M. Suchet was rewarded for his services with the title of Duc d’Albufera, and with a grant of the revenues arising from the lake of that name near Valencia, and from the domains adjoining. He was told that he had now to obtain possession of Alicante and Carthagena, and then the only remaining points from which the war could be kept up on that side of Spain would be closed. It ♦January.
Attempt on Alicante.♦ was, indeed, considered at Cadiz, that Alicante might soon be expected to fall in consequence of the loss of Valencia; and Carthagena was regarded as so insecure, that the Conde de la Bisbal suggested the propriety of occupying the heights which command it by a British force. Before this precaution was taken, a premature demonstration against Alicante had the effect of putting the inhabitants upon their guard. To secure the success of Suchet’s operations against Valencia, Marshal Marmont, pursuant to Buonaparte’s instructions, had sent General Montbrun, with two divisions of infantry and one of horse, to co-operate with him, by manœuvring against the corps of Mahy and Freyre, which he was either to cut off or compel to return into Alicante; but his orders were, at all events, to rejoin the army of Portugal from which he had been detached by the twentieth of the month at latest. Montbrun reached Almanza on the day that Valencia capitulated; nevertheless, in opposition to Suchet’s advice, he persisted in advancing to Alicante, which he summoned to surrender, and then throwing in a few shells, commenced his return toward Madrid, having raised the spirits of the Spaniards by this unsupported and unsuccessful attempt, and afforded to a more vigilant enemy an opportunity which was not lost.

Suchet followed up his success by sending a division against the little town and port of Dénia, which, though protected by a respectable fortress, was surrendered without resistance: he then sent General Severoli against Peniscola, a place so strong by nature, and so well secured by art, that it had obtained the name of Little Gibraltar, and was, in fact, impregnable ♦Peniscola betrayed by Garcia Navarro.♦ by any regular attack. But General Garcia Navarro commanded there: he had been taken prisoner in 1810, had escaped from France, was trusted with this important post, and now betrayed his trust, and entered the Intruder’s service, saying, he would rather share the fate of his country and submit to the French, than act under English orders. As this man was one of the basest traitors who deserted his country in its need, so was he the most unlucky in timing his treason; for so great a change was presently effected in the relative situation of the contending powers, as to make it apparent even to himself that he had taken the losing side, and would have only perpetual infamy for his reward. About the same time, but in a very ♦Carrera killed in Murcia.♦ different manner, the Spaniards lost General D. Martin de la Carrera, who had distinguished himself in the recovery of Galicia, and had borne throughout the war an honourable name. He now commanded the cavalry of the Murcian army: a French detachment from Granada under General Soult, the Marshal’s brother, had entered the city of Murcia and were raising contributions there, when Carrera attacked them with his advanced guard, gallantly, but unsuccessfully; for though he took them by surprise, their numbers were greater than he had expected to find, and he fell in the market-place, fighting bravely till the last. The French having sacked the city abandoned it during the night, and on the morrow Carrera was interred with all the honours which the inhabitants could bestow. On that day month his exequies were performed in the cathedral as a public solemnity, the General D. Jose O’Donnell, with Generals Mahy, Freyre, and other officers attending; the foundation of a monument to his memory was laid upon the spot where he fell; and O’Donnell and the other officers, touching the stains of his blood with their swords, swore like him to die for their country whenever the sacrifice of their lives should be called for, and added to that vow, one of perpetual hatred towards the French.

The Cortes, meantime, as if they were equally certain that the country would be delivered from its merciless invaders, and that no measures which they could take would accelerate the deliverance, employed themselves with unhappy diligence in forming a new constitution: a small but zealous minority succeeded in dictating this to their reluctant but less active colleagues; and in its details, as little regard was paid to the opinions and feelings of the people, as to the rights of the aristocracy and the fundamental principles of the government. The public were far more interested in a change of the Regency ... for the removal of ♦Change of Regency.♦ Blake after his manifold misfortunes was considered as a gain, even though accompanied with the loss of an army. The new Regency consisted of the Duque del Infantado, at that time ambassador in England; D. Joaquin Mosquera y Figueroa, who was one of the Council of the Indies; D. Juan Maria Villavicencio, a lieutenant-general in the navy; D. Ignacio Rodriguez de Rivas, of the royal council, and the Conde de la Bisbal. A new army was set on foot in Murcia, to supply the place of that which had been carried into captivity with Blake; and the national hopes were raised by successes in other quarters, as brilliant as they were at this time unlooked for.

