Note 116 — Chapter XIII · THE PENINSULAR WAR

[As Napierb points out, however, though the Spanish glorify this siege and called Saragossa “Spain,” for her bravery: “Deprive the transaction of its dazzling colours, and it shows thus: Thirty-five thousand French, in the midst of insurrections, and despite of circumstances peculiarly favourable to the defence, reduced fifty thousand of the bravest and most energetic men in Spain. The latter suffered nobly, but was their example imitated? Gerona indeed, although less celebrated, rivalled, perhaps more than rivalled, the glory of Saragossa; elsewhere her fate spoke, not trumpet-tongued to arouse, but with a wailing voice that carried dismay to the heart of the nation.”]