SPAIN. 
437 
iasteros at Priego. Ballasteros, advised of his approach, im¬ 
mediately ordered his troops to fire ; but just at the moment, 
when the infantry was putting itself in line for a general 
action, Riego’s soldiers lowered their arms, and waving their 
caps in the air, advanced amid cries of “ Long live Riego 
and Ballasteros! The Constitution for ever!” The sympathy 
instantly caught the other party; they joined in the cry, ana 
both sides met in each other’s embrace. Riego then entreated 
Ballasteros to join with him against the common enemy, 
offering to serve under his command in any capacity he 
might choose to assign. Ballasteros, in order to gain time, 
said he would confer with his officers on the subject, and 
the two chiefs dined together ; in the meanwhile, Ballasteros 
dreading the danger of further contact with the constitutional 
force, gave orders to his division to retire in the direction of 
Lucena and Cabra, reserving merely a piquet for his own 
guard. Riego was soon made aware of this movement, and 
perceiving the object of it, he, in the first instance, arrested 
Ballasteros at his head-quarters. The officers of this last, 
however, remonstrated so strongly against the indignity thus 
offered to their general, that Riego found it necessary to 
liberate his prisoner; and finding that nothing more could 
be done in this part, he moved in the direction of Alcandete 
and Martos. A considerable portion of the regiments of 
Numantium and Espagna now abandoned him, and all hope 
of effecting the original object of his enterprise being lost, 
he turned towards the Sierra Morena with the view of cross¬ 
ing that range, and of making the best of his way for Cata¬ 
lonia. But he was surrounded on all sides by French divi¬ 
sions ; that of General Bonnemains came up with him on 
the 13th, near Jaen; after a long and obstinate conflict, 
Riego was compelled to abandon his position with great loss, 
and to retreat in the direction of Jodar. Here, however, he 
fell in with another French detachment (Sept. 14); and the 
Spaniards, now thoroughly disheartened by their repeated 
reverses, dispersed on every side without awaiting the onset; 
Riego himself was compelled to seek safety in flight, ac¬ 
companied only by three Of his officers. They endeavoured 
to gain the mountains of the Sierra Morena; but were recog¬ 
nised on their way at a farm house near Carolina d’Arguillos, 
and information being given to the neighbouring authorities, 
they were arrested and sent to Andujar. A dispute arose 
between the French staff’ and the Spanish authorities as to 
whose jurisdiction Riego properly belonged. The latter 
claimed him as having been captured by Spanish peasants; 
the former, because he was taken in his flight after a ren¬ 
contre, in which the French troops exclusively were en¬ 
gaged. The question was decided in favour of the Spa¬ 
niards ; to whom Riego was delivered over, and soon after 
conducted a prisoner to Madrid. 
The capture of Riego seemed to decide the fate of the war 
in the south, where two places only, Alicant and Cartha- 
gena, still acknowledged the Constitution. In Navarre, 
Pampeluna and St. Sebastian yet held out, but the invest¬ 
ment of the former place had been pushed with additional 
vigour, since Marshal Lauriston arrived to assume the direc¬ 
tion of the operations before it; and on the 16th of Sep¬ 
tember, a capitulation was agreed upon, by which the garrison 
became prisoners of war, and the French general engaged 
to employ his utmost influence to prevent individuals from 
being subjected to molestation on account of their preceding 
political conduct. St. Sebastian capitulated upon the same 
terms on the 27th, which had already been granted (11th) to 
the garrison of Santona. 
In Catalonia, however, the constitutional cause still main- 
tained its ground, and, indeed, the French seemed to have 
made little or no essential progress in this quarter since the 
beginning of the campaign. The fortresses of Figueras, 
Urgel, Hostalrich, and Lerida, continued to hold out; and 
the forces employed in the blockade or siege of these places, 
were kept in continual alarm by the sorties, made from time 
to time by the garrisons of Barcelona and Tarragona. One 
of these expeditions deserves particular commemoration. 