Ballasteros had been appointed to the command in Andalusia, following a system of war like that of the Guerrillas, which was best suited both to his own talents and the indiscipline and wretched equipment of his troops, he had inflicted more loss upon the enemy than they sustained from any of the regular Spanish armies. In vain did M. Soult boast repeatedly of defeating and putting him to flight; the men who dispersed to-day collected again on the morrow: and while the French were rejoicing for having routed him at one point, they heard that he had re-appeared in force at another, and made himself felt when he was least dreaded. In September he landed at Algeziras to act in aid of the mountaineers of Ronda: a movement was then planned by the enemy for cutting him off, and for getting possession of Tarifa, an important point which they had hitherto neglected, as if in full expectation that no measures for securing it would be thought of by the Spaniards and their allies till it should be too late. After some slaughter of the peasantry and some partial actions, General Godinot advancing with 5000 men from Prado del Rey, found Ballasteros well posted in front of Ximena: he retired to collect a stronger force, and having been joined by two columns under Generals Barroux and Semele advanced again with from 8 to 10,000 men, meaning to march upon St. Roque, occupy the coast, and get possession of Tarifa by a coup de main. Ballasteros, who had not half that ♦Oct. 10.♦ number in a state of discipline on which any reliance could be placed, fell back upon the heights of St. Roque, and took a position on the right of the town: four days afterwards the French appeared, and endeavoured to bring on an engagement; but Ballasteros knew his own weakness: he fell back upon the old Spanish lines, and all the inhabitants of St. Roque flying from their town, took shelter under the guns of Gibraltar. The French invited them to return to their houses, with promises of security and protection; but bitter experience had now taught the Spaniards what French protection meant, and they threw themselves upon the compassion of their allies. Rations were allotted both for them and the Spanish troops, and the reservoirs and tanks were emptied for their use.

So busy and so stimulating a scene had not been witnessed from Gibraltar since the last siege of the rock. The fugitives, without any other accommodation or means of subsistence than what charity could supply them, were scattered about in all directions near the bay-side barrier; the French occupied the heights, and Ballasteros, with his hardy and half-naked bands, remained under protection of the rock, waiting in hope that want would soon compel the enemy to retire, for previous arrangements had been made for annoying them in ♦Tarifa attempted by the French.♦ the rear and cutting off their supplies. Godinot was not more successful in his design of seizing Tarifa. Aware that such an attempt would be made, and warned by the example of Tarragona to take measures for resisting the enemy in time, the Spanish government dispatched a force under D. Francisco de Copons to garrison the town; and 1000 British infantry, with a detachment of artillery under Colonel Skerrett, embarked at the same time for the same service. This, it was supposed, would also operate as a diversion in favour of Ballasteros. The British troops landed on the very day that Ballasteros fell back under the rock; but a strong easterly gale delayed the Spanish part of the expedition. On the 18th about 1500 of the enemy advanced against Tarifa by the pass of La Pena; but the road could be commanded from the sea, and our vessels fired upon them with such effect that they turned back. Godinot meantime felt severely the want of supplies; for the mountaineers of Ronda, and the parties which Ballasteros had appointed for that purpose, intercepted his communications and cut off his detachments. Three days, therefore, after his ineffectual demonstration against Tarifa, he retreated by Ximena upon Ubrique. Ballasteros was soon at his heels, and falling upon the division which composed the rear-guard, put it to flight, pursued it for three leagues, and brought away prisoners, knapsacks, and arms in abundance. He soon obtained a more important advantage: dividing his army for the purpose of deceiving the enemy, he collected it by a ♦Nov. 5.♦ general movement from different directions to one point, in the village of Prado del Rey, and marching from thence by night, surprised Semele at daybreak. This general had taken his station at Bornos upon the right bank of the Guadalete, with 2000 foot, 160 horse, and three pieces of artillery. All the mules and baggage fell into the hands of the Spaniards; about 100 prisoners were taken, and the corps was put ♦Oct. 5.♦ to flight. This fresh misfortune proved fatal to Godinot, whom Soult recalled to Seville. On his arrival in the evening he went to rest; early the next morning he came out of his chamber, took the musket of the sentry unobserved, and blew out his own brains.

The plans of Marshal Soult, however, were not to be frustrated by partial reverses, though they were impeded by them. France has rarely or never had an abler man in her service than this general, nor one who might have attained a higher reputation, if his consummate abilities had not been devoted to the service of a tyrant, and sullied by cruelties which bring disgrace upon France and upon human nature. He had lost Tarifa by relying too confidently on the supineness and inattention of the allies. The French entered it when they first overran Andalusia; and having, as they thought, taken possession, passed on to other points of more immediate importance. The governor of Gibraltar, General Colin Campbell, seized the opportunity, and occupied it with about 250 men and thirty gunners under Major Brown of the 28th. A few weeks afterwards, a thousand French arrived to garrison it: the general hatred of the Spaniards prevented them from getting any information but what their own people, and the few traitors whom they had seduced, could supply; and their troops were under no little surprise when they found the gates closed against them. They drew up below the eastern hills, within musket-range, and poured their bullets into the town; and they entered the suburbs, where several of our men were killed; but they were without artillery, and seeing a detachment issue through the sea-gate to take possession of the south-east hills, and bring some guns to bear upon their flank, they hastily retired, and made no farther attempt to occupy the place, till this time.

