The only engagement worthy of notice, either on account of its general nature, or the consequences which resulted from it, was fought between Marshal Victor and General Cuesta, at Medellin, a town of Estramadura, equi-distant from Merida and Truxillo. Towards this place the Spanish general marched with a determination to attack the invaders, and on the 29th of March he found the whole of Victor's division, consisting of twenty thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, drawn up in front of Medellin. Unintimidated by the force and skilful dispositions of the enemy, Cuesta determined upon a rapid and general attack, and by the gallantry and steadiness of his infantry, one of the French batteries was carried. To support this vigorous operation, the Spanish cavalry regiments of Amania and Infante, and the two squadrons of the imperial chasseurs of Toledo, were ordered to advance, but instead of executing the orders of their commander, they fled before the enemy, and threw the left wing of the Spanish army into, disorder. The French general, availing himself of this circumstance, directed his undivided efforts against the right and centre of the Spaniards, and General Cuesta, finding all his endeavours to rally his forces unavailing, was obliged to commence a disorderly retreat. In this engagement the patriots lost, according to the French accounts, fourteen thousand men in killed and wounded, with six standards, and the whole of their artillery.

The disposition of the British government towards the Spaniards still continued favourable; and disappointment and disaster had by no means damped their ardour in the patriotic cause. The relations of the two countries had hitherto been destitute of the usual formalities; but, early in the present year, a solemn treaty of peace and alliance was entered into between Great Britain and the authorities administering the Spanish government in the name of Ferdinand VII. By this treaty, which was negociated on the part of the Spaniards by Don Pedro Cevallos, his Britannic Majesty pledged himself to assist the Spanish nation in their struggle against the tyranny and usurpation of France, and not to acknowledge any other King of Spain and the Indies than his Majesty Ferdinand VII. his heirs, and lawful successors.

In order to carry into effect the promised assistance which the British government had determined to afford to the patriots, and at the same time to free Portugal from the presence of the French army, Sir Arthur Wellesley sailed

On

un

1809

from Portsmouth on the 15th of April, and BOOK IV arrived at Lisbon on the 22d of the same month, to take the command of the British army, which, CHAP. XI. by reinforcements sent principally from Ireland, had been swelled to thirty thousand men. the arrival of Sir Arthur Wellesley at Lisbon, he determined to dispossess the French der Marshal Soult of the city of Oporto; and with this view he assembled the British army at Coimbra, on the 7th of May, and advanced towards the Douro. Marshal Soult, aware of the magnitude of the force which was advancing against him, and sensible that he was by no means equal to the combat, withdrew the main body of his army, and the second city in Portugal fell into the hands of the British almost without resistance. Sir Arthur Wellesley, having placed Oporto in a proper state of defence, returned to the south of Portugal, where his presence had become necessary in order to protect Lisbon and its vicinity from the French army, which was advancing along the Tagus, under Marshal Victor. This general, finding the capital open to his attack, commenced a rapid march from Badajoz, and was diverted from his purpose only by the return of Sir Arthur Wellesley, accompanied by the intelligence that he had received of the flight and partial defeat of the Duke of Dalmatia.

In the mean time, the affairs of the patriots were chequered with alternate success and disaster in the greater part of the peninsula, but in Galicia their successes greatly preponderated. In the north-east prodigies of valour had been displayed; the second siege of Saragossa rivalled the first, and will for ever occupy a distinguished place in the military annals of Spain. A body of about ten thousand men, who had escaped from the battle of Tudela, had thrown themselves into Saragossa, and the citizens and peasants from the country swelled the number of its defenders to about fifty thousand men. The second siege was commenced about the middle of December, 1808, and Palafox ordained, that all the inhabitants, of whatever rank or condition, should consider themselves bound to devote their persons, their property, and their lives, to the defence of the city. To a summons from Marshal Moncey to surrender, this heroic chief replied-" Talk of capitulation when I am dead!" and the soldiers and the citizens proved themselves worthy of their illustrious leader. On the 10th of January the bombardment began; and Moncey being incapacitated by sickness, Marshal Lannes was sent by Bonaparte to take the command of the besieging army, which consisted of from fifty to sixty thousand men. The French, well aware that the only way to conquer Saragossa was to destroy it house by house, and street by street,

