86

race,

FEARFUL MASSACRE BY ORDER OF MURAT.

FA.D.

Hotel of the Post, before whom every inhabitant seized with arms in his hands was tried, and at once taken to the Prado and shot without mercy. This severity was long afterwards remembered, with the circumstance, not readily forgiven by so superstitious a that they were massacred without even the consolations of a priest.* The people were, however, thoroughly cast down and terrified by this vigorous retaliation, and the Grand-Duke, without further delay, sent off all the Royal family, who were now eager to get away, including the tearful Infant Don Francisco de Paolo. The Junta was by this act deprived of its president, Don Antonio, and Murat demanded the post for himself, which the Supreme Junta unwillingly yielded; but their authority was soon afterwards superseded by a decree of Charles IV. appointing the Grand-Duke of Berg Lieutenant-General of the kingdom.

The indignation which the massacre of the 2nd of May excited throughout Spain was indescribable. The intelligence passed from house to house, from village to village, from town to town, from province to province, and awakened a unanimous resentment, of a fervour almost unknown to history. Without chiefs, without any central authority, without the leadership of an individual or of a party, and without the aid of a free press, the flame spread as rapidly through the lonely mountains as in the crowded cities. Far from being intimidated at the hostile occupation of their capital and principal fortresses by a treacherous enemy, they were simultaneously, and altogether without premeditation, roused to the most vigorous and energetic exertions, that they might drive these usurpers out of their much-loved country.

8. ABDICATION OF THE BOURBONS JOSEPH BONAPARTE KING OF SPAIN.

Matters, in the meantime, proceeded to their consummation at Bayonne. Charles IV. having revoked his resignation of the crown of Spain, Ferdinand was again reduced to the condition of Prince of Asturias, and, in the unseemly disputes which took place between him and his parents, before the Emperor, his mother shamelessly announced to him, that, although he was her son, he was not the son of the King. A very few days brought all these things to their inevitable conclusion; both father and son were deprived of the crown, and the conqueror announced that he had selected one of his own family to be their successor upon the throne of Spain. As early as the 3rd of May, this intention was transmitted to the Council of Castile and the Indies, that they might make the formal

* Did no evil genius whisper in the ears of Murat, as the volleys resounded to the palace in which he sat,

"Nec lex æquior ulla

Quam necis artifices arte perire suâ "?

Surely these gory Spaniards rose upon his sight when, ten years later, he saw the muskets of the Neapolitan grenadiers levelled at his heart, in the castle-yard of Pizzo, in Calabria.

1808.]

NAPOLEON'S DESIGNS UPON SPAIN.

87

demand of a Bonaparte for their sovereign, in the vacancy of the throne by the resignation of the Bourbons. The Marquis de Caballero became, in consequence, the mouthpiece of that body, who declared that, in the event of the actual renunciation of Charles and Ferdinand, they did not see a better hope for Spain than for a Prince of Napoleon's family. Still the Emperor was in doubt which one of his brothers to name, for Louis, unhesitatingly, declined his offer, and Lucien, in the recent interview he had had with Napoleon in Italy, had even refused the offer of the hand of Ferdinand for his daughter; Joseph was appealed to, and the throne of Spain offered instead of that of Naples, but the whole month of May wore away before the elder brother either replied or appeared to the summons. At length, his approach was announced, and Napoleon, who was still at Bayonne, at once issued a decree, on the 7th of May, proclaiming Joseph King of Spain and the Indies, and, on the same day, went out to meet him on the road with all his state. With the accustomed energy and activity of the Imperial mind, he had employed these three weeks of suspense in preparing to give due éclat to the succession, by summoning out of Spain all the grandees, who would come on his invitation, to form a Junta, which should resemble the Council of the Indies, and confer a sort of legality on this delegation of the sovereign power. The Dukes of San Carlos, de l'Infantado del Parque, de Frias, de Hijar, and de Castel-Franco, the Counts of Fernando-Nunez, d'Orgaz, and Cevalloz, the Ministers of War and Finance, O'Farrell and d'Azarza, all attended the summons, and assembled to pay homage to King Joseph, on the 15th of May, when they were convoked in a solemn assembly, of which d'Urquijo was Secretary, to determine the new constitution on which Spain was to be henceforth governed. This was afterwards promulgated on the 7th of July, in a solemn assembly, presided over by Joseph on his throne. On the 9th, escorted by the Emperor as far as the frontier, the new King entered Spain, and repaired to the capital; and, on the 20th, the arduous task of kingcashiering and king-making having been now accomplished, Napoleon returned to Paris.

