While these gentlemen plead for deference to Bona- the Providence of God, the valour of our navy, and perparte, and crave

Respect for his great place and bid the Devil
Be duly honour'd for his burning throne,

haps the very efforts of these Spaniards, have hitherto diverted from us, it may be modestly questioned whether we ought to be too forward to estimate and condemn the feeling of temporary stupefaction which they create; lest, in so doing, we should resemble the worthy clergyman, who, while he had himself never snuffed a candle with his fingers, was disposed severely to criticise i the conduct of a martyr who winced a little among his flames.

Note 12. Stanza li.

They won not Zaragoza, but her children's bloody tomb. The interesting account of Mr Vaughan has made most readers acquainted with the first siege of Zaragoza. The last and fatal siege of that gallant and devoted city is detailed with great eloquence and precision in the « Edinburgh Annual Register» for 1809,—a work in which the affairs of Spain have been treated of with attention corresponding to their deep interest, and to the peculiar sources of information open to the historian. The following are a few brief extracts from this splendid historical narrative:

it may not be altogether unreasonable to claim some modification of censure upon those who have been long and to a great extent successfully resisting this great enemy of mankind. That the energy of Spain has not uniformly been directed by conduct equal to its vigour, has been too obvious; that her armies, under their complicated disadvantages, have shared the fate of such as were defeated after taking the field with every possible advantage of arms and discipline, is surely not to be wondered at. But that a nation, under the circumstances of repeated discomfiture, internal treason, and the mismanagement incident to a temporary and hastily-adopted government, should have wasted, by its stubborn, uniform, and prolonged resistance, myriads after myriads of those soldiers who had overrun the world-that some of its provinces should, like Galicia, after being abandoned by their allies, and overrun by their enemies, have recovered their freedom by their own unassisted exertions: that others, like Catalonia, undismayed by the treason which betrayed some fortresses, and the force which subdued others, should not only have continued their resistance, but have attained over their victorious enemy a superiority, which is even now enabling them to besiege and retake the places of strength which had been wrested from them,-is a tale hitherto untold in the revolutionary war. To say that such a people cannot be subdued, would be presumption similar to that of those who protested that Spain could not defend herself for a year, or Portugal for a month; but that a resistance which has been continued for so long a space, when the usurper, except during the short-lived Austrian campaign, had no other enemies on the Continent, should be now less successful, when repeated defeats have broken the reputation of the French armies, and when they are likely (it would seem almost in desperation) to seek occupation elsewhere, is a prophecy as improbable as ungracious.And while we are in the humour of severely censuring our allies, gallant and devoted as they have shown themselves in the cause of national liberty, because they may not instantly adopt those measures which we in our wisdom may deem essential to success, it might be well, if we endeavoured first to resolve the previous questions,-1st, Whether we do not at this moment know much less of the Spanish armies than of those of Portugal, which were so promptly condemned as totally inadequate to assist in the preservation of their country? 2d, Whether, independently of any right we have to In the midst of these horrors and privations, the offer more than advice and assistance to our independ-pestilence broke out in Zaragoza. To various causes. ent allies, we can expect that they should renounce entirely the national pride, which is inseparable from patriotism, and at once condescend not only to be saved by our assistance, but to be saved in our own way? 3d, Whether, if it be an object (as undoubtedly it is a main one), that the Spanish troops should be trained under British discipline, to the flexibility of movement, and power of rapid concert and combination, which is essential to modern war, such a consummation is likely to be produced by abusing them in newspapers and periodical publications? Lastly, Since the undoubted authority of British officers makes us now acquainted with part of the horrors that attend invasion, and which

«A breach was soon made in the mud walls, and then, as in the former siege, the war was carried on in the streets and houses; but the French had been taught, by experience, that in this species of warfare the Zaragozans derived a superiority from the feeling and principle which inspired them, and the cause for which they fought. The only means of conquering Zaragoza was to destroy it house by house, and street by street, and upon this system of destruction they proceeded. Three companies of miners and eight companies of sappers carried on this subterraneous war; the Spaniards, it is said, attempted to oppose them by counter-mines these were operations to which they were wholly unused, and, according to the French statement, their miners were every day discovered and suffocated. Meantime the bombardment was incessantly kept up. Within the last forty-eight hours) said Palafox, in a letter to his friend General Doyle, 6000 shells have been thrown in. Two-thirds of the town are in ruins; but we shall perish under the ruins of the remaining third rather than surrender. In the course of the siege above 17,000 bombs were thrown at the town; the stock of powder with which Zaragoza had been stored was exhausted; they had none at last! but what they manufactured day by day; and no other cannon-balls than those which were shot into the town, i and which they collected and fired back upon the enemy.»

