The leader in the insurrection, Thomas de Morla, at first seemed faithful to the alliance of the Spanish and French navy, recalling the memories of the battle of Trafalgar, the glorious ruins of which composed the French squadron in the Cadiz roads. Gradually, however, he took care to separate the two fleets, persuading Admiral Rosily to take his position within the roads, and placing the Spanish vessels at the entrance, in order, he said, to defend Cadiz against the English, who had been trying in vain to land 5,000 men. The admiral soon found himself cantoned in the midst of the lagoons which form and protect the Cadiz roads; while a contrary wind prevented the attack which, from desperation, he wished to make upon the Spanish, their gun-boats and sloops were already gathering round him, and on the 9th June the firing began, but it was weak and unavailing on the part of our ships, in spite of the heroic resolution of the crews. The fighting lasted two days, and on the Junta of Seville demanding a surrender pure and simple, Admiral Rosily, who knew that General Dupont had entered Cordova, asked for a delay, hoping to receive help. On the 14th June, after four days had elapsed, the French fleet, being deprived of every resource, and with certain ruin before them, surrendered at discretion. The officers were distributed in the fortresses, and the vessels disarmed. The mob, crowding round the harbor, shouted fiercely and cheered as the French prisoners passed before them and the English, who had just succeeded in effecting their landing.

General Dupont had not been reinforced. He did not know whether his couriers had arrived, many having been already intercepted by the robbers of the Sierra Morena; he knew of the rising of the St. Roque troops, and of the treachery of the Swiss regiments recently engaged in the insurrection; and finding himself threatened on the right by the insurgent army of Andalusia, and on the left by the army of Granada, he resolved to fall back upon the Guadalquivir, and on the 18th June took up his position in the small town of Andujar, to wait for the divisions which he had sent for. That of Vedel was already on its march.

Marshal Moncey had failed before Valencia, and could not commence the investment for want of siege guns; he had brought back his division in good condition, and effected his junction with General Frere at San Clemente. Marshal Bessieres advanced at the same time against Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, and against General Blake, a descendant of English Catholic refugees. Their forces were considerable, and composed of old soldiers; they had, however, asked for time to prepare their troops and had been forced by the Junta of the Corogne to march to battle. On the evening of the 13th July, the Spaniards, badly informed as to the march of the French, were formed in two lines on the plateau of Medino de Rio-Seco, not far from Valladolid. Attacked one after the other by Marshal Bessieres, the two lines were completely beaten and put to flight, not without some resistance at certain points. The slaughter was terrible. General Mouton, at the head of two regiments with fixed bayonets, entered the town of Medina, which was sacked. Marshal Bessieres again took the road towards Leon, sweeping before him the disbanded remains of the Spanish army. King Joseph had just entered Madrid.

He took possession of his capital in the midst of the melancholy silence of the inhabitants, more irritated than cowed by the news of the victory of Rio-Seco, which reached them a few hours before the entry of their new monarch. Since his entrance into Spain the eyes of Joseph had been opened. "Up to this time no one has told the whole truth," he wrote to the Emperor Napoleon on the 12th July. "The fact is that not a single Spaniard is on my side, except the small number who were present at the Junta, and travel with me. The others, on arriving here, hid themselves, terrified by the unanimous opinion of their countrymen." And some days later: "Fear does not make me see double; since I have been in Spain I say to myself every day that my life is of small account, and that I give it up to you. I am not alarmed at my position, but it is unique in history; I have not a single partisan here." Every day he repeated the same demand; "I still want 50,000 men of old troops, and 50,000,000 of money; in a month I must have a 100,000 men, and a 100,000,000." The French army in Spain numbered already 110,000 men, young, it is true, and for the most part without experience, but Europe almost entirely was occupied by our troops; Napoleon was irritated at the sensible remarks of Savary, still more gloomy than those of King Joseph. "The emperor finds that you are wrong to say that nothing has been done for six weeks," wrote Marshal Berthier. "All sensible men in Spain have changed their opinion, and are very sorry to see the insurrection. Affairs are in the most prosperous position since the battle of Rio-Seco." On the 19th July, when making his preparations to quit Bayonne to visit the towns of the south, Napoleon wrote to King Joseph:

"My brother, I received your letter of the 18th, at three o'clock in the morning. I see, with sorrow, that you trouble yourself. It is the only misfortune I fear. Troops are entering on all sides, and constantly. You have a great many partisans in Spain, but they are intimidated; they are all the respectable people. However, I acknowledge none the less that your task is great and glorious.

"The victory of Marshal Bessieres, who has wholly beaten Cuesta and the army of Galicia, has greatly improved the position of affairs. It is worth more than a reinforcement of 30,000 men. The divisions of Gobert and Vedel having joined General Dupont, offensive measures must be vigorously pushed on that side. It is the only point menaced, and there must soon be a success there; with 25,000 men, comprising infantry, cavalry, and artillery, there are more than necessary to obtain a great result. At the worst, with 21,000 men present on the field of battle, he can boldly take the offensive; he will not be beaten, and will have more than four-and- twenty chances in his favor.

"You ought not to find it so extraordinary to conquer your kingdom. Philip V. and Henry IV. were obliged to conquer theirs. Keep your spirits up, and never doubt for an instant that everything will finish better and more quickly than you now imagine.

"Everything goes on very well at Saragossa."

The attack upon Saragossa, on the 1st July, was unsuccessful. General Verdier, who commanded the siege, had seized the convent of St. Joseph, without being able to penetrate into the town, all the streets being well fortified. He had asked for troops and a train of artillery. General Dupont was threatened, in a badly chosen position, by the insurgents of Grenada, commanded by General Reding, formerly colonel of one of the Swiss regiments; General Castanos brought up the troops of Andalusia. The orders of the emperor were precise; General Dupont was not to repass the Sierra Morena, he was not to retreat on Andalusia.

In the hitherto restricted sphere of his operations, General Dupont had shown himself constantly bold and successful under chiefs more skilful and more experienced than himself; but left to his own resources, he knew not how to profit by his advantages, nor choose his quarters advantageously. The food of the troops was bad and insufficient, and the sick were numerous; isolated in the midst of a country passionately hostile, without means of information as to the enemy's movements, without news of Madrid or the government, the French remained stationary, sad and depressed. General Vedel occupied Baylen, General Gobert La Carolina; thus they commanded the defiles of the mountain.

On the 14th July, General Castanos appeared before Andujar, while the corps of Reding threatened Baylen; the imprudent movement of our troops had uncovered this last position. General Dupont was informed of this.

He resolved to march himself upon Baylen, but he was encumbered with an immense train of baggage, and by numerous sick, whom he would not abandon to the cruelties of the enemy; the movement was deferred till the next day, the 18th July. At the approach of night the army began its march. The heat was still suffocating. A great number of soldiers, suffering from dysentery, had been unable to find a place in the wagons, and dragged themselves behind the train, scarcely able to bear the weight of their arms. The anxiety of General Dupont was entirely for his rearguard; he feared that General Castanos, informed of his movements by the hundreds of voluntary spies who served the Spanish cause, would throw himself on his rear. The vanguard was feeble, composed of young and undisciplined soldiers; when it deployed at three in the morning, on the rocky banks of the Rumblar, the Spanish posts occupied the passage. Before the combat, the soldiers rushed towards the bed of the torrent. It was dried up. "The Spaniards have taken away the river!" cried the French, even then disposed to treat painful thoughts with gayety. The Spanish battalions barred the route of Baylen, which General Reding had occupied the previous day.

Worn out by the heat, by thirst, by the march, our soldiers charged the enemy, and drove them back as far as the plain of Baylen. There lay extended before us the Spanish army, in front of the little town, in an amphitheatre of hills, covered with olive-trees. The Spanish artillery was formidable: the field-pieces brought up by the French were soon dismounted. The centre of the Spanish army remained solid, and even the charges of cavalry could not break it. When at last the front ranks opened under the shock of the horses, or the steel of the bayonets, the lines reformed at the end of the plain, always pitilessly barring the road. The cannonade did not slacken for a single instant.

The soldiers began to show signs of discouragement, and the officers proposed to the general to abandon the sick and the baggage, and to form into a compact mass, in order to open a passage by force in the direction of La Carolina, occupied by General Vedel. Dupont expected his lieutenant every moment. He refused to abandon his train, and vainly renewed the attack on all the length of the Spanish lines. Up to this time the Swiss regiments in the service of France, mixed with our soldiers, and marching in our ranks, had remained faithful; the bad fortune of our arms, the view of their comrades fighting among the Spaniards under a chief of their race, triumphed at last over their good resolutions—they deserted in a body. At the same moment the sound of cannon was heard in the distance, but it was not in the direction of La Carolina, it was at the bridge of Rumblar: General Castanos arrived to crush us.

