were, however, despatched to the most important points. Moncey advanced on Valencia, Lefebvre Desnouettes marched against Zaragoza, Bessieres manoeuvred upon Segovia and Valladolid, and Duhesme commenced active operations against the Catalans.

• Murat meantime had left Spain. Before he had well recovered from a severe attack of the Madrid colic, an intermittent fever supervened; and when that was removed, he was ordered by his physicians to the warm baths of Bareges. The Duc de Rovigo, General Savary, who had acted so considerable a part in decoying Ferdinand to Bayonne, succeeded in the command. It happened at this time, that several French soldiers, after drinking wine in the public houses at Madrid, died, some almost immediately, others after a short illness, under unequivocal symptoms of poison. Baron Larrey, who was at the head of the medical staff, acted with great prudence on this occasion. He sent for wine from different Ventas, analyzed it, and detected narcotic ingredients in all; and he ascertained, upon full inquiry, that these substances, of which laurel-water was one, were as commonly used to flavour and strengthen the Spanish wines, as litharge is to correct acidity in the lighter wines of France. The natives were accustomed to it from their youth; they frequently mixed their wine with water; and moreover the practice of smoking over their liquor tended to counteract its narcotic effects, by stimulating the stomach and the intestines: it was, therefore, not surprising that they could drink it with safety, though it proved fatal to a few strangers. M. Larrey, therefore, justly concluded that there had been no intention of poisoning the French. If such a suspicion had been intimated, execrated as they knew themselves to be, the troops would readily have believed it, and a bloodier massacre than that of the 2nd of May must have ensued.

This opinion of M. Larrey,' adds Dr. Southey, is confirmed by some cases of death produced by cordial waters, which occurred, I think, at Dublin a few years ago. An account was published in some journal, but I cannot refer to it, having met with it in the course of chance-reading, and not thinking at the time that I should ever have occasion to notice it. Except that the dose was stronger, the cases are precisely in point: and they shew also, which is equally in point, that poisons of this kind which prove fatal in some instances, are taken with perfect impunity in many others.' pp. 310, 11.

The first efforts of the French were successful. Valladolid, Segovia, Santander, were occupied; Cuesta and his undisciplined volunteers were defeated at Cabezon; the passage of the Ebro was forced at Tudela; and the Aragonese were defeated at Mallen and Alagon. But, in Catalonia, the well-combined schemes of Duhesme were completely foiled: the Somatenes, or armed population, defended the passes, and made successive stands at every strong position, until General Schwartz, who

commanded a division which was advancing on Manresa, began to hesitate.

An odd accident deceived the French. There was among the Somatenes, a drummer, who had escaped from Barcelona. Little as the knowledge was which this lad possessed of military manœuvres, it enabled him to assume authority among these armed peasants, and he performed the double duties of drummer and commander with singular good fortune. For the enemy inferred from the sound of the drum, which was regularly beaten, that the peasantry were supported by regular troops: there were Swiss in Lerida, and the regi inent of Extremadura was at Tarrega; the apprehension, therefore, was not unreasonable; and after a short stand against a brisk fire, Schwartz determined upon retreating. The Somatenes, encouraged by success, and now increasing in number, pressed upon him; and the news of his defeat raised the country behind him, to his greater danger. He had to pass through the little town Esparraguera, consisting of one narrow street nearly a mile in length. The inhabitants cut down trees, and brought out tables and benches to obstruct the way, and they stored the flat roofs of their houses with beams and stones. The head of the French column, ignorant of these preparations, entered the street at twilight; but having experienced the danger, Schwartz divided them into two bodies, one of which made its way on the outside of the town by the right, the other by the left. From this time, the retreat became disorderly; the enemy lost part of their artillery in crossing the Abrera; and had the people of Martorell acted upon the alert like those of Esparraguera, and broken down the bridge over the Noya, the fugitives, for such they were now become, might probably all have been cut off. They entered Barcelona in great confusion and dismay.' pp. 358, 59.

