162 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



If it had not been for an accident 

 which could not have been fore- 

 seen, and which certainly no means 

 had been taken to prepare, it is 

 highly probable that, in the alarm 

 and confusion into which Cadiz 

 was at first thrown, the design of 

 the French would have been ac- 

 complished at once. 



On the irruption of the French 

 into Andalusia, general Castanos, 

 who knew, or strongly suspected 

 the traitorous designs of the Junta, 

 sent a confidential letter to the 

 duke of Albuquerque, command- 

 ing the army in Estramadura, ap- 

 prizing him of his danger, and 

 urging liim to proceed with the 

 utmost rapidity to the Isle of Leon. 

 The duke had received commands 

 from the .lunta to march in a di- 

 rection, which, at tiiis crisis, would 

 iiave been fatal to him, his army, 

 and the cause of Spain ; but, 

 being informed of the progress of 

 the enemy through the western 

 chain of the Sierra Morena, he 

 prudently disregarded those man- 

 dates and crossing the Guadal- 

 quiver with 10 or 12,000 men at 

 Benconda, marched rapidly by 

 Carmona, Utrera, Xeres, and 

 Arcos, to Cadiz, where they ar- 

 rived on the 3rd of February. 

 When he left Carmona, the ad- 

 vanced posts of the French were 

 very near that place, on their way 

 also to Cadiz, by Seville. He was 

 pursued by the French catalry as 

 far as Lebrixa, where they gave 

 over the pursuit, finding it in vain. 

 The celerity of the Spanish march 

 astonished them. The duke, in 

 his march even across the swamp 

 near Cadiz, which had been 

 thought at that reason of the year 

 impassable for troops, did not lose 

 a single man. Before the arrival 



of Albuquerque there were nol Jn 

 Cadiz much above 1,000 troops' 

 of the line to defend that impor- 

 tant city. U 

 The panic produced at Cadiz by ^ 

 the battle of Ocana, the sudden 

 irruption of the French into the 

 south of Spain, and the flight of 

 the Junta from Seville, by degrees 

 subsided. In all the provinces 

 unoccupied by the French, every 

 man between the age of eighteen 

 and sixty was called upon to enter 

 the lists as a volunteer, and to re- 

 ceive adaily allowance, if required. 

 Carriages in Cadiz, Badajos, and 

 other towns were laid aside ; the 

 mules were put in requisition for 

 the public rervice, as well as the 

 churcii and private plate. At 

 Cadiz, the grand object, and that 

 most immediately menaced by the 

 French, patriotism, order, unity, 

 and energy, wereevery where con- 

 spicuous. The high clergy, mili- 

 tary cljiefs at the head of their 

 respective divisions, the rich and 

 the poor, the old and the young, 

 were to be seen working at bat- 

 teries. The governor of Cadiz 

 immediately ordered a general en- 

 listing of all capable of bearing 

 arms, without exception of classes 

 or conditions, and took the most 

 proper measures for procuring a 

 sufficient quantity of provisions, 

 establishing magazines and hospi- 

 tals, and, in a word, with un- 

 wearied activity and diligence, 

 prepared all possible means of de- 

 fence and resistance. The Spanish 

 fleet, together with that of the 

 French, which had taken refuge 

 in the harbour of Cadiz after the 

 battle of Trafalgar, were moved to 

 the outer harbour, ready to hoist 

 their sails in case of necessity. An 

 English man of war had been em- 



