CHAPTER LIV. NAPOLEON'S FIRST DISASTERS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. LIV. 1808. 1. measures against the tion. No sooner was Napoleon made aware, by the general CHAP. progress and formidable character of the insurrection, that a serious contest awaited him, than he set about, with all his usual caution and ability, preparing the means of Military overcoming its difficulties. Bessières received orders to adopted by put Burgos into a state of defence, to detach Lefebvre- Napoleon Desnouettes, with five thousand foot and eight hundred insurrec horse, against Saragossa, and to move his main body so as to overawe the insurgents in Biscay, Asturias, and Old Castile. A reinforcement of nine thousand men was prepared for Duhesme in Catalonia, which it was hoped would enable him to make head against the enemy in that quarter. A reserve was organised, under General Drouet, on the Pyrenean frontier of Navarre, which, besides affording Bessières continual additions of force, placed five thousand men in the openings of the valleys towards the castle of Jaca, which was in possession of the enemy; another reserve was established in Perpignan, and detachments were stationed in the eastern passes of the mountains. The communications and rear being thus adequately provided for, Marshal Moncey was directed, with a division of his corps eight thousand strong, to move upon Cuença, so as to prevent any communication between the patriots of Valencia and Saragossa, and subsequently threaten the former city; while Dupont, with twelve thou 1 CHAP. sand of his corps, received orders to proceed across the Sierra Morena towards Cordova and Seville. LIV. 1808. The re mainder of his corps and that of Moncey was stationed in reserve in La Mancha, to keep up the communications Napoleon's of the divisions pushed forward, and be in readiness, if pier, i. App. necessary, to support either which might require assistance. No.2. Ibid. With so much foresight and caution did the great comiii. 265,268. mander distribute his forces, even against an insurgent Orders. Na i. 60. Foy, Thiers, ix. 44, 48. 2. operations and Frère in Old Leon against the insur gents. peasantry, and an enemy at that period deemed wholly unable to withstand the shock of his veteran legions.1 The first military operations of any importance were Successful those of Marshal Bessières in Biscay and Old Castile. of Bessières That able officer was at Burgos with twelve thousand men, when the insurrection broke out with great violence Castile and in all directions around him. At the same moment he received advices that a body of five thousand armed men had got possession of the important depot of artillery at Segovia, and another assemblage of equal force was arming itself from the royal manufactory of arms at Palencia; while General Cuesta, the captain-general of the province, with a few regiments of regular troops and a strong body of undisciplined peasantry, had taken post at Cabeçon on the Pisuerga. These positions appeared to Savary, who was now the chief in command at Madrid, so alarming, as threatening the communications of the French with the capital and all the southern provinces, that he detached General Frère with his division, forming part of Dupont's corps, from the Escurial, in all haste to Segovia, where he routed the peasantry, and made himself master of all the artillery they had taken from the arsenal, amounting to thirty pieces. Meanwhile Bessières divided his disposable force into several movable columns, which, issuing from Burgos as a centre, traversed the country in all directions, everywhere defeating and disarming the insurgents, and reinstating the French authorities whom they had dispossessed. One of these divisions, under Verdier, routed the enemy at Logrono, and, with inhuman June 6. June 6. LIV. 1808. June 7. and unjustifiable cruelty, put all their leaders to death; CHAP. another, under Lasalle, broke the armed peasantry at Torquemada, burned the town, pursued them with merciless severity, and entered Palencia on the day following; while a third, under Merle, uniting with Lasalle, made straight for Cuesta at Cabeçon, on the Pisuerga, who June 12. Napier, i. accepted battle, but was speedily overthrown, and his 62, 63. Foy, whole new levies dispersed, with the loss of all their artil- i. 300. lery and several thousand muskets, which were thrown 49, 55. away in the pursuit.1 iii. 269. Tor. Thiers, ix. 3. the effect of duing that By these successes the whole level country in the upper part of the valley of the Douro was overawed and reduced Which had to submission. Segovia, Valladolid, Palencia, and all the entirely subprincipal towns which had revolted, were compelled to part of the send deputies to take the oath of allegiance to Joseph; country. and the terrible French dragoons, dispersing through the smaller towns and villages, diffused such universal consternation, that all the flat country in this quarter submitted to King Joseph and the French. Requisitions and taxes were levied without difficulty throughout the whole remainder of the campaign. General Merle, continuing his June 23. success, marched northward against the province of Santander in Asturias, forced the rugged passes of