LII. 1808. CHAP. Retiro, the French returned to the charge: rapid discharges of grape cleared the streets of Alcala and San Geronymo; while the Polish lancers and Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard, following up the advantage, charged repeatedly through the flying masses, and took a bloody revenge for the death of their comrades. Meanwhile the Spanish troops, agitated by the sound of the tumult and discharges of artillery, but without any orders how to act, were uncertain what to do, when they were decided by an attack of the French on one of their barracks. Determined by this hostile act, the artillerymen drew out their guns, and placing themselves in front of the people, who had retreated to them for support, fired several rounds with fatal effect into the French columns, which were approaching. By a sudden rush, 1 Tor. i. 135, however, the cannon were carried, and a great part of i. 53, 55. the artillerymen bayoneted, among whom were the brave Daoiz and Velarde, illustrious as the first distinguished Lond. 4. men who fell in the Peninsular war. At two o'clock in Thib.vi.373, the afternoon the insurrection was suppressed at all 139. Nell. Nap. i. 23, 24. South. i. 310, 315. 374. Foy, Thiers, viii. iii. 163,170. points, and the troops on both sides had returned to their 611, 612. barracks:-on the side of the French two hundred had fallen; on that of the Spaniards, twelve hundred.1* 66. massacres ted by Murat. Hitherto neither party could be said to have been to Barbarous blame the tumult, however deplorable in its consequences, subsequent was evidently the result of a collision unpremeditated on ly commit- both sides; the measures of Napoleon had rendered unavoidable an ebullition of indignation on the part of the outraged Spanish nation; they had burst forth, and could not complain if they met with the usual fate or hazards of war. In repelling the violence with which they were assailed, the French had not exceeded the * "Suivant la correspondance du ministre de Prusse à Madrid, il aurait péri dans cette journée près de deux cents Français et environ douze cents Espag nols. Le recit de cet agent nous parait être exact. Temoin désinteressé, il n'a aucune raison pour augmenter ou restreindre le chiffre des pertes dans aucun des deux partis."-BIGNON, vii. 261, note. LII. 1808. bounds of military duty; the Spanish ministers, especially CHAP. O'Farril and Azanza, had thrown themselves into the thickest of the tumult, earnestly imploring a cessation of the strife, and, at the hazard of their own lives, had saved great numbers of both nations from destruction. Many deeds of generosity had occurred on both sides, and shed a lustre alike on the French and Spanish character. But at this juncture, after the fighting had ceased and the danger was entirely over, Murat commenced a massacre as unprovoked as it was impolitic, as unjustifiable as it was inhuman. Trusting to the amnesty which had been proclaimed by the chiefs on both sides, the Spaniards had resumed in part their ordinary occupations, or were walking about the streets discussing the events of the day, when great numbers of them were seized by the French soldiers, on the charge of having been engaged the tumult, hurried before a military commission, and Nap. i. 24." forthwith condemned to be shot.1 in 1 Tor. i. 141. Foy, iii. 171. Thib. vi.374. cious Preparations were immediately made to carry the sen- 67. tences into execution: the mournful intelligence spread His atrolike wildfire through Madrid; and all who missed a rela- cruelty. tion or friend were seized with an agonising fear that he was among the victims of military barbarity. While the people were in this state of anxiety, and when the approach of night was beginning to increase the general consternation, the firing began, and the regular discharge of heavy platoons at the Retiro, in the Prado, the Puerto del Sol, and the church of Senora de la Soledad, told but too plainly that the work of death was in progress. The dismal sounds froze every heart with horror: all that had been suffered during the heat of the conflict was as nothing compared to the agonising feeling of that coldblooded execution. Nor did the general grief abate when the particulars of the massacre became known. Numbers had been put to death, who were merely found in the South.i.316, streets with a knife on their persons, and who had never 24, 25. been in the conflict at all:2 all were denied the consola 171, 172. 2 Foy, iii. Thib.vi.374, 375. Tor. 141, 142. Lond. i. 74, 317. Nap.i. LII. CHAP. tions of religion in their last moments. Tied two and two, they were mown down by repeated discharges of 1808. musketry: the murders were continued on the following morning; and nearly a hundred had perished before, on the earnest intercession of the Spanish ministers, Murat consented to put a stop to the barbarity.* 68. This atrocious massacre was as impolitic as it was Unjustifi- unjustifiable. The Spaniards, who had taken up arms of this step. With such desperate though hopeless courage, to prevent able nature the last remnant of their royal family from being torn away from their capital, were not the subjects of the French crown, nor could they be regarded, either legally or morally, as rebels to its authority. Deprived as they were by the fraud and artifices of the French Emperor of their lawful sovereign, with their capital in the possession of his troops, and their fortresses perfidiously seized by his directions, they had no resource but in national resistance. To treat a nation so situated, when attempting to assert its rights, like rebels against their own government, and in cold blood put them to death in great numbers after the conflict was over, was so glaring an act of cruelty and injustice as could not fail to excite the unanimous indignation of mankind. Of all people in the world the French had the least right to object to such a popular effort in defence of the national independence, as it was founded on the principle on which their whole resistance to the coalition of the European powers against their Revolution had been founded, and * "Among those who were shot were many who had never been engaged in the conflict, and whose only crime consisted in being found on the streets with large knives or cutting instruments upon their persons. They were put to death without the assistance of their priest to console their last moments— a circumstance which in that religious country added to the horror which the executions excited."