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XI.

1822.

CHAP. members of the Opposition, in the last Cortes, of the interior; M. Benicio Navarro, another deputy of the same stamp, received the portfolio of Justice; and M. Mariano, Egoa, and Cassay, of the Finances and the Marine respectively. The triumph of the extreme Liberals was complete; their adherents, and those of the most determined kind, filled all the offices of Government.

70.

The new

The first care of the new Cabinet was to make an entire change in the royal household, and to banish, or deand pro- prive of their commands, all the leading men of the counpointments. try whose sentiments were not in accordance with their

Ministry,

vincial ap

own. Murillo, notwithstanding the determined stand he had made at the head of the Constitutional troops against the royal guard, was deprived of his offices of Captaingeneral and Political Chief at Madrid, which were bestowed on General Copons, a staunch revolutionist ; Quiroga was made Captain-general of Galicia, and Mina of Catalonia. The Duke del Infantado, the Marquis las Amarillas, General Longa, and several other noblemen, who, although Liberals, were known to belong to the Moderate party, were exiled, some to Ceuta, some to the Canaries; and in the palace an entire change took place. The Duke de Montemart, Major d'Uomo, Count Toreno, and the Duke de Belgide, were dismissed; and the Marquis de Santa-Cruz, General Palafox, and Count Onaté, substituted in their room. In a word, the extreme v. 461,462; party was everywhere triumphant; the Jacobins of the i. 437, 438. Revolution, as is usually the case when the malady is not checked, had supplanted the Girondists.1

1 Ann. Hist.

Martignac,

71.

Geoiffeux.

It soon appeared what the new Government was to be, Murder of and whether the Jacobins of Spain were to be behind their predecessors of France in their thirst for blood. The soldiers of the guard who had been implicated in the murder of Landabura had already been condemned to death, but the revolutionists demanded, with loud cries, the head of Colonel Geoiffeux, an officer of the guard, and

XI.

1822.

who, although neither connected with the death of that CHAP. man, nor the revolt of the guards, as he was with the two battalions which remained at the palace, was known to entertain decided Royalist sentiments, and as such was selected as the object of popular indignation. He was arrested accordingly at Butrago, when on his way back to France, of which he was a native. When taken, his name was not known, and a falsehood might have saved him; but when asked who he was, he at once answered, "Geoiffeux, first-lieutenant in the guard." He was immediately brought back to Madrid, taken before a courtmartial, and condemned to death. His character, however, was generally esteemed, his innocence known. His courage on his trial excited universal admiration; sympathy was warmly excited in his behalf, and even the revolutionary municipality was preparing a petition in his favour. The anarchists feared lest their victim should escape; the clubs, the press, the mob in the street, were put in motion, and the innocent victim was led out to death. His courage on the scaffold made even his enemies blush with shame, and shed a lustre on the cause for which he suffered. General Copons, who, as military commander at Madrid, had confirmed the sentence, soon afterwards gave the clearest proof of its illegality by declaring the tribunal which had tried him incompetent in the case of some other officers charged with a similar offence, who were not marked out for destruction; a decision which excited so great a clamour in reference i. 440, 441; to the former trial, that he was obliged to resign his v. 463. appointment.1

1 Martignac,

Ann. Hist.

72.

and execu

Elio was the next victim. This distinguished general and intrepid man had been three years in prison, charged Second trial with alleged offences committed when in command at tion of Elio. Valencia; but though convicted by the revolutionary tribunal, he had never been executed so flagrant and obvious was the iniquity of punishing a military commander

XI.

1822.

CHAP. for acts done in direct obedience to the orders of Government. The cry for his blood, however, was now so vehement that he was again brought to trial, not on the former charges, but for alleged accession to the riot of 30th May, when an attempt, as already mentioned, had been made by a Royalist mob to effect his liberation from prison. The absurdity of charging him with participation in that affray, when at the time he was a close prisoner, carefully watched under military guard in the citadel, made as little impression on his iniquitous accusers as did his patriotic services and glorious career. No small difficulty was experienced in finding military officers who would descend to the infamy of becoming his judicial murderers. The Count d'Almodavar, the Captain-general, resigned his office to avoid it; Baron d'Andilla, appointed in his stead, feigned sickness to escape. None of the generals or colonels in Valencia would sit on the commission; and they were at last obliged to take for its president a lieutenant-colonel, named Valterra. Every effort was made to suborn or falsify evidence, but in vain. The cannoneers accused of being concerned in the plot for his liberation were offered their lives if they would declare they had been instigated by Elio; none would consent to live on such terms. An alleged letter was produced by the general to his sister, avowing his participation in the offence; it was proved he had no sister. The accused had no counsel, but he defended himself with courage and spirit for two hours. Even Valterra long hesitated to sign a conviction wholly unsupported by evidence, but the revolutionists were inexorable. The municipality threatened to make Valterra responsible with his head if he did not instantly sign the conviction; the clubs rev. 463; Ann. sounded with declamations; a furious mob surrounded Reg. 1822, 247; Mar the court-house; he trembled and obeyed.1 Elio was led out to the scaffold, erected on a public promenade with which he had embellished Valencia during his govern

Aug. 28.

