History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5 (of 6)Southey, Robert
History
History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5 (of 6)
Southey, Robert
Peninsular War, 1807-1814
way-side, within a short distance from the walls.
In this dreadful warfare blood called for blood; cruelty produced
retaliation, and retaliation was retaliated by fresh cruelties. Eight
of the Empecinado’s men were taken in the Guadarrama mountains, and
nailed to the trees there, for the purpose of intimidating their
fellows: such a spectacle had the sure effect of exasperating them, and
the same number of Frenchmen were soon nailed to the same trees, in the
same spirit of inhuman vengeance.
♦DESERTION OF THE JURAMENTADOS.♦
A lieutenant of his party, Mesa by name, went over to the French, and
engaged to bring them the head of this dreaded partisan; his interest
was so good, and his proposals so plausible, that they gave him the
rank of captain in one of the Spanish regiments which the Intruder
was raising, and sent him with a company of 200 Spanish cavalry to
perform his promise; when they came near Guadalaxara, the men put him
to death, and joined their countrymen in arms. Such an example might
have taught Joseph and his ministers how little they could depend
upon the Spaniards, who by misery, or severe usage, were forced into
his service. Half naked and ill-fed, kept in miserable prisons, or
at the hardest work, upon the canals, where such work was at hand,
winter and summer, sometimes up to the middle in water, they enlisted
with the determination of making their escape. In the course of five
months not less than 12,000 entered with this purpose; and on the first
opportunity that offered, whole companies, including the officers,
deserted, with arms and baggage. The celebrity of the Empecinado
encouraged them to these attempts, and his movements in the vicinity of
Madrid facilitated their escape. Like the other distinguished guerrilla
leaders, he soon obtained rank from the national Government, but he
looked to it neither for pay nor supplies. ♦JUNTA OF GUADALAXARA.♦
The Junta of Guadalaxara used the utmost exertions to assist him; the
members of this Junta performed their duty with perfect fidelity in
a situation where they were continually in extreme danger, from the
vicinity of a strong enemy’s force. They were as often in the woods and
wilds as in human habitations, and yet they collected stores, clothing,
and money for the armies, while in this state of outlawry under the
intrusive Government; and they circulated a newspaper which they
printed in the mountains near the sources of the Tagus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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