The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-10-17

the four mills OF the toNh, """ WV
were out of all supplies OF Hour and
ammunition. But Palafox and his adj
visers were energetic and untirlng.
They ground their corn III horse mills,
and set the monks to work at making
powder. All the sulphur III the place
was carefully collected, the earth in the
streets washed to obtain from it salt
peter and charcoal was made from
| hempstalks. Toward the end of July
food began to run short, and the hopes
of succor TO die away. A defense of
forty-six DAYS had exhausted the strength
of the defenders. A desperate rush to
recover the Torero failed. The French
bombardment continued cruel, remorse-
less and unintermitting On the I'd
and Sd of August the Grand Hospital,
dedicated to the Virgin, and one of the
largest in Spain, was burned, with all
its sick and wounded. A white flag was
boisted. rs it were to implore mercy,
but it was made n special mark for the
bombs.
On the 9Th of August the French
opened battery on the Santa Engracia
quarter, swept away all the mud wall,
took the batteries at the gates, turned
the guns on the Spaniards, and pene-
trated to the Corso in the very center
of the town /; yet here the resistance
was more obstinate than ever.
Every house became a fortress, every
doorway barricade, and a scorching
fire toward evening drove back the
French to Santa Engracia with loss of
fifteen hundred men and several Gen
erals. From the convent that night
| Lefebyre wrote his stern summons to
surrender
Headquarters - Santa Engracias
Capitulation.
The instant reply of Palafox was
equally laconic
Headquarters - Saragossa. War
to the knife. Palafox."
The French now occupied all one side
of the Corso, Gen. Verdier watching
the fighting and giving orders from the
Franciscan convent in the center On
the other side were the Saragossans,
who had thrown up the batteries on the
opening of all the side streets. The in
tervenlng space was soon so heaped up
with dead that Palafox afraid of conta-
gion, pushed forward French prisoners,
fastened by ropes to remove the bodies
AT night the most savage sorties were
made against the batteries on either
side, and there was great deal of hand
to-hand fighting inside the houses.
On the 9Th of August the ammunition
of the Spaniards began to run short,
and the people called out to be allowed
to attack the enemy with only their
knives, when at the very crisis there
arrived a providential convoy of provi-
sions and ammunition, escorted by three
thousand Swiss guards and Arragonese
volunteers, led by Don Francisco Pala-
fox, a brother of the General The
people took fresh heart.
For eleven days longer the Spaniards
fought from street to street, house to
house, room to room, wall to wall roof
to roof, till their knives broke, their
cartridges spent, and hIndreds died on
the French bayonet.
On the morning of the 18th, however,
to the JOY and establishment of the peo-
pie of the tormented city, the enemy
columns were beheld at a distance,
retreating in dark masses, over the plain
of the Ebro, on to the Pampeluna. The
defeat of Dupont, at Baylor, had COM
PEELED Lefebyre to retire from the all
but exhausted city.
Three months after, came Napoleon S
revenge. The Spanish heroes routed at
| Tudela, the French again invested Sara
gossa, this time attacking both sides.
The walls had been mounted with one
hundred and fifty cannon. Old and
young worked increasingly at the outer
line of defensive works Large stores
of provisions were collected, as well as
arms and ammunition. Twenty thousand
regular troops, and fifteen thousand
armed peasants, were enrolled to form
the garrison. Moreover, every house
was barricaded, and provided with sew
eral weeks food.
The French army consisted of twenty
| five thousand men, and battering train
from Pampeluna of sixty pieces, while
a corps of cavalry, stationed at Furentes,
secured the country round the besieged
town. Suchet's division took the Torero
at the first assault, capturing three guns
and one hundred prisoners. The attack
OF the reserves was even more tremen-
dous and the Spaniards wavered, till
Palafox and Gems. O'Niel and Saint
Marc rode up, sword in hand, rallied
them, and broke the French, who left
four thousand men dead in the streets
and fields, and under the garden walls.
The French then began regular invest
ment of the stubborn place, and Money
fixed his headquarter on the Torero.
In sally on the last day of the year,
the French suffered so much that Pala.
fox, who knew the value of such play
things, ordered every Spaniard who
signalized himself in this affair to wear
red ribbon on his breast. The priest
and friars behaved as well as the fight.
ing men. Honor, enthusiasm, and duty
animated every heart but, alas more
terrible enemy than the French had
appeared. Pestilence had broken out.
Junot, released from his duties in
Portugal 10y the disgraceful convention
of Clintra, now took the command. The
new broom swept clean, and the bonn.
bardment Immediately began. It's chief
fire, directed on Palofox's quarters, de-
stroyed the Court OF Audience and the
French carried the monastery of San
Josef and the brigade of La Huerba.
The shells fell SO fast that the priests
could not even carry sacrament to the
dying. Lannes, Duke of Montebello,
sent by Napoleon to reproach and
quicken Junot. as .Junot had been sent