Worlds Best Histories France Vol 7 by M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt

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At the same moment, and whilst summoning to Bayonne the reinforcement of
troops which he intended to accompany and support King Joseph on his entry
into his new kingdom, Napoleon wrote to the Emperor Alexander:--

"My brother, I send your Majesty the constitution which the Spanish Junta
have just decided upon. The disorders of that country had reached such a
degree as can scarcely be conceived. Obliged to take part in its affairs,
I have by the irresistible tendency of events been brought to a system
which, while securing the happiness of Spain, secures the tranquillity of
my states. I have cause to be satisfied with all the persons of rank,
fortune, and education. The monks alone, who occupy half the territory,
anticipating in the new order of things the destruction of abuses, and the
numerous agents of the Inquisition, who now see the end of their
existence, are now agitating the country. I am very sensible that this
event opens a very large field for discussion. People are not likely to
appreciate the circumstance and events, but will maintain that all had
been provoked and premeditated. Nevertheless, if I had only considered the
interest of France, I should have adopted a simpler means, viz., extending
my frontiers on this side, and diminishing Spain. A province like
Catalonia or Navarre, would have affected her power more than the change
which has just taken place, which is really of use only to Spain."

Whilst the Emperor Napoleon thus announced in Europe the interpretation
which it suited him to put upon the events of Spain, and whilst the new
king, leaving Bayonne on the 9th July, was planting his foot upon his new
territory, the whole of Spain, from north to south, from east to west, was
in a blaze.

After the departure of the Bourbon princes for Bayonne, the popular
agitation and uneasiness in Madrid became extreme, and gradually extended
to the more remote provinces, and into the depths of the old Spanish race,
honorable and proud, still preserving in their fields their ancestral
qualities. "Trust neither your honor nor your person to a Spanish Don,"
was said to M. Guizot by a man who learned to form severe judgment upon
them during several revolutions; "trust all that is dearest to you to a
Spanish peasant." In spite of the emperor's assertions, all the great
lords were not favorable to the King Joseph. In the country, the peasants
had risen in a body, and the burgesses did the same in the towns.

Carthagena was the first town to give the example of revolt. On the 22nd
May, at the news of the abdication of the two kings, published in the
journals of Madrid on the 20th, the people shouted in the streets, "Long
live Ferdinand VII.!" and Admiral Salcedo, who was preparing to convey the
Spanish fleet to Toulon, was arrested. The arms shut up in the arsenals
were distributed among the populace. A Junta was immediately formed.
Murcia and Valencia followed the example of Carthagena. The people, roused
by the preaching of a monk, Canon Calvo, killed the Baron Albulat, a "lord
of the province," who was in vain defended by another monk, called Rico.
The French who lived in Valencia had taken refuge in the citadel, but
being persuaded to come out, they were quickly massacred to the last man.
This first ebullition of popular fury was followed by the horror of all
respectable people. In spite of himself, Count Cerbellon was put at the
head of the insurrection. Everybody took arms, and waited for the arrival
and vengeance of the French soldiers.

All the provinces rose in insurrection one after another. The most
apathetic waited for St. Ferdinand's Day; and on the 30th May, at
daybreak, before the saint's flag was displayed in the streets, in
Estremadura, at Granada, and Malaga, the shouts of the populace proclaimed
King Ferdinand VII. Blood was shed everywhere, with an atrocious display
of cruelty. The magistrates, or gentlemen, who attempted to stop a
dangerous rising were massacred. The Asturias had shuddered at the first
report of the abdication; the Junta of Oviedo proclaimed a renewal of
peace with England, and sent delegates to London. The clergy succeeded in
protecting the lives of two Spanish colonels who had opposed the
insurrection of their troops. In Galicia the honorable efforts of Captain-
General Filangieri cost him his life; after accepting, with regret, the
presidency of the Junta, when he attempted to maintain order amongst the
insurgents he was killed in the street. Valladolid obliged the Captain-
General, Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, to take a part in the rising of the
populace. At the first sign of resistance shown by the old soldier, they
erected a gibbet under his windows. Burgos, occupied by Marshal Bessieres,
remained quiet, but Barcelona attempted an insurrection. The Catalans were
armed to the teeth, and, on General Duhesme threatening to set fire to the
town, the more violent of them escaped to places which were less
threatened. Saragossa had placed at the head of its heroic population Don
Joseph Palafox de Melzi, an amiable young man, well known in his own
country. He summoned the Cortes of the province, and ordered a general
rising of the population of Aragon. On the confines of Navarre, almost
under the eyes of the French army, Santander and Logrono formed an
insurrection. The Castilles, with their vast open plains, and their
proximity to the French Government, showed only a silent agitation,
without yet attempting an insurrection. Murat was ill--frequently
delirious; but General Savary watched over Madrid: the capital awaited its
new master.

