decided triumph, near Vittoria, over the combined armies of Cordova, Espartero, and Evans.

In Catalonia, Lower Arragon, and Valencia, the Carlists were gaining numbers and influence daily; whilst the rest of Spain was distracted with commotions of various shades. About this time occurred that shocking murder, which stands out in atrocity even from among the many butcheries of the Spanish civil war. In Lower Arragon, Cabrera had, for some of those reasons so common on both sides during the civil war, put to death the alcaldes of two small villages. Nogueras, who was the Christino general opposed to him, having no Carlist prisoners upon whom to revenge this act, resorted to one of the most horrible atrocities of modern times. The mother of Cabrera was living at Tortosa: she was about seventy years of age; Cabrera was known to be passionately attached to her; it was her savings that had supported him in his early days at the university; and, amidst all the troubles of the times, his affection for her was his ruling passion. Aware of this, for it was notorious, Nogueras sent an order to the governor of Tortosa to seize the old woman, and have her shot. The governor recoiled from the atrocity, and refused. Nogueras complained to Mina, now Captain General of Catalonia. Mina replied to the appeal by ordering the command of Nogueras to be executed. Accordingly, the governor of Tortosa yielded; the old woman was brought out in the public place of Tortosa, and she was shot.

The barbarity of this crime, unparalleled, perhaps, in civilized history, called forth the indignation of all Europe, and of all parties. The foreign powers complained; the matter was enquired into. Mina was too powerful to punish: on Nogueras fell the wrath of the government, and he was deprived of his command; but a severer chastisement fell upon him in the opprobrium that has since attached itself to his name, and which was expressed in so marked a manner in London not long ago, when he was excluded from the Lord Mayor's dinner given to Espar

tero.

Cabrera is said to have taken a terrible revenge for this atrocity. Formerly one of the most humane of the belligerent chiefs, he became now for a time one of the most sanguinary. Thirty lives would not, he is said to have exclaimed, satisfy him for the life of his mother.

A word respecting Cabrera's character may not be uninteresting, though it be on no better authority than the on dits of the day. His father was in reduced circumstances; but his mother, when left a widow, contrived to send him to the university to study for the Church. Like the famous Georges Cadoudal,

though bred for the cloister, he was destined for the camp. Whilst at the university, he is said to have assisted as sacristan ; and in this employment it is not unlikely that he acquired that talent for management and administration, for which he became afterwards particularly distinguished. On the death of Ferdinand, he became an enthusiastic Carlist, and advocated his opinions boldly in the city of Tortosa, and was soon obliged to leave the university and join a party of neighbouring guerillas. Among them, his education served him; and from being the chief of one party, he became the chief of several; when, at length, his little troop increased and increased, till it became one of the most numerous, and the best appointed, the best clothed, and the most orderly Carlist army in Spain. Cabrera is below the middle size, slim and active, with no very remarkable features, except his eyes, which are of great brightness. He is now about thirty-eight, and is possessed of a romantic courage, joined to great practical ability. It is probable, however, that he has not very much military genius: he is said to think so himself; and certainly in his history there are two circumstances most wonderful: the first, that he should have been able, with the little means he had, to raise an army of twenty thousand men, to clothe, drill, and pay them, and, above all, to control their discordant parts; the second, that having this army, he should, when Don Carlos fled into France, at the end of the war, have consented to follow the example, and to yield himself and these twenty thousand men to the mercy of the French government. In fact, it is difficult to say which is most wonderful, his success in forming so large and excellent an army, or the little use he made of it when it was formed.

In the meanwhile, the Carlists of Biscay were concentrating round Bilboa, the capital of their province; and those of Guiposcoa were continuing to blockade St. Sebastian. Many unimportant battles took place, in which, in almost every instance, the Christinos were only saved by the assistance of British marines, and of the guns of Lord John Hay. At the end of 1838, ten thousand Portuguese troops entered the south of Spain, thus enabling the Spanish troops to take part in the war against the Carlists.

In 1836, the only important operations were the expedition of the Carlist general Gomez round Spain, and the attack on Bilboa and St. Sebastian. The expedition of Gomez was, indeed, wonderful. With an army of seven thousand men, he marched, early in August, from Navarre into Galicia, through the Asturias, drawing Espartero after him, and levying contributions; then, turning back, he crossed through Castille, within a short distance of Madrid, entered Arragon, and harassed

Murcia and Andalusia, till he was, whilst at St. Roque, nearly under the guns of Gibraltar, whilst three several armies were in pursuit of him. Then he turned back, cut his way through one of them, and, returning leisurely to the northward, reached Don Carlos's head-quarters in December, with immense booty.

With reference to this amazing expedition of General Gomez, there are two circumstances which should not pass unnoticed. The first is, that at the time that he was thus promenading through Spain, the government of Madrid had in its pay an army of upwards of two hundred thousand infantry, and twelve thousand cavalry. The second is, that Gomez met, on the whole line of his expedition, no opposition from the population, either of the towns or of the country. Before his little army, the gates of most of the cities were thrown open; the few that resisted, made but a feeble defence: from the peasantry, nothing but a friendliness, or at worst, an indifference, was shown to his troops,-an usage very different from that which the Christino armies were wont to meet with in the provinces of the north. These circumstances are the more important, as the events that have since occurred are very far from rendering it probable that the feeling at that time evinced by the population towards the Carlists would be more hostile now; and as the man who conceived this expedition so boldly, and carried it through so well, is said by the newspapers to have escaped from France, and to be at present in Spain.

