrison, consisting of an officer and twenty-four men, were thus
enabled to make such a resistance, that nineteen of the assailants were
killed and wounded. The island however was taken, and the garrison made
prisoners.
The actual siege recommenced on the 24th; and at the following midnight
the enemy made a sortie, entered the advanced part of the trenches
and carried confusion into the parallel; but when they attempted to
sweep along its right, a part of the guard checked them, and they
retired into the town, taking with them about twelve prisoners. The
batteries opened on the morning of the 26th. On the night of the 27th
another sortie was tried; but experience had made the besiegers more
vigilant, and it was repulsed before the slightest mischief could be
done. Nothing that skill and ingenuity could devise was omitted by the
garrison; they repaired by night as far as possible the injury which
had been done in the day; cleared away the rubbish; and at the points
at which the batteries were directed, let down large solid beams to
break the force of the shot. But in this branch of the art of war, the
means of attack are hitherto more efficient than those of defence; and
in the course of the 29th the enemy’s fire was nearly subdued. They
lost many men by our spherical case shot; and they attempted to imitate
what they had found so destructive, by filling common shells with small
balls, and bursting them over the heads of the besiegers; but these
were without effect. On the night of the 29th there was a false attack
made with the hope of inducing the enemy to spring the mines, which it
was not doubted that they had prepared; they fired most of their guns,
but the end was not answered, for no mine was exploded.
♦PREPARATIONS FOR ASSAULTING THE TOWN.♦
Men were now invited to volunteer for the assault, such men, it was
said, “as knew how to show other troops the way to mount a breach.”
When this was communicated to the 4th division, which was to furnish
400 men, the whole division moved forward. The column of attack
was formed of the 2nd brigade of the 5th division, commanded by
Major-General Robinson, with an immediate support of 150 volunteers
from the light division, 400 from the first, and 200 from the 4th; and
with the remainder of the 5th division in reserve, the whole under the
direction of Sir James Leith. Sir James had been severely wounded in
the battle of Salamanca, and his constitution still felt the effects of
the Walcheren fever; but leaving England as soon as he was sufficiently
recovered to discharge his duties, he arrived at S. Sebastian’s on
the 29th, and resumed the command of his division in the trenches,
Major-General Oswald, who had held it during his absence, resigning
it and acting as a volunteer. As the breaches now appeared to be
practicable, the assault was ordered for eleven o’clock on the forenoon
of the 31st, being the time of low water; and to prepare debouches for
the troops, three shafts were sunk at the advanced sap on the right,
for the purpose of breaking through the sea wall, which was of masonry,
four feet thick and ten feet above the high water mark; they were sunk
eight feet below the surface, and each loaded with 540 pounds of powder.
♦SOULT MOVES FOR ITS RELIEF.♦
Marshal Soult, meantime, as soon as he knew that the siege had been
recommenced, leaving one division in front of the British light
division, and another in front of the 7th, moved the rest of his army
to the camp at Urogne, with the obvious intention of making an attempt
to relieve the place. Under that expectation all the troops of horse
artillery were ordered to march, and the artillery not employed in
the siege was sent to the front. The eve of the assault was therefore
a time of more than usual anxiety; for if either the assault should
fail, or Soult should succeed, the situation of the allies would be
rendered critical. In the course of the day the wood and rubbish of
the right breach took fire, and a mine near it exploded; and in the
afternoon five small mines within the town were blown up by ♦ASSAULT OF
S. SEBASTIAN’S.♦ the falling of a shell. The evening closed in with a
storm of thunder and lightning and heavy rain. Two hours after midnight
the three mines were sprung, and completely effected the purpose of
blowing down the sea wall; the etonnoirs were immediately connected;
a good passage out for the troops was thus formed, and the farther
object was attained of securing all the works in their rear from any
galleries which the enemy might have run out in that direction. In the
morning there was such a fog, and the smoke in consequence hung so,
that nothing could be seen; but about nine o’clock a gentle sea-breeze
began to clear the mist, and the sun soon shone forth. Sir Thomas
Graham, having completed the arrangements with Sir James Leith, left
him to command the assault, and crossed the Urumea to the batteries
of the right attack, from whence all might be distinctly seen, and
orders for the fire of the batteries immediately given, according to
circumstances. Sir James held it as an article of his military belief
that British troops could not fail in any thing which they undertook.
He now took the opinion of the chief engineer, Sir Richard Fletcher, as
to the spot from whence he could best overlook and direct the desperate
service of the day; the place they fixed on was upon the beach, about
thirty yards in advance of the debouche from the trenches; and there,
without any cover or protection whatever, they both took their stand;
for it was a maxim with him that however brave the troops, and however
devoted the officers, the example of those in command was, beyond every
thing, essential.
About eleven o’clock the advanced parties moved out of the trenches,
and the enemy almost immediately exploded two mines, for the purpose
of blowing down the wall to the left of the beach, along which the
troops were advancing to the breach; the passage between the wall and
the water was narrow, and they expected, by the fragments of masonry
which would be thrown down, to obstruct the line of march. This intent
failed; but about twenty men were crushed by the ruins of the wall.
The garrison, as on the former assault, were perfectly prepared; and
from the Mirador battery, and the battery del Principe, on the castle
hill, they opened a fire of grape and shells upon the columns. The
forlorn hope, consisting of an officer and thirty men, fell to a man;
the front of the columns which followed were cut off, as by one shot;
and the breach, when the assailants reached it, was presently covered
with their bodies; many of those who were ascending it were thrown
down by the bodies of those above them, the living, the wounded, and
the dead, rolling together down the ruins. From the Mirador and Prince
batteries, from the keep of the castle, from the high curtain to
the left of the breach, and from some ruined houses in front, about
forty yards distant, which were loop-holed and lined with infantry, a
concentrated fire was kept up; a line of intrenchment had been carried
along the nearest parallel walls; this was strongly occupied, and
it entirely swept the summit of the breach; and, in addition to all
this, the horn-work flanked and commanded the ascent. The tower of
Amesquita, on the left of the breach, was the only available point of
defence which had not been manned; overlooked it could not have been
by such engineers as those who conducted the defence: undoubtedly
they considered the means which they had provided to be more than
sufficient, and that no courage, however desperate, could in the face
of them carry a breach which, upon all rules of art, was actually
impracticable. That every art of defence which science and experience
could devise would be practised was expected; it was known, also, that
the garrison were as little deficient in confidence as in numbers,
and that they had stores in abundance; but if there had been even a
suspicion that the ground at the point of attack was what it was now
found to be, it is certain that the assault, under such circumstances,
would never have been ordered.
Nothing, in fact, could have been more fallacious than the external
appearance of the breach. Up to the end of the curtain it was as
accessible, quite to the terre-plein, as it seemed to be; but there the
enemy’s situation was commanding, and the ascent itself was exposed
to the horn-work: but this was the only point where it was passable,
and there only by single files. Except on this point, there was a
perpendicular fall from fifteen to twenty-five feet in depth, along
the back of the whole breach, extensive as it was. Houses had been
built against the interior of the wall; these were now in ruins; and
there was no way of descending, except here and there by an end wall
which remained standing; but the very few who could by this means get
into the streets were exposed to an incessant fire from the opposite
houses. During the suspension of the siege, every possible preparation
had been made by the enemy, with the advantage of knowing the point
which would be attacked; so that they had a great number of men covered
by intrenchments and traverses in the horn-work, on the ramparts of
the curtain, and in the town itself opposite the breach. The most
determined courage was displayed by the troops, who were brought
forward in succession from the trenches to this place of slaughter.
Military duty was never discharged with more entire devotion than it
was at this time both by officers and men. No man outlived the attempt
to gain the ridge. The slope of the breach afforded shelter from
musketry; but the nature of the stone rubbish rendered it impossible
for the working parties to form a lodgement there, notwithstanding
their utmost exertions, and the troops were exposed to the shells and
grape from the batteries of the castle; and on the way to the breach
so severe and continuous a fire was kept up that Sir James Leith was
obliged to send directions for removing the dead and the dying from the
debouches, which were so choked up as to prevent the passage of the
troops.
♦SIR JAMES LEITH WOUNDED.♦
A plunging shot struck the ground near the spot where Sir James was
standing, rebounded, struck him on the chest, and laid him prostrate
and senseless. The officers near thought certainly that he was killed;
but he recovered breath, and then recollection, and resisting all
entreaties to quit the field, continued to issue his orders. Sir
Thomas Graham meantime accepted the offer of a part of Major-General
Bradford’s Portugueze brigade to ford the river and assist in the
assault. The advance of a battalion under Major Snodgrass, and of
a detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel M’Bean, was made rapidly and
firmly, under a very heavy fire of grape, along the beach and over a
creek knee-deep. They got over, but not without great loss, and bore
their part in what Sir Thomas Graham began now to think was an all
but desperate attempt: and desperate it must have proved, if, upon
consulting with Colonel Dickson, who commanded the artillery, he had
not ventured to direct that the guns should be turned against the
curtain. A heavy fire was immediately directed there, passing only a
few feet above the heads of our own troops, and it was kept up with a
precision of practice beyond all example. The troops who were employed
in the assault were astonished at hearing the roar of cannon from
behind them; they saw the enemy swept from the curtain; a few of their
own men were brought down also by the first discharge: the second made
the intent fully intelligible; its effect upon the enemy was visible,
and a great effort was then ordered to gain the high ridge at all
hazards.
At this time a shell burst near Sir James Leith, tore off the flesh
of his left hand, and broke the arm in two places; still he continued
to give directions, till, fainting from loss of blood, he was carried
from the field. Major-General Hay succeeded to the command. Almost ♦SIR
RICHARD FLETCHER SLAIN.♦ immediately afterwards, and nearly on the
same spot, Sir Richard Fletcher talking to General Oswald, was killed
by a musket-ball, which struck him in the spine of the neck. This was
a great loss to his friends and his country: he was of such amiable
qualities, as well as of such sterling worth, that no man was ever more
respected and loved; and that his professional talents were of the
highest order had been shown by the lines of Torres Vedras.
♦THE CITY TAKEN.♦
As Sir James Leith was carried through the trenches to the rear, he
met the remaining part of his division pressing forward to execute his
orders; and the men of the 9th regiment, recognizing their general,
promised him not to desist from their exertions until the place should
be taken. Just as they arrived at the breach, a quantity of cartridges
exploded behind one of the traverses of the curtain; the fire of the
artillery had occasioned this; and it caused some confusion among the
enemy, who already apprehended that the tide of fortune was turning
against them. The narrow pass was now gained and maintained; hats were
waved from the _terre-plein_ of the curtain; the troops rushed forward
and drove the enemy down the steep flight of steps near the great
gate leading from the works into the town. The troops on the right of
the breach about the same time forced the barricadoes on the top of
the narrow line wall, and found their way into the houses that joined
it. In many places it was necessary to apply scaling-ladders before
the men could get down. At the centre of the main breach there was an
excavation below the descent, and a barricado at some feet farther
back; here, therefore, any who should have descended would have been
inclosed as a mark for the enemy, till the way was cleared for them by
a flanking fire from a round tower on the right, which took the French
in reverse. The French themselves were inclosed in a barricado between
that tower and the right breach, and their dead lay there heaped upon
each other. The contest was still maintained from barricadoes in the
streets, and by firing from the houses; till between four and five in
the afternoon, the enemy were driven from their last defence in the
town, except the Convent of S. Teresa, and retired into the castle.
By that time the town was on fire in many places; and, to add to the
horrors of a place taken by assault, the vindictive enemy fired upon it
from their upper defences, and rolled their shells into it.
About three in the afternoon, the day, which had been sultry, became
unusually cold; the sky was overcast, and between the blackness of the
sky, the rain, and the smoke, it was as dark as a dusky evening; but
when darkness would in its natural course have closed the town was
in flames. A dreadful night of thunder and rain, and wind succeeded;
and it was made far more dreadful by man than by the elements. It is
no easy task for officers, after the heat of an assault, to restrain
successful troops who are under no moral restraint; and on this day so
many officers had perished that the men fancied themselves exempt from
all control. They sacked the place, and gave way to such excesses that
if the French could have suspected the state of drunkenness to which
men so excellently brave in action had reduced themselves, they might
very probably have retaken part of the town, if not the whole. The loss
of the assailants amounted to nearly 1600 British and 800 Portugueze
killed and wounded; 700 of the garrison were made prisoners.
♦THE FRENCH DEFEATED IN THEIR ATTEMPT TO RELIEVE IT.♦
On the morning of the assault the French made a second effort for
the relief of S. Sebastian’s. Three divisions of Spaniards, under
General Freyre, occupied the heights of S. Marcial on the left of the
Bidassoa, and the town of Irun, thus covering the road to the besieged
fortress. The position was exceedingly strong, the front and the left
being covered by the river, and their right resting on the Sierra de
Haya. They were supported by the first division of British infantry,
under Major-General Howard, and by Lord Aylmer’s brigade on the left,
and in the rear of Irun; and by Longa’s division near the Sierra in
rear of their right. Still farther to secure them, Lord Wellington,
knowing that during the 29th and 30th the enemy were assembling a
large force at Vera, moved two brigades of the 4th division to the
left of the Sierra, and occupied the heights on the right of that
mountain, between the convent of S. Antonio and Vera; and Lezaca with a
Portugueze brigade, to prevent it from being turned in that direction.
On the 30th also he moved Major-General Inglis’s brigade to the bridge
of Lezaca, and gave orders for the troops in the Puertos of Etchalar,
Zugarramundi, and Maya, to attack the enemy’s weakened post in front of
their positions.
Before daylight on the 31st the enemy crossed the Bidassoa with a
very large force, two divisions by a ford in front of the left of the
Spaniards, while a third, under protection of batteries which they had
thrown up during the night, were constructing a bridge over the river,
about three quarters of a mile above the high road. The two divisions
immediately attacked the Spaniards along the whole front of their
position on the heights of S. Marcial. The attack was made with that
confidence which the French had always felt when the Spaniards were
opposed to them in regular action; but the boldness with which they
commenced it was ill maintained; for the Spaniards waited firmly till
the assailants had nearly reached the summit of the steep ascent, then
charged them with the bayonet whilst in column, and instantly broke
them. As often as the French repeated the attack so often were they
driven back, some of them even across the river, where many in their
haste lost the direction of the ford and perished. The division which
had been pushed across the Bidassoa to protect the construction of the
bridge, made a subsequent attempt on the right of the Spaniards, with
no better success. But as the course of the river was immediately under
the heights on the French side, and a considerable bend in that part
of the stream was flanked by their batteries, the Spaniards could not
prevent the pontooners from completing their work; and in the afternoon
the enemy marched over a considerable body, which, with the divisions
who had crossed at the fords, made another desperate attack upon the
Spanish position. Lord Wellington, who pronounced the conduct of the
Spaniards on this day to have been equal to that of any troops whom he
had ever seen engaged, appeared in front of their line at the moment
when the French advanced to this last attack. He was received with loud
and repeated shouts, and the men, proud of supporting in his sight
the character which they felt that they had this day deserved, again
beat back the assailants. They showed themselves indeed so capable of
defending their post without assistance, that the two British divisions
were not brought into action, the nature of the ground being such that
they could not be employed on the flanks of the enemy’s corps. When the
French were at length convinced that all their efforts were in vain,
they took advantage of a violent storm and the darkness which came on
with it, to retire hastily from this front. Many took to the river
in their fear, to sink or swim if they should miss the fords; and in
this attempt so many were seen to perish, the river being swoln by the
storm, that latterly the fugitives crowded to the bridge, and at last
pressed upon it in such numbers, that it sunk beneath their weight, and
most of those who were passing at the moment were lost.
About the same time that the enemy commenced their operations on this
side, a very strong body of their infantry crossed the Bidassoa, in two
columns, by the fords below Salon, in front of the position occupied by
the 9th Portugueze brigade. Major-General Inglis moved with his brigade
to their support, and finding he could not maintain the heights between
Lezaca and the river, withdrew to those in front of the convent,
protecting there the right of the Spanish army, and at the same time
the approach by Oyarzun to S. Sebastian’s. Major-General Kempt meantime
moved a brigade of the light division to Lezaca, by which he kept
the enemy in check; and the Earl of Dalhousie was directed likewise
to support Major-General Inglis; but being engaged at the Puerto de
Zugarramundi, he could not begin his march till late in the afternoon,
nor arrive before the ensuing morning, when the operations were at an
end. For the enemy, when they found that Major-General Inglis was in
a position from which they could not dislodge him, and knew that they
had completely failed at the heights of San Marcial, felt that their
situation on the Spanish side of the Bidassoa was becoming every moment
more critical, and retired during the night. But the river had then
so risen, and was still rising so fast, that the rear of their column
was obliged to cross by the bridge at Vera: and to effect this, they
attacked the posts of the light division about three in the morning.
If a sufficient force could have been spared for guarding this point,
a very considerable part of Soult’s army might have been taken.
The bridge was not wide enough for more than three or four to pass
abreast, and a continual fire was poured upon it from the walls of a
neighbouring convent, so that they were believed to have lost not less
than a thousand men in passing. The loss of the allies on this day
amounted to 400 killed, about 2060 wounded, and 150 missing, nearly
1600 of these being Spaniards. The brunt of the action had fallen upon
them; and in this respect it was a day of great importance, because it
made the French feel their own growing inferiority, and apprehend that
San Marcial would teach the Spaniards the same confidence in themselves
which the Portugueze had learned at Busaco. Among the British officers
who fell was Captain Douglas of the 51st: he is thus mentioned in a
work wherein so many crimes have been recorded, because his brother
officers bore this testimony to him, that he was the only man they knew
of whom they could truly say there was nothing in him in the slightest
degree approaching to a vice. The men of his company carried him off
the field, made his grave carefully, and gave him a soldier’s burial
with all the marks of respect which they could bestow.
The effort on Soult’s part had been great, and was deemed so by Lord
Wellington, for a Portugueze brigade was withdrawn from the besieging
corps during the assault. As soon as the town had been carried, ♦SIEGE
OF THE CASTLE OF S. SEBASTIAN’S.♦ preparations were made for reducing
the castle. The enemy still held the convent of S. Teresa, the garden
of which, inclosed as usual in such establishments with a high wall,
reached a good way up the hill, toward their upper defences; and from
thence they marked any who approached within reach of fire, so that
when a man fell, there was no other means of bringing him off than
by sending the French prisoners upon this service of humanity. The
town presented a dreadful spectacle both of the work of war and of
the wickedness which in war is let loose. It had caught fire during
the assault, owing to the quantity of combustibles of all kinds which
were scattered about; the French rolled their shells into it from the
castle; and while it was in flames, the troops were plundering, and
the people of the surrounding country flocking to profit by the spoils
of their countrymen. The few inhabitants who were to be seen seemed
stupified with horror; they had suffered so much, that they looked with
apathy at all around them, and when the crash of a falling house made
the captors run, they scarcely moved. Heaps of dead were lying every
where, English, Portugueze, and French, one upon another, with such
determination had the one side attacked and the other maintained its
ground. Very many of the assailants lay dead on the roofs of the houses
which adjoined the breach. The bodies were thrown into the mines and
other excavations, and there covered over so as to be out of sight,
but so hastily and slightly that the air far and near was tainted; and
fires were kindled in the breaches to consume those which could not be
otherwise disposed of. The hospital presented a more dreadful scene,
... for it was a scene of human suffering; friend and enemy had been
indiscriminately carried thither, and were there alike neglected; ...
on the third day after the assault many of them had received neither
surgical assistance, nor food of any kind; and it became necessary to
remove them on the fifth, when the flames approached the building:
much of this neglect would have been unavoidable, even if that humane
and conscientious diligence, which can be hoped for from so few, had
been found in every individual belonging to the medical department,
the number of the wounded being so great; and little help could be
received from the other part of the army, because it had been engaged
in action on the same day. ♦EXCESSES COMMITTED IN THE CITY.♦ The
hideous circumstances of war were indeed at this time to be seen in S.
Sebastian’s, divested of its pomp: and to a thoughtful mind its actual
horrors were less painful than the brutal insensibility with which they
were regarded by men whose nature, originally bad, had been worsened
by their way of life. Great exertions were made to stop the excesses
which at such times are to be expected; but the utmost exertions can do
little among troops who believe themselves privileged by the occasion
to break loose from the restraints of military discipline, and who are
not more fearless of death than they are, while in health and strength,
of judgment. The town was sacked: had it been an enemy’s town, it could
not have suffered more from its captors. Sentries were placed at all
the outlets to make the plunderers lay down their booty, but all that
could be secreted about the person was carried off; and the Spaniards
of Passages and other places were ready, as at a fair, to purchase the
spoils of their countrymen. A reproach was brought upon the British
name. The French seized the opportunity of endeavouring to fix upon
their enemies the same odious imputation which they themselves were
conscious of having deserved; they accused the British of setting fire
to the town, indiscriminately murdering friend and foe, and pillaging
the place under the eyes of their officers, who made no attempt to
restrain them. These charges were brought forward by that party in
Spain who, without inclining in ♦SEPTEMBER.♦ the slightest degree
toward the French, manifested on all occasions their jealousy and their
envious dislike of England; and they added the farther calumny, that
the captors had plundered the churches, and, by giving way to excess of
every kind, lost the favourable time for following up their success
and taking the castle. All was false, except that great excesses had
been committed: the difference between the conduct of the British at
S. Sebastian’s, and that of the French at Porto, Tarragona, and other
places, being this, that the crimes which the former perpetrated
were checked as soon as they could be by the officers, acknowledged
by the generals as evils which they had not been able to prevent,
severely condemned by them, and punished: those of the French had been
systematic and predetermined; the men were neither checked nor reproved
by their generals; and so far were the generals from receiving any
mark of disapprobation from their government, that the acts themselves
were ostentatiously proclaimed in bulletins and official reports, in
the hope of intimidating the Portugueze and Spaniards, and without any
sense of shame.
♦THE GARRISON SURRENDERS.♦
Preparations were immediately made for reducing the castle, the plan
being to erect batteries on the works of the town, and breach the Queen
batteries, the Mirador, and the keep. On the 3rd, some discussion
concerning a surrender was entered into with General Rey, which he
broke off when it was required that the garrison should lay down their
arms and become prisoners of war. These terms the general knew he
could obtain at the last moment, and possibly he still entertained
some hope of holding out till another effort could be made for his
relief; as, even after he had retired into the castle, some artillery
and ammunition reached him there from France, it being impossible,
upon such a coast, and when the ports were so near, entirely to cut
off the communication. The Convent of S. Teresa was taken on the 5th:
by this time the flames, which continued still to spread, had driven
the troops from their more advanced stations, and made them retire to
the ramparts. By the evening of the 7th, the roofs of such houses and
steeples as remained unburnt were prepared ♦SEPT. 8.♦ for musketry;
and on the following morning nearly sixty pieces of ordnance opened on
the castle. With great exertions, directed by Captain Smith, of the
navy, guns were got up the steep scarp of the islet of S. Clara, and
there mounted on a battery, which the sailors manned. The wall of the
Mirador was so hard, that the balls at first split upon striking it;
nevertheless, it was peeled by the continual fire, and was beginning to
come down, when the white flag was hung out. All the enemy’s batteries
were at that time utterly demolished, those on the sea line alone
excepted; the guns dismounted, the carriages knocked to pieces, and
the castle in ruins. There were no barracks, nor any covering for the
troops except holes, which had been excavated in every nook and corner,
to serve for them as splinter-proofs; and of these many were filled
with water, much rain having fallen during the preceding week: but for
the prisoners, who were in the hands of the garrison, there was no
shelter, and many of them were killed by the fire of their friends.
The French general might have obtained credit for an act of generous
humanity, and of policy as well, if he had released these prisoners,
sending a trumpet with them to declare his reasons for so doing, and
to express his reliance upon British honour that an exchange should be
allowed for them; for this no doubt would have been agreed to, though
the advantage was so manifestly to the enemy.
General Rey, on displaying the white flag, said he would send officers
to confer on the terms of surrender. Sir Thomas Graham replied, no
others would be offered than what had already been stated; the garrison
must lay down their arms, and be made prisoners of war. During the
whole siege they had lost about 2400 men, and they had now eaten all
their horses. Yielding of necessity now, they were especially anxious
that they should be under British protection, be embarked at Passages
as the nearest port, and conveyed directly to England; and this was
promised. One article requested that the _Commissaire de Guerre_,
having with him the widow and the two daughters of his brother, who had
died at Pamplona, might be allowed to return with them to France, he
being their chief support. General Rey was indignant that an article
about women should appear in the capitulation of such a garrison, and
after such a defence; and this he expressed coarsely, as if a soldier
disparaged his character by showing any consideration for humanity!
♦SEPT. 10.♦
On the 10th, the Portugueze were formed in the streets of the ruined
city; the British on the ramparts. The day was fine, after a night of
heavy rain. About noon the garrison marched out at the Mirador gate.
The bands of two or three Portugueze regiments played occasionally;
but altogether it was a dismal scene, amid ruins and vestiges of fire
and slaughter: a few inhabitants were present, and only a few. Many
of the French soldiers wept bitterly, there was a marked sadness in
the countenances of all, and they laid down their arms in silence.
Colonel S. Ouary, the commandant of the place, had been uniformly
attentive to the officers who had been prisoners. When this kindness
was now acknowledged, he said that he had been twice a prisoner in
England; that he had been fifty years in the service, and on the 15th
of the passing month he should have received his dismission: he was
now sixty-six, he said, an old man, and should never serve again; and
if he might be permitted to retire into France, instead of being sent
to England, he should be the happiest of men. Sir Thomas Graham wrote
to Lord Wellington in favour of the kind-hearted old man, and it may
be believed that the application was not made in vain. Captain Sougeon
was recognized at this time, who, on the day of the first assault, had
descended the breach to assist our wounded: “There,” said he, pointing
to his men, “are the remains of the brave 22nd; we were 250 the other
day, now not more than 50 are left.” Lord Wellington, upon being
informed of his conduct, sent him to France. Eighty officers and 1756
men were all the remains of the garrison, and of these 25 officers and
512 men were in the hospital.
CHAPTER XLV.
OPERATIONS OF THE ANGLO-SICILIAN ARMY. THE ALLIES ENTER FRANCE.
PASSAGE OF THE BIDASSOA, THE NIVELLE, AND THE NIVE. TREATY
BETWEEN BUONAPARTE AND FERDINAND, AND CONSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS
OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT.
♦1813.♦
♦THE REMAINS OF ROMANA’S ARMY RETURN FROM THE NORTH.♦
During the siege of S. Sebastian’s, some few hundred men, the remains
of Romana’s army, who had not been able to effect their escape from
the North, when their magnanimous general and their comrades went to
take part in their country’s struggle, and most of them to perish in
it, returned to Spain. The resistance to Buonaparte’s tyranny, which
the Spaniards and Portugueze had begun, had prepared the way for the
deliverance of the continent, and thus eventually restored them to
their native land.
♦LORD W. BENTINCK INVESTS TARRAGONA.♦
The Anglo-Sicilian army had no sooner returned to Alicante from its
ill-conducted expedition against Tarragona, than every exertion was
used for enabling it to take the field, and profit by the retreat of
the enemy from Valencia. Lord William Bentinck entered that capital
on the 9th of July, and leaving General Elio to observe Murviedro,
proceeded with his own troops, and such of the Spaniards as he could
♦AUGUST.♦ find means of providing with subsistence, for in this
essential point there was the greatest difficulty. Having arrived at
Vinaroz, he detached a corps under Lieutenant-General Sir William
Clinton by sea to Tarragona, in the hope of preventing the enemy from
dismantling that fortress, if such should be their intention. When
the fleet arrived off Tarragona, a French force was discovered in
its vicinity; but there were no indications of any such purpose. The
detachment, therefore, landed at the Col de Balaguer; and there, Lord
William, having crossed the Ebro at Amposta on flying bridges, joined
him with the advance of the army, some cavalry, and artillery; the
whole then moved forward to the village of Cambrils, and on the first
of August they invested Tarragona: that operation was well performed,
and cover was obtained three hundred yards nearer than the most
advanced point which had been occupied during the previous attack.
Preparations were now observable in the place for its destruction; but
it was evident that the ♦COL. JONES’S ACCOUNT, V. 2. 201.♦ garrison
could not effect this in the presence of the allied army, unless
Marshal Suchet came in force to cover the operation. That general
was at Barcelona; his troops were at Villafranca and at Villanova de
Sitges, being thus divided to lessen the difficulty of subsisting
them; and his advance was at Arbos and at Vendrell: sometimes he
seemed to be menacing a movement against the allies, and sometimes
preparing for a farther retreat. Lord William, with such an enemy in
such force so near, would not expose himself to a failure like that
of Sir John Murray; and he deferred beginning the siege and landing
his heavy artillery, till the Duque del Parque’s army should come up,
and Sarsfield with his Catalan troops. The Duque joined on the third;
the Catalans were actively employed upon the right flank of Suchet’s
divisions, cutting off his supplies; and on the 7th they surprised a
battalion who were guarding the mills at S. Sadurni, and occasioned
them a loss of 200 men. Sarsfield joined on the 11th. But as the
appearance of the allies before Tarragona prevented the garrison from
demolishing the works, so on the other hand it gave Marshal Suchet time
for bringing together as large a force as he thought the occasion
required. The British general, like Generals Maitland and Murray before
him, felt all the difficulties of his situation; he was conscious that
his ill-composed army was far from being efficient in proportion to
its numerical strength; he had no means of feeding the Spanish part of
that army if the enemy should manœuvre upon his flank, so as to cut
off the supplies which they obtained from the country; he had found
it impracticable to throw a bridge over the Ebro; and should he be
compelled in his present situation to retreat, the ships could not
take off more than a third of his forces. But while the prudence of
remaining in that situation became a serious question, preparations for
breaking ground were carried on.
♦SUCHET RAISES THE SIEGE.♦
Suchet meantime acting as if he were opposed to a much greater force,
had waited till Generals Decaen, Maurice Mathieu, and Maximien Lamarque
could join him with 8000 men belonging to the army of Catalonia; with
this accession his numbers were estimated at from 27,000 to 30,000.
They effected their junction at Villafranca on the 14th. The first
attempt was by the coast road; but Admiral Hallowell effectually
checked this movement, by stationing his troops as close as possible
to the low sandy shore in front of the Torre del Barra. On the ensuing
morning Lord William was informed that a large body of the French were
advancing through the inland country by the Col de Santa Christina;
and in the evening a sharp skirmish took place between the advance of
hussars and the cavalry under Colonel Lord Frederick Bentinck, which he
sent forward to observe their motions: in this the Brunswick hussars
distinguished themselves, repulsing the enemy and making several
prisoners. Suchet advanced rapidly beyond the Gaya that day, while
Decaen advanced upon Valls and the Francoli. Lord William did not deem
it prudent to risk a general action before Tarragona; at nightfall,
therefore, he commenced his retreat, and when day broke the whole army
was out of sight of the city; the British, Germans, and Sicilians,
covering the road towards Tortosa, took up a position near Cambrils.
Sarsfield occupied Reus; and the Duque del Parque was directed to
proceed to the Col de Balaguer, where, if Suchet should push the
retreating army so as to make a general action necessary, it was
intended to await his attack. But the French commander had no such ♦THE
FRENCH ABANDON TARRAGONA.♦ purpose; his present object was to bring off
the garrison from Tarragona, and to demolish its fortifications, so
that they might afford no support to the allies. On the night of the
18th the works were blown up; and Marshal Suchet then withdrew for ever
from a place where, by the premeditated atrocities which were committed
at its capture, he has fixed upon his memory an indelible stain. The
demolition was effectual: the artillery consisted of about 200 pieces
of brass ordnance and 46 iron mortars; 50 of the former were left
uninjured; and he did not tarry long enough to destroy the quantity of
warlike stores which he had not the means of removing. Sarsfield on the
following day took possession of the city.
♦PLANS PROPOSED TO SUCHET BY MARSHAL SOULT.♦
Suchet soon fell back upon the line of the Llobregat, having drained
the plain of Villafranca of its resources. In a country thus exhausted,
General Copons declared it was not possible to provide for the whole
Spanish force under Lord William’s command; and in consequence of this,
and upon erroneous information that part of the French troops had been
detached to aid Marshal Soult, the British general, conformably to an
arrangement made with Lord Wellington, sent the Duque del Parque, with
the 4th Spanish army, to Zaragoza; and he reinforced the corps, then
employed under Elio, in the blockade of Tortosa. Early in September he
concentrated the greater part of his remaining force at Villafranca.
At this time Marshal Soult had proposed to Suchet that he should cross
the Pyrenees with the whole disposable force of the armies of Aragon
and Catalonia, and unite with him at Tarbes and at Pau, for the purpose
of re-entering Spain together by Oleron and Jaca, and making another
effort for the relief of Pamplona. A different project was offered
to his consideration by the minister at war, ... that he should as
much as possible occupy the enemy upon the Ebro: in either case a
reinforcement of conscripts was to be counted on. The difficulties in
the way of the first plan were soon perceived by Soult himself to be
insurmountable; and Suchet represented the danger of drawing after him
the Anglo-Sicilian army into the southern departments of France, which
were defenceless. But as a practicable though a perilous operation, he
offered to advance between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, with 70 pieces of
field and 30 of mountain artillery, to meet Soult, who might debouche
from Jaca with his infantry and cavalry, but without cannon. But for
this two things were necessary, ... that he should have conscripts to
place in the garrisons, and that before he marched from Catalonia he
should defeat the Anglo-Sicilians.
Lord William’s numbers were not equal to those which could be brought
against him, the want both of provisions and means of transport having
obliged him to leave Whittingham’s division at Reus and Valls; but
he had no suspicion that Suchet would advance against him. His army
was posted at Villafranca and in the villages in its front, as far
as the mountains on the Llobregat; the advance, under Colonel Adams,
consisting of the 27th British regiment, one Calabrian and three
Spanish battalions, with four mountain guns, occupied the pass of
Ordal, on the main road, about ten miles in their front, and the same
distance from the enemy’s posts on the Llobregat. The pass was so
strong that Lord William was without any apprehension of its being
forced, especially as he thought the probable point of attack ♦SUCHET
SURPRISES THE ALLIES AT THE PASS OF ORDAL.♦ would be by turning his
left at Martorell and San Sadurni, where Copons was posted. Nor,
indeed, was it likely Suchet would have confined himself to the front
attack of a position which was strong there, but open on both flanks,
unless, because such an attack was improbable, he thought the enemy
might be taken there by surprise, before they had strengthened the post.
Accordingly, having concerted his plans with General Decaen, he
collected the divisions of Harispe and Habert, with his cavalry at the
bridge of Molins del Rey, and at eight o’clock on the night of the
12th moved for the pass. The allies were reposing in position, when
about midnight their piquets were rapidly driven in, and they were
presently attacked in force. An old work which commanded the main road
was well defended by the Calabrians, till they were driven from it by
the repeated attacks of superior numbers; they rallied then about sixty
paces in rear of it, behind some old ruins, and there, in conjunction
with the Spaniards, who were close on their left, stood their ground
some time longer. But in a night attack the assailants, acting upon
ground with which they were well acquainted, and on a concerted plan,
had greatly the advantage over a very inferior force who were taken by
surprise. Colonel Adams and the two officers next in succession to him
were badly wounded, and obliged to quit the field; owing to the changes
this occasioned, the regular directions were interrupted, and the
ground in consequence was disputed much longer than it ought to have
been against a force so greatly superior, both British and Spaniards
maintaining it so resolutely that the right and the centre were nearly
destroyed in their position. The Calabrian corps on the left fell back
along the hills, and endeavoured to reach San Sadurni, which Manso
occupied with his brigade. Their hope was to rejoin the army by the
road leading from thence to Villafranca; but after crossing the river
Noya, in front of San Sadurni, they were attacked by a considerable
column, and forced back toward the Barcelona road: they succeeded,
however, in making their way to Sitges, and there effected their
embarkation on the following night. The guns were taken by the enemy,
but most of the fugitives joined Manso.
♦THE ANGLO-SICILIANS RETREAT.♦
As soon as the attack was known at head-quarters, Lord William put the
army in motion to sustain his advance; but before any reinforcements
could reach the spot, the French had carried every point, and it
remained for him then either to retreat without loss of time, or give
battle to an enemy superior in numbers and flushed with success, upon
ground which afforded no advantage of position. He determined therefore
upon retiring; Major-General Mackenzie, with the 2d division, covered
the retreat during the most difficult part of its execution, to the
village of Monjoz; Sarsfield moved to the left of Villafranca, by the
hilly and woody country on that side; and the British, Germans, and
Sicilians, took the main road by the villages of Monjoz and Arbos.
Marshal Suchet expected that Decaen would arrive before Villafranca in
time to co-operate with him, and force the allies to an action; but
that general had to cross the Llobregat and the Noya, and was delayed
also in the defiles by Manso, and by the Calabrese, with whom he fell
in when they were making for San Sadurni. His own cuirassiers and
dragoons, under General Meyer, pressed with very superior numbers,
near Monjoz, upon the cavalry under Lord Frederic Bentinck, who
covered the retreat, and some sabre strokes were exchanged between
the two leaders. At length a most timely and vigorous charge was
made simultaneously by Lord Frederic with the 20th dragoons, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Hawker, and the Sicilians, and by Lieutenant-Colonel
Schrader with the German hussars, by which the enemy were driven back,
and so completely checked, that they made no farther attempt upon the
retreating army; so it reached Vendrells that evening, without any
loss. During the night it retired to Altafulla, and on the evening
following took up its ground in front of Tarragona, as the nearest
protecting situation; the Spaniards, under Sarsfield, moving upon Reus.
The ruins of Tarragona could have afforded little support if the allies
had not been better protected by their own strength, and by the opinion
which Suchet had learned to entertain of them. He advanced no farther
than Villafranca in pursuit; and after exacting a contribution from the
distressed inhabitants, returned to Barcelona.
♦THE COMMAND DEVOLVES UPON SIR WILLIAM CLINTON.♦
At this time the uneasy state of affairs in Sicily, and the ill success
of political changes there, as premature as they were well intended,
rendered it necessary for Lord William Bentinck to repair thither,
and the command of the army devolved upon Lieutenant-General Sir
William Clinton. That general was left with an inadequate force, and
under discouraging circumstances, to attend to objects which were of
no inconsiderable importance to the common cause. He had to provide
against the likelihood of Suchet’s availing himself of his late success
to relieve or to withdraw his garrisons in Valencia or on the Ebro; and
he had to occupy the attention of that able commander so as to prevent
him from sending any considerable detachment to take part in Soult’s
operations against Lord Wellington. It was found impracticable to
construct a bridge upon the Ebro as low down as Amposta; and if it had
not been so, he could not have spared troops enough from other more
important services, to protect it against the sallies of the strong
garrison in Tortosa. The best course therefore which he could pursue
seemed to be that of repairing the defences of Tarragona, as far as
time and means permitted, so as to render it a point of support. Well
was it for the Anglo-Sicilian army that, notwithstanding the credit
it had lost by Sir John Murray’s precipitate retreat, and the recent
loss which it had sustained at Ordal, it had yet impressed Marshal
Suchet with a most respectable opinion of its ability in the field;
skilful as he was, nothing but that opinion withheld him from acting
vigorously against it when he had it so greatly at advantage. His
disposable force at this time was not short of 25,000 men, with a large
body of cavalry; better troops he could not desire; and their supplies
were protected by the possession of several important fortresses, all
which were garrisoned well. The Anglo-Sicilian army amounted barely to
12,000 effective men, including a small body of cavalry; about half of
these were British and Germans, the remainder Italians and Sicilians in
British pay, on whom, though they were not ill-disciplined, the same
confidence could not be placed in the presence of an enemy. There were
about 11,000 Spanish troops whose services General Clinton might have
commanded, if there had been means for rendering them available, but
they were in a state almost of destitution; without pay, ill-clothed,
and worse fed; and he had no control (as his predecessors had had) over
the first Spanish army, which army also was prevented by its wants
from taking the field, except occasionally, and then from keeping
it, except for a very short time. With the commander of that army,
General Copons, and with the other leaders, the best understanding
prevailed; nor indeed were there among all the Spaniards better men
or more distinguished officers than some of them, ... the names of
Manso and Eroles will be held in honour as long as the Catalans
retain any of that national spirit by which they are so honourably
distinguished. They might be expected to check any movement of the
enemy on the side of Lerida, or towards Tarragona; and to interrupt
their communication with France along the inland road, by which their
supplies were principally brought; but direct co-operation was not to
be looked for where there was no unity of command, and ... on the one
part ... all but a total want of means. Even the troops in British
pay suffered great privations, their communication with the depôts at
Malta and Gibraltar being interrupted because of the plague. But the
tide of the enemy’s fortunes had now turned; and all difficulties were
met cheerfully by the allies, in the sure hope that their perseverance
would soon be crowned with success. As soon as arrangements were made
for restoring the works at Tarragona, and for supplying as far as
possible the Spaniards who were attached to the Anglo-Sicilian army,
head-quarters were established at Villafranca; the troops which had
been cantoned at Reus, Valls, and other places in the environs of
Tarragona, were ordered to occupy an advanced line of cantonments:
a force, consisting of cavalry, with some field artillery, and
Sarsfield’s Spanish division of about 5000 infantry, were stationed
at Villafranca; the enemy’s movements on the Llobregat were narrowly
observed; and the remainder of the allied troops (with the exception
of those who carried on the works at Tarragona) were so distributed,
that, upon any emergency, they could be assembled at Villafranca in
four-and-twenty hours.
Meantime, on the opposite side of the peninsula, an ♦POSITION OF THE
ARMIES ON THE PYRENEAN FRONTIER.♦ interval of seeming inactivity had
followed the capture of S. Sebastian’s; but the time, though marked
by no military movements, was busily employed in preparing for them,
by closing up the troops, replacing the ammunition, and re-organizing
those divisions which had suffered most. The opposing armies were in
sight of each other. There was something mournful as well as impressive
to a thoughtful mind in the contrast between the stupendous scenery of
the Pyrenees and the diminutive appearance of field-works, and large
armies upon such a theatre: “the little huts, and the less beings who
inhabited them,” might have been overlooked as mere specks in the
prospect, had it not been for the more mournful knowledge that these
tens of thousands were collected there for life or for death; one party
having been sent thither by the wicked will of an individual drunk
with ambition, and the other brought there by the duty and necessity
of resisting his lust of power. The troops who covered the blockade
of Pamplona suffered severely from wet and cold, and were unavoidably
subject to privations from which their more fortunate comrades near the
coast were exempt. When the clouds opened they could see the fertile
country of the enemy beneath them, in sunshine. During the weeks of
hard, irksome duty, passed thus in a situation where exertion and
enterprise were not required, but in their stead continual vigilance
and patience, desertions became frequent; they were most numerous, as
might be expected, among the Spaniards, because they were in their own
country; and least, in a remarkable degree, among[2] the Portugueze.
It was now no longer in Buonaparte’s power to allot conscripts by
the hundred thousand for the consumption ♦LEVY ORDERED IN FRANCE FOR
SOULT’S ARMY.♦ of his war in the Peninsula. A levy of 30,000 was
all that could be ordered to reinforce Soult’s army; “the armies of
Spain, it was admitted, having been compelled to yield before ♦SPEECH
OF M. REGNAUD.♦ superior numbers, and the advantages which the enemy
drew from their maritime communications, needed reinforcement; for
England, while in the north of Europe it lavished its intrigues and
its promises, was not less lavish in the south of its resources and
sacrifices. The proposed levy, however, raised in the departments
adjacent to the Pyrenees, would suffice to stop the successes upon
which the enemy were congratulating themselves too soon; it would
suffice for resuming the attitude which became France, and for
preparing the moment when England should no longer dispose of the
treasures of Mexico, for the devastation of both the Spains!” This
was the language of M. Regnaud de St. Jean d’Angely in an official
speech; and the senator, M. le Comte de Beurnonville, making a report
in the name of a special commission, spake in the same strain, ... a
strain that becomes doubly curious when compared with the events which
were so soon to follow. “England,” said he, “who intrigues much and
hazards little, has not dared to compromise her land forces by sending
them to combat in the north of Germany, and uniting them with the
Russian and Prussian phalanxes; she feared reverses which she could not
but foresee, and which for her would be irreparable. In this thorny
conjuncture, and that it might have the air of doing something for the
powers whom it had set to play, the cabinet of London had preferred
mingling the English troops with the Spanish and Portugueze _bands_,
being sure that it could withdraw them without inconvenience, according
to its interest. Hence that sudden augmentation of its force, which
had determined our armies to a retrograde movement; and these _bands_,
encouraged by some ephemeral successes, have carried their audacity
so far as to invest the places of S. Sebastian’s and Pamplona.” ...
Buonaparte’s ministers never thought proper to inform the senate that
these _bands_ soon carried their audacity a little farther, and took
them both. “The proposed levy,” it was added, “would enable the French
armies of the Peninsula to resume their ancient attitude.”
♦OCTOBER.
LORD WELLINGTON’S ORDERS UPON ENTERING FRANCE.♦
The orator, and the special commission for whom he spake, were
mistaken: it was England who resumed her ancient attitude, ... who
re-asserted and resumed her military superiority upon that ground
where her Plantagenets had displayed it. Her victorious armies were
at this time preparing to plant their banners in France, leading thus
the way to the general invasion of what the French in the pride of
their military strength had called the sacred territory. As soon,
indeed, as the enemy had been driven beyond the Pyrenees, the army
had looked forward to this with all the pride of the military spirit,
and of excited national feeling: the Spaniards and Portugueze talked
of retribution and revenge; and among the British, the question was
discussed whether or not they were to be freebooters. That question
was answered by Lord Wellington in the general order which he issued
as soon as the troops encamped among the Pyrenees. “The commander of
the forces,” said he, “is anxious to draw the attention of the officers
of the army to the difference of the situation in which they have been
hitherto, among the people of Portugal and Spain, and that in which
they may hereafter find themselves, among those of the frontiers of
France.” After observing that every military endeavour must thenceforth
be used for obtaining intelligence, and preventing surprise, he
proceeded to say that, notwithstanding the utmost precautions were
absolutely necessary, as the country in front of the army was the
enemy’s, he was particularly desirous that the inhabitants should be
well treated, and private property respected, as it had been till that
time. The officers and soldiers of the army, said he, must recollect,
that their nations are at war with France solely because the Ruler of
the French nation will not allow them to be at peace, and is desirous
of forcing them to submit to his yoke; and they must not forget that
the worst of the evils suffered by the enemy in his profligate invasion
of Spain and Portugal have been occasioned by the irregularities of
the soldiers and their cruelties, authorized and encouraged by their
chiefs, towards the unfortunate and peaceful inhabitants of the
country. To revenge this conduct on the peaceable inhabitants of France
would be unmanly and unworthy of the nations to whom the commander
of the forces now addresses himself; and at all events would be the
occasion of similar and worse evils to the army at large, than those
which ♦GENERAL ORDERS, JULY 9, 1813.♦ the enemy’s army have suffered
in the Peninsula, and would eventually prove highly injurious to the
public interest.
♦PASSAGE OF THE BIDASSOA.♦
Though it was not possible to act on the offensive upon a great scale,
till Pamplona should have surrendered, Lord Wellington determined with
the left wing of his army to cross the Bidassoa, and dislodge the enemy
from some strong ground which they occupied on the right of that river
as an advanced position; the key to it being the high steep mountain
called La Rhune, which fronts the passes of Vera and Etchalar. Mount
La Rhune is a remarkable spot; and its possession had been obstinately
contested in the campaign of 1794, because its summit served as a
watch-tower from whence the whole country between Bayonne and the
Pyrenees might be observed. The mountain itself is within the French
territory, but there is a chapel, or, in Romish language, a hermitage,
on its summit, which used to be supported at the joint expense of the
villages of Vera in Spain, and of Sarré, Ascain, and Urogne, in France;
people of different nations, and hostile feelings, being there drawn
together by the bond of their common faith.... The right of the army
being at Roncesvalles and Maya, could at any time descend from its
commanding situation into France.
♦THE BIDASSOA.♦
The Bidassoa, a river not otherwise remarkable than as forming the
boundary of two great kingdoms, rises on Mount Belat, flows down the
valley of Bastan, and, spreading into a broad stream after it has
passed Irun, enters the Bay of Biscay between the Point of Figueras
(a rocky promontory in which Mount Jaysquibel terminates) and the
heights on the French side. Mount Jaysquibel, which extends along the
coast from Passages to this point (its highest elevation being about
1700 feet), is separated from the chain of the Pyrenees by a broad
valley, along which the Vittoria road passes; at its foot stands the
old and melancholy town of Fontarabia, ... a name which Milton has made
familiar to English ears; the river rising sixteen feet there, and
forming a tide harbour, washes the ruins of its walls, which were blown
up in the war of 1794; but when the tide is out there is a considerable
extent of sand on both sides of the stream. The little town of Andaye,
famed for its brandy, is on the French shore opposite. The bridge,
which the enemy had destroyed in their retreat, is about a mile from
Irun, and a little below it is the Isle of Pheasants, better known by
its later name from the Conference held there in 1660, which brought
in its consequences so many evils, not upon Spain alone, but upon the
greater part of Europe. Between this island and the mouth of the river
three fords had been discovered: Spanish fishermen had been employed in
this service, and they performed it so well, as if pursuing the while
their ordinary occupation, that the French sentries on the opposite
bank never suspected their intent.
