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THE PASS AT SOMO-SIERRA.

and Musnier, twenty-two thousand men, sat down before Saragossa, and Ney, taking Lagrange, Marchand and Desolles, marched to Calatayud. As, after Tudela, Palafox had withdrawn into Saragossa with his thirty thousand Aragonese, Moncey merely observed the town, not having men enough to besiege it, until Mortier joined him.

Ney reached Guadalajara December 7. From here he sent his cavalry to Madrid and cantoned his troops. The central Junta ordered Castaños to Aranjuez ostensibly to undertake the general management, and La Peña and Cartaojal, left in command, essayed sundry raids on the capital.

From Aranda Napoleon broke up, November 28, to march on Madrid, which was ill-prepared to resist him; the same day Savary had attacked the enemy in the foothills of the mountains, but they had checked him, and Victor was sent forward with Ruffin and Villatte to take Sepulveda. On the 30th at early dawn, with Victor, Ruffin in the lead, the cavalry and the Guard, the emperor pushed up towards the pass at Somo-Sierra, which he found held by San Juan and a force of ten thousand men, with sixteen guns trained down the mountain road.

The road was full of curves, so that guns could not be pointed to advantage, and as the pass could be defended only by holding the road and the slopes on either hand, the Spanish troops had occupied them both. It was foggy until noon. French skirmishers were sent along the adjoining slopes to outflank the batteries, and soon met the Spanish on the hills. The road was broken in places, and the repairs consumed time; the progress was slow. The emperor rode up to the defile as far as his own advance batteries, and under fire examined the ground. His escort was as usual a squadron of each of the cavalry regiments of the Guard, and as the tirailleurs on right and left were not advancing fast enough to suit him,

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CHARGE OF polish sqUADRON.

he ordered the Polish squadron forward to charge up the road, and take the Spanish battery. Montbrun was that day in command of the vanguard cavalry and started with the squadron; but before pushing it out on its desperate task, he hid it behind a roll in the ground, and sent back word to the emperor that the charge was simply impossible. The emperor replied that he knew no such word, and sent Major Ségur with the renewed order to the Polish squadron. The chief of squadron, Kozietulski, received the order, Ségur accompanied him, Montbrun remained behind, the squadron galloped up the road by fours, and though having grape and canister in front, and musketry fire from the heights on either side, bravely carried the three Spanish batteries stationed at the curves and firing down the road. The loss of this squadron was heavy; all the officers fell, Kozietulski's horse being killed at the beginning. Ségur had three wounds, fifty-seven men had been killed or wounded, many had remained behind because their horses had been shot. Thus the first squadron was checked; but the squadrons in rear that charged soon after, leaping over dead men and horses and shouting their national battle-cry, pushed in on the battery, the defenders of which were already shaken by the flanking foot, and, imposing on the Spanish defenders by sheer audacity, rode over the guns, sabred the gunners and captured every piece. The loss of the second squadron was small. The Spaniards decamped and the emperor's aim was accomplished. As a noteworthy instance of gallantry, the charge of the first squadron earned a name for the Polish horse throughout every corps of the Grand Army. The distance covered was about a mile and a half, and consumed seven or eight minutes. It was of course assisted by the advance made by the French skirmishers on right and left, but this does not detract from its exceptional gallantry. To the moral effect produced by the charge was

A MARK OF ESTEEM.

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mostly due its success. "The Poles merited fully," says Balagny, "the flattering mark of esteem which the emperor gave them on the morrow

Polish Lancer.

routed corps dispersed in every direction, and Napoleon bivouacked that night at Buitrago. Somo-Sierra was ordered to be fortified, as the Spaniards ought long before to have done. The cavalry pursued the enemy along the Madrid road; and hearing that Spanish troops were arriving from Escorial and Guadalajara, bodies of horse were sent out to check them. The emperor expected to find no further resistance unless Castaños or the English had got to Madrid; but curiously, while he was moving on Madrid, Hope was leading his English column towards Avila in the reverse direction.

The road to Madrid was now clear, and Ruffin and Villatte, with the Guard, marched thither, Bessières' cavalry reaching the heights of Chamartin, overlooking the city, in a dense fog during the forenoon of December 2. The emperor had at

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SURRENDER OF MADRID.

hand barely thirty thousand men; but they were excellent troops and flushed with victory, while in Madrid were forty thousand mixed troops under Morla. The Poles again showed their gallantry by driving in the Spanish troops they met, and reaching one of the city gates; and a reconnoissance showed that the city had been barricaded and armed. At noon the emperor arrived, and was received by the enthusiastic acclamations of the cavalry, "who desired to fête," says Balagny, "the double anniversary of his crowning and of Austerlitz. This capital was the third in three years in front of which they arrived victorious." The Junta had left, Madrid was evidently in the hands of the populace, and Napoleon, desiring to rescue it, demanded a surrender, which was refused. An attack was made at the northwest on three gates, fortified with artillery, and a lodgment effected. As the infantry came up late in the evening, Villatte was placed in front of the Retiro park, Ruffin in front of the northeast gates, and thirty guns were drawn up before the Retiro, and twenty on the northwest to sustain Lapisse, behind whom also stood the Guard. A fresh demand for surrender was made after midnight. No answer being given, at 9 A. M. fire was opened by a smart attack on the Retiro, and feints at other places. A breach was opened in the Retiro, and Villatte forced his way in as far as the Prado.

At eleven o'clock the fire ceased and a fresh summons was made. Time was asked to quiet the people, and on December 4 the city surrendered. The emperor purposely made no triumphal entry, though Ney later paraded through the streets to impress the people, and several reviews were held outside the city limits.

It was lucky that Madrid surrendered. Had it resisted while Castaños came on from Guadalajara, it might have occasioned a serious moment; for Ney was far in the rear, and if, in addition to that, Moore had marched towards Mad

A SERIOUS SITUATION.

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rid, the emperor might have needed all his ability to manage the situation. Since November 26 two groups of English had been reported by the cavalry as at Astorga and Salamanca, but there were no details, and these Napoleon had sent out to get; and when he heard, December 8, that a body (it was

Hope) was moving away, the emperor wrote Ney: "The English are making haste to the rear, are running with all their legs. We have been here for a moment in a serious situation." Still being in the centre between the English and Spaniards, the emperor would no doubt have been able to handle one after the other, for his troops, though few, were of the best quality.