Nowhere was the insurrection more spontaneous or more general than in
Andalusia. Seville had conceived the hope of becoming the centre of the
national movement, and grouping round it the patriotic efforts of the
whole of Spain. The provisional government assumed a pompous name--
"Supreme Junta of Spain and the Indies"--and sent messengers to stir up
the towns of Badajoz, Cordova, and Jaen. At Cadiz they surrounded the
hotel of the Captain-General Solano, Marquis of Socorro. All the troops
throughout the south of Spain were under his orders. With difficulty he
was persuaded to give a forced assent to the disorderly wishes of the
populace, but persisted in opposing the bombardment of the French fleet,
commanded by Admiral Rosily, which had been in the harbor for three
months. He in vain pleaded the danger to the Spanish vessels mixed with
the French. The crowd became mad, dragged the Marquis on to the ramparts,
and massacred him.

Without any preliminary understanding, in a country everywhere intersected
by rivers and mountains, and even under the fire of the French cannon,
Spain thus rose spontaneously against an arrogant usurpation, preceded by
base perfidy. In this first burst of her patriotic anger, she bore the
courage, ardor, and passion which were to make certain her triumph; she at
the same time displayed a savage cruelty and violence, of which our
unhappy soldiers were too often the victims. The emperor was still at
Bayonne, occupied in arranging the affairs of Spain from without Spain: he
was informed slowly and imperfectly of the insurrection convulsing the
whole country. Accustomed to give orders to his lieutenants from a
distance and arbitrarily, he ordered all the movements of his troops from
Bayonne, affecting to attach but small importance to the revolt, sending
to Paris and Valencay false news of the success of his arms, and doing his
best to conceal from King Joseph the extent and importance of the
resistance which was being prepared against him. In many places the
couriers were arrested or killed. The emperor ordered General Savary to
set out again for Madrid.

Nevertheless, all the forces of the French army were on their march to
crush the insurrection. General Verdier and General Frere quickly took
satisfaction for the insurrection of Logrono and Segovia. General Lasalle,
before Valladolid, defeated Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, who had been forced
to leave the town, afraid of having his throat cut there. "You have only
had what you deserve," said the old Spanish general, as he retreated upon
Leon; "we are only a handful of undisciplined peasants, yet you imagine
you can conquer those who have conquered all Europe." General Lefebvre-
Desnouettes met more resistance at Tudela, where the insurgents had broken
down the bridge over the Ebro. On the 15th June he was before Saragossa,
where Don Joseph Palafox had shut himself up; the whole population covered
the roofs of the houses, where there was a constant hail-storm of musket
balls. The French general at once concluded it was a question of regular
siege, and sent to Barcelona for reinforcements and artillery. Marshal
Moncey had not succeeded in taking Valencia. General Duhesme was shut up
in Barcelona by the insurrection, which daily gained ground in Catalonia.
Yet he was compelled to send away General Chabran, that he might join
Marshal Moncey; and the insurgents took advantage of this division of our
forces to throw themselves on General Schwartz's column, which had been
ordered to search the convent of Montserrat. The tocsin was heard
everywhere in the mountain villages; the bridges over the streams were
broken down, and every little town had to be carried with the bayonet. By
a sudden sally, General Duhesme dislodged the enemy from their post on the
River Llobregat, took possession of their cannons, and brought them back
to Barcelona. "Let the whole town of Barcelona be disarmed," wrote the
emperor on 10th June to Marshal Berthier, "so that not a single musket is
left, and let the castle of Montjouy be supplied with provisions taken
from the inhabitants. They must be treated in thorough military fashion.
War justifies anything. On the slightest occasion, you should take
hostages and send them into the fortress."