♦ATTACK OF THE FRENCH POSITION.♦
A stronger position as to all natural advantages can hardly be imagined
than that which the allies were to attack, after they should have
crossed the Bidassoa; the French had strengthened it by redoubts, by
_abattis_, and intrenchments at every knoll; the paths were hardly
practicable; it was laborious work even for an unarmed man to reach
points which were now to be assailed in the face of an enemy perfectly
prepared. But it was necessary to advance from a country where the
nature of the ground rendered it difficult to support the troops; and
where supplies for many of the corps were carried to the mountain
encampments on the heads of men and women, long strings of whom were
to be seen toiling up the steep and slippery ascents. Preparations
for the attack were made on the 6th, and the troops were under arms
and in motion soon after midnight. The tents were left standing, that
the enemy might discover no signs when dawn appeared of the intended
movement. It was a stormy night, with thunder and lightning, and some
rain, ... the rain not enough in any way to impede or increase the
difficulties of the attempt, and the storm in other respects favouring
it; for it moved in the same direction as the troops, and prevented
the enemy from hearing the noise of the artillery and pontoon train.
The storm was succeeded by an extraordinary sultry heat, what little
wind there was feeling like the breath of an oven. The 1st and 5th
divisions, with Wilson’s Portugueze brigade, were to cross the river in
three columns below, and one above, the bridge, and carry the French
intrenchments about and above Andaye; and General Freyre, with the
Spaniards, was to cross in three columns at the higher ford, and turn
the enemy’s left by carrying their intrenchments on the Montagne Verte,
and on the heights of Mandale. The troops arrived at their appointed
stations without having been noticed; and every thing thus far had
been so fortunately performed, that the enemy did not begin to fire
till the heads of the columns were nearly half over, when a rocket
was discharged from the steeple at Fontarabia, as the signal for the
simultaneous advance of the troops above.
Every thing succeeded perfectly. The 5th division was the first that
set foot on the French soil; they advanced under a brisk fire from the
enemy’s piquets, against the line which was hastily forming on the
nearest range of hills. The first came presently up, and the enemy
were driven from the works. Freyre was equally successful on his side;
the Spaniards rushed down the mountain, forded the river, and carried
the Montagne Verte. The affair began at eight, and at nine it was seen
that the huts of the mountain post had been set on fire and abandoned.
Meantime Baron Alten, with the light division, and with Longa’s,
attacked and forced the intrenchments on the Puerto de Vera; and Giron,
still farther on the right, attacked their position on Mount La Rhune.
The light division drove them from redoubts, and intrenchments, and
abattis, such, in the words of a distinguished officer then present,
“as men ought to have defended for ever;” and the Spaniards, in like
manner, carried every thing before them, till they reached the foot of
the rock on which the hermitage stands, which on that side presents a
craggy cliff, though on the other it is accessible by a gentle slope.
Even that post the Spaniards made several attempts to carry by storm,
which failed only because it was impossible to ascend there; the enemy,
therefore, remained in possession of the hermitage that night, and of
a rock on the same range of mountains with the right of the Spanish
troops. ♦BATTY’S CAMPAIGN IN THE WESTERN PYRENEES, P. 28.♦ In all
other parts the firing had ceased early in the afternoon, here it was
kept up till late at night; and the conical outline of the mountain
was seen far and wide by the light of this awful illumination. Some
time elapsed on the following morning before the fog cleared away
sufficiently for Lord Wellington to reconnoitre Mount La Rhune, the
prominent mountain there, towering above its neighbours; he perceived
that it was least difficult of access on its right, and that the
attack might advantageously be connected with that on the enemy’s
works in front of the camp of Sarré. Accordingly, he ordered the army
of reserve to concentrate to their right: Giron at the same time
attacked the post on the rock, and won it most gallantly; his troops
followed up their success, and carried an intrenchment upon a hill
which protected the right of the camp: the enemy immediately evacuated
all their works in order to defend the approaches to their camp, and
these posts were occupied by detachments which Lord Dalhousie sent
from the 7th division through the Puerto de Etchalar for this purpose.
Giron then established a battalion on the enemy’s left upon Mount La
Rhune. Night, opportunely for the enemy, prevented farther operations;
they retired under cover of the darkness both from the hermitage and
the camp, and the allied armies pitched their tents in France. The
British loss in these two days was 579 killed, wounded, and missing;
that of the Portugueze 233; that of the Spaniards 750. Sir Thomas
Graham, having thus established within the French territory the troops
who had so often been distinguished under his direction, resigned the
command to Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope, who had arrived from
Ireland the preceding day, and departed himself to take a command in
the Low Countries. As soon as the left of the allied army had made
this important movement, the enemy moved General Paris’s division from
Oleron to the neighbourhood of St. Jean de Pied-de-Port, and on the
night of the 12th they surprised and carried a redoubt in front of the
camp of Sarré, taking prisoners a piquet of forty Spaniards, and one
hundred pioneers. The redoubt was farther from the line, and from the
ground from whence it could be supported, than Lord Wellington had
supposed when he gave orders for occupying it; he left it, therefore,
now in their possession. On the following morning they made an attack
upon the advanced posts of the Andalusian army, hoping to regain the
works which they had constructed in front of the camp; but they were
repulsed with little difficulty.
The country which was now occupied by the contending armies had been
well disputed in the years 1793 and 1794, during the heat of the French
revolution, and men whose names afterwards became conspicuous served at
that time in both armies: Mendizabal and the high-minded Romana among
the Spaniards; among the French, Latour d’Auvergne; Moncey, one of the
few French Marshals who brought no reproach upon himself by rapacity or
cruelty; and Laborde, who will be remembered in Portugal for both, and
for having been the first French General whom Lord Wellington defeated.
In that war the Spaniards fought with the manifold disadvantage of
having a wretched administration, an ill-disciplined and worse provided
army, and a revolutionary spirit showing itself in some of their own
countrymen; yet they made a longer and sturdier resistance in the
Pyrenees than the French displayed when it was now their turn to
defend the passes and protect their own country from invasion. But,
honourable as it was for the armies of England, Portugal, and Spain
thus to have driven the enemy from Lisbon and Cadiz to the Pyrenees,
and pursued him into his own territories, the spirit in which that
invasion was undertaken was not less honourable to the allied nations
than the success of their arms. The French, indeed, as soon as they
apprehended that their own country must soon become the seat of war,
spoke with horror of what might be expected from the Portugueze and
Spaniards, remembering then with uneasiness, if not with shame and
remorse, the atrocities which they themselves had committed. Their hope
was that the peasantry would rise, and carry on that kind of war which
within the Peninsula had been found so destructive to the invaders;
and no endeavour was omitted for exciting them to such a course.
But a circumstance had happened to check this spirit upon its first
manifestation, a few days before the passage of the ♦CONDUCT OF THE
FRENCH PEASANTRY.♦ Bidassoa. The Portugueze, when they surprised and
took a French piquet on the side of Roncesvalles, were fired at by the
peasantry: they took fourteen of them, and these men were immediately
marched to Passages, there to be embarked for England as prisoners
of war. This treatment had the effect of intimidating the people,
while it awakened no spirit of vengeance, because it was perceived to
be nothing more than what was strictly just. That spirit might have
been roused if Lord Wellington had not by timely severity effectually
checked the license which the troops were but too ready to have taken,
and from which it had not been possible to protect the Spaniards in the
Pyrenean valleys. The French peasantry did not forsake their houses
when the allies crossed the Bidassoa. The inhabitants of the large
village of Urogne did not leave it till the battle approached, and
then they collected in an adjoining field; but they dispersed as soon
as flames broke out among their dwellings; for the troops who entered
it began to plunder ... they set several houses on fire, and drank to
such excess that, had the enemy been on the alert, he might easily have
captured or destroyed them. Some of the officers were more culpable
than the troops, for they used no exertions to prevent the outrages
which they saw. Lord Wellington, as soon as he was informed of this
misconduct, republished his former orders, and accompanied them with a
severe reprimand, declaring his determination not to command officers
who would not obey his orders, and of sending some of them, who had
been thus grossly unmindful of their duty, to England, that their names
might be brought under the notice of the Prince Regent.
It was now seen how much the moral conduct and character of an army
depends upon its general. Lord Melville once made the monstrous
assertion in Parliament that the worst men were the fittest for
soldiers. His strong understanding should have taught him better, if
his heart had failed to do so; and he was properly rebuked for it
by the Duke of Gloucester, who observed, that the men who had the
strictest sense of their personal duties were those who served their
country with most patience and most fidelity in war. But Mr. Wyndham’s
hope of recruiting our armies with men of a better description than
those who used to be forced or inveigled into it, or driven by
desperation to enlist, had not been realized, and the want of moral and
religious training was still left to be supplied by military discipline
... as far as that could supply it. Lord Wellington enforced that
means; and it is not the least of his many and eminent merits, that he
made such means effectual, without bringing upon himself any reproach
for undue severity. After the excesses at Urogne, not an inhabitant was
to be seen in the French territory; they had withdrawn more because
of these outrages, than in obedience to the injunctions of their
own government. But a proclamation was issued in French and Basque,
assuring them that their persons and property should be respected. Some
necessary examples of justice upon those who ventured to violate orders
so emphatically repeated, convinced the inhabitants that they might
trust to the word of the British general; and, after those examples
had been made, never, perhaps, since the days of the great Gustavus,
was such excellent discipline observed in an enemy’s country. Even
the Portugueze and Spaniards, whom it might have been thought almost
impossible to restrain from giving way to that desire of vengeance
which had been so wantonly, cruelly, and insolently provoked, obeyed
the injunction of the great commander who had beaten their invaders out
of Portugal and Spain, and demeaned themselves with such good order and
humanity, that the French often said their own armies were the foes
whom they dreaded.
♦PAMPLONA IS SURRENDERED.♦
Two pontoon bridges, and one bridge of boats, were laid over the
Bidassoa immediately after the passage had been effected; and works
were thrown up to strengthen the position, in which Lord Wellington now
waited for the surrender of Pamplona, that he might advance with his
whole strength. That city, the modern capital of Navarre (Olite, now a
miserably decayed place, was the ancient one), was the great bulwark
against the French on that side. Lord Wellington trusted to a sure
blockade for reducing it. Its wells supply it abundantly with water;
and it was provided with a corn-mill, the largest in existence of its
kind, to be worked by hand or by horses, and setting in motion four or
five grindstones of such dimensions that four-and-twenty loads of wheat
could be ground by each in a day. When corn began to fail for this
well-constructed mill, and there was little prospect of relief after
the failure of Soult’s great effort in the Pyrenees, the governor
made a bold attempt to obtain subsistence from the very force which
blockaded him: he sent to Don Carlos d’España, requiring him to furnish
7000 rations daily for the inhabitants of the city, whom, he said, he
could no longer afford to feed. Don Carlos, who knew that the French
general had, with characteristic effrontery, included his troops in
this estimate, replied, that, unless the inhabitants were fed as well
as the garrison, while any food lasted, he should hold the governor
responsible for their treatment, and would strictly inquire into this
when the place should be surrendered, as it must. When the stores were
nearly exhausted it was reported and believed that the enemy intended,
as they had done at Almeida, to blow up the works, and endeavour to
effect their escape: the attempt would have been far more hazardous;
but it is said to have been prevented by an intimation from Don Carlos,
that if the place were thus injured he would put the governor and all
the officers to death, and decimate the men. Towards the end of October
they proposed to surrender, on condition of being allowed to march into
France with six pieces of cannon; their second proposal was, that they
should march thither under an engagement of not serving against the
allies for a year and a day. Don Carlos replied, that he had orders not
to grant them a capitulation on any terms excepting that they should be
prisoners of war; and to this they declared they would never submit.
Upon these terms, nevertheless, on the last day of October, they
surrendered, being 4000 in number; and the Spanish general, setting an
example of proper determination on such an occasion, refused to grant
these till he had ascertained that none of the inhabitants had perished
during the blockade either through ill-treatment or for want.
♦MARSHAL SOULT’S POSITION ON THE NIVELLE.♦
Marshal Soult, meantime, was receiving a considerable reinforcement
of conscripts. Papers in all the languages of the allies were thrown
into the outposts, and distributed wherever it was likely they might be
found, inviting deserters, and denouncing vengeance if France should
be invaded: the whole French nation, it was said, was in arms, and
if the English and Spanish and Portugueze should set foot upon their
territory, they should meet with nothing but death and destruction.
Some expectation the French commander placed upon the hardships to
which the troops must be exposed, at that season, in the Pyrenees, upon
the weather, and in consequence the increased difficulty of supplying
the allied armies. Forage, indeed, had become so scarce that some of
the cavalry were reduced to graze their horses, which of course could
not long have been kept in condition without better food. The cattle
brought for the consumption of the troops through a great part of Spain
arrived in a jaded and lean condition, ... those which lived to reach
the place of slaughter, ... for the roads along which they had been
driven might easily be traced by their numerous carcasses, ♦NOVEMBER.♦
lying half-buried or unburied by the way-side, ... sad proofs of the
wasteful inhumanity of war! The weather had been more stormy than was
usual even on that coast and at that season. The transports at Passages
were moored stem and stern in rows, and strongly confined by their
moorings; yet they were considered in danger even in that land-locked
harbour: some were driven forward by the rising of the swell, while
others, close alongside, were forced backward by its fall, so that
the bowsprits of some were entangled in the mizen-chains of others.
The cold on the mountains was so intense that several men perished.
A piquet in the neighbourhood of Roncesvalles was snowed up: the
parties who were sent to rescue it drove bullocks before them as some
precaution against the danger of falling into chasms, and the men were
brought off; but the guns could not be removed, and were buried under
the snow in the ditch of the redoubt. Soult, since his failure in the
Pyrenees three months before, had been fortifying a formidable line of
works in them. The right rested upon the sea in front of S. Jean de
Luz, and on the left of the Nivelle; the centre on La Petite Rhune, and
the heights behind the village of Sarré; the left, consisting of two
divisions of infantry, under General Drouet, was on the right of the
river, on a strong height behind the village of Ainhoue, and on the
mountain of Mondarin, which protected the approach to that village.
Two divisions, under Generals Foy and Paris, were at St. Jean de
Pied-de-Port. This position described half a circle through Irogne,
Ascain, Sarré, Ainhoue, Espelette, and Cambo, the centre projecting
very much at Sarré. La Petite Rhune, though overtopped by the greater
hill of the same name, from which it is separated by a narrow valley,
is a very high ridge: from the sea to its foot the enemy’s front was
covered by a range of works: the ridge itself was strongly fortified;
and a range of high steep hills, extending from thence to Ainhoue, was
defended by a chain of redoubts near enough to protect each other. The
enemy’s centre was in great force upon this range; and there was a
strong corps in the village of Sarré, which was protected by a regular
closed work with ditch and palisades. Their left was thrown back, at
nearly an acute angle, upon Espelette.
♦PASSAGE OF THE NIVELLE.♦
The first intention was to turn this position, by advancing Sir
Rowland’s corps from Roncesvalles through St. Jean de Pied-de-Port;
this movement would turn the sources of the Nive, threaten Soult’s
rear, and compel him, it was thought, to abandon his works, and retire
beyond Bayonne; but this plan was given up upon full consideration,
Soult’s line being so short, and the road behind it so good, that he
might have it in his power to fall upon Sir Rowland with a superior
force, or to attack Sir John Hope when it would be difficult to
reinforce either; or he might retire untouched, and keep his army in
a condition to continue active and harass the allies in their winter
quarters. Lord Wellington resolved, therefore, to strike at the centre
of his position, strong as it was, and at the same time to attack the
heights of Ainhoue, which were its immediate support on the left. With
this view Sir Rowland had been ordered, as soon as Pamplona should
fall, to move leftward, into the valley of Bastan, and the cavalry to
close up his rear in readiness for supporting the right of Beresford’s
corps at Maya.
The enemy, fully expecting an attack, were always under arms at
daybreak, and remained in their redoubts till nightfall; and they
improved every day’s delay, which the state of the weather afforded
them, in strengthening their works, strong as the labour of three
months had already made them. The rain, indeed, continued so many days,
and so heavy, that many persons began to fear it would be impossible
for them to move; and Lord Wellington, with all his just confidence
in himself and in the troops which he commanded, could not but feel
how easily human strength and military skill might be baffled by
the elements. The weather cleared on the 4th; and on the 7th he met
Sir Rowland, Marshal Beresford, and all the chiefs of the right and
centre at Urdache, from whence he reconnoitred Ainhoue closely, and
pointed out the mode by which that part of the position was to be
attacked. The object was to force their centre, and establish the
army in rear of their right; and the attack was to be made by columns
of divisions, each led by the general officers commanding it, and
each forming its own reserve. Sir Rowland directed the movements of
the right, consisting of the 2d and 6th divisions, under Sir William
Stewart and Sir Henry Clinton, Sir John Hamilton’s Portugueze, and
Morillo’s Spanish division, Colonel Grant’s brigade of cavalry, a
brigade of Portugueze artillery under Lieutenant-Colonel Tulloh, and
three mountain guns under Lieutenant Robe. Marshal Beresford directed
the right of the centre, with the 3rd, 7th, and 4th divisions, under
Major-General Colville, Camp-Marshal Le Cor and Sir Lowry Cole. Giron
was to act on his immediate left with the Andalusian army of reserve.
Baron Alten’s light division, with three mountain guns, and Longa’s
corps, was to attack La Petite Rhune; Sir Stapleton Cotton to follow
the movement of the centre, with General Alten’s brigade of cavalry,
and three brigades of British artillery. Freyre, with the Galician
army, was to move from the heights of Mandale toward Ascain, prevent
the enemy from detaching troops from thence to the support of others,
and take advantage of any movement which they might make from their
right toward their centre; and Sir John Hope was to act along the
remainder of their line to the sea.
The 8th was the day intended for the attack, but the state of the roads
prevented the artillery and some of Sir Rowland’s brigade from coming
up; it was postponed therefore till the 10th. This opened with so clear
and beautiful a moonlight morning, that it was scarcely perceptible
when daylight began to predominate; and men who had served in India
were reminded of an Indian sky. Lord Wellington was on horseback at
five, and reached the point of attack at six: he found Sir Lowry Cole’s
division at its post, with 18 pieces of cannon at the head of the
column: it was on a sloping ridge, which ends in a high point above
the village of Sarré; and on that point was the redoubt which he was
to attack, and which had been made with the greatest care, having a
deep ditch, an _abattis_ in front, and _trous de loup_, so named from
their resemblance to the pit-falls in which wolves are taken. Giron
was close on his left, and Le Cor on the right, both in valleys. Lord
Wellington, Beresford, Sir Lowry, General Colville, and other staffs,
were in a little grove, which covered them, about 600 yards from the
redoubt, walking about till it was light enough to commence the attack.
Sir Lowry then drove in the enemy’s piquets, and the horse artillery
were enabled to gain the ridge, and open in front of the grove within
400 yards of the redoubt: their fire in return rattled through the
branches: Colonel Ross dashed forward, and opened six guns within 300
yards, which riddled the curtain: the French, however, stood firm,
till after about an hour’s firing they saw the Spaniards moving to
their rear, and the infantry advancing with ladders to escalade them;
they then leaped over the parapet and ran: ... they were about 300, of
whom some twenty were taken in the ditch, and not more than eight or
ten killed. The artillery was then rapidly advanced against the next
redoubt on the right, and that cost only about a quarter of an hour,
for it was abandoned with discreditable precipitation.
By this time the troops were advancing with great celerity over most
difficult ground. Lord Wellington moved on to the first redoubt, from
whence he could direct the movements of the Spaniards, and of the 3rd,
7th, and 4th divisions; one of those bursts of cheering which electrify
the hearers indicated his presence. Beresford advanced with the 3rd
and 7th, while the Spaniards attacked the village of Sarré by its
right, and Sir Lowry turned its left. Downie commanded the battalion
of Spaniards to whom this service was assigned, while Giron remained
in the valley with a brigade which was to support the light division;
and as in that situation it might not be seen when the village was
carried, Downie, as a signal, said he would send his aide-de-camp to
toll the church bell. He made the attack with great spirit: the enemy
in front of the village made a show of more determination than they
kept up, and they rushed from their second line as if ashamed of having
too hastily given up the first; but after some skirmishing they retired
to the second, and thence from the redoubts and heights cannonaded the
assailants. Downie carried the village most gallantly, and the bell
tolled. Sir Lowry meantime attacked and carried the works on the low
hills in the rear of Sarré, and there halted for orders.
Baron Alten, meanwhile, was equally successful in his operations.
He had formed the light division before daylight, in a ravine
separating the great and little La Rhune, and within 300 yards of the
intrenchments with which the face of La Petite Rhune was covered.
Rushing from thence as soon as the day opened, the troops forced
line after line: the enemy did not wait in their redoubts to be
assaulted; and the assailants having carried all the works, and formed
without farther opposition on the summit of the hill, were crossing
the valley to attack the right of the high range behind Sarré, when
Lord Wellington reached the point which Sir Lowry had gained. The
preliminary attacks having thus succeeded, the whole moved forward
against the intrenched range of heights which formed the strongest
part of the enemy’s position. The Spaniards on Giron’s left were not
sufficiently alert to support the light division: it was not for some
time that the guns could be got up over most difficult ground: part
of the 95th, who had gained the first high point, were attacked and
obliged to retire; and the enemy had the advantage till the Spaniards,
quickened by messages from Lord Wellington, came up; the French then
gave way, and the lower ridge, in the centre of the position opposite
to our two central columns, was immediately occupied. The Prince of
Orange, who was with Lord Wellington that day, was then sent to Marshal
Beresford, desiring him to attack that part of the high range in his
front, while Sir Lowry should at the same time assail it on his side.
It was now about ten o’clock, and before this simultaneous effort
could be made there was time to look at the position which was about
to be attacked. The mountain extends about twelve miles from Ascain
to Mondarin; only one valley intersects it, which is that through
which the Nivelle flows; but there are several dips in the range;
every higher point had its redoubt, and in the intervals the enemy
were formed in great strength, some in lines, some in columns, with
sharp-shooters half way down the hills. A friend of Lord Wellington’s
said at the time to Sir George Murray, that he should expect a very
difficult task here, if he had not seen the amazing superiority of our
troops in the attack on Sarré. Sir George replied, “It is impossible to
say how that position may be defended; it is very formidable, but we
probably shall get it very easily; when the French see the red coats
they know we are determined to carry our point, and they never dispute
it long.” The troops justified this brave confidence; six columns began
to ascend, with a chain of sharp-shooters in their front; and never
could greater intrepidity be displayed than that with which the British
and Portugueze advanced against strong works, or solid columns at the
top of steep ascents, where they were frequently obliged to use their
hands as well as feet in climbing. When they approached a redoubt, they
halted a few minutes to take breath: a party was sent to turn it: the
sharp-shooters went close up, and another party went straight at it in
front, with as much confidence as if to charge a regiment on a plain:
when they got within twenty or thirty paces, the enemy uniformly fled,
and the assailants being out of breath, could overtake but few of them.
Most of these redoubts had a glacis, with an _abattis_ in front, which
gave them time to get off. From one large one, which was attacked by
the 21st Portugueze regiment, the garrison continued to fire till the
assailants jumped into the ditch; then the French hastened out at the
rear with all alacrity.
Lord Wellington ascended in the interval between the 7th and 4th
divisions. Just as he reached the summit of the range at one of its
dips, Beresford and Colville, with the 3rd division, had carried a
very high hill, crowned with a strong stockaded redoubt, which was, in
fact, the key of the position, and looked down upon the whole range on
both sides. The 40th suffered here from having pushed on too fast. The
allies were now gaining the upper ridge on all sides, and the artillery
attempted to follow: Ross’s troop was the only one which succeeded, and
that by two hours’ of the utmost exertion, and by partly making a road.
Sir Lowry, with the 4th division, reached the top at a lower part:
two brigades of the enemy were formed upon a height on his left; and
beyond them, on a very high point above Ascain, was a large and strong
redoubt, manned by a battalion of infantry. The light division was
toiling up the hill to the right of this work, and the Spaniards to the
left. Sir Lowry attacked the brigades: there were two generals at their
heads; but when the assailants came near, the French fired five or six
rounds in rather an unsoldier-like hurry, and then moved hastily off,
leaving the redoubt to its fate. Downie, seizing a colour, and waving
it as he advanced on horseback at the head of his battalion, led on
his men: they went against it gallantly, in spite of their officers,
who behaved ill: the light division commenced an attack upon it, in
which Colonel Barnard was wounded; and the 52nd lost a good many men
here, before Lord Wellington’s orders for desisting and summoning the
garrison could arrive. While this attack continued, the troops under
Beresford got so far in the rear of the redoubt, that it was impossible
for the garrison to retreat. They proved to be the first battalion of
the 88th regiment, nearly 600 strong: their colonel had been promoted
for his defence of S. Christoval’s, at the first siege of Badajoz: he
hesitated, parleyed, and requested to confer with his officers, and
subsequently with the non-commissioned officers; but it was in vain
to resist, and there was no way to escape; so they surrendered, and
laid down their arms on the glacis. Some of the men expressed their
indignation in coarse and indecent language at finding themselves
prisoners; and one serjeant, in particular, who wore the cross of the
Legion of Honour, cursed his fortune, that after being present in
the battles of Austerlitz and Wagram, he should now be captured in a
redoubt!
While these operations were going on in the centre, Sir Henry Clinton,
with the 6th division, having driven in the enemy’s piquets on both
banks of the Nivelle, crossed that river, covered the passage of Sir
John Hamilton’s Portugueze division, and ascended the hill in line,
scarcely firing a shot. The enemy were formed on the top of the hill,
as on a fine parade, in front of their huts, and with strong redoubts
on both flanks. The first party in its eagerness pushed on too fast,
and was driven back; but as the support came near they dashed forward
again; and the enemy, having thrown away their fire, went off in great
confusion, abandoning redoubts, camp, and all. Sir William Stewart’s
division carried a work on a parallel ridge in the rear. Morillo, by
attacking the enemy’s posts on the slopes of Mondarin, and following
them towards Itzatce, covered the advance of the whole to the heights
behind Ainhoue. Sir Rowland then forced the enemy to retire from those
heights towards the bridge of Cambo on the Nivelle; and Sir William
Stewart drove a division from Mondarin into the mountains toward
Baygorri. By two o’clock the allies had gained possession of the whole
of the position behind Sarré and Ainhoue.
The enemy, who had been in front of our centre, were now retiring
along the road to St. Pé, a village on the Nivelle, between three and
four miles distant. The nature of the country rendered it impossible
to cut them off; and Lord Wellington was obliged to wait an hour,
that the troops might take breath, and to see that the operations on
the right had succeeded; and that the 6th division, after carrying
the works in its front, had inclined to the left, and closed upon the
third. This having been ascertained, about three o’clock he directed
the 7th and 3rd divisions (being the right of the centre) to move by
the left of the river upon St. Pé, and the 6th by the right upon the
same place; while the 4th and light divisions, with Giron’s reserve,
held the heights above Ascain, covering the movement on that side,
and Sir Rowland covered it on the other. The Nivelle is from twenty
to thirty yards wide, rapid like a mountain stream, and not fordable;
there is a stone bridge at St. Pé, a wooden one half a mile lower
down, and a stone one about the same distance still lower, at the
village of Ayan. The first of these bridges was eagerly contested;
but, after some severe skirmishing, the allies effected the passage of
all three. Lord Wellington halted upon the heights above St. Pé; and,
having occupied the bridges and the villages, waited there for reports
from the right and left. During the whole day he could distinctly
hear, and generally see, the firing on the right, Sir Rowland’s
quarter; but the projecting base of La Rhune entirely prevented him
from seeing what passed on Sir John Hope’s side; and a steady breeze,
setting towards the sea, prevented any sound from reaching him in that
direction. But on that side there could be no anxiety, for it was not
intended to be the scene of serious action; and what service was to
be performed there, was performed well. The French had constructed a
redoubt round the ruins of a small chapel on a hill, and connected it
with the defence of Urogne by intrenchments, and a strong _abattis_.
From this work, which formed a sort of advanced post to their right
wing, Sir John Hope drove them, and from Urogne, and pushed forward
the 5th division to the inundation which covered the intrenchments
in front of Ciboure, and those protecting the heights in advance of
Fort Socoa. The enemy were kept in expectation here that this position
would be assaulted; and they were menaced in their intrenchments, which
covered the heights behind Urogne, and extended along the hills in the
direction of Ascain: that village they abandoned in the afternoon, and
Freyre took possession of it. As soon as Lord Wellington had received
the reports, he gave orders for attacking the heights behind St. Pé:
they were of difficult access, through vineyards, and were crowned
with woods; and the enemy had a considerable force there: during the
intervals of severer action, the sharp-shooters had been warmly engaged
in the village, and along the river; and shrapnells had been thrown at
the heights with visible effect from Ross’s brigade. The 3rd division
now crossed near the village, the 6th advanced upon its right, and the
7th attacked the left of the heights; the brunt of the action on this
side was borne by this division. The 51st and 68th regiments, light
troops, scoured a wood in full cry, like a pack of hounds, and drove
out a large body of sharp-shooters, whom they drove up the hills, but
with so much eagerness as to leave their support behind. Instantly
upon this advantage being presented, a strong column moved from behind
the hill, and attacked them: the enemy were led by a general officer
on horseback, and behaved with more spirit than they had shown in
any other part of the engagement. The two regiments, if they had not
been two of the best, must have been cut to pieces; but though they
were very weak in numbers, and were driven back, they formed in close
order, and in the most gallant manner retook the hill. This was the
last business of the day. The three divisions took post on the heights
beyond St. Pé; thus establishing themselves in the rear of the enemy’s
right; and the remainder of the army rested on the ground which they
occupied, the evening being so far advanced that no further movement
could be made.
♦NOV. 11.♦
Lord Wellington was on the heights above St. Pé before daylight; the
morning was hazy, and it was noon before he received the reports which
enabled him to put the troops in motion. During the night the enemy had
abandoned all their works and positions in front of St. Jean de Luz,
and knowing no time was to be lost, lest the divisions at St. Pé should
interpose between them and Bayonne, retired upon Bidart, destroying
all the bridges on the lower Nivelle. Sir John Hope followed with the
left, as soon as he could cross the river; but it was mid-day before
he could repair the bridge which connects Ciboure with S. Jean de Luz,
and construct a flying bridge to expedite the passage of the troops.
The 5th division passed here, part with the artillery by the bridge,
part by fords close above the town; the first, with Wilson’s Portugueze
brigade, by a ford about a mile higher up, and broad enough for the men
to cross by platoons. It rained most heavily; the water was deep, the
opposite bank muddy, and the shore swampy ground: but no opposition
was offered, and the men, elated by the signal success of yesterday,
were in high spirits. The centre moved forward about a league, and the
right made a corresponding move, which was as far as the state of the
roads, after so violent a fall of rain, would allow. Soult showed about
16,000 men at Bidart all day. The army bivouacked a second night. On
the following morning Lord Wellington was again in front of the centre
at daybreak, but a thick fog enveloped every thing; it was noon before
it cleared, and he then learned that the enemy had retired during the
night into an intrenched camp, in front of Bayonne.
By these operations, in which the allies lost little more than 500
killed, and less than 2400 wounded, the French were driven from
positions strong in themselves, and which they had been fortifying with
great skill and great labour for six months: 51 pieces of cannon, 1500
prisoners, and 400 wounded, were taken. Soult had full 70,000 men; but
though there was no flight, nor any thing like a rout, no determined
spirit of resistance was manifested; they fought like brave men, but
dispirited ones, and in several instances their officers used every
endeavour to bring them on in vain. They had relied upon the difficulty
of the ground, not dreaming that artillery could be brought to act
against them over rivers and rocks and mountains; and indeed, the
allies were beholden for their success, in no slight degree, to the
extraordinary skill and activity with which this part of the service
was directed by Colonel Dickson. Mountain-pieces on swivel carriages,
harnessed on the backs of mules which had been trained for the purpose,
were conveyed to the ridges of the mountains, and brought to bear on
the French from positions which they had considered inaccessible for
guns.... The foot and horse-artillery were alike active and expert; and
the artillerymen dragged their cannon with ropes up steep precipices,
or lowered them down, wherever they could be employed with most effect.
Generals Byng and Kempt were wounded: Colonel Lloyd of the 94th, an
officer of great promise, and who had frequently distinguished himself,
was killed.
♦THE ALLIES CANTONED BETWEEN THE NIVELLE AND THE SEA.♦
The weather, which continued wet, without intermission, from the
11th to the 18th, rendered the cross roads so bad, and the streams
so formidable, that Lord Wellington could not follow up his success
as he would otherwise have done. He placed the army, therefore, in
cantonments between the Nivelle and the sea; but as the enemy were
concentrated in great numbers round Bayonne, two miles only in their
immediate front, a defensive line was formed against any sudden
advance. It commenced at the sea on the left, in rear of Biaritz,
passed over the main ridge of heights, and crossed the high road,
near a country house belonging to the mayor of that little town. The
front of this part of the line was protected by the two small lakes
of Chuhigue and Rousta; the high road passes across a valley between
them, and here was the most advanced line of sentinels guarding the
left wing; from thence it followed the right bank of the valley, in
front of Arcangues, and coming there upon the Nive, near a chateau
belonging to Garat (one of the contemporary historians of the French
revolution, and himself an actor in it), it was thrown back along the
left of that river by Arrauntz, Ustaritz, Larressore, and Cambo;
from which latter place the enemy, who occupied a tête-de-pont there,
withdrew their posts on the 18th, and blew up the bridge. Head-quarters
were at St. Jean de Luz, ♦ST JEAN DE LUZ.♦ a town which dates its decay
from the peace of 1763, when France was deprived of its possessions in
North America. The Nivelle divides it from Ciboure (a smaller town),
spreading just above both into a beautiful bay, and forming an island
where it spreads, which is connected by bridges with both. The bay
terminates on the north-east by a rocky point of land, on which a
battery called Fort St. Barbe was erected, and on the opposite side
is the harbour of Socoa, defended by a martello tower. Between these
points the bay is nearly a mile in width, and on both sides a pier had
been begun, which it was intended to have carried so nearly across,
as only to have left a sufficient entrance, and thus to have afforded
safe anchorage on this stormy coast, where it is grievously needed.
When the Spanish fleet was wrecked here in 1627, the dead who were cast
up on the immediate shores filled ninety-six carts. On that occasion
the inhabitants of St. Jean de Luz behaved with exemplary kindness
to the survivors; and it was proposed in the Spanish council that,
as a becoming acknowledgment, its ships and merchants should enjoy
a perpetual exemption from all duties in Portugal, whither they ♦D.
FRANCESCO MANOEL. EPANAPHORAS, P. 256.♦ traded largely for salt: I wish
it could be added, that such a proof of national gratitude had been
given. During the action of the 10th, a naval demonstration was made
opposite Fort Socoa, by four of Sir George Collier’s squadrons: the
swell would not admit of a close approach, but they came near enough
for one of them to be struck by some shot from the sea-batteries.
♦DISCIPLINE OBSERVED BY THE ALLIES.♦
The inhabitants of St. Jean de Luz had mostly remained in their own
houses, shutting themselves up there to abide their fate, in dread
of invaders whom they had been taught to consider as being equally
rapacious and merciless. There was still a disposition in the allied
troops to take that license which brutal spirits promise themselves
in war; but, during the action of the 10th, two offenders had been
hanged, each upon the nearest tree to the spot where his crime was
committed, with a paper upon his breast declaring for what offence
this summary justice had been executed. Such severity was equally
politic and just; and the allies soon acquired as good a character
for their conduct toward the inhabitants as for their behaviour in
the field. The people were the more sensible of this, because it was
strikingly contrasted with the predatory habits in which their own
troops had long been licensed, and which those troops had not laid
aside when they were driven within the French frontier. Marshal Soult
would gladly now have withheld them from courses which he had so long
permitted or encouraged; and just at this time an instance occurred
in which he endeavoured to strike terror by a wholesome example. When
they were quitting St. Jean de Luz, a woman complained to an officer
whose company was quartered there, that the men, expecting to depart,
were beginning to plunder her house: he gave no ear to her entreaties
that he would restrain them, and the woman at length, in her emotion at
seeing her goods thus given up to spoil, exclaimed, that “if those who
ought to be their defenders would not protect them, the English might
as well be there at once.” “Oh!” said the officer, “if you are a friend
to the English, you shall see how I will protect you!” and immediately
he set fire to her house himself. A _gendarme_ who was present took
the woman’s part, and declared that though he could not take the
officer into custody, nor prevent him by force, he would report the
circumstance to the Marshal: he did so; and the officer, who was a
captain of infantry and a member of the Legion of Honour, was brought
to a court-martial, condemned, and shot.
♦THE INHABITANTS RETURN TO THEIR HOMES.♦
But it was too late for Marshal Soult to correct the inveterate habits
of men who, during all their campaigns in the Peninsula, had been
supported by a predatory system; and though most of the people, and
especially the villagers, forsook their houses at the approach of the
allies, yet, when proclamations were issued in French and in Basque
(which is the language of these parts), assuring them that their
persons and property should be respected, and when they understood that
British discipline would afford them a security which it was in vain to
hope for amid their own armies, they returned. The French authorities
endeavoured in vain to dissuade them; the general wish was expressed so
strongly, that at length no farther impediment was opposed to it than
that of forbidding them to carry back anything with them. Above 3000
persons came back to St. Jean de Luz and the neighbouring places before
the end of November, and as many more passed through the line of the
allied outposts, in one day early in December, on their return; ...
among them were several young men, escaping in women’s clothes from the
conscription.
The weather had prevented Lord Wellington from passing the Nive, as
he intended to have done, immediately after having forced the French
position, and the army in consequence occupied only the confined
space on the left of that river; while the enemy profited by all the
resources of the country on its right, and had a free communication
between Bayonne and St. Jean de Pied-de-Port. They occupied an
intrenched camp in front of Bayonne, about twelve miles from S. Jean
de Luz, and this position they had been fortifying with provident care
from the time of their defeat at Vittoria. Bayonne ♦BAYONNE.♦ obtained
its present name in the twelfth century, till when it was called
Lapurdum, as when the cohort of Novempopulania had its head-quarters
there. This ancient city, which during three centuries belonged to our
Plantagenet kings, is memorable in military history for the invention
of the bayonet, a weapon that in its name indicates the place of its
origin, and that, in British hands, has proved more destructive than
any other to the nation by which it was invented. In the war of the
French revolution this city would not have been tenable against a
single division of an enemy’s army: the war of the intrusion made it
immediately a place of great importance, as a depôt for the French;
and therefore it was well fortified, to secure it against a sudden
attack from the English, before the possibility of any more serious
danger had been contemplated. It stands at the junction of the Nive
with the Adour; the latter a great river, and the former not fordable
for several miles up: the city is on the left of the Adour, the citadel
on the other side. The position which Marshal Soult occupied was under
the fire of the fortress; the right resting on the Adour, and covered
in front by a morass, formed by a rivulet which falls into that river.
The right of the centre rested upon the same morass, and its left upon
the Nive; the left was between the Nive and the Adour, resting on
the latter river and defending the former, and communicating with a
division of the army of Catalonia, under General Paris, at St. Jean de
Pied-de-Port. The roads from that place, and from St. Jean de Luz to
Paris, pass through Bayonne; and these are the only paved roads, all
the others are so bad as to be impracticable in winter. The enemy had
their advanced posts, from their right, in front of Anglet, and toward
Biaritz; and they had a considerable corps cantoned in Ville-Franche
and Monguerre.
♦DECEMBER.
PASSAGE OF THE NIVE.♦
As soon as the weather and the state of the roads allowed, preparations
were made for crossing the Nive. On the 8th of December Lord Wellington
moved the troops out of their cantonments. The preceding day had
brought intelligence that Hanover was delivered from the French,
... and that the Dutch also had risen against their oppressors, and
asserted their independence. With this news to encourage them, at which
even the French people appeared to rejoice, because it gave them a
hope of peace, which could only be obtained by the total defeature of
Buonaparte’s ambitious schemes, the allies recommenced their operations
on the morrow. Sir Rowland, with the right of the army, was to cross
at Cambo, and Beresford to support him by passing Sir Henry Clinton’s
division at Ustaritz: the bridges at both places had been destroyed.
The river, dividing into two branches, forms an island of considerable
extent opposite Ustaritz; our piquets had previously occupied this, and
here a pontoon bridge was thrown across during the night. The bridge
at Campo had been hastily and insufficiently repaired, so that very
few succeeded in getting over its broken slope. There were fords above
and below; the lower was good enough for cavalry, but ten men were
drowned in attempting it; the upper one, therefore, was chiefly used
by the infantry, ... and it was no easy passage, the left bank being
steep, and the water rising at the time, in consequence of renewed
rain. At both places, however, it was effected with little opposition,
and the enemy were immediately driven from the right bank. The troops,
advancing then through swampy meadow-land and very deep roads, soon
found themselves on the high road from St. Jean de Pied-de-Port; and
the French retired skirmishing, being followed and pressed; those
opposite Cambo were nearly intercepted by Sir Henry Clinton. The enemy
now assembled in considerable force upon a range of heights running
parallel with the Adour, keeping Ville-Franche upon their right; and
they kindled fires, as if intending to remain there. A galling fire
was kept up from the detached houses of this village; but houses,
village, and heights were carried by the 8th Portugueze regiment, the
9th Caçadores, and the light battalions of the 6th division; and the
French, after one or two hasty volleys, retired. The advance of the
allies had been so much impeded by the condition of the ground, that
by this time evening had closed; and Lord Wellington contented himself
therefore with the possession of the ground that he occupied.
This had been a day of great fatigue for the left wing of the army.
At one in the morning the drums had beat to arms; and, after a
most toilsome march through heavy rain, the first division, under
Major-General Howard, was assembled by daybreak at the Plateau of
Barouillet, in advance of Bidart. At dawn the rain ceased; and the
5th division, under Major-General Hay, supported by the 12th light
dragoons, was seen crossing the valley which separates the hilly ground
of Biaritz from that of Bidart; its right in communication with the
first, and its left extending to the sea-coast. At eight o’clock the
whole line of light troops commenced their fire; those of the enemy
contested every hedge and bank which afforded them shelter, and from
whence they could take deliberate aim; but a fire of shells from the
artillery, who posted themselves on the eminences along the whole line,
assisted greatly in dislodging them. The whole line gradually advanced,
and the enemy retreated before them to Anglet, not venturing to await
their approach. About one the first division gained the heights on the
right of the chaussée, opposite to Anglet, the light infantry driving
the enemy down the slopes to their intrenched camp. The 5th division
made equal progress, sweeping the country between Anglet and the sea as
far as the banks of the Adour, and occupying with its light infantry
the Bois de Bayonne, a large pine-wood which covers the whole space
on the left of that river, between the intrenched camp and the sea.
General Alten, meantime, made a corresponding advance with the light
division, between the left wing and the Nive; they drove the enemy from
behind the deep morass which ♦BATTY’S CAMPAIGN, PP. 83–5.♦ covered
their advanced posts in front of Bassussarry, and compelled them to
retreat to their intrenched camp near the Chateau de Marrac, ... that
castle to which, in the first act of this great drama, Ferdinand had
been decoyed by Buonaparte.
As the movements on this side were intended only to favour the
operations on the right, Sir John Hope’s instructions were to return
to his cantonments, and to commence retiring thither at six in the
evening, unless a countermand should arrive. It began again to rain
heavily in the afternoon; and the troops, supposing they were to remain
on the ground which they had gained, lighted, not without difficulty,
their bivouac fires; but the weather was far too bad for them to remain
in such exposed situations; and at the appointed time they began their
march back toward their several cantonments, the 5th division forming
the rear guard. By this time it was quite dark; even the main road
had been completely broken up by the passage of artillery, and of so
many troops; the hollow ways were knee-deep in mud: one little drummer
stuck fast in it, and was obliged to be lifted out and carried for some
distance by two soldiers; many of the men were so completely exhausted
that they sunk down by the way-side; and before they reached the place
of rest, they had been little less than four-and-twenty hours on foot,
and during the greater part of that time in a heavy winter’s rain.
On the morning of the 10th Sir Rowland found that the enemy on his
side had retired into their intrenched camp, on the right of the Nive.
He established himself, therefore, in the position intended for him,
with his right on the Adour, his left on the heights of Ville-Franche,
above the Nive, and his centre across the chaussée at the village of
St. Pierre. Marshal Beresford’s troops were again drawn to the left of
the Nive; and Sir Rowland communicated with the centre of the army, by
a bridge which had been laid over that river. Morillo’s division was
placed at Urcuray, and Colonel Vivian’s brigade of light dragoons at
Hasparren, to watch Paris’s movements, who, upon the passage of the
Nive, had retired towards St. Palais.
Thus the allied army formed a sort of crescent, which was intersected
by a river, and along which the communications were exceedingly bad.
On any part of this bending line Marshal Soult could direct an attack
with his main force; and, if he should be repulsed, there was a secure
retreat for him within his intrenched camp. Supposing, therefore, that
the allies would have their principal strength on the right of the
Nive to support Sir Rowland, he left just troops enough to occupy the
works opposite to that General’s position, and with the rest of his
army moved at daybreak against Sir John Hope, expecting to overpower
the left wing by numbers. The 5th division occupied the Plateau of
Barouillet, having General Campbell’s Portugueze brigade in its front,
on the high road. Baron Alten, with the light division, was posted at
Arcangues, about two miles to the right. Both were on strong ground;
but there was no defensive connexion between them, except along a range
of hills, which projected too much to be occupied otherwise than by
small posts; and between Barouillet and Arcangues there is a broad
valley, which was left almost without defence, because it was thought
that Marshal Soult would not attempt to advance in this direction, with
posts of such strength upon either flank.
The enemy advanced in two strong columns; one by the great road
attacked the posts of the 5th division, and drove them back upon their
support on the Plateau of Barouillet. The other, coming forward by
the Plateau of Bassussarry, threw out a strong line of _tirailleurs_,
supported by battalions, against the light division at Arcangues; but
the main body pushed on a little way beyond the left flank of the
light division, and sent forward columns to attack the right of the
5th, denoting thus an intention of penetrating between, and in rear
of the two divisions. Soult knew not at how great advantage he had
taken the allies: the 5th division had been separated during the last
night’s dismal march, the ammunition mules were not forthcoming, and
when the piquets were driven in, there was hardly a round left. There
was nothing to be done but to hold their ground as well as they could
till more troops and ammunition should arrive. Not more than eight or
ten guns could be brought into action, because of the nature of the
ground, ... there being a low thick wood to the right, and close to
the road; and on the left a rugged heath, intersected with gullies and
ravines. The French brought more pieces into play, and served them with
more than usual vivacity; for they knew their own great superiority
of numbers, and were elated with the hope of getting to S. Jean de
Luz, which was the great depôt of the allies. Sir John Hope, who was,
with his staff, in the thickest of the fight, encouraging the troops
by his example, received a severe contusion on his shoulder, and a
hurt on his leg; and a ball went through his hat: ... it was believed
that, at one moment, nothing but his extreme gallantry saved the
troops from utter confusion. Major-General Robinson, who commanded the
second brigade of this division, was severely wounded, and carried
off the field. The contest still continued, ebbing and flowing, till
the enemy pushed through the wood in front of Barouillet, and through
a large field and orchard on its right, in such force as to drive
back Campbell’s Portugueze brigade, and Robinson’s, which supported
it; and, penetrating thus beyond the front of the position, they were
rapidly following up their success, when a Portugueze battalion on
the left flank boldly moved forward on the road, and wheeled into the
rear of the wood; at the same time the 9th British regiment, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron, which was on the extreme right, faced
about, and, uniting with the Portugueze, charged the French columns in
their rear, ... a movement as unexpected as it was bold and well-timed.
It gave the enemy a severe check at this point, and some hundred
prisoners were taken. This was between two and three in the afternoon.
By this time a considerable number of troops had arrived in detail; the
brigade of guards, who had been ordered from St. Jean de Luz to support
the 5th division, arrived just after the enemy had been thus checked;
and Lord Wellington, hastening from the right wing where all was quiet,
came to the scene of action. He was very much exposed this day, and
unavoidably so, for there was no eminence from whence the whole field
could be seen; the wood intercepted the sight, and it was necessary
for him to ride from point to point. The enemy, checked though they
had been, persisted in the action, and it continued till nightfall;
the firing gradually ceasing as the evening closed, and the troops,
after very severe loss on both sides, remaining on the ground which
they had occupied in the morning. The remainder of the left wing having
been brought up from its cantonments, the first division relieved the
fatigued troops; and the 7th took post in rear of the position, to
support either of the defensive corps.
Meantime the attack upon the light division at Arcangues had been
maintained with great animation and perseverance. The enemy were
repulsed in all their efforts to dislodge these troops from their
defences of the churchyard and the chateau; but they retained at night
the Plateau of Bassussarry, in the immediate front of Arcangues, which
joins that of Barouillet, before the mayor’s house. The issue of the
day had greatly disappointed Marshal Soult, whose utmost efforts had
been completely defeated by a comparatively small part of the ♦TWO
GERMAN REGIMENTS ESCAPE FROM THE FRENCH ARMY.♦ allied forces, and with
great loss. He suffered a further loss during the night. There were
with him the two German regiments of Frankfort and Nassau Usingen:
every possible means had been taken for concealing from their officers
the state of affairs in Germany; nevertheless, they discovered that
Germany had thrown off the yoke. The French government had been
apprehensive of this, and, in consequence, had recently altered its
conduct towards them; instead of being treated with disrespect, as
men who had no government which could protect them, they now found
themselves the objects of marked attention; and were newly clothed, and
received pay up to the last six months, when a year and half’s was due
to the greater part of the French army. Marshal Soult, however, under
various pretences, had long kept them in the rear. But in the action
of this day they were in advance, in Villatte’s division; and that
General being severely wounded, the division was for a while without
any special commander. The officer in command of the Nassau regiment
was a Bavarian, but had been educated in Hanover, and for some years
in the Hanoverian guards. Not only had the news from Germany reached
him, but means had also been found for conveying to him the orders of
his sovereign; he now took advantage of the first opportunity which
had offered, and proposed to the Colonel of a French regiment, that
his corps, with the two Nassau battalions, and one of the Frankfort,
should occupy a height a little in advance of where they then were.
