Blake retreats to Belchite 506 Flight of the Spaniards 507 Blake’s resignation not accepted 509 Commencement of the Guerillas 511 Porlier 511 The Empecinado 511 Renovales in the valleys of Roncal 512 He defeats a French detachment 512 A second party defeated 513 Proclamation of the Duque de Mahon 514 Executions and reprisals 516 Attempts to win over Renovales 517 Troops sent from Zaragoza against him 520 He capitulates for the valleys 522 Xavier Mina 523 Siege of Gerona commenced 526 HISTORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. CHAPTER XVI. TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND SPAIN. SURRENDER OF CORUNA AND FERROL. SITUATION OF ROMANA’S ARMY. BUONAPARTE RETURNS TO FRANCE. PROCEEDINGS AT MADRID. OPERATIONS IN CATALONIA. ♦1809. JANUARY.♦ ♦TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND SPAIN.♦ Happily for the interests of Great Britain, and for its honour, which is paramount to all interests, the British government entertained more generous hopes than its General had done, and acted upon wiser views. At the very time when the Spaniards had sustained the heaviest losses, and our own army was known to be in full retreat, a treaty was signed at London between Great Britain and the Spanish nation acting in the name of Ferdinand. It proclaimed a christian, stable, and inviolable peace between the two countries, perpetual and sincere amity, and strict alliance during the war with France; and it pronounced an entire and lasting oblivion of all acts of hostility done on either side in the course of the late wars wherein they had been engaged against each other. His Britannic Majesty engaged to assist the Spaniards to the utmost of his power, and not to acknowledge any other King of Spain, and of the Indies thereunto appertaining, than Ferdinand VII., his heirs, or such lawful successor as the Spanish nation should acknowledge; and the Spanish government engaged, on behalf of Ferdinand, never to cede to France any portion of the territories or possessions of the Spanish monarchy in any part of the world. The contracting parties bound themselves to make common cause against France, and not to make peace except by common consent. It was agreed by an additional article, that as the existing circumstances did not admit of the regular negotiation of a treaty of commerce with