During the night of November 8th, the Imperial quarters were removed from Vittoria to Miranda. Next day the whole army of the centre, of which our hussars formed a part, commenced its march under the command of Napoleon himself. We were to make a determined attempt upon Burgos, where the centre of the Spaniards was stationed; then, by a rapid advance, to menace the flanks of their right and left in Biscay, and the frontiers of Navarre and Arragon. We wished to prevent these troops, if they retired, from concentrating themselves at Madrid; and to destroy their communications, by throwing ourselves on their rear, if they offered any resistance.
To effect this, our army of the right, composed of the troops under Marshals Victor and Lefevre, were to prosecute their march against the army of Blake, who, having been repulsed from Durango and Valmeceda, was now retiring upon Espinosa. Our army of the left, commanded by Marshals Lannes and Moncey, remained in the neighbourhood of Logrono and Tafalla, waiting only for the result of the action, which we confidently expected at Burgos, to ascend the Ebro, and march towards Saragossa.
On the evening of the 9th, the Imperial quarters were taken up at Breviesca. The army, commanded by the Emperor, was cantoned in the neighbourhood of the town. The inhabitants of the country had all fled to the mountains when we approached. At daybreak of the 10th, Marshal Soult, with a division of infantry, went to reconnoitre the positions of the enemy in the direction of Burgos. On arriving at the village of Garnonal, he was received with a discharge of thirty pieces of cannon. The French regarded this as the signal for attack. Marshal Soult, without waiting for the rest of our army which followed, instantly engaged, and broke the Walloons and Spanish guards, who formed the enemy's principal strength. Marshal Bessieres then arriving with the cavalry, successfully attacked the wings, completed their discomfiture, and entered Burgos with the fugitives.
Of the whole army, our brigade of hussars alone was net engaged. Our cantonment was a secluded place, about two leagues* from Breviesca. The adjutant, whose duty it was to bring us our orders to march, went astray, for want of a guide; and we only set out at nine in the morning to follow the army. The whole day we pursued the same track, without suspecting what had passed in the forenoon. When night approached, we discerned at a great distance the fires of the advanced guard. Notwithstanding the darkness, we perceived, by the motion of our horses, that we were in the act of passing a field of battle. Every now and then they slackened their pace, and lifted their feet cautiously, as if afraid of doing injury to the inanimate dead who lay below. Sometimes they would stop for a moment, and, bending their heads, would smell with evident terror the carcasses of the horses that had been killed.
Burgos was completely deserted by its inhabitants. That large city was one vast solitude when our troops arrived there after the battle, and it was at once given up to be pillaged. In the quarter where we entered, the confused hum of voices, and the noise of the soldiers going hither and thither, seeking provisions and cooking utensils in the forsaken houses, were heard everywhere around us. For light, they carried in their hands immense waxen tapers, which they found in the neighbouring convents. In a distant part of the city, less resorted to by our soldiers, the hollow mournful moaning of the sick and aged were heard, who, too feeble for flight, had taken refuge in a church, where they were crowded together in heaps. There, repeating their prayers with their clergy, they awaited the death which they believed approaching. The glass-windows of the church were dimly lighted with sacred lamps. The Spaniards, in the full confidence that they would obtain a great victory over us, had collected immense quantities of wool to take to the south of France. We passed through the enormous packs, - built up like two lofty walls on either side, which they confidently expected to take with them along with the baggage of their troops. It was but one hour to midnight when we arrived at the place where we were appointed to bivouack, on the banks of the Arlanzon. At daybreak we saw, in the shallow river which ran near us, the corpses of some Spanish soldiers and monks, who had been killed in battle the preceding day.
On the 11th, at sunrise, our troop of light cavalry began to explore the country up, the Arlanzon. We discovered at a distance, as we proceeded up the river, bands of the townsmen and peasantry skulking behind the heights, or among the precipices of the opposite banks. Often we perceived their heads from time to time raised above the brushwood, to observe if we were past.
