When the news of Cuesta’s defeat at Medellin reached Paris, it was affirmed in the Moniteur, that by this battle Seville was laid open to the French armies, and that probably by that time Lisbon also was once more in their possession, ... so confident was the French government of speedy and complete success. In the same confidence, and with the hope of subduing the spirit of the Aragoneze, the French Governor of Zaragoza ordered mass to be celebrated in the Church of the Pillar, for the capture of Lisbon and Seville, as events which had taken place. Soult would undoubtedly have advanced upon the Portugueze capital, if he could have relied upon Victor’s movements; but that General found that the battle of Medellin had rather raised the hopes of the Spaniards than depressed them. His views were upon Badajoz. Aware of this, the Government, with that promptitude which characterised all their measures at this crisis, supplied the place with money and arms, and addressed public letters to the Junta of that city and the Governor, reminding them that Zaragoza had held out two months not against the enemy alone, but against hunger and pestilence; and that her defenders would be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance, while the names of those who had so basely delivered up Coruña would be handed down for lasting infamy from generation to generation. To the General, D. Antonio Arce, they said, that true glory was to be gained by overcoming great dangers, and an opportunity for such glory was now afforded him. The Extremadurans were not less brave than the Aragoneze, and Badajoz possessed a defence in her fortifications which had not existed at Zaragoza. The soldier fought with best hope, and sacrificed himself with most alacrity, when he saw his commander set the example; and such an example would not be wanting in one whose ancestors filled a distinguished place in the annals of their country. At all times Extremadura had produced heroes. There had the Pizarros, and there had Cortes been born, to be examples now for their countrymen.

Marshal Victor sent to summon Badajoz, though he was not prepared to lay siege to it; but the pitiable state of the country rendered it always possible that a governor might be found weak enough in principle or in mind to betray his trust. A spirit however such as the time required prevailed there, and the parties which he sent out in that direction were attacked at advantage and driven back with loss. The Junta informed the Government, that, in consideration of the sacrileges which the enemy committed wherever they went, they were enlisting the peasantry under the banner of the Crusade with which the misbelievers in old times had been pursued and conquered. The Government approved this measure, saying that if their forefathers had proclaimed crusades for the recovery of the Holy Land, with much more reason now might they have recourse to the same means for defending their religion in the bosom of their own country against profanations more impious than had been heard of in the darkest ages or among the most barbarous people. And they directed that the persons who should be embodied in these new corps should be distinguished by wearing a red cross on the breast. The Central Junta entertained a thought that this might be extended with good effect; but it did not spread; the feeling and the enthusiasm denoted by such a badge would not have been partaken by the officers, and it might have raised a temper in the men unfavourable to any expected co-operation with their British allies.

Another measure which the Government adopted at this time was intended to lessen the ill effect that the dispersion of so many monks and friars was likely to produce. The same calamities which had set them loose in every part of the country which the enemy had overrun, deprived them also of their accustomed means of subsistence; and it was but too probable that among those who took arms, as was very generally done by those who were able to bear them, the licence of a military life might lead to scandals which on every account it was desirable to prevent. A Junta therefore was formed of persons holding high stations in the different Religious Orders, the Prior of Zamora, who was one of the members of the Government, being appointed President. The business of this Junta was to dispose of those Religioners who, having been driven from their cloisters (the edict said), were crying night and day before the throne of a terrible God to revenge the blood of their innocent brethren, which had so wantonly been shed. They were to be distributed in towns, hospitals, and armies, as they might be deemed most qualified; and the Generals were instructed not to receive any persons of their profession unless they produced credentials or commissions from this board.

