The canon Calvo was now in that state of insanity which is sometimes produced by the possession of unlimited authority. He declared himself the supreme and only representative of King Ferdinand, and was about to issue orders for dismissing the Conde de Cervellon from his rank as Captain-general, dissolving the Junta, and putting the Archbishop to death. A sense of their own imminent danger then roused the Junta. They invited him to join them, and assist at their deliberations. He came, followed by a crowd of ruffians, who filled the avenues when he entered the hall: he demeaned himself insolently, and threatened the assembly till P. Rico, a Franciscan, one of the most active and intrepid in the national cause, rose and called their attention to a matter upon which the safety of the city depended; and then denounced the Canon as a traitor, and called upon the members immediately to arrest him. Calvo was confounded at this attack; ... when he recovered himself, he proposed to retire while the Junta were investigating his conduct; they well understood his intention, and voted that he should immediately be sent in irons to Majorca; and before the mob, who at his bidding would have massacred the Junta, knew that he had been accused, he was conducted secretly under a strong guard to the mole, put in chains, and embarked for that island. The Junta then acted with vigour and severity: they seized about two hundred of the assassins, had them strangled in prison, and exposed their bodies upon a scaffold. The Canon was afterwards brought back and suffered the same deserved fate. What confession he made was not known; he would not permit ♦Sir J. Carr’s Travels, p. 255–266.♦ the priest to reveal it, farther than an acknowledgement that God and his crimes had brought him to that end.

The Valencians, as soon as they were delivered from the tyranny of this frantic demagogue, prepared vigorously for defence. They burnt the paper money which had been stamped in Murat’s name, and stopped several chests of specie which were on the way to Madrid. The Catalans were not able to exert themselves with equal effect, because Barcelona, the second city of the kingdom in population, but in commercial and military importance the first, was in the hands of the French; but where the people were not controlled by the immediate presence of the enemy they declared themselves with a spirit worthy of their ancestors. The decrees from Bayonne and the edicts of Murat were publicly burnt at Manresa. The Governor of Tortosa, D. Santiago de Guzman y Villoria, was murdered by the raging populace, and that city declared against the intrusive government. Duhesme thought to secure Lerida by sending the Spanish regiment of Estremadura to occupy the citadel; he expected that, being Spaniards, no objection would be made to admitting them, and an order for relieving them by French troops might afterwards be obtained from the government at Madrid. But the people of Lerida refused to let them enter, in wrongful, though at that time necessary distrust; and the regiment, glad to find itself at liberty, took up its quarters at Tarrega, waiting to see where it might be employed with most advantage in the service of its country. ♦Cabañes. Hist. del Exercito de Cataluña. Part i. p. 23, 24.♦ They were soon invited to Zaragoza. It was for the purpose of keeping open a communication with that city that Duhesme had wished to occupy Lerida; and if both places had been secured, the French would then have had military possession of all the Pyrenean provinces.

Among the persons who accompanied Ferdinand to Bayonne was D. Joseph Palafox y Melzi, the youngest of three brothers, of one of the most distinguished families in Aragon. He was about thirty-four years of age, and had been from boyhood in the Spanish guards without ever having seen actual service; in Madrid, where he had mostly passed his time, he was only remarkable for a certain foppishness in his appearance, and in ordinary times he might have passed through life as an ordinary man, without any pretensions to moral or intellectual rank. After the tumults at Aranjuez he was appointed second in command there, under the Marquis de Castellar, to whose custody the Prince of the Peace was committed. Not being regarded at Bayonne as a person whom it was necessary to secure, he found means to escape in the disguise of a peasant, and in that dress arrived safely at a country house belonging to his family, at Alfranca, about two miles from Zaragoza. That city was in a perturbed state, ... the people restless, indignant, and eager to act against the enemy; the magistrates, and the Captain-general of Aragon, D. Jorge Juan Guillermi, desirous of maintaining order, and ready in regular course of office to obey the instruction which they received from Madrid, not scrupulous from what authority they came, while it was through the accustomed channels. The arrival of Palafox at such a time excited the hopes and the expectations of the Zaragozans. That he was hostile to the intended usurpation was certain, he would not otherwise have exposed himself to danger in escaping from Bayonne; that he came with the intention of serving Ferdinand was to be presumed, ... perhaps with secret instructions from him; it was even rumoured that Ferdinand himself had miraculously made his escape, and was now concealed in the house of the faithful companion of his flight. This report was too romantic to obtain belief, except among the most credulous of the ignorant. Palafox however was so popular, and the impatience of the people discovered itself so plainly, and their wishes so evidently looked to him as the man whom they would fain have for their leader, that though he used no means direct or indirect for encouraging this disposition, the Captain-general thought proper to send him an order to quit the kingdom of Aragon. Despotic as the system of administration had been throughout all Spain, such an order to a man of Palafox’s rank, in his own country, would have been deemed at any time a most unfit exertion of authority. Under the present circumstances it evinced the determination of General Guillermi to support the intrusive government, and hastened the insurrection which he apprehended, but was unable to avert.

