XII. 1812. General Blake capitulates. 9th Jan. CHAP. tance, the Spanish army abandoned the defence of the lines, and retired into the town. A bombardment followed, and after three days' continuance, during which the trenches were regularly pushed forward, till the miner had penetrated under the main battlements, General Blake, wishing to spare the citizens the horrors of a storm, entered into a capitulation, and, on condition that religion should be respected, the inhabitants and their property protected, and no inquiry made into the past conduct of those who had taken an active part in the war or revolution, delivered up prisoners, 22 General and 900 regimental officers; 16,000 effective troops. of the line, 2,000 sick, 1,700 artillery-men and sappers; and further engaged for the release, by exchange, of 2,000 French troops, prisoners of war in Majorca and Alicante. The victors took possession of 370 pieces of artillery, 2,000 barrels of powder, 3 millions of ball cartridges, and an immense quantity of arms, ammunition, and clothing, supplied by England; and further levied a contribution on the inhabitants, of two hundred millions of reals. General Blake, and the principal Spanish officers, were immediately marched into France, and the troops followed in successive divisions of 6 or 7,000 each, swelling the number of prisoners made on the eastern coast in this campaign, to more than 40,000. XII. 1812. These rapid triumphs of Marshal Suchet, CHAP. formed such a brilliant contrast with the desultory operations of the other French armies in the Peninsula; and the conquest of Valencia so much surpassed all his other deeds, and seemed so surely to fix the ascendancy of the French in Spain, that Napoleon, altogether overlooking the nominal sovereign of the country, conferred on his successful Marshal, by an imperial decree, 24th Jan. the title of Duke of Albufera, and annexed to the dignity the royal domain of the same name, situated a few miles south of the city, to be held as an unalienable fief of the empire: he also decreed that property to the value of two hundred millions of reals should be selected in Valencia, and considered part of the extraordinary domains of the empire, and in other grants and regulations, acted as if Spain were a dependency of France. Indeed, such accumulated losses and misfortunes might have been expected to have sunk the nation into despair, and have produced distrust, anarchy, and submission; but, luckily, a few days before intelligence of the fall of Va- 22d Jan. lencia became public at Cadiz, a change had been effected in the regency, and the Duke of Infantado had replaced General Blake as President after that event, the people, far from feeling indisposed towards the government for the evident deficiency of their military arrangements, threw the whole blame of the late disasters CHAP. on the few individuals removed from power, and XII. with that peculiar and accommodating confi1812. dence, which so frequently supported the nation under misfortune, but which always excused personal exertion, every man felt and expressed a conviction, that the superior energy of the regency newly installed, would serve to repair the errors of the past, and command success for the future. The unskilful manœuvres of General Blake in shutting his army up in Valencia, and his surrender after such a short resistance, have left great suspicions of his integrity. It is, however, unjust to impute actions to base motives, because they are otherwise incomprehensible, and instances are not rare of a life of heroism and boldness being shaded over by a last act of weakness or imbecility; besides, confidence is not always accompanied by resource. Blake served in 1798 and 1794 with distinction at the head of a battalion, in which situation his regular habits and personal courage qualified him to shine. At the battle of Rio-Seco, he commanded a brigade which preserved the most order, and covered the retreat; and at Albuera, gave further proof of bravery and good arrangement in the charge of a division. Placed, however, repeatedly in the command of armies, he afforded an impressive lesson, that courage and enterprize are of little value, unless blended with XII. prudence and judgment; a too presumptuous CHAP. confidence having rendered his career almost invariably disastrous. The events which closed 1812. his military life, show how little experience had diminished that failing; as he voluntarily sought the unequal combat in which his army was defeated, and unnecessarily sacrificed the remnant of his force in an attempt to hold a town illprovided for defence, and without the means of retreat. Thus, through over-confidence and want of skill in their chief, ingloriously fell the flower of the Spanish military. Spain, left without a regular army, sunk for a season into a mere auxiliary, and the contest in the field devolved entirely on the Portugueze and British. How it was supported by them, the succeeding chapter will show. CHAPTER XIII. Lord Wellington lays siege to Ciudad-Rodrigo-carries the Breaches by Storm-suddenly moves to his right, and besieges Badajos-carries the Place by Assault-Marshal Marmont makes an irruption into Portugal-and Marshal Soult advances to relieve Badajos-the latter retires on the Fall of BadajosLord Wellington moves rapidly against the former, who retires on his Approach. CHAP. MARSHAL MARMONT, after his successful moveXIII. ment to re-victual Ciudad-Rodrigo, learning that 1811. part of the allied army had retired into distant cantonments, became persuaded that Lord Wellington had relinquished the hope of obtaining possession of that fortress; and at the close of the year ventured to detach three divisions of infantry, with a body of cavalry, to the assistance of Marshal Suchet before Valencia, and to put the main body of his forces into cantonments on the Tagus. Count Dorsenne had a little previously detached General Bonnet's division to re-occupy the Asturias, and General Du Breton with a division, to scour the province of Las Montañas. These arrangements seeming to offer the opportunity so long sought for, of carrying through a bold and rapid attack before the French troops could be assembled in sufficient 5th Nov. |