Chapter XXIII (2)

There was no part of Spain in which the French had imagined themselves to be so secure as in Aragon, after the fall of Zaragoza. During that siege the army of Aragon had proved completely inefficient, and the Catalans were too hardly pressed themselves to make any efforts in behalf of their neighbours. In reliance upon this, some troops had been withdrawn to march into Germany; and that larger detachment under Mortier had been called off towards the Douro, which was to co-operate with Marshal Soult. Advantage was taken of this when Blake’s appointment to the command had raised the spirits of the soldiers and of the people, ... both being alike ready to impute their ill success to any cause except the true one, and to expect better fortune with every new commander. Blake brought with him a good name, for though always unfortunate, the Spaniards had never suffered any disgrace under his guidance; and the Roman government never demeaned itself with more generosity toward an unsuccessful general than the Central Junta. The first effect of the impulse which his arrival communicated was on the side of Lerida. As soon as Mortier had withdrawn from the neighbourhood of that city, the garrison, in conformity to Blake’s instructions, was on the alert. A French detachment occupied Barbastro and the places near, with other points on the right of the Cinca; on the left of that river they were in possession of Monzon; and from thence, as from a strong hold, they tyrannized over the country, levying contributions without mercy. The town of Albalda having refused to answer one of these oppressive demands, a detachment of 1400 was sent to make what was called an example of that place for its disobedience. The governor of Lerida, D. Josef Casimiro de Lavalle, who was apprised of this movement, stationed 700 of his garrison at Tamarite, under Colonels Perena and Baget, with some Aragonese and Catalan Somatenes, who succeeded in routing the enemy; the greater part retreated to Barbastro, and in consequence of this movement and defeat, about 200 only remained in Monzon. The inhabitants rose against them, though they had only seven muskets; knives and bludgeons supplied the place of other weapons; they recovered the Castle, and drove the invaders out.

♦CAPTURE OF A FRENCH DETACHMENT.♦

Monzon, though in these days a place of little strength, was nevertheless a fortress of importance in that country, and in a war where every advantage, however trifling, raised the spirits of a people whom no disasters, however severe, ♦MAY 16.♦ could depress. The French therefore being determined to retake it, and punish the people, came in considerable force, horse and foot, down the right bank of the Cinca to Pomar, where they crossed by the ford and the ferry. Perena, who had hastened to Monzon upon its recapture, was there to receive them with his battalion and with a _tercio_ of Miquelets; and they were repulsed in their attack. They obtained reinforcements, and repeated it on the morrow, and forced their way into the streets; but Baget with his detachment came in all speed from Fonz, and arrived opportunely enough to assist in driving them out a second time, with considerable loss. They called to their assistance the 2000 men that were left in Barbastro, but meantime the Cinca had risen so as to be no longer fordable; and while they were thus cut off from succour, the Spaniards at Monzon were in communication with Lerida. Perceiving now their danger, they made for Albalete, hoping to cross at Fraga by the bridge; their intention had been foreseen, and a detachment from the garrison of Lerida, weak as it was, was dispatched to secure that point. Thus anticipated in that direction, and being now not more than 1000 men, with about forty horse, they fled toward Fonz and Estadilla, to cross the river in the mountains, above its junction with the Eseva. They were closely pursued by Perena and Baget; their commander was drowned in attempting the passage, eight companies were made prisoners, the whole detachment which had crossed the Cinca was thus cut off, and the French in consequence withdrew from Barbastro.

♦BLAKE MOVES UPON ALCAÑIZ.♦

The prisoners were marched to Tarragona, where the Catalans, after so many reverses, were in no slight degree elated by seeing them. More however from humanity than from a motive of ostentation, proposals for exchanging them were immediately made to St. Cyr, and accepted by him. The French suffered another check, less mortifying indeed and less important, but one which impeded their movements, in the destruction of their flying bridge upon the Ebro. This, which was large enough to carry some hundreds at a time, they had removed from the river where it approaches Caspe, to the part near Alborge, where it was surprised and burnt by a detachment from Mequinenza. Blake meantime was not less successful in his own operations. Part of his troops were stationed at Morelia, to oppose the French division which occupied Alcañiz and its district, and to cover that part of Catalonia and Valencia which there borders upon Aragon: others formed a cordon along the Algas, to guard the difficult country by which they might have threatened Tortosa, or interrupted the communication between that place and Mequinenza. With the approbation of the Junta Blake formed a plan for driving the enemy from this part of the country; for which purpose it was necessary to collect these troops, and strengthen them with a small detachment from the garrison of Tortosa. The French division was that which Junot had commanded at the siege of Zaragoza, and was now under General Laval; it consisted of from 6000 to 7000 men and 500 horse, having lost about half its number during the siege. Laval’s head-quarters were at Alcañiz, where the greater part of the division was stationed; but he was at this time in the field with 2000 or 3000 men, for the purpose of driving away the Spaniards, who were observing him too closely, and continually harassing his posts.

