a, and receiving an
ample reward from Herrera, performed the secret service with which
Zumalacarregui had charged him, returned to that general with a ready
framed excuse for the slight delay in its execution, and pocketed the
ten additional onzas promised him by Paco. The muleteer, still weak from
his wound, was the last man to be suspected; and of the Count's
participation in the affair, no one, excepting Major Villabuena, for a
moment dreamed. Don Baltasar, remembering his cousin's anxiety
concerning Herrera, certainly entertained a notion that he had in some
way or other facilitated his escape; but of this he could obtain no
proof, nor, had he been able to do so, would it have been for his own
interest to expose the Count, whom he was desirous, on the contrary, to
conciliate. It was a vague and undefined apprehension of some attempt at
a rescue, that had led him, at so late an hour on the night of the
escape, to prowl in the vicinity of Herrera's prison.

The autumn and winter of 1834 passed away without any material change in
the position of the personages of our narrative. The war continued with
constantly increasing spirit and ferocity, and each month was marked by
new and important successes on the part of the Carlists. The plains of
Vittoria, the banks of the Ebro, the mountains of central and northern
Navarre, were alternately the scene of encounters, in which the skill of
Zumalacarregui, and the zeal and intrepidity of his troops, proved an
overmatch for the superior numbers of the Christinos. In vain did the
government of the Queen Regent, persevering in spite of its many
reverses, send its best troops and most experienced generals to that
corner of the peninsula where civil strife raged: it was only that the
troops might be decimated, and the generals forfeit their former
reputation in repeated and disastrous defeats. Although the country and
climate were such as to render temporary repose in winter quarters most
desirable for the contending armies, the idea of such an indulgence was
scarcely for a moment entertained, and the winter campaign proved as
active as the summer one. The arrival of Mina to take the chief command
of the Queen's forces, and the severity of the measures he adopted,
rendered the character of the war more sanguinary and cruel than it had
been since its commencement; and although, in numerous instances, the
nearest relatives and dearest friends were fighting on contrary sides,
it became