enumerated by the annalist, he adds, « scantiness of food, crowded quarters, unusual exertion of body, anxiety of mind, and the impossibility of recruiting their exhausted strength by needful rest in a city which was almost incessantly bombarded, and where every hour their sleep was broken by the tremendous explo sion of mines. There was now no respite, either by day or night, for this devoted city; even the natural order of light and darkness was destroyed in Zaragoza; by day it ! was involved in a red sulphureous atmosphere of smoke, which hid the face of heaven; by night the fire of cannons and mortars, and the flames of burning houses. kept it in a state of terrific illumination.

the religion of his country, let him wear it in his bosom for his crucifix to rest upon.»>

Note 13. Stanza Ixiii.
-the Vault of Destiny.

« When once the pestilence had begun, it was impossible to check its progress, or confine it to one quarter of the city. Hospitals were immediately established, there were above thirty of them; as soon as one was destroyed by the bombardment, the patients were removed to another, and thus the infection was Before finally dismissing the enchanted cavern of carried to every part of Zaragoza. Famine aggravated Don Roderick, it may be noticed, that the legend octhe evil; the city had probably not been sufficiently curs in one of Calderon's plays, entitled La Virgin del provided at the commencement of the siege, and of Sagario. The scene opens with the noise of the chase, the provisions which it contained, much was destroyed and Recisundo, a predecessor of Roderick upon the in the daily ruin which the mines and bombs effected. Gothic throne, enters pursuing a stag. The animal asHad the Zaragozans and their garrison proceeded acsumes the form of a man, and defies the king to enter cording to military rules, they would have surrendered the cave, which forms the bottom of the scene, and before the end of January; their batteries had then engage with him in single combat. The king accepts been demolished, there were open breaches in many the challenge, and they engage accordingly, but withparts of their weak walls, and the enemy were already out advantage on either side, which induces the Genie within the city. On the 30th above sixty houses were to inform Recisundo, that he is not the monarch for blown up, and the French obtained possession of the whom the adventure of the enchanted cavern is remonasteries of the Augustines and Les Monicas, which served, and he proceeds to predict the downfall of the adjoined each other, two of the last defensible places Gothic monarchy, and of the Christian religion, which left. The enemy forced their way into the church; shall attend the discovery of its mysteries. Recisundo, every column, every chapel, every altar, became a point appalled by these prophecies, orders the cavern to be of defence, which was repeatedly attacked, taken, and secured by a gate and bolts of iron. In the second part retaken the pavement was covered with blood, the of the same play we are informed, that Don Roderick aisles and body of the church strewed with the dead, had removed the barrier and transgressed the prohibiwho were trampled under foot by the combatants. In tion of his ancestor, and had been apprised by the prothe midst of this conflict, the roof, shattered by repeat-digies which he discovered of the approaching ruin of ed bombs, fell in; the few who were not crushed, after his kingdom. a short pause, which this tremendous shock and their own unexpected escape occasioned, renewed the fight with rekindling fury: fresh parties of the enemy poured in; monks, and citizens, and soldiers came to the defence, and the contest was continued upon the ruins, and the bodies of the dead and the dying."

Yet, seventeen days after sustaining these extremities, did the heroic inhabitants of Zaragoza continue their defence; nor did they surrender until their despair had extracted from the French generals a capitulation, more honourable than has been granted to fortresses of the first order.

Who shall venture to refuse the Zaragozans the eulogium conferred upon them by the eloquence of Wordsworth?-« Most gloriously have the citizens of Zaragoza proved that the true army of Spain, in a contest of this nature, is the whole people. The same city has also exemplified a melancholy, yea, a dismal truth, -yet consolatory and full of joy,-that when a people are called suddenly to fight for their liberty, and are sorely pressed upon, their best field of battle is the floors upon which their children have played; the chambers where the family of each man has slept (his own or his neighbour's); upon or under the roofs by which they have been sheltered; in the gardens of their recreation; in the street, or in the market-place; before the altars of their temples, and among their congregated dwellings, blazing or up-rooted.