Tarifa is believed to have been a settlement of the Phœnicians. It derives its present name from Tarik, who first led the Moors into Spain, and who is said to have built the castle. The town had long· been declining, till the late wars in which Spain had been involved with England, in consequence of her unhappy connexion with France, gave it a new importance: for a little island which stands out boldly into the Straits off the town rendered it a favourable station for gun boats; and during the late war these boats inflicted greater losses upon the trade of Great Britain than it suffered from all the fleets of all her enemies. There were two half-moon batteries and a martello tower on the island; but when the Spaniards at the commencement of this dreadful struggle formed their alliance with Great Britain, these works, with the whole line of defence along the Straits, were dismantled, lest the French should at any time turn it against the best ally of Spain. The enemy occupied no point which in so great a degree commanded the straits; and Soult was now the more desirous of obtaining it, because he was at this time negotiating with Morocco, and the possession of Tarifa, which is only five leagues distant from Tangiers, would render it impossible for England with all her naval means to prevent him from receiving corn; and thus the difficulty of supplying the French armies would be greatly lessened, if not altogether removed.

The little garrison which had saved this important place was withdrawn for the expedition under Generals Lapeña and Graham, and when the latter re-entered the Isle of Leon, he left Tarifa uncovered; but General Colin Campbell a second time secured it, by sending thither the marines from the ships at Gibraltar. Soon after it was re-garrisoned, Major King of the 82nd was appointed to the command, and he and the Spanish governor, D. Manuel Daban, delayed not to take precautions against a danger, the approach of which now began to be apprehended. Piquets were placed at La Pena, at Facinas, and Port Alanca, and provisions were laid in for a siege. The first movement of the enemy indicated their ultimate object; D. Antonio Begines de los Rios, an officer who had distinguished himself daring General Lapeña’s expedition, and who was now stationed at Algeziras, made a representation of the approaching danger, and General Campbell directed that some field works should be thrown up on the island to secure a retreat, in case a retreat should be unavoidable. These works excited some jealousy in the governor; but Major King explained to him their use and necessity; and Ballasteros, who inspected them about the same time, expressed in animated terms his gratitude to the British nation, seeming at that time, like a brave and generous man, to feel no petty suspicions, or lingering of old prejudices, or resentment of false and ill-directed pride.

In the middle of October, Colonel Skerrett arrived with about 1200 men, and took the command of the garrison; and in a few days D. Francisco de Copons followed him with 900 Spaniards and about 100 cavalry. The Spanish general demanded that the keys of the town should be given up to him, and Colonel Skerrett would have acceded to this, if it had not been represented, that his predecessors had kept possession of the keys, first to guard against any treachery; secondly, because the brother of the governor was in the French service; and, thirdly, as it was more conformable to the honour of the British nation. The validity of the two former reasons had been but too often proved: the latter might well have been dispensed with; on the part of England there was no point of honour implicated, and the British officer acted as he did for the welfare and security of Spain. The question was referred by Colonel Skerrett to Governor Campbell’s decision; and the rapid approach of the enemy, and the hearty co-operation of the allies against him, removed all jealousies which otherwise might have arisen.

The French advanced in such superior numbers, that little attempt could be made to oppose or impede them. They took possession of the surrounding hills on the 19th of December, and lighted fires, which were supposed to be for the purpose of misleading our gun-boats; for these vessels annoyed them materially by keeping up a brisk fire upon the pass of La Pena and the hills near the beach. By the following night the town was closely invested, after a warm day’s work, in which the artillery on both sides played with destructive effect. One of the enemy’s shells killed an artillery driver and eight artillery horses; fourteen Spaniards were killed by another. The allies lost seventy-one in killed and wounded; the loss of the enemy was also great. Four ten-inch mortars on the island were seen to do terrible execution; one of their shells burst in the centre of a column, and towards evening, when the enemy were most heated and exposed themselves most, they were evidently checked by the unexpected resistance which they met with. The siege was now fairly commenced, and the cavalry and staff-horses, as no longer useful, were sent to the island, from thence to be embarked on the first opportunity. An account of the enemy’s force was obtained from a serjeant who was brought in prisoner; there were 11,000 men, he said, with eighteen pieces of cannon, long sixteen pounders, and two howitzers; Marshal Victor commanded. The prisoner entreated that he might not be given up to the Spaniards. When he was asked whether he thought the French would succeed in the siege, he replied, “That their Emperor Napoleon had given them positive orders to take the place, and he generally provided means adequate to the end in view.” The man appeared sensible and well informed; this confidence in the wisdom with which their operations were directed was probably common to the whole French army, and it constituted half their strength.

