1808. CHAP. than Calvo, with a band of assassins, hastened to the LIII. spot, and, spreading the cry that the French were escaping, so worked upon the passions of the populace assembled as to induce them to join his murderers, and they were all massacred without mercy. Wearied with slaughter, and yielding to the solicitations of some benevolent ecclesiastics, who earnestly besought them to desist, the assassins at length agreed to spare those who still survived in the citadel; but no sooner did Calvo hear of this returning feeling of humanity than he hastened to the spot, and conducted the remaining prisoners outside the walls to a 1 South. i. ruined tower called the Tour de Cuarte. There he spread Tor. i. 238, a false report that papers had been found upon them, iii. 244, 246. proving a design to deliver up the citadel to the French; and the mob, again infuriated, fell upon their victims, and despatched them to a man.1 363, 366. 240. Foy, Thiers, ix. 38. 42. Descrved punishment his asso ciates. Above three hundred French citizens, wholly innocent of the misdeeds of their Emperor, perished on that dreadof Calvo and ful night. The junta were overawed; the magistrates of the city, elected by popular suffrage, proved powerless, as might have been expected, in repressing these excesses. Calvo, unopposed, drunk with blood, not only despatched his orders from the citadel during the whole massacre like a sovereign prince, but in the morning was named a member of the junta, at the very moment that Rico was concerting measures for his apprehension, and took his seat, with his clothes yet drenched with gore, at the council-board of government! It affords some consolation to the friends of virtue to know, that the triumph of this miscreant was not of long duration. Excited almost to insanity by his execrable success, he openly aspired to supreme power, and had already given orders for the apprehension of the other members of the government, when a sense of their common danger made them unite, like the Convention on the 9th Thermidor, against the tyrant. He was suddenly arrested and sent to Minorca, before the mob, who certainly would have LIII. rescued him and massacred the junta, were aware of his CHAP. seizure. There he was strangled in prison, and the government having regained their authority by this vigorous act, two hundred of his associates underwent the same fate. A severe but necessary deed of public justice, which at least rescued the nation generally from the disgrace of these atrocious deeds, and one indicating a very different standard of public morality from that which 'Tor. i. 240, prevailed in France during its Revolution, where only were such crimes almost invariably committed impunity, but their perpetrators were elevated to highest situations in the state.1* 244. Foy, not iii. 246, 247. with 368, 370. South. i. Thiers, ix the 39. 43. measures the nobles of its junta. These deplorable disorders sufficiently demonstrated that the best of causes cannot obviate the dangers of Prudent popular insurrection, and that, unless the higher orders adopted by and holders of property early and courageously exert at Seville. themselves to obtain its direction, a revolutionary move-Proceedings ment, even when called forth by the noblest motives and in the national defence, speedily falls under the guidance of the most depraved of the people. But by adopting this prudent and patriotic course, the higher classes at Seville succeeded not only in preserving their own city from servile atrocities, but acquired an ascendancy which was attended with the greatest public benefit, and gave their junta almost the general management of the affairs of Spain. There, as elsewhere in the south, the public * Only one prisoner escaped this hideous massacre. Chance had selected for his murderer a man whom he had frequently relieved in prison; the wretch recognised his benefactor, and though he twice raised his dagger to strike him, yet twice a sense of pity arrested his uplifted arm, and at length he suffered him to escape in the obscurity of the night among the populace. An extraordinary instance of presence of mind occurred in the daughter of the Count de Cervellon. The people, distrustful of their leaders, had insisted that the mail from Madrid should be brought to the Count, and the letters it contained publicly read; hardly was it opened when one from the Auerdo Real was discovered, to Murat, exculpating himself from the share he had taken in the insurrection, and demanding troops. The courageous young lady, who was present, instantly seized the letter, and tore it in pieces in presence of the multitude, saying it related to her own private affairs; thereby saving the whole members of the junta from immediate death, though at the imminent hazard of her own life.-See SOUTHEY, i. 367; and TORENO, i. 234, 235, LIII. 1808. May 26. May 27. CHAP. effervescence began with murder, and the Count d'Aguilar, one of the chief magistrates and most enlightened citizens, who became the innocent object of their suspicion, fell a victim to the ungovernable passions of the populace, who, when too late, lamented the irreparable crime they had committed. Speedily, however, the junta was elected ; and happily, though all ranks were represented, a preponderance of votes, out of the twenty-three members of which it was composed, was in the hands of the nobility. The wisdom of the choice which had been made soon appeared in the measures which were adopted. Immediately they despatched couriers to Cadiz and Algesiras, to secure the assistance of the naval and military forces which were there assembled; and by the aid of Castanos, the commander of the latter, who was at the head of the 206, Foy, troops before Gibraltar in the camp of St Roque, and who Espanol. i. had already entered into communication with Sir Hugh ix. 23, 23. Dalrymple, the governor of that fortress, the entire cooperation of the army was secured.' 1 Tor. i. 204, iii. 201, 292. 