D. Pedro Roca was to conduct the troops from Morella to the place appointed for their junction, Lazan those from the Algas. Both had orders to avoid any action with the enemy till the junction should have been effected. But it so happened that Laval took up his quarters in the village of Beceyte on the day when Lazan had to arrive there, and the Spanish general rightly concluded that his instructions were not intended to prevent him from seizing any decided advantage which might present itself. He stationed ♦MAY 16.♦ some light troops in points that commanded the defiles through which the French must pass, and killed or wounded about an hundred of the enemy, with the loss of only five or six men on his own part. On the following day the junction was effected at Monroyo, great difficulty having been overcome in bringing the artillery through such a country. Having reached the Ermita at Fornoles, the vanguard ♦MAY 18.♦ under D. Pedro Texada was sent forward to interpose between Alcañiz and Val de Algorfa, which was the usual position of the enemy’s van. Two columns, under D. Martin Gonzalez da Menchaca and D. Joseph Cucalo, had preceded them to occupy the villages of Castelseras and Torrecilla. The remainder of Blake’s little army, consisting of three columns of infantry, the cavalry, and the artillery, began their march by night along the only road from Morella to Alcañiz, from which place they were five or six hours distant.

♦THE FRENCH WITHDRAW.♦

Upon reaching Val de Algorfa, it was seen that the enemy were protected by the walls of the inclosures, and by a chapel, where they had formed a parapet. They were some 500 or 600 in number, and being dislodged from thence by the artillery, retreated toward Alcañiz; but when they had advanced about half a league, they came upon Texada’s detachment, and being thus between two fires, dispersed with as much alacrity as a body of Spaniards could have done. By this time Menchaca and Cucalo were approaching the city from the left, and the French, who were sallying forth against Texada, seeing themselves threatened on that side also, began to retreat hastily in the direction of Samper. There, and at La Puebla and Hijar, they collected their troops, withdrawing them from Caspe and Calanda. The people of Alcañiz, priests, women, young and old, went out to meet their deliverers, carrying refreshments for the soldiers, and blessing them with prayers and tears. Blake himself was affected at the sight, and said, that if the tyrant of the world, as he called Buonaparte, could have seen the emotions of that multitude, and heard their shouts for their King, their country, and their religion, he would perhaps have begun to doubt the possibility of raising for his brother in Spain a party, not of persons attached to his cause, but even of those who would be resigned to his usurpation.

♦SUCHET COMES AGAINST HIM.♦

Upon the approach of a Spanish detachment the enemy withdrew from Samper to the Puebla de Hijar, and being there reinforced from Zaragoza, ♦MAY 21.♦ advanced towards Alcañiz, to revenge themselves for their late reverses. They were now 10,000 foot, with 800 horse and twelve pieces of artillery. Suchet commanded in person. Blake was informed of their approach, and drew up his army to meet them on the plain of Alcañiz, before that city. The plain is surrounded with heights. About two musket shot from the city is a range of hills, accessible for cavalry, and on all sides sloping gently to the plain. The road to Zaragoza crosses there. Here he stationed the main body of his forces, their wings being supported by two batteries, which, with others in the centre, completely flanked the whole line. The weak side of this position was on the right, where the plain was lowest, and there were trees enough to afford cover to the enemy; but the heights terminated here, and upon their loftiest part, where a chapel commanded the road from Caspe, he stationed 2000 men, under Camp-marshal D. Juan Carlos Areizaga. The vanguard, under Texada, was placed on an eminence in front of the position; some light troops, among the olive-yards on the left, to prevent the French from turning them on that side; and the cavalry, under D. Miguel Ibarrola, in front of all, upon the Zaragoza road.

♦MAY 23. DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH BEFORE ALCAÑIZ.♦

At six in the morning the enemy appeared: the advanced parties retired before them, and the cavalry and the vanguard fell back before superior numbers, as they had been instructed; the infantry to the chapel on the right, the horse, with two pieces of flying artillery, to the protection of their batteries. The chapel, as Blake had anticipated, was the main point of attack; the enemy presented themselves in front of this post and on the right, and occupied all the immediate heights. After a brisk fire on both sides, a column of about a thousand grenadiers attempted to take this position with the bayonet: they were broken presently, and the light troops of the Spaniards in their turn attacked the French on the heights, who kept their ground. In the hope of relieving this post, which he saw would be again attempted in force, Blake directed Menchaca to make an attack upon the enemy’s centre; but the French were strong enough to attend to this and renew their efforts against Areizaga. The second effort, however, was not more successful than the first. The Spanish cavalry had been ordered from the Zaragoza to the Caspe road, to assist in supporting this point: and as they came out from the trees, a discharge from the French infantry wounded their commander Ibarrola; they were attacked with a superior troop of horse, and fell back to the position. The enemy, now abandoning their first plan of winning the chapel, turned upon Menchaca, who found himself suddenly assailed by very superior numbers; he fell back in good order to the position, but one light battalion found it necessary to retire upon Areizaga’s post. Encouraged by this, the French made a desperate attack upon the centre of the Spanish line: it was saved by the artillery: they approached almost to the cannon’s mouth, but were mown down by a fire of grape; and those who turned one of the batteries fell by the fire of the troops. Defeated in this attempt also, they withdrew to the heights on which they had first been seen, and after an action of seven hours, both armies remained looking at each other. The rich plain of Alcañiz was between them; and Blake said in his dispatch that the sight of it might have warmed the heart of the coldest Spaniard, and animated him to defend the beautiful country which God had given him. It would have been rash in him to have attacked the enemy when they had the advantage of the ground; to have thus decidedly repulsed them was no inconsiderable advantage in the state of his army, some corps of which had never before been in action. The French retreated under cover of the night, and took up a strong position behind the Huerba near Zaragoza. They left 500 dead on the field, and their total loss was estimated at[22] 2000; that of the Spaniards did not amount to 400.

