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

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The Emperor Alexander had looked with secret satisfaction upon the events
in Spain. Constantly influenced by the hopes by which Napoleon had dazzled
him at Tilsit, and haunted by that passion for obtaining Constantinople
which had so long been common to all the Russian sovereigns, he had
accepted without any difficulty the spoliation of the Spanish Bourbons, in
order to justify beforehand the spoliations in which he was interested.
The national rising of the Spanish people served his design: the all-
powerful conqueror had met with a serious resistance, undergone checks,
and had need of the moral support of his allies; their material assistance
might be needed. Alexander reckoned upon gaining at Erfurt the cession of
that 'cat's tongue which was the key of the Bosphorus,' and which he
coveted so eagerly. He set out from St. Petersburg on the 7th of
September, somewhat against the will of his mother and the "Russian
party," and with but few attendants.

The Emperor Napoleon, on the contrary, had assembled at Erfurt all the
resources of French elegance, joined to the brilliance which is
inseparable from a powerful and victorious court. All the small princes of
Germany were present, and the great sovereigns sent their most able
representatives. The celebrated actors of the Theatre Francais, with Talma
at their head, were appointed to amuse the two emperors in the intervals
of business. The representation of _Cinna_ was the first of a series of
master-pieces of the French stage. The emperor forbade comedies, saying
that the Germans did not understand Moliere.

A fortnight was thus spent in the midst of the most magnificent fetes
combined with serious negotiations. Napoleon decided to at once abandon
the Danubian provinces to his ally, though resolved never to grant
Constantinople. After long conferences between Champagny and Romanzoff, as
to the suitable form to give to this division of other people's property
which was to render the Franco-Russian alliance indissoluble, the
convention was signed on the 12th October. Both emperors agreed to address
to England a formal demand for immediate peace, the base of the
negotiations to be the _uti possidetis_, that is to say, the
acknowledgment of conquests and occupations which were already
accomplished. France was only to agree to a peace which should secure
Finland, Wallachia, and Moldavia to Russia; and Russia only to one which
should secure to France all her possessions, including the crown of Spain
for King Joseph.

Supposing the negotiations or acts of the two powers for the execution of
the treaty should bring on war with Austria, France and Russia made
promises of mutual support: their hostilities were to be in common. At the
urgent request of Alexander, the Emperor Napoleon granted a reduction of
20,000,000 on the war-contribution of Prussia. At the same time, and by
the clever mediation of Talleyrand, he threw out a hint to the young Czar
that he wished to be united to him by family alliance. "The emperor had
resolved to have recourse to a divorce," said the prince, "and his
thoughts turned naturally towards the sisters of his ally and his dearest
friend." Alexander blushed, being by no means all-powerful in the bosom of
his family, and the empress-mother having a strong dislike to Napoleon.
Complimentary and friendly attentions, therefore, could not remove reserve
on this delicate point. The two emperors separated on the 14th October,
after hunting together on the plain of Jena, and supping and chatting
familiarly with Goethe and Wieland, at Weimar. Germany showed every
attention to her conqueror, while silently preparing to take revenge.

The Emperor Napoleon on returning to Paris finished his preparations for
the Spanish campaign. He had told King Joseph, when in Erfurt, that he
should march as soon as the Corps Legislatif was opened. On the 1st
October he had put in the mouth of Champagny suitable arguments to prepare
the way for a new levy of soldiers. In his report to the emperor, the
Foreign Minister thus publicly denounced the ingratitude of the Spanish
people:--

"Your Majesty hoped to prevent the return of the troubles in Spain, by
means of persuasion and by measures of a wise and humane policy.
Intervening as a mediator in the midst of the divided Spanish, your
Majesty indicated to them the safety of a wise and prudent constittution,
suitable for providing every want, and in which liberal ideas are
reconciled with those ancient institutions which Spain wished to preserve.

"Your Majesty's expectation was deceived. Private interests, the intrigues
of the foreigner, and his corrupting gold, have prevailed over the
influence which you had a right to exercise. The Spanish people having
shaken off the yoke of authority, aspired to govern. The intrigues of the
agents of the Inquisition, the influence of the monks, who are so numerous
in Spain, and who dreaded reform, have at this critical moment occasioned
the insurrection of several Spanish provinces, in which the voice of wise
men has been disavowed or smothered, and several of them made the victims
of their courageous opposition to the disorderly populace. We have seen a
frightful anarchy spreading over the greater part of Spain. Will your
Majesty allow England to be able to say that Spain is one of her
provinces, and that her flag, driven from the Baltic, the northern seas,
the Levant, and even the Persian coasts, rules over the gates of France?
Never, sire.

