a colonel commanding the imperial guards still retained a number of prisoners in the barracks, applied to have them also released. Murat consented, but it is said by some, although denied by others of greater authority, that the colonel getting intelligence of what was passing, and being enraged at the loss of so many choice soldiers, put forty-five of his captives to death before the order arrived to stay his bloody proceedings.*

Such were nearly the circumstances that attended this celebrated tumult, in which the wild cry of Spanish warfare was first heard; and as many authors, adopting without hesitation all the reports of the day, have represented it, sometimes as a wanton and extensive massacre on the part of the French, sometimes as a barbarous political stroke to impress a dread of their power, I think it necessary to remark-First, that it was commenced by the Spaniards; their fiery tempers, the irritation produced by passing events, and the habits of violence which they had acquired in their late successful insurrection against Godoy, rendered an explosion inevitable. Second, that if the French had secretly stimulated this disposition, and had resolved in cold blood to make a terrible example, they would have prepared some check on the Spanish soldiers of the garrison; they would not have left their own hospital unguarded, still less have arranged the plan so that their loss should far exceed that of the Spaniards; and surely nothing would have induced them to relinquish the profit of such policy after having suffered all the injury! Yet Marshal Moncey and General Harispe were actively engaged in restoring order; and it is certain that, including the peasants shot outside the gates, and the executions afterwards, the whole number of Spaniards slain did not amount to one hundred and twenty persons, while several hundred French fell.† Of the imperial guards seventy men were wounded, and this fact alone would suffice to prove that there was no premeditation on the part of Murat; for if he was base enough to sacrifice his own men with such unconcern, he would not have exposed the select soldiers of the French empire in preference to the conscripts who abounded in his army.

The affair itself was certainly accidental, and not very bloody for the patriots, but policy induced both sides to attribute secret motives, and to exaggerate the slaughter. The Spaniards in the provinces, impressed with an opinion of French atrocity, were thereby excited to insurrection on the one hand; and, on the other, the French, well aware that such an impression could not be effaced

*See Gen. Harispe's observations at the end of this work. + Manifesto of the Council of Castile, page 28.

Surgical Campaigns of Baron Larrey.

by an accurate relation of what did happen, seized the occasion to convey a terrible idea of their own power and severity. It is the part of history to reduce such amplifications. But it is impossible to remain unmoved in recording the gallantry and devotion of a populace that could thus dare to assail the force commanded by Murat, rather than abandon one of their princes; such, however, was the character of the Spaniards throughout this war, they were prone to sudden and rash actions, and though weak in military execution, fierce and confident individually, and they had always an intuitive perception of what was great and noble.

The commotion of the 2d of May was the forerunner of insurrections in every part of Spain, few of which were so honorable to the actors as that of Madrid. Unprincipled villains hailed the opportunity of directing the passions of the multitude, and under the mask of patriotism, turned the unthinking fury of the people against whomever it pleased them to rob or to destroy. Pillage, massacres, assassinations, cruelties of the most revolting kind, were everywhere perpetrated, and the intrinsic goodness of the cause was disfigured by the enormities committed at Cadiz, Seville, Badajos, and other places, but chiefly at Valencia, pre-eminent in barbarity at a moment when all were barbarous ! The first burst of popular feeling being thus misdirected, and the energy of the people wasted in assassinations, lassitude and fear succeeded to the insolence of tumult at the approach of real danger; for it is one thing to shine in the work of butchery, and another to establish that discipline which can alone sustain the courage of the multitude in the hour of trial.

To cover the suspicious measure of introducing more troops than the terms of the convention warranted, a variety of reports relative to the ultimate intentions of the French Emperor had been propagated; at one time Gibraltar was to be besieged, and officers were dispatched to examine the Mediterranean coasts of Spain and Barbary; at another, Portugal was to become the theatre of great events; and a mysterious importance was attached to all the movements of the French armies, with a view to deceive a court that fear and sloth disposed to the belief of anything but the truth, and to impose upon a people whose unsuspicious ignorance was at first mistaken for tameness.

In the mean time, active agents were employed to form a French party at the capital; and, as the insurrections of Aranjuez and Madrid discovered the fierceness of the Spanish character, Napoleon enjoined more caution and prudence upon his lieutenant than the latter was disposed to practise. In fact, Murat's precipitation was the cause of hastening the discovery of his master's real views

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before they were ripe for execution. For Dupont's first division and cavalry had crossed the Duero as early as the 14th of March, and upon the 10th of April had occupied Aranjuez, while his second and third divisions took post at the Escurial and at Segovia, thus encircling the capital, which was soon occupied by Moncey's corps. In was then evident that Murat designed to control the provisional government left by Ferdinand; and the riot at Toledo, although promptly quelled by the interference of the French troops, indicated the state of the public mind, before the explosion at Madrid had placed the parties in a state of direct hostility. Murat seems to have been intrusted with only a half confidence, and as his natural impetuosity urged him to play a rash rather than a timid part, he appeared with the air of a conqueror before a ground of quarrel was laid. His policy was too coarse and open for such difficult affairs, yet he was not entirely without grounds for his proceeding; a letter addressed to him about this time by Napoleon contained these expressions: "The Duke of Infantado has a party in Madrid; it will attack you; dissipate it, and seize the government.”

