"Come on, you grenadiers," said old Colonel Godfrey, "and you little beggars in the other companies there, come on, and we'll soon let them see they haven't got it all to themselves."

General Evans soon came up, and shook hands with the old colonel, and told him he was just in time.

"Scotchmen!" he cried, addressing the new arrivals, "you will not have much to do, but I know you will be proud to share the glory with the Sixth Regiment. Your countrymen are carrying everything before them."

By this time the Phoenix and the other vessels had anchored close to the shore, and were opening a tremendous cannonade, with terrible effect, on the fort of Lugariz, sixteen hundred yards distant. Round one more corner, and the Eighth and Fourth would be under fire.

"Push on, never mind who falls," cried Godfrey. "The whole-attention! with cartridge, prime and load. Not one fire a shot till he is ordered. Silence in the centre there-silence! Fix bayonets, carry your arms at the short trail. Companies will follow in succession from the right. Grenadiers, right face-march! Right wheel-double!"

And round the corner they swung, through a storm of bullets, and with rockets darting overhead, or knocking holes in the Spanish lines. The heavy cannon of the vessels soon smashed down a corner of the redoubt, and a thirteeninch shell bursting just inside the breach, and scattering the Spaniards, Lugariz was taken at the rush. Adjutant Alley of the Fourth, scaling another part of the fort wall, was left alone, the men who followed being all killed or tumbled back. A pistolshot from a Carlist officer stretched Alley dead just as the other regiments poured in through the breach. A corporal named Oakley rushed at the Carlist officer, who was just snatching up a loaded musket from a dead soldier, and first stabbed and then shot him. The Christino guerillas in this action were often seen tearing wounded men with their teeth.

Just as the second line of defence was nearly carried, General Shaw had, with the Seventh Regiment, to attack a fortified and intrenched house. Two companies of the Eighth backed up the somewhat fatigued men of the Seventh, already much shattered by charges on strong posts held by the enemy. At the first shower of bullets they hesitated. General Shaw, in his usual

66

stern way, at once thundered out: Halt! The Seventh shall not have the honour of going-they hesitate." Then turning to the other detachment he said: "Mitchell and Hogg, move up with those companies of the Eighth, take that house from the enemy, and let nothing prevent you."

Majors Mitchell and Hogg, two very brave and beloved officers, with Captain Larkham and Lieutenant Fiske, instantly led their men against the house, which was blazing from a hundred loopholes, and wreathed with sulphureous smoke. Mitchell and Hogg almost immediately fell severely wounded, but they lay among the dead waving their swords and cheering the men on. Soon after Larkham and Fiske also fell, and about one-half of the non-commissioned officers and privates also shed their blood before that fatal stronghold. Eventually some companies of the Irish Brigade carried the place with great loss. In one unsuccessful attack many of the English wounded were left under the cruel fire of the Carlists, who were singling out the wounded. Two men of the Sixth lay on a ditch bank, trying to roll themselves into the ditch out of danger. A soldier with two broken legs was shot directly. The second man was a sergeant, and an officer offered any one a dollar who would venture out of cover and bring him in.

"I'll bring him here on my back,” cried a soldier. "Hold my firelock some of ye, I'll soon let ye see me go for him."

The brave fellow had just got the wounded man in his arms when he was shot dead. Presently two more men ventured, one after the other, and were both killed. Soon after, the spot from whence the shots came was attacked and carried, and the sergeant saved.

Soon after this, Colonel Chichester and the Third Regiment took a resolutely defended post, where the Carlist chief, Segastibelza and his staff had hoisted a red flag, to signify "No quarter." Evans himself had been the first to mount the enemy's barricades sword in hand, and was often in the hottest of the fight. Colonel Woolridge, Lord William Paget, and others of his staff, were wounded close to him while he was leading an assault in person. Fourteen field-officers had already fallen, with upwards of twenty captains, forty subalterns, and five hundred and ninety-four rank and file.

The Carlists made their last stand at a point that Colonel Godfrey attacked.

