An impartial history of the naval, military and political events in Europe from the commencement of the French revolution to the ... conclusion of a general peace

vow to dedicate his victory to king St. Fernando, who, having won the city of Seville from the Moors, was worshipped there with enthusiastic veneration. The ceremony was performed on the 4th of August, with great pomp, and the French eagles were offered at the shrine of the canonized conqueror as trophies of the most signal victory that had been achieved in Andalusia, since his time. But in the language and proceedings of Castanos, there were marks of boasting and vanity which detracted from the estimation in which he had previously been held, and arrogated to himself as much merit from the victory as if he, and not Reding, had commanded in the field.

While the patriots were thus triumphant in Andalusia, their brethren in other parts of the peninsula were encountering greater danger with the saine spirit and resolution. Early in June, before it was possible that any plan could be executed for defending the province, the French despatched general Le Febvre, with 8000 infantry and 900 horse, from Pamplona against Saragossa. The marquis de Lazan, Palafox's elder brother, collected some armed peasantry, and attempted to oppose this army in the neighbourhood of Tudela. Such a force was unable to cope with regular troops in the open field; they were compelled to retreat to the village of Mallen, and there (June 13th,) suffered a second defeat, with considerable loss, though their position was supported by an olive grove, between the canal of Arragon on their right and the village on their left. The chief prisoners were put to death; the French generals, from the beginning of this war, acting upon the same principle with their master, that all who opposed him were rebels. On the following day, (June 14th,) the French advanced to Alagon, about sixteen miles from Saragossa. The citizens, half-armed and undisciplined as they were, compelled Palafox to lead them out; they soon found the enemy in order of battle upon a plain, where his cavalry and flying artillery gave him a decided superiority. The patriots were again defeated; but their handful VOL. II.

of regulars, who had now been joined by a few fusileers, protected their retreat with great steadiness. The victorious army advanced, and took up a position very near the city, covered by a rising ground planted with olive-trees.

Saragossa is not a fortified town; it has no advantages of situation for its defence, and would not have been considered as capable of resistance by any men but those whose courage proceeded from a virtuous and holy principle of duty. It stands in an open plain, covered with olive grounds, and bounded on either hand by high and distant mountains; but it is commanded by some high ground called the Torrero, about a mile to the southwest, upon which there is a convent with some smaller buildings. The canal of Arragon divides this elevation from another rising ground, where the patriots had erected a battery. The Ebro bathes the walls of the city, and separates it from the suburbs. It has two bridges within. musket-shot of each other, one of wood, said to be more beautiful than any other of the same materials in Europe; the other of freestone, consisting of seven arches, of which the principal is 122 feet in diameter. The river is fordable above the city. Two smaller rivers, the Galego and the Guerva, flow at a little distance from the city, the one on the east, the other on the west, the latter being separated from the walls only by the breadth of the common road; both are received by the. Ebro. Unlike most other places of the peninsula, Saragossa has neither aqueducts nor fountains, but derives its water wholly from the river. The people of Tortosa: drink also of the Ebro, preferring it to the finest spring. The inhabitants of Saragossa amount to 60,000, and it is one of the largest cities in the peninsula. It has twelve gates, four of them in the antient wall of Augustus, by whom the older town of Salduba on the same site, was enlarged, beautified, and called Cæsarea Augusta, or Cæsar Augusta, a word easily corrupted into its present name.

Many mournful scenes of bigotry and superstition have been exhibited in Sara

gossa; but in those fiery trials which the plans of Buonaparte were preparing for the inhabitants, the dross and tinsel of their faith disappeared, and its pure gold remained. Mistaking their constitutional tranquillity for insensibility, equally despising the strength of the place and the character of the people, the French the French proceeded to besiege Saragossa. A party of their cavalry entered the town on the 14th of June, and began to scour the streets, but were soon made to feel that the superiority of disciplined soldiers exists only in the field. On the following morning, the French, with part of their force, attacked the outposts upon the canal, and, with their main body, attempted to storm the city by the gate of Portillo. A desperate conflict ensued. The Arragonese fought with a spirit worthy of their cause. They had neither time nor room, nor necessity for order. Their cannon, which they had hastily planted before the gates, and in the best situations without the town, were served by any persons who happened to be near them, and any one gave orders who felt himself competent to take the command. A party of the enemy entered the town, and were all put to death. Le Febvre perceived that it was hopeless to persist in the attack with his present force, and drew off his troops having suffered great loss. The patriots lost 2000 men killed, and as many wounded. In such a conflict, the circumstances are so materially in favor of the defendants, that the carnage made amongst the French must have been much greater. Their baggage and plunder were left behind them in their retreat. The Saragossans, however, had only obtained a respite. A regular siege was to be expected, and how were the citizens to sustain it with their mud walls, without heavy artillery, and without troops who might sally, to interrupt the besiegers in their works. In defiance of these unpropitious circumstances, the people confiding in God, in their own courage, and in the justice of their cause, determined to defend the streets of their city to the last extremity. Palafox, immediately after the repulse

