to the
hospitals, and were everywhere active in deeds of mercy and daring. One of
them, a young woman of low rank but intrepid soul, gained world-wide
celebrity by an act of unusual courage and presence of mind.

While engaged one day in her regular duty, that of carrying meat and wine
to the defenders of a battery, she found it deserted and the guns
abandoned. The French fire had proved so murderous that the men had shrunk
back in mortal dread. Snatching a match from the hand of a dead
artillery-man, the brave girl fired his gun, and vowed that she would
never leave it while a Frenchman remained in Saragossa. Her daring shamed
the men, who returned to their guns, but, as the story goes, the brave
girl kept her vow, working the gun she had chosen until she had the joy to
see the French in full retreat. This took place on the 14th of August,
when the populace, expecting nothing but to die amid the ruins of their
houses, beheld with delight the enemy in full retreat. The obstinate
resistance of the people and reverses to the arms of France elsewhere had
forced them to raise the siege.

The deeds of the "Maid of Saragossa" have been celebrated in poetry by
Byron and Southey and in art by Wilkie, and she stands high on the roll of
heroic women, being given, as some declare, a more elevated position than
her exploit deserved.

Saragossa, however, was only reprieved, not abandoned. The French found
themselves too busily occupied elsewhere to attend to this centre of
Spanish valor until months had passed. At length, after the defeat and
retreat of Sir John Moore and the English allies of Spain, a powerful
army, thirty-five thousand strong, returned to the city on the Ebro, with
a battering train of sixty guns.

Palafox remained in command in the city, which was now much more strongly
fortified and better prepared for defence. The garrison was
super-abundant. From the field of battle at Tudela, where the Spaniards
had suffered a severe defeat, a stream of soldiers fled to Saragossa,
bringing with them wagons and military stores in abundance. As the
fugitives passed, the villagers along the road, moved by terror, joined
them, and into the gates of the city poured a flood of soldiers,
camp-followers, and peasants, until it was thronged with human beings.
Last of all came the French, reaching the city on the 20th of December,
and resuming their interrupted siege. And now Saragossa, though destined
to fall, was to cover itself