History of the Peninsular War, Volume 1 (of 6)

The seizure of the fortresses, and the advance of the French troops, had roused the spirit of the Spaniards; their hopes had been excited to the highest pitch by the downfal of Godoy and the elevation of Ferdinand; and in that state of public feeling, the slaughter at Madrid, and the transactions at Bayonne, were no sooner known, than the people, as if by an instantaneous impulse over the whole kingdom, manifested a determination to resist the insolent usurpation. Abandoned as they were by one part of the Royal Family, deprived of the rest; forsaken too by those nobles and statesmen, whose names carried authority, and on whose talents and patriotism they had hitherto relied; ... betrayed by their government, and now exhorted to submission by all the constituted authorities civil and religious which they had been accustomed to revere and to obey; ... their strong places and frontier passes in possession of the enemy; the flower of their own troops some in Italy, others in the north of Europe; and a numerous army of the French, accustomed to victory, and now flushed with Spanish slaughter, in their capital and in the heart of the country; under these complicated disadvantages and dangers, they rose in general and simultaneous insurrection against the mightiest military power which had ever till that time existed; a force not more tremendous for its magnitude than for its perfect organization, wielded always with consummate skill, and directed with consummate wickedness. A spirit of patriotism burst forth which astonished Europe, and equalled the warmest hopes of those who were best acquainted with the Spanish nation: for those persons who knew the character of that noble people, ... who were familiar with their past history, and their present state; who had heard the peasantry talk of their old heroes, of Hernan Cortes and of the Cid; ... who had witnessed the passionate transfiguration which a Spaniard underwent when recurring from the remembrance of those times to his own; ... his brave impatience, his generous sense of humiliation, and the feeling with which his soul seemed to shake off the yoke of these inglorious days, and take sanctuary among the tombs of his ancestors, ... they knew that the spirit of Spain was still alive, and had looked on to this resurrection of the dry bones. As no foresight could have apprehended the kind of injury with which the nation had been outraged, nor have provided against the magnitude of the danger, so by no possible concert could so wide and unanimous a movement have been effected. The holiest and deepest feelings of the Spanish heart were roused, and the impulse was felt throughout the Peninsula like some convulsion of the earth or elements.

The firing on the 2d of May was heard at Mostoles, a little town about ten miles south of Madrid, and the Alcalde, who knew the situation of the capital, dispatched a bulletin to the south, in these words: “The country is in danger; Madrid is perishing through the perfidy of the French. All Spaniards, come to deliver it!” ♦Alvaro Florez Estrada, p. 126.♦ No other summons was sent abroad than this, which came from an obscure and unauthorized individual, in a state of mind that would have made him rush upon the French bayonets; but this stirred up the people in the southern provinces; and in truth no summons was needed, for the same feeling manifested itself every where as soon as the details of the massacre were known, and the whole extent of the outrage which had been offered to the nation. Buonaparte was totally ignorant of the Spanish character, and in that ignorance had pursued the only course which could have provoked a national resistance. If he had declared war against Spain, at the beginning, no enthusiasm could have been raised in favour of the government, and he might have dictated the terms of submission as a conqueror. The opinion of his magnanimity and greatness would have gone before him; the Spaniards, prone to admire what is romantic and miraculous, and taught by their own history to disregard the injustice and the inhumanity of wars which are waged for conquest, had been dazzled by the splendour of his portentous career; and had he appeared to them as an open, honourable foe, the pretension that he was appointed to fulfil the ways of Providence, might have found among them a submissive, and perhaps a willing belief.

Asturias was the first province in which the insurrection assumed a regular form. A Junta of representatives was elected, who assembled at Oviedo, and declared that the entire sovereignty had devolved into their hands. The commander in chief in that principality, who attempted to suppress these movements, was in danger of losing his life; and the Conde del Pinar, and the poet, D. Juan Melendez Valdes, who were sent by Murat from Madrid to appease the people, were glad to escape from the indignation which their mission provoked. The first act of the Junta was to dispatch two noblemen to solicit aid from England: they put off from ♦May 25.♦ Gijon in an open boat, and got on board an English privateer which happened to be cruizing off that port. Agents also were sent to Leon and to Coruña, inviting the Leonese and the Gallicians to unite with them against the common enemy.

