Читать книгу The Autobiography of the Duke of Wellington - Joseph Moyle Sherer - Страница 13

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The ability and prowess of Sir Arthur Wellesley in the brilliant actions which preceded the convention of Cintra had so confirmed and established him in favor with the people of England, that nothing tended more to allay the irritation of the public mind at that measure than the circumstance of his being one of the parties concerned. When they heard him give it as his deliberate opinion, that the convention was from the relative state and position of the two armies a measure expedient and wise, the reflecting paused in their hasty objections, and soon dropped the mistaken and indignant tones of their first censure. Some, incapable of calmly examining or truly judging any question of a military nature, railed on. Justice, however, and moral feeling, had received so severe a blow in the triumph of rapine and of cunning, that perhaps the honest hearts throughout all England felt a painful regret at these proceedings. It will yet, and perhaps for ever, remain a question, whether this course, in which from a consideration of its expediency on the evening of the 22d Sir Arthur (with two officers senior to him in the camp) concurred, would have been by himself adopted under the same circumstances, had the entire control of measures, and the sole daring of attempt, and the sole glory of success, and the sole responsibility for failure, rested with him. It is true that the French army on the evening of the 221 had a formidable position between the British and Lisbon. They had the means of retiring from that position to others in front of that city, and, finally, of crossing the Tagus into Alemtejo, with a view to the occupation in strength of the forts of Elvas, La Lippe, and eventually Almeida. The position at Santarem G 2 never having been occupied as proposed by Sir Arthur, there were no means to prevent, and no increase of numbers could have prevented, them from effecting these objects. They were, however, in a very embarrassed state; they would not have remained long at Lisbon, but they might have lingered a day too long. A trip, a blunder, a false step, and they might yet have been exposed to defeat and ruin. Though there never was a leader who more warily calculated all probabilities, and more happily adjusted the weight assignable to each, than Sir Arthur Wellesley, yet neither was there ever a man more prompt and ready for the peril of a throw. But he was always for fluttering the Volscians alone: “alone I did it,” was the reflection he ever coveted. Of the members of the court of inquiry, four approved, and three disapproved, of the convention.

It was not till the month of April in the following year, that Sir Arthur Wellesley again landed in Portugal. He was received at Lisbon with the greatest enthusiasm. The very sight of a man who had already fought and conquered the enemies of Portugal upon the soil of Portugal animated all ranks with hope and joy: the regency nominated him the marshal-general of their army; the soldiers gazed upon him with confidence; and the people followed him wherever he appeared with shouts and vivas. The spirit of war and resistance was alive all over the Peninsula, and the genius given in this our age, to direct it to the great end of a final and full deliverance, stood again among its brave inhabitants.

To make the difficulties of Sir Arthur Wellesley apparent, and the story of his achievements complete, it is necessary to relate the events which had befallen the countries of Spain and Portugal during his absence from the theatre of war. In looking back upon the struggles of Spain, and thinking upon her powerful opponent, her disasters excite no surprise. Southey has observed with truth, that during revolutions, discipline is the last thing which a soldier learns. Certainly, during a revolution, where a soil is half covered by invaders; where “the whole structure of society is shaken to pieces;" where there are no officers of experience; no non-commissioned officers of authority; no generals; no staff; that he should learn it, is impossible: how is he to be instructed? where can be his place of security for his school of discipline? and where his leisure to attain it? If the reader will picture to himself a vast body of local militia suddenly assembled in England, with officers of unspeakably less intelligence than those of an English local militia, and quite as little experience; with a system of movement old, formal, cumbrous, and slow; men, half-clothed, half-armed, and commanded by proud and obstinate generals of no experience; he will see many of such armies as actually met fa battle the disciplined and brave conquerors of Germany under the guidance of leaders alike distinguished by their talents and their exploits.

Upon the victory of Baylen, Joseph Bonaparte abandoned Madrid, taking with him, as king of Spain and the Indies, the valuables of the palace and the jewels of the crown. A central and superior junta now assumed the government, and was established at Aranjuez. The patriotic troops all over Spain were either assembling or moving, at the will of their respective generals, without any defined object, or the least combination: 12,000 men under Llamas marched from Murcia to Madrid. St. Marc with his Valencians, and the baron de Versage with his Arragonese, did, however, unite their forces, and moved to Zaragoza. Verdier and Lefebvre broke up the siege on their approach, and retired to Tudela. The Spaniards followed them, and occupied that place.

