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pended during this alarm; and with such consummate prudence were all his enterprizes planned and executed, that not one of his men was either killed or hurt, except one, who was singed in blowing up the battery.

Before he quitted the station, Lord Cochrane rendered one more service to a cause in which he felt that lively interest which became him as a Briton and a true lover of liJan. 2. berty. Hearing that eleven victuallers, destined for the relief of Barcelona, were lying in the port of Caldagues, under convoy of a cutter and a lugger, he captured

the whole, drove the French from the town of Caldagues, and took all the guns which they had mounted and were mounting on the batteries. But Barcelona had already been relieved by land. St Cyr's division, after defeating the patriots under Reding and Vives, entered it on the 17th of December. Many opportunities had occurred, and many there were afterwards, in which a floating English force, under an enterprizing leader, such a leader as Cochrane, might have recovered for Spain this most important city.

CHAP. XX.

Second Siege and Fall of Zaragoza. Honours decreed to that City, and its Defenders and Inhabitants.

AFTER the defeat at Tudela, Palafox retired to Zaragoza, to prepare for a second siege. "I had no apprehension of this sort," said he, " at Caperroso, where I was posted with a division of my army, far from thinking that I should so soon find myself in the lamentable situation in which I am now placed; for never could any combination of mine have brought me into it." The charge of incapacity thus implied against the commander-inchief was strengthened by an official account of the battle, published by General O'Neil. Here it appeared that the troops under the command of Palafox had felt the utmost confidence in their general; that his plans had been ably formed; and that when, in consequence of a movement undertaken without his advice, and contrary to his designs, they were forced to engage under many grievous disadvantages, both officers and men had done their duty, and maintained the character of their country. But the evil was done; and though the regret which must have been felt that such a man as Palafox should not have been left free to follow the impulses of his own superior genius, might operate as a warning for the future, it could not remedy the past.

During the former siege the Zaragozans had been embarrassed by the French who resided in the city. Whatever might be the virtues of an indi vidual, it is not to be wondered at if every Frenchman suffered the penalty of imputed sin for the crimes of his government. It was necessary to take precautions against their probable treachery, and at the same time to protect them against the fatal effects of popular suspicion. To prevent this inconve- Nov. 24. nience, and to avoid a general massacre of these unfortunate people, which he apprehended, not more from the indignant rage of the Spaniards than from the instigation of the wretches in the tyrant's pay, Palafox sent them out of the city to distant places of confinement. prisoners and deserters from the enemy were also sent away to places appointed for their reception. All the women, all men above threescore, and all boys not able to carry cartridges, were commanded to leave the city within three days, orders having been issued to all the towns and villages in the kingdom to receive them with kindness, and to supply their wants. The nuns were permitted to remove to other convents at a distance from

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the scene of danger, where they might devote themselves without interruption to their religious exercises. These measures could not be executed to their full extent, the enemy approached so rapidly; and had there been leisure for their fulfilment, it might probably have been difficult to enforce them; for the patriotism of the Zaragozans was as ardent in the women as in the men, and many of them would consider it a greater evil to seek bread and protection apart from their husbands, than to remain with them during the siege, and triumph or perish together. Another decree was levelled against those persons who, for the sake of preserving their own property, would fain have submitted to the intruder; of such persons the majority of his adherents is composed, wretches who are bribed by their own wealth to betray their country. Palafox ordained, that all the inhabitants of Zaragoza, of whatever rank or condition, should consider themselves bound to devote their persons, their property, and their lives to its defence; that the rich should foster, and assist, and clothe the poor, enable them to maintain their respective posts, and remunerate them for the zeal with which they defended their lives, their estates, and their common country. If any man were unnatural enough to disregard this sacred duty, which he owed both to his country and his religion, he should be fined proportion to the magnitude of his offence, and the amount of the fine appropriated to the subsistence of the army. All persons who served the cause of the enemy, by pasquinades, by endeavouring to excite a want of confidence in the chiefs, the people, or the army, or by raising disturbances and riots, should be carried before Don Santiago Penicela, the newly

appointed judge of the police, who would pass judgement according to their crimes, and suitable to the danger of the country; but before he imposed the punishment of death, he should consult the captain-general. All the houses were ordered to be well supplied with vessels of water, in order to extinguish fires; and the Alcaides de Barrio, or officers of the ward, were charged to superintend this important measure of preparation. All persons entering or leaving the city were to be watched with the greatest care, because the enemy even assumed the dress of the Spaniards, and, greatly superior as they were in numbers, resorted to every artifice. "All these measures," said Palafox, "should be obeyed with religious respect, because they are all directed to the good of our country, which, in happier times, will recompence all the sacrifices we make,-sacrifices so acceptable in the sight of God, and of the Virgin Mother of God, who is our celestial protectress."

