ANTONIO SCANDALERO called.-It appeared he had left the Regiment. CAPTAIN and ADJUTANT KING called-states that Scandalero had deserted on 17th March 1818; believes him to be a foreigner. Colonel Beaufoy here asked Adjutant King what countryman he was, and who appointed him Adjutant: to which Captain King replied, he was a Hanoverian, and was appointed by Lord Moira, the Lord-Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets' Division. The Description Book being called for and produced, it appeared that Antonio Scandalero was enlisted when Colonel Beaufoy was in command of the Regiment.

Fourth Allegation.

QUARTER-MASTER GRANT being called, a list of names was tendered to ascertain the name of any enlisted man being supplied as a substitute for a ballotted man. Col. Beaufoy ADMITTED THE CHARGE as to the men contained in the list. Quarter-Master Grant states that he paid the men contained in the list their bounty out of his own pocket, and was repaid by the Bounty Meu; as soon as the men were attested they were posted to a company and received the ordinary pay of the regiment till they became substitutes; witness had made one mistake, in which, money had been improperly drawn from government in the case of Samuel Buffy, but it was rectified by supplying the name of Francis Kiley, for whom he drew no money.-Question' to Witness by Colonel Delap. Witness states he paid the bounty of some men" out of his own pocket to receive it again from a principal. Did Witness ever receive more money from a BALLOTTED MAN than he paid to the man substituted for him,' and if so, was it appropriated to his own use, or did any other person participate in the profit so arising? Quarter-Master Grant declined answering the question, and threw himself on the mercy of the Court, by the direction of the President, Colonel Clitherow, at whose instance it was waved; the Judge-Advocate stating, however, that the Court would in course form its judgment on the motives of refusing to answer. Fifth Allegation.

QUARTER-MASTER GRANT had never heard or known of Sir Daniel Williams privately attesting recruits.

SERJEANT THOMAS RYAN, Regimental Clerk, was certain Sir Daniel Williams never attested recruits, but could not say who did. Never received any money for

attestations.

PRIVATE SMITH, Assistant Regimental Clerk, knew they were attested by magistrates, and believed he could swear they had been attested by the nearest magistrates at Deptford; thought they had been attested by the Bench of Magistrates at the Fountain Inn. Recruits did not pay for attestations, except at Greenwich once.

(The Acting Prosecutor here mentioned, that being much disappointed in the evidence in which, from their own declarations, as well as his own knowledge, he had reason to suppose the last two witnesses would have given, he had not called several soldiers who could prove the charge; but that, if he was now permitted to summon Private John Laurence, who was attested on a Sunday by Lieut.-Colonel Sir Daniel Williams, and

A violent opposition to this instantly ensuing, and several Members of the Court, who otherwise evinced the highest intelligence, having declared they considered it mattered nothing how recruits were attested, the Acting Prosecutor did not urge it ; stating, at the same time, however, that it was not only illegal, but could not be done uninjuriously.)

(Questioned by the Court.) SERJEANT RYAN never knew of Sir Daniel Williams having attested recruits. The question from the Prosecutor, who attested them at Hackney, Whitechapel, and Deptford, was overuled by the Court.-Private Smith did not know of Sir Daniel Williams attesting any recruits.

(To be concluded in the next number of the Royal Military Panorama.).

CAMPAIGNS IN THE PENINSULA.

[Continued from page 653 of Vol. III.]

MARIANO ALVAREZ had the choice of his residence allowed him, and by the advice of his physicians hewas removed to Figueras, as the place most likely to restore his almost hopeless health: the remains of his exhausted strength allowed him to reach his destination; but his honourable life was soon brought to a close. One person, who by chance or accident saw the body after death, affirmed that the face was swollen and disfigured, that the eyes had started from their sockets, and other symptoms of strangulation were observable: to strengthen the suspicions which attached to this dark transaction, the body was interred by the French hastily and in the night. Endeavours were made to conceal it; and it was strongly asserted that Buonaparte had issued orders even for a public execution of this brave man, but that the minions of his power did not dare to exasperate the Geronan spirit, which they knew so well, by such an outrage.

Involved in mystery and conjecture as the exit of Alvarez must for a time remain, it is impossible not to credit the probability of assassination, for would the murderer of Hofer, of D'Enghien, and of Pichegru, Lesitate to stain his soul with the blood of Alvarez, when that virtuous and noble patriot had committed the crime of resistance to his will?

Early in January 1810, the Supreme Junta decreed national honours to the brave defenders of Gerona, the same as those bestowed on the Zaragozans; and on the death of Alvarez, his honours were given to his family.

Of the garrison of Gerona, who were sent prisoners into France, nearly 600 escaped, and joined their companions in arms. Amongst the number was Baron de Eroles, who immediately made the most active exertions to recruit the patriot armies. A decree had been passed to augment their strength, by which every fifth man was obliged to bear arms, but like almost all the other orders of the provisional government, it was evaded or disregarded: Eroles was, however, charged to carry it into execution, and he began by making a most animated appeal to the patriotism and national pride of the Spanish people. Blake having been removed to the command of the central army, the intrepid O'Donnell was appointed to that of Catalonia: his great popularity, the splendid military enterprises he had achieved for the relief of Gerona, infused ardour and confidence VOL. IV.

E

into the people, and in a short time the patriotic army was in suffi cient strength to act with effect; but it was not the exertions of a few virtuous and fearless men which could organize the disjointed forces of Spain, or draw forth the resources which the ravages of France had not yet been able to destroy; and although the army was strengthened, it was not possible to give it that solid form which troops acting against such powerful adversaries so imperiously required.

