[6] After Buonaparte’s return from Elba, the Marquis put himself at the head of the Vendeans, repeated these words of his heroic brother, and died, like him, in the same cause.
[7] This statement is drawn up from the printed narrative by Van Halen, and from a manuscript one by Eroles. Marshal Suchet’s brief account is erroneous in stating that Tortosa was the last place at which the stratagem was tried instead of the first. He says that Van Halen deserted, monté sur un cheval dérobé, et laissant à Barcelone des dettes criardes. (T. 2. 366.) Concerning the horse, it is not likely that in such circumstances the adventurer would be scrupulous; but as to his debts, he left a letter at Barcelona, saying, that there were the arrears of his pay to liquidate them, being more by one-half than all that he owed amounted to.
Van Halen afterwards got into the Inquisition as a freemason and a liberal, got out of it, published his adventures in English, went to Brussels, headed the inhabitants in that insurrection the success of which they have had so much reason to repent, was suspected of treachery by the party whom he had served, thrown into prison, and after awhile released. And there the drama of his unquiet life breaks off.
[8] Bien suponiamos que lo habria, por las relaciones con las Potencias aliadas; pero no sabiéndolo de cierto, teniamos derecho, tratando con hombre tan perfido, para ponerlo en duda y conseguir con este justo dissimulo el fin de nuestros deseos que era la libertad del Rey. Engañar mañosamente con la verdad á un hombre tan falso, era una obra no mala sino excelente: tal era nuestro maxîma. Idea Sencilla, 114.
[9] French exaggeration has seldom been carried farther than in the accounts of this action. One account makes the loss of the allies 21,000 in killed, and nearly 15,000 wounded! and the author of the Précis Historique de la Bataille takes credit to himself for moderation and candour in reducing the number of the slain to 17,000.—P. 3. pp. 32–37.
Piedra immortal, que en gloria de Fernando
Hoy el brazo del justo aqui coloca,
En ti se estrelle el enemigo bando,
se estrella la nave en dura roca:
Y si algun vil ideas abrigando
Contra el Rey, te profana ó te provoca,
Que muera; y que á cenizas reducido
Sirva de exemplo al liberal partido.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book. Simple typographical errors were corrected and some unbalanced quotation marks were remedied. Other errors of these types were not changed because the corrections were not obvious to the Transcriber.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of inconsistent hyphenation have been changed only when there was a predominant preference throughout the book.