This was too much, and the unfortunate General Dupont was to show on this day that he was not one of those whose courage defies fortune. "Find General Reding," said he to one of his officers, "and ask from him a suspension of arms." The battle was already ceasing of its own accord, on account of the extreme fatigue of the troops. The Spanish general gave the order to cease firing, but said, however, to the officer who had been sent, "The truce must be ratified by General Castanos." General de la Pena, who commanded the vanguard, accepted the same conditions. "The French army must surrender at discretion," he said haughtily, "for the present let us rest ourselves." The aide-de-camp of General Dupont went forward to General Castanos, in order to obtain his assent to the truce. A melancholy sadness weighed upon both officers and men; the general-in- chief, formerly brilliant, bold, even emphatically eloquent, hid his despair inside his tent; scarcely would he listen to the voice of those who surrounded him. Broken down by his misfortune, he had lost all energy and all presence of mind.

The same fault of irresolution and despair seems to have taken hold on General Vedel. He had resolved to return to Baylen, of which he too late understood the importance. But the troops were worn out, he was forced to allow them a day of rest. Since three o'clock in the morning of the 19th, the continual echo of the cannon announced to the least vigilant the coming engagement. The division began its march at five o'clock, at eleven it had only advanced half-way; the men left their ranks at every moment to seek a drop of water in the rocks. The cannon was heard more faintly; at noon it was heard no more. It was five o'clock when, in the midst of silence, the corps which had been so impatiently expected debouched above Baylen. The Spaniards guarded all the passages; an officer appeared announcing the truce. General Vedel refused to believe it. He sent off an aide-de-camp to ascertain the truth from General Reding. "If you do not return in half-an-hour," said he, "I shall commence firing." At the given moment, having no news from their emissary, the French sounded the charge, and already a battalion of Spanish infantry had been surrounded, while the cuirassiers advanced at full gallop; at the same instant the officers of the enemy, accompanied by an aide-de-camp of General Dupont, came up to Vedel. The orders of the general-in-chief were precise, they must cease firing. The negotiations had commenced. General Castanos marched on Baylen.

The enthusiasm and triumph of the Spaniards did not give him time to arrive there. The general of engineers, Marescot, had been charged with the sad duty of treating with the Spaniards. General de la Pena, still posted at the bridge of Rumblar, threatened to crush the unfortunate army caught between his corps and that of General Reding. "I must have an answer in two hours," said he, repeating at the same time his only condition, "the French army must surrender at discretion."

General Dupont appealed to his lieutenants, general officers, and colonels; all declared that the soldiers would not fight. The general-in- chief surveyed the ranks some moments; his courage failed him entirely. "Our honor is saved," repeated the members of the council of war, "we have done yesterday all that men could do." One resource remained to them, to die to the last man in endeavoring to rejoin General Vedel. They had the misfortune not to try this last and glorious chance. The capitulation was resolved on. Don Castanos entertained the French officers while hatred shone in the eyes of all his staff. Polite, and full of attention to the vanquished, the Spanish general remained wholly inflexible. All the divisions of the army of Andalusia, engaged or not in the battle of Baylen, were to be comprised in the capitulation.

The conditions were about to be signed, the French troops were authorized to retreat on Madrid; the Barbou division alone commanded by General Dupont, was to be disarmed. At the same instant a letter from General Savary to General Dupont was brought by the mountaineers, into whose hands it had fallen. The aide-de-camp of the emperor announced a general concentration of the troops of the south at Madrid, and General Dupont was ordered to take the road to La Mancha. The Spaniards could not allow their victory to serve the designs of the emperor. General Castanos immediately declared to the French negotiators that the conditions were changed, and communicated to them the letter of General Savary. Overwhelmed by this new blow, General Marescot and his companions saw themselves forced to give up the Barbou division prisoners of war; the two other corps were to be transported to France under the Spanish flag; the officers retained their baggage, but the knapsacks of the soldiers were to be submitted to examination. "All Spaniards believe the sacred vessels of Cordova are in the bags of your soldiers," said General Castanos.

While the wretched negotiators accepted a capitulation which delivered them to their enemies, Vedel had proposed to General Dupont to attempt a new attack; he sent at the same time one of his aides-de-camp to plead the cause of his division. At one time Dupont authorized Vedel to save, at any price, his troops, and those of General Dufour's, by taking in forced marches the road to Madrid. Already Vedel had obeyed, and hastened across the defiles of the Sierra Morena, but the news of his departure was not long in coming to the camp of the Spaniards. They accused the French of breaking the truce, and threatened to immediately massacre the Barbou division, which found itself at that time completely surrounded. The Spanish negotiators broke out into fury, overwhelming with insults the unhappy officers charged to treat with them. Heroism had disappeared from their souls. They hastened to the tent of the general-in-chief, still plunged in melancholy dejection. He gave way at last, and to his eternal dishonor, and that of the men who tore from him this cowardly concession, he sent to General Vedel the order to retrace his steps, and to submit with his soldiers to the lot the capitulation reserved for him.

Like General Dupont, Vedel consulted his lieutenants. At first all refused a submission which would lead to their destruction. A new messenger came, throwing on them all the responsibility of the inevitable massacre of their comrades. They gave way, and with despair in their souls they slowly retraced their steps; as the sole solace to their sufferings they still retained their arms, while they saw their unhappy comrades defile before the Spanish army laying down their muskets at the feet of the victors. During three days the troops had not received any food; the Spaniards had counted on hunger as well as defeat to lead the French to capitulate. At last they got some food, and soon the columns began their march. The ports of embarkation had been fixed upon.

They advanced slowly, for from all the towns, villages, and scattered houses, flocked multitudes in fury, who insulted the frightful misfortune of our soldiers. General Castanos, moderate in his triumph, had said to the French negotiators, "De la Cuesta, Blake, and myself, were not of the same opinion as the insurgents. We yielded to the national movement; but this movement is becoming so unanimous that it has a chance of success. Let Napoleon not insist upon an impossible conquest, let him not force us to throw ourselves into the arms of the English. Let him give us back our king, and the two nations will be forever reconciled."

It was in fact the same thought, clothed in offensive language that Thomas de Morla, the chief of the insurrection at Cadiz, flung at General Dumont when he complained of the bad treatment undergone by his soldiers. "Your excellency forces me to express truths which must be bitter to you. What right have you to insist on the execution of a treaty concluded in favor of an army which entered Spain under the mask of alliance and friendship, which has imprisoned our king and his family, sacked his palaces, assassinated and robbed his subjects, ravaged his country, usurped his crown? How it would rouse the populace to know that a single one of your soldiers was the possessor of 2180 livres!"

The pillage of Cordova had been exaggerated by the public imagination, and served the chiefs of the insurrection to justify their want of faith. The entire army of Andalusia was detained under various pretexts. The Junta of Seville refused to ratify the capitulation. The divisions of Dufour and Vedel saw their army taken away, and 20,000 men of those French troops, who up to the present time had been accustomed to victory, remained during long years prisoners of war, subjected to the worst treatment, slowly decimated by sickness and sorrow. Spain first gave to the world the spectacle of a successful resistance to the oppression the Emperor Napoleon had made to weigh upon all nations.

We understand by sad experience the astonishment and anger which seized upon our armies everywhere when they heard of the capitulation of Baylen. This name has remained fixed as an indelible stain on the memory of the men who concluded it in a moment of despair, after numerous faults, of which the most unpardonable cannot be imputed to them. Perhaps in his secret thought, Napoleon began to foresee the difficulties of the enterprise he had undertaken against Spain; perhaps he comprehended his error, but his indignation was excessive, and broke out in his words as well as letters. There was also a shade of discouragement when he wrote to King Joseph, on the 3rd August, "My brother, the knowledge I have that you are struggling, my friend, with events foreign to your habits as well as to your natural character, pains me. Dupont has dishonored our flag. What stupidity! What baseness! Those men will be taken by the English. Events of such a nature require my presence at Paris. Germany, Poland, Italy, all join together. My sorrow is really great when I think that I cannot be at this moment with you, and in the midst of my soldiers. I have given orders to Ney to go there. He is a man of honor, zeal, and thorough courage. If you get accustomed to Ney, he might command the army. You will have 100,000 men, and Spain will be conquered in the autumn. A suspension of arms, made by Savary, might perhaps lead to commanding and directing the insurgents; we shall hear what they say. I think that, so far as your personal likings go, you care little for reigning over the Spaniards."

