hose duties
which are most sacred to men, has already declared war against France.
You may perhaps dread this vigorous resolution. But what other measure
could or ought we to adopt? Shall there be found one single man among
us, who prefers the vile and ignominious death of slaves, to the glory
of dying on the field of honour, with arms in his hand, defending our
unfortunate monarch; our homes, our children, and our wives? If, in the
very moment when those bands of banditti were receiving the kindest
offices and favours from the inhabitants of our Capital, they murdered
in cold blood upwards of two thousand people, for no other reason than
their having defended their insulted brethren, what could we expect from
them, had we submitted to their dominion? Their perfidious conduct
towards our king and his whole family, whom they deceived and decoyed
into France under the promise of an eternal armistice, in order to chain
them all, has no precedent in history. Their conduct towards the whole
nation is more iniquitous, than we had the right to expect from a horde
of Hottentots. They have profaned our temples; they have insulted our
religion; they have assailed our wives; in fine, they have broken all
their promises, and there exists no right which they have not violated.
To arms, Asturians! to arms!' The Supreme Junta of Government, sitting
at Seville, introduces its declaration of war in words to the same
effect. 'France, under the government of the emperor Napoleon the First,
has violated towards Spain the most sacred compacts--has arrested her
monarchs--obliged them to a forced and manifestly void abdication and
renunciation; has behaved with the same violence towards the Spanish
Nobles whom he keeps in his power--has declared that he will elect a
king of Spain, the most horrible attempt that is recorded in
history--has sent his troops into Spain, seized her fortresses and her
Capital, and scattered his troops throughout the country--has committed
against Spain all sorts of assassinations, robberies, and unheard-of
cruelties; and this he has done with the most enormous ingratitude to
the services which the Spanish nation has rendered France, to the
friendship it has shewn her, thus treating it with the most dreadful
perfidy, fraud, and treachery, such as was never committed against any
nation or monarch by the most barbarous or ambitious king or people. He
has in fine declared, that he will trample down our monarchy, our
fun