General Dupont had been entrusted with the most difficult as well as most
important undertaking. With from 12,000 to 13,000 men under his orders, he
advanced into Andalusia, with the object of reducing that great province
to submission, and protecting the French fleet in Cadiz. The emperor had
ordered General Junot to support Dupont's advance by sending him
Kellermann's division, but Portugal was imitating the example of Spain,
and had all risen in insurrection. On his first entrance into Andalusia,
Dupont recognized the importance of the movement, and immediately asked
for a reinforcement. "I shall then have nothing to do but a military
promenade," he wrote to General Savary.

On the 7th June, after a pretty keen fight, the French troops took the
bridge of Alcolea, on the Guadalquivir, and arrived the same evening
before Cordova. After the gates were burst open with cannon-shot, the
barricades and houses had to be carried with the bayonet; and the
soldiers, losing their temper, cruelly abused the victory they gained. The
hatred against the invaders increased; and in the van of our army, on this
side of the Sierra Morena, on the road from Cordova to Andujar, the men
who had not kept up in marching, the sick and wounded who were obliged to
stay in the villages, were put to death with refinements of barbarity.
General Dupont still waited for the divisions of Vedel and Frere, which he
had sent to Madrid for; and at Cadiz, in the French fleet, they were
counting the days, and soon the hours.

The leader in the insurrection, Thomas de Morla, at first seemed faithful
to the alliance of the Spanish and French navy, recalling the memories of
the battle of Trafalgar, the glorious ruins of which composed the French
squadron in the Cadiz roads. Gradually, however, he took care to separate
the two fleets, persuading Admiral Rosily to take his position within the
roads, and placing the Spanish vessels at the entrance, in order, he said,
to defend Cadiz against the English, who had been trying in vain to land
5,000 men. The admiral soon found himself cantoned in the midst of the
lagoons which form and protect the Cadiz roads; while a contrary wind
prevented the attack which, from desperation, he wished to make upon the
Spanish, their gun-boats and sloops were already gathering round him, and
on the 9th June the firing began, but it was weak and unavailing on the
part of our ships, in spite of the heroic resolution of the crews. The
fighting lasted two days, and on the Junta of Seville demanding a
surrender pure and simple, Admiral Rosily, who knew that General Dupont
had entered Cordova, asked for a delay, hoping to receive help. On the
14th June, after four days had elapsed, the French fleet, being deprived
of every resource, and with certain ruin before them, surrendered at
discretion. The officers were distributed in the fortresses, and the
vessels disarmed. The mob, crowding round the harbor, shouted fiercely and
cheered as the French prisoners passed before them and the English, who
had just succeeded in effecting their landing.

General Dupont had not been reinforced. He did not know whether his
couriers had arrived, many having been already intercepted by the robbers
of the Sierra Morena; he knew of the rising of the St. Roque troops, and
of the treachery of the Swiss regiments recently engaged in the
insurrection; and finding himself threatened on the right by the insurgent
army of Andalusia, and on the left by the army of Granada, he resolved to
fall back upon the Guadalquivir, and on the 18th June took up his position
in the small town of Andujar, to wait for the divisions which he had sent
for. That of Vedel was already on its march.

Marshal Moncey had failed before Valencia, and could not commence the
investment for want of siege guns; he had brought back his division in
good condition, and effected his junction with General Frere at San
Clemente. Marshal Bessieres advanced at the same time against Don Gregorio
de la Cuesta, and against General Blake, a descendant of English Catholic
refugees. Their forces were considerable, and composed of old soldiers;
they had, however, asked for time to prepare their troops and had been
forced by the Junta of the Corogne to march to battle. On the evening of
the 13th July, the Spaniards, badly informed as to the march of the
French, were formed in two lines on the plateau of Medino de Rio-Seco, not
far from Valladolid. Attacked one after the other by Marshal Bessieres,
the two lines were completely beaten and put to flight, not without some
resistance at certain points. The slaughter was terrible. General Mouton,
at the head of two regiments with fixed bayonets, entered the town of
Medina, which was sacked. Marshal Bessieres again took the road towards
Leon, sweeping before him the disbanded remains of the Spanish army. King
Joseph had just entered Madrid.