« The government of Spain must never forget Zaragoza for a moment. Nothing is wanting to produce the same effects every where, but a leading mind, such as that city was blessed with. In the latter contest this has been proved; for Zaragoza contained, at that time, bodies of men from almost all parts of Spain. The narrative of these two sieges should be the manual of every Spaniard. He may add to it the ancient stories of Numantia and Saguntum; let him sleep upon the book as a pillow, and, if he be a devout adherent to

Note 14. Conclusion. Stanza ii.
While downward on the land his legions press,
Before them it was rich with vine and flock,

And smiled like Eden in her summer dress;-
Behind their wasteful march, a reeking wilderness.

I have ventured to apply to the movements of the French army that sublime passage in the prophecies of Joel, which seems applicable to them in more respects than that I have adopted in the text. One would think their ravages, their military appointments, the terror which they spread among invaded nations, their military discipline, their arts of political intrigue and deceit, were distinctly pointed out in the following verses of Scripture:

2. «A day of darknesse and gloominesse, a day of clouds and of thick darknesse, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong, there bath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

3. « A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behinde them a desolate wildernesse, yea, and nothing shall escape them.

4. « The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses and as horsemen, so shall they runne.

5. « Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battel array.

6. «Before their face shall the people be much pained: all faces shall gather blacknesse.

7. «They shall run like mighty men, they shall climbe the wall like men of warre, and they shall march every one in his wayes, and they shall not break their ranks.

8. « Neither shall one thrust another, they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

9. « They shall run to and fro in the citie: they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses: they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

10. << The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble, the sunne and the moon shall be dark, and the starres shall withdraw their shining.»

In verse 20th also, which announces the retreat of the northern army, described in such dreadful colours, into a « land barren and desolate,» and the dishonour with which God afflicted them for having « magnified themselves to do great things,» there are particulars not inapplicable to the retreat of Masséna; Divine Providence having, in all ages, attached disgrace as the natural punishment of cruelty and presumption.

Note 15. Conclusion. Stanza vii.

The rudest sentinel, in Britain born,

dulged themselves in parading their bands of music,
and actually performed « God save the King. Their
minstrelsy was however deranged by the undesired ac-
companiment of the British horse-artillery, on whose
part in the concert they had not calculated. The sur-
prise was sudden, and the rout complete; for the artil-
lery and cavalry did execution upon them for about
four miles, pursuing at the gallop as often as they got
beyond the range of the guns.

Note 17. Conclusion. Stanza x.
Vainly thy squadrons bide Assuava's plain,
And front the flying thunders as they roar,

With frantic charge and tenfold odds, in vain ! In the severe action of Fuentes d'Honoro, upon 5th May, 1811, the grand mass of the French cavalry attacked the right of the British position, covered by two guns of the horse-artillery, and two squadrons of cavalry. After suffering considerably from the fire of Gave his poor crust to feed some wretch forlorn. the guns, which annoyed them in every attempt at Even the unexampled gallantry of the British army formation, the enemy turned their wrath entirely toin the campaign of 1810-11, although they never wards them, distributed brandy among their troopers, fought but to conquer, will do them less honour in his- and advanced to carry the field-pieces with the despe tory than their humanity, attentive to soften to the ut- ration of drunken fury. They were in no ways checked most of their power the horrors which war, in its by the heavy loss which they sustained in this daring mildest aspect, must always inflict upon the defence- attempt, but closed, and fairly mingled with the British less inhabitants of the country in which it is waged, cavalry, to whom they bore the proportion of ten to and which, on this occasion, were tenfold augmented one. Captain Ramsay (let me be permitted to name a by the barbarous cruelties of the French. Soup-gallant countryman), who commanded the two guns, kitchens were established by subscription among the dismissed them at the gallop, and, putting himself at officers, wherever the troops were quartered for any the head of the mounted artillerymen, ordered them to length of time. The commissaries contributed the fall upon the French, sabre in hand. This very unerheads, feet, etc. of the cattle slaughtered for the sol- pected conversion of artillerymen into dragoons contridiery; rice, vegetables, and bread, where it could be buted greatly to the defeat of the enemy, already dishad, were purchased by the officers. Fifty or sixty concerted by the reception they had met from the two starving peasants were daily fed at one of these regi- British squadrons; and the appearance of some small mental establishments, and carried home the relics to reinforcements, notwithstanding the immense disprotheir famished households. The emaciated wretches, portion of force, put them to absolute rout. A colonel who could not crawl from weakness, were speedily em- or major of their cavalry, and many prisoners (almost ployed in pruning their vines. While pursuing Masséna, all intoxicated), remained in our possession. Those the soldiers evinced the same spirit of humanity; and, who consider for a moment the difference of the serin many instances, when reduced themselves to short vices, and how much an artilleryman is necessarily and allowance, from having out-marched their supplies, naturally led to identify his own safety and utility with they shared their pittance with the starving inhabitants abiding by the tremendous implement of war, to the who had ventured back to view the ruins of their habi- exercise of which he is chiefly, if not exclusively, traintations, burnt by the retreating enemy, and to bury the ed, will know how to estimate the presence of mind bodies of their relations whom they had butchered.— which commanded so bold a manœuvre, and the steadiIs it possible to know such facts without feeling a ness and confidence with which it was executed. sort of confidence, that those who so well deserve victory are most likely to attain it ?—It is not the least of Lord Wellington's military merits, that the slightest disposition towards marauding meets immediate punishment. Independently of all moral obligation, the army which is most orderly in a friendly country, has always proved most formidable to an armed enemy.

