During the operations against Madrid, La Peña, after escaping from the sixth corps, arrived at Guadalaxara with about five thousand men; on the 2d, the Dukes of Infantado and Albuquerque leaving the capital, joined him; and, on the 4th, Venegas came up with two thousand men. While these generals were hesitating what course to pursue, Napoleon, apprised of their vicinity, directed Bessières with sixteen squadrons upon Guadalaxara, supporting him by Ruffin's division of the first corps ; at the approach of this cavalry, the main body retired through the hills by Sanctorcaz towards Aranjuez, and the artillery crossed the Tagus at Sacedon; Ruffin's division immediately changed its direction, and cut the Spaniards off from La Mancha by the line of Ocaña. Meanwhile a mutiny among the Spanish troops forced La Peña to resign, and the Duke of Infantado was chosen in his place. The Tagus was then crossed at several points, and after some slight actions with the advanced cavalry of the French, this miserable body of men finally saved themselves at Cuenca, where many deserters and fugitives, and the brigades of Cartoajal and Lilli, which had escaped the different French columns, also arrived, and the duke proceeded to organize another army.

On the French side, the fourth corps reached Segovia, passed the Guadarama, dispersed some armed peasants assembled at the Escurial, and then marched towards Almaraz, to attack General Galluzzo, who, having assembled five or six thousand men to defend the left bank of the Tagus, had, with the usual skill of a Spanish general, occupied a line of forty miles.* The first French corps entered La Mancha at the same time, and Toledo immediately shut its gates; but, although the junta of that town publicly proclaimed their resolution to bury themselves under the ruins of the city, at the approach of a French division, they betrayed a most contemptible cowardice. Thus, six weeks had sufficed to dissipate the Spanish armies: the glittering bubble was bursted, and a terrible reality remained. From St. Sebastian to the Asturias, from the Asturias to Talavera de la Reyna, from Talavera to the gates of the noble city of Zaragoza, all was submission, and beyond that boundary all was apathy or dread. Ten thousand French soldiers could safely, as regarded the Spaniards, have marched from one extremity of the Peninsula to the

other.

After the fall of Madrid, King Joseph remained at Burgos, issuing proclamations, and carrying on a sort of underplot, through the medium of his native ministers; the views of the latter naturally turned towards the Spanish interests as distinct from the French, and a source of infinite mischief to Joseph's cause was thus opened, for that monarch, anxious to please and conciliate his subjects, ceased to be a Frenchman without becoming a Spaniard. At this time, however, Napoleon assumed and exercised all the rights of conquest, and it is evident, from the tenor of his speeches, proclamations, and decrees, that some ulterior project, in which the king's personal interests were not concerned, was contemplated by him. It appeared as if he wished the nation, in imitation of the old king, to offer the crown to himself a second time, that he might obtain a plausible excuse for adopting a new line of policy by which to attract the people, or at least to soften their pride, which was now the main obstacle to his successs.

An assemblage of the nobles, the clergy, the corporations, and the

* Sir John Moore's Papers.

tribunals of Madrid, waited upon him at Chamartin, and presented an address, in which they expressed their desire to have Joseph among them, again. The emperor's reply was an exposition of the principles upon which Spain was to be governed, and offers a fine field for reflection upon the violence of those passions which induce men to resist positive good, and eagerly seek for danger, misery, and death, rather than resign their prejudices.

"I accept," said he, "the sentiments of the town of Madrid. I regret the misfortunes that have befallen it, and I hold it as a particular good fortune that I am enabled, under the circumstances of the moment, to spare that city, and to save it from yet greater misfortunes.

"I have hastened to take measures fit to tranquillize all classes of citizens, knowing well that to all people, and to all men, uncertainty is intolerable.

"I have preserved the religious orders, but I have restrained the number of monks; no sane person can doubt that they are too numerous. Those who are truly called to this vocation by the grace of God will remain in their convents; those who have lightly or from worldly motives adopted it, will have their existence secured among the secular ecclesiastics, from the surplus of the convents.

"I have provided for the wants of the most interesting and useful of the clergy, the parish priests.

"I have abolished that tribunal against which Europe and the age alike exclaimed. Priests ought to guide consciences, but they should not exercise any exterior or corporal jurisdiction over men.

"I have taken the satisfaction which was due to myself and to my nation, and the part of vengeance is completed. Ten of the principal criminals bend their heads before her; but for all others there is absolute and entire pardon.

"I have suppressed the rights usurped by the nobles during civil wars, when the kings have been too often obliged to abandon their own rights to purchase tranquillity and the repose of their people.

"I have suppressed the feudal rights, and every person can now establish inns, mills, ovens, weirs, and fisheries, and give free play to their industry; only observing the laws and customs of the place. The selflove, the riches, and the prosperity of a small number of men, was more hurtful to your agriculture than the heats of the dog-days.