At the moment when Napoleon was writing these lines, King Joseph retreated before the enemy, and abandoned his capital. Deprived of the succor that General Dupont was to have brought, the defenders of Madrid did not consider the concentration of troops sufficiently considerable to protect the Castiles against the ever-rising flood of the national insurrection. "The emperor could hold his own here," said Savary, "but what is possible to him is not so to the others." It was resolved to make a stand on the line of the Ebro; King Joseph quitted Madrid, abandoned by the intimate servants of his household, as well as by a certain number of his ministers. 2000 domestics of the palace had fled for fear of being forced to follow the royal retreat. Burgos not appearing to be a retreat sufficiently sure, the monarch and his little court soon established themselves at Vittoria. After a second assault, as sanguinary and without result as the first, General Verdier, recalled to the Ebro, found himself obliged to abandon the siege of Saragossa. Already the position of the French in Spain became defensive, and the fears of King Joseph increased. "I can only repeat, once for all, that nearly all the grand army is marching, and that between this and autumn Spain will be inundated with troops," wrote the emperor, on the 9th of August. "You must try to preserve the line of the Douro to maintain a communication with Portugal. The English are not much, they never have more than a quarter of the troops they announce. Lord Wellesley has not 4000 men. Besides, they are intended, I believe, for Portugal."

It was in truth on Portugal that the efforts of England were directed at this moment, as she discerned clearly that there lay the true road to Spain. In Galicia, as well as Andalusia, the Spanish insurgents had refused the active intervention of the English. Sir Arthur Wellesley, who at first appeared before Corunna, contented himself by furnishing the suspicious Spaniards with ammunition and money, and on the 1st August he appeared at the mouth of the Mondego, in Portugal. His fleet carried 10,000 English troops. A reinforcement of 4000 men was shortly expected.

For two months General Junot had been isolated in Portugal, separated from Spain by the insurrection of the frontier provinces, menaced by a similar rising of the Portuguese nation, already chafing under the foreign yoke, and sure of soon seeing England hasten to the succor of her faithful ally. He understood his danger, and, assembling around him his troops, recalled General Kellermann from Elvas and General Loison from Almeida. The insurrection already commenced around them, when Sir Arthur Wellesley set foot on the Portuguese soil. The French did not hold more than four or five towns. The entire people was in insurrection. But General Junot still occupied Lisbon; his forces were unfortunately diminished by the garrisons left in the forts, and by a corps of observation that had been detached under the orders of General Delaborde. After a courageous resistance, this vanguard of the French army had been already beaten when the English advanced on Vimeiro. Junot marched against them with an army of twelve or thirteen thousand men. The English numbered about 18,000. The arrival of Sir John Moore with his brigade was announced.

An unfortunate respect for the rights of seniority had placed Sir Arthur Wellesley under the orders of Sir Henry Burrard, and the latter under the command of Sir Hew Dalrymple, who had already left Gibraltar to place himself at the head of the army. The instructions of Wellesley obliged him to wait at Vimeiro for the arrival of Sir John Moore. General Junot wished to anticipate the reinforcements, and attacked the English on the 31st August, in the morning.

Sir Arthur Wellesley occupied the heights of Vimeiro; behind him were precipices, and all retreat was impossible. The access to the rocks was difficult; a strong artillery protected all the positions. When the French advanced to the assault of this natural fortress, they could not at first reach the English lines. General Kellermann alone succeeded in scaling the steep slopes which led to the enemy, and was received by a deadly fire, which forced him to retire. Our cavalry superior to that of the English, was useless in this difficult attack; its only duty was constantly to protect the corps of infantry, repulsed one after another. The English army had not moved. At noon, General Junot ordered the retreat. Sir Arthur Wellesley, always on watch on the heights, was already on the move to follow and crush those who had been unable to make him lose an inch of ground; but Sir Henry Burrard had arrived, and the command passed into his hands. He was opposed to all thought of pursuit. Junot took the road to Torres Vedras. Sir Arthur Wellesley listened with mingled respect and impatience to the arguments of his chief, and, turning towards his staff, "After this, gentlemen," said he, "we have only to go and shoot the red partridges."

General Junot had comprehended better than his adversary the danger which threatened him; he felt the impossibility of maintaining himself in a country suddenly become hostile, in face of an English army already superior to his own, and soon to be reinforced by excellent troops. General Kellermann was charged to treat, at first for an armistice, then for the convention bearing the name of Cintra, which provided honorably for the evacuation of Portugal by the French generals. The conditions accorded were so favorable that public opinion in England accused the negotiators of it as a crime, of which the obloquy weighed some time on Sir Arthur Wellesley. He had not, however, been too favorable to it. "Ten days after the battle of the 21st," he wrote to Lord Castlereagh, "we are less advanced than we might and ought to have been on the evening of the battle." The Emperor Napoleon had, for his part, manifested some discontent at the convention, which brought back to France all his troops free from engagement, and possessing their arms. "I was going to send Junot before a council of war," said he; "but, happily, the English have been before me in sending their generals, and have thus spared me the mortification of punishing an old friend." The confidence of Napoleon remained, however, shaken with respect to his officer. "Everything which was not a triumph he looked upon as a defeat," said the Duchess of Abrantes in her memoirs.

It often happened to Napoleon to judge unjustly of men and things, because he appreciated them exclusively from a personal and selfish point of view. Thus, he accused of treason the Marquis de la Romana and his brave companions. After the battle of Friedland, the Spanish battalions wrung in 1807 from the shameful terror of the Prince de la Paix, were sent by Napoleon to regions which would appear the most fatal to the temperament and habits of southern people. They had been confided to the King of Denmark, and charged to protect from the English his little kingdom, hitherto so cruelly oppressed by them. The health of the troops was, however, excellent when the news came to them of the general rising which had taken place in Spain, and the unforeseen success of the national resistance. They immediately conceived the thought of returning to their country, to join their efforts to those of their countrymen. An English squadron, under the orders of Admiral Keith, appeared suddenly on the coasts of Jutland, at the entrance to Niborg, in the island of Funen. Immediately the Marquis de la Romana, with difficulty warned by secret advices, seized the fishing-boats, which were numerous on the coast; then, making himself master of the citadel and port of Niborg, and crossing two arms of the sea, he assembled around him all those of his companions-in- arms who were within reach. He arrived at the English fleet, and sailed towards Gothenburg, from which place he put to sea for Spain. Several regiments far in the interior of the land could not be warned in time, and remained prisoners of war. One of them, having by chance heard of the enterprise of their comrades, succeeded in rejoining them at the exact moment of their embarkation, after a march long even for Spaniards. In the middle of September, they at last landed in Galicia amidst the joyous acclamations of the people.

At Vittoria the unhappy King of Spain continually received one after another news which damped his courage and convinced his reason of the futility of all attempts to support his throne. On the 9th of August he wrote to the Emperor Napoleon: "I do not think it possible to treat with the insurgent chiefs; all their heads are turned; no one has sufficient direction of affairs or influence enough upon the masses to lead them in a determinate manner. On the supposition that France will gratuitously spend her blood and treasure to place and maintain me on the throne of Spain, I cannot hide from your Majesty that I cannot endure the thought of any other than your Majesty commanding the French armies in Spain. If I become the conqueror of this country by the horrors of a war in which every individual Spaniard takes part, I shall be long an object of terror and execration. I am too old to have time for repairing so many evils, and I shall have sown too much hatred during the war to be able to gather in my last years the fruit of the good that I may be able to do during peace. Your Majesty sees, then, that even by this hypothesis—that of the conquest and establishment of the monarchy—that I should not desire to reign in Spain.... This nation is more concentrated in its sentiments than any other people of Europe; it has something of the character of the peoples of Africa, which is peculiar to itself. Your Majesty cannot form an idea, because certainly no one has ever told you, in what degree the name of your Majesty is execrated. This, then, is what I desire: to keep the command of the army sufficiently long to beat the enemy, return to Madrid with the army, because it left with me, and from this capital put forth a decree to the effect that I renounce reigning over a people I should be obliged to reduce by force of arms; and I return to Naples with wishes for the happiness of Spain, and the desire to effect the welfare of the Two Sicilies. In resigning to your Majesty the rights I hold from you, you will make of them whatever use your wisdom will indicate. I beg, then, your Majesty to suspend all operations relative to the kingdom of Naples. The means will not be wanting to your Majesty for compensating the prince you wished to place on the throne of Naples; for the rest, exact justice and affection plead in my favor in your Majesty's heart." And two days later he wrote: "It would take 200,000 Frenchmen to conquer Spain, and a hundred thousand scaffolds to maintain the prince who should be condemned to reign over them. No, sire, you do not know this people; each house will be a fortress, and every man of the same mind as the majority. I repeat but one thing, which will suffice as an example; not a Spaniard will be on my side if we are conquerors; we cannot find a guide or a spy. Four hours before the battle of Rio-Seco, Marshal Bessieres did not know where the enemy was. Every one who speaks or writes differently either lies or is blind."