The army of Andalusia was a clothed, and, in so far, equipped and efficient body of 30,000 men, with artillery. It was a month before a division of this force entered Madrid: the other divisions lay behind it, at Toledo, in La Mancha, and in the Sierra Morena. It had been kept idle and delayed by the provincial junta of Seville, and, thus distributed, it was now to be fed. The infantry army of Estramadura was a raw levy; there were, however, 4000 horse in this province. Galluzzo, the governor, would not part with this body of cavalry, or suffer it to join Castaños at Madrid. The army of Blake, defeated at Rio Seco, lay behind the mountains of Astorga: to his old reserve he had added a new levy; and 30,000 men, the greater part peasants, in peasant clothing, mustered round him. Cuesta, with 1500 horse and 8000 peasants, was at Salamanca, quarrelling with the provincial junta, and Blake was quarrelling with him. The generals of the different armies, and the juntas of the different provinces, were disputing with each other for influence and precedency, and each occupied with their own plans. At this time 3000 French horsemen were sweeping the rich and fertile banks of the Douro for corn and money; while Joseph Bonaparte was at Vittoria, at the head of 50,000 of those French troops, of whom Napoleon had said, “The whole of the Spanish forces are not capable of beating twenty-five thousand French in a reasonable position.” The truth of which strong remark any officer who may have seen at that period, or at a much later, one Spanish battalion in movement, (for we speak not of the simple, though more difficult, combinations of brigade and division,) can well understand.

The supreme junta, which had entered Madrid, were at once pompous and weak; presumptuous and timid. They projected a military board to regulate the operations of their armies, and chose Castaños for a president, his seat to be taken “when the enemy was driven across the frontier.” While they vainly considered this “driving across the frontier” to be the certain consequence of the effort, by no foresight, by no exertion, did they lay the foundation of such a result The troops were naked, and the soldiers left, oftentimes after long and severe marches, “to feed upon their own high thoughts,” a diet better suited to the shadowy and lean knight of La Mancha than to men destined for the rude shock of battle with the grenadiers of France. To crush these brave, betrayed, and unhappy levies, was the object of Napoleon. We transcribe his preparations from the pages of the historian Napier, in his own vigorous language.

“Sudden and prompt in execution, he prepared for one of those gigantic efforts which have stamped this age with the greatness of antiquity.

“His armies were scattered over Europe. In Italy, in Dalmatia, on the Rhine, the Danube, the Elbe; in Prussia, Denmark, Poland, his legions were to be found. Over that vast extent, above 500,000 disciplined men maintained the supremacy of France. From those bands he drew the imperial guards, the select soldiers of the warlike nation he governed, and the terror of the other continental troops. The veterans of Jena, of Austerlitz, of Friedland, reduced in number, but of confirmed hardihood, were collected into one corps, and marched towards Spain. A host of cavalry, unequalled for enterprise and knowledge of war, were also directed against that devoted land, and a long train of gallant soldiers followed, until 200,000 men, accustomed to battle, had penetrated the gloomy fastnesses of the western Pyrenees. 40,000 men of inferior reputation, drawn from the interior of France, from Naples, from Tuscany, and from Piedmont, were assembled at Perpignan. The march of this multitude was incessant; and as they passed the capital, Napoleon, neglectful of nothing which could excite their courage and swell their military pride, addressed to them one of those nervous orations that shoot like fire to the heart of a real soldier. In the tranquillity of peace it may seem inflated, but on the eve of battle it is thus a general should speak:—

“‘Soldiers! after triumphing on the banks of the Vistula and the Danube, with rapid steps you have passed through Germany. This day, without a moment of repose, I command you to traverse France. Soldiers! I have need of you! the hideous presence of the leopard contaminates the Peninsula of Spain and Portugal. In terror he must fly before you. Let us bear our triumphal eagles to the pillars of Hercules; there also we have injuries to avenge. Soldiers! you have surpassed the renown of modem armies, but have you yet equalled the glory of those Romans, who, in one and the same campaign, were victorious upon the Rhine and the Euphrates, in Illyria and upon the Tagus ? A long peace, a lasting prosperity, shall be the reward of your labors. A real Frenchman could not, ought not, to rest until the seas are free and open to all. Soldiers! all that you have done, all that you will do, for the happiness of the French people and for my glory, shall be eternal in my heart.’

