the English troops under Sir John Moore, who threatens Valladolid, induce the Emperor before leaving Madrid to effect a reconciliation with Joseph-Arrangement come to by the two brothers. AFTER the retreat from Madrid, the French army, as already said, had divided into three bodies, and, amounting in all to hardly 50,000 men, taken up its position on the Ebro. There it had remained inactive for six weeks, and this inaction encouraged the enemy to cross the Ebro a little above Miranda, and threaten us in the rear. A movement on one part towards Burgos would have immediately recalled the Spaniards to the right bank of the river, and on the 17th of September such a movement was determined on. But at the moment when the order for its execution was about to be given, intelligence was received of the convention of Cintra, which had been concluded on the 30th of August, between General Junot and General Dalrymple, commandant of the English army in Portugal, in consequence of the battle of Vimicero, lost by the French a few days before. This capitulation, in accordance with which the French army had re-embarked to return to France, made the English complete masters in Portugal, and they were now able to give assistance to Spain without hindrance. In such a situation any movement would have been imprudent, and therefore the plan of an advance on Burgos was abandoned, and the head quarters being no longer sufficiently strong at Miranda were removed to Vittoria, there to await the coming of the Emperor, who was shortly expected to arrive in Spain. During our stay at Vittoria, we were kept continually on the alert by the movements of the enemy. They had crossed the Ebro, and taken Bilboa on our flank, and many times threatened to cut off our communication with France; but the activity of Marshal Ney, whose troops were employed in baffling the projects of the Spaniards, the combined movements on Orduña executed by the King at the head of a strong detachment, and the skilful measures taken by Marshal Jourdan, arrested the progress of the enemy. Bilboa was retaken, and the columns that the Emperor was sending into Spain beginning to arrive in succession daily, rendered our position more formidable. At length all was ready, and preparations were made to open the campaign which was to decide the fate of Spain. Meanwhile Napoleon had learned with certainty at the council of Erfurth that the Emperor Alexander had remained faithful to the engagements into which he had entered at Tilsit. Prussia, enfeebled as she was and occupied by a French army, could do nothing, so long as the good understanding between Russia and France lasted. Austria alone was doubtful; but the habitual procrastination AUSTRIAN PROCRASTINATION. 271 of the cabinet of Vienna gave Napoleon confidence. He thought that the brilliancy of the fresh victories over the English, which he promised himself, as well as the conquest of Spain, which he believed to be merely a matter of a rapid campaign, would bring Austria to a state of resignation. In any case he would leave sufficient troops in the north to fight that power so long as it was his only enemy, and the event proved that on this head he was not mistaken: Thus everything was shaping itself towards a fresh contest and one the more remarkable, because the English, who already had expelled the French from Portugal, were going to take part in it, and to encounter their formidable enemy in person. Princes and people awaited the issue with anxiety; the eyes of Europe, which for ten years had been fixed on Italy and Germany, where the destinies of nations had so often been weighed in the balance and decided, were now turned towards a country which had hitherto been unconcerned in those great events. Spain had suddenly become the stage whereon the most fortunate and most skilful general of our time was to find himself face to face with the enemy he was burning to attack, and in conflict with the wild courage of a nation who seemed to have waited until this man had conquered Europe to defy him. The Emperor, after having made. arrangements which were to ensure to him some years of concord with Russia, arrived in Paris from Erfürth on the 19th of October, 1808. The formidable masses which composed the Grand Army were already in movement. Their passage through France, covered with honours and glory, was a succession of fêtes, and, only that a certain want of discipline was occasionally manifested, their march would have resembled a continual triumph rather than a military movement. The troops had just reached the Spanish frontier when the opening of the Legislative Body took place in Paris, on the 23rd of October. The Emperor's speech on that solemn occasion is full of pride, satisfied with the present, and confident in the future. "It is," said he, "a special favour from the same Providence that has constantly favoured our arms, that the English authorities are now so blinded by passion, that they are not satisfied with the empire of the sea, but must present their armies on the continent. I intend leaving Paris in a few days, in order to take the command of my army in person, and, with the help of God, I shall crown the King of Spain in Madrid and hoist my eagles on the towers of Lisbon." Vainglorious boast, which events have too utterly belied! Napoleon left Paris on the 30th of October, and THE EMPEROR ARRIVES. 273 reached Vittoria on the evening of the 7th of met him at a distance of five miles from the town. The Emperor had travelled with astonishing rapidity, but he seemed to be very little fatigued. However he saw no one during the evening except. his brother, with whom he dined. On the following day he came to the audience given by the King in a gallery of the house in which Joseph was residing. He requested that the Spaniards present should be named to him, and spoke to them all with great animation, expressing himself alternately in French and in Italian, according as he thought he could best make himself understood. But the greater part of what he said was unintelligible to them. I heard it all, and perceived that he was excessively annoyed. He complained bitterly of the conduct of the Spaniards, who had stupidly failed to see the advantages of the change he had introduced in their politicial system. He was especially bitter against the monks: "It is they," he exclaimed, “who mislead and deceive you. I am as good a Catholic as they, and I am not against your religion. Your priests are paid by the English, and these English, who say they come to help you, want your trade and VOL. II. T |