146 ATTACK ON BURGOS, UNDER SOULT. [A.D. corps on the 9th and moved the same day on Burgos, taking a strong division of cavalry along with him, under Franceschi. The army against which he advanced consisted of the Walloon Guards and the old regiments of Majorca, Lafra, and Aleantara, with the royal carabineers and Valencian hussars, and was under the command of the Marquis de Belvidere, a young officer of no experience and great presumption. He had posted his troops in position behind the Arlanzon, near the village of Gamonal, resting his left at the brook, and the right on the park of Vellemer across the road into Burgos; and it was garnished with 30 pieces of artillery. As soon as Soult recognised the ground, he sent forward on the morning of the 10th General Monton with 4 regiments of veterans against the village and wood of Gamonal, supported by the division Bonnet, and these in a very short time overthrew the Walloon Guards who were posted there. At sight of this the whole army took to flight, leaving guns and everything behind them, and rushed into Burgos, closely pursued by the French light cavalry under Franceschi, while the dragoons of Milhaud were also let loose upon the fugitives in the Castilian plains, which commence at the city of Burgos. The inhabitants attempted to defend their streets, but soon abandoned their houses, and the whole was given up indiscriminately to pillage.* As soon as Napoleon heard of Soult's success, he removed his head-quarters to Burgos, where he arrived on the 11th quite incognito, leaving the intrusive King behind him at Vittoria, so as not to commit his character to the excesses of the victorious French troops. Sir John Moore received information of these events at Salamanca on the 13th, and two nights later the General was awakened with the intelligence that the enemy were already advanced to Valladolid, within twenty leagues of his head-quarters. The British General was utterly at a loss to conceive that the Spanish armies, of whom he was daily receiving the most flattering accounts from Mr. Hookham Frere, the minister accredited by the British Government to the Central Junta, should be the same of whom every day's post brought intelligence of fresh disasters. Colonel Graham (afterwards Lord Lynedoch) was the British Commissioner with the central army, but his report was only a lamentable history of the disgraceful squabbles that divided the leaders, and gave no reason to the Commander of the British army to expect any effective cooperation; moreover, the entire line of Spanish armies reaching from Bilboa to Burgos had now been annihilated, and he had no certain communication open with Castaños, Blake, or Romagna, so that he was thrown entirely upon his own resources. He could not rely on the correctness of any information he received, but fortunately his mind was endowed with that quality of forethought which is so *"A corps of student volunteers from the universities of Leon and Salamanca had joined this army. These youths, the pride and hope of many a generous family, displayed the courage which might be looked for in men of their condition, and twice repulsed the French infantry till the heavy horse came upon their flank, when they fell almost to a man on the spot where they had been stationed.". SOUTHEY. 1808.] FRENCH TROOPS IN THE PENINSULA. 147 useful in the military character, and he supplied many of these deficiencies by a correct judgment of the probable movements which the enemy might be expected to make under the circumstances. Napoleon heard at Burgos of the advance of Moore's army into Spain, and directed Soult and Junot to proceed against him, while he sent orders to the two divisions of Laborde and Loison to cross the Bidasoa and occupy the ground which would, in consequence of this advance, be vacated by the two corps. He also directed Marshals Lefebvre and Victor to take up the pursuit of the Spanish Generals. Blake found himself without troops or generals; the Asturians having fled to Santander, and Romagna having fallen back with what troops he could keep together to Leon. He therefore, with all he could assemble, retired on Reynosa, where the Spanish magazines had been established; but not feeling equal to maintain himself there, he continued his flight towards Leon. As he was making the best of his way in this direction with the wretched remains of an army on the 13th, they came on Soult's line of march, who attacked them, captured their magazines and artillery, and scattered them in all directions. Blake was joined at Arnedo by Romagna, who assumed the command of the army, which at this moment scarcely existed but in name. Napoleon now prepared to launch his thunderbolt on the armies of Castaños and Palafox in Arragon, and, with this view, directed Marshal Moncey with the 3rd corps to remain firm and quiet at Logrono, while Ney with the 6th was called into Burgos, and on the 14th directed to march by Aranda and Soria, to fall on the Spanish rear. By these movements the front of the French army was now changed, Bessières, commanding the 2nd corps, was left at Burgos in observation, and here, as the great base of operations, magazines were ordered to be established and reinforcements to be assembled. A new organisation was likewise given to the troops collected in the Peninsula. The first corps was given to Victor, Duke of Belluno ; the second to Bessières, Duke of Istria; the third to Moncey, Duke of Cornegliano; the fourth to Lefebvre, Duke of Dantzig; the fifth to Mortier, Duke of Treviso; the sixth to Ney, Duke of Elchingen; the seventh to Gouvion-St.