World's Best Histories Part 13

Napoleon did not keep his promise to the Bourbons of Spain. He had not come to Madrid in order to heal their divisions, and strengthen the tottering power. One after another, he had drawn all the members of the royal family to Bayonne, and there, on French soil, had easily consummated their ruin. It was also on French soil that he made preparations to raise his brother to the throne. King Joseph was late in arriving, entering Bayonne only on the 8th June; and already the imperious will and clever management of the emperor had brought into that town a certain number of great lords, favorable to the new power from interest or fear. Already Joseph was proclaimed King of Spain and the Indies; and scarcely had he had time to put foot to the ground when he was surrounded by Spanish deputations, which had been carefully prepared by Napoleon's orders. The king regretted much having to leave Naples. Without foreseeing the difficulties that awaited him, he loved the gentle, easy life of Italy, and had not yet forgot the annoyance of taking possession, or the obstacles to be met by a new regime. The emperor took care to dazzle him at the outset. The Junta formed at Bayonne prepared a const.i.tution.

Napoleon had collected much information as to the lamentable state of the administration in Spain. "These papers are necessary to me for the measures which I have to order," he had written to Murat, who was still in Madrid, ill and sad; "they are also necessary to me to show some day to posterity in what state I have found the Spanish monarchy." Useless precaution of a great mind, who thought to dispose of the future and of the judgment of posterity, as, till then, he had dazzled or overthrown all the witnesses of his marvellous career!

Eight days after the arrival of King Joseph at Bayonne, the new const.i.tution was adopted by the improvised Junta. "It is all that we can offer you, sire," said imprudently the Duke de l'Infantado, formerly the most eager accomplice of the Prince of Asturias in his intrigues against his father; "we are waiting till the nation speaks, and authorizes us to give freer course to our sentiments." They stopped the duke from saying any more; the Spanish nation had not been consulted.

The Spanish const.i.tution was prepared generally on the model of the French const.i.tution. The first article paid homage to the strong religious feeling of Spain: "The religion of the State is the Catholic religion; no other is permitted." Several of the ministers chosen by the King Joseph had been members of the government of Charles IV. After taking the oath to their new monarch, the Junta first of all went to the Emperor Napoleon at Marac, to offer their thanks and congratulations.

At the same moment, and whilst summoning to Bayonne the reinforcement of troops which he intended to accompany and support King Joseph on his entry into his new kingdom, Napoleon wrote to the Emperor Alexander:--

"My brother, I send your Majesty the const.i.tution which the Spanish Junta have just decided upon. The disorders of that country had reached such a degree as can scarcely be conceived. Obliged to take part in its affairs, I have by the irresistible tendency of events been brought to a system which, while securing the happiness of Spain, secures the tranquillity of my states. I have cause to be satisfied with all the persons of rank, fortune, and education. The monks alone, who occupy half the territory, antic.i.p.ating in the new order of things the destruction of abuses, and the numerous agents of the Inquisition, who now see the end of their existence, are now agitating the country. I am very sensible that this event opens a very large field for discussion. People are not likely to appreciate the circ.u.mstance and events, but will maintain that all had been provoked and premeditated. Nevertheless, if I had only considered the interest of France, I should have adopted a simpler means, viz., extending my frontiers on this side, and diminishing Spain. A province like Catalonia or Navarre, would have affected her power more than the change which has just taken place, which is really of use only to Spain."

Whilst the Emperor Napoleon thus announced in Europe the interpretation which it suited him to put upon the events of Spain, and whilst the new king, leaving Bayonne on the 9th July, was planting his foot upon his new territory, the whole of Spain, from north to south, from east to west, was in a blaze.

After the departure of the Bourbon princes for Bayonne, the popular agitation and uneasiness in Madrid became extreme, and gradually extended to the more remote provinces, and into the depths of the old Spanish race, honorable and proud, still preserving in their fields their ancestral qualities. "Trust neither your honor nor your person to a Spanish Don,"

was said to M. Guizot by a man who learned to form severe judgment upon them during several revolutions; "trust all that is dearest to you to a Spanish peasant." In spite of the emperor's a.s.sertions, all the great lords were not favorable to the King Joseph. In the country, the peasants had risen in a body, and the burgesses did the same in the towns.

