It is proof of full political freedom in the Spanish press at this juncture, that this paper should have appeared, being little short of a declaration of hostility against the existing government. But though the high monarchical principles with which Romana began his manifesto displeased the democratic party, and the glaring inconsistency of his proposal weakened the effect which his authority might otherwise have produced, the government felt the necessity of doing something to conciliate the nation; they determined to convoke the Cortes, and announced the resolution in a paper which may be considered as their official apology. In this paper, without directly referring to Romana’s ♦Oct. 28.♦ charges, they replied to them. “Spaniards,” said they, “it has seemed good to Providence that in this terrible crisis you should not be able to advance one step towards independence, without advancing one likewise toward liberty. An imbecile and decrepit despotism prepared the way for French tyranny. Political impostors then thought to deceive you by promising reforms, and announcing, in a constitution framed at their pleasure, the empire of the laws, ... a barbarous contradiction, worthy of their insolence. But the Spanish people, that people which before any other enjoyed the prerogatives and advantages of civil liberty, and opposed to arbitrary power the barrier which justice has appointed, need borrow from no other nation the maxims of political prudence, and told these impudent legislators, that the artifices of intriguers and the mandates of tyrants are not laws for them. You ran to arms; and fortune rendered homage to you, and bestowed victory in reward for your ardour. The immediate effect was the reunion of the state, which was at that time divided into as many factions as provinces. Our enemies thought they had sown among us the deadly seed of anarchy, and did not remember that Spanish judgement and circumspection are always superior to French intrigue. A supreme authority was established without contradiction and without violence; and the people, after having astonished the world with the spectacle of their sublime exaltation and their victories, filled it with admiration and respect by their moderation and discretion.

“The Central Junta was installed, and its first care was to announce, that if the expulsion of the enemy was the first object of its attention in point of time, the permanent welfare of the state was the principal in importance; for to leave it sunk in the sea of old abuses, would be a crime as enormous as to deliver you into the hands of Buonaparte; therefore, as soon as the whirlwind of war permitted, it resounded in your ears the name of the Cortes, which has ever been the bulwark of civil freedom; a name heretofore pronounced with mystery by the learned, with distrust by politicians, and with horror by tyrants; but which henceforth in Spain will be the indestructible basis of the monarchy, the most secure support of the rights of Ferdinand and his family, a right for the people, and an obligation for the government. That moral resistance, which has reduced our enemies to confusion and despair in the midst of their victories, must not receive a less reward. Those battles which are lost, those armies which are destroyed; those soldiers who, dispersed in one action, return to offer themselves for another; that populace which, despoiled of almost all they possessed, returned to their homes to share the wretched remains of their property with the defenders of their country; that struggle of barbarity on the one hand, and of invincible constancy on the other, present a whole as terrible as magnificent, which Europe contemplates with astonishment, and which history will one day record, for the admiration and example of posterity. A people so generous ought only to be governed by laws which bear the great character of public consent and common utility, ... a character which they can only receive by emanating from the august assembly which has been announced to you.”

The Junta now betrayed that undue desire of retaining their power, which, though not their only error, was the only one which proceeded from selfish considerations. “It had been recommended,” they said, “that the existing government should be converted into a regency of three or of five persons, and this opinion was supported by the application of an ancient law to our present situation; but a political position which is entirely new, occasions political forms and principles absolutely new also. To expel the French, to restore to his liberty and his throne our adored King, and to establish a solid and permanent foundation of good government, are the maxims which gave the impulse to our revolution, are those which support and direct it; and that government will be the best which shall best promote these wishes of the Spanish nation. Does a regency promise this security? What inconveniences, what dangers, how many divisions, how many parties, how many ambitious pretensions within and without the kingdom; how much, and how just, discontent in our Americas, now called to have a share in the present government! What would become of our Cortes, our liberty, the cheering prospects of future welfare and glory which present themselves? What would become of the object most valuable and dear to the Spanish nation ... the rights of Ferdinand? The advocates for this institution ought to shudder at the danger to which they expose them, and to bear in mind that they afford to the tyrant a new opportunity of buying and selling them. Let us bow with reverence to the venerable antiquity of the law; but let us profit by the experience of ages. Let us open our annals and trace the history of our regencies. What shall we find? ... a picture of desolation, of civil war, of rapine, and of human degradation, in unfortunate Castille.”

