It is now fifteen days since the liberating army left the capital, resolved not to permit that even the shadow of the Spanish flag should again darken the illustrious city of Lima.  The enemy haughtily descended the mountains, filled with the calculations they had formed in their ignorant meditations.  They fancied that to appear before our camp was enough to conquer us; but they found valour armed with prudence!  They acknowledged their inferiority. They trembled at the idea of the hour of battle, and profited by the hour of darkness!! and they sought an asylum in Callao.  My army began its march, and at the end of eight days the enemy has had to fly precipitately—­convinced of their impotency to try the fortune of war, or to remain in the position they held.

The desertion which they experience ensures us that, before they reach the mountains, there will only exist a handful of men, terrified and confounded with the remembrance of the colossal power which they had a year ago, and which has now disappeared like the fury of the waves of the sea at the dawn of a serene morning. The liberating army pursues the fugitives.  They shall he dissolved or beaten.  At all events, the capital of Peru shall never be profaned with the footsteps of the enemies of America—­this truth is peremptory.  The Spanish empire is at an end for ever.  Peruvians! your destiny is irrevocable; consolidate it by the constant exercise of those virtues which you have shown in the epoch of conflicts. You are independent, and nothing can prevent your being happy, if you will it to be so,

   SAN MARTIN.

To these monstrous assertions I only know one parallel, viz:—­Falstaff’s version of his victory over the robbers at Gadshill.  The Protector asserts that “the shadow of the Spanish flag should never again darken Lima.”  It nevertheless passed completely round the city within half-musket shot.  “The enemy thought that to view our camp was to conquer us.”  They were only 3,000 to 12,000.  “They trembled at the hour of battle, and profited by the hour of darkness!” The fact being that with droves of cattle and abundance of other provisions, they triumphantly marched into Callao at mid-day! viz, from eleven A.M. to three P.M.  “The liberating army pursues the fugitives.”  This is the only fact contained in the proclamation.  The enemy was pursued by 1,100 men, who followed them at a distance for ten miles, when Cantarac suddenly facing about, let loose his cavalry at them, and nearly the whole were cut up!  The Spaniards in fact came to relieve Callao, and fully effected their object.

Were not the preceding proclamation indelibly imprinted in the columns of the ministerial Gazette, it would be deemed a malicious fabrication.  Yet the poor, independent Limenos dared not utter a voice against falsehood so palpable.  Disarmed and betrayed, they were completely at the mercy of the Protector, who, if he can be said to have had a motive in not encountering the small force of Cantarac, no doubt founded it in keeping his own troops intact for the further oppression of the unhappy Limenos—­with what effect we shall presently see.