ON the 1st of December, we took up our night s quarters in a village about a league north of Guadalaxara. Billets were assigned us, and we were about to disband, to scatter ourselves throughout our cantonment, when we were informed that some foot-soldiers of the enemy were observed flying at a distance. They appeared difficult to come at; and a few of the youngest of the troop, obtaining leave of the colonel, began, for the love of sport, to pursue them. I marked particularly as my prize, one who ran more quickly than his fellows. He wore an azure-coloured uniform, whose brilliant colour made me take him for an officer.
When he saw that he could not escape, he stopped, and waited for me behind a ditch he had cleared with dexterity. I believed he was then taking aim to fire at me; but on coming within twenty yards, he dropped his arms, doffed his hat, and with most humble reverences, in suitable attitudes, said to me, over and over —"I have the honour to salute you, Master; Master, I am your very humble servant." I stood, not less amazed at his comical appearance, than at hearing him speak French. I relieved him from his fears, by saying he should sustain no injury. He said he was a native of Toulouse, and a professor of dancing; that he had been made to stand a fortnight in the pillory, to compel him to wear the uniform and serve in the regiment of Ferdinand VII., when the general levy took place in Andalusia; which, as he said, was altogether unsuited to his gentle disposition. I told him to go to the village where our regiment was quartered, an order he did not think proper to obey. Another Frenchman was made prisoner, who was son to a principal magistrate in the town of Pau in Bearn. He was suffered to escape a few days afterwards, lest his Spanish uniform, and the arms he carried, might be recompensed at the depôt with a musket-bullet.
Borne along by the pleasure of my ramble, and the ardour of my horse, I ascended first one hill, then another, crossed a torrent, and, after a smart ride of half an hour, arrived at a large village, which I entered. The inhabitants, perceiving me at a distance, were terrified lest I should be followed by others. The alarm soon spread, and they commenced in an instant to secure all their houses, by barricading, as usual, the door towards the street, and escaping over the walls of the court behind. Seeing that I was alone, they ventured out one by one, and came to the market-place, where I had halted. I heard several men repeat, with emphasis, the word Matar; which I conceived, as I did not understand Spanish, might be some word for expressing their wonder at the sight of a stranger. I learned afterwards that the expression means "Kill him." These Spaniards were not quite so peaceful as the inhabitants of the German plains, where a single French soldier could govern a city. When I saw the crowd increasing, and the agitation becoming greater, I began to fear they would seize me, and deliver me to the enemy. I put spurs to my horse, and retired to a small eminence behind the village, whither the men and women quickly followed. I then began to curvet my horse, and made him leap several times over a low wall and ditch behind me, to show that I was not afraid, and could easily escape if I wished. It being the first time since we passed the Ebro that I had seen a village completely inhabited, and, above all, by females, I staid from curiosity; and returning to my eminence, I made signs with the scabbard of my sabre, that none of them, for they again approached me, should come nearer than ten paces. I then endeavoured to make them understand that my horse wanted something to eat. The inhabitants, muffled in their cloaks, looked at me in silent astonishment. They maintained, however, all the while, that characteristic gravity, and dignity of look and manner, which distinguish Castilians of every age and rank. They appeared to regard a stranger with profound contempt, for his ignorance of their language.
When I saw there was no chance of being understood, I attempted some words of Latin. We often found that language useful in Spain, in making ourselves understood by the clergy, who, in general, speak it tolerably well. A young student then left the crowd, and returned a few moments afterwards with the village schoolmaster. This personage was so happy to speak Latin, and to inform me how he had arrived at such a high degree of knowledge, that he enabled me to procure every thing I wanted, and I departed soon after. So early as next morning, when our regiment passed through the same village, it was completely deserted. I lost my way in the dark in returning to our cantonment, and it was midnight before I rejoined my companions.
Next day, December 2d, we removed our quarters to the neighbourhood of Alcala de Henares. On our way we fell in with a squadron of Polish lancers, which Marshal Bessieres. had despatched from St Augustin to reconnoitre in the direction of Guadalaxara. They informed us that the advanced guard of the central army had reached Madrid. Our distance from it was not less than three leagues.
The Emperor Napoleon bad left Burgos for Aranda on the 22d November, to direct the movements of his army of the left on the Ebro, against the right of the Spaniards, and to sustain them, if assistance should be requisite. On the 29th November, seven days after the action at Tudela, he had marched the army of the centre against Madrid in the direction of the Castiles. The corps of Marshal Soult remained in the Asturias, to watch the remains of the Spanish army of Gallicia. On the 30th, at day-break, the advanced guard of the Emperor s army arrived at the foot of the mountain Somo Sierra. The Puerto, or pass of this mountain, was defended by a force of from twelve to fifteen thousand Spaniards, and a battery of sixteen pieces of cannon. Three regiments of infantry of our first division, and six pieces of cannon, commenced the attack. The Polish lancers of the guard then scoured the pass, and carried the enemy s battery by storm. The Spaniards, unable to resist Napoleon, fled on every side, and took refuge among the rocks. The Imperial headquarters were taken up, on the 1st of December, at St Augustin. The corps of Marshal Ney, to which our regiment belonged, came by Guadalaxara and Alcala the same day to join the army of the Emperor.