The conqueror saw very clearly that his acts had been throughout too unjustifiable to meet with the approbation of the world, however much he might esteem himself its master; but he was scarcely prepared for the outburst of resistance which followed, nor did he deem that the cry of the lowest classes of the people, in the most passive and backward nation of Europe, would form the thin end of the wedge that should overturn his omnipotence. Far, however, from dreading injury to his power from this source, he set his mind, with all its wonted energy, to work to clear the way for the military occupation of Spain. His first thoughts were directed to rendering impotent the poor remains of the Spanish army, and he, accordingly, wrote to Murat, that General Solano should be ordered to march away the troops which were in Madrid to the camp of San Roch, before Gibraltar, and the remaining divisions to the Portuguese frontier. He directed him to take all the Swiss Guards

888

NAPOLEON'S SCHEME OF BRITISH ANNIHILATION. [A.D.

of the late monarchy into French pay; but, doubting whether these mercenaries might be d'un courant d'opinion française, or d'un courant d'opinion espagnole, he ordered the regiments to be separated, and one to be attached to Dupont's army, and sent to Talavera, and the others to Cartagena and Malaga; he, at the same time, expressed his will that Dupont should be sent to Cadiz to protect the fleet of Admiral Rosily in that port, and that Junot should be ordered to displace the Spanish divisions, by sending French troops to garrison Almeida and Elvas, in order to be prepared for whatever might happen in North Castile or Andalusia. He desired that the Spanish garrisons in the Balearic Islands might be left there, and even strengthened, in order to lessen the amount of national troops on the mainland, and all, that could not be otherwise better disposed of, were to be sent along the high roads to France, with the expressed object of joining the Marquis de la Romana, in the north, in an expedition against the British. He also bethought himself of the wretched remains of the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, Ferrol, and Cartagena, and directed that such ships of war as might be seaworthy should repair to the Spanish colonies, in order to save them from seizure by the English, and to form part of the grand scheme he meditated, of employing all the fleets of Europe to annihilate the "ships, colonies, and commerce of his yet formidable rival.

9. THE SPANISH NATION RISE AGAINST THE FRENCH.

The Spanish nation, however, was not reduced to subjection by the base conduct of its pusillanimous Royal family and abject nobility. The public mind of Spain had continued in a ferment ever since the horrid massacre of the 2nd of May, and commotions and tumults had arisen in various places; but when it transpired, on the 20th, that the ancient crown of Spain had been abdicated in favour of the Bonaparte family, there was a great and general explosion among all classes of the kingdom. It happened that just about the time this became known (the 27th of May) fell St. Ferdinand's Day; and the idea that Ferdinand VII. was their last king, awakened all the sensibility of a nation so ardent, so heroic, and so enthusiastic as that of Spain. It may be said that the unfurling of the flag of Spanish independence dates from that anniversary.

The first effect of the general defection was the desertions from the army. Every night 300 or 400 men deserted from the barracks of Madrid. The Gardes de Corps, who were still on duty at the Escurial, melted away in driblets, three or four at a time, so that, in a very few days, there was not one left. The same occurred at Barcelona, Burgos, Corunna, &c. The troops in Andalusia remained, however, compact, and the army, commanded by General Castaños, amounting to 25,000 men, became a rallying point for many of those who got safely across the Sierra Morena. This

E

1808.7

SPAIN IN A STATE OF REBELLION.

89

dereliction of military discipline might possibly have been stayed by the firm hand of Murat, but the Lieutenant-General of the kingdom was, at this moment, on the bed of sickness, and so strongly persuaded that he was dying, that he neglected all public affairs.

