Iberia Won 11

Iberia Won 11

For our homes, for our homes and our altars,

For our wives and our children we fight;

We but scoff at their dungeons and halters,

As bursts Freedom’s sun into light!

While our rights, while our rights we are seeking,

Great Power! ’tis thy will we maintain;

Though our swords, though our swords may be reeking

With blood, ’tis in rending the chain!

Let the brave, let the brave fill the battered

War-chalice, fair Freedom, to thee;

On the slave, on the slave be it shattered,

Unless the slave pant to be free!

_Libertad, libertad sacrosanta!_

Were death in the goblet we drain,

_Libertad los tiranos espanta_,

We’ll pledge to the freedom of Spain!

 

 

 

 

HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES TO CANTO I.

 

 

In August, 1813, as the preparations for the renewed siege of

San Sebastian were advancing, the besieged demonstrated their

confidence by celebrating the Emperor’s birthday with a splendid

illumination. The castle, upon whose crest it was exhibited, is

seen from a great distance; and the besiegers could plainly read

the letters of fire in which the name of Napoléon was written high

in air.

 

The incidents of the siege I have derived chiefly from Napier’s

_History of the War in the Peninsula_, book xxii. chapters 1 and 2,

and from Jones’s _Journals of Peninsular Sieges_. The topography of

San Sebastian will be found sufficiently illustrated in either of

those works.

 

The small castle of La Mota is most picturesquely situated like

a crown on the conical hill of Monte Orgullo, which rising

immediately behind the town westward, is nearly four hundred feet

high, and washed by the sea. “The Hill has a broad base of 400

by 600 feet, and is crowned by fort La Mota.” Jones, _Journal of

Peninsular Sieges_, vol. ii.

 

General Jones’s description of cutting off the aqueduct, and

converting it into a globe of compression, is thus prosaic but

practical and deadly:--“The parallel crost a drain level with the

ground, 4 feet high, and 3 feet wide, through which ran a pipe to

convey water into the town. Lieut. Reid ventured to explore it,

and at the end of 230 yards, he found it closed by a door in the

counterscarp, opposite to the face of the right demi-bastion of the

hornwork: as the ditch was narrow, it was thought that by forming

a mine, the explosion would throw earth sufficient against the

escarpe, only 24 feet high, to form a road over it: eight feet at

the end of the aqueduct was therefore stopped with filled sand

bags, and 30 barrels of powder of 90 lb. each, lodged against it,

and a saucisson led to the mouth of the drain.” _Journals of the

Sieges undertaken by the Allies in Spain_, Supplementary Chapter.

The aqueduct had been cut off at the commencement of the siege by

the Spanish general, Mendizabal. “It was formed into a globe of

compression designed to blow, as through a tube, so much rubbish

over the counterscarp as might fill the narrow ditch.” Napier,

_Hist._ book xxi. c. 3. This plan was subsequently realized, and

with complete success, “creating” says Jones “much astonishment in

the enemy,” at the period of the first assault, which took place on

the 25th July, five weeks before the second and memorable storming.

I have transferred the incident to the latter part of the siege.

 

The incident of the discovery of the spring upon Monte Orgullo

after the cutting off of the aqueduct, but for which fortunate

accident the town would have been probably forced to surrender much

sooner, was communicated to me by an officer who was present at the

siege. It was found about half way up the cliff where it overhangs

the ocean, and surrounded by masonry is carefully preserved to the

present day. The water is excellent, and the flow abundant. There

were not wanting French partisans at the time, especially amongst

the elderly female residents in San Sebastian, who believed the

discovery of this spring to be miraculous!

 

When Marshal Berwick attacked San Sebastian in 1719, he threw up

batteries on the same Chofre hills where the Allies now planted

theirs. He then pushed his approaches along the isthmus, and

established himself on the covered-way of the land front. As soon

as the breach was practicable, the governor capitulated. But the

present governor, Ney, was made of different stuff. Capitulation

was the last thing that he thought of, and Napoléon’s instructions

to the defenders of besieged towns were never more terribly

fulfilled than by this very gallant man. “Napoléon’s ordinance,”

says Napier, “which forbade the surrender of a fortress without

having stood at least one assault, has been strongly censured by

English writers upon slender grounds. The obstinate defences made

by French governors in the Peninsula were the results. * * It may

be reasonably supposed that, as the achievements of Napoléon’s

soldiers far exceeded the exploits of Louis (XIV.)’s cringing

courtiers, they possessed greater military virtues.”--_Hist._ book

xxii. c. 1.

