The lead in the affairs of the patriots was taken by the supreme junta of SCA Me, which, with a happy audacity, assumed, and, for a time, exercised all the functions of sovereign authority. Laying hold of some statutes in their constitution, which authorised their rejecting the orders of the supreme council of Madrid, when the capital should be in the hands of foreign troops, they proclaimed Ferdinand the VII. and war against France. This pre-eminence which they claimed in authority, was due to them from the circumstances of Andalusia. That was the province in which there were most veteran native troops, the only foundery of cannon in the kingdom, and the greatest store of arms and ammunition. It is the province, too, in which Gibraltar is situated, and which could best receive assistance from England. It is the province of opulence and resources. Although it was not among the highest ranks that the patriotic ardour was strongest, many of the dignified clergy and nobility joined the general enrolment of the people. The bishop of St Andero appeared among the patriots, and the Count de Montejo was indefatigable in enlisting and drilling the volun teers. The monasteries and the universities poured forth 1.c:emits. The standards of the latter bore the names of saints ; those of the former wore the names of Grcck or Roman heroes. By an agreement between the Spanish general Castanos and the patriots of Cadiz, on the one part, and of the British officers at Gibraltar and in the Mediterranean, on the other, Lord Coiling wood arrived with ships to take the command of the English fleet off Cadiz, and general Spencer, with six or seven regiments, from Gibraltar. Lord Collingwood offered his services for the reduction of the French fleet in the harbour ; but Thomas de Morla, who suc ceeded to the government of the city after the execution of Solano, determined that this should be exclusively an achievement of the Spaniards. The French ships lay in the canal of the arsenal, in such a position, that they were out of the reach of the cannon of the castles, as well as of the Spanish squadron oil Cadiz ; but the gun-boats, bomb-vessels, and batteries, constructed on the isle of Leon, and near fort Louis, soon reduced admiral Rosilly (June 14th,) to surrender the fleet, con sisting of five ships of the line. of 74 guns, one frigate, and four thousand seamen and marines.
Advice having been received, that a detachment of French had assembled at 'I'avira, to enter Spain from the side of Portugal, by the river Guadiana, general Spen cer, with his detachment, set sail for the Guadiana, and landed his troops at Ayamonte. Three ships had alrea dy been sent to the mouth of the Guadiana by general Purvis. Alarmed at these movements, the French con centrated all their force at Lisbon, excepting a few de tachments in fortified places. The Portuguese also rose upon their oppressors, and sent solicitations for succours to admiral Sir C. Cotton, who commanded the naval forces of Britain in that quarter. The change of cir cumstances, which had thus changed the relations of Spain and Great Britain towards each other, hardly needed the ceremony of a proclamation, to establish friendship and alliance. The juntas, however, formally proclaimed peace and alliance with Great Britain, Swe den, and Portugal; and the Portuguese provinces of Algarve and Alentejo put themselves under the protec tion of the junta of Seville; so did the Canary isles. En voys were dispatched to the transmarine establishments of Spain, in the Americas, \Vest Indies, and Asia, in viting them to the cause of the patriots, and of Ferdi nand. Proclamations had been sent out to those colo nies by king Joseph ; but the vessels which carried them had been mostly taken by the English, and the crews of those which arrived had been imprisoned by the trans atlantic patriots. Meanwhile the Viscount de Materosa, Don Diego de la Vega, and other deputies from the Spanish and Portuguese provinces, arrived at London. Peace was proclaimed with Spain in the London Ga zette, on the Gth of July. The Spanish prisoners in our jails, to the number of many thousands, were liberated, clothed, and sent home to join their countrymen in arms. Independent of the arms and treasures promptly for warded by government, the public ardour in Britain, for the cause of the patriots, was evinced by subscriptions that were set on foot throughout the kingdom ; and some corps of militia volunteered their services in the cause.