Two men of strong national feeling and great hardihood had obtained at this time an ascendancy over the populace; Tio Jorge the one was called, the other Tio Marin, ... Tio, or uncle, being the appellation by which men in the lower classes who have passed the middle age are familiarly addressed in that part of Spain. ♦Insurrection in that city.♦ These persons, on the morning of the 24th of May, at the head of a multitude of peasants from the parishes of S. Madeleña and S. Pablo, proceeded to the Governor’s palace, crying out, Down with Murat! Ferdinand for ever! They disarmed the guard, made their way into his apartment, and required him to accompany them to the arsenal, and give orders for distributing arms to the people; a great quantity, they said, had been sold to the French. It was in vain that Guillermi defended himself against this absurd accusation, and pleaded his age and services and honourable wounds: his conduct towards Palafox had unequivocally shown what part he was disposed to take in this crisis of his country. But the Zaragozans, less inhuman than the populace in many other places, contented themselves with securing him in the old castle of the Aljaferia, which was used for a military prison as well as for a depot of artillery. The second in command, Lieutenant-general Mori, who was an Italian by birth, was then regarded as his successor, rather by right of seniority, than for any confidence on the part of the people; for though his name was shouted with loud Vivas, ominous intimations accompanied these shouts, that if he did not demean himself to their satisfaction, the cry would be, Down with Mori, as it had been, Down with Guillermi. A Junta was formed, but though the most respectable persons were chosen, the people continued to act for themselves. Still it was with greater moderation than had been evinced elsewhere; a cry was raised against the French inhabitants; and they were conducted to the citadel more for their own security than for that of the city.

Tio Jorge and a party of peasants, now armed from the arsenal, went to Alfranca, and invited Palafox into Zaragoza; he showed no disposition to accept their invitation, and they would have taken him with them against his consent, if General Mori, feeling the instability of his own power, had not written to solicit his assistance. The next morning, when he appeared in the Council, he requested that some means might be taken for delivering him from the importunities of the people, protesting that he was ready to devote all his exertions, and his life also, if that sacrifice should be required, to his country and his King. The people who surrounded the door were now calling out that Palafox should be appointed Captain-general; they burst into the Council with this cry. Mori gladly declared himself willing to resign the office if his services were no longer necessary, and Palafox was thus invested with the command.

The city was in this state when Jovellanos, having been released on the accession of Ferdinand from his long and iniquitous imprisonment in Majorca, arrived there on the way from Barcelona to Asturias, his native province. The insurrection in Catalonia had not broken out when he commenced his journey, but every where the storm was gathering; travellers of his appearance were every where regarded with curiosity and suspicion; and when desirous, because of his infirm age and broken health, to avoid the noise of a tumultuous city and the inconvenience of unnecessary delay, he would have past on without entering the gates, a jealous mob surrounded the carriage. Hearing that it came from Barcelona, some were for searching the strangers, others for conducting them before the new Captain-general to be examined; presently however he was recognised, the name of Jovellanos was pronounced; He is a good man, he must stay with us, was then the cry; and he was conducted as in triumph to the palace. Palafox also intreated this eminent and irreproachable man to remain in Zaragoza and assist him with his advice; but Jovellanos pleaded infirmities brought on more by sufferings than by years, and the necessity of retirement and tranquillity for a broken constitution. Among the persons who were then with the greatest zeal assisting Palafox in his preparations for war, was the Conde de Cabarrus, a man of great reputation as a financier and political economist, remarkable alike for talents and irregularities. Jovellanos, himself the most excellent of men, had tolerated the faults of Cabarrus for the sake of the noble qualities which he possessed; and when Cabarrus, from the high favour which he enjoyed under Charles III. became in the ensuing reign an object of hatred and persecution, Jovellanos, as he had been the most disinterested of all his many friends in prosperity, was the most faithful of the few who adhered to him in his disgrace. Hitherto the love of Cabarrus for his country, his passionate desire for the improvement of its institutions, and his attachment to the principles of liberty, had never been doubted; and now at thus meeting Jovellanos after ten years of suffering, he shed tears, less in grief for the condition of Spain, than in joy for the right old Spanish spirit which they saw reviving among the people. He promised to follow his venerable friend to Jadraque, and offered to be guided by his counsels. Jovellanos the next day proceeded on his journey, and for honour as well as protection Tio Jorge, with an escort of musqueteers, convoyed him the first stage.

