Colonel Raymond Guiraud’s war journal (III) …

… Clouds were gathering on the horizon, and there was no doubt that it would soon be necessary to return to the battlefield.

An army commanded by Junot had set out for Portugal at the end of 1807. Under the pretext of supporting this expedition, Generals Dupont, Duhesme and Moncey had also crossed the borders of Biscay, Catalonia and Navarre. In the course of February, the citadels of Pamplona, Barcelona, San Sebastian and Figuières were seized by means of perfidious manoeuvres. These were the prelude to the reprehensible means employed by Napoleon to seize the Spanish throne and place this entire branch of the Bourbon family under his control.

In March (1808) a corps of the Imperial Guard, under the orders of Marshal Bessières, left Paris to form the reserve … Murat had already preceded it with the cavalry and the Mamelukes of the Guard. Of the three engineer officers, I was the youngest, the most ambitious and the most enterprising. The marshal appointed me. I sent my servant, my Hanoverian-Mecklenburg mare and a Hungarian horse to Bayonne. Not having seen my father since I left Limoux in 1797, I took the road to Toulouse thinking I would join the corps marching in stages. My brothers came to meet me before Castelnaudary (a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region of southern France); I did not recognise them (anymore), especially Alexandre (1) who was only a child when I had left. In the evening, I embraced my most loving father, my excellent mother, my sister who had recently married Mr. de Pauligne and all the members of my family. My father’s enthusiasm was at its height; he couldn’t get enough of beholding me wearing my two epaulettes and my aiguillette as captain of the Guard.

(1) The future academician, author of the novel ‘Le Petit Savoyard’.

I departed on 20 March with a heavy heart, the precursor of a disaster, alas, that was very close at hand.

On arriving at Bayonne on the 25th, I learned that Marshal Bessières had already passed through. A corps of the Guard was on the march … General Lazowsky of the Engineers was about to join the Army of Portugal, so I seized this favourable opportunity, bought two bad mules, and we travelled together to Burgos. Marshal Bessières, who was already there, sternly reprimanded me. I found General Frère there, who told me of the abhorrent purpose for which we were to be deployed; the Emperor’s plan to make himself an arbiter between the King of Spain and his son in order to overthrow both of them. We had met General Monthion who, dispatched by the Grand Duke of Berg, had brought news of the events at Aranjuez: the downfall of the Prince of Peace (the Favourite, Godoy) and the abdication of Charles IV.

While the machinations of Bayonne were ongoing, attempts were being made to dispose the Spanish nation to a change of dynasty by means of written material spread with profusion in all the provinces. Marshal Bessières gathered together ten or twelve officers from the general staff, including myself. He distributed proclamations to us in which the Bourbon family was called a ‘degenerate race’ and the Bonaparte family was praised. I was appointed to carry them to Upper Galicia with Quandale, who was to travel to Orenzée in Lower Galicia. The general, who was in command at Valladolid, advised us to disguise ourselves in order to avoid the fury of the people, who were in an uproar and full of righteous anger. I was careful enough not to listen to such advice, preferring to perish with weapons drawn than to be hanged as a spy. I bought a pair of tight skin trousers, greased them with tallow and thus covered the remaining eighty leagues in the saddle without suffering much …

I parted from Quandale with a heavy heart. Arriving at Corunna, I was struck by the increasingly elevated spirits. If a sentry in the street carried weapons for me, the people insulted him. Governor General of Artillery Biedma, whom I went to visit, advised me to hand over my dispatches and leave during the night. The French consul, Mr. de Fourcroy, refused to receive me and above all to take charge of my dispatches and distribute their contents, as had been ordered on the same day to all the alcades of Galicia, not doubting that his house would be burnt down if I stayed with him too long. However, he had to accept them and provide me with a proof of receipt. During the night, I set off again and spurred my horse on. At noon the next day, I reached the highest point of the mountain range that separates the Kingdom of Leon from Galicia. At Astorga, the following day, students flocked to the post office and surrounded me as I was leaving … I took a pistol in each hand, the bridle between my teeth and, thrusting the spurs into the belly of my horse, I managed to get away, however the danger was mounting. Fortunately we enjoyed the protection of the postmasters and the authorities, who feared the consequences of an assassination and did their utmost to restrain the people. At La Bañeza, a woman tried to take me down in the middle of the street.

One night I arrived at Benavente. The magnificent comet that appeared that year was on the horizon and contributed to distract me from the boredom and uneasiness of my position. The locals rushed to the post office when they heard horses approaching, suspecting it was a courier from Madrid. Disappointment added to the agitation: the authorities and the cathedral chapter rushed to save me. I was escorted outside and, some distance from the city, I rode at full gallop to Saint-Estevan. It was eleven o’clock at night, and the postmaster urged me to leave, fearing a fatal outcome. He advised me to avoid Valladolid and assigned me two to three men to take me across to Rioseco (sic) and join the main road to Palencia. I finally arrived at Burgos, my eyes suffering from eight days of a scorching sun and sleep deprivation. Few officers had returned from such expeditions.

