Note 633 — Chapter XII · FREE-MASONRY.
Reading edition
Tirado y Rojas, II, 46, 72-3, 81-88.—Miraflores, Apuntes historico-críticos, p. 28.—Modesto Lafuente, Hist. de España, XXIX, 213-15, 333-4.
The “Memoirs of Don Juan van Halen” (London, 1830) which had an extensive circulation in many languages, are of no historical value. He was a real personage however, whose dextrous treachery in deserting the French, in 1814, is described by Toreno (Historia del Llevamiento etc., III, 323). In 1822 he was on the staff of Gen. Mina in Catalonia (Memorias del Gen. Espoz y Mina, III, 7) and, in 1838, was in high command in Valencia (Manifestacion del Gen. Córdova, p. 13).
In 1818 his name occurs as on trial in Toledo (not in Madrid, as he represents) and the charge was impeding the Inquisition, not Masonry and conspiracy—Catálogo de las causas etc., p. 131 (Madrid, 1903).