The allies were not equally confident that they should be able to defend the place; and the commanding-officer of the flotilla surveyed the coast of the island, to fix upon a spot for embarking the garrison, if they should be compelled to evacuate both posts. A precaution of this kind, if it had been publicly known, might have contributed, by disheartening the men, to produce the catastrophe which it seemed to anticipate; but it was the duty of the commanders to think of the worst result, while they hoped and acted for the best; and when they remembered what weak walls and insufficient works were opposed to a numerous enemy, experienced in all the arts of war, and more especially in the attack of fortified places, it was not without good reason that they thought it expedient to provide a place for embarkation. Hitherto, however, the defence had been well and fortunately conducted; and the fire of the gun boats and from the island was so well directed, that great part of the enemy’s stores and their heavy artillery had not yet been able to come through the pass of La Pena. By daybreak on the 24th, the French had brought their approaches within 400 yards, immediately opposite the north-east tower. That morning an express arrived from Cadiz, with orders for Colonel Skerrett to embark his brigade: a council of war was held, but not for the purpose for which such councils under such circumstances are usually convened; ... a right spirit prevailed among the British officers, and they determined that the place should not be abandoned. To go once in his life, as Colonel Skerrett had done, to the relief of a besieged town, and see its imminent distress, without bearing part in its defence, was sufficient grief for a brave and generous man; the French had insulted and vilified him for not having done at Tarragona what no want of will prevented him from doing; opportunity was now given him of showing them his real character, and he did not fail to improve it.

On the night between Christmas eve and Christmas day, the French broke ground opposite the east tower at 400 yards distance, and on the following night they strengthened their approaches at all points, and advanced 150 yards nearer to the east and north-east towers. At both points they opened a fire from a number of wall-pieces, and fired musketry and wall-pieces through pyramids of earth-sacks from the summit of one of the hills. Thence they poured their bullets over the whole town, but the men were so well covered that little hurt was done. The fire of the garrison was equally brisk and more successful; ... it was not, however, possible to prevent the enemy from advancing in works, carried on upon the perfect rules of art; and in case it should be found impossible to maintain Tarifa, final arrangements were made for the order of retreat, and signals established with the island, to signify when the island was to fire on the breach, the suburbs, and on the town, so that our troops might be saved from any error in the possible confusion, and as much loss as possible inflicted on the assailants.

A heavy fire was opened on the 29th from two batteries; one bore upon the flotilla boats, which were then at anchor in the eastern bay, and they were fain to cut their cables and put to sea. This battery then threw shot and shells to almost every part of the island. The men received little hurt, for they were at work at the traverses; but two of the female inhabitants of the town, who had taken refuge there, were wounded, one losing a leg, and several horses and mules were killed. The other was a breaching battery planted in the valley, nearly opposite the Retiro tower, at three hundred yards distance. By the evening a breach about five feet wide was made to the right of this tower. The eastern tower was as yet untouched, but the enemy approached it by sap within fifty yards. Some of the inhabitants were killed and wounded in the course of the day retreating to the island. The men suffered little, for they were ordered to keep under cover. Their spirit was manifested upon an occasion which might have led to the worst consequences. One of our artillery officers spiked two guns; the troops were exceedingly indignant when it was whispered among them, and they expressed their discontent at the apprehension of being made to abandon the town, without having a fair set-to with the enemy. General Copons appeared highly enraged when he was informed of what had been done; and the temper which both Spaniards and English displayed at this circumstance taught them how well each might rely upon the other in this their common cause.

The next day, by ten in the morning, the breach had been enlarged to three-and-twenty yards, and about noon a flag of truce arrived; ... it was a service of danger to carry it, the day being so foggy, that the flag could scarcely be seen. General Leval who commanded the besieging troops, summoned the governor, saying, “that the defence made by the fortress under his command had sufficiently established that fair name which is the basis of military honour: that in a few hours the breach would be practicable, and that the same honour which had prompted him to resistance, imposed it now as a duty upon him to spare the lives of a whole population, whose fate was in his hands, rather than see them buried amid the ruins of their town.” Copons answered in these words: “When you propose to the governor of this fortress to admit a capitulation, because the breach will shortly be practicable, you certainly do not know that I am here. When the breach shall be absolutely practicable, you will find me upon it, at the head of my troops to defend it. There we will negotiate.” After receiving his reply, the French renewed their fire upon the breach, but most of the balls passed through it into the houses which stood opposite.

Preparations were now made on both sides for the assault, and at eight on the following morning the enemy advanced from their trenches in every direction. 2000 of their men moved by the bed of the river in front of the breach; the 87th regiment flanked the breach to the north and south, leaving two companies in reserve to bayonet the assailants if they should leap the wall. This, however, was not much to be apprehended; for the town is built in a hollow, and in that part the wall on the inside was fourteen feet lower than on the out. The breach opened into a narrow street, which had been barricaded on each side, and was well flanked and secured with chevaux-de-frize, for which the iron balconies, commonly used in Spanish towns, furnished ready and excellent materials. When Colonel Gough saw them advancing, he drew his sword, threw away the scabbard, and ordered his band to strike up the Irish air of Garry-Owen. The men immediately cheered, and opened their fire. The 47th, who lined a wall which descended from the south-east tower, and flanked the enemy’s columns, did the same, and the carnage made among the enemy was such, that they halted for a moment, as if dismayed, then ran to the edge of the breach. This they saw was impracticable, and hurrying off under the wall, they made a dash at the portcullis. Here the barricade was impenetrable, and finding themselves in a situation where courage could be of no avail, and where they were brought down by hundreds, they fled. Colonel Gough seeing them fly, bade his band strike up St. Patrick’s Day, and the men were so inspirited, that it was scarcely possible to restrain them from pursuing the fugitives up to their very trenches33.

