BUONAPARTE ENTERS SPAIN. DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMIES. SURRENDER OF MADRID. THE SPANIARDS ENDEAVOUR TO RALLY AT CUENCA, AND ON THE TAGUS.

An old prophecy was at this time circulated in Paris, importing that the disasters which would lead to the overthrow of the French empire were to originate in Spain. It had probably been sent abroad in the days of Louis XIV. when his designs upon that kingdom were first manifested, and the resistance which they would provoke from the powers of Europe was foreseen. The persons by whom it was now reproduced apprehended ♦Pasley on the Military Policy of Great Britain, p. 34.♦ that the English would land a strong force in the north of the peninsula, so as to cut off the French armies from their communication with Bayonne. Like all desponding or discontented politicians, they overrated the wisdom and the power of the enemy. If indeed, when an expedition was sent to Portugal, this had been done at the same time, the issue can hardly be deemed doubtful. We had disciplined soldiers, ships to transport them, and means of every kind in abundance; but vigour was wanting in our councils, and in offensive war we had every thing to learn. It was, however, intended that an army little short of 40,000 men should take the field with the Spaniards; and had such an army been in the field, under an able and enterprising commander, subsequent events have given an Englishman right to affirm, that no force which could have been brought against it in one point, would have been able to defeat it. But this intention was frustrated as much by the precipitance of the Spaniards as by the dilatoriness of the British movements.

By the latter end of October not less than 100,000 troops had crossed the Pyrenees from the side of Bayonne, to reinforce their countrymen. The head-quarters were at Vitoria, where they had continued since Joseph arrived there on his flight from Madrid. The left wing, under Marshal Moncey, Duke of Cornegliano, was posted along the banks of the Aragon and the Ebro, having its head-quarters at Tafalla; Marshal Ney, Duke of Elchingen, had his head-quarters at Guardia; Marshal Bessieres, Duke of Istria, at Miranda, with a garrison at Pancorbo; Marshal Lefebvre, Duke of Dantzic, occupied the heights of Durango, and defended the heights of Mondragon from the threatened attack of the Spaniards. Blake had posted the main body of his army in front of Lefebvre’s force, and occupied with the rest the debouches of Villarcayo, Orduña, and Munguia. He hoped that the Asturian General, Azevedo, would cut off the communication between Durango and Vitoria by Ochandiano, and that, by possessing himself of the heights of Mondragon, and thus getting in the rear of the enemy’s advanced guard, he might be enabled to strike a great blow. The plan was good, if it could have been executed in time; but Blake persisted in it after he knew that the French had received strong reinforcements. Some trifling advantages, and the confidence of the Spanish character, encouraged him to this imprudence, by which he exposed himself to be entirely cut off. It was Buonaparte’s intention to take the advantage which was thus offered him; and Lefebvre therefore had been ordered to content himself with keeping the Spaniards in check till the Emperor should arrive; but his flanks were so much annoyed by Blake, that this delay became inconvenient, and on the last day of October the French attacked him. After a long and well-contested action of nine hours the Spaniards retreated in good order by Bilbao and Valmaseda to Nava, without losing colours or prisoners. No artillery had been used, the country being too mountainous for it. The enemy entered Bilbao the next day; and the corps of Marshal Victor, Duke of Belluno, arriving at this time, was directed by Munguia and Amurrio to Valmaseda, to fall upon the flank of the Galician army.

Blake’s intention had been to fall back till he could concentrate his whole force; but the second division, and a part of the Asturians under Azevedo, had their communication cut off; and as the French were strengthening themselves at Arancadiaga and Orrantia to prevent the junction, he prepared to attack them. They retreated during the night of the 4th; but on the following day a division of his army came up with 7000 of the enemy near Valmaseda, and drove them from thence with considerable loss. Having thus effected the junction, he attacked the enemy again on the 7th at Gueñes, and turned their left wing, but his own centre was unable to advance; and perceiving that the French had received very considerable reinforcements that day from Bilbao, his own men too being exhausted by hunger and fatigue, he deemed it prudent to retire to Espinosa de los Monteros, where he hoped to refresh and feed his men, and draw artillery and supplies from Reynosa. Seldom indeed have any troops endured greater hardships. From the 23rd of October they had been continually in the open air, among the mountains of Biscay, during rainy nights and the most inclement weather: they were all without hats, great part of them half clothed, and barefooted, and they had been six days without bread, wine, or spirits; indeed, without any other supply of food than the sheep and cattle which were to be found among the mountains. There had been a considerable desertion among the young recruits; but from those who remained not a murmur was heard under all these privations: they manifested no other wish than that the sacrifice of their lives might contribute to the destruction of the enemy, and the deliverance of Spain.

