CHAP. tille, under the Conde de Cartaojal, which had been broken up XIV. after the position of Logroño was lost. At the end of October, 1808. Castaños stationed it along the skirts of the Sierra de Cameros, Nov. 23. extending from in front of Logroño to Lodosa; the last division of this force, which formed the left flank of the army, was posted at Nalda under Lili. During the first three weeks of November, this division sustained repeated and almost daily attacks; varying its position as circumstances required, and having, like Blake's army, to endure the severest privations; nevertheless it carried off fourteen pieces of artillery, from Nalda to Ausejo and Calahorra, in sight of the French, and by roads which had been thought impracticable. On the night of the 21st, Lili received intelligence that a considerable force of the enemy had moved from Logroño towards Ausejo; the next day he learnt that the Spaniards, who were stationed there and at Tudelilla, had fallen back upon their right, and that 5000 French infantry and 1000 horse had moved from Najara, giving out that they were going for Calahorra. He was thus in imminent danger of being surrounded. Immediately he left the banks of the Iregua, and fell back to Venta de Codes, four leagues in the rear of Nalda, where, in the course of the night, a messenger from Cartaojal reached him with instructions written at Tudelilla, on the 21st, saying, that the French were in great force at Ausejo, and that Castaños ordered him to retreat by the Sierra to Agreda, whither Cartaojal himself was going with all his troops to oppose the French on the side of Almazan. For Agreda, therefore, Lili began his march at daybreak. By two in the afternoon he had reached Villar del Rio, five leagues from the place which he had left, eight from that to which he was bound; but here he met intelligence of fresh disasters and new dangers. Agreda, it was said, had already been abandoned by the Spaniards; 1200 French cavalry, with a small body of foot, were on their way to that town from Soria, which CHAP. had opened its gates to the enemy; other columns from Soria XIV. and from Almazan were to follow in the same direction. Fugi- 1808. tives now arrived every hour, with tidings that the enemy were sacking one place, or approaching another, all their parties tending to the one point of Agreda. Lili perceived, that if Cartaojal had not already retired from that town, he inevitably must, and that for himself, if he continued his march, it would be to run into the midst of his enemies. He did not hesitate, therefore, to disobey orders which would have involved him in certain destruction; and, acting upon his own judgement, he marched the next morning in a contrary direction, to Lumbreras, and the day afterwards to Montenegro, thinking that a more defensible point, and for the sake of receiving certain intelligence from the side of Agreda. The report that that town had been evacuated on the 23d was premature; and Lili received a letter from Cartaojal, written from thence on the 24th, and regretting that he had fallen back to Lumbreras upon erroneous information; to have joined him at Agreda, he said, was the proper movement, and almost the only means of safety; but it was no time to consider what might have been done, and, as things were, he must now follow his own discretion, with that zeal which it was not doubted he possessed. Whatever regret Lili might have felt at receiving this reproof, was effectually counteracted by the report of the messenger who brought it; for at the very moment when Cartaojal dispatched him, news arrived that the enemy were beginning to attack the town. In fact, he was compelled speedily to abandon it, and, marching by way of Borja to Calatayud, joined the wreck of the army of the centre, and accompanied them in their retreat. Perilous as Lili's situation now was, he had yet to receive intelligence of events which rendered it more desperate. On the XIV. December. CHAP. 27th he learned at Salas de los Infantes, by some stragglers who had escaped from the action at Burgos, that that capital was 1808. now in the hands of the French. His spies brought him information, that the Intruder was with a great force at Aranda; that the enemy occupied all the bridges and fords of the Duero; and that the Somosierra was threatened: finally, to crown the distressing news of the day, a full account reached him of the battle of Tudela. On every side he was surrounded; to move in any direction seemed equally perilous, and he was utterly ignorant what course had been taken by the relics of the army which he wished to join. In these difficulties his first measure was to march to Canales, four leagues from Salas, where, in the very centre of the mountains, he might hope to remain concealed from the enemy, or resist them to the best advantage if he were attacked. There, amid those difficult and inclement heights, from whence the Arlanza flows toward Lerma, the Duero toward the plains of Castille, the Tiron, the Najerilla, and the Iregua toward Rioja, he remained six days. During this time he obtained sufficient intelligence of the movements of the French to direct his own, and then proceeded towards New Castille, in search of Castaños's broken army. On the 5th he reached Quintanar de la Sierra, on the 6th San Leonardo. His men travelled the whole of the following day and night, and crossed the Duero at Berlanja. On the 9th they entered Atienza, and here the information which they found served only to occasion new perplexity; for here Lili learned that the central army had passed through, and been pursued by the French; that they had afterwards abandoned Guadalaxara and the heights of Santorcaz: of their farther movements nothing was known. Lili, however, considering all circumstances, was convinced that they must have retreated upon Cuenca, and he directed his march towards the same point. On the 11th, at daybreak, he crossed the great XIV. road from Zaragoza to Madrid, at an opportune and happy CHAP. hour, passing between the last division of the French and their rear-guard, then on the way from Calatayud; and on the day 1808. that the Duke del Infantado reached Cuenca, he arrived at Villar December. de Domingo Garcia, from whence, on the 16th, he passed to the head-quarters of the Commander. During this whole retreat, which was over a tract of nearly four hundred miles, through the most difficult and untravelled ways, this corps had constantly been surrounded by the enemy, who were seldom more than ten or twelve miles distant from them. Food they had none, but what they could procure upon the way; most of the men were barefoot, many of them nearly naked, but their spirits never failed. the Central Junta from Aranjuez. If ever during the contest there was a time when Spain might Retreat of have been irretrievably subjected, it was now, if a dissolution of the government had taken place. The Central Junta had been slow in perceiving the danger, but when it came upon them they acted with promptitude and wisdom. Before they left Aranjuez a commission of six members was appointed to transact business during their journey, and official intelligence of their removal was communicated to the foreign ministers. Their escort was so insufficient, that a small body of cavalry might have surprised them; they travelled in parties, but assembled at Talavera ; three members were left there to collect and re-organize the soldiers who were coming in great numbers to that point. From thence proceeding to Truxillo, there they again met, dispatched orders to the provinces, and sent some of their own members to those places where they might be most useful. That city afforded an opportunity of reconsidering where they should fix their abode, whether at Badajoz, as had been determined, or at Cordoba, the road to either place being open: Seville was preferred to either, and they assembled there on the 17th of De CHAP. cember. Before this removal it had been concerted by Jovel- Their address to the people of Madrid. Central Junta, and with two members from each of the other The agents of the Intruder knowing how desirable for their 1 |