CHAPTER X

CORUNNA AND ITS HERO

A century has passed since Sir John Moore, mortally wounded on the heights of Corunna, was carried from the battlefield and buried on the ramparts. Corunna to-day is a busy, thriving seaport, and has much that will attract the visitor's attention. There are the quaint old twisted streets, typical of Galician towns, where you may imagine yourself back in the days of that immense Armada which sailed from the deep, wide harbour to vanquish England, and can picture Drake's swoop on the Galician coast ten years after the British navy had shattered the fleet which had been so proudly called Most Happy and Invincible. When the Armada left Lisbon it consisted of nearly 130 ships, with an aggregate tonnage of 58,000, carrying 2400 guns, about 20,000 soldiers, 8000 mariners, and over 2000 rowers--30,000 in all. Some of the ships proved leaky and were badly found, and owing to heavy weather the Armada was forced to put into Corunna for shelter. Enormous quantities of provisions had been thrown overboard because they were bad, and there was not enough water to drink. Pestilence, too, had carried off many of the sailors and soldiers. The huge fleet finally left Corunna on July 12, 1588, and by that time death and sickness had reduced the strength of the fighters to 24,000.

Modern Corunna has its great tobacco factory, employing several thousands of women and girls, fine ornamental grounds, statues, and public buildings. These may command only passing notice, though greater attention will be given to the mule-drawn trams and the diligences which run regularly between Corunna and the surrounding towns and villages. Nothing can more clearly give an idea of what primitive travelling in Galicia means than to watch the diligence from Ferrol, Finisterre, or Santiago drive up with jingling bells and cracking of whips, to put down weary passengers, and, the horses having been unharnessed, to see the oxen draw the coach to its departure-place. There are to be seen, too, the _miradores_, glazed frontages for which Corunna is celebrated. These vast stretches of windows protect the houses from the strong winds in winter and form bright and warm interior verandahs. Most of the modern houses in Galicia have these glass-protected verandahs in the top story, where, in winter, the greater part of the inhabitants' spare time is spent. The glazed exterior allows the heat of the sun to be retained, and compensates for the absence of fires. Corunna differs from other Galician towns in having not only many more modern buildings, but also in providing all the stories with the _miradores_. The streets are lively and busy, and some of the shops are very interesting. There are several good _cafés_.

There is the harbour, with its shipping, the magnificent scenery, the cemetery--worth a visit by those who wish to compare the Spanish mode of burial with the English--and the famous lighthouse which is called La Torre de Hércules. Corunna exports great quantities of onions and sardines, chiefly to America, and in the streets you may see enormous loads of the vegetable being taken to the quays for shipment. But to the ordinary visitor the ramparts and the heights of Elviña are the great attractions, for on the one Sir John Moore is buried, and on the other he made his last stand in that retreat which for sufferings and horror was not equalled by any of the Peninsular campaigns.

It was at Corunna that the Duke of Wellington, then Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, landed on July 20, 1808, when he entered the Peninsula to begin and see to a triumphant finish the war which lasted six years and gave to England an unparalleled series of victories. The French by that time were masters of Spain, and it was Wellesley's purpose to free the country from Napoleon's tyranny. The Spaniards had risen against their conquerors, and Wellesley found that "no one dared to show that he was a friend to the French." The Gallegans, brave and patriotic, clamoured for arms, and Wellesley furnished the Junta of Galicia with £200,000 and promised the immediate despatch of military stores. He sailed from Corunna on the night of the 21st, and joined the fleet of transports and convoys next day. On the 24th he reached Oporto in the _Crocodile_. A few days later the troops landed, "each with one shirt and one pair of shoes besides those on them, combs, razor, and a brush, which are to be packed up in their greatcoats." The men landed with three days' bread and two days meat, cooked. Three weeks after leaving Corunna Wellesley won his first victory over the French, at Roleia, with a loss on his own side of nearly 500 killed and wounded and on the French of 1500. The opening shots of the war were fired by riflemen of the 60th, now the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and the 95th, now the Rifle Brigade. The Rifle Corps has no fewer than sixteen Peninsular battle honours, won by the famous 5th, or Jäger, Battalion--foreigners, mostly Germans, who were in British pay. Since its origin in 1800 the Rifle Brigade has been composed entirely of British troops. Throughout the war Wellington found these riflemen of the utmost service, and he frequently spoke of them in terms of praise.