The situation in which Palafox was placed was equally conspicuous and perilous. To have escaped from Bayonne, and taken upon himself the command of one of the kingdoms of Spain in opposition to the usurpation, marked him in a peculiar manner for the vengeance of a tyrant who was not to be offended with impunity. The capital of Aragon was an important position, and at this time exposed to danger on all sides. The adjoining province of Navarre was in possession of the French, and it was not yet known that any resistance to them had been manifested in Catalonia. The passes of the Pyrenees, leading directly into Aragon, were open, and the main body of the French army was on the other side in and about Madrid. Thus surrounded by the enemy, and in a city which in military language would have been called defenceless, (the walls and gates of Zaragoza having for many generations been of no other use than to facilitate the collection of the customs,) Palafox declared war against the French. The proclamation which he issued was in a style which accorded with the temper of the people. He declared that the Emperor of the French, the individuals of his family, and every French general and officer, should be held personally responsible for the safety of King Ferdinand, his brothers, and his uncle: that should the French commit any robberies, devastations, and murders, either in Madrid or any other place, no quarter should be given them: that all the acts of the existing government were illegal, and that the renunciations at Bayonne were null and void, having been extorted by oppression: that whatever might be done hereafter by the royal family in their state of duresse, should for the same reason be accounted of no authority; and that all who took an active part in these transactions should be deemed traitors to their country. And if any violence were attempted against the lives of the Royal Family, he declared that in that case the nation would make use of their elective right in favour of the Archduke Charles.

Upon the first intelligence of the tumults at Zaragoza, the Junta of Government at Madrid, knowing how popular the name of Palafox would prove, dispatched his elder brother, the Marquis de Lazan, to inform him of the course which they were pursuing, and persuade him to use his influence for reducing the Aragonese to submission. But the Marquis, on his arrival, found that no influence could have effected this, and that Palafox had decidedly taken his part; and he also entered heartily into the cause of his country. The Principe del Castel Franco, D. Ignacio Martinez de Villala, one of the council of Castille, and the Alcalde of the court, D. Luis Marcelino Pereyra, were sent from Bayonne upon a similar errand, with a proclamation addressed to the Zaragozans, and signed by all the Spaniards who had obeyed Buonaparte’s summons as members of the Assembly of Notables. Had they reached Zaragoza the mission might have cost them their lives, but finding that the people of Aragon were every where inflamed with the same hatred against the French, they deemed it expedient to turn back.

It was believed by some of the noblest-minded Spaniards, that deeply as their countrymen resented the treachery with which the royal family had been entrapped, and the insult offered to the nation in attempting to impose upon it a foreign dynasty by force, no national opposition would have been attempted, if the slaughter at Madrid and the executions by which it was followed had not excited in the people a feeling of fiery indignation, and a desire of vengeance strong as the sense of the most intolerable private injury could have provoked. The basest creatures of the intrusive government lamented Murat’s conduct in sacrificing so many victims by his military tribunal as impolitic, while they served and supported a system which began in treachery and could only be upheld by force. It was their belief that every thing must yield to force of arms, and they were incapable of estimating the moral force which was called forth in resistance. The Juntas every where appealed to public opinion, and the press every where where the French were not present, teemed with addresses to the people, in all which the massacre of Madrid was represented as a crime for which vengeance must be exacted. The Junta of Seville published one to the people of the metropolis, blessing them for the noble example they had given, and telling them that that example would be remembered in the annals of their country for their eternal honour. “Seville,” said they, “has seen with horror that the author of your misfortunes and of ours has sent forth a proclamation in which all the facts are distorted, and he pretends that you gave the provocation when it was he who provoked you. The government had the weakness to sanction that proclamation, and give orders for circulating it, and saw with perfect unconcern many of you put to death for a pretended violation of laws which had no existence. That proclamation said that the French blood cried for vengeance. And the Spanish blood, ... does not it cry out for vengeance? ... that Spanish blood shed by an army which was not ashamed to attack a disarmed and defenceless people, living under their own laws and their own King, and against whom cruelties were committed which make human nature shudder? All Spain exclaims that the Spanish blood in Madrid cries out for vengeance! Comfort yourselves! We are your brethren, we will fight like you till we perish in defence of our King and our country. Assist us with your good will, and with your prayers to that Almighty God whom we adore, and who cannot forsake us, because he never forsakes justice. And when the favourable hour arrives, exert yourselves then and throw off the ignominious yoke, which with such cruelty and such perfidiousness has been forced upon you.”