Some of our flankers fell in with a few poor nuns, who had abandoned Burgos during the battle of the previous day. These sisters, some of whom had never been beyond their own cloisters, had fled in their terror s far as they had strength to go, and had come to hide themselves in the thickets adjoining the river. They were scattered about when they first saw us at a distance; but they ran together on our approach, and kept kneeling close beside each other, muffled in their cloaks, and their heads bent to the ground. One of them, who seemed to possess more courage than the rest, stood up, and placed herself before her companions. Her appearance indicated sincerity and dignity, and the calm stillness of despair. As the soldiers passed before her, while she touched the beads of her rosary, she addressed to them these three words, all she knew of our language, "Bonjours, Messieurs Français," as if claiming their protection. These poor nuns were suffered to remain in peace.
We spent four days in a town about four leagues from Burgos, the name of which I never learned, as we found no person to inquire at. The Imperial quarters continued at Burgos till the 22d. That town was the centre of all the military operations; and from thence it was easy to hold communications with the different corps in Biscay and Arragon, to attend to their movements, end to reinforce them if required.
The day after the engagement at Burgos, several detachments were sent in pursuit of the enemy, to annihilate an army which one victory had easily dispersed, but could not have entirely destroyed. Ten thousand cavalry, with twenty pieces of light artillery, were despatched with all haste by way of Placencia, Leon, and Zamora, to fall behind the English army, which was believed to be at Valladolid. Marshal Soult placed himself on the rear of the Spanish army of the left, by Villarcayo and Reynosa. A division of infantry proceeded by a near route, to take possession of the passes of the mountains of Saint Ander. These troops saw no more of the enemy, notwithstanding the rapidity of their march. Since the affair at Durango, the army of General Blake had in vain attempted to rally successively at Guenes and Valmeceda. Pursued by Marshal Victor in the direction of Espinosa, by Marshal Lefevre in that of Villarcayo, after two days bard fighting, it was at last completely overthrown on the 6th of November at Espinosa.
The Spanish armies of the centre and left haying now been overcome in every direction, it was only necessary to disperse their right, in order to march upon Madrid. For this purpose, the corps of Marshal Ney was despatched from Burgos, through Lerma and Aranda, with instructions first to ascend the Douro, then to descend in the direction of the Ebro, and take Generals Castanos and Palafox in the rear, who were speedily to be attacked in front by our army of the left, under Marshals Lannes and Moncey. This army of the left still occupied Logrono and Tafalla, and were preparing again to descend the Ebro.
On the 15th of November, our brigade of hussars proceeded to Lerma to reinforce the army of Marshal Ney, with which it was henceforth to be provisionally attached. On the 16th, Marshal Ney went from Lerma to Aranjuez. The inhabitants, on our approach, uniformly abandoned their houses, and carried with them to the distant mountains their most precious effects. That solitude and desolation which conquering armies usually leave behind them, seemed universally to have preceded us.
In approaching the deserted cities and villages of Castile, we no longer perceived the wreaths of smoke incessantly rising in the air, and forming a second atmosphere above those populous and well inhabited towns. Instead of the continual noise and hum of living beings, no sounds were heard within the walls but the tolling of bells announcing the flight of time, whose progress we could not retard, and the hoarse groaning of the ravens hovering around the elevated spires. The houses, now empty, served for the most part only to reverberate the deep-toned drums, or the shrill trumpets, in heavy echoes of discordancy.
Our lodgings were speedily appointed. Each regiment occupied a quarter, every company a street, according to the size of the town. A few minutes after our arrival, our soldiers were as much at home in their new mansions, as if they had come to colonize the place. This warlike and migratory population would then begin to denominate anew the situations which they occupied. Here was "Dragoon's quarter,"—"Such a company's street,"—"General's house,"— "Main-guard place,"—" Parade square." There, on the walls of a convent, might be seen "Barracks of such a battalion." Again, before the cell of some deserted cloister, a sign would be suspended with this inscription,—"Here is the Prince of Parisian cooks." This personage was a sutler, who had hastened to establish in this place his ambulatory tavern.