The system of the French was to beat this army down, as their increasing numbers enabled them to do, by repeated attacks. Blake intended to remain some days at Espinosa, for the purpose of giving his men some rest. But having arrived on the 9th, his rear-guard, under the Conde de San Roman, one of the officers who had escaped from the Baltic, was attacked on the following day, by a far superior force. He immediately posted his army in front of the town; Azevedo, with the Asturians and the first division, on a height to the left, covering the road to S. Andero; the second division on a hill to the right; the third and the reserve in the centre. The van-guard was posted on a little hill close in the rear of the centre, with six four-pounders. The enemy were successful in their first attack, and drove the Spaniards from a wood which they had occupied; they returned, however, to the charge, being reinforced with the third division, and the action became general, except on the left of the Spanish position. It continued for three hours, till evening closed in; and Blake thought the advantage was on his side, though the enemy had gained possession of a wood and ridge of hill in front of his centre and right. The contest had been very severe, and a very great proportion of the Spanish officers had fallen, San Roman among them, and the Galician General Riquelme, both mortally wounded. The men lay on their arms that night, and Victor, who commanded in this battle, brought up fresh troops from his rear to the ridge. At daybreak, when the main attention of the Spaniards was drawn towards this point, he made his great attack upon their left, commencing it with a strong body of sharp-shooters; they were twice repulsed; meantime one of their large columns, under General Maison, came up and formed in line; the sharp-shooters, being reinforced, returned to the charge, and General Ruffin, with his division, attacked the centre. There the enemy were well resisted; but on the left they succeeded, owing, in great part, it appears, to the system which on this and the preceding day was practised, of marking out the officers. Azevedo, and the two Asturian Generals who were next in command, fell; this threw the men into confusion, and when they saw themselves cut off from the road to S. Andero, and that the French were advancing to occupy a height in rear of the town which commands the road to Reynosa, they gave way, and nothing remained but to order a general retreat. They had to retire by a bridge over the Trueba and a defile; and instead of attempting to save the guns, which would necessarily have impeded the retreat of the army, Blake thought it better to employ them till the last moment; this was done with great effect, and they were spiked when the enemy was close to them.

Blake was one of those men who would have been thought worthy of the chief command if they had never been trusted with it. His talents were considerable; he understood the theory of his profession well, and could plan an action or a campaign with great ability; but he was deficient in that promptitude and presence of mind which are the first qualifications of a commander. His own game he could play skilfully, but when the adversary disconcerted it by some unexpected movement, he was incapable of forming new dispositions to meet the altered circumstances. By persisting against a superior and continually increasing force in operations which had been calculated against an inferior one, he exposed himself to the imminent hazard of being entirely cut off; and by advancing so far into a country which had been stripped of its provisions, and with no commissariat to follow him, he exhausted his men. Under every privation he indeed set them an example of cheerfulness, and let them see that he fared as hardly as themselves; but this could not counteract the effects of inanition. They were in a state of famine when they arrived at Espinosa, and would have found nothing there to relieve them if 250 mules, laden with biscuits, had not most opportunely arrived, sent by Major-General Leith, who was forwarding partial supplies toward them by every possible way. But men thus hungered, and enfeebled also by long continued exposure to cold and rain, were ill fitted for close action, in which much depended upon personal strength. Another and more lamentable error was, that the troops from the Baltic, the only thoroughly disciplined part of his force, were brought into action after the first defeat, and exposed by single battalions to bear the brunt of every conflict; and thus they were sacrificed in detail, giving melancholy proof, by the devoted courage with which they stood their ground, of what they could have effected, if, as a body, they had been brought into some fair field of battle.

Blake attempted with the remains of his army to make a stand at Reynosa; his principal magazine and his park of artillery were there; it is one of the strongest positions in that strong country, and had it been occupied in time, the event of the campaign might have been different. But the forlorn hope of collecting his scattered forces there was soon defeated. Victor was pursuing him closely from Espinosa; Lefebvre from the side of Villarcayo. And from the side of Burgos, where a fatal blow had now been struck, Marshal Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, marched upon Reynosa. No alternative was left him but to retreat toward S. Andero, and the dispersion was so complete, that there no longer remained any force on this side to oppose the enemy. Yet in justice to this ill-fated army it should be said, that no men ever behaved more gallantly, nor with more devoted patriotism. Without cavalry, half clothed, almost without food, they fought battle after battle against troops always superior in number, and whose losses were always filled up with reinforcements. Nor did any circumstance of disgrace attend their defeat; there was no capitulation, no surrender of large bodies, or of strong places; the ground on which they fought was won by the French, and that was all, as long as any body of the Spaniards remained together. The magazines at Reynosa now fell into their hands, and they entered S. Andero. ♦Nov. 16.♦ The Bishop saved himself in an English ship, and General Riquelme expired as his men were lifting him on board. They had borne him thither from Espinosa; for, routed as they were, they would not leave him to die in the hands of the enemy. Here, and in some of the smaller ports, the French found a considerable booty of English goods.

