MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WAR OF THE FRENCH 
 
 IN 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 BY M. DE ROCCA, 
 
 AN OFFICER OF HUSSARS, AND KNIGHT OF THE ORDER 
 OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, 
 
 BY MARIA GRAHAM, 
 
 AUTHOR. OF " JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN INDIA," &C, 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. 
 
 1815. 
 
LONDON : Printed by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar. 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 FROM THE MS. COMMUNICATION OF THE 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 [After line 20, j>. 71-] 
 
 BEFORE entering Madrid by the Toledo 
 gate, the Manp anares is crossed by a su- 
 perb stone bridge, sufficiently broad for 
 four carriages to pass a-breast with ease. 
 The length of this bridge, and the number 
 and height of its arches, would make one 
 believe at first sight that it was built over 
 a wide river ; yet the Mancanar6s, exhaust- 
 ed by daily consumption, scarcely flows, 
 and in some places is lost in the sand of its 
 
 bed. 
 
 492841 
 
bed. The immense bridges, so frequently 
 met with in Spain, and other southern and 
 mountainous countries, are necessary, be- 
 cause the smallest stream, increased by a 
 sudden influx, is sometimes instantaneous- 
 ly transformed into an impetuous torrent. 
 There exists in Spain a nobility of 
 cities as well as of men. The Spaniards 
 preserve so much respect for their old in- 
 stitutions, that their capital still bears the 
 name of Villa, or country-town, whereas 
 some poor villages pride themselves on 
 that of Ciuda d, or city, either because they 
 have received this title and the privileges 
 attached to it, as the reward of some great 
 proofs of devotion to their country or sove- 
 reign, or inherited it from the ruined towns 
 upon which they themselves are founded. 
 When a Spaniard is asked where he was 
 
 born, he answers, I am the son of such a 
 
 > 
 
 town; and this expression* which inti- 
 mately 
 
 
irately identifies him with the place of his 
 birth, causes him to attach the more value 
 to the dignity of his native city. Madrid 
 contains no Roman or Moorish monuments ; 
 before Charles V. it was but a country- 
 residence, or sitio, where the court passed 
 a few months in the year, as in our days 
 at Aranjuez, the Escurial and St. Ilde- 
 fonso. 
 
 line 12, p. 74.] 
 
 The inhabitants even of Madrid have all 
 a grave deportment and a measured walk. 
 They wear, as I have already said, large 
 dark-coloured cloaks. The women are in 
 black, and a large black veil covers al- 
 most entirely their head and shoulders, 
 which gave rise to the saying among the 
 French soldiers, during the first part of 
 their stay in Madrid, that the city was 
 peopled only by priests and nuns. The 
 women are generally short : they are re- 
 markable 
 
( ri ) 
 
 markable rather for the grace and elegance 
 of their figure, than the regularity of their 
 features. Their step is bold and quick, 
 the covering of their feet elegant. A Spa- 
 nish woman never walks out without her 
 basquinna and mantilla. The basquinna is 
 a black silk or woollen gown made to fit 
 close ; the mantilla is a large black veil 
 which covers the head and shoulders, and 
 sometimes hides all the face except the 
 eyes and nose. This part of the dress sets 
 off still more the paleness of their com- 
 plexion and the brilliancy of their eyes. 
 The young women occasionally replace 
 their mantilla by an inclination of the head 
 and an easy jerk of the right shoulder and 
 arm. This very graceful motion furnishes 
 them with the opportunity of directing, as 
 if by chance, a look at those who pass or 
 stand by them. The Spanish women 
 keep themselves almost always at home, 
 
 seated 
 
( vii ) 
 
 seated behind their grated balconies. 
 They thence observe all who pass, without 
 being seen, and in the evening listen to 
 guitars, and to tender complaints skilfully 
 expressed in songs. Their rest is some- 
 times disturbed by the contentions of lo- 
 vers who walk under their windows in the 
 narrow streets. 
 
 lifter line 3 f p. 7 5.] 
 
 Before the French began to mix indis- 
 criminately with the population of the 
 city, the inhabitants, male and female, as 
 soon as the evening bell announced the 
 Ave Maria, fell on their knees in the 
 houses, the squares, and even in the mid- 
 dle of the streets ; the tumult of life was 
 on a sudden suspended, as if this exten- 
 sive capital, in which a whole people re- 
 peated simultaneously the same prayer, 
 had been for some minutes transformed 
 into one vast temple. 
 
 [Bottom 
 
( viii ) 
 
 [Bottom of p. 76, after the word "opportunity."] 
 
 The infantry was distributed in the con- 
 vents of the different quarters of the city : 
 the requisite furniture had not yet been 
 procured, to avoid being troublesome to 
 the inhabitants, and attach them to King 
 Joseph. Our soldiers, subjected in an 
 enemy's country to the strictest discipline, 
 had none of the advantages which com- 
 pensate the rigour of the military state 
 in regular garrisons. They slept on the 
 cold stone in the long corridors of the 
 monasteries ; they were sometimes in want 
 of the necessaries of life, and cursed the 
 poverty of the monks whom they had re- 
 placed, gaily complaining, however, of 
 being forced to live like capuchin friars. 
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
-no: 
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WAR OF THE FRENCH 
 
 IN SPAIN. 
 
 1 HE second regiment of hussars, for- 
 merly called Chamboran, in which I had 
 the honour to serve, received orders to quit 
 Prussia in order to go to Spain, the year 
 after the campaign which was terminated 
 by the battle of Eriedland and the peace 
 of Tilsit. I thus found myself placed in a 
 situation to compare two kinds of war 
 absolutely different; the war of regular 
 troops, commonly little interested in the 
 object of the quarrel they maintain, and 
 
 B the 
 
( 2] ) 
 
 the war of resistance which a nation can 
 oppose to regular conquering armies. 
 
 We were called from the sandy plains of 
 the north of Germany ; we had had to do 
 with people, subject, for the most part, to 
 governments whose forms were entirely 
 military. The different sovereigns who 
 made up the parts of the Germanic body, 
 had, for more than a century, turned all 
 their views towards perfecting those mili- 
 tary institutions which might secure their 
 authority and serve their personal ambi- 
 tion ; but in accustoming their subjects to 
 a minutely punctual obedience, they had 
 weakened the national character, the only 
 invincible bulwark that nations can oppose 
 to foreign invaders. 
 
 When a province of Germany was con- 
 quered by the French, and could no longer 
 receive the orders of its sovereign, the in- 
 ferior classes, unaccustomed to the exercise 
 
 of 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 of their own free will, dared not to act 
 without the commands of their govern- 
 ments or of their liege lords; these govern- 
 ments became, by the very act of con- 
 quest, subordinate to the conquerors; and 
 the liege lords, long accustomed to witness 
 the hourly vexations which the people ex- 
 perienced from the soldiery, resigned them- 
 selves the more easily to the evils which 
 war brings in her train. 
 
 The clergy in Prussia had but little as- 
 cendancy over the people ; the reforma- 
 tion has destroyed, among the protestants, 
 that power which the priests preserve, even 
 in our days, in some catholic countries ; 
 and especially in Spain. The men of let- 
 ters, who might have influenced public 
 opinion and made their wisdom subser- 
 vient to the cause of their country, were 
 but rarely called to take an active part in 
 
 B 2 public 
 
public affairs. Literary reputation 
 the only end of their ambition, and they 
 rarely addicted themselves to occupation^ 
 or studies applicable to existing circum- 
 stances. The real power of several states 
 in Germany rested on their military sys- 
 tems, and their political existence could 
 not but depend entirely on the strength or 
 weakness of their governments. 
 
 In the plains of Germany the local cir- 
 cumstances of the country did not permit 
 the people to escape so easily from the 
 yoke of their conquerors as in some other* 
 countries of a different nature. Small 
 bodies of troops kept a great extent of 
 conquered country in awe, and assured our 
 armies of subsistence. The citizens could 
 have found no secure retreats if they had 
 tried partial revolts against us ; besides, 
 the Germans accustomed to a quiet and 
 
 regular 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 regular life, are only roused to make a 
 desperate effort by the complete breaking 
 up of all their ordinary habits. 
 
 We had nothing to fear from the inha- 
 bitants of the countries conquered by our 
 arms, and the war of Germany had been 
 carried on solely by armies of regulars; 
 between whom there exists rather rivalry 
 than hatred. The success of a campaign 
 depended on the aggregate of the military 
 operations, on the activity and perseve- 
 rance of the commanders, and their skill 
 in discovering and preventing the plans of 
 each other, and in bringing with skill and 
 celerity great masses down on the points 
 of attack. All those little partial actions 
 were avoided, which, in war, only increase 
 the miseries of individuals without contri- 
 buting to any important advantage; and 
 the talents of the generals were never 
 
 B 3 baffled 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 baffled by the exertions of individuals, or 
 by the spontaneous movements of the 
 people. 
 
 In Germany we had only had to subdue 
 governments and armies ; in the Spanish 
 peninsula, where we were now to make 
 war, the government and the army were 
 already annihilated. The Emperor Napo- 
 leon had invaded Portugal and Spain, put 
 to flight or reduced to captivity the sove- 
 reigns of those two countries and dispersed 
 their military forces. We were not called 
 to fight against troops of the line, every 
 where nearly the same, but against a peo- 
 ple insulated from all the other continental 
 nations, by its manners, its prejudices, and 
 even the nature of its country. The Spa- 
 niards were to oppose to us a resistance 
 so much the more obstinate, as they be- 
 lieved it to be the object of the French 
 
 government 
 
( r ) 
 
 government to make the peninsula a secon- 
 dary state, irrevocably subject to the do- 
 minion of France. 
 
 With regard to knowledge and the pro- 
 gress of social habits, Spain was at least a 
 century behind the other nations of the 
 continent. The distant and almost insu- 
 lar situation of the country, and the seve- 
 nty of its religious institutions, had pre- 
 vented the Spaniards from taking part in 
 the disputes and controversies which had 
 agitated and enlightened Europe during 
 the sixteenth century. They scarcely 
 thought more in the eighteenth of the 
 philosophical spirit which had been one 
 of the causes of the revolution in France. 
 
 Although the Spaniards were too much 
 given to indolence, and that there were 
 found in their administration, that disor- 
 der and corruption which are the inevi- 
 table consequences of a long despotism, 
 
 B 4 their 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 their national character had not been sul- 
 lied. Their government, arbitrary as it 
 was, bore no resemblance to the absolute 
 military power existing in Germany, where 
 the constant submission of each and every 
 one to the orders of a single one, continu- 
 ally pressed down the springs of individual 
 character. Ferdinand the Catholic, Charles 
 V, and Philip II. had, it is true, usurped 
 almost all the privileges of the grandees 
 and of the Cortes, and they had annihi- 
 lated Spanish liberty ; but the weakness 
 of government, under their successors, had 
 always left to thfe people, notwithstanding 
 the despotism of the sovereign, a practical 
 freedom which was often carried even to 
 insubordination. 
 
 In the annals of the German monar- 
 chies, no names were ever heard but those 
 of the sovereign and his armies. Since 
 Ferdinand the Catholic bad united the dif- 
 ferent 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 ferent kingdoms of Spain, scarcely a single 
 reign had passed in which the people had 
 not given sensible proofs of its existence 
 and power by imposing conditions on its 
 masters, or by expelling their ministers or 
 their favourites. When the inhabitants 
 of Madrid revolted, and demanded from 
 Charles III. the father of Charles IV. the 
 dismissal of his minister Squilaci, the king 
 himself was obliged to appear, in order to 
 compound with the people, and to employ 
 the intervention of a monk, bearing a cru- 
 cifix in his hand. The court, which had 
 fled to Aranjuez, attempted afterwards to 
 send the Walloon guards against Madrid : 
 the people killed several, and the cry was, 
 Si los Vallones entraran, los Borbones no 
 reinaran if the Walloons enter, the Bourbons 
 shall not reign. The Walloons did not 
 enter, Squilaci was dismissed, and order 
 was restored. At Berlin and in Prussia 
 
 the 
 
( io ) 
 
 the inhabitants respected the soldiers of 
 their king, as the soldiers themselves re- 
 spected their military commanders ; at 
 Madrid, the sentinels placed on guard, to 
 attend to the execution of the orders of 
 their sovereign, yielded the precedence to 
 the meanest burgess. 
 
 The revenues of the crown were very 
 scanty, and consequently could maintain 
 but a very limited number of troops. The 
 regiments of the line, with the exception 
 of some privileged corps, were incom- 
 plete, ill paid, and ill disciplined. The 
 priests were the only powerful executive 
 militia that the kings of Spain could com- 
 mand ; it was by the exhortations of the 
 ministers from their altars, and the presen- 
 tation of pontifical ornaments and relics 
 that they repressed and dissipated popular 
 tumults. 
 
 The Spanish priests hated the French 
 
 from 
 
{ 11 ) 
 
 from patriotism and from interest; for 
 they well knew that the intention was to 
 abolish their privileges, and to deprive 
 them of their riches and temporal power. 
 Their opinion swayed that of the greatest 
 part of the nation. Every Spaniard re- 
 garded the public cause as his own private 
 quarrel, and we had, in short, almost as 
 many individual enemies to fight as the 
 Spanish peninsula contained inhabitants. 
 The high and barren mountains which 
 surround and intersect Spain were peopled 
 by warlike tribes, always armed for the 
 purpose of smuggling, and accustomed to 
 baffle the regular troops of their own coun- 
 try, which were frequently sent in pursuit 
 of them. The untamed character of the 
 inhabitants of the peninsula, the mildness 
 of the climate, which admits of living in 
 the open air almost all the year, and thus 
 to abandon one's dwelling upon occa- 
 sion; 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 sion ; the inaccessible retreats of the in- 
 land mountains ; the sea, which washes 
 such extensive shores ; all the great cir- 
 cumstances arising from the national cha- 
 racter, the climate, and local situation, 
 could not fail of procuring for the Spa- 
 niards numberless facilities for escaping 
 from the oppression of their conquerors, 
 and fov multiplying their own forces, 
 whether by transporting them- rapidly to 
 those points on which the French were 
 weak, or in securing their escape from 
 pursuit. 
 
 When we quitted our cantonments in 
 Prussia to go to Spain, towards the end of 
 August, 1808, we had scarcely reflected on 
 the unforeseen obstacles which we might 
 encounter in a country so new to us. We 
 fancied we were marching on a short and 
 easy expedition: conquerors in Germany, 
 
 we 
 
( is ) 
 
 did not imagine that any thing was to 
 stop us in future. 
 
 Our soldiers never inquired what coun- 
 try we were leading them to : but if there 
 were provisions where they were going, 
 it was the only point of view in which 
 they ever considered the geography of the 
 earth. The world was divided by them 
 into two parts, the happy zone, in which 
 the vine grows, and the detestable zone, 
 which is without it. 
 
 Having heard at the beginning of every 
 campaign that they were called upon to 
 strike the last blow" at the tottering power 
 of the English ; they confounded this 
 power in all its forms with England itself. 
 They judged of the distance which se 
 pafated them from it by the number of 
 marches they had made for so many years 
 from one end of the world to the other, 
 without having yet reached this kind of 
 
 imaginary 
 
imaginary and distant country which was 
 constantly receding from them. At length, 
 said they, if the desert separated us from 
 it in Egypt, and the sea at Boulogne, we 
 shall reach it by land after we have 
 crossed Spain. 
 
 After having passed the Elbe and the 
 Weser, we reached the left bank of the 
 Rhine and France. For two months an 
 approaching war with Austria had been 
 talked of, and when we quitted Prussia 
 in the month of September, 1808, we were 
 persuaded that we were to be sent to the 
 Danube. It was with deep sorrow and 
 almost with tears in their eyes that our 
 hussars quitted Germany, that beautiful 
 country that they had then conquered, 
 that land of war from which they bore so 
 many remembrances of glory, and where 
 they had even sometimes made themselves 
 individually beloved. 
 
 We 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 We traversed France as if it had been 
 a land newly conquered and subjected to 
 our arms. The Emperor Napoleon had 
 ordered that his soldiers should be well 
 received and feasted every where; depu- 
 tations came to compliment us at the 
 gates of his good cities. The officers and 
 soldiers were conducted immediately on 
 their arrival to sumptuous banquets pre- 
 pared beforehand, and on our departure, 
 the magistrates thanked us again that we 
 had deigned to spend in one day man}' 
 weeks' private revenues of their municipal 
 chests. The soldiers of the grand army 
 did not lose in France the habit they had 
 contracted in Germany j of now and then 
 maltreating the citizens or peasants with 
 whom they lodged. The allied auxiliaries, 
 in particular, would not comprehend why 
 they were not to behave in France as in 
 an enemy's country ; they said it must be 
 
 the 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 the custom, as the French troops had hot 
 behaved otherwise to them in Germany 
 and in Poland. The inhabitants of the 
 towns and villages through which we pas- 
 sed, suffered all patiently till the armed 
 torrent was drained off. Our troops were 
 composed, besides the French, of Ger- 
 mans, Italians, Poles, Swiss, Dutch, and 
 even Irish and Mameluks ; these stran- 
 gers were all dressed in their national uni- 
 forms, and spoke their own languages ; 
 but notwithstanding the dissimilarity of 
 manners which raise barriers between na- 
 tions, military discipline easily united 
 them all under the powerful hand of one ; 
 all these men wore the same cockade, and 
 they had but one shout of war, and one 
 cry to rally. 
 
 We crossed the Seine at Paris, the Loire 
 at Saumur, the Garonne at Bordeaux ; 
 there, for the first time since we left Prus- 
 sia, 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 sia, we enjoyed a few days of rest, while 
 the rest of the army was employed in 
 gaining the other bank of the river. We 
 next traversed the uncultivated tract be- 
 tween Bordeaux and Bayonne. In these 
 solitary plains, as in the moors of Prussia 
 and Poland, the sandy soil no longer re- 
 sounded under the horses' feet, the regular 
 and accelerated noise of their iron-shod 
 hoofs no longer served to renew their ar- 
 dour. Vast forests of pine and of cork 
 bound the horizon at an immense distance; 
 one sees at long intervals single shepherds, 
 clad in black sheep-skins, mounted on 
 stilts six or seven feet high, and leaning 
 on a long pole ; they remain motionless 
 on the same spot, without ever losing 
 sight of their flocks which feed around 
 them on the heath. When the Emperor 
 Napoleon crossed these wide plains, the 
 poverty of the country did not permit it 
 
 c to 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 to furnish the usual horse guard of honour : 
 he was escorted by a detachment of these 
 shepherds, who, with their tall stilts, kept 
 pace through the sand with the horses at 
 full trot. 
 
 Some leagues beyond Bay onne we reach- 
 ed the Bidassoa, a rivulet which bounds 
 France in the Pyrenees. As soon as one 
 sets one's foot on the Spanish territory, one 
 perceives asensible difference in the aspect 
 of the country, and in the manners of the 
 inhabitants. The narrow crooked streets 
 of the towns, the grated windows, the doors 
 of the houses always carefully shut, the 
 severe and reserved air of the inhabitants 
 of all classes, the distrust which was gene- 
 rally shown towards us, increased the in- 
 voluntary melancholy which seized us on 
 our entrance into Spain. 
 
 We saw the Emperor Napoleon pass be- 
 fore he arrived at Vittoria; he was on 
 
 horse- 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 horseback ; the simplicity of his green Uni- 
 form distinguished him amidst the richly 
 clothed generals who surrounded him ; he 
 waved his hand to every individual officer 
 as he passed, seeming to say I rely on 
 you. The French and the Spaniards were 
 gathered in crowds on his way ; the first 
 regarded him as the fortune of the whole 
 army : the Spaniards seemed willing to 
 read in his aspect and behaviour the fate 
 of their unhappy country. 
 
 During the last days of October, 1808, 
 the French army in Spain, commanded by 
 King Joseph, was successively joined by 
 the grand army of Germany. It was only 
 then that we learned, with astonishment, 
 from our brethren in arms, a part of the 
 events of the Peninsular war, and the de- 
 tails of the unfortunate affairs which had 
 forced the Generals Dupont and Junot to 
 capitulate in Andalusia, and in Portugal, 
 
 c 2 Marshal 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 Marshal Moncey to retire from before Va- 
 lentia, and, in short, the whole army to 
 concentrate itself on the left bank of the 
 Ebro.* 
 
 The 
 
 *' King Joseph was at Vittoria with the general staff and 
 iiis guards. Marshal Moncey, with his corps d'armee, was at 
 Tafaila, observing and watching the Spanish army of General 
 Palafox, placed at Sanguessa, on the frontiers of Navarre and 
 Arragon. The troops under Marshal Ney occupied Logrono 
 and Guardia; they had before them, in the neighbourhood o 
 Tudela, on the Ebro, the Spanish armies commanded by the 
 Generals Castanos and Palafox, who, when united, might be 
 about 40,000 strong. Marshal Bessieres was at Miranda, on. 
 the Ebro : on retiring, he had left a garrison in the fort of Pan- 
 corvo; his position was covered by the numerous and well- 
 mounted cavalry of General Lassalle, Marshal Lefevre oc- 
 cupied Durango : the corps commanded by the Marshals Bes- 
 sieres and Lefevre were opposed to the centre and the left wing 
 of the Spaniards, under Generals Belvedere and Blake. The 
 Spanish array of the centre, placed at Burgos, was only from 
 12 to 14,000 strong. It was to be reinforced by 26,000 En- 
 glish, who were advancing from Portugal and Corunna, under 
 Generals Moore and Sir D. Baird. This force was intended to 
 sustain the army of the right, commanded by General Blake, 
 
 in 
 
The 8th of November, in the night, the 
 imperial quarters were removed from Vit- 
 
 in Biscay, and to keep up the communication with the Spanish 
 armies in Arragon and Navarre. 
 
 The army of General Blake, although 30,000 strong, had 
 but little cavalry, therefore it dared not come down into the 
 plains in the neighbourhood of Miranda and Vittoria : it had 
 quitted its positions between Ona Frias and Erron, to seize Bil- 
 bao, and it had advanced through the mountains which sepa- 
 rate Biscay from the province of Alava, as far as Zornosa and 
 Archandiano, towards Durango, to raise the country and to at- 
 tack the right, and cut off the communications of the army of 
 King Joseph. The Spanish armies of Navarre and Arragon 
 were to make the same movement against the centre and the 
 left of the French, in order to force them to retire by the road 
 ofTolosa, or drive them into the defiles of Navarre, towards 
 Pampeluna. Such were the projects of the Spaniards, and the 
 situation of affairs, when the Emperor Napoleon took the com- 
 mand of the armies in Spain. 
 
 The 31st of October, the corps of Marshal Lefevre had at- 
 tacked the army of General Blake, near Durango ; he had re- 
 pulsed him, ad entered Bilbao the next day. The corps of 
 Marshal Victor moved, on the 6th November, from Vittoria 
 to Ordunna ; it was to form, with that of Marshal Lefevre, 
 ihe right of our army. 
 
 c 3 toria 
 
toria to Miranda. The next day the whole 
 of the centre, of which we were a part, 
 marched under the immediate orders of 
 the Emperor. We were to make a pow- 
 erful attack on Burgos, where the centre of 
 the Spanish forces were placed, then to 
 threaten, by advancing rapidly, the flanks 
 of their armies of the right and left in Bis- 
 cay, and towards the frontiers of Navarre 
 and Arragon ; to prevent those armies from 
 concentrating themselves towards Madrid, 
 if they retired ; and to cut off, by throw- 
 ing ourselves on their rear, all their com- 
 munications, if they attempted resistance. 
 To effect this, our army of the right, 
 formed of the corps of Marshals Victor 
 and Lefevre, were to continue marching 
 against the army of Blake, who was retir- 
 ing upon Espinosa, after having been re- 
 pulsed from Durango and Valmaceda. 
 Our army of the left, under Marshals Lan- 
 
 nes 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 nes and Moncey, remained in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Logrono andTafalla; itawait- 
 ed the result of the action that we expect- 
 ed without fail at Burgos, in order to move 
 and go up the Ebro, towards Saragossa. 
 
 The imperial head-quarters were fixed, 
 on the night of the 9th, at Briviesca ; the 
 army under the orders of the Emperor was 
 cantoned in the neighbourhood of that 
 town. The inhabitants of the country had 
 every where fled to the mountains on our 
 approach. 
 
 At day-break on the 10th, Marshal Soult 
 went, with a division of infantry, to recon- 
 noitre the positions of the enemy in the 
 direction of Burgos. On his arrival at 
 the village of Gamonal, he was received 
 by a discharge of 30 pieces of cannon. 
 This was to the French the signal for at- 
 tack. Marshal Soult did not wait for the 
 rest of the army which was following him; 
 c 4 he 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 he engaged immediately, and overthrew 
 the Walloons and Spanish guards, which 
 formed the chief strength of the enemy. 
 Marshal Bessieres, arriving soon after with 
 the cavalry, turned the enemy's wings, com- 
 pleted the rout, and entered Burgos pel- 
 mel with the fugitives. 
 
 Of all the army, our brigade of hussars 
 had remained alone in an obscure canton- 
 ment, two leagues in the rear of Briviesca. 
 The adjutant who was to have brought us 
 our orders to march lost his way, not be- 
 ing able to procure a guide, and we only 
 began our march at nine o'clock in the 
 morning; we followed the track of the 
 army all day, without even surmising what 
 had passed in the morning in our front. 
 When night came, we perceived, at a great 
 distance, the fires of the vanguard of the 
 army. Notwithstanding the darkness, we 
 discovered, by the motions of our horses, 
 
 that 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 that we were crossing a field of battle; 
 they slackened their pace every moment, 
 raising their feet cautiously, for fear of 
 touching the dead over whom they were 
 passing. They stopped sometimes to put 
 down their heads, and smelt with horror to 
 the carcasses of the horses killed during the 
 action. 
 
 Burgos had been entirely abandoned by 
 its inhabitants. That great city was only 
 a vast solitude when our troops arrived 
 there immediately after the battle, and it 
 was given up to be plundered. In the 
 quarter by which we entered, were heard 
 on all sides the hum and confused voices 
 of the soldiers, who were going and coming 
 in all directions in search of provisions and 
 utensils through the deserted houses. To 
 light themselves they carried enormous 
 torches, which they had found in the neigh- 
 bouring 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 bouring convents. A little farther, in a 
 part of the city less visited by the troops, 
 were heard doleful and stifled groans from 
 the aged and the sick, who, unable to fly, 
 had taken refuge in a church, where they 
 were crowded together in great numbers; 
 they were repeating prayers with their 
 clergy, expecting a death which they be- 
 lieved to be near ; the feeble rays of the 
 sacred lamp shot through the lattices of 
 the church. We passed between two high 
 walls of enormous bales of wool, which 
 the Spaniards had collected from all quar- 
 ters, to carry with the baggage of their 
 army into the south of France, so certain 
 did they think themselves of gaining a 
 great victory over us. 
 
 At eleven o'clock at night we arrived at 
 the bivouac designed for us, near the banks 
 of the Arlanzon. When day came, we saw 
 
 in 
 
 . 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 in the low river which ran by us the bodies 
 of a few Spanish soldiers and monks, who 
 had died in battle the day before. 
 
 At sun-rise on the llth, our brigade of 
 light cavalry set off to explore the country 
 up the Arlanzon. We discovered at a dis- 
 tance, on the banks of the river, troops of 
 peasants and of the inhabitants of the town 
 retiring behind the heights, or among the 
 precipices of the opposite shore. Frequent- 
 ly we perceived nothing but their heads, 
 raised from time to time above the brush- 
 wood to see if we had passed. 
 
 Some of our flank companies met some 
 nuns, who had quitted Burgos during the 
 battle the clay before. These poor crea- 
 tures, some of whom had never been with- 
 out theprecinctsof their cloister, had walk- 
 ed, in their fright, as far as their limbs 
 could bear them without stopping, and had 
 tried to conceal themselves in the groves 
 
 near 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 near the river. On first seeing us at a dis- 
 tance they had dispersed, but on our near- 
 er approach they gathered together, and 
 remained on their knees, close to each 
 other, with their heads hanging down and 
 enveloped in their hoods. She who had 
 preserved most presence of mind, placed 
 herself upright before her companions. 
 On her face was an air of candour and dig- 
 nity, and that kind of calmness which is 
 given by strong emotions in a moment of 
 despair. The nun who stood up said, as 
 she touched the beads of her rosary, to the 
 soldiers who passed nearest, as if to implore 
 their protection, the only three words she 
 knew of our language, " Bon jour, Messieurs 
 Francois." These poor nuns were left in 
 peace. 
 
 We spent four days in a town about four 
 leagues from Burgos, of whose name I am 
 ignorant, because we found no person to 
 
 inquire 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 inquire it of. The imperial quarters re- 
 mained at Burgos till the 22d. 
 
 This town was the centre of all the mi- 
 litary operations, and from thence it was 
 equally easy to communicate with the ar- 
 mies of Biscay and Arragon, to observe 
 their marches and to assist them in case of 
 need. 
 
 The day after the affair of Burgos, nu- 
 merous detachments were sent in all direc- 
 
 
 
 tions in pursuit of the enemy, in order to 
 complete the destruction of an army which 
 an easy victory had dispersed, but which 
 still might not be wholly annihilated . Ten 
 thousand cavalry, with twenty pieces of 
 light artillery, set off to fall rapidly, by 
 way of Placentia, Leon, and Zarnora, on 
 the rear of the English army, which was 
 believed to be at Valladolid. Marshal 
 Soult threw himself, by Villarcayo and 
 Reynosa, behind the Spanish army of the 
 
 left. 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 left. A division of infantry went by a more 
 direct route to occupy the defiles of the 
 mountains towards St. Ander; these troops, 
 notwithstanding therapidity of their march, 
 did not come up with the enemy. The 
 army of General Blake, in retreat ever 
 since the affair of Durango, had vainly tried 
 to rally at Guenes and at Valmaceda suc- 
 cessively. Pursued by Marshal Victor in 
 the direction of Espinosa ; by Marshal 
 Lefevre in that of Villarcayo, it had at 
 length been totally defeated, on the 10th 
 of November, at Espinosa, after two days 
 fighting. 
 
 The Spanish armies of the centre and of 
 the left having been beaten at all points, 
 there only remained the army of the right 
 to disperse before we should march to Ma- 
 drid ; to this end the army of Marshal Ney 
 was sent from Burgos, by Lerma and 
 Aranda, up the Douro, and down again 
 
 towards 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 towards the Ebro, in order to turn the 
 corps of Generals Castanos and Palafox, 
 who were shortly to be attacked in front 
 by our army of the left, under the orders 
 of Marshals Lannes and Moncey. These 
 French corps of the left still occupied Lo- 
 grono and Tafalla, and were preparing to 
 go down the Ebro. 
 
 On the 15th of November, our brigade 
 of hussars went to Lerma, to join the corps 
 of Marshal Ney, to which it thenceforth 
 remained provisionally attached. On the 
 16th, Marshal Ney's corps went from Ler- 
 ma to Aranda: the inhabitants always 
 abandoned their dwellings atourapproach, 
 carrying with them into their mountain- 
 retreats all their most precious possessions; 
 the solitude and the desolation, which vic- 
 torious armies commonly leave behind 
 them, seemed to precede us wherever we 
 came. 
 
 In 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 In approaching the deserted towns and 
 villages of Castile, we no longer saw those 
 clouds of smoke, which, constantly rising 
 through the air, form a second atmosphere 
 over inhabited and populous cities. In- 
 stead of living sounds and continual ru- 
 mours, we heard nothing within the circles 
 of their walls but the passing bells, which 
 our arrival could not suspend, or the 
 croaking of the ravens hovering round the 
 high belfries. The houses, now empty, 
 served only to re-echo tardily and discor- 
 dantly the deep sounds of the drum, or the 
 shrill notes of the trumpet. 
 
 Lodgings were quickly distributed ; every 
 regiment occupied award, every company 
 a street, according to the size of the town; 
 a very short time after our entry, the sol- 
 diers were established in their new dwel- 
 lings, as if they had come to found a co- 
 lony. This warlike and transitory popula- 
 tion 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 tion gave new names to the places it occu- 
 piedthey talked of the Dragoon-ward; 
 Such a company's street ; Our general's house ; 
 The main-guard square, or Parade-place. 
 Often on the walls of a convent might be 
 read, written with charcoal, Barracks of such 
 a battalion. From the cell of a deserted 
 cloister, hung a sign with a French inscrip- 
 tion, bearing the name of one of the first 
 cooks in Paris ; he was a victualler, who 
 had hastened to set up his ambulatory ta- 
 vern in that spot. 
 
 When the army arrived late at night in 
 the place where it was to rest, it was im- 
 possible to distribute the quarters with re- 
 gularity, and we lodged militarily, that is to 
 say, promiscuously and without observing 
 any order, wherever we could find room. 
 As soon as the main guard was posted, at 
 a concerted signal the soldiers left the 
 ranks, and precipitated themselves all to- 
 D gether 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 gether tumultuously,like a torrent, through 
 the city, and long after the arrival of the 
 army shrieks were still heard, and the noise 
 of doors broken open with hatchets or 
 great stones. Some of the grenadiers found 
 out a method, as quick as efficacious, to 
 force such doors as obstinately resisted ; 
 they fired point blank into the keyholes of 
 the locks, and thus rendered vain the pre- 
 cautions of the inhabitants, who always 
 carefully locked up their houses before 
 they fled, at our approach, to the moun- 
 tains. On the morning of the 20th, Mar- 
 shal Ney's corps left Aranda : for two days 
 we continued to march up the banks of 
 the Douro, having no news of the enemy, 
 and not meeting any where a living crea- 
 ture. On the 21st, a little before sun-set, 
 we suddenly remarked a little vacillation 
 in the movements of our advanced skir- 
 wishers; we immediately formed in squa- 
 drons, 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 drons, and shortly afterwards a detach- 
 ment of our advanced guard was engaged 
 'with a corps of the enemy, which it easily 
 repulsed ; we made some prisoners as we 
 entered Almazan. 
 
 Marshal Ney's corps bivouacked under 
 the walls of that town for the night; the 
 inhabitants had entirely deserted it. It 
 was too late to make regular distributions, 
 and, unfortunately, we could not prevent 
 plunder during half an hour, to satisfy the 
 immediate necessities of the troops. We 
 sent, that same night, several parties of 
 twenty-five hussars each, to reconnoitre ia 
 -differentdirections. The detachment which 
 had pursued the road to Siguenza, came 
 back during the night, with some baggage 
 and a few prisoners. 
 
 The next day, being the 22d November, 
 
 Marshal Ney's army set out for Soria. 
 
 The 2d hussars, our regiment, was left 
 
 D 2 alone 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 alone at Almazan, to guard the communi* 
 cation with Burgos by Aranda, and to 
 watch the enemy's corps which were said- 
 to be in the neighbourhood of Siguenza, 
 Medina Coeli, and Agreda. 
 
 I received, at day break on the 24th, 
 orders to go with twenty-five horse and 
 reconnoitre on the direct road from Alma- 
 zan to Agreda. Not being able to pro- 
 cure a guide I went with my detachment 
 up the right bank of the Douro in the di- 
 rection indicated by a bad French map, 
 which led me into an error and we lost our 
 way. We perceived, after four hours pain- 
 ful march, through cross roads, two child- 
 ren who fled towards the thicket, scream- 
 ing with terror; I followed them, and sud- 
 denly found myself alone in an encamp- 
 ment of women, who had fled from their 
 village with their sheep and their child- 
 ren, and had taken refuge in a little island 
 
 . 
 in 
 
 ooofteW 
 
( 37 ) 
 
 9flJ JOTBU;. 
 
 in the river. I arrived so completely un- 
 
 11 Jo 1 Jt v <^*- * 
 
 awares that I had time to assure them of 
 safety before my detachment could follow 
 me. I made my interpreter, who was 
 with me, ask them which was the direct 
 road from Almazan to Agreda. An aged 
 pastor, the only man who was with the 
 women, answered that I had wandered 
 from it above four leagues, and he point- 
 ed out the right road on the other side of 
 the river. We passed through a line of 
 villages and little towns where the only 
 inhabitants were men, and we at length 
 
 arrived at our place of destination. 
 - 
 The interpreter whom I made use of, 
 
 was a Flemish deserter, whom hunger, and 
 the fear of being murdered by the pea- 
 sants of the country, had forced to come 
 to us after the affair of Burgos; we had 
 nicknamed him Blanco, because, to keep 
 himself warm, he had covered his old 
 D 3 Walloon 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 Walloon uniform, which was worn out and 
 torn, with a white dominican habit which 
 the hussars had given him; and he also 
 wore on his head the enormous hat of that 
 religious order. In the inhabited villages 
 we went through the peasants fancied, 
 when they saw him on foot marching at 
 our head, that he was really a monk whom 
 we had forced to accompany us; they 
 Saluted him profoundly, pitied his unhap- 
 py fate, and all gave money to the reve- 
 rend father, who, proud of so many 
 honours, would not, even when he had an 
 opportunity, quit his lucrative costume. 
 
 For want of being able to procure a 
 guide before we left Almazan, we lost our 
 way, and were nine hours marching only 
 four miles. The difficulty of getting 
 guides was continually recurring because 
 the inhabitants deserted their villages on 
 our approach. 
 
 Our 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 Our regiment received orders to quit 
 Almazan the same night. We marched 
 nearly a night and a day without stopping, 
 and joined Marshal Ney just as he was 
 entering Agreda by the road from Soria. 
 The infantry lodged in the town. The 
 light cavalry was sent a league farther, on 
 the road to Cascante, in order to cover the 
 position of the army. We believed our- 
 selves to be close upon the rear of the left 
 wing of the Spanish forces. 
 
 The city of Agreda was deserted: the 
 staff officer of our brigade of hussars in 
 vain endeavoured to find a guide in it, 
 and we were obliged to go, according to our 
 map only, in search of the cantonment 
 designed for us. Night overtook us, we 
 soon lost ourselves in the mountains; mis- 
 led by the deceptions of a misty darkness 
 we always fancied ourselves on the brink 
 of some precipice. Whenever we had 
 D 4 marched 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 marched a hundred paces we made a long 
 halt, while those who were at the head cif 
 the column almost groped their way be- 
 tween the rocks, and we long heard in the 
 deep silence of the night the uncertain 
 tread of feet, and the shudderings of the 
 horses who were gnawing the bit, impa-, 
 tient to get on to rest. 
 
 We had alighted and were marching in 
 file, listening to, and repeating by turns, 
 the warnings of holes, or of precipices, 
 which were given in an under voice, in or- 
 der not to awake a corps whose half-extin- 
 guished fires we saw on the opposite side 
 of a deep ravine. We knew not whether 
 they were friends or foes, and, in our situa- 
 tion, an attack of infantry must have been 
 fatal to us. 
 
 We thus passed the greater part of the 
 
 ~$Q% . , . . , . 
 
 night in marching and counter-marching. 
 
 The moon rose a little before day-break ; 
 
 we 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 we found ourselves nearly in the place 
 from which we had set out the night be- 
 fore, and we at length saw, at the bottom 
 of a narrow valley,, the village where we 
 should have pass.ed the night : wehad been 
 marching above thirty hours. The impos- 
 sibility of finding guides, thus offered to 
 us at every step a thousand difficulties in 
 detail, of an entire new kind. In these 
 scantily peopled countries, where the whole 
 population was against us, we rarely found 
 individuals who, even for the purpose of 
 misleading, were capable of giving us the 
 slightest information concerning the enemy, 
 We learned, but too late, that the armies 
 of Generals Castanos andPalafox had been 
 completely defeated, at Tudela, on the 
 %3d ; if we had arrived a day sooner at 
 Agreda, we should have met and taken in 
 that town the dispersed columns of Spa- 
 niards, who were retiring: upon Madrid. 
 
 o 1 
 
 The 
 
( 42 ) . 
 
 The left of our army, whose movements 
 we were to second, had concentrated itself 
 on the 22d, at the bridge of Lodosa. On 
 the 23d, it met the Spanish right, drawn up 
 in battle array, of a league in extent, be- 
 tween the town of Tudela and the village 
 of Cascante. Marshal Lannes broke the 
 centre of the enemy's line, by a division of 
 infantry marched in close column; Gene* 
 ral Lefevre's cavalry immediately passed 
 through the opening, and, by an oblique 
 movement, surrounded the Spanish right; 
 once broken on any point, they could no 
 longer manoeuvre, and they retired in dis- 
 order, leaving thirty pieces of cannon, many 
 dead, and a great number of prisoners on 
 the field. 
 
 Since the retreat of King Joseph, on the 
 Ebro, in July, the Spaniards had acquired 
 so great a confidence in their own strength, 
 that their anxiety, when they were to come 
 
 to 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 to action with us, was not so much con- 
 cerning the means of resisting us, or of se- 
 curing their retreat in case of a reverse, as 
 lest a Frenchman should escape them. ^^ 
 They prejudged the event of the battle^ 
 by their own ardent desire to conquer and 
 destroy their enemies; ignorant of the art 
 of manoeuvring, being afraid of not spread- 
 ing their columns in time to surround us> 
 they placed themselves in long shallow 
 lines, in plains where the superiority of our 
 tactics, and of our cavalry, must necessa- 
 rily give us the advantage. This order of 
 battle, bad even for well manoeuvred troops, 
 deprived the Spaniards' of the power of re- 
 inforcing the points attacked by our close 
 columns fast enough, or of concentrating 
 themselves to resist our masses. Our 
 troops had met with more resistance in Bis^- 
 cay and the Asturias, because they had 
 had to fight in mountainous countries, 
 
 where 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 where the difficulties of the ground, and 
 the courage of individuals, may sometimes 
 baffle the calculations of military art; be- 
 fore they could reach Reinosa, they had 
 been obliged to conquer at Durango, at 
 Zornosa, at Guenes, at Valmaceda, and 
 last at Espinosa. 
 