The Junta of Oviedo, in like manner, called upon the people to revenge their brethren who had been massacred; to remember their forefathers; to defend their wives and sisters and daughters; and to transmit their inheritance of independence to their children. They reminded them how Pelayo, with the mountaineers of Asturias, laid the foundation of the Spanish monarchy, and began that war against the Moors which his posterity continued for 700 years, till they had rooted out the last of the invaders. They reminded them of the Cid Campeador, Ruy Diaz de Bivar; how, when the Emperor claimed authority over Spain, and a council, where the King of Castille himself presided, discussed his pretensions, that hero refused to deliberate on such a demand, saying that the independence of Spain was established above all title; that no true Spaniard would suffer it to be brought in question; that it was to be upheld with their lives; and that he declared himself the enemy of any man who should advise the King to derogate in one point from the honour of their free country! They reminded them of the baseness, the perfidy, and the cruelty which they had already experienced from that proud and treacherous tyrant, who arrogates (said they) to himself the title of Arbiter of Destinies, because he has succeeded in oppressing the French nation, without recollecting that he himself is mortal, and that he only holds the power delegated to him for our chastisement. Had he not, under the faith of treaties, drawn away their soldiers to the Baltic? had he not, in the character of a friend and ally, marched his troops into the very capital, and made himself master of the frontier fortresses, then robbed them of their King and the whole of their royal family, and usurped their government? What if they perished in resisting these barbarians? “It is better (said they) to die in defence of your religion and independence, and upon your own native soil, than be led bound to slaughter, and waste your blood for the aggrandizement of his ambition. The French conscription comprises you. If you do not serve your country, you will be forced away to perish in the North. We lose nothing; for, even should we fall, we shall have freed ourselves, by a glorious death, from the intolerable burden of a foreign yoke. What worse atrocities would the worst savages have perpetrated, than those which the ruffians of this tyrant have committed? They have profaned our temples, they have massacred our brethren, they have assailed our wives; more than 2000 of the people of Madrid, of that city where they had been so hospitably received, they have murdered in cold blood, for no other cause than for having defended their families and themselves. To arms! to arms!... Will you bend your necks to the yoke? Will you allow yourselves to be insulted by injuries the most perfidious, the most wicked, the most disgraceful, committed in the face of the whole world? Will you submit to the humiliating slavery which is prepared for you? To arms! to arms! ... not like the monster who oppresses you, for the indulgence of an insatiable ambition; not, like him, to violate the law of nations and the rights of humanity, ... not to render yourselves odious to mankind; ... but to assist your countrymen, to rescue your King from captivity; to restore to your government liberty, energy, and vigour; to preserve your own lives, and those of your children; to maintain the uncontrolled right of enjoying and disposing of your property; and to assert the independence of Spain.... The time is come; the nation has resumed the sovereign authority, which, under such circumstances, devolves upon it. Let us be worthy of ourselves! Let us perpetuate the renown of our fathers! A whole people is more powerful than disciplined armies. Spain will inevitably conquer in a cause the most just that ever raised the deadly weapons of war; she fights, not for the concerns of a day, but for the security and happiness of ages; ... not for an insulated privilege, but for all the rights of human nature; ... not for temporal blessings, but for eternal happiness; ... not for the benefit of one nation, but for all mankind, and even for France itself. Humanity does not always shudder at the sound of war, ... the slow and interminable evils of slavery are a thousand times more to be abhorred; ... there is a kind of peace more fatal than the field of battle, drenched with blood, and strewn with the bodies of the slain. Such is the peace in which the metropolis of Spain is held by the enemy. The most respectable citizen there is exposed to the insolence of the basest French ruffian; at every step he has to endure at least the insult of being eyed with the disdain of the conqueror towards the conquered. The inhabitants of Madrid, strangers, as it were, and by sufferance in their own houses, cannot enjoy one moment’s tranquillity. The public festivals, established by immemorial custom, the attendance on religious ordinances, are considered as pretexts for insurrection, and threatened with being interrupted by discharges of cannon. The slightest noise makes the citizen tremble in the bosom of his family. From time to time the enemy run to arms, in order to keep up the terror impressed by the massacres of the 2d and 3d of May. Madrid is a prison, where the jailors take pleasure in terrifying the prisoners for the purpose of keeping them quiet by perpetual fear. But the Spaniards have not yet lost their country!... Those fields which, for so many years, have seen no steel except that of the ploughshare, are about to become the new cradle of their freedom! Life or death in such a cause, and in such times, are indifferent. You who return will be received by your country as her deliverers! and you whom Heaven has destined to secure, with your blood, the independence of our native land, ... the honour of our women, ... the purity of our holy faith, ... you will not dread the anguish of the last moments. Remember what tears of grateful love will be shed over your graves, ... what fervent prayers will be sent up for you to the Almighty Father of Mercies. Let all Spain become a camp; let her population become an armed host; let our youths fly to the defence of the state, for the son should fall before the father appears in the ranks of battle. And you, tender mothers, affectionate wives, fair maidens, do not retain within your embraces the objects of your love, until, from victory returned, they deserve your affection. They withdraw from you not to fight for a tyrant, but for their God; for a monarch worthy the veneration of his people; for yourselves, and for your companions. Instead of regretting their departure, sing ye, like Spartan women, the song of jubilee!... The noble matrons, the delicate maidens, even the austere religious recluse nuns, they too must take a part in this holy cause; let them send up their prayers to Heaven for the success of our undertaking, and minister, in their domestic economy, to the necessities of their warlike sons and brethren.”

