20 INTRODUCTION. 



of all the crimes and wretchedness attendant on foreign and domestic 

 strife. He imbibed indeed a spirit of enthusiasm, and a knowledge 

 of the partisan or guerilla warfare which harrassed the French, and, 

 even more than the victories of Wellington, drove them out of 

 Spain ; and he returned to Chile with no profit but a wish to join 

 in the struggle for independence, and no desire but to imitate Napo- 

 leon, — to profit by what had been done by others, and to possess the 

 country, and raise his family to a rank hitherto unequalled there. 



The influence of his family was great. Don Ignacio, no longer 

 a member of the actual government, yet possessed great weight ; 

 Juan Jose was already second commander of the chief body of the 

 troops ; the sister, Donna Xaviera, a lady of great beauty and address, 

 both by her first and second marriage was connected with some of 

 the principal families of Chile ; and the younger brother, a singu- 

 larly handsome youth, was very generally beloved on account of the 

 sweetness of his manners, and his uncommonly amiable disposition. 



With these advantages, Jose Miguel did not find it difficult to 

 cause the dismissal of Luco from the head of the army, and to pro- 

 cure his own appointment to succeed him. His frank and noble 

 manners quickly engaged the affections of the soldiers, his liberality 

 confirmed their attachment, while his enthusiasm and eloquence 

 gained him many partisans among the higher classes. But the 

 command of the army while subject to the congress, and while that 

 command was divided with the colonel of the artillery and other 

 officers not of his family or faction, did not satisfy his ambition : he 

 therefore began to sound the opinions of the various parties which 

 a time of revolution is sure to form. To the patriots he pretended 

 a thorough zeal for their cause mingled with hints of the slow pro- 

 gress of the congress ; to the royalists he promised to restore the 

 ancient order of things ; and his own party were to see a council 

 established with Don Ignacio at their head, and the three sons in 

 command of the horse, foot, and artillery of the state. These 

 schemes were not so quietly agitated but that reports and rumours 

 of them got abroad ; but so frankly did Jose Miguel carry himself, 



