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CHAP. Spain, and hostilities continued only in Catalonia and XII. round the walls of Cadiz.

1823. 84.

the siege of

Cadiz.

July 14.

In this distracted state of the country, it was plain Progress of that nothing could produce concord but the authority of the sovereign, and to effect his liberation the whole efforts of the Duke d'Angoulême were directed. The siege of Cadiz had been undertaken in good earnest, but it was no easy matter to prosecute it with effect. The distance of the nearest points on the bay from the city was so considerable that nothing but bombs of the largest calibre and the longest range could reach it, and the dykes which led across it into the fortress were defended by batteries of such strength that all attempts to force the passage were hopeless. Two thousand pieces of cannon, and ammunition in abundance, were arrayed in defence of the July 16. place. A grand sortie, undertaken to drive the French from their posts around the bay, led to a warm action, and was at length repulsed with the loss to the besieged of seven hundred men. About the same time the Minister at War, Don Sanchez Salvador, cut his throat after having burned all his papers. He left a writing on his table, in which he declared that he did so "because life was every day becoming more insupportable to him, but that he descended to the tomb without having to reproach himself with a single fault." The approach of the prince generalissimo soon led to more important operations. His first care was to send a letter to the President of the Cortes, expressing the anxious wish of the French government that "the king of Spain, restored to liberty and practising clemency, should accord a general amnesty, 1 Lettre du necessary after so many troubles, and give to his people, goulême, by the convocation of the ancient Cortes, a guarantee for the reign of justice, order, and good administration; an Réponse act of wisdom to which he pledged himself to obtain the Aug. 18; concurrence of all Europe." But to this noble and touchvi. 449,450. ing letter, the Cortes, with the mixture of pride and obstinacy which seems inherent in the Spanish character,

Aug. 17.

Duc d'An

Aug. 17,

1823, et

des Cortès,

Ann. Hist.

returned an answer in such terms as rendered all hope of CHAP. pacific adjustment out of the question.*

XII.

1823.

85.

the Troca

Aug. 31.

Continued hostilities being thus resolved on, the French engineers directed all their efforts against the fort of the Assault of TROCADERO. This outwork of Cadiz, situated on the land dero. side of the bay, is placed at the extremity of a sandy peninsula running into it, and was of great importance as commanding the inner harbour, and enabling the mortar batteries of the besiegers to reach the city itself. It had been fortified, accordingly, with the utmost care-was mounted with fifty pieces of heavy cannon, garrisoned with seventeen hundred men ; and as a ditch, into which the sea flowed at both ends, had been cut across the peninsula, the fort stood on an island, with a front of appalling strength towards the land. Against this front the whole efforts of the French were directed: the approaches were pushed with incredible activity, and on the 24th the first parallel had been drawn to within sixty yards of the ditch. A tremendous fire was kept up from the batteries of the assailants. on the works of the place during the six following days, and on the 31st the cannonade was so violent as to induce the garrison to apprehend an immediate assault. The day, however, passed over without its taking place, and the Spaniards began to raise cries of victory. But their triumph was of short duration. Early on the morning of the 31st, while it was still dark, the assaulting column, consisting of fourteen companies, defiled in silence out of the trenches, and stood within forty paces of the enemy's batteries. With such order and regularity was the movement executed, that the besiegers were not aware of their having emerged from the trenches till just before the rush com

* "Le roi est libre; les malheurs de l'Espagne viennent tous de l'invasion; l'établissement des anciennes Cortès est aussi incompatible avec la dignité de la couronne qu'avec l'état actuel du monde, la situation politique des choses, les droits, les usages, et le bien-être de la nation espagnole. Si S. A. R. abusait de la force, elle serait responsable des maux qu'elle pourrait attirer sur la personne du roi, sur la famille royale, et sur cette cité bien méritante."- Réponse des Cortès, 18th August 1823; Annuaire Historique, vi. 420.

XII.

1823.

CHAP. menced. They were seen, however, through the grey of the morning as they were beginning to move, and a violent fire of grape and musketry was immediately directed against the living mass. On they rushed, disregarding the fire, plunged into the ditch, with the water up to their arms, and ascending the opposite side under a shower of balls, broke through the chevaux-de-frise, and mounted the ramparts with the utmost resolution. The Spaniards stood their ground bravely, and for some minutes the struggle was very violent, but at length the impetuosity of the French prevailed. Great numbers of the Spaniards were bayoneted at their guns; the remainder fled to Fort St Louis, the last fortified post on the peninsula. There, however, they were speedily followed by the French, who scaled the ramparts and carried everything before them. By nine o'clock the conquest was complete-the entire peninsula had fallen into the hands of the victors, with all its forts and artillery. The Duke d'Angoulême exposed himself, in this brilliant affair, to the enemy's fire, like a simple grenadier; and Annis, the Prince of Carignan, eldest son of the King of SarLam. vii. dinia, was one of the first of the forlorn hope who mounted Duke d'An- the breach. Strange destiny of the same prince to be Despatches, within two years the leader of a democratic revolt in his 1823. own country, and a gallant volunteer with the assaulting party of the Royalist army which combated it! 1

1 Moniteur,

Aug. 15;

vi. 452,453;

232, 233;

goulême's

Aug. 1,

86.