"As there is but one God, there should be in one estate but one justice; wherefore all the particular jurisdictions having been usurped, and being contrary to the national rights, I have destroyed them. I have also made known to all persons that which each can have to fear, and that which they may hope for.

"The English armies I will drive from the Peninsula. Zaragoza, Valencia, Seville, shall be reduced either by persuasion or by the force of arms.

"There is no obstacle capable of retarding for any length of time the execution of my will. But that which is above my power, is to constitute the Spaniards a nation, under the orders of the king, if they continue to be imbued with the principle of division, and of hatred towards France, such as the English partisans and the enemies of the continent have instilled into them. I cannot establish a nation, a king, and Spanish inde

* Moniteur.

pendence, if that king is not sure of the affection and fidelity of his subjects.

"The Bourbons can never again reign in Europe. The divisions in the royal family were concerted by the English; it was not either King Charles or his favourite, but the Duke of Infantado, the instrument of England, that was upon the point of overturning the throne. The papers recently found in his house prove this; it was the preponderance of England that they wished to establish in Spain. Insensate project! which would have produced a land war without end, and caused torrents of blood to be shed.

"No power influenced by England can exist upon the continent; if any desire it, their desire is folly, and sooner or later will ruin them; I shall be obliged to govern Spain, and it will be easy for me to do it by establishing a viceroy in each province. However, I will not refuse to concede my rights of conquest to the king, and to establish him in Madrid, when thirty thousand citizens assemble in the churches, and on the holy sacrament take an oath, not with the mouth alone, but with the heart, and without any jesuitical restriction, to be true to the king, to love and to support him.' Let the priests from the pulpit and in the confessional, the tradesmen in their correspondence and their discourses, inculcate these sentiments in the people; then I will relinquish my rights of conquest, then I will place the king upon the throne, and I will take a pleasure in showing myself the faithful friend of the Spaniards.

"The present generation may differ in opinions; too many passions have been excited; but your descendants will bless me as the regenerator of the nation they will mark my sojourn among you as memorable days, and from those days they will date the prosperity of Spain. These are my sentiments, go consult your fellow-citizens, choose your part, but do it frankly, and exhibit only true colours."

The ten criminals were the Dukes of Infantado, of Hijar, Medina Celi, and Ossuna; Marquis Santa Cruz; Counts Fernan Miñez, and Altamira; Prince of Castello Franco, Pedro Cevallos, and the Bishop of St. Ander; they were proscribed, body and goods, as traitors to France and Spain.

Napoleon now made dispositions indicating a vast plan of operations. It would appear that he intended to invade Gallicia, Andalusia, and Valencia, by his lieutenants, and to carry his arms to Lisbon in person. Upon the 20th December the sixth corps, the guards, and the reserve, were assembled under his own immediate control. The first corps was stationed at Toledo, and the light cavalry attached to it scoured the roads leading to Andalusia, up to the foot of the Sierra Morena. The fourth corps was at Talavera, on the march towards the frontier of Portugal. The second corps was on the Carrion river, preparing to advance against Gallicia. The eighth corps was broken up; the divisions composing it were ordered to join the second, and Junot, who commanded it, repaired to the third corps, to supply the place of Marshal Moncey, who was called to Madrid for a particular service, doubtless an expedition against Valencia. The fifth corps, which had arrived at Vittoria, was directed to re-enforce the third, then employed against Zaragoza. The seventh was always in Catalonia.

Vast as this plan of campaign appears, it was not beyond the emperor's means; for, without taking into consideration his own genius, activity, and vigour, there were on his muster-rolls, above three hundred and

thirty thousand men, and above sixty thousand horses;* two hundred pieces of field artillery followed the corps to battle, and as many more remained in reserve. Of this monstrous army, two hundred and fifty-five thousand men, and fifty thousand horses, were actually under arms, with their different regiments, while thirty-two thousand were detached or in garrisons, preserving tranquillity in the rear, and guarding the communications of the active force. The remainder were in hospital, and so slight had been the resistance of the Spanish armies, that only nineteen hundred prisoners were to be deducted from this multitude. Of the whole host two hundred and thirteen thousand were native Frenchmen, the residue were Poles, Germans, and Italians; thirty-five thousand men and five thousand horses, were available for fresh enterprise, without taking a single man from the service of the lines of communication. What was there to oppose this fearful array? What consistency or vigour in the councils? What numbers? What discipline and spirit in the armies of Spain? What enthusiasm among the people? What was the disposition, the means, what the activity of the allies of that country? The answers to these questions demonstrate that the fate of the Peninsula hung at this moment upon a thread, and that the deliverance of that country was due to other causes than the courage, the patriotism, or the consistency of the Spaniards.