When the army arrived at the place where it had to rest, too late to distribute the quarters with regularity, we then lodged militairement or promiscuously, and without any order, wherever we found room. As soon as the main.guard was stationed, at a well-known signal, the whole army disbanded, running up and down in a burly-burly, like a swollen torrent, through the city; and for half an hour after, nothing was heard but the loud shouts of the soldiers, and the clanking of doors, which they forced open with repeated blows of hatchets or stones. The grenadiers hit upon a plan as speedy as effectual, for gaining admittance where they wished. They held their muskets to the key-holes, and blew away the locks; thus rendering the precautions of the citizens useless, who never forgot to lock their doors when they fled at our approach.
Our army left Aranda on the morning of the 20th, and for two hours we ascended the Douro, without hearing a word of the enemy, or meeting with a human being. On the evening of the 21st, we observed on a sudden some hesitation on the part of our scouts. We instantly formed into squadrons; and soon after the platoon of the advanced guard was engaged with a corps of the enemy, which it easily repulsed. We made some prisoners as we entered Almazan.
The army bivouacked that night under the walls of the town, the inhabitants of which had all fled. It was too late to make the regular distributions; and unhappily, for half an hour, it was impossible to prevent pillage to supply the immediate wants of the troops. The same evening we despatched, in different directions, reconnoitring parties of twenty-five hussars. The detachment which went in the direction of Siguenza, returned in the nighttime with some prisoners and baggage. The day following, our army took the road to Soria. Our regiment, the 2d of hussars, alone remained at Almazan, to keep open the communications with Burgos through Aranda, and to watch the corps of the enemy, which were reported to be around Siguenza, Medina-Cœli, and Agrida.
I received orders at daybreak of the 24th, to go with twenty-five horse, and reconnoitre on the road from Almazan to Agrida. Having no guide, I ascended with my troop the right bank of the Douro, according to an incorrect French map, which led me astray. After four hours hard riding among cross-roads, we perceived two children, who fled to the woods uttering screams of terror. I followed them alone, and arrived in the midst of an encampment of females who had fled from the neighbouring villages, with their children and flocks, to take refuge in a little island formed by the river. I came upon them so suddenly, that I had time to assure them by signs of their safety before my detachment came up. I made the interpreter, who accompanied me, inquire which was the direct road from Almazan to Agrida. The only man among them, an aged clergyman, replied, that we were more than four leagues distant, and directed to the proper road on the opposite bank of the river. We passed through a succession of villages and hamlets, inhabited only by men, and came at last to the place we intended.
The person who acted as my interpreter was a Flemish deserter, that had been forced, from hunger and the dread of being murdered by the peasants, to surrender himself after the action at Burgos. We had surnamed him Blanco, because he had wrapped his body in the white habit of a Dominican Friar, which he had got from the hussars, covering his old and tattered uniform of the Walloon guards, and defending himself from the cold. To crown the whole, he had shielded his head with the huge hat of that religious order. In the inhabited villages we passed through, the people, seeing him marching on foot before us, conceived he was a true monk, whom we had compelled to bear us company. They saluted the reverend father most profoundly, lamented his unhappy fate, and everybody gave him money. Delighted with his honours, he would not abandon his lucrative costume, even when he had it in his power.
We again wandered for want of a guide, and marched for nine hours in a journey of only four leagues. The difficulty of procuring guides was constantly occuring, because we found no inhabitants wherever we went. The same evening our regiment received orders to leave Almazan. We marched a night and a day nearly, without stopping, and rejoined the corps of Marshal Ney, just as he entered Agrida by the road from Soria. The infantry were quartered in the town. The light cavalry were sent to cover the position of the army a league further on, in the road to Cascante. We believed ourselves to be close on the rear of the left wing of the Spanish troops.
The city of Agrida was without a living soul. The commander of our troops could find no guide, and we were obliged once more to use our map in search of the cantonment appointed us. Night came on, and we were not long of losing our way among the passes of the mountains. Deceived by the thick mists in which we were enveloped, we fancied ourselves every moment on the brink of some yawning precipice. Every hundred paces of our march we halted, whilst the foremost of the column explored the path among the rocks, almost groping with their hands. Then, for a long time, in the deep stillness of the night, no sounds were heard but the shiverings of the horses, the heavy tramp of their feet, and the clamping of their bits, in their impatience to be stabled. We had dismounted, and were marching in file, listening and repeating from one to another the warnings of bad steps and precipices—speaking in an under-tone, that we might not give the alarm to a body of troops whose half-extinguished fires we perceived on the far side of the ravine. We knew not whether they were friends or foes; but an attack of infantry, in our present situation, would have been inevitably fatal.