The advice, though proposed with a view of going over to the allies,
offered some feasible advantage, and was agreed to without suspicion.
As it was growing dark, and the roads were intricate, it was further
proposed, that the battalions should file to their ground by different
routes. The German officers were apprized of the intention, except
those of the second Frankfort battalion, to which no communication
could be made, its commander being badly wounded in the action. A
Frankfort officer now made his way to the outposts of our 4th division,
in the centre of the allies, and announced the intended defection,
requiring a General officer’s word of honour that they should be well
received, and sent to Germany: no General being on the spot, Colonel
Bradford gave his word: means were immediately taken to apprize the
three battalions, and they came over in a body, 1300 men; the French
not discovering their intention till just when it was too late to
frustrate it. On the morrow the Colonel wrote to General Villatte,
thanking him for the attentions which he had received whilst under his
command; but stating that in obedience to their King’s orders, his
troops had quitted the service of France to return to that of their own
country. Their women and their sick, who were left behind, he commended
to the General’s humanity; and said that his brother officers and
himself freely gave up their personal baggage in performing an act
prescribed by their duty. This officer seems to have united a just
moral feeling to a proper sense of military honour; and he rejoiced
that he had been able to bring off those battalions, without being
compelled to fire on the French, in company with whom they had served
so long.
♦DEC. 11.♦
In the morning the 5th division was brought a little forward, beyond
the wood, and the advanced skirmishers were soon within forty or fifty
yards of each other: the light troops drove in the enemy’s piquets,
and the most advanced sentries were again pushed forward to their own
line. On this side, and also at Arcangues, there was some skirmishing
during the forenoon, but with little advantage on either side: about
noon the firing was suspended, the weather brightened, unarmed parties
were sent out to cut wood for cooking, and the men received their
rations. But about two there was a stir in the enemy’s lines; they
were seen cutting gaps in the fences for the passage of artillery;
presently they attacked in great force, along the Bayonne road, driving
in the piquets, and the hill in front of Barouillet again became the
scene of contest. The soldiers who had gone in front to cut fuel ran
hastily back when they heard the cry of “to arms,” that they might get
themselves armed and accoutred; and the French, seeing them run toward
the rear, thought they had taken panic, and set up loud cheers, as if
they had now only to pursue their favourable fortune. But their whole
left wing was promptly formed in perfect order. A feint attack was made
upon Arcangues, to cover a serious one upon the Plateau Bassussarry.
Lord Wellington’s orders were, that the piquets, in case of any serious
effort, should be withdrawn from the hill in front, but that the
position in front of Barouillet should be maintained: great efforts
were made, and the enemy every where were repulsed, Sir John Hope, as
on the yesterday, encouraging his men wherever there was most danger.
During these two days he was struck three times; and all his staff had
either themselves or their horses wounded. Lord Wellington is said to
have requested that he would consider of what consequence he was to
the army, and not expose himself so much. When darkness closed, the
two armies were in the same position which they had occupied on the
preceding night.
The fifth division, which, after one day’s severe exertion in the
worst weather, had borne the heat of the action in the two following
ones, was relieved by the first, as soon as it became so dark that the
enemy could not perceive and take advantage of any change in their
disposition. The night was again rainy, and in posting the sentries
at some parts, it was not easy, because of the darkness, to avoid
interfering with the French piquets. ♦DEC. 12.♦ The weather cleared
toward morning; drums and trumpets were heard at intervals along the
enemy’s line; and at sunrise their staff officers were seen riding
in all directions. Soult showed three or four divisions; and at ten
some severe skirmishing began, which continued till three, being
chiefly confined to the wood and the immediate ground about the house
of Barouillet. The loss was not great, but it fell chiefly on the
guards: Captain Watson, the adjutant of the 3rd guards, observed in
the morning that “plenty of laurel grew round that house to deck the
graves of those who should fall,” ... and he was one of the first.
Lord Wellington, foreseeing Soult’s intention, moved the 4th and 7th
divisions to the rear of the light division and of the first, where
they might afford support to either. But Marshal Soult, when he found
how fully the allies were prepared, did not deem it prudent to make
any further effort on this side, where he had tried his fortune
skilfully, bravely, and perseveringly, but without success. The
skirmishing therefore ceased in the afternoon, and the enemy retired
entirely within their entrenched camp that night.
The last four days had been most harassing to the troops, exposed as
they had been, and continually under arms; but the fifth day of these
multiplied actions proved more murderous than any of the foregoing.
During the night Soult passed a large force through Bayonne, with
the intention of making a most formidable attack upon the right wing
of the allies. Sir Rowland was aware of his movements, and prepared
accordingly. His position was about a league from Bayonne, in the
form of a crescent, extending about four miles from the Adour to the
Nive. Major-General Pringle’s brigade, consisting of the 28th, 34th,
and 39th regiments, formed the left, stationed on a ridge of hilly
ground extending from Ville-Franche toward Bayonne, and bounded on
one side by the Nive, and on the other by large mill-dams in a deep
hollow, which separates it from the heights of Monguerre. Major-General
Byng’s brigade, consisting of the 31st, 57th, and 68th, formed the
right, posted also on a long ridge, in front of the village of Vieux
Monguerre, which had the Adour on its right, and mill-dams in like
manner on its left, separating it from the heights in the centre.
Brigadier-General Ashworth’s Portugueze brigade occupied the centre
ridge opposite the village of St. Pierre. The ground was favourable,
because it admitted of only one or two points of attack, one of which
was by the main road.
It was a clear frosty morning, but the ground so wet, and the road so
heavy in that deep and rich soil, that the horses were knee-deep in
stiff mud and clay. Soon after eight o’clock, the allied outposts on
the great road were attacked by _tirailleurs_ in great numbers, and
the French columns advanced close in the rear. Soult showed that day
about four divisions; and these, drawn up in two lines and supporting
columns, appeared, from the confined ground on which they acted, more
numerous than they were. They advanced up the long slope in front of
the centre position, their column extending a good way on either side
of the road; at the same time a large body moved against the left of
the centre, up the hollow way, its right resting upon the mill-dams.
Sir Rowland, as soon as the enemy’s intention of piercing the centre
was manifest, brought Major-General Barnes’s brigade forward from the
heights of Petit Monguerre, and stationed it on the right of Ashworth’s
Portugueze. He moved also the whole of Byng’s brigade, except one
regiment, and the light companies of the others, to support the right
of the centre, and Brigadier-General Buchan’s Portugueze brigade from
behind Ville-Franche, to support its left. These troops arrived just at
the time when they were most needed; four guns of Lieutenant-Colonel
Ross’s troop, and Lieutenant-Colonel Tulloch’s brigade of Portugueze
artillery, were also moved up in aid of the centre, and kept up a
steady but cautious fire, all possible exertions being used meantime
for bringing them a supply of ammunition. The light companies which had
gone forward in support of the piquets were borne back by weight of
numbers upon the main line, and the French established themselves upon
a height close to the position; and here the heat of the contest lay,
this post being repeatedly won and lost, till Barnes’s brigade, with
the 92nd Highlanders, and Ashworth’s Portugueze, made a final charge,
and drove the enemy down. The artillery fired this day with dreadful
effect, and the main road was in many places literally running with
blood.
On the right a feint only was made, before which the battalion that
had been left there retired from Vieux Monguerre to the heights in its
rear; but, ascertaining from thence that the enemy on this side were
not in force, they re-entered the village, and made some prisoners
there. But on the left centre the columns which had advanced up the
hollow way made a powerful attack; and though the 71st and part of
the 92nd were sent to aid the Portugueze there, the enemy, by dint
of superior force, won an important part of the position in front
of Ville-Franche. Two Portugueze regiments opportunely arrived. Sir
William Stewart directed the one to turn the right flank of the
attacking columns, while the other attacked the enemy in front,
charging them with the bayonet; and this was decisive in that quarter.
A hot fire of _tirailleurs_ was kept up meantime upon Major-General
Pringle’s brigade, with a view of preventing it from aiding the centre;
but that General, occupying a line at right angles to theirs, caused
them considerable loss by a well-directed flanking fire.
Foreseeing such an attack on Sir Rowland, Lord Wellington had provided
against it by requesting Marshal Beresford to reinforce him with the
6th division, which had crossed the Nive accordingly at daylight that
morning; and he sent also for the fourth and two brigades of the third,
and formed them in reserve. The expected coming of the 6th division
gave Sir Rowland great facility in making his movements; but before
its arrival he had completely repulsed the enemy, the troops under his
immediate command being about 13,000 men, and the force by which they
were attacked little, if at all, short of twice that number. The allies
kept their ground; ... their purpose, therefore, was effected. Soult’s
troops, when beaten back, had the city and the intrenched camp in
their immediate rear, and retired under cover of their guns placed in
position. They remained in great force in front of that camp, and kept
up a warm cannonade upon the centre; but the officers could not induce
their men again to renew attacks which they had found so destructive.
Sir William Stewart then directed Major-General Byng to unite his
brigade and attack the enemy upon the opposite bank of the mill-stream,
in front of the height of Vieux Monguerre. Byng did this in the most
gallant style, carrying the colours of the 66th himself, and planting
them, under a hot fire of musketry and artillery, in their position.
The third regiment crossed the mill-stream to co-operate in the attack;
the brigade then drove the enemy down, and Buchan’s Portugueze arrived
to aid in finally repulsing them. About four o’clock the action
terminated in a continued skirmishing: at night the enemy retired
within their camp.
The loss of the allies during these five days, in killed, wounded, and
missing, amounted to 5029, of whom 302 were officers: nearly half the
loss fell upon the Portugueze, upon whom, indeed, as much reliance was
now placed as upon the British themselves. The last day was the most
destructive: Generals Barnes, Le Cor, and Ashworth, and nearly the
whole of the staff and aides-de-camp of Sir William Stewart, and of
Generals Barnes and Byng, were wounded. The French return made their
loss 1314 killed and 4600 wounded. They fought well in this long series
of actions, far better than they had done in defending their position
upon the Nivelle; and this can only be explained by the different
feeling with which men, and especially men of the French temperament,
are animated when standing on their defence, from that which excites
them when they are themselves the assailants. Marshal Soult, who was
never wanting in ability, never displayed more than on this occasion.
The often repeated effort cost him his best troops, and forced upon
him the mortifying conviction that, brave as they were, and admirably
disciplined, they were nevertheless inferior to their opponents: for
all circumstances here had been in his favour; the points of attack
were at his own choice, and wherever he attacked he brought into the
field a greatly superior force; yet every where he had been defeated.
Not ♦SOULT TAKES A DEFENSIVE POSITION.♦ venturing, therefore, again
to repeat a trial in which he had so often failed, though he had at
this time 50,000 infantry and 6000 cavalry, he cantoned his army in a
defensive position, having its right on the camp round Bayonne, its
centre spread along the right of the Adour, to Port de Lanne, and its
left along the right of the Bidouse, from its confluence to St. Palais,
posting two divisions of cavalry on the left of that place, and a weak
division, under Harispe, at St. Jean de Pied-de-Port. That General had
been withdrawn from Suchet’s army for this service, because, being a
native of the valley of Baigorry, and having distinguished himself
as a partizan in the Pyrenees, in the years 1794 and 1795, it was
supposed that he might raise some irregular corps of his countrymen,
and turn against the allies that system of guerrilla warfare which
had proved so destructive to the invaders in Spain. Marshal Soult
apprehended that Bayonne would be invested; and therefore he made
Port de Lanne, which is on the Adour, eighteen miles above that city,
his principal depôt, laying down a bridge there, and protecting it by
strong works; and he lined the right of the river with redoubts armed
with heavy cannon. He intrenched Hastingues, and covered Peyrehorade
with a _tête-de-pont_, for the defence of the Gave de Pau; and in
like manner secured the passages over the Bidouse at Guiche, Bedache,
and Came. He also strengthened the fortifications of St. Jean de
Pied-de-Port and Navarreins, and intrenched Dax as an entrepôt for
stores and reinforcements from the interior; thus omitting no measure
of precaution which a just estimate of his enemy’s strength seemed to
require.
♦THE ALLIES WAIT IN THEIR CANTONMENTS FOR BETTER WEATHER.♦
The weather, by impeding for a while any advance on the part of the
allies, allowed him time for this. Lord Wellington waited till it
should become more favourable, having obtained possession of a large
tract of country, and being in a situation from whence to resume his
operations with advantage, as soon as the season might permit. Upon
first entering France he had circulated among the inhabitants those
general orders in which he enjoined his troops to respect their persons
and property, accompanying them with a brief proclamation to the
people. He had given, he said, and would enforce these positive orders
for preventing those evils that might otherwise be looked for as the
ordinary consequences of an invasion, which they knew was the result
of their own government’s invasion of Spain, and of the victories of
the allied armies. He requested them to apprehend and bring before him
any person who, disobeying these instructions, might offer them any
injury; and, on their side, he required them to remain in their houses,
and take no part in the war of which their country was now to be the
scene. Great injury must inevitably be endured by the inhabitants of
any country upon which that visitation falls; but none was suffered
now which could be prevented by vigilant discipline, founded upon just
views of policy and a strict sense of justice. On the morning after
the line of the Nivelle had been forced, a peasant was brought before
Lord Wellington, having been taken near the British outposts: the man’s
simple account of himself was, that he was going to drive his sheep to
Bayonne; upon which he was told that he might go where he pleased,
and take his sheep where he pleased too. When the French saw that the
peasantry were thus treated, ... that the very few who were taken in
arms were shipped off, like other prisoners, for England, ... and that
marauders were brought to summary punishment, they perceived that their
invaders were as equitable as they were brave, and that the word of a
British general was sacred.
♦NOV. 28.♦
The guerrilla troops, whom it would have been more difficult to
restrain, were kept upon their own frontier. The discipline of the
Portugueze was as good as that of the English. Marshal Beresford, when
he commended them in one of his orders for their excellent conduct
at the line of the Nivelle, expressed his particular satisfaction
with their behaviour in their quarters and towards the inhabitants in
general. They had proved, he said, their superiority over the French
troops in the field of battle; and they had shown, also, to the French
people that they were not less superior to those troops in humanity and
in their whole deportment, whereby, as well as by their discipline and
courage, they did honour to their country. The Portugueze were not less
gratified by another order which Marshal Beresford issued after the
passage of the Nive. He had deemed it necessary, in the spring of the
preceding year, to deprive certain militia regiments of their colours,
till ♦MARSHAL BERESFORD RESTORES THE COLOURS OF CERTAIN PORTUGUEZE
REGIMENTS. DEC. 29.♦ they should have redeemed their character in
the presence of the enemy; this, he said, they had had no opportunity
of doing, the war having happily been removed far from their own
country: but regiments raised in the same parts of Portugal, composed
of their brethren and other near kinsmen, and in which, in fact, many
of the very men who, in the said militias, had incurred this disgrace,
were now serving, had, in the late series of victories, demeaned
themselves so gallantly, that they had re-established the character
of their respective provinces; wherefore in justice he ordered that
their colours should be restored. Their misconduct, he added, had
proceeded not from want of courage, but from insubordination, ... and
that, too, not the effect of wilful disobedience, but arising from
habits of undue familiarity between the officers and the men, owing
to which, the latter were not prepared to render prompt obedience
when it was indispensable. He reminded the officers, therefore, how
necessary it was that they should obtain the respect of their soldiers
by treatment at the same time just, impartial, gentle, and firm;
and observed that the provincial governors would see the necessity
henceforth of recommending, for commissions in the militia, persons
who were qualified by their means and by their ♦CORREIO BRAZILIENSE,
T. 12, P. 306.♦ local respectability. Marshal Beresford understood the
national character. The Portugueze were in no slight degree gratified
by this: they were proud of the military reputation which they had now
established, and not less deservedly of that national feeling which
they had manifested under every circumstance ♦CONDUCT OF SPANISH AND
PORTUGUEZE SOLDIERS AT DANTZIC.♦ of good or evil fortune. A signal
example of this feeling was given shortly afterwards by a battalion
of Portugueze and Spaniards, composed of men who had been entrapped
into the enemy’s service before the commencement of the struggle
in their own country. They formed part of the garrison of Dantzic
when the allies besieged it; and, knowing that the besiegers were in
alliance with Spain and Portugal, no threats or inducements could
prevail upon them to bear arms in defence of the city: in consequence
of this firm refusal, the French commander compelled them to work
upon the fortifications; but they had their reward; and when the
place surrendered, they were maintained at the expense of the Russian
government till they could be transported to England on their way home.
♦ILL CONDUCT OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT TOWARD LORD WELLINGTON.♦
The Spanish government had shown no want of gratitude to Lord
Wellington in conferring upon him honours and rewards; but while in
such things they conformed to the national sentiment, their conduct
sometimes manifested a want of that frank and generous confidence
which ought to have been given in as full measure as it was deserved.
In direct breach of the engagement made with him when he accepted
the command of the Spanish armies, they had superseded Castaños, and
made other changes, not only without his advice and concurrence, but
contrary to his wishes, and in disregard of his remonstrances: and
this might have produced the most injurious effect, if the war had
not speedily been transferred to the enemy’s country. Libels were
circulated imputing sinister views to England, because some of its
troops still remained at Cadiz and at Carthagena; and the government
allowed these libels to circulate without taking any means for
counteracting the impression which the calumny was intended to produce.
Lord Wellington withdrew the troops as soon (after their presence had
ceased to be necessary there) as he could obtain the Prince Regent’s
orders; and, in notifying this to the British ambassador, he stated
the circumstances under which those fortresses had been garrisoned
at the request ♦NOVEMBER. CHANGE OF THE REGENCY.♦ of the Spanish
government itself; expressed his surprise that the existing government,
knowing these facts, should yet have allowed such calumnies to pass
uncontradicted, and requested that his letter might be published. The
Regency was, indeed, at this time the mere instrument of the Cortes,
which had displaced the late regents by a summary vote, for demurring
to enforce an impolitic decree that the clergy scrupled to obey.
Cardinal Bourbon, Don Pedro Agar, and Don Gabriel Ciscar were appointed
in their stead to a station which possessed only a nominal authority,
the Cortes, under the dictation of a party more ardent than wise,
having now arrogated to itself the whole actual power.
A whimsical proof had recently occurred of the readiness with which
certain Spaniards accredited any imputation, however absurd, upon the
intentions of the British government. A foolish paragraph had appeared
in some Irish newspaper, saying, that Lord Wellington deserved to be
made King of Spain; and that some of the grandees had offered to raise
him to the throne! This found its way to Spain; and the Duques of
Ossuna and Frias, the Visconde de Gante, and the Marques de Villena,
published forthwith a letter to inform the world, that they neither
did, nor would, acknowledge any other King than Ferdinand VII.; ...
that they detested and abhorred the very idea of any usurper ruling
over the Spaniards; ... and that they were persuaded that the other
grandees, as soon as this statement should come to their knowledge,
would hasten, in like manner, to give a public testimony of their
principles and their fidelity.
♦PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.♦
Parliament met early in November, under more auspicious circumstances
than at any time since the baneful commencement of the French
revolution. England, which had stood alone in the contest against the
most formidable military power that had ever existed in the civilized
world, was now in alliance, not with the Spaniards and Portugueze
alone, but with Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden, Bavaria, and Holland.
Buonaparte had been driven back over the Rhine; and a British army,
after beating the French from the lines of Torres Vedras to the
Pyrenees, had passed that boundary and entered France. Upon this
occasion some of those statesmen who had been most decided in their
opposition to government acknowledged the wisdom, and rejoiced in
the success of that policy which they had formerly condemned. ♦LORD
GRENVILLE. NOV. 4.♦ “Upon this grand question,” said Lord Grenville,
“all party conflicts must be swallowed up and lost; it is the cause
of no party, of no set of individuals, but of the whole nation joined
in sentiment and in action to effect a great and glorious purpose.
Internal tranquillity,” he said, “might be considered as the first,
and external peace as the second, blessing that any power under
Heaven could confer upon a people; but what we desired and expected
was the real blessing of peace, not the empty name; not the shadow,
but the substance. Too long did deluded Europe, by temporary and
partial truces, by concession following concession, purchase from the
insatiable enemy a precarious quiet, a troubled sleep, furnishing to
her foe the very means of his aggression, and of her own subjugation.
The time, my lords, is now arrived (and I rejoice that I have lived to
see the hour) when the walls of a British parliament may again re-echo
a sound formerly held sacred in this country, and upon the observance
of which, I will venture to assert, depends the hope of the restoration
of peace to Europe; ... I allude to the old-fashioned tenet, now
almost forgotten, of a balance of power in Europe; and I offer up my
thanks, with humble gratitude, to the Supreme Disposer of events, that
after so long a period he has permitted me to behold my native land in
such a commanding situation, as to be able again to pursue that which
ought to be the only legitimate object of foreign policy, I mean, the
establishment and preservation of a balance of power in Europe. Now,
then, let Great Britain resume her ancient policy: let her once more
perceive that the only mode by which the independence of the great
commonwealth of Europe can be secured, is not by perpetual peace (for
that is the visionary dream of visionary men), but by the maintenance
of this balance, by which, even in war itself, the weak will find
refuge from oppression. Whatever plans may be suggested, having this
in view, I shall meet with the most earnest wish to find that they are
compatible with the interests of the country. I cannot be ignorant of
the difficulties that may be opposed: I do, however, fervently hope,
nay, I believe, that they may be surmounted. Do me not the injustice of
believing that these opinions are the result merely of the exultation
felt in consequence of recent and unexpected events. Undoubtedly such
events are calculated to warm the heart of every individual who feels
not only for the natural rights of man, but for the independence of
nations; but those with whom I have been in the habit of confidential
communication know my deliberate opinion, that the existence of such a
confederation as has now been formed, of itself irresistibly calls upon
Great Britain to employ all her energies, and devote all her exertions
to the success of a common and a glorious cause. I was prepared to
add an exhortation, that as the chances of war must necessarily be
precarious, you would prepare yourselves to meet with firmness those
disasters which human foresight could not predict, and which human
wisdom could not prevent. Even now, under circumstances that might
seem almost to justify the confidence of certainty, I offer that
exhortation. If in the course of human events (although I see little
cause to fear) any unforeseen calamity should unfortunately occur,
remember the glorious cause in which you are engaged; it may for an
instant damp your hopes, but let it not damp your ardour or shake your
resolution. Be assured, my lords, of this, ... (I hope you are already
assured of it,) that there is for this country no separate safety, no
separate peace! There is neither safety nor peace for England, but
with the safety and peace of Europe; ... as for continental Europe,
it is equally true, that an indissoluble union, a firm confederation
with this country can alone secure for all liberty, tranquillity, and
happiness, ... can alone obtain peace, now almost beyond the memory
of living man. The plain duty of this country, placing its trust
in Providence, is to improve by every possible exertion the bright
prospect that lies before us. With the energies of Great Britain duly
applied, ultimate success may be confidently anticipated; we may now
look forward to the speedy accomplishment of that great purpose for
which we have already sacrificed, performed, and endured so much, ...
and for which we are still ready to sacrifice, perform, and endure.”
♦MARQUIS WELLESLEY.♦
In the same spirit, Marquis Wellesley declared, that the satisfaction
he felt in the events which had now changed the destinies of Europe
was with him a principle and not a sentiment. “It was not so much,” he
said, “because those events had raised the military reputation of this
country and of our allies, that they had the highest value in his eyes,
but because they were the natural result of wise and cautious measures,
executed with the greatest degree of vigour; and displaying a wisdom
of combination and prudence of plan which could not fail ultimately
to be rewarded with the success by which they were attended. He would
not dwell on former errors; but he would not hesitate to say that the
glorious successes which had lately crowned our arms in Spain, and
the arms of our allies in the north of Europe, were to be traced to
the long train of persevering councils persisted in by the government
of this country. Though those councils had not always immediately
produced the results that were expected, they were not the less the
cause of what had ultimately taken place. While we were exerting
ourselves in a struggle apparently hopeless, at that moment the public
councils of this country were of the utmost importance to European
liberty; for opportunity was thus given to the rest of Europe to
re-consider their former errors, and to learn that great lesson which
the example of Britain afforded them. Nothing could be more true than
the last words which that great statesman, Mr. Pitt, ever delivered
in public, that England had saved herself by her firmness, and other
nations by her example. What a satisfactory and consoling reflection
was it for us, that from this fountain the sacred waters of gladness
and glory had flowed; ... that to the persevering spirit of this
country it was owing that other nations were at last animated to deeds
worthy of the cause in which they were engaged, and of the example
which was set them!”
♦LORD LIVERPOOL.♦
Lord Liverpool rejoiced that on this great occasion a spirit of
unanimity prevailed in the British parliament. “We had seen,” he said,
“during the preceding twenty years, coalitions whose size promised
strength, crushed by the power of the enemy: what was it then which had
given this irresistible impulse to the present? The feeling of national
independence, that feeling which first arose in the Peninsula, gave
the war a new character, and afforded grounds to hope not only for
the deliverance of that country, but of the rest of Europe. There had
before been wars of governments, but none like this between nations;
and all our principles of policy and prudence must have been belied
if the issue of the present confederacy had not been very different
from that of any of the former ones. They had before them examples of
perseverance unexampled in any other cause than that of liberty; they
had seen the least military nations of Europe become formidable, and
successfully resist the best disciplined troops of France. Small as
Portugal was, the establishment of the Portugueze army had been of the
greatest consequence, as the foundation of the success of the allied
armies in the Peninsula; and as it gave, in addition to the general
national feeling, a military tone, under the influence of which the
Portugueze troops have been raised to an equality with the British. He
was advancing no paradox, but a truth which was felt and admitted on
the continent, when he said that the success of the peninsular cause
gave new life to the suffering nations of Europe.”
♦MR. C. GRANT.♦
This theme was pursued in the House of Commons with great eloquence
by Mr. Charles Grant. “If,” said he, “we had shown a dastardly spirit
at the commencement of these troubles, where now would have been the
deliverance of Europe? There will be no prouder page in history than
that which tells of this struggle and its victorious result, ... which
tells that at a time when the foundations of the world seemed to be
shaken, when all former constitutions were swept away, rather as if by
a sudden whirlwind than by any of the ordinary means of destruction,
... there was yet one nation, which, reposing under the shade of a
happy constitution, proud of its ancient liberties and worthy to defend
them, dared to measure its strength at one time against the unnatural
energies of a frantic democracy, at another time against the gigantic
resources of the most tremendous despotism that ever scourged the
world. If, after this narration, history were obliged to add that in
this struggle at last we fell, but that we fell gloriously, with our
arms in our hands and our faces to the foe, even this would have been
no mean praise: but, thank God, history will be called, not to lament
the fall of British greatness, but to celebrate its renewed exploits
and its living triumphs.... It is to the theatre of these triumphs,
it is to that soil which but lately seemed incapable of producing a
single effort, that the moralist of after-ages will resort for examples
when he denounces the fall of unhallowed greatness. There too will
the patriot look for lessons of enthusiasm and disinterested virtue;
and this is the glorious feature of the present war. I have heard it
observed of America, that her conduct has dispelled those classical
associations which we have been accustomed to indulge of republican
virtue and republican excellence. The remark was not more eloquently
than justly made. But if we are obliged to give up that class of
associations, I perceive with exultation that there is another which we
may now cherish with additional fondness; I mean, those associations
which enforce the belief of instinctive patriotism, of unbidden
enthusiasm in the cause of virtue, of the grandeur of self-devotion,
of the magnanimity of great sacrifices for great objects, for honour,
for independence. We must all recollect with what delight we imbibed
these sentiments at the fountains of classical learning, and followed
them out into action in the history of great men and illustrious
states. But of late there seems to have crept into this nation a sort
of spurious and barren philosophy, of which it was the object to decry
these associations, to represent them as the illusions of ignorance, or
frenzy, or falsehood, to curb the original play of nature, to inculcate
coldness and selfishness upon system, and to substitute in the place of
all that formed the delight of a higher philosophy, a spirit of lazy
deliberation, conducted by apathy, and ending therefore in meanness
and dishonour. It was this philosophy which taught that it is not only
more prudent, but more conformable to the laws of our being, for every
man in time of danger to reason before he followed the promptings of
true courage; to make it a matter of calculation whether his country
be worth saving before he draws the sword in her defence; to reduce
it to a question of algebra, or a problem in geometry, whether he
should resist the efforts of tyranny, or bow before the yoke! The sleep
which seemed to have spread over Europe gave too much countenance to
these pernicious maxims; but the hour has at length come which has
exposed their fallacy, and rescued human nature from such calumnies.
The experience of the few last years has confuted that heartless and
bloodless system, the miserable abortion of a cold head and depraved
imagination, which never wakened one noble thought, nor inspired one
generous action. The experience of the few last years has proved that
those high sentiments which we were taught to respect are not false
and visionary; but that they are founded upon whatever is deepest
and purest in the human character. It has proved that true reason is
never at war with just feeling; that man is now what he was in those
distant ages, ... a creature born indeed to act upon principle, but
born also to act upon strong passions; and that he never acts more
nobly, more wisely, more worthily of himself, than when he acts upon
the prompt persuasion of grand passions, sublimed and directed by lofty
principles.”
♦MR. WHITBREAD.♦
Even Mr. Whitbread felt it necessary to say, that the proud exultation
which then was manifested throughout the nation was hailed by no one,
in the House or in the country, with more enthusiastic feelings than by
himself; and that he gave credit to the ministry, and to him who was
at the head of it, till cut off by the dreadful deed which every one
deplored, “for the great and steady confidence which they had placed
in the talents and genius of our great commander,” ... that confidence
for which Mr. Whitbread and the party with whom he acted had so often,
so confidently, and so contemptuously reproached them! He insisted,
however, that the deliverance of Europe had not been brought about by
following Mr. Pitt’s policy; and that if the counsels of Mr. Fox had
been listened to, the carnage of the present campaign would not have
been necessary. “And,” said he, “I am particularly glad to observe the
explicit terms of the Prince Regent’s speech, in which it is distinctly
avowed that no disposition is entertained to require from France
sacrifices of any description inconsistent with her honour or just
pretensions as a nation. I sincerely hope this feeling pervades the
whole alliance; an alliance with which I am not inclined to quarrel,
as I have been with former ones, for it is promoted and cemented by a
feeling of common danger and necessity, and not purchased and raised up
to oppress France. It has arisen from the keen and indignant sentiment
which the grinding oppression of France herself has excited; and it
holds out a memorable lesson to the governments of Europe. France,
in the course of her career since the revolution, disturbed and
overthrew the ancient monarchies, upon the pretext of their tyranny and
despotism; but when those states passed under the power of France, who
was to liberate them, they found themselves subjected to a despotism
still more odious, to a thraldom still more insupportable. The Emperor
of that country is now in a condition to which, I firmly believe,
nothing but his own restless and gigantic ambition could have reduced
him: I hope the alliance will profit from this. I do not pretend to
know what were the terms proposed to France before the termination of
the armistice; but I sincerely hope that now, in the moment of success,
the same terms will still be offered.” ... At this there was a general
murmur through the House.... “I am not surprised,” he continued, “at
hearing this murmur: perhaps I am misunderstood. What I mean to say is,
and that I will maintain, that whatever terms may have been proposed to
France at that time, as a basis upon which negotiations for peace might
take place, I hope the same basis will now be offered, ... or else I
see no conclusion to which the war can come.”
♦MR. CANNING.
NOV. 17.♦
Mr. Canning was not present during this debate, but he took the first
opportunity that presented itself for delivering his sentiments. “If,”
said he, “in the present state of this country and of the world, those
who, during the course of the tremendous and protracted struggle, on
various occasions, called upon Parliament to pause, to retard its too
rapid and too rash advance, and to draw back from the task it had
unwisely undertaken to perform, ... if those persons have manfully
and honourably stepped forward to join their congratulations to the
joyful acclamations of the nation, and to admit the present to be
the period favourable for a mighty and decided effort, how much more
grateful must it be to those who, at no time during the struggle,
have lifted up their voices in this place, excepting to recommend
and to urge new exertions, ... to those who, when the prospects were
most dreary and melancholy, insisted that there was but one course
becoming the character and honour of Great Britain, ... a persevering
and undaunted resistance to the overwhelming power of France! To an
individual who, under the most discouraging circumstances, still
maintained that the deliverance of Europe (often a derided term) was
an object not only worthy of our arms, but possible to be achieved, it
must be doubly welcome to come forward and vindicate his share in the
national exultation. If, too, on the other hand, there have been those
who, having recommended pacification when the opportunity was less
favourable, are now warranted, as undoubtedly they are, in uttering
the same sentiments, in the confidence that the country will sympathize
with them, it is natural for those who, under other circumstances,
have discouraged the expectation of peace, and have warned the nation
against precipitate overtures, now to be anxious to embrace this
occasion of stating their sincere conviction and their joy (as strongly
felt by them as by others) that, by the happy course of events during
the last year, and by the wise policy we shall now pursue, peace may
not, perhaps, be within our grasp, but is at least within our view. It
is impossible to look back upon those times when the enemy vaunted,
and we perhaps feared, that we should have been compelled to sue for
peace, without, amid all the ebullition of joy, returning thanks to
that Providence which gave us courage and heart still to bear up
against accumulating calamity. Peace is safe now, because it is not
dictated; peace is safe now, for it is the fruit of exertion, the child
of victory; peace is safe now, because it will not be purchased at the
expense of the interest and of the honour of the empire: it is not the
ransom to buy off danger, but the fruit of the mighty means which we
have employed to drive danger from our shores. I must, with heartfelt
delight, congratulate my country, that, groaning as she has done at
former periods under the heavy pressure of adverse war, still ‘peace
was despaired of, for who could think of submission?’ Her strength,
her endurance have been tried and proved by every mode of assault
that the most refined system of hostility could invent, not only by
open military attacks, but by low attempts to destroy her commercial
prosperity: the experiment has been made, the experiment has failed;
and we are now triumphantly, but not arrogantly, to consider what
measures of security should be adopted, or on what terms a peace should
be concluded.
“But has this country gained nothing by the glorious contest, even
supposing peace should be far distant? Is it nothing to Great Britain,
even purchased at so large a price, that her military character has
been exalted? Is it no satisfaction ... no compensation to her ... to
reflect that the splendid scenes displayed on the continent are owing
to her efforts? that the victories of Germany are to be attributed to
our victories in the Peninsula? That spark, often feeble, and sometimes
so nearly extinguished as to excite despair in all hearts that were not
above it, ... that spark which was lighted in Portugal, which was fed
and nourished there, has at length burst into a flame that has dazzled
and illuminated Europe. At the commencement of this war, our empire
rested upon one majestic column, our naval power. In the prosecution
of the war, a hero has raised another stupendous pillar of strength to
support our monarchy, ... our military pre-eminence. It is now that we
may boast not only of superiority at sea, but on shore; the same energy
and heroism exist in both the arms of Great Britain: they are rivals
in strength, but inseparable in glory. Out of the calamities of war
has arisen a principle of safety, that superior to all attacks, shall
survive through ages, and to which our posterity shall look forward.
Compare the situation of England with her condition at the renewal of
the war! Were we not then threatened by the aggressions of an enemy
even upon our own shores, ... were we not then trembling for the safety
and sanctity even of our homes? Now contemplate Wellington encamped
on the Bidassoa! I know that a sickly sensibility leads some to doubt
whether the advance of Lord Wellington was not rash and precipitate.
I cannot enter into that refinement which induces those who affect to
know much to hesitate upon this subject: I cannot look with regret
upon a British army encamped upon the fertile plains of France: I
cannot believe that any new grounds for apprehension are raised by an
additional excitement being afforded to the irritability of the French
people: I foresee no disadvantage from entering the territories of our
enemy not as the conquered but the conquerors! I cannot regret that the
Portugueze are now looking upon the walls of Bayonne ‘that circle in
those wolves’ which would have devastated their capital, ... that the
Portugueze now behold planted on the towers of Bayonne the standard
which their enemy would have made to float upon the walls of Lisbon!
I cannot think it a matter of regret, that the Spaniards are now
recovering from the grasp of an enemy on his own shores, that diadem
which was stripped from the brow of the Bourbons to be pocketed by a
usurper! I cannot think it a matter of regret that England formerly
threatened with invasion is now the invader, ... that France instead
of England is the scene of conflict! I cannot think all this matter of
regret; and of those who believe that the nation or myself are blinded
by our successes, I entreat that they will leave me to my delusion, and
keep their philosophy to themselves.
“Our enemy,” the accomplished orator pursued, “who enslaved the press
and made it contribute so importantly to his own purposes of ambition,
endeavoured to impress upon other nations a belief that Great Britain
fought only to secure her own interests, and that her views were
completely selfish. That illusion is now destroyed, and the designs of
this country are vindicated. We call on all the powers with whom we
have been or are at war to do us justice in this respect: above all
we claim it of America! I ask her to review her own and the policy of
this country. Now she can behold Buonaparte in his naked deformity,
stripped of the false glory which success cast around him; the spell of
his invincibility is now dissolved; she can now look at him without
that awe which an uninterrupted series of victories had created.
Were she now to survey him as he is, what would be the result? She
would trace him by the desolation of empires, and the dismemberment
of states. She would see him pursuing his course over the ruins of
men and of things: slavery to the people and destruction to commerce,
hostility to literature, to light, and life, were the principles
upon which he acted. His object was to extinguish patriotism, and to
confound allegiance; to darken as well as to enslave; to roll back the
tide of civilization; to barbarize as well as to desolate mankind.
Then let America turn from these scenes of bloodshed and horror, and
compare with them the effect of British interference! She will see
that wherever this country has exerted herself, it has been to raise
the fallen and to support the falling; to raise, not to degrade the
national character; to rouse the sentiments of patriotism which tyranny
had silenced; to enlighten, to reanimate, to liberate. Great Britain
has resuscitated Spain, and re-created Portugal; Germany is now a
nation as well as a name; and all these glorious effects have been
produced by the efforts and by the example of our country. If to be the
deliverers of Europe; if to have raised our own national character, not
upon the ruins of other kingdoms; if to meet dangers without shrinking,
and to possess courage rising with difficulties, be admirable, surely
we may not unreasonably hope for the applause of the world. If we have
founded our strength upon a rock, and possess the implicit confidence
of those allies whom we have succoured when they seemed beyond relief,
then I say that our exertions during the last year, and all our efforts
during the war, are cheaply purchased; if we have burdened ourselves,
we have relieved others; and we have the inward, the soul-felt, the
proud satisfaction of knowing that a selfish charge is that which,
with the faintest shadow of justice, cannot be brought against us.”
♦MR. WHITBREAD.♦
This speech was wormwood to Mr. Whitbread; he animadverted in reply
upon what he termed the overweening self-complacency with which Mr.
Canning talked of the share we had had in giving a decisive turn to the
aspect of affairs in the North; it was the conduct of this country, he
asserted, which had enabled Buonaparte to proceed as he had done in
his unprincipled career: Great Britain had made Buonaparte, and he had
undone himself. “If there were no broad and definite outline previously
laid down,” he said, “and firmly adhered to, as to the demands on the
part of the allies, or the concessions on that of France, which were
to form the groundwork of a general peace, he would venture to predict
that before long some one or other of the allies would make a separate
treaty founded on its own views or interests. And if we attempted
blindly to push our advantages too far, he feared we should rouse
the same irresistible power in France which in 1793 had repelled the
combined attacks of all Europe, which had since led on the Emperor of
the French to his conquests, and which might again turn the tide of
success against us.”
♦MILITIA ALLOWED TO VOLUNTEER FOR FOREIGN SERVICE.♦
In pursuance of these opinions, Mr. Whitbread, when a bill was brought
in for allowing three-fourths of any militia regiment to volunteer for
foreign service, moved to insert in the preamble to the bill, that
this was for bringing the war to a speedy and happy termination, and
obtaining the blessings of peace upon terms of reciprocity, honour, and
security, to all the belligerent powers. What he meant by reciprocity
between some of those powers he would have found it difficult to
explain; ... but the proposed insertion was negatived as unnecessary,
and Mr. Whitbread neither opposed the bill, nor the supplies voted for
carrying into effect the engagements of this nation with its ♦LORD
HOLLAND. DEC. 20.♦ allies. Lord Holland approved of the confidence
which was thus placed in ministers. “Although,” he said, “great part of
the happy results of this war might be justly attributed to a powerful
popular impulse, and to that infatuation on the part of the enemy,
which, thank God, always attended the long abuse of power, ... yet it
must be felt that a great deal of the merit is to be attributed to
the conduct of the government of this country. If the sentiments of
an individual,” he pursued, “are of consequence enough to arrest your
attention, it must be in your Lordships’ recollection that I always
approved of the interposition and interference of ministers in the
cause of Spain. The merit of such policy appears, and ever has appeared
to my judgment, quite indisputable, and must now indeed be universally
admitted; for, aided by the uncommon genius of Lord Wellington, that
policy has produced the most important results. It has driven the enemy
from that country which he had so long and so unremittingly oppressed.
It has presented a most encouraging and impressive example to Europe
of what a people excited by oppression were capable of achieving. It
has changed the whole character of the war, by making it a war of the
people. But a still farther advantage has arisen out of this policy.
A most atrocious calumny had become current in Europe, that the
government of this country was always ready to distribute its subsidies
with a view to embroil the nations of the continent, while it kept its
own people aloof from the contest. No such impression can ever again
prevail in Europe. The calumny has been effectually refuted by the
policy we have pursued with respect to Spain; for there we have not
only given our money but our men; there we have given our money, not
to excite the people but to enable them to act, and we have seconded
their exertions by a powerful army.
“In declaring my approbation of ministers in consequence of their
moderate language and conduct, that approbation is, of course, founded
upon a hope and confidence, that the very different language which
appears in certain publications has in no degree their sanction or
countenance. Sounding a violent and barbarous war-whoop through
the country, abounding in coarse, vulgar, virulent epithets, these
publications complete their abominable character by excitements to
assassination. Although the French ruler has rendered himself so odious
by his conduct, yet it must be admitted that he is a great military
commander, still at the head of a great nation; and is it fitting
that the press of this country should become the means of advising
the assassination of such a man, ... nay, of exhorting to the deed?
and what else can be meant by the repeated declaration, that no peace
can be concluded while this individual lives? The French ruler is no
doubt ambitious, inordinately ambitious; but if it were resolved that
no peace should be made with France while it was under the government
of an ambitious man, when, I would ask, could peace be expected? The
meaning, however, of all the publications I have referred to, may be
to recommend the restoration of the Bourbon family; but the attempt
at such a measure would be totally inconsistent with the professed
moderation and policy of ministers. That restoration might be good;
but it would be preposterous to look for the success of such an
object through the intervention of foreign armies; and it would be
opposite to the policy and principle of ministers to engage in any such
undertaking.”
Alluding then to the just remark of Lord Grenville, that one great
advantage resulting from the recent changes on the continent was, that
it afforded an opportunity for restoring the balance of power, “I must
be allowed,” said Lord Holland, “to say, that the re-establishment and
maintenance of that balance can never consist in, nor depend upon,
particular divisions of territory, so much as upon the existence of a
general feeling among the European states, that it is the interest of
each to preserve the independence of each and all. Such is the feeling
which gave birth and cement to the present confederacy; and therefore I
wish that such a confederacy may continue to exist in peace as well as
in war. I esteem the principle of this confederacy, because it appears
solicitous to preserve the interest of all, without gratifying the
peculiar interest of any one; and upon that principle I would rather
leave France with such possessions as should make her feel an interest
in the common object of the confederacy, than transfer from her to any
other state any possessions which might be likely to withdraw that
state from the general feeling which it is the interest of peace and
Europe to improve and strengthen.”
♦TERMS OFFERED BY THE ALLIES TO BUONAPARTE.♦
It was well for Great Britain and for the continent that Buonaparte
was not contented with such terms of peace as the allies, with a
generosity which had neither the character of wisdom nor of justice,
would a little before this have granted him. Even when he had been
driven over the Rhine, they would, according to their own declaration,
have left France more powerful than she had ever been under her kings,
if he would have consented to give up Italy. Out of Germany and out of
the Peninsula he had been beaten; but they would have allowed France
to remain with the whole of the Netherlands, and with the Rhine for
her boundary, if vain-glory and a blind confidence in his fortune
had not still demented Buonaparte. But he declared that he would
not under any circumstances abandon Italy; and they who ought not,
under any circumstances, now to have negotiated with him, prepared to
enter France. On his part he collected the largest force that that
exhausted country could supply, to resist the impending invasion; and
as it thus became an object of great importance for him to bring to
his assistance Suchet’s army, and the troops who were shut up in the
remaining garrisons in Valencia and Catalonia, he thought this might be
effected by dictating a treaty to ♦BUONAPARTE TREATS WITH FERDINAND.♦
his prisoner, Ferdinand. Accordingly he sent the Comte de Laforest to
Valençay, to negotiate with that poor Prince, saying, that under the
existing circumstances of his empire and his policy, he wished at once
to settle the affairs of Spain; that England was encouraging Jacobinism
and anarchy there, for the purpose of destroying the nobility and the
monarchy, and erecting a republic; that he could not but grievously
feel the destruction of a neighbouring state, connected by so many
maritime and commercial interests with his own; that he desired to
remove every pretext for English interference, and to re-establish
those ties of friendship and good neighbourhood by which Spain and
France had been so long connected; and therefore he had sent the Comte
de Laforest under a feigned name, to whom his Royal Highness might give
entire credit in all that he should propose.
♦CONFERENCE BETWEEN COMTE DE LAFOREST AND FERDINAND.♦
The Comte accordingly presented himself under the name of M. Dubois,
in order that the negotiation might be kept secret, because, if the
English were to discover, they would use every means for frustrating
it. The Emperor, he represented, had done all he could in Bayonne to
accommodate the differences which then existed between father and son;
but the English had marred every thing; they had introduced Jacobinism
into Spain, where the land was laid waste, religion destroyed, the
clergy ruined, the nobility crushed, the marine existing only in name,
the colonies dismembered and in insurrection, and, in fine, everything
overthrown. Those islanders desired nothing but to change the monarchy
into a republic; and yet, to deceive the people, they put the name
of his Royal Highness at the head of all their public acts. Moved by
these calamities, and by the lamentations of all good Spaniards, the
Emperor had chosen him for this important mission, because of his long
experience, for he had been more than forty years in the diplomatic
career, and had resided in every court; but, as there were so many
persons who knew him, he requested that the Spanish princes on their
part would contribute to keep the affair secret. Ferdinand had at this
time none with whom to consult, except his brother and his uncle, who
were both as inexperienced in business as himself. He replied, that
so unexpected a proposition required much reflection; he must have
time for considering it, and would let him know the result. Laforest,
without waiting for this, obtained an audience on the following day,
and then said, that if his Majesty accepted the kingdom of Spain, which
the Emperor wished to restore to him, they must concert means for
getting the English out of that country. To this Ferdinand replied,
that he could make no treaty, considering the circumstances in which
he was placed at Valençay, and indeed could take no measures without
the consent of the nation, as represented by the Regency. The old
diplomatist made answer, it certainly was not the intention of the
Emperor that his Majesty should do the slightest thing which might be
contrary to the wish of Spain; but in this case it would be necessary
that he should find means of ascertaining it. Ferdinand then said
that, during five years and a half, for so long he had been absent from
his own country, he had known nothing more of the state of affairs than
what he read in the French newspapers. Those papers, Laforest affirmed,
exhibited the true state of things; and he made a speech of some length
to prove what Ferdinand was not so devoid of penetration as to believe.
He concluded in words to this effect: “He who is born to a kingdom
has no will of his own; he must be a king, and is not like a private
individual, free to choose for himself that way of life which he may
think most agreeable. And where is he who, when a kingdom is offered
him, would not instantly accept it? Yet, withal, if he who should be a
king were to say, ‘I renounce all dignity from this time, and, far from
seeking honours, desire only to lead a private life;’ in that case the
affair becomes of a different kind. If, therefore, your Royal Highness
is in this predicament, the Emperor must have recourse to other
means; but if, as I cannot but believe, your Royal Highness thinks of
receiving the sceptre, the indispensable preliminary must be to settle
the principal bases of the negotiation upon which afterwards to treat,
and for this purpose to appoint a Spaniard, one of those who are at
this time in France.” Ferdinand calmly replied that this required
consideration. Upon this Laforest observed, that when a kingdom was to
be received, there was not much to consider, reasons of state being
the sole rule of conduct. But Ferdinand made answer, that he was far
from agreeing with him in that maxim; it was his belief that nothing
required greater consideration, and he would take time to deliberate
upon it.
Ferdinand could not have acted with better judgment at this time, if
he had had the ablest statesmen to advise him. In fact, the straight
course was the sure one; for, though he had been kept in complete
ignorance of all recent events, the very circumstance of this proposal
was proof sufficient that Buonaparte’s fortune had failed, and that
his motive for giving up his pretensions to Spain was that he was no
longer able to support them. On the morrow, he said to the ambassador
that, having maturely reflected upon what had been proposed, he must
repeat that he could do nothing, and treat of nothing, in his present
situation, without consulting with the nation, and of course with the
Regency. “The Emperor,” said he, “has placed me here; and if he chooses
that I should return to Spain, he it is who must consult and treat with
the Regency, because he has means of doing this, and I have not; or he
must afford me means, and consent that a deputation from the Regency
should come hither, and inform me concerning the state of Spain, and
propose to me measures for rendering it happy: any thing which I may
then conclude here with his Imperial Majesty will be valid. And it is
the more necessary that such a deputation should come, because there
is no person in France whom I could fitly employ in this affair.”