The Asturian who came to Coruña upon this mission was ordered by one of the magistrates to leave the town immediately, and not to make his errand known to any person, on pain of being arrested and treated as a criminal. On the way back he stopped at Mondoñedo, where he learnt that the Leonese were in insurrection, and met as emissary from that kingdom, one of those generous spirits who were then every where employed in rousing the nation, and preparing it for the struggle which must ensue. The people of Mondoñedo entered with ardour into the common cause; and a student from the seminary there accepted the office of deputy from that city to Coruña, notwithstanding the risk which the Asturian had run. He went with the fair pretext of asking from the provincial government what course ought to be taken by the authorities at Mondoñedo, in consequence of the events in Asturias and Leon. Coruña was in a state of great ferment when he arrived; true and false reports were received with equal belief by the populace; it was affirmed that the sale of church property which Ferdinand had suspended was to be resumed; that Buonaparte would order off all the Spanish troops to the north of Europe, and that cart-loads of chains were on the way to manacle those soldiers who should refuse to march willingly. The captain-general of Gallicia and governor of Coruña, D. Antonio Filangieri, believed that the only course which it behoved him to pursue in the strange and perilous state of Spain, was to preserve order as far as possible; but the very precaution which he took to prevent an insurrection became the signal for it. The festival of St. Ferdinand, King of Spain, which is commemorated on the 30th of May, had always been celebrated as the saint’s-day of Ferdinand since he was acknowledged as Prince of Asturias; and in all fortified towns the flag should have been displayed and a salute fired. Filangieri forbade this to be done, lest it should occasion a dangerous movement among the people. The omission excited them more forcibly than the ceremony would have done: it was a silent but unequivocal act of assent to the iniquitous proceedings at Bayonne; and the people understanding it as such, collected in great numbers about the governor’s house, and insisted that the flag should be hoisted. Filangieri was a Neapolitan, who might have transferred his allegiance from a Bourbon King of Spain to a Buonaparte without any sacrifice of feeling, or violation of duty. His inclinations, however, were in favour of the country which had adopted him, and he obeyed the popular voice. They then required that a regiment which he had removed to Ferrol should be recalled, that the arms in the arsenal should be distributed among the inhabitants, that Ferdinand should be proclaimed King, and that war should be immediately declared against France. The governor demurred at this last demand; ... they broke into his house and seized his papers, and his life would probably have been sacrificed if he had not escaped at a garden door, and found shelter in a convent.

The multitude then hastened to the arsenal, and took possession of the arms; the soldiers offered no resistance, and soon openly declared for the cause of their country. Some officers who attempted to restrain the people were hurt; some houses were attacked; a warehouse was broke open because it was said the fetters in which refractory conscripts were to be conveyed to France were deposited there, and the French Consul would have been murdered, if some humaner persons had not conveyed him in time to Fort St. Antonio, upon an island in the sea. A portrait of Ferdinand was carried in procession through the streets; and the Vivas which accompanied that popular name were followed by a fearful cry of “Down with the French and the traitors!” But order was soon restored, and in great measure by the exertions of the clergy, who possessed at this time a double influence over the people, because no class of men displayed more fervour of patriotic loyalty. The heads of the monasteries and the parochial priests assembled with the constituted authorities of the town, the Regent of the Royal Audience, and the Governor, to whom obedience was now restored; they formed a permanent Junta of government, they sent officers to treat with the English squadron which was then blockading Ferrol, and they dispatched advices to Santiago, Tuy, Orense, Lugo, Mondoñedo, and ♦Nellerto. Mem. t. 3, No. 140.♦ Betanzos, requiring each of those cities to send a deputy to the Junta, and make the news known throughout their respective jurisdictions. In the course of three days the whole of Gallicia was in a state of insurrection, and a communication was immediately opened with England.

At Badajoz and at Seville the first popular movements were repressed by the local authorities; but they soon broke out again with renewed violence. The Count de la Torre del Fresno was governor at Badajoz; the people collected before his palace, calling upon him to enrol them, and give them arms for the defence of the country. ♦May 30.♦ A second time he endeavoured to control a spirit which was no longer to be restrained; and the furious multitude, who perceived that to remain quiet was in fact to acknowledge the foreign King who was to be forced upon them, considered all attempts to abate their ardour as proceeding from a traitorous intention, forced their way into the house, dragged him forth, and murdered him. For in the sudden dissolution of government, by which free scope was for the first time given to the hopes and expectations of enthusiastic patriotism, the evil passions also were let loose, and the unreasonable people were sometimes hurried into excesses by their own blind zeal, sometimes seduced into them by wretches who were actuated by the desire of plunder, or of private revenge. Men were sacrificed to the suspicions and fury of the multitude, as accomplices and agents of the French, whose innocence in many cases was established when too late. Such crimes were committed at Valladolid, Cartagena, Granada, Jaen, San Lucar, Carolina, Ciudad Rodrigo, and many other places. But this dreadful anarchy was of short duration. The people had no desire to break loose from the laws and the habits of subordination; the only desire which possessed them was to take vengeance for their murdered countrymen, and to deliver their country from the insolent usurpation which was attempted. If any obstruction was offered to this generous feeling, they became impatient and ungovernable: otherwise, having always been wont to look to their rulers, never to act for themselves, their very zeal displayed itself in the form of obedience; they were eager to obey any who would undertake to guide them, and no person thought of stepping beyond his rank to assume the direction. ♦Juntas established every where.♦ Because Ferdinand, when he set out upon his journey to Bayonne, had left a Junta of government at Madrid, the people were familiar with that name, and Juntas, in consequence, were formed every where; those persons being every where appointed whom the inhabitants were accustomed to respect.