13. Thiers, 44. overthrow of the extreme democrats. A violent demagogue, named Tap-y-Nunez, who had Fortunate acquired a great sway over the populace, and who required that the nobility should be expelled from the junta, was arrested and sent to Cadiz; and this necessary act of vigour confirmed the authority of the provisional government. At its head was Don Francisco Saavedra, who had formerly been minister of finance, and P. Gil de Sevilla, who had both been sufferers under Godoy's administration; and the combined prudence and energy of their measures formed a striking contrast to the conceit, declamation, and imbecility which, in many other quarters of the Peninsula, afterwards rendered nugatory all the enthusiam of the people. The regular troops were immediately directed towards the Sierra Morena to secure the passes; a general levy of all persons between the years of eighteen and forty-five was ordered; subsidiary juntas were formed in all the towns of Andalusia a; the great foundery of cannon at Seville, the only one in LIII. 1808. June 6. the south of Spain, was put into full activity, and arms and CHAP. clothing were manufactured. War was soon after declared in a formal manner against France, and a manifesto issued, which not only eloquently defended the national cause, but contained the most admirable instructions as to the mode of successfully combating the formidable enemy with whom they had to contend. This declaration from so great a city, containing seventy thousand inhabitants, and embracing all the nobility of the south of Spain 201, 203. within its walls, was of the utmost consequence, and gave, 312, 346. both in reality and in the eyes of Europe, a degree of 207, 215. consistence to the insurrection which it could never other-13. wise have obtained.1* 1 Foy, iii. South. i. Tor. x. 204, Espanol. i. the French Cadiz. The first important blow struck at the French was 45. delivered at Cadiz. The fleet there, consisting of five ships Capture of of the line and one frigate, the only existing remnant of fleet at that which had fought at Trafalgar, early excited the jea-14. lousy of the inhabitants, to whom the French flag had become an object of perfect abhorrence; while Lord Collingwood, at the head of the English squadron which lay off the harbour, effectually prevented their departure. To withdraw as far as possible from the danger, Rosilly, the French admiral, warped his ships up the harbour, to the Junta of * In this proclamation, which may be considered as the national declaration of Spain against France, it was not less justly than eloquently observed—“ The ProclamaKing, to whom we all swore allegiance with emotions of joy unprecedented in tion of the history, has been decoyed from us; the fundamental laws of our monarchy Seville have been trampled under foot: our property, customs, religion, laws, wives against Naand children are threatened with destruction. And a foreign power has done poleon. this done it, too, not by force of arms, but by deceit and treachery; by converting the very persons who call themselves the heads of our government into instruments of these atrocious acts. It therefore became indispensable to break our shackles; and to put forth that noble courage with which in all former ages the Spanish people have defended their monarch, their laws, their honour, their religion. The people of Seville have assembled, and, through the medium of all their magistrates and constituted authorities, and the most respectable individuals of every rank, formed this Supreme Council of Government. We accept the heroic trust; we swear to discharge it; and we reckon on the strength and energy of the whole nation. We have again proclaimed Ferdinand VII.; again sworn allegiance to him; sworn to die in his defence: this was the signal of our union, and it will prove the forerunner of happiness and glory to Spain. "The abdication, extorted by such detestable artifices from Ferdinand, was LIII. 1808. CHAP. entrance of the canal of Caracca to such a distance as to be beyond the reach of the fire both of the castles and the fleet; and at the same time endeavoured, by negotiating, to gain time for the arrival of the succours under Dupont, which he was aware were rapidly approaching through la Mancha and the Sierra Morena. Equally sensible, however, with his skilful opponent, of the importance of time in the operation, the Spanish general Morla insisted upon an immediate surrender, and constructed batteries in such places as to command the French ships even in their new stations. Lord Collingwood, who, with the English fleet in the bay, was an impatient spectator of these hostile preparations, offered the assistance of the British squadron to insure the reduction of the enemy; but the offer was courteously declined, from a wish, no doubt, that England might have no ground for any claim to the prizes which were expected. At length on the 9th June, a sufficient number of guns being mounted, wood, ii. 43. a heavy fire was opened upon the French ships, which, as they lay in a situation where they could not make any reply, soon produced a sensible effect,' and led to a June 14. 1 Tor. i. 217, 218. Foy, iii. 213, 214. Colling Thiers, ix. 80, 87. void, from want of authority in him who made it. The monarchy was not his to bestow, nor is Spain composed of animals subject to the absolute control of their owners. His title to the throne was founded on his royal descent and the fundamental laws of the realm. His resignation is void from the state of compulsion in which it was made, from the want of consent in the nation to which it related, from the want of concurrence in the foreign princes, the next heirs in succession to the throne. The French Emperor summoned a few deputies, devoted to himself, to deliberate in a foreign country, and surrounded by foreign bayonets, on the most sacred concerns of the nation; while he publicly declared a respectful letter, written to him by Ferdinand VII. when Prince of Asturias, was a criminal act, injurious to the rights of the sovereign! He has resorted to every other means to deceive us; he has distributed, with boundless profusion, libels to corrupt public opinion, in which, under the mask of respect for the laws and our holy religion, he covertly insults both. He assures us that the Supreme Pontiff sanctions his proceedings, while it is notorious that he has despoiled him of his dominions, and forced him to dismiss his cardinals to prevent him from conducting the government of the Church according to its fundamental constitution. Every consideration calls on us to unite and frustrate views so atrocious. No revolution exists in Spain; our sole object is to defend all we hold most sacred against the invader who would treacherously despoil us of our religion, our monarch, our laws. Let us therefore sacrifice everything in a cause so just; and if we are to lose all, let us lose |