"To avoid so great disgrace and misfortune, there are two millions of
brave men ready, if need be, to cross the Pyrenees; and the English will
be driven out of the Peninsula."

In expectation of the supreme effort thus boldly proclaimed, the Senate
ordered a levy of 160,000 men, anticipating by sixteen months the regular
call. The recruits were intended to replace in Germany the trained
soldiers of the Grande Armee, who had already started to go to Spain, and
were everywhere feted in the towns they passed through. Skilled in all the
plans by which great success is procured, the emperor, on the 3rd of
September, had written to Cretet, Minister of the Interior: "Give order,
so that the town of Metz may fete the troops as they pass through; and as
the town is not rich enough, I shall give three francs a man, but all must
be done in the name of the town. The municipal body will make a speech to
them, treat them, give the officers dinners, get triumphal arches raised
at the gates through which they pass, and put inscriptions on them. Give
the same order for the town of Nancy, which is the place where the central
column will pass. As for the column of the right, it will be feted at
Rheims. I wish you to see that the prefects of departments on their route
pay special attention to the troops, and in every way keep up the
enthusiasm which animates them and their love of glory. Speeches, verses,
shows gratis, dinners,--that is what I expect from the citizens for the
soldiers returning victorious." On the 17th, with the list of towns which
had responded to his call as well as those from which he expected the same
display: "Get songs written in Paris, and send them to the different
towns. These songs will tell of the glory gained by the army and that it
is still to gain, of the liberty of the seas which will result from its
victories. These songs will be sung at the dinners which will be given.
Get three kinds of songs made, so that the soldier may not hear the same
sung twice."

It was not without secret emotion and an inquietude which showed itself by
numerous heroical declamations, that the Emperor Napoleon himself passed
into Spain with his old troops, which had gained for him the sovereign
rule in Europe. For the first time in his military career, he felt himself
face to face with the spontaneous resistance of a people. "Soldiers," said
he to the regiments which were to march before him on the Spanish soil,
"after triumphing on the banks of the Danube and Vistula, you have crossed
Germany by forced marches; and now I make you cross France without
allowing you a moment's rest. Soldiers, I have need of you. The hateful
presence of the leopard contaminates the continents of Spain and Portugal;
let him fly in terror at the sight of us. Let us carry our eagles in
triumph as far as the columns of Hercules; there also we have outrages to
avenge. Soldiers, you have surpassed the renown of modern armies, but have
you equalled the glories of the armies of Rome, which in one campaign
triumphed on the Rhine and the Euphrates, in Illyria and on the Tagus? A
long peace and lasting prosperity will be the fruit of your labors. A true
Frenchman neither can nor ought to rest till the seas are open and freed.
Soldiers, all that you have done, all that you will yet do for the
happiness of the French people, for my glory, will remain eternally in my
heart."

According to the custom of constitutional monarchies, the English cabinet
replied to the personal letter addressed to King George III. by the two
emperors. Without formally rejecting the overtures of peace, Canning urged
that all the allies of England ought to have been admitted to the
negotiation; and he included in the list of allies the Kings of Naples,
Portugal, Sweden, and even the Spanish insurgents, although no formal
treaty had yet been concluded with them. Soon after, to put an end to the
pretence of negotiation, an official declaration of the British Government
announced to the world that England could not treat with two courts, one
of which dethroned legitimate kings and kept them prisoners, while the
other assisted from interested motives. Resolved "to attack by every means
a usurpation to which there was nothing comparable in the history of the
world, Great Britain will never abandon the generous Spanish nation, nor
any of the people who, though at present hesitating, may soon shake off
the yoke which oppresses them." For the future all pretences disappeared,
and the struggle began afresh between the Emperor Napoleon and England.
The latter had long been looking for a ground of attack against the
conqueror; now at last it was supplied by the Spanish soil and people.

