The Sun.
London, England, 1823-09-11 00:00:00

THE TRAPPIST.

The following sketch of the history of the
Trappist, is given in a book entitled,'. Gakric
Espognote," published lately in Paris:—
" I)ou Antonia Maranon, called the Trappist,
formerly an Officer in the Spanish service, and
now commanding it division of the Army of, te,
Faith, was born at Maranon, in Navarre, .;6t
" lie served during the war of independence,
and acquired great reputation by a courage car-
ried to the length of temerity. fie had reached
the rank of Captain in the regiment of the Prin-
cess, when, being quartered in the garrison of
Lerida, his passion for gaming awakened with
new fury, and deprived him, not only of all con-
sideration in society, but cut him off from all
prospects in his profession. He gambled, lost bis
own money, the money of his friends, the pay of
his company, the epaulettes of his rank, and even
was obliged to. offer for sale his officer's commis-
sion. It was then that Maranon, ruined, despised,
and exposed to punishment, was reduced to the
necessity of taking some violent step which might
at once withdraw him from the reproaches of his
acquaintance and the gaze of the public. Ire
decided on that step. He fled from Lerida
by night, and went to bury himself in a convent
of the order of La Trappe. Thus Captain Ma-
ranon, the gambler and the peculator, became
Friar Antonio the recluse and the fanatic. In
that convent be begged for his community, and
occupied that no very agreeable office at the
breaking out of the insurrection last summer.—
As his military taste and his incorrigible love of
adventure and hazards could'not be reconciled to
a kind of abode where there was neither a field
of battle nor a gambling table, he eagerly seized
an opportunity of issuing from his convent, and
religion furnished the pretext. After having ex-
changed the epaulette for the begging wallet, and
the wallet again for the epulette, he put himself
at the head of some partisans, harangued them on
the sacred nature of the cause which he invited
them to support, and entered with them into
the See d'Urgel to offer his services to the Regency.
On presenting the guerilla troops to that body, he
took an oath to serve it, and received from it the
title of General. He immediately afterwards
undertook an expedition into Arragon, from
which he was driven by the Constitutionalists.—
Being beaten on several occasions, and unable to
.remain on the Spanish frontier, he took refuge in
France last autumn ; proceeded to the convent of
La Trappe, at Toulouse, where he enjoyed the
kind of notoriety for which he had been contend-
ing ; and was sent by the French Ministry into
Spain, to command in Biscay, when the Duke of
Angouleme was about to pass the Bidassoa."
His proclamations and his adventures since,
are faithfully recorded in the annals of the
" Faith." Ife has contrived to give d kind of
originality to his guerilla character, and has car.,
ried the grotesque of his religio-military profes-
sion—of his canticle-couched denunciations of
slaughter—into his dress and military habili-
meats. He bears a great carabine over his
monk's
breast, agnodwtnh,e arit,treipmptnisevnssescocurrugcei,fidx` aangdloinrngsfrohmis
his loins, seems either, fitted for penitence or
vengeance.

t.', xchange, a
out of four
etwuop;nal :tide, atehceuirreesd
etawpoe
APPREIIENSION OF IlousEnitEAKEns.--Yester-
. .
day morning, on the arrival of the Woodford coach at the Royal
ouritart:lpasfrosemngelrsVoo;
through . Popea.head.alley ; but one of them in his flight
dtlft°ertltlrtuedr
droppedl a valuable gold watch, winch was picked up by flight
Barnard, -the proprietor of the coach. The two apprehended
were taker) to the Mansion-tiptoe. On searching them, up_
wards of 15L in money was found on them. It appears. that a
house at. Loughton„ near Woodford, was broken open early in
the morning, and property to toee amount stolen. From cir.
eumstances which transpired, fellows were sitspected, and
one of the Woodford patrol immediately followed the coach,
and arrived before they had got off the roof.