The enemy suffered severely in their flight; hand-grenades from the houses were thrown upon those who fled by the wall, in hope of security, and a six-pounder on the north-east tower flanked them. The two leading officers of the column remained under the wall, and were taken prisoners. A flag of truce was soon sent, to ask permission to bury the dead. About 500 had fallen; and it was a miserable sight to see the wounded crawling under the breach: about forty, many of whom were officers, were brought into the town. On the part of the garrison ten were killed and seventeen wounded.

The old year was now terminated with triumph and rejoicing at Tarifa, but the new one came in with mourning. A dreadful storm of wind and rain came on from the eastward, and two Spanish gun-boats, full of fugitives from the town, were wrecked under the guns of the island. Two-and-forty persons perished. The inhabitants who were hutted on the eastern side of the island, were overwhelmed by the surge, all lost their property and many of them their lives. Many more perished by the storm than had fallen in repelling the assault. The weather, however, brought with it some compensation to the Spaniards for this destruction; the few shells which the enemy threw during the day fell dead, giving proof that their ammunition had suffered, and neither that day nor the next did they make any farther attempt on the breach, nor move any of their guns to batter a more assailable point. During the night of the first, the wind blew up many of the tents on the island, and exposed the men to the storm. On the second, the rain increased, and the wind fell; in the course of the ensuing night, a party sallied, and found the lower trenches of the enemy so flooded by the rains, that their piquets had abandoned them. Some deserters now came in, and declared that two regiments had refused to assault the breach a second time; that the sufferings which they endured from the weather had excited a mutinous expression of discontent among the foreigners in their army and that Victor had, in consequence of these things, thought it necessary to send for Soult, who was arrived, and now at the convent of La Luz. Other deserters confirmed this account, and added, that there were about 1000 sick, and that the swelling of the rivers cut off their supplies, and was likely to cut off their retreat.

The besieged did not rely too confidently upon their good fortune, and these favourable tidings, which all appearances, as far as they could, seemed to corroborate. Ballasteros, with 2000 of his best troops, embarked at Algeziras, to assist in the defence of Tarifa; but the weather prevented him from sailing, and the commander seeing that the enemy were removing their guns higher up, and expecting that another breach would be made, applied to General Colin Campbell for a reinforcement. The light companies of the 9th regiment were immediately dispatched, and landed in the course of the day, and in the following night farther succours arrived. Toward evening, a column of the enemy was seen advancing from La Luz, and a deserter brought intelligence that they proposed to attack at the same time the town, the island, and St. Catalina, ... a conical hill on the land side of the isthmus, which was occupied as an outwork to the island; if they failed in these simultaneous attacks, they meant to raise the siege. About an hour after night had closed, they approached close to the eastern wall, and poured a fire of musketry into the town; the whole of the garrison immediately repaired to their alarm posts, and the guards on the wall returned their fire with good effect. It was intended only for a feint, and the enemy presently withdrew. About midnight, the garrison were again called out by a firing on all sides of the town; the firing suddenly ceased, and a little before daybreak it was discovered that the enemy had retreated during the darkness. ♦Jan. 4.♦ When morning opened, nothing but their rear guard was in sight; the light troops pursued them as far as the river Salado, ... memorable as the place where the Moors made their last great effort for the conquest of Spain, and where they received from the allied armies of Castille and Portugal one of the greatest and most important defeats which history has recorded.

The French buried their cannon and left behind them great part of their stores, and what they attempted to remove, the weather and the state of the roads compelled them to abandon upon the way. Their loss was computed at not less than 2500 men, ... a number exceeding that of the garrison. The siege had continued seventeen days; the wall in front of the town was but a yard thick, and incapable of bearing heavy artillery; a breach had been open in it for seven days. Here for the first time, the French learned in what manner Englishmen could defend stone walls, and Lord Wellington was about to show that they could attack them with the same spirit and the same success.