Six thousand men had been detached from La Mancha to reinforce Victor after the battle ♦April 9.♦ of Medellin. His instructions were to remain between Merida and Badajoz till he should receive advices of Soult’s movements, and till Lapisse should join him. The Intrusive Government persuaded themselves that the struggle would soon be over, and Joseph waited only to hear from Marshal Ney of the total destruction of Romana’s army, to give orders for marching against Valencia. But the tide had now turned in Galicia; there came no intelligence from Ney but what was disastrous; and Soult could neither communicate with Victor nor with Lapisse, neither could they at this time communicate with each other. Soult’s communication was cut off by Silveira on the Tamega, by Trant on the Vouga, ... and Sir Robert Wilson, by his position at Ciudad Rodrigo, cut off Lapisse equally from co-operating with his countrymen in Portugal or in Extremadura.

Of how great importance that position was likely to become Mr. Frere had perceived as soon as Sir John Moore’s army began their dolorous retreat; and he had obtained from the Spanish Government such reinforcement for the garrison as could be spared at a time when demands for aid came upon them from all quarters. The command which they conferred upon Sir Robert Wilson, disposed as the Spaniards were to act heartily with him, was of more consequence than any succour which they could then afford. He meantime had spared no exertions for increasing his little force, and continuing to impose upon the enemy that useful opinion of its strength which they were known to entertain: for it was seen by their intercepted letters that they had applied for reinforcements under the fear of being attacked by him in Salamanca, where, they said, the inhabitants were as much to be dreaded as the enemy. Sir Robert circulated addresses inviting the Germans and Poles and Swiss in the French service to abandon an iniquitous cause into which they had been forced, and in which they had no concern. There was no press in the city, but the parochial clergy throughout the line of country which he occupied multiplied copies by transcription: many men were brought over by these means, and the enemy suffered not only from this continual drain, but from the suspicion and inquietude which was thus produced. Some stragglers from Sir John Moore’s army, and some prisoners from it who had effected their escape, joined him, having every where received from the peasantry every possible assistance and kindness; for that retreat had not lessened in the Spanish people their sense of gratitude towards Great Britain, nor their respect for the British character. Some convalescents also from Almeida were added to his numbers, and he obtained two reinforcements, each of a more extraordinary kind. A captain of banditti, with five-and-twenty followers, who had exercised their vocation in the country about Segovia, repaired to him, as men who preferred risking their lives in a legal and honourable way, and were desirous of doing good service in a good cause. The other party told a sadder tale. They were South Americans from the Plata, who having been made prisoners at Montevideo in the ill-advised and worse conducted expedition of the English to that province, had been landed in Spain, there to be neglected and left destitute by their own government. More than 200 had perished through want and misery, and the survivors were almost naked and pitiably emaciated with the privations and sufferings which they had endured. There were seven officers among them, who were all men of polished manners; and the soldiers were willing and well disposed, though deeply sensible of the cruelty and injustice with which they had been neglected.

Suspecting that the enemy would endeavour to reach Extremadura, get in Cuesta’s rear, and menace Portugal on that side, Sir Robert occupied the Puerto de Baños with a small force under Colonel Mayne. This was effected just in time, Lapisse having marched the greater part of his force to Alva de Tormes on the way thither, but finding it occupied, and not knowing in what strength, the French returned. This was a month before the battle of Medellin, at which time Sir Robert had gone to confer with General Cuesta, no one except the Governor of Ciudad Rodrigo being informed of his absence. Immediately after his return the French, having been reinforced at Salamanca, attempted to ♦March 2.♦ surprise Ciudad Rodrigo. A plan had been concerted with some traitors in the town, who, from an outwork that might easily be stormed, had thrown a bridge to the body of the place, so solidly constructed that Sir Robert had remonstrated against it as promoting their own destruction in case of an assault. Timely advice, however, came from the Corregidor of Salamanca; and the enemy, apprehending from the movements of Sir Robert’s troops that a counterplot had been formed with the intent of attempting Salamanca, and cutting off their retreat, fell back hastily, and not without loss. Treachery there had been; but as there was no proof who had been the traitors, Sir Robert took measures for removing the suspected persons without discrediting them.