 Not a Frenchman then doubted that 
 such rapid victories must have decided the 
 fate of the Spaniards. We believed, and 
 Europe believed it too, that we had only 
 to march to Madrid to complete the sub,- 
 jection of Spain, and to organise the coun^ 
 try in the French manner, that is to say, to 
 increase our means of conquest by all the 
 resources of our vanquished enemies. The 
 wars we had hitherto carried on had accus- 
 tomed us to see in a nation only its mili- 
 tary forces, and to count for nothing the 
 spirit which might animate its citizens. 
 
 On the 26th November, Marshal Ney's 
 
 corps 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 corps moved, by Cascante, upon Borja* 
 A division of General Maurice Mathieu 
 preceded us by a day, making a numbetf 
 of prisoners on its march. The 27th we 
 arrived at Alagon, a little town situated 
 four leagues from Saragossa, whose nume- 
 rous steeples appeared in the distance. 
 
 The Arragonese had not allowed them- 
 selves to be cast down by the recent re- 
 verses of their armies ; they had resolved 
 to defend themselves in Saragossa ; they 
 had not been able to surround themselves 
 by regular fortifications, but they had 
 converted every dwelling into a separate 
 fortress, and every convent, every house, 
 required a separate assault: this kind of 
 fortification is, perhaps, the best of all cal- 
 culated to lengthen out a siege. fIO f 
 
 Palafox had just thrown himself into the 
 town with 10,000 men, whom he had saved 
 after the battle of Tudela, and these same 
 
 soldiers 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 soldiers of the army of Arragon, that we 
 had defeated almost without an effort in 
 the flat country, as citizens within the 
 walls of their capital town, resisted ys near- 
 ly twelve months. 
 
 Fifty thousand peasants, in arms, col- 
 lected to defend Saragossa: they threw 
 themselves from every side into the town, 
 even through the midst of our victorious 
 troops, dreading lest they should arrive 
 too late where their hearts and their coun* 
 try called them. The miraculous virgin 
 of Pilar, said they, has protected us for 
 ages ; in happy times we crowded as pil- 
 grims to her shrine, to obtain abundant 
 harvests, and now we will not leave her 
 altars defenceless. 
 
 The character of the Spaniards in these 
 provinces has no resemblance to that of 
 other European nations. Their patriotism 
 is a religion, as it was with the ancients, 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 among whom no nation allowed itself to 
 despair, or owned itself conquered even in 
 the midst of disasters. The sacred eagles 
 of the God of the Capitol, borne aloft in 
 battle, led the Romans on to victory ; and 
 when, subsequent to the times of chivalry, 
 our modern armies were organized in the 
 Roman forms, the point of honour took 
 place in our regular troops of that religious 
 sentiment, which attached the Roman sol- 
 dier to his standard. Discipline, founded 
 on the military point of honour, has taught 
 modern armies to triumph ; but it is pa- 
 triotism alone, political or religious^ which 
 can render nations invincible. 
 
 The people of Spain in general were ani- 
 mated solely by religious patriotism ; they 
 had no practical knowledge of discipline, 
 or of the laws of war. They easily aban- 
 doned their standards after a reverse of for- 
 tune : 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 tune; they never considered themselves 
 bound to keep faith with their enemies, but 
 they had but one interest, but one senti- 
 ment^to revenge, by every possible means, 
 the wrongs that the French had done their 
 country. 
 
 One of the insurgent peasants of Arra- 
 gon, among others, was seized by our skir- 
 mishers ; he was only armed with a gun, 
 and was driving before him an ass, laden 
 with some months' provisions. The officer 
 who commanded the advanced guard took 
 pity on him, and ordered him to be set at 
 liberty, making signs to him to escape. 
 The peasant at once appeared to compre- 
 hend; but, left to himself, he loaded his 
 gun, and came back immediately to our 
 ranks to fire at his deliverer. Happily the 
 ball missed. This peasant hoped to die a 
 martyr, for killing one whom he had mis- 
 taken 
 
taken for one of our principal chiefs. On 
 halting, he was brought before the colonel 
 of the regiment. ^i9inranoi0d 
 
 We surrounded him from curiosity. A 
 motion of one of our hussars persuaded him 
 that he was going to be shot ; he immedi- 
 ately, and proudly, knelt down, prayed to 
 God and the Virgin Mary, and thus await- 
 ed his death. We raised him, and at 
 night he was sent to head-quarters. If 
 these men had known how to fight as well 
 as how to die, we should not so easily have 
 passed the Pyrenees. 
 
 The division of Marshal Lannes re- 
 mained in Arragon to besiege Saragossa ; 
 that of Marshal Ney continued by forced 
 marches to pursue the remains of the army 
 of Castanos, which was retiring on Guada- 
 laxara and Madrid. The 28th, the ad- 
 vanced division cut to pieces the Spanish 
 E rear- 
 
( 50 ) 
 
 rear-guard, which attempted to defend the 
 defile of Buvierca on the Xalon. 
 
 The forced marches of our army often 
 continued till late at night, and in passing 
 the squadrons we frequently heard Italians, 
 Germans or Frenchmen, singing their 
 national airs to lull their fatigue, or, in this 
 distant and hostile land, to recal a lively 
 remembrance of their absent country. 
 
 The army stopped very late at night near 
 deserted towns or villages, and on our 
 arrival, we generally found ourselves in 
 absolute want of every thing ; but the sol- 
 diers soon dispersed on all sides to forage, 
 and in less than an hour they collected, 
 at the bivouac, all that yet remained in 
 the neighbouring villages. 
 
 Around large fires, lighted at intervals, 
 all the implements of military cookery 
 were seen. Here they were busy con- 
 structing 
 
( 51 ) 
 
 structing in haste, barracks of plank 
 covered with leaves for want of straw ; 
 there they were erecting tents, by stretch- 
 ing across four stakes such pieces of stuff 
 as had been found in the deserted houses. 
 The ground was strewed up and down 
 with the skins of the sheep just slain, 
 guitars, pitchers, bladders of wine, the 
 cowls of monks, clothes of every form and 
 colour ; here the cavalry under arms were 
 sleeping by the side of their horses, farther 
 on a few of the infantry, dressed in women's 
 clothes, were dancing grotesquely among 
 piles of arms to the sound of discordant 
 music. 
 
 The moment the army departed, the 
 peasants descended from the neighbouring 
 heights and started up on every hand, as 
 if out of the bosom of the earth, from their 
 hiding-places. They hastened back to 
 their dwellings. Our soldiers could neither 
 
 E 2 oo 
 
go off the roads nor lag behind the columns* 
 without exposing themselves to being as- 
 sassinated by the peasants of the moun- 
 tains, and we dared not, as in Germany, 
 place detached patroles or send our sick by 
 themselves to the hospitals. The foot 
 soldiers, who could no longer bear the 
 march, followed their divisions on asses ; 
 they held their long muskets in their left 
 hands, and in their right their bayonets, 
 which they used as goads. These pacific 
 animals, like the untamed Numidian 
 steeds of former times, had neither bridles 
 nor saddles. 
 
 On the 1st December we were to sleep 
 in a village situated a league to the 
 north of Guadalaxara; the billets were 
 distributed, we were going to break our 
 ranks and to disperse into quarters, when 
 some one came to inform us that they saw v 
 at a distance some of the enemy's soldiers 
 
 flying. 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 >J L auibci ^ 
 
 flying. It appeared difficult to reach 
 them, and two or three of the youngest of 
 us undertook, as sport, to pursue them ; 
 after having received a sign of approba- 
 tion from the colonel. I fixed on one in 
 particular, who ran faster than the others. 
 He had on a uniform of azure blue, tole- 
 rably bright, which, at a distance, led me 
 at first to take him for an officer. 
 
 When he saw that he could not escape, 
 he stopped and waited for me on the oppo- 
 site side of a ditch he had just lightly 
 leaped., I thought at first that he was 
 going to level his piece at me, but when 
 I carne within twenty paces of him he let 
 fall his arms, took off his hat, and said seve^ 
 ral times over, making the most profound 
 bows in all the positions " Monsieur, 
 fai I'honneur de vous saluer ; Monsieur, je 
 suis votre tres humble serviteur." I stopped, 
 as much astonished at his grotesque figure 
 
 E 3 as 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 as at hearing him speak French. I relieved 
 him, assuring him he had nothing to fear. 
 He told me that he was a dancing-master, 
 a native of Thoulouse ; that at the time of 
 the rising en masse in Andalusia, he had 
 been put in the pillory for a fortnight, in 
 order to force him to serve in the regiment 
 of Ferdinand VII. the uniform of which 
 he then wore; which, as he said, was most 
 contrary to his pacific genius. I told him 
 to go to the village where the regiment was. 
 We also made another Frenchman prison* 
 cr, he was the son of one of the first magis- 
 trates of the town of Pau in Beam.* 
 
 Hurried on by the pleasure of the ride 
 and the impetuosity of my horse, I climb- 
 
 * The second of these Frenchmen alone joined the regi- 
 ment ; a few days afterwards the means of escape were given 
 him. They were afraid of sending him to the depot of pri- 
 soners, lest he should be shot for having been taken under 
 arms, and in a Spanish uniform. 
 
 ed 
 
( 55 ) 
 
 ed one hill, which lay before me, then 
 another; I crossed a torrent, and arrived, 
 after half an hour's hard riding, at the en- 
 trance of a large village, which I went into. 
 The inhabitants, having seen me coming 
 from afar, were afraid that I should be fol- 
 lowed by a numerous body; the alarm in- 
 stantly spread among them, and they hur- 
 ried from all quarters to their houses, where 
 they were occupied in barricading the street- 
 doors, preparing, according to their cus- 
 tom, to escape over the walls of the back 
 courts. Seeing that I was alone, they gra- 
 dually came out of their dwellings to the 
 market-place, where I had stopped. I 
 heard several men repeat, with consider- 
 able energy, the word matar ; as I did not 
 then know the Spanish language, I thought 
 at first that it was a manner of expressing 
 their astonishment at the sight of a stran- 
 ger; I afterwards learnt that the word 
 E 4 means 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 means to kill. The Spaniards were not so 
 peaceable as the inhabitants of the plains 
 of Germany, where a single French soldier 
 gives laws to a whole town. When I saw 
 the crowd increase, and the agitation aug- 
 ment, I began to fear lest the inhabitants 
 should detain me as a prisoner, and deliver 
 me to the enemy. I spurred my horse on 
 both sides, and went without the village, 
 placing myself on a hillock, where I was 
 soon followed both by the men and the 
 women ; I then began to make my horse 
 curvet, and made him leap backwards and 
 forwards over a low wall, and a ditch be- 
 hind me, to shew the inhabitants that I was 
 not afraid of them, and that I could easily 
 escape when I pleased. Detained by cu- 
 riosity, (it was the first time since we pass- 
 ed the Ebro that I had seen a village en- 
 tirely inhabited, and above all by women,) 
 I returned to the height where I had at 
 
 first 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 first placed myself, and made a sign with 
 my scabbard to the people, who began 
 anew to approach me, not to come within 
 ten paces, and tried to make them under- 
 stand that my horse wanted food. The 
 inhabitants, wrapped up in their great 
 cloaks, looked at me in silence, with a kind 
 of astonishment; keeping up, neverthe- 
 less, in their looks and behaviour, that 
 gravity and that dignity which charac- 
 terize the Castilians of every age and of 
 every class : they appeared heartily to 
 despise a stranger, ignorant of their lan- 
 guage. 
 
 When I saw that they would not com- 
 prehend me, I tried a few words of Latin ; 
 that language was often useful to us in 
 Spain, to make ourselves understood by 
 the clergy, who generally speak it tolerably 
 well. A young student stepped out of the 
 crowd,- and came back a few moments 
 
 after- 
 
 - 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 afterwards with the village schoolmaster ; 
 he was so pleased to speak Latin, and to 
 tell me how he had acquired such a degree 
 of knowledge, that he procured for me all 
 I wanted, and I set oft' soon afterwards. 
 When our regiment passed through this 
 same village, the next morning, it was com- 
 pletely deserted. I lost my way in the 
 dark as I went back to my quarters, and 
 only joined my comrades at midnight. 
 The next day, December 2d, we took up 
 our quarters in the neighbourhood of the 
 town of Alcala de Henares ; we met a squa- 
 dron of Polish lancers, which Marshal Bes^ 
 sieres had sent from St. Augustin to recon- 
 noitre towards Guadalaxara ; from them 
 we learned, that the advanced guard of the 
 army of the centre had arrived before Ma- 
 drid. We were now only three leagues 
 from that capital. 
 
 The Emperor Napoleon had set out on 
 
 the 
 
the 22d November, from Burgos, for Aran- 
 da, in order to observe, and support, if ne- 
 cessary, the movements of the army of the 
 left, upon the Ebro, against the Spanish 
 right. The 20th November, nine days 
 after the affair of Tudela, the Emperor had 
 marched against Madrid, with the army 
 of the centre, by the direct road of the 
 Castiles : he had left Marshal Souk's corps 
 towards Asturia, to watch the remains of 
 the Spanish army of Galicia. 
 
 The vanguard of the Emperor's army 
 arrived, at day-break, on the 30th, at the 
 foot of the mountain called Somo Sierra. 
 The Puerto, a passage of this mountain, 
 was defended by a division of from 12 to 
 15,000 Spaniards, and by a battery of 16 
 pieces of cannon. Three regiments of in- 
 fantry, of the first division, and six pieces 
 of cannon, commenced the attack. The 
 Polish lancers of the guard then charged 
 
 along 
 
( 60 ) 
 
 along the causeway, and carried the ene- 
 my's batteries by assault. The Spaniards, 
 too weak to resist the Emperor Napoleon's 
 army, sought safety on every side, by fly- 
 ing to the rocks. 
 
 The imperial head-quarters were fixed, 
 on the 1st December, at St. Augustino. 
 Marshal Ney's corps, to which our regi- 
 ment was attached, arrived the same day, 
 by Guadalaxara and Alcala, to join the 
 Emperor. 
 
 On the 2d December, in the morning, 
 the Emperor Napoleon preceded the main 
 body of his army, and arrived, with his ca- 
 valry only, on the heights, close to the ca- 
 pital of Spain. Instead of the order one 
 commonly perceives on approaching forti- 
 fied tow r ns, where all the circumstances of 
 war are foreseen, instead of that silence, 
 which is only interrupted by the deep and 
 lengthened call of Sentry, take heed ! by 
 
 which 
 
( 61 ) 
 
 which the sentinels, placed round a fain- 
 part, make sure of each other's vigilance, 
 were heard the bells of the 600 churches of 
 Madrid, ringing in continued peals, and, 
 from time to time, the sharp cries of the 
 mob, and the quick roll of the drum. The 
 inhabitants of Madrid had only thought of 
 their defence eight days before the arrival 
 of the French armies, and all their prepa- 
 rations were marked by precipitation and 
 inexperience. They had placed artillery 
 behind sand-bags and barricades, or raised 
 intrenchments, in haste, with bales of wool 
 or cotton. The houses, at the entrance of 
 the principal streets, were filled with armed 
 men, placed behind mattresses, at the win- 
 dows. The Retiro alone had been forti- 
 fied with any care ; it is a royal castle, si- 
 tuated on a height which commands the 
 capital. One of Marshal Bessieres' aides- 
 de-camp was sent, according to the cus- 
 tom, 
 
( .62 ) 
 
 torn, in the morning, to summon Madrid ; 
 lie narrowly escaped being torn to pieces 
 by the inhabitants, when he proposed their 
 submitting to the French: he owed his 
 life to the protection of the Spanish troops 
 or the line. ahmionnBD sdJ ,n" 
 
 The Emperor Napoleon employed the 
 evening in reconnoitring the environs of 
 the city, and in fixing his plan of attack. 
 The first columns of the infantry having 
 arrived, at seven o'clock in the evening, a 
 brigade of the first division, supported by 
 four pieces of artillery, marched against 
 the suburbs, and the sharpshooters of the 
 16th regiment seized the great burying- 
 ground, after having dislodged the Spa- 
 niards from some advanced houses. The 
 night was employed in placing the artil- 
 lery, in making every preparation for an 
 assault on the following clay. 
 
 A Spanish officer, taken at Somo Sierra, 
 
 whom 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 whom the Prince of Neufchatel sent, at 
 midnight, into Madrid, returned some 
 hours afterwards, to say that the inhabi- 
 tants persisted in defending themselves ; 
 and, on the 3d, at nine o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, the cannonade began. 
 
 Thirty pieces of cannon, under the com- 
 mand of General Cenarmont, battered the 
 walls of the Retiro, while twenty pieces of 
 artillery of the guard, and some light 
 troops, made, in another quarter, a false 
 attack, to distract the attention of the ene- 
 my, and to oblige him to divide his forces. 
 The light companies of Villatte's division 
 entered the garden of the Retiro, by the 
 breach, and were soon followed by their 
 battalion, and, in less than an hour, the 
 4000 Spanish regulars, who defended this 
 important point, were overthrown : at ele- 
 ven o'clock, our soldiers already occupied 
 the important posts of the observatory, the 
 tnorfw china 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 china manufactory, the great barracks, and 
 the palace of Medina Cceli. Masters of 
 all the Retiro, the French might have burn- 
 ed Madrid in a few hours. 
 
 The cannonade then ceased to be heard, 
 the progress of the troops was stopped in 
 every direction, and a third envoy was sent 
 into the place. It was of consequence to 
 the Emperor to conciliate the capital of 
 the kingdom he destined for his brother. 
 One may establish a camp, but not a court, 
 in the midst of ruins. Madrid, in ashes, 
 might, by its example, have excited a de- 
 sperate resistance in the other cities of the 
 kingdom. Besides, its destruction would 
 have deprived the French armies of im- 
 mense resources. 
 
 At five o'clock in the afternoon, General 
 Morla, chief of the military junto, and Don 
 B. Yriarte, deputed from the city, came 
 back with the French envoy. They were 
 
 con- 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 conducted to the Prince of Neufch&tel's 
 tent. They demanded a suspension of 
 arms during the 4th, that they might have 
 time to persuade the people to give them- 
 selves up. The Emperor reproached them 
 with the greatest appearance of anger, for 
 the not executing the treaty of Baylen, and 
 for the massacre of the French prisoners in 
 Andalusia : he wished to frighten the Spa- 
 nish deputies by this feigned wrath, in 
 order that they might, on their return, com- 
 municate their terrors to those whom they 
 commanded. The Emperor earnestly de- 
 sired the reduction of Madrid to have the 
 appearance of a voluntary submission. It 
 was then generally believed, that the whole 
 of Spain would follow the example of the 
 capital. 
 
 Meantime the inhabitants refused to lay 
 
 down their arms, and they continued to 
 
 fire upon the French, from the windows of 
 
 F the 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 the houses surrounding the public walk of 
 the Prado. By the prisoners which were 
 every moment brought in, accounts of the 
 fury and consternation of the city were 
 received. Fifty thousand armed inhabi- 
 tants, without any discipline, ran up and 
 down the streets tumultuously, vociferating 
 for orders, and accusing their leaders of 
 treason. The Captain General Marquis 
 of Castellar, and the other military men of 
 rank, left Madrid during the night, with 
 the regular troops, and sixteen pieces of 
 cannon. On the 4th December, at six 
 o'clock in the morning, General Morla 
 and Don F. de Vera came back to the 
 Prince of NeufchateFs tent, and, at ten 
 o'clock, the French troops took possession 
 
 of Madrid. 
 
 . 
 
 The Emperor remained with his guard 
 encamped on the heights of Chamartin. 
 According to his usual system of war, he 
 
 sent 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 sent numerous bodies on the very day of 
 the taking of Madrid, in all directions, to 
 prevent the enemy from having time to 
 reassemble ; and to profit by the astonish- 
 ment and terror which almost always 
 double the forces of the conqueror after 
 any great event,, and for the moment para- 
 lyse the arms of the conquered. Marshal 
 Bessieres, with sixteen squadrons, pursued 
 the Spanish army of General la Penna, on 
 the road of Valencia ; that same army was 
 thrown back upon Cuenca, by General 
 Rufin's division of infantry and General 
 Bordesoult's brigade of dragoons. Mar- 
 shal Victor's corps went to Toledo, by 
 Aranjuez. Generals Lasalle and Milhaud's 
 divisions of cavalry followed towards Tala- 
 vera de la Reyna the wreck of the Spanish 
 division, which had been defeated at Somo 
 Sierra, and the troops which had escaped 
 
 F 2 from 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 from Madrid. General La Houssave en- 
 
 . 
 tered the Escurial. 
 
 t 
 Our regiment of hussars had passed the 
 
 2d, 3d, and 4th December in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Alcala, three leagues from 
 Madrid. On the 5th we received orders 
 to join the imperial head-quarters early, 
 in order to be reviewed. We had not been 
 arrived many minutes, on a plain, near the 
 castle of Chainartin, before the Emperor 
 Napoleon suddenly appeared. He was 
 accompanied by the Prince of Neufchatel, 
 and by five or six aides-de-camp, who could 
 scarcely keep up with him, so hard was he 
 riding. All the trumpets sounded ; the 
 Emperor placed himself about a hundred 
 paces in front of the center of our regi- 
 ment, and asked the colonel for the list of 
 officers, non-commissioned officers and pri- 
 vates, who had merited military distinc- 
 tion. 
 ' 
 
( 69 ) 
 
 T T" 'V T Y~\ T\ /C 
 
 tion. The colonel immediately called 
 them by their names ; the Emperor Napo- 
 leon spoke familiarly to some of the com- 
 mon soldiers who were presented to him; 
 then addressing himself to the general 
 commanding the brigade of which we 
 formed a part, he rapidly put two or three 
 short questions to him ; the general having 
 begun to answer rather diffusely, the Em- 
 peror Napoleon turned his horse without 
 waiting for the end of the speech, and his 
 departure was as sudden and as swift as 
 his arrival. 
 
 After the review we took the road 
 towards Madrid. A melancholy silence 
 had succeeded to the noisy and tumultuous 
 agitation which had reigned only the day 
 before, both within and without the walls 
 of that capital. The streets by which we 
 entered were deserted, and in the public 
 places, even the numerous shops for eat- 
 
 F 3 ables 
 
( 70 ) 
 
 ables had not been re-opened. The water 
 carriers were the only inhabitants who had 
 not interrupted their customary employ. 
 They walk along calling, with the slow 
 nasal accent of their native mountains of 
 Galicia, Quicn quiere agua ? Nobody 
 appeared to buy. the aguador from time 
 to time ruefully answered himself, Dios que 
 la da, and began his cry again. 
 
 As we advanced towards the center of 
 Madrid, we saw a few groups of Spaniards 
 standing upright, wrapped in their great 
 cloaks, at the corners of a place where 
 they were formerly used tp assemble in 
 great numbers. They looked at us with a 
 melancholy and dejected air; their national 
 pride was so great that they could hardly 
 persuade themselves that soldiers not born 
 Spaniards could have beaten Spaniards. 
 When, by chance, they discovered among 
 our ranks a horse, taken from the enemy's 
 
 cavalry, 
 
( 71 ) 
 
 cavalry, and ridden by one of our hussars, 
 they immediately knew him by his paces, 
 they roused themselves from their stupor, 
 and said to each other, Este cavallo es 
 Espanol; as if he had been the only cause 
 of our success. 
 
 We only passed through Madrid ; our 
 regiment being quartered sixteen days at 
 Cevolla, not far from the banks of the 
 Tagus, near Talavera, after which it re- 
 turned, on the 19th December, to form a 
 part of the garrison of Madrid. The in- 
 habitants of the capital and its neighbour- 
 hood had recovered from their great asto- 
 nishment. By degrees they had become 
 accustomed to the sight of the French. 
 The army observed the strictest discipline; 
 and, at least in appearance, tranquillity 
 was as well established as during a time 
 of peace. 
 
 One is astonished on entering Madrid by 
 F 4 the 
 
( 72 ) 
 
 the gate of Toledo and the place of 
 Cevada, where the market is held early in 
 the morning, at the tumultuous concourse 
 of people from the country and the pro- 
 vinces, diversely clothed, going, coming, 
 arriving and departing. Here a Castilian 
 gathers up the ample folds of his cloak 
 with the dignity of a Roman senator 
 wrapped in his toga. There a drover from 
 La Mancha, with a long goad in his hand 
 and clad in a kelt of hide, which also 
 resembles the ancient form of the tunic 
 worn by the Roman and Gothic warriors. 
 Farther on are seen men whose hair is 
 bound with long silken fillets, and others 
 wearing a sort of short brown vest, che- 
 quered with blue and red, which reminds 
 one of the Moresco garb. The men who 
 wear this habit come from Andalusia; 
 they are distinguished by their black lively 
 eyes, their expressive and animated loo^s, 
 
 an 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 and the rapidity of their utterance. 
 Women sitting in the corners of the streets 
 and in the public places, are occupied 
 preparing food for this passing crowd, 
 whose homes are not in Madrid. 
 
 One sees long strings of mules laden 
 with skins of wine or of oil, or droves of 
 asses led by a single man, who talks to 
 them unceasingly. One also meets car- 
 riages drawn by eight or ten mules, orna- 
 mented with little bells, driven with sur- 
 prising address by one coachman, either on 
 the trot, or galloping, without reins, and 
 by means of his voice only, using the wildest 
 cries. One long sharp whistle serves to 
 stop all the mules at the same moment. 
 By their slender legs, their tall stature, 
 their proudly raised heads, one would take 
 them for teams of stags or elks. The voci- 
 ferations of the drivers and the muleteers, 
 the ringing of the church bells, which is 
 
 unceasing, 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 unceasing, the various vesture of the men, 
 the superabundance of southern activity, 
 manifested by expressive gestures or shouts 
 in a sonorous language of which we were 
 ignorant, manners so different from our 
 own, all contributed to make the appear- 
 ance of the capital of Spain strange to 
 men coming from the north, where all goes 
 on so silently. We were so much the 
 more struck with it, as Madrid was the first 
 great town we had found peopled since 
 our entry into Spain. 
 
 At the hour of the siesta, especially in 
 summer, during the heat of the day, all 
 these noises were suspended, the whole 
 city was asleep, and the streets only re- 
 echoed to the trampling of the horses of 
 our corps of cavalry, going their rounds, 
 or the drum of a solitary detachment 
 mounting guard. This same French drum 
 had beaten the march and the charge in 
 
 Alexandria, 
 
( 75 ) 
 
 Alexandria, in Cairo, in Rome, and in 
 almost every town in Europe, from Ko- 
 nigsberg to Madrid, where we then were. 
 
 Our regiment remained almost a month 
 in the capital of Spain. I was quartered 
 on an old man of illustrious name, who 
 lived alone with his daughter. He went 
 regularly twice a day to mass, and once to 
 the place Del Sol, to learn the news. He 
 sat down as soon as he came in, in a parlour 
 where he passed his days doing nothing. 
 Sometimes he lighted his segar, and dissi- 
 pated his cares and his thoughts by smok- 
 ing : he rarely spoke, and I never saw him 
 laugh. He only exclaimed every half-hour, 
 with a sigh of dejection, Ay Jesus ! his 
 daughter always answered in the same 
 words, and they both again became silent. 
 
 A priest, the spiritual director of the 
 house, came every day to see my hosts, 
 with as much assiduity as a physician visits 
 
 his 
 
( 76 ) 
 
 his patients. He wore a fair wig to hide 
 his priest's tonsure, and was habited like 
 an ordinary citizen, always affecting to 
 say that he dared not wear his canonical 
 dress for fear of being murdered by our 
 soldiers; this useless disguise was solely 
 for the purpose of increasing the violent 
 irritation which already existed against the 
 French. 
 
 Although, to appearance, the greatest 
 tranquillity prevailed at Madrid, our regi- 
 ment was always ready to mount at a 
 moment's warning; and our horses, though 
 in the capital, were kept constantly saddled 
 as if it had been an advanced post in pre- 
 sence of the enemy. Eleven hundred de- 
 termined Spaniards had, according to re- 
 port, remained concealed in the town when 
 it capitulated, in order to raise the inha- 
 bitants and to put an end to every French-* 
 man at the first favourable opportunity. 
 
 Amidst 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 Amidst the strains of victory with which 
 our bulletins resounded, we had a con- 
 fused feeling of uncertainty concerning 
 the very advantages we had just gained; 
 it might have been said that we had con- 
 quered upon volcanos. The Emperor 
 Napoleon made no public entry into 
 Madrid, as he had done into the other 
 capitals of Europe ; we were told that he 
 was prevented by the forms imposed by 
 etiquette with regard to his brother Joseph, 
 whom he already considered as a foreign 
 sovereign. Encamped with his guard on 
 the heights of Chamartin, he issued daily 
 decrees to Spain, expecting the immediate 
 submission of that kingdom, from the ter- 
 ror that the rapid success of our arms must 
 have produced. 
 
 The thundering proclamations of the 
 Emperor Napoleon announced his tri- 
 umphs to astonished Europe, and made 
 
 such 
 
( 78 ) 
 
 such parts of the Peninsula as still resisted^ 
 fear a terrible fate. Nevertheless the pro- 
 vinces of Spain did not seem in any haste 
 to make separate advances towards molli- 
 fying the implacable conqueror, and to 
 ward off the fatal blow which they could 
 not but fear. No man presented himself 
 to lay at the feet of Napoleon, along with 
 the required tribute, those obsequious 
 eulogies, to which other countries had 
 accustomed him. The deputations from 
 the city of Madrid, and a few alcades 
 from the places occupied by our troops, 
 came alone to the imperial quarters of 
 Chamartin, to make such submissions- as 
 were dictated by fear. Twelve hundred 
 heads of families chosen in Madrid itself 
 were also summoned, and came to take 
 the oath of fidelity to King Joseph. But 
 the priests themselves, had, it is said, 
 absolved them beforehand from all oaths 
 
 of 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 of submission they might make to then* 
 conquerors. 
 
 The reduction of the religious orders and 
 the abolition of the Inquisition, which had 
 been proclaimed by the French authori- 
 ties, far from placing them in the light of 
 deliverers, only augmented the violent 
 hatred borne them by the clergy and its 
 numerous followers. The monks of all 
 orders, who had been turned out of the 
 convents, dispersed themselves through the 
 country and preached against us wherever 
 they went. Cloaking their resentment for 
 the recent loss of their revenues under a 
 holy zeal, they sought to excite the people 
 against the French by every possible 
 means. The priests loudly declared that 
 the Inquisition had only been set up against 
 foreigners ; and that without the Inquisi- 
 tion, all religious principles would have 
 long been destroyed in Spain, as they had 
 
 been 
 
( 80 ) 
 
 been lost in France, for more than twenty 
 years. 
 
 Thelnquisition had become much milder 
 during the last century ; it no longer in- 
 spired the Spaniards with terror; and even 
 ^enlightened men had come to look upon 
 it as a means necessary to a weak govern- 
 ment, in order to curb the people and re- 
 press the power of the inferior clergy. 
 The poor began to consider where they 
 should seek, in years of scarcity, that daily 
 food they were accustomed to receive at 
 the convent gates. 
 
 This religious people could not conceive 
 how institutions, that they regarded as 
 having always existed, could ever cease; 
 and in these times of misfortune every 
 change made by an enemy's hand was 
 regarded as impiety. 
 
 A few days after the taking of Madrid, 
 while our regiment was still at Cevolla, on 
 
 the 
 
( 81 ) 
 
 the banks of the Tagus, I received orders 
 to carry an open despatch from General 
 Lassalle, itho was in our front at Talavera, 
 to Marshal Lefevre. Marshal Lefevre was 
 to read the despatch and then send it 
 difcct to the Prince of Neufchatel. I met 
 Marshal Lefevre at sun-set, just as he 
 arrived from Casa Rubios. In order to 
 spare his own aides-de-camp, the marshal 
 ordered me to go on and to carry the let- 
 ters I was entrusted with myself to the 
 imperial head-quarters. As I was to ride 
 post, I was obliged to leave my horse at 
 Maqueda,and I mounted a requisition mule, 
 which the head of the staff forced the 
 alcade of the place to give me. I was 
 soon on the road, in a dark night, on a 
 vicious mule, whose mane had been cut 
 quite off ; a Spanish peasant, who served 
 me as guide, rode before me on a mule the 
 fellow of mine. When we had ridden about 
 
 G a mile 
 
( 82 ) 
 
 a mile my guide fell, and his mule imme- 
 diately set off on a gallop for his own vil- 
 lage. I fancied that the peasant, stunned 
 by his fall, had fainted, and I dismounted 
 to help him, but I sought for him in vain 
 about the place where I heard him fall, 
 he had slipped behind the thick brush- 
 wood and disappeared ; I mounted my 
 mule again, not too certain how I was to 
 find my way alone. The restive beast, no 
 longer hearing his companion march before 
 him, would neither go backwards nor for- 
 wards; the more I spurred the more he 
 kicked; my blows, my abuse, my threats 
 in French only irritated him the more. I 
 did not know his proper name. I was not 
 even aware that every Spanish mule is pro- 
 vided with one, and that the only way of 
 getting them on, is to say in their own lan- 
 guage, Go on, mule, get on, Captain, get 
 on, Arragonese, &c. Having alighted to 
 
 tighten 
 
( 83 ) 
 
 tighten the girth of my wooden saddle, 
 the provoked mule started to one side and 
 knocked me down with a kick on the 
 breast, then turned into a neighbouring 
 path ; when I recovered from my fall I 
 ran after him with all my strength, guided 
 by the sound of my stirrups, the saddle 
 having turned round and dragging on the; 
 stones. When I had run about half a 
 league I found my saddle, which the mule 
 had succeeded in kicking oft". I took it 
 on my back, and soon after reached a 
 large village, where the advanced guard 
 of one of Marshal Lefevre's brigades had 
 just arrived. I procured a horse from the 
 alcade and proceeded on my way, taking 
 good care to keep pretty near rny guide. 
 
 There was no French garrison in the, 
 
 village where I changed horses for the 
 
 second time. The post-master opened the 
 
 door to me himself; he was a spare hale 
 
 G 2 old 
 
( 84 ) 
 
 old man. He awoke a post-boy, and told 
 him to put my saddle upon an old horse 
 which could hardly stand, his fore legs were 
 so crooked. I began to threaten the post- 
 master, and, as I raised my voice, pointed 
 at the horse I wanted. The old man was 
 not to be alarmed; he took me by the hand 
 with a tranquillity which instantly disarm- 
 ed my rage, and, making signs to me to 
 make no noise, he shewed me thirty or forty 
 peasants, asleep upon the cut straw in the 
 barn, at the other end of the stable. I 
 took his advice, and mounted the bad 
 horse, without saying another word, asto- 
 nished at the various sentiments indicated 
 by this simple trait, and reflecting on the 
 innumerable difficulties which the hatred 
 of the Spaniards already opposed to us 
 even in the midst of our victories. 
 
 At one o'clock in the morning, I arrived 
 at the imperial quarters at Chamartin. The 
 
 Duke 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 Duke of Neufchatel was awakened by one 
 of his aides-de-camp ; I gave him the letters 
 I had brought, and I was sent back, at 
 eleven o'clock the same night, to my own 
 division, with fresh despatches for Marshal 
 Victor. I arrived at Aran juez in the morn- 
 ing ; the commandant of the place advised 
 nxe to wait, before I went to Toledo, for a 
 detachment which was soon to march. The 
 director of the posts, attached to the first 
 division, had been massacred on the road 
 the evening before, having gone on only a 
 few minutes before his escort. But I had 
 been told, that the orders I was carrying 
 were pressing, and continued my journey, 
 mounted on a small requisition horse. 
 Being alone, I was obliged to perform for 
 myself the offices of rear-guard, advance- 
 guard, and flank, galloping up every emi- 
 nence, and continually on the watch, for 
 fear of surprize. 
 
 3 The 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 The wild horses, belonging to the royal 
 stud, mingled with deer and fawns, in herds 
 of sixty or seventy head, fled at my ap- 
 proach. 
 
 A few miles beyond Aranjuez, I saw, at 
 & distance, two Spanish peasants, who had 
 just fettered a French soldier, and were 
 dragging him into the thicket, to murder 
 him. I rode towards them with all the 
 speed of which my horse was capable, and 
 had the good fortune to arrive time enough 
 to deliver the unhappy prisoner; he was a 
 foot soldier, who had left the hospital at 
 Aranjuez the day before ; overcome with 
 fatigue, he had set down while his com- 
 rades continued their march. I escorted 
 him to his detachment, which was halting 
 near at hand, and then continued my route. 
 
 Nothing; can be more horrible than the 
 
 o 
 
 spectacle which shortly after presented it- 
 self before my eyes. At every step I be- 
 held 
 
( 87 ) 
 
 held the mutilated bodies of Frenchmen, 
 assassinated during a few previous days, 
 and bloody fragments of clothing strewed 
 up and down. Traces, still recent in the 
 dust, indicated the struggle that some of 
 those wretches had made, and the long tor- 
 tures they had suffered before they expired. 
 The brazen plates of their military caps 
 were the only marks either of their having 
 once been soldiers, or of the regiments to 
 which they belonged. Those who thus 
 attacked the French on the road to Toledo, 
 were the keepers of the royal stud, and 
 such peasants as had deserted the villages 
 on the arrival of our troops ; they had ac- 
 quired a great ferocity of manners, from 
 the habits of a wandering and solitary 
 life. 
 
 I left my dispatches with Marshal Vic- 
 tor, at Toledo, and I returned to my regi- 
 ment the day before it went to garrison 
 Madrid. 
 
 G 4 The 
 
( 88 ) 
 
 The Spaniards of the plains of Castile 
 already began to recover from the momen- 
 tary consternation into which our arrival 
 had thrown them. The inhabitants of the 
 places we occupied had retired to the moun- 
 tains, or the woods, with their wives and 
 children; from thence they watched all 
 our proceedings, and they lay in ambus- 
 cade, near the high roads, to surprize our 
 couriers, and our ordonnance, or to fall 
 suddenly upon such of our detachments as 
 they fancied inferior to them in strength. 
 
 Every day we received some disastrous 
 news of the small detachments left in the 
 rear of the army, to maintain the commu- 
 nications. In whatever station we left, as 
 in Germany, posts of correspondence, of 
 ten or fifteen men, they were certain of 
 being murdered. 
 
 The Spanish Junta had retired to Me- 
 rida; and thence went to Seville. It had 
 just sent orders to the alcades and clergy, 
 
 even 
 
( 89 ) 
 
 even of the places occupied by us, toin- 
 vite the soldiers belonging to the Spanish 
 militia to rejoin the corps to which they 
 had belonged ; these soldiers of their coun- 
 try marched, during the night, through bye 
 ways to avoid meeting our troops ; and thus 
 the dispersed armies of the Spaniards con- 
 tinually recovered from their disasters with 
 inconceivable facility. When the army 
 oif Castanos arrived at Cuenca, after the 
 defeat at Tudela, it was reduced to 9000 
 foot and 2000 horse; a month after, at the 
 battle of Ucles, this same army was up- 
 wards of 20,000 strong. After the defeat 
 of Blake's army, at Espinosa, the Marquis 
 de la Romana had great difficulty in col- 
 lecting 5000 soldiers in Galicia; but, so 
 early as the beginning of December, he had 
 assembled 22,000 men in the neighbour- 
 hood of the city of Leon. 
 
 Although the Spanish Junta was a weak 
 
 and 
 
( 90 ) 
 
 and ill-settled administration, it possessed, 
 nevertheless, great influence while it se- 
 conded the movements originating in the 
 nation itself: these movements were neces- 
 sarily the more durable as they were en- 
 tirely voluntary. 
 
 The Spanish generals, like their govern- 
 ment, had no authority, excepting while 
 they acted in unison with the feelings of 
 those whom they commanded . They could 
 neither restrain their soldiers in success, 
 nor command them when a reverse of for- 
 tune occurred, and these undisciplined 
 bands, in victory or in flight, dragged their 
 generals with them. The pride of the 
 Spaniards was such, that they would never 
 attribute their misfortunes to their want of 
 experience, or to the military superiority 
 of their enemies : the moment they were 
 beaten, they accused their chiefs of trea- 
 son. General Saint Juan was hanged by 
 
 his 
 
( 91 ) 
 
 his soldiers at Talavera, General la Penna 
 was superseded by the divisions of Anda- 
 lusia, and the Duke de FInfantado forced 
 to take the command of the army at 
 Cuenca. 
 
 The Spaniards were a religious and war- 
 like, but not a military people; they even 
 detested and despised every thing belong- 
 ing to regular .troops ; therefore they were 
 in want of officers, subalterns, and all the 
 means that tend to constitute a well regu- 
 lated army. They considered the present 
 war as a religious crusade against the 
 French, for their country and their king; 
 and the only military distinction of the 
 greatest part of their citizen soldiers was a 
 red ribbon, with this inscription, Vincer o 
 morir pro patria et pro Ferdinando septimo. 
 At the first call, men from every province 
 presented themselves, almost naked, at 
 the great assemblies, which they called 
 
 their 
 
( 92 ) 
 
 their armies. There the ardent desire they 
 had for conquest, made them support, with 
 admirable patience, privations to which all 
 the power of the severest discipline could 
 never have subjected the best regular 
 troops. 
 
