and thereby rendered them less efficient in the field, could hardly have . been devised.

It was reported that the central junta, in consequence of the defeat, had fled from Seville; they, however, were better informed of the loss which the enemy had sustained, than to be dismayed at the issue of the battle; and their conduct was dignified as well as politic. They decreed a pension to the April 1. widows and orphans of all those who had fallen, in proportion to their rank and circumstances, a badge of distinction to all the corps whom the general should commend, with double-pay for one month, and they promoted all the officers who had distinguished themselves. They declared that the general and the great body of the army had deserved well of their country, and they conferred the rank of captain-general upon Cuesta. This measure was censured, and with good reason; for Cuesta had committed important errors in neglecting to defend the Puente del Arzobispo with an adequate force, in abandoning the strong pass of Miravete, where every advantage of position was in his favour, and in risking a battle afterwards upon ground which the enemy had chosen. The Duke de Urbino and Generals Lapena and Marina were displaced on suspicion of trea

was their temptation to acknowledge the intruder: property is a pledge of attachment to a legitimate government; but in perilous times it has been found that it usually becomes a pledge of submission to any usurpation.

The intruder and his partisans hoped that the defeat and dispersion of two armies at the same time would break the spirit of the government, if not of the nation, and that the supreme junta might be induced to se cure themselves and their own possessions by submission. According. ly a Spanish traitor, by name Joaquim Maria Sotelo, addressed a letter from April 12. Merida to the vice-president, saying, that the greater num ber of the provinces of Spain had sufficiently suffered from the horrible effects of war and conquest, and now the rest were threatened with the same calamities. Filled with consternation, he said, at the defeats of Urbino and Cuesta, the honourable Spaniards at the court of Madrid, who could not contemplate without the most poignant grief, the utter desolation of their beloved country, had implored the king to alleviate the distresses of such provinces as were occupied by the French troops, and to prevent them in those which were not yet in their possession. To these prayers the king had attended, and had therefore ordered him to announce his compliance to the junta, and authorised him to consult with such deputies as the junta might think fit to appoint, on the best means of fulfilling his wishes. He could not suppose that they would refuse to take steps on which the salvation of Andalusia and the happiness of the whole kingdom depended. And, as the business was most important in its character, and

most urgent in the present circumstances, Sotelo represented, that it would be improper to conduct it in writing, and that all the disputes and irregularities and doubtswhich it would otherwise cause might be complete ly obviated by a personal conference. On this ground, he hoped, from the honour and patriotism of the junta, that deputies would be named to confer with him.

The junta replied, not to this traitor himself, but to Cuesta. "They had not forgotten, they said, the sacred character with which they were invested, and the solemn oath which they had taken, in unison with the wishes of the whole Spanish nation. If Sotelo were the bearer of powers sufficiently extensive to treat for the restitution of their beloved king, and for the immediate evacuation of the Spanish territory by the French troops, let him publish them in the usual form adopted by states, and they would be announced to the allies of Spain. The junta had no authority to listen to any treaty, or terminate any transaction, which was not founded on the basis of eternal justice. Any other principle of negociation, without benefitting the empire, would only tend to degrade the junta, which had entered into the most aweful engagements to bury itself beneath the ruins of the monarchy, rather than sanction any proposition which should diminish the honour and independence of the Spanish people. This answer they desired Cuesta to transmit to the intruder's agent, and they published the proposal and the reply. Perceiving, however, of what importance the safety of the government was to the patriotic cause, and the danger therefore of associating it in the minds of the people with any particular place of residence, in times

when no place was secure, they published a decree April 18. upon this subject. It began by an avowal, that in their anxiety to provide a quick remedy for the calamities which had befallen the armies of La Mancha and Estremadura, they had imprudently hazarded their own safety by remaining at Seville But having provided for the reinforcement and equipment of the troops, and furnished all the supplies which were requisite for the defence of the four kingdoms of Andalusia, they had in cool consideration reflected, that their security was insepara ble from that of the state; that the preserval of the deposit of the sovereignty entrusted into their hands was the first of their obligations; and that they could not again expose it to the danger of being destroyed, without doing wrong to the nation which had confided it to them. The precipitation with which the tyrant of Europe advanced against Madrid in November, and sent troops towards Aranjuez, made it apparent that a principal object of his ferocious policy was to strike a mortal blow at the government, and, seizing the body which administered it, cut all the bonds of political association, and then throw the nation into confusion. These were still his objects: trusting more to his cunning than his force, he still pursued the govern. ment, hoping to get its members in his power, and then renew the infamous scenes of Bayonne, by compelling them to authorize his usurpation, or sacrificing them to his rage if they resisted his seductions and his menaces. Thus to degrade the government in the eyes of the nation itself would, he thought, be the best means of degrading the nation also, and reducing it to that utter servitude,

which, in the insolence of his fortune, this tyrant designed to inflict upon Spain. To frustrate these aims, the junta decreed, that, whenever the place of their residence was threaten ed, or when any other reason should convince them of the utility of so doing, they would transfer the seat of government elsewhere, where they might preserve the august deposit of the sovereignty, and watch over

the defence, the well-being, and the prosperity of the nation. And they declared, that, whatever the accidents of the war might be, the junta would never abandon the continent of Spain, while a single spot could be found in it where they could establish themselves for the defence of the country against the force and fraud of its perfidious enemy, as they had solemnly sworn to do.

