all their artillery, consisting of 40 pieces of cannon. Six thousand were made prisoners, according to the French accounts, and more than 12,000 left on the field of battle. All their baggage and military stores fell into the hands of the French. The Spaniards fled first to Benevento, from whence, after a short halt, they continued their retreat to Labenara, Leon, and Astorga. They were pursued by marshal Bessieres, who at Benevento, July 19th, found an immense quantity of arms and ammunition, Here, he received a letter of submission from the inhabitants of Zamora, and on the following day, the 20th, he entered that town, from whence he proceeded to Majorga. At Majorga he received a deputation from Leon; which city he entered on the 26th. The bishop came two miles to meet him, and the council appearing before the gates of the city, presented the keys, in token of submission. According to certain accounts in the Spanish newspapers of the day, the Spanish army did not exceed fourteen or fifteen thousand infantry, and eight hundred cavalry. The Spaniards, it was stated, were in the first onset so fortunate as to beat back the French, and take and spike four pieces of cannon. But the field of battle being in a vast plain, the patriots, who were carried by their impetuosity cut of their ranks, without a sufficient number of horsemen to make head against the French cavalry, and unaccustomed to any such prompt evolutions as might have supplied that deficiency, were obliged to leave the field of battle to the French, with thirteen of their cannon: though it was said they retreated in good order, and afterwards rallied. The kind of order observed, is sufficiently illustrated by the ra pidity of their retreat, and the distance to which they retreated. On the other hand that their disasters were not so great as had been given out by the French, and that reinforcements were advancing to join general Cuesta, is, rendered extremely probable by the retreat or flight of king Joseph Buonaparte, on the 27th of July, from Madrid. After intelligence was received of the surrender of Dupont at Baylen, and the discovery that so many of the ministers of Joseph had made their escape from Madrid, the French immediately began to fortify the Reteiro. Duhesme had been repulsed from Gerona, Arragossa still held out, armies from Valencia and Adalusia menaced the capital. The army of the western provinces, under general Cuesta, though routed and dispersed by the battle of Medina del Rio Seco, manifested a determination to rally. The French, therefore, in the evening of the twenty-ninth of July, began to evacuate Madrid. King Joseph, with the last companies of the troops, left Madrid on the twentyninth, and took the route of Segovia, from whence he proceeded to Burgos, the rendezvous of the whole of his army at aud in the [P3] vicinity We omitted to mention in its proper place, that general Dupont, on his ar rival in France, was tried by a court martial, condemned to death, and immediately shot by torch light. vicinity of Madrid. The French carried along with them all the artillery and ammunition, for which they could find means of conveying; spiking the cannon, and destroying the ammunition they were obliged to leave behind them.They plundered the public treasury, and carried off all the jewels belonging to the crown, and all the plate, and whatever was most valuable in the palaces belonging to Charles IV. and Ferdinand VII. or to any of the branches of the royal family. On which it was merrily observed, and became a common saying among the Spaniards, that, "Because Joseph could not put the crown on his head, he had put it in his pocket." The French army was accompanied or followed by such of the Spaniards as had accepted offices under the government of king Joseph, and most of the French established in various situations in Madrid. СНАР. CHAP. XII. Erroneous Opinion of Buonaparte respecting the Spaniards.-Erroneous Conduct in consequence of this.-Attempt to conceal the extent and strength of the Spanish Insurrections from the French, German, and other Nations.-Liberation of the Spanish Troops in the North of Germany.-Military Preparations of Austria.-Alarm of Buonaparte.-Remonstrances and Explanations.-Troops of the Confederation of the Rhine, taken into the Pay of France.-Sent into France to Supply the Place of the French Regiments to be sent to Spain. Interview between the Emperor of Russia and Buonaparte at Erfurth. Insurrection in Portugal.-British Expedition to Portugal under the Orders of Sir Arthur Wellesley.-Convention of Cintra. BUS UONAPARTE, reckoning that Spain would be a very easy conquest, thought that the speediest way to take possession of the country would be, not to keep his forces together in one strong army, as might have been necessary where any great resistance was to be expected, but to push forward detachments, as we have seen, in every direction. At first he affected to treat the insurrection in Spain with great contempt.-He was at uncommon pains to conceal the real state of affairs in Spain from the French and the Germans too. He gave out, in his newspapers, French and German, that all that was most respectable in the Spanish nation was devoted, and that even zealously, to the new dynasty and order of affairs in Spain, and that it was only the mere rabble of day-labourers, peasants, and low tradesmen, under the direction of the monks, whom he represented as fanatical and ignorant to a degree much beyond the blind fanaticism of the monks in France and Italy, among whom were sometimes found men of learning and talents. The monks of Spain he (that is, his literary emissaries, in conformity to his will and obedience to his directions) described as clownish and uncouth in their personal appearance, and bearing an exact likeness to so many butchers. All this was only an acknowledgment of what he ap prehended from the zeal and exertions of that religious body. While he laboured to persuade the French, and particularly, it may be presumed, the Spaniards at a distance from home, that the most respectable part of the Spanish nation was sincerely attached to king Joseph, he used means also for impressing the inhabitants of Spain with a belief that their countrymen that had been drawn into the French service, were also devoted to him. It was published [P4] in in the Paris newspapers, August 12, as an article from Hamburgh, that the Spanish troops, under the marquis of Romana, had come forward of their own