June. CHAP. possessed; and when Cabarrus, from the high favour which he VI. enjoyed under Charles III. became in the ensuing reign an 1808. object of hatred and persecution, Jovellanos, as he had been the most disinterested of all his many friends in prosperity, was the most faithful of the few who adhered to him in his disgrace. Hitherto the love of Cabarrus for his country, his passionate desire for the improvement of its institutions, and his attachment to the principles of liberty, had never been doubted; and now at thus meeting Jovellanos after ten years of suffering, he shed tears, less in grief for the condition of Spain, than in joy for the right old Spanish spirit which they saw reviving among the people. He promised to follow his venerable friend to Jadraque, and offered to be guided by his counsels. Jovellanos the next day proceeded on his journey, and for honour as well as protection Tio Jorge, with an escort of musqueteers, convoyed him the first stage. Palafox declares war against France. The situation in which Palafox was placed was equally conspicuous and perilous. To have escaped from Bayonne, and taken upon himself the command of one of the kingdoms of Spain in opposition to the usurpation, marked him in a peculiar manner for the vengeance of a tyrant who was not to be offended with impunity. The capital of Aragon was an important position, and at this time exposed to danger on all sides. The adjoining province of Navarre was in possession of the French, and it was not yet known that any resistance to them had been manifested in Catalonia. The passes of the Pyrenees, leading directly into Aragon, were open, and the main body of the French army was on the other side in and about Madrid. Thus surrounded by the enemy, and in a city which in military language would have been called defenceless, (the walls and gates of Zaragoza having for many generations been of no other use than to facilitate the collection of the customs,) Palafox declared VI. June. war against the French. The proclamation which he issued was CHAP. in a style which accorded with the temper of the people. He declared that the Emperor of the French, the individuals of his 1808. family, and every French general and officer, should be held personally responsible for the safety of King Ferdinand, his brothers, and his uncle: that should the French commit any robberies, devastations, and murders, either in Madrid or any other place, no quarter should be given them: that all the acts of the existing government were illegal, and that the renunciations at Bayonne were null and void, having been extorted by oppression that whatever might be done hereafter by the royal family in their state of duresse, should for the same reason be accounted of no authority; and that all who took an active part in these transactions should be deemed traitors to their country. And if any violence were attempted against the lives of the Royal Family, he declared that in that case the nation would make use of their elective right in favour of the Archduke Charles. Upon the first intelligence of the tumults at Zaragoza, the Junta of Government at Madrid, knowing how popular the name of Palafox would prove, dispatched his elder brother, the Marquis de Lazan, to inform him of the course which they were pursuing, and persuade him to use his influence for reducing the Aragonese to submission. But the Marquis, on his arrival, found that no influence could have effected this, and that Palafox had decidedly taken his part; and he also entered heartily into the cause of his country. The Principe del Castel Franco, D. Ignacio Martinez de Villala, one of the council of Castille, and the Alcalde of the court, D. Luis Marcelino Pereyra, were sent from Bayonne upon a similar errand, with a proclamation addressed to the Zaragozans, and signed by all the Spaniards who had obeyed Buonaparte's summons as members of the Assembly of Notables. Had they reached Zaragoza the mission might VI. CHAP. have cost them their lives, but finding that the people of Aragon were every where inflamed with the same hatred against the 1808. French, they deemed it expedient to turn back. June. to the peo It was believed by some of the noblest-minded Spaniards, Addresses that deeply as their countrymen resented the treachery with ple. which the royal family had been entrapped, and the insult offered to the nation in attempting to impose upon it a foreign dynasty by force, no national opposition would have been attempted, if the slaughter at Madrid and the executions by which it was followed had not excited in the people a feeling of fiery indignation, and a desire of vengeance strong as the sense of the most intolerable private injury could have provoked. The basest creatures of the intrusive government lamented Murat's conduct in sacrificing so many victims by his military tribunal as impolitic, while they served and supported a system which began in treachery