CHAPTER III.

System of terror-The convent of Sta. Monica taken-Spaniards attempt to retake it, but fail-St. Augustin taken-French change their mode of attack—Spaniards change their mode of defence-Terrible nature of the contest-Convent of Jesus taken on the side of the suburb-Attack of the suburb repulsed-Convent of Francisco taken - Mine exploded under the university fails, and the besieged are repulsed-The Cosso passed-Fresh mines worked under the university, and in six other places-French soldiers dispirited— Lasnes encourages them - The houses leading down to the quay carried by storm-An enormous mine under the university being sprung, that building is carried by assault -The suburb is taken-Baron Versage killed, and two thousand Spaniards surrender -Successful attack on the right bank of the Ebro-Palafox demands terms, which are refused-Fire resumed-Miserable condition of the city-Terrible pestilence, and horrible sufferings of the besieged-Zaragoza surrenders-Observations.

THE war being now in the streets of Zaragoza, the sound of the alarmbell was heard in every quarter, the people crowded into the houses nearest to the lodgments of the enemy, additional barricades were constructed across the principal thoroughfares, mines were prepared in the more open spaces, and the internal communications from house to house were multiplied, until they formed a vast labyrinth, the intricate windings of which, were only to be traced by the weapons and the dead bodies of the defenders. The junta, become more powerful from the cessation of regular warfare, urged the defence with redoubled energy, yet increased the horrors of the siege, by a ferocity pushed to the verge of phrensy, for every person who excited the suspicions of these furious men, or of those immediately about them, was instantly put to death. Amidst the noble bulwarks of war, a horrid array of gibbets was seen, on which crowds of wretches were each night suspended, because their courage sunk under accumulating dangers, or that some doubtful expression, some gesture of distress, had been misconstrued by their barbarous chiefs.'

From the height of the walls which he had conquered, Lasnes contemplated this terrific scene, and judging that men so passionate, and so prepared, could not be prudently encountered in open battle, he resolved to proceed by the slow, certain process of the mattock and the mine. This also was in unison with the emperor's instructions, and

I Cavallero. 2 Rogniat.

hence until the 2d of February, the efforts of the French were directed to the enlargement of their lodgments on the ramparts, an object only to be effected by severe fighting, by explosions, and by working through the nearest houses, and they sustained many counter-assaults, of which the most noted and the fiercest was made by a friar on the Capuchins' convent.

It has been already observed, that the large streets divided the town into certain small districts, or islands of houses. To gain possession of these, it was necessary not only to mine, but to fight for each house; and to cross the great intersecting streets it was indispensable to construct traverses above, or to work by underground galleries, for a Spanish battery raked each street, and each house was defended by a garrison that, generally speaking, had only the option, of repelling the enemy in front or dying on the gibbet erected behind. As long as the convents and churches remained in possession of the Spaniards, the progress of the French among the islands of small houses was of little advantage to them; the strong garrisons in the greater buildings, enabled the defenders, not only to make continual and successful sallies, but to countermine their enemies, whose superior skill in that kind of warfare, was often frustrated by the numbers and persevering energy of the besieged. To remedy this inconvenience, the batteries opposite the fourth front breached the convents of St. Augustin and Santa Monica, and the latter had been taken the 51st of January; for while the attack was hot, a part of the wall in another direction was blown in by a petard, and the besiegers pouring through took the main breach in rear, cleared the convent and several houses behind it. The Spaniards immediately opened a gallery from the Augustins, and worked a mine that night under Santa Monica; but the French, discovering it, stifled the miners, and the next day the breach in the Augustins becoming practicable, the attention of the defenders was drawn to it, while the French springing a mine, which they had carried under the wall, from the side of Santa Monica, entered by the opening. The Spaniards, thus again unexpectedly taken in the rear, were easily driven out, yet rallying a few hours after, they attempted to retake the structure. The besiegers then broke into the neighbouring houses, and at one push, reached the point where the Quemada-street joined the Cosso; but the Spaniards renewed the combat with such a fury, that the French were finally beaten out of the houses, and lost more than two hundred men. At the same time, on the side of Santa Engracia, a contest still more severe took place; the houses in the vicinity were blown up, yet the Spaniards fought so obstinately for the ruins, that the Polish troops were scarcely able to make good their lodgment although two successive and powerful explosions had, with the buildings, destroyed a number of the defenders.

The experience of these attacks induced a change in the mode of fighting on both sides. Hitherto the play of the French mines had reduced the houses to ruins, leaving the soldiers exposed to the fire from the next Spanish posts; the engineers, therefore, diminished the quantity of powder, that the interior only might fall and the outward walls stand. This method was found successful; but the Spaniards, with ready ingenuity, saturated the timbers of the houses with rosin and pitch, and setting fire to those which could no longer be maintained, interposed a burning barrier which often delayed the assailants for two days, and always prevented them from pushing their successes during the confusion that necessarily followed the bursting of the mines. The fighting was, however, incessant: a constant bombardment, the explosion of mines, the crash of falling buildings, clamorous shouts, and the continued echo of musketry deafened the ear; while volumes of smoke and dust clouding the atmosphere, lowered continually over the heads of the combatants, as hour by hour, the French, with a terrible perseverance, pushed forward their approaches to the heart of the miserable, but glorious city.