General Hill, after his surprisal of the French at Arroyo Molinos, had returned to his cantonments in Alentejo, watching an opportunity for a second blow. Towards the end of December, he made a rapid movement upon Merida in the hope of surprising them there also, but this was in part frustrated by the accident of falling in with a detachment which was on a plundering excursion, and which retreating with great skill and bravery before our advanced guard, gave the alarm. Upon this the enemy evacuated the city, leaving unfinished the works which they were constructing for its defence, and abandoning a magazine of bread and a considerable quantity of wheat. The British general, then hearing that Drouet was collecting his troops at Almendralejo, marched upon that town: but the French had retired, leaving there also a magazine of flour; the state of the weather and of the roads, which were daily becoming worse, prevented General Hill from pursuing; having, therefore, cleared this part of Extremadura of the French (for they retreated to the south), he cantoned his troops in Merida and its vicinity, and waited for other opportunities and a fairer season.

The Guerrillas failed about the same time in an attempt which, if it had proved successful, would in the highest degree have gratified the vindictive spirit of the Spaniards. Zaldivar laid an ambush for Marshal Soult, and if a goatherd had had not apprized him of his danger, that able commander would have been at the mercy of men as merciless as himself. A successful achievement by D. Julian Sanchez perhaps induced Zaldivar to undertake this well-planned, though less fortunate, adventure. That chieftain, soon after the relief of Ciudad Rodrigo, formed a scheme for driving off the cattle, which had been introduced into the city, and were driven out every morning to graze under the guns of the place. He not only succeeded in taking the greater part of them, but made the governor, Regnauld, prisoner, who with ♦Oct. 15.♦ a small escort had crossed the Agueda, thinking himself perfectly safe, within sight of the fort and under its guns. About the same time an accident occurred, which showed the gratitude as well as the enterprise of the Spaniards. Colonel Grant, of the Portugueze ♦Col. Grant rescued by the Guerrillas.♦ army, who had on many occasions distinguished himself, was surprised at El Aceuche, and made prisoner. D. Antonio Temprano, who commanded a squadron of hussars, obtained intelligence that he had passed through Oropesa, on the way to Talavera; “and because,” he said, “of the singular estimation in which this officer deserved to be held for his services,” he determined, if it were possible, to rescue him: for this purpose he placed an ambush within shot of Talavera during five successive days; and on the fifth, succeeded in delivering Colonel Grant and a Portugueze officer, his companion in misfortune, at a time when they both expected to be consigned to hopeless captivity.

That Temprano’s detachment should have remained five days so near a populous city like Talavera, and no information be given to the French garrison, is one of the many proofs which were daily occurring, how entirely the Spanish people hated the government which Buonaparte was endeavouring to force upon them. Meantime, even from Madrid, in spite of the vigilance of a French police, and the rigour of a military government, which, knowing itself to be detested, sought only to maintain itself by fear, the inhabitants found means of sending not only intelligence, but even supplies, to their brethren in arms. It is related in one of the Spanish journals, as a proof of the patriotism of the capital, and the confidence which the Spaniards there placed in each other, that a lady gave into the hands of a carrier, whom she met in the street, and had never seen before, a large bundle of lint and bandages, for the nearest military hospital of her countrymen, and it was accordingly delivered to the Junta of Leon, to be thus disposed of. Romana’s army was clothed by contributions from Madrid.

The ambition of the French government has been at all times well seconded by the activity and talents of its subjects, and by that lively interest, which more than any other people they feel for the glory of their country; but its policy has always been counteracted by other parts of the French character. While the Intrusive Government and the generals upon every occasion reminded the Spaniards that they were orthodox Roman catholics like themselves, and that the English were heretics endeavouring thus, by raising religious animosities, to excite disunion between them and their allies, they could not refrain from outraging the feelings of the Spaniards, by the grossest mockery of all things which were held sacred. Masquerades were given at Madrid on the Sundays in Lent, and the people were shocked at seeing masks in the characters of nuns, friars and clergy in their surplices, in the public places of promenade, and at the theatre. They were still more offended at beholding one in episcopal habits, and another with a cope, and the other habits of the altar. At Albarracin and Orihuela, the French gave balls, and exhibited a bull-fight on Holy Thursday, the cost of which they levied upon the villages round about. “The robbery,” said the Spaniards, “can surprise no one after our long experience of their insolence and rapacity; but that which wounds to the quick a feeling and pious soul, is the atrocious and sacrilegious insult which these wretches offer to human nature, and to the religion of that God whom they profess to adore. Common banditti commit murder after robbery, ... but to suck the blood of a victim, to expose him to a thousand torments, and to compel him after all to outrage religion, the only consolation and hope which he has left, and to make him with his last tears deplore the most sacrilegious of their excesses, this is peculiar to Buonaparte and his soldiers.”