"Come on, my brave fellows," he cried, "don't let those front regiments get all the praise-double, grenadiers."

arm.

"Hurrah, hurrah!" the whole regiment yelled, their pieces at the charge. A man beginning a second hurrah fell with a bullet in his head. The fellow behind him, tumbled over by a ball that struck the square brass plate of his side - belt, leaped up again, and marched on singing. The Carlists, rallying, opened a rattling fire on the advancing regiments. As Captain Shields was cheering his company, and crying, "Come on, my good fellows, come on," he was shot in his sword His brother Robert, an ensign, dashed on, calling to the men to follow him and let his brother lie. The captain, binding up his arm, took his sword in his left hand, and said, "Let my arm go to mischief. My company will be the first to take the position, and I must be with them;" but faintness soon came on, and he had to be carried off the field. Corporal Oakley, at the moment the Carlists were recrossing a ditch, and beginning to rally, cried out, "So much for Buckingham" (a celebrated line of Edmund Kean's in Richard the Third then current), and shot dead a Carlist officer who was leading back his men. The orders were then given to go forward and storm a house. It was a farm on a hillside, and many stone walls and ditches had to be cleared in the face of the Carlist fire. The two men of the Legion who first broke in were instantly shot, and the house became full of hot smoke, for the firing up and down stairs was incessant. The Chapelgorris as usual cruelly bayoneted all the Carlist wounded, and shot women without mercy. The search was keen for wine and money. Cows and fowls were soon despatched, and the chests and drawers broken open, fugitives hiding under beds or in barrels, were killed. The officers had to threaten the plunderers with death before they would desist. The bugles then sounded a recal, all the regiments were reformed, and a muster was made, to find out the killed, wounded, and missing. As General Evans rode past the regiments with clothes stained, wet, and torn, he was loudly cheered. He took off his hat as he trotted along, and continued remarking, "You have done well all of you; you have made a noble beginning." Parties of men were then sent out to cover up the dead, and to bring in the wounded. One poor fellow was found with twenty-nine bayonet wounds in him, the Carlists having tortured

him till they were driven away. On a beautiful budding day of May, when the swell of the long green wave rolling in from the Bay of Biscay was dying away unbroken on the shore, the officers who fell in this stubborn conflict were buried.

On the morning of the 28th there was more fighting. The river Urimea had to be crossed, but the bridge had been destroyed. General Chichester's Brigade (the Rifles, and the Tenth, Fourth, and Eighth Regiments), part of General Jarreguay's Division (the Chapelgorris, and two battalions of Spaniards), were ordered to ford through the strong current under cover of thirty pieces of cannon. This hot, simultaneous fire disordering the enemy, the English and Christinos dashed in and cleared the position at the point of the bayonet, and almost without firing a shot. In half an hour our nimble sailors had thrown over the swift river, one hundred and fifty yards wide, a strong and permanent pontoon bridge, which artillery, waggons, cavalry, and six men abreast, traversed to and fro for six months after. Lord John Hay captured an armed schooner and five pieces of artillery, and the town of Passages was that day occupied by the Legion. The Carlists were, by this conquest, cut off from all connexion with the sea in this direction, and they would have found this a very serious loss had not the French authorities often permitted them to pass military stores and ammunition.

The Legion, with the Chapelgorris and some of Jarreguay's regiments, now occupied the east bank of the Urimea, from the convent of Antigua, on the north-west, to the villages and heights of Alza, four or five miles distant, on the south-east. In the rear of Alza lay the town and port of Passages. The hills were covered with vineyards and corn-fields, the white cottages glittered amid fields of maize, wheat, and beans. Lord John Hay and General Evans were now hoping to push on to the frontier of France, and thus cut off the Carlists from all supplies from the province of Guipuscoa. To prevent this, and to revenge the recent defeat, the Carlist chief, Casa Eguia, resolved to attack the Legion, and, if possible, win back Passages.

On the morning of the 6th of June, 1836, the Carlists made a feint on the picket near the Ametzegana hill, a little to the left of the English centre, the real attack being intended for the village and fort of Alza, from whence Passages could have been commanded.

