The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-26 00:00:00

SPAIN.

IRON, MAY 18.—HEAD-QUARTERS OF GENERAL
EVANS.—Fontarabia, a place on which all eyes have so long
been fixed, capitulated this morning at half-past ten. The
forces for attack, the artillery, &c., were all drawn up in
imposing array before the place ; the Pliwnix, Salamander,
and Isabel 11. steamers, and the Spanish flotilla in the bay
and the river ; the Royal Marines, Marine Artillery, and
Royal Artillery, who had marched round from Passages,
were on the heights above, when a flagof truce was hoisted,
and a message sent by the Governor to say that if the lives
of the prisoners taken at Irun had been saved, they would
capitulate upon certain conditions. The answer was that
the lives of the Irun prisoners had been saved ; and it was
then proposed by the Governor that two of his officers
should be allowed to proceed to Irun to verify the fact ;
this was permitted, and on the return of the officers it was
proposed by the Governor that the garrison should sur-
render as prisoners of war, the officers retaining their bag-
gage and the men their knapsacks. It was subsequently
made a condition that the prisoners should be the first to
be exchanged. These stipulations were agreed to—the
latter on the ground that there was a precedent for it in
the affair of Balmaceda sonic time back.
The capitulation having been signed by General Evans
and the Governor, the prisoners were marched out of the
town, and their arms laid down. The utmost care was
taken in selecting a steady Spanish regiment (the Princesa)
to garrison the place ; there are also two picked compa-
nies of the Legion.
There are 350 prisoners and seven pieces of cannon
taken. Yesterday, at Irun, there were 450 prisoners, and
13 pieces of cannon ; so that in addition to the important
possession of the two towns of Irun and Fontarabia, 800
prisoners and 20 guns are the results of the operations of
two days.
The fall of Fontarabia was a natural consequence of
that of Iron ; and the acquisition of these two fortified
places is of the utmost importance. I have been over the
town and fortress ; the old walls still remain ; the trenches
that had been made in them by the Duke of Berwick, who
besieged it in 1714, have been repaired by walls of minor
thickness. The marks of the balls fired at the place dur-
ing that memorable siege still exist. There is a building of
immense strength, called the Casa Fuerto, on the top of
which a long gun is mounted, the match was burning to
fire it off when General Evans and his staff visited it imme-
diately after the capitulation.
A mong the prisoners taken to-day is the famous Cura
hla, a priest who has, long been known as one of the most
viohnt abettors of Don Carlos's cause. He attempted to
escape, but was stopped.
I reg•et exceedingly that time will not permit of my
giving you to-day, those details of the gallant and noble
conduct of the British Legion which I yesterday promised.
The loss of officers is severe ; inclosed is a list of the offi-
cers killed and wounded. There are four officers killed,
and six wounded, out of which are four amputations. Lieu-
tenant Dupont has had one leg amputated, and the other
is wounded. The loss of men, in :killed and wounded, is
about one hundred and twenty.
The town oh Iran was pillaged ; this could not be
avoided ; and is allowable by the rules of war, when a town
is taken by'assault. But it is a very remarkable fact, that
the whole Legion was moved out of the town two • hours
after it fell ; and that the inducemeat that was held out to
to the men was, that the enemy was in force in the neigh-
bourhood, and it might be necessary to fight him. The
Legion marched out this morning to attack Fontarabia, in
is orderly a style as though they had come from their quar-
ters at Sin Sebastian. Ido not think there is sucleen in-
stance on record, of forbearance on the part of soldiers
under similer mrcumstences.
The magnanimity of the Legion with regard to the pri-
soner sis deserving of tire highest praise. They had re-
ceived the grosse,t provocation, not only in the frequent
inure!ers of their countrymen, but the very dry before a
most treacherous act was perpetrated. The Rifles, who
bad gallantly gained possessi n of some houses on the cut-
skirts, seeing, white handkerchiefs waved from the opposite
,h.vel.ings by the Carlists, answered the pacific signel, and
went out to parley pith them. No sooner did our men get
into the street than the wretched Carlists fired upon the
party, killed two men, and wounded several more. In con-
sequence of this both officers and men were infuriated, and
the whole topic of conversation previously to taking the
town was the vengeance they would have ; that all found in
the place should be sacrificed ; and when the town was
taken by storm there was a general cry for the blood of all
the Carlists. General Evans, aided by Brigadier-Generals
Chichester, Fitzgerald, and by his other officers, resisted
them with the utmost energy. He was surrounded by his
excited soldiers, calling for the blood of those who had
murdered their comrades. At last, after sonic difficulty,
he made himself heard, and said, " Men, you have behaved
gloriously to-day ; continue to do so, by generously sparing
the lives of those who so little deserve it." The voice and
manners of their Generals were talismanic with the Britisli
officers stood with drawn swords as sentries before the
town-house, where about 350 of the prisoners were, and
rather than allow a single Cellist to be killed they would
have died themselves.
The record of such acts as these is the best answer to the
calumniators of the British Legion. Of course, there were
many victims after the troops entered the town : but this
was only during the first rush, and before the men could be
again found by their officers.
The scene was a most affecting one. In the square,
filled with the soldiers in the state above described, was
General Fitzgerald, who had also been exerting himself
successfully in the cause of mercy—the officers were drawn
up, as before stated, in front of the town-house, out of the
loop-holed windows of which were to be seen the anxious
faces of the Carlists,. with their Basque bonnets of various
colours. General Chichester climbed over a wall, and,
getting inside, immediately went to the upper story, where
these 450 prisoners were, and upwards of4o officers. lam
told that it was an awful moment—one and all lifted up
their hands and eyes and voices to the General, praying
for quarter—" Par a»zor di Dios da 710 S ?nada." For the
love of God, grant us quarter, was the agonising cry from
almost 500 despairing voices—despairing, because they
knew that by the cruelties practised by the Carlists on the
countrymen of the very Britons before them, they had no
right to hope for mercy. But the British General quelled
their fears, and assured them their lives would be spared.
General Evans afterwards confirmed this, and addressed
the prisonrrs with kindness, taking the opportunity, how-
ever, of saying, that he hoped the Carlists would imitate
the generous example set by the British.
It would be in vain to attempt to describe the innume-
rable acts of gallantry and self-devotion performed during
the attack on Irun by the officers and men of the British
Legion. Every man did his duty. Such was the precision
with which the Legionary artillery was served, that not only
was the fort injured excessively by it, but the flag of Don
Carlos (red, with yellow edges), which was flying on it, was
carried away by a shot from a gun fired from Captain Howe's
battery. It was General Fitzgerald's brigade, composed of
the Rifles, the Royal Irish, and the Ist regiment, which was
specially employed on the service of the attack on Irun, and
most nobly it did its duty. Colonel Ross's brigade-was to
have attacked Fontarabia, had resistance been offered.

