HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



209 



CHAP. XIII. 



A Trench Corps sent against Badajoz.--A hind of false Attach — The 

 Intention of it. — The main Efforts of the French pointed agai^ist the 

 Allied Army nnder Lord Wellington. — Address to the Spanish Nation 

 hy the Junta of Badajoz. — Nature of the Warfare carried on by the 

 Guerillas Celebrated Chiefs of the Guerillas. — Successes of the Gue- 

 rillas — unavailing against the steady and combined System of the 

 enemy. — Great Hopes from the approaching Meeting qf the Cortes. — ■ 

 Form of electing the Deputies qf the Cortes. — Deputies elected to the 

 Cortes even in the Provinces occupied by the French.— Meeting, Instal- 

 lation, and Transactions of the Cortes. — Political Conduct of King 

 Joseph in Spain. — His Situation there very uneasy and unpleasant. — 

 The Measures adopted for conciliating the Spaniards, by Josep>h, con- 

 demned by Napoleon. — Atrocities committed by the French Generals 

 in Spain. — The Duke qf Orleans invited to -—and dismissed. 



ACORPS, under the orders of 

 Mortier, alias the duke of 

 Trcviso, was sent about the begin- 

 ning, ornearthe middle of March, 

 against Badajoz. A fruitless at- 

 tacii having been made on that 

 city, the French established them- 

 selves in Merida, Zafra, and Santa 

 Maria. The siege of Badajoz was 

 abandoned for a time, from the 

 necessity of forwarding the siege 

 of Cadiz by suppressing the insur- 

 rections in Grenada and Murcia : 

 yet still demonstrations were made 

 on Badajoz. There was a good 

 deal of skirmishing. The re- 

 connoitring parties of the French 

 sometimes advanced almost to the 

 glacis of Badajoz. This was in 

 the nature of a false attack, in- 

 tended no doubt to occupy the 

 army of Estramadura, while the 

 real invasion of Portugal was to be 

 carried on by the route of Ciudad 

 Rodrigo and Almeida. When 

 the troops under Romana were 

 drawn from Badajoz and Campo 

 Major, and some other points in 

 Estramadura, to join lord Wcl- 

 VoL. LII. 



Imgton 



they were replaced by 

 Portuguese, united with some 

 English ; of whom a great propor- 

 tion was officers. The siege oi 

 Cadiz, in like manner, as above 

 observed, went on but slowly. The 

 main efforts of the French were 

 naturally pointed against the allied 

 army under lord Wellington. If 

 marshal Massena should be able 

 to drive the English into the 

 sea, he would be enabled to send 

 out such detachments as could 

 easily reduce Badajoz, perhaps 

 Cadiz. 



After the sad reverses of fortune 

 suffered by the Spaniards towards 

 the close of 1 809, when they were 

 convinced, by multiplied expe- 

 rience, that their armies were alto- 

 gether unfit to contend with the 

 French in pitched battles, they had 

 again recourse to that desultory 

 warfare, which had been so wisely 

 recommended by the Junta of Se- 

 ville at the beginning of the revo- 

 lution, and which had been carried 

 on for some time with so mucli 

 success. The Junta of Badajoz 