Though the provisional governments thus suddenly formed were altogether independent of each other, a certain degree of ascendancy was conceded by general consent to the Junta of Seville; that city, for its size and importance, being regarded by the Spaniards as their capital, while Madrid was in the enemy’s possession. After the magistracy had repressed the first tumultuous indications of patriotism in the Sevillians, a movement too general for them to withstand was excited by a man of low rank by name Nicolas Tap y Nuñez. He came there as a missionary to preach the duty of insurrection against the French; and at a time when every hour brought fresh excitement to the hopes and the indignation of the people, this man by his ardour and intrepidity obtained a great ascendancy, which he did not in the slightest instance abuse. When the persons in authority found it impossible to withstand the tide of popular feeling, the formation of a Junta was proposed, and the first thought of the people was, that the parochial clergy and the heads of the convents should assemble to choose the members, so little did they think of exercising any right of election themselves, and so naturally did they look up to those by whom they were wont to be directed. Some of these persons assembled, accepting unwillingly the power with which they were by acclamation invested, and confounded, if not intimidated, by their apprehensions of the French, the injunctions of the constituted authorities at Madrid, and the presence of a multitude who had given murderous proofs that their pleasure was not to be resisted with impunity: in this state of mind many withdrew from the meeting, and they who remained were glad to rid themselves of immediate responsibility by assenting to any nominations which were proposed. Such a choice was made as might be expected under such circumstances; some who thrust themselves forward with the qualifications of wealth and effrontery were chosen, and they to accredit their own election added others who held the highest place in public opinion for rank or talents. Among them were D. Francisco Saavedra, who had formerly been minister of finance, and P. Gil de Sevilla; both had been sufferers under Godoy’s administration, and they who were persecuted by him were for the most part entitled to respect as well as commiseration. Though the populace had thus obtained their immediate object, they still remained in a state of ferocious excitement, and their fury was directed (by private malice, it was believed) against the Conde del Aguila, one of the most distinguished inhabitants of Seville, whose collection of pictures, books, and manuscripts, was justly esteemed among the treasures of that city. The maddened and misguided rabble attacked him first with insults, then dragged him from his carriage, killed him, and exposed his body upon one of the city gates. And even when order was restored, the magistrates did not venture to institute any proceedings for bringing to justice the perpetrators or instigators of the murder.

Tap y Nuñez, who was for that day the Lord of Seville, assisted at the election of the Junta, and being a stranger, and ignorant of the good or ill deserts of those who were proposed, assented to all the nominations. Learning however that two members, more likely to discredit the cause of the country than to serve it, had been chosen, he went the next day to their sitting, and required that these individuals should be expelled. All hope of establishing subordination would have been lost, if a demagogue like this, however meritorious his intentions, were allowed to make and unmake the members of the government at his pleasure. The Junta therefore immediately arrested him, and sent him prisoner to Cadiz. This was a necessary act of vigour, without which no authority could have been maintained. But some merciful consideration was due to this man, because he had shown no disposition to abuse his dangerous influence, nor to aggrandize himself, when it was in his power: he was, however, made to feel, that the forms and realities of justice were as little to be looked for under the provisional government, as under the old despotism; and having been thrown into prison, there he was left to linger, hopeless of a trial, and having nothing to trust to for his deliverance but the chance that they might be weary of supporting ♦Espanol. t. 1, p. 13.♦ him there, or that his place might be wanted for another.

The vigour which they had shown in thus asserting their authority was not belied by their subsequent conduct. Their first measure was to establish in all towns within their jurisdiction, containing 2000 householders, corresponding Juntas, who were to enlist all the inhabitants between the ages of sixteen and forty-five, and embody them. Funds were to be raised by order of the Supreme Junta, by taxes on all corporations and rich individuals; and, above all, by voluntary subscriptions. ♦They declare war against France.♦ They declared war against the Emperor Napoleon and against France, in the name of Ferdinand and of all the Spanish nation, protesting that they would not lay down their arms till that Emperor restored to them the whole of their Royal Family, and respected the rights, liberty, and independence of the nation which he had violated. This, said they, we declare with the understanding and accordance of the Spanish people. By the same declaration, they made known that they had contracted an armistice with England, and that they hoped to conclude a lasting peace.