When Buonaparte arrived in Spain he was not pleased at finding that Lefebvre had opened the campaign; his hope had been to march a strong force in the rear of Blake’s army, and thus place it in a situation where it must either have been destroyed or have laid down its arms. In crossing the mountains near Mondragon he had nearly lost one of his favourite Generals, Marshal Lasnes, Duke of Montebello; the ground was covered with frozen snow, his horse fell with him, and in attempting to rise fell on him. He was carried to Vitoria in a state of great danger, his body covered with those discolorations which show that the small vessels of the skin are ruptured, the abdomen swoln, the extremities cold, suffering acute pain, and with all the symptoms of inflammation in the intestines, from the shock and the pressure. M. Larrey, who attended Buonaparte in all his campaigns, had learnt a remedy from the savages of Newfoundland, applied by them to some sailors whose boat had been broken to pieces and themselves dashed by the waves upon their coast. A large sheep having been first stunned by a blow on the neck, was immediately flayed, the reeking skin was sown round the Marshal’s body, while his limbs were wrapped in warm flannels, and some cups of weak tea were given him. He felt immediate relief, complaining only of a painful sense of formication, and of the manner in which the skin seemed to attract every part wherewith it was in contact. In the course of ten minutes he was ♦Larrey, Campagnes et Memoires, t. iii. 243–246.♦ asleep. When he awoke, after two hours, the body was streaming with perspiration, the dangerous symptoms were relieved, and on the fifth day he was able to mount on horseback and follow the army.

Buonaparte reached the head-quarters at Vitoria on the 8th, and immediately pushed forward a corps under Soult against the Extremaduran army in his front. Bessieres commanded the cavalry, which had before proved so fatal to the Spaniards at Rio Seco, and which had now been greatly reinforced. This army, under the Conde de Belveder, had been intended to support Blake, and keep up a communication between his army and that of Castaños. It consisted of about 13,000 men; and their Commander, a young man, although aware that a superior force was advancing against him, waited for the attack in an open ♦Nov. 10.♦ position at Gamonal. He had with him some of the Walloon and Spanish guards, and a few regiments of the line; the rest were new levies, and among them a corps of students, volunteers from Salamanca and Leon. These youths, the pride and the hope of many a generous family, were in the advanced guard. They displayed that courage which might be looked for in men of their condition, and at that time of life: twice they repulsed the French infantry, and when Bessieres with the horse came upon their flank, fell almost to a man where they had been stationed. The loss in killed was estimated at 3000, nearly a fourth of this brave army; the victorious cavalry entered Burgos with the fugitives, and the city, which was entirely forsaken by its inhabitants, was given up to be plundered. Bessieres pursued Count Belveder, while Soult turned aside toward Reynosa, to complete the destruction of Blake’s army. One corps of the French marched upon Palencia, another upon Lerma; from the latter place the Count retreated to Aranda; there also Bessieres pursued, and the wreck of the army collected at Segovia; the piquets of the French were now upon the Douro, and their cavalry covered the plains of Castille.

On the second day after the defeat of the Extremaduran army Buonaparte established his head-quarters at Burgos, and issued a proclamation, granting, in the Intruder’s name, a pardon to all Spaniards who, within one month after his arrival at Madrid, should lay down their arms, and renounce all connexion with England. Neither the members of the Juntas nor the general officers were excepted: but wishing, he said, to mark those, who, after having sworn fidelity to Joseph Buonaparte, had violated that oath; and who, instead of employing their influence to enlighten the people, had only used it to mislead them: wishing also that the punishment of great offenders might serve as an example in future times to all those, who, being placed at the head of nations, instead of directing them with wisdom and prudence, should mislead them into disorders and popular tumults, and precipitate them into misfortunes and war: for these reasons he excepted from this amnesty the Dukes of Infantado, Hijar, Medina Celi, and Ossuna, the Marques de Santa Cruz, Counts Fernan Nunez and Altamira, the ex-Minister of State Cevallos, and the Bishop of S. Andero; declaring them traitors to the two crowns of France and Spain, and decreeing that they should be seized, brought before a military commission, and shot. Those persons who had sworn homage to the Intruder, compulsory as that homage was, had unquestionably exposed themselves to its possible consequences: they had been forced into a situation in which the only alternative was to become traitors to him, or traitors to their country: but by what law or what logic were they traitors to France, a country to which they owed no allegiance, and with which they had contracted no obligation?

