possession of it. The members of the Leganes family and their servants
were bound and kept under guard in the great hall where the ball had
taken place. The windows of this room commanded the terrace which
overhung the town. Headquarters were established in one of the
galleries, where the general held, in the first place, a council as to
the measures that should be taken to prevent the landing of the
British. After sending an aide-de-camp to Marechal Ney, and having
ordered batteries to certain points along the shore, the general and
his staff turned their attention to the prisoners. Two hundred
Spaniards who had delivered themselves up were immediately shot. After
this military execution, the general ordered as many gibbets planted
on the terrace as there were members of the family of Leganes, and he
sent for the executioner of the town.

Victor Marchand took advantage of the hour before dinner, to go and
see the prisoners. Before long he returned to the general.

"I have come," he said in a voice full of feeling, "to ask for mercy."

"You!" said the general, in a tone of bitter irony.

"Alas!" replied Victor, "it is only a sad mercy. The marquis, who has
seen those gibbets set up, hopes that you will change that mode of
execution. He asks you to behead his family, as befits nobility."

"So be it," replied the general.

"They also ask for religious assistance, and to be released from their
bonds; they promise in return to make no attempt to escape."