-Fox, iii. 172. The honesty and candour of General Foy are as admirable as his talents and eloquence. "At the distance of twenty years," says an eyewitness, the Spanish historian, "" our hair still stands on end at the recollection of that mournful and silent night, the calm of which was only interrupted by the cries of the unhappy victims, or the sound of the cannon and musketry discharged at intervals for which they had, on numberless occasions, held up to the CHAP. admiration and imitation of mankind. LII. 1808. 69. indignation The indignation, accordingly, which this massacre excited throughout Spain was indescribable. With a Extreme rapidity that never could have been anticipated, in a which this country where so little internal communication existed, massacre the intelligence flew from city to city, from province to Spain. province, and awakened that universal and energetic feeling of national resentment, which, if properly directed, is the certain forerunner of great achievements. With a spirit hitherto unknown in Europe since the commencement of the first triumphs of the French revolutionary armies, the people in all the provinces, without any concert amongst each other, or any direction from the existing authorities, began to assemble and concert measures for the national defence. Far from being intimidated by the possession of their capital and principal fortresses by the enemy, they were only roused, by the sight of such advantages in the hands of a perfidious foe, to the more vigorous exertions to dispossess him. The movement was not that of faction or party; it animated alike men of all ranks, classes, and professions. The flame spread equally in the lonely mountains as in the crowded cities; among the hardy labourers of the Basque provinces as 1 South. i. the light-hearted peasantry of the Andalusian slopes; 334, 336. amid the pastoral valleys of Asturias and the rich fields 76. Tor. iii. of Valencia, as in the crowded emporiums of Barcelona Foy, i. 189, and Cadiz.1 The movement was universal, unpremedi- vi. 411, 414. tated, and simultaneous; and within a week after the their destruction. The inhabitants all retired to their homes, deplored the cruel fate which was then befalling a parent, a brother, a child. We, in our family, were bewailing the loss of the unhappy Oviedo, whose release we had been unable to obtain, when he entered pale and trembling into the house. He had been saved by the generosity of a French officer, after his hands were bound, and he was drawn up for execution in the court of the Retiro, who was melted by the energy of his address, in that awful moment, to break his bonds, and set him at liberty. He was hardly out of the limits of the palace when he heard the discharges which terminated the agony of his companions in misfortune. Among the victims were many priests, old men, and persons of the most respectable character.”—TORENO, i. 142, 143. VOL. VIII. 2 A Lud. i. 74, 173, 175. 192. Thib. LII. CHAP. untoward tidings reached Bayonne, Napoleon was already engaged in a struggle, which threatened to be of the most 1808. sanguinary character, with the Spanish people. 70. arrives at and is kindly re Napoleon. April 20. While the perfidious invasion of Napoleon, and the Ferdinand cruel massacres of Murat, were thus exciting the flames Bayonne, of a national war in the Peninsula, matters were fast approaching a crisis at Bayonne. Intimidated by the violence of Murat, and no longer able to withstand the commands which he conveyed to them from his imperial master, the Infants Don Francisco and Don Antonio set out, the day after the tumult at Madrid was quelled, for Bayonne, leaving the capital without any native government, entirely at the mercy of the French generals. Before they could arrive at the place of their destination, however, matters had reached a crisis between Napoleon and the royal family of Spain. No sooner had Ferdinand taken the fatal step of crossing the Bidassoa, and throwing himself upon the generosity of the French Emperor, than he discerned, in the manner in which he was received, such tokens as inspired the most serious disquietude as to his future fate. The customary marks of respect to a crowned head were wanting; the French authorities addressed him only by the title of " Your Royal Highness," instead of "Your Majesty." His first reception by Napoleon, however, was calculated to dispel these sinister presentiments. Shortly after his arrival at Bayonne, the Emperor came in person on horseback, attended by a Cev. 33, brilliant staff, to pay him a visit; Ferdinand went to the 56, 58. Foy, end of the street to meet him; the Emperor embraced South..260, him round the neck, and though he never used the word viii. 582. Majesty, yet he treated him with such distinction as inspired the most flattering hopes.1 35. Escoiq. iii. 151. 261. Thiers, On the same day he went to dine at the château of Marac, where the imperial headquarters were established; Napoleon sent his own carriages to bring him and his suite to his palace, where he was received by the Emperor himself at the foot of the staircase-a piece of attention. |