of Cuesta again uselessly hurried on to destruction; but these victories were regarded by the French as insufficient for their security in their present extended positions. As soon as the surrender of Dupont was learnt, Joseph Buonaparte, who had entered Madrid after the battle of Rio Seco, retired to Vittoria. In the country surrounding that place, the main army of the French, evacuating the metropolis, and all the positions which they held south of the Ebro, concentrated about the person of the intrusive king, and awaited the reinforcements from France, which were indispensable to them for the continuance of the contest. The victorious patriots entered Madrid in triumph; a supreme and central Junta of government, composed of deputations from all the provincial juntas, assembled, and commenced its functions at Aranjuez; the provincial armies followed the retreat of the enemy from every quarter to the vicinity of Vittoria; and the cessation from active hostilities which followed was employed in earnest preparations for the renewal of the struggle.

While the greater part of Spain was thus enjoying a short respite from the hateful presence of the enemy, the deliverance of Portugal was also advancing. Ever since the occupation of the kingdom by Junot, in the preceding year, that unhappy country had been weighed down by intolerable misery. Whatever oppressions the French exercised in other countries, whatever enormities they committed in Spain, were mercy and humanity in comparison with their conduct in Portugal. Even while the inhabitants remained in unresisting obedience, there were no bounds to the extortions, and robberies, and insolence of their task-masters. The most respectable and opulent families were reduced to beggary by the enormous amount of the forced loans and contributions imposed on them; the peasantry were so overcome by despair as to neglect putting seed into the ground; the churches were sacrilegiously robbed of their ornaments and plate; the troops universally lived at free quarters on the inhabitants, and plundered their houses of money and clothing; and while the horror-stricken and indigent people saw the sanctuaries of their religion defiled, the arms of their monarchy defaced, and a French military government avowedly established on the ruins of their independence, the insults of their brutal oppressors were carried into the very bosom of their families; prostitutes were forced into their society, and happy was the man who preserved his wife and daughter from contagion, and worse than contagion. But when the provinces, inspired by the example of Spain, about June, 1808, rose in insurrection, the monsters whose tyranny had maddened the people into this resistance, made it the signal and the excuse for the indulgence of every devilish passion. The detachments ordered by Junot under Loison and others to chastise the country, per

petrated

petrated barbarities which would be hereafter incredible, if our own eyes had not seen them, and if contemporary history had not recorded them. Prisoners butchered; females first violated, then murdered; towns sacked and burnt to ashes; men, women, and children indiscriminately massacred in cold blood; these were the often-repeated scenes which terminated only when Junot, leaving the Portugueze of the provinces still unsubdued, was obliged, in the beginning of August, to recal his ferocious and murderous bands to Lisbon to oppose the landing of the destined liberators of this wretched people. It is a glorious remembrance, and one which makes every British heart leap with exultation, that it was reserved for our countrymen to be the instruments of deliverance to this unhappy people; that, from the hour in which our army landed in Portugal, until the hero who led them to their first triumph had victoriously freed the peninsula, the battle was ever for the protection of suffering humanity, for the rights and the happiness of mankind, for domestic security and peace, for religion and virtue, for the hearth and the altar. Therefore is it that the glories of Britain in this war will wear well and long while time and history shall endure, it will be admitted that the cause in which she generously embarked was as pure as the success was splendid and complete.

Of the circumstances which attended the deliverance of Portugal, the formation of the first expedition under WELLESLEY; its landing and reinforcement; the auspicious encounter at Roleia, we shall not, within our narrow limits, attempt the description. But the more memorable and important victory which followed at Vimeiro must not be passed over in silence; nor shall we, by any garbled narration, offer injustice to the splendid and accurate composition which Mr. Southey has devoted to this animating subject. We give his account entire, and it must be our last extract.