Carthagena was the first town to give the example of revolt. On the 22nd May, at the news of the abdication of the two kings, published in the journals of Madrid on the 20th, the people shouted in the streets, "Long live Ferdinand VII.!" and Admiral Salcedo, who was preparing to convey the Spanish fleet to Toulon, was arrested. The arms shut up in the a.r.s.enals were distributed among the populace. A Junta was immediately formed.

Murcia and Valencia followed the example of Carthagena. The people, roused by the preaching of a monk, Canon Calvo, killed the Baron Albulat, a "lord of the province," who was in vain defended by another monk, called Rico.

The French who lived in Valencia had taken refuge in the citadel, but being persuaded to come out, they were quickly ma.s.sacred to the last man.

This first ebullition of popular fury was followed by the horror of all respectable people. In spite of himself, Count Cerbellon was put at the head of the insurrection. Everybody took arms, and waited for the arrival and vengeance of the French soldiers.

All the provinces rose in insurrection one after another. The most apathetic waited for St. Ferdinand's Day; and on the 30th May, at daybreak, before the saint's flag was displayed in the streets, in Estremadura, at Granada, and Malaga, the shouts of the populace proclaimed King Ferdinand VII. Blood was shed everywhere, with an atrocious display of cruelty. The magistrates, or gentlemen, who attempted to stop a dangerous rising were ma.s.sacred. The Asturias had shuddered at the first report of the abdication; the Junta of Oviedo proclaimed a renewal of peace with England, and sent delegates to London. The clergy succeeded in protecting the lives of two Spanish colonels who had opposed the insurrection of their troops. In Galicia the honorable efforts of Captain- General Filangieri cost him his life; after accepting, with regret, the presidency of the Junta, when he attempted to maintain order amongst the insurgents he was killed in the street. Valladolid obliged the Captain- General, Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, to take a part in the rising of the populace. At the first sign of resistance shown by the old soldier, they erected a gibbet under his windows. Burgos, occupied by Marshal Bessieres, remained quiet, but Barcelona attempted an insurrection. The Catalans were armed to the teeth, and, on General Duhesme threatening to set fire to the town, the more violent of them escaped to places which were less threatened. Saragossa had placed at the head of its heroic population Don Joseph Palafox de Melzi, an amiable young man, well known in his own country. He summoned the Cortes of the province, and ordered a general rising of the population of Aragon. On the confines of Navarre, almost under the eyes of the French army, Santander and Logrono formed an insurrection. The Castilles, with their vast open plains, and their proximity to the French Government, showed only a silent agitation, without yet attempting an insurrection. Murat was ill--frequently delirious; but General Savary watched over Madrid: the capital awaited its new master.

Nowhere was the insurrection more spontaneous or more general than in Andalusia. Seville had conceived the hope of becoming the centre of the national movement, and grouping round it the patriotic efforts of the whole of Spain. The provisional government a.s.sumed a pompous name-- "Supreme Junta of Spain and the Indies"--and sent messengers to stir up the towns of Badajoz, Cordova, and Jaen. At Cadiz they surrounded the hotel of the Captain-General Solano, Marquis of Socorro. All the troops throughout the south of Spain were under his orders. With difficulty he was persuaded to give a forced a.s.sent to the disorderly wishes of the populace, but persisted in opposing the bombardment of the French fleet, commanded by Admiral Rosily, which had been in the harbor for three months. He in vain pleaded the danger to the Spanish vessels mixed with the French. The crowd became mad, dragged the Marquis on to the ramparts, and ma.s.sacred him.

Without any preliminary understanding, in a country everywhere intersected by rivers and mountains, and even under the fire of the French cannon, Spain thus rose spontaneously against an arrogant usurpation, preceded by base perfidy. In this first burst of her patriotic anger, she bore the courage, ardor, and pa.s.sion which were to make certain her triumph; she at the same time displayed a savage cruelty and violence, of which our unhappy soldiers were too often the victims. The emperor was still at Bayonne, occupied in arranging the affairs of Spain from without Spain: he was informed slowly and imperfectly of the insurrection convulsing the whole country. Accustomed to give orders to his lieutenants from a distance and arbitrarily, he ordered all the movements of his troops from Bayonne, affecting to attach but small importance to the revolt, sending to Paris and Valencay false news of the success of his arms, and doing his best to conceal from King Joseph the extent and importance of the resistance which was being prepared against him. In many places the couriers were arrested or killed. The emperor ordered General Savary to set out again for Madrid.