General Chichester commanded the Legion with his usual
coolness and intrepidity. He was present when the Rifles
took possession of the church and the adjacent houses on the
evening of the 16th ; and also when one of the outer gates
of the town was forced, he advanced most gallantly, and
mounted the second one by a ladder, waving a white cloth
fixed on a pole to the Carlists in the town-house, as an offer
of mercy. This was done in the midst of a shower of mus-
ketry, and in spite of the cries of the soldiers, battering at
the gate below him, to induce him not to offer quarter.
It would be unjust not to give the particulars of one of
the most remarkable events in the taking of Iron. A pro-
position having been made by Colonel Arbuthnot, late
Commandant at Santander, to head a party to blow up one
of the gates, a large hag of gunpowder was carried to the
wall of an orchard, close to the town, by a man belonging
to a party who volunteered their services, and were placed
under the orders of Colonel Arbuthnot ; from a corner of
the field close to the end of the wall, the bag was carried
across a small inclosure, completely exposed to the enemy's
fire from the loop-holed houses and the fortified covered
way above the gate, uniting the two sides of the street.
This bag was, in the most intrepid manner, nailed to the
gate by one of the men, and the port-fire lighted by ano-
ther ; the gate, however, resisted, but a slighter one of the
house adjoining gave way. At the moment the explosion
took place the party mounted, by a ladder they had brought
with them, to a window of one of the houses to which the
gate was attached, and, strange to say, they only found
one Carlist soldier in it, who was shot dead. The first
officer who got in was Lieutenant Pearce, of the Ist
regiment ; lie was followed by Major Macintosh, of
the Quarter-Master-General's Department, Captain Horn-
brook, of the Sappers, and Major Atkins, of the
Rifles. Captain Hornbrook shot a Carlist sergeant
and a private from the window. They now descended
into the street, and by dint of hard labour, with pick-
axes, broke the lock of the door, and removed the
other impediments, throwing the gate open at last, by which
the troops entered. Colonel Arbuthnot commanded the
whole party. He did not, however, enter by the window.
He was gallantly assisted by Major Wooldridge, one of
General Evans's aides-de-camp. 'lbis storming party con-
sisted of the above-named officers, two sergeants of the Ist
Regiment named Wilson and Noon, and twelve sappers,
commanded by Captain Hornbrook, the whole being, as
before stated, volunteers. It was a most daring action--
almost a desparate one ; for, bad the enemy held fast in the
houses they had occupied, every man who attempted to
mount. the ladder, or to get up to the gate, must, in all
human probability, have been shot. Happily the explosion