“Thus saying, he caused his troops to proceed to the frontiers of Spain.”

There was a campaign in Spain, however, before the emperor with the greater part of these forces entered that country. In the latter part of September the French army on the Ebro, having received some reinforcements, amounted to upwards of 90,000 men present under arms. Three Spanish corps, denominated the armies of the right, the centre, and the left, were opposed to this force. They amounted in all to 75,000, ill armed and ill provided. Palafox commanded that of the right on the Arragon river ; Blake, with that of the left, was posted at Reynosa, near the sources of the Ebro; Castaños commanded the army of the centre.

The Spaniards were ill posted. They were acting without concert; their wings were widely separated ; and either flank was exposed to the attack of superior numbers, from an enemy quick in movement, much stronger in cavalry, and having the chord of the half circle for their line of operation. Blake, with the army of the left, commenced this campaign, by breaking up from Reynosa on the 17th of September. His object was to raise the provinces of Biscay and Guipuscoa. One of his divisions succeeded in penetrating to Bilbao; but, by the great force and rapid combinations of the enemy, he was almost immediately compelled to retire. On the 12th of October Blake again attacked Bilbao with 15,000 men, and drove the enemy up the valley of Durango as far as Zornosa, who being there reinforced by the division of Verdier checked the pursuit. On the 9th of this month the veteran division of Spanish troops from the Baltic landed at St. Ander, under the marquis of Romana, and marched to join the army of Blake. The Asturians destined to act with the army of the left halted at Villarcayo, and Blake held the position at the head of that valley between Frias and Valmaceda.

The columns of the grand army destined by Napoleon for the subjugation of Spain now began to cover the road from Bayonne to Vittoria. During the quick and quiet concentration of these mighty forces, Blake was never disturbed; Romana’s battalions were moving up slowly to Bilbao; the Estremadurana were marching upon Burgos, and, animated by a hope which prudence should have discouraged, Blake resolved to advance and attack Zornosa, He took with him 17,000 men. The

French general Merlin abandoned the town on the 24th, and on the 25th fell back to Durango. By his strange, faulty, and presumptuous dispositions, Blake found himself with this half of his army in a position about five miles beyond Zornosa on the 31st, without any artillery, in the presence of 25,000 French led by the duke of Dantzic. He could not resist its onset; he could not reply to its artillery; his troops, soon thrown into confusion, were driven (but never without disputing the ground and leaving upon it pale dead) from one position to another, and at last retired in haste and disorder to Bilbao. The next day Blake was in position at Nava, behind the Salcedon. On the 4th, learning the danger of Acevedo’s division, which was intercepted in its push for the river Salcedon by the French general Villatte, Blake was again in the field, and had a severe combat with Villatte, who retreated, leaving a gun and much baggage in the hands of the Spaniards, and having sustained a severe loss of men.

Blake now once more resolved to attack Bilbao, and to attempt a junction with Palafox and the army of Arragon in the rear of the French forces,—a wonderful instance of obstinacy and infatuation. His soldiers were, at this time, bivouacking among the cold mountains without cloaks, without shoes or sandals, without any regular supplies, and seldom obtaining a ration of bread, wine, or spirits. While their brave but blundering commander was leading them in this condition towards Bilbao, two corps of French, amounting to 50,000 men, were marching upon his front, and a third, having turned his right, was already on his rear. The Spanish general fell in with the advanced guard of the fourth corps of the French army, and had a warm action with it; and learning here more of the enemy’s movements, he retired two marches upon Espinosa. Here he was attacked on the 10th by the corps of marshal Victor. On this day Romana’s infantry was beaten from its ground ; but being reinforced by another division, rallied and continued the fight with spirit. The wood, however, and the ridge of hills where these troops were engaged, remained at night-fall in possession of the French. The Spanish right contended with more vigor and better success, and were gaining ground, when darkness put an end to the combat The Spanish generals St. Roman and Riquielmè received their death-wounds on this day. The next morning Blake was again attacked. The French fell with fresh forces upon the first division of his own troops and upon the Asturians. The rapid succession of casualties among the generals of the Asturian brigades (for three fell at the very opening of the battle) was fatally confusing. The Asturians fled: the first division soon gave way; and the centre and right, after a short show of resistance, being seized with the contagious panic, broke and hurried across the Trueba in disordered crowds. His artillery and baggage lost, his army routed and dispersed, Blake himself reached Reynosa with the wreck of his force, a body of only 7000 men. Numbers were slain, numbers made prisoners: among these last, the greater part of Romana’s troops, who were sent immediately into France. These men being already familiar with the north of Europe, not having been in Spain at the exciting moment when the patriots rose, and viewing the French military service with no particular dislike, enlisted under the French eagles, and were marched northwards again. The bulk of the peasantry of the late levies threw away their arms, and returned to their homes disheartened and desponding.