The weakness of this reasoning proved how the love of power had blinded those from whom it proceeded. The Junta wished to evade the law of the Partidas, because it did not specify a case which it could not possibly have contemplated, though the law itself was perfectly and directly relevant. They assumed it as a certain consequence of a regency, that the colonies would be disgusted; that the Cortes would not be convoked; that the rights of Ferdinand would be disregarded; and that new opportunities of corruption would be afforded to France; and they forgot to ask themselves what reason there could be for apprehending all or any of these dangers, more from a council of regency than from their own body. Romana’s manifesto contained nothing more flagrantly illogical than this. Having thus endeavoured to set aside this project by alarming the nation, they admitted that the executive power ought to be lodged in fewer hands, and said, that with that circumspection, which neither exposed the state to the oscillations consequent upon every change of government, nor sensibly altered the unity of the body which it was intrusted with, they had concentrated their own authority; and that from this time those measures which required dispatch, secrecy, and energy, would be directed by a section formed of six members, holding their office for a time.

The remainder of the manifesto was in a worthier strain. “Another opinion,” they said, “which objected to a regency, objected also to the Cortes as an insufficient representation, if convoked according to the ancient forms; as ill-timed, and perhaps perilous in the existing circumstances; and in fine as useless, because the provincial Juntas, which had been immediately erected by the people, were their true representatives; but as the government had already publicly declared that it would adapt the Cortes, in its numbers, forms, and classes, to the present state of things, any objection drawn from the inadequacy of the ancient forms was malicious, as well as inapplicable. Yes, Spaniards,” said they, “you are about to have your Cortes, and the national representation will be as perfect and full as it can and ought to be, in an assembly of such importance and eminent dignity. You are about to have your Cortes; and at what time, gracious God! can the nation adopt this measure better than at present? When war has exhausted all the ordinary means, when the selfishness of some, and the ambition of others, debilitate and paralyse the efforts of government; when they seek to destroy from its foundations the essential principle of the monarchy, which is union; when the hydra of federalism, so happily silenced the preceding year by the creation of the central power, dares again to raise its heads, and endeavour to precipitate us into anarchy; when the subtlety of our enemies is watching the moment of our divisions to destroy the state; this is the time, then, to collect in one point the national dignity and power, where the Spanish people may vote and call forth the extraordinary resources which a powerful nation ever has within it for its salvation. That alone can put them in motion; that alone can encourage the timidity of some, and restrain the ambition of others; that alone can suppress importunate vanity, puerile pretensions, and infuriated passions. Spain will, in fine, give to Europe a fresh example of its religion, its circumspection, and its discretion, in the just and moderate use which it is about to make of the liberty in which it is constituted. Thus it is that the supreme Junta, which immediately recognized this national representation as a right, and proclaimed it as a reward, now invokes and implores it as the most necessary and efficacious remedy; and has therefore resolved that the general Cortes shall be convoked on the first day of January in the next year, in order to enter on their august functions the first of March following. When that happy day has arrived, the Junta will say to the representatives of the nation,

“‘Ye are met together, O fathers of your country! and re-established in all the plenitude of your rights, after a lapse of three centuries. Called to the exercise of authority by the unanimous voice of the kingdom, the individuals of the supreme Junta have shewn themselves worthy of the confidence reposed in them, by employing all their exertions for the preservation of the state. When the power was placed in our hands, our armies, half formed, were destitute; our treasury was empty, and our resources uncertain and distant. We have maintained in the free provinces unity, order, and justice; and in those occupied by the enemy, we have exerted our endeavours to preserve patriotism and loyalty. We have vindicated the national honour and independence in the most complicated and difficult diplomatic negotiations; and we have made head against adversity, ever trusting that we should overcome it by constancy. We have, without doubt, committed errors, and would willingly, were it possible, redeem them with our blood; but in the confusion of events, among the difficulties which surrounded us, who could be certain of always being in the right? Could we be responsible, because one body of troops wanted valour and another confidence; because one general had less prudence and another less good fortune? Much Spaniards, is to be attributed to your inexperience, much to circumstances, but nothing to our intention; that ever has been to deliver our King, to preserve to him a throne for which the people has made such sacrifices, and to maintain it free, independent, and happy. We have decreed the abolition of arbitrary power from the time we announced the re-establishment of our Cortes. Such is, O Spaniards! the use we have made of the unlimited authority confided to us; and when your wisdom shall have established the basis and form of government most proper for the independence and good of the state, we will resign it into the hands you shall point out, contented with the glory of having given to the Spaniards the dignity of a nation legitimately constituted.’”

