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The resistance was to be long, the place being manned by good troops, and constantly revictualled by the English vessels. Generals Blake and Castanos had collected their forces, and ceaselessly harassed the corps occupied by the sieges, as well as the armies which kept the country.
Blake, who commanded on the west, extended his line from Burgos to Bilboa; Palafox, on the east, lay between Zaragossa and Sanguessa; Castaños, general of the central army, had his headquarters at Soria.
General de la Pena, who commanded the vanguard, accepted the same conditions. "The French army must surrender at discretion," he said haughtily, "for the present let us rest ourselves." The aide-de-camp of General Dupont went forward to General Castanos, in order to obtain his assent to the truce.
But he did not yet know of the utter dispersal of the Asturian army, or that the two armies of Castanos and Palafox were also defeated and scattered beyond any attempt at rallying, and that their conquerors were also free to march against him.
They advanced slowly, for from all the towns, villages, and scattered houses, flocked multitudes in fury, who insulted the frightful misfortune of our soldiers. General Castanos, moderate in his triumph, had said to the French negotiators, "De la Cuesta, Blake, and myself, were not of the same opinion as the insurgents.
On the 14th July, General Castanos appeared before Andujar, while the corps of Reding threatened Baylen; the imprudent movement of our troops had uncovered this last position. General Dupont was informed of this.
"'I am the Captain Castanos." "Our acquaintance was of long standing; and, but for mutual agitation, we should have had no need to exchange our names. The colonel had left us two days since, at the head of the detachment, which we supposed to be either prisoners, or cut off, for he had not been seen to return to the camp."
Wellington felt his position seriously threatened, and sent off a despatch to the Spanish General Castanos, stating his inability to hold his ground, and the probability that he should be obliged to fall back upon Portugal.
It was by this famous manoeuvre that at Arcola, at Montenotte, at Friedland, and subsequently at Mazagran, Suwaroff, Prince Charles, and General Castanos were defeated with such victorious slaughter: but it is a movement which, I need not tell every military man, requires the greatest delicacy of execution, and which, if it fails, plunges an army into confusion. "Where is the Duke of Illyria?"
With the cruel and heedless fickleness of revolutionary governments, the Junta of Aranjuez hurriedly cashiered Generals Blake and Castanos. The Marquis of Romana's soldiers having distinguished themselves at Espinosa, he was appointed general of the united armies. Already, in spite of the consternation which reigned in the national party in Spain, small bodies of troops collected in various parts.
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