Moore's retreat to Corunna was a tragedy from start to finish. Spain was in what appeared to be a hopeless state, and of all its provinces none was more severely harassed than Galicia. War had impoverished an already poor and burdened country, and there were none of the resources available which are needed for the successful conduct of a great campaign. In 1807 the French army entered Spain, and early in the following year Madrid was captured by the conquering legions of the Emperor. For a few weeks only the visitors remained in peaceful possession; then there was a rising in the capital, which began the long and bloody fight to master Bonaparte. On May 2, 1808, the French troops and the Spanish populace came into conflict, and for nearly three hours there was incessant firing and slaughter, and many acts were done which have become famous amongst many famous deeds. A musket had been fired from one of the houses, and a mameluke dashed into the building. He was slain by a beautiful girl, and she, in turn, was instantly cut down by the assailant's comrades. A huntsman, who was celebrated as a marksman, fired twenty-eight cartridges against the French, bringing down a man with each. He maintained his deadly fire until his ammunition was finished; then, arming himself with a dagger, he hurled himself against his foes, and was killed as he struck at them.

That outrage in Madrid let loose the pent-up passions of the Spaniards. They had, in the lonely hills and valleys of their country, many chances of retaliation, and they showed no mercy to the Frenchmen who became their prisoners. Even the sick and the medical attendants were butchered, and some were done to death with incredible barbarity. A French officer was returning from a peaceful mission into Portugal, unconscious of the fact that hostilities had broken out. He was unarmed and unattached to a military force; but he was a Frenchman, and that was looked upon by his captors as proof sufficient for his doom. The Spaniards seized and mutilated him; then, having secured him, still living, between two planks, they sawed him asunder.

In the autumn of 1808 Moore had taken command of the army in Portugal, and had marched into Spain to drive out Napoleon, who had sworn that he himself would become the king of that country. Unexpectedly encountering overwhelming forces under Marshal Soult, Moore recognised that his only hope of salvation lay in retreat, and accordingly he resolved to fall back on Vigo and embark his army in the transports which had been ordered to assemble there to meet him. Circumstances compelled him to alter his plans, and finally to resolve to get on board ship at Corunna.

Moore had rapidly covered 400 miles on his way from Portugal to Spain, and found himself in Galicia. There he learned that his allies, the Spaniards, had been routed and dispersed. Anxious to avoid confusion and unnecessary calls on an impoverished country, he entreated the Spaniards not to fall back in the same direction as himself; but they did not accede to his wishes, and the result was a hopeless overcrowding of the houses on the line of retreat, and a call on the resources of the land which could not be met.

Officers and men who fought in the Peninsula and shared in the sufferings of that appalling retreat to Corunna have put on record vivid pictures of the terrible state of Moore's army. When he reached Benavente he sent General Crauford with 3000 men by way of Orense, nearly a hundred and forty miles away, which offered a shorter but harder road to the coast.

Moore's purpose was to prevent the French from securing an advantage over him by employing a light column. He himself took the longer but better road which led through Astorga and Villa Franca. At Astorga he was joined by Baird's division, and Moore ordered the destruction of everything which could check his retreat.

The rainy season had been succeeded by heavy falls of snow, for Moore was high in the hills, and the cold was intense, while the roads and fields by which he had to march were almost impassable. By that time the condition of the army was pitiful. Typhus fever swept through the ranks, and the roads were dotted with dead and dying men and women and children. In those days women were allowed to accompany British soldiers to war, and Moore had even a larger proportion than usual with him. The privations of the women and children remain as the most terrible feature of a retreat which stands almost unparalleled for suffering and loss. There was no ammunition for the guns, none for the muskets, and the soldiers were almost unshod and in rags. In this respect there was little difference between the pursuing French and the retreating English.

At the beginning of December Moore had 20,000 men under him, and he was relentlessly followed by an enemy in overwhelming force. Men and horses fell and died on the march, and day by day the flying army had had its strength reduced by death and desertion. Whole regiments forsook their colours and defied authority, in spite of the punishment of death which was imposed for disobedience and drinking. Whenever a wine-house was reached the soldiers raided it, and forgot their misery in debauchery.