It is extremely painful to have to prove the injustice of a course which
is naturally dear to us. That is bitterly felt at every step during the
long years of the war of Spain, in presence of the generous efforts of a
people who, with arms in their hands, vindicated their national liberty
and independence. The first outbursts of the Spanish insurrection showed
this with a brilliancy that soon partially disappeared. The efforts of the
English their courage and feats of arms, were soon to eclipse to some
extent the obstinate animosity of the Spanish. The long series of checks
which began on Napoleon's arrival was sufficient to prove with what a
decisive weight the alliance which they were soon to conclude with Great
Britain weighed in the balance of their destinies.

Setting out from Paris on the 29th October, the emperor, on arriving at
Bayonne, showed great anger at the delay in the preparations, the bad
state of the roads and the shortness of supplies. "You will see how
disgracefully I am served," he wrote to General Dejean, in charge of the
war administration. "I have only 7000 cloaks instead of 50,000; 15,000
pairs of shoes instead of 129,000. I am in want of everything; my army is
naked, and yet we are entering on a campaign. Yet I have spent a great
deal of money, which is so much thrown into the sea."

Napoleon's displeasure was not diminished when he reached Vittoria. He had
beforehand forbidden the attempt upon Madrid which King Joseph proposed to
him, mistrusting his brother's military skill. "The military art is an art
the principles of which must never be violated," he wrote, in some
observations of great sense and force. "To change one's line of operation
is an operation of genius; to lose it, is an operation so serious that it
constitutes a crime in the general who is guilty of it. If, before taking
Madrid, organizing the army there, with military stores for eight or ten
days, and providing sufficient supplies, one had just been defeated, what
would become of that army? where could they rally? where transport their
wounded? whence draw their war supplies, having nothing but provisions for
a short time? We need say no more; those who have the courage to advise
such a measure would be the first to lose their head so soon as the result
proved the madness of their procedure. With an army entirely composed of
men like those of the guard and commanded by the most able general--
Alexander or Caesar, if they could act with such folly--one could answer
for nothing; much more therefore in the circumstances in which the army of
Spain is placed. In war everything depends on opinion--opinion as to the
enemy, opinion as to one's own soldiers. When a battle is lost, the
difference between the conquered and the conqueror is but trifling; yet
opinion makes it immeasurable, because two or three squadrons are then
sufficient to produce a great effect. Nothing has been done to give
confidence to the French; there is not a soldier but sees that timidity
pervades everything, and therefore forms from that his opinion of the
enemy. He has no other data for knowing what is opposed to him except what
is told him, and the bearing which he is expected to assume."

By a chance which prudent minds might have anticipated, but which
astonished and confounded the inexperience of the insurgent leaders, the
national rising, which lately was universal, irresistible, and triumphant,
lost all its power and energy immediately after the victory of Baylen. The
hesitation and inaction of King Joseph, his government, and his army, had
met with an unexpected counterpart in their adversaries.

It is often a difficult undertaking, even when desired and concerted
beforehand, to stir up an entire nation and animate them for war; and when
their rising is spontaneous, brought on by the same patriotic and
revolutionary idea, it is a still more difficult undertaking to organize
their efforts and direct aright their impassioned impulses. After the
first shock, which had agitated Spain from one extremity to the other,
after the formation of provincial or municipal Juntas, after the success
of some of the insurgent generals, the trial of government suddenly
presented itself to the leaders of the national movement. It was necessary
to command all those proud and independent men, intoxicated with a new
liberty and an ancient self-respect; it was necessary at any cost to get
from them obedience, for Napoleon was at hand--he, the master of so many
armies waiting for his bidding, and who at his will had made princes and
kings bend down. The Spanish alone had resisted him successfully; how were
they to keep up and continue the resistance?

With considerable difficulty, a central Junta was formed at Aranjuez,
composed of delegates from the local Juntas, too numerous to be a council
of government, and too restricted to possess, or even claim, the rights of
a representative assembly. The new Junta wished to exercise absolute
authority. The Council of Castile had proposed that the Cortes be
assembled, but most of the generals were opposed to a measure which
necessarily tended to diminish their power. The Cortes were not assembled,
and the Junta called all the Spaniards to arms.

