Zaragoza. English

by Benito Pérez Galdós

  CHAPTER XXII

  The good fathers encouraged us with their exhortations, and some ofthem, mingling with us in the most dangerous places in the ranks, saidto us,--

  "My sons, do not be discouraged. Foreseeing this event we have savedmoderate quantities of food, and we have wine also. Give this mobplenty of powder! Courage, dear boys! Do not be afraid of the enemy'slead. You do more damage with one of your glances than they with adischarge of lead. Forward, my sons! The Holy Virgin del Pilar is withyou. Don't wince at danger; face the enemy calmly, and in the cloud ofbattle you will see the holy form of the Mother of God. Viva Spain andFernando VII!"

  We reached the church; but the French, who had preceded us by thesacristy, already occupied the high altar. I had never before seena churrigueresque altar all covered with sculptures and garlands ofgold, serving as a breastwork for infantry; nor had I ever seen nicheswhich served as the lodging places of a thousand carved saints vomitingforth fire. I had never seen the rays of gilded wood which shed theirchangeless light from pasteboard clouds peopled by little angels,confused with gun-flashes; nor behind the feet of Christ, and backof the golden halo of the Virgin Mary, the avenging eyes of soldierstaking death-dealing aim.

  It is well to say that the high altar of San Augustine was an enormousone, filled with gilded wooden sculptures, like others you have seenin any of the churches of Spain. It extended from the floor to thearch above, and from wall to wall, and represented in row upon row thecelestial hierarchies. Above, the blood-stained Christ spread his armsupon the cross; below, and on the altar, a little shrine enclosed thesymbol of the Eucharist. Although the whole was supported by the groundand the walls, there were little interior covered ways destined for thespecial services of that republic of saints, and by them the sacristancould ascend from the sacristy to change the dress of the Virgin, tolight the candles before the highest crucifix, or to clean the dust ofcenturies from the antique fabrics and painted wood of the images.

  Well, the French rapidly gained possession of the _camar?n_ of theVirgin, and the narrow passages I have spoken of. When we arrived,from behind each saint, in every niche, gleamed a gun barrel.Established thus behind the altar, and advancing slowly forward, theywere preparing to take all of this upper part of the church.

  We were not entirely unprotected; and in order to defend ourselvesfrom the altar-piece, we occupied the confessionals, the altars of thechapels, and the galleries. Those of us who were most exposed were inthe central nave; and while the more daring advanced resolutely towardsthe altar, others of us took positions in the lower choir; and frombehind the chorister's desk, from behind chairs and benches which wepiled up against the choir-screen, we tried to dislodge the Frenchnation from its possession of the high altar.

  Tio Garces, with others as brave, ran to occupy the pulpit, anotherchurrigueresque structure whose sounding board was crowned by a statueof Faith which reached almost to the roof. They mounted, occupyingthe little stair and the great chair, and from there, by a singularchance, they shut up every Frenchman who dared to show his head in thatdirection. They also suffered great loss, for the men in the altar weremuch annoyed by the pulpit, and tried hard to get that obstacle out oftheir way. At last some twenty Imperials came out, evidently bent uponreducing at all hazards that wooden redoubt without whose possession itwas madness to attempt to come out into the broad nave. I have neverseen anything more like a great battle, and as in that the attention ofboth armies is concentrated upon one point, the most eagerly disputedof all, whose loss or conquest decides the outcome of the struggle, sothe attention of all was now directed to the pulpit, so well defendedand so well attacked. The twenty had to resist a sharp fire from usin the choir, and the hand-grenades which were thrown at them fromthe galleries. But in spite of great loss, they advanced resolutely,bayonets fixed, upon the pulpit stairway. The ten defenders of thefortress were not intimidated, and defended themselves with empty guns,with the unfailing superiority which they always showed in that kindof conflict. Many of our men who were firing from the chapel altarsand the confessionals, ran to attack the French with their swords,representing in that way, in miniature, conditions of a rude fieldbattle; the contest was waged, man to man, with bayonet-thrusts, guns,and blows as each one met his adversary.