Upon the 13th the enemy again fell upon Blake: he received and resisted their attack with courage, and made good his retreat with 5000 men to Arnedo, in the mountains of Asturias. Here the marquis of Romana joined him, and took command of the brave unfortunates who yet rallied around the patriot standards, the feeble remnant of the army of the left. The Spanish army of the conde de Belvedere, amounting to 11,000 infantry, 1150 horse, and thirty pieces of artillery, and encumbered rather than assisted by 7000 or 8000 armed peasants without any organization whatever, was attacked and overthrown. Of this action it is enough to say, that two veteran divisions of French infantry were in the field under the generals Mouton and Bonnet, as also a brigade of light cavalry under Lasalle, and all the heavy cavalry under Bessieres. 2500 Spaniards were slain, twenty guns, six pairs of colors, and 900 men, were taken on the field. There was present in this battle a battalion of students, volunteers from the universities of Salamanca and Leon. “The youths whom patriotism had brought to the field could not be frightened from it by danger. They fell in their ranks, and their deaths spread mourning through many a respectable family in Spain.” Peace to them: they are gone into “a world of order.”

Napoleon had from Vittoria directed all these grand movements. The remains of Belvedere’s army rallied in the pass of Somosierra.

The army of the centre under Castaños, reduced in numbers and ill disciplined, was the next marked for destruction. On the heights above Tudela this army was drawn up for battle, and, of course, for defeat. It numbered 45,000 men, with upwards of forty guns, and occupied a position on a range of low hills ten miles in extent; Tudela forming the right, Taranzona the left of the ground they had chosen. They lay in separate bodies without intermediate posts. Marshal Lasnes appeared in front of this weakly-posted force on the morning of the 23d of October with 30,000 infantry, 5000 cavalry, and sixty pieces of artillery: he immediately attacked them. The Arragonese upon the heights above Tudela fought so stoutly with the division of general Morlot, as to check and force it back at the commencement of this battle; but the centre of this long and feeble position being forced by general Maurice Mathieu, and Lefebvre following him with his numerous cavalry, the right was turned, disordered, and could resist no longer. Palafox with his Arragonese and the centre made for Zaragoza with all speed. The three divisions at Taranzona had not been engaged, when La Pena, who had behaved most handsomely, was forced back upon them with his division. All four began to retire in tolerable order, but the enemy were soon on them with their fire and with cavalry: a tumbril in their ranks blew up: amid the confusion and cries of Treason ! a panic spread among them, and the field of battle was on all sides abandoned; thirty pieces of artillery, and 8000 killed, wounded, and prisoners, remaining with the French. Luckily 15,000 got clear away to Zaragoza; and Castaños himself rallied more than two divisions at Calatayud on the second day after the battle. The heart is sick in recording successes, that, being without glory, excite no admiration, and defeats which, being without disgrace, move neither wonder nor indignation.

