Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

of victory begin to turn. A reinforcement of 3000 men, with supplies, a succour as little expected by the Zaragozans, as it had been provided against by the enemy, entered the city. The war was now for eleven days and nights continued, without intermission, from street to street, from house to house, from room to room; and at the expiration of that time, the space occupied by the enemy had diminished from nearly half the city to about an eighth part; when on the 14th of August the disasters of the French in other quarters of Spain, and the march of the Valencian army to relieve Zaragoza, finally compelled them to abandon the siege and retire upon Pamplona.

We have been irresistibly tempted to linger so long over the details of this heroic and ever-memorable defence of Zaragoza, that important as were the events which were meanwhile in progress, our notice of them must be general and brief. The insurrection at Seville had been immediately followed by a violent demonstration of popular feeling at Cadiz, which compelled the commanders of the troops there to declare for the patriotic cause, and to commence hostilities against a French squadron, then shut up in Cadiz bay, which was compelled to surrender. At the same time General Castanos, who commanded a body of Spanish troops at St. Roque, before Gibraltar, entered heartily into the national cause; and the governor of Gibraltar affording arms and supplies of all kinds, not only was the whole of Andalusia secured to the patriots, but Castanos was able to assemble 10,000 regular troops and 15,000 new levies. When therefore General Dupont, after mastering all opposition on his route towards the south, and everywhere suffering his troops, as the French generals invariably. did, to pillage and commit the most horrible atrocities upon the inhabitants, at last entered Andalusia, he suddenly found himself surrounded by difficulties; and such were the exertions and judicious operations of Castanos, that though Dupont was reinforced from Madrid, and had above 20,000 men, his situation shortly became desperate. On the 19th of July, after having already suffered serious reverses, he made a last and furious effort at Baylen to extricate himself from the destruction which menaced him. He failed, and having altogether lost above 4000 men in the field, now capitulated with his army to the number of 17,000 men. This was a fatal blow to the French. Of all their meditated operations, the occupation of Valladolid had alone been accomplished. They had indeed defeated the undisciplined assemblage of raw troops which Cuesta, the captain-general of Castile, imprudently opposed to them near that city; and Marshal Bessieres afterwards, on the 14th of July, inflicted a more bloody defeat at Rio Seco upon the united Gallician and Castillian levies, which the rash impatience

of

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 ters 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 deyilish passion. The detachments ordered by Junot under Loison and others to chastise the country, per

quar

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 int 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

[ocr errors]

tingling

« AnteriorContinuar »