CHAP. monarchy based on the ancient laws and customs of the State.* XI. 1822. 74. measures of tionary go The government at Madrid was seriously alarmed at Vigorous these successes of the Royalists in the north; the estabthe revolu- lishment of a regular government in the name of the vernment. king at Seo d'Urgel, in particular, struck them with consternation. They acted with vigour to make head against the danger. Mina, appointed captain-general of the seventh military division, which comprehended the whole of Catalonia and part of Arragon, repaired to his post in the beginning of September, and having drawn together a considerable force at Lerida, advanced towards Cervera on the 7th September. It was high time he should do so, for the Constitutional forces had recently before been defeated in an attempt upon Seo d'Urgel by the Baron d'Erolles, and driven back with great loss into Lerida. The Trappist, who had received orders to penetrate into Navarre in order to effect a junction with Quesada, after sustaining a severe check on the 19th from Zarco del Valle, had succeeded in rallying his troops in the mountains, and joined Quesada on the 23d. Their united force defeated a division of the enemy at Bena1 Ann. Hist. Varre, commanded by Tabuenca, who was shot in cold v. 468, 469; blood. From thence they proceeded against Jaca, an 1.447 Ann. important fortress on the frontier commanding one of the chief passes into France; but they failed in the attempt, and retired to the mountains.1 Aug. 10. Aug. 19. Aug. 23. Sept. 18. Martignac, Reg. 1822, 251. These alternate victories and defeats, in which success The proclamation of the Baron d'Erolles bore: "We, too, wish for a constitution, a fixed law to govern the State; but we do not wish it to serve as a pretext for license, or to take crime for its ally. After the example of their ancestors, the people, legally assembled, shall enact laws adapted to their manners and to the times in which they live. The Spanish name shall recover its ancient glory, and we shall live, not the vile slaves of factious anarchists, but subject to the laws which we ourselves shall have established. The king, the father of his people, will swear as formerly to the maintenance of our liberties and privileges, and we shall thus have him legally bound by his oath.”—Proclamation of Baron d'Erolles, 18th August 1822; Ann. Reg. 1822, p. 249. XI. 1822. 75. Castelfol savage pro was nearly equally balanced between the contending CHAP. parties, and cruelty was unhappily practised alike by both, determined nothing. The arrival of Mina, however, speedily altered the face of affairs, and, combined Capture of with the destruction of the royal guard at Madrid, and lit, and the general establishment of the most violent revolutionary clamation authorities in all parts of the country where the Royalists of Mina. were not in force, caused the balance to incline decisively to the Liberal side. He first laid siege to Castelfollit, a considerable town on the river Bregas, which he took after a siege of six days. Five hundred of the garrison Oct. 24. escaped before the assault; the rest were put to the sword after having surrendered. The town was sacked, burned, and totally destroyed. This was done, although Mina himself, in a proclamation after the assault, said, 1822, 251; "The defence had been long, firm, and obstinate; the 447449; garrison had performed prodigies of valour, and acts of Ann. Hist. heroism equal to the most noble which history has re- morias del corded." This frightful massacre diffused the utmost Mina, iii. consternation in Catalonia, which was not a little increased Oct. 25. by a proclamation issued immediately after,1* in which * "1. Every town or village which shall yield to a band of rebels, amounting in number to less than one-third of its population, shall be sacked and burnt. "2. Every town or village which shall surrender to a band of rebels, greater in number than one-third of the inhabitants, and the greater part of which inhabitants shall join the insurgents, shall also be sacked and burnt. "3. Every town or village which shall furnish succour or the means of subsistence to rebels of any kind, who do not present themselves in a force equal to a third of the inhabitants, shall pay a contribution of one thousand Catalonian livres, and the members of the municipality shall be shot. "4. Every detached house in the country, or in any town or village which may be abandoned on the approach of the Constitutional troops, shall be sacked, pulled down, or burnt. "5. The municipal councillors, magistrates, and curés, who shall, being within three hours' march of my headquarters, neglect to send me daily information of the movements of the rebels, shall be subjected to a pecuniary contribution; and if serious disadvantage shall arise from the neglect of this duty, they shall be shot. "6. Every soldier from the rebel ranks who shall present himself before me, or one of my generals of division, before 20th November next, shall be pardoned. "MINA." -Annual Register, 1822, p. 251. 