Lantuerio and Venta d'Escudo, and descending the northern side of the ridge of Santander, in concert with a portion of the reserve which the Emperor despatched to his assistance, Napier, i. made himself master of that town, and forced the intrepid i. 300, 307. Foy, iii. bishop, with his warlike followers, to take refuge in the 269, 285. inaccessible fastnesses of the neighbouring mountains.2 2 62, 64. Tor. 4. in Aragon. of Sara While Leon and Castile were the theatres of these successes, Aragon, though almost entirely destitute of Operations regular forces, was successful, after several bloody reverses, First siege in maintaining a more prolonged resistance to the enemy. gossa. Palafox and the junta of Saragossa had succeeded in arming and communicating the rudiments of discipline to an assembly of ten thousand infantry and two hundred horse, with which, and eight pieces of artillery, his brother, LIV. CHAP. the Marquis Lazan, ventured to march out of the city and await Lefebvre-Desnouettes in front of Indela. That officer, 1808. with a column 5000 strong, had set out from Pampeluna, crossed the Ebro at Valtierra, and rapidly descended its right bank. He drove Lazan out of Indela after a smart skirmish, but the Spaniard retired to a favourable position behind the Huecha. Though the French were not more than half the number of the enemy, they were, from the want of discipline in their opponents, and their own great superiority in cavalry, much more than a match for them. June 12. The peasants withstood several attacks in front; but a vigorous assault in flank threw them into disorder, and a charge by the Polish lancers completed their rout. Notwithstanding this defeat, the Aragonese who had escaped, having received reinforcements, again stood firm on the following day at Gallur, still nearer Saragossa, and were June 13. again overthrown. Upon this, Palafox himself marched out of the capital, at the head of five thousand burghers and peasants, and moved to reinforce the wreck of the former army at Alagon-an advantageous position, four leagues from the capital of the province, on the banks of the Xalon, near its confluence with the Ebro. But the June 14. undisciplined crowd, discouraged by the preceding defeats, was now in no condition to make head against the French legions. The burghers, at the first sight of the enemy, broke and fled; and though Palafox, with a few pieces of 291, 292 artillery, and three companies of regular troops, contrived Tor. i. 307, for long to defend the entrance of the town, they too were at last compelled to yield, aud retire in disorder into SARAGOSSA; and the French troops appeared before the city.1 1 Foy, iii. 308. South. i. 457. Thiers, ix. 56, 58. 5. of Sara Saragossa is situated on the right bank of the Ebro, Description in the midst of a fertile plain, abounding in olive gossa. groves, vineyards, gardens, and all the marks of longcontinued civilisation. It contained at that period fifty thousand inhabitants, though the sword and pestilence consequent on the two memorable sieges which it un Atlas, Plate 49. LIV. 1808. derwent, have since considerably reduced its numbers. CHAP. The immediate vicinity is flat, and in some places marshy; on the southern or right bank of the river it is bounded by the little course of the Huerba, the bed of which has been converted into a canal; while on the northern, the clearer stream of the Gallego, descending from the Pyrenean summits, falls at right angles into the Ebro. On the southern side, and at the distance of a quarter of a league, rises Monte Torrero, on the side of which is conducted the canal of Aragon-a noble work, commenced by the Emperor Charles V., forming a water communication without a single lock from Tudela to Saragossa. This hill commands all the plain on the right bank, and overlooks the town. Several warehouses and edifices, constructed for the commerce of the canal, were intrenched and occupied by twelve hundred men. The city itself, surrounded by a low brick wall, not above ten or twelve feet in height, and three in thickness, interrupted in many places by houses and convents which were built in its line, and pierced by eight gates, with no outworks, could scarcely be said to be fortified. Very few guns were on the ramparts in a state for service; but the houses were strongly built, partly of stone, partly of brick, and in general two stories in height, with each flat vaulted in the roof, so as to render them nearly proof against fire; while the massy piles of the convents, rising like castles in many quarters, afforded strong positions, if the walls were forced, to a desperate and inflamed population. Few regular generals would have thought of making a stand in such a city; but Florus has recorded 1Tor. ii. 1,4. that Numantia had neither walls nor towers when it Foy, iii. 293, 294. Nap. resisted so long and heroically the Roman legions; and i. 65, 66. Colmenar had said, nearly a century before, with a pro- Siège de phetic spirit, "Saragossa is without defences; but the 29, 33. valour of its inhabitants supplies the want of ramparts."1 The resolution to defend Saragossa cannot with justice be ascribed to any single individual, as the glory belongs VOL. VIII. 2 G Cavallero, Saragossa, |