BOOK IV. proceeded upon this system, and three companies of miners and eight companies of sappers CHAP. XI. were continually employed in carrying on this subterraneous war. During the bombardment, 1809 which continued two and forty days, there was no respite either by day or by night for this devoted city; even the natural order of light and darkness was destroyed-by day the place was involved in a red sulphureous atmosphere of smoke, which hid the face of heaven; and by night, the fire of the cannons and the mortars, with the flames of burning houses, kept the hemisphere in a state of terrific illumination. After a glorious defence, the garrison began to experience a want of ammunition, which was succeeded by the horrors of famine; and a pestilential disease appearing at this moment in the city, served to fill up the dreadful climax. On the 1st of February, the situation of the place appeared hopeless; but the governorgeneral still refused to capitulate, and for seventeen days more the defence was continued ; when Palafox himself, being seized with the contagion, was obliged to transfer his authority to a Junta, of which Don Pedro Maria Ric was appointed president. On the 19th the enemy obtained possession of the Puerto del Angel, and to such a deplorable situation was the garrison reduced by its accumulated miseries, that all the efforts of Don Ric proved fruitless. Disease had subdued the inhabitants; two thirds of the city had been destroyed; thirty thousand of the people had perished, and from three to four hundred were dying daily of the pestilence. Reduced to this situation, the city capitulated, and the French, after a siege of two months, obtained possession of a mass of ruins.

The supreme junta of Spain pronounced the funeral oration of Saragossa in an address to the nation-" Spaniards!" said they, " the only boon which Saragossa begged of our unfortunate monarch at Vittoria, was, that she might be the first city to sacrifice herself in his defence. That sacrifice has been consummated. But, Spaniards, Saragossa still survives for imitation and example; still survives in the public spirit, which, from her heroic exertions, is for ever imbibing lessons of spirit and constancy. Forty thousand Frenchmen, who have perished before the mud walls of Saragossa, cause France to mourn the barren and ephemeral triumph which she has obtained, and evince to Spain, that three cities of equal resolution will save their country and baffle the tyrant. Time passes away, and days will come when these dreadful convulsions, with which the genius of iniquity is now afflicting the earth, will have subsided. The friends of virtue and of patriotism will then come to the banks of the Ebro to visit the majestic ruins of Saragossa, and beholding them with

admiration and with envy, will exclaim- Here stood that city, which, in modern ages, realized those ancient prodigies of heroism and constancy, which are scarcely credited in history. The subjection of this open town cost France more blood, more tears, more slaughter, than the conquest of whole kingdoms; nor was it French valour that subdued it; a deadly and general pestilence prostrated the strength of its defenders, and the enemy, when they entered, triumphed over a few sick and dying men, but they did not subdue citizens, nor conquer soldiers !'"

After the fall of Saragossa, an attempt was made by General Blake to regain possession of that city, but in this he entirely failed, and the Spanish army under his command became exposed to a fatal and inglorious defeat at Belchite. According to the account of this battle published by the Spanish general, one of his regiments was thrown into confusion by the dis charge of the enemy's grenades; the panic spread rapidly; regiment after regiment fled without discharging a gun; and in a short time, the general and his officers were left alone to oppose the enemy. The fruits of this victory, disgraceful to the Spaniards, rather than honourable to the French, were nine pieces of cannon, immense quantities of stores and provisions, and upwards of three thousand prisoners.

The inactivity to which the army of Sir Arthur Wellesley had been doomed after their return from Oporto, was relieved by a plan concerted between the British general and General Cuesta, by which it was proposed to attack the central French armies, and to obtain possession of the Spanish capital. With this view, a junction of the British and Spanish forces took place in the neighbourhood of Plasencia, on the 20th of July. Sir Robert Wilson, who commanded a Portuguese corps, which he had brought into a state of excellent discipline, was ordered to advance to Ascolona, on the river Alberché. The division of the Spanish General, Venegas, at the same time broke up from Madrilejos, and advanced to Arganda. After these preparatory movements had been made, the combined British and Spanish army, amounting to about sixty thousand men, of which twenty-four thousand were British, proceeded to Talavera, where the French army, under Marshal Victor, thirtyfive thousand strong, had been for some time stationed. On the 22d the allied forces moved upon Oropesa, and drove in Victor's rear-guard, which was drawn up in order of battle upon a plain about a league from Talavera. The hostile armies were now in sight of each other, and Sir Arthur Wellesley determined to attack the French general the following day, and to bring him to action before he was joined by Joseph Bonaparte and General Sebastiani, who were