The popular faith as well as the patriotism of the Spaniards was roused. They were told to implore the aid of the Immaculate Conception; of Santiago, so often the patron and companion in victory of their ancestors; of our Lady of Battles, whose image is worshipped in the most ancient temple of Covadonga, and who had there so signally assisted Pelayo in the first great overthrow of the Moorish invaders. The fire flamed higher for this holy oil of superstition; but it was kindled and fed by noble pride, and brave shame and indignation; by the remembrance of what their forefathers had been, and the thought of what their children were to be. While the leaders thus availed themselves of popular faith, they called upon the clergy for those sacrifices which the circumstances of the country rendered necessary: “Venerable orders of religion,” said they, “withhold not the supplies which are required for the common cause! If your virtue did not impel you to offer this assistance, your interest would extort it; for your political existence, ... the possession of your property, ... your individual security, ... all depend upon the issue of this war. But Spain this day receives from her favourite sons proofs of their affection and gratitude, for the riches she has bestowed, and the splendour she has conferred, for her pious generosity, and her ardent zeal, in sustaining the religion and the customs of their fathers.” And to the honour of the clergy, no men exerted themselves more strenuously in the common cause; a conduct the more praiseworthy, after the submission of their Primate, and the infamous part which the Inquisition had taken.

While the other Juntas acted independently each in their province, and prepared rather for local and immediate danger than for any regular system of general defence, the Junta of Seville assumed a higher authority, and took upon itself, as if by delegation, the duty of providing for the country in this extreme necessity. “The King,” they said in their proclamation to the people of Spain, “to whom we all swore allegiance with emotions of joy unprecedented in history, has been decoyed from us. The fundamental laws of our monarchy are trampled under foot; our property, our customs, our wives ... all which the nation holds most dear, are threatened. Our holy religion, our only hope, is doomed to perdition, or will be reduced to mere external appearances, without support and without protection. And a foreign power has done this, ... not by dint of arms, but by deceit and treachery, by converting the very persons who call themselves the heads of our government, into instruments of these atrocious acts; persons who, either from the baseness of their sentiments, from fear, or perhaps from other motives, which time or justice will unfold, hesitate not to sacrifice their country. It therefore became necessary to break the shackles, which prevented the Spaniards from displaying that generous ardour that in all ages has covered them with glory; that noble courage, with which they have always defended their honour, their laws, their monarchs, and their religion. The people of Seville assembled accordingly on the 27th of May; and, through the medium of all their magistrates, of all their constituted authorities, and of the most respectable individuals of every rank, this Supreme Council of Government was formed, invested with all necessary powers, and charged to defend the country, the religion, the laws, and the King. We accept the heroic trust; we swear to discharge it, and we reckon on the strength and energy of the whole nation. We have again proclaimed Ferdinand VII. ... again sworn allegiance to him, ... sworn to die in his defence; this was the signal of happiness and union, and will prove such to all Spain.

