Robert Southey

OPERATIONS OF THE ANGLO-SICILIAN ARMY. THE ALLIES ENTER FRANCE. PASSAGE OF THE BIDASSOA, THE NIVELLE, AND THE NIVE. TREATY BETWEEN BUONAPARTE AND FERDINAND, AND CONSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT.

?1813.?

?The remains of Romana’s army return from the North.?

During the siege of S. Sebastian’s, some few hundred men, the remains of Romana’s army, who had not been able to effect their escape from the North, when their magnanimous general and their comrades went to take part in their country’s struggle, and most of them to perish in it, returned to Spain. The resistance to Buonaparte’s tyranny, which the Spaniards and Portugueze had begun, had prepared the way for the deliverance of the continent, and thus eventually restored them to their native land.

?Lord W. Bentinck invests Tarragona.?

The Anglo-Sicilian army had no sooner returned to Alicante from its ill-conducted expedition against Tarragona, than every exertion was used for enabling it to take the field, and profit by the retreat of the enemy from Valencia. Lord William Bentinck entered that capital on the 9th of July, and leaving General Elio to observe Murviedro, proceeded with his own troops, and such of the Spaniards as he could ?August.? find means of providing with subsistence, for in this essential point there was the greatest difficulty. Having arrived at Vinaroz, he detached a corps under Lieutenant-General Sir William Clinton by sea to Tarragona, in the hope of preventing the enemy from dismantling that fortress, if such should be their intention. When the fleet arrived off Tarragona, a French force was discovered in its vicinity; but there were no indications of any such purpose. The detachment, therefore, landed at the Col de Balaguer; and there, Lord William, having crossed the Ebro at Amposta on flying bridges, joined him with the advance of the army, some cavalry, and artillery; the whole then moved forward to the village of Cambrils, and on the first of August they invested Tarragona: that operation was well performed, and cover was obtained three hundred yards nearer than the most advanced point which had been occupied during the previous attack. Preparations were now observable in the place for its destruction; but it was evident that the ?Col. Jones’s account, V. 2. 201.? garrison could not effect this in the presence of the allied army, unless Marshal Suchet came in force to cover the operation. That general was at Barcelona; his troops were at Villafranca and at Villanova de Sitges, being thus divided to lessen the difficulty of subsisting them; and his advance was at Arbos and at Vendrell: sometimes he seemed to be menacing a movement against the allies, and sometimes preparing for a farther retreat. Lord William, with such an enemy in such force so near, would not expose himself to a failure like that of Sir John Murray; and he deferred beginning the siege and landing his heavy artillery, till the Duque del Parque’s army should come up, and Sarsfield with his Catalan troops. The Duque joined on the third; the Catalans were actively employed upon the right flank of Suchet’s divisions, cutting off his supplies; and on the 7th they surprised a battalion who were guarding the mills at S. Sadurni, and occasioned them a loss of 200 men. Sarsfield joined on the 11th. But as the appearance of the allies before Tarragona prevented the garrison from demolishing the works, so on the other hand it gave Marshal Suchet time for bringing together as large a force as he thought the occasion required. The British general, like Generals Maitland and Murray before him, felt all the difficulties of his situation; he was conscious that his ill-composed army was far from being efficient in proportion to its numerical strength; he had no means of feeding the Spanish part of that army if the enemy should manoeuvre upon his flank, so as to cut off the supplies which they obtained from the country; he had found it impracticable to throw a bridge over the Ebro; and should he be compelled in his present situation to retreat, the ships could not take off more than a third of his forces. But while the prudence of remaining in that situation became a serious question, preparations for breaking ground were carried on.

?Suchet raises the siege.?

Suchet meantime acting as if he were opposed to a much greater force, had waited till Generals Decaen, Maurice Mathieu, and Maximien Lamarque could join him with 8000 men belonging to the army of Catalonia; with this accession his numbers were estimated at from 27,000 to 30,000. They effected their junction at Villafranca on the 14th. The first attempt was by the coast road; but Admiral Hallowell effectually checked this movement, by stationing his troops as close as possible to the low sandy shore in front of the Torre del Barra. On the ensuing morning Lord William was informed that a large body of the French were advancing through the inland country by the Col de Santa Christina; and in the evening a sharp skirmish took place between the advance of hussars and the cavalry under Colonel Lord Frederick Bentinck, which he sent forward to observe their motions: in this the Brunswick hussars distinguished themselves, repulsing the enemy and making several prisoners. Suchet advanced rapidly beyond the Gaya that day, while Decaen advanced upon Valls and the Francoli. Lord William did not deem it prudent to risk a general action before Tarragona; at nightfall, therefore, he commenced his retreat, and when day broke the whole army was out of sight of the city; the British, Germans, and Sicilians, covering the road towards Tortosa, took up a position near Cambrils. Sarsfield occupied Reus; and the Duque del Parque was directed to proceed to the Col de Balaguer, where, if Suchet should push the retreating army so as to make a general action necessary, it was intended to await his attack. But the French commander had no such ?The French abandon Tarragona.? purpose; his present object was to bring off the garrison from Tarragona, and to demolish its fortifications, so that they might afford no support to the allies. On the night of the 18th the works were blown up; and Marshal Suchet then withdrew for ever from a place where, by the premeditated atrocities which were committed at its capture, he has fixed upon his memory an indelible stain. The demolition was effectual: the artillery consisted of about 200 pieces of brass ordnance and 46 iron mortars; 50 of the former were left uninjured; and he did not tarry long enough to destroy the quantity of warlike stores which he had not the means of removing. Sarsfield on the following day took possession of the city.

?Plans proposed to Suchet by Marshal Soult.?

Suchet soon fell back upon the line of the Llobregat, having drained the plain of Villafranca of its resources. In a country thus exhausted, General Copons declared it was not possible to provide for the whole Spanish force under Lord William’s command; and in consequence of this, and upon erroneous information that part of the French troops had been detached to aid Marshal Soult, the British general, conformably to an arrangement made with Lord Wellington, sent the Duque del Parque, with the 4th Spanish army, to Zaragoza; and he reinforced the corps, then employed under Elio, in the blockade of Tortosa. Early in September he concentrated the greater part of his remaining force at Villafranca. At this time Marshal Soult had proposed to Suchet that he should cross the Pyrenees with the whole disposable force of the armies of Aragon and Catalonia, and unite with him at Tarbes and at Pau, for the purpose of re-entering Spain together by Oleron and Jaca, and making another effort for the relief of Pamplona. A different project was offered to his consideration by the minister at war, ... that he should as much as possible occupy the enemy upon the Ebro: in either case a reinforcement of conscripts was to be counted on. The difficulties in the way of the first plan were soon perceived by Soult himself to be insurmountable; and Suchet represented the danger of drawing after him the Anglo-Sicilian army into the southern departments of France, which were defenceless. But as a practicable though a perilous operation, he offered to advance between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, with 70 pieces of field and 30 of mountain artillery, to meet Soult, who might debouche from Jaca with his infantry and cavalry, but without cannon. But for this two things were necessary, ... that he should have conscripts to place in the garrisons, and that before he marched from Catalonia he should defeat the Anglo-Sicilians.

Lord William’s numbers were not equal to those which could be brought against him, the want both of provisions and means of transport having obliged him to leave Whittingham’s division at Reus and Valls; but he had no suspicion that Suchet would advance against him. His army was posted at Villafranca and in the villages in its front, as far as the mountains on the Llobregat; the advance, under Colonel Adams, consisting of the 27th British regiment, one Calabrian and three Spanish battalions, with four mountain guns, occupied the pass of Ordal, on the main road, about ten miles in their front, and the same distance from the enemy’s posts on the Llobregat. The pass was so strong that Lord William was without any apprehension of its being forced, especially as he thought the probable point of attack ?Suchet surprises the allies at the pass of Ordal.? would be by turning his left at Martorell and San Sadurni, where Copons was posted. Nor, indeed, was it likely Suchet would have confined himself to the front attack of a position which was strong there, but open on both flanks, unless, because such an attack was improbable, he thought the enemy might be taken there by surprise, before they had strengthened the post.

Accordingly, having concerted his plans with General Decaen, he collected the divisions of Harispe and Habert, with his cavalry at the bridge of Molins del Rey, and at eight o’clock on the night of the 12th moved for the pass. The allies were reposing in position, when about midnight their piquets were rapidly driven in, and they were presently attacked in force. An old work which commanded the main road was well defended by the Calabrians, till they were driven from it by the repeated attacks of superior numbers; they rallied then about sixty paces in rear of it, behind some old ruins, and there, in conjunction with the Spaniards, who were close on their left, stood their ground some time longer. But in a night attack the assailants, acting upon ground with which they were well acquainted, and on a concerted plan, had greatly the advantage over a very inferior force who were taken by surprise. Colonel Adams and the two officers next in succession to him were badly wounded, and obliged to quit the field; owing to the changes this occasioned, the regular directions were interrupted, and the ground in consequence was disputed much longer than it ought to have been against a force so greatly superior, both British and Spaniards maintaining it so resolutely that the right and the centre were nearly destroyed in their position. The Calabrian corps on the left fell back along the hills, and endeavoured to reach San Sadurni, which Manso occupied with his brigade. Their hope was to rejoin the army by the road leading from thence to Villafranca; but after crossing the river Noya, in front of San Sadurni, they were attacked by a considerable column, and forced back toward the Barcelona road: they succeeded, however, in making their way to Sitges, and there effected their embarkation on the following night. The guns were taken by the enemy, but most of the fugitives joined Manso.

?The Anglo-Sicilians retreat.?

As soon as the attack was known at head-quarters, Lord William put the army in motion to sustain his advance; but before any reinforcements could reach the spot, the French had carried every point, and it remained for him then either to retreat without loss of time, or give battle to an enemy superior in numbers and flushed with success, upon ground which afforded no advantage of position. He determined therefore upon retiring; Major-General Mackenzie, with the 2d division, covered the retreat during the most difficult part of its execution, to the village of Monjoz; Sarsfield moved to the left of Villafranca, by the hilly and woody country on that side; and the British, Germans, and Sicilians, took the main road by the villages of Monjoz and Arbos. Marshal Suchet expected that Decaen would arrive before Villafranca in time to co-operate with him, and force the allies to an action; but that general had to cross the Llobregat and the Noya, and was delayed also in the defiles by Manso, and by the Calabrese, with whom he fell in when they were making for San Sadurni. His own cuirassiers and dragoons, under General Meyer, pressed with very superior numbers, near Monjoz, upon the cavalry under Lord Frederic Bentinck, who covered the retreat, and some sabre strokes were exchanged between the two leaders. At length a most timely and vigorous charge was made simultaneously by Lord Frederic with the 20th dragoons, under Lieutenant-Colonel Hawker, and the Sicilians, and by Lieutenant-Colonel Schrader with the German hussars, by which the enemy were driven back, and so completely checked, that they made no farther attempt upon the retreating army; so it reached Vendrells that evening, without any loss. During the night it retired to Altafulla, and on the evening following took up its ground in front of Tarragona, as the nearest protecting situation; the Spaniards, under Sarsfield, moving upon Reus. The ruins of Tarragona could have afforded little support if the allies had not been better protected by their own strength, and by the opinion which Suchet had learned to entertain of them. He advanced no farther than Villafranca in pursuit; and after exacting a contribution from the distressed inhabitants, returned to Barcelona.

?The command devolves upon Sir William Clinton.?

At this time the uneasy state of affairs in Sicily, and the ill success of political changes there, as premature as they were well intended, rendered it necessary for Lord William Bentinck to repair thither, and the command of the army devolved upon Lieutenant-General Sir William Clinton. That general was left with an inadequate force, and under discouraging circumstances, to attend to objects which were of no inconsiderable importance to the common cause. He had to provide against the likelihood of Suchet’s availing himself of his late success to relieve or to withdraw his garrisons in Valencia or on the Ebro; and he had to occupy the attention of that able commander so as to prevent him from sending any considerable detachment to take part in Soult’s operations against Lord Wellington. It was found impracticable to construct a bridge upon the Ebro as low down as Amposta; and if it had not been so, he could not have spared troops enough from other more important services, to protect it against the sallies of the strong garrison in Tortosa. The best course therefore which he could pursue seemed to be that of repairing the defences of Tarragona, as far as time and means permitted, so as to render it a point of support. Well was it for the Anglo-Sicilian army that, notwithstanding the credit it had lost by Sir John Murray’s precipitate retreat, and the recent loss which it had sustained at Ordal, it had yet impressed Marshal Suchet with a most respectable opinion of its ability in the field; skilful as he was, nothing but that opinion withheld him from acting vigorously against it when he had it so greatly at advantage. His disposable force at this time was not short of 25,000 men, with a large body of cavalry; better troops he could not desire; and their supplies were protected by the possession of several important fortresses, all which were garrisoned well. The Anglo-Sicilian army amounted barely to 12,000 effective men, including a small body of cavalry; about half of these were British and Germans, the remainder Italians and Sicilians in British pay, on whom, though they were not ill-disciplined, the same confidence could not be placed in the presence of an enemy. There were about 11,000 Spanish troops whose services General Clinton might have commanded, if there had been means for rendering them available, but they were in a state almost of destitution; without pay, ill-clothed, and worse fed; and he had no control (as his predecessors had had) over the first Spanish army, which army also was prevented by its wants from taking the field, except occasionally, and then from keeping it, except for a very short time. With the commander of that army, General Copons, and with the other leaders, the best understanding prevailed; nor indeed were there among all the Spaniards better men or more distinguished officers than some of them, ... the names of Manso and Eroles will be held in honour as long as the Catalans retain any of that national spirit by which they are so honourably distinguished. They might be expected to check any movement of the enemy on the side of Lerida, or towards Tarragona; and to interrupt their communication with France along the inland road, by which their supplies were principally brought; but direct co-operation was not to be looked for where there was no unity of command, and ... on the one part ... all but a total want of means. Even the troops in British pay suffered great privations, their communication with the depÔts at Malta and Gibraltar being interrupted because of the plague. But the tide of the enemy’s fortunes had now turned; and all difficulties were met cheerfully by the allies, in the sure hope that their perseverance would soon be crowned with success. As soon as arrangements were made for restoring the works at Tarragona, and for supplying as far as possible the Spaniards who were attached to the Anglo-Sicilian army, head-quarters were established at Villafranca; the troops which had been cantoned at Reus, Valls, and other places in the environs of Tarragona, were ordered to occupy an advanced line of cantonments: a force, consisting of cavalry, with some field artillery, and Sarsfield’s Spanish division of about 5000 infantry, were stationed at Villafranca; the enemy’s movements on the Llobregat were narrowly observed; and the remainder of the allied troops (with the exception of those who carried on the works at Tarragona) were so distributed, that, upon any emergency, they could be assembled at Villafranca in four-and-twenty hours. Meantime, on the opposite side of the peninsula, an ?Position of the armies on the Pyrenean frontier.? interval of seeming inactivity had followed the capture of S. Sebastian’s; but the time, though marked by no military movements, was busily employed in preparing for them, by closing up the troops, replacing the ammunition, and re-organizing those divisions which had suffered most. The opposing armies were in sight of each other. There was something mournful as well as impressive to a thoughtful mind in the contrast between the stupendous scenery of the Pyrenees and the diminutive appearance of field-works, and large armies upon such a theatre: “the little huts, and the less beings who inhabited them,” might have been overlooked as mere specks in the prospect, had it not been for the more mournful knowledge that these tens of thousands were collected there for life or for death; one party having been sent thither by the wicked will of an individual drunk with ambition, and the other brought there by the duty and necessity of resisting his lust of power. The troops who covered the blockade of Pamplona suffered severely from wet and cold, and were unavoidably subject to privations from which their more fortunate comrades near the coast were exempt. When the clouds opened they could see the fertile country of the enemy beneath them, in sunshine. During the weeks of hard, irksome duty, passed thus in a situation where exertion and enterprise were not required, but in their stead continual vigilance and patience, desertions became frequent; they were most numerous, as might be expected, among the Spaniards, because they were in their own country; and least, in a remarkable degree, among2 the Portugueze.

