CHAP. coast. A large sheep having been first stunned by a blow on XIV. the neck, was immediately flayed, the reeking skin was sown 1808. round the Marshal's body, while his limbs were wrapped in warm November. flannels, and some cups of weak tea were given him. He felt immediate relief, complaining only of a painful sense of formication, and of the manner in which the skin seemed to attract every part wherewith it was in contact. In the course of ten Larrey, minutes he was asleep. When he awoke, after two hours, the et Memoires body was streaming with perspiration, the dangerous symptoms were relieved, and on the fifth day he was able to mount on horseback and follow the army. Campagnes t. iii. 243 246. Defeat of the Extremaduran army at Burgos. Nov. 10. Buonaparte reached the head-quarters at Vitoria on the 8th, and immediately pushed forward a corps under Soult against the Extremaduran army in his front. Bessieres commanded the cavalry, which had before proved so fatal to the Spaniards at Rio Seco, and which had now been greatly reinforced. This army, under the Conde de Belveder, had been intended to support Blake, and keep up a communication between his army and that of Castaños. It consisted of about 13,000 men; and their Commander, a young man, although aware that a superior force was advancing against him, waited for the attack in an open position at Gamonal. He had with him some of the Walloon and Spanish guards, and a few regiments of the line; the rest were new levies, and among them a corps of students, volunteers from Salamanca and Leon. These youths, the pride and the hope of many a generous family, were in the advanced guard. They displayed that courage which might be looked for in men of their condition, and at that time of life: twice they repulsed the French infantry, and when Bessieres with the horse came upon their flank, fell almost to a man where they had been stationed. The loss in killed was estimated at 3000, nearly a fourth of this brave army; the victorious cavalry entered Burgos with the XIV. fugitives, and the city, which was entirely forsaken by its in- CHAP. habitants, was given up to be plundered. Bessieres pursued Count Belveder, while Soult turned aside toward Reynosa, to 1808. complete the destruction of Blake's army. One corps of the November. French marched upon Palencia, another upon Lerma; from the latter place the Count retreated to Aranda; there also Bessieres pursued, and the wreck of the army collected at Segovia; the piquets of the French were now upon the Douro, and their cavalry covered the plains of Castille. tion ex certain from par On the second day after the defeat of the Extremaduran Proclamaarmy Buonaparte established his head-quarters at Burgos, and cluding issued a proclamation, granting, in the Intruder's name, a par- Spaniards don to all Spaniards who, within one month after his arrival at don. Madrid, should lay down their arms, and renounce all connexion with England. Neither the members of the Juntas nor the general officers were excepted: but wishing, he said, to mark those, who, after having sworn fidelity to Joseph Buonaparte, had violated that oath; and who, instead of employing their influence to enlighten the people, had only used it to mislead them wishing also that the punishment of great offenders might serve as an example in future times to all those, who, being placed at the head of nations, instead of directing them with wisdom and prudence, should mislead them into disorders and popular tumults, and precipitate them into misfortunes and war : for these reasons he excepted from this amnesty the Dukes of Infantado, Hijar, Medina Celi, and Ossuna, the Marques de Santa Cruz, Counts Fernan Nunez and Altamira, the ex-Minister of State Cevallos, and the Bishop of S. Andero; declaring them traitors to the two crowns of France and Spain, and decreeing that they should be seized, brought before a military commission, and shot. Those persons who had sworn homage to the Intruder, compulsory as that homage was, had unquestionably exposed CHAP. themselves to its possible consequences: they had been forced XIV. into a situation in which the only alternative was to become 1808. traitors to him, or traitors to their country: but by what law or November what logic were they traitors to France, a country to which they owed no allegiance, and with which they had contracted no obligation? Movements against Castaños. Battle of From Burgos Marshals Ney and Victor were dispatched with their divisions to act on the rear of Castaños, and cut off his retreat, while Lasnes, with 30,000 men, should attack him in front. This last remaining army of the Spaniards is represented by the French as consisting of 80,000 men, of whom three-fourths were armed. But the nominal force of the conjoined armies under Castaños and Palafox was only 65,000, and the effective soldiers hardly more than half that amount. Many of the Andalusian troops had returned to their homes after the first success, and many more had