declared for Don Carlos, and
who, during the first year of the war, had been hunted from post to
pillar, and frequently compelled to seek concealment in caves and
forests from the pursuit of the foe, found themselves, in the spring of
1835, in possession of a considerable tract of country, including a few
fortified places. _El Lobo Cano_, the Grey-haired Wolf, as his followers
had styled Don Carlos, in allusion to his hair having become bleached on
the mountain and in the bivouac, began to collect around him the
semblance of a court; and various ladies, the wives and daughters of his
partisans, who had been in temporary exile in France, recrossed the
frontier and hazarded themselves in the immediate vicinity of the scene
of war. Amongst others, Rita de Villabuena, who had been residing with
some friends at the French town of Pau, implored, and with difficulty
obtained, her father's permission to rejoin him. A house was prepared
for her reception in the small town of Segura in Guipuzcoa, whence, in
case of need, a speedy retreat might be made to the adjacent sierras of
Mutiloa and Aralar, and here she arrived, under her father's escort,
towards the commencement of the month of May.

One of the first who hastened to pay court to the young and beautiful
heiress, was, as might be expected, Colonel Baltasar de Villabuena. But
his reception was in the highest degree discouraging, and he was able to
assure himself, that if any variation had taken place in Rita's
sentiments, it was by no means in his favour. His only remaining hope,
therefore, was in an appeal to the Count, whom he still believed to be,
for the family reasons already adverted to, desirous of a union between
Rita and himself. This appeal he resolved to take an early opportunity
of making. A valuable estate, which Rita had inherited from her mother,
lay within the tract of country already conquered by the Carlists; and
although the revenue it yielded was greatly diminished by the disturbed
state of Navarre, and the contributions levied for the carrying on of
the war, it was still sufficiently important to excite the cupidity of
Don Baltasar, and to render him doubly anxious to obtain, on any terms,
the hand of his cousin.

It was on a bright May morning, three days subsequently to Rita's
arrival at Segura, that a small train of horsemen was seen winding along
the declivitous paths that lead across the sierra of Elgua, a part of
the northern boundary of the provi