He took possession of his capital in the midst of the melancholy silence
of the inhabitants, more irritated than cowed by the news of the victory
of Rio-Seco, which reached them a few hours before the entry of their new
monarch. Since his entrance into Spain the eyes of Joseph had been opened.
"Up to this time no one has told the whole truth," he wrote to the Emperor
Napoleon on the 12th July. "The fact is that not a single Spaniard is on
my side, except the small number who were present at the Junta, and travel
with me. The others, on arriving here, hid themselves, terrified by the
unanimous opinion of their countrymen." And some days later: "Fear does
not make me see double; since I have been in Spain I say to myself every
day that my life is of small account, and that I give it up to you. I am
not alarmed at my position, but it is unique in history; I have not a
single partisan here." Every day he repeated the same demand; "I still
want 50,000 men of old troops, and 50,000,000 of money; in a month I must
have a 100,000 men, and a 100,000,000." The French army in Spain numbered
already 110,000 men, young, it is true, and for the most part without
experience, but Europe almost entirely was occupied by our troops;
Napoleon was irritated at the sensible remarks of Savary, still more
gloomy than those of King Joseph. "The emperor finds that you are wrong to
say that nothing has been done for six weeks," wrote Marshal Berthier.
"All sensible men in Spain have changed their opinion, and are very sorry
to see the insurrection. Affairs are in the most prosperous position since
the battle of Rio-Seco." On the 19th July, when making his preparations to
quit Bayonne to visit the towns of the south, Napoleon wrote to King
Joseph:

"My brother, I received your letter of the 18th, at three o'clock in the
morning. I see, with sorrow, that you trouble yourself. It is the only
misfortune I fear. Troops are entering on all sides, and constantly. You
have a great many partisans in Spain, but they are intimidated; they are
all the respectable people. However, I acknowledge none the less that your
task is great and glorious.

"The victory of Marshal Bessieres, who has wholly beaten Cuesta and the
army of Galicia, has greatly improved the position of affairs. It is worth
more than a reinforcement of 30,000 men. The divisions of Gobert and Vedel
having joined General Dupont, offensive measures must be vigorously pushed
on that side. It is the only point menaced, and there must soon be a
success there; with 25,000 men, comprising infantry, cavalry, and
artillery, there are more than necessary to obtain a great result. At the
worst, with 21,000 men present on the field of battle, he can boldly take
the offensive; he will not be beaten, and will have more than four-and-
twenty chances in his favor.

"You ought not to find it so extraordinary to conquer your kingdom. Philip
V. and Henry IV. were obliged to conquer theirs. Keep your spirits up, and
never doubt for an instant that everything will finish better and more
quickly than you now imagine.

"Everything goes on very well at Saragossa."

The attack upon Saragossa, on the 1st July, was unsuccessful. General
Verdier, who commanded the siege, had seized the convent of St. Joseph,
without being able to penetrate into the town, all the streets being well
fortified. He had asked for troops and a train of artillery. General
Dupont was threatened, in a badly chosen position, by the insurgents of
Grenada, commanded by General Reding, formerly colonel of one of the Swiss
regiments; General Castanos brought up the troops of Andalusia. The orders
of the emperor were precise; General Dupont was not to repass the Sierra
Morena, he was not to retreat on Andalusia.

In the hitherto restricted sphere of his operations, General Dupont had
shown himself constantly bold and successful under chiefs more skilful and
more experienced than himself; but left to his own resources, he knew not
how to profit by his advantages, nor choose his quarters advantageously.
The food of the troops was bad and insufficient, and the sick were
numerous; isolated in the midst of a country passionately hostile, without
means of information as to the enemy's movements, without news of Madrid
or the government, the French remained stationary, sad and depressed.
General Vedel occupied Baylen, General Gobert La Carolina; thus they
commanded the defiles of the mountain.

On the 14th July, General Castanos appeared before Andujar, while the
corps of Reding threatened Baylen; the imprudent movement of our troops
had uncovered this last position. General Dupont was informed of this.

He resolved to march himself upon Baylen, but he was encumbered with an
immense train of baggage, and by numerous sick, whom he would not abandon
to the cruelties of the enemy; the movement was deferred till the next
day, the 18th July. At the approach of night the army began its march. The
heat was still suffocating. A great number of soldiers, suffering from
dysentery, had been unable to find a place in the wagons, and dragged
themselves behind the train, scarcely able to bear the weight of their
arms. The anxiety of General Dupont was entirely for his rearguard; he
feared that General Castanos, informed of his movements by the hundreds of
voluntary spies who served the Spanish cause, would throw himself on his
rear. The vanguard was feeble, composed of young and undisciplined
soldiers; when it deployed at three in the morning, on the rocky banks of
the Rumblar, the Spanish posts occupied the passage. Before the combat,
the soldiers rushed towards the bed of the torrent. It was dried up. "The
Spaniards have taken away the river!" cried the French, even then disposed
to treat painful thoughts with gayety. The Spanish battalions barred the
route of Baylen, which General Reding had occupied the previous day.