From Burgos Marshals Ney and Victor were dispatched with their divisions to act on the rear of Castaños, and cut off his retreat, while Lasnes, with 30,000 men, should attack him in front. This last remaining army of the Spaniards is represented by the French as consisting of 80,000 men, of whom three-fourths were armed. But the nominal force of the conjoined armies under Castaños and Palafox was only 65,000, and the effective soldiers hardly more than half that amount. Many of the Andalusian troops had returned to their homes after the first success, and many more had remained at Madrid, so that though some thousands (mostly from Valencia) had joined Castaños, his force was little more numerous than it had been at Baylen. His own opinion was decidedly against risking an action in which there could be no reasonable hope of advantage; but the commissioner, D. Francisco Palafox, to whom the power of overruling the General had been madly entrusted by the Central Junta, determined that a battle should be fought, and Castaños therefore was compelled to fight, lest he should be stigmatized as a traitor, and murdered by his own men, or torn to pieces by a mob. Already the Conde de Montijo, who left the army at this time, was every where accusing him of treachery, because he had warmly opposed a determination, the fatal consequences of which he certainly foresaw.

The plan of the French against this army was the same as that which they had practised against Blake’s; they meant to rout it by a powerful attack in front, and to destroy the fugitives by intercepting them with a second force in their flight. Their destruction was considered to be as certain as their defeat, but Ney was less expeditious in his movements than had been calculated; and Castaños hearing on the 21st that this corps was advancing upon Soria, while Lasnes and Moncey approached from the side of Logroño and Lodosa, abandoned Calahorra and fell back upon Tudela. On the 22d Lasnes entered Calahorra and Alfaro, and at daybreak on the following morning he found the Spaniards drawn up in seven divisions, with their right before Tudela, and their left extending along a line of from four to five miles upon a range of easy heights. The Aragonese, who had joined only a few hours before by forced marches, were on the right, the Valencians and the troops of New Castille in the centre, the Andalusians on the left. Their line was covered by forty pieces of artillery. Situations were chosen by the enemy for planting sixty pieces against them; but upon seeing their own relative strength, and the confusion which was observable among the Spaniards, they preferred a more summary mode of attack. General Maurice Mathieu, with a division of infantry, forced the Spanish centre; and General Lefebvre, with the cavalry, passing through, wheeled to the left, and coming in the rear of the Aragonese, at a time when that wing, having withstood an attack, supposed itself victorious, the fate of the battle was decided. At the same time Lagrange, with his division, attacked the left; a brave, and in some part a successful resistance was opposed; and the action, which began in the morning, was prolonged on this side till darkness enabled Lapeña’s division to fall back from Cascante to Tarazona, where the first and third divisions were stationed, and had not been engaged. There too the second division arrived, which had been ordered to support Lapeña; but though it received these orders at noon, and the distance which it had to march was only two leagues, either from incapacity in the leaders, or want of order, it did not arrive till night, after the action was decided.

According to the French 4000 Spaniards fell in this battle, 3000 men, 300 officers, and thirty pieces of cannon were taken, their own loss not amounting to 500. The right wing, dispersing and escaping how it could, assembled again at Zaragoza, with some of the central division also, there to prove that their failure in the field had not been for want of courage. As soon as the wreck of the left had collected at Tarazona, Castaños ordered them to begin their march by way of Borja to Calatayud. It was midnight, and at the moment when they were setting forward a chapel, which served as a magazine, blew up. Many shells went off after the explosion; this occasioned an opinion that an enemy’s battery might be playing upon them, and the Royal Carabineers, in the midst of the confusion, fancying that the chapel was occupied by the French, presented themselves sword in hand to charge it. Presently a cry of treason was set up; it spread rapidly; misfortune in such times is always deemed a proof of treachery; those troops who had not been engaged could not understand wherefore they were ordered to retreat, and at such an hour; a general distrust prevailed; some corps dispersed, and they who remained together were in a fearful state of insubordination. They retreated however through Borja and Ricla, without stopping in either place, and on the night of the 25th reached Calatayud.

