BISHOP OF ORENSE'S APPEAL.

241

whether they languished in the prisons of Spain, or sought refuge abroad. One of the charges that led to his condemnation in 1814, was founded on the interception of a letter, in which he directed a merchant of Bilboa to supply the pecuniary wants of an exiled patriot who was expected there from France. But Porlier's liberality was not confined to Spaniards; it extended to the unfortunate of every country; and more than one Englishman was indebted to him for assistance in the hour of need. He was, in fact, warmly attached to us as a nation, so that the sympathy excited by his melancholy fate was doubly merited. At Corunna, the feelings of the English residents were still more unequivocally evinced, the whole number having put on deep mourning an hour after his

execution.

I have, in a former letter, had occasion to mention that the Bishop of Orense made an eloquent appeal to Ferdinand in favour of Porlier's companions; however creditable this intercession may have been to the venerable prelate, it is supposed that the lenity shown towards the offenders arose much more from fear than humanity. Aided by the kindness of their English friends, several of the officers were enabled to embark for the United Kingdom. Where the conduct of others tends to make us so unpopular abroad, it is extremely gratifying to be able to bring forward instances of this kind, which serve, in no inconsiderable degree, to retrieve the national character,

R

242

PORLIER'S DOMESTIC VIRTUE.

and keep it from sinking altogether in the eyes of the foreign nations.

The spirit of persecution which brought him to a scaffold, did not end with the hero's death. Excluded from the rites of christian sepulture, his body was buried in an obscure corner of the public cemetery.

The notary who drew up the will became an object of persecution, and after a process which continued six months, sentence passed against him, annulling the instrument, which was represented as subversive and contrary to the rights of the throne! In consideration, however, of the advanced age and character of the culprit, he was only admonished, on pain of incurring the utmost rigour of the laws, in case of a second offence.

Porlier was affectionately attached to his wife; she was not less so to the best of husbands. I will not attempt to describe the harrowed feelings of a young desolated woman, bereft of her natural protector, in the flower of life, while all the fervid sympathies of our nature are yet in full activity, and we still look forward with joy and hope to years of untasted felicity. As if, however, it was not enough to exercise every species of indignity towards her husband, the forlorn situation of Madame Porlier was greatly embittered by the cruel means adopted with regard to herself. After confiscating the whole of the neral's property, she was placed in a convent at

ge

HONOUR DONE TO HIS MEMORY.

243

Betanzos, and remained there in a state of indirect imprisonment till the re-establishment of freedom. Soon after this event Madame Porlier was invited to abandon the cloister, and reside at Corunna, where she continues to receive all those attentions, no less due to her misfortunes than the eminent services of her late husband.

The final bequests of Porlier were fulfilled towards the end of August. A cenotaph being prepared, all the authorities of Corunna, civil and military, repaired to the spot where his remains had been laid; disinterred and placed in their new receptacle, the gallant Espinosa, who has been so highly distinguished during the recent events in Galicia, pronounced an eloquent and energetic panegyric on the virtues and talents of the fallen hero: pointing him out as a fit model for those who preferred the liberty of their country to tyranny and oppression. From this the procession proceeded to the principal church, followed by the whole population; here the service closed with a requiem composed for the occasion, after which the cavalcade, preceded by the cenotaph, borne on a funeral car, was conducted in mournful triumph through all the streets in which the hero had proclaimed the constitution five years before. On reaching that part of the Campo Santo, on which a more conspicuous spot was chosen for depositing the urn, a second service and funeral oration was delivered

244

POBLIER'S CLAIMS ON HIS COUNTRY.

by the officiating chaplain of the garrison, after which the ceremony ended.*

However gratifying this testimony to departed worth may have been to the friends and admirers of the patriot chief, who witnessed the scene and participated in the painful recollections and heartfelt sorrow it excited for his untimely fate, I am led to believe it was only a prelude to still higher honours, which the national congress intends to confer on those who, like the hero of Corunna, were sacrificed on the altar of their country's freedom. Yes! the statue of JUAN DIAZ PORLIER deserves a pre-eminent niche in the projected pantheon; nor can Spain too highly prize or dearly cherish the memory of a man, who, though branded with the epithet of traitor and rebel by her oppressors, yet knew how to brave an ignominious death with composure, rather than quietly live to see his fellow-citizens wear the chains of slavery.

*That two names so dear to their countrymen should be still further perpetuated, the principal square and public walk of Corunna have been named after Porlier and Acevedo, whose fate bears a sad analogy to that of his heroic predecessor.

245

LETTER IX.

Alarm created at Court by Porlier's Insurrection.-Errors of the Patriots and Cause of their Failure; their Effects on the interest of Liberty.-Measures of Ferdinand and his Ministers.-Exile of Ballesteros and El Empecinado.— Motives for dismissing Escoiquiz, de Castro and their Friends.-Treatment of British Residents.-Disposition of the Garrisons of Cadiz and Oviedo.- Abisbal's Order of the Day.-Projected rising in Granada, detected by the Bishop and Priesthood: its Authors punished.-Attempt of Richart; his Trial and Execution.-Project of Don Luis Lacy, denounced when on the point of being carried into effect: Attempt of the General and his Friends to escape.General Milano and others succeed; Lacy is taken; he is tried and condemned at Barcelona: conveyed to Majorca and shot.-Biographical Sketch of the Patriot Chief, and Honours paid to his Memory.

Madrid, September, 1820.

THE consternation of Ferdinand and his ministers, on hearing of the events at Corunna, and its neighbourhood, was such as might well be expected on the part of men who felt that their own cruelty and oppression had alone caused the revolt; while, however, the serviles of every class were trembling with guilty fear, lest the hour of retribution had really arrived, a far different sensation was created in other places, especially at Cadiz, Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza, where every heart beat high with hopes of speedy emancipation; meetings were meetings were even held, to concert means for obeying the call of Porlier, and had the banner of freedom only waved a few days longer in Galicia, his heroic example would have been followed throughout the Peninsula.

From the facts already adduced, relative to the