 Even at the time of our victories, the 
 people of the provinces manifested the 
 greatest incredulity concerning the suc- 
 cesses we gained ; no Spaniard would be- 
 lieve in the disasters of Spain, or own that 
 she could be conquered : these sentiments, 
 inherent in every mind, rendered the na- 
 tion invincible, notwithstanding the fre- 
 quent defeats, and individual losses of its 
 armies. 
 
 The English had entered Spain towards 
 the end of 1808. Thirteen thousand men, 
 under General Sir David Baird, had land- 
 ed at Corunna, on the 14th of October, 
 and had advanced, by Lugo, as far as As- 
 
 torga. 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 torga. Another army of 21,000 men, un- 
 der General Moore, cominaiider-in-chief 
 of all the British forces, had left Lisbon 
 on the 2?th of the same month. It had 
 reached Estremadura and the Castiles, by 
 the roads of Almeida, Ciudad Rodrigo, 
 Alcantara, and Merida. The division which 
 marched by Merida, had, on the 22d of 
 November, advanced as far as the Escu- 
 rial ; all the English corps in the Penin- 
 sula were to unite at Salamanca and Val- 
 ladolid, to strengthen the Spanish central 
 army before Burgos ; when that army had 
 been dispersed, as well as that of General 
 Blake, in the Asturias, Sir D. Baird re- 
 tired from Astorga to Villa Franca ; and 
 afterwards, when the French marched upon 
 Madrid, after the affair of Tudela, General 
 Moore recalled the body of English which 
 had reached the Escurial, and concen- 
 trated his army in the neighbourhood of 
 
 Safa- 
 
( 94 ) 
 
 Salamanca. The English armies in S 
 remained near a month at Salamanca and 
 Villa Franca, uncertain of what they were 
 to do : they could not advance in the face 
 of the immense forces of the French, nor 
 could they venture to retreat for fear of 
 discouraging the people of Spain, and 
 damping the national spirit which still ex- 
 isted in spite of the greatest misfortunes. 
 
 There was a momentary misunderstand- 
 ing between the Spaniards and English* 
 which occasioned a want of union in their 
 military operations. The Spaniards, for- 
 getting that the English were only auxili- 
 aries in their quarrel, reproached them, 
 first with the slowness of their marches, 
 and soon after with remaining stationary. 
 The English general, in his turn, accused 
 the Spaniards of having constantly con- 
 cealed from him their situation, and their 
 defeats, and of jexaggerating their strength 
 
 and 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 and means of resistance. He was deceived, 
 like the leader of the French armies, in 
 the Spanish character, and generally mis- 
 took for imbecillity the enthusiastic belief 
 and representations of a people without 
 military resources, but strong in patriotism, 
 and in their national character, and who 
 are invincible, inasmuch as it is their own 
 determination and spirit which exaggerate 
 their means. 
 
 The Spaniards went so far as to persuade 
 themselves, that the English meant to leave 
 them to their fate. The French also be- 
 lieved, according to the report generally 
 current, that the English were now only 
 occupied with the means of re-embarking 
 at Corn nn a and Lisbon; they even sent 
 Marshal Lefevre forward from Talavera to 
 Badajoz, to threaten General Moore's com- 
 munications, and to force him to return 
 hastily down the Tagus. General Soult, 
 
 who 
 
who had remained on the frontiers of Leon, 
 also prepared to. enter Galicia ; he was to 
 be reinforced by General Junot's corps, 
 which had just arrived from France, and 
 was advancing towards Burgos. 
 
 Meantime, on the 21st December, it was 
 reported, at the imperial head-quarters at 
 Chamartin, that one of General Franceschi's 
 posts, at Rueda, had been carried during 
 the night, between the 12th and 13th, and 
 that parties of English cavalry were scour- 
 ing the country, even to the gates of Val* 
 ladolid. 
 
 These advanced parties belonged to Ge- 
 neral Moore's army, which had quitted Sa- 
 lamanca on the 13th December, and had 
 passed the Douro, to join the 13,000 Eng- 
 lish, whom Sir D. Baird was bringing up 
 from Villa Franca ; their object was to 
 make, in conjunction with Marquis Ro- 
 mana's Spanish troops, an attack upon 
 
 Marshal 
 
< 97 ) 
 
 Marshal Soult, who, with 15,000 men, oc- 
 cupied the small towns of Guarda, Salda- 
 nas, and Sahagun, along the little river 
 Cea. On the 21st, a brigade of cavalry, 
 belonging to the English advanced guard, 
 under General Paget's orders, attacked and 
 defeated a French dragoon regiment which 
 Marshal Soult had left at Sahagun. 
 
 On learning this movement of the Eng- 
 lish, the Emperor Napoleon left Madrid 
 on the 22d, with his guards and Marshal 
 Ney's corps, to endeavour to cut off their 
 retreat towards Corunna. He reached 
 Villa Castina on the 23d, Tordesillas on 
 the 25th, Medina de Rio Seco on the 27th, 
 and, on the morning of the 29th De- 
 cember, his advanced guard, consisting of 
 three squadrons of mounted chasseurs, 
 commanded by General Lefvre, presented 
 itself before Benavente, where the English 
 army was. 
 
 H General 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 . General Lefevre, finding the bridge over 
 the Esla broken down, forded that river, 
 and drove in the English advanced posts 
 to the gates of the city. The General, hur- 
 ried on by the eagerness of pursuit, forgot 
 to form his chasseurs, and to send on scouts; 
 he was soon engaged with the cavalry of 
 the enemy's rear-guard. The French chas- 
 seurs were forced to repass the Esla ; sixty 
 men, wounded or dismounted, among whom 
 was the General, remained in the hands of 
 the English. The French chasseurs rallied, 
 and formed on the opposite bank of the 
 river, and were preparing to make a de- 
 sperate charge, to recover their chief, when 
 the English brought two pieces of light 
 artillery to bear, near the broken bridge, 
 and, with grape-shot, forced the French 
 squadrons to retire. 
 
 The Anglo-Spanish armies learnt the 
 .march of the Emperor Napoleon, at the 
 
 moment 
 
 
moment they were preparing to attack 
 Marshal Soult, at the village of Carion: 
 they began to retire rapidly, on the 24th, 
 upon Astorga and Benavente, by the roads 
 of Mayorga, Valencia, and Mancilla. They 
 would probably have been cut off from the 
 passes of Galicia, if the French army had 
 not been considerably impeded in its march 
 by the snow recently fallen in the sierra 
 of Guadarama, and by the torrents which 
 had overflowed. On the 30th December, 
 the Emperor Napoleon arrived at Bena- 
 vente ; he went no farther than Astorga, 
 but returned on the 7th January, with 
 his guards; and a few days afterwards he 
 was in France, making preparations for 
 marching against Austria. 
 
 Marshal Ney remained at Astorga, to 
 guard the passes of Galicia, and to orga- 
 nize the country : Marshal Soult continued 
 to pursue General Moore's army towards 
 H 2 Corunna. 
 
( 100 ) 
 
 Corunna. The country the English left 
 behind them in their retreat was totally 
 wasted, and, every night, Marshal Soult's 
 troops had to seek provisions at very great 
 distances from the beaten road, which con- 
 siderably retarded their march, and aug- 
 mented their fatigues. The advanced 
 guards of Marshal Soult's army, neverthe- 
 less, first at Villa Franca, and afterwards 
 at Lugo, reached the enemy's reserve, but 
 were not strong enough to attack it. It 
 was in an engagement which took place 
 before the first of these towns, that the 
 French lost General Colbert, of the cavalry. 
 On the l6th, the English were forced to 
 give battle at Corunna, before they em- 
 barked ; the business was bloody and well 
 contested. The French at first gained 
 groulid, but, towards the end of the day, 
 the English recovered the strong position 
 in which they had placed themselves, to 
 
 cover 
 
cover the anchorage of their fleet, and they 
 embarked during the night, between the 
 16th and 17th. General Moore was struck 
 by a cannon ball at the moment when he 
 was leadinga corps, which had been broken, 
 back to the charge. 
 
 The army of the Marquis de la Romana 
 had dispersed itself among the mountains, 
 to the westward of Astorga. The town of 
 Corunna, surrounded by fortifications, was 
 defended by its inhabitants, and only ca- 
 pitulated on the 20th. The English troops 
 had suffered, in their retreat, all the evils 
 to which armies hotly pursued are exposed, 
 when the soldiers are exasperated beyond 
 endurance by fatigue; and, without having 
 ever fought a pitched battle, they had lost- 
 more than 10,000 men, their treasure, a 
 great deal of baggage, and almost all their 
 horses. 
 
 It is not easy to imagine the causes 
 H 3 which 
 
( 102 ) 
 
 which induced General Moore to risk his 
 whole army, by an expedition against Mar- 
 shal Soult,* the result of which could only 
 be extremely doubtful, as the Marshal 
 might have retired upon Burgos, and have 
 been reinforced by General Junot's corps. 
 By going to wards Saldanas, General Moore 
 gave the Emperor Napoleon, who was pre- 
 paring to return to France, an opportunity 
 of attacking him with the whole of his 
 united forces. 
 
 From Salamanca, General Moore might 
 have thrown himself behind the bridge of 
 
 * These causes are sufficiently known to the English reader; 
 yet it is impossible for the translator, who has the honour to 
 call Sir John Moore a countryman, to pass over this passage 
 without a protest against any censure, or implied censure, con- 
 veyed in Mr. Rocca's pages; and without entreating the reader 
 to turn to the narrative of Sir John Moore's campaign, where 
 the griefs and vexations of that noble heart are recorded, and 
 the bright page of his military career laid open for the admi- 
 ration and example of his countrymen. (Translators note.) 
 
 Almarez, 
 
( 103 ) 
 
 Almarez, over the Tagus, into, an almost 
 impregnable situation, where he could have 
 reorganized the Spanish armies. It was 
 there that he was most dreaded by the 
 French. At all events, on leaving Sala- 
 manca, General Moore should have retired 
 rather upon Lisbon than on Corunna, to 
 shorten his own road, while he increased 
 the difficulties of Marshals Lef6vre and 
 Soult, by widening the communications 
 they had to maintain, and thus forcing 
 them to weaken themselves, by leaving 
 behind them a greater number of detach- 
 ments : the English general would thus 
 have furnished the troops of General Ko- 
 mana, and the peasants of Galicia and Por- 
 tugal, with numerous opportunities of car- 
 rying on a petty war against the French 
 detachments. This last operation has been 
 
 . i 
 
 performed since, with the greatest success, 
 by General Sir Arthur Weljesley. 
 
 ii 4 It 
 
( 104 ) 
 
 It is asserted, that General Moore was 
 deceived by false reports, and that it was 
 against his own judgment and wishes, that 
 he was induced, on this occasion, to over- 
 step the rules of military science. For the 
 rest, it is always easy to judge of things 
 when the event is known ; the difficulty in 
 all enterprizes is to foresee their probable 
 result. 
 
 While Marshal Soult was driving the 
 English from Galicia, the Spanish army of 
 Andalusia was making divers movements 
 in advance from Cuenca, apparently threat- 
 ening Madrid ; and Marshal Victor set 
 out, on the 10th January, from Toledo, 
 with the first corps, to oppose that army, 
 commanded by the Duke de Tlnfantado. 
 
 The first division was several days in the 
 neighbourhood of Ocana, advancing slow- 
 ly, witho'ut receiving any news of the ene- 
 my. Either by chance, or from ignorance 
 
 of 
 
( 105 ) 
 
 of the ground, the French found them- 
 selves, on the morning of the 13th, so com- 
 pletely engaged in the very midst, of the 
 S paniards, that, without having the smallest 
 intention of attempting to turn them, they 
 imagined themselves to be surrounded. 
 
 Villate's division was the first to engage 
 with a part of the enemy's army, drawn up 
 in battle array, on the summit of a high 
 and steep hill. The Spaniards confided 
 more in the strength of their position, than 
 in the experience of their troops, which 
 were chiefly new recruits. When they saw 
 the vigour and coolness with which the 
 French, under arms, climbed the rocks, 
 they dispersed as soon as they had fired 
 their first volley, and, in retreating, at a 
 short distance from Alcazar, they met Ruf- 
 fin's division, which, in pursuit of the ene- 
 my, had turned them without being aware 
 of it. Several thousand Spaniards were 
 
 obliged 
 
( 106 ) 
 
 obliged to throw down their arms ; terror 
 seized their whole army, and the various 
 corps which composed it precipitately fled 
 on all sides. Several of the enemy's co- 
 lumns, in attempting to escape, came upon 
 General Cenarmont's park of artillery, and 
 were received by a discharge of grape-shot, 
 which forced them to change their direc* 
 tion. A French piece of artillery, the 
 horses of which were much fatigued, was 
 met on the road by the enemy's cavalry, 
 who opened and filed off in silence on each 
 side of the road. The French made more 
 than 2000 prisoners, and took forty pieces 
 of cannon, which the Spaniards left behind 
 in their flight. If General Latour Mati- 
 bourg's division of dragoons had not been 
 too much fatigued to follow the enemy, 
 the whole Spanish army must have fallen 
 into the hands of the French. 
 
 The 13th January, the day on which the 
 
 affair. 
 
( 107 ) 
 
 affair of Ucles took place, our regiment 
 left Madrid, to join the first division of the 
 army. On the 14th, we lay at Ocana ; 
 and, at three leagues distance from that 
 city, on the morning of the 15th, we met 
 the Spanish prisoners coming from Ucles, 
 on their way to Madrid ; many of these 
 wretches sunk under their fatigue, others 
 died of inanition ; when they could march 
 no farther, they were shot without mercy* 
 'This sanguinary order was given by way 
 of reprisal against the Spaniards, who 
 hanged such Frenchmen as they took pri- 
 soners. Such violent measures, taken at 
 an unfavourable moment, against disarm- 
 ed enemies, whose very weakness should 
 have protected them, could not in any 
 case be justified by the necessity of repri- 
 sal ; besides, these measures, as impolitic 
 as they were cruel, retarded the real end 
 of the proposed conquest, which was, the 
 
 lasting 
 
tiQl 
 ( 103 ) 
 
 lasting subjection of the vanquished na- 
 tion. It is true, that the Spanish peasants 
 were thus prevented from joining the ar- 
 mies, but the result was, that a war of am- 
 buscades took place of open battles, in 
 which our eminent superiority in tactics 
 would probably always have given us 
 means of conquering our enemies, and we 
 might afterwards have subjected, by gentle 
 means, men already half-reclaimed by 
 military discipline. The French were des- 
 tined, with only 400,000 men, to struggle 
 against twelve millions of beings, animated 
 by hatred, despair, and revenge. 
 
 One of the unfortunate Spanish pri- 
 
 f 
 soners particularly attracted our attention; 
 
 he was stretched on his back, mortally 
 wounded ; his long black mustachios, 
 sprinkled with a few grey hairs, and his 
 uniform, marked him for an old soldier; 
 his nearly inarticulate words seemed to in- 
 voke 
 
( 100 ) 
 
 voke the Virgin and the Saints; we endea- 
 voured to revive him with a little brandy, 
 but he died in a few moments. 
 
 Nothing is more dreadful than to follow 
 a few marches behind a victorious army. 
 As we had had no share in the success of 
 our comrades, who had just beaten the 
 enemy in our front, we had no remem- 
 brance of our own dangers, fatigues, or 
 anxieties, to weaken the horrible effect of 
 the scene which presented itself at every 
 step. We traversed a wasted and deserted 
 country; we lodged indiscriminately among 
 the dead and the dying, who had dragged 
 their wounded limbs through the mud of 
 the field of battle, to die, without help, in 
 the nearest hovels. 
 
 At Cuenca we joined our division; and 
 for some days we occupied cantonments at 
 Belmonte and the neighbourhood of San 
 Clemente : we waited for our artillery, 
 
 which 
 
( no ) 
 
 which had great difficulty in advancing 
 even one league, or, at most, two in a day : 
 the winter rains had so destroyed the roads, 
 that it was frequently necessary to use the 
 horses belonging to several pieces of can- 
 non to drag a single gun. We afterwards 
 crossed the country of Don Quixote, on 
 our way to Consuegra and Madrilejos. 
 Toboso perfectly answers the description 
 of Cervantes, in his immortal poem of Don 
 Quixote de la Mancha. If that imaginary 
 hero was not of any great service to widows 
 and orphans during his lifetime, his me- 
 mory, at least, protected the supposed 
 country of his Dulcinea from some of the 
 horrors of war. As soon as the French 
 soldiers saw a woman at a window, they 
 cried out, laughingly, "There's Dulcinea I" 
 Their gaiety tranquillized the inhabitants; 
 far from flying, as usual, at the first sight 
 of our advanced posts, they crowded to see 
 
 us 
 
( 111 ) 
 
 us pass ; witticisms upon Dulcinea and 
 Don Quixote became a bond of union be- 
 tween our soldiers and the inhabitants of 
 Toboso, and the French, being well re- 
 ceived, treated their hosts in return with 
 
 We remained near a month quartered 
 in La Mancha. Whether in houses, or 
 bivouacked in the fields, we led the same 
 sort of life ; either going from house to 
 house, or from our own fire in the open air 
 to that of a comrade. In either situation, 
 we passed the long nights in drinking, and 
 talking over the present events of. the war, 
 or our past campaigns. Sometimes, a 
 horse, tormented by the chilliness of the 
 dews, just before day-break, would tear up 
 the picket to which he was fastened, and 
 come gently and put his head close to the 
 fire to warm himself, as if he was conscious 
 of being an old servant, and wished to re- 
 mind 
 
mind us that he also had been present in 
 the battle. 
 
 The simple, yet agitated, life we led, 
 had its evils and its charms. When in pre- 
 sence of the enemy, at every hour of the 
 day, detachments were seen departing, or 
 returning after a long absence, and bring- 
 ing news of other parties in the most dis- 
 tant and various parts of Spain. When 
 we received orders to be ready to mount, 
 we were equally ignorant of our destina- 
 tion ; it might have been France, German}-, 
 the farthest extremity of Europe, or only 
 a short ride ; when we took leave of each 
 other, we knew not if we should ever meet 
 again ; when we halted, we could not tell 
 whether it was only for a few hours, or for 
 whole months. Even the longestand most 
 monotonous residence in one place, passed 
 without ennui, because we had always the 
 chance of an unforeseen occurrence. We 
 
 were 
 
( 113 ) 
 
 were often in absolute want of the neces- 
 saries of life, but we consoled ourselves in 
 our distress, by hopes of a speedy change. 
 When we came to plenty, we made haste 
 to enjoy it; we lived as fast as we could, 
 because we knew that nothing could last 
 long. When the cannon roared at a dis- 
 tance, announcing an approaching attack, 
 on any point of the enemy's line; when 
 the different corps were hurrying into 
 action, brothers and friends serving in se- 
 veral divisions recognized each other, and 
 stopped to embrace, and had a hasty fare- 
 well ; their arms clashed, their plumes 
 crossed each other, and they returned in- 
 stantly to their ranks. 
 
 The habit of danger made us look upon 
 death as one of the most ordinary circum- 
 stances of life; we pitied our comrades 
 when wounded, but when once they had 
 i ceased 
 
( H4 ) 
 
 ceased to live, the indifference which was 
 shewn them, amounted almost to irony. 
 
 When, as the soldiers passed by, they re- 
 cognized one of their companions stretch- 
 ed among the dead, they just said, " He 
 is in want of nothing, he will not have his 
 horse to abuse again, he has got drunk for 
 the last time," or something similar, which 
 only marked in the speaker a stoical con- 
 tempt of existence; such were the only 
 funeral orations pronounced in honour of 
 those who fell in our battles. 
 
 The various troops that composed our 
 army, especially the cavalry and infantry, 
 differed extremely in manners and habits. 
 The foot soldiers, having only to think of 
 themselves and their guns, were selfish, 
 great talkers, and great sleepers. Con- 
 demned, during a campaign, by the fear 
 of dishonour, to march boldly up to death, 
 
 they 
 
they shewed themselves merciless in battle, 
 and, whenever they could, inflicted on 
 others the sufferings which themselves had 
 borne. They were apt to dispute with 
 their officers, and sometimes they were 
 even insolent to them ; but in the midst of 
 the dreadful fatigues they had to support, 
 a bon mot put them in good humour, and 
 brought them over to the laugher's side. 
 They forgot all their hardships the moment 
 they heard the sound of the enemy's first 
 gun. 
 
 The hussars and chasseurs were generally 
 accused of being plunderers, and prodigal, 
 loving drink, and fancying every thing fair 
 while in presence of the enemy. Accus- 
 tomed, one may almost say, to sleep with 
 an open eye, to have an ear always awake 
 to the sound of the trumpet, to reconnoitre 
 far in advance during a march, to trace the 
 ambuscades of the enemy, to observe the 
 
 1 2 slightest 
 
slightest traces of their marches, to examine 
 defiles, and to scan the plains with eagle 
 sight, they could not fail to have acquired 
 superior intelligence and habits of inde- 
 pendence. Nevertheless, they were always 
 silent and submissive in presence of their 
 officers, for fear of being dismounted. For 
 ever smoking, to pass away his life, the 
 light horseman, under his large cloak, 
 braved, in every country, the rigour of the 
 seasons. The rider and his horse, accus- 
 tomed to live together, contracted a cha- 
 racter of resemblance. The rider derived 
 animation from his horse, and the horse 
 from his rider. When a hussar, not quite 
 sober, pressed his horse to speed, in ravines 
 or among precipices, the horse assumed 
 the empire which reason might before have 
 given to the man ; he restrained his spirit, 
 redoubled his caution, avoided danger, and 
 always returned, after a few turnings, to 
 
 take 
 
( 117 ) 
 
 take his own and his master's place in the 
 ranks. Sometimes also, during a march, 
 the horse would gently slacken his pace, 
 or lean on one side or the other, to keep 
 his intoxicated and sleeping master in the 
 saddle; and when the involuntary sleep 
 was over, and the hussar saw his horse 
 panting with fatigue, he would weep, and 
 swear never to drink more. For several 
 days he would march on foot, and would 
 go without his own bread to feed his com- 
 panion. 
 
 When a carabine shot, from the videttes, 
 gave the alarm in a camp of light cavalry, 
 every horse was saddled in an instant, and 
 the French horsemen were seen on every 
 side leaping over the fires of the bivouac, 
 the hedges, the ditches, and, with the rapi- 
 dity of lightning, flying to the place of ren- 
 dezvous, to repel the first attack of the 
 enemy. The trumpeter's horse alone re- 
 
 r 3 mained 
 
( 118 ) 
 
 mained impassive in the midst of the tu- 
 mult, but the moment his master had ceased 
 to blow, he pawed the ground with im- 
 patience, and hastened to join his com- 
 rades. 
 
 Our division quitted La Mancha towards 
 the middle of February, and the troops 
 under the command of General Sebastiani, 
 who had succeeded Marshal Lefevre, came 
 to the environs of Toledo, in order to ob- 
 serve the remains of the Duke de Tlnfan- 
 tado's army. We proceeded to occupy 
 Talavera, Arzobispo, and Almarez, on the 
 right bank of the Tagus, in face of the 
 Spanish army of Estremadura. That army 
 had been dispersed on the 24th of Decem- 
 ber, by Marshal Lefevre, at Arzobispo, 
 and opposite Almarez ; it had since reco- 
 vered itself, and been reinforced under the 
 command of General Cuesta ; it had re- 
 taken the bridge of Almarez from the 
 
 French, 
 
( 119 ) 
 
 French, and had blown up the principal 
 arches, which completely arrested the 
 march of our troops, and put us under the 
 absolute necessity of constructing a new 
 bridge over the Tagus, under the enemy's 
 fire. It is true, we had two other bridges 
 at Arzobispo and at Talavera, but the 
 roads by them were at that time impas- 
 sable for cannon. Marshal Victor fixed 
 his head-quarters at the village of Alma- 
 rez, that he might be in a situation to de- 
 fend the works, and to superintend the con- 
 struction of rafts. A part of our division 
 of light horse went over to the left bank 
 of the river, to observe the enemy, and to 
 reconnoitre their right flank, which was 
 stationed on the Ibor. 
 
 We often changed our quarters, on ac- 
 count of the difficulty of procuring forage 
 and provisions. The inhabitants had aban- 
 doned almost the whole country occupied 
 
 i 4 by 
 
( 120 ) 
 
 by the army. Before their departure, they 
 frequently walled up all that they could 
 not carry with them. Our soldiers, having 
 discovered this, were in the habit of mea- 
 suring, like architects, the outer dimensions 
 of the empty houses, and then the inner 
 apartments, to discover if any space had 
 been thus taken from them. They also 
 frequently found jars of wine buried in 
 the earth. We were thus accustomed to 
 live by chance, as it were, passing whole 
 weeks without bread, and even without 
 being able to procure barley for our horses. 
 At length, on the 14th March, our rafts 
 were finished, but we could neither launch 
 them, nor construct a bridge under the 
 enemy's fire, and it was found necessary to 
 drive them from their strong position, oppo- 
 site to Almarez, at the confluence of the 
 Tagus and Ibor. 
 
 On the 15th March, a party from the 
 
 first 
 
( 121 ) 
 
 first division crossed the Tagus, at Tala- 
 vera and at Arzobispo, to fall upon the 
 flank and rear of the Spanish posts;, The 
 German division, under General Leva], 
 attacked the enemy, on the morning of 
 the 17th, at Messa delbor; 3000 of that 
 division, without its artillery, overthrew 
 with the bayonet 8000 Spaniards, entrench- 
 ed on a high hill, and defended by six 
 pieces of cannon. The whole of the 18th 
 was employed in driving the enemy from 
 Valdecannar, and in pursuing him from 
 post to post, and from rock to rock, as far 
 as the gulley of Miravette. Our regiment 
 was with Villate's division, on the left 
 wing of the army; we went up the banks 
 of the Ibor, having no difficulty in driving 
 the Spaniards from every point, as they 
 neverstood when they found their positions 
 turned. 
 
 On the 19th March, the whole army 
 
 remained 
 
(122 ) 
 
 remained stationary, while the rafts were 
 launched. The flying bridge being finish- 
 ed before night, the artillery, and the troops 
 which had remained on the right bank of 
 the Tagus, began to pass on the same day. 
 On the 20th, the whole army assembled at 
 Truxillo. A little before our arrival, there 
 had been an engagement between the 
 mounted chasseurs of the 5th regiment, 
 who composed our advanced guard, and 
 the royal carabineers of the enemy's rear- 
 guard, before that city. The number of 
 killed on both sides was nearly equal. The 
 Spaniards lost a field-officer. 
 
 The two armies passed the night in sight 
 of each other: an hour before sun-rise 
 next day, the enemy marched, and we fol- 
 lowed soon after. The 10th chasseurs 
 formed the advanced guard of our division 
 of light horse, which itself cleared the way 
 for the whole of the army. Four com- 
 panies 
 
( 123 ) 
 
 panics of light infantry passed on before 
 us, whenever we came to a mountainous 
 or woody country. 
 
 Two hours before sun-set, the advanced 
 corps of the 10th chasseurs reached the 
 enemy's rear-guard, which, finding itself 
 close pressed, immediately retired upon 
 the main body of the Spanish army. The 
 colonel of the 10th allowed himself to be 
 carried away by too much ardour, and im- 
 prudently permitted his whole regiment to 
 charge ; it became animated, and pursued 
 the Spanish cavalry for more than a league, 
 along a causeway between rocky hills, 
 planted with ilex. 
 
 When a regiment, or a squadron of ca- 
 valry, charges in line or in column, it can- 
 not long maintain the order in which it sets 
 out ; the horses animate one another, their 
 eagerness progressively increases, and the 
 best mounted horsemen generally find 
 
 them- 
 
( 124 ) 
 
 themselves far before the others, which 
 breaks the order of battle. The com- 
 mander of an advanced corps should be 
 careful not to make long charges, and 
 should frequently form his lines, in order 
 to let the horses take breath, and to have 
 time to reconnoitre, for fear of ambus- 
 cades. Besides, at all events, when one 
 is too far advanced to receive timely help 
 from another body, it is right to keep, at 
 least, half the corps in reserve, to sustain 
 the other, and to form for the attacking 
 party a sort of rampart, behind which they 
 may rally, if they should be repulsed and 
 followed by a superior force. 
 
 Not far from the village of Mia Casas, 
 the Spaniards had placed several squadrons 
 of their best cavalry in ambush ; this 
 chosen cavalry fell unawares upon the 
 chasseurs of our advanced-guard, who were 
 marching without order and separate, at 
 
 con-* 
 
( 125 ) 
 
 considerable intervals behind each other. 
 Our horsemen were overpowered by num- 
 bers : their horses, fatigued by an exces- 
 sive long charge, could not form to resist, 
 and, in less than ten minutes, our enemies 
 completely destroyed upwards of 150 of 
 the bravest of our 10th regiment. 
 
 General Lasalle, as soon as he learnt 
 what had happened, sent us on hastily to 
 assist them. We arrived too late ; we saw 
 nothing but the cloud of dust at a distance, 
 which the retiring Spaniards left behind 
 them. 
 
 The colonel of the 10th was endeavour- 
 ing to rally his chasseurs, and tearing his 
 hair at the sight of the wounded strewed 
 here and there over a pretty considerable 
 space of ground. Night coming on, we 
 returned to bivouac, a little in the rear of 
 the spot where the action had taken place. 
 
 On the 22d March, the enemy crossed 
 
 the 
 
( 126 ) 
 
 the Guadiana. We took up various quar- 
 ters in the neighbourhood of San Pedro 
 and Mia Casas, and our artillery at length 
 coining up, on the 23d, the greater part 
 of the army concentrated itself in the town 
 of Merida, and its neighbourhood. 
 
 During the night, between the 27th and 
 28th, the whole army was in motion, to 
 march towards the enemy. General Cu- 
 esta had been several days in the plains 
 before Medellin, awaiting us; his engi- 
 neers had reconnoitred, beforehand, the 
 advantageous position in which he placed 
 his army. 
 
 The Spaniards, to whom pitched battles 
 had been so often fatal, sought, by every 
 means, to procure that confidence of which 
 they were in want. They looked upon the 
 skirmish of Mia Casas as a lucky omen. 
 They also dwelt on an ancient superstition, 
 attached to the memory of the victories 
 
 gained 
 
( 127 ) 
 
 gained by their ancestors over the Moors, 
 in these very plains, on the banks of the 
 Guadiana. The French required no ground 
 for their hopes, they trusted from habit to 
 victory. 
 
 On crossing the Guadiana, over a very 
 long and narrow bridge, one enters Medel- 
 lin ; on the other side of which is an im- 
 mense plain, without trees, which extends 
 along the Guadiana upwards, between the 
 river, the town of Don Benito, and the 
 village of Mingabril. At first* the Spa- 
 niards had occupied the heights which se- 
 parate these two places ; afterwards they 
 spread their line, and formed a kind of 
 crescent, their left at Mingabril, their cen- 
 tre in front opposite to Don Benito, and 
 their right wing near the Guadiana. 
 
 At eleven o'clock in the morning we left 
 Medellin, to place ourselves in order of 
 battle; at a little distance from the town 
 
 we 
 
( 128 ) 
 
 we formed an arc of a very narrow circle, 
 between theGuadiana and a ravine, plant- 
 ed with trees and vineyards, extending 
 from Medellin to Mingabril. General La- 
 salle's division of light cavalry was placed 
 on the left, in the centre the division of 
 German infantry, and on the right General 
 Latour Maubourg's dragoons : Villate and 
 Ruffin's divisions were in reserve. The 
 three divisions which formed our first line 
 of battle, had left numerous detachments 
 in the rear, to keep up our communica- 
 tions, so that we had scarcely 7000 soldiers. 
 The enemy before us presented an im- 
 mense front, more than 34,000 strong. 
 
 The body of Germans began the attack ; 
 the 2d and 4th regiments of dragoons 
 having next charged the Spanish infantry, 
 they were repulsed with loss, and the Ger- 
 mans remained alone in the midst of the 
 battle ; they formed a square, and, during 
 
 the 
 
( 129 ) 
 
 the rest of the action, vigorously resisted 
 every effort of the enemy. With much 
 difficulty Marshal Victor renewed the fight, 
 by bringing up two regiments of Villate's 
 division. The enemy's horse first tried in 
 vain to break our right wing ; a large body 
 of it then fell at once upon our left, which, 
 for fear of being surrounded, was forced to 
 make a retrograde movement upon the 
 Guadiana, where it forms an elbow, and 
 straightens v the plain towards Medellin. 
 We retired for two hours slowly and silent- 
 ly, stopping every fifty paces to face about, 
 and present our front to the enemy, in order 
 to dispute our ground with him, before 
 we abandoned it, whenever he attempted 
 to drive us from it. 
 
 In the midst of the whizzing of the bul- 
 lets, and the deeper sound of the bombs, 
 which, after cutting through the air, plough- 
 ed up the earth around us, the voices of 
 
 K the 
 
( 130 ) 
 
 the officers alone were heard ; the closer 
 the enemy pressed, the nutte coolly and 
 collectedly did they give their orders. 
 
 As we retired, the cries of the Spaniards 
 redoubled ; their skirmishers were so nu- 
 merous and so bold, that they frequently 
 forced ours back to their ranks. T^hey 
 shouted to us from afar, in their owti 
 tongue, that they would give no quarter, 
 and that the plains of Medellin should be 
 the grave of* the French. Had our squa- 
 dron been broken and dispersed, the Spa- 
 nish horse of the right would have burst 
 through the opening, on the rear of our 
 army, and surrounded it; the plains of 
 Medellin would then, indeed, have become, 
 as our enemies hoped, the grave of the 
 French. 
 
 General Lasalle rode proudly and calm- 
 ly backwards and forwards in front of his 
 division. When the enemy's cavalry came 
 
 within 
 
isi ) 
 
 within gun-shot, the skirmishers on each 
 side retired^ and in the space which sepa- 
 rated us from the Spaniards, nothing was 
 seen but the horses of the dead, both friends 
 and enemies, running wounded about the 
 plain, some of them struggling to get rid 
 of the cumbersome burden of their masters, 
 whom they were dragging with them. 
 
 The Spaniards had sent six chosen scfua- 
 drons against our single one ; they marched 
 in close column ; at their head were the 
 lancers of Xeres. This whole body began 
 at once to quicken their pace, in order to 
 charge us while we were retiring. The 
 captain commanding our squadron made 
 his four platoons, who together were only 
 120 strong, wheel half round to the right. 
 This movement being made, he adjusted 
 the front line of his troop as quietly as if 
 we had not been in presence of the ene- 
 my. The Spanish horse, seized with as- 
 . K 2 tonish- 
 
( 132 ) 
 
 tonishnient at his coolness, involuntarily 
 slackened thqir pace. Our commandant 
 profited by their momentary, hesitation, 
 and ordered the charge to be sounded. 
 
 Our hussars, who, in the midst of the 
 threats and abuse of the enemy, had, prer; 
 served the strictest silence, then drowned 
 the sound of the trumpet as they moved 
 onwards, by a single and terrible shout of 
 joy and fury. The Spanish lancers stop- 
 ped ; seized with terror, they turned their 
 horses at the distance of half pistol-shot, 
 and overthrew their own cavalry, which 
 was behind them. Terror had taken such 
 hold of them, that they dared not look on 
 each other for fear of seeing an enemy. 
 Our hussars mingled with them indiscri- 
 minately, cut them down without resist- 
 ance, and we followed them to the rear of 
 their own army. Our trumpets now sound- 
 ing the recal, we abandoned the enemy, 
 
 to 
 
( 133 ) 
 
 to return and form our line again. A little 
 after our charge, the whole of the Spanish 
 cavalry, both right and left, entirely dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 Our dragoons had rallied round their 
 picked companies ; they took advantage 
 of the uncertainty of the Spanish infantry, 
 which seemed shaken by the flight of the 
 cavalry, and made against the Spanish 
 centre a brilliant and fortunate charge. 
 Two regiments of Villate's division attack- 
 ed the enemy's infantry on the right with 
 success, at the same moment, near the 
 heights of Mingabril. 
 
 In an instant the army that was before us 
 disappeared, like clouds driven by the 
 wind. The Spaniards threw down their 
 arms and fled ; the cannonade ceased, and 
 the whole of our cavalry went off in pur- 
 suit of the enemy. 
 
 Our soldiers, who had seen themselves 
 K 3 threat- 
 
threatened with certain death, had they 
 sunk under the number of their foes, and 
 
 irritated by five hours resistance, gave no 
 
 
 quarter at first. The infantry followed the 
 
 cavalry at a distance, and dispatched the 
 wounded with the bayonet. The fury of 
 our soldiers was particularly directed 
 against such Spaniards as were without 
 military dresses. 
 
 The hussars and dragoons, who had dis- 
 persed themselves as foraging parties, soon 
 came back, driving in immense bodies of 
 Spaniards^ whom they delivered up to the 
 infantry, to conduct to Medellin. The 
 sajne men who had confidently promised 
 us (Jeath Before the battle, now marched 
 with downcast looks, and with the pre- 
 cipitation of fear. At the first sign or 
 njena^e of our people, they crowded to- 
 gether towards the middle of their columns, 
 like sheep when they hear the voice of pur- 
 suing 
 
( 135 ) 
 
 suing cJQg s Every tjrne they met any 
 French troops they cried aloud, " Long 
 titfe N^polton and his invincible troops! 3 ' 
 sometimes, too, oae or two horsemen pass- 
 ing by, amused themselves with extorting 
 the acclamations which were only due to 
 the whole body of the conquerors. 
 
 A certain colonel, who was a courtier 
 and an aide-de-camp, and who was look- 
 ing on as the prisoners passed in files before 
 our regiments, ordered them to shout, in 
 Spanish, " Viva il Re Joseph I" The pri- 
 soners at first appeared not to understand, 
 then, after a moment's silence, they all 
 together repeated the cry of " Long live 
 Napoleon and his invincible troops \" The 
 colonel then seized on an individual pri- 
 soner, and repeated the order with threats. 
 The prisoner having then shouted, " Viva 
 Joseph !" a Spanish officer, who, according 
 to custom, had not been disarmed, came 
 
 K 4 up 
 
( 136 ) 
 
 up -to his countryman, and ran his sword 
 through his body. Our enemies had no 
 objection to pay homage to our victorious 
 arms, but they could never be brought to 
 acknowledge the authority of a master not 
 of their own choice, even in their lowest 
 fortune. 
 
 I returned to the town of Medellin a 
 little before night. Silence and quiet had 
 succeeded to the activity of battle^ and 
 the shouts of victory. In the plain, the 
 only audible sounds were the groans of the 
 wounded, and the confused murmurs of 
 the dying, as they raised their heads in 
 prayer to God and the blessed Virgin. 
 On every individual with whom the ground 
 was strewed, death had stamped the ex- 
 pression of the passion which had animated 
 him at the moment of his fall. Those who 
 had been struck in their flight, were lying 
 on their faces or their sides, their heads 
 
 sunk 
 
( 137 ) 
 
 sunk upon their breasts, and terror seemed 
 to have contracted every muscle. Those 
 on the contrary, who had met death brave- 
 ly fighting, had preserved, even in their 
 death, an air of pride. 
 
 Two regiments of Swiss and Walloon 
 guards were stretched on the field in the 
 very line they had occupied in battle. 
 Some broken ammunition waggons, can- 
 non, with their teams of mules, left to them- 
 selves, still marked the position which the 
 Spanish army had occupied. Here and 
 there lay wounded horses, whose legs being 
 broken by the shot, could not stir from the 
 spot on which they were soon to perish ; 
 ignorant of death, and equally so of futu- 
 rity, they lay grazing on the field as far as 
 their necks could reach. 
 
 The French did not lose 4000 men. The 
 Spaniards left on the field 12,000 dead, and 
 nineteen pieces of artillery ; we made seven 
 
 or 
 
( 138 ) 
 
 or 8000 prisoners, but of these scarcely 
 2000 reached Madrid. In their own coun-r 
 try, the Spanish prisoners found it very 
 easy to escape. 
 
 The inhabitants of the towns and villages 
 assembled in great numbers on their road, 
 to distract the attention of the French 
 escorts ; they took care to leave their doors 
 open, and the prisoners mingled in the 
 crowd as they passed, and ran into ^he 
 houses, whose doors readily shut to s^ve 
 them. Our French soldiers, who recovered 
 their humanity after the battle was pver a 
 lent themselves to these practices, notwith- 
 standing th$ severity of their orders on the 
 subject. 
 
 The Spanish prisoners would say with a 
 sigh, as they pointed out a distant village* 
 to a grenadier who had to guard and lead 
 them, " Senor Soldadp Mr. Soldier, there 
 is our native pillage ; there are our wives 
 
 and 
 
( 139 ) 
 
 and children ; must we pass so near them 
 without ever seeing them again? must we 
 go so far off as France?" The grenadier 
 would answer, affecting a rough manner, 
 " If you attempt to escape I shoot you, 
 such are my orders, but I never see behind 
 me/' He would then march forward, the 
 prisoners would take to the fields, and soon 
 rejoin their armies. Latterly, we were 
 obliged to send German escorts with our 
 prisoners ; their national character and 
 strict discipline rendered them vigilant and 
 inflexible. 
 
