586 
of breaking chains, more galling than 
any which had been forged for centuries. 
After collecting all the troops in the 
principal square, and proclaiming the 
constitution of 1812, the whole, headed 
by the General, and preceded by bands of 
music, playing patriotic hymns, marched 
round Corunna, amidst cries of Viva el 
Rey por la Constitution! and the live- 
liest demonstrations of joy on the part of 
the inhabitants, who fully participated in| 
the feelings of the soldiery. The evening 
of the 19th closed with serenades, and a 
brilliant illumination. 
While the garrison of Ferral, about 
fifteen hundred in number, were on their 
march towards Corunna, and another de- 
tachment had set out from Vigo to join 
the patriot standard, Porlier continued 
with unceasing activity to prepare for 
ulterior operations. Letters were address- 
ed to the municipality and religious 
communities, stating what had occurred, 
explaining the motives for his conduct, 
and inviting them to concur in his views 
for the good of their common country. 
_ The remainder of the General's arrange- 
ments for securing the constitutional sys- 
tem, by restoring the municipality and 
other authorities displaced in 1814, be- 
ing completed, a detachment of eight 
hundred men were selected to march 
towards Santiago, where the troops only 
awaited the appearance of Porlier to de- 
clare themselves, The command of this 
column was given to Colonel Arechabala, 
who set out for Corunna on the night of 
the 21st, with orders to halt at the small 
village of Carral, a distance of six leagues, 
and which he reached early on the fol- 
lowing day. Porlier arrived soon after, 
and when the troops had been sufficiently 
refreshed, he led them on to Ordenes, to 
another village within two leagues of 
Santiago, to which place an officer had 
been dispatched with copies of the pro- 
clamation and manifesto, also a letter 
addressed to Ortega, colonel of the pro- 
vincial grenadiers forming the garrison. 
No answer being received, it was decided 
that the column should sleep at Ordenes, 
and continue its march the next morning. 
In order to account for the silence and 
inactivity of Ortega, it should be ob- 
served, that from the first moment of the 
rising,.the monks and clergy at Santiago 
left neither prayers, entreaties, nor bribery 
untried to Leal the officers and men: 
of the grenadier battalion from espousing 
the sacrilegious cause of the rebels. They 
persuaded the non-commissioned officers 
and part of the men that Porlier really 
contemplated an attack on their fellow 
Blaquiere’s Spain and Spanish Revolution. 
soldiers of the grenadier battalion, They 
could not have touched on a more vul- 
nerable point; and there being no means 
of contradicting this absurd calumny, it 
spread with rapidity through the whole 
column, and thus led to their betraying 
the cause of freedom, The serjeants 
having assembled secretly about eight 
o'clock, one of them, named Chacon, ex- 
patiated on the enormity of drawing 
their swords against countrymen and 
friends; dwelling with particular em- 
phasis on the horrors of civil war, and 
those other phantoms with which the 
priests had filled his imagination, he con- 
cluded by declaring that the only way to 
avoid the threatened dangers, was to 
arrest the officers, and give them up to 
justice, So well had their spiritual ad- 
visers prepared the minds of these infatu- 
ated men, to violate the oaths and pro- 
testations of fidelity made only three 
days before, that the proposal of Chacon, 
monstrous as it was, met with little oppo- 
sition, and after some farther deliberation, 
he was from his seniority appointed to 
direct the meditated treason. A watch 
word being fixed on, it was decided that 
a cordon of sentinels should be placed 
round the village to prevent escape. 
Matters were thus arranged by half-past 
ten, when the serjeants sallied forth head- 
ed by Chacon, and rushing into the inn 
where Porlier and his companions were 
still at table, called upon them to surren- 
der in the King’s name. As the cry of 
Viva el Rey, y a las Armes ! was heard 
outside some moments before the traitors 
entered, it gave several of the officers 
time to seize their swords and put them- 
selves in an attitude of defence; a violent 
struggle ensued, during which a few 
pistol shots were exchanged, when the 
general pereeiving that none of the soldiers 
appeared, it occurred to him that they 
were not privy to the design, he therefore 
leaped from a window calling upon those 
around to follow; but sentries had also 
been planted close to the house, so that 
either to rally the men or escape became 
impossible. There being no alternative, 
the patriot chief and his companions 
yielded to their fate; most of the ser- 
jeants having formed a guard to watch 
the prisoners during the night, they were 
handcuffed and, marched to the dungeons 
of the Inquisition at Santiago on the fol- 
lowing day. ‘ 
- The astonishment. of Porlier and his 
officers at this inexplicable and untoward 
event, could only be exceeded by the joy 
it created amongst thé priesthood of all 
classes, and colours, at Santiago, whe 
e 