On the morning of December 2d, Napoleon with his cavalry alone, went in advance of the army, and arrived on the heights that overlook the Spanish capital. Instead of the regularity usually exhibited in fortified cities, where every event of war is provided for — in place of that silence which is only broken by the deep prolonged sounds of "Sentry, have a care!" by which the sentinels on the ramparts keep awake each other s vigilance; there were heard only the continual pealing of the bells of the six hundred churches of Madrid, and at intervals the loud uproar of the rabble, and the furious beating of drums.
The inhabitants of Madrid never thought of defence till eight days before the arrival of the French, and all their preparations displayed inexperience and haste. They had placed their artillery behind temporary ramparts and barricadoes, or had erected hasty fortifications by piling together bales of wool and cotton. The windows of the houses, at the entrance of the principal streets, were occupied by soldiers screened behind mattresses. The only place fortified with any care was the Retiro, a royal castle, seated on the eminence which commands the capital. According to custom, an aid-de-camp of Marshal Bessieres was sent in the morning to summon Madrid. He was within a hair s breadth of being torn to pieces by the inhabitants, because he had proposed their surrender to the French, and only escaped by the protection he received from the regular Spanish troops.
The evening of that day was spent by the Emperor in reconnoitring around the city, and arranging his plan of attack. At seven o clock in the evening, the advanced columns of infantry having arrived, a brigade of the first corps, supported by four pieces of artillery, marched against the suburbs. The tirailleurs of the 16th regiment, having dislodged the Spaniards from some advanced houses, made themselves masters of the principal burying-ground. The night was occupied in planting the artillery, and making the necessary preparations for an attack next day.
A Spanish officer, taken at Somo Sierra was sent by the Prince of Neufchatel, at midnight, into Madrid. He returned, some hours after, with the information that the inhabitants were still determined to resist. The cannonade, therefore, commenced on the morning of the 3d, at 9 o clock.
Thirty pieces of cannon, under the command of General Cenarmont, battered down a breach in the wall of the Retiro, whilst twenty pieces of artillery of the guard, and some light troops, made a feigned attack in another direction, to divert the attention and divide the strength of the enemy. The light company of Vilatte s division entered by the breach into the garden of the Retiro, and were soon followed by their battalion. In less than an hour, the 4000 Spanish troops of the line, who defended that principal post, were overpowered. By eleven o clock, our soldiers were already in possession of the important posts of the observatory, the porcelain manufactory, the head barracks, and the palace of Medina Coeli. Masters of all the Retiro, we could have burned Madrid in a few hours.
The cannonade then ceased to be heard. In every quarter the further progress of the troops was arrested, and a third time a messenger was despatched to hold a parley with the place. It was of no small importance to the Emperor to spare the capital of the kingdom he designed for his brother. It is possible to establish a camp, but not a court, amidst ruins. Madrid, reduced to ashes, might have stimulated, by its example, every other city of the kingdom to a desperate resistance. The French armies would also have been deprived of vast resources by its destruction.
In the afternoon, about five o clock, the French envoy returned, accompanied by General Morla, the chief of the military junta, and Don B. Yriarte, deputed from the town. They were conducted to the tent of the Prince de Neufchatel. They requested that a suspension of arms during the 4th might he granted them, that they might have time to induce the people to surrender. The Emperor assumed the appearance of great anger, reproached them for having failed in fulfilling the terms of the treaty of Baylen, and for the massacre of the French prisoners in Andalusia. It was his wish to terrify the Spanish deputies, by this pretended wrath, that, on returning, they might impart the contagion of their fear to those who obeyed their orders. He was most anxious that the surrender of Madrid should appear to be voluntary. It was believed that the example of the capital would then be followed by the whole of Spain.
In the mean time, the townsmen refused to lay down their arms, and still continued to fire on the French from the windows of the houses which surround the Prado promenade. We were informed by the prisoners that were pouring in continually, what fear and phrenzy were reigning throughout the city. Fifty thousand armed citizens were ranging about the streets without discipline, disorderly calling for orders, and accusing their governors of treason. The Captain-General, Marquis de Castellar, and all the military men of any note, abandoned Madrid with the troops of the line, and six pieces of cannon during the night. At six o clock in the morning of the 4th of December, General Morla and Don F. de Vera came again to the tent of Prince Neufchatel, and at ten o clock a.m., the French soldiers took possession of Madrid.
