stancy and ardent patriotism: That every officer employed in the siege should be promoted one step, and every private soldier enjoy the rank and the pay of serjeant: That all the defenders of Zaragoza, and its inhabitants, and their heirs, should enjoy personal nobility: That pensions, conformable to their rank and circumstances, should be granted to the widows and orphans of all who had perished there: That the having been within the walls during the siege should be considered as a claim in future pretensions: That Zaragoza should be exempt from all contributions for ten years, from the time when peace should be established; and that at that time the rebuilding of the public edifices, with all possible magnificence, should be begun at the expence of the state, and a monument erected in the square of the city, in perpetual memory of the va lour of the inhabitants and their glorious defence: That in the squares of all the cities of the kingdom an inscription should forthwith be set up, relating the most heroic circumstances of the two sieges, and a medal be struck in its honour, as a testimony of national gratitude for such eminent services. Finally, the junta promised the same honours and privileges to every city which should resist a like siege with like constancy, and proposed rewards for the best poem and best discourse upon this memorable event; the object being not only to hold up the virtues of the Zaragozans to the present generation and to posterity, but to inflame the hearts of the Spaniards with the same ardent patriotism, the same love of freedom, and the same abhorrence of tyranny." "The narrative of these two sieges," says our eloquent Wordsworth, should be the manual of every Spaniard; he may add to it the ancient stories of Numantia and Saguntum: Let him sleep upon the book as a pillow; and, if he be a devout adherent to the religion of his country, let him wear it in his bosom, for his crucifix to rest upon." CHAP. XXI, Proceedings of Buonaparte at Madrid and Valladolid. The Intruder enters the Capital. The Central Army retires into Valencia. Advance of Cuesta in Estremadura. Cruelty and horrible Crimes of the French. State of Affairs at Cadiz; Discussions concerning the Admission of British Troops. BEFORE Buonaparte left Madrid to march against Sir John Moore, an address, framed by the traitors of that city, in the name of the magistracy and citizens, was presented to him by the corregidor. In the abject language of submission and servility they thanked him for his gracious clemency, for thinking, in the midst of conquest, of the safety and welfare of the conquered inhabitants, and for his forgiveness of all that had occurred during the absence of their king, Joseph; and they intreated him that it might please him to grant them the favour of seeing King Joseph in Madrid, that under his laws Madrid, with all the places under its immédiate jurisdiction, and the whole of Spain, might at length enjoy that tranquillity and happiness which they expected from the benevolence of their new sovereign's character. To this address the tyrant replied by one of his characteristic harangues. "I am pleased," he said, " with the sentiments of the city of Madrid. I regret the injuries she has suffered, and am particularly happy that, under existing circumstances, I have been able to effect her deliverance, and to protect her from great cala mities. I have accomplished what I owed to myself and my nation. Vengeance has had its due. It has fallen upon ten of the principal culprits; all the rest have entire and absolute forgiveness." Doubtless Spain will preserve the names of these men, who signalized themselves in her cause so as to be selected for martyrdom by the murderous Corsican, and deemed worthy of his invectives, the best eulogium of a Spaniard's virtue. Then he enumerated the reforms by which he hoped to reconcile the nation to a foreign yoke: "I have preserved the spiritual orders, but with a limitation of the number of monks. Those of them who are influenced by a divine call shall remain in their cloisters; with regard to those whose call was doubtful, or influenced by worldly considerations, I have fixed their condition in the order of secular priests. Out of the surplus of the monastic property I have provided for the maintenance of the pastors, that important and useful class of the clergy. I have abolished that court which was a subject of complaint to Europe and the present age: Priests may guide the minds of men, but must exercise no temporal or corpo ral jurisdiction over the citizens. I have abolished those privileges which the grandees usurped during times of civil war. I have abolished the feudal rights, and henceforth every one may set up inns, ovens, mills, employ himself in fishing and rabbit-hunting, and give free scope to his industry, provided he respects the laws and regulations of the police. The selfishness, wealth, and prosperity of a