Among the officers whom Blake particularly commended for their conduct Lazan was one, who was at his side during the whole day; Loigorri, the commandant of the artillery, was also deservedly noticed, and Areizaga, upon whom the brunt of the action had fallen; to the two latter he frankly declared that the victory was owing. He returned thanks to his army; and noticing that a few wretched men had fled from the field, said their names should be struck off the roll, that the Spanish army might no longer be disgraced by them. The Central Junta, in consequence of this success, nominated him Captain General of Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and Murcia, as well as General-in-chief of the united army of those provinces, and conferred upon him the Encomienda of the Peso Real in Valencia. The officers whom he recommended were promoted also, Areizaga to the rank of Lieutenant-General.

♦ANNIVERSARY AT VALENCIA.♦

The day on which the battle of Alcañiz was fought was celebrated at Valencia as the anniversary of their insurrection against the intrusive government. The ceremonies were characteristic of the times and of the people. The festivities, as usual in Catholic countries, began on the eve of the holiday; the city was illuminated on the preceding night, the portraits of Ferdinand and his ally the King of Great Britain were exhibited under the flags of the allied kingdoms; and the Valencians displayed their national humour in caricatures of Murat, Buonaparte, and Joseph. In the morning, the civil authorities, the new-raised levies, and the city volunteers, went in procession to the Plaza of the Cathedral, where a statue of Ferdinand had been erected upon a Grecian column. The statue was concealed behind a silk curtain, so disposed as to fall in tent-hangings and disclose it, when the Captain General, D. Joseph Caro, asked the people in their own dialect if they wished to see their King? At the same moment the music struck up, the bells were rung, the guns fired, and the shouts of the multitude were heard prevailing over all. They then proceeded to the Cathedral, where the banners of the volunteers were blessed by the Archbishop at the high altar, and afterwards delivered to them at the feet of the statue. The display was in French taste, but it was sanctified by Spanish feeling. The Valencians were reminded of their defeats as well as of their triumphs; they were told that many of their countrymen who had assisted in driving Moncey from their gates had fallen in the field of Tudela, or lay buried under the ruins of Zaragoza.

♦CELEBRATION OF KING ST. FERDINAND’S DAY.♦

A week after the ceremony Blake reviewed his army at Caspe, on St. Ferdinand’s day, which of all festivals in the year the Spaniards then regarded with most feeling. The Romanists, instead of birthdays, keep the festival of the saint from whom they take their names; this therefore was especially sacred to a people who, measuring the virtues of their captive King by their own loyalty, believed him to be all that they desired, and all that he ought to have been. They were told by their government that King St. Ferdinand, who had united in himself all the virtues of a man, all the talents of a hero, and all the qualities of a monarch, looked down from the heights of Heaven with complacent eyes upon the defenders and avengers of one who, as he inherited his throne and name, so also did he imitate and adore his virtues. An annual service on this day was appointed to be held in all cathedral and collegiate churches for evermore in remembrance of the sacred war against the usurper; and the day following was to be kept as a perpetual anniversary for the souls of all who fell in it. Blake’s army had now been increased to 14,000 men: their late conduct had filled him with what might have seemed a well-founded hope; and their appearance and discipline were now so satisfactory, that as they filed before him, he said, a few more such days as that of Alcañiz would open for them the way to France. There were indeed at that time evident marks that the French were dispirited: they had been weakened by the withdrawal of Mortier’s division; and having in this last action for the first time been beaten by a Spanish force, ♦1809. JUNE.♦ not superior to them in number, and when the advantage of cavalry was on their side, it was believed that they were preparing to retire from Zaragoza. Blake was informed that their papers and baggage were already without the city, ready to be removed; and that they had actually begun their march toward Navarre, but returned in consequence of receiving dispatches on the way. The news of Buonaparte’s failure at Essling arrived at this time; and when Blake communicated it to the troops in general orders, he observed that it had taken place on the day when they had defeated another of his armies at Alcañiz.