The Emperor remained with his guard encamped on the hill of Chamartin. The very day Madrid was taken, he sent numerous detachments in all directions, according to his usual plan of military operations, that the enemy might have no time to recover; and to take advantage of the surprise and panic, which seldom fail, after great events, to double the conqueror s strength, while they paralyze that of the conquered. Marshal Bessieres, with six squadrons, pursued, on the road to Valencia, the Spanish army of General la Penna. This force was compelled by General Ruffin s division of infantry, and General Bordesoult s brigade of dragoon, to turn back towards Cuença. The corps of Marshal Victor went by way of Aranjuez to Toledo. The cavalry of Generals Lasalle and Milhaud went in pursuit of the scattered troops repulsed at Somo Sierra, and those that had escaped from Madrid. General Houssaye entered the Escurial.
Our regiment of hussars had been stationed around Alcala since the 2d of December, about three leagues from Madrid. On the 5th, we were ordered to appear early at the Imperial quarters, for the purpose of being reviewed. We had not arrived many minutes, in a plain near the Chateau de Chamartin, when Napoleon suddenly made his appearance. He was attended by the Prince de Neufchatel, and five or six aides-de-camp, who could scarcely keep up with him, he rode so fast. All the trumpets sounded. The Emperor halted about a hundred paces from the front of the centre of our regiment, and demanded from the Colonel the list of the officers, subalterns, and privates, who had merited military honours. The Colonel of the regiment having quickly called them by name, Napoleon addressed a few words familiarly to some of the common soldiers who were presented to him; but, turning again to the General who commanded our brigade, he put two or three short questions to him in a hurried manner. The General not replying very concisely, Napoleon turned his horse without hearing him finish his speech, and took his departure as Unexpectedly and swiftly as he had arrived.
The review being over, we prepared to enter Madrid. A heavy silence had succeeded that confusion and uproar which had reigned within and without the walls of the capital only the day before. The streets through which we entered were deserted; and even in the market-place, the numerous shops of the vendors of necessaries still remained shut. The water-carriers were the only people of the town who had not interrupted their usual avocations. They moved about uttering their cries with the nasal drawling tone, peculiar to their native mountains of Galicia, "Quien quiere agua?" Who wants water? No purchasers made their appearance; the waterman muttered to himself sorrowfully, "Dios que la da"—"It is God s gift," and cried again.
As we advanced into the heart of the city, we perceived groups of Spaniards standing at the corner of a square, where they had formerly been in the habit of assembling in great numbers. They stood muffled in their capacious cloaks, regarding us with a sullen dejected aspect. Their national pride could scarcely let them credit, that any other then Spanish soldiers could have beaten Spaniards. If they happened to perceive among our ranks a horse which had once belonged to their cavalry, they soon distinguished him by his pace, and awakening from their apathy, would whisper together, "Este cavallo es Espagnole"—"That s a Spanish horse;" as if they had discovered the sole cause of our success.
We passed quite through Madrid. Our regiment proceeded to canton for sixteen days at Cevolla, near the Tagus, in the direction of Talavera. We returned again on the 19th of December, to form part of the garrison of Madrid. The inhabitants in and around the capital had by that time recovered from their astonishment. The sight of the French had, by degrees, become familiar to them. The strictest discipline was observed by the army; and tranquillity, at least in appearance, prevailed as much as in time of peace.
On entering Madrid in the morning by the gate of Toledo, or the Place de la Cenada, where the market is held, nothing is more striking than the confused mass of people from the country and provinces, who, variously clad, are arriving and departing, going and coming. There, a Castilian draws around him with dignity the folds of his ample cloak, like a Roman senator in his toga. Here a cowherd from La Mancha, with his long goad in his hand, clad in a kilt of ox-skin, whose antique shape bears some resemblance to the tunic worn by the Roman and Gothic warriors. Farther on, may be seen men with their hair confined in long nets of silk. Others, wearing a kind of short brown vest, striped with blue and red, conveying the idea of the Moorish garb. The men who wear this dress come from Andalusia. They are remarkable for their lively black eyes, their rapid utterance, and expressive animated countenances. At the corners of the streets and places of resort, are to be seen women preparing refreshments for all those who have no permanent abode in Madrid.
On arriving, we observed long trains of mules, laden with skins, containing wine and oil; and large droves of asses under the care of one per son, who spoke to them incessantly. We met also carriages drawn by eight or ten mules, ornamented with small bells. A single coachman guided them either at trot or gallop with great dexterity, making no use of reins, and urging them forward with his voice alone, shouting most savagely. These mules are trained all to stop at the same instant by one long shrill whistle. They might be mistaken for teams of stags or elks, by their long taper legs, the height of their stature, and the bold lofty carriage of their heads. The shouts of the coach-drivers and muleteers — the constant chiming of the bells of the churches — the various dresses of the men — the extravagant display of southern energy evinced in their gestures and loud sonorous cries in a language we did not understand — their manners so unlike one own; — all contributed to give to the Spanish capital a most strange appearance to people accustomed to the quietness with which all is done in the north. We were the more struck with it, because Madrid was the first large city we found inhabited since we entered Spain.