First, with regard to their armies. The Duke of Infantado resided with, rather than commanded, a few thousand wretched fugitives at Cuenca, destitute, mutinous, and cowed in spirit. At Valencia there was no army, for that which belonged to the province was shut up in Zaragoza, and dissensions had arisen between Palafox and the local junta in consequence. In the passes of the Sierra Morena were five thousand raw levies, hastily made by the junta of Seville, after the defeat of St. Juan.§ Galluzzo, who had undertaken to defend the Tagus, with six thousand timid and ill-armed soldiers, was at this time in flight, having been suddenly attacked and defeated at Almarez by a detachment of the fourth corps. Romana was near Leon, at the head of eighteen or twenty thousand runaways, collected by him after the dispersion at Reynosa; but of this number only five thousand were armed, and none were subordinate, or capable of being disciplined, for, when checked for misconduct, the marquis complained that they deserted. In Gallicia there was no army, and in the Asturias the local government was so corrupt, so faithless, and so oppressive, that the spirit of the people was crushed, and patriotism reduced to a name. T

The members of the central junta had at first thought of going to Badajoz,** but, being terrified, fled to Seville, and their inactivity was more conspicuous in this season of adversity than before, contrasting strangely with the pompous and inflated language of the public papers: all their promises were fallacious, their incapacity glaring, their exertions ridiculous, abortive, and the junta of Seville, still actuated by their own ambitious views, had now openly reassumed all their former authority. In short, the strength and spirit of Spain was broken, the enthusiasm was null, except in a few places, and the emperor was, with respect to the Spaniards, perfectly master of his operations. He was in the centre

*Appendix, No. XXVIII.

Narrative of Moore's Campaign.
Sir J. Moore's Papers.

**Stuart's Letters.

+ Infantado's Letters.

Stuart's and Frere's Letters.
Appendix. No. XIII. § v.

of the country; he held the capital, the fortresses, the command of the great lines of communication between the provinces; and on the wide military horizon, no cloud intercepted his view, save the heroic city of Zaragoza on the one side, and a feeble British army on the other. Sooner or later, he observed, and with truth, that the former must fall, as it was an affair of artillery calculation. The latter he naturally supposed to be in full retreat for Portugal; but as the fourth corps was nearer to Lisbon than the British general, a hurried retreat alone could bring the latter in time to that capital, and consequently no preparations for defence could be made sufficient to arrest the sixty thousand Frenchmen which the emperor could carry there at the same moment. The subjugation of Spain appeared inevitable, when the genius and vigour of Sir John Moore frustrated Napoleon's plans at the very moment of execution; the Austrian war breaking out at the instant, drew the master-spirit from the scene of contention, and England then put forth her vast resources, which being fortunately wielded by a general equal to the task of delivering the Peninsula, it was delivered. But through what changes of fortune, by what unexpected helps, by what unlooked-for and extraordinary events, under what difficulties, by whose perseverance, and in despite of whose errors, let posterity judge, for in that judgment only will impartiality and justice be found.

CHAPTER III.

Sir John Moore arrives at Salamanca; hears of the battle of Espinosa-His dangerous position; discovers the real state of affairs; contemplates a hardy enterprise; hears of the defeat at Tudela; resolves to retreat; waits for General Hope's division-Danger of that general; his able conduct-Central junta fly to Badajoz-Mr. Frere, incapable of judging rightly, opposes the retreat; his weakness and levity; insults the general; sends Colonel Charmilly to Salamanca-Manly conduct of Sir John Moore; his able and bold plan of operations.

OPERATIONS OF THE BRITISH ARMY.

WHILE at Madrid, Napoleon heard that Sir John Moore, having relinquished his communication with Lisbon, was menacing the French line of operations on the side of Burgos; this intelligence obliged him to suspend all his designs against the south of Spain and Portugal, and to fix his whole attention upon that general's movements. The reasons which induced Moore to divide his army, and to send General Hope with one column by the Tagus, while the other marched under his own personal command, by Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo, have been already related; as likewise the arrangements which brought Sir David Baird to Coruña, without having permission to land his troops, and without money to equip them, when they were suffered to disembark.

The 8th of November, Sir John Moore was at Almeida, on the frontier of Portugal, his artillery was at Truxillo, in Spanish Estremadura, and Sir David Baird's division was at Coruña. General Blake, pursued by fifty thousand enemies, was that day flying from Nava to Espinosa; Castaños and Palafox were quarrelling at Tudela. The Conde de Belvedere was at Burgos, with thirteen thousand bad troops, and Napoleon was at Vittoria, with one hundred and seventy thousand good troops.