-Cyr; and the eighth to Junot, Duke of Abrantes. Marshal Lannes, who had been recently injured by a fall from his horse, was nevertheless ordered to mount again, and, take charge of Moncey's corps, to execute with Ney the manœuvre which the Emperor now prescribed. Accordingly, Ney entered Soria on the 26th, Lannes on the same day crossed the Ebro by the bridge of Lodosa, and came at Calahorra upon the Spanish army retiring on the road to Alfaro. The Marshal, however, deemed it advisable to give his troops some repose before engaging them, and, accordingly, rested for the night of the 22nd at Alfaro, but they were commanded to be in order of march at 3 o'clock in the morning of the 23rd. The utmost discord reigned among the Generals of the unfortunate Spanish army. The Supreme Junta had appointed the Marquis de la Romagna to the chief command, which, however, as the Marquis 148 DISCORD AMONG THE SPANISH GENERALS. [A.D. was now fleeing in Leon, was temporarily retained by Castaños, between whom and Palafox a disagreement arose as to the best mode of meeting the French advance. The former prudently recommended that all encounter with the enemy should be avoided; Palafox, on the contrary, proud of the fame he had acquired, was desirous of acting on the offensive throughout the province of Navarre. Amid such distracted councils it is not surprising that the entire force had not been assembled when Lannes appeared in their front, early on the 23rd, and forced them to accept a battle. A position was hastily assumed, with its left on the Ebro in front of Tudela, and its right at Cascante, and extending along a range of inconsiderable hills nearly six miles in length. The Arragonese with Palafox were on the right, the Valencians and Catalans in the centre, the heroes of Baylen, under Castaños, on the left. The united force of the Spaniards was 39,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry, with 40 guns. Lannes commanded 30,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, with 60 pieces of cannon, and resolved to force the long-attenuated line of the enemy by penetrating his centre. The division of General Maurice Mathieu was immediately ordered to this attack, while all the cavalry commanded by Lefebvre-Desnouettes advanced in second line under the fire of the artillery. The Spaniards plied the approaching French column with their guns, and launched forward the Spanish guards, whom Castaños had sent up to the assistance of the centre, but these were quickly overborne and taken in flank by Morlot, who had finished already with Palafox, as had La Grange with Castaños; and the patriots here, as elsewhere, being neither well disciplined nor well commanded, fled through Tudela, some towards Tarragona and some towards Zaragoza, leaving 30 guns and no end of prisoners on the field. Ney could not arrive in time to assist in this victory, and only came up to the aid of his comrade at the close of the battle, when Lannes, exhausted by fatigue, gave over the command to Marshals Ney and Moncey. These two leaders were now directed by the Emperor to push the siege of Zaragoza, into which city Palafox had thrown himself with the right and centre of the Spanish army; Castaños retired on Calatayud. 31. NAPOLEON DEFEATS THE PATRIOTS AT SOMO SIERRA, AND ENTERS MADRID. The battles of Espinosa, Burgos, and Tudela, not only utterly dispersed the Spanish armies of the North, but left the capital open to the conqueror. Napoleon, therefore, having now secured his flanks on both sides from all fear of interruption, resolved to make the central government quail before his arms and accept anew the Sovereign of his selection. Orders were therefore given to march upon Madrid. He appears to have contemned, or held in very light estimation, the interference of the English, regarding whom he received various reports; some placing them in the south at Talavera, some in the north at Gallicia, some at Salamanca, some at 1808.] THE FRENCH MARCH UPON MADRID. 149 Lisbon the whole force, wherever scattered, as he well knew, by correct information, did not exceed 30,000 men. He quitted Burgos on the 20th, and crossed the Douro at Aranda the following day; but as he heard that about 12,000 or 13,000 men of the disbanded army of Estremadura had been collected by Benito San Juan, and occupied the range of the Guadarama mountains, he took with him the corps of Marshal Victor and the Imperial Guards, whom he formed into a division under Savary, together with the cavalry of Lasalle and Latour-Maubourg, in all about 40,000 men, and on the 30th the army reached the foot of the hills at Sepulveda, where he found the Spanish outposts, whom with his staff and a few dragoons he pushed back on Somo Sierra, of which he reconnoitred the approaches, and then bivouacked the same night in the midst of his troops at a small village called Bocequillas. In the month of November, in this climate, the days are frequently of bright sunshine, preceded by two or three hours of fog in the morning. With the peculiarity of his genius, Napoleon resolved to turn this trifling fact to his advantage. He ordered