Nevertheless, all the forces of the French army were on their march to crush the insurrection. General Verdier and General Frere quickly took satisfaction for the insurrection of Logrono and Segovia. General Lasalle, before Valladolid, defeated Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, who had been forced to leave the town, afraid of having his throat cut there. "You have only had what you deserve," said the old Spanish general, as he retreated upon Leon; "we are only a handful of undisciplined peasants, yet you imagine you can conquer those who have conquered all Europe." General Lefebvre- Desnouettes met more resistance at Tudela, where the insurgents had broken down the bridge over the Ebro. On the 15th June he was before Saragossa, where Don Joseph Palafox had shut himself up; the whole population covered the roofs of the houses, where there was a constant hail-storm of musket b.a.l.l.s. The French general at once concluded it was a question of regular siege, and sent to Barcelona for reinforcements and artillery. Marshal Moncey had not succeeded in taking Valencia. General Duhesme was shut up in Barcelona by the insurrection, which daily gained ground in Catalonia.

Yet he was compelled to send away General Chabran, that he might join Marshal Moncey; and the insurgents took advantage of this division of our forces to throw themselves on General Schwartz's column, which had been ordered to search the convent of Montserrat. The tocsin was heard everywhere in the mountain villages; the bridges over the streams were broken down, and every little town had to be carried with the bayonet. By a sudden sally, General Duhesme dislodged the enemy from their post on the River Llobregat, took possession of their cannons, and brought them back to Barcelona. "Let the whole town of Barcelona be disarmed," wrote the emperor on 10th June to Marshal Berthier, "so that not a single musket is left, and let the castle of Montjouy be supplied with provisions taken from the inhabitants. They must be treated in thorough military fashion.

War justifies anything. On the slightest occasion, you should take hostages and send them into the fortress."

General Dupont had been entrusted with the most difficult as well as most important undertaking. With from 12,000 to 13,000 men under his orders, he advanced into Andalusia, with the object of reducing that great province to submission, and protecting the French fleet in Cadiz. The emperor had ordered General Junot to support Dupont's advance by sending him Kellermann's division, but Portugal was imitating the example of Spain, and had all risen in insurrection. On his first entrance into Andalusia, Dupont recognized the importance of the movement, and immediately asked for a reinforcement. "I shall then have nothing to do but a military promenade," he wrote to General Savary.

On the 7th June, after a pretty keen fight, the French troops took the bridge of Alcolea, on the Guadalquivir, and arrived the same evening before Cordova. After the gates were burst open with cannon-shot, the barricades and houses had to be carried with the bayonet; and the soldiers, losing their temper, cruelly abused the victory they gained. The hatred against the invaders increased; and in the van of our army, on this side of the Sierra Morena, on the road from Cordova to Andujar, the men who had not kept up in marching, the sick and wounded who were obliged to stay in the villages, were put to death with refinements of barbarity.

General Dupont still waited for the divisions of Vedel and Frere, which he had sent to Madrid for; and at Cadiz, in the French fleet, they were counting the days, and soon the hours.

The leader in the insurrection, Thomas de Morla, at first seemed faithful to the alliance of the Spanish and French navy, recalling the memories of the battle of Trafalgar, the glorious ruins of which composed the French squadron in the Cadiz roads. Gradually, however, he took care to separate the two fleets, persuading Admiral Rosily to take his position within the roads, and placing the Spanish vessels at the entrance, in order, he said, to defend Cadiz against the English, who had been trying in vain to land 5,000 men. The admiral soon found himself cantoned in the midst of the lagoons which form and protect the Cadiz roads; while a contrary wind prevented the attack which, from desperation, he wished to make upon the Spanish, their gun-boats and sloops were already gathering round him, and on the 9th June the firing began, but it was weak and unavailing on the part of our ships, in spite of the heroic resolution of the crews. The fighting lasted two days, and on the Junta of Seville demanding a surrender pure and simple, Admiral Rosily, who knew that General Dupont had entered Cordova, asked for a delay, hoping to receive help. On the 14th June, after four days had elapsed, the French fleet, being deprived of every resource, and with certain ruin before them, surrendered at discretion. The officers were distributed in the fortresses, and the vessels disarmed. The mob, crowding round the harbor, shouted fiercely and cheered as the French prisoners pa.s.sed before them and the English, who had just succeeded in effecting their landing.