 A part of our regiment was left at Min- 
 gabril, on the field of the battle of Medel- 
 lin, near the place \yhere the engagement 
 had been hottest. We lived in the midst 
 of the dead, and we hourly saw the dark 
 thick vapours rise, which, impelled for- 
 wards by the winds, spread pestilence and 
 infection in the surrounding country. The 
 
 oxen 
 
( 140 ) 
 
 oxen of La Mesta, who had come as usual 
 to winter on the banks of the Guadiana^ 
 fled with horror from their accustomed pas- 
 tures. Their melancholy lowings, and the 
 long howls of the dogs who kept them, in- 
 dicated the vague instinct of terror which 
 agitated them. 
 
 Thousands of enormous vultures had 
 assembled from every part of Spain, over 
 that vast and silent field of death ; placed 
 on heights, and seen from a distance against 
 the horizon, they appeared as large as men. 
 Our videts often marched towards them to 
 reconnoitre, mistaking them for enemies. 
 They never left their human prey, on our 
 approach, till we were within a few paces 
 of them, and then the flapping of their 
 enormous wings echoed far and wide over 
 our heads, like a funeral knell. 
 
 On the 27th March, two days before 
 thebattk of Medellin or Merida, General 
 
 Sebas- 
 
( 141 ) 
 
 Sebastian! had completely defeated the 
 Spanish army destined to guard the passes 
 of the Sierra Morena, near Ciudad Real, 
 in La Mancha. This victory, together 
 with that we had just gained at Medellin, 
 spread consternation over all Andalusia, 
 every road through which remained for the 
 moment open to the French. 
 
 The Spanish government, however, did 
 not allow itself to be depressed by these 
 two great misfortunes ; like the Roman 
 senate, which, after the defeat at Cannae, 
 thanked Varus because he had not despair- 
 ed of the salvation of Rome, the supreme 
 junta of Seville declared, by a public or- 
 donnance, that Cuesta and his army had 
 deserved well of their country, and award- 
 ed to them the same recompense as if they 
 had been victorious. In such desperate 
 circumstances, to blame Cuesta and his 
 army, would have been to have owned 
 
 them- 
 
themselves conquered. A fortnight after 
 the battle of Medellin, the Spanish army 
 recovered from its losses, and, with a force 
 of 30.000 men, had occupied the passes 
 of the mountains in our front. General 
 Sebastiani did not advance farther into 
 La Mancha than Santa Cruz de la Mu- 
 della, and our corps remained quartered 
 between the Tagus and Guadiana. We 
 dared not advance very far from the latter 
 river, lest we should expose ourselves to 
 having our only communication with Ma- 
 drid, by the bridge of Almarez, cut off, 
 by new bodies of Spaniards, which were 
 ready to form in our rear. Besides, it 
 was a long time since we had heard of 
 Marshal Soult's army, which was to have 
 entered Portugal, and with which we 
 were to co-operate, and to unite our right 
 wing. 
 
 The French army in the north of the 
 
 Pen- 
 
( 143 ) 
 
 Peninsula had not met with success equal 
 to that which we had gained, by the supe- 
 riority of our discipline, in the plains of 
 Estremadura and La Mancha. The troops 
 under the orders of Marshals Soult and 
 Ney had had to fight in a mountainous 
 country, where the inhabitants had it con- 
 stantly in their power, by their local know- 
 ledge, their activity, and their numbers, 
 to baffle thecalculations of military science, 
 &nd the consummate experience of two of 
 the most renowned of our chiefs. 
 
 After the retreat of General Moore 
 &nd the capitulation of Corunna and Fer- 
 tol in the month of January, Marshal 
 Soult marched towards Portugal by San 
 Jago, Vigo and Tuy; but his army not 
 being able to cross the Minho near its 
 mouth, exposed to the fire of the fortresses 
 on the opposite bank which belonged to 
 the Portuguese, he reascended the river 
 
 to 
 
( 144 ) 
 
 to Orense, where he crossed the Minho on 
 the 6th March; on the 7th he com- 
 pletely defeated, on the heights of Orsu- 
 ma near Monte Key, the army of the 
 Marquis of Romana, and drove its remains 
 into the high mountains near Pinbla de 
 Senabria. 
 
 On the 13th, Marshal Soult invested 
 Chaves, a frontier town of Portugal, and 
 took it by capitulation; on the ]9th he 
 entered Braga, after having forced the de- 
 file of Carvalho d'Este, one of the most 
 formidable positions of Portugal. At 
 length, on the 29th March, Oporto, de- 
 fended by an intrenched camp and by 
 270 pieces of cannon, was carried by as- 
 sault by the body of Marshal Soult's army, 
 and the vanguard of this body passed the 
 Douro and proceeded to the Vouga, for- 
 ty-five leagues from Lisbon. 
 . Scarcely had the French made their 
 
 victo- 
 
( 145 ) 
 
 victorious entrance into Oporto, than the 
 garrisons which they had left behind them 
 to keep possession of the country and their 
 communication open, were taken on all 
 parts. 
 
 The Portuguese troops in the fortress of 
 Caminha, placed at the mouth of the Min- 
 ho, had crossed the river since the 10th 
 March, and had now joined a consider- 
 able number of Spanish marines, and of 
 inhabitants from the coast of Galicia who 
 had taken arms under the orders of their 
 priests ; they had fortified the bridge of 
 San Pay o, against the French, who could 
 have come by San Jago, and had also 
 made themselves masters, by capitulation, 
 of the town of Vigo. Chaves was also re- 
 taken on the 21st March by the Portu- 
 guese general Francisco Silveira, who had 
 first retreated to Villa-Pouca on the ap- 
 proach of the French ; this general, after 
 
 L the 
 
( 146 ) 
 
 the taking of Chaves, advanced to Ama- 
 rante on the Tamega to hold this strong 
 position, from whence he might harass 
 the rear-guard and the French detach- 
 ments in the environs of Oporto. 
 
 On the 30th March, Romana de- 
 scended from the mountains of Puebla de 
 Sanabria, with some thousands of his men, 
 the wreck of his beaten army, and pro- 
 ceeding to Ponteferrada took a small num- 
 ber of French prisoners. He found there 
 some ammunition and provisions, and re- 
 took a single damaged 12-pounder; re- 
 paired it, crossed the route of Castile ; 
 possessed himself, by the aid of his single 
 cannon* of Villa Franca, and made the 
 garrison prisoners ; it held 800 men. On 
 the news of this slight success, his army 
 soon swelled, as the ball of snow enlarges 
 itself in descending the mountains, and at 
 length becomes an avalanche. Romana 
 
 forced 
 
( 147 ) 
 
 forced Marshal Ney to abandon Brezzo, 
 to concentrate himself on Lugo; Romana 
 then threw himself in the Asturias, which 
 he stirred up to arms as he had done 
 Galicia. 
 
 The two French bodies of Galicia and 
 Portugal, cut off from all means of com- 
 munication, were then entirely insulated; 
 and, separated from the other armies, they 
 could no longer assist each other, nor co- 
 operate for the common end of the general 
 operations of the war, and thus they ex- 
 hausted themselves from that moment, in 
 a series of partial actions without any 
 result. 
 
 Marshal Ney in vain tried to force Ga- 
 licia to submission by the terror of his 
 arms ; violent measures, far from keeping 
 down the inhabitants, only sharpened their 
 hatred of the French, and, what always 
 happens in a country where there is patri- 
 
 L 2 otism, 
 
( 148 ) 
 
 otism, violent measures led to reprisals 
 still more violent. Squadrons, entire bat* 
 talions, were annihilated by the peasants 
 in the course of a night. Seven hundred 
 French prisoners were drowned at once in 
 the Minho by order of Doti Pedro de Bar- 
 rios, Governor of Galicia for the Junta; 
 and the fury of the inhabitants, far from 
 diminishing^ was every day increased by 
 the growing weakness of the French army* 
 The inhabitants of Portugal had risen 
 in mass like those of Galicia, and the 
 Portuguese opposed the French with 12,000 
 soldiers of the line, and 70,000 of their 
 militia. Marshal Soult could not with 
 only 22,000 men keep the country in his 
 rear and advance to Lisbon. He remained, 
 however, more than 40 days in Oporto, try- 
 ing in vain to make the inhabitants submit, 
 and to re-establish his intercepted commu- 
 nications ; he had not received for several 
 
 months 
 
( 149 ) 
 
 months either orders or reinforcements. 
 Notwithstanding the danger of his situa- 
 tion, he did not make a retrograde move- 
 ment, fearful that by this he might injure 
 the operations of the other bodies of our 
 armies, of whose positions he remained 
 completely ignorant. At length, he re<- 
 solved on the 2d May that the division 
 of General Loison should take the bridge 
 of Amaranta on the Tamega, preparing to 
 retire from Portugal on the route of Bra* 
 ganza. 
 
 During these transactions, the out-posts 
 of the French on the Vouga were attacked 
 by the English, and they recrossed the 
 Douro on the following day. The English 
 army, which had returned to Portugal after 
 the retreat of General Moore, was reduced 
 to 15,000 men ; it had not at first ventured 
 to disembark its heavy baggage, holding 
 itself ready to re-embark on the first ap- 
 
 I, 3 proach 
 
( 150 ) 
 
 proach of the French. The 4th and the 
 22d April it had received considerable 
 reinforcements, and, more than 23,000 
 strong, it approached Oporto. 
 
 The French quitted this city the 12th 
 May, and their rear had an affair with 
 the advance-guard of the English. The 
 army of Marshal Soult was pursued and 
 encircled by three hostile armies ; that of 
 General Sir A. Wellesley, who never lost 
 sight of the French rear-guard ; the Anglo- 
 Portuguese army of General Beresford, 
 who marched by Lamego and Amaranta, 
 on Chaves, advancing by several marches 
 on the right of Marshal Soult; and the 
 Portuguese of General Francisco Silveira, 
 in advance of the two first, that he might 
 cut the French off from the passes of Rui- 
 vaes between Salamonde and Montalegre. 
 
 Marshal Soult, finding the route of 
 Chaves occupied by Marshal Beresford, 
 
 rapidly 
 
( 151 ) 
 
 rapidly concentrated his army on Braga, 
 and directed his inarch to Orense by the 
 difficult roads of the mountains : he lost, 
 in traversing these insurgent tracts, a third 
 of his corps d'armee, and was obliged to 
 abandon all his heavy baggage and artil- 
 lery. 
 
 The English did not advance beyond 
 Montalegre and Chaves; they returned 
 quickly on the Tagus, towards the envi- 
 rons of Lisbon. Marshal Soult arrived 
 on the 22d May at Lugo in Galicia, re- 
 lieved the garrison of this town, who were 
 besieged by the Spaniards, and opened a 
 communication with Marshal Ney, who 
 had returned from an expedition against 
 Oviedo in the Asturias. A few days after 
 he recommenced hostilities with the army 
 of the Marquis of Romana, whom he pur- 
 sued without effect, by Monforte, Ponte- 
 ferrada, Bollo, and Viana. He then pro-- 
 
 L 4 ceeded 
 
( 152 ) 
 
 ceeded, by Puebla de Sanabria, to Zamora, 
 leaving Galicia, with a design to follow 
 the movement which the English, it seemed 
 to him, were making towards the Tagus in 
 Estremadura, against the army of Marshal 
 Victor. 
 
 After the departure of Marshal Soult, 
 Marshal Ney was soon forced to retire into 
 the kingdom of Leon. His army had made 
 no durable establishment in Galicia and in 
 the Asturias, having been constantly hin- 
 dered by the inhabitants of villages, and 
 by numerous troops of armed peasants, 
 which it was impossible to reduce, for the 
 number was every day increasing. 
 
 In these mountainous provinces of the 
 north of the Peninsula, the French, although 
 Always conquerors where the Spaniards 
 and Portuguese showed themselves in bat- 
 tle, were not however the less assailed by 
 clouds of armed mountaineers, who, never 
 
 coming 
 
( 153 ) 
 
 coming near to fight in close ranks, or 
 body to body, retreated from position to 
 position, from rock to rock, on heights, 
 without ceasing to fire, even in flying. 
 
 It sometimes required entire battalions 
 to carry an order of a battalion to another 
 distant one. The soldiers wounded, sick, 
 or fatigued, who remained behind the 
 French columns, were immediately mur- 
 dered. Every victory produced only a 
 new conflict. Victories had become use- 
 less, by the persevering and invincible 
 character of the Spaniards; and the French 
 armies were consuming themselves, for 
 want of repose, in continual fatigues, night- 
 ly watchings, and anxieties. 
 
 Such were the events which had passed 
 in the north of Spain, and which had hin- 
 dered our armies of Estrernadura and La 
 tylancha from profiting by their signal vic- 
 tories 
 
( 154 ) 
 
 tories of Medellin and Ciudad-Real. The 
 operations of the army of Arragon had 
 likewise been suspended by the necessity 
 in which the French were, to recal to this 
 province the body of troops under Mar- 
 shal Mortier, and to place him at Valla- 
 dolid, to carry succours to Marshal Ney, 
 and re-establish the communications in 
 Galicia. 
 
 Since the departure of the Emperor 
 Napoleon, and the commencement of the 
 Austrian campaign, the French army in 
 Spain had received no reinforcements, to 
 make up for its daily losses ; instead of 
 concentrating itself, it had continued, un- 
 der King Joseph's orders, to be dispersed 
 every day more and more over the Penin- 
 sula. Weak on every point, because we 
 were too widely scattered, we exhausted 
 ourselves by our very victories, and in Ga- 
 licia, Portugal, and the Asturias, we had 
 
 lost, 
 
( 155 ) 
 
 lost, among the insurgent peasants, that 
 reputation of invincibility, more powerful 
 still than the real force which had conquer- 
 ed so many nations. 
 
 King Joseph had been commander-in- 
 chief since the departure of the Emperor; 
 he fancied that he might attach the people 
 of Spain to his sway after our arms had 
 subdued them, by the well-known mild- 
 ness of his character, in the same manner 
 as he had gained the Neapolitans ; and he 
 had allowed the French troops to advance 
 from all sides into the peninsula, with the 
 intention of organising provinces, that he 
 might reign over a greater extent of coun- 
 try ; it was thus that he compromised the 
 military safety of the armies of Galicia and 
 Portugal, which were five whole months 
 without being heard of. 
 
 King Joseph had contracted habits of 
 indolence upon the peaceful throne of Na- 
 ples. 
 
( 156 ) 
 
 pies. Surrounded by flatterers, and by a 
 few Spaniards who deceived him, he allowed 
 himself to be misled by groundless hopes. 
 Instead of following his armies, he remain- 
 ed in his capita], plunged in dissipation, 
 and regretting the delights of Italy. He 
 wanted to sleep and reign at Madrid, as 
 he had done at Naples, even before we 
 had conquered for him, supposing the con- 
 quest possible, a kingdom, at the price of 
 our blood. 
 
 He filled the columns of his state jour* 
 nals with decrees, which were never exe- 
 cuted, and scarcely read ; he gave to one 
 church the wax and sacred vases of another, 
 pillaged long before by the French, or 
 stripped by the Spaniards themselves. He 
 lavished the decorations of his royal order 
 on his courtiers, who did not dare to wear 
 them in any place that was not occupied 
 by the French, for fear of being murdered 
 
 by 
 
( 157 ) 
 
 by the Spanish peasants. King Joseph 
 made several promotions in his army, 
 which, however, was not as yet in exist- 
 ence; he gave away places in reversion, 
 governments, administrations, and judg- 
 ships in the most distant provinces in the 
 kingdom in both hemispheres, while he 
 dared not sleep even a few leagues from 
 Madrid in one of his country houses. Like 
 his brother at Paris, he pulled down old 
 buildings to beautify his capital, but he 
 had no money to raise a single new edi- 
 fice, and the extent of his munificence was 
 the removal of rubbish. 
 
 In order to please the people, he endea- 
 voured, by every possible means, to imi- 
 tate the solemn pomp, the grave ceremo- 
 ny, and even the tedious piety of his pre- 
 decessors. He marched on foot at the 
 head of processions through the streets of 
 Madrid, making the officers of his staff, and 
 
 the 
 
( 158 ) 
 
 the soldiers of his body-guard follow hinit 
 with lighted tapers in their hands. All 
 these pretensions to sanctity, his affecta- 
 tion of munificence, and his absurd prodi- 
 gality, only made him an object of ridicule, 
 when, after the departure of Napoleon, 
 terror, which magnifies every thing, had 
 ceased. 
 
 The Spaniards had amused themselves 
 with spreading a report that King Joseph 
 was a one-eyed drunkard, which made a 
 profound impression on the imagination of 
 the country people : nothing could be 
 more untrue; but it was in vain that he 
 endeavoured to overcome the popular pre- 
 judice by shewing himself often in public, 
 and by looking full in the face of whosoever 
 passed by, the people never lost the con- 
 ceit that he was one-eyed. 
 
 On the day of his coronation the places 
 of public amusement were opened gratis, 
 
 and 
 
( 159 ) 
 
 and at one of the theatres a farce, called 
 Harlequin Emperor of the Moon, was 
 played several times. During the repre- 
 sentation, the people openly made appli- 
 cations to the ephemeral situation of King 
 Joseph at Madrid. Devotees, who were 
 accustomed to interlard all their conver- 
 sation with the ejaculation, Jesus, Maria, 
 y Joseph, stopped short when they had 
 pronounced the two first names, and, paus- 
 ing, would use the peri phrase, y el Padre 
 de nuestro Se;*or,lest they should draw down 
 a benediction on King Joseph by naming 
 the saint who was his supposed patron in 
 heaven. 
 
 The very good nature of King Joseph 
 came afterwards to be looked upon as 
 weakness, even by the French themselves. 
 After the great battles had been won, he 
 would go himself to the prisoners sent from 
 the army to the Retiro, and receive their 
 
 oaths 
 
( 160 ) 
 
 oaths of fidelity, telling them that they 
 had been deceived by traitors, and that 
 he, as their king, wished only for their 
 happiness and that of their country. The 
 prisoners, who expected nothing less than 
 to be shot immediately, made no scruple 
 of taking the oaths of submission required 
 of them, but the moment they were armed 
 and equipped they deserted and returned 
 to their own armies, so that our soldiers 
 called King Joseph the administrator and 
 organiser-in-chief of the military depots of 
 the Supreme Junta. 
 
 The French marshals and generals were 
 very unwilling to obey a man whom they 
 did not consider as a Frenchman, since he 
 had been acknowledged king of Spain ; and 
 they often contradicted him, and sought to 
 disgust him that they might be sent back 
 into Germany. They would have been 
 happy, at any price, to have quitted an 
 
 irregular 
 
( 161 ) 
 
 irregular war, unpopular even in the army, 
 and the more so as it deprived them of 
 the opportunity of distinguishing them- 
 selves elsewhere, and of obtaining high 
 rewards by fighting under the emperor's 
 own eye. This Spanish war was ruining 
 France without even interesting the mili- 
 tary honour of the nation. 
 
 King Joseph had neither enough of mi- 
 litary talent and authority, nor sufficient 
 confidence in himself to venture to com- 
 mand such operations as the changes in 
 the general situation of affairs imperiously 
 required ; he dared not issue any new 
 orders without consulting his brother; the 
 plans sent from Paris or from Germany 
 frequently arrived too late, and they could 
 never be otherwise than imperfectly exe- 
 cuted by one who had not conceived 
 them ; and the French troops in Spain 
 wanted that unity in action', without which 
 
 M even 
 
( 163 ) 
 
 even the simplest operations of war can- 
 not succeed. 
 
 In the month of April, Marshal Victor's 
 corps, of which we formed a part, quitted 
 the cantonment on the Guadiana between 
 Merida and Medellin for a short time, and 
 went to the neighbourhood of the Tagus 
 and Alcantara, in order to join Lapisse's 
 division. That corps had summoned Ciu- 
 dad Rodrigo without effect. On the 14th 
 May part of Marshal Victor's corps went 
 again towards Alcantara, and crossed 
 the river after a slight engagement with 
 some of the Portuguese militia; the next 
 day they reconnoitred in the direction of 
 Castel Blanco, but, learning that 8000 
 English and Portuguese were in Abrantes, 
 they conjectured that Marshal Soult's ex- 
 pedition against Lisbon had not succeeded, 
 and consequently returned. - Marshal Vic- 
 tor then collected his forces in the neigh- 
 bourhood 
 
( 163 ) 
 
 bourhood of Truxillo, between the Gua- 
 diana and the Tagus, to make sure of his 
 communications by the bridge of Almarez, 
 to cover Madrid, and to observe Cuesta's 
 army. The fourth corps commanded by 
 General Sebastiani remained in La Man- 
 cha after the affair of Ciudad Real. 
 
 On the 20th May the officers and sub- 
 alterns of the fourth squadron of every 
 cavalry regiment received orders from the 
 war minister to repair to the general depdts 
 of their regiments in order to recruit. I 
 quitted Spain in consequence of that or- 
 der, and on my arrival in France I was 
 sent against the English on the coasts of 
 Flanders. The expedition they had un- 
 dertaken against the fleet and dockyards 
 of Antwerp having failed in consequence 
 of the slowness and indecision of their 
 commander-in-chief, I returned to Spain 
 in the beginning of the following year. 
 
 M 2 After 
 
( 164 ) 
 
 After Marshal Soult had been forced 
 to abandon Oporto and to evacuate Por- 
 tugal, the English army had re-crossed 
 the Douro and occupied the towns of 
 Thomar and Abrantes, near the Tagus, 
 preparing to fall upon Spanish Estrema- 
 dura by Coria and Placentia. Marshal 
 Victor, whose corps occupied the neigh- 
 bourhood of Truxillo and Caceres, fearing 
 lest the English should get behind him, 
 along the right bank of the Tagus, crossed 
 that river in the beginning of June, and 
 retired to Calzada, and afterwards on the 
 26th to Talavera de la Reyna. 
 
 On the 20th July, the English army 
 under General Sir Arthur Wellesley joined 
 Cuesta's Spanish army at Oropeza. The 
 British force consisted of 20,000 English 
 and 4000 or 5000 Portuguese ; that of the 
 Spanish General Cuesta amounted to 
 38,000 men. Another army of 18,000 or 
 
 20,000 
 
( 165 ) 
 
 20,000 Spaniards under the command of 
 General Venegas, was preparing in La 
 Mancha to co-operate with Generals Wel- 
 lesley and Cuesta. 
 
 An advanced corps of Portuguese and 
 Spaniards, commanded by the English 
 Gene'ral Wilson, went through the moun- 
 tains towards Escalona, where it arrived 
 on the 23d, to communicate with General 
 Venegas, whose force was advancing from 
 Tembleque by Ocana, towards Aranjuez 
 and Valdemoro. Generals Wilson and 
 Venegas were to approach Madrid, and 
 by the assistance of the inhabitants they 
 hoped to get possession of it. The end of 
 this combined movement appeared to be, 
 to force King Joseph to occupy himself 
 about the safety of his capital, and to pre- 
 vent him from concentrating his scattered 
 forces. The Anglo-Spanish armies were 
 in hopes of beating the French shortly, or 
 M 3 at 
 
( 166 ) 
 
 at least, of driving them out of Madrid 
 and the whole centre of Spain, and forcing 
 them to cross the mountains and retire to- 
 wards Segovia. 
 
 On the 22d July, Generals Wellesley 
 and Cuesta marched towards Talavera : 
 Cuesta's cavalry gained a slight advantage, 
 near the town, over the cavalry of the 
 French rear-guard, which instantly retired 
 upon the main army. This success raised 
 the hopes of the Spaniards to the highest 
 pitch ; eager to revenge their defeat at 
 Medellin, by attacking the French, whom 
 they fancied already half conquered, be- 
 cause they had fallen back, alone, they 
 left the English at Talavera and impru- 
 dently advanced by El Bravo, and Santa 
 Olalla to Torrijos. 
 
 Marshal Victor retired towards Toledo, 
 behind the Guadarama, where he was 
 joined on the 25th by General Sebastiani's 
 
 corps 
 
( 167 ) 
 
 corps and the troops brought by King Jo- 
 seph from Madrid. The whole French 
 army of the centre of Spain, being thus 
 collected, amounted to 47,000 men. On 
 the 26th it set out for Talavera under the 
 command of King Joseph. 
 
 Nearly the whole of the dragoon regi- 
 ment of Villa Viciosa \vas cut to pieces in 
 the pass of Alcabon near Torrijos, by the 
 2d regiment of hussars, which formed part 
 of the French advanced guard, and the 
 whole Spanish army retired precipitately 
 behind the Alberche. The French army 
 crossed that river the next day in the after- 
 noon, drove in the English advanced posts, 
 and arrived at about five o'clock in the 
 evening within cannon shot of the enemy. 
 
 The Spanish army was placed in a posi- 
 tion which it was not deemed possible to 
 attack, behind old walls, and garden 
 hedges which surround Talavera; the right 
 M 4 was 
 
( 168 ) 
 
 was supported by the Tagus and the left 
 by the right of the English, close to an 
 unfinished redoubt on an eminence. The 
 ground in front of the combined Anglo- 
 Spanish army was unequal, and cut up in 
 various parts by ravines formed by the 
 winter rains ; and the whole length of their 
 position was covered by a pretty steep ra- 
 vine, or bed of a torrent then dry. The 
 left of the English was supported by a 
 high round hillock, which commanded the 
 greater part of the field of battle, and 
 which was separated from the chains con- 
 nected with the mountains of Castile by a 
 pretty wide and deep valley. 
 
 The hillock might be called the key of 
 the enemy's position, and against that 
 point, a skilful general, gifted with that 
 rapid power of perception which decides 
 the fate of battles, would from the first 
 have directed the greatest part of his 
 
 means 
 
( 169 ) 
 
 means of attack, in order to get posses- 
 sion of it either by main force or by turn- 
 ing it by the valley : but the moment 
 King Joseph was called upon to act, he 
 was seized with a fatal spirit of hesitation 
 and' uncertainty : he tried half measures, 
 disposed of the troops he had to command 
 partially, and always lost, while he was 
 groping, as it were, for time and opportu- 
 nity to conquer. Marshal Jourdan was 
 second in command : but in the war of 
 Spain he was no longer animated by that 
 spirit of patriotism which inspired him 
 while he fought in the plains of Fleurus 
 for the independence of France. 
 
 The French began by a cannonade 
 straight forward from their right, accom- 
 panied by a fire from the rifle corps, and 
 they sent a single battalion with some 
 riflemen by the valley to gain the hillock 
 by which the English left was supported, 
 
 imagining 
 
( 170 ) 
 
 imagining that they were only thinking of 
 retiring. This battalion, however, met 
 with numerous troops, and was soon re- 
 pulsed with loss and forced to fall back. 
 A division of dragoons, which had been 
 sent to reconnoitre to wards Talavera, found 
 all the avenues of the town strongly in- 
 trenched with artillery, and was prevented 
 from advancing. 
 
 When night came, the French attempted 
 anew to possess themselves of the hillock : 
 a regiment of infantry, followed at some 
 distance by two others, attacked the ex- 
 tremity of the English right with unequal- 
 led impetuosity, reached the summit of 
 the hillock, and took possession, but it 
 was soon forced to retire ; having been 
 fiercely attacked by a whole English divi- 
 sion at the very moment when it was ex- 
 hausted by the vigorous effort it had just 
 made. One of the two regiments destined 
 
 to 
 
( 171 ) 
 
 to support this attack had mistaken the 
 direction through the woods in the dark, 
 the other had been impeded on its march 
 by the difficulty of finding the path in the 
 ravine which covered the enemy's posi- 
 tion. 
 
 These two successive attacks failed, not- 
 withstanding the intrepidity and valour of 
 the troops, because they were attempted 
 by inefficient numbers ; they had first sent 
 a battalion and then a division, where a 
 good part of the whole army ought to have 
 gone : these fruitless attempts indicated 
 to the English the projects of the French, 
 for the next day, and made them doubly 
 sensible of the importance and strength of 
 the position they occupied, and which 
 they spent the night in fortifying with 
 artillery. 
 
 The sun rose on the following day on 
 the two armies ranged in battle array, and 
 
 the 
 
( 172 ) 
 
 the cannonade began anew : the action 
 which was to ensue was probably to de- 
 cide the fate of Portugal, which the Eng- 
 lish army had taken upon itself to defend, 
 perhaps even that of the whole Peninsula 
 might be affected by it. The old soldiers 
 of the first and fourth corps of the French 
 army, accustomed for years to conquest 
 in every part of Europe, and to see their 
 courage seconded by the able combina- 
 tions of their leaders, waited with impa- 
 tience for orders to engage, and depended 
 on overthrowing all before them by a sin- 
 gle well combined effort. 
 
 A division of three regiments of foot 
 was sent by the valley, as it had been the 
 day before, to assault the position, which 
 for a moment we had in our power daring 
 the night. This division reached the 
 height and was just preparing to take 
 possession. One of the regiments advanced 
 
 towards 
 
( 173 ) 
 
 towards the enemy's artillery, when its 
 charge was repulsed, and the whole divi- 
 sion obliged to fall back. The English, 
 judging by this new attack, that the French 
 meant to turn their left by the valley, sent 
 thither some of their cavalry, and placed 
 a Spanish division on the declivities of the 
 skirts of the Castilian mountains. The 
 French returned to their first position, the 
 cannonade continued for another hour, 
 and then gradually ceased. The burning 
 heat of the middle of the day forced the 
 combatants on both sides to suspend the 
 fight and to observe a sort of tacitly 
 acknowledged truce, during which the 
 wounded were carried off. 
 
 King Joseph, having at length recon- 
 noitred the position of the enemy himself, 
 ordered a general attack upon the English 
 army at four o'clock in the afternoon. A 
 division of dragoons was left near Talavera 
 
 jTOvyvI 
 
 to 
 
( 174 ) 
 
 to observe the Spaniards. General Sebas- 
 tiani's corps marched against the English 
 right, while Marshal Victor's three divi- 
 sions of infantry, followed by great bodies 
 of cavalry, threw themselves upon their 
 left in order to attack the hillock by way 
 of the valley. King Joseph and Marshal 
 Jourdan placed themselves with the reserve 
 behind the fourth division ; the cannon 
 and musketry were soon heard. 
 
 The English commander-in-chief, placed 
 on the height which commanded the whole 
 field of battle, appeared at every point 
 where danger required his presence. With 
 a single glance he took in the various corps 
 of his army, and distinguished below him 
 the slightest movements of the French : 
 he saw them form, dispose their columns 
 for attack, judged of their projects by 
 their dispositions, arid thus had time to 
 prevent and to baffle them by contrary 
 
 arrange- 
 
( 175 ) 
 
 arrangements. The position occupied by 
 the English army, strong from situation, 
 and of difficult access both in front and on 
 its flanks, was easily accessible on its rear, 
 and permitted the troops to move with 
 celerity towards any point which might 
 be threatened. 
 
 The French had a ravine to cross before 
 they could join their enemies; they had 
 to advance over ground which was much 
 cut up, muddy, and unequal, and which 
 often forced them to break their line ; they 
 fought against positions fortified before- 
 hand. The left, hidden by the rising 
 ground, could not know what the right 
 was doing ; every division of the army 
 fought with unequalled bravery, and even 
 with skill, but there was no concert in 
 their efforts ; the French were not on that 
 occasion moved and commanded by a ge- 
 jieral whose genius made up for the advan- 
 
 tages 
 
( 176 ) 
 
 tages which the nature of the ground 
 might refuse to them, and give to their 
 enemies. 
 
 Lapisse's division was the first to pass 
 the ravine ; it attacked the intrenched hil- 
 lock, scaled it in spite of the grape shot 
 which thinned its ranks at every step, and 
 was soon repulsed after having lost its ge- 
 neral and many officers and soldiers; in 
 retiring it left the right of the fourth divi- 
 sion exposed, and it was taken in flank by 
 the British artillery and forced for the mo- 
 ment to fall back. The left of General 
 Sebastiani's corps had arrived, under a 
 very brisk fire from the artillery, at the 
 foot of the redoubt, on the right of the 
 English, the centre of the combined army. 
 It had advanced too far and too soon, it 
 was borne down and repulsed by the Eng- 
 lish right united with the Spanish left. 
 That wing was, however, soon succoured 
 
 and 
 
( 177 ) 
 
 and returned to the fight. In the center 
 Marshal Victor rallied Lapisse's division 
 at the foot of the hillock, and gave up the 
 attempt to gain it. The French then 
 sought to turn it either by the right or left. 
 Vilatte's division advanced into the val- 
 ley, and Ruffin's, keeping on its right, fol- 
 lowed the line at the foot of the Castilian 
 mountains ; the cavalry of the second line 
 had prepared to over-run the plain as soon 
 as the infantry should have forced a pas- 
 sage for them. 
 
 Two English regiments of cavalry then 
 charged the French masses at the moment 
 they put themselves in motion : the same 
 regiments got into the valley and passed, 
 regardless of the fire of several battalions 
 of infantry, between Vilatte's and Ruffin's 
 divisions, and fell with irresistible impe- 
 tuosity on the 10th and 26th regiments of 
 French mounted chasseurs. The teuth 
 
 N could 
 
( 178 ) 
 
 could not stand the charge, it opened its 
 ranks, but rallied soon afterwards, and the 
 23d light dragoons which was at the head 
 of the English cavalry was almost entirely 
 destroyed or taken. 
 
 A division of the King of England's 
 guards, which formed the first line of the 
 center and left of the British army, having 
 been charged, repulsed the French vigo- 
 rously at first; but one of the brigades 
 having advanced too far, was in its turn 
 taken in flank by the French artillery and 
 infantry, and after suffering a severe loss, 
 had some difficulty in retiring behind the 
 second line. The French seized the 
 momentary advantage, and advanced 
 again ; one more effort only was required 
 to gain the plain and fight the enemy on 
 even ground; but King Joseph thought 
 it to6 late to advance with the reserve, 
 and the attack was put off till the next 
 
 day. 
 
( 179 ) 
 
 day. Night, however, came on, and the 
 fight ceased from weariness without either 
 party having gained sufficient advantage 
 over the other to have any right to claim a 
 victory. 
 
 Marshal Victor and Sebastian!' s corps 
 retired successively during the night upon 
 the reserve, leaving an advanced post of 
 cavalry upon the field of battle to carry 
 off the wounded. The English, who ex- 
 pected a fresh attack the next morning, 
 were much astonished, when day-light 
 came, to see that their enemies had retired 
 to their old position of the Alberche, and 
 had abandoned twenty pieces of cannon. 
 The French lost nearly 10,000 men ; the 
 English and Spaniards, according to their 
 own accounts, 66l6. 
 
 King Joseph left the first division of the 
 army upon the Alberche, and went with 
 the fourth and the reserve to the assist- 
 
 N 2 ance 
 
( 180 ) 
 
 ance of Toledo ; the garrison of that city 
 consisted of only 1500 men; it had been 
 briskly attacked by a division of the Spa- 
 niards under General Venegas, who, on 
 the 27th, had seized Aranjuez and Valde- 
 moro. A few days before, Madrid had 
 been upon the point of being occupied by 
 General Wilson's advanced posts which 
 had advanced from Escalona, to Naval- 
 Carnero. The inhabitants of the capital 
 had opened their gates to him, and had 
 come in crowds to meet him dressed in their 
 holiday clothes, after having forced three 
 French battalions who composed the gar- 
 rison to shut themselves up in the fort of 
 the Retiro. King Joseph threw a whole 
 division into Toledo, and came on the 1st 
 of August to Illescas, that he might be 
 equally at hand to check the army of Ve- 
 negas, to support the first division of his 
 
 own 
 
( 181 ) 
 
 own army at Alberche, and to overawe 
 the inhabitants of Madrid. 
 
 The English did not attempt to attack 
 Marshal Victor; they retired on the 3d 
 August to Oropeza, leaving the Spaniards 
 at Talavera, and General Wilson's corps 
 at Escalona; and, in the night between 
 the 4th and 5th, the combined English and 
 Spanish armies precipitately re-crossed the 
 Tagus by the bridge of Arzobispo, on the 
 approach of the corps of Marshals Soult, 
 Ney, and Mortier, who were advancing 
 from Salamanca, by Puerto de Banos, Pla- 
 centia, and Naval Moral, placing them- 
 selves between the English army and the 
 bridge of Almaraz. 
 
 On the 8th August Marshal Mortier's 
 advanced corps crossed the Tagus at a 
 ford above the bridge of Arzobispo, at 
 one o'clock in the afternoon, during the 
 time of the siesta ; it surprised a part of 
 N 3 Cuesta's 
 
( 182 ) 
 
 Cuesta's army, and seized his guns as well 
 as those placed by the Spaniards to defend 
 the bridge. On the llth the army of Ve- 
 negas was defeated at Almonacid in La 
 Mancha by General Sebastiani. The Spa- 
 nish and Portuguese troops of General 
 Wilson were completely beaten on the 
 12th, among the mountains of Banos, by 
 a part of Marshal Ney's force which was 
 falling back on Salamanca. 
 
 The expedition of General Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley into Estremadura was at least 
 as hazardous as that attempted by General 
 Moore against Marshal Soult at Saldanas, 
 the year before. Had the corps of Mar- 
 shals Soult, Ney, and Mortier arrived a 
 single day sooner, the English and Spa- 
 nish armies must have fallen into the 
 power of the French : but King Joseph 
 did not dare to dispose of these troops 
 without first receiving the authority of the 
 
 Emperor 
 
( 183 ) 
 
 Emperor Napoleon. On the 22d he had 
 sent orders to Marshal Soult to concen- 
 trate the troops at Salamanca, and to 
 march against the English army. The 
 Marshal only received the orders on the 
 2?th ; he set off on the 28th, and notwith- 
 standing all his expedition he did not ar- 
 rive at Placentia till the 3d August. 
 
 The English and Spanish forces remain- 
 ed behind the Tagus till the 20th Au- 
 gust, occupying Messa de Ibor, Deleytosa, 
 and Jaraicejo, opposite to Almaraz, where 
 the bridge of boats had been destroyed by 
 the Spaniards. They then fell back upon 
 the Guadiana, and Sir Arthur Wellesley's 
 troops returned into Portugal. 
 
 The invasion of Estremadura by the 
 English forced the French to call up the> 
 three corps destined to guard and observe 
 the provinces of the north of Spain, to the 
 assistance of their central army, and from 
 
 A T 4 their 
 
( 184 ) 
 
 their union they had become very strong. 
 After the departure of the English, the 
 Spanish government still persisted in act- 
 ing in large masses ; an army of 55,000 
 men had been collected in La Mancha, 
 and that army was completely beaten and 
 dispersed at Ocana, on the 10th Novem- 
 ber, by Marshal Mortier, with scarcely 
 24,000 men. It was not difficult for the 
 French to defeat troops raised in haste, 
 undisciplined, and ignorant of military 
 manoeuvres, in a pitched battle where the 
 numbers which might have given them 
 strength served only to embarrass them. 
 
 After the battle of Ocana the French 
 ought to have collected their disposable 
 troops anew, and to have marched directly 
 upon Lisbon ; but they passed the Sierra 
 Morena, and without striking a blow they 
 over-ran almost all Andalusia, excepting 
 the isle of Leon and Cadiz. By extend- 
 ing 
 
( 185 ) 
 
 ing themselves towards the south of Spain 
 they gave the English time to fortify Por- 
 tugal, and to form the military forces of 
 that kingdom. The French became weak 
 because they dispersed their troops, in 
 order to occupy and organize a great ex- 
 tent of country ; and the Spaniards seized 
 the opportunity of carrying on that sort of 
 national warfare, from which the French 
 had suffered so much in the Asturias, Ga- 
 licia, and the north of Portugal. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST PART. 
 
 SECOND 
 
SECOND PART. 
 
 . . 
 
 As the Spanish armies had gradually 
 been destroyed, the communications be- 
 tween the provincial juntas and the su- 
 preme central Junta had been cut off; 
 each, therefore, applied all its resources 
 to the local defence of the district under 
 its jurisdiction. Such of the inhabitants 
 as had till then suffered with patience, 
 daily expecting their deliverance after 
 every pitched battle, now began to think 
 of seeking from themselves individually 
 the means of shaking off the yoke which 
 oppressed them. Every province, every 
 town, every individual felt more strongly 
 
 every 
 
( 187 ) 
 
 ^very day the necessity of resisting the 
 common enemy. The national hatred 
 which existed against the French had pro- 
 duced a sort of unity in the undirected 
 efforts of the people, and to regular war- 
 fare had succeeded a system of war in de- 
 tail, a species of organised disorder which 
 suited the fierce spirit of the Spanish na- 
 tion exactly, as well as the unhappy cir- 
 cumstances in which it was placed. 
 
 That part of Spain occupied by the 
 French was soon filled with partisans and 
 guerrillas, some of them regular soldiers 
 from the broken armies, and others the 
 inhabitants both of mountain and valley : 
 Clergy, husbandmen, students, shepherds 
 even had become active and enterprising 
 leaders. These leaders, without military 
 authority, and without permanent troops, 
 were at first, as it were, only standards 
 round which the inhabitants of the coun- 
 try 
 
( 188 ) 
 
 try rallied and fought. News of any little 
 advantages gained by these numerous par- 
 ties were eagerly received by the people 
 and repeated with exaggeration, and they 
 raised those hopes, which the defeat of 
 their armies had for the moment depres- 
 sed. That very liveliness of imagination 
 and excessive spirit of independence, 
 which had interfered with the slow and 
 uncertain operations of the regular armies 
 of the Junta, secured the continuance of 
 the national war. And one might say of 
 the Spaniards, that if at first they had 
 been easily overcome, it was almost im- 
 possible to subdue them. 
 