After it was known that Cuesta had fallen back from the Tagus to the Guadiana, and before tidings of his defeat had arrived, Sir Robert, who had been urging him to form a corps on the Tietar, and thereby preserve from the enemy a fertile part of the country which had not yet been overrun, withdrew his troops from the Puerto de Baños to collect them at Ciudad Rodrigo. Lapisse now brought together the whole remaining force under his command, which had been reduced to about 7000 men, advanced against that city, and summoned it. The officer by whom the summons was sent wished to enter the place with it, but a detachment of the Lusitanian Legion with four guns, under Lieutenant-Colonel Grant, had been stationed outside the works, and he was not permitted to proceed. Before the Governor’s answer could be given, the French, in disregard of the custom of war, continued advancing toward the gates, upon which a fire was opened upon them, and continued with effect till they halted. The Governor’s reply was, that he should not think of surrendering, even under a greater necessity than then appeared to exist. Some skirmishing took place, to the advantage of the garrison, and on the following day the enemy retreated, with some loss both in men and in reputation.

This movement of the French had been so little serious, that it was supposed they had expected some co-operation from Soult’s army. Soon afterwards, however, a second summons came in the name of the Intruder, holding out ♦March of Lapisse to unite with Victor.♦ threats to the garrison and inhabitants if they suffered themselves longer to be misled by a few British officers, and promising them King Joseph’s favour if they would open their gates. A verbal reply was returned, stating that the proper answer to such a summons was from the cannon’s mouth, and there the enemy would receive it if they chose to advance. At this time the peasantry, encouraged by the example of this brave garrison, had risen throughout a wide extent of country; and the situation of Lapisse was becoming critical, when by a movement ♦April 7.♦ which ought not to have been unexpected, he moved rapidly toward the Puerto de Perales. That pass he could hardly have forced, if it had been occupied; but Colonel Mayne could not reach it in time after the intention of the enemy was ascertained, and all that Sir Robert could do was to dispatch advices into Portugal, and harass their march by pursuing them with all speed, in the hope that when they arrived at Alcantara, where they must cross the Tagus, they would find it occupied by a sufficient force of Portugueze.

The bridge at that point, which was then one of the durable monuments of Roman magnificence, has given name to a city of some renown, as the chief seat of one of the military orders famous in old times. The town is on the left bank, and the inhabitants, aware of danger, thought to avert it by defending the entrance of the bridge with a kind of abbatis, and breaking up the road to a depth of eighteen or twenty feet. These rude works not being defended by any regular force, nor with any skill or military means, were soon forced, and the town was entered. Lapisse had marked his whole route by the most wanton cruelties, in return for which every straggler who fell into the hands of the peasantry was put to death. He remained only during the night in Alcantara; but that night was employed in plunder, and in the commission of every crime by which humanity can be disgraced and outraged. Lieutenant-Colonel Grant and Don Carlos d’España (officers whose names appear often during the war, and always honourably), arrived near the town with a small body of cavalry in pursuit during the night, and entered it in the morning just after the enemy had left it. They found the houses in flames, and the streets literally obstructed with mutilated bodies, some lying in heaps, and others thrown upon piles of furniture and valuable goods, which the ruffians, having no means of removing, had brought out in front of the houses and set on fire. Dogs had been murdered like their masters, swine butchered for the mere pleasure of butchery, and their bodies heaped together in mockery with those of the human victims. The churches ♦Campaigns of the Lusitanian Legion, 65–68.♦ had been polluted as well as plundered, images mutilated, pictures, the value of which was not suspected by these destroyers, cut to pieces, graves opened in the hope of finding money or plate concealed there, even the very coffins violated, and the dead exposed.

Victor’s force, after he had been joined by this division, amounted to 23,000 foot and 5800 horse. It was apprehended from some intercepted letters that he would immediately make for Seville, and Cuesta had formed his plan of defence accordingly. Portugal, however, was the object of the French, as a point of more importance at that time; but they had let the hour go by, and the English were now once more in the field.