General Dupont had not been reinforced. He did not know whether his couriers had arrived, many having been already intercepted by the robbers of the Sierra Morena; he knew of the rising of the St. Roque troops, and of the treachery of the Swiss regiments recently engaged in the insurrection; and finding himself threatened on the right by the insurgent army of Andalusia, and on the left by the army of Granada, he resolved to fall back upon the Guadalquivir, and on the 18th June took up his position in the small town of Andujar, to wait for the divisions which he had sent for. That of Vedel was already on its march.

Marshal Moncey had failed before Valencia, and could not commence the investment for want of siege guns; he had brought back his division in good condition, and effected his junction with General Frere at San Clemente. Marshal Bessieres advanced at the same time against Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, and against General Blake, a descendant of English Catholic refugees. Their forces were considerable, and composed of old soldiers; they had, however, asked for time to prepare their troops and had been forced by the Junta of the Corogne to march to battle. On the evening of the 13th July, the Spaniards, badly informed as to the march of the French, were formed in two lines on the plateau of Medino de Rio-Seco, not far from Valladolid. Attacked one after the other by Marshal Bessieres, the two lines were completely beaten and put to flight, not without some resistance at certain points. The slaughter was terrible. General Mouton, at the head of two regiments with fixed bayonets, entered the town of Medina, which was sacked. Marshal Bessieres again took the road towards Leon, sweeping before him the disbanded remains of the Spanish army. King Joseph had just entered Madrid.

He took possession of his capital in the midst of the melancholy silence of the inhabitants, more irritated than cowed by the news of the victory of Rio-Seco, which reached them a few hours before the entry of their new monarch. Since his entrance into Spain the eyes of Joseph had been opened.

"Up to this time no one has told the whole truth," he wrote to the Emperor Napoleon on the 12th July. "The fact is that not a single Spaniard is on my side, except the small number who were present at the Junta, and travel with me. The others, on arriving here, hid themselves, terrified by the unanimous opinion of their countrymen." And some days later: "Fear does not make me see double; since I have been in Spain I say to myself every day that my life is of small account, and that I give it up to you. I am not alarmed at my position, but it is unique in history; I have not a single partisan here." Every day he repeated the same demand; "I still want 50,000 men of old troops, and 50,000,000 of money; in a month I must have a 100,000 men, and a 100,000,000." The French army in Spain numbered already 110,000 men, young, it is true, and for the most part without experience, but Europe almost entirely was occupied by our troops; Napoleon was irritated at the sensible remarks of Savary, still more gloomy than those of King Joseph. "The emperor finds that you are wrong to say that nothing has been done for six weeks," wrote Marshal Berthier.

"All sensible men in Spain have changed their opinion, and are very sorry to see the insurrection. Affairs are in the most prosperous position since the battle of Rio-Seco." On the 19th July, when making his preparations to quit Bayonne to visit the towns of the south, Napoleon wrote to King Joseph:

"My brother, I received your letter of the 18th, at three o'clock in the morning. I see, with sorrow, that you trouble yourself. It is the only misfortune I fear. Troops are entering on all sides, and constantly. You have a great many partisans in Spain, but they are intimidated; they are all the respectable people. However, I acknowledge none the less that your task is great and glorious.

"The victory of Marshal Bessieres, who has wholly beaten Cuesta and the army of Galicia, has greatly improved the position of affairs. It is worth more than a reinforcement of 30,000 men. The divisions of Gobert and Vedel having joined General Dupont, offensive measures must be vigorously pushed on that side. It is the only point menaced, and there must soon be a success there; with 25,000 men, comprising infantry, cavalry, and artillery, there are more than necessary to obtain a great result. At the worst, with 21,000 men present on the field of battle, he can boldly take the offensive; he will not be beaten, and will have more than four-and- twenty chances in his favor.

"You ought not to find it so extraordinary to conquer your kingdom. Philip V. and Henry IV. were obliged to conquer theirs. Keep your spirits up, and never doubt for an instant that everything will finish better and more quickly than you now imagine.

"Everything goes on very well at Saragossa."

The attack upon Saragossa, on the 1st July, was unsuccessful. General Verdier, who commanded the siege, had seized the convent of St. Joseph, without being able to penetrate into the town, all the streets being well fortified. He had asked for troops and a train of artillery. General Dupont was threatened, in a badly chosen position, by the insurgents of Grenada, commanded by General Reding, formerly colonel of one of the Swiss regiments; General Castanos brought up the troops of Andalusia. The orders of the emperor were precise; General Dupont was not to repa.s.s the Sierra Morena, he was not to retreat on Andalusia.