In this manner we passed the most of the night, marching and countermarching continually. A little before daybreak the moon rose, and we found ourselves much about where we were when darkness overtook us. We were at the bottom of a narrow valley, and in sight of the little village where we should have bivouacked. For thirty hours we had been on the march. Thus, the impossibility of obtaining guides, exposed us to a thousand unexpected and unheard of difficulties at every step of our progress. In these thinly peopled districts, where every person was against us, we scarcely found an individual to give us the least account of the enemy, either true or false.
We were apprised, but too late, that the army of Generals Castanos and Palafox had been completely routed at Tudela on the 23d. If we had arrived one day sooner at Agrida, the dispersed columns of Spaniards who were.retreating to Madrid, would have been intercepted by us, and made prisoners in that city.
Our army of the left, whose movement we should have seconded, had concentrated itself on the 22d at the bridge of Lodosa. On the 23d, the Spanish army of the right was descried between the villages of Tudela and Cascante, drawn up in order of battle, a full league in extent. Marshal Lannes, with a division of infantry marching in close column, drove in the centre of the enemy's line. General Lefevre's cavalry immediately rushed into the breach, and by a lateral movement, surrounded the right wing of the Spaniards. Broken in one point, they could no longer manœuvre. They retreated in disorder, leaving 30 pieces of cannon, a great number of prisoners, and many dead on the field of battle.
Since the retreat of King Joseph over the Ebro in the month of July, the Spaniards had assumed so mighty a confidence in their own strength, that their concern when they had to contend with us, was not so much how to make the best resistance, or to secure their retreat in case of a reverse, as that none of the French should escape them. They prejudged the event of the combat, by their ardent desire to overcome and annihilate their foes. Unskilled in the science of war, ignorant of manœuvring, and only afraid they could not extend their columns soon enough to surround us; they drew themselves up in long lines of no depth, in plains where our cavalry and superior tactics gave us every advantage. This order of battle, injudicious even for well-disciplined troops, deprived these Spaniards of the ability to support with speed the points threatened by our columns, or of concentrating themselves to resist our solid masses. In Biscay and the Asturias, our troops had received more opposition, because they had there to fight in a mountainous country, where local difficulties and individual courage may sometimes baffle the skill of military science. Before they could reach Reinosa, they had to contend for victory at Durango, Zornosa, Guones, Valmeceda, and last at Espinosa.
At that time not a Frenchman doubted that the fate of Spain would be decided by these rapid victories. We believed, and so did all Europe, that we had only now to march to Madrid, to complete the subjugation of Spain, and the organization of the country à la maniere Française; or, in other words, to increase our means of further conquest by all the resources of our vanquished enemies. We had been accustomed to see no force but the military, in the countries where we had hitherto waged war. The spirit which inspired the citizens we counted a mere nothing.
On the 26th of November, Marshal Ney's corps proceeded towards Borja, by way of Cascante. General Maurice Mathieu, with a single division, took the same route a day earlier, and made several prisoners on the march. On the 27th we arrived at Alagon, a small town about four leagues distant from Saragossa, whose numerous spires we discerned at a distance.
The Arragonese, by no means disheartened by the late reverses of fortune, had determined to defend themselves in the city of Saragossa. They had not been able to surround it with regular fortifications, but they had converted every dwelling to a fortress; and every convent, every house, required a separate assault. These kinds of fortifications are of all others perhaps best calculated to prolong a siege.
Palafox, with ten thousand men, whom he had preserved from the battle at Tudela, had thrown himself into the place. These identical soldiers of the army of Arragon, whom we had already vanquished in the open field almost without effort, resisted us, as citizens, within the compass of this principal city, nearly a whole year.
Fifty thousand peasants rose in arms for the defence of Saragossa. From every quarter they threw themselves into the town, even through the midst of our victorious columns. They had no other fear but of arriving too late, where their hearts and their country called them. "We have been shielded for ages," they said, " by the Virgin de Pillar, mighty in miracles. We flocked in crowds in happier times, making pilgrimages to her shrine, to implore a blessing on our harvests; and shall we now leave her altars defenceless?"
