CHAP. LIV. 1808. 88. whom The Marquis Napo- tains inforIt has what is Romana ob mation of in Spain. In the north of Europe, however, decisive steps were adopted by the British government, which had the happiest results, and succeeded in restoring to the Spanish standards ten thousand of the veteran soldiers the prudent foresight and anticipating perfidy of leon had so early removed from the Peninsula. been already mentioned, that so early as spring 1807, the going on French Emperor had made it the price of his reconciliation with Spain, after the premature proclamation of the Prince of the Peace in the October preceding, that she should furnish sixteen thousand men to aid in the contest in the north of Europe, and that the corps of the Marquis of Romana was in consequence forwarded to the shores of 1 Ante, ch. the Baltic. Soon after the commencement of hostilities xlvi. § 5. in the Peninsula, Castanos, who had entered into very cordial and confidential communications with Sir Hew Dalrymple, then chief in command at Gibraltar, strongly represented to that officer the great importance of conveying to the Spanish corps, which was stationed in Jutland, secret information as to the real state of affairs, which was likely to lead to their at once declaring for the cause of their country. In consequence of this advice, the English government made various attempts to communicate with the Spanish forces, but they were at first frustrated by the vigilant eye which the French kept on their doubtful allies. At length, however, by the address of a Catholic priest named Robertson, the dangerous communication was effected, and Romana was informed, in a secret conference held in Lahn, of the extraordinary 2 Tor. ii. events which had occurred in the Peninsula-the victory Nap. i. 337. in Andalusia, the repulse from Saragossa, the capitulation 336, 345. of Junot, the flight from Madrid.2 * * Robertson was despatched in a boat from Heligoland, of which the English had recently taken possession, to the coast of Jutland: but the principal difficulty was to furnish him with a secret sign of intelligence, which, beyond the reach of any other's observation, might at once convince Romana of the reality and importance of his mission. This was at last fallen upon in a very singular way. Romana, who was an accomplished scholar, had been formerly intimate with Mr Frere when ambassador in Spain; and one day, having called 68, 69. South. ii. CHAP. LIV. 1808. 89. the Mar quis and his troops. 13. Aug. 9. Violently agitated at this heart-stirring intelligence, the noble Spaniard did not for a moment hesitate as to the course which he should adopt. Robertson was immediEscape of ately sent back with a request that a British naval force might be forwarded to convey away his troops, and that, Aug. 9 and if possible, the assistance of Sir John Moore and the English troops at Gotenburg might be granted in aid of the undertaking. The latter part of the request could not be complied with, as Sir John Moore, with the British troops, had already sailed for England; but Admiral Keats, with the fleet stationed in those seas, drew near to the coast of Jutland, and suddenly appeared off Nyborg in the island of Funen. Romana, having seized all the Danish craft he could collect, pushed across the arm of the sea which separated the mainland from that island, and, with the assistance of Keats, made himself master of the port and castle of Nyborg. From thence he traversed another strait to Langland, where all the troops he could collect were assembled together, and publicly informed of the extraordinary events which had occurred in the Peninsula, and which went to sever them from the connection they had so long maintained with their brethren in arms. Kneeling around their standards, wrought to the highest pitch of enthusiasm by the intelligence they had received, with hands uplifted to heaven and tears streaming from their eyes, they unanimously swore i. 337, 338. to remain faithful to their country, and brave all the anger of the Emperor Napoleon, in the attempt to aid its fortunes.1 1 Tor. ii. 68, 70. Nap. South. ii. 336, 337. Such was the universal zeal which animated them, that one of the regiments which lay at Ebeltoft having received the intelligence at ten in the evening, immediately started, and journeying all night and the greater when he was reading the Gests of the Cid, the English ambassador suggested a conjectural emendation of one of the lines.* Romana instantly perceived the propriety of the proposed emendation; and this line so amended was made the passport which Robertson was to make use of, which at once proved successful. -See SOUTHEY, ii. 337. * "Aun vea el hora que vos Merezea dos tanto." LIV. 1808. 90. nary scene barkation troops. part of the next day, reached their comrades at the point CHAP. of embarkation in time to get off, after having marched fifty miles in twenty-one hours. Nine thousand five hundred were brought away, and after touching at Goten- Extraordiburg were forwarded in transports by the English at the emgovernment to the coasts of Galicia, where they were dis- of the embarked amidst shouts of joy before the middle of Sep- Aug. 13. tember, in time to share in the dangers which the efforts of Napoleon were preparing for their country. The remainder, being stationed in the middle of Jutland, could not be rescued, and were made prisoners by the French troops; and as the horses of two of the regiments of cavalry which embarked could not be provided for in the English ships, they were abandoned on the beach by the horsemen whom they had transported so far from their native plains. These noble animals, eleven hundred in number, of the true Andalusian breed, all of which were unmutilated, seemed to share in the passions which agitated their masters. No sooner were they liberated on the sands from control, than, forming into squadrons, they charged violently with loud cries against a herd of Holstein's horse grazing on the shore, whom they assailed with the utmost fury. When the British fleet hove out 1 Tor. ii. 68, of sight, they could still be discerned by telescopes, fight- ii. 336, 351. ing with each other on the beach, surrounded by the dead 33. and the dying, with all the fury of human passions.1 * This singular anecdote as to the horses, which were all of the highest breed, and in the finest condition, is related by Southey on the authority of Sir Richard Keats himself, as well as in a contemporary journal, Plain Englishman, i. 294, on the same high testimony.