The main body of the army kept a day's march ahead of the reserve and the rearguard. On New Year's morning 1809 the main body reached Bembibre, and immediately assailed the wine-shops. So hopelessly drunk were many of the troops when the rearguard came up that it was impossible to arouse them to a sense of their peril from the French cavalry who were harassing their rear, and they had to be left behind in great numbers. By that time the opposing armies had been marching within sight of each other for many miles, and the French horsemen swept on the drunken mob and butchered it. Soult's dragoons thundered in amongst the helpless crowd of British troops and shrieking women and children, and without distinction of sex or age put them to the sword. A few soldiers, mangled and bleeding, escaped from the massacre, and Moore ordered that they should parade through the ranks and show their wounds--a stern warning to the army of the effect of drink and disobedience.

Believing that Astorga would be a resting-place, the retreating army had kept up something like order, and had been inspired by the hope of battle; but there was no rest. Again everything that was burdensome was abandoned, and the terrible withdrawal was continued.

"From that hour," said Lord Londonderry, "we no longer resembled a British army. There was still the same bravery in our ranks, but it was only at moments, when the enemy was expected to come on, that our order and regularity returned, and except in that single point we resembled rather a crowd of insubordinate rebels in full flight before victorious soldiers than a corps of British troops moving in the presence of an enemy." Moore himself, in the last despatch he ever wrote, said he could not have believed that such complete demoralisation could have overtaken a British army.

Marvellous distances were traversed, notwithstanding the difficult country and the bitter weather. Villa Franca was reached on January 2, after sixty miles had been covered in two days. One march alone represented forty miles, but that was continued by night as well as day, and was marked by the abandonment of the dying and the dead. The troops dropped by whole sections on the road and died. "Not men only," wrote Lord Londonderry, "but women and children were subject to this miserable fate. Moore's army had carried along with it more than the too large proportion of women allotted by the rules of the service to armies in the field, and these poor wretches now heightened the horror of passing events by a display of suffering even more acute than that endured by their husbands. Some were taken in labour on the road, and in the open air, amid showers of sleet and snow, gave birth to infants which, with their mothers, perished as soon as they had seen the light. Others, carrying, some of them, two children on their backs, toiled on, and, when they came to look to the condition of their burdens, they would probably find one or both frozen to death."

Guns, waggons, and even treasure were abandoned on that fatal road. Dollars to the value of twenty-five thousand pounds, which were in two bullock-carts, could not be drawn any farther by the exhausted oxen, and the casks containing the coins were stove in, and the money thrown over a precipice. Some of the ragged, starving soldiers lagged behind to seize the money, and perished either by the French sabres or the winter's cold. Sick and wounded were abandoned in the waggons; and at last, on January 11, the worn and famishing survivors of the flying army reached the village of Elviña, on the heights of Corunna, about two miles from the town.

Moore went into Corunna and took up lodgings in a little house facing the bay, and directed the embarkation of his fugitives in the transports, which arrived from Vigo on the 14th.

The French did not molest the embarkation for two days, but on the 16th they advanced, 20,000 strong, to assault the 14,000 who alone remained of Moore's worn-out troops. He had done his best to bring his sorry remnant to the coast, and he had triumphed. Now, at the end of his retreat, he showed the superior French force that as a fighter he was as dangerous as ever. He destroyed bridges and ammunition, and blew up 4000 barrels of gunpowder--an explosion which wrecked all the windows in Corunna--and used every artifice he knew to prevent either his men or his _matériel_ from falling into the hands of his foe. It seemed as if even now, at the end of his tribulation, the British chief would get away from Spain; but Soult forced him at the very last to give battle, and on January 16, 1809, the worn and harassed leader, from a piece of rocky ground at Elviña, just beyond the village, directed the battle which, beginning at about two o'clock in the afternoon, continued furiously till darkness fell.

Time after time the Frenchmen charged the shattered remnant of the hero's force; but as often as they advanced they were driven back and broken by the men who, with all their faults of drink and insubordination, knew how to fight and conquer.

All through the terrible retreat the British soldier's prayer had been for a battle, and now that his supplication was answered he proved himself a true son of his country. Not even Soult's genius and the valour of his overwhelming forces could master the stubborn, sullen troops who held the little church and streets of Elviña. Napoleon's veterans were driven back, and when the day gave place to night his famous marshal knew that the army which he had harassed and pursued for so many bitter days would escape.

Twice, with frantic valour, the French had taken the village, and twice they had been hurled out of it at the point of the bayonet by the Guards, Highlanders, and linesmen under Moore. He had covered his amazing retreat with a triumphant victory; but in the very moment of success he was struck down by a cannon-ball, which shattered his left shoulder.

