Combine, with this moral superiority inherent in the cause of Freedom, the endless resources open to a nation which shews constancy in defensive war; resources which, after a lapse of time, leave the strongest invading army comparatively helpless.  Before six cities, resisting as Saragossa hath resisted during her two sieges, the whole of the military power of the adversary would melt away.  Without any advantages of natural situation; without fortifications; without even a ditch to protect them; with nothing better than a mud wall; with not more than two hundred regular troops; with a slender stock of arms and ammunition; with a leader inexperienced in war;—­the Citizens of Saragossa began the contest.  Enough of what was needful—­was produced and created; and—­by courage, fortitude, and skill rapidly matured—­they baffled for sixty days, and finally repulsed, a large French army with all its equipments.  In the first siege the natural and moral victory were both on their side; nor less so virtually (though the termination was different) in the second.  For, after another resistance of nearly three months, they have given the enemy cause feelingly to say, with Pyrrhus of old,—­’A little more of such conquest, and I am destroyed.’

If evidence were wanting of the efficacy of the principles which throughout this Treatise have been maintained,—­it has been furnished in overflowing measure.  A private individual, I had written; and knew not in what manner tens of thousands were enacting, day after day, the truths which, in the solitude of a peaceful vale, I was meditating.  Most gloriously have the Citizens of Saragossa proved that the true army of Spain, in a contest of this nature, is the whole people.  The same city has also exemplified a melancholy—­yea a dismal truth; yet consolatory, and full of joy; that,—­when a people are called suddenly to fight for their liberty, and are sorely pressed upon,—­their best field of battle is the floors upon which their children have played; the chambers where the family of each man has slept (his own or his neighbours’); upon or under the roofs by which they have been sheltered; in the gardens of their recreation; in the street, or in the market-place; before the Altars of their Temples; and among their congregated dwellings—­blazing, or up-rooted.

The Government of Spain must never forget Saragossa for a moment.  Nothing is wanting, to produce the same effects every where, but a leading mind such as that city was blessed with.  In the latter contest this has been proved; for Saragossa contained, at that time, bodies of men from almost all parts of Spain.  The narrative of those two sieges should be the manual of every Spaniard:  he may add to it the ancient stories of Numantia and Saguntum:  let him sleep upon the book as a pillow; and, if he be a devout adherent to the religion of his country, let him wear it in his bosom for his crucifix to rest upon.