158 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



Spanish nation, that the Cortes 

 should be assembled. The condi- 

 tions required were refused. But 

 Victor gave a very gracious an- 

 swer. Religion was to be respect- 

 ed, and securitj' promised of per- 

 sons and property ; officers only 

 were to be quartered and taken 

 care of in private houses ; the sol- 

 diers to be lodged in convents and 

 barracks. The garrison was to 

 have their choice either of conti- 

 nuing their services among the 

 troops of his Catholic majesty, Jo- 

 seph, or to return to their homes, 

 having first laid down their arms, 

 and made their submissions to the 

 king. Two hundred pieces of ord- 

 nance, of wliich one hundred and 

 forty were battering cannon, fell 

 into the hands of the French; 

 and a great quantity of arms, am- 

 munition and provisions. 



Seville, satisfied with these de- 

 clarations, opened its gates on the 

 first of February, at 10 o'clock, 

 a. m. and at three o'clock, p. m. 

 king Joseph made his entry, 

 amidst the acclamations of the 

 populace. 



The following are extracts from 

 king Joseph's general orders to 

 his army, given from the royal 

 camp at Seville, where his whole 

 army had arrived on the first of 

 February; which, as well as the 

 proclamation to the Spaniards, if 

 not the actual composition of Na- 

 poleon, prepared for the eventual 

 occasion, is an excellent imitation 

 of his style and manner. •' Sol- 

 diers, the war which the emperor 

 has just terminated so gloriously 

 with Austria, had revived thehopes 

 of the cabinet cf England. Her 

 armies wereadvancingfor the con- 

 quest of Madrid. She believed 



theFrench armytobeweakenedby 

 the diversion on the Danube ; so 

 little were they acquainted with 

 the power of the grand empire. 

 The troops of the insurrection, 

 abandoned by their pretended al- 

 lies, made their last effort at the 

 moment when peace was signed ac 

 Vienna. Ocana confounded their 

 mad projects. You contemplated 

 in them only bewildered men, 

 pushed on to a precipice by the 

 common enemy. It was your plea- 

 sure that they should be saved; I 

 havereceived them as children. The 

 barriers interposed by nature be- 

 tween tlienorch and southof Spain, 

 have fallen down. You have found 

 none but friends on this side of 

 the Sierra Morena. Jaen, Cor- 

 dova, Grenada, and Seville, have 

 opened their gates: you haveover- 

 run these provinces in your wonted 

 spirit of peace and good order; 

 and you have every where found 

 peace, plenty, and a good recep- 

 tion. French soldiers, how shall I 

 testify my sense of what I owe 

 you? The emperor shall be made 

 acquainted with your conduct. 

 It is the will of the king of Spain, 

 that between the two columns of 

 Hercules a third shall be erected, 

 that shall carry to the most distant 

 posterity, and the navigators of 

 the two worlds, the knowledge of 

 the chiefs and French corps that 

 have conquered Spain." For the 

 erection of this third column, the 

 marshal duke of Belluno, Victor, 

 was ordered to march with the 

 first corps on Cadiz. The mar- 

 shal duke of Treviso, Mortier, 

 with the fifth corps, was ordered 

 to march against Badajoz on the 

 l-th of Feb. leaving only one bri- 

 gade at Seville. On the Guadiana 