small number of individuals were more injurious to your agriculture than the heat of the Dog-days. All peculiar jurisdictions were usurpations, and at variance with the rights of the nation. I have abolished them. As there is but one God, so should there be in a state but one judicial power." This is not the whole of the deduction which the tyrant would make from the unity of that God, whose name he never utters but to outrage, and whose vengeance, sooner or later, will overtake him. There is but one God, and Napoleon is his representative; this is the creed which this political Mahommed hints at himself, and suffers his infidel bishops and his flatterers to proclaim. Fool that he is! to be omniscient is the necessary condition of omnipotence, and the Spaniards, who had proved him fallible, had already set limits to his power. the king be not assured of their attachment and fidelity. The Bourbons can no longer reign in Europe. The divisions of the royal family were contrived by the English. It was not the dethronement of King Charles and of the favourite, that the Duke del Infantado, that tool of England, had in view. The intention was, to establish the predominant influence of England in Spain; a senseless project, the result of which would have been a perpetual continental war, that would have caused torrents of blood. No power under the influence of England can exist on the continent. If there be any that entertain such a wish, their wish is "absurd, and will sooner or later occasion their fall. It would be easy for me, should I be compelled to adopt that measure, to govern Spain, by establishing as many viceroys in it as there are provinces. Nevertheless, I do not refuse to abdicate my rights of conquest in favour of the king, and to establish him in Madrid, as soon as the 30,000 citizens which this capital contains, the clergy, nobility, merchants, and lawyers shall have declared their sentiments and their fidelity, set an example to the provinces, enlightened the people, and made the nation sensible that their existence and prosperity essentially depend upon a king and a free constitution, favourable to the people, and hostile only to the egotism and haughty passions of the grandees. "There is no obstacle," he continued, “which can long resist the execution of my resolutions. But what transcends my power is this, to consolidate the Spaniards as one nation, under the sway of the king, should they continue to be affected with those principles of hatred to France which the partizans of Eng land and the enemies of the continent have infused into the bosom of Spain. I can establish no nation, no king, no independence of the Spaniards, if VOL. II. PART I. "If such be the sentiments of the inhabitants of the city of Madrid, let the 30,000 citizens assemble in the churches; let them, in the presence of the holy Sacrament, take an oath, not only with their mouths, but also with their hearts, and without any jesuitical equivocation, that they promise support, attachment, and fidelity 2 L 1 to their king; let the priests in the confessional and the pulpit, the mercantile class in their correspondence, the men of law in their writings and speeches, infuse these sentiments into the people :-then shall I surrender my right of conquest, place the king upon the throne, and make it my pleasing task to conduct myself as a true friend of the Spaniards. The present generation may differ in their opinions; the passions have been too much brought into action; but your grand-children will bless me as their renovator; they will reckon the day when I appeared among you among their memorable festivals; and from that day will the happiness of Spain date its commencement. been burnt, in the bones which were bleaching upon the mountains of Biscay, and in the bodies, French and Spaniard, which were at that hour floating down the tainted Ebro! Here, in Madrid, their choice had been recorded; the thousands who had been swept down by grape-shot in its streets, or bayonetted in the houses, they who had fallen in the heat of battle before its gates, and they who in cold blood had been sent in droves to execution, alike had borne witness to that choice, and confirmed it with their lives, and rejoiced in it with their dying breath. And this tyrant called upon the people of Madrid now to make their choice, now that their armies were dispersed, and they themselves, betrayed and disarmed, were surrounded by his legions!-Registers were opened in every quarter, and, if the French accounts could be believed, 30,000 fathers of families rushed thither in crowds, and signed a "Thus," he concluded, address ing himself to the corregidor, "you are informed of the whole of my determination. Consult with your fellow citizens, and consider what part you will chuse; but whatever it be, make your choice with sincerity, and tell me only your genuine sentiments." There was something more preposterous, more detestable, in this affectation of candour and generosity than in his open and insolent violence. "Consult! and consider what part you will chuse, and make your choice with sincerity!"