Meanwhile the Carlist operations had not lost in activity against St. Sebastian and Bilboa. At the former place, though the Christinos, with the British legion, were invariably worsted, the Carlists were prevented from doing anything serious, by the opposition of the British marines and navy. Bilboa was near yielding to the Carlist general Villareal; but the all-powerful aid of the British squadron, there as elsewhere, enabled Espartero to raise the siege, and inflict a loss on his opponents, and to win the title of Count of Luchana.

This failure on the part of the Carlists, threw their councils into great confusion, which at length was settled for the time by the appointment of Don Sebastian as commander-in-chief. On the other hand, the Christinos, elate with their success, resolved on breaking up the long-established Carlist lines which stretched through Oyarzun, Ashgarraga, Hernani, Tolosa, and Villafranca, passing near St. Sebastian. Seven thousand men were accordingly sent to St. Sebastian to join General Evans, who had already upwards of five thousand. The plan determined on was, that Evans should attack the centre of the lines at Hernani, whilst Saarsfield, who had ten thousand men at Pampeluna, and Espartero, who had twenty-two thousand,

should act at each extremity. On the 10th of March, 1837, the operations begun; Evans acting on the centre, General Chichester and General Fitzgerald on the left and right. During the next five or six days, the various posts in front of Hernani were earried; the Christino forces obtaining no small assistance from a brigade of English sailors, who stormed the heights sword in hand. On the 16th, as Evans was about to descend on Hernani, several solid masses of troops were observed on the right. These proved to be ten battalions brought up by a skilful movement of Don Sebastian; and, falling on the Christinos, they threw them into the utmost confusion. Three whole regiments of the British legion, exhausted by hunger, and having but the strength to escape, fairly ran off the field; the gallantry of others was of no avail, and the greater part of the force fled rapidly. The Carlists pursued them, and only ceased the slaughter on coming upon four hundred royal marines, who checked the pursuit, and enabled the scattered Christinos to re-enter St. Sebastian; whilst the efficiency of this unflinching band was seconded by the fire of the English ships, which was opened as soon as the pursuing Carlists came within reach. Undaunted by this failure, the Christinos immediately concentrated thirty thousand men at St. Sebastian under Espartero, to renew the attack.

Suddenly these lines, for the carrying of which so many preparations were being made by the Christinos, were abandoned by the Carlists themselves. A movement upon the interior of the kingdom had been some time in contemplation in the counsels of Don Carlos: and now it was resolved to make this movement, not as first proposed at once upon Madrid, but in the first instance through Arragon, Valencia, and Calabria, in order to gather together the various Carlist armies previous to attacking the capital.

The strength of the Carlist army that set out on this expedition was of sixteen battalions, each about 900 strong, and 1200 cavalry. It was accompanied by Don Carlos himself, and commanded by Don Sebastian. Towards the latter end of May, after an indecisive affair with Irubarren, who had succeeded Saarsfield, it entered Huesca in Arragon. It suffered some loss from the Baron de Meer at Guisona, but after very severe hardships, it crossed the Ebro at Terta, and joined Cabrera, whose well appointed commissariat soon reestablished its efficiency. General Buerens, who had succeeded Irubarren, when endeavouring to join General Oraa, was met by Don Sebastian, who cut up his army of 6000 foot, and 600 horse. In the meanwhile, Espartero had joined Oraa, and with a force of 20,000 men marched against Don Carlos, who retreated.

At this moment a Carlist force, commanded by Zanartegui,

formerly a sergeant in Zumalacarregui's army, made its way into Castille, captured Segora, and, on the 5th of August, was four leagues from Madrid, where all was consternation. Espartero fell back to oppose him.

Don Sebastian then countermarched on Madrid, followed by Cabrera, with 6,000 foot and 12,800 horse, and, on the 12th of September this army, with Don Carlos, was at Arganda, four leagues from Madrid.

At this time Madrid was only garrisoned by a small and inefficient civic guard. Had Don Carlos seized possession of it, and with it of the persons of Isabella and of her sister; had he then confirmed all that had taken place since the opening of the war; recognized the sale of Church property, which it was folly to think of recovering, though it would have been wisdom by some other means to make up in part for the loss; and had he acknowledged the foreign debts of Spain, of Christinos as well as of Carlists, then what chance was there of the Christinos ever recovering their position? The course which was pursued was very different from this; and can only be paralleled, and that but imperfectly, by the course pursued by the army of Prince Charles Edward at Derby,-imperfectly paralleled, we say; for though the present course was occasioned by similar causes, it was far more unwise.

But no sooner was the prize within its grasp, than the Carlist army split into various factions. The Navarese and Biscayans were filled with jealousy of the Castillians; and the latter, aware of the preponderance which they would derive by having Don Carlos at Madrid, and amongst themselves, inflamed by their exultation that jealousy to fury. The Navarese and Biscayans insisted on returning to their provinces, and, in a short time, aftera junction with Zariartegui, this army that might have done so much, was retreating across the Ebro to Durango and Estella, unconquered, but enriched in nothing but booty.

It was during this expedition, and just before its unfortunate termination, that the writer was for the first time at Salzburg. There all was joy and exultation. Every post was expected to bring the announcement of Don Carlos's triumphal entry into Madrid. The courtiers were already weighing and considering what honour or appointment would be worthy of their services. The grandee already felt himself an ambassador, the canon ensconced himself in imagination in some comfortable living; the friar saw himself at the head of a flourishing community; even the lowest minions of the kitchen (the members of which are not always the least important personages in a Spanish court), did not fail to discover some pleasant sinecure to console him for the bleak winds and sour beer of Germany. The good citizens of Salz