“A Council of Government had scarce been formed, when it violated the most sacred laws of the realm. A president was appointed without any authority whatever, and who, had he had any lawful title, hastened to forfeit it. In addition to his being a foreigner, which was a legal objection, he acted for the destruction of the very monarchy from which he received his appointment, and of the laws, which alone could sanction it. Under these circumstances we could not restrain our loyalty, much less could we violate the sacred engagements, which we had before contracted as Spaniards, as subjects, as Christians, as freemen, independent of all foreign authority and power. Nor could the interference of the first tribunal of the nation, the Council of Castille, check or control our exertions. The weakness of that Council became obvious from the wavering and contradictory proceedings which it adopted in the most momentous situation wherein the nation ever hath been placed, when the Council ought to have displayed that heroic firmness, with which numberless motives and its own honour called upon it to act. The order tamely to submit to, and circulate and obey the act of abdication in favour of a foreign prince, was the consummation of its weakness, perhaps of its infamy. That abdication was evidently void and illegal from want of authority in him who made it; the monarchy was not his, nor was Spain composed of animals subject to the absolute control of their owners; ... his accession to the throne was founded on his royal descent, and on the fundamental laws of the realm. It is void on account of the state of violence in which it was made; ... it is void, because the published act of abdication of King Ferdinand VII. and of his uncle and brother, was made in the same state of compulsion, as is expressly declared in the very act itself; ... it is void, because many royal personages, possessed of the right of inheritance to the crown, have not relinquished that right, but preserve it entire.

“The French ruler summoned the Spanish nation: he chose such deputies as best suited his purpose, and in a despotic manner appointed them to deliberate in a foreign country on the most sacred interests of the nation, while he publicly declared that a private and respectful letter, written to him by Ferdinand VII. at the time when he was Prince of Asturias, was a criminal performance, injurious to the rights of sovereignty. It is, indeed, a heinous offence, it is rebellion, when an independent nation submits to the control of a foreign prince, and discusses in his presence, and under his decision, its most sacred rights and public welfare.

“He has resorted to many other means to deceive us. He has distributed libels to corrupt the public opinion, in which, under the strongest professions of respect for the laws, and for religion, he insults both, leaving no means untried, however infamous they may be, to bend our necks under an iron yoke, and make us his slaves. He assures the public, that the supreme pontiff and vicar of Jesus Christ approves and sanctions his proceedings; while it is notorious, that, in sight of all Europe, he has despoiled him of his dominions, and forced him to dismiss his Cardinals, in order to prevent him from directing and governing the whole church, in the manner sanctioned by our Saviour Jesus Christ.

“Spaniards, every consideration calls on us to unite and frustrate views so atrocious. No revolution exists in Spain; our sole object is to defend what we hold most sacred, against him, who, under the cloak of alliance, intended to wrest it from us, and who would despoil us, without fighting, of our laws, our monarchs, and our religion. Let us, therefore, sacrifice every thing to a cause so just; and, if we are to lose our all, let us lose it fighting, and like generous men. Join, therefore, all: let us commit to the wisest among us in all the provinces the important trust of preserving the public opinion, and refuting those insolent libels which are replete with the most atrocious falsehoods. Let every one exert himself in his way; and let the church of Spain incessantly implore the assistance of the God of Hosts, whose protection is secured to us by the evident justice of our cause. Europe will applaud our efforts, and hasten to our assistance. Italy, Germany, and the whole north, suffering under the despotism of the French nation, will eagerly avail themselves of the opportunity held out to them by Spain, to shake off the yoke and recover their liberty, their laws, their monarchs, and all they have been robbed of by that nation. France herself will hasten to erase the stain of infamy which must cover the instruments of deeds so treacherous and heinous. She will not shed her blood in so vile a cause. She has already suffered too much under the idle pretext of a peace and happiness which never came, and which can never be attained but under the empire of reason, peace, religion, and laws, and in a state where the rights of other nations are respected and observed.

“Spaniards, your native country, your property, your laws, your liberty, your King, your religion, nay, your hopes in a better world, which that religion can alone devise to you and your descendants, are at stake, ... are in great and imminent danger!”

