m 
SPAIN. 
constitution of the kingdom—a somewhat vague principle 
of exception, and which seemed susceptible of a very com¬ 
prehensive latitude of interpretation. 
A still more undissembled repugnance to the ordinance 
was manifested in the provinces, and did in fact prevent its 
faking effect. At Vittoria, the Trappist at once told the 
French commander, that he would not co operate in the 
execution of such a measure; and the royalist force engaged 
in the blockade of Pampeluna sent an address to the Regency, 
in which they said that they could not see with indifference, 
fhe supreme authority of the government overturned, the 
law's violated, and the nation outraged by those who had 
only come to protect it. 
The Duke d’Angouleme perceived that he had somewhat 
imprudently shocked the national pride by his Andujar 
ordinance; and accordingly a second was issued, (August 
the 26th,) explaining, and in some measure modifying the 
former; the application of which was restricted to the indi¬ 
viduals comprehended in the capitulations; and the super¬ 
intendence of the Spanish journals was stated to mean 
nothing more, than to prevent the insertion of articles 
calculated to irritate the public mind, or to embarrass the 
measures adopted by the prince for the pacification of Spain 
and the liberation of the king. 
About this time the war in Gallicia was brought to an 
end by the capitulations, which under the mediation of 
Morillo, the garrison of Corunna (August 13) and Vigo 
(August 27) were induced to accept from the French general. 
By these it w'as stipulated, that no inhabitant or militia-man 
should be in any way molested, for any thing he had done 
or said previous to the period of the capitulation. 
The king arrived at Cadiz on the evening of the 15th of 
June; on the next day, a portion of the deputies to the 
cortes assembled in an extraordinary sitting in the church 
of San Felipe-Neri, where the Cortes of 1812 had held their 
sittings; and the provisional Regency which had been 
created by the decree of the 11th, then declared that their 
functions had ceased, inasmuch as the king had arrived at 
Cadiz, and that the Cortes were in numbers sufficient for 
deliberation. Accordingly, the assembly resumed its ordi¬ 
nary sitting on the 18th. A shocking event occurred on the 
morning of that day. The minister of w'ar, Don Sanchez 
Salvador, put a period to his existence by cutting his throat 
with a razor. He left behind him a paper, stating that life 
had become insupportable to him, but that he died with a 
clear and unreproaching conscience. 
The executive, in concert with the Cortes, then proceeded 
to take measures for the defence of the town and the island. 
The French corps of Bordesoulle arrived at Port St. Mary 
on the 24th of June, and was shortly after reinforced by the 
division of Count Bourmont. Nothing w'as attempted in the 
way of active operation by either party, until on the 16th of 
July, when the garrison made a demonstration of attack 
upon different points of the French line from Puerto Real to 
Chiclana, aud some skirmishing ensued, in which both sides 
attribute to themselves the honour of success. 
But during this suspension of military conflict, the Cortes 
was not idle. It is not necessary to recapitulate the decrees 
which it issued for the military organization of provinces 
which were for the most part no longer under its authority— 
one of these acts, however, deserves mention, as marking the 
uncompromising spirit which still animated the assembly. 
The Duke d’Angouleme had been greeted (May 18) by an 
address of congratulation and acknowledgment on the part 
of the grandees of Spain, and signed by the names of thirty- 
one noblemen. The Cories now declared the individuals 
who had signed that paper, unworthy of the Spanish name, 
and traitors to their country and their king; and they decreed 
that they should be deprived of their titles, honours, rank and 
employments ; and that their property of every kind should 
be sequestrated to the use of the public treasury during their 
lives. 
This decree, like every other, was signed by the king, who 
had, in fact, for some time past abandoned all notion of 
objecting to or resisting the promulgation of the will of the 
Cortes. On the 5th of August, that assembly closed its 
ordinary session for this year. 
The Duke of Angouleme soon after arrived at Port San 
Mary. On the morning following his arrival, August the 
17th, he sent one of his aides-de-camp, with a flag of truce 
to the Spanish lines, charged with a letter to the King of 
Spain, which he was ordered to deliver to his Majesty in 
person. After some difficulties on the part of the Spanish 
authorities, the messenger was admitted to an audience of the 
king, to whom, in the presence of the members of the go¬ 
vernment, he presented the prince’s letter. In this his Royal 
Highness expressed, in the name of the King of France, his 
desire that his Catholic Majesty be restored to his liberty and 
to his just authority; should accord a general amnesty for 
the past; and should give to his people, by the convocation 
of the ancient Cortes of the kingdom, the best guarantees of 
order, justice, and good government; and the duke offered 
to engage for the concurrence of all Europe in the consoli¬ 
dation of this act of wisdom. It was added, however, that 
if within five days a satisfactory answer was not given and 
the king set at liberty, recourse would necessarily be had to 
force, and that they who consulted their passions rather than 
the interests of their country, would be answerable for the 
consequences. 
To this, the king was made to reply that he was in fact 
free; that the old Cortes which had been alluded to were no 
longer compatible with the Spanish nation, and the like. 
The French now proceeded to take measures for the attack 
of the island. With this view, the possession of the Tro- 
cadero was the first object to be effected; and the works 
were pushed with such activity, that before the end of the 
month, five batteries were erected within the reach of the 
position. On the 30th, a warm cannonade was opened and 
continued for some time, without producing any other effect 
than that of fatiguing the garrison. But at two o’clock on 
the following morning, August the 31st, the French line was 
put under arms; a strong column of attack advanced in 
silence and unperceived till within forty paces of the ditch; 
into which it threw itself, and gained the opposite bank in 
spite of a hot fire of grape and musquelry from the garrison. 
They then carried the entrenchments at the point of the 
bayonet, and soon after the Fort St. Louis; so that, by nine 
o’clock, the whole of the isthmus was in their hands. 
The effect of this reverse upon the city was manifested the 
same day by the dispatch of General Alava with a flag of 
truce to the French head-quarters, bearing a letter from the 
king to the Duke of Angouleme, which contained a propo¬ 
sition for an armistice. The Duke, however, answered that 
he could listen to no proposal of the sort, until the king was 
free and under the protection of the French army; and the 
Spanish ministers then determined to lighten the responsi¬ 
bility which the crisis imposed upon them, by convoking an 
extraordinary meeting of the Cortes. 
They must, indeed, by this time have felt that their cause 
was utterly desperate. The successive defections of Abisbal, 
Morillo and Ballasteros, had as it were delivered it, bound hand 
and foot, to the French. An expedition had been undertaken 
by Riego, with the purpose of attempting to bring back the 
troops of Ballasteros to their duty to the Constitution, but 
although the enterprize was marked with all the courage and 
decision that have distinguished the military career of that 
celebrated partisan, it eventually failed of success. On the 
17th of August, Riego, having evaded the blockading squad¬ 
ron before Cadiz, disembarked at Malaga, where he super¬ 
seded Zayas in the command of the 2000 men who composed 
the garrison; and proceeded to raise, by the most violent 
means, a contribution of money in the shape of a forced 
loan, on the inhabitants. He left Malaga with a force of 
about 2500 men on the 3d of September, and in order to 
avoid the French divisions of Bonnemains and Loverdo, 
took the resolution of throwing himself into the chain of the 
Alpujarras, the passage of which he effected by a route never 
before attempted, and after a march of three days, found him- 
self (Sept. 8) in the plains of Grenada. On the 10th, he 
came up with the advanced posts of the cantonments of Bal¬ 
lasteros 