 When we marched from one province 
 to another, the partisans immediately re- 
 organised the country we had abandoned 
 in the name of Ferdinand VII, as if we 
 were never to go back, and punished very 
 severely every one who had shewn any 
 
 kind 
 
( 189 ) 
 
 kind of zeal for the French, Thus the 
 terror of our arms gave us no influence 
 around us. As the enemy was spread 
 over the whole country, the different 
 points that the French occupied were all 
 more or less threatened; their victorious 
 troops, dispersed in order to maintain their 
 conquests, found themselves, from Inm 
 to Cadiz, in a state of continual blockade ; 
 and they were not in reality masters of 
 more than the ground they actually trod 
 upon. 
 
 The garrisons which they had left on 
 the military roads to keep the country in 
 check, were continually attacked ; they 
 were obliged to construct little citadels for 
 their safety by repairing old ruined castles 
 which they found on the heights, and these 
 castles were frequently Roman or Moorish 
 remains which, many centuries before, had 
 served the same purpose. In the plains, 
 
 the 
 
( 190 ) 
 
 the posts of communication fortified one 
 or two of the houses at the entrance of 
 each village, for safety during the night, 
 or as a place of retreat when attacked. 
 The sentinels dared not remain without 
 the fortified enclosures for fear of being 
 carried off; they therefore stationed them- 
 selves on a tower, or on a wooden scaffold- 
 ing built on the roof near the chimney to 
 observe what passed in the surrounding 
 country. The French soldiers thus shut 
 up in their little fortresses frequently heard 
 the gay sounds of the guitars of their ene- 
 mies, who came to pass their nights in the 
 neighbouring villages, where they were al- 
 ways well received and feasted by the 
 inhabitants. The French armies could 
 only obtain provisions and ammunition 
 under convoy of very strong detachments, 
 which were for ever harassed and frequent* 
 Ijr, intercepted. These detachments met 
 
 with 
 
( 191 ) 
 
 with but slight resistance in the plains, but 
 the moment they approached the moun- 
 tains, they were obliged to cut their way 
 forward by force of arms ; and the daily 
 losses of the French, in many parts of 
 Spain, in their attempts to procure vic- 
 tuals, and to keep up their communica- 
 tions, were at least equal to any they could 
 have sustained if they had had to struggle 
 with an enemy who could have met them 
 in open battle. 
 
 The 1 people of Spain did not allow 
 themselves to be cast down by the length 
 of the war. In some provinces the pea- 
 sants were always armed; the husband- 
 man guided his plough with one hand, 
 while he held in the other a sword always 
 unsheathed, and which was only buried 
 on the approach of the French if they 
 were too numerous to be fought. Their 
 animosity increased by the vexations 
 
 wfiich 
 
( 192 ) 
 
 which the French made them suffer. The 
 evils to which other nations submit, be- 
 cause they look on them as the inevitable 
 consequences of war, only furnished the 
 Spaniards with new subjects for hatred 
 and irritation. In order to satiate their 
 inveterate resentment, they employed, by 
 turns, the greatest energy or the deepest 
 dissimulation and cunning where they 
 were the weakest. Like avenging vul- 
 tures eager for prey, they followed the 
 French columns at a distance, to murder 
 such of the soldiers as, fatigued or wound- 
 ed, remained behind on a march. Some- 
 times they invited the French to a feast 
 on their arrival, and would endeavour to 
 intoxicate the soldiers that they might 
 plunge them into that security which is 
 an hundred times more dangerous than all 
 the chances of battle. They then called 
 upon the partisans, and indicated, during 
 
 the 
 
( 193 ) 
 
 the night, the houses in which their ene* 
 mies had imprudently trusted themselves. 
 When new Frenchmen sought to revenge 
 the death of their comrades the inhabi- 
 tants fled, and they found nothing in the 
 villages but deserted dwellings, on which 
 they could only wreak vengeance at their 
 own expense, for they could not destroy a 
 house, even an empty one, without cutting 
 off their own resources for the future. 
 
 When our detachments arrived in any 
 force at the insurgent towns of Biscay or 
 Navarre, the alcades, with the women and 
 children, came out to meet us, as if all had 
 been at peace, and no noise was heard 
 but that of the smiths' hammers ; but at 
 the moment of our departure all labour 
 ceased, and the inhabitants seized their 
 arms to harass our detachments among 
 the rocks, and to attack our rear-guards. 
 This sort of warfare, where there was no 
 
 o fixed 
 
( 194 ) 
 
 fixed object upon which the imagination 
 could dwell, damped the ardour of the 
 soldier, and wore out his patience. 
 
 The French could only maintain them- 
 selves in Spain by terror; they were con- 
 stantly under the necessity of punishing 
 the innocent with the guilty, and of taking 
 revenge on the weak for the offences of 
 the powerful. Plunder had become ne- 
 cessary for existence, and such atrocities 
 as were occasioned by the enmity of the 
 people, and the injustice of the cause for 
 which the French were fighting, injured 
 the moral feeling of the army, and sapped 
 the very foundations of military discipline, 
 without which regular troops have neither 
 strength nor power. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1809 I re- 
 turned to Spain, with a reinforcement of 
 eighty hussars, to my regiment. In the 
 interior of France it was believed, accord- 
 
 ing 
 
( 195 ) 
 
 ing to the gazettes, that the English, who 
 had retreated to Portugal after the battle 
 of Talavera, were only waiting for the first 
 fair wind to take them home; that the 
 conquered country had long been quietly 
 subjected to King Joseph, and that the 
 French armies, safe in good cantonments, 
 had now nothing to do but to destroy a 
 few banditti, who plundered the peaceable 
 inhabitants, and laid them under contri* 
 bution. 
 
 At Bayonne we joined several other 
 detachments of light horse, and we crossed 
 the Bidassoa in order to sleep at Irun. 
 A great number of the inhabitants of all 
 ages had assembled at the gates of that 
 town to see us enter, and then followed 
 us with evident curiosity for some time : 
 we thought, at first, that this mark of at- 
 tention was intended to show that they 
 were glad to see us in their country ; but 
 
 o 2 we 
 
( 196 ) 
 
 we afterwards learned, that the inhabitants 
 of Iran, as well as those of other frontier 
 towns, kept an exact account of all the 
 French who entered Spain, as well as 
 of the wounded who quitted it, and that 
 it was according to these reports that the 
 partisans and guerrillas directed their ope- 
 rations. 
 
 All the detachments which, like us, 
 were going to reinforce the divers corps of 
 the army of Spain, received orders to as- 
 semble in the towns of Miranda and Vit- 
 toria, to be in readiness for an expedition 
 against the Spanish partisans of Navarre 
 and La Rioca. General Simon set out 
 from Vittoria on the 23d December, 
 with 1200 men, to occupy Salvatierra and 
 Allegria. The commandants of the gar- 
 risons left in the towns of Navarre had 
 formed moveable columns, and they were 
 to join General Simon's corps after having 
 
 dispersed 
 
( 197 ) 
 
 dispersed such parties as they might meet 
 on their march ; the intention of this kind 
 of military chase was to destroy Mina's 
 guerrilla bands, which held Pampeluna in 
 a state of almost perpetual blockade, and 
 were continually attacking the detach- 
 ments and convoys on their way to the 
 French army in Arragon. 
 
 Generals Loison and Solignac marched 
 from Vittoria and Miranda on the 16th, 
 and threw themselves at once, by both 
 banks of the Ebro, upon Logronio, in 
 hopes of surprising the Marquis de Por- 
 liere in that city. The numerous guerrillas 
 of that chief intercepted our communica- 
 tions between Bayonne and Madrid, and 
 made incursions almost daily even to the 
 gates of Burgos, Bribiesca, Pancorvo, 
 Miranda, and Vittoria. My detachment 
 of hussars formed part of a corps of four 
 or five thousand men, commanded by 
 o 3 General 
 
( 198 ) 
 
 General Loison. The foot soldiers had 
 left their baggage and even their knap- 
 sacks behind them, that they might be 
 light for running in the mountains. At 
 four o'clock in the afternoon of the 17th 
 we came in sight of Logronio ; General 
 Solignac's troops arrived before the town 
 at the same time ; they immediately took 
 possession of all the gates and outlets on 
 the right bank of the Ebro, while we seized 
 the bridge leading to the left of that river. 
 We flattered ourselves for a moment that 
 we had surrounded the partisans in Lo- 
 gronio, but, to our great astonishment, we 
 soon afterwards entered the town without 
 having to fire a single gun. 
 
 The Marquis Porliere had been warned 
 of our combined march early in the morn- 
 ing, and had made his escape, by cross 
 roads, to the high mountains of Castile. 
 The inhabitants of the town, men and 
 
 women. 
 
( 199 ) 
 
 women, appeared at the windows to see 
 us come in ; and an air of satisfaction and 
 content shone generally on their counte- 
 nances, but it was satisfaction at the es- 
 cape of the Marquis Porliere, and cer- 
 tainly not at the arrival of the French, 
 who, they well knew by experience, were 
 come to exact the arrears of their contri- 
 butions. 
 
 The next day General Solignac set out 
 in pursuit of the enemy; at Najera he met 
 a small Spanish party which he pursued as 
 far as La Calzada di San Domingo, fan- 
 cying that he was to come up with the 
 main body of the guerrillas; but it was a 
 stratagem of the Marquis Porliere to draw 
 us on in an opposite direction to that 
 which he had taken with his little army. 
 General Loison followed General Solignac 
 to Najera on the 19th, where we were 
 forced to remain two whole days in order 
 
 o 4 to 
 
( 200 ) 
 
 to obtain information concerning the ene- 
 my, all traces of whom we had entirely 
 lost. 
 
 At length on the 21st we learned that 
 the Marquis Porliere had taken the road 
 towards Soto; that town, situated among 
 the mountains, was the residence of a 
 provincial junta, and contained magazines 
 of arms, ammunition, and clothing. We 
 set out again in pursuit of the partisans 
 going up the Najerillo. General Loison's 
 division went to pass a few hours of the 
 night in a village situated at the foot of 
 the high mountains ten leagues south of 
 Soto : a detached corps composed of my 
 party of hussars, a hundred and fifty Polish 
 lancers, and two hundred voltigeurs, con- 
 tinued to pursue the enemy ; I cleared the 
 way with an advanced-guard of twenty-five 
 hussars. We went through narrow and 
 difficult roads, through deep snows, and 
 
 at 
 
( 201 ) 
 
 at sun-rise we reached the enemy's rear- 
 guard, from which we took a few prisoners. 
 We stopped several hours to feed our 
 horses, and to give General Loison time to 
 come up with us. At noon we set off 
 again, on the left bank of a little river 
 which runs down towards Soto. 
 
 On the summits of the highest moun- 
 tains on our right we saw peasants making 
 their escape with their cattle, and small 
 parties of Spanish horsemen, acting as 
 watches on the heights, successively gal- 
 loped off as soon as they perceived us. 
 The clergy and alcades of the villages we 
 had to go through, with feigned zeal, 
 brought us refreshments in order to delay 
 our march. Of fifty or sixty peasants of 
 different ages, of whom I made inquiries 
 in different places, there was not one who 
 did not endeavour to deceive us by saying 
 that they had seen none of their partisans, 
 
 and 
 
( 202 ) 
 
 and that they were not at Soto. Never- 
 theless, horses dying of fatigue, abandoned 
 on the roads with their furniture, proved 
 to us, almost at every step, that we were 
 approaching the enemy. 
 
 When we came within about a quarter 
 of a league of Soto, we were received by 
 a discharge of thirty or forty muskets, and 
 we saw some armed peasants suddenly 
 appear from behind the rocks, where they 
 had lain in ambush, and run down the hill 
 towards Soto as fast as they were able. 
 We halted to wait for the infantry and 
 our major commandant. There was no 
 room to form in line on the height, so we 
 remained in file in the narrow path by 
 which we had come up the hill. 
 
 Soto is situated at the bottom of a nar- 
 row valley crossed by a torrent ; beyond 
 the town is a very steep mountain, on the 
 side of which a winding road has been 
 
 made. 
 
( 203 ) 
 
 made. It was by that road that we saw 
 the partisans retreat before our faces. The 
 magistrates of the junta of Soto, and a 
 number of priests in long black cloaks, 
 marched first ; they were near the summit 
 of the mountain ; they were followed by 
 the treasure and baggage upon mules tied 
 behind one another in files ; then came 
 the soldiers in uniform, and a number of 
 peasants armed with fowling pieces, march- 
 ing without any order, and a crowd of 
 inhabitants of all ages and sexes, hasten- 
 ing out of the town pell mell with the 
 guerrillas. The agitation of so great a 
 number of men pressing by different paths 
 towards the tops of the heights, offered 
 the most picturesque appearance to the 
 eye. 
 
 Disorder took place among the Spa- 
 niards the moment they saw us, and they 
 at first quickened their march, but seeing 
 
 afterwards 
 
( 204 ) 
 
 afterwards that we formed only a scanty 
 outpost they recovered, and the whole side 
 of the mountain echoed with long guttural 
 shouts. Those who were nearest to us 
 stopped, and placed themselves in the 
 rocks, whence they pointed their guns at 
 us from every side, and we heard these 
 words, mixed with a thousand curses, 
 " Come, if you dare, and look at the rob- 
 bers a little closer/' It was by this name 
 that our soldiers called them on account of 
 their manner of fighting in disorder. They 
 were separated from us by a ravine three 
 or four hundred feet deep, at the bottom 
 of which was the river. 
 
 To cover his retreat the Marquis Por- 
 liere had left a company of cavalry before 
 the gate by which we had to enter Soto, 
 and at a little distance on the other side 
 of the river he had placed four or five 
 hundred infantry on the rocks and terraces 
 
 which 
 
( 205 ) 
 
 which commanded the town. Whatever 
 happened, these men had it in their power 
 to retire at our approach, without running 
 the smallest risk, after having done us a 
 great deal of mischief. 
 
 The major of the 26th regiment of the 
 line, who commanded us, judged that the 
 position of the enemy was not assailable 
 in front, and he therefore resolved to turn 
 it. A hundred and fifty of our riflemen 
 went down into the ravine and forded the 
 river below us; they then, with much dif- 
 ficulty, climbed the opposite mountain, 
 and fired at the enemy for some time 
 without gaining ground. Their ammuni- 
 tion being nearly exhausted they retired 
 round a little chapel on the top of the 
 mountain, and sent two men to inform us 
 of their situation. The shouts, the curses, 
 and the fire of the Spaniards then re- 
 doubled ; they had seen our riflemen send 
 
 for 
 
( 206 ) 
 
 for assistance, and also that we could not 
 afford them any. 
 
 The captain of the enemy 's cavalry ad- 
 vanced about half a musket shot before 
 the troop he commanded, near the en- 
 trance of the town, and tried by abuse to 
 provoke the officer who commanded the 
 advanced party of the French hussars. 
 He curvetted his horse, and flourished his 
 sabre to shew he knew the use of it. The 
 hussar officer looked at him at first with 
 tolerable coolness ; but, out of patience 
 at last with the bravadoes and shouts of 
 the Spaniards who were opposite, and 
 whose boldness was increasing, he \vent 
 down the narrow and abrupt path leading 
 to Soto alone. The enemy's captain 
 turned his horse when he came within a 
 few paces of him, and quietly returned to 
 his own party. 
 
 Meantime the uneasiness of the major 
 
 of 
 
( sor ) 
 
 of the 26th increased every moment. 
 General Loison did not make his appear- 
 ance; day was closing in ; no more firing 
 was heard from the opposite mountain ; 
 and we had no farther tidings of our rifle- 
 men. 
 
 When night came, we heard the Spanish 
 drum beat a kind of rally, and shortly 
 after we saw a pretty brisk fire of mus- 
 ketry beyond the valley, between two 
 parties disputing the passage of the river. 
 A deep silence succeeded to the noise of 
 the fire. 
 
 Night and loneliness augmented our 
 uncertainty ; we fancied that our riflemen 
 had come down from the mountain to 
 force their way through the enemy and 
 join us, and we feared lest, being over- 
 powered by numbers, they might be in 
 imminent danger; our major comman- 
 dant sent my detachment to their assis- 
 tance. 
 
( 208 ) 
 
 tance. On entering the town, instead of 
 the Spaniards we met General Loison's 
 division filing in: that corps, misled by 
 their guides, had taken a very long road, 
 completely different from that we had 
 followed. The engagement which had 
 appeared so bloody to us from a distance, 
 had taken place between our riflemen and 
 the grenadiers of General Loison's ad- 
 vanced-guard ; these friendly troops arriv- 
 ing at the same time in opposite direc- 
 tions, fortunately recognised each other 
 after the second volley. The darkness had 
 prevented them from taking aim, and they 
 lost but one man between them. 
 
 The town of Soto had been deserted by 
 its inhabitants ; it soon resounded with the 
 hollow shouts of the soldiers as they ran 
 about the narrow streets, breaking open 
 the doors to procure provisions and lodg- 
 ing. In the midst of these confused sounds, 
 
 which 
 
( 209 ) 
 
 which were infinitely multiplied by the 
 mountain echoes,, were heard the cries of a 
 woman in delirium, who with a more than 
 human voice called for help during the 
 whole night : she had been left in the hos- 
 pital of the town when the inhabitants de- 
 parted, and had been forcibly struck with 
 the commotion which was new to her, and 
 which she saw through the grated windows 
 of the room in which she was shut up 
 That voice raised in the midst of the tu- 
 mult seemed like the organ of the whole 
 population which had fled from the town. 
 A fire shortly broke out on the height, we 
 heard walls falling with a great crash, and 
 soon after there was an explosion, and we 
 saw the flaming beams of a building thrown 
 up into the air. Some cases of cartridges 
 which the enemy had concealed among 
 some straw, because they could not carry 
 them off, had exploded. 
 
 p We 
 
( 210 ) 
 
 We quitted Soto at sunrise, and for two 
 days and a night we continued to follow 
 the track of the guerrillas towards Munilla 
 and Cervera. Despairing at length of 
 coming up with them to give them battle, 
 we took up quarters at the small town of 
 Arnedo, and afterwards returned to Lo- 
 gronio. 
 
 General Simon succeeded no better in 
 his expedition into Navarre against Mina; 
 that chief, attacked on the 19th at Estella 
 and the 20th at Puenta de la Reyna, dis- 
 banded his force, and thus escaped the 
 troops that were marching against him 
 from all quarters. Mina re-assembled his 
 bands immediately after the departure of 
 General Simon. The Marquis Porliere, 
 driven from the mountains of Castile, re- 
 turned afterwards and stationed himself in 
 those of Asturia. He had not lost thirty 
 men in his retreat, during which he had 
 
 been 
 
( 211 ) 
 
 been pursued by troops at least four times 
 more numerous than those he commanded. 
 
 We see by the reports of the French 
 commanders, that bands similar to those 
 of Porliere and Mina existed in all the 
 other provinces of Spain occupied by the 
 French. These bands did incalculable 
 mischief to our troops, and it was impos- 
 sible to destroy them. Always pursued 
 and often dispersed, they rallied and re- 
 commenced their incursions immediately. 
 
 We remained nearly a month in the 
 province of La Rioca, while General Loi- 
 son was collecting the arrears of the con- 
 tributions, and we afterwards went towards 
 Burgos, in order to join our regiment in 
 Andalusia. We arrived at Madrid on the 
 25th Januar} r , and we remained five 
 days in a village near that capital, to wait 
 for a detachment of our regiment which 
 was coming direct from France with bag- 
 
 p 9. gage, 
 
( 212 ) 
 
 gage, money, and a number of fresh 
 horses. This new detachment having 
 joined us, an adjutant, to whose care it 
 had been trusted, took the command of 
 our column of hussars; we crossed La 
 Mancha and soon arrived at Santa-Cruz, 
 a small town situated at the foot of the 
 Sierra Morena. These mountains, which 
 separate La Mancha from Andalusia, are 
 inhabited by some colonists brought by 
 Count Olivades from different parts of Ger- 
 many in 1781. The oldest of those colo- 
 nists followed us on foot for whole hours 
 to enjoy, for the last time before their 
 death, the happiness of speaking their na- 
 tive tongue with such of our hussars as 
 were their countrymen. 
 
 The moment one passes the mountains 
 one enters Andalusia. The difference of 
 heat in the atmosphere is instantly percep- 
 tible, and the magnificence of the land- 
 scape 
 
( 213 ) 
 
 scape that presents itself forms a striking 
 contrast with the sterrility of the Black 
 Mountains, or Sierra Morena, one leaves 
 behind. The husbandmen were occupied 
 in gathering the olives, and the country 
 presented, towards the end of winter, that 
 smiling and animated appearance which 
 is only seen in more northern climates at 
 vintage or at harvest time. 
 
 On our left were the mountains of the 
 kingdom of Jaen, and in the distance the 
 snowy summits of the Sierra Nevada of 
 Grenada, reared their perpetually white 
 tops, the last retreats of the Moors before 
 their final expulsion from Spain. 
 
 The road lay between long plantations 
 of olives, under whose protecting shade 
 vines and corn were alternately springing. 
 The fields are surrounded by hedges of 
 aloes whose leaves are as pointed as lances, 
 and whose straight slender stems shoot up 
 
 p 3 to 
 
to the height of trees. Here and there we 
 saw tufted orchards planted with orange 
 trees behind the dwelling houses ; and on 
 the waste lands on the banks of the rivu- 
 lets, the white laurel and the oleander 
 were then in flower. A few old palm trees 
 are still seen here and there in the gardens 
 of the clergy, who preserve them for the 
 sake of distributing the branches on Palm 
 Sunday. 
 
 We marched upon both banks of the 
 Guadalquivir, following the different turns 
 of that river between Andujar and Cor- 
 dova. The country is less picturesque on 
 approaching Seville. We crossed plains 
 of corn of several leagues in extent, with- 
 out seeing either habitations or trees, and 
 there are extensive tracts left waste which 
 furnish pasture for immense flocks of 
 sheep. 
 
 Andalusia is undoubtedly by nature the 
 
 most 
 
( 215 ) 
 
 most fertile and opulent part of Spain. 
 There is a proverb current in the Castiles 
 and La Mancha, that the water of the Gua- 
 dalquivir fattens more horses than the barley 
 of other countries. The bread of Andalusia 
 is considered as the whitest and most ex- 
 quisite in the world, and the olives are of 
 most extraordinary size : the air is so se- 
 rene and pure, that one may sleep in it 
 during the greater part of the year ; and 
 one frequently sees men lying all night in 
 the virandas in summer, and sometimes 
 even in winter. A number of individuals 
 who are not very rich, travel without trou- 
 bling themselves to seek a nightly lodging; 
 they carry their provisions with them, or 
 buy such food as is prepared by women on 
 stoves at the gates or in the great squares 
 of large cities, for passengers. The poor 
 never ask each other whether they have a 
 house to lie in, as in other countries, but 
 
 p 4 they 
 
( 216 ) 
 
 they inquire if they have a cloak suffici- 
 ent to preserve them from the immediate 
 influence of the sun's rays in summer, and 
 to throw off the winter rains. 
 
 In Andalusia, still more than in any 
 other province in the Peninsula, one meets 
 with traces and monuments of the Arabs 
 at every step ; and it is the singular mix- 
 ture of the customs and usages of the east, 
 with Christian manners, which distinguishes 
 the Spaniards from the other nations of 
 Europe. 
 
 The town houses are almost all built on 
 the Moresco plan ; in the middle they 
 have a large court paved with flag stones, 
 in the centre of which there is a basin, 
 whence fountains continually rise and re- 
 fresh the air ; the basin is shaded by the 
 cypress and the lemon tree. Trelice work, 
 supporting orange trees, whose leaves, flow- 
 ers, and fruit last all the year, frequently 
 
 covers 
 
( 217 ) 
 
 covers the walls. The different apartments 
 communicate with each other by the court, 
 and there is commonly an interior gate on 
 the same side with the door opening to the 
 street. In the ancient palaces of the Moor- 
 ish kings and nobles, such as the Alham- 
 bra of Grenada, the courts are surrounded 
 with colonades or porticos, whose narrow 
 and numerous arches are supported by 
 very tall slender columns ; ordinary houses 
 have a single and very plain interior court, 
 witfy a cistern shaded by a large citron tree 
 in one corner. A sort of pitcher or jar,* 
 in which water is put to cool, usually hangs 
 near the door or wherever there is a cur- 
 rent of air. These pitchers are called 
 alcarazas, and their name, which is Arabic, 
 
 * These jars have the same form, and are applied to the 
 same purposes, as those described by M. Denon, in his tra- 
 vels in Egypt ; and which are made on the banks of the Nile, 
 between Tentyre, Kenan, and Thebes. 
 
 indicates 
 
( 218 ) 
 
 indicates that they were brought into Spain 
 by the Moors. 
 
 There is one of these open courts within 
 the walls of the cathedral of Cordova, 
 which was an ancient mosque. This court, 
 like those of private houses, is shaded by 
 citrons and cypresses, and contains basins 
 in which the water is kept continually 
 pure and full by fountains. On entering 
 the consecrated part of the Mezquita, for 
 the temple has preserved its antique ap- 
 pellation even to our days, one is struck 
 with astonishment at the sight of a multi- 
 plicity of columns of different coloured 
 marbles. These columns are ranged in 
 parallel lines pretty near each other, and 
 they support a sort of open arcade covered 
 with a wooden roof* This multitude of 
 columns crowned with arcades, reminds 
 one of a forest of palm trees, whose 
 
 branches, 
 
( 219 ) 
 
 branches, regularly trained round, touch 
 each other as they bend. 
 
 The chapel where the book of the laws 
 was kept, is now under the guardianship 
 of Saint Peter. A high altar for perform- 
 ing mass, and a choir where canons chaunt 
 the service, have been placed in the mid- 
 dle of that Mussulman mosque, and have 
 converted it in our days into a Christian 
 temple. These coincidences are continu- 
 ally met with in Spain, and recall to mind 
 the triumph of Christianity over Mahome- 
 danisrn. 
 
 The Andalusians bring up numerous 
 flocks, which they feed in the plains du- 
 ring winter, and send in summer to graze 
 on the tops of the mountains. The yearly 
 and customary transmigration of large 
 flocks at fixed times, originates in Arabia, 
 where the practice is very ancient. 
 
 The Andalusian horses are descended 
 
 from 
 
( 220 ) 
 
 from the generous breed brought over in 
 former times by the Arabs ; and the same 
 distinctions, paid in Arabia to pure and 
 noble blood in these animals, are also still 
 regarded in Spain. The Andalusian horse 
 is proud, spirited, and gentle; the sound 
 of the trumpet pleases and animates him ; 
 and the noise and smoke of powder do not 
 frighten him ; he is sensible of caresses, and 
 docile to the voice of his master : so when 
 he is overcome with fatigue, his master, 
 instead of beating him, flatters and encou- 
 rages him ; the horse then seems to recover 
 his strength, and sometimes does from 
 mere emulation what blows could never 
 have extorted from him. 
 
 We were often followed by Spanish pea- 
 sants, who led the baggage, victuals, and 
 ammunition, upon their own horses and 
 mules. One day I heard one of them after 
 along speech to his horse, who could scarce- 
 
( 221 ) 
 
 ly walk, whisper closely in his ear with 
 great eagerness, and as if he wished to spare 
 him an affront in the eyes of his fellows, 
 Take care that nobody sees you. At the same 
 moment a child was saying to his ass. Curse 
 the niother who bred thee. Asses are treated 
 much worse than horses, for they are not 
 supposed capable of the same feelings of 
 honour. 
 
 People commonly travel on horseback in 
 Spain, and the carriage of goods is, in ma- 
 ny provinces, still on the backs of mules. 
 The fine roads which cross Spain are very 
 modern. The streets of the old towns are 
 narrow and winding, and the stories of the 
 houses jut out farther the higher they are. 
 These streets, of Moorish building, are not 
 made for carnages. Excepting a few ho- 
 tels founded by Italians in the large cities, 
 the inns of Andalusia, and indeed of all 
 Spain, are large caravanseras where one 
 
 finds 
 
finds nothing but lodging, and room for 
 horses and mules. Travellers are obliged 
 to carry provisions with them, and to sleep 
 upon their horsecloths. The natives of the 
 country travel in small caravans, whenever 
 they go off the most public roads, and they 
 carry guns slung to their saddle bows, for 
 fear of being robbed by the smugglers who 
 are very numerous in the mountains of 
 Grenada, and on the southern coasts be- 
 tween Malaga and Cadiz. In some parts 
 of Spain, the country people and particu- 
 larly the farm servants, sleep stretched out 
 upon mats which they roll up and carry 
 about with them. This eastern custom 
 explains the words of our Saviour, " Take 
 up thy bed and walk/' 
 
 The country women sit, in the Moorish 
 manner, on circular mats of reeds, and in 
 some convents of Spain, where the ancient 
 manners are transmitted without alteration, 
 
 the 
 
( 223 ) 
 
 the nuns still sit like Turks, without know- 
 ing that they derive the custom from the 
 enemies of the Christian faith. The man- 
 tilla, a sort of large woollen veil commonly 
 worn by the lower class of women in An- 
 dalusia, and which sometimes hides their 
 whole face except their eyes, seems to have 
 originated in the large scarf in which the 
 eastern women wrap themselves when they 
 go out. The Spanish dances, particularly 
 the different kinds of fandango, resemble 
 the loose dances of the east. The custom 
 of playing the castanets in dancing, and 
 of singing seguedillas, still exists among 
 the Arabs of Egypt as well as in Spain, 
 and the burning wind which blows from 
 the efast, still receives the name of the 
 Medina wind, in Andalusia. 
 
 Like the Orientals, the Spanish in gene- 
 ral are sober, even in the midst of abun- 
 dance, from a religious principle; they 
 
 look 
 
( 224 ) 
 
 look upon intemperance as an abuse of 
 the gifts of God, and entertain a profound 
 contempt for those who give themselves 
 up to it. They eat salt pork every day 
 at their meals ; this meat, unwholesome 
 in hot countries, is prohibited by the sacred 
 laws of all the nations of the east, and is 
 an abomination to them. At the time 
 when Spain was conquered by the Chris- 
 tians, and before the entire expulsion of 
 the Moors, there were in Andalusia a great 
 number of Mussulmans and Jews, who had 
 become converts in appearance only, in 
 order to obtain permission to remain in 
 the country. The Christian Spaniards then 
 eat pork, as a test among themselves, and 
 it was, so to speak, a kind of profession of 
 faith. 
 
 There is, even in our days, so striking an 
 analogy between the mode of warfare in 
 many parts of Spain, and that of various 
 
 tribes 
 
( 225 ) 
 
 tribes whom the French had to fight on 
 the banks of the Nile, that, if we were to 
 substitute Spanish for Arab names in many 
 pages of the history of the campaign in 
 Egypt, it might pass for the description 
 of the events of the Spanish war. 
 
 The Spanish national and local troops, 
 or the levies in mass, fight in disorder and 
 with loud shouts. In an attack in the 
 open country they have that impetuosity, 
 that fury mingled with despair and fana- 
 ticism, which distinguishes the Arabs; and 
 like them they are apt to despair too soon 
 of the event, and yield the battle at the 
 very moment they might claim the victory; 
 but when they fight behind walls and en- 
 trenchments their firmness is unconquer- 
 able. The inhabitants of Egypt fled into 
 the defiles of the mountains beyond the 
 desert. The inhabitants of Spain quitted 
 their dwellings on the approach of our 
 
 Q troops. 
 
( 226 ) 
 
 troops, and carried their most precious ef- 
 fects into the mountains. In Spain as in 
 Egypt our soldiers could not remain be- 
 hind their companies without being mur- 
 dered ; in short, the inhabitants of the 
 south of Spain possess the same persever- 
 ance in hatred, and the same liveliness of 
 imagination which distinguish the nations 
 of the east; like them, they are easily dis- 
 couraged on the least rumour of defeat, 
 and rise up in arms the moment they con- 
 ceive the slightest hopes of success. The 
 Spaniards, like the Arabs, often treated 
 their prisoners with the excess of barbari- 
 ty; but they also sometimes exercised 
 towards them the noblest and most gene- 
 rous hospitality. 
 
 After having passed Andujar, Cordova, 
 Epica, and Carmona, we reached Seville, 
 where we received orders from Marshal 
 Soult to join our regiment at Ronda, a 
 
 town 
 
( 227 ) 
 
 town situated about ten leagues from Gib- 
 raltar. We were at first struck with the 
 profound tranquillity which reigned over 
 the plains of Andalusia ; the greater num- 
 ber of the large towns had sent deputa- 
 tions to King Joseph; but the tranquillity 
 was but apparent and only existed in such 
 parts as were filled with numerous French 
 troops. The inhabitants of the kingdoms 
 of Murcia and Grenada, the province of 
 Ronda, with all those of the mountains 
 which intersect or surround Andalusia, as 
 well as those which separate it from Es- 
 tremadura and Portugal, had taken arms 
 simultaneously. 
 
 We quitted Seville on the 18th March, 
 and slept at Outrera, and on the 19th we 
 went on to Moron, a small town situated 
 at the foot of the mountains of Ronda ; 
 the inhabitants of the town were on the 
 point of joining their neighbours in the 
 
 Q 2 moun- 
 
( 228 ) 
 
 mountains., who had long been in a state 
 of general insurrection. The greatest part 
 of the population of Moron assembled in 
 the principal square the moment we ar- 
 rived ; the men looked at us with an ex- 
 pression of constrained fury, and appeared 
 to watch our least motions, not to satisfy 
 curiosity, but to accustom themselves to 
 the sight of enemies whom they proposed 
 shortly to fight, and thus to get rid of that 
 fear of what is unknown, which acts so 
 powerfully on a people of lively imagina- 
 tion. Some of the women were dressed 
 in English stuffs on which the pictures of 
 Ferdinand VII and the Spanish generals 
 most distinguished in the war against the 
 French were painted. When we perceived 
 the fermentation and spirit of revolt which 
 existed in the town we determined on 
 taking up our lodgings close together in 
 three neighbouring inns. If we had dis- 
 persed 
 
( 229 ) 
 
 persed to lodge in the different houses of 
 the inhabitants, as we might safely have 
 done in the plains, we should, probably, 
 all have been murdered in the night. 
 
 We had but very few men in a state to 
 fight, because we had a number of spare 
 horses to lead, and besides, we escorted 
 the military chest of the regiment and va- 
 rious equipments, which were conveyed 
 upon mules and asses furnished by requi- 
 sition, so that our march was slow and dif- 
 ficult, A quarter-master and I were the 
 only persons of the detachment who had 
 ever been in Spain before, or who could 
 speak the language. The quarter-master 
 remained with our commanding-adjutant 
 as interpreter, and I always preceded the 
 body of the troop by a few hours, to pro- 
 cure provisions and lodgings wherever we 
 had to halt. 
 
 On leaving Moron we entered the moun- 
 Q 3 tains 
 
( 230 ) 
 
 tains of Ronda to proceed to Olbera. I 
 set off as usual a little before the detach- 
 ment to prepare quarters, accompanied by 
 a hussar and a young trooper who had 
 been picked out from the recruits for a 
 scout. At two leagues from Moron I 
 knocked at the door of a farm-house on 
 the mountain; an elderly man tremblingly 
 opened it, and I asked for something to 
 drink, which he gave me with extraordinary 
 zeal. I afterwards learned that there was 
 a little band of five armed smugglers in 
 the house who were afraid of being dis- 
 covered. 
 
 The advanced-guard coming up with us 
 soon afterwards I was afraid I should not 
 have time to prepare provisions and quar- 
 ters before the arrival of the detachment; 
 we could only proceed very slowly because 
 the road was hilly and difficult, and our 
 horses had been continually on the march 
 
 for 
 
for several months; I gave mine to the 
 hussar to lead, and mounted that of a 
 guide whom we had taken at Moron. I 
 set off before my companions and arrived 
 alone within sight of Olbera. A deep 
 valley, bare of trees, into which the road 
 descends abruptly, separated me from the 
 town, which is placed among rocks on the 
 summit of a high hill which commands 
 the whole country. As I advanced, the 
 peasants, who were at work in the neigh- 
 bouring fields in bands of eight or ten to- 
 gether, according to the custom of the 
 country, became inquisitive concerning 
 the cause of my coming, and quitted their 
 labours immediately to follow me down 
 the path. The inhabitants of the village 
 had long perceived me, and they came 
 out in crowds upon the rocks to watch 
 me. I began to fear lest there should be 
 no French in Olbera, as I had at first ima- 
 Q 4 gined, 
 
( 232 ) 
 
 gined, and I stopped at the bottom of the 
 valley surprised at the increasing agitation 
 I perceived. I hesitated a moment whe- 
 ther I should turn back, but I thought it 
 best to go on at any risk : the horse I rode 
 was tired with the journey he had come, 
 and the road I must have gone over again 
 was very steep, I was besides closely .fol- 
 lowed by a troop of peasants armed with 
 mattocks. They soon reached and sur- 
 rounded me, and asked what province I 
 came from, and what news I brought. I 
 saw immediately by their gestures that 
 they thought I was in the Spanish service. 
 My dark brown uniform was the cause of 
 their mistake, and I took care not to unde- 
 ceive them, not being sure whether I could 
 do so without risking my life. I hoped 
 to gain time till the arrival of my friends, 
 and let the peasants think that I was a 
 Swiss officer in the service of the Junta, 
 
 and 
 
( 233 ) 
 
 and that I was on my way to Gibraltar; 
 I added, to put them in good humour, 
 that the Marquis de la Romana had just 
 gained a great victory near Badajos. The 
 peasants received this news with eager- 
 ness, and as they repeated it to each other 
 they loaded the French with a thousand 
 imprecations which gave me but a melan- 
 choly notion of the fate which awaited me, 
 if, by any chance, I was discovered. 
 
 In return for my communication I asked 
 those who surrounded me, if their village 
 contained any of those hateful Frenchmen ? 
 they said that King Joseph, with his 
 guards, had been repulsed from Gaucin, 
 that they had quitted Ronda some days 
 before, and that that town must by that 
 time be occupied by 10,000 mountaineers. 
 It was at Ronda that we were to join our 
 
 regiment ; if it really was in the hands of 
 
 
 
 the enemy, our detachment had nothing to 
 
 expect 
 
( 234 ) 
 
 expect but entire destruction in the moun- 
 tains. The peasants stopped to drink at 
 a spring on the road and I continued to 
 climb the hill alone. 
 
 I soon saw five men armed and equip- 
 ped as soldiers, hastening on to get before 
 me by a cross road, and they entered 
 Olbera before I reached it. Hearing loud 
 shouting, I had no doubt but that the five 
 men had brought the news of the approach 
 of our detachment, and that they had dis- 
 covered that I was a Frenchman. I stop- 
 ped once more, doubting whether I should 
 go on. The inhabitants, who were watch- 
 ing me from the rocks, saw my hesitation, 
 and their shouts increased. A number of 
 women had stationed themselves on a 
 height which overlooked the entrance of 
 the village, and their shrill voices, mingled 
 with the tones of the men, sounded like 
 the wind whistling in a storm. I deter- 
 mined 
 
( 235 ) 
 
 mined on advancing, and I believe I 
 should have been lost if I had then at- 
 tempted to go back; I should have 
 seemed to acknowledge myself in the 
 wrong, which an enraged multitude sel- 
 dom forgives. 
 
 I soon saw a corregidor, an alcade, and 
 two priests approach me, preceded by five 
 or six persons, at the head of whom was 
 a young man who, as I afterwards disco- 
 vered, was the gracioso of the village. He 
 said to me in Spanish, with an air of 
 mockery, " Certainly the ladies of Olbera 
 will receive yoii well, they are very fond of 
 the French " and, sneeringly, made many 
 other similar jests. One of his compa- 
 nions in a strong voice asked me how 
 many Frenchmen were following rne. I 
 told him there were two hundred, more or 
 less. He answered rudely enough, " 'Tis 
 false, there are not a hundred, counting 
 
 yourself. 
 
( 236 ) 
 
 yourself. The five men who are just come 
 to the village saw them from the farm-house 
 on the road from Moron." I saw clearly 
 that they knew who I was. The priests 
 and the corregidor having now approached, 
 I thought, from their portentous faces, that 
 they were going to propose to administer 
 extreme unction. Amidst the tumult of 
 voices I heard the following words dis- 
 tinctly articulated, " You must hang him, 
 he is a Frenchman, he is the devil himself, 
 he is the devil incarnate/' The noise sud- 
 denly ceased to my great astonishment, 
 and I saw the Spaniards disperse; the 
 trooper, the hussar, and the guide whom 
 I had left behind had just appeared on 
 the opposite height, and those who had 
 been stationed to watch on the highest 
 rocks took them at a distance for the ad- 
 vanced-guard of our detachment, and im- 
 mediately by shouts and gestures gave 
 notice to the mob which surrounded me. 
 
 The 
 
( 237 ) 
 
 The corregidor and the alcade soon 
 changed their tone, and told me, bowing 
 very low, that they were the magistrates of 
 the place, that they paid me their respects 
 in consequence of the decree of King Jo- 
 seph, which ordered all constituted autho- 
 rities in Spain to go out and meet the 
 French troops and to receive them well. 
 My confidence increasing with the civility 
 shewn me by the magistrates, and with 
 the fear they began to shew, I advised 
 them, with some threats, to keep the peo- 
 ple quiet, and ordered them to prepare 
 victuals for the troops which were coming 
 up. 
 