It was now no longer in Buonaparte’s power to allot conscripts by the hundred thousand for the consumption ?Levy ordered in France for Soult’s army.? of his war in the Peninsula. A levy of 30,000 was all that could be ordered to reinforce Soult’s army; “the armies of Spain, it was admitted, having been compelled to yield before ?Speech of M. Regnaud.? superior numbers, and the advantages which the enemy drew from their maritime communications, needed reinforcement; for England, while in the north of Europe it lavished its intrigues and its promises, was not less lavish in the south of its resources and sacrifices. The proposed levy, however, raised in the departments adjacent to the Pyrenees, would suffice to stop the successes upon which the enemy were congratulating themselves too soon; it would suffice for resuming the attitude which became France, and for preparing the moment when England should no longer dispose of the treasures of Mexico, for the devastation of both the Spains!” This was the language of M. Regnaud de St. Jean d’Angely in an official speech; and the senator, M. le Comte de Beurnonville, making a report in the name of a special commission, spake in the same strain, ... a strain that becomes doubly curious when compared with the events which were so soon to follow. “England,” said he, “who intrigues much and hazards little, has not dared to compromise her land forces by sending them to combat in the north of Germany, and uniting them with the Russian and Prussian phalanxes; she feared reverses which she could not but foresee, and which for her would be irreparable. In this thorny conjuncture, and that it might have the air of doing something for the powers whom it had set to play, the cabinet of London had preferred mingling the English troops with the Spanish and Portugueze bands, being sure that it could withdraw them without inconvenience, according to its interest. Hence that sudden augmentation of its force, which had determined our armies to a retrograde movement; and these bands, encouraged by some ephemeral successes, have carried their audacity so far as to invest the places of S. Sebastian’s and Pamplona.” ... Buonaparte’s ministers never thought proper to inform the senate that these bands soon carried their audacity a little farther, and took them both. “The proposed levy,” it was added, “would enable the French armies of the Peninsula to resume their ancient attitude.”

?October.Lord Wellington’s orders upon entering France.?

The orator, and the special commission for whom he spake, were mistaken: it was England who resumed her ancient attitude, ... who re-asserted and resumed her military superiority upon that ground where her Plantagenets had displayed it. Her victorious armies were at this time preparing to plant their banners in France, leading thus the way to the general invasion of what the French in the pride of their military strength had called the sacred territory. As soon, indeed, as the enemy had been driven beyond the Pyrenees, the army had looked forward to this with all the pride of the military spirit, and of excited national feeling: the Spaniards and Portugueze talked of retribution and revenge; and among the British, the question was discussed whether or not they were to be freebooters. That question was answered by Lord Wellington in the general order which he issued as soon as the troops encamped among the Pyrenees. “The commander of the forces,” said he, “is anxious to draw the attention of the officers of the army to the difference of the situation in which they have been hitherto, among the people of Portugal and Spain, and that in which they may hereafter find themselves, among those of the frontiers of France.” After observing that every military endeavour must thenceforth be used for obtaining intelligence, and preventing surprise, he proceeded to say that, notwithstanding the utmost precautions were absolutely necessary, as the country in front of the army was the enemy’s, he was particularly desirous that the inhabitants should be well treated, and private property respected, as it had been till that time. The officers and soldiers of the army, said he, must recollect, that their nations are at war with France solely because the Ruler of the French nation will not allow them to be at peace, and is desirous of forcing them to submit to his yoke; and they must not forget that the worst of the evils suffered by the enemy in his profligate invasion of Spain and Portugal have been occasioned by the irregularities of the soldiers and their cruelties, authorized and encouraged by their chiefs, towards the unfortunate and peaceful inhabitants of the country. To revenge this conduct on the peaceable inhabitants of France would be unmanly and unworthy of the nations to whom the commander of the forces now addresses himself; and at all events would be the occasion of similar and worse evils to the army at large, than those which ?General orders, July 9, 1813.? the enemy’s army have suffered in the Peninsula, and would eventually prove highly injurious to the public interest.

?Passage of the Bidassoa.?

Though it was not possible to act on the offensive upon a great scale, till Pamplona should have surrendered, Lord Wellington determined with the left wing of his army to cross the Bidassoa, and dislodge the enemy from some strong ground which they occupied on the right of that river as an advanced position; the key to it being the high steep mountain called La Rhune, which fronts the passes of Vera and Etchalar. Mount La Rhune is a remarkable spot; and its possession had been obstinately contested in the campaign of 1794, because its summit served as a watch-tower from whence the whole country between Bayonne and the Pyrenees might be observed. The mountain itself is within the French territory, but there is a chapel, or, in Romish language, a hermitage, on its summit, which used to be supported at the joint expense of the villages of Vera in Spain, and of SarrÉ, Ascain, and Urogne, in France; people of different nations, and hostile feelings, being there drawn together by the bond of their common faith.... The right of the army being at Roncesvalles and Maya, could at any time descend from its commanding situation into France.

?The Bidassoa.?

The Bidassoa, a river not otherwise remarkable than as forming the boundary of two great kingdoms, rises on Mount Belat, flows down the valley of Bastan, and, spreading into a broad stream after it has passed Irun, enters the Bay of Biscay between the Point of Figueras (a rocky promontory in which Mount Jaysquibel terminates) and the heights on the French side. Mount Jaysquibel, which extends along the coast from Passages to this point (its highest elevation being about 1700 feet), is separated from the chain of the Pyrenees by a broad valley, along which the Vittoria road passes; at its foot stands the old and melancholy town of Fontarabia, ... a name which Milton has made familiar to English ears; the river rising sixteen feet there, and forming a tide harbour, washes the ruins of its walls, which were blown up in the war of 1794; but when the tide is out there is a considerable extent of sand on both sides of the stream. The little town of Andaye, famed for its brandy, is on the French shore opposite. The bridge, which the enemy had destroyed in their retreat, is about a mile from Irun, and a little below it is the Isle of Pheasants, better known by its later name from the Conference held there in 1660, which brought in its consequences so many evils, not upon Spain alone, but upon the greater part of Europe. Between this island and the mouth of the river three fords had been discovered: Spanish fishermen had been employed in this service, and they performed it so well, as if pursuing the while their ordinary occupation, that the French sentries on the opposite bank never suspected their intent.

?Attack of the French position.?

A stronger position as to all natural advantages can hardly be imagined than that which the allies were to attack, after they should have crossed the Bidassoa; the French had strengthened it by redoubts, by abattis, and intrenchments at every knoll; the paths were hardly practicable; it was laborious work even for an unarmed man to reach points which were now to be assailed in the face of an enemy perfectly prepared. But it was necessary to advance from a country where the nature of the ground rendered it difficult to support the troops; and where supplies for many of the corps were carried to the mountain encampments on the heads of men and women, long strings of whom were to be seen toiling up the steep and slippery ascents. Preparations for the attack were made on the 6th, and the troops were under arms and in motion soon after midnight. The tents were left standing, that the enemy might discover no signs when dawn appeared of the intended movement. It was a stormy night, with thunder and lightning, and some rain, ... the rain not enough in any way to impede or increase the difficulties of the attempt, and the storm in other respects favouring it; for it moved in the same direction as the troops, and prevented the enemy from hearing the noise of the artillery and pontoon train. The storm was succeeded by an extraordinary sultry heat, what little wind there was feeling like the breath of an oven. The 1st and 5th divisions, with Wilson’s Portugueze brigade, were to cross the river in three columns below, and one above, the bridge, and carry the French intrenchments about and above Andaye; and General Freyre, with the Spaniards, was to cross in three columns at the higher ford, and turn the enemy’s left by carrying their intrenchments on the Montagne Verte, and on the heights of Mandale. The troops arrived at their appointed stations without having been noticed; and every thing thus far had been so fortunately performed, that the enemy did not begin to fire till the heads of the columns were nearly half over, when a rocket was discharged from the steeple at Fontarabia, as the signal for the simultaneous advance of the troops above.

Every thing succeeded perfectly. The 5th division was the first that set foot on the French soil; they advanced under a brisk fire from the enemy’s piquets, against the line which was hastily forming on the nearest range of hills. The first came presently up, and the enemy were driven from the works. Freyre was equally successful on his side; the Spaniards rushed down the mountain, forded the river, and carried the Montagne Verte. The affair began at eight, and at nine it was seen that the huts of the mountain post had been set on fire and abandoned. Meantime Baron Alten, with the light division, and with Longa’s, attacked and forced the intrenchments on the Puerto de Vera; and Giron, still farther on the right, attacked their position on Mount La Rhune. The light division drove them from redoubts, and intrenchments, and abattis, such, in the words of a distinguished officer then present, “as men ought to have defended for ever;” and the Spaniards, in like manner, carried every thing before them, till they reached the foot of the rock on which the hermitage stands, which on that side presents a craggy cliff, though on the other it is accessible by a gentle slope. Even that post the Spaniards made several attempts to carry by storm, which failed only because it was impossible to ascend there; the enemy, therefore, remained in possession of the hermitage that night, and of a rock on the same range of mountains with the right of the Spanish troops. ?Batty’s Campaign in the Western Pyrenees, p. 28.? In all other parts the firing had ceased early in the afternoon, here it was kept up till late at night; and the conical outline of the mountain was seen far and wide by the light of this awful illumination. Some time elapsed on the following morning before the fog cleared away sufficiently for Lord Wellington to reconnoitre Mount La Rhune, the prominent mountain there, towering above its neighbours; he perceived that it was least difficult of access on its right, and that the attack might advantageously be connected with that on the enemy’s works in front of the camp of SarrÉ. Accordingly, he ordered the army of reserve to concentrate to their right: Giron at the same time attacked the post on the rock, and won it most gallantly; his troops followed up their success, and carried an intrenchment upon a hill which protected the right of the camp: the enemy immediately evacuated all their works in order to defend the approaches to their camp, and these posts were occupied by detachments which Lord Dalhousie sent from the 7th division through the Puerto de Etchalar for this purpose. Giron then established a battalion on the enemy’s left upon Mount La Rhune. Night, opportunely for the enemy, prevented farther operations; they retired under cover of the darkness both from the hermitage and the camp, and the allied armies pitched their tents in France. The British loss in these two days was 579 killed, wounded, and missing; that of the Portugueze 233; that of the Spaniards 750. Sir Thomas Graham, having thus established within the French territory the troops who had so often been distinguished under his direction, resigned the command to Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope, who had arrived from Ireland the preceding day, and departed himself to take a command in the Low Countries. As soon as the left of the allied army had made this important movement, the enemy moved General Paris’s division from Oleron to the neighbourhood of St. Jean de Pied-de-Port, and on the night of the 12th they surprised and carried a redoubt in front of the camp of SarrÉ, taking prisoners a piquet of forty Spaniards, and one hundred pioneers. The redoubt was farther from the line, and from the ground from whence it could be supported, than Lord Wellington had supposed when he gave orders for occupying it; he left it, therefore, now in their possession. On the following morning they made an attack upon the advanced posts of the Andalusian army, hoping to regain the works which they had constructed in front of the camp; but they were repulsed with little difficulty.

The country which was now occupied by the contending armies had been well disputed in the years 1793 and 1794, during the heat of the French revolution, and men whose names afterwards became conspicuous served at that time in both armies: Mendizabal and the high-minded Romana among the Spaniards; among the French, Latour d’Auvergne; Moncey, one of the few French Marshals who brought no reproach upon himself by rapacity or cruelty; and Laborde, who will be remembered in Portugal for both, and for having been the first French General whom Lord Wellington defeated. In that war the Spaniards fought with the manifold disadvantage of having a wretched administration, an ill-disciplined and worse provided army, and a revolutionary spirit showing itself in some of their own countrymen; yet they made a longer and sturdier resistance in the Pyrenees than the French displayed when it was now their turn to defend the passes and protect their own country from invasion. But, honourable as it was for the armies of England, Portugal, and Spain thus to have driven the enemy from Lisbon and Cadiz to the Pyrenees, and pursued him into his own territories, the spirit in which that invasion was undertaken was not less honourable to the allied nations than the success of their arms. The French, indeed, as soon as they apprehended that their own country must soon become the seat of war, spoke with horror of what might be expected from the Portugueze and Spaniards, remembering then with uneasiness, if not with shame and remorse, the atrocities which they themselves had committed. Their hope was that the peasantry would rise, and carry on that kind of war which within the Peninsula had been found so destructive to the invaders; and no endeavour was omitted for exciting them to such a course. But a circumstance had happened to check this spirit upon its first manifestation, a few days before the passage of the ?Conduct of the French peasantry.? Bidassoa. The Portugueze, when they surprised and took a French piquet on the side of Roncesvalles, were fired at by the peasantry: they took fourteen of them, and these men were immediately marched to Passages, there to be embarked for England as prisoners of war. This treatment had the effect of intimidating the people, while it awakened no spirit of vengeance, because it was perceived to be nothing more than what was strictly just. That spirit might have been roused if Lord Wellington had not by timely severity effectually checked the license which the troops were but too ready to have taken, and from which it had not been possible to protect the Spaniards in the Pyrenean valleys. The French peasantry did not forsake their houses when the allies crossed the Bidassoa. The inhabitants of the large village of Urogne did not leave it till the battle approached, and then they collected in an adjoining field; but they dispersed as soon as flames broke out among their dwellings; for the troops who entered it began to plunder ... they set several houses on fire, and drank to such excess that, had the enemy been on the alert, he might easily have captured or destroyed them. Some of the officers were more culpable than the troops, for they used no exertions to prevent the outrages which they saw. Lord Wellington, as soon as he was informed of this misconduct, republished his former orders, and accompanied them with a severe reprimand, declaring his determination not to command officers who would not obey his orders, and of sending some of them, who had been thus grossly unmindful of their duty, to England, that their names might be brought under the notice of the Prince Regent.

It was now seen how much the moral conduct and character of an army depends upon its general. Lord Melville once made the monstrous assertion in Parliament that the worst men were the fittest for soldiers. His strong understanding should have taught him better, if his heart had failed to do so; and he was properly rebuked for it by the Duke of Gloucester, who observed, that the men who had the strictest sense of their personal duties were those who served their country with most patience and most fidelity in war. But Mr. Wyndham’s hope of recruiting our armies with men of a better description than those who used to be forced or inveigled into it, or driven by desperation to enlist, had not been realized, and the want of moral and religious training was still left to be supplied by military discipline ... as far as that could supply it. Lord Wellington enforced that means; and it is not the least of his many and eminent merits, that he made such means effectual, without bringing upon himself any reproach for undue severity. After the excesses at Urogne, not an inhabitant was to be seen in the French territory; they had withdrawn more because of these outrages, than in obedience to the injunctions of their own government. But a proclamation was issued in French and Basque, assuring them that their persons and property should be respected. Some necessary examples of justice upon those who ventured to violate orders so emphatically repeated, convinced the inhabitants that they might trust to the word of the British general; and, after those examples had been made, never, perhaps, since the days of the great Gustavus, was such excellent discipline observed in an enemy’s country. Even the Portugueze and Spaniards, whom it might have been thought almost impossible to restrain from giving way to that desire of vengeance which had been so wantonly, cruelly, and insolently provoked, obeyed the injunction of the great commander who had beaten their invaders out of Portugal and Spain, and demeaned themselves with such good order and humanity, that the French often said their own armies were the foes whom they dreaded.

?Pamplona is surrendered.?

Two pontoon bridges, and one bridge of boats, were laid over the Bidassoa immediately after the passage had been effected; and works were thrown up to strengthen the position, in which Lord Wellington now waited for the surrender of Pamplona, that he might advance with his whole strength. That city, the modern capital of Navarre (Olite, now a miserably decayed place, was the ancient one), was the great bulwark against the French on that side. Lord Wellington trusted to a sure blockade for reducing it. Its wells supply it abundantly with water; and it was provided with a corn-mill, the largest in existence of its kind, to be worked by hand or by horses, and setting in motion four or five grindstones of such dimensions that four-and-twenty loads of wheat could be ground by each in a day. When corn began to fail for this well-constructed mill, and there was little prospect of relief after the failure of Soult’s great effort in the Pyrenees, the governor made a bold attempt to obtain subsistence from the very force which blockaded him: he sent to Don Carlos d’EspaÑa, requiring him to furnish 7000 rations daily for the inhabitants of the city, whom, he said, he could no longer afford to feed. Don Carlos, who knew that the French general had, with characteristic effrontery, included his troops in this estimate, replied, that, unless the inhabitants were fed as well as the garrison, while any food lasted, he should hold the governor responsible for their treatment, and would strictly inquire into this when the place should be surrendered, as it must. When the stores were nearly exhausted it was reported and believed that the enemy intended, as they had done at Almeida, to blow up the works, and endeavour to effect their escape: the attempt would have been far more hazardous; but it is said to have been prevented by an intimation from Don Carlos, that if the place were thus injured he would put the governor and all the officers to death, and decimate the men. Towards the end of October they proposed to surrender, on condition of being allowed to march into France with six pieces of cannon; their second proposal was, that they should march thither under an engagement of not serving against the allies for a year and a day. Don Carlos replied, that he had orders not to grant them a capitulation on any terms excepting that they should be prisoners of war; and to this they declared they would never submit. Upon these terms, nevertheless, on the last day of October, they surrendered, being 4000 in number; and the Spanish general, setting an example of proper determination on such an occasion, refused to grant these till he had ascertained that none of the inhabitants had perished during the blockade either through ill-treatment or for want.