♦EXECUTIONS IN BARCELONA.♦

While the hopes of the Spaniards in this quarter had thus been raised by their own success, by the events in Germany, and by the news from Portugal, circumstances occurred at Barcelona to heighten their indignation against the oppressors of their country, and exasperate ♦MAY. 16.♦ the desire of vengeance. In conformity to a scheme concerted with the inhabitants of that city, Coupigny had sent a body of troops, who were to be admitted in the night, while the attention of the garrison should be called off by the cannonade of a Spanish frigate upon one of the batteries. The ship performed its part, and the troops approached the gates; but no movement was made to favour them. The French had obtained sufficient intelligence to put them upon their guard, and render it impracticable, and several persons were in consequence arrested. One of these, by name Pou, a doctor of laws in the university of Cervera, being asked upon his trial before the military tribunal whether he had not distributed fifty muskets, replied yes, and that he would do so again if he had an opportunity, as they were for the defence of his religion, his King, and his country. They told him this could not be, for religion forbade the shedding of blood, the King desired no such proceedings, and the country abhorred them: he replied, that as they neither professed the Catholic religion, nor acknowledged Ferdinand for King of Spain, nor belonged to that country, it was to be expected that he and they should differ in opinion. They asked him to whom the muskets had been distributed: his answer was, to good and loyal Spaniards, whose names he would never disclose. A young tradesman, who was tried before the same tribunal for endeavouring to purchase ammunition for the same purpose, threw back the appellation of traitor upon Duhesme, saying, “Your Excellency is the traitor, who, under the cloak of friendship, took possession of our fortresses: I only bought part of what you plundered from us.” This person, with two others, was hanged, at the same time that Pou and the Prefect of S. Cayetano were strangled, the Prefect administering the last offices of religion at the place of execution to his fellow-sufferers.

These executions occasioned a strong feeling among the Catalans, and it was heightened by a decree of Duhesme’s against the clergy, who were at the head, he said, of all the conspiracies for assassinating the French, and who made their churches and convents so many places of meeting ♦BLAKE ADVANCES TOWARD ZARAGOZA.♦ for the conspirators. All such buildings therefore were ordered to be closed at six in the evening, and not opened till half after five in the morning. If any person were found in a church or belfry between those hours, or in a convent if he did not belong to it, he was immediately to be delivered over to a military commission as a conspirator; and a secret agent of the police was to be appointed, who was to watch every church and convent, and be paid at its expense. The indignation of the Spaniards made them more eager in their hopes and expectations of deliverance; and the Valencians more especially expressed their confidence of fresh victories, because of the appearance and temper of the troops who marched from their city to join the army under Blake. That general’s head-quarters were at Samper de Calanda, part of his troops being stationed at Hijar and Puebla de Hijar. Having received intelligence that a French corps, which was estimated at a third part of the force under Suchet, had been detached to Carineña, and was committing its usual excesses in the surrounding country, he formed a plan for cutting off this corps, and then advancing upon Zaragoza, in the hope of effecting the deliverance of that city, an exploit which, if it were achieved, would of all possible successes produce the greatest impression upon the public mind, not in Spain alone, but throughout Europe. With this view he directed Areizaga to take post with his division at Botorrita, while he with the rest of the army proceeded to Villanueva de la Huerva. The artillery was to move behind Longares, where it was expected that the enemy would pass on their retreat to Zaragoza as soon as they knew the Spaniards were in motion. When Areizaga reached Botorrita, he learned that the greater part of the French had retired to their main body, about 1500 only remaining at Puebla de Muel, and these moved off so quickly towards the Xalon, that it was not possible to cut them off, ... only a convoy which they would have escorted to Zaragoza was taken by the Spanish advance.

♦SUCHET ATTACKS THE SPANIARDS.♦

As this corps had not fallen back upon the main body, which it might easily have done, but had passed on toward Alagon, Blake was confirmed in his opinion that the French did not mean to defend Zaragoza if it should be attacked. Nevertheless, reflecting that the country in his rear was entirely open, and considering the general situation of the Spanish armies, the importance of preserving his own, which was in so promising a state, and the complicated and hazardous movements of a retreat, in which he knew how little it could be trusted, he deemed it by no means advisable to bring on a general action, and therefore did not alter Areizaga’s position, looking upon Botorrita as a strong post, where, in case of any reserve, the ♦JUNE 14.♦ enemy might be detained. When he joined Areizaga there, the troops had begun to skirmish; this had been brought on by that general’s making a reconnoissance in considerable strength; and Blake was so well satisfied with the behaviour of his troops, that he endeavoured to surround the enemy, but they retired in time. Early on the following morning Suchet drew out his whole force from Zaragoza to attack him. The firing began at the advanced posts by five in the morning, and went on increasing till the same hour in the afternoon, when the French resolved to break the Spanish line, supposing that the men were weary and the ammunition spent.

♦BLAKE RETREATS TO BELCHITE.♦

Blake’s advanced guard was at Maria, where the road from Zaragoza to Madrid crosses the cordillera: the ground between him and the city consisted of hills and vales, ridge behind ridge. His cavalry was stationed in the high road, the rest of the line was formed by the infantry and artillery. The Spaniards, fighting and retreating in good order, fell back successively from one of these heights to another, but when they reached the fourth, their cavalry had been worsted. Blake then thought it necessary to fall back on Botorrita, which he did with as much order as the nature of the ground would permit. A few guns were spiked and abandoned; not from necessity, but because it was more advantageous to fire them to the last than bring them off. The two armies were near, and in sight of each other, when night closed. Blake ♦JUNE 16.♦ expected to be attacked the next day; but as the enemy manifested no such intention, he rightly concluded that they were manœuvring either with a view to surround him, or to threaten his rear. Accordingly he ascertained that 3000 French were posted at Torrecilla. About two hours before nightfall a brisk fire was opened upon his left, with the intent of making him change his position, in which case his rear would have been exposed to this detachment. But the attack was repulsed, as was a second which the enemy made upon the centre a little before midnight. The Spanish general then retreated to Belchite in perfect order, which he did without being molested. The next day the enemy came again in sight, and Blake, who had hitherto had no reason to distrust his troops, took a position in full expectation of being attacked on the morrow, and in good hope of repelling the enemy as completely as he had done before Alcañiz.