of the enemy, set out to collect reinforcements, to provide such resources for the siege as he could, and to place the rest of Arragon in a state of defence, if the capital should fall. He found about 1400 soldiers who had escaped from Madrid, and he united with them a small division of militia, who had been stationed in the city of Calatayud. Small as this force was, such was the ardor of the men, that he resolved, in compliance with their ardent desire, to attack the French, and marched to Epila, designing to advance to the village of La Muela, and thus place the invaders between his little army and the city, in the hope of cutting them off from their reinforcements. Le Febvre prevented this by suddenly attacking him at Epila, on the night of the 23rd; after a most obstinate resistance, the superior numbers, arms, and discipline of the French, were successful. The wreck of this gallant band retreated to Calatayud, and afterwards, with great difficulty, to Saragossa.

The besieger's army was soon reinforced by general Verdier, with 2500 men, besides some battalions of Portuguese, who, according to Buonaparte's system, had been forced out of their own country to be pushed on be pushed on in the foremost ranks, wherever the first fire of a battery was to be received, a line of bayonets clogged, or a ditch filled with bodies. They occupied the best positions in the surrounding plain, and, on the 27th, attacked the city, and the Torrero, but they were repulsed with the loss of 800 men, six pieces of artillery, and five carts of ammunitiou. By this time they had invested nearly half the town. The next morning they renewed the attack at both places; from the city they were again repulsed, losing almost all the cavalry who were engaged. The Torrero was lost by the misconduct of an artillery-officer, who made his men abandon the batteries at the most critical moment. For this treachery, he was condemned to run the gauntlet six times, the soldiers beating him with their ramrods, and then he was shot.

The French having now received a train

of mortars, howitzers, and 12-pounders, which were of sufficient calibre against mud walls, kept up a constant fire, and showered down shells and grenades from the Torrero. About 1200 were thrown into the town, and there was not one building that was bomb-proof within the walls. After a time, the inhabitants placed beams of timber together, end-ways against the houses, and in a sloping direction, behind which those who were near when a shell descended, might shelter themselves. The enemy continued also to invest the city more closely, while the Arragonese made every effort to strengthen their means of defence. They tore down the awnings from their windows and formed them into sacks, which they filled with sand, and piled up before the gates in the form of a battery, digging round it a deep trench. They broke holes for musketry in the mud walls and intermediate buildings, and stationed cannon where the position was favorable for it. The houses in the environs were destroyed. "Gardens and olivegrounds," says Mr. Vaughan, "that in better times had been the recreation and support of their owners, were cheerfully rooted up by the proprietors themselves, wherever they impeded the defence of the city or covered the approach of the enemy." Women of all ranks assisted; they formed themselves into companies, some to relieve the wounded, some to carry water, wine, and provisions, to those who defended the gates. A corps for this service was instituted by the countess Burita, a lady of high rank, young, delicate, and beautiful. In the midst of the most tremendous fire of shot and shells, she was seen coolly attending to those occupations which were now become her duty; nor throughout the whole of a two months' siege did the imminent danger to which she incessantly exposed herself, produce the slightest apparent effect upon her, or in the most trifling instance bend her from her heroic purpose. Some of the monks bore arms; others exercised their spiritual offices to the dying; others, with the nuns, were busied in making cartridges, which the children distributed. Among three score thousand persons there

