A greater mortification awaited him. Eroles, in the month of November, when confined by a dangerous illness at Manresa, received information from one in whom he had reason to place entire confidence, that a Spanish officer, by name D. Juan de Halen, who was then one of Suchet’s aides-de-camp, was desirous of being restored to the service of his country, under his protection. Eroles replied that this was not to be hoped for, unless the officer could make some signal reparation for the injury which he had done to the Spanish name; but that in waiting till this could be effected, he might give proof of his sincerity and earnest of his intentions by communicating such useful information as his situation about Suchet’s person enabled him to obtain. Van Halen replied as if he felt himself wounded by being expected to act the part of a spy: there was not much difficulty in overcoming this objection; and he found means of transmitting intelligence from time to time, and, among other papers, a copy of Suchet’s cipher. The more important communications were not intrusted to writing, but made orally, through the person by whom this correspondence was opened. ♦VAN HALEN.♦ Juan Van Halen, as may be inferred from his name, was a Spaniard of Flemish or Brabantine descent. He was a native of the Isle of Leon, and born in 1789. After some years of active service in the navy, he was employed in the engineers; and as an officer in that corps bore a part at Madrid in the tragedy of the 2nd of May. Escaping from the capital, he joined Blake’s army after the battle of Rio-seco, and was sent by him to Ferrol; when that place was surrendered, he took the oath of fidelity to the Intruder, and afterwards held a commission in his body guards. He had the good fortune subsequently to be employed in other parts of Europe, and was at Paris when Buonaparte’s reverses in Germany rendered it no longer doubtful that the part in which he had engaged must finally be the unsuccessful one. A friend and countryman, who had come to the same unpleasant conviction, advised him to forsake the sinking cause; but Van Halen, in his own words, “could not think of prostrating himself at the feet of the throne and of his country, unless he could bear with him the testimony of some such service as might make him worthy of being received in the arms of Spanish generosity and gratitude, not in those of indulgence, or of ♦RESTAURACION DE LAS PLAZAS, &C. P. 12.♦ strict justice.” So getting leave from the then expelled Intruder to solicit employment in Spain, he obtained from the Duc de Feltre an appointment upon Suchet’s staff, and provided himself with credentials to Eroles, and also with a letter of recommendation to Sir Rowland Hill. ♦HE DESERTS FROM THE FRENCH ARMY.♦