♦FLIGHT OF THE SPANIARDS.♦

Belchite, once the capital of a petty Moorish sovereignty, stands upon the slope of some bending hills, which almost surround it: toward Zaragoza the country is level, covered with gardens and olive-yards. The position which Blake had taken was singularly advantageous; his right was completely safe from the enemy’s cavalry, and protected by a chapel, with a number of outbuildings and two large sheep-folds, which were all pierced for musketry: to attack the centre, the enemy’s horse must be exposed to a tremendous cross fire, and the left had their retreat upon the strong post which was occupied by the other wing. Blake’s arrangement was so made, that if the enemy, as he expected, should make a great effort on his left, three columns might be brought to attack them on that side; and if unsuccessful, they could have fallen back upon the centre and the right flank, being meantime assailable only in front, and protected the while by their artillery, which also had its retreat secure to the same strong ♦JUNE 18.♦ post. He had harangued his troops, and they made a thousand protestations that they would do their duty. The attack was made, as he had expected, on the left; four or five shot were fired on both sides, and the French threw a few shells, which wounded four or five men. But upon one shell falling into the middle of a regiment, the men were seized with a sudden panic and fled; the panic instantly spread, ... a second and a third regiment ran away without firing a gun, and in a few minutes the generals were left with none but a few officers in the midst of the position. With all their efforts they could not rally more than two hundred men, and nothing was left for them but to make for the nearest strong place, leaving artillery, baggage, and every thing to the enemy.

The defeat was in all its circumstances so thoroughly disgraceful, ... so disheartening and hopeless in its consequences, that Blake almost ♦BLAKE OFFERS HIS RESIGNATION, WHICH IS NOT ACCEPTED.♦ sunk under it. He told the government that he was incapable of entering into details, but considered it due to the nation that a judicial inquiry should be instituted into the conduct of a general under whose command an army of from 13,000 to 14,000 effective men had been utterly routed and dispersed. “He knew that he had not been culpable,” he said, “but after so many proofs of his unhappy fortune, he wished not to be employed any longer in command. As a Spaniard and a soldier he was still ready to serve his country in an inferior station, and he requested only that some portion of his present pay might be continued for the support of his family, or a part of the _Encomienda_ which had recently been conferred upon him, but which it was not fitting that so useless a person should retain. The government, however, neither accepted his proffered resignation, nor instituted any inquiry. The former would have been unjust towards a brave and honourable officer whose conduct was unimpeachable, and his character above suspicion; the latter must have been altogether nugatory. The panic had been instantaneous and general, and it was impossible to punish a whole army. All that could be done was to publish the whole details, in no degree attempting to disguise or palliate the injury and disgrace which had been brought on the nation: to declare that the commander-in-chief and the generals had done their duty, and retained the full confidence of the country, and to brand the fugitives in a body, as men who were the opprobrium of the Spanish name, and had rendered themselves objects of execration to their countrymen.

The men who in their panic had thus lost all use of reason, as well as all sense of honour and of duty, were not likely, when they found themselves in safety, and recovered their senses, to be affected by this denunciation. A religion which is contented to accept the slightest degree of attrition, and keeps short reckonings with conscience, had taught them to be upon easy terms with themselves; ... moreover the moral disease was so endemic, that it had ceased to be disgraceful: the greater part of these men had behaved well at Alcañiz and in the subsequent operations; and no doubt expected to be more fortunate on a better occasion, for a report was raised that the French had received so great a reinforcement at the moment of commencing the action as to render resistance hopeless; and though this was indignantly contradicted by Blake, the men found an excuse for themselves in believing it. The disgrace was deeply felt by the government, and by the general whose hopes were blasted by it in the blossom; but the Spaniards were in no degree disheartened, not even those upon whom it brought immediate danger; and when the French, in the course of a few days, attempted to carry Mequinenza by a _coup de main_, they were beaten off with considerable loss.

♦COMMENCEMENT OF THE GUERILLAS.♦

At this time also that system of warfare began which soon extended throughout Spain, and occasioned greater losses to the French than they suffered in all their pitched battles. The first adventurers who attracted notice by collecting stragglers from their own dispersed armies, deserters from the enemy, and men who, made desperate by the ruin of their private affairs in the general wreck, were ready for any service in which they could at the same time gratify their just vengeance and find subsistence, were ♦PORLIER.♦ Juan Diaz Porlier in Asturias, and Juan Martin Diaz in Old Castille, the latter better known ♦THE EMPECINADO.♦ by his appellation of the[23] Empecinado. A lawyer, by name Gil, commenced the same course in the Pyrenean valleys of Navarre and Aragon. After a short career of some two months he disappeared, and Egoaguerra, who renewed the attempt, withdrew from that wilder way of life to engage in Doyle’s battalion. The third adventurer who at this time raised the spirits of the Pyrenean provinces, and for a while gave employment to the French in Navarre, was that D. Mariano de Renovales by whom the Convent of S. Joseph had been so gallantly defended ♦1809. MAY.♦ at the last siege of Zaragoza. Having been ♦RENOVALES IN THE VALLEY OF RONCAL.♦ made prisoner when the city surrendered, he had effected his escape on the way to France, and collected in the valleys of Roncal and Anso a body of men and officers, who, like himself, believed that the scandalous manner in which the terms of capitulation had been violated by the French released them from any obligation of observing it. They had probably agreed to rendezvous in these valleys as many of them as could escape, and his intention was to form them into a body, and rejoin the army. But when it was known that they were collecting there, and that the mountaineers, confiding in their presence, refused obedience to the intrusive government, 600 men were ordered from the garrison of Pamplona to enter the valleys at six points, and reduce them to subjection.