will always be found some wretches wicked enough for any employment, and the art of corrupting has constituted a great part of the French system of war. During the night of the 28th, the powder-magazine in the area where the bull-fights were performed, which was in the very heart of the city, was blown up, by which explosion, fourteen houses were destroyed, and about 200 persons killed. This was the signal for the enemy to appear before three gates which had been sold to them. And while the inhabitants were digging out their fellowcitizens from the ruins, they opened upon them a fire with mortars, howitzers, and cannon, which had now been received for battering the town. Their attack seemed chiefly to be directed against the gate called Portillo, and a large square building near it, without the walls, and surrounded by a deep ditch; though called a castle, it serves only for a prison. The sand-bag battery before this gate was frequently destroyed, and as often reconstructed under the fire of the enemy. The carnage here throughout the day was dreadful. Augustina Saragossa, a handsome woman of the lower class, about 22 years of age, arrived at this battery with refreshments, at the moment when not a man who had defended it was left alive, so tremendous was the fire which the French maintained upon it. For a moment the citizens hesitated to re-man, the guns. Augustina sprung forward over the dead and dying, snatched a match from the hand of a dead artilleryman, fired off; a 26-pounder, and, jumping on the gun, made a solemn vow never to quit it alive during the siege. Such a sight could not but animate with fresh courage all who beheld it. The Saragossans rushed into the battery, and renewed their fire with redoubled vigor. The French were repulsed at all points with great slaughter.

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Le Febvre, supposing that his destructive bombardment must have dismayed the ple, ordered a column of his army to advance towards the Portillo with fixed bayonets, and without firing a shot. But when they reached the castle, such a charge of grape and musketry was opened upon their flank, that, notwithstanding the most

gossa; but in those fiery trials which the plans of Buonaparte were preparing for the inhabitants, the dross and tinsel of their faith disappeared, and its pure gold remained. Mistaking their constitutional tranquillity for insensibility, equally despising the strength of the place and the character of the people, the French proceeded to besiege Saragossa. A party of their cavalry entered the town on the 14th of June, and began to scour the streets, but were soon made to feel that the superiority of disciplined soldiers exists only in the field. On the following morning, the French, with part of their force, attacked the outposts upon the canal, and, with their main body, attempted to storm the city by the gate of Portillo. A desperate conflict ensued. The Arragonese fought with a spirit worthy of their cause. They had neither time nor room, nor necessity for order. Their cannon, which they had hastily planted before the gates, and in the best situations without the town, were served by any persons who happened to be near them, and any one gave orders who felt himself competent to take the command. A party of the enemy entered the town, and were all put to death. Le Febvre perceived that it was hopeless to persist in the attack with his present force, and drew off his troops having suffered great loss. The patriots lost 2000 men killed, and as many wounded. In such a conflict, the circumstances are so materially in favor of the defendants, that the carnage made amongst the French must have been much greater. Their baggage and plunder were left behind them in their retreat. The Saragossans, however, had only obtained a respite. A regular siege was to be expected, and how were the citizens to sustain it with their mud walls, without heavy artillery, and without troops who might sally, to interrupt the besiegers in their works. In defiance of these unpropitious circumstances, the people confiding in God, in their own courage, and in the justice of their cause, determined to defend the streets of their city to the last extremity. Palafox, immediately after the repulse

of the enemy, set out to collect reiuforcements, to provide such resources for the siege as he could, and to place the rest of Arragon in a state of defence, if the capital should fall. He found about 1400 soldiers who had escaped from Madrid, and he united with them a small division of militia, who had been stationed in the city of Calatayud. Small as this force was, such was the ardor of the men, that he resolved, in compliance with their ardent desire, to attack the French, and marched to Epila, designing to advance to the village of La Muela, and thus place the invaders between his little army and the city, in the hope of cutting them off from their reinforcements. Le Febvre prevented this by suddenly attacking him at Epila, on the night of the 23rd; after a most obstinate resistance, the superior numbers, arms, and discipline of the French, were successful. The wreck of this gallant band retreated to Calatayud, and afterwards, with great difficulty, to Saragossa.

The besieger's army was soon reinforced by general Verdier, with 2500 men, besides some battalions of Portuguese, who, according to Buonaparte's system, had been forced out of their own country to be pushed on in the foremost ranks, wherever the first fire of a battery was to be received, a line of bayonets clogged, or a ditch filled with bodies. They occupied the best positions in the surrounding plain, and, on the 27th, attacked the city, and the Torrero, but they were repulsed with the loss of 800 men, six pieces of artillery, and five carts of ammunition. By this time they had invested nearly half the town. The next morning they renewed the attack at both places; from the city they were again repulsed, losing almost all the cavalry who were engaged. The Torrero was lost by the misconduct of an artillery-officer, who made his men abandon the batteries at the most critical moment. For this treachery, he was condemned to run the gauntlet six times, the soldiers beating him with their ramrod: and then he was shot.

The French having now received a tr