both marching to his relief. For this purpose the British columns were formed at five o'clock in the morning; but, at the moment when the troops were ready to advance, they learned, to their extreme disappointment and mortification, that General Cuesta, not wishing to profane the sanctity of the sabbath by secular employments, had determined to delay the attack till the following day. On the morning of the 24th, the British and Spanish armies were again drawn out; but Victor, less scrupulous than Cuesta, had, during the evening of the sabbath, retreated from his position in order to effect a junction with other divisions of the French army of the centre; and so deficient was the combined army in the means of transport, that it was found impossible to pursue the enemy. This inconvenience had long been felt, and Sir Arthur Wellesley, before he left Plasencia, was under the necessity of informing General Cuesta, that it would be impossible to continue to cooperate with the Spanish armies, unless the means of transport were supplied. To aggravate this evil, both the British and Spanish commissariats were in the most deplorable state, and the combined armies became, in a certain degree, competitors for subsistence. Thus cireumstanced, the British troops halted from absolute necessity, and Sir Arthur Wellesley came to the determination to return to Portugal, if more vigorous exertions were not made by the supreme junta to supply the wants of his army. Cuesta appeared fully sensible of the propriety of this resolution, and, trusting that the possession of Madrid, which seemed now almost within his reach, would relieve all the wants by which the combined army was surrounded, he determined to advance in the pursuit of Victor.

By

On the 25th, the French force, under Joseph Bonaparte and General Sebastiani, formed a junction with Marshal Victor at Toledo. this accession of strength, the force of the enemy was swelled to forty-five thousand men; and General Cuesta, finding himself unable to withstand so formidable an army, fell back, in great disorder, and with considerable loss, upon the British position at Talavera.

It was now obvious that the enemy intended to try the result of a general action, and Sir Arthur Wellesley selected the neighbourhood of Talavera as the scene of operations. The position taken up by the troops extended more than two miles; the ground was open upon the left, where the British army was stationed, and it was commanded by a height, on which was, in echellon, and in second line, a division of infantry, under the orders of Major-general Hill. Between this height and a range of mountains still further upon the left, was a valley, which it was not at first judged necessary to occupy.

The right, consisting of Sanish troops, extended, BOOK VI. immediately in front of the town of Talavera, down to the Tagus. where the ground was CHAP. XI. covered with olive trees, and much intersected by banks and ditches. The road leading from 1800 the bridge over the Alberché, and the avenues to the town, as well as the town itself, were occupied by the Spanish infantry. In the centre, between the armies, there was a commanding spot of ground, with an unfinished redoubt, and which post was occupied by Brigadier-general Alexander Campbell, with a division of infantry, supported in their rear by General Cotton's brigade of dragoons, and some cavalry.

At about two o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th, the enemy appeared in strength upon the left bank of the Alberché, and manifested an intention to attack General Mackenzie, who had been placed, with a division of infantry, and a brigade of cavalry, as an advanced post, in the wood which covered the left flank of the British army. These troops suffered considerably, but they were withdrawn in perfect order, and took their place in the line. The enemy now cannonaded the left of the British position, and attacked the Spanish infantry with his horse, hoping to break the ranks, and carry the town; but he was bravely withstood, and finally repulsed. Early in the evening, Marshal Victor pushed a division along the valley, on the left of the height occupied by General Hill; this he considered the key of the British position, and the efforts of the French to obtain this eminence corresponded with the estimation in which it was held. For a moment the attack was successful; but General Hill instantly charged the assailants with the bayonet, and regained the post. Undismayed by this repulse, the French repeated their attack about midnight; but they were again repulsed with great slaughter. Both armies passed the night on the field, and several partial engagements were fought before the dawn of the following day. These nightly combats were conducted with the most determined fury; the men, after they had discharged their fire-arms, frequently closed, and beat out each other's brains with their muskets.

In the course of the evening, the French had ascertained that any attack upon the town, posted as the Spaniards were, was hopeless; they had also discovered that no impression could be made upon the centre, and consequently that the left, where they had already suffered so much, was the only practicable point of attack. Accordingly, at day-break on the 28th, General Ruffin advanced with three regiments in close columns against the eminence occupied by General Hill; but here again they were resisted by the bayonet, and driven back, leaving the field covered with their slain. About