Solano was at this time on the frontiers with his army, having been recalled from Portugal. If any man in such times could rely for security upon his character, his popularity, and the whole tenor of his life, this nobleman might have felt himself secure. The arbitrary authority which he possessed at Cadiz had always been exercised for the good of the inhabitants and the improvement of the city: the military and naval officers respected him, the higher orders were his personal friends, and the populace looked with full confidence to his justice. No one more deeply felt and regretted the decline and degradation of Spain; yet had he partaken of its degradation, for he resigned himself to it, and despairing of his country, would have submitted to a nominal reform of government imposed by a foreign power, and under an intrusive dynasty. Upon the first movements at Seville, he hastened thither; and Saavedra, P. Gil, Count de Tilly, and others, who were willing to stand forward against the usurpation, and encourage a spirit from which every thing might be hoped, communicated their desires and intentions to him, as a true Spaniard, whose genuine patriotism could not be called in question. But Solano was one of those persons who believed the power of the French to be irresistible; the leading men whose opinions were most conformable to his own, and who, till this fatal time of trial, had been thought capable and desirous of introducing those reforms which the system of administration required, had submitted to Buonaparte’s pleasure; and while they, in common with all the constituted authorities in the metropolis, in the most earnest terms exhorted their countrymen to submission, the French, he knew, were ready to march troops wherever their presence might be required, and to repress an insurrection as promptly and severely in Seville as they had done at Madrid. He was not aware that the spirit which had manifested itself at Madrid, and was ready to break out in Seville, was felt at that time throughout every city and every village in the Peninsula. A proper fear also lest the people should possess themselves of power which they would certainly abuse, influenced him also; and determining hastily to support what appeared to him the cause of order and the laws, he received the communications which were made to him with coldness and distrust, required time to deliberate before he could assent to their views, and hastened with all speed to resume his command at Cadiz, and preserve that important city for the intrusive government.

There he gave out that he had returned thus suddenly to provide against a bombardment of the city which the English were about to commence. This gave him a pretext for removing cannon from the land side, in order to strengthen the batteries toward the sea; it is said that he removed the military stores also, under pretence that the casemates would be wanted as shelter for the inhabitants; and that he sent to the French General Dupont, who had been ordered to Andalusia, urging him to hasten thither by forced marches. The truth of these reports it is impossible to ascertain; and some who knew and loved Solano have asserted their belief, that if he had lived to witness the national virtue which was so soon afterwards displayed, he would have been one of the most ardent and able supporters of the national cause. Admiral Purvis, who commanded the British squadron before Cadiz, sent in flags of truce, and offered to co-operate with him against the French, who had five sail of the line and a frigate, under Admiral Rossilly, then lying in the bay; offers of assistance on the part of England were also made by the governor of Gibraltar, Sir Hew Dalrymple, who was already in communication with General Castaños, then commanding the Spanish force in the camp of St. Roque. Solano replied, that all overtures must be addressed to the government at Madrid, which was in fact declaring his adherence to Joseph Buonaparte.

Yet he appears to have wavered in purpose, if not in inclination. As soon as the popular cause had obtained the ascendancy at Seville, the Junta of that city sent out four artillery officers with dispatches to the commanders at Cadiz, Badajoz, Granada, and St. Roque, declaring, that in the present dissolution of government, the duty of providing for the public weal had been committed to them, and informing them that war had been declared against France, and peace with England. The Conde de Teba, Cipriano Palafox, was the person entrusted with this mission to Cadiz: his brother, the Conde de Montijo, had taken a decided part in promoting the insurrection; and this young officer was charged with these dispatches, not only because it was an honourable office, but because he was capable of explaining to Solano the state of affairs at Seville more fully than there had been time to do in writing. Full of zeal in a cause which he afterwards deserted, he entered Cadiz cracking his whip like a courier, and communicated to the people who flocked about him, the news which he brought; which was also speedily diffused by means of private couriers, whom the merchants of Seville sent to their correspondents, and by the zeal of propagandists who, doubting the determination of the persons in authority, came to make the people declare themselves. Solano was intimate with the Count de Teba, and, according to that nobleman’s relation, would have considered himself criminal if he had acknowledged the authority of the Junta of Seville, derived, as he conceived it to be, merely from the people of that city in a state of insurrection; but he saw how dangerous it would now be openly to disclaim their authority, and therefore summoned to council all the general officers, military and naval, eleven in number, who were within reach, and an address to the people was drawn up in their name. ♦They exhort the people not to engage in hostilities with the French.♦ It stated, that of all undertakings a war against France was the most difficult, considering the numbers and discipline of the French army; the want of Spanish troops, and the indiscipline of the new levies which might be raised. The right of declaring who were the enemies of the nation belonged, they said, exclusively to the King; he had repeatedly assured them that the French were his friends and intimate allies; in that character they had entered Spain, and the King had not manifested any change in his opinions concerning them; it was doubtful therefore whether he required from the people those sacrifices which were now called for. If nevertheless the people would decide upon war, they ought to know that great sacrifices must be made; men must be enrolled, embodied, and disciplined, they must quit their homes for a long time, perhaps for ever, and they who were not enrolled must return to their ordinary state of tranquillity; for it was for soldiers alone to fight, while the other inhabitants of a country remained neutral and passive, as might be seen by the example of the Germans, the Prussians, the Russians, and other nations. Were the people to act otherwise, and take an active part, the enemy would plunder their houses, and lay waste every thing with fire and sword. Moreover the most dreadful disorganization of society would ensue; and the English who were in the bay might take advantage of this dissolution of government to get possession of the port and city, and convert Cadiz into a second Gibraltar. The governor and the eleven general officers whom he had assembled concurring in these views, laid their opinions, they said, before the people, who were now to determine what part should be taken, and who could accuse no person of having deceived them, if the evils which were thus foreseen and foretold should in the event come upon them. But if, in despite of these representations, they persisted in the resolution of making war against the French, the generals were ready to begin hostilities, that they might not be accused of having given their advice from pusillanimity or any other motives unworthy of their patriotism, their honour, and their courage.