On the 15th of July the kingdom of Naples had been solemnly conferred on "Prince Joachim Murat, Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg." The haughty obstinacy of Napoleon, his habit of conquering, and the growing want of the prestige of victory, did not permit him to admit for a single instant the modest pretensions of King Joseph. He was already preparing to pass into Spain, counting upon success as soon as his presence should inspire his generals with foresight and boldness. Other cares had till this time detained him from this expedition, which became more necessary every day. Already, for a long time, Napoleon had nourished suspicions of the loyalty of Austria. On several occasions he had, not without reason, accused her of making armaments and hostile preparations. The occupation of Rome and the events of Spain had, on the other side, increased the distrust and irritation of Vienna. The Archduke Charles, usually favorably inclined towards France, exclaimed, "Well, if we must, we will die with arms in our hands; but they shall not dispose of the crown of Austria as easily as they have disposed of the crown of Spain!"

Napoleon had scarcely arrived at Paris, returning from a long journey in France, when a great fete had assembled around him all the diplomatic body (15th August, 1808). His anger broke out against Austria, as it had previously broken out against England in his celebrated interview with Lord Whitworth. The frequent menaces of Champagny had not intimidated Metternich, at that time Austrian ambassador in Paris. The emperor advanced suddenly towards him: "Austria wishes, then, to make war against us? She wishes to frighten me?..." And without listening to the pacific protestations of the prince, "Why, then, these immense preparations? They are defensive, you say. But who attacks you, to make you think so much of defence? Is not all peaceful around you? Since the peace of Presburg, has there been the slightest disagreement between you and me? Have not all our relations together been extremely amicable? And yet you have suddenly raised a cry of alarm; you have put in motion all your population; your princes have overrun your provinces; your proclamations have summoned the people to the defence of the country; your proclamations and measures are those which you used when I was at Leoben.

"You are well aware that I ask nothing from you, and make no claim upon you, and that I even regard the preservation of your power in the present state of affairs as useful to the European system, and to the interests of France. I have encamped my troops to keep them fit for marching. They do not camp in France, because that costs too much; they camp abroad, where it is less expensive. My camps have been distributed; none of them threatens you. In the excess of my security I dismantled all the places of Silesia. I am ready to remove my camps, if that is necessary to your security.

"In the meantime what will happen? You have raised 400,000 men; I am about to raise 200,000. Germany, who was beginning to breathe after so many ruinous wars, is about to see again all her wounds reopened. I shall reconstruct the places of Silesia, instead of evacuating that province and the Prussian States, as I wished to do. Europe will be all up in arms. Soon the very women must become soldiers.

"Those are the evils you have produced, and, as I believe, without intending it. In such a state of things, when the strain everywhere is so great, war will soon become desirable, in order to hasten the end. A sharp pain, if short, is better than prolonged suffering.

"But if you are as disposed for peace as you allege, it is necessary that you speak out, that you countermand the measures which have excited so dangerous a fermentation, and that all Europe be convinced that you wish for peace. It is necessary that all should proclaim your good intentions, justified by your acts as well as your language."

Definitively, and as a proof of Austria's submission, Napoleon asked for a recognition of King Joseph. On this special demand—which no doubt was made less harsh in form by the report of Champagny, which has been preserved—Austria did not give way, nor did she refuse: she delayed, still constantly and unobtrusively engaged in warlike preparations, which were actively pushed forward by the Archduke Charles and Stadion, the prime minister.

Napoleon wished to intimidate Austria, his bold foresight assuring him of her hostility. He required several months for his Spanish expedition. Finding it necessary to send new troops into the Peninsula, he was obliged to quit the countries which were occupied, and at last put an end to the long suspense imposed upon Prussia, and aggravated by intolerable war- contributions. Prince William, appointed by his brother to the painful mission, had in vain tried to obtain favorable conditions. Napoleon feeling the necessity of recalling his forces, fixed at 140,000,000 the sum still left of what had been demanded from Prussia; but before signing the treaty the conqueror exacted more than one sacrifice. The French continued to occupy Stettin, Custrin, Glogau on the Oder, and Magdeburg on the Elbe: a secret article forbade Prussia to raise an army for ten years of more than 42,000 men. No militia was allowed; and in case war should break out in Germany, King Frederick William undertook to supply the Emperor Napoleon with an auxiliary force of 16,000 men.

To those painful conditions Napoleon added another, which was entirely personal and political. "I have asked for Stein's dismissal from the cabinet," wrote the emperor to Marshal Soult on the 10th September; "without that the King of Prussia will not recover his states. I have sequestrated his property in Westphalia."

Baron Stein resigned, but continued working ardently in reviving and fostering the national spirit in Germany against the Emperor Napoleon, as he had been preparing for more than a year. He began an able and prudent scheme of reform, which was continued by his colleagues after his fall. The convention of the 8th September, 1808, being signed between France and Prussia, King Frederick William took possession of his diminished states, and the Emperor Alexander was freed from the importunities of the unfortunate sufferers, who blamed him for their lot. Napoleon feeling the need of drawing closer the alliance with Russia, an interview was agreed upon between the two emperors, and Erfurt was chosen for the scene of the illustrious interview.

The Emperor Alexander had looked with secret satisfaction upon the events in Spain. Constantly influenced by the hopes by which Napoleon had dazzled him at Tilsit, and haunted by that passion for obtaining Constantinople which had so long been common to all the Russian sovereigns, he had accepted without any difficulty the spoliation of the Spanish Bourbons, in order to justify beforehand the spoliations in which he was interested. The national rising of the Spanish people served his design: the all- powerful conqueror had met with a serious resistance, undergone checks, and had need of the moral support of his allies; their material assistance might be needed. Alexander reckoned upon gaining at Erfurt the cession of that 'cat's tongue which was the key of the Bosphorus,' and which he coveted so eagerly. He set out from St. Petersburg on the 7th of September, somewhat against the will of his mother and the "Russian party," and with but few attendants.

The Emperor Napoleon, on the contrary, had assembled at Erfurt all the resources of French elegance, joined to the brilliance which is inseparable from a powerful and victorious court. All the small princes of Germany were present, and the great sovereigns sent their most able representatives. The celebrated actors of the Theatre Francais, with Talma at their head, were appointed to amuse the two emperors in the intervals of business. The representation of Cinna was the first of a series of master-pieces of the French stage. The emperor forbade comedies, saying that the Germans did not understand Moliere.

A fortnight was thus spent in the midst of the most magnificent fetes combined with serious negotiations. Napoleon decided to at once abandon the Danubian provinces to his ally, though resolved never to grant Constantinople. After long conferences between Champagny and Romanzoff, as to the suitable form to give to this division of other people's property which was to render the Franco-Russian alliance indissoluble, the convention was signed on the 12th October. Both emperors agreed to address to England a formal demand for immediate peace, the base of the negotiations to be the uti possidetis, that is to say, the acknowledgment of conquests and occupations which were already accomplished. France was only to agree to a peace which should secure Finland, Wallachia, and Moldavia to Russia; and Russia only to one which should secure to France all her possessions, including the crown of Spain for King Joseph.

Supposing the negotiations or acts of the two powers for the execution of the treaty should bring on war with Austria, France and Russia made promises of mutual support: their hostilities were to be in common. At the urgent request of Alexander, the Emperor Napoleon granted a reduction of 20,000,000 on the war-contribution of Prussia. At the same time, and by the clever mediation of Talleyrand, he threw out a hint to the young Czar that he wished to be united to him by family alliance. "The emperor had resolved to have recourse to a divorce," said the prince, "and his thoughts turned naturally towards the sisters of his ally and his dearest friend." Alexander blushed, being by no means all-powerful in the bosom of his family, and the empress-mother having a strong dislike to Napoleon. Complimentary and friendly attentions, therefore, could not remove reserve on this delicate point. The two emperors separated on the 14th October, after hunting together on the plain of Jena, and supping and chatting familiarly with Goethe and Wieland, at Weimar. Germany showed every attention to her conqueror, while silently preparing to take revenge.

The Emperor Napoleon on returning to Paris finished his preparations for the Spanish campaign. He had told King Joseph, when in Erfurt, that he should march as soon as the Corps Legislatif was opened. On the 1st October he had put in the mouth of Champagny suitable arguments to prepare the way for a new levy of soldiers. In his report to the emperor, the Foreign Minister thus publicly denounced the ingratitude of the Spanish people:—

"Your Majesty hoped to prevent the return of the troubles in Spain, by means of persuasion and by measures of a wise and humane policy. Intervening as a mediator in the midst of the divided Spanish, your Majesty indicated to them the safety of a wise and prudent constittution, suitable for providing every want, and in which liberal ideas are reconciled with those ancient institutions which Spain wished to preserve.

"Your Majesty's expectation was deceived. Private interests, the intrigues of the foreigner, and his corrupting gold, have prevailed over the influence which you had a right to exercise. The Spanish people having shaken off the yoke of authority, aspired to govern. The intrigues of the agents of the Inquisition, the influence of the monks, who are so numerous in Spain, and who dreaded reform, have at this critical moment occasioned the insurrection of several Spanish provinces, in which the voice of wise men has been disavowed or smothered, and several of them made the victims of their courageous opposition to the disorderly populace. We have seen a frightful anarchy spreading over the greater part of Spain. Will your Majesty allow England to be able to say that Spain is one of her provinces, and that her flag, driven from the Baltic, the northern seas, the Levant, and even the Persian coasts, rules over the gates of France? Never, sire.

