[60] See the long procès verbal of the Council’s proceedings translated in Belmas, iv. pp. 203-6.
[61] The proposal of exchange came first to Mahy at Alicante; he called a council of generals, which resolved that the release of so many French would profit Suchet overmuch, because many of them had been imprisoned at Alicante and Cartagena, and had worked on the fortifications there. They could give the Marshal valuable information, which he had better be denied. The proposal must therefore be sent on to the Regency at Cadiz. That government, after much debate, refused to ratify the proposal, considering it more profitable to the enemy than to themselves.
[62] Some notes about his captivity may be found in the Mémoires of Baron Kolli, the would-be deliverer of King Ferdinand, who was shut up in another tower of the castle.
[63] See the dispatches printed in full in Belmas, Appendix, vol. iv, pp. 218-20, and 226-7 of his great work.
[64] For which see vol. i. p. 68.
[65] The names of all seven friars are given by Toreno and Schepeler.
[66] Can the frightful figure of 600 be a mistake for 60?
[67] See Toreno, iii. p. 28.
[68] See his pages, iv. 33.
[69] On February 1st Freire’s infantry division, though it had suffered much from desertion in the meanwhile, still numbered 3,300 men present, and his cavalry 850 sabres. See tables in Los Ejércitos españoles, pp. 149-50.