The tenor of this address evinced little resentment of the wrongs of their country in the persons by whom it was framed; and the manner in which it was published discovered as extraordinary a want of judgement in the governor, as he had displayed in his legislative experiments at Setubal. Instead of waiting till the next day, he increased the agitation and alarm of the people, ordering the address to be read at night in the streets by the light of torches, and summoning the restless part of the population, and alarming the peaceable, by the sound of military music; sure means of counteracting the sedative effect which the proclamation was intended to produce. The bolder spirits who were engaged in the better cause did not fail to perceive the advantage which the address afforded, by the heartlessness of its reasoning, and its full recognition of the right of the people to direct the conduct of the governor. There was no rest for the inhabitants that night; an answer was prepared to the generals, which was brought by a disorderly multitude, bearing torches, at midnight, to the governor’s palace. Solano was summoned to the balcony; and a young man, standing on the shoulders of one of the stoutest of his companions, read to him a writing in the name of the people, declaring that they had decided upon war, because they could confute all the reasons which had been advanced against it; and accordingly he read aloud an answer to the address, point by point. The mob applauded, and required that the French squadron should immediately be summoned to surrender. Solano assured them that their wishes should be fulfilled, and that on the morrow all the general officers should be assembled in consequence. Had he sympathized with the national feeling, and given at first that assent which he now reluctantly yielded, he might have directed their ardour, and maintained subordination, though not tranquillity. But the populace had now gained head, and broken loose, and at such times the bloodiest ruffian has always the most influence.

Part of the mob went to the arsenal, and these were the better-minded Spaniards, who wanted arms, that they might use them in the defence of their country. They found no opposition, because the soldiers every where partook of the general impulse of indignation against the French. Others broke open the prisons to deliver their friends and companions in guilt. The house of the French Consul was attacked and forced, for the purpose of putting him to death: he had taken refuge in the Convent of St. Augustine, and from thence got on board the French squadron. Murmurs were heard against Solano, as one who was disposed at heart to favour the enemy. The Count de Teba warned him that he was in danger, and advised him to give the command to D. Thomas de Morla (one of the generals whom he had called to council), and go with him to Seville, for the avowed purpose of obtaining the fullest information how to proceed in so important a crisis. Solano saw the prudence of this advice, but a sense of honour withheld him from following it, lest he should be suspected of cowardice; and as a second reason, he alleged a fear which his blind attachment to the French alone could have occasioned, that the English might take advantage of the confusion, and endeavour to make themselves masters of Cadiz; as if England were the enemy whom the Spaniards had then cause to dread!

On the morrow the general officers assembled for the second time, and about mid-day the people having collected to know their determination, they came forward in the balcony, and Solano and Morla assured the multitude that every thing which they desired should be done, and therefore they might disperse, and go each to his home in peace. One man cried out that they did not choose to see the French colours flying. Solano asked where they were to be seen? and upon being answered, on the French ships, he replied, that the naval officers and engineers were already instructed to take measures for obtaining possession of that squadron. They appeared satisfied with this, and Solano sate down to dinner. Before he had risen from table another mob arrived at the palace, with a man at their head who had formerly been a Carthusian, but had obtained leave to exchange that order for a less rigid one, in which he was now serving his noviciate. This man demanded to speak with the governor; an answer was returned, that the governor stood in need of rest, and that he had promised the people to fulfil their desires. The ex-Carthusian was not satisfied with this, and endeavoured to push by the sentinel, who upon this fired his piece in the air, and fastened the door. The mob then, under the same leader, brought cannon against the house, shattered the doors, and rushed in. They were now bent upon Solano’s death. He meantime escaped by the roof, and took shelter in the house of an English merchant, whose lady concealed him in a secret closet; and there, it is said, he would have been safe, if the very workman who had constructed it had not joined the mob, and discovered38 his hiding-place. The mistress of the house, Mrs. Strange, in vain endeavoured to save him, by the most earnest intreaties, and by interposing between him and his merciless assailants. She was wounded in the arm; and Solano, as he was dragged away, bade her farewell till eternity! They hauled him toward the gallows, that his death might be ignominious; ♦Nellerto, Mem. t. 3, Nos. 134, 143. Jacob’s Travels. Sir J. Carr’s Travels, p. 47, 48.♦ others were too ferocious to wait for this, they cut and stabbed him, while he resigned himself with composure and dignity to his fate; and the mortal blow is said to have been given by one of his own soldiers, who, to save him from farther sufferings, and from intended shame, ran him through the heart.