"To avoid so great disgrace and misfortune, there are two millions of brave men ready, if need be, to cross the Pyrenees; and the English will be driven out of the Peninsula."

In expectation of the supreme effort thus boldly proclaimed, the Senate ordered a levy of 160,000 men, anticipating by sixteen months the regular call. The recruits were intended to replace in Germany the trained soldiers of the Grande Armee, who had already started to go to Spain, and were everywhere feted in the towns they passed through. Skilled in all the plans by which great success is procured, the emperor, on the 3rd of September, had written to Cretet, Minister of the Interior: "Give order, so that the town of Metz may fete the troops as they pass through; and as the town is not rich enough, I shall give three francs a man, but all must be done in the name of the town. The municipal body will make a speech to them, treat them, give the officers dinners, get triumphal arches raised at the gates through which they pass, and put inscriptions on them. Give the same order for the town of Nancy, which is the place where the central column will pass. As for the column of the right, it will be feted at Rheims. I wish you to see that the prefects of departments on their route pay special attention to the troops, and in every way keep up the enthusiasm which animates them and their love of glory. Speeches, verses, shows gratis, dinners,—that is what I expect from the citizens for the soldiers returning victorious." On the 17th, with the list of towns which had responded to his call as well as those from which he expected the same display: "Get songs written in Paris, and send them to the different towns. These songs will tell of the glory gained by the army and that it is still to gain, of the liberty of the seas which will result from its victories. These songs will be sung at the dinners which will be given. Get three kinds of songs made, so that the soldier may not hear the same sung twice."

It was not without secret emotion and an inquietude which showed itself by numerous heroical declamations, that the Emperor Napoleon himself passed into Spain with his old troops, which had gained for him the sovereign rule in Europe. For the first time in his military career, he felt himself face to face with the spontaneous resistance of a people. "Soldiers," said he to the regiments which were to march before him on the Spanish soil, "after triumphing on the banks of the Danube and Vistula, you have crossed Germany by forced marches; and now I make you cross France without allowing you a moment's rest. Soldiers, I have need of you. The hateful presence of the leopard contaminates the continents of Spain and Portugal; let him fly in terror at the sight of us. Let us carry our eagles in triumph as far as the columns of Hercules; there also we have outrages to avenge. Soldiers, you have surpassed the renown of modern armies, but have you equalled the glories of the armies of Rome, which in one campaign triumphed on the Rhine and the Euphrates, in Illyria and on the Tagus? A long peace and lasting prosperity will be the fruit of your labors. A true Frenchman neither can nor ought to rest till the seas are open and freed. Soldiers, all that you have done, all that you will yet do for the happiness of the French people, for my glory, will remain eternally in my heart."

According to the custom of constitutional monarchies, the English cabinet replied to the personal letter addressed to King George III. by the two emperors. Without formally rejecting the overtures of peace, Canning urged that all the allies of England ought to have been admitted to the negotiation; and he included in the list of allies the Kings of Naples, Portugal, Sweden, and even the Spanish insurgents, although no formal treaty had yet been concluded with them. Soon after, to put an end to the pretence of negotiation, an official declaration of the British Government announced to the world that England could not treat with two courts, one of which dethroned legitimate kings and kept them prisoners, while the other assisted from interested motives. Resolved "to attack by every means a usurpation to which there was nothing comparable in the history of the world, Great Britain will never abandon the generous Spanish nation, nor any of the people who, though at present hesitating, may soon shake off the yoke which oppresses them." For the future all pretences disappeared, and the struggle began afresh between the Emperor Napoleon and England. The latter had long been looking for a ground of attack against the conqueror; now at last it was supplied by the Spanish soil and people.

It is extremely painful to have to prove the injustice of a course which is naturally dear to us. That is bitterly felt at every step during the long years of the war of Spain, in presence of the generous efforts of a people who, with arms in their hands, vindicated their national liberty and independence. The first outbursts of the Spanish insurrection showed this with a brilliancy that soon partially disappeared. The efforts of the English their courage and feats of arms, were soon to eclipse to some extent the obstinate animosity of the Spanish. The long series of checks which began on Napoleon's arrival was sufficient to prove with what a decisive weight the alliance which they were soon to conclude with Great Britain weighed in the balance of their destinies.

Setting out from Paris on the 29th October, the emperor, on arriving at Bayonne, showed great anger at the delay in the preparations, the bad state of the roads and the shortness of supplies. "You will see how disgracefully I am served," he wrote to General Dejean, in charge of the war administration. "I have only 7000 cloaks instead of 50,000; 15,000 pairs of shoes instead of 129,000. I am in want of everything; my army is naked, and yet we are entering on a campaign. Yet I have spent a great deal of money, which is so much thrown into the sea."

Napoleon's displeasure was not diminished when he reached Vittoria. He had beforehand forbidden the attempt upon Madrid which King Joseph proposed to him, mistrusting his brother's military skill. "The military art is an art the principles of which must never be violated," he wrote, in some observations of great sense and force. "To change one's line of operation is an operation of genius; to lose it, is an operation so serious that it constitutes a crime in the general who is guilty of it. If, before taking Madrid, organizing the army there, with military stores for eight or ten days, and providing sufficient supplies, one had just been defeated, what would become of that army? where could they rally? where transport their wounded? whence draw their war supplies, having nothing but provisions for a short time? We need say no more; those who have the courage to advise such a measure would be the first to lose their head so soon as the result proved the madness of their procedure. With an army entirely composed of men like those of the guard and commanded by the most able general— Alexander or Caesar, if they could act with such folly—one could answer for nothing; much more therefore in the circumstances in which the army of Spain is placed. In war everything depends on opinion—opinion as to the enemy, opinion as to one's own soldiers. When a battle is lost, the difference between the conquered and the conqueror is but trifling; yet opinion makes it immeasurable, because two or three squadrons are then sufficient to produce a great effect. Nothing has been done to give confidence to the French; there is not a soldier but sees that timidity pervades everything, and therefore forms from that his opinion of the enemy. He has no other data for knowing what is opposed to him except what is told him, and the bearing which he is expected to assume."

By a chance which prudent minds might have anticipated, but which astonished and confounded the inexperience of the insurgent leaders, the national rising, which lately was universal, irresistible, and triumphant, lost all its power and energy immediately after the victory of Baylen. The hesitation and inaction of King Joseph, his government, and his army, had met with an unexpected counterpart in their adversaries.

It is often a difficult undertaking, even when desired and concerted beforehand, to stir up an entire nation and animate them for war; and when their rising is spontaneous, brought on by the same patriotic and revolutionary idea, it is a still more difficult undertaking to organize their efforts and direct aright their impassioned impulses. After the first shock, which had agitated Spain from one extremity to the other, after the formation of provincial or municipal Juntas, after the success of some of the insurgent generals, the trial of government suddenly presented itself to the leaders of the national movement. It was necessary to command all those proud and independent men, intoxicated with a new liberty and an ancient self-respect; it was necessary at any cost to get from them obedience, for Napoleon was at hand—he, the master of so many armies waiting for his bidding, and who at his will had made princes and kings bend down. The Spanish alone had resisted him successfully; how were they to keep up and continue the resistance?

With considerable difficulty, a central Junta was formed at Aranjuez, composed of delegates from the local Juntas, too numerous to be a council of government, and too restricted to possess, or even claim, the rights of a representative assembly. The new Junta wished to exercise absolute authority. The Council of Castile had proposed that the Cortes be assembled, but most of the generals were opposed to a measure which necessarily tended to diminish their power. The Cortes were not assembled, and the Junta called all the Spaniards to arms.

Though the patriotic ardor in Spain was undoubtedly great, and the patriotic uneasiness profound, the results of the general rising were insufficient, and came greatly short of the hopes of the insurrectional government. About 100,000 men were mustered when the military organization was decided upon by the Junta. Three main armies—that of the left, under the orders of General Blake; that of the centre, under General Castanos; that of the right, under Palafox—were to combine their operations in order to surround the French army. A fourth army, called the reserve, was to be afterwards formed; and the troops scattered over Catalonia were ordered to defend that province against General Duhesme. In spite of the repugnance inspired by foreign assistance to Spanish pride, the Junta had accepted the assistance of an English army, which had already collected at Lisbon, under the orders of Sir John Moore. He had marched across Portugal, and his lieutenant, Sir David Baird, was bringing him reinforcements from England, which afterwards joined him at Corunna. These forces and resources were sufficient to harass the French army, and make an easy occupation of Spain impossible; but not sufficient to keep up a regular war against the first troops in the world. The Spanish, as well as the English, soon found the truth of this.