 

The attack was in a great degree carried on from the midst of

“circling orchards.” From the ground taken up by the besiegers to

Ernani, the whole country is covered with orchards.

 

For the costume and other particulars of the Basque _barqueras_, or

boat-girls of the Bidassoa and Urumea, the reader is referred to

the tours of Madame D’Aulnoy and M. de Bourgoing. The _xaquetilla_

is a “little jacket” or spencer.

 

As reference is made to the Guerrillas in this canto, the following

brief sketch of the leaders may be acceptable:--

 

Mina was a man of powerful frame and noble aspect--a fine specimen

of Nature’s nobility. He was rather tall, of portly size, with

fine chest and shoulders, and gigantic arms. His features were

more English than Spanish in their aspect, being by no means dark,

and their __EXPRESSION__ powerful, dignified, and heroic. There is a

fine portrait of him in Somerset House, London. Like almost all

the Guerrilleros, however, he was cruel. The French, whom they

cut off by their most harassing mode of warfare, were mercilessly

slaughtered. Mina, who was of the common class of peasant-farmers,

began with a band of about twenty men whom he formed from amongst

his neighbours, appointing a sergeant and corporal. Repeated

successes and the character of the chief swelled this band to 300

in number. Mina then appointed a lieutenant. The latter plotted

against his commander, and Mina shot him dead with a pistol, after

taxing him with his treason, in presence of his men. The rough

Spanish mountaineers liked his daring and resolute character, his

band swelled to a thousand, and his new lieutenant again conspired

to oust his leader. Mina had this man drowned in a well. He was

subsequently left unmolested in his command, until his powerful

genius organized and led an army. At his death, which occurred

about ten years since in Barcelona, he was a Field Marshal, a

Grandé of Spain, and Vice-Roy of Navarre. His widow became Aya or

Governess to the present Queen of Spain, Isabel, and held that

post till the expulsion of Espartero. Mina had a brother, Xavier

Mina, who entered the regular army at an early period of life, and

likewise rose to the rank of Field Marshal. He was treacherously

shot in Mexico by Morillo.

 

The Empecinado was in person a still finer man than Mina, but of

a much less pleasing aspect. His face was stamped with savage

resolution and ferocity. His appearance was strictly Spanish,

his complexion being much darker than that of Mina. Both were

black-haired, but the Empecinado’s was of a raven intensity of jet.

He was one of the strongest men in Europe, tall and square-built--a

Hercules to the eye as well as in reality. Some nearly incredible

feats are recorded of his prodigious strength. The last of all

was the most worthy of note, and recalls the main incident of

our fine old English ballad of “Adam Bell, Clym o’ the Clough,

and William of Cloudeslie.” During the fatal year of the Duke of

Angoulême’s invasion, 1823, when so many Constitutionalists fell

victims to Ferdinand’s gloomy ferocity, and Riego was villainously

butchered at Madrid, the Empecinado was seized by the myrmidons

of Absolutism at a village about twenty miles distant, caged and

tortured for three days, and at the end of that time led out for

execution. At the foot of the _furca_ or gallows-tree, with one

effort he burst the thick cord with which his arms were bound,

and seized a gun from one of the soldiers near him. Had he not

been instantly slain, there is little doubt that with the butt-end

he would have slaughtered a hecatomb of the satellites of power.

But the whole file poured their fire into him at once, and he was

hung notwithstanding, though the rope was adjusted on a corpse!

The Curate Merino was distinguished for bush-fighting, and a

rather treacherous and Parthian mode of assault, and his aspect

corresponded with his character. His influence over his comrades

was secured by promises of eternal happiness.

 

Blanca’s figuring in childhood in the character of an angel is

thus accounted for. The feast of San Sebastian is every year a

great event in that ancient town. The celebration is in many

respects interesting, including a procession in which female

children chosen for their beauty take a very prominent part,

bearing baskets of flowers, arrows typical of the martyr’s fate,

and other interesting emblems. Their dresses are of the richest

description--a little gaudy, to be sure, but beneath the brilliant

sky of Spain this is, perhaps, excusable. They represent angels,

and are provided with crowns set with mock diamonds, rubies, and

topazes of the largest size, and with gauze wings bound round with

gold or silver tissue. Short skirts of the ballet class, satin

shoes, and white silk stockings, complete an array of splendour

which excites, as may well be believed, terrific admiration in

their mammas and envy in all the rest of the town. A chorus from

time immemorial is sung to celebrate their progress, of which the

burthen is:

 

Vivan las niñas

De San Sebastian!