1 Ann. Reg. Martignac, i. v. 469; Me Espoz-y. 5, 12. XI. 1822. CHAP. Mina threatened the same fate to all who should still resist the Liberal forces, offering a free pardon to such as should desert with their arms before the 20th of November. The cruel resolution to put all to the sword who were found in arms contending against the Liberal forces, was too faithfully executed. All, whether monks, priests, peasants, or soldiers, were shot in cold blood, after having surrendered. 76. disasters of ists, and flight of the regency from Urgel. Nov. 3. Oct. 27. Oct. 28. Upon receiving intelligence of the fall of Castelfollit, Continued the Baron d'Erolles hastened to unite himself to the the Royal remains of the garrison, with five thousand men whom he had collected in the mountains. Mina advanced to meet him the opposite forces came in contact between Tora and Sanchaga, and the Royalists were surprised and totally defeated. From thence Mina advanced to Balaguer, and its garrison, one thousand strong, fearing the fate of that of Castelfollit, evacuated the place, and withdrew to the mountains on his approach. Quesada, a few days before, had been worsted in an encounter with Espinoza in Navarre, his corps, three thousand five hundred strong, dispersed in the mountains, and he himself obliged to take refuge in Bayonne. In Old Castile the curate Merino had about the same time been defeated, and his band dispersed near Lerma. The Royalist cause seemed everywhere desperate, and the regency at Urgel, despairing of being able to maintain their ground in Spain, had evacuated that town, and taken refuge in Puycerda, close to the French frontier. The Trappist, after vainly endeavouring to make head against greatly superior forces, now concentrated against him in Catalonia, had Ann. Hist; been obliged also to take refuge within the French Ann. Reg. frontier, and had repaired to Toulouse, where he was the 253; Memo- object of almost superstitious veneration and dread ;1 and the Baron d'Erolles himself, closely followed by Mina, was obliged to accept battle from his indefatigable pursuer, and being defeated, and his corps dispersed, had Nov. 10. Nov. 19. v. 494, 496; 1822, 252, rias del Espoz-y Mina, iii. 21, 32. XI. 1822. also found an asylum within the friendly lines of France. CHAP. The sole strongholds now remaining to the Royalists in the north of Spain, in the end of November, were the forts of Urgel and Mequinenza, which were immediately invested by Mina; and although the guerilla contest still continued in the mountains, everything like regular warfare was at an end throughout the Peninsula. 77. produced of the Li These decisive successes on the part of the Spanish revolutionists demonstrated the immense advantages they Great effect possessed from the command of the Government, the by these army, the treasury, and the fortified places, and rendered successes it more than doubtful whether, with all the support which berals. the rural population could give it, the Royalist cause would ever be able, without external aid, to prevail. Experience had now sufficiently proven, that however individually brave, ardent, and indefatigable the detached corps of the Royalists might be, and however prolonged and harassing the warfare they might maintain in the mountains, they could not venture beyond their shelter without incurring the most imminent hazard of defeat. It was impossible to expect that a confused and undisciplined band of priests, monks, curés, peasants, hidalgos, and smugglers, hastily assembled together, in general without artillery, always without magazines or stores, could make head against regular armies issuing out of fortresses amply supplied with both, and conducted by generals trained in the campaigns of Wellington. Immense was the impression which these successes produced on both sides of the Pyrenees. There was no end to the exultation of the Liberals, in most of the French and Spanish towns, at victories which appeared to promise a lasting triumph to their cause. Great as they had been, they were magnified tenfold by the enthusiasm of the Liberals in the press of both countries; it was hard to say whether the declamations of their adherents in the Spanish Cortes or the French Cham XI. 1822. CHAP. ber of Deputies were the most violent. On the other hand, the Royalists in both countries were proportionally depressed. A ghastly crowd of five or six thousand fugitives from the northern provinces had burst through the passes of the Pyrenees, and escaped the sword of their pursuers only by the protection of a nominally neutral but really friendly territory. They were starving, disarmed, naked, and destitute of everything, and spread, wherever they went, the most heart-rending 1 Ann. Hist. accounts of their sufferings. They had lost all in the 497, 498; contest for their religion and their king—all but the Martignac, i. 452, 453. remembrance of their wrongs and the resolution to avenge them.1 |