♦HE DEFEATS A FRENCH DETACHMENT.

MAY 21.♦

Men who, like Renovales and his officers, had served at Zaragoza, were neither to be lightly surprised nor easily taken. They were upon the alert, the mountaineers were ready for their assailants, and of the column which advanced against the little town of Anso not a man escaped. The four columns which entered by Navasques, Uztarroz, Salvatierra, and Fago, effected their junction; but the movements of the Spaniards were concerted and executed with as much precision; and after two days’ fighting the French were driven to the foot of a high rock called Undari, where all that survived, seventy-eight in number, with their commander, the chef de bataillon, Puisalis, were taken prisoners: ♦1809. JUNE.♦ the sixth column was not engaged, forty men having deserted from it before they entered the valleys; the others thought it imprudent to proceed, and thus they were preserved from suffering a like fate with their companions. Puisalis, being severely wounded, was lodged by Renovales in his own quarters, and treated with the utmost care. The other prisoners were sent with a guard of forty men to be delivered to General Blake, but the ruffian, Buruchuri by name, who had charge of the escort, when he had advanced far enough to be under no control, massacred them all; ... a crime which he appears to have committed with impunity. Puisalis was more fortunate; as soon as his wounds were healed, he was sent with five other prisoners to Blake, and reaching him a little before the rout at Belchite, recovered his liberty at that time.

♦A SECOND PARTY DEFEATED.♦

This intelligence cheered the Aragonese and the Catalans after that most disgraceful dispersion, and both Lazan and Blake took measures for assisting and encouraging the mountaineers. Ammunition was sent from Lerida; Renovales himself was indefatigable in his exertions: he collected arms from all the villages within reach, sent for armourers from Eybar and Placencia, and set up an armoury in Roncal. A second force was dispatched to crush the growing insurrection. The valley of Roncal was the part which they attacked; the Spaniards were driven ♦JUNE 15.♦ from the point of Yso, where their advance was stationed; but Renovales arrived in time with 200 men of the vale, and as many more from that of Anso; he drove the enemy out, and pursued them as far as Lumbier, with the loss of more than forty killed; and twice that number of wounded were removed on the following day to Pamplona. This second defeat had so weakened the garrison of that city, that the Spaniards now cut off their communication both with Aragon and with France; they scoured the roads in all directions; not a day passed in which some party of the invaders, who hitherto had travelled in safety in those parts, was not intercepted and cut off, and sometimes the enemy were pursued to the very gates.

♦PROCLAMATION OF THE DUQUE DE MAHON.♦

The Duque de Mahon, one of those traitors to their country who had sided with the Intruder, in full confidence that they were taking the safe part, was at that time Viceroy of Navarre: and he addressed a proclamation to the inhabitants of Roncal, affecting to believe that they had taken no share in the insurrection; calling upon them to unite with the French troops for the purpose of apprehending and punishing the disturbers of the peace; and assuring them that the present struggle was excited solely by the personal resentment of certain individuals, whose interests were opposed to those of the nation, of the clergy, and of the nobles. If they should be seduced by these deceivers, the result could only be, the loss, if not of their lives, yet certainly of their liberty, and of that happiness which they had hitherto enjoyed. But, on the contrary, if they proved themselves worthy of the King’s favour, by their obedience to his government and their cordiality with the allied French troops, it was his intention and that of the French commandant at Pamplona, General D’Agoult, to represent their good behaviour to the throne; that when the arms of the Emperor, now victorious at Vienna and throughout all Italy, should expel the enemies of public order from Spain, they might partake in the benefits which were to be expected from so wise and humane a prince. This proclamation was answered by Renovales with the bitterest ♦JUNE 28.♦ scorn. He addressed the viceroy as Ex-Duque de Mahon, telling him, if he disliked that style, that the person who used it was a Spaniard, and one who respected the orders of his sovereign; which sovereign, acting through the Supreme Central Junta, had proscribed him as a traitor, and therefore he had now no title. He reproached him with ingratitude towards the house of Bourbon, with disgracing his ancestors, with sacrificing his religion, his king, his country, and his honour. He told him that the people of Roncal, like those of Anso, were attached to their own institutions, and true to their lawful king; that they had fought for him with a spirit like that of their ancestors; that the magistracy had encouraged the enthusiasm of the people; and that he, unworthy as he was, had enjoyed the honour of leading them to victory. They despised his favour, and they despised his threats; and if he would march out at the head of a French division, and fix time and place where the question between them might be put to the decision of the sword, he, Renovales, would meet him there, a true Spaniard in the cause of a rightful though an oppressed king, against a false one in the cause of a potentate whom his followers impiously called almighty; and if the Ex-Duque would appoint this meeting, that almightiness should be tried.

