CHAP. 1808. July 10. July 17. failures convinced Verdier of the necessity of making approaches in form, and completing the investment of the city, which still received constant supplies of men and provisions from the surrounding country. With this view he threw a bridge of boats over the Ebro, and having thus opened a communication with the left bank, the communication of the besieged with the country, though not entirely cut off, was, after hard fighting, for many days restrained within very narrow limits. Before this could be effected, however, the patriots received a reinforcement from the regiment of Estremadura, eight hundred strong, with the aid of which they made a desperate sally with two thousand men to retake the Monte Torrero. But though the assailants fought with the utmost vehemence, they were unable to prevail against the disciplined valour of the French, and were repulsed with very heavy loss, including that of their commander. After this disaster they were necessarily confined to their walls; and the French approaches having been at length completed, the breaching batteries opened against the quarters of St Engracia and Aljafiria, and a terrible bombardment having at the same time 1 Cav. 51, 55. been kept up, a powder-magazine blew up with fearful 25. Foy, iii. devastation in the public walk of the Corso. The slender 298, 300. wall being soon laid in ruins, the town was summoned to surrender; but Palafox having rejected the offer, preparations were made for an assault.1 Aug. 3. Tor. ii. 21, Nap. i. 68, 69. 10. Desperate assault of the town. The storm took place on the 4th August. Palafox at an early hour stationed himself on the breach, and even when the forlorn hope was approaching, refused all terms of capitulation. The combat at the ruined rampart was long and bloody; but after a violent struggle, the French penetrated into the town, and made themselves masters of the street of Santa Engracia. Deeming themselves now in possession of Saragossa, their numerous battalions poured through the deserted breach, overspread the ramparts on either side, while a close column pushed on, with fixed bayonets and loud cheers, from Santa Engracia to the street of Corso. But a desperate resistance there awaited them. Despite all the efforts of the citizens, they penetrated into the centre of the street, planted the tricolor flag on the church of the Cross near CHAP. 1808. its middle, and pierced into the convent of St Francisco on its left, and the lunatic asylum on its right, whence the insane inmates, taking advantage of the confusion, issued forth, and mingled, with frightful cries, shouts, and grimaces, among the combatants. To add to the consternation, another powder-magazine blew up in the thickest of the fight, and the burning fragments falling in all directions, set the city on fire in many different quarters. But notwithstanding all these horrors, the Spaniards maintained the conflict. An incessant fire issued from the windows and roofs of the houses; several detached bodies of the enemy which penetrated into the adjoining streets, were repulsed; a column got entangled in a long crooked street, the Arco de Cineja, and was driven back into the Corso with great slaughter; Palafox, 1 Cav. 56, 59. Calvo, Tio Jorge, and Tio Martin vied with each other in Tor. ii. 25, heroism; and when night separated the combatants, the 70. French were in possession of one side of the Corso and the citizens of the other.1 29. Nap. i. 11. contest in the streets. The successful resistance thus made to the enemy after they had penetrated into the city, and the defences of the place, in a military point of view, had been overcome, Continued showed the Saragossans with what prospects they might maintain the conflict even from house to house. But their gallant leader was not without apprehensions that their ammunition might fail, or the defenders be ruinously reduced during so prolonged a struggle; and, therefore, no sooner had the first triumph of, the enemy been arrested, than he hastened out of the town to accelerate the arrival of the reinforcements which he knew were approaching, and exerted himself with so much vigour during the succeeding days, that on the morning of the 8th he succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the besiegers, and re-entered the city at the head of three thousand men, and a large convoy of ammunition and provisions. It may easily be imagined with what transports they were received, for, in the interim, the citizens had had a desperate conflict to maintain, from which they never enjoyed one moment's respite. From street to street, 2 Cav. 58, from house to house, from room to room, the fight was 62. Tor. ii. kept up with incredible obstinacy on both sides.2 Every ii. 320. post became the theatre of bloody strife, to which com 28, 30. Foy, СНАР. 1808. 12. The Spaniards gradu ally regain the ascendant. pany after company, column after column, regiment after regiment, were successively brought up; while the fire of musketry, the roar of artillery, the flight of bombs, the glare of conflagration, and the cries of the combatants, continued without intermission night and day. But all the efforts of the besiegers were in vain : animated almost to frenzy by the long duration and heartstirring interest of the conflict, all classes vied with each other in heroic constancy. The priests were to be seen at the posts of danger, encouraging the soldiers, and administering consolation to the wounded and the dying; the women and children carried water incessantly to the quarters on fire, attended the wounded, interred the dead. Many even forgot the timidity of their sex, and took the places of their slain husbands or brothers at the cannon side. The citizens relieved each other night and day in the mortal and perpetual struggle with the enemy. Such was the vigour of the resistance, that, from the 4th to the 14th August, the besiegers made themselves masters only of four houses; one in front of the Treasury