The Duque de Mahon, one of those traitors to their country who had sided with the Intruder, in full confidence that they were taking the safe part, was at that time Viceroy of Navarre: and he addressed a proclamation to the inhabitants of Roncal, affecting to believe that they had taken no share in the insurrection; calling upon them to unite with the French troops for the purpose of apprehending and punishing the disturbers of the peace; and assuring them that the present struggle was excited solely by the personal resentment of certain individuals, whose interests were opposed to those of the nation, of the clergy, and of the nobles. If they should be seduced by these deceivers, the result could only be, the loss, if not of their lives, yet certainly of their liberty, and of that happiness which they had hitherto enjoyed. But, on the contrary, if they proved themselves worthy of the King’s favour, by their obedience to his government and their cordiality with the allied French troops, it was his intention and that of the French commandant at Pamplona, General D’Agoult, to represent their good behaviour to the throne; that when the arms of the Emperor, now victorious at Vienna and throughout all Italy, should expel the enemies of public order from Spain, they might partake in the benefits which were to be expected from so wise and humane a prince. This proclamation was answered by Renovales with the bitterest ♦June 28.♦ scorn. He addressed the viceroy as Ex-Duque de Mahon, telling him, if he disliked that style, that the person who used it was a Spaniard, and one who respected the orders of his sovereign; which sovereign, acting through the Supreme Central Junta, had proscribed him as a traitor, and therefore he had now no title. He reproached him with ingratitude towards the house of Bourbon, with disgracing his ancestors, with sacrificing his religion, his king, his country, and his honour. He told him that the people of Roncal, like those of Anso, were attached to their own institutions, and true to their lawful king; that they had fought for him with a spirit like that of their ancestors; that the magistracy had encouraged the enthusiasm of the people; and that he, unworthy as he was, had enjoyed the honour of leading them to victory. They despised his favour, and they despised his threats; and if he would march out at the head of a French division, and fix time and place where the question between them might be put to the decision of the sword, he, Renovales, would meet him there, a true Spaniard in the cause of a rightful though an oppressed king, against a false one in the cause of a potentate whom his followers impiously called almighty; and if the Ex-Duque would appoint this meeting, that almightiness should be tried.

Five persons who were charged with having joined the insurgents of Roncal were put to death at Pamplona upon the Intruder’s law of extermination against all who should take arms against him. The gallows was erected without the gate of S. Nicholas, and the sufferers were executed with their faces toward Roncal, and left hanging there. The proclamation which announced their punishment, declared, that for every person, whether soldier or countryman, who should be murdered by the banditti, a prisoner who had belonged to them should be put to death. This was answered by an act of retaliation. Renovales seized five persons who were acting under the intrusive government, beheaded them, and exposed their bodies on the high road, with an inscription on their shoulders, saying they were agents of the French robbers, who had been thus punished by Spanish justice. He declared, that, for every Spaniard whom the French should put to death, he would behead two French prisoners; and that if the commandant of Jaca continued to plunder the people and the churches, and burn the houses, as he had begun, he would, for every house that should be burnt, set a village on fire on the French side of the Pyrenees, instead of promoting peace and friendly intercourse, as he had hitherto done, between the peasants on the frontier.

General D’Agoult tried what might be done with Renovales by conciliatory means. He thanked him for his treatment of Puisalis, and of those prisoners whom Buruchuri had butchered; a crime of which he entirely acquitted the Spanish officer. He applied to him now, he said, by General Suchet’s orders; and joined his own entreaties to that General’s offers. First he requested him to send back twenty-five artillerymen who had been captured by his people on the road from Tafalla, and who he understood were well treated. Renovales, he observed, owed him this in consideration of the manner in which his prisoners were used, though more than six and thirty officers had broken their parole, beginning with the Camp-Marshal Villava. After experiencing every kindness, he had found means to escape by a bribe of 4000 livres, and was said to be now in ♦1809
August.♦ Roncal, having thus dishonoured himself. If Renovales also had broken his word by escaping when he was a prisoner of war, there had been something in his conduct which justified it; and if he would now pacificate Roncal and the valleys of Aragon, and restore order there, he would entitle himself to esteem and to the King’s favour. “You are supporting a chimera,” said the French commander; “your troops are routed on all sides. You reckon upon the English. I know them better than you do; and if you desire the good of your country, take the advice of an old soldier, who went through the Revolution as a royalist, and joined the present government when he saw that the only man capable of supporting it had appeared. You are in a like position. The Bourbons exist no longer upon the throne. The Emperor and his family have superseded them. Let us be his faithful friends and allies, and render our country happy, instead of contributing to its ruin.”

