United States or Libya ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
We shall therefore speak only of the final incidents of Zumalacarregui’s career. Among the later events was the siege and capture of Villafranca. Espartero, the Spanish general, led seven thousand men to the relief of this place, marching them across the mountains on a dark and stormy night with the hope of taking the Carlists by surprise.
The greatest names are those that men have made for themselves. Conyngham replaced the two letters in his pocket and almost immediately asked: 'Do you know anyone called Barenna in Ronda, senorita? thereby proving that General Espartero would do ill to give him an appointment requiring even the earliest rudiments of diplomacy. 'Julia Barenna is my cousin. Her mother was my mother's sister.
Afterwards, warlike tales of an irresistible fascination Bonaparte with his little band crossing the bridge at Arcola amid showers of bullets. And then our own generals, not to go further Espartero at Luchana, O'Donnel in Africa, and, above all, Prim, that almost legendary leader, directing the battalion at Castillejos with his sword.
Another Carlist campaign was initiated in 1838. In 1839 Maria Christina, having lost her prestige, was obliged to abdicate; then followed the regency of the Duke de la Victoria Espartero, an insurrection in Barcelona, the Cortes of 1843, an attack on Madrid, and the fall of the regency, a period of seven years marked by a series of military pronunciamentos, the last of which was headed by General Prim.
MONACHISM—The superiority of the monastic over the secular clergy—Reasons for it—Orders of monks—The Carthusians—Their advancement in agriculture and love of the fine arts—Their seclusion and mode of living—Only learned men admitted to their order—Their form of salutation—Curious adventure of a lady found in the cell of a Carthusian—The Hieronimites—The Mendicant orders—“Pious works”—The Questacion—Decline of Spain accounted for—Vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience—How vow of poverty eluded—La honesta—Vicar-general of the Franciscan orders—His immense income—Religious orders have produced many great and good men—Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros—His celebrated Bible—Corruption of monastic orders—Insubordination of friars to the bishops—The Jesuits—Deplorable reputation of their literature—Pascal, Escobar, Sanchez, and Mariana—Suppression of the Jesuits by Charles III.—Their subsequent expulsion by Espartero under Isabella II.—Nunneries, though spared on suppression of religious houses, utterly useless—The Pope’s attempt to perpetuate them by concordat—The lives of the nuns described—Their means of subsistence is now precarious—Convent de las Huelgas.
Espartero, who is generally spoken of as the "Aristides of Spain," when living in his self-sought retirement at Logroño, even refused to be proclaimed as King during the days when the crown was going a-begging, though he would probably have been acclaimed as the saviour of his country by a large majority.
Almost at the same time, the left wing, with Espartero at its head, arrived from Larraga, where it had slept. Some little manoeuvring took place, and then the whole Christino army appeared formed up, Cordova on either side of the high-road, Espartero on his left, nearer to the Arga, Gurrea on his right.
That there have always been statesmen and subordinate officials above all such self-seeking, men of punctilious honour and of absolutely clean hands, is known to all; but such men as Espartero, for instance too often threw up the sponge, and would have naught to do with governing nor with office of any description.
But Uncle Tomas was not the man to be taken unawares, and reversed the surprise, striking Espartero with a small force in the darkness, and driving back his men in confusion and dismay. Eighteen hundred prisoners were taken, and the general himself narrowly escaped. General Mirasol was taken, with all his staff, in a road-side house, from which he made an undignified escape.
The question was in the first place addressed to space and the gods after a moment the speaker turned to General Vincente. 'A prospective aide-de-camp of General Espartero. At the mention of the great name the Mayor of Ronda became beautifully less and half bowed to Conyngham. 'I must do my duty, he said with the stubbornness of a small mind.
Word Of The Day