?Marshal Soult’s position on the Nivelle.?

Marshal Soult, meantime, was receiving a considerable reinforcement of conscripts. Papers in all the languages of the allies were thrown into the outposts, and distributed wherever it was likely they might be found, inviting deserters, and denouncing vengeance if France should be invaded: the whole French nation, it was said, was in arms, and if the English and Spanish and Portugueze should set foot upon their territory, they should meet with nothing but death and destruction. Some expectation the French commander placed upon the hardships to which the troops must be exposed, at that season, in the Pyrenees, upon the weather, and in consequence the increased difficulty of supplying the allied armies. Forage, indeed, had become so scarce that some of the cavalry were reduced to graze their horses, which of course could not long have been kept in condition without better food. The cattle brought for the consumption of the troops through a great part of Spain arrived in a jaded and lean condition, ... those which lived to reach the place of slaughter, ... for the roads along which they had been driven might easily be traced by their numerous carcasses, ?November.? lying half-buried or unburied by the way-side, ... sad proofs of the wasteful inhumanity of war! The weather had been more stormy than was usual even on that coast and at that season. The transports at Passages were moored stem and stern in rows, and strongly confined by their moorings; yet they were considered in danger even in that land-locked harbour: some were driven forward by the rising of the swell, while others, close alongside, were forced backward by its fall, so that the bowsprits of some were entangled in the mizen-chains of others. The cold on the mountains was so intense that several men perished. A piquet in the neighbourhood of Roncesvalles was snowed up: the parties who were sent to rescue it drove bullocks before them as some precaution against the danger of falling into chasms, and the men were brought off; but the guns could not be removed, and were buried under the snow in the ditch of the redoubt. Soult, since his failure in the Pyrenees three months before, had been fortifying a formidable line of works in them. The right rested upon the sea in front of S. Jean de Luz, and on the left of the Nivelle; the centre on La Petite Rhune, and the heights behind the village of SarrÉ; the left, consisting of two divisions of infantry, under General Drouet, was on the right of the river, on a strong height behind the village of Ainhoue, and on the mountain of Mondarin, which protected the approach to that village. Two divisions, under Generals Foy and Paris, were at St. Jean de Pied-de-Port. This position described half a circle through Irogne, Ascain, SarrÉ, Ainhoue, Espelette, and Cambo, the centre projecting very much at SarrÉ. La Petite Rhune, though overtopped by the greater hill of the same name, from which it is separated by a narrow valley, is a very high ridge: from the sea to its foot the enemy’s front was covered by a range of works: the ridge itself was strongly fortified; and a range of high steep hills, extending from thence to Ainhoue, was defended by a chain of redoubts near enough to protect each other. The enemy’s centre was in great force upon this range; and there was a strong corps in the village of SarrÉ, which was protected by a regular closed work with ditch and palisades. Their left was thrown back, at nearly an acute angle, upon Espelette.

The first intention was to turn this position, by advancing Sir Rowland’s corps from Roncesvalles through St. Jean de Pied-de-Port; this movement would turn the sources of the Nive, threaten Soult’s rear, and compel him, it was thought, to abandon his works, and retire beyond Bayonne; but this plan was given up upon full consideration, Soult’s line being so short, and the road behind it so good, that he might have it in his power to fall upon Sir Rowland with a superior force, or to attack Sir John Hope when it would be difficult to reinforce either; or he might retire untouched, and keep his army in a condition to continue active and harass the allies in their winter quarters. Lord Wellington resolved, therefore, to strike at the centre of his position, strong as it was, and at the same time to attack the heights of Ainhoue, which were its immediate support on the left. With this view Sir Rowland had been ordered, as soon as Pamplona should fall, to move leftward, into the valley of Bastan, and the cavalry to close up his rear in readiness for supporting the right of Beresford’s corps at Maya.

The enemy, fully expecting an attack, were always under arms at daybreak, and remained in their redoubts till nightfall; and they improved every day’s delay, which the state of the weather afforded them, in strengthening their works, strong as the labour of three months had already made them. The rain, indeed, continued so many days, and so heavy, that many persons began to fear it would be impossible for them to move; and Lord Wellington, with all his just confidence in himself and in the troops which he commanded, could not but feel how easily human strength and military skill might be baffled by the elements. The weather cleared on the 4th; and on the 7th he met Sir Rowland, Marshal Beresford, and all the chiefs of the right and centre at Urdache, from whence he reconnoitred Ainhoue closely, and pointed out the mode by which that part of the position was to be attacked. The object was to force their centre, and establish the army in rear of their right; and the attack was to be made by columns of divisions, each led by the general officers commanding it, and each forming its own reserve. Sir Rowland directed the movements of the right, consisting of the 2d and 6th divisions, under Sir William Stewart and Sir Henry Clinton, Sir John Hamilton’s Portugueze, and Morillo’s Spanish division, Colonel Grant’s brigade of cavalry, a brigade of Portugueze artillery under Lieutenant-Colonel Tulloh, and three mountain guns under Lieutenant Robe. Marshal Beresford directed the right of the centre, with the 3rd, 7th, and 4th divisions, under Major-General Colville, Camp-Marshal Le Cor and Sir Lowry Cole. Giron was to act on his immediate left with the Andalusian army of reserve. Baron Alten’s light division, with three mountain guns, and Longa’s corps, was to attack La Petite Rhune; Sir Stapleton Cotton to follow the movement of the centre, with General Alten’s brigade of cavalry, and three brigades of British artillery. Freyre, with the Galician army, was to move from the heights of Mandale toward Ascain, prevent the enemy from detaching troops from thence to the support of others, and take advantage of any movement which they might make from their right toward their centre; and Sir John Hope was to act along the remainder of their line to the sea.

The 8th was the day intended for the attack, but the state of the roads prevented the artillery and some of Sir Rowland’s brigade from coming up; it was postponed therefore till the 10th. This opened with so clear and beautiful a moonlight morning, that it was scarcely perceptible when daylight began to predominate; and men who had served in India were reminded of an Indian sky. Lord Wellington was on horseback at five, and reached the point of attack at six: he found Sir Lowry Cole’s division at its post, with 18 pieces of cannon at the head of the column: it was on a sloping ridge, which ends in a high point above the village of SarrÉ; and on that point was the redoubt which he was to attack, and which had been made with the greatest care, having a deep ditch, an abattis in front, and trous de loup, so named from their resemblance to the pit-falls in which wolves are taken. Giron was close on his left, and Le Cor on the right, both in valleys. Lord Wellington, Beresford, Sir Lowry, General Colville, and other staffs, were in a little grove, which covered them, about 600 yards from the redoubt, walking about till it was light enough to commence the attack. Sir Lowry then drove in the enemy’s piquets, and the horse artillery were enabled to gain the ridge, and open in front of the grove within 400 yards of the redoubt: their fire in return rattled through the branches: Colonel Ross dashed forward, and opened six guns within 300 yards, which riddled the curtain: the French, however, stood firm, till after about an hour’s firing they saw the Spaniards moving to their rear, and the infantry advancing with ladders to escalade them; they then leaped over the parapet and ran: ... they were about 300, of whom some twenty were taken in the ditch, and not more than eight or ten killed. The artillery was then rapidly advanced against the next redoubt on the right, and that cost only about a quarter of an hour, for it was abandoned with discreditable precipitation.

By this time the troops were advancing with great celerity over most difficult ground. Lord Wellington moved on to the first redoubt, from whence he could direct the movements of the Spaniards, and of the 3rd, 7th, and 4th divisions; one of those bursts of cheering which electrify the hearers indicated his presence. Beresford advanced with the 3rd and 7th, while the Spaniards attacked the village of SarrÉ by its right, and Sir Lowry turned its left. Downie commanded the battalion of Spaniards to whom this service was assigned, while Giron remained in the valley with a brigade which was to support the light division; and as in that situation it might not be seen when the village was carried, Downie, as a signal, said he would send his aide-de-camp to toll the church bell. He made the attack with great spirit: the enemy in front of the village made a show of more determination than they kept up, and they rushed from their second line as if ashamed of having too hastily given up the first; but after some skirmishing they retired to the second, and thence from the redoubts and heights cannonaded the assailants. Downie carried the village most gallantly, and the bell tolled. Sir Lowry meantime attacked and carried the works on the low hills in the rear of SarrÉ, and there halted for orders.

Baron Alten, meanwhile, was equally successful in his operations. He had formed the light division before daylight, in a ravine separating the great and little La Rhune, and within 300 yards of the intrenchments with which the face of La Petite Rhune was covered. Rushing from thence as soon as the day opened, the troops forced line after line: the enemy did not wait in their redoubts to be assaulted; and the assailants having carried all the works, and formed without farther opposition on the summit of the hill, were crossing the valley to attack the right of the high range behind SarrÉ, when Lord Wellington reached the point which Sir Lowry had gained. The preliminary attacks having thus succeeded, the whole moved forward against the intrenched range of heights which formed the strongest part of the enemy’s position. The Spaniards on Giron’s left were not sufficiently alert to support the light division: it was not for some time that the guns could be got up over most difficult ground: part of the 95th, who had gained the first high point, were attacked and obliged to retire; and the enemy had the advantage till the Spaniards, quickened by messages from Lord Wellington, came up; the French then gave way, and the lower ridge, in the centre of the position opposite to our two central columns, was immediately occupied. The Prince of Orange, who was with Lord Wellington that day, was then sent to Marshal Beresford, desiring him to attack that part of the high range in his front, while Sir Lowry should at the same time assail it on his side.

It was now about ten o’clock, and before this simultaneous effort could be made there was time to look at the position which was about to be attacked. The mountain extends about twelve miles from Ascain to Mondarin; only one valley intersects it, which is that through which the Nivelle flows; but there are several dips in the range; every higher point had its redoubt, and in the intervals the enemy were formed in great strength, some in lines, some in columns, with sharp-shooters half way down the hills. A friend of Lord Wellington’s said at the time to Sir George Murray, that he should expect a very difficult task here, if he had not seen the amazing superiority of our troops in the attack on SarrÉ. Sir George replied, “It is impossible to say how that position may be defended; it is very formidable, but we probably shall get it very easily; when the French see the red coats they know we are determined to carry our point, and they never dispute it long.” The troops justified this brave confidence; six columns began to ascend, with a chain of sharp-shooters in their front; and never could greater intrepidity be displayed than that with which the British and Portugueze advanced against strong works, or solid columns at the top of steep ascents, where they were frequently obliged to use their hands as well as feet in climbing. When they approached a redoubt, they halted a few minutes to take breath: a party was sent to turn it: the sharp-shooters went close up, and another party went straight at it in front, with as much confidence as if to charge a regiment on a plain: when they got within twenty or thirty paces, the enemy uniformly fled, and the assailants being out of breath, could overtake but few of them. Most of these redoubts had a glacis, with an abattis in front, which gave them time to get off. From one large one, which was attacked by the 21st Portugueze regiment, the garrison continued to fire till the assailants jumped into the ditch; then the French hastened out at the rear with all alacrity.

Lord Wellington ascended in the interval between the 7th and 4th divisions. Just as he reached the summit of the range at one of its dips, Beresford and Colville, with the 3rd division, had carried a very high hill, crowned with a strong stockaded redoubt, which was, in fact, the key of the position, and looked down upon the whole range on both sides. The 40th suffered here from having pushed on too fast. The allies were now gaining the upper ridge on all sides, and the artillery attempted to follow: Ross’s troop was the only one which succeeded, and that by two hours’ of the utmost exertion, and by partly making a road. Sir Lowry, with the 4th division, reached the top at a lower part: two brigades of the enemy were formed upon a height on his left; and beyond them, on a very high point above Ascain, was a large and strong redoubt, manned by a battalion of infantry. The light division was toiling up the hill to the right of this work, and the Spaniards to the left. Sir Lowry attacked the brigades: there were two generals at their heads; but when the assailants came near, the French fired five or six rounds in rather an unsoldier-like hurry, and then moved hastily off, leaving the redoubt to its fate. Downie, seizing a colour, and waving it as he advanced on horseback at the head of his battalion, led on his men: they went against it gallantly, in spite of their officers, who behaved ill: the light division commenced an attack upon it, in which Colonel Barnard was wounded; and the 52nd lost a good many men here, before Lord Wellington’s orders for desisting and summoning the garrison could arrive. While this attack continued, the troops under Beresford got so far in the rear of the redoubt, that it was impossible for the garrison to retreat. They proved to be the first battalion of the 88th regiment, nearly 600 strong: their colonel had been promoted for his defence of S. Christoval’s, at the first siege of Badajoz: he hesitated, parleyed, and requested to confer with his officers, and subsequently with the non-commissioned officers; but it was in vain to resist, and there was no way to escape; so they surrendered, and laid down their arms on the glacis. Some of the men expressed their indignation in coarse and indecent language at finding themselves prisoners; and one serjeant, in particular, who wore the cross of the Legion of Honour, cursed his fortune, that after being present in the battles of Austerlitz and Wagram, he should now be captured in a redoubt!

While these operations were going on in the centre, Sir Henry Clinton, with the 6th division, having driven in the enemy’s piquets on both banks of the Nivelle, crossed that river, covered the passage of Sir John Hamilton’s Portugueze division, and ascended the hill in line, scarcely firing a shot. The enemy were formed on the top of the hill, as on a fine parade, in front of their huts, and with strong redoubts on both flanks. The first party in its eagerness pushed on too fast, and was driven back; but as the support came near they dashed forward again; and the enemy, having thrown away their fire, went off in great confusion, abandoning redoubts, camp, and all. Sir William Stewart’s division carried a work on a parallel ridge in the rear. Morillo, by attacking the enemy’s posts on the slopes of Mondarin, and following them towards Itzatce, covered the advance of the whole to the heights behind Ainhoue. Sir Rowland then forced the enemy to retire from those heights towards the bridge of Cambo on the Nivelle; and Sir William Stewart drove a division from Mondarin into the mountains toward Baygorri. By two o’clock the allies had gained possession of the whole of the position behind SarrÉ and Ainhoue.

The enemy, who had been in front of our centre, were now retiring along the road to St. PÉ, a village on the Nivelle, between three and four miles distant. The nature of the country rendered it impossible to cut them off; and Lord Wellington was obliged to wait an hour, that the troops might take breath, and to see that the operations on the right had succeeded; and that the 6th division, after carrying the works in its front, had inclined to the left, and closed upon the third. This having been ascertained, about three o’clock he directed the 7th and 3rd divisions (being the right of the centre) to move by the left of the river upon St. PÉ, and the 6th by the right upon the same place; while the 4th and light divisions, with Giron’s reserve, held the heights above Ascain, covering the movement on that side, and Sir Rowland covered it on the other. The Nivelle is from twenty to thirty yards wide, rapid like a mountain stream, and not fordable; there is a stone bridge at St. PÉ, a wooden one half a mile lower down, and a stone one about the same distance still lower, at the village of Ayan. The first of these bridges was eagerly contested; but, after some severe skirmishing, the allies effected the passage of all three. Lord Wellington halted upon the heights above St. PÉ; and, having occupied the bridges and the villages, waited there for reports from the right and left. During the whole day he could distinctly hear, and generally see, the firing on the right, Sir Rowland’s quarter; but the projecting base of La Rhune entirely prevented him from seeing what passed on Sir John Hope’s side; and a steady breeze, setting towards the sea, prevented any sound from reaching him in that direction. But on that side there could be no anxiety, for it was not intended to be the scene of serious action; and what service was to be performed there, was performed well. The French had constructed a redoubt round the ruins of a small chapel on a hill, and connected it with the defence of Urogne by intrenchments, and a strong abattis. From this work, which formed a sort of advanced post to their right wing, Sir John Hope drove them, and from Urogne, and pushed forward the 5th division to the inundation which covered the intrenchments in front of Ciboure, and those protecting the heights in advance of Fort Socoa. The enemy were kept in expectation here that this position would be assaulted; and they were menaced in their intrenchments, which covered the heights behind Urogne, and extended along the hills in the direction of Ascain: that village they abandoned in the afternoon, and Freyre took possession of it. As soon as Lord Wellington had received the reports, he gave orders for attacking the heights behind St. PÉ: they were of difficult access, through vineyards, and were crowned with woods; and the enemy had a considerable force there: during the intervals of severer action, the sharp-shooters had been warmly engaged in the village, and along the river; and shrapnells had been thrown at the heights with visible effect from Ross’s brigade. The 3rd division now crossed near the village, the 6th advanced upon its right, and the 7th attacked the left of the heights; the brunt of the action on this side was borne by this division. The 51st and 68th regiments, light troops, scoured a wood in full cry, like a pack of hounds, and drove out a large body of sharp-shooters, whom they drove up the hills, but with so much eagerness as to leave their support behind. Instantly upon this advantage being presented, a strong column moved from behind the hill, and attacked them: the enemy were led by a general officer on horseback, and behaved with more spirit than they had shown in any other part of the engagement. The two regiments, if they had not been two of the best, must have been cut to pieces; but though they were very weak in numbers, and were driven back, they formed in close order, and in the most gallant manner retook the hill. This was the last business of the day. The three divisions took post on the heights beyond St. PÉ; thus establishing themselves in the rear of the enemy’s right; and the remainder of the army rested on the ground which they occupied, the evening being so far advanced that no further movement could be made.