On that same day Maurice Mathieu entered Borja in pursuit, ... too late to make any prisoners. Ney arrived on the day following. He had been ordered to reach Agreda on the 23d, which, if he had done, the wreck of this army must have been destroyed; but he found a pretext for delay in the fatigue of his men, and a cause in the pillage of Soria. The people of that city, unmindful of the example which the Numantines had set them upon that very ground, opened their gates to the enemy. This did not save them from being plundered. Their church, and their rich wool-factors, afforded good spoil to the French; and for the sake of this booty, and that he might extort all he could from the inhabitants, Ney remained there three days, not because his men had been over-marched. But this delay enabled Castaños to reach Calatayud. He had thus escaped the danger of immediate pursuit, and men and officers had leisure now to feel the whole wretchedness of their situation. There were neither magazines nor stores here; the system of supplying the troops, which before had been miserably incomplete, was at an end, and the military chest, containing two million reales, had been conveyed to Zaragoza. Desperate with hunger, the men broke through all restraint, and the inhabitants fled from their houses, hardly less dismayed at the temper of their own soldiers than at the vicinity of the French. The muleteers attached to the baggage and artillery could obtain no payment, nor food either for their animals or themselves; such as could find opportunity threw away the baggage, mounted their beasts, and rode away; others abandoned them altogether, cursing their ill fortune, and yet glad to escape with their lives. The soldiers, having nothing else to stay the cravings of hunger, devoured cabbage leaves, or whatever crude vegetables they could find, and many literally dropped for want.

Here Palafox and the Aragonese army expected that Castaños would have rallied, have made a stand, and, acting on the offensive as circumstances permitted, have saved Zaragoza from a second siege, or at least have delayed its evil day. They who formed this expectation did not reckon upon the activity of the enemy, and imputed to their own government a promptitude and power which it was far from possessing. Had the defeat of the central army been apprehended in time, and measures taken for supporting it, one of the first objects would have been to have strengthened this point. There had been no such foresight. The French were in pursuit, and orders arrived from Morla, who was one of the council of war, requiring Castaños to hasten with his army to the defence of the capital. He consulted accordingly with the chiefs of division, and they resolved to march by way of Siguenza; from whence they might either repair to Somosierra, if that strong position should still be retained, or to Madrid, if such a movement should be more advisable. In that direction, therefore, they recommenced their retreat, after one day’s rest.

The Central Junta, mean while, was occupying itself with measures ill adapted to such times. While Blake’s army was fighting, day after day, without clothing, without food, and without reinforcements to recruit its ranks, they passed a decree for the establishment of a special tribunal, to try all persons accused of treason; its object being not more to bring such as were guilty to deserved punishment, than to rescue from suspicion and danger those who were unjustly suspected; for, under the existing circumstances of Spain, they said, the people having suffered so much from treachery, would naturally suspect all those whose conduct it did not fully comprehend. The tribunal, which was composed of members from each of the great councils of state, was to have a jurisdiction over persons of all ranks: but not to carry into execution any sentence of death, confiscation, or dismissal from office, till they laid the whole case before the Supreme Junta. A certain number of its members might carry on the ordinary business, but a writ for the arrest of any person, or the sequestration of his goods, must be issued by the whole. Especial provisions were made to prevent secret arrest, or long confinement; and the papers of the accused were not to be detained, as soon as it was ascertained that they contained no relation to the matter with which he was charged. No proceedings were to take place upon anonymous information, nor was any informer to be admitted, who would not consent to let his name be known. The humanity of these provisions is in such direct opposition to the practice of the holy office, that it seems to have been the intention of the framers of this tribunal to render their state inquisition as unlike as possible to that curse and disgrace of their country. The tribunal was particularly charged to inquire into the conduct of those persons who had gone as deputies to Bayonne, or who had submitted to the Intruder at Madrid; endeavouring carefully to distinguish between what was compulsory and what was their own act and deed; and proceeding with the caution and prudence required, where, on the one hand, the public safety was at stake, and, on the other, the reputation of many good and honourable citizens. And when their investigations had established the innocence of any one, they were to consult with the Supreme Junta upon the means of restoring to him all the credit and respectability which he had formerly enjoyed.

By another decree, dated on the day when Castaños was defeated at Tudela, they resolved that honorary militias should be formed in all towns which were not in the scene of war, in order to prevent disorders, and to arrest robbers, deserters, and ill-disposed persons. A more remarkable measure related to the Ex-Jesuits: their banishment was repealed, and they were permitted to return to any part of Spain, and there enjoy their pensions. The reason assigned was, that it was a miserable thing for them to be expatriated, to live far from their friends and kin, and be abandoned to the mercy of strangers; that it was now become difficult to furnish them with the pensions assigned to them by the crown; and that the sums thus allotted were so much withdrawn from the circulating specie of the kingdom, to increase that of foreign and even of hostile countries. This late act of humanity to the poor survivors of an injured community, is not at any time to be censured; but it is extraordinary that at such a time it should have occupied the attention of the Junta.