and could only be upheld by force. It was their belief that every thing must yield to force of arms, and they were incapable of estimating the moral force which was called forth in resistance. The Juntas every where appealed to public opinion, and the press every where where the French were not present, teemed with addresses to the people, in all which the massacre of Madrid was represented as a crime for which vengeance must be exacted. must be exacted. The Junta of Seville published one to the people of the metropolis, blessing them for the noble example they had given, and telling them that that example would be remembered in the annals of their country for their eternal honour. Seville, said they, has seen with horror that the author of your misfortunes and of ours has sent forth a proclamation in which all the facts are distorted, and he pretends that you gave the provocation when it was he who provoked you. The government had the weakness to sanction that proclamation, and give orders for circulating it, and saw that VI. June. with perfect unconcern many of you put to death for a pre- CHAP. tended violation of laws which had no existence. That proclamation said that the French blood cried for vengeance. And 1808. the Spanish blood,.. does not it cry out for vengeance?.. Spanish blood shed by an army which was not ashamed to attack a disarmed and defenceless people, living under their own laws and their own King, and against whom cruelties were committed which make human nature shudder? All Spain exclaims that the Spanish blood in Madrid cries out for vengeance! Comfort yourselves! We are your brethren, we will fight like you till we perish in defence of our King and our country. Assist us with your good will, and with your prayers to that Almighty God whom we adore, and who cannot forsake us, because he never forsakes justice. And when the favourable hour arrives, exert yourselves then and throw off the ignominious yoke, which with such cruelty and such perfidiousness has been forced upon you." The Junta of Oviedo, in like manner, called upon the people to revenge their brethren who had been massacred; to remember their forefathers; to defend their wives and sisters and daughters; and to transmit their inheritance of independence to their children. They reminded them how Pelayo, with the mountaineers of Asturias, laid the foundation of the Spanish monarchy, and began that war against the Moors which his posterity continued for 700 years, till they had rooted out the last of the invaders. They reminded them of the Cid Campeador, Ruy Diaz de Bivar; how, when the Emperor claimed authority over Spain, and a council, where the King of Castille himself presided, discussed his pretensions, that hero refused to deliberate on such a demand, saying that the independence of Spain was established above all title; that no true Spaniard would suffer it to be brought in question; that it was to be VOL. I. Q Q VI. June. CHAP. upheld with their lives; and that he declared himself the enemy of any man who should advise the King to derogate in 1808. one point from the honour of their free country! They reminded them of the baseness, the perfidy, and the cruelty which they had already experienced from that proud and treacherous tyrant, who arrogates (said they) to himself the title of Arbiter of Destinies, because he has succeeded in oppressing the French nation, without recollecting that he himself is mortal, and that he only holds the power delegated to him for our chastisement. Had he not, under the faith of treaties, drawn away their soldiers to the Baltic? had he not, in the character of a friend and ally, marched his troops into the very capital, and made himself master of the frontier fortresses, then robbed them of their King and the whole of their royal family, and usurped their government? What if they perished in resisting these barbarians? "It is better (said they) to die in defence of your religion and independence, and upon your own native soil, than be led bound to slaughter, and waste your blood for the aggrandizement of his ambition. The French conscription comprises you. If you do not serve your country, you will be forced away to perish in the North. We lose nothing; for, even should we fall, we shall have freed ourselves, by a glorious death, from the intolerable burden of a foreign yoke. What worse atrocities would the worst savages have perpetrated, than those which the ruffians of this tyrant have committed? They have profaned our temples, they have massacred our brethren, they have assailed our wives ; more than 2000 of the people of Madrid, of that city where they had been so hospitably received, they have murdered in cold blood, for no other cause than for having defended their families and themselves. To arms! to arms!.. Will you bend your necks to the yoke? Will you allow yourselves to be insulted by injuries the most perfidious, the most wicked, the most disgrace |