At Bayonne the political events kept pace with those of Madrid. Charles IV. having reclaimed his rights in presence of Napoleon, commanded the infant, Don Antonio, to relinquish the presidency of the governing Junta to Murat, who at the same time received the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. This appointment, and the restoration of Charles to the regal dignity, were proclaimed in Madrid, with the acquiescence of the Council of Castile, on the 10th of May; but five days previous to that period the old monarch had again ceded his authority to Napoleon, and Ferdinand and himself were consigned, with large pensions, to the tranquillity of private life. The throne of Spain being thus rendered vacant, the right to fill it was assumed by the French Emperor, in virtue of the cession made by Charles IV., and he desired that a king might be chosen from his own family. After some hesitation, the Council of Castile, in concert with the municipality of Madrid and the governing Junta, declared that their choice had fallen upon Joseph Bonaparte, who was then King of Naples; and Cardinal Bourbon, Primate of Spain, first cousin of Charles IV., and Archbishop of Toledo, not only acceded to this arrangement, but actually wrote to Napoleon a letter testifying his adhesion to the new order of things. As it was easy to foretell the result of the election, the King of Naples was already journeying towards Bayonne, where he arrived on the 7th of June. The principal men of Spain had been previously invited to meet in that town upon the 15th, with a view to obtain their assent to a constitution prepared by Napoleon; and at this meeting, called "The Assembly of Notables," ninety

2*

one Spaniards of eminence appeared. They accepted Joseph as their king, proceeded to discuss the constitution in detail, and after several sittings adopted it, and swore to maintain its provisions. Thus finished the first part of this eventful drama.

The new constitution was calculated to draw forth all the resources of Spain; compared to the old system it was a blessing, and it would have been received as such under different circumstances, but now arms were to decide its fate, for in every province the cry of war had been raised. In Catalonia, in Valencia, in Andalusia, Estremadura, Gallicia, and the Asturias, the people were gathering, and fiercely declaring their determination to resist French intrusion. Nevertheless, Joseph, apparently contented with the acquiescence of the ninety-one notables, and trusting to the powerful support of his brother, crossed the frontier on the 9th of July, and on the 12th arrived at Vittoria. The inhabitants, still remembering the journey to Bayonne, seemed disposed to hinder his entrance; but their opposition did not break out into actual violence, and the next morning he continued his progress by Miranda del Ebro, Breviesca, Burgos, and Buitrago. The 20th of July he entered Madrid, and on the 24th he was proclaimed King of Spain and the Indies, with all the solemnities usual upon such occasions, thus making himself the enemy of eleven millions of people, the object of a nation's hatred! With a strange accent, and from the midst of foreign bands, he called upon a fierce and haughty race to accept of a constitution which they did not understand, and which few of them had ever heard of, his only hope of success resting on the strength of his brother's arms, his claims upon the consent of an imbecile monarch, and the weakness of a few pusillanimous nobles, in contempt of the rights of millions now arming to oppose him. This was the unhallowed part of the enterprise; this it was that rendered his offered constitution odious, covered it with a leprous skin, and drove the noble-minded far from the pollution of its touch!

CHAPTER III.

Council of Castile refuses to take the oath of allegiance-Supreme Junta established at Seville-Marquis of Solano murdered at Cadiz, and the Conde d'Aguilar at Seville-Intercourse between Castanos and Sir Hew Dalrymple-General Spencer and Admiral Purvis offer to co-operate with the Spaniards-Admiral Rossily's squadron surrenders to Morla-General insurrection-Massacre at Valencia-Horrible murder of Filanghieri.

JOSEPH, being proclaimed King, required the Council of Castile to take the oath of allegiance prescribed by the constitution; but, with unexpected boldness, that body, hitherto obsequious, met his orders with a remonstrance, for war, virtually declared on the 2d of May, was at this time raging in all parts of the Peninsula, and the Council was secretly apprised that a great misfortune had befallen the French arms.* It was no longer a question between Joseph and some reluctant public bodies; it was an awful struggle between great nations; and how the spirit of insurrection, breaking forth simultaneously in every province, was nourished in each until it acquired the consistence of regular warfare, I will now relate.

Just before the tumult of Aranjuez, the Marquis of Solano y Socoro, commanding the Spanish auxiliary force in the Alemtejo, had received an order from Godoy to withdraw his division and post it on the frontier of Andalusia, to cover the projected journey of Charles IV. Napoleon was aware of this order, but would not interrupt its execution, wherefore Solano quitted Portugal without difficulty, and in the latter end of May, observing the general agitation, repaired to his government of Cadiz, in the harbor of which place five French sail of the line and a frigate, under Admiral Rossily, had just before taken refuge from the English fleet. Seville was in a great ferment, and Solano, in passing through, was required to put himself at the head of an insurrection in favor of Ferdinand VII. He refused, and passed on to his own government; but there, also, the people were ripe for a declaration against the French. A local government was established at Seville, which, assuming the title of "Supreme Junta of Spain and the Indies," declared war in form against the intrusive monarch, commanded all men between the ages of sixteen and forty-five to take arms, called upon the troops of the camp of San Roque to acknowledge their authority, and ordered Solano to attack the French squadron. That unfortunate man would not acknowledge the *Memoir of O'Farril, and Azanza.