Though the patriotic ardor in Spain was undoubtedly great, and the
patriotic uneasiness profound, the results of the general rising were
insufficient, and came greatly short of the hopes of the insurrectional
government. About 100,000 men were mustered when the military organization
was decided upon by the Junta. Three main armies--that of the left, under
the orders of General Blake; that of the centre, under General Castanos;
that of the right, under Palafox--were to combine their operations in
order to surround the French army. A fourth army, called the reserve, was
to be afterwards formed; and the troops scattered over Catalonia were
ordered to defend that province against General Duhesme. In spite of the
repugnance inspired by foreign assistance to Spanish pride, the Junta had
accepted the assistance of an English army, which had already collected at
Lisbon, under the orders of Sir John Moore. He had marched across
Portugal, and his lieutenant, Sir David Baird, was bringing him
reinforcements from England, which afterwards joined him at Corunna. These
forces and resources were sufficient to harass the French army, and make
an easy occupation of Spain impossible; but not sufficient to keep up a
regular war against the first troops in the world. The Spanish, as well as
the English, soon found the truth of this.

Before Napoleon arrived at Vittoria, several battles had already taken
place, generally favorable to the French army, though it was badly led,
and had its forces scattered, instead of concentrated, as the emperor
wished them to be, for his ready use. He bitterly blamed Marshals Lefebvre
and Victor, and already the presence of the general who had been
everywhere victorious was being promptly felt in the management of the
army and the vigor of the operations. Marshal Soult had been sent to
attack Burgos, then protected by 12,000 men of the Estremadura army; and
on the 10th November, on the charge of Mouton's division alone, the
Spanish wavered and took to flight, delivering up Burgos and its castle to
the French army. The cavalry eagerly pursued the retreating enemy, who
quickly formed again, and were as quickly scattered: many of the prisoners
were killed. Napoleon at once set out for Burgos. "I start at one in the
morning," he wrote to Joseph, "in order to reach Burgos incognito before
daybreak, and shall make my arrangements for the day, because to win is
nothing if no advantage is taken of the success. I think you ought to go
to-morrow to Briviesca. The less ceremony I wish made on my own account,
the more I wish made on yours. As for me, it does not suit well with the
business of war; besides, I have no wish for it. On arriving, I shall give
the necessary orders for disarming, and for burning the standard used for
Ferdinand's proclamation. Use every endeavor that it may be felt to be no
idle form."

Burgos already felt all the weight of the conqueror's anger. The town was
pitilessly sacked. "A sad sight," say the memoirs of Count Miot de Melito,
who accompanied King Joseph as he entered the town; "the houses nearly all
deserted and pillaged; the furniture, smashed in pieces, scattered in the
mud of the streets; one quarter, on the other side of the Arlanzen, on
fire; the soldiers madly forcing in doors and windows, breaking everything
that came in their way, using little and destroying much; the churches
stripped; the streets crowded with the dead and dying--in a word, all the
horrors of an assault, although the town had offered no defence!" The
emperor ordered all the wool to be seized which was found in the town: it
belonged to the great Spanish nobles, and he had resolved to confiscate
their property everywhere. "The Duke of Infantado and Spanish great
lords," he wrote a few days afterwards to Cretet, the Minister of the
Interior (on the 19th November), "are sole proprietors of half the kingdom
of Naples, and in this kingdom they are worth not less than 200,000,000.
They have, besides, possessions in Belgium, Piedmont, and Italy, which I
intend to sequestrate. That is only the first rough draft of my plans". A
decree of proscription had already been published, and a capital
condemnation pronounced (12th November) against ten of the principal
Spanish nobles. At that price, pardon was promised to all who made haste
to make submission.

Marshal Soult, the conqueror of Burgos, had already been despatched by the
emperor in the direction of Reinosa, in order to complete the destruction
of General Blake's army, already partially defeated, on the 11th and 12th
by General Victor, near the small town of Espinosa, at the spot where the
road from the Biscayan mountains crosses the road of the plain. Soult was
late in arriving; but, after a vigorous resistance, the overthrow of
Blake's army was so complete that there was no fear that the army of the
left could soon rally. Napoleon ordered Lannes and Ney to crush the armies
of the right and the centre, commanded by Palafox and Castanos. Ney
failing to keep his appointment at Tudela on the 23rd November, owing to a
mistake on the march, Lannes made the attack alone, taking by surprise the
Spanish generals, who were undecided as to their course of action,
disagreeing as to the place for meeting the enemy, and yet urged on to the
engagement by the popular cries, already accusing them of treason. The
battle was a serious one; and for a short time Lannes, reduced to his own
troops, found himself in a difficult position. He was, moreover, ill from
a fall from his horse, but succeeded in winning the battle, and drove
before him, one after another, all the divisions of the enemy's army. With
the cruel and heedless fickleness of revolutionary governments, the Junta
of Aranjuez hurriedly cashiered Generals Blake and Castanos. The Marquis
of Romana's soldiers having distinguished themselves at Espinosa, he was
appointed general of the united armies. Already, in spite of the
consternation which reigned in the national party in Spain, small bodies
of troops collected in various parts. Napoleon soon understood that the
masterly-strokes of his usual tactics were not sufficient to conquer men
who were as prompt in again taking up arms as in throwing them down on the
roads in order to run away. He hurried in pursuit everywhere, and
multiplied his modes of attack. Junot, scarcely returned to France,
received orders to go into Spain. Napoleon resolved to march upon Madrid.