♦EXECUTIONS AND REPRISALS.♦

Five persons who were charged with having joined the insurgents of Roncal were put to death at Pamplona upon the Intruder’s law of extermination against all who should take arms against him. The gallows was erected without the gate of S. Nicholas, and the sufferers were executed with their faces toward Roncal, and left hanging there. The proclamation which announced their punishment, declared, that for every person, whether soldier or countryman, who should be murdered by the banditti, a prisoner who had belonged to them should be put to death. This was answered by an act of retaliation. Renovales seized five persons who were acting under the intrusive government, beheaded them, and exposed their bodies on the high road, with an inscription on their shoulders, saying they were agents of the French robbers, who had been thus punished by Spanish justice. He declared, that, for every Spaniard whom the French should put to death, he would behead two French prisoners; and that if the commandant of Jaca continued to plunder the people and the churches, and burn the houses, as he had begun, he would, for every house that should be burnt, set a village on fire on the French side of the Pyrenees, instead of promoting peace and friendly intercourse, as he had hitherto done, between the peasants on the frontier.

♦ATTEMPTS TO WIN OVER RENOVALES.♦

General D’Agoult tried what might be done with Renovales by conciliatory means. He thanked him for his treatment of Puisalis, and of those prisoners whom Buruchuri had butchered; a crime of which he entirely acquitted the Spanish officer. He applied to him now, he said, by General Suchet’s orders; and joined his own entreaties to that General’s offers. First he requested him to send back twenty-five artillerymen who had been captured by his people on the road from Tafalla, and who he understood were well treated. Renovales, he observed, owed him this in consideration of the manner in which his prisoners were used, though more than six and thirty officers had broken their parole, beginning with the Camp-Marshal Villava. After experiencing every kindness, he had found means to escape by a bribe of 4000 livres, and was said to be now in ♦1809 AUGUST.♦ Roncal, having thus dishonoured himself. If Renovales also had broken his word by escaping when he was a prisoner of war, there had been something in his conduct which justified it; and if he would now pacificate Roncal and the valleys of Aragon, and restore order there, he would entitle himself to esteem and to the King’s favour. “You are supporting a chimera,” said the French commander; “your troops are routed on all sides. You reckon upon the English. I know them better than you do; and if you desire the good of your country, take the advice of an old soldier, who went through the Revolution as a royalist, and joined the present government when he saw that the only man capable of supporting it had appeared. You are in a like position. The Bourbons exist no longer upon the throne. The Emperor and his family have superseded them. Let us be his faithful friends and allies, and render our country happy, instead of contributing to its ruin.”

Renovales answered, the artillerymen were his prisoners, thought themselves fortunate in being so, and would have entered among the troops if he would have allowed them. Villava was not in Roncal, nor in the district under his command; wherever he was, he would be able to answer for his own conduct in making his escape. “If I did the same,” said he, “on the way to Pamplona, it was because the French had violated a solemn capitulation. I was the first person whom General Morlot, in contempt both of his word and honour, and in breach of the terms, plundered of horse and baggage; and if a French general may be allowed thus to disregard so sacred a right, I know not why a Spanish prisoner should be withheld from attempting to escape. Wonder not at seeing me at the head of the Spaniards, since I have seen General Junot in Zaragoza at the head of the French, after his[24] capitulation in Portugal.” To all the offers which were held out to him, he replied, that he was and would continue true to his legitimate King, whose faithful subjects would freely shed their blood in his cause, and would yet reverse the scene, and re-establish him upon his rightful throne. “I know,” said he, “that your Excellency feels the injustice of the cause which France is supporting; ... that you hear the voice of honour in your heart, and that you know what is the right path.” General Plique, commander of the citadel at Zaragoza, endeavoured also to bring over Renovales to the Intruder’s service, representing to him that the Austrian army was destroyed, that Russia had given the most public proofs of its connexion with France, and that the French had obtained a most decisive victory[25] in S. Domingo. No efforts, no combination of events could now prevent the complete establishment of King Joseph. The blow which had ruined Austria had destroyed all the hopes of the Spaniards. “Insurrection,” said the Frenchman, imitating the style of his Emperor, “insurrection passes away; madness rages and destroys, and then becomes calm; the good alone is permanent. Secure for yourself the glory and the delight of saving a country which ought to be dear to you; join the cause of a good King, who desires not, by a terrible and necessary execution, to reign over ruins and carcasses; and I am authorized to offer you the rank in his armies which you hold among the insurgents.”