'Vimeiro, a name which was now to become memorable in British and Portugueze history. is a village situated nearly at the bottom of a lovely valley, about three miles from the sea, and screened from the sea breeze by mountainous heights, through which the little river Maceira winds its way. The village stands at the eastern extremity of these heights; and on the opposite side, separated from them by a deep ravine, are other heights, over which the road to Lourinham passes, a little town in the Termo or district of which the parishes of Vimeiro and Maceira are included. The western termination reaches the sea-shore. As the army had halted here only for the night, meaning to proceed early on the morrow, they were disposed of, not as expecting an attack, but as most convenient for the troops. Six brigades bivouacked on the height to the westward. The advanced guard was posted on a hill south-east of Vimeiro, to cover the commissariat and stores which were in the village: this height was entirely commanded by higher ground

to

to the westward. The cavalry and the reserve of artillery were in the valley, between the hills on which the infantry were placed; and there were piquets of observation on the hills to the eastward.

The enemy, who had marched all night, and whom some accidents had impeded on their way, first appeared at eight in the morning, forming in strong bodies upon the heights toward Lourinham, thus threatening the advanced guard and the left, which was the weak part of the British position. Sir Arthur had visited the advanced posts early in the' day, and had returned to his quarters before the first shots were exchanged with the enemy's advance. He now moved the brigades of Generals Ferguson, Nightingale, Acland, and Bowes, successively across the ravine to the heights on the Lourinham road. General Anstruther's brigade took post on the right of the advanced guard, and Major-General Hill was moved nearer, as a support to these troops, and as a reserve, in addition to which our small cavalry force was in the rear of their right: The French army was in two divisions,-the right, of about 6000 men, under General Loison, the left, about 5000, under Laborde. Kellermann had the reserve, which was intended to connect the two wings, but they were too distant from each other. General Margaron commanded the cavalry.

'Laborde came along the valley to attack the advanced guard on the eminence or table hill; he had a column of infantry and cavalry to cover his left flank, and on his right one regiment marched in column to turn the defenders, and penetrate the village by the church; but this purpose had been foreseen, and part of the 43d had been ordered into the churchyard to prevent it. The French advanced with perfect steadiness, though exposed to a severe fire of riflemen posted behind the trees and banks, and of seven pieces of artillery well directed. They advanced like men accustomed to action and to victory; but suffering more severely as they drew nearer, and especially from the Shrapnell shells, (then first brought into use,) they faltered, and opened a confused fire. Still they advanced, and arrived within a few paces of the brow of the hill, where the 50th regiment, under Colonel Walker, with a single company of the rifle corps on its left, stood opposed to them." That regiment poured upon them a destructive volley, and instantly charged with the bayonet, and penetrated the angle of the column, which then broke and turned. The regiment which was entering the village by the church was attacked in flank by General Acland's brigade, then advancing to its position on the heights, and our cavalry, poor in number as it was, charged with effect. The discomfiture of this column was then complete; they fled, leaving about 1000 men on the ground, 350 prisoners, and seven pieces of artillery; and they were pursued for nearly two miles to the plain beyond the woody ground, where they were supported by a reserve of horse, and where LieutenantColonel Taylor, of the 20th light dragoons, who particularly distinguished himself that day, fell with many of his men, overpowered by a much superior force of cavalry. The secondary column, under General Brenier, which was to have supported Laborde in his attack, made a side movement to the left, in order to cross the ravine, and thus it was separately

VOL. XXIX. NO. LVII.

F

separately engaged by General Anstruther's brigade; and being charged with the bayonet, was repulsed with great loss. An aide-de-camp of Sir Arthur's coming up to tell this general that a corps should be sent to his assistance, he replied, "Sir, I am not pressed, and I want no assistance; I am beating the French, and am able to beat them wherever I find them."