The resources left at the disposition of the Junta for the defence of the
capital were obviously insufficient. A body of 10,000 to 12,000 men, under
the command of Benito San Juan, occupied the height Somo-Sierra, and on
the 30th November Napoleon in person appeared before the small Spanish
army. The passage being quickly forced by a charge of General Montbrun,
the French cavalry rode to the gates of Madrid, causing indignation and
alarm. The Junta had already left Aranjuez to meet in Badajoz, and the
capital, entrusted to a small detachment of troops of the line under the
Marquis of Castellar, at one time supported, at another hindered by the
populace, corregidor of Madrid, the Marquis of Perales, was massacred by a
handful of madmen, on the charge of having mixed sand with the powder of
their cartridges. Thomas de Morla, the tribune of Cadiz, commanded the
defence. Barricades were raised at every point, and ramparts improvised,
Madrid never having been surrounded with fortifications.

On the morning of the 2nd December the emperor arrived at the gates of the
capital, and at once had a summons sent to those in command of the place.
His messenger had great difficulty in obtaining admission to the town; and
the Spanish general appointed to convey the refusal of surrender was
accompanied and watched by a band of insurgents, who dictated to him his
reply. A second summons producing no result, the firing at the walls and
the town began; and in a few hours the palace Buen Retiro and all the
northern and eastern gates were in the power of the French. At several
points the resistance was most obstinate. The emperor again summoning the
Junta of Defence to spare the capital the horrors of a general assault,
Thomas de Morla soon presented himself before him, in the name of the
insurrectional government.

The emperor's features clearly expressed his anger at the sight of the
governor of Andalusia, who had recently retained the troops taken
prisoners, in defiance of the capitulation of Baylen. Napoleon had more
than once violated treaties: he attached always an extreme importance to
military conventions. On this occasion, his natural sense of wrong and
offended vanity alone had the mastery in his soul. Thomas de Morla,
generally arrogant and bold, seemed troubled and confused. "The people,"
said he, "are ungovernable in their patriotic passion; the Junta ask for
one day to bring them back to reason."

"It is in vain for you to use the name of the people," exclaimed Napoleon.
"If you cannot succeed in calming them, it is because you yourselves have
excited them, and have led them astray by your falsehoods. Bring together
the cures, the heads of convents, the principal proprietors, and let the
town surrender between this and six o'clock in the morning, or else it
will have ceased to exist. I have no desire to withdraw my troops, nor
ought I. You massacred the unhappy French prisoners who fell into your
hands. A short time ago you allowed to be dragged in the streets and put
to death two servants of the Russian ambassador because they were
Frenchmen. The want of skill and the cowardice of a general placed in your
hands some troops which had capitulated on the battle-field, and the
capitulation was violated. What kind of letter, M. Morla, did you write to
that general? It became you well to speak of pillaging, you who entered
Roussillon and carried off all the women, to divide them among your
soldiers like booty. What right had you, on other grounds, to use such
language? You were prevented by the capitulation. Consider the conduct of
the English, who certainly do not boast of being rigid observers of the
rights of nations. They have complained of the convention of Portugal, but
they executed it. To violate military treaties is to renounce all
civilization; it is to place one's self on a level with the Bedouins of
the desert. How dare you ask a capitulation, you who violated that of
Baylen? I had a fleet at Cadiz, the ally of Spain, and you turned against
it the mortars of the town under your command. Go back to Madrid. I give
you till six o'clock in the morning. Return then, if you have nothing to
say of the people except that they have submitted: otherwise, you and your
troops will all be put to the sword."