State of the had disappeared. Spain could now put in the field against the invader's veterans almost nothing but untrained and wretchedly equipped levies; but "the raw material which composed them had not degenerated in the least from what it was when Cortes led his band through the Mexican swarms-when Ferdinand and Isabella swept the chivalrous Moors into the Alpuxarras—or when, later, the Spanish infantry ranked for valour and steady discipline as the first in the world" (HAMLEY). The raw levies in Biscay and Old Castile were easily dispersed by Marshal Bessières—a general of forty, whose bravery had determined the victory of Marengo, and had been conspicuous on the fields of Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, and Friedland, and who was now rewarded for his Spanish success by the dukedom of Istria. In Aragon Palafox was thrice routed; and Saragossa, to which he betook himself, was closely invested on the 15th June by General Lefevre Desnouettes, with 4,000 infantry and 800 Polish horsemen. First siege of This ancient city, renowned for its siege by the Moors in the eighth century, and its defence by them for five years before they surrendered it in 1118, was defended only by a low brick wall; but the valour of the inhabitants proved a greater obstacle to the assailants than the most formidable ramparts. Lying at the extremity of a plain, dotted with olive woods, in the angle formed by the union of the Huebra with the Ebro, its suburbs on the left bank of the Ebro extending to a marsh, Saragossa is completely commanded by the ridge of the Monte Torrero. But its houses, mostly of two storeys, vaulted and almost incombustible, and massive convents, towering like so many huge castles in the several districts, presented an admirable means of defence against any attempt of the enemy to carry the place by storm. So utterly had the army of Palafox been cowed that they evacuated the olive woods, and the French entered the central gate, that of Santa Engracia, with but little opposition. The inhabitants were filled with dismay, the streets were thronged with a disordered mob of half-trained men, and the broken bands of Palafox, with their leader, were moving out of the opposite gate of the city, when the French, fearing an ambuscade, withdrew, resigning their extraordinary advantages. The inhabitants, now exhibiting the extreme of courage, so suddenly organized a defence-by piercing loopholes in the houses and piling up sandbags in long rows, even the women and children taking part in the work that in twenty-four hours the city was safe from assault. While "Tio" (or Good Man) Marin superintended the defence, Palafox, accompanied by Tio Jorge (for the Saragossans doubted Palafox's statement that he was going in search of succour), recrossed the Ebro at Pina, and were moving through Epila to attack the French rear when they were suddenly assailed by a French detachment from Lefevre's investing corps, and routed. Collecting his beaten forces at Calatayud, Palafox returned with Tio Jorge through Belchite to Saragossa, which he re-entered on the 2nd July. Lefevre, who had delayed his attack for some time till reinforcements of nearly 8,000 infantry and a battering train under Count Verdier arrived, had in the meanwhile carried the Monte Torrero by assault, and the convent of St. Joseph; and, by the Emperor's orders, an attack on the left bank of the Ebro was also begun.. Lefevre himself was removed to rejoin Bessières with a brigade, and the command of the remaining 10,000 was bestowed on Count Verdier. While closely pressing the siege, the French commander had to send detachments to oppose the small patriot bands which were endeavouring to hem in his camp. The attempts to take the El Carmen and Portillo gates by storm having failed, Verdier, whose numbers had been raised to 15,000-while only a few hundreds of Spaniards had succeeded in entering the city-began regular approaches, and on the 3rd August the bombardment opened. A Spanish powder magazine on the Cosso (the walk on the ancient Moorish ramparts) blew up, inflicting great loss on the inhabitants, and on the next day, the 4th, the Santa Engracia convent was stormed. The French penetrated to the Cosso, when a murderous fire opened upon them from the houses. Many of the Spaniards maintained the deadly struggle in the streets, but others, panicstricken, fled through the gates. Cries of treason sounded louder than the roll of musketry and the shrieks of the falling, and the assassin's knife was plied as vigorously as the enemy's bayonet; for under the fierce reign of terror, the reign of these priests and plebeian leaders, such a cry was always the signal for the immediate death of any who had by a word or even by a gesture opposed them. The great Lunatic Hospital was wrapped in flames, and the inmates, let loose to seek a place of safety, came to mingle with the combatants, some chattering and laughing, in happy unconsciousness of the awful scene of butchery, some gloomily moping at their own imaginary sufferings, and some flinging themselves into the struggle with all the ungovernable fury of wild beasts. Slowly the heroic band was being driven back, and it appeared that at last the city must fall, despite their almost superhuman efforts. But in one long narrow street, the Arco de Cineja, a French column, making its way to the bridge, was thrown into disorder and repulsed, and in other quarters some of the victorious regiments dispersed to plunder in the