'Loison's attack was made nearly at the same time as Laborde's: it was supported by a large body of cavalry, and made with the characteristic and imposing impetuosity of French troops. They drove in our light troops, but they were checked by General Ferguson's brigade, consisting of the 36th, 40th, and 71st, which formed the first line; after some close and heavy firing of musketry, the 82d and 29th came up, and the brigades of Generals Bowes and Acland. The enemy were then charged with the bayonet; this weapon is of French invention, but it was made for British hands. They came to the charge bravely, and they stood it for a moment;-in that moment their foremost rank fell "like a line of grass before the mowers." This is not the flourish of an historian, seeking artfully to embellish details which no art can render interesting to any but military readers; it is the language of an actor in the scene, who could not call it to mind in after-hours without shuddering; for the very men whose superiority was thus decidedly proved, could not speak without involuntary awe, of so complete and instantaneous a destruction, produced as it was, not by artillery or explosions, but by their own act and deed, and the strength of their own hearts and hands. The bodies of about 300 French grenadiers were counted upon the field, who had fallen in this charge. The enemy were pursued to a considerable distance, and six pieces of cannon were taken in the pursuit. General Kellermann made a vigorous attempt, late in the action, to recover these from the 71st and 82d, which were halted in a valley where the guns had been captured. These regiments retired a little way to some advantageous ground, then faced about, fired, and advancing with the bayonet drove the French back with great loss. Thus were they everywhere repulsed, though their whole force had been engaged, while not more than half the British army had been brought into action.'-p. 556-560.

We are not disposed to enter into any discussion on the merits of the subsequent Convention, which Mr. Southey censures as having yielded to a vanquished enemy half the laurels which the sword had won: but one observation arising out of this Convention is irresistibly forced upon us. In the evidence before the Court of Inquiry on that subject, Sir Arthur Wellesley justified his acquiescence in the terms given to the French, by his opinion of the strength of the position of Torres Vedras, which they had been allowed to reach. We well remember the gross imputations to which this opinion exposed Sir Arthur. We were told that it was a servile attempt to screen the guilty by exaggerating the force of the position; and we have at this moment

tingling

tingling in our ears the scornful criticism which some parliamentary · campaigners made on the extraordinary assertion of General Wellesley' but General Wellesley was destined, within four years, to prove by experience the justice and accuracy of his prior opinion. In 1811, the armies of France and England had exchanged their positions; Massena was to invade, and Wellesley was to defend the same ground which Junot had before to defend from Wellesley's attack. The result was the brightest page in the career of the Unconquered, which neither accident nor fortune could have produced, and which was at once the result and the proof of his wonderful military foresight. He retreated to those very lines of Torres Vedras, and there substantiated his evidence given in the Court of Inquiry, by baffling and defeating the greatest force and the ablest general that France had ever sent to the peninsula.

But there is another circumstance which, as Mr. Southey observes, should be considered before the Convention is so absolutely censured. Its terms included the surrender of the frontier fortresses held by the French, and which it is very doubtful whether the entire defeat of Junot would have reduced to submit. If they had not been evacuated as they were under the Convention, they might have held out until the enemy, after dispersing the Spanish armies in the following December, would have relieved them; and thus a way would have been opened for the capture of Lisbon at a time when there were neither preparations nor means of resistance. There was also no unreasonable apprehension for the danger to which subsequent events might have exposed the capital; and on a calm review of all the circumstances, we are of opinion that the Convention was perfectly justifiable. Though censured at home, the capitulation of Junot created a great sensation in France, and in every part of the Continent; and who will now venture to say, that the position of Torres Vedras, which baffled Massena, might not have enabled Junot to retrieve his loss, and to obscure for a time the fulness of that glory which has since irradiated the rescued peninsula ?

Over the remainder of this deeply interesting volume, we must be contented to hasten in a few words. The period which it embraces extends to the opening of the year 1809, and comprehends the entrance of Buonaparte into Spain, preceded by above 100,000 fresh troops; the resumption of offensive operations by the French in the month of October, 1808, the repeated and total defeat of all the Spanish armies which had been assembled around the French positions near Vittoria; the re-capture of Madrid by the invaders; and our first campaign, under Sir J. Moore, in Spain; the whole closing with the battle of Coruña.

Disclaiming the ability to follow our author in a few pages through the various and complicated operations of the numerous

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French