IX. June. shells and grenades from the Torrero. About twelve hundred CHAP were thrown into the town, and there was not one building that was bomb proof within the walls. After a time, the inhabitants 1808. placed beams of timber together, endways, against the houses, in a sloping direction, behind which those who were near when a shell fell, might shelter themselves. The enemy continued also to invest the city more closely, while the Aragonese made every effort to strengthen their means of defence. They tore down the awnings from their windows, and formed them into sacks, which they filled with sand, and piled up before the gates, in the form of a battery, digging round it a deep trench. They broke holes for musketry in the walls and intermediate buildings, and stationed cannon where the position was favourable for it. The houses in the environs were destroyed. "Gardens and olive grounds," says an eye-witness, "that in better times had been the recreation and support of their owners, were cheerfully rooted up by the proprietors themselves, wherever they impeded the defence of the city, or covered the approach of the enemy." Women of all ranks assisted; they formed Exertions themselves into companies, some to relieve the wounded, some women. to carry water, wine, and provisions, to those who defended the gates. The Countess Burita instituted a corps for this service; Countess she was young, delicate, and beautiful. In the midst of the most tremendous fire of shot and shells, she was seen coolly attending to those occupations which were now become her duty; nor throughout the whole of a two months' siege did the imminent danger, to which she incessantly exposed herself, produce the slightest apparent effect upon her, or in the slightest degree bend her from her heroic purpose. Some of the monks bore arms; others exercised their spiritual offices to the dying: others, with the nuns, were busied in making cartridges which the children distributed. of the Burita. CHAP. IX. June. Among threescore thousand persons there will always be found some wicked enough for any employment, and the art of cor1808. rupting has constituted great part of the French system of war. During the night of the 28th the powder magazine, in the area where the bull-fights were performed, which was in the very heart of the city, was blown up, by which fourteen houses were destroyed, and about 200 persons killed. This was the signal for the enemy to appear before three gates which had been sold to them. And while the inhabitants were digging out their fellow-citizens from the ruins, a fire was opened upon them with mortars, howitzers, and cannons, which had now been received for battering the town. Their attack seemed chiefly to be directed against the gate called Portillo, and a large square building near it, without the walls, and surrounded by a deep ditch; though called a castle, it served only for a prison. The sand-bag battery before this gate was frequently destroyed, and as often reconstructed under the fire of the enemy. The Augustina carnage here throughout the day was dreadful. Augustina Zaragoza, a handsome woman of the lower class, about twentytwo years of age, arrived at this battery with refreshments, at Zaragoza. the time when not a man who defended it was left alive, so IX. to Murat. It was not till after these repeated proofs of treason- CHAP. able practices, that the French residents in Zaragoza, with other suspected persons, were taken into custody. 1808. July. The French again repulsed in an take the storm Lefebvre now supposing that his destructive bombardment must have dismayed the people, and convinced them how impossible it was for so defenceless a city to persist in withstand- attempt to ing him, again attempted to force his way into the town, think-city by ing that, as soon as his troops could effect a lodgement within the gates, the Zaragozans would submit. On the 2d of July, a column of his army marched out of their battery, which was almost within musket-shot of the Portillo, and advanced towards it with fixed bayonets, and without firing a shot. But when they reached the castle, such a discharge of grape and musketry was opened upon their flank, that, notwithstanding the most spirited exertions of their officers, the column immediately dispersed. The remainder of their force had been drawn up to support their attack, and follow them into the city; but it was impossible to bring them a second time to the charge. The general, however, ordered another column instantly to advance against the gate of the Carmen, on the left of the Portillo. This entrance was defended by a sand-bag battery, and by musketeers, who lined the walls on each side, and commanded two out of three approaches to it; and here also the French suffered great loss, and were repulsed. the city. The military men in Zaragoza considered these attacks as They invest extremely injudicious. Lefebvre probably was so indignant at meeting with any opposition from a people whom he despised, and a place which, according to the rules and pedantry of war, was not tenable, that he lost his temper, and thought to subdue them the shortest way, by mere violence and superior force. Having found his mistake, he proceeded to invest the city still more closely. In the beginning of the siege, the besieged re VOL. I. 3 G July. CHAP. ceived some scanty succours; yet, however scanty, they were of IX. importance. Four hundred soldiers from the regiment of Estre1808. madura, small parties from other corps, and a few artillerymen got in. Two hundred of the militia of Logroño were added to these artillerymen, and soon learnt their new service, being in the presence of an enemy whom they had such righteous reason to abhor. Two four-and-twenty-pounders and a few shells, which were much wanted, were procured from Lerida. The enemy, meantime, were amply supplied with stores from the magazine in the citadel of Pamplona, which they had so perfidiously seized on their first entrance, as allies, into Spain. Hitherto they had remained on the right* bank of the Ebro. On the 11th of July they forced the passage of the ford, and posted troops enough on the opposite side to protect their workmen while forming a floating bridge. In spite of all the efforts They form of the Aragonese, this bridge was completed on the 14th; a way was thus made for their cavalry, to their superiority in which the French were mostly indebted for all their victories in Spain. This gave them the command of the surrounding country; they destroyed the mills, levied contributions on the villages, and cut off every communication by which the besieged had hitherto received supplies. These new difficulties called out new resources in this admirable people and their general,.. a man worthy of commanding such a people in such times. Corn mills, worked by horses, were erected in various parts of the city; the monks were employed in manufacturing gunpowder, materials for which were obtained by immediately collecting all a bridge over the Ebro. * In military language, you always describe the country by the current of water, and speak as if you were looking down the stream. It was requisite to explain this to the court upon Whitelocke's trial, and therefore the explanation cannot be thought unnecessary here. IX. the sulphur in the place, by washing the soil of the streets to CHAP. extract its nitre, and making charcoal from the stalks of hemp, which in that part of Spain grows to a magnitude that would 1808. elsewhere be thought very unusual *. July. the inhabit By the end of July the city was completely invested, the Distress of supply of food was scanty, and the inhabitants had no reason to anis. expect succour. Their exertions had now been unremitted for forty-six days, and nothing but the sense of duty could have supported their bodily strength and their spirit under such trials. They were in hourly expectation of another general attack, or another bombardment. They had not a single place of security for the sick and the children, and the number of wounded was daily increased by repeated skirmishes, in which they engaged for the purpose of opening a communication with the country. At this juncture they made one desperate effort to recover the Torrero. It was in vain; and convinced by repeated losses, and especially by this last repulse, that it was hopeless to make any effectual sally, they resolved to abide the issue of the contest within the walls, and conquer or perish there. Hospital burnt. On the night of the second of August, and on the following Foundling day, the French bombarded the city from their batteries opposite the gate of the Carmen. A foundling hospital, which was now filled with the sick and wounded, took fire, and was rapidly consumed. During this scene of horror, the most intrepid exertions were made to rescue these helpless sufferers from the flames. No person thought of his own property or individual every one hastened thither. The women were emi concerns,.. * "On this simple foundation," says Mr. Vaughan, "a regular manufactory of gunpowder was formed after the siege, which produced 13 arrobas of Castille per day; that is, 325 lb. of 12 ounces." |