Citadel of Madrid

He therefore set up, under cover of darkness, thirty guns opposite the earthworks which the Spanish troops had built there and other, smaller artillery in front of the other gates of the city, to distract the attention of the garrison.

[2] The Captain-General of New Castile, the Marquis of Castelar, however, used the time to abandon the city, taking some five thousand troops and sixteen cannon with him to Talavera de la Reina.

[3] Considerable damage was done to Madrid's other defences, but the real assault was delivered against the Retiro heights and, once breaches had been made, Villatte's division of Victor's corps stormed the position with ease.

[6] Left behind was only one brigade of Dessolles's division, with a few Spanish levies, with which Belliard, the governor of the city, was expected to hold the capital; some 4,000 men, in all.

Belliard had to be prepared to retreat into the Retiro fort, with his troops and the whole body of the Afrancesados and their families, if there was an insurrection, or if Venegas managed to reach the city from the east, or possibly Wilson, whose column was at Escalona (Toledo), just thirty-eight miles from Madrid,[6] with a force that was believed to be much larger than it actually was.