History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5 (of 6)Southey, Robert
History
History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5 (of 6)
Southey, Robert
Peninsular War, 1807-1814
General Reille, with two divisions, had used his utmost endeavours
to destroy this most enterprising of the Guerrilla chiefs; and Mina,
compelled once more to break up his little army into small bodies, had
for three and fifty days eluded the enemy, by continual marches and
countermarches among the mountains, suffering hunger, nakedness, and
every kind of fatigue and privation, with that unconquerable spirit
of endurance which is the characteristic virtue of the Spaniards. To
effectuate his long-desired object, the French general, in the spirit
of ♦AUG. 21.♦ the wicked government which he served, set a price upon
the heads of these gallant men, offering 6000 dollars for that of Mina,
4000 for Cruchaga’s, and 2000 each for those of Gorriz, Ulzurrun, and
Cholin. This detestable expedient failed also. A traitor, by name D.
Joaquin Geronimo Navarro, then offered to treat with the Guerrilla
chief, and win him over to the intruder’s cause; or, if he failed in
this, to seize him at a conference. Mina obtained intelligence of this
second part of the plot, and when he was invited to confer with Navarro
upon matters which, it was said, nearly concerned his own interest,
and that of his men, and the welfare of the kingdom, he replied, that
Navarro must come and treat with him in person. The traitor accordingly
appointed a meeting at the village of ♦SEPT. 14.♦ Leoz, whither he
came, accompanied by D. Francisco Aguirre Echechuri, D. Jose Pelon,
and Sebastian Irujo de Irocin. Mina, with his adjutant Castillo, met
them, partook of a supper which they had prepared, listened to their
proposals; then, being beforehand in the intended surprisal, seized
them, called in his assistants, and delivered them over to a council of
war, by whose sentence they were put to death.
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