Lugo is a species of defile some eighty miles long, where a feeble rearguard could hold the one practicable road, with only here and there a chance to turn its position by climbing the rugged mountains on either hand. Soult was unable to do much to disturb Moore's retreat, and Ney, in Soult's rear, was quite neutralized. Yet Moore, though able to retire at his leisure, made unusual efforts to get to Corunna, refusing to accept battle at Astorga, but coming close to so doing at Lugo. Having no supplies provided for his retreat, and the country being poor, his troops suffered severe hardships, while many men were left behind and much of the train abandoned. The French column suffered no less.

Why Moore was unwilling to defend Corunna, which had marked value for the English, is not easy to understand. It was not a strong place, but neither had the French any but field guns; the sea was open to the British to victual the town; and even at the last minute, with due precautions, the army could embark. Though not proposing to hold himself there, when, on January 11, Moore reached Corunna, he found himself compelled to turn and fight for the chance of embarking, for the fleet did not come up until the 15th. On reaching the vicinity, January 14, Soult found Moore drawn up in battle order in front of the town; he heartily attacked January 16, with some twenty thousand French against a somewhat lesser number; the English maintained the defense with their national tenacity; the battle, largely fought among the walls and hedges with which the country is filled, was drawn. Moore was killed, and Baird and Paget wounded. The English stuck to their main position, showing an obstinacy to which the French were unused, and during the night and next day completed their embarkment. In the battle, the English records show the small loss of seven hundred men; the French casualties probably added up twice that

SURRENDER OF CORUNNA.

119

number; but even this is a small percentage. In the entire operation Moore lost some six thousand men and much material.

The Spaniards in Galicia made scarcely a pretense of defending themselves. Corunna surrendered January 20, with two hundred guns; and a few days later Ferrol, with three hundred guns, ten war ships and several merchant vessels, was captured. La Romana finally left the Orense country and retired to Monterey, in the mountains, to reorganize.

The other Spanish forces had not been idle. Encouraged by Napoleon's absence from Madrid, the Army of Andalusia

advanced on the Tagus from Cuença, in the hope that the capital might be disgarnished of troops, and at the same time the Army of the South moved against Lefebvre. But, crossing at Almaraz, Lefebvre drove the latter back to Merida and beyond the Guadiana; and during this manoeuvre, Victor de

120

ST. CYR DEFEATS VIVES.

feated the Army of Andalusia at Ucles, January 13, with loss of eight thousand prisoners and thirty guns, which enabled him to maintain not only an advanced position out towards Valencia, but also one near Madridejos on the road to Andalusia.

In Catalonia, meanwhile, the warlike inhabitants in their mountain fastnesses and fortified cities had been bidding defiance to the French arms. From Barcelona, in August, Duhesme had opened the route to Gerona and invested it; but, driven off with loss, St. Cyr took command of the province with twenty thousand men, French, Tuscans and Neapolitans. Vives opposed him with nearly seventy thousand men, including much armed peasantry, invested Barcelona, and was morally sustained by an English squadron off the coast. Taking Rosas in December, St. Cyr advanced to succor Barcelona, and pluckily overcoming many obstacles, strategic and logistic, reached Cardedeu December 16, dispersed Vives' force, and entered Barcelona in triumph. Then advancing on Tarragona on December 21, he again defeated Vives, who was replaced by Reding. But St. Cyr attacked and beat him also, February 16 and 25, 1809, and drove him back to Tarragona. It looked as if St. Cyr had established a foothold on the Catalonian seacoast.

While resultless battles and manoeuvres over the entire Peninsula were keeping the French forces employed, sieges were the order of the day on the Mediterranean, for, beaten in the field, the Spaniards were yet of value behind defenses. Generations before, Spanish infantry had been the best in the world, but decadence had put walls in the place of pike and sword, and though there had been none to train the Spanish foot in line, yet Spanish courage was well exemplified at Saragossa, Gerona, Tarragona.

There were two sieges of Saragossa that illustrate the spirit

of the Spanish people. We have seen how, early in the war, the city, under Palafox, had undertaken to defend the Spanish cause. This officer possessed courage, and beside him stood an able Belgian officer, Saint Mars, for whom part of the credit

is claimed. On June 29, 1808, when Dupont was in Andalusia, Verdier and Lefebvre-Desnouettes began the siege.

Saragossa, lying on the right bank of the Ebro, possessed only an old wall; but on one side was the Ebro, and on the other a series of large and strong buildings, like the palace of the Inquisition, and a number of convents, which could not be captured without a breach; and half the circuit of the town

122

AN EXTRAORDINARY DEFENSE.

was covered by a deep-lying brook. Cutting off the city on the right bank, the French opened an attack against the gate of El Carmen. The resistance was extraordinary; women, children and religious joined the combatants, and one peasant woman, Augustina by name, served a piece of artillery throughout the siege. Verdier had but twelve thousand men; but after seizing the Portillo gate, and an assault on August 4, he reached the Coso, in the centre of the town. To a summons to capitulate, Palafox replied by "War to the death," and for a week the battle for the city was carried on with brutal ferocity from house to house. It was understood that, should the French win, the population would leave by the left bank and destroy the bridge; but in mid-August, as one result of Baylen, the French were ordered back on Miranda. The Spaniards now had time to patch up the wall and mount one hundred and fifty guns, and before the second siege the big buildings were prepared, earthworks thrown up in front of the walls, which were repaired, and the houses of the town made ready. We have seen how Palafox, after Tudela, retired to Saragossa with thirty thousand regular troops, of which two thousand were cavalry; there were fifteen thousand well-armed peasants and an equal number of inhabitants, and the town was victualed for a long siege. The English had sent abundant ammunition. A gallows was erected as a warning to those who spoke of surrender, and religious fanaticism furnished a yet more potent incentive.

Late in December, 1808, when the emperor was moving against Moore, Mortier joined Moncey, and both, with some thirty thousand men, sixty guns and a corps of sappers and miners, began operations. On January 2 Junot took Moncey's place, and Suchet's division was to keep up communications with Madrid. Mortier's other division, Gazan, held the left bank, where he was hemmed in by peasants under