On 14 July 1808, the two armies, French and Spanish, confronted each other at Rioseco. The results of this battle, in which the Spaniards surrendered at the first charge, would have been decisive, as Bonaparte said, it would have assured Joseph the Spanish throne, if the painful affair of Bailén on 19 July, the lifting of the siege of Saragossa on the 15th and the successes of the bands of insurgents in several parts of Spain had not prompted the Emperor to withdraw his troops, which King Joseph followed to the right bank of the Ebro, after a reign of eight days in the capital.

On 10 November, at Gramonal, we encountered the army of the Duke of Belvedere arrayed for battle, covered by a small wood, with the very deep mill canal at its back. It only took a moment to attack them, overthrow them and drive them all the way back to Burgos.

The resistance was more tenacious at the Somosierra pass, where the headquarters of I Corps had gathered. Frustrated by the delay in the attack, the Emperor became impatient, horses climbed up through brambles and stones, and the Poles of the Guard took out the enemy battery to cries of ‘Long live the Emperor’. A short distance from the Emperor, Major Philippe de Ségur was struck by several bullets. The Marquis of Villavicencia surrendered his sword to me at the head of the Jaén Militia Regiment, and I was instructed to present it to the Emperor.

– ‘Who are you’, asked the Emperor.
– ‘The colonel of the Jaén Regiment.’
– ‘What kind of regiment is it?’
– ‘Militia, Sire.’
– ‘What on earth are you meddling with, you militiamen? Watch over your homes, police your towns, don’t show yourselves on the battlefield again.’

‘Let us go’, said the Emperor, ‘take the gentleman to the church in the village’, and, at the same time he said this, he struck the officer with his riding crop, which barely hit him. His fury was so pronounced that I feared he would have him shot over the bodies of the fourteen Frenchmen that were massacred on his orders, and that would have been fair. However, this unfortunate man, who had insulted General Dupont at Bailén, was willing to give me his horse, his watch, his pistols and his money … I accepted the weapons and took it upon myself to pass on the watch to his wife in Madrid.

I accomplished my mission on 22 December. The marquess was staying in the Rue Jacometreuse. Surrounded by people of distinction, she welcomed me coldly. However, she asked me to come back (later) and see her … And this time, being alone with her young sister, it was quite different; she lavished me with words of gratitude. She was one of the most beautiful women at court, and spoke as much French as I have ever heard a Spaniard speak.

On 31 December, the Emperor called back his Guard, which had advanced as far as Fuencevadon. Extraordinary couriers informed him of the new offensive undertaken by Austria, which sought to take advantage of the Emperor’s absence when he was engaged in the depths of Spain. His mind was soon made up. The promptness of his measures, the speed of his march, thwarted the plans of his enemies. He gave Marshal Soult superior command of the troops responsible to force the English to lay down their arms or throw them into the sea. He left Valladolid to go to Paris … We remained for a long time in a state of uncertainty and were consumed with impatience to join the Emperor. The army was well aware that no favours would be forthcoming from him when he was occupied elsewhere, no matter what efforts we made or what dangers we were exposed to.

An inspection of the (Imperial) Guard forces took place on 7 January (1809) before his departure. It was remarkable for one particular event, for which the Emperor seemed to have been prepared. General Legendre, chief of staff of Dupont’s Corps, which capitulated at Bailén, appeared, pleaded for pardon and asked to be employed as a soldier rather than remain inactive. At this request, the Emperor exclaimed in a thunderous voice: ‘Who? You, Sir, to return to the ranks of the French army! You were the first one to disgrace it! You, one of the authors of the infamous Treaty of Bailén! And the fire of Heaven did not wither your hand when you dared to approve that the backpacks of your soldiers would be searched for sacred vessels! Your carriages held the spoils of Andalusia and the sacrilegious thefts from churches. The army, as well as France, rejects you.’ We were stunned by Napoleon’s vehemence, eloquence and indignation … For a long time he spoke abundantly, with a fervour and dignity that surpassed all expression.

I’ll say a word in passing about a rather funny incident. Arriving at four o’clock in the morning at a lodging at Burgos, I mistook one room for another; a woman’s voice asked: ‘Who’s there?’ I felt her bed and resumed my adventure without leaving my sabre hanging at my side … It turned out that the subject was worth the wait!

After two months of anticipation, the headquarters of the Guard finally received the order to travel to Germany. What a pleasure it was to set off! We had no regrets about leaving Spain, and we were to return there in far more appalling circumstances …

Source : Journal de ma vie, in La Revue des Deux-Mondes, September 1967, pp. 71-75.