There may be reason for supposing that the fury of the populace was in this instance directed by some personal enemies of the Marquis, because it fell wholly upon him; the general officers who united in the address seem to have incurred no danger, and Morla, as second in command, was declared the next day by acclamation governor of Cadiz and captain-general of the province. He accepted the command, on condition that the people would disperse peaceably; the tumultuous election was confirmed by the Junta of Seville, who sent one of their members to concert a plan of operations with Morla; and the new governor issued a proclamation, ♦1808. June.♦ exhorting the people to be tranquil, telling them that a set of ruffians were plundering and destroying under the mask of patriotism, protesting that the only desire of the persons in authority was to die in the cause of their beloved Ferdinand, whom a tyrant had separated from them; assuring them that measures should instantly be taken against the French ships, and that within four and twenty hours the happy effects would be seen. Meantime the French squadron took up a defensive position, in a channel leading to the Caraccas, and out of reach of the works. M. Rossilly, the commander, knew that every effort would be made to relieve him, and endeavoured therefore to gain time, being no doubt confident that the force which would be ordered to occupy Cadiz would beat down any resistance that the Spaniards could oppose. He made overtures to the governor, proposing to quit the bay, if an arrangement to that effect could be made with the British squadron; this, he said, was for the purpose of tranquillizing the people, since his force, and the position which he had taken, appeared to occasion some uneasiness. But if the English should refuse their consent, he then offered to land his guns, keeping his men on board, and not hoisting his colours; in that case he required that hostages should be exchanged, and demanded the protection of the Spaniards against the exterior enemy. Morla replied, that though these proposals were such as it became the French admiral to make, it was not compatible with his honour to accept them: his orders were positive, and he could hear of nothing but an unconditional surrender. Lord Collingwood had now arrived from before Toulon, to take the command upon this, which had become the more important station. He offered to co-operate with the Spaniards, with whom the fleet was now in full communication; but being aware of their own strength, and sure of their prey, they declined his assistance. If the French commander had not relied too confidently upon the advance of his countrymen and the fortune of Buonaparte, he would now have surrendered to the English, for the certainty of obtaining better treatment, and the chance of exciting some disagreement respecting the prizes. Batteries were erected on the Isle of Leon, and near Fort Luiz; and from these, and from their mortar and gun-boats, the attack was commenced, while the British sailors remained impatient spectators of a contest carried on at a distance, and protracted from the ninth of June till the fourteenth, when, having in vain endeavoured to obtain more favourable terms, ♦Surrender of the French squadron.♦ Rossilly surrendered unconditionally. In an address to the people which Morla then published he pointed out the advantage of a mode of attack which they had censured as dilatory and inefficient; the victory had cost only four lives, and the ships which were now their own had been taken with the least possible injury. The prisoners, he said, should be exchanged for Spanish troops. He exhorted and commanded the people to return to their accustomed habits of subordination. The convulsion which Spain has undergone, said he, has awakened us from our lethargy, and made us feel our rights, and the duty which we owe to our holy religion and our King. We wanted an electric shock to rouse us from our palsied state of inactivity; we stood in need of a hurricane to clear the heavy and unwholesome atmosphere. But if violent remedies are continued after the good which was proposed from them be obtained, they become fatal: excessive efforts bring on a debility worse than direct weakness, because the very principle of strength is exhausted. It was now necessary to return to order, and to confide in the magistrates. Able men must be armed and disciplined; they who were not fit for military service would be employed in other ways, and boys and women who excited tumults should be punished. The troops, said he, the whole city, the sword of justice, and above all God himself, who chastises those that abuse his mercies, authorize and support me.