Had the nation been more alive to such hopes as were thus held out, the pressure of events and the presence of imminent danger would have distracted their thoughts from all speculative subjects. Frustrated as their expectations of immediate deliverance had been, their confidence was not shaken; the national temper led them to think lightly of every disaster, but to exaggerate every trifling success; and the defeats at Arzobispo and Almonacid were less felt or thought of by the body of the people, than the successful exploits of those predatory bands, who, under the name of Guerillas, were now in action every where. The government partook of this disposition; and it must be ascribed as much to this as to policy, that the official as well as the provincial journals published every adventure of this kind more fully and circumstantially than some of those actions wherein their armies had disappeared. The example which Mina and the Empecinado had set was followed with alacrity and tempting success, rich opportunities being offered by the requisition of plate from churches and from individuals, which the intrusive government was at this time enforcing. The guerillas were on the watch, and intercepted no trifling share of the spoils. One party surprised a convoy with eighty quintals of silver near Segovia. The French, who found themselves sorely annoyed by this species of warfare, though they were as yet far from apprehending all they should suffer by it, endeavoured to raise a counter-force of the same kind in Navarre, under the name of Miquelets. But that appellation, which was so popular among the Spaniards, had no attraction for them when it was pressed into the usurper’s service, and the scheme only evinced the incapacity of those who projected it, for the guerillas depended for information, shelter, every thing which could contribute either to their success or their safety, upon the good will of their countrymen; who then would engage in an opposite service, with the certainty that every Spaniard would regard him as an enemy and traitor, and as such endeavour secretly or openly to bring about his destruction?

Among the persons who became most eminent for their exploits in this desultory warfare, D. Julian Sanchez began at this time to be distinguished. He raised a company of lancers in ♦1809.
October.♦ the district of Ciudad Rodrigo, and acted with such effect against the enemy in the plains of Castille, that General Marchand, who commanded the sixth corps at Salamanca, threatened to execute the vengeance which the guerillas at once eluded and defied, upon those whom he suspected of favouring them. Specifying, therefore, eight of the principal sheep-owners in that part of the country, he declared that they should be kept under a military guard in their own houses, and the severest measures be enforced against their persons and property, if the bands of robbers, as he called them, did not totally disappear within eight days after the date of his proclamation. He declared also that the priests, alcaldes, lawyers, and surgeons of every village, should be responsible with their lives for any disorders committed by the guerillas within their respective parishes; adding, that every village and every house which the inhabitants might abandon on the approach of the French should be burnt. This served only to call forth an indignant reply from Sanchez, containing some of those incontrovertible truths which made the better part of the French themselves detest the service in which they were employed.

Ney’s corps was at this time in Salamanca, under General Marchand, occupying also Ledesma and Alba de Tormes. Soult’s head-quarters were at Plasencia; he occupied Coria, Galesteo, and the banks of the Tietar and the Tagus, as far as the Puente del Arzobispo; Mortier’s corps was at Talavera, Oropesa, La Calzada de Oropesa, and Naval Moral; Victor’s advanced posts were at Daymiel, his head-quarters at Toledo; Sebastiani was at Fuenlebrada, and his corps extended from Aranjuez to Alcala. On the side of La Mancha or Extremadura, they could not hope to open a way to Seville, unless the government by an act of suicidal madness should encounter the certain consequences ♦The French repulsed from Astorga.♦ of a general action. Remaining, therefore, on the defensive here, they prepared for offensive operations on the side of Salamanca, with a view to the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, and a third invasion of Portugal. Sir Robert Wilson’s representations respecting the importance of that point had not been neglected by the government; the force which the Duque del Parque commanded there was now respectable in numbers, and had acquired some experience as well as confidence in that desultory warfare which Sir Robert had begun, and which D. Julian Sanchez had so well continued. Preparatory to their movements on this quarter, the French attempted to carry Astorga by a sudden attack, for which purpose, with a force of 2600 men, they advanced from the Ezla, and endeavoured to force the Bishop’s Gate. D. Jose Maria de Santocildes, who commanded there, was neither wanting in principle nor in ♦Oct. 9.♦ conduct. His measures for defence were well taken and well executed, and after a four hours’ action, the enemy retreated with the loss of more than 200 men.