This check was sustained at Bruch, and General Chabran, in a subsequent attempt to penetrate in the same direction, failed at the same point. Nor was Duhesme himself more successful when he endeavoured to possess himself of Gerona, while he confirmed the Catalans in their desperate hostility by the ravages which he encouraged his troops to commit. The Valencians gallantly disputed the ground with Marshal Moncey on his advance against their city; and, though he forced his way through the obstacles which they opposed to him in the field, he failed before the old brick wall' of that ancient capital. The heroism of its defenders supplied their deficiency of means; and he retired disappointed of his expected prey. The most urgent object with the French was, to secure the possession of Andalusia, and to place the French squadron at Cadiz in safety, by occupying that important fortress and arsenal with a commanding military force. Moncey advanced as far as Andujar, but there he was stopped by the army of Castaños; and the well-contested battle of Baylen, gained by the Spaniards

under the immediate command of the Swiss general Reding, led to the famous convention which provided for the surrender of the French troops. The terms granted were highly favourable to the defeated party; but the Junta violated the capitu lation, contrary to the remonstrances of General Castaños, Lord Collingwood, and Sir Hugh Dalrymple. The victory of Baylen was won July 19th 1808, and occurred most opportunely to counteract the disastrous effects of the hard-fought conflict of Rio Seco, hazarded by the rashness of Cuesta, in opposition to the opinion of Blake, and gained, after a bloody struggle, by Marshal Bessieres.

The effects of the Spanish success in Andalusia were decisive. The Intrusive Government, which had been previously embarrassed by the refusal of the Council of Castile to take the oath of fidelity, quitted Madrid; and the French armies began to concentrate at Vittoria. But the event which exhibited the heroism and endurance of the Spanish character in the most brilliant light, was the memorable siege of Zaragoza. In June 1808, Lefebvre Desnouettes, after defeating the raw levies which had opposed him in three successive actions, took up his position before the walls of the city; if, indeed, in the details of military manœuvres, that deserve the name of a wall, which was constructed of brick, ten or twelve feet high and three feet thick. Animated with their love of national independence, and with their strong faith in our Lady of the Pillar, the Zaragozans prepared for defence under the command of the illustrious Palafox. Their successful resistance to a fierce assault on the 15th, taught the French general the necessity of more cautious measures. He retired to a short distance for the purpose of calling up reinforcements; and, after defeating at Epila, Palafox, who was manoeuvring in his rear, renewed on the 27th the siege. After some unsuccessful efforts to break into the city, he forced his way into the Torrero, whence he poured an incessant fire of shells and balls. Repeated failures having satisfied him of the impossibility of carrying the place by a coup de main, he felt himself under the necessity of undertaking a more regular investment, and on the 4th of August, opened the batteries before the gate of St. Engracia.

The mud walls were levelled at the first discharge; and the besiegers rushing through the opening, took the batteries before the adjacent gates in reverse. Here General Mori, who had distinguished himself on many former occasions, was made prisoner. The street of St. Engracia, which they had thus entered, leads into the Cozo; and the corner buildings where it thus terminated, were, on the one hand, the convent of St. Francisco, and, on the other, the General Hospital. Both were stormed and set on fire; the sick and

the wounded threw themselves from the windows to escape the flames, and the horror of the scene was aggravated by the maniacs, whose voices raving or singing in paroxysms of milder madness, or crying in vain to be set free, were heard amid the confusion of dreadful sounds. Many fell victims to the fire, and some to the indiscriminating fury of the assailants. Those who escaped were conducted as prisoners to the Torrero; but when their condition had been discovered, they were sent back on the morrow, to take their chance in the siege. After a severe contest and dreadful carnage, the French forced their way into the Cozo, in the very centre of the city, and, before the day closed, were in possession of one half of Zaragoza. Lefebvre now believed that he had effected his purpose, and required Palafox to surrender, in a note containing only these words:Head-quarters, St. Engracia. Capitulation!" The heroic Spaniard immediately returned this reply:-" Head-quarters, Zaragoza. War at the knife's point!"

