'CABRERA, DON RAMON, a Cultist chief very prominent in some of the darkest passage. of the recent history of Spain, was born at Tortola in 1809. He lost his father in 1816, his mother, who con tracted a second marriage, survived for a fate which excited tho horror of Europe. Young Cabrera, who was intended for a priest, but who is said to have been found incapable of learning Latin, first became known in 1834. On the death of Ferdinand VIL in 1833, a decree was made that all the royalist volunteers or supporters of absolutism should be disarmed. The decree was generally obeyed throughout the kingdom, except in the wild district called the Maestrazgo on the borders of Aragon, Catalonia, and Castile, which became the general refuge of all the malcontents who were determined to retain their arms. General Breton, the governor of Tortola, expelled from tho town, when the times seemed to be becoming unsettled, all whom he considered suspicious characters, and among them Cabrera, more it is said to be rid of a riotous and dissolute young man than with any other view. Cabrera exclaimed as ho left the town, "I swear I will make some noise in the world," and in a few month, he succeeded. The wild youth, who had hitherto only organised street disturbances, turned out to ho a terrible partisan chief, and was soon second in command in the Maestrazgo now in open revolt. He was are long sent for to concert with Don Carlos in the Basque provinces; on his return the commander above him, Don Ramon Carnicer, was snmmoned to Don Carlos also, but was inter cepted by the troops of Queen Christina, through whom he tried to make his way in disguise, was detected, and shot. Universal opinion at the time, both of Cabrera's soldiers and the enemy, attributed to him the betrayal of the disguise of his commander, but he succeeded to the vacant command. It is now generally believed that this suspi cion was unfounded, but there can be no doubt that Cabrera, now become a formidable leader, was cruel beyond even the usual licence of a partisan chief. The incensed Christinos, eager for revenge, stained their cause by an act of deep atrocity. General Nogueras seized the mother of Cabrera who was in his power, and she was sentenced to be shot, to punish the atrocities of her son. The result of the measure was that Cabrera ordered the massacre of the wives of thirty officers, aud the war became a war of murder. For several years afterwards his career was one of singular daring, great military talent, and reckless cruelty. Not only did he hold the Maestrazgo against all the forces the government could bring against him, but he joined Gomez in his bold march through Andalusia; took the city of Valencia, where his sanguinary banquet of the 29th of March 1837 is remem bered with horror; and he at one time threatened for some days Madrid, where it is said the timidity of Don Carlos alone prevented Cabrera from storming the royal palace. He had under his command
towards the end of this civil war a body of 20,000 infantry and 800 horse. At the time of "the embrace of Bergara," in August 1839, when fortunately for Spain the cause of Don Carlos was betrayed by his other general, Cabrera was master of the Maestrazgo, and the title of Count of Morella conferred on him by Don Carlos for his successful defence of Morella against the Cbristinos, was borne by him in the conventions with the Christino generals, in which, at the instigation of Lord Eliot sent by the Duke of Wellington, the system of mutual slaughter was at last renounced. After Bergara he was unable to continue the contest, and in 1840 took refuge iu France, where he was at first sent to the fortress of Ham, but was soon after set at liberty. In 1845 he strongly opposed Don Carlos's abdication of his rights in favour of the Count de Bionteniolin, but in 1848, the year of revolution, when circumstances in Spain seemed to present a favourable opening for his purposes, he returned to rekindle civil war. In an action fought at Pasteral in January 1849, he was not only defeated but severely wounded, and obliged in consequence for a second time to take refuge in France. He soon afterwards came to England, where be had previously passed some time iu his first exile, and married an English woman, with whom he afterwards removed to Naples. The last news we believe of his movements is that he attended the funeral of Don Carlos at Trieste.
The career of Cabrera has been treated at length by several Spanish writers. There is a life of him in four volumes by. Don Buenaventura de Cordoba. An historical novel by Don Wenceslao Ayguals de Isco, entitled 'El Tigre del Maestrazgo,' depicts him in the blackest colours, and in it Cabrera is represented as having cruelly slain the author, brother. There is also a small volume in answer to this singular pie ductiou by Gonzalez de Is Cruz. Finally, there is a poem iu honour of Cabrera published at Madrid in 1849, entitled El Caudillo de Morella' (' The Chief of Morella '). It is admitted on all hands that for daring courage, for fertility of resources, and for presence of mind in danger, Cabrera is unmatched iu the recent annals of Spain.