A movement of more importance was presently undertaken against the Duque del Parque, who had taken a strong position on the heights near Tamames. Marchand commanded the French corps, consisting of 10,000 foot, 1200 horse, with fourteen pieces of cannon; and nothing but his contempt of the enemy could have induced him to attack them in such a post. He came on in full confidence, forming his columns with ostentatious display, as if to exhibit the perfect facility with which their evolutions were made. As it was soon apparent that the main attack would be upon the left, being the weakest part of the position, the Duke ordered Count de Belveder, with half the reserve, to support this point. Carrera, who commanded the left wing, stood the attack well; a small party of cavalry, still further to the left, were posted in a wood, from whence it was intended that they should issue, and charge the flank of the enemy; but Carrera’s second brigade making a movement for the purpose of allowing their artillery to play, the French horse charged them at full speed before they were well formed, broke in upon them, and cut down the Spaniards at their guns: ... for a moment the day seemed lost. The Duke, with his staff, came up in time to the place of danger. Mendizabal, who was second in command, sprang from his horse, and rallied those who were falling back; the young Principe de Anglona distinguished himself in the same manner; and Carrera, whose horse had received two musket-balls, and one wound with a sabre, put himself at the head of his men, charged the French with the bayonet, routed them and recovered the guns. Meantime an attack was made upon the right and centre; but here the Spaniards were more strongly posted, and D. Francisco de Losada, who commanded in that part, repulsed them. They retreated in great disorder, leaving more than 1100 on the field; their wounded were not less than 2000.

On the third day after the battle, the Duke moved forward, hoping to surprise the enemy in Salamanca. He crossed at Ledesma on the 23d, and marched all the night of the 24th; at daybreak he reached the heights which command Salamanca to the northward, but the French had retreated during the night to Toro, carrying with them the church plate and all their other plunder. They had remained five days in hope of receiving a reinforcement from Kellermann, who, with a weak corps, occupied the country between Segovia and Burgos; but seeing no succour approach, the loss which they had sustained rendered it necessary for them to retire with all speed, upon the unexpected intelligence that the Spaniards were within three leagues of the city.

The people of Salamanca did not long enjoy their deliverance. While Kellermann was reinforced with one brigade, another from Dessoles’ division was directed toward that city, preparatory to more important movements; activity having now been given to the French armies, and union, which had long been wanted, by the appointment of Marshal Soult to the rank of Major-General in place of Marshal Jourdan, who was recalled to Paris. This change was highly acceptable to the troops in general, though there prevailed a feeling of personal ill-will toward Soult on the part of some of his fellow marshals which had not existed toward his predecessor; but more confidence was reposed in him, the reputation which Jourdan had obtained in the days of the National Convention not having been supported by his subsequent fortune. The Duque del Parque, perceiving that more serious operations were likely to be directed against him, urged the government to act on the offensive in La Mancha, as a means ♦The Junta resolve on risking a general action.♦ of averting the danger from himself; and the Junta needed little encouragement at this time for measures of the most desperate temerity. The ablest members of that body partook so strongly of the national temper, that they were wholly incapacitated for understanding the real state either of their own armies, or of the allies, or of their enemies. Their infatuation might seem incredible, if it were not proved both by their conduct and by documents which they themselves laid before the nation, stating upon what grounds they had acted. They had persuaded themselves that if Sir Arthur, after Cuesta rejoined him, had given battle to Soult, according to his original intention, the destruction of Soult’s army would have been easy and certain, the annihilation of Victor’s army easy ♦Exposicion de la Junta Central. Ramo Diplomatico, P. 27.♦ as a consequent measure, the recovery of Madrid easy, and the expulsion of the French as far as the Ebro, or even to the Pyrenees. By some fatality, they said, the British General had chosen that line of conduct which was precisely the most prejudicial to the Spanish cause. By some stranger fatality they themselves persisted in believing that the British army had been at all times amply supplied with means of subsistence and of transport, that it was at any time capable of advancing, and (as if themselves incapable of understanding that the British Commander and the British Ambassador meant what they said in their repeated representations) that it would advance if the Spaniards evinced the determination and the ability to act without them. And with this persuasion they deluded their General as well as themselves.

