Note 112 — Chapter XII · SPAIN AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

[Of the Dos de Mayo Napieri says: “This celebrated tumult, in which the wild cry of Spanish warfare was first heard, has been represented by authors who adopt all the reports of the day, sometimes as a wanton massacre, sometimes as a barbarous political stroke to impress a dread of French power. It was neither. The fiery temper of the Spaniards, excited by strange events and the recent tumults against Godoy, rendered an explosion inevitable, and so it happened. If the French had stimulated this disposition to violence, with a view to an example, they would have prepared some check on the Spanish garrison; they would not have left their hospital unguarded, or have so arranged that their own loss should surpass that of the Spaniards; finally, they would have profited from their policy after having suffered the injury. Moncey and Harispe were, however, most active in restoring order, and, including the peasants killed outside the gates and the executions afterwards, the whole number of the Spanish slain did not exceed one hundred and twenty, while more than five hundred French were killed. Amongst the wounded were seventy of the imperial guards, which would alone disprove any premeditation: for if Murat were base enough to sacrifice his men with such a detestable policy, he would have given the conscripts to slaughter rather than the select soldiers of the emperor.”]