The bishops of Logroño, Mondonedo, Astorga, Lugo, and Salamanca, and the archbishop of St. Jago were arrested, but several bishops escaped into Portugal, and were there protected as martyrs to the cause of legitimacy and despotism. The bishop of Orense and the ex-regent Lardizabal had before fled, the latter to Algarve, the former to the Tras os Montes, from whence he kept up an active intercourse with Gallicia, and the Cortez were far from popular there; indeed the flight of the bishops created great irritation in every part of Spain, for the liberal party of the Cortez was stronger in the Isla than in other parts, and by a curious anomaly the officers and soldiers all over Spain were generally their partizans while the people were generally the partizans of the clergy. Nevertheless the seeds of freedom, though carelessly sown by the French on one side, and by the Cortez on the other, took deep root, and have since sprung up into strong plants in due time to burgeon and bear fruit. When the bishops fled from Spain, Gravina, the pope’s Nuncio assumed such a tone of hostility, that notwithstanding the good offices of sir Henry Wellesley, which were for some time successful in screening him from the vengeance of the Cortez, the latter, encouraged by the English newspapers, finally dismissed him and sequestered his benefices. He also took refuge in Portugal, and like the rest of the expelled clergy, sought by all means to render the proceedings of the Cortez odious in Spain. He formed a strict alliance with the Portuguese nuncio, Vicente Machiechi, and working together with great activity, they interfered, not with the concerns of Spain only, but with the Catholics in the British army, and even extended their intrigues to Ireland. Hence, as just and honest government had never formed any part of the English policy towards that country, alarm pervaded the cabinet, and the nuncio, protected when opposed to the Cortez, was now considered a very troublesome and indiscreet person. Such a state of feud could not last long without producing a crisis, and one of a most formidable and decisive nature was really at hand. Already many persons in the Cortez held secret intercourse with Joseph, in the view of acknowledging his dynasty, on condition that he would accede to the general policy of the Cortez in civil government; that monarch had as we have seen organized a large native force, and the coasts of Spain and Portugal swarmed with French privateers manned with Spanish seamen. The victory at Salamanca had withered these resources for the moment, but Wellington’s failure at Burgos and retreat into Portugal again revived them, and at the same time gave a heavy shock to public confidence in the power of England, a shock which nothing but the misfortunes of Napoleon in Russia could have prevented from being fatal.