Bonaparte concealed the necessity which obliged him to recal his troops from the Oder to the Ebro, by making the withdrawing of them appear an act of favour to the Prussians, at the intercession of Russia. Having met the Emperor Alexander with a splendid ostentation of frienuship at Erfurth, he strengthened the ascendency which he flan gained over that monarch by the confer ences at Tilsit, and he induced him to join him in an offer of peace to the British. As the Spaniards were denominated Insurgents, in the first reply which he made to the proposition of admitting the government of that country to an independent share in the negotiation, his Britannic majesty closed the negotiation, by a dignified declaration, that neither the honour of his majesty, nor the generosity of the British nation, would allow them to abandon a brave and loyal people, whose exertions in a cause so unquestionably just his majesty had pledg ed himself to maintain.
While the army of France lay inactive on the Ebro and the passes into Biscay, and while Napoleon was em ployed in averting danger on the side of Russia and Germany, the provincial juntas had leisure to resolve themselves into one supreme and central body. The meeting of this assembly was an imposing spectacle, but it was nothing more. Morla was but one of many trai tors, who had a principal influence on all its proceed ings. Jealous of their generals, they gave them no pow er, but kept them at the head of separate armies, each independent of the other. They misled themselves, and deceived the people into a fatal security, by pompous pro clamations, and absolute falsehoods as to the state of the national resources. They took no pains to recruit the armies with arms and clothing. In short, during the interval that the French were weak, they did nothing either to overpower them' before they were reinforced, or to meet them with equal numbers. The whole army of the patriots now, including the army of Romana, and the regiments delivered from the hulks of Junot, were divided into three wings. The eastern, commanded by Don Joseph Palafox ; the north-western by General Blake; the central by Castanos. The army of Casta nos and Palafox, mustering 11,000 men, while the junta proclaimed that it was 70,000 strong, is described by a British officer,* who saw it, as a mob of miserable pea sants, without organization, and with few officers that deserved the name. The general and principal officers had no confidence in the men, nor the men in them selves. The army of Blake, even after the accession of Romana's corps of 8000, could not amount to17,000 when it fought the French : it also was lamentably deficient in officers, food, and clothing, and in every species of warlike equipment.t Bonaparte having ordered a levy of 160,000 conscripts, set troops in motion for Spain, and followed them from Paris, without waiting to hear the last reply of the Bri tish to his proposals for a negotiation. On the 12th of November he joined his brother Joseph with a reinforce ment of 12,000 men. Agreeably to the plan of the campaign chalked out by the junta, Castanos crossed the Ebro at three points, and suffering himself to be decoyed by the French, pushed on as far as Pampeluna.
When it was seen that he had completely fallen into the snare, Marshal Ney crossed the Ebro, routed the Spanish divisions at Logrono and Colabora, and com pletely separated him from communication with Blake. In a series of actions from the end of October, General Blake's army was driven from post to post as far as Es pinosa. There they made a stand ; but were obliged to recommence their retreat. During the conflict at Es pinosa, a French detachment was sent against the last retreat of the Gallicians at Reynosa. The patriots were routed and dispersed. Blake, with his shattered re mains, took refuge in Asturias. What remained of the corps of Romana, which had formed part of the Gallician army, fled first to St Andero, and afterwards to Asturias. Marshal Soult pursued them closely, and entered St An dero. In the mean time, the Estremaduran army under the command of the young Count Belvedere, was decoy ed like Castanos's to pass the Ebro. Advancing rashly to Burgos, they were there almost annihilated. The enemy having thus destroyed the two armies of the north and of Estremadura, fell upon Castanos at Tudela, and defeated him in an engagement, which fixed the fate of the campaign. The battle of Burgos had broken the centre of the enemy ; the battle of Espinosa the right ; that of Tudela crushed their force upon the left ; and the road to Madrid was laid open. Before these fatal dispersions, Sir John Moore had commenced his march from Portugal to support the Spanish armies. Gallicia, or the borders of Leon were fixed upon by our war minister as the place for assembling our troops ; and it was communicated to General Moore, that 15,000 men had been ordered to sail for Corunna. For the junction of these with his own forces, he was directed to send such orders as he should think proper to Sir David Baird, who commanded them. A distressing dilemma presented itself at the outset of Sir John Moore's army on their march. 01 the two great roads through Por tugal into Spain, viz. the northerly road to Almeida, or the great eastern road to Elvas, it was found that the lat ter was through a country which would not furnish sus tenance to the army ; and the former was too mountain ous to admit the carriage of artillery.f It was there fore necessary to divide the army. Six thousand men were entrusted to General Hope, who marched by the Elvas or Madrid road : The rest moved by Coimbra, Abrantes, and Almeida. The Spanish government had recommended Burgos as the point of union for the Bri tish troops ; and Madrid and Valladolid were the places appointed for magazines It was communicated by go vernment to General Moore, through Lord William Bentinck, that he would find between 60,000 and 70.000 men assembled under Blake and Romana in the Asturias and Gallicia ; independent of Castanos's force on the front and left flank of the enemy. A more complete re verse of every thing which the imagination of English men had painted of Spanish affairs could not be found, than in the real state of Spain.