nevertheless, succeeded in making themselves masters of Manresa, where they were instantly shut in, furiously assailed, and threatened with momentary destruction. The Anhalt troops and a French corps, despatched by Augereau to their relief, were repulsed with considerable loss. Schwarz now boldly sallied forth, fought his way through the Spaniards, and, after losing a thousand men, succeeded in reaching Barcelona, but was shortly afterward, after assisting at the taking of Hostalrich, surprised at La Bisbal and taken prisoner with almost all the Saxon troops. The few that remained fell victims to disease.[8] The fate of the prisoners was indeed melancholy. Several thousand of them died on the Balearic Islands, chiefly on the island of Cabrera, where, naked and houseless, they dug for themselves holes in the sand and died in great numbers of starvation. They often also fell victims to the fury of the inhabitants. The Swiss engaged in the Spanish service, sometimes saved their lives at the hazard of their own. Opposed to them was the German Legion, composed of the brave Hanoverians, who had preferred exile in Britain to submission to Jerome, and had been sent in British men-of-war to Portugal, whence they had, in conjunction with the troops of England and Spain, penetrated, in 1808, into the interior of Spain.[9] At Benavente, they made a furious charge upon the French and took their long-delayed revenge. Linsingen's cavalry cut down all before them; arms were severed at a blow, heads were split in two; one head was found cut in two across from one ear to the other. A young Hanoverian soldier took General Lefebvre prisoner, but allowed himself to be deprived of his valuable captive by an Englishman.--The Hanoverians served first under Sir John Moore. On the death of that commander at Corunna, the troops under his command returned to England: a ship of the line, with two Hanoverian battalions on board, was lost during the passage. The German Legion afterward served under the Duke of Wellington, and shared the dangers and the glory of the war in the Peninsula. "The admirable accuracy and rapidity of the German artillery under Major Hartmann greatly contributed to the victory of Talavera, and received the personal encomiums of the Duke."