1808.] SPAIN RESISTS THE DESIGNS OF NAPOLEON. 71 it to be above every other country in the world, and were of one heart and one mind in all that regarded their native honour. Spain was still, in its lower classes, the land of romance, of chivalrous gallantry, and of dance and song. The nationality of the Spaniards, and the geographical position of their country, to which that nationality is partly owing, still preserved many of the characteristics of the age of chivalry. The simultaneous and unanimous decision to resist oppression manifested by the whole nation when Napoleon unmasked his designs upon their country-a universally-pervading sentiment that they would not, and therefore could not, be conquered-is a trait of strong patriotic feeling, which must ever remain an enduring monument of the solid qualities which belong to this grand old people.* 1808. 7. 1. COMMENCEMENT OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. 2. THE FRENCH SEIZE THE SPANISH FRONTIER FORTRESSES.- 3. DISCOVERY OF THE DESIGNS OF NAPOLEON. 4. THE ROYAL FAMILY PREPARE FOR FLIGHT-TUMULT AT ARANJUEZ. 5. CHARLES IV. ABDICATES, AND FERDINAND VII. IS PROCLAIMED KING. 6. CHARLES AND FERDINAND REPAIR ΤΟ NAPOLEON AT BAYONNE. INSURRECTION AT MADRID. 8. ABDICATION OF THE BOURBONS JOSEPH BONAPARTE KING OF SPAIN.-9. THE SPANISH NATION RISE AGAINST THE FRENCH. 10. ADMIRAL ROSILY'S FLEET AT CADIZ SURRENDERS TO THE PATRIOTS.-11. DEPUTATION FROM THE SPANISH PATRIOTS RECEIVED IN LONDON.- 12. FIRST COLLISION BETWEEN THE SPANIARDS AND FRENCHSACK OF CORDOVA. - 13. FRENCH REPULSED FROM VALENCIA THEY INVEST ZARAGOZA. 14. INSURRECTION IN LEON AFFAIR AT CABEZON.- 15. BATTLE OF MEDINA DERIO-SECO.- 16. CAPITULATION OF DUPONT'S ARMY AT BAYLEN. 17. FIRST SIEGE OF ZARAGOZA. — 18. A BRITISH EXPEDITION, UNDER WELLESLEY, ARRIVES IN THE PENINSULA. — 19. COMBAT AT ROLIÇA — BATTLE OF VIMIERO.-20. CONVENTION OF CINTRA. -21. DE LA ROMAGNA'S ARMY ARRIVES IN SPAIN FROM DENMARK. 22. WAR IN SCANDINAVIA.-23. INTESTINE WAR AT CONSTANTINOPLE. — 24. INTERVIEW BETWEEN NAPOLEON AND THE CZAR AT ERFURTH.- - 25. NAVAL WAR-CRUISE OF ADMIRAL GANTHEAUME.-26. RUSSIAN AND SWEDISH FLEETS IN THE BALTIC. 27. BRITISH SINGLE SHIP AND BOAT ACTIONS. COLONIAL WAR. 30. 29. PENINSULAR WAR.— BATTLES OF ESPINOSA, BURGOS, AND TUDELA.-31. NAPOLEON DEFEATS THE PATRIOTS AT SOMO SIERRA, AND ENTERS MADRID. 32. SIEGE OF ROSAS BATTLES OF THE LLOBREGAT AND ULLES. - 33. BRITISH ARMY, UNDER MOORE, COMMENCES ITS RETREAT.-34. NAPOLEON ADVANCES AGAINST IT FROM MADRID. — 35. BRITISH CAVALRY AFFAIR AT BENAVENTE. *Thiers; Southey; "Modern Traveller," &c. -- 28. 72 INSATIATE APPETITE OF FRANCE FOR CONQUEST. [A.D. 1. COMMENCEMENT OF THE PENINSULAR War. ALTHOUGH these "Annals" are expressly precluded from recounting the causes of war-and it is not particularly necessary that the steps which led to that of the Peninsula should be stated at length-still a brief summary may be required to connect the chain of events. It is melancholy to see the laurel-crowned hero of Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, and the conqueror of half the globe, descending to the meanest intrigues and subterfuges, in order to obtain possession of the yet remaining kingdom of the Continent which had not succumbed to his sword. But the insatiate appetite of French conquest was never to be satisfied, without possession of the Peninsula. Without going back to the treaty of the Pyrenees, Prince Talleyrand had, as early as July, 1806, let fall, in conversation with an English diplomatist, that the army for the invasion of Portugal was already assembling at Bayonne, and it is to the influence and representations of that wily politician that history assigns the promptings, if not the machinations, that preceded the war we have now to narrate. The Spanish Royal family was at this period divided and distracted to a degree unprecedented, even in that most fertile soil of intrigue and crime. The King, not destitute of good qualities, was indolent, and, like many who sit upon an autocratic throne, ready to surrender himself, without scruple, to the direction of men who, taking all trouble off his hands, would leave him to his pursuits and pleasures. Charles IV. had a favourite minister, Emanuel Godoy, Prince of the Peace, who was, at the same time, the minion of his Queen, a woman of spirit and capacity, but sensual and corrupt. A blue-blooded nobility regarded this influential upstart with undisguised aversion; but the Spanish Court, and, indeed, it is to be feared, the whole Spanish nation, with the exception of the peasantry, was at this period so sunk in the very lowest depths of dissoluteness and corruption that the tie between the Queen and Minister was not an object of public reprehension; for the King himself lived openly with a mistress who had brought him several children, and the royal blood of Spain was a heterogeneous mixture, the result of every species of adulterous and even incestuous intercourse. The high nobility, indeed, were a degenerate race, but the "bold peasantry, a country's pride," with a somewhat purer morality, was as fine a race as any in Europe, and quite equal, as was afterwards proved, to maintain the independence of their country. Don Manuel Godoy, though of a family of noble origin, was of such low parentage as to have been a private in the King's Body Guard, where her Majesty "blest the promise that his form portrayed," and in five years exalted him to great power, had him created Prince of the Peace for negotiating the treaty of Bâle in 1795, and married him to a niece of the King. Godoy was at this time still further advancing his ambition by the union of a daughter of this marriage to the King of Etruria. But, if the nobility looked askance at such an intruder, the son of the King, the heir-apparent of the Monarchy, was less likely to tolerate the presumption of an adventurer 1808.] WRETCHED INTRIGUES IN THE SPANISH COURT. 