18,3 
L O N D O N. 
isbefore you, that, in the exercife of the fupreme and 
fovereign central junta, you will defend and promote the 
confervation and advancement of our holy, catholic, apof- 
tolical, and Roman, religion ; that you will ire faithful to 
our auguft fovereign Ferdinand VII. and that you will 
maintain his rights and his fovereignty. That you will 
concur in the fupport of our rights and privileges, our 
laws and cultovns, and, above all, thofe concerning the 
fucceiTion of the reigning family, according to the order 
eftablilhed by the laws aforefaid. In Ibort, that you will 
give your vote for every meafure calculated for the ge¬ 
neral good, the profperity of the kingdom, and the ame¬ 
lioration of its.cuftoms. That you will obferve fecrecy 
in all cafes where fecrecy is proper. That you will pro¬ 
tect the laws again It all malevolence, and profecute their 
enemies, even at the expenfe of your life, your perfonal 
fafety, and your fortune.” The formula of affent was, 
“ I/wear this'' The following fentence was l'ubjoined : 
“ If you do this, may God help you. If not, may he 
puailb you, as having fworn in vain by his holy name.” 
The fubfcriber faid, Amen. 
After a folemn Te Deum, the deputies walked between 
two sines of troops to the royal palace, a hall of which 
was confecrafed to their feilions. On the opening of the 
gates of the palace, that had been fo long fhut, the fad 
folitude o the magnificent manfion of their kings, and 
the recoileftion of the epoch at which, and of the reafons 
for which, the gates had been fhut, drew tears from every 
eye, and an univerfai cry of vengeance againft the authors 
of fo profound calamities and fucli pungent forrows. 
The fupreme central junta was acknowledged by the 
council of Caftile, and ail the other conllituted authori¬ 
ties in the kingdom. Its firfh efforts were directed to fet- 
ting in motion all the troops in Andalufia, Grenada, and 
Eftramadura, as well as the new levies ; to the tranfporta- 
tion of Dupont’s army, agreeably to treaty; and to fur- 
nifhing the Englifharmy, that had vanquifned Junot, with 
the means of marching from Portugal to join the Spa¬ 
niards. In the midft of thefe cares, they lent envoys to 
demand fuccours from Britain. The forces of the pa¬ 
triots, including now the army of Romana, and the Spa- 
nifli regiments that had been confined in bulks of fhips 
by Junot, were divided into three, and difpofed in fuch 
a manner as to form together, towards the end of Octo¬ 
ber, one grand army. The ealtern wing was commanded 
by Palafox ; the north-weftern, by Blake ; the centre, by 
Caftanos.—The number under general Blake was com¬ 
puted at 55,000 ; that under general Caftanos at 65,000 ; 
and that under the orders of general Palafox, at 20,000. 
Caftanos was commander-in-chief. Befides thefe, there 
was a fmall army ift Eftramadura, and another in Cata¬ 
lonia. 
Bonaparte, having ordered a levy of 160,000 confcripts, 
put troops in motion for Spain, and provided for all that 
might be demanded by the contingencies of war, fet out 
from Paris for Spain without waiting for an anfwer to tjie 
overture for a negotiation with the Britifti government, 
in like manner as he had haftened to meet the Pruffians, 
leaving lord Lauderdale to difpute with his minifters about 
the bafis of a negotiation., in the autufnn of 1806. With 
his ufual celerity, having fet out from Ram’oouillet on 
the 30th of October, he arrived at Bayonne on the 3d of 
November ; and on the 5th, accompanied by a reinforce¬ 
ment of 12,000 men, he joined his brother jofeph at 
Vittoria. 
It would not ferve any ptirpofe either of amufement or 
inftruftion to enter into a detail of the means by which 
the firft military commander in the prefent, and one of 
the greateft of any age, at the head of a numerous, well- 
equipped, and veteran, army, accuftomed to conquer, de¬ 
feated armies fcarcely yet organized, chiefly compofed of 
new levies, without being properly equipped, without re¬ 
gular fupplies of provifions, and extended over too large 
a ipace of ground without I’ufficiently ftrengthening the 
line of their communication. Suffice it to fay, that mar- 
fnal Ney, duke of Elchirigen, with his divilion, palling 
the line of the Ebro, and dalhing forward with great ce¬ 
lerity in feparate columns, took the Spanilh polt at Lo- 
grono and Colahorra, threw the whole country into alarm 
and confufion, and cut off the communication between 
the armies refpeftively under the command of general- 
Blake and of general Caftanos. 
