Baylen was hailed everywhere by despairing patriots as the dawn of a new era.

And such it was to be.

If Valmy proclaimed the advent of militant democracy, the victory of Spaniards over one of the bravest of Napoleon's generals was felt to be an even greater portent.

It ushered in the epoch of national resistance to the overweening claims of the Emperor of the West.
That truth he seems dimly to have surmised.

His rage on hearing of the capitulation was at first too deep for words.