Sketch of the Life of General Riego. 



1824.J 



plained las powers and views, and the 

 WHiit.s which impeded their execution ; 

 anti then left it to them to fix. tlie 

 amount of a forced loan, and the pro- 

 portions in which the dilFcrent classes 

 of inhabitants could best raise its pay- 

 ment. The money was collected with 

 as ready a complacency as such un<?ra- 

 cious demands are usually fuililled. 

 Menaced, however, on every side, by 

 superior detachments from the French 

 army, he abandoned Malaj^a, and 

 forced a long march, impeded in its 

 arduous progress by many running 

 fights, over the mountains of Grenada, 

 and ajiproaehed tlie posts of the rene- 

 gade Ballasteros. 



1'he emergencies of Ricgo's fortune 

 now pressed closer upon him from all 

 quarters; and, as a last eH'ort, lie re- 

 solved upon M. stroke which, contem- 

 plated even by itself, amply evidences 

 the fortitude of his aspirations. He 

 led his little band to Pietio, where 

 Ballasteros ruled his bribed followers 

 in apathy. It was a habit, peculiar to 

 the high temper of Riego's intrepidity, 

 to take upon his own shoulders as 

 great a weight of every hazardous 

 achievement he pursued, as was pos- 

 sibly compatible witii its success. He 

 always reconnoitred by himself, and 

 was the fii"st to advance on every 

 charge. On the present occasion, after 

 lialting his men, he proceeded alone 

 to the adverse camp. 'I'he first 

 party he met happerred to be the very 

 bfitialion at whose lieail he proclaimed 

 the Constitution in 1820. A short 

 exhortation from tiicir former captain 

 was suUlcient to trim the slumbering 

 ardour of their breasts, and they fol- 

 lowed him with acclamations to the 

 head-quarters of their own chief. 

 The generals embraced and conferred, 

 .the one all frankness, hope, and ho- 

 nour; the other reserve, ilc|iressj'on, 

 and shame. Riego warmly adverted 

 to the degradation of his country, the 

 fetters of its people, the wretehedness 

 of a conquered state, and the opening 

 prospect of escape from it ; but in 

 vain, tlic man who for months had vac- 

 cilated from oath to oath, now dis- 

 owned the spirit to renounce the only 

 guilty one he had sworn. 



During tiiis interview, some fearful 

 emissaries harangued another division 

 of the army, and emboldened them by 

 money to attack Riego's column and 

 fieizo its leader's person. Retreat 

 )>eeamc Uien tlie only alternative, and 

 it was hastily aecuuiplislied. iiut, 



43 



from that moment, dangers multiplied 

 with irresistible rapidity: the weather 

 became wet and stormy, every road 

 was in the invader's power : exposure, 

 sickness, and want, delayed every 

 anxious step : while some fell beiieatli 

 the constant attacks of their pursuers, 

 and others sunk under exhausted na- 

 ture ; until the adventurous band was 

 reduced to a melancholy conviction, 

 that its only chance of safety, for the 

 few who survived, was in immediate 

 dispersion. The party disbanded: 

 but Riego's hardy devotion was invin- 

 cible, and he undertook, without hesi- 

 tation, to penetrate in disguise across 

 the country, and join the fortunes of 

 the indominable Mina. Other evcnlss 

 withdrew the fame of that hope. Under 

 the impulse of necessity, be claimed a 

 peasant's hospitality-, and, in an hour, 

 was betrayed under the same cabin 

 into the chains of the civil power. 

 The deed was one of most heartless 

 bareness, and the measure of a terrible 

 • revenge has already punished the 

 crime. The traitor, and every mem- 

 ber of his unfortunate family, were in 

 one night nailed dead to the doors of 

 the violated home. Meanwhile, Riego 

 was driven on foot to Madrid, with 

 every insulting aggravation of torment 

 to which the malice of unrestrained 

 authority may be extended, and there 

 thrown into the closest confinement. 

 Four-and-twenty hours, in that stale, 

 were often allowed to pass over him 

 without sustenance, while the thirst of 

 unjust sufferance was only slackened 

 in a dirty bucket of stale water. As 

 if in the extremest refinement of abso- 

 lute cruelty, he was arraigned before 

 the Sala des Alcades, a tribunal so 

 severe in its measures and bloody in 

 its awards, that its suppression ranked 

 among the first improvements the 

 Cortes decreed in the judicial admi- 

 nistration of unhappy Spain. The 

 indictment, if such it can be called, 

 was a verbose string of reproaches, 

 unsupported by any facts except these 

 two : — that, as a member of the Cortes, 

 he voted tlic removal of Ferdinand; 

 and, with others, attended him in the 

 journey. The choice of any counsel 

 was <lenied him, wliilst the court 

 appointed a defence, fearful to con- 

 mit its own person by any honest 

 exertion. After the melancholy state- 

 ments already made, it is almost un- 

 necessary to add, that u trial thus 

 summarily begun soon ended in con- 

 viction. Th« Procurator Fiscal im- 

 iiiediately 