The

It was in the Asturias, at the extreme north of the Peninsula, that the first overt acts of rebellion took place. The Governor, General Florez-Estrada, had escaped from Bayonne, and returned to Oviedo, where he arrived on the 9th, and related to his Junta all that had happened there. He brought with him a proclamation (said to be an invention of the enemy), in which Ferdinand, their Prince, appealed to his countrymen for assistance. As soon as this was noised abroad, the arsenal was pillaged, and the people armed themselves, but no blood, as yet, flowed. At Santarem, 20 leagues distant, the Bishop put himself at the head of the movement, and, on the 27th, made a call on the mountaineers of his diocese to rise to arms. The next excitement occurred at Corunna, where the feast of San Fernando was usually kept in especial state. Captain-General, Filangieri, a Neapolitan, but greatly respected among the Spanish population, was called upon by them to head the movement, and he forthwith boldly ordered back the soldiers, who were on the Portuguese frontier, under General Taranco, while he embodied the peasants with the regular troops, in order to organise an efficient military body for the defence of the province. In the adjoining province of Leon, Marshal Bessières had his headquarters and was in force with the French Imperial Guard; nevertheless, the people could not be restrained, but called upon the Captain-General, Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, to put himself at their head. This veteran soldier was not rash enough to brave the French, who were so near him, and was, indeed, by disposition, averse from bending to the influence of a mob, so that he first endeavoured to temporise; but the people raised a gibbet in the very front of his palace at Valladolid, and the hint was too significant to be despised. Don Gregorio de la Cuesta would, however, by swinging upon it, have done more good to the cause, than by assuming a command for which he was unfit. The universal rising caused a mutiny amidst the garrison of Badajoz, on the 30th, when the insurgents seized the Governor, dragged him to the gate, and destroyed him. LieutenantGeneral Solano, Marquis del Sorocco, was Captain-General of Andalusia, and Governor of the city of Cadiz. He had been summoned to Madrid to cover the flight of Charles IV. when he meditated the transfer of the Court to Seville. When at Madrid, he had been afterwards won over, to the side of Napoleon, and was sent back post haste to Cadiz, when a suspicious correspondence had been discovered between the disaffected there and the British

authorities, naval and military, at Gibraltar. On the 29th, an immense multitude assembled around the palace of the Governor, who appeared on the balcony, and tried to convince the people of their folly in attempting to resist the power of Napoleon.

90

SPAIN DECLARES WAR AGAINST FRANCE.

[A.D.

They answered him by a demand for arms and ammunition, which he was, in the end, obliged to give them. They then forced the guard, seized Solano himself, and dragged him into the street, where he injudiciously declared aloud, "that he was ready to die in the cause of the great Napoleon." On hearing this, the people rushed upon him, and dashed out his brains with clubs.

But they had not waited for the fête of San Fernando to rise in the rich and populous city of Seville. A conspiracy, headed by the Count de Tilly and Tap-y-Nunez, organised a rising for the 26th, and, seizing the Hôtel de Ville, installed a Junta, which, with something of Castilian arrogance, they styled "Supreme Junta of Spain and the Indies." The municipality, who had, on the outbreak of the tumult, abandoned their town-hall to the insurgents, endeavoured the next day to open negotiations with them, and intrusted their chief, the Conde del Aquila, with the mission. This noble emissary was immediately seized, tied to the balustrades of the staircase, and shot. In the midst of the terror and general enthusiasm of their assumed authority, the "Supreme Junta" decreed, on the 6th of June, a declaration of war against France, and a general levy of all men between the ages of 16 and 40; also that commissioners should immediately proceed, on their authority, to invite the Juntas of Badajoz, Cordova, Jaen, Grenada, and Cadiz, to concur with them in their proceedings, in proclaiming Ferdinand VII. They also boldly called on General Castaños, and the army in the camp of San Roque, to come to their aid, and conferred on him the command of their armies, while, at the same time, they nominated Thomas de Morla, a popular demagogue, and influential with the multitude, to be the Captain-General of Andalusia, in the place of Solano. The principal towns and provinces sent in their adhesion to the "Supreme Junta," but Cordova nominated to the command of their own mountaineers Augustin de Echavarri, an officer who had been employed by the old Government to look after smugglers in the valleys of the Sierra Morena, and who may be regarded as the first of the independent warriors who afterwards became so celebrated in partizan enterprises, the Guerillas of the Peninsula.

Similar scenes were exhibited in every part of the kingdom. Cartagena was early alert, and despatched Admiral Salcedo to endeavour to recover the fleet which had been so deceitfully sent away to Toulon. Valencia, Castillon de la Plana, Tortosa, Tarragona, and all the towns on the Mediterranean seaboard, declared for Ferdinand VII.; and last, not least, must be named the city of Zaragoza. Here the Captain-General, Don Juan de Guillermi, who was too timid to take a lead, was at once deposed, and in his office was installed the celebrated Joseph Palafox de Melzi, nephew of the Duke of that name, a handsome young man of 28 years of age, who had the reputation of having resisted the adulterous advances of the shameless Queen, and to have personally attached himself to Ferdinand, in whose suite he had even followed him to Bayonne, where he witnessed, with indignation, the treatment of his