[Footnote 58:  Colonel Napier, p. 25.]

CHAPTER XXIV

     Insurrection of the Spaniards and Portuguese—­Their Alliance with
     England—­Battle of Riosecco—­Joseph enters Madrid—­First Siege of
     Zaragossa—­Dupont’s March into Andalusia—­The Battle of
     Baylen—­Dupont Surrenders—­Joseph quits Madrid—­Situation of
     Junot—­Arrival of Sir Arthur Wellesley—­Battle of Rorica—­Battle of
     Vimiero—­Convention of Cintra.

On the 4th of July the King of England addressed his Parliament on the subject which then fixed the universal enthusiasm of his people.  “I view” (said he) “with the liveliest interest the loyal and determined spirit manifested in resisting the violence and perfidy with which the dearest rights of the Spanish nation have been assailed.  The kingdom thus nobly struggling against the usurpation and tyranny of France, can no longer be considered as the enemy of Great Britain, but is recognised by me as a natural friend and ally.”  It has been already mentioned that the British commanders in the neighbourhood of Spain did not wait for orders from home to espouse openly the cause of the insurgent nation.  The Spanish prisoners of war were forthwith released, clothed, equipped, and sent back to their country.  Supplies of arms and money were liberally transmitted thither; and, Portugal catching the flame and bursting into general insurrection also, a formal treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was soon concluded between England and the two kingdoms of the Peninsula.

This insurrection furnished Great Britain with what she had not yet possessed during the war, a favourable theatre whereon to oppose the full strength of her empire to the arms of Napoleon; and the opportunity was embraced with zeal, though for some time but little skill appeared in the manner of using it.  The Emperor, on the other hand, observed with surprise and rage the energy of the Spaniards, and not doubting that England would hasten to their aid, bent every effort to consummate his flagitious purpose.  “Thus” (says a distinguished writer) “the two leading nations of the world were brought into contact at a moment when both were disturbed by angry passions, eager for great events, and possessed of surprising power."[59]

Napoleon, from the extent and population of his empire, under the operation of the Conscription Code was enabled to maintain an army 500,000 strong; but his relations with those powers on the continent whom he had not entirely subdued were of the most unstable character, and even the states which he had formally united to France were, without exception, pregnant with the elements of disaffection.  It was therefore impossible for him to concentrate the whole of his gigantic strength on the soil of Spain.  His troops, moreover, being drawn from a multitude of different countries and tongues, could not be united in heart or in discipline