The only barrier now between Napoleon and Madrid was the pass of Somosierra; and a small encampment at Sepulveda covered the road leading to Segovia. At this last post the Spaniards beat back the French who attacked, and caused them an admitted loss of fifty or sixty men; but after the affair, being panic-struck, they abandoned the post they had just successfully defended, and fled to Segovia. This was not unaccountable:— the truth is, they had been so often deceived, betrayed, beaten; had so often, in the moment of a fancied success, found their positions turned, and their commanders out-manœuvred, that their confidence in every thing, but their own individual hearts and arms, when, man to man, they could actually meet their foe at no real or suspected disadvantage, was shaken; that this hour they would fight and the next fly, and the next fight again, as their confidence in present circumstances rose or fell. Today they were running, terrified like cowards, to-morrow the very same men were fighting like heroes. The strong pass of the Somosierra was held by 10,000 men under general St. Juan. They were well posted, and had sixteen pieces of artillery, commanding and sweeping the road, which ascended the mountain. Three French battalions attacked the right, three the left of this position, and a strong column marched along the road with six guns. The infantry pushed up the sides of the mountain right and left, keeping up a hot and lively fire. The infantry on the road, checked by the Spanish guns, were making little progress: a thick fog and the smoke of the fire hung upon the ascent -Napoleon was present: observing this, and knowing how great was the dread that in all the late battles his cavalry had inspired among the raw and unsteady soldiers of Spain, he directed the Polish lancers of his guard to charge up the causeway, and take the Spanish artillery. The foremost squadron lost several men and horses by the first fire they received, but, rallied by their commander Krazinski, covered by the smoke and fog, and in part by the ground over which they moved, they rode boldly forwards, came upon the guns sword in hand, and seized the battery. They were galled a little as they went up by the musketry of the infantry, posted right and left, but effected this gallant exploit with a dauntless valor. Cavalry upon them had always, hitherto, been the signal to the Spaniards that they were already turned, and to be sacrificed to the sabres of the horsemen in their confusion. It operated even upon this strong ground just as it had elsewhere. The same aspect of things brought up the same associations, and the whole force was shamefully beaten, and ran away at the wild charge of a regiment of horse.

Madrid was in alarm and anarchy, desirous to resist but incapable of defence, when the emperor appeared before the city, preceded by three heavy divisions of cavalry, and followed by a mass of infantry and a numerous artillery. His first summons of the city, at noon, on the 2d of December, was treated with defiance. His second, at midnight, had no better success. The French infantry now carried some houses by assault: a battery of thirty guns opened upon the Retiro; another threw shells from the opposite quarter. Villatte’s division stormed the Retiro the next morning, carried it, and established themselves in all the advantageous posts near. The town was now summoned a third time. Morla and another officer came out to treat He returned with Napoleon’s decision—Madrid must surrender or perish. The poor and the peasantry would still have resisted, and the firing on both sides still continued. At last Morla and Castel Franco prepared a capitulation. Castellar, the captain-general, refused to sign it, and withdrew with his troops and guns, (6000, and sixteen pieces of artillery,) by the side of the place not then invested. Morla was neither a brave nor true Spaniard; but whether he conducted the surrender of Madrid treacherously or not, the city could not have resisted. On the morning of the fourth it surrendered. Orders were issued by Napoleon to preserve the strictest discipline among the troops; and a soldier of his own guard was shot in the great square of Madrid for plundering. The Spaniards were disarmed and the city silenced. Napoleon now exercised all the right of conquest A body of nobles, clergy, and the public authorities of Madrid, waited on him at Chamartin, and presented an address. To this he replied in one of those orations, so eminently characteristic of him. There was a deal about England; and among other matter, a promise to drive the English armies from the Peninsula. His own, at this period, in Spain amounted to 330,000 infantry and 60,000 horses, 200 pieces of field artillery, and an immense reserve. Such was his muster-roll, after deducting sick, detachments, garrisons, and posts of communication ; and after providing nearly 80,000 men for Catalonia and the siege of Zaragoza, he had 180,000 men and 40,000 horses disposable for any plan of operations he chose. The Spanish armies were already overthrown: a few thousand men, in the most wretched order, were with the duke of Infantado at Cuenca. Five thousand of a new levy were in the passes of the Sierra Morena. Galluzzo with 6000 men had just been defeated at Almaraz, and driven from the defence of the Tagus. Romana was near Leon with 18,000 men, of whom only 5000 were armed at all, and none in a state of discipline or efficiency for the field.

A British army, numerically feeble, and neither supplied, supported, or informed, was the only hostile body of true soldiers still in the field, and these had been only at a late and unhappy moment brought forward.

The English ministers tardily and doubtingly made the venture of an effort in the north of Spain. That which, done earlier, and with decision, might have been, at least, hopeful in its results, if not brilliant, directed at the time it was, no talents and no Courage could possibly have conducted to a happy conclusion.