Of these measures, all would have been unexceptionable, and even praise-worthy, had they been well-timed; but the Central Junta still pursued the fatal system of deceiving the people as to the extent and imminence of their danger. They addressed a proclamation to the inhabitants of Madrid, saying, that they had taken all the measures in their power for defeating the enemy, ♦Nov. 21.♦ who, continuing his attacks, had advanced to the neighbourhood of Somosierra; and that the number of the French there hardly amounted to 8000 men. The enthusiasm with which the soldiers were preparing to beat the enemies of their country, they said, and their confidence in their valour, was not to be expressed; and the English were ready to march from the Escurial, to reinforce the position chosen by the able general whom the Junta had appointed, and to support the operations of the van, who, by that time, were already engaged with the slaves of the tyrant.

With such representations did the government endeavour to deceive the people of Madrid, and lull them into a feeling of security, when its duty was, to have told them the whole extent of their danger, and manfully roused them to those exertions which the emergency required. But they themselves still in some degree partook the delusion which they inspired. Their confidence in the Spanish character was too well founded ever to be shaken; and they relied, with little reflection, upon the natural strength of the country. Their present hope was upon the pass of the Somosierra. D. Benito San Juan, a judicious and able officer, of high reputation, was stationed there with the remains of the Extremaduran army, which had with great promptitude been reinforced. The Junta did not call to mind with how little difficulty Vedel had forced the stronger passes of the Sierra Morena.

Buonaparte continued at Aranda till the 29th, when his head-quarters were removed to Bocaguillas, a village upon the skirts of the Somosierra. There he learnt that about 6000 men were entrenched upon the heights of Sepulveda, and that a stronger body occupied the pass. The advanced guard was attacked without the success which the French expected; but the Spaniards, instead of being encouraged by this advantage, forsook their entrenchments and dispersed. On the following morning the enemy, under M. ♦Nov. 30.♦ Victor, attempted the pass. Sixteen pieces of cannon had been well placed to flank the ascent, and some attempts had been made to break up the road; but this easy means of defence had been so imperfectly performed, that the pass was won by a charge of Polish lancers. They were favoured in their approach by a thick fog; but the Spaniards must have strangely neglected the advantage of the ground, when they suffered a strong mountain defile to be taken by a charge of light horse. The men, fancying themselves betrayed, betrayed themselves by their own fears; they threw away their arms, and dispersed among the hills, leaving all the artillery and baggage to the enemy. And now the way to Madrid was open.

During the series of disasters which thus rapidly succeeded each other, there had been no time for the Junta to think of removing their residence to the capital, still less for them to take into consideration, on the appointed day, the plan for forming a Regency, and convoking the ♦The Central Junta retire from Aranjuez.♦ Cortes. They began now to feel themselves insecure at Aranjuez; ... already advanced parties of the French had approached the Tagus; wherever they went there was no armed force to oppose them; they had appeared at Villarejo on the 28th, on the 30th at Mostoles; and if at this time two or three hundred horse, with a few infantry, had pushed on to Aranjuez, they might with perfect ease have surprised the Junta, and by depriving Spain of its government, have inflicted ♦Jovellanos’s Memorial, p. ii. § 44.♦ upon it a more dangerous injury than all which it had hitherto suffered in the field. This opportunity was overlooked by Buonaparte; and the Junta, sensible of their danger when the consequences of the defeat at Tudela and the rout at Somosierra were known, deliberated whither to retire. Florida-Blanca, who was sinking under the burthen of years and the anxieties of his situation, was for removing at once to Cadiz, and a few others agreed with him. Jovellanos, who added to his other virtues that of perfect calmness and intrepidity under any danger, represented that this would be sacrificing too much for safety; and that the honour of the government, as well as the public service, required that it should establish itself as near as possible to the theatre of war. Toledo was named, and rejected, ♦1808.
December.♦ as having nothing but its situation to defend it. Cordoba and Seville were proposed, but liable to the same objection; and Badajoz, which was the place that Jovellanos advised, was chosen: the provinces every where were open to the enemy, but Badajoz was a strong place, from whence the Junta might correspond with the British army, and with that which Romana was now re-forming in the northern provinces from the dispersed troops of Blake and the Conde de Belveder. There they could take measures for raising new armies in Extremadura and Andalusia; and if the French should overrun those provinces, which there was now nothing to prevent them from doing, they might thence pass through Portugal to those northern parts where the founders of the Spanish monarchy had found an asylum from the Moors; and where its restorers, animated with the same spirit, might, in like manner, Jovellanos thought, maintain the independence of their country. They were to halt at Toledo on the way, and there take such measures as circumstances might require.

