SAPPHIRE SARAGOSSA. 



95 



SAPPHIRE. Sec Corundum. 



S A PPHO, a distinguished Greek poetess, was born 

 at Mitylene, on the island of Lesbos, and flourished 

 about 600 B. C. Alcseus, like her, a lyric poet, 

 and a native of the same island, is said to have 

 loved her ; but his passion was not returned. The 

 brilliant fame which she enjoyed seems to have sub- 

 jected her to calumny, and even to persecution, on 

 account of which she left Lesbos. She is particu- 

 larly accused of unnatural love to her own sex ; 

 hence the expression Sapphic love. She must not 

 be confounded with a later Sappho, also a native of 

 Lesbos, the place of whose birth was Eresus, famous 

 for having thrown herself from the Leucadian rock 

 in despair on account of her unrequited love for a 

 youth named Phaon. Ovid, however, confounds 

 the two. See Welker's Sappho vindicated against 

 a prevailing Prejudice (Gottingen, 1816). The an- 

 cients ascribe various poems to the elder Sappho, 

 hymns, odes, elegies, epigrams, of which only 

 fragments have come down to us ; these display 

 deep feeling, glowing imagination, and a high finish. 

 She is said to have invented several metres ; at least 

 one still bears her name, and has been used by an- 

 cient and modern poets : 



SARABAND a dance, said to be derived from 

 the Saracens. The tune is written in ^ or f time, 

 find consists of two parts. Its character is grave 

 and expressive. It originated in Spain, where it 

 was formerly danced to the castanets. 



SARACENIC STYLE OF ARCHITEC- 

 TURE. See Architecture. 



SARACENS(OrzentaZs); the name adopted by 

 the Arabs after their settlement in Europe, as the 

 term Arabs (people of the West), which indicated 

 their geographical situation in Asia, was improper 

 in Europe. 



SARAGOSSA (in Spanish, Zaragoza); a city 

 of Spain, capital of Arragon, lying in a fertile plain 

 on the Ebro, one hundred and seventy-five miles 

 north-east of Madrid; Ion. 1 42' W.; lat. 41 

 38' N. It is an old town, built on the site of the 

 ancient Roman colony Caesar Augustus, of which 

 the present name is a corruption. The streets, 

 with the exception of the long and wide Cozo, and 

 a few others, are narrow and crooked. There is a 

 fine stone bridge, six hundred feet long, over the 

 Ebro. Previous to 1808, it had 55,000 inhabitants, 

 eighteen churches, and forty monasteries. Among 

 the churches, that of Our Lady of the Pillar 

 (JVuestra Senora del Pilar} is celebrated for its 

 miraculous image of the virgin, to which pilgri- 

 mages are made from different parts of Spain. The 

 canal of Arragon, nearly a hundred miles in length, 

 which affords Navarre and Arragon a communica- 

 tion with the Mediterranean, approaches the city. 

 The present population of the city is 45,000. 



Saragossa has gained celebrity by the two sieges 

 which it sustained in 1808 and 1809. The ad- 

 joining provinces of Catalonia and Navarre were 

 overrun by the French troops; Saragossa contained 

 not more than two hundred and twenty regulars, 

 and was unfortified; and the public treasury was 

 empty. When the people were seeking fr a 

 leader, the rank of Palafox, and the favour which 

 he was known to have enjoyed with Ferdinand, 



directed their choice to him, and, accordingly, May 

 25, 1808, he was proclaimed by them governor of 

 Saragossa, and of all the kingdom of Arragon. lie 

 was then in his eight and twentieth year, and had 

 but a scanty portion of military knowledge. He 

 immediately called into service all the half-pay 

 officers, formed several corps, composed, in part, of 

 the students of the university, took other measures 

 to sustain a siege, and, May 31, declared war 

 against the French, in a proclamation remarkable 

 for its energy. This paper was hardly issued, 

 before a French corps of 8000 men marched to 

 attack Saragossa. The French general was, how- 

 ever, met by the Spaniards, and, after a hard 

 struggle, was compelled to retire. Palafox took 

 advantage of this to quit the city for a while, in 

 order to collect troops, and organize the defence of 

 the rest of the province. He returned with about 

 1500 men, who had retreated from Madrid, and was 

 soon invested by the French, who had received 

 powerful reinforcements, and a train of artillery. 

 The besiegers carried the post of Torrero and some 

 other exterior works, not without great loss, pushed 

 forward their attacks against the gates of El Car- 

 men and El Portillo, began to bombard the city, 

 July 22, and, August 4, forced their way into the 

 place, by the gate of Santa Engracia, and, at 

 length, made themselves masters of nearly half of 

 Saragossa. The French general now summoned 

 Palafox to surrender. His summons was contained 

 in the following laconic sentence: "Head-quarters, 

 St Engracia, capitulation." With equal laconism, 

 Palafox instantly replied, " Head-quarters, Sara- 

 gossa. War at the point of the knife." August 

 5, the brother of Palafox had opened a passage 

 into the city, with 3000 regular troops. A council 

 of war was now held, in which it was resolved that 

 the remaining quarters of the city should be con- 

 tested inch by inch, and that, should they be lost, 

 the people should retire across the Ebro into the 

 suburbs, destroy the bridge, and defend the suburbs 

 to the last man. This resolution was unanimously 

 applauded by the Saragossans. They did not, 

 however, content themselves with resting on the 

 defensive. They fell upon the besiegers with 

 unequalled and irresistible fury. The struggle 

 continued for eleven days, almost without inter- 

 mission. Every day the people gained ground, till, 

 at last, the enemy held only a narrow space within 

 the walls. Convinced that there was no longer 

 any hope of success, the French general abandoned 

 the siege, which had lasted sixty-one days, and 

 cost him several thousand men. Palafox availed 

 himself of the breathing-time thus obtained to 

 increase his force, and construct additional works. 

 He was not allowed a long respite. To reduce 

 Saragossa to submission was, on many accounts, 

 an object of great importance to the French. 

 In November, therefore, a large army, under mar- 

 shals Mortier and Moncey, marched to recommence 

 the siege. Palafox was defeated at Tudela, and 

 again under the walls of Saragossa, and the place 

 was invested. Being summoned to surrender, he 

 replied and acted with the same energy as before. 

 The approaches were vigorously carried on by the 

 French, and a furious bombardment was incessantly 

 kept up. Almost hourly combats took place 

 between the besiegers and the besieged, in which 

 the latter displayed a desperate valour. At length, 

 January 27, a general assault was made, and the 

 French established themselves on the breaches. 

 Once more they penetrated, by degrees, into the 



