The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-02-26

A App@ views the column-scattenng bay'net jar,
The falchion fash, and Ter the yet warm dead
Stalks with Minerva ss'ep "neie "si' iiish' qu@Ae
to tread $40
vwho shall marvel when you hear her tale
az had YOU known her in her softer hour,
Mark'd her black eye that mocks her coalblask
ussr5 her light. lively tones in Lady's bower
Seer her long locks that foil the painters power,
Iar fairy form, with more than female grace
Snsrce would you deem that Saragossa'stower
ReheId her smile in Dangers Gorgon face,
Thin the closed fAHA'' anu ''a' - ' ''@''''
He, liver sinks-she sheds no ill-timed tear;
uer thief is slan-she fills his fatal post;
H. fellows fee-she checks their base career
The foe retires-she heads the sallying host;
VINO can appease her like 8 lovers ghost?
Ubo Gan avepge so well leaders fall
What maid retrieve when mans fush'd hope is
lost
Eo;,sd nv a wonnan's hand, before battered wall
vet are Snain's maids no race of Anazons,
pnt foryn'd for all the wltching arts OF love;
1,hongh thus in arms they emulate her sons,
And in the horrid phalanx dare TO move,
fTie lint the tender heTceness OF tRe dove,
Picking the hand that hovers Ger her mate:
In softness as in firrDness far above
nemoter females famed for sicksnlng pTate;
Her mind is nobler sure, her Charms perendnce d.
great.
In note TO this remarkable passage he
saws: "Such were the exploits Of the Maid
of Saragossa, WHO by her valor elevated her.
selfto the highest rank of heroines. When the
author was at Seville, she walked daily On the
Prado, decorated with medals and orders, by
command of the Junta." The editor OF late
ed ition of his works adds:
The exploits of Augustine, the famous he
roine of both the sieges of Saragossa, are re-.
corde at length in one of the most splendid
chapters Of Southey's History OF the Penln-
suiar war. AT the time when she first attract
ed notice, by mounting battery where her
lover had fallen, and working gun in MS
room, she was in her twenty-second year, ex-
ceedingly pretty, and in soft feminine style
of beauty. She has further had the honor TO
be painted by Wilkie, and alluded TO IN
Wordsworth's Dissertation on the Convention
(misnamedI of Cintra.
Southey says, in substance, that during the
first siege, which had taken place in the sum
ner of the preceding year, this Augustine
(who was not q maid but married woman)
mad served gan near the Portillo with great
courage, and that when the enemy appeared
second time, she took her station there again.
Palafox, happening to pass by her, in going
the rounds, she said to him, swell, General,
l am with my old friend again." Her husband
having been killed by a cannon ball. as he was
serving the battery, she calmly stepped into
his place, and directed the fire of he gun as
he lay at her feet. She was frequently seen
at the head of an assaulting party, in her mill
1ary cloak, drawn sword in her hand, cheer.
ing on her counuynen like a second Joan O.
Arc. Having been at last taken prisoner, she
was carried to the French camp, where she had
a severe spell of illness, and whence she con-
trived to escape.
The fame of this lady seems to depend on
the exalted Imagination of two descriptions OF
persons, each of which have been fully as no.
ted for the strength of their fancy as for
a calm investigation of facts. Namely, on two
English poets and the Spanish nation. A wri-
ter of very different character, speaks as
follows:
"The current romantic tales, OF women raj
lying the troops and leading them forward at
the most dangerous periods of this siege,
have not touched upon, and may perhaps be
allowed to doubt; yet it is not unlikely, that
when suddenly environed with horrors, the
delicate sensitiveness of women, driving them
to a kind of frenzy, might. produce actions
above the heroism of men, end in patient suf.
iering, their superior foriitude is acknowledged
by all nations wherefore, neither wholly
believe, nor will deny, their exploits at Sara
gossa, merely remarking, that for long time
afterwards, Spain swarmed with heroines from
that city, clothed in half.uniform, and loaded
with weapons. "-Napier's Peniasular War.
Book /.
The same writer says that Pala Cox, durng,,he
first siege, tried to escape from the CITY with
mis- brother francisco, and that he was pre-
vented by the populace, who would not suffer
him to depart except in company with a guard
commanded by Tic Jorge, or goodman George.
This man, he adds, the TIC Marin. and the
lemonade seller of the ,,Cosso, were the real he.
roes OF Saragossa, while during the greater
part of it Palafox, who has reaped all the Ian.
reis, was in bomb proc building, surround.
ed by loose companions of both sexes and
spending his time in the most shameful nroA;.
gaey. These charges against Palsfox have
been denied by subsequent writers. and sesm
10 want proof but of the unbounded infu-
ence OF the three popular leaders aboye-men-
toned over the populaee there can be no doubt,
as there can be none that they exerted it to the
utmost TO compel the most desperate ress.
lance. They were all three killed before the city
suffehoefed' or the probability is that il would
Otherwise have been defended until il was en-.
afeiy destroyed. The Priests also exerted a
powerful inaaens&. Many of them charged at
the head of their flock, the sword in one hand
and the cruciix in the other. They raised Inc
TEMPER of their followers TO the highest pitch
of fapaticism, telling them that the French
were the enemies of God whom it vas their
dsty TO exterminate, and that all who fell in
sssh holy cause, would forthwith be ,raasla.
sed to heaven, One Of the most daring Of