the Spanish guerilla leaders, inducing them to send very feeble escorts, even when the treasure to be conveyed was of immense amount. Some severe lessons, however, and the formidable increase of the bands of various daring partizans, in time compelled them to exercise greater prudence; and towards the end of the war, a brigade, or even a division, was frequently sent where, three or four years previously, squadron or battalion would have been deemed more than sufficient. The baggage-waggons and stores were protected; but for the troops the duty became most harrassing and severe.

On a sunny afternoon towards the commencement of the peninsular war, a man was seated on a rock which overlooks the high-road at a short distance from the village of Bahabon in Old Castile. The dress of this person was that of the greater part of the peasants of the northern moiety of Spain at the period referred to. A broad-leafed felt hat overshadowed a set of features, which, although large and somewhat coarse, were not wanting in regularity, and the expression of which was one of vast energy and audacity. A thick black moustache covered the mouth, and joined a pair of bushy whiskers, and a well-grown beard of the same jetty hue. The sheepskin jacket which hung loosely on its wearer, exaggerated his herculean proportions and tremendous breadth of shoulder, which were worthy of a giant, although the stature of this man did not exceed the middle height. His hands were large and bony, tanned by the sun, and covered with a skin which, for hardness, might have rivalled the toughest horn. On the ground by his side lay a long single-barrelled gun; whilst the leathern belt round his waist was well lined with cartridges, and moreover supported one of those large sharp-pointed knives, which are furnished with a spring to prevent their closing when used as a poniard.

The elevated crag on which this personage had established himself, commanded a view for a considerable distance along the high-road to Burgos, and itself formed part of a double range of rocks and precipices hemming in the road, which, for half a mile or more, assumed the character of a narrow defile. For upwards of three hours, the vidette had been

straining his eyes in the direction of the ancient capital of Castile. From his perch, he was able to see all that passed as far as an abrupt turning of the road at nearly a league off in the direction of Burgos; but it would have required a very close observation to have discovered him, screened as he was by rugged masses of rock, whose dark tints assimilated in hue with the sombre colours of his habiliments. No one worthy of particular notice had passed during the period of his watch. Occasionally a peasant goaded along his two lazy oxen, dragging after them one of those primitive-looking carts which to this day are in general use in Spain, and those solid wheels-circular pieces of wood, with an axle inserted in the centre-proclaimed by their loud creakings the owner's economy of grease, which he had probably preferred putting into his soup to wasting on his waggon. From time to time jogged past some village priest, his feet concealed in his huge wooden stirrups, or rather boxes, which dangled on either side of his ambling black pony. These and other uninteresting parties, of peasant women and muleteers, passed unnoticed by the sentry, who as the day declined, and the sun approached the horizon, manifested various symptoms of impatience, and muttered sundry energetic imprecations, addressed apparently to the person or persons whose delay in arriving was the cause of his vexation. Suddenly, however he started to his feet, and shading his eyes with his hand, gazed steadfastly at the turning of the road. A small party of horsemen appeared advancing at a walk, and were followed by a train of covered waggons, such as were used by the French for the transport of money and valuable stores. These vehicles were nearly thirty in number, and their rear was brought up by another cavalry picket, forming, with the advanced guard, a line extending to the angle of the road; which, as before stated, was nearly a league from the defile: the Spaniard caught up his gun, and bounding from rock to rock with the agility of a chamois, soon reached a deep ravine at half musket-shot distance from his former post. Stretched amidst the hare-bells, and other wild-flowers, which bordered a small rivulet, small rivulet, were between thirty and forty men, most of whom had the appearance of peasants,

although some few had a military costume, and five or six wore clothes which betokened them to belong to rather a superior class than the majority of their companions. They were all armed, either with muskets, rifles, or escopetas, the long fowling-piece common in Spain, and which, from the solidity of its construction, is perfectly adapted to carry ball. Some of the members of this motley assemblage were indulging in the siesta, others puffing the eternal cigarito, and a third portion were grouped round two men, who were gambling for pesetas with a dingy-looking pack of cards; but on the appearance of the new-comer, sleepers, smokers, and card-players crowded around him.