?Nov. 11.?

Lord Wellington was on the heights above St. PÉ before daylight; the morning was hazy, and it was noon before he received the reports which enabled him to put the troops in motion. During the night the enemy had abandoned all their works and positions in front of St. Jean de Luz, and knowing no time was to be lost, lest the divisions at St. PÉ should interpose between them and Bayonne, retired upon Bidart, destroying all the bridges on the lower Nivelle. Sir John Hope followed with the left, as soon as he could cross the river; but it was mid-day before he could repair the bridge which connects Ciboure with S. Jean de Luz, and construct a flying bridge to expedite the passage of the troops. The 5th division passed here, part with the artillery by the bridge, part by fords close above the town; the first, with Wilson’s Portugueze brigade, by a ford about a mile higher up, and broad enough for the men to cross by platoons. It rained most heavily; the water was deep, the opposite bank muddy, and the shore swampy ground: but no opposition was offered, and the men, elated by the signal success of yesterday, were in high spirits. The centre moved forward about a league, and the right made a corresponding move, which was as far as the state of the roads, after so violent a fall of rain, would allow. Soult showed about 16,000 men at Bidart all day. The army bivouacked a second night. On the following morning Lord Wellington was again in front of the centre at daybreak, but a thick fog enveloped every thing; it was noon before it cleared, and he then learned that the enemy had retired during the night into an intrenched camp, in front of Bayonne.

By these operations, in which the allies lost little more than 500 killed, and less than 2400 wounded, the French were driven from positions strong in themselves, and which they had been fortifying with great skill and great labour for six months: 51 pieces of cannon, 1500 prisoners, and 400 wounded, were taken. Soult had full 70,000 men; but though there was no flight, nor any thing like a rout, no determined spirit of resistance was manifested; they fought like brave men, but dispirited ones, and in several instances their officers used every endeavour to bring them on in vain. They had relied upon the difficulty of the ground, not dreaming that artillery could be brought to act against them over rivers and rocks and mountains; and indeed, the allies were beholden for their success, in no slight degree, to the extraordinary skill and activity with which this part of the service was directed by Colonel Dickson. Mountain-pieces on swivel carriages, harnessed on the backs of mules which had been trained for the purpose, were conveyed to the ridges of the mountains, and brought to bear on the French from positions which they had considered inaccessible for guns.... The foot and horse-artillery were alike active and expert; and the artillerymen dragged their cannon with ropes up steep precipices, or lowered them down, wherever they could be employed with most effect. Generals Byng and Kempt were wounded: Colonel Lloyd of the 94th, an officer of great promise, and who had frequently distinguished himself, was killed.

?The allies cantoned between the Nivelle and the sea.?

The weather, which continued wet, without intermission, from the 11th to the 18th, rendered the cross roads so bad, and the streams so formidable, that Lord Wellington could not follow up his success as he would otherwise have done. He placed the army, therefore, in cantonments between the Nivelle and the sea; but as the enemy were concentrated in great numbers round Bayonne, two miles only in their immediate front, a defensive line was formed against any sudden advance. It commenced at the sea on the left, in rear of Biaritz, passed over the main ridge of heights, and crossed the high road, near a country house belonging to the mayor of that little town. The front of this part of the line was protected by the two small lakes of Chuhigue and Rousta; the high road passes across a valley between them, and here was the most advanced line of sentinels guarding the left wing; from thence it followed the right bank of the valley, in front of Arcangues, and coming there upon the Nive, near a chateau belonging to Garat (one of the contemporary historians of the French revolution, and himself an actor in it), it was thrown back along the left of that river by Arrauntz, Ustaritz, Larressore, and Cambo; from which latter place the enemy, who occupied a tÊte-de-pont there, withdrew their posts on the 18th, and blew up the bridge. Head-quarters were at St. Jean de Luz, ?St Jean de Luz.? a town which dates its decay from the peace of 1763, when France was deprived of its possessions in North America. The Nivelle divides it from Ciboure (a smaller town), spreading just above both into a beautiful bay, and forming an island where it spreads, which is connected by bridges with both. The bay terminates on the north-east by a rocky point of land, on which a battery called Fort St. Barbe was erected, and on the opposite side is the harbour of Socoa, defended by a martello tower. Between these points the bay is nearly a mile in width, and on both sides a pier had been begun, which it was intended to have carried so nearly across, as only to have left a sufficient entrance, and thus to have afforded safe anchorage on this stormy coast, where it is grievously needed. When the Spanish fleet was wrecked here in 1627, the dead who were cast up on the immediate shores filled ninety-six carts. On that occasion the inhabitants of St. Jean de Luz behaved with exemplary kindness to the survivors; and it was proposed in the Spanish council that, as a becoming acknowledgment, its ships and merchants should enjoy a perpetual exemption from all duties in Portugal, whither they ?D. Francesco Manoel. Epanaphoras, p. 256.? traded largely for salt: I wish it could be added, that such a proof of national gratitude had been given. During the action of the 10th, a naval demonstration was made opposite Fort Socoa, by four of Sir George Collier’s squadrons: the swell would not admit of a close approach, but they came near enough for one of them to be struck by some shot from the sea-batteries.

?Discipline observed by the allies.?

The inhabitants of St. Jean de Luz had mostly remained in their own houses, shutting themselves up there to abide their fate, in dread of invaders whom they had been taught to consider as being equally rapacious and merciless. There was still a disposition in the allied troops to take that license which brutal spirits promise themselves in war; but, during the action of the 10th, two offenders had been hanged, each upon the nearest tree to the spot where his crime was committed, with a paper upon his breast declaring for what offence this summary justice had been executed. Such severity was equally politic and just; and the allies soon acquired as good a character for their conduct toward the inhabitants as for their behaviour in the field. The people were the more sensible of this, because it was strikingly contrasted with the predatory habits in which their own troops had long been licensed, and which those troops had not laid aside when they were driven within the French frontier. Marshal Soult would gladly now have withheld them from courses which he had so long permitted or encouraged; and just at this time an instance occurred in which he endeavoured to strike terror by a wholesome example. When they were quitting St. Jean de Luz, a woman complained to an officer whose company was quartered there, that the men, expecting to depart, were beginning to plunder her house: he gave no ear to her entreaties that he would restrain them, and the woman at length, in her emotion at seeing her goods thus given up to spoil, exclaimed, that “if those who ought to be their defenders would not protect them, the English might as well be there at once.” “Oh!” said the officer, “if you are a friend to the English, you shall see how I will protect you!” and immediately he set fire to her house himself. A gendarme who was present took the woman’s part, and declared that though he could not take the officer into custody, nor prevent him by force, he would report the circumstance to the Marshal: he did so; and the officer, who was a captain of infantry and a member of the Legion of Honour, was brought to a court-martial, condemned, and shot.

?The inhabitants return to their homes.?

But it was too late for Marshal Soult to correct the inveterate habits of men who, during all their campaigns in the Peninsula, had been supported by a predatory system; and though most of the people, and especially the villagers, forsook their houses at the approach of the allies, yet, when proclamations were issued in French and in Basque (which is the language of these parts), assuring them that their persons and property should be respected, and when they understood that British discipline would afford them a security which it was in vain to hope for amid their own armies, they returned. The French authorities endeavoured in vain to dissuade them; the general wish was expressed so strongly, that at length no farther impediment was opposed to it than that of forbidding them to carry back anything with them. Above 3000 persons came back to St. Jean de Luz and the neighbouring places before the end of November, and as many more passed through the line of the allied outposts, in one day early in December, on their return; ... among them were several young men, escaping in women’s clothes from the conscription.

The weather had prevented Lord Wellington from passing the Nive, as he intended to have done, immediately after having forced the French position, and the army in consequence occupied only the confined space on the left of that river; while the enemy profited by all the resources of the country on its right, and had a free communication between Bayonne and St. Jean de Pied-de-Port. They occupied an intrenched camp in front of Bayonne, about twelve miles from S. Jean de Luz, and this position they had been fortifying with provident care from the time of their defeat at Vittoria. Bayonne ?Bayonne.? obtained its present name in the twelfth century, till when it was called Lapurdum, as when the cohort of Novempopulania had its head-quarters there. This ancient city, which during three centuries belonged to our Plantagenet kings, is memorable in military history for the invention of the bayonet, a weapon that in its name indicates the place of its origin, and that, in British hands, has proved more destructive than any other to the nation by which it was invented. In the war of the French revolution this city would not have been tenable against a single division of an enemy’s army: the war of the intrusion made it immediately a place of great importance, as a depÔt for the French; and therefore it was well fortified, to secure it against a sudden attack from the English, before the possibility of any more serious danger had been contemplated. It stands at the junction of the Nive with the Adour; the latter a great river, and the former not fordable for several miles up: the city is on the left of the Adour, the citadel on the other side. The position which Marshal Soult occupied was under the fire of the fortress; the right resting on the Adour, and covered in front by a morass, formed by a rivulet which falls into that river. The right of the centre rested upon the same morass, and its left upon the Nive; the left was between the Nive and the Adour, resting on the latter river and defending the former, and communicating with a division of the army of Catalonia, under General Paris, at St. Jean de Pied-de-Port. The roads from that place, and from St. Jean de Luz to Paris, pass through Bayonne; and these are the only paved roads, all the others are so bad as to be impracticable in winter. The enemy had their advanced posts, from their right, in front of Anglet, and toward Biaritz; and they had a considerable corps cantoned in Ville-Franche and Monguerre.

?December.Passage of the Nive.?

As soon as the weather and the state of the roads allowed, preparations were made for crossing the Nive. On the 8th of December Lord Wellington moved the troops out of their cantonments. The preceding day had brought intelligence that Hanover was delivered from the French, ... and that the Dutch also had risen against their oppressors, and asserted their independence. With this news to encourage them, at which even the French people appeared to rejoice, because it gave them a hope of peace, which could only be obtained by the total defeature of Buonaparte’s ambitious schemes, the allies recommenced their operations on the morrow. Sir Rowland, with the right of the army, was to cross at Cambo, and Beresford to support him by passing Sir Henry Clinton’s division at Ustaritz: the bridges at both places had been destroyed. The river, dividing into two branches, forms an island of considerable extent opposite Ustaritz; our piquets had previously occupied this, and here a pontoon bridge was thrown across during the night. The bridge at Campo had been hastily and insufficiently repaired, so that very few succeeded in getting over its broken slope. There were fords above and below; the lower was good enough for cavalry, but ten men were drowned in attempting it; the upper one, therefore, was chiefly used by the infantry, ... and it was no easy passage, the left bank being steep, and the water rising at the time, in consequence of renewed rain. At both places, however, it was effected with little opposition, and the enemy were immediately driven from the right bank. The troops, advancing then through swampy meadow-land and very deep roads, soon found themselves on the high road from St. Jean de Pied-de-Port; and the French retired skirmishing, being followed and pressed; those opposite Cambo were nearly intercepted by Sir Henry Clinton. The enemy now assembled in considerable force upon a range of heights running parallel with the Adour, keeping Ville-Franche upon their right; and they kindled fires, as if intending to remain there. A galling fire was kept up from the detached houses of this village; but houses, village, and heights were carried by the 8th Portugueze regiment, the 9th CaÇadores, and the light battalions of the 6th division; and the French, after one or two hasty volleys, retired. The advance of the allies had been so much impeded by the condition of the ground, that by this time evening had closed; and Lord Wellington contented himself therefore with the possession of the ground that he occupied.

This had been a day of great fatigue for the left wing of the army. At one in the morning the drums had beat to arms; and, after a most toilsome march through heavy rain, the first division, under Major-General Howard, was assembled by daybreak at the Plateau of Barouillet, in advance of Bidart. At dawn the rain ceased; and the 5th division, under Major-General Hay, supported by the 12th light dragoons, was seen crossing the valley which separates the hilly ground of Biaritz from that of Bidart; its right in communication with the first, and its left extending to the sea-coast. At eight o’clock the whole line of light troops commenced their fire; those of the enemy contested every hedge and bank which afforded them shelter, and from whence they could take deliberate aim; but a fire of shells from the artillery, who posted themselves on the eminences along the whole line, assisted greatly in dislodging them. The whole line gradually advanced, and the enemy retreated before them to Anglet, not venturing to await their approach. About one the first division gained the heights on the right of the chaussÉe, opposite to Anglet, the light infantry driving the enemy down the slopes to their intrenched camp. The 5th division made equal progress, sweeping the country between Anglet and the sea as far as the banks of the Adour, and occupying with its light infantry the Bois de Bayonne, a large pine-wood which covers the whole space on the left of that river, between the intrenched camp and the sea. General Alten, meantime, made a corresponding advance with the light division, between the left wing and the Nive; they drove the enemy from behind the deep morass which ?Batty’s Campaign, pp. 83–5.? covered their advanced posts in front of Bassussarry, and compelled them to retreat to their intrenched camp near the Chateau de Marrac, ... that castle to which, in the first act of this great drama, Ferdinand had been decoyed by Buonaparte.

As the movements on this side were intended only to favour the operations on the right, Sir John Hope’s instructions were to return to his cantonments, and to commence retiring thither at six in the evening, unless a countermand should arrive. It began again to rain heavily in the afternoon; and the troops, supposing they were to remain on the ground which they had gained, lighted, not without difficulty, their bivouac fires; but the weather was far too bad for them to remain in such exposed situations; and at the appointed time they began their march back toward their several cantonments, the 5th division forming the rear guard. By this time it was quite dark; even the main road had been completely broken up by the passage of artillery, and of so many troops; the hollow ways were knee-deep in mud: one little drummer stuck fast in it, and was obliged to be lifted out and carried for some distance by two soldiers; many of the men were so completely exhausted that they sunk down by the way-side; and before they reached the place of rest, they had been little less than four-and-twenty hours on foot, and during the greater part of that time in a heavy winter’s rain.

On the morning of the 10th Sir Rowland found that the enemy on his side had retired into their intrenched camp, on the right of the Nive. He established himself, therefore, in the position intended for him, with his right on the Adour, his left on the heights of Ville-Franche, above the Nive, and his centre across the chaussÉe at the village of St. Pierre. Marshal Beresford’s troops were again drawn to the left of the Nive; and Sir Rowland communicated with the centre of the army, by a bridge which had been laid over that river. Morillo’s division was placed at Urcuray, and Colonel Vivian’s brigade of light dragoons at Hasparren, to watch Paris’s movements, who, upon the passage of the Nive, had retired towards St. Palais.

Thus the allied army formed a sort of crescent, which was intersected by a river, and along which the communications were exceedingly bad. On any part of this bending line Marshal Soult could direct an attack with his main force; and, if he should be repulsed, there was a secure retreat for him within his intrenched camp. Supposing, therefore, that the allies would have their principal strength on the right of the Nive to support Sir Rowland, he left just troops enough to occupy the works opposite to that General’s position, and with the rest of his army moved at daybreak against Sir John Hope, expecting to overpower the left wing by numbers. The 5th division occupied the Plateau of Barouillet, having General Campbell’s Portugueze brigade in its front, on the high road. Baron Alten, with the light division, was posted at Arcangues, about two miles to the right. Both were on strong ground; but there was no defensive connexion between them, except along a range of hills, which projected too much to be occupied otherwise than by small posts; and between Barouillet and Arcangues there is a broad valley, which was left almost without defence, because it was thought that Marshal Soult would not attempt to advance in this direction, with posts of such strength upon either flank.