THE plans of the intruder were, that, when Sebastiani and Victor had defeated the armies of La Mancha and Estremadura, the former should advance into Andalusia, and make himself master of Seville, while the latter should enter Portugal by the side of Badajos, and co-operate with Soult, who was to advance from Galicia through the northern provinces. Success was considered as so certain, that, when the news of Cuesta's defeat reached Paris, the Moniteur affirmed that this engagement had laid Seville open to the French armies, and that probably by that time the capital of Portugal was in their possession also. The unexpected and unexampled rapidity with which the Spanish troops again assembled after their dispertion, and the shock which Victor received from the Duke of Albuquerque, frustrated the intended movements on the side of the Sierra Morena and of Alentejo. Soult meantime, ignorant of this fortune, (for the communication by way of Salamanca was cut off by Sir Robert Wilson's indefatigable legion) proceeded to execute his part of the combined operations. Marshal Ney, between whom and Soult no very cordial feelings of good

VOL. II. PART I.

will existed, had been appointed governor of Galicia. He had still a predominant force after Soult's army was departed; there were garrisons in every town which was sufficiently important, either for its size or situation, to require one, and the French had complete military possession of the country. But they had yet to subdue the spirit of the people; and the Galicians, who had no longer an example of panic and disorder before their eyes, carried on the war in their own way. Captain M'Kinley in the Lively frigate, with the Plo ver sloop under his command, arrived off the coast to assist them. He discovered none of that apathy for their own country, none of that contented indifference who was to be their master, none of that sullen and ungrateful dislike of the English, of which the retreating army had complained so loudly; he heard from them nothing but expressions of gratitude to the British government and praise of the British nation; he perceived in them the true feelings of loyalty and patriotism, and saw in all their actions the most enthusiastic ardour, regulated by a cool and determined courage. The French at

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tempted, by the most atrocious means, to terrify and keep them down. On the 7th of March, a body of these ruffians entered the little towns of Carril and Villa Garcia, murdered some old men and women in the streets, set fire to the houses of those persons whom they suspected of being patriots, and then retreated to Padron. To lay waste villages with fire, to abandon the women to the soldiery, to put to death every man whom they took in arms, was the system upon which Ney and Soult proceeded, in conformity to the orders of Buonaparte. Such a system, if it failed to intimidate, necessarily recoiled upon their own heads; and the thirst of vengeance gave a character of desperation to the courage of the Galicians. A party of 105 French were pillaging a convent, when Don Bernardo Gonzalez, with two-andthirty Spaniards, fell upon them, and did such execution while the enemy were in disorder and encumbered with their plunder, that only sixteen of them escaped. During three days the French attempted to destroy the peasants of Deza and Trasdira; the men of Banos and Tabieros came to aid their countrymen, and the invaders at length retreated with the loss of 114 men. A party March 9. from Pontevedra entered Marin: here the Lively and the Plover opened their fire upon them, and as they fled from the English ships, their officers fell into the hands of the peasantry. In this kind of perpetual war the French were wasted; a malignant fever broke out among them, which raged particularly at their head-quarters in Santiago, and many who had no disease

died of the fatigue which they suffered from being incessantly harassed, and kept night and day on the alarm.

The bulletins had fixed Soult's arrival at Lisbon for the end of February. It was not however till the beginning of the following month that he began his march. The Minho was to be crossed; there is no bridge over it in any part where it forms the boundary line between the two kingdoms, and it is never fordable but at one spot, above Melgaco, and then only after an unusual continuance of dry weather. Soult wished to cross without ascending the whole way to Orense, which is about four-and-forty miles from Tuy, and the best place seemed at its mouth, in defiance of the old frontier fortress of Caminha. The works, originally* ill-planned and illsituated, had long been neglected, and though there were still a few guns mounted, the French, despising both the place and the enemy, preferred crossing in the face of this fortress to the delay and fatigue of going round. In order, however, to deceive the Portugueze garrison, the troops were entirely withdrawn from the opposite bank, making a feint of marching up the stream. Boats meantime had been collected at the neighbouring fishing town, La Guardia; they were brought over land to the most convenient point of embarkation, and soldiers enough to storm the ruinous works of Caminha attempted the passage. But the Portugueze had not been duped into any remissness of their duty; they opened an effectual fire from a few guns; some of the boats were sunk, one reached the left. bank with thirty-eight men and two officers, who were immediately made