streets they had won. The defenders, taking heart again at this confusion, set fire to the St. Francisco convent, and forcing their way, recovered all one side of the Cosso. Night brought no cessation to the fierce struggle. The continued thunder of "the devilish engines," the frequent explosions of houses, marking their abandonment by the besieged, the rattling musketry, the columns of flames rising from the hapless city, seemed to realize a battle of fiends. For six days the Spaniards, with the frenzy of despair, disputed the enemy's attempts to advance, in a hand-to-hand contest throughout the gloomy, narrow, and tortuous streets, from room to room and house to house. On the morning of the 10th Verdier received orders, from the disasters in other parts of Spain, to abandon the siege, and the attack ceased, there being no hope of taking the place for some days at least. On the morning of the 15th the French evacuated their positions and retired upon Logroño. Thus was Salamanca saved, in its first siege in the Peninsular War, principally by the bad discipline of the French and the system of terror established by the Spanish leaders. "Romantic tales of women rallying the troops and leading them forward at the most dangerous periods of this siege were current; but their truth may be doubted. Yet, when suddenly environed with horrors, the sensitiveness of women, driving them to a kind of frenzy, might have produced actions above the heroism of men, and in patient suffering their superior fortitude is acknowledged by all nations; wherefore, neither wholly believing nor absolutely denying these exploits, it may be remarked that for a long time afterwards Spain swarmed with Zaragoza heroines, clothed in half-uniforms and theatrically loaded with weapons "-Napier. Battles of In Catalonia Count Duhesme was foiled by the rising of the population in a body, and the invaders were still restricted to their first acquisitions, Barcelona and the citadel of Figueras. Marshal Moncey, marching from Madrid, entered the province of Valencia. At Cabrillas he easily dispersed the troops and the peasantry, but Valencia baffled all his efforts, and he returned to Madrid with the loss of 2,000 men. But in Leon the rash, though old, Don Garcia de la Cuesta, who had a raw force of 26,000, foolishly engaged the 15,000 veterans of Marshal Bessières at Rio Seco on the 14th July: 3,000 fell on the field, 2,000 men and 18 guns were taken, the remainder of Cuesta's army dispersed, and the spirit of Spain seemed broken. French capitulation at Baylen: Joseph retreats from Madrid. Believing that this victory had determined the issue of the insurrectionary movements, Napoleon returned from Bayonne to Paris, and Joseph pursued his journey from Burgos to Madrid, which he entered on the 21st July. But two days before this entry the French arms had received a blow which resounded throughout Europe. Dupont, in his march from Toledo upon Cadiz, had halted in Cordova, to give up to rapine and slaughter that ancient city among the olives and palm-trees of the Guadalquivir, which had witnessed Cæsar's massacre of the Pompeians, and had in later centuries fallen in turn under Goths and Moors, the latter of whom raised it, from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, to the position of one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the world's marts. During the sacking of the city the peasantry gathered round the walls, and Dupont found that it was necessary to order a retreat. His first corps, under Gobert, was attacked and routed at Baylen, where Gobert himself was killed, by a force under the Swiss leader, Reding; and upon Dupont's own corps coming up, Castaños closed in on his rear with an army of 22,000 regulars and 30,000 armed peasants. There was no possibility of escape, and Dupont had to endure the humiliation of signing the capitulation of 20,000 French soldiers. Castaños continued his advance towards Madrid. Joseph, whose personal courage was not remarkable, hastily evacuated his lately-won capital and retired to Burgos. The moral effect was incalculable: the French troops were no longer regarded as invincible, and the Spaniards were nerved to resist them throughout the whole length and breadth of the land. But a considerable portion of the nation was quite ready to submit to the foreign yoke, and Spanish battalions were actually being enrolled to support the usurper's cause. Character of the War of Independence. The patriotic resistance to the enemy had spread to Portugal, where also the War of Independence had already begun, the population being embittered by Junot's arbitrary rule. In the north the citizens of Oporto rose and overpowered the French garrison, and a patriotic Government, the Junta of Oporto, was established under the presidency of the Bishop. In the southern portion of the kingdom the inhabitants were equally successful in repelling the intruders, and Algarve was recovered. As the insurrection spread from town to town, Junot's military administration of the country became sterner, and the atrocious order was issued that every Portuguese patriot taken in arms should be shot, his property confiscated, and his house destroyed; and that every town or village in which a rising against the authority of the French occurred should be razed to the ground. A licentious soldiery gave the widest interpretation to these orders. Several places were thus sacked and levelled, and the inhabitants, after enduring nameless barbarities, |