198 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



as accurate, as that given by 

 Mr. Vaughan, an eye-witness of 

 the first siege; nevertheless, we 

 cannot retrain from recording 

 what follows. A considerable 

 body of the enemy was decoyed 

 into the town by a stratagem, 

 which was fallen on by the women 

 (who had enrolled themselves into 

 a regiment to the number of SOO) 

 within the walls of Saragossa. A 

 large number of white handker- 

 chiefs waved on the battlements and 

 ramparts, seemed to indicate that 

 the inhabitants had at last deter- 

 mined on submission. The 

 French parly were defeated, and 

 almost all of them destroyed in 

 the streets. The women in this 

 action zealously supported, in va- 

 rious ways, and all that they 

 could tliink of, their countrymen. 

 It was lamentable to perceive, 

 after the affair was over, how many 

 of those heroic women were kill- 

 ed or wounded. When marshal 

 Lasnes, or marshal Augereau, or 

 which ever of the two was the 

 commanding officer before Sara- 

 gossa, summoned the town, de- 

 claring, that if it did not surren- 

 der on that day, he would storm 

 it and put all the inhabitants to 

 the sword, Palafox assembled his 

 troops and the armed inhabitants 

 of the city in the churches, where 

 they solemnly swore to defend the 

 place to the last ; and, rather than 

 surrender, to be buried in its 

 ruins. An unsuccessful sortie was 

 afterwards made: the Spaniards 

 were defeated with great loss ; and 

 the French entered the town along 

 with those who escaped slaughter. 

 A sanguinary contest then took 

 place in the streets, in which the 

 French had again the advantage. 



Some of the inhabitants in despair 

 sprung a mine, the explosion of 

 which destroyed a considerable 

 part of the city, and produced a 

 dreadful carnage. The number 

 who perished, French and Spa- 

 niards, was estimated at several 

 thousands. The remainder of the 

 Spaniards defended themselves for 

 some time in works erected in an- 

 other part of the town; but at last 

 surrendered at discretion, the 

 French commander having refused 

 a capitulation. But immediately 

 on obtaining possession of the 

 posts, he issued a proclamation 

 containing a general pardon, in 

 the name of king Joseph ; and 

 a stop was put to all hostile acts 

 on the part of the French troops. 

 The personal heroism that was 

 displayed by the Spaniards in the 

 sieges of Saragossa, and that of 

 Gerona, equalled, if they did not 

 exceed, that of the 15th and 16th 

 centuries. — General Palafox was 

 sent a prisoner to Bayonne, and 

 immediately, on the 17th of 

 March, lodged in the castle. 

 Thousands of other Arragonese 

 prisoners were sent to France, and 

 on their way most brutally treated. 

 Some of them that were unable to 

 walk were shot. It is recorded for 

 the honour of Bourdeaux, that they 

 were treated with great humanity 

 and compassion at that city ; which 

 always expressed in pretty loud 

 murmurs its extreme dissatisfac- 

 tion of the usurpations of the Buo- 

 napartes, and the war in Spain. It 

 is remarkable that the French were 

 much more humane towards the 

 English, as well as towards the 

 Russian and Austrian, than their 

 Spanish prisoners. 



We have already had occasion 



to 



