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

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General Dupont appealed to his lieutenants, general officers, and
colonels; all declared that the soldiers would not fight. The general-in-
chief surveyed the ranks some moments; his courage failed him entirely.
"Our honor is saved," repeated the members of the council of war, "we have
done yesterday all that men could do." One resource remained to them, to
die to the last man in endeavoring to rejoin General Vedel. They had the
misfortune not to try this last and glorious chance. The capitulation was
resolved on. Don Castanos entertained the French officers while hatred
shone in the eyes of all his staff. Polite, and full of attention to the
vanquished, the Spanish general remained wholly inflexible. All the
divisions of the army of Andalusia, engaged or not in the battle of
Baylen, were to be comprised in the capitulation.

The conditions were about to be signed, the French troops were authorized
to retreat on Madrid; the Barbou division alone commanded by General
Dupont, was to be disarmed. At the same instant a letter from General
Savary to General Dupont was brought by the mountaineers, into whose hands
it had fallen. The aide-de-camp of the emperor announced a general
concentration of the troops of the south at Madrid, and General Dupont was
ordered to take the road to La Mancha. The Spaniards could not allow their
victory to serve the designs of the emperor. General Castanos immediately
declared to the French negotiators that the conditions were changed, and
communicated to them the letter of General Savary. Overwhelmed by this new
blow, General Marescot and his companions saw themselves forced to give up
the Barbou division prisoners of war; the two other corps were to be
transported to France under the Spanish flag; the officers retained their
baggage, but the knapsacks of the soldiers were to be submitted to
examination. "All Spaniards believe the sacred vessels of Cordova are in
the bags of your soldiers," said General Castanos.

While the wretched negotiators accepted a capitulation which delivered
them to their enemies, Vedel had proposed to General Dupont to attempt a
new attack; he sent at the same time one of his aides-de-camp to plead the
cause of his division. At one time Dupont authorized Vedel to save, at any
price, his troops, and those of General Dufour's, by taking in forced
marches the road to Madrid. Already Vedel had obeyed, and hastened across
the defiles of the Sierra Morena, but the news of his departure was not
long in coming to the camp of the Spaniards. They accused the French of
breaking the truce, and threatened to immediately massacre the Barbou
division, which found itself at that time completely surrounded. The
Spanish negotiators broke out into fury, overwhelming with insults the
unhappy officers charged to treat with them. Heroism had disappeared from
their souls. They hastened to the tent of the general-in-chief, still
plunged in melancholy dejection. He gave way at last, and to his eternal
dishonor, and that of the men who tore from him this cowardly concession,
he sent to General Vedel the order to retrace his steps, and to submit
with his soldiers to the lot the capitulation reserved for him.

Like General Dupont, Vedel consulted his lieutenants. At first all refused
a submission which would lead to their destruction. A new messenger came,
throwing on them all the responsibility of the inevitable massacre of
their comrades. They gave way, and with despair in their souls they slowly
retraced their steps; as the sole solace to their sufferings they still
retained their arms, while they saw their unhappy comrades defile before
the Spanish army laying down their muskets at the feet of the victors.
During three days the troops had not received any food; the Spaniards had
counted on hunger as well as defeat to lead the French to capitulate. At
last they got some food, and soon the columns began their march. The ports
of embarkation had been fixed upon.

They advanced slowly, for from all the towns, villages, and scattered
houses, flocked multitudes in fury, who insulted the frightful misfortune
of our soldiers. General Castanos, moderate in his triumph, had said to
the French negotiators, "De la Cuesta, Blake, and myself, were not of the
same opinion as the insurgents. We yielded to the national movement; but
this movement is becoming so unanimous that it has a chance of success.
Let Napoleon not insist upon an impossible conquest, let him not force us
to throw ourselves into the arms of the English. Let him give us back our
king, and the two nations will be forever reconciled."

It was in fact the same thought, clothed in offensive language that Thomas
de Morla, the chief of the insurrection at Cadiz, flung at General Dumont
when he complained of the bad treatment undergone by his soldiers. "Your
excellency forces me to express truths which must be bitter to you. What
right have you to insist on the execution of a treaty concluded in favor
of an army which entered Spain under the mask of alliance and friendship,
which has imprisoned our king and his family, sacked his palaces,
assassinated and robbed his subjects, ravaged his country, usurped his
crown? How it would rouse the populace to know that a single one of your
soldiers was the possessor of 2180 livres!"