The man who addressed this language to his countrymen had hitherto endeavoured to frustrate the purposes of those better spirits whom the danger had awakened; and by his means this blow against the French had been delayed as long as possible, in the hope and expectation that a French force might arrive in time to prevent it, and secure Cadiz for the Intrusive King. For in this part of Spain alone, the intention of opposing Buonaparte had been conceived as soon as his designs were discovered, and measures had been taken for obtaining assistance from the English. The Spanish Commander at Algeziras, and the British Governor of Gibraltar, had always been accustomed in time of war to maintain that sort of humane and courteous intercourse which the laws of honour allow, and by which the evils of hostility may be mitigated. The opportunity thus afforded had not been overlooked by those Spaniards who were resolved to act for the deliverance of their country; and if Ferdinand, instead of overthrowing the favourite, had found it necessary to fly, it was intended that he should have taken refuge at Gibraltar, and from thence have embarked for the colonies, trusting to British honour. As early as the beginning of April, General Castaños had communicated with Sir Hew Dalrymple upon the state of affairs, and the measures which it might be necessary to adopt. After the elder branches of the Royal Family had been decoyed away, a hope of saving D. Francisco, the youngest of the Infantes, was cherished, and of conveying him to America, to secure that portion of the Spanish dominions: but in case the whole of the Bourbons should be destroyed, or carried into hopeless captivity, the Archduke Charles was regarded as the fittest person to whom the throne, thus rendered vacant, could be offered; and a request was made to Sir Hew that a frigate might be held in readiness to sail for Trieste, and bring him over. Sir Hew Dalrymple saw the whole importance of the crisis; and by the generosity with which he took upon himself the responsibility of acting in affairs of such moment, the Spanish General was induced to place just confidence in British frankness and good faith. Toward the latter end of May two French officers, one of whom was an aide-de-camp of Murat’s, came to Algeziras. Castaños supposed their errand was to arrest him, and in that case had determined upon killing them, and retiring by sea to Gibraltar. He found, however, that they spake to him with apparent confidence respecting the Viceroyalty of Mexico, which had been promised him by the old government, and was now held out as a lure to him, as it also was to General Cuesta. The aide-de-camp assured him that the removal of the Bourbons from Spain had for three years been the chief object of Buonaparte’s policy; and this having now been happily effected, the house of Austria was next to be removed ... an operation which could not require more than four months; ... so easy at that time did any ambitious enterprise appear to the soldiers of Buonaparte! But Castaños was neither deterred by the power of this formidable tyrant, nor seduced by any prospect of personal aggrandizement. He continued his communications with Gibraltar, and his plan was to begin by seizing the French fleet; this he thought would be the best mode of commencing hostilities, and such a stroke at the outset would give a character of decision and vigour to the Spanish counsels. Morla had influence enough to frustrate it then; but no evil arose from the delay; rather it proved advantageous, by allowing time for that simultaneous manifestation of feeling which so decidedly proved the spirit of the people. Meantime, in full reliance upon England, Castaños obeyed the first summons from the Junta of Seville, and prepared to resist the French when they should enter Andalusia.

While Asturias, Galicia, and Andalusia, had thus with one impulse taken arms against the usurpation, and opened an intercourse with England, of whose willing and efficient assistance no doubt was entertained, the city of Valencia, where the same spirit manifested itself at the same time, became the scene of a most horrible and disgraceful tragedy. There also, in the first movements of the people, the governor, D. Miguel de Saavedra, fell a victim to popular fury; he was brought back from Requeña, whither he had retired for safety, and murdered near the palace of the Conde de Cervellon, who had decidedly engaged in the national cause, and yet with all his efforts was unable to save him. His head was carried about the streets on a pike, and then exposed upon a pillar in the Plaza de S. Domingo. A Junta was chosen, and order would soon have been re-established, if at this time there had not arrived from Madrid one of those monsters whose actions, we might wish, for the sake of human nature, to account for by the supposition of demoniacal possession. P. Baltasar Calvo, such was his name, was a Canon of the church of S. Isidro, in the metropolis; it was afterwards reported that he had been deputed by Murat to secure Valencia for the intrusive government, by secretly treating with the members of the Junta; and that finding this impracticable, he determined to make himself master of the city by terror. But that he should have acted as he did with any ultimate view of delivering up the city to the French is utterly impossible; nor indeed is it likely that he had any other purpose than that of glutting at the head of a mob a devilish disposition, which, if he had lived a century earlier, would have found appropriate employment and full gratification in the service of the Holy Office.