Note 16. Conclusion. Stanza viii.
Vain-glorious fugitive!

Note 18. Conclusion. Stanza x.
And what avails thee that, for CAMERON slain,

Wild from his plaided ranks the yell was given. during the desperate contest in the streets of the village The gallant Colonel Cameron was wounded mortally

called Fuentes d'Honoro. He fell at the head of his native Highlanders, the 71st and 79th, who raised! a dreadful shriek of grief and rage. They charged, with irresistible fury, the finest body of French grentThe French conducted this memorable retreat with diers ever seen, being a part of Bonaparte's selecti much of the fanfarronade proper to their country, by guard. The officer who led the French, a man remarkwhich they attempt to impose upon others, and per- able for stature and symmetry, was killed on the spot. haps on themselves, a belief that they are triumphing The Frenchman who stepped out of his rank to take in the very moment of their discomfiture. On the 30th am at Colonel Cameron was also bayoneted, pierced March, 1811, their rear-guard was overtaken near Pega with a thousand wounds, and almost torn to pieces by by the British cavalry. Being well posted, and conceiv- the furious Highlanders, who, under the command of ing themselves safe from infantry (who were indeed Colonel Cadogan, bore the enemy out of the contested many miles in the rear), and from artillery, they in-ground at the point of the bayonet. Massena pays my

countrymen a singular compliment in his account of the attack and defence of this village, in which he says, the British lost many officers, and Scotch.

Note 19. Conclusion. Stanza xiv.

O who shall grudge him Albuera's bays,
Who brought a race regenerate to the field,
Roused them to emulate their fathers' praise,

able manner in which these opinions have been retract_ ed. The success of this plan, with all its important consequences, we owe to the indefatigable exertions of Field-Marshal Beresford.

Note 20. Conclusion. Stanza xvii.

-a race renown'd of old,

Whose war-cry oft has waked the battle-swell.

This stanza alludes to the various achievements of

the warlike family of Græme, or Graham. They are

chief, under whose command his countrymen stormed the wall built by the Emperor Severus between the friths of Forth and Clyde, the fragments of which are still popularly called Græme's Dyke. Sir John the Græme, « the hardy, wight, and wise,» is well known as the friend of Sir William Wallace. Alderne, Kilsyth, and Tibbermuir, were scenes of the victories of the heroic Marquis of Montrose. The pass of Killycrankie is famous for the action between King William's forces and the Highlanders in 1689,

Temper'd their beadlong rage, their courage steel'd? Nothing during the war of Portugal seems, to a distinct observer, more deserving of praise, than the self-said, by tradition, to have descended from the Scottish devotion of Field-Marshal Beresford, who was contented to undertake all the hazard of obloquy which might have been founded upon any miscarriage in the highly important experiment of training the Portuguese troops to an improved state of discipline. In exposing his military reputation to the censure of imprudence from the most moderate, and all manner of unutterable calumnies from the ignorant and malignant, he placed at stake the dearest pledge which a military man had to offer, and nothing but the deepest conviction of the high and essential importance attached to success can be supposed an adequate motive. How great the chance of miscarriage was supposed, may be estimated from It is seldom that one line can number so many hethe general opinion of officers of unquestioned talents roes, and yet more rare when it can appeal to the and experience, possessed of every opportunity of in-glory of a living descendant in support of its ancient formation: how completely the experiment has succeeded, and how much the spirit and patriotism of our ancient allies had been under-rated, is evident, not only from those victories in which they have borne a distinguished share, but from the liberal and highly honour

renown.

Where glad Dundee in faint huzzas expired.

The allusions to the private history and character of General Graham may be illustrated by referring to the eloquent and affecting speech of Mr Sheridan, upon the vote of thanks to the victor of Barrossa.