the act of their general, and to have eensured him, notwithstanding his victory.

The feeling of the Spaniards was so strong, in consequence of the atrocities which they had witnessed, that Morla was called upon, by anonymous letters from many parts of Spain, to consider Dupont and the other generals as robbers and murderers, and bring them to condign punishment. If Murat, indeed, had been made prisoner, the executions which he had ordered at Madrid after the insurrection, and in cool blood, would have justified the Spaniards in putting him, and every member of his bloody tribunal, to a public and shameful death; the blood of their murdered brethren, the honour of their country, and the general good of mankind, would have required such an example. With regard to Dupont and his staff, it was otherwise; and Morla, who thought the wish of putting them to death was disgraceful to his countrymen, ought not to have affixed a stain upon them by publicly replying to anonymous letters. But it is apparent, from the general style of his reply, that he now expected Buonaparte would be successful in his usurpation, and that he took this opportunity of publishing opinions to which he might refer as proofs of consistency, after he should have abandoned the patriotic cause, and betrayed his country.In detaining the prisoners, he said, he had only obeyed the Junta of Seville; to obey was all he had to do; for it was not in his character or manner of thinking ever to resist a constituted authority; such resistance could only occasion civil dissentions, which were the greatest evils a nation could suffer, and which he would

never spare any sacrifice to avoid. * This might have been the careless language of an honest man, but it became apparent that Morla had weighed his expressions well, and used them with a definite meaning, and a definite purpose, when he afterwards acknowledged the government of the intruder as a constituted authority; informed the Spaniards that no evil was so great as that of seeing their country the seat of war, and exhorted them to put an end to that evil by the sacrifice of individual honour and national independence, and becoming slaves and traitors like himself.

By the battle of Baylen, Andalusia was left in peace; not a single Frenchman in arms remained in the whole province. The victory was splendid in itself, and of great importance in its immediate consequen

ces;

it was worthy of thanksgiving and rejoicings, and policy required that the Junta should celebrate it with ostentatious solemnities. Cas-· tanos had made a vow to dedicate his victory to King St Fernando, who, having won the city of Seville from the Moors, is worshipped there with especial veneration. The ceremony was performed on the 4th of August, with great pomp, and the French eagles were offered at the shrine of the canonized conqueror, as trophies of the most signal victory that had been achieved in Andalusia since his time. But, in the language of Castanos, there were marks of vanity and boastfulness which detracted from the estimation in which he had previously been held; he arrogated to himself as much merit for the victory, as if he, and not Reding, had commanded in the field.

VOL. I. PART I.

WHILE the patriots were thus triumphant in Andalusia, their brethren in other parts of the peninsula were encountering greater danger with the same spirit and resolution. Early in June, before it was possible that any plan could be executed for defending the province, the French dispatched General Lefebvre with 8000 infantry, and 900 horse from Pamplona against Zaragoza. The Marquis de Lazan, Palafox's elder brother, collected some armed peasantry, and attempted to oppose this army in the neighbourhood of Tudela. Such a force was unable to cope with regular troops in the open field; they were compelled to retreat to the village of Mallen, and June 13. there suffered a second defeat, with considerable loss, though their position was supported

by an olive grove, between the canal of Aragon on their right, and the village on their left. The chief prisoners were put to death; the French generals, from the beginning of this war, acting upon the infamous principle of the tyrant whom they served, that all who opposed him were to be considered as rebels. On the following day, June 14th, the French advanced to Alagon, about sixteen miles from Zaragoza.The citizens, half-armed, and undisciplined as they were, compelled Palafox to lead them out; they soon found the enemy in order of battle on a plain, where his cavalry and flying artillery gave him a decided superiority. The patriots were again defeated; but their handful of regulars, who had now been joined by a few fusileers, protected their retreat

with great steadiness. The victorious army advanced, and took up a position very near the city, and covered by a rising ground planted with olive trees.

*

Zaragoza is not a fortified town; it has no advantages of situation for its defence, and would not have been considered as capable of resistance by any men but those whose courage proceeded from a virtuous and holy principle of duty. It stands in an open plain, which is covered with olive grounds, and bounded on either hand by high and distant mountains; but it is commanded by some high ground called the Torrero, about a mile to the south-west, upon which there is a convent, with some smaller buildings. The canal of Aragon divides this elevation from another rising ground, where the patriots had erected a battery. The Ebro bathes the walls of the city, and separates it from the suburbs; it has two bridges, within musket-shot of each other; one of wood, said to be more beautiful than any other of the like materials in Europe; the other, of freestone, consisting of seven arches, of which the principal is 122 feet in diameter; the river is fordable above the city. Two smaller rivers, the Galego and the Guerva, flow at a little distance from the city, the one on the east, the other on the west; the latter being separated from the walls only by the breadth of the common road: both are received into the Ebro. Unlike most other

places of the peninsula, Zaragoza has neither aqueduct nor fountains, but derives its water wholly from the river. The people of Tortosa, (and probably of the other towns upon its course,) drink also of the Ebro, preferring it to the finest spring; the water is of a dirty red colour, but, having stood a few hours, it becomes perfectly clear, and has a softness and pleasantness of taste, which soon induces strangers to agree with the natives in their preference of it. The population was stated in the census of 1787 at 42,600; that of 1797, excellent as it is in all other respects, has the fault of not specifying the places in each district; late accounts compute its inhabitants at 60,000, and it is certainly one of the largest cities in the peninsula. It has twelve gates, four of them in the old wall of Augustus, by whom the older town of Salduba upon the same site was enlarged, beautified, and called Cæsarea Augusta, or Cæsaraugusta; a word easily corrupted into its † present name.