Moore fell from his horse, his arm hanging only by a piece of skin, and his breast bared to the lungs. Some soldiers took him up and put him, conscious still, into a blanket, and bore him from the field of battle to his lodgings. He knew that the French were beaten, and, turning to an old friend, he said: "You know that I always wished to die this way." He lingered for a few hours at his lodgings, and just before he passed away he murmured: "I hope the people of England will be satisfied. I hope my country will do me justice." It was almost a repetition of the glorious death of Nelson in Trafalgar Bay, 600 miles below Corunna, on the Atlantic Coast, only three years earlier.

The embarkation was still in progress and the French guns were booming as the valiant British rearguard filed in silence to the beach. The victorious general died while the transports were receiving the troops, and, wrapped only in his military cloak, he was borne by men of the 9th Foot, now the Norfolk Regiment, to the hastily dug grave on the ramparts, where he was buried, his farewell volleys coming from the distant artillery. The officers' silk sashes with which the body of the beloved commander was lowered into the grave, and the prayer-book used at the hasty funeral service, are preserved in the Royal United Service Institution Museum, Whitehall. When Moore was first laid to rest the ramparts were little more than a wilderness. Soon after the burial the body was exhumed and placed where it now is. The grave is made of Galician granite, the urn above is of white stone, and common stone was used in the construction of the enclosure.

The British victors sailed from Corunna, having spiked their guns and buried them in the sand, and when the French at last entered the town even the sick and wounded had been taken safely off to sea.

Corunna cost Moore nearly a thousand men. The French suffered far more heavily. During the retreat the British casualties were 6000, including deserters and stragglers, of whom 800 escaped into Portugal. Three hundred men were drowned in the wrecks of two transports off the English coast, and many died of disease after landing.

Moore wished to be buried near the spot where he died, and his grave is only a short walk from his last quarters. The brave and noble Soult paid homage to the hero who had perished in the hour of triumph. A French gun is planted, muzzle downward, in each corner of the enclosure, and palm-trees rise gracefully from the soil. A few yards away you may look through the ruined embrasures and see the heights of Elviña and the Atlantic into which the survivors of the great retreat were sailing while their fallen leader was being lowered to his resting-place upon Corunna's ramparts.

INDEX

ALFONSO XII., 59

Alps, The, compared with Galician Hills, 27

_Ambrose_, The R.M.S., 51

Animals, Wild, in Galicia, 27

_Antony_, The R.M.S., 37

Arcos, Balanced stone of, 148

Argentina and Gallegans, 18

Armada, The Spanish, and Corunna, 14, 25

Arosa Bay, 15, 167

Art, Works of, in Galicia, 43

BAYONA, 118

Betanzos, 26, 116, 130

Booth Steamship Co., Ltd., The, 47, 91, 117, 130

Borrow and Vigo, 67 his remarks on robbers, 105 his advice with regard to Spanish, 107 his description of Ferrol, 112

_Bouillabaisse_, 36

Breakfast in Galicia, 35

CAAVEIRO, Valley of, 116

_Caballero_, The, 33, 38, 53, 136

Caldas, 169

_Caldo Gallego_, 36

Cambados, 174

Cangas, The fishing-town of, 61 ghastly festival at, 62

Castillo del Castro, 55

Castle Mos, 59

Cattle markets, 41

Censer, The Giant, 84

Cies Islands, The, 51, 57, 67

Civil Guard, The, 32, 105

Clavijo, The battle of, 26

Climate, 9

Clubs in Galicia, 47

Columbus and Galicia, 13, 25, 172

Commercial travellers, 136

Convent, A, 168

Cortegada, 15, 168

Corunna, Fishwives of, 32 Corunna, Modern, 182 Moore's retreat to, 184 privations during the retreat, 184 battle of, 191 losses during the retreat, 194

Cottages of Galicia, 41

Cuntis, 169

Cycling, 138

DANISH butter, Use of, in Galicia, 38

Déjeuner in Galicia, 36

Diligence, The, 127

Drake and Galicia, 79, 96

Dwarfs, Dance of, 90

ELVIÑA, 183, 191

Emigration from Galicia, 7, 65

FERROL, description of, 112 British enterprise at, 114

Finisterre, Battles off, 111

Fish and vegetable markets, 53

Flowers in Galicia, 9

Ford, Richard, 26

Frontier, The, 120

Funeral, A Russian sailor's, 64 a peasant's, 163

GALICIA an historic ground for Englishmen, 13 the progress of, 15 hotel accommodation in, 20 the coast-line of, 25 floods in, 27 security of travel in, 33 chambermaids and waiters of, 34