Worn out by the heat, by thirst, by the march, our soldiers charged the
enemy, and drove them back as far as the plain of Baylen. There lay
extended before us the Spanish army, in front of the little town, in an
amphitheatre of hills, covered with olive-trees. The Spanish artillery was
formidable: the field-pieces brought up by the French were soon
dismounted. The centre of the Spanish army remained solid, and even the
charges of cavalry could not break it. When at last the front ranks opened
under the shock of the horses, or the steel of the bayonets, the lines
reformed at the end of the plain, always pitilessly barring the road. The
cannonade did not slacken for a single instant.

The soldiers began to show signs of discouragement, and the officers
proposed to the general to abandon the sick and the baggage, and to form
into a compact mass, in order to open a passage by force in the direction
of La Carolina, occupied by General Vedel. Dupont expected his lieutenant
every moment. He refused to abandon his train, and vainly renewed the
attack on all the length of the Spanish lines. Up to this time the Swiss
regiments in the service of France, mixed with our soldiers, and marching
in our ranks, had remained faithful; the bad fortune of our arms, the view
of their comrades fighting among the Spaniards under a chief of their
race, triumphed at last over their good resolutions--they deserted in a
body. At the same moment the sound of cannon was heard in the distance,
but it was not in the direction of La Carolina, it was at the bridge of
Rumblar: General Castanos arrived to crush us.

This was too much, and the unfortunate General Dupont was to show on this
day that he was not one of those whose courage defies fortune. "Find
General Reding," said he to one of his officers, "and ask from him a
suspension of arms." The battle was already ceasing of its own accord, on
account of the extreme fatigue of the troops. The Spanish general gave the
order to cease firing, but said, however, to the officer who had been
sent, "The truce must be ratified by General Castanos." General de la
Pena, who commanded the vanguard, accepted the same conditions. "The
French army must surrender at discretion," he said haughtily, "for the
present let us rest ourselves." The aide-de-camp of General Dupont went
forward to General Castanos, in order to obtain his assent to the truce. A
melancholy sadness weighed upon both officers and men; the general-in-
chief, formerly brilliant, bold, even emphatically eloquent, hid his
despair inside his tent; scarcely would he listen to the voice of those
who surrounded him. Broken down by his misfortune, he had lost all energy
and all presence of mind.

The same fault of irresolution and despair seems to have taken hold on
General Vedel. He had resolved to return to Baylen, of which he too late
understood the importance. But the troops were worn out, he was forced to
allow them a day of rest. Since three o'clock in the morning of the 19th,
the continual echo of the cannon announced to the least vigilant the
coming engagement. The division began its march at five o'clock, at eleven
it had only advanced half-way; the men left their ranks at every moment to
seek a drop of water in the rocks. The cannon was heard more faintly; at
noon it was heard no more. It was five o'clock when, in the midst of
silence, the corps which had been so impatiently expected debouched above
Baylen. The Spaniards guarded all the passages; an officer appeared
announcing the truce. General Vedel refused to believe it. He sent off an
aide-de-camp to ascertain the truth from General Reding. "If you do not
return in half-an-hour," said he, "I shall commence firing." At the given
moment, having no news from their emissary, the French sounded the charge,
and already a battalion of Spanish infantry had been surrounded, while the
cuirassiers advanced at full gallop; at the same instant the officers of
the enemy, accompanied by an aide-de-camp of General Dupont, came up to
Vedel. The orders of the general-in-chief were precise, they must cease
firing. The negotiations had commenced. General Castanos marched on
Baylen.

The enthusiasm and triumph of the Spaniards did not give him time to
arrive there. The general of engineers, Marescot, had been charged with
the sad duty of treating with the Spaniards. General de la Pena, still
posted at the bridge of Rumblar, threatened to crush the unfortunate army
caught between his corps and that of General Reding. "I must have an
answer in two hours," said he, repeating at the same time his only
condition, "the French army must surrender at discretion."