Rash as he was, even Cuesta would hardly have been so deluded. Upon his resignation Eguia had only held the command while the government could look about for a successor. Castaños was under a cloud; the inquiry which he demanded had never been granted, and though public opinion was beginning to regard him as his past services and real worth deserved, there was no thought of again employing him. Alburquerque was an object of jealousy; Romana of dislike and fear. Areizaga therefore, who had been highly commended by Blake for his conduct in the battle of Alcañiz, was removed from the command at Lerida to be placed at the head of 50,000 men. Alburquerque, who had from 9000 to 10,000 in Extremadura, was ordered to join Parque, and place himself under his orders; while Areizaga, with the greatest force that they could collect, was instructed ♦State of Madrid.♦ to advance upon Madrid. What they knew concerning the state of that city might well excite their feelings, and raise in them a strong desire of delivering its inhabitants from their bondage; but there was nothing to encourage the extravagant hopes which they entertained. The national feeling existed nowhere in greater strength, though there was no other place wherein so many traitors were collected; all who in other parts of the country had made themselves conspicuous as partizans of Joseph, having fled thither when they could not abide in safety elsewhere. To leave the capital was an enterprise of the utmost danger for those who were willing to sacrifice every thing, and take their chance in the field against the invaders: any one might enter; but in the course of a few hours it was known who the stranger was, whence he came, where he was harboured, what was his business, and who were his connexions, ... every thing which the most vigilant police, and the most active system of espionage could discover. The tradesmen and those whose means of subsistence were not destroyed by the revolution were oppressed by heavy and frequent exactions; the Intruder’s ministers knew the impolicy of this, but nevertheless were compelled to impose these burdens; and after the atrocities which they had sanctioned, they could suffer nothing more either in character or in peace of mind. Otherwise, even in Madrid, where a strong military force kept every thing in order, and where none of the immediate evils of war were felt, there were sights which might have wrung the heart. Men and women, who had been born and bred in opulence, begged in the streets, as soon as evening had closed, ... the feelings of better times preventing them from exposing their misery in the daylight. But what most wounded the Spanish temper was the condition of their clergy, and monks, and friars, who, suffering as it were as confessors under the intrusive government, worked as daily labourers for their support, employing in hard and coarse labour hands which, the Spaniards said, were consecrated by the use of holy oil, and by contact with the Body of our Lord!

Overlooking all impediments in the way of their desires, the Junta calculated so surely upon delivering the capital, that they fixed upon a captain-general, a governor, and a corregidor, who were to enter upon their functions as soon ♦Jovellanos, § 103.♦ as it should be recovered; and they charged Jovellanos and Riquelme to draw up provisional ♦1809.
November.♦ regulations for securing tranquillity there when the enemy should withdraw. This confidence arose from a national character which repeated disasters could neither subdue nor correct. The rashness with which they determined to bring on a general action, at whatever risk, appeared to them a prudent resolution. Now that the continental war was terminated, and Buonaparte had no other employment for his armies, it was certain that more troops than had been withdrawn from Spain would be marched into it, for the purpose of effecting its subjugation; they thought it therefore the best and surest policy to make a great effort before the numbers of the enemy should be thus formidably increased. Former failures had neither disheartened nor instructed them; and they furthered the equipment of the army with a zeal which, if it had been excited two months before in providing for their allies, might have realized the hopes wherein they now indulged.