Laforest replied at some length, endeavouring to persuade him that the
English and Portugueze governed Spain, and that their intention was to
place the house of Braganza upon the Spanish throne, beginning with his
sister, the Princess of Brazil. He also pressed Ferdinand to declare
whether, when he returned to Spain, he meant to be the friend or the
enemy of the Emperor? This was presuming upon the weakness of the
person whom he addressed; but Ferdinand was not wanting in presence of
mind on this occasion. “I esteem the Emperor highly,” he replied, “but
I never will do any thing that may be injurious to my people and their
welfare; and upon this point I now finally declare that nothing shall
make me alter my determination. If the Emperor chooses that I should
return to Spain, let him treat with the Regency, and when that is done,
and I am assured of it, I will sign the treaty; but for this it will
be necessary that a deputation should come here and inform me of every
thing. Report this to the Emperor, and tell him, also, that this is
what my conscience dictates to me.”
♦NOV. 21.♦
Ferdinand expressed himself to the same effect in a letter, which on
the morrow he delivered into Laforest’s hands. “I am still under the
protection of your Imperial Majesty,” he added, “and still profess
the same love and respect of which you have had so many proofs. If
your Majesty’s system of policy, and the actual circumstances of your
empire, will not allow of your conforming to this course, I shall then
remain quietly and willingly at Valençay, where I have now passed five
years and a half, and where I shall remain for the rest of my life, if
God has so appointed it. It is painful to me, Sire, to speak in this
manner to your Majesty, but conscience compels me to it. I have as much
interest for the English as for the French, but, nevertheless, I must
prefer the interest and happiness of my own nation to every thing. Your
Imperial and Royal Majesty will see, I hope, in this nothing more than
a new proof of my ingenuous sincerity, and of the affection which I
bear towards you. If I should promise any thing to your Majesty, and
afterwards be obliged to act in opposition to it, what would you think
of me? you would say that I am inconstant, and you would despise me,
and dishonour me with all Europe.”
When Laforest received this letter from Ferdinand, he observed, that
his Royal Highness desired nothing but what was very just; but he asked
whether he designed to treat with the Emperor before he had consulted
with the Regency, or after? if after, it would occasion much delay;
if before, when the business was once concluded with the Emperor,
the Regency would instantly do whatever he thought fit. But if his
intention in returning to Spain was to continue the war with France,
the Emperor would choose rather to keep him in his power, and carry on
the war upon its present footing. Ferdinand replied, that surely either
the ambassador had not understood him, or he himself must have failed
in expressing himself with sufficient clearness. “My declarations,”
he pursued, “amount to this, that I marry myself to neither power.
If the interest of Spain requires that I should be the friend of the
French, I will be so; but if it requires that I should be the friend
of the English, their friend I shall be; and, finally, if this should
not suit the Emperor, the Infantes and I will remain well pleased
where we are at Valençay. In acting thus I do no otherwise ♦ESCOIQUIZ,
IDEA SENCILLA, &C., PP. 83, 100.♦ than the Emperor himself would do
were he in my place[3].” From this resolution Ferdinand was not to be
dissuaded, and Laforest accordingly returned with this reply.
♦TREATY CONCLUDED AT VALENÇAY.
DEC. 11.♦
Upon his return, Buonaparte dispatched the Duque de S. Carlos to
Valençay to negotiate, on Ferdinand’s part, with Laforest; and a treaty
was easily concluded to this effect, that the Emperor of the French
recognized Ferdinand and his successors as Kings of Spain and of the
Indies, according to the order established by the fundamental laws of
Spain; and that he recognized the integrity of the Spanish territory
as it existed before the war, and would deliver up to the Spaniards
such provinces and fortified places as the French still occupied in
Spain: Ferdinand obliging himself, on his part, to maintain the same
integrity, and that also of the adjacent isles and fortified places,
and especially Minorca and Ceuta; and to make the English evacuate
those provinces and places, the evacuation by the French and English
being to be made simultaneously. The two contracting powers bound
themselves to maintain the independence of their maritime rights,
as had been stipulated in the treaty of Utrecht, and observed till
the year 1792. All Spaniards who had adhered to King Joseph were to
re-enter upon the honours, rights, and privileges which they had
enjoyed, and all the property of which they might have been deprived
should be restored to them; and to such as might choose to live out of
Spain, ten years should be allowed for disposing of their possessions.
Prisoners on both sides were to be sent home, and also the garrison
of Pamplona, and the prisoners at Cadiz, Coruña, the Mediterranean
islands, or any other depôt which might have been delivered to the
English, ... whether they were in Spain, or had been sent to America
or to England. Ferdinand bound himself to pay an annual sum of thirty
millions of reales to Charles IV., his father, and, in case of his
death, an annuity of two millions to the Queen, his widow. Finally, a
treaty of commerce was to be formed between the two nations, and till
this could be done, their commercial relations were to be placed upon
the same footing as before the war of 1792.
♦S. CARLOS SENT TO THE REGENCY. DEC. 8.♦
The next step was to notify this treaty to the actual government of
Spain. Accordingly Ferdinand addressed a letter to the Regency, being
the first communication which he had been permitted to hold with his
own country since his entrapment. “Divine Providence,” he said, “which
in its inscrutable wisdom had permitted him to pass from the palace
of Madrid to that of Valençay, had granted to him the blessings of
health and strength, and the consolation of never having been for a
moment separated from his beloved brother and uncle, the Infantes, Don
Carlos and Don Antonio. They had experienced in that palace a noble
hospitality; their way of life had been as agreeable as it could be
under such circumstances; and he had employed his time in the manner
most suitable to his new condition. The only intelligence which he had
heard of his beloved Spain was what the French gazettes supplied; these
had given him some knowledge of the sacrifices which the nation had
made for him; of the magnanimous and unalterable constancy manifested
by his faithful vassals, of the persevering assistance of England,
the admirable conduct of its general-in-chief, Lord Wellington, and
of the Spanish and allied generals who had distinguished themselves.
The English ministry had publicly declared their readiness to admit
propositions of peace, founded upon his restitution; nevertheless,
the miseries of his kingdom still continued. He was in this state
of passive but vigilant observation, when the Emperor of the French
spontaneously made proposals to him, founded upon his restitution, and
the integrity and independence of his dominions, without any clause
which would not be compatible with the honour and glory and interest
of the Spanish nation. Being persuaded that Spain could not, after the
most successful and protracted war, conclude a more advantageous peace,
he had authorized the Duque de S. Carlos to negotiate in his name with
the Comte de Laforest, whom the Emperor Napoleon had nominated as
plenipotentiary on the part of France; and he had now appointed the
Duque to carry this treaty to the Regency, in proof of the confidence
which he reposed in them, that they might ratify it in their usual
manner, and send it back to him after this necessary form without loss
of time. How satisfactory,” he concluded, “is it for me to stop the
effusion of blood, and to see the end of so many evils! and how do I
long to return and live among a people, who have given the universe
an example of the purest loyalty, and of the noblest and most generous
character!”
This letter seemed to leave the Regency no power of deliberation,
but simply to require that they should ratify the treaty. But in
fact, Ferdinand, if he had any such wish, had no such expectation;
and he had penetration enough to see that the course of events which
had compelled Buonaparte to treat with him upon such terms, must
in their consequences restore him to his kingdom; even though the
Regency should, as he supposed, refuse to ratify it, because of their
engagement with the allied powers. He gave the Duque, therefore,
♦SECRET INSTRUCTIONS FROM FERDINAND.♦ secret verbal instructions to
inquire into the spirit of the Regency and the Cortes; and if he
should find them loyal and well affected to his royal person, ...
not, as he suspected, tainted with infidelity and Jacobinism, ... he
was then to let the Regency know, but in the greatest confidence, his
royal intention that the treaty should be ratified, if it could be
done without injury to the good faith which Spain owed to the allied
powers, or to the public weal; but that he was far from requiring
this if it were otherwise. Should the Regency be of opinion, that
without compromising these points, the treaty might be ratified, upon
an understanding with England temporarily, and until his return to
Spain should in consequence be effected, upon the supposition that
he, without whose free approbation it could not be complete, would
not ratify it when at liberty, but would declare it to have been
constrained and null, and moreover as being injurious to the nation;
in that case he wished them so to ratify it, because the French could
not reasonably reproach him, if, having acquired information concerning
the state of Spain, which had been withheld from him in his captivity,
he should refuse to confirm it. But if the Duque should discover that
the spirit of Jacobinism prevailed in the Regency and the Cortes, he
was then simply to require that the treaty should be ratified; for this
would ♦ESCOIQUIZ, 108–10.♦ not prevent the King from continuing the war
after his return, if the interest and good faith of the nation should
so require. This intention, however, was to be kept profoundly secret,
lest, through any treachery, it should be made known to the French
government.
♦MACANAZ SENT TO VALENÇAY.♦
With these instructions the Duque departed, travelling under the
assumed name of Ducós, that his mission might not be suspected.
Laforest remained at Valençay, still under a false name, and keeping
out of sight, in the same part of the castle which Ferdinand and the
Infantes inhabited; and before the Duque’s departure, Don Pedro de
Macanaz was sent thither by Buonaparte to continue the conferences with
this diplomatist. However much the Regency, or rather the Cortes (for
the Regency was now the mere organ of its pleasure) might be surprised
when the treaty was communicated to them, they were not unprovided
♦JAN. 8.♦ for such an event. The Regency accordingly expressed in reply
their joy upon seeing the King’s signature, and being assured of his
good health, and of that of the Infantes, and of the noble sentiments
which he cherished for his dear Spain. “If,” they said, “they could
but ill express their own satisfaction, still less could they the joy
of that noble and magnanimous people who had sworn fidelity to him;
nor the sacrifices which they had made, were making, and still would
make, till they should see him placed upon the throne of love and
justice which they had prepared for him: they must content themselves
with declaring to his Majesty that he was the beloved and the desired
of the whole nation. It was their duty to put him in possession of a
decree passed by the Cortes on the 1st of January, 1811; so doing, they
were excused from making the slightest observation upon the treaty, in
which his Majesty had the most authentic proof that the sacrifices made
by the Spaniards for the recovery of his royal person had not been made
in vain. And they congratulated him upon seeing that the day was now
near when they should enjoy the inexpressible happiness of delivering
up to him the royal authority which they had preserved for him in
faithful deposit during his captivity.” The decree which accompanied
this letter was that by which the Cortes enacted that no treaty which
the King might conclude during his restraint and captivity should be
recognized by Spain.
♦ZAYAS AND PALAFOX RELEASED.♦
Some delay had taken place in the Duque de S. Carlos’s journey, owing
to the removal of the Cortes from Cadiz to Madrid just at that time. In
the interim, Buonaparte, who was now as desirous to withdraw his troops
from the Peninsula as, in evil hour for himself, he had once been of
introducing them there, sought to accelerate that object. He released
Zayas and Palafox, who had been kept close prisoners at Vincennes,
and sent them to Valençay. Escoiquiz soon followed them; and Laforest
proposed that orders should be given by the Regency, immediately after
the ratification, for a general suspension of hostilities, humanity
requiring that all useless expenditure of blood should be avoided.
The Emperor, he said, had appointed Marshal Suchet his commissioner
for executing that part of the treaty which related to evacuating the
fortresses; and it now depended upon the Spanish government alone
to expedite this business, and effect the release of prisoners; the
generals and officers should proceed by post to their own country, and
the soldiers be delivered upon the frontier as fast as they arrived
there. This being assented to by Macanaz and Escoiquiz, ♦PALAFOX SENT
TO THE REGENCY. DEC. 23.♦ on Ferdinand’s part, it was determined that
Palafox should be sent to communicate it to the Regency, bearing with
him a duplicate of the Duque’s commission, in case any accident might
have happened to him upon the way; and also a letter in which Ferdinand
expressed his persuasion that the Regency had by this time ratified
the treaty. But Palafox had secret instructions to see the English
ambassador at Madrid, express to him how grateful the King felt for
the exertions of the British government in his favour, and communicate
to him, in secrecy, the King’s real intention in thus negotiating with
Buonaparte, in order that that government, far from resenting such a
proceeding, should contribute to its fulfilment. The ♦REPLY OF THE
SPANISH GOVERNMENT. 1814. JAN. 28.♦ Regency replied to this second
communication by referring to their former reply; they added, that “an
ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary had now been named, on
his Majesty’s part, for a congress in which the allies were about to
give peace to Europe. In that congress, they said, the treaty would
be concluded; and it would be ratified not by the Regency, but by his
Majesty himself, in his own royal palace of Madrid, whither he would
be restored to occupy, in the most absolute liberty, a throne rendered
illustrious by the heroic sacrifices of the Spaniards, and by his own
sublime virtues. And they expressed their satisfaction in the thought
that they should soon deliver up to his Majesty the authority wherewith
they were intrusted, ... a charge of such weight that it could rest
only upon the robust shoulders of a monarch who, by re-establishing
the Cortes, had restored to freedom an enslaved people, and driven the
ferocious monster, Despotism, from the throne of Spain.”
♦MEASURES OF THE CORTES.♦
The Spanish government would have acted thus far prudently in its
communication with Ferdinand, if it had abstained from this empty
language: but the _Liberales_, as the ruling party called themselves,
were, some, vain of their talents, others confident in the uprightness
of their intentions, and all alike ignorant of their weakness. If the
abler leaders of this party had not proceeded so far as they desired
and perhaps designed, they were yet conscious that they had proceeded
farther than their functions warranted and than Ferdinand would
sanction. They held, therefore, a secret sitting of the Cortes, and
deliberated upon the measures to be taken in case the King should pass
the frontiers. It was proposed, by a commission appointed to report
upon this emergency, that he should not be considered as being free,
nor should obedience be rendered him, until he should have sworn to
the Constitution in the bosom of the Cortes; that the Generals on the
frontiers should send expresses to the government with all speed, as
soon as they obtained any tidings of his probable coming; that if he
were accompanied by any armed force, that force should be repulsed,
according to the laws of war; should it consist of Spaniards, they
were to lay down their arms, and those who had been carried prisoners
into France licensed to return each to his home; whatever General
might have the honour of receiving the King being to supply him with
a guard suitable to his royal dignity and person. No foreigner should
be allowed to accompany him, not even as a domestic or servant; no
Spaniard who had filled any office, received any pension, or accepted
any honour from Buonaparte or from the Intruder. The Regency should be
charged to fix the route by which the King should proceed to Madrid;
and the President of the Regency, as soon as he arrived in Spain,
should set out to meet and accompany him with a proper retinue, and
present him with a copy of the Constitution, that so his Majesty,
having made himself acquainted therewith, might, upon full deliberation
and with entire consent, take the oath which it prescribed. Having
reached the capital, he should proceed straight to the Cortes, there to
take the said oath, with all the ceremonies and solemnities enjoined:
this done, thirty Members of that assembly should attend him to the
palace, where the Regency should resign the government into his hands;
on the same day the Cortes should prepare a decree for making known to
the nation the solemn act by which, and in virtue of the oath which
he should then have sworn, the King had been constitutionally placed
upon the throne; and this decree should be presented to the King by a
deputation, that it might be published with all due formalities. The
opinion of the Council of State upon this proposition was required
within four-and-twenty hours.
♦FEB. 1.♦
The Council was of opinion that the King ought not to exercise any
authority till he should have taken the oath before the Cortes. They
thought that a deputation should be appointed to meet him, and inform
him concerning the state of affairs and of public opinion, both as to
the eternal and sworn hatred of Napoleon, and the observance of the
Constitution. One member of the Council advised that the deputation
should consist of members of the Cortes, two of whom in rotation should
accompany the King in his coach till he arrived at the palace; and
also that all the soldiers who had been prisoners in France should
be detained upon the frontier, and all the King’s attendants also,
till they should have taken the oath. “It must be believed,” said the
Council, “that if Napoleon sends Ferdinand to Spain, it can only be for
the purpose of laying a new snare for us, and making him the instrument
of his iniquitous schemes, and rendering him, perhaps, odious to a
nation which now longs for his presence, ... it must be with the design
of fomenting a civil war, in which he may be entrapped, seduced, and
compelled to take a part; that the attention of the allies may thus
be distracted, and the progress of their operations be delayed. Now,
therefore, more than ever Spain stands in need of that energy which
hitherto she has displayed against the common enemy; now it is that
she must manifest to the King how much she has done for his sake, and
how much she loves him; but at the same time how much she loves the
Constitution, and abhors the tyrannical disturber of the world. And,
therefore, it is now more than ever of importance that efforts should
be redoubled for maintaining our armies upon a good footing, and
co-operating more effectually for the destruction of that monster.”
In this transaction Buonaparte acted towards Ferdinand with good faith,
because he had no interest in acting otherwise; so he could extricate
his garrisons he cared not now what might become of Spain. Ferdinand
conducted himself with as much prudence and as little duplicity as
could be expected in his situation. The Liberales miscalculated their
strength; their measures implied a distrust of the King; and if he
inferred from their language, that, under all its professions of
respectful and affectionate loyalty, a defiance was couched there in
case he should hesitate to recognise the new order of things, he was
not mistaken in its purport and intent.
CHAPTER XLVI.
PROCEEDINGS IN FRANCE. THE DUC D’ANGOULEME GOES TO LORD WELLINGTON’S
ARMY. LERIDA, MEQUINENZA, AND MONZON RECOVERED BY STRATAGEM.
PASSAGE OF THE ADOUR. BATTLE OF ORTHES. THE ALLIES RECEIVED AT
BOURDEAUX. BATTLE OF TOULOUSE. SORTIE FROM BAYONNE. RESTORATION
OF FERDINAND. CONCLUSION.
♦1814.♦
Buonaparte had returned to France breathing vengeance. He sent before
him two-and-twenty standards taken in the course of his German
campaign; and he announced to his Council of State, in troubled and
passionate language, the extent of his danger, and his determination
of opposing and overcoming it by the most ♦BUONAPARTE’S SPEECH TO HIS
COUNCIL.♦ violent efforts. “Wellington,” said he, “is in the south, the
Russians threaten the northern frontier, Austria the south-eastern, ...
yet, shame to speak it, the nation has not risen in mass to repel them!
Every ally has abandoned me: the Bavarians have betrayed me!... Peace?
no peace, till Munich is in flames! I demand of you 300,000 men; I will
form a camp at Bourdeaux of 100,000, another at Lyons, a third at Metz:
with the remnant of my former levies, I shall have 1,000,000 of men in
arms. But it is men whom I demand, full-grown men; not these miserable
striplings who choke my hospitals with sick, and my highways with their
carcases.... Give up Holland? rather let it sink into the sea! Peace,
it seems, is talked of, when all around ought to re-echo with the cry
of war!”
♦NOVEMBER.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.♦
Accordingly the obsequious senate placed, in official form and phrase,
300,000 conscripts at the disposal of the minister of war: they were
to be taken from the men who had been liable to the conscription in
former years, as far back as 1806, with an exception however in favour
of those who should have been married prior to the publication of this
decree; half this number were immediately to take the field, the others
to be held in reserve, and brought forward in case the eastern frontier
should be invaded. Comte Dejean, who ♦COMTE DEJEAN.♦ addressed the
senate upon this measure, said that painful as it was thus to call upon
classes who had formerly been free from the conscription, circumstances
now required such a measure: by this means men would be ranged under
the French eagles, who united strength with courage, and could support
the fatigues of war; while the younger conscripts would have time in
garrisons and in armies of reserve to acquire vigour for seconding the
sentiments which inspired them. “The cry of alarm,” said Regnaud de S.
Jean d’Angely, ♦REGNAUD DE S. JEAN D’ANGELY.♦ “and of succour, sent
forth by our sons and brethren in arms, still gloriously combating upon
the banks of the Rhine, has resounded upon the Seine and the Rhone, the
Doubs and the Gironde, the Moselle and the Loire, the mountains of Jura
and of the Vosges, the Alps and the Pyrenees. All true Frenchmen are
already prepared to meet the wants of their country, ... to meet the
dangers and sacrifices which must prevent other dangers and sacrifices
far more frightful, both for their extent and for the humiliation which
must accompany them. If the coalesced armies could penetrate beyond the
Pyrenees, the Alps, or the Rhine, then the day of peace could not shine
upon France; there could be no peace till we should repulse the enemy,
and drive him far from our territory. Noble sons of our dear France!
generous defenders of our glorious country! you, who close the entrance
of France against the English, the Russians, and their allies, you
shall not be left without support in the holy and honourable struggle
to which you have devoted yourselves. A little while, and numerous
battalions of men, mighty in strength and in courage, will come to aid
you in again seizing upon victory, and in delivering the French soil.”
♦COMTE LACEPÈDE.♦
“Your Majesty,” said Comte Lacepède, “who knows better than any one
the wants and the sentiments of your subjects, know that we desire
peace. But all the nations of the continent are in greater need of it
than we are; and if, notwithstanding the wishes and interest of more
than 150 millions of souls, our enemies should think of presenting to
us a sort of capitulation, their expectations will be deceived; the
French people show by their devotement and their sacrifices that no
nation ever better understood their duties toward their country, their
honour, and their sovereign.” To this Buonaparte made answer, ... “It
is but a year since all Europe was with us; all Europe marches against
us now: this is because the opinion of the world is directed by France
or by England. We should have every thing to fear, were it not for the
energy and the power of the nation. Posterity will say that if great
and critical circumstances offered themselves, they were not superior
to France and to me.” His heart was hardened, or he might now have made
peace upon terms which would speedily have enabled him again to disturb
the world; but his spirit was unbroken; and his abilities were never at
any time so signally displayed, as in making head against the dangers
which were about to beset him on all sides. It was no longer possible
to keep the people in ignorance of the real state of things: the press,
which hitherto under his tyranny had been employed in deceiving them,
was made use of now to excite them, by declaring the whole truth as
respected the danger, but suppressing it upon all other points: the
allies were charged with breach of faith and inordinate ambition, they
were represented as all seeking their own aggrandizement; and the
Emperor Napoleon as struggling alone against them, for the honour and
the interests ♦BUONAPARTE’S SPEECH TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.♦ of
France. He himself addressed the legislature to the same effect, ...
“Brilliant victories,” said he, “have illustrified the French arms in
this campaign; unexampled defections have rendered those victories
useless. Every thing has turned against us. France itself would be in
danger were it not for the energy and unanimity of the French. I have
never been seduced by prosperity; adversity will find me superior to
its attacks. Often have I given peace to nations when they had lost
all.... From part of my conquests I have erected thrones for kings
who have abandoned me. I had conceived and executed great designs for
the prosperity and happiness of the world. A monarch and a father,
I know what peace adds to the security of thrones and of families.
Negotiations have been set on foot. I hoped that the congress would by
this time have met; but delays, which are not attributable to France,
have deferred the moment which is called for by the wishes of the
world.” When Buonaparte said this, he had no hope of peace, no desire
for it, no intention of making any such concessions as would render it
possible.
♦BRITISH REGULATIONS FOR TRADING WITH THE CAPTURED FRENCH PORTS.♦
As yet none of the other allied armies had passed the frontier;
but Lord Wellington was established in France, where, taking into
consideration the necessity of fixing the bases upon which the trade
with the ports of French Navarre to the south of the Adour should be
regulated, he published a proclamation, declaring that those ports
were ♦DEC. 18.♦ open to all nations who were not at war with any of
the allied powers, and fixing a duty of five per ♦DEC. 31.♦ cent. _ad
valorem_ upon all articles, except grain and salt, and stores for the
use of the army. An order of council was also published in England,
permitting British ♦JAN. 14.♦ vessels to trade with these and such
other French ports as might be under the protection, or in the military
occupation of his Majesty’s arms. To this then were the decrees of
Berlin and Milan come at last! The tyrant who had endeavoured to shut
the ports of all Europe against British ships and British merchandise,
and at one time had well nigh accomplished his barbarous and
barbarizing purpose, saw England now regulating the commerce of his own
ports, and levying duties in France, ... not after his example, with
blind and merciless rapacity, but upon those principles of moderation
and equity, on which her power has been raised, and by which her
prosperity is supported. Three years had not elapsed since the official
journal of Buonaparte’s government had said, that instead of defending
Portugal and Cadiz, Great Britain’s efforts would soon be required for
the defence of Gibraltar; that Spain having been conquered foot by foot
was on the point of being entirely subjected; that Wellington’s mode
of defending Portugal had been by abandoning the fortresses and laying
waste the country, and God grant, said the Moniteur, that he may one
day defend England in the same manner! “Our continental system,” said
the official journalist, “is completed; it diminishes your receipts by
crippling your commerce, and increases your expenses by obliging you
to keep armies in Lisbon and Sicily. In the meantime the French army,
according to our fundamental law, lives on the country in which it is
making war, and only costs us the pay which it would do at home.”
“The credit which sustained the colossal power of Great Britain,”
said Buonaparte to his Legislative Body in the summer of 1811, “is no
more. Her allies are either lost or destroyed. She ruins all whom she
would subsidize; she exhausts her own people in useless efforts. But
the struggle against this modern Carthage will now be decided on the
plains of Spain; the peace of the continent will not be disturbed;
England herself shall feel the evils which during twenty years she has
inflicted on the continental nations. A clap of thunder shall put an
end to the affairs of the Peninsula, seal the fate of her armies, and
avenge Europe and Asia by terminating this second Punic ♦DECEMBER.♦
war.” With what feelings must Buonaparte now have reflected upon these
bootless boasts!
With as little satisfaction too could he reflect upon the result of
that fundamental principle of his military system, by which his armies
were made to live on the countries wherein they were making war. The
principle of the British commander was to demand nothing from the
inhabitants, and to seize nothing; not a single ration was required
from them; they were paid on the spot for every thing which they
brought, while Soult’s army drained the adjoining provinces by its
requisitions, and his soldiers were rendered at once formidable and
odious to their own countrymen by the insolent and lawless habits which
they had acquired in the Peninsula. The passage of the Nive had put the
allies in possession of a large tract of country singularly fertile;
they obtained great part of their forage from it; and the right wing by
its position on the left of the Adour, commanded the navigation of that
river, and often intercepted the enemy’s supplies. In that deep soil,
and in a season of continued rain, it was not possible for the army to
advance, an individual indeed could with difficulty make his way any
where but on the paved road; ... it was hardly thought bad walking if
the waters were not more than knee-deep. ♦INJURY DONE BY DESTROYING THE
WOODS IN THIS PART OF THE PYRENEES.♦ One of those unforeseen effects
which frequently arise when man interferes upon a large scale with the
works of nature, has rendered this country liable to inundations in
winter and spring, and to drought in summer. About the middle of the
seventeenth century a speculator[4] undertook to supply the French
government with ship timber from the Pyrenees; to effect this it was
necessary for him to increase the waters of the two rivers, or, as
they are there called, _Gaves_ of Pau and Oleron; and by turning into
them the course of numerous rivulets, he doubled the volume of the
latter stream, and increased the current of the Adour so much that a
50-gun ship could cross the bar of Bayonne with less difficulty than
before that time was experienced by a vessel with ten guns. He expended
300,000 crowns upon this scheme, succeeded in it, and ruined his
family. But permanent evil was occasioned to the country: for when the
mountains were clothed with woods, the snow which was collected there
melted gradually under their shade, and fed the streams during the
whole year; afterwards, when the snow was exposed to the sun and rain,
the streams poured down in torrents, rendering the rivers destructive
during the winter and spring, and scarcely supplying water enough in
summer for navigation.
While the allies waited in their cantonments till the season should
allow them to recommence their operations, telegraphic signal stations,
to guard against surprise, were formed on the churches of Guethary,
Arcangues, and Vieux Monguerre, and these communicated with one upon
a high sand-hill, on the north side of St. Jean de Luz, near the
entrance from the Bayonne road: so that notice of any hostile movement
might almost instantaneously be communicated to the head-quarters.
Works were thrown up in front of the left, as the most assailable
part of the line, at Bidaut, at Arcangues, and almost on every knoll.
On such occasions it was that unavoidable injury was done to the
inhabitants. If a chateau unfortunately stood where it was deemed
expedient to fortify it, every part was pulled down that did not serve
for the purposes of defence; and all the noble trees around it were
felled, while the owner looked on, a sad and helpless spectator of the
ruin. These were cases of individual hardship; nothing could be more
honourable to the British character than the extreme care which was
taken to prevent all avoidable injury, and this was acknowledged by
the people with equal surprise and thankfulness. No army ever behaved
better even in its own country than the British army at this time in
France, and this was owing to Lord Wellington’s regulations. There
was another part of the British general’s conduct which attracted the
notice and commanded the respect of the French people; he regularly
attended divine service, with all his staff, not in the church, but
on the sandy beach, the brigade of guards forming a square there. The
service of Christmas-day[5] was performed there, on a bright frosty
day, not a breath of wind stirring, and no extraneous sound but that of
a high surf breaking at least half a mile from the shore, and flashing
in the sunshine.
♦MOVEMENTS IN THE MONTH OF JANUARY.
1814.♦
Towards the end of December the floods carried away the bridges
which had been thrown over the Nive, but they were soon replaced. A
detachment was sent towards Hasparren to clear the country in the
rear of the right wing of the enemy’s cavalry under Paris; and on new
year’s day a small island in the Adour, near Monguerre, was taken from
the French without opposition. At this time Clausel was assembling a
considerable force on the Gave de Oleron; on the third he drove in
the cavalry piquets between the Joyeuse and the Bidouze, and attacked
the posts of Major-General Buchan’s Portugueze brigade on the former
river, near La Bastide, and those of the third division in Bouloc. The
enemy turned the right of the Portugueze brigade on the heights of
La Costa, and established two divisions there and on La Bastide, on
the Joyeuse, with the remainder of their force on the Bidouze and the
Gave. The centre and right of the allies were immediately concentrated
and prepared to move; Lord Wellington reconnoitred the enemy the next
day, and would have attacked them on the ensuing, if the weather and
the swelling of the rivulets had not occasioned a day’s delay. But on
the 6th the attack was made by the 3rd and 4th divisions, supported
by Buchan’s Portugueze brigade of General Le Cor’s division, and the
cavalry under Major-General Fane; the enemy were dislodged without
loss on our side, and the troops resumed their former positions. Mina
was at this time with three battalions at Bidarray and St. Etienne
de Baygorey, observing the movements of the enemy from St. Jean de
Pied-de-Port. The people of the vale of Baygorey had distinguished
themselves in the war of 1793 by their brave opposition to the Spanish
troops; that spirit had been transmitted to the present generation,
and it was called into action by their countryman Harispe, one of the
most active of the French generals. They were the only peasantry who
manifested any disposition to act against the allies; by their aid,
with that of Paris’s division, and such troops as could be spared from
the garrison of St. Jean, Harispe ♦JAN. 12.♦ moved against Mina, and
compelled him to retire into the valley of Aldudes.
♦FALSE REPORTS CIRCULATED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.♦
These were the only military movements on this side during the month
of January; and the state of affairs here was disguised as much as
possible from the French people; Buonaparte persisting to the last in
that system of falsehood by which he had so long flattered and deluded
them. It could not, indeed, be concealed that Lord Wellington’s army
was wintering in France, though by what train of events it should
have arrived there the French were left to guess. But it was affirmed
that he had been defeated in the actions before Bayonne with the loss
of 15,000 men; that he now thought of nothing more than intrenching
himself within his own lines; that Clausel had assumed an attitude
which alarmed him; ... that his situation was becoming more and more
critical; ... that the misunderstanding between the Spanish and English
troops increased every day; ... that the British commander began to
fear lest the part of the French army which remained in the camp at
Bayonne might cut off his retreat; in fine, that the allies were filled
with consternation, and that while they were suffering from want of
provisions, their convoys were wrecked upon the coast of the Landes
department, and supplied the French with beef and clothing, and with
packages of pressed hay, which were sent to Bayonne, and there served
out to Marshal Soult’s cavalry.
♦THE DUC D’ANGOULÊME GOES TO LORD WELLINGTONS ARMY.♦
But while the Moniteur, in its official articles, dwelt thus upon
a chance shipwreck, and attempted, in its usual strain, to deceive
the French people, that part of the nation who remembered what had
been the state of France before its baneful revolution regarded the
progress of the British arms with secret satisfaction, because it
offered a hope of the restoration of the Bourbons, and of that peace
and security which could be obtained by no other means. The Bourbons
themselves thought it was now time for them to take advantage of the
course of events, and remind France that by putting an end to their
unmerited exile she might put an end to her own multiplied calamities.
The Duc d’Angoulême, therefore, with the Duc de Guiche, Comte Etienne
de Damas, and Comte d’Escars, sailed from England for Passages, and
proceeded to St. Jean de Luz. But as the allied powers, whether wisely
or not, had as yet held out no encouragement to the hopes of this royal
family, Lord Wellington could receive him with no public honours.
Many of the inhabitants, however, hastened to pay their court to him;
and the mayor of this little town, expressing to him a hope that the
calamities which France had so long endured would soon be terminated
by peace, observed, that peace could no otherwise be guaranteed than
by the word of their legitimate sovereign; and requested his Royal
Highness to convey to the king an assurance of cordial allegiance
from the municipality and people of that place. Deputations were also
sent to him from the neighbouring communes; and, before his arrival,
a circumstance had occurred which more unequivocally manifested the
disposition of the people. There was an emigrant officer in the British
army whose family estates were in the neighbourhood of Pau; a native
of that part of the country came to St. Jean de Luz charged by the
tenants of those estates to tell him how much they wished to live again
under their own old laws and customs, and how happy they should be
once more to pay their rents to their old master. The Duc, under the
name of the Comte de Pradelles, lived with the utmost privacy, as the
circumstances required; but he addressed a proclamation to the French
army, and agents were not wanting to circulate it. He called upon them
to rally round the _fleurs-de-lys_, which he was come, he said, to
display once more in his dear country; and he guaranteed, in the name
of the king, his uncle, their rank and pay to those who should join
him, and rewards proportionate to their services. “Soldiers,” he said,
“it is the descendant of Henri IV.; ... it is the husband of a princess
whose misfortunes are unequalled, but whose only wishes are for the
prosperity of France; ... it is a prince who, forgetting, in imitation
of your king, all his own sufferings, and mindful only of yours, throws
himself now with confidence into your arms!”
♦ROCHEJAQUELEIN COMES TO THE BRITISH CAMP.♦
A movement such as this address was intended to excite had already
begun, but it was among men who had been trained in better principles
than the soldiers of the revolution. An agent of Louis XVIII. had
arrived at Bourdeaux, and had found in that city the Marquis de la
Rochejaquelein, whom it was part of his commission to see, and say
to him that the king depended upon him for La Vendée. Rochejaquelein
is one of the redeeming names that appear in the black and bloody
history of the French revolution. The present Marquis had succeeded
to the title, the principles, and the virtues of his brother, who, in
the first Vendean war, had addressed his soldiers in these memorable
words: “_Si j’avance, suivez-moi; si je recule, tuez-moi; si je meurs,
vengez-moi_[6]!” “If I advance, follow me; if I falter, kill me; if I
fall, avenge me!” He now went through Anjou and Touraine, and awakened
that spirit which the National Convention had not been able, even by
its most atrocious barbarities, to suppress. A scheme was formed for
delivering Ferdinand from Valençay; but the person who was to have
headed the enterprise died at the time when it should have taken
place; and, indeed, no advantage could have been derived from it then,
if it had succeeded. Rochejaquelein’s designs were suspected, and M.
Lynch, the mayor of Bourdeaux, who was then at Paris, warned him, by
an express that orders were given for arresting him, and bringing him
dead or alive before Savary, Buonaparte’s worthy minister of police.
He escaped to Bourdeaux, and while remaining there in concealment,
heard that the Duc d’Angoulême was with the English army. Upon this he
determined immediately to repair to him, and receive his orders; but
before he set out upon this most hazardous adventure he requested an
interview with M. Lynch, who was just then returned from the capital.
That magistrate, who was always a loyalist at heart, foresaw the
speedy overthrow of Buonaparte, and had already given his word to the
Polignacs (then in confinement), that if Bourdeaux declared for the
king, he would be the first to mount the white cockade; this promise
he now renewed to Rochejaquelein, and charged him to assure the Duc
of his devoted services, and that he would deliver to him the keys of
the town. After many difficulties and dangers, the Marquis succeeded
in getting on board a ship bound, with a license, to S. Sebastian’s;
and, escaping from a storm by which several vessels were wrecked on the
coast, he landed at Passages, and hastened to St. Jean de Luz.
♦LORD WELLINGTON REFUSES TO SEND AN EXPEDITION TO THE COAST OF POITOU.♦
When the Duc heard his report of the state of feeling in La Vendée, of
the general opinion which prevailed in France, and of the disposition
which there was to receive him in Bourdeaux, he declared that nothing
should now make him forsake that country in which he had found subjects
who were still so faithful. Without delay, accompanied by the Duc de
Guiche, Rochejaquelein proceeded to Lord Wellington, who was then at
Garitz; he assured him that Bourdeaux would declare for the Bourbons
as soon as a British force should approach it; and, as the means of
effecting a powerful diversion in aid of that loyal city, he proposed
that the British General should send one or two vessels and a few
hundred men to land him by night upon the coast of Poitou, escort
him some two leagues into the interior, and then leave him there:
while they re-embarked and drew the attention of the troops, he would
pursue his way alone, and raise once more that loyal race who had
exerted themselves so dutifully, and suffered so severely, in the
most frantic and ferocious times of the revolution. Lord Wellington
listened with great interest to these representations; but he doubted
whether the feelings of the people towards the royal family were what
Rochejaquelein believed them to be; and he did not think himself
authorized to detach even a small force upon an expedition such as
♦MÉMOIRES DE LA MARQUISE DE LA ROCHEJAQUELEIN, PP. 513–28.♦ was
proposed, when he had no instructions from his own government, and
moreover when he was on the eve of great operations, ... for he was now
preparing to pass the Adour.
♦SUCHET FAILS IN AN ATTEMPT TO SURPRISE A BRITISH CORPS.
DECEMBER.♦
On the side of Catalonia, meantime, all went on favourably for the
allies; for if they were too weak to obtain any advantages for
themselves, the enemy was weakened to a greater degree, in consequence
of the progress of the war in other quarters. Marshal Suchet made one
vigorous attempt in the beginning of December to surprise the corps
at Villafranca, where the British head-quarters were established. He
made a forced night march in this hope with about 15,000 men; but
timely information had been obtained. Sarsfield’s division, which was
stationed there, retired across the country to the left; the British
cavalry and artillery fell back about eight miles along the main road
to Arbos, where there was a strong position, and whither General
Mackenzie moved his division to their support; and Suchet, having
failed in his intention, retired from Villafranca on the afternoon
of the same day, and returned to the Llobregat as rapidly as he had
advanced. The wants of the Spanish army had now become so pressing
that it was necessary to send Sarsfield’s cavalry to the rear, where
it might be possible for them to subsist, his infantry being sometimes
upon the shortest allowance, and without any sure prospect of even
that insufficient dole for more than two or three days. His troops
must from sheer destitution have quitted the field had it not been for
the merchants of Villa-nueva, who, at his earnest persuasion, but on
their own credit, and at their own risk, supplied them with provisions
from the imports which arrived at that port. Not a murmur meantime
was heard from the men; nor did they evince the slightest feeling
of discontent or jealousy when they saw the Anglo-Sicilian troops,
forming part of the same army, duly supplied, while they themselves
were hungered. Only if the greater strength of the British soldiers
appeared, when they were engaged together in the public works, a
Spaniard would sometimes quietly say, “Give us your rations, and you
shall see us work as well as you do.”
After the Nassau battalions had passed over to Lord Wellington’s camp,
immediate advice had been dispatched to Sir William Clinton; and the
information was with due secrecy communicated to the officer who
commanded the Nassau troops in Catalonia; but this person preferring
what he considered his military obligations to his national duty,
delivered the papers into General Habert’s hands, who had succeeded
Maurice ♦THE GERMAN TROOPS IN BARCELONA DISARMED.♦ Mathieu in the
command at Barcelona. The French would, perhaps, have been better
pleased if he had followed the example of his better-minded countrymen;
for that German feeling which the officer had renounced existed among
the men, and it was deemed necessary to disarm them all, 2400 in
number, thus weakening the army of Catalonia, and bringing upon it
this additional inconvenience, that the men of whose services it was
deprived were to be supported as prisoners, and guarded also. This
officer was mortally wounded a few weeks afterwards in a sally from
Barcelona.
♦TROOPS WITHDRAWN FROM SUCHET’S ARMY.♦
Suchet’s force was still farther weakened by the withdrawal of 2000
of his Italian troops; he then proposed to the French government,
as a measure of expediency, that they should dismantle the city of
Barcelona, and content themselves with occupying the citadel and
Fort Monjuic, whereby 5000 of the garrison would be disposable for
service; but his advice was rejected, the possession of Barcelona
being deemed necessary for the support of the army in Catalonia. About
the same time two strong battalions of Spaniards were detached from
the Anglo-Sicilian army, at the pressing request of General Roche,
to assist him in blockading Murviedro. Tarragona had now been so far
repaired as to be in a defensible state; but such was the exhausted
condition of the province that no stores of any kind could be obtained
from it for the Spanish authorities. ♦FAILURE OF AN ATTEMPT AGAINST THE
ENEMY AT MOLINS DEL REY. JANUARY.♦ While both armies were withheld
from undertaking any important operation by the diminution of strength
on both sides, and by the increasing difficulties of obtaining supplies
on the part of the Anglo-Sicilians, a plan was concerted between
Sir William Clinton and Manso for attacking the enemy’s cantonments
at Molins del Rey and the adjoining villages on the Llobregat: Sir
William was to move with 8000 men upon the Barcelona road and attack
them in front, while Manso should post himself upon the strong ground
in the rear of Molins del Rey, close to the only road by which they
could retire. Copons had assented to this project, and agreed to
lend Manso and his brigade for this service, both the men and their
commander being worthy of all confidence. ♦JAN. 17.♦ The enterprise
failed, because Copons, without making any communication to the English
General, instead of sending Manso, chose to go himself with a larger
force, set off two hours later than the time which had been agreed
upon, and finally appeared on the right flank of the enemy instead
of in the rear; meantime the force from Villafranca having arrived
at the hour appointed, the French, who, if there had been the same
punctuality on the other side, must have been taken by surprise, were
able to effect their retreat over the Llobregat by the stone bridge
near Molins, which was well fortified. Upon the first alarm Suchet
dispatched troops to support General Pannetier, who was in command
there, and manœuvred in the hope of decoying the allies to a dangerous
advance: but Sir William was too wary to incur any unwise risk, when
the object of his movement had been disappointed. Had Manso been left
to execute what had been concerted with him, Pannetier’s division must
in all likelihood have been captured.
♦FARTHER DRAFTS FROM SUCHET’S ARMY.♦
A few days afterwards Marshal Suchet received positive orders from
Paris to dispatch for Lyons with the least possible delay two-thirds
of his cavalry, from 8000 to 10,000 foot, and fourscore field-pieces.
He renewed his representations concerning Barcelona, saying, he should
delay till the latest minute his departure from the vicinity of that
city, in the hope of farther instructions; and he advised that, as
the mission of the Duque de S. Carlos had produced no good effect,
Ferdinand should be sent to Barcelona, with an understanding that
France put him in possession of the fortified places, in reliance
upon his honour for sending the garrison home. Meantime he appointed
Habert to the command of Lower Catalonia, the division of the Lower
Ebro being under General Robert, who commanded in Tortosa; that General
was assured that he should soon be delivered, either by succour or by
the conclusion of peace; but at the worst, he was instructed, when
his provisions should fail, which would be before the end of April,
to make for Lerida, collect his troops there, and by a rapid march
through the mountains proceed to Benasque, and so into France. No
farther ♦HE RETIRES TO GERONA.♦ advices having reached him by the first
of February, Marshal Suchet moved with the remains of his army to the
neighbourhood of Gerona; and when, in the course of another fortnight,
instructions came to act as he had advised with regard to Barcelona,
it was too late, the allies having immediately upon his removal
blockaded that city.
♦ONE OF HIS AIDES-DE-CAMP OPENS A CORRESPONDENCE WITH EROLES.♦
A greater mortification awaited him. Eroles, in the month of November,
when confined by a dangerous illness at Manresa, received information
from one in whom he had reason to place entire confidence, that a
Spanish officer, by name D. Juan de Halen, who was then one of Suchet’s
aides-de-camp, was desirous of being restored to the service of his
country, under his protection. Eroles replied that this was not to be
hoped for, unless the officer could make some signal reparation for
the injury which he had done to the Spanish name; but that in waiting
till this could be effected, he might give proof of his sincerity and
earnest of his intentions by communicating such useful information as
his situation about Suchet’s person enabled him to obtain. Van Halen
replied as if he felt himself wounded by being expected to act the part
of a spy: there was not much difficulty in overcoming this objection;
and he found means of transmitting intelligence from time to time,
and, among other papers, a copy of Suchet’s cipher. The more important
communications were not intrusted to writing, but made orally, through
the person by whom this correspondence was opened.
♦VAN HALEN.♦
Juan Van Halen, as may be inferred from his name, was a Spaniard of
Flemish or Brabantine descent. He was a native of the Isle of Leon,
and born in 1789. After some years of active service in the navy, he
was employed in the engineers; and as an officer in that corps bore
a part at Madrid in the tragedy of the 2nd of May. Escaping from the
capital, he joined Blake’s army after the battle of Rio-seco, and was
sent by him to Ferrol; when that place was surrendered, he took the
oath of fidelity to the Intruder, and afterwards held a commission in
his body guards. He had the good fortune subsequently to be employed
in other parts of Europe, and was at Paris when Buonaparte’s reverses
in Germany rendered it no longer doubtful that the part in which
he had engaged must finally be the unsuccessful one. A friend and
countryman, who had come to the same unpleasant conviction, advised
him to forsake the sinking cause; but Van Halen, in his own words,
“could not think of prostrating himself at the feet of the throne and
of his country, unless he could bear with him the testimony of some
such service as might make him worthy of being received in the arms of
Spanish generosity and gratitude, not in those of indulgence, or of
♦RESTAURACION DE LAS PLAZAS, &C. P. 12.♦ strict justice.” So getting
leave from the then expelled Intruder to solicit employment in Spain,
he obtained from the Duc de Feltre an appointment upon Suchet’s staff,
and provided himself with credentials to Eroles, and also with a letter
of recommendation to Sir Rowland Hill.
♦HE DESERTS FROM THE FRENCH ARMY.♦
After carrying on a correspondence with Eroles for about two months,
and arranging with him a plan for attacking some of the places which
the French held on the left of the Llobregat, it was agreed that he
should come over to the Spaniards and put the design in execution; and
hoping both to render service to the cause in which he now embarked,
and to conceal the fact of his own desertion, leaving Barcelona in the
night, he led away with him from the ♦JAN. 17.♦ neighbourhood of that
city two squadrons of cuirassiers, to whom he produced a forged order
of the Marshal’s that they should follow him on a secret expedition.
His intention was that Eroles should intercept them, and make them and
himself prisoners: but the messenger, whom he had dispatched two days
before to apprise the Baron of his movements, fell in with a party of
hussars belonging to the Anglo-Sicilian army, who were scouring the
road to Moncada, and was detained by them; and when Van Halen came to
the place appointed, and found that the scheme had failed, nothing
remained for him but to provide for his own safety by escaping as soon
as he could. Thus his desertion became notorious, and all the plans
which had been formed upon the supposition of keeping it secret were
frustrated.
♦HIS SCHEME FOR RECOVERING CERTAIN PLACES.♦
But Van Halen’s disposition was turned to perilous intrigues and
enterprises: he now conceived a design of recovering some strong
places by stratagem; and Eroles remembering the _Rovirada_ by which
Figueras had been surprised, and being himself of an adventurous
spirit, entered readily into his views, and went with him to General
Copons, whose head-quarters were then at Vich. Copons was not without
difficulty induced to give his consent, and they then proceeded to
Xerta, where Don Josef Sans, who commanded the force before Tortosa,
had his head-quarters. This place was so strictly blockaded that it
was certain no tidings of Van Halen’s desertion could have reached it;
and to induce a belief in other quarters that he had left Catalonia,
bills upon Madrid and other places at a distance had been taken up
for him. He had possessed himself not only of Suchet’s cipher, but of
the handwritings which it was necessary to counterfeit; and letters
were now written as from the Marshal, informing General Robert the
commander that the exigencies of the Emperor’s affairs compelled
him to withdraw all his garrisons from that side of the Llobregat;
that Colonel D’Eschalard of his staff was gone to Tarrasa, there to
conclude the treaty for evacuating them; and that he must be prepared
to depart with his equipage and field-artillery as soon as orders to
that effect should reach him. It was added, that the Emperor had been
pleased to honour him with the grand-cross of the Imperial Order of the
Reunion, and upon this the Marshal offered him his congratulations.
An unlucky peasant was found, who undertook, in the character of a
spy of Suchet’s, to carry this forged dispatch into the town. So few
communications, without a strong escort, escaped the vigilance of the
Catalans, that whenever a single messenger was sent, the letter ...
written in the smallest compass and in the fewest words ... used to
be inclosed in lead, and swallowed by the bearer. Van Halen was well
acquainted with all the details of such transactions. If the enemy sent
a spy out from one of their fortresses, they usually made a sally,
and thus brought him out unobserved, and set him on his way; but the
messenger who was to make his way in, approached in the darkness, and
made a certain signal with a flint and steel. The peasant, though
carefully instructed upon this as upon all other points, forgot this
important part of his instructions, and in consequence was wounded
by the sentinel: the first part of his errand, however, was not the
less performed; the dispatch was delivered to General Robert, and no
suspicion being entertained of the stratagem, the man was sent to the
hospital, and there carefully attended. But the answer which he should
have delivered into the hands of his employers was sent by another
person, and consequently not received by those who were expecting it.
