Peninsular War (1808-1814). On the morning of 1st December 1808, the French dragoons appeared in front of Madrid. At midday Napoleon arrived at Chamartin, a town a league away from the capital, settling in the palace of the Duke of Infantado. On the 3rd Napoleon himself, from a house on the hill of Maudes, led the attack on Madrid. When Napoleon noticed a resistance he had not counted on, he ordered the cannons to open fire against the walls of the Retiro, which dominated Madrid and whose defense had been neglected. Once the breach in the walls was opened, the soldiers of Villatte rushed through it, seizing the Real Fábrica de Porcelana Porcelain Factory (Royal Buen Retiro Porcelain Factory), the palace and the Observatory, moving along the Prado. "Once the breach was opened in the weak walls of the Retiro, the Villatte column rushed through it..." Los guerrilleros de 1808. Historia popular de la Guerra de la Independencia, by Enrique Rodríguez-Solís. Volume I. Published in Madrid, 193