435 
SPAIN. 
Ter towards Canipredon and the French frontier, while the 
French strove to intercept him on the left; a combination 
which it was expected that Mina would not be able to escape. 
The next news they heard of him, however, was, that he had 
already got beyond their reach at Berga, from whence he 
could descend the Llobregat to Barcelona. In order to cut 
him off from this outlet, General Donnadieu was ordered to 
march upon Manresa. At Casteltersol, Donnadieu fell in 
with a body of 3000 troops, under Milans, and an engage¬ 
ment took place, the result of which was, that the Spaniards 
were compelled to fall back upon Barcelona. 
In the meanwhile, Mina was between-Cardona and Man¬ 
resa, and while his enemies were engaged in intercepting his 
route to Barcelona, he suddenly marched by Sasseras upon 
Vich, where he arrived in the morning of the 26th. After an 
ineffectual attempt to carry this place by escalcade, he 
pursued his march across the mountains to Urgel (May 3). 
Here he reinforced the garrison, and having placed his 
wounded, his ammunition, and the contributions he had 
levied, in a place ofsafety, set out on an inroad on the French 
frontier, at a moment when the enemy were expecting him 
in the direction of Cardona. He crossed the Pyrenees, en¬ 
tered France, and threw the whole country, as far as Andorre, 
into alarm and confusion ; but, contenting himself with this 
demonstration, he soon after re-entered Catalonia by the road 
of Campredon, and notwithstanding all the combinations 
that had been made to intercept him on his return, he suc¬ 
ceeded in making his way to Urgel (June 15), after some ar¬ 
duous marches, in course of which his column suffered con¬ 
siderably from the repeated attacks of their pursuers. Four 
days after, he again left this town with a body of 1200 men, 
and descended the course of the Segre. It was supposed that 
his object was to throw himself into Lerida, but, in fact, he 
marched by Pons and Cervera upon Tarragona, where he 
arrived sick and wounded, and exhausted by the effect of his 
late exertions. On the 26th of June, he established his head¬ 
quarters at Sans, about a mile from Barcelona, having suc¬ 
ceeded in completely baffling all the combinations and calcu¬ 
lations of his enemies, who had repeatedly so surrounded him 
by their various divisions, that his escape had been announced 
as impossible. 
Soon after (May 8), the 5th and 10th French divisions 
were ordered to form the investment of Barcelona. The 
corps of Milans and Llobera fell back, as the enemy ad¬ 
vanced, upon Molins del Rey and Martorell, and finally 
took up a position at Igualada, on the road to Lerida. Mar* 
shal Moncey found it necessary to secure his flanks by dri¬ 
ving them from this post ; and after some skirmishing, 
Milans retreated by Jorba and Cervera, and encamped in 
the neighbourhood of Tarragona. A much more decided 
character of success was seen to mark the operations of the 
second French corps under Count Molitor. After raising, 
as we have already described, the siege of Mequinenza, and 
establishing his communications with the army'of Catalonia, 
Molitor entered Arragon about the beginning of June, in 
pursuit of Ballasteros. That general was vigorously pressing 
the siege of the fortress of Murviedro, when the approach 
of the French (June 11) compelled him to break up and 
retire upon Valencia ; which, however, he almost immedi¬ 
ately evacuated, and took up a position at Alcira and Carga- 
gante. Here his rear-guard suffered considerably from an 
attack of the enemy, and a considerable desertion took place 
among the newly levied regiments of his army. He con¬ 
tinued his retreat somewhat precipitately by Murcia, Lorca, 
and Grenada, and at length (July 27) encamped in a strong 
position on the mountains of Campillo de Arenas. Molitor 
first occupied Grenada, which the general commandant, 
Zayas, evacuated at his approach. He then proceeded to 
attack Ballasteros (July 28), who, after an obstinate resist¬ 
ance, was driven from his position with the loss, says the 
French bulletin, of four or five hundred killed and wounded, 
and three hundred prisoners. The event of this day had a 
most discouraging effect upon the Spanish army, of which 
it is calculated above fifteen hundred deserted in the course 
of the two following nights. 
On the 4th of August, a convention was agreed upon 
between Ballasteros and Molitor, by which the Spanish 
army was made in some sort to recognize the authority of 
the Regency; and a guarantee was given, that the generals 
and officers should retain their rank and their pay, and that 
no individual of it should be prosecuted or molested on 
account of his acts or opinions previous to this convention. 
Hostilities then ceased on both sides, and Ballasteros sent 
orders to the Governors of Alicant, Carthagena, and other 
places included within his command, to recognize the autho¬ 
rity of the Regency of Madrid ; his orders to this effect, 
however, were in very few instances obeyed. 
These conventions, infinitely more than any military 
successes which had been achieved by the French arms, 
were of decisive import as to the result of the war. It was 
clear that the constitutional cause was falling to pieces by 
the successive defections of the Generals, on which it most 
depended for its support; and the most difficult part of the 
task which now remained to the French, was that of pro¬ 
tecting the vanquished against the insolence of victory and 
the rage of party re-action, on the part of their own allies. 
The Regency of Madrid, and the provincial Junta, formed 
under their authority, evinced every disposition to go all 
lengths in the expression of their triumph and the gratifica¬ 
tion of their political antipathies. At Saragossa it was with 
the utmost difficulty that the fanatical populace were pre¬ 
vented by the French garrison from indulging in the most 
horrible outrages upon the opposite party. A similar spirit 
prevailed at Madrid, although considerably checked and 
awed by the decided discountenance of the Duke d’Angou- 
leme. The Regency, on its part, continued to issue the most 
violent decrees against the partisans or adherents of the late 
government. That of the 23d of July, may be cited as a 
sample of the spirit which predominated in the drawing up 
of these ordinances. By this instrument, all persons, and 
especially those employed under government, who, since the 
20th of March, 1820, should have presented themselves to 
serve in the volunteer militia, and all those who should have 
belonged to secret societies, were, by that act alone, deprived 
of the pay of any civil or military employment which they 
might have obtained, and of all honours or decorations 
which might have been accorded to them, until the liberation 
of the king. 
In the meanwhile, the Duke of Angouleme proceeded to 
leave Madrid in order to put an end to the campaign by the 
reduction of the Isle of Leon. 
He made a short stay at Andujar, from whence, August 
the 8th, he published an ordinance which created a consi¬ 
derable sensation throughout the Peninsula. By this the 
Spanish authorities were strictly forbidden to make any 
arrests, without the sanction of a French commanding officer 
of the district, and these last were enjoined to set at liberty 
all individuals who had been arbitrarily arrested on political 
grounds, and more particularly the disbanded militia men. 
By the same ordinance the journals were placed under the 
care and inspection of the French commandants. 
The immediate object of this measure was no doubt to 
give confidence to such of the constitutional troops as were 
disposed to capitulate, and whom the violence of the royal¬ 
ist party might otherwise deter from venturing upon any 
engagement of that nature. But it excited, as might have 
been expected, the utmost irritation among those whose ex¬ 
cesses it was in fact directly intended to restrain. 
Conferences upon the subject were opened between the 
Regency and the French commanders; but in the mean 
while these last so far obeyed the rescript of the Prince 
Generalissimo as to proceed to set at liberty some twenty 
individuals confined in the prisons of the city. The Re¬ 
gency formally protested, August the 13th, against this act 
as a manifest outrage upon their authority; a compromise 
of the matter, however took place, and on the following day 
a decree appeared, by which the Regency of its own autho¬ 
rity, ordered that all the persons detained should be dis¬ 
charged, with the exception of those who had been guilty 
of excesses for the purpose of overturning the fundamental 
constitution 