The new commander partook the blind confidence of his government. In some degree he appears to have been deceived by them; for he was neither informed of Lord Wellington’s determination not to advance, nor of the condition of the British army, which was such at that time as to render an advance impossible. From causes which physiologists have not yet been able to ascertain, the country where they were quartered, upon the Guadiana, is peculiarly unhealthy during the dry season, when that river ceases to be a stream, and, like its feeders, is reduced to a succession of detached pools in the deeper parts of its course. The troops suffered so much more than the natives, partly because the disease laid stronger hold on constitutions which were not accustomed to it, and partly from the peculiar liableness of men, when congregated in camps, to receive and communicate endemic maladies, that more than a third of their whole number were on the sick list; and the inhabitants of the country, aware as they were that this plague belonged to it, ascribed its greater prevalence and malignity among the strangers to their having eaten mushrooms, holding the whole tribe themselves in abhorrence, and not thinking the ordinary causes of the disease could account for the effects which they witnessed. Areizaga was ignorant of all this, and the government allowed him to advance with an expectation that the British army was to follow and support him.

Knowing the condition of that army, it seems almost incredible that the Junta could have deceived themselves when they thus deceived their general. But unlikely as it was that they should have given orders for a forward movement of such importance, without such co-operation, they hoped perhaps to deceive the enemy, by reports that Lord Wellington and Alburquerque would advance along the valley of the Tagus. The French were never able to obtain good intelligence of the English plans; they could, however, to a certain point, foresee them, as a skilful chess-player apprehends the scheme of an opponent who is not less expert than himself at the game; they had learnt to respect the British army in the field, but they thought the British Commander was more likely from caution to let pass an opportunity of success, than to afford the enemy one by rashness. This opinion they had formed from the events of the late campaign, being fully aware of the danger to which they had been exposed, and unacquainted with the difficulties which had frustrated Sir Arthur’s plans, ... difficulties indeed which they who were accustomed always to take whatever was needful for their armies either from friend or foe, without any other consideration than that of supplying their own immediate wants, would have regarded with astonishment, if not contempt. When Marshal Soult therefore prepared at this time to act against the Spaniards, the English force hardly entered into his calculations. He had 70,000 men available for immediate service in one direction. One corps of these, under Laborde, watched the Tagus, with an eye to Alburquerque’s movements. Victor observed the roads from Andalusia to Toledo and Aranjuez, having his cavalry in advance at Madrilejos and Consuegra; Sebastiani, with the fourth corps, was in the rear of Victor, securing the capital, from which neighbourhood a division had been sent to support Marchand after his defeat at Tamames. The reserve, under Mortier, was at Talavera; Gazan occupied Toledo with two weak regiments; and Joseph was with his guards at Aranjuez, relying upon the fortune of Napoleon, and now, when the Continent was effectually subdued, and reinforcements had already begun to enter the Peninsula, believing himself in secure possession of the crown of Spain.

On the 3d of November, Areizaga’s army, consisting of 43,000 foot, 6600 cavalry, and sixty pieces of cannon, began their march from the foot of the Sierra Morena into the plains, taking with them eight days’ provision. The advanced guard, of 2000 cavalry under Freire, were one day’s march in front; the infantry followed in seven divisions, then the rest of the cavalry in reserve, and the head-quarters last, marching from twenty to thirty miles a day; they had no tents, and took up their quarters at night in the towns upon the road. They advanced forces by Daymiel on the left, others along the high road to Madrid, by Valdepeñas and Manzanares. The French retired before them, and in several skirmishes of cavalry the Spaniards were successful. Latour Maubourg escaped with a considerable body of horse from Madrilejos by the treachery of a deserter, who apprised him of his danger just in time for him to get out of the town as the Spaniards entered it. They continued their way through Tembleque to Dos Barrios; then, by a flank march, reached S. Cruz de la Zarza; threw bridges across the Tagus, and passed a division over. Here they took a position; the French pushed their patroles of cavalry near the town, and Areizaga drew out his army in order of battle. An action upon that ground did not suit the enemy, and the Spanish general was frantic enough to determine upon leaving the mountains, and giving them battle in the plain.

Baron Crossand, who was employed in Spain on a mission from Austria, was with the army, and, dreading the unavoidable consequences of such a determination, presented a memorial to Areizaga, reminding him, that only the preceding day he had admitted how dangerous it would be thus to hazard the welfare of his country. None of the motives, he said, which should induce a prudent general to risk a battle were applicable in the present case; he had nothing to urge him forward, and the most fertile provinces of Spain were in his rear: by meeting the enemy upon their own ground, the advantage of position was voluntarily given them, and the superiority of numbers which the Spaniards possessed was not to be considered as an advantage, in their state of discipline; so far indeed was it otherwise that the French founded part of their hopes upon the disorder into which the Spaniards would fall in consequence of their own multitude. A victory might procure the evacuation of Madrid and of the two Castilles, but these results were light in the balance when weighed against the consequences of defeat. The wisest plan of operations was to entrench himself upon the strong ground which the left bank of the Tagus afforded; from thence he might send out detachments toward Madrid and in all directions, and act in concert with the Dukes of Parque and Alburquerque, patience and caution rendering certain their ultimate success.

