The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-24 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE CAREER OF DON CARL OS,
SINCE THE DEATH OF FERDINAND VII : BEING d CIIAPTBR INT

THE HISTORY OF CHARLES V.

BY HIS AIDE-DE-CAMP, THE BARON DE LOS YALLES.
London : R. Bentley, 1835.
This work belongs no more to history, properly
speaking, than a laudatory funeral oration does to
authentic biography. It is a panegyric on the loyalty?
the prudence, the firmness, the courage, the patience,
the integrity, the magnanimity, the suavity, the gen"
tleness, and the mercifulness of Don Carlos, by a de-
voted follower of his fortunes, sharer of his dangers,
and general assertor and defender of his political prin-
ciples. Like the illustrious Carthaginian Gen oral,
M. Auguet—by virtue of the kingly prerogative of.
Don Carlos, now known by the style and title of Baron
de Los Valles--was but a child when he bent his
knee before the altar of despotism, and vowed never to
be reconciled with its sacrilegious despoilers. This
vow he has most faithfully kept up to the present
hour. Louis XVIII., Ferdinand VII., Charles X.,
Don Miguel, and Don Carlos, have had all and each
his sword drawn in their service when combatting the
enemies of absolute monarchy. He glories
his devotion to Kings, whom he regards as so
many personifications -of the Deity on earth. The
Baron De Los Valles is none of your timid, time-
serving Tories, who profess such principles only be-
cause they consider them the safest ladder to wealth.,
and honours. On the contrary, he has proved hha-°
self on all occasions indifferent to even the hope of a
reward, beyond the pleasure which he derives from as-
sisting to stem the tide of liberal opinions which are
now innundating Europe.
To expect an impartial detail of the recent events in
Spain from such a writer, would indicate anything but
a knowledge of human nature, under the influence of
inveterate personal and political prejudices. Viewed
as the work of a declared enemy of liberal principles,
and a sworn partizan of Don Carlos, this volume will
be found wonderfully interesting. The part of it which
narrates the residence of Don Carlos in Portugal, his ar-
rival in, and departure from, England, his flight through'
France, and his re-entrance into Spain to dispute the
possession of sovereign power with Queen Donna
Isabella, is quite as romantic as a fairy legend.
We read it with unmixed pleasure. The following
anecdote of a meeting between Don Carlos and
King Louis Phillippe has not before been given to
the public :---,
" It was eight o'clock at night when we entered the travel-
ling carriage. The streets of Paris displayed that brilliant
and animating aspect they always present on a fine summer's
evening; the approaches of the place Louis XV were co-
vered with elegant equipages proceeding at a rapid rate to-
wards the Champs Elysees and the Bois de Boulogne ; young
men on horseback, and pedestrians, added to the scene an ap-
pearance of festivity, which strangely contrasted with the
thought that absorbed the mind of the King, to whom I pointed
out the spot where, forty. one years before, had rolled the head
of Louis XVI divested of its crown. I was remarking to mY
august travelling compahion that from the scaffold of the martyr
King, to the model in painted canvas of the obelisk of Luxor,
upwards of twenty projects of monuments bad followed each
other in succession on that ensanguined spot, and that no edi-
fice could be durable on a soil which appeared doomed to be
cursed with sterility.
" ' Revolutions," said the King, ' can only do the work of
destruction ; they possess not the germ of reconstruction ; je
my native land, they have shaken, in the space of a few years,
that Spanish monarchy so strong and powerful, and hale
plunged the country into the most cruel anarchy.'
" Our carriage was at this moment detained by a species or
pleasure car covered over with a cloth awning. I cast niY
eyes upon the car, to see who were the illustrious travellers
for whom our postillion gave way, and I recognized Louis'
Philippe and his family proceeding to Neuilly. I quickly
pointed him out to the King, saying—' Look before you, Sire,
and behold your august cousin, the King of the French, wh°
comes to wish you a happy journey.' Charles V. hastened to
look at his worthy relative, who erroneously fancied that some
one was bowing to him, and raised his hand to his royal grey
hat, graciously lowering it to the ' Spanish Majesty ; Queen
Amelia, and the Princesses her daughters, vied in courtesy
with their father. The King laughed heartily at Louis-
Philippe's salutation, and whispered to me—' My worth!
cousin of Orleans does not suspect that I am traversing his do-
minions without his leave, and am preparing to tear up, with
the point of my sword, his treaty of the quadruple alliance.'