Before Napoleon arrived at Vittoria, several battles had already taken place, generally favorable to the French army, though it was badly led, and had its forces scattered, instead of concentrated, as the emperor wished them to be, for his ready use. He bitterly blamed Marshals Lefebvre and Victor, and already the presence of the general who had been everywhere victorious was being promptly felt in the management of the army and the vigor of the operations. Marshal Soult had been sent to attack Burgos, then protected by 12,000 men of the Estremadura army; and on the 10th November, on the charge of Mouton's division alone, the Spanish wavered and took to flight, delivering up Burgos and its castle to the French army. The cavalry eagerly pursued the retreating enemy, who quickly formed again, and were as quickly scattered: many of the prisoners were killed. Napoleon at once set out for Burgos. "I start at one in the morning," he wrote to Joseph, "in order to reach Burgos incognito before daybreak, and shall make my arrangements for the day, because to win is nothing if no advantage is taken of the success. I think you ought to go to-morrow to Briviesca. The less ceremony I wish made on my own account, the more I wish made on yours. As for me, it does not suit well with the business of war; besides, I have no wish for it. On arriving, I shall give the necessary orders for disarming, and for burning the standard used for Ferdinand's proclamation. Use every endeavor that it may be felt to be no idle form."

Burgos already felt all the weight of the conqueror's anger. The town was pitilessly sacked. "A sad sight," say the memoirs of Count Miot de Melito, who accompanied King Joseph as he entered the town; "the houses nearly all deserted and pillaged; the furniture, smashed in pieces, scattered in the mud of the streets; one quarter, on the other side of the Arlanzen, on fire; the soldiers madly forcing in doors and windows, breaking everything that came in their way, using little and destroying much; the churches stripped; the streets crowded with the dead and dying—in a word, all the horrors of an assault, although the town had offered no defence!" The emperor ordered all the wool to be seized which was found in the town: it belonged to the great Spanish nobles, and he had resolved to confiscate their property everywhere. "The Duke of Infantado and Spanish great lords," he wrote a few days afterwards to Cretet, the Minister of the Interior (on the 19th November), "are sole proprietors of half the kingdom of Naples, and in this kingdom they are worth not less than 200,000,000. They have, besides, possessions in Belgium, Piedmont, and Italy, which I intend to sequestrate. That is only the first rough draft of my plans". A decree of proscription had already been published, and a capital condemnation pronounced (12th November) against ten of the principal Spanish nobles. At that price, pardon was promised to all who made haste to make submission.

Marshal Soult, the conqueror of Burgos, had already been despatched by the emperor in the direction of Reinosa, in order to complete the destruction of General Blake's army, already partially defeated, on the 11th and 12th by General Victor, near the small town of Espinosa, at the spot where the road from the Biscayan mountains crosses the road of the plain. Soult was late in arriving; but, after a vigorous resistance, the overthrow of Blake's army was so complete that there was no fear that the army of the left could soon rally. Napoleon ordered Lannes and Ney to crush the armies of the right and the centre, commanded by Palafox and Castanos. Ney failing to keep his appointment at Tudela on the 23rd November, owing to a mistake on the march, Lannes made the attack alone, taking by surprise the Spanish generals, who were undecided as to their course of action, disagreeing as to the place for meeting the enemy, and yet urged on to the engagement by the popular cries, already accusing them of treason. The battle was a serious one; and for a short time Lannes, reduced to his own troops, found himself in a difficult position. He was, moreover, ill from a fall from his horse, but succeeded in winning the battle, and drove before him, one after another, all the divisions of the enemy's army. With the cruel and heedless fickleness of revolutionary governments, the Junta of Aranjuez hurriedly cashiered Generals Blake and Castanos. The Marquis of Romana's soldiers having distinguished themselves at Espinosa, he was appointed general of the united armies. Already, in spite of the consternation which reigned in the national party in Spain, small bodies of troops collected in various parts. Napoleon soon understood that the masterly-strokes of his usual tactics were not sufficient to conquer men who were as prompt in again taking up arms as in throwing them down on the roads in order to run away. He hurried in pursuit everywhere, and multiplied his modes of attack. Junot, scarcely returned to France, received orders to go into Spain. Napoleon resolved to march upon Madrid.

The resources left at the disposition of the Junta for the defence of the capital were obviously insufficient. A body of 10,000 to 12,000 men, under the command of Benito San Juan, occupied the height Somo-Sierra, and on the 30th November Napoleon in person appeared before the small Spanish army. The passage being quickly forced by a charge of General Montbrun, the French cavalry rode to the gates of Madrid, causing indignation and alarm. The Junta had already left Aranjuez to meet in Badajoz, and the capital, entrusted to a small detachment of troops of the line under the Marquis of Castellar, at one time supported, at another hindered by the populace, corregidor of Madrid, the Marquis of Perales, was massacred by a handful of madmen, on the charge of having mixed sand with the powder of their cartridges. Thomas de Morla, the tribune of Cadiz, commanded the defence. Barricades were raised at every point, and ramparts improvised, Madrid never having been surrounded with fortifications.

On the morning of the 2nd December the emperor arrived at the gates of the capital, and at once had a summons sent to those in command of the place. His messenger had great difficulty in obtaining admission to the town; and the Spanish general appointed to convey the refusal of surrender was accompanied and watched by a band of insurgents, who dictated to him his reply. A second summons producing no result, the firing at the walls and the town began; and in a few hours the palace Buen Retiro and all the northern and eastern gates were in the power of the French. At several points the resistance was most obstinate. The emperor again summoning the Junta of Defence to spare the capital the horrors of a general assault, Thomas de Morla soon presented himself before him, in the name of the insurrectional government.

The emperor's features clearly expressed his anger at the sight of the governor of Andalusia, who had recently retained the troops taken prisoners, in defiance of the capitulation of Baylen. Napoleon had more than once violated treaties: he attached always an extreme importance to military conventions. On this occasion, his natural sense of wrong and offended vanity alone had the mastery in his soul. Thomas de Morla, generally arrogant and bold, seemed troubled and confused. "The people," said he, "are ungovernable in their patriotic passion; the Junta ask for one day to bring them back to reason."

"It is in vain for you to use the name of the people," exclaimed Napoleon. "If you cannot succeed in calming them, it is because you yourselves have excited them, and have led them astray by your falsehoods. Bring together the cures, the heads of convents, the principal proprietors, and let the town surrender between this and six o'clock in the morning, or else it will have ceased to exist. I have no desire to withdraw my troops, nor ought I. You massacred the unhappy French prisoners who fell into your hands. A short time ago you allowed to be dragged in the streets and put to death two servants of the Russian ambassador because they were Frenchmen. The want of skill and the cowardice of a general placed in your hands some troops which had capitulated on the battle-field, and the capitulation was violated. What kind of letter, M. Morla, did you write to that general? It became you well to speak of pillaging, you who entered Roussillon and carried off all the women, to divide them among your soldiers like booty. What right had you, on other grounds, to use such language? You were prevented by the capitulation. Consider the conduct of the English, who certainly do not boast of being rigid observers of the rights of nations. They have complained of the convention of Portugal, but they executed it. To violate military treaties is to renounce all civilization; it is to place one's self on a level with the Bedouins of the desert. How dare you ask a capitulation, you who violated that of Baylen? I had a fleet at Cadiz, the ally of Spain, and you turned against it the mortars of the town under your command. Go back to Madrid. I give you till six o'clock in the morning. Return then, if you have nothing to say of the people except that they have submitted: otherwise, you and your troops will all be put to the sword."

The situation left to the insurgents no alternative but that of submission. During the night, the Marquis of Castellar went out with his troops by the gates which the French had not yet seized. At six in the morning, on the 4th December, Madrid surrendered. All the citizens were disarmed. Napoleon took possession of a small country-house at Chamartin, and King Joseph held his court at the Pardo, some distance from Madrid; the rebel town being thus held unworthy to be honored by the presence of its masters. Several great lords were arrested: the Marquis of St. Simon was even condemned to death, as a French emigrant in the Spanish service; but the sentence was badly received by the soldiers, and left unexecuted. A series of decrees abolished the feudal rights, the Inquisition, and the custom duties in passing from one province to another. The number of convents was reduced by a third. The conquests of liberty and civilization thus imposed on the Spanish by their oppressors naturally became hateful to them. Thus one of the results of Napoleon's Spanish campaign was to prepare a reaction in favor of the Inquisition.

