History of the Peninsular War, Volume 3 (of 6)Southey, Robert
History
History of the Peninsular War, Volume 3 (of 6)
Southey, Robert
Peninsular War, 1807-1814
On the following day Moncey, who had fixed his head-quarters at the
Torrero, addressed a letter to Palafox and the magistrates of Zaragoza,
warning them that the city was now besieged on all sides, and all
its communications cut off, and that he might now employ against it
every means of destruction which the laws of war allowed. Madrid, he
said, had capitulated, and thereby saved itself from the miseries
which a longer resistance must have drawn on. Zaragoza, however she
might confide in the courage of her inhabitants, could not possibly
succeed against the means which were now brought against her, and her
total destruction must be inevitable if she caused those means to be
employed. He called upon them to spare the effusion of blood, and
save so fine and so estimable a city, and to inspire the people with
peaceful sentiments, as the way to deserve their love and gratitude. On
his part, he promised them every thing compatible with his feelings,
his duty, and the power which the Emperor had given him. Marshal
Moncey was an upright and honourable man, unstained by any of the
revolutionary crimes; what his feelings were may therefore well be
supposed. Gladly would he have induced the Zaragozans to submit, that
he might have saved himself from the enormous guilt of destroying the
city and its inhabitants for resisting what he and every man in the
French army who acknowledged the difference between right and wrong,
felt in their hearts to be an insolent and iniquitous usurpation.
Palafox replied to the summons, and told him it was in vain to think
of appalling men by the horrors of a siege, who had endured one, and
who knew how to die. If Madrid had capitulated (which he could not
believe), it had been sold: and what then? Madrid was but a single
place, and there was no reason why Zaragoza should yield, when there
were 60,000 men determined to defend it. The Marshal had tried them
yesterday, and his troops had left at the gates witnesses enough of
that determination. It might be more fitting for him to assume a
lofty tone, and talk to the Marshal of capitulating, if he would not
lose his army before the town. The spirit of eleven million Spaniards
♦CAVALLERO, 92. SEBASTIAN HERNANDEZ, 6, 7.♦ was not to be extinguished
by oppression; and they who had resolved to be free, were so. As
for the blood which Marshal Moncey was desirous of sparing, it was
as glorious for the Spaniards to lose it in such a cause, as it was
ignominious for the French to be the instruments of shedding it.
♦THE INVESTMENT OF THE CITY COMPLETED.♦
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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