The pillage of Cordova had been exaggerated by the public imagination, and
served the chiefs of the insurrection to justify their want of faith. The
entire army of Andalusia was detained under various pretexts. The Junta of
Seville refused to ratify the capitulation. The divisions of Dufour and
Vedel saw their army taken away, and 20,000 men of those French troops,
who up to the present time had been accustomed to victory, remained during
long years prisoners of war, subjected to the worst treatment, slowly
decimated by sickness and sorrow. Spain first gave to the world the
spectacle of a successful resistance to the oppression the Emperor
Napoleon had made to weigh upon all nations.

We understand by sad experience the astonishment and anger which seized
upon our armies everywhere when they heard of the capitulation of Baylen.
This name has remained fixed as an indelible stain on the memory of the
men who concluded it in a moment of despair, after numerous faults, of
which the most unpardonable cannot be imputed to them. Perhaps in his
secret thought, Napoleon began to foresee the difficulties of the
enterprise he had undertaken against Spain; perhaps he comprehended his
error, but his indignation was excessive, and broke out in his words as
well as letters. There was also a shade of discouragement when he wrote to
King Joseph, on the 3rd August, "My brother, the knowledge I have that you
are struggling, my friend, with events foreign to your habits as well as
to your natural character, pains me. Dupont has dishonored our flag. What
stupidity! What baseness! Those men will be taken by the English. Events
of such a nature require my presence at Paris. Germany, Poland, Italy, all
join together. My sorrow is really great when I think that I cannot be at
this moment with you, and in the midst of my soldiers. I have given orders
to Ney to go there. He is a man of honor, zeal, and thorough courage. If
you get accustomed to Ney, he might command the army. You will have
100,000 men, and Spain will be conquered in the autumn. A suspension of
arms, made by Savary, might perhaps lead to commanding and directing the
insurgents; we shall hear what they say. I think that, so far as your
personal likings go, you care little for reigning over the Spaniards."

At the moment when Napoleon was writing these lines, King Joseph retreated
before the enemy, and abandoned his capital. Deprived of the succor that
General Dupont was to have brought, the defenders of Madrid did not
consider the concentration of troops sufficiently considerable to protect
the Castiles against the ever-rising flood of the national insurrection.
"The emperor could hold his own here," said Savary, "but what is possible
to him is not so to the others." It was resolved to make a stand on the
line of the Ebro; King Joseph quitted Madrid, abandoned by the intimate
servants of his household, as well as by a certain number of his
ministers. 2000 domestics of the palace had fled for fear of being forced
to follow the royal retreat. Burgos not appearing to be a retreat
sufficiently sure, the monarch and his little court soon established
themselves at Vittoria. After a second assault, as sanguinary and without
result as the first, General Verdier, recalled to the Ebro, found himself
obliged to abandon the siege of Saragossa. Already the position of the
French in Spain became defensive, and the fears of King Joseph increased.
"I can only repeat, once for all, that nearly all the grand army is
marching, and that between this and autumn Spain will be inundated with
troops," wrote the emperor, on the 9th of August. "You must try to
preserve the line of the Douro to maintain a communication with Portugal.
The English are not much, they never have more than a quarter of the
troops they announce. Lord Wellesley has not 4000 men. Besides, they are
intended, I believe, for Portugal."

It was in truth on Portugal that the efforts of England were directed at
this moment, as she discerned clearly that there lay the true road to
Spain. In Galicia, as well as Andalusia, the Spanish insurgents had
refused the active intervention of the English. Sir Arthur Wellesley, who
at first appeared before Corunna, contented himself by furnishing the
suspicious Spaniards with ammunition and money, and on the 1st August he
appeared at the mouth of the Mondego, in Portugal. His fleet carried
10,000 English troops. A reinforcement of 4000 men was shortly expected.