73 who disgraced the character of his mother, assumed an equality with himself, and supplied the prodigality in which he indulged by the open sale of public offices, and by the receipt of bribes of every description. Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias, who had recently lost his wife, a princess of the Neapolitan house of Bourbon, was at this time four-and-twenty years of age. Brought up in the strictest principles of the Roman Catholic Church, he was entirely under the influence of his confessor, the Canon Escoiquiz, but the Duke del Infantado, the Duke de San Carlos, and other influential nobles, espoused his party. To avail himself of a condition of things so well suited to his purposes, Napoleon sent Eugène Beauharnais to Madrid, as his ambassador. By his suggestion, Ferdinand was induced to aspire to a matrimonial alliance with the Imperial family, and, with that object, was induced to solicit it in an autograph letter to the French ruler, couched in very humble terms. While Escoiquiz held this thread of intrigue in his hand, without the knowledge of king or favourite, Godoy had sent a creature of his own, one Izquierdo, to France, to negotiate the famous treaty of Fontainebleau, which was to secure for the favourite a portion of the spoils of the partition of Portugal for an independent sovereignty a scheme which was likewise carried on in secret at the same moment, without the knowledge of the Spanish Ambassador at Paris. By the terms of this convention, a French army was to be permitted to traverse the Peninsula to Lisbon, at the cost of the Spanish Government, while two Spanish corps were to take possession of those portions of the annihilated kingdom which were to fall to the lot of Godoy and the King of Etruria. So many intrigues could scarcely remain long concealed, and Isquierdo, getting scent at Fontainebleau of the matrimonial letter addressed by the Prince of Asturias to Napoleon, denounced it to Godoy. The favourite saw at once the danger to himself of this admission of the Heir-Apparent to an alliance with the family of the great disposer of honour, since he knew how large a score of grievances remained to be settled with that Prince, all which might be brought by this new influence to mar his own ambition. He, therefore, advised the King to take the bold step of arresting his son. His Majesty, accordingly, on the 29th of October, committed Ferdinand a close prisoner to the Escurial, on a charge of high treason, for presuming to contract a family alliance without the consent of the Crown. The royal prisoner was actually deprived of all his attendants, and surrounded by sentries; and, at the same time, a seizure was made of all his correspondence. In the mass taken possession of there was, of course, found information relative to all the intrigues in progress, which afforded Godoy the golden opportunity of utterly ruining him in public opinion; and the Queen, hating him with all the rancour of an adulterous mother, would not The Prince have been sorry had his unpopularity led to his death. of Asturias was conscious of this, and, justly alarmed for his life, he hastened to reveal, in a private interview, the names of all the 74 SEIZURE OF THE SPANISH FRONTIER FORTRESSES. [A.D. parties, not excluding even the French Ambassador, who had been privy to the various proceedings. These revelations, however, were so extensive that they embarrassed the favourite, for he was not certain how far the French Emperor had himself entered into these projects, and all his own hopes were centred on the consummation of his advancement to a throne, by carrying out the treaty of Fontainebleau. Napoleon, on the other hand, was secretly rejoiced to learn that father, son, and favourite were all embroiled together, and, while he professed to have nothing to do with the domestic concerns of the King of Spain, he secretly aided the cause of the Prince, who was accordingly pardoned and released. 