♦THE DECEIT TRIED AT TORTOSA.♦
Having learnt what had befallen their messenger, Eroles and Van Halen
proceeded with their device. A Spanish officer was sent with a letter
from Sans, saying he had just received a copy of a treaty signed at
Tarrasa by the Spanish and French commanders-in-chief in Catalonia,
agreeing upon an armistice of fifteen days for the evacuation of the
places named in the treaty, Tortosa being one; he inclosed a letter
with D’Eschalard’s signature, which it was pretended had accompanied
it, and in which it was stated that the chef d’escadron, Van Halen,
one of the Marshal’s aides-de-camp, would speedily arrive with full
instructions. The garrison were on the point of making a sally
when the officer arrived: the news of the armistice spread; a free
communication in consequence took place with the advanced posts of the
Spaniards, and on the next morning General Robert sent out Colonel
Plique to make arrangements for evacuating the place; at the same
time he liberated some soldiers who had lately been surprised and
made prisoners. The Colonel accordingly came at the hour appointed;
Van Halen presented himself in his aide-de-camp’s uniform, and the
Spanish Captain Daura, as having accompanied him from the Llobregat,
delivered a letter from Copons. Plique desired to be left alone with
Van Halen, whose instructions he was authorized to receive, in case the
Spanish commander should not permit him to enter the town. He inquired
of him concerning the state of affairs which had reduced the Emperor
to sacrifice these places, and Van Halen briefly related the series
of reverses which rendered it necessary to withdraw from Spain 30,000
men, leaving only garrisons in Barcelona, Gerona, and Figueras. The
Marshal, he said, was before Barcelona, waiting impatiently ♦FEBRUARY.♦
for their arrival, that he might begin his march: his desire was that
no man should be left in the hospitals if he could safely be removed;
that General Robert should bring away all the artillery he could, and
include the public money with his own to avoid all difficulty upon that
score: for himself, he added, he must proceed with the same orders to
Murviedro and Peñiscola. Plique inquired if the English assented to
the armistice, and was assured that they did. He then asked if the
only favour which the Emperor had bestowed upon their garrison was that
of granting the grand-cross to General Robert, the Marshal, he said,
when he withdrew from Valencia, having promised to recommend several
officers for promotion. Van Halen told him he had understood that two
Generals of Brigade were made, M. Plique himself he believed being
one, and M. Jorry, then at Murviedro, the other. The Colonel appears
to have been completely deceived; but he was instructed to invite
Brigadier Sans to a repast before the town should be evacuated, and to
request that he would send officers of artillery to take possession of
the magazines, and that he would allow the aide-de-camp to return with
him into the town, and take up his quarters there. This, Sans said, he
was positively enjoined not to permit; all he could allow was that M.
Van Halen, accompanied by a Spanish officer, should present himself at
the Puente de Jesus, and confer there with General Robert. When they
reached the bridge, Robert did not come out, but he sent the chief of
his staff, with several officers, and one company, and they renewed the
request that Van Halen might enter; this of course was refused, and in
case an attempt had been made to seize him, Eroles with a body of horse
was near at hand. A letter was sent in, inclosing a copy of the forged
treaty, and the parties then separated. Van Halen suspected that the
deceit had been discovered; still, however, he carried it on, and wrote
to Robert, saying, ♦IT FAILS THERE.♦ that as the officers had urged
him to do, he should have evaded the presence of the Spanish Colonel,
had he not been strictly ordered by Marshal Suchet to do nothing which
could tend to interrupt the good understanding during the armistice;
and being now obliged to communicate without delay his orders in
Murviedro and Peñiscola, he was deprived of the honour of seeing him.
General Robert answered this by a letter to Sans, regretting that he
had not accepted his invitation. Van Halen’s letter, he said, gave
him no satisfactory notion either of his proceedings or those of his
government; and unless he conferred with Van Halen in the fortress, he
should not observe the armistice, but renew hostilities that afternoon,
and continue them till this aide-de-camp, whom he must see, returned
from Murviedro.
♦ATTEMPT AT LERIDA.♦
It was known afterwards that a spy during the preceding night had
entered the town, and his letters made General Robert immediately
suspect the stratagem: disappointed of getting Van Halen into his
hands, and of taking the Spanish officers in a counter-snare, he took
the only vengeance in his power, by putting to death the wounded
peasant who had brought the first forged letter. Eroles, meantime, not
discouraged by this failure, lost no time in trying the same artifice
elsewhere. Mequinenza had hitherto only been observed by part of one
regiment; and the garrison, though reduced in number, made incursions
for many leagues round, by which means they had laid in stores of
provision for eighteen months, and kept the surrounding country in
continual alarm. Eroles, on his way from Xerta towards Lerida, sent his
adjutant, Don Antonio Mazeda, with Don José Antonio Cid, a member of
the provincial deputation of Catalonia, to raise the Somatenes, and by
this means cut off all communication with the place; and he dispatched
before them a peasant with such another letter as that which at first
had imposed upon General Robert. He halted that night a day’s journey
from Lerida, having in his company Don Juan Antonio Daura, who forged
the signatures, Van Halen, and Lieutenant Don Eduardo Bart, who spoke
French so perfectly, that he was able to personate a French officer.
Here they parted company, the two latter making for Torres del Segre,
a place on the river of that name, six leagues from Mequinenza, and
three from Lerida; there they remained in secret, coming out only at
night to confer with Eroles, learn from him the state of affairs, and
copy such papers as were required, none of which were forwarded till
they had been examined by each of the party most carefully. The Baron
himself proceeded to the blockading force before Lerida, and appearing
there as Commandant-General of the blockade of that place, Monzon and
Mequinenza, he reviewed the troops, inspected their posts, and made
♦FEB. 9.♦ dispositions for straitening the blockade; meanwhile the
forged orders were sent in by a trusty agent to the governor, General
Lamarque. Hither the spy from Mequinenza returned, bringing with him
the reply of Baron Bourgeois, the governor, to Marshal Suchet, in which
he acknowledged the receipt of his orders, said that he was preparing
to obey, inclosed the returns of his force, the state of the military
chest and the magazines, and thanked the Emperor for the grand-cross
with which he had been pleased to honour him; the same messenger
brought also a letter from Mazeda, saying that he had strictly
blockaded the place. The reply from the governor of Lerida was in like
manner brought him, and he thus obtained the exact returns which he
wished, and understood also that both commandants were ready to fall
into the snare.
♦AND AT MEQUINENZA, WHERE IT SUCCEEDS.♦
He then set out for Mequinenza, with 300 foot and 40 horse, including
a company of Mina’s division, which he met upon the way, and ordered
to follow him. Van Halen was instructed to join him by a different
road, which he did, in sight of the fortress, Eroles having first sent
in dispatches, signed in D’Eschalard’s name, and sealed with the seal
of the staff, informing the governor of the pretended armistice, and
stating that the two aides-de-camp, Van Halen and Captain Castres,
would go round to the fortresses with the necessary orders; he
accompanied this with a letter in his own name, announced the arrival
of an officer from Marshal Suchet, and requested to be informed what
number of officers the French Commandant would bring out to confer
with this officer in his presence, that he might present himself
with an equal number; coming himself, if the Commandant came, or
deputing one of his chief officers, if General Bourgeois should think
proper to act by delegate: in either case, his troops should be drawn
out at an equal distance with those of the French from any central
point which the Commander might please to name. Time and place were
accordingly appointed, and Van Halen in his French uniform, and Bart
as his orderly, went to the conference without an escort, and with an
effrontery which prevented all suspicion. Van Halen presented a letter
as from Suchet, in which the Marshal was made to say how painfully
he felt the circumstances which compelled him to give orders for
evacuating places wherein, at the cost of so many sacrifices, they had
planted their victorious banners. But unexampled defections had forced
the Emperor to this measure; and his object now was, to preserve these
brave garrisons, and place them once more in the first rank of his
bayonets. His aide-de-camp was charged with verbal communications. Van
Halen acted his part perfectly; and having arranged everything for the
march of the troops, who were to evacuate the place on the following
noon, Eroles hastened with his subtle agent to Lerida, there to repeat
the stratagem.
♦SUCCESS AT LERIDA;♦
The news that Mequinenza was recovered had already spread; but none of
the circumstances were known, and the better to deceive the French, it
was now necessary to deceive the Spaniards also. Eroles, therefore,
issued an order of the day, stating that Mequinenza was that day to be
evacuated, and that Lerida and Monzon were to be given up by the same
treaty; and commanding the Spaniards not to molest the French during
the twelve days’ truce, but to treat them with that generosity which
characterized the Spanish nation. He had approached the blockading
force amid the rejoicings of the people, who gathered round him on his
way. General Lamarque’s suspicions were completely disarmed; and when
he requested that Van Halen might be allowed to enter the place and
confer with him, because his own orders did not permit him to go beyond
a certain distance from it, Van Halen, relying upon his courage and
his strength of countenance, ventured in. The governor met him on the
bridge, and they retired into an adjoining house, where, after some
searching questions, he produced a dispatch received, as he said, by
an emissary who had recently arrived, in which the Marshal approved
of some proposals for the further security of the place, and held
out a hope of succouring him in the course of a few weeks. Van Halen
answered by a reference to the date of his own letter, and the recent
events which had produced an alteration in the Marshal’s views. The
conversation turned upon the Spanish Generals, and the circumstances
of the blockade; and Van Halen took occasion to represent that Eroles
seemed hurt by the General’s declining to communicate with him in
person, when he, in proposing such a meeting, had gone beyond the line
of his instructions from General Copons. The French General, upon this,
not to be outdone in ♦FEB. 14.♦ courtesy, sent to offer a meeting; and
went accordingly beyond his own advanced posts with his treacherous
companion. At this interview everything was arranged, and three o’clock
on the following afternoon was fixed upon as the hour for evacuating
the city. Van Halen was invited to return with the General, and be his
guest that night; but he pleaded the necessity of hastening to Monzon
as his excuse, and thither he departed with a Spanish escort.
♦AND AT MONZON.♦
Monzon had been besieged by part of Mina’s troops since the end of
September, to the great distress of the inhabitants, who were under
the guns of the fortress. The besiegers attempted to mine the rock on
which it was placed. There was but one man belonging to the engineers
in the place, and he was a simple miner; but, being a man of great
ability, the commandant and the garrison confided in him; and the
♦SUCHET, 2. N. PP. 371, 372.♦ works which were executed under his
direction were so skilfully devised, that they baffled all the attempts
of the assailants, and they had in consequence converted the siege
into a blockade. Here Van Halen had two difficulties to overcome with
the Commandant: a report had reached him that there was a Spaniard at
this time with Eroles who had served as aide-de-camp to Suchet; and,
the place being held under the orders of the governor of Lerida, he
could not surrender it, without sending to receive his instructions.
The suspicion which the report ought to have excited seems to have been
removed by the confidence with which Van Halen presented himself. And
the second objection was easily disposed of: the false aide-de-camp,
though he might reasonably judge that the real purport was to discover
whether or not there was any fraud in the business, knew that Lerida
had by this time been delivered up; he prevailed upon the blockading
force, therefore, to let an officer pass with this commission, and
required the Commandant to hold himself in readiness for marching
as soon as he should return. The officer accordingly arrived before
Lerida on the night after its surrender. Eroles affected anger when he
heard his errand, and declared that, if there were any further delay,
the treaty as it respected Monzon should be annulled, and he would
march against it and reduce it to ashes. The officer, finding him in
possession of Lerida, was confounded, made what excuse he could for
his superiors, and faithfully promised that Monzon should be given up
immediately on his arrival there; and this was done.
♦THE THREE GARRISONS MADE PRISONERS.♦
Monzon was at this time stored for seven months, Mequinenza for
eighteen, and Lerida for two years. By the recovery of these places,
40,000 inhabitants were saved from the miseries of a siege, and
6000 Spanish troops were rendered disposable for other service. The
navigation of the Ebro, the Cinca, and the Segre was restored, and the
most fertile part of Catalonia delivered, Aragon secured, and a direct
communication opened with Lord Wellington’s army. The next business
was to secure the garrisons who had been thus deceived, amounting
to more than 2300 men. As soon as Eroles had taken measures for
preserving order in Lerida, which, under such circumstances, required
extraordinary care, he set out with two battalions of infantry and 200
horse in the rear of the French, Colonel Don Josef Carlos having gone
before them with an equal force. The intention was to intercept them in
the defiles of Igualada; but they made a forced march, and frustrated
this part of the plan. Upon this, lest they should succeed in effecting
a junction with the troops in Barcelona, part of the blockading army
was sent for; and when they arrived at Martorell, they found themselves
surrounded there. General Lamarque was then informed that he had been
deceived by a stratagem of war; and that nothing remained for him but
to lay down his arms, give up the public treasure, and to submit to
fortune. Eroles expressed his personal esteem for the General, and
his sorrow that the misadventure should have fallen upon him; he
promised that the officers should be sent to Tarragona, and receive
every attention which could alleviate their imprisonment; and he
observed, that the General himself could not but in his heart approve
a stratagem by which so much bloodshed and misery was prevented, as
must have attended the reduction of these places, whether by siege or
by blockade. Lamarque upon this asked if Van Halen was a Spaniard; and
Bourgeois remarked upon the answer, that in truth he had rendered a
great service to his country. The former said he had been dreaming for
the last five days, and hardly knew if he were yet awake.[7]
Chagrined as Marshal Suchet was by the success of what, though he might
justly deem it treachery in the agent, he could not but consider to be
an allowable stratagem on the part of an injured, enterprising, and
ever active enemy, ... it was even more mortifying for him immediately
afterwards to make overtures, by order of ♦SUCHET DISMANTLES GERONA AND
OTHER PLACES. SUCHET, 2, 374.♦ the minister at war, to General Copons
for evacuating all the places which he yet retained, Figueras only
excepted; and to find the allies so confident of speedily obtaining
them unconditionally that his proposals were disregarded, in retiring
from the vicinity of Barcelona he had destroyed his works at the
bridge of Molins del Rey, and in the pass of Moncada, and at Mongat;
he now found it necessary to demolish the fortified posts at Besalu,
Olot, Bascara, Palamos, and other smaller places; and even to dismantle
Gerona, evacuate it, and retire with the remains of his army to the
neighbourhood of Figueras. Jaca, too, about the same time was compelled
to surrender to a part of Mina’s army.
♦STATE OF LORD WELLINGTON’S ARMY.♦
On the Biscayan coast Santona was the only place which still remained
in the enemy’s power; the garrison were blockaded; but they contrived
to get supplies by sea, sometimes by successful runners from the
opposite side of the bight, sometimes by capturing traders that
approached too near, for they had one or two armed vessels in the
port; but more by means of smugglers, who ran in for the sake of a
good market, and in the spirit of their illicit occupation cared not
with whom they dealt. The British depôts had been removed from Bilbao
and S. Sebastian’s; and, notwithstanding the stormy season, the army
was always abundantly supplied, except with fodder; when this failed,
bruized furze was used: the horses ate it with avidity, and kept in
excellent condition. The men, during this inaction, suffered more; some
of the corps were very sickly; and one regiment, which lost many men by
a fever, was sent into the rear, both for change of air, and that it
might be removed from intercourse with the rest of the army. The rain
sometimes rendered it difficult to communicate with the more distant
corps: a Portugueze brigade belonging to Sir Rowland was once four
days without bread or meat, a rivulet, small at other times, being so
swoln as to become impassable. But in general, money was the scarcest
article: dollars, which were exchanged at so low a rate after the
spoils at Vittoria, sold now for eight shillings each.
♦OPERATIONS ARE RENEWED.♦
The disposition of the French towards the Bourbons could at this time
be so little doubted, that though the allies did not yet openly support
their claims, dies were made to cut out fleurs-de-lys for scarfs, to be
worn on the arms of those who might be willing to declare in favour of
the old loyal cause. During the weeks of inactivity which the season
occasioned, preparations were made for crossing the Adour, investing
Bayonne, and carrying the war into the heart of France. The snow on the
lower range of the Pyrenees had visibly lessened on the 6th, and in
the course of a week had wholly disappeared. On the 14th of February,
Sir Rowland put the right of the army in motion, drove in the enemy’s
piquets on the Joyeuse river, attacked Harispe’s position at Hellete,
and compelled him to retire with loss towards St. Martin. That General
then took up a strong position in front of Garris, on the heights of Le
Montagne, where he was joined by troops from the enemy’s centre, and
by Paris with his division, who, having commenced their march toward
the interior of France, had been recalled because of the danger in this
quarter. On the same day the detachment of Mina’s troops in the valley
of Bastan advanced upon Baygorrey and Bidarrey, and blockaded St. Jean
de Pied-de-Port, Sir Rowland having cut off the direct communication
of the enemy with that fort. On the ♦FEB. 15.♦ morrow, Morillo, after
driving in their advanced posts, was ordered to move toward St. Palais,
by a ridge parallel to that on which they had taken their position,
that he might turn their left, and cut off their retreat upon that
road by the bridge of St. Palais, while the second division under Sir
William Stewart should attack in front. The day was far gone before
the attack could be commenced, and the action lasted till after night
had closed: the position, though remarkably strong, was carried
without much loss on the first effort; many gallant attempts were
made to recover it, and as gallantly resisted; the struggle was more
obstinate in the darkness than it had been while daylight lasted, and
the French being encountered in all their charges with the wonted
resolution of British troops, more men were bayoneted than usual in
proportion to the numbers engaged. The enemy at length gave up the
contest, and retired with considerable loss, leaving ten officers and
about 200 men prisoners; but they reached St. Palais before Morillo
could arrive, and crossed the Bidouze during the night, and destroyed
the bridges. The right of the centre made a corresponding movement
with the right wing on these two days, and the allied posts were this
evening on the Bidouze. The bridges were repaired; Sir Rowland crossed
the next day, and on the following drove the enemy across the Gave de
Mouleon. They attempted to destroy the bridge at Arriverete, as if it
were their intention to dispute the passage, but time was not allowed
them to complete its destruction; and a ford having been discovered
above the bridge, the 92nd, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron,
crossed there, covered by the fire of Captain Beane’s troop of horse
artillery, which was advantageously placed; this regiment made a
gallant attack upon two battalions of French infantry in the village of
Arriverete, and drove them out with much loss. The enemy retired in the
night across the Gave d’Oleron. Sir Rowland’s posts were established
on that Gave the next day; and the French took up a position in the
neighbourhood of Sauveterre, where they were reinforced. The position
was very strong, and covered in front by a broad and rapid river; but
it seemed now as if no position, however advantageous, could give the
French confidence; they had been driven during the last four days from
a country of peculiar difficulty, where frequent rivers afforded them
great opportunities for defending it; and when Marshal Soult understood
with how little success it had been defended, he directed his whole
attention to that side, destroyed all the bridges over the Adour, which
were not protected ♦FEB. 22.♦ by Bayonne, left that place to its own
resources, and, concentrating his forces behind the Gave de Pau, fixed
his head-quarters at Orthes.
♦PREPARATIONS FOR CROSSING THE ADOUR.♦
During these operations the left wing of the army continued to observe
Bayonne, with the 4th division, also, which occupied the heights of
Monguerre, communicating with the left on the Nive, and resting its
right on the Adour, and thus preventing the enemy from drawing any
supplies for the fortress from that side of the river. Preparations had
been made for passing that river, and for throwing a bridge over it,
both below Bayonne, ... enterprises so difficult, that though Soult had
witnessed the passage of the Douro, he seems not to have apprehended
that they would be attempted. His attention had now been withdrawn
from that side by Sir Rowland’s movements; the 4th division moved to
the right to support that larger part of the allied army which was now
assembled on the Gave d’Oleron; the 5th replaced it in the position
of Monguerre, and was itself replaced by Lord Aylmer’s brigade of the
first, and the Portugueze under Colonel Campbell: thus making room for
Freyre’s Spanish division, which had been cantoned within their own
frontier, and now, to the dismay of the inhabitants, re-entered France.
The people lamented the departure of the English, and dreaded the
arrival of the Spaniards; and knowing their vindictive spirit, and the
long provocation which it had received, they expressed their earnest
hopes that some English authorities might be left for their protection.
♦THE ADOUR.♦
Adour is like Gave, a name common to many rivers in the Pyrenees, both
simply meaning water in some of those primeval languages, the remains
of which are still widely preserved in the appellations of rivers and
mountains. The greater and noted streams, into which the others are
received, has its sources in the county of Bigorre, under the Pics
du Midi and d’Espade, two of the highest mountains in the chain; it
passes by Campan, Bagnères, Montgaillard, and Tarbes, and begins to be
navigable near Grenade, a small town in the little county of Marsan;
having been joined by the Douze on its right below Tartas, it inclines
to the southwest from its junction, passes Acqs, and then holds an
almost southerly course to meet the Gave de Pau, which brings with its
own waters those of the Gave d’Oleron, into which the Gave de Mauleon
has been received. The Adour is then joined by the Bidouze, and lastly
by the Nive. Formerly it made a turn to the northward, after that
junction, at Boucaut, below Bayonne, and held for about six leagues
a slow and winding way, parallel with the coast, before it entered
the sea at Cape Breton, its direct course having apparently been
obstructed by an accumulation of sand. But towards the latter part of
the sixteenth century, Louis de Foix, whose water-works at Toledo were
then among the wonders of machinery, and who built the lighthouse at
the mouth of the Garonne, (the Smeaton and the Telford of his age,)
opened the present channel, ... an arduous undertaking, in which he
was more than once foiled. His intent was, by erecting a dam across
the river at its curvature, to force it into a straighter line, and
make it clear a way for itself through the sands: the river again and
again swept away his embankments, but he, with a just confidence in
his own theory, persevered in the attempt; at length, on the day of St.
Simeon and St. Jude, in the year 1579, such torrents poured down from
the ♦PIERRE DE MARCA. HISTOIRE DE BEARN, P. 28.♦ Pyrenees, that Bayonne
was in danger of being destroyed by an inundation; the Adour took then,
with its increased weight of water, a straight course, and the engineer
was rewarded for all his anxieties by beholding the complete triumph of
his art. The Bayonnese, however, ascribed the whole ♦THUANUS, L. 80. T.
3. P. 619.♦ merit, not to him, but to the two joint Saints of the day,
and appointed a commemorative thanksgiving to be celebrated annually
from that time forth upon their festival. An excellent port would now
have been formed in the Adour, if the constant tendency of the sea to
throw up a bar at its entrance could have been overcome. With this view
the French government constructed massive stone embankments on both
sides, from Boucaut to the sea; it was hoped that by thus confining
the stream, its current, which at ebb tide runs about seven miles an
hour, would with its own force and weight of water keep always a clear
channel; but the effect was only to remove the bar somewhat farther,
without lessening the difficulty or the danger of the entrance. These
were so great, that the enemy at this time relied on them. They had the
Sappho corvette anchored so as to flank an inundation which protected
the right of their intrenched camp; they had many armed boats on the
Adour, above the town, to protect the convoys of provision which came
down the river, and sometimes succeeded in getting in; the mountain
guns of the allies, which were the only ones that could be removed,
now and then exchanged shots with these: below Bayonne they had some
gun-boats in the bend of the river, by the village of Boucaut,
stationed there, as it seemed, to strengthen their intrenched camp by
a flanking fire; but the only precaution that the enemy had taken to
impede the passage, was that of removing the signal-staff on the left
bank, which marked the line for vessels to steer by, in making for the
mouth of the river.
♦PASSAGE OF THE ADOUR.♦
A number of Spanish _chasse-marées_ had been collected at Socoa for
forming a bridge; materials also were ready for a boom to protect it.
The naval part of the operation was under Admiral Penrose’s direction,
and the 21st was the day appointed for the attempt; but the weather
proved unfavourable, and it was not possible for the vessels and
their convoy to get out of Socoa. Sir John Hope, however, would not
delay his movement, and resolved to attempt the passage without naval
co-operation; the troops, it was thought, might be towed over upon
rafts formed of pontoons, and carrying about 100 men each. On the
evening of the 22nd, the troops were ordered to be in readiness for
marching at midnight; they had with them a brigade of 18-pounders, and
a rocket detachment which had arrived at Passages a few days after
the passage of the Nive. There was a prejudice in the army against
this weapon, which had hitherto not been used in the field; the
opinion seems to have been, that if it had been an efficient means of
destruction, it would sooner have been borrowed from the East Indian
nations. Lord Wellington, however, was willing that they should be
tried; and some experiments which were made at Fontarabia gave reason
for supposing that they might be found useful on the Adour. The
direction of this new arm was assigned to Sir Augustus Fraser, but the
trial was to be made under all the disadvantages of inexperience; for
the corps was composed of men hastily brought together, and entirely
ignorant of the arm they were to use; and the rockets themselves were
equipped in five different ways, and consequently liable to as many
failures. Altogether the enterprise was one of no ordinary hazard;
the entrance of the river was frequently impracticable, and always
perilous; its width where it was to be bridged was 270 yards, and the
tide and the ripple were there so formidable as to preclude the use of
anything smaller than decked vessels of twenty or thirty tons burthen;
the navigation from Socoa was uncertain; and there were the corvette
and the flotilla of gun-boats to assist a garrison which consisted
of more than 10,000 men. Yet even those who fully understood the
difficulties of the operation had nevertheless full confidence that it
would succeed.
Soon after midnight the troops were in motion; when within a short
distance of Anglet, they turned by a crossroad toward the coast,
marching in strict silence along the skirts of the enemy’s outposts.
It was a dark night, the road narrow, deep in mud, and with ditches
on either side; one of the 18-pounders was drawn too near the edge
in the darkness, the side of the road gave way under its weight,
and it sunk into the ditch, dragging the near horses after it. This
delayed the march for some time, till, by the greatest exertions, the
gun was drawn up out of the deep mud; but no ill consequence arose
from this mischance; the enemy were not on the alert, and the troops
arrived before daylight on the sand-hills which border the coast from
the vicinity of Biaritz to the mouth of the Adour: the tract between
these hills and the intrenched camp is almost wholly covered by the
pine-wood called the Bois de Bayonne. At daybreak, two light battalions
of the German legion patroled through the wood, and dislodged the
enemy’s piquets, which retired from thence, and from the village of
Anglet, into the intrenched camp. The first brigade of guards, under
Colonel Maitland, debouched from the wood near the place where the
signal-staff, known by the name of the _Balise Orientale_, had stood,
which was on a high sand-hill nearly opposite Boucaut. The ground here
could not be reconnoitred till the enemy’s piquets were driven in; and
this of course was avoided till the last moment, that no alarm might
be given. It had been supposed that the guns might be brought within
700 or 800 yards of the Sappho, and that they might sink her, lest she
should be employed against the bridge; but, when they had been brought
with great labour through the deep sandy ground, it was necessary to
place them where they were sheltered from the guns of the intrenched
camp, and this was in a situation 1500 yards from the corvette. There
they were placed in battery, and the brigade was posted behind some
sand-hills, close to the marsh which protected the front of the camp.
Don Carlos d’España meantime made a demonstration on the heights above
Anglet, to prevent the enemy from detaching any troops.
As soon as the French saw the brigade debouching from the pine-wood
they commenced a cannonade against it from their gun-boats. This had
been foreseen; the rocket-corps had, therefore, been divided into
three parties, one of which went, with the first division, towards
the mouth of the Adour, and the other two accompanied the 18-pounders
to be employed against the flotilla. There were twelve boats to
assist the Sappho; but when a few rockets had been discharged, the
terrified sailors took to their oars, and made all speed up the river;
the effect, indeed, of these weapons was most terrific; they dashed
through the water like fiery serpents, and pierced ♦BATTY’S CAMPAIGN,
P. 119.♦ the sides of the boat, burning apparently even under water
with undiminished force. The guns meantime opened upon the corvette,
and fired about 400 rounds at her, some toward the conclusion with hot
shot. This failed to set her on fire; and when the three-coloured flag
was shot from the flag-staff, the enemy presently nailed it to the
mast-head; but after some hours the French retired from the contest,
under the protection of the citadel, their captain having been killed,
and 34, out of a crew of 40 men, killed or wounded, ... sacrificed, as
it should seem, in a display of courage which could be of no avail.
The action had served as a spectacle for the inhabitants of Bayonne,
who came out from the promenade which skirts the river, to witness,
and apparently to enjoy it, ... the day being remarkably fine, and
the action itself, with all its circumstances, as described by an
eye-witness, more resembling some festival display than the dreadful
reality of war; the spectators, too, thought themselves at safe
distance, till one poor fellow came rashly within range of the guns,
and had his head carried off by a shot which passed completely through
the corvette.
That vessel had not been destroyed, but the attack on it, and the other
demonstrations in front of the intrenched camp, had the desired effect
of occupying the enemy’s whole attention; a bend which the Adour makes
on the seaward side of the town, and the pine-wood, which extended
almost close to its banks, prevented them from seeing the movements of
the allies on that side, and they kept little watch there, because they
apprehended no danger. But meantime the whole of the first division,
except the brigade of guards which accompanied the artillery that
attacked the Sappho, had marched to attempt a passage near the mouth
of the river. With this force there were eighteen pontoons and six
small boats, forty rocketeers, and an officer with a few artillerymen,
destined to spike the guns of a battery on the enemy’s side of the
water. The intention was, to construct six rafts, each upon three
pontoons, by which, in two passages, 1200 men might be passed across
before the day should dawn; 1200 more being ready to follow, while
these held their ground, supported by twelve field-pieces from the
left bank. But, owing to the difficulty of getting the pontoons on,
it was found that only three of them could be brought to the water’s
edge before daylight; and therefore it was deemed advisable by the
officers in command to withdraw the troops behind some sand-hills,
where they were quite concealed, and collect the pontoons. Some of
the officers, meantime, before day broke, examined the shore, to see
where would be the most favourable points for putting the rafts into
the water; the sentry on the opposite bank challenged them, but no
answer was returned, and no alarm taken. Sir John Hope came to the
spot at daylight, but afterwards sent orders to attempt the passage,
at all hazards, when the tide would permit. A little before noon the
river became passable, the tide, still running out, being nearly slack.
At this time the fleet from Socoa was in sight, but at considerable
distance, and with an unfavourable though not a strong wind, rather
losing than gaining ground. The river at the point where the passage
was to be attempted appeared to be about 200 yards wide at low water.
The British made no show of men, and could only see a small piquet of
the enemy’s on the other side; this piquet appeared at a loss what to
do, and as soon as the first boats were carried to the water’s edge
on men’s shoulders, they fairly ran off, without discharging a single
shot, the piece of their advanced sentry having missed fire. The six
boats were soon on the water, each carrying only six soldiers; and the
tide coming in soon increased the labour of the passage. A rope was
passed from one side to the other, and three rafts were put together
with all speed, each carrying from 50 to 60 men; but, after two or
three passages had been effected, the tide came in with such force
that it was found impracticable to get the raft either backward or
forward from the middle of the current, where it remained tide-bound,
the united strength of all who were on board not being sufficient to
haul with any effect upon the hawser. About five o’clock they ceased
working, the few seamen whom they had, and who were all Portugueze,
being exhausted with fatigue. By that time 500 of the guards had been
ferried across, the rocketeers having been the last, with Captain Lane
of the artillery, who came out with them from England. All was at this
time quiet, and apparently the day’s work was done. But a little before
dusk the enemy pushed down two regiments from the citadel; they came
on with apparent spirit, beating the charge. Colonel Stopford posted
the guards behind some low sand-hills, with their right on the river,
and their left on a morass, the ground in their front being flanked
by the artillery on the opposite bank; but a well-directed discharge
of rockets made the French hastily retreat: the effect of this weapon
was more terrible because they had never before witnessed it, and they
retired with all speed into the citadel.
♦ENTRANCE OF THE FLOTILLA.♦
The troops bivouacked that night on the ground which they occupied;
those who were in the wood felled trees and kindled fires. As soon
as the tide served more men were passed across, the pontoons being
used as row-boats, carrying fifteen men at each turn: it was bright
moonlight, the weather perfectly still, and there was no enemy to offer
any opposition. ♦FEB. 24.♦ The wind sprung up for the flotilla during
the night, and at morning it was seen, ... about threescore vessels,
including boats of all kinds, some of them near the mouth of the
river, standing off and on. The Admiral was in the Porcupine frigate:
he had been apprized, through the naval agent at Socoa, how anxiously
the entrance of the vessels for the bridge was desired. The surf had
increased in proportion as the wind became favourable; and the bar,
which extends from the right bank, nearly across the river, shifting
with the change of wind and tide, and at all times dangerous, was at
this time more than usually formidable. The agent, who set off in his
boat from Socoa as soon as he received the last night’s advices, had no
pilot on board, and mistaking the channel where he should have entered
the river, beached himself on a spit of sand; fortunate, however,
in his mishap, for the boat cleared the sand by great exertion, and
having been pulled, sails standing, over the spit, got into deep water.
One boat, which had the principal pilot on board, and therefore was
selected as the safest, led the way, and was overset, several of the
crew perished, and most of those who saved themselves were dreadfully
bruised. Captain O’Reilly, who had command of the flotilla, was on
board, and Captain Faddy (who had charge of 50 artillerymen sent in
five gun-boats), both with great difficulty escaped: a second succeeded
in reaching the beach; the larger vessels then put off, to wait the
chance of the next tide, it being, as the Admiral declared, scarcely
possible that one in fifty could then have effected the passage. Some
small boats, however, attempted it, and were swamped; what boats were
on the river were sent to pick up those who were struggling for life,
but without success; some who regained their own boats, and clung to
them, were swept off into the sea, and only one man was saved.
Had the bar been smoother, the tide was now too low for vessels to
attempt the entrance; but a pilot was landed to the south-west of it,
that he might walk to the Adour, and make signals from within the
bar, to guide the vessels into the safer parts, supplying thus the
signal-staff which on that side had been removed, for from the sea
there appeared only one long and heavy line of surf. Meantime the
troops continued to cross as they could, about 100 yards above the
mouth of the river, some on rafts, some in a pontoon-boat which carried
only twelve at a time; and when the tide presented least difficulty,
a few cavalry by swimming. When the tide had risen sufficiently, the
vessels boldly stood in, the pilot who had been landed having set up
a halberd, with a handkerchief fixed to it, as a signal for directing
them. The master’s mate of the Lyra led the way; his boat was lost,
and himself and the whole of the crew. Several vessels shared the
same fate. One who was on the shore, close at hand, and who had been
accustomed to fields of battle, declared that he had never beheld
a scene so awful. The boats were so agitated as they attempted the
passage, sails flapping, oars apparently useless, and all steerage
lost, that it seemed as if each must inevitably be wrecked. Two vessels
were stranded, but almost all their crews were by great exertion saved.
A gun-brig also was driven ashore; Captain Elliot, of the Martial
gun-brig, was swamped in his boat; his surgeon was picked up by this
gun-boat, but upon her striking the ground the shock threw down a
24-pounder, which fell upon him and killed him. Three transport boats
with their crews were lost; every exertion was made to save those who
were struggling for life in the surf, literally within ten yards of
their countrymen on shore; but though there were men with ropes tied to
them on the beach, who spared no endeavour for assisting them, and who
when the waves retired appeared as if they were close to them, not a
soul could be saved: some who actually obtained footing on the ground
were carried back by the receding surf, and swept away for ever. But
the zeal and intrepidity of British seamen will overcome all obstacles
that are not absolutely insuperable: officers and men on this occasion
displayed gallantry which could not be surpassed, and skill which has
seldom been equalled; vying with each other they essayed the passage;
and happily the wind towards evening gradually died away, and about
thirty vessels got in.
♦A BRIDGE CARRIED OVER THE ARDOUR.♦
The passage of the troops, meantime, had been continued; it was quite
dark before the last party were ferried over, and the tide was then
running out so rapidly, that the most strenuous rowing hardly prevented
the boat from being drifted out to sea. The whole of General Howard’s
division, about 6000 in number, were then on the right bank. They
bivouacked on the sand-hills where the enemy on the yester-evening
♦FEB. 25.♦ had been discomfited by the rockets. On the morrow they
advanced towards the citadel, their right flank resting on the Adour,
the left extending to the great road leading from Bayonne to Bourdeaux.
Closing in to the verge of a deep and marshy ravine, which separates
the high ground about the citadel from the surrounding country, they
cut off the enemy’s communication with the open tract to the north
of the river, and completed the investment of the fortress and its
camp; a feint attack being kept up the while on the opposite side by
Lord Aylmer’s brigade, the 5th division, and the Spaniards. By great
exertions the bridge was finished on the following day. The point fixed
upon for it was near the village of Boucaut, where the river is 270
yards wide. It consisted of six-and-twenty _chasse-marées_, anchored
each at the bow and stern so as to resist both the ebbing and the
flowing tide; to many of these, as a substitute for anchors, the heavy
iron guns were used which had been taken in the redoubts on the Nive.
The vessels were lashed together both at bow and stern. Five cables
were stretched by capstans across these vessels from shore to shore,
and oaken planks were laid athwart upon these, and secured to the
two outer cables, so as to form a platform strong enough to bear the
passage of artillery, yet pliant enough to adapt itself to the motion
of the vessels with the tide. On the right bank the cable ends were
fastened to some of the heaviest iron guns which had been taken in
the camp of the Nivelle; on the left they were wound round capstans,
which were firmly fixed by large stakes driven into the ground; and by
these the tension of the platform could be increased or lessened as
the rise or fall of the river might require. A little way above the
bridge a boom-chain was laid down for its protection; and above this
the gun-boats were anchored, in readiness to engage those of the enemy,
should any attempt be made upon the bridge by sending them down the
river. The piers on both sides were wide enough for carriages of all
descriptions; and that on the right bank was used for the artillery,
in a part where the ♦BATTY’S CAMPAIGN, 126, 127.♦ water is admitted at
flood through apertures, and where a road could not have been formed
without great expense of labour and of time.
This bridge was of the greatest importance, not only as affording a
communication between the troops upon both banks during the blockade
and intended siege of Bayonne, but also because it opened a way to the
_chaussées_ on the right of the river, whereby the army in its advance
towards the interior could be much more easily supplied than by the
bad roads in the exhausted country along the skirts of the Pyrenees,
and where the Gaves and other tributary streams of the Adour were to
be crossed. The inhabitants of Boucaut and of the adjacent villages
had been ordered to take up arms against the allies; they had refused;
and in consequence, the French troops upon leaving them committed some
excesses. The contrast indeed was so great between the treatment which
they experienced from their own soldiers and from the allies, that the
peasantry volunteered to repair the roads for their uninvited, but now
not unwelcome visitors.
♦PASSAGE OF THE GAVES.♦
While Bayonne was thus being invested by the left wing of the army,
the two divisions which had hitherto observed that place between the
Adour and the Nive joined the main body; and Lord Wellington, as soon
as the troops were closed up, continuing his operations to the right,
made a general advance. Marshal Beresford, who had remained since Sir
Rowland’s movement with the 4th and 7th divisions and with Colonel
Vivian’s brigade on the lower Bidouze, attacked the enemy on the 23rd
in their fortified posts at Hastingues and Oyergave, on the left of
the Gave de Pau, and made them retire within their _tête-de-pont_ at
Peyrehorade. On the 24th, Sir Rowland, with the light, the 2nd, and
the Portugueze divisions, under Baron Alten, Sir William Stewart,
and Camp-Marshal Lecor, passed the Gave d’Oleron, by a ford near
Ville-nave, without opposition. Sir Henry Clinton passed in like manner
with the 6th, between Monfort and Laas; and Sir Thomas Picton with
the 3rd made demonstrations as if he would have attacked the enemy’s
position at the bridge of Sauveterre, upon which they blew up the
bridge. Morillo at the same time drove in their posts near Navarreins,
and blockaded that place, which was fortified strongly enough to
require battering-artillery for its reduction. Immediately after the
passage of the Oleron Gave, Sir Rowland and Sir Henry Clinton moved
towards Orthes, and the great road leading from Sauveterre to that
town; and the enemy retiring from Sauveterre across the Gave de Pau in
the night, destroyed the bridges upon that river, and assembled their
army near Orthes on the 25th. The allies continued to advance that
day, and on the following Beresford crossed the Gave de Pau below its
junction with that of Oleron, at some fords about four miles above
Peyrehorade; these were not discovered till after some unsuccessful
attempts, and the current there was so rapid, that the infantry of
General Walker’s division could hardly support each other against it,
and for some minutes there was reason to fear that the column would
be carried down the stream. The Marshal then moved along the high
road from Peyrehorade toward Orthes, on the enemy’s right. Sir Thomas
Picton had found a ford below the bridge of Berenx, where he crossed
with the 3rd division, and Sir Stapleton with the cavalry as Beresford
approached; the 6th and light divisions made a flank movement to
support them, and Sir Rowland occupied the heights opposite Orthes,
and the high road leading to Sauveterre, on the left bank of the Gave.
His corps advanced directly upon the bridge of Orthes, with the hope
of forcing it; but, being without artillery, and finding the approach
defended by loop-holed houses, and by a tower strongly manned against
them, they desisted from their intent.
♦ORTHES.♦
Orthes, which before the territorial arrangement of France was
revolutionized, was the capital of the Senechalry of the same name,
is supposed by Scaliger to have been the ancient city of Bearum, the
Beneharnus of Antoninus, and the Benarnus of writers in a later age;
but this opinion seems to have been satisfactorily ♦RAMOND’S TR. IN
THE PYRENEES, P. 92.♦ disproved. It stands upon the Gave de Pau, there
a considerable river, and remarkable, because its accessible source
is a waterfall, higher, except one in America, than any that has ever
yet been measured; it springs from a height of 1266 feet, and being
twice broken on the way by projections of the precipice, falls upon a
bed of perpetual snow, under ♦P. DE MARCA. HIST. DE BEARN, L. 1. C.
6. § 4. 14.♦ which it works its passage. Orthes was the residence of
the Princes of Bearn during some 200 years from the middle of the 13th
century, when Gaston de Moncada built the _Chasteau Noble_ there, upon
the plan of his hereditary castle in Aragon, and in a like situation,
on an eminence commanding the town, and overlooking a wide circuit of
country. In that castle Froissart was entertained by Gaston Phebus, the
twelfth Count of Foix, and Lord of Bearn, and there he was informed
concerning the affairs of Castille, Portugal, Navarre, Aragon, Gascony,
and England, Gaston himself communicating to him what he knew, and
telling him that the history which he had undertaken to write would
be esteemed above all others, because more marvellous deeds of arms
had been done in the world within the last fifty years than in three
centuries preceding. There the good old chronicler was as happy as
splendid hospitality, and the diligent use of favourable opportunities,
could make him; the thing which he most desired being to collect
information for his great work, and having at his wish there, lords,
knights, and squires, ready and willing to inform him. In this castle
Gaston Phebus kept his treasure, and it is said to have amounted at one
time to no less a sum than three million florins, raised by taxation,
which was borne cheerfully, because he maintained order in his
dominions; neither English nor French, nor robber nor rover, harassed
his people; and he had the reputation of being as liberal as he was
just, not heralds and minstrels only, but strangers who came there
having cause to praise him for his bounty. Froissart had been in many
courts of kings, dukes, princes, earls, and great ladies, but never in
any, he says, that so well liked him as the Castle Noble of Orthes;
and he had seen many knights, kings, and princes, but none like this
Count of Foix for personage, nor of so fair form, nor so well made;
for in every thing he was so perfect, that he could not be praised too
much, loving what ought to be beloved, and hating that which ought to
be hated. Yet so accustomed were men to the most atrocious actions,
in that which was the brightest age of chivalry, that this very Gaston
committed a murder in this castle as much in violation of honour and
of hospitality, as of laws both human and divine; tortured innocent
persons to death upon mere suspicion, and with his own hands killed his
own son at the close of a frightful tragedy, of which this castle was
the scene; and the faithful historian who thus extols him has related
all these things! The ruins of the _Chasteau Noble_ are yet to be
seen, and the tower in which Gaston kept his treasure was standing in
the last century. Orthes ceased to be the residence of the Counts in
1460, when they removed their court to Pau; and their removal was not
compensated by the short-lived university which about a century after
Queen Jeanne of Navarre founded there for the Huguenots, and endowed
from the church property in her dominions.
♦BATTLE OF ORTHES.♦
Here Marshal Soult had taken a strong position, extending about a mile
in length along a range of tabular heights; his right, under Reillé,
resting on them upon the high road to Dax, and occupying the village
of St. Boes; the centre, under Drouet, taking the bend of a sickle, as
the hill formed a cove, and being thus protected by the flanks; the
left, under Clausel, resting upon the town and the heights above it,
and defending the passage of the river from Sir Rowland. Villatte’s and
Harispe’s divisions, and Paris’s brigade, were formed in reserve on
high ground upon the road ♦FEB. 27.♦ to Sault de Navailles. “Thus,” in
the words of a French historian, “from 35,000 to 40,000 French troops
were collected at a point as favourable as the most skilful commander
could have chosen for ♦BEAUCHAMP’S NARRATIVE OF THE INVASION, 2. P.
52.♦ resisting the advance of an invading army.” Lord Wellington’s
arrangements were, that Beresford, with the 4th and 7th divisions,
and Colonel Vivian’s brigade of cavalry, should turn and attack the
enemy’s right; while Picton, with the 3rd and 6th, supported by Sir
Stapleton with Lord Edward Somerset’s brigade of horse, should move
along the Peyrehorade road, and attack their centre and left. Baron
Alten, with the light division, kept up the communication, and was in
reserve between these; and Sir Rowland was to force the passage of the
Gave, and turn and attack their left.
The action commenced about nine in the morning. The 4th division, under
Sir Lowry Cole, carried the village of St. Boes, after an obstinate
resistance. Beresford then directed his efforts against two lines
of the enemy formed on the heights above it; but the troops had not
room here to deploy for the attack, the only approach being along a
narrow tongue of land, which had on either side a deep ravine, and was
completely commanded by the enemy’s guns. Sir Lowry’s division led the
way; 15 pieces of artillery played on them diagonally with full effect;
in front they were opposed by the main line of the French infantry,
and strong bodies were formed in the ravines on their flanks. Repeated
attempts were made by Major-General Ross, and by Vasconcellos’s
Portugueze brigade, till at length that brigade was completely broken,
and the remainder of the division, with a brigade of Baron Alten’s that
hastened to their assistance, with difficulty covered their retreat:
thus, on this point, the attack totally failed.
Lord Wellington saw that it was impossible to turn this wing of the
enemy by their right, without extending his line too far; he therefore
ordered the immediate advance of the 3rd and 6th divisions, and the
7th, with a brigade of the light division, to support them by attacking
the height which the enemy occupied at the point of junction between
their right and centre. The 52nd regiment, under Colonel Colborne,
led up the hill, supported closely by the other troops both on the
right and left; and the artillery gained a knoll from whence it swept
the whole line of the enemy’s centre. It made such havoc among their
reserve masses, that the French 21st hussars were provoked to a most
daring movement for seizing it; they galloped round the hill, and,
under a heavy fire of musquetry, charged and drove back one of the
supporting battalions; then with equal courage fell upon the 42nd
Highlanders, but the Highlanders received their charge firmly, and
the hussars suffered so much in it, that they gave up this brave
though unsuccessful attempt. Meantime the allied troops were advancing
steadily, under a destructive fire: Major-General Inglis’s brigade
distinguished itself now, as it had done on all occasions, and made
a successful charge on the enemy’s left; every regiment in the 3rd
division was hotly engaged, they drove the French from every height
where they attempted to make a stand, and in spite of all resistance
gained at length the summit of the main position. There a severe
struggle ensued; on no former occasion had the enemy fought so well
when opposed to British troops; it was the only action in which they
came fairly to the bayonet; but the determination which brought them to
that sure trial could not support them in it, and, giving up all hope
now of a successful resistance, they began to retreat over the level
ground in their rear in good order, by _echellons_ of divisions, each
successively covering the other, and supported by their cavalry, which,
by a gallant charge on the 6th division, endeavoured, but in vain, to
check the pursuit. The infantry rallied upon some rising ground, and
attempted again to make a stand: the 9th hussars, under Colonel Vivian,
made them again give way. They then formed into squares, and continued
to retire still in admirable order; and, though warmly pursued, and
suffering heavily from the British guns, they took every advantage of
the numerous positions which the ground afforded.
Marshal Soult, in whom nothing was that day wanting which could be
required of a commander in the field, was compelled to withdraw his
wings, when the centre had thus been forced, and to order a general
retreat. The wings had comparatively suffered little; and this movement
was as well conducted as all his former ones had been. But meantime
Sir Rowland had forced the passage of the Gave above the town; and
seeing the state of the action, he moved, with the 2nd division, and
Major-General Fane’s brigade of cavalry, for the great road to St.
Sever, keeping thus upon the enemy’s left, but in a direction towards
a point in their rear which would have cut off their retreat on Sault
de Navailles. Their movements quickened as soon as they perceived this
danger; and as their march was accelerated, Sir Rowland quickened his,
till the retreat became a flight; they ran, and the allies ran also,
and the race continued till the French broke so completely, that no
resemblance of a column was remaining. It was the lively expression
of an officer there present that, “in the battle they met the charge
like lions, but that the pursuit was like hare-hunting;” prisoners
were literally caught by the skirts as they ran. Could the cavalry
have acted sooner off the great road, the French army must have been
almost destroyed. They suffered greatly where any obstacle impeded
their flight; the enclosures and ditches were thickly strewn with their
killed and wounded; 2000 fugitives were picked up by the infantry,
and 12 pieces of cannon taken, and many more prisoners upon the only
opportunity which was offered for the cavalry to charge, when the
enemy had been driven from the high road by Sir Rowland. The victory,
complete as it was, might have been followed to more advantage, if
Lord Wellington had not been struck on the pommel of his sword by a
musquet-shot, and bruised so severely by the blow, that he was unable
to cross this intersected country on horseback time enough to direct
the farther movements of the divisions in pursuit: the most decisive
victory would have been dearly purchased by his loss. When it became
dusk, the army was halted in the neighbourhood of Sault de Navailles.