-SOUTHEY, ii. 346. The author had some doubts of this extraordinary story, till he found it decisively confirmed by the following passage in the Danish Andersen's works: "Die Spanier lagen im Jahre 1808, hin auf Fuhnen: die Englischen Schiffe kreuzten im Belt, und Romana floh mit dem ganzen Heere an Bord; aber die Pferde konnten sie nicht mitnehmen. Es waren die prachtigsten Andalusichen Thiere die man nur schon konnte. Die Spanier nahmen ihnen die Zugel ab und liessen sie hin auf dem felde wie wilde Pferde umher laufen. Hier grasten nun auch die Pferde von Nyborg; und als die Andalusier der unsorgen unsichtig würden stelten sie in eine Reihe auf und überfielin die Dänischen Pferde: Dar war ein Kampf ! Endlich fielen sie sich unter einander und schlugen sich, dass sie blutend zu boden sturzten. Als Knabe habe ich noch die Hirnschale einer dieser bestien gesehen."-ANDERSEN'S AUSGEWÄHLTE WERKE, iii. 74, 75. 70. South. Nap. i. 337, CHAPTER LV. IRRUPTION OF NAPOLEON INTO SPAIN. LV. 1808. THIS long and unprecedented train of disasters made the deepest impression on the far-seeing and prophetic mind of Napoleon. It was not the mere loss of soldiers, fortresses, or territory which affected him; these, to a Deep im- sovereign possessed of such almost boundless resources, which these were of little importance, and could easily be supplied. on the mind It was their moral influence which he dreaded: it was 1. pression events made on the of Napo leon. the shake given to the opinions of men which devoured him with anxiety. No one knew better, or has expressed more clearly and emphatically, that his empire was founded entirely on opinion; that it was the minds of men whom his own victories and those of the Revolution had really subdued; and that, great as their triumphs had really been, it was the imaginative idea of their invincibility which constituted the secret charm that had fascinated and subdued the world. Now, however, the spell appeared to be broken; the veil was drawn aside, the charm dissolved. This had been done, too, by hands whose weakness and inexperience augmented the severity of the blow. Armies had surrendered, kingdoms had been evacuated, capitals abandoned; in Andalusia the French legions had undergone a disgraceful capitulation, in Portugal experienced the fate of Closter-Seven. These disasters had been inflicted, not by the stern courage of Russia or the practised discipline of Austria; not by the skill of LV. 1808. civilisation or the perfection of art, but by the simple CHAP. enthusiasm of an insurgent people; by bands at which the French legions had with reason scoffed; by those island warriors whose descent on the Continent his tutored journals had hailed as the dawn of yet brighter glories to the French arms.* Such misfortunes, coming from such quarters, appeared with reason to be doubly 1 Thib. vii. 1, calamitous. His proclamations, instead of the heralds of 14. Month. victory, had become the precursors of defeat; and he South. ii. anticipated in their ultimate effect, not merely the possible Jom. ii. 79. expulsion of his arms from the Peninsula, but the general ix. 241,244. insurrection of Europe against his authority.1 t vi. 350. 359, 360, 81. Thiers, of Austria, tions with Already this effect had in some degree appeared. 2. Austria, by a decree of 9th June, had directed the forma- Armaments tion of a landwehr, or local militia, in all the provinces and negotiaof her still vast dominions. The Archduke Charles, at that power the head of the war department, had infused an unheard- and the of activity into all branches of the army; and three the Rhenish hundred thousand provincial troops, already in the course racy. * "Nothing," said the president of the senate, in his public speech," can be more agreeable to the French and to the Continent, than to see the English at length throw off the mask, and descend into the lists to meet our warriors. Would to God that eighty or a hundred thousand English would present themselves before us in an open field! The Continent has in every age been their tomb." Fifteen days afterwards the Convention of Cintra was published !— See Moniteur, 22d Sept. 1808. + On the 9th August 1808, after his retreat behind the Ebro, Joseph wrote to Napoleon: "I have all the world against me-all the world without exception. The upper classes themselves, at first uncertain, have ended by following the movement of the lower classes. There does not remain a single Spaniard attached to my cause. Philip V. had only one competitor to conquer: I have a whole nation . . . I renounce, then, to reign over a nation which does not desire me; nevertheless I do not desire to retire vanquished. Send me one of your old armies. I will re-enter Madrid at its head, and I will treat with the Spaniards. If you wish it, I will return them Ferdinand VII. in your name, but retaining a portion of their territory as far as the Ebro; because France victorious has the right to be paid the price of her victory. She will thus obtain the cost of her exertions, of her blood spilt, and I will demand from you back the throne of Naples. The prince for whom you have destined it has not yet taken possession. I am, besides, your brother and your own blood. Justice and relationship both require that I should have the preference; and I will go there to continue, in the midst of a repose which suits my tastes, the happiness of a people which consents to owe its prosperity to my cares."THIERS, ix. 236, 237. princes of Confede |