On the 10th of September, at the moment when the blocka¬ 
ding force at Barcelona was occupied by an attack upon their 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1581. 
whole line on the part of the garrison, a body of about two 
thousand four hundred men, under the command of Briga¬ 
dier Gen. Fernandez, embarked from the fort, and landed 
the same evening a few leagues to the north, between Mongat 
and Masnou. They marched rapidly upon Hostalrich, and 
after revictualing that place, proceeded by San Seloni, in 
the direction of Urgel, as though with the purpose of 
throwing similar succours into that fortress ; but on reaching 
Olot, they turned suddenly to the right towards Figueras. 
In the meanwhile, however, the enemy had taken the alarm ; 
and the Spaniards tound the several roads strongly occupied 
by his troops. Fernandez in vain endeavoured to cut his 
way through them, on the 15th at Llado, and again on the 
following day at the defiles of Tarrades. In these combats 
he lost above five hundred men killed and wounded, and 
finding himself surrounded on all sides by superior numbers, 
was compelled to accept an honourable capitulation from 
the French commander, the Baron du Damas. Nearly two 
thousand men became prisoners of war. Among them were 
the remains, about 120, of the battalion composed of French 
refugees, who were not included in the capitulation, but were 
induced to surrender upon a promise of their lives from 
the French general. Figueras capitulated a few days after. 
The remaining history of the Spanish revolution is a tale 
soon told. The fall ot the Trocadero had thrown the garri¬ 
son and the citizens into the utmost discouragement; and 
on the 4th of September, the king was made to write a 
letter to the Duke d’Angouleme, proposing a suspension of 
hostilities, in order that the two governments might treat 
together for an honourable peace. The prince answered, 
that he could only treat with the king himself being at 
liberty. 
A second messenger was then despatched from the city, to 
beg the prince to state what it was necessary should be done, 
in order that the king should be considered free; and also in 
what manner it was intended to treat with him. To this the 
duke d’Angouleme answered by a memorandum, in which 
he desired that the king and the royal family should be 
allowed to proceed either to Chiclana or Port St Mary, 
and repeated that he would then exert all his influence with 
the king, to induce him both to forget what was past, and 
to give such a constitution to the nation as he might think 
to consist with its peace and happiness. Orders would be 
iven to the admiral to allow all those who wished to leave 
pain, to embark, and go whither they pleased ; and a French 
division would enter Cadiz to maintain order, and prevent 
reaction. 
It was now endeavoured to induce the English minister, 
who still remained at Gibraltar, to proceed to Cadiz, and 
interpose the mediation of his government for the arrange¬ 
ment of a general pacification. Sir William A’Court evaded 
the proposition, on the pretext of the French blockade; he 
sent, however, his secretary of legation to the French head¬ 
quarters, with the view of ascertaining the disposition of the 
Duke d’Angouleme; but the prince was too well aware of the 
straits to which his adversaries were reduced, to be inclined 
to relax from his original demand. 
In the meanwhile, the Cortes assembled, for the last time, 
(Sept. 6) in an extraordinary session, which was opened, 
as usual, by a speech read in the name of the king, in which 
his Majesty, after adverting to the dangers which menaced 
the vessel of the state, observed, that their enemies refused to 
treat with him unless he were free, and had declared that they 
would not consider him as free, until he was in the midst of 
their bayonets; a kind of liberty which his Majesty desig¬ 
nated as inconceivable and ignominious. 
On the following day, a report was read from the committee 
charged to inquire into the state of the kingdom. The 
committee stated, that the documents which had been sub¬ 
mitted to them by the executive, exhibited the deplorable 
state of the nation; but added, that the propositions made 
by the enemy were so dishonourable and humiliating, that 
they concurred with his Majesty’s government in the deter¬ 
mination it had expressed, to perish rather than accede 
to them. 
The 
5T 