In a feries of actions from the 31ft of October, the- 
arniy under general Blake was driven from poll to poll ; 
from Durango to Guenas ; from Guenas to Valmaieda ; 
from Valmaieda to Efpinofa. Blake, with the remains of 
his broken army, took refuge in Afturias. What re¬ 
mained of the corps of the marquis of Romana, that had 
formed part of the Galician army, fled firft to St. Andero, 
and afterwards to Afturias. The Spaniards were purfued 
clofely by marfhal Soult, duke of Dalmatia ; the van of 
whol'e army^entered St. Andero on the 16th. 
In the mean time the Eltramaduran army, under the 
command of count Belvedere, a young man, was permit¬ 
ted, without oppofition, to advance to Burgos, of which 
he took poffeffion without refiftance. Flere the French 
fell on him with fuperior numbers, and routed his army,, 
after a gallant refiftance for twelve hours, and almoli an¬ 
nihilated it. The coapt, with the fmall remains of his 
army, fled to Lerma, and from thence to Aranda. 
The French, having routed and difperfed the armies of 
the north of Spain and of Eftramadura, next fell on the. 
central army under Caftanos; and an engagement enfued 
at Tudela, 23d of November, which fixed the-fate of the 
campaign.. Seven ftandards, thirty pieces of cannon,, 
twelve colonels, three hundred officers, were taken; four 
thoufand Spaniards were left dead on the field of battle, 
or driven into the Ebro. While a part of the fugitives 
retired to Saragoffa, the left w'ing of the Spanilh army, 
which had been cut off, fled in diforder to Tarragona and 
Agreda. Five thoufand Spaniards, all troops of the line, 
were taken prifoners in the purfuit. No quarter was 
given to any of the peafants found in arms. 
By the battle of Tudela the road was laid open to Ma¬ 
drid. On the 29th of November, a divifion of the French 
army, under the command of general Viftor, duke of 
Belluno, arrived at the pafs of the Sierra Morena, called 
Puerto. It was defended by 13,000 men of the Spanilh. 
army of referve, under the orders of general San Juan, 
A charge made by general Montbrun, at the head of the 
Polifh light horfe, decided the conteft. The Spaniards 
fled, leaving behind them their artillery and ftandards 3. 
and, as the French bulletin ftates, their mulkets; but this, 
front fubfequent events, appears not to have been truth. 
Advanced parties of the French cavalry appeared, on the 
1 ft of December, before Madrid. At this period, the in¬ 
habitants of this city were bufily employed in railing pa- 
lilades, and conltructing redoubts, breathing a deter¬ 
mined fpirit of refiftance. The enemy was beaten back 
from certain gates feveral times ; but, on the third, they 
were in poflellion of the gate of Alcala; and alfo of the 
Betiro, the reduction of which place coft the affailants 
very dear, in the lofs, it was computed, of near 1000 men 
in killed and wounded. The junta then hoifted a white 
flag. The people of Madrid pulled down the flag, and 
perfifted in their defign of defending the city ; but this 
enthufiafm foon began to fublide, for want of leaders to 
keep it up and to direflit; and, when they learnt for cer¬ 
tain that the French were fortifying themfelves in the Re¬ 
tiro, they began to retire to their relpective houfes. 
During the aright of December the 3d, a Spanilh officer 
who had been taken prifoner in the affair of Somofierra,.. 
brought a meffage from general Berthier,, fummoning for 
the fecond time Madrid to lurrender. The marquis of 
Caftellar, captain-general of Caftile, fent in anfwer a let¬ 
ter to Berthier, demanding a fufpenfion of holtilities, that 
he might have time for confulting the fuperior authorities,. 
But there was no need or ufe in this 3 the fuperior au- 
3 thoritksa. 