 To excuse, in some manner, what had 
 happened, the corregidor begged me not 
 to attach any importance to the shouts of 
 a few drunkards, who amused themselves 
 by stirring up the people ; and when I 
 questioned them concerning the five armed 
 
 men 
 
( 238 ) 
 
 men who had entered the village a few 
 moments before, one of the priests, with 
 an insinuating voice, told me rather ironi- 
 cally, that they were shooting small birds, 
 and that the bags they had over their shoul- 
 ders were full of game, and I was obliged 
 to be satisfied with such excuses, however 
 bad. I got off my horse and walked with 
 the priests and alcades to the town house, 
 which was in the great square, at the top 
 of the village, and we began to make out 
 billets for the soldiers' quarters. 
 
 The trooper, who was of my party, left 
 the hussar with my horse at the entrance 
 of the village, and galloped straight up to 
 the house where I was. He had hardly 
 alighted when the Spaniards crowded from 
 the neighbouring streets with terrible shouts; 
 they expected a large body of troops, but 
 when they saw a single man ride through 
 their village, they recovered from their 
 
 error, 
 
( 239 ) 
 
 error, and ran furiously out of their houses. 
 Their rage was such that they crushed one 
 another in an arched way which leads to 
 the great square. I immediately went out 
 to the balcony, and called my trooper to 
 come up, which he did, and we shut and 
 barricadoed ourselves into the council- 
 room. The people stopped a moment to 
 seize the trooper's horse, portmanteau and 
 pistols; the ringleaders of the riot then 
 seized the staircase and got to the door of 
 the room where we had just shut ourselves 
 up, with the corregidor and the two priests, 
 and they called out to us through the par- 
 tition to surrender. 
 
 I made the corregidor, whom I kept in 
 my hands, order them to be quiet, and told 
 them that our detachment was coming im- 
 mediately, that we should sell our lives 
 dearly, and that if they attempted to come 
 in, their own father priest should be the 
 
 first 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 first victim of their fury. Being afraid they 
 would force the door, I went back as far as 
 the narrowest entrance of a second cham- 
 ber, holding the priest by the arm that I 
 might use him as a shield in case of need ; 
 I drew my sword and ordered the trooper 
 to do the same, and to remain at the end 
 of the room, in order to prevent the vicar 
 and the corregidor from seizing me by the 
 shoulders. The shouts of the people were 
 soon renewed, and those of the inhabitants 
 who had just been conferring with us, were 
 pushed back again by a new crowd on the 
 staircase and in the square. The door was 
 several times violently shaken, and seemed 
 on the point of yielding to the efforts of 
 the assailing mob. I then said to the priest, 
 " Pardon me, reverend father; you see 
 that I cannot resist the populace ; I am 
 forced by necessity to make you a partaker. 
 
 of 
 
( 241 ) 
 
 of my fate, and we shall soon die toge- 
 ther." 
 
 The vicar, frightened at the danger of 
 the priest, and also at that which threaten- 
 ed himself, went out upon the balcony, 
 and -cried aloud to the inhabitants that 
 their chief priest would infallibly perish if 
 they did not instantly retire. The women 
 screamed at these words, and the mob 
 unanimously and instantly fell back, so 
 deep and so real is the veneration of the 
 Spanish people for their priests. 
 
 The trooper and I kept up this sort of 
 blockade for some time longer. The square 
 soon ceased to echo with the reiterated 
 clamours of the enraged people, and the 
 trampling of the horses of my friends who 
 were forming in line at the lower end of 
 the village came to my ear as distinctly at 
 noon as if it had been in the silence of deep 
 midnight. 
 
 B We 
 
( 242 ) 
 
 We joined the detachment along with 
 the corregidor and the priest whom we 
 kept with us as a safeguard. I told my 
 comrades what had happened, and advised 
 them to go, on the same day, to Honda, 
 after feeding our horses. Notwithstanding 
 all my representations, the adjutant who 
 commanded us insisted on passing the 
 night at Olbera, saying, as a kind of re- 
 proach, that it was a thing unheard of, that 
 troops of the line should derange them- 
 selves for peasants. The adjutant had just 
 passed several years in France, at the de- 
 p6t of the regiment, and had not yet learn- 
 ed to know the Spaniards. 
 
 We formed a bivouac in a meadow sur- 
 rounded by walls, belonging to an inn 
 upon the road at the bottom of the village. 
 During the remainder of the day the inha- 
 bitants were apparently quiet enough, and 
 furnished us with provisions ; but, instead 
 
 of 
 
( 343 ) 
 
 of a young ox which Jhad asked for, they 
 brought us an ass cut up in quarters ; the 
 hussars thought the veal, as they called it, 
 tasted very flat ; but it was not till long 
 afterwards, that we learned from the moun- 
 taineers themselves the whimsical trick that 
 had been put upon us. After that, they 
 often used to cry out, as they fired upon 
 us, " Who eat asses flesh at Olbera !" the 
 greatest affront, in their opinion, that could 
 be offered to Christians. 
 
 Not daring to attack us in the enclosure 
 in which we were entrenched, they pre- 
 pared for the moment of our departure, 
 and gave notice to the inhabitants of the 
 different towns and villages in the neigh- 
 bourhood to place ambuscades and expect 
 us the next day on the road to Ronda. 
 Towards night they assumed a threatening 
 attitude ; they posted themselves in great 
 numbers on the rocks, and formed a kind 
 
 R 2 of 
 
( 244 ) 
 
 of close hedge around the entrance of our 
 bivouac. There they remained immovable, 
 watching our slightest motions. A few 
 voices, quickly suppressed by the alcades, 
 broke upon the silence from time to time, 
 in order to insult our sentinels. 
 
 Rather late at night, the priest presented 
 himself at the bivouac begging to speak to 
 me. He told me that he had prepared 
 excellent lodgings for the officers of our 
 troop, and pressed me very much to pre- 
 vail on my comrades to accept them. His 
 design, as we afterwards learned, was, to 
 make prisoners of us, hoping that disorder 
 would take place among the soldiers next 
 day when they should find themselves with- 
 out their officers. 
 
 I immediately refused the offer. The 
 priest asked me if I harboured an} 7 resent- 
 ment for what had passed in the morning, 
 and if we mistrusted the intentions of the 
 
 inhabi- 
 
( 245 ) 
 
 inhabitants ? I answered that we felt nei- 
 ther resentment nor distrust. He then 
 begged me to go alone to his house at least, 
 saying he would treat me well : I went to 
 consult my comrades, and we agreed that 
 I should go to the village alone to shew the 
 inhabitants that we had no scheme of re- 
 venge, and thus to prevent them from 
 thinking of attacking us in the night. My 
 comrades were in hopes that I should be 
 able to send them some supper. I returned 
 to the priest ; I asked him to give me his 
 sacred word that no harm should be done 
 to me ; he ave it readily, and to prove 
 how entirely I trusted him, I left my 
 sword with the sentry and followed him 
 unarmed. 
 
 We crossed the middle of the little town 
 together; all the inhabitants whom we 
 passed saluted my guide respectfully, and 
 then looked at me with a threatening air; 
 
 R 3 when 
 
( 246 ) 
 
 when they came too near so as to make 
 me fear a surprise, the priest instantly re- 
 pulsed them with a single look and frown, 
 such was the authority which the sacred 
 character, with which he was invested, 
 gave him. 
 
 We soon arrived at his house, and were 
 received by the minister's housekeeper : 
 she was a tall woman of thirty-five or forty 
 years of age ; she first presented us with 
 chocolate and biscuits, and then served up 
 our meal on a table near the kitchen chim- 
 ney. I sent some supper to my comrades, 
 and sat down to table ; the priest placed 
 himself opposite, and the housekeeper sat 
 at his right hand almost under the chimney- 
 piece which was very high. After a mo- 
 ment's silence, the priest asked me if I was 
 not going to mass the next day before I 
 set out ; I answered that I was not a Ro- 
 man Catholic. At these words his features 
 
 con- 
 
( 247 ) 
 
 contracted ; and the housekeeper, who had 
 never seen a heretic, shuddered on her 
 chair, made an involuntary exclamation, 
 heaved a profound sigh, and after having 
 rapidly muttered several Ave Marias be- 
 tween her teeth, she consulted the priest's 
 countenance, as a guide to the impression 
 she should receive from so terrible an ap- 
 parition as that of a heretic. (The popu- 
 lar descriptions and the church pictures 
 of the country represent heretics breathing 
 flames from their mouths.) The house- 
 keeper recovered from her agitation when 
 she saw the minister quietly resume the 
 conversation. 
 
 After supper the priest invited me to 
 sleep at his house, telling me that I must 
 be tired, and that he would give me a bed 
 at least as good as the bivouac ; seeing that 
 I hesitated in my answer, he added, that 
 it would be as well to let the crowd dis- 
 
 R 4 perse. 
 
( 248 ) 
 
 perse, and that I must wait some hours. I 
 then began to fear that he intended to keep 
 me in his house in order to give me up to 
 the inhabitants. I was afterwards told, that 
 such had really been his intention, and that 
 he was the leader of the insurrection. Long 
 after some reasons induced me to believe 
 that by detaining me as his own prisoner, 
 he wished to save me from the fate destin- 
 ed by the inhabitants of the village for our 
 whole detachment. 
 
 As he had it in his power to betray me 
 if he pleased, I took care not to shew him 
 any distrust. I told him that I accepted 
 his offers, believing myself in perfect safety 
 since I was under the safeguard of his sa- 
 cred word, and that I would sleep ; but I 
 begged him to call me in two hours at far- 
 thest, because if my comrades did not see 
 me return before midnight, they might 
 come from their quarters and set fire to the 
 
 whole 
 
( 249 ) 
 
 whole village. The priest shewed me into 
 the next room; I went to bed, a thing 
 which rarely happened to us in Spain, and 
 he carried away the lamp as he bade me 
 good night. 
 
 The excessive darkness did not contri- 
 bute to make me look upon the best side 
 of the situation in which I found myself; 
 I reproached myself for having quitted my 
 sabre, and regretted it as a faithful com- 
 panion which might have inspired me with 
 good counsel. I heard the murmurs of the 
 inhabitants in the street passing and re- 
 passing the windows. The priest opened 
 my door from time to time, put in his grey 
 head and the lamp in his right hand to see 
 if I were asleep ; I pretended to be sound- 
 ly sleeping, and he went out gently. 
 
 Several men entered the next room : 
 they at first talked calmly enough, and 
 then confusedly all at once ; then they be- 
 came 
 
( 250 ) 
 
 came suddenly silent as if they were afraid 
 of waking me, and of my listening to what 
 they were saying ; they then began again 
 in an under voice, with great vehemence. 
 I passed near two hours in this uncertain 
 and whimsical situation, reflecting on the 
 part I was to act. I at length determined 
 to call the priest, and he immediately 
 came : I told him that I wished to join my 
 detachment immediately : he left his lamp 
 without answering, and quitted me, doubt- 
 less in order to consult the Spaniards who 
 were in his house upon what was to be 
 done with me. 
 
 Just at this time I experienced the most 
 lively pleasure on seeing our quarter-mas- 
 ter, who spoke Spanish, enter my room, 
 accompanied by the corregidor. He told 
 me that my companions were in the great- 
 est anxiety about me, and that they had 
 sent him to learn what had become of me,: 
 
 that 
 
( 251 ) 
 
 that the townVpeople looked upon me as 
 their prisoner ; that they were to attack us 
 the next day, and said that not one should 
 escape. I dressed myself hastily, and call- 
 ed upon the priest again to keep his word, 
 telling him that my comrades threatened 
 to take up arms if I did not soon go back. 
 Happily for me the preparations for the 
 insurrection in the village were not com- 
 pleted ; the priest dared not detain me 
 any longer, and he called the corregidor 
 and an alcade with a few men who placed 
 us in the midst of them, and conducted us 
 through the crowd to our bivouac. 
 
 The quarter-master whom rny comrades 
 had sent to me was a Norman, brave as his 
 sabre. Under the appearance of the most 
 perfect frankness, he concealed all the ad- 
 dress commonly imputed to his country- 
 men. He had ingratiated himself with the 
 inhabitants, by telling them that he was 
 
 the 
 
( 252 ) 
 
 the son of a Walloon officer kept prisoner 
 in France along with King Charles IV. ; 
 that he had been forced to serve with us, 
 and that he had long sought an opportu- 
 nity of deserting. The Spaniards of the 
 mountains were by turns cunning and cre- 
 dulous as savages. They believed the 
 quarter-master, pitied him, gave him mo- 
 ney, and revealed to him a part of their 
 projects. By his means it was that we 
 learned that the inhabitants of the neigh- 
 bouring villages were to unite the next day 
 in considerable numbers to attack us in a 
 dangerous pass on the road to Honda. This 
 happy discovery saved us from total de- 
 struction. 
 
 The priest and the corregidor came to 
 us, just as we were setting off the next day, 
 to ask for an attestation, to prove to any 
 French troops who might come to Olbera, 
 that they had behaved well to us. They 
 
 were 
 

 ( 253 ) 
 
 were in hopes that the threatening aspect 
 of the townVpeople would make us com- 
 ply with their wishes. We answered that 
 we could not give them such an attestation, 
 till they should have returned the arms 
 taken from the horse belonging to the 
 trooper who had shut himself up with me 
 in the town-house the day before. We 
 had already claimed them several times in 
 vain. 
 
 The priest and the corregidor walked 
 silently back towards the upper part of the 
 village, and a few moments after their de- 
 parture we heard cries of alarm. The 
 townVpeople had just murdered six hus- 
 sars and two farriers who had imprudently 
 gone to a smithy to shoe their horses ; the 
 musketry then was heard. We mounted 
 hastily, and the body of the detachment 
 followed the adjutant who commanded us, 
 to the place of rendezvous about a musket 
 
 shot 
 
( 254 ) 
 
 shot from the village. I remained at the 
 bivouac, and kept with me ten hussars to 
 cover the retreat, and to protect the bag- 
 gage which we had not yet got upon the 
 backs of the mules, because the Spanish 
 muleteers had fled in the night. 
 
 One of my comrades soon came back to 
 tell me that our rear-guard was on the 
 point of being surrounded, and that the 
 Spaniards kept up a brisk fire of musketry 
 upon the detachment from the rocks and 
 from the windows of the houses at that end 
 of the village which we must pass. Hav- 
 ing no hope of succour we resolved to cut 
 our way through the enemy. My horse 
 received a ball through his neck and fell ; 
 I succeeded in raising him immediately 
 and reached the detachment. Shortly af- 
 terwards my comrade had his arm broken; 
 we saw almost all the hussars fall succes- 
 sively round us. Women, or rather furies 
 
 let 
 
( 255 ) 
 
 let loose, threw themselves with horrible 
 shrieks upon the wounded, and disputed 
 who should kill them by the most cruel 
 tortures; they stabbed their eyes with 
 knives and scissars, and seemed to exult 
 with ferocious joy at the sight of their 
 blood. The excess of their just rage 
 against the invaders of their country seem- 
 ed to have entirely changed their nature. 
 Meantime the detachment had remained 
 motionless facing the enemy, to wait for 
 us. The natives dared not quit the rocks 
 and houses, and we could not go with our 
 horses to them to revenge the death of our 
 companions. We called over our people 
 before them ; we placed the wounded in 
 the centre of the troop and began our 
 march slowly. 
 
 Not having been able to procure a guide, 
 we took the first path which led off the 
 beaten road where we knew the moun- 
 taineers 
 
( 256* ) 
 
 taineers had placed ambuscades, and 
 wandered for some time in the fields with- 
 out knowing where we were. We then 
 saw a man on a mule riding from a farm, 
 I rode after him, reached him, and placing 
 him between two of the advanced-guard, 
 ordered him, under pain of being put to 
 the sword, to guide us to Ronda. With- 
 out this peasant, whom we met by chance, 
 we should never have found our way in 
 these unknown countries. It is thus that 
 we had to struggle for ever against diffi- 
 culties, not military and foreseen, such as 
 are met with in regular war, but against 
 numberless obstacles which, springing from 
 the national character alone, were renewed 
 and infinitely multiplied according to cir- 
 cumstances at every step. 
 
 We had hardly entered a pretty long 
 valley, when we perceived x>n the heights 
 towards our left a troop of a thousand or 
 
 fifteen 
 
( 257 ) 
 
 fifteen hundred persons watching our 
 march. We distinguished among the 
 number women and even children. They 
 were the inhabitants of Setenil and the 
 neighbouring villages, who, learning that 
 we had changed our route in order to 
 avoid their ambuscades, had set off in pur- 
 suit of us. They were running very fast 
 in hopes of cutting off our march at a pass 
 in front of us. 
 
 We pushed on our horses that they 
 might not succeed, and fortunately passed 
 the defile. We were soon after surround- 
 ed by a cloud of peasants, detached from 
 the main body, in great disorder, and whose 
 fire just reached our flanks. They fol- 
 lowed us along the rocks without daring 
 to approach nearer than musket-shot for 
 fear of not being able to regain the moun- 
 tain if we charged. Priests and alcades 
 were riding on horseback along the heights 
 
 s to 
 
( 258 ) 
 
 to direct the movements of the crowd. 
 
 Such of our wounded as had the misfor- 
 
 ' 
 
 tune to fall off their horses, were stabbed 
 behind us without mercy. One alone es- 
 caped, for he had the presence of mind to 
 give the bystanders to understand that he 
 wished to confess before he died, and the 
 priest of Setenil saved him from the fury 
 of his enemies. 
 
 When we had reached a narrow path, 
 practised in the side of a steep mountain, 
 we stopped a few minutes to breathe our 
 horses ; some rocks sheltered us from the 
 fire of the enemy above us. At length we 
 
 perceived Honda; and just as we were 
 r j 
 
 rejoicing at being at length near the end 
 
 *' 
 
 of our journey, we were very much asto- 
 nished to see new enemies firing from an 
 ambush in the woods near the town. We 
 then felt the greatest uneasiness lest it 
 should have been abandoned by the 
 
 French ; 
 
( 259 ) 
 
 French ; but we soon saw, with the most 
 lively joy, a party of hussars from our own 
 regiment coming to meet us ; they had 
 mistaken us at a distance for enemies. 
 
 We entered the town and stopped in the 
 great square ; there our comrades came to 
 embrace us, and to ask for news of France 
 and the rest of the world from which they 
 had been so long separated. We then dis- 
 persed into the different lodgings assigned 
 for us, depending upon, at least, a few 
 days' rest after the long fatigues we had 
 just undergone. 
 
 The city of Ronda is situated in the 
 midst of the high mountains one must cross 
 in order to reach Gibraltar, and which are 
 generally comprehended under the name 
 of Sierra de Ronda. Their tops are 
 entirely stripped of vegetation, and their 
 sides covered with a sort of scaly rock 
 which one might fancy had been for ages 
 
 s 2 blackened 
 
( 260 ) 
 
 blackened and calcined by the heat of the 
 sun. It is only at the bottom of the val- 
 leys and on the banks of the rivers that 
 orchards and meadows are to be seen. 
 Near the sea the vine spreads itself along 
 the ground almost without culture, and 
 from thence come the best Spanish wines. 
 
 Accustomed to struggle continually with 
 the difficulties of savage nature, the inha- 
 bitants of these barren mountains are 
 sober, persevering, and unconquerable ; 
 religion is their only bond of social union, 
 and almost the only motive which restrains 
 them. The ancient government of Spain 
 was never able to subject them to the strict 
 observance of the laws during peace, nor 
 to make them serve in the armies during 
 war, for they desert whenever they are led 
 far from home. 
 
 The inhabitants of each village elect 
 their own alcades for two years ; but these 
 
 magistrates 
 
( 261 ) 
 
 magistrates seldom dare use their authority 
 lest they should make enemies, and ex- 
 pose themselves to vengeance, which is 
 there always implacable. If the king's 
 judge were to pretend to Use force to put 
 an end to a quarrel, he would instantly see 
 the poniard turned against himself; but 
 if a spectator begins a prayer, it rarely 
 happens that the combatants refuse to set 
 aside their fury, and to join in it together, 
 and in the most violent disputes the arrival 
 of the holy sacrament always re-establishes 
 good order, 
 
 I have been told that no great feast is 
 N ever given in the Sierra without two or 
 three persons being stabbed. Among the 
 men jealousy is a rage that nothing but the 
 sight of blood can appease; the mortal 
 blow almost always follows the sidelong 
 look of anger. 
 
 These mountaineers are almost univer- 
 s 3 sally 
 
( 262 ) 
 
 sally smugglers: they sometimes unite in 
 pretty large troops from different villages, 
 under the most famous of their chiefs, and 
 they go down into the plains where they 
 disperse to sell their goods, when they 
 often resist troops sent in pursuit of them. 
 These smugglers have always been famous 
 for their address, and for the dexterity 
 with which they elude the watchfulness of 
 the numerous excise officers under the 
 crown.; night and day roaming among 
 their mountains, they know the most .hid- 
 den caverns, the most rocky defiles, and 
 the narrowest passes. 
 
 While the men are constantly occupied 
 with this kind of smuggling war, their 
 wives remain at home among the moun- 
 tains, and do not shrink from undertaking 
 the most laborious employments. They 
 carry heavy burdens with ease, and boast 
 of the superior strength given them by 
 
 habit ; 
 
( 263 ) 
 
 habit; they have been seen wrestling to- 
 gether and striving who should lift the 
 heaviest stones. When they come down 
 to Ronda, they are easily distinguished by 
 their gigantic size, their robust limbs, and 
 their looks which are at once full of won- 
 der and boldness. When they come to 
 the town they are fond of dressing in the 
 finest stuffs and veils, which they obtain 
 by smuggling, and which form a curious 
 contrast with their dark sun-burnt com- 
 plexions and the coarseness of their fea- 
 tures. 
 
 The warlike natives of these high moun- 
 tains had all taken up arms against the 
 French, and when King Joseph with his 
 guards came to Ronda about three weeks 
 before us, he had in vain tried, first by 
 persuasion, and then by force, to make 
 them submit to his authority. 
 
 King Joseph remained but a few days 
 
( 264 ) 
 
 at Ronda ; he left 250 of our regiment, 
 and 300 of his own foot-guards to garrison 
 the place; and on leaving it, he gave un- 
 limited power over the neighbouring pro- 
 vinces, with the title of civil and military 
 governor, to our colonel. The absolute 
 authority attached to this pompous title, 
 equivalent with that of captain-general, 
 was meant to extend over all the country 
 fifteen or twenty leagues round ; but the 
 smugglers of the Sierra shut up our power 
 within the narrow limits of the walls of 
 Honda, where we could not even sleep in 
 peace, for we could not trust the inhabi- 
 tants of the suburbs. 
 
 On the night after we arrived we saw a 
 multitude of fires lighted successively on 
 the neighbouring mountains; the illusion 
 produced by the darkness brought even 
 the most distant of the fires near us, and 
 we might say that we were surrounded by 
 
 a circle 
 
I 265 ) 
 
 a circle of flames; the enemy had just 
 posted themselves round the whole town 
 in order to attack us the next day. 
 
 For about half an hour we heard the 
 sound of a goat's horn several times re- 
 peated, and which seemed to come from 
 an olive grove below us, in a little valley 
 without the old town. We were making 
 a thousand jests of these unformed sounds, 
 without being able to guess their meaning, 
 when a hussar from one of our advanced 
 posts galloped up to tell the colonel that 
 a deputy from the enemy demanded en- 
 trance. The colonel gave orders to intro^ 
 duce him, and the trooper soon brought 
 him with a bandage over his eyes. The 
 deputy told us that he came to invite us to 
 surrender ; that the general of the moun- 
 tain troops with 15,000 men occupied 
 every outlet by which we might hope to 
 escape; that a few days before he had 
 
 taken 
 
( 266 ) 
 
 taken a convoy of 50,000 cartridges which 
 were designed for us, and that he knew 
 we could not long keep the place because 
 we had very little ammunition left This 
 was true ; the infantry in the garrison had 
 only three rounds a man, the hussars could 
 make no use of their sabres among rocks, 
 and their horses were more frequently an 
 embarrassment than an assistance. 
 
 The colonel answered the deputy that 
 we would first sit down to table, and made 
 a sign to me to take our new guest into 
 the room where our meal was prepared, 
 telling me to take care of him. The de- 
 puty was a young man and rather good 
 looking, he wore the round Andalusian 
 hat, and a short vest of brown cloth edged 
 with a sky-blue chain lace ; his only mark 
 of distinction was a scarf in the fashion of 
 the country, with a few silver threads at 
 
 the 
 
( 267 ) 
 
 the end. Instead of a sabre he wore a 
 long straight sword like the ancients. 
 
 He was for a moment surprised to find 
 himself in his modest dress among a set of 
 officers covered with embroidery, and 
 when we all put our hands to our swords 
 at the same time to take them off in order 
 to sit down to table, he showed some un- 
 easiness, not being aware of the cause of so 
 sudden a motion. I fancy that the thought 
 occurred to him that we were going to kill 
 him by way of reprisal, because the inha- 
 bitants of a neighbouring village had mur- 
 dered an attorney belonging to Ronda 
 whom we had sent out as a deputy a few 
 days before. I soon restored his confi- 
 dence by inviting him to disarm himself 
 and sit down with us. After a few mo- 
 ments' silence I asked him if he had long 
 been in the service of Ferdinand VII ; he 
 told me only a year, and that he entered 
 
 as 
 
( 268 ) 
 
 as lieutenant in the Gantabrian hussars, 
 ** Although we are enemies/' said I, " we 
 are doubly comrades, by rank and by 
 using the same weapon/' He was much 
 flattered by being considered as an officer 
 in a regular troop. I then asked some 
 questions concerning the leaders of the 
 insurgent army ; he spoke much of the 
 merits of General Gonzales, and said that 
 he was a man of rare talents in the art of 
 war, and that he possessed the most pro- 
 found knowledge of tactics. We had 
 never heard of him, but we afterwards 
 learned that he was a serjeant of the line 
 to whom the insurgents had lately given 
 the rank of brigadier-general to make us 
 believe that they had a regularly organized 
 army. At length by praising extrava- 
 gantly every thing belonging to his party, 
 he told us the only thing it was of any 
 importance for us to learn, by saying no- 
 thing 
 
( 269 ) 
 
 thing about it; which was, that no Eng- 
 lish troops from Gibraltar had joined the 
 mountaineers ; had they done so our situ- 
 ation would have been truly perilous. 
 
 The Spanish officer did not at first for- 
 get the characteristic sobriety of the na- 
 tion, but when we drank his health he 
 pledged us, and then piqued himself on 
 drinking equally with us : we were only 
 comrades in the middle of supper, but we 
 were brothers at the dessert : we vowed 
 eternal friendship, and among other marks 
 of attachment we promised to fight in 
 single combat the next time we met. 
 
 When supper was over the colonel sent 
 the Spanish deputy back without an an- 
 swer; I was commissioned to see him as 
 far as the enemy's advanced post. I told 
 him to tie the bandage over his eyes him- 
 self; a hussar on his right hand led his 
 horse, I was on his left, and we went along 
 
 the 
 
( 270 ) 
 
 the Gibraltar road by which he had come 
 in. At our main-guard we were joined by 
 the deputy's trumpeter, and by an old 
 royal carabineer who was his orderly. This 
 was the only carabineer they had in the 
 insurgent army, and they had sent him as 
 a mark of honour with the deputy on ac- 
 count of his new uniform. I was a good 
 deal surprised at hearing him ask his officer 
 in an authoritative tone, why he had kept 
 him so long waiting. 
 
 The deputy's trumpeter was a young 
 shepherd whom they had dressed in a 
 green cassock, which formed a singular 
 contrast with his sandals, his bonnet, and 
 the rest of his rustic habiliments; they had 
 given him a lesson before they sent him to 
 us. When the hussars asked him what he 
 had done with his trumpet, he answered 
 that he had lost it; he had, in reality, 
 thrown away the modest shepherd's horn 
 
 which 
 
( 271 ) 
 
 which he had blown, for fear the sight of 
 so unmilitary an instrument should destroy 
 the illusion that he was in hopes his dis- 
 guise would produce. The shepherd could 
 not make his horse go on, for it kicked and 
 stopped at every step. I called to him in 
 Spanish to go on ; but he answered sor- 
 rowfully, " This is the first time I ever 
 was on horseback, and they have given 
 me a cursed brute which will not stir." 
 The carabineer, who was a few paces be- 
 hind, came up, told the shepherd roughly 
 to hold his tongue, and put an end to his 
 perplexity by taking his horse's bridle. 
 
 When we reached the first Spanish post 
 at the end of the suburb of the old town 
 I bid the deputy adieu, and returned to 
 give an account of my mission to the 
 colonel. We held a council of war, and 
 it was agreed that we should quit the 
 place, and go to wait for ammunition at 
 
 Campillos, 
 
( 272 ) 
 
 Campillos, a small town situated seven 
 
 leagues from Ronda, at the skirts of the 
 
 , 
 mountains, in a plain where our cavalry 
 
 would give us a certain advantage over 
 the mountaineers, however numerous. We 
 had but little confidence in King Joseph's 
 300 guards, for they were, for the most 
 part, Spanish deserters. 
 
 The colonel ordered the garrison to be 
 ready to march within an hour without 
 beat of drum or sound of trumpet, that 
 the enemy might have no notice of our de- 
 parture; I immediately gave orders to the 
 quarter-masters who were under my com- 
 mand, and we went from house to house 
 to awaken the conscripts of the detach- 
 ment which had arrived with me; they 
 had trusted to staying some time at Ronda 
 to rest after the fatigues of their journey, 
 and when we went at midnight to awaken 
 them they were dead asleep, and not hear- 
 ing 
 
( 273 ) 
 
 ing the trumpet as usual they would not 
 believe what we said ; some of them took 
 us for. the ghosts of their lieutenant and 
 corporals coming to torment them even in 
 their dreams with orders to march. We 
 were obliged to strike them pretty smartly 
 to prove that we were " true men/' 
 
 For two hours we marched in the deep- 
 est silence, by the light of the olive wood 
 fires which the mountaineers had kindled 
 on the declivities of the neighbouring hills. 
 At day-break we stopped for a quarter of 
 an hour on a small plain where we could 
 have made use of our sabres, in order to 
 see if the enemy had followed us ; but they 
 every where went away as soon as we ap- 
 proached, and regained the tops of the hills 
 without chusing to come to action. The 
 peasants from the villages near the road 
 fired at us from time to time and at all 
 distances; the women placed themselves 
 
 T upon 
 
( 274 ) 
 
 upon the rocks to see us pass below them, 
 and to rejoice in our retreat. They sung 
 patriotic songs, in which they wished de- 
 struction to all the French, the Grand 
 Duke of Berg, and to Napoleon. The 
 burden of the song was always the crow- 
 ing of a cock, which is considered as the 
 emblem of France. 
 
 At length we arrived at Campillos, and 
 
 * 
 
 we soon perceived, by the manner in which 
 the inhabitants received us, that the news 
 of our losses at Olbera, and our retreat 
 from Ronda, had reached the place before 
 us. When I entered my lodging I was 
 very ill received by my host ; my servant 
 having asked for a room for me, he showed 
 him a damp black kind of hole looking 
 into a back court. We had not been able 
 to distribute rations on our first arrival, 
 and the alcade had published an order 
 enjoining the inhabitants to feed the sol- 
 diers 
 
( 275 ) 
 
 diers who should lodge with them. My 
 orderly asked the master of the house by 
 signs to give him something to eat : I saw 
 him bring, with an air of mockery, a very 
 small table, on which there was a little 
 bread and a few cloves of garlic. I heard 
 him tell his wife that it was " Good enough 
 for those dogs of Frenchmen, there is no need 
 to keep terms with them now ; they have been 
 beaten, they are running away, and please 
 God and the holy mother, not a man of them 
 should be alive in two days." I made be- 
 lieve not to understand his curses, that he 
 might not learn that I knew Spanish. I 
 went out, and came back in an hour after- 
 wards to my lodging, where I found five 
 men belonging to the village sitting round 
 and smoking segars ; I discovered that 
 they were in the habit of meeting every 
 evening at the house of my host who sold 
 tobacco. My hussar was at some distance 
 
 T 2 from 
 
( 276 ) 
 
 from them; he arose on my entrance and 
 offered me his chair. I accepted it, and 
 drew it near the fire. The Spaniards at 
 first became silent, but one of them asked 
 me if I was tired, in order to discover whe- 
 ther I understood Spanish; and although 
 I appeared not to comprehend him, he 
 added with a sneer, " You have made good 
 use of your spurs these two days past." I 
 did not answer, so they thought that I did 
 not know a word of Spanish, and resumed 
 their conversation. 
 
 They spoke with boundless enthusiasm 
 of the brave mountaineers who had driven 
 us from Honda. They related the minutest 
 details of a supposed battle which had ta- 
 ken place the day before in the streets of 
 that town. They told each other that we 
 had lost at least six hundred men, while 
 we had but five hundred and fifty in all. 
 They affirmed that the mountaineers and 
 
 their 
 
( 277 ) 
 
 iheir general were coming to attack us in 
 two days at farthest; that the inhabitants 
 of the village would take up arms, and 
 that they would annihilate these damned 
 heretics who were worse than the Moors ; 
 for the French, as they said, neither be- 
 lieved in God nor the Virgin, nor Saint 
 Anthony, nor even in Saint James of Ga- 
 Ucia, and made no scruple of lodging in 
 churches with their horses. They repeated 
 a thousand other invectives of the same 
 kind, with which they raised their imagi- 
 nations, and concluded by saying that a 
 single Spaniard was worth three French- 
 men ; and one of them said he would kill 
 half a dozen with his own hand. 
 
 I then rose and said to them twice over, 
 poco a poco; they were petrified at finding 
 that I had understood their whole conver- 
 sation. I left them to go and give the co- 
 lonel notice of what I had heard ; he im- 
 
 T 3 mediately 
 
( 278 ) 
 
 mediately ordered the alcade to disarm the 
 village. The inhabitants gave up their 
 useless arms, and kept such as were ser- 
 viceable, as it always happens in similar 
 cases. 
 
 On returning to my lodging I did not 
 find one of my politicians, they had all 
 fled; my host had also hidden himself; 
 his wife in consternation had endeavoured 
 to conciliate my hussar during my absence : 
 at first she had only given him water to 
 drink, but she then brought him some ex- 
 cellent wine ; he, who had no idea that 
 fear had produced these attentions, was 
 not a little surprised at this unhoped-for 
 favour ; his vanity began to rise, and I 
 found him stroking up his horrible whiskers 
 with more than ordinary complacency. 
 
 The moment I put down my sabre my 
 host's wife took it up and carried it offici- 
 ously to the finest room in the house, to 
 
 take 
 
( 279 ) 
 
 take possession as it were in my name. She 
 then came and tremblingly entreated me 
 not to harbour resentment against her hus- 
 band, telling me that although he had not 
 received me well at first, that he was a re- 
 spectable man, and that he had a very 
 good heart. I assured her that her hus- 
 band might come back, that I would do 
 him no harm on condition that he would 
 give me timely notice of whatever he should 
 learn concerning the projects either of the 
 enemy or the inhabitants. I added, how- 
 ever, that if he failed I would certainly 
 have him hanged, and I went to bed. 
 
 I rose next day at day-break, and when 
 I opened the door of my room, I perceived 
 my host, who was waiting to make his 
 peace with me. Before he said any thing, 
 he presented me with a cup of chocolate 
 and biscuits ; I accepted it with a very 
 condescending air, and told him, that I 
 
 T 4 should 
 
( 280 ) 
 
 should be guided for the future in my con- 
 duct towards him by his behaviour to me; 
 he answered, with a low bow, that he and 
 his house were at my disposal. 
 
 On that day, the 15th March, we 
 learned that the Serranos had entered 
 Ronda an hour after we left it, and that 
 they were preparing to attack us at Carn- 
 pillos. 
 
 On the 16th our colonel sent a detach- 
 ment of a hundred hussars and forty foot 
 soldiers, to reconnoitre the enemy. I went 
 on the expedition, and we began our march 
 two hours before sun-rise, and met the 
 mountaineers four leagues from Campillos. 
 They had passed the night at a bivouac on 
 the declivity of a hill near the village of 
 Canete la Real. We stopped two musket 
 shots from them to examine their position 
 and to ascertain their number, which we 
 reckoned to be about four thousand ; and 
 
 when 
 
( 281 ) 
 
 when we had finished our examination, we 
 quietly turned back by the road by which 
 we came. 
 
 The Serranos, seeing us turning round, 
 fancied we were frightened at them; and 
 began shouting aloud, running down the 
 hill all together, and without observing 
 any order, followed us for an hour in a 
 difficult, and very much cut up country ; 
 the ground then became favourable for 
 cavalry, their ardour subsided, and they 
 stopped on the heights to re-assemble, not 
 daring to advance into the plain. They 
 then sent some peasants to fire upon the 
 skirmishers of our rear-guard, who had 
 faced about while the infantry and the 
 body of the detachment crossed a wooden 
 bridge thrown over a torrent which runs at 
 the foot of a barren mountain, on the sum- 
 mit of which the village of Teba is perched 
 like an eagle's nest. 
 
 The 
 
( 282 ) 
 
 The women of the village, dressed, ac- 
 cording to the custom of the country, in 
 pale blue and red clothes, had seated them- 
 selves on their heels, on the tops of the 
 rocks, in order to see from a near and safe 
 place the battle which they expected to 
 take place. Our rear-guard soon assembled 
 its riflemen and began to cross the bridge : 
 the women then rose all at once, and sung 
 the hymn to the Virgin Mary. At this 
 signal the fire began, and the Spaniards, 
 hidden by the shoulder of the hill, poured 
 upon us a shower of balls of every descrip- 
 tion; we continued to cross the bridge 
 quietly under the fire of the enemy with- 
 out returning it ; we saw the women come 
 down the rocks, tear the guns from their 
 husbands' hands, and placed themselves 
 before them to force them to advance and 
 to pursue us beyond the bridge. 
 
 Our rear-guard feeling itself too close 
 
 pressed 
 
( 283 ) 
 
 pressed faced about, and the hussars of 
 the first line directed a fierce carbine fire 
 against the nearest of the mountaineers, 
 and killed two, which checked the impe- 
 tuosity of the crowd, and the women pre- 
 cipitately returned to the top of the hill, 
 but a hundred of the insurgents followed 
 us at a little distance to within half a league 
 of Campillos. 
 
 The next day, the l?th, a detachment 
 of fifty hussars sent to reconnoitre, found 
 the Serranos encamped on the other side 
 of the wooden bridge below the village of 
 Teba. The hussars advanced very near 
 the bridge, and returned without firing a 
 single shot ; the enemy grew bold as they 
 had done the day before, and followed our 
 scouts as far as 'the advanced posts. Our 
 intention was to draw them on to the plain 
 near Campillos, and cut them to pieces. 
 The insurgents being, for the most part, 
 
 armed 
 
( 284 ) 
 
 armed only with fowling-pieces, had always 
 the advantage in the mountains, where we 
 could not pursue them through the rocks ; 
 but in the plain, their disorderly way of 
 fighting did not allow them to sustain the 
 shock of a charge of cavalry however infe- 
 rior in number. 
 
 At ten o'clock in the morning I saw my 
 host arrive in great haste ; a smile was on 
 his lips, but he was rubbing his eyes en- 
 deavouring in vain to w r eep. He told me 
 that all was lost for us, that our guards 
 were repulsed, that fifteen hundred moun- 
 taineers were coming furiously down to the 
 plain in order to surround us, while the 
 revolted inhabitants should attack us in 
 the centre of the village : and he pressed 
 me closely in his arms as if he pitied the 
 fate which threatened me. 
 
 The report of muskets, confused cries, 
 and the sound of trumpets and drums were 
 
 in 
 
( 285 ) 
 
 in fact heard at the same instant ; the peo- 
 plewere running from all quarters to arms ; 
 one of our posts placed not far from the 
 house I lived in had just been forced to 
 retire to the entrance of the village. I im- 
 mediately mounted my horse and collected 
 my detachment. The colonel appeared at 
 the same moment, and ordered me to go 
 and support the repulsed guards ; we made 
 a charge in various directions in the plain, 
 which succeeded ; forty of our hussars cut 
 a hundred of the mountaineers to pieces ; 
 those who were on the neighbouring heights 
 fled in the greatest consternation; we then 
 returned, and the plain which had before 
 echoed to the shouts of a cloud of riflemen, 
 remained silent and strewed with the scat- 
 tered enemy who had just been cut down. 
 While we were on horseback repelling 
 the enemy, the inhabitants, persuaded that 
 we were to be annihilated, had murdered 
 
( 286 ) 
 
 all our soldiers who had neglected to repair 
 to the place appointed for rendezvous in 
 case of danger. On returning to the village 
 the hussars cut down every native whom 
 they found armed, and there was some 
 difficulty in preventing plunder. From 
 that time the mountaineers did not dare to 
 shew themselves in the plain ; they march- 
 ed the rest of the day and part of the night, 
 without stopping, and regained their high 
 mountains in the neighbourhood of Ronda. 
 On the 19th March, General Peremont 
 came from Malaga to join us at Campillos 
 with three battalions of infantry, a regi- 
 ment of lancers from the Vistula, and two 
 pieces of cannon. We received the ammu- 
 nition we were in need of, and on the 20th, 
 at six o'clock in the morning, we set off 
 all together to take possession of Rondaonce 
 more. We went a little out of our road to 
 levy a contribution on the inhabitants of 
 
 Teba 
 
( 287 ) 
 
 Teba to punish them for having taken up 
 arms against us three days before, although 
 they had sent in their submissions to King 
 Joseph. 
 