In the hitherto restricted sphere of his operations, General Dupont had shown himself constantly bold and successful under chiefs more skilful and more experienced than himself; but left to his own resources, he knew not how to profit by his advantages, nor choose his quarters advantageously.

The food of the troops was bad and insufficient, and the sick were numerous; isolated in the midst of a country pa.s.sionately hostile, without means of information as to the enemy's movements, without news of Madrid or the government, the French remained stationary, sad and depressed.

General Vedel occupied Baylen, General Gobert La Carolina; thus they commanded the defiles of the mountain.

On the 14th July, General Castanos appeared before Andujar, while the corps of Reding threatened Baylen; the imprudent movement of our troops had uncovered this last position. General Dupont was informed of this.

He resolved to march himself upon Baylen, but he was enc.u.mbered with an immense train of baggage, and by numerous sick, whom he would not abandon to the cruelties of the enemy; the movement was deferred till the next day, the 18th July. At the approach of night the army began its march. The heat was still suffocating. A great number of soldiers, suffering from dysentery, had been unable to find a place in the wagons, and dragged themselves behind the train, scarcely able to bear the weight of their arms. The anxiety of General Dupont was entirely for his rearguard; he feared that General Castanos, informed of his movements by the hundreds of voluntary spies who served the Spanish cause, would throw himself on his rear. The vanguard was feeble, composed of young and undisciplined soldiers; when it deployed at three in the morning, on the rocky banks of the Rumblar, the Spanish posts occupied the pa.s.sage. Before the combat, the soldiers rushed towards the bed of the torrent. It was dried up. "The Spaniards have taken away the river!" cried the French, even then disposed to treat painful thoughts with gayety. The Spanish battalions barred the route of Baylen, which General Reding had occupied the previous day.

Worn out by the heat, by thirst, by the march, our soldiers charged the enemy, and drove them back as far as the plain of Baylen. There lay extended before us the Spanish army, in front of the little town, in an amphitheatre of hills, covered with olive-trees. The Spanish artillery was formidable: the field-pieces brought up by the French were soon dismounted. The centre of the Spanish army remained solid, and even the charges of cavalry could not break it. When at last the front ranks opened under the shock of the horses, or the steel of the bayonets, the lines reformed at the end of the plain, always pitilessly barring the road. The cannonade did not slacken for a single instant.

The soldiers began to show signs of discouragement, and the officers proposed to the general to abandon the sick and the baggage, and to form into a compact ma.s.s, in order to open a pa.s.sage by force in the direction of La Carolina, occupied by General Vedel. Dupont expected his lieutenant every moment. He refused to abandon his train, and vainly renewed the attack on all the length of the Spanish lines. Up to this time the Swiss regiments in the service of France, mixed with our soldiers, and marching in our ranks, had remained faithful; the bad fortune of our arms, the view of their comrades fighting among the Spaniards under a chief of their race, triumphed at last over their good resolutions--they deserted in a body. At the same moment the sound of cannon was heard in the distance, but it was not in the direction of La Carolina, it was at the bridge of Rumblar: General Castanos arrived to crush us.

This was too much, and the unfortunate General Dupont was to show on this day that he was not one of those whose courage defies fortune. "Find General Reding," said he to one of his officers, "and ask from him a suspension of arms." The battle was already ceasing of its own accord, on account of the extreme fatigue of the troops. The Spanish general gave the order to cease firing, but said, however, to the officer who had been sent, "The truce must be ratified by General Castanos." General de la Pena, who commanded the vanguard, accepted the same conditions. "The French army must surrender at discretion," he said haughtily, "for the present let us rest ourselves." The aide-de-camp of General Dupont went forward to General Castanos, in order to obtain his a.s.sent to the truce. A melancholy sadness weighed upon both officers and men; the general-in- chief, formerly brilliant, bold, even emphatically eloquent, hid his despair inside his tent; scarcely would he listen to the voice of those who surrounded him. Broken down by his misfortune, he had lost all energy and all presence of mind.