There were many French residents in Valencia; the abominable conduct of their government toward Spain had made them objects of hatred as well as suspicion; and at the beginning of the disturbances most of them very imprudently took refuge in the citadel. Calvo denounced them to the mob as being in correspondence with Murat and the French troops, for the purpose of betraying the city. The Junta had no military force at their command; and they were too much confused or intimidated to employ that moral force which, with due exertions on the part of the magistracy, may generally be brought into action. The British consul, Mr. Tupper, was one of their number; he went to the citadel, represented to the French the imminent danger to which they were exposed while they remained there collected as it were for slaughter, and intreated them to retire into the different convents, and name such of the inhabitants as they supposed would be willing and able to associate for their protection. But thinking themselves safer where they were, they would not be persuaded. By this time the Canon had collected instruments enough for his bloody purpose; in a large city ruffians will never be wanting, till the police of cities, and the moral condition of the inferior classes, be very different from what they are throughout all Christendom; and that he might have sure subjects at his command, he had opened the prisons and let their inmates loose. On the 5th of June, when the evening was closing, Calvo led his rabble to the citadel, and forced some friars to accompany them. Little resistance was made by the guard; the Frenchmen were led one by one into an apartment, to be confessed by the friars, like condemned criminals, then thrust out by some of these infatuated and infuriated wretches, felled with bludgeons, and dispatched by the knife. When the Junta heard that this horrible massacre was going on, they called out the monks and friars, and sent them to the scene of slaughter, carrying the host uncovered, and with lighted tapers, chanting as they went. At that sight the wretches ceased from their murderous work, and, smeared as they were with blood, knelt by the bodies of their dead and dying victims, in adoration. But Calvo, more obdurate than the very murderers whom he directed, called on them to complete what they had begun; he intimated to the religioners, that if they interposed in behalf of the French, they should be considered as accomplices with them, and partake their fate: and they, intimidated by the threat, and appalled by the dreadful objects before them, withdrew, ... when that spirit of heroic devotion, which looks upon martyrdom without dismay, might surely have prevented farther bloodshed, and redeemed the Valencians from the shame of the foulest excesses by which a cause so righteous in itself was sullied.

The massacre continued all night. A hundred and seventy-one persons were butchered; and when the day broke, it was perceived that some ten or twelve of these victims were still breathing. The effect which this produced upon the murderers shows how certain it is that the religioners would have softened them, had there been one man among them with the spirit of a martyr. Struck with compassion, and without making their intention known to Calvo, as if they knew him to be immitigable, they removed these poor sufferers to the hospital, and assisted in binding up the wounds which they had made. There still remained about an hundred and fifty French in the citadel; the mob, satiated with blood, and now open to feelings of humanity, determined upon sparing them, and removing them to a place of safety. The Canon consented to this, which it might have been dangerous to oppose; but his lust for blood was still unsatiated. He ordered all the French to be confessed before they left the citadel, then fastened them two by two with ropes, and marched them out toward the place appointed. On the way he halted the mob, and holding up a paper, declared that it had been found in the pocket of one of the Frenchmen, and that it contained an engagement on the part of his countrymen in that city, to deliver it up as soon as an army should appear before it. The multitude, with whom bold assertions, if according with their passions or prejudices, always pass for proofs, believed this preposterous charge; and with renewed ferocity falling upon the remnant whom they had resolved to spare, massacred them all. Calvo then led them to the houses of the French, in search of those who had remained at home, when the greater number took shelter in the citadel; these also were dragged from their hiding places, and in the same deliberate manner confessed and butchered. One circumstance alone occurred which may relieve the horror of this dreadful narrative. M. Pierre Bergiere had acquired a large fortune in Valencia, and was remarkable for his singular charity. It was not enough for him to assist the poor and the sick and the prisoner with continual alms, he visited them, and ministered to their wants himself in the sick room and in the dungeon. Yet his well-known virtues did not exempt him from the general proscription of his countrymen, and he too having been confessed and absolved, was thrust out to the murderers. The wretch who was about to strike him was one whom he had frequently relieved in prison, and upon recognizing him withheld his arm; calling however to mind that Bergiere was a Frenchman, he raised it again; but his heart again smote him, and saying, “Art thou a Devil or a Saint, that I cannot kill thee?” he pulled him through the crowd, and made way for his escape.

During these atrocities the Junta seem to have been panic-stricken, making no effort to exert an authority which never was so much needed. The Canon was not satisfied with this timid and unwilling acquiescence; he wished to involve them in the responsibility for these wholesale murders, or to bring them into discredit and danger by making them act in opposition to the wishes of the multitude whom he guided. With these views he commanded five Frenchmen to be led to the door of the hall wherein they held their sittings, and sent in a messenger to ask in his name for a written order to put them to death. The intention was readily understood, but the moment was not yet come for acting decisively against this merciless demagogue, and the Conde de Cervellon replied, “You have killed many Frenchmen without an order, and none can be wanted now.” Mr. Tupper went out to the assassins, and addressed them on behalf of the prisoners; he was struck at with a knife by one who called him a Frenchman himself; the blow was parried, voices were heard crying that he was an Englishman, and one man declared he would put to death the first person who should offer violence to the English consul. But any interposition for the miserable French was in vain; they were knocked down and stabbed, and their bodies were left upon the steps of the hall. There were still several Frenchmen concealed in the city, who were in danger every moment of being discovered and massacred. Mr. Tupper, when he found that all appeals to the humanity of the mob were unavailing, had recourse to a different method, and proposed to an assembly of ruffians, armed with the knives which they had already used in murder, and were eager to use again in the same service, that the survivors should be given up to him, that he might send them prisoners to England, promising in exchange for them a supply of arms and ammunition from Gibraltar. By this means their lives were preserved.