For two months General Junot had been isolated in Portugal, separated from
Spain by the insurrection of the frontier provinces, menaced by a similar
rising of the Portuguese nation, already chafing under the foreign yoke,
and sure of soon seeing England hasten to the succor of her faithful ally.
He understood his danger, and, assembling around him his troops, recalled
General Kellermann from Elvas and General Loison from Almeida. The
insurrection already commenced around them, when Sir Arthur Wellesley set
foot on the Portuguese soil. The French did not hold more than four or
five towns. The entire people was in insurrection. But General Junot still
occupied Lisbon; his forces were unfortunately diminished by the garrisons
left in the forts, and by a corps of observation that had been detached
under the orders of General Delaborde. After a courageous resistance, this
vanguard of the French army had been already beaten when the English
advanced on Vimeiro. Junot marched against them with an army of twelve or
thirteen thousand men. The English numbered about 18,000. The arrival of
Sir John Moore with his brigade was announced.

An unfortunate respect for the rights of seniority had placed Sir Arthur
Wellesley under the orders of Sir Henry Burrard, and the latter under the
command of Sir Hew Dalrymple, who had already left Gibraltar to place
himself at the head of the army. The instructions of Wellesley obliged him
to wait at Vimeiro for the arrival of Sir John Moore. General Junot wished
to anticipate the reinforcements, and attacked the English on the 31st
August, in the morning.

Sir Arthur Wellesley occupied the heights of Vimeiro; behind him were
precipices, and all retreat was impossible. The access to the rocks was
difficult; a strong artillery protected all the positions. When the French
advanced to the assault of this natural fortress, they could not at first
reach the English lines. General Kellermann alone succeeded in scaling the
steep slopes which led to the enemy, and was received by a deadly fire,
which forced him to retire. Our cavalry superior to that of the English,
was useless in this difficult attack; its only duty was constantly to
protect the corps of infantry, repulsed one after another. The English
army had not moved. At noon, General Junot ordered the retreat. Sir Arthur
Wellesley, always on watch on the heights, was already on the move to
follow and crush those who had been unable to make him lose an inch of
ground; but Sir Henry Burrard had arrived, and the command passed into his
hands. He was opposed to all thought of pursuit. Junot took the road to
Torres Vedras. Sir Arthur Wellesley listened with mingled respect and
impatience to the arguments of his chief, and, turning towards his staff,
"After this, gentlemen," said he, "we have only to go and shoot the red
partridges."

General Junot had comprehended better than his adversary the danger which
threatened him; he felt the impossibility of maintaining himself in a
country suddenly become hostile, in face of an English army already
superior to his own, and soon to be reinforced by excellent troops.
General Kellermann was charged to treat, at first for an armistice, then
for the convention bearing the name of Cintra, which provided honorably
for the evacuation of Portugal by the French generals. The conditions
accorded were so favorable that public opinion in England accused the
negotiators of it as a crime, of which the obloquy weighed some time on
Sir Arthur Wellesley. He had not, however, been too favorable to it. "Ten
days after the battle of the 21st," he wrote to Lord Castlereagh, "we are
less advanced than we might and ought to have been on the evening of the
battle." The Emperor Napoleon had, for his part, manifested some
discontent at the convention, which brought back to France all his troops
free from engagement, and possessing their arms. "I was going to send
Junot before a council of war," said he; "but, happily, the English have
been before me in sending their generals, and have thus spared me the
mortification of punishing an old friend." The confidence of Napoleon
remained, however, shaken with respect to his officer. "Everything which
was not a triumph he looked upon as a defeat," said the Duchess of
Abrantes in her memoirs.

It often happened to Napoleon to judge unjustly of men and things, because
he appreciated them exclusively from a personal and selfish point of view.
Thus, he accused of treason the Marquis de la Romana and his brave
companions. After the battle of Friedland, the Spanish battalions wrung in
1807 from the shameful terror of the Prince de la Paix, were sent by
Napoleon to regions which would appear the most fatal to the temperament
and habits of southern people. They had been confided to the King of
Denmark, and charged to protect from the English his little kingdom,
hitherto so cruelly oppressed by them. The health of the troops was,
however, excellent when the news came to them of the general rising which
had taken place in Spain, and the unforeseen success of the national
resistance. They immediately conceived the thought of returning to their
country, to join their efforts to those of their countrymen. An English
squadron, under the orders of Admiral Keith, appeared suddenly on the
coasts of Jutland, at the entrance to Niborg, in the island of Funen.
Immediately the Marquis de la Romana, with difficulty warned by secret
advices, seized the fishing-boats, which were numerous on the coast; then,
making himself master of the citadel and port of Niborg, and crossing two
arms of the sea, he assembled around him all those of his companions-in-
arms who were within reach. He arrived at the English fleet, and sailed
towards Gothenburg, from which place he put to sea for Spain. Several
regiments far in the interior of the land could not be warned in time, and
remained prisoners of war. One of them, having by chance heard of the
enterprise of their comrades, succeeded in rejoining them at the exact
moment of their embarkation, after a march long even for Spaniards. In the
middle of September, they at last landed in Galicia amidst the joyous
acclamations of the people.