While the emperor took possession of Madrid, and endeavored to reduce the undisciplined spirit of the capital, General Gouvion St. Cyr had been appointed to bring Catalonia to submission. A man of skill and prudence, though obstinately attached to his own opinions, St. Cyr was never a favorite with Napoleon, though he knew his merit. He had entrusted him with the duty of reducing an isolated province, where his command ran no risk of being interfered with by contradictory wishes or orders. The general delayed some time at the siege of Rosas, which he was anxious not to leave in his rear, and when he at last advanced towards Barcelona, General Duhesme and his garrison were short of provisions. On his approach the blockade was raised, and, on the 15th December, General Vives offered battle to St. Cyr at Cardeden, before Barcelona. The French having left their artillery behind, so as to advance more quickly, the order was given to open a road through the enemy's ranks with the bayonet. The soldiers obeyed, keeping their heads down as they advanced under the fire of the Spanish; the latter were unable to resist the impetuosity of such an attack, and the columns of our troops passed through the enemy's lines, which were soon broken and scattered. The Spanish artillery fell entirely into our hands, and next day the French entered Barcelona. On the 21st the entrenched camp on the Llobregat was taken, and complete dispersion of the Spanish troops in Catalonia soon followed, only a few places still holding out, which General Gouvion St. Cyr prepared to besiege.

The English, however, henceforward united to the cause of the Spanish insurrection by a solemn declaration, published on the 15th December, and everywhere the objects of Napoleon's most persistent hatred, had not yet undergone the shock of his arms. Having only imperfect information as to Sir John Moore's operations, the emperor had reckoned with certainty upon the retreat which that general began at the moment of the attack upon Madrid, when he found that it was absolutely impossible to concentrate his forces in time for resistance. Moore was not hopeful as to the results of the campaign, and had little satisfaction in his Spanish auxiliaries, who always distrusted foreigners, even when allies; when urged by the Junta, however, and after receiving instructions from England, he advanced towards Valladolid, relinquishing his line of retreat upon Portugal, and directing his march to Corunna. From some intercepted despatches he believed he might surprise Marshal Soult in the kingdom of Leon, with inferior forces to his own; and, at the same time, ask Sir David Baird to join him with his troops, and sent to ask the Marquis Romana for reinforcements. On the 21st December, the English army, more than 25,000 men strong, had reached Sahagun, near to Marshal Soult's position.

The emperor was not deceived by the first report, that the English had changed their line of march. He at once penetrated Sir John Moore's object, and resolved to at once fall upon his rear, and crush him by a superiority of forces. In a letter to Paris he says, "The English have at last showed signs of life. They seem now to have abandoned Portugal, and taken another line of operations. They are marching upon Valladolid, and for three days our troops have made operations to manoeuvre them, and advance on their rear. If the English don't make for the sea, and beat us in speed, they will find it hard to escape us, and will pay dear for their daring attempt upon the continent."

On the 22nd, the emperor, uniting the divisions of his army with that rapidity which all his lieutenants had learned from him, set out himself on march with 40,000 men, in the hope of intercepting the advance of the English to the coast. The weather had become wet and cold, and when the French army reached the foot of Guadarrama the snow was falling in thick masses. The chasseurs of the guard, dismounting, led their horses by hand, and opened a road to their comrades through the snow. Napoleon himself was on foot. The snow-storm being followed by rain, their progress was slow. On receiving a message from Soult that he was at Carrion, and that he believed the English were one day's journey distant, Napoleon said, "If they stay one day longer in that position they are lost, for I shall presently be on their flank."

Sir John Moore was a prudent and skilful soldier, and on receiving information sufficient to indicate the emperor's intention, he at once began his retreat towards Corunna. When Marshal Ney, entering Medina from Rio-Seco, was preparing to march upon Benaventa, the English had already reached that post, and, after crossing the Ezla, blew up the bridges. When the French advance-guard, commanded by General Lefebvre-Desnouettes, arrived before the town the last wagons of the English army were disappearing in the distance. The cavalry officer too eagerly made his squadrons ford the river, and Lord Paget, who protected the retreat, repulsed the attack of the French, and took their general prisoner. The first detachments of Napoleon's army entered Astorga a short time after the English had evacuated the place, the Marquis de la Romana, withdrawing as well as his allies, having followed by the same way. The roads were much cut up by the wheels and footsteps, besides being encumbered by the dead bodies of many horses, which the English had killed when too tired to go on. There were also traces left everywhere by the English army of a troublesome want of discipline; soldiers left drunk because they could not keep up in the rapid march which their leader had ordered, houses pillaged, and the Spanish peasants, oppressed both by their defenders and their enemies, became every day more distrustful and gloomy. Sir John Moore complained that he could obtain neither food nor information from the frightened and discontented population.

On the 2nd January, the Emperor Napoleon changed his plans. Feeling that the danger of a war with Austria became daily more imminent, and finding that the English would reach the sea in spite of any efforts of his to intercept them, and that the brilliant stroke which he intended was daily becoming more impossible of execution, he entrusted the pursuit of the enemy to Marshal Soult, who was then nearer him than Ney, and marched with the imperial guard towards Valladolid. Before arriving there he wrote from Benaventa to King Joseph, on the 6th January, 1809,—

"My brother, I thank you for what you say regarding the New Year. I have no hope of Europe being at peace in 1809. On the contrary, I yesterday signed a decree for a levy of 100,000 men. The hatred of England, the events at Constantinople, everything forewarns that the hour of rest and tranquillity has not yet sounded. As to you, your kingdom appears to me to be almost at peace. The kingdoms of Leon, the Asturias, and New Castile, only want rest. I hope Galicia will soon be pacified, and that the English will leave the country. Saragossa must soon fall; and General St. Cyr, with 30,000 men, will soon attain his object in Catalonia."

The English were in fact preparing to leave Spain; and though the determination was quite recent, it was with a sense of depression, which, in the case of the general, was increased by the sad plight of his array and its want of discipline. Their disorder was at its worst when at last they reached the small town of Lugo (6th January, 1809), exhausted by the bad weather, want of food, and excess of brandy and other strong liquors.

Sir John Moore had resolved to offer battle to the French, and the hope of fighting had restored courage and obedience to the soldiers. He waited three days for Marshal Soult, but the French general's forces were diminished by the rapidity of the pursuit, and he did not accept the offer of fighting. Moore resumed his march towards Corunna, reckoning to find, on his arrival at the coast, the transport vessels which were necessary for his army. When at last, on the 11th January, he came in sight of the sea, not a single sail appeared over its vast extent. The contest becoming inevitable, Sir John ordered the bridges over the Mero to be blown up, and took up his position on the heights which command Corunna.

Marshal Soult had been delayed, by the necessity of repairing the bridges and rallying a division of his army which had fallen behind; and when at last, on the morning of the 16th, he attacked the English positions, the long-expected transports were crowding into the harbor, and a way of escape was open to the English army. A keenly-contested struggle took place, however, around the small village, Elvina, occupied by the troops of Sir David Baird, who was severely wounded. Sir John went to the assistance of his lieutenant, and when leading his men within range to the front, had his arm and collarbone shattered by a ball. He was carried back to the town by his soldiers, in a dying condition. The English still retaining their positions at nightfall, their embarkment was now certain, and General Hope, who had taken the command, pushed forward the preparations for departure.

Sir John Moore had just expired. "You know well," said he to his friend Colonel Anderson, "that this is how I always wished to die." After a short pause, he added, "I hope the English people will be satisfied; I hope that my country will do me justice." Without losing time in procuring a coffin, his soldiers dug a grave with their swords, and committed to earth the body of their general, still wrapped in his military cloak. The English army, which he had saved by his prudence and resolution, then hurriedly embarked, "and left him alone in his glory," as the poet has finely put it. Several weeks afterwards, when Marshal Ney took possession of Corunna, he had a stone placed on the tomb of his heroic enemy.

From Valladolid, where he was still staying, the Emperor Napoleon directed the movements of his armies; fortifying the defences of Italy, and commanding the movements of the troops intended for Germany, he at the same time wrote to all the princes of the Rheinish Confederation, reminding them peremptorily of their engagements, and referring to the lengthened war preparations of Austria as equivalent to a declaration of war. "Russia, as well as myself, is indignant at the extravagant conduct of Austria," he wrote to the King of Wurtemberg, on the 15th January; "we cannot conceive what madness has taken possession of the court of Vienna. When your Majesty reads this letter I shall be in Paris. One part of my army of Spain is now returning, to form an army of reserve; but, independently of that, without touching a single man of my army of Spain, I can send into Germany 150,000 men, and be there myself to advance with them upon the Inn at the end of February, without counting the troops of the Confederation. I suppose that your Majesty's troops are ready to march on the slightest movement; you are sensible of the great importance, if war is absolutely necessary, of carrying it on in our enemy's territory, rather than leaving it to settle on that of the Confederation. I beg of your Majesty to let me know in Paris your opinion on all those points. Can the waters of the Danube have acquired the property of the river Lethe?"