accord, and with great zeal, to swear allegiance, and had proffered a detachment from their corps of picked men, to form a guard of honour for king Joseph. But on the contrary, this gallant corps was no sooner informed of the forced abdication and captivity of the royal family, and of what was passing in Spain, than they burned with ardour to join the ranks of their countrymen. Though surrounded by hostile battalions, they planted their colours in the centre of a circle which they formed, and swore on their knees, to be faithful to their country. By a well combined plan, concerted between Keats, the British admiral in the Baltic, and Romana, ten thousand of the Spanish troops stationed in Funen, Langland, ZeaJaad, and Jutland, emancipated themselves from the French yoke, and, under the protection of the British fleet, were conveyed with their stores, arms, and artillery, to Spain, where they landed at Corunna on the 30th of September. The marquis of Romana himself returned home by the way of London, where he arrived on the 16th of September, for the purpose of having a conference with the British ministry, and British military officers. But one Spanish regiment, near two thousand strong, in Julland, was too distant, and too critically situated, to effect its escape. And two in Zealand, after firing on the French general Frision, who commanded them, and killing one of his aid-de-camps by his side, were disarmed. While Frision was in the act of haranguing these troops, for the purpose of engaging them to declare for king Joseph, one of the soldiers, burning with indignation, and regardless of consequences, stepped forth from the ranks and fired a pistol at him, which missing the general, killed the aidde-camp*. When The Marquis de la Romana was kept in profound ignorance of the glorious events that had taken place in his country, and various attempts had been made on the part of the British government, to communicate the tidings to him, and to devise means for his escape with the troops under his command, without effect.At length a Swedish clergyınan was found in whose honour, good sense, and enterprising disposition, the firmest confidence could be placed. This gentleman, disguised as a low and travelling tradesman, went by the way of Heligoland, and having overcome many obstacles with the utmost patience, prudence, and fortitude, at length arrived at the place where the marquis and his troops were stationed. Having ascertained the person of the marquis, he was obliged to watch incessantly for an opportunity of addressing him, without exciting the suspicion of the numerous spies by whom he was surrounded. The venerable agent at last was obliged, as if by accident, to jostle the marquis in the street, in order to attract his attention. Having done so, he apologized, as if ignorant of the person whom he addressed, and concluded with offering to sell him some excellent coffee. The marquis treated this offer with contempt, and signified that he supposed he was speaking to a smuggler. The minister of the gospel, however, persevered in recommending his coffee, and in the course of the conversation, found means to intimate that he was not a smuggler but a gentleman." We'll soon see that," said the marquis, and then asked him if he could speak latin. The minister an swered When the real state of affairs in Spain became manifest to all Europe by the flight of king Joseph from Madrid, and the concentration of the French forces on the defiles of Biscay, and on the Ebro, Bonaparte's sarcasms against the insurgents, and his misrepresenta-quillity, and apparently with a employed for the last three years, in bringing their finances into order, and of late in strengthening their frontier, forming magazines, and increasing their armies, far bes yond what was at all necessary for the preservation of internal tran tions of facts, were interrupted for a long time, as well as his military operations. Not a word was said of Spain. Even the Moniteur was silent. The world entertained great curiosity to know what face would be put on the flight of Joseph, aud the mactivity of the French in Spain. It was given out by the French government at Madrid, that the king found it necessary to retire for a time from that city, for the benefit of his health; which was every where made a subject of ridicule. But nothing at all was said on the matter in the newspapers of France, Italy, or Germany. It was evident to Buonaparte, that the Spanish insurrection was of too serious and formidable a nature to be treated lightly in respect of either words or actions. It was manifestly not to be crushed but by a very large force, and a larger one too than any he could march against it, if the Germans should avail themselves of so inviting an occasion to throw off his yoke, and above all, if the emperor of Russia should swerve from the treaty of Tilsit. The Austrians had been view not to mere defence, but to. aggression. This did not escape the observation, or fail to excites the suspicious of the French government. A long correspondence ensued on the subject, which was afterwards published, betweea count Metternich, the Austrian ambassador at Paris, and Campagny, the French minister of external relations. The French minister, on the part of his master, after calling to mind the moderation of the conqueror in the battle of Austerlitz, asked the Austrians, what they feared from France, or of what they had to complain. If certain posts, still occupied by the French in Silesia, or in any other part towards the frontiers of Austria had given umbrage, or caused any apprehension, they should be immediately evacuated.— An uncommon degree of earnestness on the part of Buonaparte to persuade the court of Vienna, that he did not entertain any hostile designs against Austria, is apparent throughout the whole of the correspondence. "It is not," said Buonaparte, any part of my political system, to destroy, or even to humble swered in the affirmative, and a conversation ensued, apparently about coffee, as the gestures of both were calculated to deceive all who might observe them. The marquis was then duly informed of every thing that had occurred in Spain, of the assistance the British Government had rendered, and of the readiness of his Britannie majesty to adopt any measure that might be thought practicable for effecting the rescue of himself and his troops, that they might join their heroie countrymen in resisting the base attempts of France to enslave them. |