The conduct of the French in other respects was such as heightened this feeling of abhorrence; everywhere the people groaned under their exactions, their cruelties, and their intolerable insolence. It seemed as if it were the wish of Buonaparte and his ferocious agents utterly to depopulate a country which they found it impossible to subdue. Dreadful as war always is, no ordinary war could have brought upon any nation such complicated miseries. It was impossible for those even who would have been contented to bow, like bulrushes, before the storm, to obtain security by any course of conduct; the orders of the Intrusive Government were met by counter orders from the legitimate authority; and they who obeyed that authority were, on the other hand, exposed to the penalties enacted in the Intruder’s name. Buonaparte and his wicked agents expected to govern Spain by terror, little thinking, when the plan of usurpation was laid, that the character of the nation would compensate for the imbecility of its rulers; that his system of terror would be met by counter terrors; and that the people for whom he proclaimed there was no safety but in obedience would, on their part, proclaim that obedience, when carried farther than mere passive and inevitable submission to immediate force, was a crime which would draw upon the temporizing and the timid the very evil they sought to avert. Nothing but that patient, persevering, obstinate, inflexible, and invincible spirit of local patriotism which for more than two thousand years has distinguished the Spaniards above all other nations, could have supported them through such a struggle; while the allies, by whom, under Providence, their deliverance was to be effected, were acquiring confidence in their own strength, and experience, and some of that wisdom in which at the beginning of the contest they were lamentably wanting. But, meantime, the sufferings of the Spaniards were of the severest kind, and as general as they were severe. There was scarcely a family in the Peninsula, from the highest to the lowest, of which some member had not been cut off by the sword. The affluent were deprived of their property; the industrious of their employment; men of letters were bereaved of the books and papers which had been the occupation and delight of their laborious, and honourable, and disinterested lives; and they who had grown grey in convents were driven out to beg for bread among those who were themselves reduced to want.

The Intruder, meantime, was in a condition which was truly pitiable, if one who had allowed himself to be made the ostensible cause of such wide-spreading misery and desolation had not forfeited all claim to pity. This phantom of a king had neither money to pay his ministers and dependents, nor authority over the armies which acted in his name. The Frenchified Spaniards who composed his ministry, and the French generals, agreed in despising him, ... this being almost the only point in which they agreed: on the part of Urquijo Azanza, and their colleagues, there was some commiseration mingled with their contempt; their object had been to effect a change of dynasty, under the protection of France, not to reduce Spain to the state of a province; and they could not perceive that Joseph Buonaparte was the mere puppet of his perfidious brother, without self-reproaches and unavailing regret. For their own sakes, therefore, they preserved the forms of respect toward him; but the generals were restrained by no such feeling; they set his orders at nought, and looked only to France for instructions. The object of the officers was to enrich themselves by pillage; that of the commanders was to carve out dukedoms, and provinces, and principalities, which they might govern by the sword while Buonaparte lived, and perhaps maintain for themselves by the same tenure after his death.

Sick of his miserable situation, the Intruder went to France, to represent the deplorable state of Spain, and press upon Buonaparte the necessity of providing an adequate support for the government which he had established, if he could not send into the Peninsula such a force as should expel the English, and bear down all resistance. He himself perhaps would have rejoiced if Buonaparte would have executed his old threat of annexing Spain to the French empire, and treating it openly as a conquest, ... for Joseph had neither the talents nor the temper of an usurper: without virtue to refuse obedience to his tyrannical brother, and yet without those vices which would make him heartily enter into his plans, his only resource was in sensualities, for his criminal compliance had left him no other consolation. This propensity he would far rather have indulged in retirement and security: but the views and wishes of his ministers were widely different: the direct usurpation of Spain by Buonaparte would have reduced them at once to insignificance, and placed them upon a level with Godoy, whom they, perhaps, as well as their worthier countrymen, regarded as a traitor; for certain it is, that among these unhappy men there were some who began their career with good feelings, and a sincere love of their country, and who were betrayed by error and presumptuousness, and their connexion with France, into guilt and infamy. They dreaded nothing so much as Joseph’s retirement, and rejoiced in his return to Spain as at a triumph.

It suited not the immediate policy of Buonaparte to displace his brother. Moscow instead of Madrid occupied at this time his ambitious thoughts, and supplying with men the Intrusive Government, he left it to shift as it could for means. So distressed was Joseph for money, that the plate of the royal chapel at Madrid was sent to the mint, though such an act would make him at once odious for sacrilege, and contemptible for poverty, in the eyes of the people. In want of other funds for his emissaries to America, he sent a large quantity of quicksilver to be sold at Alicante: the governor there discovered for what use the produce was designed, and seized 1700 arrobas, and the agents who had it in charge. A great effort was made to pay some of the public arrears on Buonaparte’s birthday, the fifteenth of August, for which day St. Napoleone had been foisted into the Spanish calendar. 100,000 reales de vellon were paid on this anniversary to the ministers. Lledo, the comedian, received 18,000, and 100 each were distributed to some ladies of rank, who were reduced to petition the Intruder for bread! A bull-fight was given at Madrid on this day, at which all the bulls were white; long preparation therefore must have been necessary for collecting them: D. Damaso Martin, the Empecinado’s brother, carried off from the meadows of Puente de Viveros 300, which had been destined for these ferocious sports in the capital.

