476 CONVERSATIONS WITH A SPANISH LIBE11AL. 



dishonesty of her legislature, has disgusted Europe. And it is at this 

 untoward moment that after an obscurity of eleven years, Mina is 

 then going once more to appear on the theatre of events ! Will you 

 refresh my memory by a rapid sketch of the life of this far-famed 

 guerillero ?" 



" Francisco Espoz y Mina," said the Spaniard, " was born in 

 1 784, in a small village near Pamplona, and in spite of all that has 

 been urged to the contrary, is the son of a poor labourer or little 

 farmer. Of the infancy and education of this extraordinary man 

 nothing certain is known. He was cultivating in peace the little 

 field left him by his father, when the ambition of Napoleon drew 

 him from his obscurity. His nephew who first took up arms for na- 

 tional independence acquired some celebrity, and afterwards fell into 

 the hands of the French. His uncle rallied and put himself at the head 

 of his band, and by his daring bravery, the rapidity of his marches, his 

 intimate knowledge of the country, and above all, his rigour towards his 

 prisoners, he became the terror of the French. At one time he com- 

 manded a force of 5,000 men. He was appointed colonel in 1811, 

 and raised to the rank of brigadier in 1813 by the regency, in which 

 rank he was confirmed by Ferdinand on his restoration, and deco- 

 rated with several military honours ; but a few months after dis- 

 gusted with his tyrannical master, he raised the standard of revolt in 

 Navarre and making an unsuccessful attempt to seize Pamplona, then 

 took refuge in France, and on his arrival in Paris was arrested at the 

 instigation of the Spanish minister. Louis XVIII. immediately or- 

 dered him to be liberated, and dismissed the commissary of police, 

 who had arrested him. Mina was not ungrateful for this conduct ; 

 on the return of Napoleon in 1815, he refused a command and fled 

 to Ghent and with General Alava was, if I am not mistaken, present 

 at the battle of Waterloo. Until he quitted France in 1820 to rally 

 round the banner of the Constitution, he received the half-pay of a 

 French general de brigade during the constitutional regime he was 

 appointed captain-general of Navarre, and afterwards of Catalonia 

 while in the latter government his operations were distinguished 

 by great cruelty he stormed and carried the town of Castel-Follet 

 put the garrison to the sword, and rased the town, marking 

 the place where it stood by a stone with this inscription : ( Here once 

 stood Castel Follet !' Some time afterwards he surrendered to Mar- 

 shal Moncey, and embarked for England, where he resided until 

 1830. The glorious three days once more drew him from his retreat ; 

 for- you must know that the recognition of the King of the Barricades 

 being somewhat tardy on the part of Ferdinand, he was threatened 

 by his nephew with a second edition of that glorious event ; a con- 

 fidential agent was dispatched to London, to induce Mina to effect a 

 rising in Navarre ; promises of money and covert support were made 

 to the general, who lost no time in repairing to France ; but before 

 he reached the Spanish frontier the recognition of the Spanish go- 

 vernment had arrived. This quite altered the state of affairs ; the 

 assembling of the Spanish liberals on the frontier was now prevented 

 by the French authorities ; and to Mina it was intimated, that if he 

 persisted in his enterprise, the French police would proceed aux voies 