The enemy advanced in two strong columns; one by the great road attacked the posts of the 5th division, and drove them back upon their support on the Plateau of Barouillet. The other, coming forward by the Plateau of Bassussarry, threw out a strong line of tirailleurs, supported by battalions, against the light division at Arcangues; but the main body pushed on a little way beyond the left flank of the light division, and sent forward columns to attack the right of the 5th, denoting thus an intention of penetrating between, and in rear of the two divisions. Soult knew not at how great advantage he had taken the allies: the 5th division had been separated during the last night’s dismal march, the ammunition mules were not forthcoming, and when the piquets were driven in, there was hardly a round left. There was nothing to be done but to hold their ground as well as they could till more troops and ammunition should arrive. Not more than eight or ten guns could be brought into action, because of the nature of the ground, ... there being a low thick wood to the right, and close to the road; and on the left a rugged heath, intersected with gullies and ravines. The French brought more pieces into play, and served them with more than usual vivacity; for they knew their own great superiority of numbers, and were elated with the hope of getting to S. Jean de Luz, which was the great depÔt of the allies. Sir John Hope, who was, with his staff, in the thickest of the fight, encouraging the troops by his example, received a severe contusion on his shoulder, and a hurt on his leg; and a ball went through his hat: ... it was believed that, at one moment, nothing but his extreme gallantry saved the troops from utter confusion. Major-General Robinson, who commanded the second brigade of this division, was severely wounded, and carried off the field. The contest still continued, ebbing and flowing, till the enemy pushed through the wood in front of Barouillet, and through a large field and orchard on its right, in such force as to drive back Campbell’s Portugueze brigade, and Robinson’s, which supported it; and, penetrating thus beyond the front of the position, they were rapidly following up their success, when a Portugueze battalion on the left flank boldly moved forward on the road, and wheeled into the rear of the wood; at the same time the 9th British regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron, which was on the extreme right, faced about, and, uniting with the Portugueze, charged the French columns in their rear, ... a movement as unexpected as it was bold and well-timed. It gave the enemy a severe check at this point, and some hundred prisoners were taken. This was between two and three in the afternoon. By this time a considerable number of troops had arrived in detail; the brigade of guards, who had been ordered from St. Jean de Luz to support the 5th division, arrived just after the enemy had been thus checked; and Lord Wellington, hastening from the right wing where all was quiet, came to the scene of action. He was very much exposed this day, and unavoidably so, for there was no eminence from whence the whole field could be seen; the wood intercepted the sight, and it was necessary for him to ride from point to point. The enemy, checked though they had been, persisted in the action, and it continued till nightfall; the firing gradually ceasing as the evening closed, and the troops, after very severe loss on both sides, remaining on the ground which they had occupied in the morning. The remainder of the left wing having been brought up from its cantonments, the first division relieved the fatigued troops; and the 7th took post in rear of the position, to support either of the defensive corps.

Meantime the attack upon the light division at Arcangues had been maintained with great animation and perseverance. The enemy were repulsed in all their efforts to dislodge these troops from their defences of the churchyard and the chateau; but they retained at night the Plateau of Bassussarry, in the immediate front of Arcangues, which joins that of Barouillet, before the mayor’s house. The issue of the day had greatly disappointed Marshal Soult, whose utmost efforts had been completely defeated by a comparatively small part of the ?Two German regiments escape from the French army.? allied forces, and with great loss. He suffered a further loss during the night. There were with him the two German regiments of Frankfort and Nassau Usingen: every possible means had been taken for concealing from their officers the state of affairs in Germany; nevertheless, they discovered that Germany had thrown off the yoke. The French government had been apprehensive of this, and, in consequence, had recently altered its conduct towards them; instead of being treated with disrespect, as men who had no government which could protect them, they now found themselves the objects of marked attention; and were newly clothed, and received pay up to the last six months, when a year and half’s was due to the greater part of the French army. Marshal Soult, however, under various pretences, had long kept them in the rear. But in the action of this day they were in advance, in Villatte’s division; and that General being severely wounded, the division was for a while without any special commander. The officer in command of the Nassau regiment was a Bavarian, but had been educated in Hanover, and for some years in the Hanoverian guards. Not only had the news from Germany reached him, but means had also been found for conveying to him the orders of his sovereign; he now took advantage of the first opportunity which had offered, and proposed to the Colonel of a French regiment, that his corps, with the two Nassau battalions, and one of the Frankfort, should occupy a height a little in advance of where they then were. The advice, though proposed with a view of going over to the allies, offered some feasible advantage, and was agreed to without suspicion. As it was growing dark, and the roads were intricate, it was further proposed, that the battalions should file to their ground by different routes. The German officers were apprized of the intention, except those of the second Frankfort battalion, to which no communication could be made, its commander being badly wounded in the action. A Frankfort officer now made his way to the outposts of our 4th division, in the centre of the allies, and announced the intended defection, requiring a General officer’s word of honour that they should be well received, and sent to Germany: no General being on the spot, Colonel Bradford gave his word: means were immediately taken to apprize the three battalions, and they came over in a body, 1300 men; the French not discovering their intention till just when it was too late to frustrate it. On the morrow the Colonel wrote to General Villatte, thanking him for the attentions which he had received whilst under his command; but stating that in obedience to their King’s orders, his troops had quitted the service of France to return to that of their own country. Their women and their sick, who were left behind, he commended to the General’s humanity; and said that his brother officers and himself freely gave up their personal baggage in performing an act prescribed by their duty. This officer seems to have united a just moral feeling to a proper sense of military honour; and he rejoiced that he had been able to bring off those battalions, without being compelled to fire on the French, in company with whom they had served so long.

?Dec. 11.?

In the morning the 5th division was brought a little forward, beyond the wood, and the advanced skirmishers were soon within forty or fifty yards of each other: the light troops drove in the enemy’s piquets, and the most advanced sentries were again pushed forward to their own line. On this side, and also at Arcangues, there was some skirmishing during the forenoon, but with little advantage on either side: about noon the firing was suspended, the weather brightened, unarmed parties were sent out to cut wood for cooking, and the men received their rations. But about two there was a stir in the enemy’s lines; they were seen cutting gaps in the fences for the passage of artillery; presently they attacked in great force, along the Bayonne road, driving in the piquets, and the hill in front of Barouillet again became the scene of contest. The soldiers who had gone in front to cut fuel ran hastily back when they heard the cry of “to arms,” that they might get themselves armed and accoutred; and the French, seeing them run toward the rear, thought they had taken panic, and set up loud cheers, as if they had now only to pursue their favourable fortune. But their whole left wing was promptly formed in perfect order. A feint attack was made upon Arcangues, to cover a serious one upon the Plateau Bassussarry. Lord Wellington’s orders were, that the piquets, in case of any serious effort, should be withdrawn from the hill in front, but that the position in front of Barouillet should be maintained: great efforts were made, and the enemy every where were repulsed, Sir John Hope, as on the yesterday, encouraging his men wherever there was most danger. During these two days he was struck three times; and all his staff had either themselves or their horses wounded. Lord Wellington is said to have requested that he would consider of what consequence he was to the army, and not expose himself so much. When darkness closed, the two armies were in the same position which they had occupied on the preceding night.

The fifth division, which, after one day’s severe exertion in the worst weather, had borne the heat of the action in the two following ones, was relieved by the first, as soon as it became so dark that the enemy could not perceive and take advantage of any change in their disposition. The night was again rainy, and in posting the sentries at some parts, it was not easy, because of the darkness, to avoid interfering with the French piquets. ?Dec. 12.? The weather cleared toward morning; drums and trumpets were heard at intervals along the enemy’s line; and at sunrise their staff officers were seen riding in all directions. Soult showed three or four divisions; and at ten some severe skirmishing began, which continued till three, being chiefly confined to the wood and the immediate ground about the house of Barouillet. The loss was not great, but it fell chiefly on the guards: Captain Watson, the adjutant of the 3rd guards, observed in the morning that “plenty of laurel grew round that house to deck the graves of those who should fall,” ... and he was one of the first. Lord Wellington, foreseeing Soult’s intention, moved the 4th and 7th divisions to the rear of the light division and of the first, where they might afford support to either. But Marshal Soult, when he found how fully the allies were prepared, did not deem it prudent to make any further effort on this side, where he had tried his fortune skilfully, bravely, and perseveringly, but without success. The skirmishing therefore ceased in the afternoon, and the enemy retired entirely within their entrenched camp that night.

The last four days had been most harassing to the troops, exposed as they had been, and continually under arms; but the fifth day of these multiplied actions proved more murderous than any of the foregoing. During the night Soult passed a large force through Bayonne, with the intention of making a most formidable attack upon the right wing of the allies. Sir Rowland was aware of his movements, and prepared accordingly. His position was about a league from Bayonne, in the form of a crescent, extending about four miles from the Adour to the Nive. Major-General Pringle’s brigade, consisting of the 28th, 34th, and 39th regiments, formed the left, stationed on a ridge of hilly ground extending from Ville-Franche toward Bayonne, and bounded on one side by the Nive, and on the other by large mill-dams in a deep hollow, which separates it from the heights of Monguerre. Major-General Byng’s brigade, consisting of the 31st, 57th, and 68th, formed the right, posted also on a long ridge, in front of the village of Vieux Monguerre, which had the Adour on its right, and mill-dams in like manner on its left, separating it from the heights in the centre. Brigadier-General Ashworth’s Portugueze brigade occupied the centre ridge opposite the village of St. Pierre. The ground was favourable, because it admitted of only one or two points of attack, one of which was by the main road.

It was a clear frosty morning, but the ground so wet, and the road so heavy in that deep and rich soil, that the horses were knee-deep in stiff mud and clay. Soon after eight o’clock, the allied outposts on the great road were attacked by tirailleurs in great numbers, and the French columns advanced close in the rear. Soult showed that day about four divisions; and these, drawn up in two lines and supporting columns, appeared, from the confined ground on which they acted, more numerous than they were. They advanced up the long slope in front of the centre position, their column extending a good way on either side of the road; at the same time a large body moved against the left of the centre, up the hollow way, its right resting upon the mill-dams. Sir Rowland, as soon as the enemy’s intention of piercing the centre was manifest, brought Major-General Barnes’s brigade forward from the heights of Petit Monguerre, and stationed it on the right of Ashworth’s Portugueze. He moved also the whole of Byng’s brigade, except one regiment, and the light companies of the others, to support the right of the centre, and Brigadier-General Buchan’s Portugueze brigade from behind Ville-Franche, to support its left. These troops arrived just at the time when they were most needed; four guns of Lieutenant-Colonel Ross’s troop, and Lieutenant-Colonel Tulloch’s brigade of Portugueze artillery, were also moved up in aid of the centre, and kept up a steady but cautious fire, all possible exertions being used meantime for bringing them a supply of ammunition. The light companies which had gone forward in support of the piquets were borne back by weight of numbers upon the main line, and the French established themselves upon a height close to the position; and here the heat of the contest lay, this post being repeatedly won and lost, till Barnes’s brigade, with the 92nd Highlanders, and Ashworth’s Portugueze, made a final charge, and drove the enemy down. The artillery fired this day with dreadful effect, and the main road was in many places literally running with blood.

On the right a feint only was made, before which the battalion that had been left there retired from Vieux Monguerre to the heights in its rear; but, ascertaining from thence that the enemy on this side were not in force, they re-entered the village, and made some prisoners there. But on the left centre the columns which had advanced up the hollow way made a powerful attack; and though the 71st and part of the 92nd were sent to aid the Portugueze there, the enemy, by dint of superior force, won an important part of the position in front of Ville-Franche. Two Portugueze regiments opportunely arrived. Sir William Stewart directed the one to turn the right flank of the attacking columns, while the other attacked the enemy in front, charging them with the bayonet; and this was decisive in that quarter. A hot fire of tirailleurs was kept up meantime upon Major-General Pringle’s brigade, with a view of preventing it from aiding the centre; but that General, occupying a line at right angles to theirs, caused them considerable loss by a well-directed flanking fire.

Foreseeing such an attack on Sir Rowland, Lord Wellington had provided against it by requesting Marshal Beresford to reinforce him with the 6th division, which had crossed the Nive accordingly at daylight that morning; and he sent also for the fourth and two brigades of the third, and formed them in reserve. The expected coming of the 6th division gave Sir Rowland great facility in making his movements; but before its arrival he had completely repulsed the enemy, the troops under his immediate command being about 13,000 men, and the force by which they were attacked little, if at all, short of twice that number. The allies kept their ground; ... their purpose, therefore, was effected. Soult’s troops, when beaten back, had the city and the intrenched camp in their immediate rear, and retired under cover of their guns placed in position. They remained in great force in front of that camp, and kept up a warm cannonade upon the centre; but the officers could not induce their men again to renew attacks which they had found so destructive. Sir William Stewart then directed Major-General Byng to unite his brigade and attack the enemy upon the opposite bank of the mill-stream, in front of the height of Vieux Monguerre. Byng did this in the most gallant style, carrying the colours of the 66th himself, and planting them, under a hot fire of musketry and artillery, in their position. The third regiment crossed the mill-stream to co-operate in the attack; the brigade then drove the enemy down, and Buchan’s Portugueze arrived to aid in finally repulsing them. About four o’clock the action terminated in a continued skirmishing: at night the enemy retired within their camp.

The loss of the allies during these five days, in killed, wounded, and missing, amounted to 5029, of whom 302 were officers: nearly half the loss fell upon the Portugueze, upon whom, indeed, as much reliance was now placed as upon the British themselves. The last day was the most destructive: Generals Barnes, Le Cor, and Ashworth, and nearly the whole of the staff and aides-de-camp of Sir William Stewart, and of Generals Barnes and Byng, were wounded. The French return made their loss 1314 killed and 4600 wounded. They fought well in this long series of actions, far better than they had done in defending their position upon the Nivelle; and this can only be explained by the different feeling with which men, and especially men of the French temperament, are animated when standing on their defence, from that which excites them when they are themselves the assailants. Marshal Soult, who was never wanting in ability, never displayed more than on this occasion. The often repeated effort cost him his best troops, and forced upon him the mortifying conviction that, brave as they were, and admirably disciplined, they were nevertheless inferior to their opponents: for all circumstances here had been in his favour; the points of attack were at his own choice, and wherever he attacked he brought into the field a greatly superior force; yet every where he had been defeated. Not ?Soult takes a defensive position.? venturing, therefore, again to repeat a trial in which he had so often failed, though he had at this time 50,000 infantry and 6000 cavalry, he cantoned his army in a defensive position, having its right on the camp round Bayonne, its centre spread along the right of the Adour, to Port de Lanne, and its left along the right of the Bidouse, from its confluence to St. Palais, posting two divisions of cavalry on the left of that place, and a weak division, under Harispe, at St. Jean de Pied-de-Port. That General had been withdrawn from Suchet’s army for this service, because, being a native of the valley of Baigorry, and having distinguished himself as a partizan in the Pyrenees, in the years 1794 and 1795, it was supposed that he might raise some irregular corps of his countrymen, and turn against the allies that system of guerrilla warfare which had proved so destructive to the invaders in Spain. Marshal Soult apprehended that Bayonne would be invested; and therefore he made Port de Lanne, which is on the Adour, eighteen miles above that city, his principal depÔt, laying down a bridge there, and protecting it by strong works; and he lined the right of the river with redoubts armed with heavy cannon. He intrenched Hastingues, and covered Peyrehorade with a tÊte-de-pont, for the defence of the Gave de Pau; and in like manner secured the passages over the Bidouse at Guiche, Bedache, and Came. He also strengthened the fortifications of St. Jean de Pied-de-Port and Navarreins, and intrenched Dax as an entrepÔt for stores and reinforcements from the interior; thus omitting no measure of precaution which a just estimate of his enemy’s strength seemed to require.

The weather, by impeding for a while any advance on the part of the allies, allowed him time for this. Lord Wellington waited till it should become more favourable, having obtained possession of a large tract of country, and being in a situation from whence to resume his operations with advantage, as soon as the season might permit. Upon first entering France he had circulated among the inhabitants those general orders in which he enjoined his troops to respect their persons and property, accompanying them with a brief proclamation to the people. He had given, he said, and would enforce these positive orders for preventing those evils that might otherwise be looked for as the ordinary consequences of an invasion, which they knew was the result of their own government’s invasion of Spain, and of the victories of the allied armies. He requested them to apprehend and bring before him any person who, disobeying these instructions, might offer them any injury; and, on their side, he required them to remain in their houses, and take no part in the war of which their country was now to be the scene. Great injury must inevitably be endured by the inhabitants of any country upon which that visitation falls; but none was suffered now which could be prevented by vigilant discipline, founded upon just views of policy and a strict sense of justice. On the morning after the line of the Nivelle had been forced, a peasant was brought before Lord Wellington, having been taken near the British outposts: the man’s simple account of himself was, that he was going to drive his sheep to Bayonne; upon which he was told that he might go where he pleased, and take his sheep where he pleased too. When the French saw that the peasantry were thus treated, ... that the very few who were taken in arms were shipped off, like other prisoners, for England, ... and that marauders were brought to summary punishment, they perceived that their invaders were as equitable as they were brave, and that the word of a British general was sacred.