The contest which was now carried on, is unexampled in history. One side of the Cozo, a street about as wide as Pall-Mall, was possessed by the French; and in the centre of it, their general, Verdier, gave his orders from the Franciscan convent. The opposite side was maintained by the Aragonese, who threw up batteries at the openings of the cross streets, within a few paces of those which the French erected against them. The intervening space was presently heaped with dead, either slain upon the spot, or thrown out from the windows. Next day the ammunition of the citizens began to fail ;... the Frenchmen were expected every moment to renew their efforts for completing the conquest, and even this circumstance occasioned no dismay, nor did any one think of capitulation. One cry was heard from the people whenever Palafox rode among them, that, if powder failed, they were ready to attack the enemy with their knives,...formidable weapons in the hands of desperate men. Just before the day closed, Don Francisco Palafox, the general's brother, entered the city with a convoy of arms and ammunition, and a reinforcement of three thousand men, composed of Spanish guards, Swiss, and volunteers of Aragon,...a succour as little expected by the Zaragozans, as it had been provided against by the enemy.

The war was now continued from street to street, from house to house, and from room to room; pride and indignation having wrought up the French to a pitch of obstinate fury, little inferior to the devoted courage of the patriots. During the whole siege, no one distinguished himself more remarkably than the curate of one of the parishes within the walls, by name P. Santiago Sass. He was always to be seen in the streets, sometimes fighting with the most determined bravery against the enemies not of his country alone, but of freedom, and of all virtuous principles, wherever they were to be found; at other times administering the sacrament to the dying, and confirming with the authority of faith, that hope, which gives to death, under such circumstances, the joy, the exultation, the triumph, and the spirit of martyrdom. Palafox reposed the utmost confidence in this brave priest, and selected him whenever any thing peculiarly difficult

or hazardous was to be done. At the head of forty chosen men, he succeeded in introducing a supply of powder into the town, so essentially necessary for its defence.

This most obstinate and murderous contest was continued for eleven successive days and nights; more indeed by night than by day; for it was almost certain death to appear by day-light within reach of those houses which were occupied by the other party. But under cover of the darkness, the combatants frequently dashed across the street to attack each other's batteries; and the battles which began there, were often carried on into the houses beyond, where they fought from room to room, and from floor to floor. The hostile batteries were so near each other, that a Spaniard, in one place, made way under cover of the dead bodies, which completely filled the space between them, and fastened a rope to one of the French cannons; in the struggle which ensued, the rope broke, and the Zaragozans lost their prize at the very moment when they thought themselves sure of it.' pp. 416-419.

A council of war held by the Spaniards on the 8th of August, came to the resolution of defending the city to the last street, and, if expelled from that, to retire across the Ebro, break down the bridge, and hold the suburbs to the last. But there was no necessity for this brave resolve; the citizens were regaining their lost ground: they had become skilful in their gallant business. The French were driven from post to post till they held, instead of the half, scarcely the eighth part of the city; and in the morning of the 14th, their retreating columns were seen by the Spaniards, far off on the plain, in the direction of Pamplona. The last disgraceful acts of the assailants were, the firing of the houses which they held, and the blowing up of the magnificent church of St. Engracia. In connexion with this glorious event, we have some curious comments by the Historian. After the observation, that the heroic efforts of the Aragonese were the effects of patriotism, aided and strengthened by religion,' he exclaims:

Let not the faith which animated the Aragonese be called superstition, because our Lady of the Pillar, Santiago, and St. Engracia, were its symbols. It was virtually and essentially religion in its inward life and spirit; it was the sense of what they owed equally to their forefathers and their children; the knowledge that their cause was as righteous as any for which an injured and insulted people ever rose in arms; the hope that, by the blessing of God on that cause, they might succeed; the certain faith that if they fell, it was with the feeling, the motive, and the merit of martyrdom. Life or death, therefore, became to the Zaragozans only not indifferent because life was useful to the cause for which they held it in trust, and were ready to lay it down: they who fell, expired in triumph, and the survivors rather envied than regretted them. The living had no fears for themselves, and for the same reason they could have no sorrows