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ter which the garrisons of Modlin and Zamosc were obliged to capitulate. Czartoryski, Skrzynecki, Lelewel, so many brave hearts and noble spirits, abandoned the land which they had been unable to set free, and Poland was incorporated with the Russian empire. Depopulated cities, and wasted plains given up to the last excesses of resentful tyranny, alone remained, crying aloud to Heaven to avenge the long series of crimes, which have blotted out Poland from the map of Europe.

On quitting his native soil, Rybinski issued an order of the day, as a solemn protest in behalf of the nationality of Poland, uttered by its latest defenders. It is dated at the bivouac near Rypin, October 5th, 1831, in the following words:

The decisive moment is come. The enemy has offered us humiliating conditions, contrary to our national honor: it only remains for us to preserve our honor by rejecting them, and crossing the frontier of Prussia, there to seek an asylum. In our present situation, to continue the struggle would be to draw down increased calamities upon Poland. We lay down the arms, therefore, which we took up for the sacred cause of the independence and integrity of our country, protesting against the violence and the arbitrary acts of which we are the victims, until Europe, whose protection we claim, shall pronounce concerning our lot and that of our country. If our prayers be not heard, if justice be refused us, if kings repel us, the Almighty will avenge us, and beneath the stone, which covers the grave of Poland, will lie the independence of the nations, which have remained indifferent to our wrongs. Our blood shed in so many battles, the perseverance and the patriotism of which we have given an example, shall be a subject of admiration and of imitation for history and for posterity.

Soldiers, go where duty calls: we shall sacrifice every thing, but our glory, of which no human force can strip us,-and we shall await our fate with that tranquillity of soul, which the consciousness of having deserved well of our country imparts,'

It should be stated, in explanation of the long inaction of the Polish troops, which preceded the capture of Warsaw, that the two chiefs, Skrzy

which distinguished the constitutionalists when they were the nation, was equally to be remarked among them now they were but a feeble band of exiles. Mina, and the most eminent of the patriots either as civilians or military men, were of the party of masones, and, as might be expected from their ability and experience, were less confident of success than the comuneros, who rendered themselves objects of commiseration by their violence, and by their impetuosity amounting to rashness. The effect of all this was to deprive their efforts of that unity, without which it was clearly impossible to effect any thing useful. At the same time, it must be admitted that their whole scheme was

a wild and impracticable one. The Spanish people did not desire a revolution; the fact is undeniable; and without a powerful party in the heart of the Kingdom, what had a few hundred exiles to expect in thus invading the country, but defeat to themselves, and ruin to all who should espouse their cause? And how much soever we may condemn the factious temper, which distracted the councils of the patriots, we do not believe the issue would have been different, had their conduct been ever so free from censure.

In effect, however, the consequence was that the comuneros proceeded to cross the frontiers in their own time and mode. It is supposed that the entire force assembled along the Pyrenees did not exceed 1000 men, of whom only about the half were Spaniards. Colonel Valdez led the first party, of 250 men, which crossed the frontier from Bayonne on the 17th of October, took possession of some villages, and dispersed a few royalist volunteers. But no person joined his standard, and he would have been speedily cut off, had not General Mina followed him in a few days with the residue of their forces, consisting of about 300 men.

It

VALDEZ AND MINA.

199

was soon ascertained that the enterprise was a desperate one; for the inhabitants carefully kept aloof, affording neither supplies nor recruits to the invaders. Mina took possession of the town of Irun, and posted his followers on the heights near Vera, a few miles from the great road to Madrid. On the 27th a well appointed royalist force advanced to meet them. It was the advice

of Mina to avoid an engagement, and maintain a guerilla warfare in the mountains; but Valdez insisted upon withstanding the royalist troops, and was accordingly defeated with great loss, and driven back into France. Mina himself saved his life by a series of hair breadth escapes, and reached France in a state of extreme wretchedness. Seeing the irretrievable discomfiture of the expedition, the French now interfered, disarmed the fugitives, and compelled them to leave the neighborhood of Spain.

During the same period, another party of the patriots had entered Spain by the opposite extremity of the Pyrenees; and were in like manner driven back without having accomplished any thing, being reduced themselves to a state of mere starvation. The same fate attended each of the invading parties. Utterly failing to arouse the people, and having no sufficient means of their own to carry on a war with the government, they only enjoyed the consolation of having tried the experiment of proffering liberty to their countrymen. The French had regarded their preparations with an eye of sympathy, if not of encouragement, so long as there was a possibility of their success. It became indispensable to disarm them, when they were become a band of desperate fugitives, capable only of keeping the frontier in confusion. In fact, perfect tranquillity was restored long before the close of the year, along the whole line of the Pyrenees.

Several months elapsed before any thing transpired to indicate the success of Torrijos in the South. At length, on the night of the 3rd of March 1831, insurrection broke out in the Isle of Leon, celebrated as the scene of the revolutionary movement of 1820, under Quiroga and Riego. The assassination of the Governor of Cadiz, in the streets of the city, was the signal for the soldiers and marines stationed in the Isle of Leon to arm in mutiny, and proclaim the Constitution. They anticipated the concurrence of the garrison and populace of Cadiz; but in this they were disappointed; for Don Vicente Quesada, the Captain General of Andalusia, hastened thither from Xerez, and assured himself of the fidelity of the garrison. In consequence of this, the insurgents were obliged to leave the Isla de Leon. They landed on the opposite coast, and marched in the direction of Tarifa, where they expected to form a junction with another party of their confederates, who were approaching from Gibraltar. Being overtaken at Bejer by the royal troops, they were put to flight or made prisoners, having scarcely attempted to make a stand; and the leading individuals among the prisoners were immediately shot as rebels taken in arms. Justly alarmed by this affair, the government organized a military commission for investigating the ramifications of any conspiracy which might exist, and bringing its participators to punishment. The events in. Cadiz served no other purpose, therefore, but to fix the eyes of the police upon all persons who could be suspected of liberal views, subjecting them to infinite vexation, and adding strength at the same time to the hands of the King.

Torrijos had fixed himself at Gibraltar, where, undismayed by the result of the movement in March, he was madly engaged in projecting a new attempt at revolution. This, it was plain, could