Gallegans, The, 6 shyness of, 17 character of, 18 their martial valour, 19 their alleged stupidity, 19 food and drink of the, 29 Gallegans and Portuguese farming, 16

Gate of Glory, The, 81

Giants, Dance of, 90

Gold, Annual gift of, by King of Spain, 89

Golf-links, 177

HAIR, strange mode of dressing the, 160

INNS of Galicia, 103

Ireland, Galicia compared with, 18

JUNTA of Galicia, The, 184

KING'S Royal Rifle Corps, The, 184

LAGER beer, Spanish, 37

La Toja, The Island of, 15, 174 the Grand Hotel at, 16, 175 the mud and springs of, 176

Lerez, The River, 173

Londonderry, Lord, and Corunna, 189, 190

Los Dominicos, Convent of, 122

MADRID, The rising in, 185

Maize, drying of, 30 maize-bread, 8, 29 maize-barns, 30

Marin, 162

Mass, High, celebration of, 84

Miño, The River, 1, 4, 5, 27 the bridge over the, 120

_Miradores_ at Corunna, The, 182

Mondariz, the hotel at, 16, 145 the waters of, 144 new pump-room at, 147

Moore, Sir John, death of, 192 burial of, 193

Moors, The, and Galicia, 26

Motor-cars, 133

NIGHT-WATCHMEN, The, 31

ORENSE, 123

PARDO BAZAN, The Countess of, 17

Phoenicians, The, and Galicia, 26

Photography, 44

Pigeon-cots, 30

Pigs in Galicia, 40

Pilgrims and Freebooters, 11

Policemen of Galicia, The, 32, 33

Ponies, 129

Pontevedra, 12, 13 the _sereno_ of, 31 the people of, 172

Porriño, 104

Press of Galicia, The, 66

Puenteareas, 66

Puentedeume, 116

Pulteney's expedition, 114

RAILWAYS in Galicia, 129

Ramallosa, 118

Rande, The Strait of, 58

Redondela, Bridges at, 65

Ribadavia, 122

Roleia, The Battle of, 184

Romans, The, and Galicia, 26 Roman ploughs, 53 Roman remains, 168

Rosary, The Festival of Our Lady of the, 86

SAINT JAMES and El Padron, 10, 171 killed by Herod, 71 his staff, 84 and military stronghold, 113

Salvatierra, 122

San Benito, The village of, 101

San Domingo, The Convent of, at Pontevedra, 172

San Simon, The Island of, 56

Santiago, The road of, 10 the streets of, 12 scallop-shells at, 12, 95 founding of, 71 pilgrims to, 72, 91 the bells of, 73, 90 history of, 74 students at, 75 the Cathedral of, 76 the treasury, 77 St. James's figure, 79 the _compostela_, 80 the sepulchre of St. James, 81 the Gate of Glory, 81 the giant censer, 84 the Church of San Martin, 86 St. James's Festival, 88 the Royal Hospital, 92 the Cardinal's Palace, 92

Sardines, 54 Messrs. Barreras and the sardine industry, 63

Scenery in Galicia, 149

Scottish Highlands, Galicia compared with, 20

_Sereno_, The, 31

Seven Sisters, The, 52

Smoking-carriages, 131 smoking in Galicia, 43

Sobroso, The Castle of, 149

Soult, Marshal, 186, 191, 194

Sport in Galicia, 27, 176

Street of the Hundred Maidens, The, 26

Sunday evening in Galicia, 102

TEA, The River, 146, 148

Telegraphy in Galicia, 42

Thackeray and _Bouillabaisse_, 36

Tourists and Galicia, 39

Trains, slowness of Galician, 132

Travel, security of, 105

Treasure ships and Vigo, 57

Tuy, 4, 119

UMIA, The River, 170

VALENÇA, 1, 3, 119, 121

Vigo, 67 Galicia's chief portal, 52 the Alameda, 54 the municipality of, 55 warships at, 63

Villa Garcia, 167

Villeneuve, Admiral, 115

Vineyards, granite posts in, 28

WAITER, The Galician, 37

Washing in Galicia, 161

Wellington and Corunna, 183

Wines of Galicia, The, 46

Women of Galicia as workers, 156

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