♦TROOPS SENT FROM ZARAGOZA AGAINST THE VALLEYS.♦

The answer was such as became a man who had done his duty at Zaragoza. “Till the moral strength of the Spaniards and of their government were destroyed,” he said, “it was in vain to think of ruining their armies. Neither the supposed victories upon the Danube and in S. Domingo, nor the adhesion of the Emperor Alexander, nor the immense forces which were said to be at Napoleon’s command, would break the spirit of Spain or of England, actuated as those countries were by principles of justice and high-minded rectitude.” The hope of seducing Renovales being now no longer entertained, 5000 men were sent against him from Zaragoza; 2000 of these, being reinforced with 500 more at Jaca, proceeded against S. Juan de la Peña; and having, after a long resistance, driven D. Miguel Sarasa from that post, advanced ♦AUG. 21.♦ upon the valley of Anso. Plique, with the other 3000, occupied the positions of Salvatierra, Castella Nuevo, and Navascues: 800 from Orbayceta and Pamplona united in the valley of Salazar, and 450 from Lumbier at Zavalza. Their numbers enabled them to move upon more points than the Spaniards could ♦AUG. 27.♦ guard; and having entered Salvatierra, where the advanced parties were driven before them, they proceeded next day in four columns, two on the right attacking the heights of Sasi and Virgen de la Peña, the centre by the strait called La Foz, and the left by the heights of Mayhia, which divide the jurisdictions of Salvatierra, Navascues, and Burgui. These positions were attacked by 3000 men, and defended only by 600; they were maintained from six in the morning till two hours after mid-day; the French then on the right gained the height at Sasi; and this success would have enabled them to come upon the rear of the Spaniards at the other point. Renovales therefore fell back to the bridge and town of Burgui, from which he was compelled to withdraw as evening began to close, and the enemy then entered and set fire to it. The town of Anso was entered the same day by the first division of the French, after a brave resistance.

♦AUG. 29. RENOVALES CAPITULATES FOR THE VALLEYS.♦

From Burgui, on the following morning, the French in three divisions attacked the Spaniards, the right and left on the heights of Mendivelza and Odieta, the centre upon Bochuela. At all these points they were three times repulsed, some Russian deserters distinguishing themselves greatly on the Spanish side. The mountaineers thought the day their own, till, at noon, they were apprised that the French division from Anso was coming by Garde upon their rear, and already occupied the heights of Puyeta and Muga de Roncal. Renovales then fell back in good order upon the town of Roncal, took up a position there, and maintained it till evening closed. But as the ground there was open enough to give the enemy room for manœuvring, he fell back to the strong ground about Urzainqui, the position where he had before determined that in case of necessity the last stand was to be made. During the night, he was apprised that 4000 men were marching from Oloron upon those valleys, and 800 by way of Salazar. Many of his people had dispersed; those who remained were well nigh exhausted; ... but he was enabled to demand terms, and capitulate for the valleys, as for a fortified town, in a manner of which there had been no other example during the war, and to withdraw with those who chose to follow him, for other opportunities of serving their country; ... more fortunate their future services might be; they could not be more honourable.

The French are said to have lost 500 killed and 800 wounded in these latter actions, and this by their own account. Among the Spanish officers who distinguished themselves were D. Miguel Sarasa, and D. Gregorio Cruchaga, names soon connected with that of Mina, which now first began to be known.

♦XAVIER MINA.♦

Xavier Mina[26], the son of a landholder who cultivated his own estate, and was deputy for one of the valleys of Navarre, was a student at Pamplona when the revolution began. He was then in the eighteenth year of his age, and during the earlier part of the war had been confined to his father’s house by a severe illness, from which he recovered just after Renovales had been compelled to withdraw from Roncal. A French commander, whose corps was encamped in the neighbourhood, sent a serjeant requiring the father in his capacity as deputy to provide rations for his[27] men. The serjeant disappeared on the road, and in consequence the house was surrounded at midnight by a detachment of infantry, who had orders to arrest the elder Mina, and bring him to head quarters. The son, however, had time enough to secure his father’s escape, and then in his name presented himself to the officer. The French General before whom he was carried threatened him with death, unless the serjeant were produced; but as every thing in that quarter was to be arranged by means of money, Mina obtained his liberty after being detained three days. The party who arrested him had plundered his father’s house. This usage, the danger he had escaped, and the injustice of the whole proceeding, roused into full action those feelings which had only been suspended by disease and languor. He provided himself with a musket and cartridge-box, and in that trim presented himself in his own village, and offered to take the command of as many Spaniards as would engage with him in the good work of avenging their country upon its invaders. Twelve adventurers joined him; they took to the near mountains, and there, while they waited an opportunity of action, maintained themselves on his father’s sheep.

His first adventure was to surprise a party of seven artillerymen, who were escorting two pieces of cannon and a quantity of ammunition from Zaragoza to Pamplona. This success procured him twenty volunteers. He sent off his prisoners to Lerida, retired again to the mountains, and being informed that a general officer was on the road, travelling with an escort of thirty-four foot and twelve horsemen, he laid an ambuscade for them, in so favourable a spot, that a volley was fired upon the French with sure effect before they had any apprehension of danger. The general was shot in his carriage, some of the escort were made prisoners, and some money fell into Mina’s hands. This he immediately distributed among his men, recommending them to send part of it to their families, and retain no more than would be necessary to defray the expenses of their own interment, exposed as they must now continually be to death. The men were thus raised in their own esteem and in that of their countrymen where-ever this was told; and volunteers now presented themselves in abundance, attracted by a success which was reported every where, with such exaggerations as such tales gather in their way. He received however none but those who brought arms, or whom he could supply with the spoils already taken from the enemy. His party amounted now to about threescore persons, distinguished by a red riband in their hats, and a red collar to their jackets.