-The tyrant might have known that the Spanish nation had made their choice; they had made it at Baylen and at Reynosa, at Cadiz and at Madrid, at Valencia and at Zaragoza; for life or for death, deliberately, and yet as if with one impulse, with enthusiasm, and yet calmly, had that noble nation nobly, and wisely, and religiously made their heroic choice. They had written it in blood, their own and their oppressors'; its proofs were to be seen in deserted. houses and depopulated towns, in the blackened walls of hamlets which had supplication to the conqueror, entreating him to put an end to their misfortunes, by granting them his august brother Joseph for their king. If this impossible eagerness had really been manifested, it could admit of no other solution than that the people of Madrid, bitterly as they detested and heartily as they despised Joseph Buonaparte, yet thought it a less evil to be governed by him than by the tyrant himself,-for this was the alternative which was held up in terror. But a census of this kind, as it is called, like those which coloured Buonaparte's assumption, first of the consulship for life, and then of an hereditary throne, was easily procured, when neither threats, nor persuasions, nor fraud, nor violence were spared. While this mockery of election was going on, Buonaparte departed from Madrid to proceed against the Eng. lish. A formidable army was left to overawe the metropolis, consisting of the corps of Marshals Lefebvre and Victor, (Dukes of Dantzic and Belluno,) and three divisions of cavalry; in the whole not less than 50,000 men, subject to the orders of Joseph, who had not however yet entered that city. The votes, as they were denominated, were collected with in solent formality, and oppression was aggravated by impiety; the host was elevated in all the churches, and the priests compelled to receive from their countrymen at the altar a compulsory oath of allegiance to the intruder. Yet even under these circumstances a body of the people assembled, when they were called upon to swear, and asked whether they were to swear to Ferdinand; for to him they had taken the oaths, and to none but him would they swear allegiance. It was judged more politic to let this display of patriotic feeling pass unnoticed, than to give it publicity by punishment. The ceremony of voting was deDec. 23. layed till Buonaparte's departure," because," said the French journalists," a suspicion of fear might else have attached to it; the act was now the more noble, as being entirely free, as being confirmed by the most weighty considerations by which a people can be influenced, their interest, their happiness, and their glory." Such was the absurd language by which, while all authentic information was prohibited, the better part of the French nation were insulted, and the unre flecting deceived. Having seen the English general abandon the defence of Galicia, and turn his army into a rout, Buonaparte turned back from Astorga to Valla. dolid, a well-chosen station, from whence he might send reinforcements either to the pursuing army, under Soult, or to the divisions at Madrid. Here he received dispatches, and addresses from all Jan. 16.the councils, orders, and corporate bodies of the metropolis, couched in abject terms, and all soliciting that they might be favoured with the presence of their king. From the commencement of the revolution, the higher ranks in Madrid had shewn. themselves as deficient in public as, they had long been in private virtue.. Not an individual in the capital whowas distinguished for rank, or power, or riches, had stood forward in the patriotic cause; so fallacious is the opinion that those persons will be most zealous in the defence of their country who have what is called the largest stake in it. The council of state, by a deputy, expressed its homage of thanks for the generous clemency of the conqueror. "What gratitude," said he, "does it not owe you for having snatched Spain from the influence of those destructive councils which fifty years of misfortune had prepared for it; for having rid it of the English armies, who threatened to fix upon its territories the theatre of continental war, and to inflict upon it the disorders and the ravages which are usually in its train; grateful for all these benefits, the council of state has still another supplication to lay at the feet of your majesty. Deign, sire, to commit to our loyalty your august brother, our lord and king. Permit him to reenter Madrid, and to take into his hands the reins of government; so that under the benevolent sway of this august prince, whose mildness, wisdom, and justice are known to all Europe, our widowed and desolate monarchy may find a father in the best of kings." D. Bernardo Yriarte, |