ANDALUSIAN SKETCHES. 175 



regiment with my rank of serjeant confirmed. ' The good cause/ 

 however, did not appear to thrive, and we suffered numerous defeats. 

 Towards the end of the year I was in garrison at Seo D'Urgel, under 

 the command of that brave man Romagosa. It is a singularly strong 

 fortress. General Mina, who was in the field against us, attempted 

 on the 10th of December to take it by storm ; but he was repulsed 

 with tremendous loss, whilst on our side there were scarcely twenty 

 casualties. We continued to defend our post until the end of 

 January, when famine obliged us to abandon it, which we did during 

 the night, 'unobserved by the enemy. Retiring to the mountains, we 

 dispersed into small parties, each shifting for itself. That with which 

 I was, after wandering during the entire month of February, suc- 

 ceeded in joining a division of the royalists under General Ulman. 

 We soon mustered 5,000 men, and obtained possession of the fortress 

 of Murviedro. Here we remained until the commencement of May 

 (1823), when the welcome news of the entrance into Spain of the 

 French under the Due D'Angouleme reached us. The city of Va- 

 lencia at once declared for the king, and a large part of our force 

 removed there, so that I was again in garrison at that delightful 

 place. By the end of the year the government of the Deputies of 

 the Cortes was entirely done away. The army was purified and re- 

 organized. It was formed again into regular regiments, and the one 

 I belonged to removed in the spring of 1824 to Tarragona. During 

 that and the following year we were moving about in various parts 

 of Catalonia. We formed part of the force which, in 1825, under 

 the command of the Conde D'Espana, overtook and defeated the 

 Carlist general, Bessieres, who had taken up arms against the legiti- 

 mate government. He and seven of his officers were taken prisoners 

 in the action, and shot on the morning following near the Molino de 

 Aragon. In the beginning of 1826 1 was stationed in Biscay, at Bilboa. 

 Here I was selected as one of a party of 20 men, which was embarked 

 as an escort on board a schooner, destined to convey into banishment 

 General Capape. We put into St. Sebastian, received on board the 

 prisoner, and then set sail for Porto Rico in the Indies. Our voyage 

 was tediously long, and our sufferings great, owing to the stock of 

 water and provisions proving very scanty. We at length reached the 

 island and disembarked. We had, of course, expected to return to 

 Spain in the vessel, but this the governor would not permit ; the gar- 

 rison had not received reinforcements for many years, and my party, 

 small as it was, proved most acceptable. We were accordingly incor- 

 porated into the regiment there. I cannot say that I complained 

 much of this arrangement ; the island is a paradise ; I understood it 

 to be about thirty-five leagues long and twelve broad ; the climate is 

 as delicious as that of our own Andalusia, perhaps somewhat hotter, 

 but not in any great degree ; the living is superb ; the woods abound 

 with wild pigeons and various sorts of fowl ; fruit of every variety is 

 in plenty in fact, you may indulge in luxuries of all kinds. I could 

 almost have been well satisfied to pass the remainder of my days 

 there ; but a yearning towards my relatives and my native land in- 

 duced me to avail myself of an offer made by my colonel, to grant me 

 a discharge from the service, and a passage in a vessel returning to 