Three hours after sunrise the real attack commenced; the men, back in quarters, were sleeping or smoking, after their rough morning meal of wine and bread, when a cry ran through the town of "Turn out, turn out." The drums rattled, the bugles sounded everywhere-the "dressing call," the "turn out the whole," the "fall in," the "advance;" last of all, the ominous "double quick."

The soldiers grumbling, wrangling for their coats and muskets, hurried to the front, for smoke was rising in volumes in the direction of Alza. There the attack commenced. The First Regiment held the church and some loopholed houses. The Carlists, stealing up through an orchard, shot two sentries, and cut to pieces the picket, bayoneting the wounded, as usual, without mercy. A sentinel, who stood at the back of the church, had both his feet cut off by the first cannon-ball, and the same infernal shot, rebounding from the corner of the building, cut one of the Legion in two pieces, and carried off the arms of another. General Chichester, with his usual courage and skill, instantly lined the churchyard wall with the men of the First Regiment, and let fly his aides-de-camp for assistance. But the Carlist Navarrese regiments, the bravest and best soldiers of their party, advancing through a dreadful fire, forced their way through the fields, and, after a severe loss, wrested back the position from the First Regiment. One of the daring Navarrese officers, seeing General Chichester within reach, dashed at him, followed by others, and grappled with him as he rode. Chichester instantly shot one of his assailants dead, cut down, right and left, the two men who had clutched his bridle, darted from the rest, rallied the First Regiment, and, aided by reinforcements, retaliated terribly upon the Carlists.

The enemy had also attempted a simultaneous attack on the western extremity of the English lines, but soon retiring, General Evans ordered all his disposable troops round to defend the Ametza, and retake the village and heights. In this fight the Chapelgorris rendered themselves especially conspicuous by their daring ferocity and revengeful cruelty. The Carlists and Christinos (the white and red caps) were, in many cases, known personally to each other, for they were nearly all Guipusmountaineers, some of them relatives, a few even brothers.

coan

says a spectator. "We, at some distance, but on rather higher ground, had faced the Navarrese, and were for a time kept back, while they also stood, checked by our fire. The ground was rough, woody, and intersected by numerous hedges, so that it was difficult to advance; but this enabled us to keep our ground the better against the numbers opposing us. The green sunny fields and the orchards of yesterday were now a blaze of fire and smoke. We saw the Chapelgorris driven back, and those in front of us, emboldened by that, made a strong onset to force us, but a heavy and steady fire scattered them on the earth as they came forward. The Chapelgorris rallied, and their opponents in turn retreated, the wounded being left lying. As the visitors came up with them the bayonets were dashed into dead bodies by those foremost, while others more leisurely put cartridges into the mouths of the wounded, and blew them up, pinned the bodies of two dying ones together by a bayonet, cut off heads, holding them up in the air to the enemy, and perpetrated other atrocities too horrible to be told. The retreat of the Carlists was but short. They retaliated the full measure of slaughter and barbarity that they had suffered, for the Chapelgorris were again compelled to give way. A few of these, being cut off in the corner of a field, could not by any possibility escape, and they were seen to close with their assailants. Shortly afterwards, on the ground being retaken, their bodies were found, but mixed with an almost equal number of Carlist dead. A Carlist officer was lying gasping, while an antagonist had seized him by the cheek with his teeth; the latter was dead, having been stabbed by the officer, but still held fast; and this was the cause of the Carlist's death, who, but for this, would have made his escape, not being otherwise wounded. This officer was immediately recognised by some of the Chapelgorris as the once powerful chief of a guerilla band, in which some of them had been subordinates. He had split the band in two at one time for a bribe, which caused them now to be on adverse sides, and the one who had seized him in the

manner described had been second in com

mand under him, had met him that day, was disarmed, but had wrestled with him, and thus played his part of the mutual revenge. There was an advance' sounding by our bugles. Two companies of the Sixth Regiment, with great bravery, joined the Chapelgorris, and, driving the enemy back

with considerable loss on both sides, took possession of part of the disputed ground. Our own and the other regiments of General Chichester's Brigade advanced also, and, after having gone forward for some distance against a heavy fire, there was a general charge made, and the Carlists, tremendously peppered by shot, and bayoneted in their retreat, abandoned their ground, and fell back on Alza. Perseverance on our side soon drove them from that position in like manner."