The guerrilla troops, whom it would have been more difficult to restrain, were kept upon their own frontier. The discipline of the Portugueze was as good as that of the English. Marshal Beresford, when he commended them in one of his orders for their excellent conduct at the line of the Nivelle, expressed his particular satisfaction with their behaviour in their quarters and towards the inhabitants in general. They had proved, he said, their superiority over the French troops in the field of battle; and they had shown, also, to the French people that they were not less superior to those troops in humanity and in their whole deportment, whereby, as well as by their discipline and courage, they did honour to their country. The Portugueze were not less gratified by another order which Marshal Beresford issued after the passage of the Nive. He had deemed it necessary, in the spring of the preceding year, to deprive certain militia regiments of their colours, till ?Marshal Beresford restores the colours of certain Portugueze regiments. Dec. 29.? they should have redeemed their character in the presence of the enemy; this, he said, they had had no opportunity of doing, the war having happily been removed far from their own country: but regiments raised in the same parts of Portugal, composed of their brethren and other near kinsmen, and in which, in fact, many of the very men who, in the said militias, had incurred this disgrace, were now serving, had, in the late series of victories, demeaned themselves so gallantly, that they had re-established the character of their respective provinces; wherefore in justice he ordered that their colours should be restored. Their misconduct, he added, had proceeded not from want of courage, but from insubordination, ... and that, too, not the effect of wilful disobedience, but arising from habits of undue familiarity between the officers and the men, owing to which, the latter were not prepared to render prompt obedience when it was indispensable. He reminded the officers, therefore, how necessary it was that they should obtain the respect of their soldiers by treatment at the same time just, impartial, gentle, and firm; and observed that the provincial governors would see the necessity henceforth of recommending, for commissions in the militia, persons who were qualified by their means and by their ?Correio Braziliense, t. 12, p. 306.? local respectability. Marshal Beresford understood the national character. The Portugueze were in no slight degree gratified by this: they were proud of the military reputation which they had now established, and not less deservedly of that national feeling which they had manifested under every circumstance ?Conduct of Spanish and Portugueze soldiers at Dantzic.? of good or evil fortune. A signal example of this feeling was given shortly afterwards by a battalion of Portugueze and Spaniards, composed of men who had been entrapped into the enemy’s service before the commencement of the struggle in their own country. They formed part of the garrison of Dantzic when the allies besieged it; and, knowing that the besiegers were in alliance with Spain and Portugal, no threats or inducements could prevail upon them to bear arms in defence of the city: in consequence of this firm refusal, the French commander compelled them to work upon the fortifications; but they had their reward; and when the place surrendered, they were maintained at the expense of the Russian government till they could be transported to England on their way home.

The Spanish government had shown no want of gratitude to Lord Wellington in conferring upon him honours and rewards; but while in such things they conformed to the national sentiment, their conduct sometimes manifested a want of that frank and generous confidence which ought to have been given in as full measure as it was deserved. In direct breach of the engagement made with him when he accepted the command of the Spanish armies, they had superseded CastaÑos, and made other changes, not only without his advice and concurrence, but contrary to his wishes, and in disregard of his remonstrances: and this might have produced the most injurious effect, if the war had not speedily been transferred to the enemy’s country. Libels were circulated imputing sinister views to England, because some of its troops still remained at Cadiz and at Carthagena; and the government allowed these libels to circulate without taking any means for counteracting the impression which the calumny was intended to produce. Lord Wellington withdrew the troops as soon (after their presence had ceased to be necessary there) as he could obtain the Prince Regent’s orders; and, in notifying this to the British ambassador, he stated the circumstances under which those fortresses had been garrisoned at the request ?November.Change of the Regency.? of the Spanish government itself; expressed his surprise that the existing government, knowing these facts, should yet have allowed such calumnies to pass uncontradicted, and requested that his letter might be published. The Regency was, indeed, at this time the mere instrument of the Cortes, which had displaced the late regents by a summary vote, for demurring to enforce an impolitic decree that the clergy scrupled to obey. Cardinal Bourbon, Don Pedro Agar, and Don Gabriel Ciscar were appointed in their stead to a station which possessed only a nominal authority, the Cortes, under the dictation of a party more ardent than wise, having now arrogated to itself the whole actual power.

A whimsical proof had recently occurred of the readiness with which certain Spaniards accredited any imputation, however absurd, upon the intentions of the British government. A foolish paragraph had appeared in some Irish newspaper, saying, that Lord Wellington deserved to be made King of Spain; and that some of the grandees had offered to raise him to the throne! This found its way to Spain; and the Duques of Ossuna and Frias, the Visconde de Gante, and the Marques de Villena, published forthwith a letter to inform the world, that they neither did, nor would, acknowledge any other King than Ferdinand VII.; ... that they detested and abhorred the very idea of any usurper ruling over the Spaniards; ... and that they were persuaded that the other grandees, as soon as this statement should come to their knowledge, would hasten, in like manner, to give a public testimony of their principles and their fidelity.

Parliament met early in November, under more auspicious circumstances than at any time since the baneful commencement of the French revolution. England, which had stood alone in the contest against the most formidable military power that had ever existed in the civilized world, was now in alliance, not with the Spaniards and Portugueze alone, but with Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden, Bavaria, and Holland. Buonaparte had been driven back over the Rhine; and a British army, after beating the French from the lines of Torres Vedras to the Pyrenees, had passed that boundary and entered France. Upon this occasion some of those statesmen who had been most decided in their opposition to government acknowledged the wisdom, and rejoiced in the success of that policy which they had formerly condemned. ?Lord Grenville. Nov. 4.? “Upon this grand question,” said Lord Grenville, “all party conflicts must be swallowed up and lost; it is the cause of no party, of no set of individuals, but of the whole nation joined in sentiment and in action to effect a great and glorious purpose. Internal tranquillity,” he said, “might be considered as the first, and external peace as the second, blessing that any power under Heaven could confer upon a people; but what we desired and expected was the real blessing of peace, not the empty name; not the shadow, but the substance. Too long did deluded Europe, by temporary and partial truces, by concession following concession, purchase from the insatiable enemy a precarious quiet, a troubled sleep, furnishing to her foe the very means of his aggression, and of her own subjugation. The time, my lords, is now arrived (and I rejoice that I have lived to see the hour) when the walls of a British parliament may again re-echo a sound formerly held sacred in this country, and upon the observance of which, I will venture to assert, depends the hope of the restoration of peace to Europe; ... I allude to the old-fashioned tenet, now almost forgotten, of a balance of power in Europe; and I offer up my thanks, with humble gratitude, to the Supreme Disposer of events, that after so long a period he has permitted me to behold my native land in such a commanding situation, as to be able again to pursue that which ought to be the only legitimate object of foreign policy, I mean, the establishment and preservation of a balance of power in Europe. Now, then, let Great Britain resume her ancient policy: let her once more perceive that the only mode by which the independence of the great commonwealth of Europe can be secured, is not by perpetual peace (for that is the visionary dream of visionary men), but by the maintenance of this balance, by which, even in war itself, the weak will find refuge from oppression. Whatever plans may be suggested, having this in view, I shall meet with the most earnest wish to find that they are compatible with the interests of the country. I cannot be ignorant of the difficulties that may be opposed: I do, however, fervently hope, nay, I believe, that they may be surmounted. Do me not the injustice of believing that these opinions are the result merely of the exultation felt in consequence of recent and unexpected events. Undoubtedly such events are calculated to warm the heart of every individual who feels not only for the natural rights of man, but for the independence of nations; but those with whom I have been in the habit of confidential communication know my deliberate opinion, that the existence of such a confederation as has now been formed, of itself irresistibly calls upon Great Britain to employ all her energies, and devote all her exertions to the success of a common and a glorious cause. I was prepared to add an exhortation, that as the chances of war must necessarily be precarious, you would prepare yourselves to meet with firmness those disasters which human foresight could not predict, and which human wisdom could not prevent. Even now, under circumstances that might seem almost to justify the confidence of certainty, I offer that exhortation. If in the course of human events (although I see little cause to fear) any unforeseen calamity should unfortunately occur, remember the glorious cause in which you are engaged; it may for an instant damp your hopes, but let it not damp your ardour or shake your resolution. Be assured, my lords, of this, ... (I hope you are already assured of it,) that there is for this country no separate safety, no separate peace! There is neither safety nor peace for England, but with the safety and peace of Europe; ... as for continental Europe, it is equally true, that an indissoluble union, a firm confederation with this country can alone secure for all liberty, tranquillity, and happiness, ... can alone obtain peace, now almost beyond the memory of living man. The plain duty of this country, placing its trust in Providence, is to improve by every possible exertion the bright prospect that lies before us. With the energies of Great Britain duly applied, ultimate success may be confidently anticipated; we may now look forward to the speedy accomplishment of that great purpose for which we have already sacrificed, performed, and endured so much, ... and for which we are still ready to sacrifice, perform, and endure.”

In the same spirit, Marquis Wellesley declared, that the satisfaction he felt in the events which had now changed the destinies of Europe was with him a principle and not a sentiment. “It was not so much,” he said, “because those events had raised the military reputation of this country and of our allies, that they had the highest value in his eyes, but because they were the natural result of wise and cautious measures, executed with the greatest degree of vigour; and displaying a wisdom of combination and prudence of plan which could not fail ultimately to be rewarded with the success by which they were attended. He would not dwell on former errors; but he would not hesitate to say that the glorious successes which had lately crowned our arms in Spain, and the arms of our allies in the north of Europe, were to be traced to the long train of persevering councils persisted in by the government of this country. Though those councils had not always immediately produced the results that were expected, they were not the less the cause of what had ultimately taken place. While we were exerting ourselves in a struggle apparently hopeless, at that moment the public councils of this country were of the utmost importance to European liberty; for opportunity was thus given to the rest of Europe to re-consider their former errors, and to learn that great lesson which the example of Britain afforded them. Nothing could be more true than the last words which that great statesman, Mr. Pitt, ever delivered in public, that England had saved herself by her firmness, and other nations by her example. What a satisfactory and consoling reflection was it for us, that from this fountain the sacred waters of gladness and glory had flowed; ... that to the persevering spirit of this country it was owing that other nations were at last animated to deeds worthy of the cause in which they were engaged, and of the example which was set them!”

Lord Liverpool rejoiced that on this great occasion a spirit of unanimity prevailed in the British parliament. “We had seen,” he said, “during the preceding twenty years, coalitions whose size promised strength, crushed by the power of the enemy: what was it then which had given this irresistible impulse to the present? The feeling of national independence, that feeling which first arose in the Peninsula, gave the war a new character, and afforded grounds to hope not only for the deliverance of that country, but of the rest of Europe. There had before been wars of governments, but none like this between nations; and all our principles of policy and prudence must have been belied if the issue of the present confederacy had not been very different from that of any of the former ones. They had before them examples of perseverance unexampled in any other cause than that of liberty; they had seen the least military nations of Europe become formidable, and successfully resist the best disciplined troops of France. Small as Portugal was, the establishment of the Portugueze army had been of the greatest consequence, as the foundation of the success of the allied armies in the Peninsula; and as it gave, in addition to the general national feeling, a military tone, under the influence of which the Portugueze troops have been raised to an equality with the British. He was advancing no paradox, but a truth which was felt and admitted on the continent, when he said that the success of the peninsular cause gave new life to the suffering nations of Europe.”

This theme was pursued in the House of Commons with great eloquence by Mr. Charles Grant. “If,” said he, “we had shown a dastardly spirit at the commencement of these troubles, where now would have been the deliverance of Europe? There will be no prouder page in history than that which tells of this struggle and its victorious result, ... which tells that at a time when the foundations of the world seemed to be shaken, when all former constitutions were swept away, rather as if by a sudden whirlwind than by any of the ordinary means of destruction, ... there was yet one nation, which, reposing under the shade of a happy constitution, proud of its ancient liberties and worthy to defend them, dared to measure its strength at one time against the unnatural energies of a frantic democracy, at another time against the gigantic resources of the most tremendous despotism that ever scourged the world. If, after this narration, history were obliged to add that in this struggle at last we fell, but that we fell gloriously, with our arms in our hands and our faces to the foe, even this would have been no mean praise: but, thank God, history will be called, not to lament the fall of British greatness, but to celebrate its renewed exploits and its living triumphs.... It is to the theatre of these triumphs, it is to that soil which but lately seemed incapable of producing a single effort, that the moralist of after-ages will resort for examples when he denounces the fall of unhallowed greatness. There too will the patriot look for lessons of enthusiasm and disinterested virtue; and this is the glorious feature of the present war. I have heard it observed of America, that her conduct has dispelled those classical associations which we have been accustomed to indulge of republican virtue and republican excellence. The remark was not more eloquently than justly made. But if we are obliged to give up that class of associations, I perceive with exultation that there is another which we may now cherish with additional fondness; I mean, those associations which enforce the belief of instinctive patriotism, of unbidden enthusiasm in the cause of virtue, of the grandeur of self-devotion, of the magnanimity of great sacrifices for great objects, for honour, for independence. We must all recollect with what delight we imbibed these sentiments at the fountains of classical learning, and followed them out into action in the history of great men and illustrious states. But of late there seems to have crept into this nation a sort of spurious and barren philosophy, of which it was the object to decry these associations, to represent them as the illusions of ignorance, or frenzy, or falsehood, to curb the original play of nature, to inculcate coldness and selfishness upon system, and to substitute in the place of all that formed the delight of a higher philosophy, a spirit of lazy deliberation, conducted by apathy, and ending therefore in meanness and dishonour. It was this philosophy which taught that it is not only more prudent, but more conformable to the laws of our being, for every man in time of danger to reason before he followed the promptings of true courage; to make it a matter of calculation whether his country be worth saving before he draws the sword in her defence; to reduce it to a question of algebra, or a problem in geometry, whether he should resist the efforts of tyranny, or bow before the yoke! The sleep which seemed to have spread over Europe gave too much countenance to these pernicious maxims; but the hour has at length come which has exposed their fallacy, and rescued human nature from such calumnies. The experience of the few last years has confuted that heartless and bloodless system, the miserable abortion of a cold head and depraved imagination, which never wakened one noble thought, nor inspired one generous action. The experience of the few last years has proved that those high sentiments which we were taught to respect are not false and visionary; but that they are founded upon whatever is deepest and purest in the human character. It has proved that true reason is never at war with just feeling; that man is now what he was in those distant ages, ... a creature born indeed to act upon principle, but born also to act upon strong passions; and that he never acts more nobly, more wisely, more worthily of himself, than when he acts upon the prompt persuasion of grand passions, sublimed and directed by lofty principles.”

Even Mr. Whitbread felt it necessary to say, that the proud exultation which then was manifested throughout the nation was hailed by no one, in the House or in the country, with more enthusiastic feelings than by himself; and that he gave credit to the ministry, and to him who was at the head of it, till cut off by the dreadful deed which every one deplored, “for the great and steady confidence which they had placed in the talents and genius of our great commander,” ... that confidence for which Mr. Whitbread and the party with whom he acted had so often, so confidently, and so contemptuously reproached them! He insisted, however, that the deliverance of Europe had not been brought about by following Mr. Pitt’s policy; and that if the counsels of Mr. Fox had been listened to, the carnage of the present campaign would not have been necessary. “And,” said he, “I am particularly glad to observe the explicit terms of the Prince Regent’s speech, in which it is distinctly avowed that no disposition is entertained to require from France sacrifices of any description inconsistent with her honour or just pretensions as a nation. I sincerely hope this feeling pervades the whole alliance; an alliance with which I am not inclined to quarrel, as I have been with former ones, for it is promoted and cemented by a feeling of common danger and necessity, and not purchased and raised up to oppress France. It has arisen from the keen and indignant sentiment which the grinding oppression of France herself has excited; and it holds out a memorable lesson to the governments of Europe. France, in the course of her career since the revolution, disturbed and overthrew the ancient monarchies, upon the pretext of their tyranny and despotism; but when those states passed under the power of France, who was to liberate them, they found themselves subjected to a despotism still more odious, to a thraldom still more insupportable. The Emperor of that country is now in a condition to which, I firmly believe, nothing but his own restless and gigantic ambition could have reduced him: I hope the alliance will profit from this. I do not pretend to know what were the terms proposed to France before the termination of the armistice; but I sincerely hope that now, in the moment of success, the same terms will still be offered.” ... At this there was a general murmur through the House.... “I am not surprised,” he continued, “at hearing this murmur: perhaps I am misunderstood. What I mean to say is, and that I will maintain, that whatever terms may have been proposed to France at that time, as a basis upon which negotiations for peace might take place, I hope the same basis will now be offered, ... or else I see no conclusion to which the war can come.”

