THE CITY IS GIVEN UP TO THE FRENCH.

169

1809.

February.

patriot, “will return there, and defend what CHAP. III. remains to us as best we may. We have yet arms and ammunition, and if these fail we have daggers. War is never without its chances; and should the Zaragozans be driven to despair, it yet remains to be proved who are to be victorious."

In this temper of the garrison, Lannes did not think it prudent to refuse granting terms. It was accordingly conceded that the troops should march out with the honours of war, that the heroic Palafox should be suffered to retire to any place where he might think proper to fix his residence, and that all persons, not included in the garrison, should be suffered to quit the city, in order to avoid the contagion.

On the twenty-first, the posts of the city were delivered up to the French, and thus terminated one of the most strenuous and extraordinary struggles of which history bears record. The resistance continued for fifty-two days with open trenches; twenty-nine of these were consumed by the enemy in effecting an entrance,-twentythree in the war subsequently carried on in the streets and houses. By their own account the French threw above seventeen thousand bombs

VOL. II.

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Feb. 21.

170

STATE OF THE GARRISON.

1809.

February.

CHAP. III. into the city, and expended above one hundred and sixty thousand pounds weight of powder. More than thirty thousand men and five hundred officers perished in the defence, exclusive of a vast number of women and children, who sank the mute and suffering victims of fire, famine, pestilence, and slaughter. The amount of loss sustained by the besiegers was studiously concealed, that it was very great, cannot be doubted; and the contemplated operations on Lerida and Valencia, for which the army was destined, were in consequence given up.

When the garrison quitted the city, only two thousand four hundred men were capable of bearing arms; the rest were in the hospitals. On the march to France, two hundred and seventy of these men, weakened by famine and disease, were found incapable of proceeding with the rapidity which their inhuman conductors considered necessary; they were butchered and left on the road, to serve as a spectacle and a warning to the succeeding divisions.

Among the prisoners, was Augustina Zaragoza, who had distinguished herself in the former siege. At the commencement, she had resumed her station by the Portillo gate. When

HEROISM OF THE WOMEN.

171

Palafox visited the battery, she pointed to the CHAP. III.

gun she had formerly served with so much ef- 1809. fect, and exclaimed, "See, General, I am again February. with my old friend." Once, when her wounded husband lay bleeding at her feet, she discharged the cannon at the enemy, in order to avenge his fall. She frequently led the assaulting parties, and with sword in hand, and her cloak wrapped round her, mingled in the daily conflicts which took place in the streets. Though exposed, during the whole siege,' to the most imminent danger, Augustina escaped without a wound. On the surrender of the city, she was too well known to escape notice, and was made prisoner. But she had already caught the contagion; and being taken to the hospital, she subsequently succeeded in effecting her escape.

The record of female heroism must be yet further extended. During the struggle, the women of Zaragoza shrank from no ordeal, however terrible. In the combat, where the fight was thickest,-on the ramparts, where the fire was most deadly,-in the hospitals,—in the dark and airless dens of pestilence, breathing a tainted and noisome atmosphere, there were they found, these "meek-eyed women, without

172

CAPITULATION VIOLATED BY LANNES.

CHAP. III. fear," soothing the dying, ministering to the suffering, and exhibiting a proud and memorable spectacle of fortitude and virtue.

1809. February.

The terms of the capitulation were shamefully violated by Marshal Lannes. Palafox was sent a prisoner into France; and the city became the scene of pillage and atrocity. The province, on the fall of Zaragoza, became comparatively tranquil. Fourteen thousand men, under Suchet, were left to maintain tranquillity; and the remainder of the besieging army, under Mortier, moved into Castile.

In the meanwhile, Europe rung with admiration of the noble defence of Zaragoza. Everywhere the pulses of the slave beat quicker and more strongly; and the heart of the freeman bounded proudly in his bosom. Poets and historians consecrated, in undying records, the virtue of her citizens; and Zaragoza, like Thermopyla, will remain eternally linked with associations of the purest patriotism and devotion.

WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND AUSTRIA.

173

CHAPTER. IV.

CAPTURE OF OPORTO BY SOULT.-BATTLES OF

CIUDAD REAL, AND MEDELLIN.

1809.

January.

WHILE the arms of France were thus success- CHAP. IV. ful in Spain, the Court of Vienna issued a protest against the unjustifiable treatment of the Spanish princes. Napoleon cherished views of ambition to the realization of which the subjugation of Austria was essential, and, therefore, probably was not averse from availing himself of the plea thus afforded, for declaring war against that power. Leaving instructions to his marshals to finish the conquest of the Peninsula by the occupation of Lisbon, Cadiz, and Valencia, he accordingly returned to Paris, in order to enforce, by his presence, the increased exertions which circumstances had rendered necessary.

The campaign had been disastrous to the Spaniards. The defeat and dispersion of their