Zaragoza. English
Page 12
CHAPTER XI
The fortress of San Jos? had surrendered, or rather the French hadentered it when their artillery had reduced it to powder, and all ofits defenders had fallen, one by one, to lie among its fragments. TheImperial soldiers, on entering, found heaps of bodies and stones mattedtogether with blood. They could not establish themselves there becausethey were flanked by the batteries of Los Martires and the BotanicalGarden, so they continued operations by mining, in order to possessthemselves of those two points. The fortifications which we held wereso nearly destroyed that a general agreement was urgent, and theterrible orders, calling upon all the inhabitants of Saragossa to workin renewing them. The proclamation said that every citizen should carrya gun in one hand and spade in the other.
The twelfth and thirteenth were without rest, the fire diminishing alittle because the besiegers, warned by sad experience, did not wishto risk any more hand-to-hand conflicts. Understanding that theirs wasa work of patience and skill, rather than of boldness and bravery,they opened slowly, and with security, roads and mines which shouldlead to the possession of the redoubt without loss of men. It wasalmost necessary to build our walls anew, or rather to substitute sacksof earth for them, an operation in which many friars, canons, civilofficials, children, and women were occupied. The artillery was almostuseless, the fosse about filled up, and it was necessary to continuethe defence at short range. And so we wore through the thirteenth,protecting the works as we rebuilt them, suffering much, and seeingourselves constantly decreasing in numbers, although new men came totake the places of the many that we lost. On the fourteenth the enemy'sartillery tried to demolish our new walls, opening breaches for us onthe front and at the sides. They did not dare to try a new assault,contenting themselves with opening a mine in such a direction thatwe could not in any way cover it with our fire, nor with that of anybattery near by.
Our valorous tantalizing earthworks would soon be covered by thefires of the French batteries, which were hurling to the four windsthe earth of which they were formed. In this situation, surrenderwas inevitable sooner or later. Indeed we were at the mercy of theFrench arms as a ship at the mercy of the waves of the ocean. Flankedby roads and zig-zags, through which a strong and clever enemy mightwalk without danger, protected by all the resources of science, ourbulwarks of defence were like one man surrounded by an army. We hadno serviceable cannons, nor could we bring other new ones, becausethe walls would not have borne them. Our only resource was to keepwatch of the redoubt in order to fly from it at the moment when theFrench should enter and destroy the bridge, in order to prevent themfrom following us. This was done; and on the night of the fourteenththey worked without rest on the mine, and we placed small mines at thebridge, hoping that the following day the enemy would try to mount bythat wall. But this did not happen. Not daring to make another assaultwithout all the precautions and security possible, they continuedtheir work of digging very nearly up to our fosse. In this labor ourindefatigable fusileers did them little damage. We were desperate, butwithout power to do anything. Our desperation was of no avail; it wasa useless force, like the rage of a lunatic in his cage.
We drew out the nails from the tablet which proclaimed ours to be theunconquerable redoubt, in order to take away with us that witnessof our justifiable arrogance. At nightfall the fortification wasabandoned, only forty remaining to keep it until the end, and shoot allthey could, as our captain said that no chance might be lost to losethe enemy a couple of men. From the Torre del Pino we saw the retreatof the forty at about eight o'clock in the evening, after they had metthe invaders with bayonet-thrusts; they retreated fighting bravely.
The interior mine of the redoubt had had little effect, but the smallmines of the bridge acquitted themselves so well that the passage wasdestroyed and the redoubt isolated from the other bank of the Huerva.Gaining this position and San Jos?, the French would have enoughprotection to open their third parallel and to demolish at theirleisure the whole circuit of the city. We were saddened and just alittle discouraged; but of what importance is a little depression whenon the day following one has a diversion and a feast? After being madlydiscouraged, a little jollity does not come amiss, especially whentime is wanting to bury the dead; nor was there room in the houses forthe many who were wounded. It is true that there were hands for allthat had to be done, thanks be to God.
The reason for the general rejoicing was that glorious rumors werein circulation of Spanish armies that were coming to succor us, onthe heels of the French, in many parts of the Peninsula. The peoplecrowded into the Plaza de la Seo, and in front of the Magdalene arch,waiting until the "Gazette" should appear; and at last it came out,cheering everybody's spirits, and making all hearts palpitate withhope. I do not know if such rumors had really reached Saragossa, or ifthey originated in the wits of the chief editor, Don Ignacio Assor.It is certain that they told us in print that Reading was coming tosuccor us with an army of sixty thousand men, that the Marquis ofLazan, after routing the mob in the north of Catalonia, had enteredFrance, spreading terror in every direction, and that also the Dukedel Infantado was coming to our aid, who with Blake and la Romana hadrouted Napoleon, slaying twenty thousand men, including Berthier, Ney,and Savary, and that at Cadiz had arrived several millions in hard cashsent by the English for the expense of war. What did it all mean?Could the "Gazette" explain all this?
In spite of the size of these mouthfuls of rumor, we swallowed them;and there were demonstrations of joy, ringing of church bells, runningthrough the streets, and singing the music of the jota, with many otherpatriotic excesses, which at least had the advantage of affordingus a little of that cooling off of our mental temperature which wasnecessary. Do not believe that in consideration of our joy the rain ofbombs had ceased! Very far from that! They seemed to jeer at the newsof our "Gazette," as they repeated their dose. Feeling a lively desireto laugh at them to their faces, we went to the walls. The musicians ofthe regiments played in a tantalizing fashion, and we all sang in animmense chorus the famous words,--
"The Virgin del Pilar says She wouldn't like to be a Frenchwoman!"
They were in a mood for answering jests, and in less than two hours agreater number of projectiles were sent into the city than during allthe rest of the day. There was now no longer a secure refuge; therewas not a hand's breadth of ground or of roof free from that Satanicfire. Families fled from their homes, or took refuge in the cellars.The wounded, who were numerous in the principal houses, were carriedto the churches, seeking shelter in their strong vaults. Others wentdragging themselves along. Some more active ones carried their beddingupon their shoulders. Most of them were accommodated in the Pilar;and after the floor was all filled, they were stretched out upon thealtars and crowded into the chapels. In spite of their misfortunes,they were consoled by looking at the Virgin, who seemed to say to themunceasingly with her brilliant eyes that she would not care to be aFrenchwoman!