was only won after an incessant combat of six days' duration. After the arrival of the reinforcements under Palafox, the conflict was no longer equal. Symptoms of discouragement were manifest in the enemy; sinister rumours circulated on both sides, of a great disaster in the south; and they were gradually losing ground, even in those quarters of which they had obtained possession during the first burst of the assault. Still the fire of artillery continued, and was particularly violent during the night of the 14th August; but at daybreak on the following morning it suddenly ceased, and the besieged, when the sun rose, beheld with astonishment the enemy at some distance, in full retreat, traversing the plain towards Pampeluna. The victory was complete: the heavy cannon and siege stores were all abandoned or thrown into the canal; and the inhabitants, with enthusiastic Tor. ii. 28, 32, shouts of transport, concluded, amidst cries of "Long live Foy, ii. 321, Our Lady of the Pillar!" the ceremony of the fête Dieu, which had been interrupted by the commencement of the siege on the 16th June.1 1 Cav. 59, 63. 331. South. ii. 25, 31. In truth, while this sanguinary conflict was raging in Saragossa, disasters of the most serious nature had been CHAP. 1808. 13. Moncey in June 5. experienced by the French in the south and east of Spain. Moncey, who had set out from Madrid early in June, with eight thousand men, to suppress the insurrection in Valencia and cut off the communication between that city and Saragossa, reached Cuença on the 11th, Operations of where he remained inactive for several days. Resuming Valencia. at length his march on the 16th, he advanced by Pesquiera towards Valencia: but as he penetrated farther into the country, the universal desertion of the towns and villages, and evident traces of armed men on his line of march, gave gloomy presages of an approaching storm. In the first instance, however, these indications proved fallacious. Some Swiss companies, with a body of armed peasants and four pieces of cannon, had, indeed, taken post to defend the strong and important pass of the bridge of Pajazo, on the river Cabriel; but the June 21. new levies dispersed on the first appearance of the enemy, and the greater part of the Swiss troops joined the invaders; so that the bridge was gained without any difficulty. Encouraged by this success, Moncey wrote to General Chabran, who was ordered to co-operate with him from the side of Catalonia, appointing a rendezvous on the 28th, under the walls of Valencia; and, advancing forward, approached the rocky ridge of calcareous mountains called the Cabrillas, which forms the western boundary of the kingdom of Valencia. A single road traversed, by a rapid and laborious ascent, this rugged barrier; and as the adjoining heights were impassable for cavalry, a more advantageous position for resisting the enemy could not have been desired. The summits of the rocks which bordered the defile on either side, were covered with armed peasants to the number of six thousand; and four pieces of artillery, supported by a regiment of regular troops, and a troop of horse, guarded the main road. All these obstacles, however, were speedily overcome. While June 24. the cavalry and artillery engaged the attention of the enemy in front, General Harispe turned their flank, and by a rapid attack over almost inaccessible rocks, threw 1 Nap. i. 92, them into confusion, dispersed the new levies, and 93. Tor. i. captured all the ammunition, baggage, and artillery. Foy, iii. Nothing now remained to retard the advance of the in- 250, 253. vaders; the summit of the ridge was soon gained,1 from VOL. XII. E 326, 329. CHAP. 1808. 14. and prepara defence. which the French soldiers, wearied with the arid mountains and waterless plains of Castile, beheld, with the delight of the Israelites of old, the green plains and irrigated meadows and level richness of the promised land, and three days afterwards they appeared before the walls of Valcenia. Situated on the right of the Guadalaviar or Turia, and in the vicinity of the sea, Valencia is one of the most Description delightful cities which is to be found in Europe. It of Valencia, contains a hundred thousand inhabitants; but of that tions for its number more than one-half inhabit the enchanting suburban villas which lie without the walls. These walls consist of an old rampart of unhewn stones, rudely put together, including within their circuit a decayed citadel. In a military point of view, therefore, it could hardly be regarded as a place of defence; but the spirit and circumstances of the inhabitants rendered the slightest rampart a tower of strength. The enthusiasm of the people ran high; their hatred of the invaders was inextinguishable; and the crimes they had committed were too serious to give them any rational hope of safety but in the most determined resistance. It is a melancholy but certain fact, that in revolutionary movements, as in all others where passion is the prime mover, the most enduring and often successful efforts result from the consciousness of such enormities as leave no hope but in obstinate hostility 1 Tor. 329, 330 iii. 253, 255. Nap. i. 93. 66 una spes victis, nullam sperare salutem." The junta had ably and energetically directed the public activity; engineers had marked out intrenchments and planted batteries to protect the principal gates of the city; a fortified camp had been constructed at a league from the walls; and the inhabitants, without distinction of age, rank, or sex, had laboured night and day, for several weeks past, to complete the works on which their common safety depended. Within the gates, preparations had been made for the most vigorous resistance; trenches had been cut, and barriers constructed across the principal streets; chariots and carts overturned, so as to impede the advance of the assailants; the windows were filled with mattresses, and the doors barricaded; while a plentiful array of fire-arms, stones, |