The legitimate government, meantime, was not less distressed than that of the Intruder: as far as the contest lay between them, it was carried on on both sides almost without any certain revenue on which either could rely. The chief resources of the Spaniards, at the commencement of the struggle, had been in America, and these had been cut off by a series of deplorable events, in which it is difficult to say which of the opposite parties was most culpable. This was now the fourth year of the war; the spirit of the people, and the defects of their military system, had been abundantly proved; nothing was wanting but to remedy those defects by raising an army under the direction of Lord Wellington, who had delivered Portugal, and might by similar means speedily and certainly have delivered Spain. Many causes prevented this; one is to be found in a jealousy or rather dislike of England, which had grown up in the liberal party with their predilection for republican France, and which continued with other errors from the same source, still to actuate them. The pride of the Spanish character was another and more widely influencing cause: the Spaniards remembered that their troops had once been the best in the world; and this remembrance, which in the people so greatly contributed to keep up their spirit, in the government produced only a contented and baneful torpor which seemed like infatuation. The many defeats, in the course of four years, which they had sustained, from that at Rio Seco to the last ruinous action before Valencia, brought with them no conviction to the successive governments of their radical weakness and their radical error. After Lord Wellington had driven Massena out of Portugal, it was proposed that the command of the frontier provinces should be given him, and that an army should be raised there under him: it was debated in a secret sitting, and rejected by an hundred voices against thirty.

“There are three classes of men,” said Dueñas, “who will break up the Cortes, unless the Cortes breaks down them: they who refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of the nation, calling it a mere chimera, and saying there is no sovereignty except that of the king; they who distrust our cause, and say that the few millions who inhabit Spain cannot make head against all Europe; and, lastly, they who imagine, that as the French have conquered while they despise God, we may do the same.” The deputy’s fears of the first and third of these classes were groundless, and there were but few of the second, ... but few Spaniards who despaired of Spain. Nothing, however, could tend so much to increase their number as the conduct of the government; it might well be feared that a system, if system it could be called, which trusted to its allies, and to the events that time and chance might bring forth, would at length exhaust the hopes and the constancy, as well as the blood, ♦Schemes for strengthening the government.♦ of the Spaniards. All considerate persons could not but perceive that the present government was in no respect more efficient than that of the Central Junta had been, which, for its inefficiency, would have been broken up by an insurrection, if it had not prevented such a catastrophe by a timely abdication. As a remedy for this evil, the Cortes thought at one time of taking the executive into their own hands, and administering it by a committee chosen from their own members; but the resemblance which this bore to the system pursued by the French National Convention, during the worst stage of the revolution, deterred those who favoured it from bringing forward a proposal that would reasonably have alarmed the greater part of the assembly, and have disgusted the nation. They who were of opinion that the Regency would be more effective if vested in a single person than in three or five, knew not where that person was to be found who should unite ♦Cardinal Bourbon.♦ legitimate claims with individual qualifications. Cardinal Bourbon occurred to them, but as one who had neither the personal respectability, nor the ♦The Infante D. Carlos.♦ capacity desired. The Infante D. Carlos was supposed to possess sufficient strength of character, and it was not doubted, that if opportunity of attempting to escape could be offered him, he would be not less desirous to avail himself of it than Ferdinand had, luckily for himself, been found of shrinking from the danger; but the failure in Ferdinand’s case had greatly increased both the difficulties and dangers of ♦The Princess of Brazil.♦ such an attempt. There remained the princess of Brazil, whose right to the Regency, under existing circumstances, was admitted by the Council of Castille. She had spirit and abilities equal to the charge; but, on the other hand, she was known to be of an intriguing and dangerous disposition, ... one who, being, by reason of her station, sure of impunity in this world for any thing which she might be inclined to commit, believed that her father-confessor could at all times make her equally secure in the next, and was notoriously disposed to make full use of these convenient privileges whenever any personal inclination was to be gratified or any political object to be brought about. Yet with this knowledge of her character, those British statesmen who were best acquainted with the affairs of the Peninsula at that time, and with what advantages we might carry on the war there, if it were vigorously pursued, and what were the impediments which in far greater degree than the entire force of the enemy impeded our progress, agreed in opinion, that it should be the true policy of England to support her claim, regarding the possible consequences in Portugal, of her appointment to the Spanish Regency, as a consideration of inferior moment. There would yet be a difficulty concerning the place to be fixed on for her residence: Lisbon it could not be: ... pre-eminently fitted as that city was to be the capital of the united governments, the ill-will between the Portugueze and Spaniards, which the circumstances of the present war unhappily had not tended to diminish, rendered this impossible; and, for the same reason, Cadiz was hardly less objectionable. It was thought, therefore, that the princess might best reside at Madeira, and govern in Spain through a Vice-Regent. The conduct of the Cortes in arrogating the title of Majesty, and exercising, as, in fact they did, the executive government through successive Regencies, which they nominated and dissolved at pleasure, made persons who were otherwise averse to it accede to this scheme as involving fewer inconveniences than any other which could be proposed.