The same fault of irresolution and despair seems to have taken hold on General Vedel. He had resolved to return to Baylen, of which he too late understood the importance. But the troops were worn out, he was forced to allow them a day of rest. Since three o'clock in the morning of the 19th, the continual echo of the cannon announced to the least vigilant the coming engagement. The division began its march at five o'clock, at eleven it had only advanced half-way; the men left their ranks at every moment to seek a drop of water in the rocks. The cannon was heard more faintly; at noon it was heard no more. It was five o'clock when, in the midst of silence, the corps which had been so impatiently expected debouched above Baylen. The Spaniards guarded all the pa.s.sages; an officer appeared announcing the truce. General Vedel refused to believe it. He sent off an aide-de-camp to ascertain the truth from General Reding. "If you do not return in half-an-hour," said he, "I shall commence firing." At the given moment, having no news from their emissary, the French sounded the charge, and already a battalion of Spanish infantry had been surrounded, while the cuira.s.siers advanced at full gallop; at the same instant the officers of the enemy, accompanied by an aide-de-camp of General Dupont, came up to Vedel. The orders of the general-in-chief were precise, they must cease firing. The negotiations had commenced. General Castanos marched on Baylen.

The enthusiasm and triumph of the Spaniards did not give him time to arrive there. The general of engineers, Marescot, had been charged with the sad duty of treating with the Spaniards. General de la Pena, still posted at the bridge of Rumblar, threatened to crush the unfortunate army caught between his corps and that of General Reding. "I must have an answer in two hours," said he, repeating at the same time his only condition, "the French army must surrender at discretion."

General Dupont appealed to his lieutenants, general officers, and colonels; all declared that the soldiers would not fight. The general-in- chief surveyed the ranks some moments; his courage failed him entirely.

"Our honor is saved," repeated the members of the council of war, "we have done yesterday all that men could do." One resource remained to them, to die to the last man in endeavoring to rejoin General Vedel. They had the misfortune not to try this last and glorious chance. The capitulation was resolved on. Don Castanos entertained the French officers while hatred shone in the eyes of all his staff. Polite, and full of attention to the vanquished, the Spanish general remained wholly inflexible. All the divisions of the army of Andalusia, engaged or not in the battle of Baylen, were to be comprised in the capitulation.

The conditions were about to be signed, the French troops were authorized to retreat on Madrid; the Barbou division alone commanded by General Dupont, was to be disarmed. At the same instant a letter from General Savary to General Dupont was brought by the mountaineers, into whose hands it had fallen. The aide-de-camp of the emperor announced a general concentration of the troops of the south at Madrid, and General Dupont was ordered to take the road to La Mancha. The Spaniards could not allow their victory to serve the designs of the emperor. General Castanos immediately declared to the French negotiators that the conditions were changed, and communicated to them the letter of General Savary. Overwhelmed by this new blow, General Marescot and his companions saw themselves forced to give up the Barbou division prisoners of war; the two other corps were to be transported to France under the Spanish flag; the officers retained their baggage, but the knapsacks of the soldiers were to be submitted to examination. "All Spaniards believe the sacred vessels of Cordova are in the bags of your soldiers," said General Castanos.

While the wretched negotiators accepted a capitulation which delivered them to their enemies, Vedel had proposed to General Dupont to attempt a new attack; he sent at the same time one of his aides-de-camp to plead the cause of his division. At one time Dupont authorized Vedel to save, at any price, his troops, and those of General Dufour's, by taking in forced marches the road to Madrid. Already Vedel had obeyed, and hastened across the defiles of the Sierra Morena, but the news of his departure was not long in coming to the camp of the Spaniards. They accused the French of breaking the truce, and threatened to immediately ma.s.sacre the Barbou division, which found itself at that time completely surrounded. The Spanish negotiators broke out into fury, overwhelming with insults the unhappy officers charged to treat with them. Heroism had disappeared from their souls. They hastened to the tent of the general-in-chief, still plunged in melancholy dejection. He gave way at last, and to his eternal dishonor, and that of the men who tore from him this cowardly concession, he sent to General Vedel the order to retrace his steps, and to submit with his soldiers to the lot the capitulation reserved for him.

Like General Dupont, Vedel consulted his lieutenants. At first all refused a submission which would lead to their destruction. A new messenger came, throwing on them all the responsibility of the inevitable ma.s.sacre of their comrades. They gave way, and with despair in their souls they slowly retraced their steps; as the sole solace to their sufferings they still retained their arms, while they saw their unhappy comrades defile before the Spanish army laying down their muskets at the feet of the victors.