Some admirable precautions were published by the Seville junta, calculated to direct the desultory warfare which they had determined to pursue, in preference to risking pitched battles. Happy had it been if the seve ral juntas, in their zeal to animate their countrymen, had not forgot the precaution of adhering to truth, in the calculation of their fighting men. While they hoped
to terrify the French by exaggeration, they only deceiv ed each other, and their allies.' Of the French armies in the whole peninsula, including the army of Junot in Portugal, a force exceeding 100,000 men ; 50,000 were stationed in Madrid, or its vicinity, under Prince Murat, and marshal Moncey. From this great body, detach ments were sent to take possession of Cadiz and Valen tia ; the former detachment commanded by Dupont, the latter under marshal I\loncey. Marshal Bessieres had in charge to guard the roads between Madrid and Bay onne, and to bridle the country as much as possible, by spreading to the right and left.f This northern army was opposed by the Spanish general Guesta, at the head of the forces of Gallicia, Asturias, Estremadura, and Leon, and those of some insurgent districts of Biscay. General Castanos was commander in chief of the four kingdoms of Andalusia, with the provinces of Granada and Valcn tia, which had united themselves with Andalusia. Ad miral Cisneros was captain-general of Murcia. Don Joseph Palafox of Arragon ; and Count Espetella of Catalonia.
The army of Dupont left Madrid 20,000 strong, cross ed the mountains of the Morena, and descending into Andalusia, took and pillaged Cordova. At this place, the French general was informed that Castanos was ad vancing with 45,000 patriots. He retired first to a strong position behind the Guadalquivir, and from thence fell back to Baylen. Already he had lost great numbers by the desultory attacks of the insurgents. It was not, however, till a whole division of his army under general Wedel, and a reinforcement under general Belliard, which were on their march from Madrid, had been separated from him by the judicious movements of Castanos, that his case became hopeless. As his last resource, he made a bold attack on 25,000 of Castanos' army,* with all the forces under his immediate com mand, was repulsed with the loss of 3000 men, and oblig ed to surrender at discretion. General \Vedel's division was comprehended in the capitulation. It was agreed, that they should be sent home by sea. The battle of Baylen was fought on the 20th of July. General Mon cey was not more successful in Valentia. Marching upon the city of Valentia, after routing the peasants at the passes of the mountains, he began to cannonade its walls, when he was attacked by general Caro, the ne phew of Romana, with the covering army, was beaten back to his camp, and fl om thence obliged to fly to Ma drid. Of 15,000 men who had marched with Moncey from the Spanish capital, 1500 were taken prisoners, and 10,000 returned, with a prodigious proportion of wounded. In the campaign of Arragon, the defence of Saragossa displayed a heroism never surpassed in an cient or modern times. On the 14th of June, before any force could be organized for the protection of this de fenceless city, 9000 French, under the orders of general Le Febre,took up a position on the heights which com mand Saragossa. A small party of cavalry even pene trated into the town ; but they paid dearly for their rash advance, being cut off to a man. The Saragossians had hastily planted some cannon before the gates of their city, and also in some favourable positions without the town ; when, on the 15th ofJune, the French sent a de tachment against these out-posts, while their main body attempted to storm the city at one of their gates. The Saragossians resisted both attacks with successful fu ry. They closed with the French after single dischar ges, and overpowered them. A party of the enemy that entered the town were cut to pieces, and Le Febre re tired beyond the reach of their cannon, losing, in his retreat, 400 cavalry, and 27 baggage waggons. This was but the prelude to a more dreadful siege. The French receiving reinforcements of troops and artillery, had again nearly invested the town before the expiration of June, and reoccupied the adjacent heights. During their advance, the Saragossians employed their slender means of defence to the best advantage. They tore down the curtains from their windows, and formed them into sacks, which they filled with sand, and piled up be fore every gate in the form of a battery, digging round each of them a deep trench. The gates of Saragossa arc, in many places, connected by the mud walls of gar dens within the town, in others by buildings, or by the remains of an old Moorish wall, which had not even a platform for musquetry. Through these intermediate houses, and mud walls, the brave citizens broke holes for inusquetry and cannon. The houses in the environs of the city were pulled down or burnt. Gardens and olive grounds were cheerfully rooted up by the proprie tors, whenever they impeded the defence of the city, or covered the approach of the enemy. The exertions o1 the men were imitated by the women, and even the chil dren.