 Our colonel left his regiment at the foot 
 of the hill, on the top of which Teba stands, 
 and went to the village with only fifty hus- 
 sars. The inhabitants, who had heard of 
 our approach and of the contribution we 
 meant to claim, had fled into their rocky 
 fastnesses with their most precious effects. 
 Clothes scattered up and down marked the 
 traces of their precipitate flight. 
 
 The colonel gave orders to break open 
 the doors of some of the houses in the mar- 
 ket-place to see if we might find any of the 
 inhabitants concealed. Only one old man 
 was found, who, far from being afraid, 
 shouted for joy as he saw the hussars enter 
 his house. They were willing to have taken 
 advantage of his good will towards them, 
 
 and 
 
( 288 ) 
 
 and led him out that he might give them 
 information, but they soon discovered that 
 he was mad, and it was probably this mis- 
 fortune which prevented his relations or 
 friends from carrying him with them to the 
 mountains. 
 
 We passed near two hours in the village 
 without finding a single individual whom 
 we could depute to the inhabitants, to 
 quiet them and assure them that no harm 
 should be done to any one of them, but 
 that they should be pardoned on condition 
 that they would pay a contribution in the 
 name of King Joseph. We did not wish 
 to makeirreconcileable enemies of them, or 
 to drive them to despair by rigorous pu- 
 nishment, yet it was of consequence not 
 to leave their revolt wholly unchastised. 
 
 The following expedient was employed 
 to draw them from their retreats. The 
 hussars burned some wet straw in the cmm- 
 
 neys 
 
( 289 ) 
 
 heys of some of the houses : these fires 
 produced a thick smoke, which, driven by 
 the wind towards the mountain, persuaded 
 the inhabitants that we were going to set 
 fire to the village. They immediately sent 
 a deputation, and we soon saw the alcade* 
 followed by four of the richest natives, ar- 
 rive. He wore a red cloak and a laced 
 coat. He had doubtless put on all the 
 marks of his dignity, because he expected 
 to sacrifice his life for the safety of the vil- 
 lage, when he came to the French. The 
 alcade promised that the inhabitants would 
 pay the contribution we demanded. We 
 carried him with us as a hostage, and he 
 returned home two days afterwards. 
 
 The same night we slept at a little vil- 
 lage only four leagues from Campillos. On 
 the 21st we set out at sun-set for Ronda, 
 Which we entered without resistance. The 
 mountaineers abandoned the town preen 
 
 u pitately 
 
( 290 ) 
 
 pitately at our approach, and threw down 
 their guns and cloaks in the streets that 
 they might the more readily gain the moun- 
 tain through by-paths. The hussars of 
 our advanced guard cut down the last of 
 the fugitives. 
 
 We were received as deliverers by a part 
 of the inhabitants of Ronda. During our 
 absence the mountaineers had erected a 
 gallows in the principal square in order to 
 punish such of the townVpeople as had 
 favoured the French ; and if we had come 
 a day later several individuals would have 
 been led to execution; and thus private 
 animosities would have been satisfied un- 
 der pretence of public justice. A magis- 
 trate was to have been hanged because he 
 would not receive a bribe in a case of 
 smuggling, years before ; and a poor tailor 
 was thrown upon the rocks and dashed to 
 pieces the night preceding our return, be- 
 cause 
 
( 291 ) 
 
 cause he had served as interpreter to our 
 soldiers. 
 
 The very day on which we left Honda, 
 the mountaineers entered it by day-break, 
 shouting with joy and discharging their 
 pieces exultingly in the streets. The inha- 
 bitants of each village arrived together 
 marching without order, and followed by 
 their wives, only distinguishable from the 
 men by their dress, their greater stature, 
 and their coarser manners. 
 
 They pretended that their husbands had 
 taken Ronda by conquest from the French, 
 and that every thing in the town belonged 
 to them : they said to each other, stopping 
 proudly before the doors of the best houses, 
 " I take this house ; I shall be a lady, and 
 come to take possession in a few days with my 
 goats and my children." In the mean time 
 they loaded their asses with whatever they 
 found in the apartments ; and these ladies 
 
 u 2 did 
 
did not cease plundering till the poor beasts 
 were ready to sink under the weight of the 
 booty. 
 
 Some smugglers stole an English lieute- 
 nant's horses and portmanteau, though he 
 was with them on their expedition, but he 
 could by no means bring the guilty persons 
 to punishment. The prisons were forced, 
 and the insurgents and criminals they con- 
 tained ran instantly to take revenge on 
 their judges and their accusers. Debtors 
 obtained receipts from their creditors by 
 forcible means, and all the public papers 
 were burned, in order to annul the mort- 
 gages that the inhabitants of the town had 
 upon the property of any of the moun- 
 taineers. 
 
 The commander-in-chief of the Serranos 
 did not reach Ronda till six hours after our 
 departure from it. By the assistance of 
 what he called his regular troops, he en- 
 deavoured 
 
( 293 ) 
 
 deavoured to establish some kind of order 
 in the town, but not being able to succeed, 
 he made use of the following stratagem ; 
 He caused the public crier to proclaim 
 that the French were coming back. The 
 mountaineers instantly assembled, and the 
 inhabitants had time to barricade their 
 houses, 
 
 The person who possessed the greatest 
 influence over these undisciplined hordes 
 was a man of the name of Cura, a native 
 of Valencia, where he had been professor 
 of mathematics. Having killed a man in 
 a fit of jealous phrenzy, he was forced to 
 become an exile from his country, and to 
 take refuge among the mountain smugglers 
 in order to escape the search of justice. 
 He had contrived to have it whisperpd 
 that he was a person of the most ex- 
 alted birth, but that for reasons of state 
 fye was forced to keep himself unknown. 
 
 u 3 The 
 
( 294 ) 
 
 The mountaineers had surnatned him the 
 stranger with the wide bonnet, because he 
 affected to wear the cap of the country of 
 an extraordinary size, in order to attract 
 notice, which, along with this kind of 
 mystery, gave him great power over men's 
 minds. The stranger with the wide bonnet^ 
 however, having raised heavy contribu- 
 tions upon several mountain villages about 
 a month afterwards, under pretence of 
 buying arms and ammunition, attempted 
 to make his escape with the money which 
 had been entrusted to him, but he was 
 taken and punished. 
 
 General Peremont had led his brigade 
 to Ronda for the purpose of making an 
 expedition from thence into the heart of 
 the mountains, but he was forced to re- 
 turn to Malaga, without having attempted 
 any thing. He learned that the last men- 
 tioned city had been attacked during his 
 
 absence 
 
( 295 ) 
 
 absence by other insurgent troops, and 
 therefore left our regiment of hussars to 
 garrison Ronda a second time, and instead 
 of the battalion of King Joseph's guards 
 which served with us before, he gave us 
 two hundred of the bravest Polish infantry. 
 
 The town of Ronda is situated on a crag 
 which is very easy of access and only steep 
 on the north side. It is separated from the 
 mountains which command it towards the 
 south and west, by a fertile and well cul- 
 tivated valley. The Guadiaro descends 
 from the highest of these mountains, and 
 runs through Ronda; one would imagine 
 that a violent earthquake had cleft the 
 high crag on which the town is built, in 
 order to form the deep dark bed of this 
 little river. 
 
 The old town, situated on the left bank 
 of the river, communicates with the new 
 town on the opposite bank by a superb 
 
 u 4 stone 
 
( 296 ) 
 
 stone bridge of a single arch. Iron balco- 
 nies project beyond the parapet on each 
 side; and one is struck with a kind of ter^r 
 ror when suddenly through the thin iron 
 bars one discovers the river, two hundred 
 and seventy-six feet below one, like a single 
 \vhite thread running out of the gulf which 
 the violence of the torrent must have form- 
 ed ages back. A sort of misty damp is 
 always rising from the abyss, and the eye 
 can hardly perceive at that immense dis- 
 tance the nien and asses who are continu- 
 ally climbing up and down the winding 
 pathway to carry burdens to the different 
 mills constructed at the foot of the im- 
 ipense rpcky terrace which supports the 
 town, 
 
 From the tops of these rocks we often 
 saw, during these times of war and trouble, 
 the gardeners of the valley quitting their 
 peaceful labours to join the mountaineers 
 
 when 
 
( 297 ) 
 
 when they came to attack us ; or perceiv- 
 ed them bury their guns on the approach 
 of a Frenchman. 
 
 That part of Ronda which is called the 
 old town is almost entirely of Moorish con- 
 struction, the streets being narrow and 
 winding ; but the new town is, on the con- 
 trary, regularly built ; the squares are large 
 and the streets wide and straight. We 
 easily put the old town in such a state of 
 defence as to guard it against a surprise, 
 by constructing a few works and repairing 
 an old castle which our foot soldiers were 
 fully equal to defending, and our hussars 
 were specially entrusted with the care of 
 the new town. We threw down some old 
 walls, and levelled some inequalities in the 
 approach to that side in order to be able 
 to repulse the enemy by a charge of ca- 
 valry in case of need. 
 
 The mountaineers had encamped on 
 the neighbouring heights, and watched 
 
 day 
 
( 298 ) 
 
 day and night what was doing in the town. 
 When our trumpets sounded the reveillee 
 at sun-rise, the shepherd's horn was soon 
 heard rousing the mountaineers on the tops 
 of the neighbouring hills. They passed 
 whole days in annoying our out-posts in 
 different ways, but the moment we made a 
 sally they retired, only to return and harass 
 us anew. 
 
 Whenever the Serranos prepared for an 
 attack, they shouted aloud to animate each 
 other for the fight, and fired on us long be- 
 fore their balls could reach us. Such as 
 were farthest off fancied, on hearing the 
 firing and the shouts, that their companions 
 in front had gained an advantage ; they 
 accordingly pressed forward to join in the 
 action and partake the honour of the suc- 
 cess which they believed to be easy ; they 
 often in their eagerness got before those 
 who at first had held the foremost ranks, 
 
 and 
 
( 299 ) 
 
 and when they discovered their error, it 
 was too late to go back. We allowed them 
 to come as far as the little plain round the 
 new town, as it gave us an opportunity of 
 charging and cutting them down, but they 
 always retreated as soon as they had lost a 
 few of their men. 
 
 The most popular pastime among the 
 labourers of Ronda was to sit on the rocks 
 among the olive groves at the end of the 
 suburb and smoke segars while they fired 
 upon our videttes. In the morning they 
 would go out of the town with their tools, 
 as if they were going to work in the fields, 
 but there or at the farm-houses they found 
 their guns, and returning them at night 
 they would come back to the town and 
 sleep in the midst of us. It not unfre- 
 quently happened that our hussars recog- 
 nised their hosts among their enemies, but 
 it was impossible to make very rigorous 
 
 searches, 
 
( 300 ) 
 
 searches, for if Marshal Soult's decree 
 against insurgent Spaniards had been car- 
 ried into execution, we must have punish- 
 ed nearly the whole population of the 
 country with death. The mountaineers 
 hung their French prisoners or burned 
 them alive; and in return, our soldiers 
 rarely gave quarter to a Spaniard found 
 under arms. 
 
 The women, the old men, and even the 
 children, were against us, and served as 
 spies for the enemy. I saw a young boy of 
 eight years old playing about among our 
 horses' feet; he offered himself as a guide, 
 and led a small party of hussars straight to 
 an ambuscade. When he reached it he 
 suddenly ran off towards the rocks, throw- 
 ing up his bonnet in the air, and crying 
 with all his might, " Long live our King, 
 Ferdinand VII. I" and the firing instantly 
 began. 
 
 All 
 
( 301 ) 
 
 All that was wanting on the score of mi- 
 litary discipline among the mountaineers, 
 was amply made up by the strength and 
 perseverance of their inflexible character : 
 if they were no match for us in the plain, 
 if they failed in attacks requiring great 
 combinations, they in revenge fought ad- 
 mirably among rocks and behind the walls 
 of their homes ; in short, wherever we 
 could not bring cavalry against them. We 
 were never able to subdue the inhabitants 
 of Montejaque, a little hamlet half a 
 league from Honda, and containing only 
 fifty or sixty houses. 
 
 The inhabitants of every mountain town 
 or village, who believed themselves ex- 
 posed to the visits of the French, sent their 
 old men, their women and their children 
 to inaccessible fastnesses, and hid their 
 most valuable property in caverns. The 
 men remained alone in the places to de- 
 fend 
 
( 302 ) 
 
 fend them or to make secret incursions 
 into the plains to carry off the cattle of 
 such Spaniards as refused to declare them- 
 selves against us. 
 
 The little town of Grazalema was the 
 arsenal of the mountaineers. Marshal 
 Soult sent a column of 3000 men against 
 that small place. The smugglers defend- 
 ed themselves from house to house, and 
 only abandoned the place for want of am- 
 munition ; they then escaped into the 
 mountains, after having destroyed a con- 
 siderable number of our soldiers, and the 
 moment the army left the town they took 
 possession again. 
 
 A division consisting of three regiments 
 of the line, sent a month afterwards to 
 disperse the insurgent army again, easily 
 repulsed the mountaineers from every 
 point in the open country, but they could 
 not succeed in gaining possession of Gra- 
 zalema. 
 
( 303 ) 
 
 zalema. Some smugglers had entrenched 
 themselves in the market-place, which is 
 in the centre of the town; they had placed 
 mattrasses before the windows of the 
 houses in which they had shut themselves 
 up. Twelve hussars of the tenth regiment, 
 and forty rifle-men who formed the ad- 
 vanced-guard of the French division, ar- 
 rived in the square without meeting with 
 any resistance; but they never returned, 
 every one of them was struck by the fire 
 which poured from the windows on all 
 sides ; and all who were sent to the same 
 spot perished immediately in like manner, 
 without having done the smallest damage 
 to the enemy. The expeditions which the 
 French frequently sent against the highest 
 part of the mountains almost always dis- 
 persed the enemy's troops without subdu- 
 ing them, and our parties returned to 
 Ronda with great loss. Even when our 
 
 troops 
 
( 304 ) 
 
 troops were superior in number the Serra- 
 nos baffled all their efforts by their manner 
 of fighting in the mountains : on the ap- 
 proach of our compact bodies, they re- 
 treated from rock to rock, and from posi- 
 tion to position, without intermitting their" 
 fire, or ceasing, for a moment, to harass 
 us ; as they fled they destroyed whole 
 columns without giving us an opportunity 
 of taking revenge. This manner of fight- 
 ing had procured them the name of moun- 
 tain flies > even from the Spaniards them- 
 selves, alluding to the manner in which 
 those obstinate insects torment living 
 beings without ever leaving them an in- 
 stant's rest. 
 
 The detachments which went out of 
 Honda, either on necessary expeditions or 
 to reconnoitre, were surrounded from the 
 moment of their departure to that of their 
 return to the town by a cloud of skirmish- 
 ers,- 
 
( 305 ) 
 
 ers. Every convoy of provisions which we 
 brought from without, cost us the lives of 
 several men killed by ambuscades. We 
 might with truth say in the language of 
 Scripture, that we eat our own flesh and 
 drank our own blood in this inglorious war, 
 in expiation of the injustice of the cause 
 for which we were fighting. 
 
 The mountains of Grenada and Murcia 
 were not more submissive than those of 
 Ronda ; and the French, attacked in every 
 point of communication by the whole po- 
 pulation, found themselves nearly in the 
 same situation with our regiment in all the 
 mountainous parts of the country. Such 
 was the repose we enjoyed after having 
 conquered Spain from the French frontiers 
 even to the gates of Cadiz. The siege of 
 that city was then the only military event 
 worthy of attention. 
 
 When our horses had consumed the fo- 
 * jage 
 
( 306 ) 
 
 rage of all the farms in the neighbour- 
 hood of Ronda, we were obliged to extend 
 our excursions, and to send parties of 
 thirty or forty hussars to get cut straw 
 several leagues from the town, three dr 
 four times a-week. The weakness of the 
 garrison did not permit us to send detach- 
 ments of infantry to support our foragers, 
 as we too often felt it would have been 
 expedient to do. Our horsemen were not 
 always strong enough to repulse the enemy 
 in these expeditions, and we sought to 
 elude their vigilance either by taking a 
 different road every day, or by going a 
 great way about to avoid the dangerous 
 hill passes, and frequently we were obliged 
 to cut our way through the insurgents, 
 who were for ever collected round the 
 town. , ,. ir/^rj; 
 
 Fortune had been most favourable to 
 me for a whole month; I succeeded in all 
 
 enterprises 
 
( 307 ) 
 
 enterprises without the town, and when it 
 was my turn to do duty at the main-guard 
 none of our people were ever killed. The 
 hussars, who are in great measure fatalists, 
 began to think me invulnerable; I was, 
 nevertheless, almost mortally wounded on 
 the 1st May; but I was since told, to 
 comfort me, that fate had made a mistake; 
 that I ought not to look upon myself as 
 less fortunate than before, because the 
 adjutant had made a mistake in arranging 
 us on that service, and that I had inarched 
 in the place of one of my comrades who 
 had an unlucky star. 
 
 On the 1st May I was with a detach- 
 ment of forty-five hussars, commanded by 
 a captain ; we were going to seek cut straw 
 a few leagues from Ronda, at some farms 
 belonging to the village of Setenil ; we 
 were accompanied by about a hundred 
 peasants and muleteers from the town to 
 
 x 2 lead 
 
i 308 ) 
 
 lead the mules and asses. We had set 
 put at five o'clock in the morning, and the 
 captain and I marched at the head of the 
 troop ; we said to each other, as we passed 
 through a defile half a league from the 
 town, the enemy must have been very ill 
 advised not to have placed an ambuscade 
 in that place before that hour; by which 
 they might have done us a great deal of 
 harm without running any risk themselves. 
 On going up a steep hill I saw at a dis- 
 tance what at first appeared to be a cloud 
 of dust, but afterwards, distinctly on our 
 right, four or five hundred armed men ad* 
 vancing in the valley towards the village 
 of Ariate ; I told the captain that I saw 
 the enemy, .and that I was sure of it by 
 the haste and disorder of the march. 
 
 A quarter-master, however, asserted that 
 the people we saw in the field were mule- 
 teers returning to Ossuna, and who had 
 
 been 
 
( 309 ) 
 
 been the day before at Honda to bring 
 biscuit and cartridges, under an escort 
 of 200 men. I obstinately maintained that 
 they were the enemy's troops, and added 
 that if I commanded the detachment I 
 would immediately charge them while they 
 remained in the flat country, for if we 
 were repulsed our retreat was secure, while 
 we could not continue our march without 
 exposing ourselves to being attacked on 
 our return in some pass unfavourable to the 
 cavalry. The captain was not of my opi- 
 nion, we therefore went on, and soon ar- 
 rived at the village of vSetenil. 
 
 The slowness and ill will of the Spanish 
 muleteers who had accompanied us to 
 load the mules, gave us some suspicions ; 
 and these suspicions increased when, just 
 as we were preparing to return to Ronda, 
 we saw a peasant on horseback, on a hill 
 at a little distance, watch our marching* 
 
 x 3 and 
 
t 310 ) 
 
 and then gallop off as if to give notice to 
 the enemy. When we had done foraging, 
 tve set out again by the same road, send- 
 ing on the mules before us, between an 
 advanced-guard of twelve hussars and the 
 main body of the detachment, at the head 
 of which I was with the captain. When 
 we were about two musket shots from the 
 pass which we dreaded the most, I saw a 
 peasant sitting in ian olive tree cutting the 
 branches very busily with a hatchet. I 
 galloped on before the detachment, and 
 approached the peasant to ask him if he 
 had not seen the Serranos. I afterwards 
 learned that lie was one of them, and was 
 cutting those branches to bar up the pass. 
 He answered, affecting to go on eagerly 
 with his work, that his employment did 
 not leave him leisure to attend to what 
 passed around him. At the same moment 
 the captain was questioning a child of five 
 
 or 
 
or six years old, whose answers were low 
 and hesitating, as if he was afraid of being 
 heard. But we had no time to pay atten- 
 tion to his confused tale, for we saw our 
 advanced-guard, at the head of the mules, 
 come out of the other side of the pass, and 
 go up the opposite hill : we had to go 
 along a narrow and slippery path where 
 we were obliged to march one by one, and 
 which was five or six hundred paces long, 
 and bounded by very thick garden hedges. 
 The captain, by whose side I was march- 
 ing, repeated what he had said in the 
 morning, that it was lucky that the enemy 
 had not placed any ambuscade in the pass. 
 He had scarcely spoken the words when 
 four or five shots from behind the hedge 
 killed the three last mules of the convoy 
 and the trumpeter's horse, which was be* 
 fore us ; our horses instantly stopped. 
 The captain was to have marched on 
 x 4 first, 
 
( 312 > 
 
 first, but the horse he rode had belonged 
 to an officer who had been killed a few 
 days before on a similar expedition, and 
 the animal hesitated. Seeing this I spur- 
 red my horse and got before the captain ; 
 I leaped over the trumpeter's horse and 
 the mules who had just fallen with their 
 burthens, and passed the defile alone. The 
 Serranos, who were placed behind the 
 hedges, thought the whole detachment was 
 close behind me, and discharged all their 
 pieces as I passed. Two balls only reach- 
 ed me, the first passed through my left 
 thigh; the other entered my body. 
 
 The captain followed me at some dis- 
 tance and arrived safe and sound at the 
 other side of the pass; and of the whole 
 detachment there were only the four last 
 men killed, because the enemy suspended 
 their fire for a few minutes while they 
 loaded their guns a second time. The 
 
 quarter- 
 
( 313 ) 
 
 quarter-master, whd brought up the rear 
 of the detachment, had his horse shot 
 under him, and he counterfeited death 
 himself, slipped into the brushwood, and 
 came back in the middle of the night fo 
 Honda without any wound. 
 
 When we had rallied, and formed out 
 detachment in line, on the other side of 
 the pass, I told the captain that I was 
 wounded, that I felt my strength failing 
 me, and that I was going to return to 
 Honda by a pretty steep cross-road, which 
 was very short. He advised me to remain 
 with the detachment, which was going to 
 take a road half a mile longer round the 
 plain, where there was no enemy, that 
 they might not expose themselves uselessly 
 to a second attack. I felt that I could 
 not support so long a march, and I entered 
 the steep path preceded by a hussar, who 
 led my horse by the bridle. As I was 
 
 losing 
 
( 314 ) 
 
 losing blood, I was obliged to summon up 
 all my strength that I might not faint ; if 
 I had fallen off my horse I should proba- 
 bly have been stabbed. I held by both 
 hands to the pommel of my saddle, mak- 
 ing vain efforts to push on my horse by 
 spurring it with the only leg I had to use. 
 The poor animal went no faster and stag- 
 gered at every step, for a ball had passed 
 through him. 
 
 When I was within a quarter of a league 
 of the town my horse could scarcely move. 
 The hussar who accompanied me gallop- 
 ed off to give notice to the out-posts on 
 the top of the hill, and I managed to get 
 on a few paces alone, tho ; ugh scarcely able 
 to see, or hear the peasants' guns, who 
 were firing at me from a distance, while 
 they were cutting wood. I was, at length, 
 relieved by the arrival of some soldiers, 
 
 who 
 
( 315 ) 
 
 who conveyed me to my lodgings in my 
 horsecloth. 
 
 My Spanish hosts came to meet me, and 
 would not allow me to be carried to the 
 military hospital, where there was an epi- 
 demical fever ; I should probably, like 
 many others, have found death by way of 
 cure. Till that day my hosts had behaved 
 to me with cold and reserved politeness, 
 looking upon me as one of the enemies of 
 their country. Respecting their patriotism, 
 I myself had been but little communi- 
 cative with them. The moment I was 
 wounded they showed me the most lively 
 interest, and treated me with that charity 
 and that generosity which so eminently 
 distinguish the Spanish character. They 
 told me, that since I could do no more 
 harm to their country they considered me 
 as one of their family ; and without a sin- 
 
< 316 ) 
 
 gle moment's intermission, they nursed and 
 watched over me for fifty days. 
 
 At day-break on the 4th May the insur- 
 gents came with a stronger force than they 
 had ever yet assembled, to attack Ronda. 
 Balls passed so near my windows that they 
 were obliged to move my bed into the 
 next room. My host and hostess came to 
 tell me, while they endeavoured to appear 
 calm themselves, that the mountaineers 
 were at the end of the street, that they 
 were gaining ground towards us, and that 
 the old town was on the point of being 
 carried by storm : they added, that they 
 were going to take precautions to shelter 
 me from the fury of the Serranos, till the 
 arrival of General Lerrana Valdenebro/ 
 who was their relation, and they carefully 
 hid my arms, my military dress, and what- 
 ever else might have attracted the atten- 
 jo Yrf3 3fl30ioo~ tion 
 wsii A 
 
( 317 ) 
 
 tion of the enemy, and with the assistance 
 of their servants, they carried me to the 
 top of the house behind a little chapel 
 dedicated to the Virgin Mary ; looking on 
 that consecrated place as an inviolable 
 asylum. My hosts then brought two 
 priests, who placed themselves at the street 
 door to defend it, and, in case of need, to 
 protect me by their presence. An old 
 lady, the mother of my hostess, remained 
 alone with me, and began praying; she 
 turned the beads of her rosary faster or 
 slower according as the cries of the com- 
 batants, or the noise of the fire-arms, 
 announced the increase or diminution of 
 the danger. Towards noon the firing 
 seemed farther and farther off, and at 
 length ceased entirely ; the enemy was 
 repulsed from every point, and my com- 
 rades came to relate the particulars of the 
 battle the moment they got off their horses. 
 
 A few 
 
< 318 ) 
 
 A few days afterwards the second hus- 
 sars received orders to go to Santa Maria; 
 it was replaced by the 43d regiment of the 
 line, and I was the only one of my own 
 corps left at Ron da ; I did not know any 
 of the officers of the new garrison, and I 
 received no visits from the French, except- 
 ing indeed that a subaltern, the adjutant 
 of a foot regiment, who was impatient for 
 my quarters, came now and then to in- 
 quire of my host whether I was dead or 
 well enough to set off yet. 
 After the departure of my comrades my 
 hosts redoubled their kindness and atten- 
 tion ; they passed several hours every day 
 in my room ; and when I began to get a 
 little better they invited a few of their 
 neighbours every evening to come and 
 talk, or sometimes to perform a little con- 
 cert by my bedside, to make me forget my 
 sufferings. They sung their national songs 
 
 and 
 
( 319 ) 
 
 and accompanied themselves with the 
 guitar. n& 
 
 The mother of my hostess had conceiv- 
 ed a great friendship for me ever since the 
 day she had remained in my room to pray 
 fervently for my safety during the assault. 
 Her second daughter was a nun in a con- 
 vent of noble ladies ; she sent to ask after 
 my health from time to time, and sent me 
 little baskets of perfumed lint, covered 
 with rose-leaves. 
 
 The nuns of the different convents of 
 Ronda had doubled their prayers and pe- 
 nances from the time we entered Andalu- 
 sia ; they passed the greater part of their 
 nights in praying for the success of the 
 Spanish cause, and during the day they 
 employed themselves in preparing medi- 
 cines and comforts for the wounded 
 French; this mixture of patriotism and 
 Christian charity was not rare in Spain. 
 
 On 
 
( 320 ) 
 
 On the 18th June, I rose for the first 
 time since my wound. I was obliged to 
 begin my melancholy apprenticeship of 
 walking with crutches ; I had totally lost 
 the use of one of my legs. I went to visit 
 the horse who was wounded with me, he 
 had got quite well, but he did not know 
 me at first, which showed me how much I 
 was changed. On the 22d I left Ronda 
 on an ammunition cart, which was going 
 to Ossuna to fetch cartridges, under a 
 strong escort. I parted from my hosts 
 with the same kind of regret that one feels 
 on leaving the home of one's fathers for the 
 first time. They also were sorry at my 
 leaving them ; they had become attached 
 to me by the kindnesses with which they 
 themselves had loaded me. 
 , I went from Ossuna to Essica, and from 
 Essica to Cordova. Bodies of Spanish par- 
 tisans, three or four hundred strong, scour- 
 ed 
 
4 
 
 ed the country on all sides : when pursued, 
 they retreated either to the mountains 
 which separate Andalusia from Estrema- 
 diira and La Mancha; or to those of the 
 sea coast. These troops of partisans or 
 guerrillas served to keep alive the fermen- 
 tation of the country, and kept up the 
 communications between Cadiz and the 
 interior of Spain. The people were led to 
 believe that the Marquis de la Romana 
 had beaten the -French at Truxillo, and 
 that the English in a sortie from Gibraltar 
 had completely defeated them near the 
 sea. These reports, however improbable, 
 being skilfully spread, were received with 
 transport; hope thus continually renewed, 
 excited partial insurrections in various 
 parts, and the news of imaginary success, 
 spread at a fortunate moment, often pro- 
 cured real advantages. 
 
 At some distance from Cordova there 
 Y was 
 
( 322 ) 
 
 was a long established band of robbers; 
 thieves by profession, they ceased not to 
 strip Spanish travellers ; but that they 
 might acquit themselves of the obligation 
 that every citizen contracts at his birth to 
 shed his blood for his country when inva- 
 ded, they made war on the French, and 
 attacked their detachments even though 
 certain of obtaining no booty. 
 
 On leaving Andalusia I crossed La Man- 
 cha ; I was obliged to stop several days at 
 every station to await the return of the 
 escorts who convoyed ammunition regu- 
 larly to the siege of Cadiz. Sometimes 
 wearied with staying so long in bad quar- 
 ters, I abandoned myself to fate, and took 
 the chance of going alone from one halting 
 place to another. The commandants at 
 the posts of communication could only 
 give escorts for the indispensable service of 
 the army, for they often lost several men 
 
 in 
 
( 323 ) 
 
 iii attempting to escort a single courier for 
 a few leagues. 
 
 King Joseph had no regular means of 
 Jevying his taxes; it was in vain that he 
 sent his moveable columns to scour the 
 country ; the inhabitants fled to the moun- 
 tains or defended themselves in their dwel- 
 lings ; the soldiers sacked the villages, but 
 the contributions were not raised ; peace- 
 able individuals sometimes paid for all the 
 rest, but they were afterwards grievously 
 punished by the guerrilla chiefs, for not 
 having fled also at the approach of the 
 French. The inhabitants of La Mancha 
 as well as those of the neighbouring pro- 
 vinces were exasperated by such violent 
 measures, and the number of our enemies 
 daily increased. New Castile, which I 
 likewise passed through in my journey, 
 was not more tranquil than La Mancha. 
 
 Y 2 Some 
 
( 324 ) 
 
 Some Spanish partisans had been on the 
 point of taking King Joseph prisoner in 
 one of his country houses near Madrid. 
 
 I arrived at last in that capital, and 
 there stayed, waiting a favourable oppor- 
 tunity of returning to France. 
 
 King Joseph gave bull-fights several 
 times a week, to please the people, attach 
 them to his new government, and divert 
 their attention from the presence of our ar- 
 mies. With this artful design he spared 
 neither pains nor expense; and procured 
 from Andalusia the most expert and re- 
 nowned practitioners. The inhabitants of 
 Madrid and the neighbourhood thronged 
 to the spectacle, notwithstanding their ha- 
 bitual sadness and the calamities of the 
 times. 
 
 Most travellers, who have written upon 
 Spain, disdaining to enter into the cus- 
 toms 
 
( 325 ) 
 
 toms of the Spaniards, or rather to divest 
 themselves of their national prejudices, 
 have represented the bull-fights as only fit 
 to excite horror and disgust in the mind of 
 every civilised man : we might reduce to 
 the same level certain pastimes of the an- 
 cients, and even those which still exist 
 among some modern nations, were we to 
 strip them of the recollections, the feel- 
 ings, and habits which have consecrated 
 them. 
 
 Tragedy, without the buskin which raises 
 in our mind the actions represented, would 
 be merely the tiresome and repulsive exhi- 
 bition of treachery and murder. The 
 chase, which is considered in our countries 
 as the noblest of exercises, the greatest 
 pleasure of kings, the chase would be 
 merely a slaughter ; instead of which it is 
 the school and living picture of war ; it 
 teaches a contempt of danger and death ; 
 
 Y 3 it 
 
( 326 ) 
 
 it instructs us to brave fatigue and the in- 
 clemencies of the weather, to study the 
 seasons, to note the various changes of the 
 ground, to conquer difficulties, to avoid 
 insurmountable obstacles, to baffle, by 
 superior intelligence, the cunning and num- 
 berless stratagems which nature has be- 
 stowed upon animals. 
 
 The Romans, conquerors and oppressors 
 of the world, a people whose foreign power 
 depended on the strictness of their disci- 
 pline and superiority in the art of fighting 
 man to man, flocked to the Circus to see 
 the combats of wild beasts, and the com- 
 bats of a hundred, nay of five hundred 
 gladiators against five hundred. These 
 spectacles were the exact representations 
 of war* given as festivals to the people 
 with the view of weakening, by habit, 
 their natural horror at the sight of blood, 
 toaccustom them to the contempt of death, 
 
 
 
 in 
 
( 327 ) 
 
 in a word, to awaken in the citizens of 
 Rome that warlike ardour which the beauty 
 of the climate and the richness of the soil 
 might destroy. 
 
 The origin of bull-fights among the Spa- 
 niards is derived from the Moors, shep- 
 herds of Africa, a nation skilled in training 
 horses, in managing unruly flocks, and con- 
 quering the wild beasts of the desert. The 
 Spaniards inherit from the Moors the prac- 
 tice of a wandering life, which they have 
 preserved even to our times. Throughout 
 Spain there are extensive tracks left untjl- 
 led for the travelling flocks. The king and 
 the grandees have vast studs appropriated 
 to the raising of choice breeds of horses 
 and bulls. The royal stud of Aranjuez, on 
 the banks of the Tagus, is fifteen or twenty 
 leagues in circumference. Gentlemen for- 
 merly fought on the bull-festivals ; but 
 they seldom now present themselves in the 
 
 Y 4 arena, 
 
( 328 ) 
 
 arena, either because the manners of the 
 age are become milder by time, or rather, 
 perhaps, because the frequent abode in the 
 capital and the pleasures of courts have 
 extinguished for the moment in the Spa- 
 nish nobles their inclination for such sports. 
 We should form a very wrong idea of the 
 bull that is to fight, if we judged of him 
 by those which are seen, in some countries 
 of the north, straying innocently through 
 the meadows round the herdsmen which 
 guard them : he is not the friend, the 
 peaceable companion of the husbandman, 
 the ox accustomed to bow his head gently 
 to the yoke fastened to his horns, to obey 
 without a murmur the goad that spurs him 
 on ; he is the king of the forest, where he 
 has lived, almost wild, under a meridian 
 sun ; a fiery blood boils in his veins, and 
 excites him to anger. The hills and vales 
 lately echoed with his lengthened bellow- 
 ings. 
 
( 329 ) 
 
 ings. He is a proud conqueror accustomed 
 to fight for the young heifer, to see every 
 thing give way, and even men fly at his 
 approach, or at the first sound of his for- 
 midable fury. 
 
 I saw pass one of the unruly animals 
 that were to fight in the evening; he had 
 been brought, it was said, from Salamanca; 
 his dark rusty coat gave him an air of great 
 ferocity ; six powerful men could with dif- 
 ficulty hold him, by ropes sufficiently long 
 to prevent danger. A young heifer prece- 
 ded to entice him into the Tamil, a dark, 
 narrow inclosure furnished with trap- 
 doors, in which the bulls are separately 
 put till the time fixed for the fight. In this 
 place their angry passions are still farther 
 inflamed by different torments : on the 
 upper part of the breast is placed a ri- 
 band which denotes by its colour their 
 origin, breed, and birth-place. 
 
 The 
 
( 330 ) 
 
 The bull-fights at Madrid are given in 
 an amphitheatre open at the top ; the 
 spectators are seated in rows and separat- 
 ed from the arena, which is in the center, 
 by a strong wooden fence. Boxes are con- 
 structed in the upper part of the edifice ; 
 places in the shade pay double the price 
 of those that are exposed to the heat of the 
 sun. The spectacle opens with a sort of 
 parade executed by the horse and foot 
 combatants, all richly dressed according to 
 the old Spanish costume. The Picadores 
 fight on horseback, armed with lances; 
 their horses are saddled in the Moorish fa- 
 shion ; the lances are furnished with a sharp 
 four-cornered head, made so as to wound 
 the bull, without entering deep into his 
 body\ The Chulos fight on foot, armed 
 with darts ; their arm of defence is a piece 
 of red cloth which, attracting by its glare 
 the bull's eyes, enables the skilful to avoid 
 
 his 
 
( 331 ) 
 
 his attacks, and baffle his fury by favour 
 of this illusory buckler. 
 
 Flourishes are heard ; the barrier opens, 
 and the bull appears. He has to avenge the 
 many injuries received in his dark prison, 
 and the craft by which he was entrapped ; 
 with his hair on end and nostrils on fire, he 
 stamps the ground, and threatens with his 
 horns the spectators ; the solemn silence 
 that instantly succeeds the thrilling sound 
 of the trumpets, far from intimidating him, 
 seems to increase his ardour. He surveys 
 the arena, and, in three bounds, darts on 
 the first picador that comes forward. The 
 picador, firm in his seat, lowers his lance 
 which he holds in rest, and, pulling round 
 his horse, drives it into the bull's broad 
 breast, just as this fierce adversary inclines 
 his head to make a dreadful blow. The 
 shock is sometimes so violent that the 
 lance shivers to pieces ; and the bull sud- 
 denly 
 
( 332 ) 
 
 denly stopped in his course, is forced back- 
 ward with pain from the wound. Should 
 the picador's horse be thrown, one of the 
 foot combatants approaches, and draws 
 the bull from his victim by a red cloak ; 
 proud of his success, and attracted by the 
 scarlet, the noble animal turns his rage 
 against this new enemy, more formidable 
 to appearance, and proportions his effort 
 to the expected resistance: the chulo leaps 
 aside, and leaves the cheated bull to roar 
 and wreak his fury on the cloak left be- 
 tween his horns. 
 
 Every time the bull conquers a new ene- 
 my, he lifts his proud head, and casts a 
 scornful and haughty look around him ; 
 calmed, for a while, by victory, he seems 
 to delight in the repeated plaudits of the 
 multitude, and listens with pleasure to the 
 shouts of Bravo, Bull ! Bravo, Bull ! that 
 come from all parts of the amphitheatre. 
 
 The 
 
( 333 ) 
 
 The Picadores are succeeded by the 
 Chulos or Banderilleros, who advance on 
 foot. The bull attacked takes a fresh 
 spring; he thinks, in one course, to free 
 himself from this weak, light and nimble 
 troop which unceasingly harasses him; but 
 they everywhere open at his approach; the 
 Banderilleros pass and repass ; adroitly 
 plant their darts in the bull's neck and 
 breast, and, by their extreme agility, sport 
 with his fury. I have seen one of these 
 Chulos, too closely pursued to escape by 
 leaping the fence, boldly place his foot 
 between the bulFs horns and, tossed by 
 the blow that was intended for him, fall 
 unharmed some paces behind. 
 
 The troop of Banderilleros retires at a 
 signal agreed upon, and the Matador ap- 
 pears, to finish the fight by the bull's death ; 
 he holds a sword in his right hand, and a 
 flag in his left. After a low bow before 
 
 the 
 
( 334 ) 
 
 the magistrates' box, he turns round, ad- 
 vances with a firm and orderly step to- 
 wards the bull, whose motions he several 
 times studies, by presenting and withdraw- 
 ing his flag. The spectators are suspended 
 betwixt fear and hope ; all eyes are fixed 
 on the point of the Matador's sword, who 
 must pay with his life his irresolution or 
 want of skill, should his blow fail or his 
 hand falter : at length he lifts his sword, 
 and plunges it, between the shoulders, into 
 the very heart of the bull, who, eager to 
 strike the Matador, closes, staggers, falls, 
 and measures the ground with his huge 
 body. The four-footed hero, victor in 
 many battles, raises, for the last time, his 
 dying head, and in one lengthened roar, 
 the blood gushing from his mouth and 
 nostrils, he expires. 
 
 Flourishes announced the bull's entrance, 
 flourishes are again heard at the death. 
 
 Three 
 
( 335 ) 
 
 Three mules harnessed abreast and richly 
 caparisoned come from a door opposite 
 that by which the combatants entered, gal- 
 lop to the bull, and drag him away with 
 ^ords fastened to his horns. 
 
 The bull which comes next respires 
 sometimes with frantic horror the still 
 reeking blood scattered about the arena; 
 and seized with the fury of revenge, he at- 
 tacks indiscriminately all his foes at once. 
 Sometimes too a timid bull wanders cow- 
 ardly about the course, and returns to the 
 outlet whence he came ; but that is irre- 
 vocably shut. The spectators consider 
 him unworthy the honour of fighting with 
 men ; the dogs are loudly called for, and 
 the bull, assaulted by a pack, is soon 
 thrown ; he is struck on the head with a 
 sharp-pointed instrument made for the 
 purpose, and dies amid barkings, shout- 
 ings and abuse. 
 
 This 
 
( 336 ) 
 
 This bloody tragedy, of which the de- 
 voted bull is the chief actor, presents the 
 living picture of war as it was before the in- 
 vention of gunpowder ; it offers to the mind 
 its tumult, uncertainty and agitations, and 
 the spectator, as in a field of battle, feels 
 that electric emotion which is excited by 
 the shedding of blood. 
 