Disaster also attended the operations of Riego, who Operations had left the Isle of Leon in order to collect the scatof Riego in the rear of tered bands of the Liberals in the mountains of Granada the French. and Andalusia, and operate in the rear of the French army. The Cortes, who were too glad to get quit of him, gave him the command of all the troops he could collect he eluded the vigilance of the French cruisers, and disembarked at Malaga on the 17th August with ample powers, but no money. He there took the command of two thousand men who remained to Zayas in that place, and soon made amends for his want of money by

XII.

1823.

He was Sept. 10.

forced contributions from the whole merchants and opulent CHAP. inhabitants of the place, without excepting the English, whom he imprisoned, transported, and shot without mercy, if they withstood his demands. The loud complaints which they made throughout all Europe went far to open the eyes of the people of England to the real tendency of the Spanish revolution. On the 3d Sep- Sept. 3. tember he set out from Malaga at the head of two thousand five hundred men, carrying with him the whole plate of the churches and of all the respectable inhabitants in the place, and made for the mountains, with the view of joining the remains of the corps of General Ballasteros, which he effected a few days after. closely followed by Generals Bonnemaine and Loverdi, whom Molitor had detached from Granada in pursuit. Though the troops of Ballasteros had capitulated, and passed over to the Royalist side, yet they were unable to stand the sight of their old ensigns and colours, and, like the soldiers of Napoleon at the sight of the imperial eagles, they speedily fraternised with their old comrades. Cries of "Viva el Union! Viva Riego! Viva la Constitucion!" were heard on all sides, and Ballasteros himself, carried away by the torrent, found himself in Riego's arms. Concord seemed to be established between the chiefs, and they dined together, apparently in perfect amity; but in reality the seeds of distrust were irrevocably sown between them. Ballasteros quietly gave orders to his troops to separate from those of Riego: the latter, penetrating his designs, made the former a prisoner, but was compelled to release him by his officers. Discord having now succeeded to the temporary burst of unanimity, the two armies were separated, and the greater part of Riego's two best regiments deserted in the night, and joined Ballasteros' troops. The expedition had entirely failed, and, instead of raising the country in the rear of the French vi. 454,456; army before Cadiz, nothing remained to Riego but to 253, 255. seek by hill-paths to effect a junction with Mina,1 who

1 Ann. Hist.

Lam. vii.

CHAP. still maintained a desultory warfare in the mountains of Catalonia.

XII.

1823. 87.

capture of

Riego.
Sept. 13.

He set out accordingly with two thousand men ; but Defeat and destitute of everything, and unable to convey their heavy spoil with them, the march proved nothing but a succession of disasters. Bonnemaine, who closely followed his footsteps with a light French division, came up with him on the heights near Jaen, and after a short action totally defeated him, with the loss of five hundred of his Sept. 14. best troops. The day following he was again assailed with such vigour that his troops, no longer making even a show of resistance, dispersed on all sides, leaving their chief himself attended only by a few followers, who still adhered with honourable fidelity to his desperate fortunes. Riego himself was wounded, and in that pitiable state fled, accompanied only by three officers, towards the Sierra-Morena. Exhausted by fatigue, he was obliged to rest at a farmhouse near Carolina d'Arguellos, where he was recognised, and information sent to his pursuers of his retreat, by whom he was arrested. Conducted under a strong escort to Andujar, he was assailed by a mob with such violent imprecations and threatening gesticulations, that the French garrison of the place were obliged to turn out to save his life. As M. de Coppons, an officer of Marshal Moncey's staff, covered him with his body at the hazard of his life, he said, "The people who are now so excited against me-the people who, but for the succour of the French, would have murdered me -that same people last year, on this very spot, bore me in their arms in triumph: the city forced upon me, against my will, a sabre of honour: the night which I passed here the houses were illuminated: the people vi. 457, 458; danced till morning under my windows, and prevented me, by their acclamations, from obtaining a moment of sleep." 1

1 Ann. Hist.

Lam. vii. 258, 261.

These repeated disasters, and the accounts received from all quarters of the general submission of the country,

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