At the hour of Siesta, and more particularly in summer, during the heat of the day, all this uproar ceased, and the whole city resigned itself to sleep. The only sound then heard in the streets was from the trampling of the horses of some of our own troops of cavalry returning from or going their rounds, or the drum of some detachment of infantry about to mount the solitary guard. That drum had already beaten the march and the charge in Alexandria, in Cairo, in Rome, and almost in every city of Europe from Konigsberg to Madrid.
Our regiment continued nearly a whole month in the Spanish capital. I staid with an old man of an illustrious name, who lived alone with his daughter. He went regularly twice a day to mass, and once to the Place del Sol, to hear the news. On returning, he seated himself in his parlour, where he spent the whole day doing nothing. Sometimes he would light a cigar, and puff away, in smoke, his weariness and his woes. He seldom spoke, and I never saw him laugh. He only exclaimed, at intervals of half an hour, with a heavy sigh, "Ah Jesus!" His daughter constantly replied in the same words, and both were again silent.
Every day my entertainers were visited by a priest, the holy father of the household, who was as assiduous in his attentions as physicians in some countries are to their patients. He wore a flax-coloured wig to conceal his priestly tonsure, and was dressed like an ordinary citizen, always insinuating, that he dared not wear his sacerdotal habit for fear of being assassinated in the streets by the French. This unnecessary deception was solely designed to increase the bitter animosity which already existed against us.
Notwithstanding the appearance of most profound tranquillity reigning in the capital, our regiment were always prepared to mount instantly; and, as if we had been an advanced post, with the enemy before us, our horses never were unsaddled. It was indeed reported, that eleven hundred Spanish desperadoes remained concealed in the city when it capitulated, waiting only a favourable opportunity to raise the inhabitants in arms, and put every Frenchman to the sword.
Amid the plaudits of victory resounded by our bulletins, we could not help entertaining a feeling of perplexed uncertainty about the very advantages we had obtained. It was observed by some one, that our conquests lay above volcanoes. The Emperor Napoleon did not make a public entry into Madrid, as he had done into other European capitals. The forms of etiquette under which he subjected himself towards his brother Joseph, whom he already considered an independent sovereign, prevented him from observing this ceremony. Constantly encamped with his guard on the heights of Chamartin, he daily prescribed decrees to Spain, waiting that submission which it was natural to think would soon be effected by the terror of our rapid successes.
The thundering proclamations issued by the Emperor, announced his triumphs to astonished Europe, and gave to such places of the Peninsula as persevered in their resistance much cause to dread a terrible destiny. And yet the several provinces of Spain displayed no promptitude in taking steps to propitiate the implacable conqueror, or avert the death-blow they had reason to dread. No one offered to lay at Napoleon s feet, with the exacted homage, those obsequious panegyrics to which other countries had accustomed him. Deputations from the city of Madrid, and the Alcaids of some places occupied by our troops, alone came to present submissions extorted by fear, at the Imperial quarters of Chamartin. The heads of twelve hundred select families in Madrid being summoned, also appeared to take the oath of fidelity to King Joseph. But it was even said, that the very priests, before whom they swore on the Gospels, had given them plenary indulgence some time before, for every oath of subjection they might take to their conquerors.
The declarations made by the French authorities, that they came to reduce the religious orders, and abolish the Inquisition, far from placing us in the light of saviours, tended only to exasperate that bitter hatred which the clergy and their numerous zealots already bore us. The friars of every order who had been exiled from their convents, spread over the country, and, wherever they went, preached against us. Disguising, by a holy zeal, their resentment for the recent loss of their wealth, they endeavoured, by every means in their power, to stimulate the people against the French. The priests protested warmly, that it was against strangers alone that the Inquisition was upheld and that, without it, the principles of religion would long since have been as completely ruined in Spain, as for more than twenty years they had now been in France.
For a century past, the Inquisition had indeed been greatly ameliorated. It no longer was the terror of Spaniards; and some intelligent individuals had even gone so far as to consider it essential to a feeble government, for restraining the multitude, and curbing the power of the inferior clergy. The poor began to reflect where they would have to go, in seasons of scarcity, for that sustenance they had been accustomed to receive every day at the convent gates.
A superstitious nation like this, which supposed its establishments had always existed, could not conceive how they should ever terminate. In the times of their misfortune, therefore, every change effected by an enemy appeared downright impiety.
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