At Vittoria the unhappy King of Spain continually received one after
another news which damped his courage and convinced his reason of the
futility of all attempts to support his throne. On the 9th of August he
wrote to the Emperor Napoleon: "I do not think it possible to treat with
the insurgent chiefs; all their heads are turned; no one has sufficient
direction of affairs or influence enough upon the masses to lead them in a
determinate manner. On the supposition that France will gratuitously spend
her blood and treasure to place and maintain me on the throne of Spain, I
cannot hide from your Majesty that I cannot endure the thought of any
other than your Majesty commanding the French armies in Spain. If I become
the conqueror of this country by the horrors of a war in which every
individual Spaniard takes part, I shall be long an object of terror and
execration. I am too old to have time for repairing so many evils, and I
shall have sown too much hatred during the war to be able to gather in my
last years the fruit of the good that I may be able to do during peace.
Your Majesty sees, then, that even by this hypothesis--that of the
conquest and establishment of the monarchy--that I should not desire to
reign in Spain.... This nation is more concentrated in its sentiments than
any other people of Europe; it has something of the character of the
peoples of Africa, which is peculiar to itself. Your Majesty cannot form
an idea, because certainly no one has ever told you, in what degree the
name of your Majesty is execrated. This, then, is what I desire: to keep
the command of the army sufficiently long to beat the enemy, return to
Madrid with the army, because it left with me, and from this capital put
forth a decree to the effect that I renounce reigning over a people I
should be obliged to reduce by force of arms; and I return to Naples with
wishes for the happiness of Spain, and the desire to effect the welfare of
the Two Sicilies. In resigning to your Majesty the rights I hold from you,
you will make of them whatever use your wisdom will indicate. I beg, then,
your Majesty to suspend all operations relative to the kingdom of Naples.
The means will not be wanting to your Majesty for compensating the prince
you wished to place on the throne of Naples; for the rest, exact justice
and affection plead in my favor in your Majesty's heart." And two days
later he wrote: "It would take 200,000 Frenchmen to conquer Spain, and a
hundred thousand scaffolds to maintain the prince who should be condemned
to reign over them. No, sire, you do not know this people; each house will
be a fortress, and every man of the same mind as the majority. I repeat
but one thing, which will suffice as an example; not a Spaniard will be on
my side if we are conquerors; we cannot find a guide or a spy. Four hours
before the battle of Rio-Seco, Marshal Bessieres did not know where the
enemy was. Every one who speaks or writes differently either lies or is
blind."

On the 15th of July the kingdom of Naples had been solemnly conferred on
"Prince Joachim Murat, Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg." The haughty
obstinacy of Napoleon, his habit of conquering, and the growing want of
the prestige of victory, did not permit him to admit for a single instant
the modest pretensions of King Joseph. He was already preparing to pass
into Spain, counting upon success as soon as his presence should inspire
his generals with foresight and boldness. Other cares had till this time
detained him from this expedition, which became more necessary every day.
Already, for a long time, Napoleon had nourished suspicions of the loyalty
of Austria. On several occasions he had, not without reason, accused her
of making armaments and hostile preparations. The occupation of Rome and
the events of Spain had, on the other side, increased the distrust and
irritation of Vienna. The Archduke Charles, usually favorably inclined
towards France, exclaimed, "Well, if we must, we will die with arms in our
hands; but they shall not dispose of the crown of Austria as easily as
they have disposed of the crown of Spain!"