1 Ann. Hist.

tignac, i. 442, 443.

XI.

ment. He died with the courage which had marked his CHAP. life, firm in his religious and political principles, and praying for the forgiveness of his murderers.

1822.

73.

the northern

Aug. 14.

Meanwhile, the civil war in the northern provinces assumed a more regular and systematic aspect, by the Civil war in solemn installation of a regency at Seo d'Urgel on the provinces. 14th September, consisting of the Archbishop of Tarragona and the Baron d'Erolles, which appointed ministers to all the offices of state, and professed to administer the government of the state in the name of Ferdinand VII. during his captivity. It soon found itself at the head of an imposing force a considerable park of field artillery had been collected, uniforms and arms in great quantities purchased, officers for a powerful army had repaired to the royal standard, and twenty thousand men were enrolled under their banners. No less than four hundred and fifty towns and villages in the northern provinces had overturned the pillar of the constitution. Already, on the 23d July, Mequinenza had been carried, July 23. and the garrison, four hundred strong, massacred with savage cruelty, in revenge for the slaughter at Cervera. Lerida and Vich were threatened, and the whole of Catalonia, with the exception of the fortresses, had fallen into the hands of the Royalists. In Navarre, Quesada had been defeated by Lopez-Baños, who surprised his July 3. troops by a nocturnal attack; but he retreated to Roncesvalles, where his dispersed men rejoined his standard; reinforcements poured in from Biscay, and he was soon in a situation to resume the offensive, and establish himself in a fortified camp at Irati, where he maintained himself during the whole remainder of the campaign. The regency issued proclamations in the name of the king, in which they declared null all his acts since v. 465, 466; he had been constrained to accept the Constitution of 1822, 248; 1812, called on the troops to abandon the standard 445,446. of treason, and engaged to establish a constitutional

VOL. II.

2 Q

1 Ann. Hist.

Ann. Reg.

Martignac,

CHAP. monarchy based on the ancient laws and customs of the

XI.

1822. 74.

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The government at Madrid was seriously alarmed at Vigorous these successes of the Royalists in the north; the estabthe revolu lishment of a regular government in the name of the tionary go- king at Seo d'Urgel, in particular, struck them with

measures of

vernment.

consternation. They acted with vigour to make head against the danger. Mina, appointed captain-general of the seventh military division, which comprehended the whole of Catalonia and part of Arragon, repaired to his post in the beginning of September, and having drawn together a considerable force at Lerida, advanced towards Cervera on the 7th September. It was high time he should do so, for the Constitutional forces had recently before been defeated in an attempt upon Seo d'Urgel Aug. 10. by the Baron d'Erolles, and driven back with great loss into Lerida. The Trappist, who had received orders to penetrate into Navarre in order to effect a junction with Quesada, after sustaining a severe check on the 19th from Zarco del Valle, had succeeded in rallying his troops in the mountains, and joined Quesada on the 23d. Their united force defeated a division of the enemy at BenaSept. 18. 1 Ann. Hist. Varre, commanded by Tabuenca, who was shot in cold v. 468, 469; blood. From thence they proceeded against Jaca, an 1.447 Ann. important fortress on the frontier commanding one of the Reg. 1822, 251. chief passes into France; but they failed in the attempt, and retired to the mountains.1

Aug. 19,

Aug. 23.

Martignac,

These alternate victories and defeats, in which success

* The proclamation of the Baron d'Erolles bore: "We, too, wish for a constitution, a fixed law to govern the state; but we do not wish it to serve as a pretext for license, or to take crime for its ally. After the example of their ancestors, the people, legally assembled, shall enact laws adapted to their manners and to the times in which they live. The Spanish name shall recover its ancient glory, and we shall live, not the vile slaves of factious anarchists, but subject to the laws which we ourselves shall have established. The king, the father of his people, will swear as formerly to the maintenance of our liberties and privileges, and we shall thus have him legally bound by his oath.”—Proclamation of Baron d'Erolles, 18th August 1822; Ann. Reg. 1822, p. 249.

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