"A las armas, muchachos!» cried he, the prize is at hand. In half an hour the gavachos (1) will enter the defile, and it is time to put ourselves in readiness for the attack. »

"Viva Martin Diez! Viva el Impecinado! was the reply, and seizing their arms, the party hastily followed the daring adventurer, who, then in the commencement of his career, was destined ere long to assume a high rank amongst the intrepid defenders of the soil (2)

Meantime the convoy advanced towards the defile at a steady pace. Their halting-place for the night was Aranda, from which town they were not more than three or four leagues off. There they would find three thousand cavalry, and other troops, under the command of Murat; and there a part of the waggons were to remain, whilst the others would be forwarded to different corps d'armée, further in the interior of the country. The mules which dragged the carts were mounted by some soldiers of the waggon-train, and the escort, commanded by a lieutenant, was composed of a detachment

(') Gavachos. A term of contempt, by which the Spaniards are accustomed to designate their French neighbours.

() Juan Martin Diez was a vine-dresser in a petty village of Old-Castile, which being situated in a marshy hollow, and encircled by hills, was not unfrequently flooded, and the houses surrounded with water and deep mud. Owing to this circumstance the inhabitants obtained in the adjacent country the sickname of the Impecinados, from the Spanish word pecina, signifying a pool or fish - pond. When Diez left his home, and distinguished himself as chief of a guerilla corps, his sobriquet adhered to him, and by it he is probably better known than by his family name.

of that fine body of dragoons known by the name of gendarmerie de l'armée. There were also several commissaries in charge of the stores, the chief of whom rode in front, while the others were distributed along the line, in order to watch over the safety of the valuables for which they were responsible.

The head of the column had passed more than half-way through the defile, and the officer of gendarmes was calling his companion's attention to the strength of the pass, and explaining to him how admirably it might be defended by a handful of resolute men against an army.

Neither would it be a bad place for a surprise," added he; and I promise you I should not sit quite so easily in my saddle, if I thought there were any of those canaille of guerillas in this part of the country; but thank Heaven! the province is swept clean of them for the present, and

He was prevented from finishing his sentence by a ponderous fragment of rock, which, moved by some invisible power, lumbered down the acclivity that flanked the road, and falling on the unfortunate Frenchman, crushed him and his horse to the ground. At the same instant, a volley of musketry was heard, and a dozen dragoons rolled in the dust, whilst the others, confused by the suddenness of the attack, stared about them, endeavouring, but in vain, to discover the enemy by which they were so unexpectedly assailed. On all sides arose steep and rugged crags, but not a human creature was to be seen. Now and then, it is true, through some opening in the rocks, or from the bushes of some wild rosemary, which grew here and there in the fissures of the precipices, a glimpse might be caught of bronzed fierce-looking countenances, whose apparition, however, was so momentary, that they might almost have passed for phantoms conjured up by the imagination, bad it not been for the deadly execution done by the muskets of these ambushed foes. Before the first smoke of the first volley had cleared away, another succeeded, and was followed by a scattering fire, and by a shower of heavy stones. Scarce a shot but took effect, either on the dragoons or on their horses; for the Spaniards, although for the most part

young and irregular soldiers, were veteran hunters and contrabandistas, and, as such, admirable marksmen.

Owing to the windings of the defile, the rear-guard, which was separated from the, van by the line of waggons, and their mules, was not immediately aware of what was goin on in front; and when a sergeant rode forward to ascertain the meaning of the firing, he found the last of the dragoons, the commissaries, and the drivers, falling fast under the murderous fire of the guerillas, to which it was impossible to make an effectual return. The road was so narrow, that it would have been impracticable for the waggons to turn, even had there been any advantage in attempting to retreat; but being half way through the defile, they would, either in advancing or retiring, have had equally far to go, before the cavalry could arrive at ground on which it might have been possible for them to act. Under these circumstances the subaltern who commanded the rear-guard, left a fourth of his men in charge of the horses, and dismounting the remainder, led them hastily forward, carabine in hand, with the hope of being able to get at the enemy, by making his dragoons act as light infantry. But he was only hastening his doom, and that of his gallant little band, which had not proceeded fifty yards towards the head of the column, when, from a sort of mountain gorge on the right hand of the road, a close and destructive volley was poured in amongst them, and a score of Spaniards, headed by the Impecinado, rushed furiously on the survivors. The struggle was short, for the dragoons, entangled amongst the carts, and amongst the bodies of their dead and dying companions, and moreover being encumbered by their heavy accoutrements and long sabres, were no match for the active and lightly-equipped mountaineers, whose bayonets aud knives soon terminated the unequal strife.

The evening was closing in when the Impecinado and his little band began to make arrangements for retiring with their booty from the scene of skirmish we have described. Nearly a hundred French soldiers had fallen by the hands of thirtyfive peasants, whose inferiority of numbers, arms, and discipline, had, however, been more than compensated by the advantage