These representations were lost upon Areizaga; he marched back to Dos Barrios, and then advanced upon Ocaña into the open country. About 800 French and Polish cavalry were in the town; they were driven out by the Spanish horse; a skirmish ensued, in which four or five hundred men fell on both sides. In this affair the French general Paris was borne out of the saddle by a lancer, and laid dead on the field. He was an old officer, whom the Spaniards represent as a humane and honourable man, regretting that he should have perished in such a cause. Areizaga bivouacqued that night; and the French, who had now collected the corps of Sebastiani and Mortier, under command of the latter, crossed the Tagus before morning. At daybreak Areizaga ascended the church tower of Ocaña, and seeing the array and number of the enemy, it is said that he perceived, when too late, what would be the result of his blind temerity. He arrayed his army in two equal parts, one on each side the town; and his second line was placed so near the first, that, if the first were thrown into disorder, there was not room for it to rally. Most of the cavalry were stationed in four lines upon the right flank, a disposition neither imposing in appearance nor strong in reality. The artillery was upon the two flanks.

About seven in the morning, Zayas, who had often distinguished himself, attacked the French cavalry with the advanced guard, and drove them back. Between eight and nine the cannonade began. The Spanish artillery was well served; it dismounted two of the French guns, and blew up some of their ammunition-carts. Mortier having reconnoitred the ground, determined to make his chief attack upon the right, and, after having cannonaded it for a while from a battery in his centre, he ordered Leval, with the Polish and German troops, to advance, and turn a ravine which extended from the town nearly to the end of this wing of the Spanish army. Leval formed his line in compact columns; the Spaniards met them along the whole of their right wing, and their first line wavered. It was speedily reinforced; the right wing was broken, and a charge of cavalry completed the confusion on this side. The left stood firm, and cheered Areizaga as he passed; an able general might yet have secured a retreat, but he was confounded, and quitted the field, ordering this part of the army to follow him. Lord Macduff, who was with the Spaniards, then requested the second in command to assume the direction; but while he was exerting himself to the utmost, the French cavalry broke through the centre, and the rout was complete. The Spaniards were upon an immense plain, every where open to the cavalry, by whom they were followed and cut down on all sides. Victor, who crossed the Tagus at Villa Mensiger, pursued all night. All their baggage was taken, almost all their artillery; according to the French account, 4000 were killed, and 26,000 made prisoners: on no occasion have the French had so little temptation to exaggerate. Their own loss was about 1700.

This miserable defeat was the more mournful, because the troops that day gave proof enough both of capacity and courage to show how surely, under good discipline and good command, they might have retrieved the military character of their country. No artillery could have been better served. The first battalion of guards, which was 900 strong, left upon the field fourteen officers, and half its men. Four hundred and fifty of a Seville regiment, which had distinguished itself with Wilson at Puerto de Baños, entered the action, and only eighty of them were accounted for when the day was over. Miserably commanded as the Spaniards were, there was a moment when the French, in attempting to deploy, were thrown into disorder, by their well-supported fire, and success was at that moment doubtful. The error of exposing the army in such a situation must not be ascribed wholly to incapacity in Areizaga, who had distinguished himself not less for conduct than courage at Alcañiz; it was another manifestation of the national character, of that obstinacy which no experience could correct, of that spirit which no disasters could subdue.