At the same time, to instruct King Joseph in the government of Spain, at the moment when that prince was about to visit his capital again, he thus wrote to him, at Prado:—"General Belliard's movement is excellent; a score of worthless fellows ought to be hanged. To-morrow I am to have seven hanged here, known to have had a share in all the excesses, and a nuisance to the respectable people, who have secretly denounced them, and who now regain courage on finding themselves rid of them. You must do the same at Madrid. Five-sixths of the town are good, but honest folks should be encouraged, and they cannot be so except by keeping in check the riff- raff. Unless a hundred or so of rioters and ruffians are got rid of, nothing is done. Of that hundred, get twelve or fourteen shot or hanged, and send the rest into France to the galleys. I think it necessary, especially at the first start, that your government should show a little vigor against the riff-raff. They only like and respect those whom they fear, and their fear alone may procure you the love and esteem of the rest of the nation.

"The state of Europe compels me to go to spend three weeks in Paris, and if nothing prevent I shall return here about the end of February. I believe I wrote you to make your entry into Madrid on the 14th. Denon wishes to take some paintings. I should prefer you to take all that are in the confiscated houses and suppressed convents, and make me a present of about fifty of its master-pieces, for the Paris museum. At the proper time and place I shall give you others. Send for Denon, and give him a hint of this. You understand that they must be really good; and it is said you are immensely rich in that kind."

King Joseph retook possession of his capital with a great display of magnificence, the brilliant success of the French arms having rallied round him the timid, and the discontented keeping silence. Before setting out for Paris, where he arrived on the 24th, the emperor said, "The attack upon Valentia must not be thought of until Saragossa is taken, which must be during the month of February:" and Marshal Lannes, who had charge of the siege operations for a month, justified the hopes of his master. On the 21st February, 1809, Saragossa at last surrendered, having been the object of several French attacks since June, 1808.

After the battle of Tudela the whole of the army in Aragon had fallen back upon Saragossa. Joseph Palafox had shut himself up in it with his two brothers, and the country population having followed in great numbers, 100,000 human beings were crowded together behind the ramparts of the town, in its old convents, within the dull walls of its embattled houses— almost everywhere without outside windows, and already threatening the enemy with their gloomy aspect. Throughout the province, at the call of the defenders of Saragossa the insurgent peasants intercepted the convoys of provisions intended for the French army, and the besiegers no less than the besieged suffered from want of food.

Napoleon had undervalued the resistance of the inhabitants of Saragossa. Always ordering the movements of his troops himself, and from a distance, he had sent Marshal Moncey with insufficient forces; and soon after, Junot was entrusted with the attack. The sallies of the Spanish were easily repulsed, but each assault cost a large number of men. The Aragonian riflemen, posted on the ramparts or the roofs of the houses, brought down, without exposing themselves, the bravest of our grenadiers. Everywhere the women brought the artillery-men food and ammunition; and one of them, finding a piece abandoned, applied the match to it herself, and continued firing it for several days. The whole of the population fought on the walls until they should have to fight in the streets and houses.

From redoubt to redoubt, from convent to convent, General Junot had slowly advanced, till the middle of January, 1809. When at last Marshal Lannes appeared before Saragossa, he had called to his assistance large reinforcements; and the troops posted in the suburbs, and who had not yet shared in the action, dispersed the hostile crowd there. The attack commenced with a vigor which quite equalled the energy of the resistance; and on the 27th January, after a general assault, which was deadly and long-continued, the entire circuit of the walls was carried by the French troops. It is a maxim of war that every town deprived of the protection of its walls capitulates, or surrenders at discretion; but in Saragossa the real struggle—the struggle of the populace—was only beginning. On the 28th, Lannes wrote to the emperor: "Never, sire, have I seen such keen determination as in putting our enemies here on their defence. I have seen women come to be killed at a breach. Every house has to be taken by storm; and without great precaution we should lose many soldiers, there being in the town 30,000 or 40,000 men, besides the inhabitants. We now hold Santa- Engracia as far as the Capucine convent, and have captured fifteen guns. In spite of all the orders I have given to prevent soldiers from rushing forward, their ardor getting the better of them has given us 200 wounded more than we ought to have."

And a few days afterwards: "The siege of Saragossa resembles in nothing any war we have hitherto had. It is a business requiring great prudence and great energy. We are obliged to take every house by mining or assault. These wretches defend themselves with a keen determination which is inconceivable. In a word, sire, it is a horrible war. At this moment three or four parts of the town are on fire, and it is crushed with shells, yet our enemies are not intimidated. We are laboring might and main to get to the faubourg; and once we are masters of it, I hope the town will not long hold out."

During the first siege of Saragossa, Marshal Lefebvre, on getting possession of one of the principal convents, sent to Joseph Palafox the short despatch: "Head-quarters, Santa-Engracia. Capitulation." And the defender of the place replied: "Head-quarters, Saragossa. War to the knife." It was war to the knife, to the musket, to the mine, which was pursued from house to house, from story to story. To go along the streets, the French soldiers were obliged to slip past close to the walls, the enemy being so keen and eager that a shako or coat held up on the point of a sword to deceive them was instantly riddled with balls. More than one detachment after taking a building were suddenly blown up, by being secretly undermined. Our soldiers in their turn replied by some important underground works, which were ably organized by Lacoste, colonel of the engineers. From the 29th January to the 18th February the same struggle was pursued, with the same keen determination. A day was chosen for the assault of the faubourg, which General Gazan had long invested. The troops were impatient to make this last effort, being both irritated and depressed. They both suffered and saw others suffer. The misery in the town, however, was greater than the besiegers could suspect. A terrible epidemic was decimating those who were left of the defenders of Saragossa. Joseph Palafox himself was dying.

After the breach was opened in the ramparts of the faubourg, a frightful explosion announced the destruction of the immense University buildings, laying open to our soldiers the Coso, or Holy Street, which passed through the whole town. The ground was everywhere mined, and the very heart of Saragossa was at its last extremity, when the Junta of Defence at last yielded to the necessity which was bearing them down, and a messenger presented himself before Marshal Lannes in the name of Don Joseph Palafox. We have seen the painful illusions created by the isolation of a besieged town: the defenders of Saragossa believed that the Spanish had been victorious everywhere, and it was only on the word of honor of Marshal Lannes that they accepted the sad truth. The 12,000 men of the garrison who had resisted all the horrors of the siege, surrendered as prisoners of war. Of 100,000 inhabitants who had crowded Saragossa, 54,000 had perished. There were heaps of dead bodies round the old church, Our Lady del Pilar, object of the passionate devotion of the whole population. In their real heart, and at the first moment of victory, the French soldiers felt for the defenders of Saragossa an admiration mixed with anger and alarm. Rage alone animated the heart of their most illustrious leader. Napoleon had sometimes honored the resistance of his enemies, as at Mantua; now, on his attaining the height of power and glory, he no longer admitted that the Spanish should defend their independence against a usurpation stained with perfidy. "My Brother," he wrote to King Joseph on the 11th March, "I have read an article in the Madrid Gazette, giving an account of the taking of Saragossa, in which they eulogize those who defended that town—no doubt to encourage those of Valencia and Seville. That is certainly a strange policy. I am sure there is not a Frenchman who has not the greatest scorn for those who defended Saragossa. Those who allow such vagaries are more dangerous for us than the insurgents. In a proclamation, mention is already made of Saguntum: that, in my opinion, is most imprudent."

Many things at this juncture chafed the mind of the imperious master of the world. He had left Spain immediately after a series of successes, without deceiving himself as to their importance and decisive value with reference to the permanent establishment of the French monarchy in Madrid. He foresaw the difficulties and perpetually recurring embarrassments of a command being divided, when the nominal authority of King Joseph was unable to govern lieutenants who were powerful, distinguished, and jealous. To obviate this inconvenience, and maintain that unity of action which he considered an indispensable element of success, he had kept to himself the supreme direction of the military operations, and attempted to govern the war in Spain from a distance, at the moment when he was organizing and recruiting his armies to support in Germany a determined struggle against all the forces of the Austrian empire. Italy, Holland, the Rhenish Confederation, all the states which he had founded or subdued, claimed his support or vigilance. Russia remained quiet because she was powerless and disarmed, but a serious check would have speedily thrown her with ardor on the side of his enemies. Russia, compelled by recent treaties and pressing interests, concealed under friendly phrases a secret indifference, and the beginning of her enmity: being, moreover, occupied by her own conquests, by the uncompleted subjugation of Finland, and a renewal of her struggle with Turkey. England, irritated and humiliated by the check undergone by her attempts at intervention in Spain, was energetically preparing new and more successful efforts. In presence of so many enemies, concealed or declared—compelled to regulate so many affairs, the government, oppression, and conquest of so many races— Napoleon, on returning to Paris after his Spanish campaign, had found men's dispositions changed, and precursory signs of an open discontent which he was not accustomed to meet or to suffer.