132 Memoir of Armand Carrel. 



will concur in it, that the overbearing conduct of the President of the 

 court at the trial of these wretches, was as inconsistent with justice, 

 as was that of the court-martial before which Carrel was tried : a 

 specimen of which we subjoin : 



President. It appears from a muster-roll found among the 

 Spanish papers, a copy of which I now hand you, that you have 

 served as an officer in a legion denominated the Legion Liberate 

 Etrangere. How comes it that you, as a French officer, could so far 

 forget yourself as to act as a traitor to your king by serving in the 

 rank of rebels ? 



Carrel. I have not forgotten myself as a French officer, having 

 ceased to hold that situation since the 7th of March, 1823 ; and my 

 departure for Spain was subsequent to that period. It was as a 

 French citizen, that I entered into the Spanish service, and my 

 opinions led me to support a cause which I did not consider in the 

 light of a rebel one. Besides, hostilities against it had not then com- 

 menced on the part of France. 



President. It appears, from a document which I lay before 

 you, that you were taken with arms in your hands at Llera. In your 

 quality of French citizen you could not bear arms against France 

 without rendering yourself guilty of the greatest crime. 



Carrel. I was not taken with arms in my hands; but I laid them 

 down in consequence of the surrender of the corps to which I 

 belonged. As to the second part of your question, my being under 

 arms against the French was the unfortunate result of the opinions 

 which I stated to have led me into Spain. 



It would be idle to cite farther a course of examination, which was 

 marked only by injustice and insult to the object of it. Carrel re- 

 pelled these with all the consciousness of honour and the dignity of 

 innocence. The defence he made was so able,- especially while 

 insisting on the faith of the capitulation and the circumstance of his 

 having retired from the French service before entering the Spanish, 

 that the court, in spite of its prepossessions, felt itself bound by the 

 constitution to declare its incompetence to take cognizance of the 

 accusation. Carrel would thus have been acquitted, had not an 

 order been sent down by government, directing the court to declare 

 itself competent and to pronounce sentence of death upon the pri- 

 soners. These arbitrary commands were, to the disgrace of French 

 justice, carried into effect. The former declaration was rescinded ; 

 and Carrel and his associates received sentence of death. He pro- 

 tested against this atrocious conduct, not so much he said on his own 

 account, as on that of the unfortunate men, of whom he was the 

 representative; and at the same time he appealed to the superior 

 Court of Revision. 



While this appeal was pending, (and it was purposely protracted 

 by the government, which was aware that it must terminate against 

 them,) Carrel and his comrades were confined in the prison of Per- 

 pignan, and subjected to the most rigorous oppression and cruelty. 

 The sufferings which they endured are thus described in an elegant 

 statement, which he drew up in behalf of his fellow-prisoners and 

 delivered to the medical officers for presentation to the authorities. 