As the Carlists retreated they set fire to the houses, in order to deprive the Legion of shelter, and the English pressed forward in blinding darkness, the sound of the bugles alone directing them. The result of this was that the Fourth Regiment, mistaking the Eighth for the enemy, fired upon them in flank, and all but occasioned a retreat. Soon after this the Carlists again came on, headed this time, not only by their officers, but by two priests in full dress, holding aloft crucifixes, to incite the men against the accursed Protestants. All at once the gloom before them burst into lightning flashes, and volley after volley was poured on the Carlist front ranks. Many fell, others tumbled into ditches, scrambled through gaps, or leaped over walls.

66

Forward-forward, men; fix bayonets," cried the maddened Christino officers; the bugles rang out the charge. "Viva!" shouted the frenzied Chapelgorris. A wild hurrah was given by the Legion, and the English bore forward like a red deluge. One of the luckless priests tore off his robe and shovel-hat, the other made for a hole in a bramble hedge, but stuck hopelessly among the thorns. As the poor old man kicked and sprawled in this dilemma, a huge Scotch grenadier pricked him behind with his bayonet, eager to strip him of his silver-buckled shoes, his silver cross, and ivory crucifix, swearing at him all the time, in a mixture of Scotch and broken Spanish oaths. Other men coming up, the grenadier, without ceremony, slipped off his reverence's shoes and put them on his own feet. The next man snatched the Carlist priest's silver spectacles and crucifix. Two others gutted his sash of all its dollars and pesetas, but no one offered him actual violence. The Carlists, just then rallying to rescue their priest from the foul heretics, were firmly withstood by the legionaries. At that moment a red-capped Chapelgorri coming up, cast his eye on the unfortunate half

stripped priest. Shrieking an oath, he fired at the captive, and following the bullet with a savage bayonet thrust, he beat in the poor man's skull with the butt-end of his musket, leaped on the body, grinding his teeth, as he pounded down the head and breast-bone of the miserable ecclesiastic who had dared to doubt the legal right of the little Queen Isabella Segunda. Such is the ferocity of party warfare, such are the crimes for which the men of the brave British Legion were held accountable by their enemies.

Soon after this, Colonel Godfrey of the Eighth, dismounting from his horse to lead his men through a low-boughed orchard, the animal, by a slight retrograde movement of the regiment, was left half-way between a body of Carlists and Christinos. Two Carlists advancing to seize it were shot down. A party of six men of a light company of the Legion at once volunteered to fetch the horse. The moment, however, they left their cover, the Carlists fired a volley, and four out of the six fell dead.

"Let the brute alone," said Colonel Godfrey; "if he will stand there like a fool, let him. I'll not have my brave young boys shot for nothing."

A Chapelgorri then offered to go, and began bargaining about the number of dol lars of the reward. Corporal Oakley (a brave fellow before mentioned) at once said:

"No Chapelgorri shall go, and leave me behind, afraid. If a Chapelgorri can venture for payment, I know who will do it for honour."

The moment Oakley started, the soldiers began betting against each other wine, bread, beef, tobacco, dollars and pesetashe would or would not return with the prize. The bullets were already scattering the dust around Oakley's feet. He got hold of the horse, but the brute was frac tious, and began to rear. More bets. Oakley fell, but only for a moment; the horse's rein had been cut through by a Carlist bullet. The regiment cheered as Oakley rose again, and the Carlists fired a fresh volley. This time a shot struck the horse, and luckily sent him scampering back towards his master, and Oakley, after having been exposed for nearly seven minutes to a continual fire from fifty of the enemy, returned back in safety.

A universal cheer rang through the woods as the bugles now again sounded the advance. The scene at this crisis is picturesquely described by our chief autho