Lapisse to be ready to carry the post of Sepulveda, and the division Ruffin to march at 6 in the morning, that under cover of the fog he might get them up to the summit of the range at the time when the sun would probably break out. At about 9 or 10 o'clock on the 30th the Spaniards gave up Sepulveda without a shot, and saw suddenly with surprise, as the morning cleared, the French army all around them. They would all have run away at once, but that their General had placed sixteen guns so as to plunge upon the camino reale, behind the fire of which he succeeded in stopping and rallying them. The fire of the artillery began also to tell upon Ruffin's column, but the Emperor was on the spot with fresh troops, and ordered General Montbrun with some Polish lancers to charge the guns, which was the affair of but a moment. San Juan, wounded in several places, could now no longer stay his men, and they scattered themselves right and left in the mountains, leaving all their artillery and all their officers in the enemy's hands. The Emperor, relieved from all further embarrassment, galloped across the pass and established his head-quarters the same night at Buytrago. Next morning he sent forward his cavalry to the gates of the capital, and moved his headquarters a little way onward to San Angustino, in order to permit his army to come up with him, and here he was also joined by the intrusive King and his court. The news of the battle of Tudela and Napoleon's advance spread consternation in the capital, and the Central Junta resolved to remove to Aranjuez; but, when the rout of Somo Sierra became known, the dismay attained a fearful height, and the Central Junta at once fixed on Badajoz as their residence, and set out with all imaginable haste for that fortress. With consistent arrogance, the popular cry was for defending the capital against the enemy, and Don Thomas de Morla and the Marquis de Castellan placed themselves at the head of some 8,000 men, to guard all the roads of approach. Some defences were thrown up in haste, the walls of the Retiro were 150 NARROW ESCAPE OF NAPOLEON. [A.D. crenelléed, the gates barricaded, and guns were placed in entrenchments behind those of Aleala and Atocha. The streets likewise were filled with everything, in the way of carts and other obstacles, that might retard the enemy's advance. The paving of the streets was taken up, and the women carried the stones to the tops of their houses to fling down upon the assailants. A great number of muskets and pikes were also distributed amongst the people, and ammunition in abundance. It will afford some idea of the wild and mistaken fury that had taken possession of this much-injured nation, that a general distrust of everyone in authority pervaded their minds. The notion was started that the cartridges with which they were supplied were filled of sand, and not with gunpowder. This was of simple proof; nevertheless, it was simpler to take it for granted; and, accordingly, they rose upon the Marquis de Pénales, the Corregidor of Madrid, dragged him out of his house, and massacred him in the street. The tocsin was sounded day and night to lash the population into fury, and at every moment fugitives from the disbanded armies arrived, though they had fallen upon their general, San Juan, and brutally murdered him. The Duc del Infantado was, therefore, sent out in disguise to endeavour to find Castaños, and to give him the military command of the capital; and, in default of any regular organisation, volunteers were enrolled for the defence of the palace of Buen-Retiro, which is separated from the city by the famous promenade of the Prado, and which had been placed in a good condition for defence by the French themselves before they abandoned the capital. The 2nd of December was the anniversary of Austerlitz and of his coronation; and as Napoleon was a great worshipper of fortunate anniversaries, he rode forward, rather imprudently, with a small escort, to the very gates of Madrid, immensely cheered by the columns as he passed them on the road. He ordered an officer of the Imperial Guard to summon it to surrender; but, no sooner did he present himself at the gate than he was set upon without any respect for a flag of truce, and was only saved from immolation by the care of General Montbrun. For all response, Morla sent out a Spanish General to refuse the summons, but the excited populace, distrusting everyone, required that thirty of their own body should go with him as an escort. The presence of so unusual a parlementaire spoke volumes as to the discord that reigned in Madrid. Preparations were immediately made to carry by assault the fortress of Buen-Retiro, but, as the day was waning, Napoleon sent a Spanish General, one of the prisoners of Somo Sierra, with a letter addressed to the Marquis de Castellan, at once threatening and assuring, but it met with no better reply than before. As soon, therefore, as the morning sun of the 3rd had dissipated the fog, the Emperor, in person, ordered the wall of the park to be breached in several places, so that he might pour troops through them at points where he could form his columns for attack. Thirty pieces of artillery forthwith opened upon the Retiro, under General Senarmont, when General Villette passed into the enclosure, and, with scarcely any opposition from the sup |