Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/675



those who in Spain resented the arbitrary measures of Fernando VII., when in 1814 he returned from ignominious captivity to overthrow the constitution and the córtes, were the Navarrese, a brave and sturdy race, of Basque Gothic blending, whose keen and passionate temperament clung to the chase and yielded to smuggling, without reproach to their otherwise upright and good-natured traits. With the prestige of former independence, and with liberal instinct, nurtured midst the ranges of the lofty Pyrenees, they objected to the king's infringement of popular rights. But the movement failed, and lay crushed for a time by the exile of the leaders, the famous General Espoz y Mina and his nephew, Francisco Javier Mina. The latter had been the first to shed lustre on the family name by daring and successful military operations. He was a student at the university of Zaragoza in 1808, when the French invasion roused his sympathies for the imperilled fatherland, and led to an exchange