" This occurrence suggested serious reflections to the King
the meeting presented so much singularity in its contrasts,
that Charles V. was struck with it. The two principles re-
presented by Charles V. and Louis-Philippe, coming, as it
were, in contact on the very spot where the revolution had struck,
at a King's bead, presented a spectacle which wholly absorheu
the mind of Charles V; I drew him out of his meditation by
cheerfully saying to him How fortunate, Sire, is Louis-Phi-
lippe; his salutation was made with too good a grace not to
be a favourable omen to you; it is a fortunate presage of the
success of our journey.' I spoke the truth, for no sinister ac-
cident happened to us."
From the arrival of Don Carlos in Spain, the
Baron De Los Valles finds nothing to relate
but a continued series of triumphs over dastard
rebels. Not a single engagement is mentioned in which
the Carlists were not victorious. Virtue, generosity,
loyalty, and valour are all represented as belonging elt'
elusively to the Carlists ; cruelty and cowardice to tbe
Christinos. Still many of the details excite the liveliest
interest; and few general readers will, after opening
this volume, be disposed to lay it aside before every
line has been read attentively. It is embellished with
portraits of Don Carlos and his celebrated General
Zumalacarreguy.
We shall conclude our notice of this very partial,
but at the same time very interesting Volume, with the
following account of the singular habits and strange
military career of the curate Merino, one of the first
who unfurled the banner of rebellion in the North
Don Geronimo Merino, better known in Old Castillo by
the name of Cura de Villaviado (the Curate of Villaviado)'
rose from a very obscure family. His parents sent him t 0
learn Latin at the College of Lerma ; but he bad scarcely
reached the fourth class, when they ordered him home, and
sent him to keep watch over their goats; he continued the
life of a herdsman until the death of the Curate of Villaviado.
As no one was found to replace that priest, he was advised to
enter the service of an old Curate of Cubasrubias. After
taking lessons for six months, Merino entered into holy or-
tiers, under his preceptor's guidance.
" Merino is only fifty-eight sears old. He is five feet two
inches high, but is blessed with vigorous health, notwitil-
standing the apparent weakness of his frame. His features Ale
strongly marked, his eyes large and deep sunk. No man woe
better calculated to bear fatigue for any length of time ; he
neither smokes nor drinks wine ; he eats very little, and only
sleeps fifteen minutes in the twenty-four hours. Whilst in the
field, he always sleeps on horseback, or close to his horse,
which is always ready saddled. Those who are under Merin°
orders have never seen him pass a whole night amongst thern'
The moment the sun has set, he halts his men, orders tbelP
to encamp at a spot which he pants out, and followed by $
single servant, be leaves his troops, plunges three or four ,
leagues into the forests, and only appears at sunrise the next daY'
4, It is a matter of indifference to Merino, whether his troo?
be in uniform or not. He allows each man to dress as be
pleases ; and as for himself, he is clothed in the most wretched
garb, and covers his head with the poorest hat. When be en-
ters any town, he is only recognised by the beauty of 11,15
horse. His warlike weapons are a sabre, a pair of piste'"
which he carries in his pockets, aed a very small blunderbuss'
He fills it with sixteen or tweenty shot at a time; he general
keeps his powder in the holsters of his saddle. When obe
to fight, he takes a handfull of powder, which he places in ,11„
barrell of his blunderbuss, and in order to fire it off, is obliged
to place it under his right arm, and to hold the extremity °'
the barrel with his left hand, in order to resist the shock re-
duced by the explosion of this terrible weapon.
" Merino is personally brave ; he is also a fortunate man t
and if it be not impossible to seize his person, the task is
least a very difficult one. He has always two horses in t%
train, the finest perhaps and the best managed in all Castile•
He has so accustomed them to proceed at an equal pace, Kerr
however swiftly he may be riding, they always keep togethLer;
and gallop as if they were one and the same body. WPhe
Merino feels that the horse he has been mounting is tired,
leaps upon the other, without standing at all in need of slacken-
ing,
their pace. He thus escaped from the Lusitanos, who'
under the order of Aymer, defeated him at Palenzuela, at to
commencement of 1823.
" The space of forty leagues which separates Burgos fr°Pja
Madrid, is one of perfect safety for him. He can overola
every town and village within it, having no other escort tit
four men, and yet not incur the slightest danger, nor ollev.
with any other enemies than the troops sent in pursuit of bins'and the facility with which he eludes them is become proverbial
" When Merino wages war, he seizes upon couriers, ant
whatever effects appear to him to belong to the Governance,
against which he is contending ; but if any one of his I,
commits the slightest robbery in the house of an indisidirit.
who, whatever may be his political opinions, hits been i c
sive, a public execution is the certain forfeit of his ail,
Atsoldiers are strictly forbidden to commit any act of
bery or plunder. No man is less ambitious than Merino. do
the period of the war of independence, he became pcsserlY