The whole city, even its convents and churches, are built of brick ; the houses are not as high as they usually are in old Spanish towns, their general height being only three storeys; the streets are, as usual, very narrow and crooked; there are, however, open market-places, and one very wide, long, and regularly-built street, formerly called the Calle Santa, having been the scene of many

martyrdoms, but now more commonly known by the name of the Cozo. The people, like the rest of the Aragonese, and their neighbours, the Catalans, have been always honourably distinguished in Spanish history for their love of liberty; and the many unavailing struggles which they have made during the last four centuries, have not abated their attachment to the good principles of their forefathers. Within the peninsula, (and once indeed throughout the whole of Catholic Europe,) Zaragoza is famous as the city of our Lady of the Pillar, whose legend is still so firmly believed by the people, and most of the clergy in Spain, that it was frequently appealed to in the proclamations of the different generals and juntas, as one of the most popular articles of the national faith. The legend is this; when the apostles, after the resurrection, separated and went to preach the gospel in different parts of the world, St James the elder, or Santiago, as he may more properly be called in his Mythological History, departed for Spain, which province, Christ himself had previously commended to his care. When he went to kiss the hand of the Virgin, and request her leave to set off, and her blessing, she adjured him, in the name of her son, to build a

church to her honour in that city of Spain wherein he should make the greatest number of converts, adding, that she would there give him farther instructions concerning the edifice. Santiago set sail, landed in Galicia, and, having preached with little success through the northern provinces, reached Cæsarea-Augusta, where he made eight disciples. One night, after he had been conversing and praying with them as usual, on the banks of the river, they fell asleep, and just at midnight the apostle heard the angels sing, Ave Maria gratia plena. He fell on his knees, and instantly beheld the Virgin upon a marble pillar in the midst of a choir ofangels, who went through the whole of her matin service. When this was ended, she bade him build her church around that pillar, which his Lord, her blessed Son, had sent him by the hands of his angels; there, she told him, that pillar was to remain till the end of the world, and great mercies would be vouchsafed there to those who supplicated for them in her name. Having said this, the angels transported her back to her house at Jerusalem, (for this was before the Assumption) and Santiago, in obedience, erected there the first church which was ever dedicated to the Virgin. *

Many mournful scenes of bigotry and superstition have been exhibited in Zaragoza; but, in these fiery trials which Buonaparte's tyranny was preparing for the inhabitants, the dross and tinsel of their faith disappeared, and its pure gold remained." The French, a people of too little feeling to understand a character so infinitely above them as that of the Spaniards, speak with peculiar contempt of the Zaragozans. "Few persons,' they said, are to be seen among them who distinguish themselves by their dress; there is little of that elegant attire so observable in large cities. All is serious and regular, dull and monotonous. The place seems without any kind of resource, because the inhabitants use no effort to obtain any ;-accustomed to a state of apathy and languor, they have not an idea of the possibility of shaking it off."* With this feeling, equally despising the strength of the place, and the character of the people, the French proceeded to besiege Zaragoza. A party of their cavalry entered the town on the 14th, perhaps in pursuit of the retreating patriots; they thought to scour the streets, but they were soon made to feel, that the superiority of disciplined soldiers to citizens, exists only in the field.

On the following mornJune 15. ing, the French, with part of their force, attacked the outposts upon the canal, and, with their main body, attempted to storm the city by the gate called Portillo.

A desperate conflict ensued. The Aragonese fought with a spirit worthy of their cause. They had neither time, nor room, nor necessity for order. Their cannon, which they had hastily planted before the gates, and in the best situations without the town, were served by any persons who happened to be near them; any one gave orders who felt himself competent to take the command. A party of the enemy entered the town, and were all put to death. Lefebvre perceived that it was hopeless to persist in the attack with his present force, and drew off his troops, having suffered great loss. The patriots lost about 2000 men killed, and as many wounded. In such a conflict, the circumstances are so materially in favour of the defendants, that the carnage made among the French must have been very much greater. Their baggage and plunder was left behind them in their retreat. The conquerors would have exposed themselves by a rash pursuit, but Palafox exhorted them not to be impatient, telling them, that the enemy would give them frequent opportunities to display their courage. While he thus restrained their impetuosity, he continued to excite their zeal. This victory, he said, was but the commencement of the triumphs which they were to expect under the pow erful assistance of their divine pa trons. The precious blood of their brethren had been shed in the field of glory,-on their own soil. Those blessed martyrs required new vic

* Laborde.