There was none of that butchery in the pursuit by which the French had disgraced themselves at Medellin. The intrusive government had at that time acted with the cruelty which fear inspires; feeling itself secure now, its object was to take prisoners, and force them into its own service; and for this purpose a different sort of cruelty was employed. While the Madrid Gazette proclaimed that the French soldiers behaved with more than humanity to the captured Spaniards, that they might gratify their Emperor’s brother by treating his misled subjects with this kindness, the treatment which those prisoners received was in reality so brutal, that if the people of Madrid had had no other provocation, it would have sufficed for making them hate and execrate the Intruder, and those by whom his councils were directed. They were plundered without shame or mercy by the French troops, and any who were recognized as having been taken before, or as having belonged to Joseph’s levies, were hurried before a military tribunal, and shot in presence of their fellows. Even an attempt to escape was punished with death by these tribunals, whose sentence was without appeal! They were imprisoned in the Retiro, and in the buildings attached to the Museum, where they were ill fed and worse used; and they who had friends, relations, or even parents, in Madrid, were neither allowed to communicate with, nor to receive the slightest assistance from them. By such usage about 8000 were forced into a service, from which they took the first opportunity ♦Rigel, 2. 406.♦ to desert, most of them in the course of a few months having joined the guerillas.

The defeat of Areizaga drew after it that of the Duke del Parque. Too confident in his troops, he remained in his advanced situation, amid the open country of Castille, till the army which he had defeated was reinforced by Kellermann’s division from Valladolid. The Duke knew there were 8000 French infantry and 2000 horse in Medina del Campo, and, thinking that this was all their force, took a position at Carpio, upon the only rising ground in those extensive plains, and there waited for their attack. The enemy advanced slowly, as if waiting for other troops to come up. Seeing this, the Duke gave orders to march against them, and the French retreated, fighting as they fell back, from about three in the afternoon till the close of day, when they entered Medina del Campo. The Duke then discovered that a far greater force than he had expected was at hand, and fell back to his position at Carpio, there to give his troops rest, for they had been thirty hours without any. At midnight the French also retired upon their reinforcements. During the following day the Duke obtained full intelligence; it now became too evident that he could no longer continue in his advanced situation, and he began his retreat from Carpio in the night. In the evening of the next day he halted a few hours at Vittoria and Cordovilla, and at ten that night continued his march, being pursued by Kellermann, who did ♦Battle of Alba de Tormes.♦ not yet come near enough to annoy him. On the morning of the 28th he reached Alba de Tormes, and there drew up his troops to resist the enemy, who were now close upon him. He posted them upon the heights which command the town on both sides of the Tormes, in order to cover his rear-guard, the bridges, and the fords; the whole cavalry was on the left bank. General Lorcet began the attack, and was repulsed by the infantry and artillery: two brigades of French horse then charged the right wing of the Spaniards; their cavalry were ordered to meet the charge; whether from some accidental disorder, or sudden panic, they took to flight without discharging a shot, or exchanging a single sword stroke; part of them were rallied and brought back, but the same disgraceful feeling recurred; they fled a second time, and left the right flank of the army uncovered: the French then charged the exposed wing with an overpowering force, and, in spite of a brave resistance, succeeded in breaking through. The victorious cavalry then charged the left of the Spaniards; but here it was three times repulsed. Mendizabal and Carrera formed their troops into an oblong square, and every farther attempt of the enemy was baffled: night now came on; this body, taking advantage of the darkness, retreated along the heights on the left bank of the town, and the Duke then gave orders to fall back in the direction of Tamames. They marched in good order till morning, when, as they were within eight miles of that town, and of the scene of their former victory, a small party of the enemy’s horse came in sight, and a rumour ran through the ranks that the French were about to charge them in great force. The very men who had fought so nobly only twelve hours before now threw away firelocks, knapsacks, and whatever else encumbered them: the enemy were not near enough to avail themselves of this panic; and the Duke, with the better part of his troops, reached the Peña de Francia, and in that secure position halted to collect again the fugitives and stragglers. Kellermann spoke of 3000 men killed and 2000 prisoners: and all the artillery of the right wing was taken.

By this victory the French were enabled without farther obstacle to direct their views against Ciudad Rodrigo, and to threaten Portugal: and Lord Wellington removed in consequence from his position in the vicinity of Badajos to the north of the Tagus, there to take measures against the operations which he had long foreseen. Alburquerque’s little army was now the only one which remained unbroken; but what was this against the numerous armies of the French? even if it were sufficient to cover Extremadura, what was there on the side of La Mancha to secure Andalusia, and Seville itself? Every effort was made to collect a new army under Areizaga at the passes of the Sierra, and to reinforce the Duke del Parque also; ... but the danger was close at hand.