Mr. Canning was not present during this debate, but he took the first opportunity that presented itself for delivering his sentiments. “If,” said he, “in the present state of this country and of the world, those who, during the course of the tremendous and protracted struggle, on various occasions, called upon Parliament to pause, to retard its too rapid and too rash advance, and to draw back from the task it had unwisely undertaken to perform, ... if those persons have manfully and honourably stepped forward to join their congratulations to the joyful acclamations of the nation, and to admit the present to be the period favourable for a mighty and decided effort, how much more grateful must it be to those who, at no time during the struggle, have lifted up their voices in this place, excepting to recommend and to urge new exertions, ... to those who, when the prospects were most dreary and melancholy, insisted that there was but one course becoming the character and honour of Great Britain, ... a persevering and undaunted resistance to the overwhelming power of France! To an individual who, under the most discouraging circumstances, still maintained that the deliverance of Europe (often a derided term) was an object not only worthy of our arms, but possible to be achieved, it must be doubly welcome to come forward and vindicate his share in the national exultation. If, too, on the other hand, there have been those who, having recommended pacification when the opportunity was less favourable, are now warranted, as undoubtedly they are, in uttering the same sentiments, in the confidence that the country will sympathize with them, it is natural for those who, under other circumstances, have discouraged the expectation of peace, and have warned the nation against precipitate overtures, now to be anxious to embrace this occasion of stating their sincere conviction and their joy (as strongly felt by them as by others) that, by the happy course of events during the last year, and by the wise policy we shall now pursue, peace may not, perhaps, be within our grasp, but is at least within our view. It is impossible to look back upon those times when the enemy vaunted, and we perhaps feared, that we should have been compelled to sue for peace, without, amid all the ebullition of joy, returning thanks to that Providence which gave us courage and heart still to bear up against accumulating calamity. Peace is safe now, because it is not dictated; peace is safe now, for it is the fruit of exertion, the child of victory; peace is safe now, because it will not be purchased at the expense of the interest and of the honour of the empire: it is not the ransom to buy off danger, but the fruit of the mighty means which we have employed to drive danger from our shores. I must, with heartfelt delight, congratulate my country, that, groaning as she has done at former periods under the heavy pressure of adverse war, still ‘peace was despaired of, for who could think of submission?’ Her strength, her endurance have been tried and proved by every mode of assault that the most refined system of hostility could invent, not only by open military attacks, but by low attempts to destroy her commercial prosperity: the experiment has been made, the experiment has failed; and we are now triumphantly, but not arrogantly, to consider what measures of security should be adopted, or on what terms a peace should be concluded. “But has this country gained nothing by the glorious contest, even supposing peace should be far distant? Is it nothing to Great Britain, even purchased at so large a price, that her military character has been exalted? Is it no satisfaction ... no compensation to her ... to reflect that the splendid scenes displayed on the continent are owing to her efforts? that the victories of Germany are to be attributed to our victories in the Peninsula? That spark, often feeble, and sometimes so nearly extinguished as to excite despair in all hearts that were not above it, ... that spark which was lighted in Portugal, which was fed and nourished there, has at length burst into a flame that has dazzled and illuminated Europe. At the commencement of this war, our empire rested upon one majestic column, our naval power. In the prosecution of the war, a hero has raised another stupendous pillar of strength to support our monarchy, ... our military pre-eminence. It is now that we may boast not only of superiority at sea, but on shore; the same energy and heroism exist in both the arms of Great Britain: they are rivals in strength, but inseparable in glory. Out of the calamities of war has arisen a principle of safety, that superior to all attacks, shall survive through ages, and to which our posterity shall look forward. Compare the situation of England with her condition at the renewal of the war! Were we not then threatened by the aggressions of an enemy even upon our own shores, ... were we not then trembling for the safety and sanctity even of our homes? Now contemplate Wellington encamped on the Bidassoa! I know that a sickly sensibility leads some to doubt whether the advance of Lord Wellington was not rash and precipitate. I cannot enter into that refinement which induces those who affect to know much to hesitate upon this subject: I cannot look with regret upon a British army encamped upon the fertile plains of France: I cannot believe that any new grounds for apprehension are raised by an additional excitement being afforded to the irritability of the French people: I foresee no disadvantage from entering the territories of our enemy not as the conquered but the conquerors! I cannot regret that the Portugueze are now looking upon the walls of Bayonne ‘that circle in those wolves’ which would have devastated their capital, ... that the Portugueze now behold planted on the towers of Bayonne the standard which their enemy would have made to float upon the walls of Lisbon! I cannot think it a matter of regret, that the Spaniards are now recovering from the grasp of an enemy on his own shores, that diadem which was stripped from the brow of the Bourbons to be pocketed by a usurper! I cannot think it a matter of regret that England formerly threatened with invasion is now the invader, ... that France instead of England is the scene of conflict! I cannot think all this matter of regret; and of those who believe that the nation or myself are blinded by our successes, I entreat that they will leave me to my delusion, and keep their philosophy to themselves.

“Our enemy,” the accomplished orator pursued, “who enslaved the press and made it contribute so importantly to his own purposes of ambition, endeavoured to impress upon other nations a belief that Great Britain fought only to secure her own interests, and that her views were completely selfish. That illusion is now destroyed, and the designs of this country are vindicated. We call on all the powers with whom we have been or are at war to do us justice in this respect: above all we claim it of America! I ask her to review her own and the policy of this country. Now she can behold Buonaparte in his naked deformity, stripped of the false glory which success cast around him; the spell of his invincibility is now dissolved; she can now look at him without that awe which an uninterrupted series of victories had created. Were she now to survey him as he is, what would be the result? She would trace him by the desolation of empires, and the dismemberment of states. She would see him pursuing his course over the ruins of men and of things: slavery to the people and destruction to commerce, hostility to literature, to light, and life, were the principles upon which he acted. His object was to extinguish patriotism, and to confound allegiance; to darken as well as to enslave; to roll back the tide of civilization; to barbarize as well as to desolate mankind. Then let America turn from these scenes of bloodshed and horror, and compare with them the effect of British interference! She will see that wherever this country has exerted herself, it has been to raise the fallen and to support the falling; to raise, not to degrade the national character; to rouse the sentiments of patriotism which tyranny had silenced; to enlighten, to reanimate, to liberate. Great Britain has resuscitated Spain, and re-created Portugal; Germany is now a nation as well as a name; and all these glorious effects have been produced by the efforts and by the example of our country. If to be the deliverers of Europe; if to have raised our own national character, not upon the ruins of other kingdoms; if to meet dangers without shrinking, and to possess courage rising with difficulties, be admirable, surely we may not unreasonably hope for the applause of the world. If we have founded our strength upon a rock, and possess the implicit confidence of those allies whom we have succoured when they seemed beyond relief, then I say that our exertions during the last year, and all our efforts during the war, are cheaply purchased; if we have burdened ourselves, we have relieved others; and we have the inward, the soul-felt, the proud satisfaction of knowing that a selfish charge is that which, with the faintest shadow of justice, cannot be brought against us.”

This speech was wormwood to Mr. Whitbread; he animadverted in reply upon what he termed the overweening self-complacency with which Mr. Canning talked of the share we had had in giving a decisive turn to the aspect of affairs in the North; it was the conduct of this country, he asserted, which had enabled Buonaparte to proceed as he had done in his unprincipled career: Great Britain had made Buonaparte, and he had undone himself. “If there were no broad and definite outline previously laid down,” he said, “and firmly adhered to, as to the demands on the part of the allies, or the concessions on that of France, which were to form the groundwork of a general peace, he would venture to predict that before long some one or other of the allies would make a separate treaty founded on its own views or interests. And if we attempted blindly to push our advantages too far, he feared we should rouse the same irresistible power in France which in 1793 had repelled the combined attacks of all Europe, which had since led on the Emperor of the French to his conquests, and which might again turn the tide of success against us.”

In pursuance of these opinions, Mr. Whitbread, when a bill was brought in for allowing three-fourths of any militia regiment to volunteer for foreign service, moved to insert in the preamble to the bill, that this was for bringing the war to a speedy and happy termination, and obtaining the blessings of peace upon terms of reciprocity, honour, and security, to all the belligerent powers. What he meant by reciprocity between some of those powers he would have found it difficult to explain; ... but the proposed insertion was negatived as unnecessary, and Mr. Whitbread neither opposed the bill, nor the supplies voted for carrying into effect the engagements of this nation with its ?Lord Holland. Dec. 20.? allies. Lord Holland approved of the confidence which was thus placed in ministers. “Although,” he said, “great part of the happy results of this war might be justly attributed to a powerful popular impulse, and to that infatuation on the part of the enemy, which, thank God, always attended the long abuse of power, ... yet it must be felt that a great deal of the merit is to be attributed to the conduct of the government of this country. If the sentiments of an individual,” he pursued, “are of consequence enough to arrest your attention, it must be in your Lordships’ recollection that I always approved of the interposition and interference of ministers in the cause of Spain. The merit of such policy appears, and ever has appeared to my judgment, quite indisputable, and must now indeed be universally admitted; for, aided by the uncommon genius of Lord Wellington, that policy has produced the most important results. It has driven the enemy from that country which he had so long and so unremittingly oppressed. It has presented a most encouraging and impressive example to Europe of what a people excited by oppression were capable of achieving. It has changed the whole character of the war, by making it a war of the people. But a still farther advantage has arisen out of this policy. A most atrocious calumny had become current in Europe, that the government of this country was always ready to distribute its subsidies with a view to embroil the nations of the continent, while it kept its own people aloof from the contest. No such impression can ever again prevail in Europe. The calumny has been effectually refuted by the policy we have pursued with respect to Spain; for there we have not only given our money but our men; there we have given our money, not to excite the people but to enable them to act, and we have seconded their exertions by a powerful army.

“In declaring my approbation of ministers in consequence of their moderate language and conduct, that approbation is, of course, founded upon a hope and confidence, that the very different language which appears in certain publications has in no degree their sanction or countenance. Sounding a violent and barbarous war-whoop through the country, abounding in coarse, vulgar, virulent epithets, these publications complete their abominable character by excitements to assassination. Although the French ruler has rendered himself so odious by his conduct, yet it must be admitted that he is a great military commander, still at the head of a great nation; and is it fitting that the press of this country should become the means of advising the assassination of such a man, ... nay, of exhorting to the deed? and what else can be meant by the repeated declaration, that no peace can be concluded while this individual lives? The French ruler is no doubt ambitious, inordinately ambitious; but if it were resolved that no peace should be made with France while it was under the government of an ambitious man, when, I would ask, could peace be expected? The meaning, however, of all the publications I have referred to, may be to recommend the restoration of the Bourbon family; but the attempt at such a measure would be totally inconsistent with the professed moderation and policy of ministers. That restoration might be good; but it would be preposterous to look for the success of such an object through the intervention of foreign armies; and it would be opposite to the policy and principle of ministers to engage in any such undertaking.”

Alluding then to the just remark of Lord Grenville, that one great advantage resulting from the recent changes on the continent was, that it afforded an opportunity for restoring the balance of power, “I must be allowed,” said Lord Holland, “to say, that the re-establishment and maintenance of that balance can never consist in, nor depend upon, particular divisions of territory, so much as upon the existence of a general feeling among the European states, that it is the interest of each to preserve the independence of each and all. Such is the feeling which gave birth and cement to the present confederacy; and therefore I wish that such a confederacy may continue to exist in peace as well as in war. I esteem the principle of this confederacy, because it appears solicitous to preserve the interest of all, without gratifying the peculiar interest of any one; and upon that principle I would rather leave France with such possessions as should make her feel an interest in the common object of the confederacy, than transfer from her to any other state any possessions which might be likely to withdraw that state from the general feeling which it is the interest of peace and Europe to improve and strengthen.”

It was well for Great Britain and for the continent that Buonaparte was not contented with such terms of peace as the allies, with a generosity which had neither the character of wisdom nor of justice, would a little before this have granted him. Even when he had been driven over the Rhine, they would, according to their own declaration, have left France more powerful than she had ever been under her kings, if he would have consented to give up Italy. Out of Germany and out of the Peninsula he had been beaten; but they would have allowed France to remain with the whole of the Netherlands, and with the Rhine for her boundary, if vain-glory and a blind confidence in his fortune had not still demented Buonaparte. But he declared that he would not under any circumstances abandon Italy; and they who ought not, under any circumstances, now to have negotiated with him, prepared to enter France. On his part he collected the largest force that that exhausted country could supply, to resist the impending invasion; and as it thus became an object of great importance for him to bring to his assistance Suchet’s army, and the troops who were shut up in the remaining garrisons in Valencia and Catalonia, he thought this might be effected by dictating a treaty to ?Buonaparte treats with Ferdinand.? his prisoner, Ferdinand. Accordingly he sent the Comte de Laforest to ValenÇay, to negotiate with that poor Prince, saying, that under the existing circumstances of his empire and his policy, he wished at once to settle the affairs of Spain; that England was encouraging Jacobinism and anarchy there, for the purpose of destroying the nobility and the monarchy, and erecting a republic; that he could not but grievously feel the destruction of a neighbouring state, connected by so many maritime and commercial interests with his own; that he desired to remove every pretext for English interference, and to re-establish those ties of friendship and good neighbourhood by which Spain and France had been so long connected; and therefore he had sent the Comte de Laforest under a feigned name, to whom his Royal Highness might give entire credit in all that he should propose.

The Comte accordingly presented himself under the name of M. Dubois, in order that the negotiation might be kept secret, because, if the English were to discover, they would use every means for frustrating it. The Emperor, he represented, had done all he could in Bayonne to accommodate the differences which then existed between father and son; but the English had marred every thing; they had introduced Jacobinism into Spain, where the land was laid waste, religion destroyed, the clergy ruined, the nobility crushed, the marine existing only in name, the colonies dismembered and in insurrection, and, in fine, everything overthrown. Those islanders desired nothing but to change the monarchy into a republic; and yet, to deceive the people, they put the name of his Royal Highness at the head of all their public acts. Moved by these calamities, and by the lamentations of all good Spaniards, the Emperor had chosen him for this important mission, because of his long experience, for he had been more than forty years in the diplomatic career, and had resided in every court; but, as there were so many persons who knew him, he requested that the Spanish princes on their part would contribute to keep the affair secret. Ferdinand had at this time none with whom to consult, except his brother and his uncle, who were both as inexperienced in business as himself. He replied, that so unexpected a proposition required much reflection; he must have time for considering it, and would let him know the result. Laforest, without waiting for this, obtained an audience on the following day, and then said, that if his Majesty accepted the kingdom of Spain, which the Emperor wished to restore to him, they must concert means for getting the English out of that country. To this Ferdinand replied, that he could make no treaty, considering the circumstances in which he was placed at ValenÇay, and indeed could take no measures without the consent of the nation, as represented by the Regency. The old diplomatist made answer, it certainly was not the intention of the Emperor that his Majesty should do the slightest thing which might be contrary to the wish of Spain; but in this case it would be necessary that he should find means of ascertaining it. Ferdinand then said that, during five years and a half, for so long he had been absent from his own country, he had known nothing more of the state of affairs than what he read in the French newspapers. Those papers, Laforest affirmed, exhibited the true state of things; and he made a speech of some length to prove what Ferdinand was not so devoid of penetration as to believe. He concluded in words to this effect: “He who is born to a kingdom has no will of his own; he must be a king, and is not like a private individual, free to choose for himself that way of life which he may think most agreeable. And where is he who, when a kingdom is offered him, would not instantly accept it? Yet, withal, if he who should be a king were to say, ‘I renounce all dignity from this time, and, far from seeking honours, desire only to lead a private life;’ in that case the affair becomes of a different kind. If, therefore, your Royal Highness is in this predicament, the Emperor must have recourse to other means; but if, as I cannot but believe, your Royal Highness thinks of receiving the sceptre, the indispensable preliminary must be to settle the principal bases of the negotiation upon which afterwards to treat, and for this purpose to appoint a Spaniard, one of those who are at this time in France.” Ferdinand calmly replied that this required consideration. Upon this Laforest observed, that when a kingdom was to be received, there was not much to consider, reasons of state being the sole rule of conduct. But Ferdinand made answer, that he was far from agreeing with him in that maxim; it was his belief that nothing required greater consideration, and he would take time to deliberate upon it.