The loss of the allies, in killed, wounded, and missing, was somewhat
less than 2300, of whom about 600 were Portugueze; no Spaniards
were engaged that day. That of the ♦BEAUCHAMP, 2. P. 55.♦ enemy was
estimated by one of their own writers at from 14,000 to 16,000, very
much the greater part being by desertion after the rout; for the
conscripts threw down their arms, and took the opportunity of escaping
from compulsory service. Foy was severely wounded, General Bechaud
killed, and another General mortally wounded.
♦FEB. 28.♦
The main body of the French army continued its retreat during the
night, and was joined at Hagetman by the garrison of Dax, and by two
fresh battalions of conscripts; it then halted behind the Adour, near
St. Sever, to re-organize itself: the allies followed them to St. Sever
on the day after the battle, and the centre advanced in three columns
with the hope of enveloping them. That which marched on the _chaussée_
arrived at the appointed moment; but the flank columns ♦MARCH 1.♦ could
not proceed upon the unpaved roads at the pace which was required; and
thus the enemy had time to move off in the direction of Agen, escaping
an attack which they were in no condition to have withstood. Beresford
then with the light division, and with Colonel Vivian’s brigade,
passed the Higher Adour, and occupied Mont de Marsan, the principal
town in the department of the Landes, where he took a very large ♦THE
FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AIRE.♦ magazine of provisions. Here no resistance
was attempted; but at Aire, where the enemy had other magazines, a
corps was collected with the intention of making a stand to protect
their removal. Against this place, which is on the left bank of the
Adour, Sir Rowland moved upon the 2nd of March; and when his advanced
guard arrived within two miles of the town, the French were discovered
strongly posted on a ridge of hills, with their right upon the river,
thus covering the approach. Notwithstanding the strength of the post,
Sir William Stewart was ordered to attack them with the second division
along the road, and Brigadier-General Da Costa’s Portugueze brigade
about the centre of their position. The French force consisted of two
divisions; and the Portugueze, when they forced their way up and gained
the summit, found, which had not been expected, an extent of flat
ground on the top, and a strong body of the enemy completely formed
there to resist them; the Portugueze were so broken and confused that
they could regain no formation, and must have suffered accordingly, if
Sir William Stewart, having beaten back the enemy on his side, had not
dispatched his first brigade under Major-General Barnes to their timely
support. The enemy were then in their turn thrown into confusion by a
vigorous charge, nor could they after many attempts recover the ground,
but were driven from all their positions, and finally from the town,
where the magazines fell into the conqueror’s hands. Two divisions of
the French were engaged in this affair, one of them was Harispe’s,
which had not been at Orthes; their loss was very considerable: that
of the allies amounted to 20 killed and 135 wounded; among the former
was the Honourable Lieutenant-Colonel Hood, of the general staff, an
officer of great merit and promise.
♦SOULT DRAWS NEARER THE PYRENEES.♦
At this time the French were once more favoured by the weather. Heavy
and continued rain fell during the beginning of the month, swelling
all the rivulets so as materially to impede the progress of the
allies, increasing in proportion the Adour, which was so rapid that
pontoons could not be laid upon it, and rendering it more difficult
to repair the numerous bridges which the enemy had destroyed in
their retreat; yet till this could be done, the different parts of
the army were without communication. Lord Wellington was therefore
compelled to halt; and Marshal Soult, who after his defeat at Orthes
had been forced by the movement of Sir Rowland’s corps to retire in
the direction of Bourdeaux, had leisure and opportunity to choose his
course. The divisions which had been driven from Aire retreated up both
banks of the Adour towards Tarbes, with a view, as Lord Wellington
perceived, of being reinforced by farther detachments from Marshal
Suchet’s army. This direction Soult had resolved to take, because it
was only from Suchet that he could look for any efficient aid; though
it appears that there was not that concert and clear understanding
between the two Marshals which might have been expected in men of such
experience and great ability. By thus approaching the Pyrenees he
left the way to Bourdeaux open to the allies; he, however, supposed
that Lord Wellington would not venture to advance upon that city,
but of necessity must follow his movements. In the latter conclusion
he was not mistaken; but he greatly mistook the disposition of the
French people, who now looked to the English as their liberators,
a disposition that was increased by his own conduct, and by the
licentious habits of his troops. The loss of his magazines compelled
him to impose heavy requisitions, as far as his power to collect them
extended, to the ruin of the inhabitants, while their countrymen
in other parts were enriched by the presence of an invading army,
paying for every thing at the exorbitant prices that its own demand
occasioned. His troops, therefore, in their own country were in want of
every thing, and the English were abundantly supplied. ♦BEAUCHAMP, 2.
61. BATTY’S NARRATIVE, 139.♦ The depredations and the enormities which
his men committed, though not aggravated by that fiendish cruelty which
had characterized the French in Portugal, were yet such that they were
execrated wherever they went; and the allies, in every town and village
where they entered, were welcomed as deliverers and protectors. Many
instances occurred in which our sick soldiers were taken in by some
hospitable family, and nursed with the greatest kindness.
♦THE ALLIES ENTER PAU.♦
One of the enemy’s columns having been cut off from the Adour by Sir
Rowland’s rapid march upon Aire, retreated in disorder toward Pau,
the men throwing away their arms, the better to effect their escape
and facilitate their desertion. The few who reached that place were
driven out by a detachment which Lord Wellington sent thither under
General Fane to occupy it; and there the allies established a hospital
in which the _Sœurs de la Charité_ attended upon the sick and wounded
soldiers, after the manner of their exemplary order. Travellers are
still shown at Pau the chamber in which Henri IV. was born, and the
tortoise-shell in which he slept as in a cradle. The gardens which
had been his delight were remaining at the close of the 17th century;
and the walks overarched with trees, the arbours, and the evergreens,
though all neglected then, bore testimony still to the care with which
they had formerly been dressed, and to the topiary skill which had
been displayed there. Bearn, of which Pau was the capital in former
times, was one of the most favoured parts of France, and indeed of the
world, before the French revolution cut up the well-being of a whole
generation by the roots; for the division of property, and the industry
and manners of the people had combined there with all fortunate
circumstances of soil, surface, and climate, to render the inhabitants
contented and happy.
♦DEPUTIES ARRIVE FROM BOURDEAUX.♦
When the news of the battle of Orthes reached St. Jean de Luz, two
deputies arrived at the same time from Toulouse, to assure the Duc
d’Angoulême that the inhabitants of that city eagerly desired the
restoration of the Bourbons. The Duc upon this repaired to Lord
Wellington’s head-quarters at St. Sever; Rochejaquelein followed
him, and they were joined there by M. Bontemps Dubarry, who came
from Bourdeaux, charged by the better part of the citizens to invite
the Duc, and to assure Lord Wellington that a British force would be
received there as friends. Lord Wellington no longer hesitated; and as
soon as Freyre’s Spanish corps, which had been stationed in reserve
near Irun, could be brought up, and every disposable body was closed
to the right, he dispatched Marshal Beresford ♦THE DUC D’ANGOULÊME
PROCEEDS THITHER WITH MARSHAL BERESFORD.♦ with three divisions toward
that important city, to drive out its inconsiderable garrison, and give
the inhabitants an opportunity of declaring for the exiled family if
such were their wish, and they chose to venture upon a measure which
might be so injurious to themselves, if Buonaparte should accept of
the peace that still was offered him. Lord Wellington still doubted
of this, even after he had determined upon making the trial; and
Rochejaquelein, when he went to receive the Duc’s last order, before
he set off with the advanced guard, found that the Duc himself seemed
to entertain the same discouraging opinion. Upon this he requested
permission to precede the English by six-and-thirty hours, and declared
that if Bourdeaux did not declare itself, his head should be ♦MÉMOIRES
DE LA MARQUISE DE LA ROCHEJAQUELEIN, P. 529.♦ responsible for the
failure. “You are certain then of your grounds,” the Duc rejoined. “As
certain,” replied Rochejaquelein, “as one can be of any earthly thing!”
The Duc then expressed his full confidence in him, and bade him go.
♦THE LANDES.♦
The sandy tract which extends from Bayonne to Bourdeaux is well known
by the name of the Landes; so called, it has been supposed, because
all other ground in the adjacent country had its proper appellation
of field, meadow, marsh, wood, or other such terms according to its
produce and uses; but this region ♦GALLIA CHRISTIANA, T. 1. GLOSS.♦
was mere land and nothing else; it is a vast plain, perfectly level,
in some parts covered with pine forests, in others only a wide waste
of sand, where the trees are so thinly scattered in the sea-like
circle, that in hot and hazy weather they have the appearance of ships
at sea. The peasant stalks over the loose sand upon high stilts,
which are found as useful here as racquets for the snow in Canada.
Uncultivated, however, and thinly peopled as this extensive tract is,
the pine forests yield a considerable revenue; the trees are regularly
tapped for turpentine, pitch is extracted from them, and candles
made from resin are in common use. While Marshal Beresford advanced
without opposition over this remarkable country, Rochejaquelein having
proceeded with the light troops as far as Langon, made his way to the
house of one of his confederates at Preignac; and from thence was
safely conducted, though the avenues were then watched by detachments
of soldiers and of _gendarmerie_, into Bourdeaux. He found that the
secret council of the royalists there, contrary alike to his wishes and
expectations, had just dispatched ♦MARCH 10.♦ a messenger to Marshal
Beresford, requesting him to delay his movement, that they might have
more time for preparing the people, and bringing the royalists from
the country round to the support of those in the town. This was at ten
on the night of the 10th; his representations how impolitic it was to
allow the timid time for considering the danger, and how desirable that
at this crisis Bourdeaux should declare itself for their legitimate
king by a spontaneous movement, inspired them with a braver spirit: and
four of their confederates were then successively sent off to meet the
Duc d’Angoulême and the English, and entreat them to expedite their
march.
♦THE BUONAPARTISTS WITHDRAW FROM BOURDEAUX.♦
The battle of Orthes had already struck fear into those persons
from whom the royalists had most to apprehend; and no sooner was
it known that a British force was advancing towards Bourdeaux,
than the principal persons there who were in Buonaparte’s service
thought it hopeless to resist. The senator M. Cornudet, who was
Commissioner Extraordinary in this department, ordered all the civil
and ecclesiastical authorities to be dissolved, and every person in
the employ of government to leave the city. He gave directions for
destroying two frigates which were upon the stocks; and when it was
rumoured that this would be opposed by the people, he set fire to them
himself; and, taking with him the public chests, and as much gunpowder
and saltpetre as he could remove in haste from the public stores, he
withdrew. General Lhuillier, who had the military command, could not
collect more than 2000 soldiers; he, therefore, withdrew also. But the
Archbishop, as well as the Mayor, M. Lynch, remained and prepared to
receive the Duc d’Angoulême as the nephew of their lawful King, and the
English as his allies. Instead of finding any force to resist him on
the way, or any disposition for resistance, Marshal Beresford was met
by royalists from all parts of Medoc and Guienne, who came in crowds
to welcome the Duc. Long accustomed to adversity, the Duc himself
was not elated by this fair appearance of returning fortune; he knew
that, whatever might be the wishes of the allied sovereigns, they did
not yet consider it their policy to espouse the cause of the Bourbons,
and he requested the people not to endanger themselves by a hasty
declaration; but ♦MARCH 1.♦ notwithstanding this expressed desire, the
cry of “_Vive le Roi!_” was raised in the little town of Bazan when he
entered it. Early on the morning of the 12th, the local authorities
of Bourdeaux assembled ♦THE DUC ENTERS, AND THE WHITE FLAG IS HOISTED
THERE.♦ at the Hotel de Ville. The English hussars were beginning
to enter, when Rochejaquelein rode with all speed to meet Marshal
Beresford, and requested him to withdraw them, that the royalists might
declare themselves before he entered: of course this was instantly
done. The municipality went out to meet him; the royal guard which
had secretly been formed were instructed to assemble upon the road
with arms concealed, and their officers followed in the magistrates’
train. As soon as Beresford arrived at the bridge of La Maye, he sent
Colonel Vivian to the Mayor, saying that he hoped to enter the city as
a friend and an ally. The Mayor met the Marshal without the gates, and
addressed him to this effect, that if he were about to enter Bourdeaux
as a conqueror, he might possess himself of the keys, which there were
no means of defending; but if he came in the name of the King of France
and of his ally, the King of England, they should then be joyfully
presented to him. Marshal Beresford replied, that his orders were to
occupy the city and to protect it; that he hoped his message had been
satisfactory, and that the city which he was about to enter was the
city of an ally inhabited by the subjects of Louis XVIII. M. Lynch,
upon this, exclaimed, “_Vive le Roi!_” cast away his scarf, and put on
the white cockade. At the same moment the white flag was displayed
from the steeple of St. Michael’s: those who were prepared with white
cockades mounted them, those who were not supplied their place with
paper; and when, about an hour afterwards, the Duc de Guiche arrived
and announced the near arrival of Monseigneur the Duc d’Angoulême,
Bourdeaux had never before witnessed so general or so generous a joy as
was then manifested. Crowds pressed round him, if they might but touch
his clothes or his horse; some cried, “He is of our blood; he was born
a Frenchman, and feels like a Frenchman!” numbers fell on their knees
and blessed him, and blessed God that they had lived to see this day;
mothers pointed him out to their children and said, “Now we shall no
longer lose all our sons in the war!”
It was nearly two hours before the Duc could make his way through the
multitude to the cathedral. There the Archbishop at the head of the
clergy awaited him at the great door, and _Te Deum_ was performed
there amid the acclamations of the populace. M. Lynch issued a
proclamation in a strain well pitched to support the feeling which
had thus strongly been excited. “Inhabitants of Bourdeaux,” said he,
“happy circumstances have called upon the paternal magistrate of your
city to become the interpreter of your long suppressed wishes and the
organ of your interests, by welcoming in your name the nephew of Louis
XVI., whose presence has converted into allies an irritated nation
bearing the character of enemies till they reached your gates. It is
not to subjugate our country that the English, and the Spaniards, and
the Portugueze appear where they now are: they are come with united
forces into the south of France actuated by the same feelings as the
nations of the north, to destroy the scourge of Europe, and supply his
place by a monarch who will be the father of his people. The hands of
the Bourbons are undefiled with French blood; the testament of Louis
XVI. is their guide, and they renounce all thoughts of resentment:
they proclaim that clemency and tolerance are the leading features
of their conduct; and, in deploring the terrible ravages of that
tyranny which licentiousness introduced, they forget the errors caused
by the illusions of liberty. No more tyranny! no more war! no more
conscription! no more vexatious taxes! are the concise and consoling
expressions addressed to you by a Prince who has the daughter of Louis
XVI. for his consort. I am proud that you are the first who have set an
example to France. Every thing tends to assure us that our misfortunes
are about to terminate, and that national rivalry will cease with them.
It seems to have been decreed by Providence that the great commander,
who so well deserves to be entitled the Liberator of Nations, should
attach his glorious name to this glorious epoch, this memorable
consummation of all my wishes. Fellow-citizens, such are the hopes and
motives which have supported me at this trying period, and directed my
conduct, and determined me, if necessary, to sacrifice my life for you.
God is my witness, that I have no object in view but the good of my
country. Long live the King!”
♦FAILURE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS AT CHATILLON.♦
The Royalists, by whom this most important movement was prepared and
directed, were none of those time-servers who take advantage of all
changes to forward their own fortunes, and whose professed principles
are always found to be in perfect accord with their immediate interest.
When Rochejaquelein and the Bordelais set life and fortune thus upon
the die, the Bourbons were wholly disregarded by the Allied Powers;
those powers were still negotiating with Buonaparte, ... still willing,
and, as it seemed, desirous to conclude a peace with him which should
have left him the recognized Emperor of France. He, too, giving proof
of greater military genius than could justly be inferred from his most
brilliant career of success, had made head against their invading
armies with an inferior force; and obtained advantages which raised the
hopes of his admirers, and confirmed his overweening confidence in his
own resources and strength of character. He flattered himself at this
time, and endeavoured to persuade the French people, that the allies
considered the scheme of invasion hopeless, that they were about to
withdraw from the French territory, and to dissolve their ill-compacted
league. The former conduct of those powers afforded some ground for
such expectation; but they had profited by experience, and while the
negotiations for peace were ♦MAR. 1.♦ still pending at Chatillon,
concluded a treaty among themselves which might have wakened Buonaparte
from his delusion. By this treaty, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Great
Britain, formed a league offensive and defensive for twenty years, each
binding itself not to treat separately with the enemy, and each to
keep on foot an army of 150,000 men, exclusive of garrisons, England
reserving an option to subsidize other troops in place of her own, and
agreeing to supply five millions sterling, to be divided among the
other powers for maintaining the war. Each of these contracting powers
was fully supported in this energetic policy by the spirit of its
people. But Buonaparte continued to act as if he had still only to deal
with sovereigns whom he might cajole, and statesmen whom ♦MAR. 15.♦ he
might intimidate or corrupt; and in this temper he sent his _ultimatum_
to the congress, demanding for himself the whole line of the Rhine,
great part of that of the Waal, and the fortress of Nimeguen; Italy,
including Venice, for his son-in-law Eugene Beauharnois; indemnities
for that prince as having been Grand Duke of Frankfort, for Jerome on
the score of his kingdom of Westphalia, for Louis as Grand Duke of
Berg, ... and for Joseph the Intruder, not indeed in compensation for
Spain, but for Naples, ... from whence Buonaparte himself had moved him
to Madrid! Such demands were at once rejected, and the congress was
dissolved.
♦MARSHAL SOULT’S PROCLAMATION.♦
This was subsequent to the declaration of Bourdeaux in favour of the
Bourbons; and when the news of that declaration was known in England,
some apprehensions were felt for its immediate consequences to the
persons who were principally concerned. What mercy they might expect
if Buonaparte should maintain himself upon the throne was plainly
indicated in a proclamation addressed at this time by Marshal Soult
to his troops; it was directed against the British General as well
as the Royalists, and in the spirit of one who had served the tyrant
in his schemes of iniquitous ambition, without scruple and without
remorse. “Soldiers,” said he, in this remarkable address, “there will
be no repose for us till this hostile army shall be annihilated, or
till it shall have evacuated the territory of the Emperor. It does
not suspect the dangers which surround, nor the perils which await
it; but time will teach this army, and the General who commands it,
that our territory is not invaded with impunity, and that French
honour is not with impunity insulted. The British General has had the
audacity to incite you and your countrymen to revolt and sedition!
He has dared insult the national honour: he has had the baseness to
excite the French to break their oaths, and to be guilty of perjury!
Yet a few days and those who have been capable of believing in the
sincerity and delicacy of the English will learn to their cost that
the English have no other object in this war than to destroy France by
its own instrumentality, and reduce the French to servitude like the
Portugueze, the Sicilians, and all the other people who have groaned
under their yoke. Let these deluded Frenchmen look back upon the past;
they will see the English at the head of every conspiracy, of the
overthrow of all principles, of the destruction of all establishments,
whether of greatness or of industry, for the sake of gratifying their
inordinate ambition and their insatiable avarice. Is there a single
point on the surface of the globe where they have not either by fraud
or violence brought about the ruin of the manufactories which rivalled
or surpassed their own? Soldiers, let us devote to shame and general
execration every Frenchman who shall have favoured the projects of
the enemy; there is no longer any bond between them and us! Our motto
is Honour and Fidelity. Our duty is marked out: implacable hatred
to traitors and to the enemies of the French name: interminable war
to those who would divide in order to destroy us; as well as to the
wretches who would desert the imperial eagles for any other standard!
Let us have always in our minds fifteen ages of glory, and the
innumerable triumphs which have rendered our country illustrious! Let
us contemplate the prodigious efforts of our great Emperor, and his
signal victories which will eternize the French name! Let us be worthy
of him, and that we may bequeath to our posterity without a stain the
inheritance which we have received from our fathers!”
This proclamation was more in accord with the moral than with the
military reputation which Marshal Soult had established for himself.
It ill became him as a great General to pour out coarse and angry
invectives against his adversary; but the rancour with which he
reviled and calumniated the English, the threat of interminable war
to them, and of implacable hatred to the French loyalists, these were
in the spirit of his councils and his conduct. For he had proved
himself by his impassibility not less than by his talents, worthy of
the confidence which Buonaparte placed in him ... and of the service
in which he had been employed. But his exhortation to the French
soldiers that they should be worthy of their Emperor was superfluous:
Buonaparte’s soldiers had long been worthy of him! To this Jaffa had
borne witness: Madrid and Porto, Ucles and Tarragona were witnesses;
the wrongs, the sufferings, and the curses of all Europe testified it;
and the confederated nations, in whom the insolence and the excesses
of those soldiers had roused a feeling which no ordinary war could
have excited, and who were now moving from the Tagus and the Elbe, the
Danube and the Moskwa against the general oppressor, ... the common
enemy, ... the individual who, when he might have conferred greater
benefits upon Europe than ever sovereign before him, in ancient or
modern times, had deliberately chosen the evil part, and employed his
mighty power to bring about the worst ends by the most flagitious means.
♦ADMIRAL PENROSE ENTERS THE GIRONDE.♦
But if some fears were entertained in England for the loyalists at
Bourdeaux who had not waited to declare their loyalty till the danger
would have been in delaying the declaration, a generous sympathy
also was manifested. The militia availed themselves of the act which
allowed them to volunteer for foreign service. The example was set
by the Marquis of Buckingham and Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, and they
sailed as soon as possible with 4000 men for the Gironde. Contrary
winds impeded their passage: meantime Buonaparte had ordered a division
under General Decaen to march against it by Perigueux, and Lhuillier
collected what force he could to the north of the city. But Buonaparte
and his Generals had now no force at their disposal strong enough to
put down the spirit that had shown itself; the rich raised companies
of cavalry, the artisans formed a volunteer guard for the Duc; and
Lord Wellington was now so well acquainted with the disposition of
the French people, that without any fears for Bourdeaux, he recalled
Marshal Beresford with two divisions, thinking that Lord Dalhousie with
5000 men would secure it from any attempt that could be made against
it. Admiral Penrose had hastened thither with ♦MARCH 27.♦ the Egmont,
the Andromache, and Belle Poule frigates, and some smaller vessels,
and entered the Gironde without sustaining any loss from the fire of
the forts and batteries at its mouth. There was more danger from the
difficulty of the navigation, but this also was surmounted by the
skill and the exertion of British seamen. The enemy had the Regulus
line-of-battleship, three brigs of war, and some _chasse-marées_ lying
in the river, and the squadron chased them as high as the shoal of
Talmont, where the French passed up through the narrow channel to the
north, which had been buoyed for the purpose, and then took shelter
under the strong batteries on each side of Talmont bay, the British
squadron anchoring outside the shoal. Fort de Blaye still prevented
the navigation of the Garonne; the mayor of that place would willingly
have hoisted the white flag, but though he found means of letting the
Duc know his own sentiments, he could not persuade the garrison to
take that part. While the Admiral prepared to act against it, Lord
Dalhousie, taking Rochejaquelein for his guide, crossed the Garonne,
and pushed the enemy’s parties under General Lhuillier, beyond the
Dordogne; ♦APRIL 4.♦ he then crossed that river at St. Andre de
Cubzac, with a view to the attack of the fort, but learning that
Lhuillier with 300 cavalry and 1200 foot had retired by Etauliers, he
moved on that point, intending to turn back again upon Blaye if that
General continued his retreat. Lhuillier however drew out his corps in
a large open common near Etauliers, and occupied some woods in front
of it: the woods were soon cleared; the enemy’s horse and foot gave
way and retired through the town, leaving scattered parties to shift
for themselves; some 300 prisoners were taken, including about 30
officers, great numbers dispersed in the woods, and the conscripts took
the desired opportunity of escaping. On the preceding day a detachment
under Captain Coode, of the Porcupine, took or destroyed a numerous
♦MARCH.♦ flotilla, which had been equipped in haste, and which, before
the arrival of the British squadron, had threatened the coast of Medoc,
and Bourdeaux itself. Among the prizes was a splendid barge designed
for the Emperor when he visited that city, with his name on the stern,
and his golden eagle on the prow; this the sailors humbly requested
might be presented with their duty to the Prince Regent. Another
corps of 600 seamen and marines, under Captain Harris of the Belle
Poule, landed, marched more than fifty miles in six-and-thirty hours,
reduced and dismantled five forts, destroyed 47 pieces of cannon and 17
mortars, and re-embarked without any loss. The Regulus and the smaller
vessels which had sought protection with it, were attacked and burnt,
and by the 9th of April the river was cleared as high up as Blaye.
General Merle held out in that fortress till the 16th; when the news
that had arrived induced the Admiral to agree to an armistice with him,
and the Gironde was then opened from its mouth to Bourdeaux.
♦PROCEEDINGS AT VALANÇAY.♦
Meantime another restoration, which once might have been deemed as
little likely as that of the Bourbons in France, had taken place.
When Ferdinand and his counsellors at Valançay found that neither
San Carlos nor Palafox returned from their mission, they represented
to Laforest that the best mode of removing all difficulties would be
for the Emperor to let Ferdinand depart unconditionally, relying upon
his honour to fulfil the treaty, if the obstacles to it should not be
insurmountable. Suchet had given advice to the same effect, seeing
that at that time, when there was no longer a hope of retaining any
hold on Spain, it was of great consequence to withdraw from thence
the garrisons, and that they could be extricated only by this means.
If Ferdinand were honourable enough to restore them to their country
upon being put in possession of the places which they occupied, the
great and only advantage which was now desired would be obtained; if
he should refuse to do this, or be unable to effect it, doubtful as
it was what his authority might be, nothing would be lost, nor ever
risked by the experiment. This the French government saw; and they were
not without hope that the presence of Ferdinand in his own country
might lead to a civil war, which would have the effect of at least
embarrassing the English, and probably of impeding their operations in
Gascony.
Ferdinand and his counsellors might have escaped from any imputation
of bad faith in this transaction, if they had not themselves claimed
credit for acting with duplicity. When they said the fulfilment of the
treaty might be relied on, if there were no insurmountable obstacles,
they well supposed that such obstacles existed in their relations to
the allied powers; “but,” says the Canon Escoiquiz, “not knowing this
of a certainty, we had a right, when treating with so perfidious a
person, to put it in doubt; and by this just dissimulation to obtain
the object of our wishes, which was the King’s liberty. Skilfully
to deceive with truth a man so false was not an evil deed, but an
excellent one; and this was our maxim[8].” They represented farther
that an unconditional liberation was of all things most likely to
conciliate Ferdinand’s entire good-will; that it would moreover make
the allied powers believe Buonaparte to be sincere in his desire of
peace, and which was of more consequence, gratify the French nation,
who had always indignantly regarded the war with Spain; that if
Ferdinand should find it impossible to confirm the peace with France,
it was not his interest that France should be dismembered, and to
prevent any such danger he would only carry on an illusive war, merely
to save appearances; that even if it were his desire to carry it on
with vigour, he must of necessity be less able to do this than the
Regency, because of the changes which his arrival in Spain could not
but produce; finally, that his farther detention would occasion the
Emperor a great and useless expense, and must also be a matter of
some anxiety, when it was so possible that he might be delivered by
the arms of the allies. Buonaparte, indeed, seems at one time to have
been sensible either of the reproach which he had brought upon himself
by his treachery toward Ferdinand, or of the likelihood that some
successful plan might be formed for his escape; and it was once his
intention to have shipped him off for Mexico, or for any other part of
the Spanish colonies which he might have preferred, with Charles IV.
and the Queen, the Infantes, his brothers, the Queen of Etruria, and
as many other members of the family as he could collect, and to have
given them large possessions there; but upon discovering that none of
those colonies were at his disposal, as he had hoped them to be, and
considering moreover that Ferdinand might easily from thence find his
way to Spain, and there protest against the validity ♦IDEA SENCILLA,
78.♦ of his renunciation, he abandoned this project. At present,
willing to be rid of him, knowing that his presence now could do him
no hurt any where, desiring to get his soldiers out of Spain, which he
had no hope of effecting by any other means, and perhaps also having a
hope that Ferdinand’s return might create new troubles in that country,
he readily assented to the proposal; and Laforest was instructed by
the first post after the receipt of his dispatch to inform Ferdinand
and the Infantes, that they were at liberty to depart unconditionally,
and that orders had been given for forwarding to them the necessary
passports.
♦FERDINAND IS SET AT LIBERTY.♦
Ferdinand had endured captivity as contentedly as if his patience had
been the effect of philosophy or of religion. Nothing, however, could
have rejoiced him more than this reply; and, as if believing that his
return would be not less a matter of joy to the Regency, he determined
that as soon as the passports came, Zayas should precede him by three
or four days, and travel with all speed to notify his approach, that
preparations might be made for receiving him. This happiness was but
of six hours’ duration; for on the evening of the same day, San Carlos
arrived with the refusal of the treaty. To conceal this was impossible,
the utmost publicity having been given to it by the Spanish press; and
as it was likely to irritate Buonaparte, whose violent temper was well
known to his ministers, Laforest proposed that San Carlos himself
should be the first bearer of the intelligence, and present with it
such representations as might tend to appease him, and if possible
avert his displeasure. The Duque accordingly, who had come post from
Madrid, set off without delay, and at the same speed for Paris.
Buonaparte was then with the army in the neighbourhood of Troyes; the
ministers at Paris had withheld the passports till they should receive
fresh instructions, and not allowing the Duque to proceed, sent him
back to Valençay. Laforest, however, was of opinion that he should
repair to the Emperor’s quarters: San Carlos again departed; failing
to find, and perhaps not being able to follow him in the rapidity of
his movements, he communicated his business by letter: the course which
Laforest recommended coincided with the advice given by Suchet, in
whom Buonaparte had great confidence, and the result was that orders
were sent to Paris for forwarding the passports without delay. They
reached Valençay on the night of March 7; San Carlos arrived on the
9th; Zayas set out for Madrid the next day. He bore a dispatch to the
Regency, wherein Ferdinand said that their letter, which he had now
received by Palafox, had filled his soul with satisfaction: he saw in
it how anxiously the nation wished for his return, which he desired
not less ardently, that he might devote all his powers to the good of
his beloved subjects, to whom he was so greatly indebted on so many
accounts. Then, after notifying his speedy departure, he said that
the re-establishment of the Cortes, concerning which the Regency had
informed him, and the other measures for the good of the realm which
had been adopted during his absence, deserved his approbation, because
they were in conformity with his ♦IDEA SENCILLA, 113, 119.♦ own royal
intentions. On the following Sunday, March 13, Ferdinand and the
Infantes commenced their journey towards Perpignan.
♦ARRANGEMENT WITH M. SUCHET.♦
Marshal Suchet received them in that city. His instructions from the
minister at war were, that he should send Ferdinand to Barcelona,
and cause all the places which the French still possessed in Spain
to be delivered up, taking, however, securities and precautions for
the return of the garrisons to their own country. Hence the Marshal
concluded that there was not such entire confidence placed in this
prince as might otherwise have been inferred from the manner of his
liberation. Both parties, however, were desirous of smoothing all
difficulties, which may always best be done by fair dealing; and this
was now the interest of both. San Carlos gave Suchet a full account of
the temper of the Cortes, and their determination to control the King,
or to resist him, if he should be found refractory; and he expressed
his belief that the Generals, whether they were influenced by their
fear or their opinions, would not acknowledge his authority until
they received orders from Madrid. Ferdinand’s desire was to proceed
without delay, and not to enter Barcelona, but go on to Valencia;
and he promised to expedite as much as he could the deliverance of
the garrisons in exchange for the places which they occupied. The
Marshal frankly stated the difficulty wherein he was placed by his
instructions, these being to conduct the King to Barcelona, and take
securities for the deliverance of the garrisons; he had written to
Paris, he said, for farther explanations, and till these should arrive,
it was agreed that the Infante, Don Carlos, should remain at Perpignan,
and that the King should pass the frontier without delay. Accordingly,
on the 22nd, Ferdinand re-entered his own country. The rain had so
swoln the streams, that he was detained two days at Figueras; during
this delay, the Marshal addressed a note to him, requesting that the
treatment of the French prisoners might be improved, and pressing for
the deliverance of the garrisons. An assurance was given that there
should be an immediate alteration in the condition of the prisoners,
and a promise was given respecting the garrisons, to which Ferdinand
affixed his signature. This answer was returned from Figueras, where
he was still in the hands of the French; but, that it might appear
more evidently his own free act and deed, he dated it from Gerona.
Upon receiving this, Suchet immediately dispatched orders for letting
the Infante, Don Carlos, proceed from Perpignan; thus he conferred an
obligation, by releasing a hostage whom it would have been useless to
detain; all questions concerning the fortresses and garrisons being,
as by a tacit understanding, waived on both sides, there being a third
party, without whose consent the garrison of Barcelona could not be
dismissed; for Sir H. Clinton was then with the Anglo-Sicilian army
blockading that city. A little before this time, instructions had been
received by that General to embark one portion of his troops, including
the Calabrians, ♦SUCHET, 2. 375–8.♦ for the coast of Italy, there to
be employed in an expedition under Lord William Bentinck; and with
the remainder to march, by way of Zaragoza and Pamplona, into France,
there to reinforce Lord Wellington. Sir Henry took upon himself the
responsibility of not obeying these instructions: and his conduct in so
doing was fully approved by Lord Wellington; for, if that army had been
withdrawn, the Spaniards in Catalonia could not have prevented Suchet
from collecting and bringing off the whole of his remaining garrisons.
As soon as the waters permitted, Ferdinand proceeded towards Gerona.
General Copons had been apprized of his coming. Marshal Suchet escorted
him to the Fluvia, ♦MARCH 24. FERDINAND WRITES FROM GERONA TO THE
REGENCY.♦ The French troops were drawn up in a semicircle on one side
of the river, the Spaniards on the other; and, having crossed it amid
salutes of artillery, and the joyful sound of martial music, and the
acclamations of the surrounding inhabitants, who had flocked thither
from all sides, Ferdinand found himself then indeed free, ... in his
own country, among his own people, and a King. There was no difficulty
about his reception; his retinue consisted only of Spaniards, among
whom there were none to whom any exception could be taken, if Copons
had been disposed to offer it. The General delivered into his hands
the Regency’s letter, and the documents which accompanied it; and
when Ferdinand came the same day to Gerona, he acknowledged them in a
letter to the Regency announcing his arrival, saying that he should
make himself acquainted with the contents of their papers; meantime
he assured them that his greatest wish was to give them proofs of his
satisfaction, and of his lively desire to do every thing which might
conduce to the happiness of his subjects. It was a comfort indeed for
him, he said, to see himself in his own country, in the midst of a
nation and an army to whom he was beholden for a fidelity as constant
as it was generous.
♦FERDINAND GOES TO ZARAGOZA.♦
The Cortes had regulated Ferdinand’s route; and as it was understood
that he would proceed by the line prescribed for him, which was
straight by way of Valencia, the Governors of Barcelona, Tortosa, and
Murviedro, received instructions to commit no hostilities when he
should pass. But Ferdinand was in no haste to proceed; he needed time
for consideration, and for such rest as the critical position in which
he now found himself would allow: he halted, therefore, a few days at
Gerona. On the 30th, he passed through the blockading army in front
of Barcelona, the enemy firing a salute, the allies receiving him with
all honours, and the people with every possible manifestation of joy.
It was believed that he was proceeding to Valencia; but, altering his
intention on the way, he made for Zaragoza, meaning to remain there
till he should have determined how to act.
♦SOULT RESUMES THE OFFENSIVE.♦
This restoration Buonaparte regarded at this time with indifference;
but there was nothing which he dreaded so much as the progress of that
feeling which had manifested itself at Bourdeaux; for peace, upon
some terms, he thought himself always sure of obtaining, as long as
the allies forbore to take up the cause of the Bourbons. Soult saw
how likely it was that this feeling should spread from the Gironde
to the Loire, and had resolved upon carrying the war back toward the
Pyrenees, more with the view of occupying the English force at a
distance from those parts in which he knew that the existing tyranny
was borne with most impatience, than for the sake of the succours which
he could draw from Catalonia. Not being acquainted with the success
of Marshal Beresford’s movement upon Bourdeaux, he expected thus to
frustrate it, and that Lord Wellington would find it necessary to
recall all the detachments which he had sent in that direction. He
had, indeed, written to the Minister at War, saying he did not think
the British General would dare to weaken himself by sending a force
against that city. With this intention, he resumed the offensive; and,
having sent most of his encumbrances to Toulouse, moved ♦SUCHET, T.
2. PIÈCES JUSTIF, PP. 530–2.♦ by Lembege to Conchez and Viella, on
the right flank of the allies, drove in Sir Rowland’s piquets, and
made a demonstration as if intending to ♦MARCH 13.♦ attack him with
his whole force. Sir Rowland, upon this, took a position behind the
Gros Lees, extending ♦HE RETREATS UPON TARBES.♦ from Aire to Garlin,
on the road to Pau. Lord Wellington quickly moved two divisions to his
support, and prepared to concentrate the army in the neighbourhood of
Aire. Marshal Soult did not then feel himself strong enough to venture
upon an attack, and not finding his situation secure, retired in the
night toward Lembege, keeping his advanced posts toward Conchez; and
on the 15th, he halted his main body in position near Burosse, covered
by a strong rear-guard at Mascarras; but, on the approach of a single
brigade, they retired upon Vic Bigorre, not offering to maintain
their ground, though in a country peculiarly defensible. The various
detachments which Lord Wellington had sent out, and the reserves of
cavalry and artillery from Spain, did not join him till the 17th. On
the morrow the army marched; the right by Conchez, ♦COLONEL JONES’S
ACCOUNT, 2. 262.♦ the centre by Castelnau, the left by Plaisance; and
Sir Rowland drove in the enemy’s outposts upon Lembege. The French
retired in the night, but held a strong rear-guard in front of Vic
Bigorre, posted in the vineyards that encircle that town, and extend
for several miles around it. There they made a stand, with a show of
resolution which was not supported; for Sir Thomas Picton, with the 3rd
division and Major-General Bock’s Portugueze brigade, attacked them
there, dislodged, and drove them through the vineyards and through the
town. The allied army then assembled at Vic Bigorre and Rabastens, and
the enemy retired during the night upon Tarbes.
♦FURTHER RETREAT TO TOULOUSE.♦
Buonaparte had rested in this city on his way to Bayonne in 1808,
when the treachery which he had plotted for the usurpation of Spain
was about to be consummated: a monument had been erected here in
commemoration of this imperial visit; and now that journey had in
consequence brought thither a victorious enemy’s army. So different,
too, were the feelings of the inhabitants toward him from what they had
been, that when Soult sent General Maransin thither before him to raise
a levy _en masse_ throughout the department, they refused to take arms.
Here, on the morning of the 20th, the French were found, having the
advanced posts of their left in the town, their right upon the heights
near the windmill of Oleac, and their centre and left retired, the
latter upon the heights near Angor. The allies marched in two columns
from Vic Bigorre and Rabastens; and Lord Wellington directed Sir Henry
Clinton, with the 6th division, to turn and attack their right, through
the village of Dour, while Sir Rowland attacked the town by the high
road. Sir Henry’s movement was completely successful: Baron Alten,
also, with the light division, drove the enemy from the heights above
Orleix: and when Sir Rowland had moved through the town and disposed
his columns for the attack, they retired in all directions. The troops
ascended the position which had been thus relinquished, thinking to
pursue their advantage; but having gained the summit, they unexpectedly
discovered a large portion of Soult’s army, formed on a parallel height
of great strength, and the body which had retreated before them, about
15,000 in number, ascending to join their comrades. This new position
could not be attacked without incurring severe loss; and to preserve
the advantages which had been obtained, it was necessary that the corps
from Rabastens should move further forward. But before this arrangement
could be completed, the evening closed, and Marshal Soult, once more
taking advantage of night to cover his movements, retired toward
Toulouse. There are two roads from Tarbes to that city, by S. Gaudens,
and by Auch; Soult retreated by the first, but having collected his
troops at St. Gaudens, crossed the country from thence to Auch. He had
previously sent off all his remaining encumbrances; and marching with
all possible celerity, that he might profit at Toulouse by the time
which he gained upon his pursuers, and destroying the bridges as he
went, he entered that city on the 24th, having suffered no other loss
during the pursuit than that of some prisoners, taken by General Fane
in an attack upon his rear-guard at St. Gaudens on the 22nd.
♦PASSAGE OF THE GARONNE.♦
Once more Lord Wellington’s operations were impeded by heavy and
continued rains; he had to carry with him a pontoon train, as well as
most of his supplies; and it was not till three days after the French
army had entered Toulouse, that the allies halted on the left of the
Garonne, opposite that city. ♦MARCH 27.♦ On the following day, Lord
Wellington ordered a bridge to be laid at Portet, a village immediately
below the junction of the Ariege, and above the city. The current was
so rapid, that the sheer line could not without much difficulty be
stretched across; and when this was effected the distance was found
to be twenty-six yards more than the pontoons would cover. It was
desirable to obtain a passage above the city; for in that case Soult
must either abandon Toulouse, or lose the hope of being joined by
Suchet, now, though late in his movements, on the march to join him;
... a tardiness not imputable to that skilful commander, but to the
unwillingness with which Buonaparte consented to give up any object
of his ambition. Three days after the failure of the first attempt, a
place was found near Roques, where the river was not too wide, and the
spot in other respects favourable; here, ♦MARCH 31.♦ therefore, the
pontoons were laid down, and Sir Rowland’s corps crossed, and seized
the bridge over the Ariege at Cintegabelle; but after an anxious
trial of some hours, it was ascertained that from thence to Toulouse
there was no way passable for an army; and that till finer weather
should have hardened the roads, it would be impracticable to direct an
attack from the upper side of the town. The corps therefore repassed
the Garonne; and it then became Lord Wellington’s object to bridge the
river below the city, and attack Soult in front before he should be
reinforced. A favourable bend in the stream was discovered about two
miles above Grenade, at a point where the Garonne skirts the ♦APRIL
4TH.♦ main road: here some flanking batteries were established before
daybreak on the 4th; but owing to some accidental delay, it was five
o’clock before the first pontoon was brought to the water’s edge. A few
of the enemy’s cavalry were patrolling on the right bank, and their
whole army was within a short march: the patroles retired, and it
was expected every moment ♦SUCHET, PIÈCES JUSTIF. P. 536.♦ that some
attempt would be made to oppose the passage. Marshal Soult, indeed, had
assured Suchet that whenever the passage should be effected, he would
march and give the allies battle, whatever might be the disproportion
of his force; but of this he thought more wisely when the time came,
and his whole attention was now engaged in strengthening a position so
advantageous in itself, that with the labour and skill now employed in
fortifying it, he thought he might there safely defy even such an enemy
as Lord Wellington. The river at this point was 127 yards wide, and
exceedingly rapid; the bridge however was finished in four hours; and
just before it was completed the day became beautifully fine. The right
bank is some fifty feet high, the other considerably lower; and on that
side there was a plain of open wood, after a rise of about twelve feet.
A few men had previously been sent over in small boats, and posted in
this wood. The cavalry passed in single files, the infantry by threes,
the bands playing “British Grenadiers,” and the “Downfall of Paris,”
... not knowing that at that time Paris had indeed fallen, and the
allied sovereigns were in possession of it. Unopposed as the passage
was, it had the appearance rather of some festival display, than of an
actual military operation; the people from the neighbouring villages
had by this time collected to behold it, ... with so little fear or
dislike were the allies regarded by the inhabitants; and when the horse
artillery crossed, the peasants volunteered their aid, and pulled the
guns up the bank with all possible alacrity.
The more concerned spectators were not without fear for the bridge;
it had been made fast by four stays to trees on either side, but the
strength of the current was such that it was soon forced into the shape
of a bow. Marshal Beresford passed with three divisions of infantry and
some cavalry; but when Freyre’s Spaniards and the light division should
have followed, the river had increased so much in height and strength,
that it was necessary to take up the platform. During the night, it
rose two feet; the rain had also recommenced; and on the morrow the
centre pontoon was removed, as a measure of precaution, and at length
the whole were taken up. The army was thus divided, the main body being
still on the left bank, and Soult, if he had thought proper, might
have attacked either flank; but he had suffered severely for such an
attempt in the battles before Bayonne, when he was more confident and
in greater strength.
♦TOULOUSE.♦
The extent of Toulouse is disproportionately large with respect to its
population, being in length from north to south about two miles, and a
mile and quarter in breadth from east to west; while the inhabitants
were computed at not more than 60,000. It has little commerce, though
most favourably situated for inland communication: but it flourished
as a provincial capital: formerly it was second only to Paris in size.
The houses, and even the cathedral, are built of brick, which is very
unusual in France: the latter edifice, therefore, though remarkable for
its magnitude, is neither beautiful nor grand; for a structure composed
of such mean materials can produce no impression of grandeur, unless it
be like the pyramids in size. That cathedral boasted of possessing the
bodies of no fewer than seven Apostles, one of them being a duplicate
of Santiago. The Dorade church derived its name from a gilt image of
Notre Dame, the reputed work of St. Luke, who is better known in Roman
Catholic countries as an artist in this line, or as a painter, than by
his Gospel. The Dominicans exhibited a less doubtful relic in their
church, the body of St. Thomas Aquinas, authenticated by himself in
ghostly person, and brought to that city, after numerous adventures,
with 10,000 lighted tapers, and 150,000 people in procession. Devout
or curious persons were formerly indulged by a sight of the head,
which had been fitted to a half-body of silver; upon opening a plate
at the top, the real skull was to be seen, and, under circumstances of
special favour, kissed by adoring lips. Few places in France afford
more subject for reflective thought. It was the capital of a great
Gothic kingdom, till the last of its kings was overthrown by Clovis.
The pulpit is still preserved there from which St. Bernard preached the
crusade. Poetry flourished there in those ages when it stood most in
need of patronage and culture; and the city, under its own Counts, was
then the seat of religious liberty as well as of literature. Its Floral
Games may still remind us of the Gay Science of the Troubadours; but
the freedom of opinion and the truths of religion for which Toulouse
made so heroic and so virtuous a stand were succeeded there, as in
the Catholic Netherlands, by that victorious bigotry of the deepest
die which eats into the soul; and, down to the revolution, a festival
was yearly observed there in commemoration of the destruction of the
Albigenses. That name must ever bring with it painful reflections to
an Englishman’s mind, when he remembers the history of a papal crusade
under an English leader: and, looking to much later times, never were
blind superstition and legal iniquity seen in such accursed combination
as here, in the case of Calas; never, in human history, was a judicial
murder accomplished with circumstances of such peculiar barbarity and
injustice, ... circumstances so monstrous, that they could not be
believed, if it were possible to deny or doubt them.
♦SOULT’S POSITION THERE.♦
Marshal Soult had retreated upon Toulouse less for the sake of the
abundant supplies which it afforded him, than because of the singular
advantages that its situation offered as a defensible position. The
canal of Brienne (so called after the Cardinal Archbishop of that
name), and which is broad enough for several barges to lie on it
abreast, connects the Garonne with the great canal of Languedoc about
two miles from the town, the navigation of the river being impeded
in that part of its course by a weir for the use of the corn-mills.
The whole western side is protected by the river; on the east and
north the canal covers it; and on the south, the only part which
was not covered by the river, could be approached only by roads
impassable for artillery, and was therefore so secure, that Soult,
who omitted no means of defence, deemed it wholly unnecessary to
erect any works on that side. There were formerly three bridges over
the Garonne: the single one which is left connects the city with the
Fauxbourg St. Cyprien; and the enemy had fortified that suburb with
strong field-works in front of the old walls. The walls were high,
thick enough for defence in old times, and flanked by towers. The
communication across the canal was covered by _têtes-de-pont_, defended
by various buildings which had now been fortified for that purpose,
and by artillery from the walls. East of the city is a range of bold
heights extending along the space between the canal and the river Ers;
over these heights all the roads from the eastward pass, and here
Marshal Soult had taken his position, having fortified the summit with
five redoubts, with various lines of intrenchment to support them, and
to connect the flanks of the ground with the defences of the town. The
left and centre being the points which he considered most assailable,
were thus strengthened; toward the right, where the line approached the
Ers, the river itself was sufficient defence. He flattered himself that
his determination to defend Toulouse had astounded Lord Wellington,
because four days elapsed after the passage of the river, and the
allies had undertaken nothing. But the bad weather, he said, might have
occasioned this delay; and expecting an attack, not without an ominous
feeling of its result, he wrote to Marshal Suchet, saying that, in case
of being compelled to retire, he should draw nearer to him, and that it
would be for the advantage of both, if Suchet would make a diversion by
the shortest line upon the Upper Garonne.
Formidable as this position was, it was necessary to attack the enemy
there; Lord Wellington had no alternative, the roads from Ariege
being impracticable for artillery, and even for horse. On the 8th the
stream had subsided enough for the pontoons to be again laid down;
the head-quarters then, and General Freyre with the Spanish corps and
the Portugueze artillery, crossed the Garonne, and immediately moved
forward to the neighbourhood of the town. Colonel Vivian, with the
18th hussars, had here an opportunity of attacking some cavalry, which,
though superior in number, they drove through the village of Croix
d’Aurade, taking about 100 prisoners, and pursuing them so closely,
that they had not time to destroy the bridge over the Ers, the only one
which had been left standing, and by which it was necessary to pass
in order to attack the position; Colonel Vivian was severely wounded
in this charge. That attack was designed for the following day; but
Sir Rowland’s corps was on the left of the Garonne, in front of the
suburb St. Cyprien; the pontoon bridge was too far off for that ready
communication which might be required during the action; orders were
therefore given for moving it a league higher up, near Ausonne. Some
unexpected difficulties occurred in laying it; it was not completed
till after mid-day, and the attack was, therefore, deferred till the
following morning, being Easter Sunday: long will that Easter be
remembered at Toulouse.