Renovales answered, the artillerymen were his prisoners, thought themselves fortunate in being so, and would have entered among the troops if he would have allowed them. Villava was not in Roncal, nor in the district under his command; wherever he was, he would be able to answer for his own conduct in making his escape. “If I did the same,” said he, “on the way to Pamplona, it was because the French had violated a solemn capitulation. I was the first person whom General Morlot, in contempt both of his word and honour, and in breach of the terms, plundered of horse and baggage; and if a French general may be allowed thus to disregard so sacred a right, I know not why a Spanish prisoner should be withheld from attempting to escape. Wonder not at seeing me at the head of the Spaniards, since I have seen General Junot in Zaragoza at the head of the French, after his24 capitulation in Portugal.” To all the offers which were held out to him, he replied, that he was and would continue true to his legitimate King, whose faithful subjects would freely shed their blood in his cause, and would yet reverse the scene, and re-establish him upon his rightful throne. “I know,” said he, “that your Excellency feels the injustice of the cause which France is supporting; ... that you hear the voice of honour in your heart, and that you know what is the right path.” General Plique, commander of the citadel at Zaragoza, endeavoured also to bring over Renovales to the Intruder’s service, representing to him that the Austrian army was destroyed, that Russia had given the most public proofs of its connexion with France, and that the French had obtained a most decisive victory25 in S. Domingo. No efforts, no combination of events could now prevent the complete establishment of King Joseph. The blow which had ruined Austria had destroyed all the hopes of the Spaniards. “Insurrection,” said the Frenchman, imitating the style of his Emperor, “insurrection passes away; madness rages and destroys, and then becomes calm; the good alone is permanent. Secure for yourself the glory and the delight of saving a country which ought to be dear to you; join the cause of a good King, who desires not, by a terrible and necessary execution, to reign over ruins and carcasses; and I am authorized to offer you the rank in his armies which you hold among the insurgents.”

The answer was such as became a man who had done his duty at Zaragoza. “Till the moral strength of the Spaniards and of their government were destroyed,” he said, “it was in vain to think of ruining their armies. Neither the supposed victories upon the Danube and in S. Domingo, nor the adhesion of the Emperor Alexander, nor the immense forces which were said to be at Napoleon’s command, would break the spirit of Spain or of England, actuated as those countries were by principles of justice and high-minded rectitude.” The hope of seducing Renovales being now no longer entertained, 5000 men were sent against him from Zaragoza; 2000 of these, being reinforced with 500 more at Jaca, proceeded against S. Juan de la Peña; and having, after a long resistance, driven D. Miguel Sarasa from that post, advanced ♦Aug. 21.♦ upon the valley of Anso. Plique, with the other 3000, occupied the positions of Salvatierra, Castella Nuevo, and Navascues: 800 from Orbayceta and Pamplona united in the valley of Salazar, and 450 from Lumbier at Zavalza. Their numbers enabled them to move upon more points than the Spaniards could ♦Aug. 27.♦ guard; and having entered Salvatierra, where the advanced parties were driven before them, they proceeded next day in four columns, two on the right attacking the heights of Sasi and Virgen de la Peña, the centre by the strait called La Foz, and the left by the heights of Mayhia, which divide the jurisdictions of Salvatierra, Navascues, and Burgui. These positions were attacked by 3000 men, and defended only by 600; they were maintained from six in the morning till two hours after mid-day; the French then on the right gained the height at Sasi; and this success would have enabled them to come upon the rear of the Spaniards at the other point. Renovales therefore fell back to the bridge and town of Burgui, from which he was compelled to withdraw as evening began to close, and the enemy then entered and set fire to it. The town of Anso was entered the same day by the first division of the French, after a brave resistance.

From Burgui, on the following morning, the French in three divisions attacked the Spaniards, the right and left on the heights of Mendivelza and Odieta, the centre upon Bochuela. At all these points they were three times repulsed, some Russian deserters distinguishing themselves greatly on the Spanish side. The mountaineers thought the day their own, till, at noon, they were apprised that the French division from Anso was coming by Garde upon their rear, and already occupied the heights of Puyeta and Muga de Roncal. Renovales then fell back in good order upon the town of Roncal, took up a position there, and maintained it till evening closed. But as the ground there was open enough to give the enemy room for manœuvring, he fell back to the strong ground about Urzainqui, the position where he had before determined that in case of necessity the last stand was to be made. During the night, he was apprised that 4000 men were marching from Oloron upon those valleys, and 800 by way of Salazar. Many of his people had dispersed; those who remained were well nigh exhausted; ... but he was enabled to demand terms, and capitulate for the valleys, as for a fortified town, in a manner of which there had been no other example during the war, and to withdraw with those who chose to follow him, for other opportunities of serving their country; ... more fortunate their future services might be; they could not be more honourable.