Two days before the passage of the Somosierra orders had been given to arm and embody the people of Madrid. The people were ready and willing, but this measure had been too long delayed; nevertheless a permanent Junta was formed, to maintain order, and provide for the defence of the capital; and the latter object was especially entrusted to Morla and to the Marques de Castelar. Now indeed was the time for that city to have emulated Zaragoza, and the spirit was not wanting in the inhabitants, had there been one commanding mind to have directed them. Priests and regulars came forward to bear arms, and old men, and women, and boys offered themselves for the service of their country; ... for this purpose leaving their houses open, and their property to take its chance, they employed themselves in opening trenches, erecting batteries, and barricading the streets. The pavements were torn up, and women and children carried the stones to the tops of the houses, to be used from thence against the enemy. Parapets were made on the houses, and the doors stopped with mattresses. Whatever arms were in the possession of individuals were brought forth, and about 8000 muskets were distributed. The troops who were in the city, and the armed inhabitants, were now assembled in the Prado, that they might be distributed to their appointed stations; the first step for establishing that order without which all efforts in defence of the city would be ineffectual. Great confusion prevailed, and when the people called out for cartridges, Morla coolly replied, that there were none. Happy had it been for Morla, if the indignation which this proof of negligence excited had been directed against himself; had he then perished under the hands of the mob, the treachery which he was preparing would never have been known on earth, and he would have escaped perpetual infamy. But his character stood so high, that no

♦Marques de Perales murdered by the populace.♦ suspicion pointed towards him. It happened that among those cartridges which had been delivered in the morning some were found containing sand instead of gunpowder; they had probably been made by some dishonest workman, or mischievous lad; but in such a time of feverish irritation and imminent danger, the fact was of course imputed to a deep-laid scheme of treason, and the Marques de Perales was the person upon whom the crime was laid. The Duque del Infantado was informed that a mob was hastening toward the house of this unfortunate nobleman, and that he and his family were in the greatest peril. Infantado himself seems to have thought there was guilt somewhere; he repaired instantly to the spot, meaning to deliver over the suspected persons to a proper tribunal, by which they might be tried; but before he arrived Perales38 had been pierced with wounds, and his dead body dragged upon a mat through the streets, the rabble accompanying it, and exulting in what they believed his deserved punishment.

The permanent Junta, who held their sittings at the post-office, as the most central point, taking into consideration the proximity of their danger, thought that more reliance was to be placed upon succour from without, than on any exertions of the inhabitants. These persons were in truth unequal to the arduous situation in which they were placed; even the example of Zaragoza had not taught them what wonders might be effected in a civic defence; and they did not consider, that as the first insurrection, and the consequent massacre at Madrid, had roused all Spain to arms, a greater impulse would now be given if the capital opposed a determined resistance. They agreed therefore to content themselves with such efforts as might prevent the enemy from instantly forcing the town, and induce him to grant terms of capitulation. If by this means time could be gained for a diversion to be effected, or a successful attempt made in their favour, it would be well; but if not, their minds were subdued to this. They counted upon succour from San Juan’s troops, many of whom were now arriving, and they dispatched Infantado to meet the remains of the central army, and bring it ♦Manifesto del Duque del Infantado, i. 10.♦ with all speed to the relief of Madrid. On the 2d of December, therefore, early in the morning, the Duke set out on this forlorn commission, accompanied by the Duque de Albuquerque and a small escort.