Napoleon had scarcely arrived at Paris, returning from a long journey in
France, when a great fete had assembled around him all the diplomatic body
(15th August, 1808). His anger broke out against Austria, as it had
previously broken out against England in his celebrated interview with
Lord Whitworth. The frequent menaces of Champagny had not intimidated
Metternich, at that time Austrian ambassador in Paris. The emperor
advanced suddenly towards him: "Austria wishes, then, to make war against
us? She wishes to frighten me?..." And without listening to the pacific
protestations of the prince, "Why, then, these immense preparations? They
are defensive, you say. But who attacks you, to make you think so much of
defence? Is not all peaceful around you? Since the peace of Presburg, has
there been the slightest disagreement between you and me? Have not all our
relations together been extremely amicable? And yet you have suddenly
raised a cry of alarm; you have put in motion all your population; your
princes have overrun your provinces; your proclamations have summoned the
people to the defence of the country; your proclamations and measures are
those which you used when I was at Leoben.

"You are well aware that I ask nothing from you, and make no claim upon
you, and that I even regard the preservation of your power in the present
state of affairs as useful to the European system, and to the interests of
France. I have encamped my troops to keep them fit for marching. They do
not camp in France, because that costs too much; they camp abroad, where
it is less expensive. My camps have been distributed; none of them
threatens you. In the excess of my security I dismantled all the places of
Silesia. I am ready to remove my camps, if that is necessary to your
security.

"In the meantime what will happen? You have raised 400,000 men; I am about
to raise 200,000. Germany, who was beginning to breathe after so many
ruinous wars, is about to see again all her wounds reopened. I shall
reconstruct the places of Silesia, instead of evacuating that province and
the Prussian States, as I wished to do. Europe will be all up in arms.
Soon the very women must become soldiers.

"Those are the evils you have produced, and, as I believe, without
intending it. In such a state of things, when the strain everywhere is so
great, war will soon become desirable, in order to hasten the end. A sharp
pain, if short, is better than prolonged suffering.

"But if you are as disposed for peace as you allege, it is necessary that
you speak out, that you countermand the measures which have excited so
dangerous a fermentation, and that all Europe be convinced that you wish
for peace. It is necessary that all should proclaim your good intentions,
justified by your acts as well as your language."

Definitively, and as a proof of Austria's submission, Napoleon asked for a
recognition of King Joseph. On this special demand--which no doubt was
made less harsh in form by the report of Champagny, which has been
preserved--Austria did not give way, nor did she refuse: she delayed,
still constantly and unobtrusively engaged in warlike preparations, which
were actively pushed forward by the Archduke Charles and Stadion, the
prime minister.

Napoleon wished to intimidate Austria, his bold foresight assuring him of
her hostility. He required several months for his Spanish expedition.
Finding it necessary to send new troops into the Peninsula, he was obliged
to quit the countries which were occupied, and at last put an end to the
long suspense imposed upon Prussia, and aggravated by intolerable war-
contributions. Prince William, appointed by his brother to the painful
mission, had in vain tried to obtain favorable conditions. Napoleon
feeling the necessity of recalling his forces, fixed at 140,000,000 the
sum still left of what had been demanded from Prussia; but before signing
the treaty the conqueror exacted more than one sacrifice. The French
continued to occupy Stettin, Custrin, Glogau on the Oder, and Magdeburg on
the Elbe: a secret article forbade Prussia to raise an army for ten years
of more than 42,000 men. No militia was allowed; and in case war should
break out in Germany, King Frederick William undertook to supply the
Emperor Napoleon with an auxiliary force of 16,000 men.

To those painful conditions Napoleon added another, which was entirely
personal and political. "I have asked for Stein's dismissal from the
cabinet," wrote the emperor to Marshal Soult on the 10th September;
"without that the King of Prussia will not recover his states. I have
sequestrated his property in Westphalia."

Baron Stein resigned, but continued working ardently in reviving and
fostering the national spirit in Germany against the Emperor Napoleon, as
he had been preparing for more than a year. He began an able and prudent
scheme of reform, which was continued by his colleagues after his fall.
The convention of the 8th September, 1808, being signed between France and
Prussia, King Frederick William took possession of his diminished states,
and the Emperor Alexander was freed from the importunities of the
unfortunate sufferers, who blamed him for their lot. Napoleon feeling the
need of drawing closer the alliance with Russia, an interview was agreed
upon between the two emperors, and Erfurt was chosen for the scene of the
illustrious interview.