 Directly the spectacle begins, an almost 
 convulsive joy seizes the spectators of every 
 age and of both sexes. In an instant the 
 
 o 
 
 gravest countenances expand and become 
 cheerful. The men, seated on benches, 
 lean forward, and open their cloaks to be 
 more appropriate to the action, as if they 
 were to take part in it. They are seen to 
 follow with tbeir eyes and gestures every 
 motion of the Picador or bull, and even 
 encourage the animal by words, thinking 
 thus to influence, by their own eagerness, 
 the fate of the combat. 
 
 I remained 
 
( 337 ) 
 
 I remained near a month at Madrid, 
 waiting for an opportunity of going on. 
 It was easy to get there from Bayonne, 
 because there were strong detachments 
 constantly coming to reinforce the army; 
 but none but those who were maimed ob- 
 tained leave to return to France. The 
 Board of Health had received the strictest 
 orders to grant no furlow to any officer or 
 man as long as there were any hopes of a 
 cure. I was among those sent back to 
 ^France en these conditions ; but I was 
 glad, at any price, to quit an unjust and 
 inglorious war, where the sentiments of my 
 heart continually disavowed the evil my 
 arm was condemned to do. 
 
 I left Madrid with a numerous caravan 
 of reduced officers, who were going back 
 to France under an escort of only seventy- 
 five foot soldiers. We formed a little com- 
 pany of officers, commanded by the first 
 
 z wounded 
 
( 338 ) 
 
 wounded among us, that we might die in 
 arms if we were attacked, for we could not 
 think of defence, many being so badly 
 wounded as to be obliged to be tied on 
 their horses in order to keep them from 
 falling. 
 
 We had two madmen among us. The 
 first was a hussar officer, who had lost his 
 senses in consequence of bad wounds on 
 the head ; he marched on foot, his horse 
 and arms having been taken from him 
 lest he should make his escape and do any 
 mischief. Notwithstanding his madness 
 he remembered the dignity of his rank, 
 and the name of his regiment; sometimes 
 he uncovered his head before us, showing 
 us real wounds, while he related the ima- 
 ginary battles in which he fancied he had 
 received them. One day that our escort 
 was attacked during our march, he eluded 
 the vigilance of the men who had been 
 
 ordered 
 
( 339 ) 
 
 ordered to keep him, and recovered his 
 accustomed bravery in order to fall upon 
 the enemy with a small switch, which he 
 called the magic wand of his predecessor 
 the King of Morocco. 
 
 The second of our madmen was a Fle- 
 mish musician of the light infantry, in 
 whose brain the warmth of the Spanish 
 wines had fixed imperturbable gaiety. He 
 had changed his clarinet for a fiddle, which 
 he had been accustomed to play, while a 
 boy, at village feasts, and he marched in 
 the midst of our melancholy troop, danc- 
 ing and playing incessantly. 
 
 On the long and silent road no sin- 
 gle traveller ever met our sight: every 
 two or three days a convoy of ammu- 
 nition, or an escort met and joined us, 
 to lodge in the ruins of deserted dwellings, 
 whose doors and windows had been car- 
 ried off to furnish fire- wood for the French 
 z 2 army. 
 
( 340 ) 
 
 army. Instead of the crowd of children 
 and idle spectators which usually, in time 
 of peace, meets strangers at the entrance 
 of a country village, we now saw only a 
 small French out-post which, from behind 
 its palisade, would cry Halt! in order to 
 reconnoitre us. Some times also in a de- 
 serted village, a sentry would suddenly 
 appear placed in an old tower, like a soli- 
 tary owl among ruins. 
 
 The nearer we approached to France, 
 the more danger we were in of being car- 
 ried off by the partizans ; at every station 
 where we halted we found detachments 
 from different parts of the peninsula, wait- 
 ing to march with us. Battalions, and 
 even whole regiments reduced to skele- 
 tons, that is, to two or three men only, 
 were sadly bringing back their eagles and 
 their banners, to recruit in France, or 
 Italy, or Switzerland, or Germany, or Po- 
 land.; 
 
( 341 ) 
 
 land ; our convoy left Spain at the end of 
 July, twenty days after Ciudad Rodrigo 
 fell into the hands of the French. 
 
 And here I ought to terminate these 
 Memoirs since, as I quitted Spain at that 
 period of the war, I no longer saw it with 
 my own eyes ; but since that time, during 
 a year's residence in England, I procured 
 materials which could not then be col- 
 lected on the continent ; and I have per- 
 mitted myself to add the account of the 
 campaign of Portugal, the chef-d'oeuvre 
 of a defence at once national and mili- 
 tary, to my own journal. 
 
 After the campaign of Austria, and the 
 peace concluded at Vienna in 1809, France 
 found herself delivered from all her wars 
 in the north, and the whole of Europe 
 once more believed that Spain and Por- 
 
 z 3 tugal 
 
( 342 ) 
 
 tugal must shortly sink under the immense 
 forces which the Etaperor Napoleon had 
 at his disposal. That conqueror had de- 
 clared that he was going to drive the 
 English out of the Peninsula, and that 
 within twelve months his triumphant 
 eagles should be planted on the towers of 
 Lisbon; and he sent strong reinforcements 
 into Spain, in order to invade Portugal. 
 
 The French army destined for this in- 
 vasion consisted of 80,000 men, com- 
 manded by Marshal Massena, and divided 
 into three corps, under the orders of Mar- 
 shal Ney, and Generals Junot and Reg- 
 nier. The two first had united in the 
 neighbourhood of Salamanca, and occu- 
 pied the country between the Douro and 
 the Tagus. The third was in Estremadura, 
 opposite to the frontier of Alentejo, its 
 right communicating at Alcantara with 
 the left of Marshal Ney's corps. A fourth 
 
 body 
 
( 343 ) 
 
 body of reserve was to assemble at Valla- 
 dolid, under the orders of General Drouet, 
 to reinforce or sustain the invading army 
 in case of need. 
 
 The army of Lord Wellington, which 
 was opposed to that of Massena, amount- 
 ed to 30,000 English, and 30,000 Portu- 
 guese. The Regency of Portugal had, 
 besides, 15,000 regular troops underarms, 
 divers flying corps, commanded either by 
 native or English officers, and levies in 
 mass, known by the name of Ordenanfa, 
 which the English estimated only at 45,000 
 men, but which, in case of invasion, really 
 consisted of the whole population of Por- 
 tugal in arms. They were animated 
 against the French by patriotism, b; 
 hatred, by revenge, and by the still fresh 
 recollection of the evils they had suffered 
 the two preceding years, during the expe- 
 z 4 dition 
 
( 344 ) 
 
 dition of General Junot and Marshal 
 Soult, unsuccessful as they were. 
 
 The undisciplined bands of natives did 
 incalculable mischief to the French, while 
 fighting for their homes in the passes of 
 their native mountains, where they derived 
 great superiority from their numbers and 
 their local knowledge ; but they were use- 
 less out of their own districts, for which 
 reason the regular Anglo-Portuguese army 
 under Lord Wellington, notwithstanding 
 all the provocations of the French, never 
 quitted the defensive line it occupied on 
 the frontiers of Portugal, north and south' 
 of the Tagus. Besides, the English gene- 
 ral was afraid, at that time, to give battle 
 in the plains of Salamanca, where his 
 enemy could bring against him numerous 
 and formidable cavalry. 
 
 After the taking of Ciudad Rodrigo, the 
 French passed the Coa, drove in the English 
 
 out-posts. 
 
( 345 ) 
 
 out-posts, invested Almeida on the fron- 
 tiers of Portugal, which they gained by 
 capitulation on the 27th August, thirteen 
 days after the trenches were opened. 
 
 General Regnier's division quitted Spa- 
 nish Estremadura, crossed the Tagus at 
 Alcantara, and concentrated itself with 
 the two other French corps in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Almeida. The English corps 
 which was opposed to that of General 
 Regnier, towards Elvas and Portalegre, by 
 a correspondent movement crossed the 
 Tagus at Villa Velha, and the whole army 
 of Lord Wellington retired by the left 
 bank of the Mondego to the inexpugnable 
 position of the Sierra de Murcella, behind 
 the Alva. 
 
 On the 15th September the French 
 army quitted the neighbourhood of Al- 
 meida, entered the valley watered by the 
 Mondego, crossed that river at Celorico, 
 
 and 
 
( 346 ) 
 
 and re-crossed it afterwards at the bridge 
 of Fornos ; Marshal Massena led his army 
 along the right bank of the Mondego, with 
 the intention of seizing Coimbra by a 
 rapid march, believing that the English, 
 who were upon the opposite bank, had left 
 it unprotected. 
 
 On the 21st the French reached Vizeu, 
 where they were obliged to wait two whole 
 days for their artillery, which had been 
 delayed by the state of the roads, and by 
 the attacks of the Portugueze militia. On 
 the 24th their advanced-guard found the 
 English out-posts placed on the opposite 
 bank of the Dao, and drove them in after 
 having repaired the bridges, which had 
 been broken down. In order to defend 
 the defiles in the mountains leading to 
 Coimbra, Lord Wellington had caused his 
 army to cross over from the left to the 
 right bank of the Mondego; in his first 
 
 position 
 
( 347 ) 
 
 position in the Sierra de Murcella he had 
 left but a single brigade of infantry, and 
 a division of cavalry. 
 
 The French corps arrived successively 
 on the 25th and the 26th, at the foot of 
 the Sierra de Busaco, the summit of which 
 was occupied by the Anglo-Portuguese 
 army ; on the 27th, at six o'clock in the 
 morning, they marched in column against 
 that army by the two roads leading to 
 Coimbra, by the village of San Antonio 
 de Cantaro, and by the convent of Busaco; 
 these roads were broken up in different 
 places, and defended by artillery; the hill 
 by which they passed is besides thick set 
 with steep rocks, and it is extremely dif- 
 ficult of access. 
 
 The French column, which attacked the 
 English right, advanced with intrepidity, 
 notwithstanding the fire of their artillery 
 and their light infantry; it reached the 
 
 top 
 
( 348 ) 
 
 lop of the hill with considerable loss ; it 
 began to form in line with great coolness 
 and the most perfect regularity, when it 
 was attacked anew by a superior force and 
 obliged to retire; it rallied soon after, 
 made a second attack, and was again re- 
 pulsed. The French battalions who were 
 advancing against the convent of Busaco, 
 where the left and centre of the English 
 met, were likewise repulsed just before 
 they reached that point, leaving General 
 Simon, who had been struck by two balls 
 during the charge, and a good number of 
 wounded officers and soldiers, on the 
 height. The English and Portuguese oc- 
 cupied a position on the summit of the 
 hills, which formed part of a circle whose 
 two extremities embraced the ground over 
 which the French were advancing; the 
 allied army, seeing their least movements 
 from above, had time to unite its forces in 
 
 proper 
 
( 349 ) 
 
 proper points to receive them, which cir- 
 cumstance principally contributed to the 
 advantage it gained. The French lost 
 1800 men in their attack, and they had 
 nearly 3000 wounded ; the English and 
 Portuguese had only 1235 men disabled 
 from fighting. 
 
 Marshal Massena judged it impossible 
 to attack Lord Wellington's position in 
 front, and therefore resolved to turn it: 
 he kept up the battle till night by his 
 riflemen, and sent a body of troops along 
 the road between Mortagao and Oporto ; 
 in consequence of which movement the 
 English and Portuguese abandoned their 
 positions on the mountains of Busaco. 
 
 The French entered Coimbra on the 1st 
 October, continued their road, and on the 
 12th, after eleven days of forced marches, 
 in the midst of rains, they reached Alen- 
 quer, nine leagues from Lisbon. They 
 
 seemed 
 
( 350 ) 
 
 seemed now on the point of reaching the 
 farthest extremity of Portugal, and already 
 looked upon that country as a certain 
 conquest; imagining that the English were 
 preparing to reimbark, they relied upon 
 reaching them in a very few days, forcing 
 them to give battle in the confusion at- 
 tendant on their departure, and over- 
 whelming them with superior forces. 
 
 But some reconnoitring parties, sent out 
 in different directions, found Lord Wel- 
 lington's army entrenched in a position 
 which it was impossible either to attack 
 or to turn, between the sea and theTagus, 
 on the chain of mountains which extend 
 from Alhandra to Torres Vedras, and the 
 mouth of the Sisandro, and run back in 
 the direction of Mafra. 
 
 Passes already strong by nature, were 
 rendered more difficult by formidable ar- 
 tillery planted at short distances ; nume- 
 rous 
 
( 351 ) 
 
 rous places of defence had been most skil- 
 fully constructed, whence death could be 
 dispensed without incurring any risk. Si- 
 lence, calmness, and good order reigned 
 in all the English and Portuguese posts, 
 over the whole breadth of the advanced 
 peninsula in which Lisbon is situated, as 
 if it had been one fortified place. Gun 
 boats stationed on the Tagus flanked the 
 position on the right, and a ball from one 
 of them killed General Saint-Croix on the 
 very first day, as he went up an emi- 
 nence to make observations. 
 
 The French sought, in vain, to provoke 
 Lord Wellington to come out and give 
 them battle. That modern Fabius re- 
 mained immovable in his lines, and coolly 
 contemplated his enemies below him, from 
 the top of his high rocks. Wisely econo- 
 mical of the blood of his soldiers, he re- 
 fused to shed it for his personal glory, or 
 
 to 
 
( 352 ) 
 
 to risk the fate of the country he had un- 
 dertaken to defend on the event of a single 
 battle. It was to the vengeance of the 
 invaded people that he meant to leave the 
 French; by following a plan well and 
 deeply calculated, he made them struggle 
 with hunger and disease, the eternal 
 scourges of conquering armies when they 
 are not called upon and seconded by the 
 wishes of the nation they invade. 
 
 By the advice of Lord Wellington, and 
 the orders of the Regency of Portugal, the 
 whole population of the valley of the 
 Mondego, and that of the northern bank 
 of the Tagus had universally quitted their 
 dwellings. The men in the flower of their 
 age had retired to the mountains with 
 nothing but their cattle and their arms, 
 and at the approach of the French, an 
 immense crowd of old men, women, and 
 children, priests and nuns, were seen at 
 
 once 
 
( 353 ) 
 
 once destroying their own resources -in 
 order to cut off those of the French, and 
 retiring towards Lisbon to claim the pro- 
 tection of the English army. 
 
 The charity of different convents, en- 
 lightened by patriotism and seconded by 
 numerous alms, furnished these voluntary 
 exiles with the means of subsistence. In 
 the streets, in the squares, and without 
 the walls of the town, behind the en- 
 trenched positions of the English, a peace- 
 ful camp had been formed for them, almost 
 as useful to the cause of Portugal as that 
 of the warriors destined to defend the 
 country in arms. 
 
 In their rapid march between Almeida 
 and Alenquer the French, to use their 
 own expressions, had found " only desert- 
 ed towns and villages ; the mills were de- 
 stroyed, the wine casks stove in the streets, 
 the corn burned, and even the furniture 
 A A broken. 
 
( 354 ) 
 
 broken. They had seen neither horse, 
 nor mule, nor ass, nor cow, nor goat."* 
 They fed upon the beasts of burthen which 
 carried their baggage and biscuit with 
 which they had been served for a limited 
 number of days before they entered Por- 
 tugal, for they had relied on obtaining by 
 victory the immense resources of one of 
 the most commercial capitals in Europe. 
 Unexpectedly stopped at the very mo- 
 ment when they thought themselves sure 
 of attaining the object of their labours, 
 they found themselves reduced to live 
 upon what the soldiers could individually 
 procure, when chance, necessity, their 
 natural activity, and the habits of the 
 wandering and warlike life they had so 
 long led, taught them to discover victuals 
 
 * See the Account of Transactions in Portugal in the Mo- 
 niteur of the 30th November, 1810. 
 
 buried 
 
( 355 ) 
 
 buried by the peasants in secret places, to 
 prevent their enjoying them. 
 
 The French were surrounded on all sides, 
 and their communications interrupted by 
 flying corps even before they arrived be- 
 fore the lines of Torres Vedras. The city 
 of Coimbra, where they had left a garri- 
 son, different commissariats to form ma- 
 gazines, and their sick and wounded to 
 the number of five thousand men, had 
 been retaken on the 7th by some Por- 
 tuguese militia, as well as other French 
 posts on the right bank of the Mondego. 
 The corps commanded by the Portuguese 
 generals Sylveira and Bacellar, and the 
 militia of Colonels Trant, Miller, Wilson, 
 and Grant, had occupied the roads by 
 which Massena's army expected its con- 
 voys of provisions and ammunition. The 
 right flank of that army was besides teazed 
 and harassed by sorties from the Portu- 
 A A 2 guese 
 
( 356 ) 
 
 guese garrisons of Peniche, Ourem, and 
 Obidos: the armed peasants joined them- 
 selves to the militia, in order to attack the 
 detachments and foragers of the French, 
 who purchased their daily bread by daily 
 losses. 
 
 While this war in detail was carried on 
 against the flanks and rear, with all the 
 activity revenge and exasperated national 
 hatred could inspire, the English, always 
 on their guard within the lines, enjoyed 
 the greatest tranquillity, and did not lose 
 a single man ; their videttes never fired 
 upon those of the French, and there was 
 no attempt made by the out-posts of either 
 party to provoke or weary each other by 
 feigned attacks. This profound calmness, 
 which reigned in front of the two armies 
 in presence of each other, was the result 
 of that kind of tacit agreement which 
 usually takes place between troops who 
 
 have 
 
( 357 ) 
 
 have neither hatred nor passion to gratify, 
 even when actually engaged in battle, be- 
 cause they are but indirectly interested in 
 the cause they defend. 
 
 The French remained at the foot of the 
 lines of Torres Vedras, suffering with pa- 
 tience all the privations they were endur- 
 ing, in hopes of reducing their enemies to 
 despair. They doubted not, but that the 
 immense crowd of inhabitants of every 
 age and sex, which they had pressed for- 
 ward before them, and shut up with the 
 population of the capital in a narrow and 
 sterile piece of ground, would starve the 
 enemy's army, and force it either to re- 
 embark or to fight ; but the English and 
 Portuguese had the broad ocean behind 
 them, and their swift and numerous ships 
 freely communicated with both hemi- 
 spheres. Provisions were at first sent from 
 England and Brazil, and numerous tra- 
 A A 3 ding 
 
( 358 ) 
 
 'Q 
 ding fleets, attracted by the hope of gain, 
 
 came afterwards to bring supplies from 
 Africa and America, and the provinces of 
 Spain and Portugal not yet invaded soon 
 furnished nearer resources in great abun- 
 dance. 
 
 The French, weakened by daily losses, 
 and by sickness, in consequence of the 
 scarcity of provisions and inactivity, soon 
 found themselves in the very situation to 
 which they were in hopes of reducing their 
 enemies. 
 
 Abrantes and the river Zezere kept the 
 detachments, which attempted to forage 
 in the rear towards Upper Estremadura, 
 in check-; and the Tagus, all the bridges 
 over which had been broken down, sepa- 
 rated them to the left from Lower Estre- 
 madura and Alentejo ; these provinces had 
 hitherto been untouched, and their proxi- 
 mity tended to increase the desire of the 
 
 French, 
 
( 359 ) 
 
 French, to possess them in the midst of 
 their extreme distress. Among others, 
 they threatened the inhabitants of Cha- 
 musca, a little town situated on the oppo- 
 site bank of the river, with destroying their 
 dwellings if they did not bring in their 
 boats. The only answer returned by the 
 fishermen to whom the boats belonged was 
 to set the boats on fire. The country im- 
 mediately rose in arms, and the English 
 sent a division of infantry and another of 
 cavalry to the south side of the Tagus, in 
 order to oppose the designs of the French. 
 Lord Wellington had received a reinforce- 
 ment of ten thousand Spaniards under the 
 Marquis Romana, and he employed a 
 number of seamen from the English fleet 
 in serving the heavy guns ; which allowed 
 him to detach divisions to guard the right 
 bank of the Tagus, without weakening his 
 lines, 
 
 A A 4 After 
 
( 360 ) 
 
 After remaining above a month before 
 the lines of Torres Vedras, between Villa 
 Franca, Sobral Villa-Nueva, Otta, and 
 Aleventre, the French were on the point 
 of a total want of provisions. They broke 
 up their camp during the night between 
 the 14th and 15th November, and began 
 . to retreat in order to take up their posi- 
 tion at Santarem behind Rio Major. The 
 good order and silence that they observed 
 at their departure were such that the Eng- 
 lish videttes did not perceive the absence 
 of the French posts and videttes which 
 were opposed to them till the next day. 
 
 The English sent considerable reinforce- 
 ments to their troops on the southern bank 
 of the Tagus, being fearful lest the new 
 movement of the French should have been 
 undertaken in order to cross that river, 
 and their army left its lines, followed the 
 traces of the French, and on the 19th ad- 
 vanced 
 
( 361 ) 
 
 vanced in column to the Rio Major oppo- 
 site to Santarem, appearing to threaten to 
 force the position of the French. Lord 
 Wellington established his head-quarters 
 at Cartaxo, placing his advanced posts on 
 the right bank of the Rio Major, between 
 that river and the lines of Torres Vedras, 
 so as to be prepared to retire to them if the 
 French should have returned to attack him 
 with a superior force. 
 
 The town of Santarem is situated on the 
 summit of a chain of high and nearly per- 
 pendicular hills, before which there is an- 
 other chain of hills a little lower, on which 
 the first line of the French was extended ; 
 at the foot of these hills runs the Rio Ma- 
 jor, and a little farther on the Tagus. The 
 English had to cross a kind of wide mo* 
 rass by two causeways, which as well as 
 the bridge were completely commanded 
 by the artillery. 
 
 >HB Marshal 
 
( 362 ) 
 
 Marshal Massena had ably chosen and 
 fortified the position of Santarem, in hopes 
 of being able, with a small body of troops, 
 to keep the English upon the Rio Major 
 in check, and, without running any risk, to 
 extend his cantonments as far as the river 
 Zezere, over which he caused two bridges 
 to be thrown; and he occupied both banks 
 of it by a division of infantry, in order to 
 watch Abrantes, and to protect the de- 
 tachments which were sent to forage in 
 Upper Estremadura. He hoped also to 
 maintain a communication with Spain by 
 way of Thomar, until reinforcements, which 
 he hoped for and which were indispensable 
 to enable him to continue his operations 
 after the losses he had sustained, should 
 arrive, and drive the Portuguese militia 
 from the posts they had carried on the 
 roads, in the valley of the Mondego. 
 
 The reserve under General Drouet had 
 
 left 
 
( 363 ) 
 
 left Valladolid on the 12th October, and 
 was advancing towards the frontiers of 
 Portugal ; and General Gardanne's divi- 
 sion, which had remained in garrison in 
 the towns of Ciudad-Rodrigo and Almeida, 
 had also set out to join Marshal Massena's 
 army. On the 14th November, being ar- 
 rived within a few leagues of the first 
 French posts, that corps had suddenly 
 fallen back towards the Spanish frontiers. 
 It was led into an error concerning the si* 
 tuation of affairs by the numerous Portu- 
 guese militia which had harassed it since 
 its entrance into Portugal, and which had 
 even carried off its advanced-guard. Gar- 
 danne's division fell back upon General 
 Drouet's corps, with which it re-entered 
 Portugal in the month of December. 
 
 General Drouet's corps took the road 
 towards the valley of the Mondego, and 
 joined Marshal Massena's army after hav- 
 ing 
 
( 364 ) 
 
 ing dispersed the militia, without destroy- 
 ing it, which was always the case, for the 
 Portuguese General Sylveira returned at 
 the end of the month to attack Claparede's 
 division, which had been left at Trancoso 
 and Pinhel, in the district of the Coa, in 
 order to maintain the communication be- 
 tween the army of Portugal with Spain. 
 General Claparfede rallied his division, beat 
 General Sylveira and pursued him to the 
 Duero ; but he was soon forced back to 
 Trancoso and Guarda, by other bodies of 
 militia under the Portuguese General Ba- 
 cellar, and Colonel Wilson, who fell upon 
 his flank and rear at Castro Diaro and 
 upon the Pavio. 
 
 The Portuguese militia never attacking 
 any but the weak parts of the army, that 
 is ? the advanced-guards, rear-guards, de- 
 tachments, small garrisons, or single corps, 
 did a great deal of mischief; and it was 
 
 impos- 
 
( 365 ) 
 
 impossible to destroy it on account of its 
 number and its perfect knowledge of the 
 country. General Drouet arrived at Ley- 
 ria, and with the rest of the French army, 
 occupied the country extending between 
 the sea and the Tagus, towards Punhete 
 and Santarem. Marshal Massena was 
 building a great number of boats at Pun- 
 hete in order to throw bridges over the 
 Tagus ; it was a difficult undertaking in a 
 country deserted by its inhabitants, and 
 which besides possessed but few resources 
 at any time. The English corps occupy- 
 ing Mugem, Almerin, Chamusca, and San 
 Brito, on tjie opposite bank, saw all these 
 preparatives and constructed strong batte- 
 ries on their own side. 
 
 It was as important to the English to 
 prevent the French from crossing the river 
 as it was to these latter to effect it ; for the 
 fate of Portugal and the ultimate success 
 
 of 
 
( 366 ) 
 
 of either party then appeared to depend 
 upon it. If Marshal Massena had effected 
 the crossing of the river, the English would 
 have been obliged to divide their forces 
 and weaken themselves by extending their 
 lines on each side of its banks ; the posi- 
 tions of Torres Vedras, being less carefully 
 guarded and not having in that case a suf- 
 ficient number of men to defend them, 
 might have been carried by a French corps 
 advancing from Leyria upon Lisbon, at 
 the expense of the sacrifice of several thou- 
 sand men. If, on the contrary, the English 
 had concentrated all their troops in the 
 lines of Torres Vedras, the French would 
 have gone down the Tagus after having 
 crossed it, and have seized the peninsula 
 in which the towns of Palmela and Setu- 
 val are situated ; from the extremity of 
 that peninsula they might have made 
 themselves masters of the course of the 
 
 Tagus 
 
( 367 ) 
 
 Tagus and have starved Lisbon ; in short, 
 from the heights of Almada opposite to 
 that capital, they might have bombard- 
 ed it. 
 
 On the 9th January Marshals Soult and 
 Mortier arrived with all the disposable 
 troops of the Andalusian army, in hopes 
 of raising the sieges of Badajos and Elvas, 
 and forcing Lord Wellington to divide his 
 troops to defend that part of the Portu- 
 guese frontier, and thus to co-operate with 
 Marshal Massena. On the news of their 
 approach towards the frontiers of Alentejo, 
 the English sent fresh troops under the 
 command of Generals Hill and Beresford, 
 to the south of the Tagus, and the inha- 
 bitants of that part of the country made 
 ready to desert it, in order to famish the 
 French according to the defensive system 
 which Lord Wellington had followed on 
 the left bank of the river with success. 
 
 The 
 
( 368 ) 
 
 The Marquis de la Romana sent Gene- 
 ral Mendizabal to the assistance of Bada- 
 jos with the 10,000 Spaniards which he 
 had brought to the lines of Torres Vedras. 
 The Marquis was seized with the illness of 
 which he died on the 24th January at Car- 
 taxo, deeply regretted by the Spaniards 
 and the English, esteemed by his enemies 
 for never having despaired of his country's 
 cause, and for having always kept up the 
 war even in the midst of defeat with an 
 activity and perseverance which seem 
 usually to belong only to the conquering 
 party. Marshals Soult and Mortier took 
 Olivenpa on the 23d January; and after- 
 wards on the 19th February they crossed 
 the Gevora and the Guadiana, invested 
 Badajos, and surprised and cut to pieces 
 General MendizabaFs Spanish army in its 
 camp under the walls of that place. 
 
 Meantime Marshal Massena's army had 
 
 con- 
 
( 369 ) 
 
 consumed all the provisions of the country 
 it occupied on the right bank of the Tagus, 
 and its foragers had to extend their excur- 
 sions to twenty miles round. A good part 
 of the army was always employed in pro- 
 curing sustenance for the rest, and it was 
 only by severe daily losses that they ob- 
 tained even a daily and precarious subsist- 
 ence. General Junot having learned^that 
 the English had formed a magazine of corn 
 and wine at Rio Major, set out to seize it 
 at the head of two regiments of cavalry 
 and some infantry belonging to. his own 
 corps. The English retired in good time, 
 and the general was wounded in a slight 
 skirmish which took place between .his adr- 
 vanced-guard and the English rear. The 
 cavalry, which ought to be, in a manner^ 
 the eyes and the hands of a great army, 
 being destined to procure and to keep its 
 provisions, was a burthen to the French, 
 
 B B from 
 
( 370 ) 
 
 from its number, on account of the diffi- 
 culty of providing for it, and besides it was 
 often useless in a mountainous country 
 intersected by narrow passes and continu- 
 
 ally harassed by an innumerable militia 
 
 j j 
 
 and peasantry. 
 
 The irritation and hatred of the inhabi- 
 tants of the country increased with the 
 continuance of the war, on account of the 
 privations they endured. Even the most 
 timid peasants, who had only fled to the 
 mountains in hopes of living in peace, were 
 driven from their retreats by despair and 
 hunger. They descended into the valleys, 
 lay in ambush on the roads, and awaited 
 the French in difficult passes to rob them 
 of the very provisions which they had pro- 
 cured by plunder. A. peasant in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Thomar had chosen, as his 
 place of retreat, a cavern near the town, 
 and during the month of February he had, 
 
 with 
 
( 371 ) 
 
 with his own hand, killed more than thirty 
 Frenchmen whom he contrived to surprise 
 separately, and he had carried off nearly 
 fifty horses and mules. 
 
 The guerrillas in Spain had increased 
 very much in boldness since so large apart 
 of the French forces had been employed 
 in Portugal. The Spanish chiefs, who se- 
 ven months before had scarcely two or 
 three hundred men under their command 5 
 were now at the head of formidable divi- 
 sions, and often carried off the convoys of 
 ammunition and victuals destined for the 
 French army in Portugal. These convoys 
 had to pass through two hundred leagues 
 of an enemy's country in arms against 
 them, before they could reach their desti- 
 nation. These convoys were composed of 
 muleteers put in requisition in the south of 
 France, and of Spanish peasants who very 
 unwillingly exposed themselves to th6 al- 
 B B 2 most 
 
( 372 ) 
 
 most certain danger of being put to death, 
 or of losing their mules. These peasants 
 fled the moment they found an opportu- 
 nity, or gave notice beforehand to the 
 guerrillas, that they might be spared in 
 their attacks : the least negligence on the 
 part of the escorts would have deprived 
 .the army of provisions. 
 
 By the beginning of March Marshal 
 .Massena had succeeded in constructing 
 two hundred boats, and all his prepara- 
 tions were finished ; but he could not at- 
 tempt to cross the Tagus without fresh re- 
 inforcements ; and Marshals Soult and 
 Mortier could give him no effectual assist- 
 ance by advancing towards the Tagus, till 
 .after the reduction of Badajos, which still 
 held out. 
 
 Lord Wellington's army had not suffered 
 any considerable loss since the beginning 
 .of the campaign : it had recently received 
 
 rein- 
 
( 373 ) 
 
 reinforcements from England, and amount- 
 ed to near 40,000 English, without count- 
 ing the Portuguese regular troops which 
 had been considerably augmented, and 
 were improved by discipline and experi- 
 ence. That of Marshal Massena, on the 
 contrary, had for seven months suffered 
 daily losses by partial attacks of the Por- 
 tuguese militia, by want of provisions, and 
 by sickness ; and it was reduced to one- 
 half the number it contained on its en- 
 trance into Portugal. 
 
 Such was the situation of the French in 
 that country at the beginning of the month 
 of March, when a convoy of biscuit, which 
 they expected from France, was taken by 
 the Spanish partisans. On the eve of a 
 total want of food, they were now forced 
 to think of retreating, and they quitted 
 Portugal after a campaign of seven months, 
 without having fought a single pitched. 
 B B 3 battle, 
 
( 374 ) 
 
 battle, but yielding to the perseverance of 
 the English chief in following a plan by 
 which he had constantly deprived his ene* 
 my of every chance of success, by pre- 
 venting him from finding a single oppor- 
 tunity of fighting. 
 
 On the 4th the sick, the wounded, and 
 the baggage set out on a number of sump- 
 ter cattle, and on the 5th the army be- 
 gan its retreat. The care of the rear-guard 
 was entrusted to Marshal Ney, who ad- 
 vanced with his corps from Leyria to 
 Muliano, to threaten the flanks of the 
 English army by that offensive demonstra- 
 tion, and to force it to remain stationary, 
 while the other French corps got forwards. 
 
 On the 10th the French reached Pom- 
 bal ; their rear-guard stopped the English 
 advanced-guard for nearly the whole day 
 of the llth before that town ; they aban- 
 doned it towards evening, and during the 
 
 night, 
 
( 375 ) 
 
 night, they retired to a strong position in 
 advance from the defile of Redinha on the 
 Adancos ; they repassed the defile on the 
 approach of the English under the pro- 
 tection of the artillery, which was placed 
 on the neighbouring heights, and played 
 on the enemy's advanced-guard. The 
 French rear-guard formed itself in battle 
 array, behind the defile of Redinha, and 
 retired upon the main body of the army 
 which was awaiting it in the position of 
 Condeixa. 
 
 The skill of the French, says an English 
 narrator,* displayed itself every moment; 
 they did not allow a single advantage of- 
 fered by the ground to escape ; their rear- 
 guard never abandoned a position they 
 had to defend, till they had been complete- 
 ly turned, and then it was only to take up 
 
 * History of Europe, Edinburgh Annual Register, VoLIV. 
 1811, p. 257. 
 
 B B 4 another 
 
( 376 ) 
 
 another and defend itself anew. The 
 French columns retired slowly upon a cen- 
 tral point in a chosen position, where they 
 met in a body to, rest, to resist the enemy, 
 to repulse them, and then renew their 
 march. Marshal Ney covered the retreat 
 with some chosen corps, while Marshal 
 Massena directed the march of the body 
 of the army, and was always ready to sup- 
 port the, rear-guard in case of need. " The 
 talents of that great captain/' says the 
 English Military Journal,* " never ap- 
 peared so conspicuously ; nothing can 
 equal the skill he then displayed/' 
 
 On the 15th the French took up their 
 position on the Ceira, leaving an advanc- 
 ed-guard at the village of Foz cle Aronce, 
 where there was a pretty sharp engage- 
 ment; on the l6th they destroyed the 
 bridge over the Ceira, and quitted their 
 
 * Military Chronicle, Vol. II. p. 405. 
 
 \ L9 .adnioJ a posi- 
 
( 377 ) 
 
 position on the 17th, in order to retire be- 
 hind the Alva. The main army of the 
 English stopped upon the Alva to wait for 
 provisions ; and as far as Guarda the 
 French were only followed by light troops, 
 Portuguese militia, and the natives of the 
 country, who incessantly harassed them 
 with the greatest animosity, never giving 
 any quarter to laggers, or the wounded 
 who happened to fall into their hands. 
 
 The want of subsistence forced the 
 French to hasten their march : on quitting 
 Portugal, as on entering it, the French 
 found nothing but deserted towns and 
 empty habitations where there were no 
 provisions ; exasperated by fatigue and 
 privations, the soldiers gave themselves 
 up to all kinds of excesses, and set fire to 
 the villages and even the towns. In their 
 greedy searches, they profaned the churches 
 by spoiling them of their ornaments, vio- 
 lated the tombs, dispersed the relics, re- 
 venging 
 
( 3?8 ) 
 
 venging themselves on the ashes of the 
 dead, instead of the living, whom they 
 could not reach. The French remained at 
 Guarda till the 28th; they left that town 
 on the approach of the English, to take 
 up the strong position of Ruivinha ; they 
 defended the ford of Rapoula de Coa, 
 during the whole of the 3d and 4th, with 
 some advantage, and re-passed the Portu- 
 guese frontier leaving a weak garrison in 
 Almeida. 
 
 The system of defence, which reduced 
 Marshal Massena's army to the necessity 
 of leaving Portugal after having invaded 
 it, was the same as that of the Spaniards : 
 every nation which is inspired by true pa- 
 triotism may employ it with equal success. 
 
 It consists in avoiding pitched battles, 
 in forcing a large army to divide itself in 
 order to fight those corps in detail which 
 are palsied for want of union. Or, if it 
 remains collected in one place, to exhaust 
 
 it 
 
( 379 ) 
 
 it by depriving it of all means of procur- 
 ing subsistence and ammunition, which 
 becomes the more easy as it is the more 
 numerous and more removed by its own 
 successes from the country whence it 
 should draw its resources. 
 
 In the great military states in the centre 
 of Europe, where the nation interests itself 
 but little in the quarrels of the government, 
 a battle gained, or simply the occupation 
 of a country, gave the French provisions 
 in abundance, ammunition, horses, arms, 
 and even soldiers ; and one might say of 
 their army what Virgil says of Fame, vires 
 acquirit eundo, its strength gathered as it 
 went. 
 
 In Spain and Portugal, on the contrary, 
 the forces of the French diminished as 
 they advanced, from the necessity of de- 
 taching numerous corps to oppose the po- 
 pulation of the country, to procure sub- 
 sistence, and to keep up distant commu* 
 
 nications ; 
 
( 380 ) 
 
 nicatiorvs ; and their army soon found itself 
 reduced, even after victory, to the situa- 
 tion of the lion in the fable who wounded 
 himself with his own claws in vain eflforts 
 to destroy the flies who tormented and fol- 
 lowed him wherever he went. 
 
 Europe ought never to forget that Spain 
 maintained the burden of the immense 
 power of the Emperor Napoleon almost 
 alone for upwards of five years. Victo- 
 rious in Italy, on the Danube, on the Elbe, 
 and on the Niemen, he had subjected or 
 attached to his fortunes the greater part of 
 Europe. By uniting the conquerors and 
 the conquered under the same banners, 
 he had in a manner converted his enemies 
 into his companions in arms. The Italians, 
 the Poles, the Swiss, the Dutch, the Sax- 
 ons, the Bavarians, and all the warlike 
 tribes of the Confederation of the Rhine, 
 mingled in the ranks of the French, emu- 
 lous of their glory, took delight in proving 
 
 to 
 
( 381 ) 
 
 to them in their battles, that like them 
 they could despise danger and death. 
 
 The great powers situated to the north 
 and east of Europe, who, notwithstanding 
 their misfortunes, had still strength enough 
 to struggle, were apparently palsied by 
 the name of Napoleon's power. He dis- 
 tributed kingdoms to his companions in 
 arms throughout Europe, as he did govern- 
 ments in France to his creatures, and the 
 name and authority of king had come to 
 be looked upon as nothing more than a 
 step of military rank in his army. 
 
 When hostilities first commenced in 
 Spain in 1808, the French army had in- 
 vaded Portugal* without striking a blow; 
 they occupied Madrid, the centre of Spain, 
 and had seized several fortresses by stra- 
 tagem. The flower of the Spanish troops 
 -was detained with the French forces in 
 Germany and in Portugal: those which 
 remained in Spain could not then distin- 
 guish 
 
( 382 ) 
 
 guish between the authority of the French, 
 and the wishes of the Kings Charles IV 
 or Ferdinand VII. 
 
 When the Emperor Napoleon gave his 
 brother to Spain as a king, and kept the 
 two sovereigns prisoners in France, he was 
 in hopes that he would have to do with a 
 feeble nation, without energy, which, once 
 deprived of its chiefs, would prefer the 
 government of a stranger to the scourge of 
 war in the very heart of the country. 
 Europe herself believed along with the 
 Emperor Napoleon that the Spaniards 
 were to be subdued without a struggle. 
 
 During these five years that the war had 
 lasted the French had gained ten pitched 
 battles successively, they had taken al- 
 most every strong place, but nevertheless 
 they had not secured the durable posses- 
 sion of a single province. Spain had been 
 in a manner reduced to Cadiz, as Portugal 
 was to Lisbon. But though the French 
 
 had 
 
( 383 ) 
 
 had been able to take those towns, even 
 then the fate of the Peninsula would not 
 have been decided. Whilst the French 
 armies lay under the walls of Cadiz and 
 Lisbon the Spanish partisans were making 
 incursions to the gates of Thoulouse, in 
 the very heart of France. . 
 
 The Spaniards, as a nation, were ani- 
 mated by one and the same feeling, love 
 of independence, and abhorrence of stran- 
 gers who would have humbled their na- 
 tional pride by imposing a government 
 upon them. It was neither armies nor 
 fortresses that were to be conquered in 
 Spain, but that one, yet multiplied senti- 
 ment which filled the whole people. It 
 was the inmost soul of each and every one 
 that resisted the blow that entrenchment 
 which neither ball nor bayonet could 
 jreacri. 
 
 LeguihoSl ?s ^ibfD oi Jbaou ben ai ] 
 
 Since these memoirs were written we 
 
 have 
 
( 384 ) 
 
 have seen, first the Muscovite, and since 
 the Prussian people, give to the north of 
 Europe proofs of devotion to their coun- 
 try similar, in many respects, to that 
 which has illustrated the Spaniards ; and 
 Russia, Prussia, and Spain, were early de- 
 livered from the common enemy. These 
 events have changed the face of Europe; 
 they demonstrate as fully as the long and 
 noble resistance of the Spanish people, 
 that the real strength of states does not 
 consist so much in the number and strength 
 of their regular armies, as in that religious, 
 patriotic, or political feeling which is alone 
 powerful enough to interest every indivi- 
 dual of a nation in the public cause as if 
 it were his own. 
 
 THE END, 
 
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