♦APRIL 10.
BATTLE OF TOULOUSE.♦
Lord Wellington’s arrangements were that Marshal Beresford, who was on
the right of the Ers with the 4th and 6th divisions, should cross that
river at the bridge of Croix d’Aurade, gain possession of the village
of Montblanc, and march up the left of the Ers to turn the enemy’s
right, while the Spaniards supported by the British cavalry should
attack their front. Sir Stapleton was to follow the Marshal’s movements
with Lord Edward Somerset’s brigade of hussars; and Vivian’s brigade,
now under Colonel Arentschild, was to observe the enemy’s cavalry on
both banks of the Ers, beyond the left of the allies. On the lower part
of the canal, Picton and Baron Alten, with the 3rd and light divisions,
and the brigade of German cavalry, were to threaten the _tête-de-pont_,
and so draw the enemy’s attention to that quarter; and Sir Rowland was
to do the same on the side of St. Cyprien.
The business of this dreadful day commenced about seven o’clock, when
Sir Thomas Picton drove in the French piquets in front of Pont Jumeau,
at the point where the Canal de Brienne joins that of Languedoc;
the action became warm here, and the enemy retiring, set fire to a
fine large chateau, in the cypress avenues of which they had sought
in vain to cover themselves. To the left of this division the light
division extended nearly to the road to Alby, by which road Freyre’s
army advanced, in two columns, and formed in front of Croix d’Aurade,
near a hill on which Lieutenant-Colonel Arentschild’s Portugueze
guns, protected by General Ponsonby’s brigade of cavalry, were
advantageously placed to cover their movements. Marshal Beresford,
with the 4th and 6th divisions, under Sir Lowry Cole and Sir Henry
Clinton, advanced also by the Alby road, turned off to their left at
Croix d’Aurade, toward the village of Montblanc, carried the village,
and proceeded up the left bank of the Ers, in three open columns,
along the foot of the heights, over difficult ground, which was much
intersected with deep ditches and hollow roads. Upon their march they
were exposed to a heavy cannonade from all the guns of the enemy’s
works; and those guns throughout the day were served with great spirit
and correctness, Toulouse having been an artillery school since the
Revolution. Beresford’s artillery was left at Montblanc because of the
badness of the roads; it was posted there on some low ground, in front
of the village, and kept up a fire upon the works on the heights of
Pujade. The Spaniards advanced in good order to assault these works,
which formed the left of the enemy’s position, and which Clausel and
Villatte occupied with their divisions, having a brigade of cavalry
in their front. They advanced across the valley with great bravery
under a most severe fire: a brigade of their own troops, and one of
British heavy dragoons, had been formed in reserve in the rear, and
Gardiner’s troop of artillery was brought up to their left to answer
the enemy’s. At first they drove before them a brigade of French, but
as they approached the intrenchment, a heavy fire of grape was poured
upon them with full effect, and to escape it they pushed forward with
inconsiderate speed, ... the nimblest outrunning their comrades, in
such disorder that before the first line arrived at a hollow road some
fifty yards in front of the intrenchment, it was completely broken.
The reserve, as if deterred rather than instructed by this error, fell
into the opposite fault, and came on so slowly as not to be near enough
for supporting them, when the French advanced against them vigorously,
and drove them down the hill, and in spite of the utmost exertions of
Freyre and the superior officers, were on the point of seizing the
bridge over the Ers, in which, if they had succeeded, Beresford’s
troops would have been isolated. But the 1st Portugueze _Caçadores_,
forming part of Baron Alten’s light division, moved opportunely to
their left, and advancing through the flying Spaniards, rallied them,
and caused the enemy to halt in their pursuit: a squadron of British
dragoons, who were still more in their rear, turned others, by striking
them with the flat side of their swords; and Lord Wellington himself,
the moment he saw them give way, galloped to the spot, and by his
personal exertions rallied about a company of them, near the cypress
trees on the Alby road. They suffered greatly in their flight, and the
consequences might have been worse if the enemy had followed up the
advantage with spirit. The great exertions of General Freyre, and of
the staff officers, Mendizabal and Barcena among others, formed them
again sooner than might have been expected after such a failure, and
they were again placed in position, from which they afterwards moved
to their left in support of the 6th division; but they were not again
brought into serious action.
This was not the only time at which the circumstances of the day turned
in favour of the enemy. Picton saw that a great advantage might be
gained at this moment by pushing across the canal, while the enemy were
engaged so far in front; and thinking to profit by the opportunity,
having driven them within their _tête-de-pont_ at Pont Jumeau, he
attempted, contrary to his instructions, to carry it. It was not till
the assailants were on the counterscarp that they discovered the
formidable nature of the works, which had been regularly formed, and
with the greatest possible care; an assault, indeed, was impracticable;
they were exposed to a heavy fire of musketry in front, and to a
numerous artillery in their flank, and nothing but a speedy retreat
could have saved them from destruction. Lieutenant-Colonel Forbes was
killed here, and Major-General Brisbane wounded.
Meantime Beresford was more successful. The 4th and 6th divisions moved
on till they came opposite to the points of attack assigned them; there
they halted, and formed in three lines. Sir Lowry advanced against
the extreme right of the enemy’s line, where General Leseur guarded
the heights of Montaudran with one brigade, having General Berton’s
cavalry in his front, on the road to Bordes: and Sir Henry moved up, in
front, to attack the redoubts on Mount Calvinet, which were occupied by
Harispe’s division, now considerably reinforced with the troops whom
the repulse of the Spaniards had rendered disposable for this service.
The face of the heights was irregular and steep, yet the 6th division
steadily ascended under a severe fire of artillery, to which at every
step they were exposed. A body of cavalry made many serious attacks on
their right flank when they had gained the summit: the 79th formed into
a square, received the charge, and totally routed them; and the troops
drove back everything that opposed them, carried with the bayonet the
principal redoubt on the right, and established themselves on the crest
of the position. Sir Lowry on his part, though menaced by Berton’s
cavalry on his left, and opposed by infantry in front, made his way
successfully up, and having driven the enemy from the heights beyond
the right of the intrenchment, took up ground on the left of Sir Henry
Clinton, just before noon.
Two divisions of the allies were thus formed on the heights; but their
artillery which had been left at Montblanc was not yet brought up,
and the enemy meantime moved in force toward the points which were
now threatened. The whole face of the hill is intersected with deep
hollow roads; and the soil is a stiff heavy clay, in which at this
time horses could with difficulty move out of a ♦PRÉCIS HISTORIQUE,
P. 2. P. 61.♦ walk: the French, therefore, had laid planks from one
of their works to another, on which their artillery could rapidly be
moved wherever it was most needed. During the interval which elapsed
before Beresford’s guns arrived, they had time to effect this removal
from their left, on the heights of Pujade, to those of Calvinet;
and General Taupin’s division was moved to the same point from the
Fauxbourg S. Cyprien, (where Reille commanded with Maransin under him)
when it was perceived that no serious attack was intended ♦IB. P. 47.♦
against that suburb. The roofs and steeples of Toulouse were at this
time covered with spectators, who, whatever their hopes and fears might
be for the issue of the battle, execrated Marshal Soult for bringing
the war thus to their own doors, and exposing a populous city to its
horrors. About one, Beresford was joined by his artillery; and the
4th and 6th divisions advanced steadily in line against the redoubts
on the heights of Calvinet. Soult thought he could overpower Sir
Henry’s division by a vigorous attack both in front and flank, before
Sir Lowry’s could come up to its support; with this view the French
pushed forward beyond their works to meet the assailants, Clausel and
Taupin against the front of the 6th division, Leseur’s brigade and
Berton’s cavalry against its flank. They could receive no support from
the fire of their intrenchments in this advance; it became, therefore,
a trial of courage; and the brave movement was as bravely met: Sir
Henry Clinton, instead of waiting to receive the attack, pushed forward
and met it with the bayonet; and his charge was a most determined
and successful one. General Taupin was killed. The French were not
only broken but routed; and General Pack’s brigade carried the two
principal redoubts and fortified houses in the enemy’s centre. They
made a desperate effort from the canal to recover these redoubts; and a
Scotch battalion, which was placed in the interior of one, was nearly
exhausted in defending it, when a brigade came in good time to their
assistance, charged the French, and drove them down the hill. The enemy
then formed their two routed divisions and General Rouget’s brigade in
a line from the heights of Pujade to Pont des Demoiselles, a bridge
over the canal on the Montaudran road; from thence they made a second
attempt in great force to recover that redoubt, which they looked upon
as the key of the position; and the English, seeing them approach,
planted their colours on the parapet in defiance. The French soldiers
never throughout the whole war displayed more courage, nor more of that
intelligence, which is their peculiar praise, than on this day; and in
no part of the action did they behave better than in this attack, where
they knew that they had support at hand, and, if need were, a sure
retreat. To that need they were driven by men who exceeded them in cool
and patient courage, a courage depending less upon excitement than upon
constitution; and after many and strenuous efforts they were finally
repulsed with great loss.
The victorious division continued its movement along the ridge; and
the Spaniards, brought into a serviceable position, though not into
action, made a corresponding movement upon the front. The enemy did not
wait to be assaulted in their remaining works: they withdrew from them
gradually, and removed their artillery by the hollow road across the
bridge over the canal. By four o’clock the action was at an end; and
the allies, having accomplished the object of the day, were with their
artillery formed on the hills, looking down on the city; the French
occupying in strength an intermediate rising ground. Sir Rowland on his
side had done all that was assigned him; he had driven the enemy from
their exterior works in the suburb, and made them retire within the
ancient wall. This had had the intended effect of distracting them, and
keeping one of their divisions employed.
The loss in this severe action was very great; that of the British
being in killed and wounded 2124, of the Portugueze 607, of the
Spaniards 1983, in all above 4700[9]. The brunt of the action fell on
the 6th division, which had 13 officers killed and 88 wounded. General
Pack was wounded, but remained in the field. Lieutenant-Colonel Coghlan
was killed; Mendizabal and Espalata wounded. The loss of the enemy
was not known; but from the circumstances of their position they are
believed to have suffered less than the allies: their dead lay in full
view of the city, and they asked leave on the following day to bury
them. General Lamorandiere was killed. Generals Harispe, Baurot, and
S. Hilaire were wounded and made prisoners. Only one gun was taken in
the position; the rest of the enemy withdrew in time. Soult’s force had
consisted of not less than 36,000 men, that of Lord Wellington’s was
numerically little greater.
♦SOULT RETIRES FROM TOULOUSE.♦
At night every post of the French was withdrawn within their intrenched
line behind the canal. The only remaining bridge over the Ers was in
possession of the allies, and the road from that over the Garonne was
guarded by Sir Rowland: Toulouse was thus closed on three sides, and
preparations were made for completing the investment. There was a want
of ammunition, so much had been expended in the action; the reserve
therefore was ordered up from Aire and Orthes; and shot were collected
from the field of battle, the men searching for them at a fixed price.
The inhabitants had now the miseries of a blockade before them, or the
fear of having their lines forced, and the city at the mercy of an
enemy’s army. Above all, they dreaded the rockets, which it was falsely
reported would be discharged against the town; but so far was Lord
Wellington from entertaining any such purpose, that though some heavy
guns were fired from the ramparts, not a shot was directed against the
city in return. It was said that Marshal Soult hesitated what part to
take; whether to hold Toulouse, in the likelihood of obtaining some
great advantage by bringing his forces out in a mass against any part
of a line widely extended, and occupied by a force little more numerous
than his own; or, retiring toward Carcassonne, to effect a junction
with Suchet. General d’Armagnac is said to have advised this course,
in consideration of the inhabitants, and they blessed him for it; for
Soult, whom they hated, and whom they openly accused of extortion and
rapacity, followed the advice: a considerable body of his troops left
the city on the night after the battle, leaving their wounded, 1600
in number, much of their artillery, and stores of all descriptions in
large quantities.
♦THE ALLIES ENTER.♦
The allies entered Toulouse not as conquerors, but as friends and
deliverers, amid cries of “_Vivent les Anglois!_” “_Vive le Roi!_”
“_Vivent nos liberateurs!_” It was known officially at this time that
the allied armies were in possession of Paris; and, though it was
uncertain what measures might be taken with respect to the government
of France, the wishes of the people were loudly declared, and the white
flag hoisted. That same evening Colonel Cooke arrived from Paris to
inform Lord Wellington that the allied Sovereigns had declared they
would enter into no fresh negotiations with Buonaparte, because of his
bad faith; that the Senate had passed resolutions declaring he had
forfeited all right to the crown, and absolving the soldiers and the
nation from their oaths of allegiance; finally, that he had submitted
to their decree, and was permitted to retire to Elba, with the
independent sovereignty of that island. Colonel St. Simon accompanied
the British officer, charged with the same communication from the
Provisional Government to Marshals Soult and Suchet. It was in the
theatre that this news was published, for the theatre was not closed
that night: the dead were lying all around the walls; the hospitals
and many of the houses were filled with wounded, all of whom were not
yet brought in: the inhabitants themselves had been, by the mercy of
Providence, spared from the horrors of an assault, of a blockade which
would speedily have caused famine, and from the evils of fire and
sword which they had apprehended; and it was the theatre at Toulouse
that was opened, not the churches!... But the play was altered, and
Richard Cœur de Lion was represented, for the sake of its applicable
passages and songs. Nothing could exceed the cheering at these
passages, except the bursts of applause with which Lord Wellington was
received and greeted whenever he moved: only those who know the French
character, said one who was present, could imagine the excessive joy
of the people; they shouted and wept, and shouted again. In the midst
of this exultation, an unusual tumult announced something new; and a
person in black, attended by many candles, and having a paper in his
hand, appeared in one of the side boxes, struggling for room, and
endeavouring to obtain a hearing. Many minutes elapsed before even the
eagerness of their own expectation could still that vociferous audience
sufficiently for the magistrate to make himself heard; ♦LOUIS XVIII.
PROCLAIMED.♦ nor was anything then audible except that he announced the
abdication of Buonaparte, and the proclamation of Louis XVIII.
Here it might have been hoped that the bloody account ♦SALLY OF THE
FRENCH FROM BAYONNE.♦ of this long war had closed; even this last
bloodshed might have been spared if, through some great treachery or
inexcusable neglect, there had not been either delay in sending off
tidings of the cessation of hostilities, or in impeding them upon the
road; for the courier, who was dispatched on the first of the month,
ought to have arrived a week before the battle; indeed suspicions
were expressed in the Moniteur that orders and dispatches had been
intercepted, with the view of giving Marshal Soult an opportunity
of retrieving the reputation of the French armies by fighting in a
position which he thought inexpugnable. Colonels Cooke and S. Simon
had passed through Bourdeaux, and advice was dispatched from thence
to Sir John Hope before Bayonne, while they proceeded to Toulouse. As
this advice was not official, Sir John did not think proper to notify
it officially to General Thouvenot, till he should receive orders from
Lord Wellington; but he caused it to be communicated to the French
officers at their advanced piquets, in the hope and expectation that it
might prevent any hostilities in the mean time. The intimation seems to
have produced a very different effect. On the night of the 13th, two
deserters came from the town, and gave information that the garrison
were to make a sortie in great strength early on the morrow. The first
division, upon this, was ordered to ♦APRIL 14.♦ arms at three in the
morning; and in a few minutes afterward a feint attack was made upon
the outposts in front of Anglet. But it soon appeared that the chief
effort would be on the right of the Adour. Parties from the citadel
crept up the hill on which the piquets were stationed, took them almost
by surprise, and instantly two columns rushed forward with loud cheers,
and by their numbers broke through the line of piquets between St.
Etienne and St. Bernard; another strong column advancing at the same
time against the former village. The line of outposts through this
village, and along the heights towards Boucaut, was marked by a road
worn in some places to a deep hollow way, and in others bounded by high
garden-walls, so that it was not easy to get out of it, except where
gaps at long intervals had been broken down for the passage of the
troops. The piquets, therefore, were cut off from their supports; and,
fighting with desperate animosity on both sides, heaps of slain were
found here, both French and English, mostly killed with the bayonet.
Sir John Hope, hastening with his staff, in the early part of the
attack, to St. Etienne, entered this road, as the shortest way, not
aware that great part of it was in the enemy’s possession, and that the
piquets of the right flank had fallen back when the line of outposts
had been pierced. As soon as he discovered this, he endeavoured to
retire; but having been in front himself, with his aide-de-camp,
Lieutenant Moore, and Captain Herries of the Quarter-Master-General’s
department, they were consequently the last in retiring; and before
they could get out of this hollow way, the French came up within a few
yards, and began firing. Sir John’s horse was struck with three balls,
and falling dead, brought his rider to the ground. Captain Herries and
Lieutenant ♦SIR J. HOPE TAKEN PRISONER.♦ Moore dismounted to assist
him, for his foot was under the dead horse; but the first of these
officers was instantly brought down himself severely wounded, and the
latter had his right arm shattered; the General was also wounded in
the arm; and the French coming immediately up, made them all three
prisoners. As they were carrying them to Bayonne, Sir John received a
second and severe wound in the foot, from a ball which was supposed
to come from his own piquets. Major-General Hay was in command of
the outposts for the night; and having just given directions that
the church of St. Etienne should be defended till the last, he was
killed shortly after the attack commenced. The enemy, having here a
great superiority of numbers, got into the village towards the left,
and obtained possession of the whole, except one house, which Captain
Foster of the 38th occupied with a piquet, and bravely maintained,
though the greater part of his men were killed or wounded, till a
brigade of the German Legion retook the village.
It had been supposed that the French would make it their main object
to destroy the bridge, which would have been the only reasonable
or justifiable object of such a sortie in that state of the siege,
when neither stores nor artillery were on the ground, nor the works
commenced. To guard against this, Lord Saltoun had intrenched the
convent of St. Bernard, and with great ability converted it into a
respectable little fortress; and Colonel Maitland now formed the first
brigade of Guards on the heights above it, to charge the enemy in
flank, should he advance toward the bridge. But, though their gun-boats
came down the river, and opened a heavy flanking cannonade, no attempt
was made on the bridge by water; and it was soon perceived that they
had as little intention of attacking it by land, their efforts being
wholly directed against the centre of the countervallation opposite
to the citadel. Major-General Howard now directed Maitland to support
the right flank, and Major-General Stopford, with the 2nd brigade of
guards, to co-operate in recovering the ground between that flank and
St. Etienne; that officer was soon after wounded, and the command of
the brigade fell to General Guise.
♦THE FRENCH REPULSED.♦
The night was very dark; but the French from time to time sent up blue
lights from the citadel, obtaining light enough thereby to direct
their guns, of which nearly 70 were constantly firing to support their
attack. Some of their shells and fire-balls fell upon the depôt of
fascines, and several houses also were set on fire by the same means.
These partial illuminations made the darkness deeper in those places
to which the light did not extend; and the guards when they approached
the French line could distinguish it only by the fire of musketry
from behind the hedges and walls. They were directed to lie down and
wait till orders could be communicated to the Coldstream guards,
under Lieutenant-Colonel Woodford, who were to charge simultaneously
for recovering the old position in the hollow road. Meanwhile they
kept close to the ground, for the eminence on which they were was
so exposed to the citadel, that had they stood up for a few minutes
they must have been nearly destroyed: but when the signal was given
they rose and rushed forward; the Coldstream charged on the opposite
flank at the same moment, and the contest on this part of the line was
decided by this well-combined attack: the French ran with all speed
lest their retreat should be intercepted; and they suffered from a
most destructive fire which both battalions poured upon them as they
retired over the glacis of the citadel. When also they were driven out
of St. Etienne by the German Legion, a field-piece was brought to bear
on their columns, and thirteen rounds of grape and canister were fired
at them with dreadful effect as they retreated down the great road
into St. Esprit. The moon rose toward the close of the action; and, as
day broke, French and English were seen lying on all sides, killed or
wounded, and so intermixed, that there seemed to have been no distinct
line belonging to either party. The loss was severe on both sides:
on the part of the allies 143 were killed, 452 wounded, and 231 made
prisoners; the loss of the French amounted to 913, of whom only twenty
were prisoners.
During the short truce which took place on the outposts when the
engagement was over, the British officers expressed their regret that
so many brave men should thus uselessly have been sacrificed; and they
were justly disgusted at the heartless levity with which the French
officers affected to treat the affair, saying it had been nothing
more than a _petite promenade militaire!_ Under all circumstances it
seemed indeed to have been planned less in a military spirit than
with a feeling of bitter enmity; made as it was when the French had
reason to know that the war was at an end, ... and when, if it had
been otherwise, no object but that of the immediate slaughter could
be effected, there being no works to be destroyed, no cannon to be
spiked; and when whatever ♦BATTY’S CAMPAIGN, 158, 165.♦ loss might have
been inflicted could not have been so great as to prevent or delay the
operations of the siege. Major-General Colville, on whom the command
devolved, landed his guns, and made preparations upon a scale which, if
hostilities had been renewed, would, in all human probability, in the
course of a very few weeks have added Bayonne to the British conquests.
But no new conquest, no farther victories were needed for the honour of
the British name. The reputation of the English soldiers had not been
higher in the days of the Black Prince, nor that of a British commander
in the days of Marlborough.
♦SUCHET AND SOULT ACKNOWLEDGE THE NEW GOVERNMENT.♦
Colonels Cooke and S. Simon made no tarriance in Toulouse, but
hastened on to inform Marshal Soult of Buonaparte’s deposition, and
the consequent termination of the war. The Marshal discovered no
willingness to acquiesce in the new order of things; the information,
he said, came to him without any character of authenticity,
nevertheless, inasmuch as Lord Wellington seemed persuaded of its
truth, he proposed an armistice, that he might have time to receive
from the Emperor’s government official advices, which might direct
him how to act. When Colonel Cooke returned to Toulouse with this
reply, Lord Wellington dispatched a second letter to Marshal Soult,
saying, it appeared to him that Colonel Simon had been sent to the
French Marshal by the Provisional Government of France, just as Colonel
Cooke had been to him by the British minister who was with the King of
Prussia, both bearers of official intelligence; nor could the truth
of that intelligence be doubted, nor did it require proof. Without
requiring his Excellency to come to a decision, whatever that might
be, he himself, he added, must not depart from the line of conduct
which the allied sovereigns had pursued in their negotiations at Paris;
but were he to consent to an armistice before his Excellency should
have followed the example of his companions in arms, and declared
his adhesion to the Provisional Government, he should be sacrificing
the interest not only of the allies, but of France itself, whom it
concerned so much to be saved from a civil war. Meantime Colonel S.
Simon proceeded to Marshal Suchet, whom he found at Narbonne with
about 12,000 men, all whom he could bring out of Spain. His last act
in Catalonia had been to demolish the fortifications of Rosas; Denia
and Morella had capitulated; he left garrisons blockaded in Figueras,
Hostalric, Barcelona, Tortosa, Murviedro, and Peñiscola, in which
latter place the governor with his staff, and many others, perished
by the explosion of a magazine. Marshal Suchet was far from approving
the latter movements of Marshal Soult, and from his own dispatches had
been led to believe that he could surely have maintained himself at
Toulouse. Upon Colonel S. Simon’s arrival, he assembled his superior
officers, laid the information before them, and with their unanimous
consent sent in the adhesion of the army of Aragon and Catalonia. Soult
had now no choice; the allies were moving against ♦APRIL 19.♦ him
ready to have acted if he had hesitated longer; yielding an unwilling
consent, he then acknowledged the Provisional Government, and a
convention for the suspension of hostilities was arranged.
Thus was the war concluded, happily for all parties, even for
the French, whom nothing but such a series of defeats could have
delivered from the tyranny which their former victories had brought
upon themselves. It was by the national spirit which had first shown
itself in the Peninsula, by the persevering efforts of Great Britain
in the peninsular war, the courage of her troops, and the skill of
her great commander, that Buonaparte’s fortune had been checked at
its height, and successfully resisted, till other governments were
encouraged, and other nations roused by the example; and that power,
the most formidable which had ever been known in the civilized world,
was then beaten down. The independence of Spain and Portugal had been
triumphantly vindicated and secured; and if the civil liberties of
both countries were not restored, and firmly established upon a sure
foundation, the cause is to be found, not in any foreign influence
exercised ill, nor in the perverse disposition, nor malignant designs
of any individual or set of men, but in old evils which time had
rendered inveterate, for which there is no sudden cure, and which when
it is attempted to remove them by the knife and the cautery, must ever
be rendered worse.
♦DISPOSITION OF FERDINAND ON HIS RETURN.♦
Ferdinand had returned from captivity with the belief in which he had
been trained up, that by right of birth, and by the laws and customs of
his country, he was an absolute King; and in this the great majority
of the nation entirely agreed with him. But he had been accustomed
to yield to circumstances which he could not control, feeling in
himself neither the wish nor the strength to struggle against them;
and had the general opinion been in favour of the new constitution, he
would have submitted to it, as he had to his detention at Valençay,
if with no better will, with the same apparent contentment, and the
same convenient insensibility. Certain it is that he had no intention
of overthrowing it when he arrived at Zaragoza:... “there are many
parts of it,” said he, “which I do not approve; but if any opposition
on my part were likely to cause the shedding of one drop of Spanish
blood, I would swear to it immediately.” He soon found that this was
not the national wish; that the people cared for the constitution as
little as they understood it, that they execrated the _Liberales_,
and hated the Cortes for their ♦IMPOLITIC MEASURES OF THE CORTES.♦
sake. That assembly, indeed, had acted toward all classes with such
strange impolicy as to offend or injure all. The nobles, though the
constitution gave them not that weight in the political scale, without
which there can be no well-balanced monarchy, might nevertheless have
submitted to it without repugnance, because they possessed no authority
as an order under the old government: but their property had been
attacked; and a sweeping decree had abolished those feudal rights and
customs from which a large portion of their hereditary revenues was
derived. The clergy might have acquiesced in the suppression of the
Inquisition, if they had not been required to proclaim the triumph
of the _Liberales_, ... a triumph whereby nothing was gained for
toleration, death being still the punishment for any one who should
dare dissent from the Roman Catholic faith. The monasteries might have
been quietly reduced, as Pombal had begun to reduce them, without wrong
to the existing communities, and without offence to the feelings or
prejudices of the nation, simply by forbidding the admittance of new
members: by suppressing them the Cortes not only made the monks and
friars their enemies, but the people also, among whom the revenues
of the former were expended, and over whom the latter exercised far
greater influence than either the gospel or the laws. This measure,
indeed, would have been impolitic, even if the whole expected profit
to the treasury had accrued from it; but as a measure of finance it
was worse than a failure. Purchasers could not be found for church
property thus confiscated, in a country where the people revolted at
this species of sacrilege; the estates, therefore, were administered
for the government; and what with the excuses and opportunities which
were afforded for mal-administration and peculation, it was generally
found that the costs of management consumed the whole proceeds;
whereas a regular impost might always have been levied upon the former
possessors. The necessity of raising money to support the war was the
plea for this suppression; yet the pay of the armies was always greatly
in arrear; and it has been seen how much they suffered for want of
proper clothing and of sufficient food: such evils are always imputed
to the government under which they exist; and as the Cortes had, in
fact, assumed the government, the Cortes were as unpopular with the
soldiers as with the great body of the people. Nothing but the army
could support them if the King should refuse to take upon himself the
yoke which they had prepared for him; yet such was the infatuation of
the _Liberales_, that one of their most influential members said the
liberties of the country could never be safe if there were even four
paid soldiers and a corporal in it; and another described the army as
composed of privileged mercenaries and hired assassins.
Yet this party courted popularity; and while they declaimed in the
hall of the Cortes fancied that they enjoyed it. The galleries were
filled with their admirers; and they had active partizans who could at
any time raise tumult enough out of doors to carry violent measures
by intimidation. The _Serviles_, as they contemptuously called those
who disapproved the new constitution, either wholly or in any of its
parts, were kept silent, some by prudence, others by this system of
terror. ♦FEB. 3.♦ One deputy ventured to say that Ferdinand, as soon as
he arrived, ought to be acknowledged as being born to all the rights
and privileges of an absolute King, and that the constitution ought
therefore to be annulled. The indignation of the _Liberales_ burst
forth at this, and of the galleries also, for the persons who attended
there had always a potential voice; the president thought it prudent
to close the doors, lest the liberal mob should be brought in to take
summary vengeance upon the indiscreet member: a vote for expelling him
was passed, and orders given for commencing a process against him,
upon a law passed in the preceding ♦AUG. 18, 1813.♦ summer, by which
any person who should affirm, either by word of mouth or by writing,
that the constitution ought not to be observed, was to be punished
with perpetual banishment, and the deprivation of all offices, pay,
and honours. Another law had been passed, on the same day, declaring,
that whoever should conspire to establish any other religion in Spain
than the Catholic-Apostolic-Roman religion, or to make the Spanish
nation cease to profess it, should be prosecuted as a traitor, and
suffer death, the established law concerning offences against the
faith remaining in full force. It was only by thus consenting to the
persecution of religious opinions that the _Liberales_ could make the
_Serviles_ concur in a law which gave them authority to persecute for
political ones!
“Happy,” said a journalist who spoke the sentiments of the ruling
party, “happy will be the day when Ferdinand, having been restored to
his faithful subjects, may be thus addressed: Here is your throne,
preserved by the loyalty of your subjects; here is your crown,
repurchased for you by the blood of Spaniards; here is your sceptre,
which Spanish constancy replaces in your hands; here is your royal
robe, purpled with the blood of thousands who have fallen that you
might wear it! Peruse our history; inform yourself of all that the
Spaniards have done for you, and never forget that to the Spanish
people you owe everything. Never forget that you are come to be the
chief of a nation, the monarch of subjects who have abolished the
vestiges of despotism! It is the law which orders; ... the King is the
executive magistrate.... But, that such a day of jubilee may arrive,
King Ferdinand must return absolutely free, neither influenced by the
tyrant of France, nor by Spaniards who are ignorant of the state of
Spain, or who regard our institutions with dislike.” This was written
before the overthrow of Buonaparte, and before Ferdinand’s enlargement,
and perhaps before the _Liberales_ themselves apprehended the
consequence in which their own rashness must inevitably involve them.
Indifferent spectators saw clearly that either the constitution must
be modified, or that the King would make himself absolute again: and
even now, if the _Liberales_ had not been possessed with an overweening
opinion of their own strength, such a modification might have been
effected as would have given the Spaniards all the liberty which they
were willing to receive, and, indeed, all the political freedom which
those who had the sincerest wish for their improvement and their
prosperity could have desired for them. But when the last communication
from Valençay was read in the Cortes, conciliatory as it was intended
to be, and satisfactory as it ought to have been deemed, one member
took a sudden exception to the word _subjects_: “We are not subjects!”
he exclaimed. And another member, expressing his assent to the absurd
exception, said, that the Spanish people were subjects of the law
alone; but that the use of a word which he erroneously represented
as being peculiar to the ancient despotism was accounted for by
Ferdinand’s long imprisonment, and his consequent ignorance of the new
political phraseology of Spain! Meantime the most preposterous projects
were started by those who saw that such language and such opinions were
likely to occasion a struggle, and who saw no farther. Some were for
assembling an army to defend the Cortes against the King; others were
for setting him aside, and appointing his brother, the Infante Don
Carlos, to reign in his stead: and it is said that there was a party in
the Cortes who dreamed of offering the crown to Lord Wellington!
Some of the Guerrilla chiefs are said at this time to have tendered
their services to the Cortes; and this is rendered probable by their
subsequent conduct. The Cortes is supposed to have reckoned, also,
upon Lacy’s attachment to the constitution; but the enthusiasm with
which Ferdinand was received by the troops might have shown them how
little they could expect from any declarations of the military in their
favour. When it was expected that he would proceed from Barcelona to
Valencia, Elio, with the double purpose of rendering most honour to the
King and affording most gratification to the soldiers, proposed a truce
to General Robert, in order that the troops employed in the blockade
of Tortosa might join ♦APRIL.♦ their comrades, who were assembled at
Amposta, to receive him on his way. When Ferdinand apprized them that
he had changed his route, he assigned as a reason his desire of viewing
the ruins of Zaragoza, and showing a mark of respect to that faithful
city. But the season of festivity at Valencia was rather prolonged
than retarded by this deviation; for the Infante Don Antonio proceeded
immediately thither, and his arrival kept the inhabitants in a jubilant
state till the King himself arrived. Ferdinand may have intended to
gain time by this delay for making himself acquainted with the real
state of public opinion; but the visit was probably suggested by
Palafox, without any such view: he knew that it would be creditable to
the King’s feelings, and honourable to the Zaragozans; and what could
be so gratifying to himself as to return under such circumstances to
Zaragoza, where, with a devoted heroism which had never been surpassed,
he had performed his duty to the uttermost, and won for himself a
glorious name not to be stained by calumny, and not to be obscured by
lapse of ages, while any remembrance of these times shall endure.
♦CARDINAL BOURBON’S RECEPTION BY FERDINAND.♦
After tarrying some twelve days at Zaragoza, Ferdinand set out for
Valencia. On the way he was met by his uncle, Cardinal Bourbon, whom,
as President of the Regency, the Cortes had sent to meet the King,
but with a strict injunction that he was not to kiss the King’s hand,
because they deemed any such mark of homage inconsistent with their
dignity. Ferdinand had been apprized of this; and, as a first and easy
trial of his strength, when the Cardinal accosted him, he presented his
hand, and commanded him to kiss it. The old prelate, who had weakly
promised to obey the orders of the Cortes, which in his heart he
disapproved, obeyed the King with better will than grace, after he had
shown a wish to avoid the ceremony; but Ferdinand, having thus humbled
him, turned his back upon him in displeasure, and presently deprived
him of his archbishopric.
The objection to the word subjects might have been imputed to the
folly of the individuals who started and supported it; ... but this
refusal of a ceremony which was as old as the monarchy itself, was
the act of the Cortes as a body, and might well be considered as one
more proof that they, who had so preposterously assumed the title of
Majesty for themselves, were resolved to leave the sovereign little
but his bare title. But Ferdinand had seen the disposition of the
people at Zaragoza; he had seen that all classes heartily united in
reprobating the measures of the Cortes, and that the re-establishment
of the Inquisition was one of the blessings which they expected from
his return The disposition of the ♦ELIO MEETS THE KING. APRIL 15.♦
army was distinctly declared by Elio, who met him at Jaquesa, on the
frontiers of Aragon and Valencia, and addressed him in the name of
the second army, that army, he said, which had shed most blood, and
made most sacrifices for the deliverance of their country and their
King. “Your Majesty,” said he, “arrived in a happy hour to occupy the
throne of your fathers; and the God of Hosts, who by such strange and
wonderful ways has brought your Majesty hither to restore the monarchy
of the Spains, which Nature has given you, may He give you all the
strength of mind and body that are required for governing it worthily:
then, Sire, you will not forget the armies which have deserved so well,
those armies who, having moistened with their blood the land which they
have delivered, find themselves at this day in want, neglected, and
what is worse, outraged; but they trust that you, Sire, will do them
justice!” Elio then offered to resign his General’s staff; and upon
Ferdinand’s declining to receive it, and saying it was well placed in
his hand, the General, with ready adulation, said, “Take it, Sire, ...
let your Majesty grasp it but for a moment, and in that moment it will
acquire new worth, new strength!” The King took the staff accordingly,
and instantly returned it. Elio then requested permission to kiss his
royal hand, and in a short but studied speech, which concluded this
ominous scene, he pledged himself that 40,000 strong right arms should
be as they had been in the worst of times, the support of his throne.
♦FERDINAND ENTERS VALENCIA.♦
Ferdinand entered Valencia on the following evening, drawn into the
city as he had been into every place upon the road by the joyous people
who yoked themselves to his carriage, and who testified by every
possible expression of word and deed their desire of taking the old
yoke upon themselves and upon their children. An English traveller, who
had the good fortune to be present on this memorable day, describes
their enthusiasm as bordering upon madness; he had seen before the
King’s deliverance the extreme unpopularity of the Cortes throughout
Spain, but the feeling which was now manifested surprised him by its
intensity and its eagerness, and by the sudden conversion of those who
but a few days before professed fidelity to the new constitution; those
very persons were now ready to shed their blood in Ferdinand’s cause,
that he might be restored, they said, to the full enjoyment of all the
rights which his fathers had possessed. “Long live the Absolute King!”
was the cry, “and down with the Constitution!”
♦APRIL 17.♦
On the morrow the King went on foot to the cathedral, to be present at
a thanksgiving service for his restoration. The streets were lined with
soldiers; the colours of the crown regiment were lowered as he passed,
so as to be spread before him, that he might see they were stained with
blood; and Elio, who had prepared this scene, said, “I have detained
you for a sight worthy of you! The stains which you see upon this
flag are of the blood of the officer who now holds it, and who, when
covered with wounds, saved it from the enemy at Castalla. The crown
which this blood has dyed seems to say that the blood which the loyal
Spanish army has shed is that which has recovered for you your crown;
and the blood which remains in all the Spanish armies they are ready to
shed for securing you upon the throne in the plenitude of those rights
which Nature has made your portion!” Ferdinand could not have performed
his part better at that moment if he had studied it; he stooped and
kissed the flag, and announced to the standard-bearer, who had before
received no promotion for his services, that he was now promoted. In
the afternoon, after the officers had been presented and had kissed
hands, Elio, in their name and presence, renewed for the army under his
command the oath which the whole loyal Spanish nation had taken in the
year 1808, when Ferdinand was acknowledged King: the constitution was
not mentioned in his address, nor the Cortes; “this oath,” said he,
“they renew by me as their organ upon your royal hand (and he knelt
and kissed the hand at this part of his speech), and they promise your
Majesty that at the price of their blood they will preserve the throne
for you with all those rights to which the heroic Spanish ♦THE OFFICERS
SWEAR FIDELITY TO HIM.♦ nation at that time swore.” Turning then to the
officers, he asked whether these were the sentiments which animated
them? He was answered by a general acclamation of assent: many of them
burst into tears in the strength of their emotion, and some cries were
heard of death to those who did not hold such sentiments, and would not
maintain them! The time came when General Elio paid with his own life’s
blood for this and other services to the absolute cause.
He was indeed an evil counsellor now, acting honestly and bravely,
but upon an erring judgment. Unhappily there never was a time in
which wise counsel was more needed; for if the blind, unreflecting,
generous loyalty of the nation had been rightly estimated, so as to
call forth a generous but thoughtful feeling in return, it would be
rash and presumptuous to say that things might have been settled upon
a sure foundation, but certainly much evil might have been averted,
much wickedness might have been prevented, and blood, and tears, and
misery, might have been spared. General Whittingham, who commanded the
cavalry and artillery in Aragon when the King arrived at Zaragoza, and
who accompanied him by his express orders to Valencia, was ♦GENERAL
WHITTINGHAM’S ADVICE.♦ asked in that city his opinion whether the
King should swear to the constitution or not? He replied, that the
constitution was too democratic to be in accord either with the habits
and opinions of the Spanish people, or with the laws and customs of
the Spanish monarchy; it must be modified therefore in many parts, or
there could be no hope of its duration. Yet one of its articles forbade
the slightest alteration during the space of eight years; and thus the
King, if he swore to it, must either deprive himself of all possibility
of amending it during that time, or be guilty of predetermined perjury.
He delivered it therefore as his opinion, that the King under these
circumstances could not swear to the constitution as it then existed;
but, he added, that the Cortes had deserved well both of the King and
of the country; that the King, unaccompanied by a single soldier,
should in person dissolve the Cortes, should thank them for the service
they had rendered the state, and say that it would gratify him to see
them re-elected by their constituents as members of the Cortes which he
was about to summon.
The British ambassador, Sir Henry Wellesley, had gone to Valencia to
meet the King, and the advice which he gave was to the same effect,
that he should modify the constitution, but not annul it. This indeed
was the opinion which any Englishman who regarded the situation of
Spain with a sincere wish for the peace and prosperity and improvement
of a great and noble nation would then have formed; for this was the
straightforward course which at that golden opportunity it behoved
the King to take. But there were few Spaniards who saw this, few
who were in a state of sufficient equanimity to see it: inflamed by
strong passions, or settled in strong prepossessions which no force
of reason, no lessons of experience could shake, a small minority
were bent upon violent change, a much more powerful and now more
active party were resolved to resist all alteration, even such as was
most needed; while the great majority of the people, looking back
upon the tranquillity they had enjoyed before the war as to a golden
age, desired nothing but to return to their old habits and their old
pursuits, and relapse into their former state of happy indifference to
all political affairs. The care of the nation they were for leaving to
the government, the care of religion to the Holy Office, and the care
of their individual consciences to the priest, as implicitly as they
relied on Providence for the due return of the seasons; and it was with
these, who were the great body of his subjects, that Ferdinand, who
would have been just such a subject himself, was in perfect sympathy.
It is often seen that circumstances awaken dormant genius, and bring
latent qualities into strong action: but no circumstances can raise an
ordinary man to the level of extraordinary times, no circumstances can
give strength to a weak mind; nor can anything but the special grace of
God call forth in the heart a virtue which is not innate in it.
The Cortes at this time repeated their solicitations that the King
would proceed to Madrid, and establish the happiness of Spain; but they
made a show of military preparations to support their own authority;
and they took upon themselves, with singular indiscretion, to regulate
the establishment of his household. But every day ♦MEMORIAL OF THE
SERVILES.♦ now diminished their numbers as well as their strength;
and more than seventy of the members sent a deputation to Valencia to
present a memorial, in which they protested against the measures of the
Cortes as having been carried by force and intimidation, and professed
for themselves, and for the provinces which they represented, fidelity
to their ancient laws and institutions. Beyond all doubt they spoke
the sense of ♦STONE OF THE CONSTITUTION REMOVED.♦ the provinces. In
most of the large towns, the _Plaza Mayor_, or Great Square, had been
new named _Plaza de la Constitucion_, and a stone with these words
engraven on it erected there; at Valencia this was removed one night,
and in the morning what is absurdly called a provisional stone of wood,
was set up in its place, with the words _Real Plaza de Fernando VII._:
this was publicly done; and the provisional stone was first borne under
Ferdinand’s window with military honours, in a long procession formed
by the populace, with officers intermixed, carrying drawn swords, and
bearing the royal flag. A stanza, composed[10] and printed for the
occasion, was soon affixed to it, denouncing, in a ferocious spirit,
vengeance upon any one who should profane it, and upon the liberal
party.
The news of Buonaparte’s deposition, and the consequent termination
of hostilities, reached Ferdinand during his tarriance at Valencia.
Any perplexity which he might have felt (if he could be supposed to
have felt any) concerning the treaty of Valençay was thus removed,
and there was nothing to withdraw his attention from the immediate
object of resuming his absolute authority, and suppressing what he now
regarded as a mere revolutionary faction. He was delayed a week by
indisposition, which confined him to his apartment. The first thing
he did, when he was sufficiently recovered to leave the house, was
to visit all the nunneries, that the nuns might not be disappointed
in their ardent desire of seeing him; and in these visits part of
two days was employed much to the increase of his popularity, this
being at the same time an evidence, it was thought, of good-nature,
and of devout respect to the superstition of the country. When ♦BREVE
RELACION DE LOS SUCESOS EN VALENCIA.♦ these visits were concluded, he
attended an evening _Te Deum_ in the cathedral, performed by the light
of 20,000 tapers; after which he and the Infantes adored a chalice of
legendary reputation which is venerated there. Hitherto there had been
no avowal of the course which he intended to pursue; but on this day a
declaration appeared, signed ♦FERDINAND’S DECLARATION. MAY 4.♦ by the
King and by Macanaz, as Secretary of State, with special powers for
this peculiar occasion. In this memorable paper, Ferdinand, speaking
in his own person, began by briefly touching upon his accession to
the throne, and his imprisonment, at the commencement of which he had
issued, he said, as well as he could, while surrounded by force, a
decree addressed to the Council of Castille, or, in defect of it, to
any other chancellery or audience that might be at liberty, requiring
them to convoke a Cortes which should employ itself solely on the
immediate business of taking measures and raising supplies for the
defence of the kingdom, and remain permanent for other emergencies.
This decree had arrived too late; and when the Cortes of 1810 was
assembled, the states of the nobility and clergy were not summoned
to it, although the Central Junta had so directed; and the members,
after taking the oaths, “whereby,” said he, “they bound themselves
to preserve to me, as their sovereign, all my dominions, on the
very day of their installation, and for a commencement of their
proceedings, despoiled me of the sovereignty which they had just before
acknowledged, attributing it nominally to the nation, for the purpose
of appropriating it to themselves, and then dictating what laws they
pleased. Thus, without authority from province, place, or junta, and
without the knowledge of those which were said to be represented by
substitute members, they imposed upon the nation the yoke of a new
constitution, wherein almost the whole form of the old constitution
of the monarchy was changed; and, copying the revolutionary and
democratical principles of the French constitution of 1791, they
sanctioned ... not the fundamental laws of a moderate monarchy, ... but
those of a popular government, with a chief or magistrate, their mere
delegated executor, and not a King, although they gave him that name to
deceive and seduce the unwary. They carried these laws by means of the
threats and violence of those persons with whom the galleries of the
Cortes were filled; giving thus the colour of the general will to what
was in fact only the work of a faction. With the same want of liberty,
the constitution was signed and sworn to; and it was notorious to all
what had been the treatment of the respectable Bishop of Orense, and
the punishment with which others had been threatened who refused to
sign and swear to it.”
He proceeded then to say in what manner revolutionary principles had
been diffused in journals, some of which were edited by members of the
Cortes; that king, and tyrant, and despot had been used as synonymous
terms; that the army and navy and other establishments which used
to be called royal, had been re-named national, in order to flatter
the people, who, nevertheless, in spite of these arts, retained by
their native loyalty the good feelings which always formed their
character. “Of all this,” he continued, “since I happily re-entered the
kingdom, I have been acquiring faithful information, partly by my own
observation, and partly from the public papers, in which, up to this
day, representations of my coming and of my character are circulated,
so false and infamous in themselves, that even with regard to any other
individual they would be heavy offences, worthy of severe exposure and
punishment. Such unexpected circumstances have filled my heart with
bitterness, which has only been tempered by demonstrations of affection
from all those who hoped for my arrival, that my presence might put an
end to these evils, and to the oppression in which those were held who
preserved the remembrance of my person, and desired the true happiness
of their country. True and loyal Spaniards, I promise and vow to you
that you shall not be deceived in your noble hopes! Your sovereign
wishes to be so for your sake; and in this he places his glory, ... in
being the sovereign of an heroic nation, who by immortal deeds have
gained the admiration of all, and preserved their liberty and their
honour. I abhor and detest despotism: the intelligence and cultivation
of the nations of Europe do not suffer it now; neither in Spain have
its Kings ever been despots, nor have its good laws and constitution
authorized it, though by misfortune there may have been from time to
time there, as every where, and in every thing human, abuses which no
possible constitution can entirely preclude; and these were not the
faults of the constitution, but of individuals, and the effects of
melancholy but very rare circumstances which gave occasion to them.
Yet to prevent them as far as may be by human foresight, preserving
the honour of the royal dignity and its rights (for rights it has) and
those which belong to the people, which are equally inviolable, I will
consult with the _procuradores_ of Spain and of the Indies, and in a
Cortes, legitimately assembled, composed of both, as soon as they can
be brought together, (order having been restored, and the good usages
in which the nation has lived, and which with its accord the Kings, my
august predecessors, have established,) every thing that can conduce to
the good of my kingdom shall be firmly and legitimately established,
that my subjects may live prosperously and happily under a religion and
a government closely united in an indissoluble tie, wherein and wherein
alone consists the temporal happiness of a King and a kingdom bearing
for excellence the title of Catholic. Immediate preparations shall be
made for assembling these Cortes. Liberty and security, individual and
royal, shall be firmly secured by means of laws, which, guaranteeing
public tranquillity and order, shall leave to all that wholesome
liberty, the undisturbed enjoyment of which distinguishes a moderate
government from an arbitrary and despotic one. This just liberty
all, likewise, shall enjoy to communicate their ideas and thoughts
through the press, that is, within those limits which sound reason
prescribes to all, that it degenerate not into licentiousness; for the
respect which is due to religion and to government, and that which men
ought mutually to observe towards each other, can under no civilized
government be reasonably permitted to be violated with impunity. All
suspicion, also, of any waste of the public revenues shall cease; those
which shall be assigned for the expenses required for the honour of my
royal person and family, and that of the nation which I have the glory
to govern being separated from the revenues, which, with consent of
the kingdom, may be assigned for the maintenance of the state in all
the branches of its administration. And the laws which shall hereafter
serve as a rule of action for my subjects shall be established in
concert with the Cortes; so that these bases may serve as an authentic
declaration of my royal intentions in the government with which I
am about to be charged, and will represent to all, not a despot or a
tyrant, but a King and a father of his subjects.”