Ferdinand could not have acted with better judgment at this time, if he had had the ablest statesmen to advise him. In fact, the straight course was the sure one; for, though he had been kept in complete ignorance of all recent events, the very circumstance of this proposal was proof sufficient that Buonaparte’s fortune had failed, and that his motive for giving up his pretensions to Spain was that he was no longer able to support them. On the morrow, he said to the ambassador that, having maturely reflected upon what had been proposed, he must repeat that he could do nothing, and treat of nothing, in his present situation, without consulting with the nation, and of course with the Regency. “The Emperor,” said he, “has placed me here; and if he chooses that I should return to Spain, he it is who must consult and treat with the Regency, because he has means of doing this, and I have not; or he must afford me means, and consent that a deputation from the Regency should come hither, and inform me concerning the state of Spain, and propose to me measures for rendering it happy: any thing which I may then conclude here with his Imperial Majesty will be valid. And it is the more necessary that such a deputation should come, because there is no person in France whom I could fitly employ in this affair.” Laforest replied at some length, endeavouring to persuade him that the English and Portugueze governed Spain, and that their intention was to place the house of Braganza upon the Spanish throne, beginning with his sister, the Princess of Brazil. He also pressed Ferdinand to declare whether, when he returned to Spain, he meant to be the friend or the enemy of the Emperor? This was presuming upon the weakness of the person whom he addressed; but Ferdinand was not wanting in presence of mind on this occasion. “I esteem the Emperor highly,” he replied, “but I never will do any thing that may be injurious to my people and their welfare; and upon this point I now finally declare that nothing shall make me alter my determination. If the Emperor chooses that I should return to Spain, let him treat with the Regency, and when that is done, and I am assured of it, I will sign the treaty; but for this it will be necessary that a deputation should come here and inform me of every thing. Report this to the Emperor, and tell him, also, that this is what my conscience dictates to me.”

Ferdinand expressed himself to the same effect in a letter, which on the morrow he delivered into Laforest’s hands. “I am still under the protection of your Imperial Majesty,” he added, “and still profess the same love and respect of which you have had so many proofs. If your Majesty’s system of policy, and the actual circumstances of your empire, will not allow of your conforming to this course, I shall then remain quietly and willingly at ValenÇay, where I have now passed five years and a half, and where I shall remain for the rest of my life, if God has so appointed it. It is painful to me, Sire, to speak in this manner to your Majesty, but conscience compels me to it. I have as much interest for the English as for the French, but, nevertheless, I must prefer the interest and happiness of my own nation to every thing. Your Imperial and Royal Majesty will see, I hope, in this nothing more than a new proof of my ingenuous sincerity, and of the affection which I bear towards you. If I should promise any thing to your Majesty, and afterwards be obliged to act in opposition to it, what would you think of me? you would say that I am inconstant, and you would despise me, and dishonour me with all Europe.”

When Laforest received this letter from Ferdinand, he observed, that his Royal Highness desired nothing but what was very just; but he asked whether he designed to treat with the Emperor before he had consulted with the Regency, or after? if after, it would occasion much delay; if before, when the business was once concluded with the Emperor, the Regency would instantly do whatever he thought fit. But if his intention in returning to Spain was to continue the war with France, the Emperor would choose rather to keep him in his power, and carry on the war upon its present footing. Ferdinand replied, that surely either the ambassador had not understood him, or he himself must have failed in expressing himself with sufficient clearness. “My declarations,” he pursued, “amount to this, that I marry myself to neither power. If the interest of Spain requires that I should be the friend of the French, I will be so; but if it requires that I should be the friend of the English, their friend I shall be; and, finally, if this should not suit the Emperor, the Infantes and I will remain well pleased where we are at ValenÇay. In acting thus I do no otherwise ?Escoiquiz, Idea Sencilla, &c., pp. 83, 100.? than the Emperor himself would do were he in my place3.” From this resolution Ferdinand was not to be dissuaded, and Laforest accordingly returned with this reply.

Upon his return, Buonaparte dispatched the Duque de S. Carlos to ValenÇay to negotiate, on Ferdinand’s part, with Laforest; and a treaty was easily concluded to this effect, that the Emperor of the French recognized Ferdinand and his successors as Kings of Spain and of the Indies, according to the order established by the fundamental laws of Spain; and that he recognized the integrity of the Spanish territory as it existed before the war, and would deliver up to the Spaniards such provinces and fortified places as the French still occupied in Spain: Ferdinand obliging himself, on his part, to maintain the same integrity, and that also of the adjacent isles and fortified places, and especially Minorca and Ceuta; and to make the English evacuate those provinces and places, the evacuation by the French and English being to be made simultaneously. The two contracting powers bound themselves to maintain the independence of their maritime rights, as had been stipulated in the treaty of Utrecht, and observed till the year 1792. All Spaniards who had adhered to King Joseph were to re-enter upon the honours, rights, and privileges which they had enjoyed, and all the property of which they might have been deprived should be restored to them; and to such as might choose to live out of Spain, ten years should be allowed for disposing of their possessions. Prisoners on both sides were to be sent home, and also the garrison of Pamplona, and the prisoners at Cadiz, CoruÑa, the Mediterranean islands, or any other depÔt which might have been delivered to the English, ... whether they were in Spain, or had been sent to America or to England. Ferdinand bound himself to pay an annual sum of thirty millions of reales to Charles IV., his father, and, in case of his death, an annuity of two millions to the Queen, his widow. Finally, a treaty of commerce was to be formed between the two nations, and till this could be done, their commercial relations were to be placed upon the same footing as before the war of 1792.

The next step was to notify this treaty to the actual government of Spain. Accordingly Ferdinand addressed a letter to the Regency, being the first communication which he had been permitted to hold with his own country since his entrapment. “Divine Providence,” he said, “which in its inscrutable wisdom had permitted him to pass from the palace of Madrid to that of ValenÇay, had granted to him the blessings of health and strength, and the consolation of never having been for a moment separated from his beloved brother and uncle, the Infantes, Don Carlos and Don Antonio. They had experienced in that palace a noble hospitality; their way of life had been as agreeable as it could be under such circumstances; and he had employed his time in the manner most suitable to his new condition. The only intelligence which he had heard of his beloved Spain was what the French gazettes supplied; these had given him some knowledge of the sacrifices which the nation had made for him; of the magnanimous and unalterable constancy manifested by his faithful vassals, of the persevering assistance of England, the admirable conduct of its general-in-chief, Lord Wellington, and of the Spanish and allied generals who had distinguished themselves. The English ministry had publicly declared their readiness to admit propositions of peace, founded upon his restitution; nevertheless, the miseries of his kingdom still continued. He was in this state of passive but vigilant observation, when the Emperor of the French spontaneously made proposals to him, founded upon his restitution, and the integrity and independence of his dominions, without any clause which would not be compatible with the honour and glory and interest of the Spanish nation. Being persuaded that Spain could not, after the most successful and protracted war, conclude a more advantageous peace, he had authorized the Duque de S. Carlos to negotiate in his name with the Comte de Laforest, whom the Emperor Napoleon had nominated as plenipotentiary on the part of France; and he had now appointed the Duque to carry this treaty to the Regency, in proof of the confidence which he reposed in them, that they might ratify it in their usual manner, and send it back to him after this necessary form without loss of time. How satisfactory,” he concluded, “is it for me to stop the effusion of blood, and to see the end of so many evils! and how do I long to return and live among a people, who have given the universe an example of the purest loyalty, and of the noblest and most generous character!”

This letter seemed to leave the Regency no power of deliberation, but simply to require that they should ratify the treaty. But in fact, Ferdinand, if he had any such wish, had no such expectation; and he had penetration enough to see that the course of events which had compelled Buonaparte to treat with him upon such terms, must in their consequences restore him to his kingdom; even though the Regency should, as he supposed, refuse to ratify it, because of their engagement with the allied powers. He gave the Duque, therefore, ?Secret instructions from Ferdinand.? secret verbal instructions to inquire into the spirit of the Regency and the Cortes; and if he should find them loyal and well affected to his royal person, ... not, as he suspected, tainted with infidelity and Jacobinism, ... he was then to let the Regency know, but in the greatest confidence, his royal intention that the treaty should be ratified, if it could be done without injury to the good faith which Spain owed to the allied powers, or to the public weal; but that he was far from requiring this if it were otherwise. Should the Regency be of opinion, that without compromising these points, the treaty might be ratified, upon an understanding with England temporarily, and until his return to Spain should in consequence be effected, upon the supposition that he, without whose free approbation it could not be complete, would not ratify it when at liberty, but would declare it to have been constrained and null, and moreover as being injurious to the nation; in that case he wished them so to ratify it, because the French could not reasonably reproach him, if, having acquired information concerning the state of Spain, which had been withheld from him in his captivity, he should refuse to confirm it. But if the Duque should discover that the spirit of Jacobinism prevailed in the Regency and the Cortes, he was then simply to require that the treaty should be ratified; for this would ?Escoiquiz, 108–10.? not prevent the King from continuing the war after his return, if the interest and good faith of the nation should so require. This intention, however, was to be kept profoundly secret, lest, through any treachery, it should be made known to the French government.

With these instructions the Duque departed, travelling under the assumed name of DucÓs, that his mission might not be suspected. Laforest remained at ValenÇay, still under a false name, and keeping out of sight, in the same part of the castle which Ferdinand and the Infantes inhabited; and before the Duque’s departure, Don Pedro de Macanaz was sent thither by Buonaparte to continue the conferences with this diplomatist. However much the Regency, or rather the Cortes (for the Regency was now the mere organ of its pleasure) might be surprised when the treaty was communicated to them, they were not unprovided ?Jan. 8.? for such an event. The Regency accordingly expressed in reply their joy upon seeing the King’s signature, and being assured of his good health, and of that of the Infantes, and of the noble sentiments which he cherished for his dear Spain. “If,” they said, “they could but ill express their own satisfaction, still less could they the joy of that noble and magnanimous people who had sworn fidelity to him; nor the sacrifices which they had made, were making, and still would make, till they should see him placed upon the throne of love and justice which they had prepared for him: they must content themselves with declaring to his Majesty that he was the beloved and the desired of the whole nation. It was their duty to put him in possession of a decree passed by the Cortes on the 1st of January, 1811; so doing, they were excused from making the slightest observation upon the treaty, in which his Majesty had the most authentic proof that the sacrifices made by the Spaniards for the recovery of his royal person had not been made in vain. And they congratulated him upon seeing that the day was now near when they should enjoy the inexpressible happiness of delivering up to him the royal authority which they had preserved for him in faithful deposit during his captivity.” The decree which accompanied this letter was that by which the Cortes enacted that no treaty which the King might conclude during his restraint and captivity should be recognized by Spain.

Some delay had taken place in the Duque de S. Carlos’s journey, owing to the removal of the Cortes from Cadiz to Madrid just at that time. In the interim, Buonaparte, who was now as desirous to withdraw his troops from the Peninsula as, in evil hour for himself, he had once been of introducing them there, sought to accelerate that object. He released Zayas and Palafox, who had been kept close prisoners at Vincennes, and sent them to ValenÇay. Escoiquiz soon followed them; and Laforest proposed that orders should be given by the Regency, immediately after the ratification, for a general suspension of hostilities, humanity requiring that all useless expenditure of blood should be avoided. The Emperor, he said, had appointed Marshal Suchet his commissioner for executing that part of the treaty which related to evacuating the fortresses; and it now depended upon the Spanish government alone to expedite this business, and effect the release of prisoners; the generals and officers should proceed by post to their own country, and the soldiers be delivered upon the frontier as fast as they arrived there. This being assented to by Macanaz and Escoiquiz, ?Palafox sent to the Regency. Dec. 23.? on Ferdinand’s part, it was determined that Palafox should be sent to communicate it to the Regency, bearing with him a duplicate of the Duque’s commission, in case any accident might have happened to him upon the way; and also a letter in which Ferdinand expressed his persuasion that the Regency had by this time ratified the treaty. But Palafox had secret instructions to see the English ambassador at Madrid, express to him how grateful the King felt for the exertions of the British government in his favour, and communicate to him, in secrecy, the King’s real intention in thus negotiating with Buonaparte, in order that that government, far from resenting such a proceeding, should contribute to its fulfilment. The ?Reply of the Spanish government. 1814.
Jan. 28.? Regency replied to this second communication by referring to their former reply; they added, that “an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary had now been named, on his Majesty’s part, for a congress in which the allies were about to give peace to Europe. In that congress, they said, the treaty would be concluded; and it would be ratified not by the Regency, but by his Majesty himself, in his own royal palace of Madrid, whither he would be restored to occupy, in the most absolute liberty, a throne rendered illustrious by the heroic sacrifices of the Spaniards, and by his own sublime virtues. And they expressed their satisfaction in the thought that they should soon deliver up to his Majesty the authority wherewith they were intrusted, ... a charge of such weight that it could rest only upon the robust shoulders of a monarch who, by re-establishing the Cortes, had restored to freedom an enslaved people, and driven the ferocious monster, Despotism, from the throne of Spain.”

The Spanish government would have acted thus far prudently in its communication with Ferdinand, if it had abstained from this empty language: but the Liberales, as the ruling party called themselves, were, some, vain of their talents, others confident in the uprightness of their intentions, and all alike ignorant of their weakness. If the abler leaders of this party had not proceeded so far as they desired and perhaps designed, they were yet conscious that they had proceeded farther than their functions warranted and than Ferdinand would sanction. They held, therefore, a secret sitting of the Cortes, and deliberated upon the measures to be taken in case the King should pass the frontiers. It was proposed, by a commission appointed to report upon this emergency, that he should not be considered as being free, nor should obedience be rendered him, until he should have sworn to the Constitution in the bosom of the Cortes; that the Generals on the frontiers should send expresses to the government with all speed, as soon as they obtained any tidings of his probable coming; that if he were accompanied by any armed force, that force should be repulsed, according to the laws of war; should it consist of Spaniards, they were to lay down their arms, and those who had been carried prisoners into France licensed to return each to his home; whatever General might have the honour of receiving the King being to supply him with a guard suitable to his royal dignity and person. No foreigner should be allowed to accompany him, not even as a domestic or servant; no Spaniard who had filled any office, received any pension, or accepted any honour from Buonaparte or from the Intruder. The Regency should be charged to fix the route by which the King should proceed to Madrid; and the President of the Regency, as soon as he arrived in Spain, should set out to meet and accompany him with a proper retinue, and present him with a copy of the Constitution, that so his Majesty, having made himself acquainted therewith, might, upon full deliberation and with entire consent, take the oath which it prescribed. Having reached the capital, he should proceed straight to the Cortes, there to take the said oath, with all the ceremonies and solemnities enjoined: this done, thirty Members of that assembly should attend him to the palace, where the Regency should resign the government into his hands; on the same day the Cortes should prepare a decree for making known to the nation the solemn act by which, and in virtue of the oath which he should then have sworn, the King had been constitutionally placed upon the throne; and this decree should be presented to the King by a deputation, that it might be published with all due formalities. The opinion of the Council of State upon this proposition was required within four-and-twenty hours.

The Council was of opinion that the King ought not to exercise any authority till he should have taken the oath before the Cortes. They thought that a deputation should be appointed to meet him, and inform him concerning the state of affairs and of public opinion, both as to the eternal and sworn hatred of Napoleon, and the observance of the Constitution. One member of the Council advised that the deputation should consist of members of the Cortes, two of whom in rotation should accompany the King in his coach till he arrived at the palace; and also that all the soldiers who had been prisoners in France should be detained upon the frontier, and all the King’s attendants also, till they should have taken the oath. “It must be believed,” said the Council, “that if Napoleon sends Ferdinand to Spain, it can only be for the purpose of laying a new snare for us, and making him the instrument of his iniquitous schemes, and rendering him, perhaps, odious to a nation which now longs for his presence, ... it must be with the design of fomenting a civil war, in which he may be entrapped, seduced, and compelled to take a part; that the attention of the allies may thus be distracted, and the progress of their operations be delayed. Now, therefore, more than ever Spain stands in need of that energy which hitherto she has displayed against the common enemy; now it is that she must manifest to the King how much she has done for his sake, and how much she loves him; but at the same time how much she loves the Constitution, and abhors the tyrannical disturber of the world. And, therefore, it is now more than ever of importance that efforts should be redoubled for maintaining our armies upon a good footing, and co-operating more effectually for the destruction of that monster.”

In this transaction Buonaparte acted towards Ferdinand with good faith, because he had no interest in acting otherwise; so he could extricate his garrisons he cared not now what might become of Spain. Ferdinand conducted himself with as much prudence and as little duplicity as could be expected in his situation. The Liberales miscalculated their strength; their measures implied a distrust of the King; and if he inferred from their language, that, under all its professions of respectful and affectionate loyalty, a defiance was couched there in case he should hesitate to recognise the new order of things, he was not mistaken in its purport and intent.