Admirable as this address is, one grievous error was committed in it, the precursor of others, and in itself of the most dangerous and fatal tendency. It was said, “that the number of the enemy’s troops was not so great as the French stated with a view of intimidating the Spaniards; and that the positions which they had taken were exactly those in which they could be conquered and defeated in the easiest manner.” Whatever momentary advantage might be hoped for by thus deceiving the people as to the extent of their danger, was sure to be counterbalanced tenfold whenever they were undeceived, as inevitably they would be. This error was the more remarkable, because they were well aware of the enemy’s strength, and perceived also in what manner it was to be opposed with the greatest probability of success. For this purpose they strenuously recommended in an address concerning the conduct of the war, that all general actions should be avoided as perfectly hopeless, and in the highest degree dangerous. A war of partizans was the system which suited them; their business should be incessantly to harass the enemy; for which species of warfare the nature of the country was particularly favourable. It was indispensable, they said, that each province should have its general; but, as nothing could be done without a combined plan, it was equally indispensable that there should be three generalissimos, one commanding in Andalusia, Murcia, and Lower Estremadura; one in Gallicia, Upper Estremadura, the Castilles, and Leon; one in Valencia, Aragon, and Catalonia. These generalissimos should keep up a frequent communication with each other, and with the provincial generals, that they might act by common accord, and assist each other. A particular general was required for the provinces of Madrid and La Mancha, whose only object should be to distress the enemy, to cut off their provisions, to harass them in flank and in rear, and not leave them a moment of repose. Another generalissimo was necessary for Navarre, the Biscayan provinces, Asturias, Rioja, and the north of Old Castille; this being the most important station of all. His whole business should be to prevent the entrance of French troops into Spain, and to cut off the retreat of those who were flying out of it. It was recommended that frequent proclamations should be issued, showing the people that it was better to die in defence of their liberties than to give themselves up like sheep, as their late infamous government would have done. “France,” said they, “has never domineered over us, nor set foot in our territory. We have many times mastered her, not by deceit but by force of arms. We have made her kings prisoners, and we have made the nation tremble. We are the same Spaniards; and France, and Europe, and the world, shall see that we have not degenerated from our ancestors.” They were also exhorted watchfully to confute the falsehoods which the French circulated, and particularly those which the baseness of the late government still permitted to be published in Madrid. And care was to be taken to convince the nation, that when they had freed themselves from this intestine war, the Cortes would be assembled, abuses reformed, and such laws enacted as the circumstances of the times required and experience might dictate for the public good: “Things,” said they, “which we Spaniards know how to do, and which we have done, as well as other nations, without any necessity that the vile French should come to instruct us, and, according to their custom, under the mask of friendship, and wishes for our happiness, contrive (for this alone they are contriving) to plunder us, to violate our women, to assassinate us, to deprive us of our liberty, our laws, and our King; to scoff at and destroy our holy religion, as they have hitherto done, and will always continue to do, so long as that spirit of perfidy and ambition, which oppresses and tyrannizes over them, shall endure.”

A general enrolment of men from the age of sixteen to that of forty-five was ordered by this Junta in the name of Ferdinand. They were to be divided into three classes; the first consisted of volunteers, who were to march wherever their respective Juntas, or Ayuntamientos, by the direction of the Supreme Junta, might order them; and were then either to be embodied with the regular troops, or formed into separate corps, and act with them, being in all things subject to the same duties. The second class consisted of unmarried men, and those who, whether married or widowers, had no children; these were to hold themselves ready for service in the second instance. The third class included fathers of families, persons in minor orders, and others who were employed in those offices of the church which were not indispensably necessary for public worship: this class was not to be called upon till the last extremity, when it became the duty of all to offer their lives in defence of the country. But this being the time of harvest, and it having pleased the Almighty to bless the land with an abundant one, all persons included in the second and third classes were enjoined, whatever their rank and property might be, to lend their personal service in collecting it, and this was required from those who were above the age of forty-five as well as from others: so would they deserve well of the country, and the Junta expressed their confidence that no persons would so far derogate from the generosity of the Spanish character, as to take advantage of the times, and demand an exorbitant price for day labour. There were many villages where the women reaped and performed other agricultural offices; this they might do every where, and in so doing the Junta would consider them as rendering the greatest service to their country; the clergy also, secular and regular, were invited to set a generous example, by taking their part in this important duty. Women, who from age, weakness, or other causes, were not capable of working in the fields, were intreated to occupy themselves in working for the hospitals, and to send their contributions to the Commissariat Office in Seville. The names of all persons who exerted themselves in this or any other manner in behalf of the general weal, should at a future time be published by the Supreme Junta, and each would then receive that praise and reward which their patriotism had deserved.

