LIV. 1808. trated into the centre of the street, planted the tricolor CHAP. flag on the church of the Cross near its middle, and pierced into the convent of St Francisco on its left, and the lunatic asylum on its right, whence the inmates, taking advantage of the confusion, issued forth, and mingled with frightful cries among the combatants. To add to the consternation, another powder-magazine blew up in the thickest of the fight, and the burning fragments 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 Cosso with great slaughter; Palafox, Calvo, Tio Jorge, and Tio Martin, vied with each other in heroism; and when 'Cav. 56,59. night separated the combatants, the French were in pos- 29. Nap. i. session of one side of the Cosso and the citizens of the ix. 199, 200. other.1 Tor. ii. 25, 70. Thiers, contest in The successful resistance thus made to the enemy after 11. they had penetrated into the city, and the defences of Continued the place, in a military point of view, had been overcome, the streets. 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 CHAP. 1808. 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, from house to house, from room to room, the fight was kept up with incredible obstinacy on both sides. Every post became the theatre of bloody strife, to which com1 Cav. 58, pany after company, column after column, regiment after 62. Tor. ii. regiment, were successively brought up; while the fire of musketry, the roar of artillery, the flight of bombs, the 201, 202. glare of conflagration, and the cries of the combatants, continued without intermission night and day.1 28, 30. Foy, ii. 320. Thiers, ix. 12. iards gradu ally regain the ascendant. But all the efforts of the besiegers were in vain. AniThe Span- mated almost to frenzy by the long duration and heartstirring interest of the conflict, all classes of the besieged 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's 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 the French 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 LIV. 1808. ceased, and the besieged, when the sun rose, beheld with CHAP. 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 shouts of transport, concluded, 63. Tor. ii. amidst cries of "Long live Our Lady of the Pillar!" the ii. 321, 331. ceremony of the fête Dieu, which had been interrupted 25, 31. by the commencement of the siege on the 16th June.1 1 28, 32. Foy, South. ii. June 5. In truth, while this sanguinary conflict was raging in 13. Saragossa, disasters of the most serious nature had been Operations of Moncey experienced by the French in the south and east of Spain. in Valencia. Moncey, who had set out from Madrid early in June, with eight thousand men to suppress the insurrection in Plate 48. Valencia and cut off the communication between that city and Saragossa, reached Cuença on the 11th, where he remained inactive for several days. Resuming 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 new levies dispersed June 21. 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, and the original sea-wall, built by nature, of the lofty LIV. -1808. June 24. CHAP. plateau of Castile against the waves of the Mediterranean sea. 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 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 them into confusion, dispersed the new levies, and captured all the ammunition, baggage, and artillery. Nothing now remained to retard the advance of the invaders; the summit of the ridge was soon gained, from which the French soldiers, wearied with the arid mounNap. i. 92, tains and waterless plains of Castile, beheld, with the 326, 329. delight of the Israelites of old, the green plains and irrigated meadows and level richness of the promised land, 120, 122. and three days afterwards they appeared before the walls of Valencia.1 93. Tor. i. Foy, iii. 250, 253. Thiers, ix. 14. of Valencia, defence. Situated on the right of the Guadalaviar or Turia, and Description in the vicinity of the sea, Valencia is one of the most and prepara delightful cities which is to be found in Europe. It contion for its tains eighty thousand inhabitants; but of that 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. 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 In a 66 LIV. 1808. give them any rational hope of safety but in the most CHAP. 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 -“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, 1 Tor. 329, and the doors barricaded; while a plentiful array of fire- 330, Foy, arms, stones, and boiling oil, was prepared on the flat Nap. i. 93. tops of the houses to rain down death on the enemy.1 iii. 253, 255. the city. The wreck of the troops and armed peasants who had 15. combated at the Cabrillas, took refuge in the intrenched Attack on camp of Cuarte without the walls, where they occupied Its repulse. in force the sides of the canal which unites the waters of the Guadalaviar to those of the Fera. In that position they were attacked early on the morning of the 27th, June 27. and, after three hours' firing, driven back to the batteries and intrenchments in front of the gates. There, however, a more determined stand was made: and Moncey, desirous of bringing up his whole forces and artillery, deferred the attack on the city itself till the following day. Hardly an eye was closed in Valencia during the succeeding night. All ranks, and both sexes, laboured incessantly to complete the preparations for defence; and so great was the universal activity, that when the rays of |