remained at Madrid, so that though some thousands (mostly from Valencia) had joined Castaños, his force was little more numerous than it had been at Baylen. His own opinion was decidedly against risking an action in which there could be no reasonable hope of advantage; but the commissioner, D. Francisco Palafox, to whom the power of overruling the General had been madly entrusted by the Central Junta, determined that a battle should be fought, and Castaños therefore was compelled to fight, lest he should be stigmatized as a traitor, and murdered by his own men, or torn to pieces by a mob. Already the Conde de Montijo, who left the army at this time, was every where accusing him of treachery, because he had warmly opposed a determination, the fatal consequences of which he certainly foresaw. The plan of the French against this army was the same as that which they had practised against Blake's; they meant to rout it by a powerful attack in front, and to destroy the fugitives XIV. November. by intercepting them with a second force in their flight. Their CHAP. destruction was considered to be as certain as their defeat, but Ney was less expeditious in his movements than had been cal- 1808. culated; and Castaños hearing on the 21st that this corps was advancing upon Soria, while Lasnes and Moncey approached from the side of Logroño and Lodosa, abandoned Calahorra and fell back upon Tudela. On the 22d Lasnes entered Calahorra and Alfaro, and at daybreak on the following morning he found the Spaniards drawn up in seven divisions, with their right before Tudela, and their left extending along a line of from four to five miles upon a range of easy heights. The Aragonese, who had joined only a few hours before by forced marches, were on the right, the Valencians and the troops of New Castille in the centre, the Andalusians on the left. Their line was covered by forty pieces of artillery. Situations were chosen by the enemy for planting sixty pieces against them; but upon seeing their own relative strength, and the confusion which was observable among the Spaniards, they preferred a more summary mode of attack. General Maurice Mathieu, with a division of infantry, forced the Spanish centre; and General Lefebvre, with the cavalry, passing through, wheeled to the left, and coming in the rear of the Aragonese, at a time when that wing, having withstood an attack, supposed itself victorious, the fate of the battle was decided. At the same time Lagrange, with his division, attacked the left; a brave, and in some part a successful resistance was opposed; and the action, which began in the morning, was prolonged on this side till darkness enabled Lapeña's division to fall back from Cascante to Tarazona, where the first and third divisions were stationed, and had not been engaged. There too the second division arrived, which had been ordered to support Lapeña; but though it received these orders at noon, and the distance which it had to march was only two leagues, either from VOL. I. 4 x CHAP. incapacity in the leaders, or want of order, it did not arrive till night, after the action was decided. the defeated army. XIV. 1808. According to the French 4000 Spaniards fell in this battle, November. 3000 men, 300 officers, and thirty pieces of cannon were taken, Retreat of their own loss not amounting to 500. The right wing, dispersing and escaping how it could, assembled again at Zaragoza, with some of the central division also, there to prove that their failure in the field had not been for want of courage. As soon as the wreck of the left had collected at Tarazona, Castaños ordered them to begin their march by way of Borja to Calatayud. It was midnight, and at the moment when they were setting forward a chapel, which served as a magazine, blew up. Many shells went off after the explosion; this occasioned an opinion that an enemy's battery might be playing upon them, and the Royal Carabineers, in the midst of the confusion, fancying that the chapel was occupied by the French, presented themselves sword in hand to charge it. Presently a cry of treason was set up; it spread rapidly; misfortune in such times is always deemed a proof of treachery; those troops who had not been engaged could not understand wherefore they were ordered to retreat, and at such an hour; a general distrust prevailed; some corps dispersed, and they who remained together were in a fearful state of insubordination. They retreated however through Borja and Ricla, without stopping in either place, and on the night of the 25th reached Calatayud. Their deplorable condition at Calatayud. On that same day Maurice Mathieu entered Borja in pursuit, ..too late to make any prisoners. Ney arrived on the day following. He had been ordered to reach Agreda on the 23d, which, if he had done, the wreck of this army must have been destroyed; but he found a pretext for delay in the fatigue of his men, and a cause in the pillage of Soria. The people of that city, unmindful of the example which the Numantines had set |