The French, with their usual celerity, proceeded to improve their victory, and marched against Zaragoza, under Marshal Moncey (Duke of Cornegliano). They encamped at a little distance Nov. 27. from that city four days. after the battle. Meantime the utmost exertions were made by the inhabitants to strengthen their fortifications; old and young worked at them, without distinction of sex or rank. On the 29th some skirmishes took place between the advanced parties, which were to the advantage of the patriots. On the 30th, in the dusk of the evening, about 1200 of the enemy appeared on the side of the Torrero and the Casa Blanca. Part of them took post on a height between the Ermidas, or chapels of

Soledad, and Santa Barbara, which commanded the Casa Blanca; the rest ascended through the ravine de la Muerte, and took possession of the Carthusian monastery of the Conception. The whole of the garrison was immediately under arms. Dec. 1. At day-break the enemy were attacked, dislodged from the monastery, and compelled to fall back through the ravine; they then took post, in five columns, on the heights that command the Torrero, and having manoeuvred till ten o'clock, commenced a vigorous attack in the direction of the Casa Blanca. It continued for four hours, during which time the fire of the Spaniards was so well kept up that the French at length fell back, and at four in the afternoon they filed off towards Alagon, leaving behind them part of their baggage and a considerable quantity of provisions. The success of the day was attributed in great measure to the able dispositions of General St Marc. This repulse impeded the plans of the enemy, and a division of their force, which was advancing by Zuera, fell back towards Tausti. They were not more successful in an attack made upon the line of the canal, where the bridge was three times taken and recovered. The division of Asturian troops charged them with such spirit that they retreated, leaving many hundreds upon the field.

The delay which was occasioned in the progress of the siege by these defeats, and by numerous other sallies of the Zaragozans, Buonaparte represented as an act of humanity on his part. He was anxious, he said, to spare the inhabitants the horrors inseparable from a capture by storm, and was unwilling therefore that the city should be attacked before the

surrender of Madrid, and the dispersion of the Spanish armies should be known there. But the tyrant could not possibly imagine that the fate of Madrid would produce any effect upon Zaragoza; that city had been tried and proved, and the hatred which rankled in the heart of this base barbarian against its defenders was manifested by his invectives against Palafox. To this hatred he gave full scope when it suited him to speak his real feelings: Mines and bombs, said he, shall reduce Zaragoza to reason; and he swore in his fury that the city should be destroyed. A great quantity of mortars, bombs, and howitzers of every calibre, were brought by General Dedon, who commanded the artillery, from Pamplona; and Lacoste, the general of engineers, who was one of the Corsican's aid-de-camps, collected instruments of every kind for mining. Buonaparte had been taught that there was no other means of conquering Zaragoza than by destroying it.

Marshal Berwick, after he had attained the height of his military reputation, used to wish that he might have a good fortress to defend,-this he thought was yet wanting to his fame. Something more would still have been wanting, which never fell to Marshal Berwick's lot,-a good cause for which to have defended it: A man may become a great general without this, but he never can become a hero; never can win for himself the admiration and reverence and love of all succeeding ages, like Palafox within the mud walls of Zaragoza. Moncey proposed to him to capitulate; his answer was, Talk of capitulation when I am dead! The soldiers and the citizens were alike worthy of their illustrious leader. The Countess of Burita again enrel

led herself with three hundred women of all ranks, to assist those who worked at the batteries, by carrying provisions, and rendering whatever service was in their power. Young and old were inspired with the same sacred enthusiasm. A boy of fourteen offered himself as a soldier, and was rejected as too young to serve. Nevertheless he mixed with the troops, joined in one of their attacks upon the French, and won with his own hand a stand of colours, which in the sight of the army he carried to the church of the Pillar, and laid upon the high altar as his offering to the Virgin.

On the 20th of December, the enemy made a general attack in great force on the side where Moncey commanded in person. They won the Torrero, a post untenable from its situation against superior numbers; they won also the Casa Blanca; and the battery of Buenavista, which was flanked in consequence by this, success, was blown up by a shell. The Spaniards, expecting that their position would be lost, had ruined the bridge of America, and by blowing it up, prevented the French cavalry from harassing their retreat, which they effected in good order to the redoubt of the Pillar, at the head of the bridge de la Huerba. The success of the day was very different elsewhere. On the other side of the river seven columns of infantry, with a large body of horse, attempted to win the suburb. The command on this side had been entrusted to Brigadier Don Josef Manso, captain of the royal guards, who, after an action of five hours, repulsed the enemy. They renewed the attack with their reserve, and their fire was so hot and the attack so fierce, that the patriots were somewhat disordered. Palafox

himself, followed by O'Niel and Saint Marc, hastened to the spot, put himself sword in hand at the head of his countrymen, rallied them, encou raged them by his voice and his example, and the French were defeated and driven back, leaving 4000 men upon the field.

Dec. 22.

A few days afterwards, Moncey, who had now fixed his head-quarters at the Torrero, sent a letter to Palafox, assuring him that Madrid had capitulated, and that any farther resistance on the part of Zaragoza could only produce its total and inevitable destruction. The French Marshal spoke also of his earnest wish to spare the effusion of blood, and to preserve so fine and so estimable a city; and he called upon the Aragonese general to inspire the people with peaceful sentiments, and so deserve the blessings which were offered them. The emperor, he said, had given him power to put a stop to all farther evil; and his heart as well as his duty made him urge the Zaragozans to accept the peace which was proposed. Such profanation of language, to which the French have been accustomed since the baneful ascendancy of the Corsican, makes Genseric and Attila, and the old barbarians of the North and of the East appear less hateful;-they only outraged humanity; these wretches, while they commit equal excesses, insult the understanding, and would pervert the moral nature of man. Palafox replied, "that Madrid, if it had indeed capitulated, must have been betrayed;-the second of May," said he, "is a day which has no parallel in history; either that city defends itself, or it has been sold. But what if it has been sold? Madrid is but a single town. What avails it to talk of danger to men who know how to

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