2. THE FRENCH SEIZE THE SPANISH FRONTIER FORTRESSES. During the progress of these events, Napoleon prepared and organized very considerable armies for the subjugation of the very State with which he was then negotiating as a friend and protector. The two corps-d'armée of Junot and Dupont, had been marched across the Pyrenees, and the former had already reached Lisbon. Dupont had crossed the frontier as the reserve of Junot, and, by the first days of January, had attained Valladolid, where he established his head-quarters, pushing forward an advance to Salamanca. A third army had now been formed to follow the first two, which was called corps d'observation des côtes de l'océan; this was placed under the command of Marshal Moncey. The head of this column crossed the Bidassoa on the 9th, and was directed to move by the coast and spread itself over the province of Biscay, in order to be ready to advance, when required, upon Castile. At the other extremity of the Pyrenean chain, the troops which had been sent out of Italy by direction of the Emperor now began to arrive, and composed, under General Duhesme, the army of observation of the Eastern Pyrenees. These troops were now moved forward. Early in February they were headed by two regiments of infantry forming the brigade of General Nicholas, who, under a false pretext, halted at Figueras, while the rest of the column pressed on towards Barcelona. The French General asked permission to quarter his troops in the citadel of San Fernando, which from weakness or treachery was granted, and next morning pursued his march with one regiment, while the other remained behind in assured possession of one of the most modern and best fortified frontier fortresses, which had been only garrisoned by some 300 men. On the arrival of Duhesme's division at Barcelona, it was given out that it was to proceed to Valencia, and, on the 15th, the troops were under marching orders, and were formed up for inspection upon the glacis of the citadel. All the idlers of the city were present to witness this review and hear the music, when, suddenly, two companies, on the right, divested themselves of their packs and haversacks, and, covertly marching to the rear of the line, suddenly turned in at the gate of the citadel, and seized the drawbridge before it could be raised. General Lechi, commanding the Italian 75 1808.] THEY OCCUPY CATALONIA WITHOUT A BLOW. division, arrived at the same moment, at a gallop, with his staff, announcing a visit to the Commandant. In a short time the French were masters of the fort. This is a regular pentagon, of no great antiquity, at the north-east of the town, having on the south an inaccessible tower, on a rock, called Mont-Jouic. General Duhesme, without a moment's delay, repaired thither, and, descending at the quarters of the Count d'Ezpeleta, the Captain-General of the Province, astounded His Excellency by saying: "Mes soldats occupent votre citadelle; ouvrez moi à l'instant les portes de Mont-Jouic: car l'Empereur Napoléon m'a ordonné de mettre garnison dans vos forteresses. Si vous hésitez je déclare la guerre à l'Espagne, et vous serez responsable, envers votre Prince et votre nation, des torrens de sang que votre résistance aura fait couler." The old General, who had received express directions on no account to compromise his nation with the French allies, alarmed at the use of Napoleon's name, timidly or corruptly yielded, and the capital of Catalonia was occupied without a blow. It was on the very same night that the same game was played out at the Spanish fortresses on the western frontier. Three battalions under Brigadier Darmagnac entered Spain by the pass of Roncevalles, and were received at the gates, and duly billeted in the town of Pampeluna as friends. The important citadel of this place was garrisoned by 700 men, under the Marquis de Valle Santoro. It was full of every kind of requisite of war, and, accordingly, the French soldiers were admitted, but only in fatigue dress, to obtain their rations within the citadel, together with the rest of the garrison, but the Spanish Commandant always took the precaution of raising the drawbridge when the foreign soldiers were inside. It was necessary, therefore, for the French Commander to have recourse to a trick to obtain possession. Darmagnac took a lodging designedly upon the open space which separates the town from the fort, and, on the night of the 15-16th, he introduced 100 grenadiers into his house, who entered it, after nightfall, one by one, with only their muskets and sidearms. At 7 in the morning, the soldiers were sent, as usual, to receive their rations in the citadel, accompanied by their Colonel, Robert, a man of intelligence and energy. It happened to be a very wet morning, and, under the pretence of awaiting the arrival of their Quartermaster, these soldiers lolled about the approaches, some on the drawbridge, some with the guard in the guard-room. Upon a given signal, they rushed to the arms-rack, seized the Spanish soldiers' muskets, and knocked down the sentries with the butt-ends; they then lowered the drawbridge, so as to admit, at the same moment, the grenadiers from Darmagnac's house, who assailed the interior of the citadel. The united force had little difficulty in securing a bastion, armed with 15 guns, which commanded the entrance and the ditch, so that the French General was in possession of the ramparts before the Spaniards could, individually, shake off the French soldiers, who held them fast. Darmagnac then proceeded to announce to the Viceroy, that, as his division would be obliged to |