Ever since the beginning of the revolution the province of Catalonia had been the seat of war, and the fall of Gerona afforded such opportunities to the invading army of employing themselves to advantage, that its complete reduction was expected as a matter of certainty, and the French General predicted it with great confidence; yet, notwithstanding the miseries under which the province groaned, the spirit of the Catalonians was unbroken: of this a noble instance was given by the inhabitants of Villadran, a town situated in the plain of Vich. In the month of February a French detachment made its appearance, on which the whole of the population quitted their homes, and took refuge in the mountains. The Commanding-Officer of the French detachment, on finding Villadran deserted, wrote to the Regidor, promising to preserve the most exact order and rigid discipline on the return of the inhabitants, and threatening, in case they persisted in their conduct, to report the same to Marshal Augereau, and have recourse to the most coercive measures for reducing them to obedience. The answer of the Regidor was as follows: "That the French nation may know the love they bear to their religion, their king, and their country, all these people are content to remain buried among the snows of Montsen, rather than submit to the hateful dominion of the French troops." And throughout the province, so strongly were the people biassed by national and patriotic feeling, that O'Donnell found it necessary to apply to the Superior Junta to provide quarters for the many families who had voluntarily quitted their homes, in the same manner as for the soldiery.

The reduction of Gerona having enabled the invaders to commence further operations, the siege of the Castle of Hostalrich was undertaken, by a division under the Italian General Mazzachelli, a small fortress, but important from its situation, being seven leagues from Gerona, on the road to Barcelona, and, in consequence, well calculated to protect the communications between those cities. Previous to the investiture of the Castle of Hostalrich, the little town of that

name was taken possession of by the French, and the inhabitants sought refuge in the church, until relieved by a detachment from the castle.

Julian de Estrada, the Commandant of the Castle of Hostalrich, encouraged his soldiers by the example of Gerona: "This fortress," said he, "is the daughter of Gerona, and ought to imitate its mother in resistance." From the 13th of January, when the siege commenced, until the 20th of the same month, no advantage was gained by the besiegers. On that day, D. Francisco Oliver, a brave officer, who commanded a post called Torre de los Frayles, or the Friar's Tower, was killed by the explosion of a hand-grenade, which he was in the act of throwing; immediately upon which, his successor, Clemente Merino, surrendered the post.

Augereau, who had arrived to inspect the state of the siege, took advantage of this circumstance to induce the Governor to capitu late; he promised to the garrison the honours of war, should they surrender, and declared that if the castle was taken by storm they should not be considered as soldiers, but as men who were in open rebellion against their king. Estrada nobly replied, "That the Spaniards had no other king than Ferdinand the Seventh." The siege was then carried on with much vigour, and the bombardment of the fort was commenced; and there, as at Gerona, the French, with all their numbers, and all their skill, found that the strength of a fortress depends less upon walls and bulwarks than upon the spirit of its defenders.

The inhabitants of Hostalrich who had been received within the fortress were all withdrawn in the month of March, and at the commencement of April the only persons within the fortifications were its garrison: in the intermediate time the heroism with which it was defended was not less admirable than that displayed at Zaragoza and Gerona. At the express desire of the garrison, every circumstance of the siege was recorded, "If we are successful," said those brave soldiers, "they will give hope, confidence, and joy, to every other patriot; if we are unfortunate, they will excite a different feeling, but they will never produce shame or dismay." Two instances of their patriotic spirit deserve particular mention. On the 20th of February, just as the bombardment began, Don Jose Antonio Roca, the Fort Adjutant, was in the act of writing a dise patch, by order of the Governor, to the Commander-in-Chief, when a shell burst so near, that one of the fragments entered the room, and swept every thing off the table; Roca collected his papers, and

coolly observed, "that the sand which the dispatch carried with it might save him the trouble of informing the General that the fortress was cannonaded:"-he continued his dispatch. The other is an instance still more remarkable, as the person must have been under the influence of severe bodily pain. A private soldier going beyond the works for water received a ball in his groin; he returned to the fortress, delivered the pitcher of water to his serjeant, and then searching in the wound for the ball, pulled it out, and giving it also to the serjeant, said, "I deposit this ball in your hands, that you may keep it for me, because, as soon as I am cured, this very ball shall revenge me upon the first Frenchman at whom I can get a shot." He was then conducted to the hospital, and on his he way charged his comrades to take vengeance for him, should he not live to avenge himself. Such was the spirit with which Hostalrich was defended.

About the 20th of March, General Verdier, who commanded the besieging army, again summoned Estrada to 'surrender his charge; he made use of every argument to accomplish his plan, and even represented the exploits of O'Donnell as a defeat. He said, "the wreck of the Spanish army was seeking a moment's shelter in Tarragona and Tortosa, vigorously pursued by Augereau in person, who would immediately commence the siege of both those places. The siege of Lerida was far advanced, and its fall inevitable. Hostalrich was a fort of no other use than as it interrupted the communication between Gerona and Barcelona, and this the Governor might perceive it no longer effected, the French having made a new road, communicating freely with that city; the object, therefore, no longer existed, and resistance, instead of adding to his glory, would be called a vain obstinacy, draw upon him the reproaches of posterity, and make him responsible for the blood which should be shed." The French General then offered Estrada and his garrison all the honours of war, and stated that the Marshal Duke of Castiglione (Augereau) had revoked his former declarations, and authorised him to propose those terms: "You will do well, sir," continued Verdier, "to accept them with glory; if you delay, they will, without doubt, be refused to you, and you will then be obliged to suffer conditions which, however rigorous they may appear, are dictated by justice, seeing that a protracted resistance is neither justified by honour nor by reason." Estrada's reply was brief; he merely referred the French General to his former determination, and to the conduct of the garrison.