The French are said to have lost 500 killed and 800 wounded in these latter actions, and this by their own account. Among the Spanish officers who distinguished themselves were D. Miguel Sarasa, and D. Gregorio Cruchaga, names soon connected with that of Mina, which now first began to be known.

Xavier Mina26, the son of a landholder who cultivated his own estate, and was deputy for one of the valleys of Navarre, was a student at Pamplona when the revolution began. He was then in the eighteenth year of his age, and during the earlier part of the war had been confined to his father’s house by a severe illness, from which he recovered just after Renovales had been compelled to withdraw from Roncal. A French commander, whose corps was encamped in the neighbourhood, sent a serjeant requiring the father in his capacity as deputy to provide rations for his27 men. The serjeant disappeared on the road, and in consequence the house was surrounded at midnight by a detachment of infantry, who had orders to arrest the elder Mina, and bring him to head quarters. The son, however, had time enough to secure his father’s escape, and then in his name presented himself to the officer. The French General before whom he was carried threatened him with death, unless the serjeant were produced; but as every thing in that quarter was to be arranged by means of money, Mina obtained his liberty after being detained three days. The party who arrested him had plundered his father’s house. This usage, the danger he had escaped, and the injustice of the whole proceeding, roused into full action those feelings which had only been suspended by disease and languor. He provided himself with a musket and cartridge-box, and in that trim presented himself in his own village, and offered to take the command of as many Spaniards as would engage with him in the good work of avenging their country upon its invaders. Twelve adventurers joined him; they took to the near mountains, and there, while they waited an opportunity of action, maintained themselves on his father’s sheep.

His first adventure was to surprise a party of seven artillerymen, who were escorting two pieces of cannon and a quantity of ammunition from Zaragoza to Pamplona. This success procured him twenty volunteers. He sent off his prisoners to Lerida, retired again to the mountains, and being informed that a general officer was on the road, travelling with an escort of thirty-four foot and twelve horsemen, he laid an ambuscade for them, in so favourable a spot, that a volley was fired upon the French with sure effect before they had any apprehension of danger. The general was shot in his carriage, some of the escort were made prisoners, and some money fell into Mina’s hands. This he immediately distributed among his men, recommending them to send part of it to their families, and retain no more than would be necessary to defray the expenses of their own interment, exposed as they must now continually be to death. The men were thus raised in their own esteem and in that of their countrymen where-ever this was told; and volunteers now presented themselves in abundance, attracted by a success which was reported every where, with such exaggerations as such tales gather in their way. He received however none but those who brought arms, or whom he could supply with the spoils already taken from the enemy. His party amounted now to about threescore persons, distinguished by a red riband in their hats, and a red collar to their jackets.

He proceeded now toward the frontiers of Aragon, where a band of fifty robbers were adding to the miseries of that afflicted country. These he succeeded in surprising; the greater number were killed on the spot, the rest he sent prisoners to Tarragona. Twelve horses were taken from the party, on which he mounted some of his men, and armed them with lances;

♦1809.
September.♦ and every day added now to his numbers and his reputation. Rations were voluntarily provided for his people wherever they were expected, and given as freely at one time, as they were paid for at another from the spoils of the enemy. He levied a duty on the passes, where a considerable trade in colonial produce was then carried on; the clergy also assisted him from their funds, and with these resources he paid and equipped his men, and kept in pay also a sufficient number of intelligencers. It was in vain that the French made repeated efforts to crush this enterprising enemy; if his troops dispersed upon the appearance or the attack of a formidable detachment, it was only to reunite, and by striking a blow in some weak point or distant quarter, render themselves more formidable than before. General D’Agoult was accused of secretly favouring this young adventurer, and sending convoys under weak escort, with the intent that he should intercept them. Perhaps this suspicion was entertained only because ♦Two Minas, p. 16.♦ he had been a royalist, and therefore may have been supposed to abhor at heart the service wherein he was engaged. An inquiry into his conduct was instituted, and before it was concluded he put an end to his life by poison.

St. Cyr meantime was informed that Marshal Augereau had been appointed to supersede him in Catalonia, and that General Verdier, who had been an old aide-de-camp of Augereau, had already arrived in the Ampurdan to take the command in place of General Reille, and commence the siege of Gerona. The rout at Belchite enabled the enemy to make all their preliminary movements with little other molestation than what the insufficient garrison of that city could give them; and when Verdier encamped before the place, St. Cyr removed from Vich, and took up a position to cover the siege.

END OF VOL. III.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.