He went on to say, that having heard complaints from all parts
against the constitution, and against the measures of the Cortes, ...
considering also the mischiefs which had sprung therefrom, and would
increase if he should sanction that constitution with his consent,
... acting, moreover, in conformity to the decided and general
demonstration of the wishes of his people, wishes which were just in
themselves and well founded, he declared that he would not swear to
the Cortes, but that he annulled it, and abrogated all such of its
acts as derogated from the rights and prerogatives of his sovereignty
established by that constitution and those laws under which the nation
had so long lived. And he declared all persons guilty of high treason
who should attempt to support them, and to excite discontent and
disturbance in his dominions, whether by writing, word, or deed. The
administration was to go on under the present system till the old one
could be restored; and the political and administrative branches till
the future Cortes should have determined upon the permanent order of
this part of the government. But from the day on which this his decree
should be published and communicated to the President of the Cortes,
the sittings of that Cortes should cease; all their papers should be
delivered to the officers charged with the execution of this decree,
and deposited in the house of the _Ayuntamiento_ of Madrid, and the
room in which they were deposited be locked and sealed up; and whoever
should obstruct the execution of the decree, should be deemed guilty
of high treason, and punished with death. All proceedings pending for
any infraction of the constitution were to cease; and all persons
imprisoned for such infraction to be set at liberty forthwith. “Such,”
the King concluded, “is my will, because the welfare and happiness of
the nation require it.”
By another decree of the same date, Ferdinand conferred upon the
capital, in testimony of his esteem and gratitude, and in earnest of
some more signal favour, the privilege of adding to its appellation of
the “right noble, loyal, and imperial town of Madrid,” that of “heroic”
also; and upon its _Ayuntamiento_ the title of “excellency.” In this
decree, also, he ordered a hundred doubloons to be distributed in each
of the parishes of Madrid, on the day when he should make his entrance;
and he regretted that circumstances did not allow him to give greater
proofs of his natural bounty. ♦FERDINAND SETS OUT FOR MADRID. MAY 5.♦
On the following day he departed for Madrid. Such were the multitudes
who came from far and near to obtain a sight of their King, that one
continued concourse of people lined the whole way from Valencia. Every
village devised some means of displaying its loyalty; some by erecting
triumphal arches, such as their abilities could afford; others by
strewing the road with branches and flowers for miles together. The
Cortes, as he approached, could no longer dream of resistance; the
decree which abrogated their constitution and put an end to their
authority was posted in the streets of Madrid, countersigned by General
Eguia, as Captain-General of New Castille, and Political and Military
Governor of the Province, now by the King appointed; and deputations
from its Audience and its _Ayuntamiento_ went to meet him at Aranjuez,
where he halted two days, and where the rejoicing of the inhabitants,
and the illuminations which they exhibited, and the confluence of
visitors, contrasted strangely with the devastation that the French
had committed there; for they had stripped the gardens of every thing
which could be carried away, and had destroyed or mutilated the statues
and the fountains.
♦HE ENTERS MADRID.
MAY 12.♦
Such members of the Cortes as were marked for the King’s displeasure
were arrested on the night before his arrival by General Eguia. On the
13th Eguia went out with the grandees in procession, habited in the
ancient costume, to meet him. The Majorcan division lined the Prado,
from the Puerta de Atocha, at which he entered, and the Calle de Alcala
to the Puerta del Sol, ... not to overawe the people (for a corporal
and four soldiers might have repressed any discontent that appeared
that day), but to increase the pomp and splendour of the festival. In
the highest part of the Calle de Alcala, ... and no scene could be
better suited to such a pageant, ... a triumphal arch had been erected,
as imposing in appearance as if it had been of durable materials.
The balconies were hung with silk of various colours, fringed with
gold and silver; and Ferdinand made his entrance amid the salute of
cannon, and the sound of bells from all the churches, and the shouts
and acclamations of an innumerable multitude rising above all. Their
invaders had been totally defeated and expelled; their strong places
were recovered; their national independence had been gloriously
vindicated and established; the tyrant who had deceived, and outraged,
and insulted them, had been beaten from his throne; the Intruder whom
he had set over them had been hunted out of their land; their King,
... their legitimate, their popular, their beloved King was restored!
Greater joy could not have been expressed, greater happiness could not
have been felt, if that King had been in all respects deserving of the
generous enthusiasm which was that day manifested for his sake.
♦SUBSEQUENT CONDUCT OF THE PEOPLE AND OF THE GOVERNMENT.♦
If Ferdinand had now performed the promises which were distinctly
made in his declaration, he might have averted much, if not all, of
the subsequent danger which he incurred, and the just reproaches
which will be attached to his name in history. It ought not to be
said that in making those promises he had no intention of fulfilling
them; for though he scrupled at no dissimulation when under duresse,
they were voluntary in this case, and the temper of the nation, then
unequivocally declared, was such, that no purpose was to be gained by
it. Ferdinand was a person of narrow mind, and his heart seems to have
been incapable of generous feeling; but he was not a wicked man, nor
would he have been a bad King if he had met with wise ministers, and
had ruled over an enlightened people. On the two important subjects of
civil and religious freedom he and the great body of the nation were
in perfect sympathy, ... both, upon both subjects, imbued with error
to the core; and the popular feeling in both cases outran his. The
word Liberty (_Libertad_) appeared in large bronze letters over the
entrance of the Hall of the Cortes in Madrid. The people of their own
impulse hurried thither to remove it; they set up ladders, forced out
letter by letter from the stone, and as each was thrown into the street
the spectators renewed their shouts of exultation. They collected as
many of the journals of the Cortes, and of the papers and pamphlets
of the _Liberales_, as could be got together; formed a procession in
which the religious fraternities, and the clergy regular and secular,
took the lead; piled up these papers in one of the public squares,
and sacrificed them there as a political _auto-da-fé_, after which
high mass was performed and _Te Deum_ sung, as a thanksgiving for
their triumph. The Stone of the Constitution, as it was called, was
everywhere removed, and replaced as it had been at Valencia. The people
at Seville deposed all the existing authorities, elected others in
their stead to all the offices which had existed under the old system,
and then required those authorities to re-establish the Inquisition. In
re-establishing that accursed tribunal by a formal act of government,
in suppressing the freedom of the press, which had been abused to its
own destruction, and in continuing to govern not merely as an absolute
monarch, but as a despotic one, Ferdinand undoubtedly complied with
the wishes of the Spanish nation. He did these things conformably to
his own misguided conscience and weak judgment, as well as to his
inclinations; and for so doing he was, by the voice of the people, a
patriotic and popular King. In all this he cannot justly be charged
with anything worse than error of judgment; fearfully injurious indeed
in its consequences, but in the individual to be pitied as well as
pardoned. But, in his treatment of the more conspicuous persons among
the _Liberales_, whom he condemned to strict and long imprisonment,
many of them for life, he brought upon himself an indelible reproach,
and incurred the guilt of individual sin. Quintana, who, more than
any other person, contributed by his eloquent writings to excite and
sustain the national spirit, and awaken the sympathy of other nations,
was one of the victims thus sentenced, and his life is said to have
been not the only one which was shortened by severe confinement.
♦LORD WELLINGTON RETURNS TO ENGLAND.♦
But the peninsular war concludes with the return of Ferdinand to
Madrid; and its history may best be concluded with the return to his
own country of the General by whom it was brought to this triumphant
termination. A dukedom was conferred upon Lord Wellington, £300,000
were voted by Parliament for the purchase of an estate suitable to
the dignity, and such an additional grant of income as made up the
annual amount of his parliamentary allowances to £17,000. ♦HE TAKES
HIS SEAT IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. JUNE 28.♦ He had not been in England
since he was raised to the peerage; and thus it happened, that when he
was introduced into the House of Lords to take his seat, his patents
of creation as Baron, Earl, Marquis, and Duke were all to be read on
the same day. No ceremony of honour was omitted on this occasion: the
Duchess his wife, and his mother, the Countess of Mornington, were
present to behold it, being seated below the throne. After the oaths
had been administered, and he had taken his seat, the Lord Chancellor
♦THE LORD CHANCELLOR’S SPEECH.♦ Eldon addressed him for the purpose
of conveying the thanks of the House, which had been voted to him on
the preceding evening, for the twelfth time. In performing this duty,
Lord Eldon said, he could not refrain from calling the attention of
his Grace, and of the noble Lords present, to a circumstance singular
in the history of that House, ... that upon his introduction he had
gone through every dignity of the peerage in this country which it
was in the power of the crown to bestow. These dignities had been
conferred upon him for eminent and distinguished services; and he
would not have the presumption to attempt to state the nature of
those services, nor to recapitulate those brilliant acts which had
given immortality to the name of Wellington, and placed this empire
on a height of military renown of which there was no example in its
history. He could not better discharge the duty which had devolved upon
him than by recurring to the terms in which that House had so often
expressed their sense of the energy, the unremitting exertions, the
ardour, and the ability with which the noble Duke had conducted the
arduous campaigns of the Peninsula, ... exertions and ability which
finally enabled him to place the allied armies in the heart of France,
fighting their way there through the blaze of victory. The glorious
result of his victories had been to achieve the peace and security of
his country; while, by his example, he had animated the rest of Europe,
and enabled her governments to restore their ancient order. The Lord
Chancellor then expressed his own satisfaction in being the instrument
of informing the Duke that the House unanimously voted their thanks for
his eminent and unremitted services, and their congratulations upon his
return to his country.
♦THE HOUSE OF COMMONS CONGRATULATE HIM ON HIS RETURN.♦
The House of Commons in voting their thanks had voted also that a
committee of the House should wait upon his Grace to communicate the
same, and to offer him their congratulations on his return. The Duke
in reply signified that he was desirous of expressing to the House his
answer in person. He was admitted in consequence the following day; a
chair was set for him toward the middle of the House: he came in making
his obeisances, ♦JULY 1. HE RETURNS THANKS TO THE HOUSE.♦ the whole
House rising upon his entrance. The Speaker having informed him that
there was a chair in which he might repose himself, the Duke sat down,
covered for some time, the serjeant standing on his right hand with the
mace grounded, and the House resumed their seats. The Duke then rose
and uncovered, and addressed the Speaker thus: “I was anxious to be
permitted to attend this House in order to return my thanks in person
for the honour they have done me in deputing a committee of members to
congratulate me on my return to this country; and this after the House
had animated my exertions by their applause upon every occasion which
appeared to merit their approbation; and after they had filled up the
measure of their favours by conferring upon me, at the recommendation
of the Prince Regent, the noblest gift that any subject had ever
received.
“I hope it will not be deemed presumptuous in me to take this
opportunity of expressing my admiration of the great efforts made by
this House and by the country, at a moment of unexampled pressure and
difficulty, in order to support the great scale of operation by which
the contest was brought to so fortunate a termination.
“By the wise policy of Parliament the government was enabled to give
the necessary support to the operations which were carried on under
my direction; and I was encouraged by the confidence reposed in me by
his Majesty’s ministers and by the Commander-in-chief, by the gracious
favour of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and by the reliance
which I had on the support of my gallant friends the general officers
of the army, and on the bravery of the officers and troops, to carry
on the operations in such a manner as to acquire for me those marks of
the approbation of this House, for which I have now the honour to make
my humble acknowledgments. Sir, it is impossible for me to express the
gratitude which I feel; I can only assure the House that I shall always
be ready to serve his Majesty in any capacity in which my services can
be deemed useful, with the same zeal for my country which has already
acquired for me the approbation of this House.”
♦THE SPEAKER’S SPEECH.♦
Mr. Abbot, the Speaker, who had sat covered during this speech, then
stood up uncovered, and replied to his Grace in these words: “My Lord,
since last I had the honour of addressing you from this place, a series
of eventful years has elapsed, but none without some mark and note of
your rising glory.
“The military triumphs which your valour has achieved upon the banks
of the Douro and the Tagus, of the Ebro and the Garonne, have called
forth the spontaneous shouts of admiring nations. Those triumphs it is
needless at this day to recount. Their names have been written by your
conquering sword in the annals of Europe, and we shall hand them down
with exultation to our children’s children.
“It is not, however, the grandeur of military success which has alone
fixed our admiration, or commanded our applause; it has been that
generous and lofty spirit which inspired your troops with unbounded
confidence, and taught them to know that the day of battle was always
a day of victory; that moral courage and enduring fortitude which, in
perilous times, when gloom and doubt had beset ordinary minds, stood
nevertheless unshaken; and that ascendency of character which, uniting
the energies of jealous and rival nations, enabled you to wield at will
the fates and fortunes of mighty empires.
“For the repeated thanks and grants bestowed upon you by this House, in
gratitude for your many and eminent services, you have thought fit this
day to offer us your acknowledgments: but this nation well knows that
it is still largely your debtor; it owes to you the proud satisfaction,
that amidst the constellation of great and illustrious warriors who
have recently visited our country, we could present to them a leader of
our own, to whom all, by common acclamation, conceded the pre-eminence.
And when the will of Heaven, and the common destinies of our nature,
shall have swept away the present generation, you will have left your
great name and example as an imperishable monument, exciting others
to like deeds of glory, and serving at once to adorn, defend, and
perpetuate the existence of this country amongst the ruling nations of
the earth.”
With these honours was the Duke of Wellington received, and such
honours were never more fully deserved. Since the peace of Utrecht,
in which the interests of Europe were sacrificed by that party-spirit
which is the reproach of England, our military reputation had declined.
The American war contributed to lower us in the estimation of our
neighbours; for though the courage of our men was never found wanting
in the day of trial, the circumstances of that contest were such that,
after the first season for vigorous measures was gone by, success
became morally impossible. This was not taken into the account. The
war ended to our loss; and the disgrace which should exclusively have
attached to our councils affected our arms also. When the Duke of
York was made commander-in-chief, our military establishments were in
a wretched state; boys held commissions literally before they were
out of leading-strings; there was not a single institution in Great
Britain wherein tactics were taught; and it was in France that young
Arthur Wellesley learned the elements of war! The Duke of York soon
began a silent and efficient reform; abuse after abuse was removed,
defect after defect supplied; but these improvements were known only to
persons connected with the army; and its military character suffered
materially in the revolutionary war from causes which are neither
imputable to the commander, nor to the soldiers under him: for then
also, as in the American war, they were placed in circumstances which
rendered success impossible. The evil, however, was done. The enemy
insulted us; the continental nations were persuaded that we were not
a military people; and we, contenting ourselves with our acknowledged
maritime supremacy, were but too ready to assent to an opinion which in
its consequences must have operated as a death-sentence upon national
honour, national power, and national independence. It is not too much
to say that our army would have sunk into contempt, if the expedition
to Egypt had not thrown some splendour over the close of a most
ill-fated and ill-conducted war. But the effect which that expedition
produced upon public feeling soon passed away; and the French convinced
themselves that our success had been owing to the incapacity of their
commander, the disputes among their generals, and the universal desire
of their troops to escape from Egypt, ... any cause rather than the
true one. A second war broke out; and while the enemy obtained the most
signal victories, we had only the solitary battle of Maida to boast,
which was upon so small a scale, and so nugatory in its consequences,
that the continent never heard of it, though our disgrace at Buenos
Ayres was known everywhere.
Meantime the French had persuaded Europe as well as themselves that
Buonaparte was the greatest military genius of ancient or of modern
times; that his generals were all consummate masters in the art of war;
and that his troops were, in every respect, the best in the world.
This opinion was more than ever prevalent when Sir Arthur Wellesley
took the command in Portugal in 1809, and began a career which, when
all circumstances are considered, may truly be said to be unparalleled
in military history. He entered upon that career at a time when the
military reputation and the military power of France were at their
greatest height; when a belief that it was impossible to resist the
commanding genius and inexhaustible resources of Buonaparte had been
inculcated in this country with pestilent activity, and had deeply
tainted the public mind. Daily and weekly, monthly and quarterly, this
poison was administered with the most mischievous perseverance in
newspapers, magazines, and reviews. Never was there an opinion more
injurious, more fatal to the honour, interest, safety, independence,
and existence of the country; yet was it propagated by writers who
were then held in the highest estimation, and they enforced it with a
zeal which arrayed their passions, and seemed to array their wishes,
as well as their intellect, on the enemy’s side; and with a confidence
which boldly affirmed that nothing but folly or madness could presume
to doubt their predictions. Suicidal as the belief was, it was the
creed of that party in the state to which these writers had attached
themselves; and no effort was omitted on their part for deadening the
hopes, thwarting the exertions, disgusting the allies, and encouraging
the enemies of their country. Our government was not influenced by such
advisers; but it was long before its exertions were commensurate with
the occasion; and during four years Lord Wellington was crippled by the
inadequacy of his means. Yet, even when thus crippled, he contended
successfully against the undivided power of France. Every operation
of the British army under his command tended to give the troops and
the nation fresh confidence in their general, and to impress upon the
enemy a proper sense of the British character. Wherever he met the
French he defeated them; whenever he found it necessary to retire for
want of numbers, or of food, or of co-operation in the Spaniards, it
was in such order, and so leisurely, as neither to raise the hopes of
the enemy, nor abate those of his army, or of his allies. After the
battle of Talavera, and the series of provoking misconduct by which
the effects of that victory were frustrated, he distinctly perceived
the course which the enemy would pursue, and, anticipating all their
temporary advantages (which yet he omitted no occasion of opposing
and impeding), he saw and determined how and where the vital struggle
must be made. The foresight of a general was never more admirably
displayed; and if there be one place in the Peninsula more appropriate
than another for a monument to that leader whose trophies are found
throughout the whole, it is in the lines of Torres Vedras that a
monument to Lord Wellington should be erected. When he took his stand
there, Lisbon was not the only stake of that awful contest: the fate
of Europe was in suspense; and they who, like Homer, could see the
balance in the hand of Jupiter, might then have perceived that the
fortunes of France were found wanting in the scale. There the spell
which bound the nations was broken; the plans of the tyrant were
baffled, his utmost exertions when he had no other foe and no other
object were defied; his armies were beaten; and Europe, taking heart
when she beheld the deliverance of Portugal, began to make a movement
for her own, ... for that spirit by which alone her deliverance could
be effected was excited. Foresight and enterprise, meantime, with
our commander went hand in hand; he never advanced, but so as to be
sure of his retreat; and never retreated, but in such an attitude as
to impose upon a superior enemy. He never gave an opportunity, and
never lost one. His movements were so rapid as to deceive and astonish
the French, who prided themselves upon their own celerity. He foiled
general after general, defeated army after army, captured fortress
after fortress; and, raising the military character of Great Britain to
its old standard in the days of Marlborough, made the superiority of
the British soldier over the Frenchman as incontestable as that of the
British seaman.
The spirit of the country rose with its successes. England once more
felt her strength, and remembered the part which she had borne, and
the rank which she had asserted in the days of her Edwards and her
Henrys. Buonaparte had bestowed upon France the name of the Sacred
Territory, boasting, as one of the benefits conferred upon her by his
government, that France alone remained inviolable when every other
part of the continent was visited by the calamities of war. That boast
was no longer to hold good! Our victories in the Peninsula prepared the
deliverance of Europe, and Lord Wellington led the way into France. A
large portion of his army consisted of Portugueze and Spaniards, who
had every imaginable reason to hate the people among whom they went
as conquerors; they had seen the most infernal cruelties perpetrated
in their own country by the French soldiers; and it might have been
supposed, prone as their national character was to revenge, that they
would eagerly seize the opportunity for vengeance. But such was Lord
Wellington’s influence over the men whom he conducted to victory, that
not an outrage, not an excess, not an insult was committed; and the
French, who had made war like savages in every country which they had
invaded, experienced all the courtesies and humanities of generous
warfare when they were invaded themselves. In Gascony, as well as in
Portugal and Spain, the Duke of Wellington’s name was blessed by the
people. Seldom indeed has it fallen to any conqueror to look back upon
his career with such feelings! The marshal’s staff, the dukedom, the
honours and rewards which his Prince and his country so munificently
and properly bestowed, were neither the only nor the most valuable
recompense of his labours. There was something more precious than
these, more to be desired than the high and enduring fame which he had
secured by his military achievements, ... the satisfaction of thinking
to what end those achievements had been directed; ... that they were
for the deliverance of two most injured and grievously oppressed
nations; ... for the safety, honour, and welfare of his own country;
... and for the general interests of Europe and of the civilized world.
His campaigns were sanctified by the cause; ... they were sullied by
no cruelties, no crimes; the chariot-wheels of his triumphs have been
followed by no curses; ... his laurels are entwined with the amaranths
of righteousness, and upon his death-bed he might remember his
victories among his good works.
This is the great and inappreciable glory of England in this portion
of its history, that its war in the Peninsula was in as strict
conformity with the highest principles of justice as with sound state
policy. No views of aggrandizement were entertained either at its
commencement or during its course, or at its termination; conquests
were not looked for, commercial privileges were not required. It was
a defensive, a necessary, a retributive war; engaged in as the best
means of obtaining security for ourselves, but having also for its
immediate object “to loose the bands of wickedness,” and to break the
yoke of oppression, and “to let the oppressed go free.” And this great
deliverance was brought about by England, with God’s blessing on a
righteous cause. If France has not since that happy event continued
to rest under a mild and constitutional monarchy, ... if Spain has
relapsed into the abuses of an absolute one, ... if the Portugueze
have not supported that character which they recovered during the
contest, ... it has been because in all these instances there were
national errors which retained their old possession, and national sins
which were not repented of. But the fruits of this war will not be
lost upon posterity: for in its course it has been seen that the most
formidable military power which ever existed in the civilized world
was overthrown by resolute perseverance in a just cause; it has been
seen also that national independence depends upon national spirit, but
that even that spirit in its highest and heroic degree may fail ...
if wisdom to direct it be wanting. It has been seen what guilt and
infamy men, who might otherwise have left an honourable name, entailed
upon themselves, because, hoping to effect a just end by iniquitous
means, they consented to a wicked usurpation, and upheld it by a system
of merciless tyranny, sinning against their country and their own
souls: this was seen in the Spanish ministers of the Intruder; and the
Spanish reformers, more lamentably for Spain, but more excusably for
themselves, have shown the danger of attempting to carry crude theories
of government into practice; and hurrying on precipitate changes,
from the consequences of which men too surely look to despotism for
protection or for deliverance. These lessons have never been more
memorably exemplified than in the Peninsular War; and for her own
peculiar lesson, England, it may be hoped, has learnt to have ever
from thenceforth a just reliance, under Providence, upon her resources
and her strength; ... under Providence, I say, for if that support be
disregarded, all other will be found to fail.
* * * * *
My task is ended here: and if in the course of this long and faithful
history, it should seem that I have any where ceased to bear the
ways of Providence in mind, or to have admitted a feeling, or given
utterance to a thought inconsistent with glory to God in the highest,
and good-will towards men, let the benevolent reader impute it to that
inadvertence or inaccuracy of expression from which no diligence,
however watchful, can always be secure; and as such let him forgive
what, if I were conscious of it, I should not easily forgive in myself.
_Keswick, 26th March, 1832._
Laus Deo.
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
CONCERNING THE
PENINSULAR WAR.
Introduction to the History of the Revolution in Spain. By Alvaro
Florez Estrada, Attorney-General of the Province of Asturias.
Translated from the author’s manuscript by William Burdon. 8vo.
Memoir written by General Sir Hew Dalrymple, Bart., of his Proceedings
as connected with the Affairs of Spain and the Commencement of the
Peninsular War. 8vo.
Proceedings upon the Inquiry relative to the Armistice and Convention,
&c., made and concluded in Portugal, in August, 1808, between the
Commanders of the British and French Armies. Ordered by the House of
Commons to be printed.
A Narrative of the Campaign of the British Army in Spain commanded by
Sir John Moore, K. B., authenticated by official papers and original
letters. By his brother, James Moore, Esq. 4to.
Narrative of the Campaigns in Portugal and Spain under Generals Sir
Arthur Wellesley and Sir John Moore, from the landing of the troops in
Mondego Bay to the Battle of Corunna; accompanied by all the official
documents, and numerous engravings from drawings made on the spot. By
Adam Neale, M.D., Physician to the Forces. 4to.
Letters from Portugal and Spain, written during the march of the
British troops under Sir John Moore. 8vo.
Operations of the British Army in Spain, with broad Hints to the
Commissariat and Transport Board, and Anecdotes illustrative of the
real Spanish Character.
A Narrative of the Circumstances attending the Retreat of the British
Army under the Command of the late Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore.
By Henry Milburne, surgeon.
An Account of the Operations of the British Army, and of the State
and Sentiments of the People of Portugal and Spain. By the Rev. James
Wilmot Ormsby. 2 vols. 8vo.
Observations on the Movements of the British Army in Spain. By a
British Officer.
Narrative of the Siege of Zaragoza. By Charles Richard Vaughan, M.B.,
Fellow of All-Soul’s, Oxford, and one of Dr. Radcliffe’s Travelling
Fellows from that University.
A Narrative of the interesting Particulars attending the second Siege
of Zaragoza. Translated from the Spanish by William Buy, Esq.
The Journal of a Regimental Officer during the recent Campaign in
Portugal and Spain under Lord Viscount Wellington. 8vo.
A Narrative of the Campaigns of the Loyal Lusitanian Legion, under
Brigadier-General Sir Robert Wilson, Aide-de-camp to his Majesty and
Knight of the Orders of Maria Theresa and of the Tower and Sword, with
some Account of the Military Operations in Spain and Portugal during
the years 1809–1811. 8vo.
Memoir of the Early Campaigns of the Duke of Wellington in Portugal and
Spain. By an Officer employed in his army. 8vo.
A Narrative of the principal Events of the Campaigns of 1809–10–11 in
Spain and Portugal. By Captain Stothert. 1812.
A Journal of the Campaign in Portugal and Spain, containing Remarks on
the Inhabitants, Customs, Trade, and Cultivation of those Countries,
from the year 1809–1812. By the late Major-General Henry Mackinnon. 8vo.
A Narrative of the Retreat of the British Army from Burgos, in a series
of Letters, with an Introductory Sketch of the Campaign of 1812, and
Military Character of the Duke of Wellington. By George Frederick
Burroughs, Surgeon, Bristol, late Assistant Surgeon of the Royal
Dragoons. 8vo.
Memoirs of the late Lieutenant-General Sir James Leith, G. C. B., with
a Précis of some of the most remarkable Events of the Peninsular War.
By a British Officer. 8vo.
Relation of the Siege of Tarragona, and the storming and capture of
that city by the French, in June, 1811. By Field-Marshal Don Juan Senen
de Contrenas, Governor of that fortress at the time of the siege.
London.
A Treatise on the Defence of Portugal, with a military map of the
country; to which is added, A Sketch of the Manners and Customs of
the Inhabitants, and principal Events of the Campaigns under Lord
Wellington. By William Granville Eliot, Captain in the Royal Regiment
of Artillery. 8vo.
Observations on the Present State of the Portugueze Army, as organized
by Lieutenant-General Sir William Carew Beresford, K.B., Field-Marshal
and Commander-in-Chief of that Army, with an Account of the different
Military Establishments and Laws of Portugal, and a Sketch of the
Campaigns of the last and present year, during which the Portugueze
Army was brought into the field against the enemy, for the first time
as a regular force. By Andrew Halliday, M.D. 4to.
Memoranda relative to the Lines thrown up to save Lisbon, in 1810. By
Colonel John T. Jones, R.E. 8vo. Printed for private circulation.
Memoir of the Queen of Etruria, written by herself; an authentic
Narrative of the seizure and removal of Pope Pius VII. on the 6th of
July, 1809; with genuine Memoirs of his Journey from Rome to France,
and thence to Savona. Written by one of his attendants. Translated from
the Italian. 8vo.
Memoirs of the Baron de Kolli, relative to his secret mission in
1810 for liberating Ferdinand VII., King of Spain, from captivity at
Valençay. Written by himself. To which are added, Memoirs of the Queen
of Etruria. Written by herself. 8vo.
Memoirs of Ferdinand VII., King of Spain. By Don ----, Advocate of the
Spanish Tribunals. Translated from the original Spanish manuscript. By
Michael J. Quin, author of “A Visit to Spain in 1812 and 1823.” 8vo.
The Two Minas and the Spanish Guerillas, extracted and translated
from a work “On Spain,” written by Captain H. Von Brandt, a Prussian
officer, who served in one of the Polish regiments attached to the
French army during the Peninsular War. By a British officer. 8vo.
A Short Extract from the Life of General Mina. Published by himself.
8vo.
Anecdotes of British and Spanish Heroism, displayed at Tarafa during
the late memorable siege of that place, &c. 1812.
The Military Exploits, &c. &c., of Don Juan Martin Diez, the
Empecinado, who first commenced and then organized the system of
Guerilla warfare in Spain; to which is added, that Chieftain’s
celebrated Representation to the King of Spain. Translated by a general
officer. 8vo.
The Principles of War, exhibited in the Practice of the Camp, and as
developed in a Series of General Orders of Field-Marshal the Duke of
Wellington, K.G., &c. &c. &c., in the late Campaigns on the Peninsula,
with parallel Orders of George the Second, the Duke of Cumberland, the
Duke of Marlborough, Earl of Albemarle, Lord Stair, General Wolfe, &c.
&c. &c. 8vo.
Account of the War in Spain and Portugal, and the South of France,
from 1808 to 1814, inclusive. In two volumes. By John T. Jones,
Lieutenant-Colonel, corps of Royal Engineers. 8vo.
Journals of the Sieges undertaken by the Allies in Spain, in the years
1811–12, with Notes. By Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel John T. Jones, &c.
8vo.
Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns, from 1808 to 1814. By the author of
Cyril Thornton. In three vols. 12mo.
Narrative of a forced Journey through Spain and France as a Prisoner of
War, in the years 1810 to 1814. By Major-General Lord Blayney. In two
vols. 8vo.
An Authentic Narrative of the Invasion of France in 1814. By M. De
Beauchamp, author of the History of the War of La Vendée, &c. &c. In
two vols. 8vo.
Campaign of the Left Wing of the Allied Army in the Western Pyrenees
and South of France, in the years 1813–14, under Field-Marshal
the Marquess of Wellington, illustrated by a detailed plan of the
operations, and numerous plates of mountain and river scenery, drawn
and etched by Captain Batty, of the first or Grenadier Guards, F.R.S.,
Member of the Imperial Russian Order of St. Anne. London, 1823. 4to.
* * * * *
Exposicion de los Hechos y Maquinaciones que han preparado, la
Usurpacion de la Corona de España, y los medios que el Emperador
de los Franceses ha puesto en obra para realizarla. Por Don Pedro
Cevallos. Reimpreso en Malaga. 1808.
Idea Sencilla de las Razones que motivaron el Viage del Rey Don
Fernando VII. a Bayona, en el mes de Abril de 1808, dada al publico
de España y de Europa. Por el Excmo. Señor Don Juan Escoiquiz, &c.
&c., para su justificacion y la de las demas personas que componian
entonces el Consejo Privado de S. M. contra las imputaciones vagas de
imprudencia ó ligereza divulgadas contra ellos por algunos sugetos poco
instruidos de las expresadas razones; acompañada de una noticia breve
de los sucesos y negociaciones de Valençay, hasta la vuelta de S. M. á
España. Madrid, 1814.
Manifiesto de los Procedimientos del Consejo Real, en los gravisimos
sucesos ocurridos desde Octubre del año proximo pasado. Impreso de
orden del mismo Supremo Tribunal. En la Imprenta Real. 1808.
Semanario Patriotico. Segundo Trimestre. La parte historica por Don
Isidoro de Antillon; la Politica por Don Josef Maria Blanco. Sevilla,
1809.
El Español. Por Don J. M. Blanco White. 8 tom. London, 1810–14.
Manifiesto de las Operaciones del Exercito del Centro, desde el dia 3
de Diciembre de 1808, hasta el 17 de Febrero de 1809. Por el Duque del
Infantado. 1809.
Prontuario de las Leyes y Decretos del Rey nuestro Señor Don José
Napoleon I. Desde el año de 1808. 3 tom. Madrid, 1810–12.
Historia de las Operaciones del Exercito de Catalaña en la Guerra de
la Usurpacion, O sea de la Independencia de España. Campaña primera.
Por el Teniente Coronel Don Francisco Xavier Cabanes, Ayudenta Mayor
de Reales Guardias Walonas y Oficial de Estado Mayor en el Exercito de
Cataluña. Tarragona, 1809.
Segundo Periodo de la Historia de las Operaciones del Exercito de
Cataluña en la Primera Campaña de la Guerra de la Usurpacion, O sea
de la Independencia de España. Por el Teniente Coronel Don Francisco
Xavier Cabanes, &c. Tarragona, 1809.
Resúmen Historico del primer sitio de la Ilustre Ciudad de Zaragoza por
los Franceses, desde el 14 de Junio al 16 de Agosto de 1808. Valencia,
1809.
Idea Historica de los Principales Sucesos ocurridos en Zaragoza durante
el ultimo sitio, recopilados, por el P. Capellan de Exercito Dr. Don
Sebastian Hernandez de Morejon, Testigo y casi victima de aquella
gloriosa catástrofe. Valencia, 1809.
Relacion del segundo sitio de Zaragoza, por los Franceses en la ultima
guerra de España, por el Señor Baron Rogniat, Teniente General de
Ingenieros. Traducida del Frances por Pedro Ferrery Casaus. Valladolid,
1815.
Elogio a los Ilustres defensores de Zaragoza en sus dos sitios del año
de 1808. Por un individuo de las Escuelas Pias. Madrid, 1815.
Memorial Historico de los sucesos mas notables de armas y estado
de la salud Publica durante el ultimo sitio de la Plaza de Gerona.
Comprehende hasta 18 dias despues de entregada la Plaza al Sitiador
y Reales Ordines á favor de sus defensores. Por Don Juan Andres Nieto
Samaniego, Doctor en Medecina y en Cirurgia, &c. Tarragona, 1810.
Cataluña Atribulada suplica al Augusto Congreso de las Cortes, en 1811,
Palma.
Manifiesto del Duque de Alburquerque, acerca de su conducta con la
Junta de Cadiz, y arribo del exercito de su cargo a aquella Plaza.
Londres, 1810.
Memoria de lo mas interesante que ha ocurrido en la Ciudad de Zaragoza
con motivo de haberla atacado, el Exercito Frances. Madrid, 1808.
Traslado a toda la Nacion Española, y à los fidelisimos constantes
aliados Portugueses é Ingleses, de la correspondencia oficial y
confidencial del Teniente General Marques del Palacio, Capitan-General
de los reynos de Aragon y Valencia, y general-en-gefe del segundo
exército, &c., con el Capitan-General de los reales exércitos, y
regente del reyno Don Joaquin Blake, &c. Cadiz, 1812.
Brebe y Sencillo Manifiesto de la gloriosa defensa del Castillo de
san Fernando de Sagunto. En contraposicion à la variedad con que se
habla de este asunto y causas porque se perdiè aquel monumento de la
antiguedad. Orihuela, 1814.
Memorias sobre la reconquista de Zaragoza, conservacion de la Plaza,
y rendicion de su Castillo por las Tropas Españolas en Julio de 1813.
Donde se evidencia lo mucho que se equivico el autor de la comedia
titulada Zaragoza Reconquistada, por Don Francisco Espoz y Mina, como
tambien otros autores que han dado toda la gloria á este General. Las
Publica un Monge Benito del Monasterio de Arlanza, Capellan, con real
despacho que ha sido del regimiento infanteria ligera de Rioxa, que
desea que la verdad sea el mas hello adorno de la historia de nuestra
santa venganza. Madrid, 1815.
Restauracion de las Plazas de Lérida, Mequinenza y Castillo de Monzon,
por medio de una estratagema: ocupacion de estas por una de las
divisiones del primer exército Español en los dias 13, 14 y 16 de
Febrero del año de 1814. Madrid, 1814.
Memoria de Don Miguel Jose de Azanza y Don Gonzalo O’Farrill, sobre los
trechos que justifican su conducta politica, desde Marzo de 1808 hasta
Abril de 1814. Paris.
Constitucion Politica de la Monarquia Española, promulgada en Cadiz a
19 de Marzo de 1812. Cadiz.
Observaciones sobre la Historia de la Guerra de España, que escribieron
los Señores Clarke, Southey, Londonderry y Napier. Por Don José Canga
Argüelles. 2 tom. Londres, 1829.
Documentos relativos al llamamiento, del excellentisimo Señor Don
Francisco Xavier de Castaños a servir su Plaza en consego de Estado, y
a su exoneracion del mando del Quarto exercito. Cadiz, 1813.
Breve y sucinta Relacion en forma de Diario de los principales sucesos
acaceidos en la recepcion, permanencia y partida de su Magestad, de
la siempre leal Ciudad de Valencia, con lo que tiene relacion al 2^o.
exército en la actualidad acantonado en su regno. Valencia, 1814.
Don Gaspar de Jovellanos, a sus Compatriotas. Memoria en que se rebaten
las calumnias divulgadas contra los individuos de la Junta Central, y
se da razon de la conducta y opiniones del Autor desde que recobro su
libertad. Con Notas y Apendices. 2 tom. Coruña, 1811.
Impugnacion que hacen los Individuos que compusieron là Suprema Junta
Central al Manifiesto del Capitan-General Don Gregorio de la Cuesta.
Cadiz, 1812.
Exposicion que hacen a las Cortes Generales y Extraordinarias de la
Nacion Española, los Individuos que compusieron la Junta Central
Suprema Gubernativa de la Misma, de su conducta en el tiempo de su
administration. Seccion Primera. Cadiz, 1811.
Ramo Diplomatico ó de Relaciones Extrangeras. Seccion Segunda.
Hacienda. Seccion Tercera. Palma, 1813.
* * * * *
Collecçam de Decretos, Editaes, &c. &c. &c. Lisboa, 1808.
Observador Portuguez, Historico e Politico de Lisboa, desde o dia
27 de Novembro do anno de 1807, em que embarcou para o Brazil o
Principe Regente Nosso Senhor e toda a Real Familia, por motivo da
Invasam dos Francezes neste Reino. Contem todos os Editaes, Ordens
publicas e particulares Decretos; successos fataes e desconhecidos nas
historias do mundo; todas as Batalhas, Roubos e Usurpaçoens ate o dia
15 de Setembro de 1808, em que foram expulsos, depois de batidos, os
Francezes. Lisboa, 1809.
Historia Geral da Invasam dos Francezes em Portugal eda Restauraçam
deste Reino, escrita por José Accursio des Neves. 5 tom. Lisboa,
1810–11.
Compilaçam des Ordens do Dia, do Quartel-General do Exercito Portuguez,
concernantes a Organizaçam, Disciplina e Economia Militares, nas
Campanhas de 1809–15. Lisboa, 1811–15.
Correio Braziliense, ou Armazem Literario. 1808–14. London.
O Investigador Portuguez em Inglaterra, ou Jornal Literario Politico,
&c. 1811–14. London.
Memorias da Villa de Chaves, na sua gloriosa revoluçàm contra à
perfidia do Tyranno da Europa; por Hum amante da Verdade, da Religiâo,
do Principe, e dos vassallos mais dignos do reconhecimento publico.
Lisboa, 1809.
* * * * *
Histoire de la Guerre d’Espagne contre Napoleon Buonaparte, par une
commission d’Officiers de toutes armes, établie à Madrid, auprès de
S. Ex. le Ministre de la Guerre. Traduite de l’Español, avec notes et
éclaircissemens. Par un témoin oculaire. Tome 1^{er}. Paris, 1818.
Relation de l’Expédition du Portugal, faite en 1807–8, par le 1^{er}
Corps d’Observation de la Gironde, devenu armée de Portugal. Par le
Baron Thiébault, Lieutenant-Général. Paris, 1817.
Mémoires sur les Opérations Militaires des Français en Galice, en
Portugal, et dans la Vallée du Tage, en 1809, sous le commandement du
Maréchal Soult, Duc de Dalmatie. Avec un Atlas Militaire. Paris, 1821.
Relation Historique et Militaire de la Campagne de Portugal sous le
Maréchal Massena, Prince d’Essling, &c., par M. Guingret, Chef de
Bataillon, en demi-activité, et officier de l’Ordre Royal de la Legion
d’Honneur. Limoges, 1817.
Campagne de l’Armée Française en Portugal, dans les années 1810–11,
&c., par M^r. A. D. L. G., Officier Superieur employé dans l’Etat-Major
de cette Armée. Paris, 1815.
Précis Historique de la Guerre d’Espagne et de Portugal, de 1808–14,
contenant la réfutation des ouvrages de MM. Sarrazin et Alphonse de
Beauchamps, &c., par Auguste Carel, Chef de Bataillon, Chevalier de la
Legion d’Honneur. Paris, 1815.
Relation du Séjour des Prisonniers de Guerre Français et Suisses, sur
le Ponton la Castille, dans la baie de Cadix, et de leur evasion le 15
Mai, 1810. Par L. Chapuis de Lausanne, Chirurgien-Major. Lausanne, 1817.
Mémoires d’un Officier Français Prisonnier en Espagne, ou Relation
circonstanciée de la Captivité du Corps de l’Armée Française sous les
ordres du Lieutenant-Général Dupont, &c. Par un Officier de la Garde
Royale. Paris, 1823.
Mémoires sur la Guerre d’Espagne, pendant les années 1809–10–11. Par M.
De Naylies, Officier Superieur des Gardes-du-Corps, de Monsieur de St.
Louis, et de la Legion d’Honneur. Paris, 1807.
Précis Historique de la Bataille livrée 10 Avril, 1814, sous les murs
de Toulouse, &c. Par C. D. Toulouse.
Journal des Opérations de l’Armée de Catalogne en 1808 et 1809, sous le
Commandement du Général Gouvion Saint Cyr. Ou Matériaux pour servir à
l’Histoire de la Guerre d’Espagne. Par le Maréchal Gouvion Saint Cyr.
Paris, 1821.
Mémoires du Maréchal Suchet, Duc d’Albufera, sur ses Campagnes en
Espagne, depuis 1808 jusqu’en 1824. Ecrits par lui-même. 2 tom. Paris,
1828.
Mémoires Historiques sur la Revolution d’Espagne. Par M. de Pradt,
Archivêque de Malines. Paris, 1816.
Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire de la Revolution d’Espagne, avec des
Pièces Justificatives. Par M. Nellerto (Llorente). 3 tom. Paris, 1814.
Der Feldzug von Portugall, in den Jahren 1811 und 1812, in historischer
und medizinischer-hinsicht beschrieben, von einem Arzte der
Franzosischen Armee von Portugall. Stuttgart und Tubingen, 1816.
* * * * *
Der Befreiungs-Krieg der Katalonier, in den Jahren 1808 bis 1814. Von
H. von Staff, Major von Koniglich Preussischen Generalstaabe. Breslau,
1821.
Der Siebenjahrige Kampf auf der Pyrenaischen Halbinsel vom Jahre
1807 bis 1814; besonders miene eigenen Erfahrungen in diesem Kriege;
nebst Bemerkungen über das Spanische Volk und Land. Von Fr. Xav.
Regel, Grossherzogl.-Badischem Hauptmann des Carl-Friederich,
Militar-Verdienst, und des Kaiserlich-Russischen St. Wladimir-Ordens
Ritter. 3 Th. Darmstadt, 1819.
* * * * *
Histoire de la Guerre de la Péninsule, sous Napoleon. Par le Général
Foy. 4 tom. Paris, 1827.
Narrative of the Peninsular War from 1808 to 1813. By
Lieutenant-General Charles William Vane, Marquis of Londonderry,
G.C.B., G.C.H., Colonel of the 10th Royal Hussars. 4to. 1828.
History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France,
from the year 1807 to the year 1814. By W. F. P. Napier, C.B.
Lieutenant-Colonel, H.P. forty-third regiment. Vols. I. and II., 1828,
1829.
* * * * *
All that part of the present history relating to the events of which
General Foy has treated, or to which the histories of Lord Londonderry
and Colonel Napier have as yet extended, was printed before either of
those works appeared.
THE END.
LONDON:
Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and SONS,
Stamford Street.
FOOTNOTES
[1] These affecting circumstances are stated in a letter written from
Zaragoza, 22d of January, 1812, to D. Mariano de Lope, a priest who
distinguished himself by his heroic conduct during both sieges. A copy
of this letter I had the honour of receiving from the Countess de
Bureta, who transmitted it to me at the time, that I might see what
were the feelings and the conduct of her fellow-citizens during their
captivity.
[2] The weekly average of desertions I find thus curiously stated: 25
Spaniards, 15 Irish, 12 English, 6 Scotch, and half a Portugueze.
[3] The particulars of this negotiation are stated by Escoiquiz upon
Ferdinand’s authority, and from that king’s own papers.
[4] The father of Baron de Lahoutan, in whose _Voyages dans l’Amerique
Septentrionale_ (Amsterdam, 1709, t. i. 149.) these facts are stated:
the consequences were related by M. Dufort, of the Gironde, in the
Legislative Assembly, 31 Aug. 1814.
[5] As an instance of English character, it is worth stating in a
note, that an honest butcher of Slough, near Windsor, Edward Shirley
by name, sent Lord Wellington, as a Christmas present, the rump and
sirloin of a famous ox. Government forwarded the present, and with the
next dispatches Lord Wellington’s letter of thanks arrived, and was
forwarded to Slough from the secretary of state’s office by a king’s
messenger. The letter was as follows:--
“St. Jean de Luz, Jan. 19.
“SIR,
“I received the day before yesterday the sirloin and rump of beef which
you were so kind as to send me; which although it did not arrive in
time for the new year’s day, was a most welcome present for the queen’s
birthday.
“I beg you to accept my best thanks for it; and to be assured that
I duly appreciate the patriotic motives which induced you to avail
yourself of an opportunity at the present moment of conveying to me
your sense of the manner in which I have carried into execution his
Majesty’s commands, and those of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent.
“I have the honour to be, sir,
Your most obedient, humble servant,
WELLINGTON.
“To Mr. Edward Shirley, butcher,
Slough, near Windsor.”
[6] After Buonaparte’s return from Elba, the Marquis put himself at the
head of the Vendeans, repeated these words of his heroic brother, and
died, like him, in the same cause.
[7] This statement is drawn up from the printed narrative by Van Halen,
and from a manuscript one by Eroles. Marshal Suchet’s brief account
is erroneous in stating that Tortosa was the last place at which the
stratagem was tried instead of the first. He says that Van Halen
deserted, _monté sur un cheval dérobé, et laissant à Barcelone des
dettes criardes_. (T. 2. 366.) Concerning the horse, it is not likely
that in such circumstances the adventurer would be scrupulous; but as
to his debts, he left a letter at Barcelona, saying, that there were
the arrears of his pay to liquidate them, being more by one-half than
all that he owed amounted to.
Van Halen afterwards got into the Inquisition as a freemason and a
liberal, got out of it, published his adventures in English, went to
Brussels, headed the inhabitants in that insurrection the success
of which they have had so much reason to repent, was suspected of
treachery by the party whom he had served, thrown into prison, and
after awhile released. And there the drama of his unquiet life breaks
off.
[8] _Bien suponiamos que lo habria, por las relaciones con las
Potencias aliadas; pero no sabiéndolo de cierto, teniamos derecho,
tratando con hombre tan perfido, para ponerlo en duda y conseguir con
este justo dissimulo el fin de nuestros deseos que era la libertad del
Rey. Engañar mañosamente con la verdad á un hombre tan falso, era una
obra no mala sino excelente: tal era nuestro maxîma._ Idea Sencilla,
114.
[9] French exaggeration has seldom been carried farther than in
the accounts of this action. One account makes the loss of the
allies 21,000 in killed, and nearly 15,000 wounded! and the author
of the _Précis Historique de la Bataille_ takes credit to himself
for moderation and candour in reducing the number of the slain to
17,000.--P. 3. pp. 32–37.
[10]
Piedra immortal, que en gloria de Fernando
Hoy el brazo del justo aqui coloca,
En ti se estrelle el enemigo bando,
se estrella la nave en dura roca:
Y si algun vil ideas abrigando
Contra el Rey, te profana ó te provoca,
Que muera; y que á cenizas reducido
Sirva de exemplo al liberal partido.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book. Simple typographical errors were
corrected and some unbalanced quotation marks were remedied. Other
errors of these types were not changed because the corrections were not
obvious to the Transcriber.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences
of inconsistent hyphenation have been changed only when there was a
predominant preference throughout the book.
The spelling and accent marks of non-English words were not checked or
changed.
The source book used many Sidenotes, printed in italics. Most match
entries in the Table of Contents, but some are either dates or
citations. To preserve proximity with the original text, if they were
printed mid-paragraph, that is where they appear here. Depending on
the format in which you are reading this eBook, Sidenotes may be
distinguished from regular text by being shown in some combination
of italics, boldface, UPPER-CASE, enclosed in ♦DIAMOND SYMBOLS♦,
being offset into the left-margin, or in a rectangular area within
the regular text. Due to limitations of some eReaders, some sidenotes
may appear next to or below each other, depending on the width of the
screen.
The original Table of Contents used “ib.” when the page number was the
same as the one in the previous entry. This eBook uses the actual page
numbers.
The years in which events occurred were printed in the running heads.
In this eBook, the first occurrence of each new year has been added
to the Sidenotes by the Transcriber. Sidenote dates also have been
added at the beginning of each chapter. This does not form an unbroken
timeline, as the years in the running heads sometimes went back and
forth.
Page 4: “beat his breast” was printed as “beast”; changed here.
Page 45: no ending quotation mark for text beginning with “or to
prevent an insurrection.”
Page 172: “route of fugitives” was printed as “rout” in an earlier
edition of this book.
All six volumes of this work are available at no cost at Project
Gutenberg. Some of these volumes reference each other, but some of the
references do not seem to match the text.
Volume I: LibraryBlog eBook number 60386
Volume II: LibraryBlog eBook number 60387
Volume III: LibraryBlog eBook number 60388
Volume IV: LibraryBlog eBook number 60389
Volume V: LibraryBlog eBook number 60390
Volume VI: LibraryBlog eBook number 60391
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "History of the Peninsular War Volume VI (of 6)" ***
Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.