During three days the troops had not received any food; the Spaniards had counted on hunger as well as defeat to lead the French to capitulate. At last they got some food, and soon the columns began their march. The ports of embarkation had been fixed upon.

They advanced slowly, for from all the towns, villages, and scattered houses, flocked mult.i.tudes in fury, who insulted the frightful misfortune of our soldiers. General Castanos, moderate in his triumph, had said to the French negotiators, "De la Cuesta, Blake, and myself, were not of the same opinion as the insurgents. We yielded to the national movement; but this movement is becoming so unanimous that it has a chance of success.

Let Napoleon not insist upon an impossible conquest, let him not force us to throw ourselves into the arms of the English. Let him give us back our king, and the two nations will be forever reconciled."

It was in fact the same thought, clothed in offensive language that Thomas de Morla, the chief of the insurrection at Cadiz, flung at General Dumont when he complained of the bad treatment undergone by his soldiers. "Your excellency forces me to express truths which must be bitter to you. What right have you to insist on the execution of a treaty concluded in favor of an army which entered Spain under the mask of alliance and friendship, which has imprisoned our king and his family, sacked his palaces, a.s.sa.s.sinated and robbed his subjects, ravaged his country, usurped his crown? How it would rouse the populace to know that a single one of your soldiers was the possessor of 2180 livres!"

The pillage of Cordova had been exaggerated by the public imagination, and served the chiefs of the insurrection to justify their want of faith. The entire army of Andalusia was detained under various pretexts. The Junta of Seville refused to ratify the capitulation. The divisions of Dufour and Vedel saw their army taken away, and 20,000 men of those French troops, who up to the present time had been accustomed to victory, remained during long years prisoners of war, subjected to the worst treatment, slowly decimated by sickness and sorrow. Spain first gave to the world the spectacle of a successful resistance to the oppression the Emperor Napoleon had made to weigh upon all nations.

We understand by sad experience the astonishment and anger which seized upon our armies everywhere when they heard of the capitulation of Baylen.

This name has remained fixed as an indelible stain on the memory of the men who concluded it in a moment of despair, after numerous faults, of which the most unpardonable cannot be imputed to them. Perhaps in his secret thought, Napoleon began to foresee the difficulties of the enterprise he had undertaken against Spain; perhaps he comprehended his error, but his indignation was excessive, and broke out in his words as well as letters. There was also a shade of discouragement when he wrote to King Joseph, on the 3rd August, "My brother, the knowledge I have that you are struggling, my friend, with events foreign to your habits as well as to your natural character, pains me. Dupont has dishonored our flag. What stupidity! What baseness! Those men will be taken by the English. Events of such a nature require my presence at Paris. Germany, Poland, Italy, all join together. My sorrow is really great when I think that I cannot be at this moment with you, and in the midst of my soldiers. I have given orders to Ney to go there. He is a man of honor, zeal, and thorough courage. If you get accustomed to Ney, he might command the army. You will have 100,000 men, and Spain will be conquered in the autumn. A suspension of arms, made by Savary, might perhaps lead to commanding and directing the insurgents; we shall hear what they say. I think that, so far as your personal likings go, you care little for reigning over the Spaniards."

At the moment when Napoleon was writing these lines, King Joseph retreated before the enemy, and abandoned his capital. Deprived of the succor that General Dupont was to have brought, the defenders of Madrid did not consider the concentration of troops sufficiently considerable to protect the Castiles against the ever-rising flood of the national insurrection.

"The emperor could hold his own here," said Savary, "but what is possible to him is not so to the others." It was resolved to make a stand on the line of the Ebro; King Joseph quitted Madrid, abandoned by the intimate servants of his household, as well as by a certain number of his ministers. 2000 domestics of the palace had fled for fear of being forced to follow the royal retreat. Burgos not appearing to be a retreat sufficiently sure, the monarch and his little court soon established themselves at Vittoria. After a second a.s.sault, as sanguinary and without result as the first, General Verdier, recalled to the Ebro, found himself obliged to abandon the siege of Saragossa. Already the position of the French in Spain became defensive, and the fears of King Joseph increased.

"I can only repeat, once for all, that nearly all the grand army is marching, and that between this and autumn Spain will be inundated with troops," wrote the emperor, on the 9th of August. "You must try to preserve the line of the Douro to maintain a communication with Portugal.

The English are not much, they never have more than a quarter of the troops they announce. Lord Wellesley has not 4000 men. Besides, they are intended, I believe, for Portugal."