Their efforts were chiefly directed from two points, namely, Santa Engracia, which may be denominated the left attack, and Saint Augustin, which constituted the right attack. At Santa Engracia they laboured on a line perpendicular to the Cosso, from which they were only separated by the large convent of the Daughters of Jerusalem, and by the hospital for madmen, which was intrenched, although in ruins, after the first siege. The line of this attack was protected on the left by the convent of the Capuchins, which La Coste had fortified to repel the counter-assaults of the Spaniards. The attack from the Augustins was more diffused, because the localities presented less prominent features to determine the direction of the approaches; but the French having mounted a number of light six-inch mortars, on peculiar carriages, drew them from street to street, and house to house, as occasion offered. On the other hand the Spaniards continually plied their enemies with hand grenades, which seem to have produced a surprising effect. In this manner the never-ceasing combat was prolonged until the 7th of February, when the besiegers, by dint of alternate mines and assaults, had worked their perilous way at either attack to the Cosso, yet not without several changes of fortune and considerable loss; and they were unable to obtain a footing on that public walk, for the Spaniards still disputed every house with undiminished resolution. Meanwhile, Lasnes having caused trenches to be opened on the left bank of the Ebro, played twenty guns against an isolated structure called the Convent of Jesus, which covered the right of the suburb line; on the 7th of February the convent was carried by storm, with so little difficulty, that the French, supposing the Spaniards to be panic-stricken, entered the suburb itself;

they were quickly driven back, but they made good their lodgment in the convent.

On the right of the Ebro, the 8th, 9th, and 10th were wasted by the besiegers in vain attempts to pass the Cosso; they then extended their flanks; to the right with a view to reach the quay, and so connect this attack with that against the suburb; to the left to obtain possession of the large and strongly built convent of St. Francisco, in which, after exploding an immense mine and making two assaults, they finally established themselves.

The 11th and 12th, mines, in the line of the right attack, were exploded under the university, a large building on the Spanish side of the Cosso; yet their play was insufficient to open the walls, and the storming party was beaten, with the loss of fifty men. Nevertheless, the besiegers continuing their labours during the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th, passed the Cosso by means of traverses, and prepared fresh mines under the university, yet deferred their explosion until a simultaneous effort could be combined on the side of the suburb. At the left attack also, a number of houses, bordering on the Cosso, being gained, a battery was established that raked that great thoroughfare above ground, while under it, six galleries were carried, and six mines loaded to explode at the same moment. But the spirit of the French army was now exhausted. They had laboured and fought without intermission for fifty days; they had crumbled the walls with their bullets, burst the convents with their mines, and carried the breaches with their bayonets;-fighting above and beneath the surface of the earth, they had spared neither fire nor sword, their bravest men were falling in the obscurity of a subterranean warfare, famine pinched them, and Zaragoza was still unconquered!

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"Before this siege," they exclaimed, was it ever known, that twenty thousand men should besiege fifty thousand? Scarcely a fourth of the town is won, and we are already exhausted. We must wait for re-enforcements, or we shall all perish among these cursed ruins, which will become our own tombs, before we can force the last of these fanatics from the last of their dens. "

Marshal Lasnes, unshaken by these murmurs, and obstinate to conquer, endeavoured to raise the soldiers' hopes. He told them that the losses of the besieged so far exceeded their own, that the Spaniards' strength would soon be exhausted and their courage sink; that the fierceness of their defence was already abating, and if, contrary to expectation, they should renew the example of Numantia, their utter destruction must quickly be effected by the united evils of battle, pestilence, and misery. His exhortations were successful, and on the 18th

1 Rogniat.

of February, all combinations being completed, a general assault took place.

On the right the French, having opened a party-wall by the explosion of a petard, made a sudden rush through some burning ruins, and then carried, without a check, the whole island of houses leading down to the quay, with the exception of two buildings; the Spaniards were thus forced to abandon all the external fortifications between Saint Augustin and the Ebro, which they had preserved until that day. During this assault the mines under the university containing three thousand pounds of powder were sprung, and the walls tumbling with a terrific crash, -a column of the besiegers entered the place, and after one repulse secured a lodgment. Meanwhile fifty pieces of artillery thundering upon the suburb, ploughed up the bridge over the Ebro, and by mid-day opened a practicable breach in the great convent of Saint Lazar, which was the principal defence on that side. Lasnes, observing that the Spaniards seemed to be shaken by this overwhelming fire, ordered an assault there also, and Saint Lazar being carried forthwith, the retreat to the bridge was thus intercepted, and the besieged falling into confusion, and their commander, Baron Versage, being killed, were all destroyed or taken, with the exception of three hundred men, who, braving the terrible fire to which they were exposed, got back into the town. General Gazan immediately occupied the abandoned works, and having thus cut off more than two thousand men that were stationed on the Ebro, above the suburb, forced them also to surrender.

This important success being followed on the 19th, by another fortunate attack on the right bank of the Ebro, and by the devastating explosion of sixteen hundred pounds of powder, the constancy of the besieged was at last shaken. An aide de camp of Palafox came forth to demand certain terms, before offered by the marshal, adding thereto, that the garrison should be allowed to join the Spanish armies, and that a certain number of covered carriages should follow them. Lasnes rejected these proposals, and the fire continued; but the hour of surrender was come! Fifty pieces of artillery, on the left bank of the Ebro, laid the houses on the quay in ruins; the church of Our Lady of the Pillar, under whose especial protection the city was supposed to exist, was nearly effaced by the bombardment; and the six mines under the Cosso, loaded with many thousand pounds of powder, were ready for a simultaneous explosion, which would have laid a quarter of the remaining houses in the dust. In fine, war had done its work, and the misery of Zaragoza could no longer be endured.

The bombardment, which had never ceased since the 10th of January, had forced the women and children to take refuge in the vaults, with which the city abounded; there the constant combustion of oil, the closeness of the atmosphere, unusual diet, and fear and restlessness of