  The enemy was reinforced from the sacristy, and our rear-guard alsocame out of the choir. Some who were in the gallery on the right jumpedupon the cornice of a great reredos at one side, and not satisfiedwith firing from there, threw down upon the French three statues ofsaints that capped its three angles. Meantime the pulpit was still heldbravely, and in that hell of flame I saw Tio Garces standing erect,directing the men, and looking like a preacher screaming impudentlywith a hoarse voice. If I should ever see the devil preaching sin,standing on the great chair in the pulpit of a church invaded by allthe other demons of hell in hideous riot, it would not especiallyattract my attention after that.

  This could not last long; and Tio Garces presently fell, screaminghoarsely, pierced by a hundred balls. The French, who had poured upby way of the sacristy, now advanced in a closed column, and in thethree steps which separated the presbytery from the rest of the church,offered us a wall-like defence. When this column fired, the question ofthe pulpit was instantly settled, and having lost one out of every fiveof our men, leaving a large number of our dead upon the tiles of thefloor, we retreated to the chapels. The first defenders of the pulpit,those who had gone to reinforce them, and Tio Garces also, were pickedup on bayonets, pierced through and tossed over the redoubt. So diedthat great patriot unnamed in history.

  The captain of our company remained lifeless also upon the pavement.We retired in disorderly fashion to various points separated from oneanother, not knowing who would command us. Indeed, the initiative ofeach one, or of each group of two or three, was the only organizationthen possible, and no one thought of companies or of military rank.All were obedient to one common purpose, and showed a marvellousinstinctive knowledge of rudimentary strategy which the exigencies ofthe struggle demanded at every moment. This instinctive insight made usunderstand that we were lost from the time that we got into the chapelson the right, and it was rashness to persist in the defence of thechurch before the great numbers of the French who now occupied it. Someof our soldiers thought that with the benches, the images, and the woodof an old altar-piece, which could easily be broken to pieces, we oughtto raise a barricade in the arch of our chapel, and defend ourselves tothe last; but two Augustine fathers opposed this useless effort.

  "My sons, do not trouble yourselves to prolong the resistance whichwill only destroy you, and give our side no advantage," said oneof them. "The French are attacking this moment by the Calle de lasArcades. Hasten there, and see if you can not harass them; but do notimagine that you can defend the church profaned by these savages."

  These exhortations decided us to leave the church. Some of theEstremadura men remained in the choir, exchanging shots with theFrench, who now filled the nave. The friars only half-fulfilled theirpromise of giving us something for which to sing "_Gaudeamus_." As arecompense for having defended their church to the last extreme, theywere giving us some bits of jerked beef and dry bread, without ourseeing or smelling the wine anywhere, in spite of our straining oureyes and our nostrils. But to explain this, they said that the French,occupying all the upper part, had possession of all the principalstorehouse of provisions. Lamenting this, they tried to console us withpraises of our good behavior.

  The failure of the wine made me remember the great Pirli. I happened torecollect that I had seen him at the beginning of the battle. I askedfor him, but nobody could account for his disappearance. The Frenchoccupied the church, and also some of the upper part of the convent.In spite of our unfavorable position below, we were resolved to go onresisting; and we bore in mind the heroic conduct of the volunteers ofHuesca, who defended Las Monicas until they were buried beneath itsruins. We were maddened, and believed ourselves disgraced if we did notconquer. We were impelled to thes
e desperate struggles by a hidden,irresistible force which I cannot explain except as the strong tensionand spiritual exaltation springing from our aspirations towards theideal.

  An order from outside stopped us, dictated doubtless by the practicalgood sense of General Saint March.

  "The convent cannot be held," it was said. "Instead of sacrificing menwith no advantage to the city, let all go out to defend the pointsattacked in the Calle de Pabostre, and the Puerta Quemada, where theenemy are trying to advance, conquering houses from which they havebeen repulsed various times."

  We therefore left San Augustine. While we were passing through thestreet of the same name, parallel with the Calle de Palomar, we sawthat they were throwing hand-grenades among the French established ina little opening near the latter of these two streets. Who was throwingthose projectiles from the tower? In order to tell it more briefly,and with greatest eloquence, let us open the history and read: "In thetower six or eight peasants had placed themselves, having providedthemselves with provisions and ammunition to harass the enemy. Theycontinued to hold it for some days without being willing to surrender."

  There was the glorious Pirli! Oh, Pirli, more happy than Tio Garces,thou dost occupy a place in history!