The Spaniards, confiding in the indisputable justice of their cause, and being, according to the enthusiasm of the national character, warm in their expectations of splendid success, reckoned upon a great desertion from the French armies, not only of the Netherlanders, Germans, and other foreigners, who, under various forms of compulsion, had been brought into the tyrant’s service, but also of the French themselves. An outrage so unprovoked and monstrous, so flagrant a breach of faith, an act of usurpation effected with such unparalleled perfidiousness, and then with such matchless effrontery avowed, must, they thought, even among the French themselves, excite a sense of honour and of indignation which would prevent them from becoming the instruments of so infamous an injustice. In many of their proclamations therefore they distinguished between Buonaparte and the people over whom he ruled, calling the French an enlightened, a generous, and an honourable nation, and declaring a belief that they as well as the Spaniards desired the destruction of the tyrant by whom they were at once oppressed and disgraced. They expressed a hope that the success of the Spaniards might encourage the French people for their own sakes, and for the sake of universal justice, to offer him up as a victim, and by that sacrifice expiate the shame which he through his acts of treachery and blood had brought upon France. “Let it not be supposed,” they said, “that all Frenchmen participate in his iniquities! Even in the armies of this barbarian we know that there are some individuals, worthy of compassion, who, amidst all the evil wherewith they are surrounded, still cherish in their hearts the seeds of virtue.” The Junta of Seville published an address to the French army, inviting the soldiers, whether French or of any other nation, to join with them, and promising them, at the end of the war, each an allotment of land as the reward for his services.

As the Spaniards were too sanguine in relying upon the general enthusiasm which was displayed throughout the nation, so the French, on the other hand, more unreasonably regarded it with contempt. Having defeated and humbled the greatest military powers in Europe, they looked upon the Spanish insurgents as a rabble whom it was rather their business to punish than to contend with. It was fortunate for the Spaniards that they had no force at this time considerable enough to be called an army; the enemy knew not where to strike an effective blow, when the people were in commotion and in arms every where, but nowhere in the field. Their object therefore was to get possession of the provincial capitals, that the authority every where might be in their hands as it was in the metropolis. With this intent General Dupont with a considerable force was sent from Madrid to Andalusia, there to occupy Seville and Cadiz, and thereby crush the insurrection where it appeared to be gaining most strength. Marshal Moncey with his corps marched upon Valencia. General Lefebvre Desnouettes was sent from Pamplona against Zaragoza. Marshal Bessieres dispatched detachments against Logroño, Santander, Segovia, and Valladolid. And Duhesme in Catalonia sent General Schwartz against Manresa, and General Chabron against Tarragona, while he himself prepared to march against the armed Catalans.

Murat meantime had left Spain. Before he had well recovered from a severe attack of the Madrid colic an intermittent fever supervened, and when that was removed he was ordered by his physicians to the warm baths of Bareges. The Duc de Rovigo, General Savary, who had acted so considerable a part in decoying Ferdinand to Bayonne, succeeded in the command. ♦Several Frenchmen poisoned by the wine.♦ It happened at this time that several French soldiers, after drinking wine in the public houses at Madrid, died, some almost immediately, others after a short illness, under unequivocal symptoms of poison. Baron Larrey, who was at the head of the medical staff, acted with great prudence on this occasion. He sent for wine from different ventas, analyzed it, and detected narcotic ingredients in all; and he ascertained upon full inquiry that these substances, of which laurel-water was one, were as commonly used to flavour and strengthen the Spanish wines, as litharge is to correct acidity in the lighter wines of France. The natives were accustomed to it from their youth; they frequently mixed their wine with water, and moreover the practice of smoking over their liquor tended to counteract its narcotic effects by stimulating the stomach and the intestines: it was therefore not surprising that they could drink it with safety; though it proved fatal39 to a few strangers. M. Larrey therefore justly concluded that there had been no intention of poisoning the French; if such a suspicion had been intimated, execrated as they knew themselves to be, the troops would readily have believed it; and a bloodier massacre than that of the 2d of May must have ensued.