The character of the Spaniards of these provinces has no parallel of resemblance with the other nations of Europe. Patriotism is with them another name for religion, as it was among the ancients, where no people despaired, or confessed themselves subdued, as long as they could preserve the altars of their patron deities unharmed. The sacred ensigns of Jupiter Capitolinus, displayed in battle, led the Romans to victory. After the days of chivalry, when modern armies were again organized like those of Rome, the religious sentiment which bound the Roman soldier to his standard, was compensated among regular troops by the principle of honour. The military point of honour has made the armies disciplined on this principle attain to high excellence. But it is patriotism alone, either religious or political, that can render nations invincible.
The people of Spain were actuated only by religious patriotism. They had no practical knowledge of the discipline, or of the science of war. They soon abandoned their colours when defeated. They did not think themselves bound to maintain their promise to an enemy. But they had only one interest, and one common sentiment—to avenge, by every possible expedient, the injuries their country sustained.
Among others, one of the insurgent peasants of Arragon was seized by our scouts: He was armed only with a musket, and was driving an ass before him, which carried a stock of several months' provisions. The officer who commanded the vanguard pitied the poor fellow, and commanded his deliverance, making signs t he might fly to the mountains. The peasant took the hint; but the moment he was at liberty he 1oaded his gun, returned to our ranks, and took aim at his deliverer. The ball happily missed. This Spanish peasant hoped to die a martyr, for killing, as he falsely thought, one of our principal leaders. At the halt be was brought before the Colonel of the regiment. Out of curiosity we all surrounded him. One of our hussars, by a particular action having persuaded him he was to be shot, he instantly fell on his knees, prayed to God and the Virgin Mary, and courageously awaited death. He was raised up, and sent at night to head-quarters. If these men had known how to fight as they knew how to die, we would not have passed the Pyrenees so easily.
Marshal Lannes, with his corps d armée, remained in Arragon to carry on the siege of Saragossa. The force under Marshal Ney continued, by rapid marches, to pursue the broken fragments of Castanos's army, which were retreating towards Guadalaxara and Madrid. Our van-guard, on the 28th, cut to pieces the rear-guard of the Spaniards in attempting to secure the pass of Buvierca on the Xalon.
The forced marches of our army were often prolonged after night-fall; and then, in passing nigh the squadrons of Italians, Germans, and French, we could hear them singing their national airs, to forget their fatigues, and recall, in a distant and hostile land, recollections of their native country.
When the night was far advanced, the army staid in the environs of deserted towns and villages, and then we found ourselves in want of every thing. But the soldiers were soon spread over every quarter to forage, and in less than an hour they had transferred what yet remained in the houses of the neighbourhood to their bivouack. Around large fires, lighted at intervals, were then to be seen all the apparatus of military cookery. On one side, some were constructing barracks in great expedition, with planks thatched with leaves for want of straw. Others were erecting tents by adjusting over four stakes pieces of cloth found in the empty houses. Here and there, ornamenting the ground, were scattered sheep-skins, newly flayed, guitars, pitchers, wine.vessels, monks' habits, and garments of all forms and colours. In this spot troopers were sleeping quietly all armed beside their horses. Farther on, amid piles of arms foot-soldiers danced to the strains of barbarous music, grotesquely disguised with women's clothes.
When the army departed, the peasants descended from the neighbouring heights, and came from their hiding-places in every direction, as if they had risen from the bowels of the earth. They hastened homeward to their houses. Our soldiers could not stray an inch from the road, or halt a single step behind the columns, without running the risk of being instantly despatched by the revengeful mountaineers. We dared not here, as we did every where in Germany, form detached patroles, or send our sick without escort to the hospitals. Those of the infantry who were unable to march, followed their divisions mounted on asses. In their left hands they held their firelocks, and in the right their bayonets in place of spurs. Like the fiery steeds of ancient Numidia, these docile animals had neither saddles nor bridles.
*A French league is about 2 ¾ English miles.
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