Only an hour or two after their departure, Bessieres, with the French cavalry, came within sight of Madrid, and took possession of the heights. Buonaparte arrived at noon on the same day, being the anniversary of his coronation. There were not more than 6000 troops in the city, but there were ten times as many men ready to lay down their lives in its defence; and the sight of the enemy excited indignation, not dismay. It was apparent that there was a total want of order among the people, but that they were in a state of feeling which might render them truly formidable: the bells of all the churches and convents were sounding, and from time to time the shouts of the multitude were heard, and the beat of drums. Preparations had been made which evinced at once the zeal and the ignorance of those by whom they were directed; the batteries were so low, that it was easy for the French to plant their guns where they could completely command them; and they were so near the wall, that there was scarcely room to work them, and the men would suffer more by the broken stones than the direct effect ♦Infantado, p. 4.♦ of the enemy’s shot. Buonaparte thought it easier to force the city than he would have found it; but though insensible to any humane considerations, policy made him desirous of avoiding that extremity. Such a catastrophe might inflame the continent as well as Spain, by proclaiming to all Europe how utterly the Spaniards abhorred the yoke under which he had undertaken to subject them. An aide-de-camp of Marshal Bessieres was therefore sent to summon the town in form; he was seized by the people, and would have been torn to pieces if the soldiers had not protected him. No communication could be opened that day with those who wished to deliver up the capital. In the evening the French infantry came up; arrangements for an attack in the morning were made by moonlight; and at midnight a Spanish Colonel, who had been taken at Somosierra, was sent with a letter from M. Berthier, Prince of Neufchatel, to the Marques de Castelar, exhorting him not to expose Madrid to the horrors of an assault. Castelar replied, that he must consult the constituted authorities, and ascertain also how the people were affected by their present circumstances before he could give an answer; and he requested a suspension of arms for the ensuing day.

This reply was sent on the morning of the 3rd. Before it arrived an attack had been commenced upon the Buen Retiro, the favourite palace of Philip IV. which had been fortified with some care, as a point from whence the city might be commanded. Thirty pieces of cannon soon made a breach in the walls, and the place was carried, after a thousand Spaniards had fallen in defending it. The other outlets which had been fortified were won also, but the French were repulsed from the gates of Fuencarral and Segovia. Some shells were thrown, in the hope of intimidating the inhabitants. In the forenoon of the ensuing day Berthier sent in a second summons. “Immense batteries,” said he, “are mounted, mines are prepared to blow up your principal buildings, columns of troops are at the entrances of the town, of which some companies of sharp-shooters have made themselves masters. But the Emperor, always generous in the course of his victories, suspends the attack till two o’clock. To defend Madrid is contrary to the principles of war, and inhuman towards the inhabitants. The town ought to seek protection for its peaceable inhabitants, and oblivion for the past.” The firing ceased, and at five in the afternoon Morla and D. Bernardo Yriarte came out to Berthier’s tent. They assured him that Madrid was without resources, and that it would be the height of madness to continue its defence, but that the populace and the volunteers from the country were determined to persevere in defending it. They themselves were convinced that this was hopeless, and requested a pause of a few hours, that they might make the people understand their real situation.... Hopeless, and without resources, when threescore thousand men were ready to defend their streets, and doors, and chambers! This would not have been said if Palafox had been in Madrid.

These unworthy deputies were introduced to Buonaparte, and one of those theatrical displays ensued in which he delighted to exhibit himself. “You use the name of the people to no purpose,” said he; “if you cannot appease them, and restore tranquillity, it is because you have inflamed them, and led them astray by propagating falsehoods. Call together the clergy, the heads of convents, the Alcaldes, the men of property and influence, and let the city capitulate before six in the morning, or it shall cease to exist. I will not withdraw my troops, nor ought I to withdraw them. You have murdered the unfortunate French prisoners who fell into your hands; and only a few days ago you suffered two persons in the suite of the Russian Ambassador to be dragged through the streets, and killed, because they were Frenchmen. The incapacity and the cowardice of a General put into your power troops who capitulated on the field of battle, and that capitulation has been violated. You, M. Morla, what sort of an epistle did you write to that General? Perhaps it becomes you, Sir, to talk of pillage; you, who, when you entered Roussillon, carried off all the women, and distributed them as booty among your soldiers. Besides, what right had you to use such language? the capitulation precluded you from it. See what has been the conduct of the English, who are yet far from piquing themselves on being strict observers of the law of nations. They cried out against the convention of Portugal, but they have fulfilled it. To violate military treaties is to renounce all civilization; it is placing generals on a footing with the Bedouins of the desert. How dare you then presume to solicit a capitulation, you who violated that of Baylen? See how injustice and ill faith always recoil upon the guilty! I had a fleet at Cadiz, it was in alliance with Spain, and yet you directed against it the mortars of the city where you commanded. I had a Spanish army in my ranks; and rather than disarm it, I would have seen it embark on board the English ships, and be forced to precipitate it afterwards down the rocks at Espinosa. I would rather have seven thousand more enemies to fight than be wanting in honour and good faith. Return to Madrid. I give you till six o’clock in the morning; come back at that hour, if you have to announce the submission of the people; otherwise you and your troops shall be all put to the sword.” Had there been a Spaniard present to have replied as became him in behalf of his country, Buonaparte would have trembled at the reply, like Felix before the Apostle.